I'm back, everyone. Back to my normal writing schedule and regular updates.
Chapter 12: San Fransokyo:
San Fransokyo – Akuma Island:
"Weclome to San Fransokyo, Masters Terra and Ventus," greeted the Coalition Intelligence agent who greeted them when they landed on the island that had once been a Hellfire Club research lab, only to be repurposed as a C.I.N. base after the fall of Xehanort. "It's an honor to have you here," Fa Zhou went on as he led the two Keyblade Masters through the corridors of the base until they came to the facility's command center. Projected above the command table was a three-dimensional, real time holographic map of the world. There were a handful of yellow X's peppered randomly across the city, clearly indicative of Hellfire Club attacks. Then where's their main base? Terra wondered as their guide led them up to the table.
"As you can see," the older man explained. "We've encountered several points of activity from Hellfire, but we have yet to locate their central command base on this world. The attacks have been coming in at random, with no patterns that might indicate where they are coming from. While we continue to sweep for any sign of the base, we were hoping that you might be able to help speed that process along a little." Both men nodded in understanding. Not to say that C.I.N.'s agents were incompetent or not good at their jobs, but as Keyblade Wielders, they had a track record of coming up with creative solutions to problems.
"If the attacks were only along the shoreline, I'd say their base was probably underwater," Ven commented. "But since it's not, the only possibility I can think of would be an airship or some kind of floating fortress that can cloak itself from our scanners." Everyone in the room nodded in agreement, and Fa Zhou, who was in charge of the facility, ordered the radar technicians to send out surveillance drones into the upper atmosphere of San Fransokyo, scanning for everything from air currents to shadows. They didn't need to go very far, though. Fifteen minutes later, there was a ripple in the air as a large T-shaped space craft appeared out of thin air and began firing on the city below.
"BATTLE STATIONS!" Fa Zhou roared as he radioed the Coalition Defense Force. Terra and Ventus raced through the hallways towards the outdoor helipad, where they transformed their Keyblades into their old Glider modes and took off towards the city. As they flew across San Fransokyo Bay, they saw the distinctive red blur of Baymax and the other members of Big Hero 6 flying through the air towards the metal monstrosity to protect their city. The more the merrier, Ventus mused to himself as he and Terra flew towards the spaceship. The sooner we end this, the sooner we can go back home.
The Land of Departure – Dining Hall:
Despite the uneasiness the re-emergence of the Hellfire Club had caused, Aqua couldn't help but be in a good mood as she watched her and Terra's four year old son rapidly chow down on a bowl of cereal in the morning. Littus's childhood innocence was a glimmer of light and hope in these troubling times. After six years of peace, the return of villains previously thought dead or defeated was an alarming occurrence. Pushing her thoughts back to the present, she turned to her guest.
"Trust me, you and Sora will make great parents someday," she told Kairi as the Princess of Radiant Garden finished her pancakes. Originally, she and Terra had been nervous about the prospect of parenthood, but things had turned out alright. The Order of the Keyblade had been operating out of the Land of Departure for the last six years. And even if she and Terra were to ever retire permanently (they rotated staying home to be with their son and patrolling Coalition Space for the odd Heartless attack), their friends were still there to help and offer support whenever they could.
"Oh, that I don't doubt," Kairi replied with a laugh. It had been a running joke between the eleven Keyblade Wielders who were part of the Order for them to act as if she and Sora were already married, much to the couple's embarrassment. When they protested everyone else teasingly retorted that it was only a matter of time until Sora worked up the courage to propose, and that they should all start preparing for that day now. And now that they were finally engaged, the good-natured teasing had been upgraded to discussing whether the happy couple were going to have kids one day.
"We talked about it and we just decided that we were going to wait a little while before that though," she went on while the blue-haired Keyblade Master helped her child clean up the mess he'd made at the breakfast table. "As much as we do want kids someday, we don't want to just rush into it right after the wedding." Aqua conceded her point, and conversation moved on to gossiping about the other Keyblade Wielders' love lives. Ventus had started dating that ninja from Radiant Garden a few weeks back, so now Vanitas was the only one of the eleven members of the Order of the Keyblade who was still single.
Earth – Avengers Tower:
There, Natasha thought to herself as she turned off the video camera she'd used to explain her imminent absence to the rest of the Avengers. She wished she could stay with the people the former Russian assassin had come to consider family for much, much longer. It was nice to be around people who knew some of her secrets and accepted her anyway. But alas, it was not meant to be. Even if she didn't already know that she would outlive them all, this was one secret of her past that she knew they would never be able to accept. And once They came after her, there was no way her teammates would be able to stop themselves from digging into her past.
