Geez, talk about a long week.
Well, today is my twentieth birthday. So as a gift to you all, I present Chapter Twenty. No, I didn't actually plan this. Universe just works in mysterious ways. Ha ha.
Anybody go see On Stranger Tides? I won't give spoilers, but it is now my second favorite Pirates film.
Thanks again to all of my reviewers. You guys are awesome!
Disclaimer: I still don't own Kingdom Hearts, Square Enix, Disney, Black Cat, or Motorcycle Drive BY by Third Eye Blind. I still own my plot and original characters though.
Enjoy!
Chapter Twenty: Finding Atlantis
Friday, June 11th 4974 P.C.
Ancient Highway to Atlantis
"Come and get it!" Cookie's cry echoed throughout the cavern campsite, accompanied by his relentless ringing of the metal triangle he carried on his person at all times.
Riku let out a groan and determinedly kept his eyes closed. If Cookie was calling out for breakfast than that meant that it was the ungodly hour of five in the morning. The last thing he wanted to do was be up right now, eating the glob of Cookies 'four main food groups' that was waiting for him outside of his tent. He let out a sigh and shifted himself to be more comfortable on the hard ground, drawing his arms a little more tightly around the warm and delightfully soft, body pillow lying next to him.
His eyes shot open as his sleep encumbered mind remembered that he didn't bring a pillow with him. His heart rate skyrocketed as he glanced down and saw a tangle of messy, caramel colored hair less than an inch below his chin. He pulse quicken as it finally clicked with him that Keila was lying asleep in his arms. He took a deep breath to calm himself before checking to see how their bodies were positioned and nearly had a heart attack when he realized they were spooning.
Keila let out a wide yawn and rolled over to face him. Her cerulean eyes slowly opened and met his aquamarine ones. She smiled warmly up at him for a brief moment before she realized what was going on. Her smile vanished, immediately replaced by a glare as her face turned a shade of red Riku had never seen before.
"Bastard!" She shouted. "What the hell do you think you're doing?" With surprising agility and strength, she got to her feet and threw Riku face first out of the tent, where he slid along the stone for several yards before coming to a stop. Behind him, he could hear the laughter of his fellow campmates as they watched him fly from the tent moments before Keila stormed off to the truck she and Riku had to share. Riku groaned and did his best to not look embarrassed by laughing right along with everyone else.
"Rough night, kid?" Commander Rourke asked, slapping Riku between the shoulder blades in what was clearly meant to be a friendly gesture, only for Riku to be knocked back to the ground. "Oh, sorry." Riku groaned and allowed Rourke to pull him back up. "You know, I had a similar experience with a young woman much like her about fifteen years ago. I was trekking through the Peruvian-" He paused for a brief moment at the bored look Riku was already giving him.
"Never mind, you're young and I know you don't want to hear boring old stories." He pushed Riku towards a small ring of people that sat picking at their meals. "Let me introduce you to the crew. This here is Doctor Joshua Sweet," the bald-headed man with the kind looking face shook Riku's hand with a bone-crushing grip. "Over here we have Vinnie, our demolitions expert." A man dressed in mostly black and gray body armor, who was doing something involving several sticks of dynamite, wire and a paper clip made an acknowledging grunt in Riku's direction. . "Audrey Ramirez, our mechanic." The youngest out of all of them and dressed in a pair of denim coveralls, Audrey looked every bit like the tomboy she was, even as she gave Riku a flirtatious wink. "Miss Packard, our telecommunications expert." The older woman gave a grunt at her name and lit her fifth cigarette of the day before adjusting her headset. "And of course, Mole." The stout man in charge of driving the digger looked up from devouring his meal as Rourke said his name. "Gentlemen, this is Riku, he saved our rears yesterday." The group mumbled their thanks. Rourke shrugged and led Riku over to the makeshift table where Milo Thatch sat pouring over the brown backed, leather tome he always had with him. Out of the corner of his eye, Riku saw the shadows on the ground shift and move on their own accord. The bitter scent of Darkness flooded his nose and he fought back the urge to cough.
"And this young man is the reason we're on this expedition," Rourke said as Milo got to his feet. "Our expert on gibberish, Milo Thatch. Thatch, I'd like you to meet Riku." Riku held out his hand to the scholar, who shook it eagerly.
"Nice to meet you, Milo," Riku said. Milo nodded.
"Nice to meet you too, Riku," he said sitting back down and opening the tome again. "So what do you do?"
"I'm a combat specialist," Riku said, secretly proud of himself for coming up with that on the fly. Both Rourke and Milo looked around at him in surprise. There was something else in Rourke's expression that Riku couldn't read. Eagerness, perhaps.
"What sort of combat?" Rourke asked. Riku glanced at the dark shadows moving towards Rourke that he had spotted a few moments before. Riku grinned, the Way to Dawn appearing in his hand quickly as he leapt towards the shadows with blinding speed. It took Rourke and Milo a second to realize that Riku had moved, they spun around in time to watch a trio of Shadows explode into black mist.
"Oh, you know," Riku said in response to Rourke's earlier question. "Heartless extermination." Everyone in the immediate vicinity of the Heartless attack was staring at the Way to Dawn with awe. They all looked like they had millions of questions to ask him, but were only stopped by the appearance of several Heartless that quickly surrounded Riku. Ten Hook Bats fluttered overhead, their dark blue and black bodies almost difficult to spot in the dim lighting of the cavern. Fortunately, the bright red hooks for which they had been named were very easy to spot. At his feet at least a dozen Driller Moles tunneled up from the stone. Each one was predominantly gray except for their heads, which were green and orange with yellow 'x' shaped eye with brown and tan striped conical drills for noses. A trio of Red Nocturne's and a Crimson Jazz appeared above the Hook Bats and took off towards one of the trucks.
"They're going after the fuel canisters!" Rourke shouted as he pulled a handgun from its holster on his waist and began firing at the Heartless. "Stop them! If we lose that fuel, we're dead in the water out here!" Riku fought the urge to point out that if they were dead in the water that meant the Leviathan would've gotten them. Several members of the expedition crew, who Riku had never once seen remove their gas masks, raised automatic rifles and fired on the Heartless. Their aim wasn't very good and most of their shots went wide, embedding themselves deep into the stone walls of the cavern. There was a flash of light and the four Fire based Heartless fell to the ground in pieces. Riku glanced around to see what had taken them out. Keila stood near the fuel truck, Inverse Kingdom Key in hand and dressed in her combat gear of all black, from her boots to her low cut sleeveless shirt and combat knife strapped to her upper arm.
"I've got the truck covered," she announced to Riku. "You take care of the rest, Silver." Riku nodded and slashed down at the closest Driller Mole as six Red Nocturnes appeared in midair near Keila, ready to attack. Keila smirked and thrust the palm of her hand towards the Red Nocturnes. The shadows on the ground twisted and took a three-dimensional form, quickly producing a dozen shadow swords which flew up and impaled the six Heartless. A pair of Crimson Jazz Heartless appeared to take the place of the fallen Heartless. A pillar of shadow formed underneath Keila's feet and rapidly rose into the air giving her the advantage. The two Fire based Heartless ignored her and made a beeline straight for the fuel. Keila let out a growl and dove off of the pillar, slicing one of the Crimson Jazz in half as she passed. The remaining Heartless turned around as it realized its companion was no longer with it. Keila grinned and slashed at the Heartless.
Riku swung the Way to Dawn down at the ground repeatedly in an attempt to hit the Driller Moles. The Heartless kept dodging his blows by tunneling into the stone and emerging elsewhere nearby; like a giant game of Whack-A-Mole. A pair of Driller Moles chose the wrong place to emerge and were swiftly put down by the Keyblade. If Riku didn't know any better, he would say the Heartless were taunting him. After swinging and missing for the twenty-third consecutive time, Riku decided he had had enough.
