Author's Note:
Welcome back guys! Hope you're enjoying the story so far. One quick thing before we get started, I'd like to thank my friend FancyPanda for the picture she drew for me its freaking awesome. If you could check out her page it would be awesome, she is an amazing writer and works hard on her stories. Other than that i hope you enjoy the story, here we go.
X.X
Last Time
"Usually gradation has five graduates, however my student seems conflicted about one of his students, maybe you can offer him some more keen advice than I can." He said as he walked back to his seat.
"What advice can we offer that you already haven't master?" Minnie asked.
"Simple," he spoke "Advice from the heart."
X.X
After the early afternoons affair of almost choking on his toothbrush Seth had agreed to go shopping with Sera to restock his depleted fridge. They walked around the shopping distract of town for a couple of hours or so. Mainly window shopping looking at neat trinkets and accessories the first hour, and the second looking for clothes or at least Sera was anyway. Lei was more preoccupied with the absence of the guard around the town. Sure there were guards here and there, but the problem was it was the same guard. No shift changes no regular patrols of the a supervisor no nothing. Nothing was going to protocol. More than anything the fact that one knight in particular was missing.
"Keith.."
"Hmmm, did you say something Seth?"
"Sera, you said that the council said we had the day off right?"
"Oh my goodness you're still on that Seth? Yes they gave us a break you think you would be grateful and happy about it all things considered. Can't you just enjoy the day."
"I'd enjoy it more if it didn't feel like something was off…"
"What could be off about today, maybe your just being paranoid? Hmm ever think of that?"
"Whatever…"
"Now lets go get some food shall we?" Seth turned his gaze from the crowd of people that were walking by the to look at her sly smirk. He looked at her for a moment, he had to admit she did look cute, but he'd never tell her or him that. Instead he simply nodded his head and followed her as she walked down toward the food market.
X.X
It was almost two o'clock and Seth hadn't shown up near the academy. It seems like Sera was doing a good job distracting him. Keith looked around the now busy command center inside the academy. Knights seemed out of sorts more than usual.
It seems like everyone was taking this more seriously. Truth be told he had never seen any of them act so scared. Did they know something he didn't? Where they hiding something from him, them?
Most of the knights that were one their world were either retired after years of service hadn't taken their vows yet or sent home due to failure in combat. Though the last one never made sense if you failed in combat why were you allowed to instruct others on how to fight?
"Though they might have failed themselves it's the drive to help others achieve that always most who come back to help others. That is what is known as a knights loyalty. Never allowing those you care about fall the same way you did"
That was their master's first lesson to all the new recruits three years ago. That's also the first day he meet Seth.
Seth…
What was this strange intruder? Why didn't they want me to tell him about it? Why were they so desperate to keep him away from this? He had to know, no he demanded to know what was going on.
He got up from his chair and made his way from the command center and headed toward the walk way leading directly toward where the council had assembled. He knew all the higher ups would be their former general's lieutenants and so on. He also had a good idea that he'd be there to.
"Its time for some answers…"
After a short time of walking his destination was in sight, the door where they were all assembled.
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU HAVEN'T LOCATED THE SOURCE OF THOSE STUPID THINGS?! FIND THEM NOW WE'RE RUNNING OUT OF TIME HERE."
Though he was still a good distance away he could tell whose voice it belong to…
"Master…"
He began walking again, determination in each step, he needed to know exactly what was going. As he grew closer the door swung open with a terrified knight running out and right past him.
"DON'T YOU DARE COME BACK UNTIL YOU'VE EITHER FIGURED OUT WHERE THEIR COMING FROM OR WORLD BRIDING TECHNOLOGY YOU HEAR ME!"
A person emerged from behind the door, a muscular and tanned man with long black hair and red eyes. He wore a pair of black shorts with an orange and red sash covering his right leg, a red headband, and a metal gauntlet covering his left arm. The man had both his hands on his waist as he fully emerged.
He shook his head,
"Some people need to understand that this is no time for slacking off…"to no one in particular. He looked up and his eyes locked with Keith. It felt like ages went by neither looked away. For the young teenager it felt like everything had stopped, it felt like he was a lamb lead to a slaughter house and there was no way out.
"Master Jecht…" Keith spoke, finally finding his voice.
