Chapter 16: Deep Space
A/N: Hi everyone! I know it's been a while, but what can I say? Life has been crazy. I just saw the newest trailer for Dream Drop Distance and I have three words for you: I WANT IT! God, why can't it be March already?
Anyway, since the newest game is almost here, that means I need to move it with this story. It's hard to believe we only have a handful of chapters left to this story before it's over.
Oh, and I finally got a facebook page! So if any of you guys have one and want to ask questions about the series, feel free!
I hope you all enjoy it!
Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts; I just own my oc's.
Enjoy!
/
"You better make me one of your bridesmaids for the wedding"
That was the last thing Aqua said before the two friends parted.
Lumen had to laugh really. She never expected Aqua to take Terra's proposal so easily. This was the girl who wouldn't hesitate to kill Terra or Ven if they made Lumen sad.
"You got to love Aqua" she said to herself.
She traveled in the Lanes Between in search of a new world. It was hard to believe how many worlds she had been to that the Unversed invaded. It was getting to the point that she feared all of the worlds were in danger.
"I wonder if the others know how serious this is?" she thought.
She hoped they did. Because if they didn't then they were in for a world of trouble.
She shook her head of those negative thoughts. Now wasn't the time to be thinking of worse case scenarios. She needed to be thinking of positive things…like her wedding.
She hadn't really thought about it since Terra proposed to her. With the way things have been, it was kind of hard to think about it.
Since she was traveling, now was the best time.
"Let's see…We'll need to figure out who to invite to the wedding" she said to herself.
"Obviously Aqua and Ven since they'll be the maid of honor and the best man. If father doesn't kill Terra when we tell him the news, then of course he'll come since he needs to give me away. Hmm, I don't know anyone else who I would want to invite since Aqua and Ven are my only friends. I guess this will be a small wedding"
Her mind drifted over to a certain sorceress she met back at Radiant Garden. Taiyouko was the only outside person who helped her out through her travels. She healed her when she got hurt by the Unversed that were trying to get to Hikari. She saved her from being abducted by Vanitas. And she gave her wonderful advice about Terra and what she should do with her life.
Even though she didn't know her for very long, she considered Taiyouko to be a dear friend. She went out of her way to help a stranger when she didn't have to.
That counted at a friend in her book.
"I wonder if she would like to come to the wedding?" she thought.
"She did help me out with Terra. She deserves to be invited more than anyone else that I know"
She smiled at that idea.
"Yeah, I think she should come…but I wonder how she would be able to get to my world?"
The sound of humming broke her train of thought as a large shadow covered over her.
"What the?"
She loved over her shoulder to see a gigantic space ship slowly flying over her.
"That can't be good" Lumen said.
She didn't have the time to be caught by some random ship. She had Unversed to defeat.
She pushed her keyblade glider to the maximum speed it could reach. Yet, despite its speed, it was no match for the ship. The space ship slowly flew over her and caused its gravitational pull to bring Lumen closer to the ship.
"Oh no!"
The tried getting away from the ship, but the gravitational pull just sucked her up.
The last thing Lumen knew before she blacked out was screaming and seeing a similar glider like hers getting sucked up.
/
Lumen found herself standing before the strange pillar again. The darkness was much vaster than before and everything about this place chilled her to the bone.
"It's been a while since I saw this place" she said.
"I was starting to forget about it"
She looked at the ground and saw the blurry image along with the familiar writing.
One heart fulfills all hearts.
All hearts lead to the same heart.
In order to link everything back together, the chains must be broken.
However, to make the chain whole, you must gather the pieces.
A broken chain makes a whole chain.
You are the chain that will link everything back together again.
Lumen smirked a little a shook her head.
"Nope. Still don't understand what this means" she said.
She walked over to the image of the person. The image was still blurred out and was hard to tell who it looked like. But she could sense great importance from it.
"Maybe this person is the key to the riddles" she thought.
