Kingdom Hearts: Kingdom Hearts: Light Chaser

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Chrono caught up to his sister in the hallway after a little while of chasing her and following the moment of silence, heard what she said quite clearly. He wasn't surprised that she felt that way, not after everything that she's been through. Even if there had been some way to get her back to the way she was before all this, he couldn't see that happening anytime soon. Not until after this whole mess with the Light Chaser was dealt with. "I know, but that doesn't change how I feel." He briefly adjusted himself as to look right at Tinarah. "I get that you don't want to lose any of us, but you don't have to bear that burden by yourself. There's me, Take, Aria, Torrr...." His voice trailed off remembering the interactions that she and Torrin have had in the past, be it their Torrin or the other one. A brief moment of pondering lead him to a better save. "Oh! Stamatis and that Fost guy that can help you." He assumed that 'Uncle Fost' would be willing to do so, even if he barely knew either of them. "We may still be working on rebuilding our bond and I don't know how willing you are to lean on me for stuff like this, not to mention up and leaving home isn't exactly 'sharing the burden'. " Admittedly he didn't want to leave the way he did, but at the time he didn't see any other ways then. "Just don't feel like you have to push yourself for an end we all to achieve."

 

Illiana sat down in front of the graves for awhile after Torrin had left. Nini went up to her and nested herself in her lap. She petted her as she looked on. The two remain like that for awhile until Nini jumped off her lap and headed inside. "I'm kind of glad Ms. Whiskers was able to mourn and find peace. Torrin too..." Illiana looked over to Mika's grave before continuing. "You and him must've shared some kind of past if his eyes lit up the way they did when he was looking at your stone. I'm kind of glad I was able to bring some kind of peace to you both. He'll be fine...They'll all be fine. Don't you worry. I can't speak for myself but I just have this gut feeling they'll make it out of this ordeal alive and well." She sighed before holding up her locket. "Now if I can find my peace.....hmmm....." She opened it as she sighed again.

After a bit more time, Illiana finally stood up before walking back into the castle. She heard commotion going on in the dining room but decided to ignore it. She rather not deal with the others right now. The first thing that came to her mind was piano keys and the notes they brought out. Illiana decided to head back to the piano room she had been using before. She didn't think to close the door as she wanted to play it immediately. She sat down on the bench again and waved her fingers over the keys, almost hesitating. She couldn't figure out why but she felt as though she didn't deserve to play any piano or as if the piano might break because of her. Once her fingers touched the keys, her fear and worries instantly melted away and notes began to play. Illiana closed her eyes and let her fingers just play the piano, paying no attention to what's around her or what's in front of her. It gave her a peace of mind for a little bit.

 

Take was having it pretty rough, from the way he spoke. Qamar understood where he was coming from so she just listened and watched. She saw him write Tinarah's name on the plate and she tilted her head. "I...I think that's how it's spelled, honestly, I haven't asked..." she commented. "I don't even know how to spell your name..." she looked at Take. "Jogging would help, yes. And uh, well, you take the role of being a tank pretty well. I mean, you were able to get the Horned King to smack you around while I was able to smack the Horned King. Kind of how Adalric would have done." she smiled a little sadly. "When he and I would spar between lessons from our Masters, we would trade blows with practice blades and work around our weaknesses. We ended up learning those quickly..." Qamar shrugged, thinking back to when she did train with Adalric. It's hard to think that he probably didn't like her as much as she thought he did, but she knew he cared enough to give his life for her...she'd never be able to repay him for that.

