FicWad

Disclaimer: I own Kingdom Hearts! ...No, literally. Do I own any of the characters in it? Chya, right. That's a big, fat no. But, while we're taking about owning things, I own Mizu and the three sprites (Shima, Kiri, and Yama).



Sentinel Trinity
Shima

The main chamber was crowded with noise and dirty bodies, where many had erupted quite suddenly. In the doorway, Mizu yawned, woken up by the clamor and forced to see just what was going on to cause such a stirring.

Many, if not all of the adults were up and surrounding Jeomn, shouting angrily and desperately about something. But why? It was barely morning and they all seemed like they'd been up for hours. But that couldn't be. The noise barely started a few minutes ago. Unless...

Mizu maneuvered around the mass of flesh and trudged through, painfully managing to reach Jeomn. The head of their Den was old, with greying hair and sagging skin. He had lost more than a few teeth, but the wisdom in his dark eyes spoke of generations that passed. Vaguely, Mizu noted that he was wearing the same blanket he'd given to Furiol and felt a little better.

In the chain of command, Mizu had none. But both children and adults had their ways about them, and the few that hovered on both took to caring where neither would, and that included elders. Upon Jeomn's face was a passive expression, silent and meditative, but the slight crinkle in his brow gave his disquietude away. Mizu rushed up to him and grabbed one of the torches from its floor-sconce, waving it around the crescent of people. "Silence!"

A child who raises his voice among grown-ups is hardly worth the junk found above....but a child demanding quiet while acting like a barbarian is something else. The dull roar became talk between each other, whispering about both the insolence of youth and whatever had been in question before.

Mizu replaced the torch and knelt down before his elder. "Jeomn, what's going on?"

Jeomn shook his head, opening his eyes to look at the boy. "It's nothing that we can change, so it's nothing to burden you with."
"If it's enough to cause a riot and wake us up, I think we deserve to know."

Jeomn regarded Mizu with a look-over, ever the leader, ever perceptive. He nodded and retold the story in a hushed voice. "There...is a problem. One of our night-watchers posted near the black stone saw it act up a short time ago. It shone as bright as a star, like a beacon. The watcher said the light shot up into the sky, then just stopped. After that, he saw tiny creatures scurry out... Not like our own beasts, but just as evil."

Mizu narrowed his eyes at the first mention of the black stone, grew more suspicious at each word. Shelique... "Jeomn, I need to speak with you."

"I think this is more important than anything you could be concerned about--"

"It concerns /this/," he hissed. "I saw something this afternoon."
Jeomn regarded this boy carefully. He'd known Mizu for years, known his parents, his grandparents. The child came from an honest family. A good soul among the lost, the innocent, and the dying. "Tell me, then."

Mizu opened his mouth to speak, then gazed warily at those who still surrounded them. Hesitantly, he leaned over and whispered what he'd seen Shelique do. It was quick, simple, but detailed and serious enough give Jeomn the impression that it was more than a simple tall tale. Jeomn himself could hardly believe it, however, as he too was convinced Shelique could do no wrong in their eyes.

Such beliefs were now deceiving.

"Do you believe me, Jeomn?"

Jeomn pursed his lips together tightly and struggled to stand. Several people gasped in horror and a few rushed to help him, support him; Mizu was one of these people. Jeomn ignored them all and scanned the crowd thoroughly. "Where is Shelique?"

They looked among themselves, wondering why she would be so important, but someone in the far back shouted, "She's in her hole, sleeping!"

"Bring her. I want a word."



At Jeomn's immediate insistence, a full-fledged search party was sent out into the dead of night, where their monsters patrolled randomly. Needless to say, the poor souls were a terrified lot, the torches in their hands shaking vibrantly and the make-shirt weapons clattered like freezing teeth.

It was sad, to be honest. A poor bunch of meek creatures, weak and frail, cut off from the rest of their race, not knowing if they were the only survivors left. And now, their aging leader sent them out to a death sentence, all because of one disappearance.

But if Shelique -did- go against their laws and enter the black tomb, now was the time to know just what drew her in there.

Mizu, of course, had forced himself into the hunt, knowing something was wrong as well as feeling as though he was responsible in some way. He held not a torch but a mere shield, knowing an offensive weapon was useless to him; he'd never been good at that kind of defense.

