Chapter 14
Bitter Promises
"Hey," Came Chris' voice, cutting through the tense silence. Tempest shook himself, removing the last tracing of a panic attack from his body. "You okay?"
Tempest flinched but otherwise didn't move from his spot. Chris clenched his jaw. He didn't particularly want to deal with another comatose child, even if this one was still walking.
"I'm fine," Tempest huffed after a solid minute, the words feeling subdued. Before Chris could get anything else in, Tempest opened a portal and hopped back to that hellscape he had apparently called 'home', effectively dodging Chris entirely.
The kid's dedication impressed him sometimes, others, he felt like that Tempest wasn't quite there. There wasn't motivation to do anything, other then his instinctive will to live. Chris might need to correct that one day.
He looked out at the sunset beyond the craggy cliffs of the graveyard. Reds and oranges abound, painting the wisps of cloud pink and washing the sandy yellow stones with colour. If only it would set his heart at ease.
_|-w-|_
Tempest was sitting in his heart again, alone with nothing around him, not even the distant glow of another heart. The stained glass looked fragile in the pale light it emitted, signalling for him to be worried.
He was. And he had right to be so.
Unannounced to Tempest, Soren had crept into the hollow he was being kept in, quietly sneaking in during dawn. He worried about Tempest, even if the healers insisted that the owl was going to be fine. The nasty scratches and amount of blood coating his feathers certainly didn't look fine.
"I wouldn't take another step," A voice said, startling Soren and causing him to take a step back. Looking to his right, he saw that the voice belonged to a Red Tailed hawk with damaged feathers and a scarred chest. "He might just jump up at you."
Soren squinted at the newcomer, not quite able to focus on the hawk. "Why's that?"
"He's prone to outbursts of violence," The hawk said, seeming to shrug, "It only really happens in moments of stress, like right now."
"Who are you?" Soren asked, switching to another topic. "Why are you here?"
"I'm his teacher," The hawk plainly stated, eyes drifting to Tempest's still body. "I follow him wherever he goes and appears whenever he needs me."
With a ruffle of his feathers, the hawk sighed and looked at Soren, unnatural green eyes drilling into the young owl. "Time's up. I suggest you leave."
Soren skedaddled without another warning.
_|-w-|_
Soren found Tempest staring at the distance the day after he had awoken from his coma. In one claw he held a metallic object resembling the Great Tree with a chain attached to it.
"I'll be leaving soon," Tempest muttered, loud enough for Soren to hear, "I've done what's been needed, collected what I wanted. There's nothing else."
"What," Soren started, approaching the owl, "What do you mean?"
"I have a promise to keep," Was Tempest's melancholy reply. He acted as of the feeling was foreign, as if some part of him still wanted to stay.
"The woods are lovely, dark and deep, But I have promises to keep, And miles to go before I sleep, And miles to go before I sleep."
Tempest exhaled, "Tell the others I said bye." before vaulting off the platform and disappearing into the sky faster then Soren could plead him not to go. All that showed that he was there was a metal mask, a keyhole shape permanently burned into its steel.
_|-w-|_
Chris picked at his leather gauntlet, not doing much damage to the sturdy thing.
Tempest was running back and forth whilst battling swarms of Heartless and Unversed. His old brown jacket lay on the ground a few metres away from him and sweat was beading on his forehead.
So far, he wasn't manifesting any… unpleasant traits other than his general animosity towards humans and a short fuse. Chris took that as a win, fiddling with the clasps on the gauntlet.
A stray bolt of fire startled Chris as it passed through his body. Tempest cursed before continuing his onslaught without a moment's hesitation, bisecting a Flood Unversed with a flick of his blade.
This had led to the gauntlet fully coming off, revealing part of Chris' hand covered in a black splotch, the part touching the stone he was sitting on was being dyed black.
_|-w-|_
'Back to isolation…' Tempest sighed, landing on a roof in Traverse Town.
