No reviews for the last chapter was not a motivating concept. I had actually convinced myself that I had forgotten to upload it before I went on vacation but, alas, it was not so. Oh well. Now I have to resort to desperate measures; bribery.
I have made a free website with bonus scenes form the story. Every chapter (except the prelude) has a little bonus story to go with it. Their just about a page each but they are full of little hints and just enough spoilers to drive you crazy.
Hears the catch. The only way to get to each story is by having the direct URL. There are no links. So if you leave a review that is either signed or has a working email, then I will send you the link to that chapter. I do plain to backtrack with the reviews I have now. I just want to give people enough time to see this that way I don't look like a weirdo.
This chapter's bonus: Izzy's confrontation with Xehanort from Terra's POV.
Nouns Part One: Interesting People
Radiant Garden had been famous not only for being one of the greatest hubs of knowledge in all the worlds but also for being one of the most beautiful places in existence. Anyone with the ability to travel between worlds eventually found themselves there at some point or another if only to follow up on rumors the place's magnificence. Dozens of fountains and gardens lined the streets and the prismatic castle that gave the world its name and light seemed to shine form everywhere.
Unfortunately, the more something shines with the light, the more the dark gets jealous. The more difficult it becomes for the thing to escape unscathed when the dark attacks and Radiant Garden was no exception. Quite the contrary, it was the quintessential example.
When the king's treacherous apprentices were through having their way with it, there was nothing left. Only a few rocks and the twisted remnants of the once glorious castle survived. Not even the apprentices themselves survived intact.
After its resurrection over a year ago it had become beautiful again. It was not the perfectly manicured beauty of before, but rather the beauty that comes from the peace of mind of having everyone work together. The rubble had become a town; a town of shanties and patch buildings. The once pristine castle was now rigged with several massive cranes.
Something inside Kairi wept when she saw it. She could not say why, only that it no longer felt right to her. As if there was something missing from the picture; as what she had thought of as the heart of the place was gone.
This was her birthplace and yet she remembered nothing, except the slightest recollection of a large library and an old woman; one far too old to be her mother and a bed time story that had far too much truth to it.
Sora seemed to know his way around well enough to act as a guide where Kairi's memory failed her. He took great pleasure in being able to actually show them where the stories had happened and the new friends that made them possible.
Sora introduced them to a broody looking young man by the name of Leon who turned out to be a lot less intimidating then she has originally imagined. The conversation was brief and consisted mostly of him suggesting that the teens go up to the castle to talk with Ansem.
The castle its self filled Kairi with such a sense of nostalgia that it actually almost physically hurt. Everywhere she looked her heart started to ache as if there were things it wanted to remember but couldn't no matter how hard it tried.
As she walked through the corridors with Sora and Riku and the King something began to pull at her; telling her to go down a smaller hallway to the right. Kairi didn't mention it to anyone before she decided it best to follow her heart.
The feeling led her to a small bedroom of sorts, although it was hard to tell with all the dusty books stacked organized and neatly on almost surface as if it hadn't been touched in almost a decade. The small size of the single bed in the corner told her that the room had been for some one young. She had spent a lot of time here but it had not been her room.
What Kairi did not notice was a small white creature hovering near the ceiling. It was reminiscent of a cross between a dandelion and a baby octopus. It glowed with a soft white light and the room changed for Kairi.
The ghostly forms of two small children became superimposed over the room. It was almost as if someone had turned on one of the projectors they used at school. A small boy wearing an oversized lab coat with a serious face and grayish purple hair sat at the desk reading some impossibly massive book.
The young girl entered the room from where Kairi was standing and she recognized her in an instant. It was her; a younger version of Kairi. She looked upset. The boy must have picked up on it because he looked up from his tome but said nothing; he was waiting for her to speak first.
"Why are they fighting?" She asked in a small, hurt voice.
It took him a moment to reply. In a direct, curt voice he said, "Your mother does not like Ansem's new apprentice." To anyone else the tone would have seemed rude, but for him it must have been the norm for it didn't faze her at all.
"I don't like him either. He looks like Terra but he's not." The boy had no reply so it was impossible to tell if he agreed or not.
"Ienzo, when is Terra coming back? He promised he would come visit soon." She asked. It obvious to the older Kairi that the boy must have been very smart if he was trusted to answer those questions. He couldn't have been much older the girl.
"He most likely isn't." His voice held no emotion and his face was once again buried in his book. Kairi-the memory Kairi- knew that it meant that Ienzo did not want to think about the answer after he gave it; as if it were as painful to say as it was to hear.
"He'll come back, I know he will. He promised." Kairi corrected him with no offence to his answer. She did not see it as him lying to her, more as a simple mistake.
