Reassessment [Tag: Maxwell]

[Avari]

Avari
Young Squire

It had been several days since the battle against the Dark Hide, vanquished by the combined efforts of Twilight Town's strongest refugees and Xion. Avari still felt terrible for not joining the fight in time, but she was glad everyone was alright, or at least alive. Jin was really hurt from what Avari had been told, and Max... well, no one knew where he was. She had searched for him all over town, but had still been unsuccessful. And while she spent all of her free time looking for him, she still had to keep her promise to Jin, and so found herself training with fire magic once again. The metal beam in the center of the quad was glowing red hot as her hands hovered over it, fire spewing out of her palms. Her endurance with maintaining the flames had improved since the time Jin forged her sword, but her spell eventually sputtered out from time to time.

She wanted to get stronger; she wanted to be ready to join the others when they start taking the fight to the heartless. And, should they continue on to save other worlds, she wanted to go with them. She promised Jin she wouldn't charge into any losing battles, and since Max started training her, she'd been careful to listen to all of his instructions, whether it had to do with fighting or about all this keyblade stuff. Both of her recent mentors had done so much in this last battle, and she couldn't join them. She understood that protecting Xion until she woke up was important, but it had shown Avari how far behind she was from everyone. She wanted to catch up with them, and do more for everyone when the time comes.

Avari's breathing had become rhythmic as she focused on maintaining her spell's power, beads of sweat dripping down her face she stared unblinking at the bright flames lapping at the metal beam. As she focused on the thoughts swimming in her head, the frustration over the situation simmering, she didn't notice her own fatigue as she continued conjuring flames, pushing passed what she had thought to be her limit. It wasn't until she realized she'd been going at it for a half hour that the flames slowly subsided and she saw what remained of the metal beam. There in front of her, was nothing but a molten pile, not exactly lava, but there wasn't exactly much left to melt. She started to smile as she glanced around, only to remember that Jin was still recovering. "Hm." After the injuries he'd suffered, gloating about a melted post didn't seem so important anymore. And with that done, and Maxwell missing, she wasn't sure what she'd do next.

With an irritated sigh, she scraped her boot against the ground and kicked some dirt up over her work so the heat would die down. Once she was sure it wouldn't cause anyone harm, she started to wander back towards Market Street, one hand on the hilt of her sword, and the other turning the fire materia over in her hand. Maybe if she could scrounge up enough munny she could buy a new materia from one of the moogles. As she stepped out into the open streets, there was the usual traffic of other refugees bartering or otherwise going about their business, but as she glanced up from the materia in her hand, she noticed a familiar tall and dark haired figured with his back turned away from her. Her eyes widened as she blurted out, "Maxwell!" She immediately broke into a jog to catch up with him and get his attention.

[Maxwell Tendas]

It had been days since he had woken up with no memories and burning agony across his entire body. Since then he had hid in the tunnels underneath the city, regained a small fraction of his memories, and confronted the black haired man, Mikhail, over how he had known his name. As it turned out, apparently he had been helping everyone there fight something called a Chaos Hide, which was a variety of evil being called a Heartless, in an effort to keep this town safe. When Mikhail had told him about that, he remembered looking around and thinking that there wasn’t much left of this town to protect. He’d spent the next several days since on his own, secluding himself from others as he regained memories and tried to sort through them. He got flashes of memories every few hours, experiences from his childhood in Grendam coming back to him all at once.

He was out and about now because he had just regained a troubling memory. He had been 10, still learning how to control his powers properly when a group of bandits had attacked his home village. There had been a war at the time, and so most of those who could fight were away with the army. The few left who could fight had been caught unawares, leaving the townsfolk with little to no way to defend themselves. The bandits’ raiding was put to an end by Max and his best childhood friend Donovan. They had killed a few, and sent the others running in a panic with their powers over water and fire. It was the first time Max had taken a life, and he remembered feeling a kind of exhilarated rush and shame all at once. Re-experiencing it all again had been disconcerting, and so he was out walking the streets hoping the cold air would help clear his head.

That was when he heard his name called out behind him. Turned abruptly, hand on his sword as his eyes afixed on a young girl with brown hair running towards him. As she approached, he held a hand out for her to stop. It was clear the girl knew him, but he didn’t have any memory of her.

“Who are you?” He asked her quietly.

