Chapter Text
There was nothing like being surrounded by endless darkness. It was so cold yet so intimate, beautiful yet merciless all at once. At least that's how Riku felt during his frequent trips to the Realm of Darkness in search of Sora, but it was hard to find much appreciation when he was up to his neck fighting against the heartless most of the time. Today was no different of course, he killed a few neoshadows, took down another annoying demon tower. It was practically routine, but what threw him off was when black, snake-like tendrils emerged from the folds of darkness and coiled around his body.
"Hey what's—" They wrapped around his mouth too, muffling his words, then around his eyes, blacking out his ██████████████████████████████████████████████
This is the story of six sisters in a world protected by the power of song
and a young man who tried to save that very world from ruin.
...
Those who have the misfortune to come upon this tale
will soon realize that nothing is more unforgiving than the world we live in.
"—Don't tell me this one's already out cold."
"I believe he's just sleeping, sir!"
"Then wake his ass up! We need all hands on deck to protect Lady Five!"
Riku woke up to a soldier clad in heavy armor shaking his shoulders, he quickly pushed him off then stood up, rubbing his head. "...where am I?"
"You better suit up and prepare yourself for battle before the Intoner arrives or you're screwed!"
"What? I'm just a passerby looking for a friend so leave me out of this."
"Like that's gonna stop her! Unlike our lovely Lady Five, this Intoner's a vicious monster. She kills anyone who gets in her way, then turns them into black demons just for her own sadistic pleasure!"
"Wait...black demons?" Riku crossed his arms, deciding on what he should do. 'I'm sure he's talking about the heartless, so is this 'Intoner' person stealing their hearts? It wouldn't hurt to stick around and find out.' "Alright fine, I'll make sure she won't be causing you guys any more trouble, but can you fill me in on what an 'Intoner' is first, I'm not from around here."
"Huh, and here I thought everyone was knowledgeable of them. No matter, the Intoners are basically goddesses that live among us mortals. In my humble opinion, our Lady Five, the ruler of this land, is the most beautiful, benevolent being out of all of them."
'That really didn't answer my question, I'll just drop it for now to avoid any suspicion.' "Right...good to know."
"In any case, we appreciate the help! We're going to have to take you to the armory at once, a shirt and some slacks won't protect against getting stabbed by a sharp blade."
"Don't need it." He summoned his keyblade; 'Braveheart'. The sleek, silver blade held within it immense strength that embodied the name it carried.
"Your confidence is reassuring, if not slightly worrying, but we're brothers in arms now so I got your back!" He put his hand on Riku's shoulder. "By the way, name's Basch. You?"
"Riku."
"Alright Riku, don't forget, once we kill that intoner once and for all, we'll be graced by the beautiful Lady Five's presence!"
"I'm thrilled," He said in a flat tone.
"That's the spirit! I should get back to training, join me if you'd like, but I have a feeling you don't need it."
They parted ways, leaving Riku with more questions than answers. As he wandered out around the makeshift military base camp, he tried to make sense of the world he found himself in. His wandering eventually led him to the seaside where he could see a battleship floating in the still water, preparing for an incoming enemy strike.
Unlike the soldiers scrambling around to prepare for the so-called 'vicious' Intoner to attack their camp, Riku sat idly down by the shore, enjoying the scent of salt-infused air and the soft wail of the ocean he was already starting to feel nostalgic for. 'I think this world is supposed to work like a kingdom. Lady Five's the princess the soldiers are trying to protect and this other Intoner, whatever that is, is supposed to be the bad guy. Same crap different world, still no sign of Sora though.'
Those few peaceful moments stood out to him because from the moment the Intoner infiltrated their camp, to the rest of his days in the world, he would never know calmness like that again. It all happened in quick succession, first came the triumphant battle cries from the soldiers, followed by screaming and wailing from those same soldiers getting slaughtered like pigs.
