Kingdom Hearts:Birth by Sleep Zero-Chapter 15
DISCLAIMER: Someday I will rule over the universe of KH! But until then...
PLUS: I'm sorry to you dedicated readers that Ven, Aqua, and Terra have not yet started their journey to find Master Xehanort yet, but they will, so don't worry. I'm planning on Master Xehanort disappearing with his "cohort" within a few chapters. I'm the kind of person who loves a story that has foundation and a base, instead of it just leaping into the fray of conflict. The reason why it has taken about fifteen chapters to actually get things going is that I want to have people have a feeling for TAV's personalities, which will eventually affect the outcome of the story. Sorry for you action story lovers; don't worry, within a few days in the timeline of the story, TAV will have probably at least one battle per chapter. I hate stories where it just rattles on and on about blah blah this, and blah blah blah that, and I know it seems that this story is heading for that direction, but it certainly won't, I promise.
Thank you for your time, Eternal Symphonia.
The pure white light of the void disappeared as I hit chilly, solid ground. Instead of a having a snowy white glow, everything had turned into a dark world with a few lanterns scattered here and there. All of the sudden, my pants felt wet and sticky. I instantly got up from the black cobblestone and tried to see what I had sat on. A pile of orange pumpkin mush was apparent on the smooth black rock. I twisted around to see if any of the pumpkin was still attached to my pants. Of course, there was orange slime oozing down my thighs.
"Ughh..." I swiped my arm over the goo and without even looking at my hand, I flicked it onto the ground in disgust.
"Where is everybody?" Looking around told me that I was alone in this dark world.
We must have been separated when we came through the portal. I guessed silently. In front of me lay a winding black cobblestone path that lead to a group of about twenty Gothic-looking buildings.
So, I headed towards the lantern-lit town to see if anyone I knew was there waiting for me. Following the path, I started to hear wolves howling on the moors that surrounded the unprotected path.
Don't worry, I assured myself. If they dare come close to you, you can just turn them into swiss cheese with Eternal Horizons.
A slight breeze that carried the smell of late Autumn caressed my cheeks. The feeling of it cooled my suddenly really itchy skin.
Ignoring the urge to scratch my skin off to the bone, I resumed on the path to civilization. Finally, I arrived at the middle of the town. Everywhere there were Halloween decorations and jack-o-lanterns lighting up the Gothic houses' windows.
The candlelight danced on the ornate stained glass.
"Impressive, isn't it?" a delighted voice asked behind my position. I instantly swiveled around to the previously disembodied voice. Standing in front of me was a skeleton with a toothy grin glued to something that wasn't a face. Glued to his...skull perhaps?
Stricken by surprise, I fell over onto my behind. "Are you okay?" the skeleton reached out his bony hand to help me up off of the stone.
"I'm fine." I brushed off my pants and ignored his offer of help as I got to my feet once again.
"My name is Jack; Jack Skellington!" This introduction was followed by a dramatic little jig of happiness.
"Okay..." I rubbed the back of my hair and rolled my eyes. I made sure the happy-go-lucky skeleton didn't see it, even though I had a feeling he was going to be on the list of "people I hate".
"What's your name, Mr.Werewolf?" Jack asked while blinking his empty eye holes in curiosity.
"Werewolf?" I asked out loud in perplexity.
"Well, look at yourself; you're hairy, tall, scary, toothy, and just downright ugly!" the skeleton added afterwards, "No offense."
Mentally note that; Jack Skellington is now number four on hate list.
Jack Skellington was right; I was hairy, tall, scary, toothy, and NOT UGLY. I was surprised that I hadn't even noticed it before. "So, you still haven't given me your name yet." Jack urged.
I sighed and obliged, "My name's Terra." The skeleton tapped his skull with a white finger while searching for a lost memory.
"You know, I knew a witch named Terra once." he smiled.
"Why does everyone think Terra is a girl's name!?" I yelled out loud.
"Well, anger problems or not, it's nice to meet you." Jack ignored my question and thrust his hand out to shake mine.
I walked away from Jack's greeting and looked around. Where could they be? Jack interrupted my glancing around the town square and asked yet another question. "Looking for someone?" he tapped on my shoulder.
"Yeah, a blue haired teenage girl and an annoying blond teenage boy." I gave the brief description.
"Well, a few minutes ago I met a boy with a large scythe with spiky blond hair in the graveyard." Jack pointed to a squeaking iron gate across the square.
"He said that I looked cool, or something; do you think I look cool, too?" God, I swear that the skeleton is just begging to have the crap beaten out of him. I mentally grumbled.
Leaving Jack in the town square, I headed towards the eerie gate that led to the graveyard. After super-humanly leaping over the gate on my feet and hands, I saw that the graveyard was just a few meters away; a curly shaped hill stood beyond it under a full moon. "Ven!" I called through the misty jungle of tombstones.
