And now for the answers to the previous chapter's end-note challenge that nobody cares about: The first real-life location mentioned was Caer Dathyl, a Welsh Castle featured in The Chronicles of Prydain, the book series that The Black Cauldron is based on. The second was the Palais du Louvre, a former royal castle in Paris, France, and I would have accepted any Disney movie set in France as the correct answer for that one (Hunchback, Beauty and the Beast, Aristocats, Ratatouille, etc.).

Chapter Twelve: Borderlands, Phase 01

The Dark Forest beyond Radiant Garden; dawn of February the third…

The rushing snow beat relentlessly against the chronicler's brow as she stood atop a forest cliff overlooking a Heartless-infested canyon in the treacherous snowstorm. Through the lens of the 8mm camera, the hooded woman in heavy winter attire immortalized via grainy film the creation and maintenance of the Heartless army stationed in a chasm beyond the great city of Radiant Garden. There in the distance was a shadowy cesspool where ever-growing monsters were bred and strengthened in the tens—if not hundreds—of thousands. Their sizes varied from knee-high shadow to the rarer Darkside colossus, and for all their collective darkness and hatred of life, the very forest they spawned in had withered and corrupted into a nightmare befitting demons of their nature. Even the sky itself had churned and roiled into a black mass of crackling energy. But high upon the clifftop, Naomi and Ienzo were beyond the Heartless' reach, their greatest threat instead being the severity of the snowstorm blasting against them.

Behind the chronicler and her nine-year-old assistant, a platoon of winter-garbed soldiers busied themselves with their own tasks—setting up enormous long-range cannons and loading the appropriate artillery into them as part of establishing the new command post—and the elite guards, Dilan and Aeleus, oversaw their work. Naomi and Ienzo were here under their jurisdiction. Scattered behind the company were the handful of armored trucks they arrived in.

Sharp-eared and dreadlocked Dilan remarked to his equal of the chronicler and the child, "Nothing about this sits well with me. Why would Even send those two civilians this far out into Heartless territory? How were they even permitted past the city's protective walls, and what madness compelled them to accept this mission at all?"

With a grunt, musclebound Aeleus replied, his eyes focused on the forest mouth some distance behind them, "What difference does it make? The woman and the boy are expendable, as are we all in Even's eyes."

Caught off-guard by his peer's supposition, Dilan glanced at him, "What prompts this indictment? You suggest Even dares to send us, the two greatest soldiers in Radiant Garden's military, to the Heartless borderlands merely to die? Why choose to believe this as opposed to his faith in our abilities that incited him to send us to this perilous frontier? If there's a region to be won, we're the ones to be deployed, and if he believed there was any danger too great for us to overcome, why send Naomi and Ienzo under our watch? Think you he would sacrifice his own stepson and Terra's wife so flippantly?"

But Aeleus gestured to their forces, "Look again at those we command," and Dilan obeyed. He beheld not a company of warriors, but of sniveling and trembling whelps in military uniform, almost all of them seeing to their duties and handling crucial equipment with fidgeting hands and paranoid restlessness in their collective demeanor—all accidents waiting to happen. Dilan had noted that few of the soldiers were familiar to him and some rookie mistakes had been made on their drive to this precipice, but he'd dismissed their apparent unprofessionalism as standard fear of delving so deep into Heartless territory.

Aeleus continued, "These are not the elite men and women Radiant Garden prides its military strength in, but sniveling children and offscourings, drafted straight from the hordes of refugees in the gutters and the prisons. Surely, you noted their incompetence on the way here. They know firsthand the horrors of the enemy we face. They've seen their home-worlds destroyed in the Heartless conquest and, for this reason, they quiver. Even has sent us to the frontlines with cannon-fodder."

All among the company trembled and feared, Dilan observed. All but Naomi and Ienzo: the only civilians present and the only ones without weapons or sufficient combat training. The dreadlocked knight wondered, Why do they stand resolute when all others cower in the face of this danger? What sets them apart? Is it sheer madness or ignorance that grants them confidence, or are they simply that dauntless?

At length, Dilan queried, "So, what's your point, Aeleus? Do you suppose Even means to condemn us to death?"

