May Your Heart Be Your Guiding Key
By SoulboundAlchemist
Chapter 8: The Key to Alchemy Part 1
Before we begin, there is great big SPOILER WARNING in effect. This chapter, while being set directly after the previous chapter, is also set several chapters down the line for The Golden Eyed Sage. If you don’t want spoilers, please be patient and wait for The Golden Eyed Sage to update to this point. If you don’t care, please enjoy this chapter!
“I call the Crimson Sage to help me,” I called, as the pocket watch in my hand began to float then a pair of large marble door with rather impressive designs. It was adorned with the carvings of Celestia and Luna as they circled each other similar to the window in the throne room in the center of the door. While at the base of the door where there were cravings of many other ponies I somewhat recognized and a few that I didn’t. The doors slowly opened, allowing several figures to step through. First came a rather tall man with blond hair that was styled into a braid. He was wearing a red hooded coat with a cross and crescent moon on the back of it while he wore all black clothing underneath it with a silver lining around the edges of the inner shirt. Over his face a white mask with golden lines running over it. The last detail was the he wore white gloves over his hands.
In his arms he had a small red haired baby girl. Her eyes we dark blue. I also saw she had red wings and a white horn. She was wearing a forest green dress with a lavender ribbon tied around her waist. Then, another large figure came the portal. She had astral starlight hair tied back in a ponytail while she had a pair of dark navy blue wings and horn. Her eyes were a light sapphire blue. She was wearing a formal black gown and around her neck was a crescent moon choker. The women had another child in her arms, a boy. He had golden blonde hair and amber eyes with a pair of jet black wings and a horn. His outfit consisted of cyan short sleeved shirt and black shorts.
I blinked in surprise. “Uh, OK, wasn’t expecting others to come through as well… Oh well. I take it you’re Ed, right?”
“Yes and you’re Kairi from KH3. This is my wife Luna, our son Solar Eclipse, and our daughter Morning Star,” He motioned to his family happily. “How may I be of service to you this fine day?”
“Well, that’s a bit of a story,” I shrug with a smile. “I think I’ll let the Doctor explain.”
“Oh, absolutely!” The Doctor replied with a grin. “You see, about a thousand years ago, Celestia found your watch, just sitting on the floor of one of the rooms in this tower. Now, due to it being saturated in Void energy, as well as my, *ahem*, unique relationship with time and space, she rather erroneously assumed it belonged to me. To make a very long story short, we started experimenting on it, and attempted to create a form of travel between worlds, resulting in, oh, what did you call it again?”
“A Stargate,” I replied.
“Yes, yes, a Stargate,” the Doctor nodded. “Now, the reason we called you here, is because we have no idea how to make it work. Every time we tried it, all that happened was a massive discharge of deadly energy.”
“Wait, what!?” I cried, eyes widening. “You never mentioned that!”
“Hmm? I didn’t?” the Doctor looked confused for a moment before shaking his head. “I guess it didn’t really matter at the time. In any case, think you can help?”
“Go over to mommy sweety,” He set his daughter down. “First off it’s The Void you’re trying to make a portal through, thus there is no concept of time and or space with the energies of which you play, my good Doctor. Secondly, I can help with your artificial void portals. For simplicity’s sake though, call them Void Gates.” He then pulled a black key from his pocket. “Tell me Doctor, how well did you know Starswirl the Bearded?”
“Hmm, Starswirl the Bearded…” the Doctor mused, with a hand on his chin. “Lovely bloke, bit uptight though. Had a habit of creating dangerous spells, and testing them on dangerous creatures. Like that mirror portal; a shame those Sirens couldn’t see reason…”
“Good, then this will be a bit easier then,” Edward looked around the room. “Hmm… Got a decent size mirror in this joint?”
I raised an eyebrow. “Mirror? I’m honestly not sure, but I could probably have Chirithy look around for one. Why do you need a mirror?”
“I’ll just make one then,” as he said this, a silver spell matrix appeared behind Edward and he held out his hand and a full length body mirror appeared in front of him. He walked up to the mirror and placed the black key from earlier on it. Soon the mirror surface rippled like water. “This is a mirror gate. A dumbed down version of Starswirl’s Mirror Portal. As long as you have a key you can access what’s on the other side no matter the world your in.”
