• Hello everybody! We have tons of new awards for the new year that can be requested through our Awards System thanks to Antifa Lockhart! Some are limited-time awards so go claim them before they are gone forever...

    CLICK HERE FOR AWARDS

Fanfiction ► The ORG Intermission: Enmity [Completed - Editing in progress]]



REGISTER TO REMOVE ADS
Status
Not open for further replies.

Izayoi

galactic cancer
Joined
May 17, 2007
Messages
6,355
Age
30
Location
The Land of Sand and Prisms
Re: The ORG Intermission: Enmity

XII

Clouds, or at least the cluster of airships that gave the illusion there were clouds, had cleared, allowing the blistering sun to shine down on the cemetery. Minerva was walking down a dirt path; it was one of four of the long, narrow clearings created by the space the eruption of magical energy had not paved over. Keyblades littered the ground to both sides, almost endlessly.

A dust storm had picked up as she neared the crossroads of the paths, making it difficult to see or move as fast as she wanted to. She wiped the dirt that collected on her visor out of the way. When she neared, Minerva could see a flickering light emitting from a blob of a human-shaped shadow; a sign of life. But her heart dropped; it was orange, just like the energy the dark wielders gave off. She hurried forward, and her vision of the figure sharpened.

A single person was hunched over, quaking in pain, too distracted by their suffering to look up at her. Minerva saw black armor; the same ornate, spiky armor that the wielder who challenged Al’s wore. However, they had no helmet, and she recognized their identity immediately. His head was down, but the white hair was a clear give-away.

“Al’s!” Minerva called, relieved. She smiled, and ran over to him. He was probably the last person she could call a friend, to think she would have lost-

His head snapped up, reacting to her voice. The intimidating eyes that stared, hungrily, were not the ones she had seen when they were inside the golem, even though the rest of the face matched. They were fluorescent and orange. Al’s, or whoever it was, flared his teeth; he was fixated on her like an animal ready to jump its prey. His arm stretched out, and a Keyblade appeared.

That made her surer than ever that it was not Al’s. The Keyblade she was seeing was unlike any she had seen before. It was huge; twice the length of any other Keyblade. In fact, it looked as though it were made of two Keyblades combined, crossing together with a web-like blade rising from between. It was startling that he could even hold it up, but he seemed to have recovered and was in top condition.

Minerva was anything but ready for a fight, especially with another person close to her, but her flight or fight instinct kicked in and she found herself prepared to defend herself with her Keyblade. Al’s grinned with sinister intent, and Minerva shivered; that was nothing like the weakened yet friendly smile he flashed at her before.

Before Al’s could make a move, they noticed a swarm of black gliders circling above. They flew down, landing behind Al’s. All of them were dark wielders; the same black-armored ones, except they brought a few friends. After landing, they approached Al’s cautiously, but after he gave them a show of his new eyes and Keyblade, they were at ease. The dark wielders, at least ten of them, turned their attention to Minerva.

Now she wanted to run. Fear kept her in place. However, they all looked to Al’s for leadership. He pointed and waved his hand wordless, and all but one of the wielders took off at his command. Al’s looked to the final one at his side, and tilted his head towards Minerva. The black-armored apprentice obliged.

Their hand crackled with the orange lightning Minerva had seen when watching the wielders before, prompting her to panic for her life and start backing up. When the bolts grew in size and loudness she had mounted her glider in less than a second, trying to escape as quickly as possible. Seeing Al’s changed was already too much; she felt like she was in no state to fight. Dark magic grazed her shoulder and chipped off some of the armor. Minerva dove to the side to avoid any more.

Behind her, the dark wielder flew. His Keyblade had turned less into a glider and more into a pair of wings which attached to his armor and gave him more freedom for his arms. This turned out to be quite useful as he pursued Minerva with a barrage of dark magic. There were a few pointed mountain tops passed by, so she zigzagged around them to create space between her and the assailant. It did little to help, but as she rounded a rocky precipice, Minerva rotated, morphing the section between her handlebars into small cannon. The dark wielder was met with a ball of light magic to the face. The wielder crashed onto a small ledge sticking out from the mountain.

He shrieked ferociously; a mix of anger and a wailing battle cry. The electricity in his hands formed two blades of pure heat, which he banged together a few times to test their stability. Minerva hovered closer and landed, knowing she needed her weapon in its most useful state, but his opponent was still able to leave the ground at will.

Fighting a flying enemy on foot was more challenging than she anticipated. Not only did he have two weapons, separate from his Keyblade, to keep her busy, but he had far more maneuverability. Minerva blocked, then had to parry again immediately, then block once more from the recoil. It was exhausting. Her position was easily manipulated, and her heels were soon nearing the edge of the cliff. The dark wielder hammered down with his blades in a final, decisive blow, leaving Minerva to grasp her Keyblade in both hands and try not to get pushed over. Irritated at her stalwartness, he quickly slid one of his blades from hers and swung underneath to pierce her in the stomach.

He was putting all of his weight into the attack, so Minerva lifted a foot and twisted her body around, throwing the force past her over the cliff. Gravity and the force of the wielder’s jetpack were on her side, and he unintentionally toppled forward. The moment of opportunity was long enough for Minerva to get behind the wielder and jump onto his back. She held onto him by the wings and yanked, pulling his upper body backwards and over; he thrashed around, trying to balance himself, and took off at a higher speed to shake her. Minerva clung to the glider, but at the same time drove her Keyblade into her enemy’s back. She heard a number of clicks, and sparks flew from the device.

As the wielder lost control of his Keyblade, the two were caught in an intense ride of loops and rolls and dives that had Minerva using every fiber of her being to not succumb to motion sickness and hang on. The instant she felt she may have been right-side-up, she pulled down harder on the nearest wing, not steadying them but aiming; one of the peaks were nearby. They crashed head-on. The wielder was stuck to the rocky precipice, his armor jammed between boulders and divots, and almost unconscious as a result of the impact.

Minerva jumped off his back, feeling herself fall for only a moment before her Keyblade transformed into her own version of the back-mounted glider. Rising up, she stared down the wielder who had managed to disorient her more than her enemies usually did. Parts from her Keyblade disassembled themselves from the glider and floated around her wrist, shaping into some circular pattern. They revolved and glowed and crackled with magic much like the lightning she had witnessed. This was her brand of magic, though. The kind coming from someone who had to push away a lot of feelings before heading off to a pointless war and who had to watch more and more people die and who was very, very grateful to finally get to look down at an opponent as the weaker one before she eviscerated them.

The shards of her Keyblade spun like a turbine; she directed her hand and unleashed the blast. The laser was wider than she expected; it stretched to her height. It also poured forth without end. The dark wielder, with his proximity, was vaporized easily, as well as the mountain on which he was stuck. Behind that mountain was a wider one, which had a hole bored directly through it. Past that, a crater was formed form the intensity of the volatile magic. When the attack had ceased, Minerva was looking straight down a perfectly-carved cylinder through a pair of towering crags. She had no idea she was capable of it.

