More SoKai fluff this chapter. Next chapter will be when the Kingdom Hearts characters start getting involved in the overarching plot. Shorter chapter this time since it's not as plot heavy.
Chapter 7: Radiant Garden:
Radiant Garden – Kairi's Bedroom:
Kairi opened her eyes to the sunlight filtering into her suite in the upper levels of the castle. She smiled as she felt the comforting grip of her fiancé's arms draped over her. Although he normally went back to the barracks after he dropped her off at the castle, she'd managed to persuade him to come upstairs for some celebratory sea-salt ice cream. It took four hours before they both came down from the resulting sugar high and passed out from exhaustion. She just needed to get him out of the castle before security figured out he'd spent the night. She didn't want anyone jumping to conclusions about what they'd gotten up to. They were saving that for after the wedding.
Brushing the last strands of hair out of her face, she looked over to the clock on her nightstand and her eyes nearly popped out of her head when she saw that it was 11:00 in the morning. She didn't have any functions today, but she needed to get Sora out of here before the guards came to break down her door and make sure she was alright. Frantically, she lifted his arms off of her and rolled off the bed. Once that was done, she gave Sora a kiss on the lips. This proved to be enough to rouse him from his slumber. He groggily rubbed his eyes as he woke up and she frantically reminded him of the need to avoid getting him in trouble for sleeping in her bedroom. She was about to go into the bathroom of her suite and change when there was a knock on the door.
"Kairi," called the voice of her uncle from the other side of the door. "Are you alright?" Frantically, she whispered for Sora to hide behind the bed before she opened the door.
"I'm alright, Uncle," she replied as she gave Ansem the Wise a good morning hug. "I was up late last night so I ended up sleeping in." In response, Ansem only raised an eyebrow as he noticed some of the recognizable spikes of Sora's hair peeking out from behind the large queen-size bed. She was planning to smuggle him out of the castle before anyone figured out he'd ever spent the night, he realized with a mental chuckle. Too bad she forgot that there are security cameras in every hallway in case of intruders attempting to access the upper levels of the castle via Dark Corridor.
"Oh?" he asked, deciding to play along and pretend he couldn't see him. He wasn't worried. He had talked to both of them when they first started dating and made sure he made it clear that they weren't allowed to sleep together until they got married. But seeing as news of their engagement had been spreading like wildfire all morning, he could understand her convincing Sora to at least spend the night as to celebrate. "And might the reason you were up so late be the same reason the security cameras saw Sora enter your room last night and not come out?" he added with an impish grin. For all his regrets and the weight of his duties as the reappointed king of Radiant Garden, Ansem the Wise still had a very wicked sense of humor.
Kairi's face flushed red with embarrassment as she tried to stammer out an excuse while Sora sheepishly stood up from behind the bed.
"Your majesty," Sora said frantically as he gave a respectful salute to his boss. (Dilan and Aeleus may have been his commanding officers, but they both reported to Ansem, making him the de facto superior of every member of the royal guards) "I'm so sorry. We didn't do anything last night. I swear." Ansem chuckled.
"No need to apologize, my boy," the middle aged king replied. "Your engagement has been the talk of the city all morning. I knew you were spending the night to celebrate, I just thought I'd have a little fun this morning. Congratulations by the way. I'm happy for you both."
"Thank you, sir," Sora answered as Kairi gave her uncle another hug. The happy couple breathed a sigh of relief at not having to frantically rush Sora out the door before anyone discovered he was there. Everyone already knew, and simply chose to let the infraction of security slide for one night so the two lovers could celebrate.
"So," Ansem went on. "When's the wedding?"
Maveth – Angelic Sanctuary:
Coming home always brought back bad memories for Kadaj. His and Yazoo's mother had died when he was only ten, and his father had brought him here. Although the planet had no official name, the humans who had worshiped his grandmother called it Maveth. Apparently it meant "death" in some language Kadaj had never learned, but he thought the name quite fitting. Even with the great Sephiroth raising three children in the halls of this very citadel, the world had always felt cold and lifeless. Between the eighteen years between sunrises and the dust storms every time they sat foot outside the castle walls, Maveth had always been a hellish place to live.
