Lightbringer; Chpt. 5- Of Many, One

Adalai- Alright Dante, Disclaimer!

Dante, Muse of Drama- Adalai does not own Kingdom Hearts, it's characters, worlds, ect. Those belong to Square and Disney. Adalai does not own sunstones either; those belong to Garth Nix. I also do not own the Artisan's age; that belongs to the makers of Spyro. However, Adalai ownz this fic, Asher, Ellos, Strife, Yul, Alma, Danya, Hector, Root May, Root Kay, The End, 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 philosophy in the Research report #4 and references to quantum mechanics and general relativity in the last section.

Authors notes at bottom.
...

Research Report #4 (a.k.a. the Evil Report)

A note on worlds...

In the Ansem report, 4 worlds are stated.

Present

Darkness

Light

In-Between

I have been to three worlds in my travels

Present

Kingdom Hearts

In-Between

I believe that the world of darkness and the world of light are in reality the same world. But the question is: which world is it? One possibility could be the present world. The present world is a blend of darkness and light. Another is the In-Between world; it is an existence between darkness and light, and it's inhabitants, the Nobody, exist to create balance. Another is Kingdom Hearts. Strange though it may sound, because there is no visible light in kingdom hearts, or elemental light, I, for some reason, believe it to be true. Call it a women's intuition, if you will. Note that in all these worlds, despite their differences, they all have both darkness and light. The more light you have, the more darkness you have as well. Perhaps because there is a lot of darkness in Kingdom Hearts, their must be a lot of light there as well. Maybe we don't see it because it is hidden from us somehow. As a scientist, I know that surface impressions can sometimes be misleading.

When I was young, someone told me a bedtime story about a race of people who lived, bathed in the true light. Then they tried to take the light for themselves, and evil was born in their hearts. It swallowed everything, except for the true light in the children's hearts, which they used to build a new world.

While this is just a bedtime story, I believe there is some truth to it. There have been evidence of civilization in Kingdom Hearts; some worlds I have found in Kingdom Hearts, there are ruins of cities. Also, the High Road is obviously man-made. Perhaps these are evidence of the children the story? Something made them leave this world of Kingdom Hearts, to degenerate into the state it is now in. But why? They then resettled in either the Present world or the In-Between World. Or did they settle in both, and the story mixed up the 2 worlds, mistaking them for one? If so, who are their descendents? Perhaps the first nobody are these children, who gave up their hearts to create this new world(s)? And to survive, entangled their hearts together? Is this why the Nobody seek to maintain balance in the universe? Is it a throwback from the original children?

A Note on Evil...

What, exactly, is evil? What is it's definition? There are 3 possible definitions.

Evil is a positively existing reality. And example would be the belief that elemental darkness and dark energy is evil and elemental light and light energy is good. Held by many, but disproved by the Mindless, who are evil and elemental light-based. Evil is an illusion, created by ignorance and a bad environment. Disproved by the Heartless, whom are evil, but not illusions. Evil exists, but not as a positively existing reality. Evil is a lack of due order.

I personally believe evil is #3. Allow me to explain this. Imagine that you dig a hole in the ground. The hole exists, but you can't pick it up, or touch it, or hold it in you hand; It exists because of a lack of something, or a negative existence, instead of an excess of something, or a positive existence. Evil is a lack; it is a deficiency in the nature of a thing. For example, a lack of compassion in a person is evil. The person his/herself is not evil, but the absence of compassion in that person's nature is evil.

However, not all lacks are evil. If a person lacks the ability to fly, is the absence of the ability to fly evil? No. St. Augustine took the definition and expanded on it; He said that Evil is a lack of due order. Another way of putting this is that evil is a privation.

There are 2 types of lacks; privation and negation

Negation- lacking something that is not part of your nature to begin with. An example of such would be the lack of flight in human. We never had it, never will have it, so it's lack in our natures is not evil. You can't miss what you never had.

Privation- lacking something which is part of your nature. An example would be lack of patience in a person. That lack would be evil because human beings have the ability to be patient in their nature.
 ...

