Sora sat down, giving up. "Alright, first of all…" He pointed at Sam, who had just walked over from the broken tower with Jack. "What the hell!? And what is up with Lunas? Or Jack, or whatever?"
Jack looked to Sam, who shrugged. "We're the Warriors of Twilight."
Theon nodded. "Blessed by the Crystals, correct?"
"Huh?" Sora looked at him in confusion while Sam and Jack nodded.
"The Crystals grant power to rag-tag teams of adventurers." Raiden explained. "Fire, Water, Earth and Wind. Those blessed find each other through destiny, or they are blessed because they teamed up together. Either way, they are loaned the crystals power until they solve their crisis." He checked that Sora was getting this, then explained further; "We are from the Warriors of Light, I am Earth, and Theon is Wind. Enoch was from the warriors of Dark."
"And those two are Twilight?"
"Yeah, but I'm not sure how many other bands of warriors there are…"
"I do!" Jack exclaimed. "Light, Dark, Twilight," He began, counting off his fingers. "Dawn, Dusk, and Death, are in effect."
"Death?" No-one else other than Twilight had heard of that one.
"Anyway, back to explaining." Sam interrupted. "Typhoon has the Keyblade of Twilight. Rather than being able to unlock all locks and doors, like the Keyblade of The King," He gestured to Sora's Keyblade, "Twilight has the unusual ability to create doors and locks where there were none. Meaning he could call the members of Organisation XIII that he trusted, and summon the others from The Abyss."
"What's tha-" Sora began, but then he remembered. "Is that the place where I fought Xeanhort's Heartless?"
"Probably." Sam began. "I've never been. It's basically where the Heartless go when they're defeated, but not ready to return to normal."
"Wait… Didn't that Zack mention a heartless named Abyss?" Lea asked. "If that's the Heartless that appeared towards the end, then we can assume that that one was Number Thirteen, the number reserved for the organisations super weapon."
Badabadabababadada! Everyone turned to Cloud. Badabadabababadada! He answered his phone.
"Hey Tifa. Yeah, I'm fine, why? … … Wait, What? … … I'll be right there." He hung up. "I gotta get back. Seventh Heaven's been attacked."
"WHAT!?" Sora exclaimed. "How's Kairi? And Riku?"
"They're fine, but come on!" He rushed for his Bike, Sora followed. As he mounted, Cloud turned to Theon and said "Thank you." Seeing the ninja's puzzled expression, he added "If you hadn't sent your friends to the bar, my fiancée would be dead."
"Um…" Truth was, Theon only sent Falchion and Marcus to take out Abyss, but he was an opportunist. "Sure, no problem."
Sam turned to Jack, but he was already gone. He sighed and floated in the air. "I'll come too. It's my fault for not expecting Typhoon to launch an attack at the Seventh Heaven."
Sora pulled his goggles over his eyes. "Just whose side are you on?"
Sam smiled. "The side that wins."
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"Holy…"
Cloud and Sora couldn't believe the state of the bar. The front door had been broken down, and there was a huge hole in the western wall. Almost all of the tables and chairs were smashed, and the bar itself was next to destroyed. "Tifa!" Cloud shouted, running up the stairs.
Sam pulled out his phone and began to text. "What are you doing?" Sora asked him.
"I know a guy who can fix this."
Sora looked around. "That's good… I can't believe how bad this is…"
Sam sent his text and closed his phone. "Don't worry, this guys a miracle worker."
Cloud came down a few minutes later. "How is everyone?"
Cloud shook his head. "Tifa's still shook up about it. She was fine until the whole thing sunk in. Must have reminded her of the sector seven bombing…"
"The what?"
"Shinra crushed the entire sector seven in order to wipe out the Eco-Terrorist faction AVALANCHE. They murdered hundreds of innocents and destroyed thousands of homes just to kill half a dozen rebels." Sam shook his head. "The three rebels they did kill were shot during the bombing, and the other three members escaped."
"Who were they?"
"Me, Barret and Tifa."
"Oh…"
Uncomfortable silence.
Then something clicked inside Sora's head.
"Wait… Where's Riku and Kairi?"
Very good question. Now it's an awkward silence.
"Let's see…" Sam pulled a book out from his jacket, the work "Riku" visible on the spine between his fingers. He opened it to an early page and scanned it. "He's training in the Forgotten City with Marcus. Kairi's with him, but training under Falchion and Whitney."
"Who? Where? WHY!?"
"Marcus and Falchion are the Warriors who saved your friends, and Whitney is their ally."
"The Forgotten City is up north, completely deserted." Cloud answered Sora. "It's across the sea, a day's travel away on land, so they must have teleported."
"And as for the why, well that's obvious."
Sora turned to the new voice behind him, finding Theon. "How'd you catch up to us?"
