Disclaimer: I do not own the Kingdom Hearts franchise or any of Square-Enix's or Disney's characters. All properties are owned by their respective owners. Also, the original character Tolea is being used with the permission of the authoress Tolea, the character's creator.
Chapter 4
"What are the readings now?" Xehanort asked Ienzo as they made their way through one of the small forests on the outskirts of the Radiant Garden. Now that the mouse king had left and Ansem had been dealt with, he and his assistants we're free to conduct their research on the Heartless as they pleased.
The younger man pushed a few strands of silver hair out of his eyes. Despite Braig saying it was an emo haircut, Ienzo was rather pleased with how it looked. At least he didn't wear his greying hair in a ponytail like some kind of ancient surfer dude. He realised that he hadn't answered the question, and quickly corrected his mistake. "The subject appears to be stabilizing. I expect the metamorphosis to be complete within the next 2 hours. I must thank you, Ansem, for allowing me to conduct this experiment." Ienzo said, being careful to use Xehanort's "chosen" name of Ansem.
"I'll admit, I was uncertain about moving our research in this direction, but because of your success with the Palazzo subject, I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt." Xehanort told him. It was true that Ienzo was a brilliant scientist, but it was Xehanort who had created the Heartless that they now studied, so he was clearly the greater genius.
They arrived at the test point shortly thereafter, where two of Xehanort's other associates named Even and Braig we're monitoring various readings from what appeared to be a mutated tree: its branches were bare even though it was the middle of summer and its trunk was twisted and gnarled. The tree's bark a been dyed pitch black, and thought he wasn't certain, Xehanort would bet good munny it was an after effect of infusing a multitude of Heartless into it.
"Hey, still got those bugs crawling in your skin?" Braig ask Ienzo in his thick accent.
"I don't know; do you still have sand up you vagina?" Ienzo shot back.
"Gentlemen, please." Xehanort interrupted before the two of them went to blows, at the rate they got into fights, it was only a matter of time before someone lost an eye. "Even, can you confirm the status of subject X?"
"Its transformation is approximately 95 percent completed, though it's turning into a Heartless that's vastly different from both the Purebloods and Emblems. I'm not sure this creature could be considered a Heartless in the traditional sense, brainwave activity suggests it has achieved sentient thought and is not governed by pure instinct." Even answered.
"No surprise, this is not a typical Heartless born from a human heart." Ienzo explained. He understood the experiment better than anyone, it was his idea. "All living things have hearts and therefore the potential to become Heartless. Being able to turn a plant into a Heartless has proven difficult, but possible."
"Wasteful is more like it. We had to infuse over 100 Neoshadows into this over sized log to initiate the process, and all we have to show for it is a funny looking tree." Braig argued.
"A funny looking tree that has over 10 times more power than any Heartless we've created to date! Do not think me a simpleton Braig, I—" Ienzo's rant was interrupted as a warning light went off on one of the monitors. "What's happening?"
"Subject X is giving off a massive amount of energy. I think it's safe to say its transformation is nigh complete." Even reported as he adjusted the equipment for this influx new data.
"Put up a containment field." Xehanort ordered, knowing that with the energy the tree was emitting an explosion was inevitable. "Now," he turned to Ienzo once the area around the tree was covered by a sky blue coloured field "let's see the fruits of your experiment."
An eerie black light began to emit from the tree as it began to take human shape: it shrunk and its branches melded together into hands while the roots clumped together to form feet and legs. Xehanort was so mesmerized by the plant's metamorphosis that he almost didn't notice the containment field beginning to collapse inward. "Shit." Xehanort muttered as he took a quick look at the screen: the creature was literally drawing the field towards it and wrapping around itself as a form of armour. "Everyone down!" he ordered, just as the field became skin tight around the creature and with a mighty roar a huge explosion erupted, knocking the four scientists to the ground.
Xehanort watched Ienzo get up and walk towards the crater where the tree had stood. The young man was fearless, always ready to push the envelope, and though he'd never say it to his face, Xehanort respected him for that. Quickly ordering Even and Braig to gather up the damaged equipment, he stood beside Ienzo at the edge of the crater, looking at the creature inside. "Well done, the experiment is a success." he congratulated the young man.
In the centre of the crater what looked like a knight in sky blue armour was kneeling. His helmeted head turned from one covered hand to another, before he looked up the two men standing before him. "Greetings subject X." the man with hair covering an eye said.
