Hoo boy. It's been 20 months since I've put out a chapter.

To answer the question plaguing your minds, no, the story is not dead. I just got busy and I let writing fall to the wayside. But I'm back and I finally broke the writer's block that's been hanging over me since I last put out a chapter. I even managed to write about 10K words for the novel I'm working on over the past couple of days!

Now, let's talk some important details. I've been away for a long time now, and if I'm ever going to finish the story of Looming Darkness, I'm gonna need to actually put out content. As such, you'll probably notice that going forward the chapters I put out will likely be shorter than I used to put out. The effort it takes to write a 10K and above chapter back to back to back I think was one of the things ultimately contributing to my writer's block.

That said, my goal going forward is an absolute minimum of one chapter each month, no excuses. Ideally, I'll be able to put out more than one chapter each month, but I'm going to go with realistic expectations.

But I've wasted enough time. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: Shadow Horizons does not own Kingdom Hearts, Dragon Age, or Destiny. He only owns his own original characters and story-lines.

Chapter 10: Traces of the Past

Wednesday, November 17th 4794 P.C.

Soujourn

World-Divide

The World-Divide was, in Kairi's mind, aptly named. The canyons their party had been traveling through for the past day and a half came to a sudden end. Stretching off to either side as far as the eye could see was a massive opening in the ground. It plunged to depths where the mid-day light was swallowed by the dark below and was wide enough to swallow some of the smaller islands back on her homeworld.

Erected near the edge of the chasm was a single stone statue, carved to resemble a pouncing fox over a robed figure. Lined up perfectly behind the statue over the World-Divide were five other evenly spaced platforms. Nothing connected the platforms together and there was no sign that anything was supporting them in the air, yet there they stayed.

Their party was spread out in the area around the statue. Olette and Lara were currently circling the base of the statue, where words carved in Keyscript had been found. The two were working fairly quickly, which Kairi admitted was impressive, particularly because Heartless were throwing themselves in droves at them. Varric kept close to the statue, Bianca aimed and firing a deadly stream of arrows in a large arch toward the Heartless.

Corridors of Darkness opened up every few seconds within the canyons, keeping them pinned near the statue and the drop into the World-Divide. So far, their efforts to keep the Heartless at bay while Olette and Lara worked on finding a way across was going better than Kairi expected.

She kept to the north wall of the canyon while Drake covered the south, working together to prevent Heartless from slipping past Auryon who held the middle ground. Kairi had to admit, she was a tiny bit terrified of her.

Auryon was practically a one-woman army. Her hand cannon, the Ace of Spades, was somehow able to cause Auryon's enemies to explode in a burst of bright flame whenever she defeated them with a headshot. And with how clustered the Heartless were, a single bullet she fired was often more than enough for her to take down a cluster of four to six enemies.

Not only was she a deadly shot, but she was somehow able to produce grenades and long throwing daggers as if she were conjuring them from nowhere. Her throwing knives would vanish after wiping out an enemy and the grenades she threw split into small clusters of homing, explosive drones.

What really captured Kairi's attention were the moments when Auryon would engulf herself in golden flames and summon a flaming, golden hand cannon into existence. Each shot from her Golden Gun burned like a blast from the sun, piercing through multiple enemies at once and reducing them to glowing ash in the wind. It only lasted for a few short seconds before the flames and the gun would fade, but it was more than enough for Auryon to clear large swaths of the battlefield and buy both her and her allies breathing room.

"Remind me to not get on her bad side!" Drake shouted to Kairi. "I'd hate to be the guy that pissed her off!"

"Only two people have ever done that," Auryon said as she rolled across the ground to dodge a leaping Large Body and ended up near Kairi. "A Cabal commander named Ghaul and Uldren Sov."

"And what happened to them?" Kairi asked. Auryon looked back at her through her thick, tinted visor and remained silent for a moment.

"They won't get another chance to." Auryon fired off three shots, clearing another group of Heartless a split moment after they emerged from their Corridor. She spun away from Kairi and back to the middle ground, reloading Ace and ready for the next group.

