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​

Kaida looked thrown off when he mentioned Seiza's name. Her eyes visibly widened as she looked at Beuce and her face softened as she asked, "How... did you know that?"
"I met him in the library at Central Haven. I heard you talking and he told me about what happened. I didn't put the two together until just now, though."

Kaida nodded just slightly before rubbing the back of her neck and going, "Yeah... it was him. I... I know he tries to tell me it's okay. Because mistakes happen and I was young, but a day doesn't go by where I wonder, what if I was more disciplined and thought things through before doing them?" Kaida summoned out Whittling Promises again and just twirled it in her hand to keep her hands doing something, "Why do I deserve something like the keyblade when I can put people in pain like that? Seiza can't travel to see the worlds like he always dreamed... and I ruined it."

Beuce muttered something to himself, as though thinking something over before returning his gaze to Kaida. His expression was a surprising one. It wasn't pity or anything of the kind. It was confidence. "Don't worry. I've got a plan for that. I was going to do it myself, but instead...Why don't you come along?"

Kaida blinked in confusion and tilted her head with an eyebrow raised, "What now?"

Reaching into his pocket far deeper than one would think physically possible, he pulled out a sizeable tome with the symbol for the elements on it. "Know what this is?"

Kaida reached out and took the tome from him to look it over, trying to figure it out for a moment before her face turned to slight annoyance, "Out of all the things you could steal from Central Haven, you took a heavily decorated book? I mean, I know you seem to be into art and stuff but I think there were a few more important things there..."

"Look this was before the attack even happened." He sighed. "Anyway miss oh why would you take this piece of shit. I think you'll find this to be a very useful thing." He said waving he hands in a mocking fashion, trying to imitate her voice. He flipped through the pages on various sections regarding elemental magic. There was an explanation of the tiers of magic, elemental oppositions, and general magic theory. Finally, he reached what he brought the book out for. "The elemental guardians. Supposedly, the absolute highest form of magic can't be attained through normal means like others. Instead, they're guarded by a protector. One for each element, hidden throughout the worlds. Find them, challenge them, and defeat them to win your prize. The strongest magic to exist of that element. Light magic is generally some form of healing, so if there were ever to be anything capable of helping him, it'd be what the guardian of light is protecting."

​

Kaida quietly pondered his responses, mostly to her question about everyone else's tests, since the first question seemed to pass without really having to go back there. She shifted a bit, trying to find a better position to stand since her feet felt sore, and just finding another place to put pressure overall felt the most ideal. Kaida got herself in a comfortable spot and thought for a moment on the last one before sighing, "I... was really close to not making it out of mine..."

Kaida turned towards him and held out her hands out defensively and said, "I won't monologue too long about it but, the entire time I was just.... being followed by this dark vision of myself. And... she kept telling me to give up. And she kept making me feel guilty for some... well, horrible things I'd done. And a part of me almost didn't let go and let myself lose..." Kaida crossed her arms a bit and looked over in the direction of Karina and said, "I... feel slightly bad for getting on her case, when there was a very likely chance I could have not let go of my past either." she shrugged it out a little and said, "If I waited a minute longer, I might be crying on the ground too."

Kaida took a deep breath before shifting her hair and asking, "How... would you react if you were the one responsible... for ruining your friend's life. Where, they couldn't follow their dreams anymore, but you still could follow yours, almost at the expense of your friend..."

​

Kaida listened to him explain the arm and what was on it, pretty fascinated overall with what she was learning. She didn't really bring up questions so she couldn't understand all of it, but she got the general idea of it pretty well. And he seemed okay with talking about it, albeit sounding a tad awkward. But it didn't seem forced at all. If he hadn't mentioned how the glass wasn't fragile before he did the hard wack, she probably would have panicked slightly. She listened to the ring and enjoyed it's slightly melodic hum.

