Chapter 56: v for victory
I do not own kingdom hearts or the properties shown in this fanfic. They belong to the respective owners and the original story is based on the works of Darius Almighty. Kingdom hearts and trials of the keyblade is owned by square Enix, Disney, and Tetsuya Nomura. Please support the official release.
Right. Now taking back radiant garden on left return to space paranoids on the right! Oh and please don't ask have I seen the movie tron or the sequel or the tv series. I haven't seen both of them alright!
With that out of the way, here's the next chapter. Enjoy!
Things were taking a turn for the worse for the freedom fighters of Radiant Garden. Their initial attack had caused much confusion in the Stormtrooper forces, as was the plan. But their enemies were no pushovers; they were trained to deal with any situation that might arise. They were beginning to mobilize in full force, and they were bringing out the big guns.
"That all you guys got?" Yuffie asked coyly, standing amongst the knocked out forms of three Stormtroopers that she had taken out singlehandedly. "Come on! I can take everything you throw at me! They don't call me Great Ninja Yuffie for nothing!" The ground she stood on suddenly shook as something hard, and something big, came her way. Rounding a street corner and coming into her line of sight was a massive machine that walked on two triple jointed legs, dubbed by the Empire as an All Terrain Scout Transport or, in short, an AT-ST. Yuffie gulped when it turned it weapons on her. "Oh come on! I was bluffing!" The Imperial vehicle fired its main cannons but Yuffie managed to jump out of the way and throw a couple of retaliatory shurikens, embedding them in its armour but otherwise causing no damage. She was completely exposed as it fired again.
"Let me go you freaks!" Rikku shouted, struggling to get free from the grip of a Stormtrooper. "Why don't you pick on someone your own size?"
"Maybe we should have picked on someone our own size," Paine growled, also trying to escape an Imperial's grip.
"Shut up, you talking Barbies!" the squad leader growled. "Now where's that bird cage? These things are giving me a headache."
"Dragon power!" came the righteous shout from nowhere. The Stormtroopers looked around confusedly for the source. "Down here, you white-clad weirdos!" Then the Stormtroopers saw it, a tiny red lizard at their feet. "You've heard of kung-fu and jujitsu? Well this a little style I like to call Mushu, baby!" Mush declared, ready to take them all at once. "Come on! Bring it! I'm a dragon on the edge!" His confidence quickly fell when several rifles were pointed down at him. "Hey, hey! Calm down, fellas! I don't think we need anymore police brutality in the world!" He quickly blew a fireball in a troopers face making him lose footing and accidently shoot his fellow soldier. In the confusion, the Gullwings were able to escape. "That's right! I'm a guardian dragon! I'm a - uh oh." The troopers were about to go after him, when Rikku and Yuna flew down and scooped him up, all of them flying off.
Zidane the monkey boy had very little places to run now. Stormtroopers were covering every alleyway, every street, every rooftop. Currently he was running from an AT-ST, lasers bombarding the street behind him. "Come on, come on!" Zidane growled to himself, quickly tiring. "Gotta keep going, gotta keep-" Another laser blast knocked him off his feet and flat on his face. He couldn't get up in time as the Imperial walker approached, and made to step on him. Suddenly Zidane was lifted from the ground, narrowly missing the metal foot crash down, and carried off with someone on the back of a Chocobo.
"Howdy, my fiend!" Jack Skellington greeted cheerfully, still wearing his cowboy hat. "Not a place a young lad such as yourself to be playing! A war zone isn't as fun as it sounds!"
"Boy, am I glad to see you!" Zidane sighed in relief. "Well, not really. You kind of scare me."
"Thanks!" Jack laughed. A laser blast from behind suddenly shot his cowboy hat off. Both of them looked at the back. Two Stormtroopers were chasing them on what looked motorcycles that had no wheels, but hovered above the ground with anti-gravity engines, their high speed easily able to keep up with their Chocobo. "Wow! Those are cool! No wonder we're losing!" Laser cannons mounted to the front of the speeder bikes opened fired on them, Jack using his Keyblade to knock some away. "This is dangerous. We better get out of here! But do me a favour?"
"What?" Zidane asked.
"Could you put out that fire?" The back of Jack's clothes had caught fire from a laser that he couldn't stop from hitting him. Zidane screamed and quickly tried to put it out, the high speed chase between bird and machine continuing.
"We're getting creamed out here!" Leon growled, ducking for cover from laser fire with Aerith. "What happened to Sora? That shield needs to come down now!"
"We have to have faith in him!" Aerith called back, firing a blizzaga in the process. "Sora's never let us down before!"
"Well, we could sure use a shrink ray right now!" Leon shouted. Also hiding in cover were Professor Szalinski and Lulu, working as fast as they could on the no longer functioning shrink ray.
"I don't work well under pressure!" Szalinski stammered, wincing at another explosion. "I'm a lover not a fighter, a scientist not a soldier! God, I sound like a cheesy hippy song! Lulu, do you think you can help them out?" The goth girl sighed but nonetheless stood up.
"Cover me," she said to Aerith. Aerith nodded and focused her magic around Lulu in an Aero spell. When Lulu walked out from cover, the Stormtroopers' lasers were deflected by the swirling shield about her, and she raised her hands, fireballs appearing in each of her palms. A grim smile formed on her lips as she chucked her firaga spells one after the other upon the Imperials, one after the other in a nonstop bombardment, forcing the soldiers to retreat.
Once they were all gone, Lulu blew out her finger like a smoking pistol. "Hey, I got it working!" Szalinski announced .
"Everyone fall back!" Quistis called through the radios. "Hit and run tactics from here on out! They're organized now, we can't take them head on!" It was then that Admiral Ackbar appeared in hologram form.
"We've broken through the blockade," he reported. "The Star Destroyers are in full retreat. We are now in complete control of Radiant Garden's orbit. Our reinforcements are on standby, but as long as that shield stands they won't be able to help. What is going on down there?"
"Something's wrong," V said softly. "It shouldn't have taken Sora this long to destroy the shield generator. Something must have happened." Quistis swallowed nervously.
"You don't think-"
"No," V replied automatically. "I think we'd all feel it in our hearts if something were to happen to Sora. We just need to give him more time." V gazed into the hologram map of Radiant Garden, focusing on the Citadel of Heart. "Dammit, Sora, where are you?"
