Everything had gone horribly wrong. Just like he had known it would. He had warned them, made it clear what would happen if they did this, but the desperate hope that they could help him overcome this nightmare was too strong. So now, here they all were, trapped forever in an icy prison he had placed them in. He could barely see their forms inside the dark ice, but it was clearly them, and as he tried to find their Spirit Energy in the hope that they were still alive, that he could break them out, he was met with nothing. Even if it was missing, he could feel his heart sink.
He looked back at Coby and Tebliel, his eyes pleading for help, hoping they could sense something he couldn't, that he hadn't killed the only people who had tried to help him. The pair only stared back, Coby's expression wary and stiff, Tebliel's purely fear. The despair grew stronger as he saw this, tears stinging at his eyes. This was his fault… it was always his fault.
"You poor child… this is the fate of those around you as long as you continue to deny your true self." The voice that spoke was not one he recognized, older, raspy. Tense, Toshiro turned to look at the owner of the voice.
Dark skin, silver hair, harsh yellow eyes. All familiar traits. It was Xehanort for sure, but this time much older, the only hair left a silver goatee and thin eyebrows, skin wrinkled. The long black coat, red underneath, rested over a white shirt, pants black with black boots over top up to his knees. He reached a white-gloved hand out to Toshiro as if offering help.
"I'm not denying it." Toshiro responded, refusing the offered hand but putting up no other resistance, not even standing to arm himself, his tone defeated.
"You may be seeking out the truth of what you are, but that does not mean you have accepted the role." Xehanort spoke, Aizen approaching calmly to Toshiro's other side, watching the unfrozen pair. Tebliel shrank away from the cold gaze, Coby shuddering but managing to hold his ground. "If you had, you would not continue to remain in this shadow of a form. You would be whole again, complete, powerful!"
"I'm in this state because of you." A growl returned to the Ice Nobody's tone, the statement infuriating him.
"As Xemnas, my only wish was to assist you in finding the true path." Xehanort argued with a disappointed huff. "You had spent far too much time with the light… you needed to see the darkness to understand yourself. A guardian must be neutral, light and darkness two halves of the same coin. One without the other is but a false existence, a state of ignorance and despair. If you were not able to see that, you would never awaken."
"I have seen enough darkness." Toshiro scowled.
"Perhaps you have not seen enough." Lifting his other hand, Xehanort revealed a small item.
A black collar with a symbol matching the keychain on Xehanort's Keyblade.
It was such a simple item, but the fear that went through Toshiro could be felt in the air.
"Your emotions get in the way of your purpose." The cold phrase made it clear what Xehanort's intentions were.
Sensing his master's distress, Hyorinmaru clawed his way past the Hollows still trying to restrain him and dove to the ground, aiming to crush the elderly man beneath him once and for all. His dive was cut short by a spray of crystal bullets.
"Hey now, your master has some hoops he still needs to jump through." The owner of the gunfire had a mocking tone, turning attention to him. Black and gray hair in a ponytail, one of his yellow eyes covered by an eyepatch with a scar visible outside its edges. The Nobody, Xigbar… except he had been destroyed in the World That Never Was. Next to him, the silent blue-haired figure of Saix, also meant to be dead.
"How…?" Recognizing them, Toshiro wasn't sure how they were here.
"For humans, if you defeat the Heartless and the Nobody of a powerful soul, they can regain their human form." Xehanort explained with a smirk. "Your kind is not so easy… but you won't have to worry about that anymore."
The hidden threat was not easily missed. Hyorinmaru made another attempt to help his master, but Xigbar – or rather Braig now if he had returned to his human self – kept the dragon above ground. His partner unable to approach, Toshiro tried a different, more desperate method. He brought forth his zanpaktou… and turned it towards himself. His only hope, these pirates, were gone, and he could not win on his own. He had no other choice if he wanted to prevent them from taking control of his power.
Red enveloped his form. Kido, the Geki spell. Now paralyzed, Toshiro truly lost all hope, unable to even end his own life to prevent the enemy from victory.