They were quick and fleeting, scared out of their wits but bound by loyalty to their own oath of survival: no one gets left behind. It was rare that it ever got put into use, because never did it apply to when the beasts scavenged the land; no, it was 'every man for himself' then.

The black tomb would be so easily missed in the pitch void of night, had lit fire bins not been erected in front of it. It cast ominous shadows into deep crevices of the outer walls, making those who braved the night recoil. The bins have never been lit before...let alone burning a fire as pale as sunshine.

Mizu pushed past them, stalking toward the very entrance of the small building. His insides were clenched tight; sweat trickled down his body like melted snow running down mountain sides. He was as scared as the next man, but he was still the only one out of the lot who saw Shelique as anything but innocent.

Hit first steps through the forbidden entrance were short, for as soon as he was clear, a stone stab crashed down to seal the doorway and the darkness of the interior swallowed him up into its clawed hands, blinding him. And in that darkness, as his heart beat slowly calmed, something heavy and solid connected to his temple, sending him to the floor and slamming into what he could only suppose was a support column.

True darkness took him swiftly.



Pretty ceiling was his first coherent thought, entertained by the shadows playfully jumping about in a light blue color. But too soon, he groaned painfully. Whatever hit him had left a nasty pounding in his head and it wanted very much to torment his sadly abused cranium. With something like this, he mused, moving a hand to clutch at his skull, not hearing the rattle it caused in the process, I should be thankful I'm not dead.

His vision was fuzzy, but soon his other senses came back, one at a time. He could feel he was recumbent, smell the musky stench of staleness in the air, hear the crackling of a fire close to his ear and feel its warmth, and saw, eventually, that he was on a stone altar of some sort. His legs couldn't move; they were shackled down to the surface of the table. His arms had limited move, barely enough for fingertips to touch the cuff on his opposite wrist. And to make matters worse, the top part of his tunic was in tatters, no longer on his shoulders and forever useless until the summer.

At least I'm not /entirely naked. Thank god for small favors. /

The pain called to him, throbbing insistently and demanding the attention Mizu didn't want to give it, but he closed his eyes anyway and bit at his lip, trying his damnedest to assess the situation. Chained down, no clue to where you are-- best guess is I'm still in the black thing-- and caught between a cold draft and a ...blue... fire..... What is up with the colors, anyway?

"You're awake."

He shouted, taken fully by surprise, and tried to jerk away; all it got him was a twisted arm and collapsing back onto his back. A not-so-kind chuckled caressed his ears and Mizu turned his head to glare, albeit weakly, at its source. "What are playing at, Shelique?!"

Shelique limped forward, a malicious scowl on her dirty face "'Playing'? 'Playing'?! I am playing at nothing you little worm!"

"Obviously not," he grumbled dispassionately, "if you're disobeying the man who promised to keep us all alive."

"Alive?" She repeated venomously, looking straight down upon him. "Is hiding in a hole, praying that those things will go away, really classified as being 'alive', Mizu? We're walking /corpses/! We're just delaying the inevitable truth that one day, we won't be around here anymore, and Jeomn /knows it/!"

"You ungrateful witch." The boy pulled at the chains to emphasize his words. "And what's this all got to do with the black thing? And the need to tie me down?"

Shelique sneered her smirk, devious in every sense of the word. "While the rest of you sheep were off gathering, I crept away to here, the Heart Beacon. I discovered its secret and the story behind its existence. With it, I can rid Demesne of the beasts, a genuine ticket of freedom!"

Mizu gaped, amazed at the girl's naiveté. "Are you mad?! Can't you feel the vibes of this place?? They aren't nice ones, you know!"

Her face contorted in rage and brought the back of her hand hard against his face, snapping it to the side; Mizu's cry was subtle, if not just a grunt. They were silent, Shelique waiting for Mizu's retort and Mizu himself reestablishing his thought plan. "....So," he rasped, "I'll ask you again: what's the point to chucking me onto a slab of stone and restraining me when you could have more easily tied me up and left me in the corner?"

"Because," she stated, in an air of unyielding confidence, "the writings say on the night before the ritual, the first being to step through the doors is to be my sacrifice."

Mizu exploded into anger, disbelief, and fear. "/Sacrifice/?!" He shrilled "For what?!"

