Copyright: I really hate having to write these. Kingdom Hearts and related properties depicted in this fanfic is owned by Square Enix, Buena Media and Disney created by Tetsuya Nomura. The OC is the only thing that I created and everything else is burrowed.
New Ansem Report 0
Only a few days ago, I was wrestled from the very brink of darkness and emerged upon a bright sunlit island.
The home of two individuals whom I have begun to more closely remember: Riku, a young man who respects me though I fear that I may have used him for a selfish ambition in my past and Sora, the name is one of the only memories that I have held within that darkness and to meet the boy who now holds it...
I have also met a few other young ones. The keyblade master Aqua, who had dwelt within the darkness for more than a decade than I had, but apart from an apparent weariness was otherwise strong spirited. The young girl Kairi, a dear friend of the two boys. The Keyblade apprentice Taran, who studies under a King whose name brings fond warmth to my heart as well as regret and his ever curious little companion Gurgi. There is also another child named Pazu...who was sent to this world after his was destroyed by the darkness...
Recently, we have also come upon another wayward wanderer from oblivion, a young girl who names herself Xion.
Much has occurred in these past eleven years and as the past few days pass, my memory only slowly returns in shards and pieces. A few of which I have been able to piece back together into a sort of story.
I am Ansem, I was...the Wise Ruler of a Garden of Radiance...
I had five apprentices...until...I found a young man who I took in and made into my sixth.
The man's name was...Xehanort...and even writing that name summons feelings of hatred and anger, feelings that I fear may have caused me to commit terrible acts because of them.
For what reason was I sent into darkness? Was it retribution for the deeds which I was responsible for? What has become of my world? I must investigate it's fate as soon as I am able.
The Forbidden Mountain, Enchanted Dominion
For an entire year, she had been forced to hide herself within this place. Her former domain from before she had gained control over the heartless that invaded it. It was a formidable fortress with a strong fortified position within the mountains.
But to the Mistress of all Evil, it was a constant reminder of how far she had fallen.
Not only was she whittled down to her former abode, but due to the enhanced light of the Princess Aurora further down from the mountains, this mistress was left unable to even extract revenge upon the Princess of Heart or her little kingdom.
Using one of his floppy ears to rub his eye, the observer watched bored as she lashed out at her pitiful minions, sending bolts of green thunder upon them as punishment for news that they did not deliver. It was a wonder that they did not revolt.
"Her..." Calmed down to reasonable levels, Maleficent stalked over to her cold throne and sat within as her black raven rested upon her shoulder, "The Keyblade Mistress returns from the Darkness."
"Eh..." Her larger minion, a large oaf known as Pete, seemed visibly fearful when the observer told his allies about the blue haired keyblade master, "What's she doing back? I thought ol' Xehanort took her out..."
"In a sense, he did." One of several guests and the newest member of Maleficent's reformed alliance, "My guess is that he was unable to get her out of his hair at the time, so he simply found a way to put her aside so that she could not interfere with his further plans."
"And how would you know?"
"Because I would do the same thing." This new member was clearly recruited for a reason apart from his wealth and his larger stone companion, "If an obstacle cannot be overcome, then isolate it in a way that does not impede you until you can destroy it."
"At that point, it wouldn't be an obstacle anymore, would it?"
"Exactly." The self-made business lord stated, "No doubt, this boy named Sora had something to do with her return?"
"He's just as bad as the street rat!" A sorceror from a desert world, who had likely suffered a similar level of humiliation and defeat, shouted with scorn while another newer member began to laugh, "What is so funny, sea rat?"
"This sounds like a great kid!" The large half-man and half bear-cyborg bucceneer exclaimed before he started to clean out his teeth with the knife that switched out from his cybernetic arm, "What? Don't tell me that ya'll are scared of him!"
"Hush up now! You've never met that Sora!"
"It is true," Maleficent agreed alongside Pete as all eyes focused on her, "That child never ceases to humiliate us at every turn. Should we meet again, he will not have such an easy time."
"Pardon me," The gentleman in his business suit raised his hand as if in a classroom meeting. "But isn't this Xehanort the larger problem."
"Yeah!" The observer cringed at the loud booming voice that erupted from outside. It's source betrayed by a large blue eye poking in through a large window, another member of the mistress' alliance who...simply couldn't be fit inside the castle.
"Lower your voice Willie."
"Sorry..." The giant apologized as the observer cursed whatever powers lied in the next world for these rabbit ears.
"In any case," Maleficent began, "We have prepared for long enough, the time is now to move into our new abode."
"And what about Sora and boatboy king?"
"We will deal with him and the King when we have to." The observer spoke, "No doubt, Xehanort is about to unfold his plans upon them."
