ATUHOR'S NOSE: The only thing I had to say here was invalidated when I rewrote the chapter-and-a-half that it applied to.
"Everyone brace yourselves, this is gonna be nasty!"
Despite preparing in advance a signal meaning "artillery support on this location", I somehow hadn't prepared a signal for the far more predictable message of "the Point went off, prepare to scram at max speed". Which, I suppose, shows something about my thought process.
The crew were naturally not expecting their captains to burst onto the deck and shout at them about imminent danger, but to their credit, they did in fact brace themselves before the
BOOM ! !
... yeah, that thing.
Riku recovered before I did. "We're lifting off. We need to see the aftermath. Then we're heading back to London."
It wasn't nice. The destruction of an abandoned, uninhabited island is inherently less troublesome than an equally-sized explosion in a major population center - but even so, it was not nice.
Amazingly, Lexaeus had somehow survived the blast. I saw him pick himself up, look around in what I could only assume was serious confusion, and take a Corridor of Darkness out.
The island was shattered, of course. The cottage was leveled, the farm plot was ruined, not to mention the terrain itself was largely destroyed... unsettlingly, the well was still intact. It was just much more exposed.
I shivered. "Damned wells around here..."
"You okay, Tempest?"
"Yeah. ... I don't think we have much left to do here. Let's drop off the crew and... I do have one thing I want to do before I go. It will take some time, though." I paused to think. "I think my phone and your... whatever your thing is, operate on entirely separate networks. And I don't know anyone who has both things..."
"If you're gonna stay here, you can take mine, and I can get another from Yen Sid. They don't have identities, so nobody will get confused and think you're me."
XXXXXXXXXX
After Riku left, I headed to the Bazaar to pick up relevant supplies.
And then I looked around some more.
And some more.
I texted Luke and asked about what he'd found.
... I was stalling, yes. I didn't really like what I was considering. But now I was in a conversation and I can't just cut him off, surely. Yes. Unassailable logic.
Three so far. One in what appears to be Shibuya. It seemed expected, for some reason. One in the Pride Lands, of all places. And one in a world I don't recognize. Looks like an interconnected set of sub-worlds, like Halloween and Christmas Town, but instead one looks like an alternate Earth and one looks like... a bunch of corn fields. And it has a bunch of others that are harder to see.
That sounds like Star vs. Why is it always something I'm familiar with? I haven't heard about a Yuri on Ice world, for example. Or Gears of War, or Gravity's Rainbow, or comic books. Or for that matter, a world that doesn't appear to be related to any Earth fiction at all.
It's... I think this multiverse has a sense of drama, honestly.
All I'm saying is, if we get a Homestuck world I'm gonna riot. By myself, somehow, yes.
Snrk.
Uh, speaking of a sense of drama, before I check up on Axel et al, I'm about to do something super stupid, but if the multiverse is pro-drama, maybe that's a good thing.
... How stupid are we talking here?
Stupid enough that I'm hoping you can convince me it won't work.
XXXXXXXXXX
A short and uneventful flight brought me to Yen Sid's Tower, where events were very much not uneventful, and more shocking and chaotic.
The roof of the tower was blasted off, and Xaldin was flying around the exposed top floor, exchanging blasts with Yen Sid.
As a Keyblade Master, even long retired, Yen Sid would have been more than a match for Xaldin in a straight-up fight. But of course, this was not a straight-up fight. Xaldin was attempting to demolish the tower, and Yen Sid needed to defend both the structure and himself.
Yen Sid launched another blast of magic at his enemy. "Leave this place, for your own good!"
"For my own good? How droll. How many times will you repeat that?"
"I would say, 'until you listen to me', but I suppose we both know that won't happen." And for just a second, the old Master glanced directly at me.
Oh, it's a code. He wants me to leave, before Xaldin spots me and finds some way to exploit my presence.
...
Honestly, screw that. With all due respect to a Keyblade Master who-knows-how-many years my senior... just running off and saving myself has never been my style.
I'd never used a Keyblade Glider in combat before. I suppose I was gonna have to learn eventually.