When he was done, she scratched the back of her head and said, "Does that feel like a big weight to you at all? Ya know, having the souls of your entire race with you? When I think of it like that, I dunno... I guess that would give me a bit of anxiety... also..." Kaida's hand dropped down to her side and she tilted her head and asked, "You... were gone for months? I... I thought everything happened like, in a day. A very sped up and confusing day. With a lot of stuff going on. But, for me it felt like it all happened in a day." she actually looked very concerned and looked towards the direction where everyone's doors would have been and Kaida asked, "If it was months, does that mean it might take some of them longer to get back?" she sounded slightly worried, though she wasn't fully sure how time worked anymore in this place, so it could be a minute for them and months for the others all she knew. Then Kaida kind of asked quietly, "Is... anyone else gonna end up failing it like Karina?"

​

Kaida watched him spin it around when he did. That was when she noticed his hand based on the way he twirled it. Up until that point she was just distracted by other things but the way the light reflected off of his hand when he twirled it and Kaida mentally was like Wait. Hold up. His hand's back. and it's glass! What happened?! but since Beuce asked her about her keyblade, she decided it was probably best that she just answer his question first before specifically asking about the hand.

Kaida summoned out her keyblade and held it up so he could see the design and she said, "Pretty neat, huh? I didn't get much practice with it in a fight but the handles make it really easy for me to just..." she stopped explaining in words and showed herself mock dueling with the air, her hand grabbing onto the edges of the handle rather than the central bar. She switched her hands a couple times showing the ease of which she could transition from one hand to another that way. Then she stopped and said, "Well, you could hold it this way. Ya know, the expected way." she held it by the handle and held it in an horizontal direction before letting it go and holding it out towards Beuce and saying, "It's just easier for me the way I was doing it, but here, have a closer look."

If and when he took the keyblade, Kaida was just kind of quiet for a moment before saying, "So, you got a new hand, huh? It looks fragile. And well decorated."

​

Kaida wasn't exactly expecting Beuce to tap on her shoulder and indicate her heading somewhere else with him, but considering Karina was starting to get a bit on her nerves with the way she was acting, it was probably for the best for her to get a break. After all, the last thing Karina would have needed would have been Kaida just snapping on her more. So she took Beuce's excuse and she followed him. She passively looked at him until he got into a monologue about showing his keyblade. Then Kaida's eyes suddenly widened as the description seemed to follow a path she did not wish to. Kaida shook her head until he said about showing his if she showed hers and she was like, "No no no this is not consen- oh." Kaida then realized what he was talking about and took a deep breath, "O-Oh. You meant. Keyblade... homewor- why does your look like that?"

Kaida took it from him for a moment and shifted it around to examine it before pausing a moment and staring at it and asked, "How the heck do you use this thing? Do you spin it around like a helicopter taking flight or something?" Kaida tried spinning it around but the keyblade disappeared out of her hand when she did that and it reappeared in Beuce's hand, like the keyblade was rejecting her even giving it a test run. She kind of wondered why.

It was precisely 12:00 on their clock, and it was Jael's leisure time. He did not exactly get too many breaks anymore, and for him that was truly unfortunate for his mental state. Jael was not exactly the kind of person who worked well under long workday schedules, but the militant nature of his life forced him into accepting it as the norm. It meant by the end of his shifts, he might as well have been on leisure time, his productivity decreased and his motivation clearly fell flat.

Jael was sitting on a lounge chair within his room, his eyes were closed. There were plenty of rooms on board which allowed him to get his own room, which made him feel slightly independent. Not that he was exactly expecting to bring hot ladies back to the room or anything, but it let him keep his junk around without someone pestering him about it. The room was filled with a bunch of old Earth regalia, stuff Jael did not even know the name of. There was a small station holding a music player that was playing an old song that was left from some of the older times, about a millennium ago. It was some sort of random popular song of the times, it did not really matter to Jael. All that mattered was the noise and the feelings it gave him as he just relaxed to it. A familiar sounding melody with a vocal line filled with "oh-oh, oh-oh" all over the place. He made sure to keep it relatively quiet.

