The scren flickers a bit before a theater appears and a next to the projector was...a very tired looking author next to the projector.
*Hey guys Hakuorofan7 here and welcome to another chapter of From No One To Someone...*
*Sorry if I seem out of it, but ot is due to a personal issue I do not not wish to talk about in my writings. I should snap out my current funk sooner or later*
*But I will keep this short, as you have all been waiting for this chapter for so long and the action that is about to go down.*
*So ladies and gents, I believe it is time to begin.*
*First off I do not own Kingdom Hearts.*
*Finally just sit back, relax, maybe put some music on, and enjoy. I will see you all at the end of the chapter.*
The author taps the prejector and the screen flares to life and the chapter begins.
The Valkyrie of Radiant Garden
"Pleasure doing business with you." Roxas said as he pocketed the elixirs and potions that he had just bought from the Moggle behind the counter.
"No problem, come back anytime. But next time wait till I open up, kupo." The Moogle said as Roxas left his store.
About 10 minutes earlier the Nobody had stepped out of the Corridor of Darkness and scared the everliving daylights out of the Moogle who was just opening up shop after his launch break.
After buying a few elixirs, the Moogle stopped screaming and immediately composed himself in front of a paying customer and not a thieve.
Roxas managed to get some words in from the Moogle about the condition of the world and was displeased with what he heard.
The Unversed basically had this world within a death grip as civilians mainly stayed inside for about half of a week through random attacks and most except the bravest ones not coming out unless knowing that Ansem's apprentices in the area to clear out the Unversed, which the Moogle complained was bad for business. The only other time to go out was with what were random times were the Unversed activity decreased exponentially for a few hours and it was currently in the middle of such a time.
Which was a good thing, because he was not exactly comfortable with meeting with the Somebody's of the Organization's founders. Of course there was still a chance, but he didn't want to risk it. Especially if one of them were Xigbar's or Xaldin's original self.
But that could wait, he needed to find Kairi before the Unversed did…which was easier said then done.
Radiant Garden was a far cry from its future as Hollow Bastion. The Heartless had completely demolished it and reduced it to a husk of it's former glory. Instead of a desolations wasteland and a fortified town, the world was a green metropolis. The idea picture of a perfect city.
Minus the Unversed infesting the city of course.
So until he decided to take the simple option and spread his senses to max in order to find her unlike with trying to find Ven. It was going to cause one hell of a headache as this was a massive city instead of the woodlands. But it would be worth it if it meant that Kairi was safe.
The Nobody stopped as he felt the sudden need to protect her more then anything else and sighed once he realized what was causing it.
"Damn it Sora." Roxas cursed under his breath as he pushed that desire down. He knew that he inherited a few things from his Somebody, but that is one thing he would be stomping out when he could.
It was more of a nuisance to him anyway.
Collecting his thoughts, the Nobody spread his sense to the max and grabbed his head in pain as the backlash came to him.
In that one moment Roxas managed to pinpoint Kairi's location, along with a few others that he knew through Sora.
Leon, Aerith, Cloud, and Yuffie with the latter closest to Kairi. The others scattered around the fringes of his senses.
Ansem as well inside his castle, cause the Nobody to restrain the urge to get some payback at the man for the treatment that once afflicted on himself and Naminé. Only to restrain himself once he reasoned that this Ansem wasn't the same one in his timeline and hadn't been banished to the Realm of Darkness.
The rest were ones that he didn't recognize. A few strong hearts and a few oddities like a heart that was saturated in darkness and a heart that while had a strong light felt like a void much to his curiosity.
But that wasn't even the main vocal point of his headache.
He had picked up what was possibly the 2nd strongest heart he had ever sensed, stronger the anyone else bar the Master of Masters. The real kicker was that it felt like most of the power was dormant.
He made a quick prayer to Kingdom Hearts that this person was friendly, because if not and they unlock the true potential of their heart it will only spell disaster to whoever they faced.
Roxas gathered his thoughts and began to walk through the town towards Kairi's location at a brisk pace. He had to check on her quickly and head back to Terra soon. He had been gone a few hours and he didn't wish for Terra to wake up while he was gone.
That and as the Moogle said the times of Unversed activity was random. So he hoped to check up her before the time ran out or otherwise it would be a repeat of what happened with the Ras Al-Gul back in Agrabah.
In the deepest bowls of the aqueducts of Radiant Garden, there was a secret hidden from all of the residents of the city, bar one.
It was a dark chamber were the light of day never touched. The only visible lights were the red eyes of Unversed clinging to ceiling.
And a massive pair of red eyes down below in the water, stretching it's extremities for a moment.
They all were created for one purpose and one purpose alone, to wreck havoc on Radiant Garden once their king gave the order and to kill a certain target of their king.
To that end they spent their entire time down here, absorbing the negativity generated by their lesser brethren and the chaos getting spread. Getting a little stronger by the day. Although they were plenty strong as it was, their king was earring on the side of caution in order to boast their strength before their fateful time.
As it was an order from there king they didn't mind, but the largest one had to keep the order within this place as quite a number of them were quite reckless with all of the waiting.
Still they were ready at a moments notice, such as when a figure entered their chamber through a Corridor of Darkness.
Fireballs were trained at the figure from all of the Unversed on the ceiling and the largest one producing lightning from it's mouth. Only to dispel it once they saw who it was.
There king had returned.
"Good to see that you all are ready for battle, especially you big guy." Vanitas said as he walked to the largest Unversed, who let out a small growl as its king approached.
"Nice to see that you are keeping things in line big guy. Believe me if anyone of the Lurkers get out it would have spelt nothing but trouble for you. You might be strong, but against her there is still a good chance that you might lose. So until then you can't get out." Vanitas said as he stroked on of the Unversed's horns, getting it to growl softly. "But I can't say the same thing for the rest of the Lurkers."
The Unversed in question began to chatter in a chorus of growls and roars from the ceiling, until their king raised his hand to silence them.
"I need you all to quite down otherwise you would expose us all. Our accomplice has told me and the old goat that Ansem and his apprentice Even are working on radar devices to check for activity in the aqueducts." He said, silencing the Unversed. "Good, now listen here you are are now free to roam around the aqueducts until the time is right. Other then that keep doing what you are doing and do not get caught, do you all understand?"
The large Unversed let out a soft roar and the flickering red lights of the Lurkers indicated yes.
"Good now here is were things get a little interesting. I need about…let's say 8 Lurkers to come before me front and center." Vanitas said before a few seconds later a small clattering of fluttering wings and a splash or two sounded off before the Unversed in question appear before him, their heads bowed.
"Alright the task I have for you eight is suicidal, but I trust you all have no objections to this?" Vanitas questioned, only getting silence in return. "Fantastic, now you all have one task. Bring me the girl with a heart full of pure light back to me in the outer gardens if possible and if you have the chance fulfill your main objective and kill Roxas while your at it. Leave anyone else alive and bring anyone else you can with an interesting heart. Of course you all will most likely fail, but you all will cause more chaos then what your brethren can dish out and empowering the rest of you. Still you is ready to to stretch their claw and wings out."
The eight Lurkers in front of him let out a collective roar, happy to oblige and a chance to slaughter anyone.
Like all the Unversed they were absolutely loyal to their king.
But there were a few differences to them as they were created with specifically one purpose in mind.
To be nigh invulnerable killing machines. They were created solely for combat and for killing a certain target in mind.
One of Ansem's apprentices and what their king considered to be a potential big threat to them, a pink haired woman nicknamed the Valkyrie of Radiant Garden due to her combat prowess and the sheer ease she has with decimating the Unversed.
They knew though they might never succeed, but they were eager for a chance anyway. Even if their boss himself declared itself the one to kill her.
Still they were excited for the chance to do so right now.
"Good answer." Vanitas said as the Unversed in question dispersed into puffs of darkness. "Make sure the rest of the Lurkers behave until the time comes." He said as he opened a Corridor of Darkness and stepped through it as the large Unversed let out a roar in reply.
Vanitas stepped out onto one of the castle's balconies and pulled out a piece of paper and pen before moving onto a ledge and sitting on it.
"Gula would have loved this view." Vanitas said softly as he started to write on his paper. "The city reminds me of Daybreak Town from this point." He briefly reminisced before shaking those thoughts free.
He could do so after his test for Roxas, that is if he was right.
Speaking of which.
'Is Roxas in Radiant Garden?' He asked while contacting the intelligent Unversed, still clinging to the Keyblade wielder's back.
'He is my king.' The Unversed replied.
'Perfect, continue your mission until I contact you again.' Vanitas said, cutting off the connection. He continued to write on the paper for a few more moments before drawing a rune onto it. A quick tap of his finger and the rune pulsated a bit before fading away.
"Looks like everyone is all set." Vanitas said before summoning the Lurkers around him.
As soon as they were summoned, they all vanished. The only tell tail signs of their existence were their flickering red eyes.
"The cloaking should last about five minutes. Enough time for you all to get down there and prepare yourselves for battle. Once it wares off then you all are free to carry out my orders, understood?" Vanitas said, getting the Unversed to roar in excitement before pushing themselves off of the castle, cracking the walls behind them.
"Looks like they do." Vanitas said before folding the paper and hopping through another Corridor of Darkness.
Roxas had just arrived at what he had to guess was the city's central square. He had to admit it was pretty nice. A scenic view of the castle in the distance, some lovely mosaic and gardens all around, and kids with their families running around with-.
Roxas barely held in a scream as a kid in question just ran over his foot. And judging by the feel of the kid's heart it was Yuffie.
"Sorry!" She said before running off, going back to chasing the other kids.
"Seems that she is just about as energetic as ever." Roxas muttered as he began to look for Kairi among the people here.
Which wasn't easy seeing that there were a lot here at the moment. So the Nobody began to look around for her, and once again felt like he bumped into something. But he looked around to see that there was nothing there.
Until his senses picked up the signature of a heart right behind him.
"You alright kid?" A voice said behind him, a voice he dreaded of hearing.
Turning behind him he saw what he had been dreading to see.
Xigbar's Somebody, who hardly looked like he did in the future.
He looked about 10 years younger, had both eyes which were both brown and not gold, his ears weren't pointed, and his hair was much shorter along with lacking the white stripe he held.
Other then that he was pretty much what he pictured a young Xigbar to be, minus the gray uniform.
"I'm alright, just looking for someone I haven't seen in a while." Roxas said evenly, getting Xigbar's former identity to nod.
"I see then, do you need any help looking for this person kid?" Xigbar's Somebody said, getting the Nobody to shake his head. "Fine then, be on your way then-ahh!" He cried out as Yuffie ran over his foot playing tag with a few other kids. Giving a chance for Roxas to leave.
"Sorry!" She shouted back to him as he clutched his foot.
"Little hellspawn, that's the third time this week." He muttered out, before seeing someone approach him. "How do you deal with kids like her Even!"
"For one I do not deal with kids like her Braig." Even, Vexen's Somebody said as he approached him. "Besides I've only looked after one child and Ienzo still won't come out of his shell accept for around Aeleus."
"Minus your sister you mean." Braig said as he set his foot down
"Clair was always the standoffish type, more so now then ever." Even said before placing a hand behind his head, as if expecting something.
And a small pebble flew right into it.
"You would think that basically raising her for the better part of 7 years would give me some respect with her, but apparently it doesn't." Even sighed out as he dropped the pebble to the ground.
"She lets you call her by her real name most of the time while the rest us of besides master Ansem and the kid receive the cold shoulder, the rest of us receive more then a simple rock to the head." Braig said, before a pebble bounced off of his forehead. "Ow."
"I swear I don't know where she gets it from." Even said, catching another pebble.
"I don't blame you, since you've been nothing more then a mother hen to her." Braig chuckled out. "Speaking of which, were is your new fledgling? Hanging off of Aeleus once again?"
"Not at all, I asked master to look after him. It is time for me to cheek up on Nero and I figured he would be in the square." Even said, getting Braig to nod.
"Good choice, you might want to hurry though. Last thing we want is for him to go off during the middle of another Unversed attack. He should be with his brother, Rosso, and that little red headed girl…what was her name again?" Braig said before snapping his fingers. "It's Kairi isn't it?"
"Correct, anything else I should know?" Even asked.
"Nothing much, a suspicious looking kid but that's all. Besides I think that your sister may have that covered." Braig said, pointing towards a nearby roof.
The two apprentices saw a flash a pink as a blur raced around the rooftops until stopping, surveying the area for a target.
