"This is it. This is your story. It all begins here..."
-Auron, Final Fantasy X
Chapter 8 The Long Road To Eden
There is always something... special about doing something new for the first time.
Traveling to new worlds was no exception.
Harry, Inuyasha, and Robin were silent at the moment, each of them listening to their own hearts.
Of course, silence is not always appreciated for its tranquility.
"Are we there yet?" Inuyasha drawled, bored.
"No." Harry gritted out, concentrating on piloting the ship. He wasn't too sure of his abilities just yet... and he didn't want any real distractions. It was hard enough keeping track of everything necessary to keep the ship on course.
"Sensors show that there is a doorway about half an hour away." Gilliam chirped, "Would you like me to set the course?"
"Yes," Harry said, a note of eagerness in his voice.
The thrusters kicked in, tilting the ship into its new direction. Outside, the endless void was only offset by the occasional pinprick of light, which was where the doorways were most likely to be found.
"What do you think this new world will be like?" Robin asked quietly, glancing at the black view screen.
"Who knows?" the half demon replied, putting his arms behind his head nonchalantly. "As long as there's Heartless to fight, I'll be satisfied."
Robin frowned, her face set in disapproving lines. "That's not why we're going." She reprimanded.
"Yeah, yeah, spare me the bleeding heart lecture." Inuyasha grunted, waving his hand dismissively. "You guys can do this for the greater good. I'm doing this for my own reasons."
The witch looked like she wanted to say more, but instead, merely rolled her eyes and leaned into her chair.
Inuyasha cracked open an eye and glanced at Robin. "Oi. How exactly do you do that fire thing, anyway?" he asked curiously, more to find out how much help he could get out of the witch.
Frowning, Robin shrugged. "It's a... gift, I guess. On my world, it's called a Craft, and its an ability witches have. Mine happens to be fire." Glancing back at the half demon, she said, "How about you? How do you have those claws and those ears?"
The half demon grunted, and closed his eyes, turning away. "I'm a half demon, remember? That means I've got powers mortals can't even think up."
Harry really wished they'd at least tone down a bit more. Keeping the ship steady was nerve wracking as it was. "Hey guys, not to be rude or anything, but this is a bit difficult for me. You mind keeping it down?"
Inuyasha grunted, and Robin looked a bit remorseful. "Sorry Harry," she apologized.
The silence returned.
"Are we there yet?"
"NO!"
Harry really didn't know what to expect when they teleported off of the Outlaw Star. A giant, expansive forest, maybe. An ice world, so cold that they might freeze to death. A world where fire rained from the sky.
What he was not expecting was the downtown of about any city in the world.
"This doesn't look all that different..." Inuyasha muttered, sniffing the air. "But I can't sense any humans... or anyone at all..."
Robin shivered slightly. "That's what happened on my world. Do you think we're-"
"No. I won't believe that." Harry interrupted, jaw set firmly. "Let's have a look around. There's got to be someone left alive."
Someone I can save.
There were cars sitting idly in the streets, as though completely unused for years. Trash drifted lazily across the empty roads. Nothing, not even a bird, a cicada, or any living thing at all made a noise.
It was probably the creepiest sight that the Boy-Who-Lived had ever seen.
Nothing about it seemed scary. It wasn't terrifying like the visage of the Dark Lord, or horror inducing like a Dementor.
It was the absence of life. It was a place where you expected to see children running around, going to school, parents driving to work, teenagers hanging around.
Not a place that was as empty as a tomb.
"I don't like this set up. I don't like it at all." Inuyasha murmured, and cracked his claws.
"Me neither." Robin agreed, and reached into her pocket, removing a small, slim silver object that Harry recognized as glasses. He had never seen her wear them before, however.
Their footsteps echoed around them as the group wandered the city, searching with cautious eyes.
Harry felt a deep pit of anxiety growing, and the nagging sensation that they were being watched, somewhere, somehow.
Throughout the city, endless sets of glowing yellow eyes opened.
Overhead, the sunny sky seemed to offset the disturbing quiet of the shrine grounds.
