Chapter Text
Nick Kelly and Ellen Baker both stood at the edge of town, wondering how far their journey would take them.
“You know... there’s gotta be something out there,” Ellen admitted.
“How far could a silly little boat take us?” Nick wondered.
“Hey, if that doesn’t work, we’ll just think of something else,” Ellen answered. “We always do, right?”
Nick and Ellen reached out to hold hands, signifying that they were ready to face this new chapter of their life together.
That night, as their boat, the “S.S. Keyhole” (Ellen’s idea, they’d workshop the names later), they both noticed that the weather was starting to get rather nasty.
“Oh, wonderful, there’s a storm coming, isn’t there?” Nick groaned.
“Yeah, it always happens when we’re trying to go somewhere,” Ellen quipped. “Mother nature is rude like that.”
“Should I furl the sail, or are we good?” Nick asked.
Just then, as if something had been waiting in the wings for Nick to say that, the waters just ahead of their boat began to rumble and churn, leaving Nick and Ellen to clutch tightly to the handrails to make sure they didn’t get shaken off.
The waters began to rise rapidly, eventually forming into a vortex of water that swirled around their boat almost like a hurricane.
“Oh, jeez, how could this get any worse?” Nick groaned.
Almost on cue, two large demonic tentacles surfaced from the ocean and whipped outwards. Though Nick and Ellen were able to dodge by rolling under the strike, the tentacles easily tore off the top half of the boat, sending it flying into the raging waters.
“You had to say something, Nick,” Ellen sighed.
And then, the source of the tentacles emerged, a massively-sized demonic creature with multiple flailing tentacles sprouting from his back.
“I’m sorry?!” Ellen gasped.
“Well, well, it seems like he was right after all,” Naraku chuckled. “Those little interlopers were here the whole time. How about we settle the score that you owe me?”
As Naraku leered down at them, Nick and Ellen were visibly confused.
“W-Wait, Naraku?!” Nick gasped. “How is he... is this part of the test?”
“Focus, Nick, you can work it out later!!” Ellen shouted as she summoned her keyblade, Starlight, to her hands.
“R-Right, right,” Nick responded as he summoned his own keyblade, Kingdom Key.
“So sorry, but that trick will not work on me again, I promise you that,” Naraku proclaimed. “Now, you will sink into the depths of the abyss.”
Naraku aimed another tentacle towards the boat, attempting to smash their boat in half, but Nick swung Kingdom Key upwards to block the strike before jumping up to meet Naraku’s gargantuan face, swinging his keyblade a few times to hit Naraku before he inevitably dipped backwards.
Naraku opened his mouth to breathe a cloud of poison miasma towards his opponents, but Nick simply cast a Reflect spell to block it, glad he could still use most of his magic.
Maylin did say he needed to practice more.
“Nick, watch out!!” Ellen exclaimed as Naraku reached down to grab Nick in his oversized hand.
“I have you now,” Naraku cackled. “Any last words?”
“Yeah, how about ‘hands off my boyfriend’?!” Ellen retorted as she leaped off of another swinging tentacle in order to stab Starlight into Naraku’s face, driving him back with a cry of pain and forcing him to release Nick, who dropped back onto the remains of their boat.
“Thanks, Ellen,” Nick quipped.
“Anytime, Nick,” Ellen giggled as she kissed Nick on the cheek before countering another swing from Naraku.
“Revenge will be mine,” Naraku bellowed as he raised his hands and rained down a barrage of dark lightning bolts onto Nick and Ellen, destroying most of what remained of their boat.
Undeterred, Nick and Ellen hopped off of a nearby pole that had once been the sail in order to get enough height to savagely slash their keyblades across Naraku’s face at the same time. The force of this dual strike appeared to be enough, and Naraku fell backwards in disbelief, his body fading away entirely instead of just turning into another earth golem trinket like he was fond of doing.
However, with Naraku’s defeat, the waves that were surging around them crashed down with all the appropriate force, finally wrecking what was left of the boat and throwing Nick and Ellen underwater.
As the storm above raged on, Nick and Ellen lost consciousness and started to sink down into the depths, but their keyblades subconsciously flashed into their hands in response to a large keyhole opening up near the ocean floor.
Without even realizing they were doing so, their keyblades fired beams of light from the teeth into the keyhole. Reality itself appeared to shatter in a circular motion around the keyhole before it began to suck beams of light into it, the pull also taking the unconscious Nick and Ellen into the keyhole as well.
Before they were pulled into the keyhole, Ellen’s eyes opened just the slightest, and way back at the surface of the water, standing on a piece of what was left of their boat, she noticed a figure completely covered by a brown robe with an X-shaped metal piece tying it together.
Ellen could only let out a tiny gasp as she lost all feeling, but she heard a very familiar phrase.
“This world... has been connected.”
Nick pulled on the door to the upper room, wondering why it wouldn’t budge, only for Ellen to gently take his hand and push instead, to which the door opened effortlessly.
“Why do I keep confusing push and pull?” Nick sighed.
“Hey, I do it, too,” Ellen quipped. “You’re not alone in that.”
With that solved, Nick and Ellen both entered the highest floor of the Mysterious Tower together. The Mysterious Tower itself was, well, a mysterious tower that actually resided in the realm between worlds, which would explain how they had been able to simply walk through a portal created by Emperor Clow to get here when, on their previous journey, they’d needed to take a special train from Alola Town to the tower. Emperor Clow had stated that, because of its residence in the realm between, the tower wasn’t always in the same place.
“Hey, our guests of honor have finally arrived!!” Maylin Rae proclaimed.
“Good to see you made it in one piece,” Haruka Rose stated.
“So, do either of you know why we’ve been called here?” Ellen wondered.
“All we’re allowed to say is that it’s very important,” Haruka admitted. “I’m sure Lady Eris will tell you the rest once she arrives.”
“I just hope everything’s all right,” Marie Kelly answered, glancing outside towards the starry sky that surrounded the tower. “It hasn’t even been four months since we defeated the Organization, right?”
“I would still be wary,” Sophia proclaimed as she left the Gummiphone and materialized her physical body in the room.
Thankfully, they wouldn’t have to wait much longer for their answers, as Eris, Goddess of Fortune, appeared at her desk in a swirl of blue lights and stars, accompanied by Maylin and Haruka’s direct superior, Emperor Clow Reed.
“Right on time as always, Lady Eris,” Maylin chuckled.
“Okay, Nick and I are here,” Ellen proclaimed. “What did you summon us for, Lady Eris?”
Eris opened her eyes and summoned her own keyblade, Shooting Star, to her hands.
“A story first, if I may,” Eris answered. “And yes, it relates somewhat to why I have called you here.”
Everyone quieted themselves so Eris could tell her story.
“A long time ago, dating back as far as the age of fairy tales, the World was filled with brilliant light,” Eris proclaimed. “A gift, as many believed, from an unseen power that we know as ‘Kingdom Hearts’. You see, Kingdom Hearts was protected by its counterpart, the χ-blade, so that nobody could ever lay claim to such a power.”
χ-blade... Nick thought, curious as to why it felt so familiar. Where have I heard that name before?
“But in time, the World was overrun by legions of fanatics who wanted the light all for themselves,” Eris continued. “This cast the first shadows upon the land and led to a great tragedy. Many warriors, champions of both light and darkness, crafted keyblades in the image of the original χ-blade in order to wage a great battle for the right to claim dominion over Kingdom Hearts. The legends call this terrible struggle the ‘Keyblade War’, a war which extinguished all light from the World.”