After a bit of time, Jael lifted up a remote and changed the song, to another song. He had become bored fairly quickly. The song was in Spanish, he recognized it, and hummed along a little. In terms of the native human languages, he figured he had the main ones down. English, Spanish, French, German, Mandarin, Japanese. It was all he really needed to know, he was probably never going to use them either. But he couldn't just let the practice die. He had a moral and civic duty to keep those language in humanity's last legacy.

Jael got up and grabbed himself a little bit of food he had snuck out of the previously rationed out meal, and he ate it up quickly as a snack. He took a deep breath and munched on it a little more listening to the music, he started translating the current song into many other languages in his head, before he had to stop himself. He didn't want to overwork himself if he needed to translate later. Jael moved back to the armchair again and sat back, enjoying the rest of his time before he was obligated to go back.
​

I wanted to attempt some experimental avatars, if anyone likes them go ahead and use them. Message me though if you do, so I'm ready.

BECAUSE ONE DAY, I'LL LEAVE YOU
A PHANTOM TO LEAD YOU IN THE WINTER
TO JOIN THE CHRISTMAS PARADE

It wasn't a good term for me, keep in mind. The stress of the subjects and workload was overloading and I had some pretty big emotional/social problems to go through. To top it off, I got into mmos while in a depression. That's not very smart, and quite frankly I'd never let myself go down that rabbit hole again.

So:
Term GPA: 2.00

Art Appreciation: D
Chemistry in a Changing World: D
Intro to Professional Communications: A-
World Literature II- B
Applied Statistics (second time)- D

Overall GPA: 2.99

Goals next term:

• No D's, whatever I do.
• Try and get on honor roll again.
• Get myself a job, check ws first to see if availability was given, if not applying is a decent option.
• Convince adviser to put me into the new social media concentration under the testing group.

​

Kaida had been walking with the group since, apparently, they had started walking around. Kaida gave an ear to at least listen to Karina's story, and she was didn't really intend to reply. When Ananta replied though, Kaida just looked over at her and said, "Ananta. You're coddling her. This isn't a matter of whether or not she was given a poor test for her. It's a reflection of herself, and if she couldn't come over that, it's a problem." Kaida stretched a bit and didn't even look at Karina and said, "You failed it, and you see why you failed it. Right there is the first step. But don't sit there and think about the fact you lost. Think about what you can learn from it and grow. It would be one thing if you didn't understand why you failed, then I'd be annoyed."

Kaida sighed and said, "I don't need to understand what you went through to know that you're doing the same thing I do. And you don't need to like me when I say: stop wallowing. You're better than that. Even if you don't know it."

The yellow haired girl pushed her hair out of her face after that and didn't really look at anyone, not really caring to.

֎ Name: Kathi Riersen
֎ Age: 32
֎Appearance: picture
֎Rank: Ensign
֎Job: Extravehicular Technician (out-of-ship repair/design)
֎Weapon: Gloves with activated plasma shield, standard issue phaser gun (c. 3000)
֎Personality: Optimistic, Confidential, Mannerless
֎ Bio: Kathi was not originally born on the Resilient. Kathi was originally the child of the main technician, Darren Riersen of the Everlasting. When she was born, her ship had been quickly losing members and was adapting a quick-learn policy for the children to develop and learn their jobs as fast as possible, which resulted in her quickly learning technician jobs and having already experienced a first-hand extravehicular experience by the age of seven. That happened to be the year her ship suffered an end to their food supply and serious failures that they began to relay emergency retrieval messages, assuming it was a lost cause. By the time this was received, there were only around twenty people left on the Everlasting, and most were children due to the parent's wants for them to live on above them. Kathi lost her entire family in this disaster.

She was welcomed on the Resilient with open arms, and her particular skill set was useful, but it was not used as much on the Resilient for the ship was better maintained. She spent a lot of her time working on the robots that were generally sent out in her stead for outside ship repairs based on old designs her father showed her. She has as many items as she could realistically manage to bring with her from the old ship that she keeps as keepsakes and tools, but otherwise she tends to be accepting of the fact the Resilient is her home, and has been for years. And she tries to keep a positive mindset that one day they will in fact find a stable home to rebuild.
֎Relations: No close relationships. Casually knows most to everyone.

