Quatorze
Blurred figured moved just out of Sora's sight. He considered just leaving them that way, his own personal sideshow, until he felt fronds of grass tickling his nose.
"W-what? Where's?"
He stood, uncomfortably aware now that he was being watched while he'd been sleeping. The two were standing together in what he found to be an entire grassy field with a circle of flowers, unreal-seeming against a cloudless blue sky. "But... how?"
Looking to his two observers for answers, he again found himself torn between sensation. On one hand, neither of them wore the voluminous black coats he'd come to associate with danger and darkness, one wearing a spiffy vest and pants composed only of black and white interspersed and the other simple white and blue gypsy tunics and baggy pants that would look more at home on Esmerelda.
On the other hand, one of the visitors was Larxene. The Organization's Number XII. The golden-haired nymph of anguish and pain who tortured people for fun, who had haunted him for his entire journey through Castle Oblivion. Only now, her petite smile seemed genuine instead of a sick facade. The other, thankfully, did not set off his panic senses in such a way- the familiar face of Roxas met his, equally at ease in this tranquil meadow.
"Is this...?" His visitors both looked extremely amused at his confusion. "Is any of this for real, or not?"
"Yes, of course", Roxas offered him with a wink. "You dreamed up that entire thing about the Thunder Bug Heartless, Notre Dame, the Frollo brothers, Quasimodo, everything. Next time, I'd lay off the paopu fruit."
"Be nice now", Larxene said, eyeing her companion. "He's earned a rest from fighting, even a temporary one."
Even more stumped by how nice the female Nobody was treating them, he let one hand drift down his own body. None of the ripping force of La Tonnsectere's bolt was there. "This has to be another dream", he said with near-certainty.
"Close", Larxene confirmed, nodding at Roxas. "But don't worry, you wouldn't have been able to get up anyway. That thing really let you have it, you know. You shouldn't have underestimated it."
He gave her a skeptical look. "Hey, I did the best I could. Why bring me here, then?"
"I called you here", Larxene smiled. "I've been calling since you arrived in this World, but only Roxas here was listening to me."
His blond 'other self' stretched both his lanky arms around behind his back, a casual gesture more than familiar to Sora- he'd done it himself a thousand times when tired or relaxed. "You're welcome. There's not much else to do around here anyway. You've only gotten in real trouble a few times. Most of it, I've been able to sit back and let you handle things. That Minister guy was pretty tough though."
"No doubt", she agreed.
"Alright", Sora chipped in. Normally he'd be happy to stop and chat a while instead of fight, but there was still the matter of the battle going on outside his sleeping body. "Enough messing around. Who are you, really?"
Larxene faced him eye to eye, and at once Roxas walked over to stand beside him in mock-formality. "Oh yeah. That's right, introductions are in order I suppose. Sora, meet Lady Relena. Lady Relena, Sora."
"But you're dead", Sora remarked in wide-eyed wonder. Now that he looked closer, the woman did indeed have a slightly different build and darker skin from the Nobody he hated. White-painted lips and longer hair as well, though she still retained the odd 'antennae' of hair curling up and over her head from the front, not to mention the green eyes. "Everyone says you were burned at the stake. Like Esmerelda almost was."
"Not quite death", Lady Relena answered. "Moments before I would have suffocated, my heart was overwhelmed with hatred. Hatred for Claude Frollo and the Order of Rheims that persecuted our people, hatred for the soldiers who were too cowardly to stop him, hatred for the common people who let him do as he pleased. Even hatred for Clopin, the man I loved. Hate, as you well know Sora, is a deadly poison. It corrodes one's reason, seeds contempt into compassion and obsession into friendships until there's nothing left for you to rely on but darkness. It's such a hard thing... to forgive someone you hate, and I wasn't exactly in the best of circumstances."
At once, the gypsy woman looked ashamed, slumped down in an emotion he'd never seen her Organization XIII doppelganger display. "With all of that, Xemnas might not even have needed to cast his spell."
"He did it", Sora realized with a start. "Xemnas and Xigbar from the Organization traveled to Notre Dame, and did something that transformed you, a Keyblade Master, into a Nobody and Heartless!"