Despite the looks of disbelief on everybody’s faces, Eris simply smiled to put them all at ease. “But despite this, the darkness could not reach the brightness that every child’s heart kept inside. It was with this particular light that the World was rebuilt and remade as we know it today, with countless smaller worlds shining like the stars in the sky.”
“...oh, wow, that proves my eight-year-old self correct,” Marie gasped. “I always had this childish belief that every star in the sky was another world waiting to be explored. I just didn’t think it was actually true until... well, all of this.”
“As for the χ-blade, it didn’t survive the battle,” Eris explained. “The two major elements that created it, one of darkness and one of light, was shattered into twenty pieces, seven of light and thirteen of darkness.”
“And... what happened to Kingdom Hearts?” Haruka wondered.
“The source of all light, the one true Kingdom Hearts, was swallowed by the darkness, seemingly to never be seen again,” Eris responded.
“W-Wait, wait, hold on, so you’re saying that the two different Kingdom Hearts we’ve seen on our journeys weren’t the real Kingdom Hearts?” Nick gasped.
“No, Nick, it was not,” Eris answered. “The Kingdom Hearts that Yaldabaoth sought was comprised of the hearts of worlds destroyed by the Heartless, and thus that Kingdom Hearts was dispersed when all of the worlds were restored upon Yaldabaoth’s defeat. The Kingdom Hearts that the Organization created was made of people’s hearts, released by slain Heartless, as you all know well.”
Eris glanced at her reflection in the blade of Shooting Star. “And as long as the true Kingdom Hearts remains in the darkness, even the brightest world will have its dark shadows lingering in the corner,” Eris proclaimed. “After all, light begets darkness as darkness is drawn to light. For this reason, many decided to use the keyblade, a weapon designed to conquer the light, to defend the light instead. They were the first heroes of the keyblade.”
Ellen was curious when she heard that part of the story. She still remembered, during her time under the thumb of Kuon Ichinose’s council of villains, when she would gaze at her Starlight keyblade and get flashes of memories, of herself along with many other people with keyblades. But those memories clearly hadn’t been hers, so what were they?
“I told you this story about the χ-blade and the true Kingdom Hearts because I believe that there are many different shadows who seek to recreate the χ-blade and open the way to Kingdom Hearts,” Eris explained. “We must be ready to face such threats if they ever come to pass. And yes, that is part of the reason I have called you here.”
Eris rose to her feet, clutching Shooting Star tightly in her hands. “Nick Kelly. Ellen Baker. I have brought you here in order to be tested,” Eris stated. “To see if you are capable of showing us the mark of a true Keyblade Master like myself... the Mark of Mastery.”
Nick and Ellen both gasped in shock, as did Marie and Sophia. Maylin and Haruka merely stood there, as Eris had already told them such before she’d instructed them to bring Nick and Ellen to her.
“I hold no doubts that you two both fancy yourselves masters already, or at least close to it,” Eris proclaimed. “But, to tell the truth, it can possibly take years of training, and only a true Master, like myself, can teach you the proper way to handle things. The both of you are self-taught keyblade wielders, admittedly quite an impressive feat for someone your age. However... the time has now come for you to let go of these preconceived notions, to forget what you already know about the keyblade, and begin your training with a clean, blank slate.”
“If I may, Your Highness?” Nick stated. “That’s really just a formality at this point, right? I’ve already proven myself multiple times over. Myself, my friends, and even the Emperor, we can take on anything this World throws at us. Right, Ellen?”
Naturally, Nick was concerned when he saw the conflicted look on Ellen’s face.
“Honestly, Nick, I really don’t know at this point,” Ellen sighed as she summoned Starlight to her hands. “As much as I say I’ve accepted it as part of myself... I think that the darkness still has a hold on my heart. And walking that path changed me, possibly forever. I’m not sure if I still have the right to wield the keyblade, so... maybe I do need to be tested.”
“All right-y, then, count me in,” Nick proclaimed, surprising Ellen. “Put me through the test, then. Just you watch, Ellen and I are gonna pass it with flying colors!!”
“You truly do possess an unbreakable spirit, Nick,” Eris giggled. “Very well, then, let your examination begin.”
“So, then, what exactly do we have to do for this exam?” Ellen wondered.
“It may sound unorthodox, but please bear with me,” Eris answered. “For this particular exam, seven Sleeping Keyholes must be unlocked and a great power retrieved.”
“Sleeping Keyholes?” Nick quipped. “That’s definitely a new one.”
“As you all are well aware, every world in the greater World is walled off from each other, thus preventing travel between them,” Eris explained. “In the past, you were all able to bridge these gaps, either because the walls were broken, or you could open special lanes with your keyblades. But your new goals, the Sleeping Keyholes, are much harder to reach. I’m sure that you’ll remember that at the end of your first journey, defeating Yaldabaoth brought many worlds back from the depths of darkness... but some of them never completely returned.”
Eris waved her hands to create a holographic image of something that resembled a cross between a cat and a dog with purple and black skin.
“These worlds still sleep, cut off from all outside channels,” Eris stated. “Not even the Heartless can enter them in any way, but these Sleeping Worlds are said to have their own manner of darkness infesting them. They are called ‘Dream Eaters’, that come in two kinds: the ‘Nightmares’ which devour good dreams, and the benevolent ‘Spirits’ which devour the Nightmares instead. The Dream Eaters will be your guide, just as the Heartless once were, to the keyhole that you will seek at the heart of each world.”
“Man, that’s quite the exposition break,” Nick quipped. “But I think we’re ready.”
“Not so fast, Nick,” Eris responded. “There are a few more things I need to tell you about the Sleeping Worlds before I send you off to begin your exam. You both must know this, but inside the Sleeping Worlds, real time has no meaning and does not flow. Unless that world is restored by waking it from its slumber, then it will stay locked in its dream forever.”
“Yeesh, that sounds rough,” Maylin admitted.
“Which means that you may encounter familiar faces within the Sleeping Worlds, but they are merely figments of the dream,” Eris explained. “They are actually sound asleep, trapped inside of a world that is also sleeping. Just as well, even if someone may no longer exist in the real version of that world, the dream may paint a fuller picture and restore elements that may be missing.”
“Yeah, dreams can be weird sometimes,” Ellen chuckled. “I know that from experience.”
“Now, then,” Eris proclaimed. “One dream is connected to another, and that means we must choose which of these Sleeping Worlds that you will begin your exam in. For the sake of a familiar starting point, I will return you both to Mistralton before it was swallowed by the darkness and plunged into sleep. Once dreams take you, you must let them guide you to the Sleeping Worlds. As there are seven pure lights, there are seven Sleeping Keyholes for you to find. Unlocking these keyholes will not only grant you new powers, but free the worlds from their slumber, and thus allow them to truly be fully restored. Complete this task and return here safely, and I will name the both of you true Keyblade Masters.”
“Well, I guess we’ve got a test to take,” Ellen chuckled. “We’ll be back as soon as we can, everyone.”
“One last thing before you begin,” Eris answered, catching Ellen’s attention. “I have a gift for you, Ellen, something that will hopefully give you some comfort in the trials ahead.”
Eris raised Shooting Star and discharged a ball of sapphire light from its teeth, and the light sphere flew into Starlight and absorbed into it, transforming it into a brand new keyblade.
