Well, here's Chapter 11! I'm so proud of myself for coming up with this
idea. Now, I've got a little allegory game to play! ^__^ Whomever can tell
me to what story Dumbledore is using to talk to Terra at first (I'll point
it out when we get there) gets to tell me what the hell I do with Goofy and
Donald. I don't want them to stay with the others because the stories
choked with characters as it is.
In this chapter we'll discover lots of plot twisties! It's short and mostly dialogue, but pay most special attention, cause this is what we in the writing world call a minor climax. So, have fun! Read! Review? Angel's not loved! -___-. Except to my lovely new reviewer, Artistlil349! THANK YOU! ^___^ Don't you worry, it gets sooooooooooooooo much better. ^__^.
Chapter 11: Knowledge, Passion, and Imagination ***
Terra sighed. After Dirken had disappeared, Madam Pomfrey decided that Terra needed to rest again. Even Riku had been made to leave her now that she was awake. The little old lady had a rather strict list of rules for people in the hospital wing, students or not. Of course, it always seemed to Terra that certain people could break those rules.
Like, for example, Professor Dumbledore.
"Headmaster, I really do think this matter is—"
"I need to speak with her, Poppy. She must be getting quite, er...agitated, being left alone in a strange place such as this."
You have no idea, Terra thought.
Madam Pomfrey left as Professor Dumbledore sat down in the chair Riku had used. His eyes crinkled in an old man's grin, but the ice blue orbs danced like a small child's. This strange world was so familiar, and yet so distant to her knowledge.
"Howdy do, Prof," Terra grinned, feigning the same mad routine she did with her friends so often. "I 'ppreciate the concern an' all, but don' ya think ya'll're stretchin' thin's?"
Dumbledore laughed, the sound soft and gravelly to her ears. After hours of silence, it was a little piece of homely music.
"You need not be mad in craft, lady little, little town," he smiled warmly behind his half-moon glasses. "There 'tis no consummation devoutly to be wished. You be here as you are there."
Terra blinked in shock. Who would have thought Dumbledore knew so much about a Muggle writer? Though, it did make sense. Hercules and his crew did come from England. (AN—Bonus to whoever knows what the heck Dumbledore is talking! You get to decide what happened to Donald and Goofy!)
"How'd you know...okay, never mind," Terra shook her head. "So, what'd you need to talk to me about that you braved the wrath of the hospital winged bat-lady?" Dumbledore gave me an abrasive look, one that told me plainly I'd toed the line.
"I'm an American, it's normal," I shrugged. "Sorry."
"Miss Jem, I am certain you've no idea the consequences of the actions you and those around you will do should you, as an American might say, 'screw up'. Let me tell you, these things are not to be taken lightly. Should Voldemort have access to certain powers that this odd voice has bestowed upon you, and the other select members of this 'team', he would certainly make the entire multiverse collapse and start anew. As plans your friend Renee's creation, Dirken."
"What? What powers? What's Dirken planning?" Terra's eyes grew wide.
"Please, let me tell the tale from the start," Dumbledore held up his bony hands. "Poppy, send in the others."
In through the hospital wing door came Harry, Ron, and Hermione. Terra waited for Dumbledore to continue, but still he watched the door, so her head turned naturally to watch, too. Almost exactly as she had left them, Blank, Renee, and Al came through. Kyle, much older, but still recognizable, followed. And finally, the two people she least expected to see, in walked Sora and her mother, Freda. Riku followed them sullenly, watching her constantly.
She sat up, instantly, and tried to greet everyone at once. Her heart overfull, her mind stuffed with things to say and do, she was immobilized by her own want to do something. Terra Jem, for the first time in her life, was struck speechless, not by force to keep out of trouble, but by sheer joy.
"Terra...oh, Terra, what a mother I am!" Freda collapsed at her daughter's side. "How could I have not seen that he wasn't my daughter?"
