Casanova

(This next chapter will involve some clues as to who created the doors, but will be expanded on another couple more chapters I'm cooking up as well. For now though, I hope you enjoy the glamour that is Casanova. I really enjoyed visiting Venice myself and wish I could describe it well.)

Alan and Nadia soon found themselves in the middle of a section of city streets. Yet these streets had various moats of water channels everywhere, gondolas were sailing across to and fro from the city streets and underneath bridges and across a huge expanse of sea and hot Mediterranean air. As Alan and Nadia got their bearings, they observed the various people walking about and saw they were wearing clothing from that of the eighteenth century and at the centre of where they were both standing was a church that seemed to stretch to the sky. Nadia then said, "Alan I really don't think we're in a good place right now." Alan then looked around and asked, "What makes you say that Nadia?" "It's just that I got a real bad feeling about this place. I think we're in Venice and let's face it, we'll stick out like sore thumbs judging from the crowds of people in their European clothing." Alan then said, "That's why we have this." Alan then showed Nadia a set of old women's clothing from the era and men's clothing from the era and then they quickly hid behind a dark alley across the bridge to their left and got on the clothing as fast as they could. Then Nadia asked, "Where did you get these clothes?" "I found them on the ground. They just appeared out of nowhere.", he replied. Then they both heard a group of people chasing someone on the rooftops of the Venetian buildings and saw a man in a silky vested white shirt and in a pair of black pants and in a dark brown coat was jumping from one roof to next trying to escape a group of men in black coats and wearing black three cornered hats that made them seem like the police of Venice and Alan and Nadia judged from where this man was jumping from roof to roof from, were coming from the church as well. Nadia then dropped her jaw and then said, "Is that…" "I think it is. Casanova. We've gone back a lot farther than I thought we did." Casanova looked like judging from his clothes not done up that he was coming back from his 'pleasure' with the women from the church. Alan and Nadia then saw the man jump from the edge of a rooftop towards a nearby window and escape his pursuers.

Alan and Nadia soon figured that instead of barging into the building he was in, they would wait until he was alone and then make their entrance from there. Soon enough they eventually saw Casanova appear out of the building and with him was a man in yellow and red robes, making him seem like he was the pope himself. Casanova soon parted with the man and Alan and Nadia then followed him towards a country like home just outside of the island city and then followed him from there to his place. Alan and Nadia soon caught up with Casanova when he was alone inside his house and he then asked when Alan and Nadia blocked his way to go outside, "Do I have a quarrel with you?" "No, but it is an honour to meet you.", Alan said as he shook the man's hand. Nadia whispered through her teeth to Alan, 'What are you doing? This guy is a very notorious man. We could be accomplices from what the church could see.' Alan then whispered in kind through his teeth while shaking Casanova's hand, 'Just play along. I checked my watch and there is definitely some activity going on around here and I'm not talking about the crowds of people.' Casanova then said, "If that is all said and done with, my hand is getting rather sore." Alan then let go of his hand and then explained who they were and what they were doing.

Casanova then said, "That is terrible news. I can see why some of the people are going mad." "What do you mean 'mad'.", Nadia asked sitting on his red leather couch. "Well it's just that after I had some unfinished business with a man who declared a duel against me, I saw a man in yellow armour walking about the city and from there familiar faces I saw were also disappearing along with every appearance he made." , Casanova continued. "It must be the Viraltroopers working around here as well. Perhaps you could tell us where these things have been appearing." Casanova then said, "You won't get much information from me, but you might ask some of the other folk around here, if there are any left. I have some urgent business to take care of, but perhaps we could meet a little bit later say by the church later tonight?" Alan and Nadia agreed and then they took off outside and Nadia then asked, "Why are we leaving now? Shouldn't we be going with him to keep him out of trouble?" Alan then said, "Something isn't right. Why would he say that he doesn't have a lot of information when he clearly seems to know something about those knights? We're going to get to the bottom of this." Nadia then asked, "You have something in mind?" Then Alan told Nadia of his plan to search the city of Venice high and low to find any clues as to where Casanova could have disappeared to and that they would meet by the church later at night to see who their mysterious Casanova imposter was.

From what Nadia could find, there wasn't lots for her to go on in terms of clues, but Alan eventually found a piece of the man's pants and met up with Nadia a couple of hours later. Nadia then asked, "So what do you think it means then?" "It means that we're too late unfortunately and the Viraltroopers are right among us again.", Alan stated. Nadia then asked, "So what do we do then?" Alan then said as he looked around and saw countless amounts of posters amongst the city talking about a ball, "I'm judging by all the mask posters going up around town that there's a ball tonight. Maybe we could get answers from our man as to what is going on around here." Alan and Nadia soon found themselves at the church that night and sure enough their mysterious man in yellow armour was there too with a captured Casanova tied up in rope.

Alan then drew out his keyblade as did Nadia and then the yellow armoured man raised his left hand in the air and said, "Hear me out first before you go challenging someone at random." This yellow armoured man looked a lot like Casanova in build, but his helmet was the one thing that made him different from Casanova due to it being circular and he had three iron horns coming out from the top: two around his sides and one in the centre with the tips of the horns pointed downward behind him. He also wielded a yellow sword to boot that also had electrifying sparks circulating around the sword's iron metal. "So you're the kids that are causing us so much trouble? I can't believe you even made it past some of our created monsters." Alan then rushed forward and before he could even scrape the knight with his keyblade a shield appeared around the knight and four more knights appeared beside him in gold, silver, blue and the red being at the centre. Alan then asked, "What do you guys want with Casanova?" "You have us all wrong boy. It's not him we want. It's the heart of this world we want.", the red knight said. The blue knight then began to explain, "Many eons ago, we the great 'Knights of the Realm' had custody of the 'Doors of the Heart' and for our treason against our world we were banished. From that moment onward we were lost and trapped in the lost reaches of space until a creature by the name of Obeion came and told us of a great future for our people and to do that we had to steal the hearts of those you are trying desperately to protect." The yellow knight then said, "Then from there we could revive all of those who were lost in the 'Great War of Wars' and rectify the mistakes made." Alan then said, "But innocent lives have to be gone to do it. How can you even consider that?" The red knight said, "Sacrifices must be made to accomplish great things boy. In fact Obeion said the same thing when he even told us of the creator of those doors themselves." Nadia then said, "Who?" The red knight then said, "We may talk yet again another time. Ryansk, leave them their parting gift." The yellow knight then opened a portal and a giant black scorpion appeared near the church rearing to fight.