KHKHKHKH
Unfortunately, Sora and company had seen better days. They were locked up tight in prison cells within the Space Paranoids by the MCP's goons. Kairi, Mulan and Jack were all in separate cells, but thankfully close enough to talk to one another.
"Fear not, mates," Jack Sparrow informed, cracking his digital fingers. "There isn't a jail cell yet that Captain Jack Sparrow can't break out of." He grabbed the energy field and his skeleton lit up like a Christmas tree from the massive shock he received, catapulting him into the opposite wall. He shook his smoking head. "Touché, jail cell."
"We don't have time for this!" Sora growled, smashing against the barrier with his Keyblade. "Everyone's out there fighting, and we need to get those files!"
"And we still need to take down that shield," Kairi groaned. "The others won't stand a chance if we don't!"
"Not to mention we don't know where Shelke is," Mulan sighed. They could only assume Shelke was in the computer world as well, but they had not seen her yet. "Sora, you've been here before. How did you get out the first time?"
"Well, I had a little help last time," Sora admitted. That was another thing Sora hadn't seen here. Tron was nowhere to be found. He guessed he could count himself lucky he wasn't trapped with the other programs in here.
"You know, Sora, for all your heroic exploits you don't have many solutions to problems," Jack noted nonchalantly.
"You've noticed that too?" Mulan asked. Sora growled at his supposed 'friends'.
Suddenly the door to the prison opened and out of them strolled a red stone-faced program with an unique helmet, followed by a long procession of program guards. They marched down the hallway, imprisoned programs cowering in fear, and when they walked past Sora's cell, he recognized their leader right away.
"Sark!" he growled. The MCP's second in command stopped at his cell, and sneered down at him. "You're back too?"
"Correct, User scum," Sark sneered. "Though you are a bit mistaken. It's Sark 2.0 now. The MCP found it necessary to re-upload by data upon his restoration. Now I'm more powerful than ever. And you're in for a world of pain." He snapped his fingers, and the cells opened up for energy bolts to force them out into the hallway. "March them to the Game Grid! And don't bother being gentle." Sora and the others were forcibly made to walk by the guards, and were herded to the Game Grid.
"You could be a little gentle. I won't tell," Jack Sparrow said to his guard. He was rewarded with a zap to the butt.
The Game Grid had to be at least ten miles long in real world terms. I was made entirely of black tiles spreading from the floor to the walls and all the way to the ceiling. Sora knew this place to be the Death Cycle arena. "This place is huge!" Kairi gasped.
"You could fit a giant jellyfish in here!" Jack exclaimed. He then frowned. "That'd be weird, though."
Sark looked down on them all from a high up chamber. "Greetings, Users," he sneered disdainfully. "Here's where the fun begins. In this game you will be pitted against my programs in a battle for survival. Fight well, you may very well gain your freedom. Fight poorly..." His lips curved into a detestable smirk. "Well, let's just say you don't want that to happen." Sora glowered up at him.
"Okay, guys. Listen up," Sora said to his inexperienced friends. "This is gonna be fast so you gotta stay alert. Or we'll be cleaning each other off the walls." Suddenly, small glowing rods appeared before them, hovering before their heads. Sora gripped his and was instantly encased in a blue Light Cycle, as were Kairi, Jack and Mulan.
"Game on!" Sark shouted and they all zoomed off into the Game Grid, leaving a wall of solid light behind them.
"Wow! These things ARE fast!" Kairi yelled gleefully. Despite the size of the Game Grid they seemed to have crossed it in no time at all, and were now approaching the enemy team. They rode red Light Cycles and left red walls of light in their wake.
"Don't touch the walls!" Sora shouted out. "You'll be smashed to pieces if you do!"
"NOW he tells us!" Mulan yelled, swerving just in time to avoid a red wall the other team had set up. Her unexpected turn caused a reckless player to smash into her wall, derezzing him instantly. Mulan winced sympathetically but, then again they were going to do the same thing to her.
"He can drive a boat, he can drive a ship," Jack said to himself. "But can he drive a cycle?" Suddenly he zipped from one wall wildly to the other. Enemy programs screamed, caught in his trap and exploded in millions of a electrons. "Yes he can!"
Sark scowled from where he watched. "What is going on?" he growled at two guard programs. "The User's should not be winning like this, the odds are completely stacked against them. Our calculations were completely off. Especially that one! His driving is completely erratic. It's as if something is impairing or improving his motor skills."
Jack Sparrow downed a gulp of digital rum as he drove.
Sark's eyes narrowed. "There are four players on Sora's team, correct?" The program guards nodded. "If so, then who is that?!" He tapped the monitor, where another blue line had joined the game.
Sora was stunned to see another player enter the fray. And from the way he was trapping, smashing and obliterating all the enemy programs, he was apparently on their side. "Whoa! He's amazing!" Kairi gasped. "Who is he and why is he helping us?"
Sora's intercom crackled. "Greetings, Users!" a cheerful yet familiar voice rang. "I hope I'm not too late!"
"Tron!" Sora exclaimed happily. The mystery cycle drove up beside Sora, and the cheerful face of Tron waved back at him. "You're here! Great! Now, any ideas how to get out of this?"
"Leave it to me!" Tron replied. He suddenly swerved and zoomed right for a wall, three enemies hot on his light trail. Just as he was about to hit the wall, Tron did a sharp U turn and all three of his pursuers screamed in horror as they collided with the wall, leaving a huge hole that was big enough to escape through. "This way! Hurry!" Tron drove through the hole with his light wall vanishing behind him; the others followed suit.
"TRON!" Sark roared, banging his fists against the monitor. "Dispatch battle drones and light tanks! Do not let them escape! Search and destroy!"
Tron lead Sora and the rest into a small alleyway, making sure to be discreet, driving to a glowing stream of energy. He came to a stop and his cycle disappeared, reverting back to his full bodied form. "Tron!" Sora cried and clasped hands with his old friend. "Man, am I glad to see you!"
"I am also pleased to see you again, Sora," Tron replied cheerfully.
"Wow, Tron. I've always wondered what you looked like," Kairi said gazing at him. "You fill out pretty good!"
