I must apologise for the delay. This chapter would have come out sooner had my bloody mouse not malfunctioned. But now I have an all new and improved mouse and so the journey continues.
Chapter 6
Worlds in Ruin
A simple sigh escaped Astra's mouth as she arrived in the residential district. Smoke poured from the chimneys of the houses rising up into the air until both elements became indistinguishable by themselves. An unusual yet interesting smell wafted her senses and led her to one house in particular. She couldn't help but feel like a stalker as she peered through one of the windows to uncover the source of this smell.
This would have certainly been a smell that Luna would have warmly welcomed into her nostrils. On most days after school, she would drag Astra all the way to Kit's Bakery where the owner would have appeared and assortment of delicious iced cakes and pastries. Said smell was so good and familiar that it almost made her forget about her mission… almost. It didn't change the fact that her world was gone and that her friend was missing too and when she remembered that, her chest felt like it was on fire and she found her goal to be a vigorously passionate one, and that wasn't necessarily a bad thing.
"You know, there's a word for people who look into other people's houses without their knowledge. Rude, was it?"
Astra turned upon hearing this voice to meet a man who certainly gave the feeling of wanting to appear cool. Her eyes fell to the sword attached to his waist and smiled before speaking, "So you're a fighter huh? Weird weapon. Why is the grip tilted in such an odd fashion?"
"It's a gunblade." The man ran his hands through his hair with a thoughtful look on his face. Uh, is this guy saying something or is he thinking it? Astra pulled a weird face expecting the man to say something. Eventually he did and Astra finally relaxed her muscles. "You didn't tell me why you were looking into the window. You never seen a house before?"
"You never developed manners?" Astra shot back ignoring the somewhat hypocritical nature of her counter before asking, "I suppose this is your house then?"
"Not exactly." said the gunblade wielder. Again, another moment of silence.
This guy is seriously a downer. There IS something as taking a carefree attitude too far, she thought before summoning a Keyblade. In reaction, the man fell out of his nonchalant state and allowed an exponential amount of emotion to flow from his face, of course Astra was exaggerating, she had really only thought of the man as a robot until now. "That's a… Keyblade. Where did you get that?" he asked after recovering. Now we're getting somewhere.
"So you know what it is. You must be a naughty boy… ooh, unless you happen to know another wielder. So how about this," A hungry grin took precedent on Astra's face as she spun her Keyblade around playfully. She continued, "How about we fight? If you win, I leave and you won't even have to acknowledge the existence of a girl who has never seen a house before, but if I win… then you have to answer each and every one of my questions. Is that a deal?"
"Is this really necessary?" The man asked a while after Astra had made her proposition.
"Are most things in our world necessary? I don't know. That's why I want to find out." she answered cryptically. The questions that were circulating her mind, she wanted this fight to decide whether she wanted to know or needed to know. Evaluating her own fighting technique in the process was an added bonus.
"I can't say I understand your reason, but how can I pass fighting a Keyblade wielder up? The name's Leon." he said unhooking the sword from its holster.
"Astra, and to clear something up, I have lived in a house before." Astra replied looking at her own weapon. Midnight Mauve, the name had popped into her head the moment she had received it. It was hardly her favorite time of day but it was light in her hands, it certainly wasn't hindered by its capable reach and she rather liked the predominating black mauve colors that formed the Keyblade. The teeth of the Keyblade looked like shards of broken purple glass that aimed off in different directions and the length going down was designed to be flat. Of course Astra knew that she would hardly be considering the aesthetics of the weapon while she was fighting.
"I've been itching for some practice anyway. Okay, don't hold back then." Leon said before running towards her. Astra quickly considered the way he held the gunblade before retaliating. As he ran, the placement of the blade was over his shoulders, in fact, it was his shoulder was supporting the weight of the blade. If that was the case then there was really only one way he could attack. Perceiving an oncoming overhead swing, Astra easily dodged the slash and moved behind him before angling her elbow correctly and smashing it into Leon's ribs. Leon spun on his feet but kept his balance before swinging wildly. Astra cartwheeled away in time before pivoting and using strike raid on Leon. The Gunblade wielder guarded quickly, the impacting clash of both metals containing enough force to push him back into the wall.
