Solace of Nirvana

"I think it comes down to what world. I'm part of a chain of world's that heroes and travelers of the worlds stop through. When they come we hear their stories." Emma told her shrugging.

"It is a little rough. I think you and everybody else will get used to it, maybe you'll like it. You just have to open to the adventure, then it's smooth sailing." she told him giving a warm smile.

"Anyways, I feel like we should meet up with the others." She said pushing away from the balcony railing.

 

"Medic team!" Zack yelled out, any sort of worry completely devoid in his voice. Even without Zack calling them the medics were already in the practice area and attempting to safely move Raiga into the sick bay. As the light blades faded away and his keyblades disappeared Zack moved his left hand to grab some gauze from a medical officer to bandage up any cuts he may have. Strangely enough his hand didn't move though. Zack looked down at his arm and saw it covered in blood. He tried to move it around to completely examine it but the arm wouldn't move at all. It just uselessly hung down at Zack's side. "I guess the shrapnel from me destroying his weapon severed some muscle in my arm." Zack muttered before passing out from shock.

-----

Gerik wrapped his hand around the handle of his hammer and held it up to look at the weapon. "Strange. I've had this thing for a few hours and only now am I thinking to look at it in greater detail." He tossed the weapon into the air a few times, making the weapon appear as though it were as light as a feather.

His tiredness crept up upon him again. How many times has it been today? Twice? Three times that there was some distraction? Gerik gently stomped his foot on the ground to test how hard it was. He crouched down and tapped the ground with the hammer a few times until the ground beneath him had an almost bed-like quality to it. He then lied down and closed his eyes, hoping for the surrounding area to just disappear into the depths of a slumbering mind.

 

"I feel that we should sleep. It has been. . . a very long day for me- for everybody. I just. . . need rest. My body is tired from all of this landwalking," Kavi replied. He certainly looked the part, for all his words were worth. A passerby, a mechanic perhaps, caught this and told the duo, "Oh, barracks are down the hall, to the left, and third on your right. That's where most newcomers go before we can figure out their placement."

The mechanic headed on, presumably to continue whatever he was doing before. Kavi raised an eyebrow.

"Are. . . humans always this helpful?"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ghira thought for a moment, then looked at the leader of the Resistance.
"I believe I can add one or two more ships to the tally of hijacked vessels from the Knights before tomorrow dawns. I must hurry, though. The Ark will be finished very soon, and I am fairly certain the Knights have very little knowledge of this movement in general. A full on assault would be your best option, with the Elementals heading into the Ark to destroy its core before it activates. I have reason to believe they could potentially destroy it before anything occurs."

Ghira glaced at a strange watch on his wrist, which told time not in numbers but in strange tic marks and spirals.

"And now I must take my leave before Vincent notices my disappearance. Farewell." He bid, bowing to the two of them. On Ghira's way out, however, he stopped and turned to the former Knight.

"One thing is truly certain, miss Raven. One way or another, all of this will end soon enough, whether you succeed or fail. That is the nature of things."

And then he left, hopping through a portal in a snap.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Vincent was in the medical bay, awaiting news on Zack. A doctor came out of the room, looking mildly confused.

"Tell me, my good doctor, just how is my little friend doing with his new injury?"
"We can't say for certain, but he might lose use of that arm if it doesn't heal properly."
"Wouldn't that be a shame?"
"I'm sorry?"
"Oh, nothing, nothing. Go do doctory things and quit bothering me!"

Vincent glared at the meek medical man and snickered as he scampered off, then entered Zack's room himself and waited at the bedside.

________________________
Meanwhile, In (Gerik's) Dreamland. . .
________________________

Hey you. Yeah, you. Earthkid. Man. Human. Thing. With the hammer. I know you can hear me. Don't bother asking questions unless they're important, 'cuz I've already had to do this whole "tell people stuff" for two sets already. Point is, I'm the spirit of the weapons. Yes, all of them. Don't look so shocked. I'm just a really strong Elemental spirit, 'K? I was sealed long ago, blah, blah. Basically, I'm here and you've got powers. Last earthkid was a girl. Tall. Strong. Kinda like you. Not very talkative, also like you. Died tragically, but that's another story. Your weapon can do a lot more than manipulate the existing earth. Like all the other weapons, it can summon earth from nothingness, though yours has to be in the form of sand when ya get it out. You can harden it afterwards, but it's gotta be sand first, capice? Oh yeah. metal ain't gonna work. It's gotta be honest to goodness earth. Rock, soil, that sort of thing. Next, all Elemental weapons contain a mimicry property. Doesn't look like there's much to mimic out there, so I don't think you'll be using this much. Last Wind did it a LOT, if I'm not mistaken. Okay, question time. . . Now. Ask away. Keep 'em short, because I want to get through all four of you as fast as possible so I can get back to sleep.