"Burst!" He shouted, plunging the Way to Dawn's tip into one of the holes left behind by the Driller Moles. There was a bright flash of orange-red light, like sunrise contained in a bottle being unleashed, and two dozen Driller Moles were blown out of their tunnels, each one landing sprawled on the ground. Riku moved quickly, slashing and hacking his way through the stunned Heartless before they could recover. In a matter of moments, the only remains of the Driller Moles were the multitude of crystalline pink hearts rising into the air before they faded away. He turned his attention towards the fuel truck in time to see Keila thrown towards him by an explosion as a Crimson Jazz ignited one of the fuel canisters.
Acting on instinct, Riku dashed forward and managed to catch Keila before she hit the ground. She mumbled her thanks as he set her back on her feet before the pair rushed back towards the fuel truck. Another fuel canister exploded as a pair of Crimson Jazz circled it. Around the fuel truck, dozens of Red Nocturnes were beginning to appear.
"There's no way we can take down all of those Heartless and still protect the fuel," Keila said hopelessly as twenty or so Neoshadows rose up from the ground, forming a perimeter around the two Wielders and the fire Heartless. "What do we do?" A golden light flowed from Riku's hand and enveloped the Way to Dawn, extending well past the tip and adding about two feet in length to the blade. Small, curved spikes of orange light formed along the curved edge of the Light blade, each nearly six inches in length.
"Just watch," Riku said with a grin. He placed his left hand on the Way to Dawn's cross-guard and clenched his fist tightly over it. With a roar, Riku wrenched his hand back, dragging what appeared to be a chain of orange light with it. The Way to Dawn began to shake violently as the orange, curved spikes along its edge began to move. The sound of a motor kicking into life emanated from the Keyblade and the spikes became a blur as they moved from the tip of the blade back towards the hilt in a never ending loop
"This is the Sunblade," Riku explained. "It works perfectly against large groups like this. Watch." He hefted the Way to Dawn above his head. Several beams of light shot out from the cross-guard and wrapped themselves around each of the Heartless, slowly dragging them closer to him. Keila's mouth dropped open. In all of her years of training alongside her siblings, she had never once seen anyone do something like this before. The Heartless struggled against the beams of light that bound them as they were drawn in. Riku grinned as soon as the majority of the Heartless were within striking range.
"Let's go!" He shouted. The beams of light separated from the Way to Dawn and anchored themselves to the ground as Riku leapt nearly twenty feet into the air. "Can you feel it now?" The light on his blade began to shine brighter as he dove into the center of the trapped Heartless. The chainsaw-shaped light around the blade shredded its way through the Neoshadows, chunks of their flesh flying every before dissolving into Darkness. Riku stabbed the Way to Dawn into the ground. A bright flash of light suddenly flared to life from the Keyblade. The sheer intensity of the glare forced Keila and the other onlookers to avert their gazes.
"You're finished," Riku said as the glare faded. The light surrounding his Keyblade vanished as he flourished it before casually resting it on his shoulder. The remaining Heartless all seemed frozen in place, broadswords crafted from golden light impaled them all. All at once the Heartless exploded into clouds of black mist and glowing pink, crystalline hearts. Riku turned to face the onlookers and gave them thumbs up.
"You know, after seeing that, I don't think I'd be able to kill you in a fair fight," Keila said as she walked up to him. "Where'd you learn to do that?" Riku simply grinned at her.
"Sorry," he said cheerfully. "Don't you know a magician never reveals his secrets?" Keila rolled her eyes at him.
"That was a lame excuse for a joke," she said, her expression of mock irritation betrayed by her cheery tone.
"I know," Riku said. "It sounded a lot better in my head." Commander Rourke tapped him on the shoulder, prompting the two Wielders to turn around.
"That was quite the show," he said, smiling proudly down at them. "And thanks to you two, we still have fuel to continue on with our expedition." Riku grinned at the compliment. Keila kept her expression neutral. "Were those the Heartless you mentioned?" Riku nodded, Rourke's expression displayed a calm eagerness, and one Riku had to admit he wasn't entirely comfortable with. "What exactly is a Heartless?" Riku sighed. He hated explaining what the Heartless were, only because it could take forever to explain every aspect of their existence.
"Long story short, they're creatures born from the Darkness in people's hearts," Riku explained. Rourke glanced down at his chest as if he was trying to make sure his heart was still in there. "Not that heart. The spiritual one, you know, the emotional heart that feels love and happiness and all that. Basically, the Heartless act on instinct. They constantly yearn for more hearts and so they go out everywhere they can so they can steal them.
"When a Heartless steals a person's heart, they become a Heartless. They can be controlled though. If someone nearby is strongly in-tune with the Darkness, or if they have a strong will power, the Heartless will obey any command given to them. They feel no pain, or remorse, or anything. They're kind of like the perfect soldiers." Before Riku could explain anymore about the Heartless, his fellow adventurers descended upon him and Keila like a pack of vultures, barraging them with question after question about their Keyblades and the powers they demonstrated. Riku and Keila were led away from Rourke, both nervously doing their best to answer the questions. Rourke placed his wide-brimmed hat on his head and stared at the slightly damaged fuel truck with a thoughtful grin as Riku's words replayed in his mind.
"They're kind of like the perfect soldiers."
LD
"I spy something…" Riku said slowly glancing around trying to come up with an adjective to describe what he was looking at.
"Dirt," Keila responded dully. Her fingers drummed on the steering wheel of their truck as they waited for Milo to decode which path they were supposed to take from his brown leather tome, The Shepherd's Journal. Once again, they were parked in the middle of the convoy, which had come to a complete stop in front of an intricate carving of the upper half of a human skull. The road diverged about twenty yards away from the carving, each new path leading into the eyes of the skull.
"Damn it," Riku sighed. "How'd you know?"
"Well, you did rock last time," Keila explained in her bored tone. "That's all there is down here; dirt and rocks."
"I hate caves," Riku mumbled. He turned in his seat to look at Keila, who raised an eyebrow at him.
"What?" She said. Riku studied her for a few moments before speaking up.
"If you can't create portals of Darkness, then how did you get on this world in the first place?" He asked. Keila eyes widened nervously.
"Come again?"
"You. How did you end up on this world if you can't use a portal of Darkness here?" Riku restated. Keila turned her attention back towards the 'Expert in Gibberish' as he deciphered the Shepherd's pages.
"I… I stowed away in the cargo hold of your ship," she mumbled.
"You stowed away on my ship?" Riku said, a slightly surprised expression on his face. Whatever he had been expecting for an answer, it certainly wasn't that. "Dawn, did you know about that?" Keila stared at him in utter confusion. From where she was sitting, it seemed like Riku had gone off the deep end and was talking to himself. She nearly leapt out of her seat when a bodiless female voice spoke up.
"Of course I didn't. If I had, don't you think I would've told you?" Keila stared around wildly, trying to find the source of the voice.
"I suppose that's true," Riku said thoughtfully as he stared down at an orange and black flat box that was clipped to his belt.
"Who are you talking to?" Keila asked him, her confusion steadily growing into irritation. "Where is that voice coming from?" For an answer, Riku unclipped the box from his belt and held it out towards her in the palm of his hand. The orange segments of the box all lit up from a light within and a small hologram of a young woman dressed in short shorts and a bikini top so small that it was teetering on the edge of being inappropriate. Keila gaped at the AI's projection.
"That would be me," Dawn said, waving up at Keila. "I'm the Artificial Intelligence from the Dawn's First Light. You can call me Dawn." Keila still wore a mildly surprised look on her face. Dawn couldn't help but smirk... "I take it you've never met an AI before?" Keila shook her head and cleared her throat.
"I actually had never left home until a couple of weeks ago," she said distantly. "Mother kept me and my brothers and sisters at home. I don't know how she did it, she just did. She told us all when we were younger that she wouldn't let us leave until we were strong enough to." She let out a humorous chuckle and stared back at the convoy in front of them as Riku and Dawn watched silently. "Hell, I'm only out now because she claims I'm the only one of her children she could trust to get the job done without getting too distracted."
