Angie stood several feet away from Troy's Shambhala sanctum. She remained motionless with her arms folded, finally tilting her head in confusion. The apprentice nurse and white mage glanced down at the 'DO NOT DISTURB' sign hanging from the the plain metal door's twist handle, one of (unadmittedly) many things that stopped her from barging straight through the door both in the present and past. She was familiar with most of the Covenant's individual haunts, but not that of the Warrior Paragon that rarely actually spent his time within Shambhala in the first place. Taking a deep breath and gathering her courage, she gave several quick, strong raps on the door. Nothing resulted.
"Troy, I know you're in there." Angie said sternly. Still no reply.
Finally, she simply twisted open the handle and never bothered peeking through a crack in the door, instead sticking her whole head through. She yanked it back out as the distinct odor of a Koopa hovel assaulted her senses. "Oh GOD, it is RANK in there! What the hell are you doing?"
Troy had done away with all the extra bunk beds in his chamber, keeping his old one. In front of his still-inactive buggy, a pair of posh office desks were arranged in an L-shape. Troy sat in a ridiculously-large padded recliner, resting his boots atop the desk closest to the door. A pair of stereo headphones dwarfed his head, continuing to spew audible death metal both while sitting atop his skull and after he plucked them off with his free hand. "...can I help you?"
"W-well, I-"
"Oh wait, no, I prefer to deal with literate people, that tends to make it easier for all parties involved." Troy raised a large book back in front of his face with the other hand.
"I'm just checking up on you, you jerk," Angie sputtered. "Derek told me about what happened on Plit. We were wondering why you didn't report back to Shambhala immediately after what happened. I'm surprised you came back on your own free will at all, and didn't go on another galactic joyride like you seem to whenever Auron isn't looking. And don't tell me off again, it's my duty to know and/or verify everyone's condition as one of the Covenant medical staff."
Troy rolled his eyes, lowering his literary barrier. "Believe it or not, I DID report what happened on Plit to Auron, and he was the one that told me to lie low for a bit... so I visited some folks in my home kingdom for a few days. Rest assured I'm done there for a long time."
"It's kind of strange to hear someone say that about their homeworld."
Troy shook his head. "...nah, it's time for me to move on. Everyone there's grown and matured so much, hell, most of my acquaintances departed on their own, oh what did you call it, 'galactic joyride'. Plit's developed, it's in good hands now. I'll always have good and bad memories about my life there, but ultimately I'm with the Covenant for the long haul. Please don't think otherwise."
"Hmm," Angie hummed. "It's kind of sad when you put it that way..."
"Bah," Troy scoffed. "I have a saying: friends are best visited, not lived with. I can live like this."
"So what are you looking at?"
Troy flopped the book down on the desk. The tome itself was far larger than the one he himself possessed. "As much as I can absorb about every little facet of my existence."
nsx
THe kEy
No one knows when or where the first keyblade was excavated, actually. There's not any even real record of when that nomenclature came about, though it seemed an inevitability when the nature of their latent forms was at least partially acknowledged. As a matter of fact, many of them already existed in the center of early societies (throughout recorded history, anyways), though their perceptions took many different forms - icons of power, divine property of royal families, raw blessings of power, etc. There are documented accounts of many of said civilizations utilizing them in manners that would suggest that their powers had, at the very least, been tapped into. Keep in mind that the Heartless and Vast have only just started to advance on worlds in the present day. The actual destructive properties the keyblades held against them would not be general knowledge for a long, long time. Who knows what happened to most of these peoples? Perhaps the keyblades played pivotal roles in their downfalls...
Not even Organization XIII knew what to make of the keyblade... most of them, anyways. It is mentioned within what remains of their documentation that one member of the Organization wielded a keyblade themselves, and exploitation of their Heartless-banishing properties was to be undertaken in order to power a scheme to regain functional hearts... whatever that entailed. That in particular didn't mean much to the Covenant; both the corrupted path to the heart and the lack of a way to activate keyblades for ourselves and others. Eventually, we would be forced to begin our own research on the keyblades. Alarmingly, as we began our own studies, we began to receive reports of worlds on which people were accidentally activating the keyblades and attuning them to themselves. It was at this moment we realized that an answer was within reach, but at the same time, we had to double our efforts to ensure that they would fall into the hands of those that would put them to benevolent use.
