Kingdom Hearts: Heart of Heaven

Chapter Twenty-Three: Pushing Myself and Planning

Day 6- Morning

I took a sip out of my to-go cup, letting the caffeine bypass Body Defense as I desperately tried to fight my exhaustion with a few cups of coffee. I was only able to get a few hours of sleep last night and honestly, I just wanted to turn my alarm off and continue sleeping in the safety of my new home.

But alas, I have a full schedule today, so unfortunately, I had to get up and get back to the grind, even as my groggy mind protested but it could suck it up. I've had worse nights of sleep down in hell, I can put up with the lack of rest for one day.

I let out a breath as I walked down the street towards Kim's apartment building. I already stopped by the owl house just to check up on the trio to make sure they were alright and other than being a little sleep-deprived, Luz reassured me that they were alright. There weren't any more attacks and Eda was still sleeping off her injury and subsequent rampage, which was a weight off of my shoulders. Even though I tried my best to clear out any Heartless near them last night, some little part of me still worried about their safety.

… Should I tell them about my apartment?...

No, no that'd be a bad idea. There really wasn't that much space for everyone as it had only two bedrooms at the moment, and it would get crowded real quick if I invited everyone I liked inside.

Maybe sometime in the future when I have enough extra points to buy the expansion, but right now, I should focus my budget towards survival. Things were only going to get worse over time, and I should focus on increasing my capabilities if I wanted to survive.

'Speaking of which' I think to myself as Kim's small home came into sight. It was split up into two floors with each floor assigned to two different residents. The top floor was Kim's and luckily there was a set of stairs leading to her floor or else it'd be a bit awkward having to pass through someone else's home every time I came over to train.

Shifting the cup in my right hand to cradle it in between my chest and left arm, I knocked my now free hand against the door and after waiting a minute, the door opens as Kim stands there, wearing a short-sleeved crop top and yoga pants, a bit of sweat dripping from her brow as she smiles at me through the doorway.

"Morning Ethan," she says with a chipper tone as she wipes away a bit of the sweat from her forehead with a towel she had in her hand.

"Morning Kim, decided to get started without me?" I asked as she shook her head, opening the door wider and stepping aside to let me in.

"Just a quick warm-up," she explained as she placed the small towel onto the countertop and turned back to me, pausing momentarily as she saw the extra cup in my hands. "Is that for me?"

I nodded as I handed it over to her. "Yeah, I made a little too much this morning so, I'd thought I'd bring you one."

"I thought you said you were cutting down on the caffeine?" She asks, not judgingly, just honestly curious as she takes a sip of the cup and then looks down at it with a curious expression.

"Yeah, but I was up pretty late last night, so I kinda needed the extra kick to get me moving." I explained as I placed my own cup on the counter, "Do you like it? Last time you mentioned how you didn't like the bitter taste, so I added a bit of sugar and milk to it."

I would've added cream to it as well but like I've experienced before, all of the Company's brands were off in such a way as to not violate any copyright laws. A Pepsi is called Bebsi, Planter's Salted Peanuts are called Seeder's Salted Peanuts, and Delight Coffee Creamer is called B'light Coffee Creamer.

It was pronounced 'Be-Light' but considering the fact that Class A handled the production of that off-brand creamer, everyone just called It 'Blight' Creamer and until I found a recipe to make my own creamer, it was just milk and sugar for me. I was not touching that slightly ashy-tasting cream with a ten-foot pole.

Kim takes another sip, taking a moment to savor the taste. "It's good," Kim says with a small smile as she takes another sip. "I didn't even know you could make coffee that isn't bitter," she stated as she walks next to me and leans back against the counter.

"It depends on how you make it," I say as I took a quick sip of my own cup, "Most use the drip method that slowly runs through the coffee grounds. I made these using what's called the Press Method. It can only make a few cups at a time compared to an entire pot, but the water is poured through the filter quickly enough that it leaves behind the particles that normally give coffee that bitter taste."

"Huh, Nifty" She says as she lifts her cup one more time before setting it to the side, "Well, ready to get back to it?" she asks as I nod, downing the rest of my cup and walking back to the mat with her.