Riku rushed over to the fray, which looked more like a massacre than a battlefield, and tried to locate the Intoner amidst the chaos. 'Where is she? It shouldn't be this hard to-'
"Riku! Watch out!" Basch's voice was barely audible over the clamor of soldiers, but he heard enough to spin around and block an attack coming from behind.
Finally, he laid eyes upon the enemy Intoner; Zero. "You're...just a girl." Aside from the flower growing out of her right eye, to him, she looked like any normal girl around his age, not a monster or a beast as he would've thought, even though she behaved no differently than one.
A smirk pursed her lips, as if on the cusps of laughter, but she caught herself. "...Cunning observation.
While he was briefly caught off guard by her appearance, he immediately readjusted himself and pushed down on her sword. "Tell me now what you're doing with the heartless!"
"No idea what you're talking about." Their swords weren't locked for long because multiple soldiers came running to Riku's defense. "How annoying." She jumped away from him and started singing until her body glowed a bright pink color, not the move Riku was expecting, but the soldier's terrified reactions told him all he needed to.
Verse 1
A world transparent
The song shall meet its end
When I become the monster I kill
"It's the Intoner's song! Fear not men, we must push through!"
"We'll die in order to protect Lady Five's smile! AAAAHHHH!"
The soldiers charged at Zero, but through the power of song, she gained immense speed, among other attributes. She was effortlessly able to dodge all the sloppily thrown sword swings while also bashing their skulls together. However, her killing spree was put to an end when her body was suddenly encased in a thick sheet of ice, courtesy of a precisely aimed Blizzaga spell from Riku.
With Zero now frozen solid, one of the soldiers raised their sword in triumph. "Hurry men, let's seize this opportunity while the Intoner's trapped! For Lady Five!"
"Hurrah! For Lady Five!"
Two of the soldiers grabbed hold of her arms, restraining her. "Shall we execute this wench now?"
"No no, let's present her to Lady Five for a special reward~"
"Oh no, Zero's in big trouble now!" Zero's story may have ended right there if not for the fact that she didn't come to the battle alone. Flying high up in the sky was Mikhail, a giant white dragon who had stayed out of the action in order to destroy the soldier's battleship, but now that Zero's life was in peril, he was descending down to save her. "Don't worry, I'm gonna save you Z—Wahhh where'd these scary monsters come from?!"
Multiple airborne heartless were circling around Mikhail, he tried to claw them out of the sky, but that only made several more appear in its place. "Huuuuh? How'd you guys come back so fast like that?!"
'That girl can't be the one controlling the heartless so they're coming from somewhere else.' Riku swung his keyblade in the air, casting a Thundaga spell that destroyed the heartless around Mikhail.
"Whew, that sure was a close one, thank you, mister!" Mikhail said.
"No problem, just watch yourself, there's a lot more heartless where they came from."
The bloodstained battlefield, strewn with dead bodies of nameless men became a fertile breeding ground for the heartless. They crawled out of the depths of darkness to capture the hearts of the fallen soldiers, then moved onto taking the hearts of the living. But where there was darkness drawn from shadows, there was a light to cast it away in the form of Riku who wasted no time in driving his keyblade into the swarm.
Now that the campgrounds had effectively been run over by the heartless, Zero's situation began looking grimmer and grimmer. Just when it seemed like she would be carried off to the gallows in soldier's metal-clad arms, they too succumbed to the fate of having their hearts ripped away from them by the heartless.
For her sake, the ice at least had mostly thawed off no thanks to Mikhail, but she was in a worse situation than where she began. "What...the hell?" Zero had seen a lot of fucked up things during her lifetime, but watching a soldier be human one moment, then turn into a mindless, black creature the next was definitely high up there on the list. And with the way they were crawling up her body, she feared she would be next, but much to her surprise, Riku destroyed the heartless.
"Why ...did you save me?"
"You'd be more trouble if you were a heartless."
After the heartless were defeated, scarcely anything remained of the military base camp. Most of the infrastructure was ravaged away while the army of soldiers was reduced down to a sole survivor, but based on the fatal wound he was inflicted with, he wouldn't be for long. Regardless, Riku ran over to him, casting a Curaga spell that at least alleviated the pain.