"I don't know who this Phil is, but I hope I met your expectations!" Sora groaned and slapped his forehead. Tron pointed to the glowing stream before them. "This is a data stream. A little something to regain our strength." He kneeled down and used his ID disk as a basin, filling it up and drinking the liquid. The blue lines throughout his body glowed even brighter now. Sora and Kairi looked at each other and shrugged, kneeling down to slurp some of it themselves. Their own lines glowed as well and they felt stronger than ever. Mulan did the same, but Jack paused, looking between his rum bottle and the stream. Finally, he shrugged and scooped up the liquid with his bottle, mixing the two concoctions, and then drunk it. There was a brief pause, until his lines blazed with blinding power.
"I have the power!" Jack screamed in a semi-godly voice. "I can see everything! I know everything! The infinite wisdom of the cosmos is laid out before...oh, wait a minute. It's gone."
"Tron, what's going on here?" Sora asked. "Why are Sark and the MCP back?"
"I'm afraid it's the work of the other Users. The ones that took control of the system," Tron answered. "I believe this one's name was Bast. He was intent on downloading the data entitled 'the Keyblade War'. I knew it was important to him, so I stole the data and distributed it all throughout the system. This prompted Bast to restore the MCP, so that it may find the data and download it itself. It succeeded, and is currently downloading them now."
"This is insane, even for the Empire!" Sora exclaimed. "To bring back something as dangerous as the MCP? It'll destroy us all!"
"That's why we have to stop it!" Tron said firmly. "The MCP is housed in the central processing unit. We take the fight to it and do some real damage!"
"We can't yet!" Kairi suddenly cried. "We have to find our friend first. She was captured by the MCP too!"
"There's another User here?" Tron asked.
"That's right!" Sora remembered. "Tron, do you know where our friend Shelke is? We need her to to get the Keyblade War data." Tron put a hand to his chin and thought.
"On the way here I hacked into a memory processor. It's how I found out where all of you were. There was a mention of another prisoner being held in an I/O Tower not far from here, being extracted for information."
"That must be her!" Kairi deduced.
The ground started shaking ominously. "It's an energy bombardment! They're trying to flush us out!" Tron shouted.
"Well, they're doing a good job of it!" Mulan cried.
"Let's go!" Sora yelled and all of them grabbed their cycle batons, switching back to their Light Cycles. They sped off from the data stream just as an energy bomb blew it apart. As they zoomed out into the open they found battle drones in the air, light tanks on the ground, all of which took after them. The battle drones were about a hundred feet tall, looking like square men with two legs going down the side and a triangular head. The light tanks were large smooth vehicles running on treads of light, massive particle cannons adorning their bows. They fired away from the ground and air, destroying black and purple buildings all around them. "There's too many of them!"
"I'm on it!" Mulan yelled. Her fist punched through the viewport of her Light Cycle, allowing more room to summon her Keyblade. When drones came close she blasted them from the sky with blue digital fire, then aimed at the base of a quick approaching building, blasting right through it. It toppled to the ground, crushing many tanks and drones behind them and blocking the way for others, but several tanks still managed to follow.
"Hang on!" Tron called ahead of them. A sharp turn ahead averted them from falling into a bottomless gorge. The much slower and less maneuverable tanks behind them careened. The first one managed to stop at the precipice, only to knocked off by the tank coming right around the bend. Both fell into the abyss, exploding in millions of electrons.
Up ahead loomed the I/O Tower where Shelke was being held, data rising to the sky and passed throughout the entire system. The guards at the door ran to confront them when they came to a stop and switched off their Light Cycles . "Hey! You can't be-!" The guard was cut short when he was shot in the chest, the same happening to the other. Jack blew the smoke from his pistol and they all ran in.
Inside was the I/O tower's main junction, a pillar of light beaming down, data streaming in and out. That was where Shelke was. She floated in the center of the light, data and information flowing from her mind. She looked exactly the same here as she did in the real world, red hair and everything. Her neural net dive ability must have affected her differently than the others. "They're extracting her of information," Tron observed. He went to the control panel and started inputting. Soon enough Shelke was lowered from the light, gently floating down to the floor.
"Shelke!" Sora cried, gently cradling her form as she came too. "Are you alright? What happened?"
"They...were extracting ...the data on the Keyblade War I had accumulated," Shelke mumbled tiredly. "The Master Control Program must have detected the same data signature from my memory and the ones it's currently downloading. I have nothing left now, it took it all."
"At least you're safe," Sora said relieved. "Now come on. We still have a job to do. We need to get that Keyblade War information before the MCP can download it all."
"And then we blow this place to kingdom come!" Jack informed cheerfully. Sora winced and nodded. "I'm looking forward to that part!"
"The self-destruct?" Shelke repeated. Despite her weakened state she walked over to the I/O Tower controls and started typing away, commands coming up on the monitor. "Just as I thought. I'm able to access the self-destruct mechanism from here. We can blow the citadel and the shield generator." Again, Sora winced. Blowing up the citadel was something he really didn't want to do.
"Sora, I know how you feel about this," Kairi said sympathetically. "I remember the citadel when I was growing up in Radiant Garden. But if we don't do this a whole lot more people are going to get hurt, and I don't want that." Sora nodded dejectedly.
"Alright," Sora relented. "Do it." Shelke nodded.
"Very well," she said, and started typing again. "I'll set it on a timer. Half an hour should be plenty of time for us to retrieve the files and-"
"Look out!" Tron shouted, pulling Shelke out of the way before an energy bolt could strike her, colliding with the control panel instead.
"Halt! Surrender yourselves to the MCP!" Red program guards stood at the entrance wielding deadly energy staffs. Sark's forces had obviously caught up to them. The program guards rushed into the I/O Tower and the heroes drew their weapons and prepared for battle.
KHKHKHKH
"Ugh! This is taking too long!" Chief Bast snapped. The upload was still only at 25, and it wasn't going any faster. And Bast was anything but a patient man. "Lord Vader had better appreciate this, especially after all the trouble I've gone through! At the very least this uprising will soon be dealt with."
