Kingdom Hearts: Kingdom Hearts: Light Chaser

Spoiler

Torrin trailed behind Aria and scratched the back of his head while searching for the right words to start the conversation. He inhaled slowly looking up at the sky, his eyes glowing yellow. When nothing particularly profound came to mind he decided to start speaking with whatever came to mind. “I’m sorry about all that mess back there. I know this day hasn’t been easy on anyone.”

Aria sighed out softly, sitting down on the grass under a tree. “Yeah… everyone is on edge and very tired… And grumpy.” She glanced up at Torrin with that last phrase and smirked slightly to show that she was jesting. It faded though as she looked back over to where the horizon would have been and rested her arm on her knees. “I should have stayed quiet about the nightmare… I knew better than to talk about it, but I felt like I shouldn’t have kept everyone in the dark about it. Now there’s all sorts of people worried about me and…” She huffed out and closed her eyes a moment. “I’m flattered a bit, but it feels like no one can really trust me to take care of myself, you know?”

Placing a hand on the bark of the tree Torrin leaned against it and kept his eyes to the sky, nodding slightly to Aria’s words. “Hmph.” He huffed out in amusement at her grumpy comment. That was definitely a word that could describe him. “Sometimes it’s not about trust, it’s about ability. You’re not capable of defending yourself from the Chasers. It’s nothing against you...but I guess I’m one to talk. I’ve been fighting them for a year and it’s just been a losing battle.” He chuckled. “Still, I get it. You didn’t ask for anyone to make a fuss about you. You didn’t ask to be a Princess of Heart. I understand feeling the weight of something bigger than yourself that you never had a choice in.” He looked down at Aria. “Point is, even if you didn’t tell them about it they’d find some reason to fret about you. Nothing you can do but get stronger and prove you can handle yourself.”

Torrin was right, but it still didn’t make it feel any easier. Aria hugged her legs to her chest and rested her chin on top of her knees. “I feel like… I’m just a hassle sometimes to be honest. Like I’m not really useful, or I just get in the way.” She fell silent for a moment as unpleasant memories swirled around in her mind and she opened her eyes to force herself to stay grounded in the present. “I know I have to prove myself and keep going. But no matter how much I do… It doesn’t seem to cut it sometimes. But I guess that’s the process of growing; it never really stops.”

“You are a hassle.” Torrin chuckled. “But that’s fine. Nothing good in life is easy.” He sighed as his mind went back to the reason he really wanted to talk to her. “We can make small talk or...big talk? Either one...uh we can do that but the reason I wanted to talk to you was to give you a few options on your nightmare problem.” Torrin picked off a piece of bark from the tree and looked it over, tossing it down the hill. “If you’re not okay with hearing it right now, we don’t need to go into that.” He added.

“Well I was planning to stay up anyways,” Aria softly stated. She flopped back on the grass with her arms sprawled above her head and looked up at Torrin from where she was. “What are my options then?” she asked, getting right to it. “Obviously I can’t stay awake forever…”

“Actually, with some training you can stay up a lot longer than someone else can. Think about it, people sleep to get their strength back. Under normal circumstances keyblade wielders have magical energy recharging within them all the time. With some training you can turn that energy into something to make sleep irrelevant. Though…” He paused, his glowing eyes now fixed on Aria. “I don’t think that’ll work right now as long as the magitek device is still active. Unless you’ve got enough magic in you to do it. Doesn’t take much. Not nearly as much as a spell does.” He scratched the back of his head. “Then there’s the idea Gero wasn’t too happy with. If what’s hurting you is a Heartless it would be easy for me to go into your dreams and destroy it.” He mulled over it for a little longer then brought up Aria’s final option, “then there’s my method of meditation...without magic this won’t be as effective but with the right technique you can do that instead of sleeping. It’d allow your body to rest without you having the need to sleep and, therefore, dream. Only problem is, it takes time to learn to do something like that.”

Aria frowned and groaned as she put her hand over her eyes. “I don’t have any magic left in me at all,” she grumbled. “I had to yell at everyone earlier to help Glyde out because I didn’t have anything to save him.” She then removed her hand from her face and met Torrin’s interesting glowing eyes. She stared at them a moment, fascinated by how they looked in the dark. “Do your eyes always do that?” She shook her head as she realized it was a stupid question and then placed her hands behind her head. “A-anyways… I don’t want you to try to venture into my dreams. It sounds dangerous, like really dangerous. My light could hurt you, or this thing that’s in my head is more powerful within that… dream realm. I don’t know, we still don’t know enough about it save I’ve been seeing it for the longest time.”

