Aqua's time in the Realm of Darkness: Bird with a Broken Wing by Owl City
Because all the other ones are spoilers
Chapter 13
Blacked Out Pasts
"I use to have wings," Chris said sadly, "A tail too before everything was taken away from me…"
"How did you lose them?" Nine-year-old Tempest asked, dressed in dark clothes, blond hair an unkempt mess on his head.
"I got clipped and mauled," Chris explained to the knowledgeable drake. He was often surprised at how fast and calmly Tempest picked things up, almost as if he just needed a reminder to jog his memory. He was no ordinary Armonian, that's for sure. The non-slit-shaped pupils and the flat, clippable, keratin nails were a giveaway.
"Ouch," Tempest replied, finching, "Who took them away? They can't be just anyone, right?"
"They were… something alright…" Chris said, a pensive look on his face, "Really something…"
"Oi!" Tempest snapped him out of it before he dove into a lapse of memory.
"Ah! Oh, sorry…"
"No, I'm sorry," Tempest apologized, "I knew that wasn't a topic you really liked…"
"Well, I had to face it one day, right?" He laughed, waving it off.
"..." Tempest just closed his eyes and huffed, "You don't dive headfirst into a lake."
Chris just chuckled good-naturedly at his response, the moment of worry forgotten.
'Just like me, when I was your age...'
_|-w-|_
"Downed owlets. Downed owlets! Come fast!" Allomere had come back, an owl in his talons.
"Allomere is back!" Someone announced, sounding a little panicked to Tempest.
"Quickly. Make way. Some help here, these owlets need attention," Allomere.
"And here I was," Tempest muttered, moving towards the edge of the growing crowd, "Just walking to the archives."
He pushed through, catching a whiff of what he thought was Soren but was too thin to determine.
'Salt Breath was so much easier to follow…'
"Let me pass! Let me pass!" Tempest stood up to see Soren pushing his way through the crowd vigorously, and worried look upon his face.
'What's his deal?'
Tempest walked over to where Mrs. P was after spotting her at the edge of the crowd.
"What's wrong with Soren?" He asked, mildly curious.
"Oh, right. You don't know Soren has a sister," Mrs. P said, a hint of worry in her voice, "One of the two owlets rescued was his sister, Eglantine. These Pure Ones you talk of did something to her. She doesn't seem herself anymore..."
"Hum," He opened a wing and let the musty old potion drop out of the ether. "Take it if nothing else works to heal her. I'll be off now."
Tempest turned away and left, leaving the snake no choice but to take his gift. One of the rulers of the Tree arrived at the site, comforting Soren and taking the jar from Mrs. P.
'That's all folk,' He glanced back at the thinning masses before moving on. Soren lingered at the platform before moving on too.
_|-w-|_
He was playing the piano again, a sad melody pinging off the cords. It had a name, he told Tempest once, but he had long forgotten it. Its origin lay scattered, half in one world, the other, in the core.
"She was always the one to push me. Both her and her apprentice. They were both good friends and the first to see me go,"
Tempest smiled faintly, letting his Master revel in his past. He quietly picked up his violin and join in, taking over the melody.
"Dearly Beloved, as she called it," He looked up to the starry night sky.
_|-w-|_
He could see Soren enter the hollow, along with his nursemaid. Tempest would leave them alone even though he didn't get the need to stay beside a sibling. He spent so long being selfish and taking care of only himself that he couldn't really muster the effort to think of 'what-if' situations.
'I guess I can wait here,' Walking to the nearest book stand. He dropped the journal right onto it, it opens with a heavy thunk.
Entry #23
Found out the large bulk of the internet is clogged with Let's Plays, memes, weird ass compilation videos, heart-rending music covers and more. Damn. I should write my own.
Who am I kidding? I can't sing…
I could get Saki to, but she's more likely to beat my face in at this time. She thinks I'm dead, and the only way over that. Eh, there's a start to everything, right? Not the mauling part, that's just not going to happen soon.
