(lifts her fingers from the keyboard) Alright. Last post until I get back from my vacation. Enjoy… as much as you can! (whimpers as she kicks the chapter)
Thank you guys so much! BCD's broken the 200 review mark. As a sign of my gratitude, there's a little sampling of my crappy doodling skills up on my deviantart account in recognition of this event. Please enjoy it! (link to my deviantart account is on my profile (first available link), if you want to check it out!)
Disclaimer: I in no way own Kingdom Hearts, Final Fantasy VII or Final Fantasy VIII. Don't sue; I'm simply an E6 (frocked at that) in the USN, therefore I have no money. Ha.
A/N: Each chapter is written from a different POV. The identity of the 'speaker' is located with the chapter's name. Just trying to avoid confusion here. :) For review replies, please see the bottom of the chapter. And that, as they say, is that.
-BEGIN FIC-
Chapter 48
The Heartless – Reset
I curled my claws sharply into the armrests of the chair I'd buckled myself into as the gummi ship lurched almost painfully off of the ground it was on and struggled into the air. A lag, a subtle drop in altitude, a jump of my innards into my throat passed in a moment's time.
Then, with a rush and a blast of noise, the craft finally burst into frantic motion.
The engines whined piteously, their wounded cries barely concealed by their angered roar as they shoved us away from what had become a veritable Hell. Clouds peeled away before us, their orange-tinged coloration parting swiftly and whirling helplessly as we shoved our way through them. Red sky splayed before us, a threatening hiss of the state of Wonderland.
But soon it was fading – the red became tinged with darkness, oozing into a dark maroon then a crimson before becoming nothing more than the midnight of space with its speckled stars reaching as far as the eye could see.
I slumped in my chair, prying my claws out of the soft cushiony rests they'd sunk into. A slight shake of my hands waved the fluffy stuffing of those armrests from my digits' terminations.
Looking out of the window, I tried as hard as I could to assess the situation.
We'd managed to escape the mind-bending Wonderland. We'd actually seen the Jabberwock's Heartless defeated, leaving only the empty shell (the Nobody, a voice whispered in my mind) for Alice to overcome. The White Rabbit had become aware of Wonderland's plight and was off to inform the girl so she could begin the long journey towards sanity. The Mad Hatter's other self had met a grisly end, ensuring that at least a portion of her tremulous trek would be free of additional opposition. The tether that drew the Heartless to the land behind the Looking Glass, that influence that allowed them to continue their existence in the mirror-land untouched by the light of the Keyblade Master, was severed and done. No more Heartless would be rising on either side of the Looking Glass, especially with the keyhole shut on one side and the anchor destroyed on the other.
Yeah, it was good.
Even as I turned my head to look at Cid, I found myself marveling as his skin slowly lightened and smoothed. His grin was becoming more of a smile around that cigarette dangling between his lips and less of a grimace of promised death. His hands were less gnarled, less hooked and deathly gripped on the gummi's steering wheel.
He'd become once more what he'd been when I'd first met him in the fortification I'd appeared in when I'd passed from the darkness of Kingdom Hearts.
A look back almost made me shout for joy.
Cloud no longer looked like a dismal corpse – his cheeks were filled out, his skin shone a healthy soft flesh-tone rather than white, his lips were full and pink and his nails were clear rather than blue on his fingers. His body was fleshy, not at all overweight but not skeletal. Even his hair was perkier, its spikes defying gravity as well as they ever had. In fact, the only effect he carried from Wonderland was a missing chunk of that leathery wing of his.
I didn't dare go back to check on Leon yet – his behavior still had me incredibly terrified of him.
I slumped heavily in my seat as I began to reflect on the bad.
Our gummi was still in need of service, its warp engine destroyed. My companions had just been through Hell, their mentalities broken and their sanity shattered. There was no way to judge what lasting effects would remain. Cloud showed physical damage – who knows what psychological damage would be left? Who could know if Cid's depressive tendencies would remain buried under his gruff attitude? Who could tell if whatever that was that Leon unleashed would be buried back wherever it was hidden before once he became conscious?
