//------------------------------// // Luxu's in Town! // Story: Foretellers // by Fear Ripper //------------------------------// The Day had started out like any other. The Foretellers and their students training under the bright sun in Equestria town. It had been a week since the whole adventure with the other survivors. Also the day when Luxu said he would be coming to visit. The Foretellers were on school grounds, training with their Advanced members. Which has grown since they had left. Sunset and the Six had taken up training the normal members of the Union while they were away, and some of them had awaked to their true keyblades. They were training them on how to go into combat with their Dream Eaters. They all kept it up with their Dream Eaters while their students were trying their hardest just to hold their own. Lan was working with his students, pouring on the power with his Tyranto Rex Dream Eaters while his students tried their best just to keep up with it. The others were doing the same. Dan with a Toximander, Alex using an Thunderaffe, Kira with her Wheeflower, and Jenny pounding her students with Kooma Panda. Deciding that they had enough, Lan spoke up. “Alright everyone, take five! Go over your current techniques and try to see how you can adapt to the larger opponent.” Lan instructed his students, with the other Foretellers doing the same. “Hey Wizard.” Lan turned around at that, seeing Luxu, Time, and Sweetie Belle walk up to him. “Get the reference?” “Luxu! And… two Sweetie Belle’s?” Alex said. “Time Bell.” Time said, walking up and flicking Lan’s nose. “Don’t call me that name…” “Sorry, you two just look alike is all.” Lan rubbed his nose. “Save for the gears sticking out of my body?” “Well you could be from a reflection where that's the norm. We don’t know, and just didn’t want to bring it up if it was a sensitive topic.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “Duh I’m from a reflection. Why else would Sweetie be here, she’s my wielder.” Dan’s ears perked, “Ah, so you are also a Keyblade?” “Yeah… Core’s work.” “Tsk, the bastard’s at it again.” Lan said. “I was nine when he did this to me…” “Well, anyways, what are you doing here Luxu? I know you said you’d visit us, but you never really told us what you wanted to do.” “Well, one is to check on Jenny, putting all my memories of the war in her head must have… screwed her up…” “Well you gave me nightmares for a couple nights. But a few sessions with some Dream Eater therapy I’m fine now.” Jenny huffed harshly. “Wait till the aftershock hits…” Luxu mutteres. “Anyway, so I see you got Dream Eaters going well, anything you wanna know?” “Well why don’t we put that on hold for now? Why don’t we show you three around our world first?” Kira suggested. “Sure, we just got out from helping Zeke and some other guy out, did some things, you know, the not-so-usual.” The rest of the agreed. After dismissing their students, the Foretellers started showing the trio around Equestria town. Their first stop was the Cakes shop for something to eat. “So, other than the clear high blood pressure, what do these people sell?” Luxu asked. “Well it’s like any other cafe, but they do have more sweets than anything. Cakes, cookies, brownies, etc.” Dan said, then Mrs. Cake came up to their table to take their order. “Hello Kid! How’s it going today? No monster attacks recently?” She joked. “Not today Mrs. Cake, and these are our friends.” Kira waved towards the Trio. “The one in the cloak is Luxu, the one with the gears is Time Belle, and last is Sweetie Belle.” “We’re not twins.” Time added. “Ah, okay. So what can I get’cha?” “Can I get a cookie?” Sweetie Bell asked. “Sure can do Sweetie! Snicker doodles right?” “No, oatmeal.” “Hm, different from her usual.” Mrs. Cake muttered. “What about you too?” she asked Luxu and Time. “Ice cream if you have it.” Luxu asked. “Chocolate bar.” Time said. With that, and the Foretellers orders, she left to go get them. “So how was your recent adventure?” Dan asked them. “We ran into a god.” Luxu said nonchalantly. “Another God? And not your grandfather?” “Grandpa is powerful, we can all agree on that, but this was a REAL god, from beyond the void.” “Damn, never thought any of us survivors would have met one this soon.” Alex said. “He was on our side thankfully. I think Grandpa told stories about him once, he was human once, then got strong, bunch of stuff in the middle.” “Pretty much somes up any story of higher beings.” Alex joked. “So was he a good guy? Or did you guys have to fight him?” “You kidding, he fixed the moon on that world, which was broken into many pieces, and fixed the breaking world just by clapping.” The Foretellers were surprised, but kept their cool. “So good guy. That’s a relief.” “So that’s a power of a true god. How frightening.” Dan said. “I could only imagine what he went through to get that kind of power if he was once human.” “According to the story, a lot of pain, then some dumb luck.” Kira spoke up, “So you said there was another guy with you. Who was that?” “Some guy playing assassin based off a game from your world.” Luxu waved it off. “Corvo I think?” “Assassin? Well I’m not going to say the obvious answer, but I’m pretty sure it’s not right.” Alex replied. “Just cause you haven’t killed yet, doesn’t mean it won’t happen.” Luxu said. “Jenny saw the bloodshed of the war, you don’t wanna know how much came after... “ “Anyways, so there’s another survivor huh?” Jenny said, “Though it’s another