this is Book 2 of my Change of Fate series. so before you read this one, I highly suggest you read Book 1 and have a decent knowledge of the Kingdom Hearts lore. otherwise, this story will only confuse you.
Book 2 is made after Chain of Memories, but has parts of Birth By Sleep in it as well. I will explain down in the notes below of what stays the same or what changes I was unable to put into the story.
enjoy!
"Stop looking at me like that! I do not need anyone pity, least of all from a weakling like you!"
"I may be weak, and you can hate me all you want, but I will not let go! We are brothers! We are connected, whatever you like it or not!"
"Brothers? Heh, well then, brother, I look forward to the day we will meet again."
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A portal of darkness appears and from it, three people walk out. All wearing the same garment of a black leather coat, pants, boots, and gloves, only the slight style of the coats and their visible heads makes one able to see the difference from one another. The one in front is a middle-aged man with long blond hair and striking green eyes that has a gleam of a misguided excitement. Behind walk a much younger man with steel-grey hair that is covering the right side of his face, he has an almost stuck expression face of boredom. Still, the aqua-colored eyes are intense, revealing that he's sharply focused on whatever they are doing. The last that walks out from the portal is a very tall, very muscular man with messy ginger hair and so far the only one wielding a weapon, which is a huge ax-sword.
The youngest of the group, whose going by the name of Zexion stops when his sharp sense of smell catches, the scent of a creature that has been causing trouble ever since they discovered this place. This place they have come to call Castle Oblivion. "It knows we're here." He speaks in a soft voice to the largest of the three, his aqua- meet his taller companion's plain-blue eyes. "Be on your guard, Lexaeus." The man going by that name nods quietly, the grip around the weapon tightens.
"Try and keep its pests out from my laboratory this time around." The oldest, Vexen tells Lexaeus in an irritated voice. The larger man does not answer; the only response is a frown of the tone been used on him. Ignoring that, Vexen speeds up his walk to the laboratory, grabs his best made and suiting in size doll, lifts it over to the table. "Do you have the memory, Zexion?" He asks.
Pulling out a card from his coat, on it is a picture of a sea-shell Wayfinder. "Right here," Zexion hands it to Vexen and while the elderly man connects this powerful memory to the doll, he must say, "if this project of yours proves to be a success, there won't be much need of Sora in our plans."
"He still would be an issue." Lexaeus points out before turning back in scanning the hallway for the guardian of this castle. "He took down the Heartless of the superior, and he is the only able to co-exist alongside his Nobody."
Zexion agrees with his large companion's words. "It should be in our best interest continuing our plans to lure him in and make Naminé scatter his memories." He does have an issue with how the superior is going about it. "But if Marluxia is the best for this given task… leaves me quite uncertain."
Vexen snorts but does agree with Zexion's words. "He has no respect for us of the senior staff, the only reason he got the job is due to him, and Larxene were able to defeat this pest." And right as he said it, a known roar echoes through the castle and next, the guardian of the castle appears from a puddle of darkness. This beast has the size of a lion and body structure very much like a cheetah. Its smooth skin is royal blue, with legs and back lighter in tone. Around the stifle, both front and back, grey marking with the front having one spike and the legs on the back have two. It's felinely mixed with a lizard face turns to the three and those blood-red eyes glaring daggers at them. Its spiked tail swinging from side to side in the sign of its irritating by their return.
Lexaeus tense up at the arrival of the creature that bears the same mark of the monsters that attacked Radiant Garden all those years back. He has been fighting this one a few times, and even though he shouldn't, Lexaeus does respect this beast's strength and tenacity of guarding its home. This creature, in a graceful manner, stalks over to them, the black symbol that reveals its connection to the monsters from ten years past is plain to see right on top on its head, only slightly obscured by its jagged, long antennas that seems to work as its ears. Lexaeus lifts his weapon, preparing himself for a tough fight. The creature, clearly recognizing him sneers loudly, its long sharp teeth barred and greatly agitated walks back and forward as if trying to find a weak spot. Then, as if it got blown by a hurricane, the creature charges at him. Lexaeus cannot measure up to its speed and has no chance of stopping this monster from chomping its long teeth right into his arm, trying to make him let go of his weapon through the pain.
But, being a former guard and spent most of his time out on the field, fighting, Lexaeus can endure the pain, and with his free hand, he grabs the creature around the jaws and forces them open. With it off, he hits it with his weapon. The beast gets slammed into the wall of the other side of the room, Lexaeus knows that won't take it down though and right he is, the creature quickly gets back on its feet, roars in anger and comes straight at him again. This seems a bit too predictable for a being Lexaeus knows is smart. Still, he prepares himself for it, and right before it reached his range, it changes direction and instead goes for the two others. 'should've known you fight dirty' Lexaeus thinks with a ghost sense of annoyance and as he charged his weapon for an elemental strike. "Zexion!" He calls as an only warning.
