Chapter Text
chapter 6: learning the basics
“talking”
‘thinking or writing’
*echo*
—
It was dark and thunder kept falling outside. She was scared with her sheets under her head trying to make the noise stop. Normally she would already be asleep but she was waiting for her mom and dad to come. They always came to tell her good night and send away the nightmares but they had not appeared. What happened? Were they alright? they could not have forgotten about her right? she had not seen them all day but they would never fail her like this right?.
Another thunder fall she could not handle it anymore she started to cry loudly she was afraid and alone did not know what to do. She heard something. The door opened quickly, they had finally arrived. Her parents maybe had gotten lost in the mansion with how dark it was. Maybe that was it she took the sheet off “Mommy, Daddy i'm scared” she said with hope for it to be crashed again. who entered was not her mom or dad it was just a simple maid she didn't remember her name. she was just a newbie here she looked around looking for her parents but they were not there tears flooded her eyes again as she began to loudly cry again “my please stop crying it’s just a storm it will pass” the maid tried to sound reassuring but her tone was just as nervous as hers something was happening “I want mom and dad, i wanna see them, i wanna see them” she keep screaming she didn't trusted this maid she couldn't keep her composure with the thunders falling she wanted her mom and dad to hug her. “but my your parents are in their room and they are very tired”
That was clearly a lie, this maid was clearly lying to her face. her father always said they were never too tired for her. how dared she to try to lie about her parents like that. it makes her really, really angry “How dare you. Daddy is always there for me when i'm scared, i'm going to tell him you are lying about him” she screamed again as the maid got scared by her words “I'm sorry my lady please give me a minute” the lying maid exited her room running she couldn't believe the audacity of that maid trying to lie about her dad. It took a couple minutes but then her parents finally arrived in the room, a little alarmed as they saw her crying as her father runned towards her. She felt warm. her dad hugs always tranquilized her. “What happened,my little princess, did the storm wake you up?” as her mother took a seat besides with a worried look. between cries the little girl explained what had happened and both of them exchanged a look “You wanna sleep with us tonight?” Her mom offered with an understanding smile, she gave a quick nod as her father charged her towards their room with them. She was finally able to sleep peacefully with her parents to her side, now she knew it wasn't her parents fault the maids surely were too scared of the storm distracting them and that is why they took so long to come to her. She wouldn't let this happen again; her parents were far too busy to deal with cowardly maids. she would set them straight for them.
—
“Good morning!” A sudden splash of cold water greeted her, forcefully pulling her out of her dream. In front of her, she saw a floating bucket that quickly transformed into Morph, who was laughing at her. She was currently in the room that Silver had given them for the time being; it was just a storage room with a couple of sheets nailed to the walls acting as hammocks and a tiny table in the middle. As she recovered from the shock, she saw Silver throwing a bucket of water at Vivi. Silver, for his part, couldn't stop laughing. “This one never gets old.” As they both tried to recover from the shock and Silver stopped laughing, he said, “I hope you got a good night of sleep here because you two have a long day ahead of you.”
While Silver took them to his ship to begin their lessons, she couldn't help but think about her dream. It had been a while since she had dreamed about Katarina’s past or her own past. She still couldn't tell the difference between the two. To be honest, the idea that they were merging confused her as well. For a long time, she just thought she was herself, and now every time she tried to figure it out, she got a headache. It didn't help that she also didn't know if her friends and home were alright.
“Are you ok?” Vivi asked worriedly. He could see something was bothering her. “Nothing, I was just thinking about my home.” Before Vivi could reassure her, Silver joined the conversation. “It's difficult to be far from home, but it's a necessary step in the life of a young adult. How else are you going to grow if you don't ever step out of what you know?” He then looked directly at her with confidence. “That is my lesson for you two: set your course and never look back.” While she felt a little reassured by Silver's advice, part of her still worried. She hadn't left on her own terms, after all.
As he finished, they finally arrived at another port that was in worse condition than the one they met Silver. In front of them there was an old ship, a relatively small one compared to the bigger ones they had seen before, but it was perfect for a small group like them. They should be able to at least manage it. Heck, maybe Pocchi could help too if they needed it. Silver made a sign, and the crew working there started to get off the ship.
“Well, this piece of trash should be enough to teach you two the basics.” With that, Silver gave the ship a kick, proving the materials of the ship were resistant despite its neglected appearance. Both Katarina and Vivi still looked unsure of it but Silver quickly shut their worries down “Don't worry, your ship will be in better condition. But if you two learn to use this old piece of trash, any other ship will be a walk in the park.” He put his hands on their shoulders. “Now, let's start with the basics.”
