- Chapter 11 -
Radiance Restored
Author's Note:
I've been thinking, and have decided on a fitting name for Master Xehanort's Keyblade, at least until an official name is revealed. I've decided to call it "Heart of Darkness." Still working on a name for Young Xehanort's Keyblade, though I think it should be time-based, considering the blade's appearance and Young Xehanort's powers.
The World That Never Was, The Castle
Within Where Nothing Gathers, the meeting place of the former Organization XIII, Master Xehanort sat on the highest throne, which was once occupied by Xemnas, waiting for his past self to return from Castle Oblivion. Much like Young Xehanort, Master Xehanort didn't actually believe that they would be able to find Ventus, but it wouldn't hurt to try one last time.
Xehanort had a calm expression on his face as he slouched, rather than sat, on the throne, his left elbow propped on the armrest while his fist was tucked under his chin, with his right leg folded over his left knee (1). The wheels of his twisted, yet brilliant mind continued to turn as he thought of his plans for the new world he would create.
At that moment, a corridor of darkness opened on the center podium before him, and out stepped Young Xehanort, right on time. Master Xehanort slid off of his throne and floated down to Young Xehanort's level, landing easily on his feet.
"I could not find him, Master," Young Xehanort said. Master Xehanort just nodded.
"I see," the old Keyblade Master said. "So it's true then. Only Aqua can navigate the castle and find the Chamber of Waking."
"So what do we do now?"
Master Xehanort stroked his goatee as he gave a malevolent smile.
"Our only real option at the moment is to wait until Sora and his allies retrieve Aqua from the Realm of Darkness. And it's just a matter of time until they do."
With that, Master Xehanort exited the throne room and made his way through the castle corridors until he reached his destination: the bedroom once occupied by Roxas.
He entered the room, which was a plain white with a simple bed, the headboard of which bore the Nobody emblem, and a desk. Sprawled across the bed, laying so still that he could easily have been mistaken for a corpse, was Master Xehanort's second apprentice, Vanitas.
Appearance-wise, Vanitas looked almost exactly like Sora, only with black hair, a more muscular build, and a noticeably paler skin tone; though his eyes couldn't be seen behind his closed eyelids, they were a golden yellow.
He was clad in a form-fitting suit that appeared to be composed of black muscle tissue. The black faded to red around the wrists and came with black gloves that were tucked under the suit, which had a red insignia in the shape of a distorted heart on the chest, red knee-length boots, a red belt, and a black-and-red tattered cloth around his waist that opened in the front. Seated on the bed, right next to his head, was a silver helmet/mask covered in black glass.
Vanitas had been summoned by Xehanort shortly after their failed attempt to convert Sora, but as the other half of Ventus' heart, Vanitas had been resurrected in a comatose state just like Ventus. It was clear to Xehanort that for Vanitas to be completely restored, Ventus had to be awoken.
For the elderly Keyblade Master, it was killing two birds with one stone, as he would gain one of his seven lights and one of his thirteen darknesses at the same time. Now, all he had to do was wait.
Radiant Garden, Shopping Plaza
Meanwhile, the group of twelve came in for a landing at Radiant Garden, once known as Hollow Bastion. As they exited the Gummi Ship, they were pleasantly surprised to see that the town had been completely restored to its former glory. A beautiful castle could be seen in the distance, the Villain's Vale which was once home to Maleficent and Pete was gone, and the town was decorated with little fountains and flowerpots. The citizens were all happily going about their business.
"So, this is Hollow Bastion?" Riku asked as he recalled the world's appearance two years prior. "It looks way better than it did before."
"I know, right?" West asked as the group made their way to the shopping plaza.
"Well, I can see why they call this place Radiant Garden," said Sï'Lea as she looked around. "It's gorgeous here."
"You can say that again," Hikari said. Nixe nodded in agreement.
As they entered the plaza, one individual that he had never seen before caught Sora's eye, sitting on a bench with a bar of sea salt ice cream in one hand.
The individual was a girl around Riku's age, if not a little older, with long black hair that had a red highlight on the right side of her face and purple eyes. She wore a sleeveless dark red coat that reached her knees under a purple long-sleeved puffy shirt, coffee-colored jeans, and black boots that reached mid-calf, while around her neck was a small, sun-shaped necklace. Seated at her side was a bow and a quiver filled with arrows, and at her feet was a small red fox with a green collar that bore an acorn charm. His curiosity peaked, Sora walked over to the girl, the others following behind him. As he approached, the girl looked up at him.
"Hmmm, spiky hair, baggy pants, cheery attitude," she said. "You must be Sora." Sora raised an eyebrow.
"Yeah, that's me," he said. "Have we met?" The girl stood up.
"Not personally, but Leon's told me a lot about you," she said, holding out a hand. "My name's Kyra." Sora shook her hand just as West pushed her way up to the front of the group.
"Kyra?" she said. Kyra turned at the mention of her name, and froze up, dropping her ice cream.
"West?" she asked. "Is that really you?" After a moment of silence, West squealed with glee and pulled Kyra into a bone-crushing hug, which Kyra returned.