"So we have nothing to worry about, unless the Unversed attack again." Braig said, brandishing his arrowguns. "Still I suggest that you hurry up and grab the kids. I have a feeling that things will get ugly soon."
"I'll keep that in mind." Even said he disappeared into crowds of people.
He might have been the senior apprentice, but when it came to the matters of the Unversed Braig and Clair where his superiors in dealing with them.
Once Even had disappeared, Braig trained one of his arrowguns directly at one of the Unversed trailing after Roxas.
"Looks like things are about to get interesting." He said with a grin, looking forward with what was about to come
Roxas spent about another minute looking for Kairi, when he felt that he was being stalked. Seems like Xigbar's Somebody might have pointed him out and now he had the person he wanted to avoid the most tailing him.
So he just needed to find Kairi fast and then book it into a Corridor of Darkness.
He was getting closer to her location, when something tackled into him and sent him sprawling onto the floor.
"Nero get off of him." A voice called, getting the Nobody to see what had struck him.
Sprawled out on him was a small boy, possibly around 5 years old with black hair and magenta eyes with slit pupils. He was wearing a gray shirt with a wing pattern on the back, blue shorts, and gray sneakers. But that was not the most unusual thing about the boy, his heart was almost completely saturated with darkness.
He had sensed this same heart earlier and if what he sensed earlier was of any indication, then the void like one he sensed earlier was not that far behind.
He was proven right when the boy, Nero if he heard right was pulled off of him by a tall boy who looked to be around 9 with spikey white hair and blue eyes with a yellow ring around his pupils. He was decked out in simple all white clothing.
The white haired boy plopped Nero down onto his feet and offered the Nobody his hand.
"Sorry about Nero, he must've been attracted to your light." The white haired boy said as he helped Roxas up.
Roxas was a little taken aback, these boys where capable of sensing his light. Something that was unusual given most people couldn't even sense another, but it was not unheard of.
So he didn't expect that these two boys would be able to sense him, it wasn't unusual.
"Honestly I am not surprised, I guess he does this sort of thing often?" Roxas asked, getting the white haired boy to shake his head.
"Not at all, only those with a strong light like Braig, Lightning, and Kairi." The boy said, once again surprising the Nobody.
He could understand Kairi, had no clue who this Lightning was, but the last one he guessed was Xigbar's somebody.
Seriously Xigbar's Somebody of all people had a strong light in his heart, then again he didn't sensed his heart as he was actively avoiding the man. It seemed that he was every bit unpredictable as his Nobody was.
Roxas was broken out of his thoughts when he noticed Nero pulling on the older boy's pant leg.
"What is it Nero?" The older boy asked as Nero gestured for him to lean down. The older boy knelt down as Nero whispered into his ear. "Are you sure?" The boy asked, getting Nero to nod.
"Alright then it seems like Nero wants to introduce you to are friends." The boy said, getting Nero to nod and point to the left. The same direction he could sense Kairi from.
"Are you sure that is a good idea?" Roxas asked, before getting the older boy to chuckle.
"Personally no, but if my little brother wishes to do so with such certainty then who am I to judge. Besides I have a feeling that he only wants to be surrounded by so much light." The older boy said, getting Nero to pout. Possibly some truth to his words. "Still it will also keep Lightning from cutting you down."
Following the boy's gaze, he saw a pink blur on a nearby rooftop before it disappeared, this Lightning's heart clearly revealing that this was the same person following him.
"If you say so…" "Weiss, it's Weiss." Roxas said, before he was interjected by the now named Weiss. "Anyway Nero, would you like to lead the way?"
The younger boy nodded with a small smile, before walking forward with a small march. Getting the older boys to chuckle.
"Come on, I just want to enjoy this before he goes off once again." Weiss said before he and Roxas followed the younger boy.
"What do you mean?" Roxas asked, getting the white haired boy to point off to a small crater on the other side of the plaza. It's was completely scorched black and reeking of darkness.
"Nero and negativity never really go hand and hand. I try to keep him positive while otherwise he releases small bursts of darkness that scorches anything that touches it. Typically it isn't too bad, but with the Unversed around it has gotten worse." Weiss said with a sigh.
"Their increased negativity stresses him out more and causes more of these bursts?" Roxas asked, getting Weiss to nod.
"Correct and believe me it wasn't a pretty picture. The Ruler of this city, Ansem the Wise and his apprentices have been looking over him from time to time to hopefully stop these bursts or at least to control them." Weiss said with a sigh, getting the Nobody to nod with a hidden grimace.
If what Weiss said was true, then in a years time his younger brother would be a prime candidate for the experiments conducted by the very same people who run this world into ruining it given the condition of the boy's heart.
Hopefully nothing comes to pass this time.
Speaking of which, their was the issue of this Lightning still tailing him.
He should have at least heard of someone with this strong a heart in the Organization. The first 8 members all came from Radiant Garden, and with a heart as strong as this Lightning's it was almost 100% likely they would have become a Nobody along with the them when Radiant Garden fell.
Unless they weren't around at that point.
If so, then what happened to them then?
"You thinking about Lightning?" Weiss asked, snapping the Nobody out of his thoughts. "You keep looking back at her, but considering the fact that she is following you I would too. She has cut down so many Unversed with ease it is not even funny. Add in the fact she is undisputedly the strongest person in this city and her aloof demeanor has earned her the nickname the Valkyrie of Radiant Garden, much to her irritation, and the contestant amusement of Ansem's other apprentices."
"I see, definitely someone not to mess with." Roxas said truthfully, having no intention on messing with anyone during his trip. Only staying long enough to check Kairi and booking it back before Terra notices his abscense.
That and he was still a bit tired after dealing with the Ras Al-Gul not even an hour ago.
Still there was one thing that had the Nobody curious, if Lightning was an apprentice under Ansem. He should of at least heard about her from the more senior members of the Organization. So like the apprentices, something must've happened to her like with how the apprentices were no longer around.
Just another of many mysteries that keep seeming to pile up.
Still one to possibly explore.
Ones with hearts as strong as her's and Terra's do not simply disappear into thin air. The only reference he had was with the Master of Master's and he had probably disappeared at the end of the Age of Fairy Tales, a literal world shattering event. So something must've happened to her before Radiant Garden fell to darkness. Something that might turn up investigating after figuring out what would happen to his new friends and if possible prevent it.
"You seem to know quite a bit about her." Roxas said, getting Weiss to nod.
"I often see her while Nero and Rosso are getting checked up by Even, her older brother and senior apprentice under Ansem. They usually bicker a bit whenever they met, but he is just trying to look after his younger sibling like myself with Nero." Weiss said, surprising Roxas a bit.
Now he knew something happened to her.
If he was following the Organization's naming rule then Even was Vexen. Someone who had a habit about flaunting his achievements and seniority on occasion during the limited time he saw him during his first month at the Organization. So if the fact this Lightning was his little sister, then he should have at least mentioned her at least once.
Then again he probably did, but Roxas was only a month old at the time. So it would have been rather pointless to talk to him about it in the first place.
So the Nobody decided to let this issue lie for now.
"You mentioned that this Rosso was were Nero is trying to bring be too, does she have a similar issue like him?" Roxas asked, getting Weiss to shake his head.
"Nothing like that at all. In all honesty Rosso is being treated for a different issue. Just a word for the wise. Whatever you do, do not let Rosso bleed, a single drop of blood touch her, or let her see her own blood. It is not pleasant sight." The white haired boy said with a wince. "Last time that happen, Even had to reapply sedatives in order to knock her out and she had nearly beaten Dilan to a pulp."
"Noted." Roxas said with a wince while trying to hold in a chuckle.
If he was correct, then that meant that Xaldin, one of the strongest members of the Organization had gotten his ass handed to him possibly by a little girl which was a hilarious thought.
But still, what could cause such a reaction from a little girl involving blood in order to do so? Probably best not to test it out.
"If you are worried about Rosso, then don't be. When she isn't being terror and bloodlust incarnate, she is alright to be around. As for Kairi, other then lacking any darkness, she is a completely normal little girl." Weiss said before Nero began to point to a small patch of flowers in the square. "Speaking of which, here we are."
True to word, there were two red haired girls around the flower patch. An older one in red and black dress with crimson eyes and a younger one in a white and purple dress with blue eyes. With the older one looking after the younger one as she was picking flowers. Judging by the feel of their hearts he had could tell that the older one was Rosso and the younger one was definitely Kairi.
He had found Kairi and seemed to be doing all right.
He had accomplished his goal, but now he had two issues to deal with now.
First, how to shake off Lightning and vanish into a Corridor of Darkness.
Second, how to slip past Nero, who was currently dragging him towards the two girls at full speed.
This kid was deceptively strong for his size.
As Nero was dragging the Nobody along with him, Rosso noticed the three of them approaching.
"Glad you caught Nero Weiss, but who the hell is the flake he is dragging with him." Rosso said, before Weiss smacked her on the back of the head. "What the bloody hell was that for you pale haired arsehole!"
"One, stop using such language. Even has admonished you enough on that, especially around Kairi." Weiss said while pointing at the now confused looking Kairi. "Secondly this is Roxas, he is a bit similar to Kairi and Nero dragged him in order to meet them…that and to be surrounded by so much light."
Nero pouted at that.
"You know that it is true." Weiss said, getting his younger brother to huff. "Anyway Lighting is keeping an eye on him, so there nothing to worry about." He explained, getting Rosso to huff.
"Got it, so leave him bi Incase he effe up and get his arse handed to him. Fine." She said, getting the Nobody to sigh.
"Is she always like this?" Roxas asked, getting Weiss to nod.
"Sadly she is, I told you that she is alright to be around. She is a good friend once you get to know here…and past her stubborn streak and sailor's tongue that is." Weiss sighed out.
"Bugger off Weiss!" She holler back.
"See what I mean, anyway Roxas can you please look after Nero and Kairi for a minute. I just need to give this girl a tongue lashing." Weiss said as he walk over to the girl.
"Ok." Roxas said uncertainly, having no clue what to do in this situation before he felt a tug on his pant leg. Looking down he saw Nero trying to drag him over to the flower patch. "Alright I am coming just give me a second."
Nero nodded and rushed towards the flowers and started to shift through them. Roxas sat down next to him and began to look through the flower bed, unsure of what to do but decided to follow Nero's lead. He shifted through the flower bed until he found he found one that caught his attention.
It was a purple flower with a large yellow center. Figuring this would be a good one, Roxas gently picked it up from the ground.
"Xion."
The Nobody held the urge to scream as it felt like his body was struck by a full on strike of lightning…which given his experiences Heartless hunting he could say that it was a usually painful experience.
What the hell, how did they know that person's name.
That one word literally sent shocks through his body and brought along the similar sensation of his missing memories, only worse.
And as for the person who said it.
"What did you say?" Roxas asked, surpassing a groan.
"Shion." Kairi said, getting the Nobody to clutch his head in pain once again although without as much pain as last time.. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine, just a headache." Roxas lied, trying not to upset her. If her nod was of any indication it seemed to be working. "So That is what this flower is called then?"
"Not really, they are called something I can't pronounce. But Grandma calls them Shions." Kairi said, missing another wince from the Nobody. "She says they are used for medicine and they have a special meaning."
"And that is?" Roxas asked, the pain diminishing.
"They mean that 'I won't forget you.'" Kairi said, getting the Nobody to stare for a second.
Before he let out a chuckle which soon turned into a laugh.
Not the funny kind, but the hollow and heartbroken kind…well as heartbroken as one could get without a heart anyway.
Roxas just let out his laugh for a minute, before calming down and seeing the young redhead with a expression that was demanding for an answer.
"Sorry, I was just laughing at a bit of irony." Roxas said, confusing the girl. "It means the opposite of something. Anyway I have a friend named Xion, like the flower. Sad thing is that I can't remember then." He continued, oddly feeling at ease spilling this to her.
Once again, he blamed Sora.
"If they where your friend, why did you forget them?" She asked incredulously, shocked at the thought of forgetting one of her friends.
"Not by choice, and I dearly wish to remember them. But it is going slowly." Roxas sighed out, before the flower was stuffed into his face. "What?"
"Then take this, maybe this will help you remember them better." Kairi said while placing the flower into his hand.
Roxas just looked at it for a moment before he let out a small chuckle.
"Who knows maybe it will, maybe I will give it to them when I remember them." Roxas said, lying about the fact that he might never have the chance to do so. As Xion was possibly killed by Xemnas and erased from history.
