Chapters Tales of Illumination, Book 2: Distortions
Chapter 2: The Accident: part 2
Well, this arc is off to a horrible start so far. Anyway, on with the chapter!
Chapter 2
I suppose anyone would be surprised as i was, waking up to being on FIRE. The flames were covering the majority of my body. I ran as fast as i could, only to trip over a rock and fall down a 3 foot cliff, leading to a roll down a hill covered in rocks, screaming my head off all the while. I eventually landed in a small lake, which quickly reached a boil, and evaporated in a matter of seconds, and i was still on fire. As a last ditch effort, i tried to focus the light from the flame into a single point. This led to fire flowing only around my feet, I then tried to remove it from there by the same way, it didn't work. It just made the flames grow.Oh, its an ether flame. That makes sense.
I created a piece of my metal, in the shape of a small knife, and tried to channel the flames into it. It worked, and the blade turned a bright red. and deformed into an odd shape: the blade seemed to take the shape of flames the hilt grew to form a long handle, like a torch. It also glowed and flickered like a torch does, I think I'll name this later.
Looking down, my surprise grew, as there was no burn from the flames. I began my slow ascent of the lake/hill/cliff I had fallen down, back to where I awoke.
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Upon returning to the spot, I found Clare and Ventus unconscious, Clare was on the ground, like me, but Ven was in a tree. I gently woke up Clare by shaking her shoulder, and knocked Ventus out of the tree. He woke up almost immediately, and stopped himself an inch from hitting the ground. He shot me an enraged look, but it quickly faded when he saw the bruises covering my body from the fall down the hill. He tossed me a creme of some sort, and said "It's for bruising." A grin spread across my face.
"I don't need it." I said as I threw the creme back to him. The healing powers that came with light... oh how I love them, when you heal, its like... its like taking all the drugs. By that I mean its more of a pain killer than a healing spell. It does speed up the natural healing process though, so the bruising was gone by the end of five minutes. The look on his face was one of awe, as though I had just grown a third eye, which I could have, considering my past mutations, but I really have no way of knowing, after boiling the nearest reflective surface into nothingness.
"Problem?" I asked, with a cocky tone. An eye roll from Clare, as well as one from Ven gave me the answer: they had no problem. "Good, now, where are we?"
"You really don't know?" Asked Ven, surprise in his eyes.
"Are you going to answer my question?"
Ven sighed, and pointed to his left, saying "Look that way, stupid," the last part being only barely audible.
Ignoring the insult, I looked in the direction he was pointing, and saw Canterlot, and changelings being launched away by a giant, glowing heart shape. Wow, serious deja vu is going on here.
"Hey, didn't this happen a month before we arrived in Equestria or something?" I asked, getting a look from Clare
"Maybe before you arrived, but remember, you were the first." I facepalmed, how did I forget that again?
"Right, well, lets get going. To Canterlot!"
5 minutes later
"Why aren't we flying?" Clare suddenly asked, as we walked to Canterlot.
"Um... Well..." I thought of no good reason, "... I got nothing, let's fly?"
A grin spread across her face "lets fly!"
Near Canterlot Castle: yet another five minutes later
"So, why are we flying to Canterlot again" Clare asked me, clearly bored.
"Its just in case that explosion from when I was training did anything,"
"Oh"
I looked down, and spotted something odd, "Hey, is that what I think it is?"
Ventus and Clare followed my eyes to the ground, and saw what looked like a wedding Ceremony. And a certain Rainbow Mare flying straight upwards, with a cone of light around her. My mouth opened, but before I could speak, I heard Clare shout "I REGRET NOTHING!!"
"Thats MY li-"
*BOOOoOM*
I heard a scream below me, and I saw Ventus falling downward. I went into a dive after him, shouting "Use your power!" but the words were lost on the wind. He seemed to have the same idea anyway, it didn't stop him from falling, but it made the landing a bit less painful looking. I heard two sharp cracks, and more screaming from Ven, who was lying on his stomach when I got down. 'Hmm,' I thought, 'Maybe I should have used my thrusters...'
I walked over, and poked Ven with a stick, saying, "Hey, you OK?" He flipped over and just glared at me, I saw now that his right arm and leg were both broken.
"Well, my limbs are broken, my chest is in immense pain, and I have a MASSIVE headache, any other stupid questions?"
"Hmm... one second." I said, kneeling by him, by this point Clare had landed too, who i then turned too, and said "Hold him down with your power." With a nod, he suddenly was pressed into the dirt. It was time to get to work.
"Now, before I start, I haven't actually tried this before, so please don't blame me if I screw up." Ven's eyes widened at this.
"Now, lets see, First is the bones, I think that I realign this bone like this" I said, feeling his arm, using my light as a painkiller, the moment I started flowing it in, his eyes glazed over, and he began to drool, I was right, it is like drugs. It took me 10 minutes to do what i could, which was reconnect the bone. I waited for my lights effects wore off to tell him
"I've got good news, and bad news, the good news is that it was a success, and your healing up well, the bad news, is that you won't be able to walk until tomorrow."
"Really?"
"Yes, during which time I'll just carry you on my Dark Board. It's not a very difficult process, although we will have to walk... We shouldn't be making it INto Canterlot till late at night (It's currently right after the actual wedding, which was near the end of the afternoon ), and thats if we walk with no breaks, however, it would be smarter to camp for the night here, then fly there in the morning." As I spoke, I began to create extremely thin sheets of metal, with small holes in them, and place them in the shape of a makeshift house, but about one room in size, binding them together at the end, all three of us "enchanted" it, so that it wouldn't wound us if any of us wanted to leave it. It was rather heavy, so I also added a door, but made no floor, as it would be more comfortable for them, I also put it over two slabs of rock, which were at the ends of it, and took up about half the floor area, I then walked out, and said "Ok, now, who wants to sleep on rock, and who is on dirt?"
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Later that night
I woke up halfway through a dream of a giant hamburger slowly moving through a grocery store, in a way similar to that of a slug, to find that Clare had gotten off of the ground she had decided on, and was now laying next to me. I felt my face burning, she looked so cute when she slept. Five seconds later I noticed it: the drool, it was everywhere, it seemed that only PART of it was mine this time, upon closer inspection of she who was sleeping next to me, I saw it was coming from the corner of her mouth... her perfect mouth...
I moved my head forward, and kissed her on the forehead, and said, "sleep well," At this a small smile appeared on her face. I then let myself fall back into metaphorical darkness, and for the rest of the night, I slept soundly.
________________________________________________________________________________AN: OK, well, Deja Vu is fun, huh? Also, yes, it's a slow start, I don't care, I have my damn reasons! *begins to rage*
Lumos: calm down, deep breaths, deeep breaths
AN: *rage becomes worse, and begins growling at lumos*
Lumos: shit! RUN!
Ven: NOO! DON'T LEAVE MEEE!
Lumos: EVERY MAN FOR HIMSELF!!!
AN: *Grabs Ven, and sleeping Clare, shoves them into box, picks up said box, and begins to chase down Lumos with it*
Lumos: WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH! WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH! *trips, falls, mechanical hand falls off agian*
AN:*Picks up Lumos, writes him a new mechanical hand, and shoves him in the box, rage begins to fade*
AN(calmed): Well, see you next time!
MaDmAN12435/Cloud Nova Falling out
Tales of Illumination, Book 2: Distortions
On with chapter
At the Temperary camp the following morning
I awoke to see a sleeping Clare lying next to me, this triggered a blush upon my face, and looked downward... My excuse for that which I saw: its morning, and my dreams were a little bit... sexy. I immediately jumped up, opened the door to the metal hut, and summoned my dark armor, but only from my feet, to the top of my upper abdomen so as to cover my... ragged jeans (yes lets go with that being the reason), followed by creating a platform of the darkness, which I floated about 10 feet up, followed by jumping onto it, and meditating, as I was trained to by the WR.
After a minute or so, I could feel my body changing. My horns were the first thing, they straightened out, then bent to the angle bull horns are at. My hair got a bit heavier. My feet split into three sections, like my old "dark" form would. I could feel two large spikes coming out of my shoulders. the puff of hairs on the end of my tail all stood on end and hardened, forming a spiked ball. This was my first transformation since I absorbed Discord, and I could feel the darkness-and chaos-flowing around me... It felt amazing, I opened my eyes, and saw that my wings, both on my back, and on my legs, had turned black, the tips of the lower wings had changed to be white. Finally, a scarf of black fire had formed around my neck and mouth, and was flowing behind me, I could tell the transformation wasn't permanent, I would be lucky if it lasted the full day.
I stood up and stretched my wings. I flapped my lower wings, and a wave of darkness shot out, leading to me being in a state of shock and confusion for a good 30 seconds or so, trying to figure out what happened. After the time passed, i simply gave up on figuring it out, and created a ball of darkness about the size of my head, which i began to mold into the shape of a hat, it turned out horribly, so I dissipated it into the environment. After that, I just began to nap on my dark platform.
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I awoke several hours later, and saw a lone person walking toward us... wait... person... I jumped off of my platform, and ran into the hut, and shook Clare and Ven awake, violently. I then proceeded to explain that there was a person walking toward our little camp who I don't recognize. This surprised them, but they calmly got up, grabbed what little stuff they had, which was mostly just their weapons, and exited with me. Ven had a slight limp, but that's because the healing process still had a few more hours to go.
The person was a few meters from the hut now. She was about Vens height, although I could be slightly off, blond hair in a ponytail, semi tanned skin, and bright blue eyes. Her outfit was a bit much in my opinion, black pants, black combat boots, black sleeveless turtleneck (seems odd to me, but whatever), black shoulder guards, three belts, one was brown, and had some sort of symbol on it, and supported by brown suspenders, while the other two were ordinary belts with grey buckles, and black gloves. Wait... is her right wrist... glowing? Nah, must be my eyes playing tricks on me. Anyway she seemed to be examining each one of us carefully as we walked out, as though trying to figure something out, her gaze stuck on Ven for a few seconds more than with the rest of us, but it broke off, and went back to me, understandable, as I'm not exactly human. I decided it was time for an introduction of sorts.
"Greetings!" I said in a loud voice, "Wonderful day, isn't it?"
"Let's just cut to the chase. Who are you, and what are you doing here? Did Shinra send you?" She said coldly. I gave her a confused look. Moody much? And who the hell is Shinra?
"The first two I can answer, I am Lumos, Demon of Balance, and these are my friends, Clare and Ventus. To answer the second question, I was training and I lost control of my power, next I knew, I was a few miles south of here. The third question I must respond to with one of my own, who, or what, is Shinra?"
“Don’t give me that bullshit. Everyone from my world knows who the Shinra Electric Power Company is. They’re responsible for making an energy source using mako, our planet’s lifeblood, and for creating SOLDIERs, their ‘living weapons’, as we’ve been called. Now don’t lie to me. Did they send you to eliminate me and Noctis, or just to bring us back for a public execution? Cause either way,” she drew her blade with her left hand, and held a strange, red orb in her right, “Shinra’s gonna be disappointed.” Well... at least my question was answered...
I face-palmed hard enough to break rocks, "You think you're on your own world? This... is going to take a while to explain" I said, beginning to sit down, "Would you kindly put away your blade, and that... orb thing? Now that I think about it, why is it glowing, anyway? It looks like an ordinary crystal, yet it seems to have some form of magic in it... Its a lot like my metal, actually." Clare stared at me
"Are you kidding me?!?! She pulls a sword on you, and you don't even LOOK at it?! Seriously, if you won't be prepared, I will be." Clare shouted, pulling Triquake off her back. Well she is drawing her blade because she isn't sure we are a threat or not, stupid.
I jumped to my feet, "Calm down, deep breaths, Clare, deep breaths."
I turned toward the stranger "Sorry about this, she gets like this sometimes."
The woman glared at me, slowly sheathing her blade. “She’s smart then. When someone pulls a weapon out, you either run or get ready to fight. That’s how you survive. As for your earlier statement, I know I’m not on my world, Celestia and Luna already explained things to me. I just assumed Shinra found a way here and sent you after us. I still can’t be sure you’re not with them. And the ‘orb thing’, as you call it, is the solar materia. It enhances my abilities even more than the mako and JENOVA cells inside me, plus it lets me draw strength from the sun itself.”
"Oh, OH!" Ven said, "I think I finally understand some of what your saying now," He turned toward me and whispered, "She seems to be from whatever dimension Final Fantasy is from." I looked at him as though he was crazy.
"You sure?"
Ven shrugged, "There is always a possibility, plus it would explain most of what she said" Damn, I never played any FF games, except for a bit of #7... and even then, not much.
"...Fair point," Then I turned toward the stranger again, and said in a normal voice "I think there has been a sliight misunderstanding. You see, I ended up on this world months ago, due to a situation I would rather not talk about, my travel across the void caused other humans to cross, oddly, each one I caused got an... ability of sorts, just as i can control darkness, as you can see." She seemed to look at the darkness of my scarf and lower armor with a bit of curiosity.
“I see. Well, I wield solar magic, and my brother, Noctis, wields lunar magic, thanks to the solar and lunar orbs. We can also channel it through our blades,” she unsheathed her blade once more, though she placed it in the ground this time “Though we still don’t understand everything about them, or their limits. And two more things. What kind of powers do your friends,” she gestured toward Clare and Ven, “have? And just what is this ‘Final Fantasy’ crap you mentioned?”
I sighed, "If I told you what 'Final Fantasy' is, it would likely lead to you questioning your own existence, and possibly an end to all worlds." I clapped my hands together once "Now, to answer your question, Clare can use Gravity based powers, she can control the effects that gravity has on anyone, in any way, as an example, she can make gravity go up, down, left, right, and so forth, as well as changing how strong it is, it can be focused on a single person, or on a whole area. Ven here," I said, gesturing to Ventus as I spoke, "Can control the wind, such as creating whirlwinds, flight, creating blades of air which can then be shot, said blades would be invisible, as they are only air." I could have mentioned that he can kill people using his power by crushing them with air pressure, or by making the air inside ones lungs expand. As well as the fact that Clare can tear things apart or make things compress to the size of a marble, but I want to AVOID a fight, not start one.
"I have three abilities, the first is to create an odd metal, such as that which makes up the cabin, and our weapons, this can then be enchanted, and only those who have either created the item, and the enchanter, or enchanters, can touch it. My second ability is darkness control, I can not only create shadows, but also create semisolid armor, like that I'm wearing, or the platform I was napping on. My third, and final power, is the exact opposite of the second, light control, which is almost the same in what i can do, these. By the way, about that metal I can make, even I cannot fully control it, the metal itself will attack anyone who it dosen't recognize as its creator or enchanter on contact with them. If you don't mind, I have a question of my own now. You keep mentioning this 'Noctis' person, who is he, and while I'm at it, who are you?"
She facepalmed, as though suddenly realizing something, “Die. My name is Die (though she said it like Dee-ay, kind of catchy actually). And Noctis, as I may or may not have said before, is my older brother. Both of us are ex-SOLDIERs, 1st Class. And if you’re wondering, he’s somewhere around here, waiting, ready to go if you try anything. And as for the whole ‘questioning my existence’ thing, I’m in a land of talking ponies, at this point, I doubt anything else you say will surprise me.” She smirked.
I turned to Ven and said, with a bit of a worried look, "Should we risk it?"
He looked at me with a calm expression, but a worried look in his eye, "That's up to you."
I sighed, and scratched the back of my head, "Well, I suppose we can blame her if it causes a paradox," I turned back to Die, and said, "Final Fantasy is a series created by a company called Square Enix. The series itself has at least 12 or so games, there may be more, but I don't know, I've been away too long to know, it takes place in... I actually know very little about it myself, Ven played it more than I did, i only played a bit of number 7, in which you play as a young man named, Cloud Strife, an Ex-SOLDIER member, who is selling himself out as a mercenary. The 'materia' you mentioned are often found in the game, there are five main kinds: magic, command, summoning, support. The big bad guy of the game is names Sephiroth, according to most, he seemed to have a certain respect for Cloud and considered him unequal in power. He turned evil after realizing he might be a monster created by something called Hojo." I looked Die Directly in the eye, curious to see how she reacts to this information. "Does that answer your question?" Please don’t make the universe fragment any more than it already has, god.
Die took a moment to let the information sink in, then, shrugged her shoulders. Damn, talk about hard to impress, I practically told her her world is fictional, yet she doesn't even question it... . “I’ve heard stranger things that have turned out to be true, except Hojo was a person, not a thing. He was a Shinra scientist. And did you say Cloud? He was never in SOLDIER, though he was friends with one, Zack Fair. Before the Nibelheim incident, Sephiroth and Zack were our idols. We joined SOLDIER because we wanted to be as strong as them. After what Sephiroth did, and after Zack was killed, by Shinra no less,” She spat the man’s name as if it were poison, “We decided that the next mission we took on would be our last, that we no longer wanted to be part of an organization that so willingly killed without remorse. Turns out, he wanted us to destroy a village filled with civilians.” What. A. Bastard.
She took a deep breath. “It was the Nibelheim incident all over again, except this time it was being sanctioned by Shinra. Instead of following orders, we evacuated the villagers and prepared for the army we knew Shinra would send. Noctis engaged them first while I finished helping the oldest and the youngest escape using a series of tunnels located nearby. Afterwards, I got there just in time to save his ass from a helicopter.” She chuckled, which I found odd, all things considered. “Afterwards, we finished off most of the Shinra troops, three more copters appeared. Noctis took two down, but the third fired an experimental missile, loaded with mako, at us. We took a risk, combined the powers of the solar and lunar orbs, and fired at it. The explosion destroyed everything, and dumped us in this world.”
I just stared at her for several long seconds in shock, my eyes wide as the horizon, before Ven broke the silence when he responded.
"Wait, if the explosion sent you here, what's to keep it from sending others here too? " He had a look in his eye that I couldn't quite tell if it was fear for the majorities, or fear for someone else, or just him being excited by a chance to fight all out against something, and by the way his muscles suddenly tensed, I'm going to assume it was the third.
“It’s pretty simple. The solar and lunar orbs brought us here, they just used energy from the explosion to do it. The shinra troops, not so lucky, since the orbs were only targeting us. And even if they didn’t do anything, we would’ve been ok. Turns out, we’re immortal. Can’t die of age, can’t be killed. Or so Tia and Luna say anyway.” A small grin appeared on her face.
“So anyway, you wanna meet my brother? Hey, Noctis, you can come out now!”
I heard something coming from behind the hut, and and a man stepped out. His skin was as black as my darkness itself, and his pupils were long and thin, like a cat's, or a dragon's, his eyes glinting with blood-lust, and hate, he wore the same outfit as Die. His blade was drawn and pointed towards us, and he was sneering at us. Die froze up
She took a step back, and we all looked at her, confused.
She turned to us, and shouted, “WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING! GET AWAY FROM HIM NOW!”
The man looked at Die, and smiled evilly. “Aww, what’s wrong Die? Didn’t you miss me?”...
Only one thought escaped my mind.
How the fuck didn't I notice that?
AN: Well, I said I have a reason, and its a crossover! sure, its a little early, but who actually cares?
Tales of Illumination, Book 2: Distortions
Chapter 4: Akumu the Dark
In case you haven't guessed, this is a crossover with SOLDIERs of night and day , by Clearshot01. On with chapter!
“Aww, what’s wrong Die? Didn’t you miss me?” The man said.
“Akumu.” Die hissed. “How are you here? You’re supposed to be sealed within Noctis’ mind, so how’d you break out of it?” Wait... How the hell is that possible?
“You can thank your new friend with the horns.” He said, pointing his blade at me... Wait... What the buck did I do? “He was giving off darkness, and when you and Noctis were separated the seal was damaged, just enough for me to be able to absorb darkness from the world around me. He gave off enough for me to completely break the seal and take over your dear brother’s body again. So thank you Demon of Balance!” He laughed a rather... maniacal laugh, uneven and evil.
Fuck you man... Just... Fuck you
Die looked at me, anger within her eyes, but it was aimed at that... Akumu guy, or whatever his name is “Lumos, Ven, Clare, I barely know you, but I need you to help me save my brother. Please. I can’t lose him. He’s the only family I have left.” My eyes narrowed into a glare, remembering how I lost my own family.
"Very well, I've been looking for an excuse to try this in combat anyway." I placed my right hand on my left shoulder, and began to flow darkness from the platform above into it. after a couple seconds, I added, "Besides, I know what its like, to lose your family." Her eyes widened a little bit at this, but went back to normal quickly.
My arm turned black, after which I moved my right hand down to my left hand,gripping it so that my fingers were interlocked, and I pulled back with my right, severing the flesh, and tearing it into five sections. These parts then changed slowly, smoothing out, and regenerating to the point where they had become five black tendrils. While I did this, Clare pulled off her spear, and got into a defensive position, and Ven pulled off Tai fuu no me (Eye of the storm... What? its got both electric and wind enchantments!), and held it in a similar stance to how Riku held his own blade in the final battle of Kingdom Hearts 2. The remaining darkness from the platform I made into a blade of my own, which gave off the appearance of a saw of the length of a claymore, with a sword handle. Its a damn good thing darkness doesn't way anything, or this would weigh me down on its own. I took a position, my tendrils and hair flowing with the breeze, and my sword pointed toward a spot on the ground directly between this 'Akumu' character, and myself. behind me, a single tentacle wrote, just outside that things vision, so that only Ventus and Clare, and maybe Die if she is looking. 'Do NOT strike the final blow, you two know why.'
“No, don’t hold back. Like I said before, when our bodies fully adapted to the solar and lunar orbs, we became immortal. We can’t die, so there’s no point in holding back. Besides, Akumu didn’t hold back 5 years ago, when he used Noctis’ body to kill his best friend. All I need is to distract him long enough to grab Tsuki no me, then I’ll use it alongside Taiyo no me to perform the celestial seal on him. One more thing.” Die took a deep breath. “I need one of you to go to Canterlot and inform Celestia and Luna of what’s happening. Worst comes to worst, they bring the Elements of Harmony here to do the job. Decide between yourselves who goes. Just be careful telling Luna. She might do something reckless when she finds out.” I laughed at this statement.
"If what that Akumu guy said is true, we have no need for them." I looked right at her "Controling darkness isn't just shaping it, after all." I said with an insane grin. I wrote behind me again 'I forgot to mention that part to you... I can remove darkness from anything, and add it to myself, and discharge it elsewhere, or convert it into chaos energy, Light I can do the same with, only rather than Chaos, I convert it to the power of order.'
“Interesting power. How big a distraction will you need to get in range to use it? Cause I ca-SHIT!”
Akumu had rushed us while we were talking, slashing at us wildly. We scattered. Die and I were in front of him, while Ven and Clare took to the sides, all of us with our weapons ready.
“Ok, to those with knowledge of materia, then this one should be familiar to you.”
“FIRAGA!” Several fireballs erupted from in front of me and charged towards Akumu. He just smirked.
“Full moon shield.” A dark blue force field surrounded him, the fireballs bouncing off it with no affect.
I whispered to Die, so as not for Akumu to overhear, "I need to directly touch any part of his body directly with my right hand, due to my left being... well, in its 'tendril' formation. As for the shield, let me handle it." I angled all five tentacles in front of me, and arranged them in a circle, soon, the familiar black pentagon formed inside them. A grin spread across my face, as I shouted two words. "MIDNIGHT CANNON!" upon the syllables exiting my mouth, a pitch black beam shot from the circle,heading into a pathway of darkness, which then opened up, aiming from the inside of the shield, strait up. As I did this, Ven shot a lightning bolt from Tai Fuu no me toward Akumu. If only I could use my light in this form!
A huge explosion occurred from inside the shield, and for a second I thought we’d done it, I thought we managed to immobilise Akumu. Then I heard the bastard.
“Die, Die, Die. Did you forget. I can turn into smoke and move around freely, without restriction, just as you can turn into light, though you only used that ability once. Do you even remember how to use it?” He started laughing.
Wait, Die can turn into light? That's kinda cool...
“Guys, I suggest someone gets Celestia and Luna here. NOW!”
I sighed, "Fine, Clare! Go warn the princesses, while we can still fight! We may need a bit of help with this, remember, tell them exactly what happened, and DON'T STOP UNTIL YOU GET THERE."
Clare looked at me with worry in her eyes, but she nodded, lifted herself up with her gravity, and took off to Canterlot so quickly she was almost untraceable.
I moved all my darkness, my scarf, my lower armor, and my sword, into my shoulder spikes, which were almost to their limit. If I didn't release it soon, or convert it, I don't even want to think of what will happen. I got a bit of a mad glint in my eye, and shouted "Cover me!" to Die and Ven. then, I began converting my charged darkness to Chaos. Just let me say this, its freaking painful. I almost fell over from it.
Die turned with surprising speed, knocking Akumu's away and punching him in the gut. He barely felt it. He grabbed Die and tossed her into the hut, completely demolishing it. As she got back up, Ven began to rush him, using the air around us as a weapon on top of his own sword, launching lightning bolts at odd intervals. Akumu kept dodging them, smirking the whole time. Then he got serious. He moved so fast that Ven couldn’t dodge in time. He slammed his fist into Ven’s gut, winding him, before slamming his elbow into the back of his head. He raised his blade to strike the final blow.
Suddenly, a small tornado appeared around Ven, growing rapidly, as he got back up, I saw his eyes glazed over with hatred, he lifted Tai fuu no me to the side, and began to charge the whirlwind with lightning. He shot me a look that said "you know what to do," I nodded, stopped the conversion procedure, and entered a dark passage, also appearing inside the whirlwind. I than began to shoot a beam of pure chaos into the sides of it from my shoulder spikes, powering it enough to begin to destroy the ground we were on. I then harnessed in via the chaos implant, and focused it into a spherical barrier around Akumu. And said "Lets see you escape a high density chaos tunnel." Damn this is fun, as much as I hate to say it. I began to walk toward him.
Suddenly, Die shouted, “GET BACK NOW! IT’S A TRICK!”
Ven and I turned toward her, giving Akumu the chance he was waiting for. The lunar orb embedded in his left arm began to glow, and he disappeared. The surroundings started to change, or at least it seemed to change. What the hell is going on now?
Then I heard it, “Full Moon Rush.” We were still in the same place we had been in, but nstead of rocks and hills, we were surrounded by darkness. Gradually, stars started to appear around us, and the moon hovered from above. Die seemed to recognize what was going on.
“LOOK FOR THE STARS THAT ARE FLASHING! THEY’RE THE ONES HE’LL ATTACK FROM!”
"Thanks for the advice, but if we do that, he can stab us," I grabbed Ven, and ran over to Die, stopping a few feet away, creating a flashing, multicolor orb around us.
"Chaos magic is different. It's only limited by what you can imagine, and the amount of chaos used. This shield-which I call a 'Chaos field'- can't be passed through by anything, and nothing can warp inside it without my admission, so we should be able to live, the problem is how long i can hold it up, the slower the color changes, the closer the shield is to discharging." I smirked, "the good news, is that I can convert the darkness Akumu just placed around us into chaos, thus weakening him, and keeping the shield alive longer, the problem is that it will weaken the shield itself a little bit. Wish me luck!" I sat down, and began to collect darkness with my left spike in the shape of a dark tornado. It then converted to chaos as it moved to my right shoulder, where it shot out as a flashing, multicolored beam, strengthening the shield, and keeping it alive. I then remembered another part of it, "One last thing about this: the way it discharges, is with an explosion, the longer it lives, the more powerful, so I say we have about 3 minutes if we don't want the explosion to take out Canterlot."
Die seemed to be gathering all the power she could in her orb.
“3 minutes? Plenty of time. Lumos, do me a favour. If I don’t make it out of this, keep my brother from making an idiot of himself when he finally tells Luna he likes her.” Die then walked outside the shield, despite my protests, and let the power from the solar orb loose. Suddenly a thought crossed my mind.
... Wait... Noctis likes the princess, thats kinda funny, plus, how can she be killed, she IS an immortal... then again, Discord was said to be immortal, yet look what Clare did to him
My eyes widened as Die caught fire, and her sword glowed furiously bright. She stabbed it into the ground, and the shockwave dispelled Akumu’s darkness. She was focused on Akumu, who was looking at her with genuine fear.
“You unlocked it? You unlocked the Burning Soul technique!? HOW!?”
Die looked at him, her anger showing clearly on her face. “So that’s what this is called? And as for how, I used it when I fought against this lady called Chrysalis. I almost killed her too. Celestia made me think though, and I realised I couldn’t kill anyone in cold blood. Anyone but you Akumu. This time, I’m not gonna bother sealing you away. I’m gonna rip your soul out of my brother’s body and watch as you fade away into nothingness. And I’m gonna enjoy every last second of it.” She smiled sadistically. This time, when her fist planted itself within his gut, he doubled over in pain. Fuck she is strong.
“That was for Chris. This,” She smashed his head into the ground, “is for Noctis. And this one,” Her sword began to glow as she drew it. “Is for me.” Just as she was about to stab him and rip his soul out, he started laughing, and it was making her angrier, which made the flames around me burn brighter and hotter.
“What’s so funny, you bastard?”
“Oh nothing, just the fact that you’re about to kill your brother.”
Die frowned. “What the fuck are you on about?”
“My life is linked to his. Unless you sever that link, separating my soul from his body will kill him as well.” His laughing grew louder as she dropped him.
"Can't... hold... it... anymore." I muttered, losing control over my chaos field, I tried to condense it into a beam, but it was to no difference, It exploded all the same, me and Ven were unaffected, as we were inside the field before it went 'boom,' but It hit both Die and Akumu, as this technique has never been used on any LIVING things. I focused my mind on simply making it destroy any Darkness in the area.
When the smoke cleared, there was a huge crater in the ground. And Die and Akuma were lying nearby, I then warped to where Akuma was lying, and moved my hand to place on him, to remove the darkness, without removing the demon, or killing Noctis. The darkness was being drawn out of Noctis’ body, I was absorbing it. His skin started to turn pale, and his pupils became round again.
“HALT! STOP WHAT YOU ARE DOING TO NOCTIS AT ONCE!”
I looked up, . Luna and Celestia were standing a few feet away from us, and Twilight and her friends were there beside them. Clare was standing behind them, looking worriedly at me. Luna was just staring at me, while I was standing over Noctis, Her face morphed into one of pure rage.
“HOW DARE YOU! HOW DARE YOU HARM HIM! YOU SHALL PAY, DEMON!”
Luna was charging up a spell, and judging from her anger, I figured it would be a lethal one. At least I led an interesting life, and I saved some guy from the darkness...
Suddenly the wind picked up, and I saw Ven’s brow furrowed in concentration, The air began pushing Die between in front of Luna. Luna then turned her attention to Ven and prepared to launch her spell at him instead.
“Luna...don’t.”
She faced Die puzzled. Angry, but puzzled. “Why, Die? They hurt you and Noctis. Even now, that one,” She pointed a hoof accusingly at me, “Was trying to finish him off. Why would you want to protect them?” I nearly lost focus at this
“I think I’ll let Lumos handle that, when he’s done. So Lumos, you finished removing the darkness from Noctis yet?”
“Darkness? What are you talking about Die?”
“Like I said, Lumos can explain. So, you ready to start yet Lumos? Or should I call you Umbra when you’re in that form, since your power revolves around shadows when you’re like that.”
I turned to Die with raised eyebrows.
"No, I'm fine with just being 'Lumos,' and yes, I'm done absorbing the darkness, I also managed to convert a small amount into chaos, and used it to seal up the cracks in that seal you placed between Noctis and that 'Akumu' thing. So I think I'm ready to begin explaining."
At the mention of ‘chaos’, Luna turned to me again, with rage in her eyes.
“CHAOS! YOU ARE A CHAOS WIELDER!? GIVE US ONE GOOD REASON WHY WE SHOULD NOT STRIKE YOU DOWN!”
“Cause..he just saved my life. That enough...of a reason...Luna?” Noctis said, still lying down.
Luna ran up to Noctis, knocking me down, and she wrapped her wings around him as if the world were ending. Meanwhile, I hit my head on a rock... Oh, hey, I'm bleeding a little... just pretend your not, ignore the wet feeling in your hair, ignore it, you can heal it when you change back. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Die trying hard not to laugh at what happened to me, as was Ven.
“Noctis, you’re ok.” She turned back to me. “Explain. Now.”
I cleared my throat and started talking.
"Before I begin, chaos isn't something you should kill people over, it is, quite simply, a 'limit breaker,' meaning it allows the user to do anything, as long as the have the chaos energy required and a clear image within your mind. Law, or 'order' energy puts boundaries on chaos, creating harmony. Now, to explain what happened here, when I woke up on my dark platform, which as you can see is not here anymore, I saw Die approaching the hut, at first she was accusing me of being here as an assassin of sorts, after explaining who I was, the best I could at least, she called her brother out, who, at that moment, had black skin, and was calling himself 'Akumu.'" I paused to rub my head where it hit the rock. "Anyway, it turns out my scarf, lower body armor, and platform of darkness all were being absorbed by this being, Die asked me for the help of me, Clare, and Ven" I said, motioning to Clare and Ventus when I said their names, "and damn, he was, as odd as it is to say, stronger than Discord himself, and that you can trust, I've had a first hand experiance fighting him, and I won too, but thats a story for another day. Back on topic now, after the battle, I accidently caused a large chaos blast, which is what caused this crater, I then moved through what I call the 'dark world' to teleport to where he was, I removed his darkness, then you guys, almost stopped the process, which would have made all my darkness go into him, which would have been a very, VERY bad thing." I looked at Luna with a bit of a glare. "Thankfully, Die stopped you, allowing me to finish, and asked me to explain, and thats where we are now, any questions, both related to what I just said, and not? Just... one at a time, please"
They stayed silent for a few minutes. Then, Die spoke up.
“I have one. You said you knew what it was like to lose your family. What happened to them? I understand if you don’t want to talk about it, but in my experience, talking helps. It doesn’t make the pain go away, but it does make it a little easier to bear.”
I sighed, and said, "Very well, sadly, this is also the tale of how I got my first power: darkness control." I took a deep breath, and began. "I would rather not get into who my family was, but to say the least, I had a mother, father, and younger brother, all kind, all generally good people, despite their flaws. One day, back when I was still human, I woke up to find myself chained to a wall, in a dark room, then the lights turned on, and what I saw... It was horrible" By this point, I had sat down and was hiding my face within my hand, "There were bodies everywhere, bodies whos body parts had been made explode without gunpowder, skeletons, the flesh of whom had been neatly peeled off, and their organs removed and put in a pile, so many organs. The worst part, the absolute worst part, was when I looked to the right, and I saw my whole family chained up next to me, then a man walked in, and slowly killed each one of my family, slowly, and painfully, first was my father, who he put eight metal bands on him, two on each limb, then he stabbed each one with a WASP gas injection knife, Its design, for those who don't know, is to move highly condensed air, through a small tube in the blade, and it causes whatever it stabs, to explode, he stabbed my father with it nine times, twice in each limb, and once in the chest, as I was closest, I was covered in his blood."
I was trembling now, tears streaming from my eyes, but I didn't look up, or wipe them away. "Next was my mother, who he slowly peeled the flesh off of, followed by breaking every one of the 206 bones in her body, after that, he gut her, and began tearing out her organs, starting with her intestines, next her liver, then stomache, some others i don't know the names of, then her lungs, and finally, her still beating heart. Finally, was my kid brother, he was only 7, and he was crying his eyes out, the man then said only one thing, he said 'I hate crybabies,' And stabbed him in the throat with the knife, the explosion killing him instantly. At least he showed him enough mercy not to torture him." I was sobbing between words, not daring to look up to see what was happening.
"Then what happened, is the part I remember clearest, I made a spike shoot out of the mans shadow, killing him instantly, almost immedietly some ball of light came through the wall, and complained about getting there too late, and that he was supposed to have arrived soon enough that my brother would be alive, and instead gave me what he was supposed to give to my brother: he allowed me to go to the world of Equestria, not this version, but a different dimension from this one, that part I figured out only five minutes ago, when neither of the princesses, nor the elements recognized me." I finally looked up, and saw shock, and sympathy in most of the eyes. I also saw shock in the eyes of Die and Noctis. After a few moments of silence, I regained control of my emotions, and said "Any other questions?" Noctis came up.
“Yes. Your weapons. They all give off a different magical energy, but the signature of said energy is basically the same. What’s more, it’s similar to the signature given off by Tsuki no me and Taiyo no me. Any ideas as to why?”
“Noctis, can’t you actually think of something more important to ask?” Die asked him.
“Die, this is important. If we can understand more about the blades, then maybe we can unlock their secrets. We might be able to understand why they chose us. Don’t you ever wonder why the orbs and the blades chose us?”
“Yeah bu-” I stopped Die mid-sentance.
"Well, the first one, is because I made them all, and many more, including whips, bows, spears, katanas, and even my left hand, which is actually mechanical. As for why the energies are different, every human I caused to enter the Equestria I was in was infused with a small amount of Chaos, which formed itself into a power, each power, from what I've seen, has always been different, I have not seen two with the same power. Other than Clare, Ven, and me, there are 6 living humans in the Equestria I'm from. One of them has two powers, but other than him and me, all of them have only one. I am able to copy their power into the metal I make these weapons out of, but only at one time, after that, it will wound anyone else who so much as tries to grab it. There is no limits on the number of enchantments that can be placed on one object, but we decided four was the limit, as when i tried five, I lost my left hand, and had to create a mechanical replacement which you see now, the hand is the only one that can touch others without them becoming wounded in the process. I'm not entirely sure how it is different, though. As for the final part of your question. It is POSSIBLE that the blades are made of the same material as my weapons, but there is really only one way to find out, and personally, I don't want to try it, as it could lead to being encased in ice, burnt to ashes, blasted by one of those attacks relating to the heavens of yours, or simply stabbed by a sentient blade that knows I'm not it's owner. Although, you are right, the energy signature is only slightly different from those of your own weapons. However, yours seem to be of higher skill in enchantment, while mine are rather simple in comparison, not counting the Gate wand, the reason for me only having one hand."
I yawned, and saw that I seemed to have sparked Noctus' curiosity, "The Gate wand contains light, dark, gravity, fire, and water enchantment, it can create up to two portals on any surface, so long as light is touching them. Taiyo no me seems to contain every energy, I can recognize fire, light, electric, and the lot, Tsuki no me seems to have light, dark, land, smoke, and even a bit of water within it, I can't quite tell if there are others in either of them, though. In short, the energy similarity is likely because, just like my weapons," I looked right at him, "Your swords, are fueled by Chaos,"
“So you’re saying that our blades, which we found in ruins with carvings and paintings of ponies, who live through harmony, are fueled by Chaos? Now I’m definitely gonna need to do some research on them. And as for being harmed by them, you shouldn’t worry. As long as the lunar and solar orbs remain in close proximity to their respective blades, you should be safe. I know because Die wielded Tsuki no me along with Taiyo no me when she first sealed Akumu within my mind.” Were you even listening? Chaos is a PART of harmony, not a separate thing!
Die looked at him, dumbstruck. “Noctis, you remember that?”
“Yes, I do, because I never forgot about it in the first place. And before you ask, I never talked about it because I’d already resolved to become strong enough to face him myself someday, plus you never mentioned it. You remember what he said about the two of us being linked? Well he wasn’t telling the whole story. It’s true that you can’t kill him without killing me. But I can kill him. If your life is linked to another, only you can kill the one whose life you are linked to, and vice versa. In other words, if I face him from within the seal and win, he dies, and I live.”
“Noctis, forgive my callousness, but ARE YOU INSANE!? You just barely made it through this encounter with Akumu, and now you want to face him again! WHAT IF YOU GET HURT!? WHAT IF YOU DIE!? I DON’T WANT TO LOSE YOU NOCTIS, BECAUSE I...I think I...love you.” Luna put a hoof over her mouth when she realised what she had said, and everyone, and everypony, turned to look at her, except for Noctis, who just blushed. Die punched him in the arm, and motioned for him to tell her how he felt. He took a deep breath, walked over to her, and made his confession.