Definitely don't want to get on her bad side. A shadow appeared below Kairi, drawing her attention up along the cliff walls. Corridors were opening above her and High Soldiers were emerging and dropping down. Reacting on instinct, she slashed upwards, and struck down the nearest Heartless as it fell at her.

She moved to step back but found her ankles bound by the sharp claws of a Neoshadow poking it's upper body out of the ground beneath her. Lightning crackled along the length of Destiny's Embrace as frustration coursed through Kairi.

"Hand's off!" She thrust her blade to the sky and brought lightning raining down around her. Two bolts blasted the Neoshadow into oblivion while the rest struck and arced through the High Soldiers above her, reducing them to crystalline hearts and dark mist. Twirling her blade, she pressed her attack and charged a trio of Soldiers and a Large Body lumbering toward her.

She vaulted over the Large Body as it swung it's meaty fist at her while the Soldiers slashed with their claws. The Large Body knocked one of the Soldiers flying as both missed Kairi, but one of the soldiers scored a lucky hit, leaving a long, yet shallow, cut down the length of her calf.

The cut was almost enough to knock her off balance midair. However, a quick spin and a twist brought her back on track as she landed behind the Heartless. Destiny's Embrace cut through the Large Body's exposed back and took it down. Before the Soldiers could fully turn to face her once more, spears of light lanced from Kairi's outstretched hand and tore them apart.

Concentrating on maintaining the physical form of the spears, Kairi spun in place and sent them sailing toward the advancing Heartless swarm. The spears rocketed past her and wove their way into the crowd. No fewer than twelve Heartless were struck down in moments before the magic faded and the spears vanished with a twinkling of golden light.

"I think we've got it!" Olette called out. "We'll need all six of us to activate the platform though, so fall back here!"

Looking over her shoulder, Kairi could see that the Keyscript at the base of the statue had lit up with a soft white glow. Strands of arcane energy had begun to swirl to life around the statue, with traces of Keyscript runes fading in and out among them.

"I think our dark friends might not agree with that plan," Drake huffed. "They're fairly determined to cut us down." The pirate was busy dueling with four Armored Soldiers at once, but he seemed almost effortless in his movements. In fact, if Kairi didn't know any better, she'd almost say that he was toying with his enemies.

In the short time she watched, he allowed one of the Heartless' blades to slip in close, nearly cutting into his side, but his blade came up and severed the heads from three of the Heartless with a single swipe. He stepped through their dissolving forms and struck at the fourth, driving his other sword through the center of it's torso.

A Neoshadow tackled him from the side as the Armored Knight vanished and pinned him to the ground. The blade in his left hand clattered away from his grasp. Growling in frustration, Drake clenched his left hand into a fist. Glowing silver runes flared to life on his glove and a blade of arcane force sprang into existence, surrounding his hand.

"Annoying bastards!" He punched upward, driving the glowing blade through the head of the Neoshadow. "I'm really starting to tire of this!" He got to his feet and pointed his other physical blade at his dropped one. To Kairi's amazement, the blade floated into the air and zoomed over to him. With a storm brewing in his eyes, Drake strode not toward the statue, but toward the Heartless horde.

With his three blades, he easily cut through each Heartless that threw themselves at him. He hacked and slashed his way through the minions of Darkness until he finally stopped and faced down the rest of the horde. Emerald-green energy flared to life around him, radiating out from his hat of all things. All Heartless within a hundred feet of him slowed to a stop as well, glowing yellow eyes fixated on the pirate.

"Flee."

The single word command sent a chill down Kairi's spine. The swirls of energy raced down Drake's body and lanced out through the Heartless that had come to a stop. A moment passed of total silence before all of the Heartless pierced by the glow turned on their heels and fled from him as if an Archdevil of the Nine Hells had joined the battlefield to face them. Those that fled ran into the others that were advancing and chaos ensued as each group struggled to pass the other.

Kairi stared, mouth wide open, at the mess Drake had unleashed. She barely registered when he ran right past her.

"That bought us time!" He shouted in her direction running as fast as he could toward Olette and Lara. "Let's get a move on before it wears off!"

