Ok… sorry for the long time in updating this. I have been really distracted lately. Mostly by family and school issues, but I have also started reading the web comics 8 Bit Theatre and Order of the Stick. They are quite funny to a self admitted nerd like me.
This chapter is not the one with the keyblades. Instead, I thought that maybe a little time with the Heartless would be good. These Heartless are like nothing you will have ever imagined. Be prepared. I do not own Kingdom Hearts.
And on with the show…
Chapter 11: Heart of Darkness
Heartless. An ironic term for us, for we are made only of heart. It is the hearts of humanity that gives us our strength, our forms, our very existence. The stronger the heart a Heartless has, the stronger the Heartless. The stronger the Heartless, the more bestial the appearance.
Take me for example. I am the Heartless of a human who had a heart that was so strong it could make Chuck Norris cry in shame and weakness. Thus, I appear as an Invisible, a giant humanoid sort of flying Heartless that wields a very large sword. That sword can break into many parts that will attack of their own will.
I remember little from my time as a human, except a sword kind of like the one I have now. But, who needs memories? All they do is complicate your life… assuming that Heartless like me are even alive. I mean, are we?
If you prick us, we bleed. If you tickle us, we laugh. If you poison us, we die. Yet, it still feels as if something is… missing. As if I am just a mockery of life, a fake, a sham. As if I am not supposed to exist, as of none of the Heartless are supposed to exist.
Yet, here we are. As it has been said, I think, therefore I am.
Well, I think, but some of the other Heartless do not. Take those Behemoths for example. All instinct, no brains. Not a thought about them.
Well, enough philosophy for now. Time to get back to work.
I slowly glided along my assigned patrol route through the ruined city of Azuth on the world of Hollow Bastion. All around me lay crumbled pieces of masonry and the occasional bone or two. Those humans and Nobodies really put up one hell of a fight for this world.
Thankfully, they only fought in and around the cities, leaving the pristine countryside untouched by our huge ass battles. Though I may be a Heartless, I enjoy the occasional glide through the forests and mountains. Having to glide over a huge section of earth that had been set on fire by some idiot mage who missed with a homing fire spell would just ruin the experience.
Suddenly, a noise from behind me interrupted my stream of thought. Using magic powers of flight that basically told the laws of physics to sit down and shut the hell up, I spun around without actually moving any part of my body.
To my chagrin, it was just one of those idiot shadows running into a wall. Shaking my head, I again broke the laws of physics and turned around to continue on my way.
Despite the fact that we have had this world for over fifteen years now, these patrols are still very necessary. Hollow Bastion is home to many sorts of wild animals, from the noble dire wolf to the flying pancake fish, which kills its prey by causing them to die of laughter at its ridiculous appearance having the body of a fish and wings that look like pancakes, to the black swamp dragons that breath acid that were totally not ripped off of Dungeons and Dragons.
And then there was still the occasional raid by the Nobodies to look out for. Whatever fluke of nature gave them the ability to use dark corridors should be eternally damned to the deepest levels of the nine hells. I mean, really. Heartless using them makes sense, as we are creatures made out of the DARKNESS in people's hearts. DARK corridors. Nobodies are just the body and soul of a person, so how does that even make sense?
Nobodies are represented by twilight, which is a quarter light and three quarters darkness. We are 100% pure darkness in people's hearts, despite the fact that people can turn into Heartless from going too much towards the light, that still is turned into darkness where we are concerned.
Anyway, small groups of Nobodies, usually Dusks, would just corridor in, kill some of us, and then flee. Sure, we have tried to follow them back to their base, but for some reason we cannot go through their corridors anymore, despite the fact that they can travel through ours. Bastards.
Though the individual attacks almost never accomplished much damage, over time they have become quite annoying and troublesome. Because of them, troops much needed on other fronts are tied up here to protect against them trying anything tricky, like teleporting in an entire invasion force.
Thus, I am here guarding this world rather than out on the front lines fighting the Nobodies and those annoyingly deadly keyblade wielders. For that I thank Kingdom Hearts. It would really ruin my day, being killed by some idiot swinging an oversized key with a Hidden Mickey keychain.
After a couple more hours of patrolling the masonry strewn streets of the city, I returned to my barracks in the center of the city, where the governor's palace used to be. Before the fall of the world, it had been split up into 180 provinces, each with its own governor and capital. Azuth had been the capital of the Sky Province, known for its beautiful skies and its advances in the technology of air and space flight. Nobody ever said the residents of Radiant Garden were renowned for their creativity in naming things.
The palace itself was in good shape compared to the rest of the city. I would know. I had to help rebuild the damn thing, complete with all the fancy marble archways and golden gilding on the door handles.
You see, us Heartless are not really into the whole "destroy the worlds, eternal darkness, maximum entropy" thing. Instead, what we aim for is a bunch of worlds to call our own. The fact that the ones we want are all inhabited by humans and other natural intelligent creatures that believe us to be a perversion of nature and creatures of pure darkness(well, they are right about that point) and wish us to be totally annihilated is just a coincidence. I swear.
