Lightbringer; Chpt. 9- Revelation
Adalai- Alright Stinky, Disclaimer!
Stinky, Muse of Comedy- Adalai owns nothing. Ok!!!! NOTHING!!! Runs away bawling, asking 'god why me'.
Adalai- Ok... that was somewhat unexpected...But I do own the plot and OCs. AHAH! points and laughs at lawyers, singing 'you can't sue me, you can't sue me...ect, ad verbatim. Sorry about the lateness. I took a break over the weekend; read my summer reading, read The Brotherhood of the Tomb, and learned to slalom ski.
...
"Just what is in that room?"
Cid grabbed a ring full of keys, fitting one into the lock of the clock room, and answering Ellos. "We rented it out as a workshop to a guy who makes Venetian masks."
Ellos nodded, knives already out of their sheaths. In Old Venice, just like in the original Venice, tourism was a main source of revenue and the symbol of the city and the most popular and common souvenir brought home was a Venetian mask. The Venetian mask business was so large you couldn't spit in a street without hitting a mask shop. No tourist left Old Venice without at least one mask.
Ellos carefully felt the side of her chest for the claw wounds from her previous battle. Last she looked at them, they were too deep to go without immediate treatment. But as she felt them, she found that not only were they not bleeding, but that they were noticeably smaller and shallower. Full Cure, Ellos reminded herself.
Turning the key, Cid opened the door to the room. The first thing Ellos noticed was a string of deep blue and magenta music, muffled and almost ethereal, touched with white bands of piano cords. Music and yet not quite music.
Deathly silent, they fanned out, searching for the source of the sound. Ellos with her glove blades, Cid with his lance, Leon with his gunblade, and Strife with...whatever weapons the Nobody use. If Nobody even used weapons. They relied very heavily on magic in battle.
On the wall opposite of them, the giant clock and it's gears continued their measurement of the inexorable onward march of time, a twitch of a clock hand for each grain of sand. The other two walls were covered with bookcases full of books. Between the clock and the door lay the equipment of the mask trade; 6 tables, 4 heavy wood, other's cheaper, smaller, made of plastic. They were covered in masks; plain white bauta with tricorne and veil, Pulcinella or joker masks, cat-like Copia de Gatti, the Civetti half- masks, the caricaturized Harlequin masks, sun and moon masks, Arlecchino masks with admiral hats, Zanni masks with huge, elongated noses like raven's beaks, all made of molded paper and gold leaf. Precious artifacts, worth their weight in gold, they were scattered like leaves among bottles of pain and glitter, gold leaf, brushes, enamel, precious metals and stones, rare feathers, and boiling pots of papier-mâché under Burstein burners.
Edging to the last table to the left, Ellos discovered the source of the sound; an old fashioned gramophone, designed to look old but unmistakably new with it's burnished metals and smooth curves. The sound had been that of a gramophone needle stuck in a record groove; playing the same stand of music over and over again. Carefully, Ellos picked up the gramophone arm and placed it back on the record. The machine continued it's scratchy song as if nothing had ever happened.
Hey Jude, don't make it bad...
Ellos remained alert, scanning the room. It's not done yet. Wait till it's over. Ellos thought. Nothing was done without reason. Someone had put the record on; probably the person who had owned this room, and he had not been seen. And in Ellos' mind that meant Not Yet.
Take a sad song and make it better...
And then the song was drowned out with the sound of shattering glass. Ellos bolted, a tan colored streak dashing across the room, to where Strife was. Grabbing a chair, she used her own momentum to swing around and bring the chair up, using it as a shield between him and her for whatever would come through that glass.
A stream of deepest black laced with tainted, sickly light slammed into the chair Ellos was holding up. The stream split into two, going around Ellos on either side, covering the room with black and white, corroding the floor beneath them and the tables and walls around them. Ellos felt the chair being eaten away by the cloying darkness and the desiccated light from the stream that had broken from the clock face. She could hear the groans from the floor as the substance ate away at it, dripping through cracks that had opened up down into the lower layers. Those cracks had not been eaten through by the cloud; the floor had been so weakened that it was about to collapse. It shook and rattled, sending masks flying everywhere, tables overturning, spilling hot pots papier-mâché on the floor.
Ellos took a step back, arms straining under the sheer weight of the stream. The floor began to sag under them. Chunks of plaster and gummi blocks from the roof and walls fell down. The gramophone rocked and fell, screeching out it's music despite it's sideways position on the floor.
Remember to let her into your heart...
"Strife, A little help here?!"
Then you can start to make it better...