This keyblade greatly resembled the Soul Eater, a weapon that Yaldabaoth had used during Nick’s final battle with him, but the once curved wing was now straight, and the keyblade’s guard was composed of one angelic wing and one demonic wing, similar to the guards of Oathkeeper and Oblivion, respectively, with a dark angelic wing also added to the top of the original blade of the Soul Eater to act as the teeth of the keyblade, and its token was the Heartless emblem but without the spiked bars crossing it.
“Hmmm... I think this fits me,” Ellen admitted with a smile. “As someone who’s between light and darkness, this is perfect.”
The words Way to the Dawn came to Ellen’s mind as she studied the weapon, and she felt that was very appropriate.
“All right, then, off you go,” Eris proclaimed. “And good luck.”
Eris waved Shooting Star in a complex pattern, sapphire light trailing from the teeth as she did so, creating a magical glyph in front of her. After finishing drawing the glyph, Eris thrust Shooting Star through the glyph, then turned it like she was unlocking a keyhole herself.
Nick and Ellen were both surrounded by upward swells of blue light before being warped away entirely.
“Stay safe, you two,” Marie proclaimed.
Once Nick was finally able to open his eyes, he looked around and realized that he was in a very familiar locale, that being Traverse Town, specifically the First District.
Though it looked the same, Nick just had a feeling that it was different than what he knew, but not the why. That would most likely come after some exploration.
When he realized that something about him felt different, Nick walked over to the nearby café and looked in the mirror to check it out, and he saw that he was wearing a completely different outfit.
Nick’s new threads were mainly a black and red attire, with a grey hoodie with black and red lining, grey sleeves with white lines separating them from the red edging, a black shirt underneath the hoodie with two white straps crossing like an X, black and yellow gloves with a grey shape in the center, red pants, a dark blue belt held together by a silver belt buckle, and similar shoes to the outfit he’d worn on his second journey, but with white straps.
“W-When did I change clothes?” Nick wondered. “You know what, I’ll just chalk it up to Lady Eris’ magic, and...”
That was when Nick realized he was on his own, and he shouldn’t be. “Hold on, where did Ellen go?” Nick gasped. “She was right beside me when we got started, so...”
The sounds of loud and heavy footsteps snapped Nick out of his conundrum, and he turned towards the source of the footsteps just in time to see a large and gangly humanoid creature chasing down a young woman with neck-length brown hair and eyes, wearing a Vector Industries uniform with red accents, black tights and yellow boots.
Much to Nick’s surprise, the creature was slightly transparent.
“Okay, I have a feeling that thing isn’t a Dream Eater,” Nick quipped, still summoning Kingdom Key to his hands regardless. “But there ain’t no way I’m gonna stand here and let her get harassed.”
Nick brandished Kingdom Key and charged into the fray.
“Oh, man, of all the times to be without someone who can use the Hilbert Effect...” Miyuki Itsumi groaned. “Well, I’m probably toast...”
As the Golem raised its gangly hands to strike Miyuki down, Nick planted himself in front of her and raised Kingdom Key in a parry stance, blocking the attack and making the Golem stumble.
“Yeah, nice try,” Nick quipped as he struck, whacking the Golem with a downward slash, followed by an upward swing that launched the Golem into the air slightly, and finishing with a jumping spin slash.
This caused the Golem to calcify and collapse into chunks of hardened salt that dissipated quickly.
“Okay, not what I expected to happen,” Nick admitted.
“W-Whoa,” Miyuki gasped. “How did you do that? I thought you couldn’t hurt Gnosis unless you used a Hilbert Effect to draw them into our world?”
“Well, I’m probably a special case,” Nick chuckled.
Just then, a bunch of those mysterious dog-cat hybrid creatures that Eris had shown him started bounding towards them.
“Agh, not the Dream Eaters again!!” Miyuki exclaimed.
“...wait, how do you know what the Dream Eaters are?” Nick wondered just as the Meow Wows surrounded them. “Okay, talk later, fighting first.”
Nick waited for the Meow Wows to bound closer to him before jumping to meet one, striking with a diagonal slash upward, followed by a sharp slash downward, and finishing with a vertical spinning attack to defeat it, causing the Nightmare to pop out of existence in a burst of violet sparkles.
Thankfully, the Meow Wows didn’t seem to do much beyond bounding towards Nick and Miyuki, so it was easy for him to take them down.
“Whew, that was close,” Miyuki sighed. “Those dumb cute things have been hounding me ever since we made this Encephalon dive, but things haven’t been going our way since we did, and I wasn’t even supposed to be a part of this dive, but I got sucked in anyways!! ...am I just cursed?”
“Oh, the stories I could tell you about that,” Nick chuckled.
“You know, maybe you could create some Dream Eaters that would help us out instead,” Miyuki quipped. “You think you can give it a shot?”
“What would I have to do?” Nick asked. “I’m kinda new to this whole process...”
“It’s actually pretty simple, to be honest,” Miyuki answered as she brought out what looked like oddly-shaped jewels. “You just have to combine some materials together, add a little touch-up, and bam, you’ve got a Dream Eater!!”
Miyuki looked apologetic as she glanced back at Nick. “I’ll be frank, I don’t know how I know that, but I do,” Miyuki admitted. “I wonder if it’s because of the screwy nature of this Encephalon dive, maybe the U.M.N.’s being all screwy...”
As Miyuki continued to ramble, Nick came to a realization.
Wait, she mentioned the U.M.N., right? Nick thought. I thought that network collapsed long before Shion’s world was lost to the darkness. Could this maybe be an alternate universe where some things happened a bit differently? I wouldn’t be surprised if that was a world all its own, really... and what the heck is an Encephalon?
Deciding to focus on the matter at hand for the moment, Nick accepted the materials from Miyuki and placed them together before aiming Kingdom Key for them and firing a burst of light.
The materials joined together and formed into a Meow Wow, only this one had light blue and grey skin and the Dream Eater emblem on its chest was different. Nick made sure to note the different emblems to make it easier to mark which ones were Nightmares and which ones were Spirits.
“Aw, he’s cute,” Nick chuckled, leaning down to pet the Meow Wow he’d created. “I always did want a dog...”
That was when Nick noticed that Miyuki had disappeared, but he quickly noticed her running through the large double door that led to the Third District.
Nick ran that way as well, his own Meow Wow following him, as they occasionally stopped to battle more Nightmares, typically more Meow Wows but also a few Dream Eaters that resembled rams.
During these fights, Nick found that his Meow Wow also had healing capabilities, as it was able to heal off the damage Nick had taken from being ambushed by a Yoggy Ram. (And he was glad for that, as those horns had hurt.)
Eventually, Nick managed to catch up with Miyuki in the Third District, where she was actively looking for somebody.
“All right, you, I brought you Nick like you asked!!” Miyuki shouted. “We had a deal, now let my friends go already!!”
Nick glanced up towards whoever Miyuki was talking to, half-expecting it to be somebody dressed in the black coat that had signified a member of Organization XIII.
Instead, Nick saw somebody in what appeared to be a red and black jester outfit. The figure in question jumped off of the nearby rail and started flying (actually flying) towards Nick.
“H-Hey, that wasn’t part of our deal!!” Miyuki shrieked. “You said you wouldn’t hurt him!!”
“Nutballs like this are really good at not keeping their promises,” Nick quipped as he brought up Kingdom Key, ready to brawl with the strange jester, only to suddenly feel a wave of sleepiness for no apparent reason.
“W-What the... heck is... why am I so... sleepy?” Nick gasped as he lost balance and consciousness.
