Disclaimer: I don't own neither the Kingdom Hearts franchise nor the whole Fate franchise. They are owned by their respective companies.
Order 5: Orleans Singularity - Nobody Gets Left Behind
Image Cover: Marie is hugging a cute little kitten that had a pink ribbon tied around atop its head. Sora stood next to her, arms behind his head as two other kittens, one orange and black were on his shoulder and head respectively, both glaring at one another
Outskirts of Lyon
Sora tried to think very hard of how he got in this situation.
A day passed since the defeat of Saint Martha and the group made their way to Lyon. They stopped at a nearby town though they had to hide in a fort with Marie having to enter by herself for two reasons. One, she has a lovable and charming personality. And two, they had Jeanne with them and after what happened last night, none of the group wanted her out in the open, less they got attacked by the whole town.
When Marie returned, they learned that Lyon was attacked by Dark Jeanne and her forces a while ago. The city is nothing but an abandoned, destroyed place filled with nothing but monsters. Lyon also had a protector, a knight that defended it from the attacking wyverns and monsters. Sadly, the knight was overwhelmed by the arrival of enemy Servants and went missing, resulting in Lyon's destruction. They believed that he was the Dragon Slayer they were looking for.
They left to check out the city themselves, only to see that the townspeople were right. The town certainly did look like a huge battle had occurred and there were monsters around it. After fighting the monsters, they looked for any signs to see if the Dragon Slayer was still there. When there was none, everyone decided to just leave the ruined city.
But then they were attacked by the Heartless, not just by the Shadows but even the Soldiers as well. After defeating them, everyone was surprised by the items the Heartless dropped, which Sora picked up.
The Keybearer then explained to Marie and the others that after defeating minor Heartless and Nobodies, they would often drop some prizes. These prizes can be the materials he collected on his journeys, Munny, Health Orbs, Magic Orbs and many others.
What they got from defeating the Heartless were three gold orbs in different sizes called Munny and synthesis materials. Of course, everyone looked at Sora oddly when he said the gold orbs were basically money, which he had to explain.
However, the moment Sora said they came from his universe, it immediately caught Marie and the others' attention as they started questioning him about what he meant by that. Thankfully, Jeanne put a stop to it and told everyone that they had to hurry and leave with Sora agreeing to this and promised he would tell them.
The group decided to set up camp and rest for the night here. Soon as that happened, Marie came to Sora, wanting to finally hear his story. As promised Sora told them his story.
Soon as he was finished, he found his head being hugged by a crying Marie only this time she added in kisses to his face. The others were watching this and couldn't help but be amused, though Kiyohime and Elizabeth were still trying to wrap their heads about what they learned about Sora while Amadeus was amazed to hear such an amazing heroic tale.
This was the situation he found himself in.
"Maria, let the poor boy go before he loses his breath." Amadeus told her, feeling mildly amused by Sora's predicament.
"I can't!" Marie continued to cry as she hugged Sora tighter, rubbing her cheek into his spiky yet very soft hair. "Sora! Sora has been through so much! I have to give him tons and tons of hugs and kisses!"
"It's fine Marie! Really!" Sora exclaimed as he tried to get out of her surprisingly strong grip, his face burning red once again as she hugged him to her chest and was even going so far as to kiss his entire face.
"B-But it's not fair!" Marie cried out, releasing her hold on him for a moment to stare at him despite the tears falling from her eyes. "You've risked everything to help bring your friends back and because of that you were forced to leave your world!" She had an angry glare on her face though to everyone, it looked more like an adorable pout. She brought his head to her chest once again making him groan. "I can't believe that such a cruel man like that exists! How could one person cause so much tragedy and pain?! C'est affreux!"
While Marie was too busy crying for Sora and hugging him close to her, Kiyohime stared at the boy quite intently, her fan covering her mouth. So this young man is a world traveler who came from the other side of their universe where those Heartless creatures also came from. What's more, this young man had saved his universe from different incarnations of the same mastermind behind the tragedies that he caused to control a power even greater than the Holy Grail itself.
The heart of all worlds known as Kingdom Hearts.
If it were anybody else who would make up such a tale they would be called a liar and were telling a fib. But she knew better. She could tell who's a liar and who wasn't. She could even smell it on someone the moment she looks at them. The young man before her told her nothing but the truth.
The teal haired dragon girl eyed Sora up and down. The moment she saw him she felt something. Something unexplainable yet…very familiar. Her first impression of him was that he was brave, heroic, honest and he also had a childlike wonder to him, his story further proving those qualities as he visited many worlds.
She'll admit, she was quite angry to hear about this World Order that world travelers like him must follow at all costs. To her, to follow such an order means to basically lie.
She hates lies. She loathes them.
But she knew Sora's heart was in the right place. While he didn't lie, he would always try to avoid telling people that he and his companions came from another world and would basically twist the truth.
The dragon princess had to admit that Sora possessed many qualities that reminded her of…him. But there's a huge difference between Sora and him.
Sora wasn't a liar. She could tell just by looking at him that he hated lying and she already knew from a glance that he would be terrible at it, even if he tried.
Kiyohime frowned. She looked at the back of Sora's hand and saw that he doesn't have the Command Seal unlike the other boy, which meant that he wasn't a Master. She sighed a bit, disappointed at that. To her, he was the perfect candidate to be her husband but without a Command Seal…
The Dragon Princess sighed tiredly to herself. She was thinking too deeply about this. Besides if he or Fujimaru were to see her more ugly form then they both would be scared of her. Well, Fujimaru would be since he probably knows or at least heard of her legend but Sora doesn't know her…well, he doesn't know any legendary heroes here in this world.
Elizabeth just stared at Sora with her mouth opened up in shock and her eyes widened in disbelief, her mind swirling with so many thoughts after listening to Sora's story.
An incredible war that destroyed the world causing pieces of it to be reborn across the stars?
A giant moon in the shape of a heart that is the heart of all worlds?
An organization filled with people who lost their hearts to darkness yet somehow were able to still exist with just the body and soul?
The Realms of Light, Darkness and Between!?
"RAAAAAHH!" Elizabeth suddenly screamed as she grabbed her head. Her scream made everyone jump and turn to her with looks of either surprise or confusion. But she ignores this. "My brain is killing me! So much new information is making it want to explode!"
"Hmph. With the type of brain you have, I'm surprised you didn't fall over." Kiyohime remarked, causing Elizabeth to snap her head in her direction.
"What'd you say!?"
Everyone sweat dropped as they watched the two get into an argument though Amadeus and Cú were the only two who looked on with anticipation, both of them wanting to see a cat fight happen. Sora, seeing how Marie released her hold on him, freed himself from grasp, sucking in the air he desperately needed.
"Whew! Thought I was gonna faint there." Sora mumbled to himself, causing Jeanne and Mash to giggle as they heard him.
"Well, ignoring those two for now, that certainly explains a lot about you Sora." Amadeus said, turning to the boy in question, who blinked at what he said.
"Explain what?"
"He means why your presence is different from humans." Emiya answered this one as he was busy cooking tonight's dinner and feeling a little irritated at Kiyohime, who was supposed to help him, was busy arguing with Elizabeth. "Think of it as a sixth sense for Servants. While humans of this world are mages and some are ordinary, you have a presence that makes you stand out amongst them. It's more than likely your magic energy being completely different from ours."
Amadeus nodded his head, looking a little amused. "That means the enemy Servants you're gonna run into will sense that you're different and will probably see you as a threat that must be eliminated."
The Servants nodded their heads, some feeling sorry for Sora while the others were confident he'd take them out. The boy meanwhile had a flat look on his face.
"Great…" The Keybearer said dryly.
"It's still quite amazing." Jeanne commented after hearing the full story from Sora, looking at said boy in a whole new light. "You willingly turned yourself into a Heartless in order to free Kairi's heart, but because of your strong heart and her light, you were able to regain your humanity. What's more, your Nobody Roxas along with Kairi's Nobody Naminé were born at the same time."
"Roxas…" Marie sniffed once again as she grabbed a tissue from…somewhere, and blew her nose in it before throwing it away into a bin. Her heart broke for the poor boy when Sora told them of their encounter in the Sleeping Worlds where Sora felt all of Roxas's feelings and saw his memories.
"That poor boy has been through so much! It's awful how Xemnas…or Xehanort… or whoever he was would lie and tell him and the other Nobodies that they're unable to have hearts!"
Kiyohime's body twitched at that and her expression darkened into a fierce glare which made her huff out teal colored flames from her nose. After hearing everything this man had done, he better be very lucky that he had already passed on to the afterlife. Because to her, Xehanort was the biggest liar to ever exist. Everything around him was built on lies and manipulation, with his Heartless and Nobody doing the same thing. For that, she would've given him a more gruesome end.
"Especially when you consider that he and Sora existed at the same time." Cú added. "Including Naminé and Kairi."
"Just coming into existence, with no memories of who they were before. When you think about it, Roxas and Naminé were more or less like newborn babies." Artoria stated, placing her hand under her chin.
The others had to agree with that. Roxas and Naminé were basically a year old by the time Sora awoke and he wasn't even aware of their status as Nobodies until he and the others went to The World That Never Was.
Marie suddenly hugged Sora again, only this time it was softer and her expression looked delighted. "I'm so happy they got the happy endings they deserved. You're a true hero for saving everyone, Sora."
"U-Um…yeah. Thanks." Sora thanked her, now feeling a little awkward and shy at how gentle she was hugging him just like before.
"I'm still confused about something." Elizabeth spoke up, getting everyone's attention as they saw her confused expression. "You say that there are realms in your universe and that the worlds you've traveled in are placed in those realms. How exactly does that work?"
"Yes, I'm most curious to know about that as well." Amadeus said. He too wanted to learn more about the realms on the other side of their universe.
Sora crossed his arms and hummed as he thought about the realms of his universe. "Well, there's the Realm of Light, where my friends and I live. It's the realm where worlds made of light reside." He frowned however as he thought about what to say next. "The Realm of Darkness is the complete opposite. It's a place where people and worlds whose hearts are swallowed by the darkness end up going to. It's also the home of the Pureblood Heartless. In there, time doesn't exist, so if someone were to end up there, they wouldn't age or need to eat or sleep."
"Like that Aqua chick?" Cú asked curiously, while at the same time feeling sorry for the poor woman. To him, staying in a realm like that is a fate even worse than death itself. Just about anyone would go crazy staying there and was impressed by how strong her heart is to be able to handle it.
Just the type of woman he likes.
Sora nodded at the question and continued. "The Realm Between lies between the realms of light and darkness. The worlds that exist in that realm have a special purpose or nature."
Now everyone was curious to hear this.
"A special purpose?" Kiyohime questioned.
"Well, take Traverse Town for example." Sora started his explanation. "It's a unique world that consists of remnants of worlds that have been lost to darkness. It serves as a safe haven to those whose worlds no longer exist in the Realm of Light. Traverse Town even has the ability to reshape its own layout so it can serve as a new home. It's also constantly night time there."
"That's incredible!" Mash commented, her expression quite similar to a child who learned of something amazing. The others shared her expression, many of them wondering what Traverse Town is like.
["So if a world were to no longer exist, then anyone who survived would end up in this Traverse Town to live the rest of their lives."] Dr. Roman mused to himself from Sora's phone, which sat on the table.
"Hm-hm." Sora hummed. "After that is the Realm of Dreams, which you kinda know what that is."
"A realm that contains the worlds of dreams and memories." Emiya stated. "The Sleeping Worlds being one of them."
"Sleeping Worlds…" Marie looked up as she imagined a planet with a face falling asleep. She giggled at her child-like imagination which made Sora look up at her, curious to know what she found funny.
"How exactly does a world go to sleep?" Elizabeth asked, now feeling more confused. This had to have been the craziest and wildest story she ever heard of, and she was still trying to wrap her head around it.
"From what Sora told us, after Ansem, Xehanort's Heartless was defeated, some of the worlds that fell to darkness weren't able to fully revive for some reason." Artoria took over the explanation from here. "So they remained 'asleep' because of this."
["The Sleeping Worlds are basically a 'dream' that depicts events that happened before they were consumed by darkness."] Dr. Roman cut in this time, stunning those who didn't know this. ["Thankfully, the Heartless can't travel there, but there's a new kind of darkness that exist in it, which are called Dream Eaters."]
"Dream Eaters?" Marie asked.
Sora answered, looking up at her while also looking quite happy. "Yeah! There are two kinds of them: Spirits and Nightmares. Spirit Dream Eaters are friendly and consume the bad dreams while the Nightmares are the ones who eat the good dreams and plant the bad dreams."
"In other words, they're colorful little animals that are the reason why people have good dreams and nightmares." Cú remarked, sounding amused as he remembered the picture of Meow Wow that Sora showed them.
The new Servants were once again amazed to learn such things actually exist, at least in the other universe. Still, with Sora and the Heartless being here in their universe, the Servants and those who were listening in at Chaldea couldn't help but wonder to themselves; is there a possibility that Dream Eaters might actually exist in their world in some shape or form and they didn't even realize it?
["Sora and Riku's Mark of Mastery was to go to those Sleeping Worlds and basically wake them up from their slumber and gaining the Power of Waking by doing so."] Dr. Roman continued the explanation.
"And La Cité des Cloches was one of those Sleeping Worlds you mentioned the other night?" Jeanne asked, referring to the talk they had prior to meeting Dark Jeanne.
Before Sora could reply, a loud surprised gasp interrupted him. Everyone looked to Marie, who still now released her hold on Sora and was looking at him with stars in her eyes.