“Luna, to be honest, I think I feel the same way. I don't know how these feelings developed so quickly, but I don’t care. All I know, is that I love you, and I promise you, no matter what, if and when I face Akumu, I won’t lose, because unlike him, I have something to fight for. I have my friends, I have my sister.” He embraced her, and she nuzzled him back, tearing up a little. “And I have you. Luna, I swear, on my honour as SOLDIER, I’ll always stand by
Odin's bushy beard, this is rich!
I was barely holding back from bursting out laughing. Bestiality jokes GALORE! I took a look around, and there were mixed reactions. Die seemed to be about to cry with joy. Celestia was smiling warmly at her sister and Noctis, Pinkie was bouncing around talking about celebrating with a party, Rarity and Fluttershy were wiping away tears, Twilight was just holding hers back, and Rainbow Dash was making gagging sounds. Ventus was just standing there, the corner of his mouth twitched a bit, so either he saw the humor of this too, or he was truly, happy for the, or maybe both. The look on Clare’s face was how I imagined if she was just told she had cancer!
I opened my mouth to speak, a huge grin on my face, "Even though I'm a bit surprised, I won't judge, I mean, if your into that sort of thing. Even if it IS an odd fetish."
Luna chuckled, “You suggest that our relationship would be, unorthodox, meaning you assume that Noctis and Die are still human. Do you mean to say they have not told you?” Wait, what the fuck? They aren't human?
"Wait, what do you mean by that? They look human to me, genetically modified humans, but still humans." I said, curiosity blatant both on my face an within my tone.
Luna smirked at him. “Looks can be deceiving, Lumos. Though they may look human now, that is no longer their true form. The celestial orbs saw to that. When they arrived in this world, they not only found the one place that the orbs could attain their full power, they were, changed, to be more suited to this world. Think of their human forms as a remnant, a memento of their past. Noctis, Die, show him.” Now
“Are you sure? I mean, you and Celestia are the only ones who’ve seen us in that form.”
“It’s fine Die. What’s the worst that could happen?”
Die sighed, seemed to focus on something, as well as Noctis doing the same. A flash blinded all of us but Celestia and Luna. When we saw what we did, most jaws fell enough that they could be dislocated.
They had become ponies, pegasi to be more specific. Noctis had become a dark blue pegasus, with a brown mane and tail. Die was a deep red with a blonde mane and tail. Neither one of them had their Cutie mark.
The first to recover from the initial shock, and speak was Clare, "... What the hell just happened?"
Celestia put a hoof on her shoulder. “What you saw was a result of the celestial orbs granting Noctis and Die their blessing, as we prefer to call it. They bestowed that blessing on us, and that is how Luna and I became alicorns and were given the power to move the sun and the moon, though as the orbs themselves are permanently bound to Noctis and Die, they saw no need to give them a horn, as they only need to focus on the orbs to wield magic. Is that explanation satisfactory?” Clare still looked confused, so I summerized what she had just said
"I think she means the orbs let them turn into ponies."
A collective "oh," was said among the people (and ponies) present.
I began to speak once more, "This is unrelated, but I don't have a clue how I even got here in the first place. So we may be here for a little while. Is there a way you could keep most ponies away from a specific forest?" Clare gave me a look that shouted, 'really, there?', while Celestia looked at me, puzzled.
“Are you sure you wish to stay there? I would be more than happy to grant you more fitting accommodations while we think of a way to get you back to your Equestria. Besides,” She gave Noctis and Die a brief look, “I’m sure those two would appreciate having help training the guards.”
... What have I gotten myself into?
“Uh, what do you mean, training the guards?”
“Oh, that’s right, we were interrupted before we could explain. Luna and I wished for you to train the Solar and Lunar guards. You, Die, would train the Solar guards, and Noctis would train the Lunar guards.”
“Ok. Sounds simple enough. But first, how many Solar and Lunar Guards are there?”
Luna answered me. “There are a little over two hundred Solar guards, and only around two dozen Lunar guards. Why do you ask?”
“Sounds like my kind of group. I could probably try and turn them into a covert ops unit. What about you, Die?”
Die chuckled. “Come on Noctis. You know I’m more of a head-on clash kind of girl. So I’d be turning each and every single Solar guard into a veritable one-pony army. So, what about you, Lumos, Ven, Clare? You interested in whipping the guards into shape?”
Clare and Ven both agreed quickly, I just sighed, and said "I might as w-" Suddenly, my Tendrils began to throb, and I was barely holding back a scream from it. Shit, I thought, I forgot about its time limit.
Clare tried to approach me, but I shouted "STAY AWAY! IT'S TENDRIL, IT'S OUT OF CONTROL!" Fuck, I cant use any light like this, I guess I gotta change back like this... Fuck this is gonna be painful!
A scream of pain escaped my lips as my spikes retracted into my shoulders, followed by my horns curving around into their classic style, all four of my wings turned white. As soon as I had transformed, I began pouring light into my left arm, calming tendril and slowly fusing it back into my left arm, with a stump at the end. Once tendril was calmed, I collapsed onto the ground, breathing heavily, but I was still concous, and able enough to say, whilst panting between words, "I might as well help out, just remind me never to change forms again, will you? Also, Clare, do you still have my spare hand?"
Clare nodded, and ran over, it was right then that I noticed something: the mark on my chest was larger than before... Eh, whatever. I took my hand, and placed it onto the end of my arm, and sat back up, slowly.
Noctis looked at me with curiosity, “So, your tendril thing has a time limit? What happens if you exceed it? And why is changing forms a bad thing for you? Is it like Die’s Burning Soul technique, where her anger is amplified exponentially? Or is it like my Frozen Heart technique, where I become completely emotionless?”
"First, if I exceed the time limit, I will lose my arm, due to the fact i infused it with some of that metal from my weapons. Second, its not that changing forms is BAD for me, its just that while i change, my senses are all amplified, increasing my pain from tendril. Oh, while I'm on this topic, in this form, I am Lumos, the god of balance, or god of shadows, if you prefer." I added the last part with a grin. "Oh, yeah, forgot this, but yes, I will help with training the guards, preferrably working with some of both, if you don't mind."
“Alright. That sounds acceptable. Now, we can prepare rooms for all of you at the castle. Please hold still.”
Celestia and Luna charged their horns, and there was a bright flash, along with the feeling of being pulled apart and put back together again...
Damn, I hate teleportation, it always makes me nauseous, the pathways of darkness are one thing, but teleportation is QUITE another
All of us were in the throne room. Twilight and her friends were standing off to one side, staring at Noctis and Die, probably still in shock after seeing them transform. Clare, Ven and I were standing around, looking at the stain glass windows, seeing if there were any differences. Oh, and I saw Die checking Ven out a bit, huh, he seemed like the 'forever alone' type to me. Celestia and Luna were standing in front of us, smiling.
“So, what do you think? Is it any different to the Canterlot of your Equestria?”
I smiled back warmly, "I only see one difference, here, and thats that there isn't a stained glass window of Clare killing Discord by ripping him asunder."
Celestia, Luna, Twilight and her friends paled at this, but Die and Noctis just chuckled, trying to imagine Clare ripping someone apart. Then Noctis spoke up.
“Hey, what does Discord look like? All you told me was that he was the God of Chaos here. You never actually said anything about his appearance.”
“Well, Discord is a Draconnequs. His body is made up of different types of limbs, and they are, for lack of a better word, random and chaotic.” Celestia said, blatently answering his question.
“Guess his body fits his style. So where is he in this Equestria?”
Luna answered this time. “He is sealed in stone, and it was Twilight and her friends that did that to him, wielding the elements of Harmony.”
Die and Noctis took a moment to examine the six. Pinkie was bouncing in place, Fluttershy, Rarity and Twilight were blushing, avoiding eye contact, Applejack was rubbing the back of her head with a hoof, and Rainbow Dash was smirking.
Die cleared her throat. “Ok, so those six wield the elements, cool. Now, how’s this training thing going to work?”
“When they’re not on duty, we train them, and we keep training them until they’re as good as, or better than, 1st class SOLDIERs. Simple as that, right little sis?” Noctis said, looking to Die, who was facepalming, realising that it was obvious.
“Right, just like back when we were in SOLDIER, we were constantly training when we weren’t on a mission. Kinda glad the orbs make us mostly immune to fatigue, huh?” they both nodded.
“So for starters, we’ll need to meet every single able-bodied guard, both Solar and Lunar, so we can make the announcement. How long will it take to gather them?” Really, Noctis? We just got here, and I JUST FINISHED FIGHTING AKUMU!
Luna smirked as her horn started glowing again. “Not long, Noctis. Not long at all.” And then we teleported again, with my last thoughts being NOT AGAIN!
__________________________________________________________________Castle Garden
When my stomach stopped lurching, and my head stopped spinning, Celestia, Luna, Noctis, Die, Ven, Clare and I were in the gardens, with every Solar and Lunar guard who was fit for duty standing in front of us. They were all standing at attention.
I. Fucking. HATE. TELEPORTATION!
I shot a glare, saying 'never. again' at Luna, who just smiled in understanding, and said “Alright then.” Muttering under her breath, “You big baby.” Noctis chuckled at this, he looked like he thought he was being silent. It was only then that I noticed the absence of Twilight and the rest of the gang.
“Um, where are Twilight and her friends? They were with us in the throne room, right?”
Celestia smiled warmly. “I teleported Twilight and her friends home while Luna was teleporting the guards and ourselves here. The events of the past few days really wore them out. Now, allow me to introduce you to the Solar and Lunar guards.”
She and Luna then proceeded to a podium, which I, once again, had failed to notice. She cleared her throat, and addressed the assembled guards.
“Greetings, Solar and Lunar guards. You have been called here today for an important announcement. As you all know, yesterday, Canterlot was attacked by changelings, and we almost fell to them. What you may not know, is that we were aided by a visitor from another world. Her name is Die,” She gestured to my sister, who walked over and stood beside her, rubbing the back of her head with her right hand. “And she is a human. She and her brother Noctis,” Blah blah blah, it gets boring here, so I'm going to skip to the end.
“Die, Noctis, Lumos, Ven, Clare, you may now address the guards.” She smirked as she added, “Just don’t make them soil themselves on the first day. My sister and I occasionally made glimpses into your lives after you obtained the orbs, so we’ve seen some of the things you’ve been through. As long as you don’t mention the darker moments, you should do fine.” With that, she left the five of us to either make an inspirational speech, or to make complete fools of ourselves.
I felt an evil grin coming on, but I forced myself to keep it down, I looked over at the others, and said "May I?"
The others agreed, but Noctis seemed a little bit reluctant.
Then I began "I am Lumos, I have quite a few titles on the world I'm from," I had made a decision not to mention to anyone I was from an alternate Equestria, "The first is 'Terra,' which is just a shortened version of my real name, which I will never utter aloud. Second is the God of Neutrality. I also have the titles of 'Lance Daemon,' which is Latin for balance demon. My final title, is 'The First,' as I was the first of my kind to arrive on the last world I was on. I will be working with both Solar and Lunar guards, mostly because I have been trained by the Wind Reapers well enough that I could easily take out a good three towns without my powers, at least, that's what I was told, but know this, my training," A sadistic grin spread across my face. "Is one of the most brutal things you will ever go through, Ventus here has been through the same training system as me, so he knows what I'm talking about, In fact, I lost three of my mechanical hands in one session once." I chuckled at the memory. "Anyway, my specalty is stealth training, and whoever I decide does the best, of each group, gets a... reward of sorts: a weapon made by me, with the powers of darkness and light infused within. Due to the difference in numbers between solar and lunar guards, there will be 2 rewards for the lunar guard, and 8 for the solar, each will be based off of a different achievement, 'most improved' is not one of them, they will be based off of your skills by the end of the next two weeks, which I will be testing then. Any questions?"
A single guard spoke up, he was Lunar, "Yes, how will the training scheduals work?"
"... I have no clue, you have to ask Die or Noctis on that one." I bent backwards at an unnatural angle, looking right at Noctis and Die, and asked "Would you like to answer that?"
My question was answered with a "Sure," from Noctis, who stepped up to the podium.
“First off, what Lumos says is true. This training will be brutal. You’ll be cut, you’ll be battered, and you’ll be bruised.” He took a moment to gauge their reactions. Not one of them even flinched. They got guts... good. “But by the end of this, you’ll be either masters of covert operations, or one pony armies. As for your schedules, when you’re not on duty, you’ll be training. That means Solar guards and those who want to specialise in head-on combat will train during the night, and Lunar guards and those who want to train to be masters of stealth will train during the day. Any questions? No? Alright then.” He turned to walk away, then made one more line. “And remember, just because you’re going to be exhausted after training will be no excuse not to do your job. If I hear that any of you are slacking off, you’ll be running laps until you puke. No flying for pegasi, and no teleporting for unicorns. Otherwise you’ll be put in combat practice against me and Die for the entirety of your training.” Some of them scoffed at this, but soon became terrified when he moved right behind them in less than a second. “Am I clear?” They nodded fervently, and Noctis walked back to the podium, standing beside Luna again. She was trying not to laugh, but it was a losing battle. She settled for muffling them with a hoof. Die gave the closing statement.
“Alright, we’ve said what we have to say. If any of you are still skeptical of my brother’s, or my, skills, feel free our sparring session in an hour. Just remember this,” She smirked maliciously. “You haven’t seen anything until you’ve seen a SOLDIER fight.” She walked off with a half-hearted salute, while Noctis was face-palming.
What? Why can't I fight? ... Nevermind, I'm not in the mood for sparring anyway...
She came back a few minutes later, smiling weakly. “Uh, which way to the training area?”
Luna and Noctis both covered their mouths as they chuckled, while I almost face-palmed hard enough to draw blood... again. Celestia offered to show her the way, and the two walked off. The guards dispersed towards the training hall, though a few remained behind to speak with us. Some of the guards approached me, asking what I was, which I responded to with a chuckle, and the line "I've stopped trying to find out a while ago." Noctis and Ven left, leaving only Clare and me to deal with the rest of the guards...
________________________________________________________________________________I own nothing but my Ocs
Tales of Illumination, Book 2: Distortions
Chapter 5: Yet another world involved?
I looked over the guards around me, the only ones that didn't go to get to the training grounds as quickly as possible, but stayed for one reason or another. Eh, I might as well give them a test, make sure they truly understand my training.
I looked over the guards, and shouted "ATTENTION!" They all got back in line immediately, and I walked up to them. "Question: who here can tell me what 'Harmony' truly is?" A single guard raised his hoof, he was solar. "Yes?"
"Harmony is a balance in all things." I smiled at this
"Correct, harmony is balance, balance between dark and light, good and evil, order... and chaos." I grinned at the last part. "I represent that balance, hence my title being 'Demon of Neutrality.' Now, my training will revolve around balance of body and mind, which is another reason the lunar guards will be training in the day, stealth is harder then, because there are fewer shadows to hide in, and another reason the solar guards are training at night, is because its harder to see your targets when its dark. Now, I think I want to get a basic outlook at your physical abilities, you have no idea how helpful that is, to start, Clare will increase the gravity in the courtyard to 10 times gravity. This is my first time training under increased gravity as well. Clare?" She nodded, and both me and Clare in the courtyard was suddenly on one knee, while the Guards were all struggling to get out of a kneeling position of their own.
I then raised myself on a dark platform 5 feet off the ground, and said "Now, try to jump up here." The guards just scoffed, saying it was impossible, at least except for one, it was a maroon earth pony, Lunar guard, he had a white mane and tail. He began to look around, and then got up, and moved quickly ran up to the top of the podium, and jumped across to the dark platform. Upon seeing this, I turned to the other guards, and said "See? Balance between body and mind. Your must be able to scan your environment quickly, and find what can assist you in your goal." The guards, other than the one who got up, were dumbstruck, and seemingly excited by this, I turned toward the Earth pony, and asked "whats your name?"
"Flame heart, sir."
"You've so far the sharpest mind, congratulations." He smiled, and I could swear he was blushing underneath.
"Thank you, sir." A grin crossed my face, as I looked out at the rest of the guards.
"So, lets get started on the next test, huh?" They groaned in response, "Good!"
After the hour of ~~torturing~~ training the guards, I managed to determine four things:
1) The Solar guard and Lunar guard members are of roughly equal levels when it comes to strength, but their mind levels are all over the place
2) Ten times the gravity of whatever planet Equestria is on isn’t as much as I thought it would be, its actually quite light.
3) While the mind levels are all over the place, the unicorns seem to have overall high rankings, and earth ponies, as a whole, are a close second, while the pegasi seem more focused on the physical part of the training.
4) My dark form has a better sense of humor
I stood up, and looked over the exhausted guards, “Ok, I’ve gotten a good gauge of the most often occurring strengths and weaknesses, now, Die and Noctis should be starting their fight momentarily, so how about a break?” They suddenly were excited, suddenly remembering what they were told. I then said, “Exactly where is the normal training grounds, anyway? By which I mean as the crow flies.”
One of the Solar Guard pointed in a direction, “that way, it’s the only other open area of the castle.” I almost face-palmed, how could I have forgotten that?
“Right, well, let’s get going! I don’t want to miss this! Clare, please make the gravity change back to normal.” Clare nodded, and restored the gravity of the gardens. I then took off, headed for the training grounds. I’ve seen Die fight Akumu with no mercy, but I know that she will probably subconsciously hold back in this fight. After all, it’s her brother, plus it’s a practice fight meant to inspire the guards to train.
The training grounds were exactly like the ones in “my” Equestria. Then again, other than one difference in the chamber of stained glass windows, the whole world has looked the same so far. I looked down, and then noticed something: my pants were mostly destroyed, they were torn, scorched, and blown up so many times, I’m surprised they are still in one piece… sort of. I summoned a set of metal armor as I landed, similar to chainmail, It instantly turned black, luckily, just like the swords I train with, it only changed color to match me, and got no powers, so it’s safe to touch. Speaking of the swords I train with, I created a sabre with a black hand-guard, and a white blade and grip, for how it looks, obviously. Clare touched down a few seconds later. The guards I was working with then arrived about a minute after that. Sweating profusely, at which I scoffed, and said “What? Can’t handle increased gravity during training? It may burn now, but you will most likely get used to it in a few days.” They rolled their eyes, and then went and mixed with the other guards.
I then looked around, spying a large sparring area, in which Die and Noctis were about to fight, I also saw Ven off to the side, he noticed us, and waved a little bit. In the fighting area, Noctis and Die seemed to be talking about something or other. Then, they walked to opposite ends of the grounds, and turned toward each other. drew their blades, and said something i could barely hear, starting with Noctis.
“As long as we live,” Die continued, “And as long as we bear the eyes of the sun and moon,” and they finished it as one, “We shall protect the innocent, as the SOLDIERs of Night and Day.” Then, as though on cue, Noctis charge forward.
Threw the first attack, letting loose a Firaga attack straight away. Noctis easily dodged the three fireballs. Then, as Noctis swung his blade, a shield of pure light appeared around Die, knocking him away, and Die took full advantage of the recoil to launch a flurry of strikes to counter.
So... I was right, she can use light, as well as the fire from before... This is gonna be good! I thought, leaning against the wall, a mad glint in my eye.
Die's strikes weren’t very accurate, and the wounds looked shallow, but they were enough to force me back slightly. Die continued to press the attack, not letting up for a second, and Noctis kept moving backwards to avoid her continued onslaught. Each strike coming a little closer. Suddenly, Noctis moved back to the far edge quickly. When she saw he couldn’t fall back anymore, she rushed towards him with some sort of wheels of ice and flame, contrasting each other in a display that could be described as perfect balance. Just as she was about to strike, he disappeared into a dark passage, warping right behind her and quickly putting as much distance as he could between them. He then dropped to one knee for a few seconds, gasping. Small wisps of darkness began to flow around him.
My eyes widened at this display, That idiot! He probably cracked the seal! Again! It took so long to fix it too! I made a dissapointed face at this, and kept watching, but kept a bit of light ready just in case of Akumu breaking free again.
Die then started to run towards him, sheathing her blade. Luna was also rushing towards him, if I were closer I could have told you more, but I wasn't.
“NO!” Both Die and Luna almost stumbled, caught off guard by his shout.
The small wisps dissapeared, and he was covered in a green glow for a moment, before standing and falling into an battle stance. Die then did the same, drawing the blade once more, and they continued the bout.
Noctis started with another charge, only faster, and slammed his elbow into Die's gut. He then put a foot on her back, and jumped roughly twenty feet. I knew the gravity was weaker, but DAMN thats cool. He then shot three orbs of electricity at Die from one of his materia, right before which, she put up another light shield, stopping them all. Noctis then threw his sword at her as her shield dropped. She dodged enough that it barely tore a bit of her shirt, leaving her unwounded, and Noctis with no weapon. Die charged and struck at Noctis, but he just knocked her blade aside, grabbed her arm, and twisted around, knocking her front foot backwards with one leg and using the momentum to throw her over his shoulder. He then ran back and grabbed his blade just in time to block a strike that came out of nowhere. It wasn’t Die, she was only just getting back up. Someone had attacked the SOLDIER while he was sparring. I turned to see a cloaked figure disappear behind the wall on the other side of the grounds. Noctis then ran towards, and jumped over the wall giving chase, with me in quick pursuit, charging large amounts of light and dark as I flew after them. All the while, thinking 'This gonna be good!'
... I was wrong, Why is he taking so long? Its so fucking boring!
I had decided not to get involved in Noctis chasing the figure, and only intervene if anything bad happens, or if Noctis loses him/her/it. That was ten minutes ago. In which time, Noctis ruined the spines of several ponies by running on their backs to keep from having to slow down when the figure went into a crowd (I stopped to heal them, thankfully). They also ran through alleyways, knocking over trash cans, and such.
You know what? FUCK. MY. DECISION. I'm intervening. I thought angrily, as I summoned hands of darkness to grab the mystery figure. Unfortunately, the first few missed, so I moved on to creating a wall of darkness, the figure, whatever it was, just ran up the wall and jumped over. I quickly dispelled it so that Noctis could get through, and landed right in front of the figure, with a ball of light in each hand. The being gave pause at my sudden arrival, giving Noctis the chance to jump it and remove its cloak, and what I saw nearly caused my eyeballes to pop out.
It was an elf. He wore a green shirt, with some sort of a brownish red scale-mail shoulder pad on his left shoulder, on his back he wore a great-sword, a quiver, and... how the fuck did he hide that bow in his cape?! Its taller than HIM! ...anyway, his shirt had no sleeves, and he wore dark brown finger-less leather gauntlets, he also had some leather armor of the same color around his waist, that went up to his lower chest. His pants were made of slightly thinner, but just as brown leather as the gloves, and wore boots of even thicker material. He also wore more of the brown-red armor on the outside of his left leg, and all of his clothes were ripped up... a lot. He was about as tall as Noctis (give or take 2 inches), had short hair, the color a cross between red and brown, his large eyes were as blue as the sky on a cloudless day (I am poet!). He also had thin eyebrows, a pointed jaw, and a hateful look covering his face. The most memorable thing, though, was his scar, on his neck, he carried the symbol of Phyrexia!
“Alright, I’m only gonna ask once,” Noctis said as he circled him, drawing Tsuki no me, and charging up his orb, pointing both at him, “Who, or what, are you, and why did you attack me?”
He glared at Noctis with a burning hatred known to me as racism, saying nothing, all the while reaching for his bow. Noctis sighed, and let off a small blast towards his feet. He just stared at him, dumbstruck.
“How?”
“Excuse me?”
“HOW!? How can a human wield magic!? It’s impossible” he spat.
He then came to stand beside me, while I stared, my mind almost blanking as i tried to understand how this was possible.
“So, suggestions?” he whispered. I coughed a bit to clear my throat.
"So, how was Mirrodin, last you were there? Or should I call it by its new name, 'New Phyrexia'?" The elf's eyes widened, then narrowed with hatred.
And bingo was his name-o! I thought, Isn't it just GREAT to be a nerd?
"How do you know about that?" He spat out. I sighed, and pointed at his mark.
"Your neck, you've been marked by them, haven't you?" I pulled off the top of my chainmail (To clearshot: I made it earlier this chapter) , pointed at my chest, and added, "You're not the only one. I didn't even know what I was fighting until I was marked, stabbed right through the chest, thank god for light magic. Now, if you would kindly NOT attack my good friend here, I would be happy to explain." I looked at Noctis, and said, "I'll explain it to you as well, as you don't seem to have ever seen an elf before." I turned back to the elf, "Do we have a deal? My explination will include how I know of the Phyrexian invasion of Mirrodin, as well as how the human can use magic." That part was probably the seal on it I just hope you react as well as Die did to similar news about her own world... I added silently to myself. I watched over to where his bow landed, and picked it up, instantly feeling the enchantment in it. It was a far-sight enchantment, with a steady hand, this would give perfect aim.... It's damn impressive.
Noctis sheathed his weapons, and dissipated the built up energy in his orb.
“So, introductions. I’m Noctis, this is Lumos. You are...”
“Erahaor Bonegleam. And I’m not interested in speaking to you, only to the marked one.” I nodded to him.
"Very well, Erahaor, now, to start my explanation, how I know of Mirrodin:" I created a ball of light, which I played with until it looked like this , and began.
"On my home world, there is a card game, known as magic the gathering, in which you collect cards to create decks of 60 of them, these cards are split into many types and subtypes, as well as what we call 'sets,' the invasion of your world was a full 3 sets of cards." My tone grew serious, and my expression hardened "This is the part I regret to inform you of, your world, has been corrupted beyond recovery, one of the cards, is this one," I said, slowly turning the card, to show its other side , "This is what has happened to the very core, of your world. I know this is a lot to take in, but there is more," Erahaor looked at me with sad eyes, ones I never expected on him, "There is still a group of pure people of Mirrodin, they are few, but when the sets of the Mirran/Phyrexian war were over, they still lived. They probably won't live much longer, though, you're lucky though, you escaped with only a curse mark, and the only Phyrexian for miles here has been turn to stone." Erahaor just stared at me, not sure if I was saying any of this as bad news, or as a pep-talk. In reality, its both. "He was the one to give me this guy, and with it came my wings, and a large amount of power, since I... absorbed him a bit."
"Next subject, why Noctis can use magic, in a sense of the word," I turned to him when I said his name, "Do you mind if i borrow a materia, to explain. Elves have a... connection with magic, so to speak, it's really hard to explain."
He just sighed and shook his head. “Sorry Lumos, I can’t let you use them,” he let a small smile slide across his face. “I can, however, give a small demonstration and explanation, if you’re interested.”
I shrugged sadly, and said,"It wouldn't help, I could explain them decently, and he's already seen what one can, I was hoping you could only let him touch it, even lightly, most beings with ties to magic can recognise an enchantment, but if we can't use them as an example, prehaps I could try an idea I've been forming since i saw them in battle when Akumu broke free," I turned to Erahaor, "Give me a moment,"
I first pictured two metal orbs, these appeared nearly instantly, landing next to my knees. I breathed in heavily, and said "now for the hard part" and began to create a ball of pure chaos, barely around the tip of my finger, i also created a somewhat larger ball of light, and tried to place them both into a single orb. The orb let out a large magical aura, before dying down, it still shone a pure white, and had a circle embed upon it. I looked at Noctis, and said, "Can you keep Akumu under control if i use a large amount of darkness for this one?"
I shook my head. “No, but in about a week it won’t matter.”
I felt my eyebrows rise of their own accord, but I decided not to press the matter, and began the process for the darkness, which caused my left arm's skit to turn black from the darkness, and I made the infusion, creating a ebony orb along with the white one, in it, was another circle. I tossed the white one to Noctis, and asked "Does this seem like an accurate copy?"
Noctis focused on the orb for several seconds before looking up.
“As far as I can tell, it’s a perfect copy. And I know you’re itching to ask, ‘what did I mean by it won’t matter in a week.’ I can see it in your eyes. So go ahead. Ask. I won’t lie. Honestly, lying about it will just put others in danger.” He then whispered the last part, though it was more of a stage whisper, “Including Luna.” Erahaor looked to me for what he meant, I just shrugged and gave him a look that said 'long story, don't ask' before turning back to Noctis.
I stroked my chin, "Lets see, from what you said after I drained your darkness, and the wisps of it I saw earlier, it probably has something to do with what you said about fighting Akumu in the sealed zone, right? Speaking of which, i need to examine the seal later, I think you may have broke it."
I just smiled. "It's not broken, but in a week, it will be, whether or not you fix it. At that point, instead of just taking over, he's gonna make a game of it. He'll challenge me for control, and if he wins, he'll let my consciousness exist just long enough to let me see him kill the one I care about most. And I'm guessing you know who I'm talking about." I stared at him for a few seconds, then Erahaor spoke up.
"Um, excuse me humans , but I don't appreciate being left out of the conversation like this. Who is this Akumu?" I rolled my eyes.
"Two things: one, I'm not human, at least, not anymore, now I'm more of a strange cross between an angel and daemon. Second, Akumu is a being of darkness that resides within Noctis' mind. He is stronger, than the Phyrexian, who ran a blade of pure energy through me. I have fought him, alongside Noctis' sister, Die, and a couple other humans." Era was now eying Noctis suspiciously, and I then added "I removed all darkness from him, and strengthened the barriar between the two personalities"
"Anyway, on with my demonstration." I picked up the dark orb, and tossed it in the air, it was about one and a half times the size of my closed fist. I aimed the orb strait up, and muttered, "Umbra Blaster," and a huge black beam shot out of it. I nodded in satisfaction, and put it down. I then said "These orbs are known as Materia, they are a condensed form of magic, where Noctis is from, it's made using the life force of the planet itself, I, however, simply infused my own brand of chaos into it with some of my own power. Apparently, the combination worked well, as it at least works, these orbs could hold many different powers, but only one general spell per orb, with the occasional exception, examples of basic ones are fire, thunder, Ice, and wind materia, as well as healing ones. There are also--"
"Non-elemental offensive, defensive, support, command and summoning materia. The only ones that don't fall under any one category are the Lunar and Solar orbs, since they're not really materia. They're also the reason your assassination attempt wouldn't have worked even if you had hit me. They made Die and I immortal." Noctis waited to see how I'd react. I shrugged. Anger hiding, like a boss!
"It's as he says. Now, any questions?" Era looked deep in thought for a moment, before responding.
"So, they are just rocks that hold magic?"
"Exactly, though I prefer Infusing weapons and items for specific uses personally, like... like this." I said, pulling out the fire blade I created upon arrival from that magical pocket all characters have. "This blade I haven't named yet, but it is enchanted with fire, so I can do, say... This." I pointed the blade up, and a small whirlwind of fire came out the top. Neither expected this, and to summerize, I think their jaws were almost dislocated.
"Interesting. You ever used it to perform the Fire Cross?" Noctis asked me.
I responded with my own question, "... The what?"
Era jumped at a new voice appearing behind him (so did I, but I don't think anyone saw it). I don't think anyone expected the princess of the sun to show up. "It's a unique fire wielder's technique. The user slashes vertically, leaving a vertical trail of flame and then across at the center of the vertical slash, leaving another trail of flame. Then, the two trails combine into a cross of pure flame, and the user propels the cross with energy. How far it can go before the flames disperse depends on how much energy you put into it. The more energy, the further they go."
I turned toward Princess Celestia, surprise probably obvious on my face, "Hello princess, when did you get here?"
She chuckled. "I've been here for a while, you just weren't paying attention. Also, Noctis," She turned to face him, and her expression was stern. "You do realise that both Luna and Die are going to have a talk with you regarding this, don't you?"
Noctis began visibly shaking "I am so dead..."
Era gave him a confused look. "I thought you said you were immortal?"
"Yeah, except I'm dead in the sense that Die's 'talks' always result in grievous bodily harm, so pray that she never wants to 'talk' to either of you. The princesses are exempt, not because they're royalty, but because Die doesn't 'talk', to girls."
I chuckled a little, "Well, good luck, my friend." I then put back on my chain-mail shirt, and picked up my new dark and light materia. I turned back to the princess and asked, "Is there anything else, princess?" FORMALITIES ARE WIN!
She let her stern expression fade, and exchanged it for a motherly smile. "Actually, I was wondering if I could ask you more about the Equestria you came from. If I know more about it, it may help get you home sooner. Remember, nothing is insignificant."
Noctis sighed. "Well, if you guys need me, I'm gonna get my scolding over with. I'd like to hear a little more about your Equestria myself. Oh, and Lumos?"
"Yes?" I asked, turning to face the warrior of the night.
Noctis smirked. "If I can't beat Akumu, do me a favour, and look out for Die for me. In case you hadn't noticed, she and Ven are crushing on each other, so be sure to try and create some awkward situations for them. Try and put them in a situation where they have to admit they like each other."
I laughed, "I was already planning on it." I turned back to the princess, "I will gladly tell you about 'my' world, but I'd rather talk back in the palace, where less would overhear it." Yeah, I like to play matchmaker, what of it? Trust me, awkward situations are what I'm best at.
Celestia nodded, her smile never faltering. "Agreed. So, let's get to it, shall we?"
Noctis, Erahaor, Celestia, and I began walking back to the castle. Celestia had cast a portable soundproof spell around us so they could listen to my descriptions of the Equestria I came from and the adventures I'd been on since my arrival there without any risk of eavesdroppers hearing us. I just gotten past being impaled by Discord, who I had managed to work out was a Phyrexian through CAREFUL DEDUCTION OF OPTIONS, when we arrived at the castle. Noctis had to leave at that point for his 'talks' with Die and Luna, but I continued to explain to Erahaor and Celestia after he left. You should have seen the look on Celestia's face when she found out I absorbed Discord! After my explinations were done, I asked Celestia to inform Noctis of what he missed. She then told me where my room was, which was greeted with a thank you... or seven... Anyway, I then headed off to my bed, where my last thought was "This day has been fucked up in so many damn ways."AN: seems the crossover is helping with my word count, at least. Also, Italics without any quotation is thoughts of Lumos Flame Heart and Erahaor Bonegleam are Ocs created by me on the spot, hooray for being good at nothing of any importance! Also, a Quick shout out to the following: Skywing the Mutant: Thanks for helping me throughout book 1, and giving advice. Also, if you ARE reading this, sorry for not keeping in touch!
Phantom Thorns: Thanks for the name ideas! If it weren't for you, this section would probably have a worse name. :P
Clearshot01: Thanks for essentially doing what Skywing did, just in book 2 instead, and also for being a generally awesome guy (at least i THINK you're a guy o.0)
Tales of Illumination, Book 2: Distortions
Chapter 6: Me, myself, and I
For those who are actually reading this shit, the castle where Lumos met his subconscious, is now called the Castle of Dreams Also, there are two characters I will be coloring the speech of now, their names are Mirum and Malum. ON WITH CHAPTER!
Castle of Dreams (told you :D)
I woke up in a room I barely recognized, I was in the castle of my subconscious again, last time I was here, I got a hint as to my true power, but why am I here now? I stood up from the bed I was lying on, only to notice, that UNLIKE last time, I was not in human form, but my new one. I was in the same room as last time, which in case you forgot, was an almost empty cobblestone room, not counting the bed, with a crescent moon embedded in an oak door near the bed, I also heard an odd song that seemed to come from nowhere. I opened the door, and walked down the hall to the door with a carving of the earth in it, and opened said door. The room was empty of any people, or my conscience, for that matter. The room looked like it was a Library, with books lining the shelves, they held no words on the outside, only a number. In the center of the room was a tree, it seemed to be thinnest near its center, and then branch out to cover the entire roof of the room. The lighting came from no window, fire, or electricity, but a blue, pulsating vein that ran around the wall. I pulled one of the closest books off the shelf, the front cover read "Memories of Terrance M. Volume 1," I immediately put it back, shouting "NOPE", and continued to walk around the room, on the other side was a door identical to the other door to the room. Only instead of the earth, it showed a different symbol upon the door.
I slowly opened it, to reveal another large room, this one with two beds, both with blood red sheets. The room seemed to be a large bedroom, with a carpet of the same red, with golden trimmings, a stone fireplace, in which a fire that was changing colors every few seconds was burning, there were also two deep brown dressers, each directly next to a bed. Just like the last room, there was a blue vein lighting the whole room. Red banners hung from the walls.
The door on the other end of the room opened suddenly, and two figured walked through. They stopped the moment they saw me, and stared, wide eyed. I stared back, just as shocked by what I saw. The first figure I instantly recognized, he was exactly like how I looked as a human, only with short hair, and pure grey eyes that showed no emotion or life within. He wore a black suit, shirt pants, jacket, tie, all black, also he wore leather shoes. The other figure was like nothing i had ever seen before. It had arms and legs like a human, as well as a normal torso, but they were covered in a rainbow of feathers. It's legs were similar to those of birds, but its hands seemed to be changing every few seconds. There were two wings of the same colors on the rest of it's body. It had a human face that looked exactly like my own, and its eyes... its eyes flashed every color that ever has, and ever shall exist so rapidly it could give you a seizure, except for its irises, which were the color of pure gold. It also wore blue jeans for some reason. I cocked my head at them, and said, "Who are you, and what are you doing in my head?"
The human answered, with a grin "It's so fun to leave you guessing, but I may as well answer. I am Malum, and the being standing beside me is Mirum, we are also you. You see, when you absorbed Discord, your conscience was split in two, one lawful, one chaotic, although, you can probably tell which is which just by looking." he said with a bit of a chuckle.
The other, who Malum said was called 'Mirum,' said "Malum, you leave out so much, like the fact that my name means 'paradox,' while your name, literally means e--"
"Shush!" Malum said, cutting him off, "We both know thats inaccurate!"
What’s inaccurate? I thought. They both looked at me.
Malum said, "I already said, it is. Not. Important. Also, stop thinking so loud." I just stared at him.
"...what?"
It was Mirum who responded this time, "we can hear your thoughts, one of the... perks, of being what we are." he said, bending air quoting 'perks' sarcastically.
"So... you guys are the beings that live in the dark recesses of my mind?"
"Not anymore!"
"Wait, what?"
"By visiting here, you broke a small hole in the wall between conscious thought, and subconscious thought, allowing us to speak to you while you are awake, the problem, is that we will be trapped it the external world, and none of us can return to this place. Ever. We will only be visible to you, and other seers, like Sparky, and Clare."
"Wait... Sparky is a seer? Also, how can I tell a seer apart from an ordinary power user?" Mirum rolled his eyes
"Yes, he is a seer. As for your second question, a seer is different in one way: their powers are not based off of matter, light is energy, gravity is energy, electricity and fire, all energy powers. While earth, poison, smoke, water, and such are matter based."
"Wait," I said, speaking out-loud, "So, there ARE other seers, its just that me, Clare, and Sparky are the only ones who are Seers from 'our' Equestria?"
"Well, and Carlos, but he died. Anyway, your about to wake up, so In order for us to leave, you... kind of have to accept us as you, and you as us, or something. Also, in order for this whole thing to work, we will need occasional control of your body."
I stared at him for a good five seconds, trying to process what he said before speaking, "So... I have to let you guys use my body every once in a while, and in exchange, I get voices in my head?" Mirum laughed at this.
"Not exactly, you get to choose when, and how long we are in control, your body will change to match how we look to you right now when we are in control. You will be able to have minor control over your actions, and you only need to give us five minutes a week, or more, if you choose. This can also unleash dormant power, and we are able to help you find things out faster, sort of, if something is familier, but you can't place where you remember it from, we can look through your memories for where you've seen it before."
"... How long do I have to make this decision again?" I asked.
"You will be able to visit here once a week as well, but only until you decide, and every visit expands the hole, so if you don't decide quickly, you will go insane."
I looked at them both weighing my options, and said, "I suppose we can try. I accept you. This is probably a dream anyway."
They turned to each-other, exchanged a high-five, and shouted "WE'RE FREE!!"
The world began to slowly break apart, exactly as the last time I exited this place. After that, I woke up.