The diversity of Twilight town's citizens was amply evident in it's politics; Leon had to remind himself, not for the first time today, to keep that in mind and try not to kill the other politicians with them in the Senate. At the moment, those diverse politics where undergoing an upheaval that was partially due to his own stupidity. He had wasted 1.5 million in munny on a female mercenary half dead from arsenic poisoning. He had figured that someone would try and fake the prisoner to get the reward money, except that all the paperwork checked out; nothing was faked. It had Ellos' DNA, fingerprints and photo. Also, the mercenary that was turned in had Ellos' clothing. Leon guessed that the mercenary had caught Ellos and she escaped, and the mercenary, not wanting to admit she had lost her prisoner, drugged her partner and turned her in place of Ellos.

That had made an already tense political atmosphere turn into one uneasily balanced between practically outright hand to hand combat and verbal abuse. Yelling and shouting filled the Senatorial building, and if the senators had weapons, they would probably be fighting as well.

There was one exception to this. Leon was, of course, calm and outwardly uncaring as always. As a delegate, he did not participate in any of the actual decisions; he was more of an advisor. After all this was done, he knew much would be said- and little done. So their shouting did not bother him so much. Yuffie was standing, busy getting her own two cents into the conversation. Aeris sat down in her chair, merely listening to the conversation. Like most inhabitants of Twilight Town and, some could argue, the entire human race, she was keen on predictability, order, and peace. None of which were present in this room. Or would continue to be, if people kept shouting and arguing like this. Cloud had already gotten up and left. She was considering doing the same, when the defense minister, or proconsul 1, spoke.

"Shut down gummi travel between the ages! We cannot keep running the trains when the worlds are falling silent again! If my defense is to be effective, I must not have ALL THESE HOLES IN IT!!!! We must patch up the shield portals 2, out World wall is our best defense against the heartless! I won't have it weakened! I..."

And she was drowned out by protesting voices, again. It was a miracle that she had gotten to say so much uninterrupted. The Travel minister complained that doing that would trap too many Twilight Town citizens in other worlds, without any way home. The Trade minister complained that it would cut off trade with other worlds that needed the raw materials from Twilight town to survive. The Economics minister side with the Trade minister, saying cutting off trade would destroy the economy, put thousands out of work, and cause a crash in the already fragile stock market. Others said it would cause mass panic and traffic clogs, because the trains where the main form of travel, not only between the worlds, but to the planetary husks and between and in cities.

The Proconsul was adamant. She continued to argue, saying age defense should be everyone's top priority, the volume of her voice and on her speaker steadily rising.

"Yuffie." Aeris said, pulling the 20 year-old back down in her seat, after she finished a particularly juicy curse directed at the defense minister. "Just because Cloud isn't here doesn't mean that you can say that." Adeliaus, one of the four aediles, spoke against the proconsul's statement. "We are the leader of the Twilight system. If we show fear in the face of this danger, they have already won half the battle. And what message would cowering in our own defenses send? We set the example for all the Twilight ages. So far this is just a rumor; tighten defenses and everyone will panic and think it is true. And what if we are wrong? We could seriously damage some of our surrounding ages, who need trade with us to survive.

"Rumor? A Rumor?" a Censor said, voice so panicked that it was to the point of cracking. "7 edge worlds have gone silent. 7! In 5 days! The Final Fantasy worlds are still unaccounted for!" he said, waving to the 15 odd empty chairs in the representative section of the Senate. "And when have we last heard from the Traverse System? Or the Disney Kingdoms? We have advisors here from worlds that have gone missing! Ask them what happened yourselves!" The last remark was aimed at Leon and his friends.

Another voice spoke, deep and authoritative. "Rumor! Is it a rumor that 12 ages has gone silent!" the aforementioned Censor began flipping through his notes, as if the 5 missing ages could be found in his paperwork. "That we have lost communication with another age? That heartless infest the sewers below cities so badly that nightly patrols must go and thin their ranks so they do not become a problem to the citizens? What about all these new types of Heartless, these Swarm heartless? Patrols say that they evolve and learn from the past; they shoot bullets at them one night, and the heartless shoot their own bullets at them the next! And what of these new white heartless? These Mindless?" He shot back.

Another voice began speaking over the fray, this one a Muslim cleric. Even in this time of advanced technology, there were still advantages to a loud voice. "Silence in one age suggests communications failure, an unlocked keyhole, political, cultural, religious, and or economic instability or turmoil, of heartless uncovering by chance the heart of the age in their blind wanderings. But 12 ages in 5 days suggests something more sinister. It suggests coordination, leadership. That the heartless are being controlled again. You all know to what I refer."

