((A/N: Well I wanted to finish this this weekend, buuuuut stuff happened, I lost two days to no productivity xD But we're about...four chapters from the end? So I'll get it out as quickly as possible.))
Ienzo was expecting the blazing comet to arrive. He hadn't completed his studies, just yet, but so much time had passed it seemed inevitable if news didn't come soon, it wouldn't come at all.
From the starshard's travel path came Aqua, Riku, Ventus, Donald, Goofy, and a surprising face. He walked to greet them, waving a hand at Aqua, his eyes fixed on the face of Xehanort, as he knew him, "So few of you…"
Aqua noticed his discomfort, "Oh, Ienzo! Surprise! This is Terra!" she said, grabbing her friend by the arm and tugging on it excitedly.
"I see," Ienzo said, not sounding sure of himself. Then, finally noticing, "The King?" he looked from face to face. Their mood grew noticeably distant at that. He inhaled deeply, nodding, "Maleficent?"
Aqua shook her head, "We couldn't find her. Or Pete. Or...anyone."
Ienzo seemed disturbed by the news, "I see...perhaps I should have gone after all...I could have protected them…"
"More likely, you'd be dead," Terra corrected him. Ienzo looked to the tall keybearer, who shook his head, "what happened there...wasn't normal."
Ienzo clenched a fist, "Unfortunate," was his only assessment. "What of Kairi and Sora? Xehanort?"
"Xehanort's dead," Riku said grimly. "Sora ran. Kairi...seems to have gone to protect Kingdom Hearts."
"It's not at the graveyard?"
"No," Aqua shook her head, "It's...somewhere called 'the beginning', whatever that means."
Ienzo folded his arms, thinking, "Perhaps we can put this together…" he surmised. "I have found a wealth of information in Eraqus' reports."
"Show us," Riku said almost a little too quickly.
But Ienzo only bowed his head in deference, leading the group towards the table he had commandeered to conduct his studies. On it were piles of papers and books left lain open as cross-references. But neatly, in a small pile, were the words etched by the hand of Eraqus. He waved over the material, "This...is the most interesting part," he said. "Master Eraqus was on the hunt for something in his youth. Something before he took on his apprentices."
Aqua eyed him with concern, "What was he searching for?"
Ienzo pointed to an open book, "I surmise it has something to do with the legends about the prior world. Before the fall of Light and the Calamity of Darkness. It was very ancient, and the way the Calamity is described is very similar to stories Xehanort told the Organization about the Keyblade War. He called the Calamity superstition, but I am more sure now than before that he was misdirecting us from uncovering the whole truth."
"Makes logical sense," Terra nodded his head. "Two great disasters splitting the realms apart? Much more likely they were the same."
Ienzo nodded, "But there is one inconsistency…" he said quietly. "Kairi."
"Why Kairi?" Ventus asked.
"If Kairi were also part of the keyblade war why would she espouse the Seven Orders, as she calls them? The Keyblade War, as we know it, was a conflict of Dark users and Light users, let us assume. But if the Keyblade War IS the Calamity...then the Keyblade War did not shape the world as envisioned by the Avatar of Light."
Terra reached out to grab a stray paper Ienzo had left on the table. Riku pressed him for more info, "So Kairi was created by someone else? A different Keyblade War?"
Ienzo shrugged, "Possibly...but that seems unlikely."
Aqua spoke up next, "Could she some sort of...defensive system for Kingdom Hearts? She stopped fighting us when Mickey...protected Kingdom Hearts. That seems to have made us allies, or at least not enemies."
Ienzo nodded, his darting around as his mind raced through calculations and possibilities, "Yes...yes someone...someone powerful who saw the Keyblade War, either in full or in part…"
Riku carried his train of thought, "Someone who would safeguard Kingdom Hearts with a being of pure Light? Is that why Xehanort became obsessed with Ven and the Princesses? To bypass that locked gate?"
"That would mean to save Kairi...we need to recombine her with her darkness? That would end the defensive program, correct?" Aqua asked.