Qamar looked at Take and had an idea. "Well, I'm supposed to be training with Boreas later, but I suppose we could do a little warmups together? Maybe I can help you work your stamina up for the long fights. And, ya know, do some general catching up since I haven't really talked to you since Miss Mode's house was our temporary home." she suggested. The piano's telltale sound came through in the background and Qamar glanced towards the doorway. She turned back to Take and pointed towards the door. "The training grounds are off the side of the courtyard, we could probably do a small sprint before we do our training. Since you wanted to jog, anyway. Just watch out for invisible mosquitos. They love the morning dew."​

 

Torrin answered rather quickly and also spoke for Aria. "No, I've had breakfast already." Boreas replied, he refrained from pointing out that he noticed his absence, but him being here with Aria at this time reminded him of the other time he had caught him in the morning. He hadn't heard any screams this morning though so maybe it had nothing to do with it. Aria never said anything to him before the knight stalked off again. He heard Torrin call him from down the hallway that he'd be over soon before rushing off, Boreas wasn't sure when the last time was he had seen him run that fast for anyone. Boreas wasn't entirely sure what to make of it, he went to his room and found a change of clothes and a bit of wire, closed the door behind him and changed clothes before activating his armour again. He placed the letter on his desk and washed his clothes in a wooden tub before using the wire to create a makeshift clothes line and hang them to dry when Torrin walked into his room.

"I apologise for calling you away, it wasn't exactly urgent and you seemed rather busy back there. Thank you for coming anyways." Boreas said, he had half a mind to ask his friend if Aria really was doing as fine and dandy as he had claimed she was, but figured that if there was something he should know he'd tell him. "First off, I'd like to apologise for yesterday, it seems like I do that a lot these days, but you were right, I had lost control, too clouded by rage and hatred to see the futility of having gone back there. But after a good run and some fishing I saw the light. I will see to it that I keep the anger more restrained." He meant it, if they had any time to spend at this Castle then he would make some time to improve his control if possible. He walked to the door and closed it. "Which brings me to the second thing... I have a favour to ask of you as both my commander and my friend." Boreas said. "Not sure if you have changed your mind about that dynamic in the past six years but here we are, nothing you can do about that." He took the sealed letter with only one word on the outside. 'Eudora' it read in elegant handwriting. "I'd like you to keep this with you and should I fall in battle to deliver it to my mother back home. It's something a few comrades asked of me in the past and should I fall out here, I would at least want her to know why, that I fought to keep everyone safe. I fully intend to return home in about two months or when this is over whichever comes first. It's just something I was thinking about this morning. And I'd appreciate it if you would do this for me." Boreas said holding out the letter to his friend.​

 

Boreas imagined Torrin attacking Tinarah and Chrono and surpressed a laugh, even more amused at the accusations leveled at the two of them when they fished Tinarah and Gero out of the water. "You must have been rather paranoid then, what gave you that idea anyways?" Boreas asked. "And if you don't mind my asking angry about what and what reasons?" He had to stop himself from taking a guess at those reasons. Torrin promised that he'd make sure that he would see his mother again with a hand on his shoulder. "Thank you Torrin, having delivered a handful of those myself I just hope you don't have to do that." It was hard to deliver them, yet whenever asked he would do it. "I know you will do everything to keep us safe, but as Captain Tharsus put it sometimes there's nothing you can do it's war..." He looked at his friend with understanding, being responsible for the lives of others placed a heavy burden on you one that he knew. "And I'll be honest here, I don't exactly have confidence in our mission. We're fighting someone that can fight four masters, two of which are high up in the tree, to a standstill with a handful of students and two masters. With no reinforcements to fill in the gaps created by casualties it makes no sense to me, especially when two of our group are part of a group that our foe needs." Boreas explained. "I trust you, blindly. Just not so sure about everyone else higher in the tree." He knew there was the chance of both of them going down in this but if Torrin had been fighting the Light Chaser for a year he stood the best chance out of everybody. Boreas chuckled at Torrin's remark regarding not being allowed to die without either Torrin or Joch's permission and shook his head. "If only it were so easy, Torrin, if only it were so easy."​

 

