Chapter Five: Warning from a Dying Man
The streets of London; that same, wintry night…
Terra couldn't fly on his Keyblade-glider or use magic to accelerate himself without further panicking the crowds on the street, so all he could do to pursue the burned and defaced demi-Heartless that was James Hook through the scared, ignorant masses was run. Run for all he was worth on the cobblestone streets past startled citizens in evening attire or rags, narrowly dodging in-between or maneuvering above early models of automobiles and horse-drawn carriages amid startled oaths and curses from those he and the captain bumped into.
But he was falling behind. With his right eye missing and left cheek deeply cut, the tarnished image of young Xehanort had the discomfort of his own seeping blood to contend against. A few intermittent casts of Cure stopped enough of the bleeding to make pursuit manageable, yet he cursed his present inability to apply any magic to hasten his speed.
Can't let these people see. They're already confused. Just the sight of me and Hook is enough to give them something to talk about for weeks. But I can't chance revealing powers beyond this world to them. They're not ready. If I can save this world's innocence on top of stopping Hook, I'll do it, no matter how much I'll hate myself for it.
Yet in moments, surrounded on all sides by honking and swerving automobiles and panicked horses drawing their carriages, Terra caught Hook by the back of his tuxedo jacket and, under the cover of heavy traffic, materialized Earthshaker to skewer him through the gizzard. Panicked, disfigured Hook attempted to ditch the coat. He avoided the Keyblade's lunge by veering to the side after partially disrobing, but his hook-hand was caught in the left jacket sleeve, leaving the two enemies connected by an infernal article of clothing.
Terra attempted to reel him in with one hand, already preparing the next swing of his blade, but as he did so, the demi-Heartless drew his own sword, charged and strengthened by darkness, and the blades clashed there in the streets. Linked by the jacket and obstructed by traffic, the two continued to thrust, swing, and riposte at one another in their unorthodox dance with civilians taking concerned note of the murderous performers. This duel in the street, combined with vocal hearsays of a "fire" breaking out in the Royal Opera House, gave the people considerable reason to worry.
At length, Hook severed the sleeve which hindered his iron appendage and again fled from his target after discharging a burst of dark fire from the sole of his boot, blasting Terra in the chest and knocking him from his feet. The crowd gasped at the magical display, hardly believing their eyes.
Guess the cat's out of the bag. —Terra pondered and then discharged a light frost spell over the burnt area, stopping the dark flames yet leaving the suit he borrowed from Xehanort charred beyond repair. Not to mention the blast hurt like hell.
Leaping to his feet, he scanned the area and spied the captain retreating for a large, upper-class civilian home, crushing his way through the front door. A woman stifled a scream from within and a man swore in surprise. Alarmed by the new crisis, Terra used his magic to dash for the invaded home and caught sight of Hook slashing across the man of the house's belly with a single swing of his evil sword. The wife screamed in terror and Hook bolted for the stairs beyond where the man once stood.
"George!" Mary Darling called for her mortally wounded husband. Terra finally made it inside the house, torn over whether to assist the dying man pooling blood on the floor or stop Hook while he had a clear shot of his back as he sped up those stairs. He decided he could do both.
In the urgency of the moment, Terra threw his Keyblade with all his strength at the captain, impaling him through his right shoulder blade and knocking him off his feet, face-first onto the steps near the top of the stairway. The Keybearer then turned his attention to George Darling on the floor, kneeling beside him and placing both hands on the gaping wound over his stomach. The wife made no protest, but only watched in horror and hope as the silver-haired stranger exclaimed "Heal!" from his lips and somehow discharged a strong wave of restorative energy unto her husband.
Gloved hands bloodied, Terra stood abruptly to his feet, his one eye leaving the confused, recovering patient and his wife for the mangled captain slowly, desperately crawling his way to the top of the stairs to retrieve his dropped sword. The young man fumed through his teeth, outraged that the pirate would so casually attempt another murder for his long list of offenses. But then, that was hardly the worst he witnessed the madman do.
I'll make him pay for what he did to Destiny Islands.
Such were Terra's thoughts as he marched up those stairs to finish off his target.
