Just a fair warning to everyone now, Kingdom Hearts V is going to be one of the shortest stories in the Acolytes of Chaos saga. It's still a major fic that moves the plot forward, but the storyline is more condensed than the other entries in this ongoing series. Each world is getting two chapters instead of three to avoid forcing me to drag things out like I did early on in Kingdom Hearts IV.
Chapter 1: The Great Forest:
The Lanes Between – Mirage Arena:
Why did Maleficent have to attack Radiant Garden the day I was preparing to leave to go find Sora? Kairi thought sarcastically to herself as the RLS Legacy docked at the spaceport orbiting the small world below. Although the damage to the city had been minor, the world hadn't escaped the wrath of the Hellfire Club unscathed. Most of the city's resources were all being directed towards repairing damaged buildings and providing medical attention to the injured. It had taken six days before spaceport traffic had opened enough for Captain Amelia to get the Legacy ready to depart, and because of the way supplies were being distributed, they needed to acquire rations and fuel elsewhere.
The closest spaceport to Radiant Garden was the Mirage Arena, a space station orbiting The Great Forest that served as both a supply depot and a coliseum where warriors from all over Coalition Space could come to test their skills against each other. Phil had come up with the idea a few years ago and had been the owner and manager of the coliseum tournaments ever since. The reason the spaceport wasn't on the surface of The Great Forest was because like the Pride Lands, the animal inhabitants weren't anthropomorphic, so tourists wishing to travel to the surface of such worlds had to pass through a morphic teleporter, which transformed them into a form appropriate to the environment before transporting them down to the surface.
Unlike the Pride Lands, however, the Great Forest lacked a clear society structure. Because it had no government to be inducted into the Coalition, the Great Forest was considered a protectorate of the Coalition. The animals living there, since they were all sentient, were accorded the same rights as full Coalition citizens, but as far as tourist traffic was concerned, the world was treated like a nature preserve. Hunting was prohibited within the world's borders, and nothing could be built there. For that reason, the Mirage Arena stood sentinel just outside the edge of the world's atmosphere. Standing guard against outside threats while monitoring the surface for signs of intrusion by the Hellfire Club or its ilk.
While Captain Amelia stood outside the ship's gangplank overseeing the on-loading of provisions and the refueling of her prized ship, Kairi and the others kept themselves busy during their layover. With Riku and Goofy off using the restroom one last time before they got back on the ship, Rose waited in line at the nearby snack bar ordering the group lunch while they waited. Kairi and Donald sat down on a bench at the end of the dock, watching spaceport workers unload and offload supplies.
"Don't worry," Donald told her. "We'll find him." Although the Princess of Heart had not said anything, her concern for Sora's fate was written all over her face. It had been over two weeks since he had been forcibly transported to Earth by the Tesseract, and while Loki could tell her some of what he knew of the planet's recent goings on, she had no idea whether her fiancé was even still alive. With no way for the Prince of Asgard to get in touch with his brother, the Unchained Legion could have hunted Sora down and killed him for all she knew. Thankfully, Donald's reassurance helped to ease her worries.
"Thanks, Donald," she replied. "But I can't afford to worry. All worrying will do is distract me. Focusing on bringing him home keeps me going. And if I have something to focus on, I can push through the fear." The sentient duck nodded in understanding just as two familiar figures walked up. Although Kairi hadn't interacted with them much, she'd hung out with Yuna enough to recognize Rikku and Paine on sight. But from the way they carried themselves, the princess knew that this wasn't a social call. They were here doing work for the Intelligence Network.
"Our most recent excursions down to the Forest have turned up evidence of recent activity of some nefarious organization," Rikku explained.
"Not clear yet if it's the Club or the Legion," Paine added. "All we know is that they're abducting the locals and they have a central base of operations. We know that you're busy tracking down your fiancé, but since your ship's not going to be finished resupplying for a couple more hours, Cassim told us to ask if you could lend us a hand with the investigation until you leave." Kairi nodded in understanding. She didn't want to delay her search for Sora any longer than she had to, but since it would be another three hours before they were ready to cast off again, who was she to say no to something to keep her busy when it dropped into her lap. Besides, she wouldn't dream of turning people down when they needed her help.
