Lightbringer; Chpt. 2- Quantum Entanglement

Adalai- alright Stinky, disclaimer!

Stinky, muse of Comedy- Adalai does not own Kingdom Hearts, it's characters, worlds, ect. Those belong to Square and Disney. Adalai does not own free or charter magic, either. Those belong to Garth Nix. Also, I do not own the Myst or Final Fantasy worlds, their characters, or any items from those worlds. Those belong to Cyan and Square, respectively. However, Adalai ownz this fic, Asher, Ellos, Strife, Yul, Alma, Danya, Hector, Root May, Root Kay, (wow, 8 OCs already!), the plotline, any new concepts or ideas, and fills my food bowl and cleans my litter box, and that's what matters! Adalai also apologizes for blatant references to quantum mechanics.

Author's notes at the bottom
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Research Report #2

A note on Hearts...

What is a heart? A Heart is a swirling, complex mass of various types of energy, the main components being light and dark energy, along with other types of energy (magic, charter, free, elemental, ect.) held in equilibrium, with various types of energies balanced against each other. (light energy vs. dark energy, free magic vs. charter magic), which is subject to constant change. The balance of various opposite energies, especially light/dark energy, varies from person to person. So, it is possible for a kind, good hearted person to have large amounts of dark energy and very little light energy, and still be in perfect balance, as well as a mean person to have lots of light energy and very little dark energy, and, again, be in balance. As is the nature of energy, energies in the heart are in a constant state of flux, in order to maintain the equilibrium which keeps these powers in balance. Our actions and thoughts can also influence this equilibrium, changing our heart, even readjusting or recreating the equilibriums and balances of these energies. But while a heart is a ball of energy, not all balls of energy are hearts. I have been able to grow hearts, but only from fragments of other hearts. Hearts have some sort of unifying principle, which can balance these opposing energies in a heart and create the equilibrium that makes it stable. Without it, the energies with in heart cancel each other out or destroy each other. Properties of hearts and how they may be reproduced in a laboratory are included in Journal 5F for future reference. An interesting property of hearts is that, when divided up into smaller shards, each shard becomes a new heart, keeping the properties present the original shard, and developing new ones, so that the new hearts contain similar properties present in the original heart, properties present in the original shard (which would be present in the original heart, but not the other new hearts), and completely new properties. All the new hearts would also be entangled. For information on Entanglement, see below.

A note on Quantum Entanglement...

Quantum entanglement is the theory which states that 2 or more subatomic particles (protons, electrons, ect.) which come from the same source are "entangled" or connected to each other, so that if a change in one particle's qualities (spin, speed, velocity, ect.) is observed, than the same change occurs in the other particle instantaneously, even if they are on different sides of the universe. The same thing can happen to hearts. There are only 2 differences between entanglement of hearts and particles; One, particle entanglement is extremely delicate and easily lost; entanglement between hearts, once made, is positively ironclad and so far impossible to remove. Two, 2 hearts that did not originally from the same source can also be entangled, whereas only particles from the same source have an entanglement. Could this be because of the unifying factor I have been unable to find? Do all hearts come from a single source, thus allowing any 2 heart to be entangled? Does the unifying factor have something to do with that? We believe entanglement exists between pairs of keyblades and all between all keyblades to some extent. For more information on keyblades and their making, see Ansem's Other Report.

... ... ... ... ...

They say most of the brain shuts down in cryosleep. But only the human parts...

Odd, that is. I'm dreaming, and then I'm falling. I crash through something and hit this liquid, not like water because it has no more heft or weight than air. I'm in a dark, enclosed place and I'm falling, falling fast. But I'm not scared. Suddenly the liquid around me thickens, cushioning my fall. I land on a black platform. Suddenly, a small light appears. I move closer to it. It's some kind of plant seed, with thousands of thin, luminous spikes attached to a glowing center, like a dandelion head. Somehow, charter magic seems to be imbued in them, making them glow, as if it where a part of the plant. More and more appear, swirling and dipping in the currents of the surrounding liquid, but they are not enough to light the darkness in this place.

What is this place?

This is the answer you've been looking for.

This is the worlds as we meant them to be. A place so strange it must be called by another name than age. Call it what could have been instead. This is the world in its true form.

Who are you? What are you trying to tell me?

We are Endless. And we are not trying to tell you anything. We only seek for you to understand.
...

Almost payday, Asher thought. But he was curious. Asher did not often get curious. But then, Ellos was a curious woman.

