The first 2 chapters of my fanfic. Further posting is conditional, corresponding to the amount of response I receive. It makes almost no sense in light of new developments in the KH universe, but I wrote this before the realease of CoM. Enjoy.
Jac didn't know about heroes, but he did know it had powers. He had ventured into the 2nd District again just after receiving it. The Heartless had become weak once more, shadows that rose from the ground. Jac had fought them, though he wasn't sure how, and the Dream Sword had shone with an odd light.
Jac's parents were gone. His mother had died a long time ago, and his father...Jac thought that the man Sora claimed to have seen being killed by the Heartless was his father.
Jac hated the Heartless. He didn't know who Sora was but that he was a traveler, and friends with Leon. Even so, he wished he could have gone with Sora wherever he went. It would be better than here, in this terrible place filled with awful memories.
The strange sight in the sky ceased as Jac stood, clenching his fist tight against the smooth hilt of the Dream Sword. With his free hand he took out the orichalum he had found. Those strange things the Moogles made made him stronger. The chain around his neck...they called it the Heartguard...clattered as he stalked to the entrance of the Accessory shop. He had half-copied the walk from Sora. Jac admired the traveler a great deal. He wished he had a Keyblade. Even so, he would probably have used the Dream Sword anyway. Three Stars hung from his waist. The Titan Chain was tight on his right arm. Jac smiled faintly at the Ribbon hanging from the Dream Sword's crossguard.
The Moogles' expressions never changed when Jac came in, but all three squeaked happily. The only Moogle whose name Jac knew, Loom, waddled up to him.
“ And how is our new best customer, Jac?” he asked in his squeaky voice.
Jac nodded at the Moogle. “ I'm fine, Loom,” he waved at the other two. “ I've got some new gems. Wanna make me another of your Power Ups you love synthesizing so much?”
“ Synthesizing has gotten...harder.”
“ Since when?” Jac let his grip on the Dream Sword go slack.
“ Since five minutes ago, kupo,” Loom muttered, turning to the other Moogles. They nodded. “ The Ether I was working on didn't turn out right, kupo. I wasn't trying hard, but-”
“ Can you still make me that Power Up?”
“ I dunno, Jac,” Loom backed up a few steps. “ I'd be sure if I had twice the ingredients...”
“ I have them!” Jac took a quick look around. The room seemed weaker. He quickly dished out the various ingredients, including the two Mystery Goos it had taken him three days to get.
Loom, with the help of the other two Moogles, carried the ingredients to the forge and started at their work. All of them worked on the thing, which was rare. Jac had asked, and the last time they had done that was when Sora had asked for the Ultima Weapon.
He waited only ten minutes before he was presented with a large bottle full of a translucent red liquid. Taking the bottle, Jac hurried out the door. The Moogles didn't like watching people when their physique suddenly changed, as small as the change was.
Jac bit off the lid of the bottle, lifted the drink to his lips, and gulped it down. He felt it move through him in the next few moments, and then he was stronger. He simply felt...more. Smiling with satisfaction, Jac hurried to the courtyard, staring at the door of the world. No one but Sora and his allies had gone beyond that door. Jac longed to leave.
Something flickered at the corners of Jac's vision. He looked, and there was a faded image. A man in black robes, the hood pulled so far up that no face could be seen.
“ Go to the 2nd District,” the voice was less real than what Jac saw.
“ Why?” Jac tensed.
“ Go to the fountain.”
“ Why?”
“ Go.”
Chapter 1
Jac leaned against the wall of the Moogles' Accessory Shop, staring at the sky as hundreds of thousands of stars blazed upwards into their places in the black dome, twinkling as they had before. He gripped the strange sword that the sorcerer Merlin had given him, the symbol of a foreign King on its pommel. Merlin had called it the Dream Sword; he had said that it possessed powers, having once been used by a great hero.
Jac didn't know about heroes, but he did know it had powers. He had ventured into the 2nd District again just after receiving it. The Heartless had become weak once more, shadows that rose from the ground. Jac had fought them, though he wasn't sure how, and the Dream Sword had shone with an odd light.
Jac's parents were gone. His mother had died a long time ago, and his father...Jac thought that the man Sora claimed to have seen being killed by the Heartless was his father.
Jac hated the Heartless. He didn't know who Sora was but that he was a traveler, and friends with Leon. Even so, he wished he could have gone with Sora wherever he went. It would be better than here, in this terrible place filled with awful memories.
The strange sight in the sky ceased as Jac stood, clenching his fist tight against the smooth hilt of the Dream Sword. With his free hand he took out the orichalum he had found. Those strange things the Moogles made made him stronger. The chain around his neck...they called it the Heartguard...clattered as he stalked to the entrance of the Accessory shop. He had half-copied the walk from Sora. Jac admired the traveler a great deal. He wished he had a Keyblade. Even so, he would probably have used the Dream Sword anyway. Three Stars hung from his waist. The Titan Chain was tight on his right arm. Jac smiled faintly at the Ribbon hanging from the Dream Sword's crossguard.