"I stole some time. Now," he looked at Sora. "Do you want to let those two work so hard to catch up to you while you sit around and do nothing, or do you want to work hard getting stronger as well?"
"What do you think? Of course I want to be stronger!"
"Good. Then we leave tomorrow."
"And I'm off." Sam inserted. "Bye!" He disappeared.
"Hey!" Sora turned for him, but gave up after he left.
"We're gonna have to fix that." Theon said as he left as well.
Cloud and Sora were left alone in the destroyed bar.
"Come on, We can fix this tomorrow…" Cloud said, leading Sora up the stairs. "Guest rooms over there. You can use that."
"Thanks… Oh!" Sora remembered. "That guy Sam said he was sending a guy over to sort it out."
Cloud nodded, yawning. "We could use the help. Night!"
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Whitney and Kairi were fast asleep by the campfire, while Falchion was on guard.
Riku and Marcus, however, were some distance away from the camp, in the darkness among the trees.
"Right. First I'm going to teach you how to use the darkness."
"I can do that already thanks." Riku answered coldly.
"Please. You think a few orbs of Shadow and a dark barrier is being able to use the darkness?"
"I can transform with the power of the darkness. I also have Light, to protect myself from that darkness."
Markus nodded. "A Chaos Paladin huh? We'll get Idiot and Hotness to help you with that later, but first you need to learn some humility."
Markus's golden eyes turned orange, and a black spike shot out of him, impaling several trees in a row.
"What the…" Riku turned back to Markus, who was now glowing deep, dark orange with many jet black tendrils emanating from him.
This is mastery Markus told him. When the darkness controls you, the aura is Black or purple, but when you control the darkness…
"Orange…" Riku answered. "But I won't be able to use that will I? Because I am a 'Chaos Paladin', right?"
Correct
The aura died down and the tendrils were reduced to a dark mist. "Because you chose the middle road, to become a user of Light and Darkness, you cannot achieve mastery in either." Markus explained.
"That's fine." Riku answered. "So long as I can use enough of them to fight for my friends."
"HAHAHA!!" Markus laughed darkly. "You have low ambitions kid. Raise the bar, aim high and all that crap." Markus grinned from the shadows of his hat, golden eyes glowing in the darkness. "I'm gonna teach you to be a true Yin/Yang bomb. You will be unstoppable."
"Hmph."
"Well…" Markus turned away and started walking. "Except for perhaps… Nah, you'll be fine." He turned back to Riku. "Right. Let's begin."
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"Hey there."
Sora opened his eyes, finding himself in a field, with Roxas looking over him. "Oh… hi." Sora got up.
"I've got an experiment. Wanna help?"
"Huh?"
Roxas grinned, and three monuments rose from the ground, forming a triangle around Sora. A Sword, A Shield, and A Staff appeared on each one. "Pick one," Roxas said. "And throw away another."
"I remember this…" Sora began. "The Sword brings power, and destruction." He turned to the other two items. "The staff of wonder and ruin… The shield that repels all and protects all…" Sora walked forward and chose one the items. Taking one off the pedestal, he then walked back to discard another.
"Very interesting."
"What Roxas?"
"Well, last time you did this, you didn't have to discard a power." Roxas began. "So, you chose the power of the Mystic. The first time you did this, you sacrificed, no; you rejected the power of destruction so you could protect your friends with the shield. Now look at your choice this time."
Sora looked at the sword in his hand, and the shield left on the floor. "You chose the power to destroy your enemies" Roxas began, "Over the power to protect what is important to you. That will cost you, because now your destiny is set in stone."
The pedestals, plus the weapons vanished. "What… what do you mean?" Sora asked, trembling.
"You will defeat Typhoon. There is no doubt about this. However…" Roxas looked back at Sora, smiling. "You will not be able to control the costs for your destruction. Wanna know something else interesting?"
Sora was angry now. "What?" he felt tricked.
"You didn't reject the promise of wonder and ruin." Roxas explained. "I wonder how that will work out for you..."
Sora was fuming at this point, and something clicked in his brain. "You… you aren't Roxas are you?"
"Of course I am."
"But you were never in Organisation XIII were you?"
"I wasn't, but you were." Roxas answered. "But then again… I am you… so maybe I was a member at some point…" He shrugged. "Who knows?"
"RRARGGH!" Sora charged at Roxas to punch him in the face. He never hit.
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The figure stood in the raining city, hidden in amongst the shadows of the broken city. He looked walked through the broken door of the building and looked at the devastation within. In addition to the missing entrance, there was a huge hole in the western wall. Almost all of the tables and chairs were smashed, and the bar itself was next to destroyed. The figure sighed, muttering something to himself. Raising his hands at right angles, he clapped them; his face was illuminated by the blue lightning surrounding the palms.
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'Mmm…"
Kairi woke up, surrounded by bone white trees. Riku was sleeping in the ground, with Markus snoring against a tree, his face hidden by his hat, which acted as a blindfold against the sunlight. They both looked exhausted.