He wrapped his blood-soaked gloves around Earthshaker's grip and jerked it out from Hook's back, prompting a lurch and moan from the dying monster. Were that man still human, he would've died on the first impact. Terra turned him over with his foot so he could see the captain's eyes in those final moments. He looked pathetic. Face charred and all hair on his head burned away, Terra found himself disgusted at the cretin beneath him, those baleful eyes now quivering and cowardly.
"What did Xehanort promise you?" the pirate pleaded desperately. "Was it wealth?—power? It's all lies! He'll betray you just as he did me!"
"You know nothing of my master." Terra seethed and he raised the Keyblade above his head to prepare the finishing strike.
"Don't! Listen to me, boy! Whatever Xehanort's promised you, I'll double it! Triple it! I have the means to do so—only spare me and I'll give you whatever you want!"
Terra knew what he wanted. He saw in his mind all the downtrodden faces of the hundreds of refugees fresh off the ship from what was once Destiny Islands. All the hopelessness in their eyes as they were packed into the ghettos in the lower district of Radiant Garden…
"You can never give back what you stole, Hook."
Earthshaker began its descent for the captain's black heart…
—And changed course at the last second to parry Hook's dropped sword, sent flying for Terra by a shadowy tendril he failed to notice at work when speaking to Hook moments ago. Though the dark sword's flight was altered, it wasn't enough and stabbed through the right side of Terra's abdomen, shocking him still on impact. The pirate took full advantage of the turnabout and sank his hook into his assassin's right thigh, prompting him to lurch over from the pain. And with Terra so bent over, James Hook regripped his sword and thrust-kicked Terra from its blade, sending him crashing to the bottom of the stairs.
The same dark tendrils which sent Hook's sword to his aid lifted the pirate from his back and onto his feet, where he stood at the top of the staircase and looked down on his would-be assassin, now believing he could win this. Not enough time had passed for the Keybearer's curing abilities to recharge, leaving him practically helpless in his wounds.
Hook smiled. Xehanort underestimated me. Already I vanquished the blue-haired one back in the theatre, and now I've his decoy completely at my mercy.
Terra struggled to regain himself. Looking up, he beheld the sight of Hook charging a bolt of dark lightning from his sword, preparing to fire on him, a wicked leer adorning his burnt face.
A gunshot whizzed across the surface of Hook's throat then, making him gag and stagger back in alarm. He turned to the bullet's point of origin and found Mary Darling aiming a still-smoking hunting rifle at him, her husband slowly returning to his feet and congratulating her on the shot.
Hook was indignant and turned his projectile-charged sword at the young couple. Black, Heartless blood seeped from his neck as he spoke. "How dare you, you blithering bilge—!"
Terra rushed into him before he could fire, catapulting himself with a strong wind spell so that he wouldn't tax his wounded abdomen and leg, and as the dark bolt flew harmlessly over the Darlings' heads, the two combatants crashed their way through the door into the nursery and separated as they rolled onto the floor. Their commotion prompted a cry from the room's original occupant in her cradle.
They could hear Mary's terrified shout from below, "Wendy!" followed soon by hers and George's rapid footsteps up the flight of stairs.
Scurrying to regain their footing, Terra and Hook found themselves locked in combat yet again, now far more bloodied and exhausted than before. But still they tangled, blades groggily clashing as they found maintaining balance to be a battle in and of itself. Poor, young Wendy's cries did little for their concentration. The Darlings stood wary at the doorway, unable to take a shot at the pirate or safely cross the room to secure their infant daughter.
A short time into the fray, the swordsmen found their blades deadlocked against one another while the captain's hook was held off by Terra's other hand, trapped in a contest of strength when they had none left to spare. Terra relied on wit instead and struck the demi-Heartless' face with the hilt of Earthshaker, driving the pirate back against the large window at the far end of the room but at the cost of the Keybearer's own balance. Hook steadied himself after hitting the glass portal when his metal appendage caught onto the side of Wendy's crib. His proximity to their child made the risk far too great for the Darlings to fire again. When Hook and Terra realized the situation, the pirate instantly seized the infant by the nape of her clothing with his hook and leveled the sword to her throat. The parents screamed at once.