"La Cité des Cloches!?" Marie asked in excitement. "Sacré bleu! There's a French world in your universe!? Please tell us all about it!"
Everyone was surprised by her excitement but when they thought about it, it made perfect sense. Marie is the Queen of France after all, so of course she would be delighted to find out that there's another version of her home out there in another universe. and would like to learn more about it.
While Sora was telling everyone about his adventure in La Cité des Cloches, Ritsuka sat alone in a tent by himself taking a quick nap, with a magic circle glowing underneath him. He was still feeling a little out of it after what happened last night. According to what Da Vinci told him, even though his body was fully healed, there was still some numbness here and there because of the magical energy that was passing through him. His body isn't still quite used to it yet, but over time it will.
Just before he fell asleep though, Da Vinci wanted to tell him why France became a Singularity in the first place which is what caught his interest for a moment as he never thought about it.
More than 300 years into the future, a declaration will be made: The Declaration of the Rights of Man. The ideology of the declaration is "Men are born and remain free and equal in rights". It was these words that began the declaration with France becoming the first country to step into the modern era and advocating the ideology. If those rights were not recognized then the modern era would still be living like in the middle ages.
It was that important.
Ideology is what creates an era. The country and the people together give that era form. So if France is destroyed, the foundation of history would collapse.
He fell asleep after but he still heard Da Vinci talk about the French Revolution. The Declaration was adopted in the middle of the revolution which was a terrible 10 period as many people lost their lives. The most famous person who was killed during the revolution was the woman who was declared to be the most vile and evil who advocated for monarchy and tormented the citizens.
It was the Queen of France herself, who was put under the guillotine; Marie Antoinette.
Later that night
"Oh man! This stuff looks awesome!" Sora commented as he looked at the assortment of food that Emiya and Kiyohime prepared for everybody on the table. He could smell the different delicious aroma in the air which was loudly making his stomach growl hungrily and causing him to lick his lips in anticipation.
"It truly is." Amadeus agreed with Sora's comment, looking at the amazing food, which somehow seems to be sparkling, with a smile. "Quite luxurious. It's food from when Maria and I were alive."
"Maria?" Ritsuka asked curiously.
"He means Marie. She and him are childhood friends." Sora replied but then looked concerned at Ritsuka. "You sure you should be up, Ritsuka? You were pretty exhausted after we fought Martha."
"Yeah, I'm good now. All I needed was a good rest." Ritsuka reassured his friend.
"Okay, if you're sure." Sora smiled as he placed his hands behind his back. "Still, Little Chef would be amazed to see all this!"
Amadeus had blue lines hovering above his head at the mention of the rat that was somehow able to cook. He rubbed his temples softly. "Ah...yes. La raton. I'm…finding it hard to believe that such a creature from the sewers can cook."
"Same here!" Elizabeth said as she shivered slightly. "Talk about creepy!"
"I would burn the little vermin the moment I see it." Kiyohime said.
"I want to meet Little Chef and eat at his restaurant!" Marie said happily, which earned her looks from the three. She blinked at her. "What? You saw the yummy food he and Sora cooked up, that means Little Chef must be from another French world but in the modern era like Ritsuka and Mash." She giggled. "I even want to meet Quasimodo and the others in La Cité Des Cloches."
["I still can't believe it."] Roman said, a holographic screen of him appearing next to Ritsuka. He looked at Sora with a raised eyebrow. ["The Little Mermaid, Wonderland, Winnie the Pooh, Peter Pan, now the Hunchback of Notre Dame too? I suppose next you're gonna say Cinderella and Snow White exists in your universe."]
"Yeah, they're the Princesses of Hearts." Sora answered but then blinked as he saw the incredulous looks Ritsuka and Roman gave him. "I mean the former Princesses of Heart."
["Are you kidding me!?"] Roman asked incredulously, making Sora and Ritsuka jump in surprise as they looked at Roman with widened eyes. ["They're real over there too? So wait, the Fairy Godmother who helped you with your first set of summons on your first journey. Is she from the same world as Cinderella?"]
"Uh, yeah. They live in a world called Castle of Dreams. Terra, Aqua and Ven went there a long time ago when me, Riku and Kairi were still kids." Sora said, a little off guard by Roman's surprise.
["Are you serious!? What is up with your universe!? It's like all the fictional stories of our world are real over there!"]
"At this point, there's no need to be surprised anymore doctor." Emiya told Romani flatly. "Sora is gonna keep telling us more and more crazy stories, so you might as well prepare yourself for who and what might exist over there, like old man Merlin."
"I know I am." Cú said as he juggled three medium size munny he got from defeating the Heartless that showed up earlier. "The fact that Grandpa Merlin and a 12 year old boy version of King Arthur even exists there must mean there's probably versions of famous heroes in our world that the kid probably had met."
Dr. Roman grumbled to himself. ["At least old Merlin isn't a scoundrel like the one here."]
Sora and Ritsuka looked at each other with sheepish smiles on their faces. Even though they don't know anything about the Merlin of this world, they could tell Dr. Roman obviously disliked him greatly.
Hearing the sound of someone eating made everyone turn to see Artoria already digging into the food. The Knight King stopped eating as she saw everyone's eyes were on her. They blinked at her which made her blink at them in return.
"What? Nobody started digging in and the food was getting cold." Artoria went back to eating, earning sweat drops from everyone before they hurriedly joined in so won't eat everything.
While they ate, there was something that's been eating Sora's mind since they first met Marie's group. It was about what he learned about their history from Mash. Guess now is a good time
"Say, there's something I've been wondering about." Sora said, getting the attention. "What's this French Revolution Mash was talking about earlier?"
["The French Revolution was an event in world history that began in 1789 and ended in the late 1790s with the ascent of Napoleon Bonaparte."] Dr. Roman answered.
"1789? Isn't that more than 300 years from now?" Sora asked, feeling a little bit surprised since they were in the 1400s period and this revolution will happen in a few hundred years.
["Yes. During this period, French citizens radically altered their political landscape, uprooting centuries-old institutions such as the monarchy and the feudal system."] Dr. Roman continued his explanation to Sora. He sweat dropped however when he saw the lost look on his face. ["It means the people wanted to overthrow the government."]
"Oh! Gotcha!" Sora said happily which earned chuckles from everyone at the table including those at Chaldea.
["We really gotta teach you much about our world's history."] The Acting Director remarked, raising an amused eyebrow.
"Before I fell asleep, Da Vinci was just telling me the reason why France became a Singularity in the first place." Ritsuka told Sora. "It's because during the revolution, a declaration will be made that will bring history to the current modern era that we live in."
"And because the Holy Grail War is happening here during the Hundred Year War, when it's not supposed to be, means the revolution won't happen in the future." Mash added in.
"Because the other me accomplished her mission and destroyed all of France in the future." Jeanne said in a solemn tone, finishing what Mash was about to say.
"Which is not going to happen. Not while we're all here!" Sora exclaimed with a determined grin as he laughed a little. "Hakuna matata, right?"
Everyone blinked at the bizarre phrase Sora just said and looked at him puzzled or curious looks.
"Uh, excuse me?" Cú asked. "Hakuna ma-what now?"
"Hakuna matata. It means no worries." Sora answered.
"Where'd you hear that from?" Kiyohime asked, making Sora look at her happily.
"From these guys named Timon and Pumbaa when I went to Simba's world." He got surprised looks from those at Chaldea while confusion from the others.
"Who's Simba?" Marie asked curiously.
Sora was more than happy to tell everyone his adventure in the Pride Lands and the colorful characters he met. He explained how he first met Simba as a summon during his first journey and how he, Donald and Goofy went to his world during his second journey and the forms they took. He even told them about Simba's Heartbinder that he used on his last journey.
Everyone was once again awestruck to hear such an amazing tale.
"A whole animal kingdom ruled by lions." Jeanne said in amazement. "Such an amazing world."
"Much different from our own Africa, right?" Ritsuka asked. Everyone nodded in agreement with that.
"It's awful." Artoria said with a distasteful frown. "Simba's uncle killed his father in order to take the throne, even going so far as to try and get him immediately killed afterwards."
"Just goes to show that even in another world, there are animals that go through the same thing as us humans do." Emiya stated. "Scar transforming into a Heartless himself is further proof of that."
Mash placed her hand under her chin and looked up as she thought about something. "Come to think of it. Didn't what happened in the Pride Lands sound similar to something?"
["That's right! Hamlet! The Tragedy of Hamlet!"]
"Hamlet? Who's Hamlet?" Sora asked, though it looked like he was trying to hold his laughter in as the name sounded funny.
["It's a theater play written by the famous William Shakespeare."] Jeanne's eyes shot open as she dropped her spoon, though nobody paid it no mind. ["To make a long story short, it's basically about the protagonist Hamlet, who wants to take revenge on his uncle for killing his father in order to seize the throne and get together with his mother. Simba's story sounds almost exactly similar to that very same play!"]
Everyone looked surprised though Emiya nodded his head, having read it about during his years in school.
"Seriously?" Sora asked, scratching the back of his head. "Talk about a crazy coincidence, huh? I guess this William Shakespeare guy would be surprised to hear…are you okay, Jeanne?"
"Huh?" Jeanne jumped and turned to Sora, only to see not just him but everyone else stare at her. "Oh yes. I'm fine. Why do you ask?"
"Because you just bent your spoon." Elizabeth deadpans, pointing at said object.
The Saint looked down and saw indeed that she bent the metal spoon she dropped just now. It was bent at such a bizarre angle, the top part was hanging loosely. Her face turned red in embarrassment as she dropped the spoon again.
"Ah! I-It seems I did! B-But there's no need to worry! My mind was…somewhere else for some reason but I am fine though!" Jeanne reassured everyone that she was fine. She didn't know why but hearing that name brought unpleasant feelings in her heart.
Jeanne blushed further when she saw nobody looked convinced by that statement but then inwardly sighed in relief when the Blue Lancer spoke up and went back to the original subject.
"So…back to the Pride Lands." Cú said. "In a world filled with talking African animals, you guys transformed into said animals to blend in. Donald and Goofy, who're an anthro duck and dog from some wacky cartoon world, became a freaking bird and tortoise while you became an ordinary lion cub."
"Yes…?"
"What are you getting at?" Emiya asked, which made the Hound give an amused chuckle.
"Don't you think it's funny when you imagine it?" Cú asked back with an amused smile. "In the little mermaid world, those two were an octopus and a sea turtle, now we're hearing that they were a bird and a land turtle in the lion world? Those two and their king are so out of place in most of the worlds they visit, I'm amazed that nobody commented on it or found them strange."
"Don't forget Pete. He was in that world as a lion" Mash reminded him, getting him to snap his fingers at her.
"Right. The dumbass wannabe high school bully and cowardly pussy cat." Cú smirked when he heard most of them laughed at that.
"Oh~! I wish I could see your lion cub form, Sora." Marie puffs her cheeks out in a cute pout. "I can already tell that you were really adorable as one. Just thinking about it makes me want to rub my face on your cute fluffy belly!"
"I wasn't that adorable." Sora said, blushing a little bit by what she said though it increased when he heard her giggle again.
"Hehe! I betcha I would be a cute little lion as well!" Marie said as she imagined what she would look like. A beautiful white lioness with her hair acting like her mane as she wore her red hat. "In fact, if Sora became a lion and he's human, I bet if we went to the Pride Lands, everybody would be lions!"
"Not interested." Emiya said flatly as he kept eating, ignoring the pout Marie sent him. "I don't want to go to a world where I have to learn how to walk on four legs and use my mouth in order to use my weapons."
"You wouldn't even need your swords in the first place. The only weapons you need in that world are your teeth and claws." Cú chuckled but thought over the lion form thing. "Still, a lion? Not a big fan of them. If anything, I would be-"
"We already know what you would be." Emiya interrupted him, smirking mockingly at him. "Either an African wild dog or a hyena. I'd rather you be a hyena, let the lions rip you apart for going in their turf."
"...I'd rather be an African wild dog, so I can rip the throat out of the annoying red bodyguard." Cú scowled at Archer.
Everyone could see the sparks flying between them and it made them sweat drop. But then it evolved into everybody talking about which possible animal form they would be in the Pride Lands.
Artoria paid them no mind as she continued eating. But truthfully, she herself was imagining what she would like in the Pride Lands. She had always admired lions ever since she was a child. To her, lions were symbols to many things: Courage, strength, justice, majesty. It was no wonder why the world called lions the King of Beasts, for they represent kingly power and might.
She gave a smile as she thought about the pet lion she used to own after becoming king. The poor thing was only a cub when it was brought to Camelot to be sold but she put a stop to it and he became family to her for many years. Some time before Modred's betrayal, her lion had already passed away which would be the last she shed tears.
Simba, the Lion King. If there was a chance for them to find a way to send Sora home, she would like to go there to meet him and the Elder Merlin.
"The...Lion King…"
That title…it made the Knight King remember something. During her time when she was alive, she recalled a dream she had of a knight dressed in armor, wielding a powerful holy lance with the helmet having white fur around it. But she became shook once the knight took their helmet off and revealed themselves to be…her.
Not the current her whole wields Excalibur. No, the knight in her dreams was an older version of her. Instead of the emotions she was supposed to suppress as king, the older version of her had completely soulless eyes. It was like her heart was devoid of any emotion.
Seeing that version of her frightened her greatly, but she just chalked it off as a dream and just that. She kept it in the dark and didn't mention it to anyone, not even Merlin. But…after meeting Sora and learning about the realms and worlds he's traveled in, the many versions of Xehanort he fought against, it made her wonder if that dream she had wasn't a dream, but a memory of the Lion King herself that found its way to her?
