KH: Sentinels of Chaos P8

Prologue 8: The Search

Matriarch stepped out of the Dark Corridor, and looked around. She was back at the Dark Meridian, the exact same place she had first appeared. It was still dark as night, and the dark waves were gently falling on the shore.

She closed her eyes, concentrating her power. She felt a dull throbbing in her head, and it was then she knew the crystal was near, but not that near.

She took a step in a direction, and the pain got weaker. She was getting farther.

She took a step towards the ocean, and the pain grew stronger. She took a few more steps, and the pain grew slightly stronger with each step.

By the time she got to the water's edge, the pain had gotten to be mild enough to hurt, but not enough to be painful. She then realized where the crystal was.

It was in the ocean itself.

Matriarch was alright with that. She was a Heartless, after all, and Heartless did not need to breathe. She could handle the darkness in the ocean.

Taking long strides into the ocean, she was soon up to her knees in darkness-infused water. Then her waist. Then her chest. Finally, she was up to her neck in the dark waters.

Submerging herself, she swam along the bottom of the dark water, keeping the pain in her mind as she swam further along and deeper still.

After a few minutes, she found the source of the pain. It was a small shrine of black rocks, still together after the tide would have surely broken them apart.

Matriarch picked up the top rock off of the shrine, and touched it with her darkness. The rock began to glow with black and purple lights, and then it began to change.

After the transformation, Matriarch saw in her hand a large, black, translucent crystal, intricately designed and quite beautiful. It was round, about a foot in diameter, and the edge was comprised of a ring about two inches thick. In the hole inside the crystal, a crescent moon sculpted out of black crystal was rested, supported on a side by two sticks of the same material. Inside the crystal, short lines of a purple light were dancing around, obviously representing the power contained in this crystal.

The Demi Crystal.

Matriarch smiled, and swam up to the surface. When she got there, she would open a Dark Corridor, and go back to Father, presenting her prize.

She couldn't wait to see his reaction.
***
Meanwhile, Sovereign had returned to the Keyblade Graveyard. It was back on the mesa where it first appeared, which lead to a feeling of déjà vu for it. But those thoughts were not important.

With its Unversed inside it, it set about looking for the Ultima Crystal. It felt a dull throbbing pain inside its head, indicating how close it was to its crystal.

As it walked around the mesa, it found that the pain got stronger by the southern side of the mesa, but not strong enough that it was nearby. Instead, the pain seemed to come from beyond the mesa… into a canyon with gigantic twisters roaming around in it.

Sovereign decided that if the crystal would be anywhere, it would surely be there.

It summoned its Keyblade, the Void Gear, and leapt off of the mesa into the canyon below. It would likely not survive the one-hundred foot fall, which was why it summoned its Keyblade.

After falling a few feet, Sovereign twisted in the air so that its feet were atop the flat part of its Keyblade. Channeling its power into the weapon, the Keyblade began to glow with a blue light, and started hovering in the air.

Sovereign had quickly converted its weapon into a vehicle able to hover. A hover board.

It guided the weapon through the twisters, following the pain in its head. Within the space of a few moments, it found itself in front of a large rocky spire in the ground.

It touched down, and willed away its Keyblade. It then examined the spire, walking around it and examining it from every angle.

The spire was about twenty feet tall, and about twenty feet wide at the base. It was a brownish-tan color, just like all the other rocks here in the Keyblade Graveyard. The important thing to Sovereign was that it looked aged; both large and tiny cracks could be seen in many places, especially at the base.

Sovereign could sense from the pain in its head that the crystal it was looking for was hidden inside this rock. Whoever hid it did a mediocre job of it; the idea was sound, but the rock was of such inferior quality that it could, with some effort, be broken into.

Sovereign touched its fingers together on both hands, summoning two Ethereal Grenades. It walked around the base of the spire, looking for large enough cracks to try to blow open.

It found ten of such cracks. They were jagged, deep, and most importantly, brittle.