“Um…” Torrin looked back to the sky and folded his arms, not sure if he was supposed to be flattered or concerned by the way she looked at him. “Yeah. They do. It’s just a natural thing my people do in the dark.” The explanation he gave was poorly worded but accurate. He cleared his throat. “I’m really good at not dying. If there’s one thing I’m good at it’s that so you don’t need to worry about me.” Was that really a skill to be proud of? It hardly seemed honorable, a concept he had almost completely abandoned when he left his home. “Hm...but if you’re still not comfortable with that then…” He scratched his chin and folded his arms across his chest. “We could just cure you by performing the ritual of Arumon Ayustet. I nominate Qamar as our sacrifice.” Torrin spoke in a serious tone but smirked ever so slightly after he said it.

Aria blinked with that last bit and then scrunched her nose as she realized she was lost. “Ar-what Ay-what-a-now?” She then saw his smirk and scoffed. “Torriiiin, noooo. We’re not going to sacrifice anyone.” She let out a half-laugh and sat up from the cool grass, brushing some of the green blades that stuck to her shirt. “I think… as much as I hate to leave this unattended, we have to observe it more before we decide to do anything. So long as I’m not dying from it, I think I’ll be okay in the long-run.”

“Well I guess I brought this ritual dagger along for nothing.” Torrin let out a grunt as he took his seat on the grass, hitting it with a thud as he did so. “Here’s hoping you have some normal nightmares in the future then.” Worried as he was, he had no intention of forcing his judgment on Aria unless she was actually dying. “Sooo…” He awkwardly tapped his hands against his lap, at a loss for words.

Aria couldn’t help but to giggle when Torrin seemed at a loss for words. She plucked a piece of grass from the ground and twirled it in her fingertips as she thought for a moment. “You know… even though I wasn’t told I was a Princess of Heart, everyone around me seemed to know. I mean, duh, my aunt and uncle were probably already told about me before I came to them… but they kept it under wraps pretty well. I mean, I never really suspected I was anything more special than the child they never had to raise.”

She paused a second as she looked over at Torrin before looking back at the grass in her hand. “But… we had these monster things called wrenfel. They were pretty large wolf-like creatures that could seriously hurt someone if they had a chance. They usually stayed away from humans, but they somehow became tainted with darkness. The animals we raised were killed, the crops were destroyed, whole farms were wiped out. My uncle was maimed by a pack of them that ventured on our farm and lost his arm and leg, but Master Gero appeared and saved him from dying.”

She crumbled the blade of grass in her hand and forced out a laugh. “I have a point, I promise.” She sighed out and sat with a crisscross, trying to tie the pieces grass into small knots as she talked. “Because is the wrenfel attacking and bringing down farms, everyone kind of panicked. Ours was a big farm and we were able to take in families that lost their own and help them survive. I mean, besides that one time, the wrenfel stayed away from ours for the most part. But because everyone was afraid… the blame started to point to me, because these problems never showed up until I came along. And I started to feel responsible for everything bad that happened. And that’s when I really, really wanted to help and not be useless. The kids from the other families were in charge of circling the property and take down wrenfel that came too close. My aunt and uncle tried to convince me I was fine the way I was and it was just all superstition and talk that I was the bringer of bad luck, but I wanted to prove myself. So, I went out against my uncle’s words of telling me to stay put, found a group of boys that were helping out and…”

She trailed off and stopped fiddling with the plantlife in her hands. “I wasn’t welcomed… and they echoed everyone else’s fear towards me. They took my weapons from me, roughed me up, and then shoved me in this empty supply box and… l-locked me inside of it. They pretty much said if I want to help out, then I could by being given back to the creatures I brought there…”

Aria stopped talking a moment and teared up. She muttered at herself for being emotional over this since it happened so long ago and furiously began wiping her eyes. “I’ve never been so scared in my life. I couldn’t get out… I could hardly move around inside of it, it was so cramped. I was dragged off the property and rolled down a hill, still trapped inside that t-thing. There was a point where wrenfel came and t-tried to break the box, but they got distracted or something and I was l-left alone for the most part. I thought I was never going to be found. But I was late into the evening when it started to get cold… by a search party, and Grandpa Gero.”

Aria sniffed and shook her head as she tried to stop her emotions from overflowing. Her body was shivering from the flashbacks of the experience and her heart ached from the memories of being rejected. “I-I’m sorry. I know you p-probably aren’t comfortable with st-stories like this, but I just wanted you to understand why I’m so determined to prove myself. Why I keep trying to fight and not wanting to worry others so much.” She kept trying to wipe her eyes to stop the tears, scolding herself for breaking down like this. Maybe she was at her breaking point for today and just really tired. But of all the people to cry in front of, she definitely didn’t want to cry in front of Torrin. He seemed uncomfortable with people as it was, and she knew how awkward people could get around someone that was crying, especially if they didn’t know them that well. “I’m sorry,” she half-whispered again, hiccuping and taking in a shaky breath to try to calm herself down.

