Chapter 27
The New Apprentices
Luna was drowning. She clutched at her neck and thrashed about in panic as the darkness of the cold water overtook her. Her vision was fading and she was no doubt soon to leave this world. This had happened before. She recalled falling into the lake while fishing, and something pulling her down into the deep depths. Her father had been the one to save her there but she was all alone now, or so she thought.
Just when she was about to completely give up hope, a hand grabbed her own. Was it her father? No, he was gone of course, she had killed him. Luna let out a gasp for air as she reached the water's surface and watched her body be carried to solid ground. She coughed out some water that she had initially taken in and looked up at her savior.
"Luna, are you alright? You just fell into the lake all of a sudden. What happened?" Sora asked worriedly. Of course it would be him.
"I don't know. I- I thought… in the water… I saw my parents' reflections a-and I don't know what happened after that. The next thing I know I'm in the water and- oh, Sora!" Luna let out a cry and Sora placed his arms around her to comfort her. They stayed like that for a while and Luna had to forbid herself from sinking into his chest at the reminder that they were in fact, just friends. More importantly she questioned whether she was going crazy. Hearing her own words as she said them, they no doubt sounded strange to Sora. But she had seen them, and she had felt a loss of control over her body when she did, like she had been possessed or something.
"You know… you feel really cold right now," Sora said eventually.
"You certainly know how to kill the mood don't you?" Luna chuckled albeit rather shakenly.
"I'm usually the one livening it up. I guess we all need to swap roles every now and then." He grinned and took his jacket off to give to her. "Let's get you warmed up."
Wanting to find somewhere as close as possible for Luna to sit eventually took them to Stephanie and Colette's house. After making up something about how Luna accidently slipped and fell into the lake, Colette took her over to the fireplace to warm up.
"You're lucky Sora was there to save you. Looks like you may have a guardian angel," Colette told her after providing both of them with some fresh blankets.
"I wouldn't exactly call myself that but yeah, I'm glad I was there," Sora replied sitting down next to the still shivering Luna. Colette smiled before heading upstairs.
"Why were you there anyway? Were you stalking me?" Luna asked with a mischievous smile.
"What? No! I mean, I was wondering where you'd went after the whole thing with Astra. Kairi told me you said you wanted to spend some time alone to think and I guess the first place I thought of that you'd be was our spot," Sora explained. He gazed into the flickering flames and admired their beauty for a while. Luna followed.
"I'm scared," she began. "Because it seems like our futures are so uncertain. I don't know what's happening to me Sora. I feel like there's something changing inside me, like sometimes my body isn't my own. I knew my parents weren't there, I knew… but I wanted to believe it. I can't believe I'm saying this but, I don't know who I am, and I'm afraid."
"You've been through a lot Luna, yet you've always managed to pick up the pieces and continue living. That's who you are…" Sora paused and looked at Luna with a pained expression. He wanted to tell her about what Desiree told him, about Yeul's prophecy, but he couldn't. He wouldn't risk her worrying over him even more than needed and personally he did not quite believe it. The idea that he would be responsible for the worlds' destruction seemed hilarious… but what if it was true? "I think there's something inside me changing too. When we've seen the things we've seen, it's hard to stay the same, but I think this time I've seen too much."
"What do you mean?" Luna asked.
"I've never looked at a problem and said that it couldn't be handled before. I've always made it seem like it was easy to just get back up and continue on with life. Maybe it's because those problems were never really my problems but others', and now that I've come across my own problem I don't know how to face it. I thought I could do the same thing I usually do, just go on living my own life. I wanted to show them that I wasn't going to let them threaten me and keep me from doing what I do, but I was lying to myself," Here he stopped to let out a defeated laugh before continuing. "I didn't want to admit it but the truth is I am scared. While I was fighting Desiree, if you can even call it that, I felt hopeless and impotent. I could only see my worst nightmares ahead and I hoped she would end the torture and kill me. I hoped, Luna. I never want to feel that way again."
"I'm so sorry…" Luna looked downwards apologetically.