He wouldn't admit it aloud, but being alone was being more and more stressful as days went by. Whether it was because of Chris that he never truly felt alone was questionable, but he was not going to dive down that bottomless pit. Not yet at least. Or maybe never.
Taking a risk, he slipped into the street with his hood up. Flinching at the odd stares from the people, he moved to the heavy shaded side of the buildings.
'Why am I doing this?' He looked into a window of a shop, seeing the reflections of other people passing by behind him. While they did give strange looks, they passed without screaming at him. 'What's my goal here?'
Scaling up a wall and onto a higher path, he continued on, ignoring the feeling of fear that he felt floating around him. He hopped up onto a low lying roof, looking around at the patchwork of buildings and people roaming around.
Tempest watched as a familiar kid and his friends run down an alleyway excitedly, smiling broadly as he continued on out of sight. He exhaled sharply from his nose, staring at where the boy exited.
Snuffing out the envy in his heart, Tempest turned around and walked off. He needed to restock and get some sleep, maybe take a look at the claw scars on his back.
'Bandages are in order,' Tempest sighed, santering off down an alley whilst scratching his neck. 'A pain, if you ask me…'
He climbed up onto a roof, took a glance at the random chest on it, shrugged and pried it open. Inside was a blank postcard, a brass ring and a few potions and elixirs. The postcard and ring were put back into the chest along with a few pieces of munny. Everything else was shoved into the ether for storage.
'Convenient...not for most people, but convenient,' Tempest whipped his palms on his pants before moving on at a slow pace. No hurry at this point, too much excitement for a few days at least.
Tempest clambered onto a flat roof without a vent. Beneath him was a shop, the lights inside were on like most building in this world of perpetual night.
He sat down on the roof, letting his legs dangle off the edge as he watched people walk past. The lamp lights shone pale yellow onto the dull purple of the streets, no warmer than the night itself. No birds chirped, no animals moved, just people without homes.
After resting a little, Tempest continued to move. Soon he had entered into the second district, the presence of Heartless immediately recognizable.
As soon as he touched the ground, one Shadow popped up, accompanied by a Soldier. Unsurprised by the ambush, Tempest threw the Shadow against the build's wall and severed the Soldier's head with the ethereal blade of the key.
He put away the keyblade, dispatching the rest of the Heartless with his bare hands before quickly moving on. Some people were closing in, bogey Chris would jokingly call them.
"There's a lot more Heartless then usual," One of the two people side, their voice coming from just around the corner. "Something doesn't feel right."
"Come on, Leon!" The other one, a girl judging by voice, chirped, "It might just be your imagination."
Something metallic sailed through the air, embedding itself into a Soldier that just appeared out of the ground. A commandless Fire spell was shot at the impaled Soldier, incinerating it on the spot.
'Eh, heh, nope,' Tempest scrambled up the building side, a little startled by that little show. If there were people like that in Twilight Town, he would already be dead.
"Plus, didn't Sora just come?" The girl asked, "I mean, the keyblade does draw a lot of Heartless."
"There are more than usual even with the keyblade around," Leon huffed, walking into view. "Like there's a second one running around…"
Tempest froze up, cursing under his breath. At least for them, it's just a theory.
"You really think so? I thought there was just one…" The girl skipped in front of the redundant sword-gun...thing wielding man.
"It never stated there was just one Keyblade Master, we just assumed there was," Leon said, hacking through another Heartless whilst the girl pinned another one. "Whether or not there is more than one, it doesn't really matter. The faster he stops the Heartless, the faster we get our home back."
The two quickly sweep the second district of all remaining Heartless, soon moving out of earshot.
'So the Keyblade wielder is named Sora? Huh, sounds familiar…' Tempest thought, standing up straight. It was somewhat pleasing knowing the kid's name, he did save him after all.
The Heartless seemed to be gone for the moment, allowing Tempest full passage. He hopped back down onto the ground, not feeling the need to run around on the roofs.