"What job?" Riku asked. Up ahead, Milo called out and gestured eagerly towards the left-hand path.
"Finally," Keila grumbled, shifting gears to begin driving again. The convoy lurched forward as Mole drove the digger towards the skull carving's left eye. "What'd you say, Silver?"
"I said, 'what-'" Riku was cut off as Keila slammed on the breaks, practically throwing him through the windshield. An insect-like creature stuck its head out and let out a roar. It was easily three times the size of the digger, had a massive horn growing out of its head and had a pair of razor sharp pincers that snapped angrily as it roared at the convoy. Every driver quickly recovered from the initial shock of the sight of the creature and put their vehicles in reverse, putting themselves back down the initial path and away from the monstrosity. Satisfied the convoy was far enough from its territory, the creature retreated back into the skull's left eye. Everyone turned to glare at Milo, who realized he had been reading the Journal upside down. He corrected the book's orientation and nervously pointed towards the skull's right eye. Everyone's glares only intensified.
After a couple more hours of driving through the dark caverns, they came across a natural waterfall and stream that seemed to glow a pale blue color from some unidentifiable source. On Rourke's orders, the convoy stopped for their usual meal of Cookie's daily special of 'Shut up an' eat!' and to refill on fuel and water.
After forcing down Cookie's cooking, Keila felt the uncontrollable calling to empty her stomach in the nearest hole she could find. She ran off, mentally loathing the fact that the terrible food was about to pass through her mouth again. Riku watched her take off, mentally smacking himself as his eyes fixated themselves on a particular part of her body. He finished off the last of the water from the canteen and turned to head back towards the rest of the convoy, pausing only as he saw Vinnie staring wide eyed at him.
"You didn't just drink that did you?" The Italian-accented man asked Riku, pointing down at the canteen. Riku nodded with a grin and tossed the canteen into the back of a nearby truck. Vinnie's worried expression became more pronounced as he shifted his grip on the red-boxed detonator clutched under his arm. "That's not good. That's nitroglycerin." Riku immediately froze in place, unwilling recalling his last encounter with nitroglycerin. What memory remained of that particular incident told him it didn't end well. Riku pleaded with his eyes for Vinnie to help him somehow. Vinnie thought about it for a moment before giving Riku the best advice someone could give in that situation. "Don't move. Eh, don't breathe. Don't do anything except pray, maybe."
"If you're going to explode, can you at least put me down somewhere out of range?" Dawn asked through the earpiece in his ear. Riku fought the urge to tell her to be quiet and stand perfectly still like Vinnie had told him. His plan immediately went south when Mole snuck up unseen and unheard behind him and shouted 'Boom!' Riku nearly leapt five feet into the air in shock as Mole and Vinnie strode away, laughing at their prank. Riku glared after them for a moment, silently swearing to come up with a better prank to get back at those two.
He briefly wondered how Keila was holding up as he started to move back towards the truck he shared with her. His answer came in the form of the sounds of her violent retching followed almost immediately by a rather disgusting splattering noise. Riku winced and decided he'd better go check up on her first.
"Looks to me like someone has a crush," Dawn said casually in his ear as he turned towards the sounds of Keila's vomiting. Riku's cheeks flushed red.
"I do not," he said, perhaps a little too quickly. Dawn only laughed him.
"The first stage is always denial," Dawn teased. "And the last stage is love."
"I'm not denying it if it's not true," Riku pointed out, following the sounds of Keila's retching.
"Admit it," Dawn said knowingly, "you're falling for this girl. You're falling for the enemy."
"No, I'm not," Riku snapped. "Besides, I don't actually think she's our enemy."
"Oh?" Dawn asked, sounding intrigued. "And why is that? Care to share some of your insight with me?"
"Last night, she said that she didn't actually want to kill me," Riku pointed out. "She made it sound like she's just following orders. And would my enemy really want to share a tent with me under any circumstance?" Dawn processed his logic for a brief moment as Riku approached the stone slab where Keila had run off to.
"That's a good theory and all, but don't forget that she could very well try to kill you when we finally leave this world," Dawn reminded him. "She could just be leading you on, getting you to let your guard down around her."
"I'll keep that in mind," Riku assured the AI. He meant it too. The thought hadn't exactly left his head that Keila could just be putting a ruse on to make him an easier target. He fully intended to be on his toes just in case she tried anything.
"Hey, are you okay?" Riku asked as he approached the slab. He poked his head around the edge, scanning for Keila. She was kneeling next to the stream, rinsing the vomit off of her shirt in the flowing water. He realized that not only was she not wearing a shirt, but she didn't have a bra on either, and was about to duck back behind the stone when he caught sight of the bare skin on her back. His stomach lurched and he couldn't stop himself from letting out a gasp from the sight. Her back was covered in bruises, fresh wounds and scars. It looked like someone had taken a whip and struck her repeatedly.
Keila heard his gasp and immediately tensed up, dropping her soaked shirt on the stones at her feet as her hands flew to cover her chest. She slowly turned her head to glare at Riku, her cheeks flushed red and clearly under the impression that he was staring at what little of her chest was visible from where he stood, frozen in place. Her glare dissolved in the blink of an eye when she realized he was staring at her back, replaced immediately by a look of pure terror that someone had seen her scars. She quickly got to her feet and spun to face him, throwing a black hooded cape over her shoulders to better cover herself as she did so.
"What the hell do you want?" She snapped. Riku noticed the nervousness in her eyes and realized she hadn't wanted anyone to see her scars.
"I just wanted to make sure you were alright," Riku explained in a tone that conveyed genuine concern. Keila glanced around her.
"I'm not throwing up anymore, am I?" She pointed out. Riku took a cautious step towards her, unsure of how she was going to react.
"I can see that," he said, taking a cautious step towards her. "But, if you don't mind me asking, how'd your back get so scarred?" Keila's glare returned in an instant.
"Well, I do mind you asking," she huffed. She scooped up her still soaking wet shirt in her hands and stormed past Riku. "It's none of your business how I got them, so drop it." Riku didn't say anything; he simply remained staring at the spot where Keila had been kneeling by the water.
Keila stormed all the way back to the truck, where she got in the driver's seat and slammed her head down on the wheel. She felt like total bitch for snapping at Riku just because he seemed concerned about her scars, but at the same time, she didn't care how concerned he was. It would've been better if he had never seen her scars. The last thing she wanted to do was drag someone into her problems, especially if that someone could actually be the first real friend she ever had.
A single, hot tear rolled down her cheek.
LD
"Good night! Would you look at the size of this!" Milo exclaimed as he and Vinnie stared up at a massive, intricately carved pillar that was built on the edge of what at one point must've been a bridge, but now was nothing more than a the deep chasm in the planet that went down into the unknown depths the ancient bridge used to cover. Next to him, Vinnie rigged the base of the pillar with several sticks of dynamite. "It's gotta be half a mile high at least. It must've taken hundreds- , no, thousands of years to carve this thing." Vinnie grabbed hold of Milo's collar and dragged him away from the pillar. He pressed down on the detonator and the dynamite at the base of the pillar exploded. With a thundering crash, the pillar collapsed, forming a new bridge over the chasm.
"Hey look," Vinnie said with a grin, ignoring the horrified look on Milo's face. "I made a bridge. It only took me, like, what? Ten seconds. Eleven tops." The two of them turned around and headed back towards their respective trucks.
"I'm sorry for snapping at you earlier," Keila said quietly as they convoy began moving across the newly made bridge, finally breaking the eight hour silence that she and Riku had been enduring since the convoy had moved away from the stream. Riku glanced over at her, secretly relieved that their silence was over.
"It's fine," he said, lowering his voice so he was speaking as quietly as she was. "You obviously don't want to talk about your scars, so I won't mention them."
"Thank you," Keila replied. "It's nothing personal, it's just that talking about them or even thinking about them brings up bad memories that I'd rather not relive." Riku stared silently at her for a moment.