Aeleus sneered. "Is this truly such a wonder?" When Dilan's gaze pressed him for an explanation, the taller and stockier of the knights clarified, "It's no secret among our ranks that Ansem the Wise has been reclusive of late, scarcely seen and negligent of his royal duties. As such, morale has suffered throughout the kingdom and those less shrewd or more ill-intentioned have usurped what power our sage-king has lost command of. Doctor Even in particular has grown bolder in his actions. Where legislation or refusal from the king once prohibited his more extreme methods, he now pushes his radical agenda with little obstruction from those still loyal to the monarchy.

"In the time since Ansem sealed himself off from public view," Aeleus continued, "the good doctor has taken command of several military operations, employed questionable specialists in crucial missions—namely, Terra's wife and his own stepson—and need I even mention those experiments he conducts on the Heartless we've captured under his orders? He claims he's on the verge of discovering a virus to destroy their whole, wicked race on the molecular level, but no mortal who's delved so deep in the Darkness as he now does has ever resurfaced sane or alive."

Wide-eyed from his equal's charges, Dilan almost whispered, "Do you believe our Even is fated to become a Heartless?"

"Have you considered he already has?"

Dilan raised an eyebrow as he turned to face him completely. "I'm not one for conspiracies, yet you present your case so eloquently."

"I would rather not indulge in such theories either, but the doctor's behavior of late has been erratic, paranoid—wild, even. Simply put, he's losing his grip on sanity and this is evident in his actions. Consider the two civilians we brought with us to this treacherous land; one is the wife of a powerful warrior—the other is his own stepson. Any rational-thinking man would understand the significance of these connections and the consequences if anything went wrong. But as he is, would Even feel any distress if his own son were to perish in the field? Does he even care what wrath Terra would inflict on him if he learned who was responsible for the death of his wife?"

Aeleus took a breath, then proceeded, "Remember also that Even is the one who chose this site for the mission—this site specifically—despite that our efforts would be better spent elsewhere. He claims our presence here is of the greatest importance, yet remains oblique when explaining why. All of this—the void of power left in Ansem's disappearance; Even's reliance on questionable sources and powers; his disregard for life and major consequences; those twisted experiments on captive Heartless and his constant exposure to Darkness; his increasing signs of insanity; that he chose this, the border of the Heartless' nesting grounds of all places for this mission; and that he's sent us, Radiant Garden's elite, so deep into enemy territory with only a platoon of quivering rookies for support—it's as though he desires us to be massacred by the Heartless…"

The knight-captain had nearly grown livid recounting the scientist's sins, but, with a breath, he calmed himself and concluded, "Even's not the man we once knew. He may not even be a man anymore. I've read accounts of scholars and mages who sought to control the Heartless in the days of old, yet fell prey to their own ambition and became the Heartless' playthings. Control over them might not have been Even's endgame, but in light of every suspicious incident and breach of character thus far, is it truly unlikely that the good doctor has become the Heartless' puppet?"

Considering his words a moment, Dilan nodded with a heavy weight on his stalwart heart. "It's a rarity for you to wag your tongue as long as this…but I would be a fool to dismiss your findings. I've long suspected but long denied much of what you've professed and can deny these things no longer. Though he was once our friend, Even has become fickle, paranoid, and remarkably suspicious since he assumed the power Ansem left behind. It pains me to believe it, but it is more than likely he has sent us to our deaths at the behest of the same Heartless he experiments on. What's our course of action?"

A small hand tugged on Aeleus' greatcoat before he could answer. The elite guard brought his gaze downward to find young Ienzo standing there, his ocean-blue eyes unnaturally calm but entreating as he held up his photographic camera for the sentinel to examine. Mechanically, Aeleus grabbed the device and he and Dilan observed the gravelly, greyscale snapshots captured within. It took a moment for their minds to register the discovery, but when they did, both appeared visibly alarmed at the evidence: crude silos and other pieces of heavy machinery barely visible in the dark-shrouded distance, and emerging from what appeared to be an assembly line were dozens of Heartless, all multicolored, variously shaped and limbed, and all with the familiar emblem of the black heart cross-stitched by red sutures across their torsos. Most were species they'd never seen before. Aeleus looked up at the distance in revelation, muttering to himself and his ally, "So, the rumors are true. The Heartless have developed the machinery and the intellect to create artificial life."