"Not another step, Keybearer, or I silence the brat permanently." He looked past him and at the Darlings, "And I suggest you two lower the gun. You'll never make the shot."
Terra froze immediately, scowling at the monster that dared bring a suckling between their blades. "I'm not surprised you'd sink this low. How many trillions of lives have you destroyed in your Heartless campaign?"
Hook unlatched the lock to the large window and swung it open, never removing his eyes from Terra and keeping Wendy within blade's reach. "I do what I must to survive, even if that means slaughtering countless innocents in the name of the dark overlords Xehanort betrayed me to. He is the real monster—not me. I suggest you take a closer look at the master you've pledged your allegiance to, but you'll never heed my word for it. So stay his puppet and tell yourself he'll never double-cross you. Then remember my words when you find yourself on the opposite end of his schemes: trapped behind the Door to Darkness or dead in a puddle somewhere."
"Don't you dare try to justify your actions!" Terra shouted back. "You could've resisted the dark power—killed yourself if you had to. No sane reasoning can ever warrant the extent of destruction you've caused.
Hook stepped one leg onto the windowsill, visibly aching from every wound he sustained that night.
What is he planning?—Terra mused. That's a three-story drop. He'd never survive it like this. Is he counting on his dark power to save him or is he simply going mad?
Hook continued, "Judge me while you can, boy. One day, you'll become me—" A deafening crack of the rifle, then Hook's head jolted backward, black blood spraying from the back of his skull and out the open window.
George Darling held the steaming gun in his grasp. The situation demanded the accuracy he'd spent years refining from all those hunting expeditions with his superiors in the African wilderness. Mary understood this and handed him the weapon during Hook's prattle. The demi-Heartless was so consumed in his thoughts of Terra and mad hopes of escape that he hadn't thought the Darlings more than a slight distraction. And now, as the pirate fell backwards in the windowsill with Wendy still affixed to his bladed appendage, George screamed at Terra, "Catch her, you fool!"
Terra fought against every force of pain surging through him and dashed for the window, grasping Wendy by the front of her pajamas as the demi-Heartless' hook tore free of her back collar. There was a sickening thud and a splash of fluids below at the end of the three-story fall, but all Terra kept his eyes on was the wailing child he'd narrowly prevented from becoming just another name on a monument to Hook's destruction. Forgetting the pain searing through him, Terra afforded a light smile and pulled Wendy back into the safety of the nursery, her mother waiting to hold her tightly in her arms. Then Terra allowed himself to succumb to his wounds and slid down against the wall into a seated position, exhaling much deserved relief.
George peered out the window and at the unmoving corpse of the defaced pirate, an alarmed crowd gathering below. Then the father backed away from the window, locked it shut, and looked down on the one-eyed, silver-haired Keybearer bleeding in his nice, clean nursery and spoke in a calm voice that masked his terror. "You saved my life, young man, and that of my daughter as well. For that, I'm grateful. But I would much desire some answers here. Who are you? Who was he? And what were you doing in my home?"
Terra could only breathe, scarcely able to form words. "You'll have to give me a moment." He attempted the spell, "Hea—" but his words fell short, every injury sustained that night catching up to him.
"Don't strain yourself, lad," George said. He turned to his wife, "Mary, bring him the medical kit. I'll take care of Wendy."
"But, George," Mary replied, "shouldn't we take him to a hospital? Just look at the state of his wounds."
"He can't give us information if he's locked away in some emergency room. Now please, bring us the medical kit."
Mary nodded. George set the rifle against the wall and took crying Wendy from his wife's arms as she raced for a cabinet at the opposite end of the room and rifled through it for the necessary supplies.
Some of Terra's blood seeped onto the tip of George's shoe. He wasn't pleased. "The whole cabinet if you must, Mary!"
"If you'll just give me a moment, dear!"
Terra strained to get the words out of his mouth. "H—heal."
And the green aura followed suit, mending just enough of the damage to his body to make speech and movement easier. Oh, that feels better.
