A/N: Wow. I was gone a while... Hmm. Well, anyway, I'm not done with this story. Life got in the way. WARNING: I'm about to tell you my random personal excuses. Feel free to skip to the next paragraph now. I was on two different teams participating in academic tournaments, one in Chicago, IL, and one in Sheridan, WY. And then I got my first job, which has very spontaneous hours. I usually write late at night, but I never know when I'll have to get up early, so I have to find other times now. Other than that, I've just been lazy...
In response to my reviews, to all of whom I am very grateful:
This portion is often boring. You may not want to read the response to a comment that you haven't seen. However, these people put in the effort to type a response, helping to keep the story going. So if you read this chapter, at least read their names in recognition of that. Of course, I can't make you, but I would appreciate it.
GameHero: My first reviewer. Thanks a ton! In case you've been keeping up, I'd like to tell you I hope I meet your expectations.
CaptainRodriguez: They'll be there. I do have a skeleton of a plan to which I expect to stick. It might take a bit. I need a good reason for the characters to come to Hyrule. I decided that for a world that big, there needed to be a better reason for finding it than just stumbling across it one day with it just happening to have been left alone by the whole war up to this point. That's all I'll say for now.
Rexien: I'm glad you think it's good. Thank you for that. I was wondering if you would be willing to tell me where I made the errors. I went back over it and found a few, but hardly thoroughly. Of course, I wouldn't mind if didn't want to take the time, but if it's not too much effort, I'd be incredibly appreciative.
And with that, the story.
§ Chapter 3: Nothing is Better §
Ghirahim sat at the base of the sealed grounds where his master once resided. He had chosen this place to enact the ritual, not for its sentimental value, but because it was already set up for him. The standards for any arcane ceremony were laid out in permanent form when the Demon King became the imprisoned. Who would have thought that the very weapon used to subdue his leader for so long would become his tool for revenge.
He wasn't ready for the act quite yet. He still needed to prepare some things. For example, the incantation didn't seem right. Well, to be quite honest, it was stupid. He wasn't well versed in whatever language this was, but "scintillant scintillant stellula" didn't seem right. It looked more like a nursery rhyme, actually. Also, he probably should have taken that kid captive instead of just slicing him up, but it had been so pleasant. Now, however, he needed some blood, and his prime candidate had none left. He would prefer to use the princess's or the hero's, but if he had that within his means, he wouldn't be preforming demonic arts of this nature. Well, maybe... but that would just be for fun.
The last part was what worried him. The real incantation would only take a bit of searching in old libraries and ancient ruins. He could steal some claret from some random native of the surface, that is if they even have the precious sanguine water. The Kikwi's probably just have sap or something. The Gorons likely contain molten lava of some sort. He was certain that the pesky robots from Lanayru couldn't help him. Maybe he would need to abduct a Hylian child or something. He wasn't worried about that. He could do it discretely enough to avoid detection.
No, it was the final missing piece that was troubling him the most. He knew for certain that his instructions were accurate. They came directly from his master's court. Ghirahim was a demon lord, not the demon lord. There were many in his master's court. He was the most powerful, and he knew that. That was why he was Demise's sword. He was the blade of evil, equal and opposite to the master sword. But the others still had their uses, and with the King extinguished, he was in charge. While The Demon was only captured, they would not honor his authority. Now, though, they had no choice. In keeping with his new status as the heir to the Demon King, the court scribe, Katib, who also functioned as the librarian and record keeper, had granted him access to the section of the palace's storage in which all things of the mystic variety were kept. Due to a bit of warranted suspicion on the part of Demise, this specific block was strictly kept to only those with specific, express permission from the king. Inside, he had found a summoning ritual promising a power not seen in Hyrule since its creation.
The instruction contained the basics for a ritual, the standards for a dark art, the key ingredients which he had already gathered, and a reference to a text not contained in the demon archives for the incantation, hence his search for the phrases. Lastly, it called for 'Nothing'. Not 'nothing else', or even just 'nothing', but 'Nothing'. He didn't have a clue what it meant.
Everything seemed normal on Destiny Islands. As far as most knew, it was. As usual, Sora, Wakka, Selphie, Riku, Kairi, and Tidus were all messing around with whatever activity had caught their interest that particular day. This time, it just so happened that Selphie and Kairi were on the beach laying down, simply enjoying the sun and observing their male companions as they argued.
"Come on!" Tidus implored, apparently turning desperate. "You haven't sparred since you disappeared!"
Wakka joined in the pleading, "considering you wouldn't tell us where you were, we figured you would be getting back to life, but you always make excuses to not fight."
Seeing an opportunity, Tidus pounced, "and it's not like sparring with Wakka is even remotely entertaining. He goes down in less time than it takes Sora to fall asleep."
Riku had decided that they shouldn't tell their friends and families about what happened. His logic was that they could always explain if they needed to. They could never un-tell them if it turned out it was a bad idea.
Because of this, Sora, with all his tact, promptly displayed his expertise in excuse-making, "I, uh, think I might hear my mom calling me to come home to, um, clean my room. Gotta go!"'
