//------------------------------// // XXX. // Story: The Nobody's Regret // by Synthetic Soul //------------------------------// “…going to take months…” Slowly, Roxas began regaining consciousness. “…ponies died…” The haze clouding his mind began to depart, allowing him to make out the voices of ponies speaking. “…to tell Celestia…” Roxas opened his eyes. Blinking a few times, he slowly sat up. He looked to his right to see the mane six conversing with each other in the main room of the Library. “He’s awake!” Roxas recognized the voice as belonging to Fluttershy. Seeing that he was lying on a couch, Roxas swept his legs over to the front of the couch and tried to stand up. He stood strong for a brief moment before his legs began to tremble, causing him to fall to one knee. “Careful!” cried Pinkie Pie, as she and Rarity helped the human sit back onto the couch. “Thanks,” he said as he rested back onto the cushions. “Are you alright?” asked Twilight. “I think so,” he replied. “Just tired. The fight completely drained me. How long have I been out?” “A few hours,” answered Twilight. “Speaking of the fight, we have some questions for you.” Roxas’s eyes locked with Twilight’s for a moment before they were cast to the ground. “Alright,” conceded Roxas. Twilight used her magic to summon a journal and a quill, which she began writing in. “That thing, you said it was called a Heartless, right?” “Correct.” “And you told us that Gilda became it when she was overcome with extreme emotional distress?” “It’s not quite that simple,” replied Roxas as he clasped his hands and rested them on his lap. “There’s a difference between having a really bad day, and losing your heart. When Gilda transformed, she had completely lost all of the light insider her. It was an emotional wound that was never going to heal. She’d given up on everything. To put it bluntly, she had nothing left to live for.” Rainbow’s eyes widened, before they became downcast. She stared at the floor with her mane concealing her face. “There are other ways to become a Heartless, but what I described is most likely the reason why Gilda turned.” “What are the other ways?” asked Twilight, scribbling furiously. Roxas paused, considering how much he should explain to the girls. “Look, the most important thing you need to know is that a Heartless forms when a person’s heart is completely consumed by darkness. It happens when all light has been extinguished.” All was silent in the room, except for Twilight’s note taking. Roxas made another attempt at standing, this time succeeding. He began making his way for the door. “Hey, where are you going?” asked Twilight. “I need to take a walk,” he replied. Twilight quickly trotted in front of him. “Hold on, we’re not done here! I still have more questions!” The two stared at each other for a brief moment. “All right,” responded Roxas. “How come I’ve never heard of this Heartless phenomenon in any books, and never heard them spoken of before?” “Because this is the first time it’s happened.” “Then how do you know about it?” All eyes were on Roxas as he felt a jolt run though his body. ‘Damn it! I need to think of something!’ He thought. “What I meant was, it’s the first time it’s happened here in Equestria. It’s an old legend from where I’m from.” “And where is that?” asked Rarity. “It doesn’t matter,” said Roxas as he turned and headed for the door. “It’s gone, and I won’t be going back.” With that, Roxas left the Library, leaving the ponies with more questions than answers. Roxas walked through the devastation of the town. He saw ponies sifting through the rubble, trying to pick up the pieces of their lives. Their homes were destroyed, but to Roxas they were still very fortunate. They could rebuild, they still had others like them to live with and for. But for Roxas, he was permanently stranded from his home, and other humans. ‘Home,’ he thought. ‘It’s been a thousand years, but I still kind of miss it.’ Of course Roxas loved Equestria, but he also longed for that Human connection he had been missing for so long. Something caught his eye as he made his way past a destroyed shop. It glimmered slightly with an unusual light. He turned and made his way towards the object, half buried under a mound of dirt. He crouched down in front of it, seeing an unusual faded blend of orange and purple. When he wiped the dirt away, he saw that it was a shell of some sorts. He picked it up and examined it. ‘A shell? I’ve never seen one with this coloring before…have I?’ Roxas thought it looked familiar, but he couldn’t place it. Then he saw the shell glow. 'So, this is Alex Lionheart. If you need help in a fight or just someone to talk to, I’m game. Just call me up and I’ll show up with a big dumb key-sword to do the thing.' “What the Hell?” questioned Roxas as he looked frantically around him. ‘Where did that voice come from?’ He couldn’t see anyone nearby. The voice sounded familiar as well, it was feminine. But he still couldn’t place it. He looked at the shell in his hand, as the glowing died down. “Did that voice come from this?” he asked himself quietly. He turned the shell over in his hand, before placing it in his pocket. ‘Weird. Alex, sounds like a human name. But that doesn’t make sense. There aren’t any other humans in Equestria.’ He continued to walk through the town. ‘Jesus, I can’t believe Gilda turned into a Heartless. How could that have happened? This is Equestria, not the Kingdom Hearts universe. Is it my fault? Did I bring that possibility here when I arrived here?’ Roxas walked past the border of the town, making his way towards an empty hill a distance away. ‘Regardless, if it can happen once, it can happen again. And I was not prepared to fight that thing. I would’ve been killed if it weren’t for the girls! I thought I could handle myself, but that Heartless was on another level.’ Roxas stood on the top of the hill, and felt a warm breeze blow through his hair. “I need to get stronger! Another Heartless could appear, and I need to be ready!” “Heartless? I think you have bigger problems than heartless.” Another presence made itself known. It lingered behind Roxas, danger radiating off it. “You’d be surprised what might just show up.” Surprised, thinking he was alone, Roxas quickly spun around, but was not prepared for what he saw. It was not a pony that had spoken to him, or any other creature native to Equestria. Roxas couldn’t believe it, but he was now looking at another human, the first one he’d seen in over a thousand years. And it was familiar. Cloaked in a dark outfit of black and red, he recognized the person in front of him. A character from Kingdom Hearts, just like him. The name was on the tip of his tongue, but he couldn’t quite remember it. “What...what the…” he muttered. “Who...who are you?” “Oh come on, how did you forget me?” “I’m...we haven’t met before...have we?” The figure laughed, shaking his head. “Oh no, we’ve never met before. I’m just an invader from the void. Here to see if you're worth my time.” Spreading his arms out, darkness began to seep out of him. “What do you say, Nobody? Care to give daddy a hug?” “First of all, that is so wrong on so many levels! And what the Hell are you talking about? Where did you come from? I’m the only human in Equestria!” “Human? Who ever said I was human?” the figure questioned. “As for all of those other questions... let’s play a game.” Shapes began to form from the darkness, each bearing a set of red eyes. “For every one of my unversed you destroy I’ll answer one of them.” ‘Unversed...from the game? What’s going on here? This is-’ before he could finish that thought, one of the unversed launched itself at Roxas, swiping at him with its claws. Reacting on instinct, Roxas summoned his Keyblade, and swung it at the unversed, dissipating it from the world. “Very well, then, even if it was a given that you’d be able to dispatch a flood easily. What I am is the source of the unversed. If you want more than that, you’ll need to be specific.” Two more flood rushed Roxas. He used two blasts of fire to destroy them. “You’re from the game...Kingdom Hearts, right? How are you here?” “Vanitas, and yet not Vanitas, just as you both are and are not Roxas, and technically I’m from Birth by Sleep which is part of the Kingdom Hearts franchise.” The voice was smug, almost playfully so. “How about a bigger challenge for that last question?” A larger figure started to form out of the darkness seeping from Vanitas, a figure that was bottom-heavy and had thick-looking forearms. “That is one fat-” the new unversed dashed quickly, slamming its stomach right into Roxas, sending him flying into the air. He quickly recovered and landed on the ground, keyblade ready. “My sister would probably say that you deserve that for body-shaming, or something.” “Yeah, I’m the one who’s out of line here!” Roxas countered, before rushing the unversed. He swung his keyblade at the creature, only for it to bounce off of it like a trampoline. Roxas eyed his keyblade, then looked back at the unversed, while catching a smug look on Vanitas’s face. Roxas grit his teeth, and rushed the unversed again, hitting it over and over with his keyblade, only getting the same result. He tried magic, but was met with the same result. Before he could take another strike at it, it punched him straight in the gut, sending him to the ground, knocking the wind from his lungs. Vanitas tsked, disappointment dripping from his words. “If it isn’t obvious, that isn’t going to work. You’re just becoming the definition of insanity.” “Fine! You want something different!” In one fluid motion, Roxas traded in his single keyblade for his dual wielding pair, Oblivion and Oathkeeper. Roxas took a stance, and leaped into the air. He flew over the unversed, aiming to bring his keyblades down on Vanitas himself. Vanitas faded from existence, Roxas’s blades coming down on open air. He followed with his own slash across Roxas’s back. “Oh, did I touch a nerve? And here I thought you weren’t a real boy.” Roxas landed right on his fresh wound, which caused him to scream out in