"It's not your fault, but mine for not taking this seriously enough. All I know is that what I have now, it isn't enough. I need to be stronger. I need something… more," Sora said.
"You are the strongest person I know Sora. Not just physically but you have a good heart as well. Shouldn't that be enough?" Luna asked.
"I wish it were, and it should be, but it isn't, not when you want to survive," he replied turning his eyes to the flames once again. If they had declared war on him, he would fight back.
As rain splattered against the roof of The Poison Apple creating the sounds of soothing pitter-patter inside its walls, Neuge took another swig of her sake and set the glass down. She traced her index finger around the clear glass while looking at the bartender.
"Back where I'm from, they had goblets that you drank from instead of clear glass like this. Believe it or not, it actually interferes with the taste of the liquor. I much prefer this any day of the week. You have some nice glasses, of that I applaud this place," she said winking.
"I'd be interested in seeing these goblets of yours. I guess you're from another world then, huh?" the Bartender replied. At Neuge's raised brows as to how he knew about the other worlds, he went on to explain. "The whole town knows. No one would have believed that such a thing was possible and then Leon up and tells us out of nowhere. Came as quite a shock it did but it explains all the weird stuff happening. He said he wanted a town with no more secrets unlike what we had in the old days. I respect that."
"Believe it or not, you need to have secrets. Some things are really best left unsaid," Neuge finished her drink. "And I really need to ask, does this bar have to have such bad lighting. I'm thinking it-" Here she leaned in and whispered, "tends to invite more of your… shady patrons."
"Some things are best left unsaid, that rule applies to you too," the bartender said.
"Of course, by no means am I telling you how to run your bar…" Neuge trailed off and smiled innocently.
"But… you want a job here right?"
"Oh yes please. I can be your bouncer if you'd like," Neuge said in a flirty tone.
Before the bartender could respond, the door opened again and two kids rushed in and quickly closed the door behind them. Neuge looked behind her and immediately turned away in regret.
"I'm guessing you know them. They yours?" The bartender asked in jest.
"Me and kids? I'd first rather be the hellspawn of a bunch of baboons," Neuge said and finished the rest of her sake just as Sora and Luna took seats next to her.
"How old are you two? I'm not so sure you should be here," the bartender said while Neuge continued to ignore the two.
"Don't worry, we'll only be here for a while… this place could use better lighting, don't you think?" Luna asked.
"Told you," Neuge enunciated articulately. The bartender shook his head before taking Neuge's empty glass and walking off into the back. "I'm sorry to hear about what happened to you."
"It happened," Sora admitted. "The question is what happens now? I can't just keep moving ahead like nothing happened. I need to become stronger."
"All the more power to you brother," Neuge said watching as the rain beat down on the window next to her. Why did she have a feeling she knew where this was going?
"And you offered to train me before, so will you do it, and Luna too?" Sora asked.
Neuge rolled her eyes and met Sora's eyes. "Nope," she said quickly before looking up at the menu.
"Huh? But isn't that why you're here? You even said-"
"Yes, about that. Do you happen to remember when I said it?" Neuge asked.
"Before Luna woke up."
"Riiiight and you rejected my offer. Now at that point I was pretty reluctant to help but I put aside my need to find a good bar for your sake. Now, I've found a good bar, albeit one with pretty bad lighting but a bar nonetheless. I'm still reluctant about teaching a bunch of kids who shouldn't even be fighting in the first place and I don't think I'm in the best position to help you. Why don't you help me pick a drink? I really can't decide what to have next."
Sora shook his head and slammed both hands on the table loudly causing those nearby to stop what they were doing and look at him, but he didn't care. "Why are you being like this? I know I refused your help… I know, but I can't let these people hold a pendulum above my head for the rest of my life. I need to be able to protect myself… we both need to be able to protect ourselves," he swiftly corrected looking at Luna. "And if I just happen to be discovered missing or even worse it will be on your conscience."
"Are you threatening me? Know your place Keyblade Master. If you want to win a person's heart, threatening them is not exactly the best way to achieve that aim."