Since he was currently distracted fighting Yen Sid, Xaldin still hadn't actually spotted me yet. So, quietly, I glided behind him, carefully avoiding his spears, and held out one hand. Learn.
Then, still quietly, I backed away and charged my opening attack. "Break!"
"What the -?" Xaldin whirled around just in time to spot me before his legs and waist became encased in stone and he became too heavy to stay afloat.
"Sneak attack, bitch!" I shouted with perhaps more glee than strictly necessary.
Xaldin crashed to the tower's exposed top floor, and Yen Sid blasted him with Fire. As he picked himself up, I closed the distance with my stolen Jump, knocking him back down.
"You did not need to join this battle," Yen Sid said.
"True, but here I am anyway," I said, calling my Keyblade back to my hand in its weapon form. Yen Sid frowned slightly at its new shape, to which I could only give a half shrug.
"Oh, how gallant she is," Xaldin snarked as he picked himself up. "Selflessly taking any opportunity to fling herself into combat. How typical."
"Really? I don't see you trying to negotiate a truce." The three of us stood there a moment, holding our weapons and staring.
"Well, I must admit, you've quite exposed my hypocrisy." A pause, and then he charged at me full-force.
I dodged swiftly, and Yen Sid summoned his Keyblade - I had never seen it before and didn't know its name, but it looked like a more venerable version of Star Seeker.
I was just getting excited to see the old master in action when I realized that he was, in fact, tossing his Keyblade to me.
"What?" I blurted out, barely managing to catch his weapon in my off hand.
"Get back on your Glider, Tempest. If you're going to ignore my advice and fight, I must insist you do it properly."
All at once, several reasons occurred to me why Yen Sid might insist on having me wield "Star Seeker Prior" (as I was calling it in my head, in lieu of whatever its actual name was). In a flash, my own Keyblade was back in Glider form and under my feet.
"My, a proper air battle!" Xaldin said. "I haven't had one of those in... ever, actually."
"Then it'll be the first time for both of us. How romantic." I charged at him head-on, but instead of striking I cast Reflect, and used the Glider's velocity to push my shield of force into his shield of wind.
Both shields shattered, but I had braced myself and Xaldin hadn't, so I recovered immediately while he staggered. I held out my free hand to Learn once more, then backed away, covering my movement with blasts of Stone. (I carefully refrained from wondering about where exactly the stone could possibly be coming from when we were both hovering multiple stories above the ground.)
Xaldin, apparently sick of my shit, had formed his spears into that wind dragon thing and was preparing to fire his lazer. Actually, from the arrangement of the spears, it looked like he was preparing to fire multiple lazers.
While he charged, I glanced around, looking for cover. Nothing but the tower, and I didn't particularly want that taking more damage. So lacking something to duck behind, I'd just have to -
"Thunder!" Bolts of lightning flashed through Xaldin, shocking him out of his focus. Oh, right, there's a third participant in this battle.
Before he recovered, I quickly cast another Break. This one was much less effective; only his left leg was entombed. (The book I'd learned the spell from had warned about this; targets of Break would acclimatize to it quickly, making it impractical for repeated use.) But it was enough to destabilize him, and he fell to the ground.
With most of his body still free, he managed to land gracefully this time instead of catastrophically, but I again knocked him down with a stolen Jump. (I had always found it odd in the games that he could never figure out how to counter his own attack. Seeing it in real life did not make it less strange.)
"I must admit, I'm a bit baffled," he said. "Don't terrifying and destructive things happen when you fight full-force? Oughtn't you to be holding back a bit?"
"Uh..." I had, in fact, been at both Points when they went off, but that really wasn't how it worked. "Yeah, that's totally a true statement. Why do you think I keep messing with you with Break, and only really attacking you with your own Jump move?"
"Oh, is that a valid loophole?" He held his position for a moment, considering. "In that case, we'll have to send someone else after you." A chime emanated from his pocket. "Well, sounds like my work here is done anyway. Farewell!" And he opened a Corridor and left, just like that.
I blinked a few times. "W... what does that imply?"
