Video Game: Kingdom Hearts SOS: The Road To Light

Kaida listened to Aux and Hikaru's back and forth, and realized just how much Aux didn't remember. The further on this went, the further on this whole situation pissed her off. Finally, Kaida looked up at Aux and said, "Over a year. You have lost your memories for over a year. You didn't just close your eyes and sleep your way through a year. You haven't even noticed the fact Hikaru has a keyblade now, have you?" Kaida paused a moment to take a breath and said, "Hikaru's always been kinder, you know I'm not.... So let me put it this way. You've done some horrible stuff over the past year you don't even remember. While not everyone in this room feels this way, most of the people in this room want to see your head rolling across the floor." Kaida's fists tightened before she added, "That group includes me." Kaida grinned sarcastically and said, "Welcome to the party Aux, I'm looking forward to wherever this train wreck leads." and Kaida went to go walk in the portal but stopped and turned to look over at Steel and said under her breath, "Why did I only just realize he's a wolf..." and she entered the portal.​

 

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Andrew turned to Aislinn when she said 'Perhaps it could be, but I like to draw conclusions on my own.' He never said that she had to agree with him. "Fair enough." She would have to make up her mind about Aux, as for himself he was somewhat undecided. That said it did not hurt to keep a eye on him. Then Aislinn said 'Well I guess we should follow them. Keep Aux from being too rude to the locals, and the girl from punching someone else.' That was easier said then done and he did not want to stand in front of Kaida or anywhere near her when she decided to use her fist. Aux was hard to do anything about. He wanted to keep a eye on Aux anyways because there was something he could not put his finger on about him. For now he thought the best thing to do was to observe him. Then Aislinn said 'So are you coming? We won't bite.' Well at least not yet, he thought. Hikaru had said something about taking on a animal form. He was joking he hoped or he hoped he was. He did not even know what animal he would be if he turned into one. It was probably best not to think about it. Aislinn then something to Aux, 'try not to be so rude next time you want to talk to someone by the way. I might not have minded but it might not get you far with some of the locals.' It would not get him far in the group too. Aislinn seemed blunt but honest. After Aislinn had left he was left with Aux and Ananta. He looked Aux up and down as he walked towards the portal. There was something about Aux that screamed something to him he just was not sure what it was yet. He walked up to the portal and then looked back at the others. Then he turned to the portal stepped through and then there was light... a blinding light as he fell through the portal to parts unknown.

 

Ananta watched Aislinn and nodded at her. True, they weren't going to bite, but she couldn't help feeling like that was going to be proven wrong. Though when she saw she was going to the same world as Hikaru, Kaida, and Aux, Ananta hoped to see just what Kaida meant. As far as Ananta could tell, this Aux apparently didn't dabble in the dark stuff. Maybe some time space crap was going on. Something that made another version of Aux appear. Whatever the case, Ananta was definitely going to try and keep an open mind about all of this.

Besides, the only bad guy she truly hated was Nequa anyway. So as far as Ananta was concerned, Aux wasn't bad to her. Yet. Approaching Aux, Ananta looked at him and tapped her chin. Now she understood why Kaida was so upset about Aux and everything.

Chuckling, Ananta hopped through the portal a little too happily.​

 

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Ignis watched as the keybladers all gathered with their new groups. Apparently the game master didn't like the previous teams, because he switched them around into teams of three, and Ananta was now with Aislann and AJ while Ignis was with Stratos and Beuce. She didn't care much either way. She figured by this point these guys didn't really stick to their own rules, so something was going to happen.

As the group of Kaida, Hikaru, and apparently Aux, which Ignis wondered how that would go, got ready to go through their portal, Ignis figured it was time for her to go through to her own test world. Luckily these were almost done, so hopefully that meant they were all going to be finished with this exam and get out of this place. She looked over to her teammates as she prepared to go through the portal that had a giant city in it. The other one looked like it had only animals in a savanna, so hopefully this other one didn't have only animals in it. She wasn't a fan of the last world where she was stuck as one.

"See you guys on the other side." And she walked through.

