The Boy Who Fell Though The World IX
"So…Ven didn't attack Strelitzia. You did. Is that right?"
"Lauriam!"
I figured you guys could use some help." He approached some sort of dark misty figure.
"One more ally will make no difference."
"Then how about two?"
Someone else arrived, someone he should have recognized.
Their name was muffled for some reason.
"It's useless. Even if you do manage to defeat us, you will still lose."
"I don't think so." He pointed his Keyblade at the strange entity. "We're taking you down and going back to the real world."
"And how do you plan on doing that? With the lifeboat?"
"Yeah. Just like the evil fairy, right?"
"You know nothing."
"How do you figure?"
"If you return, Daybreak Town will still succumb to darkness."
"What have you done to the real world?"
"Nothing. It was decided long ago. When the lifeboat is activated, this world falls to darkness. It is already in motion.
The beginning of the end."
"But why?"
"The lifeboat is the last line of defense to be relied upon in the event we cannot be defeated. Its use initiates the process to seal this world and us along with it. The evil fairy's departure was the trigger. It cannot be stopped."
"But…that means…"
"We're just a bunch of pawns?" He asked, unable to believe what he was hearing.
"No, I don't believe it. Master Ava is the one that brought us together. I don't know about the other Masters, but I know for sure Master Ava wouldn't throw us away like that!"
"Besides, it doesn't matter what the Masters have planned for us. We believe in our leader!"
"Let's do this."
They fought, trying to destroy the entity…
"Did we win?"
The entity appeared again. "I am formless. You cannot destroy me."
Creatures of darkness appeared, surprising them.
"You…"
"You…"
"You…"
"The Darklings…They're after Ven?"
"But why?"
The boy, Ven opened his eyes and slowly stood up. A bright light came from his chest, repelling the Darklings and the Darkness.
"Ven…"
Ven walked past them and stared up at the Darkness. "If you're pure darkness, that makes me pure light. If you used me to reshape yourself, then I can reshape you again. I'll give you a new form…that we can defeat!"
"Ven!"
"Ven!" He rushed up to the boy.
"Lauriam…"
"I can't lose you too." He said.
"Everything's going to be all right." Ven said softly.
He jumped at the Darkness.
"VEN!"
There was a flash of light…
"I'm sorry, Ventus. I know it wasn't your fault. I just needed someone to blame. Darkness is so...abstract.
My anger needed a simple, tangible target. Selfish of me, I know. But some emotions are too much to bear. Tell me. Is darkness really gone? Or has it become a part of you, just like you said? If it has, then I—"
"I said," He lifted a hand above him and a single petal fell onto it before glowing and in a flash of light appeared a long pink scythe. "How do you know that name?!"
Ven readied himself, summoning his Keyblade.
(Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories Final Mix OST I Fight For My Friends)
The man shot forward with amazing speed that he disappeared and reappeared behind Ven, swinging his scythe at the younger boy who hastily ducked and rolled out of the way. Ven jumped to his feet, spun around and swung his Keyblade.
CLASH!
Marluxia blocked with his scythe, sending sparks flying and shoved Ven back. Marluxia snapped his fingers and vines shot out, attempting to grab Ven who let out a surprised cry as they grabbed hold of him.
"Gah!"
Marluxia didn't stop as he floated up and swung his scythe down, cutting through the vines and Ven, sending him crashing into the wall on the other side of the room. Ven grunted as he slid down onto the ground but quickly cast a Heal spell on himself before he stood back up.
He then aimed his Keyblade at Marluxia. "Fire!"
A fire ball blasted from the tip of his Keyblade and shot right at Marluxia who simply held his scythe in front of him with one hand, spinning it with such speed it became a blur and blocked Ven's Fire spell. However, Ven had used the distraction to rush behind the spell and leapt over Marluxia aiming a slash at his back, managing to land a hit on his shoulder.
"Hmph!" Marluxia grunted, spinning around and using the momentum to swing his scythe.
Ven ducked and slashed again but Marluxia easily blocked. Marluxia began slashing repeatedly at Ven who either parried or dodged, having the idea that trying to block was a bad idea. They clashed their weapons as they fought but Marluxia had the longer range while Ven relied on his speed and agility for close range combat.
