ATUHOR'S NOSE: This chapter is extra long, which serves as both an apology and an explanation for the wait. 8D
In this chapter, my intent for Tempest to be an ordinary person defined primarily by her own actions got in a fight with my intent for the self-insertion to have an in-universe explanation rather than It Just Happened Because That's The Premise Of The Fic, Shut Up. It took me a few tries, but I think this version of events fits with both ideas without unduly compromising either. Do feel free to express your own opinions on the matter in the form of a review.
So I overslept. I was tired, okay? In addition to staying up too late over the whole Lea-Nobody-merging thing, I spent like half an hour after that agonizing over whether to cross out all the potentially-compromised letters in my journal before going to bed, or just go to sleep and do it in the morning. (When I did end up doing it, I realized to my great annoyance that it only took fifteen minutes.)
So when I did wake up, it was to an alarm that had clearly been going off for several minutes, combined with a Keychain pelting me in the face. "All right, uh," I looked up to see who had thrown the thing at me, "...Sora, I'm awake already." As I said this I was sliding out of the bed into a tangle of blankets, so it would hardly be accurate to say I was up.
"Hey, I gotta make sure," Sora said, just barely not stifling a yawn. "We gotta be ready for when the King arrives, and you're the only one left who wasn't at least awake."
"Bleh," I grumbled as I shuffled myself into a position where my legs were on the floor and my head was in the air, rather than the other way around. (I was working my way up to standing, okay?) "Why's stuff gotta happen early in the morning? It should be illegal, or at least regulated."
"Tempest, you're -" Sora yawned again. "- okay, we're tired because stuff happened late at night. You're solving the wrong problem."
"Yeah, but I can handle being up late. Gimme a 27-hour daily schedule any time." I yawned and picked the Keychain Sora had tossed out of my hair, where it had come to rest. "Hey, wait a minute, this is mine," I said, recognizing the candle-shaped trinket. "How did you even get this?"
"It's surprisingly easy," Sora said cryptically. "You were asleep, after all. Anyway, I guess I should leave and let you get dressed."
"You should at that," I said, choosing not to mention that I normally slept in most of my clothes anyway.
"Don't go back to sleep! If you're not downstairs in half an hour, I'm coming back to wake you up - actually, no, I'll send Aqua. She can drag you out of bed no matter what."
"What, and you can't?"
"I mean - uh, I probably physically could, but you're a girl. I could drag Riku out of bed, but he always wakes up before I do anyway."
"Oh, the hetero 'nothing I haven't seen already' logic... In that case, I wouldn't recommend sending a cis girl any more than a boy, really."
"... Sis-girl?"
"Cis is the opposite of trans."
"Ah." A beat. "I don't know what 'trans' means here either."
"Oh, never mind, I'll define words later. It doesn't even matter because I'm gonna be up and you're not going to have to send anyone anyway."
"Pff, if you say so." Sora made to leave, but paused at the door. "Though, I'm not actually straight."
"Hm?"
"You said it was 'hetero logic', but I'm not hetero, I'm bi."
"Well, I'm not hetero either, but when you live in the hetero house, you kinda end up following the hetero rules, whether you want to or not. Still, I shouldn't have assumed." I paused. "Actually, by the same token, I also shouldn't be assuming Aqua is cis. But habits of over two decades don't fade in a day."
Sora nodded. "That's definitely true... Can I ask how long?"
"Hm? Oh, I've known for... five years? Five and a half? My sense of time is awful, but I think that adds up."
"So it's not weird for people to figure themselves out pretty late in life."
"Indeed it is not. My go-to reference for that is Laura Jane Grace, who didn't come out as trans til she was... I want to say thirty-two years old? Somewhere in her thirties, I'm almost sure. And I heard of a lady who didn't even realize she was lesbian until after she had had grandkids. Like, okay, it's easier if you start earlier, all else being equal, but there's no upper limit, is what I'm saying."
Sora nodded again, eyes closed in thought.
