Songs for the chapter:

Get Out Alive by Three Days Grace

Radioactive by Imagine Dragons

Immortals by Fallout Boy


Chapter 10: Cry Havoc:

"Forgive us, Lady Ava. We have failed you. The war you sought to avoid has begun, and things are not going the way you wanted. But I suppose, things rarely go the way anyone wants them to in a war. The Vulpeus guild has declared its neutrality as per your wishes, but Ephemer is leading the Dandelions on a quest for vengeance against your killer. I've tried to remind him that this isn't what you want have wanted, but my pleas fall of deaf ears. All of us are shaken and grieving from your sudden demise, and Ephemer, in his anger, wants revenge. He wants to honor your memory by creating a world in which no one has to die for politics or power plays, and I can understand that. But I worry about the path he is leading us down.

The war has fractured the fragile peace that has existed between the world's superpowers for the last two thousand years. Kingdoms and nations are choosing sides as the Order of the Keyblade tears itself apart over greed and ambition. Anguis and Unicornis are fighting each other as much as they are the alliance between Ursus and Leopardos, leaving innocent civilians caught in the crossfire. Your guild has dispersed to help evacuate refugees away from the front lines of the battlefields, but I fear that even then it will be enough.

You were always afraid that the war would destroy the world, and I'm afraid you may be right. It's been a year since the Sinking of Atlantis, and the war has already reawakened old rivalries and territorial conflicts between nations. The Republic of Sokovia and the Wakanda Conglomerate have declared their neutrality alongside Vulpeus. Leopardos controls Daybreak Town with the aid of the Inhuman Empire. The Crystal Gardens and the Kingdom of Lucis pledged their allegiance to Anguis. The Niffelheim Empire has declared itself for Unicornis, and the remaining civilizations bent the knee to Ursus.

With so many nations plotting and scheming against each other on top of the ongoing conflict between Keyblade wielders, chaos and destruction are imminent. I can only hope that the Dandelions have the courage and strength to weather the oncoming storm. May your spirit grand us your blessing from beyond the grave for what we are about to do. Please forgive us.

Skuld"


The Isle of Draco

Rose looked out from the castle parapets towards the water and stood dumbstruck as the smoking wreckage of the Unchained Legion war fleet rained down from the skies. While she was glad that Sora and Kairi were alright, she was a little concerned deep down. Ephemer had always told her fellow Legionnaires that the X – Blade was the only thing that could strip them of their immortality, but had never really elaborated as to how. But as she watched flaming chunks of debris fall into the ocean, a sinking feeling came over her as she realized that the X – Blade could only remove an Unchained's immortality by killing them. That was why there had been no sightings of Ephemer's reincarnation after he died as Braig.

"It's unnerving, isn't it," Natasha Romanov remarked as the Avenger stepped up beside her fellow Unchained. "The realization that the only way we can ever shed our immortality is to die by the original X – Blade." For a few moments, neither woman said anything. The two immortal Keyblade wielders simply stood and watched the battle unfolding in silence. Their battle groups were recovering from their wounds and exhaustion as fresh troops from the Stormfall and Earth's militaries made landfall to reinforce the soldiers already on island.

Out in the bay, Kairi and Sora walked arm in arm across the surface of the water towards the island. Between the sheer power of the Infinity Gauntlet now surrounding the two of them and the lingering heat of the X – Blade's pillar of light attacks, the water splashed up by the raining debris evaporated before it got within five feet of their bodies. They walked slowly so that Kairi could acclimate herself to the powers of the Infinity Gauntlet by the time they reached the shore. Gesturing up with her hands, she activated the Time Stone and sped up the returning fragments' journey through the atmosphere.

Thousands of miles away, Destiny Islands touched down into the ocean, and Kairi quickly slowed time so that the world she had grown up on would have a gentle landing. The process was repeated with every world now falling through Earth's atmosphere. What would have taken hours was now finished in a matter of minutes, as beyond the horizon, a brand-new landmass made up of all the worlds of the Coalition and most of the nine realms pushed and fused itself together. Satisfied that that potential problem was out of the way, she nodded to Sora, and in a flash of blue light, teleported herself and her husband directly to the shores of Draco.

