REVERSE/REBIRTH: ESPIO'S TALE
Tomo the Chameleon © Kiba Sniper
Chapter Eleven: An Island for No Man
Last time on Reverse/Rebirth:
After leaving the previous memory, Espio picked up an unexpected traveling partner. A young Thestral took form from the chameleon's mind and gained a physical form. Espio decided to keep him, giving him the appropriate name of Deathwing. And yet again, Espio confronted another wielder of darkness he recognized from the past. The powerful temptations of Teridax nearly forced the Hero of Darkness into submitting to Mephiles' power. But the interference of Deathwing allowed Espio to call the strength to defeat Teridax on his own. Meanwhile, the Order furthers its use for Kumori.
The scene opens to the white wall halls of Castle Oblivion's basement floors. Espio and Deathwing reached the top step of the next floor after returning to the castle. Deathwing seemed to get bored very fast and started chasing its barbed tail in amusement, which Espio did not notice. Ever since the dark chameleon had denied Mephiles' offer for the power of darkness, the Seeker of Darkness has been unusually silent. At this point, Mephiles would be trying to persuade him.
"Mephiles, I know you're listening." Espio thought. "Why the sudden vow of silence?" There was a long period without any response. "I know you're planning something and I'm going to find out."
"Hey, Espio!"
The voice swiftly snapped the Hero of Darkness out of his thoughts. Without warning, one of Espio's cards jumped out of his gauntlet and dropped in front of Deathwing, who stopped to sniff it. The Thestral foal screeched in surprise and scrambled backwards as the card exploded into a shower of light particles. When the particles reshaped themselves, King Jet the Hawk stood before Espio with a curious expression.
"Your majesty!" Espio exclaimed, instinctively kneeling to the king. "Sorry, but I wasn't really expecting to see you again so soon."
"There's no reason to kneel." Jet waved embarrassingly. "I just wanted to check up on ya." When he wasn't looking Deathwing crouched close to the ground and pounced on Jet. What the thestral didn't seem to understand was that he was only an illusion and smashed face first into the wall. "What's with the corpse?"
"That's the strangest thing." Espio chuckled lightly. "When I left the memory, he followed me out, He apparently became real when he followed me into the castle and now he's my new partner." He walked over and patted Deathwing, who nuzzled against his hand. "I decided to call him Deathwing."
"How original." Jet said sarcastically. "Anyway, what's been going on?"
"Nothing much." Espio shrugged. "The most interesting point so far was meeting a girl who said she was my sister."
"Tomo was here?!" Jet exclaimed surprisingly.
"You know her?" Espio questioned.
"She was telling the truth, Espio." Jet proclaimed. "Tomo is your sister and you were both born in Soleanna. Back then, I thought you were destroyed by the Heartless and I was only able to save Tomo. What is she doing in Castle Oblivion?"
"I think she's working with Mewtwo and the others." Espio explained. "She uses the powers of darkness without restraint."
"This could be a problem." Jet said aloud. "Keep an eye out for anything suspicious. I should be there soon."
"I'll be waiting your majesty." Espio nodded.
And with that, the emerald hawk faded away into the card. Immediately following his departure, Espio felt a familiar sense of loneliness. The Hero of Darkness wished greatly that the King would not leave him alone. But when he felt Deathwing nudge against his leg, he remembered that he wasn't truly alone. The dark chameleon stepped up to the black door at the top of the platform and gazed down at his remaining world cards. There were only two left, which meant there were only two floors left to deal with. Espio selected the left card and raised it to the door before disappearing into the light.
---Wumpa Island---
When the light disappeared, Espio once again found himself lying on his back, feeling amazingly weak. The dark chameleon barely had the strength to lift himself to a sitting position. Taking a long look around, the Hero of Darkness found himself sitting in, what appeared to be, the field of a tropical island. Palm trees and short shrubs seemed to be the dominating greens on the island with a large activate volcano seen in the distance. With his sensitive hearing, Espio could hear the lap of the ocean not too far away. Off on his right, he spotted Deathwing resting on its back.
"Ugh...what happened?" Espio moaned, running his forehead.
"The light of this memory has drained you." Mephiles echoed. "Even I would not dare to travel to such a disgustingly peaceful world."
"Where have you been all this time?" Espio questioned.
"That does not concern you." Mephiles stated shortly. "All that matters is that my powers will be unavailable to you."
"Oh no, what am I going to do?" Espio said sarcastically.
"That also means you won't be able to summon your weapon." Mephiles replied coldly.
"Oh no, what am I going to do!" Espio screamed.