Raising my gaze, I looked out of the window.
I almost fell flat on my face as I unbuckled my seatbelt and jumped out of my seat.
There was another world out there!
Maybe there we'd be able to find what we needed to repair the gummi!
Turning to Cid, I brightly proclaimed my find.
I was stunned when my voice didn't flow.
He turned to me, his mouth moving, some random noises filling the atmosphere.
He was talking to me, but once again I couldn't understand him.
As his expression became a touch befuddled, I slowly turned, harsh reality buffeting me solidly over my antennae-bearing head. My recollections of what we had just gone through remained clear, but before that… before I'd emerged from the darkness….
I knew that in Wonderland I was able to regain a touch of myself. It may have been myself and another, but still one of them was myself.
And now, I could feel that touch rapidly slipping away.
The emptiness in my chest panged.
As I turned back to the window and pointed at what I'd seen, I almost wished that the tears I longed to shed could well up in my eyes.
Instead, they remained as dry as they always were, their yellow coloration staring blankly back at me from my reflection in the cockpit's glass.
-to be continued-
Review replies:
Melodious Flurry: (curtsies) Thank you so very much for your compliments and review! I'm certain our two FF hero types will be alright… mostly. Neh heh. I actually have that planned out. For once, even! (snatches plushie, absconds with it) Mmmm…. Sephy plushie. (cackles)
terracannon876: Well, what can I say? I think everyone in FF7 would flip out seeing FF8 magic. The draw system is helluv strange compared to the materia system (though the draw system is what I prefer… ;). Aw. The Cheshire Cat's not meant to be foreboding… (has her mouth clamped shut by the Ansem plushie, who cackles that she's lying through her teeth)
scarlettHuntress: Merry Christmas to you too (a bit belated now – we'll say Happy New Year, since I won't be around for it)! Huzzah for out of Wonderland. Thanks for reviewing!
DarkStarPhoenix: Well, one thing that everyone seemed to kind of forget – yes, Eden and Sephiroth were out, but they're still inhabiting the bodies of their respective human beings, and Leon and Cloud were really beat to hell thanks to their escapades through Wonderland. And a human being smacking its head into a rock hard enough to be concussed isn't getting up any time soon. (laughs) As for Cloud's 'injuries,' we'll simply have to wait and see. Ooo! Winged Cloud! (dances around with new plushie) You know… if only these things were real. I'd be the freaking plushie queen by now. (smirk)
ChibixLeon: Hey again! Thanks for the review. Gaw, so jealous – we have to be sneaky as all get-out if we're going to drink at work. (won't say I haven't done it before – New Years Eve last year was spent drunk, despite the fact that we were 3 days out of Dubai and floating in the middle of the Persian Gulf. Ha ha.) Leon and Cloud smuttiness is actually coming up pretty swiftly. Maybe just a few more chapters. And you find Cid and the Heartless' fear amusing? Sheesh! I'd be pretty scared, too. (laughs) Glad you liked the chapter, and glad you liked the picture!
Raz: Glad I could make your Christmas Eve! Heh. I'm certain that Cid and the Heartless truly enjoy their place at the top of your list right now. The repercussions for the actions of Wonderland will indeed be… eh… I won't say fun, but I will say intriguing. :) Yeah, the idea of no more Wonderland is one that's almost frightening, but no worries! There's plenty more in store for them all! Thanks for the review, BTW. As always, your compliments make me flush and flitter with glee!
