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Fanfiction ► Memories are [NOT] Resolute



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Deimos

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Memories of The Scarred
Entry#2
World: The Dorms; Training Field #3



There was some reluctance in coming out here, had to be at the ripe time of somewhere closer to six in the evening. Sae clasped his fist and he gave his head a pivot. A flash of red crossed his peripheral, and the shiny reflection of a helmet was in his line of sight. Try was here, upon request for training nonetheless. Saebyeolbe was something of an old-fashioned kind of over achiever regarding physical fitness, carrying weighted clothing to persist in his insane physical conditioning.

He had to train this hard. When he hit her at the beginning of the original training matches, he could tell he was severely lacking in terms of raw brute force. Kicking a building with a shoe is not the same as hitting it with a wrecking ball, and he wanted the force of a wrecking ball. Granted, it had been at least four months since that time, and Saebyeolbe was feeling a bit more confident.

"You ready for that rematch?" Sae clutched his fist, "We gotta do it right, you remember the chant right?"

"Something about coming a kingdom?"
Try paused, there was a visible "?" projecting on the visor of her helmet.

Sae released a sigh, it was Try...not the brightest at times, but a much different kind of specialist. You'd need only five minutes to figure out just what kind. "Thy Kingdom Come." Saebyeolbe uttered the incantation as his tattoo on his right shoulder illuminated, barring the combat taboo for thirty minutes.

"Thy Kingdom Come...weird." Try rolled to the side, you couldn't see where her tattoo was under the red leather, but there was a audio cue coming from her physical that indicated it worked. "You sure you're prepared for the beating you're about to receive? Last chance." She sighed, with a loose grip on her what appeared to be a glass and metal keyblade.

This was a sensation that was difficult for Sae to describe. You were within the jaws of a dragon with it's teeth placed firmly along the line of your neck and it could snap it in an instant. The treading along the grass as the pair circled, but only one, Try, was armed at the present. It should come as no surprise there was a general understanding of what the other could and couldn't do. They were fairly similar in terms of physical strength, durability, and even mobility if not slightly edging ahead in two out of three of those, she had them over him.

It wasn't something shameful, Sae naturally grows stronger the longer a battle goes on. Taking the natural momentum and using your strongest assertion was often the best strategy against him. His style was attrition, his resolve Induravitque, is in essence a form of absorbtion that absolutely requires him to take damage to do anything. No matter how intelligent Sae is, it's extremely rare that he will actively dodge a direct hit unless his sense of danger tells him it is extremely likely to deprive him of his second wind.

This was one of those times....she only had to bat a lash, and twirl, and broke the sound barrier. His ears picked it up, a sound of tunneling through his ears, as a monstrous wave of air pressure kicked up and ripped through the training field just past him, missing by nary a meter.

"The hell...looks like I missed. The reverb will get you though."

"The...what..." He froze for a second, and his ears flickered. "Shit...!" he turned, digging his heel in and raising a purged Alabaster to his hand. A booming gust of wind from a complete off angle collided with Alabaster and siphoned off around him. This wasn't nearly as strong as the original swing, but it was much easier to avoid on reaction when you could nail the timing of the reverb forming.

"Not even beasts i've wrestled can reset a move they threw out from literally anywhere on the map."


"If thats all you came to throw out-" Before she could finish speaking, he'd already vanished from sight.

The wind picked up and Sae had jumped with purpose, high before entering the free-fall state into a falcon-dive. Try didn't necessarily have to be quick as him, but durability...was an understatement. He landed a powerful vertical swing with his Alabaster connecting, creating a ripple of force in all direction as she dispersed it with her own parry. He wouldn't have believed it, if he didn't witness it first hand, she didn't budge and inch. This kind of overwhelming physical strength and shock absorption was nearly unrivaled.

"Well looks like that hit was no good."

There were two simultaneous hits afterward, "Hmm. Your reactions are definitely sharp, you must've had some extensive training."

"You club a few dudes and ya end up here. Not much else to say really. Jobs a job, but I'd rather not get into the past right now." she was certainly direct. "Seriously though, this can't be all you brought. You were hitting harder when we first squared off, something on your mind?"

She dropped stance, and used her free palm to catch him by the chest, slowly lowering him to the ground. It's difficult to determine someone's state using anything other than their tone of voice when their face is completely covered by a mask. He couldn't make any concrete guesses as he's never seen her face before. Her body language was definitely less of a concern when you got to the heart of it, she thought he was distracted. She guessed right, several thoughts circulated through him in terms of "how can I provide a stronger hit", "what is her pain threshold", and "what does she look like" was really at the top.


"Whatever it is. Stop. Worry only about the training, can't make it simpler." She shrugged, patting him on the back and took a step away to resume a defensive position.

Sae scratched his head, he let out a nervous laugh as the white of his teeth shone through.
"Yeah, your definitely right about that. Simple is best."

There didn't seem to be much that distracted her, it seemed to be raw talent at first glance...but that's kind of ignorant to assume when someone doesn't really talk much about themselves to confirm. Your left only to guess, ignorantly, but beyond that some truth held. Simple was best. Less thought, less distraction, total and complete focus...mostly. He could feel himself entering a different stage of the session as his breathing slowed the pace of his accelerating heart rate to release and increase at will. His resolve wasn't the reason he was a pest to deal with, it was his durability and adaptability the longer encounters persisted, he simply just "gets better" during the mid-fight.

Sae opted to move a bit slower this time as his body released two scars inflicted by the Dark Emperor's keyblade. His stance completely mimicked him and he tucked his arm under and rolled forward to to brandish a two-handed diagonal cut with power from his legs, core, and arms and put his last hit to shame. Try responded by using BOTH of her hands to parry this one and the shockwave wasn't so easily dispersed. The tattering of his red suit started getting ripped to absolute shreds and a billabong brushed in front of him.

SHE WAS FIT, JACKED, STRONG.


"Finally your getting into it." She felt a sudden breeze, "Huh...well that was rude of you, what are gawking at huh!?"

That wasn't the sound of keyblade striking him, but her palm. It felt like a giant raised his hand and brought it down on him, his face didn't feel it, but his entire body in turn vibrated in place. There was a bright red hand print on his face, it was pretty reminiscent of something you'd see in a work of fiction. He rubbed his face, his mouth was bleeding actually from just how hard she hit him and her fist was shaking. If he didn't know any better, her red suit was...repairing itself? Well, so much for that mental image furthered permanence.

Dropping Alabaster he rose his hand and jabbed forward with all finger allocated similar to a chop. Tapping her stomach, he closed his fist, doing a six-inch punch with a ridiculous amount of focus and power behind it that it literally sent her tumbling across the field, tearing through the red suit again, as followed behind to land on top of her in the grass. There was a flickering silver light in his eyes, he'd completely blotted out all other thoughts aside from ones related solely on this training session. Her body was nice, but he had to figure one thing out...the reverb timing. That sound happened...this time directly in front of him, for a split second he release his his light as the pressure was forming at his stomach where he'd just struck her. Tanking the full reverb directly in front of her, she asserted dominance by tackling him into a rough tumble across the grass where they eventually broke away from the other.


The sounds of both of their keyblades were cracking with loud clangs. Both of them entering a different reality of concentration where only raw-instinct thrived, making decisions that'd normally be completely bogged down by rational thought and planning. In sports this state of intense focus was known as "The Zone". Hard to believe this was a rare occurrence for him as he didn't really understand first hand until he and the dark emperor both entered this phase during the final dregs of their drawn out confrontation. He had to give Try the proper credit, she may very well at times be an idiot, but she was nothing short of a combat genius. It wasn't about speed at this point, but the ability to react and swing that surpassed human-cognition was astounding.

The keyblades flew. Leaving their hands, and then came their fists. Sae wasn't a boxer by any stretch of the imagination, but his reaction timing going toe to toe with this feral beast was noteworthy. Try wasn't about to give him any more agency as the reverb started to close in at opposing angles even while she was in close proximity. Would you believe it without seeing it...neither one of them took a single hit from the reverb, while mercilessly pummeling the other with the correct offensive options.


"Tch...getting awfully personal huh?" She said with change in pitch, feeling the swell of dull pains starting to add up.

Sae's bruises were far more noticeable even over some of the disfigurements of his muscles from the overlap of scars. Every time a punch connected on him, his body radiated brighter and brighter. Absorbing blow after blow while connecting with a hit here and there, Try reeled back and contained the reverb along her fist and in the instant he saw it his body automatically turned to not get hit by that.
BOOM!

She gathered enough power to shake both of their eardrums, albeit the vibrations of sounds were reduced by her own helmet. Her leg came sweeping, a strong leg raise directly into his midsection and she virtually sent him into orbit...or so she thought. That light that built up around his body throughout this session was the opposite functionality of his berserker activation.

>>Quick note;
Berserker is a technique in which the Induravitque releases every last scar on Sae's body. Pain threshold, endurance, speed, impact, react-ability, physical strength, senses, spatial-awareness are perfected all while placing Saebyeolbe in "The Zone" as explained in this memory. All physical and sensory traits limits are expanded at minimum 100-fold for a conservative estimate, this could be substantially higher based on further injury elected against himself in future battles, and per the time of THIS memory, we will say 100-fold is the cap, if not expanding 5-times after fighting Try post-battle. However Berserker has a time limit of 180-seconds, or 3-minutes at max. The discharge post-3 minutes is IMMENSE. It can quite literally kill ANYONE because the user will experience EVERY SINGLE SCAR that was released as the recoil, at 100% potency unlike Try's 75% recoil from the reverb/echo. This means its a last-ditch effort to win an encounter that is not achieved by the lower's base perks.

Next, Induravitque's primary function of mitigating the normal pain threshold throughout a battle, and storing all received damage is whats translated as a "slow ramp up" several times it's mentioned that Sae improves as a battle persists. His instincts get sharper, his attacks get sharper, the impact of each blow increases until he is capable of outputting higher damage than the opponent. This is maintained for as long as his stamina as able to carry him, he will always be able to move and retaliate and react. Maintaining this state is directly related to standard "Adrenaline" in which the user enters a state where they are able to physically carry themselves forward well past their physical limits and largely ignore their injuries and pain threshold for such a time, and will collapse immediately upon that adrenaline fading away. Unlike Adrenaline, Induravitque resets every single time a force other than Saebyeolbe himself, strikes him. Meaning, he cannot strike himself to increase the durance of his base resolve's trait, it has to be from a foreign source that is not himself inflicting damage of some kind.

Probably the most important note, Saebyeolbe cannot, and I repeat, he cannot fight indefinitely. His body can largely ignore pain and damage inflicted, but his overall stamina is completely unrelated to any of his resolve's functions. Those limits can be reached depending on how rapidly he burns outs. This is often mitigated by slowing the tempo of his movement (fighting slower), but once he enters "The Zone" or a state of perfect concentration, he can further reduce how much stamina he wastes, when outside of the Zone, that burnout happens quicker than you'd think.

End Note;<<

There was a collision of fists, slowly grasping the other's hands, fingers laced with an immense pressure coming from them pushing the other. Sae's natural reaction was poised, resonating with intense heat from his body as steam was starting to surge from the cracks of light. He hadn't felt like this in such a long time, he finally felt like he was starting to fight on even footing with her, her stuttering from the blows he managed to land were a sign she was actually starting to feel all those dull pains, as his attacks sharpened and the impact damage started to slowly ramp up.

"You're one durable bastard. Rude too, you don't...even have any shame..!" She said pressing her helmet to his head, staring at him aggressively through it.

"Durable is right...and uh, well. Rude is definitely not apart of my normal vocabulary...I've been called a lot worse, trust me..." he had a bit of arrogant smirk on his face, smug wasn't like him normally, but he was just really happy for some reason.

They released hands and pushed away from each other's palms, clapping like a duo. The shimmer of steel keyblades populated their hands and the two of them went to town again, escalating in droves across the grassy training field. It appeared as though red and white streams of light were darting around colliding into each other, followed by thunderous explosions of sounds created by Try's Echoes. He was currently on par with her behemoth like strength where every hit felt even and he was less afraid to take a direct hit without fear of getting knocked the fuck out. The fact that he felt that confident, within itself was terrifying of how powerful she was as an independent competitor.

He slid down the grassy field and stopped and suddenly did two. From his distance, his hearing was pretty good, he could hear her breathing under the helmet. This was clearly becoming a taxing experience on the both of them, but the last one was a draw...it was looking more or less the same here.

"You wanna call it here Try?" Sae said breathing mildly as the air escaped him.

"I have to beat some modesty into you! Like hell are we done yet you indecent...PUT A SHIRT ON!" She pointed her finger at him as if she didn't have underboob exposure not long before.

"If you didn't tear it shreds maybe I would, my clothes don't regenerate like yours!"

The two of them had time like this to yell at the other. This naturally broke the entire flow of their battle once they'd reached this prattle about. Try wobbled from side to side, and Sae's body was starting to decrease in brightness as his Induravitque's baseline was starting to fall dramatically, and the normal stamina consumption mitigated while he was in "The Zone" also started to diminish. With the focus lost, their awareness to their injuries and damage inflicted started to become more apparent. Two keyblade dropped from their hands, de-summoning and the both fell backwards collapsing onto the grass at nearly the same time.
 

Ðari

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Author's Notes:

Nothing in particular. I'm just glad to see my cast actively using the thread to fill in gaps in the 3-year precursor gap leading up the main roleplay. Purg, Lumi, Deimos, thanks guys. Eventually i'll pick up and try to post one a week and add more for Yamato, Reforge, Iontis, Jay, and others that haven't gotten a lot of spot light.
 

Ðari

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Memory Fragment: Ghost Theater [Eth, Midna, Master of Masters]
Location: The Dorms; Amphitheater
Time: 4PM





Eth sat alone in the amphitheater of all places. He'd so much time over the years to learn how to flawlessly play a myriad of different musical instruments. He'd often come here as a way to disconnect and unplug from the daily life here in the dorms. The other resolutes typically didn't even know this part of The Dorms even existed and it went heavily under-utilized. That was fine by him, if anyone wanted to listen to Komaeda go on a fanatical tangent as he often did, even he wasn't musically-inclined to come to a place like this.

One had to really ask, how exactly did the master acquire not only a facility of this size...world really, but it was just populated to the brim with necessities and various other stuff to begin with. He'd rolled his eyes at the thought, his hand stroked the dust off the baby-grande piano that was on the stage as he opened the lid to brandish the keys. They were fine, in nearly immaculate condition, as he created his own light source, orbs of light were scattered about moving as he needed them.