"What!?" a recognizable voice hissed in surprise. Ven stepped away from a looming tombstone; he obviously was hiding behind it, for he hesitantly shuffled his way out from behind it. Ven was wearing a pure black cape with a large scythe suspended at his side. The metal blade looked somewhat similar to his Keyblade, with five prongs tracing the bottom cut of it.
His face looked like it was smothered in bird crap; it made the moon look like a dim star if you compared them closely.
"What are you? The Grim Reaper?" Ven twisted the scythe around in his hand, concentrating on deep thought. If it hadn't been for the two white fangs hanging over his bottom lip, I would have thought he was the Grim Reaper's doppelganger.
"I guess."
"Well, have you found Aqua yet?" This question jerked Ven away from his pondering.
"Yeah, she told me to wait here while she went looking for you." He sighed afterwards, "She wouldn't let me come along; I think it was because "I would just get lost" ." The teen added effect by sighing and rolling his dark cerulean eyes afterwards.
"What were you hiding from behind that tombstone?" While asking this question, I noticed that half of his body was still concealed behind the mold and fungus covered pedestal.
"Well, there was this creepy skeleton named Jack, and he kept asking me if he was "cool"." His whole body shivered at the thought of the skeleton before he continued on. "He wouldn't leave me alone until I told him that there was a giant monkey in the town square. I can't believe he bought it!"
"I mean, how dumb can people, errr, skeletons be?" He stared at me in confusion.
"So, I hid behind this tombstone hoping he wouldn't come back and find me." A joyous bellow sounded in the crisp air afterwards, "Ven, I'm back!" Jack waved in excitement.
"Crap." Ven jumped behind the silver pedestal in exaggerated fear.
"Hey, where'd that little man go?" Jack looked around the graveyard and kept calling the teen's name.
I glanced at the teen behind the moonlit tombstone and shrugged, "Maybe he was so awed by how awesome and cool you were, he just couldn't take it anymore." Ven was shaking extremely violently trying not to laugh at my sarcasm, letting out his joy by pounding on the dirt beside his foot.
"Yeah, you're probably right; I do know a lot of people who do that." Now Ven was rolling on the pine needles strewn over the ground. Finally, he couldn't take it anymore, so he burst out in happy tears and almost flew across the graveyard in hysteria.
"Hey there, I was looking for you." Jack tapped his finger at the teen that was howling with laughter.
"Sorry, sorry." Ven apologized while wiping the tears away from his pale eyelid.
"Hey, there you are!" A feminine voice called in relief.
Aqua scanned my appearance and smiled bleakly, "You look...different." She said it as if she was comparing me to Ven. In fact, I know she was comparing me to Ven because she glanced at him in-between the words "look" and "different", and she looked at him afterwards with her fake smile dissipating into a content one. Ven saw this and a bright ray of happy-go-lucky feelings hit his heart; eventually they were so apparent that he smiled with glee afterwards.
Replying to Aqua's "comment", I looked over her appearance as well; her medium blue hair was covered by a a black and purple patchwork witch's hat, while her face was also a pale color similar to that of Ven's. The matching patchwork dress that she wore flowed all the way down to her ankles and met her pointy black boots.
"You look so wonderful, too." I smirked in sarcasm, making Ven glare at me for even daring to insult Aqua. I returned the glare with cold blue eyes, pretty much telling him that even if I wouldn't dare to "harm" Aqua, I wouldn't just let her insult me like that.
After Jack Skellington introduced himself to Aqua, all four of us headed back into the village properly named "Halloween Town". I knew that Ven and Aqua were angry at me for insulting her outfit and appearance, but I just didn't care. They knew that insulting me wasn't a way to gain my sheer and utter respect, and that I wasn't just going to be a wimp and stand by when that happened; it just wasn't on my list of things to do.
"So, I haven't seen you three around here before; are you new to town?" Jack waited for an answer, eventually ending up with nothing but empty silence. Aqua and Ven were ahead of Jack and I, chattering about some stupid concept.
"God, Terra's being so grumpy lately!" Aqua complained.
"I know! And all you did was tell him that he looked creepy!" After this, Aqua and Ven looked back at me to see if I was listening. To make sure they had no satisfaction, I instantly turned to Jack and asked him about Halloween Town and himself.
He eagerly told me that he was the "pumpkin king"; a title he was dubbed for his scary appeal. When I asked him what being the pumpkin king meant, he gasped and told me that it was like what Santa Claus was to Christmas. A few more insults flew into my ears as Aqua and Ven kept talking about me. "Don't worry, Aqua. Terra is just a sour guy; don't take it too personally." He then added, "He just insults people because he's not happy with himself."
