Chapter 36

No Man, No Mystery

The intense heat was more than a pain for Desiree as she swiped away plant after plant with her Keyblade. Torture— yes, that was the best word to describe it. She had never asked for this. If she could be anywhere right now, it would be somewhere in Paris drinking cool refreshing milk and indulging in meat pies and other incredible pastries. Instead, she was here with no food of the sort in sight, sweat rolling down her normally perfect and pale skin, sticky and unkempt hair, and a stinging body ache from having fallen from the sky. She was incredibly lucky she had been wearing her armor at the time or else she would have become another one of her favorite foods.

She could hear a bunch of flies whizzing about near her ear and she let out a scream and swiped at them with her hand. This type of world was certainly not for her, she had decided pretty quickly. It had probably been a mistake to go against Kohle's orders and go after Sora on her own, and now she was stuck here for it. She had tried willing her Keyblade to transform every now and again but it simply wouldn't. If her Keyblade had thought her stubborn and agreed with the other members, she wouldn't be surprised. Additionally, her armor was also damaged badly so she probably wouldn't be able to survive the change in atmosphere anyway.

She let out a scream of frustration after a while and rested against a large boulder that she had come across. She had just barely let out her breath when a group of Heartless popped out of the ground and surrounded her.

"I am really not in the mood for this right now," she whispered to herself before slamming her Keyblade into the ground. Streaks of lightning surged forth in all directions and took out all the Heartless without effort. Desiree wiped some sweat off her forehead and, having started to notice some of her make up coming off, scowled.

So she was stuck here for a while at least. Her armor would repair itself over time so she wasn't too worried about that. That meant that she could either stay where she was and wait for it to repair, or go out and search the place for any food and safer shelter. From what she could recall, Alfonso had said that it took 36 hours for the armor to repair which meant that the first option was automatically ruled out.

That left the second option, find either some sign of life or a possible food source to last her three days. The only problem was that she wasn't too enthusiastic about this option either. In an ideal world, she would have a bunch of servants carry her throughout this jungle on a deck chair while fanning her. Of course she would be sipping a glass of lemonade too. And then she opened her eyes… and was forced to confront reality once more.

There was no point complaining, she told herself, and forced herself to continue walking. She attempted to cover her nose as she trenched through the hot weather. The temperature had intensified the stinking moss and rotten plants and detritus that she faced. More times than one had she heard the sound of buzzing nearby and consequently quickened her pace.

It had not been something she had ever let anyone know, but if there was one thing she had a fear of in the world, it was bugs. It was somewhat ironic in a way, considering some of the Heartless she had fought certainly resembled bugs, but there was something about them that was different to the standard bug. Maybe it was that she had defeated so many of them that they seemed a second nature to her, but she still thought it funny that she wasn't scared of the things that could actually harm her.

She must have been walking for about an hour and a half now. Her legs were now struggling to even go farther, but there was nowhere for her to rest, or at least nowhere she considered appropriate.

She took some time to consider again how she had gotten herself into this sticky situation. She had wanted to chase Sora because she didn't believe Moira's Crescent were taking advantage of the opportunity she had given them. She had thought she could take them on their Gummi Ship there and then but she had gravely miscalculated the extent of her glider's capabilities and she paid for it.

Well none of that mattered now. She was here and she would have to make up for her tactical error. If Alfonso was here, he would have probably suggested looking for a river and then following it to downstream to its mouth where it would lead out to the sea. The river would also most likely carry fresh water, suitable enough for drinking. Yes, that gave her some hope, now all she needed was the mentality to stick to her plan. Surely there had to be a river nearby.

But evening soon came, and her hopes of finding any water source were diminishing quickly. She threw her hands up in the air, a declaration of defeat. She kicked at a bunch of dead leaves on the grounds before putting her hand to her forehead. What was she doing? That had been so ill-suited of her. Desiree Elegia Skye was not one to give in, especially not to a disgusting place like this. Whatever reluctance she felt to press on, it was all in the mind. She had to keep going no matter what. It helped to think about all the things she would do after she managed to escape.