"Oh man Riku...you always know just what to do." Basch removed his heavy helmet, he was a person underneath all of the armor, no different than Riku.
"I'm sorry, Basch...I wish I could've done more to help you...all of you."
He weakly gestured over to the battlefield. "You've done all that you can, but my brothers...there's...there's not even bodies left...what happened?" His hands curled up into a fist. "No, I know what happened. This was that damned intoner's doing, wasn't it?! She did this to them!"
Riku looked over to Zero who was getting ready to leave with Mikhail. "She killed them, but...I don't think she turned them into heartless." 'But that doesn't answer why they were turned into heartless so easily. Their hearts should've been stronger than that.'
"No, it had to be her and she'll turn Lady Five into a monster too!" He pushed Riku out of the way, then used his sword to stand himself up and limp over to Zero for one final stand against her. But he wasn't even able to reach her before falling on the ground into a pool of darkness where he joined his brothers.
"Basch..." Riku lowered his head in dismay.
"Well, that saved me the trouble," Zero said, but the fight wasn't over just yet. She pulled out her sword against Riku and they clashed blades once more. "Make your mind up, are you killing me or not? It's getting annoying."
"I'm taking you down!"
"What a surprise..." She trailed off as her eye grew wide. Without even giving her actions a second thought, she pushed Riku out of the way, letting herself get stabbed in the chest by a giant claymore.
"ZERO! NOOOO!" Mikhail wailed.
"I'm... fine you dummy..." She got flung off the sword and crashed into a pile of debris.
'She saved me?' Riku summoned his keyblade to guard against the heartless' subsequent attack. He could tell from its armored bodied and proud stature that it was Basch's own darkness incarnate. 'How did someone like him lose his heart to the darkness so fast?'
Riku gathered some distance, then shot a Firaga spell at Basch's heartless. As it burned away in flames, he readied his keyblade for a finishing move; Zantetsuken, so he could quickly put it out of its misery. However, the second he was about to unleash his attack, the heartless returned to the darkness it was born out of.
'That's unusual. I'll keep my guard up in case it attacks again.' He glanced over to Zero again who, despite being impaled and flung around like a doll, managed to stand herself up like it was nothing. 'Forget it. I should just leave before I get into any more trouble.'
"...So is the jury still out on whether or not you're killing me?" Zero asked, walking towards him.
Sighing, he turned around to meet her. "What's your problem?!" He yelled.
"Gonna have to be more specific."
"You killed all those other soldiers like they were nothing, so why did you save me?"
"Call it returning the favor. Whatever your reasoning, you didn't let me die so I didn't let the same happen to you."
"And you saved me too!" Mikhail said.
"Shut up idiot, the grown-ups are talking right now."
"Aww, how come grown-ups get to have all the fun?"
"This isn't fun. Besides, you don't ever wanna be a grown-up."
"Why's that? Huh?"
"You're just a big baby now, but when you're an adult, all you'll have is yourself and I'm not gonna be there to take care of you when that happens."
"You're right, I don't wanna be a grown-up then 'cause I like it when you take care of me Zero!"
"Tch...I wouldn't call it that, I'm just making sure you don't die, that's all."
Riku shook his head. "I can't figure you out...you murder innocent people, but even so I can tell your heart isn't completely taken over by darkness."
"Riiiight, I'm gonna take a wild guess and say you're not from around here."
'She's a lot more perceptive than I figured.' "Huh...what gave it away?"
"Ehh, usually the men here just talk about wanting to fuck Five not whatever weird shit you're on."
"I'm ...from a place far away."
"Great. A foreigner getting involved in shit that has nothing to do with you."
"It's my business as long as the heartless are involved."
"Yeah whatever, and when you say the 'heartless' you're not talking about people, are you?"
"No, the heartless are those monsters that took the soldier's hearts away and it's my job to take them down. I'm actually surprised you didn't turn into one considering they blah blah blah blah and blah blah blah."