-_My temporary room_-
I opened my eyes to see my new room in the castle, it was the day after Noctis' and Die's duel. The room wasn't particuarly large, but it had a good bed, a dresser full of clothes (how they made more jeans, and where they got a suit of dark brotherhood armor like that in Skyrim, I'll never know), and a mirror. I saw Mirum and Malum, standing next to the bed. Malum looked at me, and grinned. I wish I could say I was calm, but lets be honest: I let out a loud scream.
Its about time! We've been waiting for well over an hour!< He said with a coy grin.
"I thought it was just a dream! How are you real?!" I shouted, wide eyed. They both laughed, and Mirum decided to answer my question.
I rolled my eyes, and said "I don't even know where Clare’s room is. How am I supposed to find and tell her before she sees you." At this, Malum rolled his eyes.
How should we know?<
... True...
Said Mirum.
"Wha? Oh right, you can hear my thoughts, right?"
Mirum cracked a smile, This elicited a chuckle from me... I wonder, I thought, does it count as laughing at your own joke, if it was an alternate personality?
Damn it Mirum, stop it! I thought at him, chuckling slightly.
Mirum stopped almost immediately,
I never thought about that... maybe later today, if I can find an excuse to leave Canterlot for a few hours.
Mirum and Malum exchanged a glance which I'm pretty sure was excitement.
"So... Any idea's?" Mirum face-palmed while Malum rolled his eyes
We could just leave via dark passage after saying 'I'm going out.'<
... Very well, and who would we need to tell, anyway, its only for a little bit. I thought as I opened a dark passage in the middle of the room, and stepped through.
... Mirum? I thought right after I stepped out, and as my eye my eye twitched.
Why are we HERE OF ALL PLACES?! I thought screamed.
... Ok, I say we warp again before things get any more awkward. Also, I say we go to the area where I set up the hut here.
... Oh, right, not explaining anything, right. Well, when I stepped out of the passage, it didn't take a genius to figure out that, for the first time, it went to the wrong place, and... We are now in Princess Luna's room, and Luna and Noctis (pony form, you know, blue pegasus, brown mane?) were in bed... Well, we are all caught up.
For a good few seconds, we were just staring at each other, before I slowly backed toward another dark passage, whilst saying "I'm going to leave for now, and come back when less weird shit is happening."
Noctis smirked "Alright, but your two new 'friends' will have to explain themselves first." I stopped at that, and my eyes widened a little.
"Wait, you can see them? Well, thats a surprise." Looks like Noctis is a seer...
No shit, Sherlock.<
"Yeah, I can see them. Why, shouldn't I be able to?" Noctis asked. Luna gave us a look.
"Yes, why should we not be able to see your friends? Are you casting an invisibility spell on them or something? If so, you need to work on it a bit, they're more visible than Celly's flank when she eats too much cake." She said, grinning a little.
I rolled my eyes, "Well, to start off, their names are Mirum and Malum, they are my Conscience..." I gestured to Mirum, "Mirum is the embodiment of my chaos. The other is Malum," I continued, making the proper gesture at Malum, who gave a slight bow of his head in respect, "who is the embodiment of my 'order’ energy, I only became aware of them earlier today myself. The very fact that you two can see them means quite a bit, either you are both Naturally seers, or the Orbs have even more power than I originally thought"
They were both silent for a moment, and Luna spoke up. "Well, my sister and I are able to raise the sun and moon because of those orbs, so I'm guessing it's probably the latter of the two explanations. Also, why are they called Paradox and Evil?"
I looked at Malum with a bit of an angry look in my eye, "So THAT'S what you said 'wasn't important,' and 'inaccurate,' if it weren't a direct breach of our contract, I wouldn't let you have any control, damn mental contracts." Malum grinned sheepishly and scratched the back of his head. Mouthing the word sorry. He then shot a glare at Luna, quickly changing it to a look of surprise as Noctis got out of the bed, switched to my human form, and placed a hand on Tsuki no me, all the while staring at him with a face completely devoid of emotion.
"Ok.I’m running out of patience here, so I’m going to ask once. What are you doing here, and what’s this about a contract."
I looked right into his eyes, showing little to no emotion on my own face as well, “I guess I’ll answer your second question first, as I actually know the answer to it. I made a contract with them that requires them to control my body for at least 5 minutes a week each, or more if i need their help.” Noctis raised an eyebrow in what seemed like curiosity, “As for the first question, I was trying to use a dark passage, and... we each chose a different location... I’m lucky I’m not inside a rock or something.”
Luna giggled a little, and the four of us turned to her. She almost burst out into full-blown laughter before regaining her composure. "I apologise, but you're not the only one that has happened to in the past."
I blinked twice, "Really? Who else has this," I waved a hand at Mirum and Malum, "happened to?"
Luna's. "You must swear that this conversation will never be heard by anypony outside this room. Not Die," She said, looking at me, "Not Clare or Ventus," She turned to Lumos, Mirum and Malum, "And most definitely not, my sister."
Everyone in the room nodded, and the princess began her story, "When Celestia and I were still relatively new to being rulers, we had just started learning to teleport, and she tried performing it with two young unicorns, one of whom was Starswirl the Bearded. However, they had never agreed on a destination before casting the spell, all of them thinking up a different location, and they ended up teleporting right into a concert hall in the middle of a performance. Starswirl and the young unicorn were unharmed for the most part, but Celestia, she got a cello stuck to her horn, and it took well over an hour to pry it off. It's why I call her Celly sometimes."
"Thats... Interesting" I said,
Both Mirum and Malum suddenly burst into laughter, Mirum shouted, almost falling over. I sighed and shook my head, watching them roll around on the floor, laughing their arses off.Luna and Noctis rolled their eyes at the antics of my other selves, before the princess of the night held up a hoof for silence. Wow, she stopped you guys immediately, I'm a little scared now.
"Now that you're laughing fit is over, it's almost time for you to begin training the Lunar Guards, Noctis. Have fun." Her horn then flashed, and I once more felt the sickening sensation, of teleporting, while thinking NOOOOO!
_____________________________________________________________________________
-_Training grounds_-
Next thing I knew, we were at the training grounds, where Noctis and Die had their bout the day before. With all of the Lunar guards (I think thats all of them, at least) off to the side.
"You know, I think she enjoys giving us headaches." Noctis muttered.
I chuckled, "You're lucky, all you have is a headache, meanwhile, I'm about to puke." I said, clutching my stomach. "Do you mind if I take control of this training session?"
I just shrugged. "Sure. If you want. Just call me when it's my turn to train them. In the meantime, I'll be taking a nap. I didn't get much sleep, according to Luna."
I raised my eyebrows, "Oh, is that so? I'm surprised your relationship has gotten that far already!" I said in a joking tone.
His eyes became slits, as he glared at me, "It wasn't like that. Apparently I was screaming and clutching my head in agony last night, and when it was over I suddenly switched forms, which she said should only have happened the first time. She brought me to her room so she could do something if it happened again. Honestly, I already have a clue what it means, but I don't want to worry her."
I rolled my eyes, and said, "Yeah, be right back," as I fell into a dark passage I opened in the ground below me. We're going to... wherever Clare is, I think that can work!
-_A random castle hallway_-
I fell out of the darkness two feet away from Clare. Cool, that worked! I then proceeded by saying "Come with me," grabbing her hand, and going into another dark passage, all in a matter of seconds.
_____________________________________________________________________________
-_Back at the training grounds_-
As I exited the grounds, I noticed that Clare was seeming very, very confused by the sudden appearance of Mirum and Malum. I then said to her, as I let go of her hand, "Sorry about this, as for those two, I'll explain later, could you please increase the gravity to 20 times that of this planet within these grounds for my training of the guards?" Clare let what I said sink in, then nodded, and began to focus. I suddenly felt very, VERY heavy. By a very rough estimate, 5 times Equis' (Equis: name of the bloody planet) gravity is equal to earth's gravity. So this should be about four times the gravity of earth.
I turned to Noctis, "Brace yourself."
Noctis nodded, "Sure, just wake me when it's my turn to train them. Oh, and if you start seeing any floating images emanating from me, that's just because of the lunar orb. Sometimes it projects my dreams for some reason," with that, he lay down beneath one of the few trees in the area, sighed, and went to sleep. Meanwhile the gravity rapidly increased to the point where it was hard to move for me, I managed to walk over to the guard, and said "Now, lets get started!"
-_Same location_-
Roughly two hours of painful training (for me, and the guards) later. I had decided that they had, for the most part, earned a ten minute break. This was also because Clare was starting to have difficulty holding the gravity much longer. The first thing that left a guards mouth after it was lifted, of all things, was a comment on how light their body felt.
Hey, Malum.
Yes?<
Why didn't you want me to know what your name meant?
Well, thats because I wasn't entirely sure as to whether or not you would react... the way you did when Luna told you.<
I see...
Suddenly, there was a small burst of light from where Noctis was napping, and... he began to project his dreams, now, isn’t that damn good plot convenience?
He and die were in a sewer of sorts. Noctis walking in front of Die. They looked younger than they do now, like... early teens.
After a few minutes, the Die image spoke, saying "Ugh, are we THERE YET?" ... yup, early teens
The Noctis image closed it's/his eyes, and tried to breath deeply, only to gag on the assumed stench of the sewer. It/he turned back to face the Die image, and whispered "Die, for the last time, no, we're not there. Now be quiet. Do you want to alert whatever creatures are down here of our presence?"
The image of Die was silent, and held a sheepish grin upon her face, as they continued their trudge through the sewer.
I turned to the guards, and said, "I'm adding a few minutes to the break. Use it wisely." I then turned back to this 'projection' of sorts.
The images of Die and Noctis had come to a large open area, and what I saw caused my stomach to heave, and brought back horrifying memories of my own. What I saw, was piles of bones, some with flesh on them, whole corpses that had been gutted and torn limb from limb. The amount of blood in cages said they were likely still alive when all this occurred. The images of Die and Noctis were obviously dealing with their own breakfast's revolting against them, as they began to look around the room for something. Soon, they found small creatures. They were humanoid beasts that had large tortoise shells around their bodies, their necks would extend every little bit. They also had grilled heads, webbed feet, and some fur, covering their shoulders, legs, and their claws. The majority were carrying tridents. A single word bounded from the scene, echoing around the training grounds a few times. That word was 'Sahagin.'
They were all gathered around a little girl, who had been beaten, tears, mucus and blood covering her body as her cries and pleas for life echoed around the open area. The tallest of the creatures stepped forward, its trident, also much larger than the other ones, was caked in blood. Probably from the children that made up the piles of bodies. Noctis' image muttered something to the Die image, and rushed forward, but he was too late. The tall one brought his trident down on the child's throat. Followed by raising it again, and stabbing her in the chest. Noctis froze as the child's gaze fell upon him. The words formed on her lips, the word 'Why?' as she took her terminal breath.
The creatures then took note of Noctis, and began to advance on him, while the tallest just stood as well, studying him. Noctis was still staring at the small child's face.
The creatures then began to shiver uncontrollably, Die was calling Noctis' name, and he was being encased in ice. Noctis had no reaction, nor did he react when the ice began to form an armor around his body. Then the ice exploded, and it happened.
Noctis rose from his knees, and muttered something, and charged. The vast majority of the creatures didn't even live through the first second, being decapitated, torn apart, or just gut, at rates I could barely follow. Several of those that did last past the first instant tried to attack, only for their weapons to bounce off of his ice armor, which looked like the Daedric armor from Skyrim to me, only see through. The attacking creatures died with only a single movement of his arm. The remaining ones either tried to run, or were paralyzed with fear, they were quickly caught by Noctis, who then carried them to where the tallest had killed the small child, and he slit their throats.
The tallest was trembling with rage, and charged Noctis, trying to hit Noctis with his own trident. This one didn't bounce off with no effect though. It put a sort of large crack in the armor. When it tried to bring the spear down again, Noctis grabbed the spear in one hand, and shoved it away with the other, causing it to stumble back. Noctis then broke his trident in half on his knee. The thing then spat a narrow, high pressure stream of water at Noctis, which caused him to be pushed back for a moment. The stream then rapidly transformed into a pillar of ice from the armor. He then shot several spears of ice at the creature, hitting its shoulders and hips. The spears melted a few seconds later, but the holes in the body seemed too big for any of his limbs to recover, ever. Noctis' blade rose in his hand, darkness swirled around it, and then he beheaded it. The head stopped next to the body of the little girl that it had killed only moments before.
I couldn't take it anymore. I got back up, walked over to the guards, and said "Training resumes when Noctis wakes up, do not bother me." While thinking Crater where we fought Akumu. Then I opened a dark passageway, and ran in as quickly as I could, before my emotions began to show.
-_I already said it_-
When I stepped out of the darkness, I was a mess. I had not only remembered 'day one.' Again IN DETAIL, but I had just seen even worse, at least the man who killed my family didn't torture small children, and just killed them quickly. My last bit of composure then slipped away, and I began to cry at the memories of the deaths of those who were formerly known as my only living relatives.
_____________________________________________________________________________
I felt my body begin to change, but not like my normal transformations, this one was different somehow. To start, red scales began to come out of my body, and covered the entire thing but my scalp, and wings. Without any form of control over my actions, I slowly reached over my shoulders, and tore off both of my wings, only for the wound to be covered with the red scales as well. My fingers each became a sharp claw, with the same flexibility as before, and my legs grew slightly longer, as did my arms.
When the transformation was complete, it wasn't just my body that had changed, my mind had too. A sadistic smile crossed my face, and a whirlwind flashing all colors of the rainbow and beyond erupted around me, while I let out a roar. A roar of anguish. A roar of loss. A roar... of rage.A/N:Yes, the whole alternate personality thing is a bit much, but it's fun! Plus, who are you to tell me what to write, my mother? (If my mother IS reading this, sorry :P)
Lumos: *Punches author out* Damn, I have been waiting days to do that!
Mirum: Your not the only one, bro.
Lumos: ... so what happens now?
Malum: I don't know... he was the one to decide on everything...
Lumos: YOU MEAN WE'RE FREE?!?!
Clare: Only until he wakes up...
Mirum: And whens that?
Author: *Bleeding from cut above the eye due to sharp rocks, and a smoothie* Why did you hit me?
Lumos: Damn, I knew it was short-lived... RUN, BEFORE HE GETS THE BOX!!!
*Oc's scatter*
Author: ... Damn, its going to take days to get them all back in their proper boxes...
MaDmAN12435/Cloud Nova falling out.
Tales of Illumination, Book 2: Distortions
??? location, ???’s POV
Ugh, where am I? … While I’m at it, who am I? I thought when I woke to a plain white room . What is that symbol over the bed? My eyes were fixated on a symbol that was carved into the headboard of the bed frame. I looked down to see I was wearing a suit of black robes. “Why am I getting so much deja-vu from this?” I said out loud.
“Ah, you’re finally awake, we were beginning to worry you wouldn’t get up.” I heard from my right, I turned to see a man in a similar cloak, he had longish silver hair. “Welcome, I am Xemnas, of Organization 13.”
“Organization 13?”
“We are the group that controls all nobodies, though for some reason, we cannot control you. Those of us who actually know about the biology of nobodies are trying to figure out why that is, as well as why you kept your old form.”
“My... Old form?” I asked confused. A sudden sharp pain in my head caused me to collapse, gripping it, and images flashed before me, none of them made sense, but I remembered three things.
1) I have control of light and dark
2) My name is Lumos
3) My ‘Incident’ and splitting.
I stood up slowly, making sure to use the bed for balance, “What just happened?” I asked, only to see Xemnas standing a few feet away, a look of confusion on his face. The look quickly disappeared and was replaced with a stoic look.
“I don’t entirely know myself, some of the organization regained memories in a similar way to what just happened, so... do you remember anything?”
I thought for a moment, before saying “My name, and my... power.” I said, searching for the right words.
“And you are...?” Xemnas asked.
“Lumos, god of Neutrality. I can control light and darkness, solidifying them.”
“That’s... interesting. Could you show me this?”
I focused for a moment, and a blade of light appeared in my right hand, accompanied by one of darkness in the other.
“Can you do anything else with this ‘ability’ of yours?” Xemnas asked curiously.
I thought for a moment, and slammed both together, forming a dull grey blade of solid metal, “Twilight matter. Created from light and darkness in perfect balance... Wow, how do I even know that?”
“It doesn’t really matter, anyway, just in case, we will call you ‘Lux’ for now, so that no one knows who you were. Now, lets go show you around.” Xemnas said as he led me out of the small room.
Journal of a Nobody: Entry 1:
I won’t write the details of the first four days, which were just getting used to the organization. I’ve remembered how my metal works, and how to infuse powers in them, but thats about it. I’ve managed to convince Xemnas to lend a small amount of his power to creating a new weapon with me, I call it the Nihl, since Xemnas’ power is Void control, which is basically antimatter. Anything Nihl cuts will disintegrate within a matter of seconds. I have also noticed something rather odd, all the members of this organization sound and look exactly the same. Something... just seems off.
~Lux
(These ‘Journal entries’ will be at the end of chapters starting with entry 2 in chapter 9.)
Umbra’s POV
I asked, holding up my sixth attempt at making Akumu a silenced MP5 smg.
“You forgot the firing pin, again .” Akumu said, rolling he eyes.
I shouted, throwing it at the nearest tree, I then charged it with chaos, making it explode.
“Umbra, calm the fuck down.” Akumu said, drawing the sword I made him. “If it’s that difficult, just stop for now. It’s not like I’m gonna need it right now. Is Noctis here? Is Die here? Are Lumos or any of his other parts besides you here?”
I took a few deep breaths before responding,
“Then I don’t need it right now. I want it, but I can wait until you can focus. Maybe trying to create all these weapons in a row was a bad idea?” he said with a calm demeanor.
“And besides, Lumos is probably nothing more than a dusk right now. He’ll be easy to kill, and once he’s gone, we can take all the time in the world to finish off Malum and Mirum.”
“Well even if he did, and even if they do, we’re the most powerful Heartless that ever existed, except for maybe Ansem, but since he’s not around anymore, we’re top darkness dogs.”
I said with a sadistic grin.
“Oh, do tell.” Akumu said with a grin of his own.
“You didn’t need to. I guessed that was the one you used on Noctis to separate us, good job by the way, you couldn’t even kill him.”
“What, we need seven or something?” He asked sarcastically.
I ‘said,’ as my grin widened.
“Oh, don’t keep me in suspense, where are we going? Also, why do you use that mind thing, why don’t you just create a mouth for yourself or something?”
“Fine, then allow me.” He said, drawing his sword and advancing toward me, I rolled my eyes.
he stopped, and put away his blade at this.
“Yeah, well what about when you’re thinking about those magazines. I couldn’t get to sleep for hours cause you kept getting those damn images popping into your head and broadcasting them in your sleep!”
I grinned.
“Oh, you sonova...No, not gonna let you win. I’m gonna calm down, and think about ripping Noctis’ throat open.”
I let out one of the few sounds my mouth could make: a deep, bark of a laugh,
“So, a new dark keyblade. And since we’re using the elements, how about we give it the name ‘False Harmony’.” Akumu suggested.
“Wait, what if the princesses of that world come after us for going after all of them? We’re strong, but I don’t feel like going up against the two who control the sun and moon just yet.”
I ‘said,’ and began to form a different weapon in my hands.
“Not necessarily. Remember, the rules are always slightly different at the very least in each Equestria. They may be weakened by it here, but what if it has the opposite effect there?”
<... A fair point, but then again, what if we go to a world where both are already dead?>
“I would say you’re crazy, then I would say I’m in.” He replied, smiling like a madman.
“Ha. Then we’ll arrive incognito, as they say. Let ‘em think we’re there to help or some shit like that, then when their backs are turned, slice, out with their hearts.”
I corrected
“Well, Noctis only met those ponies briefly, but I’d say that Applejack bitch represents pride. I could feel it radiating from her. If she’s got as much pride in the world you speak of as she does here, then we’ve got our ‘Pride’.”
“Oh, and how would a lazy bitch be a problem?” Akumu asked in a confused tone.
I remembered the ‘Sonic Rain-nuke’
“Ha. You said she’s sloth, she’d probably be too lazy to use it.”
“Ugh, fine. So, calmed down yet?”
I tossed him the crossbow I had been working on.
“Yeah, and I can mod it later. Ah, the joys of knowing almost everything there is to know about weapons.”
“We shall...”
I ‘said’, picking up a sword with darkness infused, and created a dark passageway with a single swing of it.
“Ok, you have to teach me that.”
I grinned,
After nearly a minute in that frozen hell, we walked out of the passageway in the branches of a large tree. Thankfully, Umbra hand made a platform out of darkness right before I could fall.
“So, where to, since I have no fucking idea where I am right now.” Akumu whispered.
“Ponyville? What kind of retarded name is that!? And who builds a library in a tree? What are they, elves or something!?”
“Oh. Ok then. It’s still a retarded name, though.”
“Oh? What’s the city called, and can we blow it up or something when we’re done here?”
“I wasn’t gonna bi...well, maybe a little.” He admitted.
“Seriously? I’ll just pop my head out and check.” Akumu said, beggining to put up his head before I could pull him back down.
“Then do it before I go stir-crazy!”
I said, as he slowly poked a sword through the branches, resulting in a single bit light coming through, coming from a street light,
“Alright then. Let’s get to...wait, where are we going again?”
“Oh. Sounds more like the name of a brothel to me.”
“Eh, when we’re done here, let's find a world where it really is one.” He said, before jumping out of the tree and hitting the ground running. I just followed on the platform I made, shaking my head.
“I heard that!” He said, appearing behind him as I switched from my smoky form to my solid one.
He ‘said,’ as small amounts of darkness wrapped around our feet, and the platform sped up at an astonishing rate.
“So, where do you think little Knocky and his friends are?”
He paused for a moment, before the darkness began to slow.
“I doubt that C is true”
I asked as the platform dissipated beneath us, and we dropped onto the ground. I floated down while Akumu fell like a rock, landing on his arse.
“Ow. Dammit, I am so outta practice. Stupid Die with her stupid seal, I should’ve been in charge of this body for six years, but instead, I get locked in the weakling’s mind, then you get me out, and I’m too new to using the body to be effective outside of combat.” Akumu complained.
I ‘said’, And with that, I put a glove I had made void of any soul on my right hand, it was black with a single white line down the middle.
“Nice glove. Is a blade gonna pop out? Can it make stuff burst into flames if you touch them with it?”
“It traps the soul of whoever you hit with it within the glove, correct?”
“So, we’ve got a week to do it? Easy munny!”
“We won’t need the extra time. Even if they find us, they won’t be able to do a damn thing.”
“Well, I’m wondering why we ran from Noctis. I mean, I know he had a keyblade, but he’s a weakling, and he can’t even use that body, he has no practice with it.”
“Yeah, but he didn’t know that.”
“Even so, he’s still a weakling. But enough about him. Let’s get to soul stealin’!”
I ‘said,’ while walking over to a tree, and looking for the best apple amongst the branches.
“Oh, well I’m starving. So I’m gonna grab an apple now.” Akumu said, reaching towards the branches and plucking a juicy apple from it.
I ‘said,’ whilst grabbing one of the brightest, shiniest apples off of a tree.
I heard an angry roar come from behind Akumu, and I turned to see a bright orange pony with a yellow mane running right at him. I warped next to her, and stuck my gloved hand into her gut. Her eyes faded a bit, and she collapsed.
<’Pride’ captured. Creating sinblade of pride.> I thought-spoke, as a ball of metal appeared in my left hand. The metal shaped itself into a misshapenblack keyblade with a golden handguard upon touching the gloved hand.
Cool. Hey, since she doesn’t have a soul anymore, does that mean she’s technically a zombie? Can we order her around and stuff?” Akumu asked, eying Applejack.
“Only if we ordered her to follow us. We could just order her t-”
“Oh. Ok then.”
I ‘said’ as I created a new dark platform beneath us, which began to fly over the town. We were outside of a building that looked more like a carnival attraction than a clothing store.
“Why is it shaped like a darkness damned merry-go-round?”
“Fuck the children if this is what they want!”
I said as I dropped us through a dark passage, and into the room we could see.
“And you say you can’t do precise.” Akumu said with a smirk.
“Meh, whatever floats your boat. So, where’s this Envy girl anyway? I wanna do it this time. Gimme the glove!”
I ‘said’, tossing him the glove from before.
“Oh yeah, bitch is gonna get punched!” Akumu said loudly as he started towards the stairs.
I reminded him as I followed him up
“I don’t need to be quiet, I’ve got a soul stealing glove!” he retorted.
“Maybe so, but if anyone else comes in, I’ll just kick their asses.”
I replied, before opening the door to Rarity’s bedroom, in which the ivory pony was sleeping. Akumu walked up to her, slapped her awake, and smiled as he shoved my gloved hand into her chest. When her eyes were completely dull and lifeless, he removed the glove, and tossed it to me.
“That was fun.”
“Yeah. I get the feeling someone’s letting us do all this. Like they’re pulling strings or something to make sure we succeed. I don’t like it.”
I ‘said,’ whilst putting on the glove As a larger, jeweled keyblade appeared in my hand.
“So, Sloth next, since you’re so scared of being nuked?”
“Again? When did you get nuked a first time?”
“What does it feel like?”
“Well alright then. We’ll just avoid ‘inspiring’ her.”
“Hmm, I’m gonna go with attack at night. But we’ve gotta find her first.”
“Alright then, lead the way. I wanna get this over with so we can get out of this shithole.”
With that I warped us out and put us on another dark platform.
“I just want to kill those idiots.” Akumu said as we arrived neared the house of one Cyan pegasus. “DAFUQ! How can a house be made of clouds!?”
I said
“Yeah?” Akumu asked.
“I would hope so, otherwise it wouldn’t be much of a challenge. Also, who would they get to help?”
“Well, I already know who I like the most among them.” Akumu said, grinning.
I let out the creepiest grin I could.
“Well, the poison user of course. Think we could use their own poison against them if they come along with the little ragtag group?”
“How come?”
“Ok, I officially hate Lumos.” Akumu said as we finally reached the house.
“Hey, will we be able to stand on these?” Akumu asked as he put a foot onto one of the clouds. I made sure to grab him before he could fall through though.
“Dammit. I hate clouds.” He said, and made a huff of disappointment.
I was cut off by falling through the clouds, I quickly made a dark board under me, and lifted myself back up.
“You don’t have wings. That sucks.”
“Oh. Wish I could’ve seen that. It would have been awesome.”
The platform began to descend as I went up toward the floor of the house.
“Awww, I wanted to see you rip her soul out!” I heard Akumu whine.
and with that, I lifted myself into the house of clouds.
It took three minutes to search the place, and guess what? It was all wasted. Thats right, she wasn’t. Fucking. There.
I landed in front of Akumu,
“Well, I got something to show you first.” He said, holding up... wait...
“Yup. Idiot had to give it up, as well as his human form and his ability to control the Lunar Orb’s powers, in order to keep his heart. Turns out I got the blade.”
Umbra asked.
“Dunno. Lemme check.” Hw said, reaching into his arm and pulling out several glowing orbs. “Oh FUCK YEAH, WE HAVE MATERIA BITCHES!”
“From what I can tell, every single one he brought with him when he went to kill you. That means we’ve got Firaga, Firaga Burst, Blizzaga, Thundaga, Shadow Flames, Curaga, and-SWEET, WE GOT YOJIMBO!”
“Only if we can’t find his weak spots. We find those, all we need to do is kick ‘em and he’ll either do exactly what we want, or...” He rubbed the back of his head. “He’ll try to kill us.
“Noctis doesn’t know about it. Besides, he’s too goody-goody to ever use it even if he did know.”
“No need.” He said, pulling out a small leather object. “I got his wallet!”
“Are you kidding? Noctis has several million gil saved up from missions and such.”
I’m looking at you, authors.
“Yeah. I really don’t like this feeling of invisible helpers, despite how lucky it makes us.”
“Talk to the hand, cause the face ain’t listenin’.”
“Sure thing bossless.”
“Yeah, cool. So, to the tree again?”
<Eeyup .> My ‘voice’ did a southern accent.
“What’s with the sudden accent?”
“I see. So he’s retarded?”
“Sure.” He said as I warped us back to the library.
“So you have a second glove?”
I said as I tossed him my spare glove, which was left handed.
“Nice.” I said, putting on the glove. “So, Wrath or Greed for you?” I asked.
“I want to steal the soul of the one who shocked Die. Despite the fact that I hate her guts, I still desire revenge against the one who hurt her. Stupid remnants of Noctis’ emotions.”
<... We could use those emotions, you know.>
“Oh, how so?”
I said before walking up the stairs, Akumu followed until we got to the front door. He opened said door and looked into the room, inside which slept the unicorn Twilight Sparkle, and her draconic assistant..
I said, positioning myself over the dragon.
“1.”
<2...>
I mind shouted, and shot my hand into Spike’s chest, tearing out his soul.
“The fuck?” Akumu said, before rushing the now awake unicorn and jamming his gloved hand into her, and pulling out the soul.
I said, an orb of metal appearing in my gloved hand, which became a metallic red, and formed a simplerkeyblade than the others did. Then another orb dropped into the gloved hand of Akumu, which formed a different, sadistic lookingblade of sin .
“The fuck was that? Five?”
“Well fuck Monty, and his Pythons.”
FUCK YOU I DO WHAT I WANT!
“So, we’ve got four sins now. All we need is Lust, Sloth, and Gluttony, and we’re done. And it hasn’t even been one day yet? Seriously, this is definitely too easy.”
“Fun. Hey, on the off chance that we lose, what happens to the sinblades?”
I thought about it for a few moments, before eventually saying,
“So we’ve still doomed a world by eliminating its heroes. I like it. Even if we lose, we win.”
“Sure, so where’s she hiding?”
“HI! I’M PINKIE PIE!”
Akumu jumped back as a pink blur jumped out from between us, I instantly recognized this as Pinkie Pie.
“Um, what are you talking about?” Pinkie asked, tilting her head to the side, and raising an eyebrow.
<... You can hear me? Even though I’m using private though-speech?>
“OOOH, is that telepathy, are you psychic? Can you tell what I’m thinking-oOOH can you control my mind? Are you controlling it right now or are you making me think you’re controlling my mind or-OOOOH nice gloves!” She said at a mile a minute.
I put on a showman’s smile, I asked.
“Maybe later, right now I have to-*GASP*-, I totally have to throw you a party!” She said, bounding off, leaving an after-image.
“Umbra.”
“Actually, we could turn this to our advantage.” … It could? Oh yeah...
<... I see what you’re getting at, if we get ‘Lust’ before hand, we could get both ‘Sloth’ and ‘Gluttony’ at the party, right?>
“Yeah. So, to Lust’s house?”
“How so? Is she gonna try and seduce us or something?”
I ‘said’ as I warped us to the cottage of Fluttershy.
“Woah, that’s a lot of animals.” Akumu said, probably just creeped out by all the eyes staring at us.
“Oh, come on, what harm could they possi-AGH, GETITOFFGETITOFFGETIFOFF!” He yelled as a white furball attached itself to his leg and immediately started chomping on it.
Umbra pulled Angel bunny off his leg,
“Rabbit? RABBIT!? IT’S MORE LIKE A FUCKING SAHAGIN WITH THE WAY IT TRIED TO CHOMP ON ME!”
he said as he crushed Angel’s throat.
“Good riddance, now where’s th-”
“ANGEL! YOU MONSTER!” I heard Fluttershy’s voice exclaim.
I asked as I jabbed my hand into her chest, and tore out her soul.
“So Lust is ours. Now we’ve got two to go.” I said as Umbra created yet anothersinblade .
I thought with a shudder.
“Something tells me I don’t wanna know.” Akumu said with a raised eyebrow.
“Dude, I want to kill every living thing and even I think that’s fucked up.” Akumu shivered.
“Good point.”
“Wait, if this is that universe, wouldn’t Gluttony have already turned Sloth into cupcakes?”
“No, you said we’d leave and get them from another world, I pointed out that if this is that universe, then sloth is dead. Though I doubt that she is.”
“Well, I think Sloth is alive here. Trust me, I know psychotic, and while Gluttony is crazy, she’s definitely not psychotic.”
“Why did you say pullen? It’s pulled.”
“Ah. Let’s get to wherever this party is before we die of old age.”
“Oooookaaaaaaay?” Akumu said in a ‘The fuck does that mean?’ kind of tone.
I sighed,
“Wow, that’s...weird. The moment he gives up, lady luck smiles on him? Does that happen to him a lot?”
“Ok then. So where to next?”
“Well, I’ll go back to town, maybe see if the library has some useful information, as unlikely as that is.” He said, walking towards the town. “If you need me, yell ‘I NEED AN ADULT!’ with that mind thing.”
I chuckled,
“Wait, what? What do you mean flaming unicorns?”
“Um, how would she do that without her soul? She’s essentially an empty husk.”
“Ok then. Well, see ya Umbra. Don’t kill too many of the forest’s inhabitants.”
He said as he flew off on a dark platform.
The forest creatures were more than happy to attack me, making it all the easier to slaughter them one by one. After the first few manticores, they eventually stopped attacking, and began to run from me on sight.
That’s right, run away. Know fear!
I summoned Pride, and stabbed a manticore with it. Somehow this quickly turned it into a Living Bone heartless.
Interesting, so just one sinblade has the power of the six heart version of the keyblade of hearts. I thought to myself. My look of thought was replaced with a wicked grin. Might as well start making my army!
Not much to say, so the answer to the last riddle was 'a towel.' Here is todays riddle: It's more powerful than God. It's more evil than the devil. The poor have it. The rich need it. If you eat it, you'll die. What am I? Sorry to anyone who's religious if this offends you. ~ Cloud Nova/Madman12435 Signing out.
Tales of Illumination, Book 2: Distortions
Chapter 9: Of Romances, and Sinners.
Unknown POV, Radiant Gardens
Why is this damn place so bright? I thought to myself as I walked through the town around me the townspeople were a little hesitant in talking to me, understandable, since I do have wings, and feathers covering the majority of my body. The old man was more than willing to help me though. Hell, he even taught me a bit of magic!
Why did he teach me anyway? I mean, I didn’t ask for it, and I’m a heartless, he just started explaining how to cast the fire spell in both defensive and offensive. It was pretty nice of him though, wish I got his name...
I continued my walk, making sure to fold my wings just right so that they blocked the heartless symbol on my back’s one featherless spot. As I delved deeper into my thoughts, a circle of light appeared above my head, and opened up into a container, holding a glowing ball in the middle.
“Shit!” I shouted as I dodged the growing cylinder only for another to appear as I landed. I was actually dodging pretty well considering I wasn’t using my wings. The fifth cylinder I dodged managed to scrape my shoulder as I jumped away. After roughly 4 minutes of dodging the cylinders to live. I even did a few wall runs to try to get away from them, but they just kept appearing. I eventually just resorted to running as fast as I could, shouting “WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH! WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!” and so on.
After about a minute of running and screaming, I crashed into someone, I think it was female, knocking her to the ground.
“SORRY!” I shouted as I barreled past.
I heard a voice from near the person I crashed into, “MIRUM?!” The voice was familiar somehow, but I can’t quite place it.
“NOT NOW LIGHT THINGS ATTACKING ME!” I shouted as I ran.
The voice said something else I couldn’t quite hear, to which I shouted, “IF YOU WANT TO TALK WE’LL DO SO LATER!” and with that, I ran up a huge wall and jumped over, landing me in a different area, I broke into a run again ,still chased by those DAMNED CYLINDERS OF LIGHT!
A few seconds later, the cylinders stopped appearing, and I slowed down, before ducking into an alleyway and collapsing behind a dumpster. Several minutes later I was almost ready to get back up again when I was seen by a... pegasus.
“Mirum? Is it really you?” It asked warily.
“Who’s asking?”
“Um, I already said so earlier. Noctis, remember? You saw me in bed with...you know, let’s just forget that part.”
“Not ringing any bells, sorry.” I stood up unsteadily, and looked him in the eyes, “Now, why did you follow me here.”
“For one, we’re trying to find you, as well as Lumos and Malum. We’re hoping we can make you guys whole again, help you get your hearts back.”
“Um. If you haven’t noticed, I’m not exactly a Nobody here. I have a heart... Sort of.”
“Yeah, well your other half doesn’t. Malum, remember him? You two have to become one again, or neither of you will last long when Akumu and Umbra come after you.” The creature named ‘Noctis’ said calmly.
“Malum... Where have I heard that name before?” I asked as I looked up at the gap between buildings, trying to find an escape route.
“Malum, his name means evil, just like yours means paradox, and mine means Night.”
“Yeah, I know my Latin, I know what it means, so why,” A black circular blade appeared in each of my hands, “Do you want me to join with a being named ‘Evil’?”
“Dammit, it’s just a name. Don’t make me fight you, Mirum. I don’t want to have to hurt you.” I said.
“Yeah, you just want me to stop existing by fusing with a different being.”
“You won’t stop existing. All it means is you’ll become whole again, you’ll get your memories back. You have the heart but no memories, Malum has the memories but no heart. You need him, just as he needs you, but if you’re gonna be too stubborn to listen,” He summoned a giant key, “then I’ll just have to beat some sense into you! INFINITY SPECTRUM!” He attached a small chain to the end, and it completely changed. (link in SONAD)
I just gave him a death glare through slightly widened eyes. Once my escape route was figured out, I muttered “Light mode.” and all of my feathers turned a brilliant golden as I charged forward. The pony met my charge with one of his own.
We met near the middle, where I jumped over him, and ran out of the alleyway, and then I kept running.
“OH NO YOU DON’T! STOPZA!” He yelled, and I fell over, frozen. As I fell, a passage of darkness opened under me, and I almost fell through it, if only I hadn’t missed and landed NEXT to the damned thing.
“What the...” the pony walked over to me. “Mirum, please. If you don’t become one with Malum again, a lot of innocent people are going to die. Do you really want the blood of hundreds, if not thousands, on your hands, just because you were too stubborn to do the right thing?” He asked with venom in his voice as I undid whatever the fuck he did to me. I had calmed down while I was frozen.
“... Fine, I’ll fuse with this ‘Malum’ guy. Happy? Now where is he?”
“That’s the problem. We don’t know. We were hoping you might have an idea where to look. He is your Nobody, after all.” He said in an embarrassed way.
“Yeah, well, shows how much you know.” I rolled my eyes.
“Just as humorous as Lumos. So, you gonna come with us to save the world?” He asked.
I let out a scoff, “Do you have any idea how cheesy you sound right now?”
“At least I didn’t put emphasis on the last part. Anyway, let’s go find Discord and everyone else before they send out a search party.”
He sighed, and said “I won’t be getting out of it will I?” While his blades disappeared.
“Sorry, but no. Anyway, you know you wanna kick Umbra’s ass.” I said, smiling a little.
“Who?”
“Oh right. Basically, before you got separated into the four that exist now, you, Malum and Lumos shared the same body. This guy Sanguine took over your body and....” (Exposition, exposition, talk shit out, AS, AP.)
___________________________________________________________________
After the explanation.
“WHAT THE FUCK?!”
“Dude, calm down before you hurt yourself.” The pony said.
“WHAT DO YOU MEAN CALM DOWN?! IF SOMEONE LIKE THAT IS ON THE LOOSE THEN HE HAS PROBABLY RUINED AT LEAST ONE WORLD ALREADY!”
“Ok, I am gonna say this once. CALM THE FUCK DOWN! If he has ruined a world, then we’ll just put it back together. That’s all there is to it. I don’t give a damn if everyone else says it’s impossible. We’ll do it!”
“Yeah, I gue- AH!” I was interrupted as a man jumped out of nowhere wearing a strange outfit, and pinned me to the ground. (Link in SoNaD)
“Ventus, please release Mirum before I kick your ass.”
“It’s Mirum? I saw the heartless symbol on it’s back and just reacted.” The new guy said, leaping off, “Also, we both know I would win if we fought.”