"I understand," Riku said after a couple of minutes of silence. "I won't bring them up again." Keila gave him an appreciative smile, which Riku returned. The moment only lasted for a moment before Keila's face hardened again, her natural glare she had around Riku returning. Riku let out a barely audible sigh. Despite the fact that they were getting along to an extent, she was still cold and hard towards him with annoying inconsistency.
LD
"I hate snow," Riku grumbled. The convoy slowly traveled through a cavern that was strangely filled with the powdery white substance associated with winter. Thick mounds of snow piled as high as the digger in some places only slowed them down further. Riku's teeth chattered and his body shivered despite the heat provided by the black cloak Xanthos had given him a couple of weeks before. Keila was worse off than he was. The only source of heat she had had initially was her black cape, which was as far from thick as possible. After nearly twenty minutes in the freezing cold, she had given up trying to use her cape to stay warm and instead had insisted on making Riku keep her warm by sitting next to her and keeping his arms around her. Riku had argued with her for a good five or so minutes before she finally threatened to cut off a very specific part of his anatomy before shoving it into another specific part of his anatomy. After that, Riku hadn't hesitated to help keep her warm.
Not that it's too terrible. Riku told himself as he glanced down at Keila, using his height to his advantage. The view's pretty nice. He couldn't help but notice the scar that was somewhat visible, running across her chest before vanishing somewhere along her stomach. He knew now that it would be better not to mention that he had seen it. Partially because he didn't want her knowing he was giving into his hormones and stealing glances down her shirt.
"The snow's not that bad," Keila grumbled, shivering despite the heat Riku's body provided her. "Well, it isn't when there's barely a foot of it on the ground. How the hell is there snow down here anyways? It doesn't seem scientifically possible to me."
"How about you two stop complaining about the cold for two minutes?" Dawn's voice suggested from her storage unit clipped to Riku's side. "I'm getting cold just listening to it and I shouldn't be able to feel temperature."
"Okay, Dawn. We'll talk about something else," Riku said w. "Since we've got plenty of time and we're being civil with each other, how about you tell me about yourself?"
"What about me do you want to know?" Keila asked hesitantly. "If you ask about my scars or my bra size I'll throw you under the digger." Riku chuckled nervously. He had no doubt in his mind that she wouldn't hesitate to.
"Okay, I won't ask about your scars or bra size," Riku said with a grin. "How about I ask about your childhood? What world are you from? What's it like there? Do you have any family? How did you get a Keyblade?" Keila let out a sigh, her mood lightening a little bit.
"Geez, I thought you were going to ask one question, not thirty," she said, playfully nudging Riku in the ribs while being careful not to jerk the wheel as the convoy slowed to a stop for a water break while Milo translated which of the four new paths in the snow filled cavern they had to take.
"I only asked five," Riku said defensively. Keila threw their truck in park and took a swig of water from her canteen. She shifted in Riku's arms to make herself more comfortable while they waited, her cheeks flushing red at their closeness.
"Details, details," she said, staring with slightly glazed eyes out at the snow covered rocks. "I can't honestly say what world I'm from; I've actually never been anywhere other than mother's land. But from what I've seen, it's absolutely gorgeous. The skies and plants are always a vibrant, emerald green color and the sea is crystal clear. I haven't been to very many worlds since my mother let me leave either, but in my opinion, none of them can match my world." She smiled warmly.
"As for my family, my mother raised me and my two hundred seventy-four siblings at her manor all by herself. I suppose she's lucky that she didn't have to raise us all at once, I don't think even someone as strong as her could-"
"Wait a second," Riku said quickly, cutting her off. "You have two hundred seventy-four brothers and sisters?" Keila nodded. "What kind of woman can possibly give birth to that many kids?"
"Oh God, you don't honestly think she actually gave birth to all of us do you?" Keila asked incredulously, laughing loudly when Riku slowly nodded.
"That's how you made it sound," he said defensively.
"Oh wow, I didn't think you'd be that stupid," Keila teased. Riku glared down at her. "Mother used to travel the worlds, rescuing any orphans, runaways or abandoned children she met who had a strong heart. She brought them home for the better part of twenty years.
"She told me she found me abandoned in a ditch in some backwater world, most likely no more than a few days old. Without Mother I'd probably be dead." Riku stared silently at her, unable to avoid noticing the hint of tears shimmering in her eyes. "I'll admit though, despite all that she's done for my siblings and me, I'm not quite as devoted to her as most of them are. I'm sort of the black sheep in my family." She grinned up at Riku. "I've always been a rebel. I guess that's why I haven't killed you yet." Her face fell slightly.
"What's wrong?" Riku asked, carefully studying her facial expressions.
"It's nothing," Keila said, shaking her head as if she was reassuring herself. "Let's see, you wanted to know how I got my Keyblade. Well, Mother is a Keyblade Master. She's performed the Inheritance Ceremony with me and my siblings." Riku's mouth dropped open.
"So all two hundred seventy-four of you can wield Keyblades?" Riku asked in complete and utter shock.
Her entire family is a small Keyblade Wielding army?
"Yes," Keila said with a nod. "She taught us how to use our Keyblades and how to fight by ourselves and in units."
"Let me guess, your mother was the one who convinced you and your siblings that Darkness was the way to go?"
"It's the only life any of us know," Keila said. "I don't know any other path other than Darkness."
"You sound just like I did almost two years ago," Riku said with a chuckle. Keila shot him a quizzical look. "I got bored with my home world. It was nothing more than a chain of island prisons. In my desire to escape, I opened the door to the heart of my world and the Heartless took it. I wound up in Hollow Bastion, which was all that was left of Radiant Garden and Maleficent took me in. She convinced me that my best friend had replaced me and that I didn't need him. I only needed the powers of Darkness she offered me. I accepted them. I attacked my best friend and tried to kill him." Keila stared at him.
"Then why do you side with the Light?" She asked softly. Riku smiled at her.
"My friend, Sora." Keila gave a barely noticeable start at the name. "He helped me realize I didn't need the Darkness. I still had my friends and they're all I need." They fell back into silence again. Keila kept her eyes fixated on the road ahead of them, one word dancing around her mind.
Friends…
LD
Equus Cargo Bay, Nineteen Hours from Destination
"This is your dumbest plan ever."
"I think you mean, most brilliant plan ever."
"No. I mean dumbest."
"Ouch. Thanks a lot, Pence.
"Hayner, we are hiding in barrels of flour. Have you ever considered what's going to happen to us if we get caught?" The ship shook slightly and a dull thud echoed from somewhere nearby the barrels that Hayner and Pence were currently hiding in. "Did you hear that?"
"What's happening?" Hayner whispered.
"We're both in barrels," Pence said sarcastically. "That's the extent of my knowledge." Both boys cried out in shock as the tops of their barrels came off without warning. Axel and Jenos both loomed overhead, grinning smugly down at the two stowaways.
"I told you I heard voices," Axel said proudly. "You owe me six hundred munny, got it memorized?" Jenos let out a long-winded sigh.
"Fine, just please stop saying that."
"Hey, it's my catchphrase. Got it memorized?"
"If you say that one more time I'll push you into an escape Gummi and fire you at some random world," Jenos snapped at the red-haired former Nobody before looking back down at the two teens. "Now, you two are going to come with me and you're going to tell us exactly why you stowed away on-" Dusk's voice cut him off as she spoke over the ship's intercom system.
"Now entering an asteroid field. Please secure your seatbelts. If you are standing up in the cargo bay next to a pair of opened flour barrels, you're out of luck I guess." Axel and Jenos exchanged a nervous glance.
"You think she was just messing with us?" Axel asked. The ship spun into a barrel roll, knocking Axel and Jenos off of their feet and covering them and several dozen square feet of bare ground in flour.
"No. I don't think she is," Jenos replied sarcastically.
LD
Saturday, June 12th 4794 P.C.
