White powder slowly falls from the clouds above Twilight Town as winter finally comes around. The gang relaxes in the usual spot, which isn't super warm, but it beats standing outside. Most of the gang wears their usual outfits, with slight modifications, such as gloves, scarves, leggings, earmuffs, long sleeve shirts, anything to make themselves slightly warmer, while still wearing their usual outfits.
"Geeze, there's nothing to do during the winter," Hayner complains. He looks around and notices Roxas eating sea salt ice cream "Dude, it's winter, are you really eating ice cream?"
"Ice cream is not limited by things such as seasons Hayner," Roxas says judgmentally as he takes a bite from his ice cream.
Hayner sighs, admitting defeat, "Fuck, your right. Toss me one will you?" Roxas smirks and grabs a popsicle before tossing it over to Hayner.
"I really do wish there were more things to do here during the winter though. . ." Pence says, revealing his boredom as well
"Yeah, all the cool stuff happens in the summer, like struggle," Hayner says as he continues to eat his ice cream. Suddenly, he gets an idea. He turns to Roxas before asking "Do you think anything interesting is happening in a different world?" Roxas looks to Namine and Xion, and they shrug. "Why don't we go check out a different world?" asks Hayner "You did say you would take us some time."
"I guess I did say that. . ." says Xion as she rubs the back of her neck. The three keyblade bearers discuss the matter for a moment before deciding on something.
"We'll need to ask Master Aqua if it'll be okay," Roxas explains. Hayner sighs but he understands, and the three keyblade bearers make their way to the gummi ship. Roxas opens up the communications app on the terminal and sends a message to the Destiny Islands computer for Aqua ( /a/lWZwti0 [imgur link]). After some time, they manage to decide on Radiant Garden. Namine, Xion, and Roxas go back to the usual spot and tell them the good news. Hayner practically yells in excitement as they take them to the gummi ship and make their way to Hollow Bastion. It doesn't take too long for them to arrive at the world. "Alright, remember this world has a lot of security so don't expect anything too crazy," says Roxas as they three summon their keyblades in unison. The six teenagers disappear in a flash of light, and moments later reappear outside of the marketplace. "Welcome to Hollow-" says Roxas before their attention is grabbed by a small group of heartless running away.
"Hold on, that's not right. . ." says Roxas aloud.
"Yeah, everything is supposed to be under control here." suddenly another noise catches their attention, as the security system only now activates. "Something must be wrong with the terminal. Let's go see Leon," says Xion as the group begins to make their way through the marketplace. Upon entering the Borough they get ever so closer to Merlin's house when Roxas is nearly blindsided by the security system, which tried to attack him.
"What the- Why did it-?" Roxas asks in bewilderment when something catches his eye. Roxas and Xion widen their eyes as a group of heartless appear, but not just any heartless, Heartless that would only appear inside the world within the computer. The three keyblade wielders take them out with relative ease before a large purple one appears before them. Just as they prepare for the battle head, homing projectiles of light collide with it and take it out instantly. The group turns to see Kairi standing behind them, her keyblade aimed at where the heartless once stood. Riku and Aqua quickly appear behind her.
"I thought you said this place was safe!"Aqua nearly yells in a furious tone.
"I thought it was!" Roxas argues back, behind Roxas, the door to Merlin's house opens, and Yuffie peeks from behind the door, before opening it wider.
"Get in!" Yuffie exclaims, The group nods and quickly rushes inside the wizard's abode. They shut the door behind them as Yuffie walks by Cid's side, Cid mashing away at the terminal in front of him. "Hurry up, Cid!" Yuffie says, annoyed in impatient.
"Give me a second!" Cid says roughly with annoyance clear in his voice.
"What's going on?" asks Roxas.
"Talk about yer good timin'!" says Cid
Yuffie explains the general situation "The MCP is wreaking havoc inside the computer."
"MCP?" asks master Aqua.
