The moment Aero had stepped on the light, woodsy world, she knew that Kostose was to be her home; the place her heart would never truly leave. Something called to her from space the first moment she laid eyes on the dense ball of forest. Latter she would claim that it was the people more then the place itself that was her personal siren.
In ten years nothing changed except for the lack of people and the inches of dust that had accumulated on every available surface. The halls were quite and deserted; a state that, although not unnatural for the place, was more then a little eerie.
Those who had not previously been invited to the sanctuary of legends, found it to have an enchanted air to it. The architecture was like nothing any of them had ever seen (or in Ienzo's case, read of) before.
Every room was built high in one of the plentiful trees that reached well over a hundred feet into the air. Most of the outside walls were comprised of large arching windows that let in so much sunlight the rooms were bathed in eternal dusk. The walls themselves were an ash colored wood that gave a stark contrast to the ivy that had climbed in through the windows and continued to grow along the inside of the halls.
The second Kairi stood inside she froze. This place looked familiar. It was as if she had seen it somewhere before. A movie, a play, a dream… that's it! A dream.
Looking around the girl quickly realized that this was neither the time nor the place. For some reason she knew that blurting her business out to everyone was not the smartest thing… it wasn't that she didn't trust them exactly, it was more that she felt that they have their own secrets so she should keep hers.
"Wow. This place really didn't change." Ven said as the party walked down the long deserted halls. "Except it was less dusty last time."
"Well what were you expecting? Castles and dungeons and motes?" Aero asked only half sarcastic. Thanroe couldn't have shone too many of his true colors or they would have had more people on their side.
"Not the motes." Was his almost curt reply. Aqua rolled her eyes while Terra just stared off into space. She knew something was wrong. It had been wrong since the boy talked to Ansem; whatever had been said was obviously weighing heavily on his mind.
"They decided not to say anything." Aero whispered to her sister, informing her of Terra and Ansem's decision on reviling Kairi's heritage. It was a foolish move. Not only would it bring pain to both men, it would also bring pain to the one person they were claiming to be protecting.
In Aero's opinion, they were just being cowards. It was natural for Terra to rush into battle; to face challenges head on, but the moment the emotional atmosphere changed…
"Idiots." Aqua voiced both sisters' reaction in a single decisive word.
"My thoughts exactly. But Izzy will straighten them out when she finds out. I wonder if Terra is too old to get a spanking?" The seer mused aloud just loud enough for her sister and Ven to hear.
"Not if you're the one giving it." Her sister shot back, sending the blood rushing to Aero's face, although it was hard to tell if it was because of anger or embarrassment.
"And you call me the immature one of the group." She huffed offended as she walked a little faster to get away form the current duo. Honestly she and Terra were just alike. They were fine when they were the ones dishing out the crude jokes but god forbid they were on the receiving end…
"You know if you ever got the opportunity…" Ven called after her loud enough to alert the others to the existence of their conversation. Aero on the other hand turned, and looked Ven square in the eye.
"If I ever got the opportunity, Ventus, I'm sure I could be a bit more creative then that. Don't you think?" The spiky haired boy's eyes widened in horror at the images that were brought to mind at his words. With a simple shudder, the boy trudged forth, answering no questions and ignoring the tiny girl's laughter.
After almost twenty-four hours of sleep Blaze was still not completely rested, but he did not try to go back to sleep. The dust in his room made it almost impossible to rest unless one was dead exhausted and he was starving. Not a good combination.
Stumbling out of bed, he made his way out into the long corridor that comprised of most of this wing of the complex. What he didn't know was that just as he was opening the door to his room, the very ones he had almost given his live to protect were passing. The sudden opening of the door startled Terra so much that the only sight Blaze saw was the end of a long keyblade millimeters from his face.
"Errr…Hi?" Blaze really couldn't be sure what to say. He had suspected that Terra was awakened as well but to really see it and he didn't know how much Aero had told them; how much he was still a bad guy in the eyes of the Chasers.
Before Terra could react, Aero had bound forth like a rabbit and wrapped her arms around Blaze's neck so hard that within seconds started turning blue.
"Brea…thing…would…be…nice." He managed to gasp out causing the tiny girl to release her death grip.
"Well that's what you get. Do you know how worried you had me?" Aero's hands were resting on her hips which was a very un-Aero like gesture. She noticed him wearily eyeing the crowd around her and she could probably
"Don't worry about them, I've told them everything. Now why didn't you tell me where you've been? I've been worried sick." Aero said sternly, causing Blaze to give a little laugh.
I'm sorry your majesty," he teased using their own private joke, " but I was a little too tired to think of anything but sleep."
