Chapter 16: The future is far away
It was night time when they just barely arrived at the Mathers territory where Otto's ground dragon stopped. Subaru and the other knights all asked what was wrong to which Otto looked at the ground dragon for a moment before explaining to them that the ground dragon detects danger up ahead.
"Then I guess the rest is up to us. Thank you Otto, you can keep the rest of the money."
"N-Now hold on you four! It is dangerous to be out here, even for knights!"
"That's what us knights are all about, fighting danger to protect the others."
"W-What? N-No, wait!"
Otto tried to stop them yet Subaru, Yabuto, Kishida, and Waraki all four continued on into the forest, determined to find out if everyone was alright. Along the way, the four noticed that it was too quiet which made all of them pull out their swords out of safety. As the four enter the forest, they realise that they are surrounded by a group of people in dark robes.
"Witch cultist!" Waraki spoke out with anger inside of him, causing the other knights alongside Subaru to stand in guard with their swords up and ready for a battle. Before the witch cultist could do anything, heartless randomly appeared in front of everybody to attack them all. Subaru and his group held the heartless on their own while the witch cultist left them, leaving Waraki confused by this since they wouldn't just leave. The four all managed to push back the heartless, barely managing to hold their own. After they took down the shadow heartless, Subaru led the knights towards the mansion with the four worried for what may have happened to Sora and the others.
Please be safe everybody...I don't want any of you to die…
"Don't worry newbie, we will make it in time to save everyone."
"Yes Subaru, don't lose hope. Yabuto, Kishida, and I are here to lend you a hand."
"Thank you guys. Alright then, let's go!"
Subaru and the three knights all kept running and running all night, encountering a swarm of heartless and witch cultists along the way. Subaru and Yabuto took on the heartless together while Kishida and Waraki took on any witch cultist that attacked the four. As the four were managing to hold their own, a giant Darkside heartless appeared to attack everybody.
The witch cultists were all preparing to leave yet the darkside managed to defeat them all with a few strikes. Seeing this forced the four to work together in an attempt to take out the giant heartless with Subaru realizing that he must rely on his sword skills since he can't summon magic without his keyblade.
"Don't worry Subaru, Yabuto and I will take it out, you and Waraki focus on distracting the damn thing."
Subaru nodded and quickly followed Waraki in attacking the Darkside's legs to get its attention while Yabuto and Kishida both prepared to attack the Darkside heartless with everything they got. The Darkside heartless felt the attacks of both Subaru and Waraki, forcing the heartless to turn towards the duo for a bit to attack them only to be attacked by both Yabuto and Kishida.
The heartless took a couple of hits before turning its attention at the other duo, wanting to respond back to the attacks it had received yet Subaru and Waraki returned to distract the giant. They kept doing this for a while until finally Yabuto and Kishida were both able to land the finishing blow, allowing them to take the win.
"That giant was an interesting opponent but it didn't stand a chance against the four of us."
"Agreed but we should hurry, I fear the worst for the Emilia camp."
Subaru and Waraki nodded at this and quickly continued to make their way into the Mathers territory with Subaru thinking about the things Emilia and Sora said to him before they left. He remembered the promise he made Emilia of returning back to her healed while remembering the words his master said to him.
I will make it in time!
Subaru and his three knight friends arrived at Arlem village when it hit morning, the four of them tired of running. They observed the place and at first thought that they made it in time since it was quiet yet they ended up realizing that it is too quiet for a village. The four of them split up to check around the place with Subaru thinking about the children, remembering that they have dream eaters should they get attacked.
As he searched around, he ended up noticing an odd black ish pile. He approached this odd thing only to fall to the ground on a wet puddle. He was unsure about what he was in yet he realized the smell was foul. He looked up again and got to see the black ish pile clearly and saw burned bodies which freaked him out.
Yabuto, Kishida, and Waraki all three heard this and quickly made their way towards Subaru's position to check up on him. As the three knights arrived at his location, they all noticed the pile of burned body parts which caused Yabuto to throw up while the other two were left there in shock. Subaru's fear increased which caused him to run towards the mansion with the knights following behind him to make sure their friend doesn't get hurt.