Time dials were just outside of his eyes, playing for him what looked like a shadowscape of the past. A bunch of stiffs congregated on the stage all in one place. The air here even felt elated as sounds were echoing from instruments played, creating its own ambience.

"Whoa..."

Eth broken from his immersion cut his head around at the flash of light. He didn't even notice someone else was standing on the stage behind him, the dimly light Amphitheater was likely to blame. Sighing as he realized it was the only resolute that didn't want to be identified, giving them a dummy name at introductions, and it's been a staple ever since.

"Could you announce that your here next time? You nearly gave me a heart attack." Eth groaned as he rubbed his frontal lobe, raising his head to make direct eye contact. "You need something in here?"

"Just wanted to see the theater, notice no one ever really comes here for anything. I was looking to practice the violin."

"You can play the violin?" he said pushing one of his floating light orbs in her general direction to get a better look. "Care to practice?"

Eth waved his hand and a time dial spawned under a stool. He pushed the dial across the floor slightly elevated as the stool levitated close to the piano. Typically speaking, unless needed, this was something that happened at extreme rarity if not through some obligation or task to be completed. Eth had sheet music in his hands that he'd pulled from the podium before and he was thumbing through the notes.

"Fore teller's Case..?" He tilted his head and then Midna looked over his shoulder standing on her tippy-toes. "Here...ask next time." he said turning and lowering his hand.

He pushed the bench out and slid under the baby grande piano. Having dealt with the dust from before, Eth started to thumb through the keys doing a quick sound check. The notes were still finely tuned and even he was impressed. With a little time resolve he could make it virtually new, but he'd appreciate it as is for the time being. As he let his hands do the work he started to play the sheet music.

>>
[PressPLAY]

He'd become completely immersed in the strokes and landing the notes in the correct order. It felt like he was going at a pace more akin to this would normally be conducted, granted he'd never actually heard this performed at any point in time. When he reached the overlap of Midna's portion, color him shocked to hear the sound of the violin collaborate with the piano. The semblance of a smirk, thin, but it was there as he absolutely adored the sound of that instrument.

The lights from Eth's resolve started to dim down and act like individual spotlights this time round. One on himself and the other was on Midna. It may have only been two of them, but the Amphitheater was built to allow sound to travel gracefully. As they played and played, there was a feint sound of foot steps coming from the main row. Naturally, who would notice or hear someone clad in all black walking in with their sound muffled by the score being played.

"Looks like you found your calling." The master whispered as he stood unnoticed continuing to muse. "I'll start sending them to you one at a time, maybe you can teach them to play something they favor eh Eth?"

Eth raised his head, he saw what looked to be an image of his mother on his left sitting next to him playing the piano, her umbrella being held in his hands as a child over her to shield from the blinding light of the sun. He came back to reality awfully quick, as Midna had stopped and turned to stare at him.

"Hey. Eth? You ok..? Can you hear me? Eth!"

"Huh...oh. Sorry, had a flash of nostalgia just now." He sighed, realizing she had her hand on his hand. "Hey...Midna right? Thats my hand...do you mind?"

"Oh!" she returned it faster than he'd realized, definitely out of character for sure. "S-sorry. Force of habit, I was concerned...holding someone's hand is a show of concern and meaningful comfort."

Something about the way she said, actually kind of made sense. Seemed a bit of a lost lesson on Eth, he often kept this level of communication extremely limited, he had a core resolve to uphold after all. In that vein, you'd think he and Saebyeolbe were nigh identical...but there was indeed a vast difference there. The closer Sae was to what he had a desire to protect, the stronger it seemed he became, and the further away Eth was from what he had a desire to protect, the magnification of power felt almost otherworldly.

"Your fairly well-versed in the violin. Can you play others in the string family of instruments?" Eth inquired.

"Yes. My mother and father were merchants, so naturally the were really good at acquiring a decent collection of woodwind and string instruments and a few percussion instruments. I prefer to play string instruments, once I know the notes on the strings, I can play it just fine." Midna held the violin and it's bow.

"Your not very subtle by the way." Eth pointed to his head, "You know what I'm talking about right?"

"Not a clue." She smiled virtually sweeping that vague and baseless claim to the wind.

"Fair enough. Well, it's dark and in here...lets fix that." He clapped his hands and the orbs of light grew in size, and revealed the master standing in the path of seats with his arms folded behind his back. "Lurking in the shadows...Really Master, you were there the whole time?"

The master simply shrugged his shoulders and gave them a casual wave as he head back up the stairs. It was certainly a bit unlike him to not offer so much as even a jest or a joke. Eth certainly wouldn't think too much about it, as he was going to follow behind the master and leave, a hand tapped his shoulder.

"You think we could...get more of them to play songs with us?" There was a quiet serenity to how she worded it.

"They'll do that on their own terms, but if you want to take the initiative to tell them, thats fair."
 

Ðari

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Memory Fragment: The Different Styles [ALL]
Location: Cul-De-Sac; Large Lot in Sac
Time: 1PM





Today was a bit off-kilter compared to normal days under the master's tutelage. He'd unceremoniously woken them up earlier than normal, they ate breakfast as usual, and conducted a few chores around the dorms before spiriting them away to the Cul-De-Sac to bring them to a point of discussion around what makes them all unique.

"Putting things into boxes seems like a really harsh way of simplifying things wouldn't you say?" The master raised his finger as he paced in front of them. "Naturally...each of you has a bias for how you fight, speak, use your resolves, yadda yadda."

He purged the ultima keyblade into existence as it fettered with a steel glint as he gripped the handle. The guard was well adorned, and the keychain swung as he held it in his hand. He rested part of the blade in his empty hand as he looks towards the group. The keyblade levitates outside of his palm, and circles him as he releases a sigh before it disappears.

"Styles. Theres a couple of them, and baring witness to you all individually over the years its time to give some light to your styles."

Brawlers. Casters. Specialists. & Trappers. All-Arounders.

Brawlers, no surprise. Fighters usually in close range, put most of their style sourced into landing direct blows within close proximity of a combatant.

Casters, you guessed it, magic users with a heavy preference for traditional spells. Basic combat ability is predicated to rely more on spells as opposed to physical combat out of preference.

Specialists are unique in that their resolves are potent and require minimal need for brawling, trapping, or casting traditional spells. Typically speaking, a specialists lives and dies by their resolve, and what is their greatest strength is also their greatest weakness.

Trappers have a leg up on the others, an eye for cunning. A style that lends itself namely to creating scenarios that debilitate combatants. Spells or Resolves based in suppression and crowd control often reflect a strong indication of this style.

All-Arounders have a balanced mix of at least two or more of the styles mentioned. Balance typically means the resolute isn't unreasonably skilled in a style or craft, so your middle of the pack resolutes land here more often than not. Luxu and I are examples of balanced fighters.



Brawlers.
Try, Yamato, Saebyeolbe. Iontis.

Casters.
Reforge.

Specialists.
Eth, Lucrecia, Komaeda

Trappers.
Shiki, Midna

All-Arounders.
Jay/Jaz, The Master of Masters, Luxu


"Now that you're aware of each other's styles. The pairings will start to make a little more sense. Eth and Luxu, Saebyeolbe and Shiki. Try and Reforge. Lucrecia and Jay/Jaz, Komaeda and Yamato, and Iontis and Midna. Each has a support that varies greatly in style."

A grimace could be felt, "Komaeda, Lucrecia, Eth...it's not easy to tell you three this, but you may want to place some emphasis on your partners in the future. Overcoming your weakness after a complete and utter shutdown of your resolves will be pivotal in your survival going forward."

"I'll give mine up before that ever happens Master." Eth said as the "0" was illuminating in his left eye.

"Look at that. Priss-boy would piss himself having to fight without Resolve, you really Untouchable? Or just a Zero." Yamato seemed insistent in badgering.

"Sounds about right, you just gonna take that on the chin...partner?" Luxu said folding his arms.

"Say what you will about our resolves, but if you can't hold your own without it, you're not worthy to have it."

"Totally uncalled for Yamato." Shiki gave him a brusque rebuttal and stare.

"Calm your tits queen of revelry, I'm not saying what I'm saying because I dislike him or any other specialists, my partner's one too, but watching his back is part of why I'm not worried about him. Mountaintop over there needs to learn some respect for those of us that break our asses to keep in top form."

"Tch. Don't start talking like you know anything about us. It's a little to early to go around acting like your hot shit."

"Enough." Eth placed his arm to bar Lucrecia from any further animosity that could potentially erupt into a physical altercation, couldn't have that. "Throw me in the realm of darkness and most assured, my chances of defeat at the minimum, double." he sighed. "My partner is an All-Arounder, I'm hardly worried about the scenario I just mentioned if I spend enough time learning from Luxu."

Yamato ground his teeth. Suddenly forgetting why he was mad in the first place. "Wait...what was I saying..?" Yamato looked clueless, he scratched his head looking at the three of them.

"Oh now you want to play dum-!" she was stopped as Nagito intervened.

"Hey man, you were just saying how wonderful and talented your fellow resolutes where. I think everyone here is pretty damn stellar in their own way." Komaeda had a nervous twinge, he could tell Yamato wouldn't buy it based on how vapid his expression got.

Eth shrugged, seems like this conversation was over. Messing with what he remembered in a way was about as subtle as it got. Luxu swung around and placed his hand on Eth's shoulder as the two walked to the other end of the lot chatting amongst themselves.

"Be sure to teach each other well and cover the other's blind spots. Simple as that. Dismissed." The master clasped his hands and ended their group discussion.
 

Deimos

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Memories of The Scarred
Entry#3
World: Radiant Garden; Crystal Ravine



It was an all out manhunt for this singular heartless. Dark Inferno Recusant (X).

All data suggested this behemoth of a target was encountered a few weeks ago barring Try, Reforge, Lucrecia and Jaz's last run. The townsfolk had spotted it quite a few times since then and they wanted to ensure it was rallying more aid to storm for a full on raid. Sae was lucky to be accompanied by a set few of their heavy hitters, Yamato, Try, and Reforge to list them off. It seemed like a fair enough state of balance, one caster aligned with three brawlers made for a really strong arrow-head formation. Three strong front-liners, and a back-line with basically an a of spell knowledge.

The pat-pat sound of everyone's greaves hitting the scratchy surface of deep purple as they crossed through the cliff-side of the ravine that lead further down before you hit the base.

"Couldn't get the job done the first time huh Try? Thats twice now."

"Yeah?" She paused with a snarky comment, "Managing the health of your team in an emergency came first both times, isn't that right Reffy?"

Her head turned menacingly slow to peer at him with a red illuminating glow through the helmet. Saebyeolbe could feel that emanating feeling of death, fleeting, for all but a second. He knew that if Reforge didn't select his response carefully here, he was dead, as good as dead.

"I don't even remember what the hell happened." Reforge said so casually yet honestly.

Sae could feel the soul leaving his body yet it still carried him forward, listening further.

"I certainly don't mind a little re-enactment" you could hear the vein pulling in her head as she cracked her knuckles.

"Can we save it for later?" Sae interrupted, he had to cut Reforge free here. "We're almost at the end of the ravine, the drop right before the old original hollow bastion."


You couldn't pick a worse time to try starting pointless beef. All in all, Sae was just here to make sure they suppressed the growing heartless threat, seemed to be a common thing here with a world that'd been touched by the darkness so intimately for what's felt like several decades and then some. Bad memories of this place were hiccups of having to go against the original Hollow Bastion Restoration committee in his not that distant past.

Sae looked on as they appeared at the very edge of the ravine and looked down. You could see the damages from where the last team sent here battled the heartless and the Dark Inferno X before it fled.

"Nothing. Check it out, yet another colossal waste of our time...tch!" Yamato folded his arms and rolled his eyes unrelentingly. "Master's intel ended up being a dead-"

The was a quick swipe, his body took a hit as a hand about the size of himself, grabbed him and pulled him into the ravine.

"HOLY SHIT! YAMMY!" Reforges voice traveled over the edge.

There was then a sudden set of rumbling as the crystal ground started to shake. You could only determine two things, it was an either an earthquake brought about by the heartless or a certain someone was tilted off-kilter. Surprise, it was the latter as a voice cried out, "DON'T CALL ME THAT!"

Yamato gripped his keyblade and burst from the enclosed fist floating in place within his "Zone" created as it was consuming the physical space inside of an elliptical shape. His scowl was out and prevalent, he raised his middle finger up as a direct signal to the Heartless that snatched him off the cliff. The rest of them looking over, not wanting to risk breaking their necks taking a step off the edge.

"Thats all the confirmation that I needed." Sae said peering down.

He released a breath, and just that quick the tension broke into adrenaline. The lesser heartless colluding into a core that wrapped like bodies climbing over each other. Slamming into Yamato's zone and cultivating in numbers too high to count in an attempt to repair the fist of the darkside. It was horrendous, watching them become reduced to mesh as his zone was getting hammered by heartless repeatedly over the course of a couple seconds. Yamato's instincts were sharp, he knew something was wrong and he jumped releasing himself as the anchor point for his zone he placed down then releasing it.

The Darkside reformed it's fists from the collective of shadows and instantly reeled back to apply pressure with a punch connecting directly with his keyblade parry, and launching him further away from the cliff and into the valley.

"NO!" Sae shouted about to shift his weight to instantly react.

"What is that idiot doing?!" Try shifted her legs about to jump, but Reforge had already been adrift, levitating in that general direction.

His keyblades spun behind him like helicopter blades branched from his back, and burst forward into a glide to chase behind Yamato. That hand twisted around and pressed off of the wall, you could see a towering in scale darkside sailing like falling earth in slow motion across the chasm. The shadow of the Darkside cast, draped over Sae and Try who were still fixed at the edge. The pooling sound of darkness was absent, only the faint sound of a fist gripping a weapon.

"!!!!"
"!!!?"

They turned purging two keys, and a loud...
KEET!

You guessed right. The Dark Inferno X appeared, asserting immense physical strength managing to deadlock the three of them with nearly even resistance. Sae dug in his heels and took a breath, the shimmer flashing in his eye as he prepared for the worse. He funneled his focus only unto the heartless in front of him.

"Get out of our way!" Sae pushed with a burst of air shooting up from his soles shifting the balance in their favor.

Try's retaliation was swift, but vain as it blocked her string of blunt hits with ease. It's doubled bladed swords? What were they doing to their attacks...to absorb that much heat, and pressure in succession just seemed unreal to Sae.

"Stop thinking and start swinging Sae!"