The Moogles' expressions never changed when Jac came in, but all three squeaked happily. The only Moogle whose name Jac knew, Loom, waddled up to him.
“ And how is our new best customer, Jac?” he asked in his squeaky voice.
Jac nodded at the Moogle. “ I'm fine, Loom,” he waved at the other two. “ I've got some new gems. Wanna make me another of your Power Ups you love synthesizing so much?”
“ Synthesizing has gotten...harder.”
“ Since when?” Jac let his grip on the Dream Sword go slack.
“ Since five minutes ago, kupo,” Loom muttered, turning to the other Moogles. They nodded. “ The Ether I was working on didn't turn out right, kupo. I wasn't trying hard, but-”
“ Can you still make me that Power Up?”
“ I dunno, Jac,” Loom backed up a few steps. “ I'd be sure if I had twice the ingredients...”
“ I have them!” Jac took a quick look around. The room seemed weaker. He quickly dished out the various ingredients, including the two Mystery Goos it had taken him three days to get.
Loom, with the help of the other two Moogles, carried the ingredients to the forge and started at their work. All of them worked on the thing, which was rare. Jac had asked, and the last time they had done that was when Sora had asked for the Ultima Weapon.
He waited only ten minutes before he was presented with a large bottle full of a translucent red liquid. Taking the bottle, Jac hurried out the door. The Moogles didn't like watching people when their physique suddenly changed, as small as the change was.
Jac bit off the lid of the bottle, lifted the drink to his lips, and gulped it down. He felt it move through him in the next few moments, and then he was stronger. He simply felt...more. Smiling with satisfaction, Jac hurried to the courtyard, staring at the door of the world. No one but Sora and his allies had gone beyond that door. Jac longed to leave.
Something flickered at the corners of Jac's vision. He looked, and there was a faded image. A man in black robes, the hood pulled so far up that no face could be seen.
“ Go to the 2nd District,” the voice was less real than what Jac saw.
“ Why?” Jac tensed.
“ Go to the fountain.”
“ Why?”
“ Go.”
Chapter 2
The man in the robes vanished, leaving Jac staring at the empty space between him and the lady Mai next to the ducks' item shop. He couldn't make heads or tails of what had just happened, but he knew he had to do as the robed man had said.
Jac trotted up the steps two at a time and hurried past Tyler where he always stood next to the Accessory Shop door. The next flight of steps took more time for Jac because he stumbled over a long wooden splinter on the fourth step.
Rushing past the empty cases lining the left wall of the First District's upper terrace, Jac saw his reflection. Fair skinned, with dauntless brown eyes and sandy brown hair that fell to his shoulders in spikes. He used to wear plain clothes, but lately he had taken up wearing a lavish, short, black cape that he could cover himself with on chilly nights, and stark black shirt, vest, and pants. His Heartguard gleamed at the base of his throat, a multi-faceted dark gem in the shape of a heart. A thick silver-colored chain was tied around his arm, the Titan Chain, and Three Stars was an emerald, a ruby, and a sapphire dangling on a gold chain from his belt. For the first time in a good while he noticed that he no longer looked as innocent as when Sora last went away those months before. He seemed too dark.
Jac stood before the Second District door and told himself that he only needed a hood like that of the robed man and he could look the way he wanted. If the Heartless were made of people's hearts, as Sora said, didn't that mean hearts were black?
The door opened with a creak and Jac rushed through, forcing it back shut before any Heartless could appear. He had let a Heartless into the First District once. It had taken him four days to track it down and kill it. Strangely, no Heartless rose from the silent stone slabs of the Second District walkway. Jac almost wished there were. He wanted to test his new strength on them.
Shaking off the thought, Jac jogged to the edge of the walkway and leapt off. It was only a seven foot drop. He had taken a worse fall off of the top of the Gizmo Shop before. Smiling, Jac let his eyes be drawn to the mural beyond the fountain as he walked to its front. This mural was where Sora had sealed Traverse Town. It made Jac wonder what all the traveler could do.
A shadow formed in a pool in the fountain's waters. Startled, Jac raised the Dream Sword defensively. The shadow shifted and began to coalesce. In moments, the black-robed man was there, floating feet above the ground.
“It is time,” the man said. His voice was dark and distant, like an echo of some great and terrible past.
“ For what?” Jac demanded. The Heartguard was cold against his neck.
“ There are many Keys.”
“ What?” Jac raised an eyebrow. A suspicion was growing in his mind. Was this dark man mad?
“ For locking doors, there is the Kingdom, the root of the Keys; for unlocking hearts there is the Anti-Kingdom, a mocking of the root,” the words formed in Jac's head, but he could not understand. “ But there is another Key. A Ghost-Key. It is not truly a Key at all. It is a way to bypass the borders protecting the worlds. It-”
“ W-wait!” Jac held up a hand, shaking his head to clear his thoughts. “ What are you talking about?”
“ This,” the robed man held out his hand and murky light flared into being. For an instant this light floated in shapelessness, and then suddenly the light was replaced by an object that was at once familiar and completely new.