Ienzo offered a hand to the table of documents he had collected. "We only find out through study."
Sora awoke to the silence that filled Twilight Town. The silence was a tangible thing. It was not an absence, to his ears. Silence was a reminder, in his face, that Kairi had been through the Realms Between, purging them of their denizens. He knew Roxas had friends here, once. Had they died as well?
Vanitas had reclamated an old shop, finding some small pleasure in using its kitchens and food stuffs for his own personal use. He peeked over the counter as Sora came down the stairs from the living quarters adjacent to the little diner. "Yo," he waved a hand. Kara was sitting at a table in the window, letting the sunlight pour into the room and over her body, like some cold blooded animal that preferred the heat.
Sora raised an eyebrow, "What...are you doing?"
Vanitas shrugged it off, "Well we haven't really eaten any good food since this whole trip started. Not since I've been here. Have a sandwich!" he skidded a plate down the bar towards Sora, a freshly cooked grilled...thing sat on the plate. Sora studied it cautiously. It was definitely...food, at least. Some kind of meat and egg concotion that had been grilled to a toasty-brown, but it was very...slippery looking.
Vanitas skipped over to Kara's table, placing her own plate in front of her, to which she didn't react. He sat down at his own table, perched in between the pair of his associates. "I know we all burned a lot of energy."
Sora still looked wary of the concoction, "I didn't know you could...cook…"
"I probably can't," Vanitas admitted, "but it's not magic, right? Tough part was finding ingredients that hadn't spoiled."
Sora cautiously lifted his sandwich and took a small bite, pondering its contents for a moment until he had decided it wasn't at least the worst thing he had been forced to suffer through eating. Vanitas seemed to enjoy his meal immensely, though, oblivious to the odd texture.
Though the black haired boy seemed eager for something else, "So what are we going to do without Larxene?"
Sora contemplated for a moment, swallowing, "I'm going to speed the Heartless up."
Vanitas paused. Kara looked from her perch to Sora, "Is that something you can do now?"
"Give them enough Darkness...sure."
Vanitas seemed intrigued, a curious, sadistic smile spreading up his face, "So, theoretically, you could direct them to attack a world? Say, where the goody good and his blue haired friend happen to be?"
"Hey, look at this," Donald said, bringing a page to Ienzo's attentiion, "It says, 'The weapon passed between Darkness', do you think that's about the recording we found with the Oracle?"
The table was smaller, now, only Riku, Donald, and Ienzo remained to study the information. Terra had excused himself and Ven and Aqua were busy with him. Not that anyone blamed them for taking time to make sure their friend was alright after so much time. His skin tone and hair had not yet changed. They probably never would, of course, the young man had been scarred too deeply by Xehanort's darkness. But at least he was alive.
Ienzo looked to the paper Donald held, "I suppose that is possible. A weapon passed from master to student? That would fit what we found."
"Where would we find this person?" Riku asked to no one in particular, flipping through pages in a book.
Ienzo nodded, "Good question." He stroked his chin thoughtfully, "A dark wielder...an order of dark wielders, even. Betrayed by the newest convert? Who would that be?"
Donald looked to the Eraqus report in question, "Eraqus said that the desert of Agrabah was an oasis early in his life...you don't think?"
"Xehanort…" Ienzo finished the thought for him. "So Xehanort stole this weapon and betrayed the order tasked with guarding it?"
Riku looked up, "So you think they wanted to destroy Kingdom Hearts?"
Ienzo shook his head, "No, if I have learned anything of Master Eraqus, it's that his zeal for the Light blinded him to many truths. It is entirely possible this order was benevolent, but of dark wielders."
Riku nodded in understanding, "Which would explain why they were destroyed instead of used to open Kingdom Hearts as his proto-Organization."
Ienzo tapped the table expectantly, "We are close, Master Riku. I can feel it…"
Their collective thoughts were interrupted by the bells of the castle ringing. Donald looked most worried of all, "An alarm…"
Goofy rushed past the door, skidding to a stop enough to poke his head back around the corner into the study, "The castle is under attack!" he hollered at them, carrying back down towards the courtyard and the castle gates.