"I have a feeling that things are already in motion relating to that matter," The gentleman suggested calmly as if this were a game of chess, then again, that was how he always was, "They've been attacked once, so naturally a second attack will prompt them to reenter the state of affairs within the worlds."
"Perhaps you are right, Mr. Xanatos." Maleficent stated as a smile grew upon her face, "I just hope that I have a chance to repay that brat for all of the misery he has caused me!"
"MISERY!" The minions who had fleed from the throne room earlier were now emptying back in upon the heels of Death in the form of a man on fire, "DON'T GET ME STARTED ON MISERY!"
"And you are Hades? Lord of the Dead?"
"Don't try me, you're number's still coming up when it comes up!" Hades yelled at Mr. Xanatos, whose expression was one of intrigue and fascination as Hades slowly walked up to Maleficent's throne and settled down into a throne formed from the smoke of his wrath, "We better be here to talk about important stuff, cause I'm not in a good mood!" Growling, he pointed out his finger as a bolt of fire surged out upon an unsuspecting minion and set the poor creature on fire as he frantically ran out of the throneroom with all of the others.
"Our moods have all been somewhat sour in the past few years." Maleficent stated to the Lord of the Dead, "Do enlighten us..."
"Oh boy..." His flames calmed, Hades slapped his hand upon his forehead and allowed it to slide down to his check before he began, "Let's just say that my latest visitor...he wasn't kidding about those friends of his..."
Main Beach, Child's Island
"Don't you see it?"
"See what?"
"That," Riku watched as the Dragonfly with a black exoskeleton zoomed into the sky before it faded out of sight with only a thin outline that Riku had to squint to keep track of, "Alright, I can only see an outline, but I can see it. These creatures are using darkness to mask their appearance...but something's different about this."
"Heartless?" Taran asked in shock as he looked around in sudden panic, "But I thought Sora and Kairi sealed off this world from the heartless?"
"They did." Riku stated as he saw the dragonfly's outline circle far above him, "But these things...they came out of Pazu..."
"But we couldn't see them until now," Taran pointed out, "How is that possible?"
"We don't have time to worry about it now-" Riku's eyes widened when the outline dove down at increased velocity, "Look out!" With no time to explain, Riku pushed the young keyblade apprentice aside and skipped back before the outline slashed a long clear wing into the sand where they were standing and a gust of wind blew out that pushed back Taran and Riku before the dragonfly reappeared in plain sight.
"Get back here you!" Taran cried as he stood up and summoned his keyblade, "Verse 17! Heavenly Burst!" The young boy was pushed off of his feet after a burst of light and flame fired out of the tip of his keyblade and launched after the dragonfly. The dragonfly somersaulted in flight to get the attack off of it, but the burst continued to follow until it flew up and flapped it's wings, sending out a gust of wind that collided with the blast and caused it to explode.
"I could..." Riku muttered before he mentally slapped himself for that thought, "No...that might only make it stronger..."
"Come on champ...you've fought fire with fire before." Riku gritted his teeth after he heard the voice speak, one that sound far too much like he did two years ago...
"I'm not going down that road again." Riku stated, "But that doesn't mean I can't learn from it!" Following the fast moving outline, Riku charged into a dash and leapt over where it flew low to the ground and slashed down. He smirked as Way to Dawn managed to penetrate it's exoskeleton, but was now worried about the smog of darkness that flew out like smoke as the dragonfly rose back into the air.
"Taran!" Riku cried out to Taran after he leapt away from another unseen dive, "Do you know any light spells?"
"A few. But it will be hard to cast at a target that I cannot see."
"Leave that to me." Riku assured before he realized that he had lost track of the dragonfly. Just then, his nose caught a scent that caused him to turn, "Behind us!" Before he could react, a ball of dark energy slammed into him and forced him back.
...x...x...
"Riku!"
"Don't worry about him! Focus!" Sora reluctantly turned from where he saw Riku get hit and focused on the dark dragonfly that flapped out a gust of wind that Sora braced himself to withstand as Thaeon fired a ball of lightning that failed to hit the creature when it disappeared, "These guys...They can phase in and out of sight, like phantoms."
"Can you see where they go?"
"I can sense where they'll come from," Thaeon answered as he surveyed the area around them for any sign of the dragonfly heartless-like creature, "But I'm just as blind as you are."
"Better than nothing." Sora shrugged his shoulders and stood next to Thaeon as they waited for the creatures to attack. Thaeon didn't move as he swiftly turned around and pointed out towards Sora's front. Taking the que, Sora acted quickly, "Magnet!" Generating a glowing rotating cylinder, Sora watched as something impacted against it and one of the dragonfly's slowly emerged into visible sight.
