Chapter 11 The One
"What did you find?" Zack asks following Riku to the computer.
"I found a few interesting papers on the same stuff we've been reading about, hearts and hosts and things like that. I flagged them for you to read later, but this is why I woke you." Riku points to the screen and Zack sits in the chair to get a better look.
He narrows his eyes in confusion seeing the mess of lines and hand scrawled names all over what looks to be an image of a scanned in piece of paper. It's messy and haphazard, but Zack's eyes soon fall on the name in the center written slightly larger than the others.
Ven
Zack reaches out and touches the screen over the name and notices all the other names have lines stemming out from Ven's name to connect with the others on the paper.
"My name's on here," Zack says tracing his finger down the thick line to his name under Ven's. "And your's too." He taps Riku's name which isn't connected by quite as thick of a line.
Riku nods. "All our names are." He points them out to Zack. "Terra, Aqua, Master Eraqus, you, Cloud, Tifa, Leon. And then there are all these others that I don't know."
Zack looks at the names the farthest from Ven and connect by the thinnest lines. "Simba, Hercules, Neku. These are all people Ven met traveling around the worlds." Zack leans back, taking in the whole image. "I think these are everyone Ven has ever known," he says slowly. He recognizes a few more names from stories Ven had told him about his adventures.
Some stand out more than others. The name Mufasa had been crossed out. So had Tay and Queen Athena; people who Zack knows, or assumes, are dead. His fist clenches seeing the name Vanitas written large and with a thick line to Ven. It looks like someone had erased a line drawn through Vanitas' name and put a question mark beside it instead.
Close to Vanitas' name is another; Sora.
Unlike any of the other names, Sora's is circled and something small had been scribbled next to it. "What does that say?" Zack asks and Riku taps a key to make it zoom in.
"The one," Riku reads. He frowns and looks again at Sora's circled name with the words The One scrawled next to it. "What does that mean?"
"I'm not sure," Zack says slowly. He zooms the image back out and notices something flashing in the corner of the screen. "Something is attached to this image," he says and clicks on the blinking symbol.
A new screen opens, black with a large white play button in the middle. Zack looks at Riku who shrugs, just as confused as him, and Zack clicks the button. A wheel spins for a moment before a video time stamped as being recorded ten years ago begins and Zack starts in surprise to see Terranort in the middle of the screen.
"The tests clearly have proven that the strength of the heart determines how powerful the heartless that is formed will be. From this data, I infer that the same will be true for the still yet to be proven being called a nobody that is also created."
Xehanort continues to talk in more detail about the numbers and figures that had come from his test. Zack recognizes the room behind him as the computer room back in Ansem the Wise's castle. He turns to Riku who is glaring at the screen with his hands balled into fists at his sides.
"That's him? That's Xehanort?" He asks through clenched teeth. He glances at Zack who nods. Riku drops his eyes to scowl at the floor. "He looks so much like Terra."
"I know," Zack says finding it hard to look at the man on the screen as well. He watches Riku instead, gauging his reaction. The night before he had told Riku all he knew about what had happened to Terra, Aqua, Ven, and Master Eraqus in their final fight with Xehanort and Riku had taken the news hard. Adding to that, he also told him about Xehanort's plans for the seven lights and thirteen darknesses, Sora's arrival, and his quest to find Ven's heart. All put together, it had been too much for Riku to handle and he had abruptly announced he was going to bed. Now it seems Riku has come to terms with what has happened and is ready to jump into search to find his lost friends.
They listen and watch in silence as Terranort continues to rattle off test data about heartless that he had manufactured in the lab. Riku finally speaks up asking, "What's the point of this? We already know all of this from the documents we've read."
Zack shakes his head, not sure either what importance this one test's results are. He continues to watch the video and notices Terranort yawning more and more often. His yellow eyes close for a few seconds before snapping back open. "I guess even evil masterminds need sleep," Zack says as Terranort sets down his papers and rubs his eyes.
A minute later, Terranort's eyes close again and his head leans back in the chair. Zack and Riku exchange a look before turning back to Terranort's sleeping form.
"What's that?" Riku asks pointing to the left of Xehanort.
The air beside the man starts to glow gold, getting brighter and brighter as a form starts to take shape with broad shoulders. A moment later and both Zack and Riku's mouths drop open in shock seeing Terra, the real Terra with brown hair, glowing slightly gold and standing on screen.
