Video Game: Kingdom Hearts SOS: The Road To Light

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Kel let out a sigh of relief once the heartless had been defeated. This whole ordeal had been both long and grueling, but finally it had reached it conclusion. "Maybe, though not sure where we would find any of those." Hot springs aside, just being able to relax would be a welcome changed all things considering. A sudden gust of wind cause Kel to instinctively cover his face. Kel peered in the direction the wind was coming from and caught sight of the after math of Shiro and Hughes battle. Fortunately the former was the victor. With the wind subsiding, Kel had ventured over to where Shiro was as well, just in time to see Aux be restrained by Mizu's magic.

 

Beuce watched in awe as Shiro brought forth the third tier of his Aura. They'd only managed to achieve the first layer of what appeared to be an incredible gap in power. Honestly, it seemed like an unreachable height that was infinitely far off. Then again, he thought back to the way he'd been on his homeworld, and where he stood now would've looked just as imposing. He'd come so far from where he started it was unbelievable. He was confident that all of them would be able to reach their third tier of their auras in time. He ran over to where Mizu and Shiro where as the bulky man collapsed onto the ground, changing back to his regular attire and dropping out of his light aura. He couldn't imagine that forcing that kind of power out of your body all at once was easy. There was a reason their bodies put natural inhibitions on their powers and gave them time to "cool down". Overdoing it was dangerous.

He gave a slight sigh of relief as Shiro rose from his apparently death-like sleep. "You had us worried for a second there. Can't go kicking the bucket before you teach us how to do that." Beuce chided sarcastically. He listened to Mizu. The last time he'd seen her, Nequa had captured her after defeating them in Camelot. "We could use a little bit of a catching up. We've been in the realm of darkness for who knows how long." It was then that Aux walked up and, by simply stating his name, seemed to start a confrontation. Beuce summoned Lofty Grasp almost instinctually at the impending signs of combat. He wasn't even sure who he was ready to fight at first, though that seemed an obvious conclusion. He pointed the red end of his keyblade at Aux in Sprinkles' grip. He might have helped them in this fight, but he was the reason that they went through all this in the first place. "Ananta, I don't think we should be quite so hasty to trust him. He's still the same guy who threw us into darkness in the first place, and he may have only been helping us at all because he lost his memories. If he's turned over a new leaf and wants to help us fight against No Heart and Krowley, great. But I'm not convinced yet. Until we can be sure of anything, we should keep our guard up. We're finally getting somewhere, and I don't particularly feel like throwing it away because we got stabbed in the back." Beuce said, thinking back on Hughes' words. He'd said something about a traitor. While that was certainly ominous, it was nothing to tear themselves apart over. ​

 

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Stratos, quite like most, had let out a deep sigh of relief as Shiro sprung back awake. While he had seemed to be alive, his body wasn't exactly in moving condition. All the same, Stratos was overjoyed at the fact that they had all managed to fight not only an army, but two insanely powerful foes and come out on top. No one had died this time, there was no retreat and there were no foes chasing their heels. Only those that they looked forward to. Stratos looked over to Karina's bloody execution of Hughes, seeing the last man still let out his own last laugh at them. As the man mentioned that there was a traitor in their midst, Stratos narrowed his eyes towards the man, before looking back to the situation at hand.

As it had turned out, Mizu and Shiro had found out that the boy they were talking with was indeed Aux. And, as was expected, they weren't too happy with this. While Ananta was quick to defend him, Beuce was equally quick to rebuttal. The boy stepped between them saying, "I agree with Beuce. We trusted him because we had to, not because wanted to or forgave him. And I personally don't know how sorry an amnesiac can be for things he can't remember he did. That being said," he gestured towards Beuce and Mizu as if to tell them to put their weapons away. "We all just finished a massive fight, and we're all exhausted. Him included." He pointed to Aux. "So, while I think we need to figure out more about him, now's not the time and especially not at blade point. So let's just calmly think through this and rest up a bit first, sound good?"