He snapped to the present as there was a tap to his chest, light at first, and slowly getting heavier and heavier, thrusting the blade into his chest he was pushed with raw force straight into the wall, opposite of the cliff's edge. Sae slammed his fist into the rock and jumped forward with a kick flying just to the right. Try's fist connected in a way similar to that Giant's hand analogy he used on himself, a reverb slapping it repeatedly as she landed a blow with her keyblade square in the chest and...boy did it rend into it hard. Her echoes started to beat into it's chest with an insane amount of brute force even if each hit was proposed as weaker that the initial blow.

It seemed to shake off it's bewilderment as number three heralded her keyblade like a banshee, it "ripped apart" taking an appearance of what looked to be seared flesh. There was a level of intensity that was almost...carnal coming from, her steps were cracking the adamantium structures as was the heartless blades being dragged across. It whipped both of it's arms up to come down with a gargantuan amount of force.

As Sae saw that out of the corner of his eye, he reacted without a second thought, immediately breaking into a near untraceable dash, steam was flowing off his person. Try raised her keyblade upward along with the momentum he gained from moving that fast, he too, swung up. The clang of metal coupled with with two pairs of aggressive yelling sounds, the screech from them both was unlike anything the Dark Inferno X heard before as the thrust was so strong the two of them launched it into the stratosphere.

"HELL YEAH." She shouted pumping her fist with an aggressive thrust back down.

"I think we over did it, we didn't actually destroy it, just sent it off world...Crap!" Sae hit his head and turned to the cliff, "What about those tw-"

"Reffy's got that handled, trust me. Your gonna run yourself ragged worrying like that."

There was a thought that crossed his mind when she said that. Allison. He paused, half-spacing out as she tapped him on the shoulder as a show of respect.

"I appreciate the help Sae, but I could have handled it myself." she removed her hand, "I always seem to hold back when an ally is close by...didn't wanna kill you by accident."

Yamato was coming back in the distance with Reforge carrying him by light strands, suspending him danging from his left wrist. Once they landed they engaged, and as you could imagine the discourse was superb.

"I take you guys took care of the target?" Yamato raised his arms, rubbing his wrist. "Me and Ref got the shadow and heartless taken care of. I've never seen them this aggressive away from the realm of darkness before."

"About that...we kind of...sent him into orbit." Sae rubbed his face.

"....." Yamato sighed. "You didn't both hit up at the sametime I hope."

"Blame this idiot for getting in the way, I said I had it." She puffed her cheeks underneath the helmet.

That feeling resonated with him for a second. Space. Room? Maybe he just needed to trust that they'd be fine without him? Doing exceedingly reckless things when he didn't have too, was unfortunately his only taboo accompanied by his kindness.
 
Last edited:

Ðari

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Memory Fragment: Unexpected Casualties [Eth, Lucrecia, Iontis]
Location: Traverse Town; Clock District
Time: 10PM





"Reason we're out here? Execution. We got reports of another abnormal heartless, similar to the one Try's group encountered twice now." Iontis folded his arms and sucked his teeth. "I'd of preferred Midna on this op with me, or even to go it solo...but the master's out of his mind sending him."

Eth shrugged, "Call it insurance. If these heartless are as powerful as the reports indicate, wouldn't you want to make sure it doesn't escape? Lucrecia and you take point."

There it was again, that projected sense of arrogance coming from zero.

"Don't lump me in with the other team. Solo tasks are my preference, i've never let a target slip through the cracks."

"Looks like we've got more in common than I pegged you for Iontis." Eth's cold and unwavering gaze crept in as his left eye flickered in visage of No. 7. "Monochrome. Please reassure me you're fit for this assignment. Again, I'm just here to act at the last possible second and clear if you two-"

He cut his words short from the scowl she offered up. "First lone wolf, then holier than though...ugh, listen. We'll get it done, don't cut us this overly important rant, we understand." she sighed as her orbs Noct and Diem were orbiting around her.

"Where are your manner Eth, it's Lucrecia. Recia is what I prefer, your just WAY too formal...almost as if you prefer to be disconnected."

"You aren't exactly far from the mark on that one. I digress. I'll debrief you both." he removed his hands from his pockets and created a top down map of Traverse Town composed of light and different colored lights for markers.

"A new type of pureblood heartless was spotted in this area. Master updated the bestiary recently, refers to them as Toxote X. Marksman heartless with slender and muscular forms slightly taller than Neo Shadows, but not as wide and muscular as invisibles. Something int between, equipped with a bow and arrow that can channel darkness directly from the RoD with each drawstring pull."

"How did something like that make its way all the way out here to the sticks...that's beyond abnormal..."

Iontis slid down the side of the tower to the lower level. It was mere minutes from striking the twenty-second hour (10pm). His eyes scanned the lay of the district and all was quiet, moments later Lucrecia came down.

"So he's just gonna opt to let us do it ourselves?" Iontis with eyes forward asked plainly. "Hmph. Insurance or cowardice?"

Lucrecia shrugged, "Don't ask me. Never actually seen him do anything to be honest." her eyes panned around as well, "Try's report from the caverns indicated everything was gone before she could blink or comprehend what exactly happened. Can you really do that with just...light?"

"Specialist are heavily endowed with a heavy focus on their resolves no? You and Eth both are specialists, paired with all-arounders to mitigate that central focus." Iontis was feeling himself slipping into a state of debrief and raised his awareness.

Shifting his eyes to the right it was only natural to see something was out of place. approximately two meters tall, slim and well built, clad in black with what looked like a scarf of deep purple. It was odd, seeing a heartless with a humanoid shape carrying an arrow on it's back without a quiver? Foolish. Iontis readied his Bahamut Arc as his body clanked around inside of the armor, he had to go on record and say that much like Try with her helmet, he never removed his armor in front of his allies.

Launching homing discs from his he pulled up his targeting system and took aim. A click was heard, the heartless turned realizing a whirring yellow disc had compromised it's position. A crash came, then smoke, as the collective of dust and soot buildup around the spot it stood. The Skyward rolled his eyes under the helmet for a second, unimpressed.

"
Was that...all...?" He lowered his arm and took notice of a thin thread-like apparatus of purple tapping his armor, gradually expanding int a line similar to that of an arrow. "Recia..MOVE!"

He pushed Recia from his left side, before that arrow erupted into what appeared to be some manner of detainment of darkness. Locked into place of a dark sphere, the heartless stood revealed in the fading dust, holding it's long-bow in place. This was the Toxote X, freshly added to the bestiary only recently.

"Got yourself caught already?" Recia scolded him as she was picking herself up. Her orb Diem spun around charging what light it captured, and fired at 400 rpm rounds of light to blast away at the sphere of darkness and effectively freeing Iontis. "We should probably try combi-"

"One partner is enough thanks. I'll get this one by myself!" he immediately jumped forward and activated the jets on his back heading straight for the Toxote X.

"
H-hey! Wait! Dammit, don't go off and get yourself killed!" Clenching her fist, she clenched hard on her teeth and sent her black floating sphere, Noct to debuff the heartless by increasing the damage it was vulnerable to.

"Marking and Weakening." Eth uttered at the top of the clock tower. "Effective strategy for being able to track a targets location, simultaneously it provides an advantage to an entire fire-team by increasing the total damage output on a single target. She's blessed to be able to take multiple enemies at once at the cost of a diminishing effect, yet still incredibly powerful."

His eyes moved to observe Iontis. Clad in armor, in an obsidian and midnight color, it possessed a whirring sound of light as steam released from his back. His bahamut arc was undergoing a combination, grafting to his arm arcing similar in shape and design to that of a gun blade. His body movement was erratic but he seemed more familiar with aerial traversal than the rest of them, his armor was well suited to deal with friction and resistance and not effect his ability to move in a straight line too much. His free arm constructed a shield with a drain spell as he raised it to block the next shot and transition into a well timed horizontal cut.

The gash left across it's stomach was deep, but the strangest thing started to happen. Tendrils of darkness, threads even, began to repair the gash and the heartless slowly turned to arm with an arrow. It was quick, releasing the drawstring as quickly as it could be drawn. The volley of darkness collided with a shot from Diem's sunlight laser, exploding mere meters in proximity to The Skyward.

"Tch..! Didn't you hear me Recia? Stay out of this, I told you I'll handle it myself." he scowled at her behind his helmet.

"Listen to yourself, you seriously want to fight an abnormal heartless we have very little information on by yourself? You're out of your mind if you think I'm just going to sit here." her fist was shaking.

"SHUT UP AND LISTEN TO ME!" Iontis snapped slamming his shield into the ground as it expanded. "If I say to stay back, that means you're just gonna have to trust me. If you feel the situation needs escalation or assistance is necessary, then act. NEVER BEFORE. Are we on the same page?"

There wasn't a huff, there wasn't anger to take hold, but a shine to Iontis' own candidness in expression to Recia. It was true, it may have been a selfish call in a situation where they knew little, but less lives being put at risk the better.

"Ugh...fine. But Noct doesn't leave that heartless, I need to be able to track where it moves."

"Dully noted. Understand, it's a judgement call limiting casualties so we have more eyes on an unknown. I'm well aware of my tendencies to go it solo, but in this instance its merely so we can minimize risk. X-branded heartless are at the top of the bestiary."

In a whirlwind of brute force, Iontis shield was up-ended and thrown vertically upwards. Clad in armor he swung his arm around and pivoted at the same time to face the heartless. He'd realized it could regenerate rapidly from what would otherwise be fatal damage, it may be as simple as ramping up overall total damage output in this instance. More than capable of that, calling his shield down he grasped onto it and held forward. Arrows that rippled with a black and purple mist, blotting webs of darkness, were being drained into the shield.

'It's main attack seems to be via the arrows. Assuming it creates them out of thin air using darkness. Fairly adept in physical strength and extremely mobile. It's profile is more lax compared the Dark Inferno X, we need to see what else it can do for a more accurate report.'

Thoughts he kept close to himself. Raising his arm to block it started to hover towards him, not touching the floor. The heartless solid yellow eyes without so much as a hint of a face, did something none of them expected.

"Darkness...Expansion..."

"Tell me I'm not imagining this!" Iontis eyes were wide, concealed behind his armored helm. "This heartless can speak, it make have intelligence or is being controlled by someone el-"

His light started to fade. His vision. The light was being decimated, cutting off all visibility from the immediate vicinity, completely robbing him of one of his most potent senses quite literally.

"The End...Is Coming..." it said, pulling back on the drawstring and releasing a hell storm of dark arrows upon Iontis who'd still been de-buffed with blindness.

Light flooded into his eyes, and he reacted by raising his shield to drain the brunt of the arrows until his shield finally gave. It shattered in his clutches and he turned to absorb the rest through his armor. Being pelted left and right from a constant barrage of dark arrows, it finally stopped pushing a solid twelve meter across the dirt on the ground level by the fountain. The heat generated from the constant string of arrows was felt through and through.

"Drain is strong...but there's limits to how much damage it can absorb in one go..." A hot pipe of steam released around Iontis masking him into a heated mist.

Shirking his shoulders, he discharged his armor at it virtually burned through the dirt in front of fountain. He nodded to Lucrecia giving her a visual cue that now was the time he needed aid. The heartless brought forth it's wings and beat like a wyvern, head first towards the un-armored Iontis. Diem, floated loftily below Iontis, spinning a charged up beam of heat to blast through the navel of the Toxote X.

"Direct hit!" She shouted bringing down her fist as the beam widened burning through its entire torso.

"Never pictured you the type to throw-" His instincts sparked as time slowed down. The Toxote X with only it's top half functional, gripping an arrow of darkness fixing to stab Lucrecia in the back. "LOOK OUT!"

It was gone.

"!!!!!!!!!!!" he held his breath, and froze.

Lucrecia turn in the instant he finished his shouting. "Huh?" she couldn't find a trace of it's remains anywhere. "You sure you're not imagining things? I already took care of it." His eyes traced over to the clock tower and Eth was still in the same spot.

"We're done here." Eth's voice traveled from the top of the clock tower. "It's already extremely late, lets take our leave and deliver a full report in the morning."

"Was it you?!" Iontis shouted clutching his shoulder.

Eth paused as a dropped his arms from their folded position. "Have a little more faith in your comrades Iontis. Didn't you say up until the last possible second not to interfere? I took the assertion, quite seriously."

Eth created portals of lights that opened to the dorms. Lucrecia assisted Iontis to his feet and they took the portal home at their first opportunity.

"That'll do master. They are definitely exceptional choices on your part."
 

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Memory Fragment: Ghost Theater 2 [Shiki, Saebyeolbe, Try, Lucrecia, Eth]
Location: The Dorms; Amphitheater
Time: 6PM





There was a pout under the helmet that no one could see. The least musically inclined of them, Try wasn't exactly thrilled to be in attendance for practice. The cross of her arms as she was much more interested moving skulls with her hands, it'd suit her talents so much more. Days of practicing drums whilst having no real sense of rhythm, but re-verbing sound-waves? Not a problem for her once she got a feel for it, especially if she was just doing a loop of certain sounds.

Try - Drums
Saebyeolbe - Baseline + Back-up Vocals
Lucrecia - Lead Guitar
Shiki - Lead Vocals
Eth - Conducting/Teaching

It was about show time. Eth was flipping through the pages of his note sheet and went over with them individually as they practiced. He took a point towards the end and had them start there as it was the last part they needed to go over for today, Try was after all ready to be done. Giving the thumbs up, he tapped the podium with his baton. [Start @ 02:11 from above link]

Now I'm standing on the rooftop ready to fall
I'm think I'm at the edge now but I could be wrong
I'm standing on the rooftop ready to fall
I count the times that I've been sorry
I know, I know!
Now my compassion slowly drowns
I know, I know!
If there's a time these walls could guard you
I know, I know!
Then let that time be right now
Now I'm standing on the rooftop
Now I'm standing on the rooftop ready to fall
I'm standing on the rooftop ready to fall
I'm think I'm at the edge now but I could be wrong
I'm standing on the rooftop ready to fall

Eth wasn't exactly prepared to hear this kind of consistency from the lot of them. Shiki had protested about doing vocals, saying herself none too phenomenal, but with enough practice she was a natural. Nodding his head, in the corner of his eye he saw Try put the sticks down, surprisingly without breaking them and scooted out from the bench.

"Ok, it's about time we sat down for dinner." Try said with a muscular hand pressed to her abdomen, that hunger said everything you'd needed to know. "Never heard your vocals before, you can really sing huh Shiek?" Try nodded in approval.

"Shiek..? Um, thanks, I never really tried." she sounded pretty impressed with herself which was always a joy.

"You makin' fun of my name again?" If you could see the scowl on her face you'd worry as well.