"Got one of them!" Thaeon complemented as the Paladin appeared and had one of the other dragonfly's wings embedded within it's torso while Thaeon stabbed his keyblade into the ground to form a dark gray energy that sipped into the ground, "Take it out while I deal with the other one!"
Nodding, Sora jumped up towards the entrapped dragonfly and managed to deal in several blows with his keyblade. But just as he was about to hit it with a firaga, the dragonfly began to phase through the magnera and literally fly through Sora as he fell to the sand in shock.
"It passed right through me!" Sora called out as the dragonfly flew back into the air while he jumped back to his feet, "How do we hit them!"
"If you have any light spells, now's the time to use them!" Thaeon replied as his keyblade began to emit a bright glow that formed into a large orb that he fired towards his dragonfly. But before it came close, the orb quickly eroded until it was only a quarter of it's original size and though it hit the dragonfly, it wasn't enough to destroy it. "Damn...still haven't recovered yet..."
"What's wrong?"
"Didn't I say focus!" Despite his concern for Thaeon, Sora returned his gaze to where he figured the dragonfly would be going and waited. He focused energy into his keyblade as he became attuned with the winds of the islands where he had spent his whole life.
The wind was his friend.
"Here I go!" Following pure instinct, Sora leapt back and pointed out Kingdom Key to fire off a burst of energy that broke down into smaller projectiles of energy that barraged the area where he felt an unnatural flow with the wind. Seeing a rematerializing dragonfly stumble into the sand, Sora smirked as he charged in for the attack.
Main Island Beach
Cartwheeling over another Black lightning bolt that struck the beach sand and incinerated a small patch, Aqua flipped into the air as a black fireball impacted against the ring of barrier shards that reflected the blast back at the keyblade master's opponent.
Even as the young man in the black and white tight suit fired a burst of dark energy to counter and destroy his reflected attack, Aqua could still hardly believe this man's claims.
Was this truly Vanitas? Wasn't Vanitas destroyed when...
Now wasn't the time. She had to defeat this young man, whoever he was, before he attacked Kairi or the others. She teleported behind the boy and clashed her keyblade against both of his, focusing on speed and agility to get around the boy's doubled attack strength.
She leaned her head back to avoid a chop before she realized that the boy was gone, replaced by a fading afterimage. Instinctively, she cast a barrier just in time to avoid a large icicle that struck out from the ground. Atop of it, Aqua saw her barrier lose strength and break just as Vanitas dove out of the icicle and slashed upwards across the side of her left rib.
Grimacing from the wound, Aqua swiped her leg across the boy's knees to knock him off balance while in midair and slammed a magically charged strike into Vanitas' helm. The boy crashed down through his own icicle as Aqua teleported to the ground and blocked a sudden attack from the boy's keyblades, one enshrouded in darkness while the other emitted a dim, but violent light.
Feeling one of the blades slash just barely across the skin of her stomach, Aqua cartwheeled over Vanitas as she barely avoided a follow-up strike and emitted a surge of fire as she flipped over her opponent that burned against his suit before she landed and fired a Firaga Burst that Vanitas slashed in half before two orbs of light appeared next to him that emitted beams that fired into the ground and moved in a diagonal pattern in the direction that Vanitas moved.
Vanitas dashed forward and delivered a flurry of blows against Aqua's emitted barrier as the orbs flew over and bombarded it with their beams of light. Despite the renewal that she gathered from the absorbed energy of the attacks, Aqua knew that it wouldn't hold for long. Just as she felt the last of the barrier's energy decay, Aqua cast a Thundega spell in the area around her that knocked away the orbs and forced Vanitas back while she went on the offensive with her light-lengthened keyblade.
Even with two keyblades, Vanitas couldn't summon enough strength to stave off the blows of the enlarged Master Keeper as Aqua alternated her actions between cartwheeling around the beams and assaulting her opponent. Once she saw that the orbs were destroyed, she rapidly twirled while building up the offensive against Vanitas who leapt back to avoid the increased length of Aqua's keyblade.
As Aqua charged in, Vanitas dropped his keyblades and they began to levitate around him as he floated into midair, a symbol reminescent of an upside down mark of master overlaid upon the symbol on the boy's suit appeared below him as his keyblades continued to spin while a great number of glowing light orbs formed around him.
Aqua prepared for the worst as the orbs began to rapidly rotate around him and create a blinding flash of light before become a group of rotating spears which began rotate more slowly around Vanitas as the two keyblades moved in an opposite direction, firing a rapidly moving orb of enshrouded white orbs that flew out towards Aqua each time the keyblades were aligned with the spears.
At first, Aqua was able to avoid the beams, but several close calls forced her to generate a constant surge of barrier shards as she moved to close the distance between her and the monochrome Vanitas. Feeling the barrier surge lose strength, she focused and broke the surge to scatter it's defensive energy and reflect the attack long enough to splice through time and space and appear next to one of the spears.