"Then these recent 'Emblem Heartless' aren't merely accidents of nature?" Dilan queried. "They're legitimate experiments?"

"And the Purebloods have the means to mass-produce them," Aeleus concluded in subdued dread. He returned his gaze to Ienzo and ordered, "Boy, bring Naomi here." The silent child nodded, his expression and countenance impossible to read, and then he ran off. Aeleus called to a nervous soldier fumbling his duties, "Trooper!" The young man panicked, but quickly tried to compose himself, saluting and waiting for his order. "Take the chronicler's watch. Alert us if anything happens."

"Y—y—yes sir!" he stuttered and nervously ran to relieve Naomi of her lookout.

Aeleus sighed, closing his eyes and bringing a hand to his forehead.

Dilan spoke behind him, "Aeleus, if these findings are true, then our war with the Heartless has only begun. And with hundreds of thousands of off-world refugees already over-packed in our own world, where will we turn once Radiant Garden falls?"

"Nowhere. The Coalition has done everything in its power to aid us, but they can barely fend for themselves. This is where we make our last stand. This hollow bastion is all we have left."

The dreadlocked knight scoffed at his partner. "So, you're calling it that now, too, ha? Spirits divine, how are we to inspire hope in these poor, lost souls if we, their heroes, have none?"

"I speak the truth. A hollow bastion is all this world has become: a façade of a stronghold, where strength is a lie and the cowards in office and the cowards on the streets murder each other before the invaders ever set foot in our realm. Our power may seem imposing, but it is only a bluff."

"But to validate that dissenter propaganda—"

"I do not speak these words in despair or in contempt of our government. Only in fact. Do not delude yourself that our Coalition is anything but a council of withering superpowers in their dark ages, but do not neglect your onuses either. Simply accept what is and carry on."

Dilan scoffed again. "Find peace in accepting the inevitable. Is that it?"

"That is all."

"You'd make a fine Nobody."

"And you an exemplary martyr."

Dilan cracked a wry half-smile. "Alright, then. Martyr to Nobody: if we are to accept the inevitable, where does that leave us if Even has sent us to die? Do we accept our doom without resistance?"

"If we're correct, Even is only a smaller symptom of a greater illness. But until that plague of corruption and death overwhelms us, we will not stop fighting. So long as we draw breath, it is our sworn duty as Radiant Garden's elite guard to weed-out dissenters and traitors such as Even. When the chronicler woman and her boy return with their findings, we'll depart and arrest the mad scientist."

The dreadlocked knight shrugged in compromise. "Accept that death is coming, but don't stop fighting until then. I can work with that."

Aeleus snickered. "Martyr."

His comrade parried in the same humor, "Nobody."

At length, Ienzo returned to the sentinels with Naomi close behind. Upon reaching the elite guards, Terra's wife saluted them almost as expertly as any real soldier and spoke dutifully, "You wanted to see me, sirs?"

"The salute isn't necessary, Naomi," Dilan replied. "You aren't in the military."

She lowered her hand, but continued standing at attention. "Just trying to remind the others there's such a thing as composure, sirs," she regarded the dozen-odd fear-stricken soldiers all around them.

Dilan interjected, a dark glower in his eye, "These are the soldiers of the Radiant Garden elite—" (a pungent lie, he and everyone knew, but the military had a reputation to uphold) "—and you will remember your place when next you choose to insult them, civilian."

Naomi balked in mild surprise at the reproach, suddenly ashamed for speaking so brashly, but soon recomposed herself and nodded submissively, "Ye—yes, sir. Sorry, sir."

"Your analysis, chronicler," Aeleus curtly demanded, returning straight to business.