Sovereign stuck one of the Ethereal Grenades into a crack, then calmly walked around and shoved the other one in another crack. The Ethereal Grenades it could summon handled detonations differently; they could have a timer, or they could be made so they were detonated manually. Sovereign had given them the latter property.

It summoned two more, one in each hand, and stuck them into two more cracks. It then did this three more times, so that after a few moments, all ten cracks had Ethereal Grenades inside them.

Sovereign took several large steps back, and when it was sure it was out of the blast zone, it snapped its fingers.

The result was instantaneous. Ten Ethereal Grenades blew up all at once, creating a massive explosion of blue-colored energy. The sheer volume of the blast was more than enough to penetrate, fragment, and subsequently obliterate the rocky spire. A huge BOOM was heard as the rock shattered into hundreds of large and small pieces, sent flying every which-way from the sheer force of the explosion..

When the dust cleared, Sovereign looked at the remains of the spire. It had been destroyed nearly completely, with only small outcroppings being spared in the blast.

And in the center of the where the spire had previously stood, there was a polished blue stone glowing with an extraterrestrial light.

Sovereign walked over to the stone, plucked it out of its stand, and held it in its left palm. It then coated its right hand with Ethereal Electricity, and touched the stone with its power. There was a blue flash of light, and suddenly, the stone looked completely different.

The outside of the crystal was a large outer ring, about a foot in diameter and two inches thick. The ring was colored an extremely bright light blue, which was translucent, and almost seemed to glow with its own light. Inside the ring was a stylized E, made of the same material as the outer ring. Scattered inside the crystal were lines of blue light, which seemed to swirl around and dance inside the crystal.

The Ultima Crystal.

Sovereign smiled to itself, and then vanished in a bolt of Ethereal Electricity. It wondered how its Father would react.
***
While this was happening, Enigma had returned to the islands surrounding the Mysterious Tower. He looked around, and realized something.

He did not have direct control over the element of Nothingness. He could draw power from Nothingness, like all Nobodies, but he could not use the element directly. As such, he would not only be able to reveal the crystal, he also would not be able to even sense the crystal.

He needed a plan. Something that was quick and easy. But how?

Then he knew what he needed to do. Using his power, he summoned four Sorcerer Nobodies. He knew that they had a limited control over the element of Nothingness, due to their association with Xemnas and their ability to manipulate cubes of Nothingness.

"Go out. Spread across all the islands. If your head feels like it hurts without reason, go whichever way the pain gets stronger. When it's as strong as it gets, come find me and tell me where it is."

So the four Sorcerers went out, each going in a different direction.

After a few hours, the Sorcerers came back. Two of them didn't have anything to report, but the other two both felt a strong pain in their head when Enigma asked them.

"That can't be it," said Enigma, "the crystal can't be in two places at once. It has to be in a single object."

The Sorcerers made a series of sloshing sounds with their mouths, indicating their findings. They both found that their pain was coming from a rocky crag jutting out of an island, with a glowing sphere on the tip of it. There were two of the islands; one in the east, one in the southeast. Oddly enough, the rocky crags looked as though they were pointing to each other.

"Do I look like I care?!?" roared Enigma. "I don't want to know the specifics, I just want to know where I can find the crystal!"

But then the Sorcerers proposed a theory. Perhaps…perhaps the two spheres were meant to be brought together? When they were fused, then the orb could be revealed to be the crystal.

Enigma sighed. "Might as well try. So let's just snap off those crags and get the spheres together."

The Sorcerers looked nervous, then explained that the rocky crags were completely indestructible. They could sense an enchantment on the islands themselves that made them invincible. The islands were pretty small – only about ten feet in diameter, they explained – but there would be no hope of breaking the crags off.

Enigma grunted in frustration, and then smiled sinisterly. "So let's just bring those islands together, then."

The Sorcerers looked nervously at each other, then nodded. They had a plan for doing what Enigma wanted.
***
Ten minutes later, Enigma was on the southeast island, where the first of the two crags with the spheres was. It was completely crammed.

