This is first in a three part interlude about Dav. All the other characters will return in a few chapters but for now…… A warning, there is a lot of flashbacks in this chapter (well three) and then a boss fight you might enjoy……..
Chapter 4: The Chapel of Memories
Overview
Dav sat up quickly from his position on the floor and looked at his surroundings and saw that he was sat in a ruined abbey, the massive grey walls reached up and connected to a ceiling that had a picture of three Keyblades elegantly painted onto it. "The three Keyblades…" He muttered as he stood up and looked out a large window and saw nothing but darkness that stretched for miles in every direction. He wondered around the small abbey and realised that it was surrounded in darkness everywhere.
Wondering into a smaller room he found a mural on one of the old grey stone walls of a blonde figure in the middle of two others, one a dark being and the other a warrior of light. "The balance.." he said to himself and examined the rest of the room.
"Yeah, the story of the balance…" said a mystery voice from behind him. He swung round to see a blonde kid about his age but who green eyes and his build was different. He looked smaller then Dav in build as if he was speedier than him but not as strong.
"Who are you?" Dav questioned, for some reason however to did not feel threatened by this boy's presence
"I'm just nobody, or rather a Nobody…. I'm Seth, your shadow"
"A Nobody….. What the hell?"
"It means I'm your other side, a part of you and I'm here to guide you.."
"Where are we?" Dav asked getting agitated at finding he had a 'Nobody'
"We are in the Chapel of Memories, where important things in your life that happened are stored here. You leave here by finding the exit within your memories. But I've gotta warn you, the Heartless are present in the Chapel…. Like there foe example" he said as he pointed toward the door where a Shadow Heartless stood, it then walked away from the room with Dav and Seth following it. They reached the room Dav first woke in and found Shadows and Darkballs lumbering around.
"Can you fight?"
"As well as you can" Seth commented as he summoned a Scythe into his hands and charged the Heartless, Dav followed suit with his Great Blade. Seth swung his Scythe forward catching two Shadows and a Darkball with its deadly sharp curved blade. He followed through by whacking an attacking Darkball with the hilt and then cutting through it with a vertical swipe. Dav meanwhile jumped upwards and sliced through three Darkballs and then landed blade down into a group of Shadows. The fight didn't last long as they dispatched the Heartless in hardly any time at all.
Seth dismissed his Scythe and approached Dav grinning in a similar to a way that Dav used to. Dav rested on his Great blade's hilt and ran a hand through his hair laughing for the first time in a while.
"Been a while since I fought them" he laughed
"Well, lets go, we need to get you outta here before its too late. We have to find three points in the Chapel where a key memory lies and then view them, however each has a guardian probably what Kairi's shadow put there…"
"What…. Kairi's shadow? Namine is a nobody?"
"Yeah, just like me"
"Oh sorry, I didn't mean to insult…"
"No worries, I don't mind. Eventually I will fade and become one with you making you stronger…"
"No way, you can stay alive, I don't want you to become apart of me. I'd rather you lived.."
"Really, thanks…. But don't know if it's quite that simple. Lets just concentrate on finding the first memory……"
The two warriors ventured through out the Chapel looking for anything that could resemble a memory but turned up nothing. They checked a room that was slightly bigger than the one with the balance mural and contained nothing other than another picture on the wall of a tall blonde warrior wielding a large grey sword that was bandaged in various places.
"I think we found the first memory" Seth said as he looked the picture over in detail.
"It's Cloud…… I was happy when I found out about him…. Confused but happy" Dav said smiling at the thought of the first meeting he had with his brother. Suddenly everything went white and when the scene returned the Olympus Coliseum was all that both Dav and Seth could see.
Flashback
Dav was sitting on one of the steps when the doors to the entrance hall opened and a tall, blonde haired man stepped out into the sunlight, his blue eyes reflecting the sunlight that bathed the entire arena in a glorious golden glow. The man was carrying a huge sword that had bandages running up the blade and down again. He approached the centre of the ring and the force field activated, followed by three of those large creatures Dav fought in his last match.