 

"Ah yes. A vacation would indeed be sublime." Steel sighed from his position on the ground; the wind had blown him back quite a ways as well, but he didn't put a lot of effort into fighting against it or even landing. So there he was with his back to the sand, staring up at the sky. "Unfortunately it most assuredly will be too much to ask. It's like relaxation is taboo around here." Shaking his head in annoyance, Steel quickly began to daydream of his own ideal vacation. "I could go for a cloudy day at the beach... Curled up on a towel with a cool breeze against my fur... the wonderful scent of rain from the clouds above, heavy with water but never quite bursting into rain..." His tail started thumping against the sand. "That would be a nice day..." As Kel went over to where the finale was going down, Steel pulled himself onto all fours. He didn't really bother going any higher, exhausted as he was. Seeing the commotion involving Aux starting to go down some distance away, he once again let out a sigh. It was more frustrated and annoyed than his previous. He turned to his remaining companions.

"I suppose it's already time to start dealing with all this then... shall we?"

 

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Ignis listened as Steel went on about his choice for a vacation spot and she drifted off a little into her own world. It was the perfect time to just leave everything be, but a commotion had started up that left her unable to enjoy the quiet. She perked her ears to listen to what was going on, and apparently Aux had mentioned who he was and some kid apparently didn't seem to take well to that. Shiro apparently didn't either, since Ignis could hear the guy yell from her position about grabbing Aux. Then there was Ananta who tried to stand for Aux, and Beuce who sounded like he really didn't agree with Aux being there at all, then Stratos seemed to try and take some sort of middle ground. At least, she tried to give him that benefit of the doubt, but it did seem more like he was siding against Aux.
Oh for crying out loud, this is getting ridiculous.." As her back was still on the ground, she brought her keyblade into her hand then lit it up in flames and tossed it up to the air.

The keyblade soon let gravity take hold as it fell back toward the ground and landed in the arm of the creature holding Aux, the flames slowly melting the creature's hand. Ignis was about done with this whole nonsense of whether or not they could trust Aux, but she was going to make her point clear even if it made her seem like the bad guy.

"I can't believe you guys are still arguing over whether or not we should deal with Aux or not. Did he not help us clear our trial, as well as fight along side us during that last battle? So what if he's the one that sent us here in the first place? If the guy had any reason to turn on us, his best chance would have been earlier when we were being overrun by Heartless. But did he? I don't think so. I'm not one to put my trust in people completely, but given that this guy has fought alongside us and saved our butts, I'm willing to back him up. And honestly, if you guys went through all that to get stronger and are still scared of him, maybe you should stay in this realm and not continue fighting. We know there's tougher guys than Aux out there, but we're still going to fight them. If by some chance this guy does turn on us, than all we have to do is beat him down till he doesn't get back up." Ignis walked up and grabbed her keyblade from the creature's arm and yanked it out, burning the last bit away and letting Aux go.

She looked at Beuce, Stratos, Shiro, and the annoying little kid. Quite honestly that kid was irritating Ignis more than any of the others and she couldn't even figure out why. "If you're going to judge a person only by their past failings and ignore their success, why be a part of a team? If that's how this group is going to act toward anyone that helps, I may as well leave now. Our job is to help people, and in my eyes, that means my enemies too, if they deserve it, and this guy deserves it." She planted her keyblade in the ground and sat down, taking her stance on the matter and letting the others choose how to go from there.

 

kaida photo by marushi c:
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There was an immense feeling of joy and accomplishment as the fight finally came to it's closing moments. With how she had survived, and how much she felt she helped, she knew she had grown and her abilities had gotten stronger. And the fact that she had made it with all of these people again just placed a level of trust in them she wouldn't have said she felt before, even though she wouldn't admit it out loud. Whatever events transpired with Shiro made her nervous he was dead for a moment, but then he sprung up just fine and that alleviated whatever tension was there. Then he asked Kaida to compare notes and she remembered the business end of this whole thing and sighed about it.

But not before Aux said something, got his name out there, and ended up pinned down by Sprinkles.

