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[Cloud : Angel Grove : Streets -> Outside of the Church]

The way back was quiet and uneventful, giving an oddly foreboding sense of what might lie ahead. There were no more explosions ahead, no noises, and no ground shaking.

And now there were none of Ooze's henchmen. For the last several hours they had been fighting these creatures and protecting the church. Why was it so quiet now? Where had they gone?

Cloud turned the corner, coming within sight of the group. There was no immediate danger, he noted, but it was obvious a battle had just recently ended. A quick headcount lessened the guilt of not having been there. In fact, there was one more than there should have been...

Cloud's approach was unhurried. His eyes sought out Leon.

[Cory .:. Hawaii .:. Beach]

The ronin's eyes suddenly shot open. Not fear, but a sudden shocked awareness. Something was coming near. Cory quickly jumped to his feet and looked around, the Revblade in hand as he sniffed the air.

~

"Darkness. A lot of it... Easily on par with the Replicas."

~


"It's not a Replica, though... I've caught a whiff of all the replicas, and this ain't one of them... But it's strong."

~


Cory dismissed the Revblade as he summoned a dark portal. "I've been fighting Heartless and Unversed all the way here... This will make a good checkpoint, so I'll just head back to the ship for now." The rogue quickly rushed inside the portal, looking over his shoulder one last time before vanishing into the darkness.

What the hell could it be?...

[Carribean Sea ~ The Pearl]

Noelle's cheeks remained a little flushed as Jacob prolonged his hug and began to hold her tighter. She guessed he really needed a hug. That was okay, though. It wasn't like it made her uncomfortable, she was just bashful. But when he suddenly became serious, the blonde could feel her stomach turn. The Trinity Charms? She had completely forgotten about them. She wasn't quite sure what Ajora would really get out of it. He already had what he wanted, didn't he? What more was he going to do? The thought made her shudder. It just wasn't going to stop. Noelle rubbed her cheeks, beginning to feel stressed again. What Jacob was saying didn't make it any better.

"Whoa-hey, what's this 'I'm going to' talk?" Noelle began, standing behind him as he sat on the edge of the crow's nest. "Because there's nothing that you are doing alone, buddy. Listen, I know you're angry, we all are, but going at this alone, if that's what you're insinuating, is a bad idea. With a capital 'B'. Take it from me, I tried that, and it got me nowhere but on a shady corner in Trouble Town. It ended badly, and it'll end badly for you too. Don't try and be heroic, because heroic is stupid. If you had nothing to lose, I might say go for it, but you do have something to lose, whether you think so or not. So . . . in general, bad idea. Don't be promising me that you'll get James back, promise me that you're not going to try and take Ajora, or any of the Replicas, alone . . . just promise me, okay?"

[Dawn : The Black Pearl : Cargo Hold]

[Cue : Music]

Dawn continued to cry into her legs. The occasional sob could be heard as they escaped her mouth her during the last few minutes. They started out being close and easy to make out. But as time went on and much soothing from Garuda, the sobs started to soften and become more spread out.

~'It'll be fine. You can't let yourself be beat up like this. You will get James back. Just got to be strong.'~

Dawn shook her head as she finally let her head rest against the wall of the ship. She started let out a soft sigh as she started to open and close her left fist. It still hurt, despite the healing received by the potion Joe threw before. Dawn took her right hand and started to message the hand that had gotten hurt before.

~'You should be careful with that hand. You could of broken something. Or at least work on healing it.'~

"Yeah," Dawn whispered as she took the glove off of her left hand to both message it better and use her own magic to help mend the damage. She let out a soft gasp dropping her glove into her lap.

~'What is that?'~

On the back of Dawn's left hand there was a tattoo (Ultima's command seal). What it was she could be, she hadn't the faintest idea. Her face went from puzzlement and surprise, to fear and sadness as she held her left fist with her good hand against her chest. She closed her eyes as the tears started to go slowly down her face once more.

~'What happened to you on that ship...?'~

[Laan .:. Hawaii .:. Beach]

The death night held his hand out in front of him, manipulating and reforming darkness to his will when Death interupted his concentration.

~

"When I existed through half of Cory's heart, a special ability of mine was darkness manipulation. I could create basic shapes fairly easily, as well as harmless clones of myself. Here, it's basically the same thing only now it is fueled by the darkness in my heart rather than Cory's."