The blonde haired man jumped high in the air holding his huge blade above his head and then brought it down on the back of one of his opponents. After it disappeared the second dived at the man but missed and landed on its stomach, stunning itself for the minute. The man took advantage and swung his large blade and struck it twice in the back, causing it to disappear like the first. The third slapped the top of its hefty bulk and charged at him but he easily avoided, he counterattacked by yelling and charging towards it with great speed, burying the blade into its back. Through the hole it made a small pink heart flew upwards leaving the body to disappear, causing dark ripples as it did. The man continued to stand in the ring after the force field disappeared, he just stared at the sky as Dav made his way over to the mysterious blonde haired man.
"See anything interesting?"
"..."
"Not much of a talker, huh? You remind me of someone...you remind me of well... me" said Dav without a hint of emotion in his voice, still looking at the man's back.
"Well, anyway, my names Dav Strife, and you?"
As Dav finished his sentence the man turned around and looked at Dav with an intrigued look.
"... Cloud... Cloud Strife, so I have a brother then..."
End flashback
The scene then turned to a large stone room with Heartless all over the place.
Flashback
Dav and Cloud both landed on the grey, stone floor of the giant room and were immediately attacked by the Heartless that were swarming. Several Striker Heartless were rising from the floor around the duo in shadowy patches and then launched an attack at them. Dav immediately side stepped an attack from one the Striker blades and delivered a strong right hand into its shadowy features which stunned it, allowing to duck another blade swipe and then thrust his Great Blade into its chest and then drag it upwards, slicing the Heartless in half. He then swung his Great Blade in a horizontal motion which cut through three Strikers and a Soldier form, they all disappeared in the usual flash of darkness and a heart rising to the roof and vanishing.
Meanwhile Cloud had engaged Soldier Heartless which he easily eliminated by jumping into the air and holding his Buster Sword downwards, he plummeted to the ground and his sword's tip pierced the very stone and sent the ground cracking in all directions. Large jagged pieces of rock then rose from the ends of these cracks and drove straight through the Heartless in the immediate area. He then ran toward Dav who had just destroyed more Heartless and stood back to back and then uttered the words "...Just wing it". Dav nodded in agreement and then they both closed their eyes despite the Heartless gathering around them.
Out of Cloud's back a single black wing sprouted and then flexed into full size while Dav released both his wings with one coloured black and one white. He was surrounded with a soft blue aura that even surrounded his Great Blade whose hilt was clutched in his right hand. Cloud had a sharper red colour aura surround him and his Buster Sword and like Dav's rose towards the ceiling. They both opened their eyes almost in unison and both yelled as the auras surrounding them swelled in mass and then shot out in all directions. This caused blue and red shockwaves to race through the large stone room and cut through whatever Heartless got in the way.
End Flashback
The Scene then finally switched to the Great Hall of Hallow Bastion
Flashback
Cloud and Aaron were now stood in the next room which was bigger than the last, a huge Heartless symbol on the far wall, much bigger than the last, some kind of multi-coloured portal under it and a circular platform with a few consoles around the outside of it. There were two sets of stairs leading up to it, the stairs were linked to a medium sized area and at the other side of the area was the door they came through. They were now stood in the medium sized area looking at six capsule type containers, three on the left wall and three on the right. In each one slept either a young woman or girl.
"So these are the Princess' of Heart, huh?" said Cloud as he continued to look around at the massive room.
"Yes, you look upon the six Princess' of Heart, however we are still missing one, the girl that your friend travelled with was not a Princess of Heart as we had first thought" said Maleficent as she walked into the room.
"You will not, however, leave here alive, I shall see to that". She raised her staff in the air with her left hand and it began to glow. But before she could cast any sort of magic, she began to gasp for breath and lowered her staff which had stopped glowing. Dav stood behind her with his Great Blade inserted into her back, the tip of the double blades showed through her stomach.
"Just another pawn of the darkness" Dav sneered as he withdrew the blade from Maleficent's body, she gasped again as it slid out then spoke quietly.