"Uh-huh..." She was pretty much tuning out whatever Riku had to say, more so focused on undressing him with her eye. 'Maybe it's because I haven't had sex in so long but I'm actually considering taking this guy with me even though I can already tell he's gonna annoy the fuck out of me.'
"Hey, are you even listening?"
"No, but whatever's going on you can bet your ass that Five's behind it. You probably heard otherwise from the soldiers but that was just bullshit, plain and simple. She fucked with their heads and made them her slaves."
"What- are you serious...but how do you know that?"
"She's an Intoner like me and a dumb one at that. This is exactly the type of stupid shit she would pull."
"If Five's been brainwashing soldiers to fight for her then that does explain why they're so gung ho about protecting her and may even be why they're turning into heartless so fast...that's messed up if it's true. I need to put an end to this."
"Yeah? Well you know I was actually on my way to 'put an end' to Five myself and those heartless have been a pain in the ass for a while. I wouldn't be against the idea of you tagging along with me...day and night."
"Absolutely not. I don't want anything to do with you."
"If you don't want my help then have fun getting lost up your own asshole! A foreigner like you would never find Five's shrine."
Riku crossed his arms. "If that's how it is, then... fine. As long as you don't get in my way, I'll travel with you until Five's defeated."
"Then you better not bitch about it when I actually kill her."
"You won't be doing any killing until I figure out why she's using the heartless."
She snorted. "Good luck trying to talk to a tramp like her. All she'll be thinking about is what size you are."
"My...size?"
She eyed him up and down. "I'm curious myself, but I'll find out sooner or later. Anyways, Five's shrine is up ahead, let's cover some ground before it gets too dark."
"Yay, we have a new friend! So what's your name mister?" Mikhail asked.
"Name's Riku."
"Riku? That sure is a cool name, well I'm Mikhail and that's my grumpy friend Zero over there."
"Mikhail and Zero? You don't seem half as bad as her."
"Usually Zero's a big fat meanie, but she must've made an exception for you!"
"I'm contractually obligated to do one nice thing once every couple of years or so. Which means you're out of luck dummy," Zero said.
"Well I'm gonna be extra nice to you to make up for it! It's gotta balance out you know."
"You mean be extra annoying..."
"I'd still take his company over yours," Riku said.
"Once you get a good whiff of his rotten stench, you'll come running back to me."
"You don't exactly have the best scent either."
"What? Don't tell me, I smell like dried up blood, don't I?" Zero sarcastically remarked. "Trust me, you get used to the smell when you're a girl."
He rolled his eyes in annoyance. "Are you always this indecent?"
"Are you always this boring?"
Once they reached another enemy stronghold, Zero instinctively pulled her sword out, but there seemed to be no soldiers in sight.
"They can't be all gone," Zero said.
"Maybe they all ran away 'cause they got scared of us," Mikhail said.
"I doubt it, brainwashed soldiers would die for their Intoner. They're probably attempting an ambush, stay back, I got this." As Zero searched around the campgrounds, Riku stayed behind with Mikhail, intent on getting some much needed answers.
"So Mikhail, since Zero is your friend, I'm sure you know a lot about her and the other Intoners."
"Like what?"
"Like strengths and weaknesses."
"Oh- oh I know this one! An Intoner's powers are like uh...is uhhhhh. Well, I don't remember the complicated way Zero explained it, but basically they get super powerful whenever they sing and I dunno if this is a strength or not but they're all sisters."
"Sisters? I'm guessing she doesn't have the best relationship with them."
"You're right on that one. Zero really reeeally wants to fight them and won't even try talking to any of them." He puffed out hot air. "If you ask me, older siblings should be nice to their younger siblings, you know?"
"That would be ideal."
"—What're you two idiots talking about?" Zero asked, walking over to them.
"We were just having grown-up talk so you wouldn't understand, sorry."
"So you just decided to be a grown-up now?"
