Chapter 21: Chris Talonflight: Rival Swords
I landed on the first of many floating rocks that formed the steps up to the Heartless Castle in the Dark Depths of Hollow Bastion. I looked behind me, and saw Ashley, Donald, Goofy, C, Frostmourne, and Nudge step out of the Gummi Ship beside me.
"So we know our mission, right?" I asked everyone. "Get in there, free Yuffie, free the Princesses of Heart, lock the keyhole, and get out. Got it?"
"Yeah." Everyone was in new combat gear, except Nudge and Frostmourne, who didn't need it.
We began ascending the steps. Suddenly I heard a roar. Beast had arrived.
We had been ignoring one fact central to the Kingdom Hearts One storyline: Maleficent's gang were capturing princesses from all the different worlds in order to reveal the keyhole of Hollow Bastion and undo Aerith's spell. They were missing one princess. I had mentally made the leap that Yuffie herself might be the last princess, and Johnson had been working with Maleficent. If so, there was still the need to give the hearts to the princesses, freeing them from the dark keyblade. I had long since wondered what would happen now, with so many parts of the story changed. I guessed we were about to find out.
As I looked ahead, I saw a figure yelling at the giant beast from the story Beauty and the Beast. Beast had arrived here through sheer force of will, without the aid of portals or Gummi equipment. I had to admire someone with that much will.
"Hey man, leave Beast alone-" my mouth shut suddenly as I faced the figure from my nightmares of Destiny Islands. I vividly entered the nightmare in my head, felt myself falling-
(IF YOU HATE POINTLESS FILLER AND FLASHBACKS AND DREAMS, JUST SKIP THIS NEXT PART)
This world has been connected… Tied to the darkness… I stood on the edge of a path in a veritable paradise, a forest behind me, looking out onto the beach at the lone figure standing there. There is so very much to learn… A meaningless effort… One who knows nothing can understand nothing… The words seemed to echo inside my head. As I watched, the water on the beach sank down, until the beach had become a deadly cliff, with cracks running through it. The water turned a diseased purple, and one by one, things on the island began to disappear: tree's; a rock sticking up out of the surf, now a mountain; bits of the tree house and playgrounds that had been lovingly erected on the border of the jungle and the beach; and worst of all, pieces of the sky, and the sun became darkened. I heard a tearing sound behind me, and I turned to see the forest become torn up, like wrapping paper, curling away from an area where I saw the diseased purple color mixed with darkness begin to eat away at the land. I turned to the figure, and said in a voice that couldn't be heard, "Why are you doing this?" As I watched, I saw the figure begin to turn. It was clad in the armor of darkness, with short black hair, with a single slash of white in his hair near the front. In its hand was a bat-wing shaped sword. As I watched, the wing unfurled and twisted, and it took on the shape of a dark keyblade. Then the figure completed its turn, and I saw the face. I screamed a silent scream, unheard in the destroyed paradise. For the figure had my own face.
I clenched my fists. First the nightmare of the destruction of my own world, and now this.
Dark malice filled the face of the person on the shore, and the me who was not me spoke the next few words:
"Take a look at this tiny place. To the heart seeking freedom, this island is a prison, surrounded by water. And so this boy wished to escape from his prison. His heart and mind wandered beyond the bounds of the reality of his world, although he believed he could not have it. Yet still he yearned for it, and now his wish has been granted. He wished for it, and he opened his heart to the darkness. For you see, Darkness is the hearts true essence."
I finally found my voice in that terrible place. "You're wrong!" I yelled. "Even if darkness is all that the heart is, deep inside the darkness, there's a light that never goes out!" suddenly, in my hand there was the bat winged sword. As I looked at it, I saw darkness crawl up my arm, and begin to cover my body. I screamed. But when the darkness on me cleared, I was wearing a red scarf for a blindfold, with a black fighting outfit with a red symbol on it. Somehow, I could see through the blindfold as it it weren't there. I began to charge the figure of darkness that had my face, but then the last remaining thing on the island disappeared: the ground. As I fell into blackness, I hear a voice speaking. The only encouragement I could hear.
Come on, Chris. I thought you were stronger then that.
(OK, FILLER IS OVER. YOU MAY CONTINUE READING.)
I regained my senses lying on the ground. I looked up and found myself alone except for the Beast and Nudge.
"Your friends pursued that other version of you into the castle. Immediately after they entered, the gates shut." Beast growled. "I would have followed, but I was injured by the other you. This shadow refused to leave your side. The only reason I have not attacked you was because you intervened on my behalf. Why did you do that?"
"I don't know who that other me was," I said, standing, "But no one should be denied their loved ones." I stuck out my hand to the beast. "My names Chris."
"I am known as the Beast." The Beast nodded. "I believe I have found a way into the castle. Will you come with me?"