The Senators began to murmur, buzzing like bees in a jar. Someone asked "But who could have the power to control them? The original controllers are dead. We should try to contact them, negotiate with them."

The Muslim cleric continued. He was very charismatic; he would have had a good future in politics if he had not chosen to follow a life of piety. "We must continue to look for those who wield the Keyblades. And we must consult the Nobody on this matter."

Adeliaus spoke again. "Cleric, your beliefs are not our beliefs. Keyblades and Nobody are bedtime stories. Many here do not believe in the keyblades, and it has been so long since a Nobody came to the Twilight system they have become myths, if they were even real in the first place."

The Muslim cleric glanced in Squall's direction. "We have the Director of the Bell Tower here. We recently made a joint offer with the Nobody's cooperation for someone they believe can find the keyblade wielder. And he was there when Kingdom..."

"13 worlds!" the panicky Censor said, typing furiously on his laptop, voice way past breaking now. "A gummi ship captain spotted a fraction of the age Twilight MCDXV (1,415) in intra-space just now!"

Murmurs rippled through the crowd. Those close to the panicky Censor leaned over, trying to get a better look at the laptop screen. "MCDXV... the Artisans Age... in the Dragon Kingdoms..." the Delgates of the Dragon kingdoms (all dragons, of course) got up and left hastily, to get to the nearest train to go back to their home ages.

Leon stood up, clearing his throat in the microphone, to catch the crowd's attention. "Yes, we are sheltering two Nobody in the Bell Tower at this time, who are staying with us until we can deliver the person who can find the Keyblade wielder. Until then..."

"At LEAST 13 ages gone quiet in 5 days!" the proconsul said, emphasizing 'least'. "How much more proof do you need? We need to defend ourselves now! My department has no need of more evidence than that! Can we be any blinder to what is happening around us! We must PREPARE! NOW!!!"

Another Aedile, Adeliaus' Ally, spoke. "But it is not worlds in this system. Only edge ages, ages in between our system and other systems. We are not countries; we share no physical boarders with these ages that have gone silent. Those ages on the inside of the system experience no problem with the heartless; in fact, Twilight Town is the only age to experience any heartless presence.

I understand why you are afraid. Many of you had families and charges in this system and the other systems that were attacked. You are afraid the same thing that happened 4 years ago will happen again. But we survived that, and we will survive it again. Even then, the Heartless did not visit all worlds. 4 years ago, the Heartless left the Disney Kingdoms untouched. And Traverse system? Only 1 world was destroyed, Destiny Islands, and even then, the worlds where able not only to defend themselves, but also to destroy the heartless and their leaders. I'm not saying I believe in a magical key that will save us from the heartless..." the aedile defended, for the benefit of the skeptics. "...but I just want to prove that the heartless have been defeated on worlds less prepared and advanced than ours. We do not know when, or if! the same thing will come to Twilight Town, or where 'they' will strike next. Time drives all things before it..." the aedile said, quoting Machiavelli's The Prince, "and may lead to good as well as evil.

The proconsul stood up, not noticing Leon, Aeris, and Yuffie slip out through a back exit. Now was not the time for talking! It was the time for action! She needed them to help her help them. "Shut down the outside defenses. We need to not make ourselves a target! We need..." Adeliaus and his supporters rose, all talking at the same time. Adeliaus began a large, longwinded speech, barely her over the rest of the Senate, now a maelstrom of angry voices. "showing fear... cowering in the dark...refused to be stamped into a decision...unnecessary...not to the Ideals on which Twilight Town was founded... do what we have always done; share..."

The proconsul's supporters rose from their chairs, defending themselves against their enemies. Proconsul versus aediles, supporter versus questioner, glared at each other from across the room, debate raging around the senators like flies around rancid meat. All had the best interests of their world in mind. Few had fathomed even the faintest idea of what 'they' had in store for them. None had any idea of the importance of the woman their sins and fate had brought back to this dread, dark shore.
...