The blue knight thought it over: X…No, not X "I am he who exceeds death itself." The armoured man stated as roots shot out of the ground and melded together in a staff that would focus the magical power he felt flowing through him. He stood at full height and raised the staff to the sky "I…AM…X-DEATH!"
Riku screamed and bolted upright, summoning the Way to the Dawn and thrusting it at the first person he saw: Sora. The blade stopped just short of piercing his throat before Riku snapped back to reality. "Sora, but…I was…" he quickly dismissed his Keyblade and sat back in his seat. "I had a nightmare." He offered in explanation, the chuckled at how lame it sounded.
Sora nodded, as did Goofy and Kairi sitting in their seats. "It's all right. Must have been a doozy of a nightmare." Sora said, deciding not to press the matter. Seeming to completely forget about what had just happened; he smiled and added "Just wanted to let you know we're almost there, Sleeping Beauty."
"Thanks." Riku told him, but his mind kept drifting back to the dream. It so vivid, like he was recounting a memory, and since the dream was from Xehanort's perspective, he had a feeling the memory wasn't his. "Did Xehanort's Heartless leave more then just the power of darkness in me?" Riku wondered. Maybe that would explain why he felt he had known Kuja when he had first heard the name. But that raised the question of what was the connection between Xehanort and Kuja?
"Hey, you o.k.?" Kairi asked, shaking Riku from his thoughts. While she was just as surprised as everyone about Riku's outburst, they all knew it was accident, but Riku would naturally feel guilty about it, and she didn't want that. When he nodded, she smiled and then leaned up to the front of the cockpit between Donald and Sora. "I'm surprised there aren't Heartless ships on this route."
"I'm surprised the route was already cleared and opened." Sora answered her. In all his travels, he'd always had to fight his way to the different worlds, and the chance of an empty route seemed like the chance he'd win the lottery and get struck by lightning on the same day.
"Someone must have come through the route before us and cleaned out the Heartless." Donald rationalized.
"Probably Tifa. If any one could do it, it'd be her, hyuck." Goofy added.
"I'll take your word for." Kairi told him, before looking back out the cockpit and seeing the world floating in the distance. "Is that it?" she asked.
The world in question was unusual in appearance: the northern hemisphere was dominated by a very large crater while the southern part was filled by a giant city. "I've never seen world like this before." Sora said. "But I've never meet people like Cloud and Tifa before either. Guess this is the place."
"Then let's get going." said Riku.
On the planet's surface, a man listened to the radio intently as he circled the Northern Crater in a helicopter. He had unkempt red hair that ended in a long ponytail, and a pair of goggles were always on his forehead. A pair of symmetrical red tattoos adorned his cheekbones, and he was dressed in a dark business suit, though the jacket was unzipped and the dress shirt untucked. At the moment the man was bored out of his skull as he waited for his fellow Turks to finish their mission.
"Tseng! Look at this." a female voice came in over the radio.
"Paydirt." the man named Tseng responded deep within the crater.
"Not a pretty sight is it?" the woman asked her companion.
"Who cares?!" the red head in the helicopter snapped. "Just get the damn thing."
"Reno, the chopper." Tseng ordered from inside the crater.
"You got it." Reno, the red headed helicopter pilot responded as he guided the craft into the large cave.
He landed before two people: Tseng, the leader of Shinra's elite force the Turks was a young man with long black hair and an impeccable business suit and Elena, a blonde haired woman who was also the Turks youngest member. Reno got up and stretched, sitting in a pilot's chair just flying around was hard work, wheatear Tseng said so or not, and opened the side door. "Any sign of the One-Winged Angel and the rest of the bishonen club?"
"No, and a good thing too; I'm not in the mood to spend another 8 months in hospital with everyone thinking I'm dead." Tseng stated coldly remembering his last encounter with the general.
Elena beamed as she always did upon the completion of a successful mission and held up a small black box "The important thing is that we got Jenova's head."
"Did you now? How nice, they've gone saved us the trouble Zemus." a mysterious voice announced as pair of knights, one in light blue armour in the other in dark blue, walked onto the ledge at the edge of the crater.
"Indeed X-Death. Sephiroth will be most pleased with you three. Who knows; perhaps he'll thank you with the peace of death." Zemus told the three Turks, seeming to speak to their minds. "Now, if you'll be so kind as to give us that box."