"Light dawns on marble head", Roxas concurred, tapping his 'other' on the head playfully. "Looks like you finally got it through that thick skull of his."
"Yes", Relena nodded. "But more than that, it was Xemnas who orchestrated my capture by Frollo's soldiers, who revealed the safe house I was hiding in. Claude Frollo, of course, would gladly take anonymous tips if they led to the capture of the leader of the gypsies."
"So that means..."
"That's right", Relena said, feeling her chest in lament. "My incomplete Nobody left to join Organization XIII after a brief killing spree in Notre Dame, leaving my Heartless behind... and one other."
He'd grown quite tired by now of sudden shocks, but could not help gaping at the way the woman expressed that little fact so calmly, almost trivially. "Another?"
She nodded. "Me. The essence which summoned you here... A soul, deprived of body, mind, or heart until I became just the opposite. An Antisoul, you might call me, or a ghost. Forever removed from the material world, and only able to communicate through the Keyblade, which yet retains a connection to me even after all the evil my Nobody used it for."
Noticing Roxas' level stare, he looked closer. Certainly, whatever this dream-woman was, it lacked any of the malice a Heartless or Nobody bore complete beings. "So you're what's left of Lady Relena's soul. But, why did you call out to me through the Keyblade?"
"Oh, come on". Roxas piped up in annoyance. "It's not that hard to figure out. Really! Sometimes I wonder how I can still exist in a brain so small."
"I needed you to save me", Relena answered without the same snark, but simple empathy. "When my being was consumed by darkness, I remained attached to the resulting Heartless. It's apparently a common occurrence, but I was trapped down here with it when my Clopin sealed it in the sewers, trying in vain to restore some kind of humanity to 'La Tonnsectere'. As you can tell, it didn't work."
Digesting that, Sora could only shake his head at the prospect of being stuck in the labyrinth with the vile Heartless for the better part of three years. "I'm sorry. I didn't realize how bad that must have been for you."
Relena shrugged. "It's a far longer life than most Antisouls experience, since most Heartless of that power are destroyed soon after they appear, usually by you and your friends."
That brought him up short. "My friends. Do you know where they are?"
Before she even moved her head, he knew what the answer would be. "I'm sorry, Sora. I never saw a trace of them in Notre Dame. It's a good search strategy, though. If there's a powerful Heartless in a World your friends visit, I'm sure that your friends Riku or Donald wouldn't leave until it was destroyed."
The compliment only did a little to assuage his own guilt. Unlike most times, he hadn't missed the subtext here. "I'm sorry too, Relena. I never realized before that defeating a big Heartless might also destroy an Antisoul attached to it."
Relena shook her head. "Don't be. Antisouls like us are only the slightest fragment of a complete person, more specifically their memories and conscience. Besides, I'm no expert in these things- destroying 'La Tonnsectere' might actually set me free in this world instead of sending me to the next. We won't know until it happens, but either way, I don't begrudge you it- that Heartless is a true beast. It's too dangerous not to destroy. If you didn't do it, a few decades down the line it might have been able to break down the Grand Gate and make a big mess of things. My people would get the blame, of course, if there was even a World left after it was done."
He nodded back, glad to hear this wasn't another case of unforeseen consequences of defeating Heartless. Once with Organization XIII had been enough of a shock. "So. Your Heartless needs to be destroyed. Can I just go back to the real world now? I'm sure Ramza and Quasimodo need my help with it."
She seemed puzzled at that, spreading arms wide to encompass the breezy meadow. "You may leave this place whenever you want to, Sora. But you still wouldn't be able to wake up. When you do, you'll leave here whether you want to or not."
"So I'm better off here", Sora deduced, sighing. The notion that his friends were fighting for their lives with nothing he could do to help went anathema to everything he believed in, but somehow he forced himself not to panic. "I might as well make the best of things. There's something else that's been bugging me, Relena- I saw what happened when Xemnas found your Nobody. She went crazy almost right away. What stopped the same thing from happening to Roxas?"
His own Nobody blinked. "I... hadn't thought of that. I wasn't exactly a saint when I was with them, you know. I completed more missions, took more hearts for them than even Larxene did when she had the Keyblade. Probably because she liked to torture Heartless before destroying them. My three hundred and fifty-eight days went past like a blur. They were no picnic, I can tell you."