Once arriving at the mansion, Subaru looked around and saw that many of the witch cultists had been killed yet he noticed a familiar maid looking outfit near him. He was too scared to know if it is Rem or Ram but he is just terrified that either one is dead right in front of them. He took a moment to calm himself in order to gain the resolve to check on the body only to see it was Ram with a knife through her head.
This caused him to fall to the ground with tears in his eyes, unable to process the amount of death that was around him while the knights stood there to help comfort Subaru. As the four stood there for a moment, Waraki looked from a distance and noticed someone with their imperial knight uniform off into the distance. Waraki told the others which prompted Kishida and Yabuto to follow only for the trio of knights to end up finding Julius dead.
"What the hell happened here?! Who dared attack and kill Julius?!"
"I know how you feel, Yabuto, but we need to see if there are any survivors around."
"Agreed."
Yabuto and the others all went towards Subaru's position to encourage him to continue inside to see if there were any survivors. Subaru at first didn't want to go check yet he started to think about how he hasn't seen Master Sora or Rem, giving him a slimmer of hope that his master is still alive. The four cautiously entered the mansion with their swords out and ready, uncertain if the threat is still inside.
As they walked in with caution, Subaru opened every door to only find many dead Witch cultists. He eventually reached a door where it was leading into the forbidden library, prompting the boy to check on Beatrice. He opens the door only to be attacked by the Meow Wow dream eater, thinking Subaru was one of the enemies that has finally found them. Subaru looked up and saw Meow Wow look at him for a moment before going to the boy to play with him, wanting to show that it feels sorry for attacking him.
Yabuto and the other two asked Subaru what was the dream eater they were seeing, thinking it is a special kind of spirit to which Subaru answered that it is a spirit created by his master before he got up and entered the library. As he entered the library, he could see that all the children of the village were there.
"Seems like you survived the attack, I suppose."
"Beatrice!" Subaru shouted with joy and pain in his heart, charging at the petite girl and holding her up. She was surprised by this and started to demand Subaru to put her down yet Subaru was hugging her and carrying her. As this happened, he began to ask the petite girl where everybody was such as Sora, Rem, Emilia, Puck, and Roswaal.
Beatrice stood silent for a moment before leading Subaru to where Sora is. When Subaru looked at Sora, he quickly ran towards his master to see him asleep with a bleeding head and Rem by his side. He smiled that Rem survived yet he could tell that she was missing her left arm.
"Those two together saved the children, I suppose. They are alive but unconscious for now. The children were put to sleep by me so I don't hear them cry anymore, I suppose."
"Glad to see Master Sora and Rem are both together and alive but...where is Emilia?"
Beatrice stood silent before she left Subaru with both Sora and Rem, leaving Subaru thinking of the worse. The three knights approached Subaru after having checked the kids of the village to see that they were alright. As they approach Subaru, they notice Rem was missing her left arm and in her right hand she was holding Sora's hand. They were sad that she had sustained an injury yet they were happy that she survived the massacre.
"Subaru, is this your master?"
"Yes, Master Sora looks very calm when sleeping."
Subaru smiled as he saw his master sleeping yet he knew that if Emilia wasn't here, then she is somewhere in the mansion. He started to make his way outside of the forbidden library yet the three knights stopped him.
"Don't go, Newbie. We don't know who is out there?"
"I know but I have to find Emilia and make sure she is alright. I trust that you all can protect these kids, Rem, and my master while I'm gone." Subaru responded to what Yabuto said before turning his attention to Beatrice. "Can you make me a promise? Can you be by master's side and get all the kids out of here to safety?"
"And why should I do that, I suppose?"
"Because I trust you, Beatrice."
Beatrice was completely stunned by this and before she could say anything, Subaru had left the room. As he left the forbidden library, he had a feeling that his life in this world was reaching its end. He went towards the study area of Emilia to find more dead cultists yet he found the flower given to her by the appa owner's daughter on the floor covered in blood.