"Not a chance." Reno told the two knights. "Guys," he told Elena and Tseng "party's over. Chopper. Now."
"Oh, but the festivities have barely begun." X-Death mocked as he tapped his wooden staff against the ground. Seconds later the Turks found themselves surrounded by a small army Death Claw Heartless. The grey coloured creatures were about 10 feet tall and stood on massive legs, large sharp spikes protruding from their sides before curving forward towards a large head filled very sharp teeth. The creatures' most striking feature, though, has the large emblem of a crossed out heart on their chests
Elena griped the box closer to her person before she reached for her gun, but Tseng shook his head. No, this was not a fight they'd win by strength, they'd have to keep level heads and use their wits. Too bad no one gave Reno the memo. "Guys, let's go!" he shouted loud enough to probably stir Hojo, Heidigger, and Scarlet from the grave. "I don't know about you two, but I'm not in the mood to take on Sephiroth at the moment!"
"Reno, enough." Tseng chided as he and Elena started backing up towards the helicopter while the Death Claws inched menacingly closer.
"You're not going anywhere." Zemus stated, and with a wave of his hand a dozen Wyvern Heartless blocked the path between the Turks and freedom. Beneath his helmet Zemus smiled as watched the Tseng and Elena continue to back away. "It's useless at this point, give up."
"Oh, I don't know about that." Tseng said as Elena leapt back while he pulled out a flash-bang grenade which was promptly tossed straight in the air before he jumped on the helicopter. The grenade exploded with a blinding light and deafening sound, incapacitating the Heartless as the helicopter lifted off and soared out of the northern crater.
Zemus and X-Death stood motionless as the Turks made their escape. "There goes our mouse," Zemus told X-Death through the psychic link he shared with all of his comrades. "Now let's see if the cat takes the bait."
"Was that your idea of a joke?" the silver haired man coming up behind them asked; Sephiroth, The One-Winged Angel. Without giving either man had chance to speak the thrust his Masamune forward, straight at X-Death, stopping short of impaling him through the heart, as if it would do him any good. "Please, humour me: you're going to help me revive Mother how?"
"To start, the Wyverns are chasing after the helicopter with Jenova's head, but whether they succeed is irrelevant." Zemus explained, his tone unwavering despite everything that had happened. "This is only a minor setback."
"A minor setback?!" Sephiroth spat. "They just took off with Mother's head. You said so yourselves that we needed that to revive her."
"No, we said we need a Jenova fragment of good size." X-Death corrected, being sure to pick his words so as they would not incur the former general's wrath. "Since we lost that piece, we will need several pieces equivalent to it. Correct me if I'm wrong, but those infected with Geostigma contain minute amounts of her essence?"
Sephiroth returned the Masamune to his belt and contemplated the possibility. "Can it be done?' he asked at length.
"It will be difficult, but possible." X-Death replied as he tapped his staff against the stone floor, willing the Heartless to disappear. "We can begin as soon as you're ready."
"Fine, I'll meet with my brothers and collect those afflicted. You two wait here with your minions." Sephiroth ordered as he turned and faced south focusing the image of Midgar in his mind.
"You don't trust us?" Zemus asked.
"No." and with that statement Sephiroth disappeared in sphere of darkness, leaving Zemus and X-death smirking beneath their helmets.
Sora and the others stood on a cliff, a huge city standing in the distant. It seemed to be divided in to two parts: a lower level along the ground like a normal city or town and a higher level suspended in the air by large support columns, though Sora could not see them from where he stood. The other striking features of the city were a large tower rising from the upper city and what appeared to be a very large cannon attached to it, pointing straight north. He and Riku had traveled the worlds and seen many wondrous things, but the city was definitely number one. Only one word could sum up their feelings, and they said it simultaneously: "Wow."
"Yeah it is pretty amazing, but I bet it would be even better if things weren't in this state." Kairi said as she looked around the desolate landscape. It was true the city was a sight to behold, but even from where the five stood it was clear that it had seen better days; the upper city was scorched and cracked, and the land around the city was barren of all life.
"Yeah, I wonder what happened?" Riku responded.
"Were not going to find out by standing around gawking," Donald told the three. "I'm sure Cloud and Tifa can tell us all about when we see them."
"Guess the best place to start would be the city. Let's head over there and…" Goofy started, pausing when he heard something from under the cliff. He ran to the edge and looked under the cliff but saw nothing. He got up scratched his head, "Coulda sworn I heard something."