[Avari]

Avari
Refugee

A great big grin was plastered across her face as she caught up with him, and he turned to face her, but her enthusiasm was cut short as he held his hand up in there to stop her. Then he quietly asked who she was, and her relief turned to confusion in response, "What do you mean? You disappear after a big fight like that and then pretend you don't know me? Look, if you really don't wanna train me anymore, all you had to do was say so!" She looked him over with crossed arms and a frown, noticing how he seemed to have healed well since the big fight with the Dark Hide. He also had his hand on his sword, like he hadn't determined whether she was friend or foe.

"Max... are you okay?" She looked up at him with concern, raising her hands slightly as a sign of no ill will, "Come on, it's me, Avari, you're new squire in the making?" She smiled slightly at her jest, knowing full well Maxwell hadn't given her any kind of fancy title like that, but when he didn't show any sign of recognition, she realized this wasn't a joke at all. "Oh man, you're serious aren't you? What happened?"

[Maxwell Tendas]

The girl approached him with a grin on her face, but it quickly faded away when Max asked her his question. He felt a sense of familiarity with this girl, so he was sure he knew her. However, he didn’t know how he knew her. He decided to be cautious, as he knew as well as anyone that even a child could be dangerous, even those much younger than this girl.

“What do you mean?” She said, her expression turning from excitement to pained confusion, “You disappear after a big fight like that and then pretend you don’t know me? Look, if you really don’t wanna train me anymore, all you had to do was say so!”

It was Max’s turn to don a confused expression. Train? He could only think that he must have been training this girl to fight, which made sense in the context of the state of this world right now. The only problem was that he had no recollection of it. At the moment, he barely knew hoe to fight for himself, relying on muscle memory to wield his sword and some basic skills with his water magic.

“Max...are you okay?” The girl asked, concern now on her face and her hands up in a placating gesture, “Come on, it’s me, Avari, your new squire in the making?”

His brow furrowed at her last comment. Squire? Why would he have a squire? Based on the smile on the girl’s face, she could just be joking, but he had no way of knowing for sure. She must have seen the confusion on his face because the smile on her face wuickly disappeared as she piped up again, saying “Oh man, you’re serious aren’t you? What happened?”

Max lowered his gaze, slowly took in a deep breath, and let out a long sigh as he went over in his head what Mikhail had told him just the other day. While he didn’t recall being incinerated by this ‘Chaos Hide’ creature, just the thought of it made his stomach churn. With a solemn expression on his face, he looked back up at the girl and spoke quietly.

“I was...incinerated. And apparently that’s not-“

He was cut off by the sound of screams coming from a nearby street. His hand instinctively went to the hilt of his sword as his head snapped towards the source of the sound. A young man, a few years younger than Avari, came around a corner, running as fast as he could.

“Heartless! In the Marketplace!” He shouted without slowing, “They’re headed this way!”

Max’s jaw clenched as he watched the boy run past. He then looked in the direction the boy had come, and sure enough a group of Shadows and Soldiers came around the corner. They paused for a moment, then changed their focus from the boy to Max and Avari. As they began advancing, Max drew his sword. A similar feeling to what he felt in his latest memory crept i to his chest, an intoxicating mix exhilaration and excitement and dread.

“Do you know how to use that thing?” He asked Avari, looking back at her and motioning towards her sword, “If not, run and get help.”

[Avari]

Avari
Refugee

When Max finally got a word in between Avari's worried babbling, he mentioned being incinerated, but before the shock could register on Avari's face, a commotion stirred nearby. A fellow refugee turned the corner, running and warning them of incoming heartless, and the two of them were forced to redirect their attention for now. Max seemed unsure of Avari's ability with her sword, even so much as suggesting to run and get help. She scoffed at the very thought and drew her sword, "Tch. As if I'd run away!"

Seeing the heartless in such a populated area like Market Street was worrisome, however. They had become more bold since the battle with the Chaos Hide, or perhaps there were simply more of them around now? Avari wasn't sure, but she couldn't just stand by pondering their appearance. There was also no telling what sort of fighting shape Max was in with his memory loss and all, but she just had to hope for the best. Avari was quick to kick things off by spotting a nearby loose brick, and with a wave of her hand, it launched itself towards the group of heartless on fire and hit one of the soldiers in the center. Without waiting for Max, she then rushed forward, the glint of her sword shining behind her as she brought it up and onto another heartless. The blade plunged into the shadow's form and through, leaving a sizable crack in the ground from the impact.

