//------------------------------// // Chapter 8 // Story: Embrace of Light and Dark // by Knight of Crows //------------------------------// Raven POV I'm still watching events in the Lane Between Life and Death unfold as I think of how to meet the colt. He will need training if he is to never lose his heart, but for the moment he has it under control. I suppose I could just go to him in his dreams, but I doubt I'll get much better reception than Faust who finally took two seconds to properly introduce herself. As I said, I don't want to involve him, but it may not be avoidable. Whether it's because of my own desire or how valuable he is. Nothing says I have to meet him as "Raven" though. I'm sure that if he doesn't pass it off as a coincidence that he'll be able to put 2 and 2 together and discover it's me. Before that happens though I hope to give him his gifts and make sure he doesn't fall to his Darkness. Unfortunately I'll have to put him against Heartless from time to time, but that could give an opportunity to teach him to fight as well as help him heal. Faust won't do it and even though he is the only one in the world capable of truly killing Heartless no one will teach him just because of his age. Ignore the fact it takes 3 of them to kill a single Shadow or Soldier and only 1 strike from Cassiel who mentally speaking is close to if not an adult to do so, no, they're going to focus on the fact he isn't old enough to have graduated from school yet. I've seen his memories and he was close to finishing high school which is the sad part about that considering how old the students usually are before they graduate. I think I know just how to introduce myself. Cassiel POV I'm finally waking up, unfortunately it had to be in a hospital bed again. Twice in the past week and from the looks of it I'm in the same room as before. My arm looks to have needed stitches, same as my leg. That's going to hurt for a while and knowing my luck I'll have to do something to reopen them. Thinking back to that fight my mind immediately went to the end and what that fire was. I got out of the bed being cautious of my leg and opened the window to try something. I summoned Dawn and pointed it into the air. "Fire." Fire swirled around the weapon before condensing itself at the tip and launching itself about 50 feet and burning out. I wanted to try something else with it and shot another fireball with the intent of seeing if I could detonate it, to my surprise I could. I closed the window, got back on the bed and waited for someone to come in. I didn't have to wait long though as Twilight, Rainbow, Fluttershy, Redheart, and the princesses walked through the door. Fluttershy immediately pulled me close and started crying (is this going to happen every day now), saying she should have been there. "You can stop any time you know." I told her. Rainbow slammed her hands on the bed. "What the hay is your problem?! She was worried sick about you and the first thing you do is tell her to shut up?" No Rainbow. "That was me being polite, but if you want me to be rude I can do that and break her in the process?" Give me a reason to. "Gggrr I give up! How she puts up with you I can't understand." Good for me. "Believe it or not, very easily." Twilight stepped in finally. "Alright that's enough you two! Cassiel, could you please tell us what happened? All we were told was you were attacked by monsters, but when we got there we didn't find anything that could have hurt you." Let's just get this over with. "The mare who came to me in my dream called them Heartless. Creatures of Darkness that consume the hearts of others, or I guess they count as souls. Me being in possession of not one but 2 keyblades makes them want me even more. Hearts of Darkness also attract them." Twilight looked at me questioningly as did Celestia to Luna. "I'm sorry, but did you say a mare came to you in your dream?" Luna asked. "Such a thing is a talent of Luna's, nopony else has ever been able to do so and she has been with me all day." Celestia said. "You mentioned a keyblade, what is that?" Twilight asked. With a sigh of frustration I summoned both keyblades. "These are keyblades. Weapons forged from varying degrees of Light and Dark that choose a wielder best suited for them. Apparently not only are these the only weapons truly capable of killing Heartless, but me having 2 of them is like a grand feast for them. I'm sure I don't need to tell you the other reason I was targeted." All of them looked at me fearfully. "About that mare?" Luna asked again as I dismissed the keyblades. "A foolish 'Goddess of Light' told me a lot, also confirmed many of my beliefs in her attempt to recruit me into her Eternal Conflict with her counterpart. Needless to say I told her that her war means nothing to me and I will have no part. The fact she tried to bribe me just denied any hope of me choosing her side." "And what did she offer you?" Celestia asked. "She made an offer no one else could have said no to. She offered to give me back something that was taken from me and undo a lot of damage that happened as a result of that day." Rainbow was next to speak. "Would