Sora nodded at this and looked at Luna thoughtfully. When she shook her head he turned back to Neuge. "I'm sorry and I really didn't mean for it to come off as a threat. It's just… I want to live and I want to be able to smile again. It's like you say. I have problems too that I shouldn't be having and they're ones that I've only been able to tackle because I've had my friends beside me. Alone, I'm no one and when Moira's Crescent realizes that, they'll take advantage of it. I want to be able to live a normal life but I can't, not when I have the sword of Damocles hanging above my head."
Sora kept his expectations down as he tried to figure out Neuge. Ironically, Sora had known Nobodies that had shown more emotion on their sleeve than her. She looked physically drained and pale. Her hair had changed from when he had last seen her to black hair with blue streaks here and there. Her mouth soon crawled into a smile and she turned to look at them both.
"We start after breakfast, both of you."
Sora and Luna exchanged gleeful looks with one another. "Thank you so much, you won't regret it," Sora said.
"Now we wouldn't mind a 'Congratulations, you won my heart', or something like that," Luna added.
"Hey, I told you I'd train you, don't push it. You haven't won anything yet until you prove to me you deserve it. And you can start by going to sleep right now and leaving me to driiii- I mean, make some preparations," Neuge said drumming her fingers on the counter.
"Yes ma'am. Also, I'd try the Jack Frost. Sounds like fun," Luna suggested looking up at the menu before leaving along with Sora. Neuge let out a dismissive snort and followed up on Luna's pick with the bartender. A boy that had once been a Heartless and a girl who had part of one inside her… it was a train wreck in waiting that not even Neuge could look away from.
A heavenly ray shone down from the three small circular stained glass windows above and shone down on Sora as if today were his lucky day and it was he who had been chosen to undertake some glorious quest. Of course he wasn't the only one. He had his friend Luna right beside him, who was just as eager to begin training as he was.
Over the course of the night, his sight had not been haunted by nightmares of death as they had previously, but of the possibilities of what Neuge would teach them. He realized that he had never been this excited and determined to learn something and become stronger before. He had just barely taken his Mark of Mastery test seriously.
Merlin and the three good fairies had taken them to a large training hall in an unknown location for Neuge to train them. Neuge had told them of how the place reminded her of her old home but as per her coldness only short waves of her inner thoughts reached the shore that Sora and Luna stood on.
Neuge paced back and forth before stopping short and summoning her Keyblade. She held it up in front of her and gave it a thorough yet uninterested look.
"I don't think you'll disagree with me saying that this weapon is your life. We were entrusted them, whether by some twist of fate or by rite of passage. To me it's just a memory, and to you, the future unfortunately. If you think you're automatically going to be able to take on the world singlehandedly after I've taught you then you need to discard such thoughts immediately. I can only give you the tools you need to survive. It's up to you as to whether and how you want to use them. Is that understood?"
"Yes, Master!" The two both exclaimed in unison.
"Throughout most of your training you'll be separated. I think it helps if we work at your own individual strengths, but that's not to say I won't pair you up from time to time. After I'm through with the both of you, you might be able to handle more than one enemy at once on your own, but teamwork is still essential to a seamless victory," Neuge explained. She dismissed her Keyblade and looked from Sora to Luna before continuing. "We're going to start with something that's quite important albeit unorthodox in Keyblade training. In order to survive you must fight with a clear mind, unclouded by trivial thoughts and reacting rationally to the situation before you. That's why for the first few days you'll be practicing meditation with me along with some basic sparring techniques individually."
"Meditation? I'm not really sure that's me," Sora put forward uneasily. "Also, isn't it natural to let your heart lead you in battle? Trivial thoughts or none, they're a part of who I am and what I'm feeling at the moment. It's always worked for me when I was fighting."
"Oh, is that why you lost then?" Neuge asked. "Because it's your heart, you think it will eventually lead you down the right path? Think like that and you really don't stand a chance. Hearts don't win fights, common sense does."
"But they do make us who we are, right? That's something we can't fight against," Luna mentioned in disagreement. Sora flashed a smile her way watching as she seemed briefly pleased with herself before quickly reminding herself that she was in the presence of a glaring Behemoth.