Leon strolled down the waterways of Old Venice, headed toward the Bell Tower. The area was settled by survivors of an age called Earth, four years ago when the heartless first began to devour their worlds. After their worlds where restored, they returned to Twilight Town; some because it was too difficult to return to the past, some because they had made a life and friends in Twilight Town that they didn't want to leave. Whatever the reason, they came back and updated it area, setting up homes and shops, installing modern technology behind walls and under streets so as not to ruin the romantic charm of the place. It was designed after a famous city on their age, Venice. Full of atmosphere, it soon became one of the city's most famous and romantic districts. Instead of streets it had water canals, like it's predecessor on Earth. Boats floated up and down the canals and under wooden bridges. Shops sold expensive Venetian paper-mâche masks; with feathers, gold trim, and rhinestones.

Stopping in the center square of Old Venice, Yuffie pointed at five men, dressed in elaborate, expensive costumes, and with Venetian masks designed to imitate jesters. "Comeon Squall, can we listen to the Honkers? Please?"

"It's Leon and fine, you can listen to one song."

Jumping up and down like a human bouncy ball, Yuffie dropped a tip in one of the five's collection plate. The 'Honkers' came from a long tradition of musicians on a far away world in the Twilight system. After they're world was destroyed by the heartless, they used their skills to make money to survive. Many stayed on after their age was destroyed, becoming rich off private performances.

The novelty of the Honkers was in their costumes; they were very old and expensive, often passed down in the family. They had horns sown in the suits, situated behind their knees and elbows and on the chest, so that by moving their bodies, they would squeeze and honk the horns, playing a variety of tunes, from Beethoven to popular music to lullabies, moving in a jerky, repetitive dance that Cloud called 'step aerobics from hell'.

Moving on, they headed home to the Bell Tower.

The Bell Town was shaped like a giant, up-side down T. It was built on two giant concrete foundations in the middle of the main canal of Old Venice. The bottom of the upside-down T was 2 buildings, the West wing and the East wing. The East wing served as an orphanage, hotel, living quarters, kitchen, storage, labs, and shops. The West wing served as a hangar for gummi ships, Cid's accessory shop, and various workshops. In-between the two buildings was an arch under which the canal cut through, and served as a habor for ships entering the Bell Tower. There was also a small, private train station which cut over the rooftops of Old Venice and ended on the roof of the East wing. The shaft of the upside-down T was the actual bell tower itself. Topped with a clay-tiled roof, the tower had two metal arms extending from it's sides, each of which had two bells, one large, one small. The front and back sides of the tower had clock faces. The actual bell tower itself was made of gummi blocks; it served as a shelter for the whole of Old Venice in case of heartless attack; heartless could not teleport inside areas surrounded by gummi blocks.

Bellow the bells of the bell tower, on each of the four sides of the tower, were 2 metal poles, sticking out of the tower's side. Between the two poles a fine, multicolored, mesh net was hung. Inside that net where chips of clear crystal which burned with the brilliance of small suns. They were called sunstones, magic from an age called Seven Towers, after the castle that the people who made these stones resided. That technology was brought to Twilight town, and used to make the thin, multi-purpose ornate spires called sunspires. When these stones where ready, they would be brought down and set on top of these spires, replacing the older, worn out ones.

The sun was just beginning to come out from over the horizon. Leon blinked; that meant that the debate in the Senate had raged all night and all of yesterday; funny, it hadn't felt that long. Looking up, he saw the residents of the Bell Tower readying themselves for the day. On the widow's walk 3on top of the West wing, Cid was pacing around, probably smoking a cigar, and taking a break from his work. He had tried to quit smoking cigars, unsuccessfully, 4 years ago. Cloud and one of the Nobody, the blindfolded one, where sparring on top of the widow's walk as well; Cloud with his gigantic buster sword, and the Nobody with his bat-wing shaped sword. Across the channel, a dog was barking. A door opened; Riona's head peeked out, yelling "SHUT UP!!!" before closing the door again. He request was obeyed; for 2 seconds. Then the barking started up again.

On top of the tower, the Dual-wielding Nobody was sitting on top of the bell tower. 3 people where sitting on his left, two on the right, making them 6 people in total. They were all kids from the Bell Tower's orphanage, who had had befriended in the time he had stayed here. Having abandoned the Nobody's distinctive black raincoat in favor of black and white clothes, he sat in the middle, holding a large, trophy-like piece of machinery, with 6 sunstones attached to it.