She grinned then, and the boy recoiled; there was an evil gleam in her light eyes as though she was feeding from the shadows' emptiness. The true image of a benighted person. "The ritual requires a sacrifice of a heart. A very...special heart." And she leaned closer, nearly nose to nose. "The heart of a Keyblade Master."

His eyes grew wider and wider with every key word she bore to light. And the lack of space between them hardly helped his mental bombardment of questions he himself could barely even ask. Shelique pulled away then, limping slowly from the room. "I'll save this world," she muttered as the darkness led her away. "One life to save a hundred others." Pause. "Fair trade."

Mizu's eyes never left the spot Shelique vanished from, his mind suddenly becoming louder.

Keyblade?
What is that?
What's so special about it?
What's so special about my /heart/?
A Sacrifice?
Why is she doing this?

....Just how long was I out for, anyway??



The night had come and gone, as had the morning, and Jeomn was the epitome of paternal worry for a son and daughter gone missing.

When Mizu entered the black tomb and the entrance slammed shut, those who had only watched tried their best to reopen it, in a desperate attempt to rescue their comrade; some even searched the rest of the exterior for another way in. With the vanishing of a single boy did Jeomn's people forget their fears, quelled with another kind of emotion that had no name.

Jeomn bowed his head. The elder was at a loss. It had been approximately eight hours since the tomb sealed itself. And with the dawn, they found more news to be disturbed over.

It had been a strange, black creature. Small in size, scuttled around on two large feet, with eyes like yellow globes and antenna that waved around wildly. It appeared from nowhere and seemed alone...

/Heartless/, his mind screamed. As the failed Heartkeeper for Demesne, it would be just his luck that the Heartless would -now- start appearing when the world was at its worst. And he had no doubts that it had to do with the black tomb coming to life last night.

Was Shelique responsible? He didn't know. All he did know was that they didn't have a protector; surely, the Heartless will destroy their world. And he felt helpless to stop it.



Time passed; Mizu would kill for a watch to know just how much. Or a sundial. Or the sun itself, if it helped with an estimation.

The boy had gotten sick of asking himself for answers and instead, began to focus more on Shelique's final words. He wondered what it'd be like to have the old ways return, when they lived in apartments and went to school. He'd been too young to remember, a small babe of four who attended a private pre-school. A mother, a father, an older brother, he used to have a family. And now, Jeomn was his father and the children in their den his little siblings. They were just one big, dysfunctional family.

Mizu frowned. What if Shelique was right? What if it only took his heart to undo all the wrongs the beasts committed? No, it can't be. She's gotta be deluded. You /can't ignore the chill factor of it all./ "God dammit, Shelique, let me GO!"

"Not in a hell's chance."

He glared fiercely at the girl walking in, passive in heated violence. "You don't understand what you're doing. This place isn't something you can mess around with!"

But Shelique didn't answer, and Mizu squinted in the light. She was dressed in clothes he never saw before. They were rich, covered in alien, intricate designs. He was going to guess they were ceremonial; they were made for a woman, from the way they hung to every proper curve and much too intimate looking. Nothing he'd ever seen before.

"The time has come, the night is here."

If anything, the cryptic words gave him an inkling to how long he'd been there. And he thrashed in his bindings, wild. "Let me go, you stupid girl!"

For the second time, she got in his face, sneering. "Why should I?"

He returned the animosity whole-heartedly. "Because I'd rather be free to wring your neck!"

Again with the silence. Shelique's eyes were moving, as though she was trying to find something in him... But all too quickly, the distance was lost and Shelique limped up to the wall closest to the alter and brushed her fingers delicately over a rather large glyph.

A rumble of stone against stone alerted his senses and Mizu cast his gaze upwards. A slab of stone the size of the alter was retracting in the ceiling, revealing to him the brightly lit sky of the night. Side-by-side, the twin moons were directly over them, but cast in an uncanny blue light.

The rare blue moons.

His people had a saying: 'Once in a blue moon.' Having one blue moon in the sky was a beautiful and exciting experience. But they also had another adage: 'Beware the blue twins.' One blue moon was great, even if it was consecutive with another, but two at the same time was an evil omen. And it was one omen Mizu believed in.

Mizu stiffened, suddenly more afraid now than when he'd come close to being caught by the beasts. OhgodohgodI'mreallygoingtodieohmygod!