Ienzo, despite his age, was not the kind of child to frivolously hope or wish on anything but this time he could not stop himself. Whatever stars were falling, whatever wishbones existed, and whatever budding flowered were ready to have their seeds scattered became the object of his silent prayers. He wanted Terra back just as much as Kairi did.
"Kairi?" Riku's voice startled her out of her trance and with her concentration broken the images vanished like smoke in the wind.
"Sorry. I just thought I saw something interesting." She muttered. Now was not the time to try and explain.
As she turned to leave something corporeal caught her interest. It was a framed photograph sitting on the dresser. It had to be the only truly personal touch in the entire room. Several inches of dust made the image obscure.
"Riku!" she called out handing him the picture. With most of the dust gone the picture was visible. Over half a dozen faces smiled up out of the frame and Riku recognized every single one of them.
It was organization XIII. Or at least their somebodies. The older ones were in the back: Xigbar, Xaldin, Vexen, Lexaus….but what really stood out was Xehanort. Or at least who had to be Xehanort. He stood off the side, away from the other apprentices and closer to the small group of young children that encompassed one entire side of the photograph. He was not the Xehanort Riku knew. His usually amber eyes and stark white hair had been replaced with deep blue eyes and rich brown hair. There was a kindness and warmth to his face that did not belong.
What was really surprising about the photo was the fact that not only the organization was included. Front and center near the rest of the children was a young red headed girl that Riku knew only so well. Kairi.
The two friends shared a look of shock and confusion for a moment before they were interrupted by a certain spiky haired young man.
"What 'cha doing?" He asked poking his head in the door.
Riku opened his mouth to answer but Kairi beat him to it.
"I'll tell you later." Something inside told her that now was neither the time nor place for the conversation. There were too many ghosts that haunted her in that room and too many strings being pulled in her heart.
Silently they made their way closer to the basement laboratory that Ansem had so adored. Kairi could not get the image and the photograph out of her mind. The fact that she could not remember anything before arriving on the beach on Destiny Island had never really bothered her before. Why should she miss what she never knew she had? But now… now that she had snippets dangled in front of her that the story was a little different.
Suddenly she stopped. The creature she never saw had followed her and when its feathery soft tentacles brushed across her face a new image appeared.
Her mother was standing at the opposite end of the hallway; she had to have been at least a decade younger but something in her face made her seem much older. A sadness and defeat hid behind her eyes in a way that suggested prodigy had recently been her visitor. A younger Kairi-maybe six years old- hid behind her mother's skirts.
About a dozen feet or so closer to where the older version of Kairi stood was a young man, Xehanort. His back was turned away from the woman as if he had been walking and something she had said forced him to stop.
"Excuse me?" Xehanort asked ever so politely but without turning around.
"You're not him. No matter what Ansem seams to hope or what Ienzo suspects or any of that. You. Are. Not. Terra." Izzy's voice was solid and firm but something inside Kairi saw that it took a lot out of her to say those words. Apparently she was not the only one to see it.
"You sound almost as if you are trying to convince yourself of that fact, my lady." he quipped.
In an instant the smallest nuances of his posture changed, his voice became smoother, and, although Izzy could not see it-only future Kairi was at the right angle- his eyes took on a slightly bluish tinge that made him seem closer to the brown haired boy in the photograph.
"If you think I'm such trouble then why have you not taken your daughter and gotten as far away from me as you possibly can? It would be the logical choice after all." Kairi could see during the beefiest instant that his eyes were blue, that something about his actions pained him. But as soon as the look appeared it vanished and Xehanort continued on his way.
"Okay, Terra I get it. This is your fight. I just wish you would let me help you." She whispered to herself as the image faded.
"And you must be the lovely Kairi that I've heard so much about." A kind looking old man with white hair said in introduction. Kairi had seen him before but could not place where.
"Nice to meet you. And you are?" She said reaching out her hand to shake.
After the introductions were done Riku begin to explain to the old man what had happened on Destiny Island. Ansem did not seem surprised that his old apprentice would take that path.
"It seems logical. Xehanort attacking the home of his enemies." he muttered.
"I was afraid I wouldn't get there in time, but they didn't even need me," Mickey volunteered before explaining about the boy in the black coat.
"Curious. I believe it was the same young man who rescued me from the dark realm."
"Then he must be a friend!" The mouse exclaimed.
"Not necessarily," Ansem corrected, "There was a young lady in the dark margin with me. When he rescued me he refused to bring her as well. He cited it not being the best time as his reasons. That along with the comment he made to you, my old friend, about pawns points to him having his own agenda."
"Is that really so wrong, especially if our agenda's happen to coincide?" Mal asked from the corner. He had just finished what he had to do with Aqua and figured he would take a look at what everyone else was doing when he heard himself being talked about most unfavorably. So, of course he had to put his two cents in.
