//------------------------------// // Nobody's lesson: Sharpshooters // Story: Life of a Nobody // by Xinrick //------------------------------// On the way back to the Dragon lands to pick up the girls, then Luna at the military base, if she didn’t already head back to the dragon lands already, Skyla’s words kept ringing in my head, and it was pissing me off. I care about my family, yes I’m new at…all of it but I care! It seemed Mike agreed with her, but I don’t know why though, I know he’s not exactly Zeke but he…came from a mostly caring family given my interactions with them…crap this is all confusing. Next time I see Skyla I’m slapping the bitch out of her. “You look mad Ben.” Mike said as we were heading near the dragon lands. “The bitch said I didn’t care about my family and you agreed with her, don’t I have the right to be mad?” I ask with a frown. “Fair point, but look at it like this, you told a woman, a mother, who lost her son, husband, world, everything she cared about, to rest. I know you meant well, but by telling her that, she thought you didn’t think her son was in danger…and even if Sora is…gone already, she won’t belive it till she either see’s the body or Core tells her himself. She lost everything in less than a day and how the ability to find the one thing from her past she’s betting all hopes on that her son it alive. On your part, it was poor wording.” “I’m not a people person…” I grumble. “True, that’s obvious, but trust me, when one of your new wives has a child by you, you’re ‘stay calm getting mad isn’t a good idea’ perception is gonna turn a one eighty. You’ll have a whole new set of responsibilities, no longer to just your wives, but your kids. You can’t live without them, right?” “Of course.” I deadpan. “Well they can’t live without you, and no kid should grow up only hearing stories about their dead father who got himself killed to save them.” “Wait, so now you're on my side?” I ask curiously. “I’m in the middle, love them enough to die for them, care enough to always come back home. That’s something Skyla lacks, she’ll die for her son’s safety, but that will do him more harm than good.” Huh…love them enough to die for them, care enough to always come home. “Thanks… that kinda helped.” I sigh out. “Also I must add that you saying ‘take one thing at a time’ thing is complete and total bullshit. You may be a soldier and all that but I doubt you’ve ever had to go to every country around the world and cleave through the Heartless population, master 11 more weapons, worry about the wedding, have a ton of people, including yourself, to get stronger to protect everyone…” I explain, taking a deep breath and trying not to rant or rave about how shit my life is. “You get the idea…” “Yes, treat it like college, cram as much in as short a time as possible.” He replied. “Never went myself but the few soldiers back at the base that did go all said that’s what they did. Take like, an hour or two a day for a few weapon classes, or jump headfirst into one specific training and try to get it done as fast as possible.” Mike finished. “That's the problem though.” I frown. “I have so much shit to do and no time to do any of it that it's…” I take a deep breath. “You and your buddies didn't have to be good at magical weapons, kill magical creatures, and so much other shit...but I'm gonna have to do it all anyways.” “Speaking of, mind if I ask where we can obtain magical weapons, I have a feeling they’ll last longer and be more effective against this fight.” “I'll try to figure something out.” I sigh out. “Maybe I'll figure something out.” We arrived back at the Dragonlands, Luna was there and I was greeted with a large group hug and informed Chrysalis about the ship that attacked them. They likely attacked, judging her people based on their appearance. We headed back home and as ordered, Mike tagged along and when we got home, Dinky gave us a surprise. “How did this happen?” Derpy asked, looking at Dinky’s new wings. “They just appeared.” Dinky said. “Also congrats on your engagement mom.” “Okay so apparently you got wings because of your mother.” I say honestly. “Because of our new family curse more...defining features of the parents appear.” I say. “So congrats Dinky, you are now an Alicorn.” “You’re dad’s right.” We all looked at the doorway, seeing dad walk in. “And yes Ben, I’m watching you guys, but not in your private moments. Also, the family curse is only half responsible, the rest is your new… demi-god gene, powers, whatever you call it, it brings out the more… helpfull, genes in a person, letting their full potential emerge and manifest. With some time and training you can control how you look at the snap of a finger, but til then, you’re an alicorn.” “Hi dad. I’m not sure if you two met him but this is your Grandfather, Cript.” I say to both Jenny and Dinky. “And thank you for explaining that to me cause I barely know anything about our family curse.” “Nice to meet you Ben’s dad.” Derpy said, shaking dad’s