This made him pull out his sword to prepare for the possibility that he will be encountering a dangerous threat. He entered a secret passage to find it extremely cold, leaving him to continue making his way to find Emilia. Eventually he reached a frozen room with frozen Witch Cultists. He attempted to open the door yet he felt his fingers burning badly, which caused him to scream in pain before he realized that he was completely frozen.
"I'm sorry Subaru, I wish you came sooner but you are too late...now rest."
'What happened? I heard Puck speaking...did Emilia...?'
Subaru looked around and realized that his checkpoint had moved from fighting the two darkside heartless to the morning where he went into the city with Rem. He looked around and realized that he was in front of the Appa store. He turned towards his left side to see Rem holding a basket of Appas.
"Rem..." Subaru's mind was slightly bothered by all he had witnessed in Arlem village with many having suffered horrible fates yet he felt that seeing all the children having survived because of his master gave him a chance to recollect himself and plan out something. He quickly asked Rem to help him find his three knight friends in the city, recalling that they had gone to take care of a few things.
Rem and Subaru together went to look for them, seeing that it must be urgent by the way Subaru emphasized that they should look for them. The two went around town for an hour until finally Rem was able to find the three. As Subaru and Rem caught up with Yabuto, Kishida, and Waraki they had a conversation with Subaru starting it with,
"We have to talk, I think I got a lead on the witch cult."
"Subaru...are you sure?"
"Positive!"
Waraki looked at Subaru with a serious facial expression before telling the others that they should listen to what the boy has to say. Subaru was counting on this since he recalled from the previous events Waraki as some hatred towards the witch cult similar to Rem. Once they were in a private area to speak, Subaru began to explain the situation to his group, explaining that the Witch Cult will be attacking the villagers before going after Emilia and the others in the mansion. Yabuto and Kishida were skeptical by this yet Waraki was the one to back up what Subaru said, knowing that the Witch Cult does this kind of tactics.
"Waraki, you who knows how the witch cultists do, is what Subaru said is right?"
"Yes Kishida, those bastards are how they operate. I believe that Subaru is telling the truth."
"If that is the case, then we should report this to Miss Crusch so the newbie has some back up."
Kishida and Waraki both nodded at Yabuto and quickly followed Subaru to Crusch's mansion in order to explain the situation to her. Similar to the previous loop, Crusch allowed him to still go to check in Emilia. Before they went on their way, the three knights had gone to gather more knights who weren't going on Crusch's crusade to face off the White Whale. As the three gathered a few knights to help him out, Subaru thanked them all for joining him before they started to leave a day early compared to the previous time. During the travels, Subaru got to chat with his three friends the same as in his previous route, wanting to bond with them exactly like he did before yet he felt like he wasn't being true to himself this time since he already knew what they were going to say. None the less he continued on to make sure nothing deviated between them.
Unlike the previous time, they managed to get through the night without the need of resting in a hotel, allowing Subaru and the others to get to the Mathers Mansion a day early where in the previous timeline he found Rem's note in the morning. This time he had woken up with Rem sleeping by herself while his three friends were all talking outside while riding ground dragons.
I hope I don't have to repeat these events again, I know I normally find a way on the third go but...I don't want them to die...I don't want anybody to die…
Subaru was thinking about this before he thought about how he wanted to regain his keyblade, feeling like he needs the weapon in order for him to be more useful. He pulled out his sword and started to imagine himself wielding a keyblade, remembering how well it felt when he wielded the weapon.
"I know you are still hurting about losing your weapon but Sora-kun had also lost the keyblade himself."
"Yeah, but he got it back so I know that I'll get mine back as well. I am Sora's apprentice after all."
Rem smiled at this statement before the two enjoyed the rest of the road with the other knights, each one wanting something important. As they arrive at the Mathers territory, one of the ground dragons along with one of the knight's heads fell off. Subaru, the three knights, and Rem all noticed this and quickly got on their guard along with a few knights. Everyone tried to do something yet many ground dragons were killed first before a couple of knights were easily taken out.