Midnight Mauve soon returned to Astra and she shook her head disappointedly. "Are you sure you aren't the one who's holding back. You know, all of a sudden I don't think I want these questions of mine answered anymore."
"Whatever. I'm just getting warmed up." Leon said before throwing a blast of fire at her. Astra ran straight for it with an insane grin and held Midnight Mauve out to absorb the spell's energy before directing it right back at its owner with a horizontal slash. Leon tried to block again but this attack was more powerful and sent him to the ground.
"HA-HA-HA. Unless you really enjoy getting your ass kicked, you'll stay on the ground. Or if you're a little daring maybe you can try again. I could do this all day so I don't mind." Astra said placing her hands on her hips and letting out a loud roar of laughter.
"Squall, what are you- Is that a Keyblade?" Astra could only stare on dumbfounded as a girl in blue ran up to her and bent down inspecting the Keyblade closely while nodding her head as if she was in the process of deciding something.
Leon, or was it Squall, extended his hand for the girl helplessly. "Uh, Rinoa? I'm not sure that's… forget it."
"Well this is certainly a colorful cast of characters." Astra said feeling uneasy by this Rinoa's strange approach. Of course if these people knew her friend, then it was to be expected. Astra could see Luna being the type to attract weirdos being one herself. "So… I take it I win?"
She wraps herself underneath the covers hoping to fall into sleep's embrace. Her room is dark, though not so dark that she can't see anything around her. Her only source of light is the moon's light which couldn't help but peer into this little four year old girl's room. She tosses and turns trying to find some comfortable way of falling asleep. Maybe sideways… or perhaps on her back… or maybe on her stomach? Eventually she stops moving and her eyes open. Her only companion is her teddy so she clings to him tightly, unwilling to let go. Maybe he can help her get to sleep for he's been with her through thick and thin, and she sees no reason why it should be any different this time.
That's when she hears it. Not loud and obvious, but faint and certainly there. It's the creaking of something, a door… and breathing to go along with it. When it breathes, she stops breathing. She listens, hoping that this isn't real, after all there are no such things as monsters in the closet or under the bed, right?
She keeps her eyes on teddy nonetheless. The girl doesn't want to scream if she doesn't have to. Maybe it's merely the wind blowing a gusty ruckus outside? Deciding upon this as the blind truth, she snuggles into her bed even more and tries to close her eyes… tries… no. She can't. The more she tries to ignore it, the more obvious it becomes that it's not the wind outside. It is in fact in her room.
Once again her eyes open, and this time she sees it. A shadow in the moonlight. It doesn't belong to any of the toys scattered around her room. It's human in figure. She's curious. Frightened as anyone would be to find an unwanted shadow in their room, but curious. This curiosity wins over her capricious mind and slowly she turns her head, only enough so that she can tell from the corner of her left eye alone.
It's there, but it's not inside a closet peering at her and it's definitely not under her bed reaching out to grab her. Instead, it's just standing there in the corner of her room… watching. She knows not how to react. All she can do is turn her head all the way and look into the eyes of the monster who does nothing. And what a power it is. He needs only look at her for the girl to realize that she isn't in control of the situation, that this room is not her own, nor is her body. A fearful look descends upon the girl and she quickly tries to hide under the covers, but it's already too late. The effect is done. She knows he is watching. She can feel his gaze on her, can feel his breath against her ear even when he isn't near. This demon in the shape of man who can control her by merely observing… his name is-
Luna screamed as she woke up with a start. Somewhere along the line she had forgotten to breathe and this realization quickly forced her to start coughing violently. Soon the coughs resided and her breathing returned to normal though this didn't stop her from shaking. What she had just seen, was a nightmare, right? But if that was the case, why had it felt so real? She searched her memories for anything pertaining to the incident but came up with nothing. She was sure she had retained all of her memories as well so she wasn't about to doubt them. There was also a most unnatural inconsistency in the nightmare. The monster standing in the corner of the room had been Abraxas but she had certainly not met him until just over nine months ago.