Shelique now rounded the alter, placing herself between the two blue fires, her back to the doorway. A sharp flash of light caught his eye as she raised her arms in prayer and a cold sweat broke on his body.

A long dagger, the metal of the blade mystifyingly translucent, was clutched in her hands. The jagged edge reflected the fire and the moon, making Mizu whimper to himself. My heart, my heart, a kingdom for my heart! It sounded silly, but he would've been willing to give up anything if it meant he could live.

Shelique went off mumbling to the opening, something he couldn't understand as the tongue was even more alien than her clothing. Mizu tried to press himself into the stone, hoping a dreamer's wish that he'd disappear into it, but reality, even in this nightmare, was still true to the laws of nature; they wouldn't be bent for a dirty child like himself.

The words tapered away and Shelique looked from the moon down to her den-mate. Her eyes were empty and slowly, lowered the dagger to the left side of his chest. Mizu started thrashing again, maybe expecting to throw her off and spare him, but it didn't do anything but annoy her. She pinned his throat down hard, causing him to choke, and held his body down with her own. He stilled, for the most part, and Shelique brought the tip of the knife down onto his breast, carving a shallow circle around his heart; blood crept from the wound and trickled down his flank onto the alter.

Mizu had a cry ready and waiting when her weight lifted and kept straining on the wrist shackles; there wasn't anything he could do for his feet. But when Shelique turned to the fire closest to his face, Mizu couldn't to anything but watch through teary eyes.

She thrust the dagger into the now raging fire, the curved hilt protecting the dark flesh of her hand. When she removed it, the boy had a revelation about why the blade was translucent. The metal now shimmered with an ethereal glow, as though the fire was locked inside. Shelique also appeared mystified by the change...

But then, that gleam was back in her eyes and raised the dagger high in both hands...

Mizu screamed.

The blade plunged deep into its intended target, setting off an instant chain of actions. Mizu's body arched off the alter, restricted only by the bonds that held him down. Inside of him, the fire spread throughout his veins, his muscles, his organs, his bones. The sounds rebounding from wall to wall were awful; Shelique didn't bat an eye.

It was black witchcraft that kept him on the edge of life and death, when Shelique took the hilt and slowly began to remove the blade. But before it was entirely, a subzero wave of ice christened his soul, followed by the center of the sun found in the fire that burned his flesh. The heat kept his heart beat--

Mizu choked, gasping for air. There was a hollow feeling where the knife had slid and he forced his eyes open over the pain. His vision was white around the edges, hazy, slurred, but there was the reason. She held the dagger poised, unmoving, admiring with a childish lust the sphere of cotton-blue, embraced in white and baby-pink wisps. It held an age-old wisdom in its clean depth, a bright beacon in the dark, something to hold and know you weren't alone. ...He had just been cleaved of his heart.

"No..."



"Jeomn? What does it mean?"

Cries of fear, of hate, of plain sadness. Tears soiled the dry ground. And he couldn't soothe them of the impending doom they knew was facing them with blood in its eyes. Jeomn bowed his head, unable to face Furiol's innocent terror as he answered, "It means our role in life is over... Dying for a reason only soulless creatures can fathom."

One of said soulless creatures took the time to scuttle by, its stolen heart form a time whence leading it directly toward the action. A few of the ones who ventured outside recoiled at the wavering, yellow orbs in the semi-permeate dark, but many didn't notice, gaze caught by the two full circles whose edges just barely touched. The people of this den had braved the night out of horror of the blue-moon dilemma and wept for their lives.

"We're to die tonight." To die, to die, after protecting a boy. Be brave Mizu, and survive.



Inside of him, the heat of the blue fire fought to keep him conscious; Mizu just wanted to do anything that didn't require bondage: walk, run, pass on to the afterlife. His heart was slowly pulled off of the dagger and he sobbed dryly. Shelique cupped her hands around its subtle warmth, enthralled and mesmerized over its beauty. But the quiet of the night and fire didn't last, as Shelique raised her hand above her head and again began to chant those foreign words.

He couldn't struggle more and was left to stare straight at the lunar satellites with weak eyes. However, he soon could see the moons glowing even brighter, as though they were reacting to Shelique's crazy whim. Her words reached a harsh crescendo and the moons became as bright as the sun, churning and blazing with a light as white as falling ice. Even with his vision failing, it was hard to miss. In real time, the sounds of Shelique's voice grew dim, but in that weakness, he could understand them, like comforting whispers.