What intrigued him was her blindfold. Why did she wear it? Did her eyes look normal and human, or did they look as strange as her sight had become?

Edging closer, he finally gathered the courage to take a peek. What could she do, anyway? She was in cryosleep. It was not as if she would even be aware of his presence. He reached through the bars and lifted up her blindfold.

And almost had a heart attack from the shock.

He was staring back into a pair of eyes, which, while they could be called human, glinted with a hint of... something else. Something not human. Something that hinted that Ellos was something more than simply a Forgotten and Half Dead. More than just human then. But not anything less.

First calm and collected, Asher felt himself panic, his breath coming out in short, shallow gasps. He released the blindfold, which slipped back over it's owner's eyes. Ellos cocked her head slightly to the side, clearly awake and conscious despite the fact that she was in cryosleep.

"You know, Asher, you moan in your sleep. Sexy. Makes me wonder what your dreaming about."

Ellos began to move and shift around, limbs and face tingling and numb from cryosleep. "Look." Asher said, trying to forget what he had seen in Ellos' eyes. "Twilight Town."

"I've seen it." Ellos replied glumly, her words slurred.

However, it appeared that the rest of the crew hadn't. Several of them stood, looking out the window, mouths open, just emerging from cryosleep. Ellos didn't blame them. Even though she had seen it before, the sight of the world could still hold her in awe.

Twilight Town was a hub age, but it was different from other hub ages like Traverse Town. Whereas these ages could increase in size when other ages in the system where destroyed, Twilight town went a step further; it was actually made of pieces of the ages that where destroyed. Ellos looked down at the planet's surface. Piece of worlds where connected together in a giant jigsaw puzzle and fused together by huge veins of resolidified rock. Pieces of desert where joined together with pieces of oceans in combinations impossible in their previous ages. Across the surface of the world where giant metal cities, full of skyscrapers, situated on giant curved metal plates on platforms which held the cities up to 10 miles above the ground. They where connected by thin metal railways to each other which snaked all across the planet.

But the most amazing thing about that age was not on the planet, but above it. Giant husks, pieces of destroyed planets, hung suspended in the planets atmosphere. Glittering metal tubes extended upwards from the cities, connecting to the husks, allowing travel between the two. It looked as it the husks where attached to the planets surface by myriad strings of spider silk.
...
Home sweet home.
...

It's almost like having them here again...

Kairi sighed, looking at the sunset, like she, Sora, and Riku did when they where little kids, before all this happened. It gave her a sense of peace, being here, remembering the good times they had, the times of innocence, when they where still just kids. How could they have not been innocent? They where all innocent, this whole age was innocent; how could it not be? They new nothing of darkness and light, good and evil, of the true nature of the real world. All they knew was what they had; Destiny Islands. They knew boats and sand castles and swimming, not good and evil. And, like all innocent things, they sought experience, worldliness and knowledge of the greater world. Innocence always gives way experience. And they got what they wished for. Not just her and Sora and Riku, but all the people on the Island; Tidus, Wakka, Selphie, all the kids she had grown up with had gone on adventures of their own while Sora and Riku where looking for her.

And when they returned to the island, they where changed. They had grown up; they knew of the true nature of the worlds, of the heartless, of the brave warriors on other worlds that endeavored to keep their world safe. They had faced evil and beat it back on the worlds that they had gone to. And when they returned to Destiny Islands they brought pieces of these worlds back with them; new ideas, new things, new weapons, new friends. Every person had a story to tell of there journey to the other worlds.

Since she returned from the end of the world, things had changed on Destiny Islands. First things she did was to tell to tell Sora and Riku's families at least part of the truth of what happened to their sons. She couldn't tell them the whole truth; what would she tell Sora's mom, who had already lost her husband, and now her son? That he had been chose by an unknown force to wield a giant key to save the universe? That he was now the first on the heartless' hit list? That he was probably on a suicidal mission, or at the least a futile mission, to find his best friend and a mouse king, who where trapped in a place whose than hell, from which their was no escape?

Or even worse, what would she tell Riku's parents? That he had been the true keyblade master, but had blown his chance to save the worlds by embracing darkness? That he had let himself be possessed by a mad scientist? That he had tried to kill his best friend, all because he loved her, even when she could not love him back? She owed him, in a sense though, for his kindness and protection. The same as she owed Sora, for saving her life.