I nodded, and together we entered the sewer system. There were Heartless in abundance here, but a few blasts from my dark powers and a few slashes of the Beast's claws obliterated them. "There's a switch here that should open the main gates." I nodded to a small box. Beast slashed it open, and I pulled the switch. I opened a dark portal back to the gates.
"It must be quite useful to be able to create portals." Beast commented.
"You have no idea." I agreed.
We fought our way up to the top of the tower. There were Heartless at every turn, but no sign of our friends. When we reached the chapel where Maleficent was waiting, we found only a black stain on the floor, and the sleeping Princess's of Heart along the walls.
"Seems that they took good care of her." I commented. "Thing is, something's not right."
"Quite right." I turned, and saw a figure of a woman standing there.
"Belle!" the Beast roared. He ran towards her, but the figure faded into a shadow Heartless. The Beast charged at it, but the doors to the Chapel closed behind him, locking him from the room.
"I've been waiting for you."
I turned, and confronted the other me. Clad in his dark armor, he nearly brought back the fainting vision on me again, but I thrust it away. (Cue "Figure.09" by Linkin Park)
"Hmph." The replica said. "Still afraid of the dark?" he summoned Soul Eater. I summoned Soul Eater.
"I will take your place and become a real person!" He yelled. "As long as your around, I'll never be more then a shadow!"
I blasted him with a wave of darkness. He countered with his own blast. Our shockwaves warred with one another, striving to push past the power point of the other. Eventually, his blast started pushing mine back.
"I'm not afraid of the darkness!" the replica growled.
"Shut up." I vaulted over his blast and swiped at him with Soul Eater. He responded with a block and a kick in the face. I slid back, and unleashed a barrage of small dark energy balls. My copy summoned a dark shield that nullified the charges. I made a fist, and a hand of darkness blasted up from behind him, and gripped him its ethereal fist. However, Replica blasted it from his body with more darkness. He then encased himself in a sphere of darkness. I stood there, confused. Then a shadow clone of me ran out of the sphere at high speed, and would have impaled me on a Soul Eater had I not dodged. It stayed there, as if frozen in time. Then another came flying out. I took the hang of it from here.
Damn! This guy has Vanitas attacks! What else does he have? Hopefully not a dark X attack. I thought, running in a wide arc around him. When the sphere dissipated, thousands of dark balls heartless ran at me, which I obliterated with a dark shockwave. As if reading my mind, the replica began a series of slashing combos. I summoned my second Soul Eater, meeting his combos. My opponent merely slammed him weapons together. I did the same. Our weapons flickered, and pulsed. But why was neither of us gaining the keyblade?
"You abandoned your friends at Olympus Coliseum!" the other me snarled
"Shut up!" I yelled. "You're a fake, a phony! Everything you are, everything you feel, and everything you remember!"
"I know that," he muttered. "The difference is, I can accept it!" with that, the keyblade appeared in his hands.
No… I had lost. I collapsed there, due to fatigue. I hadn't entered darkness form, but I knew that I would never allow myself to. I had lost... I realized what had happened. Only the true of heart could wield the keyblade. In this case, the dark keyblade would go to whoever had the strongest heart. The Replica had made me feel guilty, and thus had won the keyblade.
"You aren't injured badly." The replica walked away, out into the next room. "I'm not going to kill you in cold blood. I'm too much like you. You'll be on your feet by tomorrow."
"No." I muttered. I stood. "This isn't finished." I walked into the next room, the keyhole room, with the portal to the end of the world, and saw my replica standing there, surprised.
"Where are you going?" I said, half laughing from surprise. "We're not finished yet." I raised my Soul Eater. "There is no tomorrow for me… UNLESS I BEAT YOU TODAY!" I charged at him, and suddenly my keyblade sprang into my hands. But… why was the other me still holding one?
Instantly I understood. He was holding the dark keyblade that Riku had gotten when he was possessed by Ansem: the Black Faker keyblade, as I had decided to name it. I, on the other hand, wielded my Last Chaos keyblade.
Our keyblades clashed. "Why exactly are you fighting me?" I yelled. "There's no point! Johnson is going to kill you too when this is over!"
"I'm fighting so that I can be someone!" he yelled. Then I had an idea.
"You already are someone!" I cried, as he pushed me back. "You have your own identity. You aren't so much like me as they believe. Many people can tell the difference between me and you. You have your own personality, because you see the events in my life differently. You are you!" He pushed me back yet again. "I am Chris Talonflight. YOU are Chris Vasquez. Get it straight." I suddenly felt pressure on my shoulders, and realized that Nudge had arrived. He leaped on my shoulders, swayed for a moment, then fused.