"Everybody, get to cover now!" Waraki yelled while getting his sword out, blocking off a few knives thrown towards his direction. Subaru and Rem both went towards cover for a moment before a few of the Witch Cultists hit Rem's backside with a couple of knives. Subaru was angered by this and quickly attempted to attack the three cultists yet they easily disarmed him and knocked him out to take him away. Rem took out her horn as she noticed the witch cult taking Subaru as a hostage. This caused her to start going on a rampage while the knights remaining did their best against the overwhelming odds of the witch cultists. Just as it seemed like the remaining ten knights with Yabuto and his crew included were going to be taken down, Rem joined in and started to take care of them without hesitation.
"Rem, where is Subaru?"
"Yes, where is the newbie?"
"Those witch cultists took him away! We need to alert Sora-kun, he will know what to do!"
"Are you sure? Yabuto and Kishida can go with you while the others and I try to find out where they take our newest member."
"Waraki, we need Sora-kun or you all will suffer. We barely made it out of this fight alive."
"Okay Rem, I will trust in your word."
Rem nodded and quickly led the group towards the mansion, knowing that they don't have a lot of time before Subaru is either broken or killed. As they make their way towards the mansion, they notice Sora and Julius having a spar match. Yabuto quickly shouted out Julius's name which caught him off guard.
"Yabuto Jinzadashi? What are you doing here? What is everyone doing here?"
"Sora-kun! Subaru has been kidnapped by the witch's cult!"
"What?" Sora was completely thrown off by what he has heard, feeling extreme concern for his student. Enough to get him to ask Julius to stay and protect the mansion while he goes to save Subaru. Julius nods at this and asks if a couple of knights could stay with him, only three chose to stay with him while the other four along with Yabuto, Kishida, and Waraki made their way towards the forest in search of Natsuki Subaru.
Subaru opens his eyes to find someone extremely close to him, face distance which does bother him a bit. The person with green hair and light green skin looks at Subaru with great curiosity.
"Yes, I see. This is certainly an interesting development. So tell me, you wouldn't happen to be the one known as pride, now would you?"
"..." Subaru didn't say a thing, not knowing what could happen should he say the right or wrong answer to the question. This caused the man in front of the boy to start to bite hard on his finger while hearing him say,
"I guess you're not going to answer me!"
Subaru continued to remain quiet while keeping himself composed, only to be disturbed by how the man in front of him continued to bite down on his index finger to the point it started to bleed. This was bothersome for Subaru since within the first few seconds with this man, he knew that this man is insane. He gets up and begins to walk away while speaking with Subaru in a polite manner.
"Ah, right...I haven't introduced myself yet. In the Witch's cult, I am a Sin Archbishop representing sloth, Petelgeuse Romanee-Conti!"
"Petelgeuse Romancee-Conti? That is a rather long and annoying name."
"Excuse me? That is...my brain trembles!"
Subaru looked at the witch's cult representation for sloth with disgust in his eyes, seeing a mad man in charge of people who are probably insane like him. Subaru started to stand up and analyzed the situation before asking the archbishop why is he even here, trying to play it out as if he was unaware of what had happened.
"Are you not the one who is known as Pride?"
"...What gave that away?"
"Well the witch's love, it's all over you that I'm jealous!"
"Darn, and I was trying to keep my identity a secret. Darn it Sloth, you really make things harder for me, now."
"What...My brain trembles!" Subaru watched as somehow he was able to lie to Petelgeuse while also seeing him move like a crazy man, grabbing his hair and moving his head side to side in a crazy manner. The plan Subaru came up with on the spot is to get enough information before he ends up dying since he would want to gain some intel if he were to perish.
"Would you mind releasing me?"
"Wait...where is your gospel?"
"Well I can't do anything if I'm chained up, man you are really slothful."
"Slothful...slothful...SLOTHFUL!" Petelgeuse began to bang his head onto the floor when he heard what he assumes is pride telling him that he is slothful, causing greater discomfort for the boy attempting to get out. Petelgeuse looked at Subaru and was about to free him until they all heard a voice, "Let Subaru go!"