“I see,” the Doctor replied, taking out his sonic screwdriver for some scans. “Oh, this is fascinating! It’s almost like what makes my TARDIS bigger on the inside!”
“My wife’s Dark Library is on the other side. Starswirl and I used alchemagic to displace it into the Void to keep it’s forbidden knowledge out of evil hands and we anchored it to our Equestria with the original black key in her possession ,” He looked to his family. “Kairi you wouldn’t have somewhere less dank for my little ones would you?”
I smiled. “I think we can find somewhere, give me a sec.” I walked over to the large alter-like device in the center of the room, searching for the intercom. “Uh, Doctor, where’s the intercom on this thing?”
“Hmm?” the Doctor turned away from his scans long enough to point his screwdriver at the device. “Glowing button, just needed a bit of power. Go on then.”
I nodded before pressing the button. “Luna, Chirithy, can you hear me?”
“Big sis!” came the rather loud reply. “I was so worried! What happened to you?”
“Uh, well, used a spell that was a bit beyond me at the moment. Don’t worry about it,” I said rather sheepishly. “In any case, do you think you both can come down here?”
“Sure, we’ll be there in a sec,” Chirithy replied.
“Magic accident aye,” Edward rubbed his chin under his mask. “Mind if I have a scan of you?”
“Big sis, who’s that talking to you?” Luna asked.
“The reason why I need you and Chirithy down here, I’ll explain later,” I reply, switching off the intercom and turning back to Edward. “As for your question, I don’t see why not.”
“One moment. I need to remove this suppressor in order to access my full capabilities,” Edward pulled off his mask and placed it in a small bag at his belt. A sudden wave of magic flooded the entire room. “Alright, hold still,” a cloud of silver dust came from the alchemist’s body then flew around my body and started to cover me in green lights. It all took around fifteen seconds before the cloud returned to Edward. “Mhm….” He nodded his head. “Now I see why I got a familiar vibe off you when I saw you. You have my Shadow Dragon Lacrima inside you.”
My eyes widened. “You’re the uncle Lex mentioned!”
“I’m an uncle to a lot of ponies, griffons, and minotaurs,” Edward shrugged. “It comes with age. But yes, I’m Lex’s adopted Uncle.” He pulled out a photo with him and Lex in it as well as a few other odd characters, some of whom I recognized. “This is when we had to save Lex’s sister Sorano.” he pointed to the littlest girl. “We took this just before we left.” He smiled. “Glad to see she’s putting those Lacrima to good use. I tried to give her the fruit of my research but she said it was too powerful. So we dumbed it down into the Dragon Lacrima.”
I nodded. “Makes sense, the next highest level Lacrima would be God Slayer, and we don’t need that…”
The hiss of the door sliding open was the only warning I had before I was bowled over by the tactical hug missile named Luna. “Big sis!”
“Hey Luna,” I chuckled as I sat up.
She looked up at me with a stern face, and tear tracks on her face. “Don’t do that again! You scared me!”
I sighed before wrapping the small alicorn in a hug. “I’m sorry, Luna, I didn’t mean to scare you. Will you forgive me?”
“I guess I can,” Luna said with a pout. “Just be more careful!”
I chuckled again before pulling the filly up as I stood. “Now that we have that taken care of, I’d like to introduce you to Edward, his children, and his wife.”
Luna blinked before turning around and seeing the newcomers for the first time. “Hello,” she said, before doing a double take. “Wait, why does she look like older-me?”
“That’s because she is the Luna from where I come from, little one,” Edward walked over and knelt down to get eye level with Luna. “You see, your big sis brought me here to help her and the Doctor with an old project of his but I need some help from you, please?”
Luna blinked, then nodded with a bright smile. “Sure! What do you need?”
“Would you play with my little ones and help her take care of them for a bit?” Edward still smiled. “Ah, I remember when Tia was your age! Keep in mind they’re like you and are very strong but they’re also still just a few weeks old. They’re my light so keep them safe okay?” He patted Luna on the head lightly.
Luna tilted her head. “When Tia was my age? You mean 1,600?”