Entry #24
Finally got Mirage down pat. Now I don't have to stay in the sewer systems, which is a great thing.
All these games are pretty interesting, if I had a real opinion in this world. Everything is dictated by laws written a really long time ago, but if it works, it works. I guess… I'm in no position to argue with Laws, being an outsider and all.
There's nothing to fight in this world, sadly. Training is also not an option, there's a risk at being caught with a big ass stick in your hand.
I hope we're leaving soon…
Entry #25
And here I thought I had gotten used to the random crap Fate throws at me, but NOPE. NOPE. JUST…
This world's main focus is… weird. Lawyers are really popular? And prosecutors are really quirky? And some Archaeologist guy saved the world a few times with puzzles?
I'm not touching this place again when I get let loose. If I remember, that is. God knows unlikely it is for me to reread my other entries.
"It's a trap!" Soren burst out of the room and running to Tempest, who had reflexively shoved the journal into the ether, "We need to go! The Guardians are in danger!"
"What!?" Tempest asked, confused and shocked.
"Allomere is a traitor!" Soren said, hopping off towards to armoury. Tempest ran to follow him, hopping over other owls on the way. "Go get the others and tell them to meet at the main platform!"
"O-okay," Tempest stuttered, not exactly sure what was happening. He focused on all the hearts in the area and picked out the three from the hordes of brilliant, shining hearts. It was quite difficult to do so, as some hearts covered others in their light.
"Gylfie!" Tempest landed right beside her, making the elf owl jump up in surprise. "We need to go, Soren says the Guardians are in trouble, something about a traitor. Go down to the main platform, he should be waiting for you there."
"Wha-I have-" She shook her head, "I'll go."
Tempest ran off before he could see her moving, darting around the corner and stopping in from of Twilight and Digger having another argument.
"We're going after the Guardians," Tempest relayed information, huffing it out, "Soren found something out. He said to meet at the main platform."
"Preposterous," Twilight started.
"Just go! He sounded really agitated by it," Tempest cut him off, "I'll be there soon, just some things to grab."
"Very well," Twilight seemed miffed but went anyways. Digger didn't say anything, only sprinting faster them Twilight, seemingly in competition.
Tempest ducked into an empty room and slammed his keyblade into the ground, cringing at the noise. He fiddled with the keychain and replaced it with the old on, with the light blue gem. It transformed back into its first form, the way Tempest like it.
He shoved it back into the ether and ran out of the room again, flapping over others as he made it into the bay spotting Soren and the others taking off. He tilted off towards them, seeing Soren wearing a single rusty, dented, metal talon covered in coal dust.
"We'll follow the Whale's Fin. It's how they would have gone!" Gylfie shouted, sounding confident.
"Will we make it in time?" Soren asked.
"The Guardians left not long ago," Gylfie said, "We should make it a little after them!"
"What about that mist cloud?" Digger questioned, tilting his head, "Don't forget it almost killed me once!"
"Then we'll just dodge it!" Tempest proclaimed boldly.
"We can't!" Soren protested, "The mist surrounds the Tree completely! There's no opening, not even from above!"
Tempest's eyes glinted turquoise in the dim sunlight as they approached the thick fog. No, the practically burned with the colour as he grinned in eagerness.
He forced his way to the front of the group, confusing them.
"Show, don't tell, as writers called it," Tempest continued to grin.
The wall of frosty mist advanced, making the group buzz with confusion and general discomfort as the mana in the air great to stifling amounts. They didn't know what it was, of course, just a heaviness against their wings and a dulling of senses.
Tempest used the building external mana and infused it with elemental energy from his own mana.
"Aeroga!" A sonic boom was the aftermath of the supercharged Aeroga spell. The huge, green tinted, wind projectile forcing a gaping hole in the wall of mist. And it was still going, the new wall of Heartless outside blasted into oblivion.