Silver truly made it simple to understand how the ship worked; he truly had a natural talent when it came to all the parts navigation combined with life time of experience. The sails were panels that used solar energy to fuel all the ship's technology, such as a field that kept them on the ship, preventing them from dying in space. The propellants and floating engine kept the ship in the air even when they were inside another planet’s atmosphere. Some of the weapons were also powered by this energy. Silver explained that some Heartless actually adapted to move in space, so having a shield of energy became an obligatory component. As they had greater mobility than the Heartless, the shield gave the gunners enough time to take out the Heartless before they could actually damage the ship. Unfortunately, this meant they had to slow down during a battle since both the weapons and shield consumed a lot of energy, depending on the ship they had at the moment. Fortunately, Silver made sure to give them another important device, a book-like gadget that scanned most of the devices and gave instructions on how to fix them. As Silver said, "Even a brain-dead worm could figure out how to fix something important if there was a crisis.” Katarina struggled a little with this many explanations; Vivi, on the other hand, grasped all the theory behind it really quickly.
"Well, you aren't going to actually learn something just by hearing me chatter all day long. Lower the sails, we're going to take a lap around the closest moon," he said as he positioned himself at the rudder. He gave them instructions on how to properly start the ship, and soon enough they were moving. However, Vivi struggled, as his physical capabilities were nowhere near Katarina's, who was able to climb to the top so fast that Silver believed the gravity field wasn't working for a moment.
"I have seen arachnids climb slower than her. Is that normal for her?" a confused Silver asked Vivi.
"If I'm being honest, I don't know if there's a possibility of a normal moment with her," Vivi replied. In the short time Vivi had known the Keyblade wielder, she had fought possessed furniture, summoned a magical train, met an ancient magician, been revealed as the chosen wielder of a legendary sword, and arrived at a port floating in the middle of space. Those were only just the first two or three days. Yeah, he would mourn the chance of normalcy this night before he went to sleep.
As Katarina got down, a radar beside the rudder started to emit an alarm. Silver just smiled and pulled a lever, creating a shield around the ship, slowing them down as the power of propulsors got lowered. "Prepare the cannons, we have company." Both looked worried as the Silver prepared for the upcoming they could see great group bright lights getting closer to them.
"Already? We're not even that far from the port," Katarina said as she ran towards the cannons. The comment only provoked a laugh from Silver.
"You better get used to it if you really want to travel around. Space belongs to the Heartless now," they could hear the venom in his voice, making it clear he wasn't happy with the situation either.
Then they could see different types of Heartless than they had seen before. These ones were fused with some kind of spaceships made out of blocks, allowing them to move quickly in space and attack with some kind of cannons. If anything, they looked more like something from a sci-fi story rather than the steampunk aesthetic of the world. Their cannons in turn worked more like turrets that could fire more shots per minute rather than a single powerful one. It reminded her of some of the festival games back in her first life, only this time they shot back and it was lethal. Games always made things look easier, to be honest. Fortunately the heartless weren't great pilots to begin with preferring to charge forward to them rather than exploit their lack of movement. As her cannon cooled down from repeated shooting, she noticed that Silver had joined them in, his hand transformed into a cannon that had almost the same power as the turret she was using. It made her wonder what other things his prosthesis was capable of, although it was clear that using that cannon took a lot, considering how long it took for the weapons to cool down. Speaking of which, hers had just recovered, so she resumed shooting at the remaining Heartless on her side.
_____
Once the battle was over Silver let them rest for a couple of minutes before calling Katarina specifically Vivi was currently recovering since moving his turret so much had left him dizzy. they were in front of the moon he had previously mentioned to them. Silver then handed her over the helm of the ship to her.
“i think now it's the perfect moment for you to learn to direct” as he stepped down Katarina wasn't sure but she gave it try after a quick explanation Katarina was able to do the turn without to much difficulty, it was like learning to drive a car in it's on unique way. The memories of the monkey girl came to her, this time getting a license seemed like the next great challenge back then, before the doom flags and being transported to another on top of being a reincarnated the quiet moment was interrupted by Silver.
“Lost in your memories again, I suppose?” he sounded relaxed as his gaze turned to the stars around them. “You shouldn’t daydream so much; you will miss a lot of what's happening in front of you,” he said, pointing his mechanical finger to the front. There was the port, looking like a crescent moon. To think there was a whole city there! A truly beautiful sight if she was honest. Noticing her sudden surprise, Silver added, “I’m not one to make assumptions, but it seems you didn't start this journey because you wanted to.” She was surprised he read her so easily. “Was it so obvious?” Silver looked at her and let out another laugh. “Well, it isn't as if you are trying to hide it, girl, with all those stares you give to the void.” She was a little embarrassed by that comment; her mother, Anne, and Keith always made sure to put her feet back on the ground. She took a quick breath. “I was just looking for my dog when it happened. Everything was so fast after that, and I can't help but worry about my home and friends.” Silver gave her an understanding look.
