Door of twilight
Chapter 27
Advancing
START
It was a very somber atmosphere as Cloud walked into the bridge of the Gummi ship, Kon helping him stand while Sanosuke carried his Buster Sword. About that time the jagged tattoos all over his body started glowing red again, before they started to be retraced back into the seal on Cloud's neck. Once Cloud was in the bridge, he noticed how everyone else was holding up. Rinoa was blankly staring at a spot on the floor, a few tears running down her face. Zell was sitting in one of the gunner seats with his head hanging down, from exhaustion or remorse Cloud couldn't tell. Both Irvine and Lulu were sitting across from Rinoa, weapons on the floor beside them, looking completely lost on what to do next. As for Quistis, she was sitting in the pilot seat, trying to figure out what she should do now that they had escaped the heartless.
As Kon placed Cloud in a seat by Lulu and Irvine, he and Sanosuke stood back by the door, not sure about what to say. "I'm guessing you two want to know what's going on, right?" Lulu said, looking at Kon and Sanosuke. "Well, yeah. I mean, last thing I can remember I'm having a party with my friends, next thing I know I'm waking up in a stack of creates and those weird ant things are attacking me." Sanosuke said as he nervously tapped his foot. Lulu then stood up, letting out a slight sigh before walking towards the two a little. "Follow me and I'll do my best to explain things to you both." She said as she lead both Sanosuke and Kon to a room that had the most information about heartless and other worlds stored on a few computers.
As Lulu lead the two new comers to the data room, Zell finally spoke up. "So…what are we going to do know? I mean, we have nowhere to go, no help, and we don't even know how to contact Disney Castle and ask for backup or anything." The blond said as he looked around the room, hoping that someone would have an answer. It became clear that Irvine and Cloud had no idea what to do, and Rinoa was still in a state of shock, which meant it was up to Quistis to find some sort of answer. "For now all we can do is continue going to worlds, if nothing else for supplies. Hopefully we'll eventually be able to find a world that knows how to contact Disney Castle." Quistis said as she sat in the pilot seat, looking on a little screen that was displaying a list of worlds near by.
It was becoming very clear to Cloud that things were most likely going to get much worse before they got better.
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"So, in a nutshell, you guys went down to Agrabah, Riku got a Drive Form, and you all then beat Maleficent, Jafar, Pete, and the blind guy Usui?" Kairi said after hearing the whole story about what had went on during the last mission. "More or less." Sora said in reply, before taking a sip of the soft drink in his hand. "Sounds like you all had a productive mission." Leon said from his position leaning against the wall.
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN IT'S GONE?" Cid's voice cut through the air at a very loud volume. Cid then marched through the hall the lead to the cockpit, moving at a very high rate of speed. "We've got a slight problem: Travers Town is gone." Cid said, looking at Mickey. "Wait-what? Wasn't Travers Town was destroyed after Xehanort's heartless was destroyed and all the worlds were returned too normal?" Sora asked, rubbing his head slightly. "Apparently Travers Town is really it's own world, just a really small one. When another world falls to darkness, a piece of that world is brought to Travers Town as a sort of "backup memory," so the world can be restored later." Cid said, sounding very scientific for someone who was smoking a cigar and downing a bottle of beer at the same time.
"Merlin came in contact with the government that had set up on Travers Town after the rest of use left, and had convinced them to join are cause. Problem is it looks like Jadis of the Dark Six led a full scale attack on Travers Town, and destroyed it." Cid continued, before taking a moment to down another gulp of beer. "Anyway, from the scans that the rescue team picked up, it looks like only one ship was able to escape the destruction of the world, but we lost the ship's signal after jumped to hyper-space. We don't now how many people were on the ship, but from the engine's ion trial, it looks like it was a mid-sized carvel class Gummi ship. Those types of ships are generally designed for at lest five people." Cid said, before taking a seat on one of the many couches in the room.
"So do we have anyway to contact the ship?" Sora said, trying to find some sort of good new in the report. However, Cid simply shook his head before replying. "No can do kid. We don't have the slightest idea what frequency the ship's radio was set to, and we can't just go broadcasting a message on all the channels." Hearing this, Sora's shoulders slumped slightly, while a frown spread across his face. "Sora never did fully grasp that he can't help everyone at once…" Riku thought as he stared down at a spot on the floor, before turning and walking out of the room, not really that thrilled about the news everyone had just been told.
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There was the sound of metal tearing flesh, before a certain redhead pyro crashed onto the ground, a deep gash across his lower torso. Using his wind element Keyblade as a crutch, Axle slowly pushed himself back onto his feet. Taking a glance around the room, Axle noticed that Zexion was out cold, and Mozenrath was lying on the ground, fading in and out of consciousness. "I told you, its useless to fight against me." Xehanort said as his Keyblade dissolved back into darkness. As Xehanort started walking towards Axle he noticed something strange about the redhead; Axle was smiling.