"It's the master control program, a sentient entity inside Tron's world with incredible power," Xion explains
"It's using that data inside the computer to turn that old castle into a heartless factory," Cid explains. "It's also been messin' around with the town's systems, too. Not only is the security gone haywire, but now we can't even use the communications." Xion sighs.
"Is Tron alright?" she asks.
"Don't know. We can't reach him anymore," says Yuffie worryingly.
"He might have been forced into the game grid, we have to hurry."
"Good luck, and keep that MCP busy! I'm workin' on an MCP eradication program, and I have a hunch it might just work."
"I hope your hunch is right this time!" says the wizard merlin half-jokingly to Cid. As Cid and Merlin argue Roxas, Xion, Namine, Riku, Kairi, and Aqua prepare to leave. Hayner tries to follow, but Aqua stops them/
"You three need to stay here. It's not safe anywhere outside this house," she says firmly before closing the door.
Hayner sighs as he crouches down and sits against the wall. "What a mess I've gotten everyone into. . ."
"Don't be so down on yourself Hayner, no one could have guessed that this would've happened," she explains.
"Yeah, besides they'll be fine. They've dealt with worse monsters," says Pence. Hayner cracks a smile and nods.
"Heh, yeah I guess your right."
The keyblade bearers shred through the heartless as they make their way to the castle, Roxas, Riku, and Kairi providing the physical damage while Namine, Xion help out with magic. They make their way through the restoration site before entering the castle itself. Heartless around them are eradicated as they eventually make their way to Ansem's study, and into the computer room, to which they see Leon and Aerith standing in front of a large open door, standing there and await any attacking heartless. They hear their footsteps and turn around to face what they think are enemies. Their intense expressions turn soft as they see the keyblade bearers.
"Is the eradicator almost finished?" asks Leon.
"It's almost done." Xion answers
"That's good," says Aerith, as a stray heartless enters the room. It's taken out almost instantly by the capable duo.
"You can't talk to Tron if this room gets taken over," explains Leon, who looks over at the others.
"Can you four take over? We need to check in with Cid." the group nods, and with that Aerith and Cid leave. As they leave Xion begins typing away at the terminal. Riku, Kairi, Namine, and Aqua all step aside to so only Roxas and Xion are taken into the world inside the computer. With one last Keystroke, Roxas and Xion face the machine and are beamed into Tron's World. Once they're gone. Kairi and Riku stand guard in front of the door as Aqua and Namine look on from the raised platform, ready to cast magic at any moment, though Aqua is distracted.
"Are you okay Aqua?" asks Namine. She had been informed previously of the poor state Radiant Garden was in, but that didn't seem to be the problem.
"My keyblade. . . I think it's nearby," says Aqua. The other three keyblade bearers do a double-take as Aqua says this.
"How do you know?" asks Riku.
"I don't. . . but I can feel its familiar presence close by. . . I just can't tell where it is. . ." Aqua explains. The two keyblade bearers appear in the familiar pit cell.
"He isn't here, he really is in the game grid then," says Xion, worried for their ally. The two interact with the terminal and transport themselves to the game grid, preparing to rescue Tron.
Meanwhile, in Merlin's house, Hayner and Olette watch from a distance alongside Yuffie as Pence and Cid huddle around the terminal and scramble to try and fix something. The door opens, and with that, Leon and Aerith enter the room.
"Is it done?" asks Leon.
"Would be, if it weren't for the old loon's magic."
"OLD loon you say!?" the wizard says with frustration.
"Be quiet! We're trying to work here!" Yells Cid as he types at the keyboard alongside Pence.
"Oh ho-ho-ho, I'll show you who's old!" the wizard points his wand at Cid and casts a quick spell. Suddenly a disc is erected from the disc drive connected to the terminal, Pence quickly grabs it and turns to give it to Leon, when he and said are sent to the floor by the wizard's magic. They quickly check the disc, and luckily, it's alright. Pence hands it to Leon.