one who didn’t ask for a keyblade. Would be nice to meet him soon.” “Zeke apparently gave him one, he seems like the kind of guy I’d hang out with if only to brawl against.” “Sounds like Zeke. So which keyblade was it?” Kira asked. “Fenrir.” Luxu answered, finishing his ice cream. More small talk had continued after that with some of the most random topics. Being it hobbies, to favorite kind of music. After they all finished their food, they left to walk around town. After seeing the little sights that the small town has to offer, they decided to retire to the Mansion. The Trio was sitting in the common area where the Foretellers were sitting around them, except for Kira who went to get the tea. “So, how about we get to what you wanted to talk to us about?” Lan said. “Oh, yeah. So what do you wanna know? I got some secrets.” “Well for one thing, when we left Daybreak you told us that we have yet to achieve our true potential as the new Foretellers. Is there more to being a Foreteller than achieving Keyblade Master?” Dan asked. “Well there's a large number of things that they could do, that you, if you do have their abilities, need to know about.” “We have more than just our limit breaks? I thought that those were like our Final Attacks. Like how it is in RPG games.” Alex half joked. “This is reality, or did you forget?” Luxu sighed. “Look, I get that in your birth reality things were largely fiction there, it’s part of why gramps drip-fed you them as fiction, it’s his ‘back-up’ incase something happens.” “Just trying to keep the mood light. So, these other abilities. What are the? Or do we have to discover those ourselves?” “From what we did, there’s five main abilities, and two abilities that are specific to the wielder, or person. First is the power over the heart, the ability to traverse light by using only your heart for combat. Second is the power over the soul, the thing that can keep you alive… even when your head is cut clean off. Third is the power over your Keyblades truest powers. Fourth is the power over the mind, and memories, using them as safeguards against darkness. Lastly there’s the power over what form your Keyblades take, and not just their glider forms. But that requires some things first.” “Are there any tombs in the Daybreak Library that would help us?” “There are tombs, but they aren’t there.” “They aren't there? Why wouldn’t they be? Wasn’t there your headquarters or whatever?” Jenny asked. “Yes and no. We put a lot of stuff there, but all the… secret info we kept in a really safe place.” “Which is…?” “The dreamscape.” “The Dreamscape?” Dan asked. “Isn’t the Dreamscape just a world of cognition made up from our own memories?” Dan was hit over the head by Luxu. “You think too much. The dreamscape is another reality in itself, made up from the linked hearts and memories of every living thing. Worlds that are there exist as… stable points. Places where there is some reality and sanity.” “So when you said they are in the dreamscape, does that mean that the information on the old Foretellers are hidden in these worlds?” “Not any, one specific world. A world that is borderline light, largely darkness, and hazardous to say the least, both in the waking world, and sleeping one.” “The World That Never Was.” Kira said in realization. “We called it the Fallen World, but yes. Unlock it’s dream world keyhole, and all the knowledge of every reflection Foreteller is yours.” “Well no pressure. Now we have another objective on our todo list.” Alex groaned. “Is that all? Or is there some conditions to finding it?” “Just a trial… a rather twisted test I made that only the most sadistic freak can get though.” “You are just a barrel of sunshine aren’t you?” Jenny said sarcastically. “... You’ll have to survive a memory recreation of the Keyblade war…” This shocked them all. “We basically have to relive the Keyblade war? The war that split all the worlds and death of thousands of bearers?” Lan said. “Yes. Survive, the knowledge is yours, ask to leave, you can never re-enter to try again… die… you die…” The whole room was silent. They tried to let the information settle in, while the other three waited for them. “There is however, a work around.” Luxu said. “I’m guessing it’s not any easier.” Dan said. “You have to survive the war, the recreation of it anyway, there is a ‘over ride’ I hid in the recreation, a copy of me overseeing the war… like I did… Find him, take his keyblade and unlock his box the war around you will stop and everything will turn into the library.” “Well considering it’s you, the copy of you won't give it up without a fight. So we’ll still be in a heap of trouble.” “Maybe not. My copy’s mentality is that of how I was back then. If you all still look like, well, the foretellers, you might be able to trick him into either opening the box for you, or getting him to give them over. If he feels something is up, you will end up fighting him, though, you’d have to be an idiot to not trick me back then. I used to be so gullible.” “Pretty surprising, I guess that’s what’s next on our list if we want to get any stronger to stand next to Zeke and the others. But there is one more thing.” Lan said. “Do you know how to locate someone in any worlds reflection? Specifically, the Realm of Darkness.” “After the light half of your friend?” “Yeah. We know he is imprisoned in a realm of darkness, but we don't know which one. It could be one that no one has even been to get. So we need to narrow it down but