“Yeah yeah. Sorry about that Mirum. You ok?” The first one, who I think called himself ‘Noctis’ earlier asked.
“My face... ow...” I mumbled, while faceplanting.
“Ven, apologise to Mirum. Then, we’ll go find the others.” ‘Noctis’ said
“I already found them earlier, when I said I was going to go do so. Also, sorry bro.” The guy called ‘Ventus’ added, looking down at me while I stood and tried to get the dirt off my face. Followed by shooting him a death glare.
“Seriously, why the fuck would you do that?” I saw out of the corner of my eye a small paper airplane falling.
“Because he can be an idiot sometimes. Anyway, let’s go find the oth-AGH MY EYE! FUCK!” Noctis yelled as the piece of paper hit him dead in the eye.
“Where did that paper come from?” Ventus asked
“You didn’t see it falling?” I responded.
“Does it matter? Let’s read it before I get pissed off and burn it or something!” Noctis said impatiently.
Journal of a Nobody: Entry 1:
I won’t write the details of the first four days, which were just getting used to the organization. I’ve remembered how my metal works, and how to infuse powers in them, but thats about it. I’ve managed to convince Xemnas to lend a small amount of his power to creating a new weapon with me, I call it the Nihl, since Xemnas’ power is Void control, which is basically antimatter. Anything Nihl cuts will disintegrate within a matter of seconds. I have also noticed something rather odd, all the members of this organization sound and look exactly the same. Something... just seems off.
~Lux
“What?” Ven asked, looking confused
“Oh, crap.” Noctis said with a horrified look.
“What?” Noctis jumped as a woman in the shadows spoke.
“Hey princess,” Ven greeted in a surprised tone as the woman walked out from the shadows. She had flowing, multi-colored hair and was wearing a white dress with a rapier strapped to her back. (LINK IN SoNaD)
“Don’t do that Celestia, you almost gave me a heart-attack.” Noctis said with wide eyes.
“They can’t fix you having a weak heart, Noctis.”
“Shut up Ven. We have a problem if you didn’t realise. Namely the fact that Lumos was found by Organization XIII.”
“Yeah, yeah, still, a joke never killed anyone... except that one rubber chicken...” He muttered the last part. Wait... he killed a guy with a rubber chicken?!
“This isn’t the time. They have Lumos, and he’s making weapons for them. So either he doesn’t remember anything, or he’s being controlled, in a sense.” Noctis said.
“Yes, that is the most logical of assumptions.” Ven muttered.
“So, the question is, what are we gonna do about it? Oh, and where’s everyone else Celestia? Weren’t Discord and Luna with you earlier?” Noctis asked the woman.
She shrugged her shoulders calmly. “Luna said something about finding a flower shop, and Discord went with her.”
“And what about Die?”
“She’s touring the town with Tox, Sparky, Shade, Aqua, and Clare. They said something about finding somewhere to practice.”
“Ok then. Well we’ve found Mirum, and we got a message from Lumos, or Lux, I guess. So we should continue looking for more info and then head to our next destination. Which world is it again?” Noctis said, looking to Ven, who just shrugged.
“We never decided, we already know that our info from this world would determine that.”
“Well so far we know that Lumos is in the World that Never Was, most likely, while Malum is in the wind, so to speak.”
“That means our next location would be Twilight Town. Since that’s the only world with any sort of connection to the world that never was.”
‘Celestia’ cut in, “Well then, I’ll go find Discord and the others. Where will we meet?”
“The Dark Depths?” Ven suggested calmly. “It’s probably closer to wherever Die and the others found to train.” Noctis looked a little anxious.
“There gonna be any heartless there? I’m wondering if Mirum might be able to command lesser heartless to an extent.” I went deep into thought for a few moments, before the woman called Celestia disappeared in a flash of light
Once our eyes adjusted to the light again, we walked out of the allyway.
“I’ll go on ahead,” Ven said, already beginning to fly away.
“Yeah... I think I’ll walk.” I said, still concerned about hiding my mark.
“Same. Gives us a chance to talk without trying to kill each other.” Noctis said...
2 Hours later Ventus’ POV
Finally, they're here. I thought as Jolt, noticed Noctis and Mirum approaching, and walked up to them.
“What took you guys so long?” He yelled.
“Q/A Session Sparky .” Noctis said with a grin, putting emphasis on the nickname ‘Sparky’
“Don’t call me Sparky... Tia! We’re all here!” Jolt shouted, looking back to the disguised princess.
“Thank you Jolt. Now, the reason we are here, is because we have two pieces of news to share. One, we have found Mirum,” She gestured towards towards Mirum, who shrugged in response, “And the other thing is that we have discovered Lumos’ whereabouts. Unfortunately, he is in the clutches of the Organization.” She said.
“Wait, Organization XIII found him?! Oh this is bad! This is very bad!” Clare half-shouted with wide eyes.
“Calm yourself Clare. We will rescue him, no matter what. I promise you that.” Celestia said in a stoic way
“No, you don’t understand, if he makes a weapon fused with Xemnas’ power, do you have ANY idea how powerful it would be?!”
“I know it would be bad Clare. It doesn’t matter though. We’re gonna beat him, we’re gonna save Lumos, and we’re gonna stop Akumu and Umbra. DO I MAKE MYSELF CLEAR!” Noctis said, slipping into ‘Drill sergeant mode’
“Why are you going drill sergeant on us at a time like this?!” Clare shouted
“Because somebody has to keep us from losing our heads because of one piece of bad news. That answer your question?”
Clare had a blank look for a second, before sighing, “Whatever... Damn I need a drink.”
“So, Lumos is with Organization XIII? Does that make him a captive, or an enemy?” Luna asked.
“Neither, from what we read, I think he lost his memory, like Mirum did.” Ven said, looking deep in thought.
“Well, if ‘Lux’ is on the World that Never Was, then why are we here? To Twilight Town!” Discord exclaimed, and snapped his fingers, moving us all back to the ship.
“Uh, Discord, we still had to meet Aerith and the others to get info on Sora, Riku, Kairi and the others y’know?”
He got a disappointed look on his face, “Oh,” He snapped again, and teleported me, Noctis, and Die down, putting us in the middle of town.
“Huh, that’s convenient. We’re here.” I said, pointing to a building, and walking forward slowly.
“HEY! You can’t enter without permission y’know!” A voice I instantly recognized said from above
“Sure we can’t Yuffie.” Noctis said sarcastically. “So, is there a reason you stopped us? Cause I know there’s no restrictions about entering a building.”
“Ok, ya got me. There’s actually nobody in there except for Merlin. They’re all at the castle right now.” She said.
“Oh, ok, thanks,” I said, before beginning to fly off.
______________________________________________________________
“Ok, so the castle is that way.” I muttered under my breath as I readjusted my flight.
I got to the area above the castle gate, and came to a stop, only to be crashed into from behind.
“GAH!” I shouted as I fell, softening both my own landing, and the one who crashed into me’s landing with my wind. I looked over to see Die in pegasus form.
“Owwwww, dammit. What the hell did you stop for!?” She said, switching back, getting off me and cracking her various joints.
“You were following me?” I asked, tilting my head a little.
“Well duh, I don’t wanna hear some old guy talking about the type of magic only Noctis could use. With the changes to both his physical and emotional states, he’d probably start lording it over me or something.” She said irritatedly.
“Fair enough.” I said as I checked to make sure I hadn’t broken anything in the fall.
“So, why the sudden stop anyway? I mean besides wanting to be tackled by a beautiful girl.” She said, smiling.
He chuckled, “Because we’re here.” he said as he pointed to the castle doors behind him.
“Oh, right. Hey, who’s the guy over there?” She asked, pointing somewhere behind me.
I turned to look, and saw Leon in the outfit used in KH2. “Leon,” I said, just quiet enough that he probably couldn’t hear.
“Ok, I’ll ask you once. Who are you, and why are you here?” He asked in a stern tone, reaching for his gunblade.
“We’re here looking for information on some people.”
“Information on who?”
“For one: A group called Organization XIII.” I started.
“Well, some of them have come back here, but they’re not with the Organization anymore. They’re helping us by researching various things which I won’t be discussing with you.” He said.
“Yes, I know about them coming back, I’m talking about a group called the ‘True Organization.’”
“The True Organization? That’s....not good.”
“Ever heard of Xehanort?”
“Of course. He was Ansem the Wise’s assistant. Why?”
“The True Organization is, in the most blunt of terms: 12 versions of him, pullen from different points in time.”
“Pullen?” He asked with a raised eyebrow. I chose to ignore him.
“I don’t really know the details myself. Apparently they can also make copies of him by injecting a small amount of his ‘heart’ into another.”
“That would explain why there are still members of the original Organization missing. They’ve probably been made into copies of him. So, anything else?”
“I also am looking for two specific Nobodies, and a pair of heartless who may be a bit of a threat.”
“Well, what are their names? If they’re a threat, they have to be taken care of.”
“The nobodies aren’t the threat, their Names are Lumos, or ‘Lux,’ as he’s calling himself in this journal entry we found, and Malum. The heartless we’re looking for are called Akumu and Umbra.”
“Sorry, never heard of ‘em. Try asking Lea if you can find him. He’s probably at the that tower with Yen Sid, Sora and the rest.” He said.
“Which tower is that?”
“It’s called the Mysterious Tower . That’s where Sora and his friend Riku are, though they wouldn’t say what they were doing there.” Leon said, shaking his head.
“So it’s already begun...” I muttered
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
I sighed, “It’s not important, anyway, see ya.”
“Alright then. When you get to the tower, tell Sora that I’m looking forward to testing just how strong he’s become.” Leon said as he headed inside.
“Ven, what’s begun and why did you lie to Leon about it not being important?” Die asked with a serious expression.
“Kingdom Hearts Dream Drop Distance, the 5th game in the KH series. I lied about it not being important to not screw up the timeline too much.”
“Oh, well that makes sense. But what if Akumu and Umbra mess it up themselves?”
“That’s an uncontrolled variable in this situation, we’ll just hope everything falls in place as it should, lets get back to Merlins to get Noctis again.”
“You know the second Noctis finds out what storylines going on, he’s gonna demand to go to the Mysterious Tower and learn to wield a Keyblade from Yen Sid, right? Hell, I won’t be surprised if he insists on helping Sora and Riku out if they’re still in the sleeping worlds.”
“Oh yeah... we already edited the story quite a bit. Although I don’t want Leon to know what happens for other reasons too.” I said, thinking about what happens to Sora near the end of the storyline.
“Not necessarily. We could have come in too close to the end to make any major changes. After all, he said Lea was at the tower, right?”
“The smallest change can affect the ending. No matter what point we’re at.”
“Dude, you’re blowing this out of proportion. And besides, maybe we can change it for the better, nip this whole clash in the bud or something?” She suggested. “I know Noctis would be up for it, since it would result in saving lives, in a sense. Though it could possibly prevent the rescue of Terra, Aqua and Ven. Hmm, maybe we should wait until we’re sure the storyline has reached the end before we go? After all, the next game hasn’t been made yet, so the storyline from that point is unwritten.”
“There have been rumors of Kingdom Hearts 3 being called ‘the keyblade war,’ though that rumor has existed since before even 358/2 days came out, so there isn’t much ground to it.”
“Meh, good enough for me. So once we’re sure the storyline has reached the end of DDD, we go to the tower, and get Noctis signed up for training from Yen Sid and Mickey, right?”
“And hopefully Lumos won’t have been made into a copy of Xehanort by then... Wait... His blade, Nihl, could theoretically destroy anything, right?”
“Yeah what does that ha-wait, are you thinking what I think you’re thinking?”
“What I’m thinking is that he could kill Riku and Sora, or even destroy their keyblades.”
“Or, as long as ‘Lux’ keeps it in his possession, if he remembers everything, he could kill Xemnas, thus derailing Xehanort’s plans. But only if he remembers.”
“We can only hope.” I muttered, shaking my head.
“Yeah, that’s all we c-OW!” Die said as a door slammed open, catching her in the face.
“What the fuck?!” I shouted, my hand jumping to my blade, but not quite drawing it. I looked into the doorway, and saw Noctis. It was only then that I noticed we had walked all the way back to Merlin's’ house already.
“Oh shit, you ok Die?” He said in a worried tone, running toward her.
“DUMBASS!” She shouted, while giving him a punch in the forehead, “What the fuck did you slam a door on my face for!?” I noticed a small bit of red coming down from her nose.
“Um... Die?” I asked.
“What?” She turned to me, with a look that could almost kill.
“You’re bleeding.” I pulled out a rag from one of the many pockets of my fancy schmancy new outfit (See SONAD chapter 9 for a link to the outfit pic), and held it out to her.
She put a hand under her nose and pulled it back. “Oh, great. Nice going Noctis.” She said with a sarcastic tone, snatching the rag from my hand and cleaning off the blood before using a Cure spell to heal the bruise and bleeding. “You’re just lucky you’re my brother, you know that?” She said with a smirk.
“Yeah yeah. So, what did you guys learn?” Noctis asked. I thought for a moment before responding
“We learned what point in the story we are in, and just how big of a problem we have on our hands.”
“I know, we’re here during the events of 3D, right?”
“Yeah, but that’s not all I figured out.”
“What else?” He asked.
“If the diary entry of ‘Lux’ is correct, then Sora or Riku could be killed if he doesn’t regain his memories. However, us trying to stop it from happening may stop the rescues of Aqua, Terra, and the Ventus from BBS.”
“Crap, so we’re damned if we do, and damned if we don’t?” Noctis said. TOO MANY QUESTIONS! ABORT ABORT!
“Unless Lumos remembers.”
“Then I guess we’re going to have to get involved and make sure he does!” Noctis said confidently.
“You aren’t getting it,” I said “we’re only able to really hope that he remembers on his own, our getting involved will change it even more.”
“Our being here has already done that, hasn’t it?”
“Yes, yes it has, but that--”
“No buts! We’re going to help them, we’re going to make sure that Lumos, Sora and Riku are saved, and we’re going to help rescue Masters Aqua, Terra and Ventus.” he said.
“Ventus wasn’t a master, and Terra failed his mark of mastery exam.” I corrected.
“I know that technically, they’re not masters, but as far as I’m concerned, they are skilled enough to deserve the title.” I retorted. “So therefore, I call them Masters. You got a problem with that?”
I let out a sigh, “No, it’s just tha-AAGH!” I shouted as a letter lodged itself in my left eye.
“Well, at least it wasn’t me this time.” Noctis said.
Die hit him. “Shut up Noctis. You ok Ven? What is that? And what did Noctis mean by ‘this time’?”
“Yeah, I’m fine,” I opened the letter, “Huh, it’s another one of the entries of the ‘Journal of a Nobody’ and what he meant was that the last one lodged itself in his eye. Also I think you should wear some sort of sunglasses, just in case.” I said with my left eye squinted.
She looked at me, “Nah, I’ll be fine. If I can take a door to the face and heal up in a snap, I think a paper plane to the eye would only be a minor annoyance.”
“Anyway, lets see what it says...” and he began to read it out loud.
“Journal of a Nobody: Entry 2
I wonder why I keep writing these, with no emotions it just seems stupid and pointless. The rest of the members of the organization all have their hoods up, and won’t talk to me. So there isn’t much to really talk about. Although I did see one of the faces, he looked like a younger version of Xemnas, I wonder if they’re brothers or something? One last thing, a few of my memories have come back to me. One thing stands out above all: a thing called Kingdom Hearts.
~Lux”
“Shit, young Xehanort. Something tells me the next entry we get will not be good.” Noctis said, slightly worried.
“At least he’s remembering.” I added, trying to look on the bright side.
“Yeah, that’s something good, at least. But what if he doesn’t remember everything in time to save himself from being turned into a copy of Xehanort?”
“As I said before, we can only hope.”
“Screw just hoping, let’s get involved!” Noctis shouted.
I looked at him, “I think we should go back to the ship and take a vote.”
“Same here.” Ok, good, so Die is on my side on this one. Or at least she wants to take a vote too, rather than decide for everyone.
“Alright then. Back to the ship. You still got that thing Discord gave you to contact him?” To answer Noctis’ question, I took of my watch and held it to my mouth.
“Discord, we’re ready to come back.”
A bright flash appeared, and by when my eyes adjusted, we were back on the ship.
“Dude, that was infinitely easier on the head than regular teleporting.” Noctis said.
“Yeah, anyway,” I held up my watch again, “Intercom mode: All personnel report to the bridge.” I said, with my voice echoing throughout the entirety of the ship.
A few minutes later, everyone, arrived, waiting to hear what we had to say.
I began, “We have good news and bad news. Good news, we have another piece of the diary of ‘Lux,’ this entry telling us that he is regaining his memory slowly. The bad news is that he might be transformed into a Xehanort clone soon.” I looked up, “This leads me to my next order of business: a vote. Do we go to rescue Lumos this second, or do we wait to let the timeline of Dream Drop Distance carry out first? If we rush in, we may stop the rescues of the main characters from Birth by Sleep.”
“And if we don’t get involved, then Lumos, or ‘Lux’, may kill Sora and Riku, completely wrecking the timeline, unless he remembers everything before it’s too late.”
“Ok, so who is for?” I asked, everyone but me, Discord, Jolt, and Tox raised their hands/hoofs.
Noctis seemed happy with the results of the vote“So that’s seven of us. Wait, Discord, you’re against this? Hmm, kinda surprised, but then again, you are a Spirit of Chaos, so being unpredictable is basically your job description, huh?”
“True, but I also know better than to rupture timelines.”
“... Well, Discord, I guess we’re off to Twilight Town.” I said, head hung, accepting my defeat.
“Wait, what if just go and get Lumos back from The World that never Was before the fight if it hasn’t happened yet, and we make sure to take Nihl with us?” Noctis suggested. I just shook my head.
“The fight will probably start before we get there, considering we have to go through a passage hidden in Twilight Town.”
“Hey, didn’t they rename it Traverse Town at some point? No wait, they’re two completely separate worlds. I think I’m messing up all the names now.” Noctis said, facehoofing.
“Yeah, different world.”
He looked a little embarrassed at this, “Ok then. So, where exactly is the passage that’ll take us to The World that Never Was anyway? Wait, since it’s a sleeping world now, won’t we only be able to access it the way that Sora and Riku did? By entering the realm of sleeping Keyholes?”
“Oh, now where is the fun in taking the normal route?” Discord asked.
“Oh right, I forgot you can go anywhere you want, anyway you want.” Noctis said.
Discord put on a pair of shades, “We launch in 5. 4. 3. 2. 1.” the ship shook heavily, knocking us all to the floor but him, “We have liftoff.”
“You added that to mess with us, didn’t you?” I said from the ground. Honestly I was ok with it, because I had broke Die’s fall, but still.
“You can’t prove anything!” Discord shouted.
“He’s got you there Ven.” Noctis said with a chuckle.
“I wasn’t complaining,” I said with a slight smile.
“Yeah, you were whining. And get a room you two.” He retorted, and we both blushed furiously, quickly standing up.
“Um... I’ll be training. I want to be as ready as possible for what is to come.”
“I’m gonna blow off some steam. NOBODY BOTHER ME UNLESS YOU HAVE A DEATHWISH!” Die shouted.
And with that, Die and I were off to the VR Room and Game Room, leaving everybody else to do whatever.
VR room
I walked into the room, laying down Tai Fuu No Me (my sword) in the doorway, and walked to the center, before saying “Enter training simulation: Pain bubble. Level: 5 of 5.” What? I need to be good at ignoring pain to fight against guys who use antimatter as a weapon.
A red bubble appeared in front of me, a small bit floated off and hit me, the pain of which causing me to fall to one knee, and begin to actually bleed from my mouth, I stood up, walked up to it, and said “Soundproof room. Begin Simulation,” before jumping in.
The pain was unbearable, every time I tried to move, a new cut opened on my skin, I fought the urge to open my mouth to let out a scream. I then realized something important: I forgot to set up the auto time limit on it. I fell to one knee, splitting the skin around it at least twice. I let out a scream as I fell to the ground, which caused, you guessed it, more damn cuts.
Maybe... I should have payed more attention when setting that up... I thought as my vision started to fade.
“YOU IDIOT!” I heard a voice yell. “End simulation right FUCKING NOW!” and Die ran over.
I smiled, despite the pain, “I thought I told the computer... to soundproof the room.” I coughed up a bit of blood.
“Yeah well, looks like it didn’t do a very good job of it.” She said. “Here, let me take care of that. Curaga.” I felt my cuts closed, oddly enough, they formed scars that covered my body.
“Thanks, I shouldn’t have put it on level five...” I said.
“No worries Ven, you wanted to be stronger, that’s understandable, though in a way I still don’t get how guys think going through pain makes them stronger.”
“I’m not aiming for stronger. I’m aiming to be less reactive to pain.”
“Ok then. Oh, there’s still a cut on your face. Let me take care of it.” She said, before, get this, pecking me on the cheek. I felt myself blush... and something else...
“I... Um...” I tried to think of something to say, but my brain wasn’t in commission at the moment.
“Ok, I’ll leave you to put your brain back together.” She said, turning to leave.
“No, wait.” I said, immediately wondering why.
“Yes?” She said, smiling as she turned back to me.
“I... Oh fuck being suave about it!” I said, before kissing her.
She was surprised at first, but she eventually started relaxing into it, wrapping her arms around me and trying to pull me closer. I pulled her in as well, and the kiss deepened. Eventually, her tongue started pushing into my teeth, trying to gain entrance. I opened my mouth and let mine slip out as well, and our tongues danced around each other’s mouths. I pulled out for a moment, to say “Change location: generic romantic field.” before going back in, as the scenery changed to a field of tall grass, in the background was a beautiful sunset...
(And so both me and Clearshot decided it would be best [and less awkward] to leave it there, to the sick, twisted minds of you, the audience. although no actual sex happens, just make out scene. :P)
Meanwhile in the Everfree Forest, Umbra’s PoV
I stood before my army, noticing the differences between them. Apparently, each sin blade gave them abilities. To explain:
All of the creatures I made have the same physical appearance as heartless, but they are all colored differently, and had an ability, as follows:
Envy gives the ability to create strife and anger between others. Color: Green
Pride gives them a boost to power or speed, but lowers the other. Color: Purple/Violet
Greed simply gives them the ability to steal it’s opponents powers and strength. Color: Golden
Lust... Just made them a bunch of horny bastards. Color: Ocean Blue
I grinned, after all, I made something different from a heartless, nobody, dream eater, or unversed. What to call them... I made them with blades of sin... maybe... Sinners? Eh, if I find a new name, I’ll use it.
I opened up my thought speak, and contacted my hoard, I threw my fist up, and the crowd of Sinners before me began to cheer, except the ‘Lust’ ones, they just kept doing what they did best.
I was puln out of my feel of glory when I... ‘heard’ Akumu’s thoughts, it said UMBRA! IF YOU CAN HEAR ME WITH THAT FREAKY MIND SHIT, I NEED AN ADULT!
I chuckled, and turned to the Sinners.
The Sinners cheered again, I lifted myself up with rings of darkness around my feet and shoulders, and flew with the winged sinless. oddly enough, they all looked like a cross between neo shadow and knight heartless, and skeletons, other than the manticores, they became more like the living bones from KH2. A lot of the nova-shadow ones were winged for some reason, even though they had no wings before hand.
It took a few minutes for the army to reach Ponyville, before I sent the message to surround the town to the entire army. I then sent a private message to Akumu.
I was surprised when Akumu replied in thought speech,
I saw Akumu, Rainbow Dash, and Pinkie Pie all exit the Library
<2 seconds to the drop of me, and my army.> I said in public speech.
Akumu chuckled to the confusion of the two ponies.
I smiled,
My army of Sinners began to attack the town, the living bone like ones charging through the streets, trampling anything in their way, as the neowings (what i’m calling the flying ones now.) dropped down and killed the first thing that moved, except the Lust ones, which... well, I don’t need to describe it. I moved in front of the pink mare with cotton hair, picked her up by the neck, and jammed my hand into her chest, rendering her soul.
"OK TIME TO GO!" Akumu yelled as a crowd of angry ponies started to gather, before running in fear from my army. I dropped the pink body in my hand, and my smile became a grin.
he ‘said’ as a new blade appeared in my hand. In the gloved hand of Umbra, a huge keyblade appeared.
"Nah. Let's just go find our weaker halves and end them."
Akumu gave a sigh before nodding, and I ran off to wreak havoc on this town.
__________________________________________________________________________
So... I have no clue what the hell I just wrote. Also, answer to last riddle I asked you was ‘nothing.’ Today’s riddle is this: What stinks when living and smells good when dead? The answer next time.
~Cloud Nova/Madman12435 Signing out.
View Online
Tales of Illumination, Book 2: Distortions
Chapter 10: Yet another chapter with no name
Ven’s POV
Me and Die were laying down in the virtual field, side by side, looking at the night sky created in the dome. Unfortunately for me, my brain was going into overdrive now to make up for blanking earlier.
I wish we had gone further... but why do I feel happy about not doing so? It... It makes no sense. Then again, no emotions make sense... Not only that, but this makes things more complicated, before I was willing to run onto the front lines, and sacrifice myself for the good of others... Now... I’m not so sure... SHIT, I wish I knew what Die was thinking right now. Maybe it would give me some form of a calm feeling.
I cleared my throat, “Hey, Die?”
“Yeah?” she said.
“What are you thinking about?”
“You really wanna know?” she replied with a hint of sadness.
“Yeah, I do.”
“Ok. After this is over, you're gonna have to go back to your Equis, and I have to go to mine, and we'll probably never see each other again. At least when Noctis finally admits his feelings for Luna they can pursue a relationship in the same world. We can't.” a few tears started to slide down her cheek.
“I never thought of that...” I said, feeling sadness creep up behind me. “I was focusing on how much more complicated things have become from the past few minutes alone.”
"Just like a guy to think with his junk rather than his head." she laughed.
I chuckled, “Not what I meant.”
“I know.” She seemed to lose herself in thought for a few minutes. “Hey Ven?”
“Yeah Die?”
“What if...What if you stayed on our world with us?” she asked hopefully.
“I never thought of that,” I sat up, the sadness just... melting away. “I have no actual reason to stay on my Equis, I’ll have to quit my job as an assassin first though, for obvious reasons.”
“You were an assassin? Why am I only learning this now?” she said in mock-irritation.
“To be honest, Lumos is too, we’re part of a group called the ‘wind reapers,’ Lumos joined it before I did, In fact, when whatever caused us to move to your world happened, we were training, we’re the only two humans among them.”
“I see. so, Wind Reapers? Sounds like you chose the name, am I right?"
“No, they existed for a long time, they’re almost as old as the dark brotherhood.”
“Dark brotherhood?"
“A group of assassins over a thousand of years old, they were originally a part of a larger guild, but then broke off, worshiping a woman called the ‘Night mother.’ The Night Mother was a dead woman, who could speak to a single member of the Dark Brotherhood, called the ‘Listener,’ under the listener, there are four ‘Speakers,’ like... like four fingers and a thumb.” I said. Damn, feels good to be a nerd.
“Cool. So, back to what we were talking about. Will you stay?”
“Two words: Fuck. Yeah.”
"Maybe when we're married lover-boy." she said with a beaming smile.
I laughed “If we live that long.” My expression fell as my thoughts returned to the battle ahead.
"Uh, hello. I am immortal. As long as you stay behind me you're golden."
“It’s not that simple, Nihl can destroy , and antimatter can kill immortals. Trust me, I would know.”
“Thanks for ruining my epic pep-talk.”
“What are boyfriends for?” I asked nonchalantly.
“Hmmm, I could think of a few things. You might not like all of them though." she retorted mischievously.
I raised an eyebrow, “Oh?”
"Anyway, I'd better check on Noctis and the others. I'll leave you to think of what else boyfriends are good for."
I thought for a moment, “I’ll go with you, I’ve got nothing better to do with my time... or anything worse really.”
"Just as long as I don't have to save your ass from those balls of pain again." she smirked, pecking me again.
“I’ll just grin and bear it.” I said.
She smiled. “I'm sure you will. So, you wanna knock, or will we just burst in and hope to find him in a hilariously awkward position?”
I grinned, “Burst in, obviously, it’s only logical.”
“And that's why I love you, Venny.”
“... That... nevermind.” I said, facepalming to hide my blush.
“Awww, c'mon, a girl's gotta have an embarrassing nickname for her boyfriend. It's traditional."
I chuckled yet again, “Fine, you can call me... that.” I absolutely REFUSE to utter it. Never.
“Don't worry, I'll only ever utter it in your presence.”
I sighed, and muttered a quiet “Damn,” Before saying “So, shall we get going?”
"Yeah. Let's. I want to catch Noctis before he can clean up whatever mess I'm sure he made.”
“Alrighty then!” I said, and began to fly down the corridors, pulling Die along with my wind.
“Ven, I haven't said this before, but the wind-powers? Amazing!”
“It’s actually got more uses than you would think!” I shouted.
“Save it for the bedroom!”
“Yeah, yeah, anyway, we’ll be breaking through the door momentarily.”
"Oh, this is gonna be fun." Die said with a smile.
I created a low pressure barrier around me, and rolled up into a little ball, bracing for impact.
I crashed through the door, and slowed us both to a stop before I hit the wall, putting Die down, and standing on the wall myself.
“Room service!” I said with a grin.
"Awwww, and here I thought there would be a mess." Die complained
“Eh, it looks like something happened at least.” I looked at her “Also, you were right, its starting to hurt.”
“How did I know it would be Die...What. Are. You. Doing here?” Noctis growled through gritted teeth, while Luna tried to move him off the bed and pull up the covers over herself.
“Just checking up on ya,” I said whilst walking from the wall onto the roof.
"Ven, get off the ceiling. Discord'll kick your ass if you get the Swagwagon dirty in any way."
“I’m not actually touching it. Wind powers are best powers.” I said, reminding them of the minimum half inch distance between my feet and just about anything.
"Die, Ven. I'm asking nicely. Please leave. Do not make me break out 'the voice'." Luna said quietly.
I chuckled, “Trust me, princess, I’ve heard louder than the Royal Canterlot Voice, at point blank.”
"I was not referring to that voice."
“Oh... Die, shall we take our leave?” I asked in fear. Shit, please princess don’t use the god queen’s voice, I beg of you!
"In a minute." she said before she turned to face them again. "Noctis, you'd better make her happy. And Luna, keep him from getting himself killed. Oh, and be good. But if you can't," she turned towards the door, "Be sure to name the first one after me," and with that, she ran out of the room, cackling madly, with me following closely behind, letting out an evil laugh of my own.
"So, think we embarrassed him enough?"
“For today,” I said with a grin.
"I forgot what it was like to see him embarrassed. It's been way too long since he's shown any emotion at all other than the occasional fit of anger."
“Really? He seemed pretty open around Lumos and me.”
"Maybe, but before you came along he was always keeping his feelings to himself. Ever since we lost our parents."
“Maybe it’s the ponies?”
"And the fact that he's one too? Think that might have anything to do with it?"
“... Yeah, that could be it.” I floated in front of her upside down, so our eyes were level.
"So, we gonna tell everyone when we get to Twilight Town?"
“Yeah, why not?”
"You do know I'm talking about 'them' as well as 'us', right?"
“Yeah, I know.”
"Now, let's go figure out how long till we arrive." she said, giving me a quick kiss on the lips, before running around me and towards the bridge.
“Yes ma’am!” I shouted with an overdone salute while flying past her.
"I'm not in SOLDIER anymore, so only call me ma'am if you ever start training under me."
“Fine, fine, anyway lets go!” I said, picking her up with my wind, and carrying her even faster than before to the bridge.
"I could get used to that, but I'd end up getting out of shape if I did."
“On a related note, have you been eating a bit more lately?” I asked in a stupid way, earning a fist in my stomach, it didn’t hurt too much, but it got the message across. “I was just kidding!”
"In case you hadn't noticed, the entire time we've been in Equestria, and travelling on this ship, neither myself nor Noctis has eaten. We don't need to, haven't needed to since the Orbs started converting some of their energy to keep us going 3 years ago."
“Three years? Wow... Don’t you miss it at all? I know I would.”
"Not really. We were vegetarians back home, and we don't mind not eating or drinking. Actually, it's kind of an improvement since we used to see it as a waste of time we could use for training."
“Yeah, that makes sense... Wait... wouldn’t that mean Noctis has to eat now since he lost the lunar orb?”
“Huh, that’s a good question.”
“We’ll know sooner or later.” I said with a shrug.
“That we will. Oh, by the way, I wanted to ask, why do you like me? I mean, look at me. I’m a mercenary, for lack of a better word.”
“And I’m an assassin. Honestly, I couldn’t care less about occupation.”
“Ok then. So, are we gonna be walking for much longer?”
“Oh, please, I’m doing all the work.” I said with an eyeroll, “I AM carrying you after all.”
“Don’t tell me you don’t like it.” she retorted with a grin.
“Wouldn’t dare.” I said, turning backwards to face her.
“Soooo, can you kiss and glide at the same time?”
“Wanna find out?” I raised an eyebrow.
“Oh, definitely.” she replied in a very bad attempt at a sultry tone. I changed the distance between us, and kissed her. Unfortunately, it was rather short lived in comparison to last time, due to me crashing into a steel wall.
“AAGH!” I shouted in pain, while trying to roll around on the floor pathetically. “IT BROKE THE BONE! IT FUCKING BROKE IT!”
“Ven, calm down. Let me fix it.” she said, placing a hand on each of my shoulders to hold me steady and casting a healing spell on me.
I looked up at her, and gave a sheepish grin, “Well, at least we have an answer.”
“Yeah, you can kiss and fly, but it’s not recommended except for those who like painful crashes.” she smirked.
I grinned, before jumping up. “Eeyup.” I looked around, “Anyway, we’re here.” I said, walking over to the first door on my right, which I remember as the bridge, and opening it.
“HELLO PEOPLE!” Die yelled. “We gonna get started or what?”
I walked in, suddenly noticing how dark it is in there, before holding my watch up to my mouth, and saying. “Bridge lights: on.” and the room lit up, only for me to wish it hadn’t.
“By Odin's beard” I muttered, horrified at what I saw: a certain pony princess of the day, and draconequus were... well... mating... in a bed that somehow manifested itself in the center of the damn room.
“AHHHH, MY EYES! THEY BURN! THIS IS WORSE THAN WHAT WE WITNESSED IN NOCTIS’ ROOM!” Die said in a mock-horrified tone, before putting a hand to her mouth. Whether it was to hold back laughter, or vomit, I didn’t know. Both Celestia and Discord turned to face us. Celestia’s face was red with embarrassment, while Discord didn’t seem shocked at all.
I slowly backed out, saying “I think this is a bad time. I’m gonna go sleep. Maybe bleach my eyes a little bit to try to unsee this. Thanks for the nightmares, Celestia, Discord.”
Die followed me out, and then, she slapped me on the back. “Well, looks like everyone’s getting together now. Who’s next? Tox and Sparky?” she said jokingly.
“Nah, that’s the least likely of them, maybe Aqua and Shade though.” I shuddered, remembering what I just saw. Don’t think of the children, don’t think of the children.
“Hey, what do you think the children will look like?” she asked innocently.
My eye twitched, before I grabbed my head with both hands, and began to scream uncontrollably as images began to flow through my mind.
“Ok, someone needs a nap.” She said, as she grabbed me by the shoulder and slammed the hilt of her sword into my skull as hard as she could without actually causing lasting damage. The effect was instantaneous, and I lost consciousness imagining all the possible combinations of looks the children of the two minor gods could have.
_____________________________________________________________________
I feel good... Maybe I should have gone to bed sooner... wait... why do I feel so warm? and why do i smell smoke?! I thought after waking up.
My eyes opened up to see one thing and one thing alone: Me on fire. I lept out of bed, before I did the smartest thing I’ve done in weeks, which was simply removing all oxygen from around my skin, immediately killing the flames. I winced in pain as I looked up to see Jolt standing in the doorway.
He grinned sadistically, “We’re here.” Was all he said as he walked out of my room.
“Sooo, that was his idea to wake you up? I knew I should’ve just gone with my plan.” Die said as he walked in
I managed to speak through my burns, somehow, “If you wouldn’t mind, a healing spell would be VERY helpful right about now.”
“Ok, ok.” she said as she cast the spell. “There, better?”
“Yeah, thanks.” I rolled my shoulder, “Is it weird that I’m keeping scars from almost everything?” I asked, looking at my arm, which is now covered in various scars.
“Damn, you’ve got a lot of mementos, huh?” she said, giving a barely audible whistle.
“The sad part is how many of them were gotten through me being an idiot.”
“Sounds like Noctis when we started out as SOLDIERs. You wouldn’t believe how many times I had to pull his ass out of the fray with some sort of wound. Then again, it was usually my fault for rushing in. He’d get hurt because he was coming to save me .”
“Did all of them leave huge scars?” I asked.
“Not all of them. The worst one was when we got tasked with fighting this huge sea-serpent though. It pierced him right through the chest, barely missing his heart. The blood loss alone should have killed him.”
“That... wow...” My mind then blanked right then and there for a few moments, before I remembered what Jolt had said, “Wait, we’ve arrived?”
“Yep.” she said. “But my brother and her Royal Nightiness are still asleep.”
“Should we ask Sparky to wake them up too?” I replied with a look of minor anger.
“No. And don’t worry about Sparky. I’ve already gotten him back for that. Discord should be reading the note on his back any second now...” she said with a grin.
“What did you... Actually, I don’t want to know what you wrote, let’s get a head start on going down there. I kinda want to see this world soon.”
“You go ahead. I’ll wake up Noctis and Luna. Oh, and by the way,” she whacked me on the head.
“Ow! What was that for?”
“Celestia taught me a cool method for removing memories from someone’s mind. You have to hit them though. I removed the images that our little ‘discovery’ cooked up inside your head. You can thank me later.” she said as she ran off.
Isn’t it called a concussion? Also, what discovery? Oh... she removed whatever that memory it was she was talking about, I guess. Eh, whatever. I thought as I walked out into the hall. I held up my watch, to thankfully see that it wasn’t melted by the fire. I held it up to my mouth, “Discord, could you send me down to a specific spot?”
“Where to?” His voice said.
I thought for a moment, “The top of the bell tower of the train station.”
“Yes sir!” I heard, before a bright flash engulfed me. When it cleared, I was standing on a slanted roof, I putting Tai Fuu No Me in it’s sheath, and jumped down, slowing my decent just enough for me to look epic.
I touched down with barely any sound emitted from my footsteps. I then immediately turned, and, grabbing a random skateboard I saw on the side of the road, and leaving roughly 20 bits in a small bag with a note there, explaining that i was buying it, I was off down the ‘road.’ I tore off the wheels with my wind, and just soared through the air on it, flying over people, who stared wide eyed at the armed flying stranger in town. I immediately headed to one of the places I remembered above all from KH2: the Sandlot.
The common two groups from KH2 were there, totalling up to the following: Hayner, Pence, Olette, Seifer, Vivi, Rai, and Fuu. Oh, Setzer was there also, but that wasn’t important, really. Anyway, I landed my makeshift hoverboard off to the side, of the area, and walked up.
“I heard that this is the place to go for a ‘struggle’ match.” I said plainly, looking at them with bored eyes.
“Oh, is that so?” Seifer asked.
“Yeah, I also heard that the champion here is a decent enough fighter. So I thought I might as well stop by and see.”
Seifer gave me an ‘are you serious?’ look, before letting a smile appear. “All right, If it’s a fight you want, you’ve come to the right place.”
I grinned, “Good.”
Several minutes later, I was wearing a sort of electric thing over my outfit, which held the balls for the competition on it, and had one of those weird baton thingies in his hand.
“Ready?” I asked, taking a ready position.
“Anytime.” He responded with a grin.
“Alright then, lets do this.” I said before charging.