But she didn't need to know that.
"I hope so too." Kairi said, before her face went pale and took a few steps back in fear along with Nero.
Before Roxas could even ask, a familiar presence made itself known to him.
"Fancy seeing you here Roxas."
The Nobody turned around and summoned Oblivion, with it trained at Vanitas's helmeted face. The two younger kids hiding behind Roxas.
"Relax I'm not here to try anything with you personally." Vanitas said, before producing a folded up piece of paper. "Just to say you might want to get the little kids out of this area, because I would prefer not to have any kids as casualties in what I'm about to do."
"And that is?" Roxas asked, ready to strike.
"Simple." Vanitas said, before throwing the paper towards him.
And dodging a bullet that cracked the glass on his helmet, alerting the people of the plaza. He dodged a few more shots and Roxas had to even block one with his Keyblade as Kairi and Nero coached behind his back.
It ended when people started to run out in panic and Vanitas summoned his Keyblade just in time to block an attack from someone else.
A woman who looked to be about as old as Terra with long pink hair and aqua colored eyes. She was wearing a uniform similar to Braig, only it seemed like she was wearing shorts, had a black scabbard on her belt, and dangling from her neck was a lightning bolt pendent. In her hands was a intricate sword, that looked it could form. And if he had to guess it was a gun of the bullets were of any indication.
Judging by the feel of her heart, this was Lightning and the way he could actually see Vanitas struggling to push her back only cemented how much of a threat she could be if she decided to attack him.
"Simply it is too kill the Valkyrie here." Vanitas admired with a groan, getting Lightning to glare at him coldly apply a bit more pressure to her strike.
"Like hell you will!" A voice shouted before a small clump of ice hit Vanitas's helmet, frosting it over the distraction proved to be enough to lose his focus and for Lightning to overpower him. Vanitas's Keyblade was sent flying from his grasp. The ancient Keyblade wielded took a step back in order to avoid another attack.
Only for a fist to connect with his helmet, shattering part of it and for him fall backwards onwards the ground.
But Lightning intercepted and moving at speeds that the Nobody could barley keep up with landed a kick on Vanitas's midsection and sent him sprawling into a nearby wall.
Roxas was nice again making a note not to piss her off, but he was in a bit of a shock at seeing who threw the punch.
"Clair, what the hell did you think you were doing!" Even demanded as he rubbed his sore hand and began to march over to Lightning.
Roxas just tilted his head in little in confusion.
Here name was Clair, he thought it was Lightning?
"That is her true name, just don't call her that. Don't know why, but anyone who calls her that doesn't go unscathed." Weiss said as he comforted Kairi and Nero with Rosso not that far behind him.
Roxas just nodded figuring it was better to be silent.
"I was handling it." Lightning said cooly.
"If you meant by shooting into a crowd of people, then you handled it perfectly! You are lucky none of your bullets deflected into anyone, otherwise we would have had more to worry about then some thug planing to kill you!" Even shouted at her.
"That wasn't some thug Even." Lightning said before leveling blade her towards the Nobody. "And this one obviously knows something if they were conversing earlier was of any indication."
"It is because, I was telling him that he might want to get the kids out of here." Vanitas said, pulling himself out of the wall and the top of his helmet broken. "Believe me if you don't heed my warning, then you won't like what happens next." He said, before turning to face Roxas. "As for you, we'll see each other soon enough."
Lightning's sword shifted into a gun and she fired a shot directly between his eyes. It would have it if Vanitas had opened a Corridor of Darkness right below his feet and vanished into it.
"Damn it." She said, before once again training her weapon on Roxas in order to get some answers, through
"I wouldn't do that if I were you." Even said, as Weiss and Kairi stepped between him. A moment later, a reluctant looking Rosso. Nero was behind his older brother, wisps of darkness spreading off of him.
After a few moments, Lightning relented and lowered her weapon.
"Fine then, talk." She said coldly, getting the kids to back away.
"You could have asked without using your…gunblade?" Roxas asked, getting her to nod at that.
"True, but you are an unknown who was interacting with an individual who openly stated that he wished to kill me. Alongside the fact you are currently armed, I consider you a possible threat to Radiant Garden. The fact that the kids were willing to stand up for you and the fact I would never here the end of it from Even are the only reason why you don't have a bullet inside of you." She said, getting an indignant "Hey!" Even.
"Fair enough, though I am surprised Rosso stood up for me." Roxas said.
"I don't fully trust you, ya flaky lookin bloke. But if the rest stand up for you, I suppose I should too. That and I am always looking for a chance to miffed up that effin bird whenever I get the chance." Rosso said with a grin. Getting Weiss to face palm, Nero and Kairi to look confused, Even to hold back a chuckle, and Lightning's eye to twitch.
The Nobody decided it was best not to talk about it anyway.
"Anyway, that man was Vanitas. Don't know much about him, but he cam after me sometime ago and would have done something to me if my friend hadn't saved me. I thought he was after me this time, but it seems like you are his target at the moment. Other then that all I know is that he is very strong and he controls the Unversed." Roxas said, omitting the fact about being Keyblade wielders or any info about other worlds.
Lightning and Even shared a grim look with each other for a moment before nodding.
"Alright then kids come with me, Weiss make sure to carry Nero. Don't want him to go off again. The sooner we get out of here the better." Even said, as Nero picked up his younger brother and made a mad dash away out of the plaza.
"Alright whatever you say, just don't get your knickers in a twist ya shitty geezer!" Rosso exclaimed as she trailed after the brothers.
"Stop calling me that!" Even shouted at her. "Kairi come on, we have to go."
"Wait a second." Kairi said, before running up to the Nobody and handing him a red flower. "For luck."
"Thank you Kairi, I will make sure it is safe.." Roxas said, pocketing it away and getting her to nod.
"Will you be back?" She asked, getting the Nobody to look confused. "You said that the bad man was after you. So are you going to leave?"
"After this yes." Roxas said, getting the young girl to look a little down cast. "But I promise to return one day."
"Promise." She asked, raising a pinky.
Roxas just smiled and raised his own.
"Promise." He said as they shook on it.
And for a moment, he swore he saw Naminé for a second in her place.
But the image was shattered as Even scooped girl up.
"Then make sure to keep that promise." Even said before facing Lightning. "Stay safe Clair."
"Like I need you to tell me that Even." She said coolly, causing him to sigh.
"I figured that you would say that, still just stay safe. And try not to be too hard on the boy." Even said before running off, Kairi waving at the two as they left.
After about a moment, Lightning let out a sigh and held out her hand.
"I saw him hand you a paper earlier, So hand it over." She demanded, getting the Nobody to nod.
She unfolded it, only to let out a grunt in annoyance and handed the paper back to the Nobody.
Roxas looked at it and saw a rune over the paper and a little writing.
If anyone else besides Roxas reads this, then I got one thing to say to you.
Fuck off and hand this to him.
Especially the Valkyrie.
Now Roxas could see why this annoyed her.
The rune flickered out of existence and was replaced by more writing appeared.
Roxas if you are reading this, then you will be seeing me again soon enough. With another test for you to undertake. That is if you can survive the Lurkers that is, and let me tell you it will not be an easy experience.
Hope you survive.
-Vanitas
P.S. This message will self destruct in 10 seconds after you read this.
A large orange rune appeared on the paper afterwards and began to glow.
Lightning snatched the paper, balled it up, and threw it right in front of them.
It exploded amd there was a loud roar as there was a flickering before the source made itself known.
The Unversed was a large serpentine monstrosity about as long as a man with golden scales and pronged horns. It had long arms ending in talons that took chunks out of the ground, instead of legs it had long tails tipped with spikes, and massive wings folded along its back. It growled at them as it rubbed the burn around it's red eyes.
Lightning shifted her weapon into its gun mode and Roxas summoned Oathkeeper.
"I take it that this is one of the Lurkers mentioned?" She said as the Unversed let out another roar, scarring away the remaining people in the plaza.
"Seems like it." Roxas said, while bracing himself for the fight about the come.
This Unversed felt like it was about as strong as the tree like one he had faced in the Dwarf Woodlands if not a bit stronger. That wouldn't be much of a problem usually, but he was still exhausted from dealing with Vanitas earlier today and the Ras Al-Gul not that long ago. Add in the fact that there were multiple of them added in the danger factor.
He didn't like the odds of a whole swarm gaining up on them.
The Unversed let out another roar, before it was struck in the head by a barrage of laser arrows and a few salvos from Lightning.
Looking past it, Roxas noticed that Braig had whipped out a a pair of arrowguns from all the way across the plaza and seemed to be just as capable of a shot as his Nobody was.
The Unversed let out another roar as it staggered, before it started to glow green and the damage started to fade away.
"So these things can heal, this is going to be annoying." Lightning muttered as all around the plaza there was more flickering to reveal 7 more Lurkers including one right next to the first one.
They all let out a collective roar before they covered themselves in smoke and started to fly around them. Soon the two found themselves trapped in a massive plume of smoke, barley able to see each other.
That might have been just a hindrance to the Nobody usually, but the smoke was also playing havoc on his senses. Making it all but impossible to sense even Lightning's heart.
Vanitas really went all out in making sure this things were ready to kill her.
The two of them kept their guard up incase the Unversed attacked.
They didn't have to wait long as four pairs of red eyes made themselves know.
Along with four fireballs approaching them at rapid speed.
The two of them barely had anytime to weave through the salvo before the Lurkers unleashed another set. This time they dodged, but due to the trajectory of the fire balls forced them back to back. The Unversed vanished into it soon after.
This was a bit of a new experience for Roxas, he might have had experience dealing with Heartless that preferred ambush tactics but these Unversed took it to a new level along with the ability to work in tandem perfectly.
"Roxas was it?" Lightning said without even looking over her shoulder. "I might not fully trust you, but it seems we are currently corned, how about a truce."
"You cover my back and I cover yours?" Roxas asked.
"Correct, but if you so much as think about stabbing me in the back I will do the same to you." Lightning said as he cocked her gunblade.
"I can live with that." Roxas said as he relied his Keyblades.
She just sent him a quick nod as they braced themselves for the Unversed lurking in the smokescreen.
Vanitas reappeared on top of a nearby building where he quickly settled down as he looked at the chaos the Lurkers were causing.
People running around like there heads cut off, Lightning and Roxas cornered by 4 of them, one of them chasing after the bunch of kids being lead by one of Ansem's apprentice, one of them chasing a black haired girl, and finally Xehanort's accomplice Braig was snipping at all of them while two of them were attacking him.
Honestly he was enjoy seeing the man suffer a bit, the man was a mystery to the ancient Keyblade wield and he didn't like how he acted around old coot.
Then again he had a general hatred about anything relating to Xehanort, so it was a moot point.
Still he could tell that the man was hiding something and with any luck might find out through this scenario.
Still though his main focus was on Roxas and Lightning.
For Roxas, it was just out of curiosity. He had found a Princess of Heart in this world and what he briefly glimpsed was that Roxas might've had a history with her. Presumably from whenever he came from.
Still he was inclined to mostly leave the girl alone unless one of the Lurkers got near her. He was willing to push him as far as he needed in order for his plan to succeed, but he has drawn a line at his Unversed intentionally hurting children.
That just left a bad taste in his mouth at the mere thought of it, but still he was willing to cross that line if it hastened his goal of being whole once again.
As for Lightning, this was merely just a test run for his actual plan to kill her.
The Lurkers were weaker then what he has going for, but these 8 would serve as an excellent test on where to improve upon them for his real plan to kill her starts.
She was now considered a major threat as he has revealed himself to her, unintentionally of course.
He really should have kept his guard up a bit more around Roxas, he'll admit that.
Still she needed to die, her strong heart and according to Braig how she immediately took to the ways of combat to levels about close to a fully trained Keyblade wielder showed her potential as a threat. Even if according to him her near microscopic reserves of magic allowed her unable to cast even a simple spell. Yet despite this she showed talent as a natural born warrior and was not worth underestimating.
He heard legends about similar tales about similar warrior.
A man unable to use of magic, yet managed to not only end a century long war, become one of the greatest Keyblade wielders of all time, and eventually trained two pupils you became the Master of Masters and his younger brother Garland, the greatest conquer the former united world ever seen. Minus their older sister of course.
So he knew it would be best to squash her here and now before she could threat him, or better yet his own plan now she knew of him. As much as a waste that would be, it needed to be done.