The last thing he saw before his eyes closed was the mysterious jester smirking before flying away.
After stretching her arms out to clear away the odd feeling that she’d gotten from the transport, Ellen found herself in the Third District of Traverse Town, though she had an odd feeling that despite Traverse Town looking exactly the same as she remembered it, this wasn’t exactly the same one.
“The inbetween worlds always did confuse me,” Ellen admitted as she realized that she had new clothes on, walking to the nearby fountain and glancing into the water so she could see herself.
Ellen was now wearing a white, black-trimmed zip-up vest with yellow lining on the sides and a black high collar, a pair of black wristbands, white and blue pants with a black belt and a silver buckle, and white shoes with black laces and a yellow lining on the bottom. Unseen to Ellen, a mysterious heart-shaped symbol was emblazoned on the back of her vest.
“Hey, I kinda look hot,” Ellen giggled. Just then, she realized that someone wasn’t with her. “Oh, jeez, where’d Nick go? Last I remember, we fell overboard after we beat Naraku’s face in, and then I think we opened a keyhole somewhere. So that must mean this Traverse Town is a Sleeping World.”
Ellen raised her hand and summoned Way to the Dawn into her grip. “My keyblade just sorta... popped into my hand when I really needed it,” Ellen quipped.
Ellen glanced up at the peaceful nighttime sky of Traverse Town. “Well... it looks like the game is on,” Ellen proclaimed.
“Pardon me, but where is your portal?”
Ellen took a step back before looking around for the source of that voice, eventually finding it sitting on an arch right above the fountain. He was a young boy with tan skin, bright blue eyes, and medium-length silver hair, wearing a black bodysuit with an orange vest with blue accents, white shorts and orange boots.
“You must really be something else if you can jump between grounds without one,” the boy stated.
“You sound like you know something about this whole shindig,” Ellen quipped.
“My name is chaos,” chaos answered. “Yours?”
“Ellen Baker,” Ellen responded. “Now, if you would, please explain this whole ‘Portal’ thing to me, because I’m... kinda in a hurry right now.”
“In base terms, Portals are like gateways that link up our worlds,” chaos explained. “Apparently, the world that you and I are standing in right now, there are two copies of it. I guess you could say it’s been split in half. The Portals are what let people like us cross between them.”
“W-Wait, hold the fish sticks, there can be two of a world?!” Ellen gasped.
“Well, the world is as many things as we need it to be,” chaos answered. “The concept that we all live in the same world is... well, outmoded. And on that note, would you mind doing a little errand for me?”
“Sorry, but I’m not sure if I trust you yet,” Ellen admitted, twirling Way to the Dawn in her hand.
“At least hear me out,” chaos replied. “I’m looking for someone named MOMO.”
That name caught Ellen’s attention, as MOMO was part of Shion’s circle.
“Apparently, she’s the key to the Portal, and who knows what we’ll find on the other side?” chaos stated. “Maybe even your boyfriend.”
“Y-You know Nick?!” Ellen sputtered.
“Now I have your attention,” chaos chuckled. “Sadly, I don’t know where exactly he is, but I can assume that if he’s not in this version of Traverse Town, then he must be in the other one. Simple logic, right?”
“All right, then, let’s go and find MOMO,” Ellen proclaimed, willing to do anything to find Nick faster.
As they walked out of the Third District and returned to the Second District, Ellen fighting off Komory Bats and Yoggy Rams along the way, Ellen began to wonder something.
“Say, chaos? Why don’t they ever attack you?” Ellen asked.
“If by ‘they’ you mean the Dream Eaters, I’m not entirely sure,” chaos admitted. “They won’t go after you unless you’re a dreamer, but I have plenty of dreams, so it’s pretty interesting.”
“Well, they’re definitely attacking me,” Ellen quipped as she backflipped over another Yoggy Ram before slashing straight downward to destroy it. “Does that mean I’m a dreamer?”
“Every human being there ever was and will be is a dreamer of some kind,” chaos responded. “You know what? How about we give your own dreams a tangible shape? In this world, they take form as Dream Eaters, which can be great allies, as I’m sure you know already.”
That was when Ellen noticed some of the strange trinkets that the Nightmares had dropped when she’d defeated them. Remembering Eris’ statements that the Spirit-type Dream Eaters were meant to be their allies, she took a few of the trinkets and smushing them together before aiming Way to the Dawn for it and firing off a burst of light.
This fully joined the Dream Pieces together to form a Komory Bat with brighter colors than the ones she’d fought off earlier. The Komory Bat flew over to Ellen and licked her face in an affectionate manner.
“I think it likes you,” chaos chuckled.
A loud gasp of shock caught their attention, and they turned around to notice one Shion Uzuki running towards what appeared to be a small pack of Nightmare Dream Eaters, though Shion looked younger and was wearing a Vector Industries employee uniform.
“W-Wait a minute,” Ellen gasped, suddenly very confused. “I know for a fact that Lost Jerusalem isn’t a Sleeping World!! Unless this is from a time before that, or if it’s an alternate universe, or... ow, ow, ow, now I’ve got brain pain...”
Regardless of her confusion, Ellen brandished Way to the Dawn and charged towards the Dream Eaters, knowing that took priority right now.
Shion raised her MWS and fired off a burst of flame that sent a few Dream Eaters flying back, only for a pair of Yoggy Rams to flank her and stop her in her tracks.
Just before the Yoggy Ram could charge and impale Shion on its horns, Ellen lunged forward and slashed through both Yoggy Rams to get rid of them.
“Stand back, Shion!!” Ellen exclaimed.
Though Shion was confused as to how this girl knew her name, she decided to back off anyways and let Ellen handle this.
Another Yoggy Ram barreled forward, though Ellen raised Way to the Dawn in a parrying stance to deflect the horn bash and daze the Yoggy Ram, allowing her to go on the offensive.
Ellen started out with a spinning forward slash, then an upward slash, and finished with a barrage of three spinning slashes to defeat the Yoggy Ram. A Komory Bat flew towards her, but Ellen jumped up to meet it, striking with an upward slash from the left leg, an upward slash from the right leg, another diagonal upward slash from the left, and finishing with Ellen slicing Way to the Dawn straight down to split the Komory Bat apart.
It didn’t take much longer for Ellen to finish off the Nightmares so she could turn towards where Shion was waiting. “Are you all right?” Ellen asked.
“I should be,” Shion admitted. “I had no idea those things were here, since they’re clearly not Gnosis. But... how do you know my name?”
“Honestly, it’s a long story, and you might not believe me if I told you,” Ellen answered.
“I may have helped her with that,” chaos admitted.
“I almost chalked it up to a glitch in the Encephalon, especially considering the nature of this particular dive, but...” Shion stated. “I haven’t been able to catch up with Miyuki. She wasn’t supposed to be in here, but she apparently got pulled in as well. I keep seeing her all over the place, looking for something, but she’s transparent and I can’t interact with her...”
Shion looked up at the nighttime sky of Traverse Town. “And this clearly has nothing to do with KOS-MOS’ memories, so... all I can think of is that the Encephalon malfunctioned somehow,” Shion wondered. “It would explain why we all got separated, why those strange creatures are here, and why I can’t interact with some of them...”
“I hope none of this is weird to you,” Ellen sighed.
“Well, nothing really weirder than what I’ve seen on a daily basis,” Shion admitted. “We just have to figure out what exactly is messing with the Encephalon and fix it so we can get back to proving our innocence.”