“Oh my, you are still very young in this world,” Ed’s wife said in shock. “Where we come from I’m just over six thousand years myself.”
I sighed. “I forgot to mention this. About a thousand years ago, Luna and Celestia were trained by a man calling himself the ‘Master of Masters.’ He wanted all the stories in the world to follow his designs, so he suplanted himself into them, and taught a select few in each story to be Keyblade wielders, before leaving them with a cryptic message that would lead them into ruin. Luna was given that message, and in a fit of paranoia, she extracted her own heart in a misguided attempt to gain more power. As a result, she created the Heartless known as Nightmare Moon, and would have become a Nobody as well if not for Celestia throwing a stasis spell on her.”
“And why would a stasis spell matter or be of any use in this situation?” Edward pondered as he tickled his son a bit causing him to giggle.
“Well, the way a Nobody is formed, the body is aged backwards until it is nothing, literally nothing, hence why a Nobody is considered nothing,” I explained. “That is why the stasis spell mattered. It halted the process before it could be completed.”
“I see, it was to keep her from de-aging into nothingness,” Ed sighed.
“The only other option would be to seal her away in stone or on the moon,” the older Luna interjected with a bit of grimness.
“Enough though. We’ll scare her if we continue,” Ed placed a hand up as he shook his head with a downward gaze.
“And that’s my cue,” the voice of Chirithy interjected as he placed himself into younger Luna’s arms. “Hi, I’m Chirithy.”
“Nice to meet you Chirithy,” Ed leaned in for a better look. “Always wondered what it would be like to meet one of you guys. Haven’t really had the chance as dreams are mainly Luna’s department. I only help when needed.”
“Well, sorry to burst your bubble,” The large cat-like creature chuckled. “I’m not exactly a Chirithy. Sure, I call myself Chirithy, but I’m actually just a repressed portion of Kairi’s mind that she brought into the real world for company.”
“Like Malice and Somber for me,” Ed poked himself in the head. “But you really don’t want Malice to come out.”
“From the name alone, I’m getting Legend of Zelda levels of bad…” I muttered. “In any case, why don’t you two take Luna, uh, older Luna, up to the Simulation Hall. Have Sunset look through my stuff for something kid friendly.”
Luna nodded. “OK Big Sis. Follow me.”
With that, the young filly, still holding Chirithy, led the way out of the room.
“Okay now that they’re gone,” Edward cracked the knuckles on his left hand and then took off his coat. “First things first. You said you tried using my token as an anchor, right?”
“That’s right,” the Doctor nodded. “We needed something to tie the Stargate to this world, to allow travel back. A point of origin, if you will.”
“Therein lies the problem my dear fellow,” Ed pointed at the ceiling and then to the Gate. “Displaced tokens that are found by the native Displaced are not of their own worlds. So, in turn, you can’t use them as your origin point.” His finger moved to me. “It has to be her token and no one else’s. Also, you must approach this with both a hand in science and in magic.” Ed walked over to the Gate and flicked his finger against it causing it to fall over. “This thing won’t do at all.”
The Doctor’s eyes widen. “Wait, hold on a minute, how the bloody hell did you manage to knock that over with a simple tap?!? That gate is made of Naquadah, one of the densest materials in the universe, weighing several hundred tons! It should not have fallen over that easily!”
“Nwahhaha… Doctor, I’m over fifteen thousand years old and a walking Philosopher Stone,” Ed unbuttoned the clasp on his color and revealed his metal arm. “I haven’t been human for a very long time and my master has taught me many things. Magic, technology, beliefs and much much more. Not to mention I help my wife and Tia move the Sun and Moon from time to time. So tell me again how an interdimensional Alchemagical Mage can knock over a Stargate. Oh, my arm and leg are both made of Proto-adamantium too.”
The Doctor took a breath to argue, before stopping and thinking for a moment. “Point taken. But why is Naquadah not good enough? We made the Gate with it due to its energy conducting properties, both electrical and magical.”
“Take a scan of this,” Ed placed the black key on the table in front of the Doctor. “Go on with that little sonic screwdriver. I have a Doctor that help run my automail shop back home.” He looked over to me.
