Chapter 3: The Key of Chronos
It was a while before the train finally came to a screeching halt. Erik and Karen followed Yuu out into the yard of a tall, winding tower surrounded by small trees. The two followed him down the path and into the bottom floor of the tower. Erik grimaced at the sight of the staircase that wound up and out of sight.
“You can’t be serious,” Erik complained
Erik and Karen steeled themselves for the climb, but were mystified when Yuu ducked behind the staircase. They followed him to see that he was feeling on the empty marble wall. Before they could protest, Yuu’s hand forced in a panel on the wall that caused a glowing blue sigil to appear in a square shape underneath their feet. He let go of the switch and the three were whisked away in a flash of sparks.
It was before the stern gaze of an old man wearing a midnight blue hat covered in stars and moons that they appeared. His eyes roamed over the three before his lips parted in speech.
“Welcome to my tower, Yuu, Erik and Karen, I am Yen Sid,” Yen Sid introduced
“Thank you Master Yen Sid,” Yuu said before bowing
Karen and Erik were slightly confused to see Yuu humbling himself in front of this older gentleman, but before they could voice an opinion, the man spoke once more.
“I understand your concerns, but for the moment I require your attention to deliver a message of grave importance that must be heard,” Yen Sid informed
The kids silenced themselves and directed their attention towards the old man. He made a sweeping gesture with his left hand and in front of the kids appeared hologram images of three familiar enemies: a Shadow, a Dusk and a Stalker. He gestured to the figure in front of Karen, the Shadow.
“The image before you is that of the second enemy, the Heartless,” Yen Sid explained, “this is the most common form of Heartless, simply known as a Shadow. The Heartless are, as the name implies, those who are devoid of hearts and come in two larger varieties. The Purebloods are beings of pure Shadow that multiply whenever they successfully capture hearts; on the other hand, Emblem Heartless come in many forms and simply collect hearts which are released only when destroyed by a keyblade.”
“The third enemy,” Yen Sid said while gesturing to the figure in front of Yuu, “are the Nobodies. They are what is left when a strong heart is consumed by darkness and becomes a Heartless. The remaining body and soul are bound to nothingness and in term become part of nothingness themselves. The one before you is the most common form, a Dusk. Nobodies are far more dangerous than Heartless for whereas the Heartless mindlessly gather hearts and act on instinct, Nobodies retain their memories and attack with definite planning towards the goal of becoming once more.”
He waved his hand once more and the image changed to a figure in a long, black coat with the hood up.
“The ones who wear this coat are known as Organization XIII. They are a special group of Nobodies that have retained their human forms. They exert control over the lesser nobodies in an attempt to achieve their greater goal, which I have been told is creating a new Kingdom Hearts.”
With another sweeping motion, Yen Sid gestured to the last image in front of Erik.
“These last beings are the first enemy, the Unversed. As the name implies, they are unversed in a manner of things, fore mostly their own existences. This lack of knowledge is why they generally appear as objects they should not be; it is also this lack of self-awareness that leads them to attack others in search of answers. Before you is the most common form of Unversed, a Stalker. If you have any questions, now is the time to ask…”
The amount of information given was almost more than the three could handle. It was a moment before any of them could come up with any inquiries and it was Erik that spoke first.
“I can understand Yuu being involved in this because of his past, but why are Karen and I here?”
“That is because the three of you together are the keybearer of The Key of Chronos, a group of keyblades that allow their wielders to transcend the limits of time and space. It is your duty to find and wield these blades in order to restore the waning equilibrium to the universe,” Yen Sid explained
“And how will we accomplish this?” Karen interjects
“That, I fear, is not within the realm of my knowledge, but if you were to proceed down the hall, I’m sure that the rest of your questions shall be sufficiently answered,” Yen Sid responded
With a final movement of his arm, Yen Sid opened the door behind the kids and they bowed before leaving him in silence. They proceeded down the hall until they arrived in a small room that was slightly cluttered and brightly lit.
Karen was the first to notice the pink, green and blue orbs of light that descended from the ceiling. As the others followed her finger, the orbs burst into three fairies wearing the corresponding colors.
“Hello dearies, we’ve been expecting you. I’m Flora,” The pink fairy introduced, “these are Fauna and Merrywhether.”
“Oh wow, these children are quite lovely,” Fauna admired, “I’m sure they’ll do just fine.”