In the distance, where they had flown from, flashes of light epileptically reflected off the clouds and blowing sand. Minerva turned her glider back to normal, and leaned on the handlebars, panting behind her visor and ignoring the burning sensations in her arms. When she had caught her breath, she flew.

~~~~~

There was definitely something going on back at the cross. Minerva landed before getting too close to avoid being seen, and crept through the field of Keyblades to see what had happened to the dark wielder.

In the middle of the crossroads, there he stood, in his lightning-toting glory. His former comrades were circled around him; for whatever reason they seemed to be defending themselves. The dark wielder attacked one before turning and shooting orange tendrils at another. When someone tried to attack him from behind, he slashed without looking around. The X-Blade cleaved through armor like it was paper, slaying members of the group in one cleave. It shone even in the dusty air, and blood ran off of it as if it were water. The length looked cumbersome yet it moved with such fluidity. Minerva could only see it as a fantastic weapon; she did not yet know what made it so special.

Standing above the bodies, he took a step, but faltered. His hand twitched, and then his arm shook. The X-Blade dropped from the other fist. The helmet echoed with guttural shouts; the wielder held his head in his hands and struggled to stay standing. Minerva shot up, seeing weakness, and, running on adrenaline from earlier, wondered how exploitable it was. When her form towered above the discarded weapons, the wielder’s head turned towards her, but he was too overcome with pain to do anything

He yelled and snarled in agony, wrenching the helmet off, unleashing the familiar mane of silver hair. On his knees, the face of Al’s longingly stared at her; his trembling arm was outstretched, while the other hand grasped at his chest. The orange eyes pleaded with her for her company. Minerva, shocked, kept still. She saw her friend but had no way of knowing if it truly was him. The eyes were emotional but deceiving.

Al’s groaned again, eyes shutting tightly in defeat and pounding his fists on the ground. He keeled over and buried his face between his hands, muffling his despairing wailing. To his side, the X-Blade glowed in a white light; specks of it floated up and disappeared. The X-Blade was vanishing, slowly evaporating. Something about Al’s was not right, his form was not stable. Minerva was most likely right; if any of the original Al’s was present, it was just in appearance. His mind was warped from his assimilation, and his heart fragmented. The X-Blade had no chance of surviving a flawed merging of souls. It cracked in a couple places before bursting like glass.

Within seconds, all of Al’s turned white and misty. Like the blade, cracks formed on his limbs before snaking up to his shoulders and back. His voice toned down, replaced by snapping sounds. His body shattered as though it had been transformed into porcelain. By the time Minerva walked over to his remains, they had either faded away or parted with the wind.

She just stared at the ground where he once was. Once was. He was really gone; that was it. Two friends gone, now, and how many did she have left? Minerva looked over her shoulder at the Keyblade graveyard that had been founded, and realized that if she knew anyone else in the universe, they were probably gone. Well, there was one more, but she now hated him with a burning passion.

Master Ra’s Ka. He was the one with perverse fantasies of war and domination. He was the one who would need to pay for his crimes against humanity, but not just those. No, he needed to pay for what he had done to her.

He had approached her with promise of victory and greatness and potential, and took it all away. What, did he expect her to die like a dog in the war as well? Was she just another abandoned weapon like the ones surrounding her? She was nothing in his eyes but a pawn. If Al’s was so easily defeated than why should he have had any faith in her, or anyone else?

“Al’s, you didn’t deserve this.” She mumbled, tracing a line in the dirt with her foot, “If I wasn’t here, would you have…”

It seemed unlikely that her presence made a difference, but she was anything but in the right mind, and could only think to blame herself.

“What about G-” She was unable to form the name, “h-he,” she gulped, “if he hadn’t seen me back there, or if I never got that…”

Her brain kept connecting everything back to Ra’s Ka. He made Al’s go through hell, he supplied her with the armor augment, he killed off the people of that water world, and he did everything he could to incite large-scale war.

She needed to find him and confront him. Ra’s Ka was probably sitting safely at Mirage, enjoying the results of his war games. If she had looked up to him once, she was now looking down. Was she really a forgettable pawn? She would make sure he would remember her and her need for revenge.

Off to Mirage it was.
 

Izayoi

galactic cancer
Joined
May 17, 2007
Messages
6,355
Age
30
Location
The Land of Sand and Prisms
Re: The ORG Intermission: Enmity

XIII

She was so deep into the world that it was eerily silent. The muffled white noise of machinery buzzing behind walls was all that there was to accompany her footsteps. The blue and white lights glaring at her from every angle made her further uncomfortable and nervous. She was about to take on a Keyblade Master in some last-ditch attempt of vengeance and justice.

The Wayfinder blipped faster. She recognized the hallway she was in; it was the one that Ra’s Ka had taken her to in order to show off his inventions. There was the key panel next to the door; she pulled her Keyblade back, ready to rush inside.

Minerva hesitated; or, maybe, she wanted to hesitate. She had to remind herself that she would likely not pose a challenge to Ra’s Ka. He could probably kill her less than a minute into a fight. Memories of being electrocuted by Miragean magic made her conscious of the sweat on her forehead, and her fingers trembled. No, she had to remind herself, these worries were immaterial, because her death would be meaningless. At that point, she had nothing left to fight for but the honor of her friends and family, and the future. If she gave up there would be nothing left to go back to. Fate had brought her to Mirage to risk, nigh, sacrifice her life for a greater good.

The end of the blade smashed into the panel, activating the door. It slid up and she cautiously walked inside, afraid that he would jump out at her or fire upon her with some giant laser weapon. Minerva shook her head; no, surely he had no way of knowing she was anywhere near Mirage.

In fact, he seemed pretty buried in whatever he was occupied with. He stood hunched over the large machine that he had tried to tantalize her with before. He typed furiously into a computer, looking between several monitors. They read numbers that he was eager to compile and memorize and put to use. The metal clanking of armor disrupted him; his blue eyes flashed with surprise.

“You? What…?”

Minerva was in a fighting stance, ready to strike. She reasoned that if she could just end him, things would stop escalating.

“Never mind, I’m glad. You’re just in time.”

“In time?” She scoffed, jaw stiff, “I’m here to stop you.”

Ra’s Ka went back to the computer and did not look up.

“Stop what? Progress? We’re about to make history, here.”

Minerva started forward, gritting her teeth and waving her blade threateningly. She neared the machine.

“Careful now, designated personnel only.”

“How much does it take to be designated?” She prepared to swing at a box of revealed circuitry. Ra’s Ka saw her in the corner of his eye and whipped a finger at her, zapping her with blue electricity. The bolt hit her in the shoulder and she recoiled, nearly falling to the floor.

She felt her muscles spasm all the way down her arm and her fingertips. Her eye winced, recognizing the pain. Suddenly Ra’s Ka, standing in his lab coat, was much scarier.

“What are you so busy with? H-How can you even be here?” Minerva asked, “Do you know where I just was? I was in the middle of that war. There were hundreds of wielders down there fighting. People are dying right now, and a lot of them are from Mirage!”

Ra’s Ka strafed along the side of his machine, making inspections, and did not look to her once.

“They’re doing what they’re meant to.”

“They’re dying.” Minerva fumed. She took a step forward, but she saw Ra’s Ka arm motion upwards and stopped, “…Other Mirage wielders! What about the solidarity you’re all supposed to have? The common goal? All that supremacy foolishness?”