"Hey! Hey! Sora! Can you sing that Hakuna Matata song? I wanna hear it!" Marie exclaimed, excited to hear Sora sing.
"Ah, yes. I too would like to hear you sing that song." Amadeus said. "It'll give me a chance to see what I'm working with when I help you with your vocal exercises."
"Wait, you can sing Sora?" Jeanne asked, surprised that he could sing. Elizabeth and Kiyohime were also surprised to hear this, though Elizabeth now looked at Sora with a narrowed gaze.
"Er…kind of?" Sora rubbed the back of his sheepish. He felt a slap hit his back, making him look at Cú as the culprit.
"Aw, don't be so modest, kid. C'mon! Give us a show!" The Hound Lancer urged him, wanting to hear the kid.
Everyone else agreed to it as they cheered Sora, even Fou wanted to hear this. The Keyblade Master laughed at this.
"Alright! Alright! I'll sing it!" Everyone quieted down as he walked away from the table. He turned around to face them, a smile present as he coughed into his fist. He summoned his Keyblade and started to hold it as a guitar, which surprised everyone as they heard guitar strings being played.
Karaoke Song: Hakuna Matata [The Lion King]
[Sora]
Hakuna Matata!
What a wonderful phrase
Hakuna Matata!
Ain't no passing craze~
It means no worries
For the rest of your days
It's our problem-free philosophy
Hakuna Matata!
Sora suddenly started to dance to the beat while still playing with his Keyblade as though it was a guitar. Everyone was definitely surprised to hear Sora while staying in tune to the music with Marie being more excited. Amadeus wore a big smile and decided to join in on the fun as he summoned his angels to play the instruments as they had with music notes flying around them.
"Hakuna Matata." Kiyohime said the words, hiding her lips behind her fan. She wore a puzzled frown. "What a bizarre phrase."
"It may be bizarre but it really is a nice motto the more times you say it." Mash commented.
"Fou! Kyuu fou!" Fou chirps.
"Yeah, I'm actually getting motivated just saying it!" Ritsuka exclaimed.
"That's good guys! Those two words will solve all of our problems." Sora told them. "Take Pumbaa for example."
[Sora]
Why, when he was a young warthog
[Amadeus]
When he was a young wart-hoooog!
The music briefly stopped as everyone, even Sora, looked to Amadeus with widened eyes, not expecting him to join in, though Marie had a big knowing smile on her face.
"Whoa."
"Surprised?" Amadeus asked Sora with a smirk. "Now, you were saying?"
[Sora]
He found his aroma lacked a certain appeal
He could clear the Savannah after every meal
[Amadeus]
Oh my, what a sensitive soul, though he sounds thick-skinned
[Sora]
He was hurt that his friends never stood downwind
And oh, the shame!
(Fou! Fou!)
He thought of changing his name
(Fou! Kyuu! Fou)
And he got downhearted
(Fou~?)
Every time that he-
Sora immediately covered his mouth as all music stopped for a moment and he looked completely embarrassed. Everyone stared at Fou, who was on Mash's head, with dumbfounded expressions. They were actually surprised to hear him join along as well but then turned to Sora after hearing him stop and saw he had covered his mouth.
"Why'd you stop?" Jeanne asked, raising a brow at Sora.
"I don't think I should say it."
"Why? What did Pumbaa do?" Ritsuka asked
"It's…kinda gross."
Everyone looked puzzled but then recalled Sora saying that Pumbaa had a habit of…oh~!
Oh, ew!
Sora and Amadeus looked at the grossed out looks on everyone's faces before turning to each other with a shrug of their shoulders before the music started back up.
[Sora & Amadeus]
Hakuna Matata!
What a wonderful phrase!
Hakuna Matata!
Ain't no passing craze!
[Marie]
It means no worries!
For the rest of your days~!
Everyone was surprised when Marie stood from where she sat and excitedly joined in the fun. Sora wore a happy smile as she skipped her way to them while Amadeus nodded in approval.
[Sora & Marie]
It's our problem-free philosophy
Hakuna Matata!
The strings of a harp are heard playing in the air along with the sound of a chorus singing in the background. Everyone watched on as they saw Sora and Marie dance away with a blue spotlight shining down on them. The background chorus even started to chant Hakuna Matata themselves. Sora spun Marie around, who continued to spin away from him, letting him take the stage.
[Sora]
It means no worries
For the rest of your days
[Sora, Amadeus & Marie]
It's our problem-free philosophy
Hakuna Matata! (Fou! Fou!)
Hakuna Matata! (Kyuu! Fou)
Hakuna Matata! (Fou fou!)
Hakuna Matata! (Fou! Fou!)
Karaoke Song: End
As the music slowly started to fade away before completely stopping, everyone stood from where they were and clapped their hands. Even those at Chaldea were quite surprised by the live concert that they witnessed but they nonetheless clapped their hands as well with some even going so far as to whistle. Sora, Marie and Amadeus bowed their heads at everyone.
But there was one person who didn't really do anything. That person was the self proclaimed Number 1 Idol, Elizabeth Bathory, who stood frozen like a statue, staring at the three of them with an open mouth and widened eyes, the size of dinner plates. She wasn't expecting this to happen! What was supposed to be hearing Sora sing a song turned into a full concert with Marie, Amadeus and even Fou joining in which everybody at the table loved, even those at that Chaldea place!
She too wanted to join in…just to help Sora in case he screwed anything up and not because she just wanted to have fun! But she was just too dumbstruck by what she just witnessed. She narrowed her eyes at Sora, now seeing as a potential new rival she must best, along with Marie Antoinette!
The next time Sora tries to sing, she'll show him exactly what this superstar can do!
Orleans:Dark Jeanne's Castle
"Haa…haa…"
A man was tiredly walking through the hallways of his master's castle, making his way to the throne room where he knows she resides. The man wore a black suit with a cape attached to it, giving him the appearance of a fancy gentleman. He also wore a mask modeled after a skull to hide his accursed and grotesque face.
The man looked like he just came from a battle. As he walked, he was leaving behind a trail of his own blood with it also leaking out of his mouth as he gave a wet cough because of the injuries that he sustained from the battle with the blasted Dragon Slayer.
"Wicked…wicked…" The man said, talking about the cursed Slayer. "Listen…listen to my song."
"How pathetic. Did the tables turn on you?"
The man stopped walking, his eyes widened a little at the new voice that spoke to him. Who on earth was this? He didn't recognize this voice. Looking up he saw a new face, a man wearing a black long coat with white hair and light green eyes that was looking at him with mocking pity.
"It seems the Dragon Slayer got you." The other man said as he observed him. "Your spiritual core has eroded that even singing can bring you pain." He reached his hand out to touch the cheek of the masked Servant. "Your song shouldn't sound like that. Be at ease, second Berserk Assassin, Phantom of the Opera."
The Phantom didn't know why, but he felt really light headed the moment the new Servant placed his other hand on his cheek. He felt completely weightless, as though his body was floating or something.
But wait…
Why couldn't he feel anything from below his neck? Why couldn't he move his arms and legs? And what was it that just fell on the floor?
The Phantom looked down and solved the answer to his questions. His master's new Servant had completely chopped his head off and was even going so far as to hold him as though he was a trophy or prize.
He never even got a chance to say anything as he disappeared, going back to the Throne of Heroes.
"What excellent skill you have there, third Berserk Assassin, Monsieur de Paris." Lo and behold, the Dragon Witch herself has appeared and really was impressed by the skill her new Servant has shown against that weak little Phantom.
"Of course. My life is for that purpose." The Assassin said, not turning around to face his master..
"Find and kill the Dragon Slayer." Dark Jeanne ordered with a smirk. "If you see any of those rats, kill them too. But there is one I want you to bring back to me, an insect that wields a giant stupid key."
The Assassin looked confused by what she meant but it became neutral and he nodded his head. "I give you thanks. I'll be able to polish my skills further and most importantly…" He walked towards the exit. "For giving me the chance to meet her again."
Dark Jeanne closed her eyes and nodded at him. "Yes. I look forward to seeing your results. The Sanson House's fourth executioner, the Fourth Monsieur de Paris. True name, Charles-Henri Sanson. The man who lopped the neck of Queen Marie Antoinette."
Charles allowed a dark smirk to form on his face, already imagining the scenario between him and his queen, while at the same time couldn't wait to cut her head off once again.
Next Day
Background Music: Peaceful Hearts [Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep]
Today was the day everyone would go out to search for the Dragon Slayer. However, instead of traveling together, everyone decided to split into teams of two and go to different towns to make the search much faster, though they'll be separated for a couple of days.
The first team, Ritsuka's group, consists of himself, Mash, Kiyohime, Amadeus, Emiya and Cú.
The second team, Sora's group, consists of him, Artoria, Jeanne, Marie and Elizabeth.
Ritsuka's group will be heading to a town called Thiers while Sora's group will be going to Montluçon. Once this was decided, everyone bid each other farewell and left to go to their destinations.
Sora stretched his arms out, taking a moment to enjoy the sun beaming down at them, before placing them behind his head. "Today feels like it's going to be a good day."
"It sure is!" Marie happily agreed with what Sora said though she did frown. "I just hope Amadeus doesn't ruin it for the others."
"You think they will be okay?" Elizabeth asked. "I mean, I know they can handle monsters, but what about those Heartless guys? Didn't Kitty say that his Keyblade is the only thing that can beat them?"
Sora tripped on his own feet by the nickname Elizabeth gave him. Thankfully he stopped himself from falling over just as Marie and Jeanne were about to catch him if he did. He turned to Elizabeth with a confused look as he pointed "Kitty? Are…you talking about me?"
"Obviously." Elizabeth stated the obvious, rolling her eyes at Sora. "You were a lion cub in the Pride Lands, right? That means from now on, you're Kitty."
"Wha-!? You're really going to call me Kitty because of that?" Sora asked incredulously, though Elizabeth huffed to herself and didn't bother to answer him as she walked right past them.
"I'm...sure the others will be just fine in dealing with the Heartless." Jeanne said, a sheepish look on her face but she looked a little unsettled. "Though with the way the world is, I can't help but worry that Heartless might use this chance to find the Keyhole to our world's heart."
"There's no need for such worries, Ruler." Artoria told her. "Unlike Sora's world, ours is much bigger, so the Keyhole could be anywhere."
"And I'm pretty sure it's already locked." Sora added in.
Marie hummed thoughtfully and looked to Sora. "Say, Sora. You said you and your friends used a Gummiship to travel between worlds, right?"
"Hm-hm."
"How do you get the gummi blocks in order to build one?"
"Well…" Sora thought back on his first journey and what he learned from Leon and Yuffie and in Ansem's Reports. "Before the Heartless invaded the worlds, there were these barriers surrounding them to prevent outsiders from coming, making it impossible for different worlds to have contact. But when Ansem opened the door to Radiant Garden's heart, the barrier broke and shattered which gave the Heartless the chance to invade that world. The meteor showers that you see in the sky? They're the remains of the barrier that was destroyed, which are the gummi blocks."
The female Servants were all dumbfounded to hear this, even Artoria as this was the first time she heard of this.
"Are you saying that our world currently has an invisible barrier around it?" Elizabeth asked, looking up at the sky as if to try and spot it. "That's insane!"
Sora chuckled at that but then thought back to what Elizabeth told them about her older self on Dark Jeanne's team. "Hey, Elizabeth. That woman in the mask, is she really your future self?"
"Tch!" Elizabeth clicked her teeth as she thought about her. "Much as I hate to admit, she is."
"But...then what are you?" Sora asked, now looking lost as he kept comparing the two of them. "She looks like a vampire, yet you look like you're part dragon."
"It's my dream to become the biggest Servant idol there is, and all the very best idols have unique looks to them! So I just made some adjustments to my Saint Graph and I became my own self!" Elizabeth said, puffing her chest out with pride.
Sora had no idea what a Saint Graph is, but he will definitely look for it later on his phone. Also…
"Um…what's an idol?"
Elizabeth's eyes widened as she slowly moved her head to look at Sora, seeing the curious look on her face. She narrowed her eyes at him. "Are you being serious?"
"Um, yeah?"
"Like…seriously, seriously?"
Sora nodded his head which made the dragon girl gasp in shock.
"Are you kidding me!?" Elizabeth asked, now feeling quite offended. She marched right up to the shocked Sora, ignoring the surprised looks the others gave her and getting him to back away from her just as his back hit a tree, and began to point at his chest. "You've been traveling to many worlds and you're telling me right here and now that you don't know what an idol is!? Just how slow are you?"
"Hey!" Sora took offense to that. "Give me a break! I didn't even know what a gypsy was until I met Esmeralda!"
Elizabeth stared hard at him with a narrowed gaze but then realized something that she forgot in the crazy story he told them. Because pieces of his world had been split apart thanks to the Keyblade War, he grew up on an island that's been cut off from the others. Meaning that his world didn't have cities and the like. Just an island surrounded by nothing but water. To her, it sounded like a prison.
The Dragon's Daughter then sighed to herself and shook her head, feeling a…bit sorry for the poor clueless boy. Just a bit. "Of course you wouldn't know what an idol is. After all, you are just a country bumpkin from an island."
"Huh!? Who are you calling a country bumpkin!?"
"Listen up, Kitty!" Elizabeth pointed her finger at Sora, placing it on his nose. She wore a big smirk on her face. "I'm going to tell you exactly what an idol is! So pay attention and be honored that I, Elizabeth Báthory, future superstar, am explaining it to you!"