"Very, very, very good lights and some good teachin'," Terra grinned. "Hey, ya little munchkin genius, you, 'sup? Blank, Al, who taught him all ya knew?"
"She did," Al said. "I was supposedly not supposed to know, so I acted like I didn't."
"Don't ask," Blank said.
Sora was silent. At last he was back in his own body, in a room with many familiar and many unfamiliar faces. He had Freda, Blank, Al, Kyle, Renee, Riku, and, in a way, the real Terra. And yet, the one person who could never keep his mouth shut, had nothing to say.
The real girl looked at him, and the other ten seemed to part ways for her to see him. Terra looked at the boy with an intensity he had known only in Riku, and then not so tough. She watched him like a hawk a mouse, and yet as tenderly as a sister to a brother.
"Hello, Sora," she said.
"Hi, Terra."
She stood up, feeling the pain wash away. "I know so much about you, and you about me, and yet...this is the first time we've really met, face to face."
"Yeah."
"I'm sorry." Terra cast her eyes to the floor. "I am so terribly sorry, to all of you, but especially you, Sora. I'm so sorry."
Sora cocked his head at her gently. "Why?"
"There's so much I've messed up already...I don't know where Kairi is, where Donald and Goofy are, I couldn't fight with the Keyblade more than I could a plastic blow-up doll, I—"
"It's not your fault."
Terra looked up into Sora's wide blue eyes, and he saw tears in the lashless silver orbs. Tears that Terra hardly ever shed, hardly ever let known. And here she was, in a room full of people, crying her eyes out.
"It is not your fault, Terra."
The first voice, the voice that everyone knew now, had returned. They looked every which way. The fairy voice twinkled laughter among them. It sprinkled lights and music over them, then sounded thunder and gripped them in freezing wind.
"You all wonder why I'm here or there or cry over you all," said the voice.
"Who are you?" Kyle thundered over the sound of wind.
"I am Pandora, the Greek mold of clay. Terra recalls the story, if I'm not drawn astray. That is my real name, you can be certain of it. I was curious one day a while ago, so I decided to give you who stand here a power. A simple little one, I know, but one that is the mark of daemons and angels alike. But who here is more of kin and less than kind?
"What power is that, you say?
"Why, the power to leap your dimensions three! You'll learn it quickly, rest assured. But now that things have set in motion, I wonder, I wonder, will you be able to set them back aright? Newton stated laws three, can you decide which one to counter thee?
"I give you six years, twice times the dimensions you have. Darkness shall descend on all the worlds, but only then must you meet me and mine in combat. Find your inner warriors. Separate or together, I really don't care. Choose six sacred places in these places that I mustn't touch."
"You're talking riddles!" Ron scratched his head furiously.
"Idiot," Riku muttered. Terra was shocked, but somewhat pleased, to find him by her side.
"She's saying that we have six years to train to fight her in all our areas," Hermione said, rolling her eyes. "But these three dimension's versions of the Heartless will keep coming during that time. We need to pick six places that aren't to be touched during that time."
"There isn't much to protect in our world," Renee shrugged.
"Yes, there is," Al said. "That painting. Terra's painting. I don't know what it is about it, but it's doing something every time it changes. I say the first place is our whole neighborhood."
"Done," said Pandora.
"Diagon Alley and Hogwarts," Harry said.
"Done and done."
"Where in Kingdom Hearts?" Sora asked.
"The Door," Terra said. "And Traverse Town."
"Done and done. One more."
Everyone paused. What other place could there be that would be obviously important to guard and protect from Heartless equivalents.
"All of the graveyards," Terra said quietly. No one glanced up. Pandora paused.
"Done."
The wind died, signaling that she was gone as well.
"Why the graveyards?"
"Daemons appear in graveyards most of all. It is their own sanctuary. I noticed it in Halloween Town playing Kingdom Hearts. There are more of them there then anywhere else. It prevents them from coming out faster."