She needed to be packed up and ready to run as soon as she caught a whiff of her former colleagues' presences. The sooner she disappeared into the night, the better. Better for them not to find out that she was more than just Natasha Barnes, Avenger and Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. The biographical information Arnim Zola had provided when she and Steve had discovered HYDRA's plans for Project: Insight hadn't been a complete lie, but it wasn't the complete truth either. She had been born in 1984, but despite what the calendar said, she was much older than her date of birth suggested. And that was why the Avengers could never know. Because once they knew what she was, what she'd done, there was no going back to the way things were for her.
Steeling herself against the impending emotional pain of separating form her surrogate family, she headed off to take a cold shower to help her focus. Unfortunately, her plans for a solo shower were interrupted when she ran into Bucky in the hallway.
"Nat," he greeted, a touch of concern in his voice. "Where've you been? I've been worried sick. You haven't checked in at The Playground, J.A.R.V.I.S. tells me he's been sworn to secrecy. What the hell is going on, Natalia? I get it. Secrets have been part of our lives for so long that it's hard to break the habit, but when we got married we promised we wouldn't hide things from each other unless it was a mission for S.H.I.E.L.D., and I know that this isn't mission-related. Talk to me, Tasha. Please."
Despite attempting to keep a straight face, the infamous Black Widow couldn't help but let a trace of fear leak through the cracks in her mask. She and Bucky had agreed on their wedding day that they had enough skeletons in their closets that they hid from their teammates without hiding them from each other. But for all of his actions as the metaphorical fist of HYDRA, Natasha was sure that not even he would be able to accept who she was and what she'd done.
"I want to, James," she admitted shakily. Even around her husband she was still hesitant to show vulnerability. Old habits die hard and all that. "I really do. But there are things in my past that not even S.H.I.E.L.D. know about. And if anyone else knew… what I am… What I've done… Not even you'd be able to look at me anymore once you knew my real story." James was rocked. He knew that few things were enough to rattle his wife, who was a master of rolling with the punches of life. But for her to show pure, unfiltered terror, something serious had to be going on. And it sounded like it had something to do with this aspect of her past that was apparently so dark and horrific that she was convinced he'd divorce her if he knew the truth. As a way of reassuring her, he leaned in and gave his wife a kiss.
"The whole reason we clicked so well is because we both understand how it feels to have so much red in your ledger that it feels like you'll never wipe it all out," he said reassuringly. "Whatever you think is so horrifying that it will ruin our relationship, it's not gonna happen. We may have bumps in the road every now and then, but we'll get through it like we always have. I love you." Feeling slightly reassured, Natasha finally resolved that Bucky was right. As her husband, he had a right to know the truth about her past. It was time to tell him the truth.
While Maleficent is in charge of the Hellfire Club, like in KH1 and KH2, different members have their own agendas. Hades, Captain Hook, Diablo, and Cruella are loyal to Maleficent, but Red Skull is only allied with them as a means to an end to conquer Earth, while Malekith has got his own agenda. Expect tensions between villains to rise throughout the rest of the Acoyltes of Chaos saga. Sooner or later, we'll have a bad guy civil war on our hands.
Since they'll need aircraft to reach the Dark Elf warship, next chapter is going to have some Keyblade Glider action. And Big Hero 6 joins the fray obviously, because no way are they going to let something like this happen without them helping to fight off the villains. The action in the next two chapters will alternate between Terra, Ven, Hiro, and Baymax in the air, and the rest of Big Hero 6 on the ground team.
I picked the name of Terra and Aqua's son from the Latin word for shore. I figured since Terra= Earth and Aqua= Water, it would be fitting. Pairing Ven and Yuffie was one of those story decisions I made at the last minute. My usual approach to writing long stories like this is to hammer out the broad outline of the plot and then add, subtract, or change the smaller details as the story develops and I'm struck with inspiration for new things to add or things that don't make sense.
And yeah, some WinterWidow fluff in this chapter at the end. I paired Natasha with Bucky since they have a history together in the comics, and the fact that Betty and Bruce are still together in this universe so HulkWidow never happened in this universe. Because of their who schtick as "infamous assassins with dark pasts" deal, I felt it would be fitting for them to end up together. But the exact details of her secret past will not be revealed until later in the Acolytes of Chaos saga. Can't give too many hints or I'll spoil all the big surprises.