THE ACTIVATION OF A KEYBLADE
As mentioned, the keyblades have both found in deep strata of planets' crusts, in the hands of ancient civilizations, the latter then the former, or, in a surprising chain of recent events, drifting in deep space. This combined with the Organization's familiarity with the functioning of the keyblades leads us to believe their origination and utilization lies at the very least beyond the Organization's conception. We have deemed their history cannot be salvaged at this time, or the methods used to create more, until we discover relevant information. At the same time however, we do know they HAVE been used, and we are simply the next in line to command them. Who their previous owners were is unknown; perhaps we will never learn.
Obviously our first form of damage control was to determine what exactly caused the keyblades to break their hibernation and choose new masters, and prescribe said method to worlds in the hopes that the 'right' people could get them as noted. This was before we even had any known methods of discovering and tracking the sealed keyblades, however. Attempts to contact and interview novice keypers to learn about their initial experiences was a painfully awkward (and depending on their alignment and/or position of power, greatly hazardous) process. The breakthrough that allowed us a test subject was unexpected.
A chance encounter with one of our most recent inductees, one of the Tarutaru race of Vana'diel, revealed much to us. During an earlier short-term diplomatic expedition to Vana'diel, one of our other agents came across the small, impish woman camped out in a hovel outside one of their capitals. She was in a constant frenzy, very obviously feverish and suffering from bite wounds, most likely from the wild monsters that swarmed around outside of her refuge. When returned to the nearby settlement and treated for wounds of physical and mental nature over the period of a couple weeks, she began to calm and regain her sanity. When we spoke of keyblades, she seemed to perfectly understand us, offering to show us hers. It was an odd weapon, the form it had taken: a dainty, slim-handled dark-headed hammer that likely would not have harmed anyone if swung hard, even herself. Nonetheless, she was more than willing to take us to the insect-infested caverns on the south side of the city that the locals deemed 'Crawler's Nest'.
While we were hesitant to ask what happened inbetween then and now, she told us that she had been down in its depths on a previous expedition hunting for ancient artifacts, where she acted as the group's medic and white mage, one who specialized in regenerative and protective magicks. At one point she became separated from the group and stumbled upon the chamber where a keyblade lay dormant. As she explained, it had been covered in an incredibly thick, crystalline substance that exploded as she advanced upon it. Luckily, there were still fragments of the stone scattered all around the chamber, which we quickly scavenged together. In a sudden fit of zealotry, she insisted that she travel with the Covenant, in despair saying that she had nothing left to live for on Vana'diel. Some may say that we took advantage of her, but she both possessed magic that the Covenant at the time did not have access to, and she held a keyblade. We did not know exactly how well she could wield it in combat at the time, but the fact remained that she was our first stepping stone towards meaningful research. She jettisoned her old name, not distinctly remembering any meaning to it, and took on the moniker of 'Fires' as people referred to her hair more than any other of her physical features.
The crystal shards were a distinct pale, opal color, and while translucent had a smoky composition. Attempts to dismantle it further were met with failure, even with the most advanced technology that we had at our disposal via Shambhala. In fact, examining it under the finest electron microscopes revealed nothing but a continuous outside layer. Eventually we were able to confirm something that we hoped to be able to avoid.
That material was a literal super-tensile solid of Vast.
If we couldn't smash it, how could she? We had to figure out what was destabilizing the Vast. Experience had shown us that the Vast, along with the Heartless, was a living symbiote (or in the worst case, had the potential to be), so some reaction between Fires and it was confirmed as the variable. We maintained diplomatic contact with worlds we had previously visited, dispatching our members to serve as supervisors on relic hunts as they came and went. It took a great deal of work, but bit by bit we were able to witness a trickle of keypers being born, then a flood. The keyblades' bindings ran the gamut as opposed to what Fires told us, often varying in size and color - but still retaining the same physical structure.
The current hypotheses are as follows: a great amount of Vast is attracted to and accumulates over top of the keyblade as time goes on, but at the same time, they keyblade is somehow contaminating the Vast in such a way that the presence of compatible sentient life destabilizes it. From what we've been able to gather from bearing witness to many keyblade knightings, the otherwise inexplicable random color shift from regular Vast is meant to indicate this, with different colors corresponding to traits in a keyper that the keyblade desires. Say, for example, Fires' white would correspond to things like serenity/patience or apathy, red would have some kind of link to courage/ambition or rage, etc. It is for this reason that we can reason that the keyblade itself is what causes this. As frightening as it is to contemplate, the keyblades themselves are seeking out their next champions. The Vast is a living thing. Could a keyblade be one as well?...