The Doctor pulled out his screwdriver, scanning the key for a second before reading the results. “Wibbly wobbly, timey wimey, according to this, it’s made of an unknown material, with traces of Naquadah running through it, but only trace amounts.”
“This is what happens to orichalcum after passing through the void,” Ed levitated the key up so that it hovered just above his palm. “When left blank it looks golden,” he pulled out a small box and placed it on the table. “Open it. The box is lined with black silver so that what’s inside won’t be affected by my travels throughout the void.”
The Time Lord opened the box. “What am I looking at here?”
“Blank Orichalcum keys,” Ed explained. “Walk through a Void Portal with one and the Void Energy imprints on the key atunning it to that portals energy allowing the possessor to open the portal at will. The key can further be altered so it will only work for specific beings.”
“And how exactly will this help with the Gate?” the Doctor asked, somewhat confused.
“Wire her token in to the Gate with the orichalcum,” Edward explained. “Wire the Gate partially into the land for a better anchor and better magic connection. You should also add in a scanner for tokens you find here in your world and might get from other Displaced with multiple tokens. This way you can look for… I don’t know… whatever you need to look for. It’ll help give a definitive location to jump to I know that much.”
“Hmm, that could work…” the Doctor muttered before turning to me. “Ms. Kairi, might I have a token please.”
“Sure, why not. I’ll get one for Ed too,” I shrugged before kneeling down next to my bag to pull out the tokens. I then tossed one to the Doctor, and one to Ed, before noticing something. Like with Tito before, the token changed color, turning a sort of silvery red in color. “Wait, it did that again? Why’d it do that?”
“Do what?” Ed raised an eyebrow.
“It changed color,” I explained. “In all my time playing Kingdom Hearts, Kairi’s lucky charm never changed color, so I’m at a loss…”
“Hmm…” Ed held up the charm. “You said it reacted this way before. What were the circumstances?”
“Exactly like here, I tossed my token to Tito, another Displaced I met, and when he caught it, it changed color,” I explained.
“And after, what did you do?” He flipped the charm over in his hand.
“Nothing, we just thought it had something to do with his magic.”
“Is this guy a fellow wielder now?” Ed had an idea in his head.
I narrowed my eyes. “If by ‘wielder’ you mean a Keyblade wielder, then yes. But since when was an alchemist a Keyblade wielder?”
“For the last… uh… “ He pondered. “Four no …” Ed began to count on his fingers. “Yep around two to four thousand years ago now. Not long after I married Luna, matter of fact.” he sat down on the floor and took a flask from his back pocket. “That was the best day of my life. Now it’s when my twins were born.” He took a swig of his flask and returned it. “Don’t worry I can’t get drunk anymore. But why do you look so worried?”
“Because I’ve been getting this aura of...wrongness coming from you,” I replied. “I don’t know how else to describe it, it just feels...wrong. Like it shouldn’t exist.”
“The Keyblade literally showed up out of nowhere one day,” Ed got up. “Puff!” He snapped his fingers. “I’m not gonna deny it a home. It chose to present itself to me. What’s wrong with that?”
“Eh, nothing really,” I shrug. “It’s just really off-putting.”
“I think I’ve got most of the wiring done,” the Doctor calls from the alter-thing. “I think we’re ready to add the key to the dialing device.”
“DHD,” I interupt.
“I beg your pardon?”
“DHD. Dial Home Device,” I explain.
“Oh, yes, yes, that’ll do nicely for a name. In any case, I think we’re ready to add the key to the DHD.”
“Have at it,” Ed tossed one of the orichalcum keys to the Doctor. “Wait, you’re trying to contact your Earth?”
“No, no,” the Doctor laughed. “Or at least, I’m not.”
“I’m not either,” I shrug. “I really don’t have anything to go back to.”
“Right. I’m actually trying to dial your world,” the Doctor explained. “The way I have it set up, I have a scanner here where we place the token of the Dis-”
“STOP!” Ed shouted in anger causing the chamber to shake. “My world has a Void Barrier around it to prevent intrusions like that. You could have killed everyone here.”
“Sssooo, like the Iris from Stargate SG-1?” I asked tentatively.