“The culmination of years of research and prosperity are leading to something that needs a forefather. In other words, a bearer, of this great power. That’s going to be me; it always was. Sacrifices had to be made.”

He had nothing to spout but complete disregard for life. Minerva’s voice rose.

“You know what this is? It’s a damn cult! You’re just abusing your power, the power you kept saying you wanted to share with everyone else here!”

After she yelled, the room went silent again, bar for the humming of the machines. Ra’s Ka raised an eyebrow and went on working.

“You were down there, right?” He mused, “You saw what Al’s did. He was unstoppable. That kind of power cannot simply be enjoyed by a wide, irresponsible group of lower beings! It must be concentrated. The prototype super-armor gave me all of the data that was still needed to perfect my crowning achievement”

“Prototype?”

“What Al’s used was an experiment; the final step before I intended to unleash the full, unbridled power of the Keyblade. Think about it; he took his weapon, the manifestation of his heart, and channeled it into powering the sentinel. He was one with the colossus. It was magnificent.”

“It failed.” She scorned. “He liked the real thing too much to not use it against the dark wielder.”

“It’s only natural.” He smirked. Little did she know her comment only proved his ultimate design to be ideal. “A sword is easier to wield; it’s more personal. The ideal weapon should move with the body, instead of dragging it down. Draining it. Al’s didn’t need the prototype to beat anyone.”

“But he lost!” Minerva shouted, pointing out his flaw. “He got absorbed by the other one when they made the X-Blade and then…blew up!”

Ra’s Ka ignored her attempt to shock him.

“Because his heart was too weak.”

“He was the best you had! How could you expect him to do any better?”

He cut her off with a wave of his hand, preparing to discredit her comment.

“It was too weak because the armor’s design was ridiculous. Too big. It drastically consumes the light in the heart and soul. Al’s couldn’t be the dominant host of the X-Blade because all of his energy went into my field test. To actually sustain the weapon itself? It was a hopeless endeavor on his part.”

Minerva was seething. He had seen Al’s writhe in exhaustion before he went to fight; to think of the agony he was experiencing was painful. He had asked, nervously, if he still had to command the prototype; had he known how little Ra’s Ka regarded his safety? Was he aware of how he was being used?

“But it’s your fault, why didn’t you just let him fight at full strength?”

Ra’s Ka produced what could be described as a short “laugh”. He placed a couple fingers to his temple and smiled.

“The testing I’ve performed on him previous made his disadvantage inevitable.”

“Why not use someone else, then?” She interrogated, losing her composure rapidly. “You could have what you want, keep Al’s, have your robot together instead of in pieces-”

Another cocky hand wave made her want to hear what insane excuse he had next.

“It doesn’t matter now, really. We have to learn to let go in the name of progress.”

A malicious grimace accompanied the statement. Was that it, really? Was he casting off his best pupil just like that?

“I have everything I need.” He raised his hand, and his Keyblade appeared in burst of blue flames. The bright lights in the room shone off of it so that Minerva could barely get a decent look at it. It pulsed with veins of electric blue, making its form impossible to make out. He looked upon his blade proudly, and proceeded to bring it to the small platform that jutted out of the machine. It did not lie flat, but instead floated and gushed with plasma-like energies. Minerva wanted to run forward and knock it from its pedestal, but Ra’s Ka was leering towards her with a deathly gaze.

He typed the last few phrases needed to activate the device, and in a matter of seconds more of the blue plasma poured into the Keyblade. Fire blazed about it in a sphere, and the heat made the shaft curve and bend. The lights flickered; power being drained not just from the room, but the entire world. Minerva was transfixed, like a moth to a flame, and only stood in place after the light stopped flowing and Ra’s Ka stepped forward to claim his improved design. Ra’s Ka’s silver and blue armor materialized on his right arm, and he carefully reached for the hilt. Sparks jumped up his wrist when he grabbed it, and his eyes ignited deep azure as if he was drawing power from the blade. After he had removed it from the platform and held it firmly, his entire body was surrounded by a blue aura.

“Fluidity.” He waved the Keyblade from side to side. “Holding my heart. All of its power, malleable in my hands.”

The white-hot metal vibrated, then began to bend over. It looked like it was turning to rubber. Minerva expected him to transform his Keyblade into some intimidating weapon like a gun or a longer sword. Ra’s Ka would say she was thinking too big.

Like Minerva had performed with her own Keyblade, the bubbling mass of silver crept down his arm, slowly solidifying. It did not stop there, however. It spread further; enveloping his chest, the other arm, and down to his legs. The molten liquid finally came over his head like a hood, so that his entire body was covered in a skintight suit.

“Its form only limited by my will.”

His fists clenched. His muscles tensed. The suit all at once hardened, forming into sharp angles and glowing, fire-spitting points. The loose blob around his head narrowed, creating a reflective blue visor. Minerva thought it resembled the armor any other wielder would wear. How much did the extra lights do for it?

“Beautiful. This is my fate reaching a new milestone, Minerva. My destiny begins with the assimilation of my Keyblade.”

“You sacrificed your Keyblade for better armor.” She remarked skeptically. “Where’s that going to get you?”

He smirked from under his mask, and brought his arms up, palms pointed upwards. A plume of blue fire erupted from each hand, knocking out a few light fixtures overhead.

“The Keyblade is one with me. It’s more than armor, it’s anything I wish.”

From the top of each wrist, a long, crescent blade struck out. Minerva jumped back. His smile widened; he reveled in the power he considered his birthright. One of the blades retracted, and he pointed the unarmed hand at Minerva. With a mere thought, the metal expanded and rotated and clicked until it turned into a small cannon attached to his arm.

“And, Minerva, you’re just in time to be the first test subject.”

With little warning, the cannon fired, launching an electrified orb of light. Minerva leapt to her left, and the projectile smashed into the wall behind her, exploding on impact. A second shot went at her feet before she could regain her balance, leaving Minerva with little choice but to hop up. The force of the blast pushed her forward. With her blade outstretched, she moved towards Ra’s Ka and slashed.

He avoided it, and then jabbed with his bladed arm; its flawlessly sharp edge ringed as it sliced through the air horizontally. Minerva stepped back, but had to bring up her Keyblade to block a successive strike. Ra’s Ka kept his blade on hers, using his augmented strength to try and break her stance. Minerva’s feet pressed against the floor to brace against his weight, but Ra’s Ka quickly grew tired of their standoff and presented her with another option; he aimed the cannon at her at point-blank range.

Minerva let go, letting herself be pushed back, and sidestepped around Ra’s Ka, getting behind him. Ra’s Ka’s cannon was still charged up and ready to shoot, however, so he pointed it upwards and blew up a chunk of the ceiling above. Before Minerva to could try hack at a blind spot, she had to escape the falling debris.

Ra’s Ka morphed away the cannon and returned to his second blade. He came charging, arms outstretched. The left one swiped fast and Minerva ducked, allowing her to stop the second with her blade. He was strong enough to make her falter, though. She put her other hand to the shaft of her blade and threw her weight at Ra’s Ka, forcing him off. Relentless, he slashed while she retreated. Minerva realized what a bad strategy she was following and knew she would be backed into a corner in no time.

