Fanfiction ► KH Divergence: Beacons of Hope

[Eventua]

Uh, yes! I'm still on a hiatus from RPing, but here's the first chapter/prologue of a KH fan fiction based on a roleplay me & Orion had been (still are?) planning.
Who knows, maybe someone will like it. Or not. Please give critique and/or feedback!​

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Prologue​

The World was burning. Vast cities of stone & steel were bathed in fire & light and the screams of the dying could be heard for miles. The royal palace, once a grandiose symbol of hope and sturdy defiance against the monsters, was now a crumbling ruin.

One individual ran through the streets, obscured by shadow, but met it's end in a blur of blue & red as one of the invading monsters leapt at the figure from the very ground that had once been so secure and stable. You never expect the floor itself to be a danger. The creature looked around, it’s pointed, arrow like blue face marked by a pair of hateful red eyes. As the figure died, there was a bright flash of light, and the monster was joined by yet another creature just like itself. They carried on through the streets, the entire city being swept away in a veritable flood of such blue creatures.

Across that world, people fled in an assortment of different vessels of different shapes and sizes and colours. Protected from the vast storm that threatened to destroy them by the materials that made up the craft, they came under attack, but a few did manage to escape, forced to accept new lives and purposes elsewhere.

However, the city was not complete uninhabited. A single, solitary warrior, clad in dark crimson armour and armed with a pitch black sword, ran through the streets, cutting down any of the monsters that stood in it's way. It paused, to stare up into the sky, once so peaceful, now filled with fire and lightning and stars. The cause was lost. Despite it's best efforts, the figure had been unsuccessful against the actions of the stranger. The warrior raised it's weapon, dark energy building up and releasing from the tip to create an explosion of light & darkness, of white & black & gray. With one last look at the ruins around it, the figure entered the portal and was gone.
And in the privacy of its mind it knew: whomever had done this would pay.
　

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　​

Everywhere, there was darkness. An empty abyss stretching out in every direction: he was completely alone. And it didn't bother him at all. He smiled slightly as he lay there, floating in the abyss. However, the sense of ease and borderline sedated tranquility began to break, as worry then began to set in...

Wait, is this... that nightmare? he thought, and immediately fear began to grip his heart. As if some dark will delighted to bring his fears to life, he suddenly found himself flying through the void at high speeds.

There was no wind rushing past his ears: in fact, everything was so deathly silent he could hear his own heartbeat, pounding away. Eventually, as his body weaved its way through the darkness, he saw a faint light up ahead. It stood out like a sore thumb, really: a tall round pillar made of glass, emerging from the abyss below. About 30 foot across, it was illuminated from within by some unknown power. As he flew towards it, more memories came flooding into his mind of previous dreams of this strange place.
He eventually reached the large pillar, his speed decreasing gradually until he landed on the pillar with a gentle 'thump'. Slightly miffed at the way the dream never put him down feet first, he got to his feet and looked around.

Yep, same design... nothing changes, he thought, laughing to himself. Just like the rest of my life. Trust me to have a monotonous dream...

Looking at the pillar, he noticed that the glass was stained, much like in a church: the many thousands of individual pieces of green & yellow & white glass, all slightly different shades, created a vast panoramic scene of a peaceful sub-urban town on a warm summer’s day.

He shook his head slightly, before then reminding himself how freakishly terrifying the dream was about to become... because it ALWAYS became freakishly terrifying. No matter how peaceful and/or trippy it might be right now.

Just then, he heard the voice. Not just any voice, THE voice. Eerie, monotonous, ethereal. And every time he had this dream (a frequent occurrence of the last few days) it spoke to him through the darkness.

And it was always backed up by an invisible choir as well, for some reason.

The faint, unsettling chanting continued as he looked around, the voice whispering into his mind. He tried to shut it out as best he could, but it was still there.

　
So much to do... so little time.​

So little time for what, though?! Those monsters that keep appearing...?

　
Take your time... don't be afraid.​

Easy enough for you to say... how can I be brave when those things always appear out of nowhere, trying to kill me?

　
The beacon remains unlit.​

This was the part that always confused him the most... what beacons? He'd had the same nightmare, every night, for several days now, and there was never any beacon or torch. Just those monsters, and the voice.

　
Now, step forward. Can you do it?​

Fear gripped him once again. He didn't want to step forward: he knew what lay ahead, and his fear screamed at him. "Don't do it! You'll die!" it said.

And yet every time the fear welled up, something deep inside him willed him forwards, his legs moving of their own accord, his mind desperately keeping itself separate from the surroundings.

He walked forward, slowly, carefully taking one step at a time. Eventually he reached the centre of the pillar, and the voice spoke again.

　
Power lies within you...​

A small stone pyramid, decorated with strange, heart-shaped patterns and with the tip sliced off, rose out of the ground to his left. Once it had completely emerged, a bright flash of light blinded him, and as his eyes adjusted, a strange shield rested there. It was quite small, though it was evidently designed to be held in both hands. It was black with a red line around the edge, and three red circles in the middle: a large red one, with two much smaller red circles above it. Almost like a mouse’s head...

　
If you give it form...​

Another pyramid rose on the other side of the pillar, just like the last one. From another flash of light there was a short staff: made of tanned brown wood, and on the tip of it rested a headpiece made of light blue gemstone. It sparkled in such a way as to be mesmerizing, but it was also shaped in that strange, vaguely mouse-like shape.

　
It will give you strength.​

Turning back to where he'd just been facing, straight in front of him, he saw another platform rise, and from another flash of light there was a sword. Evidently designed as some sort of broadsword, it was fairly normal (albeit incredibly well made), save for a small, black marking on the hilt. That same symbol.

　
Choose one.​

He knew which one he wanted. He always picked it: occasionally he'd thought of something else, but part of him hated the very idea of agreeing to what it said. When he approached the sword, it offered destructive power. When he approached the shield, it offered the strength to protect others. Neither of those things appealed to him, especially the shield.

Why should I help people who've always treated me unfairly...? he thought bitterly.
But the staff: that was another story entirely. As he approached it, the voice spoke once again.

　
The power of wisdom. Inner strength. A staff of wonder and ruin.
Do you want this power?​

He reached out and took it, a slight smirk on his face.
If I'm going to have to fight those things, might as well do it with something I feel comfortable using...

As he took it, the ground began to shake violently. The pyramids began to break apart and sink back into the pillar, which in turn began to fragment. The wave of breaking glass moved towards him, but he couldn't run away: there wasn't anywhere for him to run away to. The pillar disintegrated and he fell back through the darkness, the staff tightly clenched within his hand. At that moment, he knew fully well what awaited him at the next pillar.

Looking ahead, he saw it, shimmering in the darkness. The stained glass shards that made it up were various shades of purple, and depicted the same sub-urban town as before, except this time... not so peaceful. Buildings were broken and lay in ruins, people were scattered, some dead, others fleeing from the small, inky black creatures.
Eventually he reached it, and once again he landed gently. As he landed, the staff remained in his hand, and the voice spoke again.

　
You've gained the power to fight.​

He looked ahead, and one of those creatures appeared, in what could only be described as an 'explosion of dark purple'. It stood there, half his size, inky black face & glowing yellow eyes peering out from within its pointed helmet. It's three fingered hands ended in bright red, razor sharp claws and its feet (or were they shoes?) curled upwards at the toe. Its navy blue chest was marked with the symbol of a pitch black heart, crossed over by a pair of red thorns.
Cold sweat made its way down his face.

　
There will be times where you'll have to fight.​

Then another one appeared, and another. Three of them, watching him intently, their movements jerky and unsettling, their glowing yellow eyes seeming to burn into him.
I don't want to do this... please, anything but this-!
But there was no way to avoid what had to happen next.

　
Keep your light burning strong.​

And with that the creatures charged at him. He immediately ran away, but stopped as he reached the edge of the platform. He was cornered, and his brain quickly loaded itself up on adrenaline. One of the creatures began tensing itself up before then leaping towards him in a brutal kick, moving in a blur. He quickly sidestepped out of the way and watched as the creature flew past him and over the edge, into the abyss below.
Well, at least they're not to bright, he thought with an internal laugh, desperately trying to focus on anything apart from the fact that he was going to get killed.

The remaining two of them surrounded him and stepped towards him, slowly and in unison.
Still running on adrenaline, he batted away one of the monsters as it swiped its claw at him, before then bringing the staff over his head and smacking the other one straight on the top of its helmet. The helmet was forced shut as the creature stumbled around, attempting to force the helm open again.

The other one used this opportunity to strike, cutting into the back of his left leg. With an agonized yelp he felt a powerful burning sensation pass up his limb into his chest, and he angrily swung around, clonking the creature in the side of the head. It spun around and around from the impact, before eventually stumbling backwards, dazed and confused, as it tumbled off the edge of the pillar.

The final monster had just managed to pry open its helmet before then getting struck, over and over again, by the boy with the staff in a flurry of vicious strikes. It lay there, broken, as it faded into a cloud of dark smoke, a glowing pink heart then floating away from the destroyed creature before then vanishing in another flash of light.

The boy was exhausted, panting heavily and sweating. He hated conflict, especially physical violence, and was naturally nervous: even though he knew it wasn't real, what he felt was genuine.

At that moment, the pillar became coated in a thick, dark substance like tar. It ate up the pillar and surrounded him, before he fell down into it, into darkness, his senses blurring and his lungs filling with the substance, unable to breath or see...

He woke up on a different pillar, gasping for air, desperate to live. Feeling all over, he remembered once more that it was only a nightmare, like all of the others.
Come on, you already know what's coming up next, quit being a smeghead!

Looking around, the pillar was made of pink glass: it depicted a slender woman with long, curly dark hair, Asian features and a warm smile.
Mum... always happy to see me, even when she's just an image...

He shook his head before then looking across the platform. There it stood: a tall door, not connected to a wall. It was faint, but as he walked towards it, it became more solid.
By now he'd resigned himself to his fate, and knowing what lay beyond the door, he swallowed his fear and opened it, from which an intense, blinding light came out as it engulfed him.

He faintly remembered the first time he'd had the same dream: when he'd gone through the door, and found himself in the middle of his English class, confronted by his mum & Mr Richards, his English teacher.

They'd asked him questions about himself, questions he'd answered quickly and with little effort. Most would perhaps have to think about the answers, but not him: he knew who he was.

Ever since then, however, he'd skipped that part of the dream. It frightened him, that one of the peaceful moments of his dream would now always be missing: for now whenever the door opened, he found himself on yet another platform.

This pillar was bright red, and depicted a tall, thin man with short, straight blonde hair and bright blue eyes... the boy recognized him instantly as Mr Richards.

The image of his teacher stood in front of him with its arms stretched out, staring down at him and with a wide smile on its face.

His heart & feet froze, because that smiling image in the glass always meant that-
And here they come! he thought as more of the small clawed soldiers appeared. They appeared all around him, a group of five, jerky, unsettling.

He was trapped, with nowhere to run or hide. Just the staff he held and his wits. One of them struck at him from the front, and with a swing of his staff he deflected the blow, quickly switching targets and striking another one of them square in the chest. It fell over backwards but quickly got back to its feet, before he then felt one strike at his arm. He gasped in pain as he jerked his arm backwards, elbowing the creature's pointed helmet.
Oh crap, not helping! he thought as he yelped in pain a second time. He was now vulnerable, and two of them charged towards him at once.

He only barely dodged out of the way, swinging his staff at another monster as the two of them crashed into each other. His target took the blow to the face and tumbled backwards.