 

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Another glance back at the boards and Kel noticed the boards had changed up the pairings. Everyone was now in teams of three, their third member being Steel. With the exception of Etrius, this was the same group that had gone to Castle of Dreams. The lack of Etrius meant that there was one less problem for him to worry about going into the world, which for Kel was a relief.

Watching the first two groups enter the worlds of their choosing, he looked at the two portals before them. Neither one of them had any real sort of appeal to him, something that was shared with the last world he had gone to. Perhaps Luna actually had an opinion on where to go. "Any ideas on where you want to go?"

 

Spoiler: A flashback

Kaida was all set and ready for the Mark of Mastery, but she wanted to visit Hikaru before she started it. Hikaru at this point had been in a coma for a month, and it only made Kaida more and more anxious by the day. But she liked to keep him updated, though she wasn't exactly sure how much he could hear. She made her way to the chair most people sat in to talk while he was sleeping.

Kaida took a deep breath and began speaking, “Hey Hikaru… I’m taking the Mark of Mastery today... again... I know you would have wanted to wish me luck before I go… so I decided to come in.” Kaida chuckled a little and said, “You’re missing everything man, you better wake up soon or I’m gonna get mad. But, maybe when you wake up I’ll be a master, and then you can be jealous…” she shifted to stand up and said, “I’m gonna probably be late… so-”

“Ya know, I was gonna have him on my shoulders cheering for you from the sidelines, but that seems inappropriate.”

Kaida looked over to see where the voice came from and saw Aux and rolled her eyes, “Have you been practicing his voice?”
“No..” Aux responded, sounding slightly unsure. Kaida looked at him with an eyebrow raised and he replied, “Maybe…” then Kaida tilted her head entirely and Aux looked away from her direction as she said, “Shut up.”
Kaida laughed and imitated Hikaru poorly, “You go Kaida! Don’t let Aux get you down!”

There was a pause in the dialogue between the two before Aux cut through it, “You ever feel we’re getting too disrespectful around him?”
“Honestly? He’d be doing the exact same thing if one of us were in his position instead.” Kaida quipped right back.

“I just want him to wake up.” Aux bluntly replied and Kaida sighed saying, “I do too, but he’d probably rather us be doing something with our lives rather than moping around.”
“I don’t mope.” Aux replied very quickly.
“Then what emotion is this, mister “I don’t mope”?” Kaida replied rolling her eyes.
“Heartache?”

Kaida looked a bit thrown off by that reply and scratched the back of her head, “I mean… I get it. But you gotta get out and do something. Give him stories to tell. Don’t tell him all you did was sit bedside for a month while he was sleeping.”

Krowley seemed to walk in right just as she said that and looked towards the blond before crossing his arms a bit, “Kaida, you’re still here? You’re going to be late.”
“I was just about to leave, I didn’t wanna cut Aux and I’s conversation short.” Kaida admitted.
Aux shifted his head towards the door and said, “Go, and good luck. We’ll be here when you get back.”

Kaida nodded and waved saying, “See you later.”
As she ran off as he replied, “See you later.”

See you later.
Goodbye.
See you later.
Goodbye.

"Why then... why does Aux seem to remember up until then? Why?" Kaida hissed to herself before the light of the new world finally touched her eyes.

Kaida was a bit surprised when she found herself... shorter than usual. She thought maybe it was a size difference type thing before she saw her feet and moved them a bit. She tried to move her arms but felt them a little harder to lift before she realized she had wings. That was when it clicked to Kaida that she was a bird and she rolled her eyes. Of course.

It only clicked further when she saw Hikaru was a wolf, a very blue wolf, that Kaida waddled her way over towards Hikaru saying, "Of course you'd be a wolf. What else would you have been..." Kaida teased a bit. She tried moving a bit as well, realizing she was pretty fast in this little body, but she didn't feel quite as nimble. She could get used to that.

She heard Hikaru mention the lands and she looked towards them and asked, "Is it a drought? This looks like it's a drought of some kind. Unless it has something to do with heartless... i wouldn't be surprised if it did."​

 

...light... a blinding light as he fell through the portal to parts unknown. Then "almost there..." Almost where? Then he noticed how much hotter it was.