When he came at her again, she took a deep breath, and drew her Keyblade back. It spontaneously transformed; its weight shifting towards the top and becoming wider and squared. When Minerva swung forward, a hammer that was much longer than Ra’s Ka’s blades hit him hard in the chest, applying enough force to take him into the air. She heard a grunt, and watched as he zoomed backwards. It looked as though he had no control over the momentum, but Ra’s Ka cushioned his flight path with a pair of broad, sharp wings. The triangular appendages slowed him down, and let Ra’s Ka float to his feet instead of crashing. He gave a brief acknowledgment to the extensions above his shoulders before deciding that they would make perfect weapons. He whipped his body around, revealing his back to her, and the wings launched off, coming at Minerva like two monstrous buzz saws.

She was prepared, for once; she felt ready. The hammer melted down and turned long and stringy and wrapped itself around both of her hands. The Keyblade’s transition state then split into two sizable blocks on each hand, forming a pair of giant metal gloves. One of the wings Minerva was able to dodge; it was hardly an accurate attack, but the second she caught perfectly mid-spin. Ra’s Ka was already rushing her aggressively once more once he saw her standing her ground. Minerva punched at an incoming blade, averting its path, and pulled the captured wing in front of her to block the next. The armor had trouble puncturing itself.

Ra’s Ka continued stabbing. His other blade came back and jabbed in unison, denting the wing enough until Minerva had to cast off her makeshift shield and create distance between them. She clasped her hands together and the gauntlets turned back into her Keyblade. She tried to strike first, but this time Ra’s Ka performed a successful parry and twisted his entire torso around for a counter-attack. The edge of the blade failed to penetrate Minerva’s armor but it made a notable open cut and made Minerva recoil in panic. She defended herself one-handed as the other one clutched her side, fearing she was injured and unaware from the adrenaline.

The attacks slowed down as Minerva remained half-bent over, breathing hard and straining to block any more strikes. Ra’s Ka allowed her, for once, a reprieve, though it was probably for him to flaunt his battle prowess by making her realize her mistake in confronting him. At this point she felt he was flamboyantly conceited enough to do that.

He stepped back; his blades detached and twirled around his wrists. Ra’s Ka opened his hands and spewed blue fire at his sides, blowing craters in the walls and melting the floor around him. His mask drew up, revealing a crazed smile and eyes colored a solid blue. Indeed, he was losing it, but that in no way made him less dangerous.

Minerva tried her best to catch her breath, backing up as well, but knew she had to keep making the first move to stay alive. She flipped her Keyblade around into a backhanded grip; the shaft and teeth separated into sharp pieces and spun around the hilt like it was a big magnet. She lifted the hilt and aimed, holding on with both hands. If it was enough to bore through a mountain it could be enough here. The shards of her Keyblade sparked and glowed and went fast enough so that they formed a ring of light. She unleashed a beam, as wide as she was tall, at the showboating Ra’s Ka. He shouted out in surprise and pain, only silhouette in the blast.

When Minerva ended the attack, Ra’s Ka had been pushed across the room, leaving a black trail where his feet had been forcefully dragged along. The armor was smoking, and white-hot. The aesthetic protrusions had chipped off and portions were dripping off like melting ice. Ra’s Ka’s head was pointed down, behind his crossed arms, to protect himself. One of the blades tilted strangely, and then fell off in a mess of silver ooze.

Ra’s Ka looked at the scattered remains of his perfection, and found one of his feet stuck to the floor in a puddle of liquefied metal. His arms lowered, and his smile was gone, replaced by a contemptuous sneer, taunting her for thinking she could overcome. Ra’s Ka directed his stub of an arm towards the fallen blade, making it rise up and attach itself back to his wrist. The amorphous parts of his armor glowed blue and melded back into place, and soon his entire body was lit up, attracting back the dispersed pieces. When the aura cleared, his armor was shiny and new.

“My will is unshakable, Minerva. And as long as that’s so, there is nothing you can do to hurt me.”

She heard him laugh for a few seconds, and then start towards her. He was being chivalrous for a moment, giving her a chance to ready herself for the next round. Minerva took the opportunity. She slammed her hands together to form her gloves, but this time added on. The metal was flexible, streamlined to her armor, and went up to her shoulders giving them extra protection. Her forearms were thicker and plated and had a pair of stout blades on each, coming from the sides of her wrists. Minerva wanted to match his dexterity and quantity of cold steel.

Blades met each other like punches; sharp, lethal weapons acting as extensions of fists. Minerva found herself with more room to block thanks to the multiple pieces jutting from her hands. Ra’s Ka, however, was fast enough to make up for this.

A jab came right at her face, and Minerva blocked it with the side of her arm, locking them both in a contest of strength. Ra’s Ka fought dirty, though, and slashed at her from the side, coming at her neck. Alarmed, Minerva held up her hand and caught the blade with a firm grip. The position was becoming more and more difficult for her to hold with every passing second. Her joints shook and her hands lost feeling.

It was occurring to her, painfully, that she was outmatched. Brief gushes of confidence meant nothing. The advantages she thought she was gaining meant nothing. The Keyblade armor was immensely powerful and her only option was to defend against constant attacks that she had no way of predicting, one of which were about to catch her off-guard.

Minerva pushed hard against the blade, and one of the points from her gauntlet was nearing the blue visor at which she was staring so intently. It was only inches away; maybe she could inflict some sort of fatal wound. Ra’s Ka would not allow it, though; his will to survive and reign supreme would let his armor adapt. The metal on his chest warped and caved in, forming a bowl shape. Almost immediately it was filled with blue lights and a roaring turbine of energy. It was preparing to fire fast, and Minerva wanted to escape, but she was all-too aware that her other hand was preventing Ra’s Ka from swinging and taking her head off. She was deadlocked, about to strike the “locked” part.

An intense blue beam, possessing much more power than the one she had fired, burst from Ra’s Ka’s chest and carried Minerva upwards. She slammed into the ceiling. Her helmet cracked and split open and she felt the splinters of it press against her head. Minerva’s body fell back to the floor with a hard clank, the air knocked out of her lungs and her head light. She lifted it and felt like it weight tons; blood came down around her ear and to her neck, dripping below her jaw. The rumbling and crackling sounds in the room were muffled for whatever reason. The blow to her skull had her half-conscious.

Through blurred vision, she saw Ra’s Ka coming forward. The crater on his chest was closing shut, leaving a large stylized “M” in its place. He was unscathed and looked as smug as ever.

“The war is over, Minerva. I won.” A small remote emerged from his hand. His thumb began inputting commands “I’m disposing of this place. It was only ever a means to an end, and we’ve reached our conclusion.”

A mechanical voice echoed from the halls around them; a countdown was beginning. Minerva strained her neck to keep looking up.

“You’re…throwing away so much…” She rasped. All of the life and potential for redemption; gone.

“Building a new academy isn’t hard. I’ve done it before. There’s always some gifted kid out there who wants to be something great, and it’s that attitude that’s going to let this power live on forever.” He leant down on one knee. Holding his palm up, a blue flame flickered from nothing. “There will always be Mirage, and I’ll make sure I’m there to lead it.” He clasped his fingers over the fire and stood.

“But you? You and your pure ideas of balance and purity? They will die here. You and your outdated morals and this outdated technology, will all die here. Such a shame you turned out the way you did. The only thing I’m throwing away is tainted, ruined potential.”

She clasped at the floor in desperation, and no words could come out. Ra’s Ka watched with satisfaction as she struggled to respond.

