Disclaimer: Mirror, mirror on the wall. Who made Kingdom Hearts for us all? Certainly not me. Same goes for Legend of Dragoon. All I made was this plot and some characters. Nothing more.
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Chapter 10
Sora looked around in amazement. Lohan was truly a remarkable place. Of all the worlds he has been to, this topped them all.
While Sora was gaping at the place, Damia and Damien looked around the nearby shops, trying to find the best prices for potions and other battle needs. Peta was also looking around at the different peddler blankets because they usually have the odd item that could be of use.
Peta spotted a set of curious items and squatted down to look at them. There were eight glass spheres with different colours.
"Ah, taking an interest in the Dragoon Spirits, eh?" the peddler said.
"Where did you get these?" Peta asked suspiciously.
The peddler grinned, showing off his yellow, chipped teeth and started on his story, "I climbed all through the monstrous volcano which sits in the distance and found a great cave. The dragon spirit that resided there congratulated me on my job well done of getting there and it rewarded me with these eight dragon spirits. They were each sitting on there own pedestal, glowing with all their grand colours. I took them graciously and brought them here to sell to the most deserving customers. You see, these stones can cure any alignment and grant the user with their powers!"
Peta just nodded her head and smirked before leaning closer to peddler and saying, "That would such a great story, if you told that you someone who knows the majority of the Dragoons personally."
The peddler sneered, "Get out of my sight! You're just jealous because you don't have the entire set!"
Peta shrugged and turned to find Sora looked at her in confusion.
"What was that all about?" he asked.
"That peddler is trying to sell fake Dragoon spirits," Peta shrugged.
"How do you know they're not real?" Sora asked.
"There are only eight, I know where six of them are," Peta said, matter-of-factly.
"Oh… Then how do you know that the two you can find aren't with him?"
"The stones react to each and start to glow. If he had the two missing ones, then I would know."
"Makes some sense… Who are these Dragoon people? What exactly are they?"
"Dragoons are half human, half dragon. When Lord Soa created all the living creatures he had to make sure to keep the balance. When he created dragons, they were so powerful that he couldn't give them intelligence. And I'm saying the humans are incredibly smart, but we can think of plans and formulate answers. Following?"
Sora thought about it and then nodded, "Yeah, I think so."
"Well, there was war over 10,000 years ago and they only way to win was to combine humans with dragons, so seven dragoon warriors rose up and ended the war. Most of the dragoons died then, except two and the stones were scattered."
"Two survived?"
"Yeah, the Dark Dragoon and The Red-Eye Dragoon. The Red-Eye Dragoon was petrified for the longest time."
"Petrified?"
"You are turned to stone and there's only one thing that can save you from it, which is the antidote for it," Peta simplified.
Sora nodded but then asked, "So what about these two Dragoons? What was so important that history recorded that they were still alive?"
Peta smiled and said, "The Red-Eye Dragoon, he's my grandfather."
Sora gaped and tried to figure out how that worked since he fought in the war 10,000 years ago.
"I know it's weird but this'll make perfect sense, you see, my grandfather was petrified, right? When the magic wore off, 10,000 years had gone by so he just blended in with society, got married, and had Dart, my dad."
Sora crossed his arms and smiled, "Oh, I get it! But what about the Dark Dragoon?"
"She was given a choker that made her immortal. Every 108 years she had to kill the moon child to save the world. But the last moon child, she missed."
Sora furrowed his brows and looked at the girl critically.
"My mom was the moon child, and she had a twin. The Dragoon killed the twin and then 18 years later, my dad and all the other Dragoons saved the world and my mom."
"You come from one crazy family," Sora concluded thinking of her grandfather, her father and her mother.
"I guess you could say that."
A bunch of commotion started at the front gate. Damia and Damien found Sora and Peta and the four crept up to the gate to see what was going on.
There was a man who was bleeding heavily and obviously in shock. Peta shoved the people out of the way and ran to the man to see that he was mumbling. Sora, Damia and Damien soon joined her.
"What happened?" Peta asked.
"Th-Th-Th-Th… THE BLACK MONSTER HAS RETURNED!"
The crowd started to talk amongst themselves. Peta knew he must've been seeing things so she asked, "Where? Where was the Black Monster?"
"It was- It was flying to the Black… Castle…" and the man's body went limp.
Peta put him down and backed up shaking her head, "He's gone."
She stood up and walked over to her travel mates and said quietly to them, "He said the Black Monster was heading for the Black Castle, that's where we should go."
"Wait, shouldn't we plan this out more?" Damien asked.
"The Black Monster is dead. Someone mistook the creature for it. It must be the Despair that's in the Black Castle."
"How about we plan as we walk, it'll save us some time," Sora suggested.
"Good idea, let's move," Damia said while dragging Damien behind her.
The group left Lohan and got right back on the main road. Peta was thinking hard on her father's stories about his journey. She remembered that he said that he had to break into the Black Castle and she was trying to remember how he did it.
"If there's a back door, we should take it. The despairs may not be expecting anyone to even come near the place so it may be unguarded."
Peta stopped and laughed with victory, "Back door! That's it!"
Everyone stopped and looked at her with confusion.