Meanwhile in the city where the fight was still being fought, a certain fat cat peeked his head over the roof of a building, his big chin rippling as he gulped nervously. "Ah, man," Pete groaned miserably. "Of all the days Maleficent wanted us to scope this place out, she choose to do it right in the middle of a revolution!" He ducked his head when a squad of Stormtroopers ran down the street below. "Geez, let's get out of here, guys! Maleficent and that Horned King will be more than happy to know this place is going crazy!"
"Will you relax!" Gantu snarled, though he cringed when an explosion sounded not far off. "It's not like we're gonna get mixed up in this. They're not after us."
"Are you kidding?" Pete exclaimed. "Those guys will shoot anything that's not wearing their unfashionable armour!"
"And I don't know if you've noticed, blubber butt," 625 put in, munching on yet another sandwich. "But you kinda stick out like a soar thumb. What with your ugly face and all." Gantu restrained himself from stepping on the little yellow nuisance.
"Say, Nero. Don't you think we should get out of here now?" Pete asked the servant of the Horned King, who was also with them, standing silently ans sighing at their incompetence.
"Very well. There's no need for us to linger here. The Horned King and Maleficent will want to know this much at least. Azul, we're leaving." Standing not far off from them was Azul the Cerulean, staring out into the battle-locked city silently, his tree trunk- thick arms crossed across his broad chest. "Azul? Did you not hear me?"
"No," Azul said. "We're not leaving yet." Nero raised an eyebrow in question. Azul meanwhile only smirked to himself. As he stared into the many streets where many fought the Empire, he only focused on one individual. His worthy opponent.
"I believe a rematch is in order."
Down in the streets only four stood in the way of a Stormtrooper battalion backed up by two AT-STs. Those four were Beast, sonic, Jake and Aladdin. "Man, a brother can only take so many lasers in one day!" Jake growled, his dragon form covered in burn marks from laser blasts. "There's no end to these guys!"
"I thought Sora was supposed to help us out on this!" sonic snarled, Keyblade ready to some damage.
"He will! We just got to hold out for him!" Aladdin assured. "I don't know about you guts but Sora's never let me down before."
"Us either," Beast growled. "So let's try not to let him down." Everyone agreed resolutely. Beast readied himself like the rest of them with his Rumbling Rose. Though his eyes stayed on the advancing Stormtroopers, they unintentionally drifted off, down an alleyway off to the side. There was someone down there. A woman.
His eyes widened like dinner plates.
"Belle?" he whispered. It was her. Without a doubt it as her. She smiled prettily at him, then ran off down the alley. "BELLE!" Beast's Keyblade disappeared in a flash so he could take off on all fours down the alley after his love.
"Beast! Wait!" Aladdin shouted after him.
"What are you doing, you idiot!" sonic yelled. Lasers started bombarding their position before sonic could go after him, forcing them to retreat.
Beast ran with all the strength he could muster from his limbs down the alley. He couldn't remember when he had last run this hard, he wasn't even thinking about why she was running from him. She was here. Belle was here. That was all that mattered now. All questions could be asked as soon as he held her in his arms once again. Right now there was no battle and there was no Empire to deal with, only Belle. He saw Belle slip inside a building, and he followed right in.
The building he had entered was one that was old and decaying, most likely condemned. Just when he thought he'd lost sight of her he heard a giggle from above, and found Belle ascending a winding staircase, already halfway to the top. When had she gotten so fast? Nonetheless he rushed up the stairs as well. They creaked and cracked from years of wear and more than once his arm or foot went through the wood, but he went on unhindered, hope rising with each step until he finally reached the top. Someone was waiting for him there.
And it wasn't Belle.
"Weakness of the heart," Azul the Cerulean chuckled, arms crossed over his chest, standing in the center of a large empty room. "It's really quite pathetic." Hope and happiness in the Beast was replaced by one thing and one thing only. Anger. Anger that was expelled in the form of a great and terrifying ROAR, one that shook the entire building, making all within a fifty foot radius shiver with fear. Azul was probably one of only a few people who could withstand such a roar and not wet his pants. "Feel better?"
"What do you want?!" Beast hollered.
"A fight. You and me, to the death. Right now." Beast got even angrier, if that is possible.
"That's why?! That's what this is about!?"
"You had to be in the right state of mind," Azul said smugly. "Because I can assure you that this battle, will be your last." Beast teeth bared as he growled. His Keyblade couldn't appear fast enough.
"Then bring it!" he snarled. Azul smirked. He grabbed his massive cannon that rested against the wall and brought it at the ready.
"Music to my ears." He fired without warning but Beast dodged the rocket, then rushed the Cerulean man while evading more rockets, leaping in the air and bringing his Keyblade down. Azul blocked it with his cannon, looking forward to this fight already.
KHKHKHKH
Sora and the others could let out a sigh of relief as they dispatched the last of the program guards. "It's a good thing everyone is colour-coordinated in this place," Jack Sparrow commented, his Keyblade whisking away. "Red is bad, blue is good. Finally, something I can understand!"
Shelke approached the I/O Tower controls, or what was left of it anyway after being damaged when the fight began. "Oh man," Sora groaned. "Does it still work?" Shelke wordlessly started typing again, but had to step back when sparks started flying from the circuitry.
"No," she said tonelessly. "The remote activation has been severely damaged. I can't begin the self-destruct from here. Even if we go to another I/O Tower it wouldn't work, they've crippled the network."
"Then...what do we do?" Kairi asked. If they couldn't destroy the shield generator then they couldn't save Radiant Garden.
"There is still a way!" Tron announced, pounding his fist into his open palm. "The self-destruct can't be activated from anywhere else now. It can only be activated manually, from the Central Control Network."
"Manually?" Sora repeated.
"Well, that's fine and dandy," Jack sighed. "Except for the little tidbit about us being in here, and the thing being out there, savvy?" Jack was right. They had their own problems to solve here with the MCP calling the shots. There was no time for them to get back to the real world, disable the shield and get the Keyblade War files. Sora couldn't make this decision alone. He needed someone smarter than him. An idea struck him.
"Shelke," he said quickly. "Can we make a call from here? Somehow contact someone from the outside?" The young girl was slightly confused but went to work anyway, careful of the sparks flinging from the console.
"If I tap into the communications frequencies, I should be able to project your voice."