“I felt darkness in your heart when you stepped in. I don’t know what happened to you, Minerva, probably all that time you spent on Valhalla. Can’t believe how you spent so much time there. I made sure to burn that place to the ground as soon as my reconnaissance came back.”

Minerva’s eyes widened. The nerve was touched. She let out a barely-audible groan of anguish and rage. She felt for her Keyblade but found nothing; how she wanted to regain her strength and get up and run him through a thousand times over.

“If you were left pure, things could have been different. I promise, though, that the data you’ve given me from our duel will not be as wasted as your prospective future.”

He then stepped around her without as much as a formal, sarcastic farewell, and left through the only exit. Alarms blared while the door was open, but all Minerva heard was a faint buzzing due to her head trauma. Her head thumped onto the floor, cheeked pressed against the cold tiles. Everything felt like it was shaking; she had no idea if this was because of the physical shock or explosives below, wiring themselves to go off any moment.

So, she thought, this was the end. Fate really wanted her to go out with a bang, with every aspiration and notion of bravery crushed. Her heart was beating fast; the resonation being the only loud sound in her ears. She focused on it, closing her eyes. Something about it was soothing; a familiar rhythm that was hard to place. It made her recall sitting with Gren back when the future was theirs. It made her remember what ended up being their final days together.

She pulled out her Wayfinder, wanting to look at something comforting in her last moments. With the way that she held it, she could see the side Miragean attachment still glowed; still giving her direction to Ra’s Ka’s presence. It was a tumor on the memory of her friend and she was ready to tear it off, when a more specific memory came to her in her dreamy stupor.

“The whole universe could be a whole different place tomorrow. Who are we to say what we can and can’t do?”

“I had no idea, then. It’s already a different place, Gren.” She whispered, mouth dry and tasting like iron. Her fingers tried to pry the tracker off, but the armor made them too clumsy.

“If you think they can end this quickly, I’ll give this stuff a rest.”

“It’s not gonna end…” Minerva mumbled pensively. “It…never will. It’s endless, the chase for power, and I messed up. I let the worst one get away, and I hurt everyone else. Lead them to death.”

She looked blankly past the charm, mind lost in doubt. The floor suddenly trembled, knocking over devices and knocking out ceiling lights. The noise snapped her out of her daze, and when she checked her surroundings, she saw that she had sat up. Minerva brushed the stray hair and smeared blood out of her face, and silently stood. A few feet away, her Keyblade lay, scratched and burnt; she brought it to her hand. Minerva saw the machine Ra’s Ka had used to create his super-armor. The screen indicated that it was still active for use.

The universe was a different place, and she was a different person living in it. An old life, and old potential, she concluded, should have little bearing on it as a result.

The door slid open. A new person, an independent person, walked through. Purity, he said. Purity was objective. Lots of things were. Ra’s Ka’s tyrannical insanity was not. Maybe she would die on Mirage. Maybe she already did, somehow, but rest assured she would be replaced by a new Minerva; one with enhanced resolve, and something to fight for. Potential would stay dead, because her only goal was be to find and annihilate the overarching threat.

The Wayfinder blinked and her heart still beat quickly. It was the thrill of the hunt. She was going to track Ra’s Ka down and end him, not for any purpose but the stability of the universe.
 

Finland

Banshee Queen
Joined
Jun 10, 2008
Messages
7,441
Awards
4
Age
30
Re: The ORG Intermission: Enmity

so perf

loving those ending paragraphs to bits
 

Finland

Banshee Queen
Joined
Jun 10, 2008
Messages
7,441
Awards
4
Age
30
Re: The ORG Intermission: Enmity

idk when there's a big piece of writing all the chapters tend to end like that

except the last one

unless there will be a sequel

yeah
 

Izayoi

galactic cancer
Joined
May 17, 2007
Messages
6,355
Age
30
Location
The Land of Sand and Prisms
Re: The ORG Intermission: Enmity

XIV

Despite how it looked, the armor was as light as a feather. Ra’s Ka had no trouble fighting while wearing it, let alone walking. That was the plus side, since Mirage was set to cave in upon itself in less than half an hour. He had to make haste.

The girl he had left behind was truly an unfortunate case of spoiled goods. He had been told from her master the techniques she had been taught, the experience grafted upon her, and the prowess in battle unique to her. Oh, how he wished to take her on as an apprentice; how he could use one now that he was starting over. If only her heart remained pure and untouched by the filth he sensed. It was more than a drop of darkness corrupting her, however. He would describe the blotch as cancerous; a tumor that latched onto her soul. Its strength was tantamount to hers. Ra’s Ka felt his choice to let her die would spare her a painful, crippling death.

He turned a corner and came to a long, curved hallway. Tall doors were spaced out along the outer wall, about twenty feet from each other, with signal lights blinking along their sides. Only one of them had its lights on continuously, which was the door Ra’s Ka went to. The fingers of his right hand fanned, palm out; his entire body was his identification for the locking panels now. He reached down to activate it, but a mass of gold flew from behind him, spearing the panel. A Keyblade. It went deeper than it should have, splitting the glassy surface open; the door slid open a few inches before jamming.

The corners of his mouth contorted downward, his prideful escape cut short. He recognized the Keyblade as the one he had been fighting against earlier. Ra’s Ka turned, visor popping up, staring down Minerva. She stood with obvious weakness; she had her weight shifted to one leg and her posture revealed an injured back.

“So insistent on dying.” He murmured. One of the long blades from earlier formed from his wrist, and his irritated grimace turned into a scowl. “You want to go out with pride, do you?”

Minerva rolled her wrist back; the Keyblade vanished from the gashed machinery and re-appeared in her hand. As demonstrated by the battle-ready pose she struck, her movements were slower and solemner. She was prepared, like before, to defend against her opponent. The main difference was that she was neither afraid nor confident.

Ra’s Ka took a long step forward, and at the first sign of motion Minerva raised her Keyblade. It ripped lengthwise into two parts, one of which jettisoned forward like an arrow but twice as fast. Ra’s Ka sidestepped it only barely, and continued on, swinging his blade in an arc. The rest of Minerva’s Keyblade did not stay as it was for long; her arm went to her side in a swift movement, and the weapon elongated, turning thin as a rope. It was electrified and coiled against the wall with its momentum. It electrified, crackling loudly. Minerva drew her arm diagonally upward and it followed, the end of the whip striking Ra’s Ka’s non-weaponized arm. He staggered, stopped in his tracks, and watched as Minerva twisted her upper body and the whip followed the path of her arm.

The hallway had little width, making the whip deadly. It snapped and scarred the walls and floor with deep, white-hot cuts. Ra’s Ka avoided it just in time so that it only skimmed his chest. The big “M” sustained damage. Out of vanity, his visor was still drawn up, so Minerva was able to see the painful blow to his narcissism. Only his blue eyes were visible, yet the wrinkled skin around them revealed his volatile irritation.

He tried to peer through the cracked glass that shielded her face, and that was enough to distract him by another flex of the hand. The splinter of Keyblade that had flown past him before made its return trip, catching Ra’s Ka in the shoulder and forcing him to stumble. He never, however, took his eyes off Minerva. When the Keyblade piece made it back to her, she did not catch it in her hand. In fact, she made no attempt to recover it manually. It flew right at her stomach so fast it looked as though it went through her; in reality it had sunk into the armor like a pool of water. Minerva’s armor bulged in a few spots, suddenly taking on liquid qualities, and the rest of her Keyblade emerged from her palm, transforming the whip back into the original weapon.

