ToL: Chapter 12

[Freedom of Choice]

It was the beginning of a new day here in Radiant Garden, with the sun slowly beginning to rise in the sky. We soon come across the dormitory that was recently built for any visiting Keyblade wielders or other visitors. We could see Eddy starting to wake up from being asleep, stretching and yawning a little as he sat up on his bed. He looked at the clock that was on a table next to him; it read 6:10 am.

Eddy made a small groan at the time, "Man, wish I could sleep in today, but that's not gonna be an option," he started to scratch the back of his head, "I should get ready and meet up with everyone else."

Thankfully, it did not take Eddy long to get ready for the day; getting a shower, brushing his teeth, and putting on his usual daily attire he brought with him. He then left his room, closing the door behind him; he could tell he was the only one in the building who was awake.

'Huh, I thought at least Double D would be awake by now. Weird,' Eddy thought to himself before looking down the hallway, 'Where's the kitchen at again?'

He walked back towards the big living room/hangout area that was on the first floor, only to see that there was a big kitchen off to the side. Eddy went over to the kitchen to see what he could fix. He could see there were a lot of ingredients for making various foods in the pantry and the fridge.

"Whoa, there's lots of stuff here I can use," Eddy stated, "I didn't think there would be this much to work with."

He made a small sigh before grabbing what he needed; two skillets, a spatula, some butter, salt & pepper, a cup of milk, and enough eggs and bacon to serve at least three people. Eddy started to cook what he had in front of him. Some bacon and scrambled eggs; no need for him to go overboard when he's just starting as an amateur.

When Eddy started high school a few weeks ago, he considered taking a cooking class for extra credit and such. He always kind of had a knack for it, but never really thought about doing anything with it until a few months ago. Not only would it make people happy because it was some food they could eat, but others could pay him if he did well enough; it was why he tried to do a cookie-baking scam a few weeks ago as practice. It also made him wonder what ever happened to the cookies he baked that they were going to sell; he and the others had to leave shortly afterward to save Katrina and the others.

'I hope Katrina or Iris wakes up soon,' Eddy started to think to himself as he continued to look over what he was making, 'It would be kind of awkward for both of them to not be awake when I was making this for them.'

A few minutes passed by before he finished the food he was cooking, turning off the stovetop as he did, "Good, now I just need to go—"

"Eddy?"

"AH!" Eddy yelped a little, almost jumping out of his skin in surprise. He turned to see Katrina coming up to him from the rest area. He could also see that everyone else in the building was now awake, doing various things around the rest area, "You do realize that the smell of the food you were making woke everyone up, right?" Katrina stated.

"Uh… Is that a bad thing?"

"No, not really," Katrina replied with a chuckle, "If anything, it just made everyone in the building hungry."

"… Oh," Eddy muttered a little, realizing his mistake, "But I only made enough for the two of us and Iris… I didn't think ahead on that. My bad."

"It's okay," Katrina stated with a smile, "I didn't expect you to fix breakfast at all."

The two teens then got out three plates to put the food on, only to see Iris walking up to them, "Umm, hello," she greeted before seeing and smelling the food on the plates in front of them, "Is that something to eat?"

"Yep! Bacon and eggs for the three of us. It's nothing fancy though," Eddy stated as he gestured to the long dinner table nearby, "We gotta eat it before it gets cold."

Iris made a surprised face, "O-Okay!" she replied, walking over to the table with Eddy and Katrina.

They all sat down at the table with their food in front of them. Iris looked at what was in front of her with a bit of uncertainty before she started to eat it. She widened her eyes at the food before continuing to eat what was on her plate, you could tell she was enjoying it immensely. They all finished eating around the same time.

"Thank you for the breakfast," Katrina started to say to Eddy, "It was very nice of you to do."

"It's not a problem!" Eddy stated with a small smirk, "I consider it good practice for something I wanna aim for."

"Umm…"

Eddy and Katrina turned to Iris, "What's the matter?" Katrina asked.

"Ever since I arrived here from my time, I've seen and tasted so many different things that I've never had before, so I wanted to say thanks," Iris started to say to them with a big smile, "All I've ever had to eat were a lot of fish from the sea and water from the lake nearby; because that was all that was there."

Eddy and Katrina glanced at each other with a bit of worry, "Was there not any sort of fruit there? Or even some grains to make any bread?" Katrina questioned.

Iris shook her head, "No, but I remember my parents telling me there were many other things where they used to live; animals, fruits, veggies, and things like that. But there was nothing like that on the island at all… Besides the seven of us, it was empty."