She looked up at the black sky.
"Is that it?" she called out.
"Do I need to know who this person is in order to figure out the clue?"
The ground shattered underneath her and plunged her deep within the darkness again.
She closed her eyes and waited for the voice that would fill her head as she blacked out.
"Hey…can you hear me?"
/
"Are they the one?"
"Yes, Grand Councilwoman. I've confined them until we can determine what they are"
Lumen groaned when she heard voices. She felt herself on a rather uncomfortable bed with a splitting headache. Forcing her eyes to open, she slowly looked around to a room made out of metal. It was small and cramped and was probably not made for anyone to live in.
Slowly sitting up, she viewed the room to see that it was like a prison cell.
"What is this place?" she groaned as she held her head.
"Where am I?"
The sound of gunfire caught her attention and caused her to run towards the glass window of her cell.
Looking down, she saw two alien like creatures backing away from a group of Unversed. One was a small, petite looking alien while the other was as huge as a whale. The whale giant fired off at the Unversed while it was protecting the smaller alien.
"Take cover! Leave it to me to handle these fiends" it ordered.
"Whatever you are, you're under arrest…eventually!"
Lumen watched in horror as the Unversed followed them out of the room.
"They're here too?"
She pressed her head against the glass in frustration.
"Why must my work always be hard?"
She looked around the room to see if she could find a way out of here, but came up with nothing.
"This is not the best time to be arrested. I need to get rid of those Unversed"
She tried banging on the glass, but it wouldn't shatter.
Pressing her head against the glass in frustration again, she groaned.
"Why me?" she thought.
She spotted someone running where the two aliens were before. Upon closer inspection, she saw that it was none other than Terra.
She gasped when she saw her fiancé. The last time that she saw him was when he asked her to marry him. It felt so long ago with all the traveling she did that she almost felt like crying.
She banged on the window again in hopes of getting his attention. If he was out there, then he could help her.
"Terra!" she cried.
"Terra!"
Terra stopped in his tracks when he heard his name. Looking around the cells for the person who called him, his eyes landed onto Lumen's cell. His eyes grew huge as he breathed her name.
Dashing over to her cell, he pressed his hands onto the glass and looked at her with worry.
"Lumen?" he cried in disbelief.
Lumen smiled weakly when she saw Terra up close. She never realized how much she missed him until then.
"Terra" she choked.
Terra returned the smile.
"How did you get in here?" he asked.
Lumen shook her head.
"I don't know" she said.
"I was sucked up by this giant ship and woke up in here. I don't know how to get out"
Terra looked for a button that would open the door to her cell.
"Hang on, I'll get you out"
Finding the switch, he slammed his fist into it, causing it to open automatically.
When the cell door open, Lumen ran into Terra's arms. She had missed her fiancé so much that she just had to hold him. Terra held her close and ran his hand through her hair. It seemed he had missed her too.
When the stepped away from each other, they both wore looks of confusion.
"Why are you here?" Lumen asked.
Terra shrugged.
"I got stuck here like you did" he said.
"I guess that ship must have picked us up or something"
Lumen looked at the door where the two aliens ran off.
"I think the Unversed are on this ship" she said.
"We need to get rid of them before they take over the whole ship"
Terra nodded and grabbed her hand.
"Let's go" he said.
They started walking off, but were stopped by someone.
"Very impressive"
The couple looked at one of the cells to find an alien in prison clothing. Obviously this alien did something bad if he was locked up in here.
Terra tugged Lumen away from the cell. He didn't want Lumen to get caught up with this.
"Let's go, Lumen"
The alien panicked when he saw them leave and tapped on the glass.
"Wait! You help?" he asked with his deep Russian accent.
They stopped again, giving him an annoyed look while the alien gave them a pleading look.
"I have been imprisoned on ridiculous charges!" he insisted.
Terra raised an eyebrow.
"Is that so?" he asked.
The alien nodded.
