For those of you have read my previous Kingdom Hearts fanfiction story The Xehanort War and it's sequels, welcome to the fourth installment of my Acolytes of Chaos Saga. For those who haven't read the other stories in this universe, stop reading this right now and go read them. You can find The Xehanort War either here on KHInsider forums or on fanfiction.net. The rest of the stories in this universe are exclusive to FanFiction.net. Seriously, go read them. I'm not going to do 5 paragraphs of Author's Notes every chapter just to make sure everyone's on the same page. Sorry if this sounds a little rude. I'm trying to be, I'm just making it crystal clear in no uncertain terms that I'm writing everything on the assumption that readers at least read my other KH-based fics and I don't want to have to waste time recaping what came before.
Before we get started, the usual formatting reminder so nobody gets confused:
"Talking"
Thinking
"Written Text"
"Speaking in a different language."
"Singing"
Anyway, with that done, on with the show.
Prologue: The First Of Many:
Unknown World – Unknown Location
August 7, 2015 – One Week After Kingdom Hearts III
It's time, the woman thought to herself as she looked out over the assembled crowd. From the catwalk in the upper levels of the large warehouse, she could see an army of thousands spread out before her. Brothers and sisters in arms who had fought side by side through countless battles. And would fight in many more battles to come. Which was why she had called this gathering here today. The landscape of the oncoming war had changed, and those who would follow her into battle needed to be informed of what had transpired in the past month.
Time to get this over with, she reminded herself as she stepped up to the edge of the catwalk so her soldiers could see her. A hush overtook the soldiers standing below as they looked up at her. The woman took a deep breath to steady herself before she spoke.
"Greetings, my brothers and sisters," she called out to her audience below. "Today is a day of celebration. Xehanort, that evil, deranged, Seeker of Darkness, is dead!" The roar of applause from the crowd was almost deafening, even from where she stood. As the cheering and shouting finally died down, she continued.
"But," she went on. "It is with great sadness that that I must report that The General was killed in the crossfire between Xehanort and the so-called "Guardians of Light". His loss is a great blow for all of us. But while we mourn, we cannot turn away from our true purpose now. With Xehanort's demise we can now begin the first stage of The Plan unhindered. We will not give up. Like the terrorist group HYDRA says, cut off one head, two more shall take its place. Kill off a Keyblade Wielder and three more pick up the ancient blade to avenge them! And when you cut down one of the true defenders of the Light, LEGIONS MORE WILL RISE UP AND STRIKE DOWN THE INFIDELS WHO DARE TO THINK THAT THE PURITY OF LIGHT CAN COEXIST WITH THE FILTH AND DECAY OF DARKNESS!"
The crowd was cheering and shouting once more in what could only be described as rapturous euphoria. The woman smiled with satisfaction as she briefly closed her eyes, basking in the energy of her army. Her Legion.
"YES!" She shouted back, her voice booming across the cavernous room to be heard above the din of the crowd. "We will show them just how wrong they are! We will remind them that the impurity of Darkness cannot be contained! AND WE WILL REMIND THEM THAT THE ONLY WAY TO PROPERLY DEAL WITH DARKNESS IS TO DESTROY IT! AND DESTROY IT WE WILL! WE WILL CLEANSE THIS IMPURITY FROM THE UNIVERSE! WE WILL DESTROY THE DARKNESS AT! ALL! COSTS!"
"AT! ALL! COSTS!" The Legion roared in answer as twelve thousand fists rose up in ecstatic jubilation. With a triumphant grin, she whirled around on her heels and marched into the council chamber in the deeper levels of the bunker. She had been designated as The General's successor in the event that he perished, and she needed to smooth out the transition of power with the other members of the High Council. An hour later she and the other high ranking agents of the Legion were seated around the table in the nearby conference room, drinking champagne as they toasted Xehanorts death and her promotion.