hand. “Cript is fine.” Dad said. “Like I said, the curse makes any child adopted into my family, no matter how far along the generation, genetically me and my spouse's genetic child. In my case, it’s one of my spouse's. And like I said, as Ben is a demigod, so are his kids now, and you all by marriage.” Dad finished. “Thank you.” I nod. “Well, while it was nice to be home for all of three minutes I have training to do...then go around the world being a hero…” I sigh out. “Good luck son.” Dad said before leaving. “See ya dad.” I nod. “And I shall be going, sorry.” I say while heading off to find Braig. “Take care.” My wives all said as I left. Finding Braig was easy, he parked his ship in the middle of a park. I knocked on the door…only to hear an explosion go off. “FUCKING HELL!” Braig’s voice screamed as he ran out. “That’s not good…” I mutter. “You okay in there!?” I call out, hoping he didn’t do something stupid. “Just set off a grenade when you spooked me.” Braig said. “Was moving them, the knock spooked me and I pulled the clip on instinct.” Braig said as he walked up to me. “Instinct can do that to ya.” I nod. “So anyways, you’re my next teacher. Got free time?” “Yeah, I know a good place to practice so let’s go.” Braig and I walked into his shit, no signs of an explosion but there were more weapons on the wall, somehow, and ammo everywhere. He started the ship and we flew off to a world two worlds away from Equestria. Where he parked was a rocky mountain area with some snow on the top. “Welcome to ER-P7, otherwise known as Kelg.” Braig said as we walked out. “Never heard of a world named ‘Kelg’.” I say honestly. “What’s special about it besides rocky mountains and snow?” “Two things. One.” Braig points to the area. “It’s got the perfect environment for you to practice anti-gravity and teleporting.” Braig then walked over to a cliff side, showing me that the entire world below was all heartless. “Second is that, this world has had Heartless in millions on it for as long as travelers can remember. Some say this world has no keyhole, me, I think it’s just hard to find.” “Pretty sure it's hard to find….” I say. “But damn it I already have one world filled with Heartless murder, now I have even more heartless murder…” “We’re not here to exterminate, we’re here to use that.” Braig pointed one of his arrow guns at the swarm below us. “For combat practice.” “Right then…” I say while summoning my gun arrows. “Shoot specific things or what?” “First off, let’s see how you are with them.” Braig said, crossing his weapons in his signature pose and vanishing, reappearing upside down some feet away. “Teleport and defy gravity.” “Simple enough.” I say while doing exactly that. I teleported a few feet away from him and was also upside down. “Next?” I ask, already being used to this because of Lindworm and the few times I did defy gravity. “Next, how far can you teleport in one go.” Braig teleported up… so up I only really saw a black dot in the sky. I took a deep breath and teleported, sadly not as high as Braig but a good distance up where I could see more of him then just a black dot. We both teleported back to the ground. “Not bad, the key to longer teleporting is knowing exactly where you want to appear, the magic in the guns can only take you so far, to actually get distance you have to channel your own magic into them, acts as an overdrive for the teleporting.” Braig said, both of us on ground. “Makes sense. I've mostly done quick teleporting in fights so this will help.” I nod. “Anyways, next on the list?” Braig connected his two arrow guns, making the american version Kingdom Hearts 2 cut rifle. “Accuracy, we’ll start with the stronger, yet easier way to get direct hits.” I did the same as him and we walked over to the cliff side. He looked through the scope, or whatever it was. “See that Fat Bandit heartless in the Soldier heartless mosh pit? Headshot it.” I connected both crossbows together and looked down the sights, seeing the Fat bandit. From my little ‘scope’ I could see the bastards head clearly. ”Take a deep breath and focus…” I think to myself, taking a deep breath and exhaling, pulling the trigger and the arrow whizzing past, destroying the Fat Bandits head on impact as it vanished. “Good.” Braig said. “Now rapid teleport while defying gravity above those freaks, take out as many as you can til you’re unable to feel your trigger finger.” I nodded, before doing exactly that. Hundreds of Heartless were killed rather quickly and even though my trigger fingers felt numb I kept on going, too focused on how I have to keep getting better and better whether people tell me to stop or not. “Come on...come on…” I mutter to myself, feeling a liquid drip on my hands as I kept on teleporting around, defying gravity and murdering Heartless. After a lot longer I teleported back to Braig, panting from the amount of effort I put in and the one eyed marksmen could easily tell my numb trigger fingers were bleeding. “How was that?” “Passable.” He