"Of course," she answered. "Let me go grab the others and we'll meet you at the teleporter."
New York City – Canal Street Electronics:
"I know there's not stoppin' you when you put your mind to it, Jakey," Trixie Carter said with a reassuring smile. "So just promise me and Spud that you'll be careful when you're out in space lookin' for Rose." Jake smiled. He'd called his parents, Rose's parents, their sisters, and closest friends, telling them to meet him at his grandfather's electronics shop. Once everyone was there, he told them about what had happened to Rose and about his plan to head out into space and help them look for her. He explained as best as he could about Sora and legends of the Keyblade War, but left out the part about Rose being an Unchained. He figured that was her story to tell.
In any case, he had expected complete resistance to the idea of him going into space to look for her. Or that everyone would doubt his knowledge that she was no longer on Earth. But much to his surprise, everyone was completely on board with his goal. Rose was part of the family, and everyone wanted him to find whoever took her and make them pay. Or "teach them not to mess with the ex-AmDrag," as Trixie and Spud preferred to say. The former American Dragon smiled. He'd cashed in all his vacation days he'd accumulated at work (not that he needed to, since the school administration was understanding of the fact that S.H.I.E.L.D. wanted him along on their investigation into his wife's abduction), and with Trixie and Spud filling in for when the dragon council needed his help, things were well in hand, and he didn't need to worry about anything else when he flew off to rescue the love of his life.
"Thanks, Trixie," Jake replied as he gave everyone one last hug. "I don't know how long I'll be gone for, but if you ever hear or see anything about the Legion guys who took her, call this number." He passed out cards to everyone with the contact information for a burner phone owned by S.A.C.K. Director Peggy Rogers. "They have experience in dealing with Keyblade War related stuff." After a round of hugs and handshakes, Jake followed his grandfather and Fu into the back of the shop. His grandpa had some magical artifacts to take with him in case of emergencies.
While Fu stuffed an extra duffel bag full of things like air capsules (modified from the original underwater survival versions to allow him to breath in space), fairy dust, a few knives made from unicorn horn in the event that he needed to cut through alien metals that were stronger than anything found on Earth or Asgard, and other magical gadgets, Lao Shi discussed more secretive matters with his grandson. While he hadn't mentioned why the Legion wanted to kidnap Rose, Lao Shi knew enough to figure out what was going on without being said. While the dragon council knew of the existence of the Unchained thanks to documents pilfered from the Huntsclan databases after Rose destroyed them with the Aztec skulls back in 2007, the fact that the Unchained had created the Huntsclan was an earth shattering revelation to them.
Because of this, the former Chinese Dragon was able to pick up on the fact that Jake's knowledge of the Unchained Legion was too thorough to have come from the corrupted files salvaged from ruined Huntslairs. While his grandfather was accepting of the fact that Rose was an Unchained, Jake knew that not everyone in the magical community would be as understanding. Which was why he and his grandfather agreed not to speak of his wife's status as immortal Keyblade Master and founder of the Huntsclan to anyone. After saying goodbye to his grandpa, he walked into the alleyway and pulled out his cellphone. He speed dialed Gordon, and a few minutes later, he reappeared in Hawaii. Well, he thought. Time to get this show on the road.
The Great Forest – Lake Shores:
"Well," Kairi remarked as she and her party looked back across the lake at the flames rising up into the night sky. "I think this trip is off to an eventful started." With the approval of Coalition Intelligence, the five of them had bypassed the teleportation pad's shapeshifting mechanisms and beamed down to the Great Forest in human form. After all, they needed to have their full mobility if things got violent. Once they arrived at the transport point near the site, they followed the coordiates to a small island in the middle of a lake on the outskirts of the woods. From a distance, the island wasn't anything remarkable. But once they reached it, things were an entirely different story.
What they found was like something that Aqua and Lea had encountered in the Jungle in the final weeks of the Xehanort War. Yzma had been harvesting local wildlife for blood and tissue samples to use in her transformation potions. The Unchained Legion had been doing the exact same thing, although they had been adding in a ground up liquid that, upon closer inspection, proved to be a mixture of liquefied Night Howlers and various narcotic substances which made one more suggestible. The small bunker the operation was based out of was abandoned when they found it, and the three Keyblade wielders wasted no time in destroying the facility, although not before downloading every scrap of information they could to find out why the Legion was doing this.