Sora's dad had died before he was born. He had been everything to Alma 1; now he was a shadow, a ghost. It was remarkable and torturous to her how much Sora resembled his father. All except the eyes. The eyes where hers. Alma was a motherly-looking blonde haired woman whom sometimes cried at night for her husband and seemed to contain more than the normal share of motherly paranoia for her son. Kairi had told her the smallest amount of information she could, and only the most hopeful. She said that after the destruction of this world, he had set out to search for her and Riku. He had 2 new friends, who where warriors and could protect him. After he had found her, she was sent back here and he remained to find Riku, but the world Riku was on was a large world and would take time to explore. Sora's mom had accepted this story without complaint. Thinking back on it now, Kairi though this was the same type of thing Sora would go of and do, despite the danger of being in an unknown world with no idea where the person you where searching for was.

Sora's mom had accepted it, but instead of paranoia, she worried. She had become an insomniac sitting up every night and worrying about her son, far away, on distant lands, with no one to protect him but 2 people she didn't even know. In the day, half her mind seemed to be somewhere else. She had withdrawn from the rest of the world, only really spending time with Kairi. Despite their own pain, both these women supported each other, bonded together by the man they both loved. Where Alma had lost a son, she had gained an adoptive daughter in Kairi. When Kairi was 16, Alma had formally adopted Kairi as her daughter. Kairi had been living with Alma long before that, however. Kairi had never really felt at home at the mayor's house; she spent most of her time away from home. It was not from lack of love; Kairi just wanted a normal family, with a mother. Besides, the mayor's house was supposed to be a temporary home until a permanent home and adoptive parents could be found.

Alma was like the mother Kairi had never had, and Kairi was the only one who could comfort Alma in her sorrow and pain, not only because of the disappearance of her son, but for the death of her husband as well. Helping each other, they where beginning to come out and rejoin their friends and acquaintances they had neglected around them while they had drawn inward to cope with their grief.

It was Titus who first suggested weapons training, for both her and Alma. No longer interested in play duels on Party Island, Titus, Selphie and Wakka had their own adventure on a string of distant worlds in Twilight system called the Final Fantasy and Myst ages. They came back changed; they had new clothes, new, deadlier weapons designed to main and kill, unlike their driftwood practice weapons designed for play duels, and brought with them new friends, hardened warriors from these worlds who could teach the Islanders how to fight against the heartless. They and their friends began a training school and committee to train people to fight and ran drills on what to do in case of a heartless attack. They also held seasonal tournaments, many of which Kairi had participated in.

It wasn't easy, but Kairi had enrolled and learned to fight with a sword, staff, crossbow, guns, how to fight and throw knives and throwing stars, and how to wrestle and general karate, how to fight with elemental battle magic and light magic. But her weapon of choice was a quarterstaff; light, cheap, easy to handle, learn and make, and surprisingly deadly if wielded correctly. Second to that, she preferred some kind of bladed staff or a crossbow; pikes, spears, long-handled ceremonial axes, anything with a long shaft with blades attached to one or both ends. She also carried a variety of throwing knives and stars hidden on her person, as well as a gun.

The sun had already sank below the horizon. As Kairi watched, the remainder of the sunset, similar in color to her own hair, faded from the horizon as day withdrew from it's stronghold in the sky. Myriad stars twinkled in the sky, reminders that, though we may doubt or debate their existence, we are never really alone, the night sky never completely empty of ages. The connection between the hearts of worlds is always there. We share the same sky, the same destiny; the fates of worlds and men the weft and warp of the fabric of the cosmos.

Riku's parents where a different matter, though. When Riku was 10, he had come to her and said that he couldn't stay at his mother's house anymore. He had stayed at the mayor's house for a few days before moving in with his dad on a different island. He had never told her why, and she had never asked; there was never a good time. And whenever she brought it up, Riku would change the subject.

Riku's mother, Danya 2, was a tall, tan woman with white hair, brimming with an reckless self confidence and orange-yellow eyes a color Kairi had never seen before on a human. On heartless, yes, but not a human. If they glowed, they could be mistaken for heartless eyes. Danya had gained a reputation for sleeping around which had increased steadily after she had divorced his Riku's dad. Kairi had told her the same story she had told Alma; even though she said she believed him, she acted as if she knew that Kairi was lying; even stranger, she acted as if she had some inkling of what really happened. "Knew he'd try something like that something like that someday" she said, resigned. "I know my son. He had to find out sometime." What this could be referring to, Kairi didn't know. And she didn't want to find out; something about Danya's self confidence and unnerving quiet, easygoing manner in the face of the disappearance of her son disturbed her, even if they where estranged.

