Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts, its characters or storyline. This story is mine, as are the OCs. My OC Valerie Banks shows up in this story for the first time since AtSSoMC, so there's some language in this chapter due to her mouth. This chapter also brings to light some plot points that will have massive implications for later stories. Enjoy!
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128 – Inaccessible
The old laboratory was just as dark and eerie as the last time that Aerith stepped foot in it. Nestled near the center of the old castle ruins, this was the same room where Sora had accessed the Heart of Radiant Garden, known then as Hollow Bastion, battled Xehanort through his friend Riku, and sacrificed himself to release the Seven Princesses of Heart. The old walls and floors still bore scars from those battles. Aerith could see scorch marks on the floor where Fire Spells had skidded across them. The low rails of the raised platform were scratched and dented where Keyblades had collided with them. The control panels and machines were dusty from disuse.
Silence rang loudly in the chamber, and Aerith found a strange solace in it. She had made her way across the entrance of the chamber, up the creaky stairs, and was currently standing in front of the gaping hole where the Heart's entrance had been less than five years earlier. She folded her arms across her chest as she surveyed that yawning chasm. There was nothing there now. The door was closed. The Heart was inaccessible. Sealed. Locked.
But was that a foolish notion? To believe that, even with a Keyblade, a person could lock away the Heart of an entire planet, seal it away, not only from the dangers of darkness, but from the curious eyes of those who walked in the Light?
Refracted light caught the corner of her eye, and Aerith glanced down from the hole in the wall. All along the bottom of the hole, rimming it like frost, was an accumulation of little glittering spots. Curiosity peaked, she stepped closer cautiously.
The glinting light turned out to be reflecting off the jagged tips of several crystalline blue-green stones that were rooted in the base of the locked Heart door. Her eyes narrowed in interest, and she knelt down in front of it. The stones almost resembled Mythril Shards, but there was something…ethereal about them…
"Careful." Merlin's voice chirped behind her.
Aerith started slightly and turned to see the wizened sorcerer heading up the stairs toward where she was. "Merlin…Hi. You startled me."
He offered a gentle smile, and his gaze slid from her face to the crystals. "What have you found here?"
She pursed her lips and followed his gaze to the stones. "I'm…not entirely sure. They just sort of showed up here. They don't look like any of the stones or materials used by the local shops to make magical items and accessories."
Merlin looked pensive as he slowly stepped past her, inspecting the crystal formations for himself. Something subtly but abruptly shifted in his demeanor as he got observed them, and Aerith picked up on it, taking a step closer.
"You know what these are." It was a statement, not a question.
Rather than answer right away, Merlin straightened, adjusted his robes and spectacles, and gazed up at the hole in the wall where the Heart of Radiant Garden had been sealed.
"Have you ever filled a container to the brim, too much to close it? A water bottle or a canister of some kind," He spoke thoughtfully. "Then, when you try to close it…"
"Excess spills out." Aerith answered as he trailed away. "But what does that have to do with—"
"When Sora sealed the door to Radiant Garden's heart," Merlin said, "some excess…spilled out." He looked at her measuredly.
Aerith stared at him for a moment before turning to look at the crystals again.
"Wait," She lifted a hand, "Are you suggesting that these crystals are physical manifestations of part of Radiant Garden's heart? That these pieces are just 'excess' that got amputated when Sora locked the door?"
Merlin tilted his head, "In a manner of speaking, I suppose so. Although I wouldn't say that it's been 'amputated.' Hearts are not like limbs. Separating a piece of it from the main body doesn't separate it permanently. It works like a collective."
Aerith's research had told her as much, and hearing him confirm it made her pause.
"How is that possible though? For some of a heart to just be…separated?"
Merlin looked weary. "That, my dear, is a question with a much longer answer than I was expecting to give today." He sighed. "You have been working with the undercurrent, yes?"
She knew how he disapproved of her research, but she stuck to her guns. "Yes."
"And that is part of Radiant Garden's heart: that spiritual river, that…lifestream if you will." He made a vague gesture. "You cannot seal away a planet's soul."
"Then what was the point of this?" She pointed to the yawning hole in the wall.
"That…" Merlin seemed to be weighing his words carefully. "…was a precaution."