In another swift motion her sword became light enough for her to lift and block an incoming swipe from another shadow, and she then jumped back to avoid getting overwhelmed. The heartless began dancing about, slowly spreading out around them. The heartless she struck sunk into the ground like water, moving about to a more advantageous position behind her. Several more heartless lunged at Avari while the remaining descended upon Max. She blocked where she could and where she couldn't, she managed to counter angrily back at the creatures.

Glancing around the heartless around her, her free hand went to her materia pouch, reaching for a dark purple star she hadn't used before, but with the two of them outnumbered, she figured she might as well give it a shot. She waited for the heartless to make the next move, and as they leapt at her, she focused on the materia in much the same way she did with her sword. A wave of dark purple bursted forth, and the shadows that were mid-leap suddenly were weighed down and slammed to the ground, moving more sluggishly as they tried to rise to their feet again. With several of the ordinary shadows stuck in the heavy weight of her gravity magic, she turned to face the soldier, waiting for it to attack as she concentrated on the spell.

[Maxwell Tendas]

The girl retorted at Max as he inquired about her ability to use her sword. She then proved it, surprising him by rushing the Heartless and turning a few of them into black mist. They then began to all advance on her, surrounding her. She defended herself well enough at first, either parrying or dodging their attacks. But the Heartless continued advancing in numbers which would quickly overwhelm her.

Max stood there for several long seconds that felt like an eternity as those familiar feelings boiled within him. He felt an almost completely overwhelming urge to just plow into the Heartless with his sword swinging and cut them all to pieces. Battle such as this, according to what he could remember of Drydenian culture, is what he was meant for. In the memories he had regained, marching into battle and dying in the heat of combat were all he had dreamed of, alonside so many other young Drydenians. And yet, he still felt this hesitation, this faintest glimmer in the back of his head like he shouldn't give into these urges. That they were far from what was needed...

And yet, as his awareness returned to Twilight Town and the Heartless before him, he saw he had no time to think about it. He either gave into these urges now, or that girl would be overwhelmed by the Heartless attacking her. His grip tightened on his sword's grip as he let out a cry and sprinted forward, summoning the light to his free hand. Just before he passed the girl, he let the light loose in a bright flash that blinded the Heartless momentarily, long enough for him to go crashing into them with a swing of his sword that turned three of them to black mist. He pressed on, sword stroke after sword stroke, his blade hitting either a brick wall or the paved road, sending the sound of ringing metal throughout the entire street alongside his own growls and screams that accompanied each attack. He had pressed into them with such ferocity and intensity that by the time they had recovered from their blinding he was halfway through to the other side.

Reacting quickly, he reached out to a pipe he felt had water inside nearby and ripped the pipes open, calling the water out and sending it in a large wave into the Heartless, knocking them back toward the alleyway they had been pouring out of. He then pressed his attack against them, cutting through several more and sending them to black mist like the others before they could recover from the onslaught...

[Avari]

Avari
Refugee

Avari's attention was momentarily diverted as she watched Max rush in with a battlecry and wielding some kind of light magic. He seemed to be fighting much more wildly than she had seen him before, and the surprise nearly disarmed her from the soldier heartless's next attack. She turned back to the heartless and brought up her sword just in time to stop the soldier's lunge, though his claws still scraped against her arms as Avari slid back a few paces from the impact.

While she was concentrated on holding her gravity magic on the shadows around her, she couldn't utilize the magic of her sword over the remaining heartless attacking her. As the shadows trembled under the might of the gravity magic, Avari increased the pressure, to the point of the shadows bursting into black mist and freeing her up to use her other magic. She took another swing or two at the soldier heartless in front of her. As she defeated it, Max summoned water from nearby piping and subdued the heartless into the alleyway they originated from.

With the amount of water and Max's fierocity towards the heartless, Avari wasn't sure how to insert herself into the fight without getting swept up in the chaos as well. She knew Max was strong before, but right now he almost seemed to fight like an animal, though he was besting the heartless for now. But while he was adeptly dealing with the heartless on the ground, Avari started to spot some in the air, a few red nocturnes, blue rhapsodies, and yellow operas. She hadn't seen many like them before, but after taking a moment to look at her gravity materia again, she focused its magic on the heartless above, managing to send half of them crashing into the ground or the violent waves Max was controlling.

"Ugh, when will they let up?" She called out to Max as she began scaling one of the buildings to get a better view of the battle, as well as to stay out of Max's way.