“...innocence?” Ellen wondered. “Did something happen?”
“Well, long story short, my friends and I were accused of some crime we didn’t commit, so we had to do an Encephalon dive to find proof of our innocence,” Shion explained. “Essentially, the Encephalon is a sort of virtual reality based on people’s memories.”
I think Shion and the gang never actually told us about all that stuff, Ellen thought. To be fair, they probably couldn’t really do that anymore after the U.M.N. collapsed, but could they do it again with MOMO’s new network?
“But... something weird happened when we dove in, and we’ve all been stuck in places that seemingly have nothing to do with KOS-MOS,” Shion stated. “I have no idea where this place is. Do you?”
“Well, I’m not sure if this is the real one or not, given what you told me, but this city in particular is supposed to be Traverse Town, a sort of safe haven for people who have lost their worlds to the darkness,” Ellen answered.
“Hmm... that reminds me of something I heard rumors of before we entered the Encephalon,” Shion admitted. “There have been reports of strange creatures attacking other planets, almost nothing like the Gnosis.”
Before Ellen could explain that little wrinkle, she suddenly stumbled in her place, wondering why she felt so tired.
“W-What? Why am I... so... sleepy?” Ellen gasped, her vision fading fast.
The last thing she saw before slumber took her was Shion and chaos running up to her with concerned looks on their faces.
When Nick finally managed to wake himself up, he quickly jumped to his feet, only to find out that he was alone. His Spirit Meow Wow could apparently hide in some kind of pocket dimension and jump out as needed.
“...what the heck just happened?” Nick wondered. “Miyuki said that she and that red jester guy ‘had a deal’ before I fell asleep again, but what was that deal? Are they in league with each other? ...no, that doesn’t seem right. Miyuki doesn’t seem like the type who would do that. And she said something about her missing friends. You know what, pontificating isn’t gonna get me anywhere. I’d better take a look around.”
With that in mind, Nick retraced his steps, exploring all three districts of Traverse Town for any sign of Miyuki or her friends, only to find nothing except more Nightmares to fight.
Eventually, though, Nick noticed that the tall mailbox in the square of the First District had moved aside, revealing a manhole cover that took him down into an absolutely gargantuan post office.
“Okay, how the heck am I supposed to get around this place?” Nick wondered. “Especially considering that there doesn’t seem to be anything that I can climb on, I don’t have the ability to ‘jump good’, and for some reason, I can’t access most of my magic here...”
Suddenly, a flash of inspiration came to Nick and he walked up to a nearby wall. Nick then leaped into the air and charged towards the wall, only to find himself sticking to it briefly in a burst of violet light.
After doing that again, Nick performed another leap off of the wall which sent him soaring high into the air. When he landed, Nick did the wall jump again and again until he reached a higher ledge of the Post Office.
“...okay, that was cool,” Nick chuckled. “But... how could I never do that before? Either that, or this is just something I can only do here in the Sleeping Worlds...”
Deciding to worry about that later, Nick used his new mobility options, which he decided to call “Flowmotion”, to cross over to other areas that would normally be inaccessible.
While searching the Post Office for a way out, Nick encountered more Yoggy Rams and even a Kooma Panda. During this scrap, Nick discovered that he could also use Flowmotion in combat, wall jumping to avoid attacks before slamming down to the ground with a powerful shockwave attack, twirling around on light poles to deal a vicious spinning attack, and even spinning around a Kooma Panda before throwing it into other Nightmares.
Eventually, Nick crossed back upwards to a higher level of the Post Office and noticed a bunch of large rails that led around the area. Nick jumped onto one of the rails and started to slide along it, grinding down its length much like a skateboarder (or a certain hedgehog) would. After switching to a different rail, Nick rode that one through a tunnelway into the Fountain Plaza.
As he fought his way through the plaza, Nick inwardly wondered why he’d never seen these areas before, having explored Traverse Town pretty thoroughly on his very first adventure (mostly thanks to Prushka and her hide-and-seek game).
That was when Nick recalled something that Emperor Clow had told him, that Traverse Town was another world that existed in the realm between worlds, and thus had different rules than ‘normal’ worlds. Emperor Clow had stated that Traverse Town would reshape itself to suit the needs of its inhabitants, fitting for a world that was a refuge for people who’d lost their worlds to the Heartless.
After a bit more of this, Nick jogged past the gigantic fountain and through a gateway that led him to the Fourth District, an absolutely massive shopping district awash with neon lights and streamers, with multiple shops all winding around a tall lighthouse tower in the center of the district.
“Wow, never been down this way before,” Nick admitted.
After exploring the Fourth District for a few minutes, Nick came across somebody standing by the “Flick Rush Coliseum” at the southwest end. This figure was a young girl with pink hair styled into a bob cut with two pink decorations on each side of her head and yellow eyes, wearing a black short skirted dress with white decorations and red gems adorning it and knee length boots.
“...w-wait, MOMO?” Nick gasped. Indeed, she looked slightly different, but it was undoubtedly the same MOMO, which furthered his theory of this version of Shion’s world being an alternate timeline of sorts that had become a Sleeping World.
“Um, how do you know my name?” MOMO asked.
“Well, to be honest, I’m not sure if you’d even believe me,” Nick admitted. “My story is kinda trippy, let’s be frank.”
“Well, I can tell you’re not a bad person like those U-TIC officers that arrested us,” MOMO answered. “I’m trying to find my friends, but we all got separated after we made our Encephalon dive, and we need to get back to it if we’re going to prove our innocence.”
Nick had a pretty good idea on who these ‘friends’ were that MOMO was looking for, considering his own experience.
“Well, then, how about I help you find them?” Nick offered. “I know this place a lot better than you’d think.”
“Sounds like a plan to me!!” MOMO giggled as she took Nick’s hand so he could lead them out of the coliseum and into the Fifth District, which was mostly taken up by a gigantic, three-floor botanical garden surrounded by a small waterway.
As they headed up the stairs to the roof, a Kooma Panda attempted to barge at MOMO, thinking she’d be easy pickings. But from what Nick had personally seen of MOMO, or rather her future self (this dream stuff really hurt the brain), he knew that Kooma Panda was about to get its butt handed to it.
And sure enough, MOMO raised her scepter, which suddenly sprouted a large golden star, and then slammed the star directly on top of the Kooma Panda, squashing it instantly.
When they reached the rooftop, Nick saw that Miyuki was standing there, looking around for somebody.
“There you are, Miyuki,” Nick quipped, catching Miyuki’s attention. “I was wondering where you went.”
“W-Wait, you still actually trust me?” Miyuki wondered. “After I tricked you? That red jester guy said he would be able to help me get out of the Encephalon, since, y’know, I’m not supposed to be in here, and I had to bring you to him to do that... I’m really sorry...”
“Hey, it’s not a big deal,” Nick responded. “After all, you stood up for me when it really matters. And besides, we’re friends, right?”
“...wow, it’s been a long time since someone earnestly complimented me,” Miyuki giggled, knowing how brutally honest Shion could be sometimes. “I kinda miss it, to be fair.”
That was when Miyuki noticed that MOMO was standing right behind Nick. “Oh, my gosh, you found MOMO?” Miyuki gasped.
“Yeah, she was wandering around the Fourth District, and then...” Nick started, only for MOMO to vanish in a dull flash of light. “...excuse me?!”
The red-cloaked jester from before appeared from a corridor of darkness and flew forward before swinging his right hand and swatting Miyuki aside.
