Good Evening, this is KHVeteran.
Finally done with this chapter, can't believe it! I felt like I never had a chance to work on this chapter all month!
I've also taken up a new method to writing all of my stories, and it's working gloriously! First, I right it all down in a notebook, then I type it up on the computer, editing it as I go along (As opposed to just typing it up). I think it really helps out with fleshing up the kind of story I really wanna write.
Anyhoos, this chapter got kind of out of hand. I was looking for something to fill up the journey from First District to the Third, and I came up with something way out of Sora's league. It's kinda gore-y, which is a new thing for me…I've never had to write anything with gore in it before, but I think I did a good job.
Well, I hope you guys enjoy!
~Traverse Town Arc: Chapter 9: Ascension~
Sora slowly made his way over to the stairs leading down into the Second District's main courtyard. The area was still and quiet, yet it also had an aura of apprehension to it. Sora recognized the feeling: every time a big storm or a squall was about to hit his home back on the islands, there was a period of time that all of the grown-ups—his mother in particular—called "the calm before the storm."
Somehow, it fit with what Sora was currently out to accomplish: killing the leader of the Heartless—if beings that ran on pure instinct could even have a "leader." But if what Leon said was true, then the citizens of Traverse Town would have the time necessary to place those all-important seals upon the baileys that would prevent a massive influx of Heartless in the First District from swarming in ever again.
Never again would Sora put innocent people at risk from his mere presence, and thus not have their figurative blood on his hands—or even worse, earning the wrath of the mayor.
Sora suppressed a shudder produced by the thought of that man. Goose bumps rose on his skin, and for a moment he was irritated at himself for letting the guy get at him so much, until he realized that the cause of his shivering wasn't from the bad vibes of an obviously vile individual, but from the sudden and massive drop in temperature.
The drop was so low, in fact, that Sora began to see his breath on the air, and he looked up to see that frost was rapidly spreading upon the cobblestones. It was fascinating and eerie to watch at the same time. Sora was watching the water in the District's fountain slowly freeze up when he felt a presence, which was an entirely new sensation for him. It wasn't the paranoid feeling that someone was watching him, somewhere, somehow-but an assured, definite sense that someone was standing right in front of the cathedral-esque Gizmo Shop.
Sora jolted around to espy a humanoid figure so dark that it was as if all the ambient light surrounding it was being sucked into its very essence. It was hunched over something, gnawing greedily from an object in its hands. Then, with a mighty ripping noise, the creature ripped what appeared to be an opalescent jewel out of the carcass…of a Heartless. He looked on in horror as the feeding Heartless gulped down the object whole and the unmoving monster in its hands shuddered and then was absorbed into its conqueror's body.
That was when the cannibalistic Heartless realized that it had a spectator, and if looks could kill, the pure hate emanating from its eyes would have vaporized Sora. It got up, and Sora felt a wave of cold energy so fierce that his legs threatened to give out from under him. An alarm shouted into the part of Sora's mind that was still occupied by rational thought to RUN.
But as much as he wanted to, he could only watch as the familiar-looking Heartless summoned and unsheathed two black and pitted katanas. It then bent back in an almost inhumane angle and screamed its challenge to the heavens—and one by one, each of the twinkling lights disappeared from the lofty firmament as a pall of darkness descended upon them both. Apparently satisfied, the monster snapped into what Wakka would call a "three-point stance" in blitzball, and charged at Sora—becoming almost a blur as it did so. In a futile gesture to block the impending assault, Sora finally managed to get his facilities in order and summon his Keyblade.
He might as well have been blocking with a humongous block of cheese for all the good it did him. The Heartless used its frightening speed to get under Sora's guard and slashed deep into his stomach as it used its spare sword to rip the Keyblade out of Sora's grip, and he screamed as his arm dislocated and shattered in several places. The force from the attacks flung him into the opposing wall, causing his cries to be cut short from the sudden expulsion of air, and he heard something to break-judging from the sound, Sora was pretty sure that it was the wall.
He then proceeded to slide sickeningly down the wall until he slipped into the pool of cold water. Despite the lack of light the water reflected the absent glow, throwing into sharp relief the cresting waves his descent caused. As he looked on, Sora spotted dark objects floating in the water. He fought back the bile threatening to expel itself from his mouth as some part in the rearmost recesses of his mind registered that the rising flotsam once belonged inside his body. A cold began to creep up his body from his extremities, and Sora forced his eyes away from the refuse bobbing morbidly in the water.
The creature screamed again, this time in triumph, and as much as Sora wanted to get up and kick this thing's ass, he could not summon the strength to stand, much less deliver. With his guts floating in the ice cold water, his sword arm broken, and coughing up his lifeblood in rattling, painful gasps, Sora grudgingly agree with the Heartless's sentiments. The only reason he wasn't dead already was because all of his injuries weren't meant to kill him. It was as if the thing had wanted to show Sora just how out of his league he was by trying to fight that monstrosity. But Sora refused to be cowed, not in his final moments.
He glared into the Heartless's moon-lit eyes and refused every notion his body tried to send him about simply closing his eyes and going to sleep. He watched with an odd sense of detachment as the thing rose its weapon up, up, up…and then its face was slammed into the ground just as it was about to deliver the final blow.
Sora blinked profusely as light suddenly exploded back into existence, and dimly heard a gruff voice growling over the din the Heartless was making, "You were always such a showing-off loud mouth, brother!"