"It's a figure of speech, try and remember that." Lucrecia said as she was polishing the guitar.

"What the hell is with you guys today!" Try gave a thundering stomp to the stage and the equipment shook for a spell.

Eth turned to Try who was getting upset over general phrases being used with the name she gave them. "Try." she turned to his general direction. "Thats the name you gave. You can form phrases with just that word, is there anything else we can refer to you by? It'd make our conversations feel a lot less like bad punchlines."

Try sighed and dropped the form of a balled fist. "Eventually i'll get used to it. It's just a name. I don't think there is anything else I would rather be called."

"Fair enough." Eth waved his hand signaling practice was over, "Shiki, Lucrecia, lets go make dinner for everyone else."

"Right"
"Of Course."

"FINALLY!" Try threw her hands up readily for dinner.

As the ladies headed towards the dinning hall and the kitchen, Sae sat idle polishing the base guitar. "Upset about that assignment the other day?" Eth inquired. "It was no different than the one I encountered on assignment with Lucrecia and Iontis, but was promptly eliminated. Apparently they don't behave anything like irregular heartless the likes of Invisibles and Darksides."

"Am I in the way?" Sae inquired.

"I'm unsure of your question or what your referring to when you say 'in the way', explain?" Eth tilted his head, giving Sae a look of confusion.

"It's been bothering me for a couple days." he released a sigh before composing himself somewhat, "I suppose I should focus on getting stronger."

"Your certainly not wrong. Sometimes it isn't a matter of strength and it's more a matter of trust." Eth extended his hand at an angle with confidence. "I saw that report Saebyeolbe, perhaps next time hang back a little before intervention. Everyone here is as capable as you and I, we're the Master's apprentices after all."
 

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Memory Fragment: 40.4 [Iontis, Midna, Try, Reforge, Master of Masters, Eth]
Location: The Dorms; Training Field #3
Time: 3PM





"Lets try this again." the Master decided to wait a while before attempting this team work exercise. If they remembered, Try effectively destroyed the ball and completely removed it from play last time. "I'm gonna try this little game to test the partner bond of two teams. Same as last time, there will be a third-party in play to disrupt you. Lets go over the conditions."

  • You can only hit and interact with the blitzball with your keyblades & and every other body part besides your hands.
  • You must also navigate the training field dealing with heartless as an active threat
  • There will be a 3rd-Party in the form of an enemy resolute who's goal is to disrupt both opposing teams and are consented to attack, while not maiming either team. They've permission to strike the ball away from either Goal, even into a bed of heartless.
  • The final condition, is NO Resolute is allowed to use their resolve, Teams of Two nor Third-Party. You must rely only on your keyblades, your trust in your partner, and controlling the flow of your movement with the restraints applied.

It was easy enough to follow. "No resolves. Not a one. Interesting how a specialist is going to function in this environment without-"

"It's fine." Eth simply shrugged his shoulders, "Result will be the same. Neither of them will score."

Iontis helm turned towards Eth as he briefly spoke, "You're that confident? I was right about you...arrogant bas-"

"Aaaaanyways. Ethy is gonna play with us? Thats really cool!" Reforge quelled Iontis ire as he observed eth. "I really don't like to lose either. Right Try??"

"Right Reffy! Really hoping the ball doesn't get destroyed for being too weak again." she gripped her keyblade already at ease.

The master held the blitzball putting what looked like a project spell of some kind on it. Likely to mitigate the damage by more than half of a certain someone if they felt being a little too cavalier today. Eth yawned as the rest of them where spry and starting to stretch. Looking to your left and right, heartless were beginning to spawn in, in small controlled clusters spread all over the field.

"I've never even seen him do anything before."

"Didn't need resolve to stop that bullet from going through Nagi's head on the first day. Luxu's been a fair teacher for physical skillsets, just made what I'm about to put you through that much more of a headache." Eth sighed, no keyblade to be found, just an umbrella he carried on his hip as he popped open the top. "This should do just fine."

"oooooh! what are you gonna do with that!?"

"You'll see. Master?" Eth point towards the ball and the whistle around his neck.

Considering Eth was the third-party, much like Try last time he wasn't permitted in the middle when they'd jump for the ball. He stood about roughly 12 meters back from the middle of the field just to the north of them. Iontis and Midna took form, Try and Reforge seemed eager based on their body language to rocket jump upward. Try's staggering physical strength took the lot of them by surprise last time, but at the very least Iontis was prepared.

Reforge was practically a backpack to Try as he held tight. Once the master released the ball, there was a brief pause like last time with only Iontis and Midna jumping this time. Try waited as to preserve that part of a field a while longer before steam gathered around her legs. There was a tap on her shoulder.

"Hey." It was Eth, she blinked once and he was already gone.

"HUH??"

"Look!" Reforge said pointing up at the apex of where the ball was floating. The tap from his umbrella as he softly gave it a small push to fall just out of reach of Midna and Iontis who both dove to take it. "He-"

There it was again, it was for but a fraction of a second that he disappeared, did he really just vanish? They could only focus on the ball which rolled into a patch of heartless, the four of them bolted towards that spot and found only Eth spinning the blitzball on top of his umbrella. Almost in unison the four of them clutched their heads, trying to figure out what the hell was happening. They were seeing snapshots of instances where he just suddenly appeared.

"Don't understand what's happening? Come on, I'm sure even Iontis realized it. I defeated the heartless before you got here and I now have the ball. Goals are left and right, so...take it back?"

He was fairly distracted by trying to balance the ball on the spinning umbrella. There was a mad rush from the four of them stampeding on his direction, he closed his umbrella and kicked the blitzball into a bed of Neoshadows. Finally allowing himself to be visible and he broke pace and out ran even Try to the next spot.

"Consider getting creative if you want to take the ball from either me or the heartless." Eth's eyes trailed to Reforge coming out of the heartless bed, kicking the ball with is knees and thighs. "Ah, see. Reforge was proactive and got here fir-"

"Oh shut up already!" Try gripped her keyblade going for Eth's head, it pinged against the brass of Midna's Cedo. "What are you doing?? We didn't get permission to fight each other! Focus on the ball, ignore him!"

Reforge stumbled into the patch kicking the blitzball up, and splattering through the heartless as he primed a kick that combed through the black creatures towards Iontis and Midna's goal. Iontis was moving into position to intercept, and felt a tap on his shoulder. Eth darted past him, extremely light on his feet and hit the ball straight up into the skybox.

Try's legs collected steam again just like last time and she propelled herself straight up towards the ball as it spun fast, nearing it's apex. She brought her leg around with steam visibly dragging around her leg and there was a prod at the ball, causing her to whiff. Missing by mere inches! Eth gave her the salute as he scooped the ball into his umbrella and began to descend.

"Get back here with that!!!" with a single hand she gripped and swung, colliding with the ball in the enclosed umbrella. "Impressive strength and dexterity Try." he said feeling her slide the keyblade up to pop the blitz ball from under the clutch of his closed umbrella. Breaking away from each other the ball bounced and Midna was there to kick it directly to Iontis.

Reforge brandished both of his keys to quickly deflect the next attempt to land into their goal from Iontis. "I already told you, we aren't gonna lose! Right giant lady!"

It was a phenomenon that was actually vastly hard to explain. The master, rife with curiousity and just heavy concentration overall, watched as the lot of them were finally starting to sweat. Daring around the field like a bunch of kids playing soccer on a field. Eth was just being the biggest pain in the ass, disrupting goal shots that should've long connected to their respective goals.

"Hey you two." Reforge was panting as he knelled down, "Lets just work together and get rid of him! He's making this a lot less fun."

"Leaving our goal open so you can score? I'd rather it end in a draw." Iontis wasn't going for that old trick.

"He's got the right idea." Midna said looking ahead at Eth, "Iontis. Eth said he's gonna force a draw, it's either we cooperate with them or he's just gonna dance around us until the clock runs out."

"Absolutely not Midna. I refuse to concede to the enemy team, let alone call a truce in the middle of a training session??" His uptight nature was starting to come to a head.

Try cracked her knuckles, "You don't want me to get my hands on you..."

"Didn't plan on it Try." Eth said kicking the blitzball between his soles. Eth looked over at the master briefly and it only took that instant for the blitzball to miss his sole. A young Reforge small and nimble coming in with a swift swat towards yet another bed of heartless. "Ready to play NOW Eth Eth?" he jeered, bringing his leg around into a leg-drop as Eth casually steps to the right as the Reforge creates a miniature smoke screen from the force of the drop. "Damnit, I think that was too much."

"It was enough!" She brushed the air with so much force, the air burst backward lifting him off the ground and in the opposite direction. "Tch. A feint huh?" Eth was liking this demonstration as the remaining two blitzed for the the bed of heartless. Try took Reforge's hand, and without restraint sent him towards the bed where Iontis and Midna were buckling towards. "Don't let them score Reffy!" she seemed a bit more on the mark in contrast to usual. Eth raised his head as he was still drifting back, he released a sigh as Try was pressing towards him. To him it felt like she was moving towards him in a slowed manner when in reality they were moving at around the same pace. The two of them were dancing around in the field as her skill with a keyblade, as he didn't bother to block with the umbrella for fear of it shattering on impact, he gracefully weaved around her assault.

"Stand still you fleet-footed bastard!" she harked and Eth could only shake his head, "Lets hold off on the name-calling alright?"

Reforge came rolling into the bed of heartless desperately picking up a shadow and tossing it to the wind. "Where the hell's the blitzball??" Iontis said in a panic as he was busy demolishing the heartless left and right. "I can't find it anywhere." Midna called back to it. Wouldn't you know it, the little tike popped up holding it in his hands.

"Here it is!" Reforge popped up, covered in shadow heartless holding the blitzball.

"
That...idiot...!" Try smacked her helmet. "Oh, well, looks like that's a disqualification." Eth gave the briefest of laughs before the master blew the whistle, making the game Null.

"Since our dearest Reforge touched the ball, I'm gonna have to disqualify his team. Since no one scored, the game is Null. Man, you lot are 2 for 2 with shenanigans!" The master let out an abrupt and far from soft set of laughter.

Midna and Iontis both smacked their heads, all that work for the game to be over again without a winner declared. This repeat affair was just their luck, Iontis rest his hand on her hat before he sighed himself. "Next time for sure." he smiled, and she adjusted her hat and flubbed a bit, "D-definitely!" she asserted.
 

Ðari

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Memory Fragment: Extremist v. Twilighter [Master of Masters, Shiki, Komaeda]
Location: The Dorms; Outer Fields
Time: 9AM





The Master gave a soft yawn and stretched his arms as he walked to the edge of the hill. Holding what appeared to be a dandelion in his midst. Probably two of his more thought provoking minds gathered simply to chat.

"You ever wonder if there are worlds beyond Light, Dark, Twilight, and Sleep? Perhaps, even Death?" The master blew into the dandelion as the seeds scattered into the wind.

Komaeda folded his arms, he was averse to the idea, "Doesn't it strike you as odd that for all these texts, they'd leave us only to ponder on those four?" Shiki provided some context, "--But not impossible."

"Worlds are as much opportunities as they are gateways between realms. Light. Dark. In between. Dreams." she spelled it out for him plainly, "We could survive without the Dark."

Her brow furrowed, "Ludicrous Nagito." moreover she appeared to be a bit more on edge than normal today. "Our very lives were determined by that struggle which brought about these different realms, denying any is-"

"
Might I offer a word?" The master said kneeling down to hand each of them a dandelion. "Neither of you is necessarily wrong. The point of my chat with you will be made abundantly clear well after my departure, i merely want your diverging ideas of the state of the worlds to converge at a middle ground."

The master rested his gloved hands on both of their heads and softly stroked both. Unlike him, tenderness, though a touch clad in material, there was a hint of cold that twinged over them. Nagito grazed his own cheek with his free hand as the other blew into the dandelion, scattering the pedals. Shiki too, blew into the dandelion as watched as the seeds were spirited away along the stretch of field.

"
Consider this your first true bond between each other. Shiki. Komaeda. Your both too intelligent to not attempt to understand the vast differences of how you each view the world." he removed his hand and was on his feet. "Yeah...well...her view is muddied by shades of grey. There may be many worlds, but there's only ever been two sides and I'll die in service of the light."

"Its true, the light and it's realm have no end to kindness, but within even the light...tyranny feigned by the self-serving and righteous. Are you just another tyrant hiding in the fold?" She cut him a sharp gaze. "A dear friend, perfect in nearly every way, lost their humanity in service to the light. A tyrant...that loomed in wait, ultimately felled."

The master gripped his arms with a tug at his coat. He knew, exactly to whom Shiki referred to. He couldn't bare to listen to what she was saying, was Shiki really this delusional? Gripping his sides as he hugged himself, he rubbed his arms as he was trying to contain his laughter. "You've got quite the sense of humor Miss Shiki. Light, tyrants? So what does that make you...some sort of abomination wielding the power of Resolute, a Warrior of Light in name only? Who's really the ludicrous one here, you sound like an absolute sham."

"Hey hey hey heeeeeeeeey!" The master stood in between, "We can have discourse without name-calling Nagi Nagi." He raised his hands in an odd but pleading fashion.

"I'm merely saying Darkness isn't needed. The people will in time grow under the guidance of the light!"

Shiki sighed, "It's naive to presume people are drones that all align and walk to the same tune Nagito...Darkness, while in the wrong hands can do great harm and bring about calamity, it's meant to be a point of balance that staves off complacency."

Nagito lowered his hand and sighed. He was done listening to this woman prattle on about balancing the two, how necessary one was to the other. It was a personal ambition of his at that point from then on, to expunge these ideas and scrub them out of existence. If Darkness were virtuous, then it'd been absent from his eyes for the duration of his time alive up until then.

"I see your well versed in futility Shiki. If I am anything, if nothing at all...I am lucky, and a acting hand of the Light. I see you as nothing more than an adversary as opposed to a friend." The master heard this and flinched a moment, "Nagito. Given time, you'll understand why she drifts between the two so frequently, even the light has taken from us. Gone in a sea of white."

A keyblade prod against Komaeda's chest, it was Memento Mori. The look Shiki had given him was one of a quelled tenacity, turning to ensure it was secured in his breast. "
I've lost enough to both sides of the table...it's not something one can feign ignorance to any longer. If I've offended you, then by my accord, I can acknowledge that. However." She lowered her memento mori, "We're comrades, Nagito. It's outrageous to mark me as an enemy so carelessly for a divergence of beliefs."