"Yep! Now you have to take me seriously too!"
She smirked. "Then you can collect all the firewood tonight. By yourself."
"What?! That's not fair Zero!"
"But you're such a big grown dragon now, aren't you?"
"...yeah."
"Then get your ass in gear and start collecting firewood! You can get plenty from this camp, it turns out all the soldiers did chicken out."
"You're mean Zero!"
"Hey, I can help you if you want Mikhail," Riku said.
"Really? You'd do that?"
"Sure, even grown-ups need help sometimes."
"Can you two get any more annoying? Just get the goddamn firewood."
Riku and Mikhail gathered up a pile of wood from the abandoned military base, then Zero handled the rest. She lit the fire using sparks from her own sword since she wasn't exactly confident in Mikhail to not burn them all up, but once the fire was started, Riku didn't stick around much longer. He left to the cliffside, preferring to keep to himself for the time being.
Meanwhile, Zero saw his isolation as an open invitation for a nightly escapade. So she waited until Mikhail was asleep to creep her way over to Riku. "So how long are you gonna keep up the lone wolf act?"
"Sorry... I'm not really good at these things."
"With what?"
"...Talking to girls I mean." He rubbed the back of his head. "Not that you're much of one anyway."
"I bet you were waiting all day to say that."
"Possibility. So what do you want? I'm sure you didn't come over just to talk to me."
"What, it's not obvious?"
He blankly stared at her.
"Guess not. Do I need to spell it out for you or should I start getting undressed?"
"If you're changing, I can go somewhere else."
She narrowed her eye. "Are you purposely trying to fuck with me?"
"You're the one that came over here to waste my time."
"Waste 'your' fucking time?! Keep talking like that and I might just kill you!"
Riku stood up, then approached Zero, his keyblade manifesting in his grasp.
"It's not like I was being serious, but if you want to d-"
"Watch out." His keyblade slashed upwards where a heartless was lunging for Zero's head, the blade a mere inches away from her face. "There's several more closing in around us."
"Way to kill the mood." She unsheathed her sword. "Where are the rest of those bastards?"
"̵F̸O̸R̷ ̷Y̵O̴U̷R̸ ̶C̴R̶I̵M̶E̷S̶ ̷A̷G̶A̷I̴N̴S̴T̶ ̶L̸A̴D̵Y̷ ̸F̶I̵V̴E̴'̷S̶ ̴K̸I̷N̴G̸D̶O̴M̶.̷.̵.̴"̵
"You hear that? It's close, but I can't tell where it's coming from..."
"You can read that shit? I have no idea what it's saying."
"What?"
"Never mind, just watch my back." She walked away from Riku.
"That's not a good idea."
"Don't worry. It's probably some more brainwashed soldiers, or drunk idiots pissing themselves with how funny they think they are."
̶"̸F̷O̸R̴ ̵Y̶O̵U̶R̸ ̷M̵E̷R̷C̴I̸L̶E̸S̷S̶ ̵S̷L̸A̵U̵G̶H̵T̵E̸R̶ ̵O̷F̴ ̶T̶H̷E̴ ̴S̸O̷L̸D̸I̴E̷R̵S̷ ̶W̶H̵O̵ ̸D̴U̷T̸I̵F̷U̴L̸L̷Y̶ ̵S̶E̵R̶V̵E̶ ̵U̶N̶D̴E̸R̵ ̸O̴U̸R̴ ̶G̶O̶D̵D̴E̴S̶S̷.̴.̴.̶"̵
All of a sudden, an armored hand shot up from the ground and grabbed her leg. "What the fuck is it this time?!" Its hold was too tight for her to wrangle free and stabbing the arm seemingly had no effect. To make matters worse, darkness began swirling around Zero's legs, slowly sinking her in. Another hand grabbed her other leg, then the heartless pulled itself up out of the darkness. It was none other than Basch's own darkness coming back to fulfill its promise of revenge on Zero.