Now Ven had been definately become number two on my hate list, even being above Igneous.
"Yeah, you're right." Aqua smiled at Ven and hugged him tightly. Ven's white face became a scarlet red at this gesture and he looked away in delight and embarrassment.
I walked up to them and went in-between them after Aqua's hug. They both looked at me in confusion before I pushed them both away from each other; they ended up about ten feet away from me on both sides.
"What the hell was that for!?" Ven asked me in fury while running over to help Aqua up.
"Oh, I'm just a sour guy; don't take it too personally." I mocked the angry teens as Aqua opened her mouth to chastise me.
Before the blue-haired girl could walk over to get in my face about how impeccably rude I was, I leaped onto the top of the iron gate that loomed ahead of us.
"Come down here now!" Aqua pointed her finger to the space in front of her.
"I thought I was too creepy to walk in your presence..." I smiled in defiance and glee as Ven tried to climb up the sleek and dew-covered gate. He failed of course.
Finally, after many futile attempts to reach me, Ven used his gleaming scythe to latch on to the top of the iron and stood in front of me.
The blond teen had become cocky and was trying to show off to Aqua as he stood on one condensation covered onyx black shoe.
Instantly standing up to meet him, I flicked one long black claw on his forehead to unbalance him. It did the trick, for Ven was wobbling over the gate on his single foot. To make him become off guard, I caught his gloved hand and kept his feet attached to the black iron. Not for long though...
Afterwards, Ven mumbled a small "Thanks" and tried to push me off of the altitudinous gate. Before he could even touch me, I slid under his feet, turned around, and poked him in the back. This was followed by an "Ow!" and a loud thump. Ven lay on the dirt face down as Aqua rushed to his side to make sure he wasn't hurt. Ven's chalky white nose had started to bleed badly while the patchwork witch turned to chew me out.
"What is wrong with you!? You could have killed him!" She exaggerated sourly.
"I'm sorry, I'm just too grumpy and creepy to care." I shrugged to Aqua's dismay. "If you think you're going to get away with this, think again hairy!" After poking my chest in blame, I mentally chuckled to myself,
Hairy? Is that the best insult she has? Does everyone I know have the cheesiest insults in existence? I mean-
My silent complaining was interrupted by a strange yet familiar hissing noise. Circling us were about ten Unbirths; hissing and screeching at us. Eternal Horizons instantly popped out of nowhere along with it's neon particles dancing around it.
Ven had noticed the Unbirths dancing around the four of us in taunt, so he picked himself up and transformed his scythe into the golden black Keyblade named Divided Fate. All four of us had formed a defensive row; ready to spring at the Unbirths at any moment needed.
"Attack!" I instinctively battle cried, throwing us into the fray.
An unsuspecting Unbirth was turned into smoldering ashes as I swiped my Keyblade through it's silky flesh. It hissed and writhed while it's body was reduced into nothing. A triumphant grin was spread across my face as I slayed four more surprised Unbirths. The only person that was keeping up with my pace was Jack; while Aqua and Ven struggled to slay at least one. A look of frustration crept over Ven's face as an Unbirth tightened around his ankle. As he struggled to throw that Unbirth off, another two attached to his other leg. While he was intent on releasing their grip, yet another Unbirth came at him. The thing different about this one was that it thrashed it's barbed arms around his pale face. I knew what was going to happen, so I raced over to pull the Unbirths off of the teen whose arms were thrashing in confusion. Before I could reach him, about ten random Unbirths blocked the way. Seven of them wrapped themselves around various parts of my body while three of them flailed their arms around my head. Knowing that it was helpless, and remembering how painful it was going to be, I dropped to my knees to brace the pain. Even though the Unbirths blocked most of my vision, I could see that Jack and Aqua had pulled the Unbirths off of Ven before they could penetrate his skin. Unlucky for me, the three didn't see where I was because many more Unbirths surrounded them. I was left alone and helpless as I waited for the blood to spurt out of the many multiple cuts the hissing monsters had made.
Have you ever felt your legs become so weak that they just collapsed beneath you? I've had many dreams like that; I'll be running away from something and my legs will be coveted in this tingling feeling before I fall to the ground. That's the way my legs had felt at this very moment.
Time had seemed to slow as one of the gray monsters clapped his hands in glee, his sharp teeth reflected the cold moonlight that shone fiercely. Just as last time, I didn't feel any pain, I only watched as crimson liquid covered everything. Before I could even feel the pain, I blacked out as more Unbirths caught my arms and tightened themselves around them, making even more than fifteen Unbirths ganging up on me at one time.
"There's even more coming!" I heard Jack announce out loud in frustration; hearing this made me fall even more into hopelessness and despair as everything fizzled into forbidding darkness.