Hearing the warning, Zexion looks back and sees the creature come straight at him and the too busy in his work Vexen. He swiftly summons his spellbook and throws up a shield, right in last second for both strikes. The first is the creature's attempt to get them; the next is Lexaeus's attack, which did, fortunately, make the beast turn its attention back to him. The scent of darkness coming from it is getting stronger, though, and that is the warning sign that this room soon will be flooded with its minions. Something that can easily overpower Lexaeus if they continue to agitate this creature. "Hurry Vexen." He tells the older man hard, he might not care about any of them, but his human memories do make him want Lexaeus to survive.
"Brilliance takes time!" Vexen snaps back, irritated by Zexion's retort: "It won't matter if you fade into darkness." Vexen returns back to work, annoyed of having to hurry up but like Zexion, rather not stick around when that pest decides to flood this whole floor with its minions.
Slamming his ax sword so hard onto the creature that it stays down for a moment, though when it gets up again, droplets of its body begin to fall like blood, Lexaeus bares his own teeth of what is going to happen now. These drops of blood turn into smaller visions of the creature, though their antennas are more jagged and less flexible. No sigil can be seen and although they are missing claws and teeth, these minions are still dangerous. Each drop becomes a minion and like Heartless, attacks with no fear for their own life. Lexaeus can easily kill those things but as the creature gets up, he braces himself for the flood.
The creature roars and a tornado of dark air appears around it, out from this, more and more minions appear. Lexaeus continues to strike these weak enemies down, but slowly gets overwhelmed as the flood of them does not cease, they just keep on coming. Five of the flood creatures get onto his back, where they scratch him with their dagger-like front limbs. Lexaeus tries to get them off, but that only gives those at his feet the opening to attack his legs, trying to get him down so the larger creature can go for the killing blow.
The creature never gets that chance, though, for right there, Zexion decides to meddle into the fight. He opens the Lexicon and through it, throws magical meteors at the minions, though these attacks are also harming Lexaeus, Zexion is certain his companion will survive. With the flood creatures gone, Zexion picks another spell and fires ice arrows at the beast. It dodges and goes straight at them, Zexion uses a reflect spell, making the creatures strike backfire and stun it for a moment. Lexaeus uses that to hit it hard with his ax sword, sending it back into a wall of the other side of the room. "Must give it respect for endurance." Zexion remarks when the creature gets back up once again, wounded yes, but apparently more pissed than ready to quit the fight. It strikes with its dark wind attacks, Zexion blocks it with a shield spell and while holding it up as the shield gets bombarded with the wind of darkness, Zexion is starting to feel he's reaching the limit of how much magic he can throw around. "Vexen, I would appreciate it if you hurry it up." He calls, not desperate, but would prefer leaving as he has better things to do than getting wounded fighting this monster.
Ignoring the words of Zexion, Vexen carefully attaches the memory stored inside this card into the puppet, creating it as the core of this artificial heart. It's slow and tricky progress, so the two will have to entertain the guardian of the castle for a while longer. When sure the core is ready, Vexen puts it into the doll, waits, and after a few twitching, the puppet sits up. He grins at the significant success of his proudest work, "Summon the keyblade." He commands it and the keyblade appears. His grin widens, for this is the sign that thanks to his brilliant work, the Organization has gotten another loyal keyblade wielder. Though putting the puppet to work will take time, but in his eyes, that's only a minor inconvenience.
He puts a suitable sized cloak onto the doll and pulls the hood over the empty face, that should fool most in this being a mindless puppet. Not that it matters what others think, this puppet only has to use the keyblade against the Heartless. Vexen grabs the puppet and with it in his arms. He turns to the two others, still busy fighting the creature. "Alright, I'm done, let's get out from here." He calls for them.
"About time," Zexion muses, and Lexaeus throws the furious creature away and swiftly, all three teleports away, leaving the beast snarling inside the destroyed area.
Slowly the guardian calms down, and with a snort of annoyance, it stalks back to the one it has been protecting. On its way back, it does pass a room where a girl with long blond hair, dressed in a snow-white dress, resides. The creature eyes this girl as it walks past her, she is clutching a sketchpad to her chest, staring at the creature in fright. The monster, however, ignores her, this intruder is not a threat, nor one master cares about. So other than a brief glance with its red eyes, it does not pay the girl any mind. Disappearing from sight not long after, leaving the girl alone once again inside Castle Oblivion.
