Kingdom Hearts - Blades of Three Realms

[Kuukyo_Fushichou]

Axel of course just chuckled, while Gilgamesh -did- look impressed at that speed, it seemed that that was another thing he might have to work on, given he could tell Shiro was actually at ease with the pace they set speed wise, so maybe upping his speed might actually work in pressing the King of swords? of course, after he got his chuckles in Axel would drape an arm around Roxas's shoulder, before dragging him in and giving him a noogie "hah! i knew you could beat them, squirt! just had to take a moment to bust out a limit break though huh?" he said, grinning all the while, leaving the King of heroes scoffing in amusement at the antics, before resuming his thoughtful thinking and all.

Roveth meanwhile had glanced back seeing Crystal get the third degree by Yuffie about her love life, made him remember of the time he had to spell it out to Roxas, and chuckled a bit lightly "well, it is true that they're cute in the sweet and innocent kind of way, and it can be hilarious if i manage to get in a good teasing on em about it." he said, looking amused in general "as for me spelling it out to Roxas, it was because either i forced your hand to reveal your true emotions or misinterpret your feelings left and right until it drove me enough to take Shiro and disappear from everyone's life, i think i made the better choice of the two, all things considered." he said while beginning to tap into the Data replica system to check and see who there were replicas of, so on, as well as check on how Braig... ah. "while that Even guy is definitely a scientist that's thorough.. and a bit insane looking, he definitely does -not- know how to handle security well when it comes to access.. he completely forgot to delete the access files of all active members of Xehanort's little powwow group before he switched away from the nobodies shtick." he said, frowning a bit "while normally easily noticable for outsiders to access it so they can be disposed of, no protocols were in place to stop those who had access previously from using it..." he sighed "Yare yare daze... it is definitely a good thing that he's not here either or i might have to school him in technological security 101..." he shook his head, and proceeded to summon out his favored machine type monsters to get them ready: Machine King, Proto Machine King, and Cyber Commando "alright you three, consider this just like the chronopolis salvage operation, be thorough, leave no bolt behind, but wait until we safely shut down the system before getting it packed up for transport." the three monsters nodded as Roveth returned to helping Ienzo make sure all data was freshly saved and not going to become corrupted mid transport, then he'd start working on safely shutting things down so it could be dismantled, and then passed off to his crew to be shipped to Twilight town via Dark Corridors. once he got things on that in full swing, he will say one last thing "once myself, Ienzo, and his friend get set up in Twilight Town Crystal... you, myself, and riku are going to pay that old Wizard a visit, and i can assure you he will not like this visit." he said, his anger starting to bubble through, clearly showing that there was definitely going to be an interrogation coming soon.  

[[XIII] Roxas]

Xion couldn't help but be amused when Axel grabbed Roxas to noogie him and Roxas naturally flailed at the noogie, but found his efforts to escape to be ineffective. "Well, I probably could have taken them without it, but that would have taken longer!"

"I'll give you some credit," Leon had bounced back from his defeat with more grace than Cloud was showing still sprawled in the dirt of the courtyard. "You've got good moves, but more importantly you have decent judgement. So, I guess what I'm saying is that it looks like Crystal is probably in good hands and that you pass. It's not like I can really object to you being with her since it's what she wanted all along and I probably should have seen this coming a mile away."

"Geez, how hard did that kid hit me?" Cloud finally picked himself back up. "It sounded like old man Leon was getting all sappy like he's giving away his own daughter or something."

That line got Leon looking pretty embarrassed. "Who asked you?"

"I think that went well," Zidane nodded to himself while watching Cloud and Leon in amusement. Never a dull moment around those guys, that's for sure.  