"You are going to have to survive without my powers." Mephiles stated. "Without me to enforce your strength, the only weapons available to you are you natural traits. You will need to progress with only those." The dark chameleon looked to Deathwing. "You deceased mule with be of no use to you here. It thrives in the darkness and the light is it's natural enemy."
"So, I'm on my own." Espio sighed. "As if things couldn't get any worse."
After cutting off the communications with Mephiles, Espio jumped back to his feet and turned over to Deathwing. As he tried to lift the Thestral foal, he began to realize how much he had relied on the darkness in the past. Deathwing was heavy despite his size and Espio no longer possessed the strength to lift his partner off the ground. This being the case, the Hero of Darkness grabbed his partner by the tail and started dragging him backwards across the island. After several long minutes, the dark chameleon finally stopped on the shore of the island. He helped Deathwing to the water, who weakly lapped up the salty liquid into its mouth.
"I have no idea if that is good for you." Espio sighed, sitting backwards on the sand. "But by the looks of it, I don't think it really matters."
"All of our strength is slowly dying away." Mephiles warned. "The longer we wait in this world, the better chance it will be for all of our darkness to be destroyed." Espio stroking his chin thoughtfully. "And that also means your little pet will die."
"All right, we'll get out of here as soon as possible." Espio nodded in agreement. "But if we're going to find a way out of here, we'll first need to find the guy that's getting in our way."
"Don't worry." Mephiles said calmly. "He'll find you soon enough."
"What's that supposed to..."
The next thing he knew, Espio was raised off the ground and lifted into the air. When the Hero of Darkness looked down, he found a strong vine coiled around his waist much like a python trying to strangle its prey. Espio tossed and turned within the vine's grip, but it refused to release the dark chameleon. And either out of desperation or brilliance, Espio quickly thought of an idea and lowered his head to use his horn as a blade. The thin plants were snapped instantly and allowed Espio to drop back onto the sand. As the Hero of Darkness landed back with Deathwing, who had partially replenished itself,, the vine slithered back into the jungle.
"Anyone care to take a guess what that was?" Espio asked as Deathwing hissed.
"Your next challenge." Mephiles answered.
If there was ever a time Espio wished he could use the darkness, this was it. With Deathwing running low on energy, the Thestral foal barely had the strength to even stand. The winged beast was finally thrown off its balance when the ground started rattling at the same time as trees were suddenly ripped apart. A large colossus made entirely of tree bark and roots all restrained together by snaring vines burst forth into the shore. At the head of the body was a red mask with jagged, pointed teeth and several bones dangling from its edges. Espio and the beast stared back at one another for several moments.
"Uh...who are you?" The colossus asked.
"I'm Espio." Espio answered simply. "And you are?"
"I am Uka-Uka!" The creature known as Uka-Uka roared. "The master of the island and warlord of ultimate evil! My power is greater than even your wildest imagination! I am unstoppable!"
"So, I'm supposed to beat you to get by?" Espio asked.
"That's pretty much it." Uka-Uka shrugged.
"Then lets get started, shall we?" Espio said, moving into a fighter's position.
Evil Sentinel: Uka-Uka
The evil giant brandished his wooden fists and brought them together before slamming them downwards. While Espio effortlessly jumped away, the aftershock forced the weakened Deathwing to be thrown backwards into the water. The Thestral foal hissed angrily and paddled its way back to shore. When it shook off the water its tight skin, Uka-Uka did not seem to register Deathwing's presence – he must have never seen anyone die. Noticing this, Espio was already planning a counterattack to use the Thestral's abilities to his advantage.
"In this type of situation, I'll need to rely on strategy." Espio thought.
"Brains versus brown." Mephiles said. "And we both know how this will turn out."
"Brains win every time." Espio added.
"You're very swift for a small lizard." Uka-Uka complimented, thrusting his forward. "But in the end, you'll have to slow down eventually."
"That depends on ones perspective." Espio stated, flipping backwards over the sentinel's hand. He landed close to Deathwing and leaned close to its head to whisper his commands. "Ok, little buddy, this is what I need you to do."
As Uka-Uka looked around he found it a bit odd that the dark chameleon was whispering to the air. Taking the choice to ignore this oddity, the Evil Sentinel swung its arm around for a wide sweep. Espio effortlessly jumped the attack and looked back to Uka-Uka's arm to find Deathwing clinging to the vine wrapped around his forearm. It was fortunate that voodoo masked was unable to see the Thestral or he would prevented Deathwing from continuing with their plan.
"All right, phase 1 is on schedule."