said. “Take a power nap, I’ll go look for a potion to heal those bleeding fingers, word of advice, gloves.” He said, pointing at one of his gloved hands before walking to his ship. “Fine…” I mutter before putting away my gun arrows and summoning up my Assistants shop, buying a potion and two leather gloves. I chugged the potion, felt a lot better and put the gloves on. “Maybe that’s what that feeling was…” I mutter, summoning my gun arrows and readying to continue. Braig came back out, even though I already drank a potion I took the one he gave me. “Alright, now for part two.” He took out a red bandana, and wrapped it around my eyes. “Blind shooting, not always are you gonna be able to rely on your eyes.” “Right then.” I nod. “So...am I supposed to aim at anything specific?” Without warning, Braig forced me to kneel on the ground, placing one of my hands on the ground. “The key to hitting a target blind takes heightened senses, lost your eyes, you got your ears, those go too, well, you have that new sniffer, and if that’s all gone, feel the ground for their faint vibrations. If all of that is gone by some unholy hate against you, use your aura to send magic pulses in the air, like magic echo location.” “Right…” I nod while my ears flick and turn, able to hear all the heartless down there. “Kill one hundred using only your hearing, after that’ I’ll pop in earplugs into those things, followed after that with a pin to block your sense of smell, and once that’s gone and you master shooting with feeling vibrations I got some special gear that makes you unable to feel a bullet passing through your arm, then you’ll be using your aura, which requires some time to figure out.” “Alright…” I nod while my ears turned and flicked at all the noises, before I took aim and fired, a mixture of my aim and the magical auto aim these things had helped me get a little better hits. I continued to fire at Heartless, thankful for my new Dire Wolf senses as I kept on firing, finally killing my hundredth Heartless. “K.” After returning to Braig he shoved something in my mouth, tasted like… a cold hamburger. “Gotta eat.” He said as I finished it, he then placed earplugs into my ears, turned me around and shoved me. I stopped myself before I probably fell of the cliff. “Cripe…” I mutter, sniffing the air and by god did Heartless not smell good. I wrinkled my nose at the constant scent of Darkness before I took aim and fired, hitting Heartless and killing them swiftly enough. “God this smells bad…” I mutter, missing a couple times but continuing to fire, which I noticed that my guns didn’t have to reload, which was unsurprising but surprising to me. With the lack of hearing them die I had to go off the decreased smell of darkness, which I hope was accurate, because it’s also hard to count. After I think I hit my hundredth I somehow teleported back up to Braig. He just put something that clung to my nose like a crab pinch, which hurt, but I got the message. “Okay…” I mutter, taking a deep breath as I made pulses of Nothingness magic, sensing the Heartless but because I didn’t want to accidentally summon a Nobody I started firing, this time I could tell a lot better how many I killed instead of guessing with my nose. ”I did use this a lot…” I think to myself, not entirely minding that I’m doing quite well doing all my shooting. After a while my arms and trigger fingers hurt again but I just pushed through the pain and kept on firing, the mental picture of me getting stronger to protect my family keeping me going even if I was done. “Okay...that should be it…” I say, stopping after my hundredth kill. “Anything else?” Braig took off my ‘handicaps’ and seeing after all that time blindfolded hurt my eyes, even if it was night. “We’ll rest up, first thing in the morning you’ll see what you did.” “Alright.” I nodded. “Where am I sleeping?” “Couch.” Braig said, Following him into the ship, seeing a couch I didn’t notice before. “Alright.” I nod, before walking over and sitting down on the couch. “Well, night.” I say, laying down and getting comfortable. Braig didn’t say anything, he just walked into what I guessed was his room and closed the door. I sighed, wondering what he meant by what I did. I managed to get some sleep even though I was bothered with what Braig said and a few other things stuck in my head. I got up and stretched, readying myself for another day of training. “Let’s hope I didn’t accidentally do something terrible…” As I walked outside the ship, Braig was sitting at the cliffside. “Good you woke up sunshine.” He said. “Glad I got some sleep. So what did I do?” I ask curiously, walking over to the cliffside. Upon reaching it, I saw that there were FAR fewer heartless, and in the center of it all, a massive metal hatch. “How you managed to walk on that a few times and not notice it surprises me.” Braig said. “I didn’t think I killed that many…” I mutter. “Anyways I never saw or noticed that at all...did you know it was there?” “Nope, during your