"̸I̸,̷ ̷S̴I̶R̷ ̸B̸A̵S̴C̸H̷,̸ ̶W̵I̶L̴L̶ ̶N̴O̶W̵ ̶E̷X̷E̵C̷U̶T̸E̴ ̶Y̸O̴U̸,̶ ̶T̷H̸E̸ ̵A̵C̵C̵U̴R̵S̸E̷D̶ ̷I̷N̷T̷O̶N̷E̷R̷.̸.̸.̶ ̷U̸N̵D̶E̶R̷ ̵H̴E̸R̸ ̴N̵A̴M̷E̵.̴"̵
Fortunately, Riku was already on his way to save her, but Basch's heartless quickly held its sword to Zero's neck, threatening an untimely decapitation if he made the wrong move.
Basch's heartless then issued a second command directed towards Riku. "N̴O̷W̸ ̵M̴E̷N̵,̷ ̵A̶T̵T̷A̷C̵K̷ ̴T̴H̸E̴ ̶T̵R̵A̸I̷T̶O̵R̷O̴U̵S̷ ̵P̶A̴L̶A̴D̶I̸N̶"
Several armored heartless crawled out from the ground and charged at him with their giant swords and maces.
"Oh please, how cliche can you get it?" The sword etched deeper into her neck, drawing out blood, but Zero was unphased. "That was a mistake." She may have been at an obvious disadvantage, she was being restrained from behind with a sword to her neck, but the prospect of death held no meaning to her. With little options left to her disposal, she threw all of her weight against Basch's heartless, making both of them fall to the ground since the heartless was just empty armor put together by darkness after all.
Finally, Zero was able to break free of its hold and she immediately seized the opportunity to stab the heartless through its chest over and over again, but without copious amounts of blood to spill out, it wasn't nearly as satisfying. Nor did it seem like her attacks had any effect since the heartless was still aimlessly swinging its sword around.
"Zero, get back!" Riku called out.
Moments later, black bolts of electricity thundered from the sky and destroyed the surrounding heartless. The lightning connected with Basch's heartless as well, but despite being electrocuted with the powerful voltage a Thundaga could produce, it was still trying to get back up and kill Zero.
"Just stay down," Zero said.
"I̶ ̷.̴.̷.̶ ̵w̴i̷l̷l̶ ̴s̶e̵r̷v̴e̶ ̷L̶a̷d̸y̸ ̵F̷i̸v̴e̶ ̶t̷o̵ ̴t̴h̴e̵ ̴e̴n̵d̷.̶.̶.̶"̷
"̸S̵h̷e̴'̷s̵ ̷a̴l̴l̵.̵.̶.̴t̸h̷a̵t̴ ̴I̵ ̷h̶a̸v̴e̶ ̷l̴e̸f̸t̷ ̷t̷o̴ ̷h̸o̷l̶d̶ ̶o̵n̸t̵o̶.̵.̶.̴"̸
"̴S̶h̶e̴'̷s̷ ̸a̵l̷l̵.̴.̵.̶t̶h̵a̷t̶ ̴I̸ ̴h̵a̷v̴e̷ ̶l̴e̴f̴t̵.̵.̴.̵"̵
Riku's keyblade lodged straight into its head, the finishing blow as it was because a tiny, pink heart floated away, marking the end of the soldier's long battle. "Let your heart be free from the darkness."
"That was a pain in the ass," Zero said.
"Just don't be so reckless next time and it won't be such a pain."
"Quit bitching about it, we got out of it alive, didn't we?"
"I'm surprised you did."
"Don't get started with me."
They made it back to the campsite and Mikhail was fast asleep, blissfully unaware of the events that unfolded. Exhausted, Zero walked over to a patch of dirt across from Mikhail then fell asleep on the ground while Riku watched on.
"...What a messed up world."
And so began the unlikely team up of the Intoner and the keyblade wielder.
Neither of them liked each other very much, if at all
But they were both willing to work together for a common goal:
Defeat the fifth Intoner
Flowers for the Dead
Riku in the Drakengard 3 style