Song suggestions:
Heathens by Twenty-One Pilots
Louder Than Words by Les Friction
Move Along by All American Rejects
Just a head's up, this is the longest chapter of the story so far. Enjoy.
Chapter 10: The Spell Shall Break:
"Oh, Ienzo. You have no idea how right you were. Of course, I'm not able to actually tell you this, but it is entirely possible for two people to share a heart. After all, Saix and I have got chunks of old man Xehanort's swirling around in our chests. I put the idea of the experiments in the younger Xehanort's head to see how much of the old coot's memories were left inside Terra's head and remind him of what we were cooking up as part of his post-Keyblade Graveyard backup plan. All it takes is a Keyblade and surgeon-precise hands, and viola. Instant heart sharing.
Now, one of the big lynchpins of our Castle Oblivion research was that memories were stored in the heart. So theoretically, that would mean two people sharing a heart would cause the donor's memories to bleed over into the recipient, right? And what about the memories of the receiver if they had already lost their heart? What happens to their memories? Let's put it this way, memories are stored in the heart like a hard drive. The reason that Nobodies remember their past even before their replacement hearts start to develop is because the soul essentially functions as a back-up hard drive for a person's memories and personality.
So if someone were to receive half of another's heart, the donor's memories stay with the donor's body, copying over things like emotions into the other piece. Once inside the recipient's chest, the heart regrows to full size as the soul transfers all of the saved memories and personality traits into the new heart. The reason it never worked that way with Xehanort is because the rest of us already had our own hearts still there when Xehanort shoved a chunk of his into our chests. But I'm getting off track. The only reason I wanted to write this is because it's been three months since the Castle Oblivion fiasco and I'm a bit disappointed Zexy didn't make it out of that mess. He would have been a good candidate for the REAL Organization, and I'm feeling a bit reflective tonight. Ah well, time to go join Luxord in the lounge for poker night and see if he's still suitable as a vessel.
Xigbar Report 117"
Isle of Draco – Palace Courtyard:
"Hold your fire!" Algrim cried out as the Nathalis climbed into the sky and the combined agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and C.I.N. trained their weapons on his fellow rebels and the handful of families that hadn't managed to escape to Svartalfheim. "We surrender!"
"And why should we believe you?" Vanitas snapped. A sharp look from Coulson silenced the dark Key bearer's cynicism.
"So what exactly made the Dark Elves go Fort Sumter on each other?" the second in command of S.H.I.E.L.D. asked cautiously as S.H.I.E.L.D., Cloud, Zack, and Violet spread out to secure the Dragon Palace. Algrim did not understand the reference the human was making, but he did recognize the intent behind it.
"Our people have been on the brink of extinction ever since the warriors of the Keyblade attacked us thousands of years ago. Malekith was willing to sacrifice the few of us who remained in order to achieve victory. We may hate your kind for what you have done to ours in the past, but unlike Malekith and his lapdogs, we are not so blinded by hatred that we cannot recognize when we are beaten. We will submit ourselves to the mercies of Midgardian justice and accept whatever punishment your laws deem fit for our actions. All we ask in return is that our families be spared. They were little more than passengers aboard our fleet, and played no part in the actions we took on their behalf."
Coulson, May, and Vanitas briefly stepped out of earshot to discuss the possibility in hushed voiced.
"So, what do we think?" Coulson asked. "Think they're sincere?"
"Debatable," May replied. "We saw impoverished looking Dark Elves fleeing with children through that Dark Corridor. But on the other hand, they may simply be looking to fight another day."
"I believe them," Vanitas said bluntly. Coulson and May looked surprised. Ven's darker half was usually more cynical than even Nick Fury, so to see him actually voice something that went counter to his usual attitude was a shock to them both. "I read up on the history of the Dark Elves from Sif," he explained. "A lot of the stigma against them back before they went into hiding came from Keyblade Wielders who viewed anything related to Darkness as evil, degenerate abominations that need to be exterminated. Speaking from experience as someone who was forced to live up to that stereotype on a daily basis just to survive, the few people who don't treat you like a plague upon the universe are more treasured more than life itself. So I know that when they say they're willing to surrender and accept whatever punishment the alliance sees fit, they mean it."
Coulson nodded in understanding and put Vanitas in charge of handing the terms of surrender before walking into the citadel's antechamber to contact the fleet. Further out on the cannon-fire charred remains of Draco, the Legion was quickly gaining ground. Hundreds of Legionnaires swarmed up from the beach, outnumbering the defenders of Earth two to one. Aqua brought up a Reflega spell to deflect an incoming Fission Firaga cast by Unchained soldiers entrenched on the volcano slopes while her husband used the whip function on his Keyblade to dispatch the circle of immortals surrounding them.