"Good show," Dumbledore nodded. "Now. Let us decide how we will spend these six years."
***
Sora listened intently to the old man. He had to agree with him. This was the time to plan it all, and win the name of action later. Out of the corner of his blue eyes, his blessed, returned blue eyes, he watched Terra. She seemed to be stronger, somehow. In his old colorful clothes, holding the Keyblade lightly, naturally, she looked happier here.
Not that he himself wasn't happier. Finally, he was back in his own body, though he still wore Terra's simple black clothes. Yet...even though he wasn't home, he felt more comfortable with the people he was seated with. At the same time, he worried for Kairi's safety. The woman who promised her safety wasn't exactly trustworthy.
"Six years in which to train in the ways of three dimensions," Ron said, shrugging. "Isn't it just simple mathematics? Two years for every dimension?"
"No way, it won't work," Renee shook her head. "Look, Pandora may not be one of mine, but those of us here understand the nature of her kind of villain. And I understand Dirken unlike any other."
"Alas, she is correct," Dumbledore said, smiling. "The power of their dimension is a simple one, but simple magic is something we all here are familiar with."
Sora narrowed his eyes in thought. What could this world he'd lived in for so long have that the others did not? Kingdom Hearts had magic, but not quite the same as Harry Potter's, from what he'd seen in the books. It had the ease to travel worlds. What could Terra's world have that they needed?
"Look, the fact remains that Terra, Renee, Blank, and possibly Sora, once told, are the only ones here who can teach you their world's strongest power," Riku said, staring out the tall window. Framed against the glass, he was a welcome sight with his silver hair and yellow outfit that Sora knew so well. "Even Freda, Kyle, and Al couldn't teach you it. They haven't the talent."
"You don't need talent," Blank whispered. "You only need the drive."
"The point," Riku whirled, his hair swinging into his aqua eyes as he stared at the small crowd in the room. "Is that we don't need to be there to attain the powers."
"How do you know the powers that Dumbledore's talking about?" Harry asked.
It was a good point. One Sora was curious about himself.
"Dumbledore is a Primal Anomaly," Blank said. "Riku and I are Binal Anomalies. Sora, Renee, and Terra and Trimal Anomalies. It's the level at which you can sense the imperfections of your world and the way in which it moves. It means Dumbledore can see exactly how all of the dimensions work together, in sync, in harmony. He told us these things, in small bits and pieces, over the negotiations prior to our switching Terra and Sora.
"The powers of each dimension balance and cancel the others out. It is this way to prevent intermixing of the dimensions, which might create dimensional paradoxes called Binary Subminors. Binary Subminors would create several more dimensions in this area, making it open to attack from the other three Binary Subminor Dimensions, 198, 270, and 359. Demonic activity would increase, and control of the dimensions would therefore spiral out of control.
"Should this happen, the individual will either increase in significance or decrease sharply. Should it decrease, we in America, the 'free democracy' would cease to exist. And, as it is one of the better ideas in dimensional government, we wouldn't want to lose it."
Blank sighed, glancing over the crowd again. Seated on the bed again, Terra's eyes were wide, frightened. Al seemed indifferent to the information. Sora glanced around at the other people, whose names he'd only just begun to learn. Harry and Ron looked half asleep; Hermione was staring at Blank like she could put holes through her. Freda and Kyle looked at the room, as did Renee, with such enthusiasm that he thought it possible to wave his hand in their face and not have any reaction at all.
"Blank is correct, I'm afraid," Dumbledore said.
"But you still haven't told us what those powers are," Ron woke up in an instant.
"Fine," Dumbledore nodded. "Their powers are that of the imagination. Ours is knowledge. Kingdom Hearts is passion."
Renee's nose twitched. "How in the world did I already know that?"
"Isn't that a tad...ambiguous?" Terra asked. "I mean, yes, it's the nature of our worlds, but is it so easy to categorize them like that?"