Soldier on both sides of the conflict stared at them, still in shock over the fact their entire fleet and most of their armies were gone. The Unchained recovered first, and after taking in the sight of the Infinity Gauntlet in the presence of the worlds' first ex-Princess of Heart and the X – Blade out in the field once more, their unit fractured. Half the Legionnaires in the group did the smart thing and surrendered, while the other half foolishly attempted to attack the newlywed couple, and were promptly incinerated by the X – Blade for their trouble. Sora and Kairi nodded to the Alliance troops, who saluted before moving to restrain the remaining Unchained on the beach as the princess and prince of Radiant Garden continued their unflinching walk towards the center of the Legion's war effort.

The devastation of the Legion's ranks, in conjunction with the scathing lecture Ava's spirit had given through Kairi, made Skuld drop down to her knees and weep. What have we done? The Novus Imperator asked herself as her doubts and Ava's worlds demolished the wall of cynicism and fanatic loyalty to Ephemer's vision had built around her heart. How could we have fallen so far, so fast? Eight thousand years' worth of guilt and regret welled up to the forefront of her mind as she realized how twisted the Unchained had gone from their true purpose.

We should never have gotten involved in the war, she thought to herself as she watched her armies burn. I should have talked Ephemer down before he lead us down this path. Now the Unchained Legion is doomed. Or are we? Is it not too late to atone, or have we come too far to change our course? Drying her tears, a look of fierce determination cemented itself on Skuld's face as she stood up and marched away from the observation post set up during the lull in fighting, making her way back to the Legion's command tent. With Stick and She needed to talk with Aurilam and the Huntsman to figure out what to do next. She could only hope that they would be reasonable and see things her way.

In the catacombs of Draco, Cloud could only stare in shock before Sephiroth slashed at him with his sword, sending the blonde swordsman flying back up to the ledge he'd just leaped down from. The One Winged Angel flew up and landed gracefully on the upper ledge on the opposite side of the cavern.

"What do you want, Sephiroth?" Cloud demanded as the rest of the squad circled the room to surround the infamous mercenary.

"The same thing I've always wanted," the silver-haired warrior replied with his surprisingly menacing monotone. "For you to embrace the darkness in your heart."

"Should have known," the blonde remarked sarcastically as he leaped across the caver and swung his sword at his inner demon. Sephiroth knocked Cloud back before parrying every strike from Leon, Zack, and Tifa. With his foes dazed, Sephiroth did something that nobody in the room expected him to do. Instead of attempting to kill his opponents while they were down, he jumped back down to the ground level of the chamber and took off at a run down the tunnels leading towards the surface. The assassin's behavior confused the team, but they raced after him anyway. Sephiroth was too dangerous to be allowed anywhere near the battlefield, or the casualties would get exponentially higher.


Earth – Europe

7,895 Years Ago

The raven-haired woman walked calmly through the snowy night as she made her way through the twisting, turning forest towards her destination. She knew that the people of her village would protest and even try to stop her if they knew that she was leaving. The village was primarily made of farmers and foragers, with only a few warriors to protect their families from other groups or wild predators. And they would have considered a woman walking through the wilderness at night, or leaving the village for that matter suicidal. Fortunately, she didn't need it. Yesterday marked twenty-one years since her body had been born into this world, and with the restoration of her memories cam the restoration of her ability to wield her Keyblade.

Skuld smirked as she trudged unimpeded through the snow. Most animals were in hibernation at this time of year, meaning the only predators she had to deal with were the occasional wolf pack on the hunt for a late-night snack. And between her Keyblade and a few well-controlled combat spells, she was never in any danger to begin with. Even if she didn't know where she was going, the glowing dragon-shaped birthmark on her arm meant that her fellow Unchained would find her soon enough. When she'd been wounded in a skirmish with fanatical Leopardos holdouts, she'd managed to drag herself five miles to the village before she set up the Reclamation Point for when she reincarnated.

So much had changed since the Keyblade War. In the wake of the Siege of Daybreak Town, the world was consumed by Darkness. Thankfully, the light in the hearts of children, too young and innocent to understand the horrors of war, brought Earth back from the brink, albiet fractured into several smaller worlds. In the six months that followed, society as they knew it had completely collapsed. With all the fighting going on over what was left of the Inhuman Empire's territory, the governments involved in the siege simply gave up. Mounting public dissatisfaction with the war itself lead to violent overthrows of every civilization on the planet. With all the tension and fighting of the war ingrained into everyone's minds, The Crystal Gardens, Inhuman Empire, and Republic of Sokovia splintered into smaller serfdoms, and the remaining nations collapsed into anarchy and looting.

