“Ah~, that was good.” I sigh out, patting my stomach after having what I could consider an all you can eat buffet of food and cake. “That was delicious.”
“Glad you liked it, we wanted to make it special for you when you woke up.” Twilight says with a smile.
“Thanks.” I smile. “But hey...I’m a Keyblade Master now, I have a whole heart, and a new Keyblade. And I still need to master twelve other weapons, and those fuckers are going to be a pain in the ass to figure out all their special powers...does anyone in town know how to play a Sitar?” I ask curiously, knowing full well I’m gonna have to learn how to play the damned thing if I want to use it’s powers correctly.
“I can!” Pinkie cheers.
“How?” I ask with a frown before Pinkie somehow pulled a wooden sitar out of the ether.
“When I was learning about all the kinds of parties I needed to know for specific people I found this and it was a great thing to learn, along with so many other instruments.” Pinkie explains with a warm smile.
“I’m….” I start before taking a deep breath, remembering this pink ponies weird antics. “I’m not going to question it, but I’m gonna need Sitar lessons because...one of my weapons happens to be a sitar.” I say before showing Demyx’s sitar...which led to Pinkie giggling like a mad mare. “It’s exactly what it looks like doesn’t it?”
“Of course it does!” Pinkie giggles. “Who even makes a sitar like that?”
“This sitar is made to resemble the symbol of all Nobodies.” I state. “So thinking it’s that is quite a lot of disrespect to those I want to save.” I frown.
“O-oh…” Pinkie stops her giggling and looks down. “I….I’m sorry…” She says sadly, causing me to sigh out and disband the weapon before getting up and walking over to Pinkie.
“No need to be sad.” I say while hugging the pink mare. “I’m sorry if I sounded mean...please don’t be sad…” I whisper, trying to hug her worries away.
“I-it’s alright…” Pinkie says, hugging back.
Luxu came running down from upstairs. “Sweetie and Time are awake… also for some reason Time is pissed at you Ben.” Luxu said as he took a seat.
“The fuck did I do?” I ask with a frown. “I did literally nothing to her, why is she pissed at me?”
There was a sudden crash as Time somehow broke the ceiling, or her floor, and was standing right infront of me as she gave a HARD suckerpunch to my face… causing my head to go threw the nearby wall. “Man I needed to get that out of my system.” Time said, instantly cooling off.
I pulled my head out of the wall and then walked over to Time. “Time…” I say before putting a gentle hand on her shoulder, acting calm in my furious state. “Why, in the name of all that is holy, did you hit me for no fucking reason?” I ask, giving a smile to her as my hand on her shoulder started to tighten and my self restraint working it’s best for me not to smack the hell out of her.
“My Mark of Mastery. Made me realize I keep way too much anger inside and I don’t dish it out. That was for just being a little bitch. Man up Ben.”
“Oh?” I say simply. “Well if you want.” I say before suddenly grabbing Time by the throat and ramming her into the ground hard. “How about instead of being a bitch Time you do something better than randomly smack people.” I growl, not wanting to deal with this shit right now. “I’m going out for a while.” I say simply.
“Not yet.” She says. I look back at Time, and she snapped her fingers, and somehow… I was back to eating breakfast.
“She really want’s to pull this shit doesn’t she?” I frown, starting to hate this situation.
“Who?” Rarity asked.
“Oh, just Time abusing the fact she can control time. Cause you know, her anger issues have to involve me for some stupid fucking reason.” I shrug. “Don’t know why, and I find it really retarded.”
“Um… Ben, Time can only send memories back in time… You did zone out for a second though.”
“Morning.” Time said as she walked in. “So Ben… any good dreams?” She gave me a sly grin.
“Oh you know, the usual.” I shrug. “How was your dreams? Anymore nightmares or was cuddling up to Luxu helping you not have nightmares?”
“Later. Sweetie is up too, we both are masters now. How’s it feel?” She asked, sitting next to me.
“Well…” I say while putting a hand over my heart. “I’m finally whole...and it feels nice.” I smile. “After so long...my Rejection turned into happy Acceptance.”
“Like a real victim of depression.” Time teased as Rarity left the room for some reason. “So… how was the wall?”
“Something that I don’t want to deal with again.” I frown. “But you know, now having to deal with you being all ‘I’m just going to attack Ben for no fucking reason’ is going to be annoying as hell.” I grumble.
“It wasn’t just for no reason. There was a version of you in my Exam and he really pissed me off.”
