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[Kyla: Louis’s Heart: Nightmare tower]
Mathew seemed to get it; it was EXACTLY like what Tifa said right? Heart magic.
To her relief, their pieces, their powers were lining up, one after another. Their glyphs that indicated their light- they appeared and linked up with her own on the page. Mathew’s, Joe’s, Johns (eventuallys), Amy’s, - their small heart charms appears and added to the more intricate design- she too looked at the one around her wrist-

when all the peices came into place-closing her eyes again, Kyla focused on the good things, the moment’s in-between all the chaos that made her heart not feel so heavy.

Her talk with Elsa, with Riku, and Aslan. She remembered Maggie again, her heart to heart tlak wiht Kyle, and all the moments where she – if she was so bold to admit- were the bare beginnings of possible friendships. She brought to the surface the fun she had with Sora and Kairi- this- THIs was the start of all the more meaningful things she hoped to find outside her prison.

If she could go back...

'if I could go back.. I'd have come to eat with the others. I would have joined everyone in the bath house. I would have joined them to see the witch...
if I could go back..
but I'll get more chances.
Surely.

The thing she wanted to protect... these people.
This person.
Together.

Kyla’s light ignited her own charm, and it appeared along with the rest in the picture. The drawing was complete, and under their feet a new pattern appeared that encircled each drawn source of light , pulling it towards an epicenter that blossoms around the shard before them. This grid locked in, rings that matched colors with of the sources it would use.
Petals drew themselves sup, but did not close entirely around. And turned.

A pulse like a heartbeat illuminated the construct, and Kyla continued to focus, on them, on the fragment, on what she prayed with every fiber of her being could happen. With whatever heart magic was in her-
To lend this piece of a whole their light.


[note: sorry I'm asuming John did this too >w>;]

[[ Mod Note: Nope, safe to assume John did it, just didn't wanna play him up on the off chance I didn't know his reactions well enough :3 ]]

The young man cringed and ducked his head as a piece of glass fell and shattered across the floor close to his side as above them tentacles broke through the glass and crawled across the ceiling. They reached the main chandelier and wrenched it from the roof. Light bent around objects rapidly as the chandelier fell and collided with a bookshelf, releasing a thunderous crash that knocked out all the light in the library. Yet, despite the absence of any illumination, the room was still visible... the library was bathed in crimson as countless eyes opened everywhere darkness and shadows clung to a surface, staring, a predatory gleam waiting to drop down on them and devour.

Yet, the boy listened to their words intently, Sayrike's words cutting like a knife as his fingers trembled, "She's right, I don't know anything. Those words, that screaming, it seems familiar, but... I can't tell from where. Please, if you kill me I can finally be free of them... kill me and run. They won't be able to catch up with you for awhile. You'll be safe."

Meanwhile, Sayrike's scan returned as expected, obviously dark in nature the spell had only its name, 'Seed of Corruption.'




"Friends," the word was as a question, he stared up at Kyle who held the charms out over his chest, "I don't-" the boy winced for a moment, the walls lighting up like projectors screens, the flat white surface taking on a new hue of colorful memories, "-have any-"

"I don't understand," Louis said, yelling out to a group who stood around laughing, their faces blank like a manikin but adorned with crimson eyes and a equally deep red sneer, "What did I do wrong? You won't tell me! Why do you hate me?!"

The images flickered again, "Sorry," another voice said, sitting across a table, face equally blank but but the same squinted red eyes peered across at the onlooker, "I know I treated you like s**t and screwed you over repeatedly, but we're still friends right?"

"It's fine," Louis' voice was empty and downtrodden, "no worries."

Several images repeated like this with the same negative connotation, until Kyle pressed his hands to Victim's chest and everything flickered and shut off, leaving everything cast into pitch black despite Kyle's luminescence obviously pouring out onto the rest of them. Then as they floated there in the abyss, that light like water flowed down over the sides of Victim and onto the invisible floor. It spread like cast gold straight out of a furnace into tiny pathways.