“Don’t be sorry. Thank you for trusting me with this.” He spoke calmly after she uttered her second apology. It was difficult for him to stay silent after such a story when it was so obviously painful for her to get out. He didn’t even understand why she would open up to him in that sort of way but, putting aside the anger he felt towards those who wronged her, he could spot similarities in their own stories. It was too late to change what had been done to her but he could still let her know that she wasn’t alone. “People do stupid and horrible things when they’re afraid. It’s not an excuse but...I don’t know. I’m sorry I don’t have any words of wisdom to make you realize all the pain you’ve been through has been worth it but I can tell you that who you are now is what matters. Maybe you’re a little too sweet for your own good but, from what I’ve seen, you’re one impressive farm girl, Aria.” Torrin plucked a blade of grass from the ground and held it out towards Aria to replace the one she had crushed. “I know what it’s like to have people look at you different because of what you are. Being able to wield the keyblade and being of royal blood. Both are requirements for being the heir to the throne. Coincidentally, out of all my cousins, some of which were direct descendants of the king, that description only fits me. My uncle never held it against me that his own children would never take his place but everyone else did. I knew I didn’t deserve it and so I ran away. I never wanted to be the one to send someone else to their death fighting my battles. Especially not Boreas.” Torrin flicked a pebble he spotted on the ground and shook his head. Years had passed since then but the guilt weighed on him just the same. He paused for a moment to turn his head towards Aria. “Just don’t start calling me Prince Torrin or I’ll start calling you Princess Aria. Please. I don’t care for titles.” He summoned his keyblade out in front of him and laid it across his lap. “Funny how having something like this can cause so much jealousy...well, it’s not funny. I’m just not good at lightening a mood. A broody loner doesn’t really have much in the way of warm hugs and squishy words. ...Sappy words. Soft words?” He shrugged. “Anyway...I get it. I’ve searched for so many ways to prove that I’m worthy of the keyblade that I’m all out of ideas and I’ve racked up more failures than I can count. Getting you away from the Light Chaser though? That was a win. Same goes for the people you helped save from that burning building earlier or having kept your head on straight when you were kidnapped. Those are your wins.”

Aria sniffed and stared at the blade of grass that was offered to her. She finally took it, smiling a bit as she wiped away the last of her tears. She began to tie it in knots as she listened closely to Torrin. Maybe it was mentioned earlier, but she didn’t catch that Torrin was royalty until now. And with the way he described his fate of being such, she was starting to see more clearly how rough of a world Torrin was from. She again smiled and giggled when he asked her not to call him Prince Torrin. “As long as you don’t lock me in a box or put me in any enclosed spaces I can’t get out of, or do anything to make me mad or something, I won’t call you that.” She fell quiet again as he spoke, observing his keyblade closely. “I didn’t know I had the ability to have one until last year,” she mumbled. “Or that I was a princess of heart until about six days ago. I just wished it was one of my mentors that told me instead of the bad guy…” She sighed out through her nose and then glanced at Torrin. “I was seriously going to punch you though when you dragged me out of that world.” She broke out into a soft giggle and instead nudged his shoulder with hers. “I mean, he had me thoroughly convinced the world would fall apart as soon as I left before all the darkness was gone… though I didn’t know what he was saying was true, and what was false… I guess that was one of the false there.”

“It’s not your fault. The Light Chaser has fooled me before too.” He scratched his cheek and smiled slightly, glad Aria had cheered up. “Hah. You punch me? So much for being a pure light.” Torrin teased. Looking back up at the night sky then took in a long deep breath before leaning back. “We’ve still got plenty of time to kill before morning. If you want, there’s a few tricks I could show you. It’d help keep me awake too.”

“What kind of tricks?” Aria asked curiously. She was going to ask if they would hurt, but then she knew that he wouldn’t do anything to hurt her. Or at least she hoped so.

“Nothing extreme. Keyblade transformation, a few old fashioned hand-to-hand moves, how to unlock a door without a keyblade, how to start a fire without magic…” Torrin shrugged. “We’ve got the time.”

Aria hummed as she thought over her options. ”Well I sort of know about the unlocking door trick. The fire starting stuff without a keyblade I’ve done since I was little. I’m kinda interested in the keyblade transformation and hand-to-hand combat. I got my butt kicked by just one Light Chaser apprentice on a friendly duel match…”

“I see…” Torrin clapped his hands together and rubbed them against each other, nodding at Aria. “Then let’s get started.”

