Chapter 8: Hau'oli, Hau'oli!:
Deep Space – Outer System; Now:
"Rose, are you okay?" Kairi's voice snapped the blond-haired Unchained out of her flashbacks and back to the present. The sight of the Unchained warships and the Lorwardian battle cruisers duking it out in orbit over Turo had caused her to flash back to the last day of the Atilan Sieges, when she, Lerena (Ophelia back then) and the Foreteller Anguis storming Emperor Boltagon's citadel. So many lives had been lost that day, and only recently (technically a few decades ago, but time is relative when you're virtually immortal) did she begin to appreciate the tragedy of those caught between all the warring factions.
"I'm fine," she answered as the R.L.S. Legacy rocketed out of Hyperspace and towards the battlefield. "This just brings back old memories." Taking a moment to prepare herself, she followed the Princess of Heart down to the launch bay for the craft's longboats. As predicted, half the Hellfire Club's forces were in the process of jumping into Hyperspace back to the Titan's Sanctuary. No doubt Maleficent would be frantic to protect her daughter, and her panic had reduced the number of attackers laying siege to Turo. Most of the ones in orbit were clearing out, even as the ships in the atmosphere were coming up to engage the Unchained fleet.
As the group settled into the long boats, they went over what the plan was one last time. Five individual warriors could not hope to deal effective damage against two armadas, but if they could get control of one of the Lorwardian battleships, they could deal more effective damage by causing confusion among the ranks of the Hellfire Club troops. While they were dealing with the Hellfire Club, Captain Amelia would join the spaceship already there in fighting off the Unchained Legion. With some well-placed assistance from Jim Hawkins, a captain in the Galactic Armada who had been home on leave when the attack happened who had tagged along on their departure from Montressor, they were off.
While Jim stayed on the Legacy to help Captain Amelia run her ship, the quintet sailed through the system towards the nearest Lorwardian battle cruiser, unaware that stolen Lorwardian shuttle was approaching the same ship from the other side. With Rose in the lead, the group fought their way through wave after wave of Lorwardian soldiers and Unchained boarding parties. Eventually, they reached the bridge and were surprised to find another group of saboteurs already there. But what surprised them the most was the two people the ladies recognized as part of the group.
"JAKE!"
"ROSE!"
"SORA!"
"KAIRI!"
The two couples raced forward and embraced each other for the first time in weeks. Jake partially shifted back to human form and wrapped his wings lovingly around his wife as he pulled her in for a tearful embrace. Kairi dragged Sora close for a long, passionate kiss that left them both breathless by the time they finally broke apart. But right now, none of that mattered. After weeks of fruitless searching, their quests had come to their ends. They were finally together again, and at that moment, nothing else mattered.
"How long has it been since you started making your way here?" Kairi asked as she and Sora stood side by side on the bridge of the Lorwardian battle cruiser they'd commandeered. Since he had experience as a military commander, Steve took the helm while Thor manned the ship's gunnery deck to give the couples some time alone for their mid-battle reunion.
"About two weeks," Sora replied with a smile as he wrapped his arm around his fiance's waist. "I missed you so much."
"I missed you too," she whispered. "When I heard from Vanitas about the Infinity Stones, I was afraid that all that energy would kill you."
"Come on, Kairi," he answered teasingly. "After being submerged within the collective energy of Kingdom Hearts itself, did you really think one cosmically powered space cube would be enough to destroy me?"
"Well you know how we both get when it comes to each other's safety," Kairi retorted with a smirk. "So how was Earth? What's the biggest piece of the original world like?" This prompted him to launch into an animated discussion of his time on Earth and his experiences with the Avengers. In turn, Kairi shared her stories of what she'd been up to on her quest to track him down. As they talked, explosions bloomed around them in the stars as the battle of Turo drew to a close. Between the reduction of Maleficent's fleet, her attack on the Unchained, and the aid of Iron Man, Captain Amelia, and the Guardians of the Galaxy, combined with their own sabotage, the Unchained and Hellfire Club battle fleets were completely obliterated.
As expected, Maleficent and her inner circle escaped unscathed, with the only Hellfire Club casualties being Heartless swarms and Lorwardian ship crews. Rose was able to confirm, on the other hand, that all of the Unchained present aboard the Legion's warships had been killed (or at the very least forced to reincarnate). Apparently the death of an Unchained released large amounts of energy because of how long they were alive that fellow Unchained could pick up on. How wasn't important. What was important, though, was that they had struck crucial blows against both factions today. Maybe now they could finally bring them all down for good.
