Chapter 3: First Mission
(Mysterious Tower-World's theme)
Yen Sid stood at the back of his room, gazing at the stars in the sky above in an attempt to see what's to come. A series of five knocks came from his door, but the elderly keyblade master did not move from his post.
"Enter young one." was all that he said, and the door opened. A young teen, no older than sixteen walked through, with a moderate pace. He had a rather plain face, his dark-complexion was met with no visible face hair, but a small smile on his face. He wore a grey sleeveless shirt, which was worn underneath a white and black checker patterned coat. His pants were held up by a simple black belt, which led down to his grey jean shorts. He sported a simple pair of red converse, neatly tied into a bow. His hair was a messy mass of black spiky hair, with some of it covering over his left eye. He gently removed his goggles from atop of his forehead as he wiped the green colored lenses clean, and with a cheerful smile, he spoke.
"Keyblade Apprentice Isiah Surge reporting for duty, Master Yen Sid!" He grinned to his master, but noticed how he stared at him. Something about his expression was different. It was more stern, more so than usual, and that abrupt change in sternness made him feel uneasy.
"M-master?" He stuttered slightly, but quickly straightened himself out.
"Isiah. I have an urgent matter I need you to attend to." Yen Sid's small beady eyes peered into Isiah's dark brown ones. The younger keyblade wielder's face began to reflect his mentors.
"I understand Master. What is it that you need me to do sir?"
"I need you to go to Hollow Bastion. It would seem Sora has been stripped of his keyblade, and without it, he has no means of effectively defeating the Heartless. Mickey is currently unavailable at the moment, so I need you to go and lend him your aide." Yen Sid finished his sentence with an air of formality. Isiah nodded at this, and replied with a
"I'll go immediately Master." He then quickly retrieved the Star Shard from his master's desk.
The Star Shard is a star-shaped crystal, as opposed to the block-like, geometric shapes of typical Gummi Blocks. He channeled a small amount of light into the charm, and said the name of the world he was going to. The charm glowed and Isiah vanished, the stream of light bouncing around the sky in an erratic fashion, before vanishing completely from sight.
"I know you're there, so why did you remain silent? You brought him here when he was a child, and what exactly are you planning?" Yen Sid voiced with an air of authority, and from behind the door on the inside of his room, Tobi walked in.
However, unlike before, he wasn't sporting the attire that he spared in previously wore. This time, he was dressed in a sleek black and purple light weight armor, but lacked the helmet. He kept his arms folded over his chest, and his face with a sly grin.
"I'm surprised that in a few months of owning it, Sora thinks he's the full-fledged keyblade master! It's so fucking ridiculous Yen Sid. Makes me really really wanna hang him by his intestines like that bitch I did a while back." Tobi chuckled madly as he grabbed a seat, then unceremoniously landed into the chair. Yen Sid glared at the teen, who merely picked his teeth with a gauntlet-covered finger. "Come on now, I've kept up with my end of what we agreed on. The least you could do is allow me to fix what I did wrong." The dark shadow spoke, cracking his right index, middle, ring, and pinky finger with his thumb, only to repeat the process with the other hand.
"You murdered thousands of people over the course of your life. You've destroyed countless lives, leaving nothing but misery and despair in your wake!" Yen Sid glared at the boy, who hair simply covered his eyes. He took a deep breath, and shook his head, then waved his hand around in a nonchalant manner.
"Details Details! Ya know Master Yen Sid, the thing about keyblade wielders, they were so blinded by those who ordered them to "protect" the balance of light and darkness, those who found themselves protecting the "peace" of the worlds. That wasn't peace, which was a manufactured lie that they fed to the younger ones to make themselves seem in the right. You know exactly what I saw Yen Sid. You saw what I saw. And what I saw wasn't peace. It was a fabricated hope. So, I joyfully dismantled them. Why would I leave those who are capable of getting in my way around? It makes much more sense to squash any sort of resistance that I might come across early doesn't it?" Tobi's voice shifted to a sharper, more despairful demonic sound as he grinned a near blood curdling grin, his teeth going from that of a normal human being, to being something akin to that of a monsters. Just several rows of extremely sharp canine teeth were visible and he closed his eyes. And yet, Yen Sid wasn't fazed. He merely gave Tobi a sympathetic look, but since the teen's eyes were currently closed, he couldn't see it.