While Elizabeth was explaining to Sora what an idol was and what they do, the others watched the interaction between them.
"It's amazing how Sora doesn't know what an idol is." Marie remarks with a smile. "He probably hasn't been to a world where they exist."
"It's even more amazing how his world and many others in his universe are actually a small piece of something much bigger, each set in their own time period." Artoria said. "It makes me wonder if our world were to suffer the same fate if a Keyblade War were to happen here."
Jeanne giggled at that. "Let's just be happy it didn't. If it did, I would be like Sora and his friends and want to know what the outside world is like."
Marie also giggled. She then thought about something as she looked at them, noticing a certain look they were giving him. "Say, what do you two think of him?" Jeanne and Artoria were surprised but both answered her.
"He's a very brave man, though he can be a bit silly at times." Artoria answered with Jeanne nodding in agreement. "I can't say I know anyone who's been through the same situation he has because they probably don't exist in our universe."
"But…despite everything he's seen, all the things that happened to him and his friends and being far away from them, he's still able to smile like that." Jeanne added in. "And that childlike wonder he shows whenever he learns something new about our world." She had a small blush on her face. "It honestly makes him cute."
"Hm-hm!" Marie nodded at what they said, thinking the same thing. When she first saw him, she knew there was something different about him, something that drew her to him and after listening to his story last night, she was right.
It was light.
It was the light in Sora's heart that drew her to him. His light is just so powerful and bright that it touched her own heart. She had never felt such a strong feeling touch her heart before even when she was alive. His light just felt so warm and gentle to her. His interaction with her and Amadeus, seeing how he protected Jeanne from that rock that was thrown at her and how he wanted to help Martha break away from the Dragon Witch's curse already told her much about his character.
He's a hero. He's someone who will save those in trouble, no matter who they are. He wants to form connections to those who he feels he can connect with. He even sacrificed his very existence just to save all his friends and bring them back into the world, even turned himself into a Heartless just to save his first love.
Deep inside her heart, it made her wonder something. If there was a Sora that had existed back in her era…would he…would he have…
"Wow! I had no idea idols do all that! And you're one of them?"
"That's right, Kitty! Idols are pretty amazing aren't they?"
"Can I hear you sing something?"
Marie's eyes widened in alarm at hearing the question. "Uh-oh!"
Jeanne and Artoria looked at Marie, confused by what she meant.
"O-Of course you can Kitty! Prepare to be blown away!"
"M-Marie?" Jeanne asked as Marie looked a little bit paler than before and was put off when she placed her hands on her ears. The Saint and Knight looked at one another with a slight nervousness as they looked at Elizabeth and Sora.
Elizabeth closed her eyes and took a deep breath, feeling Sora's anticipated eyes on her which made her feel giddy inside for some reason which never really happened to her before. No! This was her chance! Her chance to show Sora what it is to be an idol!
And that's exactly what she's going to do!
Ritsuka's Group
Ritsuka and his group are currently walking through the forest heading their way to their destination. All was quiet between them as they listened to the sounds of nature. But then they all suddenly stopped as they heard what sounded like a very loud scream that shook the trees and made every animal in the area run away in fright.
Everyone in the group covered their eyes to try and block out the screaming sound which sounded not that far away from them. The screaming eventually died down and everyone uncovered their ears.
"God damn, that hurts!" Cú shouted.
"What was that!?" Ritsuka asked, still hearing ringing in his ears.
"A monster?!" Mash asked, getting into a battle ready stance.
"No, my dear. That…wasn't a monster." Amadeus groans.
"Then what was that?" Emiya asked, shaking his head slightly to get rid of the ringing.
"That. Was the sound of an annoying pink baboon." Kiyohime hissed angrily with Mozart nodding in agreement, both not paying any mind to the confused looks being sent their way. She could only be thankful that the screeching mixed-blood was not a part of their group though she did feel sorry for the other three, especially Sora.
Sora's Group
"Ha! What do you think, Kitty?" Elizabeth asked, feeling prideful for what she did. "What you heard was the makings of the next big idol! Please, hold your applause!"
Nobody couldn't really do anything as they were covering their ears, with Jeanne and Artoria looking at Elizabeth with eyes full of disbelief. What in the world was that!? Was that supposed to be her singing a note? That sounded more like a screaming dragon! How could she not tell the difference between that and singing?!
Wait a minute…where's Sora!?
"Sora!" Marie called out, running past Elizabeth and making her way to the boy.
Because he was right in front of Elizabeth when she started her 'singing', he was blasted off of his feet and into the forest.
As the Queen of France and the others made their way to him, they saw that he was unconscious and was leaning on the trunk of a tree, no doubt because he got hit by it after he was blown back. In fact, it was kinda funny as they saw his spiky hair looked like it was blown back by a very powerful wind.
Elizabeth stared wide eyed at Sora, watching as Marie tended to him. She was quite surprised to see that he was 'sleeping'. "Whoa! I didn't think my singing would put him to sleep! Hehehe! I must be getting better!"
The others all sweat dropped by what she said while Sora let out a groan. Elizabeth meanwhile felt proud of her accomplishment as she placed her hands on her hips and puffed her chest up. Now that Kitty knows what she does as an idol and seen her in action, he may even ask for her autograph.
…once he wakes up that is.
A few days later
"Waaah! This stinks!" Elizabeth complained. "All we've been doing is walking through this forest! It's exhausting! Hey! Marie! Can't you bring out your carriage?"
Marie shook her head. "I can't do that Eli. We're in the middle of the forest, we'll just keep getting stuck on things."
"You're a Servant as well. You can't get exhausted." Artoria chimed in.
"But aren't you all tired of the same scenery!? All we've been doing is walking and kept on getting attacked by those stupid Heartless!" Elizabeth continued to complain. "You agree with me, right Kitty?"
"Well, this is kinda a normal thing for me." Sora replied, hands behind his head as he kept walking, not even minding about the nickname she gave him. He thought back to what happened the last few days since they split from Ritsuka and the others.
After he woke up from what happened during Eli's 'lullaby', he made sure to prepare himself next time she tried to do that again. Still, he was happy to learn more about the idols she was so into and how passionate she was to become one. But one night, when everyone was asleep, Eli woke him up so they could go somewhere in private and talk.
For a reason too.
During the day when they were walking, Sora took a couple of pictures, one of them being of Eli looking at a couple of birds. Though when Eli found that out, she pushed him into a bush and yelled at him about taking a picture of her when she wasn't ready for one. He didn't know it, but her face was bright red when she said this. She even went so far as to try and make sure she looked good in case he decided to take another one again. Despite her saying that, she took his phone and tried to flood his album with selfie pictures of her, with him having to delete some of them just so he can save up space.
Of course, once he took her picture, her information appeared on his phone where he read about her full history and what she did that same night. He was horrified to find out that this was the same girl who grew up to become…well, that person who is on Dark Jeanne's team. She truly was what some would describe as a vampire would do, it didn't even help that the older version of Eli even looked the part.
That's what she and Sora talked about. Eli knew what she did, and she hated herself for what she turned into. That's why she wanted to be an idol. She wanted to be loved by people and not be feared or hated as the serial killer she was back when she was alive.
Hearing her say that made Sora feel happy. In a way, it sounded like she's saying that she regrets what she did. Maybe that's why she became a Heroic Spirit. Because deep down inside her heart, she hated what she was doing back when she was alive and wanted to stop it but it was too late.
Now here she is as a Heroic Spirit. Taking this chance to start over fresh as an idol.
Sora chuckled to himself as he remembered Eli saying she didn't even know why she told him all that but she felt like he was someone she could talk to about all that.
It wasn't just Eli, but Sora took this chance to get to know more about Marie, Jeanne and Artoria. Sora told them stories about his adventures in other worlds, even showing them even more pictures of the worlds he's been to. He inwardly laughed as he remembered seeing the surprised and scared looks on their faces when he showed them pictures of Monsteropolis and the forms he and his friends took in that world.
Of course, he wasn't the only one to share stories, as the others did the same thing during their travels.
Speaking of, Sora frowned to himself as he glanced back at Marie to see her talking to Jeanne about Dark Jeanne.
"I truly don't feel it. Her words. Her hatred. I can't feel any of it. I believe that Sora might be right and that Dark Jeanne isn't me."
Sora nodded to himself. But then blinked when Marie commented that Jeanne is beautiful which made her react in such a way that he almost let out a laugh. But it died when Marie said the next few words.
Background Music: End
"Because if I was in your position, I would have accepted her words. The words of the Dragon Witch, the other me."
That made Sora stop as he turned to look at her. Marie had a smile on her face but it had some sense of bitterness and sadness.
"I don't hate the people who executed me. I can say that with about 90% certainty. But with that last 10% or possibly even less, I might hate those who killed my child, Charles. Even if it's just a little bit."
Jeanne's eyes widened in shock at that admittance. It only made sense that she would feel that way, but given her current form it was easy to forget that Marie had lived a full life. Yet when the shock died down, she had to admit that she could understand why she would feel that way. Just about anyone in that situation would.
Sora felt the same thing as Jeanne.
After hearing Marie's story, he felt so awful. He…he couldn't believe that all of that happened to her. Someone who was once loved by her own people, only to be hated and killed by them during the French Revolution. If that wasn't horrible enough, her second son, who was only ten years old, was also killed while also being abused by the French Revolutionaries during his imprisonment.
"So if an evil version of me appeared, like the Dragon Witch has for you or Vanitas for Sora, I'd accept it." Marie continued, lifting her head again. "I know that small part of me exists, and I know the Throne could exploit that." She turned to look at Jeanne again, smiling more gently this time despite what she just said. "But that's only for me. The situation is different for you. You're not like that. You love people, right?"
The Saint of Orleans closed her eyes for a moment and like Marie, she had a gentle smile formed on her face. "Yes. I do love them so there's no way I would resent them."
"There you go!" Marie cheered. She turned to Sora and saw he too had looked happy, in the form of the big happy smile she loved to see. "Hey, Sora. Wouldn't Jeanne make an amazing Princess of Heart?"
"Wha-!?"
"She sure would." Sora honestly said. "I honestly thought she was one of the New Seven Hearts when we first met."
"Y-You two! I told you, there's no possible way I would be one of the New Seven Princesses! I'm not even royalty!"
Sora and Marie both laughed at her blushing face as she let out an angry pout at them for their teasing. Artoria shook her head at their antics but had an amused smile on her face. After learning more about the original Seven Princesses and the New Seven a few nights ago, Marie truly believed that Jeanne is definitely one of the New Seven or at least a candidate to be one. The saint however quickly denied this, saying she can't be and that it was impossible.
"Hey! Everyone! We made it!" Elizabeth's happy shout caught everyone's attention as they walked over and indeed saw the town Montluçon.
"Great! Let's go find the Dragon Slayer." Sora said.
"Sora! Look!" Marie's alarmed voice made him and the others look to where she was pointing at in the sky. They saw four wyverns heading their way to the town.
"Wyverns?" Eli asked.
"No, something's different." Artoria shook her head, taking a closer look to examine them with narrowed eyes.
While they did look like wyverns, there was something…different about them. They have predominantly dark red skin, save for its belly, which is tan, and its wings, which are salmon-colored, though its wingtips are dark red.
Its body is rather thin, while its three-toed feet are quite large, each sporting black talons. Its wings seem rather thin when compared to its body, and its wingtips appear tattered, with several small holes in them. There is a tall, slightly curved spike on each of its shoulders. The tail is fairly short and its head is V-shaped and flat. It has beady yellow eyes on either side of its head.
Her eyes widened as she noticed an emblem of a heart with a fleur-de-lis at the bottom and a spiky "X" crossing through the center.
"Those aren't regular wyverns!"
Background Music: Ignition [Fate/Grand Order]
Sora's eyes widened as he recognized what this wyvern is as memories of him fighting them flashed in his mind. "She's right! They're Heartless!" His yell made the Servants tense up.
"We must hurry!" Jeanne said urgently.
Marie summoned her carriage with everyone hoping in as quick as possible then they took off to the town.
They immediately arrived at the gates, jumped out of the carriage which disappeared and saw the townspeople were panicking and running away from the Wyvern Heartless that were attacking them. Many of the city's guards were trying to protect the people from the Wyverns but they were also getting attacked by the Soldier and Shadow Heartless. Some of them had hearts leaving their bodies and were disappearing into the darkness while others were running away in fear, even going so far as to drop their weapons.
The whole group summoned their weapons and took charge at the Heartless, with Sora casting a Thunder spell at Wyvern, which caught it and the other Heartless' attention as they charged at them as well.
Artoria took the lead to strike at one of the Soldier Heartless, knocking it away into a Wyvern before finishing them both off in one strike. She turned around and saw a Wyvern charging at her using a torpedo move before she blocked it and followed up with a counterattack before charging at more Wyvern.
Nearby, Elizabeth did several combo attacks on the Shadow Heartless using her lance/microphone that surrounded her even using her tail, getting them to disappear. One Shadow popped out of the ground and tried to swipe her but she slammed her tail on it. She glared at it heatedly as it tried to claw its way out.
"Stupid Heartless! Stop trying to sneak up on me!" Elizabeth slammed her tail on it several more times for good measure and it laid on the ground before disappearing in wisps of darkness. She huffed and nodded at her accomplishment.
"Don't mess with this superstar!"