He ran as fast as he could, but where to? There was nowhere, just an endless abyss... except he then noticed something strange, different from what he was used to. A faint spotlight moved along the ground, leading to one of the edges, where upon it illuminated a set of stairs made from the same stained glass as the pillars. The stairs hadn't been there before: in every nightmare up till then, he'd been stuck on the pillar, alone against the monsters until they cut him up and he blacked out... instinct immediately kicked in, and he ran as fast as his injured leg would let him. They pursued him up the staircase, new stairs appearing in front of him as he ran. An intense burning sensation made its way through his limbs, and he gritted his teeth as he kept going, his sweat mixing with the blood on his arm & leg.
Got to keep running, got to keep running, got to keep-

His thoughts were interrupted, however, when he saw the stairs reaching up towards another pillar which hadn't been there before. It was made of yellow glass, and upon reaching it he turned around. The creatures were still chasing him, and he collapsed forward, grimacing, his eyes tightly shut.
Fine, just make it quick...

Until he realized, after several seconds, that the repetitive 'clacking' sound of the monsters footsteps had gone. Looking up, he saw that the stairs were gone, and he was alone. Turning back around, he then realized that the pillar was now gone as well. He stood there, in an empty dark abyss. Then the voice returned, like a hated associate.
　

The closer you get to the darkness, the greater your light shines.​

Turning around, he saw a strange light began to rise up from the ground. It stood there, terrible and mighty, slowly changing and twisting as it rose to become a great titan.
Wha-what...?! What is that thing?! he thought, his eyes slowly moving up its body.

It was some sort of prisoner: its legs were trapped in a dark, cylindrical metal casing marked with a pair of dark jewels that connected the two halves of the case.

　
But don't be afraid.​

Its dark gray arms were tied together and crossed over its chest, bound by thorny red chains, its hands ending in long claws. It wore a heavy metal helmet made of two halves, much like the casing that trapped its legs. The helmet in turn had two large, crooked horns and a pair of piercing, angry red eyes glared at him.

His face fell, and he could feel his heart had just descended into the pit of his stomach. This was it. He was going to die.

　
And don't forget...​

He ran for it, he didn't look back, even for a second. He could hear & feel the beast's violent roar shake the ground. But there was still nowhere to run. The darkness stretched out in every direction, forever.
He looked between the creature and the darkness, unsure of what to do.
Caught between a rock and a hard place... he thought, chuckling to himself a little. Just his luck.

It leapt towards him with a mighty bellow and a crash, and as it landed a powerful shockwave went out in all directions. He only barely held his ground against it before then collapsing onto his knees, the creature bringing its face down to meet him at eye level. It was only a few inches from his face.

And at that moment, the ground exploded into light. The non-ground beneath his feet evaporated in a powerful energy, and he found himself both blinded by and drawn towards it.

　
But don't be afraid-​

It began to drag him downwards into itself...
The monster continued to peer down at him, and the light was beginning to burn him up...

　
You hold the mightiest weapon of all.​

Everything became a blur of light and colour, the voice barely a whisper...

So don't forget:​

And at that moment, everything went white...

You are the one, who will illuminate the darkness.

 

[ChrisP]

Re: Kingdom Hearts: Beacons of Hope

Wow thats very good. I like the story so far. Aside from a few common grammar errors every here and there, there is pretty much nothing wrong with it. I can't wait to read more

 

[Eventua]

Re: Kingdom Hearts: Beacons of Hope

I apologize for taking so long finishing Episode 1!
It's quite long and a bit tedious to write (darn the main character and his previously normal life in an ordinary (probably american) high school), so, uh, I'll try to tide you guys over with an extension to the prologue that sort of vaguely introduces a major character kind of early on!

(The extension is on the front of the opening post, by the way...)

 

[Eventua]

Re: Kingdom Hearts: Beacons of Hope

Huzzah, at last it's done, and... apparently it's about 9 pages long. Finally, the tedious, REAL LIFE part is over, pfft. Now we can get to the SURREAL FANTASY DISNEY/FF STUFF. Like REAL MEN.
Anyway, give feedback and critique if you want, and enjoy! Or at least hate it. Or, ya know, have a neutral, average opinion of it. Any of those are fine.

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Episode 1: The Last Day​

Lucifer woke up in a cold sweat, panting heavily, his eyes cautiously looking around the room. His bedroom was quite small and cramped, mostly because of all the odd knick knacks and books that he kept on the shelves and over the floor, and the faint rays of sunlight coming through the window gave a quaint feeling to the place: kind of like an old library. His fear abated, he rested his head back on his pillow with a nervous yawn, and prepared to fall asleep again...
"Lucifer, come down and eat your food! Have you seen the time? You're going to be late for school again!"

He jerked upwards, his mother's annoyed expression ringing up the stairs. He rolled his eyes slightly, but he knew fully well that he couldn't just stay home, no matter how much he wanted to. He got out of bed and grabbed his glasses, quickly having a wash and taking a glance in the mirror.

Short black hair, thin & bony, half Asian features, green eyes and a pair of thin, rectangular black spectacles neatly perched on his small nose. As always. He quickly got dressed into a simple black T-shirt & jeans before heading downstairs and grabbing a piece of toast his mum had just made. He quickly hugged her and ran out the door, his bag already packed. However, he was quickly stopped when his mum grabbed him by the back of his shirt.

"Lucifer. Are you forgetting something?"
Forgetting something...? Like what?
He stared at her blankly for a few seconds before it came to him. He leant down slight (since he was slightly taller than her) and kissed her on the cheek.
"That's better. Now have a good time, okay? 'So many books, so little time', right?" she said with a warm smile.
"Oh, of course, yeah... I really need to go, so I'll see you later, okay mum?"
"Alright then, I'll be seeing you later."

He ran off, fast as he could. His mind was currently in a blur of thought, a billion tiny pieces of information desperately worming their way through his brain. What was up with those freaky nightmares? Would lessons be easy today or more challenging? How was he going to avoid getting beaten into a bloody pulp by Biggs & Wedge?
He ran down the street, taking a left and continuing on down the road, pass the rows of identical little houses. There was a gentle breeze, the sun was shining and the birds were twittering away. A perfect day, really. No problems at all.

He decided not to bother running to school: he wouldn't actually move that much faster and would probably collapse from exhaustion long before he got to the school. So he walked, cautious that any number of the kids in school who wanted him to 'learn a lesson' would pop around the corner at any moment and beat his face in. Thankfully, though, things turned out alright, and after a good 20 minutes he reached the large, simple building known as Ghibli Hills High. He was exhausted, but kept going, running down the corridors until he eventually reached the small English classroom, where he was met by 30 pairs of eyes all turning to face him at once.

Crap...
"Mr Falkens, so glad you could join us," came the deep, cultured voice of Mr Richards. Lucifer sheepishly sat down at his desk near the back.
"Good, now that everyone's finally here we can begin our lesson on Shakespeare." said the stern teacher with a sigh, his piercing blue eyes giving an aside glance at the class before he then turned back to the blackboard.
Phew, that was a close one... thought Lucifer, getting out his books.

The lesson went by without any worries: it was only in his other classes where Biggs & Wedge also took part that he hated. They'd always use every opportunity they could to mess up his life. No exceptions.
As the bell rang for break, he waited patiently for everyone else to leave first before heading out. It wasn't that he was particularly patient or polite: rather, he hated to get in the way of other people. What would they think of him? Would they hate him as well...?
As he left the class, he felt Mr Richards hand on his shoulder. He turned to the teacher and raised an eyebrow.

"What is it, sir?"
"Lucifer, I can't help but notice you've been feeling down these last few days, and although it's not really my place, I can't help but be concerned: I see it as being part of my job, after all. How are you?"

He slowly pushed his teacher's hand of his shoulder and frowned.
"No, I'm okay... besides, I'm upset about a whole bunch of different things-"
"Oh, really? Because you know, what you just said there, it's a massive contradiction," replied his teacher with a smirk as the tall man nudged his glasses back up his nose.
Lucifer coughed a couple of times and cleared his throat.
"Ahem, what I mean is, I feel negative a lot of the time anyway: a lot of things in life, general stuff like the weather and the world as a whole, annoy me. I'm not feeling any different from usual."
"I see..." at this, Mr Richards stroked his chin and closed his eyes, and after several seconds he spoke again.
"Tell me, Lucifer: have you been sleeping alright? No nightmares?"

At this, Lucifer paused and stepped back a bit.
Why would he suggest that?! Why would he think I'd have nightma- calm down, damn it! I'm sure loads of people have nightmares, so of course he'd wonder about that!
"No, I'm fine... no nightmares."
"Really? Intriguing... none at all?"
"N-no, none at all! Now, I really want to go to bre-break, so, can I leave now?"
"Heh, of course."
Lucifer didn't spend another second in that class room.

　
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He spent the remainder of that break, as he always did, avoiding other kids before then sitting at a small table in the cafeteria, next to a girl who pretty much every other guy in the school would sell the right half of his brain to sit next to: to be friends with her, he'd probably sell the other half.
This girl was a certain Miss Tina Jovelle. He carefully dodged out of the sight of some particularly rough looking kids and walked over to her, taking his seat at her table. She was eating a sandwich, egg mayonnaise probably, and smiled at him as he approached. Whenever she did that, it sent a slight chill down his spine, which both annoyed and excited him.
She brushed her shoulder length brown hair behind her ear and smirked slightly as he sat down, her mesmerizing gray eyes meeting his own murky green ones.

Surely she must know, surely! I swear, she's just trying to torment me with her, bleh, what's the word? 'Feminine charms'? Yeah, except... why? Does she just hate me? Everyone hates me, except for mum...
"Late again, huh, Lucifer? Ya lazy bum..." she said, her voice upbeat and chirpy, as always. He grumbled slightly and sighed.
"Yeah, Mr Richards was being 'concerned' with me, as if he actually cares... it's so obvious he's just trained to do it. Cold, professional... false."
She sighed slightly, dreamily. Lucifer rolled his eyes. Whenever Mr Richards was mentioned she went like that.

Very subtle, ptthh...
"Or, ya know, he's actually a really nice guy. Much nicer than all the immature, hormonal idiots in class, at least."
Like me... thought Lucifer, but apparently his thought had come out of his mouth, because she snapped back into reality and frowned at him.
"Yeah, I suppose like you. Difference between you and the other guys in this school, is that you don't keep hitting on me or viewing me like some kind of slut... it's nice."
He chuckled slightly and grinned a small, feeble grin.

"That's because you'd beat me up!"
As if to prove his point she gently punched him in the arm, and he actually yelped slightly from the impact, and quickly began rubbing his arm, his face screwed up into an embarrassed frown.

Why does she always do that?!
She laughed at this, before they were interrupted by the school bell, and parted ways for a while.
Back to class, and the big B & W, damn it...

　
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Indeed, for at math he found himself sat right behind the pair of them. As he sat down, Wedge, who was noticeably shorter and rounder than Biggs, turned to face him, his shock of red hair and red tracksuit unmistakeable.

"Hey Lucy, how're ya doin'? Good? Hope ya not going to try and get out of paying us, right?"
"Oh, ahem, well, you see-"
"You do have the money, don't you?" whispered Biggs slyly, without turning around.
"We-well, not quite, but I-"
"You don't have it? Shame, that..."
"Wai-wait, no, I can get the-"
"Heh, don't worry about it. It's just business, after all."

And at that point Wedge smirked and snorted slightly. The way Biggs had said it made it quite obvious to Lucifer what would happen after class. The same thing that always happened when he couldn't do every little thing they wanted him to.
Just, just business?! They're going to kill me!
He spent the entirety of the lesson unable to focus, his mind lit up with possible scenarios of what would happen at lunch. And all of them were bad.

　
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After another hour and a half the lesson ended, and he had nowhere to run. Biggs placed his arm around Lucifer's shoulder and gave a wicked smirk.