[Kuukyo_Fushichou]

Roveth of course would be glad for the help of Aeleus and Ienzo in handling things, with their aid, and of course his expedient monster delivery service, Roveth would be leading the way to Twilight Town for the group so they could get things moved in and set up properly, all the meanwhile chatting animatedly with the scientist and researcher about various things that were much safer topics that don't cross unethical boundaries or look into things that Xehanort had been looking into. with Roveth being a good soundboard for ideas and such, it would be an easy transition for Ienzo to Twilight Town, and once done probably late at night at Radiant Garden, Roveth would return, to at least head for the inn with a yawn, yes he did have new toys to play with, but for now he was just getting his own rest since Ienzo shooed him off after they got the system transported, installed in the Mansion's basement, and set up to where it'd be start up properly, so Roveth left Cyber commander to at least aid Ienzo in the security and all of the mansion, as well as helping to upgrade the Data Replica system's security to its maximum potential, as well as other upgrades which would allow a much smoother transportation/materialization of the Data Replicas so it wouldn't cause either errors, or the data becoming corrupted in some way. either way Roveth would at least stay in Radiant Garden to keep an eye on Riku and Crystal, to make sure they got some rest and be available if needed by them.

Axel had looked over to Leon and Cloud, before snorting, and -definitely- committing that line to memory, if only to give Roveth ,Crystal ,Riku, even Sora a laugh or two at Leon's expense, chuckling a bit while looking to Roxas with amusement while he let go "well, Roxas still needs some rest, so after he finishes resting up we'll have to mosey on our way, unexpected passenger included, to meet our friends at Radiant Garden." he said, and then proceeded to realize who would be there, and cringed a bit "oh dear... that reminds me... i gotta think of a viable explanation to tell Roveth why Shiro's not with us..." Gilgamesh glanced over to Axel and scoffed a bit "why should you care, mongrel? the King of Swords will return to your group eventually." Axel would snap out a reply "because if Shiro is one you do not want to cross unless you want to lose your life, Roveth is the kind of person to strike terror in even -YOU- with just a murderous glance, i -really- don't want him trying to rip my head off on that issue." Gilgamesh raised an eyebrow, before scoffing once more "pfft, as if a mongrel would scare me." Axel just looked at Gilgamesh, then at Roxas, then at Gil again, before shrugging "your funeral if you piss him off." he said, winking to Roxas, apparently all too amused at the thought of Gil finding out who Roveth really is to Shiro.  

[[XIII] Roxas]

"Well, we've still got a few more days before we're supposed to meet up with everyone at Radiant Garden," Xion pointed out to try to ease Axel's concerns. Although, from the way Roxas pouted, puppy dog eyes included, when she said that they probably weren't going to wait around that long for Shiro to return with Auron given the possibility that Crystal and Riku might already be there. "And there's still the tournament to think about."

"Crystal and Riku might have gotten there already though," Roxas felt he had to say it out loud if only to justify why he so anxious to make the transition now that Axel had mentioned it. "And we can always come back for the tournament if we have to."

"Crystal will probably forgive you for turning up without Shiro once you've explained the situation about Auron, but I can't speak for Roveth since I quite honestly don't know him that well," Leon nodded. "As far as I know, Crystal has met Auron before so she'll probably understand if Shiro left with him."

"Still, it looks like you and I will have our work cut out for us in this upcoming tournament," noted Cloud. "We just got beaten into the ground by Roxas and if Shiro is fighting fit I'm not so sure we can take him on either."

"I know what you mean," Leon shook his head. "If we let them get too far ahead we'll never catch up."

Naturally, Roxas didn't want to turn up at Radiant Garden all ragged and exhausted from training and fighting with those two so he headed back to the barracks to catch up on some more sleep. If they were lucky, Shiro would turn up while he was resting and they wouldn't have to worry so much about how to contend with Roveth. Otherwise, Roxas had no idea how they were going to handle that situation. Not even Crystal seemed to be capable of defusing an angry Roveth.

"You guys sure sound like you're keeping busy," Zidane whistled appreciatively at all the planning going on between Roxas, Axel, Xion, and Gilgamesh at the moment.

"Well, we had to split up because Crystal and Riku needed to go on some secret errand for Master Yen-Sid," Xion explained as best she could without revealing too much about what that actually entailed. "But we all agreed to meet up again at Radiant Garden once that's over and it's obvious that Roxas can't wait to see Crystal again. And at least he's trying to take better care of himself now that he's realized working himself into the ground isn't going to help anyone."