"Hey, stop right there!"

Desiree barely turned before she was shot in the back with something. A high voltage of electricity ran throughout her body and sent her straight to the ground. It was an electroshock ranged weapon of some sort, Desiree had deduced from the range of the shot. Her body hugged involuntarily to the ground and her eyes were struggling to stay open. Cumbersomely, she shifted her eyes to the left to see two soldier-like figures, one with an electric baton in his hands and the other a stun gun.

"What's that?" one of them asked as he picked up Desiree's Keyblade. She tried to talk but no words came out of her mouth. She could hardly even move it for that matter.

"You think she's some kind of government spy? Let's just take her in for questioning. We might even get a promotion from the boss if we're lucky," answered the other man. He reinserted his gun into his utility belt and took hold of Desiree's hand with the baton man taking hold of the other. As Desiree was dragged, she looked left slowly. She could see it, small, behind the trees and very blurry but still a glimmer… a river, sparkling under the sunset. And then she was out cold.

Sora took off into a run and leapt over the rather wide gap, just making it to the other side. The path had taken him to a bunch of cliffs that faced opposite a bright sparkling ocean. So he was on the edge of the island then. Even with this revelation, it did little to quell Sora's nerves that he was getting farther and farther away from where Luna and the others were.

The other side of the cliff that Sora was now on had taken him to a dead end, or at least that was what he had thought before noticing the ledge that seemed to circle around the cliff.

"If the guys were here, I'd be able to make a joke about this being a cliff hanger as to whether we survive or not." Sora immediately rolled his eyes at his pun. He pressed his back against the cliff face and began moving to the right. He would just have to hope that the ledge was stable enough to not give way.

His feet finally found solid ground again after a while. Sora took relief in the fact that he had escaped an incredibly close call before continuing onwards. The significant decrease in the number of birds he could hear told him that nightfall was coming. A minute passed, then a few, then several, and by the hour, he was enclosed in darkness.

He extended his hand forward and felt around caringly. The transition to a cooler air had been refreshing. It was a reminder to him that he needed to keep a cool mind if he was going to find his friends again. It was still quite warm but to a climate he could actually stand.

He had walked for a good while when the first signs of life revealed themselves to him. His ears managed to pick up a sound. It was an unearthly sound, more belonging to a machine than a human or any force of nature. For a second, Sora thought that he had encountered another automaton and lowered himself to the ground, using the tall grass as camouflage.

After a few seconds he finally caught sight of his foe. It appeared to be a guard on some kind of aerial hovercraft. He stopped near Sora and flashed the light emitting from the vehicle around as if searching for something. Sora buried his head to the ground hoping that the guard wouldn't be able to notice. Soon enough Sora heard the hovercraft fly away and he looked up to see it already past him. Curiosity rising, he decided to follow the guard.

What appeared to be a base soon revealed itself as Sora continued to follow the guard. What gave him that impression was the shape of the roof, a circular dome, and the fact that it seemed to be the only building he had encountered so far. The decisive factor of course lay in the number of similar looking guards that patrolled the perimeter and beyond. If he wanted to know what was in there, he would have to find a way around them, or otherwise go right through them.

Sora emerged out of the bushes he had been hiding in and travelled down the mountain, first at the pace of a tip toe before slowly transitioning into a slide the farther he descended, his feet soon touching the trail that led to the entrance of the base.

He hid in the shadows created by the trees and aimed his Keyblade like a sniper rifle. Once his first target was in sight, he launched a fire projectile at one of the guards posted at the entrance. The shot found its target and hit the guard square in the chest. While the guard posted next to him took his time to investigate his fallen comrade, Sora took advantage of this and leapt out of the shadows, sprinting towards the remaining henchman and sending him to the floor with a strike raid.

Spotting the closest cover of darkness to him, Sora entered the compound and made his way to the left to hide. In front of him was a door that led inside and it was very unlikely that a knock on the door would suffice for admission. It was then fortunate that help came in the form of an unlikely factor in the equation.