"Hate to disappoint you Xemmy, but we're not here to try and kill you. Hell, we're even trying to injure you that much. You know whyyyyyyyyyyyy?" Axle said, a smug smirk on his face. Seeing Xehanort's eyes flash in realization, Axle continued speaking. "That's right Xemmy! We're the distraction." Hearing this, Xehanort, whirled around, and made a dash for the temple door across the room. "No, the book!" Xehanort yelled as he rushed towards the door at a blinding speed.
However, almost as soon as Xehanort's foot touched the doorway, there was a bright flash of light that blinded both Xehanort and Axle. When the light died down, Axle could see glowing blue chains had wrapped around Xehanort's arms, legs, and torso, keeping him from moving. "Hey, great timing with that spell man!" Axle called out to an unseen person. It was then a voice could be heard in the temple, sounding as if it was coming from all directions, and also sounding as if the person was whispering. "It was nothing, now hurry and fall back, I have what we came for." The voice said, before fading away as if it was never there.
"Well, later Xemmy!" Axle said, seeing the "I'm so going to kill you in a very painful way" look in Xehanort's eyes. Quickly calling up the darkness around him, Axle formed three dark portals, for him and his two allies. As the portals started to fade away, with the two nobodies and wizard already on the other side, Xehanort let a large blast of dark energy out from his body, destroying the magic chains around his body. "AXEL!!!!" Xehanort screamed out in frustration, before summoning his own dark portal.
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As the darkness faded from the room, Axle was able to let out a sigh of relief, having made it out alive. "I sure hope that damn book was worth the pounding we took from Xehanort." Axle said as he look over the wounds he had gotten in the battle against Xehanort. "You needn't worry about how valuable the book is, but if you want proof then consider that Xehanort wanted it." A voice came from behind Axle. Turning around, Axle could see a man in a dark purple suit walk out, using a cane that was made of glass to help him walk.
"Glass man!" Axles said seeing the person, Elijah Price walk out from behind him. "So Xehanort wanted it, but he wants just about everything with any sort of power in it. For all I know, this book could be filled with stupid spells that make people turn into chickens or something like that." Axle continued, still not sounding to happy about having to take a beating from his old boss's somebody. "Trust me Axle, if what our new ally told me is true, then we're going to need this book, along with the other two, if we want any chance to make this work." Elijah, better known as Mr. Glass, replied to the redheaded pyro.
"I know, stick to the plan and see what happens." Axle muttered to himself as he took a seat and grabbed a potion off the table next to him.
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Cloud found it somewhat unnerving that it was so quit. In the entire time that he had known everyone on the ship, which wasn't that long anyway, he had always heard some type of noise from somewhere on the ship. But now all he heard was the sound of the engines and other basic control functions of the ship. Rinoa, still in a state of shock, had disappeared into her room and collapsed on her bed. Lulu was still in the middle of trying to explain what was going on to Kon and Sanosuke. Irvine and Zell had vanished to who knows where, most likely each going to their respective room. As for Quistis, she was still sitting in the pilot seat, absent-mindedly playing with the necklace that her Element Armor was stored in.
Cloud, not really knowing what else to do, was sitting in the main gunner seat, just in case heartless ships were to attack. However, after several minutes, Cloud noticed that Quistis, while doing a rather good job of not showing it, was crying. "Damn it! What the hell is the point of all this fighting? What is so important that these Dark Six would try and destroy everything? Cloud thought as he stared down at his metallic left hand. "What makes them think that they can just hurt people and get away with it?" Cloud thought as he gaze shifted to his Buster Sword, which was leaned against the wall next to him.
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One thing about firebending: it was a great stress reliever. I mean, lets face, your shooting fire out of your hands and feet, that's about as stress relieving as it can get. Well, at lest that's what Riku thought as he continued his firebending workout/training in the gym area of the ship. It was nothing to complex; a simple fireball, a fire-whip, gathering large amounts of chi and forcing it to take the shape of a giant fire-made dragon. Okay, so maybe that last one was a bit more complicated then most, but still…
Letting out one last giant blast of fire from his hands, Riku stopped to catch his breath from the hour-long training session he had been having. Making his way over to the side of the room, Riku grabbed the water bottle he had brought with him, and took a long drink from it. Take a seat on the floor, while leaning against the wall, Riku thought about how strange his life was. Lets face it, having a magic sword that can talk to you is far beyond what most would consider normal. In fact, that was the type of thing that got people placed in a rubber room.