Despite the nightmarish environment, this castle had been home to Kadaj for so long that even when he wanted nothing to do with the place, he and his brothers still found themselves drawn back to their father's home. The trio were under no illusions about who and what their father was. Sephiroth trained them relentlessly, making them practice for hours to sharpen their reflexes and hone their skills in battle. But despite his cold and aloof attitude, he was still their father, and he still cared for their needs. He comforted them when they missed their mothers (Yazoo and Kadaj had the same mother, but Loz, who was the oldest of the trio, had a different mother), took care of them when they were sick or injured, and cooked dinner for all of them when he was home from a job.
A tear fell from Kadaj's cheek at the memory of dad's first disastrous attempt at cooking dinner for four. Sephiroth may not have been a perfect father, but he still cared for his sons. And six years ago, he left for job, promising to be back in a few weeks, but he never came home. Eventually, the three brothers left Maveth to find him, only to discover that he had been murdered by the man he'd tried to kill. Never mind that Sephiroth killing the man would have amounted to murder either way. That man, Cloud Strife, had killed their father. And for that he would die horribly. Vengeance would be theirs.
Taking a deep breath to calm himself, he stood up and returned to join Yazoo and Loz in the dining room. They wound find the man who took their father from them and kill him. None of the three cared about Maleficent's plans to remake the universe in her image. It made no difference to them whether she succeeded or failed as long as they got what they wanted. All that mattered to them was avenging their father's death and reuniting with their lost brother. The rest of the universe could burn for all they cared, as long as they could put their family back together.
Radiant Garden – Library
Something's definitely going on, Kairi thought to herself as she and Sora walked into the Hollow Bastion's library. After their late brunch, they'd been informed that an operative from the Coalition Intelligence Network had arrived with urgent news and needed to speak with her right away. Sora had changed back into his guard uniform and accompanied her up to the meeting. On the way down to the castle library, the two of them blushed in near-perfect sync as everyone they passed in the hallways congratulated them and asked when the wedding was.
They walked into the library to find a small gathering waiting for them on the upper level. Once they walked through the doors, Dilan and Aeleus tapped a "Closed" sign to the door before closing and locking it. This is serious, Sora realized as they made their way through the maze of bookshelves towards where the rest of the group was gathered. When they reached the second floor, they took stock of who was present. The group consisted of King Mickey, Donald, Goofy, Aqua, Queen Elsa, General Shang, and a brown-haired woman who Sora knew he had met before but couldn't remember exactly where.
"Agent Yuna," the woman introduced herself. It clicked in Sora's mind where he recognized her from. She and her fellow treasure hunters Rikku and Paine had fought in the Battle of Hollow Bastion eight years ago. Of course, back then, the trio had inadvertently been shrunken down to the size of small fairies as a result of some cursed treasure they'd taken from the cave of wonders. While they'd claimed back before the battle that Maleficent had promised them treasure, it had just been to cover the fact that the witch was supposed to return the trio to full size. Eventually, they'd figured out how to reverse their condition and all three eventually became members of the C.I.N.
"My partners and I picked up some suspicious activity in Zootopia and San Fransokyo a few days ago," Yuna explained. "We investigated our leads and discovered Hellfire Club agents operating in hidden bases on both worlds. We managed to overhear enough of their communications to pick up the fact that this isn't some hold-out that's managed to survive for six years. They've reorganized, and they're planning something big." A hushed silence fell over the group as they considered the ramifications of what she'd said. There were very few criminals in Coalition space with the kind of influence to take over the remains of the Hellfire Club, and none of the original members had the charisma to hold all the different splinter groups together. That left only two possibilities: either someone new had managed to bring order to the chaotic factions, or Maleficent had indeed survived all these years.