Deep Space – U.W.S. Anguis:
Praetor Stone was furious. This was supposed to be his defining moment. His hour of triumph. He was supposed to crush the Hellfire Club like the insects they were and take the Power Stone for the Unchained Legion. The overwhelming success of his mission was supposed to catapult him to greater standing within the High Council, enough for him to usurp Gonzales' role as head of the war fleet and Gao's research and development wing all at once. Now instead, he could only watch in abject horror as two dozen Unchained war ships erupted in explosions of fire and steel around him. The wounding of his pride had to be put on hold when the central console of the bridge lit up to indicate an incoming transmission. His blood ran cold when he examined the source of the call and realized that it was coming directly from the Novus Imperator herself.
"STONE!" Skuld roared as a small hologram image of the raven haired leader of the Unchained Legion appeared over the Anguis' command console. So great was her anger that she didn't even bother with formality and titles over the official channels. "How could you be so stupid as to take the witch's bait?"
"Forgive me, Imperator," he replied frantically as he attempted to salvage any victory from this mess to make up for their brutal losses today. "I only sought to acquire the Infinity Stone and crush the Hellfire Club in a single swoop. I…"
"Is your arrogance so great that it blinds you to the facts?" Skuld interrupted. "While we possess the numerical advantage when it comes to troops, Maleficent's armada outnumber us five to one. Now you've gone and squandered a fifth of the fleet for your own vanity projects. Maybe you can learn some humility in your next life." The Imperator's communication channel abruptly cut off, leaving Stone mere seconds to contemplate the implications of the Imperator's angry warning before the bridge of the Anguis was engulfed in cannon fire from the R.L.S. Legacy as it passed by.
Titan's Sanctuary – Maleficent's Throne:
Stone's wounded pride was nothing compared to how livid Maleficent was right now. Once again, Sora and his friends had forced her to retreat from her goals. And if that wasn't enough, they had the nerve to put her daughter in danger. While the more rational part of her mind attempted to remind her that they didn't know Lily existed before they chose to attack the Titan's Sanctuary, but her fear for her daughter's safety was overriding her logic now. Ever since Lily had contact her on the private com-link she'd given her daughter for emergencies saying that Riku, Kairi, Donald, and Goofy had attacked Sanctuary, Maleficent had been in a panicked frenzy, and raced home with half the Hellfire Club's armada in tow.
Once she had returned home and made certain of Lily's safety, Maleficent's calm fury erupted into a bubbling volcano of rage. Changes would need to be made now. The new facility they'd been building in Earth's solar system was now their last remaining stationary base. The Lorwardian battle cruisers that survived the battle of Turo would have to be used sparingly. Security for their new base would need to be tripled to avoid another incident like this one. Oh, how the Mistress of All Evil hated being forced into hiding like a turtle retreating into its shell.
But first, Maleficent would need to determine the source of the information leak. The entire Hellfire Club knew the coordinates of the Titan's Sanctuary, but there were only a few who she knew would have any motive for selling their secrets to the enemy. Her inner circle were all above suspicion, so that left Yzma, Hamsterviel, Malekith, Demona, and Seymour as the only suspects. Hamsterviel and Yzma were as much conquerors as she was and would never dream of surrendering information to the enemy like that. Demona hated humanity too much to ever associate with the Coalition.
Malekith might do it, but he preferred brute force over subtlety and manipulation. That left Seymour. The more she thought about it, the more Maleficent realized that it would be perfectly in character for the nihilistic former priest to play both sides to achieve his ideal future through killing every living thing in the universe. He was even worse than Thanos if the green-skinned fairy was being honest with herself. The Mad Titan at least, had a general goal, slaughtering innocent lives as a twisted sacrifice to his beloved Death. Seymour just gave up on life and wanted to end his misery while taking the rest of reality with him. Yes, she could definitely see him leaking information to the enemy to cause as much chaos and death as he could.
The Lanes Between – U.W.S. Ava:
"Our spies have confirmed it," High Praetor Aurilam reported as he marched into Skuld's office aboard the Ava with a manila envelope in one hand. "The ships Stone brought with him to Turo have all been destroyed. The Praetor and his men were killed along with them."