"This place is seriously getting to me, urgh." she croaked tiredly and let out a yawn before standing up lazily. The best possible way of explaining such a dream was that she had had a similar nightmare before and this time, had replaced the monster in that dream with a more horrifying one in her eyes. Well, unless Abraxas had really been in her room at the time then that seemed like the most plausible explanation. Dreams were funny things after all that could reflect the heart's wants and fears, she had come to learn over her journey.
Where she stood now was what she had found to be one of the Dark Realm's safe zones. They were scattered and scarce but when she found them, what usually followed were moments of great relief, at least until the fighting started again. In this particular safe zone there were multiple paths that she could take however she had already been down all of them except two. She figured that if she could keep a level head and explore one of the paths for a few hours before returning back to camp then she should be fine. So far, this tactic of steady pace had worked wonders on her psyche. She wasn't about to wander off into the middle of nowhere only to end up never finding the safe zone again. It was the equivalent of living out in the wild. It was adapt to strategy or die, the only difference being that she didn't think it was likely to be attacked every five seconds while being out in the wild as opposed to this place where she had no room for respite outside of the safe zones.
Without thinking, Luna took one of the available paths left that she hadn't explored. As long as these paths were available to her then she didn't want to rule out the possibility that one of these paths contained a way out. That didn't mean that what she had found in the other paths hadn't been intriguing. On the contrary she had discovered places that had confirmed her suspicion that she was in the realm of darkness.
What lied at the end of these paths? Nothing but worlds in ruin. They were like scattered remnants that had made it to this realm by taking on the form of stardust according to Jiminy's Journal. Here, the heart of the world resided and was made invisible by the fact that the realm of darkness couldn't be seen by the visible light spectrum. Because the heart reflected the state of the world itself, the world or star would blink out of existence in the realm of light. It wasn't that the world itself was gone, but that it would have been impossible to locate it given its immaterial state of existence.
Already had Luna been to five worlds which had fallen to darkness and she was no doubt about to head to another one. The last one had been of particular significance to her albeit in an indirect way. It definitely looked to be the world of her friends, the Destiny Islands and if that was the case, then they would be happy to hear that she had brought their world back into the realm of light. It was the only thing she could do to help the other side without being in it, though nothing was a certainty in this place and she didn't know where these worlds disappeared to each time she found these broken worlds' keyholes. For all she knew she was dooming these worlds into an even deeper darkness. It wouldn't have been the first time.
Quickly she dismissed the thought. For whatever reason, certain thoughts and feelings were intensified in the realm of darkness and were she to blame herself for even one second for destroying her own world and killing her parents then she'd be subjected to a torment that would be hard to recover from.
As soon as she stepped out of the safe zone, the Heartless appeared. Instead of fighting them she just ran passed the ones she could and took out the others that were in her way. Her heart pounded wildly as it had been doing so for the rest of the time that she had been here. Surely that couldn't be good for her heart? Was there such a thing as experiencing too much of one particular emotion?
She quick stepped out of the way of a Neo Shadow's attack before cutting through a thick horde of Heartless that were in her way. She found out during her time here that she could increase her swing speed by loosely gripping onto the handle of Dream Seeker, adding flexibility by using her wrist and finger movements to handle the Keyblade. Once she had cleared the way through, she advanced forward quickly.
The path that she dared tread appeared ugly and malformed in nature, or was it a twisted nature for nothing was of the beauty associated in nature here. There was hardly any consistency or logic, for example, in the chunks of rock that floated both sideways and upright. Multiple circular indentations were inscribed onto the ground like pot holes with Luna having to be careful in avoiding them.
