Chapter 33: Eyes of the Machine Pt 3
Within the twins' personal chamber within the core of the world, Ad is playing around with the Keystone with Vee punching a wall to see massive amounts of dents on it. "These humans are quite interesting, its been awhile since humans are here," Ad said.
"Give or that over a thousand years," Vee said. "Why are you so obsessed with that Tifa woman?" he asked sounding curious about his brother's intentions.
"Her mind is filled with holes and tears. Her beauty hides lots of grief and insecurities, she is the key to my research with humans and how they work," Ad said.
"Whatever you say bro," Vee said as he goes off to do his own thing.
"Well Tifa, you will help me unlock the dirty secrets of humanity even when I cease to function," Ad said to see through the eyes of his scout bots to watch closely of the six heroes.
Elsewhere Ophelia is on top of a building to watch the others masking her presence. "Unlike Nazo, I don't play with my prey," she thought to move in with her Keyblade Spellbinder in hand.
The six are inside the terminal to see discarded trains and other vehicles lying on the floor to be rotting skeletons of their former glory days.
"Seems like you made it to the terminal, there should be a lift that goes to the master terminal compound that has connections thought out the whole world especially to the core of the world," Cid said.
"Good, we are getting on the right track," Riku said as the six go deeper within the building to see nothing but debris and empty echoes.
"Pretty eerie," Tifa said.
"Indeed, nothing but us machines for eons now," Brina said as he summons holographic image in front of him to check the network around here.
"How is the generator here?" Calca asked.
"Its offline, they really don't want us to go deeper into the core," Brina said as he begins to locate it. "Okay there are two generators that will need to be activated to turn on the lift," Brina said.
"Okay we will split up. Me, Sora and Brina will go left and Tifa, Cloud and Calca will go right," Riku said.
"Sounds like a plan," Cloud said.
"Sounds like a good way to get killed," Yuffie said on the radio.
"Thanks for the input Yuffie," Riku said dryly as Yuffle blew a raspberry in the radio. The two teams split off with a mysterious armored figure is watching them especially Sora.
"So, Sora, I can see you for the first time. This is one of the three that she took in," the young man said.
"Yes, give them a taste of your presence," a distorted voice said within his mind as he has a vicious smile under his helmet.
"With pleasure," the dark man said to disappear into the darkness.
Within the terminal Cloud, Tifa and Calca are going toward the generator with Calca checking the status of the area.
"This remembers me about the terminals in Radiant Garden but not as advanced," Cloud said.
"Yes, when you were staying there as a grunt for the Defense Forces," Tifa said.
"Yeah just like my hero," Cloud said with a taste of past bitterness to remember the day he left to become a hero and keep his promise to Tifa.
-Flashback Begins-
Young 14 year old Cloud is waiting by the water tower which is a local dating spot to wait for Tifa who he called her here to tell her something important. Night has come over the mountainous village with the stars shining in the huge vastness of darkness above them.
"Hey Cloud, you want to tell me something," a 13 years old Tifa said as she is wearing a simple blue dress for Cloud thought she looked very pretty but his opinion she is the prettiest and sweetest girl in the whole village.
"Yes, but we should go on the tower," Cloud said as Tifa nods her head for them to go up the tower to sit on top of it.
"Wow, the stars look so pretty tonight," Tifa said as Cloud feels so nervous around his crush to stare at her pretty face, her long black hair flowing with the cool night air and her chest which is big for someone her age looking noticeable in her dress. This paints a perfect picture within his mind.
"Yeah it is, Tifa I am going to the defense forces in Radiant Garden," he said as Tifa's red eyes widen by the news.
"Oh really, is it that man you look up to in that force?" she asked.
"Yes, Sephiroth is a big hero and he is so strong. I want to join the defense forces and become a Soldier to protect the village, my mom and you Tifa," Cloud said as this is time for Tifa to blush at his sweet comment.
"Oh Cloud, you are going to go for your dream. I am so happy for you," Tifa said.
"I will come back for visits of course," Cloud said as Tifa happily nods her head.
"Of course, lots of letters right?" she asked.
"Yeah," he said.
"Hey Cloud when I am in trouble, would you come to my rescue like a knight in the books?" Tifa asked.
"Oh course, I will protect you," he said.
"Promise?" she asked.
"Promise," Cloud said as they get close to enjoy the stars before Cloud leaves to the big city tomorrow to be like his personal hero Sephiroth.