“All right, you, you wanna explain yourself?!” Nick growled.
The jester opted not to respond, instead raising his hands to summon a large Nightmare Dream Eater above him.
This Nightmare had a head that resembled a mandrill with violet fur, five spikes protruding from its side, and a cyan beard. Its eyes were black with red pupils and surrounded by green fur, its nose was blue, and its mouth was vibrant pink with twin plaque-stained fangs. Its torso consisted of a blue and pink box with green edges, the Nightmare insignia emblazoned at the top, and cyan markings, and at the center of each face of the box was a red and green flower pattern.
The Nightmare then sprouted a pair of twin dark blue arms beginning with fuschia and periwinkle sleeves, the arms themselves sprouting spikes and equipped with yellow gauntlets ending in rounded knuckles, and tipped with four-fingered hands with yellow claws, as well as dark blue legs with a yellow tail, twin yellow and blue bands, and five-clawed toes.
“...guess not,” Nick groaned as he summoned the Kingdom Key to his hands.
The jester disappeared through the corridor of darkness, leaving Nick to face down the Hockomonkey.
As Nick prepared himself, the Hockomonkey roared loudly before sweeping its right arm out, followed by its left, Nick raising his keyblade to parry both strikes before jumping over another sweep to strike a few times at the Hockomonkey’s chest.
Before Nick could finish his combo, however, the Hockomonkey did a handstand before kicking outwards with its legs, sending Nick stumbling backwards.
After recovering, Nick looked around at the raised glass walls up here, and wondered if Flowmotion would be effective here.
After avoiding another arm sweep from the Hockomonkey, Nick ran up to the nearest glass wall and did a wall jump off of it, taking him high enough above the Hockomonkey so that he could dive down and strike the ground with Kingdom Key to knock the Hockomonkey back with a shockwave.
Nick took this chance to land a few more hits on the Hockomonkey, his Meow Wow assisting with full-body lunges.
After a bit, the Hockomonkey retreated all of its limbs inside its box and started to approach Nick menacingly. Not wanting to find out what that would do, Nick used another wall jump to get away from the Hockomonkey as it let out a large explosion around itself.
When the Hockomonkey unfurled its limbs again, it did a backflip before smashing its feet into the rooftop, instantly shattering all of the glass and forcing the fight down into the garden below them.
When Nick landed himself, he saw a strange sight, namely a transparent Ellen fighting off a different version of the Hockomonkey, which was also transparent.
Deciding to focus on that later when he wasn’t being dogpiled, Nick focused back on the fight with his own Hockomonkey, which had now switched to a different set of arms, arms that were stretchy arms with a green, yellow and magenta zigzag pattern, with dark blue shoulders and an orange collar, the arms ending in orange sleeves with a green stripe and a yellow pattern, tipped with yellow boxing gloves.
Nick dodge rolled to the left as the Hockomonkey thrust its hands forward, its arms extending a long way to try and punch Nick from across the room.
Knowing that these new arms gave the Hockomonkey a lot more range, Nick decided to play defensively, waiting for the Hockomonkey to strike again and parrying those punches so he could get closer bit by bit.
Just as Nick got close enough, though, the Hockomonkey made both of its arms disappear momentarily, and more of its boxing gloves appeared all over the garden aimed at Nick.
“Oh, I don’t like where this is going,” Nick sighed as he used Flowmotion to jump and slide across the garden to avoid as many of the punches as he could.
During his frantic dodging, though, Nick noticed that this attack was leaving the Hockomonkey itself wide open to an attack.
“You’re mine, monkey boy!!” Nick exclaimed as he, much to his own amusement, did a wall kick off of the Hockomonkey itself before leaping to the ceiling, then using the momentum to rocket back down and deliver a cross-strike to the Hockomonkey’s head, finally dealing the finishing blow.
Much to Nick’s amusement, Ellen seemed to finish off her Hockomonkey at the same time as he did.
The Hockomonkey shook in its spot as Nick landed, its limbs falling off one by one, before its body collapsed to the ground, clonking its head on one of the ramp’s railings before dissolving into a stream of multi-colored sparkles.
With that done (and noticing that Ellen had also just defeated the Hockomonkey that she was fighting), Nick ran back outside into the Fifth District just in time to see chaos make an appearance right behind MOMO, who appeared to be okay, as was Miyuki, brushing her off after what had happened earlier.
“Oh, thank goodness you’re all right, MOMO,” Nick sighed in relief. “I thought for a second that red jester guy got you. Say, who are you? Are you the one who took MOMO away? And... why do I get the feeling you already know who I am?”
“If you’d like to settle down for a moment, I’ll field your questions one at a time,” chaos chuckled. “Let’s start with MOMO. I’m holding onto her dreams for her, since they’re my Portal. Let’s just say that her dreams are a gateway between worlds. Second, how I know who you are. As you might know, this town only appears when someone out there has need of shelter. I’ll spare you the details for your own benefit, but right now, this version of Traverse Town is made up of my dreams, so of course I know you, since I dreamed you up as well as your girlfriend.”
“H-Hold on, you know Ellen?!” Nick gasped.
“Well, yes, I’m kind of omniscient,” chaos admitted.
“Then where is she right now?” Nick asked. “We got separated before our exam started and I’m really worried about her...”
“She’s right there, in another imagining of this world,” chaos stated, gesturing to a portal that showed the events of the other Traverse Town, namely Ellen fighting the other Hockomonkey.
“Wait, you mean another Traverse Town?” Nick quipped. “Can I get there with your Portal thing?”
“Sorry to say, but it won’t work for you,” chaos responded. “My ‘Portal thing’, as you so eloquently put it, only opens for the one who’s holding MOMO’s dreams. In this projection, you’re seeing another chain of events, in a parallel world that was also trapped by the Dream Eaters. And as for exactly how this world got split in half...”
chaos gestured back to the Portal, which now showed an image of the mysterious red jester. “...I have a feeling you’ll have to ask him,” chaos proclaimed.
“Hey, I want you to have this,” Miyuki stated, handing Nick a small token. “For sticking up for me.”
Recognizing it as a keyblade token, Nick attached it to his keyblade before swinging it horizontally, the keyblade transforming mid-swing. This keyblade had a handleguard that resembled both of Junior’s guns, a hilt shaped like the first model of Shion’s MWS, a blade shaped like an elongated version of MOMO’s scepter topped off with a bold yellow star, teeth shaped like an EVS transfer plate, and the token was shaped like the Vector Industries logo connected by a keychain made of bluish-silver links. The words Miyuki Special ran through Nick’s head as he studied the weapon.
After a few seconds to shake off the odd feeling of sleepiness, Ellen stood back up and looked around the Second District.
“...holy crapbaskets, when did I fall asleep?” Ellen groaned. “What happened to me? And... where did chaos and Shion go? They were right next to me before I zonked out, right?”
“Hey, assholes, get back here!!”
Ellen spun around just in time to see somebody running past her. He appeared to be a young man with red hair, blue eyes and a tear-shaped earring on his left ear, the number 666 is engraved on his left palm. He was wearing a black long coat with a cross pattern on its back and a Celtic cross-like pattern on the sleeves, a grey t-shirt with a cross pattern on the front underneath the coat, green torn pants with yellow accents, and grey boots.
Junior seemed to be chasing a bunch of Dream Eaters towards the First District, so Ellen decided to follow him, only to find him surrounded by a bunch of Yoggy Rams and a Kooma Panda.