Different layers of geo formation existed, some instances forming hexagonal prism slopes while others formed the shape of cones. Luna had learned to use the rocks to her advantage by using them to take out enemies or increase her momentum. They did serve another purpose however. Judging by their shapes, Luna had found a familiar pattern to the foreign rock formations she had encountered in the fog before she had fallen into the darkness. If the two places were connected then it only made sense that the rocks were similar types, but it didn't explain why they connected or how Abraxas' illusions could have even thrown her into this predicament. Whatever the cause was, it was bigger than Abraxas.
Eventually she came to a dead end with no more ground to walk on and no fork in the path to decide upon.
Is this the end? This can't be right. Luna walked to the edge of the road and bent down before throwing her hand downwards. There was no immediate secret invisible path to walk on but there were a column attached to the jagged edge of the path that extended all the way down into the darkness. She had come across yet another important decision that she had to carefully think about. She could either go down this vertical column to see where it led or she could go back the way she came from and pick the other path.
She couldn't help but let out a long exaggerated moan before an idea popped into her head. Luna placed her head next to the available ground, pointed her Keyblade downwards and let go off it watching it fly off into the darkness. A faint thud was soon heard after approximately eight seconds of counting and she relaxed a bit. So there was definitely another level down below that was surprisingly quite close considering how dark it appeared.
Carefully, she threw her legs over the black space and eased herself downward until she was hugging the rough column. She dared not look down or even above her as she descended slowly but surely towards the confirmed ground. The particular incident reminded her of a much simpler time. She had been 12 years old when she had first gone rock climbing with her family and Astra. The terrifying prospect of falling had been a horrifying one prior to the actual climbing but as with all things, the fear itself had been scarier than actually doing it. Their guide had certainly been careful in making sure that they were tightly secured to a cable and their safety gear was put on properly anyway. It still didn't take away from the fact that Luna hated heights. The only reason she had gone along with it was because her parents had gotten Astra to convince her. Her best friend had been the reason that Luna had even the confidence to do most of the things that she had done in her life.
If she ever did get out of here, finding Astra would be one of the first things that she would do. She remembered back to what Abraxas had told her, that Astra had a Keyblade. If so, then she was certain they would cross paths eventually. Ironically, out of the two, Astra had been the one grounded in realism. No matter how many times Luna brought up her theory of each star being a world in the sky, Astra would have dismissed it. So for her to end up on another world by means of magic must have come as quite a shock to a girl who was unwilling to believe in it. Not that that had always been the case, there had been a point when her and Astra had shared a common interest in sharing leaving their world and seeing the stars but at some point that had changed. It had been around the time that Astra's grandmother had passed away that notable differences had begun to show themselves in her friend. This had been over two years ago. Luna could even remember the conversation where Astra's optimistic attitude had done a complete 180.
Luna watched through sunglasses as Astra emerged from the ocean waters and walked over to the sandy beach where she was currently lying. Luna brought the glass of lemonade to her mouth and positioned the straw between her lips before sipping.
"You make the most adorable face when sipping, you know that?" Astra announced as she sat beside Luna.
"I don't know where that came from but okay." she replied with raised brows. "Did you know the paper drinking straw was patented because previous forms of straw turned to mush when mixed with liquid? Talk about a health hazard huh?"
"Oh Lord Sea Salt, please tell me more of your useless trivia." Astra recited poetically causing Luna to puff like a blowfish.
"I'm not even eating Sea Salt right now. How would you like it if I nicknamed you tomboy and refused to use your name?"
Astra shrugged and replied, "Eh. Can't win against the truth. Oh, and here's some useless trivia about Sea Salt Ice Cream by the way Sea Salt, it does have the tendency to give you diabetes if you eat too much of it."
"Oh thanks, I didn't realize that," Luna said sarcastically before adding, "Good thing my mom is a doctor then."
Astra laughed before asking, "Have you done your English homework for tomorrow. I… kinda forgot about it."
"Of course you did. Yeah, it wasn't exactly hard, kind of boring actually. I wonder when we'll start poetry." Luna said.