He was being evasive, which was frustrating to no end, but Aerith knew that there would be no prying information out of Merlin if he didn't want to disclose it. She looked to the crystals again. She would need to study them. She had been working for months on accessing the collective sentience of the undercurrent of the Heart of Radiant Garden. It took extensive focus just to get a whisper from the…what had Merlin called it…lifestream. Yet, here was a tangible piece of the Heart, just…waiting.
Waiting for what?
"How does—" She turned, but Merlin had gone.
She was alone.
Then why could she hear whispers?
..:-X-:..
129 – Out and About
Merlin looked up from his spellbook when he heard the front door open, and he was pleasantly surprised to see first Tifa and then Leon walk into the house.
"Well, well, well." He chimed in greeting. "It's been a while since I last saw the two of you together in public."
Tifa smiled, though her eyes were tired. She gave a content shrug. "It was time. I was starting to forget what this guy looked like outside the setting of our house." She nudged Leon with her elbow.
He smirked. "Jake is watching her."
Merlin lifted an eyebrow, but he held his tongue. Jake Alms wouldn't have been his first choice in a babysitter of such a young child, but it wasn't his decision. He could tell that both of the new parents were greatly exhausted, probably due to the late nights, early mornings, full work days, and neverending attention that little Mikayla needed. He could see that it was really beginning to take its toll on the young couple.
"And instead of taking this opportunity to sleep, you've chosen to rejoin society." He chuckled. "Admirable."
"Sleep is for the weak." Tifa snorted.
"We were actually looking for Aerith. Have you seen her?" Leon asked.
Merlin paused. He hadn't seen Aerith since he had come upon her inspecting those crystals two days ago. He assumed that she was in the middle of researching the small stones, maybe even experimenting with them, against his wishes and against his warnings.
"Not today." He answered slowly. "What do you need?"
"Nothing urgent." Tifa remarked. "Just a quick question about something."
Merlin bobbed his head, "And what are you two up to now?"
Tifa looked enraptured at the idea. "Maybe just…a walk? Or even a—"
A cell phone rang in the middle of her sentence, and Tifa immediately cut herself off, grabbing at the phone in her pocket, pulling it out and answering it abruptly.
"Jake, what is it? Is she okay? What happened?" She barked.
Merlin raised his eyebrows, looking to Leon, who offered a weary shrug.
"We're working on it." He said, as Tifa angled away slightly to talk to Jake.
"You seem to be adjusting well to the idea of being away from Mikayla." Merlin offered.
"Tifa's been with her a lot more than I have." Leon replied lightly but with a slight grimace.
Tifa hung up the phone and walked back over to Merlin and Leon, looking flustered. "Jake can't get her to stop crying, says he's tried everything. We have to go home."
Leon smirked, putting an arm around her. "She's fine."
"But he doesn't know—" Tifa keened.
"Did he try the blue elephant?"
"Of course he tried Stormy, but she's not having it." Tifa was flustered.
Leon looked to Merlin for help.
Merlin chuckled and removed his spectacles. "Tifa, dear, you have nothing to worry about. Your anxiety is completely understandable, but I feel that it is entirely unfounded."
"Unfounded?" Tifa blinked. "You," She pointed to Merlin and then to Leon, "two have no idea. I have got woman's intuition AND maternal instincts—" She gestured to her torso. "—all jumbled up in here. It is constant warning bells up here." She pointed at her head.
Leon gave her shoulder a short rub. "All right. Raincheck on the walk. I need to grab some stuff here anyway."
Tifa sighed, almost in relief. "I'm sorry." She offered an apologetic smile and then hurried out the door, heading back home.
As the door closed after her, Leon looked to Merlin. "She lasted longer than I thought she would." He crossed over to the bookshelves to get 'some stuff.'
Merlin smiled gently. "She's been having a hard time being away from her."
Leon smirked and nodded once, picking up the books.
"And how about you?" Merlin asked.
Leon looked like he was fighting a yawn. "What about me?"
Merlin tutted. "I won't think any less of you if you go home too."
Leon paused, stared at Merlin for a steady three seconds, and then bolted for the door in his wife's wake with a hasty, "Thanks, Merlin."
The door swung closed after him, and Merlin snickered as he found himself alone again. It was only for a second, though, and then Yuffie was walking in through the same door.
"Whoa, where's the fire?" She chirped.
"Hopefully not at the Leonhart residence." Merlin snorted. "Jake is babysitting."
