Kingdom Hearts: The World's Reluctant Heroes

by Blackdrag-rose

Interlude: Summer's End

After making sure that Kairi was safe, and ensuring that she and Namine were able to safely split into two people thanks to one of the Replicas, Sombra found that the next few days were full of more training than what some of the others were expecting when she had suggested such a thing. Aqua and Ventus, the former a master of the Keyblade and the latter a very skilled user, were exactly what the rest of the group, those who could wield such a weapon anyway, needed to make sure they were prepared for anything that was thrown at them. Even those who didn't have the power to wield such a weapon made use of their training time by trying to master their own skills and abilities, like how Donald focused on his magic and Goofy discovered new ways to use his shield while in combat, all of which would benefit them in the future. Others, such as Kairi and Axel, spent their time focusing on how to call forth a Keyblade, as both wanted to be of assistance to the group, to not be a hindrance to Sombra's plans, and while Axel was already aiding them greatly there was more he wanted to do.

Sombra also noticed that Axel and Ventus spent some of their time chatting with each other, reminding her of the fact that they had known each other, to a degree, before the eventual clash between Ventus' friends and Master Xehanort, so this allowed them to catch up during their breaks, which was mostly Axel talking while his friend listened.

While they were doing that Axel, Seras, and Xion also continued their missions for the Organization, who had no idea that all three of them happened to be spending more time away from the castle than what was usual for a mission, but Axel had an excuse that made sense for their superiors. They were doing everything in their power to hunt down hearts and free them so they could mix with the Kingdom Hearts that Xemnas was forming, in fact whenever they departed from the castle they made sure to hunt down every Heartless in whatever world they were sent to. Once that was done they would rejoin the rest of the group aboard the Gummi Ship for a number of hours, a reasonable amount to be sure no one raised an alarm about them being gone for too long, and based on what Sombra heard their plan was working like a charm. However, she knew it was only a matter of time until Xion and Seras left the Organization, as it was all part of the plan, while Axel would remain for some time, playing the loyal member while gathering more information on what the Nobodies were doing.

From what she could tell things were happening inside the Organization, as Xemnas seemed to be changing for the better, Xigbar seemed to be losing his cool, at least every now and then, and most of the other members remained normal, but she also knew things were progressing as planned.

Sombra also spent some time watching over Roxas, often appearing on one of the roofs and observing their friend while he enjoyed the simple life that he wanted to experience for some time, and from what she could tell it looked like his new group of friends really did enjoy having him around. She had to admit that the Struggle matches were interesting, even the ones they used to train themselves for the upcoming tournament, even though Roxas did his best to avoid summoning either of his Keyblades or any of his powers, since that would be cheating and would reveal his presence to the Organization. At the same time Roxas helped the trio with their schoolwork, as it appeared that they had a paper that had to be completed and turned in once summer was over, which was really weird when Sombra thought about it, and their topic was something called the 'Seven Wonders'. Apparently they were seven strange things that happened all over Twilight Town, though when she listened to what those were, as Pence appeared to know all sorts of information about their home and the Wonders as a whole, she found herself disappointed by what they were.

Six of them were simply misunderstandings, from someone playing with some bouncy balls in a dead end alley to an echo in the underground area, from a shadow in a fountain that was just dirt to an idiot miscounting the steps in some stairs, to a dog being trapped in a bag and a 'ghost' train that didn't exist at all.

"And the 'seventh' is just a curtain of the old mansion moving in the wind." Sombra remarked, looking down at the forest as Roxas and his other friends left the area as well, after discovering the same thing that she noticed after watching over them, before she noticed that the air behind her shifted a little and chuckled a little, "I take it you finally decided what your verdict is? Or are you here for a social visit?"

"I've decided that fighting you is an impossible task." a voice said, one that Sombra easily recognized as Prexus, though the small bit of dark energy that had been put into his shadow was why she had been able to tell who had come for a visit, all while Sombra found it interesting that such a strange and unique figure would say such a thing, "However, I am still in the middle of deciding which side of the ongoing battle you are on. Are you on the Light's side, or the side of Darkness?"

"Have you considered that maybe, just maybe, the World picked me and my friends for a reason?" Sombra inquired, which was the truth, the World could have easily rejected them or could have given them lesser abilities to do the job that they had been entrusted with, but instead the World gave all three of them great abilities and let them use them however each of them wished, expecting nothing other than helping Sora out.

Prexus stared at her for a moment and wondered if that was a true statement or not, that the World actually chose what could be the embodiment of darkness, someone whose power was on part with the True Darknesses he had encountered in the past, and decided that it might be better to not know that truth right now, since the World picking it's own champion just seemed somewhat strange.

