In which things spiral out of control...
It was as sudden as an explosion bursting your eardrums, yet something that seemed so plausible in hindsight it felt like they had all been crowned the Court of Fools for not expecting it on their way in. Sora and Nemurin's party of four (well, six) had only moments to glance upwards at the ledges which weren't as empty and wide as they thought; a whole group of faces, which were illuminated by the tinfoil-esc glow of yellow torches that were glowering down at them like rats they had caught in their food storage, stood up high above them, cackled in a cacophony of echoes that rang loudly throughout the tunnels and bounced almost hauntingly across their eardrums, before leaping down just as abruptly as they'd revealed themselves, snatching at their arms, pushing them down onto their knees. Tension flooded down their backs the moment they landed, those who had stood below scrambling to try and move out of their range - and failing.
"Hey, wait, stop!" Sora cried out as he struggled, mentally bemoaning how he had returned to how he looked when he was only at the start of his journey; sure he might not have had as much on him as Riku, but still, it would have helped! "We're not here to-"
"Quiet, boy!" one of them hissed at him, heaving forward so he was on the ground.
"But we..." Nemurin protested, shortly before being forced into the same routine.
Before she could finish, however, a familiar figure walked with two confident strides to the centre of the circle, only a few feet before them. Nemurin would recognise those brightly-coloured garments anywhere, even amidst a festival's crowd; it was that jester from before, Clopin, she thought his name was from the crowd.
This...was bad. Sora's thoughts began to race as they were faced with their circumstances; even an idiot could tell what they had walked into - they had made themselves appear like thieves or invaders, and Clopin and Esmeralda's people were beyond prepared to deal with them, unaware of the true invaders that planned to come at dawn, that they had to warn them about! If they didn't...they'd all be goners, and he knew it! But if they just pulled out their weapons right now to try and pull away, then they'd only be proving his suspicions, which...well, Sora didn't want to know how that ended, particularly since it wasn't just him stuck in this mess. That'd be one thing, but Nemu, Quasi and Phoebus were also being dragged into it, and the thought of anything happening to them stuck a needle right through his heart. He had to convince them, assure and prove that they weren't a threat...but how? It seemed they didn't know about Phoebus no longer working for Frollo, and hardly knew a thing of Quasimodo other than Frollo being his 'master', which only added weight to the scale of the problem. But what about him and Nemurin? What were they counted as around here? Honestly, his head for the past few days had been so stuck in Nightmare fighting that he had no clue...!
"Well, well, what have we here?" Clopin questioned, a brow raised.
"Trespassers!" one of them barked.
"Spies!" another hollered.
"We're not spies!" Phoebus argued, only for the cloth of a gag to yank his head backwards.
"You have to listen!" Quasimodo added, only for them to do the exact same thing to him.
It dawned on Sora and Nemurin at that moment that they had not a moment more to try and figure out a plan to earn their trust or prove it; whatever ideas they had, they'd have to carry them out now while they could still talk! "Please, wait!" Sora cried out.
"Why wait? For Frollo's captain of the guard? For his hunchbacked he-" Clopin began, sarcasm ringing louder from his vocals as strong as those of the bells Quasimodo rung. But then, as if Lady Luck had blessed them; the jester stopped for a moment. He blinked briefly before his eyes narrowed, turning towards the men holding them. "Men, bring those two closer. The girl and the one with the odd hair,"
"H-hey!" Sora spluttered as he was yanked not quite delicately forward, allowing Clopin to look at him more closely. Nemurin was plopped beside him, her pale fuchsia-coloured eyes glancing towards him with cautious hopes. For a few moments, the dark-eyed man eyed their faces, then down at their distinct clothes, before stepping back once more, his lips curving up into an unreadable smile.
"Well - you two were most definitely people I didn't expect to see again in the flesh~ The Nightmare Hunters, gentlemen, they grace us with their presence!" Clopin called out to them, almost with a flourish; one they didn't quite know whether or not to trust.
Now it was the turn of Clopin's people to stammer; they looked back and forth between themselves, eyes flickering wide with shock apparent. "The Nightmare Hunters, you say?"
"Come to think of it, they do look awful like those two from the festival, the ones who fought off those Monsters..."
"But what would they be doing with those two!?"
"Is that what they call us...?" Nemurin wondered, almost as if in some sort of daze.
