End of Eternity
Chapter 6
Countless heartless and nobodies blanket out the sky of Radiant Garden. Tired of ramming into them, Donald and Goofy began firing at those in the way as the gummi ship descended into the atmosphere.
From the cockpit view, everyone was beginning to recognise some of the familiar landscape. The castle ruins and town houses gradually became bigger. Everyone seemed to be in a slightly more cheery mood to return to a place they felt somehow belonged.
Roxas took a side-glance at Sora, wondering what he was thinking. Sora, too, was looking at the scenic view below them. There were many questions on Roxas' mind. He was more concerned about two than the rest. What would happen if all the seals were destroyed? Would the world end? No one – nobody – had the answers. Roxas nearly chuckled when he thought of that. Do the maintainers know? Perhaps. But no matter what happened, his decision was firm. He understood better than anyone else the motive behind Sora's actions. He would help Sora even if the whole world stood against them.
Riku and the King were talking amongst themselves at the other end of the ship. Roxas knew they wouldn't be as supportive as Sora hoped them to be. If they were to act, Roxas would choose to act immediately.
It turned out Sora was thinking along the same line. While no one was taking notice of them, he dragged Roxas to the side. He then indicated to the control panel.
Roxas followed his gaze and spotted a round green button that Sora was referring to. He understood immediately. Acting as naturally as possible, he went up to the control panel again.
"What are you doing?" Riku asked alertly just as Roxas smacked the green button.
Before the others were able to comprehend what was going on, the dispatch hatch at the end of the ship opened up. Strong winds sucked into the vessel, causing the entire ship to rock. The town was directly below.
"Sora!" Riku yelled, squinting from the gust blowing in his face.
Sora gave him an apologising look and jumped down the hatch. Roxas followed right behind.
A few people called after them but Roxas didn't hear what they said. The wind drowned their voices instantly. Although they weren't far from the ground, free falling was still an incredible experience. Town houses grew rapidly from model-sizes back to their normal sizes before Roxas eyes. Sora was right next to him. His eyes glimmered with excitement.
With precise timing, the pair performed several aerial dives to reduce the impact upon landing to a minimum. They had arrived at the borough not far from Merlin's house. The gummi ship was a dark blob in the sky. Thinking about they just did, Roxas was ready to admit they were truly crazy to have jumped down from there. As he expected, Riku had not followed them this time. The silver-head didn't have the ability to jump down from such a height without breaking all the bones in his body.
"Is it ok to leave them behind? They'll be worried," Roxas asked. The heartless and nobodies had infiltrated the sky as well as the land. Similar to the situation in Destiny Island, those black and white enemies were scattered all over the place, fighting each other mindlessly.
"They'll be angry too. But it's all my fault that things had come down to this. I'll take care of it alone if I can," said Sora conclusively.
"We will," Roxas corrected him. A big smile spread across Sora's face. He then drew out his keyblade to detect the location of the last keyhole. Suddenly, his smile was replaced by a painful grimace.
Roxas could sense the pain, though it felt far away, as if someone was trying to hit him through layers of cushions. He froze. Was it pain he was feeling? Nobodies were not suppose to be able to feel any emotion. Was it merely his imagination?
It was no use thinking about it, so Roxas pushed it out of his mind. "Can you really go on, Sora?" There was little memory left in Sora's heart. Even as his nobody, Roxas couldn't tell how much longer Sora could keep going.
"I can do it," Sora told him between uneven breaths. "I can sense the presence of last seal coming over there." He pointed to the direction of the restoration site.
Though unconvinced, Roxas didn't argue. No one could change it after Sora's mind was made up. Standing upright, he slipped his arm under Sora's to support him.
"It's so good that you're back," Roxas heard Sora say as he half drag and half walked Sora towards the restoration site. He said it in a soft voice but because they were so close, Roxas heard it quite clearly. "Roxas…" Sora continued. "I never understood anything about nobodies. A lot of times, I always only think about what those have to do with me. I never understood anything about you. I'm sorry." If the genuineness in Sora's eyes didn't speak all for him, the honesty in his heart certainly did so.