"Oh lord, oh lord, oh lord!" A blur of white, gold and blue whizzed past Tempest, a trail of white fur floating in the air.
"Heck…?" Tempest muttered, confused.
Seeing nothing else to do, he follows the weird guy into a secluded alleyway. One store is open, a trail of fur leading inside.
'An appliance shop?' Tempest entered the doorway, seeing a snow leopard Armonian on the floor, unconscious for some reason. He approached the Armonian, semi-confused, poking him in the back.
'Definitely out cold…' Tempest sighed. He could try to… no, that one has a hundred percent likelihood of lighting the poor guy on fire.
There was a freezer in the corner of the room, mostly full of ice bags. That could work. That, or just use a Blizzard on him. In all honesty, he could just wait, but that would take too long even for his tastes.
Tempest walked up to the counter, seeing a dirty, used bowl behind it. There was a computer too, but it was probably for business stuff. The ones at the library weren't too great either.
He took the bowl, not really caring about sanitation, went to the freezer and got a bag of ice, dumped it in the bowl and watched it melt. Nothing exciting, honestly. At this point, he was just finding things to do.
After heating the ice up into water, Tempest walked over to the Armonian and unceremoniously poured the water onto his fur. It worked as advertised.
"Who? What? Where?" He spluttered, turning over and looking Tempest in the eyes.
"Tempest, you fainted, and in this shop which I'm going to assume is your's," Tempest told him flatly. The white leopard sticks his tongue out at him before retracting it.
"You look like one of those orphans dad used to ramble about," He stated, sitting up.
"What about that?" Tempest countered, raising an eyebrow.
"Uhh, Christopher, dad called him, a quiet dragon with weak wings and a tail, usually running around getting chased by cats," he muttered, a hand on his chin.
Tempest stiffened at the name. He didn't really focus on the cats part.
"Ah, but what do I know? Dad used to work at Radiant Garden, and that place is long gone," The leopard seemed to be talking to himself now, "I wasn't even born then."
"You know Chris?" Tempest questioned, standing up.
"Of course! Well, not personally, but it's one of the stories dad loves to tell," he jumped up to his feet, looking really energetic all of a sudden, "Plus, you look a lot like his descriptions. Are you his son or something?"
"Uh, sure…" Tempest conceded. Something told him, no matter what he said, he would still be called that.
"Cool!" The leopard grabbed hold of Tempest's hand and started to vigorously shake it. "I'm Victor! Owner of this shop!"
"Err, okay?" Victor let go of Tempest.
"Thanks for that wake up, by the way. I would've been out cold for the rest of the day if you hadn't come," Victor put his arms behind his neck. "Anything I could do for you?"
"Yes, actually," Tempest hesitantly said after a little internal war. Distrust and need of supplies had waged war over control, with both of them falling before urgency. "You sell mundane crap like bandages?"
"Sure do!" Victor cheered, running into the back room. A roll of white gaze flew out soon after, Tempest snatching it out of the air before it could do collateral damage to the unstable-looking shelf behind him. "That'll be one hundred and five of the universal currency, whatever it's called. I honestly don't remember…"
"Munny," Tempest huffed, passing a bag over. Victor opened said bag, shook out the contents and gave Tempest a toothy grin.
"Anything else?"
"No," Tempest said, a little worn out by Victor's exuberant personality. He could feel a headache coming on.
"Well, come back soon!" Victor said optimistically, waving him off.
'Okay...that's a thing…' Tempest thought, pushing past the door and leaping onto another building. 'A really weird thing…'
_|-w-|_
"I have no idea what you want," Tempest deadpanned. He knew full well what Chris wanted.
The dragon Armonian had conjured up a guitar. His excuse?
'I broke it, so I guess that counts as 'killing'.'
"Awww, come on Temp," Chris smirked, strumming the instrument.