"Really? All the way over here you can understand your mom's shouts? And she's calling you in to clean your room like a six-year-old?" Selphie questioned, clearly unconvinced.
"Smooth," Riku said coolly, "nice one, Sora. But seriously, I'm not really in the mood right now."
"Aw, but doesn't it just seem like so much fun?" A heavily sarcastic voice startled a few members of the group.
The trio who hadn't had a multi-world excursion didn't quite know how to react to Lea's sudden appearance. This strange man had been staying with Riku since their friends had returned. He struck them as suspicious, and, as they had discussed, he worried them somewhat. But their friends had assured them, insisted even, that he was a good guy and a friend. Still, his attitude always seemed to get on their nerves.
This time, however, his antics seemed to be working in their favor, or at least Wakka and Tidus's favor. Selphie couldn't care less whether Sora and Riku wanted to swing the toy swords around right now.
"See, even your mysterious friend over there thinks you should!" Tidus exclaimed.
Riku looked over to Sora. He thought about it for a minute, before speaking up, "Well, what could it really hurt? What do you think, Sora?'
Sora looked backed and smiled with a gleam in his eyes that had, for the most part, been absent since his homecoming. What Riku said had contained more meaning that it let on to those out of the loop. It meant that he was giving ground on the issue of secrecy. Kairi had never been one for secrets, and she had made that clear. She had however, agreed to keeping a few in regard to Riku's urging. This meant that Riku was leaving it completely up to Sora whether or not they exposed one of their secrets to their friends. "You're on Riku!"
"Wait, you're gonna fight each other!?" Tidus asked, feeling cheated.
"Are you sure?" questioned Wakka, sounding a bit disappointed himself.
Riku, calmly as ever, turned to face them and answered, "Here's the deal. If you want us to spar, we will, but we start facing each other. Afterward, if you still want to, I'll fight Wakka, and Sora will fight Tidus. Sound good, Sora?"
"Wait, what do you mean 'if you still want to'? Why wouldn't we?" Wakka inquired.
"Sounds good to me, and you'll see. You may be surprised," the younger keyblade master answered mischievously.
"Ah, man. I was hoping to see one of you take out one of these guys," Lea pouted, as usual, sarcastically.
"Don't be ridiculous, Lea," Riku countered.
"What are you, crazy?" Sora laughed, much to Tidus and Wakka's chagrin.
"Some think so," he causally mentions, "but it's probably more like a bit sadistic."
"No kidding," Riku muttered. "Alright then, Sora. Ready, set, go!"
And they began. And boy, did they put on a show. They were, after all, showing off. Sora pulled out his keyblade in the form of the Dream Sword. Quite the display when compared to the wooden ones they had been using for so long. Riku, true to form, went for a blade that was both practical and intimidating. His Soul Eater, which he no longer used for real combat, fit well for this demonstration. Honestly, it was quite freaky. They went at it and at it until they were both exhausted, with no clear winner emerging. They threw their skills, their magicks, their techniques, and anything they could at each other in an all-out brawl. While it was fairly even, Tidus thought it seemed like Sora had a bit of an edge over Riku, much to his surprise.
"I don't think we want to fight them, Tidus," Wakka murmured.
Selphie, Wakka, and Tidus were shocked, star-struck even, at this incredible display. Kairi just giggle at their gaping mouths with Lea chuckling at the same.
The common thought between the mesmerized teens as the combatants stood gasping, when could this have happened!?
It was then that the seven heard an eighth voice, solemn and wise, and when it spoke, it seemed to have a presence to it that commanded the attention of all present. The octal orator projected, "I see you have opted not to keep your secrets to yourself."
A/N: Don't worry! I certainly don't plan on having every battle be completely devoid of detail. I was just bringing the focus to the reactions. I'm sure you can all imagine the battle that might ensue in a scenario like that (provided you're familiar with Kingdom Hearts). However, the details of the battle didn't matter, just the fact that it was going on in front of Wakka, Tidus, and Selphie. I hadn't planned on even really addressing the Kingdom Hearts side of the story for a while, but I decided that considering how quickly I had jumped into some darker elements of the story, I needed to have some sunny summer day type scenes, or this would be a single-mood story, making me a one-trick author. So now you've had a glimpse of how Lea fits into the Destiny Island dynamic.
Maybe I should have returned with something a bit less filler-y than this, but hey, I think the plot is inching its way along at a fairly reasonable pace for the third chapter. See you next time, and I hope you enjoyed this!
PS: I have edited some previous chapters. Don't despair, I've only fixed typos (and probably not all of them). No need to reread. But just in case anybody cared.
*So this thing !? is an "interrobang" and, as it pretty much looks, it's just a combination of "!" and "?". I use it because I only use either on punctuation mark or three, and an exited question would need two (!? or ?!)... I solve this problem by using that combo character.
EDIT: Effective as of the release of the 8th chapter, I no longer employ the interrobang, and instead use "!?" in its place. After looking back at this long after, my use of that particular punctuation character seems immature.