Reaching out, he plucked what, from a distance, looked like a clear sphere. He passed it down to the last kid to the left, in jeans, red T-shirt, and a white jacket. The kid held it up in the air, revealing it to be a red, equilateral triangular pyramid; a tetrahedron4. Catching the morning sun's first rays, it began to glow. Around the city, half of the sunspires came on line, glowing with red light.

Moving from the left to the right, the Nobody passed out the sunstones to the orphans, who held them up to the sun, each activating half of the remaining sunspires, which then glowed the same color as the sphere. Next came an orange cube, then a yellow octahedron (geometric solid with 8 triangular sides), then a green dodecahedron (geometric solid with 12 pentagonal sides), then a blue icosahedron (20 sided geometric figure). Plucking the last figure from the machine, a violet sphere, and holding it to the sun, the Nobody watched the as the last of the sunspires came online, glowing purple.

All the sunspires shot white lines of light out, connecting them to the sunspires closest to them. Then, each sunspire cast a white light upwards, which spread outward, forming a rainbow-colored shield over the city, which slowly faded away, invisible but still there. Satisfied, the 6 handed their sunstones back to the Nobody, who replaced them in the machine.

The Bell tower also contained the machinery that operated the sunspires of Twilight Town. The same ritual would be preformed at sunset, lowering the shield and brightening the spheres so they could light the nighttime streets of Twilight Town. Smiling, the Nobody teleported them down from the top of the tower, all six disappearing in a flash of black lightning.
...

Laughing and joking, the six walked down the main isle of the west wing, made out of a highly polished, marble-like substance. At first glance, no one would have thought that the blonde-haired kid was a Nobody; he seemed like a normal kid, joking and talking with his newfound friends. Not like the tall, powerful Nobody of myth, quiet and aloof and imposing. By his side, a girl with shoulder-length brown hair and eyes, dressed in yellow and orange, was talking animatedly, trying to convince him to do something. The Nobody listened politely, hands folded behind his back, head slightly tilted down.

"You need to tell your friend to come down and... well, mingle a little. He may be a Nobody, but that doesn't mean he has to act like one, all aloof all the time. I mean, you're a Nobody and you come down and..."

"Alright, slow down." He said, not bothering to correct her of the fact that Strife was not, technically, a Nobody. Natalia was like that; very bubbly and talktative. If he didn't stop her, she could go on like that for a while. "Who is it this time?"

"Why, whatever do you mean?" Natalia asked, trying to look innocent. And failing miserably. Natalia loved to play matchmaker, and everyone knew it. "Listen, I'll talk to him. But please leave him out of your little matchmaking games."

The Nobody sighed. Strife just wasn't the type of person who was very sociable. And he was stubborn. Not only that, but he was a little afraid of Natalia's persistence and annoyed at her constant attempts to set him up on dates.

"Come on." He said. "I want to look at the sunspire."

In the middle of the hallway, a sort of mini-sunspire sat. Several of these where scatted throughout the Bell Tower, providing it with the same shield as their larger counterparts around the city. Moving toward it, they headed for it's base.

The base of the sunspire was covered with large, black scales and smaller, ornate bronze scales. The black scales where generating 3-d interactive screens; sophisticated holograms that could be manipulated by touch, in front of the people who where gathered there. As he drew closer, a similar screen materialized in front of him. Pushing a button of the screen called news, several more screens materialized in front of him and his friends, replacing the previous screens.

"So high that it touches the clouds. It's their mark. And nothing is left on the age this thing is on."

He frowned, adjusting the individual volume on his screens. Always a day late and a dollar short, of course. What was this person talking about? He needed truth, hard facts, if he was to figure out this new threat behind the heartless. But there was nothing but silence when the truth was weighed in. they knew so little... and it disturbed him. It was not the destruction of this world that unsettled him; this world meant so little in the whole balance of things; it was this worrisome fact that the Nobody, whose job it was to know everything going on in the Present world, knew nothing of their adversary.

Thanking the interviewee, the news anchor went on to the next story. "A mercenary turned in one of her own crew in place of a wanted prisoner today, running off with over 1.5 million in reward money. As for her identity, there was no firm determination. She is reported to be about 6 feet tall, 120 pounds, and armed." They had obtained images from a security tape which had been enhanced. Zooming in his screen, the Nobody took a good look at the picture of the single woman.

"Coming?" Strife said forebodingly, appearing unnoticed behind the Dual Wielder. "They may already be here." Turning, Strife teleported away silently, still unnoticed by the other Nobody and the crowd.
...