"Come on, buddy. We're going to head out behind the school, sound good?" said Biggs coldly. It sent a chill down Lucifer's spine as he was pushed along by them.
No, no! Don't be an idiot, run, run! Don't act like a chump, damn it, RUN!
His legs immediately followed the command, but he let out a yelp as he felt himself getting yanked back.

"Heh heh, no. Come on, don't you want to play? After all, you always spend your lunch-hour alone, don't you?"
They practically dragged him along, and cold sweat ran down his face. He was completely frozen in place, terrified and unable to do anything about it.

After several minutes of walking along, the crowd of students and teachers faded out as they reached the backyard of the school, and Wedge pushed him forwards onto the concrete. He yelped again as his hands only barely prevented his face from being smashed into the dirt, but when he held them up they were raw and pocketed with bits of gravel. And they stung like hell, ho boy.
Wedge laughed as he then grabbed Lucifer by his shirt, breathing in deeply.

"Heh, I can almost smell the fear coming off ya, ya know that? Now where's our money?!"
"I do-don't ha-have it! Look, I'll pay you back, al-alright?!"
"Not good enough. Look, it's quite simple: kids pay us for protection from all kinds of idiots who'd otherwise muscle in on our turf, see? If we let you skimp on payments, Lucifer, then everyone else will start complaining about it."

Biggs pulled off Lucifer's bag and proceeded to sort through his stuff, while Wedge raised a clenched fist, ready to bring it back down, undoubtedly leaving Lucifer with a bloody nose and an even more broken ego. As if it wasn't broken enough...
It'll just sting for a while, it's just sting for a while... gah, it's going to hurt, I know it is!
He started to sob a little as Wedge hit him, over and over. Eventually he stopped, tired out from the experience.

"Good... phew, that was fun! Ya learnt ya lesson, Lucy?"
"Gah, yeah, I-"
"Good," said Biggs, "and whatever happens, you grass us up, and we'll expect double payment from you next time, okay? For now we'll be taking your lunch and stuff as payment."
"Ye-yeah..."
"Good."
And with that, the two of them walked off, confident they'd 'taught him a lesson'.

He slowly got up and picked up his now pummelled backpack, taking a look inside. Most of his stuff had been stolen, but there was still a small packet of tissues, which he quickly took out and opening. His body stung all over, and he was pretty sure he now had a black eye, but his main concern was using one of the tissues to block up his nose.
His nose was filled with a mixture of blood and asphalt, and it wasn't pleasant. It didn't help that he was crying slightly, and he sat himself down on the concrete, alone and pathetic.
Why... why am I always such a loser? Mum's the only person who likes me, and that's because it's her frickin' job! And Tina, but... gah. I hate this. I just want to crawl into a hole and die, it'd be better than this crapsack of a prison!

Unfortunately, his internal hatred yielded no results. And so with a reluctant sigh he headed for the school library and spent the next half an hour reading a fancy little novel simply titled 'Final Fantasy'... and as he read tales of great heroes and foul villains, of dark gods and magical crystals, he found himself elsewhere, just for a moment. In his mind he was a powerful mage, facing danger alongside mighty heroes and slaying evil. The battles were fierce and he was constantly in mortal danger, and yet... he was safe. Because no matter how bad things got, no matter if the foe was as simple as a gang of thugs or as terrifying as a world devouring abomination, he was never alone, and he was powerful enough to face the monsters on his own if worse came to worst.

Alas, he was yanked out of his day-dream by the sound of the school bell, calling the students back to their classes. With a deep sigh he unplugged his no longer bleeding nose and put the book back.
Tomorrow is the last day before the week-end, and there's only one chapter left... the final battle. I can't wait!
For once in this day at school, he felt genuinely excited, and yet... sad. The tale was nearly finished... but there was always tomorrow, right?

　
------​

His next lesson went by without any issues, partly because it was biology (a subject he was profoundly interested in) but also because it was one of the few lessons he spent alongside Tina, the only person who actually didn't mind him as a science partner. It was fairly simple: dissecting a frog and seeing what happened when various chemicals were applied to its pallid, slimy green flesh.
Afterward as they left the lesson, however, Tina turned to look at him, concerned.

"Lucifer, where were you at lunch?" she asked.
"Oh, ahem, at the library. Where else?"
"Really? Because last I checked, books don't punch people in the face. People do."
Gah, she's sounding like some sort of lame, misquoted proverb!
"It's nothing, I just-"
"Just what? Let yourself get beaten up by Biggs & Wedge again?! Come on Lucifer, I thought I taught you to stand up for yourself!"
"Well ye-yeah, but-"
"But, but, but! That's all you ever say when I call you out on something! Excuses, excuses, excuses!"
Alright, fine, I get it, I'm a failure! Just leave me alone...
"Look, it's fine-"
"No, it's not fine. We're going to go and sort this out!" and with that she grabbed him by the arm and stormed off towards the principal's office, determination on her face. At last he spoke up properly.
"Wa-wait, listen! Tina, we've already tried that, okay? It never works! They always find some way out of it, and then they really will kill me!"

At this she paused and thought for a moment, before giving a small sigh and smirking at him.
"Then you know what?"
"Wha-what...?" he replied, worried.
"I'm going to give them a taste of their own medicine."
Wa-wait, no, don't-!

Unfortunately, his thoughts had not turned to words as she then dashed off down the corridor, and he pursued her, panicking. They ran down several corridors before at last reaching a crowd of students where a small, weaselly kid with large braces and thick glasses was being forced into a locker despite his pleas.
And sure enough, Biggs & Wedge were there doing it to him. They were interrupted, however, by Tina’s sudden shout of "Quit that!"

They promptly turned to look at her, and the two of them then looked between each other. There was a short moment as they seemed to think about this, before Biggs nodded and Wedge put down their victim (who then promptly ran off).
They put on an air of arrogance that was just downright nasty, but Lucifer got the feeling they might actually be kind of scared. They had the same look in their eyes he always had when he was about to be beaten into submission, and part of him wasn’t really surprised by this. There was a reason no one tried hitting on Tina, despite being, in the words of a certain internet comedian, ‘hothothot’. Namely, anyone who tried to got their face beaten in.

"You hurt my friend." She said with a frown. Biggs just laughed nervously.
"We didn’t, ahem, we didn’t hurt anyone. If you’re talking about Lucifer there, he was in the library… right, Lucifer?"
Lucifer nodded frantically, but he could tell Tina wasn’t going to drop it.

"Oh really? Because I was under the impression that books couldn’t PHYSICALLY ASSAULT PEOPLE!"
"Hey now, just because he’s a big klutz and hurt ‘imself readin’ doesn’t-"
"My friend is not that stupid! You beat him up, it’s so obvious! So quit lying and tell the principal!"
"And why, exactly, would we do that?" replied Biggs.
"Because if you don’t…" she cracked her knuckles, "I’m going to make sure you understand what it’s like to be beaten up."

Wedge immediately panicked at this and looked frantically between her and Biggs, who continued to keep up the ruse.
He’s not going to back down… this is going to end badly.
Sure enough, he held his ground.

"You’re going to take on both of us at once?"
"Yeah, yeah I am."
"Heh, I’d like to see you try… it’s kind of funny, what with you being, ya know, a *girl* and all-"

That was the last straw. With an angry yell she charged forwards and swung her tightly clenched right fist, catching Biggs square in the jaw. Wedge used the opening provided and charged at her, arms wide. With a single graceful twirl she grabbed his wrist and flipped him over. She quickly winked at the now terrified Wedge as she brought the fist down onto his exposed gut.
The small crowd of students let out a unified ‘Ouch’ noise as her fist hit the pallid, flat belly of the bully. He yelped at the impact and rolled onto his front side, before then vomiting over the floor, causing basically everyone in the area to back off and turn green. Tina herself actually bit her lip and turned a slightly pale shade, but she was not so preoccupied to miss the punch coming at her from behind. She gracefully side-stepped out of the way of Biggs’s punch but left one foot jutting out, sending him sprawled out on top of Wedge in a rather embarrassing position…

"There… now, are you going to tell the-"
"Miss Jovelle!" came a loud voice from the other side of the crowd.
"Principal Skin-"
"What is the meaning of this?!"
"I, uh, I was just-"
"She beat the crap out of them!" chirped up one student. At this, the principal looked down at the pair of them and backed off slightly when he realized he was only a few steps away from being stood in vomit.

"Really?! What the devil’s gotten into you, Miss Jovelle?! You’re a star student and a senior, and I won’t have you leaving this as some sort of example. Please come to my office at once, understood?"
"Ahem, yes, of course, but Lucifer can vouch for me!" she replied, panicking. But when she looked around, there was no sign of him. He’d gone.
　

------​

Lucifer walked down the empty corridors of the school. By now the bell had rang for lessons, but he didn’t heed it: he felt broken.
What’s the point in doing anything worthwhile?
Even when it came over the loudspeaker for him to go to the Principal’s office, he still didn’t heed it.
If I go, I’ll either let down Tina or have to tell the truth… I can’t bear either of those. I mean, I can always let her take this one for the team, except… gah, it’s not right! It’s my fault she’s going to get in trouble…

His thoughts were interrupted when, as he walked past a window, he noticed it was already dark. He quickly checked the hallway clock and saw that it was actually only half past two.
When he checked again, he realized that the sky was filled with dark purple clouds and the loud sound of lightning could be heard.
That’s pretty weird… it’s the middle of February, and mum said the weather was going to be good all week.

He walked off down the corridor, passed the teacher’s lounge, when he saw someone running down the hallway towards him: Mr Richards, weirdly enough. He seemed to be in some kind of a panic and his face was marked by a cold sweat.
Oh crap, he’ll notice I’m not in class! Except, uh… doesn’t he have a lesson to teach, so why’s he wandering out in the corridors?
The tall, thin man grabbed him by the shoulders, his eyes alight with fear.

"Lucifer, thank goodness I found you! Look, I need you to get out of here, as fast as you possibly can."
"Wait, what? Uh, I don’t understand-"
"Look, don’t argue with me, we need to go, alright? Do you know how to fight?!"
"Do I… do I know how to FIGHT?! Why the hell would I know how to fight? I hate violence…"
Especially when it’s directed against me…
"Gah, alright, fine! I’ll have to do any fighting for now. Now, we need to get out of the school as soon as possible, so it’s pretty easy, we’ll just use the back entrance. Less people who use it, means there’ll be less Heartless-"
"Wait, Heartless? What the crap’s a Heartless?"
"Look, don’t argue with me, Lucifer! If you want to live, then you’ll follow my instructions and stick close to me! Can you do that, just this once, without complaining or asking questions?!"

There was a brief moment as they stared into each other’s eyes, and Lucifer felt he genuinely did not know his teacher. The man had always been so serious, so focused. Something had to be up, and really, what else was there to do? With a sigh he nodded.
I hope this turns out interesting…

They made their way down the corridor, carefully avoiding the occasional staff member wandering through the empty halls. They eventually reached a small turning, through which a door marked above by a large green ‘Staff Only’ warning was shown.
As Mr Richards opened the door, Lucifer followed through, still miffed. The teacher cautiously made his way down the stairs, but Lucifer wanted answers.

"Look, why are we doing this? What were you talking about? Tell me, damn it! "
Mr Richards just sighed and raised an eyebrow.
"Lucifer, the world is about to end. That’s why we’re leaving."
There was a short pause as Lucifer just smirked and chortled a bit. His teacher had to be joking, he had to be! Except something about the man’s eyes and expression, a mixture of fear and sadness, told a different story.
"You… you’re not joking, are you?"
"No."
"Bu-but… how? Why? Ju-just… what?!" he asked, panicking.
"Look, I don’t have time to explain it right now: the situation is too dire. But I promise, when we get out of this alive, I’ll explain everything, okay?"
"I supp-"

His words were cut off, however, when he suddenly felt a hefty weight in his right hand. Looking down, he freaked out a bit, because there was now very definitely a large, purple, black and white sword, that for some reason was shaped like a stylized key, whereas before there hadn’t been.

