Chapter 30: The B-Team
"That's the way!" Merlina cheered to Venqas as he cast a spell correctly. A blast of freezing water blew away a training dummy, and not Venqas this time. It had taken all morning and afternoon, but Venqas finally learned how to cast Water without shooting himself across the room backwards in the process.
"I got it!" He called, holding his Keyblade up high victoriously, "This magic stuff is awesome!"
"That depends on your point of view." Turbo was hanging from the ceiling and bound up by glowing white chains. It was a long story, one that he would not wish to relive at any point, with a moral that was along the lines of, "Never mouth off to a sorceress."
"You're really getting the hang of it!" Merlina cheered to Venqas, who despite his apathetic exterior, was actually a very good learner when it came to magic. "You've learned three powerful spells in one day, while even trained sorcerers take one day to master a single spell."
"Really?" Venqas' eyes widened upon hearing of his alleged skill.
"Well, you haven't mastered the spells, but it's impressive nonetheless that you've made such progress in a few hours."
"Great. Now how about teaching him a spell that gets me down?" Turbo called, "I'm getting a head rush... and not the good kind." Merlina snapped her fingers, the chains disappeared and Turbo fell to the ground, landing on his face. Turbo rubbed the back of his head, flustered from the sorceress' disproportionate punishments, "I officially hate magic."
"I wonder how Koal and Triana are doing." Venqas randomly changed the subject while casting cure on Turbo for the umpteenth time. All of a sudden, there was a knocking on the door. It opened, revealing Sylvia, who was covered in blood, cuts, claw marks and bruises. She slammed the door behind her, as if to keep someone from following her in.
"Sylvia? Are you okay?" Merlina gasped at Sylvia's injuries. "What happened?"
"We screwed up the recon and got captured. The guards found us and took the team alive. I'm the only one who got away."
"Do you need to sit down?" Merlina asked, "Maybe a potion or a healing spell?"
"Maybe..." Sylvia could barely stand. She glanced to the right, seeing Venqas and Turbo. "What are THESE bozos doing here?" She asked, with a flustered scowl.
"Hey!" Venqas and Turbo snapped in unison at being called "bozos."
"I was just teaching Venqas some magic and Turbo was here because he was bored." Merlina explained.
"Well it's a good thing they stayed here, because their stupid friends are the ones who screwed us over!"
"What?" Venqas was stunned at the very thought of Triana and Koal possibly turning traitor, "They'd never-"
"The girl and the dragon started arguing and yelling, which ended up giving our location away to the guards." Sylvia was quick to clarify that Triana and Koal hadn't messed up the mission intentionally, "The dragon went wild and attacked some guards that came to investigate, got knocked out and then the Heartless guards captured us. I got away, but the others are still trapped."
"What were they arguing about?" Venqas couldn't possibly imagine what caused Triana and Koal to yell at each other at such an inappropriate time.
"You." Sylvia shot Venqas an answer that completely blindsided him, "The dragon asserted that if you had come on the recon mission, you'd have messed up and gotten everyone captured -ironic when you think about it. The girl stood up for you, started yelling and then the guards came."
"Triana... stood up for me?" Venqas was surprised to hear that there was someone on the team who actually cut him some slack.
"So we gotta rescue them, eh?" Turbo grinned, doing warm-up exercises. "Finally, some action!"
"I didn't come here for you, dingus, I came here for Merlina." Sylvia wasn't pleased with how the more professional members of the group had fared, and she wasn't going to take her chances with these two morons.
"We can help." Venqas offered, with a spark of altruism that had not existed in him until recently, "If our friends are in danger-"
"Forget it." Sylvia shot him a look that could turn Medusa to stone. "Your Keyblades would have every damn Heartless in that factory on us in a matter of seconds and your idiot hedgehog friend could probably find a thousand ways to ruin the operation." Turbo was sick of Sylvia talking about him and his friends this way, so he spoke up,
"Triana and Koal are my friends and I'm not going to just stand by while they become Heartless chow!" Turbo beamed. "You may not want us to go, but I'm going!"