"No," Dumbledore smiled. "You struck the heart of the matter. These powers are strong in all three of the worlds, if you have people from those worlds. Each is only slightly stronger in those powers. Yes, there are different things here and there, but there is the heart. Although we are different, we are still the same."
In this chapter we'll discover lots of plot twisties! It's short and mostly dialogue, but pay most special attention, cause this is what we in the writing world call a minor climax. So, have fun! Read! Review? Angel's not loved! -___-. Except to my lovely new reviewer, Artistlil349! THANK YOU! ^___^ Don't you worry, it gets sooooooooooooooo much better. ^__^.
Chapter 11: Knowledge, Passion, and Imagination ***
Terra sighed. After Dirken had disappeared, Madam Pomfrey decided that Terra needed to rest again. Even Riku had been made to leave her now that she was awake. The little old lady had a rather strict list of rules for people in the hospital wing, students or not. Of course, it always seemed to Terra that certain people could break those rules.
Like, for example, Professor Dumbledore.
"Headmaster, I really do think this matter is—"
"I need to speak with her, Poppy. She must be getting quite, er...agitated, being left alone in a strange place such as this."
You have no idea, Terra thought.
Madam Pomfrey left as Professor Dumbledore sat down in the chair Riku had used. His eyes crinkled in an old man's grin, but the ice blue orbs danced like a small child's. This strange world was so familiar, and yet so distant to her knowledge.
"Howdy do, Prof," Terra grinned, feigning the same mad routine she did with her friends so often. "I 'ppreciate the concern an' all, but don' ya think ya'll're stretchin' thin's?"
Dumbledore laughed, the sound soft and gravelly to her ears. After hours of silence, it was a little piece of homely music.
"You need not be mad in craft, lady little, little town," he smiled warmly behind his half-moon glasses. "There 'tis no consummation devoutly to be wished. You be here as you are there."
Terra blinked in shock. Who would have thought Dumbledore knew so much about a Muggle writer? Though, it did make sense. Hercules and his crew did come from England. (AN—Bonus to whoever knows what the heck Dumbledore is talking! You get to decide what happened to Donald and Goofy!)
"How'd you know...okay, never mind," Terra shook her head. "So, what'd you need to talk to me about that you braved the wrath of the hospital winged bat-lady?" Dumbledore gave me an abrasive look, one that told me plainly I'd toed the line.
"I'm an American, it's normal," I shrugged. "Sorry."
"Miss Jem, I am certain you've no idea the consequences of the actions you and those around you will do should you, as an American might say, 'screw up'. Let me tell you, these things are not to be taken lightly. Should Voldemort have access to certain powers that this odd voice has bestowed upon you, and the other select members of this 'team', he would certainly make the entire multiverse collapse and start anew. As plans your friend Renee's creation, Dirken."
"What? What powers? What's Dirken planning?" Terra's eyes grew wide.
"Please, let me tell the tale from the start," Dumbledore held up his bony hands. "Poppy, send in the others."
In through the hospital wing door came Harry, Ron, and Hermione. Terra waited for Dumbledore to continue, but still he watched the door, so her head turned naturally to watch, too. Almost exactly as she had left them, Blank, Renee, and Al came through. Kyle, much older, but still recognizable, followed. And finally, the two people she least expected to see, in walked Sora and her mother, Freda. Riku followed them sullenly, watching her constantly.
She sat up, instantly, and tried to greet everyone at once. Her heart overfull, her mind stuffed with things to say and do, she was immobilized by her own want to do something. Terra Jem, for the first time in her life, was struck speechless, not by force to keep out of trouble, but by sheer joy.
"Terra...oh, Terra, what a mother I am!" Freda collapsed at her daughter's side. "How could I have not seen that he wasn't my daughter?"
"Very, very, very good lights and some good teachin'," Terra grinned. "Hey, ya little munchkin genius, you, 'sup? Blank, Al, who taught him all ya knew?"
"She did," Al said. "I was supposedly not supposed to know, so I acted like I didn't."