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"There are kind eagles hiding inside king's orchards." Take responded pretty quickly before continuing, "High in deserts are killer ants." he sat there mouthing things out before saying "T-a-k-e-h-i-k-o." he looked at Qamar and said, "That's how I remembered how to spell it when I need it. I had a couple of those for my brothers: I want an orange. I-w-a-o. Shores hug oceans, just improperly. S-h-o-j-i. Your always standing under sunlight heavily impeded. Y-a-s-u-s-h-i. Angels knit innocent offerings. A-k-i-o." Take paused a second and said, "I've only ever made two more. Apples trees must outgrow shrubs. A-t-m-o-s. Can he really only need otters? C-h-r-o-n-o. Don't tell Chrono that's what I think every time I spell his name I think he'll think too much about it, wondering why otters." Take realized he went a little too long on that topic and just repeated, "T-a-k-e-h-i-k-o. Anyway, yeah um... wait... invisible mosquitoes? Then... how do you know they're actually there?" he seemed skeptical but went over to the kitchen to put Tinarah's food aside before he headed towards the door and said, "I'll head towards the courtyard then."
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Chrys managed to avoid looking too annoyed at Fost words. Was this still an interrogation, or had it become a therapy session somewhere along the way? "I don't know." She shrugged. If she was honest, she cared quite little for his little mind games. "It could have been both; he didn't really specify." Now how to answer his little brain puzzle about the darkness... "Oh well, you know, I figured they would survive since they have light. After all, everyone has that too. I suppose you're going to tell me I was too optimistic?" ​

 

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Aria finished her breakfast and spent the rest of the time alone staring out the window. So much had happened that it felt like it was months from when she first started out on this adventure... but it had been only days. She knew she changed dramatically in that short bit of time, but there was a bit of her that she held fast to. She still held some optimism, she had her light, she was willing to fight no matter what, and she still cared for her friends. She saw Illiana walking back to the castle, and watched her a moment, wondering where she had went to earlier. She sighed out deeply, looking at the hills and mountains out there for a moment before she looked back at her ring on her finger. Would she ever want to meet her parents? She did feel like a piece of her was missing not knowing much about them and where she had originally came from. She loved her uncle and aunt deeply, finding herself being more grateful for the life she was raised in even though some times were hard, but she also longed to know of her birth family.

Aria scratched her head, then looked at her long hair. There were parts that were singed from battle and damaged. Pressing her lips in a thin line, she decided she needed to take care of herself and get ready for the day. More strength had returned to her thanks to the breakfast Torrin brought her, and so she scooted off her bed, walking carefully to her bag. She dug around in it until she pulled out two pairs of scissors; one was large, the other small. Nodding in satisfaction, Aria walked to the wardrobe and opened it. She found her outfit, and a clean towel, a hair brush and a comb, and then went to the bathroom to begin her work.

She showered all the grime and dirt off of her first, then took the time to wash through her hair. After a while, she turned off the warm water and stepped out to face the mirror. Wiping off the extra fog from the mirror, she started to detangle her hair. She was surprised to see that it reached clear past her bottom. She realized she hadn't done anything with it at all except trim it. But now it was ruined higher up, and it was time to say goodbye. Taking the large scissor in her hands, she hesitated for a moment before she began her work.

The deed was finally done many moments later. Aria found a broom and dust pan and a garbage bag and cleaned up her mountain of hair she had collected. Once all of her mess was cleaned up, she glanced at herself in the mirror, feeling her hair. Her head felt so much lighter and she looked completely different. "Well... what's done is done..." She then dressed herself for the day, and styled her hair in a new way, still keeping a braid in it.

Spoiler: New Look

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Aria slowly moved out of her room with the bag of cut hair in one hand and her empty breakfast plate and cup in the other. She could hear music floating through the air and smiled to herself as she made her way down to the kitchen. She found a large trash can and plopped the bag of hair in there before she looked up and saw Take and Qamar there. "Oh, good morning," she said with a bit of a smile. She didn't want to tell them about the nightmare attacking once again. Not unless somehow they already knew about it. It was still a thing her own mind was trying to wrap around, and she didn't want anyone else to worry over her so much. Seeing that they were conversing with one another, she then moved past them to not bother them, washing and drying off her dishes thoroughly in the sink before putting them back up. She turned to leave, only to see Master Choma had gotten up and was taking his dishes to the sink. "Good morning Master Choma!" she said with a bow of her head in respect and a smile. "Here, lemme take those," she insisted, taking the dishes out of his hands and began washing them the same way she washed hers earlier. "How are you? It feels like it's been forever since I last saw you."

