Forest of Thorns
Neo looked at her hands as she and Aqua emerged from the mirror, wondering what that surge of power was like.
Aqua looked back at her, wondering what was going on in her head. "So…you defeated my phantom copy all by yourself…That's impressive."
Neo glanced at her and simply shrugged as she took her Scroll out. Because you're super strong?
"No because…" Aqua shrugged. "I like to think I am pretty strong though. Terra and Ven didn't have anything to say. But our shadows... They wanted to destroy us."
Neo smirked. Careful, Blue. Everyone has a weakness and I might just find yours when you're not looking.
"I might surprise you too, Neo." Aqua retorted with a soft smile as they stopped in a forest. "Never would have thought I'd become my own worst enemy. I've talked to myself before when I have been on long journeys along, but with the phantom, it's as though all of my doubts have gained a voice of their own. They're the weakness in our hearts. It's a good thing we're alone here, Neo or the uncountable hours in the shadows might whittle away any courage we have left. Be careful or risk losing this fight because the darkness has found the cracks in ours heart and those phantoms could be the last apparition before it takes us over?"
Neo frowned as she considered Aqua's advice, remembering how hard it was to fight those phantoms, both herself and Aqua's.
If not for her Semblance seemingly evolving then…
"So what is on your mind?" She heard Aqua asked and quickly typed out a reply.
What makes you think I have something on my mind, besides surviving this whacky place?
"I saw your fight with my phantom back there. You turned my copy to stone for like two seconds…I thought your power was illusions?" Aqua recalled.
My Semblance lets me conjure physical illusions that can be touched and they shatter on impact. I can use it to disguise myself.
Aqua raised an eyebrow. "Physical illusions? Isn't the point of them being illusions are that they are just that? Illusions can't be physical."
Neo shrugged. That's how it's always been with my Semblance. How do your illusions work?
"I am kind of a rooky in the art of illusions." Aqua said as she held up her hand and created a copy of her Wayfinder. "I've only just started learning and practicing the basics. But the illusions just vanish when they are touched. Yours seem more durable not to mention you can disappear and leave a copy in your place."
I just blink or think it and I move from one spot to another. Neo typed.
"That's why I think it's more than just illusions, Neo." Aqua stated. "Yours can be seen and touched to a degree it's more like…More like you're changing the world to what you want it to be in a very short and brief amount of time."
Neo stopped and looked at Aqua while typing her reply. You say I'm altering reality? I'm good but not that good. A Semblance only has one ability and it's never been that powerful.
"Maybe not altering reality but temporarily changing the world to what you want. You turned my phantom copy into stone for a very brief amount of time, even if she could break free but it was enough to take her down. Your copy was able to camouflage herself while fighting me." Aqua recounted.
Neo looked confused as she tried to understand. Sounds like bull-
"Maybe but that doesn't mean I am wrong." Aqua said before Neo could finish her text. "Something happened in there and it seemed to push your…Semblance into evolving by the looks of it. Meaning there might be more to it than you think."
Neo thought back to the fight, seeing what she thought was Roman's ghost…or maybe a hallucination or even a figment created by her own Semblance.
After all, her Semblance was called Overactive Imagination.
Still they had other things to focus on. So where are we going now?
"Not sure." Aqua said as they started walking. "Jinn only said that to stop the Heartless and maybe even save the worlds they have taken I have to seal the Door of Darkness. We're in the Realm of Darkness now…"
You have no clue, do you? Neo glared as she showed her message.
"Well Jinn didn't exactly provide me with a map, did she?" Aqua hastily said.
Neo rolled her eyes. And I thought Roman was the Dumb-Dumb.
"I'm just going to pretend I didn't read that and focus on the job at hand." Aqua turned away and kept on walking.
She had noticed the forest they were in was different from the one they had been in before entering the Evil Queen's dungeon but it had felt so familiar.
She then took notice of the thorny vines growing out from the ground. "Another world I know."
Neo looked at her, silently asking for clarification.
"It's the Enchanted Dominion. When I came here, I was imprisoned by a witch named Maleficent and escaped with a prince named Philip. We worked together against Maleficent who turned herself into a dragon and defeated her." Aqua explained.
Neo raised an eyebrow as she typed. Sounds like a fairy tale.
"It will probably be one eventually." Aqua admitted with a small smile before frowning. "Actually I met Maleficent not too long ago…She's learned how to leave her world and I have a feeling she's responsible for what happened here. She claimed she had learned to control the Heartless."
Which was surprising and worrying as no one could truly control the Heartless. They only left their hearts vulnerable to darkness by trying something so foolish.
She looked up ahead and saw two familiar figures.
"Terra. Ven." She called out to them but they kept on walking.
Neo looked to her with what almost looked like concern. Are they just more phantoms?