He held it up: it was lightweight and easy to handle, despite being about two feet long and with a large, obtrusive hand guard. It seemed to sparkle slightly in the faint purple light filtering through the window, and he would’ve analyzed it closer if he hadn’t been interrupted from his gaze by his teacher.
"They’re close… Lucifer, we need to leave, NOW!" and with that he grabbed the boy’s arm and ran down the stairs as fast as he could.

Lucifer decided not to question this too much: he got the feeling things were going to get really weird really fast, so he might as well save his questions for later. Mr Richards said he’d explain later, so that’s when the answers would come.
There better be a good explanation for all this…

They continued running, but as they ran he heard a series of bizarre sounds coming from above. Each sound started faint and then rapidly built to a crescendo before then just cutting off. Lucifer was about to stop and look up, but was stopped by Mr Richards.

"Don’t go back, Lucifer, RUN!"
And when the repetitive sound of metal against stone, ‘clack clack’, started ringing out over and over, he didn’t waste any time following after the teacher. But he was sure he’d heard those sounds before…
They eventually reached the ground floor; Mr Richards used his staff ID card to open it, and managed to get out just as more reverse explosions could be heard coming from behind them.
They didn’t bother to lock the door, instead just running across the concrete, round towards the side of the building. But Lucifer need to see: he had to know what was chasing him. He stopped and turned around, and screamed loudly.
Those monsters, they... they're the ones from my dream, from my nightmare!

They stood there, three foot tall, a group of five of them: humanoid shadowy monsters in what looked like dark navy blue body suits and wearing pointed, jagged metal helmets. Their hands ended in long red claws, and their feet turned up at the end. And a large, pitch black heart was emblazoned on their chests, crossed over with red thorns. He held up his weapon in a rather pathetic attempt to protect himself, and one of the monsters lunged at him. With a yelp he back stepped and brought the blade down, hard. The large, club like teeth of the weapon crashed onto the creatures head, and the creature crumpled in on itself immediately, and it's body broke apart, and fading away into a cloud of dark purple smoke, and a glowing pink love heart rose out of the decaying form. The monsters watched it intently as it flew away and eventually vanished in a small burst of energy. There was a brief moment as he and the monsters looked at each other intently, waiting for something to happen.
"Well, that was weird."

The creature's didn't wait for him to run, though: they quickly resumed chasing after him, two of them aiming and unleashing powerful kicks. He managed to side-step away from one of the attacks, but took the second hit to the stomach and fell over backwards. The creatures surrounded him, their cold, uncaring yellow eyes bearing into him.

"Help, crap, someone help!" he yelled, covering his face. He heard the sound of explosions, and upon looking up, saw that the monsters were gone. Instead, Mr Richards was now stood there, his hand glowing with a faint white energy.
"I'm al-alive! You... how the hell did you do that?!" said Lucifer, getting to his feet.
"Again, there's no time to explain. Listen, Lucifer, I'm going to go and find your mother, alright? Don't worry about me, or her: everything's going to be fine."
"Wait, but, what, you're going to leave me here? Alone?!"
"Heh, no, I would never do that. Just trust me, alright? When you wake up, you'll be somewhere unexpected, but you'll also be safe."
Wake up?! What the hell does he me-

And with that he blacked out, his vision fading as he saw several more of the monsters manifest behind his teacher.

 

[ChrisP]

Re: Kingdom Hearts: Beacons of Hope

Wow, that was amazing! I read through the whole thing. I think its perfect so far. I can't wait to read Chapter 2!!!

"Does she just hate me? Everyone hates me, except for mum..." XD Poor Lucifer D:

 

[Eventua]

Re: Kingdom Hearts: Beacons of Hope

Here's Episode 2, finally uploaded all in one go! Please give feedback folks! Thanks, BTW, to the feedback so far ChrisP, it's quite encouraging!

------

Episode 2: The Tower of Lost Souls​

When Lucifer finally came to, the darkness peeled away slowly: as he blinked and rubbed his eyes, everything was kind of blurry. He didn't have any time to process the world around him as things started to clear though, because his field of vision was taken up almost exclusively by one of the oddest scenes he'd ever, well, seen. Standing in front of him was a creature which seemed to him to be totally ludicrous.

It was some sort of large rodent/human hybrid: it's face was flat but it possessed a small, mouse like nose and a pair of black, beady eyes, and a pair of large, furry ears were jutting out of the side of its head. It was dressed in a short white shirt & pink coat and what he was sure were thick baggy pink pants, and it wore some kind of tall, pointed white & red cap on it's head.

As the creature stared closely into his face, he gave a loud cry, backing off as he got to his feet, but found he was trapped up against a tall, flat gray wall.
Nowhere to run, crap, it's probably going to eat my face off!

"Hey, hey, don't panic! If you overreact, you'll upset Feathers, kupo!" came the creature's annoyed and yet soft voice as it stared up at him.
At least it's short... half my size exactly, I think...
"Fea... Feathers? What, who, I mean... what the hell is going on?!" he shouted, his eyes alight with worry as they darted around. He heard a loud squeak, and turning to look even further down, realised there was a small black bird, kind of like a baby chicken, looking up at him from next to his feet. It chirped up at him and tilted it's head, intently watching him.

"Um... I'm not really sure, but maybe if you come with me and you stop shouting, we'll figure it out, kupo?" said the furry creature.
"I... I suppose..." he replied, beginning to breath carefully. He'd always thought that the Yoga lessons his mum had sent him to would be kind of useless and a waste of time, but he found his nerves came under control quite easily.

What do you know, it actually helped...
"Great!" said the creature as it beamed at him, "I'm Toni, and this," she pointed at the baby bird, "is Feathers. What's your name, kupo?"
"I'm... I'm Lucifer."
"Hey, nice name! Means 'shining one', if I remember right!"
"Uh, yeah, it does..."
"Well, you'll be wanting to know about this place, right?"
"Well, ahem, no, actually...! I need to get back home, so if you know how I got here, that'd be great, probably..."
What were those things? Those monsters, they were the same ones as from my dream, so how the hell could they be real?!

"Really? I, I see..." at this, she looked away, and her previously cheerful disposition seemed to change entirely to one of deep sadness.
"What is it?"
"It's... it's probably nothing, ahem, we ought to speak with Firion & Mateus, they'll know what to do! They're both smart, kupo!"
"Firion? Mateus?"
"Oh, he helps protect everyone here on the bottom floor from the Heartless further up, and Mateus is the one managing everyone in the Tower!"
"I see... so if this Mateus guy is in charge, I'll go and talk to him."
She rolled her eyes and raised an eyebrow at him.

"Yeah, that's what I just said, kupo! Now come on," she said, walking off. He followed her (noticing as he did so that she seemed to possess a pair of bat wings), slowly but surely, confused and frightened of what lay ahead. Where was he? What was he doing here? Why was this thing talking to him?
Feathers seemed content to just walk alongside him, and despite its small size it had no trouble keeping up pace with him. Eventually they came around from the corner and left the alleyway, and he found himself in some sort of huge town-square. It was surrounded by gray houses and shops lit up with all kinds of fancy signs, and a large fountain was in the centre. There were a few flowerbeds arrayed around the square, and the cold stone ground was decorated with several mosaics of different colours, all of them arranged into the picture of some kind of light-house. Looking up, he realised it was night-time: there was nothing but pitch blackness above them, with the town itself lit up from the numerous lanterns hung up all over the place.

Well, I'm definitely not at the school anymore...
"What... what is this place?"
"Oh, this is the Tower Square! All the best shops are here, but there are plenty of stalls at the market where you can get other stuff, kupo. All kinds of goods."
"No, I mean, what's the town itself called. You know, like where I came from was called Ghibli Hills, so... what's it's name?"
At this she put her hands behind her back and smiled again,

"It's not a town, silly! It's a Tower, the Tower of Lost Souls, kupo! This is the bottom floor, where most of the people live."
He paused at this, just for a moment.
Surely... no, surely not, she must be joking!
"No, seriously, what is this place called...?" he said, laughing out loud.
"I wasn't joking, this isn't a town, kupo!" she replied, planting her hands firmly to her sides as her face screwed into a frown.
There was a short moment as he realised she wasn't joking, and in that period of about 5 seconds his eyes went wide, his jaw dropped, and he shook his head.

"But, that... what the hell?! How is that even possible?! Look at this place!" he said, pointing down several alleyways, "It's massive! How the crap is this all inside of a Tower?! The structure would have to be immense! That's total bullsh- gah!"
"Hey!" she said, hopping up and grabbing him firmly by the scruff of his neck, yanking him down to her level. "Don't swear!"
"I-I, wait, wha-"
"Do you understand me, kupo? I don't want Feathers getting any bad ideas!"
He looked down at the small bird, confused.
"But he's a bi-"
"She!"
"Oh, u-uh, sorry, she, SHE's a bird! How ex-exactly would she pick up the ability to swear...? I mean, is she some sort of rare, I dunno, black parrot or something?!"

As soon as he'd spoken, he realised he shouldn't have said that. She brought her pointed brown boot up to his stomach and then let go of him, watching as he rolled over, wheezing.
Crimany heck... gah, how is a rodent that strong? That said, I *am* pretty weak, so-
"She's not a parrot, kupo, she's a chocobo! And, well, most chocobo's can't talk, that's true, but I've heard that a few of them can! And if it turns out Feathers can, then I wouldn't want her to pick up bad words, kupo!"
She's completely off her head... he thought, staring at her as if she was crazy.
"Besides, there's no need to swear anyway, so, so... so you shouldn't!"

And at that, she finally let him go. He gulped and neatened up his jacket, before then nodding slowly as she walked off down an alleyway, Feathers & Lucifer following behind. The place seemed pretty empty save for the odd person, but he didn't mind to much: he always felt awkward around large numbers of other people anyway. Most of the people they did pass said hi to Toni and seemed genuinely friendly, but generally they only nodded at Lucifer before then ignoring him and continuing with whatever they were doing. The people in question seemed to have come from all sorts of backgrounds: they were of all different ethnicities and dressed in a huge range of attires, but not all of them were human. He saw a small group of creatures similar to Toni, as well as passing by at least one guy who looked like he'd been brutally murdered and then rebuilt from the pieces, and another guy who looked like an animated skeleton... and not to mention the number of clothed, two-legged, talking animals.

This is... really surreal. But, uh, who knows, maybe I'm just sleeping? Yeah, hopefully this is some sort of crappy dream, and at the end of it I'll wake up and go back to life as usual... damned if I do, damned if I don't. Typical.

"So, uh, where exactly are we going? I mean, are we going to catch an elevator?"
"An elevator? Why, kupo?"
"Well, if this is a tower with, I assume, multiple floors, then wont this Mateus guy be on the top floor? If he's in charge?"
"Oh no, silly! No one lives on the top floor! I don't think anyone even knows what's up there, actually... but anyway, Mateus lives on the second floor, near the Beacon, kupo."
"I... I see..."
"So then! Where are you from, kupo?"
"I, I'd rather not talk about it..."
I want to avoid talking to strange mole/bat hybrids as much as possible, especially ones I don't even know! It's just weird...
"Oh, okay!"