Nagito cut her a smug grin in the corner of his cheek, he could see she was being completely sincere. It was true, he didn't like how she treated this existence of the two affinities as on the same level. It was extremely unlikely he could ever truly come to accept what she was saying, moreover continuing to talk about it would just be a roundabout of circles. The Harbinger was a vagabond, truly worthless in every way and a waste despite his undying fanaticism for the light.

"It's not likely, but I hear you. It's a start." He seemed hellbent on convincing her of the fact, but he did extend his hand to shake hers. "I'll look forward to your campaign, Shiki."
 

Ðari

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Memory Fragment: Eidolan [Yamato, Jay/Jaz]
Location: Arcadia; Capital City Street
Time: 3PM





"I'd say coming here was a big waste of time. Nagi was reluctant to agree and well...here I am with...them..." Yamato buried his hands into his pockets walking slovenly at space from Jay. "You planning on moving post haste squirt?"

Suddenly stopping, Jay took in a breath, "Yeah...lets not start barking orders Yammy."

His veins squeezed by his frontal lobe, "Listen here you little shit, when your done with your identity crisis maybe we can actually do our jobs!" You could see the steam seething from his ears. Yamato wasn't in the mood to be dealing with the youngest of them, that didn't often offer much of value to the cause aside from bitching. Something to take into consideration was a fact largely unknown to them that Lucrecia had mentioned in passing about being more sensitive towards Jay.

Her hand trembled a bit, she brought it up and slapped Yamato across the cheek. Normally that'd prompt anyone to flare up and go postal, but he actually smiled before patting her on the head. "You got guts. Something I respect."

Jay held her head, this wasn't the time to be slapping Yamato. "Mission brief...so why are we here again..?" Poking at his now tempered off state. "We're just here to observe, fairly straight forward."

Arcadia was a bit more complicated in stark contrast to other worlds. A domain that existed within the realm of light, but the seat of power grasped by a malefactor of the dark known only as The Empire. Yamato wasn't here to play the political shenanigans and meddle with shit he had no business meddling with. "You seen the kids around here?" he spoke seeing what looked like war-spawned orphans. "I haven't seen a look like that on a kid in a long time, it's as if they're ready to rebel at any time. Just what the hell kind of life is it for--"

There was a rustling of steps as Yamato was cut off. What looked to be a General ranking officer, clad in some gotty golden colored armor and violet colored hair. "GENERAL CAPRICIOUS! SIR!" the fodder of soldiers fell in line as Yamato tucked into the alley with Jay hugged under his wide arm.

"Burn the alleyways. The leering eyes of those children deserve to be snuffed out before their fires kindle."

As the soldier's gave a quick gesture, before stamping their feet, a woman with an icy white and a light shade hue of blue raised her arm. "Another time for that order, Clement." you could detect the ice in her address. A slovenly fellow walking behind her and emerging, as he boorishly rubbed his neck, flicking the red streak in his bangs. "You still barking orders to your men like their dogs Clement? This territory is under our watch, your intruding."

"General Ciel. Mercenary Salforge. A pleasure and woeful one simultaneously." Clement went on to express his grievances.

Salforge shrugged, Ciel rubbed her frontal lobe as if having to repeat herself wasn't enough. From further down Yamato and Jay were watching as the set of them interacted and they gathered up the children whom were brooding in the alley. "Listen. Moving out is better than rotting here writhing at the first opportunity to strike."

There was a dashing of footsteps coming right towards Jay as a young woman was dragging the arm of a fairly built young man. "C'mon Capell, I hope you didn't leave the keys in the tank, we've gotta get these kids outta he-" she smacked square into Jay's chest, and bounced back onto the stone floor of the alley. "Hey, what the hell was that?!" the woman looked up spot a pair of..."Breast?!"

Jay was feeling a bit masculine after that remark, his tone quickly become more brutish. "You mind not starin so hard?? And watch where your going!"

"Whoa whoa whoa, easy easy." The boy named Capell, "Dia's a bit ornery, it was an accident alright."

Yamato shook his head, "Don't worry about him...I mean her, them!...shit, Jaz?" he was kind of juggling a bomb here himself. The red flooded Jay's face as the tint of his eyes shifted, feeling effeminate and flushed with embarrassment, his voice grew soft and that touch of (now her) softness returned. "She/Her/They/Them."

"Yamato and they are Jay/Jaz, they'll correct you if you use the wrong name. Depends on the day and if there's free pizza really." Yamato shrugged, he probably just threw them another curve-ball entirely.

Capell and Dia were sort of dazed, trying to do mental gymnastics in figuring out the gender identity of Resolute #6. "R-right..." Capell ended on an awkward pause, "We'll be rounding the rest of the kids up and getting the hell outta here before those bastards scorch the place. Lets go Concordia." she had a twisted face before calling out as she was being dragged this time, "I already told you, Dia is fine!"

Yamato scratched his head, "Today is just the weirdest day...buncha oddballs here on Arcadia. Nagi's from here yeah? No way a psycho like that lasted this long with this crowd of oddballs."he watched as Capell and Dia faded from view, and the alley was barren save for himself and Jay/Jaz. He pointed to the end of the alley and gestured with a finger over his lip to "shhh". Pointing towards the group still at the end, having a bit of a disagreement.

"Your working relationship with the empire is fragile at best. Merely a prisoner with a few more liberties than most citizens, curt remarks are minimal and not tolerated. Simply do as you're asked-"

"You asked for a district to go into lockdown. It was done. You asked for me to eliminate those rebels on the train. It was done. I'd say my ability to do what you pay me to for speaks for itself. Lets not do this right now Clement. I'd appreciate a stand down." Salforge sighed, his eyes weren't elated to anything but locks of Ciel. She stood there shaking her head, Capricious did this, every single time. Playing with that demented sense of humor of his, you had to wonder why his nick name was Akans.

"I take it you've heard of the Master of Master's round of protege. Resolutes their called? Allies off world confirmed they've been meeting on the Cul-De-Sac world."

"We've matters of our own in accordance with dealing with the resistance on-world Commander." Ciel gave him a brief interval to adjust his gaze before she finished, "The men are tired from fending off that tank, give them time to recuperate, please Commander."


Yamato paused for a second. "Tank...tank...wait." Jay rubbed her head, "Didn't...Dia mention a tank..?" the realization hit rather hard and they couldn't help but yell at the sametime not realizing how loud.

"NO WAY."
"NO WAY!"

It didn't take them long before the sound of gunfire hurdled through the alleyway and the two of them hauled ass to blitz from the gunfire.
 

Ðari

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Memory Fragment: Differences in Grief [Shiki, Luxu, Saebyeolbe, Komaeda]
Location: Twilight Town; Clocktower
Time: 11AM





A day off was a luxury that came rare for The Resolutes. Luxu was out and about in prime form, easily the least social of the team, and clad in his usual black coat. Oddly staring at Shiki, as if reminiscent of someone he'd known in a time past. Though you couldn't see his face hidden behind the coat, the presence of his eyes beating against one's head was definitely felt.

"Here." He leaned down and offered the three of them sticks with frozen treats attached, "Call it a peace offering." he said with a hint of sarcasm. Luxu had prompted himself to take a seat between Shiki and Komaeda, as Saebyeolbe sat on the right end, and Komaeda on the left end.

"Something about this place seems fleeting, time never moves and the sun never sets." Shiki said as she took a bite into the ice cream.

"A light that never goes out giving way to nightfall? I like this place more and more."A somber feeling washed over him.

"It just brings back bad memories honestly."

Luxu pat Sae's back, "As if. Try making some good memories for a change of pace. It's less nightmares you'll have." he briefly glanced over at Shiki upon saying that. The beat was off, like in resonance of another, Luxu shook his head and sighed.

Twilight town was a charming gem in their occasional visits. Komaeda seemed to prefer it here in stark contrast to his home in that of Arcadia. Luxu raised pulled the bar from his hood, to find the ice-cream vanished and only the stick remained. It drew suspicion as to how quickly he gorged it, yet was speaking in clear sentences. "Not bad, that sour yet sweet taste is probably why this novelty is so popular."

"Something on your mind Luxu? Rare we even get an audience with you." Shiki nudged him.

"Pfft, as if." Luxu shrugged, "Trust exercise. I suppose you could call it that." he rubbed the edges of his coat before swiping at the back of his head. "How's this? I'll reveal something embarrassing about all of you every 2 minutes if you can't accomodate a request of mine."

There was an awkward pause, "Say that again...? Reveal something...huh??" Sae's eyes were blinking, his ears twitching to confirm he was hearing him right. "Well, classy Luxu...I don't think I need anyone knowing anything personal about me I wouldn't disclose on my own." Komaeda seemed to take it lightheartedly, but there was a chilling seriousness in his voice. "If that's a joke Luxu, it isn't a funny one..." Shiki had more of a concerned look than he was comfortable with.

"As if. Opposed to the idea? Scared of a betrayer that'd use it against you, if thats the case fine just me then, not like you wimps would complain yeah?" Luxu shrugged, a smug grin under that ol' hood of his.

"I'm pretty old. Older than the rest of you lot by a long shot, been around long as I can remember and met a lot of people in my time."

"Sounds like you're a traveling nomad." Sae said not really processing what Luxu was saying.

"Like hell I'm a nomad, just been doing the Old Master a service for a fairly long time, he's always looked for talen to take on an nurture, just the kinda guy he is."

Shiki and Komaeda didn't really seem convinced, they were the more thoughtful ones. He had to place them in that category, just made things easier for him all around. Luxu stared down the line and saw they were indulging in the novelty ice cream. No old man jokes today it seemed, but he knew one thing for sure...it was definitely the truth.
 

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Memory Fragment: The Precipice of Death 1 [Luxu, Lucrecia, Jay/Jaz]
Location: The Dorms; Training Grounds #2
Time: 1AM





"Why'd you bring us out here this late Luxu?" Lucrecia tilted her head slightly with a haughty sigh.

"We should be resting" Jaz said with a yawn and stretching her arms.

"As if." Luxu grinned shrugging his shoulders. "Listen, Master's orders to bring you out here, said ya needed a lesson from a Veteran."

In his black hood he turned to face them as the three of them thumbed along the training field #2. Eth did well to repair it for them, using his resolve, he dialed the time back on it to a state BEFORE Try completely destroyed it with a blitzball. As their footsteps quietly bursts across the grass Luxu stopped them both.

"Listen you two, I don't know how else to say this. Compared to all the other teams, fundamentally you're the weakest of the six pairs." Luxu shrugged, calling the Gazing Eye into his left hand.

Lucrecia spun, "You've got some nerve, saying something like that so bluntly. Another one of your jokes?" her hand balled into a fist and it shook beside her.

"Now wait Recia, I'm sure he doesn't mean-"

"As if. The Master said it himself." he said slinging the keyblade over his shoulder, "Push them well beyond their limit and see what happens. I'll bend the rule in this instance, fight them to the death. You've my permission to kill them even, though they're my disciples, that won't be an easy task."

A nervous reaction as a bead of sweat trickled down the side of her face. "Death...? Master...really said that...?" Lucrecia leaned in with caution as she was on the back foot.

The ground rumbled as Luxu released what could only be described as a pressure strong enough to afflict the gravity surrounding them.



KILLING INTENT


Their reaction was expected. How does one naturally react to being called the weakest link.

"Thy-"
"Thy-"

"Shhh, not necessary. Already got the go ahead to eliminate you both, consider this a gray area to the rule." he swiped his keyblade to the right, and the ground started ripping out slabs of earth, rock, and grass effectively sending them into a field of zero gravity suspended.

"How did you want to die today? Crushing all of your bones to powder? Hmm" the floated there for a minute, and he was already bored. "Fine, i'll throw you into the stratosphere before slamming you both into a field like panca-"

"SHUT UP!" she used the orbs to move within the suspended field, winding up Lucient in her right hand and marking him with Noct to increase the power of the impact. Tenacious and resourceful as always, as Luxu raised his Gazing Eye to quickly parry the blow, the tremor reverberated outward in all directions.

"Why are you so..." He moved forward barely asserting any strength at all as his blade vibrated, "...Pathetic...? As if." his free hand cupped the space around her, intensifying the gravity as she landed face first into the grass and he shamelessly placed his foot on her head and rubbed it into the grass humiliating her.

"I don't understand why you're even wasting your time here. This what you plan on doing when it all eventually goes to hell?!"
Luxu shouted pressing his foot harder into the back of Lucrecia's head.


"That's enough Luxu! Stop hurting her!" Jaz came in blazing as she spun and Luxu ducked and his free hand went to reach for her neck.

She dodged it, using a brief vision from her foresight and leveraged her fist to duck around Luxu's hand attempting to intercept it.

"Parlor tricks? As if." He increased the gravity for Jaz and slammed his foot into her back, slowly increasing the pressure and pushing her further down, much faster than Lucrecia. "If you don't overwhelm me, your both as good as dead."

He leaned down as the two of them struggled to even move as he increased the pressure and intensity of the gravitational field. A sigh left his breath as he rolled his eyes under the hood and began with a smug little sentiment.

"You know...I never understood why you two were paired with each other. A Specialist with an All-Arounder? Hey...Recia, can you really even fight properly or do these stupid orbs do everything for you? Whats happens if I smash them?"

A hand gripped at Luxu's feet. It was Jay's this time with a rising temper as Lucrecia's hand also grabbed the other ankle, a vice grip of death pressuring his legs dropping his concentration briefly as the field wavered. They pulled themselves to their feet and began a two-pronged assault against Luxu. The Master's first apprentice sighed, bringing his keybalde into a guarding stance and slowly intercepting their swings. The flicker of his eye turning green, as if he could read the flow of time to counteract Jay's use of foresight off of base reaction alone.

Diem locked Luxu in place as the beam burned red, but couldn't quite punch through Luxu's keyblade as he was deflecting the constant fire of Recia's beam and throwing it towards Jay before she finally canceled the beam's flow. There were finally doing something, but Luxu just laughed the more they struggled. Watching them pick themselves up again and again out of a crater he kept slamming them both into in the shape of their own body.



>>SEE THE PRECIPICE OF DEATH 2<<
 

Ðari

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Memory Fragment: Liars Are Not Honored [Try, Reforge, Eth]
Location: Destiny Islands; Main Shore
Time: 1AM





Eth opened his umbrella and stood under it as it poured on the islands this late evening. Try and Reforge were dealing with the heartless as he was merely there to observe. Looking up at the sky, it'd gotten pretty late more so than Eth intended for, but this took a little longer to resolve than they were ready for. The master's intel had another sighting of an usual heartless, similar to the one that appeared in Radiant Garden's Crystal Ravine.