"How did you do that?" Kairi exclaimed, quickly catching up to him. "I've never seen the Heartless afraid before."

"Magic hat." He grinned and pointed to his head. "Enchanted with the frightful presence of a full-grown dragon. Won't last forever though." He pointed back at the horde. Already, many of the fleeing Heartless were beginning to turn back to rejoin the charge.

"Keep moving!" Varric called out to them from the platform. "We're going to have to use this platform as a choke point." He carefully aimed Bianca and continued firing at the horde. Whether it was Varric's skill as a marksman or the fact that Bianca was a finely tuned, arrow-spewing machine, it was difficult for Kairi to tell, but the covering fire provided by her new favorite author kept the Heartless from gaining on her and Drake as they joined the others at the base of the statue.

The pair rushed past him and onto the platform at the statue's base to join Olette and Lara. Auryon arrived a moment behind them but instead spun around and fell in beside Varric. Ghost transmatted a long-barrelled, belt-fed machine gun to her hands as she took aim. The rapid thumping of heavy weapons fire filled the air as the two backed their way toward the platform.

"What do we need to do?" Kairi asked, kneeling next to Olette as she was scrambling to finish scooping up her notes and translations of Keyscript.

"See the diamond shapes on the platform?" Lara said in response as she readied her own bow and began to join Varric and Auryon in the ranged assault. Looking around, one could see six diamonds carved at even intervals around the statue. "Stand in one and whatever happens, don't leave until Olette says so or we'll have to start over."

"Start over with what?" Kairi asked. Olette tucked the last of her notes away and moved to the nearest diamond. Once both of her feet were planted within, a green light began to shine from the diamond. Next to her, Lara stepped into one of her own and was surrounded by a blue light.

"With getting across the World-Divide," Olette said as she summoned her own Keyblade to her hands.

"I get it," Drake said as he stepped into a diamond as was surrounded by a yellow light. "Typical teamwork puzzle. But this is pretty straightforward, if you ask me."

Auryon backed onto a diamond and purple light flared up beneath her. "Standing on an activation plate while swarmed by enemies. There'd better be a loot chest when we're done with all of this."

"A woman after my own heart." Drake let out a heavy laugh. "Beat back some baddies and reap some rewards."

"You know, Swashes, you remind me a little too much of Isabella." Varric backed onto his own diamond that cast an orange light around him. "You kind of look like her from the right angle, too."

"From your height?" Drake looked him up and down, "I can't say I'm surprised."

Varric scoffed. "Look at it this way, from down here everyone's ass looks the same." That earned another laugh from the group.

"Kairi." Olette's voice grabbed Kairi's attention. "We need you on the last symbol." Blood rushed to her cheeks as she realized she was the one holding up the group.

"Right, sorry." She quickly stepped onto the last diamond, red light flaring up below her.

"Heartless are closing in quick!" Ghost's voice echoed out from Auryon's helmet speaker. "Varric and my Guardian can hold off the ground troops, but I'm detecting aerial forces behind us!" Turning to look, Kairi could see several squads of Air Soldiers flying across the World-Divide straight toward them, accompanied by numerous purple, bat-like Flutterlings. As if that weren't enough, the platform beneath them began to tremble as the statue began to move.

"Is it supposed to be doing that?" Varric asked, looking with concern at Olette and Lara.

"I sure hope so," Lara said, her gaze fixated on the slow, smooth motion of the statue as it began to raise an arm. "If not, we're about to have a much bigger problem than the Heartless."

As the six of them kept the Heartless at bay with magic, arrows and bullets, the statue beneath the leaping fox drew a massive broadsword from within the folds of it's robes and turned to face the next platform floating out over the World-Divide. It slowly leveled it's weapon at the next platform, the tip of the blade aimed at the next robed figure beneath a pouncing leopard. Glittering trails of light began to dance between the two platforms, flickering back and forth until, with a final flash of almost blinding golden light a bridge of multi-colored stained glass formed. Olette let out a triumphant shout.

"The bridge is up! Let's get a move on!" she called out. "The quicker the better, cause I have no idea how long this bridge will last once we leave the platform."

