Fellowship & Fairydust

“The Jabberwocky!” The rabbit cried out with alarm as the card soldiers just stopped trying to fight and began to run for their lives. Even the Queen of Hearts stopped ordering for people to be beheaded and ran for her life. To do so she ended up flattening several of her soldiers just to save her skin. Pathetic, but I decided to not dwell on her. My targets were the ones who insisted on getting in my way. 

As the dragon-like Unversed roared and leaped at them, I noticed it tried to go for Kairi first. Her friends got in the way, slicing at it with their Keyblades. Their attacks managed to do some damage, but with its long claws, it managed to knock them back. Goofy ran in hitting it with his shield, but that only caused the large monster to take notice of him. Swinging its tail, it knocked the captain of the guard back. 

“Goofy!” Donald cried out before letting out a ridiculous little rage cry and casting several spells at the creature. Using its wings to deflect, it then sent the duck flying into the elder one, who let out several curses as the younger one landed on him. My anger, however, wasn’t satisfied with sending an Unversed to attack my enemies. Holding up my Keyblade, I rushed forward to attack this pathetic group. 

Once the old duck got the younger one off him, he prepared to fight me with his cane. Undeterred I knocked him aside with one swipe of my weapon before charging forward. Clair fired some fireballs at me, but they were so weak I almost felt pity for her. Almost. Deflecting them, I raised my weapon to strike her down, but was blocked by Jason. “Don’t you dare.” He growled at me. 

“Move,” I told him, though when he still tried to push back I was pleased because it meant I could hurt him. I shoved him back before gathering my darkness. “Chaos Blade!” And I started warping around the brat while dashing into him multiple times, leaving several cuts on his body. I then finished by kicking him in the gut, knocking him onto the ground. I then approached him. “You’ve been a thorn on my side since the moment we met. Blaming me for something I was ordered to do. Acting as the world should revolve around you. Complaining about the most insignificant stuff. You bark a lot, but you don’t even have the bite back yourself up. It’s pathetic! You are just a whiny brat who can’t handle any situation thrown at you. And quite frankly, I’m sick of you!”

To my surprise, he went and kicked me in the last place any man would want to be kicked, even me. Despite this, I was able to convert the pain into a rage and channel it into the darkness that I used to attack him some more. But that did not make me feel satisfied with what I’ve done, so I decided to remove this problem for good. Changing my Keyblade back into a scythe, I raised it up to take his life. 

“No!” Clair said as she cast another spell, but this one was more powerful than what I had encountered before from her. It seemed like a powerful blast of light that forced me off my feet and sent me flying backward into the stand the Queen of Hearts used to sit in before she ran for her life. Wood splintering and cracking around me matched my astonishment at the kid’s power. When did she get so strong?

Pulling myself out of the wreckage, I observed her leaning on her Keyblade panting heavily. That spell was more than she could handle at this moment. Still, to know that she had such potential as a mage started to change how I viewed her. She might end up posing a threat to me someday. In that case, the best thing to do would be to eliminate her. Noticing I was starting to pick myself up, she held up her hand and tried to cast a Fire spell. However, instead of hitting me, Leroy leaped up and caught it in his hands before throwing it back at her, knocking her off her feet. So this guy could not be hurt by fire? That certainly had its uses. 

Calling forth a massive Dark Fireball, I threw it at the girl with no reason to believe that I would miss. However, to my surprise, it got sliced in two by none other than the Keyblade Master Riku himself. Holding up his Keyblade, he said, “Enough, Mortem. You have to return the heart.” 

“Never,” I responded as I leaped at him scythe held high. I brought the blade down, but he managed to parry it perfectly. Pushing me back, he fired his series of Dark Firagas at me. I did my best to deflect them using my scythe, but many still managed to hit me. For some reason, I was glad. The files had warned me that Riku was a skilled warrior, and now I was seeing the reports were not wrong. I daresay I enjoyed the truth here. 

Rushing him again, I fired another spell at him. That one managed to hit him, but he refused to give up. Leaping against one hedge bush, he pushed himself off so fast I almost lost sight of him. However, he pushed off against another bush and another until he came at me so fast I had to block with my weapon, and he still managed to push me back a few feet. 

Gritting my teeth, I began to push back, but I could feel the strength he had through his Keyblade. Like Sora, he might actually be a match for me, unlike those two rookies. Guess I was going to have to bring out the big guns. Forcing him back, I transformed my Keyblade into its bazooka mode and aimed it at the Keyblade Master. First I tried shooting smaller but faster dark blasts, but he managed to dodge or deflect them. Growing anger, I charged a lot more energy into the bazooka. “Chaos Cannon!” and fired a slow but massive projectile at the veteran.