Enigma had summoned six Berserker Nobodies, the strongest Nobody type available. He had also summoned twelve Dancers, the most energetic – and thus, energy filled – of the Nobody types.

Two of the Sorcerers stayed with him, and the other two went to the other island. A line of Cubes of Nothingness showed a straight path between the two, and there were no other islands in between the two.

Then the Sorcerers summoned all their strength, and created a large pathway of cubes between and slightly below the two islands. The path was about twelve cubes wide, for a total of twelve feet in width.

Enigma leapt down onto the path of cubes, turned his back to the island he was previously on, reached back, and grabbed a natural crevice with both his hands. The Berserker Nobodies each also hooked their massive hammers onto a part of the island, turned their back on the island, and grasped their hammers with one hand behind them.

"PULL!" shouted Enigma, and summoning his strength, he began to pull the island to the other island along the path. Gripping the cube path with his claw-like feet, he pulled with all his might.

The Berserkers pulled with their strength too, each with about a fourth of Enigma's strength. This mean that all six Berserkers together pulled with one and a half times Enigma's strength. Combined with Enigma himself, they were all pulling with twice and a half Enigma's raw strength. (Hey, I'm studying to be an engineer, I'm good with numbers.)

With all of them, the island began to move at a quick pace. There was a natural pull back to the place it came from, which pulled in the opposite direction Enigma and the Nobodies were pulling. Nevertheless, the strength of seven incredibly strong Nobodies was more than enough to overcome this natural force, and they quickly began making progress.

Enigma was running low on strength. His super strength, as mentioned before, wasn't constant. He could only use his spare energy to augment his strength, and he wasn't a being filled with unlimited energy. That was what the Dancers were for.

"Dancer! Give me your energy!" Enigma cried out.

A Dancer twirled around on its shoe, and gave Enigma a big hug. Not only did it lift Enigma's mood slightly, it also allowed him to use her strength for a short time while his recovered.

Even then, though, it didn't last long. The strain of moving an entire island would quickly drain the strength of even the most caffeine-addicted hamster. In the space of about thirty seconds, the Dancer had been completely drained of all its energy, and perished.

Enigma absorbed the dead Dancer back into himself, partly because it restored some of his energy, but also because he didn't want to trip on her corpse while he was exerting himself.

As minutes passed, progress became slower. The pull on the island grew slightly stronger with each foot, and by the time they were only ten feet from the other island, it pulled with such a strong force that the Nobodies compared it to pulling a freight train up a steep hill with bare hands.

During this time, Enigma relied almost exclusively on the shared energy of the Dancers. He was saving his energy for when they actually reached the island.

Eventually, after several minutes of this, they finally reached the other island. Enigma saw that there was another rocky crag on the other island, which had the same sphere of floating energy. Only this was different – instead of the light gray sphere on the first island, this one was a dark gray. But it made no difference.

When they were close enough, the spheres were still about a foot apart. Enigma, seeing no other option, reached out with his left foot for a crevice on the second island. Finding one, he gripped that. He then found another one with his right foot, so that he was laying spread out, anchored onto each of the islands.

After calling two Dancers over to give him a combined hug, he ordered the Berserkers to fall away. Feeling the island gravitate back to its original position, he pulled the two of them together with both his might and the Dancers' might.

After a few seconds, and with Enigma almost tucked into a ball, the spheres overlapped each other, and merged together as long as Enigma held still.

Then Enigma encountered a bump. None of the other Nobodies knew what to do, and he didn't have time to explain it. So, seeing a Sorcerer nearby, its hand coated in Nothingness to control the bridge, he acted quickly.

He opened up his ribcage with his mind, dislodging the two Dancers and creating a cavity. Inside were his spare arms, curled up and stored in the chest when not in use.