"Well, you can always buy me sea salt ice if you're apologising," Roxas said with a grin. He noticed the King's gummi ship wasn't in the sky anymore. Realising they had little time, the pair pressed on.
Going to the restoration site involved passing the enemies invested bailey. Roxas and Sora kept away from unnecessary battles as much as they could. The keyblade was picking up a strong reaction from underground, leading them pass the postern to the corridors. By then, Sora recovered enough to walk without Roxas' help.
If the reaction was coming from within the corridors, they had only a place in mind.
Philosopher Ansem's study was tidy. In a way that it had nothing other than a large rectangular desk and several empty bookshelves. Leon and the others have tidied up the mess that was there when they first discovered the place. There weren't any glass fragments on the floor anymore. The stacks of reports were on longer there either. King Mickey had either taken them away or destroyed them after he found out Sora had been studying there. The blackboards that had theories on the heart and darkness written all over were gone as well. Walking past the study, Roxas and Sora came to Ansem's massive computer. Sora stared at the large device behind the computer with a perplexed look. Roxas could guess it must felt familiar to Sora, but he couldn't remember what it was for.
Roxas turned his attention to the computer. It was logged on.
"I wonder if Leon or Aeris was here?" Sora wondered. He seemed happier that he still remembered two of his friends.
"Sora, look!" Roxas pointed down to the heartless manufactory. Sora looked at where he was pointing. In the middle of the circular space down the manufactory, a small part of the floor was lit, as if there were lights underneath. Someone must have activated it. The two hurried down the lower floor using the nearby elevator.
Nothing was out of place besides the lit up part of the floor. Walking around it, Roxas examined it carefully. It was very cleverly hidden. If it hadn't been activated, there was no way anyone would have noticed it. From his memory, the design of this place resembled the Castle that Never Was.
"What can this be?" Sora asked no one in particular. He couldn't remember the floor being like that at any one time. But then, he had forgotten too many things to be sure. The manufactory was bigger than any other place he had ever been. Massive tube-like mechanic parts arranged diagonally on each side. While he was looking at the machinery, Sora accidentally stepped on the lit up section.
To their astonishment, the further half of the floor began to split apart, opening a long rectangular hatch in front of them. There was a pathway leading down somewhere. Roxas peered down beneath. There seemed to be light below but he couldn't see it very well from above. Knowing Ansem's study was already an underground facility, neither Roxas or Sora could imagine what could be hidden under there.
"The seal is down there isn't it?" Roxas asked Sora, who nodded in response. Keyblades readied, they made their down cautiously.
The path led them to a small room in greyish metallic colour. There was nothing in it, only bare walls on each side. They followed the path and exited out by the only other way. Before they came within view, Roxas and Sora could already sense the maintainers waiting for them in the next area.
Zenith stood with her back leaning against the curved wall, not far from the entrance of the area. "You really came," she spoke with a calm voice. Her wounded arm was bandaged all the way from shoulder to fingers. Thyme was standing behind her, watching them with an interested expression on his face. Zenith dropped her relaxed composure and turned around to face Roxas and Sora.
"How did you get down here? What are you doing here?" Roxas demanded. Meanwhile, his eyes scanned the area they had come to. They were in a circular room. In fact, it was more of a pit than a room. A single pathway spiralled down all the way along the side, leading down to what seemed an abyss of darkness. There was nothing except for empty space in the middle of the room. There was no railing at all along the edge. One slip of foot could mean a long fall down. Roxas looked down to the dark depths. He couldn't see where the path ends.
"The technology of this world is far less advance than ours. It was easy to hack the system to come down here," Zenith answered.
"Maintainers!!! Why did you have to take the princesses' hearts?" Sora asked angrily.
"You know why, Sora," Zenith said. "Without the seals, the world will be thrown out of balance. Taking the hearts of the princesses puts equilibrium back to the world…but only for a short time." Her serene expression was changing into a worried frown. "Let me ask you now. Why do you have to destroy the seals? You know now you will destroy the world if you do that. Why do you still do it?"
