Chapter 115: A New Friend
Everything had calmed down at the Coliseum, as soon as Abroc's heart had faded away and Vanitas made his way with Crush, the Unbirths disappeared. It made sense for the Unbirth to leave all of a sudden, without any Endless on the world, there was no way that the Unbirth could stay with the world being balanced but they were still sighted in small amounts in the Underworld. The remainder of the fighters gathered in the lobby, some surprised and happy to see Ventus again once he had disposed of his armour, talking about the situation with Crush's capture and on whether the tournament should finish with the final match.
"Can I make a suggestion, Phil?" Ventus asked nervously.
"Sure thing, Roxas." Phil nodded.
"Ventus." Ven corrected.
Phil only waved his hand at the correction. "Whatever. There are so many of you that look the same, it's hard to keep up." He looked back at Ventus. "So what's your suggestion?"
Ventus pointed to Sora and the others that were resting by the side of the room. "These guys have been through a lot since coming here and they managed to expose Nightmare for what he was and defeat him, getting rid of the Unbirth. So maybe just set the final match for Hercules versus Brian as a friendly match and just hand over the sword to them. They deserve it after all."
The remaining fighters looked at each other, taking sight of the group at the side before looking at each other again. Zack grinned as he was the first to step forward. "I agree with Ven." He walked up to Ventus and quickly placed him in a friendly headlock, earning laughs from the both of them.
"Me too." Snow smirked. "Those guys should be true heroes."
"Well Sora is already a true hero." Phil pointed out. "The others can be made junior heroes." The mention of junior heroes earned a look of disbelief from the other fighters. "What? It's not my call."
"What do you think, Vincent?" Zack turned towards his dark friend, seeing him leaning against the wall.
They watched as Vincent looked up at them with no expression. "We would still be fighting if it wasn't for them. Do what you want." With that said, the dark man left out of the lobby.
On the other side of the lobby, Sora watched Ventus and the other converse, not entirely sure what they were talking about but knew that it must be important, maybe about the final fight. He looked to his side to Riku next to him, looking behind him. Sora looked back to see that Brian was checking Hikari's cut that she received from Crush's attack. "She'll be fine." He said to him.
"I hope so." Riku turned back around, sighing slightly as he wrapped his arms across his chest. He turned his attention to Sora. "Have you called Kairi?" he asked.
Sora nodded at this. "I said I'll let her know what happened with Abroc and I would ring her back when we know what's going on." He hinted to the conversation that was happening across the lobby with Ventus.
"Yeah." The silver haired teen nodded at this. "You know, it's a good thing that Ven came when he did. We might have been trapped under Abroc's control."
"True." Sora agreed with his best friend. "But even Abroc shouldn't have gone like that, betrayed by his Master."
"It's like he said. His loyalty is with the Colonel. Not Vanitas." He pointed out.
"It kinda makes you think what is really going on with the Order." Sora spoke out his thoughts, making Riku look at him with confusion. "I mean, Abroc mentioned that they were protecting the worlds and stopping a Chaos of Light. That he would rather follow the Order's rule then let the worlds get destroyed. What if Vanitas is trying to release this Chaos of Light to aid him with whatever he's planning?"
"If he frees the Chaos of Light, we'll destroy it before Vanitas can use it." Riku spoke. "We should talk about this later. When we have the chance to ask Ven about him and the others." Riku gave his friend an comforting smile before turning around to face Brian, Hikari and Max.
"Yeah..." Sora trailed as he turned to his friends. "Terra and Aqua."
When the two turned around, they watched as Brian and Max burst into laughter, collapsing on the floor from the struggle to keep their balance with Hikari's expression fuming with anger and embarrassments. "What's going on?" Riku dared asked.
"Nothing." Hikari quickly responded. "These guys are just idiots."
"That's-so-funny!" Brian wheezed.
"I will hurt you Brian!" Hikari threatened before turning to Max. "I'll hurt you too then we will see who's laughing."
"What are they laughing about?" Sora asked her.
"It doesn't matter." Hikari told him.
"But-"
"IT DOESN'T MATTER!" Hikari glared at him. Sora could have swore that he saw the raging fire in her eyes.
Riku tried his best not to laugh from the horrified look on Sora's face but his expression dropped as he noticed that their was a bandage on her arm. "How's your arm?" He asked her.
She pulled her deathly expression away from the Keybalde Master and looked at her bandage. "It's fine." She answered before looking at the silver haired keybearer with a slight blush. "Brian kept panicking when he was checking it but you know how he is."
"Well, sorry for being an concern friend." Brian had calmed down and sat against the wall. "I don't think your brother would be happy with us if you turned in an Endless. Then again, I'm sure you would change sides to be with your traitor of a brother. " He spoke coldly. His eyes widened when Hikari had immediately punched the teen in the face.