In short, it was a bad combo.
Finally, Marluxia knocked Ven's Keyblade out of his hand, aiming for his next swing to finish the boy off…
"Fire!"
A fire ball streaked out and hit Marluxia in the back, making him stagger forward with a surprised look on his face.
"Ven!"
Ven looked up to see the three Gullwing fairies hovering around him. "Why are you three here?"
"We're the Gullwings, Ven. We don't abandon one of our own." Yuna stated.
"Yeah!" Rikku nodded in agreement, pumping a fist into the air.
Paine said nothing but glanced at Ven, offering him a curt nod. Marluxia in the meantime, only glared and raised his scythe.
"Ven, Rikku, use a shield!" Yuna called out.
Marluxia swung his axe, releasing a pink and black crescent shaped wave at the young Keyblade Wielder.
"Protect/Defend!" Yuna, Rikku and Ven called out.
The triple layered spell actually managed to block Marluxia's strike but Ven pushed back by just about two feet.
"Hmph!" Marluxia raised his scythe and suddenly disappeared.
"Watch out! He's moving super-fast!" Ven called out, ducking and rolling forward in time as Marluxia appeared behind him.
"Then let's even things out." Paine pointed at Ven. "Haste!"
Ven was suddenly able to move much faster now as he spun and slashed at Marluxia who barely managed to block in time. Marluxia grunted and shoved Ven back.
"Faith!" Yuna called out, casting a spell of her own.
Ven was suddenly much stronger now as he attacked, actually making Marluxia take a step back. Ven's speed combined with his new strength actually put Marluxia on the defense now.
CLASH!
CLASH!
CLASH!
CLANG!
CLANG!
CLANG!
SLASH!
SLASH!
SLASH!
SLASH!
"Command Style: Fever Pitch!" Ven called out, activating his first Command: Style.
His strength enhanced by Yuna's Faith spell combined with the speed of his Fever Pitch actually allowed him to push Marluxia back even further. Marluxia grunted and with a snap of his fingers, dark portals appeared and vines shot out, attempting to grab Ven.
"Blizzard/Snow!" Yuna and Rikku called out, casting an ice spell that froze the vines.
Ven shattered the vines with a simple slash of his Keyblade and attacked Marluxia again.
"Haste!" Paine called out again.
"Command Style: Cyclone!" Ventus shouted at the same time, activating his second Command Style.
With a burst of speed, Ven spun like a top so fast he could be mistaken for a literal tornado as he slammed into Marluxia who raised his scythe in time to block but the sheer force of the whirlwind attack knocked the lord of Castle Oblivion back and slammed him into a wall. Marluxia grunted managed to stand back up, summoning a blast of petals that formed into two identical copies of himself. They all shot forward as Ven, swinging their scythes but with the help of Haste, Ven was able duck, dodge and spun out of the way of their attacks.
"Fire!" Ven, Yuna and Rikku shouted at the same time, sending blasts of fire at Marluxia and his copies, blasting one copy back into petals while the other two blocked with their scythes.
'Who is this boy?' Marluxia grunted, finding himself on the defense now.
(Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories Final Mix OST I Fight For My Friends)
He was sure after fighting Larxene and Lexeaus that this boy would be tired and easy to take out but he was not only fighting back but with those annoying fairies helping, he was able to force Marluxia back.
What is he?
How did he know Marluxia's original name?
And why did Marluxia feel like he knew him?
"Oh yeah! We're kicking butt!" Yuna pumped a fist into the air.
"We so are!" Rikku cheered with her.
Ven and Paine remained quiet, keeping an eye on Marluxia as he stood up straight.
"Not bad, boy." Marluxia admitted. "I can see now, why you were able to get past Marluxia and Lexeaus."
"I don't know why you people are here or why you keep attacking me, but I want you all out of my home." Ven pointed his Keyblade at Marluxia. "Right now."
"Your home?" Marluxia raised an eyebrow.
"Yes, my home. This castle belongs to me and my friends, not to you and not for whatever reason you've taken it over." Ven stated.