"I'll consider it. Tell me, what are you doing out here?" Prexus asked in return, because Sombra was a hard person to pin down or even understand at times, and after everything he had seen in the Darkworld he knew that if Sombra was in the middle of doing something it had to be important in some manner.

"Right now? Nothing but relaxing before I do anything else." Sombra replied, where she noticed that the figure seemed to just shift his weight like he was shocked by that information, something that caused her to chuckle for a moment as she wondered how he was going to take the fact she was about to drop on him, "Also, you can drop the act... Demyx."

"Whoa whoa whoa! You can't say stuff like that!" Prexus stated, something that surprised him, because he really wasn't expecting her to say such a thing while he was visiting her, especially since this was time spent away from the rest of the Organization, but he refused to lower his hood, in case any of the other members were watching, "Out of curiosity, how did you know?"

"This little guy, I snuck him into your shadow during our last encounter." Sombra replied, where Prexus found that a bit of his shadow came to life and split off, taking the form of a little black snake before disappearing into Sombra's shadow, as if it hadn't existed in the first place, something that caused the figure to pause as he considered what that meant, "Don't worry, he didn't corrupt you or anything... but he did emit a faint, nearly untraceable, energy signature that I had a friend of mine track down, and she told me it was connected to you in the castle that Xemnas rules from. From there I put two and two together... simple as that, really. Also, don't worry, I won't tell the others who you really are, since I'm sure no one will believe me if I tried to tell them."

Prexus looked at Sombra for a few seconds before he heard the sound of someone coming towards them, where he just vanished by quickly using a Dark Corridor that slammed shut a moment later, where Sombra found that it was none other than Fluttershy, who landed next to her with a concerned look on her face.

"Is something wrong?" Sombra asked, because she assumed that someone must have noticed that Roxas happened to be in this world, or Xemnas discovered that Seras was a mole working against the Organization, meaning they might have to step up her timetable if that was the case.

"Radiant told me that there's something powerful racing towards this world... something with Equestrian magic... and that she wanted your opinion on it." Fluttershy stated, where it was clear that she was unsure of what was going on right now and hoped that Sombra would have an answer when she had a chance to understand what the source was, and she could see that the figure was glancing towards the area beyond this world, before she frowned.

"It's not just one signature... there's a second some distance behind the first..." Sombra said, which was odd and meant that the second one had likely appeared on Radiant's radar right after she sent Fluttershy out to tell her what was going on right now, but that was when she felt something strange, "Wait... it cannot be... I'm feeling the power of the Sisters coming our way."

Sombra had no idea what was going on right now and really wanted an explanation, to which she gathered her power for a moment and warped both of them back to the Gummi Ship, where everyone was gathered in the lower area and she had Sora get them underway, as she wanted him to stop at an asteroid that was some distance from Twilight Town.

"You said it was the Sisters... as in Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, right?" Fluttershy asked, though at the same time she found that Roxas had rejoined them, as his day in the town was over and he had come back to get some rest before doing anything else, but he noticed what was going on and said nothing as the ship flew through space, "Why would they be coming our way?"

"Maybe they were sent this way by some sort of magic?" Radiant remarked, because it was the only thing that made sense to her, even though her focus back on their home planet had been to track down Sombra and convince him, now her, to turn over a new leaf, which Sombra had done with her and Fluttershy being near her most of the time.

As Sombra opened her mouth to say something they found that Sora found a decent sized area for what she wanted to do and brought the ship to a stop some distance from the asteroid, where Sombra weaved her magic into existence around it as she formed a barrier around it, giving her room to breathe and walk. With that done she made sure the Gummi Ship was out of the way but was still within teleporting distance, just in case, before warping herself over to the surface of the asteroid, focusing her attention on the direction that the magic was coming from. As she locked onto it, however, Sombra found that it wasn't the Princesses in transformed bodies coming their way, like Fluttershy and Radiant had thought after she made her statement, rather it was something else entirely, something she wasn't expecting to discover. What was on it's way towards her, at speeds that likely rivaled some of the best flyers in the modern age of their home planet, had to be an artifact of power she hadn't seen for a long time, one that helped spell her downfall back when she fought Celestia and Luna once upon a time.

Such a thing was followed by a broadsword tearing through space, where Sombra turned and weaved her magic, making sure her hooves were magically glued to the asteroid as the weapon narrowly missed her, though she grabbed it and very nearly dislocated her arm in the process as she forced it to stop. Sure, the force of which pulled her and the asteroid much closer to Twilight Town, but thanks to the time magic she had woven into what she was doing Sombra was able to stop the blade from crashing into the world it had been racing towards, while the other weapon, a battleaxe, gently came to a stop on it's own nearby. As Sombra regained herself, and used some healing magic to fix her arm, she noticed the glowing edge of the broadsword and the golden runes that were on the blade, with a sun design that she couldn't forget if she wanted to, as it was the weapon Celestia had used in their fight. In addition to that she glanced at the battleaxe and found that it was exactly like she recalled as well, an ebony black weapon with a moonlight silver edge and silver runes, with an emblem in the shape of a crescent moon on it, confirming what these weapons were.