Everyone began speaking their mind about Aux. Ananta still held firm to her belief that Aux was trustworthy, Beuce advised caution more so than not trusting Aux, Stratos was in the same boat but seemed to be on the side of resolving this later, Steel mentioned this may have been the time to deal with this situation. Ignis couldn't believe that the argument was still existing and how he'd at the very least proven himself with the trials, Aislinn felt a similar way but was not as abrasive to those who felt otherwise.

Kaida soaked in everyone's opinions before she found her eyes looking towards Hikaru. She remembered their conversation about who he was, who Aux was, how this whole situation even came to be. And how he was affected. She closed her eyes a moment to process everything, then opened them and looked back at Hikaru and there was a look on her face of apology as she looked back towards her two fellow members of the order and said, "I trust Aux. But I don't trust the situation."

She took a moment to breathe before continuing, "Many of Aux's actions aren't really by his own consent. And while that can't change the face put to what he's done, I feel comfortable saying his actions weren't under his control. Maybe the inciting incidents were... but that's all." she looked at Aux and said, "He has taken a dark remnant, which is helping to fuel his more dark tendencies. I can't trust him not because of him, I can't trust him because of how that could be used." she side-eyed Hikaru very briefly before looking back at the others, "I only just found out this recently myself, don't think I was just holding this information from you guys..."

 

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The suddenness of Karina coming in and yelling at Aux just after she spoke threw the blonde off. And while she of all people definitely understood a good punch. The random guy Karina had been chilling with the whole fight was in and going in for a stab. There was a flash moment of panic that Kaida felt. She would definitely say at this point in the game she didn't want Aux dead, and they were in the middle of an intense conversation about whether to trust him in the first place. The sudden vigilante justice only made it so Kaida reacted out of reaction.

The girl's time aura activated without her really thinking about it as she quickly drew out her keyblade and screamed, "Stop!" immediately having stopga activate. Her time aura blinking a lot more in reaction to it as Arctus and Karina froze in their spot.

 

Beuce sighed, dismissing his keyblade. Stratos was right. This was no time to break out into another fight. They were all exhausted. Beuce glared at Ignis as she berated them for even considering the possibility that Aux was still a danger, and immediately freed him. "Well, It's not like I'm saying 'I hate him and can't forgive him'. I'm just trying to be on the cautious side. What if he turns on us in the middle of our fight with No Heart and we end up having to face both of them at once? I know we've gotten a lot stronger, but that means we can fight back. It doesn't mean we can throw caution to the wind." Beuce said, obviously a little upset with her. Nevertheless, regardless of what they did, it wasn't worth fighting each other over. That was when Kaida said something about him having a remnant of darkness within him, which honestly seemed to further both sides. He most likely did actually want to help them, but he was dangerous to keep around. "I see. So he-"

And then some guy walked up, wiped his sword against Kaida's jacket, and immediately he and Karina ran to attack Aux. Beuce was a little dumbfounded to see this unfold so...Randomly. It seemed a little out of place with what they were talking about. Kaida managed to stop both of them before the attacked him any further. "Nice thinking." He noted to Kaida, then turned to Aux. "You uh...Might want to take a few steps back. Like when you think you're far enough away back up a little further." He rolled his shoulders and stretched a little bit, before walking behind Karina and locking his arms under hers and over her shoulders. He whistled and braced himself. When the stop spell eventually wore off, he groaned at the effort of keeping the girl in check. "Oh hey Karina, nice to see you too." He said, waiting for her to realize what happened and stop struggling. "Good to see you're doing well, even made some new buddies, but we need to catch you up on a few things. We're deciding what to do with him now, and you're more than welcome to your opinion. If you could tone down your temper for a while until we're done, that'd be great." ​

 

Steel couldn't help but facepalm as good ol' Karina came charging in and punched Aux in the face. She was off doing who knows what with her apparent boyfriend and hadn't heard any of the information that they had just learned. He sure hoped that she didn't get mad for being out of the loop, what with her being the one to actively go out of her way to exclude herself from it in the first place. If Aux didn't really have a choice to his actions, then killing him would just be unfair even if trusting him was unwise. Neither action would be helpful really. Of course now Karina's doe-eyed love interest was charging in to follow her lead as well. He pulled out his sword, and well, Steel wasn't having any of that. On knee-jerk reaction, he leaped up to two legs and towards Arctus with haste. He wasn't the only one taking preventive measures, as Kaida cast a powerful Stopga at that exact moment. He grabbed his frozen oppenent and relieved him of his sword, the sound of the metal clacking against the tips of his claws. With Arctus sword in one hand and body restrained in the other arm, Steel pulled the two some distance away before he spoke.