“Oh boo fucking hoo.” I say. “Nobody said it wasn’t going to be easy, or that it wouldn’t piss you off, but taking it out on people in real life for no reason is stupid.”
“You wouldn’t be saying that… basically it started with Luxu greeting me… and he kissed me, and when he stopped… it was you I saw…”
“You could have just said you liked me.” I joke with a smile.
“You want an express ticket to the moon?”
“Listen how about you spend time with Luxu alright? I’m pretty sure you want to spend time with your boyfriend then with me. You hate me enough as is so why do you even want to be around me to begin with?” I ask honestly.
“To apologize. That whole exam was just messing with my emotions and… making me remember what Core and them did to me… So I had to release some stress.”
“Ya know punching me wouldn’t relieve stress right? Especially when you give me a good reason to hit back.” I explain.
“And you did… then I made it all unhappen. Look, frankly the only reason I don’t like you is because… well, you remind me of my reflection’s Scootaloo… She went insane from the experiments… and now she works for Core.”
“I’m not her. No matter how many times you say ‘I remind you of her’, I’m not your sociopathic Scootaloo.” I say simply. “Remember that, I may be sassy but I’m not her….” I say, trying to hold in my complaint about being compared to another person.
“You just have that same attitude she did. It’s hard not to see her when I hear you talk. I’m gonna go hang out with Luxu, if we don’t come back don’t worry, it just means we fell asleep.” She said, getting up and walking out of the room.
“Okay so that’s a good reason to worry…” I mutter to myself, not thinking about those two doing anything stupid but the fact that sleep could make the two vulnerable. “Whatever...I wonder what I’m gonna do today?” I hum to myself as I thought about things to do today.
Not long after the event with Time, Luna woke up, we had a quick… round and now she and I were in front of Aqua. Since Time is Sweetie’s Keyblade and she doesn’t have any other, she’s just watching. “Alright then, Ben, Luna, you both are masters, therefore you should know some Master only knowledge.”
“What sort of master knowledge?” I ask curiously.
“For starters, the ability to bend light to your will.” Aqua raised her Keyblade up, and three orbs of light floated around her. “You can modify this into various attacks.”
“I wonder…” I mutter before summoning Reunion and raising it, white and grey thorns starting to come out of it before a single ball of light was made, the thorns circling around it like it was protecting it. “Um...those are Nobody thorns right?” I ask curiously, wondering why the hell that happened. “And...is that supposed to happen?”
“From what I know, it can be unique to each master. Now, there is something iven more useful you can utilize, but far more taxing.” A circle of light appeared around Aqua as a second her walked out of her. “Duplicates from light. Like illusions, but they can attack.”
“Cool…” I say, not entirely sure if I wanted to try that yet since the first ball of light felt a lot harder to do even if it looked easy. “Hmm...I wonder if I could…” I mutter before snapping my fingers, three dragoons suddenly appearing. “Huh...when I was with Zeke I barely had the strength after summoning one...now I can summon three without a problem…” I say before waving my hand, the three vanishing without a trace. “So besides control over light what else can a master do?”
“One last thing is the ability to lock and transform a world via it’s Keyhole. But that’s a last resort… and only a Master Keeper Keyblade can do that.”
“Like Castle Oblivion.” I say, still not able to believe how Core managed to mess with it.
“Yes. Exactly like that.”
“Sounds fancy...but wait...wouldn’t a Keyblade master be able to unlock the world? I was told that it was impossible but still.”
“Again, only with the Master Keeper. It’s power is to reshape worlds. It’s one of the five legendary Keyblades.”
“Now what the hell are the other four legendary Keyblades?” I frown. “Cause I have a strange feeling that one of those legendary weapons can just so conveniently fuck with the Master Keepers ability.” I frown, not liking this situation the more I’m hearing it.
“Well, they are called that because they were the first five Keyblades to exist first. The X-blade, the power to create and control how life and the hearts of life exist. The Master Keeper, the power to reshape worlds for better or worse, as well as the travel between them. The Kingdom Key, the true power of a Keyblade and what they stand for. Way to Dawn, the power of darkness, but to be used to protect light and the balance. And lastly, No Name, the Keyblade that controls time, and space.”
“Well isn’t that just fantastic.” I say simply. ”And funnily enough she met the wielders of the Kingdom Key and Way to Dawn.” I think to myself. “But it just so happened that Core tried making a copy of No Name, which happened to be Time Bell...actually why the hell is that keyblades name ‘No Name’? Seems...curious to say the least.”
“Because the concept of time itself is real, but we gave it a name, therefore, time has no real name, so it’s called, No Name.”