In the forests closer to the Dragon palace, Leon, Rinoa, Yuffie, Tifa, and Barret squared off against Demona, dodging the mad Gargoyle's claws and plasma guns with ease. Elsewhere on the island, Riku and Mickey lead a strike team consisting of Donald, Goofy, Mulan, Shang, Yao, Ling, Chien Po, Phoebus, and Hercules around the main supply camp the Legion was in the process of setting up for soldiers to sleep in order to surround the camp and ambush the Unchained before the newest wave could dig in and replace the tiring troops. On the beach, Gaston and a squad of Leroys were turning the tide against a small squad of Coalition troops lead by Tidus, Lightning, and Selphie when Skuld's honor guard made landfall.
The elite division of the Unchained Legion cut down Gaston before he could blink, and prompty roasted the Leroy clones as the Coalition troops retreated. Beneath the ocean's surface, four more ships had been sunk as the sub pods circled the island. Compared to the fury and chaos raging above them, the undersea portion of the battle was comparatively calm. At least it was, until a Thundaga shot spell flew out from one of the sinking ship and struck one of the sup pods, incinerating it instantly. Immediately, the pilots steered their sub pods in the direction of the attack as they scrambled to figure out what happened.
"WHAT THE BLOODY HELL WAS THAT THING!?" Fitz shouted over the comms.
"Don't know," Bobby commented, but it just took out one of our pods like an ant being crushed under a boot, so stay sharp."
"I thought Unchained weapons did not work underwater," Jumba commented as he and Pleakley flew their mini-submersible closer to the sunken Gummi Ship to investigate. They had just enough time to report that the Legionnaires were evacuating their ships in scuba gear before another Thundaga shot obliterated them. Above the water's surface, things weren't going very well. Black Panther's team was forced abandon the sinking Daybreak, and upon reaching shore, were confronted by an Unchained battalion under the command of Jake's paternal aunt Patchoulie. Meanwhile, the Secret Warriors were encountering stiff resistance aboard The Vulpeus, and were quickly losing ground.
In the chapel at the heart of The Ava, Sora and Kairi were quickly being overwhelmed. Lerena, confident in the superiority granted to her by the Infinity Gauntlet, was content so simply use the stones for individual purposes in battle rather than unleashing their full potential. There was so much havoc that she could wreak with any one stone, but the former Number XII of the organization was content to toy with her food for the time being. And despite the growing number of bruises on their bodies, Sora and Kairi were grateful for the fact that she was taking things easy on them.
Sora turned and nodded to Kairi before charging up from the table they were covering behind. Keyblade in hand, he took a swing at Lerena, only for her to use the Time Stone to rewind his movement until he was reversing back to where he had just been crouching behind the table next to his fiancé before she kicked him in the chest and sent him flying across the room into one of the far walls. Kairi fired off a Holy spell to heal the both of them before ducking an energy blast from the Power Stone. Sora climbed groggily to his feet before Lerena used the space stone to open a portal at his feet, then another one on top of the ceiling above the table, sending him crashing down onto Kairi.
"I could do this all day," the sadistic blonde commented as Sora launched a Mega Flare spell at the Savage Nymph's face. Lerena blocked it easily, but it obscured her vision long enough for Kairi to scramble over to the shrine and draw out the Keybladed embedded in the imported stone. As the Keyblade wielded by her past life was pulled from the altar, Kairi's sensation of the world around her dulled. To the outside worlds, however, her eyes were completely white.
"HOW DARE YOU!" Lerena snarled as she charged towards the Foreteller's Shrine.
"I think I am the one who should be saying that, Ophelia." The voice that came from Kairi's mouth sounded a few years older than woman Sora knew, but there was no mistaking who it was supposed to be. Lerena stopped in her tracks. Taking advantage of the distraction, Sora reached out his arm, silently pleading for his desperate cry for assistance to be heard even in the depths of Kingdom Hearts itself.
"Lady Ava?" she replied, slipping back into the old tongue without even thinking about it.
"In the flesh, so to speak," the voice coming from Kairi replied. "Though I have long since passed into the afterlife, my spirit can still be channeled through my Keyblade. If only you had thought to do so sooner, then perhaps this whole mess might have been avoided. I made peace with my murder a long time ago, but there are times like this where I wished I was still alive when the war broke out so I could talk some sense into all of you. Honestly, what are you thinking?"
"We've been trying to avenge your murder and restore the world to the perfection it was meant to be," Lerena stammered nervously. On the beaches of Draco, Skuld listened to the conversation on a private line, having broken radio silence out of concern for her friend's safety.