Ancient Highway to Atlantis
"Looks like we have a little roadblock," Rourke announced to the convoy. It was just after midnight and they had entered yet another large cavern, except unlike the other ones, they had found their path to be blocked by a massive, carved stone slab that must've collapsed hundreds of years before. "Riku, think you can blast a hole through that?" Riku stared up at the rock.
"Sure, just give me another month. I can probably do it," he said sarcastically. Rourke turned to the demolitions expert of the voyage.
"Vinnie, what do you think?" Rourke asked. Vinnie studied the stone slab for a brief moment.
"I could un-roadblock that if I had about two hundred of these," the Italian-accented man said, hefting a stick of dynamite and shifting the match in his mouth slightly. "Problem is, I only got about… ten. Plus, you know, five of my own," he opened up his rucksack to check inside as Rourke rolled his eyes, "and a couple of cherry bombs… a road flare." He tossed the explosives back into the bag. "Hey, too bad we don't have some nitroglycerin, eh, Riku?" Riku felt compelled to flip Vinnie the bird, especially when Mole began to laugh hysterically, until Rourke's next sentence shut him up.
"Looks like we're going to have to dig," the Commander said. Mole's laughter abruptly stopped. He stared down at Rourke from his seat in the digger.
"It will be my pleasure," he proclaimed eagerly. With a few twists of some knobs and some pulling of some levers, the digger grumbled to life and slowly made its way towards the stone slab, the drill on its front beginning to spin at a high velocity. It barely had had time to have an effect on the stone before the drill came to a sudden screeching halt. The digger let out a sputtering, belching noise and promptly died, thick plumes of jet black smoke pouring out of its inner machinery. Mole slammed his forehead against the steering wheel.
"Stupid. You. Are. Stupid!" He grumbled with each hit. Riku let out a groan and clambered back into his seat next to Keila as Audrey made her way to examine the inner workings of the digger.
"Looks like we're gonna be here for a while," Keila said bitterly. "Awesome. Did I mention that I'm bored with seeing caves?"
"Only about three dozen times in the past ten minutes," Riku said. Keila glared at him.
"That was rhetorical," she mumbled.
"Well, if it makes you feel any better, I'm sick of the caves myself," Riku said with a grin. Keila just rolled her eyes.
"Hey, you know any good songs?" She asked suddenly. Riku raised an eyebrow at her.
"What brought that on all of a sudden?" He asked.
"Because I'm bored!" Keila whined softly. "There's no radio or CD players in these things and all we've had to listen to are the rumblings of the engines and the rocks under us. I need music."
"Spoiled much?" Riku teased as he began running through his mental playlist of favorite songs.
"Do you know any good songs or not?" Keila demanded. Riku grinned at her and began humming the opening notes to a medium tempo-ed tune. His foot began tapping a steady rhythm on floor of the truck cab while his finger tips drummed the acoustic guitar parts on the dash as he started to sing.
"Summer time and the wind is blowing outside
in lower Chelsea
and I don't know what I'm doing in this city.
The sun is always in my eyes.
It crashes through the windows,
and I'm sleeping on the couch.
When I came to visit you,
that's when I knew
that I could never have you."
Keila stared, simply enthralled by the beauty of Riku's voice, singing one of her all time favorite songs.
"I knew that before you did.
Still I'm the one who's stupid.
And there's this burning,
like there's always been.
I've never been so alone.
And I've
never been so alive."
Keila placed her hand on Riku's shoulder startling him slightly and took over the next verse for him.
"Visions of you on a motorcycle drive-by,
the cigarette ash flies in your eyes and you don't mind.
You smile
and say the world it doesn't fit with you.
I don't believe you.
You're so serene.
Careening through the universe,
your axis on a tilt.
You're guiltless and free.
I hope you take a piece of me with you."
Riku felt himself take a sharp breath in, her voice a stunning mezzo-soprano.
"And there's things I'd like to do
that you don't believe in.
I would like to build something.
But you'll never see it happen.
And there's this burning,
like there's always been
I've never been so alone.
And I've…
I've never been so alive!"
Riku's voice melded with hers into a beautiful harmony on the last 'alive'. They tapped out the brief guitar riff on the dash with their fingertips, Keila struggling to not giggle as they did so.
"And there's this burning, ah ha.
There is this burning!
Ay yai yai!"
Riku took over once more, getting Keila to remain quiet by gently pressing a finger to her lips, causing her to blush slightly.
"Where's the soul I want to know?
New York City's evil.
The surface is everything,
but I could never do that.
Someone would see through that.
And this is the last time
we'll be friends again.
And I'll get over you;
you'll wonder who I am.
And there's this burning,
just like there's always been.
I've never been so alone, alone.
And I've, and I've,
I've never been so alive."
Together, they sung the next two words.
"So alive."
It was Keila's turn to get Riku to remain quiet by placing her finger over his lips.
"I go home to the coast it starts to rain I paddle out on the water,
alone.
Taste the salt and taste the pain.
I'm not thinking of you again.
Summer dies and swells rise,
the sun goes down in my eyes.
See this rolling wave,
darkly coming
to take me
home."
Riku tried his hardest not to notice the slightly sad look that had formed on Keila's face as she sung the last verse.
"And I've never been so alone."
Keila smiled and in a hushed tone, she sung the final words of the song.
"And I've never been so alive."
The two of them were silent for a brief moment simply staring at each other. It took a few seconds for them to realize that during their singing, their faces had slowly drifted closer together until the tips of their noses were practically brushing up against one another. Both teens pulled quickly apart, their faces flushed red from the brief moment of closeness they had just shared. A somewhat nervous, awkward silence fell over the pair, broken only by Mole's cry of 'She lives!' Apparently, Milo of all people was the one who got the digger to work by simply 'persuading' the diggers' boiler with a wrench.
After that, it was a day full of uneventful driving as Mole tunneled through the roadblock to the other side, where he led the convoy through a series of smaller caves until they emerged onto a still intact bridge that spanned the length of another massive chasm. High above their heads, a stone lantern was carved into the ceiling, giving off and eerie, pale green light.
"This is it," Milo announced. He glanced from the sketches in the Journal to the giant lantern. "It's gotta be."
"All right. We'll make camp here," Rourke announced.
"Why is it glowing?" Keila asked, looking up at the carved lantern.
"Pah!" Mole said in a disinterested tone. "It is a natural phosphorescence."
"That thing is going to keep me up all night," Vinnie grumbled. "I know it."
Within thirty minutes, the camping gear had been unloaded from the truck and fires had been started in metal cans all around the camp to keep them warm. Riku and Keila sat with Sweet, Audrey, Mole, Vinnie and Packard in a sloppily formed circle around one of said fires. Cookie had apparently been hard at work, making a three course meal for the entire convoy, as was evident when he came around with his pot of 'appetizers'.
"For the appetizer," the chef announced as he made his way to their little group, "We got Caesar Salad," a glob of slop landed on Sweet's tray, "Fried Potato Skins," Riku winced as the same slop Sweet had received was placed on his tray, "Shrimp Cocktail," Keila's face turned an odd shade of green as she poked at the slop Cookie gave her with the tip of her spoon, "Escargot," Audrey didn't even bother trying to appear grateful, "and your Oriental Spring Rolls." For a moment, Mole looked excited at the 'Spring Rolls'. Then he was staring longingly at Audrey's tray.
"I wanted the Escargot," he said sadly.
"Knock yourself out," Audrey replied, not hesitating at all to pass her tray along to the jubilant Mole.
"There you go, Milo," Cookie said warmly to the linguist as he handed him a tray. "Put some meat on them bones." Milo stared, weak stomached at the sight of the 'appetizer'.
"Thanks, Cookie," he said, trying not to be too disgusted by it. "It looks greasier than usual."
"You like it?" Cookie asked eagerly. "Well, have some more." He lifted up his pot and poured a large heap of the slop onto Milo's tray. "You're so skinny, if you turned sideways and stuck out your tongue you'd look like a zipper."