"It's hard to say", Relena chipped in thoughtfully, palming her small chin. "I only have our combined memories to go on, of course. But Roxas wasn't created in the same way as the rest of the Organization, even if Xemnas found him. You weren't corrupted by the darkness in your heart, but rather you voluntarily seperated them. After that, Roxas still retained enough of his conscience and memory to break free of the Organization in time."
"I remember", Roxas affirmed, his sarcasm gone. "I remember Xemnas talking about how I might... I might prove to be harder to control than the others."
"And you were", she replied. "Whereas with my 'other', any mission that let her inflict pain on others to forget about her own was her pleasure. Of course, even that did not prove to be enough for her, and she joined the insurrection against the Superior. Another sign that Roxas was different from the rest of them is that he could hear or read your name perfectly, whereas the rest of them had mental blocks on their old names."
"Then the Keyblade saved us again. It let us break the cycle."
Relena cast her face down. "Yet it was only a miracle that let you regain your original body and become whole again. Do not expect any of us to be able to repeat that performance- have no regrets in destroying my Heartless. Instead, always remember how it, Larxene, and I were created, and never repeat that mistake."
Sora scratched his hair. "Come again?"
More serious than he'd ever seen her, the gypsy locked eyes with him again, and this time he could see the tears. "It's inevitable. It will happen someday Sora, regardless of how simple and clean your heart was when you started out on this journey two years ago. The path of the Keyblade bearers is filled with conflict and heartbreak, and you have already learned much of it as you grew older and wiser. Maybe not tomorrow, maybe not next month... but some day. Some day, like me, you will feel a great surge of anger and hate for someone threatening to consume your heart, turn a young man into a young monster. You must not give in to it! For the sake of all the Worlds, you must stand firm!"
He considered her words, heavier and more important than most he was used to in his age. In the end, every light must fade... "I promise, Relena. I'll never let that happen!"
"And I'll make doubly sure", Roxas confirmed in equal resolve, stepping up beside him with his arms crossed. "Once was enough of that, even if I wouldn't be here without it." He stretched out one hand, ruffling his 'other's spiky hair and grinning. "Someone once told me, that this guy is too nice for his own good... but why ruin that yet? Childhood innocence is a precious thing, too. Even the final fragments you have left."
"Then we're done here", Relena finished, radiating gratitude as she bowed to the two. "Go get 'em, Keyblade Master."
Sora awoke to a burning sensation on his left arm. Though instinct forced his hand up to the tender skin, he welcomed the pain. It meant he'd only been unconscious for a few moments.
These moments had not boded well for his friends, he noted sadly as he stood, taking in the desolate chamber. Quasimodo lay twitching on the floor, crackles of electricity still visible on his frame, while Ramza continued to slash back and forth to keep the deadly tendrils from touching his fallen allies. He'd obviously rushed the Heartless after Sora had been knocked out, now devoting his blade to massive, wide swings that drove 'La Tonnsectere' back and back. Yelling and cursing in the Ivalician tongue, he cut again and again. From the way it moved the creature was obviously on its last legs, but its antennae yet moved with the same unpredictable lashing as they had from the beginning. One tried to wrap itself around Ramza's leg, only to be cut away and reform within seconds.
"Sora!", he heard the Beoluve call his name in relief. "I thought you- oh no."
His revival, to Sora's chagrin, had become the distraction the Heartless needed to bring both feelers together. It did not produce the deadly 'mega-bolt' this time, perhaps lacking the strength to do so, but instead a spray of a thousand smaller blasts, impossible to evade.
Then the room flashed white, and the blasts flew through empty air instead of the armored noble they would certainly have struck. Quasimodo, too, was no longer there.
Looking down for a brief second, Sora was somehow not surprised to his clothes had changed. Instead of the black and yellow tunic Yen Sid had blessed him with, it was now a luminous jacket which seemed to float of its own accord even while he, too, floated above the ground. Like before, the texture was a riot of black, white, and gray that glowed not only with his power, but the merged power of three good friends as well.
Quasimodo.