Riku's father was not so disturbing. Hector Tiewaz 3 was the island's doctor; She, Sora, and Riku would go over to his house and look at his father's medical journals. Hector worked out of his home; he had a steady, warm, and friendly beside manner that came from years of practice reassuring and calming nervous children. He was as patient and steadfast as an anchor; even though Danya had an affair which was one of the reasons for their divorce, most people still assumed Riku was his son; they had the same eyes; turquoise, deep, vast, and wide, as endless as the oceans that surrounded their home. Hector had taken in Riku despite his dubious parentage; he had raised him as his own son, and there was no one else she knew that Riku really looked up to. He, too, accepted her story without question.

Kairi look out over the night sky, now completely black except for where they where stars. Fewer stars, it seemed, or was that just her imagination? No way to really tell, though. Although they could not actually travel to other ages, Selphie had brought back form an age called Rune a device which could look into other worlds. Kairi had been using that device to look for Sora, but so far, there had been no luck. But she did not worry. Even though she could not be sure, something inside her could feel that Sora was alive. Like they where connected, somehow. She would know if he where in trouble.

...

Asher didn't hesitate. He who hesitates is a dead motherfucker, so the ancient saying goes. Especially where Ellos was concerned. The only way to survive in a hostile, deadly environment was to be as deadly and hostile as your environment.

"Both you and I know I could pay a lot less for such a highly wanted prisoner. Eightly-five thousand is to much for this kind of unload." Asher said, his voice taking on his characteristic biting, sadistic tone. The comlink crackled back to life again. "Normally I'd agree, but I've heard stuff about this 'Ellos' character. Heard she grew up in Kingdom Hearts. That she has special powers. Dark ones. That trouble follows her." Asher rolled his eyes. Ellos was formidable, but she was still just human. It wasn't as if she where some sort of demon.

"Don't take it, Lasher" a female mercenary to Asher's left said. Unholstering her gun, a plasma riffle with a nasty sawed-off barrel and a tazer attached to the end like a bayonet, she continued, pointing the muzzle of the gun at rectangular section of the floor behind the cockpit, between the cyrosleep booths and in front of Ellos' cell, the edges marked with yellow caution tape. "the airlift works, right? We put her on the platform, drive over directly to the treasury building, lower the airlift down to the top of the building, where they wait for us to bring down the prisoner. We collect, they get their girl, everyone's happy." As she spoke, the other mercenaries collected their guns and arranged themselves in a horseshoe pattern over the airlift, facing the cell.

Asher looked at Ellos. She was moving, slowly and carefully. Stretching and warming up, as if she where getting ready to run a race. Picking her head up, she spoke.

"Take the money, Ash."

Asher gritted his teeth. He hated being called Ash. He couldn't see Ellos' eyes, but he could tell what she was thinking; You won't do it. you're too scared of me. You've come this far and you won't risk me getting loose at this time in the game. Hand me over to the unload team. I can get away from them much easier than I could get away from you. They won't shoot me; they need their cargo alive, and they don't know me like you do, don't know what I'm capable of. But Asher did. He knew what to expect from Ellos. Even though he denied it to himself, he knew Ellos would escape if he handed her over to another team before he got the money, and that he would have to transport her all the way to the captor's house, if necessary. If she escaped, they didn't get paid. No, he would not be manipulated so easily; he would unload Ellos himself.

Entering in the coordinates of the treasury building and putting the ship on autopilot, he picked up his own gun, a riot gun with a maulstick strapped on top over the barrel. Pointing the gun at Ellos and setting the maulstick at its highest energy setting with one hand, he pressed a button next to the hatch of Ellos' cell and dug out a pair of metal handcuffs with the other. "Come out slowly with your hands up" he barked.

Slowly, Ellos clambered out of the cell. Already cliché-ly thick enough to cut with a knife, the tension became smothering as Ellos' ashy head peeked out of the opening of the cell. Asher's gun trained inches from her midsection, Ellos moved slowly, but not without grace, the way she moved out of the cell and onto the airlift more like flowing quicksilver than the normal movements of a 19-year old girl. She moved her back and forth, looking at each of the mercenaries in turn, studying their movements, noting their emotions and their level of fear, predicting how they would act if spooked or panicked; exactly like a heartless when it was looking for prey. She came to a stop in the middle of the airlift.

"You know what I'm thinking?" Asher said, preparing to gloat in front of his new captor. She was ignoring him, observing the others in the room, noting their exact positions around her, the gears inside her mind squeaking. At the sound of his voice she jerked her head back around to Asher, so abruptly he almost jumped in surprise.