"You know, we've been pretty tough on the kid," Sweet said, watching Milo sit all by himself against a pillar of rock. "What do you say we cut him some slack?" The others all glanced around.
"Yeah, you're right," Audrey said with a sigh. "Hey, Milo! Why don't you come sit with us?" The linguist looked up from perusing the Shepherd's Journal for the umpteenth time.
"Really? You don't mind?" He asked, getting to his feet and closing the book.
"Nah, park it here," Audrey gestured to a flat rock to her right that would serve as a decent seat.
"Gee, this is great," Milo said as he walked over to them. "I mean, you know, it's an honor to be included in your-" he was cut off by a loud, rather rude sound created by a children's prank toy as he sat down. A whoopee-cushion, delivered courtesy of Mole, who was rolling on the ground with laughter.
"Mole!" The others all growled in unison, glaring at the expert in digging.
"Ah, forgive me," Mole said with an innocent grin. "I could not resist."
"Don't you ever close that thing?" Riku asked Milo as he placed his tray of 'fried potato skins' off to the side. "I don't think I've ever seen you take your nose out of it once." Milo glanced up from the pages of the Journal.
"Yeah," Sweet chimed in. "You must've read it a dozen times by now." Keila nodded in agreement as she braced herself to take a bite of Cookies cooking, only to discover that half of her spoon had dissolved. She set her tray down; secretly thankful she had discovered the small stash of power bars Riku had in his backpack.
"I know," Milo said slowly, carefully examining the book, "but this… this doesn't make any sense. "See in this passage here, the Shepherd seems to be leading up to something. He calls it the 'Heart of Atlantis'." Riku's ears immediately perked up. "It could be the power source the legends refer to."
"You mean the one that helped them achieve technology beyond others?" Riku asked, suddenly feeling very interested. Milo nodded.
"That's the one," he said, flipping the pages of the Journal with his spoon. "But then it just… it cuts off. It's almost like there's a missing page."
"Kid, relax," Vinnie said, still chewing on the back end of a match rather than attempting to force down Cookies food. "We don't get paid overtime."
"We're getting paid?" Keila whispered to Riku, who shrugged in response.
"I know, I know," Milo said as he tucked the book away. "Sometimes I get a little carried away. But, hey, you know, that's what this is all about, right? I mean, discovery, teamwork, adventure. Unless, maybe, you're just in it for the money." Everyone was quiet for a moment, staring at Milo.
"Money," Audrey said with a shrug.
"Money."
"Money."
"Money."
"I'm gonna say…" Vinnie began, looking for the right words. "Money."
"Bragging rights," Riku said with a grin. "If we find Atlantis, my best friend will never hear the end of it."
"I'm stuck with this guy for now," Keila said, jerking her thumb towards Riku. "And if I can get in on a cut of the profit, then it's for the money." Milo let out a sigh.
"Well, I guess I set myself up for that one," he said as he massaged his neck.
"Is something wrong with your neck?" Sweet observed, getting to his feet and striding over to stand behind Milo.
"Oh, yeah," Milo said with a nod. "I must've hurt it when-" Sweet grabbed Milo's head in both hands and cracked his neck in two different directions before releasing him.
"Better?" The Doctor asked. Milo rubbed the back of his neck, a look of surprised relief spreading across his face.
"Yeah," he said gratefully. "Hey, how'd you learn how to do that?"
"An Arapaho medicine man," Sweet said simply.
"Get outta here," an impressed Milo said.
"Born and raised with 'em," Sweet explained as he pulled out an old photograph from one of his front pockets to hand to Milo. "My father was an Army medic. He settled down in the Kansas Territory after he met my mother."
"No kidding," Milo handed back the photo.
"Nope," Sweet said proudly. "I got a sheepskin from Howard U and a bearskin from old Iron Cloud." He pulled out a necklace from under his shirt, showing off both skins. "Halfway through medical school, I was drafted. One day I'm studying gross anatomy in the classroom, the next I'm sewing up Rough Riders on San Juan Hill."
"Main course," Cookie announced, wheeling an even bigger pot than the one he had earlier over to them. The group came up with a dozen excuses, from being too full to eat another bite to watching their weight (in both Audrey's and, oddly enough, Riku's case). "Ha ha ha, don't you worry. It'll keep and keep and keep." Cookie chuckled as he strode off towards one of the other fires.
"Thank God I lost my sense of taste years ago," Packard said, putting out her cigarette in her food before she and everyone else dumped their trays into the fire, resulting in a miniaturized mushroom cloud as the fire was extinguished.
High above them, the pale green light slowly began to dim.
Half an hour later, Lieutenant Helga Sinclair gave the orders to pitch camp and hit the hay. It took Riku and Keila almost no time at all to set up their tent and change into their sleeping attire. Riku dressed in a pair of midnight blue sweatpants decorated with the logo of his preferred brand of soda, Pepsi, and a plain white shirt. Keila still wore her black sweatpants covered with the white outlines of stars and an oversized black t-shirt that read You ever wonder why we're here?
"Aren't you going to pitch up your tent?" Vinnie asked Milo as the demolitions expert unfurled his bedroll. Riku glanced over at Milo's tent, if one could call it that. It looked like a pile of sticks and cloth tied haphazardly together with rope and supported by a clothesline holding one of Milo's socks and a map.
"Uh, I did," Milo said, gesturing at his pitiful excuse for a tent. Vinnie sighed and went to help the poor linguist set up his shelter. "I guess I'm still a little rusty at this. I haven't gone camping since… well, since the last time my grandpa took me."
"I never got to meet your grandfather," Audrey said as she finished tying down her tent to the stakes in the ground. "What was he like?
"Where do you start?" Milo said with a chuckle as Vinnie walked away from the properly pitched tent. "He was like a father to me, really. My parents died when I was a little kid and he took me in." He stretched out on his bedroll, chuckling as he reminisced about his memories of his grandfather.
"What?" Keila asked, overhearing his chuckle as she kicked off her combat boots.
"Well, I was just thinking'," Milo said, clearly lost in memory. "One time, when I was eight, we were hiking along this stream and I saw something shining in the water. It was a genuine arrowhead. Well, you'd think I found a lost civilization the way Grandpa carried on about it. It wasn't until I was older that I realized that the arrowhead was just some compressed shale mixed with zinc pyrite that had fractured into an isosceletic triangulate."
"That is so cute!" Mole said with a giggle as he strode by, dressed in a pair of red, white, and blue striped pajamas, clutching a stuffed gray mole to his chest and still wearing his magnifying headgear with the lamp turned on.
"Say, Audrey," Milo began slowly. "No, no offense or anything, but how does a teenager become the chief mechanic of a multimillion dollar expedition?"
"Well, I took this job when my dad retired," Audrey replied, pulling her boots and socks off as she spoke. "But the funny thing was, he always wanted sons, right? One to run his machine shop and the other to be middleweight boxing champion but he got my sister and me instead."
"So, what happened to your sister?" Riku asked.
"She's twenty-four and Oh, with a shot at the title next month," Audrey said.
Saw that coming. Riku said to himself.
"Anyway," Audrey continued as she laid down in her tent, "I'm saving up so my Papi and I can open another shop." Milo smiled and glanced around as Packard strode by in an olive green bathrobe, fuzzy pink slippers, mud on her face and her hair in rollers with a magazine and pillow tucked under her arm.
"Forget your jammies, Mrs. Packard?" Milo asked.
"I sleep in the nude," Packard replied in her monotone voice. Looks of disgust and shock crossed Milo, Riku and Keila's faces. A pair of black sleeping masks landed in front of each of them, tossed by the ever so kind doc, Sweet.
"You're all gonna want a pair of these," he said with a grin. "She sleepwalks." Riku and Keila exchanged horrified glances.
