Hello, I have posted music to go along with this fanfic. I began this in hopes of having fun with a story and getting some ideas out of my head. It has been ripped apart and put back together many times, and my only hope is that I have not left anything out. I hope you enjoy.
Warning: Abuse at the beginning
Desire For All That Is Lost- Project Destati
Rage Awakened- Project Destati
Darkness of the Unknown =Project Destati
Chapter 1:World's End
I opened the front door, taking care to keep as quiet as I possibly could. Peeking around the corner I stifled a groan. He was there. I debated turning around and heading out into the city, knowing full well that the prince and his friends would let me hide out for the night, but I was already tired from a long day of training in Insomnia.
Why did I bother even coming home? I thought to myself, trying to sneak into my room before he noticed. I had been offered a room at the palace in exchange for working as a sort of guard to protect the royal line, but I stupidly took the paycheck instead, thinking only of my childhood home and holding on to the silly hope that one day my father would love me again.
Just as I turned the knob to my bedroom he stirred. Shoot. "Girl," came a gruff voice from the couch behind me. I grimaced and took a deep breath. It won't get bad again. It won't get bad again, I reassured myself as I turned towards him. The room was heavy with tension.
"Yes father?" my body was stiff. I waited for his response. Why was I so scared of him? I was being trained under a palace guard to be a keeper, a protector of sorts, and before that I had invested a chunk of my life into archery. Why was it that I cowered in front of such a mean man?
"You're late," he growled, standing up and turning towards me. I unconsciously stepped back away from him, but he did not move any closer to me. He was across the room and I could smell the alcohol on him, he must have been drinking all day again. Not good.
"I'm sorry, I had to work late, special training..." I trailed off, special training involved the Prince and his friends treating me to dinner. They were like big brothers to me. I had been sneaking into the palace to steal food when I was a kid, and I got caught by a guard. They had saved me, making the most ridiculous excuses for me. I must have looked so stupid. After that they made it a point to make sure I was well fed and teased. I still do not know what possessed them to take me in. That was eight years ago. I was only 7 at the time.
"You can tell the damned king that you have other places to be! He has no right to steal you from me! He can take his crown and shove it up his-"
I snapped to attention. The royal family was like my family. "How dare you disrespect him! He cares about his people, he cares about me of all people. He has been more of a father to me than you ever will." I said, practically kicking myself mentally for not being able to keep my mouth shut. It seemed to always get me into trouble.
My father's face went from a bright red to a deepening purple. He balled his fist and breathed through his nose. Panic shot through me. I should not have said that.
"I'm sorry," The words tumbled from my mouth immediately. Shit. I stepped back as he began forward.
"Disrespect? I think you are the one that needs to learn some manners," his voice was eerily calm, but the storm was raging in his eyes. "Being a father would have been a lot easier if I didn't have a selfish, good for nothing daughter," I flinched at the words. He glared at me, his form warping. I blinked a few times, I could have sworn his eyes had just flashed yellow.
"You are worthless, you are nothing, Your mother would still be alive if it wasn't for you! I should have taken care of you a long time ago," He stalked closer to me. I stopped. I was used to hearing these words, but he never threatened to kill me before. This just wasn't him.
My eyes darted around our apartment, looking for a way out. My back hit a wall and I froze, then ducked for cover. He had thrown a bottle at me. The glass rained down. I tried to get back up on my feet but was met by his boot kicking me square in the stomach, knocking the air out of me.
I rolled over, gasping for air. I looked up at my father's face. It was contorted in a way I had never seen before. His eyes were yellow, they were not playing tricks on me, and some dark mist that had been surrounding him seemed to get thicker, contorting his image further as he seemed to be warping in between forms of some sort. He made another move to stomp on my face and I rolled out of the way. I needed to get out. He was rarely angry enough to hit me, but this, this was way over board. Before I could move he yanked me up by my arm and shoved me up against a wall, pinning me.
I gasped and let out a yelp as a searing heat spread across my shoulder. Looking over I saw that he had planted a long slender spear into my shoulder. It seemed to be protruding from his hand. My father's face came into view but it was no longer him. He had been replaced by a monster. I fought back tears and growled. I had been trained by the most annoying, crap talking, loving brothers anyone could ask for. I was not going to let this monster throw me around.
