Sora and his friends found Cloud in the last second as the man was about to disappear into the glowing forest.
"Cloud!" Sora called and the man stopped, allowing the keyblade wielders to come up to him. "We're here to help." Sora said
. Cloud didn't show any real emotions of this little fact from Sora, he simply nodded and went into the forest, this time with the three close behind him.
"Tifa told us about what happen." Sora said to the silent man.
Cloud face didn't change much, only his eyes showed a deep pain in what he thought he had caused to this world.
Riku eyed the blond man for a moment, noticing the almost same pain in Cloud eyes he had back when he fought against Xeanort's darkness, but he didn't say anything as he wasn't sure what words to this man would hurt or help. He wanted to say something, though. But what could—
Riku's thought was broken when several bullets flew past them, only luck made them miss the group. The group was however prepared for the next waves of bullets, Sora doughed some of them to send a glare towards one of the few people he wouldn't regret using his keyblade on.
The human of Xigbar reloaded his arrow guns, ready to yet another wave. Beside him stood a very smug Kadaj. Cloud spotted the two and with very little thoughts; he charged at the two with his blade ready to strike either of them down. Kadaj grinned and with several hand waves up to the sky, a pack of brainwashed children jumped down from the trees, standing between Kadaj and Cloud.
Only if he wanted to hurt the very children he came to save; Cloud had no other choice than to stop his attack. Before he could think of getting to Kadaj without harming the children, the silver-haired villain jump-kicked him and said taunting to the down man.
"I'm glad you could make it."
Cloud wasn't down for long, though, the jump-kick hadn't been strong enough to really do any harm. "I only came here for the kids." He said back, he didn't really care much about Kadaj and the other man.
Kadaj didn't really care what Cloud had to say either as he got a really strong vendetta against the blond which Cloud not yet had figured out why. "See this man?" He said loudly out to the zombie-like kids. "He's our big brother."
That made Sora startled turn towards the blond but Cloud neither confirmed or denied what Kadaj had said.
"But alas in our happy flock." Kadaj pointed his double blade sword against the blond. "He's what you call a black sheep."
Kadaj lifted his blade to attack but was stopped by Riku making one of his sheilds between the two, giving Cloud just the time he needed to pick up his blade and strike out after Kadaj just as the sheild faded. The silver haired man dogded but Cloud refused letting him go and rapidly followed.
Sora, Riku and Kairi turned towards Braig but the man simply smiled with a shrug. "Three against one? That doesn't seem fair." He pulled out a king chess piece, instead of a crone or a knight figure, this one had the head of a bear. "Awaken!" He called and threw up the piece. A dark orb surrounded the chess peice and out from the orb arrived Ursus keeper and it was clear that the bear were no longer on their side. The Bear Keeper roared, surrounded itself in stone and like a deadly football charged at the three keyblade wielders.
"Watch out!" Kairi cried and they all jumped away from the ball of death that completely ignored the surrounding children. The Bear Keeper went to another attack, this time having the kids in the crossfire but the children did not even try move away from the approaching ball of death. Riku quickly acted, he jumped in between and used all his magic on the shield to protect himself and the zombie-like children from the Keeper's attack. just as his last magic was drained, the Keeper stopped its attack and turned into a bear again. "We can't fight it like this!" He told the two others and jumped away from the Bear Keeper's claws.
Sora couldn't agree more, they needed to keep the children safe, so they were forced to ignore Braig (who taunted them by leaving casually) and instead remove the children away from the berserker Keeper. That task itself was hard as the Keeper was a force to be reconed with. It destroyed everything in its path and the three wielders had to more than once sacrifice their own safety for the brainwashed children. In the end they lost against the Keeper and even Cloud couldn't defeat Kadaj thanks to the trashing Keeper and it kept on destroying the only source that could keep him away from its deadly roll attack: the glowing trees.
Cloud did try and attack Kadaj one last time but was hit by the bear keeper's claws and ended close to unconsions on the ground. Kadaj landed beside the enraged acting Keeper, grinning went to put Cloud and his friends out of their misery.
Then, suddenly the bear Keeper landed on the ground, having a keyblade into its side. Someone small in size took the keyblade and moved so fast that Kadaj couldn't get a clear veiw on the newcomer, didn't stop him from attacking, though. He charged at the newcomer but was stopped dead when this new keyblade wielder sommoned a cartoonish wall by a stroke of their keyblade. The silver haired man struck down the sommoned wall and stared at the fading of a portal created by eletricity. He sneered, angry that they got away, still it did not change his plans. He glanced to the bear keeper as it got back on its feet and turned back into the king chess peice since it needed time to recharge its powers. Kadaj picked up the peice and with a handmove to the children to follow, they left the battlefield of the forest.