"Who are you calling?" Mulan asked.
Sora smiled. "The boss."
KHKHKHKH
"V? Are you there, V? Anyone?"
V and Quistis raised their heads when a much familiar voice started speaking through their earpieces. "Sora?" V called out. "Sora, is that you?"
"Yeah, it's me."
"Thank goodness you're alright," Quistis sighed in relief. "We thought something had happened to you."
"Well, something did. But I'm alright, we all are."
"What the hell is going on there, Sora?" V demanded. "That shield should have come down ages ago. The Imperials are gaining ground with every passing minute. We can't last much longer out here. And what about the Keyblade War files? Have you gotten them yet?"
"That's why I need to talk to you! We've got a problem! Shelke said there's a problem with the self-destruct. We can't start it up remotely anymore. According to Tron, it can only be activated manually now, from the Central Control Network!"
At this news, V fell utterly silent.
"The Central Control?" Quistis repeated in shock. "Sora, that's where Bast is. It's too dangerous. If he discovers you're there he'll recall all of his troops. Tell him, V. V?" Quistis found V had walked away from her, and now slowly stalked the room. He stared down at his gloved hands, as if he had forgotten what they had looked like, clenching them into fists. Then he glanced off to the poster of Imperial recruitment on the wall, the letter V he had carved still there.
"I guess you never know where destiny might lead you," he whispered.
"Uh...what?"
"Sora," V said, his voice firm and decisive. "You get those files and then you get out of there as fast as you can. Leave the self-destruct to me." Quistis' eyes widened in shock.
"But...but, V-"
"Don't worry, Sora. I know what I'm doing. Trust me."
"...alright. If you say so. Good luck, V."
"You too, Sora. And let me just say, it was an honour to meet you." Before Sora could question the meaning of his words, V shut his earpiece off.
"What do you mean you'll go?" Quistis asked in shock.
"It's time to end this game," V replied. As he talked he was going round the room, gathering many of his flawless steel daggers and attaching them to his belt. "The hour is at hand. On the brink of defeat I finally see what I must do. No more tricks, no more lies, only truth."
"You can't be certain of that!" Quistis cried.
"There is no certainty, only opportunity. And my opportunity has come."
"Every Stormtrooper in the city is out looking for you! Even if you do get to the Central Control, Bast will be too heavily guarded. If you go, you'll die!" V fell silent again.
"I know."
"But I don't want you to die!" Quistis cried and rushed to grab his arms. V simply stared at her, and saw that tears had already begun accumulating in her eyes. Gently, he brushed away a tear that threatened to fall down her cheek.
"That's the most beautiful thing you could have ever given me." Quistis tried to choke back her tears. Slowly, she reached for his mask, only for V to gently push her hands away. "Quistis, please," he whispered. "There is a face behind this mask, but it is not me. I'm no more that face than I am the muscles beneath it, or the bones beneath them." Quistis frowned. Once again she reached for the mask and V tensed. But this time, she placed her hands on both sides of his head, and kissed the mouth of his mask. They may not have actually kissed , their lips may never have met, but that moment meant more to both of them than if they actually had.
Quistis pulled away at last and gazed up. V didn't have any quick words to deliver or any quotes to say. He was merely silent, mysterious, the man she had fallen in love with. V touched her face again, pulled her in close, and whispered two words.
"I'm sorry."
V abruptly tore away from her. There were no more words to be said as he swept out the door, not once looking back. Quistis couldn't hold the tears back any longer, collapsed to her knees and buried her face in her hands.
Up above in the city of Radiant Garden, one more player entered the fight. Like a bat outta hell burst V, riding on the back of a swift black-feathered Chocobo, his black clothes blending perfectly to his mount. He was like a dark blur rushing through the battle-locked streets, a figure the fighting Stormtroopers quickly noticed. "There he is!" they shouted. "The real one! On the black turkey!" They opened fired wherever he went, lasers flying after him, but so fast was his ride that no lasers could touch him. He crashed into the Stormtroopers, striking out with his daggers with his black Chocobo kicking about as well, his face an unreadable mystery beneath his mask. They ran on, unhindered.
That was until into his path rushed two troopers riding speeder bikes, tearing down the streets firing their blasters as they made a straight line for him. He dodged the lasers one by one and drew two of his daggers from his belt, before he whipped them at his attackers, striking both Stormtroopers in the chest and knocking them from their bikes. The empty speeders flew past both sides of him leaving them to crash into a wall in one big explosion. Another obstacle appeared: an AT-ST which opened fired as soon as its crew saw him. Dodging lasers yet again, V drew another dagger and, with careful precision, threw it in-between one of its leg joints. V and his Chocobo rushed on past it and it turned to follow but, with the dagger lodged it its leg, its joints seized up and it collapsed to the pavement with a loud crash.
V whipped the reigns to his mount, and the Chocobo spread its large black wings to take off from the ground with a great flap. The bird flapped some more, staying aloft, carrying her rider up and over the rooftops until finally landing on one. V quickly dismounted.
"Good girl," V thanked rubbing the Chocobo's neck. "Now go on. It's not safe here." The black Chocobo nuzzled his hand affectionately before she took off in another flight. V watched it go, then turned his attention back to the task at hand. Taking off in a run he jumped the rooftops from one to the next, never slowing, never faltering, a straight path to the great Citadel of Heart looming in the distance.
KHKHKHKH
On their Light Cycles Sora, Kairi, Jack, Mulan, Shelke and Tron managed to elude their pursuers and now made a straight line towards the imposing CPU housing the malicious MCP. "There it is!" Tron shouted. "We're gonna make it!" Unfortunately, the fifty or so light tanks and battle drones standing between them and the tower thought otherwise. Standing on the top of the lead battle drone was Sark himself, sneering down at them as they came to a halt.
Everyone emerged from their Light Cycles and brandished their weapons. "Tron, how nice it is to see you again," Sark drawled. "I guess it wouldn't be a true reunion if you weren't troubling the MCP once again. But this time I will net lot you succeed."
"Let me?" Tron asked coyly. "Last time I checked I beat you hands down." Sora chuckled appreciatively.