"It would be unfortunate for such an important key to break itself." Aizen sneered as he held the Kido while Xehanort approached with the collar.
"Leave him alone." Coby lifted his fists and prepared to step in, deciding enough was enough. The pain and despair in Toshiro's eyes spurred the Marine to act, to save someone in need of help. That's what he believed in and that's exactly what he always tried to do.
In a twist of white and black, creatures he had never seen before blocked his way. With a startled yelp Tebliel backed further away. They did not know of them, but the thin white creatures were Nobodies, specifically the low level Dusks. A Marine such as Coby would be able to beat them easily… but they were as flexible as Luffy, bending in impossible ways to avoid any punch while blocking his way forward. They made no attempt at offense, which worked in their favor, simply creating a moving barrier.
A few of the icy statues began to crack, but they went unnoticed in the chaos of everything else going on.
The collar was placed around Toshiro's neck just as Hyorinmaru got past the bullets and landed on the ground, ready to pounce the two men near his master.
The dragon went silent, movements stilled as if he had become truly frozen, a statue of ice like those around him.
Aizen released the Kido as Xehanort took a step back, watching Toshiro fall limp to the snowy ground, all expression vanishing from his face and his eyes going dark. Xehanort was not going to make the same mistake twice; this Nobody would not be allowed to have free will. He would become purely a puppet, used for a single purpose. As Toshiro's will was sealed away, the pendant around his neck that had kept those around him aware of his mental state went dark. Not the black that warned he was snapping and dangerous, just a dull, dark gray, as if any life it had was no longer present. It no longer recognized a spirit to link to.
As soon as the collar had touched his skin Toshiro had lost all sense of the outside world, surrounded by a never-ending nothingness. There was no sense of cold, no sound of wind, no ground beneath him or light reaching his eyes. He was suspended in nothingness… alone… trapped. The memories of all his mistakes haunted his thoughts, the fate of his friends tormenting him as he accepted that he had lost, that Xehanort would get his way. He would take control of Kingdom Hearts and bring back the Keyblade War, returning everything to darkness. He thought he could feel tears, but wasn't sure, his world holding nothing. A whispering voice enticed him to sleep, to reach into true nothing so these memories could no longer hurt him.
'Maybe it's better if I just go to sleep…' He thought, agreeing with the voice. Little by little, the nightmares faded away until… nothing. Simply…
Nothing.
Xehanort turned to look behind him as Hyorinmaru approached. The once fierce golden eyes had dulled, the hatred and aggression he normally showed had become a blank expression, a vacant stare. He did not know his true master, only had the sense that the old man in front of him was the one he should obey. There was no will to fight left in the dragon, just like in his master.
"Now I will not have to worry about you two trying to kill each other." Xehanort said to the dragon with a chuckle. "If I recall, your master attempted to tear the collar off last time, only managing to hurt himself nearly to death. He was a disobedient one as well… this time, that won't be allowed to happen."
The two former Nobodies approached now that the dragon was still, but just as they joined their allies, the icy statues of pirates around them began to crack.
"I must give these humans credit for managing to overcome both Kido and zanpaktou ability." Aizen mused aloud as he turned to the black statues around him.
"This world seems ripe with potential, but they are unnecessary now that we have him." Xehanort motioned to Toshiro. At the movement, the Ice Nobody sat up, expression blank but ready to listen. "We will make our leave."
"Stop!" Coby demanded, a light forming in his hands, but was ultimately ignored.
The Soul Reaper wasn't too pleased with being told what to do, but agreed it was pointless to wait around for the humans to meddle any further. Toshiro stood to follow them after the command, no resistance to be seen.
A rippling of air alerted them to someone not frozen or held back by Nobodies.
"Ow, what the Hell!?" Braig cried out, the arm he held up to guard his face now bleeding freely thanks to the razor sharp talons of a young harpy. "Where did you come from!?"