"Um... do forgive me if I'm disrupting your train of thought while you're on the cusp of an epiphany, but I really do need to get dressed and stuff." (Actually, I didn't say the epiphany bit. It would have been cool foreshadowing, but in reality I didn't suspect a thing at this point.)
"Eep! Right, sorry!" And Sora swiftly absconded, shutting the door and leaving me to my privacy.
"Try the dictionary!" I shouted through the door as an afterthought.
I was pretty sure that Sora was still in earshot and just didn't respond because shouting back would have been rude. I hope Sora remembers what I'm referring to, I thought, otherwise that would have just sounded pointlessly cryptic.
OOOOOOOOOO
Roughly twenty-seven minutes later, I descended the staircase, still kinda bleary-eyed and foggy-headed but technically ready to face the day. As Sora had said, everyone else was already awake and studying, training, or otherwise Getting Stuff Done.
I drifted toward the training hall. Kairi and Naminé were sparring on one side, with Yen Sid instructing them, and Sora and Riku were sparring on the other side with Aqua watching.
"Oh, good," she said as she spotted me entering, "now there's an even number of us."
"Er, you're planning on sparring with me?" I asked nervously. (I actually looked behind me to see if she might be talking to someone else!) "And not, say, Riku?"
"I already sparred with Riku," she said false-sweetly. "It's Sora's turn to spar with him now. And anyway, I've been looking forward to testing you."
"Um. Are we doing this scenario, then?" I sighed and shrugged. "No point in me resisting then, I suppose."
"Indeed there is not," Aqua said.
"The rules are simple," she continued, summoning Master's Defender. "Attack and block with our Keyblades only, no magic attacks or barriers. If you deal a clean, unblocked strike to your opponent's body, that's a point. If your opponent strays outside the circle for more than five seconds, that's a point. When a point is scored, combat stops and we return to the center. Healing is permitted between points only. The match ends when either one of us scores three points, or is unable to stand and cannot recover within thirty seconds. Understood?"
I nodded and summoned Voice of the Well.
"Riku, let's just watch their match," I heard Sora say suddenly. "You're clearly distracted."
"I am not-" Clang! Way to the Dawn skidded across the floor until I put my foot out and stopped it in front of me. "... Okay, maybe I'm a little distracted."
"Here," I said as I handed it back to Riku, "we needed someone to do a countdown anyway."
"Right. On my mark," he said, holding his Keyblade between me and Aqua.
"Three...
"Two...
"One...
"Begin!"
Aqua immediately dashed at me with an overhand strike, which I quickly blocked, locking our Keyblades.
As we struggled, something felt off. On a hunch, I suddenly dismissed my Keyblade and dodged to the side. While Aqua stumbled, I brought back my Keyblade and tapped her lightly on the head with it.
"Point to Tempest!" Riku called.
We returned to our starting positions and I glared at Aqua, arms akimbo. "Are you trolling me right now? That was nothing like your full strength. Fight seriously."
She glared right back. "I was sure..."
"That I would fight like a rank amateur?"
"You are a rank amateur."
"... That's technically true, isn't it." I shook my head. "Well, you were anticipating something that wasn't correct. So fight seriously. Ready, Riku."
Aqua readied her Keyblade. "Ready."
"Begin!"
This time, she came at me much faster. I swiftly parried her strikes until she suddenly vanished. "Wha-" I didn't quite get the entire word out before I felt a heavy strike from behind.
"Point to Aqua!" Riku called.
"Why is everyone always hitting me in the left shoulder?" I grumbled, casting a quick Cure.
"Now who's the one not fighting seriously?" Aqua retorted.
"And I had just chewed you out for the same thing. Kinda embarrassing." I took a deep breath to clear my head. "Well. We're one to one now, and we're both ready to fight seriously, so let's say that was the warmup. Ready, Riku."
"Ready."
"Begin!"
This round I tried to surprise her by being the one to charge first, but she somehow anticipated this and immediately warped out of sight.
Somehow the concepts "overabundance of caution" and "spinning whirlwind attack" feel like they don't belong in the same sentence, but nevertheless my brain put them together.
My Keyblade (and also my everything else) halted with a clang against Aqua's. "Found you," I quipped before she smacked her free hand against my chest.