Sora could only watch in surprise as a second intruder made his way through the gates. He was slightly overweight and yet he still possessed a muscular physique. It wasn't this Sora was interested in however. The most intriguing part of the man was whatever he was wearing. It was some kind of costume, red spandex and all and to make matters even more hilarious, he was wearing a mask. Afraid to laugh, Sora could only pull a face.

Does this guy think he's some kind of superhero or something? What an idiot.

But Sora couldn't help but keep his eyes on the man. He watched as the 'superhero' looked around carefully, bent down and picked up a rock from the ground and then threw it at the roof where a henchman was on patrol, effectively taking him out…

Effectively taking him out…

Taking him out…

Sora frowned upon realizing what he had just witnessed, and then this frown turned into an indecipherable face as he tried to process what had just happened… and failed. Had he really just seen a grown man dressed like a superhero with apparently extraordinary strength throw a small rock from afar at incredible speeds and succeed at knocking the guard off the roof? Why yes. Yes he had.

For a moment, Sora considered revealing himself to the suspicious individual. Judging from his actions he certainly didn't seem like he was on the henchmen's side. Still that didn't necessarily mean he would be welcome to allying with Sora either, especially if he had some kind of contrasting motive to Sora's. He eventually concluded that it would be best to just follow the man for now.

So Sora's next actions were determined by the strange guy in the mask. The costumed man ran over to inspect the locked door that Sora had been looking at. After what appeared to be quick consideration, he bent down and pried his fingers under the door in an attempt to lift it up. He probably would have succeeded too if the door hadn't chosen to open up automatically at that moment. The door swung open with a mechanical his, sending the momentarily stunned costumed man into the compound that he was just about to enter. In exchange, a vehicle consisting of two men left the base and headed away in the direction of the entrance. They would no doubt eventually notice the unconscious guards on their patrol so Sora took his chances and hastily made for the door before it could close. He managed to just make it by sliding under in time.

One thing he immediately noticed upon entering was the introduction of a cool breeze circulating around the base which he welcomed gladly after the heat from outside prickled his skin. He got up after an exasperated sigh only to see the masked super already running off down the corridor. Sora followed after him quickly meanwhile taking the time to muffle his footsteps.

After both being contentious of their surroundings in different ways, they soon arrived at a door that was much different than the rest they had encountered. This took them to an empty but spacious room with a single dining table in the middle and an incredibly strange wall in the background which seemed to be replicating a waterfall of lava.

Sora stepped into the dark room after the costumed man had disappeared into it sometime before to find the room completely empty. Before Sora could question where the costumed man could have possibly gone, he was tackled from the side.

"Didn't think I'd notice you following me, huh?" said the man in the mask with a toothy grin. Sora just barely managed to wiggle out of his grasp and rolled away.

"How perceptive coming from a guy dressed up like he's out of a comic book," Sora shot back wittily.

"Well, those are usually the best kind you'll find, well except for the ones with capes, according to my friend anyway. But you're not with them are you? You're… a kid."

"Very perceptive. You know, you really are good at this," continued Sora's smarmy remarks.

"You don't need to insult me so can it with the remarks kid-"

"It's Sora."

"Mr. Incredible, but how did you even get on the island?"

Sora's face became uneven. "Island? So that's where we ended up. Gives me a bit more confidence that I'll run into them again then… eventually."

'"We'? As in, there are more of you?" Mr. Incredible seemed perplexed at this sudden turn of events but Sora took no notice of it, still deep in thought of finding his friends.

He looked Mr. Incredible up and down, taking in his costume fully for the first time before asking, "So you're not joking, right? You're an actual superhero? With flying and super strength and all that?"

"In the flesh, well, except for the flying part, we all have different powers. So, how exactly did you get onto the island in the first place? You shouldn't be here…"

Before Sora could reply, a loud hissing sound cut their conversation short followed by the parting of the lava that Sora had originally thought was a wall. Mr. Incredible grabbed Sora without warning and dragged him quickly towards one of the only hiding spots in the room, a totem pole wide enough to conceal both their bodies. Sora tried to slip out of Mr. Incredible's grasp but he wasn't so lucky this time, with the super holding on tightly as if Sora were a beloved possession.