It had taken half a century for the violence to die down, and by then, the once proud empires of the world were reduced to scattered bands of family groups loosely clustered into small agrarian villages or roaming tribes of nomads. With all of their advanced technology obliterated during the war or rendered inoperable following the devastation caused by the world's fragmentation, mankind was back to using stone tools to do everything. In all honesty, Skuld found the ease with which humanity had regressed to their prehistoric roots deeply unsettling. Yet another reason she had abandoned the village her current incarnation had been raised in.

While society regressed and reset itself around them, the Unchained Legion had been scrambling over what to do. Thankfully, Ephemer had designated her as his second in command, or else they would never have gotten anything done. Skuld had created the Illuminati Protocol, instructing Unchained operatives to remain in the shadows and observe how quickly society was developing. If this sociological equivalent of the fetal position was just going to be a temporary thing, then the Legion could help distribute their stockpiles of technology that were painstakingly rebuilt over the last hundred years. But if humanity was going to continue sucking its metaphorical thumb for the next few thousand years, then the Legion needed to start working to get humanity back up to speed once more.

Another policy Skuld had insitituted once the dead Legionnaires lost during the war made their way back into the fold was the Birth By Sleep Protocol. When a Legionnaire died, a beacon would signal the location of an Unchained's death. From there, a small cohort would be sent to camp nearby for the next twenty-one years and search for the fallen warrior's reincarnation. Since experience had proven that Unchained were typically reborn within a certain radius of where their past life died, that meant she just needed to go a little farther and she would be back in the fold. Eventually, she saw the glow of a fire as she neared a clearing and found a dozen armored Keybalde wielders sitting around preparing for bed.

"So what did I miss?" she asked with relief as she took a seat next to the fire.


Earth – The Isle of Draco

Now

"ARE YOU MAD!?" Aurilam practically shrieked as his commanding officer told him of what had she had overheard over the comms before the destruction of their fleet, her realization, and her possible plans for what came next. "You can't seriously expect us to allow these ants to shackle us out of survival instinct simply because Ava doesn't agree with our methods. We've known that for thousands of years and now because you heard it from the Foreteller Vulpeus yourself, you suddenly get cold feet?"

"Even leaving aside our differing opinions about the Legion's methods," Skuld replied. "It's suicide to keep fighting any longer, Aurilam. Our enemies have both the X – Blade and the Infinity Gauntlet. If we don't surrender now they will not stop until every last Unchained in the universe is hunted down and executed for what we've done."

"What we've done?" Aurilam asked rhetorically. "We have been the guiding hand of humanity for eight thousand years and we are on the home stretch. We can still complete The Endgame with a sneak attack on the palace. We just need to get the Gauntlet away from the princess and we can reshape the world to the way it needs to be."

"OPEN YOUR EYES, AURILAM!" Skuld snapped. "We've lost, and we deserve to face the consequences for our actions." The man formerly known as Marluxia narrowed his eyes in anger. As he opened his mouth Skuld realized that his decision was made and she would have to do this herself.

"I knew you were having doubts, Imperator," the Graceful Assassin remarked. "I just didn't realize they were making you this weak. Well, if you don't have the nerve to see this through to the end, then I will. Under Article 7 Section 13 of Legion regulations, I'm declaring you unfit for command. I'll carry things on from here while you think about where your loyalties lie in your next life." Skuld's eyes narrowed as he marched out of the tent, ordering the guards to initiate Tranquilizer Protocol (referring to when a Legionnaire was too injured to continue operating in their current life and would be euthanized so they could reincarnate and return to service) before returning to command what little remained of their once might Legion.

"I'm sorry, Imperator," the man on the left remarked. "But you have to remember why we're doing this." He pulled out a gun and was about to shoot her in the head when the red-haired Legionnaire standing opposite from him cast a Sleep spell on him to knock the man out before he could fire.

"I agree with you, Imperator," the woman replied. "Things have gotten out of hand from how Lady Ava wanted things."

"If we do this," Skuld explained. "There will be no going back for any of us. We will be fighting against our fellow Unchained, possibly even killing them. But it is the only way to truly honor Ava's memory. Are you willing to risk all of this?" The sentry didn't even blink, or show any signs of reconsidering her dedication.

"What are your orders, Imperator?" the woman asked without hesitation.

Back in the Dragon Council's fortress, things were busy. In the wake of Sora and Kairi's emergence on the battlefield, both sides had pulled back to regroup and plan their next move. The joint leaders of the Earth-Coalition Alliance were currently standing around a foldout plastic table set up in the middle of the courtyard looking at maps of the island with it's hidden tunnels and caverns marked off. They were just about to discuss using the caverns for an ambush when the doors opened and the newlyweds walked in.