Leon strode forward, headed for the kitchen. He was hungry. Maybe Riona or Aeris had already cooked some scrabbled eggs and bacon. Hopefully Yuffie wasn't there, eating cereal or pancakes with extra syrup or something else drowned in sugar that would make her even more hyper than usual, if that where possible. Relaxing, he tried to get the senatorial debate out of his head. Out there, on the far reaches of the system, something was definitely going on. But for now, here, everything was as it should be. He opened the door and stopped. He had been wrong; everything was not as it should have been.
...

Grabbing Kairi by her shirt, the cloaked man lifted her up as if she were as light as a feather. Holding one of the spikes from his weapons to her throat, he spoke.

"Now, Where's Sora?"

Kairi looked at him, fear in her eyes. However this man was, he didn't want to know where Sora was to deliver him a package. No, he looked like he wanted to kill Sora; or at the very least, maim. Squirming as if uncomfortable, she wormed one of her knives she kept up her sleeve into her hand.

"I...I can't let you see Sora!"

"Ah, so he's here, then." Pulling her closer, he whispered so only he and she could hear. "I wonder how fast he'd come running if he found out I was hurting..."

With an inhuman shriek of pain, he dropped Kairi, clutching the hilt of the knife that was buried deep in his chest. Wasting no time, Kairi grabbed Tifa and ran, going for the harbor.

Running headlong to the boat, they only got halfway down the path when they where both surrounded by a ring of fire, cutting them off. There was a flash a dark fire, and the red-haired man appeared again. He had pulled the knife out of his chest, and now had out both of his spiked wheels, twirling them, oblivious to the gaping hole in his chest where his heart should have been. Through the cut, she could see some kind of red crystal that looked as if it filled his entire body. His face was contorted with rage.

"ENOUGH. I don't care if you know where Sora is, and long as I KILL YOU!!!"

He flung his weapons at them. Tifa ducked to avoid it; Kairi swung her quarterstaff around, deflecting the weapon back at the cloaked man. He caught it, another spell already ready in his other hand. "Lava Ax!" a huge ax swooshed past Kairi's head, burning her skin and hair. The wheel he had thrown at Tifa came back; she threw herself out of the way, but not fast enough; it cut her on the shoulder, blood seeping out from between her fingers, slicing through her collarbone. Closing the gap between them, Kairi ran at the unknown. His attacks, because they were mostly magic, were distance based, not designed for combat in close quarters. Kairi held her quarterstaff low near hear knees, looking as if she would try to sweep his feet out from under him. He crouched down low, wheels at his knees, ready to block. But instead of sweeping his feet out from under him, she brought her staff up, hitting him hard enough under the chin he staggered backwards. She began to hit him on his knees, stomach, arms, over the head; anywhere she could get to before he recovered and stopped her, making sure he had no room to use his spiked wheels. Tifa slipped behind him.

"Aero!" the redhead roared, the force of the protective spell blasting Kairi and Tifa back several steps. Reaching out, he grabbed the end of Kairi's quarterstaff and tried to yank it from her hands. In the few second that she had, Tifa cast cure on herself, feeling the familiar magic seep into her body and heal her wound. Healed, she positioned herself behind the unknown, hands at the ready.

As Aero began to phase out, the unknown found himself attacked on both sides; Kairi with the quarterstaff in the front, and Tifa tenderizing his back and head with her fists behind him. Using his spiked wheels, he slashed at Tifa's head and neck and used them to block Kairi's quarterstaff.

Even though the unknown was the stronger and more skilled of the three, the relentless assault of 2 people was beginning to wear him out. As he fought, his wound began to bleed. His etheric body, manifested inside him, began to flicker.

Tifa was beginning to get tired, too. Dodging another slash at her neck and stomach by the unknown, she was almost too slow. A shallow cut appeared on her stomach and one of the blades nicked her throat. Sensing she was weak, he focused his attention on her, driving her back into the flame wall, away from Kairi. Slashing at her again, she raised her arms to deflect the blows, the spikes cutting two slashes in her arms. Sensing an opening, he cast Firaga, a ball of fire hitting Tifa and knocking her unconscious.