Terra looks around the computer room and then at Xehanort before turning to the camera.
"How is Terra-" Riku starts to ask, but Zack shushes him as Terra moves closer to the camera..
"If anyone finds this, my name is Terra and I'm a keyblade master," he says in a whisper. He glances behind him. "This man is Xehanort," he says turning back to the camera. "He has taken over my body and is trying to destroy all the worlds with the power of Kingdom Hearts. My friends and I fought him before. Master Eraqus, Master Aqua, and Ven. We stopped him, but not for good."
Terra sighs and runs a hand through his hair. "I don't know everything that happened and neither does Xehanort. He forgot who he was for a long time, but his memories are coming back, bit by bit, and he is putting the pieces together.
He is going to go after Ven and try to use him get the X-blade again. Please, who ever finds this, you have to find Ven first. He sacrificed himself to destroy the X-blade before Xehanort could get it. I don't understand it exactly, but Xehanort seems to know that Ven's damaged heart would have fled his body and wound up in the heart of another; a host heart as Xehanort calls it.
Xehanort has been doing research and experiments to find out more about host hearts. Most of Ansem's other apprentices don't know, but two are helping him, Braig and Keric."
"Keric?" Zack says in shock and anger. Riku looks at him questioningly, but Zack shakes his head and gestures for him to look back at the video.
"I'm helpless to stop him," Terra says lowering his head in shame. "The only one who can is Ven. He needs his heart back. So I've started to do research of my own. I've put together a file of the information Xehanort is looking into and I have been working on figuring out who's heart could have taken Ven's in. I think I've figured it out. I'll attach this video to my work when I finish.
For the longest time I had no idea where to start. Ven knew so many people and any of them could have had a host heart. There is no easy way to know. I know I have the power, but when Ven's heart was looking for refuge, mine was already lost in Xehanort's darkness."
Terra glares at Xehanort's sleeping form for a moment before looking back at the camera. "So it had to be someone else," he says. "It seemed most likely to be someone close to him so I started there. Zack seemed like a good choice, but so did Vanitas. I remembered that Ansem the Wise spoke to Ven about his deep connection with Vanitas from them sharing a heart. The only problem was not even Xehanort is knows what happened to Vanitas at the X-blade's destruction. But the memory of the meeting with Ansem the Wise gave me another possibility. Sora. After Xehanort's first attempt to make the X-blade, Sora touched Ven's heart to heal him and that, Ansem the Wise believed, had given Sora an unnaturally strong connection to Ven.
For awhile now I've believed that Sora is the one with Ven's heart,and recently Xehanort has figured out the same. More of his memories came back yesterday and in them I saw him tell Ven that Sora's heart would take any in without a home. Sora is the one. I don't know where he ended up after the battle with Xehanort, but please, who ever found this file, please find him. Find Ven and Aqua and Sora and all the other keyblade wielders. Tell them what I have told you. They need to stop Xehanort."
Xehanort stirs in his sleep behind him and Terra starts to fade. He glances behind him and then back at the camera. "I'll do what I can, but I don't have much hope that I can stop Xehanort. Even appearing like this," he gestures to his glowing body, "takes all my energy. I'm sorry. Ven is the worlds' only hope. I'm begging you, get his heart back."
Terra to taps a buttons on the computer and the screen goes black as the video reaches its end. The window closes bringing them back to the spider web of names. Neither Zack nor RIku speak, both staring at Sora's name and the words written beside it.
The One
"All those years of looking," Zack says so quietly Riku nearly misses it. "All those worlds I searched and Sora had Ven's heart this whole time."
"Zack-" Riku tries to say, but Zack holds up a hand and stands.
"Give me a minute, Riku," he says. Riku turns to watch him walk out of the house and shut the door behind him.
Left alone, Riku takes a seat in the chair in front of the computer and studies the names. Sora has had Ven's heart for ten years and no one had noticed. Or had they? The more Riku thought about it, the more it made sense. Riku had been young when he had lived at MEKA, but he does remember enough to realize how similar Sora is to Ven. Both had the brightest smiles and the same overexcited manner about the smallest things. They carried their keyblade's proudly and were both eager to help others. Now that Terra's video had pointed out the connection, Riku can't believe he never thought of it before; a sentiment Riku is sure is going through Zack's mind on the other side of the door.
