NemesisSP

Good to know that Nomura still has a sense of humor when it comes to using the same actors of previous works. Reno/Axel and Noctis/Master of Masters, wonder who will be next?

None! I'm currently playing it. But I detest spoilers, so I'm not starting any topics.

The only reason someone would say this looks like Xion is because of the black hair, which is kind of like saying Sora looks like Terra because they both have brown hair. And yes, I know it's an internet joke, but it's a sad point that rings too true sometimes. It looks fine, don't worry about people like that.

Another Keyblade concept, though whether or not I'll use it like this is still in the air. It needs some refinement

So, decided to do something different with this series to make use of the main accounts it is posted on. For this forum, I'm gonna be posting the secret reports for the story, for my DA, I'm gonna be posting short stories that will link up to the main story but aren't actually needed to understand it and my FanFiction.net account will feature this series equivalent of the Hundred Acre Woods. Please look forward to it.

Secret Report 0 An island, a town and a castle They are all connected, even though one of them is gone Destiny is never left to chance, because Destiny requires tools But what would make the perfect tools to open the door? The empty children who seek answers? The broken experiment who has lost everything? The child who seeks his friends? Or the wayward king searching for the darkness? The man lost in the darkness or the man hidden in the light?

You're saying that as if it is a fact. But that's disregarding the reason for why FF Versus XIII was frequently delayed had less to do with Nomura and more of an extension of the issue concerning FFXIII's prolonged development. They had issues with the original engine, the Crystal Tools, that took years to fully iron out and some of the staff were pulled away from the development to finish XIII. After XIII was finished, work on Versus XIII had fully started. Nomura wasn't to blame for the delays, believe it or not. Yes, he is hard working and he focuses on KH most, but remember that the game was never intended to be a main game until 2012, a year after the game had finally entered full development. Hajime Tabata was originally brought on as co-director only, so that Nomura could work on both KHIII and FFXV along Tai Yasue. Hajime Tabata is also not to blame (fully) for much of the changes if we're to believe that leak. It seems entirely likely that the new higher ups at Square Enix were to blame for the constant delays and changes. It's less that it made the cut and more that Tabata just wanted a different game entirely, but was stuck with much of the pre-existing material.

However, this is all speculation. After all, we only have Hajime Tabata's word on several things and he's been known to change his mind and admitted to lack of sleep. It doesn't mean what we saw before was finished or not. We can speculate that the E3 trailer was prerendered, but it could be that it really was actually running on an early PS4 build.

The game was not pre-rendered in that trailer. Nomura has always been very upfront when a game was being played on an actual system. The TGS 2011 trailer he stated was the game running not on a PS3 but on a computer. The game went into full development around that time and the story had been finalized. It was around 2012 that the game was changed to XV, but since Nomura was still on board as director the story had not changed. He even said so himself in an interview after the rereveal. An interesting thing concerning an interview was Tabata was that the game was 50 percent done at the time he took over but that "you should consider the development reset now that I'm director". An interestING way to phrase it.

Here's an old illustration for my Kingdom Hearts story that I have neglected to upload here for some reason. So here you go.

Had to edit some typos in the last post. Will try and do the same for the previous chapters.