None of them needed telling twice. They all turned and ran as quickly as their legs could carry them. The Heartless finally swarmed the first statue as the party crossed the halfway point of the bridge and began to spill out onto the stained glass in their pursuit. Each Heartless was jockeying for a position at the front of the pack. More than a few were shoved aside and plunged silently into the void below.

As they neared the next platform, Olette slowed down, allowing the others to pass her before she turned and aimed her Keyblade at the bridge behind them.

"Glacier!"

A orb of blue-white energy flashed from her Keyblade and raced across the bridge, frosting over the glass below. The orb detonated thirty feet in front of the Heartless, sending shards of ice and freezing mist scattering in all directions. The mist faded quickly, revealing a large block of ice that covered over the bridge and extended out past the stained glass into the open air.

"Smart thinking," Lara said with a nod of approval. "That should hold them for a few minutes."

A resounding crack filled the air as the ice blockage was split down the middle by an Invisible that had taken up the position at the head of the Heartless horde. It drew its blade back and pointed it at Olette before it charged forward, leading the others.

"It was a solid effort, but we'd best keep running." Drake pointed back toward the first statue. Following his indication, Kairi looked back and saw that the bridge closest to the statue was starting to vanish into a twinkling shower of light. The Heartless at the back of the throng were already beginning to fall into the World-Divide.

"I second that motion," Varric said, already breaking back into a sprint. "No time like the present!" The others quickly followed suit. Auryon took a moment to throw one of her knives at the back at the Invisible, but the Heartless effortlessly knocked it away with a swipe of its blade and continued it's advance.

"Light!"

"Thunder!"

A storm of light blades and lightning descended upon the Invisible and the other Heartless right behind it as Kairi and Olette lashed out with unified combined assault decimated the front lines of the horde and brought a brief halt to the others behind. Sparks were still fading from the attack by the time the pair of Wielders managed to catch up with the others and cross onto the second platform. The other four had already taken up positions in their respective sigils on the base of the platform.

As soon as all six of them were illuminated with the warm glows from the sigils underneath them, the first bridge completely vanished with a bright flash of light and the sound of shattering glass. Heartless plummeted into the void below, each clawing at one another as each of them tried to use the others to climb to safety to no avail.

"That'll show them!" Ghost said, manifesting next to Auryon in a swirl of light. "Now we can take our time crossing and catch our breath."

"Except for the part where the bridge will start to collapse while we're still on it," Varric said dryly.

"And you don't breathe, Little Light," Auryon said, playfully nudging Ghost.

Above them ,the statue finished raising its broadsword and the next bridge formed, leading to a statue of a robed figure with a snake coiled around its shoulders. The six of them quickly examined the air around them. The collapse of the bridge seemed to mark the end of the Heartless horde, as not a single denizen of Darkness could be found in sight.

Over the next several minutes, the party activated the statues one by one, from Snake statue to the Bear, and from the Bear to the Unicorn. They were just about to cross from the Unicorn platform to the bridge that connected to the statue of a robed figure with no animal companion carved with it, when Lara motioned for them to stop.

"Do you hear that?"

They all remained still for a moment, listening intently. After a moment, Kairi began to hear a faint sound that vaguely sounded like a train chugging along.

"What's a train doing all the way out here?" Olette asked.

"What's a train?" Drake and Varric asked in unison.

"That's just it," Lara said, ignoring the pair and turning instead to the others who understood the concept of a locomotive method of travel. "Ever since I came to Refuge, all anyone has ever had to say was that no one had ever been across the World-Divide in several years until Varric's friend was spotted on the side we're headed to."

"So basically, we're in trouble?" Ghost said, looking straight up into the air. Following the gaze of the little drone, they all turned their attention skyward.

Descending toward them at a steep angle was a steam locomotive, dominantly red with accents of black and purple flames across the body. The Heartless emblem was emblazoned across the front and glowing yellow lights were set into where the lights at the front would be. Poking its head out of the cab was a Shadow with a railway engineer's hat on. Four Shadows in overalls hung from the sides of the engine, producing railroad tracks from nowhere and working in unison to constantly place down more track in mid-air for the engine to run on. Green flames and black smoke belched out of the smokestack as the Hellfire Engine Heartless descended upon them.