Jeanne swirls her flag like a fan as she charges against the Wyvern and Soldier Heartless, getting them both to vanish. Turning around to the sound of a crying child, she looked and saw a little boy crying by his lonesome. She gasped as she saw several Shadows rising from the ground and were making their way to him.
"No!" The Saint charged at the boy, just as the Shadows jumped at him. She scooped him in her arm and swiped at the Shadows, getting them to disappear. She put the boy down, who stopped crying after being saved and looked at her widened eyes.
"Go somewhere safe! Hurry!" Jeanne told the boy. He nodded at her and took off running. Her eyes narrowed into a glare as she saw more Shadows appear. She twirled her flag. "Foul creatures of the dark. Go back to the dark realms where you belong!" She let out a cry as she charged at them.
Sora took down every Shadow and Soldier Heartless that tried to get the jump on him. Some Wyverns even tried to join in but Marie managed to knock them down with her voice, giving him the chance to strike them down. He turned and smiled at her.
"Thanks Marie!"
The queen nodded in reply but then jumped away to avoid a Wyvern diving down at her. She summoned pink orbs and launched them at the Wyvern, getting it to screech in pain as it flapped its wings to try and get away. But Sora wouldn't have any of that as he threw his Keyblade at it, releasing the heart.
"Au revoir!" Marie waved at the flying heart as it vanished in sparkles. "I hope you return to your owner!"
Background Music: End
Once all of the Heartless had been wiped out, the group reunited in the middle of the square.
"You guys okay?" Sora asked, soon as they all gathered. He earned nods in return.
"Yes. We managed to get all of the Heartless." Artoria said.
"Ha! As if those ugly freaks ever stood a chance against us!" Elizabeth laughed.
Jeanne narrowed her eyes in concern as she looked up at the sky. "Shadows, Neoshadow, Soldiers, now Wyvern? The Heartless really do come in all shapes and sizes."
"But why are they here in town?" Marie asked, looking a little worried. "Did the Dragon Witch send them?"
"I don't think so." Sora answered, crossing his arms and looking thoughtful. "I highly doubt that she would be able to control the Heartless after just learning about them. But then again…" He thought about what happened back in Deep Jungle, where the Heartless didn't find their way into that world until Clayton accidentally summoned them there because of his darkness. "I wouldn't be surprised if she somehow did find a way to control them."
Artoria nodded in reply. "Or for all we know, it could very well be a coincidence. In any case, we should focus more on finding the Dragon Slayer."
Sora nodded. "Right, we should split up and-" He was interrupted by hearing his phone ringing.
However, it wasn't his usual ringtone as it sounded like beeping noises. He took his phone out and saw a map of the area they were in. His yellow crown symbol appeared on it, showing it was where they were at. There was a hostile red dot heading its way towards them with a blue dot on top of it. Sora's eyes widened as he knew what this meant.
"A Servant is coming along with something else!" Everyone's eyes widened in shock from what he said.
CRASH!
They jumped at the sound of something crashing on the ground, not that far away from them. They turned around at the same time, weapons drawn, and saw a cloud of dirt as something large fell there.
They narrowed their eyes and got into stance as they saw the shadow of the large creature stand up. It let out a cry, blowing the dirt away and saw it was just a regular wyvern. The wyvern let out a cry when a knight landed on its head, sword drawn.
"Foul dragon! Away with you!"
It let out a cry of pain, when the man drove his sword through its head. The wyvern fell dead as the man removed his sword from its head and swiped the blood off.
"Hm?" The Knight turned his attention to Sora's group with a look of surprise.
He is a tall man, apparently in either his late 20s or early 30s. He possesses brown eyes and long hair of the same color that reaches his waist.
His knightly armor is of a bronze-orange color, covering from his neck to his feet. By the looks of his feet armor, it appears to be dragon-themed. Portions of his armor, mainly the left side of his torso, are covered by a white garment with a red, vertical stripe on it. He wears a white cape, tied around his shoulders by a brown, leather belt, with a red horizontal stripe drawn on it. He possesses a second layer of clothing underneath the white garments with the same shape, but colored red instead.
The Knight eyed each member of the group, though his eyes narrowed at Elizabeth for a moment, taking notice of her dragon features. But the moment his eyes turned to Sora, it remained on him, a look of surprise appearing on his face as though he felt something different about him and the fact that he was also holding a giant key.
"Oh? I wasn't aware we had guests. And what a bizarre group indeed. Forgive me for my display, but I'm afraid I must go and take care of those mysterious creatures." The Knight said, turning around to leave.
"Wait! It's okay, we took care of the Heartless." Sora told the Knight, getting him to stop and look at him with a frown.
"Heartless?"
"The shadow creatures and the ones with the emblems on their bodies. That's what they're called." Jeanne told them.
"I see. And you defeated all of them?" The Knight asked with a smile, sheathing his sword once they nodded his head as they made their weapons disappear. "I will admit, they have been causing chaos in the town when they first appeared. I thank you all for protecting the citizens of this city."
"Hakuna matata, monsieur!" Marie said happily which earned a puzzled look from the Knight and slight laughter from the others.
"Your pardon?"
"It means no worries!"
"Ah. Understood."
"Excuse me, Sir Knight. Would you perhaps be a Servant summoned into this era?" Artoria asked.
"That I am. I am Rider, my True Name is Georgios." Georgios introduced himself.
"Nice to meet you Georgios. I'm Sora." Sora introduced himself as he then introduced the others.
"It's a pleasure to meet you all. And once again, I thank you for saving this town." Georgios thanked them once again before looking curious. "Though, may I ask why you've come here?"
"It's kind of a long story. Is there a place we can talk in private?" Sora asked.
"Yes. Follow me."
Later
After bringing them into a private house, the group explained to Georgios about what was going on.
"I see. So that's what happened." Georgios said, now understanding the situation. "Have you managed to contact your companions?"
"No, we just got here when we saw the Wyvern Heartless heading to town." Sora answered. "But before we do that, we were hoping we would look around for Siegfried for a little bit."
"Well, I can assure you that you won't have to search for him." Georgios said with a serious frown. "For he is here." He saw the looks of surprise on everyone's faces and the happy one from Sora.
"Really?!" Sora asked happily. "Siegfried is here, right now?"
"Yes. However, I'm afraid he's in a terrible state." Georgios replied as he was walking towards a door.
"What do you mean?" Artoria asked, frowning a little bit.
"Allow me to show you." Georgios opened the door, and everyone saw the man himself lying in bed. But they gasped in shock when they saw the state he was in.
Siegfried is a tall man with silver-gray hair. He was completely shirtless, showing everyone a glowing symbol that was on his chest. The same symbol that Fafnir had. But that wasn't all, as his body was covered in what looked like black scars or cracks.
"Saber…Siegfried." Siegfried introduced himself, trying to fight through the pain. "Sorry…for introducing you like this."
"W…What happened to you?" Jeanne asked.
"Multiple curses have been cast upon him." Georgios said.
"Multiple curses?" Marie asked.
Sora immediately knew the answer to who did this to Siegfried. "Dark Jeanne."
"Indeed, young man." Georgios said. "He was in Lyon, but he suffered serious injuries from a serious battle with the Dragon Witch's subordinates. Until we are able to lift these curses, he won't be able to wield the power of the Dragon Slayer or even fight at all."
"Hold on. I think I might have something that can help him." Sora said. He reached into his pocket and took out an orange jar with two handles on it. He sat the item down next to Siegfried who looked at it with confusion.
"What…is this?"
"This is Panacea. It can remove any and all negative effects you have." Sora explained, holding the orange jar up before sitting it back down.
"What…?" Siegfried looked at Sora with surprise and then turned his attention to the items lying next to him.
Georgios also looked surprised, and a little confused, as well. He never heard of such an item named after the Greek Goddess Panacea herself. But from the way Sora described it, it sounded like this item is incredible. He looked to the other occupants in the room and saw the smiles they wore on their face as they watched.
"Are…are you sure I can have this?" Siegfried asked, feeling a little uncertain to be taking such incredible sounding items. But it disappeared when Sora smiled at him.
"Yeah. I got plenty to spare."
"I…see. Thank you." Siegfried said. He took the Panacea, removing the lid and drinking the whole jar. As this happened, his whole body began to glow a bright golden orange color. The black scars began to disappear as soon as he was finished.
Everyone gasped in awe at this while Sora placed his hand behind his head, looking quite happy. Siegfried meanwhile looked too stunned to even say anything. He looked at his body, seeing the black scars were completely gone, sitting the Panacea down. He didn't feel that much pain and wasn't tired either. Well, he felt a little tired, but he could clearly feel that the curses were gone.
"How do you feel?" Sora asked.
Siegfried got out of bed, though he did stumble a little bit. Sora and Georgios caught him before he could fall. "I…I'm okay. Sorry about that."
"Hey, just take your time Siegfried." Sora told him. "It's not like we're in a rush."
"Hmm. The curses are gone. But…I still feel a little weak." Siegfried told them as the two helped sit him back down on the bed.
"You're still healing from your battle which is understandable." Georgios stated, turning to Sora with gratefulness. "I can't thank you enough for what you've done for not only the town but for Siegfried."
"No big deal." Sora said.
"How'd you even know that would work?" Elizabeth asked, raising her eyebrow. "I thought that All-Cure thing would just get rid of stuff like poison or whatever."
"Georgios did say multiple curses, right?" Sora reminded her. "So I kinda figured that unlike the stronger curse Dark Jeanne put on her Servants with that Madness thing, the ones that were placed on Siegfried might've been the more minor stuff to try and keep him out of the way or weaken him enough to kill him."
Everyone was surprised to hear the response while Eli was more impressed. "Wow. You're smarter than I gave you credit for."
Sora nodded his head happily but then registered what it was she said and took quite an offense to that. "Hey! What's that supposed to mean?"
"Oh nothing." Eli waved her hand nonchalantly at him. "Shouldn't you be calling Fujimaru and the others?"
"Oh right!" Sora took his phone out but jumped in surprise when the phone rang, showing it was Ritsuka calling him. He pushed the button and the mentioned Master appeared on screen.
["Hey Sora!"]
"Hey Ritsuka! I'm glad you called, I got awesome news!"
Ritsuka looked curious. ["What is it?"]
"We found Siegfried in Montluçon." Sora said, getting a surprised look from his friend before looking over his phone. "Hold on, let me…just…um…which button was it to do that holoscreen feature again?"
That earned him giggles from the women while Elizabeth just groaned at his illiteracy towards technology. The idol reached over and took the phone from him, aiming at a wall and pushed a button, causing the holoscreen to pop up, showing not just Ritsuka but also Mash with Fou on her shoulder.
"Just what'd you expect from an islander. Don't even know how to use something as simple as a phone." Eli shook her head, feeling even more sorry for the islander lifestyle Sora had to live.
"There's nothing wrong with being an islander! You should try it yourself and see how you like it." Sora said, now glaring at her for that comment.
"Pass, island boy." Eli deadpanned. She is, always, and will forever be, a big city kind of girl.
["So anyway, what happened on your end?"] Ritsuka asked, an awkward look on his face from watching the two argue about Sora's lifestyle.
Well, first and foremost, they introduced Georgios to the group before introducing Siegfried. They then went on to tell them what happened after they made it to the city with the Heartless attacking it and how they met Georgios. Before they could continue, Amadeus suddenly yelled something about hiding and the holoscreen on their end turned off but they could still hear what was going on.
They heard what sounded like dragons flying over them, getting everyone in the whole room to tense up for a moment as the sounds then disappeared.
"Guys! Are you okay? What's going on!?" Sora asked, worried that something bad happened to them.
["This is bad! They just saw Fafnir!"] Roman said in alarm. ["It's heading towards where you guys are! Montluçon!"]
Everyone gasped in shock. But for Sora, he felt nothing but dread enter his heart and he didn't know why.
Soon
Everybody in the city was getting inside carriages as those that were already filled with people were already leaving the city from the emergency exits. Sora and Artoria were outside, helping out with the evacuation while also keeping the masses calm. The two were also on the lookout just in case any Heartless tried to show up to cause trouble, which thankfully none had shown up.
While they were doing that, everyone else was still in the private house, trying to plan out their next moves before the Wicked Dragon's arrival to the city.
Sora didn't know why…but after Romani said that Fafnir was on their way here, he had a bad feeling in his heart that something terrible was going to happen. Even though he tried to ignore it to help keep the people calm and out of the city, he just couldn't.
Once the last few carriages left, Sora and Artoria stayed behind outside of the gates to wait for the others. They didn't have to wait long as they saw them riding on horses in pairs with an extra horse. They stopped in front of them.
"Are all of the people out of the city?" Georgios asked.
"We just got the last few out!" Artoria answered as she hopped on the horse with no occupants. "What's the plan?
"We're going to meet up with Fujimaru and the others." Jeanne said.
"Wait a second, what about the people? And where's Marie?" Sora asked, noticing the Queen of France wasn't riding with anyone. The dreadness he felt from earlier returned when he saw them look away. He looked back at Jeanne and saw she was trying her hardest not to cry. "Jeanne?"
"We…we had to make a choice." Jeanne answered. "We had to choose if we should leave the city and sacrifice the citizens or stay in the fight only to perish in battle. Marie, she offered to stay behind."
"What!?" Sora looked shocked and horrified, now understanding what the dreadful feeling was. "She's out there alone!?" He was about to run off back to the city
"Sora!" Jeanne's voice stopped him. She didn't look back at him but felt his eyes on her. "She…she knew that you would try to join her…but she told me to tell you to not."
"But…but why!? Why would she say that?" Sora asked, now feeling confused, angry and sad that Marie didn't want him to help her.
