I do not own Kingdom Hearts or any of the characters.
Friendly Faces
Tyler winced as he stirred, feeling his back ache from sleeping on something considerably more solid and unforgiving than his bed. He stirred, blinking several times before looking around, seeing he was lying on the street in a city he didn't recognize. The buildings were all mismatched with big windows, fancy decorations, and no two that he could see looking the same. However, as he tried to sit up, he felt a weight holding him down. He looked down and saw Lightning lying on his chest, still unconscious. He smiled, reaching down and running a hand over her hair. She winced, then stirred slowly, pushing herself up enough to look around before rising to her knees, frowning as she looked around.
"Where are we?" Lightning asked.
"I don't know," Tyler said, sitting up as well and offering her his hand.
She smiled and accepted it, standing. "Well, it doesn't seem like the Realm of Darkness."
"Agreed," Cade nodded, looking up at the stars, then around at the seemingly deserted world around them. "I guess we should go exploring."
"Yeah," Lightning nodded.
They walked through the city in silence, looking around curiously as they took in the odd buildings and strange layout. The back street they were on led them to a town square with the buildings along the outside all surrounding a lower area with a stairway off to one side leading down into it. There was a fountain off to one side, and a mansion on the opposite side starting on the lower level then reaching up past the upper level. They turned right, heading for a massive door they could see off in that direction in a massive wall the buildings were built inside of. As they passed through the doors, they found themselves in another part of town, this one with the buildings all matching one another, though they were still all strangely built, as far as what Tyler was used to. However, there were people walking around here.
"Excuse me," Tyler said, getting one man's attention. "Where are we?"
"Traverse Town," the man said, frowning slightly. "Did you just get here?"
"Uh...yeah," Tyler nodded.
The man nodded. "You'll get your bearings. This is where everyone ends up when their world falls."
Tyler nodded, asking if there was a hotel nearby and the man gave them directions, as well as a general description of the town, which apparently was separated into walled-off districts.
"Which way did he say it was?" Tyler asked after a few minutes of walking through the district.
Lightning laughed. "Really? He just told us!"
"Hey, I used to get lost in my own hometown," Tyler said. "I'm directionally challenged."
Lightning laughed. "I think generally mentally challenged isn't too much of a stretch."
Tyler rolled his eyes.
"It's the big wood building with the red roof up ahead," Lightning said, gesturing to it.
"Oh, the one that looks like a prostitute hotel?" Tyler asked.
"Yep," Lightning nodded. "That's the one."
"Lovely," Tyler said.
"Holy shit!" a voice said from off to the side suddenly. "Tyler!?"
Tyler froze, eyes widening, then turned, staring at Steven. His mouth fell open before curling into a wide smile as Steven stepped forward, both hugging the other.
"Holy shit, Ty!" Steven laughed. "I can't believe you're alive! After all this time!"
"Me!?" Tyler laughed. "I'm as hard to kill as a cockroach! What about you!? You were in that Farris Wheel when it came down!"
Steven stepped back nodding. "Yeah, it was the weirdest thing. I remember falling, but then the next thing I knew I was here."
He glanced past Tyler, noticing Lightning for the first time. Lightning had given Tyler back his cloak while they were still in the Realm of Darkness, so when Steven's eyes darted down to inspect her for the briefest of moments, almost fast enough for Tyler and Lightning to miss it, he was able to appreciate her short skirt and how tightly her jacket hugged her frame.
"Hello there," Steven said smoothly, stepping past Tyler, who rolled his eyes. "I'm Steven. I hope my cousin hasn't bothered you too much. if he has, I'd be happy to buy you a drink to make up for it."
"That's alright," Lightning said politely. "My fiancé couldn't bother me if he tried."
"Challenge accepted," Tyler grinned, Lightning rolling her eyes this time.
"Fi...Fian..." Steven looked between them, wide-eyed, before finally turning to Tyler and grabbing him by the shoulders. "You're engaged!?"
Tyler nodded, smiling.
Steven cheered, hugging Tyler again before pulling back and laughing, rubbing the back of his head nervously. "Sorry for flirting with your girl. I'm kinda bummed you met her first, though. I'm so proud of you for finding a catch like her."
Tyler shrugged. "Eh, she's alright."
Lightning scoffed in mock offense. "You know what? Maybe I will accept that drink."