"There's this thing called a 'conversation' guys. We were in the middle of one, and it's considered rude to interrupt." He doubted that the Karina now restrained in Buece's arms would think very highly of any comment from him, but that was her problem.

 

Things were going so well...and then Karina had to come and slap Aux. Luckily, Kaida did what she could and used Magic to stop them. Ananta looked at Aux and sighed. Karina had every right to be angry at Aux, but she made her choice to leave. She can't blame him for things now that she found her footing. He hurt them in the past, but there's no use hurting a guy who couldn't help himself. He was used and now he wants to make up for it. Ananta made her way to him and put her hands towards him. "You okay?" she asked, casting a Curaga on him to recover the pain. "I gotta go, one sec." she said, turning around. She then walked over to Arctus and crossed her arms. "Don't you even try." she said. Ananta nudged at Steel. "Let go of him." she said, watching Steel drop the boy. "Gravira." she stated, glaring at Arctus as the spell started to take effect. "Two can play at that game, kid." she said, looming over Arctus. "And believe me, I can cast a Stopga just as well as Kaida can, so please just make this easy and get your girlfriend and just...go." she said.

She looked up at Karina and smiled sadly. "I appreciate you guys' help, but at this point, things are just going south and you won't even listen." she took a deep breath. "I thought you going to find your own way would help you Karina, but it's done nothing to help you. You just need to get over yourself and move on." Ananta closed her eyes. "Apologizing to you was a mistake. You haven't grown up a single bit. Especially since you didn't even accept my apology. Clearly you don't care about others' feelings. I don't hold that against you, I really don't. The way you made it out to be, you had it rough. I just wish I could have gotten to know you better, I really do. But I won't ever get to know you better. You won't let me understand. Believe me, that's all I've ever wanted to do for you. I wanted to understand so I could be your friend."

Scratching her head. "I rambled enough. Just get out of here, I'm done." she said, turning around. "Steel...come here?" she asked him, not wanting to face the rest in the party right now. She wanted to get away from Karina before she could just go and try to blame Ananta for everything as she always did. Sure Ananta made some mistakes in trying to be Karina's friend, but now that Ananta has seen Karina is still the same, she knows there's no use helping her. It was best to just leave it at that.​

 

Steel stared with curiosity at the sword glowing ominously in his hands. A second passed, then two, and oh yeah, his arm was definitely getting heavier. "How curious." The rather bland statement came with the thought that he considered the spell extremely overkill coming from the otherwise calm individual who seemed to have otherwise accepted that murder wasn't happening. Shrugging the arm that carried the apparent drama queen, he dropped the sword with the relatively simple comment:

"A bit of an overreaction, don't you think?" Before he could get much out a whole slew of things happened, starting with the label 'Steve, moving on to the equally exaggerated and unnecessary act of binding Arctus to the ground with gravity magic and then...

Oh boy.

This was painful... on so many levels. He found himself once again holding his head in his hands as what had started out as a peaceful conversation had officially dissolved into... a Karina event. Even worse, one of the dreaded Karina AND ANANTA events that he had been so lucky to miss out on for the most part. He had heard tales though. The tales of the tortured screams in the dead of night, and the howling winds of the worlds crying out for the two to cease their self-righteous yammering. It never stopped though.

Never.

This was proof enough that they would always find a way.

But really, if he listened to it, things just seemed like more than anything else they just wanted to hurt each other. He knew that's not what Ananta really wanted, but it's what she was doing, and Karina... well Karina felt the need to retaliate or justify herself. Completely understandable, really. But it still didn't change that this couldn't keep happening everytime they were within sight of each other. So rather than follow after Ananta, Steel spoke up.