Then he opened his eyes and noticed how baron and how the plant life is dying. It was really bright. He was laying down and tried to stand and he noticed how much different it seemed to be to stand. Then he looked down at his feet and saw huge toes. Hikaru was not joking about the animal forms. He looked around for some water to look at his reflection but unfortunately there was no water in sight.

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He noticed how he seemed to have endless energy. Walked over to the others as Hikaru said, 'What happened here?' It might just be like this but maybe it changed. The only thing was to find out if anything happened and if it did what caused it. Kaida then said something about it being possible that it was a drought. He thought it might be possible. The world looked normal to him but you never can tell what a would was like before they got there. "Maybe we should find someone to ask what is going on and what happened here", he suggested. "Although it might be possible that we can not talk to anyone here." He still was not sure how magic worked or for that matter what happened when one turned to an animal. "Maybe we can just talk to animals because we are animals," he said this thinking out loud. He did not think any humans were here because if there was any he did not think they would turn to animals in the first place.

 

Luna looked at the board once again as the partners had changed. She scanned for her name and found KEL+LUNA+STEEL. She had also seen the other pairings split into three. The girl realized that Base had been missing from the list. She looked around for him but he was nowhere to be seen. "Where did he go this time?" After several moments, Luna looked back to the board where her name and her other two partners were. It had reminded her of their time in Castle of Dreams with the exception of Etrius. She looked over to her partners and smiled. Kel had walked up to the girl. "Any ideas on where you wanna go?" Luna placed a hand under her chin and began to ponder. After a moment, the girl spoke. "From the world bubbles in front of us, that city looks interesting. How about there?" Luna walked over to the gate before looking back at Kel and Steel. "We better get going! Last one's a rotten egg!" Luna ran through the gate and into a new world.

Luna looked around at her surroundings, taking in the sight of this city she found herself in. "Whoa. This place looks amazing!" The girl looked around once more to see animals walking around and conversing with one another. She then looked down at her feet. "Huh?"

"What in the world??" She ran to find a reflective surface and saw a bunny staring right back at Luna. "Wait....Is that....me???" She had turned into a rabbit! The girl looked at her hands or paws as it were. She couldn't believe but this was no dream. Luna then looked up and began looking for her partners. "Kel? Steel? Where are you guys??" The girl started walking around until she found her partners. She kept walking down the streets and had no success. "Maybe I should wait where I first arrived. There may be a chance they're over there." The girl began to walk back to where she originally arrived in the city. She sat down on a nearby bench as she awaited for the arrival of her partners.​

 

Beuce showed a small grin as his partner was revealed. This was the best pair he could've gotten. He looked over at Stratos as he spoke to him. "Hell, when we're done with our test, lets go and pass everyone else's for them. We'll have the downtime." Shortly after, it was revealed Ignis would be joining them for a trio. So he was with her again. While it wasn't quite the pleasant surprise Stratos was, he was fairly confident that the woman was strong and reliable. It seemed like this time, they were going to a world with a party of six. Their trio, and one other. "Lets do this." Beuce said as he stepped through the portal and into the test.


Beuce immediately felt incredibly different. His face was...longer somehow. He opened his mouth several times, trying to adjust to his new jaw shape. It took some getting used to, to say the least. Looking around, he saw everyone else was comprised of anthropomorphic animals. Nearby was a small bunny who, from the voice and what she said, he surmised was Luna. He approached behind her, to get a look at what he looked like. It was odd to see his hair ontop of other hair. The new fur around his neck was incredibly fluffy, and made him look rather fat. In response to his appearance, there was only one thing he could say. "Wow." ​

 

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Luna had chosen the more modern looking world as their destination and headed that way right off the bat. Personally to him it looked about as good as any, but it wasn't like there was any strong feelings of conflicting regarding either of the two worlds. Shortly after Luna and later Beuce had gone into the portal, he did the same.

