Video Game: Kingdom Hearts SOS: The Road To Light

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It seemed as if the stormbringer was growing more and more overwhelmed. With explosive results against both arms, the head was being occupied with powerful spells and splitting the head in half. He was completely tired at this point. He did not think he would get any rest. Hughes seemed to think that he won. Shiro's aura increased which was impressive. Wind began to encompass Shiro as it was cutting the air all around him. The dome halted from shrinking as it began to crack. Like too much water pressure in a tank, the wind barrier began cracking like a snowglobe and eventually shattered open, as a gust of wind pushed back everyone accept for Shiro and Hughes. With the two of them confined in the vortex. The battle was over. He wanted to help but he was not sure he would make it that far. Hughes then said, 'Actually... my biggest joy in death... Is knowing that you're all oblivious... to the.... traitor..... among.... you.....' He was not all that surprised. 'IT SEEMS THAT SOMEONE IS TARGETING US.' He was not sure how this was news. This was as old as time. Aux then INTRODUCED. himself. This was not the best idea. Mizu quickly summoned a smaller version of Sprinkles that grasped Aux in it's hands. Why did people have to be so stupid? He took a step forword to help and felt pain. Ugg he thought to himself. He found that he could not move that much. It probably did not help that he was by himself most of the battle. He watched as Ananta moved and stood between the two. He let out a sigh. Not much new there too. It seemed as people were taking one side or another.

He stood there as ignis said, 'Oh for crying out loud, this is getting ridiculous..' He watched as 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. That was probably not the smartest thing to do. Then Aislinn said, 'I agree with Ignis. Aux has been helpful this entire time, there is no reason to start questioning it now.' He was not sure where Aislinn has been but Aux was anything but helpful. He did almost next to nothing when he was partnered with him then Aux had left him to die in the heartless battle but sure lets us go with helpful. He was not all that surprised with the Aux situation. He did not feel any of this was necessary. People using magic on one another and what not. People were being stupid and the people that were being stupid did not surprise him. He took a few steps forward nearing the group. He wanted to say what was on his mind. He watched as Ananta walked off. As he walked forward he neared Kaida, Beuce, Aux, and Hikaru. The pain was increasing he felt so tired and before he could say anything he collapsed from exhaustion. Then there was nothing....

 

Beuce gave Aux a puzzled look as he referred to him as "Bruce". He assumed that it must just be that he wasn't used to his name yet. After the interaction between him and Karina, she seemed to be starting to calm down finally. Beuce gave a sigh of relief and began to let her go.Then Ananta walked up and opened her mouth. He immediately tightened his grip on her as he simply stared at Ananta dumbfounded. Why? Why would she do that? For what purpose? There was no reason at all to anantagonize her, but she decided "oh hey what's the best thing to do the first thing you see her? Tell her she's worthless and hasn't made any progress whatsoever". In what way, under any circumstance, would that be helpful to the situation. Especially given that the whole situation with Aux was still going on.

Beuce struggled to keep her in place and from going to turn Ananta's face into the next dimension. "Alright, look. I know you're mad. Hell that ticked me off a bit," He shot a glare at Ananta. That had been really unnecessary. "but I really, reaaally need you to calm down. You want to show her? Prove her wrong and calm do- Ohh that was my wrist." He said, as she hadn't stopped squirming yet and twisted his arm a bit. He managed to remain strong but it was getting more difficult. "Listen, I just got this arm, and I know I have five gods living inside me and all but i don't know if they keep these things in stock, so I'd prefer to keep the ones I've got intact. Please, calm down." She, at this point, seemed to calm down a bit. He let her go, and walked in front of her, so as to have more of an actual conversation with her.

"I'm not really sure why she said that, but she doesn't speak for everyone. I don't know what you've been up to on your end, we're in a moment of respite finally. We might have a chance to catch up." He said, hoping to keep her stable. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the blonde kid who'd joined them recently collapse on the ground. Walking over, he knelt down and shook him a bit. "You alright bud?" Beuce remembered his first large scale battle back at Central Haven. He felt like passing out too, so he couldn't blame him. Grabbing him off the ground, he threw the kid over his shoulder and went to go put him somewhere more comfortable than face down in the sand. He turned back to Karina. "We can chat if you like." ​

 