"Oh so it can speak," Jecht retorted. "Well its about time you got here. We go some business to discuss am I right?" Keith was visibly shocked to hear his masters response to seeing him. To which all Jecht did was burst out in a fit of laughter.
"Master?..."
"Come on kid give me more credit than that. You wouldn't be here unless you were curious bout somein. Besides I think it's best you know what's going on…" Keith looked at Jecht, who in turn returned turned his back and began walking back inside the room, "You coming or not..?"
X.X
Three long hours had passed since they decided to finally go get food, and yet it was no surprise to Seth that it turned into another Sera shopping spree. Well spree was a bit of a stretch more like a combination of window shopping and test tasting.
He was sitting down at a bench near a water fountain listening to the mixture of people talk and the water flow, while she was trying to talk on of the vendors into letting her taste some of his food. She was always good at charming her into getting free stuff. He never understood how she did t or her secret but he all the same watched her slowly weasel some of what looked like a caramel apple.
Shaking his head Seth leaned back into the bench and looked into the sky. It had been a long eventful day as usual. Nothing out of the ordinary had happened, no surprise exams, or random spares out of nowhere, no annoying classmates to deal with. It was all and all a peaceful day. Yet he couldn't shake the feeling that something was off about today…
He looked at the people walking around, he saw the content and happiness in their faces and felt a bit bad. Maybe it was his inner pessimist that wanted everything to go bad. He closed his eyes and tried to shake the feeling from his body that didn't seem like it wanted to go away.
He was suddenly shaken from his thoughts when he heard Sera.
"Seth you have to come try-"
He waited for her to finish her statement but when what felt like ages past and heard no response he looked at her for an answer. Instead he saw her just standing there not moving at all. As he looked around he found it wasn't just her it was everyone in the area. TO say he was shocked would have an understatement.
"Sera…" He called out to her.
"She can't hear you." a voice next to him said.
He jumped in surprise as the unknown person seemed to appear out of nowhere. They wore a long black trench coat that hid their face from him. He moved back a couple of feet trying to asset the situation in front of him. From the voice he could tell it was a girl who was no older than him (14) had appeared next him, though he was unclear of her motives. Or for that matter where she had come from.
"Rule 4, when facing a new opponent always give yourself some distance and anticipate an attack." She turned her head so that it looked as if she was facing him but he still couldn't see who she was. "Am I right?" she seemed to ask curiously.
"Okay so you know our playbook. So how about you take your hood off and let me see who you are." In response the women simply laughed. She stood and began walking toward him. Seth in response took up a defensive stance. Undeterred the foe continued to walk toward then vanished suddenly.
"Wait where did she-" he looked around but he didn't see any sign of her. Out of the corner of his eyes he caught a glimpse of her coat walking away toward the lake.
"Hey wait get back here" he called after her. Chasing after the mysterious girl.
X.X
"Seth you have to come try-huh, where did he go" Sera asked out loud.
She looked around trying to find any sign of him. Panic soon set in. This was very, very bad. She needed to find him and fast. If Keith found out I lost track of him it would look really bad on her.
Besides if it was so important that they needed to keep him away from whatever it was then it must be very dangerous for him.
But first things first she had to find him.
X.X
They had been sitting in the room for almost an hour talking about unimportant things. All nine of them, the 8 members of the council including his master and himself. Each sitting in order from highest to lowest rank gathered about the round table. The table itself was essentially a connected to everything in electronic around their world. Yet for the past however long it had been all he had learned was that they were dealing with some kind of heartless that made its way into their world and posed a threat to the people.
If it only was a heartless then why not let himself Sera and Seth handle. More importantly why was he supposed to keep him in the dark about all of this? Seth on more than one occasion had proven himself in battle. He had beaten almost everyone in the academy except for me. Nothing was making sense and the more he heard the less he understood.
"So we still have no idea where this thing is?" Jecht said with hint of boredom in his voice.
"Unfortunately not but our knights are on the case and I'm sure they'll-" an older Knight said.
"YOU SAID THAT WHEN THIS FRIST HAPPENED AND GUESS WHAT THEY STILL HAVEN'T FOUND THIS PERSON."
Keith had heard similar conversations like this end the same way for what felt like years. This really was getting them nowhere and fast. It needed to end and soon. What was this thing they were looking for and how dangerous was it? Was it really a heartless? Or someone who could control them?