The study team met up with the other keybearers, all rushing to the castle walls. When they looked out over the battlements, they saw a massive army of Heartless approaching them.
Terra looked to the other heroes, "What do we do?"
"We defend the castle!" Goofy said with determination, "to the last!"
"To the last!" Riku agreed.
Donald and Aqua took positions to start slinging magic at the approaching army of monsters. Their numbers thinned, but refused to disperse from ranged attack. Aqua waved her hand to her friends, "Spread out!" she ordered, to which the keybearers and warriors took to the walls. Various guards clad in armor came to join them in the defense; the king's army.
The mass of black rushed at the walls, Shadows slipping easily over the defenses and rising in front of their prey.
But the real threat was the giants. The Darksides that brought their huge arms down on the walls. The dog-like Behemoths who planted both huge paws on the walls and tried to collapse them. Ven, Terra, and Riku took positions. Ven and Riku summoned their keyblades. Terra looked concerned, for a moment, but concentrated, and found his old Ends of the Earth in his hands, its rounded end, the thick, blocky teeth, and the weighted blade as solid as ever for him. He sighed, relaxed. The lingering doubt had remained at the back of his mind, but on seeing his old weapon again, finally, he felt at peace that he was his own man again.
All three leapt at the nearest titans, but still the army of Heartless pressed in. The keybearers struck down their opponents easily enough, though compared to his friends Terra seemed to be struggling the most.
But it was only minutes later that the sky seemed to crack. A black and red fissure split the sky. Riku headed for Aqua's position, cutting down a Heartless that was giving her issues, the armored creature shattering into black bubbles. "Aqua, the shard?"
The blue haired keybearer pulled out the shard, "Nothing yet," she observed, "why?"
Riku indicated the sky, "I've seen that mark before."
"We're too late…?"
"Gather the others!" Riku shouted, blocking a dark energy spell that had been fired their way. "We have to abandon the castle!"
Dark fissures ruptured the foundations of the castle itself, earth shaking beneath their feet. The Heartless were innumerable, and the keyblade wielders felt far too overwhelmed. Riku came to Donald, first, "Donald!" he shouted, helping him tackle an Invisible, the sword-wielding Heartless phasing out every time the court magician tried to cast magic at it, "We need to evacuate!"
"Not a chance," Donald said bitterly, unleashing a thunder spell on a mass of the swarming shadows. They parted, but briefly, filling in the gaps of the dead rather easily. "And we're not leaving without the queen!"
Riku wanted to argue the point, but the entire ground shook beneath them, rumbling and groaning with the strain as the earth tried to hold together. "Then we'll go find her before the shard takes us! But we have to go now!"
Donald looked despondently at the figures in armor still battling the Heartless atop the ramparts and in the castle yard, "The king's guard…"
"They're doing their job so we can do ours. We have to leave," Riku pleaded. The court mage nodded, following him.
They found Goofy next, who was busy with fending off attacks. "Goofy!" Donald shouted, "Let's go!"
Goofy looked over to them from where he was skirmishing with a Neoshadow, "Not on yer life! It's my duty to protect the castle!"
"Goofy!" Donald shouted angrily, "We have to stop this problem at the source!" Riku raised his eyebrow at that, the duck had been a bit slow to agree, but now that his mind was made up…
The knight-captain conked his enemy on the head, and ran over to his companions, "Oh alright, I'm in," he said.
The group collected Ven and Terra, finding Aqua with Ienzo. Not a moment too soon, Riku realized, as the shard was glowing at Aqua's hip. The group of friends took the shard, Goofy and Donald the most reluctant to abandon their home, but the logic of the situation was clear to them both. Shooting into the sky in a streak of light, the group found themselves on the sunset streets of a familiar place.
Ven couldn't help himself, looking around in awe, "Where...wait...this is…"
"Twilight Town," Riku finished his thought. "And we're not alone."