"You...shall not get...away with this you meddlesome wretches...I'm not finished yet..." and with that she disappeared in a small flash of darkness.
"Your okay, I was worried!" said Aaron happily as she pulled Dav into a tight hug.
"Heh... we've only just met, shouldn't we go out for dinner first?" joked Dav as she let him go and all three of them, even Cloud laughed.
"Well, we should find your friend and leave quickly, Maleficent will be back" warned Cloud as he hoisted his Buster Sword onto his shoulder and began to walk towards the platform. All three of them reached the top to find a sleeping Terri lying in the centre of the platform, chained by both legs to the floor. Dav and Cloud both took their swords and broke the chains, freeing a sleeping Terri who began to stir.
"..ugh...Dav?...where are we?"
"Hallow Bastion... home of the father of the Heartless, come on we have to go now, before Riku or that witch comes back"
Dav and Aaron helped Terri up and then Cloud looked at one of the consoles on the left of where Terri was and smashed it with his sword. A rift appeared in front of the group and Dav looked confused.
"Whoa! How'd you know that would happen?"
"...Just guessed"
End Flashback
Dav and Seth both shook their heads to shake off the dizziness they felt, Dav pondering over what the visions meant.
"You by the looks of things hold memories of your brother as some of your most treasured…. Actually kinda obvious looking back at it….. Looks like the Guardian is here" Said Seth as a portal of darkness appeared in front of the mural and a tall figure emerged from it, long flowing hair and intense glowing green eyes signalling it could be only one person.
"……Is that Sephiroth? But I've never met him…… unless the guardians are all somehow connected to the person in the memories…..WHOA!" Dav shouted as he avoided a Masamune strike to the head.
Seth summoned back his Scythe and charged Sephiroth with his weapon held above his head. Sephiroth jumped to the side of the strike and kicked Seth away into a wall. Dav took his Great Blade and swung it in an arch that went for Sephiroth's legs, who easily jumped over the attack and used the handle of the overly long blade to hit him in the head. Dav got back to his feet and immediately went on the offensive by repeatedly slashing at the former General despite his sword's immense size. Each strike was parried and countered by Sephiroth who laughed evilly as he did so. Seth regained his composure and jumped over Dav who was still attacking unsuccessfully and landed a hilt hit on the former SOLDIER's head. He stepped back slightly and then charged at the two, swiping Masamune horizontally.
Seth and Dav jumped over the strike and in unison hit the Ancient with their weapons, causing gashes on Sephiroth's stomach that he pretty much ignored and continued to attack. He ducked one strike attempt and jumped over another proving to be more than the pair could handle. Sephiroth slashed Dav in the chest who dropped his Great Blade out of shock and rolled under a death blow attempt and unhooked his KeyBlade to fight with. Seth saw this and knocked away another Masamune shot and hit Sephiroth in the leg with his Scythe which caused another gash that was again ignored.
Spehiroth knocked away a second attempt at his leg and knocked Seth to the floor. Dav jumped in front of the General and caused a distraction for Seth to get back up. Seth found himself stood behind Sephiroth with no weapon but noticed that Dav's Great Blade lay near his foot. He picked it up and swung it at his opponents back and lodged itself firmly in, causing blood to run and splatter onto the blade and floor.
Dav saw that Sephiroth started to gasp in shock and was stunned, took his Keyblade and smacked the Mako fuelled Psycho in the side of the head with extreme force which knocked him to the ground. He made no movements when he landed just slience before his body slipped away, crumpled into dust and vanished into the floor.
"…..That was easy…" Seth remarked, picking up his Scythe.
"..Too easy, when Cloud told me about Sephiroth, he mentioned that he was insanely strong and that guy was strong but not insanely."
"What you say is true….. He is merely a shadow of the real one, just created by the memory…. Your brother hates Sephiroth right?" Dav nodded "Well that's why he was the guardian…. Connected to the subject of the memory"
"..Well it'll be hell to actually fight him but never mind now, lets find that second memory….."
