Emma advanced to Shiva's side, wielding her silver-and-blue knife. Rikku jumped back as she passed her. "Cra'c ymm pmia!" she exclaimed. "Yht cra moogc cu lnaabo!"
"Rikku says that Emma looks creepy," Yuna translated quickly. "I have to admit, she does look sort of menacing…is everything all right?"
Dia nodded, and leaned against the wall. "Nothing to worry about, Yuna; just sit back, and watch a preteen and a talking Aeon beat the dookie out of a man-lady."
Shiva held out her hands. "Heavenly Strike!" An enormous slab of ice appeared, and dropped on top on Anima. It let out an agonized roar. "Oh, did that measly block harm you? Then I suggest you run away as soon as possible, because I'm just getting started."
"So are we, girls. So are we," Seymour murmured. He gave them a cold, bland smile. "Pain!"
Obediently, Anima turned its head. Its eyes started glowing, and with a flicking movement, sent a small, shining mass of energy at Shiva. She smirked. "Thank you, Maester. With two more blasts from that fish-Aeon of yours, I'll be at full Overdrive." Seymour narrowed his eyes.
"Overdrive?" Kairi repeated. "What's that?"
"It's sort of a super-attack," Sora explained. "Like Emma's stones."
Emma lightly scraped Shiva with her knife. "That should give you enough ice energy to give you a full meter."
Shiva smiled. "Let's destroy this corrupted Aeon, then, shall we?" Then, she shook her head. "Upon further thought, I'd like to do this alone. You must save your energy to fight Seymour." Emma nodded, and Shiva closed her eyes again. "Diamond Dust!" Ice crawled up Anima's sides. Once he was completely surrounded, Shiva snapped. All the icicles cracked, and Anima roared in pain again.
For the next several minutes, the fight continued in this cycle; Emma regenerated Shiva's Overdrive gauge, Shiva used Diamond Dust, and Anima snarled at them. Finally, the Aeon toppled to the ground, and disappeared. Seymour took out his staff. "You will pay dearly for this."
Emma glanced back at Dia, who grinned. "Don't bother saying anything, Em! I know what to do."
"Great, just don't call me Em. It brings back bad memories."
Dia adjusted her sunglasses. "Sure thing." She strode over to Seymour. "Hey, Seymour, are you a pretty girl?"
Seymour straightened himself jerkily, and confirmed, "I'm a VERY pretty girl!" He covered his mouth. "What's happening?"
"Would you like to sing a song, Maester Man-Lady?"
Lulu tried to force back a smile, but ultimately failed. "Aren't you going to stab him while he's distracted?"
Emma scoffed. "Who said this was a distraction? I just want to see Seymour sing."
Dia held the Grand Mallet like a conductor's baton. "I've got the perfect song for you!" She began to hum a bouncy intro.
It was clear that Seymour had snapped as he put on a sickeningly happy grin. "I feel pretty! Oh, so pretty! I feel pretty, and witty, and GAAAAAAAAAAY! And I pity any pretty girl who isn't me today!"
Kimahri nodded. "Yes, Kimahri agrees with Maester. Maester is very gay."
"I feel dizzy! I feel sunny! I feel fizzy, and funny, and FIIIIIIIIIINE! And so pretty, Miss American can just resign!" He laughed maniacally, and bounced straight into a wall. "Mommy, the wall doesn't want to play!" he bawled.
Jake stuck out his tongue. "Too bad, you KILLED your mommy. Your cue, Emmie!"
Emma twirled her knife around in her hand. "Oh, fine. But I wanted to hear him sing a few more lines."
Seymour stood up. "I won't go down that easily!" he vowed. "I am Maester Seymour Guado, the one and only! I have plans for Spira! Big plans!" While he spoke, his sleeves jerked slightly. "I refused to let two little girls destroy my…what have you done?" Seymour's sleeves had forcibly folded themselves across his chest, making a straitjacket. "Let me go!"
Dia backed away from the struggling Maester. "He's all yours."