"So-" she says as we both stand on opposite sides of the mat. "We went over the fundamentals of Tai Chi, the basic movements that all the other techniques are built from," she says as she takes a stance and, taking her silent prompt, I copied her position.

"The core of Tai Chi is control-" she began as she started moving as I tried to slowly copy her, softly flowing through the air as she shifted from stance to stance, Martial Talent kicking in as I tried to keep up with every move. "Every breath, every muscle you have is under your control, and following the discipline, you will eventually find every part of your body moving smoother than it ever has before."

Then she stops and stands up straight, lowering her hands alongside a drawn-out exhaled breath before lifting her head and smiling at me. "At least, that's what my old sensei told me. Now, you have improved a lot faster than normal, Mr. Pay-to-Win," she says playfully as she points an accusatory finger at me, and I couldn't help but grin at the gesture.

"But your movements still aren't as smooth as they could be. It should all be one fluid motion, a transition from one position to another without hesitation. Just like walking." She says as she runs through the stances we just went through, but at a much faster pace.

Then she lets out a breath as she finishes the last position, pushing a few locks of hair back into place. "But we don't exactly have a lot of time before the next drama drops." She says as she spins on her heel, turning towards me in a combat stance.

"So, I will show you a few of the advanced techniques of Chen-Style of Tai Chi," she says as she gestures to me to copy her, and I obliged as I lowered myself into the same position.

"Chen-Style focuses on a combination between slow and smooth," She says as she slowly approaches, her feet gliding across the mat, "and fast and Hard." she finishes as her slow movements suddenly shifts into a fast strike forward, the transition from the two states so seamless I didn't even register the potential danger until it was too late.

Her fist hangs mid-air a few inches in front of me before she pulls back and with a smile, takes a few steps away, leaving the middle of the mat open for me. "Now you try."

I took in a breath as I stepped forward, getting into the stance she showed me as I tried to review the mental notes Martial Talent left for me after seeing Kim's own display of martial prowess.

And slowly I tried copying her movements as the two of us began training in earnest, my Talent singing as I continued that long climb to the same peak of skill Kim Possible currently sat atop.

I let out a long breath as I worked my shoulder, trying to ignore the burning in my muscles as we ended this current bout. After showing me a few more moves and walking me through them, Kim decided to try to put them into practice by sparring a little with Tai Chi only.

Of course, she was holding back obviously, letting me get some hits in, and only interfering when I messed something up or to show how one can block or counter the particular move I was using but it was good to see how these techniques could be used in real combat scenarios.

Heck, I was already brainstorming with what she has shown me so far and I am left wondering if I could integrate the style with my Everlight. Slow and smooth with the lighter and more agile weapons in hand, while moving fast and hard when I changed it to the heavier weapon forms.

Or maybe vice versa? Slow and smooth with heavy weapons and fast and hard with the lighter ones? It was something I was going to need to test but I think the idea had potential, but I was going to have to work on it when I had more free time.

And I had to move as a palm strike tried to punish me for letting my thoughts get the better of me in the middle of our spar. Kim has no problems punishing distractions like that, especially if it's one that I've made before.

"Nice recovery, but you shouldn't let yourself get distracted like that. Control, remember?" She says as she pulls back her arm, returning to her 'resting' stance, ready to shift again for the next bout before she stops and gives me a quick look over. "But perhaps we should take a quick break? You're looking a little… tired."

Taking a moment to take a mental stock of myself, I felt that tiny bit of fog beginning to build in my thoughts when I started to push my body a bit too far. "Yeah, maybe we should. I guess last night took more out of me than I thought."

Kim gives me an understanding nod as she stands back up. "I think we will call it here then. You still got your shift to go through after all. You wouldn't want to be one of those guards that falls asleep in the middle of their job do you?" She says as she walks off the mat and grabs her towel, wiping herself down as she leans up against the counter. "So, what were you up so late for anyway?"

I took a breath as I grabbed a seat and sat down, taking a moment to relax my legs. "I was attacked again last night," I admitted, causing Kim to freeze and look down at me with concern in her eyes.