So with that in mind he resummoned his book and once again went back to work on it, all the while enjoying the sight of the Valkyrie of Radiant Garden struggling through the eyes of the Unversed.
It had only been a few minutes for Roxas, but for him it might as well been an hour.
He was sweating, had a few small cuts on his arms, and was more exhausted then what he first thought he was.
The Lurkers had not let for a single second. They kept lashing out with either fireballs, their claws, their spear like tails, or-
"Roxas, get down." Lightning ordered as a yellow glow filled the smoke.
The Nobody complied and barely dodged a torrent of lightning emitted from the Lurkers.
They also seemed to have the nasty habit of emitting lightning from their body at random and a strike from that was quite a bit more painful then their fireballs.
Add in the smoke, scales that even Oblivion could barely scratch, the ability to heal and absorb Thunder spells, fast enough to attack before he could cast Reflect and any higher tier spells, and their coordination made these Unversed difficult to kill. If it wasn't for Lightning then there was a slight possibility that it would have probably been over for him by now.
Speaking of which, it was a testimate of skills that she was only winded by these attacks. She was hardly hit by any of their attacks unlike him and her skills her blade actually felt more damaged to them. Still with their healing it was hardly making a dent in Unversed.
So for the past few minutes it has been nothing, but dodging their attacks while counteracting with blades, spells, bullets, and the occasional kicks. Every other moment was spent defending the other by either parrying and attack or launching a projectile to counter one of their attacks.
It has pretty much been a standstill at this point, but the Lurkers keep gaining ground little by little. It was only a matter of time until someone made a mistake.
Two fireballs were launched from the sides and a stay claw came careening towards Roxas's head.
The Nobody aimed his Keyblades at the fire balls and sent a quick Aero from the tips that bore through each of in turn blocked the claw strike.
Which Roxas paid back by blocking tail strikes from 2 of the Lurkers almost immediately. The Unversed pulled back before they unleashed a salvo of fireballs and lightning. The two of them split up, but that was a mistake.
The ranged attacks stoped and the Lurkers covered themselves with electricity. They left out in to the air and flew after the two and blinding speeds.
The Unversed didn't let up and Roxas and Lightning could barely dodge, their reflexes pushed to the limits. It was difficult to keep up with the Unversed, a single miss step could lead to serious harm by getting rammed into them.
So they spent about another minute dodging before Roxas noticed that all four of them gathered and tried to ram into Lightning.
"Water!" Roxas said, casting the spell from both of his Keyblades before performing Strike Raid for good measure.
The Keyblades flew into the spells and got coated in water before striking two of the Lurkers.
The Unversed roared in pain as the water now coating part of their bodies caused their attack to effectively short circuit and damage them. The Unversed stoped their attack and crashed into the other two, spreading the effect to them.
Lightning pulled out something from her pocket and pulled a pin before tossing the object towards the Unversed. A moment later the object exploded, causing the Lurkers to yell in pain some more. Lightning shifted her gunblade and unloaded the entire clip as the Unversed all crashed onto the ground the ground. Roxas retrieved his Keyblades and casted a low powered Blizzard, clipping one of the Lurker's tails.
It trapped the Unversed as the rest of its kind fled back into the smokescreen in order to heal.
It tried to pull itself out, but Lightning reload and fired three shots at the Lurker. It tried to launch a fireball at her, but the Nobody threw at it Oblivion. Causing it to force it's head and launch it into the smokescreen and a painful roar to emerge from one of the other Unversed.
Giving Lightning just enough time to shift her weapon back into its blade form and rammed the entire thing into the Lurker's mouth, the blade piercing the skull.
The Unversed let out a small roar, before it's eyes dimmed and exploded into a puff of darkness.
One down, seven to go.
The Lurkers took offense to that and with a loud roar unleashed a barrage of lightening bolts all over the place, forcing the two of them to duck down onto the ground.
This continued for a minute before the two of the Unversed coated themselves in electricity once again and proceeded to try and ram into them while the third one was taking pot shots at them with fireballs.
Roxas and Lightning jumped up from the ground as a fireball nearly hit them. For the next minute or two they were dodging the charging Unversed or the fire balls.
Eventually the fireballs stopped as the third Lurker switched to bombarding them with lightning while the other Unversed stopped their assault.
The Nobody sidestepped a few of the bolts before he felt his arms being bound. He saw that the other two Lurkers had crept up on him and were trying to wrap their tails around him and attempting to wrestle the Keyblades out of his hands.
Roxas tried to struggle for a few moments before he spots the third Lurker diving towards him, covered in electricity, intent to finish him off.
It never got the chance to as Lightning jumped in front of him and took a few shots, but the Lurker kept charging despite the shots all hitting it. So when it was about a foot away from her, she shifted her weapon once again and landed a powerful slash across it's eyes, blinding it.
The blinded Unversed pulled back as it roared out in pain, but not before lashing out with it's electrified tails at Lightning.
Both of them connected with her and she groaned out in pain as she crashed down to the ground, but not before landing another slash with her weapon.
As both Lightning and the third Lurker crashed to the ground, the other two let go of Roxas and tried to lunge at her, but he pointed his Keyblades at them.
"Aero!" He casted, pushing the Lurkers back and caused the two of them to crash into each other and down into the ground. The Unversed tried to untangle themselves, but Roxas was prepared for that and proceeded to pour most of his magic into a single spell.
"Reflect!" Roxas casted, focusing the spell over the Lurkers instead of himself.
A few moments later the Unversed untangled themselves, but were now trapped inside a dome of light. They tried to claw themselves out, but due to the amount of magic the Nobody placed into it it would take them a bit to actually break out.
Roxas dispelled Oathkeeper and reached into his bag to pull out one of his newly purchased ethers and downed it in one gulp. He then turned his attention to healing Lightning, but saw that she had already gotten back up and finishing up a potion.
"You could have done that earlier." Lightning said while pointing at the trapped Lurkers, cracks starting to appear on the barrier at their attempts to break though.
"Not really, these Unversed move faster then it takes to cast the spell." Roxas said, getting her to nod.
"Fair enough." She said, before dodging an incoming fireball and firing at the third Lurker. "Though could work on improving the casting speed."
"Cut me some slack, I only just got the hand on it not that long ago." Roxas said as he blocked the Unversed' claws with Oblivion, before pushing it back with an Aero. "Besides I can work on improving it after we make it out of this, can't let myself get rusty after all."
"Perfect response." Lightning said before jumping up and kicking the Lurker into the ground, cratering it.
She then launched about two more shots at the downed Lurker before it got back up and started to charge electricity.
Only for it two short circuit when it was once again hit by a water covered Keyblade.
Lightning landed next to the Nobody just as Oblivion returned to his hand.
The two then looked at each other and wordlessly knew what to do.
Roxas shifted into the stance that Terra taught him and rushed at the Unversed.
It swiped with it's claws, but Roxas blocked it and was pushed back a little bit.
As Roxas continued to block the attack, the Lurker was unprepared for Lightning who jumped up from behind the Nobody and shot it three times between the eyes. The Unversed roared out in pain and pulled back, but that turned out to be a huge mistake. Lightning shifted her weapon into its blade form and Roxas resumed his stance. The both of them slashed at it, with Lightning's momentum and Roxas's strength dealing extra damage to it.
The Lurker collapsed to the ground before Lightning once again shifted her weapon. The two of them launched a shot and fireball respectfully at the downed Unversed, making sure that it stays down this time.
It twitched for a second before exploding into a puff of darkness.
They didn't have a moment to rest as the barrier broke and the remaining Lurkers launched fireballs at the two. They side stepped them and launched a volley of bullets and spells at the Lurkers, scattering them back into the smokescreen.
Roxas summoned Oathkeeper and Lightning reloaded her gunblade. The two of them gave each other a nod before leaping back into the fray, intent on finishing the rest of the Unversed off.
"Looks like the Lurkers are going to need some more fine tuning then I thought." Vanitas said as he leaned back onto the roof.
He knew that they need some adjustments, but not like this.
Two of them were dead and the other two struggling against the combined might of Lightning and Roxas, two of them were struggling against Braig, one was having trouble getting the little Princess of Heart from the scientist, and the final one was having trouble keeping up with haired girl that kept pelting it with pebbles.
Clearly he needed to do a quite a bit of adjusting when he had the time if he wished to kill the Valkyrie.
Vanitas just sighed as he went back to writing in his book, he needed this done soon after all.
"Got to hand it to him, the brat did a good job with these things." Braig said before he teleported away from an oncoming charging Unversed.
These things were actually giving him a decent warm up, with a few minor adjustments he was sure that they could actually stand a chance at killing Lightning.
Something he was reluctant to do, but knew that Xehanort saw her as a threat and if she ever got word of what was truly going on, then it would be a massive hindrance of she interfered.
Shame that she was too damn stubborn to convince otherwise.
He was broken from his musings when he was tackled into the ground by one of the Lurkers. It then launched a fireball point blank at him.
"Well that was rude." Braig said as he teleported behind and upside down above the Unversed. It turned around, only to be pinned down onto the ground by laser arrows."I just got this thing dry cleaned."
He teleported away and brushed himself of before once again doing the same as the other Lurker launched a barrage of lightning at him. It looked around for a bit as it's target disappeared, before feeling something tapping on its shoulder.
It turned around, only to find itself being choked by Braig with a single hand.
"Any reason on why you want to kill me you little brat?" He asked, only getting the Lurker to growl at him. "I see then, how about I give you one then, a reason other then Xehanort."
The Lurker tilted it's head in confusion, a look possible mirrored by Vanitas itself.
"If you are wondering why, well things have changed…that and I could use a little fun." Braig said with a grin. "Now I just need something to kill."
A fireball promptly crashed into his back, and did absolutely nothing.
"That would do it." Braig said before throwing the captive Lurker, and with a flick of his hand was paralyzed. "You might not want to look away from this Vanitas."
The other Lurker tried to rush at him, but plummeted straight into the ground as gravity increased on it.
"You wanted your reason, well here it is!" Braig shouted before he released a small pulse of magic, enough for only the two Unversed to sense. He then looked to see the stunned expressions of the Lurkers and tapped his foot.
And the Lurker suddenly found itself impaled by rocky spikes. They rose up and down like the waves of a raging sea, impaling the Unversed with each movement. Add into the fact of the increasing gravity and all the beast could feel was immense pain as the spikes continued to bore further and further through it's body. A few seconds later a spike bore cleanly through it's skull and the Lurker was put out of its misery.
Another foot tap and the ground was restored back to normal.
"So how about that, hope you didn't miss it because I am a little out of practice. It has been years since I have cut lose even a little bit after all." Braig said with a grin, stopping the flow of magic and releasing his hold over the Lurker.
Which in turn let out a hate filled roar and in the distance he could sense Vanitas boiling over.
"So you did see it, well that is good." Braig said before drawing both of his arrowguns. "Then bring it on!"
The Unversed let lose an even more powerful torrent of lightning and Braig just grinned, this was going to be a bit more fun then he thought after all.
Vanitas dispelled his book and was taking in deep breaths in order for him not to explode and alert everyone in Radiant Garden to his presence. Despite the wisps of darkness surrounding him threatening to burst.
He knew that magic signature quiet well after all, although he had never interacted with this one at all before. There was only two people who had ever had that same signature and he was quit familiar with the other person who had it.
The fact that she had long since been pronounced dead only confirmed who he was.
That fact combined with the fact he was still alive only made him hate him almost as much as Xehanort, almost. He needed to die for abandoning them all for that hellish war!
'My king, what is going on?' The sentient Unversed conversed, slightly calming him down.
"About ready to level this city if I have to just to get rid of the traitor!" Vanitas spat out angrily. "Speaking of which, can you keep this line open, but do not contact me all the while."
'Of course my king, but if I may be so bold as to ask you why?' The Unversed asked.
"Simple, just in case things go wrong. I want you not to speak with me again until I contact you again, even if I cut you off my. Do so and I will give you a reward no other Unversed has earned…a name. An actual human name. Do you understand?" Vanitas said.
'Of course my king!' The Unversed said excitedly, before going quiet.
"Good now next time we talk, spill everything you see through your own eyes or through our link." Vanitas said, while chuckling at the Unversed's antics before frowning. "Now to the rest of you Lurkers-"
"Help me!" The ancient Keyblade wielder was broken from his orders as he saw the Lurker finally caught the black haired girl.
"…Okay then, the rest of you pull back and engage Braig, no the traitor alone. I want him dead at all costs!" Vanitas ordered, darkness radiating off him in waves at the last part.