"I don't care if they are, or if I fall into the darkness. I miss them!" Aqua said before she started chasing after her friends.
As she neared them, a wall of thorns appeared in front of her, blocking her off from reaching the two. "Get out of my way!"
She summoned her Keyblade and slashed through the vines, determined to not let anything stop her from reaching her friends.
Behind her, Neo was running after her with a frustrated look on her face. And not too long ago, she would have done the same for Roman and ignored everything else around her but this wasn't the time or place.
She needed Aqua alive to not only get out of here but back to her world, preferably alive.
She followed Aqua through the forest of thorns, watching as she dispatched any Heartless that got in her way and blasted away any vines
"You really think you can keep me away from my friends?" She heard Aqua call out to a Darkside of all things, appearing before her in the Forest of Thorns.
She didn't let it answer as she leapt up and slashed its head off, easily destroying it. She kept on running, even taking down two more Darksides in her wake while leaving Neo to try and catch up while dealing with some straggling Shadows.
Seriously, what is Blue running on?
Neo finally caught up to Aqua at the end of the forest, having half a mind to walk her up the head for running headfirst into danger like that…
And then she saw them.
A whole valley of those monsters, Heartless that were big with tentacle covered faces and heart shaped holes in their chests, the same ones she and Aqua had encountered when they first arrived here.
And that was not the scary part.
What was the scary part?
It would be the giant orb glowing black and red hovering over the valley of monsters, casting a red tint over the dark valley that it even more scary as the Darksides were seemingly feeding on the dark red sun.
Neo could honestly say she might have found something even scarier than Salem and she briefly wondered if coming here was a good idea.
"Okay then..." Was it Neo's imagination or did she hear Aqua actually say those two words?
With that Aqua took off into the valley, surprising the already shocked and terrified Neo with her actions.
Was she crazy?!
You don't rush into a valley of monsters!
Neo was sure that was a death wish but when she looked behind she saw another hoard of Heartless coming her way.
Stay here and fight these guys or take her chances in the valley with Aqua…
Ah hell, she was dead either way!
Neo immediately followed after Aqua, catching up to her as they ran down a narrow path, dodging incoming orbs of darkness that fell down from the sky until they nearly reached the end. The problem was a single Darkside was standing between them and it was directly underneath the red sun.
"Neo, that sphere is their weakness." Aqua instructed as a bright aura surrounded her. "Take it out and we take out all of them."
The Darkside roared as it sent spiky orbs of darkness at them, forcing them to dodge. Aqua shot forward, moving very fast as she slashed the Darkside up and all over its body. The giant Heartless tried swatting her away but she was too fast. With her Spellweaver Command Style, Aqua danced and spun around its legs, slashing at them and creating a burst of light in the form of a snowflake symbol similar to the Schnee family logo.
The Darkside roared as it fell to the ground but it was far from finished.
It punched the ground, summoning Shadows to attack. It was at this point, Neo stepped into help, deciding it would be easier to take on the smaller ones and let Aqua handle the bigger one. Only she found out the hard way she had to focus on the big guy.
The reason why?
It summoned red energy from the red sun above them, shot out purple lightning that moved across the ground and the place was swarming with Shadows as the fight dragged on!
It was at this point that Neo was seriously wondering if she should have took her chance on the island with Little Red and the other brats trying to kill her because this was almost too much.
She was pushing her Semblance to the max as she fought, using it substitute herself with an illusion for the Shadows to attack or dodging the energy blasts, the lightning or the lasers-
Lasers!
That was right, the thing had lasers too.
Lasers that traveled along the ground surrounding the Darkside and forcing Aqua and Neo back. Neo found herself putting her aerobatic gymnastic skills to the test as she dodged the lasers while fighting the Shadows, silently shouting for Aqua to hurry up and kill it. A Shadow jumped from the left, she ducked and stabbed it as it flew over her head. She immediately rolled out of the way as three more tried to pounce on her.
All those aerobatics, ballet and tightrope training she had in her school life were perhaps the only thing was keeping her alive at the moment.
Finally Aqua delivered a blow to its head and it let out a howl as it seemingly died. Aqua then pointed her Keyblade up at the red sun and fired a burst of light from her Keyblade. The orb of darkness seemed to begin shrinking as the red light dimmed and Neo watched as the remaining Darksides all began to seemingly evaporate. Finally the orb shrank and vanished into nothingness and the Darksides had seemingly died with them.
Aqua sighed as she lowered her Keyblade, looking around to see all was quite before smiling at Neo. "Good job."
Neo just blinked. 'She fights a hoard of gigantic monsters that could flatten Atlas and all she says is 'good job'?!'
"Terra, Ven." She had no time to think of anything else as she watched Aqua finally catching up to Terra and Ven.