I sighed as I rubbed my eyes "Yeah, it was bad. If I didn't wake up when I did, well… I hope that I could've resisted the Heartless's attempted theft long enough to fight back but…" I shook my head. "Then there was the whole thing with Eda, and I had to make sure the Owl family was safe and… it just turned into a long night."

Kim set down her towel as she turned to face me. "Ethan, I don't think I've ever heard of Heartless attacking people in their sleep… You didn't buy anything that would've resulted in this did you?"

I waved my hand back and forth. "Kinda. 'Moth to the Flame' does make my soul more enticing to those that can feed on it, and I guess that extends to Hearts as well." I explain out loud as I tried to figure this out as well. "But I've already had that for a while, and they haven't tried attacking me in my sleep before… and this time they had a Heartless that produced a mist that countered Mary's lights… that seems a bit odd doesn't it?"

Kim nods as she gently grips her chin in thought "Yeah it is, and Shego did have the power to control the heartless but this… this doesn't seem like her style." Kim wondered out loud and I slowly turned to give her a raised eyebrow. "No really, if it was Shego, she would've been there herself 'to do it right'"

"… fair enough." I say as I rap my fingers against the counter and I finally take the time to just think about the whole mess last night. "Honestly, it all seemed too planned for it to just be the heartless. It might not have been Shego, but I think Dr. Facilier might be behind it."

"What makes you think that?" Kim asks as she picks up her coffee, "Facilier offered you a spot in his tournament and came to visit you himself. Wouldn't it look bad if you died right after he met you?"

"…Maybe." I said, trying to think it over. "But Facilier already has a bad reputation here so people would probably just dismiss it as another rumor… and people probably disappear all the time due to the heartless, which gives him enough plausible deniability so long as nobody has seen him control them."

Kim nods, "Okay, but that only explains how he can get away with it. It doesn't explain why he wants you gone." She asks, gesturing her cup towards me which… that was a good question.

I sighed. "It could be a PR thing." I guessed, causing Kim to look at me curiously, prompting me to continue. "Well, the whole point of the Festival is to show people that they are safe under the protection of his district. So, how would it look if someone from a different district showed up and beat the rest of his fighters? People living there would want to live in the same district of the better guardian and they'd move out from his little fiefdom."

Kim's eyes widen a bit "And move into Mary's, the woman that banished him in the first place. That makes sense." She says before looking at me with a curious gaze. "But if that is true then why let you in to begin with? Why make that deal with Mary?"

Right, why did he then? "…District Five must have something he wants. Something valuable enough to risk it. But what?"

God, I couldn't think of anything. Or at least nothing specific. I didn't think he was a part of the Hellfire club or else he would've been a part of the games… unless this was another variant of this dimension. But if he was then that means…

My eyes widen, oh god, is it possible that there was a Princess of Heart here? I mean it would make sense that any that lost their home would appear here in Traverse Town and if that happened of course the Club would want to keep an eye on this place.

"Ethan?" Kim states after seeing something in my expression "You've thought of something." She says as I took a breath.

"Yeah. I know a bit of what's going on due to… " I paused as a thought came to me. Fuck, Maleficent had a scrying spell in the game, didn't she? Even if the chance was small, I couldn't let her find out that I knew what her plans were. That was a quick way to get myself silenced as she would send someone or something at me that I really wasn't ready to handle.

"Ethan?" Kim asks again as I snap out of my spiraling thoughts. Well, even if it was a bit earlier than expected I did want to show her my apartment anyway and honestly, there was no safer place for a talk than my home.

"You asked me earlier why I was up so late?" I asked as Kim raised an eyebrow at the topic change but nodded anyway. "Well, I was up hunting Heartless, trying to capture enough so that I could afford this," I said as I interfaced with my shroud and opened the portal to my Pocket Apartment.

But Kim just looks around, her gaze moving past the doorway that just appeared right in the middle of the room. "Afford, what?" Kim asks, with a confused tone as, right, perception filter.