"Thanks uh-"
"Pence," he answers.
"Alright, thanks Pence," says Leon, before quickly running off with Aerith back to the computer room. While all of this going on, Roxas and Xion appear in the game grid.
"Tron!" Roxas shouts as they see their ally fighting his hardest against the large swarm of heartless around him. Tron looks behind him. "Watch out!" he exclaims as he throws his disc at them, pushing them away from an oncoming blast from a large heartless. The disc returns to Tron just too late, he's hit from behind by a heartless and knocked to the floor. Roxas and Xion dash to his side and strike down the heartless one by one. Finally, once all the heartless are gone, they help their friend Tron back to his feet and get him out of the game grid.
"You really saved me."
"Don't mention it!" Says Xion, just happy to see their friend is alive and safe.
"What happened while we were gone?" asks Roxas.
"Well, the MCP is ready to wage all-out war against the Users," explains Tron. "What's been happening on the outside?" the program asks.
"Well, the castle has been turned into a factory, pumping out tons and tons of heartless every minute. . ." Says Roxas.
"The security system has been turned against us users, Now it's attacking us instead of the Heartless. And the communication system has been shut off entirely, meaning nobody from the outside world could call for help. We just happened to arrive at the right time." Xion explains. "Luckily though, Cid's put together a program that can de-rezz the MCP!" she exclaims.
"We just need to pick it up at the I/O tower. It might be able to stop the MCP for good," says Roxas.
"Great! Let's try it!" exclaims Tron. though his face turns to confusion for a second. "Who's Cid?" he asks.
"One of our friends from the user world," Xion explains. "There's also Aerith, Yuffie, and Merlin, who've lived there for quite a long time. There's also Aqua, Riku, Namine, and Kairi, friends of ours who have the same power we do, and Hayner, Pence, and Olette. Friends of ours from another world we brought with." She explains. We're all quite worried about you.
"Wow. . . I must have a lot of User friends." the three laugh before exiting the pit cell and making their way to the I/O tower. While they make their way there, Tron thinks of something. "You mentioned a Kairi and Aqua right?" asks Tron,
"Yeah, Kairi's one of the princesses of Heart, she was part of that long password we gave you," says Xion.
"Yeah, I thought I recognized that name. What about Aqua?" asks Tron.
"She's a Keyblade master, she disappeared for ten years, before we managed to accidentally bump into her while in the realm of darkness," Roxas explains.
"I see. . . I don't know why, but I recognize her name from some data I looked through in the DTD. I don't know why it was there, do you?" asks Tron. Roxas and Xion shake their heads.
"No, sorry," says Xion as they continue to make their way to the I/O tower. Meanwhile, Namine fires a blizzard spell that takes out a few stray heartless. Aqua and Namine turn to look at Leon and Aerith as they run to the terminal. Leon types away at the terminal.
"Warning! User control has been terminated permanently!" the voices of the MCP echoes throughout the room.
"It's no use!" says Leon as he bangs his hands against the desk.
"Let me try," says Aerith calmly. Leon nods and hands her the disc
"Any further inputs will result in immediate termina-" Aerith puts the disc into the disc reader.
"Bon appetit, don't talk with your mouth full," Aerith says to the computer in both a mocking, condescending, and joking all at the same time.
"What. . .what are you loading?" The MCP's voice is filled with fear.
The three heroes wait within the I/O tower, just waiting for something to happen. Suddenly, a beam of light pours in from a hole in the ceiling.
"That must be it!" Exclaims Roxas. Tron jumps onto the platform directly below the light, and takes out his identity disc, before raising it into the air. The disc floats into the air and glows brightly, before shooting far into the sky. The group waits with anticipation before the disc slowly floats downward. Tron looks at it, confused.
"What's wrong?" asks Roxas.
"This data. . it's very strange." Tron answers.
