Re: Kingdom Hearts: Hearts in Unison (Chapter 50 posted)
And considering Xemnas has already obtained his "shard" of the service...
Also, I know a list of airship pilots that still wasn't mentioned.
Cecil Harvey (FFIV) - Skilled Airship pilot, used to command entire fleets.
Setzer Gabbiani (FFVI) - Although we've seen him in KHII, not much is really known on him by now. Not to mention that in FFVI he used to race with other Airships.
Zell Dincht (FFVIII) - On FFVIII, when Selphie's not piloting the Ragnarok (noting that in KH she's a teenager with a normal life), it's Zell who pilots the dragon-shaped Spacecraft.
Cid (Yuna's uncle) (FFX) - He and his crew, with that huge Machina Airship, would be the kind of guys able to make such a big vessel as an operations base.
Although, we'll know the third pilot in due time, so let's wait.
Also, on a random thought somewhat not associated with the fanfic, I was wondering, why did Max (Goofy's son), who gained significant importance in the Disney universe, never appear in any KH entry? I mean, in his teenage form. I wonder why didn't Square-Enix do that favor for us...
Don't forget though that it is not a full shard anymore.
Lightning blasted the shard into two pieces and Xemnas got only one of them.
Some of these characters actually are members of the Order Preservers, that much I can already say, although the "pilot" who was responsible for getting them away from Radiant Garden is not on this list.
It'll be a while until the Order Preservers take more of a center stage since after the clearing up of the current plotlines at Radiant Garden, we'll go straight back to Kairi.
I do not know too much about Disney in general to answer that in regards to KH, but I cannot really say that Max (at least here in Germany) gained any lasting or significant importance at all neither in stories nor with the fans.
If there is
any family-related character in the comics (and partly the shorts) in Germany at all regarding Goofy, it's his nephew
Gilbert.
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Alrighty, it's time to go on with the action at the Hollow Bastion library:
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L. The Seeker's arrival
The hooded boy stiffened.
"Ugh, not only spotted but also recognized...huh?" He quipped.
The Invisible used the momentarily distraction to swing its sword at him, forcing him backwards.
"Not so fast...annoying prick." Agent Z stretched out his swords and turned himself into a sort of spinning top, defeating the Heartless with multiple slashes.
Leon nodded when seeing this.
"Yea, this battle style is unmistakeable."
Yuffie shortly put a hand before her mouth in surprise.
"Zidane...I thought he was lost when Maleficent invaded..." She whispered.
As he landed, Agent Z turned around pulling off his purple hood, revealing his gold blond hair and green eyes, the expression a mischievous grin.
"Can't hide anything from that perceptive stare of yours, eh Squall?"
"There's not much to hide anyways if you wag that tail around like an excited dog..." The woman interjected in a sarcastic tone as she destroyed the last Heartless in the room before turning towards him.
"...and there are not many humanoid people around who sport such a tail anyways."
"Geee...tell me something new, I can't just cut it off, can I?"
"No, but you could tuck it into your pants, shorty." She answered in a more teasing manner.
"Tell me how to do that with an uniform as tight-fitting as ours are, huh?"
Leon and Yuffie just stood there baffled at the bickering between them.
"What the...?" Yuffie mumbled with astonishment.
"How about you wrap it around your waist like a belt then? Would certainly help for people to
not immediately recognize you." She continued, now obviously in total teasing mode.
Observing this, Leon could tell that these two were doing such things often and as he took a closer look at the woman's weapon, a double-bladed red spear, another realization hit him.
"You're also not much better when acting like you always did back then at the academy, Oerba Yun Fang." He interrupted in their banter with a dead serious voice.
Zidane's face brightened up even more. "That's our Squall for ya. Grumpy and distant to the brim, but perceptive like an eagle."
The woman stiffened as well at hearing her true name.
"Damn, this goes nothing like we had planned."
Leon stepped forward with firm steps.