The answer, extrapolated by Rose based on evidence since they didn't have a computer to verify it yet, was chilling.
"It was something the High Council would always talk about as an extension of The Endgame," the former Huntsgirl explained. The Endgame, she had clarified, referred to the Unchained Legion's goal of fusing the shattered pieces of the original world back together before reforming society in their image of perfection. "They wanted to find a way to get rid of those they considered impure without actually killing them. If this lab is any indication, they decided to do that by turning people into animals both physically and mentally."
"We need to forward this information to the Intelligence Network," Kairi commented as Gummi Ships equipped with fire-fighting equipment descended from the sky. "So that they can start figuring out how to take the Unchained down." Everyone nodded their heads in agreement before they returned to the spaceport. By the time they returned, the RLS Legacy and its captain had just finished with refueling and resupplying. As they cast off into the Lanes Between once more, Kairi couldn't help but wonder just what Rose meant when she referred to the Legion's "image of perfection." She just hoped that she could find Sora in time.
The Hawaiian Islands – Pelekai House:
"Alright," Captain America called out as he loaded the last suitcase full of clothes into the storage bay of Jumba Jookiba's spaceship. "That's everything. We're good to go." At the bottom of the craft's boarding ramp, the founding members of the Avengers were saying goodbye to their significant others. Tony and Pepper were having a quiet discussion on the dangers of space travel, while Bruce and Betty exchanged emotional farewells. Bucky and Natasha's on the other hand was more quiet and calm, as was Clint and Laura's. Former S.H.I.E.L.D. Director Nick Fury was currently engaged in an animated discussion with Jumba and Thor regarding the intergalactic sociopolitical structure along their route to Turo.
When Vanitas and his team had struck out at the hidden Unchained base following Maleficent's attack on Radiant Garden, they were able to download multiple files from the Legion's mainframe. Unfortunately, the files were severely corrupted and the few that weren't were heavily encrypted. It had taken almost a week just for S.H.I.E.L.D.'s computer expert Daisy Johnson to recover the handful of files they'd been able to access so far. And that was with the help of Natasha's outdated information on the Unchained Legion's cyber security software. All that Daisy had managed to dig up a list of galactic coordinates classified as points of interest to the Legion.
There was no indication from either Asgard or Earth's files why these planets were important to the quasi-immortal Keyblade Masters. But they knew that given the Legion's recent actions, nobody was under any illusions that it was anything good. As a favor to Vanitas, Sora promised that they'd stop by those coordinates and investigate on their way to Turo. So while the more recent members of the team stayed behind to protect Earth, six of the original Avengers (and Nick Fury) were accompanying Sora to the Galactic Federation capital in the hopes of finding a route back to the Daybreak Coalition on the way. Jake was tagging along, although nobody except Thor and Sora knew why the Unchained Legion had abducted his wife.
Once everyone had said their goodbyes, they all climbed up the boarding ramp and into the spaceship. Once everyone was seated and buckled in, Jumba took the ship up. Within the hour, the bright red vessel broke through Earth's atmosphere and out into space. While Stitch calculated the coordinates for their first hyperspace jump, everyone began discussing their plans for the journey.
"I figure that once this is all over," Hawkeye went on. "I'll be able to bring home some alien slime or something for my kids. I used to bring souvenirs home from my S.H.I.E.L.D. missions whenever I could, and since I've never been off Earth before, why not bring something home for the family?" Bruce nodded in agreement as he put on some headphones with relaxing music and tilted his chair back to sleep. He trusted his ability to control the Hulk in a confined, pressurized environment, but sleeping through long journeys always helped give him an extra safety net. Tony and Jumba were busy discussing spaceship engineering while Steve and Thor talked about the legends of the Keyblade War. And while Sora and Natasha were discussing her status as an Unchained, Nick Fury and Jake Long were busy making themselves food for the long flight.