"I am innocent scientist who created galaxy's most destructive-uh…constructive species of all times. Why my experiment could annihilate those pesky creatures you saw earlier"
Lumen raised an eyebrow.
A creature that could fight off the Unversed?
"Really?" she asked sarcastically.
The alien nodded.
"He is bulletproof, fireproof, and can think faster than a supercomputer. He can see in the dark and move objects 3,000 times his rather diminutive size. And for reasons preposterous, the Federation Council fears him. They take him away from me and throw me here in small, stuffy, rather badly lit cell"
"Because he's so powerful?" Terra asked.
He didn't know why, but he felt drawn to the creature.
The alien nodded.
"Exactly. Everyone always gets antsy in pantses when somebody more powerful is in the neighborhood. You understand perhaps?" he said.
Lumen looked at Terra with concern. She had a feeling that he was thinking about the Mark of Mastery exam and how her father picked Aqua instead of him. She knew he felt bad about it, but that didn't mean he was feared.
She didn't like this alien, but she didn't want her fiancé to think irrationally.
"Terra?" she asked.
Terra looked at her and saw the pleading look in her eyes. He knew what she was thinking. She didn't want him to make any mistakes. He made a promise to change for the better for her sake. If he didn't then she wouldn't have agreed to marry him. But he just couldn't help but want to rescue the experiment. Maybe it was because he felt the same as this foreign creature or maybe it was because it's what his heart told him to do.
Either way, he had to get off this space him and get Lumen out of here.
And this alien was their only hope.
"What should we do, Terra?" Lumen asked quietly.
Terra squeezed her hand.
"Why don't we just help him?" he asked.
Lumen looked like she was about to protest, but he silenced her.
"If we help him, maybe he can help us get out here" he said.
"I don't really trust him either, but he probably knows this ship a lot better than we do. Plus, we're considered prisoners here anyway"
Lumen bit her lip. She didn't like this one bit, but Terra did have a point.
"Fine" she said.
"But if he gets us killed, I'm going to kill you myself"
Terra chuckled a little.
"I'll hold your word to that" he said.
He looked at the alien.
"We'll let you out" he said.
"But you have to help us get off this ship, deal?"
The alien nodded.
"Deal"
Terra released him from the cell and watched as he walked around.
"Experiment 626" he said.
"Is name I give to adorable, fluffy creature you are helping for to rescue. And I am genius scientist who created him, Dr. Jumba Jookiba"
Terra regarded him with a nod.
"I'm Terra"
Lumen just gave him an untrustworthy stare.
"Lumen" she replied.
Jumba nodded and headed towards the door leading to the rest of the ship.
"626 is this way" he said.
"Hurry!"
Lumen sighed and looked at Terra.
"Why do I get the feeling that this is going to end bad?" she asked.
Terra just grabbed her hand and followed Jumba.
"Don't worry too much" he said.
"I'll make sure he doesn't pull anything"
Lumen groaned and followed them out of the prison cell.
/
The three of them secretly walked through the corridors of the ship. Since they were escaped convicts, chances are there would be guards roaming the ship.
Terra was in the lead of the group as he scanned the hallways. Since it was his idea to free Jumba, it was his duty to make sure everyone was safe.
"Where did you say this experiment was?" he asked.
"Up on the second floor" Jumba said.
"He's in solitary confinement because of his massive powers. They plan to send him out into deep space for it"
"Then we better hurry" Lumen said.
"I haven't seen any guards yet, but that doesn't mean they're not around"
Terra nodded and scanned the hallway before they carefully moved forward. They had to be quiet if they wanted to get out of here.
Unversed would appear here and there as they walked, but it was nothing that Terra couldn't handle. Lumen would get a little frustrated when he told her to stay back while he did all the fighting.
"I could have handled it too, you know" she said.
Terra dismissed his keyblade and looked at her.
"I know, but I'm not taking any chances here" he said.