The angrily-squinted eyes were widened in shock. He was unsure what he had just witnessed. Then, his mouth went agape, and a hissing laugh grew from his throat.

“Ah-hah!” He shouted, cackling triumphantly, “I shouldn’t have lost hope! You did it!”

She focused on damaged floor, too ashamed to have any eye contact. Yes, the temptation was too great. There was only one way she could hope to fight on Ra’s Ka’s level, and that was to utilize the same technology. Words would not come out; she wanted to justify the decision but knew it was pointless against the man who was the reason for the move.

“How does it feel, Minerva? The power?” Ra’s Ka asked; no, taunted. At least it felt like taunting. He was probably overjoyed in some sick way. “Show me what a being such as you can do. I must know.”

He formed the cannon from his hand, and fired two shots at Minerva. She watched the fireballs come at her, unbothered, her blade instantaneously assimilated back into her arm, reemerging as an ovular, bowl-shaped shield. It was as tall as her and position perfectly to deflect the blasts. The flames slid off the surface, and she felt no recoil. She peered around the shiny, gold edge. Ra’s Ka’s eyes were almost closed again, but this time it was because he was laughing too hard.

Minerva was wordless at the glee he was expressing. She looked to the hyperbolic armament and felt her stomach sink. It was too easy. The power was disgusting. She could literally do anything; creating whatever came to mind or instinct required. No limits. Her Keyblade felt warm around her as she thought this; it felt like it was healing her, or wanted to adapt to her thoughts. It was alive.

“Don it in full,” he demanded, “test its strength! Oh, the glorious data defeating you in a fair match will yield!”

She did not want to give in to his wishes; it could be a trap, for all she knew. Minerva had no idea what abusing the armor could do. Whatever, his weakness now was that he was a scientist with a new specimen in front of him. The shield folded and melted into a long-barreled gun. She aimed and fired five times. A handful of flaming, spiraling bullets made impact, denting Ra’s Ka’s armor and imbedding into his shoulder. He yelped, stumbling back, and grasped the wounded area.

Minerva exploited his recovery time. She scolded him as weak and unfocused, and sprinted towards him. She flipped the gun around, catching it by its length, and it sharpened into a makeshift dagger. While Ra’s Ka was dazed and wavering, Minerva brought the blade back and drove it towards his heart. His armor reacted before she ever could, though, and a mass of blades exploded from his torso, stopping Minerva cold. The porcupine-esque defense mechanism left her without anything to constructively attack. A voice hummed from behind the ball of thorns.

“No, no.” Ra’s Ka reprimanded, absorbing the spikes back into himself and shaking his head. “Superior will. Stronger heart. Purer.” He tapped the “M” and smiled; the blades on his wrist emerged once more. “Better.”

Both hands pushed at her, ready to dig in and tear her apart. Minerva gasped, and this time grabbed the blades with her bare hands; the upgraded armor let the metals clash equally.

“N-no…” She whimpered under his strength.

“What was that?” He inquired, teasingly. “Do you think your heart, your tainted heart, can stand up to mine?” With the last word he forced his weight on her, and Minerva’s right foot skidded back on the smooth floor.

“I think…” Minerva began, struggling under him. She felt her back bend at an uncomfortable angle. “I think that my heart is more than a bunch of alignments.”

The words came out through her teeth. Ra’s Ka chuckled at what he considered nonsense. As Minerva gripped one of the blades tighter, she felt her fingers melt into it. Either his armor was becoming softer or it was letting her in.

“Is that so? My little victory before proved you wrong then, and it will again now.” The blade against her other hand pressed harder, but she thought she felt it begin to bend. “It is the pure, absolute,” he was grunting through pursed lips himself now, “that reign over the rest. You lost that purity, Minerva, and your insolence,” he felt heavier over her, “is going to cost you the only chance you had left for redemption.”

Her spine burned. No, she reaffirmed to herself, he was the wrong one. The content of light and darkness meant nothing. It was more than that…it was the origin of the alignment. Gren was dark, but he was good. She could remember him and still be a good person. Would an impure person sacrifice themselves? Was she less of a person for fighting for that sacrifice? No. No, he was wrong.

Ra’s Ka’s blade bent, turning at a ninety-degree angle. He turned his head towards it in surprise; meanwhile, Minerva’s hand sunk into the other like it was made of sand. She was less taken back than he was and used the strange event as a distraction.

Minerva twisted, pulled her attached hand back and heaving Ra’s Ka with it. With a tight hold on the bent blade, she leaned and pushed hard, ramming Ra’s Ka against the closest wall. She slammed her body against his and, for good measure, head-butted him to daze him. It worked; he finally suffered for showing his face. Blood tricked from the middle of his forehead down his nose. She focused not just on the eyes she was met with; energized with the shade of blue that would forever unnerve her. Minerva recalled all of the unbridled emotion that had brought her to that point. Gren, Lucem, the lives she was forced to take, and the others decimated for even lesser reasons. She had to make a real sacrifice, for them, on her own terms.

“You’re going to die miserably.” Ra’s Ka growled. One of his eyes was closed, blood having ran over it. “Without cause. Death. The abyss. You’ll return to the darkness that you cling to-”

“Shut up!” She yelled at him, cutting off his increasingly maddening ranting. Her armor was more than warm, it was hot. The skin under it burned as the metal went into a gelatinous state, which bubbled and crept onto Ra’s Ka’s arms much like the blood that was currently coagulating on the bridge of his nose.

The mask covering her eyes repealed. A second later, the entire helmet had melted off, revealing her entire face. Eyes, green, speckled with yellow. Lips, trembling as they labored to take in breath. Her cheeks were flushed and sweaty pieces of hair clung to her forehead.

Ra’s Ka was becoming aware of the gold and bronze liquid that dribbled and coated him. It was up to his shoulders and climbed around his neck.

“My will!” He wailed, attempting to wrestle his arms away. “What lies in you is nowhere near as powerful!”

But with all the squirming and strength he put into it, Ra’s Ka was unable to budge as Minerva’s armor draped down to his waist.

“My will, Master,” Her eyes narrowed. Ra’s Ka saw how intense they were; he could see into Minerva’s soul, and saw the equal parts of light and darkness flicker deep inside. He was unrestrictedly terrified of it.

“Is unshakable.”

The blanket of gold flashed brightly, making Ra’s Ka shut his other eye in its brilliance. When they both opened, he saw that she was no longer wearing any armor, and her Keyblade was nowhere in sight. Minerva stood in front of him in her bare clothing, body still propped against his.

“Hah!” He gloated. “You didn’t have it in you. You wasted the glorious opportunity and lost your only hope. Your Keyblade. It’s gone. You’ve left yourself without armament.”

Ra’s Ka, assuming he could stab her a hundred times over for her vivaciously out-of-place actions, tried to move his arm. He could not. The other was stuck in place as well. He turned his head to the side to see what was wrong but it seemed as though his vision would not move with the motion. Panic struck. Minerva leaned away, standing in front of him with her arms at her sides while Ra’s Ka was stranded in place. He looked at her with fear, not through his helmet but a window.

Minerva laid witness to her handiwork. A tomb of gold, the same color as her armor, encased Ra’s Ka. She had no idea if she had somehow melded her armor to his or just created the coffin, but it was enough to keep him from moving.

“Minerva!” Ra’s Ka roared. “Minerva! Remove this! You- Remove it now!”