Soon, just as countless pens running simultaneously outward an image was drawn and filled in by a rainbow of colors. A station of awakening formed beneath them with an image of Louis clutching his shoulders, eyes closed but pained as thorns wrapped about him and bled across the stain glass image like a spell circle around the edge.




"Stupid, superfluous," the man on the throne mused, "I suppose if you want to call it that, you can. After all, that's just your perspective," Nemesis stopped there, looking off into the endless sky with a displeased expression.

[ Sayrike & Sora : Louis' Heart : Prisoner's Purgatory ]

Sora had been staring at the dark seal as the conversation occurred around him, but it was the sudden chill on his skin and murmur of Kyle's voice from the corners of the library that snapped him free, causing him to look around in a state of both confusion and alarm.

"Kyle?" he called out, not just over the local charms for Sayrike, Joe, Auron, and Axel, but also to Kyle himself--he wanted to know if everyone else heard it, and also if the older man was there with them.

"I heard it too, but," Sayrike said, staring around in suspicion. "Not getting any response. We're probably cut off."

Sora's brow furrowed in thought, turning the words over in his head. When Auron voiced his own question, Sora nodded, but it was clear he was lost in his own thoughts.

"Probably, channeling some light magic through the keyblade," he said, but then he shook his head. "But I don't think it's that simple. If that's all I did, then all that would happen is the manifestation would be broken. Not the actual issue."

"The darkness blinding him--"

The sound of shattering glass broke them back out, looking up at the encroaching darkness literally breaking its way in. Sora scowled, his grip tightening on the blade. Without a word, he slid over between Prisoner and one side of the fracturing dome--he noted that Sayrike did the same, covering the front and having her three mirrors encase the boy in reflective glass.

"We're not killing you, stop asking for it!" he shouted, swaying back and forth in his defensive stance as he looked up toward the darkness. "We're here to help, and that's that! Stop thinking death is the only way, and it will stop being the only way!"

[Dani :~: Louis’ Heart:~: Tower of Traitor]

Dani was just at this point keeping dethatched as much as she could. Her connections to this were not much so the best that she could do was just watch, listen, and use her own experience as a guide. While at the time it seemed like there were only certain options in front of her she had not thought outside of the box enough. When the opportunity was nearly thrust in front of her in the form of Traitor itself she knew that it was still possibly a lie. She was not going to be dumb enough to attack it before anaylazing it. Bobbi from what she could tell had other plans. Before Dani could stop Bobbi, Riku had stepped in and was discussing light and hope.

‘It is moments like these I wish I had light.’ Dani thought to herself as she noticed the others seemed to be focusing on the other point: hope.

‘I just need to listen and just try to hope… or something,’ Dani thought as she listened to Riku’s instructions.

Dani shut her eyes placing trust in her companions for a sec and started to concentrate. The water that had been constantly dripping off of Dani’s form at this point had stopped. She was in her own imaginative space trying to think of things that reminded her of her happiness and light. She thought of her mother, holding her hand and bringing her on adventures. She thought of her friends, who had helped her through school and marching band. As she moved through this imaginative space, she could swear she could hear her marching band music mixed with the electronic music she had started to listen to before she was taken into this new world. She was constantly moving in this space to what she could only describe as the beat to the music in terms of light guiding her through each step.
Back in the tower though, she stood unmoving, tapping one of her feet to the beat inside of her head. She put her faith and hope into her space which she hoped would be enough to contribute to the group and their “light.”

{Demyx, Zell .:. Louis's Heart .:. Cornerstone of Death}

"It’s pretty impressive magic, I gotta admit that," Demyx said with a flippant shrug. "Dumb as a brick, but impressive. We tried some crazy stuff in the Organization, but this is goin’ overboard."

"That just about sums it up, yeah," Zell agreed. He shoved his hands into his pockets and stared off at the towers. He itched to know how the groups were doing. Was everyone okay? What was going on in there? He glanced at Nemesis to see if the shard could give him any clues, only to see him staring off at the towers, too. He didn’t look happy, but Zell had no way of knowing if that was a good thing for their side or not. He considered asking, but he couldn’t trust Nemesis to be honest about his answer. He’d seemed like he wanted the same goal as the rest of them previously, but that could all have been an act, and Zell wasn’t about trust the guy farther than he could spit.

