Kingdom Hearts: Recollect

​

"So anyone know anything about a journal?" As a way to pass the time while they were walking, Chrono had decided to ask about one of the things that he had recently remembered during the battle against Ria. If the various reactions to Alder's 'Aevum' question was anything to go off of, someone in this group might know something about it ideally...hopefully...if not he'd just ask someone that went on the other path when they reconvened.

Having gone up and down another mountain, the road had taken them to a village that swirling darkness around it as well more sounds of machines despite the current shape the village was in. "Ya know, I was expecting there to be a lot more, I dunno, people here." Even the machines were still functioning, something had to have been keeping them functioning. On cue there was a flash of light followed by another figure fleeing from a large group of heartless. There was someone there and they were clearly in need of some help. In an instance his keyblade appeared in his hand, as did a smile on his face with the sheer fact that it did come back to him this time, and went to deal with the heartless chasing the figure. Doing so alone wasn't the brightest of moves so Chrono briefly paused, turned towards the others and said "Come on guys, he's not going to help himself." then went back to going towards the heartless.

 

​

Daeni walked and felt her feet kick up dust as she looked onward. She barely blinked, scared that maybe she'd accidentally look at a shadow wrong and find it's claws in her flesh once more. That was something she didn't want right now, especially since she could only make the silhouettes of her comrades out. Even then, they were barely visible among all this darkness.

Eventually, they found a large gate with a large lock on it. Cerdic apparently decided he would just...unlock it. Daeni was a little surprised, but she looked at her keyblade and remembered something. It certainly had the word key in it, so the unlocking thing shouldn't have been so much of a surprise. Besides, she remembered unlocking something with her own before.

Whatever it was, Daeni was more concerned with Relli just sort of....being there. They didn't respond to anything and just kind of stared. The whispers were even louder now that the gate was open. Daeni listened to them and wondered what they were saying. Why did they sound so...inhuman? Were they the whispers of the darkness, begging them to become it's victims?

Relli seemed to be drawn in by them, seeing as they were going first. Daeni followed behind, looking at Cerdic and jerking her head towards Relli. It was a motion of saying 'Come on.'

 

Chloe had raised a very valid point that Kara hadn't wanted to think about. What if the paths really didn't reconverge? "If the paths don't meet up somewhere along the line, then we'll just have to make our own. The others should be fine until then, I can't imagine Rhia would show up so soon after being beaten already, and anything else should be fine in comparison" Kara said to Chloe, in both an attempt to reassure her.

The village was a little unusual, and all too quiet. There were machines, which brought a spark of hope into the girl's heart, but nobody seemed to be around to operate them. How were they being powered, and for what? Were they similar to the extractor? Just as questions were popping into Kara's head, a flash of light came from one of the factories, quickly followed by a figure and the heartless chasing them. Nodding in response to Chrono's suggestion of helping the person, Kara made her way forward and towards the heartless. She'd be damned if she was going to let a chance at an explanation slip through her fingertips.​

 

​

In the end, I had let him go down the dirt path. As they walked down the increasingly dark and murky path, the entirety of the group remained as silent as the graveyard upon which they had wandered. The only one who seemed willing to speak was X... who was frankly the last person who should be allowed to speak right about now. Alas there was naught he could do about that.

As he followed the others through the gate, Chrys briefly wondered what kind of place this "Orphic Coast" was, and whether or not any of them had been here before. The strange whispers twisted the already dark atmosphere into that of a chilling and seemingly haunted locale. It was as if something could jump out at the small group at any moment. Ever paranoid, Chrys summoned Light Seeker back to his side, despite the lack of immediate need for it.

 

​

Marley had followed along with the rest of the group, having to squint the further down the path they went. The darkness seemed to be getting thicker the more they traveled, which only made the keyblade wielder all the more curious as to what they would find at the end of it. This curiousity was only driven further as faint whispers slowly started to grow louder and louder the further along they went. As the path had eventually ended in the face of a wall, Marely looked at in awe. Giant wall normally there was something worth keeping in it, and they of course wanted to know what that was. Following the group alongside the wall's length, they were eventually greeted with a large door that Cerdic simply opened with the key part of the keyblade. Walking in, Marley noticed the atmosphere getting undoubtedly more spooky, as they saw that it was a graveyard they were entering. A bit wide eyed, at it, Marley started wondering just what was in this cemetery. Maybe zombies. "That'd be fun," they said to themselves. Without much else to say, Marley walked into the graveyard.