“Yea, look here,” Ed moved next to the Doctor and began to work while pulling up an archive hollow screen behind that he switched. “Here, see the black and white void surrounded worlds?”
“You mean these ones here that look like blobs?”
“Yes, these are the one you must be summoned in to first. Never try and force your way in unless you’re a Void Dweller or as powerful as one,” Ed explained. “Backlash will kill you or you could get Void Poisoning.”
“Alright, alright, I get it, black blobby worlds bad, everywhere else good. Got it. So then, where should we try to connect to? Kairi, what tokens do you have?”
“Uh, well,” I dug around in my bag for a bit. “I have Tito’s token, as well as Lex’s, Sora and Nat’s, and Adam’s.”
“Hmm, toss me Nat’s token, we’ll go with that world,” the Doctor said as he made adjustments, as I pulled out the Aura Reader that served as her token, tossing it to him. “Thank you much. This’ll take a while to reconfigure, why don’t you show Ed around the Tower?”
“I’m game,” Ed threw a hand up. “Want me to leave a Mini-Ed behind to help monitor this thing?”
“Nah, I trust the Doctor to keep us informed,” I replied. “But, I was thinking, instead of showing you around a Tower I haven’t fully explored yet, how about we have a spar in the Simulation Hall?”
“Can you take a beating of all kinds against a demon,” Ed had an evil grin as he cracked his knuckles. “The last one to give me a decant fight was Optimus Prime. Scratch that, my master was. Still one of the better fights was against Nat and Sora and then there’s Adam’s Celestia in solar mode. Lex had to cut that one short.”
“Oh, I think I’ve got some tricks for you,” I replied with a grin. “After all, I doubt they had any of the Kingdom Hearts spells to throw at you, or a magic system that they created themselves.”
“True dat,” Ed shrugged. “ In fact, your the only other Keyblade wielder I ever met. Magic clones? I’ve got my semblance and chakra for that. Very handy for teaching at Luna’s school of Dark Magic.”
“Alright then, right this way,” I nodded, guiding him out of the room and to the stairs. The Simulation Hall was about two floors up, hence why the Doctor took me to the Gate Room to recover.
“Lead the way,” Ed smirked.
I lead the alchemist up the stairs to the control room of the Simulation Hall, where we found Sunset and Chirithy watching the simulation that both Lunas and the twins were in, on one of the terminals.
“Hey guys, which simulation are they in?” I asked as we walked in.
“Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild,” Sunset replied. “It was literally the only kid-friendly game you had, other than Kingdom Hearts.”
I raised an eyebrow. “And you didn’t think to use one of the TV shows or movies I had?”
Sunset blinked. “You know, I totally forgot this thing could use those… Oh well.”
I shook my head. “In any case, I need you to pull them out so me and Ed here can have a spar.”
“Sure,” Sunset nodded, turning to the intercom. “Luna? Ed and Kairi would like to use the Simulation Hall now, could you all come out?”
“OK, we’ll be right out!” came the excited reply.
“Is this Simulation Hall like the Hyperbolic Time Chamber in DBZ?” Ed flicked the air. “As far as being able to control the environment anyways?”
I laughed. “No, but I can see why you would think that. No, think of this more like the holodeck from any of the Star Trek TV shows. The computer can be programmed to either replicate environments, or simulate scenarios, whether those are video game scenarios, historic scenarios, or just fictional scenarios.”
“Good, that means I don’t have to worry about breaking things,” Ed chuckled.
As I was explaining how the Simulation Hall worked, the door leading into the Hall itself hissed open, allowing the two Lunas and the twins to exit.
“Hey Luna, how was your first simulation?” I asked as she ran up for a hug.
“It was fun, but Sunset wouldn’t program any of the actual story into the simulation,” the blue filly pouted.
“If you think I’m gonna send infants into a simulation with dangerous monsters in it, you’ve got another thing coming,” Sunset glared. “I doubt their parents would have appreciated it either.”
“My kids can handle timberwolves, Sunset. I think a few low level things like Shadows wouldn’t be too much for them to handle,” Ed waved the air.
“Except that Luna wanted to put them in Hyrule Castle,” Sunset explained. “Which is crawling with high level monsters, not to mention Calamity Ganon at the heart of the castle.”