Sorrow flashed past Sora's cerulean eyes. "I don't like the world the way it is," he answered. "Sure, I can live all my life without doing anything to it and it'll be fine. But I don't want to. I can't. There is too much sadness the way it is."
"Don't you get it, Sora? This is the only way the world can be," Zenith said bitterly. "If the seals are gone, the balance between light and darkness will be lost. The world will be in chaos." Power was gathering on her good hand. A magic arc began to form on her palm. At the same time, Thyme straightened himself to face Sora and Roxas.
"No," Sora rejected firmly, summoning his keyblade to his side the same time. Roxas equipped himself with his own ones. "Even though sometimes changes will make things worse, we have to face up to it. If nothing ever changes, nothing will ever get better either. This world has to change!"
Zenith's expression hardened. "There is no more point talking, is there?"
"Meltdown," she said. Power gathered on the tip of the arc and shot out as a concentrated beam of orange-coloured energy. Seeing it coming, Roxas and Sora dived out of the way respectively. The magic melted a huge hole on the wall.
Zenith seized the chance to block the way back to the manufactory. Thyme was standing in the other way, where the path led down to the unknown. He was apparently unarmed. But Roxas remembered he wielded something invisible that cut him and Riku on the face back in Agrabah.
Roxas and Sora stood back to back. "The seal is somewhere down there. I can feel it," Sora said to Roxas, while keeping a close eye on Zenith.
Roxas look down to the depths below once again. Unlike Sora, he wasn't able to sense the presence of the seal. There was no way for him to tell where it is. Only Sora could find out its exact location. But first, their priority was to get past the maintainers. The fight was inevitable.
At the same time, Roxas and Sora charged in opposite directions at their respective opponent.
"Out of the way!" Roxas yelled, attacking Thyme head-on. He wielded Oblivion over his head, with it followed by Oathkeeper striking from the side. Just as Roxas was certain his attack would not miss, the keyblades clashed loudly against something hard. Both his keyblades were stopped in mid-air. Thyme was holding something in front of him to have blocked it. It was the same as last time. And Roxas still couldn't see what it was.
Noticed Roxas' reaction, Thyme smirked. "You can't see it, can you?" he said. "Don't worry, you're not the only one." With his invisible weapon, Thyme shoved Roxas' keyblades back and performed a swinging action. Roxas dodged it narrowly but a sharp cut appeared in side of his jacket.
It was clear to Roxas that strategies were required if he didn't want to lose in the next minute. He decided to concentrate on defence while observing his opponent's attacks and movements. Judging from the manner the weapon was wielded; Roxas guessed it was either a katana or a sword. After dodging Thyme's attacks and watching his moves for a few minutes, his style became obvious to Roxas. He didn't use any magic at all, unlike Zenith, who only used magic. His movements were unpredictable. There was no way to tell what was coming next. The only means to block was to pay very close attention. With precise timing, Roxas blocked an incoming strike for the first time.
Thyme whistled. "Think you've got it?" he said with a smirk again.
"You've got a lot to say, don't you?" Roxas replied coldly. He was starting to get the hang of blocking and evading. But he knew if he doesn't start attacking soon, he would surely lose. The thing that puzzled him the most was the fact that he couldn't see the weapon. Could Thyme see what he was using? If Thyme could, why couldn't he?
After fighting for a while, neither side showed signs of defeat. Strangely, Roxas didn't feel his opponent was putting all his effort into the battle. But that wasn't the top of his concern. He was getting worried about Sora. Roxas took a quick glance over his shoulder. Sora was catching his breath from running around and avoiding Zenith's meltdown and demi spells. Between them, golden lines gathered in a point. The point expanded rapidly into a ball of energy and exploded. The part of the pathway they stood on collapsed, causing them to fall to the path a level below.
"Sora!!" Roxas called. Zenith wasn't going to give Sora a chance to rest. With a wave of her arm, she executed multiple demi spells around him.