"He's a lucky guy, I'll give him that," Zidane replied with some amusement. "She might put on a fierce front and she acts like she doesn't need anyone, but Crystal only cultivated that image to keep herself safe when she was alone. The truth is that she's probably kinder than anyone, has the patience of a saint, and would do anything to protect the people she cares about. And she has a rather charming sense of humor too."

"It sounds to me like you must really like her," Xion pointed out.

"Who, me? No, I just like girls in general so I'm good at paying attention and picking up on things other guys usually take for granted," Zidane grinned in amusement. "Besides, for some reason she chose Roxas and I'm not about to get in the way of true love."

"At least he's honest about it," Leon sighed heavily while shaking his head at Zidane.

Of course, Zidane's statement got Xion turning to Axel in confusion. "Is 'true love' somehow different from regular 'love'?"  

[Kuukyo_Fushichou]

of course, during this dream-scape battle known as the Keyblade War, walked amongst the fighting Keybladers a wraith, watching over a certain someone as they waded through the fighting keybladers, moving with such ease as if they were parting the herd like water, evading strikes, using other keybladers to parry strikes aimed at the physical body, while the spectral wraith spoke "it seems my light counterpart has brought in her own 'Final' vessel as well... so be it, this has to be rectified now. end this so called Keyblade War farce... then we must deal with the one who caused the inevitable emergence of Kingdom Hearts." the wraith said, with the man, a tanned, athletic built man with shockingly white hair set about in a way Crystal would be -all- too familiar to see had nodded faintly, and opened his mouth softly "... I am the Bone of my Sword." a deep and hollow timbre sounded, but the voice was probably also hauntingly familiar to Crystal. The Aria.. of a man forged in the fires of hell, and is definitely.. made out of blades. as soon as the first line was spoken, two keybladers who thought it would be gutsy to try and impale the so called unarmed and 'helpless' man from behind soon found themselves dropping their Keyblades as their hands were viciously parted company from their bodies, soon after the screams were heard for only the scant few seconds as the man, now armed with a pair of Chinese falchions that would be all too recognizable as Kanshou and Bakuya, would swiftly behead the two idiots who tried to be gutsy and attack him, causing the others around the white haired man to turn and look at the man in a threatening way as the molten steel eyes gazed around the area, clearly he was just getting started as he brought the blades up in a cross defensive pattern in front of him "Steel is my Body, and Fire is my Blood." out came the next line, as the Keybladers all around the tanned individual would try one by one to assault the one who just killed two of their brethren, and each and every one would be swiftly dealt with, a stab through the heart, a beheading, limbs being parted from their bodies and heads being stabbed, not to mention the times when the Keyblades actually broke the falchions, only for the wielders to receive vicious kicks, punches, or even a headbutt or two before being slaughtered in their hesitation with a newly appearing pair of the blades formed in hand finishing off what their previous selves could not.of course this lasted for a few minutes before the space between the bodies and the tanned man grew enough that he intoned the next line in his aria "I have Created.. over a Thousand Blades." of course, the keybladers next tried magic against the man, but all that happened was the man jumping in the air, flinging out his falchions like boomerangs to torment the people below and bringing his hands forward, the very familiar seven petal barrier, on par with fortress walls... "Rho Aias!" was called out as it formed into