The first sight upon entering the world was the city, which was fairly impressive looking. The next thing that came to his attention was all of the animals take were casually walking about on two legs. While this was a surprise, it wasn't that big of one of the account that this is the third time Kel has seen animals walking on two legs. Spotting what he could assume to be Beuce and Luna, he walked over to them which lead to him getting a closer look at the animal that he had turned into. Why am I a hedgehog? Moments later a realization donned on him, prompting him to glance up towards his head. His spiky hair was still there, along with the addition of some spines that he could see poking out. "Yeah, that explains it." Odd, it didn't matter much back in Nottingham when he was a fox.

 

Luna awaited for the arrival of her partners when she saw an odd looking dog person come up behind her. She pondered for a moment before coming to a realization. "Beuce? Is that you?" It wasn't before long when Kel had arrived. She looked over to a spiky hedgehog and walked up to the hedgehog. "Kel? Is that you? Wow!" Luna was curious about his appearance but she then questioned her own appearance. "Why are we all animals? This is feels a little weird but then again that is probably an understatement." Luna scratched her head before looking over to Kel. She resumed waiting for her other partner to arrive.

 

Ananta flopped forward and waved her arms. For some reason, she could tell she was floating. Opening her eyes, she saw her companions were all animals. Blinking a few times, Ananta looked at herself and saw she was a parrot. Although, she was smaller than Kaida, for sure, at least she wasn't the only bird. Especially since AJ was a lion. She kind of worried if his feline instincts would kick in.

Shaking her head, Ananta took a moment to fly a bit before she looked around. It certainly was pretty barren. And when she flew high enough, all she saw was more dirt and dust, some greenery was far off.

"I see some green far away, but we're pretty much surrounded by dirt and dust." She stated, flying back down and perching upon Aislinn's antler.

"I hope you don't mind." she said, looking down at Aislinn. "Or should I go perch someplace else?"​

 

Noting that the partners had shifted, Stratos was a bit concerned at his new one. Given that she had all but emotionally fell apart after nearly hitting him straight on with a keyblade, Stratos wasn't feeling the most comfortable around Ignis. All the same, she was more than likely reliable, his only real experience being with her in the fight against the blots and Mizrabel, and that was a quality he could appreciate. All the same, the trio was getting ready to move out, and with the world portals opened, he followed after his partners.

When next he opened his eyes, he found himself somewhere sort of different. The surrounding area around him had still reminded him of Shibuya, a major city of steel and roads, though with far more color and life. As the boy started to walk around though, he began to realize that the way he walked felt a bit different. Furthermore he felt something behind him, touching the ground. A confused look crossing the boy's face, he soon realized just how bizarre the feeling was, realizing that it felt like he had suddenly had another part of his that had never been there before. Turning around, he saw a patterns of brown and black circles across a fur covered tail...that was attached to him. "What the-" as the boy continued to turn he realized his hands were now more like paws, as were his feet. "Uhhhh-," the boy was growing more confused at this, trying to come to terms with the fact that he was now a walking animal; specifically a raccoon...in a hoodie. The boy tried to get a grip on what was going on, as he looked around and saw other walking and talking animals.

The fact that they were walking and talking was not at all a shock to him. The fact that he was able to identify them as his companions, though, was. Walking over he nodded as she noted how weird this was saying, "yeah, I don't think I ever realized how uncomfortable a tail is. Hi guys," the boy gave a small wave. "This is a really bizarre clause to the exam, don't you think? But I uh, guess we're just animals?" He looked equally as lost as everyone else. "Still, we have a mission to do here, right? So, where do you think we're best off going guys?"

 

Spoiler: Conqueror's Respite 2/?

In the black and rainy night, Steel approached the group of three on the beach. Gale and Winter were standing over someone in a lab coat, who on further inspection seemed to be Professor Griffon. He was kneeling down on the ground... crying? Maybe he was mistake- no that was definitely Griffon and he was definitely crying... or were they crying? Kneeling down to the wailing scientist, Steel cautiously drew attention to himself.

"Hey, uh... Leo? Alice? You okay there guys?" Their head shot up with a jolt as a shocked look took form on their face.

"Sors!" A higher sounding voice shouted with glee as the red head pulled him into a bone crushing hug and started sobbing even more fervently than before. "You're here! I thought we'd never see you again!"