"Well, as far as me goes," Vinnie said, securing his mask and tucking a match behind his ear as he laid down, "I just like to blow things up." Sweet shook his head and tugged on Vinnie's mask, letting it snap him across the face.
"Come on, Vinnie," he said. "Tell the kids the truth. Vinnie sighed.
"My family owned a flower shop," he explained. "We would sell roses, carnations, baby's breath, you name it. One day, I'm making about three dozen corsages for this prom. You know, the one they put on their wrist. And everybody, they come. 'Where is it?' 'When is it?' 'Does it match my dress?' It's a nightmare. Anyway, I guess there was this leak next door of gas or what. Boom! No more Chinese laundry. Blew me right through the front window." He rolled over, grabbing the match from behind his ear and lit it with his still-gloved thumb. "It was like a sign from God. I found myself in that boom." The group all turned at the sound of earth being shifted and spotted Mole twisting himself into a hole he had dug. The light on his head clicked off and his ever so creepy laughter emerged from the hole.
"What's Mole's story?" Riku asked.
"Trust me on this one. You don't wanna know," Sweet said, a serious expression dominating his facial features. "Audrey, don't tell him. You shouldn't have told me, but you did. And now I'm telling you, you don't wanna know." He grabbed hold of their lantern and extinguished the light, signaling that they should all go to sleep.
"You try touching me in my sleep tonight, and I'll push you off of the bridge," Keila growled as she and Riku crawled into their tent.
"You know, you've threatened me with throwing or pushing me to my doom before," Riku pointed out. "How about you mix it up a little?"
"Okay," Keila said. "Touch me in my sleep and I will cut off your one defining feature as a male and stick it someplace you really don't want it to be. Then I will throw you off the bridge." Riku simply stared at her.
"I will make sure I don't touch you then," he said, trying to block out the mental image of her threat before adding under his breath, just loud enough for her to hear "Not that I'd want to touch you anyways. You're not that good looking." Keila's mouth dropped open in stunned disbelief. Riku grinned teasingly at her.
"You're a lying jerk," Keila said, examining her appearance in a small hand mirror before smirking slyly at him. "What do you really think about my looks?" That caught Riku off guard. He fumbled on Dawn's container, dropping it to the ground by accident.
"Watch it!" Dawn snapped over her speakers. "People are in here you know!"
"Sorry," Riku whispered to her before looking back at Keila. "I'm sorry, what now?"
"What do you really think about my looks?" Keila asked Riku softly, a small blush forming across her cheeks as she slowly moved on all fours towards where Riku kneeled on the ground. Riku swallowed hard, determinedly keeping his eyes fixated on Keila's face as the top of her shirt opened to reveal quite a bit of her womanly features.
"I, uh, I think you, um," he stuttered, mentally regretting staring at her face. He found himself drawn into her cerulean eyes. He swallowed hard. "What I mean to say is, I, um. You are really close." Keila's face was less than half a foot from his and she had a tiny, bemused smirk etched onto her face.
"You're cute when you're flustered," she said, playfully punching him on the arm. "It's going to be a shame when I have to kill you."
"You're still going on about that?" Riku asked as Keila backed away from him and resituated herself on her side of the tent. "Weren't you the one who said you didn't want to kill me?" Keila nodded sadly.
"I don't!" she said quickly. "I'm sorry, Silver, I really am, but Mother hasn't left me with any other choice. I don't know what she'd do to me if I didn't do as she asked and I don't know what Maleficent would do to me if she found out I already lied about leaving you as a vegetable back at that Radiant Garden medical station."
"Wait, you told Maleficent what?" Riku asked.
"I told Maleficent that you were basically a human vegetable with almost no time left in this life to live and that you wouldn't be able to interfere with her plans anymore," Keila admitted. "Honestly, I'm not too worried about what Maleficent might do to me. None of her punishments could possibly be as bad as the ones my Mother makes me and my siblings go through." With that one sentence, Riku suddenly understood where all of the scars he had seen on Keila's back had come from. Keila seemed to realize what she had said at almost the exact same moment. "Never mind. Forget I said anything."
"Is that how you got all those-" Riku began.
"I said to forget it!" Keila snapped. She threw a blanket over herself and laid down with her back to Riku. "Goodnight!" Riku watched her silently for several moments before lying down himself and allowing sleep to embrace him, unaware of the silent tears running down Keila's face.
LD
Sunday, June 13th 4794 P.C.
A figure dressed in a long, silver cloak slowly emerged from the tunnel behind the convoy several minutes after the last of them had gone to bed. He gazed out carefully at the convoy where he knew the Keyblade Master Riku, the one Maleficent believed to be nearly dead, was sleeping. He sighed.
Despite having no emotions since becoming a Nobody, Naleten still remembered that would have felt bad that he would sentence one of Cynthia's children to death. But fortunately, he didn't have to deal with such hindering emotions anymore. He glanced up at the carved stone lantern's unearthly green glow. His eagle-like eyesight confirmed to him that the glow was being created by exactly what he thought it was. Grinning emotionlessly to himself, he grabbed a flashlight from the crate of the convoy's supplies and shined it on the lantern.
The green glow became golden and glowing insects began to emerge. Naleten shut off the light and tossed it back into the crate before vanishing into a portal of Darkness at his feet, knowing better than to stick around when the Flamelights swarmed.
So sorry, Keila. But if Cynthia wants something done right… He said to himself as he left the world behind him.
LD
Olette's Heart
Olette flipped herself up into the air as her armored opponent swung her Oblivion Keyblade down on the platform where she had been standing a split second before. Her breath was coming to her in ragged gasps. She had no idea how long she had been fighting the armored woman, but the fact that her entire body was screaming at her to stop moving and rest told her it had been for a long time. Below her, an orb made from several bolts of lightning was forming in the armored woman's hand. Olette let out a growl. She had had enough.
Even though she was falling through the air, she managed to change direction so she was headed straight for the armored woman. The woman seemed surprised by Olette's sudden switch to the offensive and unleashed her Thunder attack a moment too soon, missing Olette by half a foot. Less than two seconds later, Olette slammed into the armored woman's chest, knocking her to the ground where her helmet was knocked loose and rolled to the side. With a kick, Olette sent the Oblivion skittering across the platform and over the edge. Her Aubade pressed against the flesh of the woman's newly exposed throat.
"Yield," she growled, remembering the term used in Struggle to declare oneself the victor in a mock battle when the opponent would have received a lethal blow. The armored woman grinned and stared up at Olette, who let out a gasp and backed off of the woman. Now that her helmet had gone, Olette could see her long, chocolate brown hair that fell to her waist and her startling emerald-green eyes. The woman stood up, brushing off the shoulder pieces of her armor.
"Good job, kiddo," she said with a grin. "You're definitely ready for the Master's training." She clapped Olette on her shoulder with an armored hand. "And don't worry about his methods, there's a point behind it all. Trust me." The woman snapped her fingers and a large, white door appeared behind her. "Go on. Open the door." Olette continued to stare at the woman in utter shock. The woman sighed. "All you have to do to complete Destati is open the door, you know."
"You, you're-?" Olette began to ask, still in awe. The woman nodded and spoke before Olette could continue.
"Of course. How else could I be here now?"The woman answered. "Now go open the door already. You've got some training to get started." Olette nodded in understanding and approached the door. A Keyhole flashed into existence in the door's center. Olette raised the Aubade and leveled it with the Keyhole. A beam of bright blue light shot from the tip of her Keyblade to the Keyhole. The sounds of a lock being unlocked echoed throughout the darkness surrounding the platform. For a brief moment, nothing happened. Then the double doors swung open, revealing a blinding white light that made it impossible for Olette to see anything.
"Don't be afraid."
LD
"Fire! Fire! Fire!" Milo's shouts echoed throughout the camp. Riku slowly opened his eyes and heard Keila grumbling next to him as she was awoken as well. In their sleep worn state, it didn't seem to register with either of them that Keila had once again moved over to Riku's side of the tent and was curled up against his side.