"Guess so...listen, we can explain if you'd let us!" Sora spoke up, with a voice clear yet not unkind. "Yeah...you could say me and Nemu do that. We've been trying to hold them off. But Quasi and Phoebus aren't with Frollo, they're with us! Quasimodo helped Esmeralda escape from the cathedral, and Phoebus is working against Frollo! You can even ask Esmeralda and she'll tell you the same thing. We wanted to warn you about Frollo, and we need to warn all of you!"
For a few seconds, perhaps a minute, Clopin appeared to ponder, the sewers falling silent as he did so; he was most definitely contemplating, to let them live, to let them through, to let them die or let them hang...truthfully, they could only hope the former two would be what he chose...eventually, after what felt like a second of eternity, the jester spoke again; "Very well - we will go, and we will see Esmeralda herself~ If you're lying though, well...it'll still be good noose for us, won't it, men?"
A few stray chuckles piped up behind them that almost instantly sent ice dripping down their spines. Nemurin and Sora glanced at each other again, and Phoebus and Quasimodo exchanged uncertain glances. With that, the party of at least double digits proceeded in even more awkward and tense a silence than the one held between them all while walking through the night-cloaked streets of Paris; but they still had heads on their shoulders and breath passing in and out of their bodies and mouths with which to speak their warning, and those were enough. At the very least, they could be certain Esmeralda would back up their points, so they could slacken themselves ever so slightly with the comfort of that knowledge, but the looks they garnered and the way they were surrounded like prisoners was still enough to tug at the nerve of anxieties that had been left to run rampant as Paris burned, each second feeling more dragged out and needlessly extended than the last.
Nemurin stretched her arms a little as if shaking off the marks she could have gotten in her human form had she been in the same situation as she had just seconds before. "Phew...that was a close one, huh..."
"You can say that twice," Phoebus added, averting the gazes of the Romani who still shot looks sharp as swords straight at him, as though he still wore the captain's armour he chose to be rid of for the greater good.
"Thanks for that, Sora..." Quasimodo thanked him, offering a weak, yet still potent smile. "You really got us out of that one..."
Sora beamed a bit, "Don't sweat it."
Finally, after what felt like a painful perpetuity of walking through the Courts of Anti-Socks as far as Nemurin was concerned, the scenery shifted as they reached their destination; through a high, hanging archway, about the same in height as the graveyard gate they had passed through prior, the mangled corpse of one hanging lopsidedly off of the wall, lay the Court of Miracles, as vibrant as you'd ever expect a miracle to be. The ground was of cobblestone much like the world above, a pale beige gold dulled with time and activity, the roofs sprawling and elevated up above them, with a rainbow of silks and cloths of various patterns and hues and shades curving up from various points. On the ground, caravans lined the walls at many angles, providing just as much of a visual spectacle of colours to the eyes as the world above, if not even more, the scent of smoke and spice lacing the air gracefully, the hustle and bustle of so many people livening up the air in almost an instant.
"Woah..." Sora said, eyes wide and glittering a bit, Morgana mewing aloud. Nemurin stood awestruck as she held Sheppy in her arms, looking onward as she took it all in.
"It's just like...it's just like the Festival," Quasimodo commented, almost breathlessly.
"Not a bad potential last sight, is it?" Phoebus quipped.
"We'll be fine...Esmeralda knows who we all are, right?" Nemurin whispered back.
"Yeah, exactly!" Sora chirped.
A sea of eyes fell upon them as they entered, whispers bursting up amidst the chatter - about their clothes, about their faces; particularly about Phoebus'. But a warm look found them too, and their hearts were eased, as bright green eyes like gems met their gazes, her lithe figure sprinting out of the crowd, her black hair falling across her shoulders. "Esmeralda!" the four greeted in unison.
"Quasi, Phoebus, Sora, Nemurin...! It's good to see you; what are you doing down here?"
"So, you do know them?"
"Yes, they're our friends!" Esmeralda affirmed. She moved towards Phoebus, her eyes warm aglow. "This...this is the soldier who saved the miller's family," she said, before moving to Quasimodo, who glanced up almost like a deer caught in the headlights. "Quasimodo, he helped us escape the cathedral, and Sora and Nemurin helped me and they've been fighting off the Nightmares every day!"
"Well, why didn't they say so?" Clopin questioned, rather lax for a man who had been planning to hang them if they were liars.
"We did say so...!" the four of them asserted, with even Morgana and Sheppy piping up as well, as if to emphasise their point.
Esmeralda sighed a little to herself, before turning to them; "You took a terrible risk coming here, what is it you're here for...? Has something happened?"
