Due to some last-minute storytelling decisions, I decided to rearrange the order of the story and do the invasion of Radiant Garden first, then come back to the battle on Earth. I also had to shave off a few chapters so only 4 chapters, the epilogue, and the timeline to go, people.
Chapter 33: Death From Above:
Radiant Garden – Marketplace:
The atmosphere in the restaurant was both relaxed and sense at the same time as Princess Kairi and Captain Amelia discussed the terms of Amelia's contract. Kairi agreed to pay the captain her usual rate, promising to pay half once they reached Earth, and the rest upon their return to Radiant Garden. As part of Amelia's charter, the Princess of Heart would be held accountable for anything she damaged aboard the ship, pirate or Hellfire Club attacks notwithstanding. While the conversation was going on, Rose couldn't help but feel that there was something familiar about the Princess of Radiant Garden, but for the life of her she couldn't figure out why she looked so familiar.
Once the business portion of the meeting had been taken care of, Kairi asked Rose how she was handling her situation, and from there, the conversation turned towards Rose' capture by the Legion and what they might want with Sora. Eventually, the conversation turned towards chatting about each other's lives, and soon, the two young women were chatting away like they'd known each other for years. And as they talked, the dots finally connected in Rose's head why Kairi seemed so familiar and the lightbulb went off. Red hair. Keyblade. Pink hood. Fox ears. Ava! Though outwardly calm, Rose was reeling at the fact that she was carrying on a conversation the reincarnation of the Foreteller Vulpeus In all her millennia as an Unchained, she had never again expected to see the face of Foreteller Ava.
Though she knew that Ava had never Unchained herself, Rose was hesitant to broach the subject as she had no idea how much Kairi knew about Kingdom Hearts' cycle of reincarnation worked. Rose was far behind on local news for the last millennia or so, having spent her last several lifetimes on Earth running the Huntsclan, which had been founded by Unchained during the Keyblade War to protect civilians against rogue vampires and other dark creatures that were taking advantage of the chaos of the war and attacking refugees left and right. In her previous lifetime, Rose had eventually realized how far the Huntsclan had fallen from their original purpose.
But before she could do anything about it, the Huntsman had killed her, intending to use the amnesiac period before her next (current) life's twenty-first birthday when her memories returned to break those thoughts out of her. But fortunately for her, she'd met Jake, and the rest was history. She was about to ask a vague question about how much Kairi knew about Ava when the ground shook. The three women raced outside to find large pirate ships bearing the Heartless emblem on their sails flying overhead, raining cannon and spell fire down on the city from above. Panicked screams came from the stairs leading to the burrow as Heartless began spawning all over the marketplace and began attacking innocent bystanders.
Clearly, the Hellfire Club wants their precious Infinity Stone back, Kairi thought to herself as she summoned her Keyblade and raced off into battle, firing spells and swinging her sword at Heartless left and ride as she waded through the franticly fleeing crowds. Captain Amelia drew her plasma pistol and started firing at airborn Heartless whenever they dove down within range. Behind them, Kairi's bodyguards swung their lances and axe at every enemy that came close enough for them to use it, slicing the demonic creatures apart. After a moment of hesitation, Rose decided that hiding her status as an Unchained was no longer an option as she whipped out her long disused Keyblade and charged into battle.
The Land of Departure – Forecourt:
Things had been quiet in the Land of Departure lately, and for that, Terra was grateful. No insane Keyblade Masters around stirring up trouble, no nefarious Organization attempting to exploit the castle's secrets for their own gain, just the same tall mountains and golden castle that Terra had lived in for years. Right now, he was currently examining the streaks of white in his hair while his son Littus tossed a ball around the courtyard. Ever since he'd been freed from Xehanort's control his hair had been permanently streaked white, a consequence of being possessed for so long. He'd dyed it brown and cut it to the preferred length to get rid of the uncomfortable reminder of Xehanort's influence.
Judging by how long it was getting and the new streaks of white, it was time for him to get it cut and dyed again. His attention snapped back to the present when he heard Littus say hello. Terra froze as he saw the man formerly known as Marluxia standing at the entrance to the courtyard with a pack of armored warriors, presumably Legionnaires, standing in formation on the low, grass-coated ramp spiraling down the mountainside behind him. At the feet of the former Number eleven was the ball Terra's son had been playing with. Taking stock of the situation, the former Superior acted quickly.
"Littus, stay there," Terra ordered loudly as he raced over and stood next to his son as he glared at the former Organization member.
"Hello traitor," Aurilam remarked coldly as he walked into the courtyard with his iconic pink-bladed scythe over his shoulder.
"Marluxia," Terra replied equally as coldly. Lied to by Xehanort or not, the former Number eleven's human self was still a high ranking operative of the mysterious Legion, had physically and emotionally abused Namine for several months, and attempted to brainwash Sora. He was still the enemy. "I was as much a pawn of Xehanort as anyone else in the Organization. In any case, that's a bit hypocritical coming from you."
"I'm well aware of that madman's deceptions. That's why Larxene and I joined the Organization, to destroy his schemes from the inside. But not, I wasn't referring to the Organization. I was thinking of a far more ancient betrayal. You can't deny your guilt in that, Aced."
Terra's eyes narrowed in suspicion even as they widened in surprise. The secrets of Kingdom Hearts' cycle of reincarnation, how it cleaned the darkness from a heart after death before regurgitating it into a new infant body, were not common knowledge. It was something known to Coalition scientists, of course, but not necessarily something that every person in Coalition space needed to know. It was generally agreed that making such information accessible to the public would only end up sending a wave of soul-crushing angst across the Coalition as people speculated on who their past incarnations had been and what they'd done, or angsted over whether or not every bad thing that happened was because of something they did in a past life.