***
"Thanks for the help." Sora said to their rescuer.
Oswald shrugged slightly before asking them a little harshly. "Any changes you spotted Ursus? He's not the type who lend out his Keeper to anyone."
Sora, Riku, and Kairi all shook their heads. Oswald let out a defeated sight. "Guess the book was right on one thing: they won't be themselves anymore..." And before the three could ask the rabbit what he meant by that, Oswald made another question. "What was the deal with those kids? They reacted on their surroundings just as much my kids does before a television screen."
"Kadaj has done something to them." Cloud replied a little dull to the rabbit.
Oswald turned to the man as Cloud explained that many of this world's residents, especally children was poisoned by a darkness caused by Sephiroth. Oswald crossed his arms and went a bit back and foward in deep thoughts. "That does sound familiar..." He stopped his pacing and asked in wonder with eyes up to the night sky. "But from where?" He had been traviling to so many places and been in a mess of a time jump that tales and legends often got mixed together. Then it hit him. "The re-creation of the worlds! They were recreated from the light of children." He gasped shocked, but that quickly turned into anger. "What kind of monster is using children as an experiment? For all I know that tale could just be a legend! It wasn't like all the worlds got destroyed by the war!" He stomped hard into the ground to vent a little of his anger.
Sora and Kairi both felt sorry for the rabbit but none of them was sure how to help, Riku, on the other hand, noticed something that caught his attention in how the rabbit spoke. "You speak like you know what happed." Oswald turned to the silver-haired boy, eyes slightly furrowed. Didn't stop Riku from continue, though. "You seems to know the Foretellers on a personal level although it is clear they come from a distance past."
He eyed the rabbit. "Are you from that same past?"
"No, I'm from this timeline." Oswald admitted solemnly to get tense in anger. "..." He mused something under his breathe but none of the humans could hear his words.
"What did you say?" Sora asked but all he got from the now angry rabbit was a glare and the change of topic. "What are your plan stopping this mess?" Turning to Cloud who has been mostly silint under this whole convisation. "If you don't stop this darkness from spreading, then all who has been affcted will fall to the darkness and create incredible powerful Heartless. In other words:" He turned away from them, looking up to the sky. "This world will fall and I doubt it will be the last." Those last words were from his own experiance in what happened if someone evil or dumb enough starts mess with the power balance of light and darkness.
***
Under the fight, it had succeed Adria getting free from her bindings and used the chaos of the trashing Keeper to get the only child not brainwashed away from the mess.
The little girl was happy to be saved but also sad that she had been forced to leave the other kids behind. "Where are we going?" Marlene asked this other woman, feeling unsure if this one could be trusted as she got kinda the same feels from this woman as she got from the one-eyed man.
Adria didn't answer her, she kept on scanning the forest for something. The only words she spoke to the girl was when she found what she was looking for. "This way." And in matter of steps, they found Cloud and the others.
Marlene was overjoyed seeing her protector. "Cloud!" And ran towards the man.
Sora turned to Adria, surprised seeing her again and here of all places. "What are you doing here, Adria?"
He still wasn't sure if he would call Adria a friend since she constantly was shifting from being helpful to actually try and harm him or his friends. One thing was for sure though, if anyone would know what was going on it would be her.
Adria crossed her arms but did tell Sora. "I was helping an old sparring partner searching for something, but I ended up getting caught by Kadaj and Braig." Which made her feel like a complete newbie.
Riku, also realizing Adria's ability catching up what others might miss asked her a bit hopeful. "Do you know where they are after or where they are heading?"
"I can tell you what they are after but if you want to know where they are heading; then you better give me good reason to figure that out for you." Adria said with a small grin, as if risking her life for info was some kind of fun hobby for her. The group just stared at her. Adria cleared her throat but not because of the awkwardness. "Kadaj is searching for the keyhole of this world: Braig or Xehanort, whatever it is, is speaking through that old fool's mouth; tricking Kadaj to think that the keyhole is what he is searching for."
"And what is he searching for?" Cloud asked, however already dreading the answer from how Kadaj spoke to him like they were brothers.
Adria eyed him with a look that told she knew of his fears but didn't really care about them. "Sephiroth."
"Sephiroth is death." Cloud said, he should know; he was the one who dealt the final blow.
Adria quirks a smirk. "Are you sure you got everything? Like: his heart?"
Cloud let out a small gasp but other than that kept his composer, he narrowed his eyes towards Adria. "Where is it?"
To that Adria couldn't answer him, but she knew who would. "You have to ask Shinra about that. I and some from his team went after the remains of Sephiroth." Looking lazily up to the sky. " Reno and his patner should have delivered the "pacage" to Shinra unless Reno was dumb enough let them get captured."