֎ Name: Jael Carrillo
֎ Age: 20
֎Appearance: picture
֎Rank: Lieutenant
֎Job: Xenolinguist (Communications Officer
֎Weapon: High caliber laser pistol, classic handgun (c. 2000)
֎Personality: Playful, Adaptable, Hyperactive
֎ Bio: Being almost two decades younger than his sister, Jael was met with very high expectations of him that he didn't really wish for. In fact, soon he began to stop caring about that and just began to focus on the things he wanted to. Jael became very fascinated with the history of the human race, from things his mother taught him, and became intensely fascinated in old earthen artifacts. Jael began to focus on language more as a result, and that was when he began being given the job of the xenolinguist. He was able to read and understand most of the archives that existed previous translators ran into. When his mentor died earlier than expected, he began working his job earlier than anyone really wished for him to. He has difficulty being fully up to the task, and also has a complicated relationship with his sister since she never really let him goof off, and she talks to him more like an admiral more than she'll talk to him like a sibling. He doesn't take kindly to it.
֎Relations: Sister is Dania. (message if you would like to have a relation with Jael, I'm up for it c: )

Now that the homeworld is completed, Kaida will still be a Hunter, but instead of sacrificing Warrior, she is now sacrificing Guardian. So for easier reading. She is now HG, not HW.

XXXVIII- The Tale of Kaida
Part 5 of 5
"Here."​

Kaida felt herself sit up, she was dizzy and she felt the familiar bed under her and she looked to see she was in the medical bay of Central Haven. She had no idea how she got there, she figured it was perhaps another illusion. She grabbed her head and tried to massage it, hoping it would help stabilize things before she heard, “Did you sleep well?”

Kaida looked to see her master standing there. The member of the Order who chose to give the keyblade to her and have her take their place. Kaida’s eyes widened as she tried to stand up, “Master? What are you doing- “
“Ugh, you know I don’t like being called Master. It’s too formal.” They cut off, crossing their arms and Kaida asked, “Why are you here?”
“You wanted me here.”

Kaida blinked and asked, “I did?”
“Well, your heart cried out for an answer to a question, and now I’m here. I take it you’re not going through the best of times.” He responded, walking closer. Kaida nodded and said, “I… I was on a mission and got dragged into something bigger. And one of my friends turned to darkness and threw me and my teammates into darkness. I’m not sure if it was a test, a tactic, or both.”

The master listened and asked, “Aux, right?”
“Y-yeah…”
“He was always kind of a quiet one. But I always assumed he was more like Shiro, except not as loud, but possibly scaring more children. So what did you want to do about it? Are you going to try and help Aux, or push him away?”
“Is pushing away an option you would approve of?” Kaida asked worried about that.
“You aren’t me, Kaida. What you do is your choice. How you choose to go about things will never be because I thought you were just like me. I could have made a replica of me if I wanted someone just like me to take over.” The man walked on over across the room and picked up a stress-ball like thing and tossed it to Kaida and asked, “So what is it you want to do?”

Kaida gave the stress-ball a bit of a squeeze and said, “I… I just don’t want the good times we had to be overshadowed by these bad moments. Even if we aren’t friends again. But I want strength to protect those who are still my friends.”
“Like Seiza? Or Hikaru?”
“Not just them… I have more friends now. There’s Glen, Beuce, Stratos… heck I’d even consider Karina a friend despite how many times she’s tried to kill people. I can see her good intent.” Kaida explained. Her master smiled and said, “You seem to have things figured out.”
“Not fully, but I think I’ve got enough to keep going.” Kaida looked up at him gratefully, “Thank you.”