"She said…she's following what her heart is telling her." Jeanne answered sadly. She herself wanted to follow her heart and go back and fight with her. But Marie…after what she said…she and Eli both told her that they'll be waiting for her to come back to them. But deep down inside, they both knew that it wasn't going to happen.
"Her Majesty is giving us this chance to escape while she stays behind to hold the enemy off until the citizens get to safety." Georgios told Sora, seeing how Jeanne looked a little too sad to say anything else. "We can't let her sacrifice be in vain."
Sora's eyes widened to hear that. Hearing the sound of the gates made him look back at it to see they were closing. He looked at the others and looked back at the gates again. He closed his eyes as he thought back to when Ansem the Wise sacrificed himself, to when Maleficent and Pete fought the herd of Heartless by themselves, and he himself when he decided to use the Power of Waking one last time to get Kairi back.
In all those situations that happened, they let their hearts decide for them, something that can never be changed. He knows that very much. But should he really follow through with it this time? He already knew that Marie won't be able to survive as there's no telling what sort of Servant she'll be fighting against. Like Mozart said, he and Marie were more of a support type of Servants. So who's to say that Dark Jeanne probably has a Servant that can kill her?
No. There's no way he's going to let that happen. He's not going to leave a friend behind. If they need him to be there, then he'll be there, to help them! Marie said she's doing what her heart is telling her, then he'll do the same thing!
Sora opened his eyes, a raw determined glare in them as he made his choice.
Meanwhile
Marie stood in front of the entrance of the Montluçon. The gates had already closed behind her and the town was completely empty. She stood there calmly as she watched the army of dragons coming. She looked briefly back at the town, remembering the meeting they had prior.
Jeanne was so strongly against her fighting by herself and wanted to fight with her. While she was touched to hear how much Jeanne cared about her, she didn't want that. Jeanne had her own role to fulfill. She always admired her, even when she was alive. She, a queen inside her palace and Jeanne, a warrior in the battlefield. They both to the very end as young women.
The queen will admit, she wasn't as good as her but she was fine with that. It's because of this, that she admired Jeanne. That a girl like her existed. She was so happy that the two got to become real friends. And as friends, she wanted Jeanne to stay strong and see her off. Jeanne said that she'll be waiting for her, Eli too.
Ah, there was Sora too. Before everyone left, she told them to tell Sora to not stay behind with her. In the days that she got to know him more, she knew that he would do everything in his power to save his friends. She knows that he fought a whole lot of powerful enemies in his world and managed to survive…but she couldn't let him do that. He had to go home to his friends and if he were to lose his life here, they would all be heartbroken, especially Kairi.
Just thinking about the man made her remember what happened a couple of days ago when they were alone.
Flashback (Two Days Prior)
Sora and Marie were wandering around the forest, looking for some ingredients to cook for camp. Sora found himself a bunch of fruits, while Marie was picking up some eggs, nuts and acorns, though she stopped for a moment.
"Hey Sora."
"Hm?"
"There's something I want to ask you."
Sora stopped what he was doing and turned to Marie, seeing her look at him with a concerned look. "What's up?
"It's about when you used Riku's…I mean Ansem's Keyblade to free Kairi and the Princesses' hearts and became a Heartless." Marie said, though now she was feeling a little uncertain if she should ask him this. "What was it like? Becoming it?"
Sora blinked, not expecting to hear anyone ask him that. He looked up in thought. "If I had to say, it would be odd."
"Odd?" Marie asked.
"Yeah." Sora said, looking back at her. "When I turned into a Heartless, I was lost in darkness, I couldn't find my way out. As I dived further in, I started to forget a lot of things…my friends, who I was…the darkness almost swallowed me. But then I heard a voice, Kairi's voice. She brought me back. It just felt odd and weird that I was Heartless. I couldn't talk, use my Keyblade, I could barely do anything."
"I see. What about after you became a Heartless?" Marie asked.
"After I got my new clothes from the Three Good Fairies, I gained a new power called Drive Form. One of them was something called an Antiform." Sora answered.
Marie tilted her head. "What's that?"
"Well…because I transformed into a Heartless, I still had darkness inside my heart." Sora said sheepishly. "Antiform is basically a representation of that darkness."
Marie gasped in shock, now feeling concerned about Sora. "You mean, you transformed into some sort of humanoid Heartless?"
Sora could hear the concern in her and he smile in appreciation for it. "I mean it only happens whenever I use my Drive Forms too much, so it only happens at random." He answered though he did frown. "It's helpful sometimes but it can still get pretty annoying. Guess that's what I get for being so greedy." He finished with a laugh.
"...I see. The darkness really is scary huh?" Marie asked, looking up at the namesake of the man before her.
"Marie?"
"Sora…would it be possible for me to be a Heartless if I were to hate someone with all my heart?"
"Huh?"
Background Music: Distant from you [Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance]
"I mean…you know my history." Marie said with a small smile. "You know that I was killed by my own people. I don't hate them for doing that." She looked down at the ground as she thought about Charles. "But…I do hate them for killing my child…my precious Charles."
Sora flinched a little at that. He's still disgusted to learn that not only the people killed Marie as she tried to help them from behind the scenes, but to even go as far as to abuse and then kill her son just to get at her? In all honesty, he hated the French revolutionaries.
"I knew then and there that darkness appeared in my heart. In a way, I can understand why the other Jeanne is destroying France. If another version of me appeared, I know she would've done the same thing. But then…the Heartless showed up."
Sora kept silent as he let Marie finish saying her piece as she placed her hand on her chest.
"It got me thinking. If I just gave myself over to the darkness in my heart, just kept hating the people who killed Charles, would I turn into a Heartless? Would I really give up my humanity to become a monster that the people saw me as when I was alive? To be honest, the thought of it…scares me." She turned to look at Sora. "But…you and Xehanort, you both held onto your feelings, your humanity even as Heartless. So I thought that if I became one when I was alive, I would be able to try and save my boy. But if I did then…"
She fell silent after that, turning away from Sora, too scared to see his reaction to what she said who now realized what she was getting at.
She was scared that if she became a Heartless, she would not only kill the revolutionaries, but she would also kill her family and destroy France. But if she did become one, yet kept fighting to keep her humanity and not let the darkness consume her, she would've saved her family and left France for good but at the cost of her family fearing and hating her for what she became. But Marie didn't want to take the chance. She knew that there was nothing she could do to change what happened to them.
"Marie…there's nothing wrong with feeling nor thinking that way." Sora told her, getting her attention. "To be honest, the people who killed you and Jeanne, I hate them too." Marie looked surprised to hear this. "But that doesn't mean I hate everybody in France, because I know you had friends who cares so much about you. And I'm willing to believe that there were good people who tried to do everything in their power to save you and your son. When you think about it, wouldn't it make sense for the revolutionaries to kill them for even still supporting you when they know you tried to help them?"
Marie's eyes widened as she never really thought about that. Before she could even dwell on that more, Sora kept talking.
"A heart is made up of all kinds of feelings, so it's okay to have darkness in it, no matter how big or small it is. Even if you hate the people for killing your child, even if it's just a little bit, it's still okay. As long as you don't let that hate consume you, then there's nothing to worry about. As for what you're thinking. It's just a thought, nothing more than that. There's no shame in thinking about it."
Marie looked stunned by what he said. She placed her hands on her chest again, only this time they were trembling. "Is it really okay for me to feel this way? I…no matter what sort of changes the revolutionaries brought to France as a whole…I'll still forever hate them for what they did."
Sora nodded at her. "Of course it is. Even if you hate them forever, you'll still be the same ol' Marie. The same Marie who's heart is full of love for her country and her friends. It's like you said...er..." He crossed his arms and closed his eyes. "Um, what was it you said again? Ivy…vivi…?"
The Keybearer opened his eyes in surprise when he felt Marie hugged him, her head buried in his chest and her arms wrapped tightly around him. He was a bit put off by that and he couldn't even hug her back. He didn't see it but Marie had a big smile on her face along with a dust of red coloring her cheeks.
"Vive la France, silly!"
Background Music: End
Flashback End
Sora. He truly is a wonderful man with a beautiful heart. She's so glad she was able to meet such a man like him. The only thing she regrets is that she never had the chance to say goodbye to him. She hopes that he understands that he was doing what her heart was telling her.
"Hakuna matata. A wonderful phrase indeed." Marie said softly. Her eyes widened as she sensed the presence of a Servant. But who on earth could it be…?
She looked forward and narrowed her eyes when she saw a silhouette of someone walking, making their way towards her. Her eyes widened in shock when she saw who this Servant was.
"Oh dear…" Marie whispered. She knew exactly who it was. It was him. There's no way she could forget him. It's the man who cut her head at the guillotine when she was alive. "Charles-Henri Sanson!"
Charles smiled at her, though it wasn't a happy nor sad one, especially with blood covering him. It was a smile filled with malicious intent. "I wanted to meet you again, my Queen. With your neck as white as snow."
Marie frowned, not only at his words but also at his appearance. "To think that even you were summoned here. Look at you, it seems you've already killed countless people."
Charles' smile widened from her remark. "I apologize. But all this was for you." He held his large blade, which was still dripping with the blood of his victims. "That's right. It was all so I could…" He placed his other hand on the sword's handle. "CHOP OFF YOUR HEAD ONE MORE TIME!"
Charles charged at Marie, his sword drawn in an attempt to cut her head. She managed to avoid it by ducking, though her red hat wasn't so lucky as it got cut in half. She moved out of the way as she summoned balls of light at Charles, though he remained unfazed.
"I'm so happy that I could hear you singing this closely!"
Marie's eyes widened as she felt Charles' sword cut through the side of her stomach, which made her cry out in pain back away from as she placed her hands on the wound.
"If possible, I would rather you didn't resist. My aim isn't to give you pain or anguish." Charles told her, despite the insane smile still on his face. "Does it feel strange when you're killed? The act of being executed is a punishment that settles a debt of sin. That's why an executioner must give the sinner more pain than that sin. For an executioner, that is more natural thought than rules. So I will aim beyond that."
The Executioner's eyes widened in insane glee as he liked seeing the fear on Marie's face. "In other words 'pleasure'! In that moment I will make them 'feel so good that they die'! During my life, my greatest achievement was your beheading! That's why I wanted to meet you and confirm it. Marie, 'how' was my beheading?!" He raised his sword and spoke with mad gleefulness. "DID YOU REACH THE CLIMAX AT THE END OF YOUR LIFE?!"
"LEAVE HER ALONE!"
Marie and Charles' eyes widened at the angered voice. Charles didn't recognize the owner of that voice but Marie did. Her suspicion was confirmed when she saw a familiar giant key strike Charles from above, knocking him a few meters away from her and getting him to yell in pain.
"What!?" Charles was angered at the interruption between him and Marie. He looked and saw a boy with a giant key standing between him and Marie, glaring at him angrily. He was holding a…giant key.
"S-Sora!?" Marie gasped in shock to see him appear. Why? Why was he here? Why didn't he go with the others?
"Marie! Are you-" Sora turned to question her, but stopped when he saw the wound on her. "Hang on! Heal!"
Marie's eyes widened as she felt a nice warmth appear around her. She also felt the pain disappear. She stood up and saw her wound healed. She looked and saw him smiling at her but she looked shocked at his appearance.
"Sora...why are you here?"
"Isn't it obvious? I'm here to help you." Sora answered, getting her to step back in surprise. He sent a serious look at her. "I told Jeanne and the others to go on ahead. Once we're done here, the two of us are going to go over and meet with them. Together." Marie gasped again, not believing what he was saying. "Did you really think I would let you face this all alone?"
"But…!" Marie was going to argue but stopped when he placed his hand on her shoulder.
"I'm going to tell you something a friend of mine told me." Sora said firmly. "Nobody gets left behind. Well, I'm not going to leave my friends behind. And if they need me to be there, then I'll be there to help them!"
Marie looks stunned by what Sora said and she felt something strike her heart. Despite her leaving a message for him to keep going, he went out of his way to rush over and help her, even telling the others to go without him. Of course he would do that. Sora is someone who loves and cares for his friends. If his heart tells him to do something he will listen to it.
That's just the type of person he is.
The type of person who, despite only knowing him for a couple of days…whom she immediately fell in love with.
"You, boy."
Sora's eyes turned into a glare as he turned to Charles, his arm held protectively in front of Marie. The Executioner narrowed his eyes at the gesture and pointed his sword at him.
"You're in the way between my reunion with Marie. Stand aside and I'll deal with you later."
"...A reunion? You call this a reunion!? Hurting her like this?! Who are you!?" Sora asked.
"His name is Charles-Henri Sanson." Marie said, placing her hand on Sora's arm. "He's…the man who executed me."
"...What?" Sora glanced at Marie with widened eyes. He turned back to Charles. "You killed Marie? How did someone like you become a Heroic Spirit!?"
"It's because I killed her that I became a Heroic Spirit." Charles said, smirking at the shocked look on the boy's face. "By executing the queen of France herself, I made my mark in history and was sent to the Throne of Heroes after my time in this world passed. Oh yes! That was a wonderful moment for me. Chopping off her head and showing it to the masses as they cheered for me! I'm so thankful to my Master for summoning me! For I wish to chop it off once again!"
"You…" Sora stared at Charles in disbelief at how he was reacting in regards to killing Marie. This man…someone like him actually became a Heroic Spirit? Did that mean he was one of the revolutionaries? Was this really how he was like when he was alive? He truly hoped that it was because of the Madness thing that Dark Jeanne gave him upon his summon in this world.