Cloud let out a small growl, he had a feeling Shinra had been hiding something from him. He would've loved payng him a visit but Shinra was probably long gone by now and Cloud hadn't really the time tracking the man down. At least he does know where the two others Adria spoke about whereabout. "I need to speak with someone." He got back on his feet and with Marlene holding his hand; Cloud left the forest. Sora, Riku, Kairi and Oswald followed, Adria did as well but more in the background as she was scooting the area as they went.
***
Back at the place Cloud and Tifa had been calling home along with the children they took care off, Cloud confronted two men, one black and broad man whose eyes were hidden behind a pair of sunglasses. This one took Cloud's confrontation rather calmly and only gave the blond a few short replies. His partner on the other hand, sure he too took Cloud's small anger rather calmly but he was way more talktive than the dark skinned man. He had striking red, messy hair and he looked awfully familiar to someone else the keyblade wielders knew.
"He looks like Lea." Sora mused to his friends, Kairi nodded and like Sora couldn't help but wonder if this man which went by the name Reno knew Lea.
Much to Cloud's frustrations, the two haven't revealed anything useful of where Sephiroth heart was now nor where their boss was as well.
"You are really making this difficult." He growled at the two, just to get further annoyed when Reno said a bit too carefree for the situation. "Kadaj will have to dig up the city if he wishes to find it."
"This is serious!" Tifa snapped at the red haired, Reno just smirked laidback. "Relax we got it under control."
He glanced to Adria who has been listing to the whole convisation from a small distance. "What did you learn?"
Adria sat her bow down to her lap before revealing what she found. "Kadaj is only just a poppet, he's not the one pulling the strings and..." She hesitated slightly but did say what else she had discovered. "Neither is Braig, he's a poppet too"
"Why do you speak about him like he's controlled?" Sora asked the two frowning, Braig seemed to one of those people who willingly joined Xehanort cause and accepted the man's heart without protest. "he seemed pretty happy he had part of Xehanort inside of him."
"Whose Xehanort?" Reno asked confused but Adria brushed his quistion off with: "No time to explain." Before turning back to Sora. "Yes, he chose this path, that he made clear. But I do not think Braig knew excakly what he were getting himself into when he chose to help Xehanort and betray Ansem."
"You forget." Reno crossed his arms, looking serious for a chance to the black haired woman. "Braig loved his job. Why would he betray the king?"
"You haven't met Xehanort." Riku mused, unlike most he knew how good that man was in persuading people doing something they usually wouldn't do.
Reno opened his mouth but chose not to speak the objection he had in mind. He honestly never thought his teacher in battle would sink so low. He chuckled darkly. "And I actually looked up to that guy..."
"Wait what?" Sora blinked, getting confused again. "You looked up to him?" He had a hard time seeing anyone looking up to someone like Braig.
Adria gave the brunette a glare from his naive perspective of the world. "No one is born evil, because if that's the case then you should strike me as well." After all, she had once attacked Sora and she would probably do it again if she got hired to do it.
Sora wouldn't do such a thing to Adria, sure she was bad in the start and he might not still trust her fully but he do consider her part of the team. "Why would I do such a thing?"
"Because Braig is my uncle." Adria replied coldly, and Reno added to the keyblade wielder's bigger shock.
"And I don't regret to admit that I share lots of his point of views on things."
Sora wanted to speak against it, argue that Adria and Reno were nothing like Braig but the words wouldn't leave his mouth for deep inside he could see that these two had parts of the Freeshooters attitude.
Riku quickly got over the shock hearing this, but unlike Sora he knew the diffirence between good and evil was more grey than most would think , but he don't think they can help Braig at this point. "we can't help him."
"And I am not asking." Adria replied, ignoring the look Reno gave her. "I know the safety of this world and the others out there is way more important. I just wanted to tell you that even the worst of the worst has been good once." And with those words Adria got on her feet and left the room "I'm going out to scout for Kadaj"
"We should be ready as well." Oswald said he had not intervened in the convisations since he had no buisness in this. But with most of the talk over, he thought it was about time they reaided themsleves for the upcoming battle against Kadaj, Braig and Ursus's Keeper.
about 15 minutes later Adria returned with the whereabout of Kadaj, he was near and trying to destroy a monument of some sort. The was the cue they needed.
Reno, Rude, Adria and Oswald would try find and keep Braig busy, Reno and Adria both knew that if they didn't find the man then Braig would cause trouble for the other team that went after Kadaj and the Keeper.
Sora, Riku, Tifa, Kairi and Cloud would go head front towards Kadaj, hopefully keep the silver-haired too occupied to find the keyhole or Sephiroth missing heart.