Eventually the brunette gave up squirming and watched as a slender and attractive woman stepped out of the lava waterfall. She took a quick scan of the area before heading out the way Sora and Mr. Incredible came in.

"Okay, can you put me down no-OW!"

Mr. Incredible shushed him quickly and took off along with his 'luggage' into the lava entrance the woman had come out of. The gap of parting lava began to close forcing Mr. Incredible to move sideways halfway through the path. With their path narrowing even more and Mr. Incredible not wanting to know what would happen if the two sides of lava became one again, he threw Sora towards the exit before lunging forward himself and escaping the claws of possible death.

"You could have at least thrown me a little more gently," Sora said while rubbing the arm he had landed on but Mr. Incredible wasn't listening. Instead, he was staring at a large bright screen in the back of the dark room they were currently in. This was probably connected to the keyboard at the end of the bridge they were on.

Sora followed Mr. Incredible down the bridge until they were standing before the keyboard. The word PASSWORD flashed on the screen continuously. It was a word that excited Sora and yet unless they had some kind of idea as to the code needed then the secrets behind the metaphorical lock would be kept secret.

Sora was about to turn away when he heard Mr. Incredible inputting keystrokes. "Well I wish Cid was here. He'd know how to get past this in a heartbeat but as for us? Well, there's probably millions of combinations, there's no way we can brute force this in one tr- oh, you got it."

When the words that Mr. Incredible entered appeared on the screen however, Sora let out an audible gasp. The word Kronos was displayed on the screen, a word that the Keyblade Master never would have thought he would have heard here. It was pretty convenient then that deciding to go after Desiree had also taken them to one of their mysteries.

"Hey, how do you know about KRONOS?" Sora asked.

"How do you know about it?"

"I asked first."

Mr. Incredible gave a simple smile and looked back to the screen. "I saw it on the island at one point. One of my kind that I used to know back in the day was apparently here on the island. He left that message for someone to find I'm guessing. And you?"

"Well there's this group by the same name who are causing trouble all over the place. I guess I can't exactly say it's a coincidence now, can I?"

Sora watched as the screen flickered to life with multiple files stacked upon files. Selecting a file at random, the file opened and enlarged, revealing its contents. They were diagrams of the same robot that Sora had fought before, well, not exactly the same. They seemed to evolve in shape and design from one iteration to the next. It looked as if they (designated the Omnidroid at the top of the screen) were metamorphosing in a similar way to a butterfly evolving from a caterpillar.

Furthermore next to the blueprints of each Omnidroid were faces of people Sora had never seen before, but they clearly left enough of an impression on Mr. Incredible as he was gawking wide-eyed at the screen. He supposed that would make sense though considering they were also wearing masks like him. The screen went onto further detail the status of each superhero at the hands of these robots. They had either defeated or went on to be defeated by the improving Omnidroid.

"This is… horrible. I'm so sorry," Sora couldn't help but feel the need to apologize.

"You have nothing to apologize for. The only one who needs to is the guy who's running this operation, Syndrome," Mr. Incredible replied, his voice strained.

"Syndrome? Does he also have superpowers by any chance?"

Mr. Incredible shook his head. "No. I knew him once as Buddy. He was just a normal kid who, like others, was inspired by me and unlike others, was really inspired by me, so much so that he even got in the way and put himself in danger. He had talent though. He could have put that brain of his to use and helped the world in a way we Supers couldn't but I guess building a weapon to come after me and others like me was more appealing."

"Talk about wasted talent…" Sora said. He walked up to the keyboard and started repeatedly pressing the right arrow key, moving from file to file. He hoped he would be able to find something more on KRONOS. He very much soon wished he hadn't.

"No… what is this?" Sora felt his knees wobble and knock against each other violently. On the screen was a photograph of a discernible person and even a discernible location. It was Kairi.

As his finger held down the down arrow key, Sora witnessed the extent of the information they had collected on her. Her fighting style, her past of living in Radiant Garden before moving to the islands, the fact that she was a Princess of Heart, it was all there.