Hikari: 11 Brian: 4
"Ouch!" Riku winced, watching Brian collapse on the floor. "Is it me or is Brian keep switching personalities?"
"Brian is gaining some of his old personality back from his memories so he has his moments." Max told him. " He has got a few number of flashbacks while we were here."
"Still doesn't give him the excuse to insult my brother, as well as laugh at my fear." Hikari muttered as she tried to calm herself down by pacing across the lobby back and forth.
Riku seemed to take her muttering as he asked her. "What was your fear?" Earning Max to collapse to the floor once more, ah-yucking as his laughter grew. Riku could only gulp with fear as he received the same look of death that Sora had received only moments ago. "On second though, we shouldn't be discussing fears after what we've just been through." He quickly said.
Hikari smiled at this as he patted his head. "Good boy!"
"You guys are lucky that you made it out alive." Ventus grinned at them as he walked over to them, grabbing their attention. "I saw the whole fight. I would have fought that you guys would have escaped Abroc's trick but you seemed to have forgotten your own advice."
"We would have escaped." Brian groaned slightly, still feeling the pain to his nose.
"You would have." Ventus admitted. "But you would have been too weak to fight Abroc in his Outburst mode with his abilities intact. He would have disarmed and silenced you guys in seconds before destroying you and Chris before taking Brian away and hunting Kairi down."
"We've done well so far!" Sora spoke up, trying to ignore the fact that he looked exactly like Roxas. "We've got rid of Skullo and Lizza."
"By striking their claws." Ventus added as he continued. "Other Endless will protect their claws. Skullo was too angry to places his on and Lizza was only just made a full blown Endless."
"You know a lot." Hikari noticed. "You know a lot about the Unbirths, don't you?"
"Me and my friends fought them years ago. We lost each other in the final fight." Ventus said sadly, the remembrance of his friends playing through his mind. "I fought I took care of Vanitas but-" He shook away the memories before he looked back at the other fighters, seeing them nodded their heads at him. "I've discussed it with the others. They want to give you Champion's Pride." He grinned.
While mostly everyone cheered at this, Max looked at Ventus with confusion. "Champion's Pride?" he repeated questionably.
"It's the sword, you goof!" Brian tolld him out of excitement. "Just one more world and we can save everyone." He grinned.
Sora nodded happily at this. "We can free the King and defeat the Order."
Ventus smiled at the sight he was seeing, despite what nearly had happened with Abroc, they were able to keep their chins up and keep their mind on the tasks ahead. "Anyway..." He grabbed their attention once more. "There is only a couple things left to do."
Brian raised an eyebrow at this. "What's that then?"
BOWBOWBOW
"Thus, I do hereby dub thee junior heroes, and confer upon thee full rights and privileges to participate in the games." Phil announced as Riku, Max, Hikari and Brian told at front as the ceremony took place in the lobby. Sora and Ventus stood by the side, watching the ceremony take place. "Further—"
"Why are we getting junior heroes?" Brian moaned.
Hikari elbowed him in the side. "Don't be rude."
"There is one more thing that you have to discover before the gods themselves can announce that you're a true hero." Phil told them."Sora, Hercules and other heroes had to discover it, so do you." The trainer sighed deeply. "If only Chris had learnt that then maybe things would have turned out better."
"Don't worry, Phil." Sora stepped forward. "We'll look for Chris and bring him home as his normal self."
Phil only nodded sadly at this. "I wouldn't blame the kid if he didn't return. This place would only bring bad memories up for him." The Satyr didn't take long to go back to his serious self. "Now let's not waste any time, we need to finish off the Tournament of Heroes." He turned to face Brian. "You have a match with Hercules. Go!"
"Okay. Okay." Brian quickly made his way to the undamaged arena over on west bracket.
Slowly, the others began to follow with Max, Hikari and Riku behind Brian, discussing on whether on not Brian will get knocked out by the great demi-god that is Hercules while Sora and Ventus trailed behind. "Ven?" Sora spoke up.
"Yeah?"
Sora looked down at his crowd necklace before looking at the spiky blond. "There is so many questions I wanna ask. I just don't know where to start."
Ven chuckled at this. "What sort of questions?"
"Well, some about the keyblade, some about how the worlds were before, maybe what keyblade history there is. But I wanna know how you had known me, why you had sent me this necklace, why you kept your distance from us-"
"Sora." Ven halted his actions as he looked at the white haired keyblader. "I'll teach you some tricks that I know but you would properly master them in no time. You are a powerful wielder. You could even attempt the Mark of Mastery, Riku too." He grinned.