 

Emma looked at Kavi nodding and agreeing silently. She turned and watched the mechanic approaching down the hall before stopping and turning to the two of them.

"Oh, barracks are down the hall, to the left, and third on your right. That's where most newcomers go before we can figure out their placement." The mechanic told them before continuing on his merrily way to do whatever job he may have to go do. Emma watched him leave before hearing Kavi reply.

Emma looked at him and shrugged. She merely only wished what he said was very true.

"Sometimes, it all depends on the people." She told him before turning and slowly making her way in the hall direction that the mechanic pointed out to head for the rooms they'd be staying in at the moment.

 

"Mimicry? What kind of mimicry?" Gerik questioned out loud as he heard the voice speak. "Anyways, while that question is important I should probably ask something else. Why us? Why can we use these weapons and end up having to put our lives on the line for people who don't even know us and would probably turn against us? And while I'm asking questions, why are you sleeping? If you're in all the weapons why don't you control them and do whatever needs to be done yourself?"

-----

Zack awoke in a medical bed. He looked around, still unable to move his arm. Now his left arm was hooked up to some sort of contraption to keep it from moving. "Well... This freaking sucks. Now I'm going to be stuck here in this damn bed all day."

Zack then noticed Vincent sitting nearby. "Oh hey, I have a visitor. What brings you here?"

 

Kavi observed their surroundings as they passed through the hall. Crates and boxes of supplies and weapons were littered about, either in tall stacks or spread along the wall like a buffet. Rebels ran left and right, hurrying to do whatever it is that needed doing in the wide passages of the castle. It all intrigued and tired the ex-Atlantican.

Thankfully, rest was not far away. The duo arrived at the barracks finally, and Kavi cracked a worn smile.

"It looks like we are at the beds. I have never had a land-dweller's rest before, so I am a little curious as to what the feeling is like. I will. . . talk later?" He asked Emma hopefully, his worn smile exchanged for an awkwardly nervous one.

Though once he received his reply, he went to one of the empty bunks and lay down, falling asleep almost instantly.

--------Dreamland, part 2----------

Oh hey look, the fish boy. Good to see two of you in the dreamspace at once. Saves time. Last waterkid was a girl, too. Genders switch every generation. Keeps things fresh that way. Anyways, last waterkid was an ice-skater. Perfect for the job. But, I guess it ain't as perfect as being a fish-man, now is it? Water has the ability to control the three basic forms of water - solid, liquid, and gas. Not much else to say there. Anyways, back to you, earthkid. I'll tackle those q's in the order you asked them. If you've seen somebody use a particularly curious technique, or study their method, you can imitate it. The last windkid imitated the petal and energy based attacks of this one guy because the attacks followed a base similarity to Wind. As for the Choosing, I don't really have any control whatsoever. I was sealed ages ago into the four by some silly idealist and their magical assortment of enchantments. I'm not that knowledgeable on the fool's motives, but I really wanna say it had something to do with "Keeping all that exists in balance" or some silly moralistic nonsense like that. And that leads into my next answer, which is I'm bound to these weapons in such a way that I can't use my own abilities. Trust me, if I could control them I wouldn't waste my time saving a bunch of crazy humans who don't deserve it. So I spend my time sleeping in-between summonings. All and all, it's less effort on my part. So I actually kinda like being in these weapons, while I kinda don't. It's all stuff that you're a few hundred years too young to understand. Izzat all?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Vincent fiendishly grinned at Zack, swirling two of his crystal orbs in the palm of his hand.

"Oh you know, just checking up on a comrade. Considering that two of the other keybladers have gone missing, it'd be a downright shame if something were to happen to you and leave me with all that power in the Knights. Still the more the merrier! Having you around means that I can activate the Ark myself while you stand in the bridge or something. Still, would be a shame if something-"

"Vincent, we have a problem," Ghira interrupted, entering the room smoothly and professionally. "Finch is missing and all the rooms in the Upper Ward have been ransacked."

"Great. Always knew she was a thief. Did I tell you I found one of my crystals in her room once? Little bitch. Whatever, just station a few extra guards around the entrances to the Behemoth just in case she's some sort of revolutionary."

"Very well."

 

Emma waved and watched him go to bed and could tell he fell asleep quickly. She sighed.