I buried my knee in his stomach. He let go of me and doubled over. I raised an elbow over my head and brought it down on him as hard as I could. I had excelled in hand to hand combat during training. I gritted my teeth and pulled the knife from my shoulder. Blood ran down my arm and dripped all over the floor. I stumbled out the front door, regained my footing and ran as fast as I could.
Everyone around me was changing into monsters. Heartless. I shook my head. Was that a voice in my head? The main city was chaos. It looked as if it was under attack from another kingdom. I stopped in my tracks and stared up at the dark sky, swirls of clouds were forming, with tiny ant looking creatures falling from them. I the hell was going on?
A hand found my shoulder and I flinched away from it. "Akari?" a voice asked, "Is that blood?" I turned around to see a black haired, blue eyed prince staring at his hand, then looking back at me in horror.
A gust of wind danced it's way through us, practically knocking us over. A chill ran down my spine, the hair on my arms stood on end.
Darkness is coming, consuming hearts and reeking chaos.
Black threatened the edges of my vision and I stumbled backwards, closing my eyes. "AKARI!" I came back into the light, I was on the ground, staring up at the prince that had adopted me as his sister. I sat straight up "Noctis-" I shoved him out of the way with my shoulder, but I was not quick enough and we both went flying from the impact of a helicopter that had fallen from the sky in an explosion.
He was faster to rise, my ears were still ringing, and I laid face down in the street, my blonde hair covering my deep brown eyes. I tried to regain my focus. Get up. Get up and fight. This is what you are trained to do. This is your purpose in life.
One blade, both light and dark, to maintain balance. A heart as indecisive as the blade, which shall it follow?
He was there in a heartbeat. He had summoned one of his swords. my vision blurred again.
The journey will be long, the battles hard. The strength of heart will guide you.
I blinked, my vision was finally sharp again. There was something heavy in my hand, It was long, purple, and had a blade at the tip. I got to my feet cursing. I never learned how to use a weapon like this. Knives yes, bow and arrow yes, but a stick with a blade attached to it? I guess I would have to make due with what I had.
Noctis was fighting off the creatures that were called heartless. I ran to join him
"And where is everyone else?" I asked, trying to figure out how to swing a stick in a usable manner.
"Busy at the palace. I ran ahead to find you," He said, swinging his sword. A wave of guilt washed over me. He had put himself in danger to make sure I was safe. He looked over at me. "Cheer up little princess, everything will turn out fine. I'll just get a giant lecture later on."
I rolled my eyes, raising my new weapon. He always called me princess, like I was part of the royal family. I hated it. Noctis looked at my weapon questioningly but we did not have time for words. My body tensed as a giant black heartless the size of a building descended on us. In seconds a hand grabbed mine, and we were running faster than my feet could carry me. My shoulder ached with every step. We were not fast enough.
I looked back at the heartless and had lost Noctis in the process. Something swirled around me, it looked like darkness, and it felt like unimaginable power. The heartless swept a hand out and I was thrown off my feet. I hit a wall and heard a crack as my head made an impact with the wall. All was black.
Something lost must be restored.
I groaned. opening my eyes. I was on my back, a cool surface beneath me. Someone was there. I blinked a few times, bringing a boy with silver hair into focus. His eyes were the color of clear ocean water.
"You don't look so great," He said to me.
"Have you looked in a mirror lately?" I snapped at him, sitting up.
"Whoa there miss feisty, I just meant you look a little injured," the boy said, putting his hands up in innocence.. I felt sick. My head pounded, I couldn't keep my thoughts straight, and I was shivering. "I'm Riku," He extended his hand. I ignored it.
"Where am I? Where did my friends go?" I asked, holding my head, willing my world to slow down. The boy looked at me puzzled and sat down next to me.
"I don't know. I just got here myself. I found you outside on the street. I did what I could to bandage your arm, That's a nasty cut," He said. I looked down at my shoulder. the bleeding had seemed to stop, as it had not soaked through the makeshift bandage that had been applied.
"Thank you," I said standing. Finding the prince was my top priority. I placed a hand on the wall to support myself as I walked to the front door of the tiny building we were in. I had not even noticed that Riku had gotten up to follow me. I must have really been sick to not notice something that had been instilled in me since I was 10. Before I knew it, Riku had put his arm up in front of me, blocking me from the exit.