He uncurled those arms, and grabbed the hand of the Sorcerer nearby with the left one. He jammed the hand into the sphere, letting the Nothingness from the Sorcerer's hand reveal the hiding place of the crystal.

There was a flash of gray light, and the crystal fell into Enigma's waiting palm. It was made completely out of translucent light gray crystal, and mainly consisted of an outer ring about a foot in diameter and two inches thick. The inside of the ring was made up of several criss-crossing squiggly lines, each made of the same crystal material. Throughout the whole crystal, dark gray lines of energy were glowing faintly and swirling slowly.

The Ruinga Crystal.

Satisfied with his prize, Enigma let go of both the islands, falling flat on his back on the cube path. The first island flew off and snapped back into place, like if one had just pulled back a rubber band.

Enigma lay on the floor, panting heavily. The Sorcerers looked concerned, the Berserkers put their head on their hammers in respect, and the remaining three Dancers started running their "hands" along Enigma, like…female servants you see rich hedonistic assholes in fantasy movies have. Yeah, that's what it was like.

Then, to the Nobodies' surprise, Enigma started laughing hysterically, then sat up.

"Well, that was a true test of my abilities. Now, let's give this crystal back to Father."

And with that, Enigma disappeared in a swirl of Nothingness, and all his fellow Nobodies did the same.
***
"Excellent," said Father, "most excellent."

Matriarch, Sovereign, and Enigma had all presented their crystals to Father, who was most pleased. Then he gave them instructions.

"Look before you," he said. The Sentinels of Chaos looked in front of them to see a NeoShadow Heartless, a Dusk Nobody, and a Flood Unversed standing before them. They looked as though they had a purpose in mind.

"Give your crystal to your underling, and they will take it to another of our associate's gifts."

"Who is this 'associate?'" asked Matriarch.

"He wishes to remain anonymous at this time. However, he sends his regards, and pledges to do everything he can to help. And his gifts will be most useful in tracking the other crystals."

"Why do these 'gifts' need the crystals we all found?" asked Sovereign.

"The gifts of my associate will draw on the power of those crystals, and in return, will constantly generate an army of the element of the crystal. The Demi Crystal will be used to create endless Heartless, the Ruinga Crystal will be used to create infinite Nobodies, and the Ultima Crystal will be used to create countless Unversed. All of them will be powerful, resourceful, and above all, loyal to you."

"Endless Nobodies?" asked Enigma, "I could get used to that."

"These armies will scour the entire universe, searching for worlds that may house an elemental crystal. They will report back any findings, and flood the universe with their raw power. Even if no crystal can be found there, if they occupy the worlds, it may prove useful for future plans."

Matriarch gave the Demi Crystal to the NeoShadow. "Stay safe, my darling child. And do not fail." She gave the NeoShadow a kiss on the eye before it turned away.

Sovereign walked over to the Flood Unversed, and gave it the Ultima Crystal. "Be well," it said, "and guard this crystal with your life." It stroked it behind the antenna before it turned away.

Enigma was not so kind. He handed the crystal to the Dusk forcefully. "Don't you dare fail me. I don't handle failure, you know that." With a heavy pat on the head, he turned the Dusk around.

The NeoShadow. Flood, and Dusk all had portals open before them, and they all stepped through one, disappearing into a haze of blood red smoke.

"The underlings you sent out will draw power from the crystal you sent them with," explained Father, "They will reside in the central chamber of their destinations, and transform into a unique guardian for that crystal. These places will be called the Creation Cores, and they will be called the Core Guardians."

"When the crystals are placed in their locations, the first thing they will do is send a surge of power to you. You will learn several new skills, as a reward for your work so far…and to give you a taste of your full potential.

"For now, though," he continued, "there is one other thing that must be done. You are to retrieve one of the Kingdom Keys, the Kingdom Key D. You will find it wielded by King Mickey Mouse."

Matriarch, Sovereign, and Enigma all nodded. "We will do as you ask, Father," they said as one.

Then they disappeared, set on a single location.

Disney Castle.