"That's not battle efficient, but whatever!" He cheered, seemly not losing any energy but the green glow had disappeared from his eyes. He turned back to the awestruck group. "Come on! It's already closing, so stop gaping at the thing!"
"Right!" Soren was the first to recover from the shock, flying faster and thus prompting the others to do so too.
_|-w-|_
"You know I can't keep calling you 'Kid' right?" Chris huffed, snapping to summon a new wave of Heartless.
"Hell if I know," the drake grunted, leaping over a Large Body and striking it multiple times in the back, "You always seem to get around crap with zero drawbacks."
"Mmm, I'll take that as a go ahead and give you one,"
"Wait," He turned only to get pummeled by an Aerial Knocker. He forced it away and slashed it into ghostly chunks. "I never gave you permission to give-"
"Mmm, Tempest," Chris wasn't listening anymore, lost in his imaginary world.
"...Fine, "Eight-year-old Tempest sighed, parrying an Invisible's blade with complete disinterest.
_|-w-|_
"You sure you can't do that again? That giant, green, blast that took out most of the barrier?" Digger asked as they closed in on the Pure One fortress. Tempest shook his head.
"It was just a release of pent off mana, which this world had a lot off apparently," He told him.
"Well, it was truly magnificent, just like the battle we are soon to arrive upon," Twilight said, still wielding his lute. Thankfully, Mrs. P wasn't in it. 'Cuz that would've been a disaster waiting to happen.
"Mages are rare in this era," Gylfie said, voicing her thoughts, "It's not very surprising that Tempest could draw in some and use it. It had been building up for a very long time."
"The Guardians don't even have a Chaw for it," Soren added, "It really must be ancient."
"See! This is what I mean my jokes mean something!" Digger said, "The Great Mage Hoodini was the last Mage to ever appear. And since he didn't have any apprentices, there were no more Mages!"
"I never thought you were the intelligent type," Tempest hummed, causing Digger to huff. "Also, I think we should save other questions for later."
A ghostly blue glow illuminated part of the mountainside, faint howls of pain and agony bouncing off the sandy stone. Several pyres of flaming coals were spread around everywhere, arches of stone and many cliffs provided cover.
"Let's go," Soren commanded, flying to the blue glow. They landed on a ledge, looking down at a horrific sight.
"The Guardians!" Was Soren's only reaction. The rest gasped in horror or stiffened. Two huge metal trap-like jaws contained what Tempest could only call shiny things as they emitted massive amounts of blue energy, tendrils of it pinning the Guardians to the ground, writhing in pain.
"Well, we can't just leave them writhing in pain, can we?" Twilight bravely suggested.
"No, you don't understand," Gylfie warned, "When Soren and I were at St. Aggie's, we saw what those things can do. They do something terrible to your gizzard. Isn't that right, Soren?"
Said owl was staring at the flaming forest below them, the firelight reflecting off his eyes. Tempest put a wing in front of him, trying to snap him out of it.
"Oi, Soren," Tempest tried with no luck.
"Uh, we've got bats inbound," Digger said, looking back at the team. A swarm of bats were indeed there, moving towards to the immobile Guardians.
"Would someone please tell me why you would want to equip bats with knives?" Tempest asked, after seeing the metallic glints on the edges of their wings.
"Don't mind that. I can down a hundred of those bloodsuckers with or without blades," Twilight boasted.
"Uh...oooh, what about a thousand?" Digger questioned.
"Well, we won't find out sitting on our tail feathers, will we? Come on!" He said in return, gripping his lute harder.
"Wait! Just wait. Of course," Soren shouted, stopping anyone from leaping into the fray without a plan. Not that Tempest would do that. That would be too stupid for even him.
"Soren? What is it?" Twilight asked, sounding slightly annoyed.
"The flames…" He trailed off, "That's it! I know a way to free the Guardians."