being, and taking the full brunt of magical assaults without fail, blocking them, and once the salvo was over with, he'd flip down ,catching his two blades, and beheading another keyblader as he intoned coldly, glancing about every which way with his eyes as if studying his opponents "Unknown to Death, nor Known to Life..." he said, before launching at yet another keyblader with three set of boomerang falchions flinging in, charging forward whiel they were distracted with the blade while bringing another pair behind his back and broken phantasming them into Trace Overedge form, looking almost like bladed wings, before proceeding to make mincemeat of that particular keyblader using the more perfected technique of shiro's: Kakuyoku Sanren. of course, quite a few keybladers at that point jumped in and started slashing wildly at the white haired man, taking lots of damage yet never seemed to stop slashing, stabbing, beheading, so on amongst that fray "have... withstood pain.. to create... many weapons." the man would gasp out, before dropping the falchions and proceeding to summon the huge stone slab roughly shaped like a sword to start sending opponents flying in shreds once more "and yet.. these hands.. will never hold.. anything." he intoned, continuing to fight, literally dozens of keybladers trying to dog-pile him now as Prana started bursting forth from his body, almost giving him a demonic or outright murderous presence as his molten steel eyes hardened and stabbed the stone blade into the ground, which began to crack and flames started to rise "So.. as i Pray... Unlimited... BLADE WORKS! was shouted, unleashing the one thing that would seal the war's entire fate as being a massacre, there, among all the swords, the keybladers stood in awe and scared at this new vast wasteland they found themselves in, with the white haired bronze tanned man staring down from the hill of blades, where he picked up another sword in his left hand "an unlimited number of blades.. the finest of finest blades! for this war.. for you greed driven fools who see nothing but yourselves... this will be YOUR GRAVEYARD! now COME, AND FIGHT ME!" he roared out, causing the keybladers to start mounting up their assault, and sure enough, in a vast floursh of speed, weapon switching, and literal blurring past keybladers, they all began to be slaughtered left and right, each keyblade stabbed into the ground like a tombstone left in the man's wake, becoming a true terror of the battlefield, and one that must never be crossed unless they truly don't want to live. of course, there were a good few who would try to flee when seeing the wholesale slaughter happening, only to be met by swords flying down and impaling them in various bodyparts to not only prevent movement and no escape, but also to do the most lethal damage in quick order as the man spat after bifurcating another Keyblader like they were a training doll "Tch... cowards. there's no escape from this world.. from -my- world... for my body... is made out of Blades." with that, the man would start turning a silvery metal sheen, before the body 'bursted' in a way, unleashing blades all around him and mowing down quite a few more keybladers, it would take a while, but after hours of fighting, bleeding, causing an outright massacre, no Keyblader was left standing, though curiously as he passed by one of the body piles he hadn't noticed someone still live, but he was more focused on the one person he left untouched in this mad slaughter he had to do "...Lady Cosmos i take it? i am known as Counter Guardian Shiro, Chaos's last resort should things end up causing things to spiral downhill in a way he did not want."he would say, taking a kneeling stance to Cosmos/Crystal, while Chaos chuckled a bit gravely "always so polite he is, but take it for what it's worth, Cosmos.. none of us expected what would become of things, especially with how our... contests have allowed Kingdom Hearts to emerge."  