Marluxia narrowed his eyes. "Is that so?"
Was that why the Superior had taken over this castle?
Because it belonged to Keyblade Wielders?
If that was the case, then he needed to eliminate the boy here and now before the Superior found out about him. Using him was too risky as it meant that the Superior would want him brought in and used as their own weapon.
'Namine can't manipulate his memories like Vexen believes she can with Sora. If the Superior took over this castle to lure other Keyblade Wielders here, he likely has the same plan as I do. I can't let him find out about this boy, so I'll have to eliminate him here and now.' Marluxia narrowed his eyes and made a swiping motion with his hand.
A black portal appeared underneath him and petals exploded out, surrounding Marluxia.
(Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories OST Scythe of the Petals)
Ven and the Gullwings watched with widened eyes as the portal spread out and their surroundings seemingly changed. Something emerged from the portal and connected with him. It rose up, looking as large as the Trinity Armor Ven had fought in Radiant Garden, with a large flower on top and two arms with scythes at the ends, as well as a billowing tattered cape and a long thin spire going down from its body. Its body shape was overall humanoid, aside from the lack of legs, substituted with pointed spires.
Its cloak bared a hood, like the coats worn by the Organization members, except that it was white grey in color and bared the Nobody insignia on its hood. Underneath, a head could be seen, all though that was only a portion of the body that seemed to bear any physical structure as the scythe like 'hands' didn't have anything physically connecting them to the arms. From the flower atop its back, its master Marluxia bloomed forth, almost like a pistil.
"Drown in the heart-lorn world of nothingness! I shall scatter your heart to the empty winds!" Marluxia declared.
The giant construct raised its scythe arms and slashed them down on Ven and the Gullwings who hastily jumped out of the way.
"What the wing is that thing?!" Rikku cried out, panicking now in the wake of the fight now not in her and her friends' favor.
Just as the construct raised its scythe/arm again, Ven leapt up and clashed his Keyblade against it, sending sparks flying. Floating flowers surrounded Marluxia and began shooting laser beams at Ven, having seemingly diverted his attention away from the fairies. Ven took off running, dodging the laser beams but got in close enough to deliver another strike against one of the construct's scythes.
SHATTER!
Marluxia growled and spread his arms out, firing a spiral of flower petals from his hands.
"Haste!" Paine called out Ven, once again casting a fast-moving spell on him.
With added speed from the spell, Ven was able to affectively dodge the flower petal aimed at him. Ven then jumped up and slashed at the remaining scythe/hand and broke it as easily as the last one. Marluxia snarled and summoned the flowers from before, firing energy beams at Ven who had to duck and roll out of the way.
"Fire!" Yuna called out.
"Ice!" Rikku shouted next.
"Thunder!" Paine was last.
The three elemental spells hit the construct head on but did very little damage to it or its master. If anything, it made Marluxia even more furious as to how these four…insects were hurting him so much. He let out a shout, firing an X-shaped energy blast that managed to hit Ven, knocking him back.
"Ven!" Yuna and Rikku cried out.
But Ven got back up and held his Keyblade over his head. "Heal."
With his wounds healed, Ven was back in the fight as Marluxia fired several more pink 'X's at him. However Ven had learned his lesson and dodged each attack.
"Prepare!" Marluxia called out and the construct shot up into the air, seemingly vanishing as the room darkened for a second and then slammed the mechanical vehicle down, creating a shockwave that sent Ven crashing into the wall.
"Gah!" Ven cried out in pain before fall back down.
"Ven!" The Gullwings gathered around him and pointed their hands down at him. "Heal!"
The wound and the pain were gone but Ven needed a second to get back up to his feet.
As he did, he looked back up, eyes widening as Marluxia slammed his construct back down, releasing another shockwave. "Look out!"
Ven grabbed the three fairies and jumped over the shockwave, avoiding being hit. He did so again when Marluxia brought his vehicle down for a third time.
What happened next for the new few minutes of the fight was Marluxia switching tactics, between creating shockwaves with his vehicle or trying to blast Ven with his flower lasers. However, Ven was quick and worked by adapting what he knew of his opponent's fighting styles into his own to turn the tide and he was quickly doing so.