Mary returned with the box of medical supplies and did her best to tend to the remainder of the young man's wounds. George rocked Wendy gently in his arms to hush her cries and then spoke again to Terra, "Now, we'll have some answers. And don't try to deceive us. You possess miraculous powers which have never been seen beyond biblical times, wield weapons unlike any humankind has ever forged. The man you fought spoke of 'doors to darkness' and you accused him of murdering some trillion-odd souls. I know for a fact there are no such powers and not nearly quite so many people on this Earth, so you tell me the whole truth."
Terra wondered just how much he should tell them as Mary opened his formal jacket and shirt to treat the stab wound in his abdomen and he juggled various lies and half-truths in his mind—and even then, was unsure of where to start—before deciding he couldn't fool them.
They deserved to know.
He started from the beginning.
"This world has been connected…"
Meanwhile, in London's Royal Opera House…
The Giga Orcus' colossal blade crashed down upon Rainfell; Aqua caught the titan's weapon with her own, the ground cratering beneath her feet on impact. The armor she wore absorbed most of the shock and her own magical prowess gave her the strength she needed to endure battling the dark titan.
Then, she asserted her own strength against that of the Heartless and swung her Keyblade to bat its sword away. With the giant enemy now exposed, Aqua leaped high and repeatedly slashed the monster's face, jolting it off-balance and forcing it back until it collapsed on the stage, crushing the podium beneath its weight. Standard Invisible, triple-sized Orcus, or even Darkside, the head is always the weak spot. That was the one thought coursing through the Keyblade Master's mind as she descended on the fallen beast from the air to split its head apart.
Her victory was denied when the giant Orcus swung her aside mid-descent with a forceful backhand and she skidded hard against columns of seats in the second-story balcony. She gathered herself onto her hands and knees and, upon looking up, beheld the titan's gigantic blade plunging straight for her. She leapt aside, the hellish sword obliterating the space where she once stood, and she continued running across the balcony with the Heartless swinging his weapon after her, razing the seats and décor into clouds of dust in that second-story terrace. When the crashing blade reached mere inches from her, Aqua darted for the edge of the balcony, against its low barrier, and ricocheted onto the floor above. The Heartless swung a second time, almost demolishing her in the blow, but she jumped again upward and vaulted atop the fourth-story balcony—high enough that her giant assailant would need all four of his wings to reach her. Such is what he did. He in the air and she on the high ground, their clash of blades and exchanges of magic continued.
I just can't shake this guy. –She pondered against the flurry of his strikes—He's always right behind me. And for all this size, he hasn't lost a bit of his Invisible's speed. I'd hate to see him become a Darkside.
She cartwheeled aside, narrowly dodging an explosion of dark flame and freezing the Giga Orcus' sword-wielding hand with a strong ice-blast from Rainfell.
I need to put a stop to this. Hope I've got enough power charged up by now.
The Heartless briefly disoriented by its frozen appendage, Aqua gave Rainfell an advanced command, "Bladecharge!"
At once, a strong, violet and white energy surged to envelop herself and her Keyblade in its power, Rainfell being encased in a seven-foot longsword of pure light—not half as large as the Orcus' weapon, but size was no longer a deciding factor.
In the next blinding instant, Bladecharged Rainfell crashed down on the Orcus' frozen wrist, shattering it from its body and separating the Heartless from its weapon. It howled in pain—something Aqua never heard a Heartless do—and reeled back its amputated stump. With Rainfell elongated and amplified, the Orcus' torso was now in striking range. The Keybearer seized the chance and repeatedly swung her mighty weapon to slash and burn across the giant's chest, releasing spurts of liquid-fog blackness from its wounds—presumably blood. Retreating back in the air to be free of Aqua's reach, the screeching Giga Orcus launched an immense globe of volatile dark energy from its remaining hand. With difficulty under the projectile's force and magnitude, the armored Keybearer parried the colossal ball of evil flame, sending it exploding into the roof, opening the half-century-old Opera House to the overcast night sky.
Smoke and debris falling between the distant enemies, Aqua used her magic to track the Orcus' location. With the target locked, she swung her arm back and then tossed Bladecharged Rainfall through the air, skewering the light-encased longsword through the left side of the Heartless' face. He staggered back in anguish and crashed atop the balconies on the opposite side of the theatre, collapsing the structures and plummeting through the wreckage until he hit the ground.