Ramza Beoluve.
And Roxas.
Conjuring three additional Keyblades- one to hold in his off hand, two more which floated at his side to ward off attacks, Sora charged. Thunderbolts and antennae flew but were knocked aside by the defending Keyblades. Before the Heartless could leap, Oathkeeper and Oblivion cleanly pierced its forehead. It screeched and thrashed, but the Keyblade Master did not show pity, did not hesitate to channel more light into the two weapons, building to an explosion that blew him clear.
'La Tonnsectere' seemed to freeze, all sound except its final, inhuman scream cut short, before its skin cracked, falling into a million tiny bits like a shattered window. A moment later, he reverted, leaving Ramza and Quasi standing there with nothing more than mild headaches and severe confusion.
"Wh-what?"
"Just one more trick I picked up from Master Yen Sid", Sora assured them both, clasping their shoulders even though he had to stretch to get around Quasimodo. "It's the strongest kind of 'Drive'. It's awesome, I know, but it takes a lot out of you too. Curaga!"
Quasimodo smiled, feeling his strength return, but Ramza did not seem relieved. Frightened of the boy before him, perhaps? Or simply respectful? He couldn't say. The eloquent warrior from Ivalice was still an unknown in many ways, though hopefully someday that would change. "Well", he finished up, looking around the chamber for a faster exit than the way they'd come in by, "that about takes care of the Heartless."
"Not quite, my friend", a new voice answered him, causing all three to wheel about and see Lady Relena standing impassively before them. "I can still remain here a moment longer." A transparency and rippling in her image betrayed just how faint the Antisoul was in this world, and how temporary such an appearance would be.
Seeing her face again, Sora felt his gut drop away in shame, a feeling nearly as foreign to him as the woman he'd hated with all his might once. No matter what was said to him, no matter how kind this beautiful gypsy woman was to him, her Nobody had made a first impression on him that cut all the way to the heart. He could never look at Relena without seeing Larxene's cruel face. But... Perhaps that was part of the challenge. Motioning his comrades back in assurance that this ghost was no threat, he stepped forward. Despite how nervous he felt, somehow the words were easy to think of, if not so much to speak.
"I... forgive", Sora intoned, refusing to break eye contact. "I forgive you. I understand now, how it must have felt when you woke up as a Nobody. Without a heart to guide you and tell you right from wrong, it was easy for the darkness to take hold of you, and bring out your ugly side until that was all that anyone saw. You couldn't help what you were, or what you weren't."
Feeling something drawing him closer, he did not resist. Goodbye, hatred. I hope I never feel you again.
He did not feel the touch of the Antisoul's arms around him. They passed straight through, leaving only a warm, golden light that gradually blocked out all detail of the room save for his friends. Neither looked alarmed. Only awestruck at seeing the ghost embracing Sora, and he returning the gesture, eyes shut. Three breaths after, the image rippled further before fading away completely. The details of the world around them began to snap back into existence, only this time they were the familiar cobblestones and houses of Notre Dame square.
The surprised exclamations of the people they'd appeared before rang out, yet the Keyblade Master did not hear them. There was a plaintive whisper ringing in his ears that he knew he would carry with him for the rest of his days.
It said, 'thank you'.
The day after, no one who had met the foreign warriors from another World dared to miss their departure. Score by score they trickled in, beginning with familiar faces like Quasimodo, Djali and Jehan then progressing to folks Sora and Ramza Beoluve had only caught fleeting glimpses of during their time in Notre Dame. Quasimodo and Esmerelda were the first, arriving together and offering a hearty handshake and a hug respectively. "In the long view, you brought this about.", the girl noted to Sora knowingly. He noticed she refused to let her gaze linger on Ramza. "If you hadn't helped me get up the bell tower, I'd have either died trying to reach Quasimodo or given up. Then who would have saved me, right? And heaven knows how much you've helped Clopin purge his guilt over Relena."
Sora half-forced a smile, happy to have both met and helped all of them, as he always was when the time came to leave a World behind for the moment. He'd made the right choice in opting not to give Clopin some of the more grisly details about how Larxene had come into the World, tarnishing the memory of the good woman Relena had once been. "I just hope that in time, he can remember the good times over the bad. The same for Quasimodo, in fact."