"Hold on," I say as I flicked through the options and finding the whitelisting section, I inserted Kimberly Ann Possible onto the list and hit 'Accept' (And hit 'Accept' again as it warned me of the potential danger of whitelisting non-companions). And as the portal door registered her, Kim's eyes widened as her eyes could suddenly see the open doorway leading to my home's entranceway.

"Ethan. What is that?" she asked as I stood up and walked over to the door.

"Not here Kim," I say as I cross the threshold, feeling the difference in the air between the two planes of existence and my home felt… cleaner than Traverse Town… huh.

But pushing that thought out of my mind I turned back to Kim and waved her towards me and with a few seconds of hesitation, she took a deep breath and entered as well.

And as I closed the door behind her, she turned to say something, only to jump back a little as she saw the giant bejeweled eye attached to the door. "Yeah, realistic isn't it? Made me jump the first time I saw it too." I said with a smile. "But welcome Kim, to my house," I said with pride, wondering if this is what it felt like for first-time homeowners to show off their newly purchased property.

Kim blinked as she processed that, looking around the room before realization dawned on her as she turned to look at me. "You bought a house from the Company?"

I nodded, "Yep, it's called a Pocket Apartment, set up right in between universes. This is the safest place in all of the worlds as the Heartless can't get to us here and anyone trying to spy on us won't be able to pierce the perception filter on the door." I said with a widening smile as Kim visibly just took that in.

"But you haven't even seen the good part yet," I said, as I power walked over to the other side of the door and opened it, revealing the living room to her.

"It's… bigger than my room." She commented as she walks in, idly examining the mat, the couches, and everything the company provided, then her gaze stopped at the empty t.v. stand. "Though, with how big your Company is, you'd think they could spare a few bucks for a TV." she idly comments.

I rolled my eyes, "I know right, but I can just buy one later, after all, I got what I paid for. A home with restocking supplies and a safe space where we can talk privately" I pointed out, as Kim looked at her nearly empty cup of coffee in her hands.

"Huh, I was wondering where you got the milk from." She comments as I looked at her in confusion. She holds up the cup in her hand and shakes it a little. "You used milk from a cow in this… We don't have cows in Traverse Town."

"…Huh. Then what do they use for the baked goods I saw in the square?" I asked as I sat on the couch.

"Mostly soy milk, the Garden building is big enough to grow almost anything, but animal-based products are a no-go. Though Mary does manage to sneak some in from District One from time to time." She says as she sits in the chair across from me, taking a moment to enjoy it before sitting up straight and looking right at me. "So, spill, what's going on Ethan?"

So… how to explain this… "Okay, you've heard of fortune tellers and oracles correct?" I asked as Kim nodded, looking unsure of where I was going with this.

"Well, my world was full of people like that. People that had the ability to glimpse past the veil of space and time to see events that 'Have', 'Is', and 'Are' going to happen… but just not events that would affect ourselves."

"Other worlds," Kim said as her eyes widened. "You had psychics that could see other worlds."

I nodded, "It is why the Company kept a close eye on my world, they used us to scan the multiverse for targets. Using our visions and the media we created with them to track down distant worlds for profit." I explained.

"Media?... You're telling me that the books, movies, and tv shows in your world were all prophetic visions?" Kim Possible asked me as I tilted my head back and forth.

"Some were... I would say over fifty percent at least and there is also human error you have to account for, so they weren't one hundred percent accurate either." I explained as I mentally braced myself for what I was about to drop. "But in the many different games I've played, there was one called Kingdom Hearts, a game about a kid who loses his home world and finds himself going on an adventure across the stars… starting right here in Traverse Town."

"… A game. You have future knowledge on the fate of the universe, from a video game." Kim asks as I slowly nod, and a few seconds pass before Kim sighs and rests her forehead against her palms. "This is getting up there on the weird scale Ethan, even for me." Then she takes a deep breath and looks back up at me. "All right, give me the down low. What's going on?"

I nodded as I turned towards the fireplace still burning with the First Flame and I got an idea. "Okay, so to put it as simply as I can, long ago there was this great power in which all light came from. This light was called Kingdom Hearts, where all Hearts returned to at the end of someone's life." Then I held up a hand and spiritually reached out to the flames within the hearth and, resonating with my Domain, I reshaped them into the form of a large heart, capturing Kim's full attention.

