Solace of Nirvana

"So because these two people, Voltair and Raven, essentially created this world, you guys worship them?" Gerik asked the priest.

The priest laughed a little. "No. We don't worship them. But we do honor their memory. It is sad, how things are changing. Their memories are being tarnished. I'm not aware of anybody outside of this world who is aware of the truth."

"If all the darkness was sealed up in the Dark Realm by Voltair, how is it coming back into the Realm of Light?"

"What do you mean?"

"Huh? Oh, it's just that a while back I overheard somebody talking about people with darkness in their hearts." Gerik lied.

The priest thought over that for a moment. "Well, I suppose, if that were true, that there is an unbalance of light in this realm. When the darkness was sealed, both the light and the dark were balanced, divided by the seal that keeps the darkness out of our realm. But ever since the Light Knights have become more and more prominent, I believe there has been a disruption in that balance. Darkness is always trying to find the light. When the balance is disrupted, darkness finds a way to the light. But remember. Darkness is not always bad. Sometimes, like with Voltair, it is good."

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Zack appeared in Destiny Islands. He looked at the device in his hand. There was a faint signal south of him. He put his hand to his ear, or in reality he touched a device in his ear. "Zack here. The tracking device has detected darkness, probably on another island south of here. I'll call in for reinforcements once I have located the dark."

 

Emma nodded listening to Raven.

"Then what is true?" She mumbled but shook her head and looked back over at Hope about her suggestion. She shrugged at Hope's comment, the way she saw it if only two people could travel from here, Raven being one of them, then shouldn't they be worried about the other one. She looked back at Raven and nodded her head.

"On the look out, got it. Where do we start looking though? This city is huge!" Emma stated emphasizing huge. "The boy, ummm Gerik? Well he could be anywhere!"

 

Vincent watched as one of the blinking worlds stopped doing so.

"Well, that's the worst part about these things. We can't tell the magnitude of the escapees, just that there is some sort of dark being or beings there. We really should get Ghira to work on a way to upgrade those. . ." He sighed, drumming his fingers on the table. Standing up abruptly, he addressed the other two keybladers, "Well, on that note, I suppose we should make a public appearance in the City of Dawn, considering that's our only lead. Am I going alone, or are you not confident in my abilities? Nevermind, you can come if you want on your own time. I'll just take my ship and that's that."

And without waiting for a single response, he strode off into the secret passage that led up to the meeting room. After all, if people could find them easily then that would be troublesome.

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Off in his little cave, Kavi clutched his shell, his only defense against anything or anyone that tried to attack.

"Why do I get the feeling that something bad will happen?" He uttered, feeling a shiver run down his spine.

 

Silas stood up.

"Sir, surely you don't understand why they went there. The City of Dawn cannot be traveled to by Gumi Ship, only special light and dark coridors that only specific people with a large ammount of light or darkness can open up. You would need a Princess of Heart who knows how to use her powers to travel there." Silas explained quickly following him.

"It's probably why they escaped there." Silas further stated.




Emma looked around the city as they walked. Everybody and everything looked so peaceful. She always thought that Twilight Town was like this, but City of Dawn made her realize how stressed out about the Light Knights, Twilight Town really was. She looked around and saw a giant, beautiful cathedral.

 

Gerik stood up and stretched. "Looks like it's time for me to go." He yawned. "Do you know of any good place to eat? I haven't eaten in who knows how long."

"Doesn't that bag you carry with you have some food?" The priest observed.

"Huh? This thing?" Gerik asked, holding up the bag. "That's for when I'm traveling and there aren't any people around."

"Sure thing." The priest said. "There's a diner not too far from here. As soon as you exit, turn right. Walk about a block or so and you'll find it. It's called the Irvine eatery."

"Thanks. For everything." Gerik said, walking towards the door.

Before he made it, the priest said one more thing to him. He shouted it to make sure Gerik could hear him, considering how far apart they are. "I'd avoid the Light Knights if I were you! They don't take too kindly to the darkness!"

"I don't have any darkness!" Gerik lied, shouting back. "Like you said, it's all sealed away!"

"Then I suppose that weapon hanging from your belt is just for display!" The priest laughed a little.

Gerik rolled his eyes, opening up the doors and exiting the cathedral. He looked around as he stepped outside. To his left, he saw three women. Or, more specifically, one woman and (What Gerik assumed) her three daughters. He turned to his right and started walking towards the place the priest directed him.

---------

Zack landed a boat on another one of the islands. His dark detector signaled he was getting closer to his target. He moved quietly, being careful not to alert his target. He reached the mouth of a cave, his detector claiming the dark was inside. Zack stood near the edge of the cave, being careful to not be visible from inside of the cave. He reached inside of a bag he had with him. It looked like a robotic snake. Zack gently set the snake on the ground and grabbed some kind of remote control. Using it, he controled the snake to go into the cave. On the remote control was a camera screen, using a camera in the snake's head to display what was ahead. Zack controled it, moving it into the darkest part of the cave. He switched the camera into night-vision. He saw an individual in the cave. He touched the device in his ear again. "Zack here. I have found the dark. Calling for back up at coordinates DI-391-90-5834."

>Obviously the DI is for Destiny Islands, and the numbers I just made up.<

 

Emma looked over confused as her stomach growled a little bit. She quickly followed the three others.

'I wonder what's up, this sort of out of character from the little I've known her. I guess we'll find out, right?' Emma thought to herself but stopped and looked back at the chapel.