Suddenly, Ellos felt the floor leaving her feet. Falling, the chair thrown out of her reach, she fell, the stream following her, a hungry, malovent animal, reaching to devour. Ellos landed, feeling the wood of the floor bellow them on her back. At the same instant, a blue light surrounded her, driving away the darkness around her, an ancient ward of evil; a thin, wraithlike heart, the Heartless symbol filled in.
Hey Jude, Don't be afraid...
The stream paused from it's descent on Ellos, for just the tiniest fraction of a second. Not long enough to think, not long enough to prepare. Just long enough to raise her arm a fraction of an inch more.
You were made to go out and get her...
Ellos slashed at the stream, slicing it into two pieces. The light and darkness around her seemed to scream in pain. The stream hung there, flailing like a severed limb, and jerked upward, out of the gap in the ceiling. The darkness around them grew and covered the entire room and ceiling, blocking off all light except that light given by the sickly white light, which only seemed to make the shadows deeper.
The minute you let her under your skin...
But inside the barrier Strife erected, they where safe. For now. The darkness and light didn't seem to be trying to attack them anymore; it just stayed where it was, shifting slightly, like people in a studio watching a movie.
Then you begin...
"Ellos, come here."
Ellos turned, looking at Strife. He was crouching over someone on the floor. That person seemed to...flicker, was the only word to describe it. to fade in and out of existence. What shocked her was that this person looked exactly like Scion, except with brown hair and not blonde. He was wearing black clothes with red and blue in them, and holding a silver keyblade with a gold hilt.
Ellos crouched by the side of the figure. She examined him; he was still alive and didn't seem to be knocked out. In fact, he seemed to be sleeping.
"It's Sora."
To make it better.
...
Untangling his fingers from the hilt of the Keyblade, a thousand questions moved through Ellos' mind. What was Strife's friend doing here? Strife had told her that he had sealed the door to Kingdom Hearts. What was he doing inside the black and white cloud that had descended upon the Bell Tower? Why was he flickering in and out of existence, as if he wasn't really here? Why did he look just like Scion?
Strife looked at Sora, similar questions running through his mind. What was he doing here, on Twilight Town, when they had been looking for him everywhere? Why did Scion look just like Sora; that was a mystery that Scion had never really explained to him. But most importantly; what was he going to say? What did you say to a friend you've betrayed like he had betrayed Sora?
And anytime you feel the pain, hey Jude, refrain,...
Somewhere in the broken wreckage, the gramophone continued it's song, miraculously untouched in the chaos that surrounded it, it's song strangely draw out.
Don't carry the world on your shoulders...
Hey Strife, You okay down there?
Hearing Scion in his mind, Strife answered sarcastically; Yes, where fine. Other than being surrounded by seething darkness separated from us by a thin layer of spells, we're just Kosher. How are the others?
Unhurt, thanks to Ellos' little stunt. We can't get to you because of the seething darkness just mentioned above cutting off the room below. Leon and Cid are going down the stairs now to try to fight his way in through the door.
One more thing...Sora's here.
What in the 10,000 hells...
He's unconscious though...
Suddenly, Sora sat up, gasping for breath. Ending his internal monologue, Strife looked at Sora in surprise.
"Sora? You okay?"
"That's not the story."
Head cocked to the side, a sign that she was confused, Ellos looked at Strife as if to say What the Hell's he talking about? Strife shrugged.
"We've forgotten the true story over time, but we still remember it; Adam and Eve, Pandora's box, the story of the Keyblades, Kairi's story.
Stories of mankind's first sin, Ellos thought, recognizing the first two stories but not the last two.
For well you know that it's a fool...
Sora turned to Riku. "I have to find...you have to help me, Riku, help me find them, help me find the others..."
Something was wrong with him. Ellos could feel it. Almost like more than one person was controlling him, fighting over ownership of his body. There was something about his eyes she didn't like; they seemed...empty. And he reeked with a sort of darkness that Ellos had never felt before.
Who plays it cool...
"Have to find the keyhole to this world...you have to help me, you're the only one who can do it..." then he turned around, muttering distractingly, running his hands through his hair.
By making this world a little colder...
"Remember the first line of the story?" Sora said, turning back to Strife, going from distraught to utterly composed in a blink of an eye. "Long ago, the children lived, bathed in the warmth of the light. The story was wrong from the beginning. The children didn't have any light, any darkness...It's wrong, all wrong. Then there was the End. The End and their own stupidity brought their downfall...now the End has only to wait, wait for the right time, now that the Endless are gone and they can't link any more hearts...now that the Endless are gone..."
Hey Jude, don't let me down...
"I have to find the...Lucifer, Have to find it... 'The true light sleeps, deep in the darkness...but the door to the light is not behind the darkness..."
You have found her, now go and get her...