"I wouldn't go out there if I were you," He said. I rolled my eyes. I did not need more overprotective guys in my life.
"Why is that?"
"Because, there are dangerous creatures out there. At least let me help you."
"I don't need help, now move!" I practically growled at him.
"Fine, have it your way," He said, pushing up off the wall, creating a clearing to the door. I took a deep breath and turned the handle, stepping out into the cool night. The air seemed to clear my head some, but the chills had not gone away. I walked across the silent streets, searching for anything that seemed familiar, but the deeper I went into this city, the more uneasy I felt.
I got to a part of the town with a water fountain and a big clearing. It was there that I ran into the first heartless. It did not look like the heartless from my world. I thought about the weapon that I was given and it materialized in my hand. I hated it. I was not trained to fight with a stick, or any long pointy object like a sword at this point in my training, yet, it felt comfortable in my hands.
Raising the glaive and over my head, I brought it down on the heartless. It disappeared. Not too bad. I moved forward and many more heartless had appeared, including a very large fat one. I gulped. Great, maybe I spoke too soon. I raised my glaive up again and slashed down, knocking one heartless back. Another lunged beside me and I dodged out of the way, right into another one. I kicked out and swept its feet out from under it.
My ears pricked, and I spun around, my fist met a face. I winced, the pain in my shoulder had gone from a dull ache to stabbing pain. The heartless fell back, and I brought my glaive up again. But before I could use it on a heartless I was knocked to my feet. A yelp of surprise escaped my lips, and I tumbled to the ground. My weapon had been thrown far from me. Seriously? Standing up, I tried summoning it back but was met by a force of heartless before it re materialized.
Trying to knock them off their feet was only semi successful. Some fell but others remained. I brought a kick up and hit one square in the face, but it was only replaced by another. They were closing in. My breathing was heavy. I was not ready for this fight. But I did not have to be. In the blink of an eye Riku had appeared in front of me, a short sword at the ready. He raised it close to his face.
All at once the heartless converged on us in one big mass.. I focused on my weapon, it appeared back in my hand, and before I knew it, I was back to back with Riku. "I told you I didn't need help," I huffed out.
"It didn't look like that from where I was standing," He retorted. I bit my tongue. He was right, but I was not going to admit that to his face.
"So go stand somewhere else then," I leapt up in the air, avoiding a heartless and stabbed downward, bringing my weapon through its head as it disappeared. I landed but was thrown off balance by the weight of the glaive in my hand.
I brought the stick up in front of me to defend myself but found that it was not very useful. I missed the heartless completely when I tried to stab it. Frustrations flared within me with each missed blow. Swirls of darkness coated my body again, and I felt a power deep within me and a voice that was screaming. I finally spun around and sliced into a large body. It shuttered. I took the opportunity to dance around it and stabbed it in the back and it vanished into a puff of smoke, a heart rising to the sky.
Riku had taken out most of the heartless with his sword. There were few of them remaining, and within minutes they were gone, and he barely had broken a sweat. I must have looked like I had been thrown off a bus compared to him. At least the darkness around me was gone. but I couldn't help but glare at him.
"You have some sweet ninja moves." He said. I perked up at the compliment. "But you really suck with that thing." I glowered at him.
"Watch it Prince Charming, you wouldn't want to decently compliment a girl," Sarcasm was dripping from my every word. He let out a laugh, and I blushed, watching him. He seemed so carefree at that moment.
"I'm sorry princess, but was that a thank you for coming to your rescue?" he emphasized the word princess.. It was my turn to let out a laugh in response.
"Don't ever call me that again," I smiled a little evil grin.
"What should I call you then?" He bowed like a gentleman
"Wouldn't you like to know. Too bad I'm not going to tell you. Arrogant isn't my type."
Riku opened his mouth to retort, but the words seemed lost to him as I swayed and stumbled back towards a wall, and slid down it, holding my head. Riku's expression changed from amused to concerned, and he stepped towards me.