[Maxwell Tendas]

Avari's words fell on essentially-deaf ears as Max toninued his attack on the Heartless, pressing further and further into them with each sword stroke. A strange mix of euphoria and anxiety filled him and his heartbeat pounded in his ears as he fought on, surrounded by light and steel and water. As he sliced his way through the crowd of heartless, they began to finally counter attack as they recovered from the shock at the violence of his attack. He felt several of their blows land on his arms and legs, but shrugged them off and pressed through to the other side of the crowd one sword stroke at a time.

As he emerged from the crowd of heartless into the alleyway beyond, he felt pain where he'd been struck by the black creatures. Looking down, he saw jagged cuts and gashes across his limbs where the creatures of darkness' blows had found purchase. He felt a wetness on his hands and looked down to find them slick with his blood, which ran down from his wounds in thin, red streams. Movement on a nearby rooftop drew his attention away from his minor injuries towards Avari, who had taken a position on a nearby building, flinging spells at some more Heartless which had appeared in the air.

He only had a moment to glance at the brown haired girl before he had to return his attention to the foes before him. They had begun to close the gap in their midst that Max had just passed through, cutting him off from any escape in the direction he had just come. The only options open to him were fight or run...

..And he chose the latter.

Once he had reached the other side of the crowd of Heartless, his "battle trance" had begun to wear off, letting the pain and fatigue of battle begin to seep into his body. He instinctively felt that trying to fight this many Heartless in such a state was a death sentence, and so he turned and bolted down the alleyway. He quickly reached an intersection and turned right down the adjoining alleyway as the Heartless gave chase...

[Avari]

Avari
Squire

More and more heartless swarmed around Max on the street below, but she couldn't let the airborne heartless get in their magic shots either or they'd both be even worse off. With a few throws of flaming rocks at the remaining floating heartless, she was able to turn her attention back to the fight below. Max had barreled through a great deal of them, but many of his exits were getting cut off as more heartless filled the space. She watched as he tensed in the midst of the fight, his gaze sweeping over the vast number of enemies around him.

"Max!" Avari called out, shocked as he friend and mentor suddenly turn and ran down an adjoining alley, away from the heartless. Backing down from a fight was not something she ever imagined Max doing, but at this rate, the heartless would just corner him. From her viewpoint on the roof, she spun around, wildly looking for help, desperately wishing one of their keyblade wielding friends was nearby.

There wasn't any time to go look for help though, so Avari bolted after him, jumping onto the next adjoining rooftop and trying to catch up with him, "Max I'm coming!" During her next jump, however, she lost her footing as some of the buildings structure gave way and she was sent falling down into the sea of heartless. She didn't manage to catch herself in time as she landed directly into a few heartless, but she quickly rolled off them, feeling their claws scrape through her flesh as she countered with her sword, now completely surrounded and with only a glimpse of Max ahead of her. "Somebody help!" She screamed, hoping someone would hear who could help the both of them.

Another shadow leaped at her, and she had to throw it off of herself before it could tear her up even more than it had, but more and more were piling onto her as she swung wildly. Finally with reckless fear, she struck the side of the building she had fallen from with the full weight of her sword, gravity magic and all, leaving a resounding crack as the building began to slowly slide...

[Maxwell Tendas]

Max reached the the of the second alleyway, where it opened onto an adjoining street, and turned to face the Heartless that had given pursuit. With the narrow alleyway restricting their movement, their numbers matter less and he stood a chance at pushing them back. He was surprised when he turned around and was only met with a handful of Heartless. They ran at him, struggling to push past each other in the narrow alleyway. As they approached, Max brought his sword down in a wide overhead slash that cut through half of them, and then bulled his way through the rest, turning them all to black mist one by one.

After they were all gone, a bright spot on the ground caught his eye. It was a small stone in the shape of a star, and it’s surface glimmered a bright white color that lit everything around it in pale light. He picked it up, but before he could examine the stone further he heard a scream from where he had just come from. A scream from a voice he recognized...

“Somebody help!” He heard Avari call out from where he’d just come.

“Shit,” he muttered, his grip tightening on the stone and his sword as he ran back toward the mass of Heartless and the sound of Avari’s voice. He got there in enough time to see her in the road, surrounded by Heartless clawing and tearing at her. She swung her sword wildly and hit the building nearby, sending a large crack across its surface and destabilizing it completely. If he didn’t act quickly, the Heartless would claim her as their latest victim.

He began to summon the light to the hand holding the glowing stone, intending to use it to blind and disorient the Heartless like he had before. A bright, glowing ball of light appeared in his hand, and as he raised it intending to quickly brighten it to a flash, something unexpected happened.