He opened a Corridor of Darkness and walked through it, intent on blowing off as much as his anger as possible without flooding the city in Unversed. He need as much of a clear head as possible as he was sooner or later about to comfort a Foreteller after all.
Roxas knew something was wrong when he sensed waves of darkness that obviously came from Vanitas along with a flicker of something inside of him. The closest he could describe was a sense of dread, but not from himself.
But from Ava.
He didn't have long to dwell on it as the flicker disappeared soon after and a minute later Vanitas himself.
However at that moment the two Lurkers let out a rage filled roar and halted their attacks.
Roxas and Lightning stayed on guard, just incase the Unversed tried anything else.
Instead the smokescreen cleared and there was no trace of the Lurkers anywhere. The two of them surveyed the surrounding area, before Lightning sighed.
"What did Braig do this time?" She said with a groan.
Following her general direction, Roxas wondered the same thing himself.
It the middle of the plaza was a massive column of smoke emitting fireballs, lightning bolts, and laser arrows every few seconds.
It seems like Braig has a habit of trolling people just as much as his Nobody did. But still, what did he do to piss off Vanitas like that?
He didn't get the chance to think about, as he sensed something else a miss.
"You have got to be kidding me." Roxas said as he looked up to see a Lurker flying above their heads, taking pot shots at the smokescreen while carrying a struggling Yuffie in its claws.
"Let go of me you stupid snake!" She shouted while kicking it in the chest, only annoying the Unversed.
Finally just to check all of his bases, he looked over to where he saw Even and the kids were and saw a Lurker with it's tails frozen to the wall that was trying to fly off towards were Braig was. Not faraway from it, an exhausted looking Even was being dragged along by Rosso and Weiss while the younger kids were running away.
So there where three areas to chose from and he was not to keen on helping out Braig that all, and judging by the look on Lightning's face neither was she.
The Nobody waited for a minute, waiting to see what was the plan of action, before Lightning winced and Roxas saw why.
And immediately wished he hadn't.
Even heaved himself to his feet as Weiss and Rosso helped him up.
He might not have been proficient in magic like Braig or Dilan, but he had a decent grasp of ice magic. Still he would admit his reserves were piss poor and had poured every last bit of them into temporarily freezing it's tails in place.
Thankfully now it seems to have switch its sights on Braig from Kairi, as he didn't know how much longer he could have defended her and the kids from the Unversed.
"Bloody hell geezer, you really need to lose some weight!" Rosso exclaimed as Even finally stood up on his own.
"Rosso, one more remark out of you and you are going to get it!" Even said sternly, getting g the girl to huff.
"I would like to see you try ge-" Rosso was cut off when the Lurker managed free on of its tails and sent chunks of ice everywhere, with one of them nailing her right in the head. Time seemed to slow down for Even as the girl crumbled down to the ground. Weiss rushed to check her and the eldest apprentice prayed to whatever out there that there was no blood.
However all hope was immediately turned to ashes as Weiss's pulled a hand back from here and there was a smidge of blood. Rosso woke up a second later and felt the scratch on her forehead. She lowered her hand once she felt the blood and started to do something that made Even's instincts to scream one thing and one thing alone. Run!
Rosso started to laugh.
A soft laugh that chilled his very heart to the bone.
A laugh not out of place from that of a serial killer.
Weiss made the smart decision to back pedal and get the hell out of there before grabbing Nero.
Even soon followed suit and grabbed Kairi.
"Wait, what about Rosso?" The girl questioned from his arms.
"I'll get here as soon as I grab the tranquilizers. I would be more worried about the Unversed!" Even shouted as he ran even faster, not wanting to be around when the girl progressed to the further stages of her blood rage.
Rosso just stood there for a moment before she started to pick with her scratch, spreading the blood around her forehead as the sound of her laughter increased and her face flushed red.
The Lurker broke out of the remaining ice and roared in annoyance at the girl's laughter, accidentally making eye contact with the girl. That proved to be a fatal mistake.
The girl's laughter stopped for a moment before a crimson aura appeared around her. As the Lurker looked on in confusion, Rosso vanished. It soon felt something pull on one of it's tails and was immediately slammed back first into the ground.
The Unversed looked up and immediately knew that it was fucked.
Rosso was crouched down on it's chest, staring at the Lurker with glowing crimson eyes and laughter coming from the feral grin that spread along her flushed face.
She continued to laugh as she tried to claw into the Unversed's chest and tried to draw blood from it to no avail.
The Lurker picked itself off the ground and flew off, hoping to shake the girl- no, the monster off and get back to its orders.
But Rosso was clinging on, intending to draw as much blood from the Unversed or herself as she possibly could, even if it meant for the the Unversed to died.
She couldn't die after all, there was so much blood out there to spill after all!
The girl just laughed harder out that, frightening the Lurker even more.
It was at that moment, that it knew that this girl would be the death of it.
"So that is what Weiss meant about not getting blood on Rosso." Roxas said, wondering what in Kingdom Hearts name was causing the girl to act like this.
He had never heard of a phenomenon like this and was pretty sure that if he had a heart it would be beating in terror at the sight of what this girl was doing.
"As you can see, we all try our damndest to keep blood away from Rosso. Otherwise she would fly into a blood rage and try to kill the first thing she locks eyes with. Even and Master Ansem are at a loss of words to figure out what is causing it. But what I do know is that we have nothing to worry about while she is keeping focused on that Unversed." Lightning said while cocking her gunblade.
"And she will be focused on whatever she sees next after killing it." Roxas sighed out, getting her to nod.
"Correct and that would be you." Lightning said, getting another sigh from the Nobody.
"So I take it that you help Braig and I deal with Rosso and the other Lurker." Roxas said, getting her to nod. "Alright anything I should know about Rosso."
"Just try to stay out of her way and keep her from scratching you or herself. The more blood smeared on her the stronger she seems to get. Also just hold her off until Even can get tranquilizers to knock her out, if she finishes with the Unversed first." Lightning said before she jumps into the smokescreen and starting to open fire.
"Noted." Roxas said, before seeing that the Lurker in question was flying around on the other side of the plaza with Yuffie still kicking its chest.
Now he had to figure out a way to get to the Unversed without it dropping Yuffie?
He looked around for a little bit before finding a solution, a fire escape on one of the nearby buildings,
"That will work." Roxas said as he rushed towards it, a idea formulating in his mind on what he was gonna do.
All he need was just the right moment for it to work.
Lightning moved through the smokescreen, trying to find her fellow apprentice. Despite no matter how much he might be a pain in that ass, they still worked underneath Master Ansem. Meaning there was a certain level of comradely between them, no matter how much she wanted to knock some sense into him daily.
Or how much she didn't really trust him anyway, she could never get a clear read on him after all.
After a minute of walking and dodging various projectiles and returning fire, she found Braig teleporting away from from a barrage of lightning bolts and two charging Unversed. She proceeded to open fire, halting the charging of the Lurkers, giving Braig enough time to unload a Both clips full of laser arrows at them and pushed the Unversed back into the smokescreen.
"Reload!" He called out before teleporting next to Lightning. "Took you long enough to get here. But still shouldn't you be keeping an eye on that kid from earlier"
"He'll be fine,, I've seen him fight. So I know that he can handle one of them unlike your sorry ass." Lightning said before ducking under a trio of fireballs.
"For your information I killed one of these things before the other two showed up. Still if you say so." Braig said before teleporting out of the way from a charging Lurker. "Anything else I should know."
"The kid is rescuing the little brat that keeps running over your foot." She said while dodging some more lightning bolt and charging Lurkers, getting Braig to groan in annoyance. Much to her small satisfaction. "Also he is dealing with the problem child."
"Don't tell me…" He said before hearing the familiar bone chilling laughter starting to emerge from the smoke. "Ah great and now she is triggered, could be all day with her."
"Hopefully not, Dilan is still complaining about his broken ribs." Lightning said as the Lurkers stopped firing at them as Rosso crashed the one she was attacking directly on top of one of them.
The Unversed picked itself up and frantically shot fireballs at the girl in an attempt to either get her off or kill her.
However Rosso was having non of that that and clambered onto its head and tried to pull its horns off. This caused the Lurker to start firing wildly, fireballs hitting everywhere. Crippling the other Unversed trying to fly out of the way, and for Lightning and Braig to dodge the random fireballs. With one of them hitting the latter mid teleport and sending him crashing into the ground.
Rosso kept this up for about another minute before jerking the Lurker's horns up and getting it to fly away, with one of its tails smacking the downed Unversed beneath it.
"I feel sorry for the kid if he has to deal with her in this state." Braig groaned out as he picked himself up and started to open fire on the downed Unversed.
"He'll be fine." Lightning said as she shifted the weapon and stabbed at Lurker's wings, clipping them. "Even is getting the tranquilizers."
"Fair enough." Braig said before shooting the Lurker in the eyes, blinding it.
It discharged a barrage of lightning bolts and forced the two of them back. It glowed green and most of it's injuries healed up.
Only to be fired at point blank by Lightning in the head. The Lurker roared out in pain, only for Lightning to shot it in both of it's eyes. It tried to back away, but a swing of Lightning's gunblade sent the Unversed crashing back into the ground.
Once again it tried to get up, a fireball forming in it's mouth. But Braig teleported above the Lurker and unloaded a barrage of laser arrows, the end result was it looking like a giant pin cushion with the sheer amount of laser arrows sticking out of it.
Still it fought through the pain and tried to attack Braig with the fireball still forming in its mouth.
Until Lightning impaled the Unversed where it's heart was with her gunblade.
The Lurker let out a defiant roar and launched it's under formed fireball at Lightning, only for her to pull out her blade and sliced it in half. The two halves collapsing onto the Unversed and forcing her to jump back as they exploded. A moment later the Lurker let out one final roar and it's eyes went dim before exploding in a puff of darkness.
Lightning flicked her blade before dodging the electric covered forms of the remaining Lurkers. They tried to fly back at her, but Braig's shots only drove them off.
"So any idea how to kill these two off, because I am starting to get sick of this." Braig said as he kept firing at the Unversed. "And please tell me that they don't involve Rosso showing back up, because I do not wish to be attacked by that hellspawn,"
"Quit your whining Braig, I already have a plan." Lightning said while shooting at the Lurkers, before pulling something out of her pocket. A grenade. "We just need to lure them into the correct position."
Braig did a quick double take before bursting out into laughter, figuring out her plan.
"Now that is a plan I can get behind!" Braig said with a grin before firing at the Lurkers with even more ferocity then before! "This is going to be so much fun!"
Lightning could only sigh at her fellow apprentice's antics before taking precise shots at the Unversed, setting them up for her plan to take effect.
Roxas crept along the roof of a building, stealthy approaching the Lurker flying about with Yuffie still shouting and kicking at the Unversed. He had approached this Unversed a few times before with it flying away to snipe at the smoke column with fireballs.
Luckily it hadn't seen him or he didn't want to know what it would do Yuffie.
Still he crouched towards it, intent to act upon his plan. The Unversed charged up a fireball and the Nobody made his move.
He broke out into a sprint and kept off of the roof, grabbing at one of the tails. His weight caused the Unversed to jerk downwards and for its grip on Yuffie to loosen a little bit.
She looked down at the Nobody and grinned.
"Catch me!" She shouted before becoming a human misspelled and slamming into Roxas. He winced as felt one of his ribs was probably bruised from the impact alone. He adjusted his grip on her with one arm.
The Lurker finally caught site of him and was about to launch it's frieball at him when the Nobody sensed something and made a slight addition to his plan.
He channeled magic to the hand griping the tail and did something he had never did before.
He casted magic without a Keyblade, but it had drained more magic then what he usually did with a Keyblade.
"Fire!" The Nobody casted while releasing his grip, the spell hit it below the mouth and distracted it for a moment.
The single moment needed for Rosso to crash her Lurker into it and slammed the Unversed into the nearby building before pulling away, once again trying to claw her own Lurker to death and laughing all the way.
Roxas clutched Yuffie to his body with one arm as they fell, ignoring her screaming. With his free arm he summoned Oathkeeper and pointed it down wards.
"Aeroga!" The Nobody casted, generating a whirlwind beneath him and slowing down their fall. The intensity of the wind kept them a float for a few moments before Roxas gently land back on the ground, with Yuffie still screaming and clinging onto him.
"You can let go now." Roxas said, getting her to stop screaming. Yuffie looked around for a moment before burying her head back into his chest.