"Don't ask," Blank said.
Sora was silent. At last he was back in his own body, in a room with many familiar and many unfamiliar faces. He had Freda, Blank, Al, Kyle, Renee, Riku, and, in a way, the real Terra. And yet, the one person who could never keep his mouth shut, had nothing to say.
The real girl looked at him, and the other ten seemed to part ways for her to see him. Terra looked at the boy with an intensity he had known only in Riku, and then not so tough. She watched him like a hawk a mouse, and yet as tenderly as a sister to a brother.
"Hello, Sora," she said.
"Hi, Terra."
She stood up, feeling the pain wash away. "I know so much about you, and you about me, and yet...this is the first time we've really met, face to face."
"Yeah."
"I'm sorry." Terra cast her eyes to the floor. "I am so terribly sorry, to all of you, but especially you, Sora. I'm so sorry."
Sora cocked his head at her gently. "Why?"
"There's so much I've messed up already...I don't know where Kairi is, where Donald and Goofy are, I couldn't fight with the Keyblade more than I could a plastic blow-up doll, I—"
"It's not your fault."
Terra looked up into Sora's wide blue eyes, and he saw tears in the lashless silver orbs. Tears that Terra hardly ever shed, hardly ever let known. And here she was, in a room full of people, crying her eyes out.
"It is not your fault, Terra."
The first voice, the voice that everyone knew now, had returned. They looked every which way. The fairy voice twinkled laughter among them. It sprinkled lights and music over them, then sounded thunder and gripped them in freezing wind.
"You all wonder why I'm here or there or cry over you all," said the voice.
"Who are you?" Kyle thundered over the sound of wind.
"I am Pandora, the Greek mold of clay. Terra recalls the story, if I'm not drawn astray. That is my real name, you can be certain of it. I was curious one day a while ago, so I decided to give you who stand here a power. A simple little one, I know, but one that is the mark of daemons and angels alike. But who here is more of kin and less than kind?
"What power is that, you say?
"Why, the power to leap your dimensions three! You'll learn it quickly, rest assured. But now that things have set in motion, I wonder, I wonder, will you be able to set them back aright? Newton stated laws three, can you decide which one to counter thee?
"I give you six years, twice times the dimensions you have. Darkness shall descend on all the worlds, but only then must you meet me and mine in combat. Find your inner warriors. Separate or together, I really don't care. Choose six sacred places in these places that I mustn't touch."
"You're talking riddles!" Ron scratched his head furiously.
"Idiot," Riku muttered. Terra was shocked, but somewhat pleased, to find him by her side.
"She's saying that we have six years to train to fight her in all our areas," Hermione said, rolling her eyes. "But these three dimension's versions of the Heartless will keep coming during that time. We need to pick six places that aren't to be touched during that time."
"There isn't much to protect in our world," Renee shrugged.
"Yes, there is," Al said. "That painting. Terra's painting. I don't know what it is about it, but it's doing something every time it changes. I say the first place is our whole neighborhood."
"Done," said Pandora.
"Diagon Alley and Hogwarts," Harry said.
"Done and done."
"Where in Kingdom Hearts?" Sora asked.
"The Door," Terra said. "And Traverse Town."
"Done and done. One more."
Everyone paused. What other place could there be that would be obviously important to guard and protect from Heartless equivalents.
"All of the graveyards," Terra said quietly. No one glanced up. Pandora paused.
"Done."
The wind died, signaling that she was gone as well.
"Why the graveyards?"
"Daemons appear in graveyards most of all. It is their own sanctuary. I noticed it in Halloween Town playing Kingdom Hearts. There are more of them there then anywhere else. It prevents them from coming out faster."
"Good show," Dumbledore nodded. "Now. Let us decide how we will spend these six years."