"Whoa! Alice!" So his suspicions had been correct. The Aquila 'siblings' were currently sharing the same body. Truth be told, it was their natural state. However, due to several variables that allowed for other options, it was something that they very rarely actually did.

There was definitely something very strange going on here, but this was perfect. Griffon, or rather this illusory version of Griffon, would surely be able to tell him what was really going on back at his home world. If anyone would know, it would be them.

However, he'd first need to calm down Alice, who was still sobbing quite hysterically into his hoodie, as well as shoving her tear ridden face into the decorative chains now fastened around him. That could not have been comfortable. Gale and Winter did nothing to placate her for their part, seemingly content to merely look on in concern for now.

"Guys, guys, guys! Griffon, calm down, please!" His words fell on seemingly deaf ears. To be honest, Steel was more than a little curious as to why exactly they were so upset. Sure, Alice had mentioned the possibility of never seeing him again, but that wasn't enough to make her this upset. Leonidas wasn't even doing anything to exert dominance over the body either, which meant he was likely to be equally wracked with grief, though he was considerably less expressive of it. Grabbing the red headed body by the shoulders, Steel gently pried their face away from his torso to look into their eyes.

"Griffon, I can tell something is wrong..." As if that wasn't the understatement of the year. "...but I need Alice to calm down a little, and let Leo explain the situation to me: I can't fix anything if I don't know what's happening." The look on Griffon's face slowly became subdued, though it was still tear stained, and the eyes still held an indescribable sadness.

"Of course." The calmer, more centered voice of Leonidas Aquila began to come from the host mouth. "Though I'm not even sure where to start."

"How about at the beginning?" Steel suggested, to which Leo responded with a small, somewhat forced chuckle.

On the crowded street, the tall wolf stirred from his reminiscence and found himself standing beside a rabbit and a hedgehog. His partner's this round: His very first teammates. Base, who was originally going to be his partner, seemed to have disappeared again. So here he was, ironically with those who had been his partners in the beginning. Etrius was no longer with them, but he still liked to think the three of them could function fairly effectively as a team based on how they had done back then. Still, it had been quite awhile, and he and Luna had changed quite a lot... He honestly couldn't tell if Kel had changed or not, they hadn't seemed to talk at all since that mission together. At some point though, Steel had decided that he liked Kel, and heck if he was going to revoke that opinion any time soon.

They had worked hard together, and met many new faces since. That first world alone had been a blur of new names, what with Ananta, Xero, and the subsequent entirety of what had at the time been the SoS. Looking back now reminded Steel of simpler times... and perhaps made him realize just how much that first mission still affected him in unseen ways. Surrounded by other animals on a busy day, with two of his oldest companions, Steel thought aloud as he stood beside them.

"It's been awhile since we've been together on a mission, huh?"

 

Kaida followed Hikaru for the sake of following him at this point and Kaida was amused that Aux was a Lion. The charms she ended up whittling turned out to be more accurate than she expected. Or maybe it was chance? She had no idea. heard Aux's comment and wasn't sure if she was insulting how she looked or her height and she huffed and looked away, "Least I don't have a stupid hat on WHILE I'm a lion." she looked between the two and turned around, "So there must be a reason why we're here, right? Let's just try and get this over with..." Kaida didn't seem interested in trying to warm up to Aux at all, and the sooner she could finish up the world, the better off she felt this would be.​

 

Noticing the arrival of her other partner, the trio had begun to talk with one another. "It's been awhile since we been together on a mission, huh?" Steel had begun to speak. Luna smiled before responding. "Castle of Dreams. Man, it feels like it was just yesterday. A lot has happened since then. It's almost hard to believe but that's the reality of it, huh?" Luna placed her hands on her hips as she reminisced. The girl clapped her hands together. "Alrighty then! Now that we're all here, we should probably explore!" Luna smiled before another idea had struck her. "Actually.....How about we find some of the local authority? They might be able to tell us where we are! What do you guys think?" Luna looked at both of her teammates to see what their thoughts were. She wanted to get their opinions first before taking any action further.