The stone’s glow brightened with the magic, and a strange shimmer went across its surface. Then, it seemed to “melt” into his hand. Unable to pause due to the circumstances, however, Max continued with the light, and brightened it to a flash. However, instead of a flash like he had intended, a beam shot out from the glow in his hand, a bright white rod of magical energy white a smaller one curling around it. It impacted the Heartless immediately around Avari and pierced through them, hitting others behind them. The first few weaker ones, a couple shadows and a soldier, were obliterated as the beam passed through. Its power weakened further on, until it fizzled out and faded out of existence.

Unsure what happened, but unable to gawk over it, Max bolted forward, taking advantage of the small opening it gave him around Avari. With a couple of sword-strokes, he cut out some more of the Heartless around Avari. He then reached out with his now-empty hand and hooked his arm around her waist and yanked her out of the mass of shadowy creatures. He turned, swinging her around in front of him, and pushed her ahead.

“Go! Run! We can’t fight them here!” He said as he started to run....

[Avari]

Avari
Squire

She could do nothing but cover her face with her arms and hands as the heartless scraped and clawed all around her, when out of nowhere came a bright beam of light replaced the darkness of the shadows, and when it faded, she was yanked forward as Max ordered her to run. She gave a brief nod and an "Okay!" and she followed after him, stumbling for a couple steps before catching herself and keeping pace with him.

She had no idea Max could wield light magic, but it seemed extremely powerful against the sea of shadows. "Max! Can you use that light again? If we can get them all grouped up, that might finish 'em off!" She might have been able to help hold them down with her gravity magic too to give Max an easier target, but she could probably only pull off one or two more spells before she ran out energy to cast.

[Maxwell Tendas]

They tore off down the alleyway, Max in the lead with the girl following and the Heartless close on their heels. They were so close he could even hear their shadowy claws scrabbling at the cobblestones underfoot. Those sounds mingled with the pounding of his heart and the fast cadence of his breathing as they continued the chase. He allowed himself to get lost in the moment, becoming absorbed by the sounds and just running as fast as he could as he tried to think of what they could do. He wasn't sure if he could summon that beam of light again. Even if he could, there was no way to to know if it would be enough. It was a power totally foreign to him.

"Max!" Avari shouted, shaking him from his thoughts, "Can you use that light again? If we can get them all grouped up, that might finish 'em off!"

"I don't know!" He shouted in response with a glance back at the Heartless. The black creatures, tireless as they were, were gaining on the two of them. If they didn't think of something fast, they would both fall prey to the Darkness, "Even if I could, I don't know if it'd be enough! We need something else!"

He wracked his brain as they ran trying to think of what they could do to get themselves out of this situation. Every idea he could think of came up short, including the new magic he had just inadvertently used. As they reached the adjoining street he'd made it to earlier, he began to lose hope that they would make it out of this situation. As they neared the corner, he reached back and grabbed Avari's wrist and pulled her to the right with him, hoping that turning corners might slow the Heartless down enough that they could find something to help them. Shortly after they turned the corner was when he felt it, a source of water close by on a rooftop. It wasn't a huge amount, but it would be enough for him to clear out the Heartless pursuing them.

"Follow me! Run as hard as you can!" He shouted back at Avari over his shoulder as he dug his heels in in an effort to gain just a little more speed. He ran helter skelter down the street, then angled towards a nearby alleyway and, pushing off of it to maintain as much speed as he could, turned down it towards the source of water. He got halfway down to the next street when he sensed it was on a rooftop overhead and stopped. He grabbed it with his power and turned towards their pursuers, who were following the girl down the alleyway. He ripped the water from its container, sending shards of wood all over like grenade shrapnel, and formed it into spiked balls of ice that he sent into the midst of the Heartless. Dozens of the sharp, icy spheres whirled around in circles amongst the Heartless, ripping all of the black creatures to shreds like some kind of grinder. The ones that were still running into it seemed to give little heed to the fate of their brethren ahead of them, charging headfirst into an icy doom before being turned to black mist.

Finally they were all gone and with a wave of his hand he stopped the spheres of ice, leaving them hanging there in midair before letting them fall as he let out a breath he hadn't even realized he'd been holding. He leaned against the nearby wall, his breathing heavy as he looked over at Avari with a grin and a chuckle.

"Well...we made it!" he said with a laugh...