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A young child is running around the beautiful fields, happy as a clam, the mother, quite young to be one, joins her son in the game. The father, worn by past trials but still trying to keep an optimistic view on things, is putting down the picnic blanket, then goes to pull the food up from the basket.
It is watching this family from a small distance, calm and still for there's no danger anywhere near. Everything is, for now, peaceful in this often harsh and yet beautiful world.
The mother picks up their child, and both still laughing, heads over to the father. They all sit down and start eating, the mother- its current master whistle, and it obeys. Joining the family, it lies down beside master, not bothered when the child throws himself over its body, burrowing his tiny face into the royal blue pelt, almost making it look like his messy blond hair is part of its body. The parents laugh, encouraging the child to climb onto it, doing a silly pretend he is riding it. Being mischevious in nature, it leaps forward, throwing the child off, and he starts crying. The father scolds it for this behavior, but it does not care.
The mother shakes her head to the father, well aware that there's no use to lecture this creature.
Even if it is bound to this family by its first master, loyal to the very end, there is no point in trying to change who it is. For really, how is one supposed to learn if not getting scratched up once and a while?
The mother picks up her still sobbing son, calming him, and while guiding the boy's hand onto its head, the mark is currently hidden in this form. The mother tells her offspring: "One day, this creature will be your guardian. It may be rough on you, but know, it will always want to keep you safe."
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Intruders, this time on the upper floors, the aura they give off, it is them again. The guardian of the castle growls frustrated that these beings refuse to get the hint that this area is protected. It leaves the room and goes to fight them… again! It appears right where the three intruders reside, letting out a roar as their only warning to get the hell out.
The leader of the three smiles at the arrival of the guardian. "Ah, there you are." And he summons his weapon in shape of a scythe in a swirl of flower petals. The woman behind him gets throwing knives between her fingers. But its focus is on the one it knows is the biggest threat, that body is brimming with Aether magic.
The other man summons a pair of chakrams and asks the two others. "So this is the guardian?" and right there, the lion sized beast runs straight at them. They all leap out of the way, the creature spins around and jumps at the scythe-wielding one, forcing him to block. Otherwise, his face would've been chomped on.
The woman throws her knives at it, piercing its hide and it lets go of the scythe handle when she makes electricity course through the weapons. It roars in pain, shoots her a glare before turning back to its current victim. The woman laughs at this. "Aw, it really likes you, Marluxia."
The one going by that name quirks a weak smile. "Funny," he says, puts weight into his weapon and the second the guardian shifts its balance, he lashes the scythe's blade at it. The creature hisses from the slash but is far from done playing with them. "Axel, now!" He commands the chakrams wielding man.
Axel sets his weapons on fire, throws them at the floor, and a ring of fire surrounds the beast. The guardian spins around itself, clearly searching for a way out. When not finding one, it proves to be quite smart as its clawed paws get surrounded by a wind of darkness, slams them to the floor, and that dark wind extinguishes the fire. Well, color him impressed. Axel laughs. "Aren't you a smart one?" The creature turns to him, glaring with those blood-red eyes. Its attention does get shifted when the woman fires a bolt of lighting at it.
The guardian goes after the woman named Larxene and it manages to catch her leg and throws her onto the floor, but before the beast can start tearing her to shreds with those claws. Axel distracts it by throwing his weapons at its face, giving Larxene the chance to kick the beast off and gets away from its claws.
Pissed at the escape of its prey, the guardian throws itself at the one wielding fire, throwing them both to the floor, the creature pins this intruder down by pressing its jaws against the round weapons. He struggles but soon it will get close enough to— hold up… something about this one… this person has a bond to— a sharp pain over the back, snaps the creature out from its thoughts. It turns snarling to the leader of this group. Ignoring the man, the guardian goes for that one, but more knives of electricity stun it for a moment, long enough for the leader to swing his weapon in rapid slashes over its body. The creature roars in pain, more so when each of these slashes has a draining poison effect. It drops to the ground, yet before they can send it back to oblivion. It disappears into a pool of darkness.
"It shouldn't give us further problems in the near future." Marluxia points out and dismisses his weapon in a wave of petals. Doubt it will perish, but those venom strikes will keep it down for some time, which should be plenty in what plans he has. Marluxia turns around to the two comrades of his. "Now, with the guardian taken care of, let us begin our work with the keyblade chosen one." Axel simply nods, by the looks of it, curious about the guardian and his partner in crime; Larxene is grinning devilishly.
this whole thing happens right before Marluxia will lure Sora and co to Castle Oblivion. this chapter is mostly an introduction to my only OC in this whole story, for now, called the Guardian of Castle Oblivion, though will in future books be called another name.
most of this story will follow Riku as that's where most changes will occur but I will once and a while writing about Sora.