 

Chrys could tell this man had taught the light chaser. It was just that infuriating way that they talked; the Light Chaser like he was offering you kindness as he ripped everything away from you by lying to your so called 'friend' and this man with the thinly veiled constant reminders that he could take everything away from you with the snap of a finger. He certainly seemed to enjoy lording it over her, in addition to how wrong she was.

Too bad she had already lost everything. Otherwise she might feel threatened by this hopeless situation. As it was, she could hardly put in the energy for worry. Seems Sir Fluffy's advice wasn't gonna do her any good in the end anyway.

This man basically thought he had all the cards, telling her things she had already figured out for herself, because really there's quite a fine line between just not knowing something and outright ignoring suspicious behavior, and rubbing in her face that her options did not involve any sort of positive outcome. He was even threatening to take away her keyblade.

An ever present memento of her master before all else.

But she supposed the outcome of assuming you knew people whom you had no facts about was acting pretty dad gum stupid yourself.

"I found Chryssa's grave is what happened. Does that clear anything up? Or am I so ignorant that I have to spell it out for you?" She placed a hand to her chin in thought. "Actually... why don't you read my memories? As unpleasant as the experience sounds, I've got pretty much nothing to hide at this point, and I don't really want to talk about it. Words are meaningless anyway. So just take what you want already. After all, that's what people like you and the Light Chaser do when words don't get you what you want, isn't it?"

If Chrys was honest, she didn't really want this man to know about her brother. However, his knowledge of the subject wasn't so great a sacrifice for ending this mind-numbingly arbitrary experience.​

 

Qamar didn't understand what Take was saying at first, but then he spelled out his name. Once he explained, she understood it and ended up thinking how she'd make hers into a sentence. Take had already made one up for Master Atmos and Chrono, so she was wondering what she could say hers was. "Hm...yeah, don't tell Chrono about the otters." she chuckled. It finally came to her and she gasped. "Quiet as mice and rice." she said. "That's mine. Makes no sense, though...." she shrugged. He asked about the mosquitoes and she chuckled. "You'll know they're there when you feel them nip you." she said, giving him a playful poke in the arm. He headed off to the kitchen and Qamar took that as her cue to head to the courtyard. Aria passed by and Qamar gave the girl a slight wave, noticing her new look. Everyone seemed to be getting a change these days.

She made her way and ended up waiting on Take. Once he arrived, she tapped her chin and decided. "I suggest taking off your jacket so you don't get it too dirty. Also because we'll be doing some physical activities, you'll get way too hot." she pointed out, continuing without waiting on him. "I know you would rather not be a meatbag forever, but as it is, you're the greatest tank we have. You can take damage and deal just as much out when needed. I want to help you hone your defenses and help you find any weaknesses you may have. Therefore, I suggest starting off with a light sparring match." Qamar turned and looked around, wondering if the same old battle chest was laying about. She spotted it and opened it up, pulling out two wooden swords. They both had many nicks and missing spots, but they'd do the trick. The hilt of each were even torn and in need of new cloth, but they had no time for that. Qamar turned back to Take and handed him the one that wasn't as mangled.

"Use it as if you were using your keyblade. If you focus enough, you may be able to even use some magic, but I'm not sure if you can, considering how new you are to your keyblade...well, if you are even new. I don't know. I've had mine for over 7 years now, myself." she pointed out with a shrug. "Focus on watching your opponent to guard against their attacks. I'll try not hit you too hard. Please don't hesitate to tell me if you need to stop and use some Curative magic. If you'd rather sprint, let me know. Otherwise, here I come." Qamar gave Take a bow and hopped back. She fell into her usual fencing position and bounced in place, getting herself riled up. Once she was ready, she rushed forward, stabbing her blade straight at Take. This strike was feigned, however, and she instead jumped to her right and swung from the right towards Take's side.​

 

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Her name starts with a Q? Take ended up asking himself as he continued his way out towards the courtyard. When Qamar told him to take off his jacket so it "wouldn't get dirty" and "because it was hot" he raised an eyebrow a bit amused and looked at his jacket. There was very little she necessarily knew but he found her comments amusing since he didn't care if his jacket was dirty, it was designed for combat scenarios in the first place. And he didn't even want to get into the "too hot" comment, mainly because he didn't wanna think about the several times he was set on fire by a dragon soaring down towards him. So the boy kept the jacket on, though he did place his bag down sine he didn't think it was necessary to have the extra weight.