I turned a glare onto the blue filly in question. “Really Luna? That’s not child friendly at all! And on top of that, I told you that we need to make sure there are safeties in place before I let you in there to fight anything!”
“Going into an unknown dungeon that you know contains a boss creature,” Edward looked at the filly in disappointment and a lot of anger. “Were you even thinking about the safety of your party at all girl!”
Luna flinched. “I’m sorry, I wasn’t thinking at all…”
“That much is obvious,” Sunset snorted.
“OK, OK,” I sighed. “That’s enough of that. We’ll talk about this later Luna. For now, you can stay here where Sunset can keep an eye on you.”
Luna nodded, head hung low as she trudged next to the mare operating the computer.
“Here’s my crew,” Ed smiled. “How was the simulation?”
Ed’s wife came out, holding the hands of bother their children on either side. “It was rather peaceful and the twins were able to run and play. They tired themselves out.” She looked to the little yawning alicorns. “Excuse me Ms.Sunset, you wouldn’t happen to have a sleeping area or a nursery for children would you?”
“Uh, I don’t think so…” I trailed off.
“Actually, I found one while you were unconscious,” Chirithy chimed in. “Its up on the floor above our room.”
“Oh,” I replied smartly. “Why don’t you show them where it is then.”
The cat nodded before going out the door, calling over his shoulder “Follow me.”
“Certainly,” The older Luna followed Chirithy with the little ones in tow.
I nodded before turning to Sunset. “Now that we have that taken care of, could you load up the final battle stage from Persona 3 FES? Just don’t have the boss there as well, we just want the arena.”
“Sure, just pull your PS2 out, and set it on the console,” Sunset replied, turning back to the terminal. “Make sure the disk is in before turning it on.”
I nodded as I pulled said system out of my bag. I checked the disk tray, finding the needed game disk already loaded in, before setting it down on the console and turning it on. Instantly, a new holographic window appeared at Sunset’s terminal.
“OK, you said the arena from the final battle right?” She asked, typing away at the terminal.
“Right.”
“Is that from The Journey, or from The Answer?”
“The Journey.”
“Alright,” Sunset muttered. “Should be all set. Go ahead in, should be done building the simulation by the time you’re in. The name of the simulation is Arena.”
I nodded, leading the way into the Hall as the computer chimed “Simulation ready.”
“Execute simulation arena,” I said, causing the stark white room to dissolve into the dark, moonlit tower of Tartarus.
“Black Pillars under a full Moon,” Ed looked around. “Odd setup for an arena.” Ed walked over to the edge looking down.
“Don’t look now, but we’re several miles up,” I called as I walked to the center of the arena.
“Nice dropoff,” Edward looked over the edge. “Now what?”
I smirked. “Welcome to the tower of Tartarus, the site of a battle to save all the people of the world, now the arena that we’ll be using. Anything goes in this spar, except lethal blows.” I called forth Destiny’s Embrace in preparation for battle as I said those words. “You ready?”
“Hmm...Want me to summon my Keyblade or use another weapon?” Ed asked curiously. “I have quite the variety to choose from.”
I shrugged. “Use whatever you feel comfortable using. Doesn’t matter to me.”
“Okay I gave you fair warning though.” Edward brought his right hand up and spoke a strange phrase. “I RELEASE YOU FROM YOU CHAIN. DEVOUR THE KNIGHTMARES TO BRING FORTH THE SWEETEST OF DREAMS TO MY FRIENDS. SHINE THE LIGHT IN THE DARK AND UNLOCK THE DOORS TO THE KINGDOM, THE KINGDOM HEARTS!”
“This is the Baku,” Ed held up a long, dual-handed, black bladed Keyblade that shone a red hue when the light shined on it. There was a red metallic skull on either side of the hilt. The teeth of the key looked like dual sickle blades. The Keychain was a silver bladed chain the lead into a red, cracking, crystal cross. “What do you make of it?”
“I still get that feeling of wrongness,” I shrug. “But, I can ignore that. You ready?”
“Does an Ursa have a star cover butt?” Ed deadpanned.
“Fair enough, in that case,” I grinned, before I charge forward with my left hand wrapped in shadows. “Shadow Dragon Iron Fist!” I struck out with my fist, aiming for Ed’s abdomen.