"… Geez, that sounds even rougher than I thought it would be," Eddy muttered a little before making a smile, "Well, you don't have to worry anymore, you're free!"

"… Free?"

"Yeah!" Eddy replied, "You're free to do what want, see new places, and talk with a lot of people! And eat so many new things! It's an adventure!"

Iris widened her eyes in fascination at what Eddy was saying, getting very excited.

"Well, let's not get too crazy with that just yet," Katrina stated with a sigh, "Didn't the king and the other higher-ups assign the A, B & C thems to go out to find our missing friends first? We're not going anywhere new yet."

"Oh, I know that!" Eddy stated to her, "It's just the fact that she's no longer stranded there, she can do a lot more things she couldn't do before!" he then glanced towards the front window that was on the other side of the big room, "Besides, this place is also big, there's no need for her to go to another world just yet unless it's the two of us going to it, along with whoever they pair us up with."

Katrina made a sigh to him, "I guess you're right."

Iris made a big smile to the two teens, "I-I want to see more things out there!"

"We can do so later in the day, okay?" Katrina replied to Iris with a chuckle, "Right now we need to decide what to do with the others."

"Okay!" Iris nodded her head as the two girls walked off, leaving Eddy to clean up what was left behind.

Eddy made a small smile as he watched them walk off.

"I didn't expect you to fix breakfast first thing in the morning, Eddy."

"AH!" Eddy yelped for the second time today, turning to see Double D standing behind him, "Can everyone please stop doing that?!"

"Oh, did someone else also do that? My apologies," Double D chuckled a little.

Eddy grumbled at him before making a sigh, grabbing the plates and utensils they used to put them in the sink, "Don't get used to this, I won't be doing this every morning," he started to say as he turned on the faucet in the sink for a second to briefly wash the food off the plates before turning it back off, "I did this because I wanted some practice for when I get back to Peach Creek and take that cooking class I was thinking about. I don't wanna get rusty in between now and then."

Double D looked at Eddy before making a smile, "Eddy, it's okay to say you did this for Katrina and Iris without saying it's for another reason. I know it's probably influenced by your past self, but I can tell that you do care," Double D said, "No one's going to think it's weird that you care about them a lot. A few of us know already."

Eddy visibly flinched a little at his statement, "Y-Yeah, I know," he replied, "Though it still feels very weird that all of this happened so fast."

"Don't worry, I understand," Double D said with a small sigh before turning back to the rest area, "Anyway, I think we should visit Merlin today. I want to ask him a favor about something."

"Okay, I'll meet you all later," Eddy stated as he could see Double D walk away. He made a big sigh to himself before walking away from the kitchen to join everyone else in the rest area, deciding he wanted to know more about the others while they were all staying here, 'Might as well, right?'


A few hours passed by at the dorms. Almost everyone had left the building to go train for when they needed to leave on their mission or to scout around the town to protect people from any stray Heartless. We could see the Eds and the girls starting to leave the dorm building; they decided to go visit Merlin to ask him for a favor, at least, that is what Double D wants to do. The girls, minus Iris, had their weapons at their sides for when they needed to use them, of course. As they were walking to Merlin's house, the group noticed so many people out and about at this time of day around the main square.

"Wow, this place has a lot of people," Shayla commented, "It makes me wonder why we barely saw anyone when we first arrived here yesterday?"

"That's a great question," Double D stated, thinking about it to himself for a moment.

Eddy could see Iris starting to dart her eyes all around the place, looking at everything and everyone. He made a small smile at how happy she looked.

"Aww!" Ed started to say, also noticing how Iris was acting, "Looks like Iris is getting used to everything now!"

Ebony also made a smile, "That's good to see," she said with a chuckle.

The group finally reached Merlin's house, based on the directions Iris remembered on the day she got there. They knocked on his door to see if he was inside, "Umm, hello…? Mr. Merlin?" Katrina called out.

It only took a few seconds for Merlin to greet them, appearing with a sudden poof, "Oh! Well, if it isn't the new Keyblade wielders from yesterday!" Merlin stated, gesturing to the three Eds, "I was just thinking about calling all of you over here for something. How may I help you today?"

The group looked at each other before coming inside his house, "Well, I wanted to ask you a favor," Double D stated to him.

"A favor, you say?"