"Zidane! Fang! What is the meaning of all this? If you survived the fall of this world ten years ago, why didn't you return when you saw it is being reconstructed? And what's with these weird outfits?"
Fang's expression hardened as Zidane shuffled one of his feets nervously on the floor.
"The meaning is that we have a mission to fullfill and IF we will ever return it won't be until that mission is finished, which may take several years." She explained while casually placing her spear in the holding gear at her back.
"The outfits are part of our guild, or team, if you want to call it that. We
did escape the downfall of this world, although how and why is of no concern of yours right now. We have noticed you and your companions starting to rebuild this world by watching from the shadows, and I for myself personally wish you all possible success for it, but we do not have or want a part in this."
"But you are citizens of this world as well, I don't understand why you..." Yuffie interjected, but was silenced by Leon raising a hand before her.
"It's obvious that we have highly differentiating priorities right now and that they do not want to discern theirs, so we shouldn't put unneccessary pressure on the issue. The main point is that there is no threat to this world from them, and their decision to not return is theirs and theirs alone, that's enough." He stated while still not taking his glance off from Fang for one moment.
Yuffie shook her head stubbornly. "Leon, that's not what I mean..."
Zidane continued to shuffle one foot. "Sorry, we really can't."
Leon shook his head. "Don't. Many things happened and changed during the past ten years, there might come a time where this can all be explained, but it is obviously not now. On my part I am just content right now to know that you two survived."
"As expected again, Squall." Zidane answered with a small smile.
"That's Leon now." He stated firmly.
"Huh? You changed your name?" Zidane's eyes widened a little and he slowly swayed his tail signalling his interest.
Fang also gave an interested side glance at this.
"Yes, due to the failure to protect my homeworld, I vowed to never use my real name again until this world is completely restored and defended."
"Now that's what I call true dedication. Very well, like said, I wish you all possible success with your mission, but understand that we cannot disclose ours. If not for shorty here messing up his cover, we would not even have talked to you this much."
When saying that Fang gave Zidane a small nudge against the shoulder.
This made Zidane sway a little and his shuffling foot flipped over one of the books lying on the ground, a small metallic shard falling out of it in the process.
"Hey, take a look at this, looks like I found the prize." He quipped eagerly.
"What the heck is that?" Yuffie blurted out.
"Something that for unknown reasons attracts Heartless like moths are drawn to light. We will take it to examine why." Fang answered before anyone else could and grabbed the shard.
"I'm afraid that is MY prize!" A new voice suddenly thundered from the upper floor of the library and a blast of Darkness threw the shard out of Fang's hand.
"Who the hell dares to..." She cursed as she jumped back and in a fluid motion also drew her spear.
Zidane, Yuffie and Leon also looked up to the staircase, where at the top the newcomer stood.
Golden eyes checked out the four people as the man let out a mocking scowl.
"Who are you?" Zidane shouted, waving one of his short swords around while Leon and Yuffie took battle stances with their weapons.
"Is that so important? You will all get a free ride into the Realm of Darkness anyways, so what's the point?"
"We'll see about that." Leon answered dead serious, pointing his Gunblade at the man who started to slowly walk down the staircase, passing each of the stained glass windows in the process.
He wore a long black mantle with red inner linings, white gloves, a white jacket unbuttoned at the top revealing parts of his chest.
"There! On his chest is the Heartless emblem!" Yuffie remarked as he had crossed half the stairway.
"A human-shaped Heartless??? Impossible!" Fang blurted out in disbelief.
"Poor fools, one who knows nothing can understand nothing. Let me enlighten you then at least in your final moments. I am Ansem, the Seeker of Darkness and Lord Sovereign of the Heartless."
With these words the man raised one hand threateningly and a pillar of Darkness erupted between the four, separating Yuffie and Leon from Zidane and Fang.
"Ansem? THAT Ansem? The fake Ansem!" Leon screamed in anger. "How can you be here? Sora defeated you!"