Her master nodded and said, “I guess it’s time for us to depart then, so you can continue on your adventure.” Kaida nodded as well, but she felt her stomach sort of sink again, feeling a question come along as they walked towards the exit, until she finally said, “Wait… Sora…”

He stopped at that and Kaida put the stress-ball down on a table and asked, “Why did you pick me then? Out of all the people in the academy, you chose to go with the frightened girl in yellow who only had a keyblade for 3 months…”

Sora turned towards her and said, “I don’t really know. I guess it’s because you had a similar story to me, yet ended up so different. You wanted to leave your home world and things happened and you ended up in this world. You wanted to fight for your friends, but you also wanted to make more and connect with people. I just figured that if there was one person who I could look at and be proud of, it was you. Even if it was something I only saw in the future.”

Kaida stared at him for a while, surprised, before saying, “So you did want someone like you.”
“Not really. You always seemed more closed off and formal than anything. I was lazy and a little too willing to accept others despite their failures. But, even if I made mistakes, I learned from them. You don’t completely fail because you stumble. You gotta keep going. I figured you would keep going even if you failed.”

Kaida smiled for the first time in too long, and she began to laugh. Sora blinked and asked, “Did I say something wrong?”
“I think you read me wrong, you expected a little too much from me.”
“I’m not surprised I got a little wrong, but I’m not too far off am I?” he asked inquisitively. Kaida shook her head and finally walked closer and held her hand out to shake his, “Thank you. I think now’s the time to get back.”

Sora nodded and shook her hand before saying, “Remember, no matter where you go.” He pointed towards her chest, clearly trying to place emphasis towards her head, “I’m always with you. And so is everyone who ever connected with you.”
“I won’t forget.”

And Kaida felt herself rise higher for the first time as Sora disappeared in front of her, and the room vanished and blurred until she was floating again. But this time she knew she was swimming rather than sinking.


She moved her hand up and her reflection returned, still swinging the keyblade down, she saw a flash and in her hands, a new keyblade appeared in her hands. The reflection looked surprised and Kaida pushed away and held her keyblade to keep protecting Max and yelled, “I’m not giving up. Not on Max. Not on anyone, ever.”

Max sat up and grinned and the reflection ran at Kaida angrily and the two began to fight. Both were not fighting very flashily; the reflection was using a bunch of heavy attacks while Kaida parried and dodged out of the way and snuck in a few quick hits whenever she could. Eventually, she got the reflection down to its knees and Kaida pointed towards it and said, “It’s over. Now leave me and my friends alone.”

The reflection laughed a bit and looked up, “Someday, you will realize how your actions may seem of good intent, but will end in disaster… you will see…” and they faded away. Kaida chose to ignore their words, summoning away her keyblade and walking back towards Max. She held her hand out and smiled saying, “I’m sorry about that… thank you, Max.”

Max took her hand and stood up saying, “You don’t need to thank me. You did everything yourself. I just help you when you fell, that’s all.”
“I can still be grateful for that, can’t I?” Kaida asked curiously and Max shrugged. Kaida heard a noise and turned to see a portal appear. Kaida was a little grateful that transitions weren’t just happening suddenly, she was getting the chance to process it on her own. She turned back to Max and bowed her head towards him out of respect before Kaida stood up and said, “I will see you later.”
“Definitely.”

Kaida turned around and headed towards the portal and entered it, surprised by the strange feeling she felt as she did so.

---

XXXVIII- Epilogue
"Station of Awakening"​

On the other side, she felt herself gently floating downwards towards a stained glass looking floor, and designed on it was a sleeping version of herself. From the angle Kaida looked, she was upside down and to the right side, with her hand reaching out towards the lower left side. On the left side, was a bunch of pictures of people reaching out towards her. Many were silhouetted, but there were a few faces she recognized. Most notably Hikaru, Aux, and Seiza. The borders around were filled with different whittled shapes in small circles. The colors were primarily black, yellow, and blue.

When Kaida reached the ground, she steadied herself for a moment and looked around confused, until pillars began to appear in front of her. Then, directly in front of her, two orbs hovered. In a blue orb there was a spear that floated gently within, and in a red orb there was a sword, which shook just the slightest bit.