Because if it wasn't, then Sora may have just found someone he hated.
"Now boy. Move out of the way so that I may chop my queen's head once more!" Charles ordered. "I'll deal with you after as my Master wants to deal with you personally."
"Forget it!" Sora said venomously, pointing his Keyblade at Charles. "You want Marie? You're going to have to go through me!"
Marie gasped in alarm by what he said. "Sora, no!"
Instead of feeling angered, Charles felt amused as he shrugged his shoulders. "Well, Master did say she wanted you alive. She just didn't care what state you would be in so long as you were still breathing. So allow me to cut your limbs off!"
Background Music: The Deep End [Kingdom Hearts]
Charles charged at Sora, who did the same thing and both clashed their weapons against each other. Sparks flew between both weapons as one tried to push the other back. Thanks to the Madness Enhancement from his Master, Charles managed to knock Sora back before raising his sword.
The Keybearer managed to roll out of the way in the nick of time as the sword crashed on the ground, creating a small crater. He aimed his Keyblade at him and launched a Fire spell at him.
Charles moved his head to avoid it and did a sweeping attack at Sora, who readied his Keyblade in order to block. The attack broke Sora's block but he slid behind the surprised Berserk Assassin and attacked him by landing several combo attacks.
Charles blocked the final strike and grabbed Sora by his throat, making him struggle and try to get out of it. The Berserk Assassin laughed at the futile attempt. "Is that all you got boy!?"
He slammed Sora down on the ground, making him gasp in pain and then planted his foot down on his arm. Hard. Sora yelled from the pain as he let go of his Keyblade and his eyes widened as he saw Charles raise his sword.
Marie seemed to realize it as well. "No!" She summoned her crystal horses and sent them charging at Charles, getting him to swipe his sword at them.
Sora summoned his Keyblade in his other hand and aimed it at Charles. "Blizzard!"
Charles let out a pained yell as the ice spell hit him in his chest, getting him to step off of Sora's arm and giving Marie the chance to launch her energy ball at him and send him sliding away from Sora.
Marie quickly ran to the man who captured her heart and kneeled in front of him, wrapping her arms around him to help him up. "Sora! Are you okay?"
"Yeah. I've taken worse hits." Sora reassured her as they both stood up. Hearing an angry yell made them look back at Sanson as he charged madly at them.
Marie used her crystals to create a shield, standing in front of Sora and blocking the strike from her executioner. Sora took this chance to transform into his Second Form and struck Sanson repeatedly, not even giving him the chance to try and attack.
In his anger, Sanson managed to avoid some of them and kicked Sora back away from him. He let out a yell as he and Sora struck blade after blade against each other. After clashing again, Charles grinned at Sora as he gave him an uppercut, sending upwards.
Once he was out of the way, Charles charged in mad glee at Marie, who was already ready for him with her shield. Using it, she was somehow able to block all of Sanson's heavy attacks. Why was this happening? She's a Rider Servant and Charles is an Assassin. He was stronger than her, yet somehow she was able to keep up with him and was even able to hurt him whenever there was a chance for her to counterattack him.
She thought back to what she asked Sora during their campfire hours.
"Say Sora. How come you always get so strong whenever you lose your powers?" Marie asked.
"That's because of the Heartless and whatever enemy Donald, Goofy and I fought." Sora replied, getting surprised looks from the girls.
"Really?" Eli asked, raising a doubtful eyebrow which Sora nodded with a sheepish smile.
"See, whatever enemy we fight and defeat, no matter how strong or weak they are, the stronger we become as a result. And when we get stronger, we learn new skills and techniques." His answer made the group look at one another in surprise.
Was that why she was getting stronger? Could the Heartless being here somehow affect how strong she's becoming every time they defeat them?
"Marie! Get out of the way!"
Getting out of her thoughts, Marie and Sanson looked up in time to see Sora aim his Keyblade at Berserk Assassin. Seeing this made Marie knock his sword to the side and move out of the way as Sora launched his Ragnarok technique.
Charles' eyes widened in alarm at seeing the bullets of light and used his blade to block them all. But when Sora got close enough to Sanson, he did his Dive Attack on him, knocking him back.
Sora wasn't finished as he did another technique, his Ars Arcanum. He unleashed a devastating flurry of attacks on Sanson, not even giving him a chance to try and counter as he was in so much pain from it. He did an additional attack before finishing it as he slammed his Keyblade on the ground, knocking the Assassin in the air.
Charles, meanwhile, couldn't believe what was happening. Ever since he was summoned, he had killed countless people. He didn't even have any reason to kill them as he just did it. It was his job as an executioner after all. But why? Why couldn't he do it? Why couldn't he chop off her head?
She was a Rider and he an Assassin? So why couldn't he do it? And that boy with the key? Why was he having a hard time taking care of him? He was just an ordinary mage! No…he wasn't a mage nor was he ordinary…the moment he laid eyes on him, he felt something in his heart. He didn't know what it was but he ignored it in the pursuit of following his Master's orders and his personal desire of getting Marie's head.
So why? Why was a human able to stand toe to toe against a Servant? Who was this boy? What really was this boy and his key?
He landed harshly in the ground a few feet away from the two with Marie running up next to Sora as he got out his Second Form.
Background Music: End
"Why…?" Charles asked, standing back up. "Why can't I kill you, Marie? Why can't I defeat that boy…?"
The two didn't answer him. Sora glared at him and Marie looked at him with pity.
"Ever since I've been summoned, I've killed so many! Since I was alive I've become so many times stronger!"
Sora looked angry at that remark and was about to say something but Marie stopped him by placing her finger on his lips, getting him to turn to her as she shook her head.
"It's truly sad, Charles-Henri Sanson. That is exactly why you can't defeat us." The queen said.
Charles looked confused. "What do you…?"
"You used to be a wonderful executioner." Sora was put off by that as he looked at Marie with widened eyes. "You in no way looked down on the criminals. You developed your guillotine so that they would not suffer."
Sora silently gasped as he turned to look at Sanson, seeing the stunned look on his face.
"But now you have changed. In this France, you became a murderer and killed so many. Aren't an executioner and murderer different? Sanson?" Marie questioned, her eyes showing nothing but sorrow for the man before her. "That's obviously why you can't kill nor beat us, Sanson. I mean, really, your executioner's blade…has been covered in rust."
Sanson's eyes widened in horror at what she said. His blade had rusted? No. No! It can't be! She's wrong! She's wrong! She's wrong! She's wrong! She's wrong!
"YOU'RE WRONG!" The Berserk Assassin cried out in denial.
A giant door suddenly appeared behind him, getting Marie and Sora to look at it with widened eyes as they both tried to figure out what it was.
"I always believed that I would be able to meet you…!" Sanson continued to cry out with tears in his eyes. "That's why I kept improving…! Because if I didn't…! If I-"
"LA MORT ESPOIR (DEATH AS HOPE FOR TOMORROW)!"
Sora and Marie's eyes widened as they saw the door opened. Except it wasn't a door as they thought it was, it was a giant guillotine acting as a door. Marie hurriedly summoned a crystal horse, grabbing Sora's hand as they both got on it. Suddenly, black ghost-like hands came out of the guillotine and were making their way to them. The crystal horse ran away in time as the hands tried to grab them.
"What the heck!? Is this his Noble Phantasm?" Sora asked himself, holding onto Marie's waist. He looked at her and gasped. The normally happy and cheerful queen...she looked absolutely terrified of this Noble Phantasm. She was scared that once those hands grab her, they'll take her to that guillotine where she'll die a second time from it.
Seeing a hand was close to grab her, he slashed it with his Keyblade, making it disappear.
But that won't happen! Not while he's still here!
"Marie!" Sora calls her name. He summoned beams of light at some of the hands, getting them to disappear, only for more to show up. She looked at him and watched in awe as he created a barrier of light around them, getting the shadowy hands to disperse as the barrier exploded. He looked at the queen with a determined smile. "Don't worry! I'm right here with you!"
"Sora…" Marie said softly. She gave the same smile back at him and nodded her head.
Sora aimed his Keyblade in the air, letting the tip shine so brightly. He aimed forward as it shot a beam of light before it split apart and destroyed all of the hands. He then aimed at Sanson as he fired his beams of light at him, though he did block them. While this happened, Marie activated her Noble Phantasm.
"Wishing to blossom, visibly in the open!
Dancing, to blossom in full glory!
Passing through, Guillotine Breaker!"
The glass horse let out another whine as it dashed towards Berserk Assassin while sending radiant particles of light swirling around it. The enemy Servant's eyes widened as he took several steps back. But before he could try and block it, the horse dashed through him, taking nearly half of his body.
He cried out in pain as he fell on his knees, feeling his Spirit Origin had been completely destroyed. The horse stopped galloping. Sora's Keyblade was held in front of him as though he just struck something which was definitely the Spirit Core.
"…I am…" Sanson started to say, no doubt talking to Marie as he began to disappear. "If I had become better at beheading…if I could grant you an even better moment…I thought that you would forgive me."
"…You truly are a sad and misguided one, so I'll tell you this." Marie said, closing her eyes and having a serene smile on her face. She and Sora could hear the man begin to sob. "I hold no grudge against you. From the very beginning…there was no need for you to ask me for forgiveness."
Hearing those words caused Sanson to break down and cry. Marie's smile turned into a sad one as she heard this while Sora felt sorry for him. Seeing him react like that confirmed his suspicion of Dark Jeanne's curse. He hopped off the horse, helping Marie get down and he turned to the crying broken man.
"Sanson…" Sora said, his voice serious but also sincere. "Everything you said just now and everything you've done. I know it's because of Dark Jeanne's curse. So let me ask you this…do you regret it? Having to be the one to kill Marie back when you were alive? Do you regret any of the things you did in this Singularity?"
Charles sniffed, covering his eyes with his one and only hand. He stopped himself for a moment to answer. "Yes. I…I regret it. All of…it. I'll never forgive myself for…!" He then disappeared, returning to the Throne of Heroes.
Sora and Marie watched this sadly, the queen placing her hand on Sora's arm. He didn't know Sanson, but from the interactions between them, it sounded like these two were friends back when they were alive. If he wasn't summoned by Dark Jeanne and got put under her curse, things would've been better. He and Marie would've patched things up in different way
"Ha? First Rider, now Assassin? What sort of disgusting bug are you?"
Sora and Marie tensed up. They recognized that voice. It was the voice that sounded very familiar yet also had the tone of snarkiness. They both turned at the same time and saw Dark Jeanne, walking up to them.
"Dark Jeanne!?" Sora exclaimed, standing in front of Marie protectively. "So you were here after all!"
"So are you, it seems." Dark Jeanne remarked, though she glared at Sora for the stupid name he called her. "And Dark Jeanne? What kinda stupid nickname is that? Is it some way to differentiate between me and 'the other me', who ran off and left you two here? How gross."
"Are you still going on about that?" Sora asked, glaring at her for the comment.
"Of course." Dark Jeanne said, smirking at the look Sora gave her. "That 'other me' is just as gross as can be."
Marie shook her head, smiling at Dark Jeanne. "No, she carries hope."
"Oh? Absurd." The Dragon Witch remarked. "Protecting your comrades and protecting the villagers? What an absolutely insignificant mission you've carried yourself." A sneer appeared on her face. "They are none other than the people who killed you! You, who they put to the guillotine and sneered at when you were beheaded!"
Background Music: March Caprice [Kingdom Hearts]
Marie stared at Dark Jeanne but then closed her eyes. "Yes. I can understand that rage and hatred. But, that's exactly why Jeanne d'Arc would never say those things."
Dark Jeanne looked confused by what she said. Sora remained silent and let her finish saying her piece.
"I was certainly put to death. There were those who sneered at me. Those who stared at me with contempt. However, that alone would not give me a reason to kill them." Marie explained. "I was asked by the people to become queen. Without the people, a queen cannot be called a queen. As such that conclusion was already decided. Even if they did not wish for my death, even without wishing for that I would still have left."
Marie opened her eyes and had a bright smile on her face. "That is the fate for someone who serves their country. I believe that my execution was linked to the smiles of the next day. Always Viva La France! The stars have granted France its radiance and all is as it should be."
"Marie." Sora said, smiling at the queen as she turned to him and nodded her head. He turned back to Dark Jeanne and saw the shocked look on her face. He took this chance to say his piece.
"Dark Jeanne, listen. You don't have to do this." The Keybearer told her, getting her attention. "Everything that you're feeling towards France, all your hatred and anger, it's not yours."
"Wha-What the hell are you talking about!?" Dark Jeanne asked, still in shock over what Marie said. "Of course they're mine! Those bastards killed me and-
"They killed Jeanne, not you!" Sora interrupted her, with a firm tone in his voice, causing the Dragon Witch to stop and stare at him with widened eyes full of confusion. "I told you when we first met, you and Jeanne are not the same person." He reminded her. "Jeanne has sacrificed everything to save her home from invaders, even her own life. Despite what they did to her, she still loved this country and the people, even went as far as to forgive them for killing her. That's who the real Jeanne d'Arc is. And then there's you, who appeared after she died."
Dark Jeanne narrowed her eyes at him, not liking what he was trying to say. "What the fuck are you getting at, boy?"
"Someone close to Jeanne, a Servant, arrived here in this era and found out she died. They found the Holy Grail and used it to try and bring her back but couldn't." Sora informed her. "They found a different method. Instead of trying to revive her, this Servant decided then and there to create a new Jeanne d'Arc but in their image. Don't you get it?"