"Besides, it's the man's job to look after their wife-or future wife in this case"
Lumen blushed at that but looked away. He knew just what to say to get himself out of a beating.
"Jerk" she spat.
Terra just chuckled.
"Yet you still love me"
Lumen just stomped forward. Why did Terra have to be so charming at times?
They rounded another corner, only to hide when they saw a set of guards. They appeared to be just patrolling the hallway, but they didn't want to be caught.
"This creates problem" Jumba said.
"Experiment 626 is down that hallway"
Lumen held the bridge of her nose. Of course they had to go down that hallway.
"Is there any other way to get there?" she asked.
Jumba shook his head.
"I'm afraid not" he said.
"This ship is what you would say, very simple. Only one way paths"
Lumen looked at Terra.
"Do you think you can knock them out?"
Terra shook his head.
"I don't know" he said.
"They have guns on them, so I don't know what they can pull"
Lumen looked at the guards. They didn't appear to be threatening, but those guns said a different story. They were likely to attack anyone they deemed threatening, but what if were a woman in distress?
Sighing, she flipped back her hair dramatically.
"Looks like I'll have to play that card then" she muttered.
Terra looked at her with a raised eyebrow.
"What do you have in mind?"
Lumen adjusted her outfit to make herself look presentable while ruffling her hair up to give it more volume.
"The only thing a woman is capable of in these kind of situations: charming"
She walked near the corner of the hallway and looked at the guards.
"Just leave it to me. I know how to handle these guys" she said.
Terra didn't know what she was up to, but he knew better than to stop her. She could be very scary when she was angry or upset. His face still stung from when she slapped him earlier.
"Be careful" he said.
Lumen laughed and clasped Terra's face.
"Relax" she said.
"You're not marrying an idiot, now are you? Leave it to me"
She strutted over to the guards. Willing fake tears to come, she quickly went into the damsel in distress mode and ran over to the guards.
"Oh somebody! Please help me!" she cried dramatically.
The guards turned around when they heard her, but lowered their guns when they saw it was just a woman.
Lumen faked a sniffle as she wiped one of her tears.
"Oh, thank goodness I ran into you" she 'wept'.
"I thought I was doomed"
The guards looked at each other before looking at her. It was obvious that they didn't recognize her when the ship picked her up, so they didn't know she escaped.
"Uh, what seems to be the problem, ma'am?" one of the guards asked.
Lumen mentally smirked when she realized they were falling into her trap.
"Oh, it's horrible" she sobbed.
"I was being chased by these strange looking monsters that appeared out of nowhere and now I'm utterly lost! I have no idea where I am but I'm afraid that those monsters will attack me again! Please, you have to help me!"
The guards looked at each other, clearly at a loss of words before shrugging.
"Um, I suppose we could take you to the Grand Councilwoman" one of them said.
"Maybe she could help you"
Lumen smiled hopefully.
"You're too kind" she said.
The guards turned around and typed into their com links. They never saw Lumen secretly summon her keyblade behind her back.
"We'll just let the Councilwoman know you're with us" one of them said.
"What did you say your name was?"
The next thing they knew their heads were hit with something hard.
Terra and Jumba flinched when they saw Lumen knock out the guards.
Lumen flipped her hair over her shoulder as she looked at the guards passed out.
"Thanks for the help" she said.
She looked over to where Terra and Jumba were.
"Ok, it's safe"
They went over to her and looked at her in disbelief.
Lumen just shrugged.
"What? I said I could handle fighting too. Now let's go find this experiment so we can get out of here"
She walked ahead of them in search of experiment 626.
Jumba looked up at Terra.
"You say she's your fiancée?" he asked.
Terra nodded like an idiot.
"Uh-huh"
Jumba patted his shoulder.
"You're one lucky lad"
Terra just watched Lumen walk ahead of them.
"I sure am" he muttered.
/
"Here we are! This is where they're keeping 626" Jumba said.