And though we go after the hearts of worlds, it really doesn't have the effect that most people thinks it has. It doesn't tear the place apart or anything like that. If it did, we wouldn't do it. Just because we're creatures of pure darkness doesn't mean that we are suicidal like some emo kid sitting in the corner cutting himself.
No, what actually happens is basically the appearance of the world changes. It gets darker, with the colors of the plants and animals changing to darker shades and colors. It rains a lot more often. One rather odd effect is that the sky actually changes colors depending on the season. In spring it is a brilliant light blue, not unlike that of the sky on Earth, or so I have been told. In the summer, it turns a light shade of green that is not what one would expect on a world that has had its heart touched by the Heartless. In the fall, a sandy brown color is present. And in the winter, it is both a steely gray and a brilliant orange, creating quite the beautiful sight. It is currently winter.
Oh, and another side effect is that Heartless from different versions of this world can travel here, to the original version. Basically, recruitment gets a whole lot easier every time a new world is conquered. Not that those recruits are anything stronger than soldiers or shadows, but we do need cannon fodder. Am I right?
Because I'm an Invisible, I get to have my own room in what used to be the servant's quarters. It has a bed, a lamp, a desk, and some other random crap that I picked up on my patrols. Having the bed is pretty pointless, though, considering that Heartless don't need sleep. In fact, it is physically impossible for us to sleep. Our only escape from consciousness is death. Fun, right?
Still, it is nice to have something comfy to lie on every once in a while. Just laying back and relaxing and thinking about stuff like philosophy and how best to avoid getting killed by one of those key wielding morons.
My "life" can be pretty dull at times, though it does have its excitements. Like that time I found these two shadow Heartless stuck in a hole. Apparently, they had been on patrol when the ground beneath them caved in and they had fallen to their almost doom. So I had flown down there and was in the process of hauling their sorry asses out of there when I realized where we were.
We were in the Caves of Reflection, the birthplace of the theory of interstellar wind that makes dark corridors possible.
Interstellar wind is a force in space-time that adds a bit of randomness to the equations of pure logic that make up the universe. In this specific case, it allows a bit of uncertainty to creep into the exact position of a location, making it so that a place can exist in two locations at once. Thus, dark corridors come into existence, allowing instant transportation to take place. Pretty cool, huh?
Now, the Caves of Reflection are the birthplace of the theory due to the many, many sources of reflection present in them. The walls are made of reflective crystal, and the floors have many reflecting pools on them, making it seem as if you are in many different places at once.
The really special part of it in that the slightest trace of wind actually shifts the location of your reflections. A renowned mage was meditating in here two thousand years ago when a slight breeze came in. He observed this mystical change, and the idea of interstellar wind popped into his head.
Eventually, that cave was turned into a holy site by those that worship magic. Eventually, however, its location was lost to the ravages of time. Till we stumbled upon it, that is.
Now we are again building it into a holy site, which should be completed in about another five years or so. When only half of your species has opposable thumbs, or even hands, it is kind of hard to do construction work.
I lay back on my bed and relaxed. Life was good, if boring. Hopefully me thinking that will not somehow jinx me. Karma has an evil sense of humor like that.
Suddenly, a knock came at my door, followed by the sound of a paper or envelope being slipped underneath it.
I got up and picked up the paper. The heading read in large red block print ORDERS.
It read:
Captain Shade,
You are to report immediately to the aerodome in Eminence for immediate departure to the battle cruiser Dreadnought. The ferry to the ship will be leaving within two hours. Bring anything you need with you. You will receive further orders once you are on board the ship.
Your company of troops has also been reassigned to the Dreadnought. All arrangements for them to board have already been taken care of. Only getting yourself onto that ship need concern you.
Once you are on board, report to the bridge where you will receive those further orders from earlier in this order.
General Splitter, the Commander of the Invisibles
Well, shit. I got to learn to stop thinking things like that. There goes the rest of my life. Dreadnought meant invasion force which meant open combat which meant death. Crap. I'm screwed. And only now do I realize how cliché my name is for a Heartless. Shade?! It sounds like something an evil character would be named in a crappy Fanfic. And if that is all that I am, some character in some teenager's dream world of how a story should go, I am in even deeper shit than I thought.
Well, at least I will have my company with me. Not some know nothing strangers who can't tell their fire magic from their thunder magic. Nothing beats dying next to a friend. Well, except not dying at all. That would be pretty nice. Unless there's a heaven for Heartless. That would be hot.
And that is it for this chapter. Pretty weird, right? Next two chapters will be up on Friday or Saturday. One of them will be about the further adventures of this Heartless, if you so wish. Otherwise, I will just do the Keyblade chapter. Please review and let me know so I don't write like a maniac for no reason.