"Well I'm not here to debate philosophy and I certainly wouldn't be going to a bunch of kids to talk about it. You can think whatever you want but my own experience has taught me how fragile the heart is."
It was hard trying to place Neuge. Luna would have described it as something out of one of her mystery novels and Sora was quite inclined to agree. He sensed some animosity in regards to the Keyblade and was unable to fully trust anyone. Heck, from what Riku had told him about her when they had first met, he had basically come across her in a pub. Naturally, it was the first place Sora thought of to find and ask her to train them so when he entered The Poison Apple he rolled his eyes at how easy it had been to track her down. He would have a lot of time while he was under her wing to find out about her, but the question was how much she would let him know about her.
"If there are no more interruptions, we'll start with some simple breathing exercises…"
Salome leaned over the railing of the balcony and stared up at the full moon. Her small stature had her jumping up and balancing her arms on the railing to get a good look. The door suddenly opened behind her startling her. She lost her balance and was sent backwards onto the balcony floor.
"Oh, I didn't think you'd be here Ma chérie. My apologies, I just needed some fresh air," Desiree said helping the girl up before leaning against the railing herself. "I'm surrounded by imbeciles, I swear. Now they all hound on me like I am some rabbit in a fox den. I do not need Jill of all people telling me how to do my job."
"You did kind of go against Kohle's orders and to boot even when you had him in your grasp you kinda let him go. Weren't you the one who said 'a cat does not catch a mouse with its paws only to set it free seconds later' or something like that? Sounds a bit hypocritical if you ask me," Salome reminded her.
"Urgh, forget what I said. I do think I was justified in my actions. I do not think he is the one who will bring ruin to the worlds. I do not see how the boy I fought could even scratch Xehanort or Kyle let alone defeat them. I do not believe it for one second!" Desiree folded her arms in reaction to the chilly weather and started swerving from side to side gently.
"He does seem like a nice boy but there's little doubt it's him. He has his friends by his side, that's what makes him strong, though I'd be lying if I didn't think some of that power wasn't also his own. I just think that he's fought so much for his friends that he hasn't found a reason to fight for himself. Either way, we should focus on our other problem for now," Salome said. "The moon's rather beautiful tonight isn't it? I see good things coming our way."
"What are you, a seer?" Desiree joked with a simple smile. Despite her somewhat hardened exterior to most of the members, she did not hide her vulnerable side to Salome or the unearthly kind Rhea. To those who really knew her, Desiree was more often quiet and thinking than harsh and sadistic as she may have often acted. Salome often imagined a Desiree that came out of her shell and acted as she did right now to the others, but that's why it was only in her imagination.
"Okey-dokey, have a goodnight Dessie," Salome wished before skipping off back inside and down the marble hallway. Expensive drapes descended on either side covering the windows that looked out into the courtyard below. She hadn't enquired much into it, but she had remembered Kohle telling her when he had brought her in that the place had once been an academy for Keyblade wielders. Now that she knew more about the old world and the Keyblade War, she wondered how he had come across the academy in the first place, or how had even known who had previously lived here. It was when she asked these questions that she became aware of how little, past the always calm and smiling exterior and anecdotes, she knew about the creator of Moira's Crescent.
She was not even halfway to her bedroom when she came across Alfonso talking to the red riding hood of the family, otherwise known as Jill. Their voices echoed down the long hallway so that Salome did not even have to be close to pick up on what they were saying.
"Must we sit by and watch as Sora continues to desecrate the creed we Keyblade wielders have preserved for generations? The wielders who came before sought to protect the already established borders of the greater world by any means. I don't know about you but I won't allow years of work to go down the drain because of one child. He'll be the very death of our worlds if we do not act soon!" Jill spat from underneath her hood.
"But he's able to make the impossible possible, or so they say. Why, it wasn't so long ago that he defied the odds and defeated Xehanort-"
"With the help of his friends," Jill reminded Alfonso.
Salome grimaced at this and decided to intrude on their conversation at that moment. "As if we've never called on the strength of each other before Jilly. And where were we when all this was happening? We picked the wrong time to fall asleep. If anything you should be thankful there was someone else there to save the worlds when we couldn't."