"Aqua," The man named Terra spoke. "You're-"
"Terra. You spoke?" Aqua replied, hearing Terra speak.
"You can see me?"
"Of course! I see Ven too." Aqua answered, gesturing to Ven and then to Neo. "Oh and this is Neo…A new friend I made recently."
Neo just waved and tipped her hat but Terra didn't seem to notice her.
"Ven's here?" Terra asked, looking around.
"Terra, what's wrong? Don't you see him?" Aqua asked, concerned and wondering why Terra cannot seem to see Ven beside him.
"Where are we?" Terra asked, looking aruond.
"A world the darkness has consumed. It's Enchanted Dominion." Aqua clarified.
"Consumed? The worlds fell?" Terra looked back at Aqua.
"What's gotten into you? How do I know that you're Terra? And not the weakness that's in my heart playing more tricks? Ven! Please say something." Aqua pleaded, confused about Terra's condition and Ven's silence.
"Aqua, listen. I promise this is me. But I'm not myself." Terra began.
"What do you mean?" Aqua asked.
"You're using the name 'Terra.' That means you're seeing me the way you remember me. But your heart is just painting the picture that it so wants to see. The real me is lost in shadows." Terra explained.
"Then you're here, trapped in the realm of darkness." Aqua said sadly.
"No. My heart has ties to the dark. That must be why we can talk. But I can't see anything, Aqua. If you say Ven is there, then he's like me, an illusion created by your heart."
"I understand. Then, you and Ven are safe in the outside world?" Aqua then asked.
"I think."
"That's good. But, how did you find me?"
"I looked here. And heard you in the darkness." Terra simply said.
"Right, but why does your heart have...ties to the darkness now? What did you mean 'lost in shadow'?" Aqua had an uncomfortable flashback to the last time she saw Terra.
Brown hair turned silver, tanned skin now darker and soft blue eyes becoming maniacal yellow…
"Forget about me." Terra said quickly. "Aqua, Xehanort is trying to locate Ven."
"He'll never find him. I hid Ven well. I think the reason he's not talking to me here, is because he's still there sleeping." Aqua said with finality in her voice, looking away from Terra.
Neo watched as Terra stumbled, his hair changing color…she ran up and grabbed Aqua, pulling her back. She didn't know what was going on but she had a very bad feeling about Terra now.
The same feeling she had about Salem.
"Neo, what are you-" She pointed at Terra and Aqua looked back, seeing darkness surrounding him.
"This 'place'" He spoke with an even deeper voice. "Is it the Chamber of Waking?"
"Yes— Who are you? Really." Aqua stepped back.
He opened his eyes, now golden yellow like him… "You don't know? My name is-"
Suddenly, another Terra, one surrounded by golden light appeared behind the first one and grabbed him, pulling him into a headlock. "Aqua, get back!"
"Terra!" Aqua cried out.
"I messed up. Xehanort is part of me. Now he's using me so you'll tell him where you hid Ven!" Terra struggled to hold the other one, Xehanort back.
"Silence!" Xehanort stated while fighting Terra, releasing a miasma of darkness that made it hard for Aqua and Neo to breathe.
"I won't give in!" Terra shouted. "Aqua, you have to-"
Xehanort broke free of Terra's grip and grabbed him, lifting him up off the ground.
"Terra!" Aqua cried out again.
Neo rushed to stab Xehanort but he easily caught her parasol with just one hand, the bladed end passing between his fingers as he directed it away from him.
"Another heart fallen to the darkness," Xehanort grinned. "How exquisite."
A portal of darkness opened up under Neo and she fell in.
"Neo!" Aqua cried out, trying to save her but a shadowy arm appeared and grabbed her while another grabbed Ven. "Ven..."
The hands began pulling Aqua and Ven into another dark portal.
"Now you can be one with the darkness!" Xehanort declared gleefully.
"That is ENOUGH!" Terra roared, summoning golden chains that grabbed Xehanort.
"Terra..." Aqua muttered, the last thing she saw before losing consciousness was Xehanort struggling against the chains.
Xxx
When Neo fell into the portal she was sure she going to die.
As she fell she could only think of one thing to say in this situation. 'Roman, I'm coming.'
She fell what felt like a long time before landing softly on solid ground. She wandered why she would land on something soft and opened her eyes. Sitting up, she looked around and her eyes widened to see where she was.
She knew this place.
After all, she had helped to destroy it before.
Beacon Academy.
The Huntsmen Academy in Vale that she and Roman had been forced into helping to destroy by that fire witch Cinder.
The remains of it sat here in the Realm of Darkness, much like the Castle of Dreams and the other remnants of worlds she and Aqua had visited.