"Nope" She said, her voice muffled by his clothing.
Roxas could only sigh at that as he, with some effort manger to pry her off with one arm.
Only for Yuffie to cling onto that, the girl sticking her tongue out at him.
Whatever Roxas was going to saw was cut off by a massive roar. Looking up he saw that the Lurker had pried itself from the wall and was glowing green.
It focused it's gaze onto the two before letting out a roar and covering itself with electricity. It pushed itself off the building and charged at them, smoke trailing behind it.
Roxas rolled out of the way of the Unversed, making sure not to injure Yuffie.
He got back up and Yuffie hide behind him. The Nobody pulled out an ether and quickly downed it.
Just in time to block the claw strikes from the Lurker with his Keyblades. It roared in his face before pulling back into the smokescreen.
He needed to be extra careful while dealing with this one. It might just be one Lurker this time, but he still had to worry about Yuffie behind him. One wrong miss step and she could end up injured or worse.
"Look out!" Yuffie as she tried to push the Nobody down, which he allowed her once a bolt of lightning nearly grazed his head. The Unversed had started to rain a torrent of lightning from above them, and Roxas once again had to pick the girl up in order to avoid her getting hit by one of them.
This continued on for a few moments before it stopped, Roxas was once again on guard with Yuffie clinging to him. The Lurker appeared from above him, coated in electricity and trying to ram the two of them.
"Water!" He casted, swiping his Keyblade in an arc in order to to better chance of striking the Unversed. But it rolled out of the way and charged right at them, specifically targeting Yuffie.
Roxas placed the girl down and threw Oathkeeper towards the Lurker, but it dodge once again. The Nobody got in front of Yuffie and blocked the Unversed's attack with Oblivion, grunting as pain shot through his arms from the force of the attack.
"Take that and that!" Yuffie shouted as she threw pebbles at the Lurker, only for it to get annoyed and continue its attack. The Unversed continued to push Roxas back and to break through his block, until Oathkeeper returned and nailed it in the back of the head and dispelled the electricity.
Roxas caught the Keyblade and proceeded to wail at the Unversed. For a few moments he caught it off guard before the Unversed regained its composure. It fought back with it's claws and tail spikes in an attempt to either slash or skewer him.
However Roxas kept up with its attacks and blocked and parried the Lurkers attempts to attack him, only missing a strike from one of its tails and getting his shoulder cut. However he had managed to land some hits on the Unversed. This continued on for about a minute before it tried to launch a fireball at Roxas, only for a pebble to land down its throat.
"Bullseye!" Yuffie cheered as the Lurker choked on the rock.
Roxas took the chance to slam Oblivion into his head, but a sphere of magic appeared at the end of Oblivion much to his surprise. The sphere slammed into the Unversed head and a burst of magic pushed both the Unversed and Nobody away from each other and crashed into the ground.
"What the heck was that about?" Yuffie asked as Roxas crashed next to her.
"A technique misfiring." Roxas said as he got up and dusting himself off, the answer being true. Honestly he was a little surprised on that.
He had just used Gravity Break, a technique Sora learned during his first journey.
It was basically slammed a sphere of condensed gravity on the target and crush them under the increased gravity.
It was an effective technique, but it seemed to have one hell of a recoil if the pain in his arm was of any indication.
No wonder Sora only slammed it down on opponents and both arms for it. One more use like that and there was a good chance he would fracture the bones in his arm.
The Nobody was mulling over on where he had got the technique, he didn't get the similar feeling from Ava so he chalked it up to Sora. His Somebody did master the technique sometime before he was created after all.
Maybe he could ask Terra about it later, for now though he had to protect Yuffie.
"Neat." Was all she said, before screaming. One of the Lurkers tails wrapped around the girl and lifted her up.
"Let her go!" Roxas shouted, brandishing his Keyblades and was about to attack when that Unversed leveled its other tail at the girl and glared at him.
The message was clear, drop the Keyblades or else.
Reluctantly, the Nobody complied and dropped his weapons, getting the Unversed to relax it's tail.
However the Lurker gave Roxas a savage grin, and tried impale Yuffie.
However, it's eyes glowed gold and it roared in pain before it let go of Yuffie.
The smoke started to clear away and the Unversed cried out in pain before its eyes turned back to red, looking a little fearful this time. However the fear soon turned to rage as it tried to launch a fireball at Yuffie.
Roxas summoned his Keyblades and rushed at Yuffie I order to help her.
But she already had it covered.
"Take this!" Yuffie shouted as she threw a bottle at it's eyes. It broke and the Lurker roared out in pain as it tried to get the class out it's eyes. Roxas rushed next to the girl and raised Oathkeeper.
"Reflect!" He casted, forming a barrier around the two.
"Are you alright?" Roxas asked, crouching down to make sure there was no injuries on the girl.
"I'm fine." She said as the Nobody noticed that she was alright and pulled back. Causing her to pout for some reason.
Before the Nobody could question about that, there was a crash on the barrier. The two of them turned to see that the Unversed had tried to ram into the barrier, but had been repelled and crashed into the ground. It got back up and covered itself in a green aura, but it immediately shattered over it.
This had proved something the Roxas thought when he saw the Unversed's eyes glowed gold.
He didn't know how it happened, but he had a feeling Vanitas was behind it.
Obviously attempting to kill a child crossed a line with him, so he seemed to have stripped some of the Lurker's powers and left it to its fate.
It was still going to be a little difficult, even without the ability to heal itself or the smokescreen to hide in with Yuffie.
"So we just wait here until this drops." Yuffie asks while fiddling with an empty bottle.
"Correct." Roxas said before noticing the bottle in her hand, it was one of the ether bottles he had used earlier.
He usually kept these bottles on him as he learned from the Moogle that worked with Organization that Moogles recycle the bottles and filled them back up with the same contents and gave them back for half price. And considering the amount he had on stock and used for missions, the Moogle was glad for the business and eventually did the refills for free.
Although he also did say that Moogles also cared less if the bottles were broken or not as there were replaceable and the fact most people discarded the bottles after they used it. It just meant more money for them from unknowing customers as they hardly talked about this practice..
Still he should have really expected this from Yuffie, she did admit to Sora that she was a kleptomaniac once and that would explain where that bottle came from.
"Can you please hand me back whatever you took from me?" Roxas asked, surprising her.
"You found me out, that's a first." Yuffie said before handing him the bottle back. "That is all I took."
The Nobody just gave her a flat look.
"Alright fine." She said, pulling out the crystallized sea shell which he immediately pocketed.
He was about to admonished her for taking it, as he had no problem with her about taking the ether bottle when he got an idea. One that he thought that she would like to hear.
"Look of you are going to tell me wrong for stealing, go ahead." Yuffie stated.
"Not exactly, I have an idea that you might like…" Roxas trailed off, not wanting to let slip the fact that he knew her name due to time travel. It would be rather trivial to talk about that after all.
"Yuffie, the name is Yuffie. And what is it?" She asked, gesturing for the Nobody to get closer. He did and whispered his idea into her ear, getting the little girl to nod as they separated.
"I don't like your idea, I love it!" She shouted with a grin, swiping away the ether bottle once again. "A toast to your glorious plan…"
"Roxas, it's Roxas." He said before grabbing a potion and held it out to her. Yuffie did the same with her ether bottle.
"Cheers!" They chorused as they clinked their bottles together before Roxas downed the whole thing.
"This is going to be amazing!" Yuffie cried out as they placed the empty bottles down on the ground and began their plan.
Meanwhile outside of the barrier the Lurker stalked them, intent on pouncing and killing the two of them for it earning its king's ire.
Specifically the little girl.
It got its wish when the barrier dropped a minute later.
"Remember Yuffie-" "I know, I know. Stay behind you and I've only got two shots at this. Don't worry I got this Roxas." Yuffie interjected, getting the Nobody to nod as he summoned his Keyblades.
"Then lets do this." Roxas said as he threw both of his Keyblades at the Lurker, but it flew above them and coated itself in electricity. It dove down towards Yuffie, unaware of the two grinning.
Everything was going all according to their plan.
When the Unversed was directly over head at Roxas, Yuffie pulled out one of the bottles and grinned menacingly.
"Take this!" Yuffie shouted as she threw the bottle.
It crashed into the Unversed's head, shattering into glass shards and dosing the Lurker in water.
It roared out in pain as it's electricity worked against it and crashed down to the ground, collaiding with Roxas's Keyblade along the way.
The Nobody caught them and rushed towards the down Unversed for a few moments before it recuperated and pushed him back with it's tails. It tried to claw at him, by Roxas either dodged or parried each strike.
Roxas then noted that the attacks where starting to more frenzied after continuing for about a minute. The Unversed must have been nearing its end and without the ability to heal itself it was going to die. And it knew this.
He managed one more hit on the Lurker before it spat a fireball at his feet, forcing him back. It then continued it's barrage, intent on keeping Roxas as far away from itself as possible.
Roxas kept back, dodging incoming fireballs as it kept spitting them out, intent on making sure that none of them hit Yuffie.
All he had to now was wait for the right moment to strike.
The Lurker continued to shoot fireballs for about another minute, before deciding to switch tactics and began shooting out lightning bolts all over the place in an attempt to hit the two of them.
However, that turned out to be a fatal mistake.
"Your finished!" Yuffie shouted as she threw the second bottle, hitting it square in its chest and once again shattering.
The Lurker wailed our in pain as it shorted itself out, giving Roxas time to rush towards it.
But the Unversed was not so keen on going down like this and tried to spit out a fireball.
"Blizzard!" Roxas casted from Oathkeeper, the spell landing and freezing its mouth open.
While the Lurker tried to pry the ice off, Roxas dispelled Oathkeeper and pulled Oblivion back.
"Here goes nothing." Roxas muttered as he began to focus magic to the tip of the Keyblade, a sphere of magic formed at end of it. Once he was a few feet from the Lurker, he jumped up and proceeded to swing the Keyblade downwards.
"Gravity Break!" Roxas shouted as the Keyblade made contact with the Unversed's head, detonating the sphere.
The gravity contained poured down onto the Lurker's head, pushing it to the ground and breaking the ice inside it's mouth. The Unversed didn't even had the time to roar as it's head was effectively crushed to the ground.
It's body went limp soon afterwards and effectively vanished into a poof of darkness.
The Nobody just panted as collapsed onto his knees, he was exhausted from all the spells and the fighting.
It has been one hell of a night for him after all.
"That was amazing!" Yuffie shouted as she ran next to him. "The way you landed that final blow was especially awesome. It's like you're a pro at this!l
"Actually I kind of am." Roxas admittedly, getting Yuffie to get starry eyed.
"Can you please teach me. Please, please, please!" She yelled excitedly, getting Roxas to chuckle.
"Maybe when your older." Roxas said getting her to pout.
"No fair, everyone always says that." Yuffie groaned out.
"Maybe because they just want you to enjoy being a kid, hunting down things like the Unversed isn't exactly something I'd recommend for everyone. So for now just wait around before deciding such a thing." Roxas said, wanting the girl to continue to enjoy he normalcy until the day comes and this world fall to darkness.
If it ever happens in this timeline that is.
"I'll think about it." Yuffie said after a few moments of thought, getting the Nobody to smile.
"That is all that I ask for." Roxas said getting the Yuffie to nod, before her face turned into one of horror.
"Behind you!" She yelled, and Roxas turned behind him to see the fading form of a recently crashed Lurker.
And no sign of Rosso anywhere.
He scoured everywhere around him while moving in front of Yuffie in order to shield her from the blood crazed girl. After a few moments of searching he found Rosso, crouching on all fours like an animal and with quite a few more blood smears over her face and arms.
They stared down a minute, before she laughed and vanished in a burst of speed.
He didn't have that long to react as he felt her hands around his neck and her laughter in his ears.
She was trying to choke him to death from the behind.
Roxas dispelled his Keyblades and tried to pry Rosso off of him, with a frantic Yuffie throwing rocks at her in an attempt to get her off as she was now trying to claw his throat out.
This continued on for a few moments, before one of the pebbles hit Rosso square in the eye.
It provided Roxas enough of a distraction to grab onto the girl and throw her off of him.
Rosso hit the ground for a second before straightening herself up and focused on Yuffie for throwing the rock.
She let out a batch of laughter as she shot towards her, only for Roxas to get in the way and slam her into the ground.
However Rosso pushed him off and tried to claw at him. The Nobody barley dodged a few of her strikes before she grazed his arm and drew a little blood.
