//------------------------------// // Mark of Mastery: Trials // Story: Balance // by BioQuillFiction //------------------------------// When I walked through the doors going back to where I came from, I found myself coming out of the doors of Memory Skyscraper. “... Dream logic…” I muttered as I walked down the stairs and onto the streets. “What am I supposed to do here?” I looked around a bit, but I didn’t see anything til I looked at the top of Memory Skyscraper. I saw a person, dressed in a white version of an Organization XIII cloak. “The heck? Hey!” To my surprise, the person jumped, and landed perfectly in front of me. They walked up to me and before I could react, I was hit by something and flung across the ground. “Heartless scum.” That voice! “Huxley?!” I got up immediately. “Your memories of him. His clear dislike and distrust in you will make this easy.” A flash of darkness showed the memory Huxley wielding the Dark Realm Kingdom Key. He rushed in for an attack, and I crossed it with my katana. Why does he have that Keyblade specifically? “What are you without the X-blade? The son of two murderers? A hated man without even doing anything wrong? Why did you even what to controle Heartless?” We both jumped back. “I may be just some guy without X, and my parents are murderers. The hatred and fear towards me comes from my family, you don’t love everything about the ones who raised you. And the reason I asked for control over the Heartless, is because I will set their lost hearts free from the darkness!” I went in for an attack. Our blades clashed with every strike. We crossed blades again. “You are pathetic, with the cast of one spell, you’re helpless.” We jumped back again. “Sto-” “Reflect Raid!” I shouted, throwing the Katana, and it spun around and bounced off of invisible wall, repeating the assault on memory Huxley. The katana returned to me, and I grabbed it by the grip perfectly. I knew it. “H, How? You can’t do that move without a Keyblade!” Memory Huxley said as he struggled to stand. “Maybe, but this is my mind. I asked myself, why you had that Keyblade specifically, and I then wondered, why the katana my brother gave me?” I raised my katana up. “I may not have X with me right now, but I am Zeke Ventral, the Human Keyblade!” I held my katana close to my face. “Isn’t that right, brother?” My katana flashed white, and Fenrir took it’s place. Let’s end this bastard. Fenrir said, and I went in for an attack. Memory Huxley tried to block, but Fenrir’s range let me slide the tip of it’s blade into memory Huxley’s hood. “Family, ally… forms you shouldn’t have beaten. Maybe the real me was wrong, wrong about your methods.” Memory Huxley faded into the air, leaving his Dark Realm Kingdom Key behind. Brother X is in pieces. As soon as I touched it, the Dark Realm Kingdom Key turned into a broken piece of X’s keychain. Split in two, that’s gotta hurt. I placed the piece of X’s keychain half in my pocket. “He has been blown up before.” He hated when that happened. “So, Fenrir, wanna stick around until X is back?” Sounds like a plan. As I was walking down one of the roads, I blinked, and found myself standing on Destiny Island. “... Fucking Dream Logic.” Sounds about right. “Where would I go here?” Out of curiosity, I searched the area that should have been the ‘Secret Spot’, but there was a bolder behind the brush. “Worth a shot.” I walked over to the other side of the island, and saw a kid. As I walked up closer I recognized the kid was Button. “Button?” He turned around. “Sup dad?” I nearly choked on my words. “D, did you just call me dad?” “Why wouldn’t we?” Scoot’s voice spoke from behind me. I turned and everyone was there. “You are our dad.” “And unless you let Rune have her way in the bedroom, you will be fathering all our children.” Luna spoke as Rune stuck her tongue out at her. “Gender swap is sexy!” Rune declared. I chuckled. “That fetish list was long and strange.” I said, some tears rolling down my cheek. Hearts Care stepped forward, holding her hand out. I walked up, took her hand, and stabbed Fenrir into her chest. “I’m sorry!” She vanished in a puff of darkness, and soon the others all changed into shadow versions of themselves. They attacked quickly, but I attacked without mercy. I hurt, my heart felt broken with each shadow I slayed. All I could do is remember that, this was not my family, this was the darkness trying to take advantage of my love for them. Finally, the last of my shadow family was slain, and I collapsed. “I am gonna kill Core, Josh, and everyone in that army of his.” As I stood up, the ground shook, and I heard that bell from back in Traverse Town. “What is that?” The trial bell. Not illusions of old family, new family, nor allies kept you from continuing. Only two more trials to go. “I don’t see how finding you was a trial?” First is always the easiest. “Right, cause that makes sense. Why were you the katana anyway?” I wan’t. When you called out to the Keyblades stored within you, when you said ‘brother’, we rushed to help. I was the first to make it. “That makes sense.” I walked back through to the other side of the island, and the door led to Twilight Town, Station Plaza. “This is getting old.” I looked around for a while. There