"The evidence should speak for itself, sir." She handed over her own 8mm camera to allow them to review the film, her shoulder-length brown hair flowing from her hood in the wintry gale. With her voice steady and her emerald eyes undaunted, she continued, "It's as we've feared. The Purebloods really have manufactured the technology to create artificial Heartless. At the rate they're building them, coupled with how quickly the Purebloods themselves are spawning and evolving, I'd say we have less than a month before we have to evacuate Radiant Garden."

"How far off is this 'Emblem factory' from our current position?" Aeleus queried.

Naomi jutted her thumb over her shoulder. "Several miles northeast, beyond the Pureblood breeding grounds. It's not easy to see the smoke because of how much they've already darkened the sky, but it's there."

The sentinels peered in the direction she indicated and found she was right; there was considerable smoke being produced by the Heartless' industrial revolution, but it was nigh impossible to discern through the snowstorm and against the malevolent sky. Dilan sighed before commanding, "Show us the factories."

At once, Naomi and Ienzo turned back around and started for the cliff's edge with the knight-captains close behind, passing by the dozens of occupied soldiers and their focus purely on the objective ahead. Such a shame she wasn't drafted as well, Dilan mused. She'd make a far better soldier than these sniveling cowards.

Only meters away from where Aeleus sent the trembling rookie to take Naomi's place at the lookout, Aeleus called to him again, "Trooper, you're relieved. Return to your post."

But he didn't move. Contradicting his previous nature, he was now frozen stiff, as though petrified at the manifestation of his worst nightmares come true. Was standing watch atop the edge of a towering cliff hundreds of yards over the border separating the natural forest from the dark truly so terrifying for a draftee of the Radiant Garden military, but not so for a civilian woman and child? Aeleus didn't care and gripped the rookie by his shoulder, spinning him around as he shouted in his face, "I gave you an order, soldier!"

But the face he saw was one drained of all color and life, instead paled by unfathomable trauma, his jaw agape and eyes glazed as quivering breaths drew unsteadily from his lungs. A deep feeling of sympathy overtook Naomi, the very same maternal response she felt whenever Sora was scared of the shadows in his closet or when Riku mourned the loss of his birth-parents. She reached to calm the unfortunate rookie and ease him back into the world of the living, but Aeleus already shoved him back to the ground near the other soldiers, snarling: "Get back to your post!"

When she glanced back at the other two in their company, she found Dilan expressing slight traces of concern for the petrified soldier and Ienzo displaying faint shades of an emotion between confusion and offense (he wasn't an easy child to read), but neither had the time nor the will to object to Aeleus' manner.

And when they finally redirected their attention to the cliff's edge, they found what the young soldier had frozen at. Only a dozen yards directly below and scaling the cliff-side was the sable bulwark of a massive Darkside, its monstrous claws carving into the rocks it silently climbed and its vast, yellow eyes surging terror into the four who witnessed its near-finished ascent.

Aeleus whipped back and screamed at the platoon, "Defensive positions! We're under attack!" The order was received, practically expected, and those same soldiers who clambered over the artillery they worked to set up then panicked to draw their automatic rifles, swords, and lances, some even manning what few massive cannons they'd finished building. In moments, Aeleus, Dilan, and Ienzo retreated back to the numbers of their small army. Naomi was right behind them, but tarried when she remembered the petrified rookie who couldn't move, and she found him where Aeleus had left him: on his back in the snow, far too horrified to move.

Gritting her teeth, she darted to his side and pulled him to his feet. "C'mon! On your feet, soldier!" she encouraged, but before they could make the first step in their retreat, the ground beneath them collapsed, destroyed by the splintering tremors of the Darkside's claws as it scaled the cliff. The soldier remembered how to scream only as Naomi lost her grip on him and he plummeted with the earth and snow hundreds of yards into the dark chasm. Naomi had just barely saved herself during the fall by clinging one hand onto a fistful of earth still solid enough to hold together—a stunt that knocked the wind from her lungs—but she found herself dangling only precious meters above the dark goliath's head. She might've screamed had she the energy.