Beuce looked to the girl standing before him as she threw away her keychains in the ground. The mementos of what she'd gathered during her time with them. She was essentially throwing away her past and her life with them. Beuce looked down at them, and resolved himself to not let her do this. He'd be damned if he was just going to let her walk away again like that. "Hey, Karina." He called out to her, before she left. "That's Master Beuce." He corrected. At first it seemed a bit out of place to demand to be called by his title in this particular scenario. "I just remembered, we're masters now. And as such, we've got a few rights that only we have." He summoned his keyblade into his glass arm and walked over to her and placed his hand on her shoulder, practically turning her around.​

 

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Ignis continued to sit down on the ground as the bickering over who was going to do what to Aux continued. Eventually Aux interrupted them all and claimed that he was willing to take whatever came his way for the things he had done, and Ignis almost complimented the guy. He may have been their enemy, but anyone who was willing to take whatever punishment came their way for the things they did at least deserved points in her book. At this point Karina had been held back by Beuce and Ananta was being held back by Steel. Ignis' bad humor side almost started to enjoy the show that was going on, but at that point Ananta had said some things that even for Ignis's standards were too far, and more than uncalled for. She whistled as Ananta finished and simply looked away, not meeting her gaze and giving her the cold shoulder. Steel, Beuce, and Kel called out Ananta on her, quite frankly, horrible attempt at whatever she was trying to do, and Ignis watched as Karina pulled out some bag and tossed it on the ground. Inside were keychains that looked well taken care of, especially compared to the rest of what Karina had on her. It caught Ignis's eye and she grabbed the bag, looking at the thing. She was impressed by how much work was put into keeping them so well maintained, and wondered why Karina would throw them away just like that. As Karina began to walk away, Beuce stopped her and pulled her back for a minute. Ignis figured she'd take this moment to say what was on her mind.

"Hold that thought, Beuce." Ignis grabbed the pouch off the ground and put them ring back in it.

She got up and walked over to Karina, then shoved the bag back into her arms. It also involved shoving Beuce a little, but Ignis was a little annoyed at the moment, so she might have been forceful in her movements. She hadn't really gotten to know Karina that much, but now was a good a time as any to start.

"I'm not going to say anything like 'I know what you're going through' or 'Everything will be all right if you just believe in yourself'. I'm not the mushy type. But, what I will say is you've got something you care for," pointing her finger at the bag as she said those words. "If I were in your shoes, I wouldn't give up something that precious just because of a few words. If something is that important to you, you take care of it with your whole being, whether it's the object itself, or what it stands for. So far you've been fighting, but throwing that away? The only thing I see is someone giving up a piece of themselves."

Ignis turned around and walked away. "Don't you ever give up your treasures so easily. Trust me, there's not much worse in this world than realizing what you have only after it's gone and you're unable to get it back. Sorry 'bout that Beuce, you can continue. I just can't resist returning what's been lost."

 

Ananta sat there and began to think of all the things that could have possibly set Karina off. She thought and she thought, starting to figure out a few things. "I never did ask where why she was always like this...why she..." Ananta stopped herself and pulled her knees to her chest. "Oh my god, I'm terrible..." she said,hitting the sand. "I never even tried to treat her as a person...I...I was always treating her like a kid...." Ananta raised her head and looked towards the sea. "I don't know...I don't know anything about her. Nothing about her struggles. I tried to make up my own excuses and look what happened...I made assumptions on things I never understood."

"What kind of person does that?" she spoke a little louder, shaking her head. All she could think about were all the times she attempted to 'help' Karina and she ended up treating Karina like crap. Every single time, Ananta treated her like she was a kid who didn't know any better. Out of all of her comrades, Karina was the most grown up and all Ananta did was baby her. "God I'm pathetic...I couldn't even try to understand her back then because I was too focused on the way she acted...babying her was the worst thing I could ever do." She turned her head and saw Karina toss a pouch to the ground.