"Is something wrong, Sora? Do you know her?"

But Sora ignored Mr. Incredible and pressed the right arrow key. And again. And again. It wasn't just Kairi. Riku, Aqua, Terra, Ven, Roxas, Xion, Namine, Lea, Mickey… they were all there as well as their details. Sora already knew what he was going to find on the next page but he pressed on the arrow key again.

Next up was Luna. The picture taken of her was the same location that all the previous photos had been taken, which was Radiant Garden, just outside the hotel this time. Three things in her report struck Sora as odd. The first being they knew about Luna having been in the Realm of Darkness, the second was that they knew about her parents' deaths and the cause for it which led to the final thing, the report had referred to her as a 'special' chimera. He couldn't begin to think of how they had gotten hold of all of this information, especially when the only people who should have known about those things were his friends, Yen Sid and Neuge. Actually, not even his friends knew the true cause of Luna's parents' deaths. It certainly didn't feel right revealing something as personal as that. The only other person who knew was Astra and he doubted she was writing these or had taken photos of all his friends.

It needn't be said whose profile the next page brought. A chill trickled down Sora's spine as he stared back at himself. His picture wasn't taken at Radiant Garden but rather Traverse Town. It deeply disturbed him to find out how much they knew about him as well though fortunately it seemed the report hadn't yet taken into account his new fighting style. At least he could take comfort in having one secret.

But just what exactly did this all mean? They were all be spied on? A blinding light interrupted his thoughts followed by a blaring alarm. Sora looked at Mr. Incredible to see a red light beeping on the emblem of his costume. Before they could say anything a barrage of black orbs shot out from turrets positioned all around the room and attacked them. Sora was unable to react and after the orbs had attached themselves to him and dragged him to the floor under their heavy weight, he was incapable of using his Keyblade or any type of magic. The last thing he saw before the orbs engulfed his vision was the legs of the woman before walking towards them.

When Sora woke up, he found himself bound to some kind of machine. He sought to wrestle against his restraints but it was no use. He looked to his right to see two people, the first being a still unconscious Mr. Incredible. It was the other person farther down that caused a previously supressed anger to rise within him again. It was Desiree, also unconscious and looking a complete mess, far from what she would probably approve of if she were awake. He quickly glanced back at Mr. Incredible and was about to call out to him when the door opened. The sound of exaggerated, pronounced steps rang throughout the room. For a moment, Sora even thought that their owner would take forever to arrive in front of him. When the footsteps stopped, Sora raised his head slowly and looked his captor in the eye.

"Oh, aren't you scary giving me that look. But, you're lucky you're you, because if you were anyone else, I would have had you killed by now," Syndrome said with a crazy grin. He seemed incredibly energetic and celebratory over the moment.

"What are you talking about?" Sora asked.

"You… are special!" Syndrome pulled out some sort of tablet device, cleared his throat and began reading from it. "Sora. One of the a few Keyblade wielders left in the world. A kid who possesses the only weapon capable of vanquishing the Heartless and even though the Keyblade was not originally his, shows the same talent a natural wielder would show when wielding it. Well isn't that just great!"

Never mind his incredibly ostentatious presentation as he read from the device, it was that he really did know so much that got Sora riled up.

Syndrome continued. "You know, I feel like I'm looking at my own past reading this. Surrounded by others more special than me, being told that you could never possibly achieve what they have… and then you exceed everyone's expectations. You can finally say that you stand on equal ground with everyone else. Tell me, does it feel good? Jumping from world to world and saving folks? Does it give you a sense of euphoria? Does it make you feel like you're important to someone? It's only natural. Everyone wants to feel special to someone, it's only human nature."

"If you know about me and the other worlds then you must be a part of KRONOS. What are you guys up to?" Sora changed the topic, not caring for what Syndrome had to say.

"And tell you our plan? Would world domination suffice? Or maybe wealth? Or just the destroy the world entirely? The point I'm getting at is does it really matter what the motive is? That kind of factor is pretty trivial in the long run you'll find. But shall I say that you're impression of us as being the bad guys in this is completely off. We want what you want."