"Oh. So how are Koji and Kouichi?" Her concern was just as evident in her voice as it was in her face. She had gotten attached to them just as she had to everyone else she had manipulated. Perhaps that was a trait derived from the rare characteristic she had of only using her brand of subtle guidance only in a way that would lead to good for those being handled.
"As far as I know they are just about as tired as I was but other then that they seemed fine." His words set the girl's mind at ease, and he continued.
"So what are you guys doing here?" Blaze inquired.
"Well I wanted to have a look at the DLI and take a look through Thanroe's things before we plain our next move." Her explanation had the newer members of the group doing a double take. DLI? When they voiced the question she answered.
"Remember the machine I told you about? The one I built? That's it. The Dark to Light Interface." Aero's voice had more then a hint of pride as she was talking about one of her many 'babies.'
"What good will that do? We all ready know who all the princess of heart are." Riku asked.
Aero sighed. It would be nice to have people figure something out on their own for once.
"Just because the DLI was used to find the princesses does not mean that is all it can do. Actually it's not even its main function. See every world is made of both darkness and light. If there is too much of either it can be bad. The DLI can measure how much of each is in any given world." Aero trailed off trying to see if anyone else could see where she was going with it.
"So if we can tell which worlds are out of balance then we have an idea of where to start our search." Ienzo finished. Good boy.
"Bingo baby." Aero replied.
"Makes sense." Sora muttered.
"The only kink I haven't been able to work out with it is that, when doing a general search like we will be, the DLI takes forever. So I kind of figured it would be best to get it started and then look through the bustard's things." Aero explained.
"Maybe I could be of assistance." Ienzo offered. Aero tried really hard to hide her distain at the thought of someone else touching her 'baby' but apparently she wasn't as good as she hoped; her friends could still tell.
"Maybe." She answered as she led the group towards said baby.
When told of the supposed miraculous machine, the teens had a certain set to expectations. These entailed it being something like the DtD; simply a big computer. They should have learned by now that nothing that had to do with Aero was ever what one would expect.
The room that appeared to hold the DLI did not fit into the architecture of Kostose at all. The walls were covered in a kind of smooth black metal that was not dissimilar to what Gummi blocks were made of and their was no control panel, only a single chair in the center of the room.
Without so much as a word Aero hurried over and plopped herself down into the chair and took something from a side pocket: a pair of rectangle glasses, similar to sun glasses yet without the nose notch.
Putting them on she stretched her hand out in front of her and touched something only she could see within the air.
"DLI engaged. Search: all known planets. Parameters: all that falls outside of the ranges of forty to sixty percent darkness." With those words the computer sprang to life to do as it was bidden, and Terra turned to walk out the door.
"There is nothing we can do here. We might as well start looking for answers. You coming?" He asked. With a shrug most followed him. Only Nessie stayed. Ienzo, on the other hand, was torn. He so wanted to see the great machine in action, but he was also the one to know the most about what Thanroe was after. In the end duty won out and he followed the many leaders to the office of the former Keyblade master.
When they reached the office everyone started looking through every book, file, and paper to possibly find something. Terra took some of the more classified information (it would not do to have one of Kairi's friends find out the truth) while Ienzo pulled a small black stick from his pocket.
When Riku saw the flash drive he asked his ex-nemesis what he was doing.
"Thanroe may try to take back Kostose. If he succeeds, It would be fortunate for us if we have the information this computer may hold. Also I'm implanting an untraceable program that will periodically send all information to Ansem's computer and then allow me to manually crash every computer linked to this terminal." Ienzo explained without even looking at the rest of them.
"Do you think it will come to that?" Kairi asked. Ienzo finally looked up as he answered.
"I hope not but between those in this room, Thanroe has been underestimated numerous times. I don't intend to add any to that count, do you?"
She never got a chance to reply for Myde interrupted the moment as he held up a single tattered piece of paper. The look on his face told everyone that he had something, something tangible, something viable, at least in his child like eyes.
As he started to read from the tattered piece of paper everyone else soon saw that it was important not only in his eyes but in the eyes of other's.
Entry 5
It seems that I have become obsessed with gaining power, especially now that the Dark Crusader has been bale to reproduce. How long until the little brats are old enough to make the same mistakes as their father? How long until the legions of Farrell Worlds grow?
It is not a question to me as to 'if' it will happen but as to 'when,' after all, the apple does not fall far from the tree, no matter how dark the branches are. This is the root of my obsession, perhaps unhealthy as it may be, but it may just be the only thing keeping every keyblader alive.
Although my search has been thorough, I have been unable to find any means to this set of aims. I have looked everywhere even within the binds of the Émigré manuscript but found nothing except some rather nasty ways to separate the body, soul and heart. Only one power exists that may be enough to defeat him, but could I do it? Could I fight fire with fire; darkness with darkness.