Sombra could feel herself sweating, as these were mythical weapons, ones she had thought were mere myth before her fight with the Royal Sisters, and now both of them were here, far from home, causing her to realize that they were on their way to their respective owners.

"Solarion and Nightfell..." Sombra remarked, as these were definitely the weapons of the Royal Sisters, she recognized the pair with ease, before she felt a pulse from the two artifacts and a resonance, one coming from one direction and another that was coming from a second, causing her to realize what was going on, "Oh, I see now. I'm a waypoint on your journey to your respective owners. Here, let me lend you a hand."

In the next moment Sombra undid the magic keeping her glued to the asteroid, allowing her to move as she locked onto the magical signature of Celestia, which her unique Equestrian magic seemed to be picking up on, which was when she turned and hurled Solarion in the western direction. Such a thing caused the solar weapon to race off in the direction that Princess Celestia was in, which was interesting to think about since she wasn't expecting such a thing to happen to either of the Royal Sisters, before she straightened herself and held her hand out. For a moment Nightfell floated there before allowing her to grasp it's handle, where Sombra counted herself lucky to actually hold both weapons, before finding that the Princess of the Night was coming from another direction entirely, to the east by the looks of it. With that in mind she braced herself, locked onto the magical signature as she spun the weapon around, before shifting her grip as she sent it flying in the direction of Princess Luna, where the battleaxe rushed off without delay as well.

Sombra chuckled as she teleported back into the Gummi Ship as she undid all of the spells on the asteroid, where it was easy for her to tell that everyone was surprised by what had just happened and she said that she'd tell them later, as there was a lot of information she needed to recall before telling that story.

"Before that, Sombra, I have something to say: I told Hayner and the others that I won't be around for some time. I'm ready to get to work." Roxas said, because while the break from all of his hard work was nice, and part of him knew that he would love to just stay that way for a long time, he knew that saving the worlds from Master Xehanort was far more important than his desire to take a break.

"Very well. Then tonight we will have a special dinner... oh, that reminds me: Donald, a year's up." Sombra stated, as she had great plans for dinner tonight, now that she knew that Roxas was done with his time on Twilight Town, at least for the time being, and such a thing reminded her that it had been a year since she punished the duck for his crimes.

While the majority of the others were confused by her words, since they hadn't been here for the betrayal, Donald was overjoyed to finally be able to taste all of the delicious deserts he had been unable to eat for the last year, causing Sombra to chuckle as she got to work as she wondered how the Organization would deal with what was coming up next.

Comments

[Xalok]

"Solarion and Nightfell..." Sombra remarked, as these were definitely the weapons of the Royal Sisters, she recognized the pair with ease, before she felt a pulse from the two artifacts and a resonance, one coming from one direction and another that was coming from a second, causing her to realize what was going on, "Oh, I see now. I'm a waypoint on your journey to your respective owners. Here, let me lend you a hand."

In the next moment Sombra undid the magic keeping her glued to the asteroid, allowing her to move as she locked onto the magical signature of Celestia, which her unique Equestrian magic seemed to be picking up on, which was when she turned and hurled Solarion in the western direction. Such a thing caused the solar weapon to race off in the direction that Princess Celestia was in, which was interesting to think about since she wasn't expecting such a thing to happen to either of the Royal Sisters, before she straightened herself and held her hand out. For a moment Nightfell floated there before allowing her to grasp it's handle, where Sombra counted herself lucky to actually hold both weapons, before finding that the Princess of the Night was coming from another direction entirely, to the east by the looks of it. With that in mind she braced herself, locked onto the magical signature as she spun the weapon around, before shifting her grip as she sent it flying in the direction of Princess Luna, where the battleaxe rushed off without delay as well.

What an interesting bit of foreshadowing.

And then there is Demyx, I will not be surprise if that theory in the future is proven true.

[Hexan Tronic]

That was certainly something interesting! Okay, Prexus was who we thought he was. Now, the question is, can he pick up and play music from various series?

[Xarmar13]

I guess that Prexus has been doing what Luxu has been doing; using people as vessels over the centuries to keep watch over the events.

Also, I get the feeling that this chapter is BDR's way of telling the readers that Celestia and Luna's stories will begin with the conclusion of Flurry and Sombra's stories.

[Moonlight_Mist]

11860804
Neither will I. After all, he and Luxord were teased to have an 'ancient keyblade legacy that slumbers within' them, Luxord's somebody was all but revealed to be a part of the realm of fiction that Quadratum is in, and the Master of Masters is definitely there.