"Poetry? Blech. I mean I didn't exactly mind writing haikus but poetry is horrible. It's amazing how we have to take every single line as being some connotation or something. What, they can't just be literal? Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar." Astra replied.
"Reading Freud huh? I didn't know you were into that kind of stuff." Luna said.
"Oh, so that was his name." Astra mumbled only to receive a look of shock on Luna's face. "What?"
"You quoted someone and you didn't even know who you were quoting from?" the sunglasses wearing girl asked.
"It was just a saying in one of the textbooks. I don't actually know the guy but I'm sure he's a great dude." Astra said.
"Oh dear." Luna facepalmed before withdrawing her hand and pointing it up to the sky. "I just want to forget all this and see the stars. The quicker the better."
"Luna… I've been thinking lately-"
"Oh that's new."
"Luna." Upon hearing Astra mention her actual name, Luna put her hand down and looked at Astra attentively like a little puppy. "I don't think there's any point to it anymore."
"Any point to what?"
"To believe in something greater than what we have here. We've been given so much here already, why risk throwing it away for a hopeless future?" Astra told her. Luna couldn't believe what she was hearing at the moment. Why had her friend, who had defended her ideas and had believed in them just as much as her, become so sour to the possibility?
"A hopeless future? What's that supposed to mean? And what do I have here really Astra? I wake up, I go to school, I come back from school, I spend my hours at home or at Kit's bakery then I go to sleep again. That's what a hopeless future is." Luna retorted taking her sunglasses off.
"Yes, you do that. Just like any of us. Why should we fool ourselves into thinking we're more special than others when we know it's not true? We're only thirteen, who are we to say we won't be provided with more opportunities later on?"
"What's wrong Astra? You've been acting strangely for a while now." Luna said.
"What's wrong with me? What's wrong with you? You say that you have nothing here. Then what do your parents mean to you? What does Kit mean to you? What do I mean to you?" Astra asked.
"Of course you are. It's just. My mom told me when I was young to follow my dreams and that one day I wouldn't live with them anymore. It sounded cruel back then but now I know what she meant. This is my choice Astra. I thought you were with me on this. But maybe I was wrong." Luna said before getting up and heading off to the changing room. Even as Astra called to her, she didn't turn back. She didn't want to hear what Astra had to say.
Once again, a clear audible sigh was let out in relief as her feet came into contact with solid ground and she quickly made to retrieve her Keyblade. In comparison to the time the Keyblade took to reach the ground, Luna would guess that she had spent a minute and a few seconds added of climbing. She rubbed her sweaty hands on her jeans before proceeding onward. Of course the fact that she would have to climb back up later stayed in the front of her mind.
After a series of fights, Luna soon found herself in what appeared to be a rose garden. In the back of the garden was a majestic castle. What immediately caught Luna's attention was that this castle didn't seem to be vacant. Lights shone from within the castle indicating that there was some presence there though Luna knew that was impossible. Wasn't it?
She arrived at the semi-circular veranda of the back of the castle and made her way to the large glass doors. As she got closer she could definitely hear the unmistakable sound of ball music filling the large well-lit room inside. She opened the door and was immediately swept away by a change in atmosphere that made her forget where she even was. She recognized the piece playing as Bach's Orchestral Suite No. 3 D Major, one that had been pounded into her head during her ballet sessions.
What was even more surprising however, were the people in the ballroom dancing to this slow moving piece. She could not see their faces for they were covered by Venetian masks, but they were definitely people, and they were dancing. Luna stood silently and watched with a smile on her lips as one particular couple closer to her danced away with no ostensible worries on their faces. She was so intrigued by this couple that she almost failed to notice a man walking up to her with a smile on his face. When her eyes caught sight of him, she blushed and tried to shrink back hoping that he was merely passing her way but when he stopped in front of her she had to give up such a tactic and instead looked into his eyes.