"I believe she is the child of one of the pirates frozen here." Aizen answered since Dextra did not speak, just landed near Braig with every intention to attack again. A quick Cure spell dealt with the wound, but the sniper was not eager to get clawed at again, his sleeve shredded. "She has proven to be quite strong."
"Nothing more than a hindrance." The dark Keyblade returned to Xehanort's hands, the end taking on a dark glow.
Though his original target was Dextra, Xehanort switched it quickly to whoever broke out of their icy prison and came charging at him. A sphere went up over the area, the ball of energy Xehanort had released from his Keyblade switching places with a harmless patch of snow, blowing up elsewhere on the ground. Though curious about the ability, the elder man had to focus on blocking the blade of a very angry Trafalgar Law.
The air filled with more sounds of breaking statues as others freed themselves, all of them ready to fight. They might have been frozen, but they had been witness to everything that had transpired. Various mixtures of fury and disgust showed on their faces, some more concerned as they turned to glance at Toshiro. The Nobody didn't even flinch at their escape, no longer able to see what was around him, never to know his allies were alive and ready to fight, still holding onto the last line of hope he had. The crowd of Nobodies cowered back as light flashed, and Coby found himself holding a Kingdom Key. For a moment he stared at it, startled, before remembering that Toshiro had said he might come to wield such a thing. The agile creatures around him were less inclined to block his way now as well, so he prepared to fight with the odd weapon. Xehanort briefly glanced at the pink-haired boy in curiosity, wondering when he had inherited the weapon, but decided that was of less importance than escaping with the Heavenly Guardian. He could always come back for Coby and any others who had been gifted.
"Toshiro!" Thursday made an attempt to approach the Nobody, holding tight to her knife so she could hopefully slice off the collar.
"Keep them away from you." Xehanort ordered calmly as he pushed back Law and stepped away to avoid another strike.
A flash of light and Toshiro was armed with both his weapons, turning toward Thursday with a blank expression. His sword aimed for her heart.
With a blur of green, Zoro got in between them, blocking the icy blade from hitting the startled Thursday. Toshiro's expression didn't change, shifting easily into a different strike. When that, too, was blocked, the mind-controlled Nobody backed off the offensive, moving away so as to keep to his orders.
"This is going to be a pain in the ass, I can tell." Zoro scowled. Jimbei tried to grab the smaller figure from behind, hoping to pin him down so they could get the collar off, but in a flash Toshiro was gone and the fishman grabbed only air. The Nobody had moved next to Xehanort, stopping the others from trying to attack the old man in case their friend stepped in their way.
"It's admirable to see you all fighting so fiercely for him… but his time here is over." Xehanort spoke up, keeping his eyes on Law since he was closest, the scowl on the pirate only amusing him. "It's time he served his purpose, and he can't do that if he's fooling around with humans. Such things as 'friendship' and 'freedom' are unimportant to his fate."
"He's not just a tool you can use!" Nami argued fiercely.
"He does not deserve to be enslaved." Jean Bart added in agreement, his fighting stance menacing with his scowling expression.
"I'm not enslaving him." Xehanort responded as if offended. "I'm simply guiding him to perform his duty properly. I could not expect any of you to understand that, however… so if you wish to fight for him so badly, I will give you the chance."
"Good, now watch us kick your ass!" Luffy snarled, launching a punch forward.
With an amused chuckle, Xehanort lifted his hand.
The ground shook fiercely. A huge chunk of land rose into the air, lifting Xehanort, Aizen, Toshiro and his dragon up into the air, Luffy's punch bouncing off the new cliff face harmlessly. Braig and Isa held their weapons at the ready, kept below the new 'mountain' to be opponents for the angry pirates. More twisting Nobodies appeared along the snowy landscape. Along with the Dusks, the sharp shooting Sniper Nobodies wielding guns and the bulky hammer using Berserker Nobodies came to surround them. These were completely different creatures from the Heartless… but the pirates were not intimidated in the least.
As agile as the Dusks were, Dextra slashed apart the head of the nearest one with little effort.