"Don't call me that," Was his response.
A few days passed from that point. He eventually sang, but never in front of Chris.
"I saw the doorway in my dream~
I asked myself where does it lead to
I thought the island was my home
The outside world a great unknown
How little I knew,"
Chris was sitting in the background, allowing himself a break. Tempest was laying down, stargazing as he softly muttered the song.
"That day we split the star shaped fruit
I knew that destiny'd uproot me
I saw it burning in the sand
I tried to fight and take his hand
And then he was gone,"
Chris then noticed the quiet song, smiling as he sat on top of his piano seat. Guitar was in hand, chords already pinging off the strings.
"I held the blade
It made the darkness fade
I did my best to find
A way to make us whole again
Like back when we were friends,"
Tempest held up his hands, like he was trying to grab the stars and pluck them out of the sky.
"It felt serene
So simple and so clean
Not all this space between
But life was never black and white
There's shadow where there is light,"
Chris rose from his seat, standing behind Tempest. The drake noticed, but did nothing to shoo him away. With a smile, Chris picked up the next few lines.
"I woke up from the strangest dream
It almost felt just like a memory
It felt like I was someone else
Another version of myself
And then he was gone,"
Tempest was sitting up now, looking tired and defenceless with his slumped shoulders. He looked worn for someone so young. He acted so mature that it often made Chris wonder who he was looking at. A past figure, or a tortured soul.
"My past is waiting just beyond
It almost feels just like a shadow
Or could the shadow just be me
The silhouette of somebody
And I'm nobody,"
The drake looked up at Chris, a smile playing on his lips.
"The sun went down
On this forgotten town
I had my friends around
We watched from far above it all
I always felt so small,"
Chris looked out at the darkening sky, a knot in his stomach.
"And do they know
The doubt within me grows
That we will meet again
We sat and watched the twilight glow,
I promised we would stay friends,
But summer had to end,"
Tempest looked away, messy hair ruffling under Chris' hand. An innocent pat. Tempest picked up the next lines.
"I called your name
But you were not the same
And maybe I'm to blame
For I had changed the most of all
I almost can't recall,"
Chris could feel her, somehow. He wondered if she succeeded after all. And if she was still alive.
In the stillness, Chris joined his student for a last verse.
"We met again
But different from before
As something less than friends
And maybe it's too late for us,
To return to destiny
If only in a memory
From somewhere long ago,"*
_|-w-|_
Tempest woke up on a roof, which wasn't a big surprise. He had put some bandages over the deep gouges in his torso. The ointment hadn't cut it, only numbing the pain for a short while. That and that they had reopened recently.
Huffed, he rolled onto his front and got up onto his hands and knees, wincing as he felt the pain strike through his body.
'Crappy ointment is crappy. Here I thought it was supposed to heal…' Tempest grimaced. He's not going to touch potion, those things tasted worse than charred feces, which is to say, absolutely horrendous.
Hoisting himself onto his feet and slipping his jacket back on, Tempest walked away. As long as he let it heal, he would be fine. It would mean, however, that he will be stuck in Traverse for a few days.
This place would get old in a few hours, he just knew it.
Time to look for something interesting, maybe that Sora figure. He should be entertaining to look for.
_|-w-|_
"Hey...Terra…"
…
"Sorry I don't visit much anymore. I usually don't have the energy for travelling as of late,"
…
"Hunn, well, I know you can't listen to me, being only a piece of Terra's will and all. I just make me feel better, having something familiar around…"
…
"I'm being selfish again, aren't I?"
…
"I wish everyone else were here...We always seem to be ripped from each other's stories." Chris said, sitting down with his knees to his chest. The ground around him was wet with rain, the one that came every few years in this wasteland of a world.