"It's good to have you back," Riku told Sora and Kairi as the Keyblade Wielders assembled in the courtyard of the citadel, the Dragon Council having since moved back into their fortress after providing air support for the ground portion of the battle. Sora and Kairi had managed to deal a tremendous amount of damage to the Unchained armies as they reached the palace of Draco, where their friends in the Coalition and the Avengers welcomed them excitedly. Sora had to suppress a laugh as Thor warned Tony that he was not allowed to study the X – Blade or the Infinity Gauntlet.

"It's good to be back," Sora replied with a smile as everyone gathered around the table. With the X – Blade in hand as a means of permanently eliminating Unchained, Sora and Kairi were going to take point in the next wave of the battle. Most of the Unchained could be easily wiped out with a few energy beams from the blade itself, but Sora intended to confront High Praetor Aurilam personally. The man had tried to brainwash him twice now, had murdered his brother and Kingdom Hearts knows how many others… While Sora was not one to normally indulge in revenge, after being tortured and brainwashed for a week he was ready for some payback.

After everyone congratulated him and Kairi about their impromptu wedding, Sora walked over to where Rose and Natasha were talking quietly in the corner with their spouses. As he reached over, he explained that the X – Blade had told him of a way to remove their immortality as Unchained without killing them. With the gentleness and delicacy of a ballet dancer, Sora used the X – Blade to make a small cut in each woman's palm. Light from the X – Blade raced into the cuts, instantly sealing the wounds. Both immortal Keyblade masters doubled over in pain as the power of the original Keyblade coursed through their body before they were forced to vomit the light out again. When the last of the X – Blade's energy exited their bodies, the two S.H.I.E.L.D. agents stood, mortal for the first time in over eight thousand years.

Any further discussions about doing this to the other Unchained captured during the battle were halted when a squad of heavily armed Coalition troops entering the courtyard escorting another prisoner. Rose and Natasha's eyes widened in shock as they watched the Novus Imperator of the Unchained Legion being escorted into the Dragon palace in chains. But despite the manacles around her wrists and ankles, the raven-haired Unchained looked as if she was right where she needed to be.

"I'm here to discuss terms of surrender," Skuld said bluntly.


Kairi and Sora's walk to the shores of Draco is based on the scene in Atlantis where Kida's been fused with the crystal and she's walking calmly across the water as all the big head stones are crashing into the water around her without getting a drop of water on her. I wanted to have a similar dramatic moment as they finally got involved in the major battlefield. I had them use the Infinity Gauntlet to speed up the worlds all combining back into one in order to save time and not have to deal with it later in the story.

The choreography of the fight against Sephiorth is partially based on the final battle of Advent Children, albeit in a more confined space, and will be showcased more in the next few chapters. You'll also notice that Sephiroth isn't using any of the attacks he uses in any of his Kingdom Hearts fights. That's intentional. There's a reason that he's holding himself back despite the fact that Cloud and (some of) the others have already killed him before. All will be explained next chapter.

Skuld's journal entry is meant to lay out who has control of what territory during the Keyblade War. For context on where all these kingdoms fit in terms of a modern map, Leopardos controls all of Asia and the western half of Europe. The eastern half of Europe and the southern half of Africa are Vulpeus territory. Anguis territory includes Japan, Mexico, and the United States east of the Rocky Mountains. Unicornis has the rest of North America. Ursus has South America and the northern half of Africa. After the war, all these empires collapse and fragment until none of them except Wakanda remain.

Basically, after the Keyblade War, society basically ended up regressing until it looked like the Neolithic period in real life, with the Unchained Legion doing what they can to basically give humanity either a kick in the pants or a guiding hand to get back up to Keyblade War-era levels of technology and culture. The Birth By Sleep protocol is a bit of a meta joke on my part, since the whole theory that started me on this entire saga basically suggested that Birth By Sleep referred to literal reincarnation. The Illuminati Protocol bit is meant to imply that all the conspiracy theories were based on the Unchained Legion.

So, there you have it. Skuld's Heel-Face Turn is something I've been toying with for a while. Originally, I wanted to have the Big Bad of the Acolytes of Chaos saga stay evil right to the end. But then after looking around at some discussion boards on KHInsider about the future of the franchise after the Xehanort saga, I realized it would be a better contrast to have the villain of the saga after Xehanort to be redeemed at the end. And you didn't really think I'd kill off Rose and Black Widow, did you?