"Now there's just two problems with your plan." Mephiles stated. "And here comes the first one."
Being distracted by his own thoughts, Espio barely noticed his enemy until it was too late. Uka-Uka swung his monumental foot upwards to strike the dark chameleon in the chin. The power behind the assault sent the Hero of Darkness flying over fifty feet over the island until he was higher than even the volcano. But once gravity regained its control, Espio experienced an emotion he was faintly familiar with since he had arrived in Castle Oblivion: fear of death. Fortunately, the dark chameleon landed in a tall tree and dropped from branch to branch towards the ground. When he collapsed into the grass, he was left with a wide variety of scratches that didn't seem to heal instantly.
"Ok, that hurt." Espio moaned, brushing his jaw.
"Without the darkness at your aid, you are much more vulnerable." Mephiles explained. "It was the powers of darkness that provided your body protection against common injuries. And anything more powerful was regularly treated by the same darkness. In this world, you're powerless."
"You know, you should consider being a motivational speaker." Espio claimed sarcastically.
"Come out and fight you scrawny lizard!" Uka-Uka roared; the branches shook with each booming footfall. "You cannot hide from me forever!"
"No, but I will need time to complete Phase 3." Espio muttered to himself.
At the moment he caught sight of the evil sentinel, Espio made a quick jump in the opposite direction. Espio may not have had the powers of darkness to help him, but he still had his survival expertise from his life on the Islands. The dark chameleon used his species' trait to cling from one surfaced to another and jump as far from the monster as possible. Speaking of whom, Uka-Uka had spotted him and tried to use his vines as whips to knock the Hero of Darkness off guard. Fortunately, Espio recovered from this tactic with the use of his species' trait to blend in with his environment.
"This is really getting annoying." Uka-Uka snarled, brushing his hand on his shoulder – he barely missed Deathwing. "But not as annoying as this blasted insects. I swear they keep getting bigger."
"At least Deathwing is doing his job." Espio thought. "But I'm running out of time and I still haven't found what I'm looking for."
"I can detect a hint of disdainful light exactly two kilometers north." Mephiles proclaimed. "It's from the same source you were looking for."
"But why did it have to be so far away?" Espio moaned.
While Uka-Uka wildly swung his arms in every direction, Espio managed t slip under his gaze and proceeded north. From there, he spotted a castle made of torn metal hidden by a tangle of trees and ivy. The dark chameleon jumped through one of the holes in the wall, releasing his blending ability upon entering. And much to his relief, he spotted a green card resting in the center of the room.
"Finally, I found it." Espio sighed.
"And I found you!"
Before Espio could understand what had happened, the metallic wall was ripped open and the dark chameleon was pinned to the wall by net of vines. The Evil Colossus forced himself inside the metallic palace, all the while not noticing that Deathwing was crawling its way down his back.
"You are a tricky foe, I will give you that." Uka-Uka stated, pulling back his fist. "But you have disturbed me long enough. Are there any last word before you ultimately perish."
"Just that you're making a common mistake." Espio smirked.
"What do you mean?" Uka-Uka questioned.
"Villains always make the same mistakes." Espio noted. "They made longwinded speeches and they let their enemies live long enough to have their final words. At this point, the hero comes up with a plan that always wins the battle."
"If that is true, then prove it." Uka-Uka challenged.
"Ok." Espio shrugged. "Deathwing, time to move!"
As the voodoo mask stared at his strangely, the Thestral foal extended its winds and flapped towards the ceiling with a vine in its mouth. With a sharp tug, Deathwing had miraculously forced the vine away from Uka-Uka's body, which seemed to be the only thing sustaining the colossus' body. Without the vine to hold it together, the wooden body was scattered in fragments across the ground as the voodoo mask remained in place. Uka-Uka hovered around the room in fright, wondering if the area was haunted by vengeful spirits. Meanwhile, Deathwing swooped down and sliced the vine net that contained his partner.
"Thank you, Deathwing." Espio nodded. The dark chameleon quickly slid to the center of the room and picked up the card. "And now it's time for the reappearance of an old friend. I need you, your majesty!"
The green card exploded into a shower of light fragments, which instantly reformed into the form of a familiar green hawk. But like last time, Jet the Hawk only appeared in a spiritual form with the golden Keyblade, Darkside, in his hand.
"Whoa! Not my kind of scenery!" Jet commented, looking over the ruins he had entered. "I prefer more of costal view with a nice tropical sea breeze and a nice sunset in the background. Wave really enjoys that."