"I'm fine." I gritted my teeth. Shivers racked my spine again. What was going on? I was never sick. Darkness fought to rise within me and the pain in my head intensified. I looked to Riku, his eyes had narrowed as the swirls of darkness came back, along with the screaming. My eyes blurred with tears, and I looked away from him.
I felt him scoop me up in his arms. There was no use in protesting this time. "We have to get you somewhere," He said. I laid against him as we began moving. It was then that I sensed something from him. A cool night breeze, crisp ocean air, and a sunset. "Look, there," It didn't take him long to find someone. A man with a scar across his face had been coming back from the first district. A giant mass of heartless spawned just behind us. Riku swore.
"I'll take care of them. Stay here, I'll be back for you," He mumbled into my ear. "You will be ok." It sounded more like he was trying to reassure himself as he placed me down against a wall just around the corner from the man and turned to walk away. I grabbed his arm and he turned around.
"Akari." I said softly.
"Huh?"
"My name... is Akari," Objects began to swim in front of my vision. Riku smiled at me. His was the last face I saw before darkness took me yet again.
This time, I woke up on a soft bed in a room that put out a soothing glow. My aches were mostly gone, I felt pretty back to normal and chanced sitting up. There was still a dull pain in my shoulder. Someone had changed my clothes. My top that was once black was now a black t-shirt with purple stars creeping up the side, and my pants were now black jeans that were surprisingly comfortable. My shoes lay at the side of the bed. Purple canvas shoes. I threw my legs over the edge of the bed. The door opened.
A girl dressed in pink entered my room, she looked up in surprise when she saw me. "Oh, you're awake. How are you feeling?" She moved closer to my bed. I eyed her suspiciously until her face was right in front of mine. I flinched when she raised her hand and placed it on my forehead. She smiled. "Your fever is gone. That's great news."
"Excuse me, but who the hell are you?" I asked.
"I'm Aerith," she said, still smiling. I nodded.
"My name is Akari. Do you mind telling me where I am?" A knock on the door interrupted us. Aerith called the person in and a man with a scar on his face walked in.
"Akari, this is Leon. He helped me fix up your shoulder," Leon nodded in acknowledgement
.
"He's awake." He said to her.
"Great, now we can explain to both of them what is going on. You can follow Leon through this door and he will let you in on everything that we know so far," She said to me.
"Thank you. For all the help that you have given me, if there is any way to repay you-"
"There will be no need for that. Now lets go kid." He smiled at me. I frowned. I hated being called a kid. I was 15, a teenager, not a kid.
"Lead the way pops," I stretched, standing up and following him out the door. Leon sighed.
Aerith laughed. "I will go and see to the other two guests." She exited through another door. How many doors did this place have? It did not seem very private. I followed Leon into yet another room. A boy around my age sat on the corner of his bed, looking as confused as I was. His blue eyes met mine and he moved over immediately. To his left was also a very happy looking girl lounging in a chair. She waved at me and winked. "Names Yuffie." She said. Leon nodded in her direction and she smiled sweetly.
"Sora, this is Akari, Akari, Sora. Now sit," Leon's voice bordered on edge of annoyance. I obeyed, taking a seat next to Sora. The heat radiating off him was extravagant. I focused on him, sunshine on an early summer morning, the rustling leaves, ocean air. My heart seemed to give a pull towards him, sensing... light? I snapped back to focus.
"This is Traverse Town. The people that don't end up as heartless come to this place after their home is destroyed by darkness," Leon stood up taller, unfolding his arms as he looked down at Sora. He picked up the blade by the wall that was shaped like a key. As soon as it was in his hands it disappeared and found its way into Sora's lap.
"I guess beggars can't be choosers.' Leon said
"How about you start making sense!? What's going on here?" Sora asked.
Leon explained the power of the keyblade to Sora. Yuffie explained to us that there were different worlds, and pathways to access them. "So you see, the heartless are after Sora. He possesses the strength to vanquish them, and also seal the keyholes to the other worlds, so that they can be locked to darkness.." Yuffie finished. I sat in silence, having no idea on how this pertained to me.
"My home, my island. RIku, and Kairi. I have to find them." Sora's voice was full of heart was heavy with emotion towards this boy who had lost everything. Him and I did not seem so different.