She laughed even harder while smearing it on her arms and tried to claw him again.
Only for the sound of a gun shot to emerge and something to strike Rosso in the back.
The Nobody looked in the distance and saw Even about halfway across the plaza, armed with a rife and took another shot at the girl.
And another.
And another.
By the fourth shot Rosso started to sway side to side, by the fifth her laughter died down, and by the sixth shot she collapsed face down onto the ground and her back lined with tranquilizer darts.
"Isn't that a little excessive?" Roxas questioned Even as he approached.
"When it concerns her, not really. Whenever Rosso gets like this she heals pretty quickly, otherwise she would have been hospitalized by the sheer amounts of infections she could get in that state." Even said, before shooting another dart into her twitching form for good measure. "A few hours and she will be up, hopefully still not in this state anyway."
"I see, well then will she be alright?" Roxas asked as the scientist picked her up and slung the unconscious girl over his shoulder.
"She will be fine, once it gets out of her system she will be fine. Sadly she will remember everything, but thankfully she never killed anyone before. I hope the two of you can forgive this girl, she has absolutely no control over this." Even sighed out.
"It's alright, it wouldn't be the first time." Roxas said, muttering the last part under his breath so Yuffie wouldn't hear. Though it seemed like Even did and gave the Nobody a concerned look.
Only making him wonder what happened to him, as Vexen was nowhere near this level of caring around other members of the Organization minus Lexaeus and Zexion.
"If Roxas forgives here, then so will I." Yuffie said.
"I'm glade to hear that, and so will Rosso when she wakes up." Even said with a small smile. "Anyway Yuffie follow me, your mother is back at the castle."
"What about my dad. Is he passed out drunk again?" Yuffie asked, getting the older man to sigh.
"Sadly he is, I swear with how much of a deadbeat Godo is your mother hasn't snapped yet." Even said, getting the girl to sigh before running up to Roxas and hugging Roxas.
"See you later Roxas." Yuffie said a little sadly, before Roxas returned here hug.
"Don't worry I'll be back, so I will see you then Yuffie." Roxas said, before separating from her.
"Okay then, so I will see ya!" Yuffie shouted while smiling before running off, getting the the Nobody to chuckle.
"Anyway please come back soon Roxas, at least for her's, Nero's, and Kairi's sakes. The later two have stated that they would like to see you again." Even said.
"Don't worry, I will." Roxas said, getting Even to nod before he walked away after Yuffie.
Once he was halfway across the plaza Roxas sighed and walked towards the remaining smoke column.
He had delt with Yuffie and Rosso, now he needed to deal with the remaining Lurkers If Lightning and Braig hadn't yet, then he could call it a night.
Lightning was starting to lose her cool as she swung her gunblade at on of the passing Lurkers as it tried to charge her.
Her plan involved corralling the two Unversed into a position were they could do the most damage, but it hadn't been going as effectively as she wanted as the two mainly picked on either her or Braig and kept them separated to fight them just one on one before disappearing into back into the smoke.
It had gotten to the point where she had one clip left and was not willing to us it without her plan being set into motion.
So she had to resort to using her blade in order to fight off these things when they got too close for comfort.
"Any idea when these things will let up?" Braig asked as he teleported out of the way of a few lightning bolts.
"The first chance we get." Lightning said as she rolled out of the way of an incoming fireball. She dodged a few other fireballs and was about to strike and incoming Lurker.
Before a black sword slammed into it's head.
A sword similar to the one Roxas had earlier.
The sword then went back to presumably it's owner and the Unversed both followed its course.
Giving them the perfect chance to act.
"Braig it is now or never!" Lightning shouted as she shifted her weapon's form and emptied her entire clip onto the Lurkers, each shot hitting its mark before throwing down her weapon.
The Unversed looked down and saw her throwing her weapon away. Coating themselves in electricity then dove down in order to finish this once and for all.
The Lurkers were right, but not for them.
In the middle of their descent Braig teleported above them and shot a barrage of laser arrows into the air above the two Lurkers before teleporting infront of them.
"Surprise!" He shout with a grin before pulling out the two grenades Lightning gave him, throwing it into the Unversed's mouths, and them teleporting away just as the laser arrows came raining back down onto the Lurkers.
They crashed onto the ground and were pinned down by the arrows so they couldn't move at all as the grenades exploded inside their mouths.
Braig teleported in front of the where the Lurkers crashed to see to his surprise that one of them was still alive, but barely. It rose its head up and began to charge up a fireball. Braig just raised an arrowguns at it.
"Bang." Was all he said before firing.
However a bullet hit the Lurker's head before his laser arrow, end these Unversed's threat once and for all.
Braig just shot Lightning an incredulous look as the smoke started to dissipate.
"I thought I had emptied my clip, turns out it had only jammed. Now it is empty." She said while sheathing her gunblade.
"Yeah, yeah spoil my fun by taking my kill why don't ya." Braig grumbled as he put away his arrowguns, before noticing Roxas sending them a quick wave before walking towards an alleyway, his swords dissipating in his hands. "Do you think we should go after him?"
"I will, you go back to the castle." Lightning said, reaching for her blade.
"I believe you should leave him alone." Someone said from behind them. Lightning and Braig turned around and saw Even while carrying an unconscious Rosso.
"7 shots, two less then last time." Braig said, with a whistle.
"It probably would have taken about the same amount to knock her out if she hadn't been engaging that Unversed and then Roxas. Speaking of which, you need to leave him alone for now Clair, I believe that he earned it." Even said with a sigh.
"And why should I. Hey obviously knew something more about this Vanitas then what he told us about, and in that note it said that he was targeting him next." Lightning said, getting Even to nod.
"I see, if that is your reasoning, then go and check the alleyway. But I doubt he would be there. If this Vanitas is targeting him next, then he will be gone. The kids all seem to like him, unsure about Rosso all that much and considering the damage the ruffian unleashed just to kill you Clair, imagine what he would unleash against Roxas. It would be safer for them if he had just left, as he wouldn't want to put the kids in harms way." Even said, getting her to sigh.
"I can get that, but what makes you think he will be back with Vanitas gunning for him?" Lightning questioned.
"He seems like the kind of person who can actually back up his promises, a rarity these days. So with that and the possibility of being half as stubborn as you are, I have no doubt that he will be back." Even said. "Speaking of which, Clair Master wishes to talk to you, about opening fire into an open crowd. Also Braig can you watch over Kairi until her grandmother comes, I need to run some tests over Rosso before I can check up on Nero."
"No complaints from me." Braig said, before letting out a chuckle at Lightning's predicament.
"Shut up." She said flatly, before walking towards the castle with Braig and Even in tow. The former with a grin marring his face.
Things were about to get interesting soon enough.
A tired looking Roxas emerged from a Corridor of Darkness outside of Terra's tent.
He had completed his objective, fought a strong Heartless, gotten more questions then answers, fought some tough to kill Unversed, and finally tussled with a blood crazed girl.
It was time to call it a night.
He walked into the tent and shook the sleeping form of Terra, who woke up with a yawn.
"Time to switch then Roxas…" He trailed off as he noticed the scratchs on the Nobody's arm, the one he had gotten from Rosso that hasn't faded yet even after repeated uses of potions and Cure. "Unversed I take it."
"Yes, it was not that long ago and they were a bunch of strong ones." Roxas said, half truthfully. Omitting the fact about the Ras Al-Gul and Rosso. "I had it handled and you to,d me to get you if the Unversed proved to be too much, which they weren't."
"Alright you got me there Roxas. Anyway how long have you been awake?" Terra sighed out.
"Four or five hours." He said, getting the older apprentice to sigh.
"I see, well then get some rest then Roxas. You have more then earned it. You'll need it for the training tomorrow morning. Also new rule, if you see any Unversed during your shift wake me up. No exceptions, understood Roxas?" Terra asked.
"I understand." Roxas said, walking past Terra. "Good Night Terra."
"Good Night Roxas." Terra said.
He walked not even three steps away from the tent before hearing the sound of something collapsing. He turned around and saw that Roxas had passed out onto the tent's floor.
"Poor kid was more exhausted then I thought, I'll give him an extra hour to rest tomorrow morning." Terra said as he sat down next to the fading fire and began his watch.
Braig tapped his foot on the floor while waiting for his intending audience to show.
This was the same chamber he usually meet with Xehanort and the occasional Vanitas whenever they showed up. It was also were the old man wanted to lure the eldest apprentice, Terra if he recalled to this chamber for his plan.
It was the perfect place for a meeting or an ambush.
And right now he was getting impatient.
He had managed to convince Dilan to look after Kairi for about 10 minutes and he was 5 minutes into that time.
He was hoping that Vanitas showed up or else people in the castle were going to start asking questions.
"Traitor!"
Ah, there he is.
Braig side stepped a sphere of darkness before turning to face Vanitas, smirking as he was trying and failing to summon his Keyblade.
"Took you long enough." He said simply, getting Vanitas to glare.
"What the hell did you do to my Keyblade?!" Vanitas spat out.
"Nothing much, just placed a barrier around here that'll keep any and all prying eyes off of me. Especially the one on your Keyblade, unless of course you wish to face me with your original Keyblade, the one your brother made for you." Braig said, getting wisps of darkness to begin forming off of Vanitas in waves. "Unless you think that you aren't worthy enough for it…or you think that it wasn't even yours in the first place."
"Shut up, shut up, shut up!" Vanitas shouted as darkness exploded off of him, until he took a quick breath and stilled a little bit of his darkness. "Like you have any right to your Keyblade Luxu! The old coot is in possession of it!"
"Luxu, who said I was Luxu? I could be anybody. I could be him, Ira, Aced, Invi, Ava, or Gula." Braig said with a grin, getting the ancient Keyblade wielder to scoff.
"Get real I know who your are! I would have definitely known if you were Gula. Besides I knew who you are by the feel of your heart! It was brief, but I've been around Ava to know the feeling of a heart from the Celestial Aegis and only two people have successfully come from their and only hers was the only one with a fully human heart! So enough games Luxu you traitor!" Vanitas shouted, gathering darkness in his hands and glaring at the Foreteller.
For a second there was silence, before Braig burst into laughter while clapping his hands.
"Congratulations you figured me out kid!" Braig, no Luxu said, his laugh subsiding. "It seems like the apple doesn't fall that far from the tree, cause you got Gula's deductive skills. And for the fact I was part human, though that was in the minority. Now I'm fully human, my heart is still the same though."
"I said enough games Luxu! You and the Master abandoned us all! The Foretellers, The Unions, everyone! You abandoned all of us all and look where it lead. Our world has shattered into countless others, The Keyblade War erupted, hundreds of millions died when our world shattered, and hundreds of Keyblade wielders including myself were exile to a pocket dimension! So tell me was it all worth it, tell me!" Vanitas said, getting Luxu's grin to drop.
"You want answers kid, fine I give you an answer or two. But you are not ready for the full truth yet." Luxu said seriously, getting Vanitas to generate dark electricity in his hand.
"Like hell I am! Hasteza!" Vanitas said, before disappearing in a burst of speed. Luxu tried to keep up with him, but Vanitas kept ramming into him and punching the Foreteller. Each and every hit releasing pules of darkness and lightning.
This continued on until Vanitas landed a blow to Luxu's face and pushed him back a few feet.
"Okay, as you said no more games." Luxu said while rubbing his cheek, before vanishing in a burst of his speed.
His baseline speed might not have been as fast as Vanitas's current speed, but it was close and he knew for a fact that he could hit harder as well.
The two meet in the middle, Luxu throwing the first strike, but was blocked by Vanitas.
The Foreteller recomposed himself and his fist broke straight through Vanitas's helmet and hit his face. Which he retaliated with a magically enhanced blow to Luxu's stomach.
Luxu tried to strike his exposed face, but Vanitas blocked his fist and counteracted with his own and slammed his other one into the Foreteller's cheek.
Vanitas landed a blow to the Foreteller's gut and with a pulse of dark magic pushed him back.
Luxu quickly recovered and landed a blow to Vanitas's head as he tried to land another hit.
Vanitas landed another gut blow, but Luxu punched him into the head and stunned the younger Keyblade wielder. He stood a few steps back, but Luxu rushed towards him and hit his square in the cheek, causing Vanitas to collapse onto the ground and cough up a few droplets of black blood.
All of this happened over the course of 5 seconds.