blindfold test I saw it start to surface after a bit, that’s why I kept throwing you down there.” “You threw me down there never.” I say bluntly. “Anyways, what do you think is in that hatch?” “No idea…let’s open it.” Before I could protest, Braig had already teleported down to it. “Okay…” I mutter before teleporting down along with him, readying my weapons in case the Heartless will attack us. I had to summon large nobodies in order to help open the abnormally large hatch…when it did open, light flooded out, we were blinded, and when it faded, the Heartless were gone and the watch was wide open, revealing a long fall to wherever this thing led. “Damn…” Braig said. “Well...glad to know that’s where the Keyhole is.” I say honestly. “So, want me to hop on down there?” “Not without me.” Braig said, jumping down the hole in a freefall. I jumped after him, both of us activating out anti-gravity near the end, letting us land safely down in what was some kind of entrance. “No one knows if life ever existed here, this is possible proof of live forms that might have lived here… HA! Fame and fortune here we come!” “I have enough fame and fortune back home…” I state. “And frankly that only makes shit harder for me honestly…” “Whatever, come on.” Braig said, we pushed open the large doors, and light turned on instantly. We wandered in hallways for what had to have been hours, most rooms filled with metal crates, furniture, all covered in dust. We finally came into a rather unique looking room, mainly because there was only one thing in it… a Keyblade forge. “Well now, this world held Keyblade wielders?” “How in the fuck?” I ask worriedly. “That’s...that’s something…” I frown. Braig walked over to some kinda crystal sitting on a desk. He touched it, then a hologram or something appeared. “Greetings, I am…was, Trica, if you are viewing this then I, along with the rest of this world, have long been dead. This facility you find yourself in was built after the first invasion darkness dealt on light, a way to keep Home safe by developing new, powerful weapons. After years and years, with the help of our grand lord Kingdom Hearts, we finally succeeded.” An image of the X-blade appeared. “A Keyblade, a weapon unlike anything to ever exist, the power to destroy darkness, but also to keep it at balance with light.” “The X-blade?” I mutter. “I thought that was made before the worlds were split?” “It was.” Braig said. “This ‘world’ was part of it before it split, that’s how old this place is.” “How do you know that?” I ask curiously. “Take a look, this place has clearly been abandoned for a long fucking time and this hologram which is talking about creating Keyblades, put two and two together.” “Makes sense…” I mutter, scratching my head as this just got more confusing. “Well I better get in touch with Luxu so he can see this...he’d have a field day here.” The hologram woman began speaking again. “With instructions from the lord Kingdom Hearts, we built a special forge designed to create Keyblades, and this very room is where the first keyblade, the X-blade, was forged. By carefully mixing light and darkness as well as minerals only found in the void above us, the X-blade became reality, and upon completion, formed a link with the lord Kingdom Hearts. He wielded it himself and cut darkness down, sparing us from the clutches of darkness, or void. We continue to forge Keyblades and in the event darkness returns, the generation of life will be armed and ready.” The hologram faded out. “Well shit…” I mutter. “That’s a whole bunch of something.” I say. “I’ve got to call Trinity and get her to contact Luxu…” I muttered, tapping my Assistant and seeing if I could actually send a message to Trinity. I think I did cause after a bit, Luxu came out of a DTL. “Hey Ben, your sister said you…wow this place is old…” He said, looking around. “It is.” I nod. “There’s a message crystal there, which had a woman named Trica explain everything about this room and how the X-blade was made to some extent.” I explain. “WHAT?!” He screamed, finding the crystal fast and having the hologram play again. After it was done, he was rather silent. “This room… is the birthplace of Keyblades…” He finally spoke. “Apparently.” I say. “I don’t know how Braig knew about this world, and I don’t know why this world just so happened to hold this stuff...but it would explain why there was millions of heartless around…” “I trained with my master here.” Brag said. “You think I’m an asshole, the old bastard had me kill heartless with a slingshot before he let me near even a crossbow.” “Well...that’s a thing…” I frown. “But hey, we found the birthplace of Keyblades, the original Keyblade Forge, and a bunch of other things could happen right now...which actually raises a question...why is that here when in Zeke’s reflection it was split in two?” “When I was a kid there were Keyblade forges, a fair amount, dad used to say there were more than that before but eh, they’ve always been around…this one is