"My dad snuck in and they used a back door. There was a secret tunnel way around back. It was like a colony back there and they had a secret entrance. All we have to do it go to that back area and look for the tunnel."
"Yeah!" the others cheered.
Peta's declaration of using the back door to get into the Black Castle was the most eventful thing that happened on their journey to the Black Castle because a couple hours later found them standing at the entrance to the now ghost town where the Black Castle stood.
"Wow…" Sora awed.
No matter what time it was, it seemed that the place was surrounded by darkness. One big dark cloud surrounded the area making it impossible to see the sun.
"It's cold," Damien said while looking at the warm air coming from his mouth.
"And I suddenly feel really sad. I was excited that we were finally going to rid our country of the Despairs and now my confidence is gone…" Peta said while rubbing her arms trying to find warmth.
"There are so many Despairs here. Sadness and coldness must be radiating off of them," Damia said while looking around.
Sora didn't add his thoughts. His face was starting to get cold and dark thoughts were gathering in his mind. A few silent moments went before he finally said something.
"Let's go. The faster we beat this thing the faster we'll feel better," Sora said and started walking inside the gate.
Sora looked around and saw a back alley and turned into it, not bothering to look behind to see if his companions were following because he could hear their footfalls behind him.
Peta ran up to Sora and started walking beside him.
"Sora?"
Sora didn't answer and just kept on walking.
"Sora!"
Sora stopped and turned to her. He felt cold and could feel the despair in the air gathering around him.
Peta took a step back and the sight. Sora had a tanned face but because of this place, he was pale. She doubted she was any different.
Sora brought her out of her thoughts by asking, "What?"
"You just… seemed so distance for a while," Peta said before walking again.
Sora looked confused and put a hand behind his head and scratched it. Damia and Damien came up along his sides as Peta disappeared around the corner.
"I know you're a little off right now, Sora, but don't worry. As soon as we're done here, then we can leave and start looking for Kairi again," Damien said wisely.
Sora looked at Damien and nodded before saying, "I know. It just feels like the despair here is darkening that thought and telling me that I've lost her."
Damia put a comforting hand on his shoulder, "Ignore it, Sora. She's probably looking for you like we're looking for her. You have to believe you'll find her, Sora."
Sora looked at Damia and nodded, "Yeah. We'll find her."
Then, the trio heard Peta scream from around the corner that she took off around. They ran around the corner and saw Peta on the ground a little ways away and towering over her was a large Despair. Like all others, it was black and purple and the colours swirled around the Despair's body. It seemed to have a definite shape of four legs, a long tail, a circular shaped head and multiple forms coming out of its back.
They all ran up and stood in front of Peta so that she could regain her ground. She must have been scoping around, looking for the way around back when the Despair attacked.
"It must be some sort of guardian beast," Damia said.
Behind it was a bridge that led straight into the castle.
Damien acted first, running up and jumping to attack its head. Damia jumped next and joined Damien in the fray.
Sora turned and saw that Peta was standing with her sword in her right hand and in a battle stance.
"Ready?" he asked.
Peta nodded and together they lunged and joined their two companions. The guardian beast-type Despair trashed at them. Suddenly, it pulsed and sent all four sprawling away. Damien flew and hit the wall back-first, Damia slide across the bridge towards the castle, and Sora rolled down the street.
They began to recover and looked around. The three noticed that Peta wasn't anywhere in sight.
"HELP!"
On the edge of the bridge over the river is where Peta hung for dear life. Sora was the closest. The Guardian Beast was also doing something different, the forms that were sticking up from its back started glowing and gathering energy. Sora ignored this and ran for the edge. Peta was slipping fast and with a final cry, she fell into the water.
"PETA!" Sora cried as he saw her tiny fingers disappear from sight.
He got to the edge and looked over to see that she wasn't in sight. Meanwhile, the Guardian Beast's forms were so full of energy that they looked like they would burst.
"Sora! We'll look for her after, or else there won't be anyone to look for her!" Damia shouted as she started for the Guardian Beast.
"Sora, she wouldn't want you to get yourself killed over her! You must fight!" Damien added as he followed Damia's example.
Sora wasn't listening to them. He angrily turned to face the Guardian Beast and summoned the Omega Weapon and screamed.
Energy surrounded Sora and all attention went to him. No one was moving. Even the Guardian Beast was looking at Sora with curiosity.
Damia was the closest to Sora and she felt anger soar through the air. Her gut feeling told her to move and fast.
"DAMIEN! RUN!" Damia shouted as she turned and ran for shelter.
Damien turned and ran around behind the building they first came out from behind when they started fighting the Guardian Beast. Damien started to feel Sora's anger.
Sora's voiced echoed through the air as he unleashed a fatal attack against the Guardian Beast.
"ELIMINATION STANCE!"
The Beast let out a cry of pain before it evaporated in the pulse that emitted from Sora's body. Sora wavered in exhaustion before falling forwards onto the ground. He was losing consciousness and felt himself being rolled over and saw Damien standing over him, with his mouth moving as he said something. Then everything for Sora went black.
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Author's Note: Okay, so maybe it's not going to be 3 chapters. Oh well. So, is Sora okay okay? Did Peta really die? Find out in the next chapter.