Okage Hearts
Chapter 23
I don't own Okage or Kingdom Hearts, or anything even remotely related to either other than having a copy of the first Kingdom Hearts and a copy of Okage.
Ari and his companions had finally made their way to Tenel when Kisling voiced a thought that had just occurred to him, saying, "Considering the fondness for your family that Stan referenced the Princess having, perhaps it would be in our best interest to begin the search for said monarch in your dwelling."
"Agreed," Ari nodded, changing his path to head towards his house before Stan and Rosalyn could begin arguing over whether it was a good idea or not. Just as they neared the gate, however, the sound of a man and a woman screaming could be heard.
"Slave, we might want to hurry," Stan suggested urgently, "That sounded like your parents."
Rushing through the gate, the group was shocked to find Beiloune standing just outside of the house, staring intently at Princess Marlene dangling in the air, seeming to be suffocating.
"Ari. . . help. . ." she choked out weakly as said boy's parents attempted to reach her, only to be blocked by some invisible shield.
"You're just in time to save her!" Ari's father called out as the boy's mother continued charging at the barrier.
"Why must you all defy classification," Beiloune asked, not turning to face the group, "You deviants do so much damage and ruin everything."
"Please. . . help. . ." Marlene pleaded as Ari tried to cut his way through the barrier with the Keyblade.
"You aren't truly Marlene," Beiloune continued, addressing the struggling princess, "You are merely a replica, a shell of who my daughter is. Somewhere, my true daughter runs free in the world, evading my sight. Her heart roams freely, and I will find it and return it to her. I was certain that the girl whose heart seemed identical to yours was the right one at last, but I was wrong. Despite you being her Nobody, she couldn't be the holder of my daughter's heart. You are too rebellious. You cannot replace her. I will end this farce and will make preparations to search again."
When he said those words, he gestured with his hand, causing Marlene to vanish in a heart-shaped burst of light. Turning to face the group, focusing his gaze on the visibly livid Ari, he said, "You deviants will need to be destroyed as well. You are the ones who drove me to doing this."
"So the Princess that was here was an illusion?" Kisling inquired, trying to piece the puzzle of the situation together, "Was there ever a Princess Marlene to begin with?"
"Yes," Beiloune replied, sounding like a madman, seeming to want to explain just why he was planning on destroying them, "I created this world for her, but deviants began to appear, and she was lost to me. Over the centuries of our immortal lives, I've sought out where she was hiding, searching for her heart to restore her properly, but I cannot find her for all my power. The hearts I've found are not her heart. It has to be the fault of your people that I cannot find her, boy. That blasted Keyblade was the first thing to arrive that did not belong in my world. I've tried to get rid of it, but it always returns, and its power was strengthened by that Ordinary Boy who broke from his own classification.
"I know my daughter is out there, though. I will rid the world of you deviants and once I have, I will once again have a perfect world, where I will finally be able to track down my lost daughter and be reunited with her at last. To that effect, I will create even stronger Evil Kings, with much more powerful classifications to destroy you all. You, Stanley Hihat Trinidad the XIV, are clearly not the Great Evil King, as you haunt a deviant and are being decent around others. I will wait in my World Library, where I will create and empower my new Evil Kings, and when I am finished, nothing shall stand in my way!"
With those final words, Beiloune vanished, leaving the entire shell-shocked group to stare at the space that he'd been occupying, though Ari was staring at the space where Marlene had been before Beiloune destroyed her.
After a moment of silence, James appeared, looking at the group with a curious eye, "What's wrong with all of you? You're all as pale as a midnight ghoul."
"Perhaps we should think on what we have experienced," Kisling mused, being the first to break out of the stupor that the group had fallen into, "Gather our thoughts, so to speak."
"I still can't believe that she was a Nobody," Rosalyn remarked, "I always thought that Nobodies were myths."
"You thought that Nobodies weren't real, woman?" Stan asked incredulously, "There are Heartless and Evil Kings, yet you think that Nobodies don't exist? Still, I must agree that it is surprising that she was one. It does explain why she seemed to lack a heart, however."
"Kisling?" Ari asked, bringing himself into the conversation, "He talked about classification. Do you know anything about it?"
"I do not, but I can guess," the scientist admitted, "If I understood Beiloune correctly, and he was as right as he appeared to be, then Beiloune is the creator or our world. At the very least, he created a system to control our world. Classification is the power he wields over our world, deciding the fates and destinies of people so that they fit the narrative that he was building for the real Marlene, who is his daughter. After he lost her, he apparently went mad with power, and began using the hearts of others as replacements for the Nobody we were traveling with to attempt to find Marlene's heart. By what he has said, he is planning on destroying all the 'deviants,' as he calls those who go against the roles he assigned them."
"I'm going to go stop him," Ari said determinedly, "Are you all coming with me?"
"It would be best if we stopped him before he completes this ultimate Evil King that he's working on," Kisling noted.
"I agree," Stan responded, "I refuse to be upstaged by any fake Evil King."
"I don't care about classification," Rosalyn answered, "I'm a Hero no matter what, though I wonder where the real Princess Marlene is. . ."
"I'm going to best that fake Evil King, then I will defeat you, woman!" Stan shouted, "My Evil transcends any classifications!"
"I'm coming with you, too!" Big Bull proclaimed loudly.
"Oh, oh, me too!" Linda cheered.
"We need to think of just where they would be hiding," Rosalyn remarked, "It would have to be someplace out of the way, where nobody would ever go."
At the word 'nobody,' Ari looked up, a thought striking him. Once the thought fully formed, he said, "I think I know just the place. Let's go. I can lead the way there."