"I didn't call you for your decorative opinion." Espio groaned, pointing to the floating mask. "I need you to take out that freak show mask so I can get out of here."
"Why can't you do it?" Jet questioned with his brow raised.
"I can't use the powers of darkness in this memory." Espio explained embarrassingly. "The Soul Eater is a weapon made from pure darkness, so I couldn't use it here." He looked back to his Thestral partner, who was panting on the ground. "And Deathwing barely had enough strength to get this far."
"All right, I'll do it." Jet shrugged, placing the Darkside on his shoulder. "But you owe me one."
When the heroes looked back at the voodoo mask, they realized that he was trying to make his escape. But before he could slip through the cracks in the wall, King Jet suddenly zipped across the room at speeds that would make Sonic jealous. And before Uka-Uka had the chance to stop himself in midair, he had accidentally run himself through on the Darkside Keyblade. With most of his work already done, the emerald hawk turned his weapon and sealed the deal. Uka-Uka groaned in agony before the mask's eyes went blank and fell to pieces. King Jet's work was finished and the emerald hawk faded away to his previous time. From those pieces, a black card emerged from the wreckage and floated in front of the Hero of Darkness. The Enemy Card of Uka-Uka was created and Espio placed it within his gauntlet.
Uka-Uka: Defeated.
"Glad that's over." Espio sighed in relief. "Now we can finally get out of here." He looked back to Deathwing and was shocked to find that he was chasing his tail again. And without warning, Espio felt a sudden wave of darkness course through his veins. "What the? What's going on? I thought I couldn't use the darkness in this memory."
"That was a lie." Mephiles proclaimed. "I contained the darkness within you and forced your pet's energy to be downsized by using you as a median. It wasn't that difficult."
"But why?" Espio asked.
"To prove my point." Mephiles stated. "You are powerless without the darkness at your side. I forced a simulation where you were left without my powers at your disposal. You got lucky now, but if you were fighting someone much stronger, you would have not survived long."
The more he thought about it, the harder it was for him to accept the truth. Espio had relied on the powers of darkness for so long that it was naturally a part of his systems and life style. What would happen if he had truly lost that power forever? Thankfully, he was allowed to avoid the question when the blank door appeared across the room, signaling the end of the memory. But as he and Deathwing cross the threshold, the question continued to buzz in his mind.
Meanwhile, the scene alternates to a world far from the castle of memories. Within the view of the floating white castle in the sky, a city of eternal night was full of activity. The streets below the tallest skyscraper became the scene for a Heartless invasion. As the Neoshadows culminated together for simultaneous attacks, they were swiftly cut down by flashes of silver. A man wearing the same coat as the Order Members was fending off the Heartless, using what appeared to be Sonic's Keyblade. As a Neoshadow jumped behind him, the unknown Key wielder slid backwards beneath his enemy and slashed his weapon upwards through the shadow. He kicked another Neoshadow in the face and beheaded it in a flash.
"Don't these things know when to quit." The man sighed, piercing a shadow through the chest. "This must have been the fourth assault in two days." He turned and sliced a Neoshadow in two. "Man, I wish I had another member to help."
"Your wish is my command!" A voice echoed.
The hooded member lowered his Keyblade at the sound of the voice, watching the Heartless with interest. They were all staring out into the sky before they crawled back into the darkness. The unknown member released his signature weapon and turned down the road, where Terro was nonchalantly making his way into the open.
"I see you've been busy." Terro commented.
"I was working with the Order's newest recruit when we were separated." The member explained. "And, like every time I try to go for a walk, the Heartless showed up and tried to kill me. It seems like the only time I'm safe is when I'm working with another member of the Order."
"There is safety in numbers." Terro nodded. "Hey, you remember Castle Oblivion?"
"The place you were assigned to?" The member responded. "What about it?"
"I want you to go there." Terro stated. "There is someone I want you to meet. Someone very special."
"I wish I could, Terro." The member sighed. "But the Superior has me and the rookie running around everywhere that we hardly have a chance to breathe. Carnage is actually complaining that we get more missions than him."
"That's what you would expect from someone who calls himself the Sadistic Spawn." Terro chuckled before turning serious. "But it's important that you show up in Castle Oblivion. There a lot of things going on that you aren't aware of."
"I'll go as soon as I can." The member assured. "Take care of yourself, Terro."
"You too, Scion." Terro nodded before fading into darkness.
The lines of friendship and betrayal grow vaguer. Has Mephiles' tactic given him the advantage? Will Espio give into the temptations of his darkness? And who is this mysterious warrior that wields the Keyblade? Find out on the next Reverse/Rebirth!
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