"It's good to see you!" West exclaimed as she let Kyra go. Kyra smiled.
"No kidding," she said. "Leon told me you were dead!"
"So, you two know each other?" Kairi asked. Kyra nodded.
"We met when I was ten and she was eight," Kyra explained. "I lost my world and wound up in Traverse Town. Aerith and the others asked me if I needed a place to stay, but I turned them down, 'cause I needed to track down my parents and brothers." Sora nodded in understanding, having experienced much the same two years ago. "Cid helped me put together a Gummi Ship, and I've been going world to world ever since. I'd stop in at Traverse Town every now and then to rest and restock, and every time I came back, they roped me into babysitting trouble-maker over there." West folded her arms and pouted, as Kyra turned and saw Riku standing behind Sora, her expression souring instantly.
"Well, well, well, if it isn't Maleficent's lackey," Kyra said with obvious sarcasm. The others looked between Riku and Kyra.
"Good to see you too, Kyra," Riku said flatly. "And just FYI, I don't work for Maleficent anymore."
"So, what brought you here?" Hikari asked, breaking the tension.
"I heard that this place had been restored, so I came here to check it out. Leon offered me a job as a fighting instructor, so I figured 'sure, why not?' I could use the munny."
At that moment, the conversation was interrupted by a loud bark and a startled quack. The others turned to see the fox that was accompanying Kyra barking and snapping angrily at Donald, who had jumped into Goofy's arms to escape the little thing. The fox continued to growl, baring its teeth.
"Rusty, no! Down, boy!" Kyra exclaimed as she grabbed the fox and started stroking him.
"Gawrsh, I guess he doesn't like you, Donald," Goofy said as he set Donald down. The fox, Rusty, continued to growl at Donald.
"So, what are Leon and the others up to right now?" Mickey asked. Kyra jerked her head in a "come with me" gesture.
"They're up at the castle doing business. I'll take you to 'em. My break's just about over with anyway."
"Lead the way," Lea said simply. With that, the group followed Kyra out of the plaza.
Radiant Garden, Castle
Before long, Kyra and Rusty had led the group to the front doors of the castle, now untouched and fully intact as if Maleficent had never been there at all. Sora and Riku, however, stopped short at the sides of two familiar castle guards.
They were tall, muscular men, both dressed in dark blue uniforms with white gloves and a red heart on the chest. The man on the right had very angular and strong facial features, with a square chin, straight nose, and sharp cheekbones, blue eyes, and auburn hair that was slicked back into rather odd, messy spike, while the man on the left had long black hair styled into dreadlocks that were tied into a ponytail, violet eyes, and thick sideburns, along with flesh tunnels with an earring through the hole.
"It's Lexaeus and Xaldin!" Riku exclaimed. Sora let out a growl as he recognized them (2). The two summoned their Keyblades and were about to attack the former Nobodies, but Lea jumped in front of them, waving his hands.
"Whoa, whoa!" he shouted. "Relax. They're on our side, got it memorized?" After a few moments, Sora and Riku lowered their Keyblades.
"Okay..." Sora said, looking at Lea curiously.
"Aeleus and Dilan here were restored around the same time I was, along with the rest of Ansem the Wise's apprentices," Lea explained. "But last I heard, these two were in critical condition."
"We got better," Dilan said simply, before turning to Sora and Riku. "Now that I have my heart back, I want to apologize for my actions as a Nobody."
"As would I," Aeleus said. Sora smiled and dismissed his Keyblade.
"Hey, no problem," he said. "You guys weren't yourselves." Nixe looked at Sora curiously.
"Um, Sora, in case you've forgotten, these guys still betrayed Ansem the Wise and destroyed this world in the first place," she said, recalling what they had told her and Sï'Lea. Aeleus glared at the girl.
"That was Xehanort and Braig's doing," he said. "We had no idea what was happening until it was too late."
Kyra walked up to them. "I hate to interrupt your little trip down memory lane, but I gotta get in here and back to work, and the rest of these guys need to talk to Leon."
"You may enter," Dilan said, the two stepping aside and opening the door, the group filing in. Aeleus and Dilan's eyes widened at the sight of Kairi, the last one in.
"That girl," Aeleus said, turning to Dilan as soon as the door was closed. "That was Kaname and Rimi's daughter, wasn't it?"
Dilan nodded. "Yes, it was," he said, recalling the two. "To think that we helped Xemnas endanger her life."
The two guards looked down in shame.
Radiant Garden, Castle
Kyra led the group up a set of silver stairs to a purple door, opening it to reveal a large computer room with brick walls, a comfy looking red couch, blue wall-to-wall carpeting, and a wooden table with a green tablecloth. Seated around the table were Leon, Aerith, Tifa, Cid, Yuffie, and another person Sora didn't recognize, the person in question being a young woman around Leon's age with shoulder-length black hair with caramel-colored highlights, brown eyes, and fair skin dressed in a sleeveless coat similar to Kyra's but blue under a black tank top, blue arm warmers, black boots, and a denim skirt.