"Yeah..." Venqas nodded his head, "I'm not going to leave my friends to die just because a stupid blonde girl with a broadsword is being mean."
"You guys would be hazards." Sylvia protested, refusing to put such an important mission in the hands of these two jokers.
"It's not like you're going anywhere." Merlina countered with a smug grin that further reminded Venqas of Triana. "You're too injured to fight. Turbo and Venqas, on the other hand are readily-able to battle and are used to fighting the Heartless."
"I'll be fine..." Sylvia did her best not to collapse, but alas, her best was not enough. She fell to her bloody knees and, struggling to get back up. Venqas and Merlina grabbed her arms and hoisted her up. They moved her over to a brown couch and laid her down, "Thanks..."
Merlina bowed her head, apologetically,"Sylvia's going need someone to take care of her injuries. I'm afraid you two are on your own."
"You can't just heal her with your spells?" Venqas had been wondering why she hadn't done this already.
Merlina shook her head. "Even my full-powered healing spell, Curagun, can only heal a little at a time." She put her hand onto Ven's shoulder, looked directly into his eyes and said, "You and Turbo can do this, I know you can!"
"Really?" Venqas asked, someone finally having faith in him came as a surprise. He had been doubting his abilities, but was this doubt truly misplaced? He saw the determined upon Merlina's face that said to him "I'm dead serious. You CAN do this," and sighed to her, "Okay... I'll do my best..."
"That's the spirit!" Turbo cheered. As they opened the door and departed for the Heartless factory, Venqas came to a startling realization -he'd forgotten to ask where the factory was!
Chapter 31: Dungeon And Dragonesses
Koal's eyes flitted open, pulling herself out of her unconsciousness. She was in a dungeon, much like back in Hyrule. Only this time, Triana was the only one present.
"Mrrnh..." Koal grunted. "That was weird... How the heck did that sword knock me out cold?"
"Oh great, you're awake." Triana sneered with the hostility of a person who had been wronged by her best friend.
"What's with the attitude?" Koal mumbled, trying to blink the sleep out of her eyes.
"Your little stunt with those Heartless got us captured." Triana glared.
"Well maybe if you knew how to keep your voice down they wouldn't have come after us." Koal countered.
"Well maybe if you would watch your own mouth, then your own team wouldn't hate you."
"Is this about the thing with Venqas?" Koal sighed. "What do you see in that boy?"
"What I see in him is someone who's obviously not adjusting well to his new lifestyle and getting bullied for it." Triana retorted.
"His whining is insufferable."
"Maybe that's because he has something to whine about." Triana argued, "He's lost his home and family and been charged with saving the universe all in the span of a few days."
"The same thing happened to Turbo and I, but you don't hear me-"
"Venqas isn't you!" Triana barked, "He's not a dragon who grew up hearing stories about how her parents saved the world, he's a boy who lived a normal life until all of this happened to him. He's scared for his life, and he has the right to be."
"Just because he's scared doesn't give him any excuse to whine about his responsibilities, or to try running away the way he did back in Hyrule." Koal fired back.
"He wasn't thinking straight when he ran away." Triana stated. "And he came back didn't he?"
"Because he had nowhere to go."
"And he's stayed with us ever since."
"And been whining the whole damn time."
"Koal, you are so difficult!"
"Look who's talking miss 'get ticked off at the slightest hint of an insult."
"I'm starting to think insults are all you're good for!"
Koal was about to respond with a snarky comment, but she held herself back and said, "You know what? Forget it."
"Oh yeah, well I -wait what?" Triana paused, surprised by Koal's sudden shift in demeanor.
"This isn't getting us anywhere." Koal stated, "Arguing about Venqas is just going to get us both angry at each other. And that's what got us into this mess to begin with."
Triana took a deep breath and sighed, "You're right. We can worry about Ven later. Right now we need to worry about ourselves."
"Good, we can agree on something at least." Koal took a sigh of relief.