"Yes sir," he turned to Iris, who was looking at the chalkboard Merlin had nearby, "We all learned yesterday that Iris does not know how to read or write because of the era of time she was from, and… I was wondering if you could help her with that. I could try and help as well, but I'm not qualified to be any sort of teacher."

His friends widened their eyes a little, "You're right! I completely forgot about that!" Shayla gasped.

"Why, of course I can help!" Merlin replied with a nod of his head, "I also taught another youth, who is a very dear friend of mine, how to read and write as well. He's now the king of a kingdom in my home world."

"Really?" Ed gasped in awe.

As the group was talking with Merlin, Iris continued to look around the wizard's house, looking at all the unusual things she had never seen before. It was then her eyes landed on a table off to the side, seven unique stones were sitting there. Iris walked over to the stones to pick one of them up; the one she picked up was a stone that looked like a whole galaxy was stuck inside it. The stone seemed to be calling to her, 'This is pretty!' she thought to herself.

Suddenly, a bright light started to come from the stone she held in her hand, "Ah!" she yelped in surprise.

"Iris?!" Eddy and Katrina gasped as everyone turned to where Iris was, along with seeing the bright light coming from the stone she held.

The bright light from the stone soon started to go away as everyone could see what the light left behind; it was a strange and short round creature that was pink in color and had red shoes. The pink creature opened their eyes, revealing them to be blue; he blinked a little before turning back to Iris, "Hai!" He greeted her with a smile and a wave.

"Well then, it seems you found what I wanted to call you all here for," Merlin stated with a chuckle.

"W-What IS that creature?!" Double D gasped as everyone came over to Iris's side, just in case the creature attacked her.

"He's a soul that was inside the summon stone Iris picked up," Merlin stated as he also gestured to the six other stones on the table, "It's the same for these stones as well. I found all of them early this morning outside my doorstep."

The creature tilted his head in confusion, "Poyo?" he asked.

"… Kirby asked about why he was teleported here, Mr. Merlin," Iris stated to the wizard.

Everyone turned to Iris for a second before realizing, "You can understand what he's saying?" Katrina asked.

Iris nodded her head, "Yes? I guess the stone he was in is helping me understand what he's saying."

"Oh, I certainly can explain that, Kirby," Merlin replied as he took the six other stones off the table, "These are summoning stones. They each hold a strong soul inside of them," he looked down at the stones, "In the past, these kinds of stones were around when a world was lost to the darkness, from a world that the Heartless destroyed," he then looked back to the teens, "But since every world has been restored since then, it seems like these stones are summoning people with a strong will to help you all, even though their world is not lost to the darkness."

Kirby made a small sad face, "Poyo…?"

"Oh, umm… He wants to know if he's stuck here because I summoned him," Iris translated.

"No, not necessarily," Merlin stated, "You can de-summon him whenever you want, and he will go back to his world like normal. Time would have stopped for them in their world when they were summoned here. They can also summon other people from their world for help if they so desire."

"Huh, well isn't that convenient for them," Eddy stated.

Ed widened his eyes in excitement, "Oh! I wanna summon a new friend!" he said with a big smile. He reached out to grab one of the stones from Merlin's hands; he grabbed the green stone with a big yellow star on it, "Umm, how does it work?"

"Now, now, there's no need to rush things like this," Merlin stated to him, "The other summon stones are not ready to be used yet."

"Aww…" Ed pouted a little.

The other teens soon came over to also grab a stone from Merlin, along with Merlin giving them the names of who were inside the summon stones they picked, "You'll know when to use them when the time is right," he said.

The stone Ebony held looked a lot like a flaming meteorite. The stone Double D held looked a lot like a blue crystal with some swirling white light inside of it. The stone Shayla picked was a purple-pinkish color and looked very psychedelic. The stone Eddy picked was very white and felt like it was made of something other than stone. And the stone Katrina picked was gold in color with something that looked like sand inside of the stone.

(AN: Have fun guessing who's a summon! The only one you won't guess is Double D's summon because they are technically an OC.)

It was a few minutes later that Iris de-summoned Kirby back to his world, waving bye to him before he left. Merlin then cleared his throat to get everyone's attention, "Now then, there's another reason I wanted to call you all here besides giving you those stones. I remember hearing from Ms. Aerith that Iris defeated a Heartless in a strange way the other day, and I wanted to find out more about how she defeated it."