 

The graveyard was, for the most part, a pretty standard looking graveyard with markings. There were a few that stood out from all the rest however. A larger gravestone seemed to be in the distance with several names attached to it. And over in the eastern corner there was actually a gravemarker that had... well, a keyblade standing up at the space. The marker was low to the ground and every now and again, the darkness drew close to it, and a slightly flicker of light happened and pushed the darkness away temporarily, and it continued with this pattern.

More ominously however, was the crypt that was opened, and seeping darkness out from it. That was where the source of the whispering sound was.

---

The figure found another building to lock themselves into it. The heartless continued on with their attack, trying to get through the door. There were a total of five darkballs following them, and four shadows. And they were ready to attack this person, not really noticing the keyblade wielders until they were really close.

Darkballs
5/5 (each takes 15 BP each to defeat)
Shadows
4/4 (each taking a total of 5 BP to defeat)

 

​

The random guy had managed to go and hide in another building away form the heartless that were chasing them. That was a good thing since it allowed them to take care of the heartless without having to be concerned about the strangers safety. The heartless had failed to turn their attention away from the door and towards the wielders, or wielder at this current moment, heading their way. The element of surprise was on their side and in theory the lesser shadows could be dealt with quickly and easily so that they could focus on the other heartless that happened to be around. If that theory was to be done by anyone, it wasn't going to be Chrono. He may have gotten his keyblade back and remembered how to use it, but none of those memories included an attack that would like him just cut through all of them in one quick strike.Oh well, he managed fine with the power of throwing rocks and beating the crud out of them with a chunk of driftwood so comparatively this would be a piece of cake. The heartless continued to beat at the door, trying to break it down and get to their original target as Chrono got within striking range.

The first strike made short work of the first heartless that happened to be furthest from the door. One shadow down and all of the other shadows had turned their attention away from the door and towards Chrono. Now having a new target that wasn't hiding behind a door, the heartless moved in to attack. First up to bat were the remaining three shadows. Much like they had done in the battle against Ria, they all attempted to attack him at once. The collective attack from them was blocked before Chrono had pushed them back and mounted a counter attack of his own. The closest shadow to him at the moment was one that happened to still be in the air which meant its end with a quick upward slice. Next was the shadow that had just hit the ground and as such it was punted into one of the bulkier looking heartless that had fortunately yet to try and make a move on him.Three shadows down and now there was only one left of that group to deal with and it was already heading towards him. Certainly made the task of defeating it much easier. Chrono readied himself for when the shadow had popped out of the ground and stepped out of the way before stabbing it with his keyblade.

Total Words: 431
BP Spent: 21
Heartless Defeated: 4 Shadows
Damaged Dealt: 1 BP to a Darkball, being hit by a shadow does hurt.

 

​

Despite her best efforts, Kara could not keep up with the figure. That didn't surprise her, athletics had never been her strong suit, unless she'd become a champion athlete in the period that her memory did not cover. That'd be really useful, but she certainly didn't feel particularly strong, so she probably wasn't a legendary athlete of awesomeness after all. That was a shame, it would've made things a lot easier for her and the party. Bringing her focus away from that fantasy and back to reality, she picked up speed a little in an attempt to catch the figure before they got too far away. Although if they did get away, the heartless wouldn't get them and that would make the whole situation a lot easier, but what was the chances of that happening?

Quite high, it turned out. The figure did escape, rushing into a very old looking building. That was good, it meant the figure would probably be safe. At least, that's what she hoped. The heartless were definitely doing everything in their power to get inside of the building though, repeatedly slamming into the thing with their claws and bodies. What the hell even were the rounded ones? They had weird tendrils coming out of their head...or their body...or maybe they were the same thing. How many paopu fruit had the heartless creator been taking when they'd come up with this one? They were so weird.