Chapter 4: Introspection Traverse Town – Secret Caverns Hope had suggested exploring some of the caverns in Traverse Town and Iris was wishing that she had said no to it. They had gone and inspected five already and of them, they had only managed to get into one. And so far it had nothing of interest in it. “How many caverns and secret areas did you say you had written down?” Iris asked. “About thirty.” Hope replied. “Thirty? And how do you suggest we go and cover all of them?” Iris retorted, folding her arms together. “We probably won’t tonight, but we’ll be happy to have checked out.” Hope said as he pulled out a pocket notebook and scribbled something on it. “At least we know that some of them require certain things to get into them.” “Where did you find out about these caverns anyway?” Irvine said, examining some of the scratch marks on the walls. “I asked around.” Hope replied. “It’s amazing how easy it is to get someone to tell you something when they aren’t being leered at.” Irvine simply laughed at that and said nothing. “And how many are we going through tonight?” Iris asked. “At least ten more.” Hope said as he put his pocket notebook away, then gave them a sly smile. “Come one, it’ll be fun. We’re bound to hit something interesting.” “Yeah, very fun.” Iris said as she walked further into the cavern. “I can’t imagine anything worse than this.” Omega’s Gummi Ship "This must be the place." Zell's voice said, though Omega wasn’t really paying attention. "You okay?" Lulu asked, looking back at him. Omega thought she sounded worried, but her face didn't show it. "No, I'm fine." Omega said, trying to sound a blank as he could. Sharing his thoughts with them wouldn't help any. "Thinking about your girlfriend again?" Zell asked, not looking back at him, though Omega could tell he was grinning. "No." Omega said. "Come on, you two aren’t hiding anything.” Zell said, laughing a little. Omega said nothing and just glared at Zell, who automatically stopped laughing and realized that now was not the time. "What are you two talking about?" Lulu asked her arms folded impatiently, like she always seemed to. Omega and Zell automatically fell silent. How could she be so smart and yet so dense when it came to that? "Nothing." Zell said, while Omega remained silent. Lulu scoffed. "So, what are you thinking about, Omega?" Lulu said. "This "Keyblade" thing? "Obviously. It simply doesn’t make sense no matter how hard I think about it." He leaned forward, resting his arms on his knees and interlocking his fingers. "None of this feels real." He looked at Lulu. "What do you think?" "I'm thinking the same as you." Lulu said. She looked away and placed the forefinger of her left hand under her lips. "But without any more information, it's hard to draw conclusions. We were clearly set up to be there. For what reason, though?” Zell made some calculations for the landing process before adding his thoughts. "Gotta keep all ideas in mind, right?” They all nodded in agreement. As Zell brought the Gummi Ship down to land, they all were thinking the same thing. No matter what, they were going to get answers. They landed in front of what looked like a castle, but it only looked like one, as it was too small. The proportions were not what a castle looked like, or at least not one that Lulu had ever seen in the books she had read. Several turrets floated in the air all around the main structure. How did it seem to defy gravity like that? There were also large wing designed structures behind the castle, for what purpose she could not say, but it certainly left an impression. The armored man from before stood in front of the doors to the castle, waiting for them. He looked over them as they approached. As they did, his armor disappeared in a flash of light, and what looked to be an ordinary man stood there. He wore grey robes with gold trim and some bits of armor on his shoulders and chest. He had short black hair that was slicked back and green eyes that had a sharp look to them. He had an aura about him that suggested he was always on alert. "Hello, Omega, Lulu, Zell." he said in a calm voice. "I appreciate that you've come here. My name is Arcanus Verum." They saluted in respect… or at least, Lulu and Zell did. Omega just folded his arms impatiently. "We are honored." Lulu said. The man named Arcanus dropped his stern expression for a moment and smiled, almostly bashfully. “Please, there is no need for that.” The man nodded. "I'm sure you have many questions, but I must ask you to do something first. Omega, can you summon that Keyblade again?" Omega said nothing and just held out his hand. The weapon had disappeared after they had gotten to their ship, but as soon as he thought about it, it appeared in his hand in a flash of light. "That is no ordinary weapon, as I’m sure you’re aware." Arcanus said upon the Keyblade's appearance. "Obviously, you three already figured that out." None of them said anything, though they had given it a great deal of thought. "I, too, wield the Keyblade. You could say that I am a Keyblade Master.” "Keyblade Master?" Omega said in an incredulously tone, but he didn't ask further. “Why did I get this?" Omega held up the Keyblade. "What is this thing?” "It is a weapon of great power, a weapon that only a chosen individual can use." Arcanus said. "Especially after they prove themselves in some way.” Lulu didn't know what he was referring to, and neither did Zell by the look on his face, but recognition seemed to dawn on Omega's face. He looked at Arcanus with an expression that was unreadable. An expression he often had when he was trying to hide what he was feeling "Where you that voice in my