No joke, this took me awhile to work on because I've kinda been neglecting it. At the same time, I was also working on some oneshots for a femslash month event and a Union Cross appreciation week event over on Tumblr, so it's kinda justified? I'm not sure if I'm going to post those oneshots anywhere else than on Tumblr yet. But if I do, you'll start seeing those next week.
Thank you for reading.
Terra and Aqua had spent most of the evening at Mean Street. To occupy their time, they went around to ask any citizens if they had seen (or at least heard of) Sora. The two ended up meeting a local reporter outside the theater. It was a horse-like person, similar to Horace Horsecollar, who went by the name Jack Kelly. Terra had wanted to immediately ask if he had seen Sora, but Aqua advocated for a more gentle approach. Instead, she casually asked Jack Kelly for any decent news around town. Besides their own arrival, there was news of a dwarf named Deafy who had upset the organ in the Haunted Mansion, and there was even a petition started in Tomorrow City to get the Peoplemover bridges open again.
It was when the horse-person started to warble on about rival news anchors that Aqua finally asked about Sora. Either her description of Sora was too weird for this world (spiky brown hair, blue eyes, fair skinned with a light tan, close in age to Sabrina), or Jack Kelly really did not like being cut off when he was talking. He gave Aqua a rather hard stare as she tried to better describe the lost wielder. After she was done, he started to think everything over.
"Well, I know of a Sora," he eventually admitted. "But I don't think it's the one you're looking for. You're Sora's a he, right?"
"That's right."
"Nope," the horse person decided with a shake of his head. "Who I'm thinking of isn't the Sora you're looking for then. The Sora I know of is one of those gargoyles that takes occupation in certain parts of Rainbow Caverns. Definitely not who you're trying to find, I'd wager."
"No." Aqua agreed, a hint of disappointment in her voice. "But thank you anyway."
"If you do hear something, could you let us know?" Terra asked.
"Of course! I'd be the first to learn of anything new here in Wasteland, or my name isn't Jack Kelly!"
Terra and Aqua gave the reporter a small nod before taking their leave.
"I told you we wouldn't be able to find him here." Aqua told Terra as they then proceeded to walk aimlessly to the tip of Main Street North. Terra looked over at her to study her expression before putting on a wide grin.
"Master Aqua," he then teased, "You're not giving up, are you?"
The mere idea of it caused Aqua to freeze in place. Her shocked expression only gave Terra room to laugh at her. Before Aqua was able to fully realize he was joking, they both heard the terrified cry of Chirithy in the distance.
"Terra! Aqua! Where are you?!"
The two wielders flashed each other a quick look before heading to the source of Chirithy's shouts. They met in the middle, some place around the Emporium.
"There you are!" Chirithy exclaimed, running up to them.
"Chirithy, what's wrong?" Aqua asked, bending down to the Dream Eater's height.
"It's Sabrina and Ven," it told them, "They're in trouble! BIG trouble! You need to go help them now!"
A chill ran up the two wielders' spines.
"Can you lead us to them?" Terra questioned, although it came out more as a demand.
"Mostly." it said. "Come on!"
The two gave Chirithy a nod before following its lead. It led them back to where the D.E.C. entrance was underneath the train station. But something was there that they didn't expect; a second Chirithy. It was urgently fussing with the D.E.C. hatch as it waited for everyone to come together. Seeing a second Chirithy stopped Terra and Aqua in their tracks.
"Over here!" the other Chirithy told them, urgently waving them over. "Come on, hurry!"
"There's two of them?" Terra questioned. "How?"
"We'll tell you why later." Ven's Chirithy quickly told him as it pushed against his legs. "Just keep going!"
Terra gave a nod before he and Aqua went into the D.E.C. with their Keyblades already out.
. . .
The beauty of the Angel Caverns was easily disrupted by the sounds of metal clashing against metal. At the top of the numerous platforms, where the area was more of a ledge overlooking the Devil Caverns, two females fought each other with weapons of light. Or, at least, one possessed a true weapon of light. The other was fake, created to match the weapon that was once wielded by the original face of the other, but it was no less of a threat.
"You have such an admirable fighting spirit, my dear." the shape shifter Mizrabel, now guised as a young woman with long orange hair and a lovely linen dress, purred before firing a magic spell at Sabrina. The raven haired girl blocked the attack, and immediately reflected it back. It nearly hit Mizrabel by a hair. "If only it translated well into your actual fighting techniques. That weapon of yours might actually be a threat."