"They are. They were training all night."
Gah! Kairi span around to see Whitney, smiling slightly. "Darkness is easiest to use in the dark, so Markus was working hard teaching him. Well!" Whitney got up. "Now it's our turn! Let's teach you some white magic before Falchion wakes up!"
"Right!" Kairi got to her feet enthusiastically.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Sora mumbled down the stairs early that morning. He shifted from groggy to alert however, when he saw the state that the bar was in.
Perfectly fine.
Not just repaired, but the whole place looked cleaner and newer than it was when they came. There was a note on one of the tables.
Sorry I couldn't repair the high score on the pinball machine, you're gonna have to earn that back yourself.
Wow… that guy Sam got was good.
"You ready?"
Huh? Sora turned around to see Theon and Raiden waiting by the door. He nodded, smiling. "Sure. Just let me get my bike."
"Here." Theon tossed Sora the keys.
"Huh? But weren't these in my pocket?"
"He's good at what he does." Raiden answered, turning to his teammate. "Give everything else back."
Sighing, Theon blurred, returning all the cutlery, cups, money and chairs he took. "There. Happy?"
"And the tables."
Theon scowled, but three tables suddenly appeared around the bar. "Now can we go?"
"If that's everything…"
"You can keep the knives." Cloud said, coming down from the stairs. "Never got why you needed twelve different knives for one meal…"
Cloud looked around the bar. "This is…" he smiled. "Thank him for me next time you see him. See ya Sora."
Sora nodded. "Right." He stepped outside with the two Warriors of Light. There were three bikes outside of the bar, one of them Sora's. He chose to ignore it, mounting on his own bike with Raiden and Theon riding their own mounts.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Two humans and eleven heartless sat in the darkness. Enoch's request to remain a member of the organisation had been granted by the general consensus, and Sean had been healed from its injuries by the leader. Typhoon, however, looked murderous.
"I set five of you out on a mission, and you return with only one of you injured, one powered up, telling me that you ran away?"
"When Abyss returned, we were outnumbered-" Zack began.
"Really? Let's see…" Typhoon looked at the report. "Zack, Abyss, Enoch, Sean and Braig against One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six credible threats, plus the Keybearer and some other weaklings that could easily have been dealt with by a few dozen Heartless!"
"Sean was injured…" Zack began
"And so were two of the threats! It was pure cowardice!"
"I was deadlocked against one of them, Zack against Cloud." Sean began. "That left Braig, Enoch and Abyss to deal with three enemies of similar strength to the one I was facing, plus the remainders." Sean looked at its master in the fourth seat. "I was under the impression that we were moving in groups to maximise the survival of our members, am I correct?"
"And Abyss had already retreated from unfavourable odds." Ienzo added. "I agree. To continue in that situation would have been suicide."
Typhoon sighed. "Fine then. However, I am sending my Soldiers to carry out the next mission. Now," He looked around. "Have the rest of you decided on your partners yet?"
"I will work with Ienzo." Said Aeleus.
"Myde and I have complimenting battle styles, so we would be a good bet together." Noted Ludor.
"That leaves me and you Ias." Remarked Dilan.
Typhoon leaned back, thinking to himself. 'The Nocturne and the Gambler. The Berserker and the Dragoon. The Hero and the Schemer. Not bad decisions actually.' "Alright, I will be in touch."
With that, Typhoon swung his Keyblade, creating a white hole in the darkness, and stepped through it.
"Well." Enoch stood up. "I'm out of here. I got stuff to do."
"As do I." Ias added, also leaving.
"Later." Sean added, as they all decided to leave.
Except one.
"…"
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
"Sire, there is someone who requests and audience with you."
Mickey looked up from his desk. "Please can you deal with him Goofy? I'm afraid…"
"I understand Sire. Hyuk!" Goofy bowed and left.
King Mickey leaned back in his chair, massaging his temples. The last thing he needed was more stress. This paper work itself was murder. He didn't have time to deal with people now…
"I understand you're busy, but this is in your best interest."
Mickey leaned forward, suddenly alert. There was a young human, leaning against the bookcase reading a book. Piercing eyes shone from his brown hair.
"How did you get in here?"
"Bookcase. Anyone who knows how can travel everywhere through them." The young man closed his book and approached the desk, placing a few pieces of paper in front of the king. "I recommend reading those first. Like I said," he moved towards the bookcase, "It's in your best interest…"
With that, he walked into the bookcase. No secret passages, just walked into the rows of books. The King decided to look at the document quickly with interest. He smiled, and pressed a button on his desk.
"Broom, call Donald and Goofy here, and tell Chip and Dale to prepare the Highwind."
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Add Fullmetal Alchemist, Discworld, 8-bit Theater, TV Tropes and Persona 4 to the Cameo List.