Riku attempted to dodge the attack, but he found himself surprised as it changed course no matter which direction he went it would follow him. Firing more Dark Fireballs at it did nothing to slow it or deter it, so the Master tried to make it so it would hit me as well as him. When I tried to knock him into the projectile, he blocked me with some sort of barrier spell. That ended up costing him as he was hit by my attack.

My victory did not go unnoticed by his friends, who in addition to the Unversed had to keep fighting Leroy. “Riku!” Sora called out as the fatal blow was dealt with the monster as it vanished back into the darkness. I hadn’t expected to suddenly feel intense pain in my chest as the dragon Unversed’s darkness flew back into me. I didn’t have time to linger on that as the entire group ran over to their injured friend, ready to fight me.

Waving his hand as if to tell them not to worry, Riku told them, “I’m fine.” His words did not fool anyone though, as he had third-degree burns all over him, and his clothes were in tatters. Wow. I must’ve put a little too much energy into that last attack. Still, I proved I was the better warrior after all.

“Heal!” Kairi cast the Curaga spell, healing most of the damage done to her friend. Once that was done, she turned her gaze to me, and her blue eyes ended up sending chills down my spine. “What is wrong with you Mortem? Why are you taking the hearts?”

“What is it to you?” I frowned before looking at Riku. “Well, since he gave me a challenge, I will honor you with an answer. I am taking the hearts because they are the only way to reclaim my memories.”

“Your memories? You have amnesia?” 

“Unfortunately. And now I know this is the way I can reclaim what I had lost.” 

Shaking her head, Kairi continued to speak to me. “This can’t be the only way. Mortem, if you return the heart, I’m sure Master Yen Sid can help you remember.”

Her naivety was so pathetic it made me laugh. “There is one way you can help me, but it is not through anyone else!” I raised my weapon to take her heart, but then the craziest thing happened. For a split second, I saw someone else replace Kairi. It was brief, but I remember the details. The hair went from short to long, and turned from red to silver. Looking into those eyes, I could see the person staring back at me, but I could not remember who she was or why the devil I was hesitating! My head was in pain again, trying to remember, but nothing was coming!

“It’s not too late, Mortem. You can still make this right.” Kairi said. “If you have a Keyblade, then there must be a good person in you.”

Ugh. I couldn’t handle it anymore. “It already is too late for me to turn back now,” I told her as I held my Keyblade up. “I’m done with all of you. I showed you mercy today, but do not expect me to be so generous next time. Any of you cross my path again, I will kill you. And you’d better find a fortress to hide in Princess. Because one day soon, I will come for your heart.” With that, I tossed my weapon into the air, and as it came back it transformed. 

I heard several gasps as it came down like a tireless motorcycle that I wasted no time getting on. The front was a massive cannon that I remembered from instinct could fire a deadly blast at whatever was in front of it. Three engines in the back were what allowed this thing to move at high speeds. Quick and powerful. Motioning for Leroy to get on, I concentrated in front of me for a dark corridor to open. Once it did, I flew into it with the red monster, leaving the crazy world of Wonderland behind. 

 

***

 

???…

With the reacquired memories, and the tangle of emotions they brought to me, I decided not to return to the one who was sending me out. He could wait while I tried to clear my head. I don’t know why he was sending me out after the hearts, but I knew he wasn’t going to have a chance to get them until I was done with them, and not a second sooner. 

“Where are we going?” Leroy asked from behind me, the translation of his words coming to my mind even though my ears heard his alien language. 

“Away,” I said. Something in the back of my mind said if I didn’t get out of this place soon, Leroy was going to start annoying me. Guess here was a good a place as any to go. Opening a door, I piloted my glider to head outside of the darkness, and into a place that was… Whoa! I had to pull back on the glider as something went whistling past the front of my glider before exploding. “Fireworks? Who the hell is shooting up fireworks?!” 

Leroy didn’t have an answer, but more fireworks were going off all around us. I swear by anything that if this was because of some reckless idiot, I was going to have their heads. Pulling to the side, I tried to navigate through the fireworks that were going up and off all around me like a rainbow minefield in the sky. Now that was a scary thought. 

Feeling clawed hands shaking my back, I heard Leroy exclaim to me, “Look out!” His warning came too late though as one red firework came up and hit the glider, knocking the two of us off it. As my weapon returned to my hand, I heard Leroy screaming as we both plummeted down into the darkness of this world, the two of us at the mercy of whatever strange creatures dwelled here.

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