As soon as the words were out of his mouth something jumped straight up from under the cliff. Goofy took out his shield just in time to block the creature's downward slash. Goofy felt the force of the blow travel right into his body, but still found the strength to push the creature off him, only for it to make a single spin in the air and land on its feet.
Now Goofy got his first good look at his enemy: he stood about as tall as a grown man and was dressed in a dark blue military uniform that was similar to Cloud's when Sora, Donald, and Goofy had first met him, except that armoured plates covered both his shoulders and he wore a helmet concealing his head as well as gauntlets on both his hands, all the colour of polished steel. A band of armour wove around the chest, the crossed out heart emblazed upon it leaving no doubt that this was a Heartless, though the black skin on the creature's exposed arms was defiantly a hint. The Heartless' weapon was a large, conical, almost lance like sword, which the Heartless moved into a ready stance, only to be rewarded by being hit with a thunderbolt, dropping it to its knees.
"How's that for welcoming committee?" Donald asked as Sora, Riku and Kairi summoned their Keyblades. "What's next; a fruit basket?" Unfortunately, Donald's rant only seemed to draw forth more of the Heartless, as four more warriors stood beside the kneeling one, who pushed himself back to his feet. "Me and my big mouth." Donald muttered.
The Heartless brought their swords up to their shoulders and put their weight on their back leg. Sora, Donald and Goofy recognized the technique immediately and prepared to defend themselves. "Get ready to guard when they rush forward." Sora told Riku and Kairi, and they nodded in understanding.
Less than five second after the warning the Heartless rushed forward using the Sonic Blade technique. Being fully prepared for the attack Sora, Donald and Goofy blocked the first strike against them and knocked the Heartless back before dispatching them. Riku was less prepared then them but his experience still allowed him to lock blades with one of the Heartless before pushing him off and dissecting him with his Keyblade. Kairi, however mistimed her guard and only managed to redirect her attacker. She felt the edge of his sword dig into her upper arm and yelped slightly in pain as her foe gilded past her and then redirected himself for a follow up attack. As he rushed at Kairi again only one thought entered her mind, "I won't allow myself to be helpless again!" With perfect timing she blocked the Heartless' blade and knocked it aside before she thrust her Keyblade straight through the monster's chest and it promptly disintegrated into black nothingness, a glowing heart floating away from its remains.
Kairi sat down; breathing heavily as she absentmindedly ran a hand over her cut. Not bad for her first taste of solo combat, her first time defeating a real enemy without Sora or Riku's help. Even if was only a single enemy, it was still an accomplishment, and she couldn't but feel a little proud. She felt a tingle on her skin and watched her cut disappear thanks to Sora's Cure magic. The young Keybearer offered her a hand which she gladly accepted once she had wiped off the small amount of blood on her fingers. "Well," she said once she was back on her feet, "that was a good warm up."
Before Sora could flash one of his grins, portals of darkness surrounded the five friends and they found themselves in the middle of a group of 20 Heartless just like the ones they had defeated. "They just won't give us a break, will they?!" Sora said as he quickly brought Fenrir back to his hand as the Heartless prepared to attack.
The attack never came, as two blurs of colour; one red and the other red-orange, rushed past Sora, and a dozen Heartless were vanquished in an instant, though no one could see what hit them. The two blurs the launched in different directions and Sora did his best to follow them: the red blur was followed by the sound of gunshots, gaping holes appearing in the Heartless before the vanished, while the red-orange blur seemed to rip the Heartless apart with unfathomable speed and strength.
In a twinkling it was over, and the blurs came to rest in front of Sora and the others as the last of the Heartless dissolved into oblivion. Sora noticed the man first, or more specifically his gold, claw like gauntlet and red cape, just like what Cloud had worn when he'd first met him. But this man was certainly not Cloud: his slightly taller stature, long, unkempt black hair, and tri-barrelled gun in his uncovered hand made certain of that, even though Sora could not see his face. The red-orange blur turned out to be a lion like creature the colour of flames, golden bracelets around his ankles and a scar that crossed out one eye. "The SOLDIERs keep moving closer to Edge. What do think they're after?" The cloaked man asked the beast, ignoring the five gawking figures behind them.
"Hey, who are you guys?" Sora asked the man once he had gathered his wits. "And where's Cloud?"