"Guide us to salvation, End of Time. A heart to take this world and makes its people free! A heart that will save us all. An offer you can't refuse, an offer you can't refuse, an offer you can't refuse!"

And the world went white.



Shelique let her eyes widen at the sight of the moons' twin shafts of concentrated light filtering through the roof, striking the formless energy and filling it with a pure radiance that couldn't be defined. The heart grew hot and its beat grew louder. It moved faster and faster, uncontrollably so. In a way, it made her afraid...

But when the same light that the moons created suddenly shot down at an angle to hit the lifeless body on the alter, she fell down in stupefaction. Cowering on the floor, Shelique could only watch as the luminance pushed its way into the fresh cut in the chest...and the heart crawled down to it, like a bead on an abacus moved by unsure fingers. But it followed its moonbeam path into the cavity it once resided in...and Mizu vanished.

Gone, a complete lapse in reality. It happened so fast, she was nearly convinced it was a trick on her eyesight, for a sheer moment later he was back, free of his shackles and pale in the firelight. The cut on his chest had scarred over, a perfect circle with a vertical line drawn through it; she could see it once he sat up. His expression was vacant, lost, empty. Hardly anything more than a shell...

"What--? How?! What did you do?!"

The noise visibly made him jump and he gave her the most inquisitive and scrutinizing look. "Shelique?... But...no, it's been years. ...Years, years, ...two?...Where am I?"

It was ruined! Fury became her motion and grabbed at the discarded knife from the cold floor. "You...you idiot! That was not supposed to happen!" She lunged, his throat in her sights. But he was too lethargic to understand, -couldn't- understand why Shelique was threatening him. But she didn't touch him. No, a force blocked her blow, knocking her away from him. She never saw the strange, oversized key on his other side, glistening dully and held loose in his grip. The source of all power that would protect and destroy...

The billowing power of the moons went unnoticed in the temple, until it was too late.



"Know so much, how?"

It was a fair question. Shima hadn't been with him for all that long, a few months at best. But Riku felt it was too early to say. However, he didn't have much time left for them to be alone. Once they joined up with their third, Riku would never leave his side. "Because, I've met him."

Shima blinked. She was sitting on his shoulder, finally in better favor with him after last night's blow-up. "Possible, is it no?"

"End of the World hardly seems possible either, yet it exists. ...I met him."

"Keyblade planet?"

He nodded. "Third world in the Trinity. Nameless. He's never seen it before, and we weren't able to reach it before he needed to return."

"But..." She struggled with the wording of this one, unable to comprehend it in her own limited vocabulary. Instead, she tried to carefully form it into the speech-pattern of her companion. "...How could....he..." She tapped her chin. "Possible to--... If he is...on a..w-world, then how could he..be..uh, with you?"

Riku stopped walking. Shima shied away, afraid of the more-solemn profile she had of him now. The sprite knew Riku would never intentionally hurt her, but at times, he was truly frightening, despite his eyes, his windows, being boarded up.

"I don't know. I was still trapped in Kingdom Hearts when he appeared out of nowhere, outside the doors, that much I remember, but I can't recall how we got out.

"His Highness seemed slightly put off by his arrival. Even wondered what it meant. But the boy only shook his head, took the Keyblade that Mickey held, and gave it to me."

Shima gasped and flit to face Riku. "Horrible! Rude him too!"

Again, Riku shook his head. "It had to happen, Shima. Mickey was holding onto my true blade, he even admitted it. And the boy... He knew practically everything about the 'blades. But for the life of me, I can't remember anything he said."

The pixie was left agape, in awe and almost insulted by this...Third. "Lost is your memory?"

The man didn't answer right away, appearing as if he was mentally searching through all that his mind possessed... "Yes. ...Yes, my memory is gone. But not everything. I suppose it means I wasn't meant to remember what his knowledge was...or his Keyblade, because I remember how long we were together, remember talking about Sora, remember a little of what he looked like."

Shima exhaled, breathless, her tiny mind never having even imagined of something so queer. "How forget you did? Here then Key Master be, now planet home gone but gone Master now here too?" The sprite whimpered loudly. "Confused, Shima is!"