{Red XIII, Yuffie .:. Louis's Heart .:. Tower of Victim}

Yuffie frowned for a moment when Kyle directed them on what to do. She’d never really thought about what drove her. All she’d ever really done was live in the moment, let things happen as they happened. She’d helped where she could, but that was about it. What was it that kept her going? She’d liked being on the Restoration Committee, helping to put Radiant Garden back to the beautiful world it used to be.

Maybe that was it, the helping. She wanted to help Victim right now, more than anything. She couldn’t stand to see others suffering, and what the shard was going through was breaking her heart. And the images on the walls… were those Louis’ memories? If so, she definitely wanted to help him, to show him what real friendship and love was really all about.

So she concentrated on that, on how much she wanted to help Louis and others, to see people safe and happy. She closed her eyes—for some reason it was easier to focus that way—and channeled her emotions to the æthicite charm Kyle now held.

Nanaki concentrated as well, thinking of his desire to explore, to see new sights and meet new peoples. He loved his freedom more than anything, and to see another being shackled was distressing to him. Since his release from Finkelstein’s lab, he had been granted the opportunity to expand his horizons. Along the way, he had met several people he cared for as friends, among them the group he was currently with. He enjoyed their company, and loved learning about the various worlds they had come from. It was that connection to others that drove him, and directed his thoughts and actions. How could one live their life in a cage, alone and isolated, and be fulfilled?

As Nanaki thought about his driving force, his light, he watched Kyle closely, and was only slightly surprised to see the æthicite charms glowing in the dragoon’s hands. He watched as Kyle gently but firmly pushed the magic into the seal on Victim’s chest, burning the taint of darkness away. With a light butt of his head against Yuffie’s thigh, he directed the ninja’s attention to the magic, and watched her face blossom with delight at seeing the magic at work.

Her elation turned to sorrow as the tower transformed to a Station of Awakening around them, and the image of Louis on the stained glass platform was made clear. Nanaki snorted and shook his head, sending his headdress rattling.

"I assume the change of scenery means progress?" he asked mildly.

{Bobbi .:. Louis's Heart .:. Tower of Traitor}

Now that Bobbi knew that an actual solution existed, she listened to what the others had to say with enthusiasm and hope instead of dread. She laughed aloud at Riku’s quip of Sora’s contagious nature, and her grin remained plastered on her face, eyes shining like stars. She took her æthicite charm and the silver heart pendant into a tight grip, and turned to face Innocence and Traitor.

"You hear that, Innocence? Everything’s going to be okay!"

Then she hit a slight snag. She had no idea what "the light that never goes out" was. She knew it was there, it was that same spark that had kept the blade from her wrists all those years ago, but she didn’t know how to quantify it, didn’t know how to define it, let alone channel it. She thought furiously, her grin fading to a frown of concentration as she tried to find the common denominator.

One thing she was absolutely positive about in regard to her light was that she was a tremendously forgiving person. Maybe even stupidly so. She forgave the man who broke her heart, she forgave the people who bullied and harassed her—she forgave so much and so often she couldn’t even remember every time she had done so. It was just something she did.

But she felt like there was something deeper than that, some light stronger that was at the root of her forgiving nature. There had to be something that connected her forgiveness with her drive to live, to see others smile, to comfort and love and reassure that no matter what, life was worth living and even the deepest darkness will pass.


She’d heard similar phrases from many other people in her life, from close friends to workmates to random passers-by. She was always able to find the good in everything, to see the silver lining no matter what. Even at the lowest point in her life, there was something she could see, some spark of light that kept her going, that made her think "this is temporary and I will get through this." She’d thought back then it was just sheer stubbornness, but what if it wasn’t?

At the root of everything she did, felt, or thought, there was one guiding light, the one thing she needed to bring out more than anything. Riku had said it best: hope. Always the hope that things would get better, no matter how terrible they seemed. That’s what Sora would do, and Bobbi could think of worse role models. She heard Dawn whisper the words, and grinned anew, pressing her charm and pendant to her lips. It was a gesture she used to do to seek comfort, but now she did it to seek strength.