"You are a creepy kid." Braig grimaced, tensing when the harpy turned her eyes back to him. She kept too close to take a shot at her, but he was good at keeping out of harm's way, eventually managing to get out of her range as she switched targets to the Nobodies approaching her family. The sniper took a quick breather before pulling out his guns and taking shots at the humans, trying to keep them off balance and confused.
Not one for long distance, Isa held up his claymore and charged in, going for Zoro first when the swordsman made to strike first, the two exchanging heavy blows, savage grins on their faces. They both lived for the exhilaration of the raw power of a one on one fight.
While their crews turned to deal with the new enemies, Law and Luffy stood together staring up at the peak where the two bosses watched them all below with malicious sneers. The two Captains scowled right back, itching to beat down their arrogance.
"I'm starting to really hate magic." Law said with a growl, glaring at Xehanort. Devil Fruits had rules, an easy weakness, but magic defied everything, and this old man was clearly expert at it. "It won't be easy to rescue him."
"Well we're going to." Luffy responded with little hesitation, hitting his fists together as a threat to the two above pretending they were gods. "Whatever it takes!"
"We'll do our best to help!" Coby called out, running up next to them with Keyblade in hand. Tebliel moved herself near the kids, and while Thursday gave her a distrusting look, understood that the angel user had good intentions with helping them, even if she'd made bad choices. Plus, the angel's ability was useful for stilling the movements of the Nobodies, put into a daze and then easy to eliminate. "No one deserves to be used like that."
"I need to get close to Aizen to try and deal with this item he has that makes him so powerful." Law had no problems including Coby in the conversation; he was stuck here too after all. "If I can steal that, we may be able to at least beat him. This Xehanort… we don't know anything about him."
"I'll just kick his ass." Luffy spouted with a huff.
"Sure, just be careful about it." Law didn't bother trying to explain to Luffy that going in without a plan was a bad idea. The younger man never had a plan and was now considered among the most dangerous pirates in the world.
"How are you hoping to get up there?" Coby questioned.
"I can use Room to get up there… getting close enough without getting killed is the harder part." Law answered.
"True… he was able to destroy both our ships with one spell." The boy nodded, referring to the wreckage of Marine warships. "And I saw he managed to paralyze all of you briefly."
"Hitsugaya wasn't kidding when he said the guy was powerful… but power always leads to arrogance. There has to be a way to use that."
"Overpowering through numbers would be the best option, but they clearly thought of that by sending out these creatures."
Law agreed having more help against the leaders themselves would be the safest option, but they couldn't let their own crews get overpowered as well trying to outnumber Aizen. Luffy no longer cared for the conversation and was about to make his own way up, back up or not. He owed Aizen a strong punch to the face.
Shots echoed through the air, cutting off his idea, everyone not engaged directly in a confrontation whipping around to the source to see who was joining in now. The Nobodies were briefly stunned by the bullets, but not killed, the serum imbued in the bullets not as harmful to them as it was the Heartless. It was enough that the pirates could finish them off before turning to look at the newcomers with the rest of them, Isa and Braig backing off briefly to see what they were dealing with.
"Well this is an interesting battle going on right now." The lazy tone belonged to the tall, yellow-suited Admiral Kizaru. He had been the one chosen for this mission once Maleficent offered the location, since Akainu had doubts Fujitora would do it properly after letting Toshiro go once already. With him, as if in answer to the problem of reinforcements, an entire troop of Marines. A few higher ranking Marines stood by as well, namely the rotund Haki expert Sentomaru, the old iron-fisted Vice Admiral Garp and the gray-haired cigar using Vice Admiral Smoker, all men the pirate crews knew well and were very strong. Smoker had his ever faithful Captain Tashigi at his side, the female sword user at the ready behind the Smoke fruit user. Seeing them, Coby hurried over to Garp, knowing it wouldn't be good to be seen next to pirates and also to offer a report on what was happening here.
"This is a battle you are not welcome to." Xehanort called down to them, annoyance clear in his voice. This was not a battle he cared for. A much bigger war awaited him, one that needed to be carefully set up and groomed, he didn't have time to waste on this world.