Triana and Koal turned to the door. "First of all, we need to get out of this cell."
"We could wait for Ven to get here and unlock it with his Keyblade..." Koal suggested, not wanting to follow though with the suggestion. "Or-" She fired a blast of electricity at the door, sending it flying off its hinges into a wall.
"We could do that." Triana shrugged.
"Now we just gotta find your weapons and-"
"Actually, they didn't take them away." Triana said. Koal peered over to her back to see Triana's sword and shield still in place.
"And you didn't think to cut the bars or break the lock?" She asked.
"I had to wait for you to wake up." Triana stated.
"The bars were too strong for your sword to cut through, weren't they?" Koal grinned with a snarky smile.
"There's that too..." Triana sighed.
Chapter 32: Venqas Gets His Act Together
Turbo and Venqas stood atop a ledge overlooking the Heartless factory, having gotten directions from Sylvia and Merlina twenty minutes earlier. The giant, looming doors were blocked by two armor-clad Heartless. Knowing the fate that had befallen their colleagues, Venqas wasn't about to do this half-assed. Knowing Turbo to be a halfway-decent strategist, -albeit, by no means a brilliant one- he looked for his teammate's input, "So, what do we do? What's the plan here?"
"Okay, I'll run down there and create a distraction." Turbo's mind blazed, readying a plan that would net him some action while achieving the desired outcome. "While the guards are focused on me, you move in and use the Keyblade to open the doors."
"Well, sounds like all we've-" Before Venqas could finish his sentence, Turbo had dashed off like a shot, "...got." Turbo made a beeline for the guards whilst brandishing his hammer, roaring to get their attention,
"LEEROY JENKINS!"
He dispatched both Heartless with a swing of his hammer, prompting more to rise from the darkness. He knew that he had to lead them away from the entrance so Venqas could get close. "Hey, brainless! Catch me if ya can!" Turbo taunted his foes and dashed off, leading the Heartless away from the door.
Venqas sneaked down to the door while the Heartless were distracted. He conjured up his Keyblade and pointed it at the doors. All of a sudden, another swarm of Heartless arose from the ground and surrounded him like a group of sharks.
"You've gotta be kidding me..." Venqas grunted, readying his weapon for combat. He really didn't want to waste time with these stupid things, but what choice did he have? He then remembered what Merlina had taught him. He raised his Keyblade and roared, "LIGHT!" He then realized he got the name of the spell wrong. He readied himself to try again, but he couldn't remember the damn name! "Flash," "Sacred," "Divine?" What was the stupid name? Turbo was running to Venqas' location, being pursued by the Heartless. Another swath of Heartless appeared right in front of him, blocking his path.
"Holy crap!" He gasped trying to stop before he crashed right into the Heartless' clutches.
"That's it! Holy!" Venqas called upon hearing his teammate's exclamation. A flash of overwhelming angelic light dominated the area, and when it cleared, the Heartless were naught but a memory of two seconds ago.
"Whoa..." Turbo was awed that Venqas possessed such a powerful technique, impressed even more that this was a technique that Venqas couldn't even get right on his first try, but he got it right when he needed it most.
"Let's go." Venqas beamed to his companion with an aura of determination emanating from him. "We've got work to do."
Turbo was genuinely surprised that Venqas was acting selfless and brave -a far cry from the whiny, cowardly, pathetic kid he knew just this morning.
He nodded his head and smiled, "Right behind you."
Author's Note:
I made a serious rewrite to the "Chapter 31" part of this chapter, since I realized the original version of it (which I had called "Koal: The Logical Atheist") was nonsensical, contradicted much of Koal's characterization, and was just an excuse to write the line "The first thing my parents taught me was that logic is a religion invented to cheat fools out of their freedom." This line was very out of character for Koal in a serious situation -escaping from a cell- and served no point to the plot. If you liked the original version of that, I am sorry for changing it but I felt it portrayed Koal in a manner inconsistent with the rest of the story, wasn't worth a one-sentence joke and could be better replaced by character development for Koal and Triana.