That would be extremely detrimental to society, and so the information was largely kept quiet. While it was possible that The Legion simply had access to an up-to-date computer database somewhere in the Daybreak Coalition, there were only certain people outside of the Keyblade wielders and their most trusted friends who knew about certain Keyblade Masters being the reincarnations of the Foretellers.
"You're Unchained," Terra guessed, more of a statement than a question. "Aren't you?" Braig had explained the existence of the Unchained in a letter to Kairi (or rather, her past incarnation, Ava, Foreteller of the Vulpeus guild) as quasi-immortal Keyblade Wielders who had gained access to all the memories of their past lives. Recruited by Ava to ensure that Keyblade Wielders would survive the coming war, they had instead gone on to avenge her death when Gula, Foreteller of the Leopardos guild murder her during a peace summit in the capital of Atlantis. They all knew from Braig's (or rather, Ephemer, as he had originally been known) letter that there were more Unchained out there among the stars, but for the last six years they hadn't encountered any. Now Terra was beginning to suspect why they hadn't found them.
"Unchained, Dandelion, different names for the same thing, really," Aurilam remarked as he ran his hands down the edge of his scythe, gingerly testing the sharpness of the blade. "All that really matters now, traitor, is that my fellow Unchained and I will be taking the Infinity Stone in the basement."
"Over my dead body," Terra retorted angrily as he took a step forward, placing himself between the Graveful Assassin and his son. Though only four years old, Littus could understand that these people who had come to their home were dangerous, and following his father's silent instruction, turned and raced up the stairs. As the front doors creaked open, Terra summoned his Keyblade. He would defend his son to his dying breath if that was what it took to keep the former Organization member away from his family.
"Even better," the man formerly known as Marluxia replied as a light flashed in his hands and his scythe was gone, replaced by a wickedly sharp looking Keyblade. Behind the salmon-haired man, his fellow Legionnaires all drew Keyblades of their own as they advanced on him with a furious roar. Terra braced himself to fight the invaders off until his last breath, only to be picked up by a sudden gust of wind and thrown up the stairs through the doors himself. As his son cried out for him, he climbed to his feet in time to see the familiar hexagons of a barrier spell spread across the threshold of the castle from floor to ceiling. While he was grateful to still be alive for his son, his heart froze as he saw two familiar figures standing at the bottom of the stairs with their backs to the door.
"VEN!" He shouted as he watched his surrogate little brother and his ninja girlfriend charge into battle with the Keyblade wielding horde. In the midst of ducking a swing from Aurilam, Ven turned towards the door and shook his head. While the gesture was vague, his eyes conveyed his message perfectly. Don't worry about me, they said. You need to stay alive for Aqua and Kair. We'll hold them off. I called the army. Reinforcements are on the way. With that, the blonde Keyblade Master who had practically been Terra's brother cast another Aerogza spell that blew the doors shut. The last thing Terra saw before the front door slammed closed was Ven and Yuffie facing off against two dozen Keyblade Wielders.
But despite his brother-in-all-but-blood's reassurance, Terra knew that Ven was fighting a losing battle. It was at least an hour of flying to the nearest Coalition base at top speed, and the former Superior of the Organization seriously doubted that one Keyblade Master and a ninja could survive against so many opponents for that long. Xehanort probably could, but he had been a Master for several decades at that point. Ven hadn't even had the title for half of one, and he was nowhere near Xehanort's level. As Terra helped his son into the panic room Aqua had installed for emergencies like this the last time they'd renovated the castle, he couldn't help but silently pray to any deity that was listening that reinforcements would get there quickly.
If you haven't read The Xehanort War or aren't familiar with the Rebirth Theory then you'll be incredibly confused on Rose's thinking and what the heck Unchained even means, (and if you still haven't read TXW by this point, I cannot stress the importance of having the knowledge of what happened in that story to understand this one better). So to sum things up for those who stubbornly refuse to go back and read my previous stories first, the Rebirth Theory basically suggests that every heart in the KH universe is reincarnated via Kingdom Hearts, and that Riku, Kairi, Terra, Aqua, and Ven are the reincarnations of the Foretellers (Specifically that Kairi is Ava, Riku's Ira, Terra would be Aced, Aqua being Invi, and Ventus is Gula, Luxu obviously being Xehanort himself).
In this universe, the Unchained are Keyblade Wielders who, through an unknown process, retain the memories of their past lives (Think of it as regular reincarnation being like Avatar: The Last Airbender, where each incarnation is still a separate character, while Unchained reincarnation is like Time Lords regenerating on Doctor Who), and are basically immortal. Aside from Rose, the only notable Unchained explicitly identified in the Acolytes of Chaos saga was Braig, who's the reincarnation of Ephemer(a). The only way for an Unchained to permanently die is if they're killed by the X – Blade (which Braig was at the end of The Xehanort War).
I know that the latest Kingdom Hearts X update confirms that Gula and Ava are friends, but The Xehanort War was written months before, and I had pegged the Leopardos Foreteller as the traitor and wrote the story based around that assumption. As for the Foretellers' names, I originally came up with my own names for them all since aside from Ava, their names hadn't been revealed yet and the whole "seven deadly sins" theme naming wasn't known. Now that this part is known, I went back to TXW and fixed the names. The comment about "a wave of soul-crushing angst" is another Those Lacking Spine reference. Brownie points to TLS readers who figure out what it was a reference to.