Pretty soon all of the knights disappeared as the scorpion began attacking the church. Alan then said, "I'll go after the scorpion and distract him while you untie Casanova." Nadia nodded and then as the scorpion grabbed the man with its pincers, Nadia kicked its claws and grabbed and untied Casanova from the ropes. Casanova then said, "This is quite a surprise. A woman's saving me." "Don't get the wrong idea now. I'm doing this so we can save people and the universe. If you got anything on you to fight with, I'd use it right now." Casanova then took out a sword and ran along with Nadia towards the giant scorpion and saw Alan right on top of the creature's stinger trying to cut it off. Nadia then jumped on the creature's back as Casanova tried to cut the monster's eyes and blind it. As Alan tried to hang on to its tail, he yelled to Nadia, "Nadia, do you see a big heart symbol on the back of its body?" Nadia then saw a big, red and pink heart near its head and said, "I see it. It's on its head." "Tell Casanova to distract the big dummy, while I take out its tail. It's not easy hanging on to this thing. After I destroy its tail, you zap the heart and unlock it." Nadia then told Casanova the plan and he ran towards the gondola docks, just a few feet from the ball ceremony going on. Alan held on as long as he could and then let go of its tail and sliced the tail clean right off and then yelled, "Nadia now!!" then Nadia zapped the scorpion's heart and from nowhere a heart appeared in the sky and soon enough Alan and Nadia zapped the heart and unlocked it. Afterwards a severe earth shattering trauma from the commotion knocked a few bricks from the top of the buildings above Alan and Nadia and knocked both of them out cold.

As the two awoke, they soon saw themselves on a boat. On it, were Casanova, a light brunette girl, a red-headed woman, and a man of at least fifty due to his beard and his hair being grey. As Alan and Nadia came to, Casanova explained that the light brunette girl was Francesca Bruni, the red-headed woman was his mother, and the old man was his stepfather from what his mother said. "So then did we actually save this world?", Nadia asked. Casanova then said, "It would seem like it. When we left Venice, I saw all the people at the townsquare for the execution of Francesca and myself and you were both unconscious at the time. My mother said she took hold of you all and hid you amongst her carriage and even when we arrived on boat heading towards Paris." Alan then said, "Wait. We're going to Paris?" Casanova then nodded just as Alan took a look at the watch and noticed on the watch yet another world turned green signaling the end of their stay in Casanova's world of Venice. Alan then said, "Well, sorry if we have to leave, but duty calls elsewhere." "Will we ever meet again? You saved my life and all." Nadia then said, "The paths may be different, but the destination is always the same. I'm sure we'll meet again someday." As Alan pressed the button to leave the world, Casanova asked, "Before you go, can you tell me: what are your names?" Alan and Nadia then said pointing to themselves first and then to each other, "I'm Alan/Nadia and this is Alan/Nadia." As they did, they vanished without a trace from the boat on the seas of the Mediterranean.

(I would cue Maleficent's theme here to get a bit of an eerie taste of what's going on here) Later, on back at Castle Darkhand, the knights gathered together to discuss their latest defeat. Castle Darkhand, as its name would suggest, was a very large black castle, surrounded by a drought filled canyon along with a dead world covered in remains of buildings, trees and skeletons filled the very insides of the canyon that once were a bountiful moat coming from a river just north of it. The sun was blocked by an endless stream of black clouds and the sky wrecked of red in colour and with a hint of yellow making it seem like a dead forgotten world. The knights gathered near their screen where they watched Alan and Nadia triumph in Destiny Island around their round table and began their meeting. "If I had my way, we would have finished those fools right about now. They haven't even tapped into the power they possess at their very fingertips.", the gold knight proclaimed. "Don't be so stupid, Grogonopse. You know as well as the rest of us here that if they unlock all five of the 'Doors of the Heart', our plan is null and void.", the blue knight replied. "Never forget though about the real prize my pets.", said a mysterious voice from the shadows. It walked closer as the knights began to bow to show their respect. It was none other than Obeion himself. As he came closer, the red knight gave his salute as Obeion placed his right hand on his right shoulder and said, "A mighty fine pair of fighters wouldn't you say so, Tyra?" Tyra then said, "My apologies master. Our men are ravaging the universe even now as we speak and I guarantee one our men will have the power to defeat those humans once and for all. That I guarantee." Obeion then said confidently, "Let those little fools come to me if they dare. Their powers are no match for my superior background let alone your former valiant nature." With that the knights began to stand up and began conversing about Alan and Nadia as their images appeared on screen, Obeion walked closer to the screen as he looked closer at Alan and then said, "Such a strong youth the boy is. We'll see if your petty ideals will prevail. We'll see."

(That's it for now. I know this chapter wasn't my best, but I'm getting there. From all of this we can see that quite obviously Obeion is the one behind this little mess of events. What his purpose behind this entire plot means is yet another mystery along with who actually created the 'Doors of the Heart'. Stay tuned.)

(Next Time: Of Valor and Courage.)

(Review.)