“ A Keyblade!” Jac gasped. His heart began to beat more quickly.
“ Yes,” the dark man lowered his hand, but the strange object stayed in its place. It was very much like Sora's Keyblade. It had the same type of hand design, though this one's was more finely curved, and it had the same shaft. But it was a sickly grey color, like the light it had been born from, and on the end there was nothing. The very tip seemed to fade into the air. And there was no chain on which to attach such artifacts as would change the shape of the Keyblade. But there was a place for attaching such a chain. “ A Keyblade of sorts. But this...this is the Ghost-Key. It cannot lock or unlock. It shifts and balances, it counter-strokes. This Key will find a way through the locks of the Kingdom Key to the heart.” The Ghost-Key wavered and dropped into the waters of the fountain. Jac leapt onto the ledge and reached for it, but the robed man stopped him with a warning hand.
“ Why would I want into a heart?” Jac inquired.
“ This world is locked,” the dark man answered. “ To be more specific, there is a blockade around the heart of this world. This Key can find a way past it.”
“ But why?”
“ That is the question,” the robed man folded his arms. “ The answer, I cannot give. Take the Key, and all things will change.”
“ I need a change,” Jac muttered, plunging his hand into the water. As his hand closed around the handle of the Ghost-Key, light began to shine above him.
A doorway of light stood behind the robed man. Jac, holding the Dream Sword in one hand and the Ghost-Key in another, could not see what was beyond the man. All he could see was darkness.
“ The Ghost-Key cannot harm the Heartless,” the dark man said as he stepped backwards into the portal. “ The Heartless are hearts themselves, so you would only pass the blade through them. This Key is not a weapon.” Then, the man was gone.
The waters of the fountain were cold tonight. Jac's left hand twitched to keep itself warm. He stared at the Ghost-Key, his very own Keyblade. But it was not a weapon. It could not harm the Heartless. All it could do was find the way to the heart. Jac shoved the Key into his belt and rushed out of the Second District before any Heartless could come.
Standing in the duck's item shop, Jac appraised his new belt. It was decent enough, but what was really important were the two sheaths on it. At the right hip would be the Ghost-Key, whereas on the left and accessible to his dominant hand was the Dream Sword. Jac nodded to the duck in the red for his craftsmanship, or his ability to steal from behind Leon's back, whichever one was true. Then he went out into the constant night to be alone with his thoughts.
First things first, Jac strapped on his new belt. Next came the Dream Sword where he had dashed it into a crack of the courtyard. Nobody else in town was strong enough to pull it back out again, so he felt safe with it. Afterwards, he went to the broken boards and the hidden spot where he had stashed the Ghost-Key.
Thus arrayed, Jac made his way back to the Moogles' Synthesis shop. He went inside and greeted Loom, thanking him for all of the “jewelry” he had made, and then left. Jac had it in his mind to find his way out of Traverse Town, and he meant to do it then. There was no one else to say good-bye to. He was alone in this world, or any other.
The Second District was again devoid of Heartless. The lack of them made Jac uneasy. Something strange was happening, and he was pretty sure it had to do with both the event in the sky two night before and Sora's extended absence. But that no longer mattered. What mattered was life was changing for Jac, and it was happening soon.
The mural was the same as the day before yesterday, though for some reason the fountain had drained of water. Jac stood on the ledge staring at the mural for sometime before pulling out the Ghost-Key. He had no idea how to do this, but-
Suddenly, vision failed Jac, and then what he saw was only images of his mind's eye.
A woman's face, shrouded in shadows, looked on the child with tears flowing down her cheeks. “ Twins,” someone said, “ and both dead.”
A man, fallen to his knees with a white organic spear arm through his gut, reaches out to a yellow-eyed black thing that simply stares at him. “ You are made of what you do not have!” he shouts through the pain. “ Why do you not fight them too?”
The winds whisper his name, Jac! The man who was whole and Heartless, and then he thought he was whole. He cannot be whole. Not until you-
Jac gave a violent shake and came to, feeling moistness on his forehead. He touched it and examined his hand to find it red with blood. He pushed away from the mural wall angrily.
“ What was that?” he demanded of the Ghost-Key, but it did not answer him. The mural shimmered, or perhaps it was just Jac's eyes playing tricks on him. He hacked at the thing with the Key aimlessly.
The Key's end shimmered and vanished into the mural.
Jac drew in a sharp breath and fell backwards off the ledge.
The Ghost-Key, protruding from the stone, shone with the same murky light that Jac had seen earlier. Scratching at his head and trying to ignore its throbbing ache, he grabbed the Key and shoved it further in.
Jac tumbled through the mural into pink- and red-hued light. He could see nothing but that and himself, standing there like a fool with the Ghost-Key in his hands. He soaked in the sight. It would have been beautiful if he knew what it was. He supposed that it might be the heart of the world, but hearts were supposed to be black. Maybe worlds were different.
Then the light was gone, and something clicked, like a door opening. Jac fell forward into a dusty cave filled with paintings and his mind went numb.
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