Emma held out her knife, and drove it into Seymour's chest. "Ha!" Seymour looked down; there was no blood coming out of him. "Your attack is futile, little girl. I feel no-" He turned pale. Blue lines ran through him, stemming from the knife, filling him with ice. "…pain…" he murmured, his last word as he fell down.
"We killed Seymour!" Rikku exclaimed happily.
Dia shook her head. "Sorry, but he's not dead. He'll be back." Rikku's expression faded quickly. "You'll kill him eventually, though, but you'll have to do it alone." She shrugged apologetically. "We have to leave."
Tidus and Co. did the Spiran Prayer, not questioning the teenager's words. "We understand," Wakka told her. "You're probably real busy, yah?"
"Sort of," Riku told him.
"I don't think that the crossing-over of our stories has ended," Auron remarked. "We'll meet again."
Emma smiled. "Hopefully."
"Keyhole!" Sora exclaimed. A small keyhole had appeared on the temple doors. He brought out the Oblivion, and locked it. "So…do I get a new keychain now?"
"Keychain?" Rikku asked. "Haven't seen one, nope!" Kimahri elbowed her sharply. "Aw, but it's so pretty!"
Kimahri sighed. "Sora do good thing for us in Luca. Emma do good thing for us now. Kimahri say, good people deserve good thing. Least we do is give Sora keychain."
Rikku stomped around, then thrust the keychain at Sora. "Pek sayhea! E fyhdat dra bnaddo lryeh...ev Kimahri ec nekrd, E kiacc oui cruimt ryja drec, pid E cdemm fyhd ed!"
Sora blinked. "Um…all right. Thanks."
Kairi waved. "It was nice to meet you!" Tidus and Co. waved back as Sora and Co. crammed around the FFX save point, a floating, white orb, and disappeared.
… … …
Sora waved his new Keyblade, the Diamond Dust, around in the air, making it sparkle. "This looks awesome, Emma! Thanks a lot."
"No problem." Emma motioned Dia and Jake to the back of the Valefor. "We've got to go now, but we'll see you guys later today!" They went into the back room.
Once the trio had left, Riku sighed. "I was thinking…do you think Emma knows that I like her?"
Kairi put her hands over her mouth. "You like Emma?"
Riku groaned and slouched in his seat. "And yet another person knows."
The red-head giggled. "Don't worry, I was just kidding. Sora told me already!"
"What?" Riku swiftly turned around, his eyes blazing. "You told her? YOU TOLD HER?" Sora nodded meekly. "WHO ELSE DID YOU TELL?"
Sora shielded his face. "Dia, Jake, Donald, Goofy, and Max…"
"I'M GOING TO KILL YOU, YOU LITTLE PUNK!"
"I'm only a year younger than you!"
Emma poked her head out from the back room, then quickly withdrew. "I guess you guys were right," she mumbled, stunned.
Jake squealed. "So, do you-"
"Be quieter," Dia scolded her younger brother. "The others think that we've left already."
Jake nodded, then continued, "Do you like Riku back?"
Emma shook her head, looking sad. "Not really. But I like him enough that I don't want to see him get upset when he finds out. So don't tell him anything, okay? Not that I do, not that I don't. Just don't say anything." Dia and Jake nodded reluctantly. "Thank you. We should leave now." They stepped onto the save point, and were enveloped in a green light.
… … …
Emma and Alissa were having lunch in their dining room, quietly eating, not saying a word. "Emma? Can I ask you something?" Emma looked up from her turkey sandwich, and across the table at her mother. "What do you think about Taylor?"
Emma shrugged. "It doesn't matter what I think, does it? It matters if YOU like him. Why?"
Alissa musingly stirred her soup, not really paying attention. "So…" she said finally, "…you wouldn't mind if Taylor and I got married?"
"WHAT?" Emma gagged on the sandwich, hitting her chest with the side of her fist. "Are you serious?" she demanded. "You two haven't even been dating for two weeks!"
"Calm down, we're not planning on getting married any time soon," Alissa assured her daughter. "I just want to know if you'd mind if we got married some day."