With attention on Sora, Roxas didn't become aware of the strike coming from behind until the last moment. He boosted defence by crossing his keyblades to block the hit from Thyme. Yet it still knocked him backwards to the edge of the path. For a second, Roxas thought he was going to fall into the bottomless-looking pit. He somehow managed to steer his balance back on the pathway. He looked at his hands. They were shaking slightly. It took Roxas moments to register that he just experienced the feeling of fear.
Roxas realised Thyme was looking down to Zenith and Sora while he was recovering from the fright. It didn't make sense to Roxas why Thyme wouldn't use the chance to finish him off.
"Thinking about joining them? The more the merrier," Thyme said jokingly. "May be we should ask if we can?"
The way he spoke reminded Roxas of Axel again. Roxas tightened his grip on the keyblades. He knew from the start. Thyme couldn't be Axel. Axel was gone. He gave his all to save Sora; and to save him. If Axel were still there, he would like the world to be rid of nobodies forever as well. Roxas was positive.
Feeling a fizzling sensation in the air, Roxas and Thyme stopped in their tracks to see more closely what was happening below them.
Sora held his keyblade in front of him in a defensive posture, panting heavily. He was busy running away from Zenith's magic most of the time, so he didn't have many chances to attack. But his determined eyes showed no signs of defeat. Roxas was amazed that Sora hadn't sustained major injuries from Zenith's magic.
On the other hand, Zenith appeared rather irritated that none of her magic had landed on her target. She lowered her arm and closed her eyes. The fizzling sensation thickened around her. Magic power was accumulating. Having faced mages in battle, Roxas knew one of the biggest weaknesses of magic was that it had to take time to generate.
Sora wasn't going to miss out on the one and only opportunity to attack. He started running towards her at his top speed.
It would be over if Sora could attack before she released the magic. But Roxas didn't like the chances.
"No, Sora!"
Sora was only meters away when Zenith snapped open her eyes. She raised her arm into the air. "Meteor!"
In an instant, the space above them turned pitch black. It was as though she had opened another dimension. Black and red molten rocks in the size of basketballs – real meteors - began to pour down like way oversized raindrops. "Reflectga!" Sora yelled, creating a circular barrier around himself. Meteors went straight through it like it wasn't there, nearly hitting him on the face.
Roxas looked around frantically for cover. The only cover they could hope to get was by running down another loop of the very spiral pathway they were on. Roxas jumped down next to a panicking Sora.
"Roxas!"
Roxas could tell by the look on Sora's face that he was about to ask him what to do. "Don't ask, just jump!" Roxas yelled. He cried out in pain when one meteor hit him on the arm. Again, he was feeling pain.
"Roxas! You ok?" Sora's call snapped Roxas out of his thought. They took a couple of steps back before running forward and leap down. The running up helped them land safely. They looked up in unison. The burning-hot meteors were destroying the pathway where they stood as well as the part they were standing on. The only person who wasn't affected was the castor, Zenith. Roxas and Sora realised they had to keep running. They began sprinting down the spiral pathway like their lives depended on it. Still they couldn't see where the path ends.
They didn't go very far before being forced to stop. Too many were raining down on them too quickly. There were not only meteors. Bits of the path destroyed by the meteors broke off and were sent flying in every direction. With no other choice, Roxas and Sora began striking everything heading their way with their keyblades. They were able to clear most of their way, but some managed to slip through and hit them hard. It was difficult to avoid the following ones once they were hit by the first.
The meteor rain would have been beautiful if they didn't have to be directly under it. Roxas could feel fatigue was building up in his body, especially his arms. He was beginning to have trouble catching his breath. But the meteor magic showed no signs of easing. Roxas continued to strike the meteor rain down with his dual keyblades. He tried cover Sora as much as possible. After all, Sora was disadvantaged by wielding a single keyblade.
Just when Roxas was about to give up, the meteor rain stopped.
Roxas used his keyblades for support so he wouldn't collapse from exhaustion. He couldn't hear anything besides the heavy breaths his own. He was sweating from head to toe. His lungs felt like they were on fire. He could sense the maintainers were drawing closer. Sora and he were totally defenceless at that moment. He wondered if that was the end for them.
"Sora, Roxas!"