"I highly doubt that," Sora said.

"You wanted hear the motive. I'm telling you, or at least a part of it."

"Then let's pretend we do have the same goals for a second. What exactly would that be?" Sora asked.

"The eradication of the Heartless."

Sora looked at him as if he was about to make a funny joke but then forgot the punch line. "Eradicating the Heartless? You must be crazy if you think I'm going to fall for that one. You use them to hurt other people!"

"A necessary means to an end. You think we like using them? They don't care who they attack, they're unpredictable. My men are constantly being attacked by them on this island. They can't even go one night without the fear of being attacked. They're powerful, but you never know when they might stab you in the back, so we'll stab them first. We'll use the Heartless to end the Heartless."

Sora searched Syndrome's features for a speck, a trace, of a lie but it was completely useless. He couldn't tell. "Then why do you have pictures of me and my-"

"Well that's enough talking. If I say anymore then I'd have to kill you and we can't have that now, can we?" Syndrome tutted patronisingly.

"Then you can at least tell me why you were hunting down Supers. If this is just some revenge scheme for how I treated you, why not go after me instead?"

Syndrome looked Mr. Incredible's way to see him staring daggers into his eyes. "Oh come on, what's with the looks today, you'd think someone took both of your favorite toys away or something." He walked over to Mr. Incredible just as slowly as it took for him to come into the room. "Aren't you something. You were listening in on that entire conversation, pretending to be unconscious, weren't you? And not long ago I remember you pretending to be dead and to think you used the old hide behind a dead body trick. Man, you really have a knack for this stuff… of course it would have been better if you had stayed dead but this works too... why, you ask? Because you get to see me save your beautiful city from the oncoming threat that's going to attack it."

"Wait, you don't mean that robot, do you?" Sora asked. "You're going to kill innocent people just because of revenge?"
"Revenge? Where do you two get off saying that word? Whoever said this was about revenge? Okay, well it partly is but it's also my chance to become what you are to so many others. A beacon of hope."

Sora shook his head in disbelief. "You're forgetting the part where you're the one that caused the danger in the first place."

"It's all relative. If you're worried about the citizens, don't be. I won't let them come to harm, which is the least I could say for what you would be able to do if you were in my stead. And once I've saved this city, I'll sell my technology in order to allow everyone else to become a super. And when everyone's super… no one will be!" Syndrome's words came out as a spiteful hiss. He then smiled and pointed at Sora as if he had been selected as a contestant. "The World is about to change. Operation KRONOS is well on its way to success. Be afraid, Keyblade Master, be very afraid and… do rejoice while you have the chance because your days are numbered. In fact, I told your friend the very same thing."

Syndrome nudged his head at Desiree before leaving the room. Sora craned his head to the side and pondered what he had just been told. The Omnidroid that Syndrome had used to hunt down the Supers was now being deployed to attack a city, except that it was being staged and he would use it in order to sell his own technology. While it seemed simple, that was also the problem. There was just something that didn't fit right with Sora. For one thing, he failed to see how building so many of these robots only for this one moment was worth it. Did KRONOS' plans include them somehow? If Sora took his words for truth, and they really wanted to get rid of the Heartless, then would the Omnidroid help them in achieving this?

Meanwhile, a dreary Desiree slowly opened her eyes, waiting for them to adjust to the light of the room. Sora noticed a couple of grunts coming from her and looked her way.

"Been sleeping well I take it?" he asked in a slightly resentful tone.

Desiree let out a chuckle and shook her head. "You know, I think you've just been relegated to a numéro deux on my revenge list."

After witnessing one of the greatest E3s ever, I am pumped to continue this fic and Through Smoke and Flames. I actually think I'm starting to into Nomura with how many projects I'm starting up. Apart from these two fics, I'm also working on three more (one of which is hinted at in my profile pic). They probably won't be revealed until I've finished Through Smoke and Flames but please do know I'm working as hard as I can on all of them. Well that's all for now folks, see you next time for Luna's part of this world.