wasn’t anything here, just the sun setting and- Wait, the sunset in Twilight Town in permanent, it never moves. Why is it going down? I watched as the sun slowly wend down over the horizon, and once it was gone, the air felt ripe with grimm. I don’t like this. “Neither do I.” It was almost too dark to see, but I managed. I found myself in Station Heights. Not even street lights were lit. The further I wend down the road the more I could hear… music? It was soft, and kinda made me feel sad. The closer I got the more I could hear it. The vocals matched the music perfectly. I bumped into a building, the music was coming from the other side. I walked over and found some kinda digital recorder, playing the song on a loop, I think? There wasn’t much light I could see with. I managed to turn it off and put it away, and all the lights on the streets turned on. “Alright, that’s new.” Now being able to see, I realized I was in Transit Common. I walked around and took in the creepy vibe Twilight Town had in near total darkness. I found the hole that lead to the old manor and walked through it. Darkness was around me again, and I moved forward into it. It took a while, but I found the old manor. The gate was wide open. “Think someone is waiting for us?” Sounds about right. I entered the manor, and heard music yet again. I think it’s coming from the room on the top left, that’s the white room namine is always in, right? As I opened the room, the white all over the place did make seeing a little easier. On the table, I found another recorder, it was another sad song by the same person singing. I’ve never heard this person before. I took it and turned it off, and the manor lit up. “Alright, so what’s this about?” As I entered the manor lobby again, I was greeted by, “Nobodies?!” I managed to block a Dusk attack, and strike it dead as it floated in the air. There were ten Dusks. I dodged what I could, and used Flowmotion to my advantage to land hits to many at once. Once the Dusks were dead, I saw the door to the room on the top right fly open. Walking in, the secret basement was open, and I walked in. Once I was in the computer room, I nearly jumped as I saw Core sitting at the massive terminal. “Took your time getting here.” “How the hell are you in my mind?!” “Uh, my darkness/blood was on the bullet that shot you? The body you’re seeing is another construct of your memories, but the real me is controlling it.” “What the hell are you doing?” “Keeping you stable and opening the portals to the different parts of your memories. Finally I got you to where I was.” He turned and looked at me. “You may have rejected my offer, but you are an important resource to me Zeke. I can’t have you and dying on me because that stupid uncle of yours can’t follow orders.” “What? Shooting me wasn’t enough?” “Sooting you only in non-lethal areas. That fight was only supposed to go on until you passed out, but after what you did… summoning a Keyblade away from you and controlling it like it was a part of you. How did you pull that off?” “Kingdom Hearts… it made me into a Human Keyblade.” “Seriously?! That’s new, even for me. What else ya got?” “Find out the hard way.” “Fair enough. So my big brother is making this your Mark of Mastery exam?” “I figured you’d be the little brother.” “Meh, only by a few minutes. Wait, you aren’t shocked by the fact God is my brother?” “He already told me.” “That old show off. He tell you about the truth of earth?” “Yeup.” “The people I’m taking?” “Yeah.” “Great, I wanted to be the one to drop the bomb on you like that! Well in any case, I’m impressed. Those shadows of your loved ones should have been the end of this road for you, yet you still refused. Why?” “They weren’t my real family.” “But they were your desire, what you wanted most. You refused paradise?” “It was just an illusion. It may have hurt, but reality is where I belong.” “This is why you are such a valuable resource to me. A heart that cares enough to save everyone, brave enough to put your neck out in front of the chopping block, a mind strong enough to see past illusions, and now… a living Keyblade. Just how, I wonder, does the light and darkness in your heart stay balanced? Your heart should be largely light.” “You forgot something.” “Really?” “When I wake up, I will no longer hesitate. Humans kill to defend, monsters kill without reason. What do you say, Core? My army of humans, versus your army of monsters?” “That’s what I’ve been planning, but we can both agree no one you’ve met can match me in combat, not even you. I like my opponent to be ready when the time comes.” “You know Core, for a monster, you debate and talk no different than a human.” Core looked up at the ceiling. “You know what they say,” He looked back at me. “All the worst monsters, are sane. Your third trial is in the Pod Room, but I’ll warn you about your last trial… took me awhile to get it.” “What is it?” Core chuckled. “You’ll see.” Core vanished into darkness, leaving me and Fenrir alone. This will be weird. “What about this has been normal?” I walked through the last few rooms, and into the pod room, where I saw my armor, holding a black version of the X-blade. “Of course.” My armor and I ran at each other, and we crossed blades.