"This looks like Thanroe's hand writing." Terra pointed out.
"Forget that. The Dark Crusader had kids, that can't be good." He muttered just as Aero entered the room.
"What can't be good?" She asked, before having what looked like a sole journal entry shoved under her nose. As she quickly read the words scrolled in black ink across the page, her face got slightly tighter.
"Which part were you talking about?" Her voice was calm and level.
"He was talking about the Dark Crusader's kids." Terra explained causing the girl to raise one brow.
"I'm more concerned with the fact that, according to this, Thanroe knew what he was dealing with when he accepted the darkness. This was no accident. He chose this." Blaze's voice had a hard edge to it, almost as if somewhere deep within his heart he hoped that the darkness had clamed his master in the night; that he could be saved simply because it was an unwilling slave to something much bigger.
"Doesn't the spells in that Émigré thing sound like how the heartless and nobodies are made?" Myde asked, calling attention away from Blaze. His jump in brain activity seemed to jog his brother's memory.
"Isn't that the book Roger Bacon told Dad about? The one that was so evil, but he couldn't destroy it?" Lea wondered aloud.
"Alright, so here's the deal. The DLI spat out one world that is almost ninety percent dark. Also I saw what Ienzo did to the computers and it's a good idea. I built around that and programmed the defenses for this place so that only we can get in and it would probably be a good idea to do that to the computer in twilight town. Although it is pretty smashed up information can still be recovered.
"Ienzo, Myde, Lea, you guys should probably track Bacon down. Since you are acquainted with him, he may be more willing to cooperate. Ven, Aqua, Sora and Kairi would you mind taking care of the computer?" Aero asked and without even waiting for their reply.
There was a method behind her madness. The brothers where the only ones she was able to be straight with concerning her reasoning without giving away secrets that were not hers to give. Ven would not like going with out Aqua and she seriously doubted that Kairi was the kind of princess that was content to twiddle her thumbs while others faced danger. Plus this kept Terra sane. He knew that they, and Sora, would not let anything happen to his baby sister and he didn't have to worry about him accidentally doing something to jog her memory. On top of all that, Aero wasn't sure how much she trusted Aqua around Blaze. They simply fought too much even on the best days. Perhaps that's what comes with being as different as fire and water.
"Blaze, Riku, Terra and I will check in on the world with so much darkness. Any questions?" She asked.
"Why can't we all go together?" Sora asked, slightly uncomfortable with the thought of being separated from his friend again. It was understandable considering how much he had to go thorough during his last adventures. Dealing with Riku's truing to the dark and then finally seeing the light. His banishment to the world of darkness and (although Sora didn't remember) the fight through Castle Oblivion.
"Time is of the essences."
"And trying to fight with more then three or four people in a party gets too messy. It gets too hard to keep up with where everyone is." Terra explained and Aero was thankful for his intervention. It was getting awkward with her being the one people looked to for answers.
"Ness?" Aero asked the girl, causing her to look up. "Would you mind staying here? You and your family would have plenty to hunt and we need someone to manage the DLI and keep us in touch with each other while we're gone. It's really easy. I'll show you how and we'll keep an eye out for the rest of your family."
"That would probably be best." She answered, nodding. It wasn't like she knew much about fighting anyway.
So our heroes have gone their separate ways. Now I'll be able to give everyone a bit more screen time for those of you who wanted a bit more of certain characters. But that also means that their may be some chapters without certain characters. Nessie kind of got the same treatment as Mickey. Not totally out of the picture but the fat has been trimmed. I'm not saying we're not going to see her anymore it's just the rest of her family will be a bit more prominent then she is, even if she is my favorite Twilight Character.
The reason I didn't write Terra and Ansem's reunion is simple. Nothing really happened (at least that I know about) except they decided not to say anything.
As for the DLI think that big computer from Digimon season Three. I have no idea what it is called; I've only seen a couple episodes of that season, but I love the idea of big computers…
For the inside of Kostose think a combination of Ellesmera, the home of the elves in the Eragon books, and Kashyyyk the Wookie home of Star Wars.
Yes I'm a nerd. Deal with it because both worlds have to be in the story for plot reasons, although one will show up a soon while the other must wait until the end of the third act (This chapter marks the end of act one, so you can tell it's going to be a while). Also showing up are Yu Yu Hakasho and Shaman King. Those are the only ones I'm set on. Naruto on the other hand will NOT be making an appearance. I never could get into it and it seems as if every other KH story has that in it, ergo it's not in mine.
School's out on the twenty second and I want to see if I can get chapter twenty out by then. That's what? Two chapters a week? Feasible. Wish me luck.
Also there is a line stolen straight form the twilight movie. Not mine.