She stepped past Tyler, and Tyler stepped forward instantly, wrapping his arms around her possessively from behind. Lightning smiled, leaning her head back on his shoulder, one of her hands holding his. Steven smiled, watching them, then looked around.
"Are you two heading for the hotel?" Steven asked.
Lightning nodded. "We won't be staying long. We just need somewhere to stay before our friends come to pick us up."
"Pick you up?" Steven frowned. "You have a way to leave Traverse Town?"
"Yeah," Tyler nodded. "You want to come with?"
"Fuck yeah!" Steven said. "There's nothing to do in this tiny fucking town! They don't even have video games!"
Tyler and Lightning exchanged knowing grins instantly, both remembering Ralph's world.
"What?" Steven asked.
"It's nothing," Tyler laughed. "Come on. We'll call our friends, then fill you in and answer any questions you have."
"Of which there are many," Steven said, following them to the hotel.
"So, how are we going to call our friends?" Lightning asked once they had been given a room.
"Uh..." Tyler frowned. "Good question." He thought for a moment. "I suppose we could take my glider there."
"Not without armor," Lightning reminded him.
"Oh yeah," Tyler said. "Well...is there any way the Eidolons can communicate with each other?"
Lightning opened her mouth to respond, then frowned. "You know, I don't know."
"Alexander, can you communicate with Bahamut, or one of the others' Eidolons to let them know we're here?" Tyler asked inside his head, hoping Alexander could hear him.
"I already have," a deep, distorted voice responded. "They are on their way. It should take two days."
"Huh," Tyler said. "Go figure."
"What?" Lightning asked.
"Alexander was a step ahead of us," Tyler said. "He already passed the message along and says they'll be here in two days."
"That's great!" Lightning smiled. "Alright, so, I suppose we have plenty of time to answer your questions then, Steven."
"Alright, first off, how'd you guys meet?" Steven asked.
"That's going to take a bit of a back story," Tyler said. "Have you been explained to about the worlds yet?"
"What, you mean how every star is a different world, and the sizes of the worlds vary but ours was massive compared to most?," Steven asked. "Yeah. I also got told that my money was worthless the first time I ordered a pizza and had the wrong currency."
"Ouch," Tyler nodded. "Anyway, our world, immediately after the Farris Wheel fell, was attacked by monsters made out of literal darkness called Heartless. I was trying to protect Alice from them but had no way of fighting them until Lightning showed up and saved us both," Tyler said. "I also gained a magic weapon known as a keyblade from it, but that's a bit of a different story."
"What's a keyblade?" Steven asked.
"It's a weapon that usually has the general appearance of an old-fashioned key and that can unlock anything, as well as granting enhanced magical abilities and being able to destroy Heartless," Tyler explained. "Not all actually look like keys, though. Mine looks more like a sword."
"Can I see it?" Steven asked.
Tyler nodded and summoned the keyblade. Steven stared at it, wide-eyed.
"That's so cool!" Steven said. "What kind of magic do you do? Can you turn wood to gold?"
"The magic is attacks of different elements, like fire, water, ice, thunder or lightning, or wind," Tyler said. "I can also make magic barriers to block attacks, or use gravity magic. It's all combat oriented. And before you ask, no, there's no magic to make your dick bigger."
"Dammit!" Steven said.
Lightning laughed and they spent a few more hours playing twenty million questions with Steven before he decided to turn in for the night. Once he was gone, Tyler used a brass pipe sticking out of the wall with a tag hanging off it labelled "ROOM SERVICE" to order a pizza after doublechecking that he had munny on him. Once it arrived, they lay on the bed, eating their pizza slowly and cuddling while Lightning continued to tell him her entire life's story. Eventually, she paused, looking unsure before continuing.
"Once I became Etro's champion, I could see all of time," Lightning said. "I could see everything that would ever happen all at once. At least, as far as being cast into the darkness by Xemnas."
"So...you know everything that would happen?" Tyler asked. "You knew that I would...after we were...together the first time...you knew I'd...act like I did?"