"No. I'm sorry but 'this...'" He trailed off as he gestured to the general area of the two girls. "It has to stop. I know you're not doing it intentionally Ananta, but you're hurting her. You would actually hurt a lot of people with words like that." He turned to Karina. "...And Karina, it's understandable that you want to react violently to this stuff, but the fact is the more you react, the more she does. If you two want to hate each other on your own time, then that's fine, I get it. But we can't have you two having a huge fight every time you're near each other. It's something we all tend to focus on and saving the world kind of needs to be our first priority over personal matters since if we fail, you know, personal problems won't really exist... or we'll be too dead to deal with them at least. You don't have to be friends, you don't have to forgive each other, all you have to do is... stop. Stop talking to each other. It only drags you both in deeper. I don't care who started it, just stop responding. You're both better than this, I really believe you are, and that's why I'm telling you right now that this just isn't worth it, whether it's Ananta's words or Karina's fist. This has gone on too long and I refuse to watch you hurt yourselves. One of you has to be the bigger person and walk away."

So now it was out there, he had said his peace. He hoped that Ananta didn't get offended, and he could only pray that Karina wouldn't find some insult in the fact that he just wanted them to stop fighting, but it didn't matter. Even if they both turned against him he would stand by his words and walk away. If Karina really still refused to comply with reasoning so simple, still choosing to see an insult where there was none, than it just wasn't his problem anymore.

 

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This whole scenario felt familiar, as if they had already gone through a 'whether or not to trust Aux' thing prior. His position since then hasn't change either considering the lack of anything that would change how he felt. Once again if this had been Nequa his stance would have easily been 'get rid of her' or something to that nature. Aux on the other hand, well the idea that Kel was in favor of was either letting him speak his peace. Ideally it was a good idea and what Kaida had added in was something to take into consideration.

That was when Karina and some other guy had come rushing in to attack Aux and what happened next was simply Kaida stopped both of them, Beuce went to restrain Karina while Steel went to the other guy. Ananta on the other hand had made things worse in a way, which really had Kel glad that Beuce was keeping her at bay. "As good as it is to see you in good health, this isn't how I pictured things would go." Much more anger then what he had pictured. Kel sighed while Aux had spoken and Kel tried to think of a way to defuse this.

"Look, I get that you want to make Aux pay for what he's done and it's probably well warranted in your case." At this point Kel had positioned himself to be between her and Aux, then continued. "But right now isn't the best of times for that and he seems more than willing to let you get some form of payback on him. So why not just calm down, let this mess get handled first and then you can punch him. Hell, you can punch me too if you really want to." Maybe the promise of being able to get back at Aux later would calm her down to the point where she wouldn't need to be restrained. The whole punching him was just something he threw in sweeten the deal kinda. Off the top of his head he couldn't think of any exact reason she'd have to do so, but she just might take him up on that offer. You never know.

 

"Steel. Please." Ananta motioned away from the rest of the party. "There's no way we can even have any semblance of a relationship. We're just far too different. Besides, no matter how many times I've tried...it never worked out." she spoke lowly, moreso to herself. Whether others cared to listen, she had no idea. For now, she did the best thing she could do. Ananta finally walked off with that, getting far enough away that she could at least not hear Karina again. Ananta sat down on a spare rock and stared off at what was left of the ocean. She closed her eyes and sighed. "I don't get it." she started.

"I just don't get how we're so dfferent? How she can treat somebody who truly wants to be her friend like this. I mean...I've done some bad stuff, too. But the worst I did was slap her...before she left." Ananta scratched her cheek. "Before she left, I guess she didn't appreciate I gave her a cloak of a person she actually cared about. I don't know why she was so depressed, but she just was. I don't remember if she told me whose it was..."

Ananta then looked at herself and brought her hand close to her chest. "Even then, I'd screw that up. I should just give up on Karina...it's obvious I can never do right by her." she turned to look at Steel. "I"m rambling again, I'm sorry. You don't have to stay or even comment. I don't even know why I said anything. I think I'll just sit here for awhile and try to think about things. Try to figure out where I'm going wrong..."​