"It's probably been infused with some sort of magic," Xion explains
"Hmm, that must be why. Magic data is hard to understand. Such as the data relating to Aqua, it was mostly magic data." he explains, before stepping off the platform. There's other data on this too though! Like a power booster for me, and commands for using a solar sail." Tron explains.
"So, we're good?" asks Roxas.
"As you users say, we won't know until we find out," Tron responds. The two users smile at their program friend, who smiles back. "We'll need a sailer to reach the MCP, so let's get to the simulation hangar!" Tron exclaims. Roxas and Xion nod as the three exits the I/O tower. They dash to the simulation hanger and jump onto a sailer. Tron interacts with the main terminal on the front of the ship, and in little time they're setting sail to the MCP's location. It takes some time, but they manage to get to the MCP's tower with no trouble.
"The MCP is straight ahead." Tron notifies them. The three look over to a terminal on their left. "If there's anything you need to do on the user world, do it now," says Tron.
"No thanks. We've only got one thing in mind, taking down the MCP!" Roxas exclaims. Tron smiles as they face the tower yet again.
"Well then. Let's finish this for good," says Tron, as the three make their way to the Central Computer Mesa. They run into the room and in front of them, a large red cylinder spins in the center of the tower. The three turn away from that though, as they notice a certain someone staring at them. His red and grey armor and furious stare are unmistakable.
"Tenacious little bugs! Your time is up." Sark exclaims with fury rising within him. "Prepare for de-resolution!" sark exclaims as four heartless appear beside him. Sark pulls out his identity disc, but before he can even throw it Roxas and Xion slash straight through him and his heartless, stunning him before Tron throws his identity disc right at his face. "Auugh!" Sark says in a sickly manner as he falls to his knees. Roxas and Xion jump back and join Tron's side as they look on at their foe. "You're very. . . persistent Tron. . ." Sark says weakly.
"I'm also better than you." Tron fires back.
"We. . . would have made a great team. . ." Sark falls to the floor, unmoving. Tron turns to the rotating cylinder at the center of the room, and so do Roxas and Xion. The two users stare at the cylinder, before realizing something. . . It has a face.
"Tron! Don't you understand? We don't need Users. We've advanced- they're superfluous." says the MCP. Its menacing voice masking its true feelings, fear. "Be a part of me, and together the world will be ours to control!"
Tron shakes his head slowly, "MCP. You still don't get it, do you?" Tron asks. The rotating cylinder stops and stares down at the three.
"Sark. . . Sark! All my functions are now yours!" shouts the MCP as a beam of light pierces the still body from above. The once still body begins to stir. Sark pushes himself off the ground and back onto his feet. Slowly growing in size as he does so until he towers over Roxas, Xion, and Tron. walls are erected at the sides of the arena to protect the MCP, as the three heroes face off against the duo of evil. Roxas and Xion strike at his legs, the slash again and again while Tron distracts him by throwing discs at him. Finally, the two get in one good strike and Sark falls to his knees, before the three in unison, attack him with one good strike at his head.
Sark floats still in the air as the corrupt data stops him from attacking, giving the three enough time to strike at the nearby walls. The walls shake intently as they attack until finally, one of the walls crumbles away. Roxas and Xion point their keyblades at the MCP as Tron's identity disc floats in the air, the three shoots powerful beams of light at the MCP, causing it to groan in pain, the walls spin around before slamming to the ground, knocking the heroes back. Sark recovers from his dazed state as his corrupted code is repaired, and attacks the three heroes, however, his large size has made him slow, making his attacks more like minor annoyances than serious threats. It takes almost no effort for them to decommissions Sark, as they once again focus their efforts onto the MCP. The problem is their opening is on the opposite side of the arena.
"Quick! Let's hurry!" shouts Roxas, Xion reaches out and grabs him by his armor's collar, just barely stopping him from getting blasted by a laser.