​

He looked up from his book, setting down the pen, when he sensed the presence of his students arriving on the world. His eyes shifted towards the window seeing the dimly lit streets of Eventide Town before they returned to the pages of the tome before him. He flipped through the next could of pages, some blank, some already written in with the letters on the pages shifting to form new words and, in time, tell new stories. There was nothing of note there that he did not already know. The Light Chaser picked up his pen once more and returned to the page he had been working on, adding the final details before shutting the black book. He stook up and placed the book in his black cloak before putting it on and pulling the hood up to obscure his face.

His students had returned with another Princess of Heart. This one had less fight in her but to be safe he placed young Anastasia in a deep sleep the same as the others lest she hurt herself trying to escape. There was no point in talking any of them into staying. He already knew their answers and even if they tried to play along with his plan they would only try to escape down the road. It was easier for everyone this way. With another princess taken care of he returned to his lodging for the night as usual and returned to his writings until night turned into day.

In the morning, just after having been contacted by his seventh student, the Light Chaser left to gather Dentro, Koa, and Chrys. After having brought along both Dentro and Koa he went to the inn Chrys had been staying at. For now Avra, Pagos, and Zeno could have their rest as they had done quite enough. "It's time, Chrys. Meet us in the town center when you are ready." The Light Chaser spoke after giving the door to her room a quick knock. Without another word he, Dentro, and Koa left.

​

Torrin spent the last two hours of the early morning sitting on his bed. Aria had given in to exhaustion and wanted to get some amount of rest after their training last night. Both his body and mind were weary and with what sliver of magic still stored in his body he forced himself to remain awake but knew that he could not keep this up much longer. That magitek device had to go. He couldn't afford to slow down now and become a dead weight. The sun had risen high enough that he felt now would be an appropriate time to leave his room once more but just as he reached for his door he could hear voices outside. One belonging to Edna, one belonging to a hero from yesterday, and another...he couldn't place.


"Elastigirl and I have checked every back alley, laid the smack down on every low life thug we could get our hands on, and reached out for our contacts in the super community...and we're sure we know where the villains have their hideout."

"What are you waiting for!?" Edna shouted. "Fight! Save the day! Bring back Mr. Incredible!"

"Woman are you crazy!? The other supers have their own nemesis to deal with and Elastigirl and I are outnumbered nearly ten to two! More if you count those robohats!"

"Are you super or are you a mouse!?"

"Didn't you say you were making new outfits for some new heroes that showed up? Why can't we just ask them to help us? That would even the odds!"

"Those kids aren't hero material. They didn't even have a place to stay!"

"Come on they can't be that bad."

 

Having fallen asleep so quickly after hitting her bed, Tinarah never really caught any of the conversation that was happening after they were to go to bed. Apparently sleep was something Tinarah had needed more than she had originally thought that she would. While kind of annoying to admit, at least Tinarah could be grateful that she could sleep through the night and wake up in the morning, unharmed, and hearing voices in the house. Sitting up out of bed, Tinarah found herself curious about what the conversation was. It would have been more respectful to just tune it all out, but instead Tinarah found herself cracking over her bedroom door, listening to what was being said. She had chosen a bedroom near the start of the hall, so she perhaps could catch things a little easier.

After listening in to Edna's conversation for a moment, Tinarah quickly got ready to the best of her ability before stepping out of her room, a little nervous as she looked back down the hall. Finally Tinarah stepped forward not really wanting to walk up to the adults talking but lingering near by, clearly in view. "Like I said before, we aren't heroes, but... I want to help anyways. I... We know how to fight, and I would rather not stay behind and just wait for more people to get hurt." Her voice was quiet and she still kept her distance, but Tinarah was done trying to argue with with Thallasa. She kept pushing to help, but they hadn't yet, so now she was taking the next step and directly offering help. They had let her come here, to help out, now she needed to be allowed to help. If they were just going to sit around and only let a couple people do things at a time, it would be no better than leaving her back at the council's castle. If that was the case she would have preferred it, then at least she would have been doing something to benefit herself by figuring out where she stood with Master Stamatis, and perhaps even Master Fost... if he ever did end up contacting her again.​

 

Frozone looked at the group, still looking unconvinced but he sighed and relented with a nod. "Well that's that then. I hope you all really can handle yourselves in a fight because it's looking like a direct confrontation is the only way to get Mr. Incredible back."