***
Sora listened intently to the old man. He had to agree with him. This was the time to plan it all, and win the name of action later. Out of the corner of his blue eyes, his blessed, returned blue eyes, he watched Terra. She seemed to be stronger, somehow. In his old colorful clothes, holding the Keyblade lightly, naturally, she looked happier here.
Not that he himself wasn't happier. Finally, he was back in his own body, though he still wore Terra's simple black clothes. Yet...even though he wasn't home, he felt more comfortable with the people he was seated with. At the same time, he worried for Kairi's safety. The woman who promised her safety wasn't exactly trustworthy.
"Six years in which to train in the ways of three dimensions," Ron said, shrugging. "Isn't it just simple mathematics? Two years for every dimension?"
"No way, it won't work," Renee shook her head. "Look, Pandora may not be one of mine, but those of us here understand the nature of her kind of villain. And I understand Dirken unlike any other."
"Alas, she is correct," Dumbledore said, smiling. "The power of their dimension is a simple one, but simple magic is something we all here are familiar with."
Sora narrowed his eyes in thought. What could this world he'd lived in for so long have that the others did not? Kingdom Hearts had magic, but not quite the same as Harry Potter's, from what he'd seen in the books. It had the ease to travel worlds. What could Terra's world have that they needed?
"Look, the fact remains that Terra, Renee, Blank, and possibly Sora, once told, are the only ones here who can teach you their world's strongest power," Riku said, staring out the tall window. Framed against the glass, he was a welcome sight with his silver hair and yellow outfit that Sora knew so well. "Even Freda, Kyle, and Al couldn't teach you it. They haven't the talent."
"You don't need talent," Blank whispered. "You only need the drive."
"The point," Riku whirled, his hair swinging into his aqua eyes as he stared at the small crowd in the room. "Is that we don't need to be there to attain the powers."
"How do you know the powers that Dumbledore's talking about?" Harry asked.
It was a good point. One Sora was curious about himself.
"Dumbledore is a Primal Anomaly," Blank said. "Riku and I are Binal Anomalies. Sora, Renee, and Terra and Trimal Anomalies. It's the level at which you can sense the imperfections of your world and the way in which it moves. It means Dumbledore can see exactly how all of the dimensions work together, in sync, in harmony. He told us these things, in small bits and pieces, over the negotiations prior to our switching Terra and Sora.
"The powers of each dimension balance and cancel the others out. It is this way to prevent intermixing of the dimensions, which might create dimensional paradoxes called Binary Subminors. Binary Subminors would create several more dimensions in this area, making it open to attack from the other three Binary Subminor Dimensions, 198, 270, and 359. Demonic activity would increase, and control of the dimensions would therefore spiral out of control.
"Should this happen, the individual will either increase in significance or decrease sharply. Should it decrease, we in America, the 'free democracy' would cease to exist. And, as it is one of the better ideas in dimensional government, we wouldn't want to lose it."
Blank sighed, glancing over the crowd again. Seated on the bed again, Terra's eyes were wide, frightened. Al seemed indifferent to the information. Sora glanced around at the other people, whose names he'd only just begun to learn. Harry and Ron looked half asleep; Hermione was staring at Blank like she could put holes through her. Freda and Kyle looked at the room, as did Renee, with such enthusiasm that he thought it possible to wave his hand in their face and not have any reaction at all.
"Blank is correct, I'm afraid," Dumbledore said.
"But you still haven't told us what those powers are," Ron woke up in an instant.
"Fine," Dumbledore nodded. "Their powers are that of the imagination. Ours is knowledge. Kingdom Hearts is passion."
Renee's nose twitched. "How in the world did I already know that?"
"Isn't that a tad...ambiguous?" Terra asked. "I mean, yes, it's the nature of our worlds, but is it so easy to categorize them like that?"
"No," Dumbledore smiled. "You struck the heart of the matter. These powers are strong in all three of the worlds, if you have people from those worlds. Each is only slightly stronger in those powers. Yes, there are different things here and there, but there is the heart. Although we are different, we are still the same."