Kaida approached cautiously, before she intuitively knew what she need. She reached out and grabbed the sword from the red orb and pulled it out. When she held the sword, she looked over at the mantle that seemed to fit it the best and she placed it there gently. As Kaida looked over, she saw the red orb pulse, as if demanding a new sacrifice in its place. Kaida looked over at the other two, and she just knew that if there was anything she wanted to let go of from the group, it was the shield. She trusted others to be able to help guard her, she did not feel like she needed to be closed off from the rest of them anymore.

She picked up the shield and placed it in the red orb and the two disappeared. Then all the mantles disappeared, and behind her a door was placed. Kaida approached the door with less caution than the orbs, and she opened it. And she was blinded once more as she exited.

---

​

When Kaida went through those doors, she paused. She needed to adjust hey eyes to the lighting, again. She was getting pretty sick of getting blinded. She hoped this would be the end of that, and fortunately the familiar voices in the distance at the end of the hallway gave her a bit of relief. She was not able to hear what was being said directly, all of her senses were overloaded. But she made her way towards the voices as her eyes fixed up.

As she approached the end of the hallway, she could hear Karina’s voice pretty clearly, and it sounded pained and traumatized. Or at least more than she was usually used to. As her vision fully returned, she was able to see Karina on the ground naked. Beuce was also there, his arm was back. Stratos was there, a girl she knew was in the group but was not actually introduced to was there. And there was a girl she definitely knew was not in the group before, but she looked somewhat like Raisor.

At first, she was not quite sure where to start, but considering Karina was on the ground naked and just slowly giving up on everything, Kaida pulled out the cloak she had in Corona and walked over and covered Karina and made sure to keep a comfortable distance away since Karina had mentioned something about not wanting people to touch her.

Kaida looked around at everyone, and didn’t really bother giving a hello to anyone else. She ducked down so she was at Karina’s level and said, “I don’t wanna say empty words, Karina… and I don’t know if you want us here but, we’re here for you…” she sounded genuine, because Kaida realized that just back in the memories, she was basically in the same position, except in Karina’s case, she lost. While Kaida didn’t. And she wasn’t sure if that was a barrier enough for Karina to dismiss her offering. Kaida then looked over at the others and scratched her face a little, “Well, at least I hope everyone else is. I know I’m here if you need it.”

heads

XXXVIII- The Tale of Kaida
Part 4 of 5
"Give Up"
​

When Kaida lifted her head from the bow, everything seemed dark and distorted, people weren’t there in the audience anymore and it was just her. Everything was bleak, and her footsteps echo’d crazily due to the lack of people that seemed to be around. She made her way back down from her spot and began running outside. She saw people around, frozen in place as if they were rudely interrupted from daily routines due to a freeze. Kaida walked slowly, observing what was going on and she looked in front of her, seeing Aux and Hikaru actually walking and seeming to talk, she ran over towards them and reached out, “Guys, do you see this? What is going on?” and she finally reached them to touch their shoulders before they disappeared and she stopped and said, “W-what?” and the world began to crumble and she ran for it.

The ground caved into a never-ending void and no matter how fast Kaida tried to run, she could not outrun it and fell through the ground screaming, reaching upwards for help that could not come. She felt herself float in the dark for a while before the void rejoined.

You think you’re worthy? You think you can save your friends?

Kaida tightened her fist and finally shouted at the voice, “Shut it!”
Am I wrong?

Kaida let out an aggravated yell before finally a light shined through the darkness and she blocked her eyes. When she moved her eyes, she was standing in the doorway of a room and saw Hikaru laying on the bed. He was clearly not moving, and while Kaida knew in that moment of time what the context would be later, she moved in fast and walked over to the bed, she placed her hands immediately on a chair that had been set for her to sit down, but she couldn't sit down, "What happened?"

“What do you care?” Aux replied, Kaida knew this was not how the memory was supposed to go instantly. She turned towards Aux and asked, “What?”

“Surprised you found time. It’s been two weeks since he’s been like this. Not that you could be bothered to even visit him.” Aux answered and Kaida shook her head and said, “No, I… I tried my best to get here as soon as I could…”
“A likely story. You always seem to have an excuse.”
“That’s not an excuse!” Kaida yelled looking hurt.