Finished with Tifa, he turned to Kairi. Standing and panting heavily, she rushed over to Tifa and the unknown. But the unknown disappeared. Kairi stopped, turning slowly in a circle, quarterstaff at the ready. Suddenly, the unknown reappeared behind her, and stabbed her in the side with the spike of one of his wheels.

The unknown kneeled down on the ground, beside Kairi. She was clutching her side and wheezing; he had probably punctured a lung. Such a wound would kill her in about five minutes; blood would seep into the lung, drowning her. But for the cloaked man, that death would not be fast enough. He held one of the blades over her head, ready to plunge it into her temple. Suddenly, he felt another presence teleport inside the ring of fire.

"Stop, Axel." The newcomer said, eyes glowing.
...

Unlike most of the inhabitants of Yul, Ellos did not live off of the main cavern in one of the rooms. She lived at the very bottom of the cavern, among the crosswalks and stairs that threaded around the arms of the machine. Most of the wiser, older inhabitants lived in the bottom of the Shelter, in rooms nestled close to the machine, their provider. Shure, the air was fresher on top, but more heartless appeared in the upper levels. And their was no sky, no stars to look upon on top. The inhabitants of Yul hoped that their where no stars, no other ages as twisted and tortured as their own.

Down bellow, you were left alone. No heartless, no mindless came down in these depths, where darkness crawled as if it were a living thing, far away from Yul's fiery sun. There was more time down here to lose yourself. More time to forget. Clambering down the pipes, Ellos climbed ever downwards, headed for the water collection vats. In natural wide, shallow pools ringed with sulfur, Ellos rolled up her pants legs plunged her feet into the water, feeling the minerals in it seep into her bones and warm her weak, achy joints. The Roots and other older members of the Shelter came down here to soak in the pools as well; the minerals where believed to be good for arthritis, rheumatism, and a thousand other ills of the bones and the joints.

Ellos sighed in contentment. Root May was right; the feeling of bathing, just wrapped in warm, hot water, feeling all the worries and cares just wash off your skin along with the dirt, you could almost imagine it washing away all the darkness and evil from you heart as well. Sulfur from the water stung at cuts and scrapes and bruises from her twice daily missions to the surface; departing kisses from the Devil's own Hell's Angels.

Pulling up the back of her shirt and tucking it in her collar, she tensed and then relaxed her muscles, a wing springing forth from her left shoulder.

She normally kept it inside of her, so that it's color wouldn't fade, but she usually let it out to stretch it every couple of days; it got itchy if she left it inside her too long.

In unison, a hand slid down her wing to her shoulder, making her shudder as a well-known voice spoke in her ear. "Is this part of the reason you won't talk to me about the High Road?"

Slightly annoyed, she turned to the speaker. Few people could claim to have snuck up on Ellos; actually, only one could claim to have done such a feat. If not for the calming effect of the water on her, she would have been madder; and if it had been anyone else who had touched her, she probably would have already removed their hand from their arm.

"What are you doing here?" She asked, slightly annoyed at his arrogant attitude as he slowly sat down next to her, taking his time before answering. "Trying to get some answers, that all. You still haven't told me about how this works." He said, pointing at the octopus-like machine on top of them.

"Do you know about E = MC squared? Basically it says that energy and matter the same thing; they can be converted from one to the other. We call this substance which is both energy and matter aether. Aether in a pure form, where it is both energy and matter simultaneously, is rare. The only three examples we know of is gummi blocks, quanta 5, and shadowflesh.

Once a heart reaches a certain size, the outer layer's energy starts to slow down, becoming gummi aether. Depending on the types and amounts of energy, different types of gummi aether develop. If the aether is pumped ever farther away from the original heart, it turns completely into matter, specifically elements that we use to synthesize simple compounds we can't get from the surface; water, hydrogen fuel to power machines, oxygen gas and other gases to create an atmosphere, even a new element that absorbs heat energy while it radioactively decays that we use to cool down the cavern. different gummi aethers yield different elements. We call the whole process synthesizing."

Looking up at the pipes with a newfound wonder, Strife gazed at them as if he had never had candy in his life and his mom had just taken him into a candy store. Ellos couldn't help but smile, something she did so infrequently she could count the times on her two hands; half of them where caused by Strife, even though he had only come into her life 2 months ago. That was one of the things she liked and admired about him; his curiosity and desire to explore. It seemed almost boundless; and when he was curious, it was the only time he dropped that slightly arrogant front of his.