Sark scowled. "Then you wouldn't mind if we had a rematch?" he sneered, waving for his forces to hold their fire. His ship landed and he jumped down to confront Tron. "But I warn you, I'm much stronger than I was last time. You're looking at the new and improved Sark 2.0."
"And I bet I'm still better than you!" Tron bravely replied. He twirled his Identity Disk like a pistol and smiled mischievously. "Game on!" Sark hurled his disk immediately but Tron blocked it with his own, then whipped it at the now defenseless Sark...and yet not so defenseless, as Sark's ID disk came back to knock Tron's aside.
"Hang on, Tron!" Sora called.
"Sora, look out!" Kairi called. She knocked away a tank's energy blast back at it, blowing it up. "I think we better deal with our own problems first!"
"When did your problems become mine?" Jack demanded. He blew tanks away with his Keyblade's wind power and sent battle drones crashing into each other.
"When you said yes to joining us!" Mulan shouted back, blowing drones out of the sky.
"And I've regretted it ever since!"
Tron and Sark dueled it out in full force, Identity Disks flying back and forth like frisbees. "Remember when I said we'd make a great team, Tron?" Sark asked mockingly. "Well, I was wrong! You'd do nothing but hold me back!" He threw his disk with his strongest throw yet right at Tron's head. But if there was one thing Tron was good at, it was being unexpected. He blocked Sark's ID disk with his own again, then threw his in the air and kicked it like a soccer star right back at Sark's face, splitting his head open, sparks and circuitry spilling out.
"Somehow, I doubt that," Tron stated looking at Sark's twitching body.
Sora defended Shelke by deflecting blasts of energy from tanks and drones. "We don't have time for this! We have to get to the MCP and stop that download!" A bright light burst from the CPU, brightening the dark sky.
"The download is almost complete," Shelke said looking at the light. "The files are almost completely uploaded. We're running out of time."
"Sora!" Mulan called over the fighting. "You guys go on ahead! Jack and I will handle this!"
"Jack and I will what?!" Jack spluttered.
Sora blasted a tank to pieces with a firaga making a path to the CPU. "Thanks guys! We'll be back!" Sora, Tron, Kairi and Shelke jumped in their Light Cycles and sped off to stop the MCP, leaving Jack and Mulan in the centre of a light tank and battle drone force.
"Yet another situation Captain Jack has found himself in on the account of a woman," Jack sighed. "However, this does not deter my great love for women. Especially one as irresistible as you, love."
"You're a real charmer," Mulan commented dryly.
"Ha! You don't become a captain on good looks, great personality and strong affinity for rum alone! It also takes skill, wit, and...something else I don't have!" Mulan sighed. Why did she walways end up stuck with him?
KHKHKHKH
"Almost there," Bast whispered with a big smile. The downloading was now at 90, soon the Keyblade War files would soon be completely ready. "Come on, come on! Hurry up!"
KHKHKHKH
They reached the MCP's station, making short work of the guards outside and ran in to find a terrible sight inside. The red, cylindrical MCP was just as big as before, surrounded by hundreds of old worn-out programs magnetized to the walls and being drained of their energy. Not just their energy, bits and pieces of information that each one of them carried, the Keyblade War files. With each bit of information he absorbed, the MCP grew bigger and more powerful. "Oh no. This is horrible!" Kairi gasped.
"Download progress at 90," the voice of the MCP sounded. "This information is rich. With each amount my power grows. Once I've completely downloaded it all, I'll have enough power to seize control of all Radiant Garden. This world will fall before my might, they all will!"
"Not a chance!" Sora yelled and threw his Keyblade at MCP's core, but a wall of shields flew up to protect it.
"Foolish, boy," the MCP boomed. "Your powers are no match for mine. Though they will make a fine addition. With the Keyblader's power, no world will be barred from me!" Sora was suddenly wrenched from the ground and stuck to an empty wall with the other helpless programs. He cried in pain as his powers began draining from his body.
"No! Sora!" Tron shouted, hurling his disk at Sora, but the shields blocked that as well. "No! This can't happen! I won't let it!"
"What do we do?" Kairi screamed. No matter what spell she fired, the MCP easily knocked it away. Sora was becoming a skeleton wrapped in a flimsy electron skin, slowly fading away. "He's dying! We have to do something!"
"We have to disrupt the MCP's processing somehow," Shelke said looking at the growing MCP. "It'll be too busy trying to rectify its discrepancy to maintain its shielding."
"But how do we do that?" Kairi asked desperately.
She got her answer when the wall to the central housing suddenly exploded in a shower of sparks and digital pieces. Everyone's eyes shot to that spot to see a battle drone ship fly through the newly made hole. It was Sark's lead battle drone, damaged and breaking, and it was careening straight for the MCP. "SARK!" the MCP yelled. "What is the meaning of this?" Little did the MCP know that it wasn't Sark driving.
"Oh, better far to live and die, under the brave black flag I fly!" Captain Jack Sparrow sang happily from the cockpit of Sark's ship, piloting and singing like the pirate he was. "Then play a sanctimonious part, with a pirate head and a pirate heart! Away to the cheating world go you, where pirates all are well-to-do; but I'll be true to the song I sing, and live and die a Pirate King!"
"Are you insane!?" Mulan yelled, holding on to whatever she could as Jack flew. "What am I saying, of course you're insane!"
"If I wasn't, this would probably never work!" Jack laughed. Punching the boosters, the ship picked up in speed and Jack made a straight path, for the MCP's cylindrical head.
"FOOLS!" the MCP roared. More shields rose in the path of the ship, only for it to smash through the shields like glass one after the other, sustaining even more damage and continuing on. We're gonna want to abandon ship, now," Jack informed Mulan calmly.
"What? Why?" Mulan asked.
"Because I don't want to be here when this thing crashes into the giant spinning head."
"WHAT?!" Jack unexpectedly lifted Mulan off her feet like a man carrying his bride and kicked open the door. They jumped from the ship screaming their heads off. Sark's ship was left to crash right into the MCP's spinning form, a great portion of it consumed in a digitized explosion.