-Flashback Ends-
Cloud talked abut the past with Tifa remembering that moment to well. "Ah yes you wanted to become First Class Solder but you never made it like your friend Zack," Tifa said.
"Yeah sadly," Cloud said as Tifa takes his hand and holds it tenderly.
"Well you have me and the others. You still holding your promise to me," Tifa said.
"Of course," Cloud said as the android looks on with confusion on Calca's boyish face.
"You two are an item or something?" he asked.
"Yes, we are together," Tifa said.
"I think the reason Cloud hooked up with Tifa is because her huge rack," Yuffie said which made Tifa pout at her stupid comment.
"That is not true," Tifa said.
"Yeah your twins say otherwise," Yuffie said as Calca detects something for a spear of darkness slices across the air. He cast a magical barrier to block the spell but his barrier scatters from the spell's raw spell.
"You okay guys," he asked.
"We are fine, thanks," Cloud said to wield his Buster Sword to see a very beautiful woman comparable to a goddess who seems to be in her mid-20s.
She has standing 5'9 tall, having bright yellow eyes, white pale skin and long raven hair that reaches her backside. She is wearing a blue sleeveless Qipao with a long skirt reaching her feet and silts showing off her long legs. The outfit formed against her tall curvaceous figure especially her large breasts and shapely hips.
"You must be Ophelia, one of the two Keyblade Wielders who are under Drake," Cloud said to bare for a fight.
"That is right but I am now a Keyblade Master. You are nothing to me," Ophelia said as she summons her Spellbinder Keyblade into her hand to get into a combat stance. "Prepare for your deaths," Ophelia said with tons of dark energy coming off her body and her eyes are glowing yellow against the aura.
"She is powerful, don't take her lightly," Calca said as the trio are ready to fight back with the graceful swordswoman swiftly thrust at Cloud as he is blocking the strike.
"Water Pulse," Ophelia leashes out a strong beam of water to knock Cloud into a building seeing it fall on top of him.
"Cloud," TIfa said as Calca is summoning earth spikes from the ground with the Keyblade Master evading with ease from Calca's spells.
Ophelia is thrusting at Calca as he puts up a magical shell to block her assault. Calca made the barrier explode knocking back the swordswoman with Tifa diving in. Both woman clash as Ophelia sidesteps and let Tifa slip to kick her in the stomach.
"I got to keep you alive to keep my end of the bargain," Ophelia said as she fires a concessive beam at Tifa sending her flopping across the floor as Cloud comes in and shoots several fireballs at Ophelia.
She is deflecting them away with her blade for Cloud charges up a powerful shot to fire it. Ophelia simply chops the spell in half with her Keyblade as she is unleashing a bunch of water bubbles to slam into Cloud knocking him out of mid-air and crashing onto the ground.
"This girl is tough, time to step it up," Cloud said as he is shooting beams from his blade with the Keyblade wielder batting away the energy attacks. Calca is releasing multiple homing energy projectiles with Ophelia dodging their paths with ease.
Tifa mule kicks her when she wasn't looking to knock her into a magic missile to knock her into a wall. Ophelia regains her footing to prepare her magical assault.
"Water Dragon Blast," Ophelia gathers water energy into her blade as she thrust forward to unleash a stream of water with the head of a dragon in front of it.
"Oh shit," Calca gets catch in the spell as he is shoved through multiple houses taking serious damage but his magical barrier manage to soften the impact.
Cloud is engaging in a sword duel with them going all out as they trade steel and blows. They get into a blade lock as she got through his guard and start stabbing into Cloud's body.
"Sword Beam," she fires a close-range beam from her Keyblade knocking Cloud onto the ground but he regains his footing to continue pressing into her defenses.
Tifa is shooting blizzard spell to freeze the floor around the evil Keyblade Master and smash the floor with her fist to make them both falling into the floor below.
Cloud and Calca follow her with Calca is using multiple magic missiles to home in on Ophelia but the swordswoman easily dodges his spells to counter by shooting a Sword Beam at Calca. He brings up a barrier but the attack punches through the shield and propels him onto the ground.
Tifa and Cloud are working together to fend off the powerful Keyblade Master with them gaining some ground on her. "Beat Rush," Tifa dodges Ophelia's swings to see her guard is dropped with her using a powerful three hit combo to knock the wind out of her.
"Meteor Clash," Cloud powers up his Buster Sword to knock Ophelia with the flat part to knock her onto the floor. Cloud leap up and swings his sword to let out several molten rocks to hit their mark causing big explosions.