She didn’t remember closing her eyes, but when she opened them twin beams of light were connecting her charm to Kuro and Riku’s. They started off thin, but with each passing moment they grew stronger, just as her hope continued to grow. She watched Riku raise his Keyblade and redirect the beam of Light to Traitor, her heart burning with the hope she was channeling until it coalesced into a whole-hearted belief that everything would come around right.

"The young man was surrounded by the mirrors as they all shouted various things to each other and at Prisoner. The boy was silent as the world fell apart around them, just slumped in the middle of the protective barrier that the mirror mage had put up around him. Sora desperately looked for a lock to his chain but found none. Instead, the darkness spent this time slithering from the shadows, coiling across the walls and up from the depths through the bookshelves. The host with words filled with a bitter distaste for the scenario shouted at the darkness, provoking it into attack yet none came. But wait, the boy who they vowed to spare shifted, reaching up with tentative fingers caressing the edge of his blindfold.

'You... really think there's another way,' he asked, tugging lightly.

The darkness shivered once then lunged forward from all sides, tendrils pointed into spears aimed for the hearts of each. But in that moment the blindfold fell away and the world stopped. There was a sound like shotgun fire as a shelf nearby exploded. Another explosion erupted from another, pages took to the air inundating the space as one after another erupted until pages overlapping frozen once more in time filled every limit of vision.

At last time returned to that space and the pages were wrapped up in a blustering wind. The floor on which they stood, no longer a hard wood walkway but a stain glass station of awakening. The picture that of Louis chained at the neck as that chain ran round and round to an inward spiral before stopping at the center where both Prisoner himself and a massive image of a lock glowed beneath him.

Before anyone would even have asked, Sora's keyblade made short work of the binding, the beam of light emanating from the mystical weapon filling the black keyhole to overflowing which then engulfed the boy and everyone else within," the narrator placed his pen down as he looked at Joe who was consequently the only one who could actually hear or see him.

At last Creativity introduced himself, barely looking up from his book in which he wrote down his spoken words in tandem and blinding speed between each stroke of the pen... 'It's a pleasure to at last make your acquaintance Joe, and yours oh great and powerful Atomos. I am the shard of Louis once known as Liar, purified in light. I hope you don't mind the involuntary intrusion.'"

Just as the enigmatic writer said, everything had transpired quickly and without a hitch. The world had returned to a simple circular room with one door which they'd entered from, the door still ajar and the outside, a circle of four towers.





As light finally collected enough on the tip of Riku's blade, a beam shot out, directed into Traitor's chest. The boy lurched forward and took the blow without so much as a flinch to dodge. The light collected inside him and showed through his eyes that lit up like spotlights. He closed them and groaned. He doubled over, holding his chest as though in severe pain. Innocence on the other hand looked on with a sense of awe.

There was a cracking noise then the young man's back released all the light in a show of terrifying brilliance. Darkness mixed in with the light weaved together like a pair of spindling wings that spread out in a fan. The whole ordeal only lasted but a few seconds but as soon as it passed and only light flowed out of the Traitor, he looked up at them, and smiled, "The choice made and consequences considered, blinded by death and darkness no longer, a fourth path is revealed and everyone survives."

Light spread over everything in the expanse... there was a moment, they could hear Louis' voice, "I don't care if I look like the bad guy or everyone hates me. I'm okay as long as those I care about are better for it. So hate me if you want, but I will always do the right thing, hate me but be safe," and in that moment they were back, the world had returned to a simple circular room with one door which they'd entered from, the door still ajar and the outside, a circle of four towers.

Innocence, released from his bonds ran forward and hugged Bobbi with all his might, burrying his face into her shoulder. Traitor, sat on the floor smiling softly at the ruinion.