As she got nearby to the building, she saw Chrono go on the offence and do quite a lot of work. It was just a little odd that he'd hit the shadow with such force that it had crashed into another of the heartless, but then again it was a very good idea. In fact, it was so good she should try it herself! Wait, she probably didn't have the strength to do that, so to attempt it would mean certain death...or at least certain maiming. Was that even a term? Probably not. Oh god she was getting distracted again. Stupid illogical heartless and their stupid stupidity things.

At last the keyblade wielder leaped into battle, True Light's Flight (how did she know the name of it?) whirling around as Kara gracefully glided around the battlefield. She mainly maneuvered around just the one heartless, which happened to be one of the ball heartless, but it's the thought that counts. One, two, three strikes she landed on the creature, knocking it back slightly. Yeah, go Kara! However, that was not to be the end of the darkball, made obvious as it moved around with incredible speed and slammed into her with its body. It felt all rubbery and stuff when it hit, what the heck was this thing? Reacting quickly, Kara turned and sliced straight down the middle of the darkball, causing it to turn into a black cloud of heartless vapour.

With that done, the mighty Kara the unstoppable turned on her heel and lunged forward, landing a solid strike on the heartless chrono had punted the shadow into. Just as she expected, it didn't fly into another one. That sucked.


Total words: 521
BP spent: 25
Heartless defeated: 1 Darkball
Damage dealt: 10 BP worth to the injured darkball Chrono hit, leaving it on 4 BP.

 

​

Daeni was literally shaking in her boots while waiting for the rest of the group. She looked at Cerdic and watched him head for the grave that had a keyblade. She then looked to see a crypt was open and darkness was quite literally pouring out of it. She decided that maybe staying close to the group was a good idea, so she wandered over to Cerdic and watched what he was doing. "Should...should we try to pull it out?" she asked, reaching for the keyblade.

 

Relli took barely a moment to register the contents of the graveyard, giving the area one sweep with their eyes before identifying the source of the whispering. The whispers were louder than ever, now, and it felt like they were being overwhelmed by them, unable to process anything else. They stood, just for a moment, in the center of the area, watching Cerdic and Daeni wander towards the side, before heading towards the crypt. The others could do as they liked; Relli had to find out the source of the whispering.

They paused at the door to the crypt, again only watching as the darkness within leaked out into the open air. The smell was absolutely rank, the disgusting odor of darkness mixing with the scent of decay, and the young prince wrinkled their nose at it. But still the whispers bombarded their ears, so they steeled themself, and began to enter.

 

​

Following the crew inside the gates, Marley had noticed that the area was most definitely spooky. The darkness seemed to be getting thicker inside the cemetery, and the endless sea of grave markers did nothing to lighten this atmosphere. Looking around the graves, Marley noticed one that stood out in particular. Shining and pulsing with light, to the east, Marley noticed something that looked like a keyblade and was definitely intrigued by it. However, as others of the group moved towards it, Marley turned to notice that Relli was moving the opposite direction. Deciding to follow after them, the ominous ambient whispers grew louder and louder as they approached the darkness spewing crypt. Raising an eyebrow at this, Marley seemed to have an intrigued, almost adventurous, look to their face as they walked closer towards it. As they approached both the crypt and the person, Marley called out, "hey there Relli. I take it you thought this was super cool too?"

 

​

With some help from both Alder and Kara, another batch of the heartless had been removed from the equation leaving their numbers quite thin. As in there were only two left for them to deal with, one of had already been damaged and thus was much weaker than its counterpart that was just floating around next to it just fine. That was unfair to the heartless that had suffered through there attacks, but fortunately Chrono had a way of evening the playing field. Naturally it was to defeat both of them or to a lesser extent one of them. The last two heartless that remained once again hadn't noticed him or bothered to make any attempts to attack him. Granted it wasn't like they were given much chance to perform the latter with the rate that they were attacking/wiping out the heartless. Those first four heartless never saw it coming.