Yuffie blanched, leaned back out the door, and yelled after Leon. "RUN FASTER!"
..:-X-:..
130 – A Land Without Sun
A perk of the part-time job that Rinoa had managed to find was that it kept her in contact with the Alliance. She wasn't directly involved in anything; she was just a clerical worker down in the data archive warehouse. The point of the matter was that she more or less knew what was going on in every department.
And, that afternoon, every department was trying to react to the same thing.
"Slow down, slow down." Cid was barking into a phone, leaning forward over the control panel of the monitoring station in his department. "There's interference on the line."
Rinoa navigated through the throngs of hastily moving soldiers, files in her arms that Cid had requested. She bumped into one of Cid's top operatives, Major Valerie Banks, and decided she would be the best person to ask, since Cid was busy.
"What's going on?"
The lanky soldier frowned at her. "One of the worlds on the outer rim of the Allied perimeter just disappeared."
Rinoa inhaled sharply. "Heartless—"
"No, it's still there, but it just fucking disappeared." Banks explained with a vague hand gesture. "Communications, power output, even the 24/7 automated data streams. Just fuckin' poof." She snapped her fingers. "Sounds like Highwind's got ahold of somebody there."
"Is there an Allied base on that world? Which one was it?" Rinoa asked fearfully.
"Small base, just ten or so grunts. Never been any Heartless sightings ever reported. Now suddenly all this shit." Banks waved a hand. "Look, I gotta go. I'm taking the recon team out to figure out what the Hell happened."
As the woman shouldered past, Rinoa looked back over to Cid, approaching the control panel cautiously.
"All right, deep breaths. No need to panic." He was saying, in a surprisingly consoling tone. "I'm pulling you up on the screen."
He flicked a few buttons and the mother screen that hung across the main portion of the opposite wall staticked to life. It opened onto a darkened room, what looked like a common military base communications room to Rinoa, but the young woman in the middle of the screen looked anything but military.
She looked like she was in her late teens, with large, terrified green eyes and impossibly long, golden hair that tumbled over her shoulders, down her chest, and off screen. She was fidgeting with a few of the blond locks as she spoke into the screen.
"It was like the sun just vanished." She sounded breathless. "I didn't see what happened. No one did. Everything was fine and then BOOM! We were all waking up as though we'd all been put under a spell or passed out at the same time."
"Have there been any injuries?" Cid asked.
"Not that I've heard." The woman explained. "Nobody seems to be suffering from any side effects either, but this still doesn't make any sense."
"We're sending a response team out there to check things out." Cid informed her. "Has everyone woken up since the shadow passed?"
"Passed?" The woman grabbed either side of the screen. "It's still here. It's still completely dark outside. Let me show you."
The screen abruptly jostled as the woman picked up the recorder and carried it with her. Rinoa set the files on the desk beside Cid and looked away from the jerking screen.
"What world is this?" Rinoa asked.
"The one closest to where that satellite went missing a few weeks ago." Cid grumbled without looking at her. "The Allied base there reported a high pitched groaning noise, just like the one on the last satellite feed before there was a worldwide blackout."
"See?" The young woman on the screen said, hoisting the recorder up.
Rinoa squinted with Cid. The rolling landscape and shimmering lakes that were on the screen were muted, as though shot through a black and white camera. The sky was dark also, with no clouds or stars breaking the expanse. It was eerie and unsettling.
"Can you still hear that noise?" Cid asked.
"No, but it's—"
"Rapunzel!" A young man with dark hair darted into view atop a white horse.
"Eugene. Max. What is it?" The woman, Rapunzel asked.
"They need you back at the palace." The man said. "A fire has broken out."
Rapunzel looked back at the screen, at Cid and Rinoa. "When will your team arrive?"
"Within half an hour." Cid assured her. "We'll get to the bottom of this."
She nodded and the feed abruptly cut out.
Cid groaned and ran a hand over his eyes. "Damn."
"Cid," Rinoa asked uncomfortably. "What could cause the population of an entire planet to pass out? I've never heard of any spell or magic that powerful."
"No." Cid shook his head and looked at her slowly. "This is something else." He narrowed his eyes and looked at the blank screen. "This is something new."
..:-X-:..
Preview for next week: This was something that Jake hadn't anticipated: Tabaeus was a nervous drinker.