Ellos looked at Strife. Lucifer meant 'Lightbringer' or 'Lightbearer'. It was also the name of the devil, before he fell. The greatest of all angels, created to be the servant of all mankind, before his pride caused him to fall, and he became Satan, 'adversary'. The serpent who tempted the first humans to sin in Paradise.
Sora began walking forward, hands in his pockets, an air of melancholy around him. He began to fade, and then vanish.
Remember, to let her into your heart...
Strife turned around and grabbed Ellos. "Where's the keyhole for this world?
Before Ellos could answer, the shield barrier went out and the darkness, which had been waiting for so long, began to encroach, creeping towards Ellos and Strife. Turning, they saw Leon, Scion, and Cid (wow, they rhyme!) finally break through the door.
"Ellos, Strife...Holy &%$, what the !$% is that!"
"No time to explain. I think Sora's headed for the keyhole."
"Wait, Sora's here?! Why was I not told?"
Ignoring their questions, Ellos grabbed Strife and pulled him out of the room, trying to remember where the keyhole was. Followed by Scion, they could feel the tower shake, throttled by the dark cloud, which had broken into the Bell Tower at several places already, darkness leaking in and corroding the gummi blocks the tower was made of. If she remembered correctly, it was somewhere in the center of Center city...
Running down the stairs, through a corridor, Ellos suddenly felt the presence of a dark energy she had started to associate with Sora. She turned and nodded to Strife, jerking her head at the door.
So let it out and let it in...
The Nobody understood. The Oathkeeper and the Oblivion manifested in his hands. Handing the Oblivion to Strife, he pulled out the Kingdom Key from beneath him raincoat. Ellos blinked; hadn't Sora just had that Keyblade?
Ellos grabbed her two weapons from the back of her jacket, bringing them in front of her with a twirl; this was a job for the big boys. Ellos' weapons had been found with her when she was abandoned in Kingdom Hearts; They were hybrids between quarterstaffs, swords, pikes, and guns, shaped like stretched out 'S's and looked vaguely like two keyblades joined at the hilt, the heads of the keys facing opposite directions.
The first consisted of a black bat's wing, with a crescent shaped blade attached to one of the sides of the batwing blade, with regularly-spaced spikes on it. the bottom was wood, with small blades attached to the side, and a triangular piece of metal, similar to a lance head, on the bottom. Another crescent blade with spikes was at the bottom, facing the opposite direction as the one on the top. It had two slender chains on it, connecting the spike on the bat-wing blade to a hook in the middle, and the hook in the middle to the bottom, just above the lance head.
The bottom of the second consisted of a gun, with a piece of metal shaped like a spade cut in half with three spikes, the middle larger than the side ones, on top, and a curved, serrated blade, adorned with a stylized engraving of an angel wing, on the bottom. The top consisted of plain wood, with a orb with three spikes on top, facing the opposite direction as the spikes on the bottom. It was held in place with several metal strips and two more of the half-spade shaped pieces of metal. A thick, heavy chain made of metal links extended from the top to the middle.
Both had small metal handles extending perpendicular from the weapon, connected to the middle by a ball-and-socket joint. for a picture, go to the photobucket website, search for Ellos 06 (underscore between Ellos and 06), look in the album called 'pen'. It's the only picture in there, called Untitled-20.Ellos twirled the blades back and forth, testing their balance.
Hey Jude, Begin...
Strife reached up and opened the door. Sora was there. Darkness and burning blue-white light danced over him, centered around his keyblade.
"They're coming, you know. Coming for this world, to take it. Look at this." Sora said, throwing up his arms, indicating the age around him. "This monstrosity, this lump of progeny and nonsense, this senselessness and chaos. This stupid balance, all these mindless hearts running around, living and dying without even being noticed just because of the sheer numbers of them. It's funny really, all those hearts out there and not a one knows the truth."
You're waiting for someone to perform with...
Turning, Sora pointed his keyblade at the wall. A blue light shot from the tip of the keyblade, forming a blue keyhole. "the Door to the Light; it can't exist! It can only be made from the heart of one of the original children, which held the true light used to make the Present World. 'And they found that light, in the hearts of children.' But the children are all dead! They'll never be a Door to the Light for me to open!"
And you don't know that it's just you,...
As they watched in horror, two beams, one of darkness and one of light, went from Sora and into the Keyhole.
"And Hearts; they're just mistakes! Born from failed Heartless and Mindless, generations ago, Light and Darkness thrown together! Light and Darkness aren't suppose to be together, in balance; they are just suppose to be Light or Darkness in a Heart, just a Heartless or a Mindless. Look at how easy it is to make a heartless or mindless from a heart; That is the natural state of the heart! To be either Darkness or Light, not this in- between state!"