With a flick of his wrist Chrono pointed his keyblade towards the dark ball that taken the least amount of damage. "Well I could finish off the clearly weaker heartless, but where's the fun in that." Another wrist flick and his keyblade was held in his 'normal' way of doing it. He didn't know why it was that his way of holding his keyblade where as everyone else appeared to have held it the opposite way from him, but according to what remembered, this was how he fought and he was skilled at doing it so no point in questioning it this late into the game. Instead he sprinted towards the targeted dark ball and struck at it with his keyblade. The heartless still had its attention focused towards Alder and Kara, therefore not noticing the while haired wielder going forth and attacking it tilt he upward slash had made contact. The increased mass of the heartless had served its purpose in keeping it from being knocked flying into the sky, plus there was the fact that Chrono wasn't strong enough to do that to begin with unless it was light like the shadows he had taken care of earlier. Even with that being the case, his attacks didn't stop there for another slash was dealt to the heartless, and another, and another one. Multiple strikes were dealt to the heartless til it started to wobble due to at the damage it had taken and collapsed onto the ground.

Total Words: 40
BP Spent: 20
Heartless Defeated: 1 Darkball, the other one still has 9BP so have fun with that whoever posts next

 

​

Chrys resisted the urge to roll his eyes, and readied his weapon: the group was not only in dangerous territory, but decided it would be a great idea to split up even further. VIII and IX were walking alone into a crypt, and VI had just watched X ... He wasn't sure what X had just done. The man was completely ignorant to his blunder and just kept waving around the latest symbol of his inadequacy as a person.

This man was... amazing. That was probably the word he would pick because knowing him, he'd just find some way to twist it into some kind of compliment, and at least that way he could say what he meant, and he would be heard, even if it was taken completely the wrong way.

Looking between the direction of the two pairs, the exceedingly paranoid Chrys stood ready for something to blow up in all of their faces.

 

​

And here we are, Chrono vs the last heartless. Mano a Mano...kinda. Actually does this kind of thing even apply to heartless, this one in particular was just a floating ball and nothing else. Maybe it wouldn't apply to this then. Whatever, point is that it was the last heartless that was left and Chrono was going to be the one that was going to defeat it. It was still clearly on its last legs and wasn't much of a threat to him in its current state. In fact the heartless actually did attempt to attack him, but with how slow and clearly telegraphed the attack was, Chrono had little trouble just stepping out of the way of the attacking ball to avoid the small amount of damage that would've been done to him. This was a sad sight for the keyblade wielder to see and at this point it was going to be more of a mercy to simply put it out of its misery. Slowly and very casually Chrono walked up to the wobbling heartless, standing before it with his keyblade raised him high. In one swift motion his keyblade was brought down upon the heartless, cleaving it in two and causing it to turn into dust. "And, that's that."

Total Words: 212
BP Spent: 9
Heartless Defeated: The last Darkball

 

​

Daeni listened to Cerdic for a moment before she crossed her arms and cleared her throat. "Didn't you just do what you said we shouldn't do?" she asked, motioning towards the keyblade in Cerdic's hand.

"In any case, don't chastise me if you're just gonna do it anyway!" she retorted, looking to see Relli and their other party mate had walked towards the crypt. "Anyway, you're right. We better follow them. Put that thing back!" she said, turning back to Cerdic.

 

When Cerdic did that, his keyblade did not have a particular reaction to the darkness, but the other keyblade continued to do so. The light helped to reveal the marker briefly though, stating:

"In Memoriam
Agnitio
Our Light through the Dark."
​

The crypt was filled with swirling darkness, though as they walked further, something connected with their feet, and a flashlight was now present. One of the whispers ended up being clear and stated: give back what you stole. the whispers only became more clear from there on, but they were all variations on the same idea. Give back my balance. You thief, give it back! Give back what is mine!

---

As the last of the heartless disappeared, the person opened the door slightly to look out. They noticed the group and a look of relief showed on their face until they saw Kara, looked them directly in the eyes and said, "You!" they opened up the door, to reveal, well, about a fifteen year old girl with long black hair and blue eyes. She ran up to Kara and pushed her, though it was really weak, as she screamed, "You said you were going to help us! Then it got dark and now I can't remember what you did to all of them! What did you do to my mom and dad? What did you do to me?"

The girl covered her face and dropped to her knees and said, "What did you do to my heart?!"