Roxas could vaguely hear someone calling from above. With much effort, he looked up to find Namine and Riku a few storeys or so above. They were standing on what was remained of the spiral pathway. Zenith and Thyme were much closer. Namine looked shocked and worried of them and the state of the whole place. Roxas couldn't blame her. Countless molten rocks were stuck everywhere on the walls and the pathway. And half of that was in bits and pieces. They would have a lot trouble going back up the way they came.
The maintainers acted as though Namine and Riku weren't there. "Zen, you only have one brother you know," Thyme spoke to Zenith in a mild accusing tone.
"You know it was necessary," Zenith said plainly.
"I knew you'd say that," Thyme said with a sigh. "At least you can tell me before you use meteor next time." Having said that, he vanished.
Roxas was too experienced in battle to be taken off-guard. The moment he sensed movement on his left, he struck at it with his keyblade automatically. Although he didn't see, Roxas guessed Riku must have reacted in some way, because Zenith spoke as soon as Thyme moved. "Please don't interfere," she said solidly. At the same time, she was casting another meltdown at Sora.
"Roxas, Sora! Those people aren't our enemies!" Roxas heard Namine called. Perhaps she was right. The maintainers were doing what they think was right. Sora and him were doing what they think was right. Roxas dodged another strike from Thyme that missed him by a hair.
"His sword!" Namine exclaimed. "Roxas, all you see is not everything!"
Roxas was about to ask for clarification when Sora suddenly halted in mid-battle. His eyes were transfixed at the empty space in the middle of the spiral path.
"What's wrong, Sora?" Roxas asked.
Sora whispered. "The seal. It's here."
While no one was looking, Namine took out a sketchbook and some crayons she brought with her and began drawing. She had only just started when someone suddenly grabbed her wrist, causing the blue crayon to fall out of her hand. It was Thyme.
"Can't let you do that, princess of light," he said. Roxas caught a glimpse of her sketchbook. It looked like she was attempting to draw the maintainers. While restraining Namine, Thyme blocked Way to the Dawn from Riku with his other hand.
The distraction came at the perfect timing. "Sora!" Roxas yelled as he unleashed a combination attack on Zenith, forcing her to defend herself.
Immediately, Thyme rushed to aid her, but was caught up by a series of dark aura shots Riku fired at him.
Sora held his keyblade steadily as it revealed the last of the seven seals. Suspended in mid-air was a beautiful black gem that looked identical to the previous ones. The symbol heartless and nobodies rotated around it as two semi-transparent gold rings.
"No!! Flare!" Zenith cried out desperately. A red ball of immense energy hit Sora directly, sending him slamming against the side and he collapsed into a heap.
It was the only moment no one was focusing on Roxas. He jumped into mid air, looking at nothing but the seal. His keyblades sliced through it in criss-cross style. The last seals shattered into millions of sand-like pieces. Those pieces dissolved into thin air, leaving no traces behind.
A tremendous surge of magical energy was building around them, one even greater than meteor. The power is so great that the sensation by itself was making Roxas' skin prickle. A white energy orb appeared in the air, surrounded by numerous tiny green orbs. Another magic was being executed. And it didn't look friendly to Roxas. He looked around hastily for Sora and spotted his unmoving form on the opposite side of the circular path.
Strands of brilliant yellow light surged out from the white orb in the centre.
"No, Zen!!" Thyme shouted.
"Ultima!!!"
An enormous burst of green energy overflowed every single inch and every corner of the spiral pathway. Roxas reached Sora just as the entire pathway collapsed beneath them.
Author's note (or rants):One of the thing I find about Kingdom Hearts gameplay is that there is a lack of variety in magic. So in this chapter, I have used Final Fantasy 8 as reference for Zenith's magic.
For those who have been keeping up to date with KH2 Final Mix, you probably noticed I have used some of the places that appeared in the new cutscenes. Just to make it more interesting :3
This is the longest chapter I've ever written for a fanfic. My beta just beta-read over 4000 words...otsukare for checking this monster chapter! I thought about chopping it in half but decided against that.
Please review review review!