“It is not as uncommon as you think, especially in these chaotic times. You would be surprised by the amount of lost people that end up here.” He then put his hand on her shoulder. “What really matters is that you are still on your two feet and that you are making progress. If you were able to stand up on your own, what makes you think your friends aren't doing the same?”
“Look! A shooting star,” Vivi exclaimed, a little excited, while pointing towards the side of the ship. From afar, she noticed a star falling. She was about to make a comment about wishes when Silver took his captain's hat off. “That isn't a shooting star, little one.” Both Katarina and Vivi were taken by surprise by the tone of Silver, a respectful one that you would only use in a funeral.
“What do you mean?” Vivi asked as she felt the atmosphere getting heavy. Silver just took a deep breath.
“You see all these stars around us? Well, each single one of them is a world filled with countless lives.” Both of them looked around in wonder, each star containing its own people with their own unique stories. It was just impressive. But then Silver added, “When a star falls like that, it means the Heartless have devoured that world into the darkness.” As he finished his sentence, he put his hat back on, leaving both Katarina and Vivi in shock. The gravity of the situation dawned on them.
“Since when has this been happening?” Vivi asked, his tone sad and a little frustrated.
“Nobody can really tell. Some folks say that the Heartless have always been around, and they are just more groups arriving on our side of the galaxy. Others say someone found a way to control them and is using them for a bigger purpose.” As they finally got close enough to disembark, Silver quickly changed the topic to instruct them on how to disembark the ship properly.
---
Maleficent had finally returned after finishing her negotiations with that man. It wasn't common for her to meet a heart as rotten as hers, but the fact that it lacked power proved to be their weak spot and the path for Maleficent to gain another pawn in her line. While the possibility that man would find Katarina was low, she was more intrigued by the possible Heartless that would certainly form from that rotten heart. She just had to wait to see how he slowly succumbed to his own greed for power until then. Her mind then centered on Katarina again. The problem with the girl wasn't even the Keyblade itself but her affinity with her own element. The darkness should have consumed someone as weak as her in an instant, but for some reason, it did not. In fact, darkness itself seemed to follow the girl's command without receiving anything in return. To someone like Maleficent, who had to fight for thousands of years to submit darkness to her will and had to constantly keep that fight, it felt like an insult. She wanted nothing more than to put her hands on the girl and break her apart so she could understand what made her so special.
As she walked through the halls of her castle, she felt the presence of the other pieces of her plan. It was truly a bother to pretend she would share her power once Kingdom Hearts became hers, but until then, she would let them believe they were her equals. Summoning a dark portal, she transported herself to their meeting room.
“Look who finally decides to show up. Here I thought she had forgotten about us,” a smug voice said. The figure that emerged from the shadows of the dark hall was a humanoid creature made of a sack.
“Gotta say, I didn't expect you to vanish like that. I even had to check the River Styx to make sure you hadn't finally met your doom,” said a man wearing a black robe with a skull emblem. His skin was gray, his head produced a blue flame, and he had bright yellow eyes. Maleficent ignored both their comments. Realizing they were the only members who had decided to show up, she moved to the center of the room where there was a stone table. She conjured an image of her newest pawn, making them curious.
“So who’s the old fart? I thought you were done with recruits,” the sack creature said, not seeing anything special about the potential new member of their group.
“I’m with the bug bag. I don't see how another mortal would help us find the Princesses of Heart. I mean, the last one at least had a flying ship,” the man in the black robe added. Maleficent was not disappointed; she knew they lacked her ability to see true potential.
“There is a chosen one of the Keyblade on the run. She managed to escape my grasp by some underhanded means, so I figured that I would prepare some powerful Heartless to capture her,” Maleficent revealed.As she also conjured an image of Katarina when they met.
Upon seeing the noble lady, the sack creature started to laugh. “She escaped from you? What, did she throw her heels at your eyes before running away?” As he mocked her, Maleficent quickly conjured a small flame that scared the sack creature, who started running like a coward from the flame, which followed him slowly playing with him.
“Capture? Is she a princess too?” the other member asked, not caring about what was happening with the sack creature.
“No, but the Keyblade’s power is something we could all greatly benefit from,” she lied as she looked at the projection of the girl with disdain.