The group looked at Merlin in confusion, even Iris looked a little confused before remembering what he was talking about, "Oh, you mean when those strange bugs tried to suddenly swarm me?" she glanced down to her right hand, "I was trying to swat them away when something came out of my hand. It hit one of the bugs and they disappeared, and the other bugs scurried off afterward like they were scared. I've never done something like that before…"

"So, Iris has magic like the rest of us?" Shayla asked.

"Yes, but there's more to this," Merlin stated, "I'm sure the others have explained to you why the Keyblade is an important item for defeating the Heartless, correct?"

"Yes, they said the Keyblade is the only kind of weapon that can release a heart captured by the Heartless inside it. They also said normal weapons can defeat the Heartless as well, but their hearts go back into the darkness if the blow is not from a Keyblade," Double D stated, "Am I remembering this correctly?"

"You're correct," Merlin replied with a nod of his head before glancing at Iris, "But, judging by what Ms. Aerith told me the other day, she noticed that the heart from the Heartless Iris defeated did not go back to the darkness, despite her not using a Keyblade to attack said creature with."

There was a bit of silence in the room for a short moment, "Are you saying Iris can defeat Heartless and release their hearts without the use of a Keyblade?" Katrina asked.

Merlin nodded his head, "That seems to be the case, but I'm still unsure how this happened. It's impossible for attacks and magic from a weapon that's not from a Keyblade to release hearts."

Everyone glanced over to Iris with a bit of shock and surprise, much to her confusion.

"I was going to ask you all if Iris could stay here for a few hours every day so I can figure out this mystery, as well as train her in using this power properly," Merlin continued to say, "I can also teach her how to read and write as well while she's here since you requested it."

"I don't see why not," Ebony stated with a shrug of her shoulders.

Eddy looked at Iris, "Is that something you wanna do, Iris?"

Iris widened her eyes a little at that statement, "U-Umm, yes!" she replied with a big smile, "I want to know how to do that! A-And so many other things!"

Everyone in the room smiled at Iris's enthusiasm, "That's good to know!" Merlin replied, "We'll begin all this tomorrow. I'll let you all have the day off before we start tomorrow."

"Thank you, Mr. Merlin!" The group thanked the wizard.


Meanwhile, back in Peach Creek, we could see that it was very peaceful right now in the Cul-De-Sac, we zoomed in on Double D's house, where we could see Adam walking out of it.

Adam and Olivia were temporarily living at Double D's house (with Double D's permission, of course) until they could move into the house that they bought in the next neighborhood over. They were both going to go to Katrina's orphanage today to fill out some papers but had to cancel the appointment due to Olivia getting sick, and Adam did not want to go without her there. They decided to reschedule the meeting for another time.

Adam made a sigh to himself, 'Olivia said she wasn't feeling well today. I know it's because she's pregnant, but I can't help but worry a little.'

He looked over towards Eddy's house, thinking about how they were doing today in that Radiant Garden place. It was while he was looking in that direction that he noticed something strange. There was a cloaked man in a black hood that was slowly walking over to Eddy's house, it looked like he was about to collapse from exhaustion.

Adam widened his eyes as he ran over to the cloaked man, who then collapsed on Eddy's front yard. It was when Adam got over to the man that he remembered what Eddy said about one of his flashbacks; how a man in a black cloak gave his past self a Keyblade to wield before disappearing, 'Is this the same person?' he thought.

Adam bent down to the man to take the hood off his head to check and see if he was alright. He was not prepared for what he saw under the hood.

"… What the HELL?!" Adam yelped in shock, "How is THIS possible?!"

The man was now unconscious on the ground. He had very short, spiky dark blue hair, with three tuffs of spiked hair sticking out. He looked to be in his late 30s.

Adam's mind was racing with many questions about who this could be but shook those thoughts aside for a moment. He picked up the man and began to take him back to Double D's house.

"Olivia!" Adam shouted to her as he placed the man on the couch. Olivia came over to Adam from the kitchen, only to see the man on the couch, widening her eyes as she did.

"Oh my god…" Olivia muttered as she came over to them, "Please don't tell me… Is that—"

"I think it might be," Adam replied, looking back at the unconscious man on the couch, "I don't know how or why, but I think this is Alexander. He's alive!"


Author's Note (November 15th, 2023): Dun dun DUUUUUN! Got this chapter done and I am happy! Not because this chapter is done, but later today I'm getting better internet! After 12+ years of having the same terrible service with no other options, it's FINALLY time to change to something else that was recently put in place here. I'll edit this note later with my thoughts about this, but I'm tired and need to go to bed so I can get ready tomorrow!