With another long haul of its gargantuan arms, the Darkside's body ascended just over hers, its head now at eye-level with the brunette woman and drawing dangerously near. She clung tighter to what remained of the cliff wall, now securing minimal footing, but in her terror, she wondered if it might've been a more merciful fate to let gravity end her life. The dusky colossus leaned closer, the tendrils wrapped around its mouth drawing back to reveal a cavern of vast and sharpened teeth and a serpentine tongue as it roared its malice against her, its bellow a force stronger than the snowstorm's gales: further evidence of the Heartless' rapid escalation on the evolutionary scale. The Darkside drew nearer…

…only to shoot its head back in howling agony as it reached a weighty hand for the spear suddenly lodged into its left eye, and poised atop the giant's shadowy face and driving his ornate lance deeper into the cavity that was once the monster's eye was Dilan, roaring valiantly at the Heartless ten times his size. Detecting the goliath's reactionary hand, Dilan retracted his lance and glided to the side, swinging his blade and tearing open the black limb. The Heartless howled further and the knight drove his spear yet again into its skull, stabbing and stabbing as dusky ichor foamed and sprayed over him.

Amid the onslaught, Naomi caught sight of a churning and roiling over the Darkside's shoulders, and from the homegrown bog, scores of Shadows and Neoshadows emerged and clamored to reach the lone warrior atop their host's disfigured skull.

"Dilan! Watch out!" Naomi cried, and at her warning, the sentinel spun 'round to find the new arrivals leaping at him from all sides. There was no time to defend himself.

But a hail of bullets blasted a majority of the lesser Heartless into oblivion, the cavalry commanded by Aeleus, who called to his equal, "Grab the girl and let's go!"

Nodding, Dilan bolted from the Darkside's head and secured Naomi against the rock wall. "Hold on to me," he ordered. Not wasting any time, she wrapped her arms around him and he used his strength and agility to leap from crevice to crevice until they returned to the fractured top of the cliff. And at the instant of their landing just a small distance beyond the first wave of riflemen, a vast laser-beam projected from the Darkside's remaining eye incinerated a half-dozen of the soldiers firing down on it. Aeleus, whose reflexes outmatched those of his inferiors, had leapt back in time to avoid total obliteration, instead narrowly escaping with deep burns against his left arm and leg as he fell back onto the snow.

"Aeleus!" Dilan called at his and Naomi's landing. She released him when they touched the ground and acted before her savior could issue an order to find Ienzo and take cover. She had another task to accomplish first. Both she and Dilan raced for Aeleus' side and tried to lift him to his feet when the blast residue subsided. "Stand up, Aeleus," his dreadlocked friend urged as the wounded sentinel struggled to stay upright even with both Dilan and Naomi securing his arms over their shoulders for support. They limped only a few meters before a great, black wave washed over the already dark sky. Turning, they found the dusky curtain to be a legion of winged Heartless gathering in airborne droves over the platoon's encampment. What few heavy cannons were manned and operational instantly discharged their rapid-fire rounds at the multitude of fluttering demons overhead. But for all their bullets, the panicked warriors could scarcely put a dent in the overwhelming forces and the bat-like monstrosities were quickly upon them, snatching sword- and gun- and spear-wielding soldiers up from the ground or otherwise ravaging them on the spot.

A towering Stealth Sneak de-cloaked from nothingness and destroyed one of the artillery cannons, swinging the hefty debris at the nearby swordsmen and obliterating them on impact.

The trio hastened for the nearest armored truck, knowing retreat was now the wisest option. And in their Aeleus-burdened withdrawal, Naomi finally regretted not searching for Ienzo first. Where is he? Ienzo, I hope you're safe…

"In there!" wounded Aeleus directed towards the nearest armored truck as his allies helped him limp in that direction. Their immediate plans of escape where dashed when an all-too familiar oversized golden laser-beam streaked past them and annihilated the vehicle in a burst of flame. The Darkside's mutilated head had reached over the top of the cliff, its remaining eye smoldering from the discharged beam, and now the rest of it worked to stand over the edge. The moment it did, they were all doomed.

"Retreat!" Aeleus bellowed to any who could hear him in the maelstrom. "Retreat!" And so the three raced for the next truck, maneuvering through the hordes of infantrymen slaughtered all around them in the one-sided battle.