The hunchback's affections immediately made Sora think of the contrast with how shy and introverted he'd been when they'd first met. With the bell tower still partway destroyed, he had little choice now but to seek out new lodgings in the city, content to use the Court of Miracles for now but interested in finding a place to call his own. "I'll never forget you", the hunchback insisted, brushing back his red mop to get a better look. "Any of you. This is everything I've ever wanted. I only regret it had to come at the cost of bloodshed."
Esmerelda clapped one hand to his shoulder. "Don't. This was about more than you, but the entire city's stance on outcasts like you and I. Claude Frollo was the start. It might not be this year, or even this lifetime, but someday we'll able to leave the Court behind. We'll look up at the sun with no fear. I promise."
"Monsieur Sora", a sober Clopin now cut in on them before the crowd's noise could become more disruptive- it looked as though everyone had turned out for this, making it almost feel like a ceremony. "I see you have finally succeeded in your quest to find someone."
Blushing, Esmerelda stifled a laugh but Sora didn't seem to get the barb. "A whole lot of special someones", he replied simply. "But no one I was originally looking for. I still have to find them, but when I do, we'll come back here and I can introduce you. I'm sure you can keep the place clean while I'm gone?"
"But of course!", the jester assured him, extending one gloved hand. "Clopin merely wished to grant you one final token of our appreciation before you go."
Remembering the 'show' they'd put on vividly, his brows arched. "It's not that sock puppet, is it?"
Clopin chuckled, dropping the tiny object into the boy's palm. "Close." He raised the aforementioned puppet up high, waving it to the assembly and then over at Ramza. "Something a bit more durable, perhaps?"
Intrigued, Sora tore the wrappings and gasped. In his hands lay a small, wooden figurine of the same design as Quasimodo's various other models. Masterful even by his standards, the small trinket replicated Sora's brown hair and blue-button eyes perfectly, along with the design of his vest and shoes, though too small for a mouth or nose. Quasimodo winked back, acknowledging his own work in collaboration with the gypsy leader. "You'll always have Paris, my friend", Clopin maintained. "On behalf of us all, we wish you bon sois."
That seemed to be the signal, the opening Clopin knew he would need. The longer Sora stayed, basking in the affection of his new friends, the harder it would be to return to the task at hand. He needn't have worried, though. Sora's mind remained focused, and he even had someone else less emotional to help him get back on track, who gestured neutrally at the Keyblade Master. Ramza had replaced his lost armor, and now waited patiently for his comrade to finish up.
"Would that every land I saved could be as gracious", the older warrior admitted. "Though I trust you've dealt with some Worlds that did not reciprocate your efforts as kindly?"
"Tell me what 'reciprocate' means and I'll tell you", Sora chirped back, again producing the Keyblade and carefully pointing it towards thin air.
"The gypsy girl told me of your plight", Ramza observed. "Have you chosen our next destination yet?"
Fumbling in his belt for the simple paper list he hadn't looked at since arriving, Sora shrugged. "I figure I can just go down to the next one on the list. One's as likely to help us locate Riku and the others as the next, right?"
"Well reasoned", his comrade considered. "Is it merely a list of names, then?"
"Yeah", Sora confirmed, looking down it before remembering to stroke off Relena. "Alright... got it. We'll go to try and find a Mr. 'Rudol'. Heh. That almost sounds like Rudolph."
Ramza looked uncertain, waving one last goodbye of his own. Esmerelda... I shall never forget thee. "Rudolph?"
"Santa's ninth reindeer? I guess you never read that story. That's one book I've read that you haven't, eh?"
"One book", Ramza emphasized gamely. "But enough fooling around. Do we just step into the gate once it's opened?"
"It worked before", Sora reasoned. Then, raising the Keyblade; "In the name of the Keyblade, please guide us to the home of Rudol! Rudol!".
Taking the handle in both hands now, he brought it down and seemed to cut the air in two. Instantly, a luminous breach reminding Sora of the Door to Light opened itself up before the two of them, shining invitingly as if beckoning them to their next destination. With one last look back, both walked into it.