They kept going down various twisting alleyways, past all manner of people and various shops & small houses. The place was quite hap-hazard in it's design and structure: some dwellings appeared to be little more than ramshackle tents or huts made from bits of cloth and scrap metal, right next door to tall, square gray houses decorated with the same mosaics and the same strange, light-house like symbol that decorated the Tower Square. Other places appeared to be in a state of repair or alteration, with some places built of stone or metal and others built of various kinds of wood.

Eventually they found their way to a small square, similar to the main Tower Square, but there were no shops here: rather, there was a single set of large, gray stairs built into a massive gate, leading upwards, with several men in armour guarding the way. Lucifer gulped as they approached and stared at his feet: he was easily intimidated anyway, and dealing with people in a position of power... it always made him anxious.

"Hey Warrior of Light, kupo! I found this boy, and he needs to speak with Mateus!" said Toni with a smile, as one of the armoured guards, a tall, well-built man in his mid-twenties, with bright blue eyes and long white hair, came over to them. He tipped his large horned helmet to the pair of them and smiled faintly as he then looked at Lucifer.

"I see... I'm afraid Mateus is quite busy at the moment."
That's annoying, gah, I need to speak with him urgently!
"Are you alright, boy? What's your name?"
"I-it's... I'm Lucifer."
"I see. Where are you from, Lucifer?"
"I, I-" he replied, a cold sweat beginning to fall down his face.
"He said he's from a town called Ghibli Hills!"
"I see... I'm guessing you don't yet understand the greater World, then?" said the Warrior, as he looked Lucifer straight in the eye.

"I, uh, I'm not sure what you mean..."
"I see. You'll find out soon enough, but don't worry to much, there's no need for us to explain it all to you in one go. Your trip was probably difficult and tiring," and with that he turned to Toni, "so Toni, please make any necessary arrangements for him to stay somewhere."
"Oh, heh, alright then! Come on Lucifer!"
And with that they left, walking away down another alleyway. As they went, he felt a powerful, thumping pain in his head. Everything he'd seen so far, all the stuff he still didn't understand. Not to mention he was quite literally sick with worry, even more so than usual: where was his mother, was she alright? Was Tina okay...?

Even after she tried to do the right thing, I abandoned her and just left... and what was Mr Richards doing? How the hell did he destroy those monsters, I mean, he's just my english teacher?! Pfft, what am I saying? He knew something was up before it happened, and, and...

"I, I hate this!" he screamed, holding his head as he began to sob, his face even more pale and sickly.
Toni and Feathers both looked concerned and ran over to him.
"He-hey, are you alright, kupo? You need a drink, or-"
"No, I, I don't understand anything! Th-this, gah, i-it's all so weird, it's all so dark... I, I don't know what to do! I want my mum!"
"Well, ju-just calm down, and- oh dear, kupo!"
And with that he promptly threw up, before passing out...

------​

As before, everything came back to him slowly. As the darkness flickered open, he had to lift his hand to stop himself from being blinded by the lanterns that hung from the ceiling.

Gah, lanterns? When did the light get so... oh crap, this is-
"Boy, are you alright?" came a faintly familiar, rather deep voice.
He slowly righted himself, and found he was lying on a warm, soft bed in a small, well-lit room, decorated with a mixture of lilac wall-paper and pink flowers.

"Ye-yeah, I su… I suppose. Gah!" he said as he suddenly felt a massive, splitting head-ache.
"Kupo, are you alright?!" exclaimed Toni as she tilted her head and looked at him worriedly: she was stood next to him on the bed itself. Lucifer looked over and saw the silver-haired warrior from before standing at the end of the bed. The man looked on with a sort of ‘stoic concern’, before stroking his chin. The warrior was stood next to a tall, slender woman with pale skin and long, indigo hair; she was dressed in a tight golden shirt and an unzipped purple jacket as well as long purple trousers. She smiled warmly as he looked at her, and he immediately felt really nervous again.

Toni handed the boy a small bottle and smiled warmly.
"Here, drink this! I made it myself: it’ll hopefully make you feel better, kupo!"

The head-ache was intense and he felt somewhat queasy: it seemed to be that his anxiety disorder had taken effect, and he still felt really uncomfortable all over. But anything had to be better than what he was going through now, so he quickly unscrewed the lid of the bottle, took one sniff and then promptly retched. It was utterly repulsive! Like some sort of unholy abomination, it smelled like a mixture of rotting eggs and dog crap. It was just really, really unpleasant, and he looked at her with a truly disgusted expression.

"Wh-what… what IS this stuff? Gah, why’ve you given it to me, it smells like sh-" he said, stopping as he noticed her formerly concerned expression changed to one of sadness. Her lower lip quivered slightly, her beady black eyes swelling up. The warrior looked over at him, slightly annoyed. The young woman in purple frowned.

"I suggest you drink it. It possesses medicinal properties." Said the warrior, annoyed.
Lucifer paused for a moment and looked down at the small bottle, his expression slightly scared.
"I’m not drinking this! It, it-"
"Just drink it and stop complaining!" said the woman.
"I, gah… fine."

With a look of disgust he pinched his nose with one hand and took it all in one, rapid swig. It slowly, slowly oozed its way down his throat, and it tasted revolting: like everything bad all in one horrible mouthful. Not to mention the bitter, acidic after-taste it left behind.

He gasped slightly, his tongue going in and out, over and over as he desperately tried to get his tongue free of the taste.

That… that was disgusting! I never want to have to drink something like that ever again, gah!

However, within only a few moments he found himself feeling noticeably better, and his thoughts began to clear. And immediately he felt nervous and annoyed. This was not where he wanted to be. In fact, he would’ve given up pretty much everything he owned to go back to his normal life.

My normal, hellish life that I can’t stand…
"Are you starting to feel better, Lucifer?" said the warrior.
"Ye-yeah… I feel a little bit better. But… but…"
"Let me guess: you’re confused and unsure of what’s going to happen next?"
"Yeah," he said with a sigh. "I am," He grumbled.
"Alright then, we’ll try to explain what happened to you, but first we really ought to introduce ourselves so we know what’s going on, and you really ought to apologize to Toni."
"Apologize to- oh, hmm…" he replied, looking at the small creature with the now sad expression.
"No… *sniff* it’s okay. I, heh…" she smiled slightly, "I just need more practice, kupo! I’ve not been making potions very long, and I’ve spent my time trying to change the effects they have, except… well, I’ve never really paid attention to their flavours! So, you know, now I can work on that, kupo!"
There was a slight pause before the warrior and the woman in purple as well as the small black chocobo all smiled and assured her.

Weird… I just insulted her and she’s just smiling? I swear this place gets weirder every time I black out and wake up…
Lucifer hoped they would just drop it at that point, but the woman in purple just crossed her arms and looked at him, annoyed. He frowned slightly as he looked at the creature.
"Thanks…"

She smiled back at him, and he just shook his head slightly before then looking back at the warrior and the woman. The warrior stroked his chin in thought.

"Well, now that we’ve gotten that settled, you ought to know who it is that’s helping you, Lucifer. You already know Toni-"
"And Feathers, kupo!"
"Heh, yes, and Feathers. This," he gestured to the woman in purple, "is Maria."
"Hi." she said with a frown.

She... she's annoyed at me. I suppose my apology wasn't very genuine, but, gah, it's not even human, just some sort of weird animal!
"H-hi..." he stammered.
"You may call me the 'Warrior of Light', or just Warrior, if you want."
Weird, doesn't he have an actual name...? Maybe he's just kind of arrogant or something and likes people refering to him by a title...
"Right then, now that we've all introduced ourselves, Lucifer, would you mind telling us how you got here? What led up to your arrival?"

Lucifer sighed audibly and breathed in deeply, before then looking at the odd group in front of him with a raised eyebrow and a slight frown.

Well, if it'll help... this is all so surreal...
"Well, I got up in the morning as... as usual. I had some toast, went to school and..."
"And?"
"Well, my teacher, Mr Richards, he started acting really weird. Started talking about monsters and how we had to 'get out of there', and, and..." he started to shake a little at the thought.
"What is it, kupo? Did something bad happen?"
"We... we were chased by these, these monsters! Like, like moving shadows with weird pointy helmets and red claws! One of them knocked me over, but my teacher saved me... I remember hearing a bunch of explosions, and there was... well, like this weird glowing energy around his hands. A-and then I blacked out..."
"And that's when I found you, kupo!"
"Ye-yeah, I suppose... please, tell me what's going on! I don't paticularly want to know, but I need to!"
The warrior sighed slightly and nodded at Maria, who just smiled back at him.

"Lucifer, your world... it's gone."
"Wait, what? What do you mean 'it's gone'? How can it be 'gone'?!"
"Exactly that: those monsters you saw, they... they've likely destroyed your world."
By this point, Lucifer had given up on assuming everything these strange people told him was merely a joke of some kind, and he started to shake all over, his breathing went heavy, and a cold sweat began to form... again.

"Bu-but... ho-how, what?! No, th-that's stupid! Impossible! It can't be gone!"
"I'm afraid so, Lucifer," replied the warrior. Lucifer desperately looked around the room in shock, but every pair of eyes that met his own said the same thing: 'sorry, but it's true'.
"But, but... where's mum?! Where is she?!"
Surely this can't be happening, it, it defies logic!
"Lucifer, I'm sorry, but when the Heartless invade a world there are rarely if ever any survivors..."
So, in that case... no, no, no no no! She can't be dead! She's to important to die! I need her, she... but that means Tina will be dead as well, and, and the last time we part ways I betrayed her. This, this can't be... no!

He didn't speak: he couldn't talk. He just found himself starting to cry. He desperately hoped this was some sort of sick nightmare: anything to go back to the old ones! Being chased by monsters on a strange glass tower was better than this! In that moment, he didn't care or want or need to know anything at all. He just felt rather empty.

"Lucifer... was there a terrible storm outside during this time?"
He didn't reply.

"Was there a thunderstorm, and purple clouds?"
His lips moved into a slow and mild whisper, "Yes..."
"Then... I'm sorry. There's nothing we can do."

An awkward and painful silence fell over everyone in the room, but it was slowly interupted when Feathers made her way across the bed, placed her head on his hand, nuzzling it slightly as she made a faint but rather upbeat 'kweh' sound at him. He slowly turned his head, his expression dejected and broken. How could he smile? He had a hard enough time doing that anyway...

His mind filled with all of the old images, and his thoughts turned back to the nightmares: the glass pillars with his home, his mother, his teacher... the monsters, the choice he had to make, and then... that massive horned monster with the angular red eyes, imprisoned by chains and what looked kind of like a massive metal pot. It seemed both incredibly similar to the smaller, weaker monsters, and yet somehow different... and in that moment there was a blur of noise. Startled gasps filled the room, Feathers leapt surprisingly high into the air and a strange, etheral explosion along with a flash of light. He was certain he could feel a weight in his hand, and looking down, he saw it. The strange sword from before, in purple and white, shaped like a crooked, stylized key. He tilted his head, vaguely curious once again...

"A Keyblade?!" said Maria, shocked.
"I've not seen one of these in... in quite a while." said the warrior.
"Lucifer, you have a Keyblade?! Why didn't you tell us, kupo?"

He didn't answer: he found the weapon far to fascinating. Something about it called to him, and as he stared at the shine on its blade, he could've sworn he saw, just for a second, the reflection of a man with short blonde hair... and then the image was gone. Weird.

As he looked at it intently and noticed every detail, every aspect. The handle and blade were both purple, while the handle itself was just large enough for his rather big hands, and was thick and slightly square shaped. There was a single white hand guard, little more than a piece of rectangular metal, that jaggedly curved around his hand and the rest of the handle. The blade itself was about two and a half foot long, and was also thick and square shaped, but it wasn't straight: it was crooked, bent outwards slightly. At the tip were the 'teeth' of the key, a semi-circle with a series of alternating purple and white 'lumps', while two larger 'lumps' jutted out on either side, one reaching the tip of the blade and the other pointing towards the handle. Lastly, there was a small chain coming out of the handle, on the end of which was a small purple sphere with an arc jutting out one side with other purple lumps, similar to the teeth.