Seifer was surprisingly skilled in combat, deflecting almost half my attacks, the rest managing to knock most of the red-colored balls off of his outfit. I jumped to the left to collect a large portion of the orbs, only to get a struggle baton in my back. I turned around with a huge swipe, striking the rest off of him. As I jumped forward to collect them, Seifer began a combo, that proceeded to knock every ball but five off of me. I quickly got them back, but damn, he has a good arm.
The last ten seconds were even more hectic: we had both managed to get back up to 100 balls each, and were furiously attacking each other to try to get even one more. I managed to barely hit one off his head, before knocking him back, and leaping for it, grabbing it just as the bell sounded, and the match was over.
I took the black over outfit thingy off, and said “Where did you learn to fight like that?”
“I taught myself.” He said, panting between words.
“Interesting, with a bit of tweaking, you would be on par with a good friend of mine. Though he prefers real combat.”
“Oh, also,” Seifer held up a handful of blue orbs, “I won.”
I stared for a moment, before I began to laugh. “It’d be nice to fight you again sometime.” I said as I held out my hand to him. A small smile appeared on his face, and he shook it, saying “Same here.”
“By the way,” I said, standing fully upright again, “If anyone asks if you’ve seen me, and where I’m going, tell them I’ll be at the old mansion.” and with that, I jumped onto my board, and flew toward the forests. Yeah, I know I don’t need the board, but hey, I left enough money to buy 2 or 3 of these, so I’m keeping to damn thing.
___________________________________________________________________
At the mansion:
I walked through the Old, wooden doors to the place, the squeak of the hinges echoing through the large, almost empty room. I floated up to the second floor door on the right side, and tried to open to door, only to find it was locked. I then performed the next most logical option: blow the fucking thing down, and spread it over five square feet of the area. I then proceeded to walk over to the table in the center, and draw the symbol from sora’s necklace in the third of the circles, the floor glowed for a moment, and disappeared, revealing a large metallic area. I went through the doorway, and sat down in front of the computer.
___________________________________________________________________
Five minutes of attempt hacking later.
“Ok, now, password: Sea Salt Icecream.” I said while typing in the password for the virtual Twilight town program, and hitting enter.
I turned toward the door as the blue beam appeared, and began to think aloud.
“Dammit, what's taking them so long? Its a 10 minute walk from any part of the town!”
Another two minutes passed, and I began to whistle to myself the ‘sacred grove’ theme from legend of zelda, twilight princess. This was both to amuse myself, and also so that if they DID get lost, they can just follow my whistling.
About a minute later I heard what sounded like Noctis shouting “VEN, STOP WITH THE EAR-RAPE!”
I got up, walked into the hall, and shouted “MAKE ME!” before continuing again while I sat down.
A few minutes later, Noctis kicked in the door, and yelled “UMBRA!”, silencing my whistling once and for now.
“................................................................................... Well, It’s about time you got here.” I said from my chair. “I was considering going without you.”
Noctis took one look at the computer screens. “Do you have any hacking skills?” He asked.
I pointed to the beam, “Three steps ahead of you.”
“Really? Then tell me why the beam is set to erase whatever touches it.” Noctis said with a frown.
“It doesn’t really erase it, it turns it into a program, and chucks it into a virtual version of this world.” I said as I
“No, that’s this program.” Noctis said as he began to type with his hooves... somehow. “The program you had running uses the same password, but it’s a false front. It’s meant to prevent anyone from entering the program by hacking the system. In short, you touch the beam, whatever part of you touches it is completely erased.” He explained.
I looked at the computer again, “Well, I feel silly all of a sudden.”
Noctis ignored me, and focused on the task at hand. “...and re-type the password aaaaaaaaand, done. There, we’re good to go.”
I looked at the top left screen and read aloud “Password incorrect, please try again.”
“Dammit. I hate working on computers using hooves. You type it.” Noctis muttered as he got off the chair.
“Ok, lets see... Sea Salt Ice-cream.” I said quietly as I typed the passcode, being careful not to misspell it. “Ok, now then, lets go!” And with that, I jumped head first into the beam.
Virtual Twilight Town
“Well, it seems to have worked.” I said, motioning to the broken monitors while the rest came through.
“Wow, Roxas had anger issues.” Noctis said looking at the mutilated computer.
“You have no idea.” Ven said as he walked through a door, “This way to the Dark Realms!”
I walked over to the portal Axel had made, and said, “Dunno... Oh, and if this is anything like Lumos’ dark passages, you may want a jacket on hand.”
“Why?” Noctis asked.
“It’s like...” I thought for a moment, as I searched for the right words “It’s like going through a meat freezer... that has just been layered in honey.”
“Alright. Good thing I’ve got fur now.” Noctis said with a sigh of relief.
“Too bad your hooves are going to get all sticky.” Jolt said as he lit himself on fire and ran into the darkness, me and Clare following closely behind.
(And so I leave that part of the story in the almost trustworthy hooves, of clearshot01)
______________________________________________________________________
Shade’s POV
I held up my wristwatch, which discord embedded a transmitter in, and said “Discord, beam me, Celestia, Die, and Luna up, will you? The keybearer has already begun passing through.”
“Ok, removing you from the Virtual world, and then to ship...” I heard Discord’s voice say. Two bright flashes later, we were on the ship.
“So, how goes it?” Die asked.
“Well--” I began
“WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU GUYS THINKING!?” Die suddenly yelled. “WHY ARE WE NOT THERE WITH THEM!? WHY ARE WE JUST SITTING HERE WAITING FOR THEM TO GET-” and then a zipper appeared over her mouth.
I turned to Discord “Thanks for that. Anyway,” I turned back to the others, “The plan is to make sure of two things. One: so that it is properly landed, as landing on a mostly unmapped world requires a crew. Two: Darkness corrupts. Those I let go in were mostly immune to it’s corruption. If you went in, you could end up coming out with a little Akumu in your head. Therefore, It’s a better idea for you three to stay with the ship with me, Discord, Aqua, and Tox.”
“Oh, is that so?” Luna asked sarcastically.
“You were lucky, Luna, you were exposed to a very small amount of darkness. Unfortunately, not enough to give you an immunity to it.”
“Maybe so, but let me ask you this. What if the group down there can’t handle whatever comes their way? What if they die because we weren’t there to help? Can you answer me that?” She retorted with a scowl, crossing her arms.
“You would have been corrupted, and become one of them, thats what.”
“No. I wouldn’t.” Luna said, still scowling. “I would fight it with everything I have, and I would win. I’m that determined to protect Noctis and everyone else. No matter how dark things get, our lights will always shine.”
“You don’t know how bad darkness can get,” I said, grabbing my arm, and looking down, “When true darkness gets in...”
“BOTH OF YOU SHUT THE FUCK UP!” Die yelled, somehow having removed Discord’s zipper. “YOU WANNA KNOW ABOUT DARKNESS SHADE!? TRY MEETING SEPHIROTH, TRY MEETING AKUMU. THEN TELL ME THAT WE CAN’T HANDLE IT!”
“Does visiting a world of nothing but darkness count? Because I’ve had to. Many. Many times.”
“And I’ve had to fight my own brother’s darkness, and the entire time it was trying to corrupt me too. You know what my head was telling me to do. It was telling me to kill him, saying that my brother was gone and not coming back. My heart, on the other hand, told me he could be saved. And you can see by the fact that he’s here, my head was wrong, while my heart was right. I know plenty about darkness.”
“As I said before: you know nothing . There is a difference between fighting yourself, and fighting another, that most can’t even begin to understand.”
“Oh, I know that. I know the difference very well. Even Noctis hasn’t seen my darkness. His wants to eliminate life. Mine is much more sadistic . It would prefer to torture life to the brink of death, then bring it back from said brink, over and over again until said life loses its sanity. Then it would start over. I wonder about it sometimes. Noctis’ desires the death of others, while mine still seeks to preserve their lives, albeit at the cost of their sanity.”
“All the more reason for you not to go.”
“You still don’t get it. Darkness exists inside me, as it does within all living things, but it’s presence is ignorable. It’s not strong enough to ever get out, and Akumu himself inadvertently made sure of that.”
“Whatever, they’re probably through by now, Discord?”
Discord turned to a monitor, “Lets see... Oh... Well that Isn’t good.”
“What?” Die and Luna asked in unison.
“Well... They haven’t got out yet.”
“Discord...can we get a visual of the Space Between?” Die asked.
“No, it’s an area even I have no control over.”
“Dammit, this s-UGH!” Die started clutching her head, then her eyes widened. “FUCKIT! I hate that stupid memory thing!” She yelled. “I thought we weren’t supposed to have that damn ability anymore.”
“What ability, Die? What are you talking about?” I asked, a bit worried.
“Noctis and I used to be able to share memories subconsciously for the first year after obtaining the Orbs. Then the ability suddenly disappeared. We thought it was gone for good. Apparently not. AND UMBRA IS DEAD WHEN I FIND HIM!”
Damn, girl. “Could we use this ability to contact him?”
“No. We can only see each others memories. And what I just saw...well, I don’t think you want to know what I saw.”
“... I wasn’t going to ask before you said that, but now I’m curious.” I said, putting my hand on my chin.
“Fine, but you’re gonna hate me when you hear it.” She replied. “Apparently, Umbra and Akumu learned how to create new creatures, and some of them, they glow blue and they....” She mumbled the last part, so we couldn’t hear it.
“What was that?” I said, straining my ear.
“THEY RAPED CLARE!” she yelled, covering her mouth immediately afterwards.
I felt my jaw drop, “Uh... Was there anything other than the rape?”
“Yeah.” She said, shaking a little. “Apparently, the ones that glow gold can copy abilities, and the green ones can mess with your head. Noctis could hear one of them in his head. There may be other kinds, but I don’t know.”
“Now that just sucks.” I said, “What about the others? Were they Ok?”
“Ven retreated with Clare, and Noctis is arguing with Jolt about exercising caution, but other than that, I didn’t see anything.”
A loud beeping sound came from the computer, and Discord flew up to a screen that had turned white, “Ven has made it out with Clare. Establishing com-link.”
“Houston, we have a problem,” Vens voice said from the ship’s speakers.
“VEN, WHERE THE FUCK IS NOCTIS!” Die yelled. “IS HE STILL FIGHTING THOSE THINGS!?”
“How do you know about... you know what, never mind, yes, him and Jolt are still there. Discord, beam Clare up, and send down Shade, Aqua, Mirum, and Tox. Now.”
“VEN, YOU’RE COMING BACK UP TOO! THOSE THINGS WERE MADE BY UMBRA!”
We heard him chuckle, “Yes, I heard Noctis shouting it earlier.”
“Did he tell you the green ones mess with your head and make you attack your friends?”
“I wouldn’t be surprised, they were messing with the mind from the start, so such a thing would probably be easy for them. DISCORD, reinforcements. NOW!”
“Right, On it,” Discord said, before a bright flash appeared, and me, Mirum, Aqua, and Tox were suddenly in a back ally
“Guys, try to keep one alive. I want something to interrogate.” Die’s voice said over Ven’s com-link.
“Got it, over and out.” Ven said, and turned off his watch before we stepped into the space between.
_____________________________________________________________________
Ven’s POV
We got in to see Noctis with a barrier around him, and four of the green creatures from before, the remaining gold and Violet ones were still there, and seemed to be bored.
“Tox, take care of the green ones, Aqua, Shade, you handle the Violet, Mirum and I will handle the gold.” I said as I rushed forward.
In under 6 seconds, I made all but one of the gold explode, and mirum had torn the other to pieces with his claws. I turned to see that Aqua was just simply drowning the fuckers. So I turned to leave, “Well, we’re done over here!” I shouted.
“OK. So, I’ll go on to the other side. Who’s going with me?” Noctis asked
I grinned, “We all are, stupid.”
“Ok then. But riddle me this. Where is Umbra if he’s the one who created these things? I don’t wanna go through there to find he’s waiting with a mini-gun or something.”
I rolled my eyes, “It’s possible they are like heartless in how they get around. Though why they aren’t affected by the keyblade itself is a better question.”
He thought for a moment, “They were, or at least all but the green ones were, though technically it was just them fucking with my head making me think I was fighting them when I was really fighting Sparky. I think...” He trailed off as we exited the space between worlds.
As soon as we were out, i held my watch up to my mouth, and said “Guess who’s back?”
“A very handsome, if somewhat annoying, wind master?” Die’s voice said over the speaker
I chuckled, “Close, but no, it’s just me.”
I heard a small chuckle on the other side, like she was trying to hide it, “Oh, how can you belittle yourself like that? Do I have to come down there and beat some sense of self-worth into you?”
I smiled, “Nah, I’m good. Discord, could you beam down whoever you can?”
“Aye, sir, that I can!” Discord’s voice said.
Moments later, Discord, Celestia, Luna, and Die appeared. Almost immediately, Luna glomped Noctis,“That is the LAST TIME I ever let you go off without me there to save your sorry flank!” She said as she tried to decide whether to hit or kiss him.
I held back at laughing at them,“Anyway, we’ve got ourselves a little test subject with us, don’t we Tox?” I said, turning toward the covered woman, who just dangled the green, unconscious... thing by a foot.
“Oh, I am gonna enjoy this.” Die said, cracking her knuckles with a sadistic grin as she stepped towards it.
“Just be sure to leave something for me to interrogate, sweetie.” I said, wondering what she was gonna do.
“Dude, if you want something to interrogate, do so while she’s working. Otherwise, you’ll get nothing.” Noctis told me.
“Trust me, I can get whatever info I need.” A grin appeared on my face, “I know some of the best torture tactics used throughout the history of my world, including some that are only theory.”
“I don’t wanna know what they are. Just do them where we won’t have to see.” Noctis said, turning a little bit white.
“Yeah, yeah. Also, Die, have you told them yet?” I asked, turning to Die, my grin changing to a simple smile.
“Told us what? About your ‘relationship’, or about my sister and Noctis’ ‘relationship’?” Celestia asked with a smug smile.
I held my smile, and looked at her, “I’ll take that as a ‘yes’ on both counts.”
“Not really. Discord had cameras installed in each room to, as he said, prevent the theft of the toiletries.”
Aqua turned toward Discord, “Damn it, that was one time! One. Time.”
“If it has happened once, it will happen again.” Discord said in a way similar to how I imagine a buddhist monk to be.
“Wait, why would someone steal toiletries?” Noctis asked, obviouslyconfused.
“THE TOILET PAPER WAS MADE OF GOLD, OK?!” Aqua shouted.
Noctis’ eyes widened quite a bit, “Woah, really? Why? Actually, don’t bother, you’re Discord, why should anything make sense when it doesn’t have to, right?”
“Where did you think the expenses for all the crap ‘Jolteon’ bought came from?” I asked him
“Seriously, why do you call him Jolteon now?”
“A TV show, and game series from earth, I’ll tell you about it when its over. To summerize: a Jolteon is a small, furry, yellow, dog-like creature with electric powers.”
“So, Sparky has similar powers to a cartoon dog-thing? HA!”
“Actually, so does Aqua, and even Lumos.”
“Really? Meh, at least I like them enough not to make fun of them about it, but Sparky’s too good a target. So, shall we get going? I wanna rescue Lumos before I’m old and grey.”
I chuckled, “That would take thousands of years, if you’re still as long lived as before. Also, indeed.”
“Hmmm, I actually don’t know if I’m immortal anymore. I can’t feel the Orb’s presence, yet at the same time, I can. Doesn’t make sense, does it?” Noctis said, scratching his head.
“Actually, it does. It’s like a microwave, it uses radio waves to warm something, while the same waves could be used to send signals.” I said, trying to make it a simple situation
“Ok, that doesn’t make a lot of sense to me.”
My face connected with my hand then, at high speeds,, “And I thought you were the smart one... Lets just go.” I said as I turned to leave.
“Look, I don’t know much about physics, I just know I could pass some of its limitations after I became a SOLDIER. Now, I feel even less bound by the laws of physics, but it doesn’t mean I understand them.”
“That’s because you’re a pony, ponies and physics don’t mix.” I said simply.
“You mean like me and Sahagin?” Noctis asked.
“Let me explain in simple terms, you’re a pony, yet you can shrug. This means you have shoulders, physics says ponies shouldn’t have shoulders.”
“Good point. Except the physics of our worlds never encountered ponies that could use magic, or fly, or raise the sun and moon, so I don’t think it could accommodate for them, do you?”
“Exactly.” I said, feeling that he finally understood enough.
“We’re getting sidetracked, aren’t we? We should be getting to rescuing Lumos.” Noctis said.
“Yes. Yes we should. Meet me at the large tower in the center of the city, Tox, watch over our prisoner.” I flew down the alleys, killing every enemy that came close, whilst shouting at the top of my lungs, “COME AT ME BRO!”
“HEY! WAIT UP!” I heard Die shout behind me.
I turned another corner, only to crash into a brick wall. Thankfully, my low pressure zone destroyed it for me, and I never touched it. Behind the wall was an army of dusk nobodies, who I simply crushed with high air pressure.
“STOP KILLING EVERYTHING! I WANT A TURN!” Die shouted behind me.
“MAKE ME!” I shouted back. I would live to regret those words.
“FINE THEN! STOPGA!” I froze, but my wind kept going.
I vibrated the air, to send a sound wave saying “Nice try, but you can’t stop the mind, silly.”
“Don’t need to. Just needed you to take your attention away from that massive wall for just a second. Enjoy!” She said with a smirk as I collided with something extremely solid.
“AAGH!” I shouted as I head several snapping sounds, and I saw a bit of bone poke out of my arm. I kept the scream, the air around me becoming devoid of oxygen.
“Oh stop it. Curaga.” She said, although this time, my arm wouldn’t heal. “What the hell? Why isn’t it working!?”
“HOW SHOULD I KNOW?!” I shouted, trying to set the bone with my wind, only to fail miserably.
“Ok, that’s it. I was hoping I wouldn’t have to use this. WOUND TRANSFER!”
I felt my bone suddenly snap into the right place, and the wound heal instantly. I looked up to see that Die’s arm was broken.
“Owww, fuck, that hurts.” She hissed. “Now I remember why I hate using that move. So, you feeling better?”
“Yeah, lots.” I said as I stood up, “Anything I can do to help?”
“Nah, I’ll be fine. Immortal, remember. May not be immune to pain, but I’ll heal in time, though moving is gonna hurt like a bitch.” She said, trying to stand up.
I lifted her with my wind, and said “Try to relax,” Before pulling her along as I flew. A few moments later something occurred to me, “Hey, do wounds carry from one form to another when you change?”
“No, but if I switch forms, the wounds can’t heal until I switch back, and the pain is much worse. I figured that out when I switched forms after the practice fight between me and Noctis. It hurt like hell when I switched back.” She explained.
“Huh, well then, lets find somewhere safe,” I held up my watch “Discord, we’ve kinda got a situation here, beam us to... wherever the fuck you are.”
“Ok, I’m on it.” Discord said, before we were suddenly on a bright pink cloud, right next to one that Discord, Noctis, Celestia, Luna, and Tox were sitting on.
“Die, please tell me you didn’t use Wound Transfer. Please...” Noctis muttered quietly, though I heard it..
“She did. For some reason the healing spell wouldn't work on me.”I said before looking down, and only to see a mass of every colour of the rainbow, “What the fuck is that?”
Noctis held up two fingers“One, DIE YOU IDIOT! You know that move makes whatever wounds you receive twice as bad as they were on whoever you transferred them from. Two, that’s Umbra’s army.”
“Die, why would you worsen the wound? I could've just let it be.” I asked, feeling guilty for... for some reason.
“Cause Ven. I can recover from it. I couldn’t heal your wound, but I’ll heal from it naturally. Plus, I’m stubborn. Do you really think you could talk me out of it?” She smirked despite the pain in her arm.
“That’s a fair point.” I looked back down. “On another note... Umbra’s... army...” Ven started to gain an evil grin, “This is gonna be good!” I said as I began to stretch.
“Ventus, do not do anything reckless.” Celestia said, as though trying to warn me..
“Princess, you obviously don’t know me well enough.” I said before jumping off the cloud, and going straight up.
I began to do something incredibly stupid.
I began to pressure my body with extremely high air pressure, once every inch of my body was at the maximum AP, I began my descent. I landed a bit in front of the army, my wind tearing the world to pieces as I walked/floated toward them. “You really think you can beat me?” I asked as I threw every building, and scrap of road away, leaving a wasteland for us to stand on. Then the army charged. The gold ones copying my wind powers, the violet ones moving at superhuman speeds, the only ones not charging were the dark blue ones, which.... I don’t need to explain it.
The army stopped a few metres away from me, where my AP barrier started. I swung my right hand, and the resulting air blast killed them all. Then the air pressure began to fade unevenly, opening a large gash in my upper right arm. I also felt extremely weak, due to the amount of power used, and passed out as I flew back up.
________________________________________________________________________
Castle that Never Was (Lux’s POV)
BOOOM!
The sound of an extended explosion sounded throughout the whole castle, forcing me awake, after about a minute, it subsided. I looked outside, but couldn’t see anything from my vantage point in the castle.
Eh, the Organization can handle it, the lazy bastards.Ugh, I need to write, I thought as I walked over to my desk, to write a new journal entry.
Journal of a Nobody:
I remember a lot more now, I remember what Organization XIII’s goal was, I know how I became a nobody, and above all I remember my friends. The fact of ‘young Xehanort’ being here tells me that the story of Dream Drop Distance is in progress, but not yet complete. I know I can’t trust anyone here, so I’m sending this somewhere, where it is I have no clue, but hopefully these guys won’t find them.
~Lux
I put down my pen, and threw my letter through a passageway of darkness. A few seconds later I heard a shout of “MY EYE!” I stood up abruptly, and ran out of the room, following the sound of someone reading out my thing.
That voice... is that... Ven?
I turned a corner, and saw Ven, Aqua, Shade, and Jolt, I almost didn’t recognise Ven, due to the shoddy leather armor he was wearing. “Ha! It IS you guys!” I shouted, and threw my hood back. “Never thought I would see you guys here, especially you, sparky.”
“My name, isn’t Sparky, damnit! It’s ‘Jolt.’” Jolt said in a minorly enraged tone.
“We know, ‘Jolteon.’” Ven said in a mocking tone.
“DAMN IT!” Jolt shouted.
I grinned, “I see what you did there.”
“Yeah, yeah, laugh at the fire user. Anyway, we’re here to get you out of here.”
“Well don’t you guys have a good sense of timing.” I said, “Let’s get going.”
“Actually, ‘Lux,’ I have a second reason for being here,” Ven said.
“Really? What is it?” I asked, intregued.
“I want to swipe a couple of their robes, and watch Riku and Mickey rescue Sora.”
“Ok, I wouldn’t do the second, but the first is fine, go the way I came, fifth room on the left.”
“Got it,” he said as he ran off, with the others in tail.
“Wait... How the fuck did they get here?” I asked myself, before shrugging, and running in the direction they came from.
… Dafuq is this? I thought, shocked at the sheer number of black robes. … Eh, whatever, I’m sure they won’t miss a few of these outfits.
“Found the gloves!” I heard Jolt shout from one area of the room.
“Good!” I shouted as I took as many robes as I could carry “Get two for each of us! I’ve got the robes!”
“Got all the shoes!” I heard Shade’s voice say.
I heard Aqua laugh, “You would!”
“Whatever, let’s just get out of here before it’s too late.” She said, walking up next to us.
I took another robe, and began to pack the rest of the robes, and shoes into it, I then walked over to Jolt, who stuffed in the gloves. I turned around to see that the others had left, “Eh, Whatever, I’m gonna watch me some key-bearers.” I said, and ran off. What happened after that... I don’t remember.
A/N: That’s right, I’m stopping here. Anyway, the answer to Chapter 9’s riddle is ‘any animal you can cook.’ Today I am not giving out any riddles, sorry.
~ Cloud Nova/Madman12435 Falling out.
Tales of Illumination, Book 2: Distortions
Chapter 11: End of the Journey
Ven’s POV
To say my dreams were pleasant, or nice, or anything like that, would be a lie. I just kept seeing nightmares of Akumu and Umbra, my mind replaying the same images over, and over. Although... they were not my memories, I was seeing Umbra slaughter Ponyville, turning them into... those things from before. My last dream was of me, fighting whoever the point of view it was with a huge sword I saw me lopping off... my? his? her?... screw it, the spectators arms, them regenerating, and so on, before eventually... I killed whoever the spectator was with a slight grin.
I awoke with a scream. My surroundings were identical to those of a hospital, white, uncomfortable beds and all, in the other beds were Luna, Celestia, and there was one that held Noctis. My scream waking them all up, and Noctis fell out of bed. Oh, and Die was standing near the beds.
Where am I?
“FUCK! I’m up, I’m up!” I heard Noctis say from the floor.
“You’re finally awake! Took you long enough.” Luna said with a look screaming boredom, and levitated Noctis back into his bed.
“Sooo, where are we? Oh, and did we win?” He asked as he was put back in bed, but before anyone could answer, Shade burst in with a doctors uniform on.
“I heard a scream, is everyone OK?” She asked in an altered tone.
Die rolled her eyes, “Ven’s just having nightmares.”
“Of course he would, after kissing you .” Noctis replied with a grin.
Oh if only you knew the truth, my fine feathered friend. I thought, recalling my dreams.
“What happened? I remember seeing Die... Dying, I gave her a potion... then...” I trailed off.
“You don’t remember? You went berserk and killed Akumu, sorta. You even sealed his sword in stone, permanently, and him for a couple of centuries at most. So, we don’t have to worry about him for awhile.”
The information took a moment to sink in, “... I did what !?”
“Wait, he beat Akumu? Wait, LUX! Where’s he?”
Shade looked up from the clipboard, “He’s fine, from what I saw, he had only a bruise on his shoulder, he’s in the dark room with Erahaor.”
“Figures. And...Tox...she’s really...” Noctis trailed off.
Not what? What happened to Tox? I thought, getting an answer to my thoughts almost immediately.
Aqua looked down, “Yes, Lux found her body, and gave it a proper burial.”
Noctis grit his teeth, “Dammit...I keep thinking I can save everyone, but I can’t save anyone. DAMMIT!”
… Body... No...
“Wait... Tox... died?” I asked, my eyes widening, and I could feel them trying to release tears, but I held them back.
Noctis got a look on him of sadness, and... regret? “Umbra turned her into a sinner, and I had to fight both him and her at the same time. I kept thinking I could save her, but instead, I’m the one that killed her.”
DAMN IT. IT’S... It’s happened again.
Memories of my past flooded through my brain, and I stood up, before walked out of the room, muttering “It’s just like before.”
I had no clue where I was going, only that I had to get away. The moment I was out of the door, I broke into a run, and felt hot tears running down my cheeks.
Damn it! Why, god, do you keep taking my friends from me? What the fuck have I done to deserve this? I thought to myself.
“Ven?” A voice said from behind me.
“Not now, Die.” I said, slowing a little.
“Don’t, Ven. You need to talk about this, or it’ll destroy you from the inside.” She said concerned.
I walked through a random door, leading into a dark room, “I said I don’t want to talk, lights on.” the room lit up to reveal a room with four doors.
“Ven, don’t make me force a conversation out of you, cause I will.”she threatened.
“Go ahead and try, I’ve already turned to death more than once.” I said as I kept walking, through a different door.
“Ven, please. Do you think Tox would want you to feel this way? I know this much. Friends don’t want others to blame themselves or feel bad when they die. They want us to live our lives, to remember the good times as well as the bad, but not to let them consume us.”
I turned around, “Except my friends HAVE died because of me in the past. No matter where I go, death follows.”
She walked up to me and slapped me. “Don’t you ever say that. Don’t ever blame yourself. It doesn’t matter how they died, they would never want you to blame yourself, nor would they forgive you for doing so.”
I gave her the look of a deadman, “I had to kill one with my own two hands. I’m pretty sure thats my fault.”
“So did Noctis, or did you forget what he just said. He wanted nothing more than to save her, and he couldn’t. He’s probably feeling the same way you are, and seeing anyone like that, it makes me feel useless. That’s why I won’t stand by and let you blame yourself for whatever happened in your past.”
I turned away, and walked through another door, “Too late for that.”
She ran after me and grabbed me in a bear-hug. “Don’t walk away. Please, Ven. I just want to help. Please, just let me help you.” She said with tears in her eyes, holding onto me as if her life depended on it.
“I... I’m sorry.” I said, letting my head hang, as tears began to flow even faster.
“Ven, why do you blame yourself? I don’t understand.”
“First friend that died: I led him to his death. Second friend that died: we were joking around, and he was shot by a guy who was offended. Third friend that died, and first girlfriend that died: I had to strangle her myself. Fourth friend that died: killed by people who were trying to get to me. All of them, my. Fault.”
“Ven...I still don’t understand. You’re being too vague. I need to know the story behind it.”
“That wasn’t even a fifth of the number of friends that have died.”
“Ven, I’ve lost people too. Everyone from my hometown. Both Noctis and I blamed ourselves at first, thinking we would have been able to do something if we’d stayed. We learned the hard way that sometimes things are just out of our control. How did your friends die?”
“Maybe another time, Die. Maybe.” I said, removing myself from her embrace.
“Ven. At least promise me this. Promise you’ll talk about it to someone. Please.”
I turned to look at her, my eyes finally done flowing, “Die... I’m sorry, I can’t promise that. I still don’t know if it’s something I will talk about... Please, just...” I sighed, feeling defeated, “You know what? You want to hear my life story? I’ve got a better idea: I’ll show you, follow me.” I said as I walked back the way we came.
______________________________________________________________________
VR room.
I walked in, and sat in the center of the dome, before saying “Play memories of Rey Maxwell: deaths of friends and suicide attempts: all. Order: Chronological.” I said, before closing my eyes, and plugging my ears so as not to see it or hear it. I then added, “Show to: one person: Die Proelia.” I turned to Die, “Never tell anyone what you’re about to see.”
“I swear on my honour. But how’d you know my last name? And Rey Maxwell, really?” She asked with a raised eyebrow. “That’s...interesting.”
“Hey, I never said Ventus was my real name, and about yours... I dunno.” I said with a slight shrug. “I just... knew it.”
It’s just like those dreams, they were like memories. How did I know that?
“Guess it just proves you’re a good BF. So, we ready to start?” She asked nervously.
“Just... Don’t be too surprised by what you see. Run simulation for: Die Proelia.”
_____________________________________________________________________
Two hours later:
“So, now do you understand why I don’t like talking about my past?” I asked, right after the memories ended, I could tell because the room powered down, and by her reaction, which told me it was on my last suicide attempt.
“Yes. But I still say their deaths are not your fault. You couldn’t have known what would happen.”
I sighed, “You still don’t get it... I’ve come up with a theory: I am an agent of death. If someone gets to know me, they die, that’s how it’s worked in the past. Interesting though, how even if that is the case, death won’t take me in. It’s also the reason I was happy when I met you, if I am an what I think I am... then at least someone I know won’t die before me.” I smiled, remembering thinking exactly that when I first found out she was immortal.
“Ven, I honestly have to say, I don’t believe in things like agents of death or things like that. Bad things happen, yes, but I don’t believe they happen because of things like that. I believe that you were unlucky in the past, but I’m gonna make you a promise, right here and now. Even if the world itself were to end, I will never abandon you. I’d follow you to hell and back.”
“Something else about that, that wasn’t just every friend of mine that have died, that’s every friend I’ve had. Period. And I’ve seen more death than most could take without going crazy... I often wonder if I already am, and just can’t tell.”
“Oh, I know you’re crazy. But in a good way.” she said, wrapping her arms around me. “You saved my life, remember. And Noctis’ too.”
I rolled my eyes, and kissed her lightly, “I remember... By the way... how did I stop Akumu, anyway?”
“To be honest, I don’t really know how to explain it. The last thing I really felt aware of was you getting really angry, your eyes turning almost completely black, just a little bit of orange for the colored bits, and your teeth all became as sharp as knives. You got a really, demonic-looking, sword, and that’s when you went berserk on him.”
I thought for a moment, before my eyes widened. “That...” I pulled out of the embrace, sat down, and said “Create drawing board,” I began to draw the sword from my dreams, “Did it look like this?”
Die looked at it for a moment. “Yeah, that’s it.”
I thought for a moment, “So... let’s see... thats the third odd thing I guess... Hmm...” I put my hand on my chin.
Die shot me a questioning look. “What? What’s up?”
“First thing: The dreams from earlier being like memories of a battle where I was wielding this from the enemy’s point of view. Second thing: Knowing your full name without ever hearing or reading it. Third thing: the blade from my dream being what I killed Akumu with.”
“You didn’t kill him. You sealed him in stone.” She said in a matter-of-fact tone.
“You know what I mean, but seriously, those three things have to be connected, right?”
“They could be. For one, your ‘dreams’ probably are memories. What did you see?” Die asked.
“Myself, attacking... well, me, with that blade, my eyes were black with orange irises, and a strange black wind was flowing around ‘me.’”
Die’s eyes widened slightly. “Ven, you were seeing through Akumu’s eyes! Was there anything else, anything before, or after that part?”
“I saw from two point’s of view a single scene that played over and over: Umbra slaughtering a whole town, turning some into Sinners.” I chose not to mention the town being in Equestria.
“Sinners?” She asked, confused.
“Those things that were made with the blade of sin. Anyway, there were three types of them: the humanoid winged ones he called ‘Neowings,’ while others were just color coated heartless, so he just called them by their heartless name and their sin, like ‘Living Bone of Greed’.”
“I see. So...he turned the inhabitants of an entire world into these, ‘sinners’? And before you ask, when Noctis gave me his powers before passing out, he shared ‘some’ of his memories. It never gave me the names of the creatures, just the part about a world being destroyed by them. It’s weird like that.”
“... Huh... Change odd thing number two to: I know things I couldn’t possibly know” I said, “Oh, and before I forget to try this, Create drawn weapon, enforce weight.” The blade appeared in my hands, and it was freaking heavy . I nearly dropped it just trying to hold it up. “What the hell is this thing made of?” I asked nobody in particular as it fell from my hands with a loud clang.
“Maybe it was made using your sense of humour?” Die replied sarcastically.
I rolled my eyes, “Very funny. Remove weapon.” The sword disappeared, leaving a small crater in the ground a few inches deep. I stared for a moment, “Uh... Oops.”
“Discord’s gonna kill us if he finds out.” Die said quietly, trying to stifle a chuckle. “Oh well, what he doesn’t know won’t hurt him.”
“Um... what was it... Create manual for VR.” I said, summoning the book, “Lets see... commands... commands... AHA! Turn on system, auto repair.” I said, and several mechanical arms popped out of the ground, tearing out the damaged tiles, and putting in new ones. In a matter of seconds, it looked like nothing had happened, and I let out a sigh of relief. “Turn off system, auto repair.”
“Woah.” Die said with a dropped jaw. “I am SO gonna abuse the hell out of that!”
“Be careful, the tiles the mechanical arms are under are irreplaceable according to the manual. Though technically they are around the edges of the room, still.” An idea came to mind, “Hey, Die, if you could change me in any one way, what would it be?”
“Hmmm, you really wanna know?” She asked seriously.
“Go ahead,” I said, a grin on my face.
“Fine. Ven,” She said, stepping closer, “I wouldn’t change you at all.” She wrapped her arms around me.
“Really? I always thought I would look better with brown hair...” I said looking up at my blond hair.
“That’s what you would change about yourself. I wouldn’t change you, even if I could. If I did, it would be the same as saying I didn’t love you.”
I smiled, and kissed her, “And that’s what I love about you.”
“My brutal honesty?” She asked with a smile.
“What can I say? I prefer the bitter truth to a sweet lie.” I said, grinning a bit.
“Well that’s good, cause with me, that’s all you’ll hear.” She replied, kissing me again.
“Be prepared to get it right back.” I said, not entirely sure if I was talking about the kiss or the brutal honesty.
“Ok then loverboy. So, your room, or mine?” She said in a seductive voice.
I thought for a moment, “How soft is your bed?” I asked.
“Softer than the beds in the castle.” She replied.
“Definitely your room.” I said with a grin, and began to carry us both off with the wind.
“So, how far do you wanna go tonight?” She asked.
“I could ask you the same.” I said, putting her next to me in the air.
“Hmmm, I say, let’s see where the night takes us.” She said, pecking me on the cheek.
It took only a minute or two to get to Die’s room, and when we got inside, and closed the door, Die grabbed me and threw me over her shoulder, straight onto the bed. She then walked over, smiling, and jumped on top of me, peppering me with several small kisses. “So, you gonna sit there slack-jawed, or you gonna kiss me back?” She asked with a smirk.
In response, I kissed her, opening my mouth, and letting my tongue run free, only to slam into Die’s teeth, and pulled back to see her grinning. “Ah ah ah, not so fast. Gotta work for the french this time.”
I grinned, “All righty then.” I said, before slowly kissing her, on the mouth at first, before I moved down a bit, kissing her neck. I then flipped us over, so that I was over her.
“Ok, that was impressive.” She said, unhooking her shoulder guards and pulling her shirt over her head, revealing an orange sports bra covering a pair of surprisingly modest additions.
“I aim to please.” I said with a cocky grin, “As do you, apparently.”
“Nah, it’s just those shoulder-guards are murder on the joints. And I can’t take them off without taking off the top too. But that doesn’t mean I’m not happy you like it.”
I chuckled, “What isn’t there to like?” I asked before continuing with my assault of kisses, getting her shoulders, arms, and ending up with my mouth over her navel.
“Um, Ven, I’m starting to feel a little nervous here, and coming from me, that’s saying something.” She said sheepishly.
“It’s ok, if you’re nervous, we don’t have to go all the way.” I said, smiling softly at her.
“No....I-I want to, it’s just...it’s...” She mumbled the last part.
“What? I... didn’t quite hear that.” I said, straining my ear a little.
“It’s...my first time...” She said, her face turning red.
I chuckled, “So that’s what it is. Well, for your information, you aren’t the only virgin here.”
“Ok...” She took a deep breath, “Ok, not nervous anymore. Thanks for that. I feel better knowing I’m not the only first-timer in the room.”
I smiled at her, “Ok then.” and with that, I began to slowly take off my own armor, revealing the outfit Lumos made me, “Ah, it feels so good to be out of that.” I stretched a little bit.
“Yeah, and it didn’t do those justice.” She said, pointing to my arms.
“You like what you see?”
“If I didn’t, would I do this ?” She said, before planting a kiss right on my lips and trying to push her tongue between my teeth, to which I responded with opening my mouth up, and letting our tongues play their little game, as I slowly let my hands explore Die’s body. I pulled out of the kiss, and moved down, about to remove her pants, when suddenly the door opened, and I heard a familiar voice say, “Die, I came to ask you...where Ven...was...what the fuck!?”
“Um... Uh...” I tried to come up with the words to explain, as I felt myself blush with embarrassment.
Noctis had covered his eyes, but he was smiling. “It’s cool, Ven. We’re all adults here, and it would be stupid of me to try and tell my sister who she can and can’t be with. It’s her choice, after all. Anyway, glad you’re here Ven. Discord, Celestia and Luna wanted to see you. They wanted to make sure you were ok after...well, everything. I’ll tell them you’re fine, but you’re busy.”
“No, I’ll go see them,” I sighed, “You already ruined the mood.”
“Ok. Oh, and one more thing,” He said, turning towards the door, “Name the first one after me!” He said, running out the door and laughing as he quoted Die’s words from when we walked in on him and Luna.
I turned to her, to see her blushing, “Don’t worry about it, the chances of that are honestly pretty slim, assuming I do know anything about the biological structure of immortals.”
“It’s not that, Ven. Actually, technically, I can get pregnant, but only if I want to.”
“Ok, that is probably the coolest power I’ve ever heard of.” I said with a blank look on my face.
“Yeah, it’s also a good way of finding out if you’re really the one. See, if I want to get pregnant, but I don’t, it means that the one I’m with isn’t ‘the one’.”
I smiled, “I thought it was your first time, so how would you know this?” I said with a slight chuckle as she blushed even more.