"What's this? You all came here for pride? No, otherwise you would also be followers of the cult. This isn't right!"
"I said Let Him Go!" Sora used Firaga at Petelgeuse to show the Archbishop that he is being serious, causing the mad man to be curious about the weapon his opponent is holding. He has never seen it before in his life and now he is more curious about its power. He sent his entire group of witch cultists to go and attack Sora only to be easily taken down by Rem and the other knights.
"No...No...No! This isn't what the gospel stated! My Brain Trembles!" Petelgeuse prepared to bite down on all his fingers until they all saw a corridor of darkness appear with three people walking through it. Marluxia, Larxene, and Vantias all appeared in between Sora's group and Petelgeuse, leaving the Sin archbishop confused on what was going on while Sora and his group all got their guards up.
"My what do we have here, oh right it is the hero who is going to die."
"Yes, I have been looking for you, Sora. Now we will have our rematch."
"Larxene! Marluxia! Even Vanitas is here too!"
"It's so good to see that you haven't forgotten about me, after all I am a part of you as well."
"I won't let you three get away along with that crazy man over there."
"Crazy? How dare you call me, the Sin Archbishop of Sloth, crazy!" As Petelgeuse screamed in anger, he bit down hard on his eight fingers until they were bleeding, causing multiple shadow hands to appear behind him before charging directly at Sora and his gang. Subaru seeing this quickly warned Sora and the others of the threat heading towards them, causing Sora to cast Reflect on the group but he was unable to. They all were hit by the sin archbishop's attack with Sora managing to break free while everyone else was killed in the process. Both Subaru and Sora were in complete shock when they saw everybody get killed with Sora seeing Rem's corpse fall next to him.
"Rem...Rem...REM!"
"D-Don't worry...Sora-Kun...I...I love you..." Rem managed to say those words before the light in her eyes faded away, causing Sora to experience the same pain he did when Kairi was killed right in front of him. Sora fell to the ground with Larxene making fun of him on how he was unable to save everybody again.
"For a hero you are sure pathetic. Everybody died because you were unable to save them. What kind of hero makes that mistake-"
"Shut up."
"Huh? What did you say to me?"
"I said...SHUT UP!" Sora shouted at Larxene before a dark ball engulfed Sora for a brief few seconds before Sora reappeared with a more dark look. All of his body is covered in darkness alongside Kingdom Key, making Subaru think of Sora going into heartless mode. Larxene charged at the boy first, disliking his disrespect yet she was killed within a few seconds, not realizing that Sora is no longer holding back at all and is intent on killing. She disappeared with a shocked look on her face, causing both Vanitas and Marluxia to get themselves ready for the fight ahead. While this is going on, Petelgeuse decided to continue on by stating,
"Should you be pride, then you will survive this. I, on the other hand, have the ordeal to complete."
"What is this ordeal?"
"What? How have you not heard of it?!"
"Not in the right state of mind right now."
Petelgeuse looked at Subaru before looking at Sora, seeing that he was easily beating Marluxia and Vanitas up. This caused the mad man to leave without saying a word, realizing that if he stays any longer then he would be killed. Subaru looked at Petelgeuse and before the sin archbishop of sloth left the area, he said to him,
"I promise you this, Petelgeuse Romanee-Conti, I will kill you...you will not get away with what you did here! I promise you that!"
Subaru looked at Sora after having seen that Petelgeuse had left the area and saw just how powerful he is when he snaps. Sora was taking every hit without a care in the world, causing Marluxia to stumble a bit on his attack, giving Sora the opening he needed to land a barrage of attacks on the scythe user. Each attack was stronger than the last, leaving Marluxia with barely any energy left to stand. He attempted to use wind but Sora struck him down with one hit, causing Marluxia to disappear just like Larxene did.
"H-How are you this strong? This doesn't make any sense! You are not supposed to easily defeat us...wait, you are in your dark form, of course. Haha this means that I can still beat you!"