Mom? Getting married to Taylor? Emma sighed. "I don't know…I don't want anyone to replace Dad, but I'd get to be Dia and Jake's stepsister."
Alissa reached across the table and put her hand on Emma's shoulder. "Nobody could replace your dad, Emma. He was an amazing man…I just thought you might want a father figure, and some siblings that you care about."
Amazing? Yeah, that was Dad. I don't particularly like Taylor, but if Mom wants to marry him, I think she should. Emma grinned. "If you say so, Mom. I guess that'd be nice."
Alissa grinned back. "I think it'd be nice, too."
… … …
"I couldn't ask for a better stepsister!" Dia exclaimed as Emma told her and Jake the good news later that day. "I wish I could have met your dad. From what you say about him, he sounds great."
"He was," Emma agreed. She and the rest of Sora and Co. were walking through the Gate to the Dark. Emma watched a dark energy ball pass through the floor. "I miss him. Do you miss your mom?"
Dia and Jake exchanged glances. "She was sort of weird," Dia admitted. "But we miss her. I wanted to be just like Mom…my look right now is pretty much identical to hers. Except for the big, red tattoo next to her right eye. That would hurt even more," she laughed. "I had a washable tattoo like that for a while, though." She stopped laughing, and sighed. "Mom and Dad got a divorce six years ago. I was only ten. Jake didn't even get to know her, 'cause he was only one year old."
Jake nodded. "Daddy says that he and Mommy were just too different."
Six years ago? Emma thought. She scratched her head. "What day did your mom actually leave?"
Dia thought momentarily. "I wrote it down in my diary…I don't have one anymore, mind you!" she added defensively. "I think it was mid-March."
Emma stared at her friend. "That's…that's around the time that my dad died!"
Sora frantically motioned to them from up ahead. "Hurry up, guys!" Emma, Dia, and Jake dropped their conversation and ran over.
For the next few minutes, Sora and Co. ran around End of the World, destroying the Behemoth and traversing the mini-levels. Emma groaned as she and the others entered a bright, happy, cartoony forest clearing. "This is the 100 Acre Wood," she told the game characters glumly. "I didn't bother changing it. After all, we only come here for the save point."
"Pooh! Pooh! Pooh!" Jake chanted.
Of course, the game characters knew nothing of Winnie-the-Pooh, so they were obviously confused. "You can go to the bathroom behind that bush, Jake," Sora noted.
Jake stopped. "What? Gross, no!" Emma and Dia laughed. "We were supposed to come to this level, and meet a stuffed bear named Winnie-the-Pooh. Emma took him out, but I like him."
Emma looked confused. "Jake…? Do you still watch Winnie-the-Pooh?" Jake nodded vigorously. "You're almost eight years old right?" He nodded again. "And you still watch Pooh?"
"He watches poo?" Kairi asked in disgust.
"WINNIE-THE-POOH, YOU VALLEY GIRL!" Dia yelled.
Everyone took their turns stepping onto the save point. "Okay, we're happy, we're healed, let's go already!" Emma insisted.
"Why are we in such a hurry?" Riku asked, stepping off.
"Has Ansem told you about anyone named Haiiro?" Riku shook his head. "Okay, have either Maleficent or Ansem told you about the lab in the Hollow Bastion crater? And the message in it?" He nodded. "It changed, just because Dia, Jake, and I came."
"Who told you? The Haiiro guy?"
"Yeah. Let's go!"
… … …
After destroying a round of Invisibles, Sora and Co. walked up to the computer in the Hollow Bastion crater. Emma pushed to the front of the group. "Can I read it?" She was met with general murmurs of approval, so she cleared her throat. "The darkness is powerful, but the light can combat it, even assimilate it. The worlds are in chaos, but three fighters will arise to halt the darkness. I think that's Sora, Donald, and Goofy. They will be able to distract the darkness, but another three must aid in its destruction, those of halved lineage. That's us, but what's that supposed to mean?"
Dia shrugged. "Maybe it means that we only have one parent each. But why would that matter?"