“Let’s just say the Orbs don’t beat around the bush when it comes to ‘the birds and the bees - Immortal Edition’. That’s the only time I’ve ever actually heard a voice come from them before though. At least, the only time I actually remember.” She said.
“Eh,” I said with a shrug, “I should probably go talk with the princesses and the spirit of chaos.” I floated up, and said “Watch over my armor, will ya?”
“Can do, Ven.” She said with a warm smile and a quick kiss. “Just make sure you come back in one piece.” she said jokingly.
“That depends on their mood, not mine. On another note, one last thing,” I thought of how to word it, “Maybe we should wait until we’re back on Equis again, before... you know.”
“Sure...it’s like they say, the sweetest things are always worth waiting for.” She said.
“Reading the quotes on Discord’s wine bottles, are we?” I asked with a slight smile.
“Wait....DISCORD HAS WINE!?” She yelled.
“And beer, and mead, ale, the works. Though I haven’t had any... yet.”
“Don’t even think about it Die. We don’t need a repeat of the Bahamut incident!” Noctis said, reappearing for a brief second before slipping away again.
“... How did he do that?” I asked.
“Shadow walking. Basic darkness ability. The user enters what is known as the Shadow Zone, and from there, they can see the world through shadows, as if they were windows, which they can exit from to almost any point. The more practice they have, the further they can go.” She explained with a huff. “And how was I supposed to know Bahamut could get drunk? Or that he’d destroy an entire mountain while he was.”
“I... What?! You got Bahamut drunk ?”
“I....kinda might have given him some Vodka. And some Whiskey. And maybe a barrel of Hard Lemonade.” she said, rubbing the back of her head and giving a sheepish smile.
I smiled, “Sounds like someone here knows how to party.” I said, stifling a chuckle at the mental image of the huge dragon, drunk off his ass.
“Not really. I’ve never actually drunk alcohol, to be honest. I’m technically too young.” She admitted.
“Same, though I want to try it... Maybe I’ll buy a few bottles of Discord’s wine, and let it age a bit more... Eh, I’ll ask him about it at the talk I’m about to have with him. Later!” I said, as I floated out the door. I then angled myself as aerodynamically as I could, and went to the bridge, thinking over the events of the last several minutes.
________________________________________________________________________
At the Bridge
I opened the door to the bridge to see the princesses and Discord sitting around a long table. Upon noticing me come in, Discord hid a bottle of some sort, (probably his wine) and coughed loudly.
“Well it’s about time you got here.” Discord said, in a voice of minor annoyance “We’ve been waiting for at least three hours.”
“Can I help it if the messenger is slow to find me?” I said with a grin.
“That would be my fault,” Luna admitted, lowering her head, “I may have...”
“I don’t want to know.” I said, holding up my hands.
“It’s nothing like that, I swear!” She said quickly. “I just sort of left him stuck in the shadow zone for a while.”
I gave her a look that said ‘really?’ and said, “You couldn’t think of a worse way to torture him?”
“HE MADE A SEXUAL JOKE AT MY EXPENSE! And being trapped in the shadow zone can be very torturous if you’re not used to spending prolonged periods inside it.” She said with a small frown.
“I would have personally done the ‘water mill’ torture style.” I said with a shrug.
“Can we please stop talking about your bizarre fetishes and get on with why we’re here.” Celestia said in irritation.
I chuckled, taking the attack head on, “Oh fine, why did you ask me here again? I forgot if Noctis did tell me.”
“First, we wanted to know if you are feeling alright after what happened. I know that Tox was a--”
“Don’t finish that sentence.” I said through grit teeth.
“Well, we need you to talk to Noctis. I’ve tried, and we can’t dissuade him from what he is going to attempt.” Luna said worriedly.
“Damn it, what in the seven circles of hell has he done now?”
“He is going to break the one universal law that must never be broken. He is going to try and bring Tox’s soul back from the dead.” Celestia said seriously.
I facepalmed, “That... That guy is such an idiot. Even those ‘gifted’ by death himself can’t do that.”
“Well he’s taken it upon himself to find a way. We need you to convince him that it can’t be done. We’ve lost several friends in the past who’ve tried to do what he is going to attempt, and we cannot lose another. Please.”
“Say no more, princess, I’ll talk to him.” I said, “I know what happens when one tries to revive the dead. I know the price of it well, as well as the fact that it doesn't even fully work.” I turned to the exit, “If I fail at dissuading him... just stop him by any means necessary.” and with that, I flew out of the room.
Let’s see... I think Lux could help me find him. I thought as I turned a corner, headed to the dark room.
“Ventus, wait.” a voice called behind me. I stopped, and turned around to see Luna standing there.
“Yes, princess?”
“I need to tell you, it’s...it’s my fault Noctis has started trying to bring Tox back.” She said. “It’s because of the shadow Zone.”
“What do you mean?”
“Ventus, the Shadow Zone can affect your mind if you spend too long inside it. They can hide it well for a time, but eventually, those affected by its pull will stop at nothing to achieve whatever it is has been shown to them.”
“I know that already. Which is why I know the seriousness of the situation.”
“Did you know that it was the Shadow Zone that created Nightmare and bonded her to me? That it is most likely what created Akumu?”
“Yes and no, I knew it created Akumu, but I didn’t know about the Nightmare part. But it takes about... 24 total hours to obtain a darkside from it, if memory serves.” I said, calling on my newfound information. Seriously, how the fuck do I know all this? I asked myself silently.
“Noctis did not obtain a second darkside. The zone simply amplified the strength of one of his desires.”
“I know that it can do that, as well. It’s most likely guilt, more than anything, now, if you don’t mind, I’m gonna go stop him.” And with that, I took off at about mach 1, taking corners instantly, and heading for the dark room to find Lux.
The dark room was... accurately named, in the sense that it was very, VERY dark inside. when I opened the door, the light that went inside was actually EATEN by the darkness.
“Lux! You in there?”
I heard something move near the back of the room, so, swallowing hard, I stepped into the darkness. “Lux?” I tried not to let my voice shake.
“Yeah?” I heard his voice say from every direction at once.
“Where are you? I can’t see a thing.”
“Well the room is devoid of light, stupid human.” Erahaor’s voice said.
“Oh right, forgot you were here too. Anyway, Lux, Noctis is about to do something... Really stupid.”
“What?” He asked.
“He’s going to try to revive Tox.”
I heard the sound of what probably was a facepalm, “Damnit, the fool’s gonna kill himself.”
“Yeah, yeah, lets just go stop him before he does.”
“Right,” A hand fell on my shoulder, and suddenly i felt myself drop downwards, into a coldness I recognized as the dark passages, “Ok, found him,” Lux said. before pulling me into a bright room.
Once my eyes adjusted, I saw several piles of ingredients in what looked like a summoning circle surrounded by candles, and Noctis measuring out what looked like salt.
“Get. Out.” he said, without turning around.
“Noctis, you have to stop this, you have no idea what will happen to you if you mess with death. I do know, but that’s beside the point.”
“Luna already told you about the Shadow Zone, I’m guessing. Then you know I can’t stop. DAMMIT!” He yelled as he spilled some of the salt.
“Only the part about locking you in, the rest I already knew about. And it’s only salt.”
“Yeah, how do you know about the Shadow Zone anyway? Are you a Shadow Walker?”
“A what?”
“A Shadow Walker. It’s what we call those who can willingly enter the Shadow Zone.” He explained.
“Oh... No. As for how I know... I have no clue, I just have the information, with none of the pretext as to how.” I said, shrugging.
“Enough. I’m done talking. It’s my fault Tox is gone, now I’m gonna fix it.” He said, reaching for the last jar.
Thinking in the most reckless way I could, I used my wind to spread the ingredients over the entire room. and some out the window. “I said, don’t. Do it.”
“You, just made a big mistake.” Noctis said, in a voice that wasn’t his own. It was completely flat, and it sounded like a woman, sort of.
“And you are?” I asked it, giving it a ‘really?’ look.
“I don’t have a name. All I know is I’ve been living in that damned Zone for the past two centuries. Then this idiot’s girlfriend locks him here, and while he’s looking for a way out, I came in. Even managed to cast some illusions making him and everyone around him think the zone just amplified his guilt.”
“... That... wow... he’s stupider than I thought he was.” I said, shaking my head.
“Aww, don’t talk about my host that way. That’s my job.” The nameless one said in a playful voice. “Besides, it’s his bitch-of-a-girlfriend’s fault for trapping him there in his condition anyway. Now, where was I?” She started to gather the ingredients again. “Oh, and this time, no interruptions.” Noctis’ body glowed black, and a dark barrier surrounded us.
“Well, at least you have a better sense of humor that Akumu did. Also, nice barrier. But you don’t seem to have Akumu’s... talent for dark material either.” Lux said, examining the barrier.
“Oh, that’s not normal darkness honey. This darkness amplifies your negative emotions, and turns all of you into targets for each other. In just a few minutes, you’ll be ripping each other to pieces while I perform the ritual, get this kid’s soul ripped out of his body for eternity, and take said body for myself.”
“Wow... You know next to nothing about this ritual, don’t you? It doesn’t just destroy the soul, but the body as well.” I said, “Trust me, I have a good knowledge of death and how he works. As for the darkness... Lux, would you like to handle it?”
He grinned “Aye, captain,” he said, and the darkness began to slowly move, flowing into a dark passage, as it was going in, a small, jagged knife fell out.
“Hey, isn’t that... that unnamed knife you made?”
“Damn it, not again, it just keeps coming back.” Lux complained as he picked it up, and threw it back in with all his might, closing it as the last of the darkness went in.
“Now then,” I cracked my neck, and scattered the ingredients again, “How would you like to spend another few millennia in the darkness?”
“Excuse me? Your question makes no sense.” ‘She’ said.
“Oh?” I asked, as I bent the air around me to make myself appear invisible, “It doesn’t? My friend here just got rid of your darkness, and I sealed a darkside like yourself in stone for the next 200 years, and you think we can’t banish you to the dark zones?”
“One. I am not a darkside. I used to be a Shadow Walker, until my so called ‘best-friend’ stabbed me in the back when I showed him the Zone. Idiot never knew that if a non-walker enters the Zone and ever lets go of the one that brought them there, the Zone rips them apart, and the remains just fade into the shadows. But it didn’t matter to me. I should have died. Instead, I was cursed to survive as nothing more than a GODDAMN GHOST!” she yelled. “I AM NOT GOING BACK TO THAT AGAIN! EVEN IF I DIE, I AM NOT GOING BACK!”
“Wait wait wait,” Lux said, “Just one question: once you have a body, what will you do? That’s all I want to know.”
“Why do you care?” She said with a sneer.
“It’s my job as a guardian of darkness and light.”
“If you must know, I have a grave to visit. After that, I don’t know. I’ll probably just wander around the worlds or something.”
“If that’s all, then I have a separate solution.” Lux said, with his arms up.
“Oh, and just what would that be?”
Suddenly, gear by gear, a bipedal mechanical body began to form next to him, “I happen to be able to control this metal quite well.”
“The fuck!?”
Lux rolled his eyes, “Oh come on! I’m telling you I can give you a body made of a metal stronger than diamonds with a simple soul injection, what the hell is wrong with you people?!”
“Wait, what? You want to help her?” I asked, staring at him.
“I’m a gentleman, I have to.” He said with a shrug.
“Yeah right. I know how this’ll end. I trust you, then I end up back in the Zone.” she said glaring at us.
“No, no dirty tricks, as the self proclaimed god of Neutrality, I vow I will not do that.” Lux said with a single hand up.
“God? You? That’s a laugh. You look like one of those kids the bastard used to pretend he wasn't beating up. God, I can’t believe I was ever friends with him now.”
“Don’t believe me? I’ve been to many worlds, seen things that almost prove it. Also I can do this.” And as he said that, a pair of wings burst from his back, one white and feathered, the other black and leathery. Also half his hair turned white.
“That’s...you realise the black one looks like Sephiroth’s, right?”
“Wait... how do you know of Sephiroth?” I said, looking at her with a bit more interest than before.
“Well, it was 2010 when I ‘died’, FF7 had been out for years. Why, what year is it now?”
“You say you were in there for 2 centuries?”
“Yeah...where are you going with this?”
“My god I’ve been gone longer than I thought.” I said, facepalming, “But still, its nice to see someone from my planet again.”
“Wait, you’re from Earth. Please tell me the government didn’t do that to you!” She said, pointing to Lux, horrified.
“No, I was given this power by a being only calling itself ‘whisp.’”
“Seriously, Wisp? What’s next, a guide called Navi?” She said sarcastically.
I grinned, and said, in my best impression of the blue fairy “Hey! Listen!” I then ended my impression, and spoke normally “Anyway, the year when I left was 2013, Lux left in late 2012. But on a more serious note, Lux, why the fuck are you trying to help her?! She fucking possessed him!”
He gave me a cross between a glare and a look of boredom“What part of ‘Neutral’ Do you not understand? I belong to neither your side or hers, I just want my friend free through a peaceful solution, and from what I can tell, she isn’t a threat. Therefore, I will help her.”
“Fine! If it blows up in our faces, it’s your damn fault if she kills us or something!” I shouted, before walking to one of the corners, and eating a roll of bread that was sitting there.
“Oooookaay. Your friend is kinda temperamental.” She said. “And by the way, about your earlier comment, Noctis isn’t an idiot. I just had an IQ of over 200, last time I checked. So in a battle of brains, I can beat most opponents.”
Lux turned to her, giving a slight smile, “For the first part, he’s angry because you took over his friend, and soon to be brother in law. Second, and unrelated, Sephiroth had a white feathered wing, Cloud was the one who was drawn with the black leathery one.”
“Not in Advent Children.” She replied smugly. “Sephiroth had a black wing.”
Lux shrugged “Fair enough. Also, what did you mean I looked like one of the people your ‘friend’ beat up.” He said, air quoting the word ‘friend.’
“Just that when I looked at you, your face sorta seemed familiar. I remember my ‘friend’ beat up a kid years ago that had a similar face. Hell, for all we know, it could have been you. That was the first time I ever questioned him.”
“What did he look like?” He said, pulling out a drawing pad from nowhere in particular, with a pencil.
“He was caucasian, 6ft 2, had short, spiky black hair, sharp nose, really small ears, dark blue eyes, and a scar right between them in an S shape from when his old man took a branding iron to him.” She said, shuddering at the last part.
Lux just looked up, saying, “So that’s what happened to him... So he was eaten by darkness, huh?” He said, folding his hands behind his head.
“Not eaten in the traditional sense, he was ripped to pieces and absorbed.”
“Actually, that sounds pretty accurate to the term eaten.” Lux said matter-of-factly
“Trust me, if you saw it, you wouldn’t call it eating. You’d call it puke-city.”
“There actually is a way to show him,” I said from the corner, “The VR room on this ship allows you to show memories to others.”
“Seriously? We’re gonna go through this ship where noone knows anything about me, to a room made to fool your senses? This has prank/ambush written all over it.” She said in a flat tone.
“Think what you want, I was just saying that the VR could be useful. Speaking of which, I’m gonna need to do a bit of training once this is done, being in a two month coma kinda isn’t that good on the body.”
“Yeah, it definitely didn’t help your friend’s mental state. Now, just a minute. Gotta get out of this.” ‘She’ said as a small light appeared in front of ‘her’ and started to grow at an alarming rate. Suddenly, the light exploded, and when our eyes stopped burning, we saw that Noctis was unconscious.
“The fuck just happened?” I said, looking down at Noctis, and trying to get the salt out of my eyes.
“I left his body, genius.” A voice said from behind me. I turned to see a floating ball of light. I instinctively covered my eyes, but then I heard a laugh, and it was coming from the light itself.
“Ah, so that’s what you did.” Lux said.
“Yeah. Oh, he’s gonna be unconscious for a few hours, and when he does wake up, he’s not gonna remember anything.”
“So, does this mean you accept my offer for the mechanical body?” Lux asked.
“I guess so.” she said.
“Well, three things about it, One: the machine itself will change once you are in it, probably to form the look of your old body. Second, You have to stay near a power user, otherwise it will become immobile, and third, you will have a nervous system, so you will feel pain. The last one was a ‘be careful’ thing though.”
“Greeeeaaaaat.” She said sarcastically. “One warning. If I catch either of you staring at me for more than a millisecond, you’re gonna lose your chances of ever having kids. GOT IT?” She said in a low growl.
“Oh, also, before I inject your soul into it...” Lux spawned a rather badass looking outfit, like a ninja costume, but made from a similar material to my outfit. He then put it onto the robotic body. “Just in case clothes don’t spawn on it.” He cracked his knuckles, “Now then, shall we begin?”
“Sure. Just lemme know when you’re about t-AGH!” she flinched as a sharp pain reverberated through her mind.
“Sorry, It’s my first time working with an actual soul, rather than pure energy.” Lux said, a look of worry on his face. “It’s nearly done.” He was making motions with his hands that reminded me sort of of sewing, or stitching.
“By Odin’s beard this is horrifying.” I said, watching the soul wither slightly as Lux sewed it into the cybernetic body, before being fully absorbed into it. Suddenly, the sounds had stopped, and the gears in the body started to move. Muscles burst from the gears, followed by a skin growing out of that, and long, straight black hair coming out of her head, she had a pointed chin, and a generally small bone structure, though muscular. Her eyes opened, to reveal that they were grey.
“Wow, Lux, You’ve gotten better with your metal, to be able to create a body.” I commented.
“This feels...kinda weird. But at least I’m able to feel something other than pain now.”
“That wierd feeling is because you’ve been without a body for so long, as well as the gears inside you.” Lux looked over his work for a few seconds, “Ok, it seems I didn’t forget anything this time.” He said with a sigh of relief.
“Doesn’t feel like you did.” She said, rotating her neck and smiling as she heard the joints pop every now and then. “Ahhh, can’t believe I went 200 years without being able to stretch my body. Plus I had this itch I just couldn’t scratch, it was so annoying.”
Lux held out a mirror, “Is there anything I got wrong?”
“Nah, I look just like I did back then. Actually, I seem more physically fit. Not an ounce of excess fat anywhere.”
“That’s because you run on chaos energy rather than carbohydrates.” Lux said with an air of general happiness over succeeding, “Which is the reason you have to stay near a power user for the body to work. Also, you don’t have the need to eat, drink, excrete waste, or... really anything, you don’t even have to breath with that body, if you don’t want to.”
“Chaos? Cool. Hey, can I break any of the laws of reality or something like that?” She said, switching from her serious face to the kind you’d see in a child at their first carnival.
“Sadly, that would need more excess chaos energy than we can give off, so no.” Lux scratched the back of his head.
“Crap. So, is there a way to make it so that when I go I won’t have to stay near a power user, as you call yourselves? Cause when I do go home, I plan to spend a lot of time at that grave. What date is it here anyway?”
“I don’t know, and I don’t know. Although, what town is the grave in?” Lux said, looking a little sheepish.
“Cork. You know, in Ireland.”
“I see, then we have to touch down at two separate graveyards, I guess.”
“I haven’t seen my family in almost a year.” Lux said, with a look that said ‘you don’t want to know.’
“I...see. At least tell me the bastard responsible suffered for it.” She said in a cold voice.
“I don’t know if he did, I saw a spike of darkness go through him, but then again, when I was starting out, my dark spear wouldn’t even make a wound in anything. It could only hold things in place.”
“That’s explainable. Let me ask you, how did you feel when that spike went through him? What was going through your mind?” she asked.
“Mostly rage, from seeing him stab my kid brother in the throat with a fucking GAS INJECTION KNIFE!” He shouted the last part, darkness beginning to seep out of his skin.
“There you go. You wanted him to suffer for what he did. That’s how you make the darkness kill. You have to want the person dead, or it won’t do the job.” She explained. “So, next time you’re in a fight, remember that bastard, and remember how badly you wanted him dead, and focus that desire onto your opponent.”
“Oh, I didn’t want him dead,” Lux said with a sadistic grin “I wanted him to suffer as his victims did, torn to shreds by hand. Then gut, and the organs removed.”
“Well, that works too.” She said with a shrug. “Who knows, maybe that’s exactly what happened. Or maybe the darkness permanently trapped him in his own personal hell, where exactly what you wanted happens to him over and over for eternity within his mind.”
“I recommend you stop there, before I begin to lose my source of rage.” Lux looked upwards, “Now then, lets get you introduced to the group!” He said walking out the room.
I slung Noctis’ unconscious body over my shoulder. “Ugh, this guys heavier than he looks.”
“You know, now that I’m not inhabiting his body, he looks kinda adorable, like I just wanna--”
“I would recommend you stop before his mare-friend hears you.”
“Oh come on, I didn’t mean that. I’m not into him that way. I meant I’d just act as if he was a lost puppy or something. Is that a result of this new body or something?”
“Probably not.” I held my watch up to my mouth “Hey Discord, we have a newbie on board the ship, could you show her around, oh, and bring Jolt with you.”
“FUCK NO KEEP SPARKY AWAY FROM ME!” She shouted.
I looked at her, “What?”
“Sorry, residual memories from being in Noctis’ body. Apparently he and Sparky don’t play well together. Oh, and he’s waking up.” She said, pointing to Noctis’ stirring form.
“uhhhhhh, the fuck just happened? Did I get hit by a train or something?” He asked, opening his eyes and wincing.
“Bout time you woke up.” I said, putting him down. “And no, you were just trapped in the shadow zone for a few hours before she got you out.” I said, pointing to... Damn, I never got her name.
“Where am I and what the fuck happened?” He deadpanned. “AND WHAT THE FUCK AM I!?” He yelled suddenly as he failed to get up.
“Oh....crap.”
“Noctis? What’s wrong?” I asked, kneeling down next to him.
“This is bad. I think when I left his body, I may have taken some of his memories away. They should come back in a few days, but for the meantime, he won’t remember anyone.” She said.
“Any idea which memories you took?” I said, giving her a look of ‘really?’
“Long story short, judging by his reaction, I took any memories from his arrival in Equis onwards. Possibly earlier ones too.”
“Well then, this sucks.” I helped Noctis up “Noctis, listen to me, my name is Ventus, and you have lost a few of your memories.”
“Your name is wind? And what are you on about? What memories? Did I forget the part where Shin-Ra turned me into a FUCKING HORSE!?”
“That was the Lunar orb, not Shinra, you haven’t-”
“FUCK! How do you know about the Orb? Die and I never told anyone. ARE YOU A SPY!?”
I held up my watch “Die, your brothers gone crazy again. Could you come here and get him?”
“SHUT UP, I’M NOT CRAZY! YOU’RE CRAZY!” He yelled.
“You know that’s the craziest thing you could say, right?”
“No, the craziest thing I could say is I’m a talking blue horse with wings and I’m proud of it.” He deadpanned, before realizing what he said. “Wait...WINGS!? FUCK!”
“... Anyway, back to my explination to what’s happening. The Solar and Lunar orbs are not from your world, they come from the world of Equis, roughly.... four months ago, you were brought there by the orbs. You have lost all memories since. Oh, and Akumu is now sealed away in a seperate body that i turned to stone..”
“Who’s Akumu? And four months!? What the fuck did I miss!?”
“The last two you didn’t miss much, as you were in a coma. The first two it would be better if Die explains it when she gets here.”
“No thanks, I’d rather keep my sanity thank you very much.” Noctis said. “I don’t know if you know this, but when Die gets really into an explanation, sometimes you get sucked into it as if you were in the training room at Shin-Ra HQ.”
“Oh, also, on a separate note, I’m dating your sister.” I said, and prepared for his reaction.
“Wait, what? My sister’s dating a lunatic? That’s weird, she said she had a crush on...you know what, never mind.” He said.
“Hey, everyone is insane, those who say otherwise are idiots. Plus you also have a girlfriend now.”
“Wait....WHAT!? That’s impossible, I can’t talk to girls to save my life!” He shouted.
“Thats news to me. By the way, what’s the last thing you remember?”
“Being put to sleep so they could begin the SOLDIER Procedures. Why? Wait...I get it. This is a dream!” He said with a small grin.
I hit him in the side of the head, “This isn’t a dream, if it was, you wouldn’t be able to feel pain in it.”
“Ow, fuck. Dammit. Not a dream, got it. Wait, that means I actually have a girlfriend? Since when? And who?”
“I’m not sure about the since when part, but to sum it up, with a literal goddess of the night.”
“Wait, a Goddess? As in, Immortal, All-Powerful? How did that happen? And seriously, what would a Goddess see in me?”
“Well, lets just say the Lunar orb gave her her power too, as well as some... similarities in personality.”
“What kind of similarities?” He asked cautiously, one eyebrow raised.
“It would be better if you just met her.” I held up my watch, “Discord, Could you teleport Luna and Die to my location?”
“On it.” I heard Discord’s voice say.
“And three... two... one..” I counted down.
“Wait, who’s--” and then, in a bright flash, Luna and Die were right in front of us.
I saw Luna about to say something, but I held up my hand, “Before either of you say anything, he’s lost all his memories from him going under for the SOLDIER procedure onwards.”
“Hi Die, who’s your friend? She’s....cute.” he said, lowering his head and trying to hide his blush.
“Hey, Noctis. So...you seriously lost your memories? That...sucks.” Die said awkwardly.
“Actually she accidentally took them,” I said, pointing to the now mechanical girl.
“Hey, it’s not my fault I made a small error the first time I ever entered someone else’s body!” She retorted. “Besides, he’ll get them back in a few days. But for the love of all things holy, DO NOT try to jump-start them. You do that, and he’ll lose all his memories. For good.”
“Ok, so don’t try to remind him of anything... Fine by me.” I said with a shrug.
“No, not that. I’m assuming that magic exists here too, judging by all the crazy shit I saw in his memories?”
I floated up, and stood on the ceiling. “No shit Sherlock.”
“Yeah, well what I was referring to is that you can’t try to restart them with magic. I learned enough on the subject. Subtle hints can speed up the recovery slightly, but if you ever use magic to do it, you’ll erase everything, and be left with nothing but an adult with a child’s mind. He’ll have to learn how to do everything all over again.”
“Oh... what about electroshock therapy?” I asked with a slight grin.
“FUCK NO! That’s even worse. It’ll make him remember, but it’ll make the memories seem like living nightmares for the rest of his life.”
“Damn... I think I remember a few methods for memory retrieval from our world, such as a certain acupuncture point.”
“Acupuncture, with the needles?” she asked. “Oh, and I finally decided on a name for myself. At least until I eventually remember my old one.”
“What is it? And acupuncture doesn’t have to use needles.”
“Dana. Short and sweet. And really? Then what can be substituted for needles?”
“Watch.” I walked up to Lux, who was just watching, and poked a sleep point on his body with a single finger, and a lot of strength, knocking him out. “It’s not that hard to learn, all you need are steady hands.”
“Um, isn’t he gonna be pissed when he wakes up?”
“That’s why I’m going to go hide.” I said, before flying away at full speed. My wind powers allowing me to hear the rest of the conversation from my hiding spot in the ventilation ducts.
“Oooookaaaaay. That guy is just weird. I don’t know what you see in him Die.” Dana said with a raised eyebrow.
“You may not, but I do. He’s sweet, kind, caring, and he’s willing to put his life on the line for any of us. And he’s pretty funny too.” Die replied.
I vibrated the air around them to say, in my voice “Thanks, Die, but I’m really not that funny.”
“Oh come off it Ven. And also, this is the new girl? She looks kinda...mechanical.”
“Technically, she’s a machine with a soul.” I said with the wind..
“So, bio-mechanical? The merging of man and machine kind of thing?”
“No, just Lux putting a ghost into a robot that then grew flesh to show her original appearance... I didn’t see anything I swear!”
“Ah. And I know. You wouldn’t do something like that. It’s not who you are.” She said.
“Yeah, I know,” I ‘said’, as I grinned, not that they could see it. “By the way, could we talk... you know... in private?” I asked Die. “It’s about our earlier conversation.”
“Sure. No problem. I’ll leave you guys alone.” She said, running off to find me.
I then added one last thing “Oh, and Dana, stay with Lux so your body doesn’t freeze up.” I then began speaking only directly to Die “Ventilation shaft on the left.” I said as I stuck out a small white flag. She almost missed it, but she managed to stop just short of running past.
“Ok, gonna help me up?” She asked with a grin.
I rolled my eyes, and lifted her with my wind, angling her so that she would fit into the vent easily. Once she was in, we were almost face to face, and I said, “Welcome to the ratman’s den.” I said with a grin, before slowly backing away “Follow me,” i turned a corner, and came out facing the opposite direction, “But be warned, I have no clue where I’m going.”
“So, that’s how I do everything. By rushing in with no clue.” She said with a playful punch to the back of my shoulder. I had no idea how she did it when we’re on our hands and knees in a ventilation shaft, but I chose not to question it.
“Ok, so, left or right?” I asked as we came to a turning point.
“Hmmm, right!” She said.
“Right it is.” I said as I turned the corner and saw it open up into a room, “Well thats wierd.”
“Cool. Hey, is that...” She pushed me out of the vent and I would’ve fallen flat on my face if not for my wind. She, on the other hand, jumped out and immediately ran towards whatever it was that had her attention.
“What the hell is this?” I said, standing up and looking around. The room was filled to the brim with various items. Weapons of every kind lined the walls, there was a fridge in the corner, bedrolls on the floor, five in count, and a bowl of some purple liquid held up by a demonic looking hand made of marble. Hell, there were even what looked like materia in some places. “This place... It looks like a bomb shelter... What the hell is this kind of place doing in the Swagwagon?!”
“Who cares, check out the materia!” Die said, rummaging around a shelf filled with various colored orbs. “Ven, these are all extremely rare, I think some of them are even one-of-a-kind.”
I walked to the bowl in the middle of the room, “What... is this?” As I looked in, I saw shapes begin to form, the liquid began to swirl, and it began to play a scene I knew too well.
It was two years before I ended up on Equis. It was an average day, to say the least, sun was shining, and getting reflected off the buildings right into my damn eyes.
“Hey, Rey.” I heard a voice say behind me.
“Yeah?” I asked, turning to face a man, he was about half a foot taller than me, and was wearing a cloak. “Oh, it’s just you, what is it this time? Here to make my life worse?”
“No, I simply want a job done that your... expertise, might be best for.” The cloaked man, who I remember called himself ‘Anon’ as a joke, said.
“I told you, Anon, I’m not a fucking hitman. Stealing is one thing, killing is another.” I turned away, and kept walking.
“It’s not an assassination job.” I stopped when he said this, and turned to face him.
“Do tell.” I said, giving him a look of boredom.
“Simple, I want you to steal a jeweled, golden bowl from the McCleary family. It’s a high risk job, but I think you’ll find it worth the reward.” He tossed a small wad of bills to me, each labeled 100.
“Seriously? Thats all?” I said, weighing the pile of money in my hand. “Seems a bit light if you ask me.”
“Thats only one tenth of the payment, you get the rest upon completion of the job.” He said, “When you’ve finished, meet me at the Empire State Building with the bowl in a simple backpack tomorrow at noon, a second later, and you forfeit the contract.”
I thought it over for a few moments, “You know, this is the first time we’ve seen eye to eye on something like this.” He just smiled, and turned away, as did I.
The image shifted to the area outside a large mansion in the middle of the night. I walked beneath a balcony for the third floor, and threw a muffled grappling hook. Yeah, I could be using the awesome stealthier ways of infiltration, but the classics just have that dramatic effect, you know?
Anyway, I got into the house no problem, the room I got into seemed to be a sitting room, I used a can of aerosol deodorant to make sure there were no tripwire type laser alarms in the room, I slowly moved across, and opened the door just a crack, to see nobody in the hallway, I opened the door a few more inches, and scooted out. Wearing muffled shoes can be quite helpful in this kind of situation. I would have, before breaking in, examined the patterns of the residents, and waited for a time they were all out of the house, so that I could be a bit louder.
I went down the flight of stairs to the second floor, being careful not to touch anything, even with my gloves. Anything could be a trap for people like me, trying to steal their shit. When I got to the bottom of the stairs, I decided to turn left, only for that to lead to a dead end. I backtracked to the stairs, and took the right path, which lead to a room filled with tons of golden artifacts, and near one corner of the room, was my target. I used my aerosol deodorant again on this room, to find that the room was filled with tripwire lasers, and a surprising number of guns, all aimed all throughout the room.
Using the skills that I had honed over the years, I managed to re-angle the base laser into the only real acceptance point, making the room passable. From there I slipped past the security cameras using the surrounding area’s shadows. The security here is shit, I mean, seriously, have these people ever watched ‘it takes a thief?’ I mean I like a fucking challenge in my jobs.
I took out a glass cutter, and sliced the case around the bowl into four pieces, and carefully removed two. I picked up the bowl, being careful not to drop it. “Ok,” I said, feeling a bit too confident, “Now to just get out.” I made a dash through the shadows for the third floor, only for me to trip over the top stair.
“Ow!” I said quietly, I heard some movement in one of the nearby rooms, and I hid in the shadows.
The door opened, and I heard a man’s voice say “Who’s there? Come out now, and I might not call the police.”
Good one, if I step out, you’ll probably just shoot me. I thought, trying to draw a knife with no sound. Unfortunately, it did make a little, and the man heard it, “Shit, there really is someone here!” I saw a figure begin to run for the stairs. No! I won’t let you report me! I thought as I lept out of the shadows, shoving him away from the stairs, unfortunately, he hit the railing, and fell down all three floors, onto his head.
“Shit!” I swore out loud, and turned to the window I came in, only to see it coated with steel, I turned around, and saw a woman holding a remote. “Take the house out of lockdown, NOW!” I shouted the last part, the woman began trembling with fear, but I didn’t care. “I. SAID. TAKE. THE FUCKING HOUSE. OUT. OF. LOCKDOWN!”
“N-no. You killed him, I w-won’t let you leave.”
I sighed, “Damn it. There goes my reputation of no casualties on a job.” I said, and held up my knife. “Unlock the house or you’ll soon be joining him.” Her eyes widened, “NOW!” Her hands began to tremble even worse, and the remote fell out, bouncing a single time, before falling off the ledge, and with it, fell the last bit of sanity in my mind. I walked forward, “You know what the worst part of me is?” I asked, my voice distorting. “I always keep my promises.” I said as I stabbed her while she turned to run away.
“YOU BASTARD!” A guy jumped out from behind me, and grappled my neck. Instinctually, I flipped around the knife in my hand, and stabbed the guy in the head. He fell off with a thump, and I looked up to see the windows were no longer bound in steel. Guess the remote fell on whatever button it was that unlocked the windows. Better get going before the police get here! I said, as I walked to the window, only to catch a glimpse of myself in the mirror. Only three things stood out to me:
1) My face was covered in blood.
2) The whites of my eyes were black, and my irises orange.
3) I looked good.
________________________________________________________________________
I tried to pull myself away from the bowl of purple liquid, but my eyes were glued to it, as the memories continued, while all I could think was Please.... Make it stop... Someone... Please...
________________________________________________________________________
The scenery changed again. It was the next day, and I was standing outside the Empire State Building, with the jeweled bowl in a simple tech backpack. It was 10:40. Sure, I was early, but he never specified where he would be in the building, so I figure it would be best to be early, and let him find me.
“Hello Rey,” I heard Anon say behind me.
I turned to face him, “Show me the money, then we talk.”
“Ah, but you did so well! All three dead, and I couldn’t have planned it better myself.”
My eyes widened, before narrowing into a glare, “You planned this?!” I shouted, before my voice died down, “You sneaky, underhanded bastard. I will kill you for this.” I said, stepping toward him.
“Please, hundreds of people wanted them all dead, for personal, and public reasons. All I did was have an anonymous assassin do it for me.”
“I told you, I’m not a fucking hitman.” I said through grit teeth.
“But you must admit, it was more challenging than just the theft. Anyway, Here is your pay,” He held out a briefcase. “Now give me the bowl.”
I tossed Anon the bag, and grabbed the briefcase. He checked inside, and said “I also put in a little bonus, for doing so much... extra credit.”
“Shut up,” I said, before walking away. Hmph, bastard, never taking a job for you again. Although... Maybe being a hitman could be fun... I thought as I walked from the scene and the memory faded.
_______________________________________________________________________
I fell to my knees. I remember now... The black eyes... Those eyes! I thought as I rolled up into a little ball on the floor, and began to rock back and forth, muttering “The black eyes destroy all. The black eyes destory all. The black eyes destory all. The--”
I felt something hit me in the face, and I looked up to see Die standing there, her hand raised. She opened her mouth to speak, but nothing came out. So she just dropped to her own knees and put her arms around me.
“Die... I...” I tried to find the right words.
“Ven...don’t...I won’t pretend to understand why you did it...but it still doesn’t change how I feel...”
“Thats... not what it was... I just remembered something sort of important.”
“What is it?”
“You said my eyes turned black when I fought Akumu, right?” I asked in a serious tone.
“Yeah, why?” She asked, confused.
“Did... you see what I saw in that... scrying thing?”
“I did...wait, the incidents both had one thing in common...your eyes...”
“They were black, and it wasn’t the second time that it showed up when I fought Akumu, those eyes... They represent my darkness.” I said, looking down.
“Your...darkness...”
“I don’t know how it happened, but... I got something similar to a dark side, only me and it... we’re one and the same. Incapable of separation. One personality.” I explained, looking away.
“I see...so your darkness is there, but you only use it if certain conditions are met?”
“Well, its more along the lines of it only coming out when I’m about to kill... Or, in Akumu’s case, seal away in stone from what I’ve seen.”
“So...you can control it?”
“Not at all, thats just the only time it wants to come out, it doesn’t want a full life.”
“Huh. that’s interesting...Great, now I sound like Noctis.”
Black eyes... orange irises... that sort of sounds like the hollow ichigo in bleach...
“... Now that I think about it... Nah, nevermind.” I said, shaking away the idea.
“What? What were you thinking about?” She pestered, keeping one arm around me and bringing the other up to a noogie position.
“It wasn’t important.” I said, prepared for the worst.
“Come on Ven. Tell me. Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaseee?” She said, putting on her own puppy dog expression.
I stared for a moment, before saying “By the gods that’s cute.”
“That’s only cause we’re dating. The puppy-dog eyes are even cuter then, my mom told me so......” She trailed off, shaking her head.
I thought for a moment, before deciding, “I’ll tell you, but only half of my theory. The half being that it isn’t a dark side.”
“Ok... now I’m even more curious. Is this one of those other universe kinda things, like how my world is a game in yours?”
“Yup. Only the one I’m thinking of was an animated show this time, and before you try to press for more information, I won’t be giving any more... This is something I should deal with myself.”
“Ok. I won’t. But just remember, you don’t have to do everything by yourself. Noctis tried, and look what happened. He almost died twice.”
I smiled, “Trust me, the less dimensions one goes to, the better.” I said, “There... I need to go look up a few things.” I turned to leave, when something caught my eye. “What the fuck? Is that... holy crap it is!” I shouted as I ran toward a zanpaktou on the wall. I stopped my hand an inch away, “No... No, I shouldn’t take it.” I pulled my hand away from the blade, and just admired it in all it’s glory..
“What? Ven, what’s with the look you were giving that sword? You looked like a kid in a candy store with no adult supervision for a while there.”
“Well it’s not everyday you see the sword of a god of death.” I said gleefully, “Oh fuck it all, I’m taking this shit!” I shouted as I grabbed the sword, sheathed it, and put it on my belt.
“A god of death? Wait, is this from one of those tv shows Shade tried to get me to watch in the past 2 months while you and Noctis were napping. What was it called....Bleach?”
“That’s the one!” I said in the same tone as I looked around for anything else.
“Well, if you’re taking that, I’m gonna take a look through these materia.” she said, smiling as she returned to the shelves.
“Ooh! Molatovs!” I shouted as I found the bottles of flammable liquid, and started shoving them into a bag I found on the floor with a manic grin.
“NO WAY!” Die suddenly yelled. I turned to face her, and she was staring wide-eyed at two particular materia
“What?” I asked as I put the last molotov into my bag, rather weird how it doesn't feel that heavy though.