"Mark of Mastery?" Sora raised his eyebrow at this. "What's that?"
"It's a test. Mickey took it. My friends took it. I'm pretty sure that Mickey would have sent you and Riku to Yen Sid for the Mark of Mastery if it wasn't for the Order."
"So what happens to keybladers that become masters?" Sora wanted to know more and more about this Mark of Mastery, it sounded like something that he and Riku would fight competitive for.
"I'll tell you later after we return to the gummi." Ven promised him.
Sora smiled at this. "You're travelling with us?"
Ven nodded at this. "I'm sorry that I kept my distance. I thought that if I was to meet you, I would lead Vanitas and his Order straight to you guys. I didn't want that. Besides, I needed to know more of what happened to my friends."
The Keyblade Master clapped his hand on Ventus' shoulder, smiling conforming at him. "We'll find them. I promise."
Ven smiled gratefully at him. "Thanks."
"No problem." Sora grinned happily as the two keyblader continued to walk towards the arena where Brian and Hercules match was taking place. "So anyway-"
"You wanna know about the necklace?" Ven said with a sigh, he wasn't ready to tell Sora yet. He needed more time.
Sora noticed Ven's tone of voice, seeing that he didn't want to talk about it but felt a little annoyed that this was information about himself, information that might aid him dealing with the virus. Despite that, he cared about his friends more than he did himself. "We can leave it to later if you want." Sora offered.
"No. It's alright." Ven looked at him as he pointed at the necklace, a plan formed in his mind. "The necklace used to be mine and I handed down to you when you inherited the keyblade from me. So technically, I would be your master if I was one."
"So I became a keyblader from you?" Sora questioned, beginning to get confused about how the whole system with the keyblade worked.
"Don't worry. I'll tell you everything you need to know. We're going to need it." Ventus assured him.
"Is something coming?" He asked him.
The two of them reach the west bracket arena, seeing Brian and Hercules battle it out in the middle of the arena while everyone else cheered for their favorite fighter from the sidelines. Even though their was no crowd within the destroyed coliseum, the support of their friends was enough to drive the two finalist. Ven halted once more and looked at Sora with an serious expression. "What would you do if your own team killed one of your friends?" He asked him.
Sora was left speechless at that question. He didn't want to think of any of his friends betraying them. The memory of Donald and Goofy leaving his side for Riku just because he was able to summon his Keyblade. Watching them walk away had hurt so much, as if the only use they had for him was this Keyblade fighting machine that could be used to find their lost king. He doesn't want to feel that again, epically if one of his friends is killed over it.
Ven knew that Sora was thinking of his past events as he continued. "The Colonel had played it safe, keeping out of Vanitas' nose when sending Order Members to try and capture Kairi. But now that his best friend has been killed by the very person that he follows, he's going to strike. He will do nothing but try to kill Kairi, me or even you, Sora. No matter the costs.
Sora nodded at this. He understood the risks, they needed to be ready.
BOWBOWBOW
"Nick! Nick!" Jenova called him over as she looked for Order members over the computer using her ability.
"It's Nikolai." He corrected her once again but he has got to admit, having Jun here aided with keeping an eye on where Storm was, seeing that he would go world to world, one realm to another following Snake for any signs of Ventus. Every now and again, they would get reports of him, the latest being that they were heading to another world, one with a weird affect on Endless. Nikolai only wished that Storm remembered his teachings to him. "What is it?"
"The Colonel is going everywhere." She reported as she turned to face him. "You think he's looking for someone?"
Nikolai raised an eyebrow at this. He wouldn't be striking yet, the Colonel was a patience man, despite being rational when it comes to his jealousy. Something wasn't right. "Where is he now?" he asked, watching his friend turn back to the computer to look for the location.
"He's at Ultimate Castle." Jenova answered cheerfully.
The Sorrow Endless could only looked at her with surprise. "He's here?"
The huge doors leading to the room burst open, revealing a rather worried looking Colonel, his green hair was messy, his eyes were flashing from his domain Endless green colour to blue. He quickly looked at the two Neutrals as he caught his breath. "Have you seen Abroc?" Even his tone of voice sounded worried.
Both of the Neutrals shook their heads, only to jump as Devil summoned his weapon and slammed it to the ground, creating a huge crack on the flooring. Seeing this made Nikolai worry himself, turning to Jenova as he told her. "Locate Sergeant Abroc." he said urgently.
"On the double." Jenova's claw glowed as she began her search through the worlds for the Fear Endless.
Nikolai looked back at the heavy breathing Colonel, watching as he looked at the computer screen with hope lingering in his blue eyes. Nikolai took note of his eyes, seeing that his original self had come through, hoping that his good friend was alright.