"I'm sure they are safe," I turned towards him, giving him my warmest smile. "I have someone important to look for as well. I don't believe that he would have become a heartless, or been swallowed with our world."
"The outside worlds are dangerous. I wouldn't go out there if I didn't have to," Leon said, leaning back against the wall. I summoned my glaive and he shot a glance at it. "Well, that looks like a fancy weapon." His face darkened.
"It's new to me. It came to me when the heartless started to descend on my world."
"Maybe you are meant to help Sora on his journey," Yuffie said with a cheerful smile. I wondered how someone could have so much energy and be so joyful when the world was seeming to come to an end.
"Do you want to come with me Akari?" Sora's eyes lit up. I looked down at the glaive and back to him. I did not want to stay in Traverse Town, hoping that someone else would find my friends and rescue my home. I was not the type to sit around while other people risked their lives for the good of others. A smile met my eyes.
"Of course I will go with you," I replied.
"Good, it's settled. Let's meet up with Aerith and the others," Leon made to leave but a small heartless appeared in the room and jumped out the window. "That's our que." He jumped out after it. Sora gave me an uneasy look and I shrugged, following Leon out the window. Sora was on my heels.
"Akari," Leon grabbed my arm a little while after we had started to walk around town. Sora was up ahead, trying out his keyblade and smacking around some of the smaller heartless. I looked back at Leon, a frown on his face.
"You know, if you keep frowning like that your face could permanently stay that way. Oh wait it already is stuck." I rolled my eyes. He didn't let go of my arm.
"This is serious," I straightened at his words and he let me go. "When I found you, you were surrounded by darkness. You also had a dangerously high fever. I spoke with my friend Tifa and Aerith about you, and they spoke with someone else that they know. Someone very old and wise." He paused for a moment, as if debating whether or not to tell me the rest.
"You harbor a darkness so powerful it could destroy you. It steals your energy, drains you all of your light. If it gets out of control it will most likely kill you. You need to be as careful as possible when you feel the darkness creeping in," He finished. I looked at him, forgetting to breathe, staring.
"How am I supposed to control it?" My voice was shaky. I had never experienced anything like this before. My life was mostly full of life and light now.
"It's tied to your emotional state. The best I can predict is that if you can keep your dark thoughts and impulses under control then you should not be able to summon it."
I nodded, looking back at the carefree Sora, who was on his way back to where we were standing. I decided then not to tell Sora what was going on. He was already worried about his friends and was just told that he was pretty much responsible for saving millions of lives. He did not need to concern himself with me.
"Why don't you two go on ahead and figure out who is controlling these heartless," Leon said as Sora approached. I caught Leon's eye as we said our goodbyes and he nodded to me. Once again I was left with someone that I barely knew. At least I did not get the feeling of arrogance from Sora like I did Riku. The thought of him sparked my memory of our time together.
"Hey Sora, what is Riku like?" I asked, remembering the worry in his voice before he left. I felt a pang of guilt at the thought of leaving him. Had he tried to find me after he took care of the heartless? Sora put his hands behind his head, a thoughtful look on his face.
"He's my best friend. We have known eachother since we were kids. He is a year older than me, and he seems to like to remind me of that a lot," a smile crossed his face. "We are super competitive too. But all of that aside, he is a caring person, with a big heart." He finished. Interesting. I guess I could see that part of Riku. He did save my life from the heartless, and then carried me to safety.
I opened my mouth to comment but shut it abruptly. What if the Riku I met wasn't the same Riku Sora was talking about. Was it worth it to maybe get his hopes up for nothing? Part of me was just being ignorant about it, knowing full well that it would have to be a really big coincidence for that not to be the same Riku. We continued through town fighting off all the little heartless and eventually landing ourselves in the third district.
I heard the commotion before I could see it. I quickly ducked out of the way as two figures landed on Sora. I winced, kicking myself mentally for not grabbing him and pulling him out of the way with me.
"You are great at dog pile, Sora," I said laughing. He groaned.
"The key!" both of the assailants said in unison. As if on que, heartless appeared around them.
I summoned my glaive. The weapon still felt so strange to me, foreign and a comfort in my hands. I did my best to hash through the small heartless, trying to focus on how to swing my glaive to be more useful. I ended up tripping over my own feet, and falling on a heartless. Somehow my glaive managed to stab the thing and it disappeared.