“Ven, you see these two materia?” She said, pointing to a white materia and a black one.
“What...”
“Ven, these are the two most powerful materia in existence. The white one represents Holy, the ultimate white magic, while the black one represents Meteor, the ultimate black magic.” She explained. “How did Discord even get these?”
I looked at the bedrolls on the floor “It might not have been Discord, from the looks of it, someone either is living in here, or was.” I said as I approached the fridge, and opened it. “Oh, cool, pizza!”
“Pizza? Lemme at it.” She said, pushing past me and reaching for one of them.
“I thought you didn’t miss eating, Die.” I said with a chuckle.
“Hey, when it comes to pizza, I can’t get enough.” She retorted with a smile.
“Just let me have some, will you?” I asked, trying to get to it.
“Ok. You get half.” She said, slicing it into 16 pieces with her sword and handing me 8.
“Thats efficient... Hey, should we tell anyone else about this room?” I said, before shoving half a piece into my mouth in a single bite.
“Well, I think we should. Something as dangerous as meteor right here? We can’t let that stay secret. What if whoever was using this place comes back for it or something? That thing can destroy entire worlds.” She said, shivering.
“It looks like nobodies been in here for a while, considering that the only break in the dust is our footprints.” I said, gesturing to the dusty ground. “Though how the pizza is still good is beyond me.”
“Preservation spell, I’m guessing.” Die said, finishing her fourth slice.
I swallowed the last of my fifth piece, “Makes sense, but still, I say we keep this place secret for now. If the person does comeback, then preperation won’t do any good.” I began to wolf down my sixth piece as I finished.
“Man, you eat faster than Noctis. How neither of you gets indigestion is a mystery.” She said, chuckling as she started on her fifth.
“I’ve always been quick when it comes to food,” I said as I swallowed the last of the same piece as before “Something about a fast metabolism.”
“That’s what Noctis said too. Guess you two are gonna be having speed competitions now that he has to eat again, huh?”
“Probably not, I’ve never really liked eating contests.” I said as I swallowed half the seventh.
“Good. I don’t wanna have to bring you to the hospital for blowing your stomach out.” She joked. “And back to what we were talking about. If you’re right and Discord doesn’t even know about this place, he needs to. It’s his ship, and for there to be a room that he doesn’t know about, that’s never a good thing.”
“It could be a room of the previous owner.” I commented, looking at the dust again, now that I’ve finished my pizza.
“Discord built this thing himself. He’s the only one that ever owned it.” Die replied.
“How could he not know about the room if he built it?” I asked.
“The only explanation I can think of...someone got their hands on it while Discord was sealed in stone.”
“It would explain all this... and the skeleton I found in my closet on day one.” I said, shuddering. “Don’t worry about it, if someone did get there hands on it, it looks like they probably died before discord was released.”
“You’re probably right...I don’t like it though.”
“Think about it this way, if we tell anyone, the others might find the pizza.” I said.
“Ven, not the time for jokes. Pizza isn’t important compared to potentially universe-shattering weapons.” She replied with a serious face.
“It could be that whoever was here last was trying to keep them from being used. Which would explain that.” I said, pointing to a pile of nuclear bombs. “I already checked, they were diffused.”
“You mean de fused. Diffusion is..something I can’t remember the meaning of. Defusion is the art of making bombs not blow up.” She chuckled.
“Don’t correct my spelling pronunciation on this, Die. It’s only one letter.” I wrote said.
“Technically, it’s two. See, Diffusion has two fs, Defusion only has one.”
“Whatever, anyway, I think I wanna clean this place, make it... I don’t know, a secret base or something. Besides,” I gave her a look “Nobody would walk in on us here.”
“Ok, now I’m in.” She said with a grin.
“I wonder if they have any secret rooms in canterlot palace...”
“Oh, they do. We just have to find them.” She replied.
“Sounds like a decent way to waste time when we get back.” I said, before looking to the side “Oh, hey, a book.” I walked over to a shelf with two books on it, one with a rigid spine, the title on it being ‘Monster book of monsters.’ I chuckled, “Never thought I would see one of these. Lets see...” Completely forgetting the rules, I opened the book, only for it to begin to attack me. It took me five seconds to manage to close it, and relock it. “I forgot to rub it’s spine.” I said, blood from a cut it gave me going into my eye.
“A killer book? Now I’ve seen everything.” Die said.
“It’s called the monster book of monsters. Oddly enough, it’s a school book in one universe.” I said. “In order for it not to attack you, you have to rub the spine before opening it... I forgot to do that.”
“I see....so, what kind of creatures does it detail?”
“That’s what I was trying to find out.” I said, putting the book into the bag. “Seriously, why doesn’t this bag have any weight to it, I put all sorts of crap in!” I looked inside, to see what looked like a room with everything I threw into the bag in it. “Oh, thats cool. It has a pocket dimension in it.” I looked around the room again, searching for a revolver. Not only did I find one, but it was the of the coolest guns ever “Holy shit.” I said, feeling myself begin to drool over the gun I found.
“Dude, this place is awesome.” Die said, looking into the bag.
“This gun... I think I understand now.” I said. “Whoever was last using this ship, watched a lot of anime.” I began to notice more and more object from various shows I watched, like the staff from Negima.
“Hey, what’s this?” Die asked, walking towards a small disc on a pedestal.
I looked at it for a moment, “I have no clue.” I picked it up casually, and examined it closer.
“Hey, there’s a button on the bottom.” Die said, reaching out to grab it.
I flipped it over to see a red button, “MINE!” I shouted as I slammed my hand down onto it. Immediately, the disc Floated up, and shot a light out, to reveal a fat guy with glasses. I assumed that this was a hologram, because someone that large couldn’t exactly sneak in very easily.
“Oh good, it works.” The fat guy said.
“The hell?” Die said.
“Shh.” I said, and listened to the hologram.
“My name is Bill, and if you are watching this, I am dead. My time on this ship so far has been nice, though being the only one because the owner is trapped in stone isn’t exactly the most fun. Anyway, the items in this room are from various dimensions, galaxies, and even different kinds of reality. I collected them for the bragging rights of saying ‘I have the actual gun of Train Heartnet,’ and such. Of course, if I’m not dead, stay out of my stuff.”
I looked at the backpack i found in here.... that was filled with things from this room, “Yeah... too late for that.”
“Anyway, most of the items I grabbed were not on my original list, but I decided it would be better if they were hidden away, especially that Zanpakuto,” he pointed to where I took the Zanpaktou from. “I was with its previous owner when he died, and told me to ‘hold onto it,’ for him. I could never get it to even go into shikai, but... who knows, maybe he thought that me taking it would get it to it to it’s next owner.” The hologram shimmered a little, “Feel free to take whatever you want. There isn’t anything I can do to stop you anyway. Oh, and before I forget, the bowl in the center is a dream pool. It allows one to delve into the world of dreams, and their memories... If I find anything else that needs saying, I’ll make another recording on a different disk.” And with that, the hologram disappeared.
“Well that was weird.” I said.
“He was a collector?” Die mused. “Ok, whoever he was, taking objects that could destroy the world just so he could have bragging rights? That’s idiotic.”
I put the disc into my bag, “He said that was how it started. He also said that he decided others would be best hidden away... But why this” I said, examining the Zanpaktou in my hand.
“I’m more curious as to how that thing survived when it’s owner died. From what I saw, when a soul reaper dies, their Zanpaktou dies with them.”
“Not entirely true, the spirits in the Zanpaktou don’t die, there have even been cases of two people with the same one. So its possible that the sword stayed because there was a seperate user.”
“So you’re saying that it’s spirit resides in someone else, and that’s why it’s technically still alive? Like with Toshiro Hitsugaya and Sojiro Kusaka?”
“Wow, you’ve seen even the movies. That’s a surprise.” I mused.
“Yeah, Shade was pretty adamant about me seeing as much of it as possible. My head still hurts from the blow I got as punishment for when I fell asleep in the middle of the third movie.”
“... Wait... She forced you to watch anime?” I asked with a raised eyebrow.
“Yeah....she’s scary when she’s mad...don’t tell her I said that...” She said quietly, her eyes darting around as if she thought Shade could hear her and was coming for her.
I shuddered, “I guess that’s another reason to keep this room a secret from the rest.” I said as I attached Tai Fuu No Me to the vacuum I found, and began to clean the room. What? You thought that it couldn’t be used that way? Well think again!
“Ven, how are you doing that?”
“Using the electric power Sparky put in the sword and letting it out at a specific wattage.” I quickly explained, taking out the hose attachment, and going over the shelves with it.
“Well, I honestly...I have nothing to say.”
“Oh, hey, another disc.” I said, finding another one of those hologram disc thingies.
“MINE!” She said, swiping it and pushing the button on the bottom.
“Aww...” I said, a little disappointed I couldn’t press the button.
“Hey, you got to do it last time! It’s only fair.” She said with a grin.
“... Fine.” I said, rolling my eyes. Followed by smiling. Then another hologram of the same guy as before appeared.
“Today I didn’t find any items, instead, I spent the last month making one. In the center of the room, is a pool of dream scrying. For some reason, it doesn’t show you any memories dreams you want to see. But memories or dreams that are important to your situation. I discovered this when in one it hinted toward something about breaking, and the next day the ship crashed into a smaller one.” The chubby guy chuckled upon saying this..
“Ok, remind me never to let that guy take the wheel, ever.” Die said.
“The things you view gives either subtle hints, or beats you around the head and neck with the truth. Anyway, a few kinds of items I forgot to mention, one: the Lightsaber on the right hand wall,” He gestured to the wall, and I immediately began going through everything on it, until I found the small metal cylinder, as he said “May the force be with you, Skywalker.”
“HA! I found it!” I shouted, holding up the weapon in victory.
“Um... I forgot what the second was, so I’ll move onto the third, the materia that are there.” He pointed to the shelf Die got the materia from, “Please do not use them, if you can help it. I don’t want any more planets being destroyed because I was foolish enough to grab them too.”
“Ok, at least he has some remorse for grabbing them. Maybe he’s not a total idiot.”
“Also, on an unrelated note, all these were gathered through legal means, in a sense of the word. Well... Except for the occasional few of them, which I had to have stolen from museums and replaced with replicas.”
“I retract my earlier statement.”
“Anyway, that’s all I can fit on this projector. One last note if I can fit it: the fridge and the bag both have pocket dimen-” and then it cut out, and the message ended.
“Hmmm, pocket dimensions? Sounds too much like science fiction to me.”
“Wait... If the FRIDGE has a pocket dimension...” I ran over, and looked in, and sure enough, it was big enough to fit a house in... or maybe seven, but the amount of food... It was glorious.
“Thats a lot of food...” I turned to Die, “One moment.” I then ran into the fridge room, and grabbed some ‘spare’ ribs from the section labeled ‘raw meat’, walked out, pulled a grill out of my new bag, and began to cook it with some barbecue sauce on it.
“A grill, seriously?”
“Why not?” I asked as I set up a timer, and stepped away, “I need to be prepared for all situations.”
“Well alright then.”
“Though I can’t bring myself to eat beef anymore. Then again, its understandable, having an intellectual conversation with a cow will do that to you.”
“Well, I never ate meat anyway. Neither did Noctis. We were seen as weird back home for that, actually.”
“Vegetarianism isn’t weird. Trust me.”
“It is back home.”
“If you’ve been to my world, you wouldn’t say that, on my planet there are even people who take it a step further, and don’t eat anything that comes from an animal. Called ‘Vegans.’”
“Now that must be a difficult lifestyle.” She said, stifling a chuckle.
“Yeah, most of them suffer from a lack of protein. Due to most of them also not liking most nuts, which are one of the only other real ways to get protein without meat or milk. Also I may have dabbled in it for about a month. My muscles actually started to degrade from it.”
“Yikes. Be glad you’ll never have to go through the SOLDIER program. Some of the experiments resulted in severe weight loss. It was actually the cause of most of the deaths.”
I shuddered “Thats a creepy thought.” The timer began to beep, “Oh cool, my ribs are done.” I walked back to the grill, pulled out a plate, and plopped my meat onto it. I also walked back to the fridge and grabbed a soda from the area close to the door.
Still... What did the memory I saw have to do with my situation? I thought as I ate, quickly devouring the ribs in a matter of minutes, and downing the soda in a few seconds. “That... Was pretty disappointing actually.” I said, “Note to self, practice cooking.”
“Add another note to that. Practice cooking while kissing girlfriend.” Die replied, moving towards me with a small grin plastered on her face.
I smiled, “I’m not that good at multitasking, I can only do one at a time.” I said, getting up, and walking toward her with a really stupid grin.
“Well then, kissing first, cooking after.”
“I’m ok with this,” I said, dropping my new bag as we embraced.
________________________________________________________________________
One sex scene later (will post elsewhere, cause I don’t want to put ‘sex’ down as a thing for this.)
“That...that was....”
I just sat there, breathless. It was, for lack of a better term, fucking amazing.
“Well, are you gonna say something, or am I gonna have to perform CPR?” She said, smirking.
I finally caught my breath, “Could I say something, and have the mouth to mouth?” I said with a grin.
“Why not?” She shrugged, wrapping an arm around me and bringing me in for a kiss.
Suddenly, the entire ship lurched, and I could hear a siren somewhere in the background. “... Well, at least that hadn’t happened earlier. Let’s go see what happened.” I said, pulling out, grabbing my new bag, with everything in it, and diving through the ventilation duct, flying through it with Die behind me. (wind powers are best powers.)
“So, what do you think? Do you want to be a father someday?” Die asked.
“Honestly, I don’t know, if I didn’t I would have definitely stayed out of a relationship at all costs... So... I guess I kind of would.” I said with a small smile and blush, thankfully, she couldn’t see either.
“Well, honestly, I really want to be a mom someday. I don’t have a clue if I would be a good mom, what with spending over six years of my life being a trained killer, but I’d still want to give it my best shot.”
We exited the ventilation into the main ship “... You know, I wonder what our child would look like. Oh, and about the trained killer thing, you forget I am too.”
“With the two of us as the parents, he, or she, would definitely be a heartbreaker. Everyone would be after their heart.”
“Maybe if we were in a human society, or if they had your ability to transform into a pony.” I said, as we flew down the hall. We burst through the door to the bridge, “What’s happening?”
“I’ve found some of the things Umbra made.” Discord said, typing rapidly.
I smiled, “Send me down, I got this. After all,” I grinned, “I’m an American.”
“And I’m a SOLDIER, as well as your girlfriend. I’m going too.” Die said, giving me a concerned look.
“Got it.” Discord said, and with a snap of his fingers, we were in front of hundreds of sinners.
A small frown appeared on my face, “Aww, I was hoping for more, I wanted to give my new blade a through test.” I said, brandishing the Zanpaktou.
“No need. It’ll be over quick.” Die said calmly. “Oh, and Ven, keep your eyes open, you’re not gonna wanna miss this.” She smirked, before turning to face the opposition, as armor of pure flames wrapped itself around her. “ALRIGHT SHIT-STAINS! I HOPE YOU’RE READY TO DIE!”
I grinned, “Lets do this. LEROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOY, JEEENKINS!” I shouted as I charged the hoard, cleanly slashing through several of them as I ran through their midst.
“VEN GET BACK AND WATCH!” She said angrily, the flames burning brighter with each passing moment.
I floated up, and bent the air around me, to launch me there, “On it!” I said as I got back to her.
“Ok, here it comes. FLARE RUSH!” Suddenly, she was gone.
“What?” I asked nobody, looking around.
Then, several sinners just burst into flames and turned to ash in the space of three seconds, The rest followed suit.
I just stared at the large pile of ashes that was where the army was for several seconds, before saying, “What?”
“Damn...I think my hormones may have made me a little cranky.” Die said sheepishly as the flames died down around her.
“... I repeat my question: What? ”
“Uhh, Ven, long story short, you know how some creatures go through heat, aka estrus, every once in awhile?”
“Are you saying...” I trailed off.
“Yeah, since I’m able to turn into a pony, and ponies go into estrus...” She let me make the connection.
“You’re in heat?” I asked.
“Yeah. Turns out, I can go through it even if I’m not in my pony form.” She started rubbing the back of her head nervously.
“Well, that’s certainly interesting... Wait, if you’re in heat, it’s possible that you subconsciously decided to become pregnant during... well, you know.” I started to feel a bit of panic, but I tried not to show it.
“Ven, it’s ok. I’m not pregnant. Trust me, I’d know instinctively if I was.
I felt myself calm down, I let out a deep breath, “Ok, just... If you do become pregnant, just... please, let me know. I don’t want to be the ignorant boyfriend who doesn’t know what’s going on. I want to be helpful throughout it.”
“Don’t worry Ven. The second I suspect anything, I’ll tell you. Besides, you’re not ignorant, just occasionally unobservant.” She joked.
I rolled my eyes, “Gee, thanks.” I said, and kissed her lightly, before holding up my watch to my mouth. “Discord, we’re done here. Beam us up.” A few more seconds and we were back on the ship. Die leaned in close and whispered in my ear, “Hey Ven, do you think we should lord it over Noctis that we had sex before him, especially since he’s older than us? Once he’s got his memory back, that is.”
I grinned, “Fuck yeah.” I whispered back.
“Good. Now, what do we do next? Are we going to Disneyland?” She joked.
“We actually could, if Discord brought us... Wait, how do you know of Disneyland?”
“How do you think. The same way I learned about manga, anime, memes...” she replied.
“Which memes?” I asked. I swear if Shade told her about the bad ones...
“Hmm, well so far, only a few. Like the ‘arrow to the knee’ one, uh...” she brought a hand to her chin in thought. “Crap, I can’t remember any others right now.”
“What about Leroy Jenkins?”
“You mean that WoW guy who, like an idiot, rushed into a fight and got his entire raiding party killed?”
“Yup, that’s the guy.” I said.
“That one was kinda funny. It’s not really something I’d do though.”
“Most people I’ve met wouldn’t.” I said simply, “Anyway, I think I should work out, I need to work off the two months of being a vegetable.”
“I know how we can work out.” She said in a seductive tone.
“Maybe later, I’m still... empty, in that respect.”
“I can fix that.” she whispered in my ear.
I grinned, “... Well why are we still here?” I said as I began to float up.
“You go to our room, I’ll catch up.” she said, suddenly clutching her stomach.
“Are you Ok?” I asked.
“I’m not sure. It’s probably just a side-effect of the Burning Soul. I just need to rest a little, and I’ll be fine.” She said with a weak smile.
“Are you sure?” I looked her in the eye, and could see something .
“Of course. Unless you want me to start using your nickname publicly, Venny .” she whispered evilly.
I felt my face grow hot, “... Ok, going,” I said, floating away slowly. What was that about? I thought as I exited the door.
I thought for a moment as I turned down the hall, and stopped when I heard someone talking.
“Die, is something wrong?” I heard Discords voice ask.
“I...I think I might be wrong about not being pregnant.” she said.
I felt my eyes widen at this, but managed to keep my panic under control as I continued listening.
“I thought I would know when it happened, and I was sure that it hadn’t, but now, I feel a small pain in my stomach, and I’ve never felt that before. What if I am pregnant.”
“That’s wonderful!” I heard Discord shout.
I thought for a moment, as I listened Die... why would you lie about this?
“I want to tell Ven, but what if I’m wrong about this. If I tell him, but then it turns out I’m not...What if he hates me?”
“Die,” I heard Celestia’s voice cut in “Would you rather it turns out to be the case, and not have told him? Besides, he wouldn’t hate you for it.”
“I know, but there’s still this little nagging feeling at the back of my mind telling me that that might happen, and I’m scared. I’m scared that feeling may turn out to be right, and I’m ashamed to even have that feeling.” she said, and I could almost imagine the tears streaking down her face.
“Die... Did you two ever talk about this kind of thing?”
“We talked briefly after we...y’know...and he said he’d like to be a father someday, but I could tell that he felt it was a little too soon right now. I understand, after all, if we brought a child into the middle of everything that’s going on, I’d never forgive myself if anything were to happen to them.”
“Die...” I said softly, not wanting to be overheard.
“Well, now I’m sure of one thing,” I heard Discord say.
“Oh, and what’s that?” Die asked.
The door opened, and a lion’s paw grabbed me, and pulled me in, “He isn’t mad.”
“Ven...” Die said quietly.
“Die... Why would you think I would be angry about something like this,” I said, feeling tears of joy go down my face, and smiled.
“Because I was scared that I would get your hopes up, and that they’d be torn down if we were wrong. I was scared I’d hurt you.”
“To quote Celestia, would you rather it was true, but not have told me?” I said with a small grin.
“Oh, shut up.” She said, wrapping her arms around me and sobbing a little.
“Oh, and also, before I forget,” I looked at Celestia, “I remember you have a spell that could tell me if I were immortal, right?”
“Yes, but why do you ask Ventus?” she asked.
“I know that my powers changed my life force, but I kind of want to know how close I am to actually being immortal.” I looked down at Die for a moment.
“Very well then. May I ask how you were changed originally when you arrived in your Equis?” She asked.
“The way I arrived changed me, not the actual fact that I arrived.”
“I know that, but how did it change you?” She said as she rolled her eyes.
“I... I don’t know, one moment, I was an ordinary human, jumping off the second highest building in my city, then I’m on Equis, have powers, and apparently a better life ‘spark’ for some reason.”
“I see. What was the last thing you remember seeing before you arrived in your Equis, other than the ground rushing up to meet you. Do not leave anything out.”
“I saw a multicolored rip in the air, similar in shape to an eye.”
“A chaos rift...” Discord said, his eyes widening a little. “But that shouldn’t be possible, chaos rifts are a lost technique, only I’ve ever created one, well, me and my alternate selves.”
“From what Lumos told me, his arrival caused ‘waves’ of chaos, which woke something up, which then created more waves, which caused them to start opening on their own.”
“Ah, that explains it. Natural Chaos Rifts. Much more powerful than the ones I create. Not only do they allow travel between universes, they also allow Chaos magic to be absorbed by those who travel through them. Your body must have adapted the magic to suit your personality, as well as making you semi-immortal.”
“What do you mean ‘Semi-immortal’?”
“I mean that you cannot die of old age or illness, same with everyone else from your Equis, but you can still be killed through physical means. Huh, sometimes I miss not making sense. Oh well, if I never made sense at all, that wouldn’t be very chaotic. Chaos is simply change after all.”
“You could always go back to it eventually.”
“True, but it wouldn’t feel the same. Wait, that’s exactly what I want. Anyway, Celestia, if you would.” Discord said, gesturing to me. She simply nodded, and her horn glowed a brilliant gold, as did my body. She kept it up for a few moments, before cutting it off and turning to Die with a wide-eyed expression.
“Die, Ven has ‘absorbed’ some of your magical energy.”
“Wait, what?” We both said simultaneously.
“Ven, Die, when you two... did what you did...” she blushed, and shook her head, “My apologies. Anyway, when you two were together last, Die, in her heightened hormonal state, gave off a large amount of her Orb’s magic, which you subconsciously absorbed. As such, your powers have been altered slightly, as has your ‘spark’, as you call it.”
“Meaning... What?” I asked.
“She’s saying that your powers have mutated, and you’re not semi-immortal anymore. You’re a full-blown immortal.” Discord said bluntly.
“Oh... I... So, I can’t be killed now, because I had sex? Thats... Just wow.” I said, my mind not being able to come up with any response.
“Only you would say it like that Ven. It wasn’t the fact that we had sex, it was that I was...in heat...” She said, burying her face in her hands, blushing furiously.
“It’s nothing to be embarrassed about, Die.” I said, putting my hand on her back.
“I know, but I still feel a little embarrassed talking about it so openly. Now I’m not even sure I can lord it over Noctis.”
“Lord what over Noctis? Having had sex before him?” Discord asked with a grin. “Hate to break it to you, but while you two were having your ‘roll in the hay’, Noctis and Luna were having their own little adventure. So technically, you and them did it at the exact same time.” He laughed.
“Am I the only one who finds that a little creepy?” I asked.
“Oh, it’s just coincidence.” Discord said.
“Yes. Anyway, Ven, about your powers, you will have partial control over light now, but not at the same level as Die or myself would have. And if you two do have a child, they would likely inherit a combination of your powers and Die’s.”
“So... The child would have light powers, as well as a chaos power?” I said, wanting to be sure, “Oh, also, just thought I should say, does this affect my wind powers at all?”
“First, quite likely,” Discord said, suddenly in a yellow polka dot suit. “The chaos powers are created by the amount of chaos, as well as the soul and body of the user. Second... I don’t know, I haven’t worked with the powers of the orbs before. Also, you have even higher levels of chaos than you did before anyway. That’s been there since the battle though.”
“Wait, how long before the battle has his excess chaos been there?” Die asked.
“I never said before.” Discord said, “I said since.”
“Oh. Stupid mishearing of words.” Die mumbled. “Anyway, is the excess gonna be dangerous, cause I don’t want the father of my child getting blown up or turned into a hotdog or something like that.”
“It’s not dangerous to him , but it could be dangerous to others, if he doesn’t use it to it’s full extent often enough.”
“Discord, just how dangerous are we talking?”
“Well...” He thought for a moment, “The very air around him will begin to harden and become solid, until he basically becomes a golem of solidified air.”
“Golem? As in, the living statues kind of golem? Why do I get the feeling it gets worse from there?”
“It does, the solidified air will continue to grow, until the world has no air left to be used.”
“Ok, that’s bad. So how does he offload the excess?”
“Easiest way I can think of is creating a world-wide hurricane once a week.” Discord said with a shrug, “but a way with less death would just be for him to be controlling a world’s wind at all times.”
“So basically, he has to be constantly using his powers, or we all die?”
“Yup.” Discord said with a nod.
I gave him a stare, “Well that sucks... Is there another way?”
Discord went into thought for a few moments, “Well, there is one other method, but it’s only theory.”
“Discord, you do realise the risks of ‘that’, even if it is possible, do you not?” Celestia said seriously.
“Yeah yeah, possibility of removing his soul with the extra chaos.” Discord said with a wave of his claw.
“And the souls of any who happen to be in close proximity to him.” She continued.
“Um... what is this ‘theory’ that you’re talking about?” I asked.
“A being who can control pure chaos can, theoretically pull chaos out of a being, though there is a risk of tearing out the soul it's attached to, as well as pulling out the chaos from others nearby, which could lead to them losing their souls.” Discord explained.
“So, wait, you could pull the excess chaos out of Ven?”
“Possibly though it will come back in about 50 years.” Discord said, “And that’s if everything goes perfect in it.”
I felt my mouth hang open, “... Just one question: does it hurt?”
Discord shrugged “I just said, it’s only theory.”
“Knowing our luck, it’ll probably hurt like hell when he does it to ya Ven. But don’t worry, I’ll be there to kiss it better.” Die said with a wink.
I smiled, “I look forward to that part...” I then realized something kind of important, “Wait... How did you get pregnant in only a few hours, anyway?”
“It’s the chaos again.” Discord said “It doesn’t follow any rules.”
“Soooo, any idea how long till the little one will be ready to come out?” Die asked.
“Chaos is a bit unpredictable, it might be ready by the end of the week, or it could take years for it to reach being ready.” Discord explained, in a tone that said ‘this question again’.
I felt my eye twitch at this, “Just... what the fuck?”
“Wait...I could be pregnant for...years?” Die almost whispered, her eye twitching. “Please tell me there’s at least some chance I won’t go through all that morning sickness and weird food craving stuff.”
“Pickle?” Discord asked, holding out a pickled cucumber.
“No thanks.” She said, “I’m not there quite yet. If anything, I still don’t feel hungry or anything.”
“Well, that answers that question.” Discord said, “Because it looks like your a third of the way through the first trimester, but it seems to be slowing down rapidly. ”
“Wait, what? Damn that’s fast.” Die said with a whistle.
“If it continues slowing down, the pregnancy will last at least 10 months, if it stops slowing now, you have 6 to prepare.”
“So basically, I have six to ten months to prepare for motherhood. Unless it suddenly speeds up or something.” Die deadpanned.
“I said ‘at least 10,’ but you’re catching on quickly enough.” Discord said.
I facepalmed, “Just stop trying to understand, Die. It won’t help at all.”
“Fine.” She grumbled.
“Ok, now,” I turned to Discord “How long do I have until I begin to absorb the atmosphere?”
Discord tapped his chin in thought “I say about 4 days left, then we have a few hours before the ship would run out of oxygen.”
I swallowed, “Discord, are we near any empty planets? I want to get this done as soon as possible.”
“We’re half an hour from a moon that has a decent amount of wildlife on it, but not much else.” Discord said, glancing at a monitor to confirm what he said.
“Lets go, now. I want to get this over and done with.” I said.
“I’m going too.” Die said. “Aren’t I, Ven?”
“Die... No. I need to do this myself.” I said, “We have to think about more than our selves this time. We are having a child, after all.”
“Fine, but if you die, I’m gonna kill you.” she said.
I gave Discord a motion to start, and said to Die, “I don’t think those chosen by death will die so easily.”
When my eyes adjusted to the light in the area, I was shocked to find myself in the middle of an ordinary field, the only difference being the fact that there was a group of eight legged mooses running around.
So the legendary spider-moose is real. I thought as I looked around, and as I said, the eight legged moose really was the only difference between this moon, and an ordinary forest on earth so far.
I heard a loud cough, and turned to see Discord. “So, shall we begin?” He asked, cracking his knuckles.
“Lets.” I said, bracing myself for whatever lies ahead.
Discord held up his claw, and dashed forward, stabbing it into my chest. I immediately felt immense pain, and my power fading, but that wasn’t all. I could feel myself splitting in a sense, not my personality, I was all there, just... It felt like each part of me was split into pieces. I looked up into Discords eyes to see his brow furrowed in concentration, until he relaxed, and pulled out a huge, flashing mass of energy, which then fell from his claw, and begin to take a form. Before it could finish shaping, however, I blacked out.
Unknown Location
I woke to see I was still on the moon from before, only now it wasn’t just Discord with me. I looked closely at the figure next to the draconequus, only for my eyes to widen in shock when I finally recognized him.
“... Anon, how the hell are you here?” I asked, my eyes burning into him. Tai Fuu No Me flew to my hand, and I held it downwards.
Anon grinned, “I placed a... seed in you a long time ago, it basically worked like a second soul for me, giving me a place to reside if I die.”
“Huh, so there is a way to cheat death.” I mused “Always wondered about that. Anyway, why me?”
“You were... shall we say, unique. None of the other freelance workers I found would actually mourn the deaths of those that died, and none could actually hold a second soul without physically bursting from the pressure.” Anon explained with a shrug.
“Well, that’s all I needed to know.” I threw Tai Fuu No Me at him. “Now die, and may you go through the seven circles of hell, you bastard.”
The blade stopped an inch from his throat. “Now now, lets not be too hasty.” it twirled in the air, before he grabbed it, and began walking forward, “I want to try out the powers I got from you before I kill you.”
I drew my Zanpaktou, “Says the man who was killed by a flight of stairs.” I said as I ran toward him, blade raised.
It was over in an instant. That’s actually what it took, a single moment, and he had gut me.
“Mother fu-” I coughed up blood, cutting myself off. Anon just grinned even wider,and stabbed me in the throat.
I felt my vision began to fade, and a general cold feeling throughout my whole body. Huh, this is the closest I’ve ever actually been to death... The irony itself could kill. I thought to myself.
OH NO YOU DON’T! I heard Die screaming in my head.
Wait... What the fuck? Die? I asked.
DAMN RIGHT! NOW GET THE FUCK UP! ARE YOU SERIOUSLY GONNA LET SOME SHITHEAD WHO SMASHED HIS SKULL FALLING DOWN STAIRS BEAT YOU?! Her voice screamed
I kind of have a lack of organs at the moment... oh and a hole in my neck.
You think that matters. Are you really gonna just lie there and die? What about our children? Are you really gonna leave them without a father?
I’m an immortal any-... Wait… Them? I asked
I think it may be twins. Though Discord did say that we wouldn’t actually know till they were born...
… Ok, getting up. I thought as I stood shakily. Fuck, this hurts... and I can’t talk now... the fucker destroyed my vocal cords! I felt my rage begin to bubble, and my vision darken.
Ven...don’t push yourself too far...oh, and one more thing... Suddenly, she was right there. This is technically just a projection, so I can’t heal you, but I can still do this. She said as she hugged me.
Die... I see no point in this. I thought, utterly confused.
There doesn’t need to be a point. Can’t a girl mentally hug her boyfriend without a reason?
I... damn I wish I could talk right now... This better not be permanent. I thought as I moved out of the embrace to get back in the fight.
It’s not....I th-AGH!
Die? What’s wrong? What happened? I thought, and my vision grew a little darker.
He’s...fucking with my head....bastard’s trying to kill me here...cause if he does...I won’t wake up outside...UGH! She clamped her hands over her head as she fell to her knees.
I turned to face Anon, and the blade from my dreams appeared in my hands. I directed all my thoughts at him, and screamed in my head. YOU. ARE. DEAD! The sword began .I then used the wind, which had somehow turned black, to get behind him, before I cut off his arm.
“AAGH!” He shouted, before my own arm exploded, and his regrew, “You’ve gone soft, the Rey I knew would have decapitated me there and then.”
I shouted in his head as I charged, I added as I chopped off both his arms, and his legs, As I finished, I jammed my blade through his head, and swung down, cleaving him in half.
The blade disappeared, and my vision grew lighter, oh, and the pain of my exploded arm, the hole in my neck, and the one in my stomach got to me. I collapsed on the ground, and thought one thing.
Wait... I just used thought-speech... cool. My vision began to darken again, but this time it was just me losing concousness. I asked the spirit of chaos floating next to me.
“I think you can, you have enough chaos left over.”
I said, and began to try to focus light into my wounds, like Lumos did, and I felt it’s stoning effects. Slowly, the hole in my neck began to close, and my arm began to reform, though my gut remained torn open. ...Eh, good enough for a first try. I thought as I passed out again.
Swagwagon Medical Bay
I opened my eyes to see Die sitting next to my bed. I smiled, “Hey, how are you?”
She raised an eyebrow, then her hand, and I thought she was going to slap me, so I closed my eyes out of instinct. But instead of the sharp stinging pain one normally associates with a slap, I felt a different kind of disturbance on my head. Taking a risk and opening my eyes, I saw Die... patting my head?
“You are so crazy...you know that?” She whispered as she suddenly caught me in an embrace.
I felt myself grin, “Who isn’t crazy?” I said with a chuckle.
“I mean you’re crazier than most people. But in a good way.”
“Oh, that .” I said with a roll of my eyes, “I know... also... about what you said before... Do you really think it’s... twins?”
“Would I have said it if I didn’t mean it?” She replied sternly.
“I... What?” I asked, utterly confused.
She sighed. “Yes...I think I may have twins. And I swear, when they come out, I am gonna crush your arm.”
“I suppose I’ve earned it.” I said with a shrug, “... How long have I been unconscious, anyway?”
“Eight days.” I heard another voice say from the door. I looked over to see Lux in the doorway. “We’re already back on our Equis.” He smiled, “We’re home.”
I looked at Die, “Did you never tell anyone?”
“I wanted to wait until you woke up so we could tell them together.” She said sheepishly.
“Oh... Sorry for making you wait so long then.” I said, slowly getting out of the bed.
“Yeah, it was even harder when Lux and the others tried to bring you back while you were unconscious. It took Celestia, Luna, and Discord to convince them to wait until you woke up before they even thought about moving you.”
I thought for a moment, before turning to Lux “Could you gather everyone on the bridge?”
“On it,” Lux said, and disappeared in a puff of darkness.
“I feel a bit bad,” I said, “Just leaving what I already had... Eh, it’s a trade stacked in my favor.” I shrugged, and began to walk around the room. “Damn, I need to use a gym or something.”
“No, what you need is to stop getting yourself almost killed.” Die replied jokingly.
“... That’s a maybe.” I said with a grin.
“Oh no, you promise me. Promise you’ll stop with the almost dying.”
“Oh come on, I’m immortal, not invincible!”
“Yeah, so am I. That Anon bastard still managed to almost leave me in a permanent coma.” She deadpanned.
“... A fair point.” I said. “Anyway, lets go, I think we should get this over with.” I began to float us up, and I fell down, “Damn it, where is my sword?” I asked, looking around.
“Uh...Anon kinda...destroyed it in the fight, and when he did, it shattered for real...all that’s left is the zanpaktou...”
I felt my eye twitch. “... I guess we’re walking then.” I said. “With that chaos drain, and the blade being destroyed, I don’t have a way of carrying us there.”
“Don’t worry about it. I can carry you easy.” She said, placing me on her back and taking off towards the bridge at a sprint.
“Wait, what are you doing?!” I asked, turning roughly the shade of beetroot.
“What do you think I’m doing? I’m carrying you to the bridge. And stop thinking those thoughts I know are floating in your head. It’s not like that...unless you want it to be.” She whispered, emphasising it with a wink.
I felt myself blush even deeper, as well as... a certain aching in my loins. “After the meeting, Die, please.” I said, my voice barely audible.
“Fine. But seriously, stop thinking those thoughts for now, or I’ll kick your ass.”
“... Yes ma’am.” I said, erasing all dirty thoughts from my mind as quickly as I could.
“Good. Aaaaaaaaaand we’re here. In record time, I might add.” Die exclaimed with a slight cockiness in her tone.
“Congratulations.” I said, “Anyway, I think I’ll get down now.” I began to move to get off of her back.
I breathed deeply as I stood in front of the door. “Well, this is it. The moment I throw away my second life, and take a third.”
“Having second thoughts?” Die asked.
I smiled at her, “Never have, never will. Let’s do this.” I said as I opened the door.
Inside the room, Lux, Aqua, Shade, Clare, and Jolt were talking amongst themselves, and didn’t even notice me until I had cleared my throat.
“There you are!” Lux said, walking toward me, “So, ready to go?”
“Actually... I’m not going.” I said.
“WHAT?!” Lux and Jolt shouted in unison, while Clare just gave me a knowing smile, and Shade handed a small pouch to Aqua.
“I’m not going,” I said again, “I’m staying with Die, after all, I got her pregnant, I should stay with her.”
“I... You mean we waited a week for no reason?” Lux said.
“No, this way I get to say goodbye.” I said with a small smile.
“I see... Well,” Lux extended an arm, “May we meet again, in this life, or the next.”
“I would prefer this one, myself.” I said as I took his hand.
“No worries. I’ll make sure Ven comes to visit you every once in awhile.” Die said with a smile. “And if he tries to get out of it, well, I could always start using his little pet name in public.”
“Pet name?” Jolt said, his ears poking up a bit. I held my breath, sending a silent prayer to any and all gods listening not to let her say it.
“Yeah. It’s none of your business though Spaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarkyyyyyyy.” She said with a smirk.
“My name is-... You know what, screw it, call me what you want, I don’t care anymore.”
“Awww, that takes all the fun out of it.” She mock-pouted. “So, here’s to Ven, and the hope that he turns out to be a great dad!”
“You know, be sure to send a few pics, I kind of want to see the first of the second generation power users.” Lux said.
“Don’t worry, I’ll be sure to bring both of them by sometime to see their Godfather.” She said, smiling at Jolt, much to my (and his) surprise.
“Wait... you made me the godfather for the child?” He said.
“Eeyup.” She said. “And you’re the Godfather for both of them.”
“... Wait, you’re having twins?” Clare asked, “How do you already know, anyway?”
“I don’t. It’s just a gut feeling.” Die replied. “And we still need someone to be their Godmother...any suggestions who we should pick?”
“I could recommend a few ponies.” Lux said.
“Well then, recommend away.”
“Ok, first one, and probably the last in terms of skill in this kind of field: Vinyl Scratch the musician, location is Ponyville. Second, is an pony I don’t quite know where to find, named Moonlight Soul the tricorn. Third... I suppose Pinkie Pie, the element of laughter, not good godmother material, but babysitter is fine.”