the very first.” Luxu said, walking over to it. “Wow…” I mutter, not believing that this was the very first Keyblade forge. “It’s probably been forever since it was last used...I wonder if it’s still good.” “One way to find out.” Luxu said, magicking up a large backpack. He dumped the minerals in it, some of which I knew, the rest was new to me. He gathered several of what looked like Orichalcum+ and some other minerals I had no idea what they were and tossed them in. There was a bright flashing light and what floated out was a keychain, it looked like a heart wearing an Organization XIII cloak. “Wow.” Luxu said, holding it. “That’s a whole bunch of something.” I say honestly. “So that’s how keychains are made…” I mutter. “Uh...is a part of Grandfather Light in there?” “Yeah, otherwise that flash of light wouldn’t have appeared.” Luxu said. I summoned Reunion. “What would happen if I put Reunions keychain in there when it doesn’t have a piece of Grandfather Light?” “Let me take care of that.” Luxu said, walking over to me. I took off Reunion’s Keychain and gave it to him. He put on some kind of ring that had a kingdom key image on it, then shoved the hand holding Reunion’s keychain into the forge’s fire. I was surprised he didn’t scream, must be the ring. After a bit, there was a flash of light, a flash of darkness, then a flash of a strange grey light and Luxu pulled it out. He tossed it back to me. “Congrats, you’re keyblade is for the dawn.” He said. I grabbed Reunion’s keychain and put it back on my blade. “Why did it flash grey?” I ask curiously. “I understood the light and darkness flashes but grey? I don’t think I’ve ever heard of a Keyblade gaining the power of Nothing.” “From what I know, it goes like this. A flash of light means it’s got grandfather light only, flash of dark, grandfather darkness only, flash of both, it’s a balanced weapon, like the X-blade, but a flash of grey, that’s dawn, the power of both light and darkness and a connection to the place between the two, aka, Nothing. For them to exist it’s like… being born with six fingers on each hand, what are the odds?” “Slim to none?” I guess. “Something like that.” Luxu took a look around. “Wonder if all the keychain recipes that they had to have made are written down around here?” “What were some of those materials you brought? I only know some but not all of them.” I say honestly, wanting to know what else was there. “Also...I’ve noticed a massive lack of Moogles...where are they?” “Typically moogles are on their own world, Radiant garden, or if you has a Moogle shop game to summon one to you, as for the minerals you don’t know…that’s a secret.” “Alright then.” I nod in understanding. “So how are we going to get this thing out of here? Or should we just keep it here?” Luxu seemed to think about it for a time. “Agh! I don’t wanna mess with this place cause it’s practically sacred, but leaving it here might risk Core finding the place…” “And we all know that Core should never find this place.” I state. “So we better get moving.” “Hey you two!” Braig called out, he was standing in a doorway that was not there before. “You might wanna look at this.” “Shit…” I mutter before following Braig. “What did you find?” “Look.” He said bluntly. Luxu and I walked over to him, and in the room was a skeleton, very old, holding two crystals, and…a pure white X-blade…“Now that’s fucked up…” “How the fuck?” I mutter, seeing the crystals, the pure white X-blade. “I’m so confused...Luxu do you have any idea what’s going on?” “No, but we might soon get an answer.” Luxu walked over to the crystals, picking the out of the skeleton’s hand. He activated one, and a holographic book appeared. He flipped though a few pages. “...this is the recipe book for every Keyblade made here…and it’s a LOT.” He activated the other crystal, and a hologram Trica appeared over the skeleton, her arm holding the pure white X-blade pulsating with light and she was quite scared. “I… this was a mistake.” she started. “Lord Kingdom Hearts warned us that pure light could be more dangerous than pure darkness… he was right, we didn’t listen, we used the purest light we could find and tried forging a second X-blade… we succeeded, but it created a link with light and only light. You’d think that’s a good thing, but upon wielding it, the light was so bright… everyone turned to ash in seconds, the ashes rose, turning into black bodied, yellow eyes monsters.” “I can only hide, hide while they pour darkness into the forge, creating Keyblades of darkness. This facility was made to create the weapons to protect the future generations of life…now, it’s creating the weapons to end it… all because of this Keyblade…Whoever finds this Keyblade… destroy it, destroy Shadow maker, for in it’s presence they only grow stronger…” The hologram faded, leaving behind just the pure white X-blade and Trica’s skeleton. “This…this place was also the birthplace of purebloods…” Luxu muttered. “So yeah I’m gonna destroy that damned thing.” I