"So," Fury began as he brewed a fresh pot of coffee in the galley. "What does an army of quasi-immortal madmen want with the wife of the American Dragon?" Seeing Jake's face pale at the words, he let out a small chuckle. "Just because I only have one good eye doesn't mean I don't notice things that can't be explained by science," he went on. "I knew a family of leprechauns who lived down the street from me when I was in my early teens. When I told them I'd figured it out, I was afraid it'd be like in Harry Potter, where they'd erase the memories of people who weren't magical."
"That's more of a last resort than anything else," Jake hastily tried to explain before the retired colonel got the wrong idea.
"Relax, kid," Fury replied. "They were pretty lenient on the whole secrecy thing, and I got invited to see some magical sporting events from time to time. I was there at the beauty pageant that dog of yours was in, for instance. Anyway, once I joined S.H.I.E.L.D. I realized that the magical community had to stay off the radar, because the World Security Council tended to be on the extreme side, and their approach to dealing with the supernatural world could have kick-started a war. So I did everything I could to make sure S.H.I.E.L.D. never found out. I'm pretty sure the S.A.C.K. guys have known since their inception, but that's not much of an issue since they've kept to themselves all this time."
While Jake was worried about how the Avengers would react to the supernatural community, Nick promised to do the explaining for him so that the team would understand why they never knew that dragons existed before. While Jake still helped the magical community maintain the masquerade, every year he began to feel that it was becoming more and more unnecessary. The world was strange enough that nobody would really be all that surprised to discover leprechauns and unicorns living among them.
Since the next two stories in the Acolytes of Chaos saga will be set entirely on Earth, I wanted to feature the worlds of characters who have been summons in previous Kingdom Hearts games but haven't had their worlds appear in an actual game yet. So the next world to show up after this one will be Dumbo's. One thing to note, timeline wise, I went back over my notes and realized that I made a mistake in the date for when Kairi and her party set off from Radiant Garden, so I have gone back to Kingdom Hearts IV and corrected that.
As you can guess from the mention of Hawaii, Stitch will feature heavily in this story. I know that in this universe where space travel on Earth is more common, I could just have them take any spaceship I wanted, I decided to take advantage of the shared universe I'm building by having them travel in Jumba's spaceship. Naturally, Jumba himself will be coming along for the ride.
So to sum it all up, the basic story outline will be Sora, Jake, Stitch, Jumba, Nick Fury, and the original six Avengers leaving Earth in search of the Daybreak Coalition, while Riku, Kairi, Donald, Goofy, Captain Amelia, and Rose set off from Coalition space looking for Earth. Eventually, both groups will meet in the middle and join forces to deal with the combined threats of the Hellfire Club and the Unchained Legion. There will not be any scenes set on Earth in this story. Period. That's what the next chapter of the saga, S.A.C.K., S.H.I.E.L.D., And C.I.N. will be about: what Vanitas and everyone else is getting up to while Sora and Kairi are out in space looking for each other.
I know the Mirage Arena has never actually been used outside of Birth By Sleep in terms of the story, but I decided when I came up with the idea of the Daybreak Coalition that I wanted to incorporate the Arena somehow, and a space station with a coliseum in the center seemed like the best possible way to make that happen. As for the lack of on screen action in this chapter, that's intentional. While there will be action sequences later on, Kingdom Hearts V: Balance of Power is more of a character driven story than an action driven one. So the chapters will focus more on how the cast interacts with each other than on the fighting and chase scenes.
The reason I decided to have the investigation of possible Unchained bases on the way is to provide more opportunities for new worlds or encounters with familiar characters and not have everyone just rush straight to Turo. Kairi's group meanwhile will be making a few pit stops on their way out of Coalition Space. We'll be seeing worlds for Dumbo, The Incredibles, and one last trip to Montressor (Treasure Planet) before everyone gets to Turo. The reunion on Turo will be the halfway point of the story and from there the focus will shift. I was originally planning on posting three chapters today, but there's a lot of stuff I need to get done and things are going to be a bit hectic, so I didn't want to have to worry about squeezing in two hours of fanfiction writing on top of everything else. I will resume my normal writing and uploading schedule tomorrow.