Riku glances over, wondering if he should go talk to Zack, but he decides to give him space for the time being. He returns to staring at the web of names when another catches his eye. Kairi.
Instantly he feels a wave of guilt. In all the focus on finding information on Ven, he'd barely spent anytime thinking about Kairi. He remembers what Zack had told him about the Seven Princesses of Heart that Xehanort's heartless, Ansem, wants to use as the seven lights needed to recreate the X-blade. Kairi is one of the princesses and Ansem had her. Riku tries to tell himself that Kairi is a keyblade wielder who can defend herself and not some helpless damsel in distress, but it does little to ease his worry.
The front door opens and Riku twists in his chair to look at Zack as he walks back in with his eyes deliberately not looking at Riku. Zack stands in front of the computer, a frown on his face and his gaze on the screen. "So now we know where Ven's heart is," he says and Riku nods, noting the tinge of red in Zack's eyes.
"We need to tell Sora," Riku says. Then he adds, "And find Kairi and the other princesses."
"Right," Zack says with a sigh. He closes his eyes and rubs his temples in thought. After a minute he opens his eyes again and looks at Riku. "You should go find him," he says. "I sent him to the Olympus Coliseum first and if you hurry you might catch him before he leaves." Zack picks up a pencil and paper. He writes on it saying, "While you look for him or after you find him you should try and find the other princesses. If Xehanort's heartless is going after them, finding them first could lead you to him and wherever he is keeping Kairi."
Riku takes the paper Zack hands him and glances at the names written there. Snow White, Belle, Cinderella, Jasmine, Aurora, Alice. He folds the paper and puts it in his pocket. "What about you Zack?" He asks. "What are you going to do?"
Zack gestures at the computer screen. "I'll see if Terra was able to leave us anything else useful and then I'll start looking for Ven's body."
"Do you know where to look?"
Zack nods. "Master Yen Sid told me Aqua took him home, to MEKA," Zack says. "I've looked before and haven't been able to find MEKA yet. To keep Ven safe, Aqua activated some sort of spell that transformed the whole world into a fortress to protect him and it got hidden away from the other worlds. Master Yen Sid told me only the one who can help Ven will be able to reach him and it looks like Sora is that person. But first we have to find where MEKA disappeared to."
"That sounds like a good plan," Riku says slowly. He however is starting to see a glaring hole in it. "But I don't have a way to travel between worlds. How am I supposed to go after Sora?"
Zack looks at him confused. "Can't you just use your keyblade?"
Now it's Riku's turn to be confused. "My keyblade?" He repeats, summoning blue and red sword to his hand.
"It's how Ven and the others used to travel," Zack says. "They'd toss their keyblades in the air and they'd come back as gliders."
"I've never tried that," Riku says examining his keyblade.
Zack is looking at it as well. "Why don't you try to turn it into a glider?" He says. "If it doesn't work you can use the Star Shard instead."
Riku nods and stands. As he and Zack walk outside he asks, "What's a Star Shard?"
"It's this thing King Mickey gave me," Zack explains. "He came to Traverse Town not long after Aqua and Ven disappeared to check on you, Sora, and Kairi. He gave me the Star Shard and told me it would help me find Ven. It lets me travel to different worlds without a ship or a keyblade, but its hard to handle. The first few times you use it you have no control on where you end up. You're better off getting your glider to work."
"Alright, let's give it a shot," Riku says and moves away from Zack to give himself space. Not really sure what he is doing, he lifts his keyblade over his head and throws it at the sky. It spins through the air, catching the sun and shining, and then flies back like a boomerang to Riku.
Frowning at his unchanged keyblade, Riku looks to Zack who shrugs, not knowing how to help. Thinking hard about how to go about this, Riku remembers Merlin's words from one of his magic lessons once he had progressed beyond simple spells.
"The key to complex spells is all in the mind," Merlin had said. "Think, picture, believe in what you are trying to do and the magic will mold itself to your expectations."
Taking a deep breath, Riku thinks about what he wants. He pictures in his mind that he is shooting through space and can feel the wind whipping past him as he flies. Believing he can do it, Riku throws his keyblade as high as he can and at the top of its arc it disappears in a flash and a dark red glider with a few touches of blue. It flies back down to him and hovers at his side.
"Wow," is all Riku can say. He is speechless and suddenly sad, thinking of all the things he could have learned if he had grown up at MEKA like planned.