"Thank you. All of you. Frozone means well but he's just used to working alone or with Mr. Incredible." She explained, glancing over at the other hero. "I'm Elastigirl." The young woman waved at the group. "We need to break Mezmerella's spell on Mr. Incredible when we find him. I bet those goggles she has are what's focusing her power." Elastigirl tugged on Frozone's arm to lead him down the hall to continue talking strategy with him while Edna left down another hall, disappearing around a corner.

​

Thallasa entered the room, having left her bedroom just as Glyde began to speak his mind. "Well, it's unlikely that whoever knew of our location was one of us considering the device was already set by the time we got here." She responded. "Unless we're going to start pointing fingers at one of us that's here now we're just not going to get anywhere trying to figure out how they knew we were coming. But I understand your concern. It bothers me as well. There's just nothing we can do right now but push on."

​

Torrin arrived last, yawning as he stepped over towards Boreas. "Hopefully today's more productive than yesterday." He said to no one in particular. "Hope you caught more sleep than I did." Torrin looked over at Boreas and crossed his arms.


Edna stepped back in the room and motioned for the group to come over towards her and follow her. "Come come!" If they looked close they would have been able to see bags under her eyes caused from a lack of sleep. "I spent all night working on new suits for all of you, even you," she glared at Torrin, "so that when you all go out people will look to the skies and say, those heroes are wearing Mode!"

"Is...that what we really want them to say?"

"Bah! Of course not, darling. I have a sense of humor too. Now come! Witness the glory that is your new super suits!" Without another word Edna Mode rushed back down the hallway she had vanished into earlier.

​

"Hey Chrys. Ready for some action? Master says they've got us outnumbered ten to three but that they've been fighting some group of villains. So we just gotta wait around for them to tire out and wham!" Dentro smacked his fist into the palm of his other hand.

"Aria's there too so we're going to have to bring her back." Koa added. "Definitely not going to be awkward."

"Isn't your sister there too? Illi-llama? Illuminia? Iliad? Chrys? No wait we have a Chrys."

Koa sighed. "Illiana." He corrected. "And yes...but if it comes down to it I'll just put on my keyblade armor."

"But what about the awkward family reunion? You're sucking my fun out of this." Dentro frowned but Koa ignored him.

"That's enough. You won't be arriving directly to the city the other keyblade wielders are in so you will have to travel. There is a device preventing me from creating a stable portal."

"Really? But-"

"Opening a portal directly from the Realm of Sleep into a Waking World, through the thickening darkness that exists in between, and in the vicinity of a powerful magic inhibiting field is no simple task. Even for me." The Light Chaser did not sound amused about being questioned of his ability.

"O-of course, master. Forgive me." Dentro lowered his head.

"Now, it is time for you to leave." A column of light opened before the trio. "The field will weaken you as well so until the device is destroyed, choose your battles carefully."

On the other end of the portal was a quiet suburb and, in the distance miles away, towers spread throughout the horizon marking the downtown area.

 

"Guess it's hard to turn off the whole soldier mode, huh? I know how it feels. It's tiring looking over your shoulder every second. I don't think I'll ever stop to be honest." Torrin shrugged and walked after Edna alongside Boreas pausing only to watch as the woman stopped in front of a well-secured door with almost a dozen electronic devices requiring passwords and identification. Only after she had unlocked everything did the door finally open revealing a long hall with a massive display case behind which there were a multitude of costumes. Torrin's eyes widened slightly, impressed at the craftsmanship(craftswomanship?) of the costumes on display and a little taken aback at the bright colors some of them possessed. He could only wonder how Edna managed to get their measurements as the sizes of the costumes seemed to line up with those of the group.

"BEHOLD!"

​

 

While Tinarah didn't really speak up again, given she felt like her last words weren't really taken to heart, she did tuck away some of the information that she had gotten from Elastagirl. The fact that the goggles had something to do with the power that the woman had, it was a good thing to keep in mind. Tinarah gave a slight nod, ready to head off to find food or something when Edna walked back in the room ready to show them what she had created. Tinarah groaned to herself a bit, this was all over the top, it only got worse when they were brought in to see what she had made.

Following Edna into the next room Tinarah tried to stay back a little bit as she watched the woman with wide glasses prepare to reveal her creation. Each suite sat on mannequins and Tinarah walked until she found one that was labelled for her. Stopping she looked at it shaking her head a little bit before glancing over at Chrono. She didn't like tight clothes, she had a feeling her brother wouldn't like her wearing tight clothes, but here she was with a costume, that was made to completely fit her form. It made her slightly self conscious considering her weight at the time, but what could she do? She saw how tired Edna looked and the comments that she had been up all night, it made her feel bad if she didn't wear it. "So... um should we take them and try them on?" Tinarah asked a little unsure of what to do now. ​