In a cataclysm known as the Nightfall, the worlds were almost completely destroyed by a harrowing surge of darkness.
In the shadows of the ensuing chaos a new group has taken shape. Led by an Aegyl named Kalos, the 11th Hour touts an esoteric knowledge of how to combat the darkness and restore the worlds. They might be the worlds’ best chance at survival; but nobody really knows enough about them to confirm or deny their claims.
On the brink of collapse, the universe holds its breath in anticipation. Of restoration? Of destruction? It is up to individuals like yourself to decide.
A special thank you to ChasingArtwork of Deviantart, who allowed us to use this stellar banner image.
There aren't enough praises in the world I'd like to give to wonderful coders for the Proboards community. The following have contributed to World Destiny in some way: W3 Schools for countless how-tos and countless of other souls who have helped get WD up to where it is.
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All Canon Characters belong to the Kingdom Hearts franchise, Square Enix and Disney.
Once back on the [insert name here], Shiru paused, then fell against one of the walls with a sigh. Sentinel vanished from one hand, and after another moment, he was obliged to drop Scylling from his injured one. Slowly, it was beginning to register that something had hit him, and hit him hard - enough that he was beginning to lose some feeling. That was probably just shock's reaction, however.
Of course, it wasn't the most pressing thing.
After saying a few words that weren't quite appropriate in polite audiences through clenched teeth, he cut to the point. "Ow! Man..."
And then his eyes fell to Lily.
It wasn't often that he snapped, or yelled; even rarer that he did so to close friends. But he was in a good deal of pain, and combined with adrenaline rush and some semblance of panic, his usually long patience was cut drastically. It wasn't the first time things like this had happened; one or both of them stayed overlong somewhere, and managed to call hell down upon them both. But lately, Lily seemed to be showing no regard for her own safety whatsoever, which cut any concentration he had on keeping them both uninjured. It was getting to be a Problem.
"What were you thinking? You wanna get us killed?!"
Lily panted for breath, hands on knees. That had been - well, not all that stupid, just it hadn't worked out very well.
She straightened up after a moment, breathing deep as she could. Shiru's arm was bleeding kind of a lot, and --
"What were you thinking? You wanna get us killed?!"
"What?"
No, seriously, what? Where had that come from? It wasn't like they had been any dumber that usual, and she wasn't to blame for getting mobbed-- A flippant answer - 'thinking?' - hovered on the tongue, but this was Shiru, Shiru who had taught her to steal ships from heartless, who was insane enough to like her plans, to come up with them himself, and it got lost, and instead what came out was, "What's that supposed to mean?
Which honestly wasn't much better. She regretted it the moment she said it - it idiotic and hurtful and she knew it.
Apr 19, 2010 23:14:05 GMT -4
Last Edit: Apr 19, 2010 23:15:00 GMT -4 by sephiroth
And to that, he had an immediate answer to shoot back, also without thinking. "When did you stop being a partner and turn into a damsel in distress?"
It was one of those sentences that was always thought better of the moment after it had been said, and that could not be unsaid due to its validity. Shiru would be the first to charge happily headlong into a disastrous situation; he'd risked his life time and time again, even needlessly. For years, he'd done it alone, and for years after, he'd done it with backup. But now, it was different. Instead of them fighting together, they both fought alone. He'd grown so used to relying on her to have his back when she was around that it threw him every time to realize she was a step behind.
When had that changed?
Shiru had grown, since he'd first met Lily; before, back then, he may not have realized it until it was far too late. Back then, also, he may not have even cared, and rushed headlong anyway, taking it just as his role to be the protecting hero as well as the one who was going to completely destroy all the enemies.
He'd matured since then, and had learned a few times other that those two roles didn't very well coincide. He was trying that now, even knowing that, and slowly but surely every time he got hit, it was worse. Shiru wasn't meant to take hits; he was supposed to move faster and get there first. A few more rounds of this, and it'd be over.
... and even then, he'd be there. That fact just didn't stop him from pointing it out.
Apr 19, 2010 23:34:03 GMT -4
Last Edit: Apr 19, 2010 23:34:37 GMT -4 by sephiroth
Lily gaped at him, about three-fourths of a second away from punching him in the face - a damsel?!?!!? He knew her better that that! How could he even dare......
White fury flashed on her face, replaced with shock - anger and violence made a dissonance in her brain that she hardly recognized herself and she didn't want to hit him -
Lily grabbed the 'dex and hit a speed-dial 'one-to-beam-down,' hardly caring where she was going.
((TO any reading: Yes, I've verified facts with Serif.))
"Hey! Don't you run away--"
And she was gone.
"... while I'm yelling at you. Dammit."
He stared at the empty place she'd been for a while, almost not believing it. What had she been expecting; that he'd just sit by and let her run herself into the ground? It wasn't her any more; some shadow of her he'd been dealing with. He knew her better than to be fooled.
For just a while more, he didn't move. It hurt, more than he'd thought it would; and his arm was the least of it.
In retrospect also, kicking the wall of his ship didn't help.
- - - -
Time passed. In space, it was difficult to tell how much. He didn't care.
Shiru had patched up his arm as best he could, and used potions to do the rest of the work, and spent a fair amount of time sulking back in his quarters. Naturally, he'd not call it that; recovering. As he did fall asleep after a while, it was a legitimate excuse.