dream? Omega asked. "Yes, I was." Arcanus said. "I have been waiting for a chance to meet you. I wish I could have done so before you encountered that man. And once that man set his sights on you, I couldn’t react fast enough to stop him." “Seems highly suspicious to me. I don’t see why you couldn’t.” Omega said, his tone full of incredulousness. Lulu groaned. Omega was always like this with their teachers as well, or at least the ones he didn’t respect. “Omega, try not to antagonize the man.” "Whatever. Why give me this Keyblade?" Omega asked, looked away from Arcanus and at the weapon. "I didn't give it to you." Arcanus said. "You were just meant to have it. As I said, the Keyblade chooses who will wield it and you obviously qualified as someone who can wield it." Lulu wasn't sure what to think at this, nor did Omega or Zell obviously. This was getting too complicated, but she didn't say anything. Not that she didn't have anything she wanted to ask, but she got the feeling that Arcanus only wanted to speak to Omega. "Not like you’re going to give me a straight answer, but why did you want to meet me?" Omega said. “And again, why couldn’t it have been sooner?” "I’ve wanted to for some time, but I couldn't approach you until the Keyblade actually manifested." Arcanus said. "One can learn how to fight with the Keyblade themselves, but often cannot bring out its true power. I want to help you to do so." "I’m not against using it, if it’s so powerful.” Omega said, his face unreadable as he stared at the Keyblade. “But I don’t want your help.” Lulu and Zell both made incredulous gasps of surprise, but Zell was quicker to speak up. “Dude, I don’t think it’s a good idea to reject the guy.” “This is man is just as suspicious as the other guy. Talking to people via their dreams is creepy.” Omega said and it was clear that nothing any of them said was going to get him to change his mind. Arcanus, however, just smiled in bemusement. “I don’t blame him for thinking that. And I’m not gonna force you to train with me, since with the Heartless so out of control, I do not have time to train anyone. If you to use that Keyblade during your missions, that’ll be enough for now. You'll at least be able to get experience with it even if you won't be able to use its full power.” “I will. But I’m not gonna train with someone who refuses to give me straight answers.” Omega replied, the Keyblade disappearing again as he said so. It was at this that Lulu finally had enough. “Fine, you won’t do it, but that doesn’t mean we can’t just burn this bridge. Stop being so stubborn about this.” Lulu said angrily, though Omega just looked away, indicating he wasn’t going to stop being stubborn about this. Lulu couldn’t deal with his nonsense right now. They had a question that needed to be answered and they weren't getting to it quick enough. "Who was that man? And why did he destroy a world just to get this Keyblade to manifest?" Lulu asked. Arcanus turned to look at her. He stared at her for a moment, as if trying to gauge how she would react when he answered. "That man." Arcanus said, his voice grim. "I do not know who he is." "Oh come on, really?” Zell almost shouted the words out, stepping forward as he did. "You seemed like you did back on Trabia! I’m starting to think my buddy might be right." "You misunderstand. I’ve met him, but I do not know much about him.” Arcanus continued, looking at Zell now. "But I don't know his real name. No one does. He always uses an alias.” "How convenient.” Omega said under his breath. "Even if I knew his name, I wouldn’t tell you. I will admit to that." Arcanus said in that infuriatingly calm voice. "You shouldn’t be going after him right now. You aren’t ready.” All three of them were about to protest, but decided not to. It wouldn't have done any good to do so anyway. "Omega, Lulu, Zell, I apologize that it had to go this way, but that man obviously wanted this to happen in this way." Arcanus said. "I don't know what he is planning, but I do not think that you should not try and go after him. However, I know you three will. It will be your mission once you report it. There is no stopping it." All three of them nodded. There was no way to keep this secret; they would have to report it. "Do you mind if we stay here for awhile." Zell said. "I don't mind." Arcanus said and he gave a small smile. "You're always welcome here." He turned and left them. Lulu sighed and looked at her friends. Zell looked very annoyed by this and she couldn’t blame him at all. Even though they had gotten some answers, it had only raised more questions. She looked at Omega, but he wasn’t look at either of them, nor at Arcanus’ retreating figure. Omega was staring off into the distance, towards the mountains. His face was still as unreadable as it had been since Trabia. Zell had clearly noticed this too. "Omega." Zell said, placing his hand on his friends shoulder. “I get what you’re saying, but we need all the allies we can get at this point.” “I do as well, but I don’t why you have to be such a jerk about it.” Lulu added in. “You may be able to somehow get away with it at Garden, but now we’re on our own, we don’t have the luxury for your authority issues.” "Sorry about that." Omega said calmly, walking away from his friends without even looking at them. “Why don’t you guys go and report in?” Lulu watched as he walked away, though he didn't follow Arcanus or go back to their Gummi Ship. She was tempted to follow, but she couldn’t think of anything to say. "What do you think?" Lulu asked Zell. "I don't know, Lu. I’m completely lost.” He said, scratching his head and he did so.. "But he’s right, we have to report in.” Lulu