“Yet so many names could fit for it but I understand.” I nod. “So anyways back on track before I start derailing everything, I believe we’re going to train on how to bend light?” I ask. “Cause what I did seemed easy but it...really wasn’t.”
“Yes, for today, you are to do the two techniques I showed you until you can no longer perform them. That will be all.”
“Right then.” I say with a nod. “Um...question...there’s such a thing as a ‘Door to Darkness’...would there happen to be a ‘Door to Light’ and ‘Door to Nothing’?” I ask curiously, knowing that what Zeke did with Discord was not a DTD like what Core normally uses.
“From what I know… I’m not sure. I know that DTD’s are real, and DTL’s are a theory, but a DTN is new to me.”
“Well...I’m just gonna warn you that if a portal appears out of nowhere then it’s not my fault...training with something new and given I have Nobody powers can...lead to some weird situations.” I say, giving a warning before I happen to do something stupid. “You want to go first Luna?”
“Sure.” Luna focused and took a meditative stance. A ring of light appeared around her and two other Luna’s were around her. “Wow… now this gives me ideas~” She, and her copies gave me rather seductive looks.
“Uh...I don’t think I can handle three Luna’s at the same time…” I say worriedly, my face turning beat red at the seductive looks. “Not in front of Aqua please…”
“Settle down you two.” Aqua said, chuckling a bit. “I was thinking, Ben, if you can make fourteen light replicas of you, then you can have each wielding one of your weapons.”
“Can I at least master the damn things first? They would work so much better cause Clones would probably be of my skill level...and right now my skill level is that of comparing a Shadow to an Invisible…” I sigh out. “Or in simple terms, I suck at fighting still.”
“What I saw back in the Realm of Darkness proved otherwise. I can teach you everything a Master should know about Keyblades, but as for weapons, you might have to find others to help you there.”
“That is true...I wonder if I can use specific Nobodies to help teach me…” I say with wonder. “I mean they can only teach me so much but still…”
“Well, if it’s still around, maybe some of the people of Radiant Garden can help. They all seemed skilled in a variety of weapons last time I was there.”
I face palmed. “Of course, why didn’t I think of that! I mean some of these weapons came from their Nobodies after all.” I say, accidentally letting that slip.
“Wait?” Aqua asks with a raised eyebrow.
“Oh um…” I start before sighing out. “Do you want the cliff notes or the whole explanation? Cause I have a feeling I’m going to have to talk to you about this…” I say, not entirely sure if Aqua would want to hear the story about my thirteen weapons.
“Did something happen to Radiant Garden?”
“Well…” I trial before, trying to collect my thoughts about how to start this entire conversation. “My thirteen weapons, yes including the keyblade, all came from what I call ‘Organization’ Nobodies, the kind of Nobodies that still look and sound human but are still Nobodies.” I explain. “I’ll explain more when we get to Radiant Garden...it’ll be for the best cause of...certain things.”
“Alright then. So, let’s go.”
“Right then.” I say before pulling my hood up and fixing my silver crown on my head before bringing out Reunion and tossing it into the air, the bike now instead of grey and white, was a mix of reds and blues. “I’d recommend you opening the portal...I’m not good with that stuff yet.” I say sheepishly, not wanting to open a portal then suddenly appearing in the sixth circle of hell.
Aqua opened a gateway and her Master Keeper turned into her regular glider, but kinda looked like Ventus’s was morphed into it. She hopped on and Luna took a ride with me. It took a bit of time, but we found Radient Garden and and landed in what I think was the town square? It’s where Aqua fought Terranort, that’s all I know. “Everything here seems normal from the last time I was here.”
“Yes it does…” I say before hopping off my bike and it turned back into Reunion. “But...I can’t shake off this weird feeling all of a sudden…” I say, summoning Vexen’s shield and ready for a fight.
“Oh, why, hello there young fellows.” We turned around and saw Merlin walking our way. “I must say, I remember you young lass, been what? Nearly a year now?”
“Uh, yes sir. I came because my friend here wants to master a variety of weapons he has.” Aqua replied.
“Well then, you might wanna check with the castle guard and staff. They all specialize in combat up there.”
“Thank you sir.”
“If they give you any fuss, just say Merlin says to let you in. If that old child of mine Ansum has any respect for me still they’ll let you in.”
“Wait what?” I ask while raising my finger up in massive question. “Did you mean that as...Ansem is actually your son or in a different kind of context?”
“I would like to think myself his father. I found him as a young lad, raised him into the man he is today. Taught him everything he knows. You’d think he’d at least visit from time to time.”