"Naomi," Dilan called, "leave Aeleus to me! Find Ienzo and drive as far away from here as you can!"

She would've argued, knowing full well that following those orders meant condemning the sentinels to their deaths, but Ienzo's safety remained her top priority. Nodding, she responded, "Stay alive," and ran off to find the boy, muttering prayers to her home-world's gods that they wouldn't all die here—that someone would survive to deliver the news of the Heartless' growing numbers and warn Radiant Garden's government before their world, too, fell to Darkness. She looked back only once: to find Aeleus now standing over an injured Dilan and crushing the skull of an advancing Stealth Sneak with his hefty ax-sword.

She called Ienzo's name repeatedly amid her sprint to find him in the carnage, weaving between fallen combatants and explosions of energy in the relentless blizzard. None of the Heartless seemed particularly interested in her, instead focused on the humans who were actually armed.

That is, until a wolf-shielded Defender emerged from the snowstorm and its shield's demonic maw outspread to devour her, halting her dead in her tracks and earning a terrified yelp from her. But the sound of metal crunching and fluids splashing behind the disembodied werewolf's head halted the beast's advance at once, and as the sentient shield fell with the life draining from its eyes, Naomi found the armored, humanoid Heartless behind it had been skewered through its back by a soldier's broadsword. Moments later, that same soldier who saved her was snatched away by a passing Wyvern.

As just moments before, Naomi had enough breath to scream. But she stifled herself thereafter and pushed through the fear violently thundering in her breast to continue her search for—

"Ienzo!" She'd found him. He was several yards away and cornered against the side of a truck by a trio of charging Angel Stars and too overwhelmed by horror to register her voice. In one of the exceptionally rare times since she'd known the wordless boy, he openly displayed an intense emotion—fear—and it chilled her to the bone.

Diving to the ground to scoop up a discarded automatic rifle and rolling on her knees once she'd procured it, Naomi screamed and fired upon the trio of Emblem Heartless that encircled her ward, annihilating the otherwise elite-status monstrosities in seconds. Panting from everything endured, she dropped the heavy firearm and bolted to the boy's side. "Ienzo! Are you alright?!" She hastily checked him over for wounds, relieved there were none but still distraught at the child's traumatized state. Miraculously, he still held onto the cameras they'd brought for reconnaissance. He was nothing if not committed. Ienzo nodded his head feverishly to let her know he was fine and she then grabbed his hand and led him inside the truck he'd huddled against, helping him into the navigator's seat on the right. Seconds later, she climbed over him to reach the driver's side and found the keys tucked into the overhead sun-visor. Beyond the driver's side window, the Darkside unleashed another surge of concentrated energy into a far-off truck, obliterating it on impact. In the time it took for Naomi to thrust the key into the ignition and kick the truck into drive, a handful of soldiers smart enough to recognize an escape opportunity when they saw one darted into the back of her truck, providing cover fire from the rear and helping as many of their friends board as they could as Naomi drove the haven on wheels into the forest from whence they arrived.

She never dared to look back, but the soldiers providing cover fire had no choice, and Ienzo saw enough in the rear-view mirror; the Darkside finally stood at its full height on the precipice and what few human combatants remained were overwhelmed by the Dark forces. No other trucks escaped and all who fled on foot were quickly slain in some ghastly form or another. But Naomi didn't look back. She couldn't. Someone had to look forward and get them through this, and she was the one in the driver's seat.

A few small teardrops formed in Naomi's emerald eyes, but she brushed them away to keep her vision clear. She needed all her attention set on driving through this dark forest while battling the snowstorm that raged around them. Somewhere, where the sky was uncorrupted and winter storms were less severe, the sun was rising. Sora and Riku were likely stirring from the guest beds at Kairi's house and ready to brave a new day of adventure, unless they'd once again stayed up adventuring past their bedtimes. But regardless, Naomi wanted to see them again. And she wanted to see Terra and Aqua again. That's what fueled her resolution and she knew every heartbroken passenger of the vehicle had somebody in their lives they wanted to reunite with as well. She couldn't stop, no matter how badly she wanted to simply break down and weep.

She had to be strong for her survivors.