Terra and Lumen viewed the giant door in concern. Why would they keep such a tiny little thing in such a big and probably heavily guarded room?
Jumba typed the code that would allow them access and entered the room.
Terra and Lumen slowly followed to see what this 'incredible' experiment was. They were expecting a scary looking monster that would rip their faces off if it had the chance.
But they never expected…this.
Floating in a caged pod in the center of the room was a blue dog like alien with four arms and wearing a red suit. The tiny thing was growling and shouting gibberish in an alien language as it spotted them.
Lumen didn't know if she should find it cute or disturbing.
"It's cute" she said.
"In a scary, disturbing way"
Terra snorted at his fiancée's logic. Of course she would try to say something nice about something that was super creepy.
"Amazing, is he not?" Jumba asked.
He went up to his creation proudly.
"Such tremendous power in such itty-bitty package. Truly, he is the one and that' the only- the mightiest creature in the galaxy. And his only, singular instinct-to destroy everything he touches"
That's when the red flags flashed into Terra and Lumen's heads.
Destroy?
Jumba pushed a button to open the pod.
"Here, see?"
Experiment 626 launched out of the pod and latched itself to Terra. Lumen screamed a little when it crawled all over Terra's body before jumping to the ceiling, holding out Aqua's good luck charm.
Terra and Lumen looked at him in disbelief. When did he get that?
"When did you-?"
Terra looked at himself before holding his hand out to 626.
"Give that back!" he ordered.
"Too late, is already marked for destruction" Jumba said.
Lumen paled in horror. Aqua worked so hard to make those charms. It couldn't be destroyed.
Terra had the same thought as he looked at the alien desperately.
"No stop!" he pleaded.
"My friend made me that!"
He looked shocked at what he said. Lumen looked at him for a moment as well.
Jumba laughed.
"'Friend'? Are you joking?" he laughed.
"Such concept is totally lost to 626!"
Lumen gave him a harsh stare that cause him to shut up right away.
Looking back at 626, she gave him a pleading look.
"Can we have that back, please?" she asked.
"It's really precious to us"
626 looked at her for a moment as if trying to digest her words before looking back at the charm. Grunting, he tossed it to her before scurrying away to who knew where.
Lumen picked up the charm and handed it to Terra.
"It's ok, he didn't break it" she said.
Terra slowly took the charm from her and looked at it sadly.
"Funny…" he muttered.
"This whole time I've been telling myself I want to be stronger, more independent…but the second I let my heart do the talking…I find out how little I really know myself. And how much I miss them"
Lumen looked at him sadly. It always tore her heart when she saw him act this way. It was like he didn't give himself enough credit.
"Terra…"
Terra just gave her a weak smile before looking at Jumba.
"That experiment of yours…you sure about him?" he asked.
"Maybe in his heart, he wants friends just like the rest of us"
Jumba scoffed at that idea.
"Impossible! He has no actual feelings-only destructive instincts I have carefully chosen for him"
He smiled darkly.
"Or perhaps you need another demonstration of my evil geniusness!"
He held up a beaker full of liquid and a pill reading '221'. Dropping the pill into the beaker, they watched as it glowed brightly before transforming into another alien like 626.
Electricity zapped off the alien's body as it laughed.
"Meet experiment 221" Jumba said.
Terra and Lumen summoned there keyblades.
"I told you this was going to end badly" Lumen said.
"Don't remind me" Terra groaned.
Experiment 221 zipped around them thanks to his lightning abilities and made it impossible for them to land a hit.
Terra tried landing a hit on the alien, but the blasted thing would merge into one of the guns that were in the room and fire at them. Lumen put up a shield to protect them from the blasts.
"There has to be a way to defeat this thing" Terra said.
Lumen looked around the room to see if she could find anything that would help them, but came up with nothing.
"I guess they didn't want to take any chances with 626" she thought.