He snapped out of the strange, trance like effect when his line of sight was broken by Toni, waving her hand in his face.

"H-huh...? Oh, uh, sorry, I was just looking at it... what did you say it was? I'm quite confused..."
Biggest understatement of the century, gah...
"It's a Keyblade, kupo!"
"Yes... a weapon that can open or close any lock." said Warrior.
A Keyblade... well, I suppose it fits. Pretty stupid name and idea, though...
He looked at the warrior and Maria, waiting for a response, one eyebrow raised.

"Lucifer, a Keyblade is a special kind of weapon: one born from the Heart. It stays there until needed, or, I suppose, until you learn how to summon it at will. I've not really seen one up close before, but I do know this," he stroked his chin, "someone who possesses a Keyblade can potentially do anything."
"Wa-wait, really?" Lucifer's eyes lit up, surprised. Now he really was curious...
Though I'm not sure how it can be 'born from the heart'... last I checked, my heart was quite tightly sealed up in my body, pumping blood as it should do. But what the hell, I'll go along with it. Nothing surprises me any more.
"Yeah, it can!" said Maria, her expression one of happiness, but something in her eyes... they told a different story. "But, really, we're not the people to ask... if you want to speak with someone who knows about the Keyblade, you'll probably want to talk to..." she sighed. "Mateus. He always seems to have a good knowledge of these sorts of things..." she rolled her eyes.
As the words left her lips, Lucifer's Heart fell.

"But Mateus is busy-"
"Well, that was then. He'll definitely want to hear about this." said the Warrior of Light. Toni beamed widely and turned to face Lucifer, as Feathers hopped excitedly on his lap.
"Kupo, isn't that great? You can speak with Mateus after all! Lucifer...? Are you alright, kupo? Why aren't you smiling?"
"I... wh-what does it matter any more?! I, I didn't want this!" He began to cry a little, and he still felt empty. This wasn't the plan! Toni and Feathers both tried to cheer him up, but to no avail. He just felt so scared, so awkward, so sad... angry as well! He angrily pushed them away and put his head in his hands. Maria was the first to then speak up to break the awkward silence.
"I think he just needs a bit of time alone, alright...? Come on, there's nothing we can really do, okay?"
"O-okay, kupo... come on Feathers. I hope you feel better soon, Lucifer."
"Kweh!"
At that, the four of them left him alone.

-------​

Half an hour went by as he sat there on his own, trying to process everything that had happened. He felt like he'd been thrown into some kind of vast, mental pit, from which he couldn't escape. Asking for help didn't work, and he couldn't seem to climb out of it on his own: it hurt to much. Desperately his mind tried to find someone or something to blame, and although he tried to blame something specific, he found himself blaming everything instead.

He blamed himself for all of his faults, for all of his weaknesses, for all of his treachery.
He blamed the Tower for not being Ghibli Hills, his hometown.
He blamed these strange people and creatures for not being normal.
He blamed Biggs & Wedge for being idiots and bullies, he blamed the school for being some kind of prison which had made his life hell.
He blamed Tina for always being so 'perky' and trying to make him stronger in so many ways, and he blamed his mother for not being where he was right now.
He blamed the Keyblade, just because it seemed to symbolise all of the weirdness so far.
He blamed the monsters for being monsters.
He blamed Mr Richards for... wait a second, Mr Richards!

His mind went into a brief period of fiendish thought, his brain going into overtime as he connected the pieces. He'd always thought Mr Richards was an ordinary teacher, but how could he be? He was the one who warned and saved Lucifer from the monsters... no, Warrior had called them 'Heartless'.

If I'm going to spend a bit more time in this weird craphole, I might as well use the proper words and stuff...

If Mr Richards knew about the Heartless, did that mean... of course, something weird was going on. He had saved Lucifer before, and there had been that strange energy, that light from his hands. And then he mentioned how when Lucifer woke up he'd be in a safe place... well, this Tower seemed safe enough, even if it was pretty damn weird.

He knew something was up, he knew what was going on, so... has he been outside of my world? Been to, presumebly, other worlds? And he said he'd go and save my mum, which means...

In that moment, he no longer felt quite as empty. While it wasn't easy for him to feel optimistic usually, he could feel the faintest amount of hope creep in, and it felt pretty good. He slowly got out of bed, Keyblade in hand, and opened the door to the small bedroom. Behind the door stood the Warrior of Light as well as Maria, Toni and Feathers. He gave a faint smile to the four of them, who smiled in turn, and he nodded down at the Keyblade.

"I... I'm ready now. I wa-want to speak to Mateus now, i-if that's okay..."
"Alright then, let's go."
"Hooray!" said Toni with a large grin, Feathers remarking with a small sqwuak.

And with that, the five of them made their way out of the little, ramshackle house and headed through the twisting, lantern-illuminated alleyways and streets, back towards the stairs they'd gone to before. Warrior of Light and Maria both walked ahead and talked amongst themselves, but Lucifer was sure he could've overheard Maria put the words 'Mateus' and 'wont understand' into the same sentence. Toni seemed content just holding and stroking Feathers. After a couple of minutes they had reached the gate, behind which was the large set of stairs.

The area ahead was quite well illuminated, so they made their way through and headed up. As they went their footsteps seemed to echo slightly, the groudn still marked by that same pattern of a light-house. The stairs twisted slightly as they went, before at last they had came out of another gate onto a floor which looked rather similar to the one below. The floor was decorated in a similar way, though there were far fewer signs attached to the various buildings than before, and less people. Lucifer bit his lip slightly, both worried and intrigued.

Just how big is this place?!
However, he didn't complain as they made their way down a large, central pathway to a massive and well-decorated mansion at the far-end. Two guards stood at the entrance, and they both simultaneously crossed over their weapons - one a sword, the other a spear - when they approached.

"Warrior of Light, sister, what business do these civilians have here?" asked one of the guards, a young man in dark purple armour with long indigo hair and an irritated, melancholy expression.
"It's okay, Leon. This boy," said Maria, "he has a Keyblade."

The guard immediately looked down at him, noting the large key-shaped weapon in his hand, and then sheathed his sword. The other guard, who wore a face-obscuring helmet, also stood aside with a nod and knocked on the door. The voice that replied was calm and controlled, suave and yet... somehow deeply ominous.

"Hmm, yes...?"
"It's Warrior of Light and Maria, sir. And... and a Keyblade wielder." said Leon.
There was a moment of awkward silence, before at last the voice replied, "Come in."

Leon nodded, and they stepped through into a wide, red-carpeted hallway, at the far end of which two sets of stairs curled around the walls and up to the second floor. The walls were lined with various suits of armour and framed pictures of the highest quality were hung up, but Lucifer wasn't given the opportunity to take a better look: his line of sight was distracted by the man who he desperately hoped wasn't Mateus.

He looks like a smegging transvestite clown!
He was, to put it simply, ahem, 'fabulous'... or perhaps 'bizarre' would be a better word. Dressed in an overly elaborate yellow body-suit with a long purple cape and spiked shoulder pads, Lucifer visibly frowned slightly, shocked at the man's appearance. His features were so... so feminine! His chin was smooth, he had no facial hair and he had long, silk like blonde hair. He could've probably passed for a woman if his voice wasn't so deep.

His face is all deathly pale, and his lips are PURPLE... I mean, just... purple. Why?!
"Greetings, Mateus." said Warrior, as monotone as before. He walked over and began talking with Mateus in such a way that the others couldn't hear.
I swear I've walked into an asylum, this is insane! Who the crap puts a guy dressed like this into office?!

He tried making some sort of eye-contact with the rest of the group, desperately hoping it wasn't just him. Thankfully, Maria gave a knowing nod. His train of thought was broken by the man's delicate hand on his shoulder, and he yelped a bit before shuddering.

"My my, so you're a Keyblade wielder, boy?"
"U-uh, yes...! I, I suppose..."
"Excellent. May I see?" asked Mateus, one eyebrow raised. Lucifer bit his lip as he held up the oversized key, his grip not to firm. Mateus looked it over intently, and Lucifer was certain the man's expression changed from 'suave and charismatic' to a rather disturbing frown.
"Is... is there a problem with it?"
"No, it's fine: but that's exactly the problem."
Warrior of Light & Maria looked between each other for a second before they both spoke up.

"Could I ask why this is a problem?"
"Yeah: surely that's a good thing! Firion was saying how we always need people who can fight, and-"
At this point, Lucifer backed up a little bit.
Excuse me?!
"Wh-what do you mean, 'fight'? I can't fight! If I could fight, I wouldn't keep getting beaten up at school! I wouldn't have been scared of those monsters!" I wouldn't need Tina to stand up for me...
Mateus raised his hands to calm the group down, before pulling Warrior aside.
"Could I talk to the pair of you, in private?"

The three of them went upstairs, leaving Lucifer, Toni, Leon and Feathers alone in the wide, hauntingly beautiful mansion. There would probably have been another awkward silence, but Toni was quite happy to fill the void. She made small talk with the rather gruff Leon and the excitable Feathers, but when she attempted to talk to Lucifer he just frowned and shook a little. He was far to anxious and tense about what would happen next, not to mention freaked out by the sheer weirdness of it all: his entire view of the world had just exploded in his face, and he still couldn't quite take it.

At last, after an agonizing wait the three of them came back down the stairs. Warrior was the first to speak up.
"Lucifer, we've decided..."
Without my opinion, of course, gah...
"...to offer you a choice."
Oh, uh-
"Since we can't keep you hear against your will: that wouldn't be right. You said you can't fight, but I'm happy to help train you, as would Firion and Maria, I'm sure. And since, well, since your moth-"
"I think what he means is, since you've currently got nowhere else to go... you could stay here."

He could see the concern on their faces, but this wasn't part of the plan! It was perhaps to much to assume they could make things as they were before, but he had to find Mr Richards and by extension, his mother.

"But my mum might not be dead!"
"Really? That's great, kupo!"
"Lucifer, please, I understand that you're feeling upset but-"
"No, just listen! Mr Richards saved me from those weird monsters... Heartless, you said. He saved me from them, with this weird energy, and... it's like nothing I've seen before. Maybe you guys are used to it, but where I come from, that sort of thing doesn't happen except in stories. He said he'd rescue my mum, so, so...!"
There was a pause.
"So she might be in the Tower."

 

[ChrisP]

Wow, another great job Eventua! Keep up the good work and I can't wait for part 2

Lmao @ the last line XD

 

[Eventua]

There it is, Episode 2, all uploaded in one go on the earlier post! As mentioned previously, please give feedback and critiques, or something!
I'm unsure of what to do with Episode 3, either:
A) Skip ahead to the first Disney world, including the trip there by Gummi Ship along with a short explanation of what led up to setting off, or...
B) Explaining in more depth how and why they set off along with some 'seperate portions' dealing with villains and Mr Richards (as well as Lucifer's mum), before making Episode 4 to do with the first Disney world.

So feedback/opinions of some kind would be appreciated!

 

[ChrisP]

I like it Nice job Eventua! Just to let you know, a lot of times throughout your writing, I noticed that "to" should be "too". Besides that, I don't have much criticism XD Keep up the good work

I'm not sure what you should do next but I think you should decide. You'd probably be a better judge on which version would be better. I don't know XD

 

[Mortjin]

You rock!
*waves banner like a noob*
Ok so, here are some of the things i like
1) The charecter reacts like i would expect a 'normal' person to react (KH 'normal isn't real normal btw lol) whereas Sora seemed to be a bit like... ok so i have a keyblade and my friends are now talking animals, your charecter is more like OMG... what is going on!
2) You make it so that I 'get' where the character is coming from... e.g. he's confused -> i understand why -> i'm confused -> I want to read on!
3) There are less spelling mistakes/ grammer errors than i would have made!!
4) ... I love the twists, like his Mother might be there! And his teacher! (What is going on with the teacher knowing about heartless btw?)