She felt her chest vibrate. It was causing her physical stress to keep the armor in that state, so she had to hurry out. The door he was about to leave through before was still slightly opened. Minerva went over and shoved it wider with her shoulder; when she looked back at Ra’s Ka she could see part of his face whipping back and forth as his body went into a distressed seizure of panic. He spat a blue flame in frustration, shouting obscenities at her.

“You think this is costless, do you? Your Keyblade! You’re just abandoning it.”

She winced, and tried to keep what he said out of her mind. He was probably just lying. Through the door was another short corridor that opened into another, dim room. She walked through.

“No!” He screamed, reduced to a frenzy of pleas. “Get back! Get back here now and undo this! You will regret-”

His voice pierced the air and was starting to make her nauseas. When she entered the new, circular room, a second sliding door shut behind her, locking her on. It made everything stagnantly silent. It was the last she heard of Ra’s Ka on Mirage.

An engine of some sort rumbled under the floor, and the room lit up. It was round, and not particularly big, which made sense considering she was most likely in an escape craft of some sort. Opposite the door, there was a wide control panel with buttons and Miragean symbols. Between them, a circular pedestal with blue holograms floating about. The most noticeable of them was the big sphere that was Mirage, and a countdown timer hovering nearby. It read two minutes.

Before she could worry too much that the escape pod would not leave on time, the entire room lurched. She became aware that there were in fact windows surrounding the dome-shaped craft. It was like the large ships she had seen before in the air hangars, with their open designs and satellite rings revolving about them. Outside the windows, stars and worlds were reduced to blurs.

The craft zoomed through the empty medium between worlds, speeding fast enough that Mirage shrunk at an alarming speed behind Minerva. She watched intently at the blue planet, though; she had to in order to insure that the self-destruct command was successful. A glance at the countdown as it neared zero made her anxious, but immediately the globe’s crevices and veins of neon blue grew brighter than they ever had before. Shrinking still from the distance, it resembled a star collapsing in on itself. Within seconds, the luminescent orb went out in a great explosion, expanding to ten times its size and releasing energy in colossal, visible shockwaves. Wondrous streams of blue fire lashed out into the cosmos, yet all that remained where Mirage was once were quickly fading flecks of light. Minerva gasped, feeling the weight in her chest lifting. Her armor was no longer acting as a cage and she no longer felt its draining effects. Relieved, she reached out for her Keyblade.

It did not come to her.

She searched everywhere inside of her, into that vast space she mentally imagined as her heart. There was no light that represented her Keyblade, as deep as she looked. Just darkness. It was a lonely darkness that sapped away most of her hope. Minerva sat on the pedestal in the middle of the room. She stared at her hand, expecting some sign that would tell her where her Keyblade was or why it was not coming.

Hope. What hope exactly did her Keyblade mean? It was her identity, of course. It was more than a weapon; it made her who she was. A Keyblade wielder. Or maybe a Master? Would she be so vain as to title herself that? She was one of the only wielders she knew was left, so maybe she had the authority to; she did just take down one of the most powerful Masters of them all. It felt justified.

“Master.” She said to herself, trying to get used to it. “Master Minerva.”

It sounded ugly. The word no longer had the connotations of great teachers; all it did was make her remember the man who almost single-handedly ended an era.

In this new one, she resolved, “Master” would not be a term. It would lose its definition.

She laughed. Yes, she had made herself experience humor. Look at how quickly she was “creating” this new environment. It was meaningless, it had to be. Surely she would not be the person to found a new world and raise students and incite a legacy. That was her old dream. That was the old dream.

“No place for old things anymore.” She mumbled.

Minerva looked up. Only a minute had passed and there was no sign of Mirage. It was strange to think how far she was from home. Or, her old home. She would need a new one, but where?

She was, in fact, sailing through a different universe. Her destination did not exist because there was no place for her to go. Minerva did in fact die on Mirage, in a way, because she was left with not a single piece of her life. She was the walking a dead, a ghost of a universe that had passed. An embodiment. A remnant. Even the enmity she held towards Mirage now felt like it was decades old.

It was something she accepted, but it was lonely, and she missed the old universe. The anger and sorrow were gone; all that was left was a void.
 

Finland

Banshee Queen
Joined
Jun 10, 2008
Messages
7,441
Awards
4
Age
30
Re: The ORG Intermission: Enmity

why do i even expect happy endings from you
 

Lumine

When your Mask falls, what will you see.
Joined
Mar 19, 2009
Messages
1,476
Awards
14
Location
Truth
Re: The ORG Intermission: Enmity

These Feels..I can't hold them in much longer!

This is Beautifuuuuuuuuul <3 ~
This build up is jdsalkfdkjfkj;fljflkjf;lkjfa Awesome =D

when should we expect an epic Epilogue =3 ?
 

Annoyance

Silver Member
Joined
Jan 20, 2004
Messages
4,621
Awards
11
Age
33
Location
Aurora, IL
Website
twitter.com
Re: The ORG Intermission: Enmity

So yeah I'm probably going to make more posts on this, but essentially to those who don't know, I'm giving a critique with Joe in person, and an overall critique will go on here because

i wrote the living diddly out of this thing. This would take for-diddlying-ever to code and type out. It's easier for me to just talk to Joe in person about my specific issues with this fic.

I need to organize my thoughts for the overall though, but I have finished reading the first chapter.
More on that later. [it's positive i promise]

But yeah the write up is done.
HEY JOE YOU WANT ME TO BRING IT TONIGHT?

I'll probably get to working on chapter 2 maybe laters.


edit: please excuse my unorganized manner, i'm diddlying tired.
 

Izayoi

galactic cancer
Joined
May 17, 2007
Messages
6,355
Age
30
Location
The Land of Sand and Prisms
Re: The ORG Intermission: Enmity

why do i even expect happy endings from you

because you are a flawed human being

These Feels..I can't hold them in much longer!

This is Beautifuuuuuuuuul <3 ~
This build up is jdsalkfdkjfkj;fljflkjf;lkjfa Awesome =D

when should we expect an epic Epilogue =3 ?

you're psychic or something i mean what epilogue

sabrina says stuff

yeah bring it if i'm there tonight where the fuck even is lockport ugh

uhh yeah read go ahead. between part 2, a paper due monday, and some other stuff, i'm editing everything from what i remembered like i said i would.
 

Izayoi

galactic cancer
Joined
May 17, 2007
Messages
6,355
Age
30
Location
The Land of Sand and Prisms
Re: The ORG Intermission: Enmity

Epilogue – Best Friend

I felt bad arriving so late. Minerva must have been sitting around that thing for a whole day before I appeared. When I came out from the Corridor of Darkness, I was met by lots and lots of blue, as well as more darkness. What sense I had over spatial positioning picked up absolutely nothing. Yeah, she would have floated on forever if I never came. Hope she wasn’t having some crazy existential aspirations about the future.

“M.” I called out to her. I watched her back arch and shoulders tense in surprise. She spun around, tensed against the terminal. Her hands were sticking out in this awkward way, like she wanted to hold something but was just pretending to know barehanded combat. She totally didn’t, at least not yet. I was gonna teach her that in about a year. Learned from the best myself.

Though it was kinda sad. I think she meant to use her Keyblade, but just ended up fumbling around. She didn’t have it at this point.

“Sorry, I mean Minerva.” Wow that felt weird to say. I must’ve looked crazy.

By the depth in her stare I could tell she sized me up like I was death. Well, I guess I was intimidating. I had my black cloak on and she was probably the one person I’d been running into who wasn’t used to it. See, when it was Xenjin back at the Cave of Wonders, she was more concerned with my actual identity and not just the ominous shadowy get-up. It was torn up, too. What a mess.

“Who are you?” She asked me. Her voice was dry.

“Your friend.” I assured her. “I’m here to pick you up. We got a lot to do.”