'It seems... too familiar..." She thought to herself not able to place where she knew the chapel from.


Emma followed the others into the diner looking around. It was a typical diner, nothing too fancy about it.

"Don't want to seem like a mood killer, but umm... is there a real reason why were stopping here?" Emma asked in a whisper. Something was different. Actually the whole world seemed different, even if it's the first time truly away from home. Something else was different though.

 

Gerik took a seat and ordered some food. He wasn't paying too much attention to Raven or her companions, and even if he did he'd think that they were coincidentally going to eat at the same place. Gerik reached in one of the pouches hanging from his waist and took out the object Ghira gave him. "Gonna have to leave soon. Can't stay around too long. I wonder where this thing will take me next. On the bright side, it doesn't appear to be some tracking device. They haven't come for me yet. On the darker side, if I can control where this thing takes me I haven't figured it out yet." Gerik put the object back in one of the pouches before his food arrived. "Yum. Thanks very much." He smiled at the waitress.

 

Vincent stopped in his tracks, then cursed. He stormed back into the meeting room, rubbing his temples to ease the stress.

"Oh, of all the- How in the name of Bahamut were we able to get a tower on that accursed place?" He asked, but then a lightbulb went off in his head. Without waiting for an answer from Silas or Hoshi, he continued "Oh wait, now I remember. I'm heading down to the armory to pick up one of those teleport devices Ghira made. There should be enough if either of you two wish to come."

Vincent just barely managed to stay long enough to hear the message, and grinned devilishly.

"Wonderful!" He exclaimed, then addressed a communications officer over the intercom, "Have Raiga pick up Finch and tell them to head directly to Destiny Islands at the 'Children's Island'. Thank you!"

And after all this, he finally headed downstairs, beelining for the teleport room.

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

"A serpent!" Kavi exclaimed in the low lighting of the cave. "Maybe if I'm careful, I can take it out in one swipe. And make lunch."

Drawing his clam-shell weapon, he took aim then threw it hard as he could at the robot's body. It sliced into the thing, but didn't quite sever it in two. However, it did cause a mess of sparks. Kavi jumped back, cursing.

"What sort of monstrosity is this?" He cursed, shrinking back against the wall. "The snakes here are like eels!"

 

"Hmm?" Gerik looked up from his food to Raven. "I saw you earlier, didn't I? You were with your three daughters, by that cathedral nearby." Gerik wondered why she would ask him if he was a resident here or not. "I suppose you could say that I'm not from around here." After that sentence, Gerik began lying. "I work with an orphanage. We travel world to world, staying at each one for a year or so. We find children who have lost their parents for whatever reason and take care of them for a while. If they're old enough to take care of themselves when it is time for us to leave, then they stay on the world we found them. If they're still too young to fend for themselves when we leave the world we're on, we take them with us until they're old enough. We were actually getting ready to leave this world soon."

 

"These?" He asked, gesturing to the weapon and orb. "They're gifts from my parents. I actually happened to be one of the orphans that my orphanages pick up. It's a long story, but these objects are mainly just for show. I haven't met any children who are blessed or cursed with awesome. Or at least I assume this power would be awesome, or they wouldn't be chased after. I hope you find this child you are looking for." Gerik assumed that she was looking for him, but he wasn't going to say anything about that due to the chance she was a Light Knight. As he looked at Raven, there was some kind of familiarity with her. "I have this strange feeling I've seen you before. Not just when you were by that cathedral, but earlier to that." He thought about it a bit more. That's when he realized it. She was the woman half on the stain-glass picture in the cathedral. "In fact, for some reason I can picture you with white wings. Say, you didn't happen to once have a boyfriend or lover or somebody, did you? Someone who was... Oh, I don't know. Your complete opposite or something."

 

Emma sat at the table eating at the food and looking back over at Raven speaking to the boys. She looked back at the two girls.

"So I guess we should use this time as an introduction, background check, get to know who you are, sort of thing? So you two know where I'm from, but what about you two?" Emma asked them. She flipped open the flap of her messenger bag and pulled out the notebook sitting inside and flipping it open the first page she opened was an unfinished picture. That of another strange dream. There she stood at an altar a stained glass window stretching above her with an angel drawn, one half a woman the other half a man. The woman was unfinished, but the man was finished.

 

"Well Raven." Gerik spoke, knowing now she was one of the people the priest told him about. "There are a few problems with what you just said. First and foremost is my name. I never told you it, and the last person who knew my name tried to kill me. And I'm going to assume you found me by using some device that detects me and, as you say, others like me. Then there's the fact that you know the Light Knights are specifically looking for me. And that this orb was given to me by a Light Knight. As much as I would like to believe you are trying to help me and anybody like me, the simple fact that you know the same things about a random individual such as myself, things that the Light Knights also somehow know, I am required to be suspicious of everybody and forced to assume that you yourself are a Light Knight. In fact, the only reason you wouldn't be on the Light Knight's side is if you really are the Raven from all those years ago who fought alongside Voltair and were there when all the darkness was sealed up in the Dark Realm."

"Wow." Gerik thought to himself. "That was a lot of honesty I spewed out. I'm suprised at myself."

"Oh, and in addition to all that." Gerik spoke again. "If you really are that Raven, then you guys put a really crappy seal if darkness has been able to escape the Dark Realm, enter my heart, and give those Light Knights a reason to kill me."