"It was guarded by a weapon in the shape of a key called the Keyblade." I said as the flames in the shape of a heart changed again, forming what I knew the original Keyblade looked like. Kim looked at it for a few seconds before turning towards me with a raised eyebrow. "Yeah, I know simple name, and the design is a bit screwy, but it is one of the most powerful weapons out there and it was made from twenty parts. Thirteen pieces of Darkness and seven of light"

"That seems a bit imbalanced" Kim points out to which I waggled my hand back in forth midair.

"Kinda, I think it is like that because the seven pieces of light were just that bit stronger than the rest. So, the number had to be off to make the two sides even with each other… if that makes sense." I say as Kim nods, letting me get back on track.

"Anyway, Kingdom Hearts was a great source of Light, enough to keep everyone safe and invigorate the world that was once all our worlds combined," I said as I reshaped the flames once more. "But where there is power, there are those that would try and claim it for themselves. So, they copied the Keyblade making their own lesser but still very much powerful versions for themselves." I say as I change the flames into the shape of Sora's iconic Keyblade.

"But that wasn't enough. With those weapons in hand, they began fighting each other to try and gain the original. To gain the ultimate weapon and control the source of all power." Then I changed the Keyblade back into the original, "But something went wrong" I said as I had the image break apart into twenty floating pieces. "The original broke, and without it, Kingdom Hearts faded, the light protecting the land disappearing along with it… allowing the Heartless to take over."

"The world shattered, becoming the worlds we live in now. The Keyblades wielders slowly died out and the twenty pieces of the original scattered across existence. The Thirteen Pieces of Darkness disappeared, while the Seven Lights found refuge in seven princesses, passed on from generation to generation to keep them safe." I finished as I let the flames settle back down into soft flickers licking across the log's surface.

"So, Facilier is looking for one of these pieces then?" Kim asks as she crosses her arms, her brow narrowed in thought as she starts to approach this like a mission.

"More specifically, the organization he works for is looking for one of the pieces." I thought for a moment before I lifted up a hand, shifting the threads to slowly rise up and twist into a figurine, though not in the exact way I wanted so I had to shift around the materials to try and get it right.

"The organization that is trying to find the Seven Princesses calls themselves the Hellfire Club." I say as the threads start to take the right shape and I began tweaking the colors.

"Subtle," Kim says sarcastically, "But it does make sense why they are searching here. If one of these princesses lost their home world, they'd find themselves here." She thinks out loud as I nodded.

"Exactly what I was thinking," I said as I got the colors of the figurine just right. "And putting an underling in charge of an entire section of the town would make that search a lot easier to pull off." And putting the final touches on my quick project I hold it out to her, showing her my rough representation of the main villain of Sleeping Beauty.

"This is Maleficent. She is a powerful Arch-Fae who created the club and wants to capture all Seven princesses in order to use their power to open the doorway to Kingdom Hearts." I say as Kim studies the green-skin woman dressed in black robes and adorned with a black horned headdress.

"And let me guess, she is going to use its power to 'Rule All Worlds'" Kim guesses as I just blink in surprise.

"Uhh yeah. Exactly like that, how did you-"I slowly trailed off as Kim gives me a smug smile.

"It's a typical villain thing." She says with a shrug before looking over my shroud-made figurine again. "So, how do we stop them?"

"Well," I started, taking a second to think it over. "When the game started, I think they already had four in their clutches so to stop their plans all we need to do is find one of them, and keep them safe."

Kim nods as she stands up and starts to pace. "Okay, so it's safe to assume then that there are about three left… and one is potentially in this town." Kim says to herself, "And Facilier is looking for her, which is why he wanted to access to District Five." Then she turns towards me. "Since you've played the game, do you know what they look like?"

I just shake my head. "I do but not in a way that will help. What they look like as a cartoon on a screen is really different compared to how they look in real life. Unless they are wearing something iconic to them, I probably wouldn't be able to pick them out from the crowd."