"That is not why you committed those actions. You words and your heart are in stark contrast, young man. You say that not to convince me, but you say that to convince yourself of what you think you are. In reality, I believe you feel an incomprehensible amount of guilt and suffering in your heart. You've broken not only yourself, but others, and even now, you're nothing more than a fragile piece of the man you once were. Was any of it worth it?"
Tobi's face briefly faltered at his words, nearly sending him into a state of inert, but Tobi decided to let it slide. He had respect for the elder keyblade master.
"Oh Master Yen Sid. How much people determine the worth of an action is dependent on how much they seek to gain from said action. I have much to gain, and very little to lose. So, you tell me. A few thousand keyblade wielders is surely a more than fair trade for a peaceful realm, is it not?"
Tobi bounced out of his seat, standing as firm as a lamppost, before a dark corridor opened beneath him.
"However… you're not entirely wrong Yen Sid. I am nothing more than a piece of the man I used to be. However, I'm not suffering any guilt or remorse for my actions. In fact… I revel in what I did. Do you not know how much fun it is to be in control of your own destiny? To break the shackles that have bound you down for so many years, to simply…be…free? He gave the elderly man a deranged grin and dropped into the portal without so much as a trace to acknowledge he was ever there.
However, Yen Sid merely stared at the spot with an impassive glare. He had learned much about the boy, and he tended to no say things with words, but his actions. However, even his actions were disorientating.
The World That Never Was
Naxbica walked around the desolate halls of the castle, eating strawberry Pocky with fanatical glee, spinning on her heels all the while humming a merry melody. However, she stopped when she saw Aishix laying on the floor, covered in an excessive amount of soot and steam rising off him in waves.
"AH! AISHIX!" She dropped her Pocky and started shaking him while yelling Curaga several times in succession, causing him to slowly return to his normal appearance, and groaned almost mutely. Naxbica breathed in peace. "Aishix, who did this to you?"
"…So many water balloons… so many snails… so many vultures… and tons of fire." He muttered a couple of times before he stood to his feet, albeit a bit wobbly. He craned his head down the hall, and heard the snickering of the other members. Specifically Tevexs, Sihcrx, and Hantex. Or as he would dub them, "The Pranking Triads". Whenever a new member was initiated, they were the ones tasked to do it. However, since Aishix was a much easier target… The tree had a field day with him.
"Dude, they went were overboard with you. Don't worry Aishix. Only one more day of this pranking, and it will all be over with. Oh, that's right! Xale was looking for you. You got your first mission. You gotta go to a Hollow Bastion, and fight some really strong heartless. Hantex will be with you so you don't have much to worry about." She waved a hand in the air, but noticed the color start to drain from the Destructive Military's face.
"Wouldn't that be bad for productivity? Why won't Xale just put me with someone like Tevexs, or maybe someone like Xaldyn?" However Naxbica simply shook her head.
"Sorry Aishix. Tevexs isn't really a front line fighter, and Xaldyn is on a high-priority mission for the organization. Maybe I could convince Kooxbre or Lebaxk to tag along with you for this mission."
No sooner after that did Lebaxk show up, dangling from the ceiling, and dropping to the ground in front of the Destructive Military, and the Artistic Heroine.
"Speak of the devil and he shall appear. What type of mission is he going on?"
"He's going to Hollow Bastion in order get some hearts, and lucky you, Xale wants you there to clean up the loose ends from earlier. Both of them. Also, those two will be there." She said the latter sentence directly and lowly to Lebaxk, and his face sobered up more.