"No, Soren," Gylfie said, scared, "You can't fly into the fire."
"Listen, Gylfie, I need to trust my gizzard," Soren leaned down to tell her before turning to Twilight, "Twilight, can you take care of the bats?"
"Friend, I'll give you as much time as I can. But hurry. And be careful. Come on!" The Great Grey Owl took off, Gylfie and Digger trailing behind him with the former shaking in subdued fear and the latter eyeing the bats cautiously.
"Why aren't you going with them?" Soren asked.
"There's a threat worse than just bats here, you just haven't seen them yet," Tempest said seriously, "Go, I'm buying you time."
He turned around and launch himself at a bird-shaped Invisible that just appeared, blade wings making grinding sounds and it flapped, creating sparks along the way.
Tempest heard Soren struggle with something before leaving but was too focused on the hollow-eyed beast to care much.
He locked talons with it, dodging the wing swipes and shaking it when it tried to bite him with its serrated beak. After managing to dislodge a claw, he summoned half of his transformed keyblade and slashed the Invisible's stomach, effectively killing it.
Before it could decompose, Tempest tossed it at another Heartless, shearing its head off. He himself tackled a stray Pure One with both his talons summoned, letting it reform itself into a new beast, this one with four wings and limbs all clawing at him. It forced Tempest to back away from it, getting only nicked in the chest from its lengthy nails. Even as nicks, they still seeped crimson fluid that stung.
Tempest hissed at the shallow wounds, ignoring them as he flew under the monstrosity with six eyes to dodge it misty breath.
"Shit," He grumbled, parrying a claw strike from another Pure One that also transformed into another one of the last Heartless. Tempest affectionately named the new type of Heartless, Frank. He would change that soon, but not now.
"Damnit," He swapped out the talons, instead, equipping them to his wings to bolster his speed and summoning Chris' keyblade to make up for the lack of offensive damage. Plus, it was longer too.
A third showed up, clawing Tempest is the back. He stifled a cry of pain and spun around to hit it in the chest area. It was sent flying to the side and the momentum he used on hitting the beast was redirected, fling Tempest towards the second Frank. He slammed right into its face, even if there was no bone to break in it, he could still hear a resounding crack echo from it.
He brought Chris' keyblade forward and drove it right into its stomach. Frank two let out an ear-splitting screech as it desperately clawed against his armoured wing.
The first Frank was approaching, forcing Tempest to make a quick decision. He twisted the blade inside Frank two before pulling it back out to strike Frank one on the head. This, however, let Frank two claw his back again before it was completely dead.
"Grrrr," It was hard focusing through the pain now, having several wounds and all. Frank was breathing on him, all four talons gripped on the shaft of the keyblade and trying to rip it away from him.
"Nope," Tempest smirked, lighting the shaft on fire and watching it recoil from the flames. He headbutted it into the mountainside before stabbing it with his current keyblade, casting Thundara through it and watching as it dissolved into black ooze.
Tempest dismissed his glider and Chris' keyblade as he felt the effect of adrenaline wear off, forcing him to the ground as he felt all the pain from his wounds. Cure wasn't an option anymore, being too weak to cast it and that there was no conduit for him to use.
Despite this, he pulled himself to his feet and stuck a claw into the bubbling black muck that was a Heartless. He clasped his talons around something and pulled it out. It was an ointment, something akin to a potion but in cream form.
He ripped off the cap and dumped its contents onto the vertical stone wall. Tempest turned around and walked back into the cream slathered wall, letting the ointment sink into his wounds.
Tempest sighed in relief as he felt the numbing effects of the ointment activate. The few slashes on his chest could be ignored, for now, the ones on his back were too severe to not treat.
With that taken care of, he watched Soren dive into the charged mana field, a flaming oil lamp in his talons. He threw it at something beyond Tempest's vision before he himself got wrapped into the field and pinned to the ground.