“Really? Because lately it always seems like you have one…” Kaida shook her head as suddenly she seemed to look at a vision of herself walking away saying, “Sorry guys, I have meeting with the order.”

Kaida backed away before another appeared and she held her hands up and looked in apology, “I can’t make it today.”
The next one came right in succession as she bowed towards them, “I have a training session with Shiro.”

Aux looked fully towards her and said, “And my personal favorite:”

Kaida looked over to see herself, literally the day before she hadn’t seen Hikaru awake as she said with apology, “I’m just too busy today.”

Kaida kept trying to shake her head and say, “I couldn’t help it… I wanted to be with you guys… I didn’t put you two further back to spite you… I-I didn’t.”

“I couldn’t. I wanted to. I didn’t.” Aux hit and right back, “You couldn’t protect your friend. What can you do?”

Kaida started tearing up and said, “I can… I can protect my friends… I- I can!” she didn’t sound confident at all with that.

“No you can’t.” Aux replied before ending with, “Just give up.”
“Just… give up…” Kaida almost wanted to believe in those words before yelling, “No!” and the memory disappeared and she covered her head.

When she uncovered her head she was still in darkness, except a door. Kaida walked over to it and opened it in fear, before she opened to a hospital room. It was empty, except for one bed, which had Seiza sitting there. He seemed to be staring off, not even acknowledging the fact she entered his room. Kaida walked over and stood next to his bed and said, “Seiza…”

Seiza looked at her and said, “You seem to be doing well for yourself. Tell me. How is it, running around in that world where the light shines and your skin burns.”
Kaida tried to keep a straight face and said, “We can both go. Just when you’re health is be- "
“Don’t try to sweet talk me. You and I both know I can never leave this place. And it is your fault.” Seiza laughed evilly and said, “You’re trying to play hero. But you can’t protect those you care about. What makes you think you can be a keyblade master? What makes you think you can do anything right?”

Kaida felt herself crying again and said, “I’m sorry! You know I didn’t mean it!”
“Maybe it would have been better if it was intentional. At least then you’d be evil on purpose.”
Kaida shook her head and said, “I really didn’t mean it. I-I was too young to under-“
“It’s never your fault with you. It’s always an excuse, or someone else. Or something beyond your control. You little excuse maker. Why don’t you just accept the fact this is all your fault. That you’re a monster.”

Kaida screamed, “I’m not!”
“You’re a monster.”
“I’m not. I don’t want to be! I want to protect all of you. I will never fail someone again. I will never do anything to hurt you anymore. We’ll fix things.” Kaida insisted as she got on her knees and bowed her head, “I will fix things. Just please. Let me.”

She kept her head down until Seiza shook his head in disapproval and said, “Give up on the act. Let yourself fade. Let yourself be lost…”

Kaida felt something pulling her down as she repeated, “Let myself be lost..”
“Just give up…” a voice said behind her.

She looked at her arms and saw darkness was pulling her down and she looked up at Seiza in fear, “N-No..”
“Such a coward. Can’t take deserved punishment. Thinks she’s amazing. She’s not.” Seiza shook his head and Kaida jumped up, pulling away from the darkness and saying, “I’m sorry I’m confident!”
“You’re over confident!” Seiza yelled and the beeping on his heart monitor raised and she said, “Calm down!”
“Never! You did this to me Kaida!” Seiza screamed pointing at the heart monitor as it raised and he looked weak, “You’re the reason I cannot live my dreams while you can! You are the reason I cannot go out there and do the things I love! I cannot run anymore! I cannot do anything new anymore! I am stuck in a library because of you! I am stuck working forever in the same job because of you!”

Kaida tightened her fists as he said, “You could not protect your friends! You will never protect your friends!” and Seiza’s heart monitor stopped and Kaida froze as she felt a keyblade against her back and she looked to see Aux, “If you were not selfishly doing what you wanted, I could have been saved. Now I am lost to darkness, and it’s all your fault.”
“You did that to yourself!” Kaida yelled, “How could I have stopped you?!”