As Qamar passed him the sword and tried to explain how using a sword worked, he was wondering if she really had no idea he was raised as a soldier. Cause this seemed like babying as far as he was aware and while a part of him knew it was well intentioned another part of him wanted to call her out on it. When she warned she was going to start, Take hadn't given himself time to get a proper stance. So when she went in for the first jab, he had jumped back a bit. When he realized it was a feint he shifted to block the attack towards his left side. He held it there a moment before pushing her back and saying, "A little too early I'll admit but I should be fine now."

As Take repositioned himself to prepare for more attacks, his stance was far more refined than it usually was when he used his keyblade. His posture was proper and he seemed to be able to balance himself a lot better. Considering he was raised to use a sword and a shield together, this didn't surprise him since it was much easier to hold the wooden sword one-handed than his keyblade. He only felt a little uneven for the lack of shield. From that point on, Take just seemed to be pretty focused on attempting to anticipate Qamar's attacks to block them. But a couple hits definitely broke through at him. Since she wasn't trying to hit him hard, he didn't feel the need to ask for any healing.

After a little while the boy loosened up slightly and said, "I don't feel like I'm getting much out of this, so I hope you are."
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Clearly Qamar was ignorant for assuming Take was a mere beginner. His technique gave off that he was taught how to guard against attacks with a sword. He possibly even was to wield a shield, but she couldn't be certain. It was just the way he made his steps and parries. She managed to land a couple of soft blows onto the boy, but nothing was too serious. She noticed he loosened and then said he wasn't getting much out of this kind of fighting. Qamar straightened up and tossed the practice sword to the side. "That's fine. I was beginning to figure out this wasn't your first time training with a sword." she shrugged. She crossed her arms and pondered what to do next. "I guess keyblades it is, then." she said. Before she summoned her keyblade, Qamar raised her hand up and cast the Sabera spell on herself. "Now then, summon your keyblade." she said, her own keyblade coming out with an aura of darkness.

Her movements were quicker this time thanks to the fact she used some magic to cast Sabera. Though she wasn't too fast, she tried not to be impossible to figure out. Though her attacks did seem to have more force behind them as every time she landed her blade against Take's, a loud clang could be heard. A smile stretched across her face. "It's better to train with the weapon you'll be using than with a stupid wooden sword anyway." she said, pushing back on Take and launching herself over him, landing behind him and thrusting her keyblade beside his head. She intentionally aimed for the air. "So I guess you were trained pretty young, huh? If I'm right in guessing, you're only like,15 or something." she asked, not moving from that position. "Was it tough? I bet it was."​

 

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Aria covered her mouth and giggled when Master Choma referred to Gurgi as a dirty mop. "Gurgi. The dirty mop creature's name is Gurgi. He's an interesting sort of fellow, that's for sure. And I would never forget about you Master Choma! That acrobat training I did with you, it really came in handy on one of the worlds. I kicked a crazy evil clown in the face." Aria stepped back from Master Choma to do a round-house kick in the air with a smirk on her face only to slip a bit. "Oops." She caught herself and straightened to attention, saluting with a smile to show she was okay. "Only it was more graceful than that, and I jumped off a keyblade glider and did some flips in the air on the way down." She hadn't quite regained all of her strength from the nightmare attack, but she didn't want to tell Master Choma about it unless he was already informed. She was trying to carry on like normal to not worry anyone, even though she was near death much earlier. It was as if nothing had happened and she was her chirpy self and that was the way she was going to carry herself for as long as possible. "The dragon? She came with us from Prydain. I don't know how though... But she blasted through the ceiling at the Light Chaser. It gave Torrin time to get us all out of there. I think he called it a Flammie... So far she seems friendly."