"I'm being useless right now…" Tempest sighed, the blue tendrils of mana fading from existence and he took off. He locked gazes with the main pillar of darkness in this world, Metal Beak's glinting in the firelight. More Pure Ones flooded into the battlefield, most being flanked by the recovered Guardians. Strangely, they didn't transform into their more deadly selves. The one with four wings, talons and six eyes.
Tempest wasted no time tackling one of them, plunging his summoned katana into its body.
Then he saw Soren in the flames again, with another silhouette in the fire. It did not seem friendly.
Throwing the limp body off the blade, he dived towards the fighting duo and landed on an unscorched branch. Soren was hanging on to the other owl, mostly likely Kludd if Tempest had to guess. Soren was wedged between two flimsy branches, only his wings allowed the two to not die in the raging fires below.
"Soren, I'm your brother," Kludd pleaded. Soren reached out to him, and just as he was about to grab hold, the entire tree shuttered and Kludd was thrown into the burning abyss below.
"Kludd! NO!" Soren shifted up the trunk. He looked up at the cavern that was Metal Beak's hideout and scowled. Not noticing Tempest in the trees, Soren broke off a smouldering branch and flew off.
"Humph," Tempest huffed, seeing that Kludd was still alive but only faintly. He hopped down and managed to hold onto Kludd's unconscious form, dragging him up the tree trunk.
The darkness was leaving Kludd at an alarming rate, forming into a thick mist trail that drifted up into the air. It took all the foreign darkness with it, up into the air where it joined up with hundreds of others.
Tempest let go of the Barn Owl in distress, following this stream up and into a huge cavern entrance, the spire place in the middle of the mouth. He dodged the spire and landed on a side ledge, looking down at the fight. Nyra had Ezylryb pinned while Soren was duking it out with Metal Beak, smothering branch in his talons.
A black cloud of darkness swirled above them, slowly growing as Pure Ones outside disintegrated. Then several thousand generic Heartless poured down from above, clogging the cavern entrance and cutting off all light from entering. Tempest cursed, hearing Soren stumble and the glow of the branch fall away, into a chasm.
The oppressive force that was the darkness hanging above him, Tempest couldn't really focus on anything.
He launched a Fira into the cavern, lighting the place up temporarily before it winked out of existence again. Tempest huffed, pulled out the katana and lit it's tip to illuminate the cavern… and drew attention to himself.
"Shit," A black nail embedded itself into the wall behind him before falling apart. He dodged another one before putting the flame out and flying across the room. That didn't help, though, as something wacked him out of the air and pinned him on the ground.
The entrance unplugs itself and the misty black substance solidifies, the mist covering Tempest sucking in on itself to transform into massive, dark blue claw coupled with a feathered wing, like a wyvern. Not the Heartless variant, that Tempest still has a grudge on, but the more mythical one. More as in, Tempest didn't know it if was really real or not.
"Shit, this is going great for me," He remarked calmly. Being pinned down, Tempest couldn't actually see the beast, only the claw, feathered wing and the smell of pellets. Owl pellets. Or Flecks, if you were being technical.
"Take this, foul beast!" Twilight seemed to smack the huge beast with his lute only for the beast to grunt and smack him away in annoyance.
Digger had landed beside Tempest with a wooden stave him his talon, which he stabbed the claw. More like poked, but whatever. The point is that it appeared had an effect on the thing, making it shrivel back with a screech.
"Looks like I arrived in time," Digger remarked, tossing away the stick, "We better get moving before it-ack!" A pulse of wind threw the owl away, deeper into the cavern.
"There goes my help," Tempest huffed, getting to his feet. He was getting tired of holding weapons with his feet, and this body for that matter. From what he could tell about the sudden transformation was that it required him to take a different form that was he was accustomed to. Which either meant a quadruple animal or an owl.
He sidestepped a swing, barely missing his head, and launched onto the arm. He idly thought that this Heartless, while big, was a pushover. Sure, it looked like a griffin with claws on the tips of its wings, but it was mostly slow physical attacks.