nodded and they both set off for the Gummi Ship. Hollow Bastian - Library "Hm, quite impressive." Maleficent said as she walked around the Library of Hollow Bastion. She often came here when she tired of the others, but today she was with her greatest ally. And perhaps her most dangerous one. "Thank you very much." Came the reply. A black haired man wearing black clothing to match sat in a chair next to a table, a book in front of him. But he wasn't reading it, Maleficent knew, he just wrote in it. She never looked, not like she needed to. She knew he would never let her look at it. "But, perhaps there would have been an easier way?" Maleficent said. "I'm afraid in our time frame; I didn't have much of a choice." The man in black said. Maleficent didn't know his name, he never said. But he was a valuable ally, even if he refused to tell her. But this also kept her on guard regarding this man. She knew he was capable of anything. "I couldn't risk having Omega and Sora meet. And since Sora is going to land in Traverse Town, it was even more vital that Omega not be there." “How did you know that this Sora boy will appear in Traverse Town?” Maleficent asked him, though he only smiled. “Traverse Town is a safe haven for those whose worlds are lost to darkness. It is highly unlikely that he’ll end up somewhere else.” “That is not what I mean.” Maleficent insisted. “I mean, how can you be certain of what time he’ll arrive?” “I have my ways.” He said, though he placed his hand on the book, a gesture that he clearly wished for her to notice him do. "I see." Maleficent said and decided that she didn’t need more than that. At this moment, that is. “You seem to have outdone yourself this time, regardless.” The man chuckled at that. "What about the others?” He asked. “Do you plan on telling them about this?” "Eventually.” Maleficent replied, smiling a little. “Though there are some things they don’t need to know.” The man in black chuckled. "It shouldn't be long now." "Quite right." Maleficent said. She turned and walked down the stairs. "Soon Kingdom Hearts will be ours. You have been most helpful with this, Nero." “It is the least I can do, my lady.” “Nero” said. The man in black, “Nero”, smiled as she left; a smile that didn't bode well for Maleficent. "My dear Maleficent. You have no idea." Traverse Town – Apartment Section Iris collapsed onto the couch the moment they had gotten by to the apartment. Hope had been right that it would get more interesting, if one found relentless Heartless attacks interesting. “Alright, I admit that it might have been bad timing.” Hope said as he sat down on the other side, his notebook out again. “Still, we did get a lot of valuable data.” “True but I’m not looking forward to doing it again.” Iris replied as she opened up a bottle of water and took long drink. “Where’d Irvine go?” “Went to take a shower, no doubt.” “Sounds about right.” Iris said as she picked up the remote and turned on the tiny TV. There wasn’t much on, but she just wanted something on to take her mind off of things. It had been a long and rough day, the Heartless more active then they usually were. She wanted to see if anyone was gonna mention anything about it, though it seemed no one had found anything out yet. “I’m sure we’ll find out tomorrow once everything calms down.” Hope said as he wrote down a few more things before putting it down. At that moment, there was a buzzing noise. “What was that? The phone?” Iris asked. “Probably.” he pulled a specialized phone out of his pocket and flipped it open. “This is Hope. Anything to note?” Hope looked at her and mouthed the name “Aki Ross” at her. “Yeah? What’s she have-” Iris was about to ask, but the look on Hope’s face had distracted her. He looked absolutely horrified. “T-that can’t be right!” he stammered. “Are you sure?” Iris looked at him, her chest suddenly feeling tight as she did. “What is it?” she asked. Hope turned his head towards her and what he said made her heart drop into her, “Trabia Garden has been destroyed.” Arcanus’ World "I see." Instructor Trepe said over the computer in the Gummi Ship. "Did you manage to find out who this man was?" "No ma'am." Lulu said. "We haven't been able to." Instructor Trepe sighed audibly. "Well, there is nothing to it. I'll report this and we'll try to figure it out. Here are your new orders though. Track down this man in black and make sure you manage to apprehend him." "I understand, ma'am." Lulu said. "Good luck." Instructor Trepe said and she signed off. Lulu turned off the communicator and leaned back in the chair she was sitting in. "Yeah, easier said than done." Zell said, sitting in the pilot's seat, his hand resting behind his head and his feet up on the dashboard. "Some first mission, right?" "I know." Lulu said, not bothering to argue with him. "I don't think we'll be able to, truthfully." Zell looked over at her when she said that. "Why?" Lulu hesitated, but went on. "I got the feeling he was toying with us." She said. "He had this whole thing planned and wiped out a whole world just to get us to go there. Just who is he?" Zell shrugged. "He's bad news, no matter how ya look at it. We can't let him go around doin’ as he pleases." He stood up and stretched a little. "I think we should get some rest. No point starting now." "You're right." Lulu replied. "You go ahead; I’ll wait up for Omega." Omega sat on a chair that overlooked the area around the castle. Omega could see trees and rivers, as well as the mountains. But he also noticed that there seemed to be towns, or at least buildings, though he couldn't see anyone. Or perhaps there weren't any, and he was just imagining these buildings? He