She immediately struck it to shatter it along with two others before she vanished and appeared in front of the spears behind Vanitas and attacked two more spears and continued until all of the spears were destroyed. She then threw her keyblade into Vanitas' chest to throw him out of his place in midair and teleported a few feet out in front of where the young man was about to land and caught the keyblade before she felt it lose weight and began to twirl it above her head with each swing expanding out the length of the blade and striking the off-balance Vanitas before she gripped the keyblade with both hands and slammed it into Vanitas' shoulder.
She watched the heat and magic rise out of the leveled patch where she had knocked down Vanitas and saw him sprawled out on his back.
He was laughing.
"That was fun!" With no patience for this boy's games, Aqua walked over and held her keyblade above the boy's neck, "Let me guess? You don't wanna play some more?"
"Yield." Aqua kept her focus on the laughing Vanitas, "And tell me who sent you!"
"Sent me?" There was a tone of utter insult in the boy's voice, "I was going for a stroll and came across all of you."
"Liar. Who sent you and why did you come here?"
"To see what I was up against," The boy answered as he vanished into his own shadow as Aqua watched in shock as she turned and saw Vanitas levitate down from behind her, "And you don't disappoint...even if you're only half as decent as you should be...Keyblade Master."
"He doesn't seem to remember me...is this the true Vanitas or..." "You haven't answered my first question."
"Like I said, I got bored." The young man answered casually, "See ya later, Keyblade Master."
"We're not done here!"
"I am," A portal appeared behind Vanitas as he laughed again before he started to step back into the portal, "But I left some friends who are hungry for action...go play with them." Aqua watched as the monochrome warrior disappeared into the portal before it vanished and left a puzzled Aqua suddenly sensing something amiss in the area.
"The others!" She quickly realized as she started running back to the mansion, "Something about that boy clouded my perception...the heartless are here except..." How could that be possible? Sora and Kairi sealed the keyholes to this world, how would the heartless be able to enter.
Regardless of the reason, Aqua stopped just before she stepped into a small puddle of darkness from which leapt several fast moving shapes that surrounded her as the puddle vanished.
"What are..." Aqua shifted her gaze from each creature to the next, they appeared humanoid with pale white bodies and black armored mask-like heads that only betrayed mouths filled with ravenous teeth and a strange symbol on their chests, "These are not heartless, who are they?" The Keyblade Master was taken out of her thoughts when one of the creatures thrust out it's arm and scratched Aqua's arm before she slashed her keyblade through it's chest and then it's head before it fell backwards and faded into nothingness.
But despite there being more to fight, Aqua dropped her keyblade when she noticed something stain it's shaft that never should.
Blood.
Outside the Reshir Mansion
Something was wrong.
The unease that she felt since before she had encountered that masked boy had only increased as Kairi dashed for the mansion. It was a similar unease to when the islands were destroyed...
No...this was familiar...but she couldn't remember...
As she ran, her foot felt the sand beneath her shift. Sure, sand was loose fine dirt that could be easily moved by wind. But not in the amount that Kairi felt, not unless something was underneath...
Her thoughts were answered when she saw a black exoskeletal object poke out of the sand. It had a smooth, darker point on the end like a stinger that turned from direction to direction like some strange look-out object. As she observed the object, Kairi felt her unease grow while the shifting became more frequent.
It was time to go.
She didn't stop running as the tail retracted into the ground and she outright saw a mound rise out of the sand and start rushing towards her. Still tired from her earlier encounter with the masked youth, Kairi soon realized that she wouldn't be able to outrun this being.
"If I don't fight...who will?" She stopped and summoned her keyblade, hadn't she been working all of this time to be able to stand on her own to better help Sora and Riku? If she ran, whatever this creature was would follow her to the mansion and hurt Ansem and Xion.
As she prepared for the attack, she was surprised when the mound retreated into the sand before reaching her and caused her to look around to ensure that something else would strike from above or around.
She yelped in pain and desperately embedded her keyblade into the sand as her leg was pulled into the sand, followed closely by the rest of her body...
Reshir Mansion
"Oh Riku...I am terribly...sorry..." Ansem apologized to no one in particular as he focused and created a barrier in the middle of a fairly expensive looking table, causing wooden shards to snap out and embed themselves into the strange creatures that had invaded the mansion. Creatures of humanoid shape with pale white bodies and black armored mask-like heads that only betrayed mouths filled with ravenous teeth and a strange symbol on their chests...
A symbol that seemed vaguely familiar to Ansem.
He was upstairs writing in the guest room when he sensed a familiar ill feeling and went down to check upon it. That was when he saw these monsters tear down the doors and force their way inside. At first, he was able to improvise with the furniture and utilities that he came across in the house in combination with his ability to generate a defensive barrier.