"Point to Aqua!" Riku called.
"What was that supposed to accomplish?"
"Keep you from sneaking up on me from behind again. And hey, it technically worked."
"Yeah, but you were obviously dizzy. A move that leaves you wide open like that without even disabling your enemy is less than useless."
"She's right," Riku said. "I normally wouldn't have called that, but you were clearly impaired."
"Oh, I figured it was because in a real battle she could have cast a spell point-blank there." I quickly spun once in the opposite direction to counteract the dizziness. (This works! Try it at home!)
"That too - but if you hadn't been impaired, you could have moved away. Ready?"
"Ready," we both responded.
"... Begin!"
This time we both went at each other as aggressively as possible. Aqua used warp attacks even more aggressively than before, but this round I had the sense to just figure out where she went and block her.
I was starting to get frustrated with her teleport spam when I felt something odd. I wonder if I could - and when she attacked again, instead of blocking, I Jumped -
- and came down behind Aqua with an overhead strike. She whirled around and blocked it just in time - improbably halting me entirely in mid-air.
Bewildered as I was by multiple violations of what I thought was physics, I still had the presence of mind to keep attacking - I lashed out with a kick to Aqua's shoulder, knocking her back, and without her Keyblade (somehow) holding me in mid-air, I tumbled to the ground.
"Point to Tempest!" Riku called.
"That was new," I said as I picked myself up.
"The warping, or the aura?" Aqua asked.
"Both... wait, what aura?" I looked down at myself. There was definitely a distinct aura of green flame. A rather distinct shade of green, in fact. "Um. Do any of the Masters in the room recognize this?"
Yen Sid looked contemplative. Riku looked concerned. Aqua looked intense. But none of them answered.
"Okay. I'm taking that as a 'no'. I don't know where this came from or what it does. So I'm gonna turn it off now." I took a breath and focused, and thankfully, the flickering flames faded away without protest.
"Gosh. Have I walked in on something big?"
A five-year-old would recognize that voice anywhere. Most of the room rushed over to greet King Mickey.
I glanced over to Aqua. "Call it a draw? I was already getting distracted before His Majesty showed up with my brother in tow."
"Your brother? The boy in the hallway, trying to stay out of sight?"
"That's the one." I waved to Luke, showing him that his attempts at stealth had failed. He facepalmed and then waved back with a resigned look on his face.
Aqua shrugged, dismissing her Keyblade. "I suppose we can call the match a draw, yes. I already learned what I wanted..." And with that cryptic comment, she left.
I stood there for a few seconds, befuddled. Well, I hope she got a good impression this time, then.
OOOOOOOOOO
Shortly thereafter, seven of us were gathered in Yen Sid's study: me, Luke, the four Masters - and Sora, for some reason. If this had been another game, I'd have chalked it up to "main character privileges", or some such thing.
But I didn't have to wonder long. King Mickey opened the discussion with a question: "Who here already knows what happens when a world falls to darkness?"
Of course the other Masters already knew. Sora's hand went up as well, and Luke said "kinda?"
"'Kinda'?" I asked. "What do you mean you 'kinda' know?"
"Well, it goes into the Realm of Darkness, and sits there in a sort of stasis. And it passes through the Dream Realm on the way."
"Wait, it does?"
"Do you not remember that?"
I thought about it. "... I think I fell asleep, so maybe I missed it. Or maybe I forgot it, because people usually forget dreams."
"You definitely forgot it," Sora suddenly chimed in. "But I didn't."
I took a moment to attempt to process the implications behind that little bombshell. "... wait, what?"
"I was on my way out after... a certain mission, in the Dream Realm, when I spotted your worlds passing through. Of course I rushed over to try to help, but it there was a fair distance to cover, and by the time I got there all that was left was a few scattered fragments - but two of the fragments had people on them.
"King Mickey was monitoring the mission, so I called him in for help. He went to help the other person - that turned out to be Luke, right?" Both Luke and King Mickey nodded.
"Unlike you," Luke said, "I was actually conscious for this. I think you can see where this is going, though."