"Want some company?" Yuna's voice caught Riku by surprise. Looking up, Riku could see that the brunet was standing just inside the doorway, maybe twenty feet away from him. "That might be a nice breaking from training." Riku said with a slight shrug of his shoulders. Giving a slight smile, Yuna made her way over and took a seat next to Riku. "Yeah, this isn't acquired at all. I'm sitting here with Yuna, in total silence." Riku thought after a couple minutes of total silence between him and Yuna. "And what are Yuffie, Kairi, and Aerith doing by the door?"
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"So what are they doing now?" Kairi asked from her position behind the door to the gym. Yuffie, being the most experienced in the whole "stealth" thing, was the one looking thought the very small crack that had been made when she had made sure the door was slightly jarred. "Absolutely nothing: their just sitting there staring at the floor." Yuffie replied, shaking her head slightly at the sight. "I'm telling you Kairi, your friends are real morons when it comes to romance." Yuffie said as she backed up from the door a little to talk with Kairi more openly.
"I know what you mean. If I hadn't asked Sora out on a date, he would have probably died of old age before he worked up enough courage to ask me out." Kairi said, shaking her head slightly at the thought. "Well, it looks like Riku is acting the same way, because I really don't think that he's going to do anything soon." Aerith said, adding her opinion into the mix. "You know what that means right?" Yuffie said, an "I just thought of something semi evil, but it won't kill anyone, and it will be fun," smiles spread across he face.
"It means that we get to play match maker." Kairi said, the same type of smile forming on her.
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"So let me get this straight: You want us to somehow bring Roxas, his emo friend, and the spiky blond haired guy here?" Axle said as he stared at Mr. Glass in a mild state of shock. "Don't think it will be that hard. After all, Sora thinks of me as an ally, and Cloud has no memory of anything that happened before one month ago. Buuuut, Riku could be a problem. If he gets it in his head that I'm and enemy, then I really don't think he would agree to go with me anywhere." Axle continued after a minute.
"It's not so much that you have to bring them here, just make sure they find the right path to get here." Mr. Glass said in reply to Axle's comment. "If they all think that coming here was their own idea, then they won't fight it as much and we can accomplish our goal much faster that way." Mr. Glass continued. After a couple minutes, Zexion, who was now fully healed thanks to a couple potions and spells, spoke up. "If we are going to lead them here, it would be wise to start preparations for the tests."
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Dropping the water-solid sword, Tidus collapsed on the ground panting for air. "You know…that…this would be…easier…if you didn't…keep forcing those…water clones to…attack me by the hundreds." Tidus managed to get out in between the painting. "Yes, it might be easier, but doing it this way will show you how to combat mass numbers of enemy solders, master." Overbite replied, speaking to Tidus through a mental link. "That's great…but how will…fighting the same clones over and…over again make me any stronger? Shouldn't I be trying to find Sora, Riku, and Kairi?" Tidus said, finally able to catch his breathe enough to talk normally.
"To rush out a face an enemy of unknown numbers would be unwise. You should first master all aspects of the water armor, so you can be prepared." The Element Armor spoke again, causing Tidus to let out a slight sigh. "All right, I'll wait until I've mastered the armor before I go looking for Sora and the others." Tidus said, clearly wanting to have left already. Pushing himself onto his knees, Tidus grabbed his sword off the ground and stood up. "So what's next?"
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"This is an unexpected turn of events." Edea said as she looked at the other members of the Dark Six. "I must agree; there has been three major set backs in the last twenty-four hours: Riku gained a Drive Form and, with Sora's help, was able to defeat Maleficent, Jafar, Pete, and Usui. That new Keyblade girl was able to escape Jadis thanks to the blond swordsman. But the worst thing must have been those nobodies and the young wizard stealing the Lunar Magic Book." Xehanort spoke up, a scowl clearly seen on his face.
"Might I suggest a more…subtle plan?" The Horned King spoke up, for the first time in days. After receiving a nod from Xehanort, the Horned King continued. "As it stands right now, we have the advantage in forces, but they have a larger group of people that can take on hundreds, or thousands of heartless by themselves. In stead of trying to simply destroy every world, why not turn several against the mouse king and his little army of light?" The dark king said, showing that he was clearly a strategist. "While the forces of light try and keep the worlds they are allied with from turning on them, we can strike at the worlds that have yet to be touched by the war, thus increasing our simple of heartless." The Horned King finished.
"Very well, Sephiroth, Jadis, and I will focus on turning worlds against the mouse king. Edea, Maleficent, and Horned King, I want you to start striking at worlds that have yet to be touched by use or the side of light. Oh, and use whatever force is necessary to win the battle." Xehanort said, before dismissing the other members.
END
Well…it's a lot shorter then I'd like, but it was all I could think of, without going into another long story/battle arc. So…here you go…