“I like the ones in blue; it’s a fitting color for heroes!” Merrywhether stated
“Now now ladies, we have a very important task at hand preparing these young ones for what lies ahead and I’m sure they have many questions,” Flora interrupted, “now do you children have any questions for us?”
“Um, yeah,” Karen replied, “I wanted to know how we were supposed to find these keyblades.”
“That’ll be easier to explain once we’ve given you a change of clothes,” Flora said, “All together ladies!”
The ladies simultaneously raised their wands and directed a combined spell at the kids, which after the light faded and dust settled, didn’t seem like it did much.
“What was that supposed to do?” Erik questioned, “My clothes are still the same…”
“Oh but they’re not! They’re much better than before,” Fauna protested
“How so?” Erik rebutted
“They were just normal clothes at first, but now they’re resilient like armor, plus each of you have a special surprise waiting somewhere on the cloth,” Fauna responded
Erik was puzzled by the green fairy’s words until he spied a glowing skull mark on the right sleeve of his jacket. Karen found a halo with wings glowing on her left sleeve much to her surprise. Yuu’s mark was the hardest to find as it was his eight-pointed star logo glowing on his back.
“Those marks allow you to access a higher form a of power than what you can achieve on your own as well as augmenting your natural abilities slightly,” Flora explained, “and most importantly, they will allow you to utilize corridors of light.”
“Corridors of light?” Erik questioned
“Three years ago when the last keybearer was on his journey, he restored the worlds consumed by the Heartless but in the process locked the paths between the worlds. When he was here two years ago, Master Yen Sid taught him how to reopen the paths, but that wouldn’t be useful to you seeing as you don’t have his means of travel. But using what he learned from the King, Master Yen Sid developed this way of traveling between worlds,” Flora replied
“So you’re saying we can travel to other worlds with these marks?” Karen asked
“That’s what she just said!” Merrywhether grumbled
"Calm down Merrywhether,” Fauna requested
Yuu found it all very interesting, but he couldn’t help but bringing up an interesting point.
“Yen Sid said that we were supposed to find this Key of Chronos,” Yuu stated, “how do we do that?”
“Oh, I’m glad you asked before you left,” Merrywhether said, “what you need to do is find a location where an important event took place at when you visit a world. When you reach that place your keyblade should react to its aura and a piece of the map to Chronos will find its way to you.”
“Speaking of keyblades, Karen and I don’t have ours,” Erik complained
“But you do have your keyblades, all you have to do is focus on bringing it to your hands,” Flora instructed
Karen held her right hand in front of her and concentrated solely on the materialization of her keyblade. In a brilliant flash of white and gold, the blade appeared in her hand. It was a hollowed out, double-edged broadsword that was golden with a feathered blade. The wings on either side of the blade as well as the hilt were white. Hanging from the hilt was a keychain in the form of Karen’s sleeve marking.
“Oh! The name of your blade is Heaven’s Light, dear,” Flora informed
Erik extended his right hand out to his side and focused on his blade with all his might. In a cloud of black smoke appeared Erik’s keyblade. It was long and when rested on the ground, it came up to his ear. The entire blade was black, from the hilt to the blade. There was a dip in the middle of the shaft as if to hold for better control when swinging. When the gazes followed the shaft to the floor, there were gasps from the fairies as they saw the spikes that were opposite the curved scythe blade that was the tooth of the key.
“Oh my, that’s Touch of Despair!” Merrywhether gasped
“I like!” Erik said while hoisting the blade to the light
Yuu was the final one to materialize his blade since he already knew how to do it, and in a flash of black and white, the keyblade appeared in his left hand.
“And that one is Bonding Twilight,” Fauna announced
“With these three blades, one of light, darkness and twilight, you three are now on your ways to becoming the Guardians of Time,” Flora stated, “go through the portal and embark upon your journey. May the light always guide your path.”
A large rectangle of light appeared in the preexisting doorway and the kids turned to face the beginning of their destiny. They turned back and thanked the fairies before taking the step into the corridor which would become their new form of transport.
After an undetermined amount of time, the kids appeared in what looked to be an immaculately designed town square that perfectly framed the bustling city set upon blue bedrock. They saw copious amounts of flowers decorating the area, with flower petals that floated in the gentle breeze that carried the aroma of the plants all over the area. Despite the evident hustle and bustle, it was still a very calming area.
“No way! Is that Yuu!?” A female voice said