"Wow, you could really use some help with learning to wield that," Sora had jumped in front of me and effortlessly vanquished the heartless surrounding me. I growled. That was the second time today someone had said that.
"I don't suppose you could give me some advice?" I pushed myself up off the ground. The wave of heartless was relentless, and I was ready to end the fight. Reaching for my belt where my knives usually sat, I was painfully reminded that they were back at home, and home was gone.
"Of course," Sora interrupted my thoughts. A smirk on his face. When was this kid not happy? With that thought his smile vanished.
"What now?" I groaned, turning around only to find a giant armor heartless towering above me. "Great, just peachy," I looked over at Sora, who gave me a playful grin and shrugged. I turned towards the two strangers. "You guys ready?" They both nodded.
"Bring it on," Sora planted his feet, battle ready. His energy contagious, we charged at the heartless. I stayed close on his heels, knowing that the only way I could get a decent hit on it was after Sora had distracted it. His blade hit the armor in the chest and it looked down at him. sliding under Sora, with a sweeping motion, I sliced into a leg as I came to a stop behind the armor.. It turned to look at me, and Sora took his move, hitting it repeatedly.
The armor finally got fed up and broke into parts. I grumbled again. "Are you kidding me?" I flipped my glaive around in my hand, holding it with my hand down along its shaft. I smiled. That transition had gone well. Now, if only I could execute attacks the right way. I thought back to my training, hearing loud and clear a lesson I was taught over and over.
"Just stay focused. The moment you lose it is the moment you could lose everything." Prompto had told me.
"And don't forget to breathe. Staying calm is equally important." Ignus reminded me.
"Even if your enemy is bigger than you, you can still gain the upperhand. You just will have to play to your strengths." Gladio said
"And always remember, if it ever becomes too much, or you feel like you can't do it, we will be here to dig you out of the hole you put yourself in." Noctis put his hand on my shoulder.
I smiled at the warm memories. Even though my friends were not here with me, I felt their warmth in my heart that their memories had brought me. The metal in my hand felt warm and it vibrated in anticipation. Play to my strengths. I took a deep breath, focusing on the part of the armor I would take out. "Ok stick, it's you and me, let's figure this out so we can take out this heartless," I said to the glaive, as if talking to it would do any good.
Running around in the small space we had, I spotted my easy target. Sora was taking out a pair of boots with his other two companions. The arms were fast, clapping around in every direction. But I was fast too, and I was small. I slid under the arms as they came at me, feeling the breeze as they passed just over my head. I skidded to a stop in front of the body, using the rest of my momentum to leap into the air, flipping over and landing a blow to the heartless.
Every part of it started to shutter, and I landed, watching it all unfold. All the parts had come back into place, and it started spinning " and there was Sora, his back still turned from the previous fight. Sora!" my voice rang out, trying to grab his attention and running as fast as my legs could carry me towards him. I dove into him, my protective instincts kicking in, it was what I had been trained to do almost my whole life. Protect those important to me. I took the blunt of the blow from the heartless. We were both sent flying backward, hitting a wall and landing hard. My breath caught in my chest.
Sora loomed over me"Akari, are you ok?" He asked with concern in his blue eyes. My legs and chest protested as he helped me to my feet. I nodded
"I am so done. We need to finish this fight and quickly, I'm tired of being thrown around," Sora nodded in agreement. The heartless was coming again, with Duck and Dog following close behind. "You two!" I called out to them. "On the count of three," They looked back at me. "One, Two, Three!" and we attacked at the same time. The heartless disappeared into matter and a giant heart rose towards the night sky.
"That was a close one,' Sora breathed out. I couldn't agree more myself. "Good job out there. It looks like you have had some sort of training before." He said, placing his hands behind his head. I dismissed my glaive and smiled.
"Oh, I have all sorts of training. Just not with long pointy objects." Grimacing, my brown eyes met Sora's.
"Well, I guess we are going to need to fix that."
We were interrupted by a commotion that our two new companions were making. Sora rolled his eyes and made his way over to them.. Leon came out of nowhere and I slid from view. I needed time to breath, a minute to myself. I hadn't realized how shaken up I had become from the fight.