Calca is shooting gravity orbs trying to pin her down, but she easily regains her footing to evade his attacks by leaping away from them..
"Out of my way, you piece of trash," Ophelia said as Tifa is launching several ice blasts with the swordswoman dodging her attacks. She gets hit by a Gravity spell to pin her to the floor with Tifa viciously punching her several times.
"Fire Dash," Tifa backs away to be cloaked in flames to launch a powerful flaming tackle to knock her into Cloud's direction.
"Sonic Blade," Cloud's body is charged with energy for him to catch her in a powerful thrusting lunge to dash at her multiple times with each strike more powerful than the last. Then he unleash one last blow to launch her through several buildings.
"Damn it, they are stronger than I thought," Ophelia said as she looks down at her hand to see a Magicite embedded on top of her palm to see it pulsing power into her very being. "No, I will not be weak, never again," she thought to resume her battle with the trio for they have an edge against her.
Meanwhile Sora, Riku and Brina are looking for the other generators for they felt explosions in the distance. "What the hell?" Sora wondered as their radio earpieces are going off.
"What is going on brother?" Brina asked as the sounds of battle is littering their radios.
"We are under attack, fighting off one of the two Keyblade Masters from the Syndicate Ophelia. She is pretty strong but we are holding our own here," Calca said.
"Don't worry about us, we can handle this," Cloud said.
"Yes, keep going," Tifa said as the radio turns off.
"Well, they should be able to handle themselves," Riku said as he felt a darkness close by.
"Riku what's wrong?" Sora asked to see Riku's normally calm face is very nervous.
"We got company and the darkness is very thick," Riku said for his nerves are on edge.
"Indeed, I sense lots of dark energy nearby. Show yourself," Brina said for a mysterious figure appears to dryly clap his hands.
"Bravo, you should get a gold star for that," the figure said to look like a young male around Sora's height and age, covered in a weird black organic looking bodysuit, his head covered in a full head covering helmet and eerily sounds like Sora but much more with an edge and malice.
"Who are you and why do you sound like me?" Sora asked.
"Wouldn't you like to know," the young man said as he gets into combat stance to summon a vile looking Keyblade for Riku and Sora look on with confusion.
"He has a Keyblade but I thought there was Drake, Nero and Ophelia were the evil Keyblade wielders only," Sora said.
"Don't matter, we got to take him down. He is a being of pure darkness, he needs to go away," Riku said to summon his Way of the Dawn for he had not felt this much darkness since he fought his evil replica Dark Riku over a year ago.
"Okay show them how its done," the distorted voice said as the young man wields his Void Gear Keyblade to feel psyched for a battle. "Vanitas," the voice said to watch from afar.
"Yeah, yeah," Vanitas said as Riku makes the first move to fire off a Thundaga spell but Vanitas teleports away from the magic blast.
Vanitas is on the ceiling to leap down and slam down onto the floor to unleash a large shockwave made of darkness to blow away the trio. "I hope you can give me a good challenge," Vanitas said to have a cruel smile under his helmet.
He is unleashing a barrage of dark orbs to spread across the room with the trio avoiding the projectiles. Riku and Brina unleashing their own barrage of energy crescents with Vanitas dodging and warping out of the way.
Sora charges up energy into his blade. "Stop Raid," Sora throws his Oathkeeper to nail Vanitas to freeze him in time with Riku and Brina goes into slash at the dark Keyblade wielder.
They hit the air for they hit an afterimage for they were both confused with Vanitas getting behind Brina to kick her in the head sending her flying into a pile of crates.
"Come on guys, you got to do better than that," Vanitas said as he lets out a wave of dark lightning bolts with them backing away.
"Mage State," Sora taps into Leviathan's power with him conjuring several Balloonga spells and fling them at the dark figure, He dodges the first barrage than the smaller water orbs burst violently to knock Vanitas to launch him into Riku.
"Tornado Slash," Riku swings his Keyblade like a fan to slam into Vanitas but he warps out of the way to kick Riku in the head. Then Riku blocks his blow to grab his leg and toss them away. Vanitas regained his balance mid-air to deflect Riku's dark fireballs.
"Oh Riku, you think you can control the Darkness. I am Darkness, Dark Thundaga," Vanitas said as he cast a spell for a big bolt of purple lightning to make a big crater in the middle of the floor to rock the whole terminal.
Sora and Brina are going in with Sora using his spells and Brina using swift sword combos to try and off balance the dark warrior. Vanitas uses Reflect to bounce back several of Sora's spells to hit their mark for Sora gets heavily damaged.