"Guess who I ran into in the shopping plaza," Kyra said as she entered. The group turned and smiled at the sight of Sora and his friends.
"Long time no see!" Yuffie said enthusiastically as she sprang from her seat and dashed over to them.
"Good to see you guys too," Sora said, smiling. "I can see you've all been hard at work restoring the town." Cid grinned.
"Yep," he said. "It took a lot of time, and a lot of work, but Radiant Garden is finally back to the way it was."
"So, who's all this with you?" Leon asked.
"You all know Kairi, Donald, Goofy, and the King. This is Riku, Max, Lea, Nixe, Hikari, and Sï'Lea. And from what I've heard already, I'm guessing you all know West." At the sound of West's name, the entire group perked up as West stepped to the front.
"Hi, guys," she said with a wave and a smile. At the sight of the girl they had presumed dead, Yuffie gave a big smile and pulled West into a bone-crushing hug, bodily lifting the young thief off of the ground. West could have sworn that she felt something pop inside of her.
"This is amazing!" Yuffie shouted happily. "You're okay! We all thought you were dead!" West squirmed feebly.
"It's good to see you too, Yuffie, but I can't breathe..." she choked out. It was like being squeezed by a boa constrictor, and West was only given sweet relief when Yuffie finally let her go. As West caught her breath, Leon, Cid, and Aerith had already approached her.
"You've got a lot of explaining to do, missy," Cid said, a mixture of anger and relief in his voice.
"Where have you been?" Leon demanded, his voice having the same mix of anger and relief. Aerith stepped in at that moment.
"Does it really matter?" she asked. "West is safe either way." The new woman stood from her seat and approached them.
"It's nice to meet you all," she said. "I'm Rinoa. Squall's told me a lot about you."
Sora raised an eyebrow in confusion for a moment, but then remembered that Yuffie had called Leon "Squall" when they had first met in Traverse Town two years prior.
Leon looked at Rinoa, slightly annoyed. "I keep telling you, my name is Leon." At that moment, Lea finally realized who the man before him was.
"Hold it," he said, pushing his way to the front. "Squall Leonhart?" The other members of the Committee turned to look at him, recognizing him as well.
"Lea?" Tifa asked. "Wow, it's been a while. Where've you been?" Lea scratched the back of his head.
"I... lost my heart to the darkness when this world fell twelve years ago," he explained, before proceeding to tell his old friends an abridged version of his life as Axel, and Axel's sacrifice.
"...Wow." Yuffie said simply. "So, you were recompleted along the same time as Ansem's apprentices?" Lea nodded.
"But where's Isa?" Aerith asked. Lea fidgeted uncomfortably, recalling that his best friend was now Xehanort's slave.
"I don't wanna talk about it," he said simply. The others wisely decided to drop it, before Sora turned to Sï'Lea.
"Sï'Lea, I've been meaning to ask you something for a while," he said. Sï'Lea turned to him.
"I'm listening," she said.
"Could you tell us some more about Ven, Terra, and Aqua?" Sora asked. "I know they were Keyblade wielders before me, but I don't really know much else about them."
Sï'Lea hesitated, then nodded. "Okay," she said, taking a seat on the couch with Sora's team and the Restoration Committee following her, the latter interested to hear about the trio themselves.
As soon as the others gathered around her, Sï'Lea began the tale.
Author's Note:
(1): A staple of TV Tropes: the Slouch of Villainy.
(2): While it's true Sora didn't actually meet Lexaeus in Chain of Memories, he did fight his Absent Silhouette in Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix.
The characters of Kyra and Rusty are the property of MysteryGirl7Freak, while the characters of Kaname and Rimi, mentioned by Aeleus and Dilan, are the property of Kristen Verne, both used with their respective permission. In Kristen Verne's depiction, Kaname and Rimi are Kairi's father and mother, respectively, and Kairi is Ansem the Wise's great-niece through her mom; for more info on them, check out her stories, Kingdom Hearts 3: Final Stand and Their Lives Before.
Once again, parts of this chapter, such as Lea knowing the Restoration Committee members, were inspired by PrismRain13's stories, with my own original flavor; all credit for the original scenes and dialogue that the inspiration came from goes to her.
Okay, I'm again suggesting mental VAs for the characters. Please note that this is my own thoughts/suggestions on who voices who; you're free to "hear" them as whoever you wish:
* Kyra- Erika Mendez (Aladdin from Magi: Labyrinth of Magic, Ryuko from Kill la Kill)
* Rusty- either Dee Bradley Baker (Perry from Phineas & Ferb, Appa from Avatar: The Last Airbender, and most of the Omnitrix aliens from Ben 10: Alien Force/Ultimate Alien) or Frank Welker (Abu from Aladdin, Scooby-Doo from Scooby-Doo, Goddard from Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius), mostly because they're both good at "voicing" animals and I can't decide between them
* Rinoa- Brina Palencia (Kurumu Kurono from Rosario + Vampire, Juvia Luxar from Fairy Tale)
Next chapter, we dip a bit into Sï'Lea's past with the Wayfinder Trio.
Please R&R. Until next time!