It all happened at once. The MCP stopped spinning, its interface going haywire. Its shields didn't disappear , but they did stop moving, leaving a gap large enough for one attack. Tron took his Identity Disk, reared back for a full swing and hurled it straight into the MCP's core. This sent everything into chaos. The MCP cried out in agony, everything that was part of it coming apart. Sora and the other programs were released from their binds as the MCP reached its limits, and exploded. All that was left of the MCP was an old, withered program in a sphinx-like container. He gazed sadly at the users and programs that had defeated it, and finally vanished all together.
Kairi helped Sora to his feet as he shook his head, free from the MCP's grasp. "Wow," he grinned. "What a rush!"
KHKHKHKH
Bast stared with horrid unblinking eyes at the computer screen that suddenly went blank.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
Bast grabbed the nearest officer and shook the man fiercely. "What happened?! What's going on!? Where did the files go!?" The downloading process was at 97 before it disappeared all together. The entire system just shut down with no warning.
"Hey there, Bast!" On the computer screen appeared a boy, clad in blue armour that seemed attached to his skin. But Bast recognized him right away, his mouth falling open in utter astonishment. "Hope we weren't interrupting anything," Sora grinned. "We know how important the work of you Empire guys is."
"You?" Bast whispered, pointing at the screen. "What are you doing here? You can't be here! Th-This is your doing, isn't it?!" Bast growled furiously when Sora stuck his tongue out at him, so muchso that he grabbed the same poor officer and started shaking him again. "Get them back! Get those files back before-"
"Chief Bast." Sora's face on the screen was replaced by one that was far, far worse. "Where are those files, Bast?" Darth Vader demanded, voiced laced with venom. Bast dropped the officer, his hands shaking uncontrollably.
"L-L-Lord Vader," he stammered. "W-We're working on it, My Lord. I have everything under c-control! Believe me!" Vader said nothing, merely stared at Bast, who quivered under his gaze. "P-Please, Lord Vader! I just need more time!" Vader gave no reaction, or as far as Bast could tell with that terrifying mask constantly staring at him.
"I see," Vader finally said. "Goodbye, Bast." With that, he simply switched off.
Bast blinked in astonishment. "What did he mean by-?"
"G'day, gents."
Every Stormtrooper, officer and technician in the room jumped in surprise. Chief Bast rounded to the room's centre. There he stood in the middle of the room, without even a whisper to acknowledge his entrance, the grin on his mask quite an unnerving sight at that moment.
"Penny for the guy?" V asked.
KHKHKHKH
The only remains of the MCP was the task it was trying to complete. The data on the Keyblade War lingered in air of the CPU building, untouched with nowhere to go. "Shelke, you know what to do," Sora said. Shelke nodded. She stepped up, closed her eyes and waited, until she opened her eyes again as orange arm. The data suddenly started streaming into her body, bit by bit, piece by piece, it looked like her small body couldn't contain it all. Somehow, though, she managed, the last bit of information stored away safely into her mind.
"Amazing," Tron complimented. "You Users never cease to amaze me."
"I never cease to amaze myself," Jack Sparrow grinned. He cast a glance at Mulan and winked slyly. Mulan turned away, thanking she didn't have blood in this world. She'd surely be blushing.
"Indeed!" Tron said cheerfully. "Now you guys better get out of here. I have a feeling you're gonna want to be out there once the self-destruct activates."
"But, Tron, what will happen to you?" Kairi asked worriedly. "If the Central Control explodes, won't that mean the Space Paranoids will too?"
Tron laughed. "Not to worry, Kairi. The computers may break, but this world and we programs will always be here. So once everything is back to normal, I'll be waiting." Kairi smiled and unexpectedly hugged Tron around the waist. "Whoa! Sora, I thought you said Users didn't like to hug?" Sora looked away from Jack and Mulan's perplexed glances.
"What kind of freaky stuff were you doing in here?" Jack asked.
KHKHKHKH
"What the hell are you doing here?" Bast snarled at the masked man before him, backed up by a dozen Stormtroopers at his sides, rifles kept on the enemy. It was just them and him in the Central Control, all the computer officers having fled once the excitement started. "Who are you!?"
"Me?" V asked coyly. "I'm the king of the twentieth century. The boogeyman. The hero. The villain. The black sheep of the family. Tell me, Bast, which do you think suits me best?" Bast growled in furious rage.
"You worthless rebel! This is all your fault! You've been a thorn in my side ever since I got here! You're a fool if you think you can defy the might of the Empire!"
"Empire's are made to fall, Bast, or aren't you caught up on your histoty? Your's will as well."
"Lord Vader is going to have my head for this failure," Bast growled. "The least I can do before I die is have yours. Take off your mask."
"No." replied V. Bast scowled further. He motioned for two Stormtroopers, who nodded. They approached V cautiously on both sides of him, their rifles kept at the ready, and one of them reached to take off his mask. It all happened so fast. Swiftly V struck both troopers in the chest, drew one of his daggers and cut one trooper across the throat, then quickly rounded and did the same to the other. Both crumpled to the ground lifelessly. The remaining Stormtroopers tensed nervously. Bast swallowed the lump in his throat.
"Defiant till the end, huh?" Bast chuckled despite what just happened.
"I don't see why you have such a strong need to see my face, Bast," V said cleaning the blood from his dagger. "Don't you remember me?"
"What the bloody hell are you talking about?" Bast growled.
"Try to remember, Bast. More than ten years ago? Planet Cronus?" Bast's brow furrowed. Planet Cronus wasn't a name he'd heard in a very long time. Mostly because it was a top secret research facility created and implemented by the Empire, never to be spoken of. In fact, he used to be the administrator there in his early career. It was where the super soldier project was to be implemented. The Empire had a strong army, but it could always be stronger. In order to achieve the perfect soldier they needed test subjects to do their experiments on, and subjects were provided by...less than conventional means. Men, women, aliens from many worlds were tested and experimented on, but little yielded results. Every time the results ended in the death of their subjects.
But there was one subject there who did not succumb to the tests, one man out of hundreds that survived all experimentation, one from whom beneficial results were yielded. His strength developed fundamentally, his reflexes were raised to Olympic-like levels, and his mental capacity expanded tenfold. Bast never knew the man's real name, all the subjects were given numbers, and in his case he was subject number five. Or in roman numeral form...
V
Bast's eyes widened in realization. "You...," he whispered. V didn't reply, he just stared. "It can't be. You should have died when the facility exploded!"