Leon remembered Ansem from over a year ago, the one who pulled many worlds into the Darkness with his Heartless legions, but he realized that he actually never knew how he looked like until now.
Ansem crossed his arms before his chest with a mocking grin.
"One defeat does not mean the end."
"Fake Ansem?" Zidane asked confused.
"Well, he's not Ansem the Wise, that's for sure." Fang answered with a grim expression.
"Enough of the useless chit-chat! Now hand over that shard...and perish!"
Ansem performed another sweeping hand gesture and send out several crescent shaped discs of dark energy.
To dodge them his four adversaries had to move backwards, which Ansem used to move forwards in order to take the shard.
"Not so fast here, silvermane." Zidane shouted as he jumped over one energy disc and brought one of his blades down on Ansem.
"A meaningless effort." He retorted as he raised his right hand and blocked the strike with an invisible energy field.
One small mocking smirk later, Ansem let the field burst and the shock threw Zidane backwards into the air.
He catched himself midflight however and performing a backflip landed safely on his feet two metres away.
Ansem wasted no time and send out another blast of Darkness aimed directly at Zidane's heart, which got deflected midway by a thrown Shuriken from Yuffie.
As he tilted his head a bit he noticed Leon and Fang advancing on him.
"Hmph, predictable."
He shot five more blasts of Darkness, which Leon and Fang had little trouble to deflect, but Ansem used that opportunity to teleport behind them and raise his hand upwards.
"Dark Thundaga!"
A heavy blast of Dark Lightning sent both crashing to the floor as Yuffie used the moment to attack, throwing three Shurikens at Ansem.
He turned towards her with another smirk. "More meaningless distractions?"
Teleporting in an instant again the Shurikens missed their intended target.
"Stings, huh?" Zidane suddenly shouted as he propelled himself forward cloaked in a light blue aura, catching Ansem off-guard with three very fast slashes in his Booster 8-attack.
"What the...ghh, insolent brat!"
Ansem was pushed backwards slightly as Zidane followed up with his spinning Storm Impulse-attack as a combo, sending the Heartless crashing into a bookshelf. Having recovered, both Fang and Leon followed Zidane's assault with a Firaga spell each.
The flaming projectiles crashed into the bookshelf, burning it, but Ansem had already teleported again and hovered in mid-air about two armlengths above his adversaries.
"Four against one is a bit troublesome, but that can be easily remedied." He said in a calm tone, raising both hands and beneath him two Zip Slasher Heartless appeared that immediately started wild slashing combos directed at Yuffie and Leon.
"What the...these Heartless are quite a number bigger than those before." Yuffie shrieked as she frantically dodged in different directions to escape the onslaught.
"Ghh, what power those possess..." Leon decided for blocking instead of dodging, but could let his Gunblade only barely keep up with the twin swords of the blue armored Heartless.
Landing on the floor Ansem proceeded towards the shard again as Fang closed in on him, taking several swipes at him with her spear. He dodged each attack with gracefully calculated steps.
"Don't waste my time, woman." He snarled as he unleashed a wave of dark wind energy which pushed Fang backwards with one flick of his hand, letting her crash into one of the pillars supporting the ceiling of the library.
Turning his attention back to the shard, he saw that Zidane was about to pick it up.
Without a word Ansem shot another flurry of dark energy discs, forcing Zidane to make several short jumps and flips to evade them.
"Dodge this!" White still suspended in the air, Zidane loaded his short swords up with energy and fired his Solution 9 attack at Ansem, a flurry of orange energy runes converging on the Heartless.
"What an annoying brat." Ansem smirked as he raised a hand again to block the runes with his dark energy field.
With his attention on Zidane and his attack however, he failed to notice Fang had recovered and hit him with a powerful swing of her spear in the right hip.
Grunting Ansem could only duck away to avoid Zidane's runes now, which Fang used to deliver an upwards kick directly into his face.
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The game for the next shard is on.
Spoiler