"No," Lightning said. "At the time I probably saw it, but I was distracted by the closer events, like Etro's impending death. And even with those things, I could only really remember the big things, and then scattered small things. I knew that Etro would be killed. I knew the world would eventually be destroyed by the Heartless. I knew I'd meet you, and fall in love with you. I knew that at some point, something would go wrong. I knew that I'd be able to work it out as long as I stayed with you and didn't let you push me away. And I knew that soon after we got back together, I'd be killed protecting you. Except that you were supposed to be cast into the darkness and killed alongside me, which is why I made Serah swear to stop you and let me go."
Tyler nodded. "So, what happened after you became the champion?"
"Caius Ballad attacked Valhalla, the place where you fought my Heartless and Nobody," Lightning said. "I fought him to protect Etro, as he death would end the world, but as I fought him, I was distracted by a vision of Serah dying and Caius used that moment to kill me. However, I'd already set Noel, who showed up during the fight, on the path to stop Caius by correcting the anomalies in the timeline he had caused, alongside Serah. However, what I didn't realize was just how genius Caius's plan was. By the time he attacked Valhalla, he'd already won, we just didn't know it yet. the only way to stop Caius Ballad from killing Etro, was to kill him. Except, that his own heart was linked with Etro's, so when his heart stopped beating, so would Etro's. Noel and Serah worked to correct the timeline back to what it was before Caius corrupted it, but everything they did was cemented. It was like...the timeline being corrupted was part of the timeline. It was inevitable, as was them fixing it. And then, at the end, they killed Caius. However, somewhere along the line, Serah became a Seeress, and saw the timeline collapse, and the strain of the ability killed her. I saw her die from our world's afterlife, then fought Caius when he arrived and killed him there. Then I sat in Etro's throne and entered a crystal sleep, being protected from the collapsing timeline fusing the world of the living and the unseen realm, the afterlife.
"Once it had, I was woken by the deity of our world, Bhunivelze, and granted his power in order to send the souls of anyone who had survived into a new world he was creating. However, as I was, he was plotting to sacrifice Vanille in order to cast the souls of the dead into oblivion, along with any memory of them. I stopped the ritual and saved Vanille, along with Fang's help, then went after Bhunivelze. He told me he could still accomplish his goals by destroying the new world, along with anyone in it, and stole all of the others' souls, sealing their fate to die along with everyone else, so I fought Bhunivelze. Eventually, I freed the others, and our Eidolons, from him, including Serah, and then we all worked together to destroy Bhunivelze permanently before all going to the new world together.
"For a while, it was peaceful, but I remembered from my time in Valhalla that the Heartless would arrive eventually, so I warned the others and we all kept training. Then, when the Heartless arrived, we fought them. Hope died early in the battle. He had been trying to save his friend, but there was an explosion and they were killed. After that, a lot of people lost hope. Hope had been a natural leader, and everyone liked him, so when he died, everyone took it hard. The Heartless fed off of that and grew stronger. Before long, the weakest Heartless we would usually see were Darksides. Every battle was a losing battle. Eventually, Oswald and Mickey showed up in their Gummi Ships and began to collect survivors, what little there were. Our group was the last to get picked up, and before we could escape, we lost Snow. Then Serah fell out of the ship and was swallowed by darkness. After that, we went to Twilight Town to rest for a little while before we began to search for Serah. And then I met you, and I instantly knew who you were and what would happen."
"If you knew Serah would be captured by darkness, or that Snow and Hope would die, why didn't you stop it?" Tyler asked.
"Changing the timeline is what killed Serah in our world," Lightning said. "Besides, I didn't know the specifics of their deaths. By the time I realized what was happening, it was already too late."
"Was it a lie when you told me you never planned for the future, or didn't expect to survive?" Tyler asked.
"No," Lightning said. "Remember, I saw myself die and then my vision ended. Everything that's happened since I lost my heart is all new to me. I never planned for the future because I thought my death would be the end. But you saved me. Just like you managed to find Serah, even though when I saw the future, we never found her. You changed that, somehow."
"And then you changed the future by having Serah stop me from following you," Tyler said.
"That was selfish," Lightning said. "I didn't want you to die. That had nothing to do with trying to change the timeline or any kind of plan. I just didn't want the man I love to die."
He smiled, kissing her. "Well, your selfishness worked out in your favor."
She smiled, cuddling into him and yawning.
"Sleep," Tyler smiled. "I'll be right here when you wake up."
Lightning nodded and quickly drifted off, Tyler just behind her.
Leave a review.