Kaida turned fully around to look at him better but Aux was gone, and all that was there was Hikaru standing with his eyes glazed over, Kaida didn’t understand it as he looked at her and said, “It’s your fault you weren't there with me, when I wanted to run away and find Aux. It’s your fault we changed. You were just too busy with failing your Mark of Masteries. Why should I care what happens to you? You couldn’t protect us if you tried. Now we're both here in the realm of darkness, and that's your fault.”

Kaida stared at Hikaru and shook her head, “You’re… you’re wrong…”
“Why are you of all people worthy of the keyblade? Why are you a member of the order?” The three asked in unison circling her. Kaida felt herself pushed between the three of them as they asked, “What did that master see in you to make you think you were worthy of taking his place!”
“I’m not him! I’m myself! Stop comparing him to me!”
“He saved the worlds, you can’t even avoid pressing a button and destroying a friend’s heart. You couldn’t save your friend from darkness. Worthless thing.” Kaida felt the darkness begin to engulf her and she fell to the ground as it began overtaking her as they said, “Go where you belong. Give up!”

When the darkness enveloped her entirely, Kaida could not get up from her knees. She felt someone walk in front of her, and she saw yellow shoes. Kaida looked up to see herself, but her eyes completely blackened and a big grin on her face, “Can’t protect your friends. Can’t protect yourself. You worthless thing.”

Kaida watched herself be circled by this image of herself as they said, “You were never worthy of the keyblade. You were never worthy of the journey. You should have stayed in that little paradise and felt your soul get sucked away as you made wooden creations and became part of the machine. You are a supporting role. You will never be worthy enough.”

Kaida watched them stop and summon out a keyblade and point it towards her, “In order to save you from how dangerous you are, I am going to save you from your sorry little existence. You will wake up somewhere far away from everyone, and you will be forgotten. They may ask, “whatever happened to Kaida” but then they will move on while your pathetic existence withers away. And you know I am right, huh?”
Kaida felt herself nod and say, “You are right..”
“Worthless thing, just give up. It is okay to give up when you have already lost. Give up.” The reflection said and Kaida bowed her head down and repeated, “It is okay to give up…”

The reflection smiled and raised the keyblade higher, “Now you understand. Smart girl.” And she moved to bring the keyblade down on her before the reflection was knocked far back and made a loud noise.

Kaida felt someone shake her and say, “Come on Kaida, get up. You can do this.”
“I.. can’t…” Kaida replied, not looking before the reflection yelled, “Step away, she’s already decided!”
“Kaida, it’s okay to make mistakes. Giving up is just an easy way out of responsibility!” the voice yelled before she heard a loud blocking noise and she could not help but look up.

Max was standing in front of her, protecting her from the reflection with his skateboard, like a shield. Kaida was shocked her was going that far and said, “Max, what are you-“

Max pushed the reflection away and looked behind him and said, “Are you just gonna sit there? Come on, I know you are strong than that. I saw you fight in Disney town. And I was with you during those memories. You need to stop feeling sorry for yourself and living in the past!”

Kaida stood up and the reflection walked closer to them and said, “Kaida, you know yourself better than this kid. You know how dangerous you can be. You know it is better to give up.”
Kaida looked away and Max said, “You’ve pressured her into thinking that. But I’ll stand here and protect her because I know she’s better than this!” he turned his head towards Kaida and said, “Come on!”

Max rushed towards the reflection and they began fighting and Kaida could not understand why he was willing to protect her. Was he seeing something she could not see? Shouldn’t he hate her for what happened with Seiza? What happened when she didn’t go and see Hikaru? How much of a failure she already was? Kaida watched them fight, seeing Max hold his own until his board broke and he fell back.

The reflection pointed at him and said, “You first. Then she’s next.” Kaida watched as the reflection swung their keyblade down and she ran screaming, “No!” towards the reflection. She jumped in front of Max and was ready to take the keyblade for him.

Then the light consumed her suddenly, once more.

CALL ME GOOFY, H'YUCK. PRAISE BE THE DARK LORD