“Oh, you all want some?” Junior taunted, only for Ellen to slide in front of him and raise Way to the Dawn.
“Let me handle these punks,” Ellen stated as one of the Yoggy Rams charged towards her. Let’s see if I’ve still got the moves.
As the Yoggy Ram approached and tried to ram her, Ellen jumped backwards onto the nearby wall, only to stick to it in a burst of violet light. She jumped off the wall only to be catapulted higher than she’d thought.
Focusing on the Dream Eaters below her, Ellen shot back down and slammed Way to the Dawn into the ground upon impact, creating a shockwave that blasted the Dream Eaters backwards and even defeated a couple Yoggy Rams. Her Komory Bat flew around the Nightmares and fired sonic blasts from its mouth to stun the Kooma Panda long enough for Ellen to rush forward and strike at it.
After a bit, Ellen reared back and launched a ball of dark flames from her free palm to destroy the Kooma Panda, catching another Yoggy Ram in the blast.
As the last remaining Yoggy Rams approached cautiously, Junior finished the job by tossing out a bunch of coins and firing his guns like mad so that the shots all ricocheted around multiple times to destroy the Yoggy Rams.
“Nice,” Ellen chuckled.
“Impressed, huh? Good to know,” Junior quipped. “Now, what exactly were those things? All I know is that they’re definitely not Gnosis.”
“Long story,” Ellen responded. “While I’m here, have you seen somebody named MOMO anywhere around here?”
“Wait, you know MOMO?” Junior gasped. “I’ve been looking everywhere for her!! We just got into the Encephalon and those strange creatures attacked us, then we got separated, and now we’re somewhere I’ve never seen in my life, and trust me, I’ve been around for a while and seen a lot of things.”
“Guess that means she’s not in this district,” Ellen answered. “How about we keep looking for her? I have this feeling she might be the key to figuring out why everything in the Encephalon’s so screwy.”
With that, Ellen and Junior headed out of the First District, taking a door Ellen had never seen before to head through the back streets near the Fourth District.
As more Dream Eaters attacked on the way through, while Junior continued to shoot at them from afar, Ellen decided to flex her new mobility options, which she decided to dub “Flowmotion” (she had no idea where the name had come from, she just figured it fit somehow), wall jumping to avoid attacks and get some height to attack from there, and even using her momentum to toss some of the heavier Dream Eaters like Kooma Pandas around like ragdolls.
Eventually, they both made their way out of the back streets, through the Fountain Plaza and into the Fifth District, which was mostly taken up by a gigantic, three-floor botanical garden surrounded by a small waterway.
“Okay, this place is cool,” Ellen admitted. “I’ve definitely never been down this way before.”
That was when Ellen noticed a transparent image of MOMO running down the stairway to the left of the garden.
“There she is!!” Junior shouted. “MOMO, come back!!”
“H-Hey, wait up!!” Ellen exclaimed. “We need to stick together or we won’t aaaaaaaaand he’s already gone. Perfect.”
Ellen quickly jogged after Junior, hoping to stop him before he did something reckless, only to stop when she saw a mysterious figure floating there, contemptuously stepping on the Mr. Bunny doll that Junior had given MOMO.
“How exactly did you get here?” the figure proclaimed, and now Ellen could see that it was a jester-type figure with a purple ruffled collar, yellow claw-like talons for fingers and wearing a vest that appeared to be open with a diamond patterned chest, along with a red and black-striped jester’s hat.
“And who the fresh hell are you?!” Ellen growled.
“Was it by choice, or merely chance?” the jester chuckled. “You have no hope of controlling what you’re not aware of, you know. This wakeless sleep will be your prison... sentenced to eternal wandering.”
“And I’m supposed to believe that?” Ellen retorted as she summoned Way to the Dawn. “I’ve kind of had enough of people like you spouting cryptic bullcrap and leaving me to connect the pieces together, if they even fit in the first place.”
“You can believe whatever you wish,” the jester taunted. “But know that you have already fallen.”
“Ellen, don’t listen to him!!” Shion exclaimed as she showed up to aim her MWS at the jester, firing off a Spell Ray that he just barely dodged. “chaos told me everything. This weirdo set all of this up, separating us and only offering to send us home if we brought you to him.”
Before Ellen could question what that meant, the jester raised his hands and summoned a Nightmare Dream Eater right above him.
This Nightmare had a head that resembled a mandrill with violet fur, five spikes protruding from its side, and a cyan beard. Its eyes were black with red pupils and surrounded by green fur, its nose was blue, and its mouth was vibrant pink with twin plaque-stained fangs. Its torso consisted of a blue and pink box with green edges, the Nightmare insignia emblazoned at the top, and cyan markings, and at the center of each face of the box was a red and green flower pattern.
The Nightmare then conjured lengthy sleeves that were bright shades of teal and blue on the outside and red on the inside with yellow markings, and its hands became four-fingered and teal with yellow bands. Ellen wondered why it didn’t have legs.
“Great, this is the last thing I need right now,” Ellen groaned as the Hockomonkey flew into the garden. “Shion, Junior, find MOMO and keep her safe. I’ll take care of the wonky monkey.”
“Naturally,” Junior proclaimed as he and Shion ran off towards where MOMO had run, leaving Ellen to enter the garden and face off with the Hockomonkey.
Upon entering the garden, the Hockomonkey began floating around, only occasionally attacking by chucking slow moving fireballs in pairs that were slow enough for Ellen to easily deflect. The problem was that it was floating around in a way that made it difficult to actually attack the thing.
Just then, a thought came to Ellen, and she decided to truly put her new Flowmotion abilities to their first “field test”.
As the Hockomonkey floated around, Ellen jumped on the railing that led up the ramp to the second level, and she started sliding rapidly up the rail like a skateboarder. At the edge of the railing, Ellen jumped off, catapulting herself high enough to reach Hockomonkey and start slashing at it with Way to the Dawn.
When Ellen landed back on the ground, something fell down from the ceiling and she looked up, only to gasp in shock when she saw a transparent Nick falling down into the garden while fighting a different version of the Hockomonkey.
Though she wondered what the heck was going on, Ellen realized that she needed to focus on her own Hockomonkey first, and the thing was still throwing fireballs at her.
Ellen did a wall jump chain to reach the second level of the garden and hit the Hockomonkey a few more times before the whole thing dissolved into four gigantic hands that each started floating around the garden.
“Oh, come on with this bullcrap!!” Ellen shouted as she started going after the Magic Hands, two of which started ripping out parts of the scenery and chucking it right at her.
Ellen quickly raised Way to the Dawn to deflect each piece that was thrown at her before closing in to strike down one of the Magic Hands.
It took a little bit, but Ellen managed to destroy all four Magic Hands and force the Hockomonkey to reform itself and go back on the assault.
This time around, the Hockomonkey added a new attack to its arsenal, where it would send one of its arms upwards through the floor underneath Ellen, but she remedied this by using Flowmotion to get some extra height and stay off the ground until the hands retracted and allowed her to get a few more hits in.
Eventually, the Hockomonkey floated back down to the ground level.
“Big mistake, monkey boy!!” Ellen shouted as she blasted the Hockomonkey with a Dark Firaga to the face to stun it, then jumped forward to slash Way to the Dawn across its chest, dealing the finishing blow at the exact same time as Nick seemingly finished off the Hockomonkey he was fighting.
The Hockomonkey shook in its spot as Ellen landed, its limbs falling off one by one, before its body collapsed to the ground, clonking its head on one of the ramp’s railings before dissolving into a stream of multi-colored sparkles.