“Ultimate Shield,” Ed murmured as his body blackened with hardened carbon and he gained a look similar to Greed. “Sorry, you’re gonna have to try much harder.” He raised the Baku and the blade glowed red, crackling with electricity. “Crimson Lightning Slash.” He brought the blade down sending a red bolt wave at me.
I jumped out of the way, using my Keyblade to throw low-powered fire spells at him. I really wasn’t expecting the Greed abilities to make an appearance, but I had a couple ideas for countering and fighting back. “Well, well, I didn’t take you to be someone who hid behind a barrier, what’s up with that?” I taunted, as I continued throwing fire spells, trying to make a smoke screen with the spells.
“Smoke won’t help you,” Ed clapped his hands and placed them in the smoke turning it into charcoal and letting it fall to the ground. “Oh, I know,” He took in a deep breath, “Fus Ro Da!”
Ed shouted at me.
My eyes widened as I watched the blast come. Thinking fast, I cast the only spell that came to mind. “Reflectga!” Instantly, a shimmering barrier snapped into existence around me, pushing me back to the edge of the arena as it absorbed the energy, and sent it right back at the alchemist.
Ed held his Blade up taking the reflected shout head on, causing his armor to crack and start to crumble away. “That was a surprise.”
“Yeah?” I grinned. “Well, you’re about to be even more surprised. Spell Weaver!” As soon as the words ‘Spell Weaver’ were out of my mouth, I triggered my first ever Keyblade Transformation. Now, there really wasn’t much to this Keyblade Transformation, but it did change the color scheme of my clothes from pink and black, to blue and black. I then started floating slightly off the ground, sliding towards Ed as I threw my Keyblade at him.
“Sloth,” Ed vanished in a flash and I found him on the other side of the arena. “Transformation was definitely something I wasn’t expecting.” He leaned against a pillar. “Tell me how many Darksides have you beaten?”
“Just one, and I’ll show you just how I beat it too,” I reply a slight glow surrounds me, music starting to play in the background.
“Weirdness,” Ed raised an eyebrow. “Wanna see what happens when you combine Shouts with the force?” Ed smirked as he clenched his fist and crouched down. The air around us began to shake. “FUS!” Ed threw his hands high as he sent out an omni-directional Shout.
I ignored him as I started singing, my magic flowing through the song, allowing me to see how I can dodge the attack.
‘How long has it been?
Hope I'm not dreaming
Looking good too aren't you, it's time to unwind.’
I pointed my Keyblade at Ed, firing off an orb of condensed magic in his direction.
“Magic Weaving,” Ed caught the orb. He looked down to it as it shrank down to nothing. “Delicious. Thanks for the snack.” He picked up his Keyblade. “Shadow Dragon-Slayer Magic. How hard is it for you to control?”
‘Eager to catch your smile, ain't shown it in a while.
So set free the mind!’
I give a so-so motion with my hand as I continued singing, waiting for the blinding effect to kick in on my opponent. I charged forward, once again throwing my magic infused Keyblade at Ed.
Ed caught the blade in between his pointer and middle finger. “If you’re wondering, I’m not going to go blind Kairi. The Ultimate Eye sees all.” I could see the Ouroboros symbol in his eyes now. “Catch,” He flung my Keyblade back at me.
‘Remember the times,
How we laughed and joked around.
Yeah the soul is unbound!’
I caught Destiny’s Embrace with ease, before canceling the Spell Weaver, and switching to Ever After, the Keyblade changing to resemble Rapunzel’s tower with a sun at the top. I also mentally activated Mirage Staff, firing laser-like bolts of magic at the alchemist.
“Haven’t you figured it out?” Edward grumble. “Oh well, let’s see how well you fight without magic,” He smirked as a silver spell matrix formed behind him. “Nule Field,” A burst of silver magic went everywhere canceling any of magic. “I should’ve warned you, Lex taught me every Fairy Tail magic she knows but the forbidden spells and Grand Spells, but I have a few that not even my Niece knows.” He hefted his Keyblade on his shoulder. “This environment is digital so alchemy does jack here.”
‘It's party night!