"Congratulations are in order, Madame N.I.," remarked one of her lieutenants, a man with salmon colored hair remarked as he took a sip from his glass. "With Xehanort out of the picture, you will be the one to finally lead us to victory in this endless war against the Darkness." N.I. smiled and thanked the man as an automatic response, but deep down her promotion was bittersweet. She may be in charge of The Legion now, but it had come at the cost of the life of the man she loved. The Warden, the High Council's enforcer, picked up on her distress and placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder.
"We all miss him," the Warden replied. "But he would have wanted it this way. Don't worry. We will find the one who struck him down, and we will make them pay." N.I. smiled at the gesture of support and turned to address the rest of the High Council. As much as she wanted to mourn her predecessor, they had work to do. It was time to begin preparations for The Plan.
"It's time to get down to business," she said firmly as she looked around the table at each of her advisors. "With Xehanort out of the picture and Maleficent's cabal crippled, it's time for us to move forward with Project: Sileo. We've gathered everything we need for the first phase. While we're implementing Phase One, it's time to start collecting the materials required for Phase Two."
"The Stones," one of the two High Praetors, a grizzled looking middle-aged man with a recently damaged leg, remarked. "We have a confirmed location for two of them, and a general location of three more. Only one remains unaccounted for."
"Either way," the pink haired man, who was the other High Praetor, interjected. "With Thanos and Xehanort both dead, we have time to take the slow approach for now. We don't have the resources for an attack on Asgard, and retrieving the Power Stone from Turo is going to require extensive effort and misdirection to pull off without exposing the existence of The Legion. In the meantime, if Madame N.I. will permit it, I say we take some time to properly celebrate Xehanort's death." The announcement was meant with unanimous agreement, and N.I. raised her glass to propose a toast.
"May the future be bright enough to burn away the darkness," she said. "To Kingdom Hearts."
I'm not going to do any Author's Notes on my thought process for the story in the prologue (I'll save that for next chapter), but I will say that those of you who were paying attention to Easter Eggs mentioned in The Xehanort War and my previous Acolytes of Chaos fics will get a pretty good idea of where the storyline of the AOC universe is going.
Expect less frequent updates than when I posted the Xehanort War on KHInsider, because when that happened I was just reposting everything from fanfiction.net and so could post several chapters at a time. Now I'm posting this story on both sites simultaneously, so updates will be slower.
Before we get started, the usual formatting reminder so nobody gets confused:
"Talking"
Thinking
"Written Text"
"Speaking in a different language."
"Singing"
Anyway, with that done, on with the show.
Prologue: The First Of Many:
Unknown World – Unknown Location
August 7, 2015 – One Week After Kingdom Hearts III
It's time, the woman thought to herself as she looked out over the assembled crowd. From the catwalk in the upper levels of the large warehouse, she could see an army of thousands spread out before her. Brothers and sisters in arms who had fought side by side through countless battles. And would fight in many more battles to come. Which was why she had called this gathering here today. The landscape of the oncoming war had changed, and those who would follow her into battle needed to be informed of what had transpired in the past month.
Time to get this over with, she reminded herself as she stepped up to the edge of the catwalk so her soldiers could see her. A hush overtook the soldiers standing below as they looked up at her. The woman took a deep breath to steady herself before she spoke.
"Greetings, my brothers and sisters," she called out to her audience below. "Today is a day of celebration. Xehanort, that evil, deranged, Seeker of Darkness, is dead!" The roar of applause from the crowd was almost deafening, even from where she stood. As the cheering and shouting finally died down, she continued.
"But," she went on. "It is with great sadness that that I must report that The General was killed in the crossfire between Xehanort and the so-called "Guardians of Light". His loss is a great blow for all of us. But while we mourn, we cannot turn away from our true purpose now. With Xehanort's demise we can now begin the first stage of The Plan unhindered. We will not give up. Like the terrorist group HYDRA says, cut off one head, two more shall take its place. Kill off a Keyblade Wielder and three more pick up the ancient blade to avenge them! And when you cut down one of the true defenders of the Light, LEGIONS MORE WILL RISE UP AND STRIKE DOWN THE INFIDELS WHO DARE TO THINK THAT THE PURITY OF LIGHT CAN COEXIST WITH THE FILTH AND DECAY OF DARKNESS!"