"Look, about Aqua, I couldn't bring her yet because a physic friend of my-" he began to explain but Riku cut him off.
"A physic?" Mal found it more than slightly hypocritical of him to judge him for his odd friends but he said nothing.
"Don't knock it till you've tried it. Anyway, my friend told me that I was going to have to save your butts from that creature. Wished she would have warned me about the Keyblade though. Then I went to get Aqua. And about the whole 'Pawns' comment, so what if I like to be a little cryptic. I guess that's what I get for having a friend who knows almost everything.
"Look, if you still don't trust me, then go into the last room on the right in your apprentices' not-so-secret-lab and get Aqua. Tell her that I'm working with Aero and that we're working to put Ventus and Terra back together again." Mal gave Ansem the disk that would allow them to follow his directions and turned to leave.
"Waite, you know Terra?" Kairi asked.
Mal turned. What would a princess of heart know about Terra? And better yet why wasn't she asking Ansem? He would know more.
"You do?"
She nodded before answering the 'how' question she knew came next.
"They were talking about him in this memory I saw. At least I think it was a memory, but at the same time it looked like a movie playing over the room," she explained, wanting so much to have the incident explained. Something in her heart told her it was important. Weather the 'it' was the vision or what it showed she could not say, but either way she had to know.
"Kairi," Riku warned, "we don't know if we can trust him."
"But he has a Keyblade." Kairi retorted.
"So didn't Xehanort." He gently reminded her.
"Hey! First, don't ever compare me to him. He was a conniving fucking leach with or without his memories. Second, he hasn't been able to use a Keyblade since he lost his when Terra screwed up his memories. And good riddance, the last thing we need is him with a Keyblade. Third, that was the first time I summoned a Keyblade so it was just as much a surprise to me as it was to you." Mut did not know what made him think he had to explain himself but for some reason they had to know. They had to see him as something-anything-other than a bad guy.
"Look, just follow my advice and take a look underground. Things are going to start to unravel soon enough anyways," and with that he left everyone just standing in the middle of Ansem's lab. There was nothing left to do.
"What were you doing in Zexion's childhood bedroom? Does your mother know you were there?" Mal asked before stepping completely out of the dark corridor. It was dangerous for him to be here and yet he was not frightened. Mut would not tell and The Castle That Never Was was a big place with few inhabitants. Getting in and out unseen was not difficult.
The young child did not look up from his coloring book but the bright blue crayon stilled at the voice. Most six year olds would have piles of toys and games lining their bedroom, but not him. He was not allowed. His mother would not be pleased if she even saw the crayons.
"You're trying to find them, aren't you?" Mal whispered.
Mut just nodded, never looking up. He never looked up. He wasn't supposed to. His mother had always taught him that kids had no business looking adults in the eye.
"You can't find them. And even if you did, most of them wouldn't help." Mal was trying to be kind to the child-he knew perhaps better than most that he was the only one who cared- but Mut, despite his advanced intelligence, was too young to understand.
For the first time Mut looked up. His bright blue eyes looked so heartbroken that Mal himself had to look away.
"But if I don't then Mother will never love me!" He cried. Mal didn't have the heart to tell him the truth: that his mother was incapable of love in any way, shape, or form. She was, in essence, born a nobody-a heartless monster-but Mal understood the desire for a mother's love. Especially when it was so difficult to see them for what they were.
"Well… you should at least start with the ones that actually wanted to help Xehanort. They will be more willing to help again. If I remember correctly Ienzo wasn't exactly the first to sign up and all that mess with Roxas will not make Lea any more willing." If felt weird supplying the kid with information he knew would be used against them, but what else could he do. Mut did not deserve the hand he was dealt but that did not mean he did not have to play it, it just meant that he was going to have to play it well.
"Can you help me?" Again with those accursed blue eyes. Mal suddenly could understand how Aero was willing to do anything for Terra.
"I'll see what I can do. But if you tell your mother our idea, she might know who to start with and a way to track them down. Apparently you tracking them by their memories isn't working." Mal found himself offering despite his better judgment, but the euphoric look on the kids face made it worth it.
"Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you!" Mut practically bounced.
Mal took the kid into his arms to give him a monster hug. How such a child of the light could have been dammed to live in such darkness was well beyond his comprehension.
"Just don't tell your mother were you got the idea from," he warned, running his hand through the boy's power white spikes of hair, "it wouldn't help you gain her love you if she knew you were talking to me."
The newfound keyblader closed his eyes and silently prayed that he wasn't making things worse for the kid in the long run.
There is a cookie up for grabs to anyone who can figure out what the dandelion/baby octopus thing is. Here's a hint: they played a pretty big role in one of the biggest movies of the decade. Good luck.