The clunking of what looked to be armor, bearing two shield, one was massive and the other was a buckler shield. IT, was definitely a heartless without a doubt as you could see the sigil emblazoned on it's chest.

"That's definitely the heartless from the report. Use caution you two."

"Yeah yeah, like we need you telling us what to do Ethy!" Reforge said rather fired up as his mystokinesis held his keyblades to spin behind his back. "Don't you know giant lady and I are the strongest pair!"

"I'm merely saying we've limited information, be prepared for-"

"You worry too much Unethical. We're not going to let this one escape, bruise boy isn't here to get in the way either, unlike him Reffy knows when to move out of my way."

Just like that, Eth's warning was casually tossed out. He gripped his umbrella firmly, as the sound of thunder was beating off of the top, the rain trickled off Try's helmet and bright red skin tight suit. Reforge's eagerness was generating it's own problem, looking at what appeared to be a pretty fairly sized and built heartless roughly six feet tall and human-like shape similar to an Invisible. It's only weapons were two shields.

"I'm ready to go home anyway! Lets use that and blow it away!"

Reforge readied his magic as he cast a triple spell, increasing the next attacks potency by 200%. Try held what looked like a keyblade made of glass for a moment, as it flickered, and became that of rotting flesh for all but a moment. There was a visible pressure swirling around the keyblade and she slowly raised it almost as if the blade itself were getting heavier to casually lug around. When she swung with all her might one-handed, it created echoes of the air-pressure compressed into a thin line. A sonic boom was heard from the location of her swipe, and the sand departed to the left and right as it kicked up a field of dust.


The heartless raised it's buckler shield, and used it instead of the much larger one, to intercept this attack. It radiated briefly, creating what appeared to be some kind of vacuum effect as it assimilated all of the pressure from Try and Reforge's combination attack into the buckler and it changed color from brass, to gold, now illuminated with newfound strength.

It appears to be able to absorb physical attacks to use the power for itself,it's...very similar to Saebyeolbe, Eth thought as he observed keenly.

There was a certain instinct that loomed within Try, rife with a lust for battle. She gripped on to her keyblade as he steps were noticeably heavier, faintly hearing Eth name the target.

"Gallant Grave X. Double shield wielding X-class heartless. That defensive power and durability is formidable if nothing else. Use caution you two." Eth could already see that she charged head long forward grasping her keyblade of serrated flesh with two hands. It raised the other tower-like shield and blocked the full brunt of the initial blow and the echoes slamming from all sides. She meant to end it in one pass, but it's body hardened carrying nary a scratch anywhere, not even against it's shield.

"Tch..! Giant lady, its looking like we may need to try magical affinity as a weakness!" Reforge pleaded as he was casting a spell, but she was already there hammering away directly in the line of fire. "Hey! You'll get incinerated along with-"

"To hell with that, fire away!" She said profusely swinging the keyblade around like a bat, cracking blow after blow against both shields.

It used the buckler to slap her keyblade away, placing the tower shield behind it's back she grabbed it by it's neck. "Now-Guh!" It's fist impressed into her gut with immense strength as Reforge released a Triple-Firaga slamming into the Heartless back. Effectively blowing the two of them in different directions from each other. They jumped back at each other barely feeling anything as the Shield took the brunt of Reforge's spell and they clasped at each other's hands locked into a tug-of-war scenario where they were pushing against the other. This was creating intense waves and pressure in all directions as the sand was blowing all around them and the water from the shore started to go out with the tide as well.

Eth had only ever seen this demonstration of unrivaled physical strength twice, the first was her training match against number one upon their introductions, the second was when she single handedly leveled Training Ground #2. The Heartless was able to withstand that kind of brute force? Incredible was an understatement.

Seeing Eth was about to react from the corner of it's eye, the buckler on it's gauntlet released that stored energy into a wave and created mass of black that blotted out visibility by darkening the very surroundings. Releasing itself from Try's grast it fled into the darkness.

"NO! WHERE ARE YOU GOING YOU COWARD!" Try protested.

"Strong and sentient? It saw that I was about to-"

"Didn't you say it was up to us? You chased it off by moving, don't move at all next time!" Try scolded him.

"Like I'd really let both of you rush head-first into your deaths, I'm not without compassion." Eth was a little annoyed.

"Stuff it Ethics!" Reforge stuck his toungue out to taunt him, "You said that one was ours, we'll take it out! You made it leave, MEANIE!"

"The Master gonna wanna know why it left, at least we know why it fled." They both eyeballed him, though less so Try as it couldn't be seen beyond the helmet.

"Fine, then i'll take full responsibility for not properly intercepting the Gallant Grave X. Happy?" this pair was insufferable.
 

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Memory Fragment: The Precipice of Death 2 [Luxu, Lucrecia, Jay/Jaz]
Location: The Dorms; Training Grounds #2
Time: 6AM





"You've managed to survive for five hours. Hah, as if." Luxu slowly mocked the two of them as they trembling on their knees. "Get up."

He thrust his leg upwards, sweeping into Lucrecia's abdomen and crushed his fist tight suspending her in mid-air. At this point Lucrecia had been drifting in and out of consciousness and then some. The "IV" just above her left breast was starting to flicker, it was getting harder to breathe.

"We're not done." Luxu said before he slammed her into the crater shaped in her body.

"S..Stop this...Luxu..." Jaz could barely speak, reaching towards Lucrecia who was just barely outside of her reach. "Stop....damnit!"

"All that shit you talked about Nagito being insane for the stunt he pulled when you first met. Guys way more cunning to compensate for his frail body. Never seen someone so ready to send the Darkness to hell along with him, as if you had a chance." Luxu lifted his foot and rolled Lucrecia over, pressing the Gazing Eye into he chest.

Light resonated at her chest as the keyblade was slowly starting to pass through her body. "I'll rip it out, not like a dead woman's gonna need this heart."

"Luxu...! Stop...! Please...!" Lucrecia was gasping for air

"What are you gonna do huh? Cry? Scream? Call for help? As if anyone's going to be coming for you losers."

The press of the keyblade had fully entered Lucrecia's chest, he could feel the press against Lucrecia's heart. She managed to summon what remaining strength she had left to press against the keyblade with all the strength she had remaining. Anxiety, Panic, Fear, all common things she was feeling at this very instant. Was this really about to be the moment where she faded...accomplishing nothing...still needing to find her foolish older sibling that abandoned the family? To leave Jay/Jaz to a similar fate?

Her heart was hanging about half way between her breast and the exposed air.

She saw it....


The World Between Sleep and Death.

...Sea and Sky however they never touched.

A sudden rush overcame Lucrecia. I'm exhausted...if I don't do something I'm going to be killed. I've expended everything I have. What do I do? What can I do?

"
Seh....se..........Sess....ion........." her free hand barely touching Jaz's body.

SURVIVAL INSTINCT
This was the will to survive overriding everything else.


The light waned as Luxu was about to pull his keyblade almost completely out of her chest with heart in tow. The Tattoo flickered, "IV" in and out and finally fizzled out. "Hmm?" Luxu paused for merely a moment to feel her resolve leave her for but a second. There was a brief pulse that was felt by Luxu, shattering the effect of his gravitational zone, prompting Jay to bolt towards Lucrecia at a remarkable speed. Luxu pressed into her chest and prepared to grab Jay as he got close. "Tch...As if."


THE PRECIPICE OF DEATH
Power granted to you in your final moments.

She opened her eyes, her expression was that of mass hysteria as her body shivered irrevocably and unable to stop herself from smiling. Death was close. Not yet. Not Yet. Not Yet. I can't die...not yet! Live...Use everything! It has to be now. I don't want to die here!

All the while Luxu clutched Jay by the throat with his other hand and squeezed the life out of him as his keyblade lay buried in Lucrecia's chest. Their shared brain was reaching its apex of fear as well, two hearts fighting to survive within the same body as Luxu squeezed even more so. Their tattoo burst with a rush of light as well as Lucrecia's from the floor as a reaction, activating their respective survival instincts. As Luxu held Jay/Jaz in his grasp, there was a sense of satisfaction from it all.

"Now we're talkin, that's what I wanted to see!" Luxu grinned, "Incredible, using a session to forcibly trigger the same response in their partner. As if. Who taught them that I wonder."

The Gazing Eye was slowly being forced out of Lucrecia's chest, and there was little he could do to stop this response. Lucrecia's Orbs multiplied and entered her and Jay's bodies. The incredible light they both gave off was reminiscent of watching a certain someone train alone. They turned his light against Luxu and he threw a white flag out of his pocket, signaling that he would not be getting his ass whooped right now.

"That'll be all. Finally dragged the response the master was looking for out of you two. We're going to call it for-"

The two of them keeled over unconscious fast as the adrenaline wore thin, they both collapsed.

"Great...now I'm carrying two dead bodies back to the Dormitories...As if."
 

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Memory Fragment: 58.4 [Shiki, Saebyeolbe, Lucrecia, Jay/Jaz, Iontis, Midna, Komaeda, Eth]
Location: The Dorms; Infirmary
Time: 1PM






Shiki sat at the bedside with her eyes occasionally drifting towards the heart monitor. She'd administered all of the proper urgent care with assistance from Iontis. Seems they both had some practice patching up their respective partners. Lucrecia was in the medical bed with the back raised and beside her in the following bed was Jay/Jaz.

"What exactly happened to them? These two have been out of commission for at least a week now." Midna was the first to inquire as she adjusted her hat.

"They've been under-performing for some time now. Did you not notice their grades and mission count has been exponentially low compared to the rest of the group."

"Iontis..." Midna trailed staring at Jay/Jaz.

"If I had to guess they were given some extra-credit type of evaluation and Luxu put them both through hell on the Master's orders. The wound above Lucrecia's chest is proof of that."


"The Master ordered Luxu to be that tough on them..? You can't be serious, they were both in critical condition when he brought them in, what did he have them do!" Sae clutched his fist and Shiki rest her hand on his shoulder and shook her head.

"Who cares about the means." A voice came from the doorway standing in the hall and everyone's eyes shifted to it

"What...?!" Sae reacted out of pure surprise.

"They are both blessed with so much wonderful talent, you'd never expect them to turn out to be flops right?" It was Komaeda as he eased in holding his back to the threshold of the door as he waved, "Maybe if they died instead, we could recruit two more that are worth our ti-"

"Komaeda. Thats enough." Shiki had a somewhat firm grip on Lucrecia's hand. "The report said an anomaly occurred to break Luxu's gravitational hold on the two of them and they quickly were prime position to overwhelm him. I'm proud of them both."

"Leave it to the twilighter to subdue my rationale. Fine, I'm genuinely delighted that they're alive and have shone that their light is to be feared."

"You...really thought...it was curtains for us...Nagito." Lucrecia spoke, with a slight pivot of her head towards the door.

"Hey. Don't go trying to move so freely, your injuries were substantial." Iontis protested.

A bandage was over her eye, but she turned her head and gasped for air, the pain was all welled up in her mid-section at the back of her head where she'd been kicked by Luxu multiple times. She had flashes of Jay/Jaz rushing towards her and disrupting Luxu before he could deliver the final blow and the response he provoked was hazy in her mind at best. She could see red.

Komaeda shrugged, "Your still alive aren't you? It's wonderful news, you can keep surprising me a while longer." tilting his head aways he smiled at Lucrecia in earnest.

"Ba...stard..." She fell asleep from the strain of motion.

Eth had been walking down the hall and managed to catch the tail end of the conversation. There was no pleasure to gain in the suffering and struggles of his allies, as he sighed he brushed past Komaeda in the door way, tapping him on the shoulder.

"Now's not the time to psychoanalyze your allies. Please leave Nagito." Eth said coldly, removing his hand just as quickly as it rest there.

"That light is radiant, but we're all friends here, I meant no one any true harm." his teeth were shone as he smiled.

"Keep the banter light. You've got injured allies in here, be respectful." Eth said approaching the middle of the two beds before kneeling down.

A touch was all that Eth needed before he used his light to swiftly scan the two of them. He'd been away for several days after returning to report on the incident with the Gallant Grave X assisted by Reforge and Try. Looking to Iontis and Shiki he gave them a reserved nod, exhibiting some humanity as he partly empathized with their best medical endeavors for their allies. Eth was always careful with his resolve, using it on his allies, never one to fully "undo" the effects of pain, injuries, and mild suffering. Those were tools that aided them in their development, remembering that pain is what built resilience, but these wounds inflicted were more than your standard in terms of severity.

Eth placed his hand on both of their chests.

"Eth! What are you doing!?" Sae shouted out of gut reaction, interpreting that as groping two women while they were at their most vulnerable.

"D-don't just go grabbing whatever you feel like!" Midna's lip whimpered as she pouted at him.

"Shiki. Please, help them to understand what I'm doing." Eth's hands radiated a warm light

"He's going to give them treatment beyond what Iontis and I can do with healing magic or medical skill."

What did you do to them Luxu...the scar on Lucrecia's chest is extremely wide. He thought as he regressed some of their most servere injuries to minor fractures before sliding his hands off their chests.

"I'll leave them to you Iontis and Shiki." Eth bowed graciously and exited without delay.

"Eth." Lucrecia's voice stopped him at the door. "Luxu sucks...and thank you...for not sucking."

"I'll pass your message along to him." There was a hint of a grin in the corner of his cheek, before Eth vanished into the hallway.
 

Ðari

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Memory Fragment: 62.5 [Try, Komaeda]
Location: Arcadia; Servant's Quarters
Time: 2PM





Try had a loathsome attitude staring at the skirt, "This maid uniform is uncomfortable. Maids are overrated."

"Oh well I think this uniform is quite comfy." There was a collar and chain dangling from his neck.

Masochist vibes, definitely. She thought to herself as she held up a tray in her hands. The other maids were staring at Try's helmet rather intensely, before carrying on, it was odd but they'd seen weirder things in Arcadia. The truth of the matter is, they were merely standing in for Jay/Jaz with their recovering coming along and Yamato was off duty today. The master would later regret pairing the two of them after what was about to happen.

Try dropped the tray and the drinks swirled around on the table, yet surprisingly not a single drop spilled anywhere.

"You there." A woman's voice meaning to grab Try's attention. "Those muscles..." she rubbed her hands as her feet rested on Komaeda's back.

"Nice, your usin' him as a foot rest. Serves'em right." Try's mask couldn't conceal her delight for Nagi's torment, "You too can have muscles like mine if you train right."

"H-hey, what did I even do??" Komaeda said holding the woman's feet up, bewildered by his predicament.