we don't know how.” “Well, a person with a heart of pure light, a half or not, would attract heartless in the thousands. My guess, would be one of Core’s heartless experimentation labs.” “That doesn't narrow it down much either. We were in one of those labs when we were on our last adventure with everyone.” “You were in one of his torture chambers, his experimentation labs are much more… hospital looking. Though… how long has he been, split?” “We can't be sure, cause we don't know when Core picked him out of juvie. If it's as long as we’ve been in this world, then around 5-6 months.” “Well, it’s because there’s a new type of heartless, if you can call them that, that Core’s been using.” “New Heartless? We've only been dealing with unversed. Only time we saw heartless was when we were in the chamber with everyone. Those looked relatively normal.” “These ‘heartless’ are fused with Unversed, and even people. Core somehow managed to force the darkness in a person's heart to physically manifest, creating human heartless. Smart, and strong are two bad combinations. As for the unversed variant, he somehow injects them with an unversed, like a parasite.” “Unversed are beings of negative emotion, so it would stand to reason that they could strongly influence negativity if they infect someone. Pushing the further into darkness.” Dan said. “Maybe, but most of the ones I saw were… like you guys…” “Like us? Wait… you mean?” Their eyes widened. “They had grandpa’s energy in them too, they came from earth.” “Then Core has connections to Earth too! I knew Huxley’s wish wouldn't be effective.” Jenny slammed her fist on her chair. “Grandpa explained how, basically because of the mass chaos on that twenty-twelve thing you guys went though, his guilt gave Core just enough crawling room to enter, who knows what your world is like now… if there’s any people on it still.” They all looked downcast. Jenny, Dan, and Alex may not have had very good relationships with their family, but they still cared for them. Especially what happened during their Mark of Mastery Exams. “Damnit.” Jenny hissed. “Well, now we have more of a reason to get Crow back in one piece. So he can't make anymore Unversed to qualify others.” “Even so, he likely can just make another person split. He will also know you’re gonna try and take your friend back, so he’ll try and put you all through hell to reach him. Since your friend is the first he likely got, he’s likely got him in the lab he code named ‘Dynamo’. From what I saw the one time I went there, that’s where he puts things of ‘high value’ that he can use.” “I don’t think he would replace Crow. When we saw him split his heart, he said something about how his heart was perfectly divided already.” “Then that’s a main reason he would be there, Crow’s heart is balanced like Zeke’s. If he tried, he could wield the X-blade too. Though, split it’s impossible. I feel like this is deja vu somehow?” “So, is this lab still in the Realm? Or somewhere else?” “It’s in the realm, though it’s location is less than livable. The whole area is pulsating with ancient darkness. Some strong heartless roam there, not including an Embodiment.” “So if we even want to stand a chance at surviving there, we’d have to unlock our full powers first.” Jenny sighed. “This just got a lot more complicated.” “Add a miracle on the top and yeah, that’s about what it takes. I barely made it out of there when the Embodiment spotted me… which reminds me. Time, Sweetie, can you two get some snacks?” Time and Sweetie nodded, leaving the room. “Alright, now here’s where I ask for a favor.” Luxu stated in a serious tone. “Yes? You helped us immensely, so we would gladly return the favor.” Kira said. “Depends on what you mean by gladly.” Alex muttered, earning a smack from Jenny. “That Embodiment stole something from me, and I need you to kill it and take it back.” “What was it?” Luxu did the unthinkable, he took off his hood, revealing his body being made from darkness, with a pair of yellow eyes. “He stole my body. My heart took in the darkness nearby and I managed to make this and escape. Get me my body back.” He said, putting his hood back on. “You’re like a lingering soul.” Lan muttered, “Do they…?” He directed towards the kitchen. “Lingering Will, and sorta, I still have my heart, I just need my body. And no, no one other than you five now know… not even my grandpa knows. I mastered illusion magic and it’s been helping me keep this a secret for a long time.” “We promise, Luxu. We’ll get your body back.” “Just another thing to put on the to do list.” Alex joked. “Just remember, and embodiment isn’t like a heartless, hell, they’re something Core generally fears. This embodiment is different though, it’s the embodiment of Ignorance, blind service to whoever it chooses. Unless your heart is darker than pure darkness, it won’t work trying to get it to defect. He likely gave my body/Nobody over to Core.” “Great. Looks like the odds are against us. Just like they always are.” Jenny said sarcastically. “But thanks. Without all this we’d have no idea where to start looking. So, and I can probably speak for all of us, we will do whatever it takes to get your body and make it up to you.” “Thanks, oh, and here.” He said, pulling out a white crow mask. “I made this for myself back when, but since things turned out differently, I never wore it.” He said, tossing it to Lan. “Same thing as your masks, just give it to someone who deserves it.” “We will. Thank you.”