frown. “What weapon would be good for smashing the damned thing?” “No idea.” Luxu said. “It makes darkness stronger when someone wields it, but that would mean the light in it grows in equal strength…we can’t touch it or face the same fate as the people here did, and we can’t leave it cause Core would make use of something like this.” “If we can’t touch it and we can’t break it, how the fuck are we supposed to move it?” I frown. “But wouldn’t Nothingness be able to destroy it?” Braig walked up to it, and took off the Keychain. “You overthink things.” He said, nothing happening to him as he held the Keychain. “Guess only when attached to a blade does it do that nasty stuff.” “Apparently…” I say with a frown. “Well this sucks...but we better start packing things up and hiding them away.” I suggest. “Zeke could make great use of this recipie book.” Luxu said, flipping through the paces. “Hey, here’s Gazing Eye…wait, what?” “What?” I frown. He showed me the book…on two pages were the Duskblade, and Reunion…“That’s freaky…” “How the fuck?” I question. “That...shouldn’t be a thing. I thought both of those...were new…” I mutter, summoning Reunion and looking at it. ”Sorry I’m clueless.” Joy told me through my Keyblade, not knowing how that’s possible. “Not exactly.” We all turned around, seeing God walk into the room. “My word, never in my life did I think I’d see this legendary place.” “Hi God.” I say. “I hope you’re having a nice day and not having Core do a shitty impersonation of you.” “Hey gramps.” Luxu said. “Hello Luxu. This place was just a legend back when I was a child, the Keyblade Factory. I’m surprised to see it still standing.” “It would seem silly if something so legendary would fall apart.” I say honestly. “But yeah me and Braig found all of this suddenly while I was training...and good lord is there a lot to explain…” I sigh out. “I know Ben, I heard.” God walked over to Braig, taking Shadow Maker’s Keychain from him. “You poor thing, you shine too bright you make everything around you a monster.” He said to the Keychain. “Also you are a lying bastard.” I frown. “You said Earth was an imaginary world, yet I have a few dozen human beings from a real Earth not a few miles away from the Dragon Kingdom.” “It is in my head Ben, and Core, even though he can’t set foot on it anymore, is making rapid advances to discover where I hid my secrets. So much so, in order to save anyone I had to work in a way that nearly exposed me to Core, as well as call upon a few old friends for favors.” “I have a feeling you won’t tell me…” I sigh out. “But hey I got a new dad and mom just so ya know.” “Really? Well, that explains the look, I thought you just got cursed.” “Yes and no.” I say honestly. “My new dad is Cript, and he has a family curse where I’m now genetically his son, as well as the son of a Dire Wolf named Den.” I explain. “Wow, you lucked out then I suppose.” “Well when you’re figuring out there’s worse shit than Core that exists I suppose it would make sense.” I shrug. “But back to how the DuskBlade and Reunion were already keyblades before I got my hands it?” “The Duskblade has always been a Keyblade Ben, I should know.” God lifted his hand, and summoned one. “It’s also my Keyblade. The keyblade of those with dying hearts, close to being a Nobody, struggling to stay a somebody. As for Reunion, that one is new, my guess, that book is connected to that forge, anything made in it is recorded.” “Well Reunion only gained a piece of Grandfather Light from the forge, Reunion became...well Reunion after my Mark of Mastery where my heart came back to life.” I explain. “Ah, so that’s it then. Explains I still have Duskblade then.” “Yep.” I nod. “Just gotta figure out what made your heart start dying to begin with then you can get started from there.” I shrug. “I had too much Rejection...but once I started Accepting everything thankfully came up wonders.” “I know my sins, to face them though…will end me…isn’t that right brother?” God said as Core walked in the room. “Sounds about right.” He spoke, summoning a black Fenrir. “Yeah how about ‘no’.” I frown, taking a step forward and summoning Reunion. “I’ve dealt with enough shit this week, I’m not going to have more stupid shit be thrown my way.” “Oh, I’m not here for you Ben, nor you Brother, I’m here for the forge.” “That is also not going to happen.” I frown. “And besides, why would you want the forge? You already have your own somehow.” “Yes, that I do, but this forge created the X-blade, and something strong enough to pull that off it can do it again.” “I’ve heard rumors you now have Void powers, why the hell would you want the X-blade still?” I ask with a frown. “Void is a resource, a playground for Admins, the materials there could be used to create anything, everything, even the perfect anti-X-blade.” “Not surprising.” I sigh out. “But I'm going to try and make sure that doesn't happen.” “You can try.” I blinked, and Core had the black Fenrir at my neck. “But you’ll die.” “I hate