"AND FURTHERORE I'M BEGINNING TO THINK THAT-"
"Master…" Keith spoke low at first unsure himself if he even uttered the word.
"WHAT?!" Jecht retorted.
"I… I would like to… no I need to ask you a question."
"Oh.." He simply stated before taking a seat in an empty chair and kicking his left leg on the table. "What might that be?"
"Well theirs a lot of things quite honestly, like for starters what exactly is the thing we're looking for? Why haven't we pooled more resources into it? Why you don't want me out their looking for it?" his tone grew more aggressive as he verbal questioned what they were doing, "While we're on that matter, why don't you want Seth involved in this? And why you all but forbid me to tell him what's going on. I guess what I'm asking master is WHAT IS GOING ON
?"
The room stood silent for few long tense moments. Most if not all the council felt he was out of line for questioning their orders. Except for Jecht that was, his face was plank and dull, except for the slight smirk that he was sporting that went unnoticed by all. The lowest ranked council member a former knight himself stood in outrage and discussed by the boys vulgar to defy authority
"How dare you young boy who do you think you are? Just because you wield the Keyblade doesn't give you the right to-"
"Actually.." Jecht decided to interrupt his fellow councilmen, "I actual like this side of you. Your usually quite and follow orders to the tee, this is his influence on you. I can tell." Jecht smiled at him and stood back up. " Alright then Keith here's the deal, I'm going to tell you exactly what you want to know but honestly you're probably not gonna like it. Are you prepared for this?"
Keith pondered the question in his head for a couple of moments, was he ready for this? Did he really need to know? No it was concerned his friend he had to he had to be able to protect him no matter what.
Before he could answer the door busted open revealing a fellow knight. He had been running which would explain his lack of oxygen and needs for gasping for air.
"You better have a good reason for coming in here unannounced like that." Jecht said looking at the knight out of the corner of his eyes.
"The young knight seeming to have regained some of his breathe tried to speak, "Forgive…me masters of…council… but… we think we have located the intruder."
The news seems to have caught everyone by surprise.
"I see," Jecht started, "Well then what are you waiting for tell me where this thing is."
"Sorry sir, right away sir. It seems to be headed for the lake."
"Alright then, well I want our-"
"Another thing sir, it seems that Seth is also in the area…" while that caught the other members of the room of guard it didn't faze Keith nor Jecht.
"Why am I not surprised…" Jecht sighed out.
X.X
Seth looked around the wooded path area. He had spent a lot of time out here and knew them better than anyone else but he the girl he had been tracking had given him the slip. Now he was in the heart of the forest pondering what his next move should be.
"Where could she have gone?" he asked out loud. He thought back to their brief conversation from earlier. How she seemed to know their rules or at least the one he had administered.
He walked deeper into the forest still lost in his thoughts.
"Was she new here or something? I never seen her at the academy or in town for that matter." To him it was like she had come from a different world entirely. "All I know is the next time I see her I'm going to-"
"You're going to what?" a familiar voice called out all around him? Caught off guard by the "talking forest" he looked around for the source of the voice but couldn't seem to pin point its exact location.
"How bout you show yourself and I'll show you."
"Tempting but I think I'll pass."
"Who are you?"
"…"
"So your not talking now?" He now felt like he was being watched very closely but couldn't figure out from which direction. He turned around and around trying to figure out what he had gotten himself into. Surrounded by nothing but forest it was the perfect place to launch a surprise attack and he fell right into it.
Suddenly all thoughts and movements ceased when he felt something cold and hard press against his back. He didn't hear a single foot step or even a breeze go by him. This mysterious girl had him right where she wanted him and he knew it.
Turning his head to look behind him he was able to finally see her face. Her blue eyes stared back at him with determination within them and hint of something else, he couldn't place the emotion but given the situation he was in now wasn't the time for that anyway.
"Your Seth right." She finally spoke in more of a statement than a question. None the less he responded with a small nod of his head. "Good, then I'm not too late then."
"Too late? Too late for what? Who are you?" He started to turn around when she pressed the unknown weapon into his back again stopping him in his tracks.
He was growing frustrated and they both knew it. The girl smiled to herself as she looked at the boy.
"…its Xion."
"Huh?"
"My name, its Xion."
X.X
With that the plot thicken even more... Hope you guys enjoyed the chapter, more will be coming soon thanks for reading guys.