_|-w-|_
Finding Sora wasn't a hassle, the kid was a walking beacon of light and magic. There was even a trail of elemental magic residue from were defeated Heartless presumably once stood. Well, there were traces of magic that wasn't as potent as the ones created by a Keyblade, so a mage was on their team. Tempest guess there was also a melee fighter too, a gut feeling told him so. Or it was the many random dents in trash cans that gave it away. Either or.
Tempest soon reached the second district's main section, which was completely devoid of life. Only the quiet breeze moved or the clockwork ticking of that weird ass shop.
The bell rang three times and he bolted from his spot on the ground. Something was up, and he wasn't going to stick around to find out.
He saw Sora out of the corner of his eye, the mural on the fountain built into a wall was turning and a glowing keyhole appeared over a butterfly. The water stopped flowing, and the mist emitted died down, leaving all the liquid in the reservoir.
From his vantage point, which behind an extended roof window, he could see the trio waltz out into the open and towards the fountain.
"That was easy enough," The key wielder said happily.
"Maybe it was too easy…" The dog warned, being the voice of logic even if he looked a little dimwitted with his buck teeth.
"What do you know, ya big palooka?" The duck confronted him, looking a little agitated when he waved his magical stick around.
"Not much," The dog 'admitted', rubbing his neck as they continue towards the keyhole that was flooding the area with light, attracting Heartless from near and far.
Tempest tensed, summoning and quietly impaling a Soldier Heartless that appeared behind him. He looked back to check if he was still hidden or not, which he was to his relief.
Before the trio got close enough for Sora to seal the keyhole, a rattling sound was heard, like jingling steel chains or…
'Armour…' Tempest narrowed his eyes. Sure, it's been a long time since he intervened so he should've grown stronger. Then something clicked in his mind, and Tempest was instantly miffed.
'When did I care about him?' He huffed in annoyance, letting his ears and eyelids droop down. Even though he thought this, he didn't budge from his spot, the weird soft spot for the boy still stubbornly anchored in part of his heart.
Seeing how the trio was distracted, Tempest slipped down to a lower vantage point. At this point, he was just curious as to what the fledgling could do.
As promised, a Guard Armour dropped out of the sky like a terrifying gift, startling the trio out of their wits. Reasonably so, as the last one seemingly scared them shitless back then.
'I think…' Tempest thought uncertainty as the trio shook themselves out of their shock and start throwing everything at the Heartless. Tempest pulled out the journal, finding the current battle boring and waited for the second form.
Entry #26
Holy crap. It's almost been two years since I left… well, isn't that a thing.
Well, stuff happened, this and that. We've been stopping more and more for training purposes for some reason. Not that I'm complaining, but I do find travelling to be more interesting. Xehanort's notes are piling high too, sometimes I have to help him clean up his space since...ah well, he falls asleep on his chair most of the time. For a strict, darkness obsessed old man, he sure is human.
Anyways, life is still going on. Whatever Saki and Kage are doing, they sure are missing out on all this amazing stuff out here. I just wished they can join me.
Entry #27
Xehanort brought up my hand again. He told me that I was ready to know what the cure was. Pure light. From a heart. Eeesh, talk about looking for gold in a silver mine.
At least now I have a basis for...stuff. Well, seems I have more thing to do then I thought.
Entry #28
Same old, same old. At least I figured out an infinite storage method or else all that paper would have nowhere to go. Last time I wrote in this, there was only three stacks now there are FIVE. FIVE. And more counting. How much can this man write? It's like he has an unlimited amount of ink for something. Is this what darkness does? Give you a shit load of ink? Cuz that trade-off sure is crappy.
Jokes aside, what I did get was a bunch of books. Novella, math, graphic novels, music collections, that type of jazz. It's gonna keep me busy, so that's nice.
As soon as he heard a screaming duck, Tempest moved slightly and the mage crashed right where he was standing with his book. He was out like a light, as Tempest confirmed with a stiff poke to the back.
'Looks like the second form kicked in. Same weakness, but just a tad harder to get at, if I'm right,' Tempest thought, 'A real pain if they're all out.'