When the last of the ceiling's debris fell, Aqua looked on at the massive pile of rubble which buried the giant. She retracted her helmet so that her sweat-matted face and hair could feel the breeze of the cool night air. That's three stories right on top of him. No way he survived.
She swiftly made her way down and approached the rubble-hillock where the Heartless and the Keyblade in its skull lay buried. With Rainfall beckoning her, she knew exactly where to find the weapon. Atop the vast mound, near its apex, Aqua paused in her steps, crouched down with a hand on the debris for support, and plunged an armored hand through the wreckage, seizing Rainfell in her grasp and heaving it free above her head, the weapon now returned to its default form. The Heartless' dusky liquid-fog coated the weapon and cascaded in an arc before the Keybearer, splashing upon her face, hair, and armor at Rainfell's release.
Looking down the small burrow she created, Aqua found the giant's shadow-black head staring lifelessly up at her, the left half of its face obliterated. She sighed in relief and prepared to leave.
"You have not won, Key-woman," a booming, echoing voice called from the Orcus' permanently agape mouth.
Her attention arrested, Aqua jolted her gaze back down the arm's length hole and gawked at the beast which defied all laws of death. Its remaining eye glowed, not its typical subdued aura, but an abundant flood of yellow light. Is this thing still alive?! …No, the mouth doesn't move when he speaks. And his eye…this must be another being using this Heartless as a medium.
"James Hook is but one of many," the voice continued from the unmoving maw. "The Heartless have forged numerous alliances across the realms and already dozens of worlds have fallen. The loss of one servant and his crew is nothing against the power you will soon face."
"Who are you?" Aqua interrogated, her voice calm and commanding. "You're not the Invisible I slew. You must be channeling this message through him from another location."
A disconcerting laugh from the frozen, fanged maw, then the voice resumed, "You catch on quickly, Key-woman."
"My name is Master Aqua," she asserted.
"Names and titles will soon be meaningless to your kind, wretched wielder," the demon channeled. "In weeks, your people shall never again see sunlight. Only Darkness will rule these lands and I will personally see to it that you are among the fallen. For I am the last thing the worlds will ever see: Chernabog, Bringer of Death in service to the Dark Lords."
Chernabog. Something about his name—the way his unearthly voice spoke it—sent a wave of chills tingling through Aqua's spine. She fought to stay composed against her body that knew to be afraid when her heart did not.
"This form you've destroyed is only one in a limitless sea of hosts that will lay down their lives for my will," Chernabog said. "I cannot be killed. I cannot be touched. But you, Keyblade Master, you are flesh and blood. You exist in the physical realm and so are within my reach. You can be killed."
"The funny thing about you Heartless," Aqua shot back, "the farther you step from the shadows, the weaker you become. Out here, away from your Realm of Darkness, you're nothing: just another stain on my Keyblade."
The Heartless messenger chuckled. "But you forget: the closer you stand to the light, the greater your shadow becomes. And right now, you pride yourself in being an anointed child of the Light, oblivious to the Darkness that festers behind your back." A pause to relish in his own words, then the demon spoke again, "It's been there all along, but faith in your allies and your own abilities has blinded you to its presence. The Darkness grows and so shall consume you. He shall be your undoing…"
With that, Chernabog released his medium, his mind returned to the faraway realm of shadows, and the Orcus corpse crumbled and faded away into darkness.
Aqua released a tense sigh, only realizing then she'd held her breath. She stepped back, trod away from the mountain of destruction, and deactivated her armor under the vast hole in the ceiling, exposing herself to the winter night's air and light snowfall. Lingering on Chernabog's parting words, she forgot about the cold, how eviscerated and charred her evening gown and elbow gloves were, and the frost nipped at the slight burns and lacerations on her bare arms and face. She'd brought a coat with her, but Hook had no doubt blown it to kingdom come when he deployed that bomb.
"He" will be my undoing? Festering Darkness? What is he talking about? There's nobody in my life that's tampered with Darkness. He must be lying. He has to be.