It raised its arm close to its head, allowing Tempest to swap from the arm to its head. He dug one of his claws into the Heartless emblem emblazoned on its forehead, and used the other to pull out his keyblade, piercing the steel-like feathers.
It let go, using its now free arms to reach for the ant on its head. Tempest kicked himself off just as the beast tumbled out of the entrance.
He took out Chris' pendant, gripping it as the ruby glowed red along with the dragon bead and Tempest's eyes. Not like before, when the foreign mana practically leaked from his eyes, but generally more controlled.
"Firaga!" The borrowed mana swirled around and lit itself on fire, the white-hot bolt of fire striking the falling beast before both disappeared from sight and into the dark canyon beyond.
"Fira," A normal Fira blast illuminated the canyon bottom. Nothing was there.
"That was too easy…" Tempest furrowed his non-existent brows. Something wasn't right.
It was confirmed when a couple hundred emblem Heartless dropped down from above, a Soldier landing on his back. He immediately flipped it away, the colour on the ruby swapping from red to red filtered green.
"Aeroga!" A regular top tier Aero spell carved through the horde of Heartless, providing a tunnel for Tempest dart through. Twilight was fighting off a Red Nocturne, smacking it repeatedly with his lute. It didn't do anything but prevented it from using any spells.
Tempest flanked it and crushed it in his claws.
"Tempest!" Twilight whacked a Blue Rhapsody into oblivion, "It seems we have been separated."
"No shit, Sherlock," Tempest grumbled to himself, casting Fira and using its area effect to clear out their surroundings. "Follow me!"
"Very well."
The two of them dove into the chasm where Soren had tumbled into, finding the barn owl standing there in shock. Metal Beak's corpse was bleeding black ooze, dripping to the ground and starting to spawn Pure Heartless. Only Shadows, which was a blessing in disguise.
Tempest slashes through them with ease, offhandedly thinking how accurate Chris' Spectral versions were, even if they were blue, transparent and glowed.
Twilight went to snap Soren out of his shock while Tempest picked up the dropped mask. Idly stabbing another Shadow, he turned the mask around to the backside.
There was nothing special there, other then some crimson splatter, it was just plain dark metal. He shoved it in the ether.
'Because why not,'
And a waterfall of dark creatures streamed down from above, the armoured Heartlesses targeting Tempest. Twilight had gotten out with Soren, something about the rest of the band.
Basically, he ditched Tempest while using the others and a scapegoat. Lovely.
Tempest dodged a slash from a Soldier, backing up into a Large Body. Instincts kicked in, overriding all logic and forcing his body to lunge up to attack the Heartless tank's head, mauling it with his beak and claws. The single Heartless was his focus, everything else could, in his feral mind, could go suck it.
As soon as the Large Body dissipated, he turned to the army of darkness and charged, completely ignoring the fact it was suicidal. He tore through the generic ones, rapidly shredding through the bulk of Heartless before skidding to a stop at the cavern entrance. By that time, his body was littered with wounds, either bleeding crimson or charred, frozen or numbed beyond recognition.
"You've fought valiantly," Someone spoke over his delirious and half-conscious form, "Now let us clean up for you."
Feeling the adrenaline recede, he spiralled into a dreamless sleep. The first he's had in what feels like a long time.
A/N: Look at me, trying to even out the scales by ramping up the difficulty to Proud Mode. I might've gone overboard, but what's done is done. Nothing to change now.
Also, since this world is relatively shorter than the last one and that I don't have that many backup worlds, I'll need some reader submitted ones. If I don't get any, I'll use one of the backups but once I run out, I'll have to pause and find some. If you are going to submit via the review or PM, keep in mind that I reserve the right to not use it. I have a checklist of what I'm looking for, even if it's not very long.
Well, that a wrap. Exams are coming up so updates may become irregular.
~Storm