She studied experiment 221 and noted his abilities. Apparently he only used lighting based attacks and could zip away whenever they tried to land a hit. He also liked to merge things that worked with electricity.
She suddenly recalled that water and electricity didn't work well with each other. If there was any type of water in the area, then maybe she could….
She grinned at her idea and looked at Terra.
"Terra! I have an idea! You distract him while I put it together"
Terra nodded and tried attacking 221 but failing each time.
Lumen quickly went to work and created large pillars of ice in each corner of the room. Each of those pillars were connected by a light chain, which Lumen held the end of. Looking at where Terra was, she saw experiment 221 on the ground-right where she wanted him.
"Terra! When I say to, jump on the platform 626 was on!"
Terra nodded and kept 221 at bay.
Lumen held up the end of the 'fuse' she created and lit it was a mild fire spell. The fire zipped down the chain and hit the blocks of ice. Every time the flames hit the ice, each pillar would melt into a puddle. When the last one melted, Lumen jumped on the platform with Terra and watched as 221 stepped into one of the puddles. The tiny zapped itself badly to the point where in converted back to its pill form.
Jumba looked at the tiny pill in horror.
"Oh…you'll be alright, little one" he said.
Terra and Lumen went up to him with glares on their faces. They went out of their way to help him escape and he had the nerve to try to kill them? He was going to pay.
And he would have, if experiment 626 didn't return. The tiny blue alien scurried over to them and looked at them with interest.
Jumba looked at his creation with confusion.
"What is it? Why have you returned?" he asked.
626 responded in his alien gibberish.
"Maybe he's wondering what a friend is" Terra said.
He went up to the tiny alien with Lumen close behind. She wondered if he wanted to know what friends were as well. She did admit, she thought he was strange, but she found him to be cute in his own way.
Terra gave the alien a kind smile.
"My name is Terra" he said.
626 tilted his head.
"Ter…ra…" he said.
Terra chuckled a little..
"Yes. I can't explain friendship" he said.
"When you feel it, you'll know"
Lumen knelt in front of 626.
"I'm Lumen" she said.
"Loo-men" 626 said.
Lumen giggled.
"If you want, I can be your first friend"
She saw bits of machine pieces and came up with an idea. Putting them together, she created her own version of Aqua's good luck charm. It was little odd misshapen, but it fit 626.
"Odd, but cute at the same time" she thought.
"Here, now you have your own good luck charm" she said.
626 looked at the charm for a moment before taking it. He said a few alien words before looking at Lumen.
"Friends" he said.
Lumen nodded.
"Yup, we're friends"
Sirens suddenly went off in the room.
"Red alert! Red alert! Experiment 626 and three prisoners have escaped from the cell bay. Security, locate the fugitives immediately"
"That doesn't sound good" Lumen said.
626 and Jumba quickly left the room to avoid capture.
"Time to go!" Terra said.
He used his keyblade and opened a portal to the Lanes in Between.
"We can escape through here" he said.
"But we need to spilt up in case they follow us"
Lumen looked at him sadly. She didn't want to leave him just yet, but he had a point. If one of them got caught, then the other would as well.
Nodding sadly, she hugged him tightly.
"Please be safe" she said.
Terra ran his hand through her hair.
"Of course I will" he said.
"You can't get married by yourself"
Lumen smiled weakly and let him go.
"I'll see you soon" she said.
Terra nodded and quickly activated his armor before he went off on his glider.
Lumen quickly followed and flew off in a different direction in case they sent ships off to get them.
Looking over her shoulder, she watched Terra as he got smaller and smaller to the point he was no longer visible.
"Terra…" she thought.
How long would it be until she saw him again? When would they be together? When would they be able to marry?
Those were the things that Lumen hoped that she wouldn't have to think when planning her wedding.
/
A/N: poor Lumen, even though she got to see Terra, it wasn't for long. Makes you wonder if they'll ever get to have their wedding.
Please review and tell me what you think!
Ja ne!