"We need to handle this quietly," Elsa said bluntly once the briefing finished. "They'll likely be monitoring all Coalition news feeds, and if we announce this information publicly, we lose the element of surprise and give them time to escape."
"I agree," Sora commented. "But at the same time we can't just let civilians on either world get caught in the crossfire because they're oblivious to the danger. We have to give people just enough information that they'll steer clear of the Hellfire Club's bases until we've given the all clear." Everyone voiced their agreement, and Kairi suggested putting out a public safety announcement warning residents about a gas leak or something of that nature to force a temporary evacuation of the surrounding buildings and reduce collateral damage.
Next came the decision of who to send for the raids on the two bases. Sora, Donald, and Goofy quickly volunteered to lead the attack on the Club's Zootopian base. Aqua recommended Terra and Ven for San Fransokyo. With the teams decided, the meeting adjourned, and everyone went their separate ways to prepare for the operation. Sora, Donald, and Goofy headed down to the barracks so Sora could change out of his uniform and into the outfit he usually wore while out travelling the worlds (with Kairi tagging along to see them off). Aqua headed for an outdoor balcony from which to fly her Glider back to the Land of Departure and notify Terra and Ven of their assignment, while Mickey went to go visit with his friend Ansem. Meanwhile, Yuna accompanied Elsa back to Arendelle to relay her findings to Director Cassim from the C.I.N. base in the kingdom's northern mountains.
With the possibility of Maleficent's return, the Coalition government was now on high alert. Nobody was foolish enough to believe that these two bases were the extent of the Hellfire Club's resurgence. But everyone hoped that by going after these cells, even if some of the villains managed to escape, would give them enough clues to start making their way up the ladder towards Maleficent herself – if she was alive, that is. They still had no confirmation that this was really her in charge or someone new who'd managed to win the loyalty of those who remained. As everyone prepared for battle, a sense of grim determination came over those who'd be involved in the battles to come. They would not stop until the Hellfire Club had been either captured or killed, down to the last member.
I thought it would be really funny if Sora ever spent the night at Kairi's when they were together and she had to sneak him out before anyone found out he was there because they knew that everyone would assume they had sex if he got caught staying overnight in her room. I figured it would be good for some laughs before we get into the drama of the piece, so I ran with it. Next chapter is when things really start getting serious.
Zootopia is a freaking fantastic movie, and if Square Enix doesn't include it in Kingdom Hearts 3, they had better do so in the first game of the next saga.
My explanation for why YRP were so small in KH2 while none of the other Final Fantasy characters in the KH universe were size shifted. I figured that because of their whole thing about being treasure hunters in 2 they'd probably make pretty good agents for Coalition Intelligence in this universe.
While I enjoy the Sephiroth battles in the Kingdom Hearts games are fun, there's no denying that they water-down his personality and backstory considerably. In the original game there's more to him than just being Cloud's rival, and the prequel, Crisis Core, he's a legitimately decent (if cold and socially awkward) person before he turned evil, and I decided that it would be good to expand on his KH backstory to give him more to his character than just "Cloud's Inner Darkness personified." So I decided to have references to Sephiroth being a caring father to Kadaj, Yazoo, and Loz as a way of reminding everyone that for all that he's hyped up as one of the biggest badasses in gaming, that he's a more complex character than his Kingdom Hearts portrayal so far would have someone unfamiliar with FF7 believe.
It's never stated the physical ages of the Remnants in any material for FF7 (only that Kadaj is the youngest), other than the fact that they were created mere weeks before Advent Children. So I decided that since Loz looked the oldest out of all three, then he'd probably have a different mother than the other two. The reason why is kind of implied but won't be fully explained until my KH5 story. Can't ruin all the surprises for the saga in the first major story, now, can I?
For the next three chapters, we switch back to Earth and see how the Avengers are reacting to the attack on Asgard. After that, we're jumping back to the Kingdom Hearts cast for about 27 chapters.