Alright, she looked completely clueless. I mean, why wouldn’t she? Though I guess it would be creepy if she was more accepting. I wonder if this is how I acted when she found me before. Well, not “before” for her. Later, actually. Ugh. How annoying is that? It goes beyond pronoun confusion, god, time travel fucks everything up.

“Hey, we got plenty of time, no rush. All the time in the world. If you need to let this sink in it’s okay.”

There, I was being hospitable. It just caught me so off-guard that she wasn’t jumping at the opportunity to get going. The M I knew was so much more punctual and straight-laced and on top of things. Already I could tell this was going to be a rough couple of months until I got back to my version. But hey, whatever. I sat down on this big platform thing in the middle of the room. A giant holographic map spun around above it; I think M had been messing with the control panel over there. Probably bored as hell. I heard her walking over.

“Who,” she annunciated, flatly, “are you?”

There’s the cautious girl I know and love. Still didn’t get off that topic. I turned my head and saw her armored legs standing to my side; I stretched my neck, looking at her face. As a sign of peace, I pulled my hood back, nullifying its magical properties of face-concealing. Loose pieces of hair fell over my ears. Really, it didn’t do a whole lot; I still had that big visor covering my eyes. It’s a wide, reflective, cool piece of eyewear. Pretty special to me. I try to keep them on as much as possible, so this was a lot like seeing my normal face.

“Xana.” I introduced myself as. “We’re friends. Doesn’t make a lot of sense but we’ve been partners for a while, now.”

She looked me in the eyes. I was transfixed by them, actually. They were so much greener now, greener than I had ever seen them before. They almost matched my own, which were a more solid shade of emerald. It’s funny, even our hair was similar, all reddish and straight, though I had mine mostly tied up to keep it in my hood. It made me smile to see the similarities we had when we first met.

“You’re gonna love it.” I assured her, smile pushing the visor up on my cheeks. When I saw that my optimism did nothing for her I rolled my eyes, sighing. “Or, I don’t know, at least I can get you out of this hell hole?”

I opened the Corridor back up, and she regarded the swirling blackness with awe. I don’t think they had these back then; it would require the worlds be more closely tied to the dark realm. Of course, they didn’t have me during this time either, by which I mean Nobodies. That aside, this portal in particular was special. My powers meant that going through it would let us move through time. We were schedule to emerge quite a ways ahead; not exactly up to the point at which M and I worked before (or will work, confusing) but just behind it enough that we could set things up for our future selves. Though I suppose it would be past me-

That’s enough of that.

“Where does it lead?” She asked me, standing closer to it. I stood by her side to make her feel safe, or something.

“It’s gonna put us somewhere where we can build a life for ourselves. Where you can start over. That’s a big deal, isn’t it?” I knew it was. I knew M better than she knew herself most of the time.

I watched her whirl around and scan the room, not like she had lost something but like she wanted to make sure she hadn’t forgotten anything. Good, I convinced her. I walked up to the Corridor and waved her after me. M didn’t seem too excited but she was easy to collaborate with.

“Like I said, things are gonna get better.” I reiterated. “You’ll accomplish some of the best things you ever wanted to. You’ll be a Keyblade Master just like you always wanted to be.”

I heard her stop with a jarringly loud step. When I turned to see what was wrong I saw her glaring at me oddly. I don’t think she was necessarily mad, just confused. M had her mouth opened, trying to phrase something.

“How…” She looked down for a few seconds, shaking her head, then back directly at my eyes with sternness. “Really?”

“Yeah.” I smiled again. “Trust me; you’ll know what you’re doing.”

I reached back, offering my hand. She remained apprehensive, but took a step towards me. I helped her through the Corridor. Space blackened and the light around us disappeared in a vacuum. The reflections coming off my shades vanished first, then my cloak blended into the background.

I still saw her in the pieces of her gold armor, which glimmered longer than the glass on my face did. Despite her hesitation, she didn’t look back in a regretful way, but kept her chin up and kept her attention forward. It made me proud that she was my one good friend in the universe. Or would be. Or maybe already was. It was a thrilling thought that I now had the chance to lead us on an adventure.

I just needed to take her somewhere first.
 

Finland

Banshee Queen
Joined
Jun 10, 2008
Messages
7,441
Awards
4
Age
30
Re: The ORG Intermission: Enmity

i cannot really phrase myself because epilogues always make me feel weird because they mean that something ends

i'm glad there's a sequel yaaaaaay

also automatic squeal because xenjin was mentioned see i do care
 

Annoyance

Silver Member
Joined
Jan 20, 2004
Messages
4,621
Awards
11
Age
33
Location
Aurora, IL
Website
twitter.com
Re: The ORG Intermission: Enmity

I'm just gonna write up a small overall opinion even though I've been saying these things forever to you, Joe, but hey, I said I would.

Now, I'm aware that you have definitely improved over the year or so of writing this and various other things so seeing your mistakes in this was very frustrating. The mistakes I found are things that everyone makes, however, and you shouldn't worry too much about it. You need to work on simplifying things and at the same time, work on expanding some. For example, you spend an entire page of them staring at each other and their armor/keyblades, but spend a small paragraph on their master and the students.

It's stuff like that.

Then just random phrasing bugged me personally, but I talked with you about that.

It's very creatively done, though. I was interested even without playing BBS or any of the current games, and I asked you which stuff was just KH bullshit and what was just generally confusing in general, like if the armor flashes on him or if he physically puts each thing on realistically.

You're a very talented writer, Joe, and I'm glad to help you with a project like this.

As it was said, the in depth stuff is being handled in person just so everything is clear and I don't go absolutely insane typing it all up and coding it so it's comprehensive...
 

Izayoi

galactic cancer
Joined
May 17, 2007
Messages
6,355
Age
30
Location
The Land of Sand and Prisms
Re: The ORG Intermission: Enmity

I actually started editing last night. I'm using what I remembered you said and expanding some descriptions that got overlooked while shortening others that are stupid in length. Not to mention I eliminated some wording which was just dumb. I mean shit it's been literally a year since I wrote chapter one so there is so much I have personal issues with.

Yeah no that random phrasing stuff I totally understand. Sometimes you just end up tipping the scale of trying to sound cool and end up making a weird mess of words.

I also worked on the conversations since they looked like cardboard before heheh. Having written the characters in an improved state this summer, it was way easier to up the dialogue and give it some more depth. Almost a relief.

and you should never have to type up all of those thoughts that would be suicide
 

Annoyance

Silver Member
Joined
Jan 20, 2004
Messages
4,621
Awards
11
Age
33
Location
Aurora, IL
Website
twitter.com
Re: The ORG Intermission: Enmity

I've been holding off on my indepth critiques as well because the forum is still buggy and makes them 3x harder.

So yeah halfway through I'd just be like
YOU KNOW WHAT, FUCK IT *blam*
 

Izayoi

galactic cancer
Joined
May 17, 2007
Messages
6,355
Age
30
Location
The Land of Sand and Prisms
Re: The ORG Intermission: Enmity

Yeah but you know I just randomly reviewed that rap-poem-thing the other day. I just started reading and was like ho-hum THOUGHTS there you go see ya.
 

Lumine

When your Mask falls, what will you see.
Joined
Mar 19, 2009
Messages
1,476
Awards
14
Location
Truth
Re: The ORG Intermission: Enmity

Dat Epilogue 83

Also, it's sooo good to see Xana surfacing =3

Can't wait for the Sequel Joe! you make every chapter such a joy ride <3
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top