"That's unfortunate, but I've got orders from the top to take that strange child you have there back with me." Kizaru responded with a light shrug. "Rumor has it he's got an interesting power, and the heads of the World Government would like to get a hold of that."
"They could never hope to control it." The Keyblade user scoffed. "By coming here you have only chosen to be eliminated."
"Now that sounds like a threat." Light flashed and Kizaru casually held forward a blade he'd created of pure light, revealing his fruit power to be something quite dangerous to Heartless and Nobodies alike. Xehanort narrowed his eyes a bit at this reveal.
"None of you could ever understand the power beyond your world." He stated with a heavy sigh. "But if you wish to get a taste," he motioned behind him to the collared Ice Nobody staring blankly ahead, "then let the Heavenly Guardian show you its power! Reveal to us Kingdom Hearts!"
An odd hush fell over those on the island as Toshiro closed his eyes, the air becoming saturated with a strange chill. A hollow gray light enveloped his form, stirring his hair and clothes as if a wind swirled around him. Beneath his feet, a pattern came to life, a four pointed star glowing brightly. Above them, the clouds covering the sky over the Winter Island grew dark, churning dangerously as they began to form a spiral through the sky.
"The Hell is a power like Kingdom Hearts?" Zoro wondered, scowling up at the sky. None of them knew much about it, as Toshiro had avoided the topic due to his own lack of knowledge.
Each of the four points of the star beneath him let off a strong beam of light as Toshiro brought Frozen Heavens to his hand, holding it in front of him with both hands as the light began to gather above him. The sky thundered in anticipation, something gathering behind it.
"Stop him!" Smoker commanded the Marines on a signal from Kizaru. Whatever was happening was dangerous, they couldn't let Toshiro complete it.
Seeing the troop prepare to fire, Aizen Flash Stepped down from the peak, standing suddenly before the Marines with his hands held up before him, a blue light gathering between them.
"Soren Sokatsui." With the name spoken, a burst of twin blue flames shot forward with dangerous speed. This was the spell that had obliterated two Marin warships.
Snow blocked vision for a moment after the explosion, but Aizen didn't need sight to know not all of them were dead. The high ranks had managed to get away, and the outer groups of rookies managed to scrape by, but he had still taken away a good number of them.
"Ooh, how scary." Kizaru spoke up from his new position up in the air, his form glowing as he utilized his light to help him stay up. "So this is the magic we were warned about. That would have hurt."
"I wouldn't have bothered if I thought it would kill you." Aizen responded with a chuckle, holding his arms to his side in an invitation to attack. "It's not often I meet humans worthy of playing with, but I did need to ensure you didn't interfere."
"You did kill quite a few good men." Kizaru readied his sword of light once more. "I'll need to pay you back for that."
"I look forward to it." Aizen's grin widened.
Law watched the two immense powers clash, multiple plans going through his head on how to get close enough to remove the Hogyoku without getting killed. With Aizen weakened, they would stand more of a chance getting around Xehanort to free Toshiro.
His attention was drawn back to said Nobody as the light flared brighter. Toshiro lifted his Keyblade to point to the sky, a strong light shooting out of the end up into the sky, bringing with it the gathered light from the pattern. A bright pillar formed up into the center of the spiraling clouds, air swirling around it, drawn in by the power. Then, slowly, the pillar began to thin, exhausting its power up into the sky. Once it vanished fully into the dark clouds….
As if shoved aside, the clouds parted in a hurry, revealing a night sky above them. Shining down with an azure glow was an enormous heart-shaped moon, its light covering the battlefield in a warm embrace. Kingdom Hearts. An existence of pure light, the very heart of every world there ever was.
And as they watched, darkness began to eat at its edges.
Back to regular updates for now, just wanted to catch up on my backlog of chapters. Once I actually finish i'll go back to one a day until they're all up, but now that i'm closer to my actual point in my writing it'll be back to two a week, especially cause finals are this week so I won't be able to write much.