Jenova breathed heavily from over using her ability before looking back at Nikolai. "I can't find him." She said sadly. "His last known location was Olympus Coliseum."
"He went to-" The Colonel muttered before halting himself, his mind figuring out why he had gone there. He could only hope that he was wrong. "Search for the Wrath Endless."
Nikolai looked at him with surprise. "You mean Crush?" He spoke with surprise and fear. "He's not supposed to be selected yet!"
"You don't think I know that?" He snapped at the black haired teen before commanding the order again. "DO IT!"
"Jenova." Nikolai signaled her to search, watching the Joy Endless make the search.
Wrath Endless located. Location: Neo Mansion/Twilight Town
Nikolai and Colonel Devil could only look at the screen in disbelief. Crush had been recruited. Vanitas must have been on the world when Abroc had arrived, meaning that Abroc had been at the wrong place at the wrong time. Nikolai looked back at the Colonel, wondering what they should do, only to watch the Colonel sobbed slightly before moving around the converted computer room with urgently. "Err Colonel? What are you-" Nikolai questioned, never had he seen the Colonel this emotionally damaged, his blue eyes staying domain.
"Jenova! Search for the Aversion Endless!" The Colonel commanded, completely ignoring Nikolai as he grabbed a bag and began to grab plans that were all over the walls.
"I'm not gonna let you-" Nikolai rose from his feet, ready to summon his gunblade to hand. He wasn't going to let him hurt his friend.
"Nikolai calm down." The Colonel turned to face him, quickly wiping his eyes before he continued. "If you want to see him, go."
Nikolai only looked at him in disbelief. "What?"
The Colonel only sighed as he quickly tried to explain the situation. "Vanitas knew that Abroc followed me and since the idiot thought he try and fix it on his own-Damn! I'm going to miss him!" He recollected himself before he continued. "Anyway, Vanitas will sent the Order after me." He went over to the remaining bookshelf, throwing a number of books off the shelf and onto the floor. "If I know anything about you, it's that your loyalty will be with Brian."
"So just like that? You're going to let me go?" The Sorrow Endless couldn't believe this is happening.
"You can if you want." The Colonel simply said before grabbing the book he was looking for and placed it inside the bag. "You must go to Brian! Ask him what you want! Because if I can't keep our destiny in place, you might as well say goodbye to him."
"Goodbye?" Nikolai only looked at the Colonel in confusion, thinking that the loss of the Fear Endless had driven him mad. "What are you on about?"
The Colonel only growled at this, knowing for a fact that he didn't have time to explain. "You know the history. You know who Brian is. Isn't that the exact reason you struck by us? To not only save your sister but your dear friend?" The Colonel looked at the boy, waiting for the answer. When he only received silence from the Neutral, he continued his instructions. "As soon as you speak to him, the decision is up to you. Help the Devons or help us. If you decide to join us, come to this world." The Colonel quickly grabbed one of the world's books that he threw on the floor and threw it at the Sorrow Endless.
Jenova watched from her computer before speaking up herself. "What about me, sir?"
Colonel Devil looked over to Jenova. "Despite your joining, I can't have you in Vanitas' hands, the same as Storm." He summoned his dark green portal, signaling Jenova to move. "You know what to do?" he asked Nikolai.
Nikolai continued to look at the book given before looking back up. "Why here?" he asked.
"If you come, you will find out." He simply said before grabbing his belongings and guiding Jenova over to the portal, he let her through first before looking back at Nikolai. "One more thing."
"Yes sir?" This had to be one of the first times calling Colonel 'sir' since coming back to the Order. His original blue eyes that stared back at him looked trusting.
"What ever you choose...good luck." His final words as part of the Order slipped before he went through the portal, leaving Nikolai alone on the corrupted world.
Nikolai looked around the room in pure disbelief. He had never felt so free in his life, he had always felt the chain of command and power pushed down on him but he was free to do what he wished, he was free to find his sister, save his friend. For once, a huge grinned appeared on his face as he spoke those two words he never thought he would say again. "I'm free."
Explosions could be heard from the other side of the castle, Nikolai snapped out of his disbelief as he summoned his portal. Before leaving though, he turned to the huge computer system and froze the machine before throwing the book in his hand, shattering the huge system. The sound of rushing footsteps made him move, his portal disappeared just in time as the Order burst in the room.
A/N: Woo! Ventus is in. The Colonel is on the move. Olympus is finished! YAY! No more fighting for a while. Hopefully I can get this next chapter done before going to the next world.
(WOO TO SUGAR HIGH WITH SHADOW S XD, YOU GUYS SHOULD FEEL LOVED. YOU HAVE TWO CHAPTERS IN ONE NIGHT!)
Kingdommad