'Remnants,' Neo thought with a silent chuckle as she walked forward. 'Remnants of world and a remnant of Remnant.'
Is it even remotely possible to think up crap like this?
The question is why was she sent here? That guy seemed to think she would be sent into the darkness and yet she only ended up in the remains of her world.
Weird.
She walked onto the school grounds; taking in the remains of school that had been infested with Grimm last she had heard. She and Roman had personally played a part in its downfall.
Roman had robbed Dust from all the shops to supply the White Fang with the weapons and explosives, luring the Grimm into Vale through an underground train track and used the special computer virus she had given him to turn Irondouche's forces against him and the good guys.
She had infiltrated the school to pose as a member of Cinder's team, helped Cinder and Emerald smuggle away Mercury when he faked an injury from Blondie, busted Roman out and given him the virus.
The one thing that went wrong in all that was that Roman had died.
Cinder had promised that she and Roman would survive the chaos…Ha! What was she thinking in believing that Cinder would keep her word?
She should have gutted that witch when she had the chance.
Neo walked through the remains of the school, barely glancing at the remains of it. When Cinder had recruited her to hunt down Little Red, she had brought her up to speed about Salem and the Relics so she knew that a Relic had been hidden here like the ones at Haven and Atlas. She wondered if it was still even here after the school had been wrecked but pushed that thought aside.
Whether a magical relic was here or not, it didn't matter because it's unlikely that it could have helped reverse what had happened here, both before and after the world she and this school had been part of had been destroyed.
Neo wondered if this was to be some sort of karmic punishment for her, bringing to the school she had helped destroy and lost Roman in the process. There was not a lot of room for regret in Neo's line of work, especially since she had long since lost most of her empathy for others because of what she had endured in her life.
Did she regret deaths of her parents? No.
They were controlling, abusive, hated her muteness, her eyes, and her Semblance and had tried to control every aspect of her life, locking her away and even risked her life by stockpiling Dust in her room for a profit. They were even worse criminals than she and Roman had been, selfish, self-centered, focused only on appearing normal and too dumb to even realize their own actions had led to everything blowing up in their faces.
Did she regret bringing down this school? To a point.
She and Roman were trying to survive. Roman was afraid of Cinder and her cohorts and believed no one, not even the two of them could stop them. She regretted working with Cinder and not just killing her somehow.
Did she regret trying to kill Little Red? ….
On the one hand, she had hated Little Red and her friends for locking Roman up, knocking her away from the airship and because of that Roman had been alone when he died and not even having the brains to figure out why she had gone through all the trouble of tracking them down. Okay, so Roman got killed by a Grimm, but Little Red still sent her away when she could have protected him so she might as well have pulled the trigger.
On the other hand, she now knows she should never have trusted Cinder, even from the beginning. She should have bolted with Roman when they had the chance and just left the fire witch to rot.
Did she carry a lot of regrets? Not for doing what she had to do.
She looked up at the remains of Beacon Tower, seeing the statue of the giant Grimm that had been there before was gone. Deciding just for the heck of it, she started climbing the tower, wanting to see if she could get a better view of what was left of this place.
She doubted the power would still be on at this point but Neo was not one to be deterred by such a minor detail.
She found the elevator shaft along with the cable that still ran up to the top and used it to climb. While this was a long climb, Neo had the skills and the patience to make it all the way to the top. She climbed out of the remains of the elevator shaft and onto what was likely once Headmaster Ozpin's office. She had read up the schematics of Beacon so she would know what used to be at the top of this place.
She stood up and looked over the edge, seeing the majority of Beacon rested on top of a large piece of floating rock, lost in a dark void like all the others.
Only it didn't stop there.
She could see other places floating nearby like Haven even though it was all the way in Mistral and…Sweet Monty was that Atlas?!
She even thought she could make out the fourth Huntsmen Academy, Shade in the distance but that was beside the point. All four Huntsmen Academies, the rest of the Atlas Kingdom included were all floating here in this dark void.
"Beautiful, isn't it?"
Neo spun around, brandishing her Hush as she tried to find the source of the voice she had just heard.
Only it was the one person she would have wanted to run into here.
Standing on the other edge of the top of the tower was none other than the Dark Queen of the Grimm herself: Salem.
She looked absolutely the same as when Neo had seen her last as she turned around to face the new arrival.
"So, I am not the only person who was left alive after all…Neopolitan." She spoke slowly as she gazed impassively at Neo who took a step back. "I suspected Cinder had been lying to me but since I had two of the Relics I decided it was not worth it at the time."
Neo was trembling, wishing that Aqua was here.
"Come now, don't be afraid. There is no point in harming you now…In fact there is no point in anything." Salem said as she looked out across the remains of Remnant. "…Not when everything I have tried to finally seek the death I have wanted has failed."