"That if your mother knew your father you would be picking fleas off your ape bothers in Tarzan's jungle?"

Suppressed giggles squeezed past the lips of a few of the mercenaries in the room. This prisoner wasn't as bad as Asher had lead them to believe. They had thought that she would try something stupid, like an escape attempt; but she had wisely done as she was told and hadn't tried anything; what could she do, after all, with 5 mercenaries with guns trained at her? No matter how good Asher though her to be, she was still human; she couldn't catch bullets. And now, it seemed, she also had a sense of humor.

"No." said Asher, smiling unpleasantly. He handed her the handcuffs. They where a good, solid pair, ones he had used often when restraining unpredictable prisoners; the cuffs an inch thick, made of a metal-ceramic alloy, resistant to heat, so they could not be melted or cut off, and special links made of iron covered with rubber, so that if one link broke or was cut, the connecting chain would still stay together. No energy or magnetic connectors that could be tampered with or disrupted, either. "Turn around and cuff yourself behind the back, too, where I can see you do it." Asher growled, handing Ellos the cuffs. Turning around slowly, to avoid being poked in the back by the sharpened muzzle of Asher's riot gun and the electrically charged tip of the maulstick, Ellos cuffed herself, hands behind her back. Asher watched carefully. Cuffing yourself, even if it was in front, was difficult. Ellos moved slowly, as if to show Asher that she wasn't trying anything funny with the cuffs, but she made it look easy. Asher checked and double-checked the cuffs. They where secure; no funny business, not even a whiff of anything fishy.

Now that the cuffs where securely on, Asher relaxed slightly. Seeing that the cuffs where on, the rest of the mercenaries relaxed too. Ellos could smell their fear drain out of them, to be replaced with something else; self-confidence. They moved again, forming a circle, with Asher at the head, in front of Ellos, closer and visible more relaxed. Perhaps he was getting worked up over nothing. Asher thought. Maybe Ellos would wait till she had been turned in to escape. You don't call the shots if you can't make the odds. Kill 5, still gotta get free. Kill 4 or less, get dead. But that would be after he had gotten the reward money, and by then it would no longer be his problem. Maybe she wanted to go to these people; he had gotten a distinct feeling that Ellos had let herself be captured, and earlier on, when they where in the ship, she knew exactly who wanted her and where they where going. Maybe Ellos had used the mercenaries as a free ride to her destination; after all, why drive, when you can be driven? Yes, that must be it, Asher thought. Slowly, gun still pointed at Ellos' back, he took a step backwards, towards the pilot's chair.

In the short span of 2 seconds, predator and prey found their respective positions reversed. 2 thinks happened; the first impossible, the second improvable, both simultaneously.

Some kind of specter, or ghost sidestepped out of Ellos, seeming made of blue mist and covered inside and out with a net of liquid lightning. It was humanoid in shape; 2 legs, 2 arms, torso, and a head. But there the resemblance to ordinary humans ended. It was burred and seemed to constantly shift and change it's features; It seemed more like a caricature of a human; distinctive features and peculiarities not present in humans where distinctly exaggerated. The torso and the face had the general form of a woman with features too perfect and beautiful to be real. It's hands where abnormally large and long; the hand and the flingers where thinner and far longer than human hands; the skin was stretched taught over long, hard bones, the knuckles and joints sharp and pronounced, ending in long, triangular, curved claws, like a raptor, with, sharp, serrated edges.

The body was taller and more muscular than a normal human body, especially the limbs, which seemed slightly too long for its body. Its feet, too, where shaped similar to the hands; long and thin, but muscular, skin stretched taunt over sharp, pronounced joints that ended in raptor claws, the distinctive sickle-shaped claw even more pronounced. It had pair of leathery wings, covered with a second, tougher membrane designed to protect the thinner, flying one, and a tail the ended with three fingers, covered with armor, so when they clenched together they formed a spiked ball at the tip of the tail.

The face was almost normal as well, except for 2 distinct differences. The first was the presence of a flower shaped organ on the side of the head, just above and behind the ear, the second was the mouth; it look as if someone had dislocated the jaw and made it jut outwards, filled with needle- thin, razor sharp teeth, like a reefer fish. Its eyes glowed a vivid, verdant green color, the same color as summer foliage.