pain. He grit his teeth, and got back on his feet. He rushed right back at Vanitas with a flurry of successive attacks. Vanitas matched Roxas’s strikes, wielding his own keyblade. “Come on, don’t tell me that little girl is a better fighter than you?” Leaping back, magic sprung from his keyblade. Black edged lightning leapt at Roxas. Roxas raised his keyblade, forming a protective shield, but the lightning pierced straight through, hitting his body. He felt the lightning surge through him like a living conductor. A scream of pure agony erupted from his throat, before he fell to the ground. Out of his pocket, the shell he had collected fell onto the ground. “Help...please…I can't’ do this alone.” he pleaded to whoever could hear him from his strained throat. The shell glimmered softly, its light brightening by the moment. Lifting into the air, it flittered about like a pixie. It began to expand, and as it reached the size of a teenager it dropped to the ground and a short, black-haired girl stood there zipping up her black trenchcoat with all the urgency in the world as her face reddened. “I need to ask dad about a way to set a delay on my end if I need one. That was too close.” The new arrival took a glance around the area and immediately stiffened at the sight of Vanitas, the bruiser unversed, and the figure on the ground. Without wasting another second, she moved to stand over Roxas while summoning a shiny keyblade that looked like a sword with a yellow, sunlike fan for teeth. “Okay, you need to leave this world, now.” Vanitas stared down the girl, his posture relaxed. “Ah, there you are. Tell me, kid. Did you finally graduate from training bras, or are you still sub-A cup?” “That is so not your business, and I may have the mind of a med-school student but it’s sick of you to be perving on a body this young.” She took another step forward, raising her keyblade defensively. “Now leave, or we’ll tear you a new one, right, uh, Roxas until I learn your real name?” Roxas, having heard the conversation being held above, lifted his head up. “Sure...give me a sec…” He stood up, groaning. He re-summoned his keyblades, and took a combat stance next to the newcomer. Vanitas chuckled, dismissing his keyblade. “See, I was more just insulting you. I’m not the one who's playing will they-won’t they with someone who's actually their age.” Several more unversed spawned into existence. “But please, project some more.” “I assume you two know each other?” asked Roxas. “He’s an asshole that’s been killing people in my world, turning them into heartless and nobodies. Once right in front of me.” She took a long breath and glared up at Vanitas while brandishing her keyblade. “I will avenge everyone you’ve hurt. If not today, then someday.” Vanitas snorted. “Well listen to you. Getting all dramatic. Trying to impress the new guy? What would your sweetheart back home think?” Alex’s face flushed red, but before she could retort, Roxas spoke up. “You wanna shut this guy up already?” Tightening her grip on her weapon, Alex nodded. “Let’s.” Her keyblade shifted, taking a strange chitinous form. It further changed into a cross between a crossbow and a rifle. Raising it up, several streams of energy lanced out at Vanitas.Roxas sprinted, and leapt into the air, casting a gravity spell at Vanitas to keep him from moving. Unversed leapt to their creator’s defense, sacrificing themselves against the laser onslaught. One beam glanced across Vanitas’s helmet, searing away the glass faceplate. Slipping out of the gravity well, Vanitas touched the damaged portion. “A few inches more and that would have bored a hole through my face.” Material evaporated, leaving his head exposed. “It’s a good thing I don’t have to pay for those.” He grinned, yellow eyes contrasting against his otherwise normal appearance. “But this’ll cost you!” announced Roxas as he brought his keyblade right down on top of Vanitas’s head. Vanitas faded out, reappearing above Roxas. A spell charged and faded from his hand, as a beam of light tore into his side. Twisting in the air, he landed behind the remaining unversed. “Oh good, the little girl decided to be competent.” Brushing himself off, he grinned despite his smoking shoulder. “I think I’ll leave you two to your date. Doesn’t seem like you're worth the effort, Roxas.” Stepping back, he melted away into a roiling pillar of darkness. The unversed remained, guardians of the dying portal. “He’s running away?” questioned Roxas. “I mean, he just said he didn’t think you were worth it,” Alex commented, “Pretty sure that’s his reason.” “Sounds to me like he knew he was gonna lose,” said Roxas as he dematerialized his keyblade. Alex shook his head, taking a few more shots. “No, he’d have kicked both our ass’s. He just chose not too.” “Well regardless, thanks for the help,” thanked Roxas as he took a step towards Alex. “I don’t know what I would’ve done without-” but before he could finish, he fell down to one knee. He let out a gasp of pain. Finishing off the last unversed, Alex knelt by him. “Hold