Kim nods, mulling that over. "And with the thousands of people here, it be hard to find the right person… and would we even be able to tell they are a Princess of Light even if we do find them?" Kim asks herself as she paces back and forth. "Is there another way we can stop them? Do they have a lair? A base they are trying to enact their 'Evil Schemes' in?" She asks while she wiggles her fingers 'evilly' to emphasize her point.

"They do. They operate in Hollow Bastion and that is where they are taking all the princesses to. If we want to stop them completely, we need to defeat them there, but we will need one more thing." I said as I undid the figurine and began to rewrap the threads into a new form.

"The door to Kingdom Hearts has been slipping open somehow, and if left unchecked the Heartless will eventually claim it and gain the power to take over everything. In order to stop that, we will need to find it ourselves and lock it. And the only thing that is powerful enough to that, is this." I said as I stood up and handed my shroud-made replica of Sora's Keyblade to her.

She grabs the handle holding it up for a moment then gives it a test swing. "Kinda a flawed design, isn't it?" she says as she inspects the end of it, looking at the teeth at the tip of the blade "It'd work better as a club than a blade."

I shrugged "The real one is magic, and they come with a vast variety of powers including the ability to lock and unlock anything. Which is what we need to reseal Kingdom Hearts and right now? Only one person has a Keyblade in this universe."

She looks up from my replica as she connects the dots. "The kid from the game?"

I nodded. "His name is Sora, and honestly? He's going to need our help."

Kim smiles as she lowers the fake Keyblade to her side. "Well, helping people is what I do best. So, what's the plan?"

"Well, the first thing we need to do is tell Mary about the princesses. If Facilier thinks that one of them is here, then she would be the best person to find her. After that, we need to get access to District One. That is where Sora is going to land and it is our best chance to meet up with him before he hops worlds."

Kim then puts a hand on her hips. "So, we aren't going after Facilier? I thought after last night and what we'd just figured out, you'd want to gun after him before he could try again." She points out which…

I let out a sigh, "It's more complicated than that." I start as I rub the back of my head. "Facilier has positioned himself in command of an entire District. If I just took him out, not only would people get upset by that action, including you," I explained as Kim looked away for a moment, "But think about how it would look if someone from District Five, a supposed protector of District Five, killed the Leader of District Four?"

I shook my head, "That'd be like declaring war on them. Plus, that's not even considering the fact that the entire district would be devasted at the sudden loss, attracting the Heartless in mass. Lots of people would die in the crossfire just for me to get revenge."

"You don't have to kill him." Kim pointed out, starting to get a bit upset, "Just tell everyone what he's doing, if they knew that he is controlling the heartless and attacking people, surely they'd-"

"Not believe you" I interrupted, feeling a little guilty at doing so, but I did take a few political seminars in Basic, and this was one of the topics covered… mainly to warn Agents why trying to start an uprising against them was usually a bad idea. "Facilier already has a bad reputation that District Four is already choosing to ignore. If you tell people this, they will just think it's another bad actor trying to drag his name further into the mud."

I took a few steps closer to her and placed a hand on her shoulder. "Kim, I know it's frustrating to just let him do what he wants right now but until we are sure that we can take him down without hurting others in the process, we will just have to play the game by his rules for now. Besides, I know his type. He will overstep eventually, and we will stop him when he does."

Kim looks at me for a few more seconds before sighing. "Yeah, okay. It's not the first time I had to let the bad guy get away… it's just usually because they went into hiding, not because they're hiding behind political hostages."

I patted her shoulder "You will find that there are all kinds of evil out there Kim and you have to know how to adapt to be able to take them all." I said as I summoned my phone to look at the time, "So, I only have about ten minutes before I have to go guard Bert and his friends. Do you want to help me make sandwiches for them? I have a lot of extra supplies now and I think they'd like the free lunch."

Kim smiles as she nonchalantly shrugs, "Sure thing. Bert deserves a little appreciation for all his hard work anyway." She says as the two of us walk into my kitchen and discuss what kinds of sandwiches we'd think Bert and the gang would like the best and whether if we should give them some company-brand chips on the side as well.