I dropped to the ground, dismissing my Keyblade Glider as Yen Sid's Keyblade returned to his hand. (Or more precisely, to his... personal Keyblade-space. Or whatever it's called. Details.)
"I didn't even get to hit him with it."
"You did cast magic with it, though."
"Oh yeah, that's also a thing Keyblades do."
Suddenly, Riku's communicator went off. And my phone. And Yen Sid's communicator.
Less sure how to operate Riku's communicator if I needed a non-obvious function like checking voicemail, I decided to answer that first.
"Tempest here. How do these things work?"
"This is Sora - I'll explain the details later, but everyone should be connected to this and can hear and speak, unless they didn't pick up. Everyone needs to hear this, so sound off so I know who to fill in later."
"Kairi here, but you knew that, I'm five feet away from you."
"Lea here, is this connected to Dil- I mean, Xaldin's raid on our tower?"
"Riku here - you serious? Lexaeus just showed up to waste my time again. Are they up to something?"
"Maybe! Demyx just threw a gazillion water clones at us but turned around and took off after a few minutes."
"Aqua here - who are these people that are all after us at once?"
"Short story, they're Xehanort's minions. We can explain the long story later. I just got a text from Luke that Zexion picked a fight with him. They really were trying to keep us all busy at once for a while, huh? What for?"
"Yen Sid speaking. Axel has just entered the tower. He is rather agitated. Calm yourself, Axel! Here, just take mine."
"Everyone's mobilized! They've all got 'top priority special missions' all of a sudden, except Saïx, Xigbar, and me! They know something!"
"Yeah, and if they catch you out of place, they'll know you know something! Where are they expecting you to be right now?" I asked.
"They gave me a busywork mission in Twilight Town, but you can't expect me to just wait around and do what they want!"
"No," Riku said, "but you can look like that's what you're doing, until it's time to strike back."
"It doesn't sound like we have much time to work with," Kairi said.
"Well, wait, what exactly are we planning?" Sora asked.
"Well, wasn't the original plan to get Roxas and Naminé out of there?" I asked. "Where are they?"
"Naminé was being held in the same place, last I checked. Roxas was gone when I woke up. Saïx said he sent him on a mission, but wouldn't say anything else."
"Hmm," I hmmed. "I don't like that, but... Hey, these things are tuned to a particular frequency or some such thing, right?"
"Yeah," Sora said, "something about magical resonance."
"Well, Axel, get another one from Yen Sid, tuned to a different frequency. There should only be two of those - I guess Yen Sid could hold the other one? I'm not sure it matters who, but he's right there already. Take it, finish your busywork, and tell us when you're about to officially RTC. By then, we'll have figured out enough to fill you in."
"If you say so... I hope you know what you're doing."
A brief pause.
"Yen Sid speaking. Axel has departed."
"That was so weird!" Lea burst out. "Like, I knew he was up and walking around, but I'd never actually interacted with the guy."
"I'm guessing that unnecessary relay is to keep Axel from finding about Lea by accident?" Riku said.
"Yeah. I have no clue what to do about that, but I figured we couldn't make him un-find-out, so we'll keep this up our sleeves for now. Now, as for a plan..."
XXXXXXXXXX
The Curious Lady took a deep breath and set a candle. But she hesitated to light it.
"... I'll only try it once. If it fails, that'll be my sign."
"Cold feet? I thought you'd decided this was the only way."
"That logic is the reason I'm hesitant, Cat."
"The hour's near. Don't think about it too long, or you'll be waiting til tomorrow. Drink up. Or don't. Your call."
XXXXXXXXXX
You know you could just decide later, Tempest.
Not really. You know why. Anyway, I'm pretty sure it can be undone later, when it's not needed anymore.
Hmm.
Plus it'll get the devils off my back, if I ever come here again. That's an upside, right?
Tempest acquired a new Keychain: Voice of the Well
Riku acquired a new Keychain: Necessary Connections
I can tell I'm getting right into my character's head, because just like her, I have no idea where I'm going with this. Oh well! Heh... well.