"You have got to be kidding me," Olette said. The front of the Heartless emblem opened up and a column of green flame lanced out at the party as the Hellfire Engine drew ever closer. She summoned a new Keyblade to her hand, one with teeth made from raven feathers and a blade crafted from obsidian.

"You guys run for the other side, we've got this one!" Kairi shouted.

"If this is what a train is, then I hate it!" Varric shouted as he took off.

Auryon clapped Kairi on the shoulder. "I'll give you two covering fire. My rifles will be of more help than their bows."

Kairi nodded in thanks and the Guardian took off, following the others to solid ground. The Hellfire Engine sounded less like a train as it drew nearer, and more like a screaming machine of death from the depths of oblivion come to claim their souls. It came dangerously close to crashing into the bridge as it tried to run over Kairi and Olette. The two dove to the sides and leapt off of the bridge to dodge the attack.

Calling upon the power of fairy dust, Kairi caught herself a few feet down into her drop as the Hellfire Engine shot past and began to circle around for another attack. A moment of panic clutched at Kairi's heart as she realized that Olette didn't have fairy dust.

Whirling around, she was about to call out for her friend when a shadow passed over her head. Looking up, Kairi caught sight of Olette in flight. Metallic raven feathers covered her arms and ended in a pair of sharp claws on either hand.

"Like it?" Olette asked, as she flew down next to Kairi. "Keyblade transformations! It's amazing what these weapons can do!" Kairi let out a sigh of relief.

"You're going to have to teach me how to transform my Keyblade," she said. "But first, we should deal with our new friend." Olette nodded in agreement.

The two charged the Heartless as it curved back around, rolling around mid-air to dodge it's green flame blast. They struck at the sides of the engine as it passed, only for their Keyblades to bounce off it's thick plating. Fire and thunder magic proved equally useless against it as the two hammered it with their strongest spells.

"This thing sure can take a beating," Kairi said, her tone punctuated with gasps for air as she felt her magic reserves dipping low.

"Doesn't help that it's going so fast we only get a couple strikes in before it's gone again," Olette said, flapping up next to her. "I think we've got to slow it down somehow."

"But how?"

An answer to Kairi's question came in the form of a sniper bullet that took out one of the Shadows placing down the track that kept the Hellfire Engine in the air. A second and third shot followed a heartbeat later, taking out one more and nearly knocking a third one off of the engine. Over on the solid side of the World-Divide, Auryon was down on one knee with a sniper rifle aimed carefully in the direction of the Heartless, delivering on her promise for covering fire. The Hellfire Engine was already coming around for its next attack at a slower pace than before, with only five Shadows working now to place down track now.

"That'll work," the pair said in unison before readying their weapons and diving at the Heartless. They struck at the Shadows as they passed this time. Each blow took one out at a time until the Hellfire Engine came to a complete, precarious halt in the air. It dangled off the final track a Shadow had managed to lay down before Kairi had struck it down, slowly teetering back and forth. Inside the cab, the engineer Shadow frantically darted back and forth.

Grinning triumphantly, the two girls flew to the back side of the Heartless and aimed their Keyblades beneath the raised end. A tornado of wind magic flared into existence for a brief moment as they both pumped the last of their reserves for a final blow. The Hellfire Engine tipped upwards, slipping quickly off the track. It plummeted nose-first into the void below, where it exploded into a burst of green flame shortly before fading from sight.

-LD-

Two hours after their clash with the Hellfire Engine, the party found themselves emerging from a narrow tunnel that had led to the World-Divide into a massive cavern over a mile in length at its widest point that had been exposed to the world above by a hole in the ceiling half a mile wide. Smaller holes dotted what remained of the rocky ceiling, causing shafts of afternoon light to spill down into the dimly lit chamber. Plant life grew in abundance where the light shone through, but everywhere else was dead as stone.