I nodded. "So... somehow, maybe just for a moment, Sora's Keyblade found its way into my hand, and King Mickey's into Luke's. And that unlocked our whatevers."
"Mm... Yes, somehow, that's the word for it," Luke said.
"Wait," Aqua interrupted, "so you didn't do a Bequeathing on purpose? But I thought that was really rare. Kairi is a Princess of Heart, so I'm not surprised that her heart's light is so strong, but... no offense, but you two look pretty average."
I thought about that for a moment. "I don't know what to tell you about that one. I do feel pretty average. Sora, what do you remember?"
"Well, the moment your hand touched my Keyblade, there was this flash and I was overlooking your Awakening. ... Most of what you said in there was kinda personal, actually, but you also said a bunch of stuff about where you thought people got their Keyblades. And that kinda brings us back to the point of this meeting - I wanted to know how you could possibly know that." Sora paused for a moment, thinking. "And you said something about if this was a video game, and I said this isn't a video game, and you snickered."
I snrk'd.
"Just like that!"
"Well, uh... I still don't actually remember doing this, but that is precisely how I would react to a statement like that."
"Yeah, but why? What do you know that we don't?"
"To be fair, I'm pretty sure King Mickey also knows about this. In fact, at the moment I think His Majesty knows more about this than I do."
The King thought about that statement for a moment. "While I probably do know more about the broad concept behind your worlds, I imagine you know more of the details of this particular instance. So let's start with what you know."
"Um, hm. That's pretty broad, where do I start... The normal speculative fiction convention is to refer to it as 'Earth', but I don't think that works here, because there are multiple other worlds that, somehow, are also Earth. The Fifth City, for one, plus a lot of other worlds I can recall that I haven't actually been to. The Land of Dragons, La Cite des Cloches, Beast's Castle, one part of whatever you call the Star vs. world... Probably more I've forgotten. So its canonical name is probably something other than 'Earth'.
"The laws of physics are a lot more strict and math-based - magic seems to be impossible, for starters. Memories work completely differently; you can't mess with them from afar by any means, because they're securely stored in the brain(s) of the person(s) who were there at the time." (Please don't ask how I did that with my mouth.) "Actually, thinking about it, 'secure' might be the wrong word, considering how easy it is to mess with memories even without mystical stuff involved. Never mind. What else springs to mind...
"Oh, right. Every world I've seen so far has a counterpart work of fiction in my world. That's how I know so much stuff I apparently have no logical reason to know, so it's probably important."
There was a bit of a commotion at this. Apparently everyone (other than Luke and King Mickey, who of course already knew) had predicted something else.
"How does that work?" Aqua asked. "How do your people even know about these places?"
"Well, like I said, we think we're making them up. Thinking about it, though, that kinda makes less sense..." I thought about this for a few moments and then shrugged. "I dunno. Do you know, Your Majesty?"
"Hmmm... The thing about that is, there's an awful lot of other stuff you gotta know before the answer to that makes any real sense. But the short version is, while they don't know the mechanism behind that, we're pretty sure we know the reason."
"'They'?"
"There used to be a group of people who studied your worlds, but once they realized they were isolated on purpose, they disbanded, to avoid potentially dangerous interference. So nowadays, there's a few people quietly watching it on their own."
"One of which is you."
"Precisely. But this was answered before they disbanded, so all I had to do was look it up. Tell me, Tempest - do you know where hearts come from?"
I blinked. That came out of nowhere. "Uh - well, I know one way hearts come into e- being. If anything - like a puppet, or a program, or a Nobody - thinks of itself as a person for long enough, and forms connections with other people, it eventually forms a heart. What does that have to do with my world?"
"Well, what if I said that that was the only way hearts come to be?"
Sora and Riku looked about as surprised by this as I felt. (Which is to say, moderately. This mechanism meant that the multiverse had just one set of rules for the whole thing, which is how physics normally works, and I hadn't recalled anyone describing any other methods. So it made sense, even if I hadn't seen it coming.)