But with the table gone, Ansem was reduced down to only being able to make a defensive stand until help arrived to get the still sleeping Xion to safety. Watching the a dozen creatures charge forward, Ansem exhaled as a barrier halted their advance, but he could still feel them press forward and would likely overpower him eventually...
"Wise Ansem..." Ansem narrowed his eyes while internally, he was stunned to a familiar tattoo the necks of one of these pale creatures, the one that had spoken to him.
"It knows who I am? What are you?"
"...You created me..." Was this possible? What sins did he commit to generate such a horrid monster of malice and destruction? As doubt and confusion flooded his mind, he felt the barrier weaken as a claw tore through it while Ansem prepared to accept the inevitable...
"Ansem!" Gathering an urge to duck, Ansem followed that urge and watched a young girl leap over him and break through the weakened barrier before she began to savagely hack away at the pale creatures as Ansem watched in awe at the girl's newly shown abilities and a certain deep red substance that was splashing over her simple purple dress.
Blood.
Seeing one of the decaying creatures on the floor, Ansem suddenly saw the sickening sight of wounds caused from glass fragments leaking out onto the floor. Were these creatures somehow alive? They were apparently not of the usual composition of a heartless...if they were heartless at all.
"Keyblade..." Ansem said after Xion cut down the last of the creatures and nearly dropped the keyblade in her hand as she noticed the blood that had sprayed into the room and onto her.
"I'm sorry...I just..." Xion worriedly looked at the keyblade in her hand as though it were a unwanted gift before hesistantly wiping blood from her face. It's handle was white and its smooth, circular, dark indigo guard completely surrounded it. The top of the guard was decorated by three magenta diamonds; one at the base of the blade, and two on either side of this one. The shaft of the blade is rather short and dark indigo.
The head and teeth of the blade were comprised by a dark indigo cross with a magenta diamond set in three of its four arms, leaving the arm opposite the "teeth" bare. A white ring connects all four arms of the cross. The token hanging from the was triangular and resembles the head of the blade, being dark indigo with three magenta triangles and one triangular gap decorating it.
"You did not remember it?"
"I just..." Xion was about to speak when another of the creatures crashed through a window and was slashed in half by Xion who shook upon seeing her dress stained with blood, "Please leave..."
"Are you sure?" Xion nodded in an attempt to show confidence, but Ansem knew better, "Very well, I will refuse."
"Please..."
"And leave a child to fight them alone?" Ansem asked as he saw an arm portrude out of the wall next to the front door, "Do not take me for a coward. I may be old, but I will not have others risk limb and heart to save me only for me to flee in return. I cannot fight, but I can defend!" Shooting out his arm, the old man watched as the barrier formed in between the wall's layers, causing the creature on the other side to be propelled outside as Xion ran in front of Ansem to engage the creatures that poured inside.
Ansem watched the girl fight and was surprised as to how naturally she fought the creatures. She acted on instinct and was clearly confused as to why. But she did not fight it, she continued with the flow and fought against those pale abominations while Ansem stayed back and emitted barriers to keep her from being harmed by creatures that she either failed to see or were outside of her reach.
With only a dozen creatures remaining, Ansem became confident in his and Xion's ability to keep themselves alive until the others returned. Just as she charged into the remaining crowd, her body shook and caused her to drop her keyblade as she fell forward onto her knees. Leaving her vulnerable to the creatures that began to swarm her as Ansem desperately tried to shield the child from their savage claws.
As Xion screamed out from a scratch across her upper chest, the offending creature stopped due to the glowing arrow that had been embedded within it's neck. It fell backwards as the creatures looked up at where the arrow had been fired from while Ansem used this opportunity to move in and grab Xion.
As he reached Xion, three more creatures were felled by multiple arrows as another succumbed to the immense pain caused by the magical properties of the arrow shot through it's knee as another flew through it's head. Looking up at where the remaining creatures where now climbing, Ansem spotted a young girl standing on top of the mansion firing down upon their oppressors.
The girl wore a slightly revealing, form-fitting, white, reddish-pink, and gold dress. Her dress consists of a white top starting at her bust, pink sections on the back connecting the top to the bottom of the dress, cut-out sides at the waist, criss-crossing pink straps on both sides of her torso, two straps that go over her shoulders into a cross-back shape, a storage pack on her right hip that hangs from her waist, pink and black thigh-high leggings, and light purple ankle boots.
Whoever she was, her marksmanship picked off each of the remaining creatures save for only two that were waiting at the bottom for her to meet them. The girl leapt down, firing an arrow covered in a blue aura that struck one of the remaining creatures through the chest as it instantly froze before falling backwards. The last one was easily avoided before the girl transformed her strangely designed bow into an equally strange blade that she used to slash through the creature's chest as a large gale blew out of it's back, signalling it's demise.