They did not see the new booth Clopin and several of his underlings were already assembling, a colorful thing of curved wood and playfulness where hand puppets could conceal their origin and become characters of myth and imagination. "Now", the masked gypsy leader said to the children gathered in front of him, feeling Lady Relena's gentle hands on his shoulder. "Sit down, mes braves. Have some bread. Let Clopin tell you the tale, of a man... and a monster."
The bright abyss which yawned before them now might have frightened Sora had he not done it before, but Ramza waited several moments before daring to take a step along the path between worlds. Sora honestly found it to be far less comfortable than Gummi Ship travel, but at least it only took roughly the same amount of time. Without hesitating, he strode forward, he and Ramza's echoing footfalls the only audible noise.
"There is one thing that still troubles me", Ramza spoke, seeking to change that monotony after the first hundred steps on the invisible path. "Quasimodo spoke of three stone gargoyles that were his friends."
"Right", Sora remembered, retaining the lead. "Victor, Hugo, and Laverne."
"In any World where magicks exist, such things would be plausible of course. But I never saw a sign of them moving or speaking to anyone but the hunchback."
Sora scratched his head. That one had puzzled him too. "I know. So either they only come to life for their friend and distrust everyone else- sort of like Quasimodo when I first met him, or...?"
Ramza shook his head, not wanting to condemn their friend but seeing no other possibilities. "Twenty years. Twenty years cooped up in a bell tower, sir Sora. Some strange quirks are inevitable. The true miracle of God is that he's even as friendly as he was, instead of a gibbering ghoul. They were most likely imaginary... But that leads to another question."
"Which is?"
"How did he ever manage the defense of the cathedral? He defended all four sides of the tower from the city guard, and believe me, he wasn't skimping on any of them. Somehow he managed to prepare boiling oil, falling rocks, and a dozen other projectiles all at one time. He said his friends helped him."
The paradox stopped Sora in his tracks for a moment, but then he just shrugged and continued on. "I don't think it's worth arguing over. He said they're real, maybe they're only real to him."
"There are more bizarre things in Heaven and Earth than mortal philosophies could ever dream of", Ramza concluded as if quoting some book. "Speaking of, how are your injuries?"
"Fine." He picked up his pace to prove that. "It was more just resting than recovering from my wounds- once that was done I just healed the rest of them myself."
But his comrade remained unconvinced. "Not-Frollo was purging you repeatedly with sacred flames. Then there was 'La Tonnsectere'. I doubt there's a healing magic powerful enough to undo that in just a few days."
"I've had worse."
A surprised gulp. "You jest, sir Sora."
"Nope. Not kidding. There was this one time when Captain Barbossa- he's this nasty ghost pirate guy- got me in the left arm with his sword, hacked it down almost the hilt. Now that time, I thought I was done for, but the Keyblade stopped me from losing too much blood before Jack took him down. Then there was Xemnas..."
So that's why you have no battle scars, Ramza observed, intrigued. Just how powerful is this child? "Quite a handy weapon, that. Transportation, shield and a conduit for magicks all in one. And lest we forget, it opens any lock."
"Jealous, 'sir' Ramza?", Sora teased, snapping the weapon in question back into existence to punctuate and staring at the weapon as he walked. "Don't be. My friend Leon said that the Heartless are always drawn to the Keyblade, to try and defeat its master. I should have known from the start that I'd have to fight again as long as it stayed with me. I wouldn't call it a bad life... but it's no walk in the park."
"Indeed", he acknowledged thoughtfully. "A heavy burden to bear, and you've borne it far longer than the year that Lady Relena did. Might it only pass to another upon your death, then?" He deliberately left out the other possibility of his transformation into a creature of darkness. Perhaps that was a part of how past Keyblade Masters became corrupted as well. Resentment over their assigned task to fight the Heartless forever. Yet, this boy shows almost no signs of it. Why?
"I... I don't know."
"Forgive me for prodding", he backed off on that front, aware that they were delving into aspects of the Keyblade only a handful would ever know. Too much thinking about it would only fuel Sora's fear of his own weapon. Nothing good could come of that. "How soon until our arrival?"
"We should be close", Sora admitted, stepping forward slowly as if feeling for something. "We should be- There!"