As their collective magic and light converged on Nightmare, the boy trembled. He was afraid, terribly so, but there was something as in his eyes when the light touched him... a small twinkling of hope. A voice from the abyss rang in their minds, "You know, the future is always an unknown and the unknown is terrifying. Yesterday was horrible, today was worse, tomorrow might be just as bad, but who's to say I can't have hope and dream that things will get better another day."

Then, the world was bathed in light and everything reverted back to that simple cobblestone room with a single door to the outside world where a meeting of four towers awaited them. On the floor was what was once Nightmare looking around in a daze as though just waking from a deep sleep.



As Kyle's magic flowed from his hands, the world grew slow and dulled into a drifting sleepiness, like floating in a sea of warmth. Victim looked at Kyle and with one last worried glance to the side asked meekly, "Is it going to hurt?"

There was a pause then he answered his own question, "No... this light... it's too soft to cause pain."

Then that light spread, engulfing the entire platform and in the blink of an eye they stood in a small cobblestone room with one door leading out to a space of gravestones and 3 other towers like thier own.



Upon the throne, Nemesis' frown turned to a light smile, "It would look like everyone has succeeded in their trials."

Light poured out and up along the sides of the towers obliterating the black growths and leaving instead four multicolored spires of crystal that shined magnificently and glowed with a prismatic aura around each summit like halos.

[Dawn : Louis's Heart : Traitor's Tower]

Dawn's squeezed her eyes tighter as the light got brighter. She held her position as if praying and hoping. The dancer opened her eyes when she heard Traitor whisper.


'I understand..'



'I might not do what others approve of. But I will do what I feel is right."

Dawn looked around the room, that had been changed. The trial seemed to be over. Innocence was with Bobbi once more. Only thing that remained of the trial was Traitor himself. Who was watching from the distance.

The dancer slowly walked over to the Louis shard. Her face was kind, "You..?" she started to ask if he was okay, but for whatever reason words escaped her. Unsure if that was the right thing to ask. Instead, she only gave him a gentle smile and extended her hand to him.

{Bobbi .:. Louis's Heart .:. Tower of Traitor}

With a glad cry, Bobbi welcomed Innocence into her arms, holding the shard tight and protectively despite the drastic height difference.

"You’re okay now," she murmured softly as she stroked his hair. "I’ve got you. I’m so sorry. You’re okay." She had no idea if she was repeating those words because she was trying to convince him or herself.

What did I almost do? If it hadn’t been for Riku…

.:Thank you,:. the Archer sent simply, sincerely, and privately to the silver-haired Keyblade Master.

Then the words on the wind in Louis’s voice registered in her brain, and Bobbi couldn’t help but chuckle.

Who’s the hypocrite now? she thought, though there wasn’t even a hint of bitterness, anger, or accusation in her mental voice. No, instead she was amused. Maybe it was holdover from all the Light that she had channeled. Maybe it was borderline hysteria. She had no idea what it was, but for some reason she felt like laughing.

{Red XIII, Yuffie .:. Louis's Heart .:. Tower of Victim}

Yuffie gave a whoop when the room transformed, punching the air with a fist and jumping in place happily.

"Yeah! We did it! Take that, evil people!" And with that, she pounced on Kyle and hugged him tight. "You were awesome!"

{Demyx, Zell .:. Louis's Heart .:. Cornerstone of Death}

Zell watched with a growing grin on his face as the towers transformed. He felt a jubilant shout preparing to erupt, but he held onto it until he saw someone actually emerge from their tower before he let it out. Like Yuffie, he also punched the air and jumped, shouting at the top of his lungs and waving to get the attention of whoever emerged first. Not that they needed it, the central platform was within line-of-sight of all of the towers, after all.

Demyx stayed uncharacteristically silent, though he admired the artistic transformation of the towers. He plucked a few strings on Arpeggio, not in any particular sequence, just in a fit of restlessness. He didn’t want to celebrate until they knew for sure that all of the trials were over. And since Nemesis was, as far as he knew, the only shard that hadn’t been purged of darkness, he kept a sharp eye on the young man in the throne.

((OoC: Joe and Amy didn’t actually say they’d left the towers, so I left that open-ended. And you better let us out of these damn towers, Rhiko, I don’t want to edit D<))