"Outstanding." Ansem said as the girl sheathed her weapon and turned to Ansem and the now calm Xion, "Your technique was artistic, masterful even...and you are no stranger to war from the lack of concern for stains."
"Blood or not, they're still monsters," The girl replied as she took out a bottle filled with a strange liquid and tossed it to Ansem, "With them, you have to be quick or you'll have to be dead."
"Wise words," Ansem asked as he carefully helped Xion drink the potion and watched her gain enough strength to stand back on her feet, "Are you a friend of Aqua's?"
"Aqua?" The girl rhetorically asked, was this archer part of the aid that Taran's master had promised? "You must be with her group."
"We are," Ansem answered, "Though grateful for your assistance, I would be at more ease to know your name."
"I'm Serah." The pink haired archer greeted, "What's your name?"
"Xion," Xion nervously replied as Serah helped her onto her feet, "Thank you for helping me..."
"I was just around." Serah said with a warm smile that caught Ansem off guard somewhat, "Are you Ansem the Wise?"
"Ansem will do, Miss. Serah." Ansem replied, "I can presume that your coming here is not a simple stroke of luck?"
"It could be." Serah shrugged, "This world's barrier was stronger than we thought so some of us had to bail out while Fran made an emergency landing."
"Fran?" Just as Serah was about to answer Xion when the ground beneath them violently rumbled. The reason for this was because a massive grey worm had rocketed out from the Reshir mansion and tore the building apart before it arched it's body back down into the sand. The worm was somewhat vast in both length and width and could be mistaken for a blob if not for it's centipede-like exterior.
"I'll tell you more after we're done here," Serah said to Xion before drawing out her blade-bow, "Wait until that thing sings."
"I don't think it talks at all."
"Exactly."
Underneath the Main Island Beach?
Darkness...she saw nothing but darkness at first, she couldn't even see the hole that she had fallen through. But her heart beat remained firmly quick as she quickly looked around for that black tail and summoned her keyblade.
The glimmer revealed her attacker.
"That's...that's not a heartless..." It's small white eyes reflected back the fear that Kairi's own eyes held as she beheld the form the massive attacker. Even though most of the scorpion was still burrowed within sand, she knew without thinking that it's claws were the cause of the painful chill on her leg.
She pushed herself up to avoid the scorpion's jab and slashed down on the claw before projecting a barrier to defend against the other. The barrier didn't last long, but it gave Kairi time to climb up along the hardened granite formed from this scorpion's passing and push up towards the ceiling.
Feeling no resistance, she pushed through and emerged back onto the beach and hurled herself onto the ground as she tried to settle down her breathing. That attempt failed however, when she saw the tail from before strike up and slash across her back as she cried out.
Skidding across the beach sand, Kairi's panic only rose as she only managed to slowly move her legs while the rest of her body grew more stiff and her vision faded more and more as the scorpion fully emerged from the sand. It was a pitch black scorpion marked with a strange emblem that Kairi swore that she had seen once...but couldn't remember when that was.
The scorpion stalked closer to the Princess of Hearts and stabbed with it's tail.
She felt the stinger scratch against her skin, but a strange blue and white aura prevented the stinger from going any further towards Kairi's chest as the scorpion's narrowed in apparent frustration. Seeing that it was distracted by this unknown obstacle, Kairi struggled against the pressure of the tail as she reached for the hilt of Destiny's Embrace poking up from the sand.
Her vision dimmed as the stinger scratched across her chest, causing Kairi's vision to fade more just as she grabbed the keyblade and pointed it up towards the scorpion's head. At the same time that she fired an orb of light, another one struck out from the creature's side as both orbs grinded against either side of the scorpion's head and flipped it onto it's back as Kairi's vision finally faded to black...
"Good...I'm not too late..." Kairi heard someone say as she felt a warming pulse of energy begin to flow above her, "Esuna!" The pulse grew and coursed through her body, healing her injuries and restoring her strength.
"Who are you?" Kairi breathed as her vision returned to normal and she spotted her rescuer. The blond pig-tailed girl wore a light grey vest and red pants with cut-out sides that went somewhat low down the hips and maybe a bit too much on the front once Kairi noticed.
"Penelo," The girl answered as she curious looked over Kairi's hair like a kitten that had just seen a ball of yarn, "And...red hair...you're Kairi?"
"Yeah..." Kairi answered as the Scorpion's claws rose out from the ground, "We should probably wait until we're done with him."