“Well…” I start. “He’s probably a busy man, and I have a feeling that specific kind of busy involves that entire castle.” I say while pointing to the huge thing.
“Yes, he always dove deep into research even as a child. Brilliant by all means, but he forgets to take his time and go slowly. Just last year he hired a new apprentice right off the bat because he wanted to conduct an experiment about those with amnesia taking on new identities.”
My eyes widened at hearing that. “Oh fuck no…” I say breathlessly. “Merlin, did this apprentice happen to have silver spiky hair? Tan skin and thin but strong looking?”
“Yes, he was found with a blue Keyblade and armor wrapped around him of all things. Can you believe that?”
“Terra!” Aqua yelled, running right towards the castle.
“Sorry Merlin, we’ve got to go!” I shout before throwing my keyblade up into the air, summoning my glider and riding off, grabbing Aqua and making her ride behind me as we headed off towards the castle. “Shit, I didn’t think we were this close…” I mutter to myself, hoping we won’t be too late for Terranort to start attacking the others and make them Nobodies.
We reached the castle gate, and the guards did let us pass at mentioning Merlin. We got off my Glider and I ran/followed Aqua though the castle til Luna and I lost her. “She must really care for this Terra.” Luna said, catching her breath.
“Terra is Aqua and Ventus’s best friend. Aqua lost Ventus in his coma and she almost lost Terra to the Realm of Darkness, but she took his place...but I’m sad to say there’s a hitch hiker in Terra’s body which is terrible.” I say, catching my breath quickly and trying to search around the place. “Come on, we have to find her before shit hits the fan.” I say before bolting off again, thinking of the right direction to find Ansem’s study.
After a few turns I finally caught up to Aqua… who was with the Terranort, and Ansem the Wise. “I’m sorry miss, but I have no idea who you are.” Terrenort said.
“Terra you have to remember.” Aqua pleaded.
“My name is Xehanort. And that’s… all I do remember. I’m sorry if I knew you before, but I don’t now.”
“Young lady.” Ansem spoke. “If you truly are this man's friend then do you have anything to jog his memory? I’ve been curious about my assistant here as well since I took him in.”
“Would ‘Gazing Eye’ give you any ideas?” I ask while walking into the room. “Please Xehanort, do you know what the ‘Gazing Eye’ is?” I ask, knowing full well that Xehanort is stuck in Terra’s body.
“Gazing… eye?” Terranort asks. “Is that a spell?”
“It does sound like one doesn’t it.” I say simply. “But no, it’s actually a Keyblade. I’m sad you wouldn’t know your own Keyblade Xehanort.” I say. “Hey Aqua, want to know what happened when Terra fought Xehanort?”
“You… tell me please.” Aqua begged.
“That old bald bastard decided, after Terra was succumbing to darkness after kicking his ass, rip out his heart and shove his inside Terra’s body. Terra’s heart is still in his body, but there was a little...hiccup with Xehanort’s plan...Terra’s Lingering Will, that is still in his Keyblade Armor in the Keyblade Graveyard.” I explain. “After Xehanort got his ass kicked he became an amnesiac and him being Ansem’s apprentice was going to happen either way.” I explain, going to leave it at that so I don’t sound like I don’t know literally everything about the past present and future.
“Uhhh.” Terranort said. “That’s… quite a story kid… but nothing you said clicked at all.”
“May not click right now, I’m not a doctor nor do I know much about amnesia, but it’ll come to you.” I say, leaving out that I know five people are going to get killed and turned to Nobodies while Ansem has to run and become ‘Diz’.
“If you say so…”
“Terra,” Aqua said, crying. “You have to remember. Remember our home, Ventus, master Eraqus.”
Terranort flinched. “That name… why does hearing it make me feel guilty?”
“Ansem the Wise, can two hearts live inside the same body?” I ask. “And if that is possible, would both hearts try to take control of the host body and gain dominance?”
Ansem stroked his chin in thought. “It’s possible, the body would submit to the strongest heart, and that heart would in turn consume the weaker, but if both are of equal strength then they would be stuck in a limbo, or fuse together, creating an entire new… being…” He looked over to Terranort.
“I propose that this amnesia is due to this man right here, having the heart of this fine ladies friend Terra, as the body is home to Terra’s heart already, but is battling against a heart that was once held in the body of the man named Xehanort.” I say. “Why he remembered Xehanort is because Terra was the last one to fight the man who took over his body, Terra’s ‘Lingering Will’ happened to inhabit a special suit of armor that then beat him into unconsciousness and was sent straight to Radiant Garden somehow and that is how the amnesia took place.”