 

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When the two made the switch to keyblades, Take's blocks were a lot less refined though his timing still seemed pretty good. But he also was a bit thrown off since Qamar suddenly decided to just start doing flips and tricks along with her attacks, which compared to with the swords was definitely new, but he just kind of let it happen. Her attacks being a bit faster made it hard to telegraph her attacks and a couple more broke through as he tried to readjust on the fly to moving slightly faster.

As she asked questions he blocked a couple more attacks before responding, "From what people tell me, I was trained young. But I've heard of people training when younger than I started." he missed blocking one of her attacks which got him in the side and he stepped away from her at that and grabbed his side a moment before re-positioning again, "And I'm sixteen." he didn't sound particularly offended that she guessed fifteen, he didn't mind people being a couple years off. It was when people asked him if he was twelve or thirteen he really started having problems. He looked her over a minute and said, "And what, I'm guessing you are around twenty? If you're older than that it's whatever, I hear girls like being told they look younger after a certain age.... mainly by girls." Take took a step back a moment to cast cure on himself since he started feeling it quite a bit more. From that point on he'd try to sneak some attacks in after blocks, not going too hard since he knew they were sparring, but it was totally to get back at her a little at this rate.

"Anyway, I don't think it was difficult for the most part. But I don't have much to compare it to. I do know it spiked up in difficulty before I was sent off to train with a keyblade, but otherwise after about half a year of boot camp I was in the front lines by the time I was eleven." Take shrugged a bit and said, "I'd say that's young but everyone in my company was between the ages of ten and twelve. Training wasn't the difficult part, the war was."
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Boreas listened to his friend and really looked at him as he spoke, he felt bad for bringing up these things. He had been so concerned with himself that he had not seen the full burden born by his friend. "You're right, despairing gets us nowhere and we can't fail." Boreas said, he wasn't going to point out that Torrin completely missed the point of Captain Tharsus' words, not right now. His friend seemed determined to see this all be resolved in the end and both of them going home. His friend acknowledged that Boreas would follow him into a doomed battle, after all it was his duty that brought him here and so it shall be done. He turned to his friend and placed a hand on his shoulder. "I will see this through to the end. Dentro's supposed immortality did not stop us, Ardyn's power did not stop me after he had hurt you. You know I am here to bring you home and that can only be done with both of us and a home still being there." Boreas said, letting go of his friends shoulder. "Look, you've been doing this for a year and now you got us lot to worry about too. You're the resident expert for lack of better term, I'll trust your judgement on this Torrin, all I ask is that if you need it you'll ask for other's help too, we're all in this together." In battle Boreas managed to inspire others to go to greater lengths and draw on more of their power to go on. Tinarah was a good healer, Take a good tank, Torrin himself a monstrous fighter everyone had their specialities and it would help if they managed to create a synergy between all the parts of the team, to make the most of it and perhaps like Master Skia said call on everyone and risk it all though perhaps that was the point Torrin tried to make, direct confrontation wasn't the way and they should do it differently especially with a lack of numbers.​

 

"Hey, that's a good guess. I'd always aim for younger, especially when speaking to Master Thyella. She hates it when you think she's like 40 when she's really younger than that." she said with a chuckle, moving her blade to block the next blow. Take managed to give her some good thwacks, which was what she was aiming for anyway. He explained when he was trained and that raised an eyebrow on Qamar's face. "Hm, that is quite young. But I suppose you had your own fair share of dangers on your world." she commented, bringing her blade down on Take's. She pushed against him and ended up shoving him. Take swung back at her and she ducked down, sweeping her leg into Take. He blocked that sweep, so she opted to roll away and stand back up. Qamar stood there, taking deep breaths and smiling. "Yup, you're pretty good with that keyblade, but you still need practice. It never hurts to practice anyway." she nodded.

Qamar looked up at the sky and watched around a moment, trying to pinpoint how long it had been. "MM....let's take a quick break, hm?" she said, stabbing her keyblade into the ground. Qamar sat down and crossed her legs, putting her chin in her hand. "So after Quietus happened and we were split up, what'd your team end up doing? Our side kind of had bad luck...it also didn't help Illiana and I bickered like children." she sighed heavily. "Please tell me you guys at least had it easier."​