"Right." Penelo agreed after taking out her blade-staff and charging an orb of light at the end of the blade. As the Scorpion dove out from the sand, Penelo grabbed her staff with both hands and Kairi watched as a thin beam of light shot out and pierced through the scorpion's open claw as it cringed in pain.
"Defend!" Kairi cried out as she jumped in front of Penelo and emitted a barrier to defend her from the ice beam that the scorpion fired and Penelo appeared next to her and stabbed the barrier causing the beam to dissipate.
"Thanks," Penelo said as the barrier fell to reveal that the scorpion was regenerating it's damaged claws, "Do you do this a lot?"
"Can't you tell?" The scorpion tried to fire another blast from it's left claw, but only blew out a short gust, prompting the creature to barrel roll to the right before it fired a burst of fire from it's tail.
Main Beach, Child's Island
"You're sure that you sealed the-"
"Yes, I sealed the keyhole." Sora said as he stood back to back with Thaeon, tired both from their training earlier and the fight that the two them were now in the middle of, "Why do you keep asking?"
"Its just very odd to me," Thaeon stated as they faced the crowd of heartless darkballs that now surrounded them, generated off of the smog that the now invisible dragonflies emitted whenever they were struck, "That all of these heartless were hiding in that little cloud of darkness that none of us knew about until now!"
"It might have something to do with what's going on out there." Sora figured as he blocked a black blast and slashed through a misty creature similar to a darkball, but more gaseous and it's misty form was very fine compared to the air.
"Either way...they picked a bad time to attack us." Thaeon stated as he slammed his arm into the ground, causing half a dozen darkballs to be sucked into the sand as several others charged after the keyblade master, "Just wish that it was bad for them."
"Whose fault is that?" Sora asked as he flipped over Thaeon and the Paladin and slashed through the attacking mist-creatures and darkballs before he spun around to avoid a charge from one of the dragonflies and tried to hit it on the rebound. He managed to hit the tip of it's hide, but the attack did little to hinder it's ability to dodge Thaeon's lightning attack as it flew back into the air.
"Does it matter right now?"
"Guess not..." Sora gave in as he lauched himself over a darkball and slammed his keyblade into the ground, generating a magic orb that blasted out and destroyed the darkballs and mist creatures that were around it. He heard the wind shift and knew that his dragonfly was coming right for him. Grounding his feet, Sora slid down and waited until the dragonfly was about to fly over him.
Taking a chance, he slashed up and was rewarded with the emergence of black smog from the more visible dragonfly as Sora continued to slash through it before launching both of them into the air and deliver a last strike before he landed on his feet and dragonfly landed on it's back with smog overcoming it.
Said smog circled around Sora as he stood back up and faded away to reveal more darkballs and mist-ghouls as the dragonfly itself rose back into the air while Sora just smirked.
Next time he would get it.
"In any case, our help has arrived." Thaeon stated as Sora followed where he was pointing and saw something vaguely resembling a ship fly over the island as he started to make out three shapes that had jumped out of it and were quickly flying down towards them as the ship flew down onto the other side of the mountain.
"Sora!" Several smaller shapes appeared next to the original three that rocketed down and bombarded the heartless crowd as Sora instantly recognized the rockets.
"Donald?" Sora said to himself when he saw an all too familiar pair jump out from on top of two rockets that didn't explode and begin to engage the heartless, "Goofy!" Sora exclaimed as he started for his two friends, even with the short work that he was starting to make, Donald and Goofy had already started to pick out their fair share.
As always.
"Hiya Sora!" Goofy waved as he caught his shield and swerved to slam it into a ghoul to destroy it, "Sorry, but we don't got much time to talk!"
"I know," Sora said, he was too happy to see his two friends again. Happy enough to ignore the peril that he was still in the middle of, "How did you guys get here?"
"We got a ride from Captain Balthir." Donald answered before casting a cure spell on Sora that rejuvenated him enough and only added to his excitement.
"Balthir?" Sora's answer came in the form of a gunshot that rang through the islands. From on top of a strange hoverbike, a man sat with a smoking pistol.
"Did I just hear my queue?" The man asked as he leapt from the bike while it's driver, a woman with bunny ears, pulled out a bow and started firing with abandon at the heartless as she drove out of their range, "Good thing I ran into them when I did, or we both might have been lost."
"Who are you?"
"I'm the leading man." The man, Balthir from appearances, introduced as he reloaded his pistol and blocked an attack from a mist-creature before firing straight through it's head and vanquishing it, "As well as your mode of transport off of this world."
"That's nice and all," Thaeon stated as pointed to where he picked out where the dragonflies had flown, "But unless you can help against these guys, we're not going anywhere."
"All too true." Balthir agreed as he looked over the heartless that he had landed in the middle of with a look of mild boredom, "But I'm a pilot first and am in no shape to be fighting these...creatures in the open."