"What's is it Hiirargizawa?" a young boy asked gruffly, holding his sword tightly. His face was twisted with annoyance.
"No need to be so gruff, descendant." A second, bespectacled boy chided, sounding older than his years. "I sense... a power. Different than the last one."
"Is it an enemy?" the first one questioned, sounding tense. "We should get back inside with Sakura-"
The second boy smiled, grinning. "No. Its not an enemy. It's..." shaking his head, as if unable to describe what he was sensing, he just kept smiling. "Someone very, very good."
"Tch. Whatever."
Harry stopped. The feeling in his gut had hatched a slimy, squirming worm that was writhing in his stomach.
"Why'd ya stop?" Inuyasha drawled, glancing back at him. The half demon's arms were linked underneath his kimono, hiding his claws.
"Something's wrong." Harry muttered, and the Keyblade flashed into his hand, sparks flinging themselves around his hand.
Robin crouched into a battle ready position, and something like an inferno began to kindle in her eyes.
Inuyasha made a "keh", and removed his claws from his sleeves. "Well?" he asked, turning towards Harry.
The Boy-Who-Lived didn't respond, and instead leapt forward, hurling himself forward.
A Shadow's glowing yellow eyes just came into view when the Keyblade sliced it apart, leaving nothing but smoke.
"We've got trouble!" Harry shouted, even as the street became filled with Heartless.
"This doesn't make any sense..." Washu frowned, looking over Ginny's sleeping form with mild curiosity and frustration. "What makes her different..."
"It's slightly strange to see someone perched over another," Zelda said mirthfully, gliding into the room with nary a whisper. "But I see what you mean. This girl... whatever connection she has to the Keybearer, that must be why she isn't transformed."
The pink haired genius turned to look at the queen with an expression of irritation. "But that doesn't explain why. Why her, out of all these people? From what I can tell, there were others Harry wanted to save." A small light flared behind her eyes. "Wait... maybe they transformed because their hearts were taken into darkness."
Suddenly she leapt up, and a fascinated illumination danced on her face. "I get it... whatever happened to her, kept her heart from being taken!"
Zelda nodded, and glanced at Ginny with an unreadable expression. "Then where, exactly, did her heart go?"
Harry ducked low, dodging the claws of a Soldier Heartless. This new Heartless had an large helm with one spire jutting out from it, which was bent near the top, from beneath which peered two yellow eyes. Its body was deep navy blue, save for the Heartless crest on its chest.
Its large, angry red talons nearly tore out his throat as he swung the Keyblade in to block. Sparks irritated his skin as he matched the creature in strength.
Inuyasha tore through the air like a bladed crimson bullet, golden streaks flying everywhere as Shadow and Soldier fell to his claws. One Soldier reared up and raised its red claws, about to rend the half demon's spine.
With prenatural speed, Inuyasha spun, deflecting the blow with his fire rat robe. The Heartless seemed almost surprised, just before the Iron Reaver Soul Stealer shredded it.
His vindictive grin was shrouded by the black smoke of the defeated enemy.
Robin was dismayed to realize that her Craft had been weakened significantly, to a point even before she had attained the Arcanum of the Craft.
Thus, her once towering pillars of fire had shrunk down to fist sized fireballs and sparks, which were able to stun, and occasionally, if she concentrated, she could incinerate one.
A Soldier Heartless fell back, engulfed in flames, while two Shadows shrunk away from her, waiting for an opportunity to strike. She paused, shifting the glasses which perched precariously on her nose.
Harry grunted as he shoved the Soldier backwards, sending a two handed blow slicing through its neck and dissipating it. Even as he regained his balance, another group of Heartless swarmed him.
Narrowing his eyes, the Boy-Who-Lived leapt into the air, and slammed the Keyblade into the ground. "Stun Impact!" the indigo dome sent the Heartless scattering, each of them unmoving and paralyzed for the moment.
Like a snake, he struck out rapidly, destroying each and every opponent with rapid precision, his emerald eyes peering out through the smoke with shining light.
"They fight very well, don't they?" the spectacled boy mused, smiling at his companion.
"We should help them." A brown haired girl said quietly, clutching a pink wand nervously.