Emma also shrugged. "Two others will aid the cause, one immersed in darkness, and one immersed in light. I think that's Riku and Kairi. Two years pass in the real world…two weeks pass in the true story…two new fighters will arise at that time."
Donald looked considerably upset. "We won't be able to see you two weeks?"
"Stop whining!" Sora ordered. "Two YEARS are going to pass for them! Does it say why, Emma?"
Emma shook her head. "Nothing. Only the elementalist, the possessor, and the animist can open the rift to darkness. That's Dia, Jake, and me again. Once the rift to darkness is opened, the real world will flood with darkness, but these ten heroes can combat it. These ten will be aided by seven more fighters, although they are not quite heroes, and will require persuasion to help. Why would we want darkness to come to the real world? And is that even possible?"
"Maybe it's so we can lock the real world, so Heartless won't be able to come while we're in the game?" Jake suggested.
"Once the real world has been saved, the fighters, now only nine remaining, will reenter the game," Emma continued. "Their entrance will create two new enemies, but has created two new allies. Nine more real-worlders will arrive, led by the fighter who was formerly part of the original ten fighters. There will be many obstacles in their way, and many shocking surprises, but they will defeat Organization XIII. I've heard about those guys. I guess that last paragraph was about Kingdom Hearts II."
Dia craned her head. "Is that it?"
Emma nodded. "It says DATA CORRUPTED at the bottom. Someone must have messed with the machine, and deleted something at the bottom, but I guess we'll find that out eventually."
Hoards of Invisibles reappeared, pointing their swords at Sora and Co. "Oh, joy. More Heartless," Sora grunted.
"Everyone, hold up your hand!" Emma ordered. Everyone in Sora and Co.'s MP drained out. "Sora, use Trinity Limit!" Sora obligingly put the tip of the Diamond Dust on the ground and spun around on it. Various lines of light spread through the floor; when they faded, only heaps of munny and item boxes remained. "Mine!"
"I saw it first!" Sora yelled back. He, Donald, Goofy, Emma, Dia, Jake, Riku, and Kairi all bumped heads while diving for the munny. "Ow…let's just add this to the group fund."
… … …
Haiiro was sitting in the dark area around Kingdom Hearts, his feet dangling off the edge of the cliff. "I do hope they arrive soon…that Ansem must be stopped." He blinked. "I am talking to myself. Odd."
Guardian appeared next to him. "Not quite, replica. I have a warrant for you."
"What? From who? And why?"
"From Ansem. And why else would he want you? For aiding the Keyblade Master and the elementalist, of course! You aided in the 'assassination' of Maester Seymour Guado by giving that Aeon information on how to return the elementalist's Blizzard Stone," the bony Heartless snarled. "And most of all, you thwarted his plans to overrule the universe with darkness by bringing those three children!"
Haiiro grinned. "How would I know that those three would be the best choices?"
Guardian grabbed his collar. "They are the only ones who fit the prophecy's requirements! Three fighters of halved lineages!"
"Ah, but how would I know that Emma, Dia, and Jake would become friends ahead of time, hmm?" Guardian growled. "That's right, my friend, I had no hand in this. It was the hand of destiny. I may have called Emma, but it was fate that I would not need to seek out Dia and Jake, that Emma would meet them in time."
"Filthy replica…no matter." Guardian smirked, causing Haiiro to look a little worried. "The children will not be able to save the universe. They must go through the part of the prophecy stating that they must let the Heartless into the real world. They will not."
Haiiro jerked back, and crossed his arms. "And why not?"
Guardian laughed menacingly. "Do you know what event will occur exactly two years from now today?"
"I cannot read the future."
"Yes, of course not. In exactly two years from now, the mother of the elementalist and the father of the possessor and the animist will be wed."
Haiiro looked aghast. "What? But…the children! They would not dare to unleash the Heartless on the wedding day of their parents…I have to tell them!"
Guardian lunged forward and got a hold on Haiiro's neck. "You will do no such thing! I am taking you to Ansem. You must not interfere with our battles!"
"Is that all you want? Fine. Emma, Dia, and Jake will figure out on their own, I suppose." Guardian and Haiiro disappeared.