"Got to hand it too ya kid, Xehanort trained you well. Then again you were or your memories were part of a Keyblade wielder of the Union. If you had used a Keyblade then you could have landed some serious hurt on me there. A little more training and you will be on par with the Foretellers, something only Xehanort has reached in this era." Luxu said as Vanitas picked himself up. "Then again I am a little rusty after all, but still I wasn't holding anything back at all."
"Shut up!" Vanitas shouted as he got back up and began to launch spell after spell at the Foreteller, who dodged them all. "Like I care about that, all I care about is making you and the Master suffer for what you did to us!"
Vanitas tried to launch another spell, but Luxu blindsided him and slammed him into the ground.
"I could care less about what you say about me, and I'll admit he does deserve some flak for what he has done. But I will not allow you to disrespect his last actions! My Master, no my father died to save you all including your sorry ass. He has nothing to do with this!" Luxu said in a hollow, shocking Vanitas.
"You mean-" "That's right, he is dead! He has been ever since our world split apart! When he disappeared it was to save as many people as he could! He spent the last two years of his life in exile, building arks for people to survive the shattering and he died in one while the world shattered! If it wasn't for him then billions would have died and it would have taken another 6000 years before the worlds reached the prosperity they have reached today!" Luxu shouted, before a ticking noise emerged from his pockets.
Luxu pulled out a large silver pocket watch with a sliver chain ending with a pendulum with some kind sigil he didn't recognize and a green gem embedded in it, the top of the watch adorned with the same sigil of the Book of Prophecies and a red spherical crystal in the center, and the bottom was adorned with crossed angelic wings.
He pulled it open and Vanitas swore he saw more engraving inside the watch before Luxu sighed and closed it.
"Two minutes before I have to switch with Dilan, looks like I have to cut this short kid. Sorry I have to say it, but you won't be remembering this or myself for a little bit. But for a fair trade I will give you a little secret." Luxu said as he approached the younger Keyblade wielder.
"Like hell you will!" Vanitas shouted as he gather a massive amount of electricity in both of his lands and launched it at Luxu, who just dodged it.
"You missed kid." He said.
"I wasn't aiming at you." Vanitas said with a grin. The Foreteller looked behind him and saw that the attacks were aimed at two Lurkers right behind him.
They immediately began to charge up electricity along with Vanitas.
"Ah hell." Luxu said as all three of them blasted him with electricity.
Vanitas was smirking, but on the inside he prepared for anything Luxu might throw at him. He had enhanced the Unversed with the power comparable to four of the Lurkers he unleashed earlier per Unversed. Combined with the lightning doubling their power and his own, the Foreteller was receiving the combine shock of approximately 10 Lurkers combined.
After a few moments they let up their assault, sending a slightly charred Luxu to his knees.
"Okay I'll admit kid, that was a pretty good hit. Would have knocked out or severely injuring a seasoned Keyblade wielder no problem." He said as he picked himself up, a circle forming underneath him. "Now let's see how you handle some real lightning."
Vanitas immediately teleported out of the way as he recognized what Luxu was doing as electricity flooded the chamber.
He was summoning an eidolon and judging by the feel of the magic, one from the Celestial Aegis. Presumably from his own home world.
However he made a slight miscalculation as he ended teleporting at the tail end of the attack and screamed as thousands of volts of electricity coursed through his body.
A moment later it ended and a groggy Vanitas swore he saw something like a large sphere of lightning zip around Luxu before vanishing and the charred remains of the Unversed fell behind him.
"I summon him for the first time in thirty five years and he gives me trouble. Well excuse me for looking for a new body and having to lock my memories away." Luxu grumbled before a green aura surrounded himself and Vanitas, healing them.
Luxu raised one hand and held the pocket watch in the other. Vanitas was lifted up the ground and was float to right in front of him.
"Sorry about this kid." Luxu said, before his watch glowed white and before Vanitas could even process what was happening his mind went blank.
"I hate having to do this kid, but it needed to be done." Luxu said as the watch returned to normal before pocketing it. With a sigh he opened a up a Corridor of Darkness.
"When you wake up, it will be in the Keyblade Graveyard and all memories of this conversation a good part of this past hour will be altered. When you wake up it will be that you thought that you fell asleep training." Luxu said before letting like a chuckle. "Unless of course you have a way to store your memories somewhere else. Wouldn't put it past you, after all, you seem to have Gula's cunning after all."
The Foreteller then made a slight pushing motion with his hand and the unconscious Keyblade wielder drifted towards the Corridor.
"You and I are similar white each Vanitas, the both of us broken hearts form another era acting against their masters wishes. Instead you do it for your own ideals, which I can respect. For myself it is fix what went wrong. I will be willing to work with you, only after you figure out whatever secrets is hiding." Luxu said, before his face darkened a bit. "Also just a final warning before you forget everything."
"The moment you screw over Xehanort, all bets are off. Gula's brother or not, I will kill you no questions."
With one final shove, Vanitas rocketed through the Corridor and it closed behind him.
The Foreteller sighed as pulled out his watch.
"Shit, 30 seconds left!" Luxu shouted, before he teleported away.
Dilan was waiting for Braig, as the apprentice waited for the older apprentice while he took care of something real quick.
Normally he wouldn't have done something like this, but as he had promised to take care of his guard duty incase Rosso woke up, it so an instant deal for him.
Last time he did that, the girl was still in a blood rage and broke through her bonds and attacked him pretty badly before Even knocked her out.
It gave him some pretty bad internal trauma and according to his doctor it would take another 10 days to heal. And another 3 days before he stops pissing blood and screaming.
Something that he was looking forward to.
"Ready to switch?" Braig asked as he turned the corner, getting Dilan to nod.
"I am, also good luck with Rosso later. Your going to need it." Dilan said with a grin as he left, getting Braig to laugh nervously at him.
The older apprentice just shook it off and walked over to Kairi who was looking over her flowers and saw her grandmother coming up the stairs.
"Kairi, follow me. Your grandmother is here." Braig said, getting the girl bound off from here seat and rush down the stairs.
"Grandma!" Kairi cries out as she ran into the open arms of her grandmother.
"I'm so glad that you are alright, when I heard that Unversed attacked, I feared the worst." She said while separating from here grandchild.
"You didn't worry, I had my friends to help me along with Mr. Braig, Even, Lightning, and Roxas looking after me.
"I'm not that old!" The secret Foreteller shouted from the top of the stairs, omitting the fact that he was secretly nearly 2400 years old.
"That's good to hear, but who is Roxas?" Kairi's grandmother questioned.
"A boy about twice as old as Rosso and my new friend, he had to leave after the Unversed attack to reunite with his friend. But he promised to be back. Oh and he picked a Shion to give to a friend of his named Xion." Kairi said, getting her grandmother to chuckle at her.
"He sounds like a nice boy and a Shion for a Xion, well can't say that that is unique. Did he say it was not to forget her, because I doubt he will anytime soon." She said with a laugh, getting Kairi to giggle.
"I know right! Also I gave him one of these flowers for good luck and so that he would come back." Kairi said with a smile, pulling out a similar red flower.
Suddenly her grandmother covered her hand, a teasing glint in her eyes.
"Kairi I didn't know you had it in you to be so bold." Her grandmother said, with a teasing tone. Getting Braig to look on intrigued.
"What do you mean grandma?" The girl questioned.
"Kairi you gave him a red tulip, which hold the meaning of eternal or undying love. Because you handed one to him and shion, it meant that you proclaimed Roxas to be the your one eternal love and that you would never forget him for as long as you lived." She said with a teasing grin. "I didn't take you for the romantic type Kairi, but I'm happy you found someone to love."
For a whole minute there was nothing but dead silence, before Kairi's face turned atomic levels of red and screamed into her hands in sheer embarrassment.
Meanwhile Braig was rolling on his ass laughing at the poor girl.
He literally couldn't help it, this was the funniest shit he had heard in a millennia!
"So when can I expect the wedding." Kairi's grandmother teased, getting the girl to somehow turn Even redder and Braig to laugh at the girl even harder.
While she was literally wishing to find the deepest darkest hole and die on their from sheer embarrassment, she swore revenge against the man for laughing at her plight.
And she knew just the place to do so.
The projector dies down as the chapter ends and the author is seen waving at you.
*Hey guys Hakuorofan7 here, I'm feeling a lot better now and I hoped that you all enjoyed this chapter.*
*Buy now I guess some of you are still reeling from the massive bombshells that just got dropped, let us discuss a few things.*
*First the chapter length, I will not do something this long again unless I am feeling like it and it is absolutely murder to write.*
*Secondly the kids.*
*As you could see I introduced three of the Tsviets from FF7 Dirge of Ceberus as Kairi's friends in the form of children. Why you may ask, well simple. I thought that they were a little underused and thought it would be a great way to shake things up im the story. They will play an important roll later on in the story and if anyone asks what happened to them during the canon timeline. Well Roxas did mention that due to thr condition's of Nero's heart that he would have been a canidate for Ansem's apprentices experiments. So you can imagine what happened to Weiss and Rosso, especially with the later's condition. Also before I continue if you are wondering abit about them being occ, well they never had the trauma of being raised in Deepground this time around. Also if anyone wonders why I was possibly trying to channel Seras Victoria through Rosso...well let's just say I have watch a bit to much TFS lately and it shows with Yuffie.*
*Speaking of which it is going to be interesting the next time he sees her and Kairi, especially the later after the teasing she got from her grandmother and Luxu. Speaking of the him, Kairi will get her revenge in next chapters omake, so I hope you will all enjoy that next chapter.*
*Thirdly, we have Lightning.*
*She was correctly guessed as one of the surprise harem members and even fewer guessed that she was Even's younger sister, although adopted. To those that guessed correctly I must say that I am impressed.*
*Anyway she is the sixth apprentice before Xehanort was found and as stated in my first omake she was killed by an Unvered, which you all only got a slight glimpse of, and let me just say that it is one hell of a monstrosity. Anyway she will play a very important role in the story and I hope you all can't wait for it.*
*Finally...the lore*
*I can saftly say that canon has official been thrown off of a cliff by this chapter.*
*We have gotten a little information about the end of the Age of Fairy Tales, Info about the Master of the Master of Master's (try saying that five times fast), the Celestial Aegis, as well as a little more insight into Vanitas's endgame.*
*But there is two main take away's here...the Master of Master's and Luxu.*
*For the former, his death will be explored further down the line by Roxas and himself, as by my calculations the version currently monitoring through Roxas is quite a bit aways from his own death. Let's just say the circumstances behind it isn't pretty and leave it that for now.*
*Finally the main event, Luxu.*
*As you can tell Luxu is obviously Braig, but the circumstances are different in this timeline. As he did mention having to lock his memories away while looking for a body. But for simplicity sakes, I'll just say that he has always been Braig in a way and elborate on that in a later chapter. But as you can see he is still manipulating things behind the scenes and is now willing to work with Vanitas, what for you will all have to read to believe it. Just note that he has a plan for things and is fully working off script now.*
*So basically whatever Luxu is planing is going against the Master's wishes and can only spell trouble in the end.*
*Also the watch is what you all think it is and I have left a little of his homeworld through hints in this chapter. If anyone guesses correctly I would be surprised, as the details will be important down the road.*
*Especially about what his endgame truly is.*
A beeping is heard as the author pulls out a phone and shuts it off.
*Sadly it looks like we are out of time, but before we go I have 2 things to say.*
*First is that we have reached 200 favorites and 250 follows and I have to thank each and everyone of you for your continued support on this story. Now I have one thing to ask for you as I am finally confident enough to ask.*
*...Can I please get a Tv Tropes page?*
*If anyone one of you refuses I understand and I'd thought I ask. But seriously all of your support is enough for me. But if I do get the page someone please inform me as it would be a great honor to recieve one from anyone of you.*
*Finally the harem.*
*As I said before, Lightning was one of the surprises so she is in. But as the new FF7 came out today, I am adding Tifa to harem. Hope you will all enjoy that.*
*Anyway next chapter will feature Roxas meeting the Master of Master's once again and learning a terrible truth about him and Ava traveling though time while back in Radiant Garden Lea and Ïsa encounter a side effect of this very effect. Also an omake about Kairi getting revenge on Luxu for teasing her.*
*Anyway I hope you all enjoy it and until next time, ciao!*
The author snaps his fingers and the screen fades to black.
Harem(WIP): Naminé, Xion, Aqua, Yuffie, Ava, Larxene, Kairi, Lightning, Tifa, 1 surprise.