"Syaoran, Yue, and Kero will protect them. We should use our magic to prevent any more Heartless from overwhelming them while we make our retreat." The boy responded, smiling. "Don't worry, Sakura. Syaoran will be fine."
Swallowing nervously, and with a tiny blush on her face, Sakura Kinomoto, Mistress of the Cards, nodded.
Harry grunted slightly, and leapt backwards, back to back with Inuyasha and Robin. The half demon was crouched with a feral grin on his face, claws cracked and ready, while the witch glanced worriedly at the still filled streets.
"Damn... they just keep coming!" the Boy-Who-Lived grunted, and sliced a Shadow who tried to leap at his face.
Before either of his allies could respond, a sound began to echo.
Thud.
Swallowing nervously, Robin whispered, "What's that?"
Thud. Thud. Thud.
Large shapes, at least six feet tall, began moving towards them, easily parting the crowd with ease.
When he got a good luck at them, that strange sixth sense instantly had a name.
Shadow Knights. Tall, big, and generally looked as though they'd be massive human beings underneath that obsidian armor that obscured everything but the eyes, those same yellow eyes that loomed in each Heartless. Each either carried a massive broadsword, gleaming like tarnished silver, or a monstrous double-edged axe made of the same material. And at the center of its forehead, a Heartless Crest.
"Now this is getting interesting," Inuyasha said, bravado filling his voice.
Harry was shaken from his fear induced state at the half demon's words, and gritted his teeth and set his jaw firmly. "They don't look so tough." He said, glancing at Robin.
Robin, who seemed paler than normal, managed to stand a bit straighter, finding that tunnel vision mind set which made her a Hunter.
Inuyasha moved first, leaping into the air, a red blur in the air. Before a single knight could move, the half demon was behind them, leaving a knight, quite literally, disarmed. As the black armored appendage fell with a clunk, Inuyasha grinned.
-Only to scream out in pain as a fist slammed into his back, sending him crashing to the floor. The Shadow Knight stood, one arm gone and a deep slash in its chest, but otherwise completely unharmed.
"Damn!" Inuyasha swore, dodging a second blow. "Where's its weak spot!"
Harry, thinking quickly, whispered to Robin hurriedly, "Aim for the forehead."
Nodding, the witch narrowed her eyes, and a fireball slammed into the Shadow Knight's helm, shattering the Heartless crest and collapsing the armor, just before it went away in the wind.
Inuyasha chuckled. "I get it... that mark is what keeps you bastards going, huh?" the half demon grinned darkly, cracking his claws. "Then I'll just have to break 'em!"
With a single jump and a spin, he slammed his fist into the center of another Shadow Knight's helm. He grinned wider as he felt the crest beneath crack, and shatter into infinitesimal pieces.
As a second warrior raised its axe to strike, Inuyasha spun, and kicked its helm, sending it crashing to the floor. With a contemptuous sneer, the half demon slammed his foot down, shattering the helmet.
Harry dodged a massive broadsword, letting the wind brush his tunic as he leapt upwards, slamming the Keyblade into its skull. After a few moments, it shattered, and dissolved.
An axe swerved through the air, and Harry's eyes widened, unable to move as it soared, about to chop through his mid-section, and create two halves of the Boy-Who-Lived.
Robin, desperate, closed her eyes, her despair fueling her Craft. NO! No more friends were dying while she was around.
A half moon of fire erupted in mid air, between Harry and the Darkness, blazing defiantly as it actually blocked the axe, inferno made solid.
Harry shot her a grateful look, in the moment before he was forced to deflect another Shadow Knight's blade, leaping backwards.
"There's too many!" he shouted, trying to reach Inuyasha,attempting tobring the other boy back to his senses.
The half demon didn't listen, thrusting his claws forward, striking two Shadow Knights who had charged side by side. "Iron Reaver Soul Stealer!" all the rage and self-hatred from Kagome's loss was overwhelming him, driving him to fight more and more.
It was his demon side, and he was relishing it.
However, Shadow and Soldier Heartless reared up, moving to encircle him, shadows moving in daylight.