Jill shook her head. "That was never in doubt. And you can't blame Kohle's decision as none of us could have known that the boy the prophecy spoke of would have appeared so soon. We saw a peace that would last for some time and we were no longer needed so we locked ourselves in a different dimension. We were wrong what with the arrival of the Heartless."
"And luckily enough, the seal on the dimension withered away just in time too. A shame I couldn't give old baldy a piece of my mind though," Salome huffed childishly.
"I'd like to take the moment to remind the two of you that I never agreed with the idea in the first place. You should never turn your eyes away from the world or it shall turn its back on you when you need it most," Alfonso uttered sagaciously.
"Must you always ruin the fun? I do honestly anticipate the day you wake up to find a terrible ache throughout your entire body. Isn't that right, Jack?" Jill grinned creepily. She looked to her left shoulder where her pet parrot was perched and stroked its head with her index finger softly. "So how goes the search for Alice?"
Alfonso ignored the usual threat issued by Jill and scoffed. "Terribly as usual. I was on my way to Kohle to report when I overheard you and Desiree arguing."
"You mean you were spying Fonnie?" Salome concluded with a big grin.
"Even if I was, and I wasn't, it was more of a shouting match making it impossible for my inquisitive mind to steer clear. That said when will you cease with those pet names? It's nice to know that not only has your body not aged but your mind neither during the time we were asleep." Though Alfonso appeared stern and annoyed at this, Salome could read faces well, enough to know how abashed he felt at the moment.
"Well I like them soooo I think I'll stick with them," Salome replied sticking her tongue out.
Alfonso furrowed his brows and cleared his throat to move onto a different topic. "I'd have you both get your minds off Sora for the moment. He's truly the least of our worries and I'm not saying that because I underestimate him."
"KRONOS?" Jill asked and both Salome and Alfonso nodded.
"They seek to capture the Princesses of Heart for some reason. That much was confirmed by Astra when she told us about that Ice witch but until we can find out more, I won't be able to write a full report," Alfonso said.
"What else, if not for Kingdom Hearts?" Jill asked.
"There are many things one can do with a Princess of Hearts, and we're only talking about a single one here. If just one of them loses their light, the worlds will lose their own soon enough with it," Alfonso replied.
"But Asty also said that the girl acted as if she hadn't captured Alice. Even if she's telling a lie, the fact that the worlds haven't started losing their light is a good indicator that she's fine, right?" Salome asked with a faint yet hopeful smile. Alfonso squinted as if trying to see something that wasn't there before replying.
"The condition of the worlds is yet to be foreseen. Desiree and myself discussed this much back on our mission at Notre Dame. We know as much as the fog is having an adverse effect on the health of those residing in the world it affects. Astra also used it to travel to the Realm of Darkness in order to save her friend. Ergo, we can surmise that the fog has different properties at any given time. None of these, as you might imagine, can be perceived to be positive. The question is when the fog started appearing and when Alice was kidnapped. If both of these were around the same time then we must assume the worst case scenario."
"Then it's quite simple what we must do. Block KRONOS at every possible path they choose to take. Gather enough information about their members. Finally, and this is my favorite part, we eliminate them," Jill hissed excitedly.
"Today KRONOS, tomorrow, the world! You know you're sounding more and more like a supervillain out of a comic, sheesh…" Salome complained with rolling eyes before letting out a yawn. "Well I think I'm pooped for the day. I'm guessing Kohle will be having a meeting early tomorrow so best get some sleep while I still can... do you guys ever get the feeling, and it may just be me, that Kohle isn't telling us everything?"
"Do you not trust him?" Alfonso asked and Salome shook her head.
"It's not that, just that… you know what? I'm kind of tired anyway so maybe I'm just thinking too much. Well, g'night!" she bid before leaving their presence.
Since I was unable to update last week, I think it only appropriate to give you guys a double update today so have fun reading. I particularly enjoyed writing the next chapter so I hope you'll enjoy it!