As if to confirm his thoughts, Sora and his anthropomorphic dog friend were thrown over him as well. Spitefully, if Heartless could be annoyed like that.
By the looks of things, Tempest assumed that both of them were out. Sparing no time, he vaulted over the roof and slammed right into the Opposite Armour's claw with his blade. Sparks flew as he flung himself at its head, which was open and exposed.
Its other claw swatted Tempest away before he could reach its head, which was fine. He clung to the claw, climbing to the top surface and snapping the tiny spike off the back end. Like a depressurized hose, the thing cluttered to the ground and dissolved into mist, dropping Tempest to the ground with a thunk.
Rolling over, a clawed foot missed him. He got back on his feet quickly and latched onto the metal appendage which tried to shake his off. On an upstroke, Tempest willingly let go, equipping his glider to maneuver out of another strike and went straight for the head again.
Tempest resummoned his blade again and shoved it in the crevice between the helmet and the body. Seeing all three claws shooting at him, he swung himself around on his blade and over the claws. Said claws crashed into the main body and sent it all toppling over and onto the ground.
"Azure Fira!" Tempest shouted, a little annoyed, and blew up the Heartless from the inside, the blue fire roaring through all the crevices in the armour. If the core wasn't obliterated, he would take this thing apart piece by piece the old fashioned way.
Removing his blade from the still body, Tempest prepared in case the Heartless stood back up again. When it started disintegrating, he let out a sigh of relief and just kind of stood there for a brief second.
'Right, the keyhole…' Tempest blinked and looked at the glowing void for a second. 'This isn't my job… so why am I still doing this…?'
Taking a wide stance in front of the keyhole, he pointed his blade at it and a wind picked up, ruffling his jacket and making his eyes hurt. Squinting, he lifted his keyblade a little more and a stream of light shoot out from its tip and connected with the keyhole. The sound of tumblers rumbled quietly and a snap, the wind vanishing with the keyhole. Before it could completely close, something popped out of it.
Dismissing his blade, Tempest rubbed the heels of his hands against his eyelids, tired and 'too far above his paycheck'. At least the keyhole would stop attracting Heartless, so no more useless cannon fodder.
Feeling drained and really annoyed, he sat down right in front of the fountain, pulling his hood up as well. As long as no one approached him, he wouldn't move even if he knew that the trio was probably waking up now.
He was a dragon! He wasn't afraid of a pussy human and his pets! It's when their in groups that's terrifying. No wonder why they prosper in groups.
Feeling Sora and the others wake up, their lights intensifying, Tempest stood up with his hands in his pockets. Turning around, he saw Sora, in his red jumpsuit and keyblade in his hands. His companions were trailing after him, weapons in hand.
"Hey, where's the Heartless?" Was the kid's immediate reaction. The duck just looked pissed.
"Didja take it out for us?" The dog asked. "Wait, you're that fella who saved us from the last one of those Heartless."
"We could've taken it on ourselves!" The duck growled, waving around his magical stick like it was the cure-all for unwanted presences. To bad Tempest wasn't a spectral entity.
Tempest, being oh so paranoid, donned his helmet and gauntlets after equipping his wings, shocking the three-person party.
"What!?"
He left without another word, hearing a round of "Wait! We didn't get your name!" before flying out of earshot. Well, that aggravated his wound so more days. Maybe he really should get a potion…
A/N: So, that ended abruptly. Yes, he basically ignored the Trio by reading and only helped when they were all knocked out. Yes, Tempest just pulled a KH 2 Mickey. And he's really paranoid about people seeing his face and just people seeing him in general. Also, I'm still getting over KH3 shenanigans and I no longer have an update backlog. SO, updates will now be extremely irregular... I'm sorry.
(Maybe I should've thought the 'three-story at once' thing over before diving headfirst into untested water...oops)
*Memory by The Living Tombstone
~Storm