"I don't understand it either." And he started walking again, past the bakery of Traverse Town's first district and shoved open the doors.

Traverse Town was much more empty than it had been three years ago, now that the survivors' worlds had been restored. It had an eerie whistle to it when a breeze blew through, stirring sounds found in the darkest nightmares. But Traverse Town was no longer a place of fear, only a lonely salvation to the threats of the universe, housing at the most a total population of fifteen.

Riku practically lived here as well, despite its horrible memories of Maleficent and her twisted intentions. The past was the past and Sora, in some unspoken vow, forgave him, before sealing the mammoth doors to Kingdom Hearts with Mickey's aid. "Take care of her."

Briefly, he wondered if Sora had managed to return home. ...Home. The islands with their beautiful scent, delicious scenery, and rang with the laughter of children who dreamed of things beyond their paradise. Kairi....

The white-haired man spent many a night tormented by her tears, her lifeless face, her love for Sora. And he had to wonder if Kairi knew who she really was. The seventh Princess of Heart, destined to draw the Keyblade Masters to herself. A Princess...and a dweller of Hollow Bastion.

Ansem.

The Lord of the Hollow was solely convinced of his victory, confident in his own darkness and his research of the Heartless, he occasionally let his guard slip. And with Riku's mind still functioning with Ansem's possession, he was able to see into his mind. He's seen people. All sorts of people who smiled at him, respected him as a benevolent ruler. But he also saw Kairi...and immediately knew the truth.

But seeing what Ansem once saw had not come at a low price. No, Ansem broke him, tortured his heart as the once-Lord learned his own truth, and about what connected him so to Kairi.

They'd been the same person for a single instant and the feeling had left Riku sick to his stomach and weak all over...

"Shima, do your job."

Shima smiled and started to twirl around, green sparkles of light cascading from her tiny whirlwind. Riku watched from behind his blindfold, squinting even in the make-shift dark. This is what Shima was for, this is how a Compass operated. She was the Island, his assigned fairy to specifically find one of the other Keyblades. And he might as well make her useful and their little hunt all the more easier.

Suddenly, Shima shot out from the ball in a streak of lightning and dove for the left path, shouting, "Follow me!"

Riku didn't have to be told twice.

Shima's path led into the Hotel and through the blue room, out onto the balcony and down into the alleyway; Riku took note that the room was empty as he ran between one door and the next. The fall from the terrace to the ground was child's play and the man watched as Shima's instincts took her into the mouth of the waterway.

Traverse Town wasn't a big place, but if he -was- in the cavern, well, Riku felt like he personally was cheated of something, as though the other wielder would be harder to find. Yes, he gave Shima her mission, but still.

The water was cold as he hurried through it, following the neon-green trail the pixie automatically left. But in the underworld cavern, the trail didn't end. It, in fact, passed right through the ideal training area and up into the passage beneath Merlin's previous residence. Riku grinned slightly.

The rising platform at the top of the stairs still worked (a parting gift from the Arthurian magician perhaps), reacting to Riku's sudden weight and slowly began to rise to the building above.

Inside, the green trail took a sharp turn to somewhere behind him, turning Riku 180 degrees in the process. And there Shima was, hovering over a prone, slumped form by the doorway, a brazen and silver Keyblade slackly gripped in one hand laying beside him.

Shima buzzed about him anxiously, like a hummingbird trying to find the best way to approach a flower blossom; Riku didn't blame her. On the other hand... Of all the places to wind up, it had to be the farthest from the hotel. And surrounded by more water. ...One way or another, I'm going to end up even wetter.

Ignoring Shima's worried hecklings, Riku dropped to his knees and gently lifted the boy's chin up to see his face. Comparing it to what he could recall, he was a grimy version of who he knew, dirty to the extent of nearly being disgusting. But it was him, no doubt.

It was hard to push away the fact that the boy was a greaseball in the making, but Riku hefted the feather-light frame into his arms and walked back to the rising platform. Riku crinkled his nose as the platform lowered them back into the cavern and stated as blandly as possible, "Welcome back to Hell, Mizu."





A/N: Yeah, now this makes up for all that wasn't in the first part. Would you believe I finished the Riku scene before Mizu's finale? Oh, and keep your eyes out for Sora in the next part. S'about time I got to him and his posse.