"Ah I see. So we're moving into phase 2. Got it" Lebaxk raised a hand and spawned a corridor of darkness. The negative energy swirled into a stabilized gateway, and Aishix looked into it.
"Alright XV, we're going on a mission. One of the main things you would normally need to do is to keep a low profile. However, we'll disregard those rules for now. Right now, we need to do some cleaning up in a world that should be familiar to you." Lebaxk waltzed into corridor, but Aishix was left pondering.
"A world that I'm familiar with?" With that, he stepped through the dark corridor.
Hollow Bastion-Outside the castle.
The dark corridor opened outside the doors of the castle, the large construct laid ominously atop the jagged rock it was perched on. Since the darkness had taken root within the once proud world, it began to decay and rot. Aishix looked around and noticed the devastation, and the overwhelming presence of dark energy. However, it didn't faze him for long, and actually felt… moderately invigorating. He turned to Lebaxk, who had already started walking forward, his drawstrings and boots jingling/thumping in sync as he held a hand out. Red lightning danced and fizzed in his hand. Large Bodies and Wizard heartless spawned in front of him, ready to attack, but Lebaxk didn't pay them any regard in terms of being a threat. Instead, he sent them both flying towards Aishix.
"Huh? Lebaxk, why didn't you destroy them?"
While it was his job to destroy heartless, Aishix was honestly confused as to why Lebaxk wouldn't try to help him.
"Those types of heartless carry hearts. If I destroy them, then it would be troublesome to hear Xale complain at me. I'll get rid of the pure blood ones, and find the dipshit who's behind this. Everything else is your job." Lebaxk dismissively waved a hand around before he vanished deeper into the castle. Aishix quickly called Hollow Heart into his hand, which immediately started attracting more heartless.
"My day just keeps getting better and better." Aishix muttered as his eyebrows furrowed in annoyance. He spread his feet outward, parallel to his shoulders, and shifted his weight onto his back foot. He raised his arms into the roof guard stance, and looked to see exactly what he would be facing.
Six soldiers
Three Dark Balls
Two Large Bodies
And three Wizards
Aishix didn't waste any time as he sprinted forward, and leaped high into the air, only to be clipped by lightning in the side by one of the Wizards, then a gravity spell by another. He fell back to earth with a resounding thud, the tiles underneath him cracking from the sudden excess force. With his face in the tiles, Aishix stood back up, and wiped the spit and pitch black substance from his lip. This time, Aishix went on the defensive, and blocked two kicks from soldier heartless, before slashing one left to right through its shoulder. It exploded in a puff of smoke, and released a pink heart. He leaped away fast enough to dodge a column of fire that would have appeared beneath him, and charged forward. The Destructive Military spun in a 360 degree motion, carving through the torsos of the five remaining solider heartless were destroyed, and the darkness filtered into his body.
"Gh…" He clenched his teeth as he felt the cold chill engulf his body, and his left eye flickered to violet for the briefest second, before reverting to its normal dark brown. A fog entered his mind as the heartless began to attack him. A body slam from a large body, then a chomp on the chest from a Dark Ball. And yet, they didn't relent up in the slightest, and continued to press the attack.
Aishix was leaning back against a railing, trying to hold back a screech of pain, only to finally focus his hazy vision, and noticed that the remaining heartless conglomerated darkness into a sphere, and fired it at the Destructive Military.
He attempted to block the blast with Hollow Heart, but against all of his hope, the old weathered rail he was leaning against broke under the excess strain, combined with the explosion of the attack and fumbled to the base of the Rising Falls, crumbling wounded on a platform.
"ACK!" Aishix coughed up blood as he felt his bones crack under his skin, and watched the tattered remains of his coat flutter out of existence. His vision became blurry again. However, he was able to barely sit up as he noticed the explosion caused a sizable hole in his torso. Aishix could see what portions of his internal organs were damaged, and black and white wisps rise out of his body. However, it was at this time that something strange happened. The wisps ceased falling out of his body, and the strange colored blood start to sizzle, and he noticed how the damaged organs began to repair themselves. Liver, stomach, kidneys, small intestine and all neatly weaved and stitched themselves back together as his skin healed over the wound and his outfit even repaired itself.