The creature responded by tossing the greasy black-haired man high into the air, and screeched as it watched him slam into a pile of crates piled on top of the Gizmo Shop. The creature turned to consider Sora again, but was again interrupted—this time by a missile salvo to the face.
There was a series of mad cackles above and to left of Sora, "O King?! How could thou be eaten by something as feeble as a shadow?"
Sora felt himself being lifted out of the water—though, for a minute he thought he was finally slipping away until he realized that he was then moving off to the side of the District's courtyard.
Though it was nice to finally be out of the water, Sora began to feel a cold numbness creeping up his limbs and he had to fight just to see through the darkness clouding his vision. He saw two shadowed figures, one was yelling something to the other but Sora couldn't tell what. It was now a struggle just to hold his head up.
He focused on the sky above, the buildings melting away to reveal only the spangled canvas that made up the heavens. Riku and Kairi are both out there somewhere, and I haven't even had the opportunity to really look for them yet. The thought of failure was his only thought as the sky rushed up to meet him…
There was a blinding light and…-
Sora gasped and then choked out a series of rasping coughs.
"You see?" said a deep man's voice, as if in a wounded response to someone, "Destiny will not allow this child to die."
"Arby, I could kill you!" The masked, silver-haired woman holding Sora snapped over the loud din of epic warfare.
The man lifted his glowing palm from Sora's chest, "As I mentioned before, we were too late last time because his soul has vacated his body. That's why I opted to use my powers to bring us back to moment of his demise."
"That and it was the last known location of my father's Heartless!"
"Unlike you and your 'allies', Akima, I prioritize my duties—and the mission comes first."
Sora, who had been listening to this argument through a euphoric haze, finally registered having heard the word "Heartless" and all of the memories from his past life flashed before his eyes and he jumped from the woman's arms and scrambled to check his stomach.
Underneath his shirt he felt—nothing, not even a scratch or scar to mark the event of being eviscerated. Not only that, but he'd used both arms to check—proving that his sword arm had been both relocated and unbroken.
And yet, the memory was still there.
All the confusion and anxiety made its way to his stomach, and Sora couldn't keep it down.
The man came over and patted him on the back, chuckling softly as he did so, "First time's always the most unsettling. Don't worry; I've come to understand that it's a natural reaction to having your time altered."
Sora looked up to see his rescuer's face. He was black and was missing his left arm from mid-upper arm. He was clad in a white sleeveless tunic and hakama. What little Sora saw of his skin was covered in scars, one of which traveled from the top of his shaved head to the bottom of his chin and ran through a blinded eye in the process.
"You reversed my…time?"
"Yes, and if I could have erased your memories, I would, if only to save you from the trauma of the horrors inflicted upon you."
The woman stepped up, her mask dissipated—only to reappear on the tassel hanging from her rapier's hilt—as she did so, "I'm Akima, and this is Rebirth—R.B. for short. You might hear some of the others refer to me as "Princess," but you can ignore them. I turned down that path long ago."
She was tall, lithe, and beautiful. She didn't have any particular part of her body that made her stand out, rather it was as if looking at her body was like analyzing a work of art: it was the combination of elemental techniques working together to make a masterpiece.
Akima caught him looking and raised a single eyebrow. Sora flushed and looked away, his mind full of embarrassing thoughts he wished would go away.
Rebirth had a bemused grin on his face as he stared pointedly at Akima, who in turn gave him a death glare.
"I gotta get going," Sora said nervously.
Rebirth nodded, "Yes, its best that you leave now, if not then I'm afraid that your friend…Yuffie, was it? Yes, her. If she's left to her own devices, she will be consumed by the darkness."
"She's not really my friend, but…I'll do what I can!"
The odd boy ran off without any further ado.
Rebirth was still smiling, "It appears you have a new admirer, Akima."
"Aw, stick it where it fits!" Akima flipped him off, "Will we have to save his pathetic ass again?"
Rebirth's blinded eye moved, as if tracking an invisible target, "Doubtful, unless he encounters your father again sometime in the near future. As long as we keep his Heartless busy, we need not hold his hand."
"Good, I get 'nuff gawkin' from Scorn."
At that moment, the devil of which she spoke of crashed into the cobblestone behind them in a miniature crater. The greasy-haired, unkempt wonder picked himself up and slammed a sliced-off limb back where it belonged. It quickly regenerated back into place.
He looked over and gave Rebirth and Akima one of his trademark scowls, "If yer done lolligaggin', some help would be nice!" he growled before launching himself back into the fray.
The two shared a look and Akima shrugged before running in to join him. Rebirth smiled and ran after.
~Ascension-END~
Well, you've officially met the Avatars—a bunch of OCs I created who travel to different dimensions to balance the forces of light and darkness (usually the latter).
The Avatars in this chapter are all from the same tight-knit group, separate from the other twelve Avatars who went insane a long time ago. Their names're Akima, Scorn, Rebirth, and Madness. There are a couple more in this group, but you'll probably hear of them later *evil laugh while pressing fingers together in a plotting motion*
I also have a Facebook page now, if you're interested in hearing about any of my other projects that aren't fanfiction.
Here's the URL (delete the space): Gaia Chronicle
I hope to see some of you there; it'd be great to have a fanbase before I even publish my first book!
Next chapter's gonna be fun—I got really neat ideas about how to handle the Boss Fight. And this time, Sora won't have to roll a Will Save he can't beat, lol
See ya guys next time!
KHVeteran