“Oh yeah. Celestia said that Pinkie would be a great babysitter. Anyone else?”
“Just one more, her name is Princess Candace. From what I know, you’ve met her before, right?”
“Yeah, only briefly though, after I saved her flank at her own wedding, nearly killing Chrysalis in the process.”
“Wish I could have seen that.” Aqua said.
“Trust me, you don’t.” Die said sternly.
“Anyway,” Lux said, “Candace was actually the ‘foalsitter’ for the element of magic when she was little.”
“Who’s the element of Magic?”
“Twilight Sparkle, the purple unicorn.” Lux said, with a slight smile.
“Oh, her.” Die said calmly. “The one that electrocuted me...”
“Wait what?” I asked, baffled.
“Yeah, when Noctis and I first arrived in Equestria, we got separated. I ended up in Canterlot, and I have no idea where he ended up. I spent my first few days there hiding in alleyways. Then one night, before this whole thing started, she comes into the alleyway, and spots me. I moved back, and she electrocuted me, knocking me unconscious. When I wake up, I’m staring down Celestia and Luna and trying to figure out whether or not to draw my sword on them.”
“Wow, quite the introduction to the world.” Shade mused.
“Yeah...I don’t hold it against her since she was just trying to protect her home, but damnit, it hurt more than when I first met Bahamut. And he almost tore me in half!” She exclaimed.
“From what you said, she didn’t go all out.” Lux said.
“Wait, you’re saying she held back?” Die asked. “Well that makes me feel a little better, knowing she wasn’t trying to kill me.”
“Yeah, she could make her mane and tail become pure flames, and her coat white. Though I think she can only do it for a few seconds.”
“So, she basically becomes a Ponyta?” Die asked.
“... What do you know of Ponyta?” Lux said, his face turning to one of shock.
“Once again, blame Shade. She made me learn all sorts of things from your world, like anime, manga, memes, though I can’t remember most of those, really only the Leroy Jenkins and arrow to the knee ones.”
“Damn.” Shade said, snapping her fingers, “I was hoping you would remember them.”
“Which ones?”
“I hammered all my knowledge of the world of memes into her head.” Shade said proudly.
Thank god she doesn’t remember most of them then. I thought to myself.
“Ven, what’s with the relieved look?” Die asked suspiciously.
“Um... Nothing!” I said, looking away quickly.
“Alright then. And Shade, I’ll probably come over for a recap on memes sometime, if it’s possible.”
“I look forward to it.” Shade said, holding out one of her smoke-secreting arms.
It’s a trap! I thought Don’t fall for it!
“Same here.” Die said, extending her own hand and grasping Shade’s with a mischievous smile on her face. “Oh, and Shade...”
“Yes?” She said,
“Two words. Joy Burner.” And with that Shade suddenly jumped away from Die shaking her arm like crazy.
I blinked, “Damn you're brutal.”
“Nah, I knew she was gonna try a prank. Noctis and I used to do it all the time to each other. He would try to freeze my arm, I’d try to burn his. It’ll only last for a few minutes. Mine basically just adds a massive amount of heat energy to the arm, raising its temperature by several degrees for a few minutes. It’s great for pranks, and for battle. At least it would be if I could make it more powerful.”
“... I... Thats actually really impressive..” I said, unable to say anything more.
“Thanks. Now, last thing on the agenda regarding kids...I have absolutely no idea what they’re gonna come out as, species-wise...”
“Don’t forget that we don’t even know if they will get our powers, or if they’ll even be immortal...” I said, starting to think.
“I don’t care if they have powers or not, I just hope we can raise them right. Wow, that sounded really cheesy.”
“Fair enough, but about the species thing, how do we know they won’t be like you? Able to shift between states of being.”
“We don’t. For all we know, they could be able to, or they could be ponies, or humans. Heck, they could be half and half, like Centaurs.”
“If they turn out like that, I am definitely naming one Chiron.”
“Chiron?” Die asked.
“A centaur from greek mythology.” I explained.
“Ah. Well, is Chiron a boy’s or a girl’s name?”
“Well, the Chiron in the legends was male, so I’m assuming a boy’s name.” I said with a slight grin.
“Ok then. So, do you think Cadance would make a good Godmother?”
“Hard to say, really, but she would be a more responsible babysitter than Pinkie Pie.” I said.
“Well, ok then.”
“Eh, we can figure out the godmother another time.” I said, turning to everyone who was there, which suddenly included Erahaor for some reason, “Anyway, Erahaor, I recommend you return the Choco-Mog materia Noctis lent you before you guys go.”
“Wait, Noctis still had that?”
“Yeah, he does.” I said, with a chuckle. “Heh, I just remembered the first time I saw that summon in FF7.”
“Which one did you see? Moogle on chocobo or Obese Chocobo?”
“Chocobo kamikaze.” I said, remembering the surprisingly comical explosion.
“Ah, that one. First time Noctis used that materia, the Chocobo started chasing him. Then he tried using it again, thinking it would just disappear, but instead, he nearly got crushed by the Fat Chocobo.”
I couldn’t hold it anymore, and began to laugh, “Now THAT I would have payed to see.” I said once I finished.
“Hey, how did you know he gave it to me?” Erahaor asked, looking at me with a look of curiosity.
“... I don’t know.” I said, “Lately I’ve just known things I shouldn’t. It isn’t the first time.”
“Really?” Lux asked, “Like what?”
“Lets see... I saw my battle with Akumu from his point of view in a dream. I knew Die’s full name without ever hearing it, as well as the knowledge of which materia he lent Era. Oh, and I knew what Akumu and Umbra called the things we fought in the world between was ‘Sinners’” I said, counting them on my hand.
“I... See. That’s weird.” Lux said, a look with no form of understanding i it.
“Well, no point worrying about it just yet. But you wanna say bye to Noctis before you go?”
“Yeah, it’s probably nothing.” Erahaor said, “Also, Noctis doesn’t really seem like the kind for goodbyes, and he did say I could keep the materia.”
“Fair enough,” I said, “I’ll be sure to visit once I have a chance guys. Oh, and also,” I threw a letter to Lux, “Could you give that to our superiors in the WR? It’s my letter of resignation.”
“Aye, sir!” Lux said, and gave a snappy salute.
“Wait!” Jolt shouted, and everyone looked at him, “I... I’m not going either.”
“... I’ll press for details later,” I said “Anyway,” I turned to everyone else, as Jolt walked off the warping area. I held up my hand, separating my middle and ring fingers, but kept my middle with my index, and my ring finger with my little finger. “Live long and prosper.” And with that, they were gone in a bright flash.
(If you wish to read more of Ven’s POV on the Equis from SoNaD, I will be making a side story, called The Immortal Wind, and I will be calling it TiW normally so I don’t have to type so much.)
_______________________________________________________________________
Lux’s POV
“We’re home,” I said, looking out from the bank of my cloud home, “... Screw it, I’m writing to Celestia about this. Twilight shouldn't be the only one!” I shouted and ran to my desk, to write.
Dear Princess Celestia,
It’s been a decent amount of time since we've last met, hasn't it? Anyway, over the last couple months, I’ve learned of the other worlds out there, and that in every heart, no matter how bright, or dark it is, there is always a bit of it that goes against the rest. Darkness contains light, and vice versa. I also learned that apparently true immortality is possible. Ven is one now, but he lives in another dimension as of today, as does Jolt. Another thing that’s as of recently is that I am no longer Lumos the neutral god. I am Lux the balance keeper. Also, I have a question. With your long life comes large amounts of knowledge, does it not? So I ask you this: How should I ask out Clare? Yes, I just wrote that. Also, here is a riddle, since this letter feels a bit too serious.
There are two doors, one always tells the truth, the other always lies. You wish to go through the door of truth. What must you ask both doors to find the correct one?
- Lux
AN: And so ends the Crossover, and by connection this story. Will I make a third book? Eventually, once I've figured out what I'll do for it. Also, please ask any questions you have about this story.
~ Cloud Nova/Madman12435 falling out.
Tales of Illumination, Book 2: Distortions
Chapter 1: The Accident, part 1
Well, it’s here, and I thought, what better way to start this shit off, then with yet another journal chapter :P
Distortions: chapter 1
Journal entries of Lumos
Entry 11, July 31st, 2012, 11pm
I have decided to begin making my journal entries once a month, so as to make it last longer, anyway, this month, I’ve had some rather large revelations, the “wind reapers,” are, in fact, exactly what I thought they were: assassins. Oddly enough, their morals remind me a little bit of the assassins guild from Assassins Creed 2/Brotherhood/Revelations. In other news, I have been studying the chaos I’ve absorbed from Discord, so far, I’ve only found one utilization: the metal I mentioned before, since my last entry, I’ve discovered some new things about it:
2) The same enchantment can create a great many results with different weapons and items.
3) Up to two enchantments can be placed onto one item, but they must be placed simultaneously.-Lumos, god of Neutrality
Entry 12, Augest 31st, 2012
Third is yet another bow, this one I only put dark into, and its arrows seem to go through the dark realm when I fire them, instantly hitting whatever I want them to. I think I'll call it the "WarpShot"
The last one for today is a bit… different, its more of a mutation that I can activate at any moment, it seems to be made of dark biological matter rather than the normal metal or wood, it turns my entire left arm into five black tintacles, These can, like WarpShot, use the dark realm to hit its targets from random angles, as well as from the inside, after all, there is no LITERAL light inside the body, I’ve devised four attacks I can use these for: First, they are very sharp, so they can stab things, obviously. Second, I can arrange them in a circle, a black pentagram will form, and shoot a beam out of it, its nowhere near as strong as Planet Buster, but it cleared a new path through the Everfree forest, to say the least. Third, the tenticles can all form into one huge drill and dig with surprising efficiency and speed. Finally, they can explode and regenerate, this hurts like fuck though, so I don’t see myself using it in the near future, but I still need to name it, I suppose… “Tendril” will work.-Lumos, god of Neutrality
Entry 13, September 30th, 2012
This month I created a new spear, its brown, obviously, and has powers of earth from the jock, who is named Stan (so creative) and gravity from Clare, who I had to tell Stan to back down and stop flirting with at least a dozen times, anyway, the spear is called the TriQuake. Using the wind powers of the spikey blond haired man, who came up with the code name Ventus, worked with the man with dyed red and yellow hair to create a sword I call Tai Fuu No Me, which means Eye of the Storm, it has water, lightning and wind based powers, obviously.
I also used the poison girl’s power with Shade’s smoke, to create a poison dagger, which, after testing on a manticore, I determined could kill anyone in 5 second after a cut was made, and dubbed it unsafe to use, promptly sending it, permanently to the dark realm, hopefully I won’t step on it next time I pass through, right?
Finally, I created my only attempt at five enchantments on one object, and let’s just say, I lost my left hand, the rest lost nothing, It got the powers of Gravity from Clare, water from Aqua, Fire from Sparky, who is refusing to give his name, and light and dark from me, it can create portals between two places, but they can only exist in spots light is directly touching, I’ve also noticed that only one pair of portals can exist at any time, I call it the gate wand. I also replaced my left hand with a mechanical piece of this metal, enchanted with my light, my darkness, and Sparky’s lightning.-Lumos, god of Neutrality
Lumos’ POV
I put down my pen, after writing my most recent journal update, and stretched, as it was now time for my training with Stormy Night. For some reason, the Wind Reapers were more than happy when I asked for them to train me. It was almost as though they expected something of me… Nah, couldn’t be it. I walked outside, conjured and charged my D-board (dark board, dark starts with D, you see?), and took off toward the plains below Cloudsdale. For some reason, ever since my transformation, I’ve not exactly been fond of using dark passageways, and only used them when absolutely necessary. On my way there from my cloud house, I saw Stan, once more harassing Clare, only for her to mercilessly throw him to the side using her gravity. I laughed at the spectacle below as I passed.
Upon arriving at the training area, I was shocked to find Ventus standing there instead of Stormy, upon seeing my confusion, he grinned, and said, “What, you thought you were the only human in the wind reapers? The higher ups decided that it was time you trained with one of your own kind, the rules are the same, no powers, only our own skill.”
The moment he finished his sentence, he dropped into a fighting stance. I sighed, and complied. Immediately he ran straight at me, stopping just short of me, and aimed a roundhouse kick at my head, I lifted my left arm next to my head to block, only for it to go over my arm, and come straight down on my head. I immediately felt something grabbing the back of my shirt, followed by being lifted up, and punched in the gut; I coughed up a bit of blood from the hit. I then lifted my legs up, and kicked him in the chest with both, falling to the ground. This was immediately followed by getting up, grabbing his arms, and throwing him a decent distance, about 12 meters, maybe. He stood up, and grinned, dropping his stance, and walking toward me.
A few feet away, I saw something flash in his eyes, and he threw a punch at me, hitting me right in the jaw. The hit was obviously pulled, as it didn't break my jaw, but it still hurt. I stumbled back, and said "how about we take things up a notch?" and created two rapiers. one right in front of me, and one in front of him, he caught it, and it turned grey, with wind streaks on it. Mine, on the other hand, obtained a black handle and hand guard, a white blade, and white pommel.
"Only the color comes from our powers, they don't actually absorb any of the 'real' power we have." I explained, dropping into a fencing stance.
He dropped into the same stance, and muttered something that sounded like "En guard." This just widened our grins, and then we began again. I tended to try a rapid stab, taking the offensive. Unfortunately, he saw one of my openings, and nicked my arm, causing me to drop my sword, as he swung it again at me, i rolled to the side, and backed away. I then rushed around him, grabbing the blade from the ground, and charged. By this point, the pegasi were flying down from Cloudsdale to watch, most bringing small clouds, and a few making bets
We kept at it for over an hour, with me creating larger and larger weapons for us to use, ending with clamorous. It ended with him Lopping off my mechanical hand, and then disarming me. All happening in under 20 seconds from when i created the monsterous blades. Mumbling 'lucky shot,' I reached down to grab my hand, only to see he had already picked it up, and was holding it out, a huge grin on his face.
I reattatched my hand, and opened my mouth to speak, but suddenly i felt an odd pain in my stomache. Ventus seemed to have noticed my pain, because he put his hand on my shoulder, and said "hey, are you alright, bro?"
I couldn't respond, the pain was spreading to every point of my body, including the tips of my wings (remember, i have four) and a pulsating, multi-colored aura (which I recognized as chaos) was beginning to form around me. Ventus' eyes widened suddenly, and screamed something to the pegasi, who immediately flew away. I then noticed Clare running toward us, suddenly, the aura around me, as well as the pain, all burst away, in one, huge blast. Then all was black.
A/N:And cue the blackout, anyway, I would love it if someone could help me with finding a good cover art for this.
~Madman12435/Cloud Nova signing out
Edit on 9/9/12: I've edited the journal entries
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Tales of Illumination, Book 2: Distortions
Chapter 7: The Chapter I Can't Find a Good Name For
ON WITH CHAPTER
It felt amazing, this power, it felt great. A grin spread across my face. The scales on my arms turned a darker shade as I charged darkness within them, and took off, instantly breaking the light spectrum, causing what looked like an explosion of blood over the land, and I flew using my dark thrusters in a random direction, creating a red and black streak behind me as I moved at the speed of darkness over the land, and quickly went south, then north, trying to find something to amuse myself with. Then I found it. A small city, almost all of the residents were outside, staring at the black streak circling above. I feel a song coming on . I thought as I changed directions and landed in the center of town. Then my rampage began, as I grabbed the nearest pony by the head, and crushed his skull with one hand, followed by creating a barrier around the town of solid chaos energy, keeping them from escaping, I began to hum the lyrics to myself
"What is this feeling
"Where does this feeling
"Like the night, it's a secret,
I summoned a cruel looking blade , and ran it through the first pony I found after that. I then split both of my arms into tendrils and began to skewer whatever ponies I found as I sang.
"I have a thirst
"There is no battle
"Like the moon, an enigma,
"It's the feeling of being alive!
My tendrils split once more, and began tearing apart buildings, and hunting down whoever remained alive while I finished my song.
"Animals trapped behind bars at the zoo
"Lust, like a raging desire,
"Tonight I'll plunder heaven blind,
I conjured a double-bladed scythe , with a ring in the middle, and a few surprises, and put a single tendril through it, and used it to gut and maim , sometimes throwing it, and pulling it back with darkness.
"And I feel I'll live on forever,
"What a feeling to be so alive!
"In this feeling of being alive
By this point, the town was a pile of rubble, and a "T" shaped pond of blood surrounded by ripped apart bodies. My arms reverted back to normal, and my left hand regrew, whilst sheathing my new sword, and placing my scythe wheel on my back. I then started my flight again, and on my way out, I saw a sign that said "Now leaving Baltimare." A grin crossed my face, and I chuckled to myself, the blood coming of with the wind. The darkness carried me to the next town I came across. I next arrived in Manehatten, where I repeated the process, with less musical numbers. The only other differences were that, 1: the shape of the pond of blood was instead a "M" shape. 2: I didn't sing while killing these ones, and 3: I created five different weapons.
1) An Ax spear handguns (to explain, the metal creation power allows him to create the bullets inside the chamber, so he has no need to reload)Sanguinis Unguis , or bleeding claw.
At the second town, it was starting to get boring to just go in and slaughter, so instead, I used illusions to make them kill each other instead. And it was almost perfect, after a few minutes of thought as for how to fix this, I eventually tried Latin. I looked over the town, created a second barrier around it, and mentally-shouted "FURIA!" at my maximum volume. The eyes of all the ponies all turned red, and began to beat each-other to death, either with a weapon, or with their bare-hooves. When only one was alive, I would free his mind, and watch his reaction, and I enjoyed every second of his crying over how he had killed so many, before I killed him that is. I didn't even notice my scales turn slightly darker due to the blood covering them.
So, Latin does hold magic power. Excellent.
After I had taken out Manehattan, I noticed this method left more buildings standing. I flew to the top level of the tallest building, and slept leaning against one wall. (inside of it, obviously)
Dream world, 3rd person
Lumos, Mirum, Malum, and Sanguine all were suddenly sitting around a table. The first three were all utterly confused. Sanguine let out a loud cough, causing them all to look at him.
"You recognize him?"
"He seems familiar"
Sanguine smiled a demonic grin, "Funny, but seriously, I am you guys. At least, now I am. I used to be a rather large part of Akumu." At this the other three jumped up, and Sanguine chuckled, "Lets not fight now, killing me isn't the best idea, in fact, I'm the one currently in control of the body, unlike you two," Sanguine gestured to Mirum and Malum, who were nearly shaking with rage and fear, "I can take over whenever I want, as long as the imbalance between chaos and order is large enough. Oh, and a bit of advice before we wake, Lumos. Latin holds some magical essence here, and thanks to you, I know a damn good amount. Now, good morning." And with a snap of his fingers, the four were drawn back to the waking world.
Manehattan building from before, first person from Sanguine's POV
The first thing I noticed, was that there was a piano in the room, which I slowly walked to, walked over to, and began to [url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TzF7mTRrrnQ ] play. (RL me can play piano too, as well as flute and violin!)
Whatever caused me to play this song, I will never know, maybe it's the main soul's regret over how I made him kill so many? Eh, whatever.
I stood up from the piano stool, and jumped out the window. Creating a small cloud of dust from my landing. I thought-spoke "Extendam Artus," and my finger extended, bending unnaturally, and stabbed into a disembodied limb of some blue pony. I then pointed at a patch of ground with a different finger, and thought-spoke "Ignis." This was followed by a decently sized flame springing to life. I then proceeded to cook, and eat my meal.
Note to self, the meat of these ponies are surprisingly tender, but do not taste very good... Find good spices. I critiqued my cooking for another minute or two before I was done eating, and warped onto the roof of the roughly 4 floor building I had just napped in. I then stared out at the horizon, feeling too lazy to slaughter any more towns today. I blamed it on my Latin.
Another note: Latin based magic uses a lot of energy. Find and charge gems for more use.
A couple hours passed of staring out at the horizon, it was a good sight, at least, the trail I left ruins it a bit. I think I'll just move a little slower to get to the next town tomorrow.
I went back into the room i was sleeping in before, and began counting the ceiling tiles in boredom.
_____________________________________________________________________________
Few minutes later
I finally finished counting all the ceiling tiles in the building. which added up to well over 3000. I returned to ‘my’ room, and sat back down at the piano, and began to play a different piece, called the black star .
I was so immersed in my piece, I didn’t even notice when two figures entered the room. It was only when I finished that I noticed an arrow hitting the left side back of my neck. It didn’t do any real damage, but still, that would have been a killshot had my scales not stopped it. I heard someone running at me, and let out a kick, hitting its target in the gut. I then picked up the arrow, and tossed it to the elf that had shot it, which I recognized as Erahaor from Lumos’ memories. The other, whom I had just kicked, I remember as my former body, whose arm was glowing. After a few moments examining them, I let out a hyena-esque laugh, while digging my feet into the ground.
(RANDOM BATTLE THEME GO !)
Well thats odd, I can’t seem to speak in this body. I thought to myself, as I drew my sword, and began to swing my head from left to right like a pendulum, following the Dust Eater technique to the letter, before slashing the ankle of Erahaor. He let out a shout of pain as he stumbled, giving me an opening for the other foot to be slashed. The second wound caused him to fall over, to which I responded by jumping up, blade poised to kill.
A blade then hit my sword disorienting me for a moment as I fell, causing my blade to just barely miss his ear by mere centimetres. Erahaor then tried to PUNCH me, probably as a last resort. Too bad I’m scaled, sucker. I thought with a smile.
I slowly shook my head, and turned to Noctis, before letting out a huge grin of a great many sharp teeth.
I pulled out Sanguinis Unguis, and placed it on my left hand, and my sword still in my right. Noctis then jumped over me, and ran to Erahaor, and they said something to each other a bit too quiet for me to hear. I watched Erahaor mutter something, and his wounds began to disappear.
I saw Noctis stand back up, and my grin came back to me I raised sanguinis unguis, before slamming it into the ground, while using thought-speech to say to myself “Terra muto” (earth shift)
I could feel the earth shaking from me tearing through it like a bullet, I charged out from under the building, and felt vibrations through the dirt from people trying to stay up. I drew my ax with my left hand, and tore out of the ground in the location the two were standing, swinging both ax and sword in a circulative motion, trying to get their necks. Erahaor was a bit further than expected, but I managed to nick the side of Noctis’ neck.
I began to let out a relentless assault on Noctis, all strikes aiming for the neck. Somehow he managed to deflect nearly every blow I threw at him. This carried on for a few seconds before I was distracted by an ARROW HITTING MY EYE. I let out a howl of pain, before grabbing the arrow, and tearing it out. My eye regenerated in a matter of seconds, which it’s nice to know it can do that. Noctis jumped back to where Erahaor was standing, and created a navy blue magical barrier.
I began to walk around it, searching for the weak point, or ‘breaking point,’ if you will. After mere moments I found it, not wanting to waste any time, I threw down my weapons and rushed forward, digging both hands into it, and thought-spoke to myself, the words “Verticitas tunicata” (polarity shift) to make things easier. It took longer than expected, but eventually, a hole did begin to get torn through the barrier. Noctis looked like he was saying something to Erahaor, but I couldn’t hear it, even at nearly point blank.
Huh... I guess this forms deaf as well as mute... That sucks. I thought grimly to myself. Only to be pulled from my thoughts as Noctis slammed into me, and recast the barrier spell around Era.
I smirked, and summoned my ax in a way similar to how a keyblade is summoned in the KH games. I then dropped into a stance with just the ax, and waited for him to leave an opening. And what does he do? More. Fucking. Exposition between them.
Fuck it . I thought as I summoned my spear, dropped my ax, and charged. He shifted slightly, but he let me impale him on it. When i got it up to the point where i was holding, he wrapped his arms around me, and I felt it wasn’t a friendly hug, it was a ‘I will not let you leave here alive,’ type of hug, a hug indicating, a suicide attack. I grabbed him in the same way, ready to die. I could have gotten away, but something told me this was a good way to die. Darkness began to spawn around us, and I closed my eyes and waited for a few seconds, I then opened my eyes, and saw him smiling to the side, I glanced over, and what I saw nearly made Lumos break free: It was Clare, Ven, Die, Celestia, and Luna, all there. Suddenly, the darkness swallowed us up, and took us in.
Ven’s POV
(Insert sad music here )
What just happened? What was that darkness?
Almost immediately after Noctis, and that.... thing disappeared, Die broke down and began to cry. It hurt so much to see her like that... Luna had done the same thing almost, Celestia wrapped her wing around Luna, and began to gently rock her, back and forth.
“What was that?” Asked Clare, fear and confusion filling her words.
“That was my brother sacrificing himself to protect us. The technique is one of the two techniques we discovered that we forbade ourselves from using, due to their destructive potential.” Die said, staring at the ground, “They’re called Dark Abyss and Light’s Judgement. Dark Abyss swallows up anything in range and sticks it into the Dark Zone. Light’s Judgement forces punishment upon the target for every wrong they ever committed. It could probably drive someone insane at full strength.”
I placed my hand on her shoulder, she turned her head to face me, and I said, “If thats what he did, then we need to find Lumos. Now.”
“I don’t think that will be possible.” Celestia calmly stated, but I could feel the sadness emanating from her.
“What do you mean?” Clare asked.
“Think about it. Right after Lumos disappeared, this creature showed up. Luna told me that there were two beings with him that were actually a part of his mind. I’m saying that I believe the creature was Lumos.” She replied.
“No,” Clare said, as I felt the last piece of hope slipping away, “That...”
“However,” She continued, “There may be another way.”
“What are you talking about?” Die asked, using a near monotone.
_________________________________________________________________________
Dark world, POV of Sanguine.
Being back in the darkness again was... awkward, the kind of awkward you get when you have to stay at a friends house for a few days after being kicked out of your own. I could feel all three of the others fighting to get control of the body away from me.
I couldn’t hear anything, not even the sounds I tried to make, nor could I hear Noctis anywhere around me anyway. I clutched my head as the nothingness around me began to get to me. It felt... unnatural... not even my darkness was this... evil feeling. This wasn’t just ordinary darkness, it was emotional darkness more than anything, the kind of shit that made the heartless and nobodies in KH2. I began to feel something creeping into my mind.
No... NO! I won’t let you take this heart! YOU SHALL NOT GET IT! I screamed in my head, and opened a dark passage somehow, but it was too late. The very souls of Mirum, Malum, and Lumos were torn away, leaving only me in the body. I then began to slowly change, my scales turned black, and I’m not sure how to describe it, but suddenly, I could see into the darkness almost as though it was perfectly light out.
The darkness, and to think I was keeping it from me just now... It’s beautiful...
I wonder if I can use thought speech since normal speaking didn’t work with this body... I thought to myself as I closed the passageway.
I turned toward where I could now see Noctis,just floating around, and grinned, before directing him a thought,
“Where are you? What do you want, Creature? And how exactly are we able to communicate like this? Is it one of the Dark Zone’s hidden rules?” I replied in monotone.
“Transformed? Into what?”
“Heartless? Interesting name. Now why exactly is that supposed to scare me?”
“I see. So Akumu is a heartless? And if that’s true, then does that mean Nightmare was a heartless as well?”
“You know what else is rare?”
“No, people who can actually fool me. The chilled heart allows me to think without my emotions clouding my logical process, so I can deduce things that others could not. And I know who you are.”
“True. But still, the way you act is so different to your other self, the real you. So, why exactly are you talking to me, Lumos?”
“It’s an interesting name, I’ll give you that. Now why don’t you live up to it and be silent so I can speak to Lumos?”
“I see. Then where is this, ‘husk’, as you call it. Or do you even know?”
“Hmm, I think he’d probably become something, unique, even among these Nobodies as you call them. He’s definitely more unique than you are for sure.”
“Hmm, well, that’s the thing about Lumos. In the short time that I’ve known him, I’ve learned that he’ll never bow down to anyone. Even as a Nobody, he won’t change. He’s just too stubborn. Now, are you done, or are you going to persist in trying to talk me to death?”
“Enough. Or did you not see the lack of emotions in my heart?”
“The organization?”
“Umbra, if you honestly think that Lumos won’t be as strong as them, you’re a-”
“So why exactly are you telling me this? What purpose does it serve? Or are you just spouting lies?”
“I’d wield swords, I know that much. Anyway, how are you so knowledgeable about all this?”
So he would become a Samurai type.
“Yeah, no. That’s not gonna happen. And you already know why.”
“Wrong. You’re not proof of it being false, you’re proof of it being true.”
I think I’ll troll him a bit,
“Yeah, and you will never leave this place. I beat you, whether you admit it or not. I’m proof that the darkness can be beaten, my sister is proof that it can be beaten, LUNA IS PROOF THAT IT CAN BE BEATEN!” His emotional barrier has been torn down. Trolling success .
“That’s where you’re wrong. The dark abyss is a very specific technique. And beings with dark hearts, or no heart at all in your case, are permanently stripped of any ability that would allow them to leave. I never had the ability to leave, so I’m all the company you’re ever going to have.” He said with a smirk.
The couldn’t help but laugh,
“You’re lying.” I said.
“Yeah, well then I’ll just have to make sure you don’t have the chance to leave!” I shouted, drawing my sword.
The voice said, as I went into a dark passage.
“NO, I WON’T LET YOU LEAVE!” I shouted, darkness throwing him at me, knocking us the the pseudo-ground. How the fuck did he find me?
I drew a sword and pistol,
“If you think I’ll die here, you’re sorely mistaken. I have friends, family, that I want to protect, and as long as you’re around, they’re in danger. THERE’S NO WAY I’M GONNA LET YOU THREATEN THEIR SAFETY!”
I thought for a few moments, before I decided, I thought-spoke, before slamming my claws into the ground, transforming the place into a dive to the heart . For some reason it came out looking like Sora from the KH games, which creeps the fuck out of me, since he is the only one who could kill me.
“Enough, are we going to talk, or fight? Hey, why can I hear my voice now?” I asked, confused.
I grinned,
“I’d ask who Sora is, but I don’t have time. I’ll just assume that the guy in the mosaic is him. Now, prepare to die.” I said, brandishing Tsuki no me.
I slowly sank into the floor, before splitting off into multiple pieces around me,
“I don’t care. I fight to protect the ones I love. That’s all I need. I’ll protect them, even if it means you and I battle for eternity.” Well, he’s back to being an emotionless prick
“Immortal, remember? I don’t need to eat or drink in order to survive.”
Lets see if my emotions are strong enough for the Unversed. I thought, as my hatred took the form of beautiful darkness flowing from me, and forming an Iron Imprisoner. Well, looks like I can make unversed... nice... I honestly wasn’t expecting that to work...
“Is this my opponent? So be it!” Noctis shouted.
I approached my creation, and said, whilst breaking its chains It stood up, and held out a cage-shaped hammer, which caught fire. Heh, version four is up and running just fine it seems.
The imprisoner jumped forward, swinging its now flaming hammer to the side. Noctis jumped back, stopping just short of going over the edge. The imprisoner snapped its fingers, causing a flaming cage to appear around him, causing him to be lit on fire, as the imprisoner then sunk into the ground. Noctis began trying to break it with only physical strength, when that didn’t work, he began to charge his blade with energy, breaking a hole in it just large enough for him to fit through, and shattering the handle. The imprisoner then came out of the ground under Noctis in a huge explosion that knocked him into the back of the cage, which repaired itself, much to my annoyance. The creature then caught fire, and began to spin inside the tiny cage, lighting him on fire once more.
Noctis then let off a quick burst of power straight from the lunar orb. My imprisoner let out a howl of pain as the blast hit it and changed back into a black mist, which flowed back to, and absorbed into me.
I let out a slow clap,
“What can I say, I like to put on a show sometimes.” He retorted with a scowl.
He replied with a simple “Blizzard,” dumping a single shard of ice on his head, extinguishing the flame.
Well, I won’t have any real use for these, now that I think about it. I thought as I threw all my weapons off of the DtH we were on, before turning to face Noctis. I took the only stance of the anti-sora I remembered. Noctis placed Tsuki no me on the magnetic disc on his back, and took a boxing stance.
“So, you ready?” He said calmly.
and with that, we began.
Noctis rushed me with a quick right hook, followed by a flying reverse roundhouse kick. With the right hook I simply bent directly backwards beyond the bounds of physics, and bent even further at the kick.
I said as I let my feet leave the ground in a huge upward kick, making Noctis to pedal backwards furiously, though I still got him, taking it to the chin and being launched a little into the air. I followed up by charging on all fours, and lunging with an open hand.
“Too slow.” He said as he grabbed my arm and threw me even higher than he had gone. I righted myself in the air, and gathered the darkness around me as I dropped,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sw8pcxE6U9k&feature=player_detailpage
The explosion shattered a large portion of the glass that made up the floor we were standing on, leaving holes everywhere. Noctis was knocked off the platform, barely managing to grab ahold of the edge before he could plummet into the endless depths of the darkness below. I landed about ten feet from where he was hanging on and walked slowly toward it, savoring the moment of victory.
I said smugly, grabbing him by the hair, and holding him up.
“I won’t give up. Even if you toss me into the darkness I won’t give up hope. I’ll keep coming back and fighting until I can’t anymore, and even then I’ll keep going.” He replied, I could feel his fear, and his attempts at hiding it were very good, but I’m a heartless, I know emotions.
I smiled and threw him, he landed in the center, and I took my ready stance,
“Fine, same to you.” He said, brandishing his and taking deep breaths.
I said, whilst summoning two copies of Sanguinis Unguis, one for each hand.
“So, no holding back?” He asked, charging the Lunar Orb and letting its energy flow into the blade.
I grinned, Then I charging, my gauntlets crackled with electricity and fire simultaneously. I struck at him every time he got close enough. On the fifth strike, he jumped over me, and used my body to propel himself into the air, letting loose the energy I saw him building up.
“I’m sure you know about the fire cross. WELL HERE’S MY VERSION! LUNAR CROSS!” he shouted as he created two navy blue trails in the ‘air’, which were propelled at me. I didn’t even move as it hit me and exploded in a shower of stardust. When the dust cleared, I was still standing there, with a small cut on my head.
I asked before jumping at me, my gauntlets aimed for his guts guts. He threw his sword up, and twisted his body, just barely dodging the attack. In the short time I wasn’t facing him, he jabbed his elbow into the back of my neck. He then raised hand just in time to catch my sword and thrust it through his spine.
I let out a shriek of pain, before smiling, and my flesh began to shift. It slowly pulled the blade the rest of the way through, and stabbed him in the shoulders with my gauntlets. He grunted as they dug into my flesh and seared him, and pulled back before they could reach the bone, but the cuts were still deep enough for him to lose consciousness from blood loss if he doesn’t heal.
“I’ll admit I’m impressed. But you’re still nowhere near Lumos’ level.” He taunted.
I countered.
“Let me ask you something. Did I ever tell you what kind of summoning materia I possess?” he asked me.
I replied with heavy sarcasm.
“Nah, I gave that one to Erahaor.” HOLY SHIT HE REALLY HAD SOMETHING LIKE THAT?!?! “The one I’ve got is a little more, interesting.” He replied, as his right arm started to glow red. “DRAW YOUR BLADE! YOJIMBO!” He yelled.
(final mix version)
At that exact moment, five creatures landed on what was left of the platform. One was humanoid, wearing a long cloak and a hat with a very wide rim, and a red dog dog at his side. The other three were in one shape, making up a giant suit of armor. The two of us stood at opposite ends, on the same side as the ones we’d summoned, me with trinity armor, and Noctis with the samurai and dog.
“So, do you think I could get a freebie this time?” Noctis asked the samurai casually. He gave Noctis a look that said ‘Are you fucking kidding me?’ Noctis sighed and reached into a pocket, pulling out what looked like a wallet, before throwing him a few coins. He just gave Noctis a blank stare, before pocketing the money and moving to engage the armors.
The armors moved first, its torso spinning and shooting lasers, while its arms and legs remained straight forward, the lasers barely going around Umbra’s head. Yojimbo ducked and weaved through the deadly light show with speed and grace, the kind that takes years of dedication and mastery to attain. Even I would have trouble moving that well, it’s pretty fucking impressive. As he closed the distance, the lasers started to come close to hitting him a few times, yet sadly, they never actually did. By the time my armor lined up a shot, he was upon them, drawing his short sword and slashing just in front of them. For a second, there was nothing. Then, the armors stumbled back as an invisible force slammed into every part of their bodies, slashing through them as if they were made of paper. Yojimbo returned to his side, shooting him a smug look. I saw him reply with a shrug and a quick thumbs-up.
“Yeah, well I wish you weren’t so ugly, but we can’t always get what we want!”
So he CAN troll decently.
I held out my hand to the side, and a fake keyblade appeared in it.
“What, you don’t want to see your creature lose?” I asked.
“Fair enough,” He replied, mimicking me, I replied with a grin, and he drew his blade, “Ready to lose?”
I could feel my grin growing,
“Alright, but he’ll only fight if you pay him.” he replied. “And I’m all out of cash.” He said with a smirk.
“Oh? And that would be...”
He thought for a moment, and got a surprised look on his face when he figured it out, “You’re insane, you know that? You really think I’ll let Akumu out just to let you have a challenge?”
“Ok, then you’re really insane. I don’t really give a damn what others think of me for the most part. And I’m not letting Akumu out.”
I began to pour all the darkness into my replica, so it would release his darkened heart anyway, and he pointed it at him,
“Not gonna HAPPEN!” Noctis shouted.
The dark aura around my key continued to grow, and grow as I prepared the shot. The beam of darkness shot out and struck true, hitting him dead in the chest. Noctis collapsed, and I could see his darkness ready to start seeping out.
Noctis’ body stopped moving, and a splotch of dark, in the form of Akumu, began to form. Meanwhile the other side began to reshape itself as Noctis’ pegasus form.
The scenery was the next thing to change, in a bright flash that made me know we had left the dark world, the top level of the dive became a darker shade of blue. Sora’s picture morphed into one of pony-Noctis, the background of the Destiny Islands had changed to a farm-town, and the faces in the other circles shifted to show Luna, Die, Celestia, and his old face. Finally, the crowns in the outer rim of the floor had morphed to the symbols for the elements of harmony and the Solar and Lunar Orbs.
“I don’t know. But the floor changed. Take a look.” I said, pointing to it.
“So this is my Dive to the Heart as you call it? Does that mean we’re actually in my heart or something?” He asked, obviously confused.
“Yeah, well you’re gonna think this is even more incredible!” He said, and, to my horror, summoned a keyblade .
I shouted as I jumped off the pillar and into a dark passage, exiting his DtH.
The Lost Woods
I leaped out of the dark passage, landing on the soft grass, my apparent hitchhiker wasn’t so lucky, Akumu flew out of the Passageway, crashing into a tree. I just facepalmed as he stood up, and brushed himself off.
“Who’s asking?” He asked, looking around.
He turned to face me, “Oh. Also, thanks for letting me follow you.”
I smiled,
“Wait, you mean it worked? Does that mean that Noctis is... what did you call it again?”
“That makes a surprising amount of sense, coming from someone who murdered three towns.”
I replied with a grin.
He shrugged, “Touche.”
“It’s... Relaxing actually, much more so than i thought it would be.”
I thought nobody in particular, as I walked in a circle.
“I remember something about there being other parts to you, right?”
It took me a few moments to realize what he was insinuating,
“You mean ‘On with the hunt?’” Akumu said with a grin.
“You got any guns?”
“I could draw up some blueprints for a silenced mp5, if you can make it.”
“You can try though. Also a sword would be nice.”
I snapped my fingers and two blades appeared, one i made look like Tensa Zangetsu , which landed in front of me, and another I just randomly decided on making, but turned out looking pretty good , which landed in front of Akumu.
I looked at him with a grin,
AN: Yeah, yeah, KH references galore, what can I say? Its better than the other way this turned out, which I erased, and will never tell you how it went. Anyway, here is a riddle for you that my old history teacher used to ask my class: “What is wet when you dry?”