No need to hold back anymore.
Only night.
What are you waiting for?’
My eyes narrowed, as he explained himself. I quickly dismiss Ever After, and summon Way to Dawn, the Keychain I found after my encounter with Tito. Now, while the Kingdom Hearts franchise never actually created a Keyblade Transformation for Way to Dawn, there was one that suddenly entered my mind right then; Angel of Black and White. As soon as I triggered it, a white angel wing sprouted from my left shoulder, while a red and black demon wing sprouted from my right. The Keyblade itself changed to resemble Riku’s Soul Eater sword from the first Kingdom Hearts game. I charged forward, slashing at speeds faster than a normal human eye could follow at the alchemist’s arms, legs, and chest.
‘Vivid night.
Let it all go and rock the floor!
Come a little closer, lend your hand!’
Red electricity sparked off Edward’s flesh while his metal arm and leg remained unscathed except for the paint. “I’m starting to see why you are such a nuisance to the Heartless.” He held up his right hand and the silver cloud from earlier formed around it into a machine gun. “Best part of the blows you landed on me. Kinetic Energy bullets.” He began to fire on me in rapid succession.
I leapt into the air, wings unfurling, as I took an evasive trajectory over Ed’s head, landing behind him. I then wrapped my shadow magic around my blade, unleashing a flurry of dark slashes into his back.
‘Don't need no words, we'll dance the night away together.
Passing hours, embrace the feeling forever.’
His arm changed back to normal but popped open and something similar to a katana hilt landed in the opposite hand. Ed hit a switch and out of the handle ignited a black lightsaber with a red edge. “Darksaber,” he held it high and brought the saber down hard. “Air Cutter.” In an instant my wings were severed from my body.
I grinned as I felt the wings reform, since they weren’t physically there to begin with; just my magic manifested as wings.
‘It's all ours!
Till the gradient sky signals closure.
Come on, don't be shy now.
Won't you take my hand?’
I suddenly had an idea. I glanced down at my shadow before using my Shadow Dragon Slayer magic to dive in. I then used my influence over the shadow to expand it until it looked just like Pride. I then sharpened my shadows before sending them in to attack.
“Oh, shadowplay,” Ed shook his head. “You know You’d actually be one of the worst people for me to fight in my true form if I didn’t have my other abilities.”
My shadows grinned at the compliment, before launching a barrage of attacks at the alchemist.
‘Been a long time coming, nothing but love baby,
Going way back, back when we were bunch of teenagers.
Things done changed, from back in the days,
However things as tight as this never ever changes.’
“Alright,” Ed cracked his neck. “Time to take playtime up to level three,” A spell matrix appeared behind Edward again, and I found myself surrounded all around by millions of red glowing crystal claymores. “Omni- Mars Bane Strike- Slaughterfest.” Ed snapped and the blades all came at me at once. I managed to dodge most but got hit in a couple vital areas, namely my arms and legs.
‘Leaving y'all wasn't easy!
But for the better good, much needed.
Tonight's the night, reunite, party over here!
No mass destruction needed!’
I grit my teeth as pain flooded my system, and the song ended. I had one last trick up my sleeve, and since I was on my way to unconsciousness anyway, I might as well use it. I raised my hand, shaking slightly, as I once again formed two doors behind Ed. “DOORS OF HADES!” I scream as the doors fling open, and tendrils of shadow magic attempt to drag Ed over the threshold.
“This is your Ace in the Hole?” Ed’s form began to change on his right as it became covered in red metal, Shadows, and eyes. He gained a singular large golden eye across his chest that consisted of a fusion of the Rinnegan with the Ouroboros symbol in the center. Edward pulled the Baku to his demonized arm. “Let me show you a real portal to Hell!” The Keyblade sang a song that would make a grown man cry. A song that was neither of joy or sorrow but simply of being. “Meido Surasshu!” He sent a reality warping slash straight at the Doors of Hades collapsing the move instantly.
My vision was fading as Ed made his attack, but I still was able to see what happened before I finally blacked out. The Doors seemed to implode as the attack made contact with them, making them crumble before they winked out of existence. The last thing I saw as darkness took my vision, was Ed returning to his original appearance.