Kavi was right, these last few days were tiring, in a matter of a few days, Emma went from the quiet, shy girl sitting at the top of Sunset Terrance observing everybody else, watching the world flow around her, to a outspoken, energized girl going with the flow of things. She got up and walked over to the window which was a window seat. She sat down on the window seat looking out in the night sky of Disney Castle. She pulled her legs up on the seat and hugged them. She looked back at Kavi asleep on the bunk. She smiled as she reached into her bag and pulled out her sketchbook and a pencil.

From all the battle, she couldn't tell from her bag's appearance that it went through battle, but clearly her sketch book which resided in the bag did showed some wear from the battles.

Emma opened the book to a clean page and began to draw the sleeping Kavi. The lighting from outside casted on his body just perfectly created several good shadows.

After a while Emma began to fall asleep in her drawing, the drawing was sketched she was just adding the shadows. Her hand fell as her pencil fell to the floor as she fell asleep in complete exhaustion.



"What do you mean our daughter is suspended?" A young little Emma only 5 years old sat quietly in the office of the school principal. Her father was the one to speak as her mother seemed disappointed.

"Your daughter has a fiery temper. She managed to hurt one of the other children and until you can get her temper under control, I'm afraid she cannot come back." The principal spoke.

"But she's so good at home, she tries to help us and she offers to help everybody. She's always well behaved." Her mother spoke next.

"I'm sorry, but you need to leave now." The principal ushered them out of the office. Her father was mad and angry, her mother was upset. Emma stayed quiet though the entire time. She was upset. She never did anything like she did, but she got mad. She was bullied and was even hurt before by the boy in her class. The boy though never got in trouble, he was the principal's son. So he did what he want and his favorite target was small little Emma.

Everyday Emma would color in her coloring book, she had a wonderful talent for art so her teacher would say for she colored in the lines almost perfectly, where as other children her age just scribbled across the page with crayons coloring nothing in particular.

Well everyday the boy would ruin her coloring book, usually it was something small such as rip her page or make a stray mark. The teacher would never catch the boy but Emma would cry upset so the teacher cared for that instead. She'd always make it better. The teacher would tape it or paint over the stray mark with magical white paint the teacher called white out.

The boy then would get mad that what he did would get fixed so after recess he would torture her. Either tie her to the jungle gym with a jump rope, or push her down the hill, or throw stuff at her.

It was her everyday life and she got used to it the best she could. Today though was special. It was her birthday. For her birthday her teacher gave her big girl paper. It was a plain sketch book. Emma was so excited she began to draw a picture for her teacher, and her parents, and for all her friends. Just though when she was about to give her first drawing to her teacher as a thank you gift, the boy snatched it from her. The boy said she wasn't allowed to do anything nice for the teacher because then the teacher would like her more than him and that wasn't allowed. So he destroyed it in every way he could. He took a marker and scribbled all over it, then he ripped it all up and threw it at her.

Emma this time didn't cry though. She knelt down and picked up a piece of stray paper and held it in her hand. She worked hard on her picture. She crushed the small ripped up piece of paper in her hand.

Emma went outside at recess as she found the boy making a bunch of kids laugh talking about another kid he tortured. Emma stood off glaring at him. The boy looked at her. Emma began her confrontation.

"Why do you bully me?" Emma asked angry.

"I don't bully you, I teach you a lesson." The boy said.

"I don't like your lessons." Emma said.

"Yes you do, you like everything the teacher teaches you." The boy said. "Your as my big brother calls, a teacher's pet." The boy said.

"No you are a bully, and I want you to stop. You destroyed my drawing for the teacher!" Emma exclaimed.

"Awe, is the teacher's pet going to cry?" The boy mocked. The other students laughed.

"No, I'm going to go tell the teacher because that's what teacher's pets do." Emma said began walking away. The boy panicked tackled her to the ground. The grass was soft so she wasn't badly hurt. Quickly Emma began to struggle when the boy bit down on her ear. Emma let out a scream of pain as a force of strength came over her. She pushed the boy off and jumped on him hitting him repeatedly.

That's when the principal came. Emma felt so ashamed for doing what she did. The principal was not happy as she punished Emma.

She got in trouble and wasn't allowed to go back to school. The principal said had a fiery temper. She didn't know what a temper was, but whatever it was, she was certain if she had one it was not on fire.

Emma sat in the backseat of her parent's car staring out the window. She reached up feeling the ear the boy bit. She scratched as it as small red flakes came off, dried up blood. Though the boy never got in trouble, all that mattered was Emma got in trouble. She was upset and she hated being in trouble.