"I never even attempted to treat her like a person. If only I could go back and fix things...I hate myself. I really do. Why am I like this...why..." she sighed. Ananta started to think back to when Karina had first came back and Ananta was trying to apologize. "I don't know why I couldn't just move on...I just felt so bad...I...I felt like it was my fault she left...." she drew circles in the sand. "She moved on but I couldn't...and now, I told her I'm moving on and..." she stopped and opened her eyes wide. "Oh god, I told her I'm giving up on her. What the hell?" she grabbed at her head and shook it. "I'm pathetic, I really am, oh god...no...I can't...I can't do that, I can't give up on her."​

"Karina is the strongest person I know." Ananta stood up and clenched her fists. "Through all of this...losing a keyblade and me being the worst person to her...next to her father, I am the worst person. And yet, through all of this. Karina has moved on and forged a path of her own creation." Ananta turned around in time to see Beuce start to perform the Keyblade Inheritance Ceremony. "I won't give up on Karina because she never gave up on herself. I can't be forgiven for what I've said, but I can at least try to prove to her that I know what I said was wrong. I will be a better person and I will show her it." Ananta took a deep breath. "I'll talk to her about this later on when she's cooled off...but as it is, I at least need to see this."

Ananta stepped towards Karina, knowing she may get attacked. But she knew that, just maybe, her coming back to see this would hopefully prove to Karina that Ananta was not going to give up. Ananta had to figure out what she had done wrong and now she had, hopefully, figure it out. Ananta decided that, for the time being, she'd just stand there and keep quiet. She even made sure to stand as far away as possible. She didn't want to set Karina off again. Nothing she said right now would make things any better. Not until she had a chance to speak to Karina personally, whenever or if that would ever come.

"You're not a lost cause...I was wrong... " Ananta whispered to herself. "You're stronger than anybody I know...I want to be like you..." she continued to whisper. "Just don't kill me right now..." she sighed quietly. She would not participate, as she had no right to do so consiering recent events.​

 

After Ignis said her piece, he continued. "You think we don't want you around? You want proof you're not a lost cause?" He held out the double ended weapon to her, it practically called out empathically for her to grab hold of it in response to its users will. "Prove it to yourself." He took a deep breath.

"In your hand, take this key."​

 

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Kaida was confused how things managed to go from 11 to 35 so quickly. Considering she thought this would pretty much end after she cast stopga and everyone held them back, the fact that Ananta still decided to go into a player vs player situation when she was arguably on the same side as Steel only made her question just why people did the things they did. When everything seemed to finally start calming down, Karina mentioned the blood on her sweatshirt and she blinked and quickly unzipped her new sweatshirt and flipped it over to see the stain and there was a look of pain on her face. She just got this new sweatshirt after all, and now it was ruined.

But she didn't focus on it too long when she heard Beuce try to tell Karina to prove her worth, in a manner that was actually kind of nice. Then she heard the man start the words to the keyblade inheritance ceremony and there was surprise on her face. She didn't know how he knew it, she learned it from years of seeing others say it and having gotten the inheritance ceremony herself. But she didn't think it was something commonly known. Did it just come to him? Did he already know it?

It didn't actually matter, because the idea itself was touching and Kaida was on the same page about it. She smiled a bit and quickly put back on her jacket and summoned out her keyblade. She took steps over towards the two and flipped her keyblade around and spoke, "So long as you have the makings..." Kaida shifted the keyblade so she was actually holding it out towards Karina before she continued, "Then through this simple act of taking..."

 

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Both of his offers to Karina had fallen short, which was probably for the best. Mainly in the regards to punching Aux as it probably wouldn't have done much in way of a permanent solution. Karina then turned to walk away, only to be stopped by Beuce once again. Both him and Ignis had given her words of encouragement before the former held out his keyblade to her. A realization followed hearing what Beuce had said and such after Kaida had spoke, Kel brought out his own keyblade and stepped forwards towards Karina once again. "Its wielder you shall one day be." Kel stopped, flipped his keyblade around and held it out towards Karina.

 

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Stratos sighed as the situation regarding Aux had exploded out of control, into not even being a situation about Aux anymore. However, as Karina went down on her meltdown, Stratos could hear that she was still as unsure as she had ever been in regards to herself, and that there needed to be something big to drag her out of her own self loathing. While Stratos was attempting to think of something to say, Ignis and Beuce had beaten him to the punch, the latter of which seeming to make some kind of gesture. The boy wasn't consciously aware of what was happening, but as Kaida and Kel made their way over as well, he felt something instinctual, as if he already knew exactly what was happening and what needed to next. Walking over, Stratos summoned his own keyblade, pointing the handle to the girl. There were no words he needed to think of, and nothing he could would be any bit helpful. There was only one thing and one thing alone he needed to say. Looking to Karina with a small smile on his face, he said, "And you will find me, friend—."