~

Laan continued working on the rather large mass of darkness in front of him, its size now on par with a hummer. "They were destroyed by Cory, of course. He's gotten stronger since we had merged together."

~

"Fear does not drive one such as myself. With your power, I have nothing to fear- not even death itself." The mass of darkness began to take a much more familiar shape now, resembling that of a large winged creature. "No, I do not fear him, nor has he become a threat to me. Cory's augmentative magic, when coupled with his own raw strength, makes him a dangerous opponent to some... But not I. His skill in magic is agonizingly weak."

~

"Only one spell is needed. He doesn't have the magical fortitude to resist it. The only problem would be catching him with it." The creature, now visibly a dragon, began to grow armor all over its body as its red eyes became apparent, their color to bright it almost seemed as though they were glowing. From the tip of the dragon's tail sprouted a large scytheblade as Laan added, "But he doesn't stand a chance. Especially not alone."

~

Laan dropped his hand as the dragon Unversed finished its formation, walking over to its side and placing a hand on it. "... Nithhogr, named after a Norse dragon that lay at the foot of the world tree Yggdrasil, gnawing at its roots and eating the remains of the dead."

~

The deathknight hopped up on the dragon, looking around at the beach for a moment. "Cory was here very recently... But he's vanished. His darkness control makes him a tricky target to track."

~

"I'm going to find the Replicas. The enemy of my enemy is my friend, and I had intended to speak with them anyway." With that, Nithhogr began to flap its wings, taking it and the deathknight slowly into the air. "But first:" Laan quickly reached down and formed more darkness, a small battalion of Unversed including numerous Flood, some Scrappers, and a few Bruisers. They all stood still (save the Flood, who continued to twitch) and stared at Laan, awaiting their orders. "Cause as much mayhem as you can on this island, especially for my lesser half, Cory." The Unversed all quickly disappeared just as Nithhogr took off into the sky.

~

"No, but if the memories I have from watching Cory's actions are any indicators... Ajora will contact us before we contact him."

[[Louis : Caribbean Sea : Black Pearl - Below Deck]]

Louis shook his head lightly, leaning against the wall when an unexpected wave of dizziness swept over him, "I'm not exactly sure. I remember going below deck, then the nobodies attacking. After that..." Louis gripped his forehead as a headache ravaged his skull, "Nng... nothing. I can't remember anything after that, I just woke up here."

Louis shook his head violently to compose himself and stand upright, "Sorry," He apologized again, "What did I miss? You said we're back on the pearl, right?"

[ Kyle : Caribbean : Pearl's Lower Decks ]

"The Nobodies, huh... sounds like your memory blanks right after the Negator showed up, which canceled everyone's magic out... still, if your memory was affected..."

Kyle eyed Louis curiously, as if Louis was no longer a person, but a puzzle to be analyzed. His memory stopped when the Negator arrived, and started again when they got out of the Negator's range. That meant his memory was being affected by magic of some sort... which put Kyle more than a little on edge. Geists, perhaps? No, they hadn't come across Geists since Narnia... as a matter of fact, there was nothing at all that had confronted them since the Negator that would have affected memory. That left 2 options.

Either someone's tampering with his memory from afar...

Or from within.

The last option, of course, required that the Darkness leaking out of Louis mere moments before hand be connected somehow to the memory loss. If the two were completely unconnected, then it was severely unlikely that something inside Louis was tampering with his memory.

Of course, he does temper with the Darkness on a daily basis... perhaps they're related, but it's just not as sinister as I thought?

Kyle shook his head. "No use stressing over it if you're better now. Anyway, the Nobodies had just been stalling for time- the Dutchman arrived with a Negator, a type of machine that cancels out all magic. The Replicas were on board, and they shoved us in the brig. Long story short, Ajora took the compass, Jenny's Replica, Alice, ruined Joe's eye, and James has been brainwashed. We managed to escape, and here we are."

Kyle shrugged lightly, rolling his shoulders back before giving the young man a reassuring smile. "We made it out in one piece, give or take, and that's all that matters. We happen to have a head start on Ajora's plans because one of his so-called allies leaked it to us before helping us out. And when he inevitably catches up, we'll be prepared- both to stop him and to free James."