"At least mine is real." Sabrina spat. "Yours is just a product of your illusions."
"And yet," Mizrabel mused with a click of her tongue, "I'm still overpowering you. I thought you had a teacher now, darling. But wait- what's our dear leader going to say when his preferred heir is going out of her way to hurt him? I mean, threaten this world's sense of hope, of course. We could never afford to lose that."
The growl that erupted from Sabrina's throat was near feral as she blindly came at Mizrabel. It only took a simple side step to avoid the attack.
"It's such a shame that the Keyblade chose you." Mizrabel sighed. "You have so much darkness in your heart, it's amazing there's any light left in you at all."
Sabrina did not answer at first. She turned back around to face the shapeshifter, holding her Keyblade tight with both hands.
"Maybe it's because of my darkness that it chose me." she challenged.
Mizrabel openly laughed. She took a few steps forward, dispelling her weapon as if they were coming to a truce. Knowing that the shape shifter was in no way finished, Sabrina did not let her guard down.
"You're a smart little girl." Mizrabel crooned, giving a small wave of her hand. "But do you really believe in yourself like that?"
The teen's body stiffened. For once during the entire fight, her hold on her weapon became a tad bit loose. Her face detailed a conflict that she normally did not let show.
"Didn't think so." Mizrabel smirked before summoning her weapon once more. Before Sabrina had time to react, she was hit at blunt range. The blow came at her with more force than what she had been expecting, Sabrina was sent flying to the platform's ledge. It was by luck that she was able to catch herself before falling off the platform completely.
"Well this scene looks familiar." Mizrabel mused as she came back over. Cursing under her breath, Sabrina tried her best to get her lower body from back over the ledge before Mizrabel came over. It was just as easy as wading through gelatin. It was embarrassing. Mizrabel stood above Sabrina now, a malicious grin crossing lips never meant to form that way. "I believe the next line is, 'Long live the queen.'"
Sabrina looked up at Mizrabel in urgency. There was no way. There was no way that the shape shifter would actually try to harm her. The look of surprise on Sabrina's face melted into one of anger.
"You're just as bad as the Mad Doctor!" she declared in pure spite. It only earned another laugh from Mizrabel.
"What a coincidence, then." she smiled. "I've heard through the grapevine that the doc knows how to get the three new wielders out of our world. Funny how he hasn't told anyone yet… But that's not as funny as you never getting out of here alive."
"I wouldn't be too sure about that."
Interrupted by a new voice, Mizrabel turned around to see Terra and Aqua ready to fight. An impatient sigh escaped her lips.
"Being in a world founded by do-gooders is so boring." the shape shifter said, more to herself than anyone else. "They always have to swoop him, say some clever one-liner, then mop the floor with you. But I don't want to play that game today; not any more. I'm too tired now."
When the older wielders started to advance toward her, Mizrabel gave a wave of her hand and a cloud of smoke enveloped her body. She was gone by the time Terra could even land a hit. Aqua immediately went to Sabrina to help her back to safety. There were no thanks given at the act, just a sneer before Sabrina dusted off her clothes. Terra located Ven and didn't waste time to make sure his friend was alright. Ven remained unresponsive, but was still fine otherwise, so Terra picked him up off the ground without hesitation. With everyone safe, they all went back to Dark Beauty in silence.
Sabrina lingered close to Aqua and Terra as they placed Ven in his guest room. She remained behind when they decided to leave. The older two didn't question her. It might have been a good thing too, because right outside the door was Chirithy.
"Can you two follow me?" it said to them, its voice rather small. "We need to talk about… a certain something."
"Of course." Terra and Aqua agreed at the same time. Chirithy gave a nod before leading them around the corridor. Waiting there was a second Chirithy- but they almost expected this. It was Aqua who bent down to be close to their height before asking the obvious.
"So there's two of you?"
The Chirithy nodded.
"Please don't tell Ventus or my wielder." the second Chirithy requested. "Of anyone, they of all people can not know about us."
"Your wielder?" Aqua asked, giving a curious tilt of her head.
"Sabrina." Terra realized. Aqua stood back up to give him a curious look. She was about to question against it, but the second Chirithy spoke up before she could.