"While the loss of so many of our Chaste division is a serious blow in our fight against The Hand," Skuld observed. "The benefits more than make up for the reduction of our troops." As she finished her sentence, the metallic sphere held in the air above her desk clicked open to reveal the familiar purple glow of an Infinity Stone. Warden Lerena smirked in triumph as she recalled her daring but easy heist on the vaults on Turo's surface as the battle raged on in space above the Federation capital.
"Although I don't see why we had to leak our intelligence to those Coalition heathens," the Legion's assassin remarked dryly. "We shouldn't let those infidels solve our problems for us."
"We shouldn't," Skuld commented as she sealed the containment orb once more. "But after eight thousand years, the High Council has become too entangled in politics for us to achieve The Endgame effectively. Gao. Stone. Gonazles. They're all just spokes on a wheel. First this one's on top, then that one's on top, and on and on it spins, dragging the Unchained war machine down into the ground. We cannot stop the wheel by adding to the internal politics and power plays. Only by allowing our enemies to destroy each other can we truly, finally break the wheel." The Unchained formerly known as Larxene and Marluxia couldn't help but applaud at Skuld's response.
"Well said, Skuld," Aurilam commented. "You always know how to inspire the troops. We may have to deal with reduced ranks, but with the acquisition of the Power Stone, we're half way to reuniting the scattered pieces of the Gauntlet of the First Keyblade Master. Four of the Infinity Stones are finally within our grasp. Stone, Gao, and the others all want to simply brute force their way through all our obstacles. They've become so wrapped up in their incarnations that they've forgotten what brute force got us back during the Keyblade War. We three and = understand how to play the long game. To take what we have and manipulate the board so that we can achieve the greatest results with the fewest resources."
After taking a few more minutes to discuss Praetor Long's acquisition of the Uchrono Hourglass, Aurilam and Lerena left to prepare for the next stage of the plan. They only had two more stones to go, then they needed to search for the Infinity Gauntlet itself. The one rumored to reside in Odin's vault on Asgard they knew was little more than a prop to discourage the likes of Thanos from hunting the real one. Acquiring all three artifacts would take a great deal of skill and patience. Now that the extraneous elements had been excised from the Legion, they could pick up the pace. Once she was alone in her office, Skuld turned to face the stars streaming by outside the viewport, alone with her doubts once more.
Will it really be worth it in the end? She wondered to herself as she watched the universe glide silently by around her. How can the promise of a united world truly justify everything that we've done? There were times like this, when she was alone with her thoughts, that she began to question whether the end really justified the means. If maybe there were better ways to achieve Lady Ava's vision of a peaceful, united world. But as they got closer and closer to the end, she began to wonder if it was not too late to change things, or if they had already gone too far to turn back now. No, she reminder herself. The Unchained Legion has done too much to let all our hard work, let Ephemer's sacrifice go to waste. But each time she repeated the affirmation, her resolve only wavered more.
Yay! SoKai reunion time! We'll see more of the reunion next chapter, but I figured seeing each other again for the first time in weeks would be the perfect place to leave off. Anyway, this is it, people. We're now halfway through Kingdom Hearts V. Tomorrow is going to be another travel day for me, so I won't be uploading chapters again until Wednesday. Next chapter will be the finale of the Battle of Turo before we keep this fic moving onward to its conclusion.
Yeah, Skuld has been busy trimming down on the Unchained Legion's resources, disposing of those who place their own ambition over the Legion's collective goals. But it seems that her doubts are beginning to peak through the cracks of her cold, aloof façade. So now the Unchained Legion has got its hands on three out of the six Infinity Stones. Things are going to look bad going into the end of the saga in Kingdom Hearts VI. And yes, I did quote Danaerys Targerian's "Break The Wheel" speech from Game of Thrones Season 5 for part of Skuld's conversation with Marluxia and Larxene, then paraphrased the rest.
And oh, the irony that Maleficent is so sure of the loyalty of her inner circle that she doesn't even suspect the god of lies she broke out of prison. Rest assured, Maleficent will pay dearly for underestimating our friend Loki. And the consequences of her faith in her inner circle will tear her empire in half. I know we didn't see much of the Jake/Rose reunion given how much focus I've given them, but let's be honest here. Sora and Kairi is the big reunion you all really care about, so I wrote the chapter accordingly.