Hikari of the Moon: Aw, thanks for the Christmas review! (cuddles her new Sora plushie) So cute. Neh heh heh. Yeah, being out of Wonderland's a marvelous feeling. Glad it's reciprocated amongst my readers! And I'm glad you liked the other POV of the battle – Cid's always a joy to type from, though. His cynicism is so much damned fun! And, well, perhaps Sora will get more love with the next couple of worlds… far be it from me to spew spoilers, though! Mwa ha ha. Just have to wait and see. Anyway, glad you liked it! (takes a moment to ward off the cackling plushie whose celebrating the spreading of his fanbase)
Li the Twilight Knight: Coolies! Library visit! Huzzah. (grin) Thanks so much for the review! Yeah, poor Zack had to bite it. Couldn't have him running amuck for the rest of the fic, after all! Then there'd be no hope for CL humpi.. uh, happiness! Yeah! (cough cough) Thanks for the hugs and plushies, too. :)
Demon fritillary: First off, I love your pen name:) Secondly, holy smokes! All of it in a row? Wowzers. You've got some fanfic reading stamina. Especially if you're including the A/Ns, review replies and optional chapters! And noooooow, time for the obscenely long reply to your review. (cackle) To start: I actually like a well written first person. I'm glad I've avoided the hate you normally have for them! My use of repetition does get a bit… yes, repetitious, but I more or less was using it at times to illustrate the degradation of our friendly neighborhood Heartless' brain. I'll take the warning onboard, though, and attempt to avoid overuse in the future. And Sora? Getting on your nerves? (kicks at the ground) Seems like he gets on everyone's nerves. Feh. Poor kid – just because he's a pointless, clueless little goober. And because Riku's so much cooler. Kind of like Cloud and Sephiroth – if you could've played FF7 from Seph's POV, imagine how cool that would've been! Well, with the exception of being dead and encased in a Mako crystal and all that. Point being, cooler character got cast as the bad guy. Or like if you could've had Seifer in your party instead of Zell in FF8… (drools all over herself) Ahem. Tangent over. I'm glad that I was able to catch many of the game dynamics – I kind of thought Riku looked melancholic, though. Maybe it's just my bad eyes combined with the somewhat mediocre graphics of that scene. Nothing was quoted so far as the KH characters are concerned, actually! Believe it or not. However, all of 'Pete's Dragon' and 'The Black Hole' use the movie scripts, just with some added conversations and interactions involving the KH guys, so they remain rather true to their original formats. As for how complicated my plot gets… well, compared to some of the ones I've written for Gundam W, this seems rather tame, but it has at least some substance behind it. I try not to use the patented 'KH magic, therefore it is' perspective that so many others utilize (including the game designers at times – my head exploded when I tried to put the entire KH universe into perspective, then my aircraft carrier sailed through the plot holes). As for your confusion about the phonetic spelling of the mouse's name when Cloud's 'studying' in Hollow Bastion… it's the Mickey Mouse March! It was sung every day on the Mickey Mouse Club! That's, like, classic Disney television! (whines, feels really, really damned old because she remembers it) Sorry that chapter 7 lost you, but those were Leon, the Heartless, Sephiroth and Vexen from KH:CoM downstairs. Vexen's so awesome. (cackle) Sorry 'bout your grimacing about my dramatic effect at the end of chapter… I think it was 8 or 9. Yeah, kind of cheese, but there was no other way that I could think to wrap it up… well, 'least for that day he 'never' opened his eyes! (bashfully slinks away before she can cram her foot any further into her mouth) next up… play FF8. Squall kicks booty. Rinoa is a moron who needs to have her head pushed through a meat grinder, but Squall kicks booty. And Irvine is the shit. I heart Irvine. S&R slash will have to wait. (smirk) Sorry. Aerith is a pest in fanfiction because people don't know how to write her, or feel they must vilify her to keep the potential for Cloud/Aerith pairings completely at bay. And glad you liked 17! That chapter was a challenge. I look forward to future reviews! Hope you liked this chapter… even though it kind of sucked. (whimper) And sorry for the long reply, but hey! It was a long review. :P
(curls her arms around her Shadow Heartless plushie and sobs pathetically) I didn't wanna! I had to do it! I don't want short Heartless chapters, but the old chapter rules are back in place! Blame the evil plushie. (Ansem plushie strikes a triumphant pose before squealing "SUBMIT!")