"Nudge, No!" I yelled, but my friend didn't heed it. We fused, and I took on my dark armor. Well, no use crying over spilt milk. I thought, and attacked my foe. I spun, slashed, blocked, threw a shockwave, and repeated. Then, in the middle of the fourth repetition, I grabbed his arm, and threw him into the rotating, incomplete keyhole on hollow bastion that hovered above us. He slammed into it, vibrated once with the energy, and collapsed to the ground unconscious. I stood there, breathing heavily. Then Nudge leaped out of me, and my dark armor fell away. There was a bang behind me as Beast broke through the door and joined me.
"Well done, Chris!"
I looked up. There, watching it all from a balcony was Johnson, holding Yuffie.
"Never thought you would honor the deal." I said, snarling my words.
"Never thought you would defeat the replica." Johnson leaped down from the balcony, leaving Yuffie there, bound and gagged. With him jumped a man in a grey robe.
Behind me, a door banged open, and the rest of my group rushed in.
"Chris, sorry to leave you, but we had to find that replica… oh." C trailed off, looking at the unconscious replica. "I see you've been busy."
Suddenly, my friends, Nudge included, were encased in a wall of electricity. I looked back. The man in gray was pointing at them. Then he pushed back his hood. Ashley screamed. C gasped. Beast grunted. Frostmourne gaped. Donald and Goofy made a "What?" noise. Yuffie whimpered. Nudge squealed in terror. I just stared.
"Greetings… my… friend." Rodney growled in a mangled voice. All along his face traces of darkness, whiteness, and a blue substance flickered. Half of his face was torn away, replaced by a mechanical eye and teeth, mingled with bone, and remnants of flesh.
"I see you have recognized my newest creation." Johnson smiled. "Have fun!" he created a portal of darkness, taking Yuffie with him, but not before he dropped a glowing orb from his hand. "Take care of her heart!"
"NO!" I yelled, as he disappeared with a comatose, heartless Yuffie. The orb, her heart, sank down and disappeared into my chest.
Then my friends were released form the cage, and they got ready for combat.
"Why are you doing this?" Ashley yelled, in tears.
"I do only the will of my master!" Rodney tried to cleave her in half, but his blow was blocked by a stream of water from C's guitar.
"We don't have time to fight!" I yelled. "We need to follow Johnson!"
"You go." I turned to see which of my comrades had spoken. It was C.
"But C, we can't leave you here to fight it alone!" Ashley was alarmed.
"I can do this." C smiled, calm for once. "It would give me great pleasure to know that my friend was at peace, rather then knowing that he was transformed into a mockery of his former self. I know this is right. My heart tells me it is. Go. Find Yuffie. Good luck." He turned back to what was left of our friend, and began strumming his guitar.
"Lets see how you handle the sea." He whispered. I saw a look in his eyes that I had not seen in my life. It was the look of one who could look death in the eye and still do it calmly. He used his powers to slam Rodney backwards into the Chapel, and he followed him with a last look at Ashley. I hesitated. If I jump into this fight, I could very well be killed. So can all of us. We need to get Yuffie back, as well as lock Kingdom Hearts away from this guy. But what the hell, it still doesn't feel right, leaving C to face the shadow of a former friend: a very deadly friend, at that! I then realized that if I didn't go along with what C had suggested that complete disorganization would follow, most likely resulting in all of us being delayed, and possibly Yuffie's death and the unlocking of Kingdom Hearts. I mentally cursed myself, and turned to the rest of my followers.
"Lets go." I looked around. "We need to lock this world. And to do that, we need to complete the keyhole… which means we need to awaken the princess's of heart." suddenly I knew what was to happen here. I looked at my friends and nodded. I picked up the Black Faker keyblade from my unconscious twin, and rammed it into my chest. There was a collective gasp and hearts erupted from the keyblade, and a final heart leaped from my chest to hover in the air. Then a ray of light emerged from the keyhole, and the keyhole was complete. However, I could feel darkness taking over me. I gave my friends a smile, and then felt myself change. I became Anti-Chris once again, the heartless version of me from the Station of Awakening.
"My god…" Ashley and the others gasped. I merely chuckled inwardly, and then summoned my dark armor. With that, several pieces of black skin flaked off. Then when I dispelled the dark armor, I became human again.
"Hmph." I grinned. "You didn't think I was committing suicide did you?" I grabbed Yuffie's heart and put it back in my chest.
Their mouths opened and closed for several seconds, until Frostmourne stormed over to me, and punched me in the shoulder. "NEVER DO THAT AGAIN!" he roared.
"Heh." I chuckled, while creating a dark portal. "Shall we?"
"You aren't leaving me behind." A voice from behind me said weakly. "He has.. The woman that you love… for that… I will help you defeat him…. Chris… real thing…" My replica stood up, sorely injured, still grasping Soul Eater. I nodded, and flicked my cure Materia at him. "I know what you all probably think of me, but I was under Johnson's control. Can't a guy get a break?" at hearing that familiar, complaining voice, we all chuckled, and we all walked through the portal. Now there were two me's… just perfect…
End of the World, here we come.