Then she remembered: But…we had to cloak Ventus in Darkness to mask him from the Heartless. He's been in the Darkness for the past seven weeks…what if it's corrupted him?—She shook her head. No, his heart's too strong to let it take him. If any of us have betrayed the Light, it's Xehanort—all those "travels" he's been on, and he's the one who masked Ven in the first place! Then we got his crony, Vanitas, and God only knows what that boy and his Unversed are into. To make things worse, Vanitas has been in Heartless captivity longer than Ven's been undercover. If anyone's been overtaken by Darkness, it's him.
But as she formed the perfect arguments to blame the old man and his henchman, another, far more recent image entered her mind. It was of Terra, moments before Hook threw the bomb. To save their lives, Terra unleashed a bolt of fire from his Keyblade that Aqua assumed killed the captain. But she caught just a slight enough glimpse to ascertain that was no ordinary fire; it was dark.
The memory and understanding nauseated her: all the men in her life had a connection with the Darkness in one form or another.
Terra…no…it can't possibly be you—
Her eyes shot open. "Terra!" She at once turned back to the demolished box above where she'd last seen her injured friend before the bomb separated them. Unfortunately, his previous location was now just another floor lost in the mass of wreckage.
She stood petrified, too afraid of what she might find to start digging.
Then, a shadow loomed over her. The snowfall stopped. An inhuman groan rumbled far overhead and the weight of the source's presence horrified Aqua to her very core.
Tick…tock…tick…tock…
Slowly prying her gaze upward, she gasped in terror, bringing a hand to her mouth as she beheld the Nobody crocodile slowly departing from the clouds for her and the entire city to see. The beast of nightmares hovered as a ghost-white monstrosity three times the size of the Jolly Roger: warped and deformed, physically adapted to make nearly every scale-covered inch of itself lethal to physical touch and impervious to any weapon. Its eyes were hungry black voids and its mouth a cavern of towering, indestructible teeth and unholy fire. Upon its back and tail protruded a row of tall, spinal blades, all capable of shredding apart any fortress or battlement. One could only imagine the strength possessed in each of its twelve legs, six on each side.
Aqua staggered back, lost her balance, and fell on her backside, her arms catching and propping her up before her back could hit the ground. Her eyes widened in the fear that now shook all of London.
The city screamed, but Aqua was deaf to all but her own soul's cries.
The hushed words barely left her mouth. "What…is that…?"
The beast's abysmal eyes studied her. Its snout rustled, seeming to search for something. Whatever it was, it led him to Aqua. The titan slowly reared its head downward, Aqua gasping and trembling as it descended nearer, until it landed on the ground, demolishing what remained of the roof and much of the walls and shaking the very foundation of the Opera House under its immense weight; the Nobody's horizon-sized face was mere inches from hers. Heart beating violently fast in her chest, the blue-haired woman forgot just briefly that she was a Keyblade Master—quite possibly the most powerful one alive as far as she knew.
But only briefly.
Battling against every overwhelming surge of fear that would've killed a lesser being, Aqua tightened her grip around Rainfell, and with that, her brave, righteous scowl returned to face the giant sniffing her to determine if she was the target it sought.
"My name…is Master Aqua," she choked out in hushed defiance at the monster, heart still pounding at a million beats per second. "You will not hurt me, my friends, or any innocent soul under my protection. Turn back now, or face the consequences—"
Almost as if on cue, the crocodile abruptly swung its head to the pile of wreckage beside the Keyblade Master, sniffing further and no longer caring for the woman before it. Its pupils dilated. It found the scent. And so, the great lizard took flight once more over London, pursuing whatever its objective was through the jungle of cobblestone and concrete and leaving Aqua behind to drown in the weight of nightmares.
The city screamed, and this time Aqua heard its every bloodcurdling shriek. Shaking, she returned to her feet, eyed the mound of rubble the monster discarded—where she feared Terra may have been buried—then returned her focus to the threat at hand, activating her armor and flying after the monster on her Keyblade-glider.
George Darling was the one to finally kill Captain Hook. I really hope someone saw the massive irony in that.