Some things I don't like so much... I had to think really hard to get these!
1) He says 'Gah' a lot, or is it his catchphrase? (heheheh... got it memorized?)
2) Me no likey his attitude towards Toni... She's not an animal... She's a moogle! I hope he gets a little nicer...

Apart from that I'm very excited to read the rest!

TTFN
Mortjin~

 

[Eventua]

Well, here it is, completed over the half-term! Chapter- uh, Episode, 3! It's about 8 pages long, oh yes!
Thanks for the positive feedback. As for negative points...​

I don't have spell check on the software I use, but usually I'll edit something when I see it or later on: what you guys get usually hasn't been double-checked, sorry about that! Every so often I'll check back over and edit it where necessary, though!​

I've tried to tone down Lucifer's usage of 'gah': it's meant to be a 'sound effect' rather than an actual word, but perhaps 'he grumbled' or 'he sighed' would be better words to use...​

As for his attitude towards Toni, it'll improve with time. I'm trying to make him something of a 'misery guts', kind of selfish and a complainer, but a bit of Disney magic and Cid's attitude to things should sort him out eventually...! Don't worry, by the end he'll be a bit more confident and friendly, hopefully.

Anyway, Episode 4'll take a while to complete, but don't worry, it involves their first visit to an actual disney world! It might be a 'two parter', but more likely it'll just be a short visit.​

------​

Episode 3: Gummi blocks and Aethercraft​

In the vast church, not a soul moved and not a creature made its presence known. The well-built interior was faintly illuminated by slivers of moonlight, passing through the ornate windows and marking out faint points of dust like tiny pin pricks. It was old and cold and gloomy, with only the occasional, curious rat to fill the void. But even they were quick to leave when they realised just how derelict it all was.

That was, until a loud crackle of lightning split the air. The once musty and stagnant state of aged stone and carpet was replaced with the smell of ozone, and it was split once again by another small blast. More and more the lightning propagated, eventually forming into a whirling mass of white light. And from this portal a man stepped out, a limp body slung over his right shoulder. As he left, he could sense them, smell them: shadowy monsters born from corrupted Hearts. They had followed him, or perhaps… they had followed her. With a grunt and a twirl he raised his free hand to the portal, which promptly closed in a faint shockwave of light. He smirked as he then sat down on one of the benches, placing her gently beside himself as he took a moment to catch his breath back. He stroked her face, moving a few loose strands of dark hair out of her eyes. Her eyes, a dark brown, were faint and dull: undoubtedly a result of him having put her to sleep through use of aether. It was either that or he would’ve had to have convinced her to join him through words, and that would’ve taken far too long. He was sure she’d thank him later.

He looked down at himself, and realised just how dirty he was. He’d been sweating and had been attacked by numerous Heartless, so it made sense that his once neat attire was now a tad broken and dirty. But he didn’t worry about it too much: there would be time to shower later. For now he had to keep on the move, and he had to keep her safe: the place he was in, some sort of cathedral… he took a look outside: it was night-time, and the streets were empty.

Outside, not a person could be seen, but something else could. It flew past, its fierce yellow eyes, bronze red skin, jagged mouth and tattered wings suggesting a beast of terrible strength and violence. Normally, he’d have ignored it. He needed to keep going, after all, and couldn’t worry about local predators. But then he noticed it, as it stopped flying and merely hovered in mid-air, just outside the window, its yellow eyes glaring at him. He saw its underside: there, emblazoned on its chest, was the emblem. The symbol that represented his eternal enemies: a pitch black heart, crossed over by a pair of red, thorny vines.

He glared at it with hatred. They were here as well? He’d specifically prepared the co-ordinates for this world because there weren’t any Heartless… unless, of course, this invasion was new. It would be a long while before they found what they were looking for and destroyed everything, so there would be very few of them. He stepped back as the creature prepared to lunge forward and shatter the window, but it was stopped when a hail of arrows, fired from the ground, reduced it to a shadowy swiss cheese, a sphere of energy flying off as it’s remains faded away.

The man smiled, and the wide-doors swung open. Into the vast hallway stepped an aged man, flanked by a pair of soldiers in plate armour and armed with large crossbows. He wore an elaborate, fancy black outfit, framed by a purple cape. The hat he wore was round and flat, made up of alternating light and dark purple stripes with a single feather popping out the top, which combined with his gray hair made his already thin, bony, wrinkled features look even more decrepit.

"You there!" he called, "What are you doing here? This is a house of God, how dare you break into this place!"
"I apologize… we were merely seeking sanctuary. We’ll be leaving soon," came his deep, cultured reply.
"Really? That’s odd, since I don’t think I recognize you, and she…" he pointed to the woman, "looks like one of those godless gypsies! Did your demon get out of control, then? Those who sell their souls to the devil always get exactly what they deserve, after all!"
Demons…? Does he mean the Heartless? Ha, primitive superstitions and ignorance, the perfect recipe for a Heartless invasion.
"No, I’m afraid you’ll find that monster was not under my control-"
"I can see that, heathen!"
"Yes, but am I correct in thinking that you, perhaps, are having a slight problem with them?"

The older man paused.
"Perhaps."
The first man, with the short blonde hair and the slight tan and the piercing blue eyes, gave a simple, subtle smirk. Perhaps things were going to go as planned after all…

------​

The search began immediately. All through the Tower, on both the first and second floors as well as the basement, they began asking around about for a Mr Richards, or perhaps a Tina Jovelle… maybe even an Akari Falkens. Two hours went by of frantic searching, asking around and sweeping the streets. During this time Lucifer met Firion, a tall, dark-skinned young man with braided white hair and brown eyes, and Firion’s adopted brother Guy, a large, burly man who seemed to only communicate in grunts and grimaces.

Eventually, however, they had to accept it: she was not there. No one matching the description of his mother Akari, Mr Richards or Tina could be found, nor anyone with those names. The search was proving fruitless, and Lucifer began to feel more and more anxious about it.

What am I going to do?! I’m not independent enough to survive on my own, let alone in a weird place like this! I thought maybe they’d be okay and I could see them again, but this… this isn’t good! Why can nothing go as planned?! I mean, my ordinary life might have been monotone and kind of crap, but at least I understood what was going on and everything made sense!

He evidently couldn’t contain or hide the fact he was disappointed, because the ever observant and energetic Toni was quick to ask how he was.

Gah, ‘how am I’?! Is she being serious, I freaking hate this! I want things back as they were, small and easy to understand!

"I… I really thought they’d be here. But I’m starting to think they’re not, and I, well, I wanted things to try and make just a tiny bit of sense. But they don’t…"

Feathers gave a soft, vaguely comforting squeak, and Toni smiled sympathetically.
"Sorry, kupo. I wish there was more that I could do."

He shook his head a little from side to side and sighed deeply.
"It’s okay, I suppose… maybe there’s another way out of this. Probably not, though, considering the way things have been going so far…"

They rejoined from their searching with the others for a while and decided to have some food. It was, according to the Tower clock, getting quite late, and Lucifer wound up spending the night at Warrior of Light’s rather simple, yet elegant, abode. Warrior, however, didn’t go to sleep. There was much to be discussed with Mateus and Firion, after all. A key bearer in their midst would undoubtedly change the fate of the Tower and everyone in it, but there were a great deal many pros and cons to be considered…

------​

Lucifer woke up several hours later, and he was still desperately hoping that it was all some sort of dream or hallucination. Unfortunately, he was not in his own bed, and upon walking out into the next room: a small, simply built living room, dining room and kitchen all combined into one, he saw a large pot with something boiling over inside it, and the small, three foot form of Toni, hovering in mid-air next to it and giving it a stir ever few seconds with a large wooden spoon.

Smeg it, I’m still here. Well, so much for the ‘was beaten so thoroughly it put me in a coma and this is just a weird dream’ theory…

He was interrupted from his introspective irritation by her voice.
"Hey, you’re awake, kupo! I made some food, same sort of stuff my mum used to make!"
Damn it, I’m so fed up of that weird ‘kupo’ thingy… and that stuff, it smells foul!

Feathers gave a happy squawk and bounced up and down in joy. Lucifer, however, still just frowned. Toni tilted her head at him, curious.
"What’s the matter, kupo? Don’t you like soup?"
"No, it’s not that, I…"
She hovered over to him, her small wings flapping wildly. Damn it, I hate it when the laws of physics get casually disregarded…! It’s probably magical. I honestly would not be surprised if it was.
"What… Toni, what are you?"
"Huh?"
"I mean, what actually ARE you? You’re like nothing I’ve ever seen before, we never had flying, talking mole-bats with pointy hats back…" he sighed, "back where I came from."
"I’m not a mole, or a bat! I’m a moogle, kupo!" she said with an annoyed frown as she crossed her arms.
A moogle? Sounds like it ought to be an internet search engine…
"A… a moogle? I see… I apologize for having gotten your species wrong." I can’t believe I just said that…
"It’s okay, this is probably kind of weird for you, huh?"
Gee, you think?
"Yeah… so, uh, what’re you cooking?"
"Oh, some soup! Same recipe my mother used to use, so I’m hoping it’ll taste okay! Come on, sit down and try some, kupo!"

She grinned, while he immediately cringed and shuddered a little.
"Don’t worry, heh, it’s not the same as that potion from before! This should be okay, kupo!"

He gave a sigh and sat down, grimacing as she flew over, pot in hand, and ladled out some of the soup. It was thick and green, and smelled disgusting…
I swear this is the same stuff as before!

However, he slowly lifted the spoon to his mouth and gave a tiny, silent prayer.
If there really is a God up there, please save me from-

His plea was interupted when the small door on the other side of the room opened up to reveal the Warrior. He raised an eyebrow.

"Toni, please don't tell me you've broken into my house just so you can poison the key bearer,"

She crossed her arms and frowned a little, in the process spilling some of the soup and panicing.
"O-oh no, I'm so clumsy, kupo!"
"It's okay, please, don't worry about it, I'll clean it up later. Now then," he brushed a lock of white hair from his face, "Lucifer, I need you to come with me."
Wait, that actually worked? Thanks!

Lucifer gave an audible phew as he wiped his forehead and got up.
"I'll, uh, I'll finish the soup later, maybe!"
"But it'll be cold by then, kupo!"
"Oh, ahem, I'm not that hungry anyway, so don't worry!" Heh heh, sucker.

She shook her head a little and huffed as the three of them (plus Feathers) headed out of the door, and made their way through the still dark streets towards the second floor.
It must be hard, living indoors all the time...

------​

They eventually reached Mateus's vast mansion, where they were met once again by Firion and Leon, who's whispered discussion was difficult to make out. Lucifer was pretty sure he heard the words 'don't trust him' somewhere in there, though... or maybe he was just paranoid. That was just as possible.

"Lucifer, did you sleep well? Warrior doesn't usually have guests over, after all."
Does everyone have to call him Warrior, really? I mean, surely he must actually *have a name*...? It's starting to get really annoying, gah...!
"Can we move this along?" Leon gruffly stated. Firion grumbled a little, but let it slide. Lucifer could've sworn that the eye-contact they made was filled with some kind of rivalry over something. What've they got against each other, I wonder?