[Kuukyo_Fushichou]

Chaos had indeed nodded to Cosmos's words, looking a bit solemn in the fact she had to be cast into the very darkness in order to save Kingdom hearts, while the Counter Guardian frowned, seeming a bit unhappy at that as he spoke up first "is there truly no other way, like myself being sacrificed to the darkness to save the past?" Chaos had looked over to his Guardian, and shook his head "unfortunately, Counter Guardian, your key is special, for it to be cast to the darkness would allow untold havoc to happen, plus, you are meant to return to the time from whence you came from, so it cannot be avoided that it has to be Cosmos's Last Vessel." Shiro actually stood up, glaring at Chaos with his molten steel eyes, clearly upset that this was to happen and about to speak up in protest when Chaos held up a hand "i know what you will say, Counter Guardian, and any other time, i would agree with you for you always had the right track of mind others of my agents have not: by being a champion of light as a being of darkness. however this is one time the Fates cannot allow things to be altered, even with some of your... capable weapons they will not be able to change this. the door -must- be closed off to mortal hands once more." the Counter guardian just sighed, slumping his head a bit while raising a hand up, and with a snap of his fingers, a flash of light had occurred, and the reality marble broke, returning things back to the canyon like wasteland area that the war was being fought, and with Kingdom Hearts looming in the sky, the counter guardian looked up towards it with pure disdain for what he had to do. Chaos had nodded, returning his attention to Cosmos once more "i myself will go into hibernation, and it will be true that my agents will be reborn anew with no past, however i forsake the majority of them for not being what i truely wanted in the end, a set of heroes able to fight alongside your heroes against whatever tries to break the rules we and the other gods had set in place... i lost myself to the darkness for a long while, and i apologize for that, but i also hope that when we next meet in the future, it will be as old friends, maybe even brother and sister, for the darkness cannot live without the light." he glanced to the Counter Guardian "Restrictive access is granted, and limiters are removed." the counter guardian tensed up, hearing those words, before letting his eyes go dim, and dull as something within his body shifted, his presence changing in balance once more as he brought up his two hands as he begun to chant once more, something completely different "I, who am about to awaken... the same I, who stands within the realm of the heavens... am the final Knight of Darkness who holds the key of life... that will open the gate of the underworld and descend the worlds to darkness.... I shall become the Terror of the End, and embrace the new beginnings of the worlds... as the Seal shall be opened to send everything to the white Paradise! Seal Break!" of course, with that, two keyblades formed within the Counter Guardian's own hands, but they were very much different than the inferior keyblades that he had just had to fight, as one wielded an intense light that would shine amongst the infinite darkness, and a black key, which would devour the eternal radiant light, as Shiro continued chanting "That which is true, and that which is nothing but a mere dream, all shall become reality so long as i stand within the dominion of the gods... Over... FORGE!" he shouted, before slamming the two keys together, unleashing a massive potential shock-wave of raw power and energy as there, floating in front of the counter Guardian, was the true blade that would cleave through light and darkness both, as well as change reality into dreams, and dreams into reality.. the X-Blade. once the process was finally completed, the Counter Guardian would take up the middle handle of the keyblade, looking it over with mixed feelings, all to be shunted aside as he looked towards the two gods "... i am ready." he said in a dull, almost saddened tone, while Chaos nodded a bit solemnly, knowing that what was about to happen would make the Counter Guardian hate himself for a while, because, in the end, he never truely saved anyone of this war.  

[Kuukyo_Fushichou]

Chaos sighed while Shiro merely responded to Cosmos's words with a nod, giving one parting set of words as well "its his nature to worry... even if he is a man made of blades... the Infinite Blade." he then turned, looking towards the ground, though neither he or the counter guardian noticed someone still moving as the tanned man closed his steel-wrought eyes and raised the X-Blade into the air much like Cosmos raised Time Warp "Extending from the guidance of light, hope shall begin anew here and now... the Time of Darkness, the Era of the Keyblade War... Ends here and now, KINGDOM HEARTS, HEAR MY PLEA! CLOSE THYSELF ONCE MORE TO THOSE OF MORTAL HANDS, FOR I, THE KEY OF LIFE, COMMAND YOU TO CLOSE!" with that, the X-Blade began shining brightly, suffusing large amounts of light into the area before firing off the large beam which would contact the Door to Kingdom Hearts, and from this side, start working to close and seal it off from mortal hands once more. as this went on, Chaos actually turned aside, shedding a tear "goodbye, Cosmos..." he muttered, before looking off amongst the infinite plain, the large amount of keyblades sticking out of the ground, each like a tombstone for the wielders who had been slain here, as a result of the end of this Era, an ominous wind blowing through the area as storm clouds slowly started budding through the wasteland to start raining...  

[Kuukyo_Fushichou]

Roveth had also been awake, conveniently sitting on the roof when he heard the noises below him, frowning slightly and looking down towards the window he had exited from lightly, apparently sensing distraught and uncertainty coming from downstairs, of course, this would've made Roveth want to check it out, but at the same time he could tell that he might just muck things up even more by going down there to find out what was going on, before looking back up to the sky with a small sigh "Yare yare daze... it seems the times ahead are going to become quite turbulent..." he said softly to himself, before gazing up towards the moon in the sky, almost as if looking at it fondly, the light shining within the darkness to him.