A few ruined buildings could be seen just on the outskirts of the pile of rubble that was once part of the ceiling. Giant chunks of stone had fallen on this ancient town at the heart of the cavern and crushed most of the structures. The ones furthest away from the rubble seemed mostly intact, though some still bore damage. Others were barely standing.

And beneath the second largest hole in the ceiling, easily a quarter mile across, was no plant life like there was elsewhere. But instead, the light shone upon a graveyard of rusted, ancient Keyblades.

"I don't see any exits to this cavern except for up in the ceiling," Ghost said after a long silence as the group took in the view. "Varric, unless Hawke and his companions can fly, this is as far as they could go if they followed the same paths we did."

"Then I guess we'd better start looking," Varric said. "And hope they're still alive." He hefted Bianca over his shoulder and made his way down a path toward the city.

"We'll cover more ground if we split up," Auryon said. She turned and instead of following the path Varric did, opted to instead move along the curved walls of the cavern, using a natural slope to gain a higher ground. "Send a signal if you find anything or need backup."

"I suppose I'll keep Varric company," Drake said with a grin. "He'll need someone with a higher perspective of things."

"I heard that!"

Smiling, Kairi turned toward Olette. "You and Lara stick together. Since you understand Keyscript, you'll be of more use in exploring with her than I will."

"What about you?" Lara asked. Kairi pointed at the ancient Keyblades in response.

"I'm going to start there, I'll send up a spell if I find anything."

"Good luck. We're all going to need it, I think," Olette said, giving Kairi a quick hug. She and Lara split off and headed for the heart of the ruined city, both already excitedly discussing the possibilities of what they might find. Kairi waved them off until they were out of sight, before allowing the smile to slip from her face. In its place, her mouth formed a hard line as she approached the graveyard.

Hundreds of Keyblades rested here. No more Light to power them through the hearts of their masters. Countless years having drained all color and unique stylings from the once vibrant weapons. How many lives were claimed by the Keyblade War? Kairi couldn't help but wonder as she stared at the monument to pain and loss before her.

"What drove you all to fight?" She asked softly. The only response the Keyblades offered was the gentle clinking of their keychains in the afternoon breeze. The sound was dull, and muffled. A fitting match to how the weapons looked. "What was the point of fighting each other like that?"

"Now that's the big question, isn't it?"

Kairi whirled around as a new voice spoke up from behind her, Destiny's Embrace flashing into existence as a Corridor of Darkness opened up. Emerging from it was a figure in a black coat, hood pulled low to hide his face. He didn't seem concerned about her battle-readiness. Instead, he just waved a hand at the Keyblades.

"Some say the War was because some people wanted the Light for themselves. Others because Darkness and Light must always clash. But no one really knows for certain. Only one person claimed to be close, but he's been gone a very long time." The cloaked figure turned toward Kairi.

"Gotta say, I wasn't expecting to run into anyone out here. Least of all a pure Light who only just learned how to use a Keyblade."

Kairi narrowed her eyes. "I find that hard to believe. And so what if I'm still new to using a Keyblade? I'm not alone here, and I'm sure my friends and I can take you."

The man waved a hand across his hooded face. "As if. Your allies are scattered all around this cavern. It would take them a bit to get here."

"What do you want, Organization?" Kairi said. She was tense, muscles shaking as she tightened her grip on her Keyblade. Sora had always talked about how strong the Organization members were. Was this guy on their level?

"I want what I've always wanted," the man said, drawing back his hood to reveal a scarred, angular face. Xigbar grinned down at Kairi with sharp teeth. "But for now, I'm much more interested in seeing if you're fit to be one of the Seven." His arrowguns flashed into existence and before Kairi could react, he had already taken aim and fired his first shot at her.

-LD-

You know what I realized while formatting this chapter on FF? Since I released chapter 9, Kingdom Hearts 3 was released, as well as RE:Mind. Crazy how time flies.

Thanks to you all for your patience in waiting for this new chapter. I hope it's to your satisfaction, or at the very least, leaves you ready for more. I'm already well underway on chapter 11 'Installation 04' and I'm pretty stoked about getting my writing groove back.

Until next time!

-Shadow Horizons-