Distracted by the specter, Asher failed to see what happened next. Ellos was double jointed; a side effect of a genetic defect. At the same moment at the specter stepped from her side, Ellos leaped in the air, bringing her hands up, she hit Asher under the jaw hard enough to cause him to drop his gun. Back flipping and twisting sideways over Asher's head, she brought her hands completely around to her front, dislocating and relocating her shoulders and wrists. Landing neatly on her feet behind Asher, Ellos caught Asher's gun before it hit the floor. Spinning around in surprise, Asher found his the end of his gun pressed between his eyes.. One shot would cleanly remove those two important pieces of bodily anatomy, along with most of his head. Where the hell's my crew? His mind reeled, frantically looking down the barrel of his own gun.

While Ellos was performing her little circus stunt in direct disregard to physics and common sense, Asher's crew was busy. The specter that had stepped from Ellos' body was not for show; It leaped towards the crew, intent on carrying out the grim tasks that it had so evidently been designed to fulfill, racing at speed so fast that even the most skilled marksman would be unable to target.

So imagine how well 4 two-bit head hunters would do against it.

Intent on its purpose, it move towards its first target, closing the gap between them so fast the mercenary wasn't even able to fire off a shot before the specter reached into his chest and pulled out a swirling vortex of energy; his heart. The specter threw it to the ground, where it when out like a candle in a bathtub; the mercenary was dead before he hit the ground. Moving clockwise from the left, it did the same thing with the other mercenaries with grim, efficiency as terrifying in its power as it was emotionless.

All perished as the first one did, save the last, the woman mercenary who had proposed the idea in the first place. Gently cradling her heart to it's chest like a mother cradles a baby, the substance it consisted of parted, revealing a chamber, in which it placed her heart for safekeeping. Then it raced back into the body of it's owner, who was now pointing her gun at Asher's head.

The whole process had taken 2 seconds. In that time, the mercenaries had gotten of 2 shots at the specter. The first missed completely. The second was better, intended for the heart but which headed for the shoulder; instead for dodging it, the substance parted, forming a hole through which the shot passed through unimpeded.

Ellos did not seem to notice the return of the specter to her body. Not taking her eyes off Asher or her finger from the trigger, she gently wormed free a piece of metal from a hidden pocket on the finger of her glove. It was a master key for the type of handcuffs he had used the restrain Ellos. Carefully, she began to unlock the handcuffs, while not taking her eyes (or blindfold?) off Asher. Wile she was doing this, the ghostly hands of the specter inside of her reached out from her chest and began to search Asher for hidden knives and guns, spectral arms dumping out his pockets and hidden compartments while physical legs kicked them out of reach, Ellos' eyes never leaving Asher's face and her hands never slowing down in their task, spectral body and physical body working together, joined by a mind as powerful as both bodies where strong. the spectral hands where more throughout than any human could be; they reached in though clothes and skin, searching every nook and cranny. A fact just now beginning to dawn on Asher. He was scared, because something had just dawned apon him, a terrible, looming truth.

That Ellos was more than just a human. More than a forgotten, more than even Half Dead. With a start he realized that he really didn't know anything about Ellos. He should have seen it, should have known when he looked in her eyes, eyes she hid from the world for a reason. All he knew that whatever she was, it was something completely new, not completely human, whose power was impossible to fathom.

And he had brought her to Twilight Town, home of over half of population of the Twilight System, the political, cultural, economic, and social center of one of the largest systems known to man. And she had planed it from the start, from the moment she had seen his team begin to pursue her, maybe even before. He had no idea why she had done this, or how this fit into her plan as a whole; but that wasn't what scared him.

What scared him was that he had no idea what she was going to do next, or what she was going to do with him.

...

In many ages, beauty in objects complemented function. Whether that beauty was streamlined and simple or ornate and complex, it added an extra dimension to the value and function of the object, leading to a machine as pleasing to the eye as it was efficient in its design. The inhabitants of these worlds liked things to look as efficient and beautiful as they functioned.

Yul was not one of these worlds, and the tunnel Ellos and Strife where in was not built with any of these considerations in mind.

The tunnels where built by a machine which bored completely circular tunnels in only 2 sizes; small and large. It chewed up the rock, compressed and melted it, and redeposited the melted lava on the surface of the rock, creating a smooth, perfectly circular, mirror-like surface which coated the entire length of the tunnel. Ellos and Strife where in one of the small tunnels. It sloped downward. A raised path of boards propped up on rocks cut through the middle of the tunnel; in tunnels this close to the surface, at certain times of the day the surfaces of the tunnel got too hot to touch, and the floor would melt you boots. Right now was one of those times. It was uncomfortably hot in the tunnel. Every couple hundred feet they came upon a mole hole, a mile long concrete tunnel that extended upwards, capped with heat resistant alloy, atop a hill made of a metal- ceramic alloy that helped prevent the hatches from being clogged with resolidified lava when the day ended.