With that finally taken care of, Ellen left the garden and traveled back behind it, towards where Junior and Shion were, only to see that transparent image of MOMO again...
...and she was talking to Nick and a few others, all transparent as well.
“What the heck... what exactly are we seeing here?” Ellen wondered as she tried to touch the image of Nick, only for her hand to pass right through. “...damn it.”
“This is so screwed up,” Junior growled. “She’s right there, right freakin’ there, and I can’t even reach her!! Damn it all!!”
“Just calm down, Junior, okay?” Shion replied.
“Yeah, if your hearts are truly connected, then you’ll reach her,” Ellen responded. “I... might have some experience with that.”
“Hey, I think you should have this,” Shion proclaimed as she handed something off to Ellen. “I just get the feeling it might help you on your journey.”
Recognizing it as a keyblade token, Ellen attached it to her keyblade before swinging it horizontally, the keyblade transforming mid-swing. This keyblade had a handleguard that resembled both of Junior’s guns, a hilt shaped like the first model of Shion’s MWS, a blade shaped like an elongated version of MOMO’s scepter topped off with a bold yellow star, teeth shaped like an EVS transfer plate, and the token was shaped like the Vector Industries logo connected by a keychain made of bluish-silver links. The words Miyuki Special ran through Ellen’s head as she studied the weapon.
After a brief flash, both Nick and Ellen were alone in the Fifth District with chaos, watching from their own side of Traverse Town.
“Back in their world, something happened during our Encephalon dive that... technically brought their existence to an end,” chaos explained. “In order to keep them all from fading altogether, I gathered up the last remaining fragments of their dreams and searched for a place that I could give them refuge. That was when this world appeared to answer my call, and MOMO’s pure dreams allowed us to reach it.”
Nick and Ellen glanced over at each other, knowing they might not believe this before all of this business with the keyblade.
“I believed they would have a chance here, that the scattered pieces of their dreams could make them whole again,” chaos stated. “You can imagine my surprise when I found out that dreams can actually take bodily form in this world, and that’s when it struck me. By linking the pieces of their dreams back together like links in a chain, maybe I could make them exist again. Maybe... I could give them another chance.”
“It’s not really that simple, is it?” Nick asked.
“These kinds of crazy things never really are,” Ellen quipped.
“Why can’t it, really?” chaos responded. “After all, by ourselves, we’re no one. But it’s when other people look at us and see somebody... that’s the exact moment we truly start to exist. All they needed was somebody to see them and connect with them, and you two played a big part in making that happen.”
Nick and Ellen looked at each other in visible confusion before turning back to chaos and asking the major question on both of their minds, their voices overlapping to chaos.
“chaos, just... who are you?”
chaos couldn’t help but chuckle at that. “Let’s just say... I’m a friend,” chaos answered before he sprouted large angel wings from his back before flying into the sky and disappearing from view.
On both sides of Traverse Town, a large keyhole appeared on the face of the nearby building. Nick and Ellen both raised their keyblades, light shining around the teeth, before firing a beam of light into the keyhole. Reality itself appeared to shatter in a circular motion around the keyhole before it began to suck beams of light into it, and eventually emitting a bright flash that pulled Nick and Ellen into it.
When they could see again, they found themselves floating above an immense void of stars with three large black holes underneath the void, each highlighting a “ring” that held differing numbers of large bubbles on the rings. They figured each of those bubbles represented one of the Sleeping Worlds.
There were three bubbles on the rings ahead of them, two bubbles on the ring further ahead, and a single solitary bubble at the very back edge of the void. There was one last bubble right behind them, representing this version of Traverse Town.
They couldn’t make out what was imprinted on the bubbles further ahead, but on the closest ring, the first bubble showed a futuristic junkyard (to Ellen, it showed a very futuristic sci-fi inspired city), the second bubble showed a tranquil forest with a small purple dragon flying across it (to Ellen, it showed a autumn-themed castle with that same purple dragon running around it), and the third bubble depicted a gritty urban landscape (to both of them).
Nick and Ellen both looked at each other, knowing the other was still transparent and seemingly unreachable to them.
But they both knew they’d be reunited soon enough, and with hope in their hearts, they both flew off towards the first world bubble to continue their Mark of Mastery Exam.
“This is weirding me out,” Maylin admitted.
“What’s weird about this to you?” Haruka asked. “Y’know, besides everything else that’s weird.”
“I dunno, I just... I wish there was a way we could, you know, check up on their progress,” Maylin responded. “It’s bothering me that we can’t even see where they are right now.”
“Yes, it is bothering me as well,” Sophia admitted. “It is very disconcerting to know that I cannot see Nick where he is. I do attribute it to all the time I have spent at his side, but... I do not know why it is concerning me so much now of all times.”
“Aw, does somebody have a bit of separation anxiety?” Maylin teased, causing Sophia to blush magnificently.
“Maylin, stop,” Marie retorted. “This isn’t the time for your teasing, you know.”
“Hey, just trying to lighten the mood,” Maylin giggled. “I didn’t even know Sophia could blush, especially like that!! Ah, the wonders of modern technology.”
Despite her sputtering, Sophia couldn’t help but admit to herself that, yes, Maylin was right on the mark.
She missed Nick terribly.
However, Sophia’s thoughts on that were curtailed when she noticed the strange expression on Eris’ face.
“...Lady Eris, is something the matter?” Sophia asked, drawing everyone else’s attention to Eris.
Eris hummed softly in response before closing her eyes.
“Though I cannot see them, I can tell they have made progress,” Eris answered. “However...”
“That doesn’t sound like a good thing when you say it like that,” Maylin quipped.
“Not even the gods are infallible,” Eris admitted. “We can make mistakes and be duped like anyone else. We may be divine, but we are not all-knowing or all-seeing. But there is something gnawing at the back of my mind that makes me terribly uneasy. Something that makes me hope that, for once, I am wrong about one of my predictions.”
“...what does that mean, if I might ask?” Marie wondered.
Eris looked down at her spellbook, then at her keyblade, before looking back at Maylin, Haruka and Sophia, then opening her eyes.
“I just cannot shake this feeling... that something terrible is about to transpire,” Eris proclaimed.
To be continued...
Keyblade acquired!!
Way to the Dawn
Strength: +5
Magic: +3
Length: 85
Critical Rate: 10%
Reality Shift Rate: 5%
Ability: Defender (Increases your defense whenever your HP falls below 25%.)
Description: The keyblade granted to Ellen for her Mark of Mastery Exam. Represents a kind soul torn between dusk and dawn.
Keyblade acquired!!
Miyuki Special
Strength: +6
Magic: +4
Length: 115
Critical Rate: 25%
Reality Shift Rate: 5%
Ability: Attack Haste (Shortens reload time for all attack commands in your deck. Multi-install the ability for even quicker reloading.)
Description: A keyblade that makes it easier to land critical hits. Represents the travelers of the stars looking to prove their innocence.
Coming up next...
Nick: And just like that, we’re off on our Mark of Mastery Exam!! Though it sucks that I’m still separated from my girlfriend, I’ve just gotta keep up the... wait, what the heck is all of this? Why does this junkyard look like it’s hiding something? And why do I feel like I’ve seen that person up there before? Guess there’s a lot of questions that need answers, so let’s go and do that next time on Kingdom Hearts: Key to Her Heart re:Connect, “A Galaxy Far Away –Nick Side”!!
Eris: May your hearts be your guiding key.