"We came here to warn you all!" Phoebus began, before moving to the wooden stage set up, all eyes falling upon him. "Frollo's coming! He's going to attack at dawn with a thousand men! Take what you can and flee!"
A shockwave of gasps and cries of terror and horror combined burst out from all within the room at the revelation; both that the strangers weren't enemies and thus...likely told the truth about the imminent danger they now found themselves in. A sharp prick tore into Nemurin and Sora's chests as they watched their once carefree energy shatter like broken glass, clambering to find their essentials and escape for their lives before it was too late, the latter sighing a bit. "It must be awful...having to leave your normal life like this,"
"Hmhm..." Nemurin nodded, somberly. "But at least they'll be okay - it's lucky we found this place, if it hadn't been for Quasimodo then we never would have gotten here on time..."
That was when they heard it; the one voice they did not wish to hear at this moment. "Nor would I!"
Frollo. A parade of black guards.
"No!" Sora gasped out, his heart tightening in his chest just at the sight of them. Before he could even dart forward, to try and protect the others, the guards tore their way through the room, closing the escapes off, cornering them like hunted animals.
"Thankfully, you are as predictable as I'd have hoped. Quasimodo...I always knew you'd be of some use to me. Leading me straight to you...and look at what else I've caught in my net; Captain Phoebus, back from the grave, I suppose - and two wretched witches, how lucky I am. I'll need to remedy that...mostly, anyway." Frollo taunted with his approach.
Guards appeared behind Sora and Nemurin, but the rattle of shock was silently killed and replaced with the rattle of rage that came with injustice. Without another thought, the Keyblade glimmered with light as it formed in Sora's hands, the male twisting himself in a violent circle, slamming into the chests of guards as he knocked them down like ninepins, lunging and swinging as he forced several into a stumble, only for at least ten more to appear behind them. Nemurin did her fair share, punching and kicking until she barrelled them into each other - but unfortunately, it seemed that he hadn't been lying about bringing a thousand men...with each round, they were more and more surrounded, until Sora and Nemurin's backs were pressed together.
Frollo tutted as if dealing with two disobedient children, the condescension enough to make their ears turn red from rage. "I don't understand why you have to resist; you should know there is no point..." he hissed, his eyes somehow growing narrower as they continued to fight off the guards that swarmed their every side. "Very well; all of you are in need of a demonstration of divine intervention, not that it would be enough to save your souls."
Nemurin's gut constricted the second she saw it; a veil of shadow, like the portals the hooded figure exited in and out of, ripped upwards around Frollo, like a sickening aura; only for a doubled roar to ripple through the Court of Miracles like a curse. A being with a shadow alone the size of her burst out from the walls, a creature even more incomprehensible than the last sort they had fought off; its skin was a dark dulled purple, and it possessed a collar with spikes sharp enough to poke out their eyes, but worst of all were its hands - they weren't even hands at all, but rather massive silver gauntlets, hard and cold and unforgiving to the touch. Despite its size, it sprinted with unnatural speed, sending the Romani people to the ground, prompting cries of shock and disbelief at the being they were faced with; with one swift movement, its arms seemed to rip off its wrist like chains, extending out towards Sora. The boy tried to dart back, but its reach was too far, leaving him caught between its hold.
She had to move. Forcing her way forward, Nemurin jumped into the air without a second thought, trying to tug the creature back, to distract it, to get it to let Sora go, but it persisted; worse yet, it seemed to look at her if only for a moment, before something happened that made her gut descend into the floor. A horrific rush of orange and red burst up from around its arms...and trickling quickly down its arms, it reached Sora before she could even try to stop it. What followed was a sound that chilled her to the bone, a pained scream as he was thrown up into the air, the sides of arms almost completely singed black as he gasped in pain, trying to regain himself before he collided with the ground. The Nightmare yanked its head backwards, using one arm to elbow Nemurin in the gut; a pain like something she'd never felt exploding across her torso as it ached and shouted out in agony, her body falling limply across the stone as scrapes and scratches tore into her once pristine appearance. With the other arm, it used its heavy gauntlets to bludgeon Sora's body on his way down, his silhouette shooting across the room as he was forced against one of the caravans, wood crashing as it came apart and he finally landed on the ground again, breathing out shakily.
"What demon is this!?" Phoebus demanded; his look enough that if they could kill, he'd be able to handle all enemies in this room by himself.
Frollo smirked lightly - it was as if revelling in the beating Sora had just been given. "Oh, you are mistaken. This is no demon. This is righteous judgment, so that I may smite witches like these rats off the face of the earth! Now and forever!"