THE STRUCTURE OF A KEYBLADE
Becoming attuned to a keyblade is just one piece of the looming puzzle. Putting it to good use is another, especially considering how broad the applications of such are. Similar to the Vast hive itself, the keyblade is a super-tensile solid that, to this point in time, cannot be examined via scientific physical examination. Once a keyblade is tied to someone, however, its form seems to constantly shift to the whims of its owner. While apparently the laws of conservation of energy are still in effect, the devices on the whole share paradoxes with ultra-subatomic masses currently being examined on the cutting edge of quantum mechanics. This is in effect to the point that many new keypers are utterly unable to keep their keyblades in a coherent form for any length of time, rendering them inert when, say, a Heartless is trying to eat them. This is nothing that can't be remedied with training however.
Once one can truly harness the keyblade, more interesting things begin to occur. While the keyblade's form shifts slightly to represent its new owner, it cannot actually be molded into random objects beyond its initial reconception. Rather, it takes on a binary form of A, the developed keyblade, and B, that of raw, latent energy that can be stored invisibly in the vicinity of its owner. This is what creates the illusion of a keyper drawing their weapon out of thin air, or concealing it within themselves. The keyblade retains its super-tensile properties while in the form of a weapon and is virtually indestructible.
While the keyblade can shift back and forth at the user's whim, and energy is fully conserved in the transfer, it is only possible to incur the very slightest in variations between the two. With practice it is possible to modify the ratio of energy to mass, allowing it to strike at very specific substances while having different or no effect on others. This can be used to outright ignore physical elements such as armor to strike underneath, harm a Nobody but not a Heartless or Vast, or other such effects. This goes without saying that the keyblades themselves have innate effects, such as control over the elements, healing properties, or physical and mental boons upon their wielder, but typically speaking these are not incredibly potent in nature, partly due to being powered by the wielder's willpower and/or life force. It is unknown how far these abilities could be pushed, which is especially important to note as the effects of more potentially destructive keyblades have come into public knowledge (time control, nigh-invulnerability, etc.)
The term 'keyblade' itself, however, is a little less ambiguous. Dormant keyblades take the generic form of a double-hilted axe-like weapon, with a mid-size, rounded metal shaft and a set of arranged teeth pointing off the side of its peak. As mentioned previously, this tends to fluctuate when an owner is found and 'locked in', some times more dramatically than others. Of more interest though are the varying chains that are attached to the keyblades, often themselves bearing mysterious symbols at their ends. These are likely mementos, links to their creators... ones that have been bound to the keyblades through trials and tribulations. They are the links to the past, even if we cannot mentally place them.
Their creators... how WOULD things like these be created?
THE DOCTRINE OF A KEYBLADE
Which raises another burning question - if anyone can just plug into their respective keyblade, generally speaking, what's there stopping them into falling into all the wrong hands? They may unusually destructive against the symbiotes, whether due to their physical properties or some other factor, but that doesn't and won't stop them from being used in the name of villainy and oppression. What can be done to prevent a situation like that?
The answer is close to nothing. If we were a government dealing with the prospect of keyblades appearing in a finite division of space and time, then that would be far simpler than the situation we are presented with now. Everywhere, every minute of every day, of every ascending unit of time, new keyblades are being unearthed. For us to attempt to police keyper conscription while considering one code of law, that's one thing, but having to deal with an endless stream of regimes is a strangling amount of red tape for us to overcome. It is possible that many worlds will eventually fall or be corrupted beyond repair by the advent of the keyblades. Some already have, either by war, accidental destruction, or disbelief in the Heartless and Vast that already seep out of every crevice of their dirt.
We work diligently towards furthering this code of honor, but it is foolhardy to believe that it is universally applicable, or that it will always succeed in ensuring that people work together toward the future. That we can save many lives is a realistic assumption, but coming to grips with the potential loss of many others is the only healthy way to look at the task we have set out to perform. Keyblades must never, ever be used as tools of war... but this is an inevitable outcome in some situations. The Covenant is to limit its use of keyblade powers with the exception that LIVES ARE IN IMMEDIATE DANGER, to help promote the belief that keyblades are the affirmative weapon against symbiotic invasion and that they are, as such, meant as tools of self-defense. To warn of incoming danger and educate these peoples, that is the best we can do. If all we manage to do is convince them of their raw power... that is the worst thing that could possibly bestow upon them.
Scientia primoris, vir secundus.
Knowledge first, heroism second.
Flagrant and excessive keyblade use, ESPECIALLY on technologically-undeveloped worlds, is cause for immediate suspension of service. Aggravated use of a keyblade causing intended death is cause for immediate expulsion if not execution. Assaulting a fellow Covenant member on the same grounds... swift death to the perpetrator. We will not be seen as hypocrites.
To those that can follow our word and work towards peace once more, godspeed. If you are not part of the solution... you are the problem.