you care to tell us what that something was?" Luna's eyes were slowly tearing up as Rainbow asked, believing she knew what the offer was and she was right. "Tell me what you cherish most. Something that cannot be replaced or forgotten. Losing it being the beginning of your nightmare in the waking world and eventually leaves you alone with nothing. You do have something actually, hatred, rage, despair, and on good days emptiness." I summoned Dawn and just stared at the eye just above the hilt as Rainbow looked ready to fight me. "WHAT THE BUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU???!!! WHY WOULD YOU REFUSE AN OFFER LIKE THAT, FROM A GODDESS NO LESS???!!!" She shouted. "Rainbow!" Fluttershy said scolding her. "As I said before, there are a lot of things wrong with me. Me and Divinity don't exactly get along and the offer whether she meant it to be or not was one sided. Gods tend to see mortals as play things. I could tell you of several gods that just loved to screw people over. Why there was one Goddess of Wisdom who punished one of her priestesses for being raped by the God of the Seas on her alter, turned her and her 2 sisters into monsters that petrify people if their victims look at their eyes. She also made them absolutely hideous. That is Divinity being merciful." To say they looked disgusted by even the thought of punishing the victim of a crime for being the victim is an understatement. "How was the deal one sided?" Twilight asked after a minute of silence. And yes, I counted 60 seconds. "The God that sent me here, I told him I never want to see or hear from him or another human again. Do you really think the supposed God of Creation would break that? Or that he would allow one of the gods beneath him to break it? I have no reason to believe I would have been able to enjoy what I would have received for long. I have no reason to believe that deal wouldn't have made me a slave to that Goddess so I would fight in a pointless war with no end in this or the next eternity." "So let me get this straight. You were offered the deal of a life time, and a chance to be the greatest hero to ever live, and you said no? ARE YOU AN IDIOT??!!" Rainbow shouted again. "No. I'd say I'm acting quite rationally with all the information I have. Did you know it was Light that struck first? Did you know the Dark was punished and demonized for being a victim of the crime. Dark tried to be as good as the Light and no matter how successful it was, it was still undeniably evil for being born in the other realm. The only thing the Dark is guilty of is living up to standards that was forced on it. It didn't choose to be evil, the Light made that choice instead." She threw her arms into the air. "I give up, there's no point in dealing with you!" She said. "Then leave, it's not like you were wanted much less needed here in the first place. No one's stopping you." Fluttershy tightened her grip on my left arm. No idea when she even grabbed it. "Cassiel. She came bec-" a nurse came in accompanied by a guard interrupting her. "Princess! There's monsters attacking the town." He said. "What kind of monsters?" Luna asked. "We're not sure. They just appeared out of nowhere and started attacking everypony!" For me Raven? You shouldn't have." "Let me guess, they look like little shadow monsters and the ones that don't instead have black heart shaped emblems with red outlines and a red X in it?" I asked. He looked at me shocked I knew what he was talking about. "Yes, how d-" "Looks like you lot get to fight the Heartless yourselves." I said interrupting the guard and getting out of the bed. "And where do you think you're going?" Celestia asked stopping me. "You should feel greatful I'm in the mood for playing the hunter. After all I'm the only one with the means of killing them." I used Nightfall to keep my balance as I tried walking through the door. "Not in your condition you're not. It's nice to see somepony as young as you so eager to help, but the guard is trained for this kind of thing so let us handle it. Together with the guards stationed here we should be more than enough." The guard said. He's going to regret those words. "I guess dying together is teamwork after all. Don't expect me to help you when you find your defense to be lacking." I said to the guard before getting back on the bed. He scowled at me before running out the door with the sisters, Luna stopped just before leaving. "Stay here all of you. We can't have you being attacked out there." And like that she was gone. Next time leave one of your guards as a meat shield at least. These two will be less than useful in keeping me alive if my life is that precious to you. Just as I finished that thought another guard came into the room. She was different from the rest considering they all looked the same. She was a unicorn, a light shade of not exactly white or grey, had a black mane and red eyes. "The princess left me here to watch over you three until the monsters are dealt with." She gave an assuring smile. "You can call me Nevermore." She introduced herself. I just looked at her through my mask wondering if this was really happening.