Alright everyone, this is it. The final chapter. Once this is over, I'm going to take two weeks off. After Thanksgiving, I'll be getting started on Kingdom Hearts VI. My goal is to finish the Acolytes of Chaos Saga by the time my winter break is over, so once December starts I'm going to try and update KH6 almost daily.
Chapter 21: Brave New World:
New York City – JFK International Airport; November 6th:
"I'm confused," Agent Piper commented as she, Cloud, and Vshe and a team of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents stood stood in one of the larger docking bays of John F. Kennedy International Air and Spaceport alongside Vanitas' C.I.N. unit, S.A.C.K. members, and U.N. diplomats. "Why exactly are we here again? Spaceships landing on Earth isn't anything new anymore. Why all the fanfare?"
"Because today is the day that Earth makes first contact with the Daybreak Coalition," Vanitas explained as he fiddled with his commlink. Once the Coalition ships landed, he would be able to contact Director Cassim and relay what he and his team had been up to for the past month. Today his real work would begin. He had to debrief his boss, notify Even's friends of his passing, arrange for his body to be brought back to Radiant Garden for his funeral, and fill Aqua and the Order of the Keyblade in on what's been going on with the Unchained Legion. Everyone stood at attention as an Adamant-class Gummi Ship troop carrier glided into the docking bay before settling down on the floor and powering off its engines.
"A Hundred Munny says that our families came along with the delegation just to see us again," Cloud commented, earning a chuckle from Violet. He knew that Tifa would almost certainly come along, bringing their adopted son Denzel with her. It would not surprise him in the slightest if his wife was one of the first people off the ship. After a few minutes of waiting, the doors opened, and sure enough out came Grand Master Aqua, Ienzo, Commander Leonheart, Captain Phoebus, and Tifa Strife. But before anyone could say or do anything, Rinoa raced forward and gave her old boyfriend a tearful hug.
Earth – Sokovia; Abandoned Castle; A Few Hours Later:
This is it, Skuld thought to herself as she stood on the balcony of the castle entrance hall. The remaining members of the Huntsclan were gathered on the floor below her. Because their people were scattered across the worlds, her message was being broadcast across all the Legion's encrypted communications frequencies for the benefit of their brothers and sisters who could not attend this gathering in person. The encryption codes had been changed once they figured out that S.H.I.E.L.D. was using Natasha Romanov's safe house to access their communications. And this was one message they didn't want the spy agency to overhear.
"Greetings, my Unchained brothers and sisters," she began. "It is with great satisfaction that I report the time has come to strike the vaults of Asgard and recover the relics we need for the final stages of the endgame." On either side of her, Aurilam and Lerena smiled in satisfaction. It had taken a great deal of effort and manipulation to prune the infighting of the High Council. But now, with Gao, Stone, and Gonzales out of the way, they could finally move forward under one unifying vision. But while she should be feeling joy at this moment, right now Skuld felt as if her body was only going through the motions while her heart and mind warred with each other over whether the plan she'd worked so hard for over the last several millennia really was the right way forward.
"Yes," she continued. "After eight thousand years of planning and preparation, we are now, finally ready to cleanse the Earth and eradicate the Darkness from the universe. Soon, the corrupt and impure of the world will be erased from existance, and we, the Unchained Legion, shall guide those that remain on the right path. We have lost several comrades along the way, some, to weakness, Darkness, and annihilation. But despite our significant losses, we still have the numbers we need to push forward with The Endgame. Rejoice! For after eight lonely millennia of painstakingly slow progress, OUR DAY HAS COME!"
"A rousing speech as usual, Imperator," Lerena commented as Skuld and her lieutenants retired to her office. "But I question whether or not it's truly wise to tolerate Gonzales' capture. Even without his role as our sole informant inside S.H.I.E.L.D., if he tells them what he knows in the midst of one of his rants against the impure that the agency keeps employing, it could deal a serious blow to our cause and dramatically impact the Endgame."
"I doubt Gonzales could tell them anything that they couldn't already learn from the contents of Natalia's safehouse," the leader of the Unchained replied. Inside, the increasingly loud voice of her doubts was expressing hope that he had so that the plan could be stopped before the Legion crossed the point of no return. "But you do have a point. After our raid on Asgard, you have my authorization to kill him before he can talk."
"And if he already has?" Aurilam inquired skeptically as he poured some wine for the three of them. Skuld's face set in a grim line, slightly less firm than usual due to her recent doubts.
"Kill him anyway," she answered, her doubts screaming protests and objections in her mind as her lips formed the words. "But leave S.H.I.E.L.D. be. They'll all be destroyed in the Endgame one way or another. Let them sweat as they scramble to try and thwart the plan. It will do them no good when they realize that there is nothing that can truly stop us once we get our hands on the Blade."
Skuld's scene is intended to mirror the prologue of Connected Worlds, only this time, the Unchained Legion is a whole lot closer to their overall goals, and Skuld herself is beginning to have second thoughts about how far she's willing to lead the Unchained in pursuit of their version of peace. I'll be going into more detail on my thought process regarding Skuld's role in the story and her personality over the course of Kingdom Hearts VI. Anyway, now that I've only got one story left in this saga of mine, I'm going to take a week off. I've got some major projects to work on for my Animation and Computer Graphics courses, and I'd like to be able to focus on them without having to squeeze in time to let the storytelling juices out of my head. After Thanksgiving weekend I'll get started on KH6. And boy will that one be a big one.
I decided to introduce Agent Piper from Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. She was originally a red shirt agent introduced in the last few episodes of Season 3 before Season 4 has upgraded her to a recurring character and given her the job of being Agent May's right-hand woman. The chapter title is a reference to the song "This is War" by 30 seconds to Mars. I'll be going into more detail on Leon and Rinoa's reunion early on in KH6. Anyway, now that Cloak and Dagger is over, I'm going to take a week off for Thanksgiving before I get started on Kingdom Hearts VI. To give you all an idea of what to expect, image the final battle of The Xehanort War as an entire twenty-four chapter story unto itself.