"Yes. Sabrina." it agreed. "You must have gathered by now how much of an anomaly she is around here. Because of events that took place before you three arrived, Oswald has been trying to keep her as close as possible. Which means… keeping things from her."
"Keeping you from her." Aqua softly said. Chirithy nodded.
"It's for the best." Ven's Chirithy added. "Think of it for the same reasons why we already do not tell Ven a lot about his history. We've all seen what happens when Ven has a memory conflict, we both would hate to see it happen to another wielder too…"
The four of them fell silent at this. Having what amounted to a panic attack, then becoming unconscious after, it was an infrequent occurrence in Ventus that he, his friends, and Chirithy were starting to find the root of. But it was a slippery slope- one wrong word and Ven's heart would be sleeping for hours, maybe even days. Even now -although Terra and Aqua didn't know what triggered it yet- how long it would take for Ven to wake up was uncertain.
"So which Chirithy led us to the D.E.C.?" Terra questioned as soon as the thought occurred to him.
"That was me." Ven's Chirithy told them. "But I wasn't in the caverns with them before that. I had let Chirithy go when Ven had called me for help."
"It was very nice of Chirithy to do that." Sabrina's Chirithy agreed. "I haven't been allowed to see Sabrina in awhile. Oswald wouldn't allow it."
"They even call themselves Chirithy." Terra mumbled under his breath. "As if this wasn't confusing enough…"
Aqua laughed a bit before getting to the Chirithy's height again. She used her hands to give each of them a small pat on the head.
"We need to find a way to set these guys apart." she mused.
After she finished ruffling their heads, the Chirithy looked at each other with equal glances of confusion. Their expressions remained the same before looking back to Terra and Aqua.
"But we're Chirithy." they said in equal unison.
"It would be up to you, of course." Aqua laughed. "We're not going to force you to change just for our benefit."
"Maybe one could wear a hat." Terra mused, stifling a laugh of his own.
"Sabrina used to be familiar with a wielder whose Chirithy wore a hat like his." Sabrina's Chirithy playfully mused. "I was always kinda jealous of it. It looked like it was made out of silk and everything."
At this, the four of them went into a light laughter. They tried to keep most of it from getting too loud, in case someone else was hearing. There were still a few secrets to be had, but it was nice to share some of it with others.
For someone else, secrets were the one thing she wished people would outright tell her. Sabrina paced near the foot of Ven's guest bed with her arms folded in front of her. Something that Mizrabel had said still stuck in her mind. She could deal with the taunting of being a bad fighter. She could even hold off on telling everyone that the Mad Doctor might have some idea of where the keyhole was until tomorrow. But it was the form that Mizrabel took, the way Ventus reacted to it, and what Mizrabel said in relation to his reaction that made Sabrina pace.
Already broken pieces…
"Sabrina…?" Ven slurred as he tried to sit up.
Sabrina blinked out of her train of thought before giving him her attention. Her gaze was steely and unrelenting as she looked at him. Seeing it made Ven sheepishly rub the back of his neck.
"How long was I out?" he ventured to ask. Sabrina looked away again.
"Not long." she told him. She closed her eyes for a moment before asking, "Who was she?"
The question had caught him off guard. He raised an eyebrow at her in waiting for her to further explain. Sabrina held herself a bit tighter before letting out an annoyed sigh.
"The way Mizrabel's magic works is that she takes memories of people once connected to you, and takes their forms into her own body." she told him. The annoyance in her voice was more than noticeable as she went on. "She's able to copy abilities and sometimes even muscle memory this way. For the record, never let her touch you again. She might trudge up someone more powerful than another Keyblade wielder or a dark fairy."
"Noted." Ven agreed with a nod.
"The form that Mizrabel took." Sabrina then said once more. "The one she took from your memories. Who was it?"
"I…" Ven tried to say. "I… I can't remember." The young man looked down at his hands before trying to explain, "There are parts of my memory that I can't recall at all. Sometimes when I try, everything just… goes wrong. My head starts to hurt, I black out. Chirithy has told me that it's trying to help sort everything out. But…"
"But it's like someone broke already broken pieces…"
Ven looked up at her. "Huh?" he wondered.
"Never mind." Sabrina insisted with a shake of her head. "It's getting late. I'll tell Terra and Aqua that you woke up, but other than that, I could care less. Good night, Ventus."
"Good night." Ven warily repeated. He watched her leave as she kept her head down. For some reason, he had a feeling that no one was going to sleep well tonight.