"NEMURINNNN BEAM!" Nemurin shrieked out, almost desperately, trying to hold onto herself as things fell more and more apart; even if it could distract it for a second, it'd give Sora the time to heal himself.
And that was when she saw the second one. Before she could even register the sparkling light that burst from her head, hitting against the enemy's skin, the screech of wind off batlike wings ripped the air wide open as the monster thundered towards her; its body punched in impact with her form, forcing her off her feet as its talons tore into her skin, ripping through her outfit as it repeatedly repaired itself, its gauntlet replaced by claws as it held her by the throat, pinning her to the wall, her feet dangling helplessly as the other gauntlet shot into her arms, the usage of spells locked away from her. She could feel it, the eyes that stared in horror upon the broken battle that took place.
Why was she in this much pain!? Even when she did get hit while fighting in a dream, it usually hurt like a headache, annoying, but tolerable. But this...this was as if...
As if her human body were taking the blow...
Lifting her body high, as if she were a trophy, the monster aimed towards the solid stone floor, right at the centre of the room; and then threw her. She darted through the air like a bullet, the pain so blinding it felt as if the whole world was trying to ring her - as if she were a phone rather than a person. Sounds conjoined into horrific hybrids, and words no longer found meaning. Sheppy bleated, as if screaming, nudging at her head, which laid face-down and aching, her breaths barely visible as she fought to take them in.
"Nemurin!" Quasimodo shouted out. She couldn't see his eyes or the look upon his face, but part of her didn't want to; she knew the sight alone would hurt, just as it had when they had met each other the first time on the torturous wheel. All she could hope for right now was that there wasn't another thud to her side, that Sora hadn't fallen yet. But soon enough, she heard it; clashing of the Keyblade, a sudden shout...and then, thud.
"Master, please...!" Quasimodo's voice broke through the void, if only for a moment; but he was met with silence, cold and hateful.
One, two, three footsteps. Nemurin felt her body roll over slightly, forcing her eyelids to lift despite the weight of them; she watched Sora lie there, like a ragdoll, being turned over like trash. Frollo's voice chimed above them, and it was enough for her chest to turn and roll off into the darkness, hoping to be never seen again. "These are your 'Nightmare Hunters'; no better than pathetic witches, ruined by the first touch of divine intervention..." he then moved, allowing Sora's body to flop back to its side, his eyes shut and his face weakened. Just the sight of it turned Nemurin's soul to dust looking at it, her arm weakly reaching out, as if to offer the comfort he had to her in the graveyard.
"There'll be a little bonfire in the square tomorrow and you're all invited to attend; lock them up...!"
"So...sorry...Nemu..." Sora's tiny voice mumbled. "T...the...oth...ers...th...they're..."
Just as her hand was able to reach out far enough for the tip of their fingers to brush against one another, she could feel it; a chill of defeat that froze to the bone.
For at that moment, it all went black.
A/N: And just when I thought Chapter 12's writing process was tough, sigh...ah well, I finally did it! The Court of Miracles, and the lead-in to the finale of the La Cite Des Cloches world! This one was kinda brutal even for me, particularly at this end part, but I hope y'all still enjoyed it and that it was worth the wait. Took three fucking tries to get this one done, RIP. Anywho, sorry to Sora and Nemu...eep.
Now, to clarify some of the reviews a bit. ^^ In regards to adding other worlds in; I'm not going to be adding in anymore or taking suggestions for this particular story, namely because I've already outlined all of it with just the 3D worlds and there's already a fuck ton of stuff as is, so I feel adding in more would just be overstuffing the story. However, I'd gladly take some for another story that's more open-ended!
In the same vein, I want to keep the Organisation as villains and wound them into the story a bit more naturally into the world's stories than they had been in 3D, while also giving the Disney villains more of their due when they do show up to compensate, so I hope that's not disappointing. ^^ The same applies to the combat abilities from III, like Heartbinders and such, just because I feel it'd be better to work towards them at a later point?
With all of that said, I still appreciate the feedback and suggestions, it means a lot to me that you're interested enough in my story to do that and I hope you like the rest of it regardless! I'm not quite sure how my schedule with Cosmogyral will be since my university's starting back up soon, meaning I'll either get more into the habit of writing for this story since I'll have a routine again or I'll be writing less because I'll be busy with university. All the same, I hope y'all continue to read Cosmogyral! I'll see you all next chapter for the conclusion of La Cite Des Cloches!