Dark Jeanne took several steps back, eyes slowly widening in horror by what this bug was telling her. She shook her head in denial and grabbed her head in disbelief. No…no! It…it couldn't be! There's no way…she's…
"You're not Jeanne d'Arc. You're not even her darkness!" Sora exclaimed. "You were brought into existence by the Servant who found the Holy Grail! Everything about you; your powers, your hatred and rage. They all came from the Servant who created you using the Grail. You're a copy of someone's image of who they wanted Jeanne to be after she died!"
"SHUT UP!" Dark Jeanne roared angrily which made Fafnir roar along with its master as it flew in the air. Sora took his attention away from her and looked up at the dragon.
Seeing what was about to happen made Marie take a step forward, getting ready to use her second Noble Phantasm and sacrifice herself. Before she could activate it, Sora stopped her by grabbing her shoulder. She looked at him in confusion and saw him shake his head at her with a smile on his face. He raised his Keyblade up.
"Together."
Marie looked surprised, but then smiled lovingly at him and nodded her head, placing her hand on top of his. "Hm! Together!"
The two raised the Keyblade up as two radiant lights, one bright red and one yellow circled around them before touching the tip of the Keyblade. Sora's crown symbol appeared beneath their feet and a bright light appeared, blinding Dark Jeanne and Fafnir, who was about to unleash its flames upon the town.
"What!?" Dark Jeanne took a peak and widened her eyes in shock. She saw an army of glass horses standing behind the two. Looking at them, they were all golden and had blue radiant auras.
Marie had a gentle smile on his face which widened as she felt Sora's powerful light. This is it. This is the light she felt from him when they met. The light in his heart. It was so warm, so comforting, so reassuring…so full of hope. She opened her eyes and stared at him as he stared back at her with a determined nod. They looked back at Fafnir.
Dark Jeanne glared at them, shaking her fist and turned to her dragon. "FAFNIR! HURRY UP AND DESTROY THAT BASTARD AND BITCH!"
Fafnir roared and was about ready to destroy everything with its flames.
"Go! Royal Radiance!" The two called out their attack. The army of golden glass horses whined and charged at the Fafnir together just as it unleashed its flames.
The army of horses clashed with the flames of the dragon, making it beyond amazing. If people were to see them, they would see a golden star trying to clash with a burning meteor that would destroy everything. The golden star was amazingly enough pushing the meteor back as it kept growing bigger and bigger. Fafnir, seeing this, tried to unleash more of its flames but the golden star proved much too powerful as it slammed right into its torso, earning a cry of pain from it.
Dark Jeanne couldn't believe what she was seeing. Fafnir, the most powerful dragon she has ever summoned is being pushed…I repeat, pushed back! She looked back at the two, but was staring more at Sora with a slightly scared expression.
That bug…just…just what the hell is he!? Wasn't he just an ordinary person!? He wasn't even a mage! Yet, why!? Why were they able to push Fafnir back! And what was with that strange feeling that she felt in her heart. No! There's no way! Was she afraid of him!? Her, Jeanne d'Arc, the Dragon Witch brought back from the dead, was afraid of some punk and his stupid key!?
But…did she really come back from the dead? No! Of course she did! Gilles was the one who brought her back to life after all and he's a Caster!
Wait…Gilles? A Caster?
When she first appeared, Gilles was the only person she saw and he held the Holy Grail in his hands before handing it to her. He was her friend after all. Yes! Yes! She knows that Gilles is her friend! He even cried happily as soon as he saw her appear and she too was happy to see him. But…was he happy that he brought her back to life…or that he created her?
Dark Jeanne placed her hands on her head again, all of her doubt rushing inside her head. Was she really Jeanne d'Arc? Her hatred at France for killing her, was it really hers and not Gilles' own just transferred into her?
Who…who the hell is she!? What WAS she!?"
Fafnir roared once again as the golden star exploded, sending it flying backward away from the town. It crashed and landed on the ground, getting Dark Jeanne to look back at it with an alarmed expression. It tried to get back up but couldn't as it fell back.
Background Music: End
"...Jeanne?"
The Dragon Witch flinched at being called that and turned to Sora asked, seeing him walking to her, his Keyblade gone, with widened eyes. He stopped for a moment as she took a step back. He raised his hands up to show he didn't mean no harm.
"Jeanne, it's okay! I don't wanna fight. Let me help you."
Dark Jeanne took several steps back away from him, shaking her head in denial at what he said to her earlier and the thoughts in her mind. She grit her teeth in rage as flames dance around her. She glared angrily at Sora, summoning her flagpole.
"YOU FUCKING BASTARD!"
Sora yelps and summons his Keyblade, blocking all the heavy strikes she was landing on him.
"HOW DARE YOU SAY THAT! HOW FUCKING DARE YOU! I AM THE REAL JEANNE D'ARC! I AM NOT A COPY THAT GILLES CREATED IN HIS IMAGE! I AM REAL!"
Sora jumped back away from her to gain some distance but she wouldn't have any of that. She kept up her strikes, managing to cut his cheek, earning a yell of pain from him before he felt her kick him, knocking him to the ground. Nearby, Marie gasped at seeing this and ran to them.
"YOU! WHY DON'T YOU JUST DIE LIKE THE BUG THAT YOU ARE!? LE CONNARD!"
Sora looked at her while holding his bleeding cheek. The cut wasn't deep but it still hurt. He saw Dark Jeanne was about to throw her flagpole at him but out of the corner of his eyes, he saw Marie running to try and protect him from it. Everything was moving in slow motion as he ignored the pain and aimed his Keyblade at Dark Jeanne.
"STOP!" Sora yelled and just as Dark Jeanne was about to throw her flagpole, she froze in place. Like literally frozen like a statue. He huffed and released his Keyblade.
"Sora!" Marie cried out, getting right beside him. "Oh my gosh! You're hurt!"
"I'm...okay." Sora hissed in pain as he held his cheek. The Rider wasn't convinced, even as he stood up on wobbly feet. "Come on, let's get out here!"
"But, what did you do to-"
"I stopped her with Time Magic. It'll last for a couple of seconds, so let's hurry and leave while we can!"
Marie looked at Dark Jeanne with shock. She looked back at Sora and nodded his head, summoning her horse as they got on it and took off flying in the air.
Looking back down at the city, the two saw that the people, those who were walking and not riding in the carriages were at a great distance away from the town. The two looked at each other with smiles, though Sora's was more tired, and went to meet with the others.
Sora, however, looked back to stare at the frozen Dark Jeanne with sorrow in his eyes. Her reaction to what he said. She…she really didn't know that she was created using the Grail. Created by…Gilles?
"Wait…" Sora's mind flashes back to the kind knight who tried to help him protect Jeanne from the others. "The same guy from before…? But he couldn't be. Unless…the Gilles she was talking about is the Servant that was summoned…into this…"
He fell asleep while holding onto Marie, his head leaned over her shoulder. She blushed and looked back at him with a gentle smile on her face.
"Sora…merci d'être ici." Marie thanked him in her language. She kissed his unwounded cheek which earned her a smile from him. "Je t'aime, mon héros de la lumière."
Background Music: Destiny's Union [Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep]
It wasn't long until Dark Jeanne was out of her frozen state. She was about to throw her flagpole with a yell but then stopped and noticed that the bug was gone. She looked around and noticed the queen herself was gone too. She looked down at the ground, the bug's words ringing inside her head. She grinded her teeth, feeling a bit woozy as she placed her hand on her forehead. When she had enough of hearing his words, she let out a roar of anger as the flames of hell erupted from her in a pillar.
As this happened, the Shadow and Neoshadow Heartless appeared, all of them focusing their attention on her. In her rage, she took out her frustration on the creatures of darkness, sending them all burning in the depths of Hell itself.
Marie managed to find Jeanne and the others, seeing them taking a rest. The moment her horse landed in front of them, with her and Sora jumping off, Jeanne quickly ran forward and hugged the two with tears of relief in her eyes. The two returned the hug and everyone congratulated them on their safe return though they did look worried at how rough up and tired Sora looked, especially with the cut on his cheek.
Sora completely forgot about it but he managed to heal it and there was not a scar left behind. He reassured them that he was fine and that he took worse hits before just like he told Marie.
Two days later, all the people who left Montluçon managed to get away, no lives taken. The town itself got destroyed as the Dragon Witch let her dragon finish the job in her rage. With no lives lost, hope has been delivered.
The groups of Sora and Ritsuka managed to meet up with each other. Sora found out they tried to rush over to try and help them while riding on horses. And much to their relief, everyone was still together. Once again, a blunder on Sora's part as he forgot to call them and let them know he and Marie were okay, which earned him nothing but teasing from Cú.
After the brief reunion, Marie clapped her hands to get everyone's attention. She told them all how happy she was that she managed to come back to them and thankful she was to Sora, her Hero of Light, earning a surprised blush from him at being put on the spot. She ran over to him and gave him a present. A ring that was similar to the one she's currently wearing.
While Sora was surprised, everyone else looked at it with widened eyes though he didn't seem to pay it much mind.
She told him that she knew about how he lost his Keychains once he got here, earning a laugh from Cú but was thankfully elbowed by Emiya, and she wanted him to use her gift as a Keychain to help start him off in getting new Keyblades.
Sora, who was still surprised by the gesture, thanked Marie and took the ring from her. Everyone was watching in anticipation as they watched Sora place the ring on his Kingdom Key. In sparkles of radiant light and rose pedals, the Keyblade had transformed!
Everyone, including those at Chaldea, were awestruck to see it happen before their eyes. Sora did tell them that in every world he visited and every Keychain he collected from them, the forms his Keyblade changed into each serve as representation of that world or even a person.
The new Keyblade in Sora's hand is definitely something that perfectly represents the Queen of France with its elements coming from her.
The handle is black with the guard being red, and there was a bow with a crown on it, much like her hat. The length of the blade was long and was the same color as Marie's hair and was decorated with various glass sparkles. The teeth looked like it was her glass horse, but the maine was facing outward to serve as the teeth shape of the key.
Everyone was very impressed with the Keyblade's design. Sora was thinking about coming up a name for it, though when he said this everyone tried to do it.
Thankfully, Amadeus was the one who suggested that Marie should be the one to name the Keyblade. After all, it does represent the bond she has with Sora.
Marie was more than happy to take it as she had already thought of a name for the Keyblade. Its name will be…Radiant Sky.
After that, the group had a reunion party to celebrate not saving everyone in Montluçon but to also being together again. And it was all thanks to the unique singularity who goes by the name Sora.
Author's Note: MAN! Ladies and gents, I am so terribly sorry for the late update. It was supposed to be updated last month during Halloween but the internet in my area has been down for the whole freaking month. A couple of weeks ago, it started back up and I was going to upload the chapter after I was finished fixing it up…but then some crazy drama that somehow involved the police started to happen, which I honestly don't want to talk about right now. I'll just say this, my former friend did incredibly stupid and got me and others involved by mentioning us, so I had to stay off the internet until things calmed down which it thankfully.
Anyway, while this happened, I took the time to look over the chapter and definitely made a lot of changes to it. This was supposed to be over 11,000 words but I had so many ideas in my head for it, that I decided to increase it to over 23,000. FYI, there was a lot of edits and cutting I had to do.
I know I said I was going to show Sora's interaction with Kiyohime, but I decided to settle for Elizabeth in this chapter, just to let Sora get to know her better. I honestly like the dynamic between them. Sora is a islander and Elizabeth is definitely a big city girl, so you can see the type of funny chemistry that will go between them the more they interact. How did you like the Karaoke in this chapter? I was originally going to cut it, but with Sora being a Disney character, I thought it would make sense for him and some Servants to sing some Disney songs when they have a chance. Plus I wanted to see your reactions to it. Marie and Amadeus definitely loved Hakuna Matata and had a lot of fun singing it.
I may be getting some criticism for Sora's reaction to learning about Marie and Eli's history and I'm already waiting for it. I know Sora isn't the type of person to hate someone, but after learning about Marie and Jeanne's history, it would make sense for him to feel that. I mean, come on, can you really blame him? To him, both of them were heroes who tried to help their country in their own way, but the people didn't see it that way and they were hated by them, even going so far as to kill them.
As for Eli, well I'm going to show a flashback of what it was they talked about in the next chapter so you can get a better idea of how he feels about her history.
I bet you guys were expecting Marie to pass away right? Right? WRONG-O! This is one of the changes that I was talking about with Sora being the Grand Order. In true canon, Marie was fated to die protecting Montluçon after using her second Noble Phantasm. However, with Sora being in the picture, there's no way he was going to leave his friends alone to fight a battle by themselves, and that's exactly what he did. He went out of his way to go to Marie and help her deal with Sanson while also protecting the town from Fafnir.
How do you guys like Sora and Marie's Team Attack? It's one of many Team Attack ideas I've been thinking about after doing more research on Servants and their abilities.
Anyway! I'm so glad I finally uploaded the chapter! I would like to thank you all for your patience and once again, I'm truly sorry for the delay.
Also, here's a trivia for you. The three kittens with Sora and Marie in the chapter cover are the kittens from the Aristocats. Did you know that Marie, the white kitten, is named after Marie Antoinette herself? I just thought it would be nice to show a little cameo. I seriously hoped that they would be in Traverse Town with the 101 Dalmatians, but hey wishful thinking, am I right?
Be excited too, because I'm going to show off Sora's new Keyblade Radiant Sky. Design wise, I feel like I could've done it better but I definitely like the name. I was gonna call it Radiant Queen but Marie wanted to add Sora's name to it, hench the "sky".