on a moment.” Holding her hands out, she dosed him with a casting of Cura. “There, how’s that feel? Good as new?” “Yeah!” said Roxas, feeling rejuvenated. He stood up, and stretched his arms out. “I really don’t know what would’ve happened if you showed up. But...how ARE you here? I haven’t seen another human in Equestria in the thousand years I’ve been here?” “You called me from my Equestria,” Alex explained, her face reddening again. “You’re damn lucky my coat was nearby...” Hefting her rifle over her shoulder, she poked his shoulder. “Are you human? Cause I’m human.” “Uh...yeah...I’m human. At least I’m pretty sure ,” replied Roxas. Alex shrugged. “For all I know, you could be a nobody. Figured I’d ask.” “So, there are others?” “A lot of others.” Alex’s weapon disappeared, leaving her unarmed. “I’ve only met a few though. One was a Sora and another was a Kairi. That second one was freaking surreal.” “So, are all the other humans Kingdom Hearts characters?” Shaking her head, Alex slipped her hands into her pockets. “Nah. I know a pair of sisters, one got turned into a spider-robot and the other became a psychic bug lady. We all just get turned into fictional characters. I think. Maybe.” “Huh...well, as you may have guessed, my name's Roxas,” he held out a hand to shake. “Roxas?” Alex questioned, taking his hand. “What, you decide to just complete the identity theft?” “I’m sorry?” asked Roxas, confused. Alex took her hand back, gesturing to herself. “Well, I became Xion but I’m still Alexander Lionheart. I have enough identity issues as it is, so, I’m not going around using her name. Just seems a little... tacky.” “Oh, well, my real name is…” Roxas thought back, trying to recall. That’s when it hit him. Inside Roxas’s Mind “Name, name, what do we got on a name?” questioned one of the tiny Roxas’s that made up his mind. “We threw out his NAME!” cried another. The entire metaphorical office space that was Roxas’s mind erupted into fire and chaos as the many mini Roxas’s ran around screaming. Real Life “I can’t believe it. I actually forgot my name!” “You forgot your name?” “It’s been so long since, I’ve used my real one.” Frowning, Alex nodded. “...Right. So, Roxas it is.” Clearing her throat, Alex shifted the conversation. “Watching you fight, I take it you haven’t figured out keyblade forms. I can fix that and give you drive forms.” “You can? That would be great! How do we do it?” Alex steepled her fingers, fixing Roxas with a firm look. “How do you feel about becoming clothes for a few minutes?” “What?” Roxas asked, confused. Grabbing Roxas’s arm, Alex smiled sheepishly. “Too late! Better to get it over with.” A sound akin to breaking glass reverberated throughout the clearing. Roxas’s body broke down into light, collecting around Alex’s body and solidifying into a new outfit. ‘Woah...this feels weird...like, really really weird,’ thought Roxas. “Yeah, you get used to that.” Alex looked down, observing her new clothes. Her coat had been replaced by black cargo shorts, a t-shirt and a jacket. Each bearing a flame design. “Wow, I look like a skater punk. Very 90s.” ‘What’s going on? Why am I clothes?’ “I pulled you into a drive form,” Alex explained. Her clothes glowed again, separating back into Roxas. “And now that should let you use them.” She took a step back, putting her hand up. “But uh, don’t try it on me. I’m not in the mood for it.” “Yeah, sure. So I can just do that whenever I want?” “Yeah, but you need someone else there to turn them into clothes,” Alex added. “That’s about it.” “It might not be easy finding anyone around here who’s willing to do that for me, but I appreciate what you’ve shown me! It’ll definitely come in handy!” Roxas had a smile on his face, but after a few moments, it faded. “Hey, so is there any chance of that guy coming back? I’ve got enough to deal with in Equestria without him causing more trouble.” Shaking her head, Alex smiled. “Nah, I doubt it. If he didn’t think you were worth it now, he’s not gonna change his mind. Even if he does, you have my token, so you can just call me back when you're in trouble.” “Thanks, I really appreciate your help!” Alex nodded, thumping him on the back. The better part of the afternoon was taken up by some impromptu lessons. Much of it revolved around teaching Roxas how to shift his keyblades into other forms. When he finally managed it, Alex spoke a bit about tokens. “-ember, you just find something that represents you and send it out into the void,” Alex reiterated, backdropped by the evening sky. “Okay, last lesson: Sending someone home. Just say ‘our contract is complete’ and send me back.” “I got it,” responded Roxas.”Well then Alex, our contract is complete.” “Cya ‘round.” Alex reverted back into a ball of light and slipped into the shell. Roxas looked at the shell as it lay nestled in his palm. He placed in his pocket, and turned to face Ponyville. “Well, I better get back. Wonder if anyone noticed the commotion.” With that, Roxas made his way back to town. ‘Wait, isn’t Alexander a guy’s name?’