The crowd was cheering and shouting once more in what could only be described as rapturous euphoria. The woman smiled with satisfaction as she briefly closed her eyes, basking in the energy of her army. Her Legion.
"YES!" She shouted back, her voice booming across the cavernous room to be heard above the din of the crowd. "We will show them just how wrong they are! We will remind them that the impurity of Darkness cannot be contained! AND WE WILL REMIND THEM THAT THE ONLY WAY TO PROPERLY DEAL WITH DARKNESS IS TO DESTROY IT! AND DESTROY IT WE WILL! WE WILL CLEANSE THIS IMPURITY FROM THE UNIVERSE! WE WILL DESTROY THE DARKNESS AT! ALL! COSTS!"
"AT! ALL! COSTS!" The Legion roared in answer as twelve thousand fists rose up in ecstatic jubilation. With a triumphant grin, she whirled around on her heels and marched into the council chamber in the deeper levels of the bunker. She had been designated as The General's successor in the event that he perished, and she needed to smooth out the transition of power with the other members of the High Council. An hour later she and the other high ranking agents of the Legion were seated around the table in the nearby conference room, drinking champagne as they toasted Xehanorts death and her promotion.
"Congratulations are in order, Madame N.I.," remarked one of her lieutenants, a man with salmon colored hair remarked as he took a sip from his glass. "With Xehanort out of the picture, you will be the one to finally lead us to victory in this endless war against the Darkness." N.I. smiled and thanked the man as an automatic response, but deep down her promotion was bittersweet. She may be in charge of The Legion now, but it had come at the cost of the life of the man she loved. The Warden, the High Council's enforcer, picked up on her distress and placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder.
"We all miss him," the Warden replied. "But he would have wanted it this way. Don't worry. We will find the one who struck him down, and we will make them pay." N.I. smiled at the gesture of support and turned to address the rest of the High Council. As much as she wanted to mourn her predecessor, they had work to do. It was time to begin preparations for The Plan.
"It's time to get down to business," she said firmly as she looked around the table at each of her advisors. "With Xehanort out of the picture and Maleficent's cabal crippled, it's time for us to move forward with Project: Sileo. We've gathered everything we need for the first phase. While we're implementing Phase One, it's time to start collecting the materials required for Phase Two."
"The Stones," one of the two High Praetors, a grizzled looking middle-aged man with a recently damaged leg, remarked. "We have a confirmed location for two of them, and a general location of three more. Only one remains unaccounted for."
"Either way," the pink haired man, who was the other High Praetor, interjected. "With Thanos and Xehanort both dead, we have time to take the slow approach for now. We don't have the resources for an attack on Asgard, and retrieving the Power Stone from Turo is going to require extensive effort and misdirection to pull off without exposing the existence of The Legion. In the meantime, if Madame N.I. will permit it, I say we take some time to properly celebrate Xehanort's death." The announcement was meant with unanimous agreement, and N.I. raised her glass to propose a toast.
"May the future be bright enough to burn away the darkness," she said. "To Kingdom Hearts."
I'm not going to do any Author's Notes on my thought process for the story in the prologue (I'll save that for next chapter), but I will say that those of you who were paying attention to Easter Eggs mentioned in The Xehanort War and my previous Acolytes of Chaos fics will get a pretty good idea of where the storyline of the AOC universe is going.
Expect less frequent updates than when I posted the Xehanort War on KHInsider, because when that happened I was just reposting everything from fanfiction.net and so could post several chapters at a time. Now I'm posting this story on both sites simultaneously, so updates will be slower.