Emma opened her eyes from the dream memory. Though she still was not awake. She stood in complete darkness in her dream but she was full consciousness. She did everything she could to forget that day. That was the day that changed her. Emma became the quiet shy student. The student who would sit faraway from all the other kids. She wouldn't interact with the other kids. Instead she'd go sit somewhere where she wouldn't be bothered and draw in her sketchbooks, she would draw what she saw and as she got older she would write about it as well.

 

"Heaven forbid we leave you with all the power in the group. Which reminds me: Do you even have a keyblade?" Zack asked. "I've only ever really seen you with those orbs you fancy so much. "And aside from that, is the ark ready? I would rather we activate it the moment is it ready or I feel there is an increased risk of enemies somehow destroying it, intentionally or not."

-----

"I knew I was crazy but that I don't deserve being saved? Eh, you're probably right about that. But saying that all humans don't deserve it? That's something I... I mean something other people might not believe. What about a child's innocence or some crap like that? Wouldn't they deserve to be saved? Whatever though. So you're stuck in the weapons for an indefinite amount of time, but what about us? Are we stuck with the weapons till death? Or can we willingly stop being connected to them at any time?"

 

"Of course I have a keyblade!" Vincent spat, summoning the spindle-ey and elegantly formed weapon. "I just didn't think I'd need it when I took on those elementals, and then I lost my cool when they foiled my plan. No matter. Once the Ark activates, nobody will ever have to worry again!"

The young man gestured dramatically with the keyblade as he announced, accidentally knocking over a lamp.

"I er. . . The ark will be finished in a day or two. Nobody will be able to stop us! That's all there is to it!"


--------------------------------
Meanwhile, in Elemental Dreamspace
--------------------------------

Oh fan-freaking-tacular! Fire and Wind here too! It's like some descendant family reunion or something up in here. Alright, that makes my job so much easier. You two newbies, I'm a demon that lives in the weapons, yadda yadda, powers yadda questions yadda. I don't know why I bother. Last firekid was smart. Smartest out of the group, actually. Bit of an ass, though. Wind on the other hand. . . Now that kid wrote a LEGACY! He broke the scythe multiple times and still managed to repair it, through some celestial mumbo-jumbo! It was great! Then, instead of letting it be kept with all the other weapons, it becomes some sort of family heirloom! Can you believe that? Classic man. You humans never stop surprisin' me. Right, powers. Fire is fire. There isn't much else to that. You make fire. You think fire. You KNOW fire. It'll never burn ya, and it'll always be there for you. Wind. . . Wind is wind. You can fly. You can blow. You can sweep. Of course, that's provided you can keep it up! Wind is just as changing as fire, girlie!

And as for your questions, Earthkid? I'm not here to philos-ify about the nature of humanity and yadda yadda yadda. I've been around much longer than you, and it's going to take a bit more than a few hokey words to change my mind. And the weapons thing is both a yes and a no. I mean, if another deserving generation comes along before you can, the weapons will move on without you. And you can sever your direct connection to the weapons, but there will always be a lingering effect on your person. That first generation Windy used her abilities to the max, man. She was all OVER the map, and that was waaaaaay after she lost the scythe.

"So is there a purpose to the deliverance of these tools?" Kavi finally spoke up in the dreamspace, addressing the abstract being before the quartet.

Of course, waterkid! Or maybe not! I dunno! The first group did all of nothing, only to lose their weapons to the second group. The second group actually DID SOMETHING, but it was mostly Wind that did much of anything. And you guys are third, so congratulations! You won the prize!

 

Emma looked over at Kavi before stepping forward.

"So hold on a second, we're the third generation, it doesn't sound like these weapons are all that old. Can you maybe explain the beginning, where these weapons come into play, why we were chosen for them, or I don't know a littl more in depth on things rather than rushed?" Emma asked before looking over at the other three.

 

"As long as you don't break it before hand." Zack smirked. "Anyways, will somebody hurry up with my arm repairs? I'm tired of lying down in a bed unable to move. I'd rather be out and about doing something productive."

-----

"I think she's taking the word generation too literally." Gerik thought. "But leave it to her to question every single little detail. Might as well lay about and hear some more answers. Got nothing else to do while I sleep, I suppose."

 

"What do I look like? Some sort of white mage?" Vincent cackled, pressing the "get a doctor" button on the wall before leaving Zack behind. There was much planning to do and very little time to do it in.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"So hold on a second, we're the third generation, it doesn't sound like these weapons are all that old. Can you maybe explain the beginning, where these weapons come into play, why we were chosen for them, or I don't know a little more in depth on things rather than rushed?"