As they watched, the Keyhole began to fade, parts of it breaking off and dissolving.
Hey Jude, you'll do...
"I'll unlock the Keyhole, free the darkness and light inside. Then all hearts will revert to their true state; of mindless and heartless. I'll do it to the Doors, and all the Worlds will be connected to each other. I'll fix the children's mistake; return everything to the way it once was, before the Riven, before hearts. No more keyblades, no more stupid fumbling for doors that don't exist; Just Light and Darkness and the End.
Sora smiled, almost sadly. "Just nothing. No more pain, no more separation, no more grief. We can't wait."
Hey Jude, don't make it bad...
Suddenly, the connection between the Sora's keyblade and the keyhole fizzled out. Strife stood, Oblivion in hand, a thin line of blue and gold between him and the Keyhole, the blue energy filling out the keyhole, and yellow seeming to wash over it, protecting it.
Take a sad song and make it better...
Sora grinned. "Too late."
A huge wave of darkness and light seemed come from the Keyhole. Building up, the mass pushed at the golden wash over the Keyhole. Sensing what was about to happen, Ellos stepped between the two Nobody and the Keyhole, twirling her weapons and crossing them in front of her chest.
Remember to let her under your skin...
"Get ready for it!"
A new voice for Ellos and Scion and a familiar one for Strife, all three paused, distracted.
And then the Keyhole broke.
A huge wave of darkness and light, a power greater than any Ellos had ever seen, came from the keyhole, edged in gold, the last of the Keyblade's power trying to contain the force. It slammed into Ellos, causing her to reel backwards. Struggling, she managed to force the weapons forward, away from her chest, only to have them thrust backwards again. Only a second had passed, and she already knew both her arms where broken from the force of it, her body pushed back almost to the wall.
And then you'll begin...
Ellos heard chanting from new voices, women's voices, in her head. Her weapons began to glow all different colors, each color on one with an opposite color on the other. Red on one, Blue on another; gold on one, silver on the other, ect. She felt Strife grab her around the waist with one arm, the other holding the Oblivion, steadying her and helping her resist the flow.
"Hang on!"
Another second passed, forcing both teens into the wall, pressed against each other. Strife struggling with the Oblivion, the gold light beginning to faze out.
Suddenly, the chanting stopped, Ellos weapons stopped glowing, and the tide of darkness and light stopped, the halting almost as violent as the flow itself, slamming into her as a physical force. Winded and knocked unconscious, Ellos and Strife collapsed to the ground. The last thing Ellos remembered seeing was two figures, one a tan, blond boy with uneven pants and the other something that could be only, in the vaguest sense, described as a woman, with a large, flower-shaped organ behind her ear, yelling
YYYYYYYYEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
To make it all better, better, better, better...
...
Adalai- wootage! The whole things done, and all in one day, too. Right on schedule. Mmmuuuaaahhh-ha-ha-ha-ah!!!! How's that?
Stinky- evil...at least to the people at Blockbuster who put Care Bear episodes in the horror section.
Adalai- Darn. Goes off the practice evil laugh
Sephiroth- hears Adalai's evil laugh needs to be deeper and with more of a cackle...
Cloud- what would you know about evil laughs? Or being evil, for that matter?
Sephiroth- If I'm not a great evil villain, than why would I have a rule dedicated to me in The Grand List of Console Role-Playing Game Clichés? Pulls out list Check out number 144.
Cloud- flips through list 144...144...144...Sephiroth Memorial Escape Clause- any misdeed up to and including multiple genocide is forgivable if your cool enough...
Stinky- I need a Sephiroth Memorial Escape Clause...
Cloud- Hey, no fair! I was the main character of that video game; why don't I have any rules named after me?
Stinky- You do. Check out 13 and 104.
Cloud- hhummmnnn...The Higher the hair, the Closer to God (Cloud Rule)- the more outrageous the hairstyle, the more important the male character is to the story...The...WHAT!!!! Miss Cloud rule!!!!
Stinky- hehehehehehe...
Cloud- I'm not a transvestite!
Stinky- sure you are...
Cloud goes and beats up Stinky, because Cloud is a Jenova clone with a giant sword and demon wing, and Stinky is just an old cat who can't lie on his back because he's too fat to breathe.
Adalai- Ok, how about this... sees Cloud mop the floor with Stinky, literally uh, nevermind... that's all the time for today folks! And remember, review! This Chapter is dedicated to Blahx3, my second reviewer! You get a bacon omelet! And what's left of Stinky, if you want it...
...
Are your marvels declared in the darkness, your righteous deeds in the land of oblivion?
- Psalm 88, verse 13