When they had reached the 5th mole hole, sunrise hit.

Strife suddenly stopped, looking skyward. I heard it too; the sounds of muffled explosions created by the atmosphere exploding and the thermal front, created by the extreme difference between the night and day side, swept the half-melted surface of the age clean. All around us, the tunnel walls shook.

We waited, until the sounds from above faded into merciful oblivion. "What was that?" I heard him say behind me.

"Sunrise."
...

Eventually, we reached one of the big tunnels. Besides being bigger and level, they differed very little from their smaller brethren except in one aspect; instead of wooden catwalks, this tunnel had a rail and a cargo sled.

The cargo sled was built with one and only one purpose in mind; to get to point B from point A while breaking down as little as possible. The sled consisted of 2 slabs of riveted steel, connected together with a heavy chain, one behind the other, with 8 wheels; 4 to each slab. The propulsion system was simple; shaped like a seesaw, it had a vertical base shaped like a thin triangle with a lever in the middle; one side had a handle, the other had a wheel on the end, with a belt on it, which was wrapped around the axel of the first set of wheels. Each end had a circular rubber bumper attached to a metal pole inside a spring. There where no brakes.

After guiding Strife onto the back sled, Ellos went onto the front sled and began to pump the handle up and down. Pumping the end of the lever would cause the axel to rotate, and thus the wheels, propelling the cart forward. It was an awkward, uncomfortable, and for Strife, dark journey, except for the whoosh of air and uncomfortable silence as they speed forward to an unknown destination.

Finally, the rubber bumpers collided with the stone wall of the tunnel, ending their journey. Stepping off the front sled, Ellos helped Strife off the back and pressed a button, sending the sled back up the tunnel.

As Strife rounded the bend of the tunnel, he at last found himself at Ellos' home.

Nature had formed the base of the Shelter long before humans first stepped on the broken lands of Yul. It came in the form of a volcano, one of many that dotted the surface of Yul. But time marches on, and the magma source moved elsewhere, leaving a huge, empty lava chamber safely tucked miles underground, away from Yul's sun. Water collected in the bottom, attracting to it what few humans where fortunate to find it, eventually settling down in it. What had once killed now provided salvation. The last shall be first.

That water source had dried up, but not before the humans had found other ways of providing water. After hundreds of years, multiple levels of storerooms, tunnels, access-ways, and rooms had been carved into the rock. Bridges made of rope and wood spanned across the cavern. On top of the cavern, a metal tower, set on screws, designed to rise out of the top of the volcanic throat. On the sides of the cavern, various small weeds and desert plants grew using hydroponics 4out of white pipes, obviously to supplement the surrounding air with oxygen.

On the bottom was a machine unlike any he had ever seen; It looked like an octopus toy that a kid had thrown across the floor. Entirely composed of some kind of multi-hued mirror-like metal, it filled the entire floor with rainbow tentacles and small protrusions with clear bubbles on the top, in the center of which floated some kind of glowing substance, filling the cavern with dim light. At the center of the tentacles was a large glass dome in which rested... a heart?

Before Strife could ask about it, Ellos pulled him along, down into the depths of the cavern. As they descended, people poked their heads out of the nooks and crannies as they passed, all blindfolded and as grey as the rocks around them. By the time they reached the bottom of the cavern, they had a small crowd following them; children darting between the legs of their elders, muscular, scarred, battleworn men, cautious women balancing baskets of slag on top their heads, old people hauling themselves on crutches.

Suddenly, Ellos stopped. They where on a platform above the octopus-shaped machine. From here, Strife could get a much clearer view of it. It was not lying on the floor of the cavern, as he had previously thought, but rather extended downward father into the cavern. It seemed to be arranged in layers; the largest pipes, big enough for a human to fit through, where at the top, crisscrossing into a network of interconnected pipes and peppered with valves. These pipes where connected by protrusions he had seen earlier; each pipe that was connected to it had a valve to regulate it's flow into the bubble on top. Under these larger pipes where a series of slightly smaller pipes, with different valves and different types of protrusions; the two layers where connected by thin, pencil wide clear pipes. Each successive layer was connected to the other in this way, each successive layer getting smaller and each with different valves and protrusions, until the last layer consisted of pipes as thin as a man's arm. From these pipes, chemical dripped or where piped into vats.