Alright, so fire isn't so bright this time. Maybe hold off on the marshmallow roasting, huh? Generations is figurative, girlie. I can't go more into depth because daybreak is soon, and I don't feel like talking more than once per generation. Call it one free group therapy session. Like I said, I don't make the rules about these damn things, I just work here. For zero pay. And 364 days of off-time. Mage guy sealed me in here, maybe to give people abilities to keep balance or something. Get off my case!

"So we don't have the option to give up these gifts... but we can chose what we do with them? Can they help us do what Raven and Star want us to?"

Anything you want that's in your own power, windie. I reckon you're all going to wake up, pretty much at now o' clock, so goodbye, farewell, and please hesitate to call! My office is open 0/7, and the phone number is 1-800-DO-NOT-CALL. Goodbye!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Kavi woke up as the sun creeped through the open stone windows of the castles, pulling himself against the wall upright sitting. Apparently he had exited his bed in favor of the floor at some point during the night, and took all the blankets with him.

"Well that was. . . odd."

OOC: So, training montage?

 

Emma rolled her eyes. She knew more than enough, bright some of the brightest and smartest people are those who ask simple questions because they know the answers to the bigger ones. She went to say more before the guy seemed to dismiss them.

She slowly woke up sitting in bed reaching into her bag she pulled out her sketch book and immediately sketching the two part dreams the one about the weapon she wrote some notes down as well before closing the sketchbook.

There was one question she didn't ask, what would occur if they got separated? She thought about Kavi constantly run off and Gerik wanting to leave. Then it hit her something the guy said.

"Mage Guy...?" She reached into her journal and pulled out a book about the light, the old secrets and truth of the light. She went into the encyclopedia and looked up about Mage before flipping through each entry.

None of them seemed to match up completely. She looked at the book.

"If we're accused of dark, it doesn't mean that in fact I'd say these elementals are light so..." She looked up elemental and the first one listed appeared.

Not much was listed about him except he was part of the original good light knights. He was a good elemental Mage of all the elements plus some.

"I wonder..."

 

"Good lord what an ass." Gerik grumbled as the sunlight shone directly in his eyes from waking up. "Love the sarcasm though. Gives me a bit to think about now that I'm probably as blind as Mel or whatever her name is." He brushed himself off, his elemental powers clearly helping get the dirt off quickly. The surroundings of the courtyard came into view as his eyes adjusted to the daylight. "And nobody considered to carry me to a bed? Or am I just that unnoticeable to everybody except those who want to kill me?" As he rambled on alone Gerik walked through the courtyard, heading towards the castle.

As he wandered aimlessly through the halls, Gerik found Raven standing alone, looking off somewhere. "Oh hey, there you are. Oh yeah, almost forgot. Talked to your boyfriend last night. He said he's tired of the distance between you two. He wants to break up. So what now? We gonna go destroy the Light Knights?"

-----

"Is my arm healed yet?" Zack angrily spoke to the doctor that was doing something to his arm.

"You're awfully talkative for somebody who killed an underling."

"Killed an underling? What are you talking about?"

"Raiga. Last I heard you put him in a coma. Even doing all we can to keep him alive, there's a very high chance he won't last much longer."

"Raiga, Finch, why is it all of the people Vincent gathers are disappearing? Anyways, before you blame me for murder you might want to review the fight. Raiga tried to kill me and used abilities that were too much for him. I was quite simply defending myself. If he were to die from that, it only proves that he's too weak to be part of us."

"Heartless to the very end, aren't you?"

"Don't compare me to ancient monsters of darkness. Just heal my damn arm already."

 

OOC: This round of posting, make a day long training thing describing how it went.\

Kavi's day went rather smoothly for a person who was hysterically uncomfortable with other living beings. Much of it he focused all his attention into learning the basic properties that the Demon mentioned of his artifact. His fighting style flowed, as has been his way for years, but his control of the abilities were lacking. While he could make waves on command, he lacked the skill necessary to freeze or send out gouts of steam. though, he did have the ability to make a fog form, fortunately for him.

If he were up against one or two soldiers, he wouldn't have a problem taking them down without the use of ability. But, his lack of power control would serve as a hindrance in combat to his allies if he wasn't careful.

Ghira would show up later in the day with the layout to the Ark Behemoth, bringing news that the core of the thing was nigh impenetrable, though he believed that the Elementals' combined ability would be able to break the core and destroy the Ark.