you...but I hate my 'future’ self more.” I frown. “Fucking prick.” I raised Reunion, Core quickly dodging. Luxu went in to strike, locking blades with Core as God tried to strike at Core’s back, to which Core used his free hand to grab God’s keyblade. Braig ran off someplace and I ran up to join the fight. Core released a wave of darkness, knocking God and Luxu back and staggering me, he was running back to reach the forge. I let my new… wolf instincts, kick in, and ran on all fours, tackling Core and crashing him into the floor. “Down mutt!” Core yelled as he kicked me off. I quickly shifted into Master Form, holding Reunion in one hand and a Kingdom Key in the other and righted myself. “I'm not a mutt.” I growled before dashing back in, swinging both of my Keyblades a lot faster then normal. Core locked blades with both my keyblades, he was pushing them towards me, and I was doing the same. A surge of energy rushed through me as I pushed Core back, a powerful aura surrounding me as I switched my Kingdom Key out for Skysplitter and slammed it down on top of Core, the ground around us cracking and shifting. I saw Braig teleport and take God and Luxu away. He also appeared behind me, putting something in my pocket before vanishing somewhere. “Core!” He yelled, gaining both our attention. I felt my blood run cold, he was holding the Shadow Maker Keychain, pointing his arrow gun at an atomic bomb placed over the forge. “One wrong move and I blow this whole place to hell and back.” “Where did you get that?!” I screamed. “Had it in my ship’s attic. Now then, Core, play nice.” “That still doesn’t explain how the fuck you got that!” I bark. “But yeah let’s listen to the man willing to shoot an atomic bomb….I doubt even you could survive it at point blank.” “...I’ll get hurt pretty bad I’ll admit.” Core said. “But you’re just a greedy mercenary, what reason would you have to blow all of us up?” “Three. One, the peaceful retirement life has been rather boring, Two, I wanna destroy this keychain and do a good thing for once, and three, Ben, you mastered the arrow guns in a day when it took me years. Talk about a prodigy.” “Wait really?” I ask in surprise. “Yeah, you just have one last test to become a master marksmen.” “And what would that be?” I ask curiously, not wanting to make a smart ass remark right now. “Just pull out the box in your pocket, and pull the trigger.” I frown, pulling out the thing he put in my pocket. My eyes widened when I saw it. “Dude...come on…” I mutter. “Thanks Braig…” I say honestly, giving him a kind smile before pulling the trigger. There was a flash, and I saw myself next to Braig’s ship, he, God and Luxu there as well as a mushroom cloud exploded, a shield around the ship keeping us from the heat and explosion. “Oh thank god the teleporter worked…” Braig said, letting go of a clearly long held breath. “You cheeky fuck!” I bark at him. “Here I thought you were going to do some ‘bad ass sacrifice’ thing but apparently not...but can you warn me next time?” “Sure, next battle with Core I’ll explain the plan through a megaphone so everyone can hear.” He said sarcastically. “What about the Forge? From what Lord Death told me those things are supposed to be indestructible…” I ask worriedly. “If it didn’t break, then it should have at least released the grandfather light and darkness in it.” God said. “Those things can be removed with force, and I say that was more than enough.” “And I made sure to drop the keychain to that damned Keyblade before teleporting.” Braig said. “Well, all in all I say that’s a job well-” The ground broke apart, Core rushing out of it, his whole body and skin melted and disfigured as he sliced Braig in half. “You’ll all pay!” He screamed before vanishing into a DTD. “Oh shit!” I yelp, rushing over to Braig and trying to find something to buy on my Assistant. “Come on come on, revival items have to be here somewhere…” I mutter, hoping to find a damn thing here. “Kid.” Braig said. “Heh, It’s alright, this was coming, I did a lot…a LOT, of bad, this is karma.” “Fuck karma!” I bark. “You are not dying after you just decided to become a hero ya one eyed bastard.” I exclaim while continuing my search. “Heh, isn’t that how it goes in books?” “Fuck the books!” I bark. “I’ve based shit on books all the time, I’m not going to have a weak ass cliched death befall a friend and master.” Braig was silent...to silent. “No...no...nonono…” I mutter. “Yo Ben, what I…oh…” I looked up, seeing Dad there. “Well…that’s bad…” “Your shops shit. I’m frantic yes but I haven’t found any revival items.” I frown, tears brimming in the corners of my eyes. “Let’s see.” Dad kneeled down to Braig, he waved his hand over him and an hourglass appeared over Braig’s head, a little bit of sand still falling. “They won’t work… his time is used up…” “And yet another weak ass death cliche appearing here…” I grumble. “So...can’t save him?” I ask. “I can do one thing, but I need to ask you, will you take care of him?” “Wait...you're