Once again, space seemed open up as if the Keyblade had cut it open. With a flash, the portal dimmed, and both the boys stood in the dark of a night still devoid of stars, sizing up the new World they had arrived in.
Sora gasped, stretching his eyes to the horizon. Though the night obscured much, they appeared to be in some kind of city. More specifically, on the roof of one of the taller buildings in it, so tall they grasped the sky. Other brick structures of all shapes and sizes led in every direction, obviously far more advanced than anything in Notre Dame or Ramza's World. The big standout was the tallest of these, a majestic tower with walls of glass lit up from within by a round spire of white marble topping the base. To both their great surprise, the building even seemed to bear an old-fashioned brown-brick castle suspended upon a bowl of glass panes on top of the spire like a platter, their combined height easily dwarfing any structure they'd ever seen before.
"Impressive", Ramza remarked, summing up their first thoughts on it. "Do you have any idea where Rudol is, or- URK!"
Pain.
Pain.
Pain.
Ramza buckled to his knees with his friend under an onslaught of sensation, united in their screams. They'd both faced many injuries, but this was different. This anguish came from the inside, impossible to stop. No one seemed to hear them, but that was the least of their worries. The first to be able to fight off the haze of pain enough to see again, Ramza wished he had not, and spared himself the sight of his friend and knowing from the feel of it that the same thing was happening to him.
Sora's clothes were being shredded apart by a horrific muscle expansion happening over most of his body. His skin had become discolored, shifting from a healthy flesh hue to dark blue. Worse still was his face, an mouth wide open in screaming to reveal wicked fangs growing within it, and when Sora opened his eyes, Ramza saw no sign of the blue pupils that usually resided there, only a white glow narrowed by rigid eye-bones.
Hands and feet curled up, solidifying into talons. The clothes had managed to at least survive as black and yellow rags, but anything on Sora's back was simply torn apart when a pair of sinister appendages sprouted from there, ripping a hole before spreading into large bat-wings. While Sora's spiky brown hair had survived intact, little else left would even be recognizable as human, much less the Keyblade Master. Either spurred by the pain or only now realizing what he'd been transformed into, he let out a feral shriek to the sky that no human throat could have produced, eyes glowing like phosphorous embers.
Now his own wings were sprouting. He could feel the murderous fangs within his throat, and the sword arm that had won a hundred battles becoming an animal's impliments. Fear gripped his heart. Terrible. Worse than anything Ramza could have expected from the journey. It was his own very worst nightmare come to life. Demons, he deduced in bare shock, too scared even to pray for release. We've become Lucavi. Not the Zodiac Braves, but vile abominations against God nonetheless. No...no... NO!
Unable to contain himself any longer, he roared along with the winged creature his poor young friend had been turned into, their shared horror rending the skies of Manhattan Island as if to pave way for the stars.
Sealed your fate tonight in stone
I hate to cut the fun short
But the joke is wearing thin
Let the audience in
Let the real show begin
M: Well there you have it, the end of the story and my first-ever 'sequel hook'. As to whether or not I'll be doing that sequel involving the mystery world I described in the last segment (anyone remotely familiar with that franchise should be able to guess it) or something else is up to you, the viewers. Tell me your thoughts, if not on that, than anything else in this story you want to talk about. I did the very best I could, but I'm all ears.
As for the barrage of revelations in the final two chapters, I'm sure at least some of it will be contradicted in upcoming sequels (still only seen plot outlines for Birth by Sleep), but so far it dovetails very nicely I think. Of more concern to me than continuity issues was the portrayal and depth of characters and their relationships, which as I'm finding more and more is crucial to a good plot. Giving Sora depth and maturity while having him remain the happy-go-lucky child hero we see in the games was quite a challenge- I'm quite glad I didn't follow my initial impulse to have Donald and Goofy along for the ride. Quasimodo, too, was difficult to construct dialogue for outside of the situations duplicated from the movie. In case you can't tell, Clopin would be my fan-favorite.
In any case, I hope that if ever this movie is brought into the KH-verse, that it's story would end up something like this one. Adieu.
-DEDICATED TO THE MEMORY OF TONY JAY-