Then he felt his broken bones shift around inside him, connecting to their broken counterpart, and becoming more resistant to the damage.
Aishix began to stand back up and looked at his battered and broken left hand. The healing process repeated itself, stitching shut the tears in his hand and it shifted the damage bones and cartilage back in place.
"What was that? No, no time for questions. I have to get back to destroying those heartless and getting those hearts." With renewed determination, Aishix crouched, and valuated to an elevated platform, repeating the cycle until he returned to where he was.
"I really need to learn how to open those corridors."
Abandoned Laboratory
While this was going on, Lebaxk was stumbling around inside one of the abandoned research labs inside the once proud castle of Ansem the Wise. Years had not been kind, as all that remained was the broken machinery, which had been covered in cobwebs and debris from the initial heartless invasion. Bookshelves were reduced to scrap, and books left torn beyond repair.
"It should be here. He left it here the last time we came to the castle…" Lebaxk muttered to himself as he shuffled through the remains of Ansem's lab.
"I believe you're looking for this."A voice called from behind Lebaxk, one he hadn't expected to hear. The slight raspy tone and jingle of chain were two things that he couldn't forget about him.
"It's been a while… Nagito Komaeda. I didn't expect to see you of all people here. Why are you here anyway?"
Nagito was a tall and skinny man who looked to be about in his early twenties. He sported messy off-white shoulder-length hair, light grey-green eyes, and sickly pale skin. Nagito wore a knee-length dark green zipper hoodie with a jagged-cut tail. His hoodie has red squares across the right shoulder, and a large red '55' on the back. Underneath, wore a white scoop-neck T-shirt with a red design on the front. He also wore plain black jeans, and a wallet chain with a skull charm. And even his sneakers possessed two zipper on each shoe.
"With all those zippers, I think you might give Sora a run for his money." Lebaxk snickered. Nagito chuckled weakly and tossed the book to Lebaxk, who then pocketed it in his coat.
"It truly is a splendid sight, seeing the birth of a new hope. I really am lucky to witness Sora's ascension into this world's hope."
"Before you get too invested into the Hope talk, have you seen the insane one?" Lebaxk turned to find an old portrait of Ansem, but tossed it aside, demining it not important.
"Ah, I haven't seen her for some time actually. Not since before the Neo World Program in fact. She's a tricky one to keep track of. Maybe Hajime might know where she is." Nagito crossed his arms and looked towards the ground. "Someone as lowly and untalented as me has no right looking for someone of her caliber, or even standing in your presence."
Lebaxk rolled his eyes at the self-deprivation that Nagito was indulging himself in. If he wanted self-deprivation, he would just listen to Tevexs' rambling.
"And Tobi?"
"He's starting to mobilize again. It was only a matter of time. He's shaping up to be a powerful despair. The organization, and Tobi… You both will help Sora and Isiah blossom into the shining beacons of hope that they will become. Isn't it simply splendid?" Nagito grinned an innocent smile, but Lebaxk knew that grin all too well. It was Nagito's "Even if I have to make sure it goes that way" grin.
"What he does in his spare time is none of my concern. Thanks, now get moving, because I gotta go find Xale's other half, and deal with Maleficent. The less pain in my asses the better yes?" Lebaxk ended his sentence as a question as he departed from the room, leaving Nagito alone.
"Ah. Well then…" Nagito exited to room and gazed out of a window as he noticed Isiah finally meet up with Sora.
"I'll sit back and watch the show while you do."
And that's chapter 3, sorry for taking so long. Tests and school work are starting to crush me like the boulder did obito. OOPS! Too far. Anyway, thank you all for tuning in to read this chapter. It's greatly appreciated. If you have any questions or concerns, please pm me, and I'd love to help. NXS Signing off.