It didn't help that Marluxia was becoming more angry and more desperate as time went on.
Finally, Marluxia had enough and released full powered blast on Ven, a beam of pink light that was too fast and too large to be dodged in time. Ven held his Keyblade in front of him, conjuring a barrier to protect the Gullwings and himself from the blast. The blast pushed him back as both Ven and Marluxia struggled to be the winner in this contest.
Then…
"Ven!"
Ven's eyes widened. "Aqua?!"
That brief distraction was enough for Marluxia to overpower Ven's shield and it shattered. Ven let out a shocked cry as darkness exploded around him and the fairies and just like that he was engulfed by the energy blast and was gone.
(Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories OST Scythe of the Petals Ends)
Marluxia waited for the smoke to clear and saw that Ven, and the fairies were indeed gone. Marluxia sighed in relief as his Specter Nobody, his secret weapon, was dismissed and he landed perfectly on the ground.
He stared at where Ven had stood as the room returned to normal.
He frowned.
"I'm sorry, Ventus. I know it wasn't your fault. I just needed someone to blame. Darkness is so...abstract.
My anger needed a simple, tangible target. Selfish of me, I know. But some emotions are too much to bear. Tell me. Is darkness really gone? Or has it become a part of you, just like you said? If it has, then I—"
Marluxia grunted as the memories came back, promoting a feeling of…sorrow in him.
Who was that boy?
Why did he feel like he knew him?
Marluxia shook his head, deciding it didn't matter. He needed to make sure that no one reported this to the Superior or his plans regarding Sora would be in jeopardy.
The first thing he remembered after the fight was falling…
And hearing her voice.
"Ven…"
He opened his eyes, seeing he was falling again.
"Did I lose my heart again…" He wondered as he looked around.
He spotted Yuna nearby, unconscious and falling like him. He frantically looked around and spotted Paine and Rikku, both knocked out like Yuna and falling with him. He looked down and saw strange light.
Staring in confusion he reached out and touched one of the lights, feeling a strange warmth from it.
Almost like it was a candle.
'What is this?' He looked down and saw a strange green mist surrounding him and the fairies. 'Light in the darkness?'
He was then blinded by a white light…
SPLASH!
And then he landed in water.
"Gah!" He gasped, struggling to remain afloat, frantically looking around and spotted the fairies landing in the water with him.
He quickly grabbed them and pulled them out of the water, crawling up onto a red colored beach. Once the fairies were safe, he groaned and lied on his back, looking up at two suns overhead.
"That was the last thing I remember before the Gullwings and I woke up and found ourselves in this strange world."
The EverAfter
'Present'
"I was sure I heard Aqua's voice when I was fighting Marluxia. Whatever she did, I think she brought us here to find you and her." Ven said, having finally finished his tale.
By the end of the tale, Neo was sitting up and looking impressed by what Ven had lived through while Terra was silent, having to take in all that he had been told.
From the sound of it, Aqua must have awoken Ven during her travels through time which was good. Even if her journey had somehow led to the resurrection of Vanitas, Ven's revival deemed it worth it in Terra's eyes,
They defeated Vanitas once; they could do it again.
The question now was what else Aqua had done on during her travels through time.
Did anyone else know what she had been through?
Would anyone else show up here in the EverAfter?
And what did they expect to see at the end of her journey?
Terra was starting to realize that while they had been watching Aqua's journey, Penny could have likely already shown them the end of it all.
What happens to Aqua at the end?
Does she survive?
Is she reunited with him and Ven?
Does Remnant survive?
Before Terra could think or say anything else, there was a rumbling sound that alerted them to something.
"Oh great. What now?" Neo sighed as she stood up, doing a few stretches. "If it's not one thing, it's another with you Keyblade Wielders. Don't you believe in taking breaks?"
"What was that?" Ven asked, getting up.
Terra was the last to stand up and 'look' in the direction the rumbling had come from. "It came from the Tree."
"What did tree girl do this time?" Neo sighed, folding her hands behind her head. "If Little Red and her friends are responsible, I'm really going to knock their blocks off this time."