"My child," Ava replied sadly, reminiscing of the days when Keyblade Wielders were barely a day over eighteen when they began their apprenticeships. "The kind of perfection you are all seeking isn't possible in the world of the living. I may be angry at Gula for killing me, but he was right that balance cannot exist when Light is using Darkness as a footstool. Ira had the right idea. Light and Darkness need to be able to coexist peacefully in order for there to be true balance. But fighting over every difference of opinion and belief was what led us to the brink of war in the first place. That's why I wanted my Dandelions and the Vulpeus guild to stay out of the war."
"Well we had to do something!" Lerena snapped, tears welling up in her eyes at her idol's deconstruction of her millennia held beliefs. "With you gone, the other guilds were tearing the world apart, ever nation on the planet was tearing each other to shreds over petty territorial disputes, the magical races were slaughtering innocent civilians… If you hadn't died, things wouldn't have gotten so bad, so fast."
"Yes," Ava admitted. "You're right. Things would have been better if I had been able to help mediate between everyone. But you cannot dwell on the past. The Dandelions were supposed to ensure that light would live on even if everything went to Hell. But ever since Ephemer lead you all into the war, you've spent the last eight thousand years acting as if you're still fighting it."
"And the rest of the world needs to stop acting like it ever ended," Lerena retorted. "We're removing everything that's gone wrong with the world... We're trying to build the world you always believed ours could be if everyone stopped fighting."
"I wanted things to be better, true," Ava remarked. "But not at the cost you are all willing to pay. This madness has to stop, Ophelia. And if none of you will do it, I will." With that, Kairi threw Ava's Keyblade forward in a massively enhanced Strike Raid attack that severed the Warden's left arm, taking the Gauntlet with it. The heat of the light enveloping the blade cauterized the wound instantly, and Lerena collapsed to the ground, clutching the burning stump in pain. As the blade embedded itself in the far wall, a bright light lit the room like it was the middle of the day as another older, more powerful one appeared in Sora's hands.
Sora tucked the Keyblade into the belt holding up the kama of his dark suit that he'd changed into during the beginning of the battle to get out of the Legion armor as he raced to keep Kairi from collapsing to the ground. After a few minutes to catch her breath and get her bearings, she was fine. As they walked towards where the Infinity Gauntlet had fallen near the back of the chapel, Sora brought her up to speed on what she had missed while her past life had taken control of her body to tell Lerena how she felt about what the Legion was doing. They reached the back of the room and were about to pick it up together when Kairi screamed in agony.
Lerena shakily stood behind Kairi, bloodlessly plunging her remaining hand into the Princess' back before pulling it out to reveal a small, glowing pink heart clutched in her hand. With a sadistic grin, she squeezed the heart into powder, laughing to cover up her pain at Ava's judgement as Kairi stopped breathing.
DON'T PANIC! Accidental Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy joke aside, everyone please take a deep, calming breath before you all rush off to scream at me in reviews for killing Kairi. First off, this is Kingdom Hearts. Few deaths in this universe are permanent. Second of all, do you really think I'd actually kill off a member of the original trio? Okay, true, I killed off Ven in Connected worlds, but remember the teaser I posted at the end of KHV that had her wielding the Gauntlet? Yeah. That's not going to change. So take a deep breath and give me a day to finish writing the next chapter so you can see how she comes back. If you've been paying attention to the breadcrumbs I dropped around the middle chapter of KH4 and these past few chapters with Xigbar and Even's reports, you'll already know where this is going.
Ava's spirit showing up through Kairi was something I had been considering for a while now, and I wanted to have a way for Skuld to directly confront her doubts. So I decided that going for the "Ava's spirit showing up through her Keyblade" and having Skuld overhear it would be the best way to go. The idea of the spirits of the deceased Foretellers being channeled through their Keyblades is an idea I came up with as an explanation for Young Xehanort's "a will that is passed down" comments about it in the scenes added to Re:coded for the HD 2.5 Remix.
I figured that Vanitas would be able to empathize with the Dark Elves' motivations against humanity and be able to judge their sincerity and help negotiate Algrim's surrender. And yes, as shocking as it is, Jumba and Pleakley have been killed in action. Jake Long's aunt Patchoulie had a one-shot appearance in the show's first season, but since we never see anyone from Jake's dad's side of the family, I decided, partly inspired by a few "Jake's Dad is part of the Huntsclan or a descendent of them" fanfics, that Aunt Patchoulie would be the one to have ties to the Huntsclan through the Unchained Legion. Lerena using the Time Stone to throw Sora around like a ragdoll is a reference to the way it was used in the Doctor Strange movie.
And now, I'm all caught up with the chapters posted on fanfiction.net. The next chapter will be up both here and there by the end of the day.