“That, that’s absurd.” Terranort said. “How can that possibly happen, no spells or science can pull off such a feat.”
“There are things stronger than both spells and magic.” I say before summoning my Keyblade, Reunion. “This is a Keyblade.”
“That… that looks like the thing I was found with… Well, sorta.”
“Can I see it?” Aqua asked.
“Um, sure.” Terranort walked us over to his quarters in the castle, where he opened a large trunk and there was Aqua's armor, all in pieces, and her Keyblade, Stormfall. “See, it’s just a strangely made sword.”
Aqua picked up Stormfall, and it reacted, glowing a bright flash of white before us. Her armor also vanished from the trunk, and when Aqua pushed the button for her armor to appear, it did. “Never thought I’d see these things again.”
“How? I ran test after test on those things… they were just hunks of metal.” Terranort says, flabbergasted at such an event.
“What you had in your possession is known as a ‘Keyblade’, a weapon of light that is mean to protect those from the creatures of Darkness, like Heartless. The thing you also found next to the keyblade was known as ‘Keyblade Armor’, and as it says in the name it is special armor that can help defend yourself against magic and physical attacks. Only those chosen by Keyblades can use Keyblade armor and even then some forgo the things entirely.” I say with a shrug. “I understand this makes about as much sense as someone praising a single ant as a god but it’s all true…” I say simply.
“If this is all true, then why wouldn’t I recognize someone who says she was my friend?” Terranort asks. “Why only that name… Eraqus? Why did that only make me react?”
“Terra…” Aqua started. “Xehanort… tricked you into striking him down, because he tried to hurt Ven.”
“What?” Terranort looked shocked, horrified even. “But I... I-I never killed anyone.”
“You have never killed anyone.” I say to Terranort. “But the two people battling in your body have. Terra killed his master because he didn’t understand the situation, but Xehanort...Xehanort has probably killed many...and could have killed more.” I sigh out. “I’m sorry man, this may seem so confusing in every which way…” I sigh out.
“Yes it is, and rather boring as well.” We all turned around… and Core was leaning against the wall. “Such dribble.”
“The fuck are you doing here Core?” I ask, summoning Reunion and Vexen’s shield as I stepped forward to keep everyone away from him.
“Simply put… I’m here to collect Xehanort. I finally found a reflection of him, and now that he explained what his intention was, I am here to gather more of him.”
“He’s still Terra, and I don’t want you to get that greedy son of a bitch.” I frown, readying for a fight.
“Please.” He walked up to me, flicked my shield, and I was sent flying thru the wall. “You may be whole now, but you still pose no real threat.” He passed Aqua, and walked up to Terranort. “This will only hurt a lot.” He jabbed his hand into Terranort, and ripped out a black heart. “Lucky that Terra can put up a fight, otherwise I would have had to take the whole thing.” Terranort collapsed on the floor, his hair turning brown as he fell. I quickly came back into the scene and didn’t like this one bit.
Core let the heart float for a bit before Darkness formed around it… making the Young Xehanort from Dream Drop Distance. “Well, that was easier than what I was planing.” Xehanort said.
“You’d be surprised how easy things can be at times.” A DTD opened behind them. “This was all I wanted, enjoy the ‘fight’ against me when it comes. If you live long enough to see it.” Core and Xehanort walked into the DTD, leaving Aqua to rush to Terra’s side.
“DAMN IT!” I shout in rage, ramming my fist into an undamaged part of the wall I was thrown through. “I lead that fucker straight to help….” I growl, hating this situation more and more. “Damn it.” I growl, a crack forming into the wall as I punched it again. “Great...just...fucking great…”
“Ooooouuuuucccchhhhh.” Terra’s body spoke. “That felt way worse than what I was expecting.”
“Terra!” Aqua cheered, hugging him tightly. “You’re back!”
“Yeah. Didn’t expect that, but at least Xehanort is out of me… even though whoever that Core was seemes to be way worse…”
“He want’s to use Kingdom Hearts to bring about Void.” I say to Terra. “Core’s not the worst, but...he’s the worst in the current situation.”
“Void? You know what, I’ll have the fill in explanation later, right now… I’m gonna do something I kinda have been wanting to do.”
“What’s that Ter-” Aqua was cut off by a sudden kiss on the lips from Terra.
My jaw dropped at seeing this before I jump up and down in giddy enjoyment. “The ship is real oh my god!” I say with a giant ass smile plastered on my face.
Too be continued...