She pulled on the chain baring around his neck as she folded her legs and her eyes were on the "shinier" than normal maid. Not that she could see it, but there was a twitch in Try's eye as she saw how hard she tugged at the chain, before placing a single boot on Nagito's head and twisting the soft patch of his hair.

"A slave should understand that they're here to serve."

"Serve? What? I've only got one master, this is just temporary." As honest as ever, Try took one of the glasses and held it close to the helmet. "So thirsty...hey, mind looking away for a second?"

Her veins started to run through her left temple. The impudence from a mere maid, "Serve the tea, don't drink it." there was a sign of restraint in her voice.

"Fine. If your gonna look..." she held the cup to her helmet, no hint of an opening of any kind, and she placed the cup down after a load slurp and it was bone dry. "Ahhh...like magic, it's gone."

"Huh?? What? HOW?" that build up of ire was quickly replaced with a combination of amazement and outright confusion.

"Yeah, she does that, I stopped questioning it." he said, still feeling the weight of her boot on his head.

"I already said, its like magic. Thats how. Are we done here Nagi?" Try was beginning to grow sick of the maid get up, she leaned over and picked him up watching the woman's boot hit the floor.

"You wretch!" Her hair punched four holes through Try, two at the ankles and two at the wrists and she twisted. "Show some respect for General Ryoko. Let me hear your scre-"


BANG!

Try brought down a thunderous slam to Ryoko's head with a head-splitting headbutt. "IIIIIIIIITAAAAAAAAAIIIIIIIIIIIIII!!!!!!" Ryoko let out a sharp scream of pain, withdrawing her hair. Try blank twice, wincing the third, those little pricks had some weird effect and she cast an Esuna spell to wipe any status effects from it's minor annoyance. Cracking her knuckles, that little display was certainly bold of the woman to try on the #3. There was a slow rise of a lump and knot springing through Ryoko's hairline. Her lip quivered, as she gripped her knife and Try readied her fist this time.

"Don't get the wrong idea or anything, these maid uniforms they-"

"Not even going to apologize for your impudence!? Tch. Men, get in here NOOOOOOOW!"

A burst of force hit the door entering the quarters and there were at least a dozen men. Emblazoned with the sigil of the empire on their left shoulders, some of them were kitted out in armor, others were heavily vested in typical uniform. They raised their rifles and pointed them directly at Try and Komaeda who was being held by the leash now by Try.

"This doesn't look good, I don't want to hurt ALL of them. Do something about this Nagi!" she pulled him up by the neck and chain as he only had his right eye exposed. It illuminated with his wakeful sleep and he began to speak after he coughed for air. "Your master commands you, Ryoko and her men, you'll let us leave these quarters and forget we were even here."

Komaeda's power was weird. You had to be there to actually kind of see it play itself out, as Ryoko and her men stepped to clear a path for the two of them to waltz right out of the quarters without issue. Try still had her hand gripped around the chain attached to his neck and lightly tugged him along as though he were her man slave. And I thought that vile woman would be the death of me, this is worse, his thoughts were loud and clear.

In her stupor, Ryoko came to her senses as her men were standing there armed with rifles and the pain hit her head all at once with zero recollection of how she sustained the injury. She let out a shriek a second time as if this were her first time experiencing the helm splitter technique anew. "ITAI! What the hell!? MEN! WHO DID IT!"
 

Ðari

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Memory Fragment: 67.6 [Shiki, Lucrecia, Jay/Jaz, Saebyeolbe]
Location: Twilight Town; Train Station > Mysterious Tower
Time: 4PM







The train was quiet. It was empty for all except four passengers, it was a single car that carried with it Saebyeolbe sitting beside Shiki and opposite of them, Lucrecia sitting beside Jay/Jaz. There was a deathly silence that had fallen over the group, Lucrecia looking the window, Shiki was briefly skimming her personal notes, while Saebyeolbe scratched his head nervously as Jaz was staring at him.

"There a reason we're even here right now, we aren't the most excited to be re-instated for the usual lessons." Lucrecia spoke to break the silence, out of a fit of grumpiness. Her hand pressed into her chest, she could feel the slight imprint of the scar, Eth's talent was nothing short of impressive.

"How are you two feeling?" Shiki inquired sincerely, "Sae suggested we take you someone to relax on our day off. A train ride to the Mysterious Tower was what he suggested."

"How...are we feeling...? What's it to you...?" Jay had a sharp emotional response, "
I feel like complete shit. Powerless. THAT what you wanna hear me say?"

"Hey, take it easy. She asked out of concern and she's doing her best to put you at ease, we both are. Lets not fight, please?" Sae placed his hands together and pleaded.

The sound of the trains over-horn was enough to shake everyone from their frazzle to focus only on the sound there of it. Moving along the tracks, Shiki stood up opened the window by her side of the car. The vastness of yellows, blues, and clouds between as the tracks seemed to forge themselves mere seconds before the train rolled over them. A kind of magic none of them on the car were clearly capable of, but it didn't make it any less impressive. They rolled along before the train itself suddenly...stopped?

"Theres a blockade out there." Shiki said looking through the window. "Anti-personnel from the Empire?"



Just over the tracks...


"Get the behemoths set up. We're gonna hijack the train this time, no rebels are gonna escape, ya hear me Glace?" the red hair man quipped, as boarded a giant heartless.

"Haruka, don't bark orders at me!" The one called Glace, prompted his halberd and raised it up.

The shadows started to swarm around them as they made their way towards the train car. From the top, you could hear a hatch slide open, and slowly out from top came Lucrecia first, followed by Jay/Jaz. The looks on their faces were far from ones filled with any manner of delight.

"Didn't expect anyone to actually come out of the training willingly, but you'll do for now. Might you people be rebel scum!"

The look of impatience and ire in Lucrecia's eyes as she scowled so menacingly it sent a chill down Haruka's spine.

What a wicked look, so unbecoming of a lady! She's a demon! Haruka thought to himself before raising his own blade.

"Get out of the way. I'm not in the mood to jerk around with anyone, not even you idiots! Move it, or else!!" Lucrecia violently shouted at the blockade.

"Gonna chose 'else' today lass. Sorry not sorry." Glace doubled down tapping his halberd on the track.

"FINE! I'LL MAKE YOU GET THE HELL OUTTA THE WAY!" she stomped her foot summoning her lucient to her hand.

"Recia, calm dow-" Sae was quickly cut off by her fit of rage.

"Jay lets take them down right now. Come on!"

"No. The last thing we want to do is reveal who we are to that faction of opponent. We were prompted to gather information regarding the Empire, not to blindly antagonize them and interfere when unnecessary. Throw the train in reverse." Shiki pulled the lever back and the train started to roll backwards.

"TO HELL WITH THAT. LETS GO JAY!" Lucrecia shouted as the body of a serpent funneled out of the hatch of the train.

Jay was enraged right along with Lucrecia and used their shape-shifting gift to take the form of a massive mythical dragon. The train was already heading the opposite direction and the tracks would soon disappear as those two fools were airborne. Looking only towards the blockade of heartless and Empire goons, Lucrecia's summoned Noct & Diem over each shoulder before guiding her orb targeting system remotely. Clasping her hands she shoot an insanely potent heated beam directly down upon the two Behemoths and the front and Jay's released an intense blast of ice from it's dragon breath.

Shiki smacked her head in slight panic, "She's never been this reckless...Luxu really left a scar didn't he...on both of them."

"Forgive me, Lucrecia, Jay/Jaz..." Saebyeolbe made brief eye contact with Shiki before he dug his heels in.

Sae jumped straight out as they were charging their attacks respectively with chains linked to all of his limbs being puppeteered by Shiki. He gave a swift strike to both vitals, as Lucrecia fell unconscious within seconds and her orbs dematerialized, where as Jay returned to human shape. Snatching them both up, Shiki pulled them all down through the hatch and shut it tight as the train was now moving at full speed in reverse.

"What just happened? Cowards! Don't run after all that talk, ITS RUDE!!!" Haruka stamped his feet making note that the railway was disappearing as the train rolled in reverse.

"What do you think, rebel scum? Should we chase after them?" Glace turned to Haruka awaiting his reply.

"Ahhh to hell with them. We should rendezvous back with Ryoko, this area's been secured anyway. Rebels would've pushed through here regardless of the numbers." He shrugged and flicked his wrist, snapping. "I'd like to get my hands on Derrick and Concordia...now those two are worth torturing."


"Don't...say weird shit like that...ever." Glace sighed and pressed two fingers into his temple and rubbed.



Back on the train...


As Lucrecia slowly started to open her eyes, she was laying on Shiki's lap of all places. "Wha-" in a stupor she suddenly jerked forward. "What happened?"

"You nearly revealed your identity, and Sae and I acted swiftly and salvaged the situation. You two are back on the train."

Jaz was sitting up with her arms folded, a scowl formed and she sucked her teeth. "Are you just gonna continue to baby us, treat us like we're not on par with the rest of you. We didn't ask for your help or your pity."

"We act on direct orders, thats why we're resolutes. I couldn't just stand by and watch you both just go ballistic." Sae protested

"Shut up Sae, that chivalry nonsense you go on about is wasted. You think I wanna be saved from peril every time something goes sideways? There's no honor in sparing me from ALL of it." Jay chimed in and he was about equally as miffed as Jaz was.

Shiki heard them loud and clear, but there were consequences to misuse and mistiming of intervention. It wasn't a lesson she could force upon her allies, one she herself knew very well. "Then direct all that rage at me then. I asked Sae to knock you both out, the blame is mine."

The two of them looked at Shiki, somehow with much less conviction in their rage as she took complete ownership here. Their nerves wavered, before they submitted to her unexpected honesty.

"Maybe we did go a bit...off the rails...aha ha....yeah sorry, not the time for jokes. We're sorry." Lucrecia nervously scratched her head. "We're just...really frustrated to find a way to prove ourselves not only to the master, but in front of our peers whom we admire also."

Shiki clasped her hands and offered smile, before she grasped Lucrecia's hand and Jaz's. "There's no rush. We're allies aren't we? I'm sure Sae would agree, we'll be as supportive of your goals as we can." they turned to Sae and he reaffirmed Shiki's words with a grin and a gracious nod.
 

Ðari

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Memory Fragment: Darkness 2 [ALL]
Location: High Ground; The Temple > World's Edge
Time: 12PM





This was the hallmark of the resolute's sacred ground. High Ground, returning here for the second time since the beginning of their coming together, the lush green grasslands that overlooked the temple. Memory served, Eth, Shiki, and Saebyeolbe came to honor the previous masters at this temple. The Master had a much more complex conversation to have with the group this time around, as questions of doubt circulated from Lucrecia and Jay's recent examination using Luxu as a proxy.

"Tension's thick today, but I'm glad you all could make it here today. I've much to answer for."

The look of eagerness, anxiety, and exasperation was spread across a few of their faces. The Master scanned his head, unable to read Luxu, Try, and Eth's expressions. Shiki, Sae, and Iontis had pensive expressions. Iontis, Midna, and Yamato's faces were more or less their normal wear. Reforge and Komaeda were smiling fairly abnormally, while Lucrecia and Jay/Jaz had similarly ire-inspired expressions on their faces.

"Theirs a few things I'll go in the order of my choosing. The first is the matter of our Intel and dealings with the Empire's forces." The master took a breath before he continued.

"They should pose no such threat in their endeavors to conquer as many worlds as possible. It's simply an exercise to expose you each to the politics of war and to observe conquerors first hand. The actions they've taken has stirred a rebellion, nowhere in the future that I've foreseen shows that any of you directly impact or are needed to interfere in the rebels fight. It's to give you a perspective, nothing more. Continue to observe as you are assigned."

Try raised her hand, "Speak lord helmet Try." the master snickered.

"Please don't make me wear a maid uniform again..." you could hear the loathing in her tone, "I really don't like maids. Overrated."

"I can't make any promises dear. The Empire can't know your true identities, having to get involved in a power struggle of that scale isn't why you're gathered...which is a perfect Segway for the next topic I haven't addressed directly. The X-class heartless you've encountered up til now." he tried to condense his thoughts.

The master could feel the tension as he'd mentioned those heartless. "Well...no where did I forsee this threat. Where to begin?" he entered a deranged train of thought as he paced on the stone and granite twirling his finger. "Ya see. These are...well...extremely potent hearts we're dealing with, pure-blood heartless. All the data suggests that they're former Guardians of Light. In short, powerful hearts embody these X-class heartless. They're much more difficult to fell with ease, as I'm sure you've realized from your choice encounters."

"Guardian's of light...?" Iontis leaned in, "If powerful people became heartless...the scope of this threat seems more than just minor, no disrespect master, but shouldn't we be more forceful on this matter?"

"I agree with Iontis." Komaeda's voice permeated the air, "We can't let the likes of these heartless scum trouble us further, send the order to execute them."

Eth sighed, "If we weren't able to fight one in a set without myself of Luxu there, what is the point in sending the rest of you? None of you are ready to fight at that caliber yet, their escapes are a direct result of giving you chances to close-"

"Coming from you who chased our target away by moving? Don't move. Better yet, don't even go." Try wasn't in the mood for this today.

As Eth was about to respond, Lucrecia did, "He took out one of those heartless as it was about to decimate me and Iontis. That enough proof for me."

The master tossed the heartless emblem like it was a coin to Try's feet. "The remains, in case you needed convincing...oh and just one more thing."

He wagged his finger in a tizzy, and he turned to Lucrecia and Jay/Jaz. "I understand theirs a bundle of duress surrounding you two and the extra lesson I offered with Luxu." the master clasped his hands a gave a quick rub, "It was as intended and Luxu communicated my intentions very clear. You all consented individually, you all resolved be it for personal reasons and the like, but make no mistake things will become increasingly more dangerous and stressful as time goes on. I will ensure that every effort is made to prepare you for those extrapolating and high stress situations, but all I ask of not just you two." he placed his palms on Lucrecia and Jay/Jaz's shoulders. "Everyone here, I ask that all of you put forth the time and effort to prepare, to become more mindful, and to grow more powerful alongside your partners and fellow comrades."

"Ya see...that right there. That was the answer I was looking for Master. Wonderful!" Komaeda blushed as his face flushed a bright red, but only briefly.

"However, it has to be noted...the methods used, where not what I would've liked or taken in order to push you both to that state." There were traces of remorse in his voice.

"As if. Old man." Luxu shrugged his shoulders, he rolled his eyes beneath the coat and hood.