"Look out!" Thaeon shuffled to the side as a fast moving figure bull-rushed through the heartless wielding two large blades before leaping up and throwing one of them into the center of the gathering heartless to cause a fiery blast, "That's what I'm here for!"
"Wow..." Sora muttered in utter amazement as the man with black spiky hair picked up his blade and started shaking it when Thaeon showed him the scorch marks on the Paladin.
Perfect little introduction.
"hyuk...pretty amazin ain't he?" Sora had to agree, this guy was pretty cool if nothing else, "He was with the Captain when we met him."
"Yeah...he sounds pretty-" Sora stopped when he noticed one of the blades that Zack was carrying. Even though it didn't appear different from the other blade that resembled Cloud's sword, it had a distinct set of notchs at the end of it's blade and a keychain that fell down from the hilt, "A keyblade?"
"Call me Zack and you're...Sora?" Zack asked as Sora nodded his head still stunned that this guy was apparently a keyblade wielder, "Cloud had a lot to say about you."
"You know Cloud?"
"Course I do. I taught the kid everything he knows." Zack boasted before brushed his chin as if a thought had occurred to him, "Okay, I didn't teach him any techniques, I just taught him how to learn them on his own."
"You were his mentor?" That was something Sora found hard to believe, even though Zack's smile wasn't that wide, this man's overall demeanor seemed to be a complete polar opposite to what he had always seen Cloud having. "I don't know...you don't seem all that serious..."
"You must've caught him on one of those days..." Zack stated as he caught Sora's gaze on the blade in his left hand, "And don't read too much into this, I'm just an average hero with a keyblade, k?"
"K." Sora decided as he returned his focus to the Darkballs and mist creatures that still surrounded them, "Wanna help with these guys?"
"That's what heroes do." Zack said as he spun his keyblade before slashing through a Darkball while Sora and his friends, both new and old, attacked the swarm of heartless.
...x...x...
"Thanks again Taran."
"Did you expect any less?" The confident keyblade apprentice asked as he slashed through a darkball and prepared to take on the rest of the swarm that the dragonfly had formed from the darkness that leaked out of it's wounds, "Now for these monstrosities!"
"Don't waste your energy on them," Riku suggested as he spotted the dragonfly in the back of the crowd of heartless, "We need to focus on that dragonfly."
"Well, how can we do that with them in the way?"
"Noted," Riku agreed before emitting a barrier to defend against multiple attacks from the darkballs before Taran fired another Heavenly Burst that blew through several before exploding in the center, which was quickly filled in, "Can you cast a wide range spell without a chant?"
"Only one," Taran admitted, "It's an air spell that should allow me to decrease the speed of those heartless. But I'll need time to focus and maintain the spell."
"I can do that." Just as Riku was about to charge, he flipped back to avoid a wave of fire that leapt out from behind him and divided the heartless before it dispersed into a rain of fire that destroyed more them and their mist-formed allies, "Or...he can..."
"Pazu?" Hearing Taran's question, Riku turned around and saw an excited Pazu with a wide-eyed expression examining the flames that had engulfed all of his body leaving only his head and the necklace that was generating the flames,
"I'm on fire!" Pazu excitedly exclaimed as another wave of flame erupted that nearly singed Taran's bottom, but seared through several heartless, "It...It doesn't burn...it's kind of like Howl's furnace..."
"How are you on fire?" Riku asked as Taran nervously pointed to Riku to signal that they both had the same question.
"It's not me!" Pazu exclaimed as a tear fell down his cheek and he grabbed the levitating gem attached to his necklace, "It's Calcifer!"
"Calcifer?"
"He's talking about me!" A crabby voice boomed from Pazu's necklace as the flames gathered around it to form a fiery face with eyes and a mouth.
"You're the one whose generating this fire?"
"Of course I am!" The flame shouted at Taran, "See anyone else doing the work around here?"
"And here I thought that I've seen it all." Riku said to himself as the flame, likely Calcifer, engulfed Pazu again and shot out another rain of fiery tears that sprinkled over the heartless horde and set the dragonfly on fire when it was hit, "Not that you hear me complaining." It was just like Sora had told him once after they returned to the islands:
"You'll never know who you'll run into next."
Author's Notes:
As new and old allies arrive to the islands, Sora and the gang must first contend with these new enemies before they can gain any answers. How will they fair? Who is the mysterious monochrome warrior claiming to be Vanitas?
Donald and Goofy are back! And they even brought Serah, Penelo, Balthir and Zack Fair with them! Guess that means things are going to be easy from this point on...
Nope.
Hint on Pazu's apparent new ability, it is strongly related to summoning in the games. More will be explained in the following chapters.
Read, Review and Enjoy. Thanks guys!