The man in the red cloak turned around, revealing a pale face that was partially covered by his cloak's buckles. His most striking feature, though, were his eyes: deep red, like blood. The man regarded the five: a boy with spiky brown hair with a giant duck and dog, a girl with red hair and a pink outfit. His eyes finally came to rest on the silvered haired boy, and an almost unnoticeable amount of fear entered his eyes. He took a green stone out of a hidden pocket, exactly like the one Sora used to open the path to this world, and said a single word: "Sleep." A bright light erupted from the stone, and that was exactly what Sora and his friends did.
In the city of Edge, a young woman worked on the engine of her airship while she listened to her favourite music. It was her passion for machines that had, at one time, made her Shinra's best pilot, and she was to fly to the stars. "But dreams end up dying painful deaths in Midgar." she thought as she tightened a bolt with her giant wrench before tightening the ponytail that kept her long purple hair in check. She closed the service panel to the engine and took out a once white rag from her black belt and wiped the oil off her hands. She was pleased with how her Shera had turned out, but the airship wasn't capable of space flight. "And Tifa totalled the only Gummi blocks I had when she came back." She smiled as she remembered her friend's crash landing return to Midgar. "I spent over a month teaching her how to fly, and she still couldn't get it." She giggled a little, remembering a soot covered Tifa climbing out of the wrecked Gummi ship.
She looked up from her airship at a computer at the corner of the hanger and noticed a blinking green light. "That's odd," she thought as she put her wrench in the holster on the back of her black shirt and jumped to the floor below, "I don't have any programs running, and we don't E-mail each other since we have the PHS."
She made her way over to the computer and clicked on the dot. A map of Midgar, Edge, and the surrounding area came up. The woman's shining yellow eyes searched the map and came to rest on a small green dot moving towards Edge. The dot was marked Fenrir.
"Cloud, you little…Tifa is going to rip your balls off when you get back." The woman said aloud, though she was smiling. She took out her PHS and hit the auto-dial for Tifa; she had to be the first know that Cloud had finally come back.
A/N: Three FF villains, Vincent and Red XIII, and this story's first (and likely only) OC, and this is the single longest chapter I've ever written. That's a lot of milestones there, and I'm very happy. Also, you'll notice I added a "World Marker" in the summary, so anyone jumping on now knows where Sora is. As far as notes go, the Death Claw Heartless are based on the Final Fantasy monster of the same name, and the SOLDIER Heartless are based of the enemies in FFVII of the same name (specifically the 1st class SOLDIERS on the route to Hojo). Also, if anyone's wondering why they knew Braver (the attack used on Goofy at the start of the battle) and Sonic Blade, I always figured there were certain techniques all 1st class SOLDIERs knew, and since Cloud believed he one, he knew those techniques as well. Also, since I'm a Turks fan, I decided to break from the movie and have all of them active. Also, in case anyone was wondering, Tseng's comment about people thinking he's dead is a reference to a translation error in the PS version of FFVII that lead many fans to believe Sephiroth killed him in the Temple of the Ancients when he was really only wounded. I know I thought he was dead until Advent Children, I was all "WTF?!" when it turned out he was alive. BTW, I called the cell phones the AVALACHE members used in Advent Children PHS, but does anyone know what they're actually called? If do, let me know, please and thank you. Last, but certainly not least, a thanks and response to my reviewers: CSOmega (glad you liked last chapter. Tidus and Wakka in KH are not the same as their FFX counterparts, so they don't know about Seymour, Sin, Yuna, etc. but the probably will all meet up in this story hint, hint.), Mysteries Boy Wonder Robin (Also glad you enjoyed this. I do have some knew weapons and limits planed, but probably no knew forms.), kittylover1890 (Glad you like the concept. You made a lot of predictions, so all I can say is keep reading to see if you're right, and don't forget that the FF villains are in those worlds too. See if you can figure whose where.), and a special thanks to Tolea for giving me permission to use her OC of the same name (for the record, I beat FFI with a warrior named Squall, a monk named Vegeta I'm DBZ fan, sue me, a white mage named Aerith, and a black mage named Vivi). If you ever want to add any details to her, PM me, and I'll PM you if I come up with any ideas. I hope to see all next chapters, because here's what you can expect: Cloud vs. the Silver Haired Men! Sora and company vs. the Turks! Cait Sith vs. Gilgamesh!…who the hell is Gilgamesh?!(A no-prize to anyone who already knows). Come back next chapter to find out!