Moving closer to one of the protrusions, Strife looked at the glowing substance within the sphere. It was, he realized with a start, a gummi block. Are they synthesizing gummi blocks? Strife thought. And chemicals too? If so, what did the heart in the center have to do it?

Suddenly, 2 people came from the back of the crowd. Whereas before Ellos had ignored the growing crowd, when these two stepped forward, Ellos turned around, facing them.

These two where clearly the leaders of the community. They where two women, twins, in their 40's or 50's. They where callous and battle-scared; both of them had hair grey from age. Unlike the others, in grey homemade clothes, they whore matching faded grey jeans and faded grey T-shirts. He was starting to realize that everything here was grey or would turn grey, eventually. One T-shirt said, in almost faded grey letters "Obey me, I am Root." The other said "The Root's Word is Law." In UNIX operating system, Root meant boss. They must have been outsiders who had stumbled into Kingdom Hearts, who had worked in fields heavily influenced by computers and computer programming.

Ellos looked over at the Roots, waiting for them to pass their judgment on the situation. They looked Strife over, sizing him up, seeing how long he would last. Nodding to each other, Root May, with the V-shaped scar on her face and the "Obey me, I am Root" T-shirt, stepped forward and spoke.

"There're are 2 kinds of people on Yul; Forgotten and Lost; weeds and trees. The Forgotten are like weeds; they know the rules, have the moves, work the system, make the system. They understand, they survive, they thrive, they control. They are forgotten to the present world, have forgotten it." Root May said, glancing at Ellos. The other twin, Root Kay, stepped forward and continued Root May's speech. "The Lost are like trees; they are lost here, they never really adapt to Yul, never make it their home. They don't play by the rules, barely survive, Do Ra's job for it. Their lost to the present world, but refuse to see it, refuse to let go. Which are you?" Silent, the crowd looked at Strife, waiting for an answer. They didn't have to wait long. Strife looked the Roots in the eye, and said:

"I don't know. And I don't plan on sticking around to find out."

 ...

Adalai- wootage, it's don-one does happy dance again longer this time. I hope this isn't a trend, like the Harry Potter books. Each successive book is longer than the first... soon it will be so big they'll have to use trolleys to unload them into the book store. Sora, help me with this mirror, and Stinky, stop drinking out of the toilet, you're a cat, not a dog...

Adalai and Sora bring in magic mirror from Sherk.

Adalai- Ok. Now, Sora, I will attempt to read your mind...

...

...

hmm... nothings showing up... Maybe it's not working... taps mirror with finger

Sora- how do you know I'm just not thinking of anything?

Adalai- O.Otwitch- okay, then THINK OF SOMETHING!!!

Sora- Gah! runs and hides with Stinky under the endtable

Adalai- sigh okay, until I can lure Stinky WHO I CAN STILL SEE BECAUSE HIS TAIL IS HANGING OUT FROM UNDER THE FRINGE and Sora from the endtable with stale cookies so I can get this thing working, you will all have to review because I can't see into your mind. No flames, but constructive criticism is welcome.

Also, about Tidus, Selphie, and Wakka; I always imagined that each of the characters on Destiny Islands went off and had their own little adventure during Kingdom Hearts. Maybe I'll write a fanfic on that one day.

Author notes

1.) Alma means soul, nourishing. A good name for a gentle, overprotective type.

2.) Danya is a derivative of the female form of Daniel, which means "God is my judge." Danya's character flaw is that she doesn't think about the effect her actions have on others and believes she is only responsible to herself. This is one of the reasons why Riku drew away from her.

3.) Hector means anchor. Hector Tiewaz had a very strong, silent personality type and sort of served as an "anchor" in Riku's otherwise chaotic life. I read somewhere the Tiewaz was Riku's last name in the game. On an interesting side note, Tiewaz is the name of a Celtic rune, which stands for honor, justice, leadership, authority, analysis, rationality, strength, heroism, duty, responsibility, knowing where one's true strengths lie, a wound, willingness to self-sacrifice, and victory and success in any competition. Associated with Tyr, the god of war, the conflict between Tyr and the Fernis wolf, and with the path of the warrior. Also strongly connected with love, but I'm not sure on that. Sounds very much like Riku.

4.) Hydroponics is growing plants without the use of soil. Water and nutrients are delivered direct to the plant's roots.

...

A toad can die of light! Death is the common right of toads and men. Why swagger, then?

Emily Dickenson