"Hold on a second, Riku."
Riku looks up to see Zack disappear back inside the house. A moment later he is back with a silver helmet in his hands. "Ven always wore armor when he rode his glider, but this will have to be enough," Zack says.
"Thanks." Riku puts the helmet on and fixes the hair that had gotten caught in his eyes. He carefully climbs onto his glider and finds he fits perfectly in the seat. Looking back at Zack who has moved back to give him space, he sees him watching with a small smile.
"Good luck, Riku," he says.
"I'll find him," Riku says confidently. "And we'll get Ven back, don't worry."
With a final nod from Zack, Riku urges his glider to rise and he ascends quickly. Looking down as the world draws away he can see the heartless swarmed castle, but it disappears from view as he rises high enough to leave the world and shoots off into space.
…
"C'mon," Kairi mumbles in annoyance, staring down at her hand and wishing her keyblade would appear. She must have tried a hundred times already, but she still attempts to summon it again, knowing it is useless. Ansem hadn't been lying when he said their was too much darkness in the room for her keyblade to appear.
"What are you doing?" A voice asks behind her and she turns to the girl in the simple blue dress sitting on the floor watching her flick her wrist over and over.
"I'm trying to summon my keyblade, but I can't in here," Kairi says finally giving up and moving to sit beside the girl.
Belle. That's the girls name. Ansem had brought her to the cell about an hour ago and locked them both in. They hadn't really talked any more than to exchange names. Seeing Ansem was carrying out his plan of kidnapping seven princesses, Kairi had spent the last hour racking her brain for a way to escape while Belle had sat watching her from the floor.
"Do you...know what he is going to do to us?" Belle asks. There is a quiver of fear in her voice, but despite that Kairi can see the steel in her eyes.
"Not exactly," Kairi says. She sighs and explains what she does know. "There's seven of us, princesses, and Ansem is kidnapping us all to be a part in his plan, but I don't know what he's going to do once he has us all."
Silence falls on them as they both get lost in their own fears, but their worrying is soon interrupted by the doors of room their cell is in are thrown open and Ansem enters, marching two girls along with him. One is quite exotic looking with tanned skin and dark eyes that glare at Ansem. Her top shows off her stomach and one leg of her pants had been ripped and left in tatters. The other girl looks as if she has been crying. In contrast to the other girl, her skin is extremely pale.
"Move," Ansem commands coming to the door of the cell. Kairi and Belle both stand and obey, moving to the far side of the cell. Kairi considers for a moment rushing Ansem as soon as he unlocks the door with the key in his hand, but as much as she wants to, she knows it would be foolish. She hadn't been able to defeat him with her keyblade and now without it she stood even less of a chance. She settles for glaring instead as Ansem throws open the cell door and shoves the two new girls inside.
Without another word he closes and locks the door before summoning a dark corridor and disappearing through it. Kairi and Belle approach the other two girls and the pale girl starts to cry. Belle moves to her side and gives her a gentle hug.
"He took you too?" the darker skinned girl asks and Kairi nods.
"I'm Kairi and this is Belle. What's your name?"
"Jasmine," she replies and they all look at the pale girl who's tears have stopped.
"Snow White," she says in a small voice. "What does he want from us?"
Belle and Kairi exchange a look. "We don't really know," Kairi says and Snow White's eyes go wide in fear. "But what ever he is planning, it won't work." She moves to the bars of the cell and looks through them as the shadowy room. "I'm going to come up with a plan and we are all getting out of here."
CatLoverx33: Definitely important. Now they know where Ven's heart is.
Midori-chan37: Oh Tay is definitely giving Hades a solid ass kicking in the Underworld right about now.
LightzMusic22: Sorry for shattering your heart with Zack's dream last chapter, but I'm going to keep torturing Zack with the feels in this story so expect more.
TopazDragon98: Zack and Riku are working on it I promise!
GUESS WHAT! ITS FEBRUARY BREAK!
And that means a whole week of writing, my stupid physics project, and more writing.
Next chapter we'll jump back to Sora and see what he's up to on Destiny Islands. You might have forgotten since I only mentioned it like twice in MEKA that Selphie, Wakka, and Tidus actually live in Traverse Town in this story (I don't really remember why I decided to do that…) so expect some different but familiar faces to be on the islands