Dropping into a low crouch, he snarled, and his eyes glinted with angry hatred.
Just then, a column of terrible fire tore a swath through the Heartless, burning gold and luminous crimson, slicing through the darkness.
Robin was the first to scan the sky, knowing it was not she who created that incredible display of pyrotechnics and power.
"What is that?" she breathed, and Harry looked, just in time to see a beautiful gold lion with large, white wings soar on by, its white underbelly passing over them. When it landed, the gleaming dark silver of its helm, and the glimmering ruby at the center were easily visible.
On its back, a brown eyed boy jumped off, much younger than any of the offworlders. Dressed in a green ceremonial robes, somewhat reminiscent of an Eastern priest's, it flowed from his shoulders to its yellow and orange cuffs. In one hand was a sword that Robin recognized as Chinese in origin, with its distinct hilt, and a rope-like cloth dangling from the end.
In his other hand was something Inuyasha was more familiar with, a yellow piece of paper with sacred writings on it. A talisman.
"THUNDER!" the boy roared, and hurled the paper up into the air, and swung his sword in a half moon arc, thrusting it towards the Shadow Knights. His features were as hard as his diamond like earth brown eyes, his hair matching the color of his eyes.
A burst of lightning, far stronger than anything Harry had ever created with his own magic, struck the Heartless, and annihilated them with a flash of golden light.
The remaining Heartless moved as one, a surge of shadows converging on them, with every intent to send each one to the abyss.
As Inuyasha, Robin, and Harry prepared to fend off the enemy, an ethereal, luminous arrow tore through the air, whistling its battle cry.
As the column of fire did, the arrow demolished the Heartless with ease, bringing destruction in its wake, just before it expended its full force, obliterating everything in its path.
Robin gasped, gaping open mouthed as an angel floated down, a glowing blue bow in its hands. Clad in a long, flowing white robe, with a deep, navy blue sash tied around his waist. At his chest was gold clasped sapphire, which shone in the same way the lion's did. His feet just barely touched the ground, his ivory pants half hidden beneath the swishing robes.
The white wings were again, much like the lion's, long and flowing like a dove's, matching the white-silver of his hair, and the snow-blue of his eyes. His face was rather angled, and was oddly beautiful.
After a moment, she realized he was speaking.
"Get over here, quickly." His voice was the one of a taciturn being, who spoke with actions, not words.
Harry, Robin, and a reluctant Inuyasha (who had to be tugged away), ran towards their newfound allies. The boy gave a low snarl and brought forth a second talisman, gesturing towards the Heartless following them. "Wind!" he slammed the flat side of his blade into the paper, creating a powerful gust of wind, scattering the enemy.
"Get on!" the lion urged, bowing low to allow them on. Robin was the most thrown, the boys having been more familiar with talking animals.
Harry got on almost immediately, while Inuyasha scoffed. "I can handle myself," he grunted, and crouched low, preparing to jump.
"Hope you can keep up," the lion replied, smirking. "Dog boy."
Bristling, Inuyasha glared at the winged beast. "You want to fight?" he snarled, raising his claws.
"Inuyasha! We don't have time for this!" Harry snapped, absolutely amazed that the half demon had the stupidity to fight at a time like this.
Growling, Inuyasha turned away. "We'll settle this later, y'damn cat." He grumbled.
Robin glanced at the winged beast, and said, "Wait, what about the other boy? He needs a ride to-" two strong arms encircled her, holding her by her underarms.
"I will carry you." The angel murmured, and lifted her up easily, his massive wings beating the air away. "Kero, let's go." He said, gaze turning towards the lion.
Kero nodded, and barked at the boy, "Oi! Brat! Get over here already!"
With a crisp nod, the boy back flipped, landing on Kero's back easily. "Let's get on then, stuffed animal." He responded tartly.
The lion bristled, even as they took off, with Inuyasha leaping from building to building, keeping an even pace, leaving the darkness behind... for now.
Author's Notes
Shorter than the previous two, but more action packed. Trade offs. As you can see, we've arrived in world one- Card Captor Sakura. Don't be discouraged if you don't know this one- there's other worlds.
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