Finally, he got up, stretched, regretted it. His arm still ached; he was obliged to redo the bandages he'd done hastily earlier. Lily had--
She'd found herself in some piece of abandoned parkland that she remembered, vaguely, visiting on a previous adventure. She stalked aimlessly past weedy flowerbeds and overgrown paths, boiling. Her brain keep running in the same thoughts - what the hell, what the hell, where had that come from!
When her stomach started to twist and her eyes to sting - and some little traitorous part of her brain whispered that maybe it had come from somewhere - she found a tree with old twisty limbs and climbed it, curling against the trunk and pressing her face into the bark.
Restless pacing got one nowhere, as Shiru was beginning to find out.
That was stupid of him. He was impulsive, and acted without thinking. Spoke without thinking. But this time was one of the very few times when he had begun to actually wish he could go back and undo it.
That wasn't possible, however, and that wouldn't do. What happened happened; there was no sense getting more worked up over something that could not be taken back. There was just trying to fix it. That was what he should be doing, instead of pacing back here just worrying about it.
"Cause it'll just get nowhere," he continued, ranting, apparently, to the ship's AI. "You know what I'm saying? If she wants to be stupid and run away, then that's -- fine. I guess. ... only.. not. Man... what does she want me to do, come after her?"
"It is possi-"
"Because then she'll just yell at me for calling her on it. 'I don't need to be rescued', or -- or something-- but what if something happens?"
He paused to kick back at the ship, ignoring the ship's protest.
What's wrong with me?" Lily muttered to the tree. She got no answer, of course, but her own head was happy to supply one.
She was running when she should stay, and fighting when she should run. She hadn't had his back.
This wasn't the first time.
This.... wasn't the first time she done something like this, either. And recklessness was one thing, but this was something else entirely. She owed him better, and ohgod, she missed her homes so badly--
It took another prompt after a few minutes of silence for Shiru to give a response. Should he go? Would she even want to see him after that?
She should. He risked his life for her. They were a team, right? So that's all that mattered. What was all this about, some problem she had? Big deal!
"... Um."
And that's all he said? He was Shiru. Captain Crow! Fearless leader of the [insert name here]. He'd run into the mouth of a giant monster and attacked it from the inside before. He'd attacked a virus that only could be killed by magic, and killed it anyway. Er... with help. He'd gone to Hell itself, told off Hades, and gotten back with a legendary weapon.
And here he was, afraid of going and talking to someone?
"Uh.... Yeah. Sure. Why not." It was hard to sound nonchalant, but if the computer caught his hesitancy, it did not remark upon it. He even flashed it a grin, as it prepared to shoot him down to wherever she'd run off to. Him, worry? No way!
Coming down from a gummi to a world made a distinctive sound, and it was two quiet here to miss it. She knew it was him. Well, she knew it was him after she rolled an eye over and down to see, but she would have been surprised if it had been anyone else. Her gut twisted, and again at the mess of bandages on his arm. He never had gotten the hang of that.
"I would have punched you," she heard herself say, her voice oddly thoughtful, and didn't know why the hell she'd said that.
It was good that it wasn't him who had to break the ice. He'd have been far more awkward than he'd have liked to admit. As it was, he simply blinked, then nodded, oddly quiet. There was no easy grin and shrug, and no joke or comment to brush it off. Instead, he was simply serious.
He was used to thinking that action could solve any problem. Not violence, exactly; simply to go after a problem and fix it. When it came to problems that did not have any exact reaction is where he began to falter.
In this case, it was a matter of words. There wasn't anything to do, here; it was all about what he said, or so he figured. That was the problem, for he wasn't at all certain what he could say.
"Then, uh..." He trailed off for a moment, trying to think of how to finish that sentence. Finally, he gave up, and had to force himself to not look away. He wasn't a kid any more; he certainly shouldn't act like one when it mattered. "...Why didn't you?"
She shrugged, not really moving from where she was balled up against the trunk. "Screwing up enough."
It wasn't the first time she'd done this, but she hadn't noticed now any more than she had then. "I used to get in fights. Way back, in school. I'unno. I'd just needle people till they ganged up on me. Didn't think anything of it, not then. Not after either. Never hit first, was never to blame. I wasn't even angry at them, I just thought - dunno what I thought, that the kids where getting violent , wasn't that interesting. Or maybe just, now I knew how to fight."
She stopped, knowing she'd been going somewhere with this in spite of the odd detachment she felt. "It's been three years."
She and he both. The difference there was that he was most definitely the cause of all of them. A good deal of him doubted she was blameless in her fights, but for once in his life he kept his mouth shut.
She didn't talk about her past, not much. He knew small mentions of when something struck her as amusing that he didn't know - about as much as she knew about his world. What happened Before was not discussed. It was not that it didn't matter, but...
"Yeah?" Just an indication of interest; he was listening.
Three years, huh? Since they'd teamed up... or was it something else she was getting at?
"I mean -" she rubbed her face roughly and sat up. "It was after I'd done the there-and-back-again thing. It was over, I'd won, I'd come home, we where all in one piece, happy ever after, right. End of the story, close the book, you've been though the dark wood and come out and you can't go back in. Which was bull, and I did find my way back, cause it was home too.
"And that was when I stopped aggroing at school. So, yanno. I never thought about it."
He caught himself; while not knowing what to say wasn't new, he couldn't shake the feeling that she may go off again somewhere if he said the wrong thing. Instead, he just shook his head with an attempt at an easy shrug.