I suppose I could have a dance, but I'm hardly dressed for the occasion, Luna thought. Surely one little dance couldn't hurt. She summoned Dream Seeker away before slowly accepting his hand and was guided towards the floor where he wasted no time in wrapping his gentle arms around her. Anxiously, Luna watched her feet carefully as she danced with this mysterious stranger. He seemed to be taking the initiative making all the right moves and she was probably embarrassing him by acting clumsy. Still, whatever she had been doing before this couldn't have been any better. Everything seemed right, like she was meant to be here all along. She had found her calling and now all that was left was to give into the music.
It's going to okay as long as I stay here. I have no worries. Everything will be alright. Everything will be… Everything will… Everything? EVERYTHING? Luna suddenly panicked and threw this 'man' off her, except that it wasn't a man, not anymore. His features had changed entirely, his kind blue eyes now yellow and menacing. Horns grew from its head and its tail waggled left and right on the floor. Most notably was the red sword in its hand. Suddenly she remembered what she was doing and where she was. Suddenly instead of humans surrounding her, there were Heartless of all shapes and sizes jumping back and forth to sinister music.
Luna clutched her head as a sharp pain smashed its way through like a bullet and let out a scream before shaking it off. She didn't have much time to recover as the Orcus that had danced with her flew forward and made a horizontal cut. Luna dropped to the floor to avoid the attack before summoning her Keyblade and blasting the Heartless away from her. She tried to get up from the floor only to have a Nova Shadow spin into her from behind. A painful gasp erupted from Luna's mouth as she felt her back bend and was sent flying forwards into one of the tables. She turned around just in time to see another Orcus flying towards her and rolled out of the way just as it stabbed its sword into the table.
Have to get out of here. Against her body's will, Luna reluctantly heaved herself up using the nearby wall as support before making her way along the edge of the room to the door in the back. Waves of Heartless moved in to which her only possible response was countering with Reflect magic. Sparks of light surrounded Luna as a result of the Heartless smacking against the barrier and rebounding.
Eventually she made it to the door and wasted no time in blowing it open with Aeroga before sprinting through. She was now in a long winding corridor with chandeliers on the ceiling throughout acting as her guide. Behind her was a horde of Heartless that had followed her out into the corridor. She turned behind her and sent casts of different elements in no particular direction. Some of the magic hit Heartless successfully while other smacked against paintings or the chandeliers on the ceiling which fell to the ground and took out the Heartless under them anyway.
Soon Luna noticed a door to her left and opposed to just turning into it, she kicked off the wall on the right using it as a boost to dive through the door. She turned and landed on her back before using another Aeroga to the blow the inward doors closed. Finally she pointed the Keyblade's tip at the keyhole of the door watching as the last remains of a beam of light disappeared before she could truly relax.
Luna let out a laugh, it was all she could do to hide her fear and frustration plus she wanted the illusion that she was in control of the situation even if that couldn't have been further from the truth. She lay on the ground like this for several minutes trying to assess what had just happened. Why had she seen people in the place of Heartless in the first place? Why had everything felt so natural to her? Was her Chimera finally coming out now that it had been exposed to the dark realm? The more she thought about it, the more it seemed frighteningly possible and the more she wanted to perish the thought. How long would her body and heart be able to endure this before they gave in to Abraxas' cruel experiment? How long would it be until she started going after Sora, Riku, Kairi and… Astra. She would rather remain here than have them suffer.
She got up however, even if she didn't have to. Sora had not showed her all those worlds and taught her how to use the Keyblade for nothing. He had braved the nightmares and fears of his own heart just to wake her from Abraxas' illusion and she'd be damned if she fell here without saying thank you.
Just then, something caught her eye. It was the large window at the back of the room, or rather what was outside the window. If it really was what she thought it was then in some strange way, fate was also telling her not to give up. Far away from here a tall tower extended upwards into the heavens themselves. She knew it as the Turm des Himmels, and she doubted there were that many towers that were similar to the one she knew. If she really was in Alexander, then she had a chance to make everything right.
Absolutely loved writing this chapter. Even spent the time watching a compilation of Crisis Core cutscenes on youtube while I was working. Next time, we'll be back with Sora and co. and... well, you'll see...