"And you have all this data stored somewhere? On synthesizing?"

Ellos smiled, reacheding into her pocket and bringing out a battered handheld organizer. It had no keyboard, only a stylus for writing directly on the screen. "All my research is in here; how to make gummi blocks, synthesize hearts, elements, what you need, the properties of gummi blocks, everything. In my own personal journal."

"Who helped you do all this? You couldn't have done it all on your own."

"I, the Roots and a newcomer did it. It was the newcomer's idea."

"Who was this newcomer? Was his name King Mickey? Did he look like a giant mouse?"

Ellos cocked her head to the side, not knowing what a mouse looked like. "His name was King Mickey. Really short guy. Big, round ears."

"Where did he go afterwards?"

"He had a big, key-shaped sword. He said it was called a keyblade and that it could get him out of Kingdom Heart by going through another door, not the one that lead to the present world. One that lead to a world called the In-Between place.

Strife stopped his examination of the machine above him. "Did he leave any notes about the keyblades? Their powers, how they where made?

Ellos paused, thinking. "He left a lot of notes... we could search through them, if you want..."

Ellos stopped, realizing he wasn't listening. He was concocting some daring plan. Hopefully this one would not get them killed. "Listen. Tomorrow we're going to look through those notes. Then were going to make ourselves a keyblade; if anyone knows how to do it, King Mickey does. Where also going to find the door King Mickey used to escape Kingdom Hearts; it must be easier to get through, because otherwise he would have just used the door to the present world."

Ellos nodded. This was a good plan; this way, they would get out of Kingdom Hearts, and Ellos would not have to tell Strife the secret that King Mickey had sworn her to silence.

Sighing, she saw Strife begin climbing the stairs, obviously going to tackle those notes. Bathtime was over. Retracting her wing, she got up, stopping to pick up one of the feathers that had come lose. It was bright yellow at the top, with deep purples and blacks at the bottom; the same as her wing.
 ...

Author's notes

1.) the system of government on Twilight Town is based on the Ancient roman system. here is some info on the people mentioned in the first scene

2 consuls—chief magistrates who convened and presided over the Senate and assemblies, initiated and administered legislation, served as generals in military campaigns, and represented Rome in foreign affairs. When their term of office was completed, consuls usually governed a province as proconsul.

8 praetors—served primarily as judges in law courts, but could convene the Senate and assemblies; they assumed administrative duties of consuls when these were absent from Rome.

2 censors—elected every 5 years for terms of 1½ years; revised lists of senators and equestrians; conducted census of citizens and property assessments for tax purposes; granted state contracts.

4 aediles—supervised public places, public games, and the grain supply in the city of Rome; 2 were required to be plebeians, and the other two (who had more status) could come from either order; the latter 2 were called curule aediles.

20 quaestors—administered finances of state treasury and served in various capacities in the provinces; when elected quaestor, a man automatically became eligible for membership in the Senate, though censors had to appoint him to fill a vacancy

2.) Twilight Town still has an intact world wall. To allow intra-space travel, holes, or shield portals, have been cut into it.

3.) Widow's Walk- A railed, rooftop platform typically on a coastal house, originally designed to observe vessels at sea

4.) Instead of using spheres, I used platonic solids, or regular geometric solids, to spice things up. Unfortunately, I forgot that there was only 5.

5.) Quanta- yes, quanta is actually a real thing; quantum physics gets it's name from quanta. Quanta is packets of light which are simultaneously energy and matter. In my story, it is also the mindless equivalent of shadowflesh.
...

Adalai- It's done! Wootage! does happy dance

Dante- you still gotta pay for that mirror.

Adalai- never mind the mirror. We can use the stainless steel fridge.

Dante- I don't think that will work...

Adalai- Okay, I am inside your mind...

Mirror- food, food, food, food, food, food...

Adalai- is that all you can think about? Food?

Dante- yeah, because I'm out of it. you need to fill the food bowl.

Adalai- but I just filled it last month! Fine, fine... grumbles and fills food bowl

Dante- ok, while Adalai is filling the food bowl, she cannot read the reader's minds. So you will have to review. A lot. The more you review, the faster she fills the food bowl, and that makes everyone happy.

...

One has only a life of one's own.

- Orleanna, The Posionwood Bible