"Well, it wouldn't be very good for me to die in an explosion I created now, would it?"
"So, what? You've spent all these years tracking me down? For revenge!?"
"Not just you," V replied nonchalant. "The doctors that prodded me, the scientists that experimented on me, you'll be happy to know they've moved on to a better place." Bast unconsciously started sweating. "But this is not about revenge, Bast. This is about a message. An idea, if you will. 'Spare the rod, spoil the child'.
"Rubbish," Bast sneered. "You're nothing but a killer. A man who'd do anything to get what he wants, no matter how many perish along the way. In that way, you're a lot like me."
"The only thing you and I have in common, Bast, is that we're both about to die." Bast scoffed dismissiveley.
"And how do you imagine that'll happen?"
"With my hands round your neck." Bast shivered at the pure coldness in V's voice.
"Y-Yeah right," Bast scoffed, regaining his confidence. "What've you got? Nothing, that's what! Nothing but your little knives and fancy karate moves!" He gestured to the Stormtroopers. "We've got guns."
"No. What you have are lasers and the hope that when your guns are empty I'm no longer standing, because if I am, you'll all be dead before you've reloaded."
"Shut up!" Bast yelled. He drew a laser pistol from his belt. "Kill him!" He and the Stormtroopers opened fired in earnest. Lasers from a dozen rifles bombarded V in the chest in a merciless firestorm. V staggered and buckled under the assault as the Stormtroopers never let up, Bast taking considerable pleasure when each laser hit. Only when all their rifles clicked empty did they at last stop.
V hunched over in pain. However, to Bast's horror, he stood right back up. He looked completely unharmed, and he was breathing. It just wasn't possible. As V regained his posture, he spoke two words that made Bast heart drop.
"My turn."
Two daggers were already in V's hand and he hurled them ahead embedding them in the Stormtroopers on Bast's left and right, both falling dead on the ground. V drew two more daggers, spun them in his hands, and charged them head on. V slashed on trooper twice across the chest and was already moving on to the next. He was like a spectre of death, striking out with his daggers, throwing them between their eyes, killing every Imperial in his path. Frantically, the Stormtroopers tried to reload their weapons but V moved much faster, cutting them to the quick before they could, just like he said he would. Bast watched in horror as V slashed, stabbed, and sliced through his Stormtroopers, backed away and ran to the computer terminal, activating the communications.
"Execute plan: NO HEART!" he screamed. A final thud sounded behind him, and he turned to the terrible sight. V had killed the last of the Stormtroopers, standing in the middle of their bodies, his concealed eyes now turning to Bast. Fear washed over Bast like fire and frantically drew his pistol again. He fired again and again as V staggered weakly over to him, the lasers striking his chest seemingly doing nothing. "Die! Die! Die! Why won't you DIE!?" Bast's pistol clicked empty as he backed up against the computer. "Why won't you die?" he whispered. V came right up to him, his breathing harsh and laboured, and whispered so Bast could hear.
"Because, Bast," V rasped. "Beneath this mask there is more than flesh. Beneath this mask there is an idea. And ideas are invincible." V grabbed Bast by the throat and lifted him clean off the floor. The man kicked and thrashed in V's powerful grip, fear evident in his eyes, and V squeezed tighter, until there was a sickening snap, and Bast's struggling stopped all together. He then let the body drop to the floor with the other Imperials.
V clutched his chest and breathed with great difficulty. He opened up the front of his clothes, exposing the hidden white Stormtrooper body armour he kept strapped to his chest, scorched from laser blasts. It had taken the blunt of the Stormtrooper fire, but the damage was still extensive. This was made certain when he unclasped the armour, blood pouring from his clothes in buckets. But he couldn't stop now. There was a task yet to be done.
With each step causing him more and more pain V staggered over to the Central Control computer and inputted his commands into the system. In a matter of moments his typing took effect, a feminine computer voice announcing, "Central control self-destruct activated. Please evacuate the area immediately."
"No," V grunted, slowly succumbing to his wounds. "But thanks for the offer."
That same announcement sounded through the entire citadel, where it was heard by Sora, Jack, Mulan, Kairi and Shelke once they were out of the computer. "I think that's our cue to get out of here!" Kairi gulped.
"I think you're right!" Sora agreed. "Come on, let's go!"
Meanwhile, deep within the citadel, the very last orders of Chief Bast were about to be fulfilled. Imperial scientists rushed to complete preparations for plan NO HEART. The basis of the plan, a single Shadow Heartless, piddled around in a glass plated containment cell, slamming itself against the glass in an attempt to feed on the hearts of its captors. However, they had something different in store for this Heartless. One man pressed a button, and two ray guns lowered into the cell, both of them firing at the Shadow. The Heartless began to undertake an instant change. Thanks to the rays, it began to grow, its genes manipulating and twisting, until it grew too big for even its cell, which shattered as it grew bigger. Scientists screamed and tried to run, only to have the Heartless' giant arm to snatch them up and devour them in one gulp. All this as it continued to grow...
Back in the Central Control V sat on the leaned against the computer, his blood forming a puddle on the floor, the self-destruct counting down. "'The fate of all occurs not by chance,'" V quoted in a whisper as his vision clouded. "'The fate of all is inevitable. Each of their fates pass through and gather together'. Remember that, Sora. For the time will come once again when all fates depend on you." V pulled out of his clothes a scarlet carson flower, darkness slowly taking him. "Farewell, Quistis...my love..." That flower was the last thing he saw as he silently passed on, right as the countdown reached zero.
The explosion was seen and heard all across the city of Radiant Garden. All fighting momentarily ceased and all eyes turned to the city centre where the great Citadel of Heart suddenly burst with fire, the Imperial symbol now adorning its centre blown apart, in an almost theatrical display. Sparks and flames shot up into the sky like fireworks, two large balls of flame curving identically into the air, looking to the entire city like a massive letter V.
Back in the hideout, Quistis heard it as well, sitting curled in ball, clutching a small red flower to her chest.
And that concludes another chapter. Be sure to write nice reviews, adapt the original story (Darius Almighty's work) on DeviantArt, turn it into a webcomic or post the story on TV tropes or follow and favorite it. And remember may your heart be your guiding key!