"It's too far! It'd be faster to break another wall." Xion explains, Roxas looks behind her to see Tron already working on that. He nods and the two join him in his efforts. It doesn't take too long for another wall around the MCP to crumble. They once again point their weapons at the MCP and shoot a powerful beam of light at him, the walls Slam on the ground again just as they anticipate it, dodging the attack as the walls spin around rapidly before stopping. The MCP's eyes widen as he realizes that with two walls at opposing ends, the heroes are always within a short distance of another opening. He quickly blasts lasers as the heroes make their way to a nearby opening. They leap over them with ease like track stars leaping over hurdles. They stop as they reach an opening they've made previously. One last time, they point their weapons at the MCP, and shoot a powerful beam of light, the MCP screeches in pain as it the beam pierces its cylindrical body. In a flash of light, the MCP suddenly disappears. The three look over as Sark's floating body falls to the ground, before fading away entirely.
"We did it!" Tron exclaims, pumping his fist into the air. Xion giggles.
"I see you have a silly side, too."
Tron pretends to get serious for a moment, before smiling. "Where do you think I learned it from?" the three laugh with each other. "Well then, I guess this means farewell," says Tron as he guides them to a nearby terminal.
"Don't be sad, we can come to visit anytime we want, right?" asks Roxas. Tron smiles and nods. Yeah, I guess so. Tron waves farewell at the two, and they wave back, as they slowly begin to fade from his realm.
"Oh, one last thing!" he says, the two look at him. "I noticed some data on the MCPs main terminal. There seems to be another room locked away within the castle, known as the chamber of repose. That's where Aqua's mysterious data lies. If you can, try and check it out." the two nod as they disappear from his view entirely. Tron looks down at his hand as he too begins to fade away. "They can see me whenever they want. We'll meet again, I'm sure." Tron reassures himself before he too disappears.
In the user world, the six people in the computer room notice something. The heart tanks in the castle stop glowing, Heartless stop appearing, and the Terminal seems to have been restored to its previous state. Loud footsteps are heard coming from Ansem's study, and Yuffie stumbles into the room.
"Things are settling down in town!" she exclaims. "The only Heartless left anywhere is the local variety, and they're few in numbers."
"That's good," says Aerith cheerfully. "Let's just hope those two make it back in one piece." the machine comes to life and glows brightly as Aerith says this. Everyone steps away from the terminal, as Roxas and Xion are beamed back into reality.
"You're back!" Namine chimes in as she looks at her two friends.
"How's the town?" asks Roxas.
"A-Okay," says Yuffie
"There's not a trace of the MCP either," says Leon as he looks on at the terminal. Before looking at the keyblade bearers. "Good job." the keyblade wielders smile and nod, before the three exit the room.
"C'mon, Hayner, Pence and Olette are probably worried." Says Namine, the four begin to walk off before they notice that Roxas and Xion aren't following.
"Something wrong?" asks Kairi.
"Not really, there's just one last thing we need to check," says Xion, as she types one last thing into the terminal. She presses the enter key and a noise is heard from below. The other four keyblade bearers look down to see an opening in the floor appear below, leading to another room.
"What's that?" asks Riku.
"The Chamber of Repose," says Roxas. "Tron says the MCP locked it away due to its unreadable magic data."
"There's only one piece of data that's readable is a name." says Xion as she looks to the keyblade master "Aqua." The group is taken aback by this.
"What does this mean?" asks Namine.
"I think I have an Idea. . ." Aqua says as she looks down at the chamber of repose. The six keyblade bearers walk down and enter the chamber of repose. In it is a large spiral staircase that leads far down.
They make their way down to the bottom of the chamber and find a single door. They open it and find a large chair that faces away from them. They walk around it and they stare as they look at something that lays on the ground, a single keyblade, and some armor. Aqua raises her hand, before opening it to reveal her palm. The armor and keyblade dematerialize into small balls of light.
"Was that-?" asks Namine but she's cut off by the sound of a keyblade materializing in Aqua's hand.
"Stormfall. . . it's been too long." Aqua says as a smile forms on her face.