"Then..." I responded slowly, "... since worlds themselves have hearts... that could only happen if worlds are sapient. And - Kingdom Hearts is the heart of all worlds, right?" (King Mickey nodded.) "Which means the multiverse is sapient too. So... the multiverse created my world, isolated from the rest of the worlds but with sneaky vision into them. For a reason. Which you know."
The King nodded again. "Since your worlds had more barriers, it was harder for the Heartless to get into them -"
"Okay, you keep doing that. That's three times now, so I know you're actually saying it and that's not just my hearing. What do you mean, my worlds?"
"Well... you mentioned 'the Star vs. world'. Do you mean the Mewni Constellation?"
"I also mentioned that I don't know what you canonically call it. ... But that does sound like the sort of thing, so probably."
"Well, the Mewni Constellation, much like yours, is a cluster of sub-worlds, where travel between the sub-worlds is more difficult than what we normally think of as intra-world travel, but less difficult than leaving the cluster entirely. But your worlds aren't different like the ones in the Mewni Constellation - your worlds are... more like branches on the same tree. You see, whenever -"
"Hold up. Is this just going to be many-worlds quantum mechanics? I may not be a quantum physicist, but I do already have a vague idea of how that works."
"Uh... close enough."
"Okay. ... I keep interrupting you and asking for new answers before you could finish your last one. Where were we? Something about barriers."
"Right! There were more barriers around your worlds, so the Heartless would have more difficulty getting into them - which meant that if they got in anyway, the worlds were in really big trouble, and it was time to break out the really sneaky tricks."
"I think you skipped a step - what are these really sneaky tricks you're referring to?"
"Well, between the branches and the leaked information about other worlds, there would be sure to be someone who knew just the right things to help stop whatever had gone so wrong."
"So... I survived my worlds' fall to darkness... because I knew about video games? And the universe itself chose me to survive, based on that? Cause I gotta tell you, this doesn't sound like that well-thought of a plan. If I hadn't coincidentally gotten a Keyblade from Sora, I'd likely have just become a tourist and not been all that much help at all."
"Cid did mention that you were trying to get a gummi ship assembled..." Sora mused.
"Tempest." Yen Sid spoke up suddenly. (I started, having forgotten he was there. Scatterbrained and high-strung is a bad combination.) "You have no Master, but I have seen you training on your own. You did this diligently and without prompting. Now, am I to understand that, due to the eccentricities of your world, you were aware of the Keyblade tradition for quite some time?" I nodded, unsure where he was going with this. "I thought as much. You showed a keen interest in the art. And you were aware of my tower's location..."
"Ah." So he was suggesting that I would have sought out Keyblade apprenticeship on my own, just because I liked Keyblades that much. He wasn't wrong... "But you already have two apprentices."
"I could have made accommodations - but even had I been unable, would that knowledge have stopped you?"
I blinked. "... I really should anticipate 'wise old master' types being this insightful."
At this point, while I had accepted that I was a valid choice, I was still pretty skeptical that I was the best choice. Even with the criteria presented, there had to be dozens - possibly hundreds of valid choices, and as Aqua had said, I seemed pretty average. But I didn't want to get the conversation even further off track, so I kept quiet. That sort of thing tends to be a mistake, you know...
"Um, let's see... weren't there some other questions left on the stack?" Everyone thought about that (other than Luke, who was instead occupied by finding my phrasing inordinately amusing), but nobody responded. "Did... we actually get to everything?"
"This seems like a good point to take a break, then," King Mickey said. "A nap, for instance," he added, glancing at Sora, who was yawning.
"Blame Lea and his Nobody for that," Sora said. "They're the reason we stayed up so late."
Sora began recapping last night's events to King Mickey, and everyone else started drifting out, but I stuck around for a bit. After a while, I was alone with Yen Sid.
"So... I had a thought recently, and I was looking for some relevant research material..."
OOOOOOOOOO
An hour or so later, I was in the magic training room, with the books Yen Sid had recommended lying open on a table. Several training dummies were scattered about from my tests. Comparing against what the books said...
"... This green fire is literally just Neath-flavored darkness."
Which, in retrospect, I absolutely should have seen coming from the beginning.