saying…” I start before my eyes widen in realization. “Oh...yes. Yes I will…” Dad lifted his hand up, it glowed as the lines of ones and zeros appeared again, he shoved his hand into Braig, a crack appearing showing more code running around as Braig’s body glowed. When the light faded, where Braig laid down was now a baby. “Congrats, he’s barely a minute old now.” “Well…” I start. “I have two daughters to take care of I might as well start figuring out how to take care of a baby.” I say nervously. “He…won’t remember who he was, what I did is a reset, who he was is memories now, who he will be…well, raise him right.” Dad vanished in a blink as I picked up baby Braig, the second I touched him he turned into a Dire wolf pup, my colors…but he has Pinkie’s hair. “Oh my god…” I mutter, trying to contain my laughter at seeing Braig now being genetically related to Pinkie. “Yeah...he’s gonna be raised right.” I smile warmly. “So...anyone know how to drive a gummi ship that isn’t Luxu?” “I got it.” God said. “Thank you.” I smile, gently cradling my new son. During the ride back to Equestria I went into Braig’s old room. It was actually the only room without any weapons in it. I looked around, and found a tape recorder of all things. Took a while, but I found a tape labeled…’Will’. I played it. ”If anyone is listening to this, then I’m dead or worse…retired. Heh, that means you my friend are the owner of whatever and everything is in my ship is yours. If you are that shit eater Ben, heh, don’t hide it kid, then this is all still yours, but there’s something else I’d like you to have. Up in a secret panel in this room is a custom made mod for your arrow guns, it’s an add on to your auto aim, makes each shot bend to hit the target. It’s neat. There’s a few other things in there so go through them if you want, my only regret, being too greedy. I left my family at a young age because I wanted things my way, never saw them again, don’t let no prick kids of yours come out like me, consider it my last request if I’m dead. See ya around kid. The message stopped. I chuckled, tears falling down my face as I heard everything. “Thanks man...and don’t worry...you’ll get a new and better life.” I smile, before searching the room and trying to find the secret panel. I found it quickly, and attached the mod. I skimmed through the stuff in there and found a photo of what must have been Braig when he was younger. He looked like his dad, his mom was brown haired, he seemed to have a sister, she had dyed green hair and the house behind them was nice looking. “Alright…” I nod. “I wonder if they're still alive…” I mutter. When we arrived back home God left and parked the ship behind Twilight’s place. Upon telling the girls what happened and handing Pinkie her new son…she started feeding him…just, pulled her shirt and bra down right there…that’s gonna be normal soonish anyway. Dinner was done with and the girls dragged me into the living room with a surprise. They handed me a small box, and when I opened it, it was a key, not like a keyblade, but a house key. “And why do I have a house key when I have a keyblade that can literally lock and unlock literally any kind of lock in existence?” I ask curiously. “Cause it’s for our house.” Luna said. “When more than just Twilight and I got joined in, and with Rarity’s home broken at the time, we figured… we should just have our own place to call home.” “And this place is too small when there’s magic to literally make it bigger?” I ask. “Zoning laws.” Twilight muttered. “Legally this is as big as the Library can be.” “Oi vey...so where are we going to live at now?” I ask curiously. “Also, can any of you besides Luna summon a Keyblade? I completely forgot about that for some reason.” I frown. “We haven’t tried, we’ve been… occupying our time.” Zecora said, blushing. “Come on Ben, everyone get ready for a walk.” Luna said as Pinkie pulled a baby stroller from her hair…somehow, and everyone else was starting to walk out the door. She walked us into the Everfree, which seemed…calmer now for some reason, and we came upon the old castle…it was restored, actually no, redone, it looks more modern with some of it’s old features still there for appearance. “Like it? Celestia thought of restoring it and we split the cost.” “Sweet, now we’ll have enough room for all of us and our kids.” I smile. “Since it’s so big we do have to hire some help, no offense but I think your Nobodies would scare the babies Ben.” Twilight said. “There still going to be guards just in case. I won’t have them out constantly but I’ll still have them make sure somethings are safe.” I say. “That’s all we hoped for.” Luna said. “Come on, let’s go shopping for the new infant then get ready, tomorrow we move in.” “Hooray.” I say. “I mastered a weapon, got a new son, and now get an awesome castle. Everything’s going to go great for all of two weeks.” I say, just knowing bad shit’s gonna happen soon but glad things are going to look up for once. To be continued...