Axel of course had just do a double-take before minorly gulping a bit, this was one of the few topics he had -little- experience on given he's never found love for himself, then again none of the organization have outside of Roxas... "uh... well, Love is a fickle thing in general, but generally.. where love can come and go at a whim.. true love... is unconditional, nigh everlasting, and completely selfless and pure." he said, rubbing the back of his head a bit lightly "sorry if it sounds corny but that's the definition i know." he said as Gilgamesh just eyerolled, and idly reached behind him into the gate, to pull out a cup from within and a pitcher, beginning to pour out some wine so he could at least have something to drink in the meanwhile, since it seemed the entertainment was calming down.  

[[XIII] Roxas]

"I guess it probably does sound kind of corny when you put it like that, but that's more or less how it goes," Zidane nodded at Axel's definition. "Crystal would say how she doesn't buy into it and that being there for your friends is really the most important thing. That it sounds like something that might be nice for someone else, but that she didn't think such a thing could ever exist for her and even if it could she wouldn't want to get too attached to anyone because she doesn't want to be a burden. She was afraid that she might hurt the people she cares about and that she might be better off alone in the long run. Personally, I think she was only saying that because she was still stuck living in the past. Sure, she's bubbly and optimistic when she wants to be, but there was always this looming sense of guilt and in her day to day life it was like she was just going through the motions and wasn't really too passionate about anything in particular. Until... she started looking for that kid, Roxas, and then suddenly she had this overwhelming sense of purpose to find out what had happened to him and who exactly was responsible for his disappearance. She didn't actually know what she was doing, of course, but she felt like she had to at least try to do something and I think that's when she actually started to listen to her heart. She let herself become involved in what was happening in the worlds around her and stopped trying to keep everyone at a distance. When that happened I doubt there was any boundary left in the whole universe, with the exception of Kingdom Hearts itself, that could have stopped her."

"Yeah, it was real intense when she showed up with an agenda beyond just eliminating Heartless," Cloud nodded in agreement. "It came as quite a shock, especially for Leon, when she just let herself into the laboratory and managed to log into the main computer without any difficulty because she apparently knows computers better than we do."

"It's not like you can really blame me," Leon shrugged mildly. "She did it like it was nothing and she even managed to access some of the files we thought were too corrupted to read. That even made Cid a bit jealous when he found out what she had done."

If that was true, then Xion wondered how they were going to react upon learning how tech savvy Roveth had become since the last time they were all in Radiant Garden. Still, it was interesting to hear this side of things from Zidane and the others because it showed just how badly damaged Crystal must have been by the events of her past and how much trying to hide it had never actually worked for her. And then there was the way Crystal had accepted Roxas's feelings at face value when Roveth had finally forced her hand by spelling it all out for him. She had known that Roxas didn't totally grasp his own feelings, that he was still in some ways traumatized by his experiences with the Organization, and Crystal simply hadn't wanted to make his life any more complicated. Even so, she didn't doubt him when he came forward on his own. Crystal probably would have taken any outcome in stride at that point, but there was no denying that the way things had turned out had made both her and Roxas very happy.

"You know, I think Zidane could be onto something," Xion commented after thinking it over. "It might not follow the exact definition, but I think what they have is probably pretty close."


Roxas slept in the barracks for another good few hours after letting loose on Cloud and Leon, but when he did finally wake up he was even more adamant about wanting to leave Olympus Coliseum to meet the others in Radiant Garden. He couldn't quite explain it, but he just had this feeling that Crystal might really need for him to be there. With that in mind he headed outside into the courtyard to see how the others were doing. Cloud and Leon were sparring against each other while Zidane watched in amusement. Apparently Zidane didn't think he needed any practice for the tournament or maybe he just didn't want to unveil any more of his talents before the big production. It was apparent from that trick he had used on Leon that Zidane was a very different sort of combatant from the two swordsman with their over-sized and highly unorthodox blades.

"Hey Axel, Xion, what do you say we head to Radiant Garden?" Roxas had a sneaking suspicion that Gilgamesh was going to accompany them regardless of whether Shiro decided to turn up or not. It would, of course, be preferable to have Shiro there to manage things with said King of Heroes, but also to keep the peace with Roveth once they arrived at their destination.