Vanitas shoves Brina away as he fires a lightning bolt at her but Riku uses an energy barrier to protect them both from the blast. "You okay guys," Riku asked to see Sora is badly injured to be knocked out of his Mage State.
"This guy is very strong, he is not human," Brina said.
Vanitas smash his fist into the barrier to break it to pieces. Riku twists around to evade to slash at the dark Keyblade Wielder to clash steel with Vanitas. "Why do you sound like Sora, are you some kind of Replica?" he demanded as they traded blows and spells.
Both Riku and Vanitas both use beams of dark magical energy to collide and cancel each other out. Vanitas easily gets back into the fight to kick Riku into a wall.
"Oh, I am nothing like Dark Riku you fought over a year ago," Vanitas said as Riku felt uneasy for this guy to know about this.
"Wait a minute, how do you know that. Tell me," Riku said as he transforms into his armored state to dual wield both his Way of the Dawn and Soul Eater.
"My little secret," Vanitas said as his body is pulsing a dark aura to become even stronger. "You got to beat me if you want to know," Vanitas said with a cruel smile under his full faced visor for their battle resumes.
Elsewhere Ophelia is in tight combat with Calca, Tifa and Cloud with Calca using his hacking skills to use the machines around the terminal to their advantages, A crane lunges at Ophelia for she leaps away but Tifa nails her in the chest to send her flying into a building.
She sees Tifa comes in with a flying kick. "Lethal Frame," Ophelia uses Stop to freeze Tifa in place to let out several powerful slashes to snap her fingers. Tifa gets out of the time spell for her body explodes with pain and blood burst out of her fresh wounds to fall onto the floor to be knocked out of the fight.
"Tifa," Cloud said as he is going in with his Buster Sword to let out several energy crescents with Ophelia uses Stopga to freeze both the energy attacks and the two.
"Time to deliver you to the twins," Ophelia opens a dark portal to grab Tifa to go inside leaving Cloud and Calca behind.
The time spell worn off for Cloud rushes in to go after Tifa. "Tifa, I am coming," Cloud said to leap into the dark portal without hesitation for the portal closes.
"Cloud and Tifa, oh shit. We got a problem," Calca said to go up to the generator room to activate the power with one generator left to activate.
Back with Riku fighting Vanitas and Brina using her nanomachines to heal Sora's wounds. "Guys, we have a problem, Tifa and Cloud are gone," Calca said on the radio.
"Seriously?" Brina asked as Riku hears this as well via radio.
"Do you have anything to do with this," Riku demanded as Vanitas disengages to leap on top of a building.
"No, I am here to test you all and I am a little disappointed. You need to seriously level up to be at my level," he said as he goes into a dark portal to leave them alone.
"What was that about?" Sora wondered to be healed by Brina.
"I don't know but how he know about Dark Riku when I barely told that to anyone," Riku thought.
"Well, after we take care of these generators. We need to go deeper into the city to find Tifa and Cloud," Brina said.
"Right," Sora said as they turn on the generator for the terminal is fully online for the lift is activated for the four meet up by the lift.
"Time to go deeper into this place," Calca said for them to nod and go into the elevator to descend into the dead city,
Meanwhile Ophelia is within the chambers of the twins to drop Tifa onto the floor. "Here is your prize and where is my?" she asked.
"As we promise, you did good work," Ad said to hand her the Keystone for the Keyblade Master takes it.
"Good, do whatever you want with her. Also, another one got into my portal but I manage to make a another one to redirect him to another location. Have fun with him," Ophelia said as she teleports away with her prize off world.
"Well I have my little bird and now another person is within our sector," Ad said as he pulls out a holographic screen to see Cloud has appeared inside a building close by.
"Do you want me to fetch him for you?" Vee asked.
"Yes, my little brother. I need for an experiment, the time has come to unearth the secrets of mankind and we are in the final act," Ad said as Vee goes off to grab Cloud for his older brother.
Elsewhere Vanitas is on top of a roof to see over the rotting worldwide city. "Well that went well," the voice said.
"I know its part of the plan but why fight them here?" Vanitas asked.
"Its seems like they are not strong enough to face what comes after Drake. The future is within the past and its all coming together. There is nothing they can do to stop it," the voice said.
"Whatever, I will be your errand boy and seek these truths in the worlds," Vanitas said as he vanishes from sight.
A/N: Yes; Vanitas is within the story and he is a lone agent with his own agenda. Yes, he has a connection with Sora but its quite different from the games.