The master gave a soft clap as he stepped away from Jay and Lucrecia and started to thumb through the resolute ushering them to follow him. Moving away from the shrine now, he took them to the World's Edge, a cliff that showed nothing but the harsh rapids and waterfall crashing effortlessly into what looked like a bottomless pit. The Master raised his arms and a platform of sorts started to rise slowly from the depths of the water.

"This is the last thing I wanted to show you...The Dive To Heart (Heart Station)." he had them glimpsed at the platform, seeing the stained glass. You'd notice something extremely familiar about this platform.

Everyone's faces where found somewhere on this platform, twelve spots, followed by the Master posing in the middle of the platform holding the book of prophecies. Pulling the book from under his coat, he opened it and read to them a passage from the prophecy.

"Thirteen lights will take up arms against seven Darknesses. In the wake of this great battle only cataclysm and ruin await. The World-line will end, and as it was foretold Darkness will prevail and Light expire." he closed the book and slowly pointed to each individual frame on the platform.

"This place was as much of a shrine for light-dwellers to come pray as it was a grave to express condolences and grief. This world is protected by the Light of Kingdom Hearts and forever sits as a sanctuary from the dark, the in between, the sleeping worlds, and even Death/Unreality." he folded his arms behind his back and paced onto the platform and light began to illuminate from all of the frames.

"You will know struggle. You will know suffering. You will have to make impossible decisions and question if you made the correct choice. You will experience the precipice of death. Your wills shall be tested, but do not let your resolves waiver." he held his hand up and took a bow at the center of the platform, "May your heart be your guiding key. In the coming months, I'll do my best to prepare you for the inevitable end that is to befall this world-line, I need you all to take ownership and re-balance the worlds once all hell breaks loose as I will not be around."

"Master..." Shiki had a fleeting sense of worry in her tone.

"It will be done, Master." Eth gave his neutral vote of confidence.

"Maaaaaaster! You can count on me and Giant Lady!"

"Long as I can hit stuff, they don't stand a chance." Try cracked her knuckles.

The voice became innumerable as they began to talk amongst themselves at this current revelation. Sae was in a different mode of thought, considering the weight of the burdens were set to increase he had a sense of uneasiness. Folding his arms he stared blankly at his spot on the platform before saying this to the Master of Masters.

"..But why does your prophecy...mean you have to leave us...?"

Silence filled the air, this was one of the most valid questions anyone had asked so far.

"Why...will you not be around, to face the calamity with us? Master, please. Tell us."

The master took a pause, probably more so than normal which was unusual for even him. Collecting himself, his hands began to move and he found his voice. "Whenever I gift my power, Omni, to others. It cuts my lifespan down substantially. One day, I will disappear, and the twelve of you will have your parts to play in aiding the world-line after the calamity. Til the day we re-unite, i will wait for you all at the end of time."

There was knee jerk reaction felt emitting from Sae that seemed to provoke identical responses across the remainder of the group save for the more emotionally controlled. A hysterical break towards the master as the lot of them bolts to clutch onto the master almost like a massive group hug scenario.

"Not the reaction I was expecting, but you asked for the truth, your all still so young so I suppose it can't be helped!" he extended his arms to cup around his resolutes that grasped at him tightly.
 

Ðari

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Special Memory: Trust Resolute Three
Location: Dark World; Lower Zone > Valley of Darkness
Time: ????





Dark World; Lower Zone

The feint shades of blue that was upon the rocks was really something. The presence of darkness was quite literally everywhere, not a single step without that imminent sensation of the dark. A power in the presence of even Try, rivaled, perhaps in a small group, but in the face of endless waves, quantifiable. The dreaded neoshadows began to swim beneath the surface and frantically crawl towards her. Freeing themselves from the floor, they attacked with a furious spin.

This wasn't what you'd say was normal. Life, a life worth living, was more of a question that eluded her for a time and then some. What was "normal"? Try raised her hand almost annoyed, catching the neoshadow's leg and slamming it into the white sand. She crushed the heartless' head beneath her heel and and released a sigh. They were everywhere, the Dark World was at the very least far from barren, but the place where she could be her self. The countless pairs of yellow eyes seem to all direct their focus on her, the heart worth capturing.

"He said I could choose...it's harder than it looks." Try sighed, her free hand tapped the side of the helmet while the other was dragging a jagged keyblade across the white sand.

Yellow eyes were absolutely everywhere, occupying the space in massive droves, lusting to feast on the powerful heart of a Resolute. It'd seem like things were dire, but in truth, there was an escalation that lead Try here. She reflected on a conversation that she'd had prior, one that was outside of the norm with the Master. As she held her breath for moments, the images populated on the inside of her head.



~~~~~~~~

"Whats the purpose of staying here?" The master repeated the question he was asked so bluntly, "Well my dear, that's up to you to figure out right along with all these other misfits here."

She rolled her eyes under the helm, "Master...I'm a killer...there is no normal for me." she sternly folded her arms.

"You think everyone else here is so different from you? Have you bothered talking to any of them about their histories."

There was a burst of laughter that came from Try, the sheer irony of what he was asking her. "Ahahahahaha, what? No! NO." there was a bit of a nerve pinching hesitation in her replies, "B-besides! Who's just gonna volunteer private information! Its RUDE."

"Try." The master said with a pause of concern, "That mask doesn't suit you. I've told you this. It's not gonna bury the pages of the past you worked so hard to escape."

He poured her a glass of tea as well as himself, pressing the cup to his lips concealed beneath the hood, she too did the same with the helmet on. It was at this point, this was "normal" as the liquid vanished out of the cup as she placed it down empty. The explanation? Irrelevant, it was gone and she'd made quick work of the cup's tea.

"I'm gonna send you to the Dark World today. Nothing in particular, but airing out some of those pent up feelings would do much better service to you. The only thing I ask of you." there was a pause as he clicked a pen and wrote something on a piece of paper and slid it across the table to her, "I want you to read this note from me after you've pulled some of the frustration out. Not a moment before."

"Passing notes...? Hmm. Ok Master, I'll wait on it for now."

The master placed the note in her hand and she proceeded to tuck it under her red suit, zipping it to the neck. From his study there was a flow of light, as he ripped a tear directly in front of them, and it flooded with a pure black with a hint of indigo. The corridor became one of darkness and it lead to the Lower Zone. Through it briefly you could see the glowing blue stumps of half-chopped trees, emitting cerulean pools of darkness. There was a smile unseen on the master's face as this perilous area, had unfortunately upscaled throughout his time and it was nothing less than absolutely ruthless.

"Theres one more heartless, the Terminus X that recently made an appearance down here. Being that you'll be alone, you need only collect what data you can on it. The Dark World is especially ruthless when going alone, but I suspect it's a good way for you to combat some of those feelings you've actively been suppressing if nothing else."

He took a step to the side and pat her on the back before sending Try on her way. His door slowly opened and he made eye contact with another Resolute. Cutting them a smirk, "Just can't help yourself-"



~~~~~

[Paramore - Part II]

Dark World; Valley of Darkness


Try was beginning to think to herself that she'd never find this needle in a haystack. It was already starting to annoy her, she was swift rebounding the heartless before they could even get within a certain range, using the entropy from her footsteps alone. There was a mild grind at her teeth, these heartless...murderers of comrades and friends alike that she had vivid flashes from her personal history. It was always like this, she was always the last one standing in every situation...because like hell she'd just lay down and accept death. A critical question that was often pushed to the very depths of her heart, she knew that feeling well.

As she wandered through the levels for an unknown amount of time, her suit had tinges of black splattered all over it from head to toe. The surfaces of the Dark World had since then changed dramatically. It was as if Try where walking upon a frozen surface of darkness itself, and the sky lamented with shades of black, indigo, and violet. There was an interesting bit here, a single heartless was standing in the middle of the ice, menacingly capitulating the darkness it resonated in. Human-like, it matched the description that the Master had given Try and she was livid.

"Do you have any idea HOW LONG I've been looking for you...YOU!" She pointed her finger at the heartless menacingly, a potent vent for her frustration. "Ugh"

There was a slow turn from the heartless, now identified as the Terminus X heartless. Surrounding the physical body of the heartless, were iron chains in a ridiculous number. There was a dreadful feeling, one accompanied by a kind of hatred that was unprecedented. The helmet was no buffer for this kind of hate, it turned it's head as it's slender figure had the most menacing stare that cut through the visor. Try felt a slight tremble, her sense of danger was right, accompanied by a small of army of pure-blood heartless of multiple types, waltzing towards the two of them and halting at a distance as if they feared the two of them.

"Tch. Not like I was gonna run anyhow, come here!" She shouted with a swift dash moving towards the Terminus X.

She was forewarned, all of these "X" heartless had some level of sentience, it could hear her heels cracking the ice from the sheer grip of her full-body physical strength. The Chains burrowed into the ice and budding from one another traveling through the ice before prodding through rattling at her feet, and clasping at her keyblade. Tugging back, she felt ample resistance and insisted on slamming that things' face into the ice from this tug of war contest, but it wouldn't budge. Finally, like a stove top light, it hit her then.

"Oh...duh!" She de-summoned her keyblade, watching it's tugging break and fall backwards. As she bolted towards it, she grabbed the chains, and it just detached them from it's back. "Your not supposed to adapt you bastard!"

She was so irritated that she punched the ice with so much force and echoed the force of the punch to ripple multiple times through the ice, before it started to rapidly crack. Those cracks in the ice rippled and pinged, cracking several times over heading directly towards the Terminus X. The ice gave in and snapped into massive slabs, the dust from the residue created a low-visibility scene and you could hear Try charging along the ice chunks sliding and falling inward. These heartless may have been mindless, but they seemed to have enough sense to not even attempt to waltz towards either of the two. As Try swiped forward, and blew away the dust and residue as the Terminus X was sliding towards the underside of the ice.

"There you are!" She shouted triumphantly bringing down her keyblade with nothing less than impressive force. It jumped away a mere moment before impact and rode the momentum from the air pressure she sent in an outward radius in all directions. "WHY DO THEY ALWAYS RUN! GET BACK HERE!"

She had angled herself and adjusted the arc of her next jump. Head on with an arm extended for a grab as she inched closer and closer to the Heartless that was sort of locked into a full-on retreat jump itself. Releasing it's chains, Try echoed the air pressure she just created once again, to deflect the chains away from their intended path of travel. As she inched closer and closer she clutched the heartless by the neck and the strangest thing happened. She briefly squeezed with an unbreakable grasp, but it produced in her mind extremely troubling images before her.

"Huh...?" suddenly there were a few latent tears behind the helmet, as if a latent memory that'd been suppressed started to overflow all at once. "S-s-Stop! I don't want this, what are you...!"

Before Try knew, like a knee-jerk reaction she released her grip and the Terminus X fled, into a dark portal. Try's knees touched the ice first before she barreled into a roll and skid on her back on an ascending piece of broken ice. Once she reached the apex, she slowly started to slide down it in slow motion, dropping her keyblade and it had already hit the frozen water. Still dazed by whatever the hell it is she just saw, those surrounding heartless finally started moving on her location.

There was a loud THUD, at the top of the ice as she slid on the bottom part of the ice slab. The see-saw effect happened and she was launched upward, her body flailed along tumbling through the air. She came crashing down hard as she was sliding around on her belly twirling before she finally stopped moving. The "Red Eyes" appeared before her, with a leaping lunge as she stood up and grappled it by the neck, slamming it into icy surface and hard, this section was basically a glacier, barely cracking at all. The grip of Try's muscles had firmly secured the feral heartless and she placed it in a choke hold, steadily squeezing the life out of it, talking to herself.

"Why...why didn't you just listen to me....!!!" Try sounded more delusional than you'd probably be used to hearing, as if a ghost was haunting her at the present. "W-we could've ran...we could've found refuge with the master together...! WHY!"


Try's emotions were beginning to spiral to the surface, and the power of her resolve was growing from benign to an outright overclock. The air rippled tremendous amounts of pressure outward, like several fists beating against a wall, the where were imprints all along the Dark Hide firmly wrestled under her arm. The pressure was so intense, it was splattering in her clutches, coating her in black ink as the yellow eyes were now within meters of her, ready to avenge their fallen kin.

"Is that all then...Master? I'm just...another murderer then..." there was an eerie feeling as the heartless were splattering left and right. "Can I do nothing...other than destroy..."

A black rain fell upon the ice, inking it in pools of heartless physical remains. She was soaked from head to toe, feeling the imprints and puddles of the goop and residue they left behind. Her helmet was more obsidian in color than usual, a shine from the heartless dunk slathered all over it and she slowly walked on the ice, from that section and there wasn't a single thing moving around her left alive. She purged her keyblade into her hand, and it was becoming quickly coated in black from it's usual glass-like appearance. Suddenly she stopped walking and remembered the master's note.

"Oh...that's right..." he reached by her neck and fished out the piece of paper. "What did you-" her eyes widened.

Don't carry your regrets.

Don't push them down and pretend.
You are as you are, and here, you are loved.
Everyone here, much like yourself, is flawed and has had to face incredible challenges.
So share your stories, support each other, and heal together.
You'll always have allies, just turn around.

No really, turn around.


-MoM

"Turn around...?" Try turned her head and who would've guessed it "You!"

Ethernal purged into his grasp, "It's past curfew and you weren't in the dorms or your room, I came looking for you." it was Eth. "Look at you. You're absolutely covered in the enemies scent."

"What the hell are YOU doing here! Are you why they ran again?! COME ON!" Try was steadily putting distance between her and her moment of vulnerability.

"Are you okay?" Eth gave his usual quick and to the point reply, "You can grill me when we're not in the middle of enemy territory alright?"

Her head jerked, there it was again, another tear. What was this, actual concern for her safety, probably just business as usual. What he said next however completely threw that out the window.

"Your not saying anything. I'll assume something happened and you don't want to talk about it, thats fine. It's a relief that you're ok." even with his tone, you could tell there was merit and concern to be had. "Let's go home Try." Eth generated a portal of light before them.

Try smiled, crossing the threshold of light with Eth and returned home.
 

Ðari

the crown is heavy
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Author's Notes: Oh boy, I haven't written one of these small bits of correspondence in a few years by the looks of it

02.02.2023

Alright so most of the recent chain of posts have all been steadily having more consistent follow up and relate to previous/existing memories posted. This is more for my remaining roleplayers to refer to as a reference point. Over time I will be writing individual solo memories based on feedback and information i've been given about each characters' personal history and traumas associated.

Be on the lookout for "Trust Resolute ???" Special Memories if they relate to your PC. A few of you have already put some flashbacks in the main thread and I will make mention of those in the respective memories as well.
 
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