Vanitas attempts to reassure himself as he charges at Sora without any hesitation, confident in himself that he can still take down the guardian of light. Sora deflected the attack without any hesitation or problems before going on the offensive against Vanitas, easily taking him down with a few hits. Vanitas attempted to escape the fight by opening a corridor of darkness but Sora was fast enough and easily commenced the finishing blow, causing Vanitas to disappear just like Marluxia and Larxene did. As he was fading away, he began to laugh a bit before saying in a dark yet happy tone, "Hahaha! Yes Sora! This is the power you should be after! Join me instead of my...brother in the light..."
Vanitas disappeared with Sora in his rage form standing around for a moment before turning towards Subaru, worrying the young boy since he doesn't know what he is going to do. Sora started to approach Subaru for a moment and just as it seemed like he was going to attack him, his master broke his chains before falling to the ground, returning back to his normal form. Subaru grabbed his master to check on him yet he saw that he was passed out, which caused him to panic that Sora died.
"Master...Master! Please don't be dead! I can't lose you…!"
"D...Don't...worry...Subaru...I'm alright..."
"Master Sora...I'm sorry, this is all my fault! I knew I was useless without the Keyblade but...I couldn't just sit around and do nothing..."
"That is why...I'm proud of you...you really have a good...heart, even when you are weak...you aren't afraid of going to fight off for the people you...care about..."
Sora smiled at Subaru before passing out, having used up too much energy against the three organization members. Subaru was left happy but sad, happy to hear that his master is proud of him but sad because they lost everybody at this point. Not wishing to leave his master behind, he gives Sora a piggyback ride all the way towards the mansion. During his walk, he was now able to tell where exactly is Petelgeuse's hiding spot, making a mental note for the next time he goes up against the Sin archbishop of sloth. Subaru continues to walk and walk, seeing that the people in Arlem village were all killed the same way as before but this time he noticed that the children were dead as well, realizing that because Sora wasn't around then they stood no chance in defending themselves against the Witch cult.
I'm sorry everybody, Petra...all of you children...this is my fault...
Subaru carrying Sora on his back continued to walk slowly, feeling the air in the atmosphere shift from pretty decent to extremely cold, reminding him of the previous loop, how he entered a room that was completely cold to the point that he froze up and died. Although death was nearby, Subaru wasn't afraid of dying, as he wanted to see how this world came to an end before being reset back to the checkpoint. As he was arriving at the mansion, he looked around and saw Ram dead in the same place she was previously while seeing Julius and the other knights dead alongside her, each one having died differently. This caused tears to fall down his eyes since it is a world he failed to save anybody, despite having had the advantage of getting to the mathers territory early.
Damn it...I'm sorry I failed you all...I promise you I will make Petelgeuse pay for this!
As Subaru had this thought in mind, he looked at the mansion and saw a giant monster being formed which made Subaru realize that he is going to die. He closed his eyes and began to say to the monster,
"Kill me but spare Master Sora. He is the most innocent person in this world and he doesn't deserve to die."
…
…
…
"Fine." As the voice spoke to Subaru, the boy set his master down before looking at the giant, accepting his death as his head was sliced off from his body.
'I guess this is it...I need to not screw this up this time. It is my third time.'
Subaru returned back to the city with his motivation set on saving everyone this time, confident that he will be able to pull through this loop. He approaches Rem and similar to his previous loop, he asks her to help him find his three knight friends.
A few notes to add:
1. Recall that for any kingdom hearts character that uses the darkness, their powers are amplified which is why most of the organization members are strong. So say Riku was in this world, he would be much stronger than he currently is.
2. Sora's Anti-form is more of him allowing the darkness to take over but like Ultima/Final form, it drains a ton of energy from him.
3. The reason Marluxia and Larxene were easily dealt with was that their heads were just on killing Sora rather than having a strategy to beat him. This is why Vanitas lasted longer than the two.
4. Subaru didn't break like in the canon because seeing that Sora is able to save the children is what allowed his mental state to not break.
5. Only Subaru can see the unseen hands
I enjoy writing this story and I hope you all enjoy it as well. Keep writing those reviews/comments, I enjoy the feed back so I can improve with the writing and I enjoy what you all have to say.