They made their way into the mansion, where Mateus was waiting. Lucifer shuddered a little as the peculiar man gave what was possibly one of the creepiest smiles he'd ever seen, before at last he found himself surrounded by the four of them: Mateus in front, Firion to his left, Warrior of Light from behind and Leon to his right. He immediately felt kind of scared and awkward: he still knew so little about these strange people, and he was always so anxious and paranoid...

I hope they don't ask me something really stupid!
"Boy, do you understand what you possess? Do you fully understand the ramifications of your so-called 'gift'?" said Mateus, placing a single delicate hand on Lucifer's shoulder.
"Uh, no-not really... I'm kind of guessing it's important, since everyone freaked out over it..."

Firion quickly spoke up.
"Lucifer, your weapon isn't merely 'important': it's incredibly powerful, and it needs to be used carefully. If used incorrectly, it... let's just say it could be used wrongly."
"Pfft, that's the major understatement of the century, don't you think, Firion? This little punk is a serious hazard to everyone in this Tower: he's a danger to everyone and everything that we've worked hard to maintain!"

Lucifer immediately cowered at Leon's remark, before looking between the two of them.
How dangerous is this thing...?
"Leon, I'm trying to explain this tactfully-"
"Really, Firion, that's what you're calling it? Because I'm pretty damn sure that when you say 'tactfully' you mean 'lie to his face'."

The two of them quickly became engaged in an aggressive back and forth. Toni and the Warrior of Light both tried to break them up, as things started to degenerate into name-calling and what seemed to be old wounds. Mateus, meanwhile, just smirked, before at last, with a slight twirl, used the long, thin yellow staff he carried to clonk the two of them over the head.

"There now, has everyone had their little fight? Good. Lucifer, the truth of the matter is that your weapon is immensely powerful: if it got out of control, it could threaten to destroy everything and everyone within this tower."
"Wa-wait, hold on, really?! I've been carrying a weapon of mass destruction this whole time?" I've got to get rid of this thing! "We-well, I don't want it!" It appeared in his right hand in a flash of light as he held it out in front of him. They all just shook their heads.

"Wh-what's the matter?! Go on, take it! You guys are all, I dunno, warrior cosplayers or something! You can all probably use it better than I can!"
"I'm sorry, but that's not possible."
"But, but why?!"

Toni flew over.
"Because, kupo, only a few people can use them: special people."

Lucifer began to shake a little and breathed heavily.
"But, uh, it's not so bad, kupo! It means you're special, right? That's pretty cool!"
I must be special, hence the reason I'm talking to a FREAKING MOOGLE and a bunch of blokes in armour and a transvestite molester with purple lips! I swear, this is all so friggin' weird, damn it! I want to go home!

He desperately looked around at the various individuals, before sighing deeply.
"Then... then what do I do...? Besides from just jumping in front of a train. That might work." Leon actually seemed to nod at the suggestion, but was cut off from speaking by a glare from Firion. Is it just me, or do him and Maria seem kind of similar...?

The Warrior of Light filled the silence.
"Lucifer, it's true that you can't just stay here, not even in order to train with us: all it would take is one, admittedly unlikely, mistake and the Tower could be put in danger. Not to mention the fact that the keyblade draws Heartless wherever it goes, so we can't risk you being here to long. Having Heartless directly above us is dangerous enough as it is, we don't need them to sense us down here and amass more numbers..."
I'm screwed.
"But don't worry: we're not planning on ejecting you into space," Wait, space? Aren't we in a tower? "we're planning to give you a ride out of here. We've made all of the necessary arrangements."

At this, he perked up a tiny bit. Not to much, though: finding out he was actually armed with a weapon of such incredible power, stupidly named as it was, was a scary thought.
I always fail at everything I do, I can't be trusted with something so important...
"A ri-ride? How?"

Toni leapt up and tugged at his shirt as he looked down to meet her smiling gaze.
"By gummi ship, kupo! Only the best way to travel, really!"
Oh smeg, it's something else with a ridiculous name... I mean, really? I have no idea what it is, but if it is what I'm expecting it to be, I'm seriously reconsidering jumping in front of that train.
"Gummi ship...?"
"Yeah, come on!"

And with that they left the mansion, Lucifer, Toni, Feathers, Firion, Mateus and the Warrior. The six of them made their way out of the mansion and back down the stairs, through the gloomy, neon illuminated streets, leaving Leon and his ruffled pride to continue his patrol of the second floor.

------​

Upon reaching the first floor they turned and made their way down another set of stairs, eventually finding themselves in a long hallway, wide enough for a big group of people. It stretched on for quite a distance, marked by regular, numbered doors at evenly spaced intervals. They eventually stopped outside a small door marked with the number 15, and a large sign marked out with 'Cid's Dock: open for business, aethercraft for hire'.

Firion knocked several times, and... nothing happened. They knocked again, and sure enough, no answer.

Part of me really hopes he won't answer, he's probably a weirdo... either that, or he'll hate me for my power as well. Frying pan or fire, damn it.

Eventually, there was a response, a faint, barely audible grumble. Firion smirked as he knocked again, followed by a somewhat louder grumble. Once more-

"Gah!"

The door swung open as a pair of large, hairy hands grabbed Firion by the scruff of the neck and lifted him up. The man in question was large, easily 6 foot 6 inches, and well-built: he also seemed to have only just gotten up, judging by his unkempt hair and unshaven, sculpted chin. The man glared at Firion angrily, and the younger man gave a wary smirk, his beads rattling a little as the larger man put him back down. Toni just smiled up at him, and he looked around at the others, before shaking his head a little.

"What do ya want?"
He sounds like he's been gargling sand...
"We need to use your gummi ship, ku-" she was cut off by a firm hand over her mouth.
"Excuse Toni, she doesn't always get the terminology right! What she means is that we need to use your aethercraft, if we could!"

Cid looked at the five of them in turn, and glared at Lucifer. He looked annoyed about something, before he met Mateus's gaze and simply shook his head a little.

Does he know? Does he hate me for this weapon...?
"Alrigh': ya can use me aethercraft. I'll be yer pilot, though: she's me life's work, so I aint lettin' 'er outta me sight!"
That was strange... he looked like he was about to beat my face in. I'm not gonna ask, though, in case he decides to anyway...

They entered through the door into the surprisingly large room, filled with all manner of tools and spare parts. The whole place was dark gray and gloomy, with a large furnace in the corner. The far wall was mostly empty, and a round raised platform was in the centre of the room: however, the real attraction was a large, winged vehicle, like a rocket ship, which rested on the platform. It was quite big, about the size of a large caravan, and coloured a deep, aquatic blue. The words 'Ethereal Highwind' marked her on the side.

"So... we're using this?"
"Yeah! Ya got a problem with that, punk?"
"N-no, of course not! But, I mean, are we just leaving?"

The Warrior nodded and Firion placed a hand on his shoulder.
"Yes, Lucifer. Everything's ready, so long as you are."
"So don't worry, 'kay?"

He raised an eyebrow and frowned a little.
You guys had already planned this, huh? That was always the idea, so why worry about something like the possibility of me not wanting to leave? I mean, I wouldn't want to stay here anyway, but it would've been nice to have a genuine choice...

He grumbled a little and sighed, before looking Firion straight in the eye.
"Where exactly am I going, I mean, I still don't really understand the plan..."
"Well, heh, ol' Warrior can probably explain it better than I can!"
"Well?" he whispered as he looked the other way.
"We're of the opinion that the best idea is for us to take you to the nearest circle."
"Circle?"
"The circles are worlds controlled and inhabited by key bearers like yourself: you'll be safe there."
"I see..." he said as he desperately looked for some sign of emotion in the towering Warrior's soft blue eyes. None at all.
"Do not worry: Cid & Firion will help to look after you till we find a circle."
Wait, what?! You don't know where we're going?!

His surprise was evidently on his face, because his vision was quickly filled by the sight of Toni flying in front of his face.
"Kupo, what's the matter? This is good, right?"
"Not particularly..."
"But, but why?"
"Because... damn it, because I need to find my mum & Mr Richards! I'm sick of having to keep needing help, especially when 'help' involves meeting other people with the same curse as me...!"

He was jolted back to his senses by Cid's firm grip, his eyes wide as the large, powerful man glared angrily.
"Alrigh' ya little git, listen 'ere! I dunno what ya problem is, but whatever ya think it might be, there won't be no whingin' on my ship, alrigh'?! Ya not the only one with problems, tha's for sure! We're 'elpin' ya out 'ere, ya better bleedin' well remember tha', ALRIGH'?!"

There was a short, stunned silence as Lucifer slowly nodded and was let go. Firion was quick to try and break the silence.
"Don't worry to much, alright Lucifer? I mean, we haven't seen any key bearers in a fair while, but we'll be right there with you, and when we do find some, they'll know what to do. Sound good?"

The stunned teenager nodded slowly.
"Right then, let's do it!"
"Okay then!"
Wait a sec... "Toni, uh, you're coming to...?"
"Yeah, of course I am, kupo! And so's Feathers!"

Mateus, Firion, Cid, Lucifer and the Warrior of Light all looked between each other at this.
"Excuse me?" Warrior of Light asked.
"I'm coming as well!"
"Wait a second, listen, Toni. You can not come: they may need to land on different worlds, and what will you do then? It's dangerous out there."
"But, I'm a mage, kupo! Everyone knows Firion & Cid are useless at magic! Besides, I need to improve my potions & cooking skills, and I need decent ingredients to do that!"
"But you're just a child-"
"Actually, that's not a bad idea!"
"Kupo, I knew you'd agree, Firion!"
"Firion, she can not come: she's not old enough."
"But she's useful, isn't she? Intelligent, skilled with magic and the creation of potions," Speak for yourself... "and besides, should she not be free to make her own choices? Since she has no parents and lives on her own, she's free to make her own decisions."

The Warrior of Light's expression changed to one of dull shock, but no one seemed to complain against the idea. Cid & Lucifer just looked kind of gloomy, and Mateus smirked before raising his hands dramatically and bringing them together.

"Well then, it's settled. The four-"
"You forgot Feathers, kupo! Five!"

Feathers quickly squawked in agreement.
"-ahem, yes, five of you, will set off to locate a key bearer who can teach Lucifer, or better yet, a circle he can stay with."

Lucifer looked around at the four of them: the tall, well-built machanic in the tank top & shorts, the younger, darker man with the long braided hair, the moogle in pink with the pointed cap, and the small black chocobo.
This is going to be a long journey... I wonder if that train would still be a possibility?

 

[ChrisP]

Nice job! I'm excited that they'll finally be going to the first Disney world. Some criticism; I noticed that some of the dialogue (especially at the end) was a little hard to follow since several characters were involved and talking at the same time and I didn't know exactly who was talking. Other than that, I thought it was pretty good

 

[Eventua]

Well, I have a bit of news. After a bit of thinking and discussing matters with my family, I have decided to stop writing the fan fic. Please don't panic, however!

You see, something occured to me:

1) All of the original characters & worlds from the series have been replaced by my own, and the plot is my own.
2) The setting & cosmology have both been altered to something more internally consistent and *hopefully* more logical as well as actually just working differently.
3) I've only written the very beginning of their first visit to a disney world (Robin Hood), and haven't reached a point where they actually meet any of the local disney characters: up till then, everything else is original, 'cept for the final fantasy characters.

Thus, I have decided to rewrite what has already been written as an original story: names & characters will be changed & replaced, designs & personalities will be altered.

The Heartless, Unversed & Nobodies will probably still exist, albeit with different names and played out more realistically (AKA perhaps a bit scarier? )

So, yes... I hope you guys understand and I apologize fro starting something that won't be finished in the same way as planned.

 

[Mortjin]

awww.... X(
hope i'll get to read the new version!
Mortjin~