 

Luna let out a sigh of relief as she had saw that the fight was finally over. "Finally....It's over. Thank goodness." She put a hand onto her chest as all the tension in her body left all at once. She looked around for any sign of Koa. He ran over to her placing a hand on her back. "Are you alright? Nothing broken? No pain?" She giggled a little bit before nodding her head. Koa let out a sigh of relief before patting her head. "Good job. Your family would be so proud if they could see you now." A kind smile crept onto his face as he continued patting her head. Luna and Koa looked over and saw a commotion stir up between Aux and Karina. She walked over and a worried expression painted over her face. Koa placed a hand on her shoulder as if to say 'We shouldn't interfere'. Luna nodded her head before turning back. After awhile Beuce, Kaida, Kel, and Stratos go up to Karina. It looked as if they were doing a keyblade inheritance ceremony. After everything Luna had known, to an extent, Karina had gone through, she felt as if Karina was most definitely worthy of holding the keyblade. With Crescent Crown in hand, Luna walked over and smiled. Koa had followed along, wrapping an arm around Luna's shoulders. She closed her eyes before reopening them. Nothing but kindness had filled her eyes and expression. "No ocean will contain you then..." She turned her blade around, handle facing Karina.​

 

At first, Steel was rather appalled when a continuity error of all things occurred. Even after all this time, space hadn't exactly straightened out around him and... it could be weird. However the situation wound up resolving itself, and Ananta came to apologize to Karina on her own initiative. Even if it was something that could very well get her killed. He was proud of her for doing that... even if he still thought all interaction between them would need to be limited in the future. Around them, the others began performing the keyblade inheritance ceremony. This was an idea Steel wholly supported, and he summoned the Artisan Shard to perform the next line and give Karina back the power of the keyblade.

"No more borders around, or below, or above..."

Flipping around the weapon to hold the handle out to her, Steel hoped that Karina could sense the sincerity behind his words. He himself knew just how easy it was to take that sort of freedom for granted or abuse it. It was a great power, and he felt it was a great honor being able to grant it to someone. He also took pride in being able to give it to someone who needed it, and he sincerely believed would not abuse it.

Even if she had a bit too short of a temper.

 

Beuce smiled as the other masters in the SOS joined in the gesture to show that they felt the same way he did. Although, he didn't look at them he only looked Karina head on. As each person said their part, she looked to each one of them. Likely she thought about them and her relationship with them. How she didn't really want to leave, and what them offering her a way back in meant exactly. Tears began to run down the girl's face. Eventually, thea last one to join in wasn't offering a keyblade. He was offering the SOS ring that he'd given to all of them. A symbol that she always was, and always would be, one of them.

"Welcome home."

The girl cried and hugged him, saying that she was sorry. He just smiled and hugged her back, putting his still flesh hand in her hair and patting it gently. "Ah it's alright. Now I have a neat story to tell." When she back up, she summoned what appeared to be her own keyblade, reflective of her. Beuce eyed it up and down and gave an approving face. "Well, it's not quite as nifty as mine, but it'll get the job done." He teased and gave a wink. He wondered what power it held within it, but decided he didn't need to ask. He'd find out. They all would, when the girl fought alongside them in battles to come.​

 

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Karina had successfully reawakened her keyblade and all Kel could do at this sight was to simply smile. Smile and let her enjoy her moment. Kel looked to his keyblade and flipped it once more so that he was holding on the handle again, then put it away. Its purpose being fulfilled and was no reason that he could see to keep it out any longer. The smile remained on his face as he spoke. "We're friends after all, this is the least that we could do." It was a notion that he had truly started to accept himself and he couldn't deny that doing so had left a good feeling.

 

Tears were in Anantas eyes upon seeing everyone approach Karina and offer their keyblades. The tears fell harder upon seeing Karina cry. This proved to her that giving up is not the best choice. She looked from afar and saw the keyblade return to Karina. Wiping her eyes, Ananta nodded to herself. Her tears were both happy and sad. She was, deep down, happy for Karin's genuinely. She deeply regretted her words and hoped to one day fix her mistakes and perhaps gain Karina's trust once more. For the time being, Ananta was content with staying back. She had no right to be near Karina. Especially not after what she had said.

After Karina mentioned leaving again, Ananta took a deep breath and waved to her. "Goodbye..." she said, smiling. That was all she could muster before turning her face away and looking towards Steel. She nudged at him and then looked down. "I'm stupid, huh? I...I really messed up..." she sighed. "Why did I open my big mouth..."​