Commander Rourke glared at his alarm clock as Milo's shouts roused him from his sleep.
"I'm gonna kill him," he growled as he stepped out his tent. "Thatch, go back to bed!" His eyes widened in shock and his alarm clock clattered to the ground.
"What the hell is he going on about?" Keila mumbled as the pair of them poked their heads out of the tent flaps to find the whole camp ablaze. Thousands of golden, glowing insects poured out of the carved lantern and every time they landed on something, they burst into flame. Riku quickly dove back into the tent and grabbed hold of his bag that still held his clothes, the Dawn's First Light's container and Dawn's storage unit.
"Get some water on that fire!" Helga shouted over the cries of panicking men and women.
"No time!" Rourke said, more than seventy percent of the camp was ablaze. "Get us into those caves. Move it! Move it! Move it!" Everyone immediately abandoned trying to put out the flames and rushed to the vehicles. Riku and Keila spotted their truck a split second before it erupted into flames as a small cloud of the insects landed on it. They changed course and leapt into the back of Rourke's truck alongside Audrey as Rourke began to follow Mole across the bridge to safety.
The truck containing the fuel for the entire convoy quickly caught fire as it brought up the rear. The driver began to panic and lose control. Milo ran as quickly as he could ahead of the flaming fuel truck, jumping at the last possible second to land inside of Rourke's truck before the fuel exploded, weakening the structure of the bridge. A loose piece of debris fired up at the cavern ceiling like a missile, shattering the lantern and bringing it crashing down on the bridge.
Unable to support the weight of the vehicles any longer, combined with several explosions and the sudden impact of the shattered lantern pieces, the back end of the bridge collapsed, forming a steep slide back down into the chasm. The digger attempted to make its way up the newly formed slope, but its bulk and weight combined with the forces of gravity dragged it back down into the chasm, dragging it into the other vehicles. The convoy was sent sliding into one another, down a steep slope of smooth rock and into the deep dark depths of the chasm, which Riku thanked every possible higher power he could think of that the chasm was made of slippery slopes so they didn't fall straight down and come to a sudden, skull shattering stop. Silence filled the chasm for several moments before Rourke lit a match, illuminating his ghostly image in the haunting dark.
"Alright, who's not dead? Sound off." The Commander ordered. The response came in the form of groans and grunts of pain from most, except Cookie.
"Danged lightnin' bugs done bit me on my sit-upon," he complained. "Somebody's gonna have to suck out that poison. Now don't everybody jump up at once." Someone managed to find the headlight controls to a near totaled jeep. Riku blinked from the sudden light and found himself lying on top of something soft. Something soft that had her Keyblade pressed against his throat.
"Move your hand or I will cut it off," Keila growled up at him her cheeks flushed crimson. Riku glanced down and saw his left hand squeezing down on her right breast. Riku scrambled to get off of her.
"Audrey, give me a damage report," Rourke barked. Audrey's reply was almost immediate.
"It's not as bad as it could've been," she said, shining her flashlight around at the vehicles. "We totaled rigs two and seven but the digger looks like it will still run. Lucky for us we landed in something soft."
"Pumice ash," Mole explained, his goggles extended to their maximum magnification to allow him to examine the dirt around them. "We are standing in the base of a dormant volcano." Helga pulled a flare gun out of a holster on her belt and fired a signal flare upwards. The ball of flame kept traveling up and up into the air.
"It just keeps going," Helga noted.
"Maybe that's our ticket outta here," Vinnie suggested. The flare struck something solid and blazed brightly before fading out of existence.
"Maybe not," Keila grumbled, pulling her cloak tighter around her chest while glaring at Riku.
"The magma has solidified in the bowels of the volcano effectively blocking the exit," Mole explained as he stared up at where the flare had struck.
"I got the same problem with sauerkraut," Packard mentioned as she took a puff from her cigarette.
"Hold on. Back up," Sweet said quickly in a concerned tone, "Are you sayin' this whole volcano can blow at anytime?" He glanced around at the ground nervously.
"No, no, no, no," Mole said with a shake of his head. "That would take an explosive force of great magnitude." As if on instinct, the survivors all turned their heads to look over at Vinnie as he tinkered with repairing a time bomb that had been damaged. He stopped as he felt everyone's eyes on him.
"Maybe I should do this later, huh?" He asked.
"That would probably be a good idea," Riku said, his cheeks still flushed red from his encounter with Keila.
"If we could blow the top off of that thing, we'd have a straight shot to the surface," Rourke said, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. "Mr. Thatch, what do you think?"
No response.
"Mr. Thatch?" Rourke called again, only to be greeted by more silence. Flashlights blazed to life and began shining their beams back and forth in the gloom.
"Thatch?" He turned to Mole. "Get the digger started. We need to find Thatch!"
LD
Milo groaned as he came to. Around him, he could hear voices speaking, speaking…
Atlantean?
Three figures surrounded him, all appearing human except for their massive faces, and glowing eyes and mouths. They each carried long spears with curved blades on the tips. Milo gave a start and attempted to back away from the creatures, letting out a grunt of pain as a jagged wound on his chest throbbed suddenly. He gently touched the wound and examined his bloody fingers.
The smallest built of the three creatures kneeled next to him and lifted its face by the chin, revealing that it was only a mask. Underneath was a young woman who appeared to be in her early twenties. Milo let out a small gasp of surprise. Her hair was white as snow, her eyes like sapphires. A pair of golden earrings hung from her earlobes. Her breasts were covered by a band of blue cloth. A pair of blue crescents where inked into her cheek under her left eye. She looked at him with concern for his pain. Milo's eyes traveled to a glowing blue crystal hanging from her neck, in his opinion as beautiful as the woman before him.
The woman grabbed the crystal and gently touched the tip to Milo's skin above the wound. She pressed her hand over the wound, causing Milo to gasp in pain and shock as he felt the wound mend itself. She removed her hand from him, leaving a faint, glowing blue handprint on his unmarred flesh for a moment before it faded. Milo let out sigh of relief as he stared at the place where the wound had been. The woman smiled at him before lowering her mask.
The three figures took off running as the ground rumbled and shook. Golden light from the digger filled the area as Milo scrambled to his feet in pursuit of the trio, calling out for them to wait for him. They led him through a small cavern before vanishing through a human sized crevice.
"Hey, wait a minute!" Milo called out as he squeezed through the crevice, running out onto a stone outcropping covered in grass and foliage. "Who are you?" Milo came to a complete stop, as his mind registered what was before his eyes. Behind him, the stone crevice was widened as the digger emerged from the caves, twenty or so people running out alongside it. The other survivors ran up to stand next to the linguist, completely forgetting about him for a moment. A faint mist created by a massive waterfall pouring off of a large, perfectly circular island parted for them. The massive cavern encompassing the island was lit with a faint light created by the pool of flowing magma a thousand feet below the outcropping where the survivors stood, giving the impression of daylight. In the center of the island, barely visible through the mist was the faint outline of some sort of architectural structure.
"Sweet mother of Jefferson Davis!" Cookie exclaimed.
"It's beautiful," Audrey and Keila sighed.
"I am never going to let Sora live this one down," Riku said as a massive grin spread across her face. Sweet clapped Milo on the shoulder.
"Milo, I've gotta hand it to you," he said in an awed voice. "You really came through." A shrieking war cry echoed from above and behind them. The group all spun around, Keyblades flashing into existence in Riku's and Keila's hands as five warriors wielding curved spears and wearing giant, intimidating masks with glowing eyes and teeth leapt down. "Uh, I take that back."
The warriors began to advance menacingly on the group, driving them towards the edge of the outcropping.
LD
I hope you all enjoyed it!
Before I forget, I would like to thank Shire Folk for helping me come up with Riku's Sunblade. Thanks Shire!
As usual, reviews are greatly welcomed.
Until next time.
Aspicio, diluculo Infinitas Noctis.
Shadow Horizons