just sat there in silence, trying to analyze everything that had happened to them since Traverse Town. The dream, the man in black, Trabia’s destruction and, of course, the Keyblade. The Keyblade. A powerful weapon that had appeared before him. A weapon that the man in black knew would appear before him. But…why him? Surely there was someone else that was more worthy of such a weapon. But the Keyblade had appeared before him. Omega shook his head in annoyance. Perhaps he was thinking too much about this a little too much. He was tired and it was growing dark out. He was certain that Lulu would scold him if he stayed out too late, especially in a strange world. But suddenly, he heard something approaching from behind. Suddenly alert, Omega jumped out of the chair and turned to face it; the Keyblade automatically appeared in his hand, which was definitely useful, if nothing else. But there wasn't anything there that needed the Keyblade. What stood in front of him was a small blue creature. It was only about three feet tall, had long ears and a stubby tail. It had black eyes that were looking right up at him. It was also carrying something around its neck, but he couldn't tell what it was. Omega's first thought was that he had never seen such a creature before. But then he remembered that he had thought he had seen something small and blue running away from that man in Traverse Town and at Trabia Garden as well. Now that he thought about it, it made sense. But why had he been at Trabia Garden? Had he stowed away on his ship with them noticing? "Are you the one who helped us before?" Omega asked the creature. It nodded. "Did you sneak aboard our ship to do so?" The creature nodded again. "Okay, why?" The creature frowned a little and suddenly began talking, although Omega couldn't understand a single thing it was saying. Now that he heard it talking, he thought it sounded male. "Uh?" was about all he could say as the creature stopped talking. "I couldn't catch that." Omega replied honestly. The creature's ears dropped and he rubbed his chin, possibly trying to think of a better way to tell Omega whatever he had been trying to. Finally, he seemed to settle on something. Slowly, he began talking again, though in English this time. It was strained and difficult for him. Obviously he wasn't very skilled in the language. "My….my name….Stitch…" He said as he held out his hand. “Hi.” Omega raised an eyebrow at this, but just shook Stitch’s hand. "Hello, Stitch. I'm Omega." He told him. "Now, again, is there a reason you stowed away on my ship?" Stitch nodded. "Looking." "For what?" "Terra…Aqua….Ven….." He replied. "Do you….know…..where they…are?" Omega shook his head, "No, I don't. I don't even know who they are." He said honestly. Stitch's made a noise that Omega interpreted as disappointed and crushed. He had never met anyone by those names, and he was curious to know why Stitch thought he might. "Why are you looking for them?" "For…help…." Stitch said. He lifted the object around his neck, although he didn't remove it, for Omega to see. Omega leaned in to look closer, and now noticed that it was some kind of good luck charm made out of different pieces of metal. "…friends…..circle….." Omega wasn't sure he understood. It was clear that whoever Terra, Aqua and Ven were, Stitch considered them very important friends and needed help from them. He just didn't know how to find them. But that still left one thing. "Why do you think I can find them?" Omega asked Stitch. The answer came almost immediately and was something he wasn't expecting. "Keyblade." Stitch said. It was as if Omega had been hit over the head with a bat! These three people were also Keyblade wielders?! And Stitch thought he knew where they were because he now had a Keyblade? But Omega had not had the Keyblade when he had left Traverse Town. There was no way Stitch could have- Of course, the man in black! He had known before Omega had, he had said it right to his face! Stitch must have heard that, and automatically zeroed in on Omega because of that, most likely under the impression that Omega had already had the Keyblade. Stitch had taken a chance, and it had turned out for nothing. Stitch sat on the ground, looking dejected and miserable "I'm sorry." Omega said. He couldn't stand to see anyone sad. "But I don't think I can help you with finding Terra, Aqua or Ven." Stitch didn't say anything and neither did Omega. He was filled with a desire to help, now that he had an idea of what was going on. "But, maybe I can help you anyway. I can travel to other worlds obviously; maybe I could at least try to help you look for your friends and-" "Not just Terra, Aqua and Ven…..Lilo too…" Stitch said. "Need to find…..Lilo…" "Is Lilo a friend of yours as well?" Omega asked him. Stitch nodded, looking as if he might start crying. It was a strange but sad sight. Obviously this was a touchy subject, but he needed to know more. "What happened?" But somehow he knew the answer. He didn't know why, and when he heard it, he still had been able to hear it but not register it. "Alp…" Stitch started, but looked scared to use the name, "That…man in black….came…..took Lilo and rest of family….." Stitch told Omega. "Did…..horrible things to Stitch too….." He quickly became quiet after that, and Omega couldn't say anything either. He was at a loss for words. The man in black, at first Omega tried to say it was just a coincidence. But Stitch had said "That man in black" not "A man in black" and Stitch had been there when he had appeared in Traverse Town. That was how Stitch knew about Omega's Keyblade after all. Not only that, but Stitch was about to say his name, Omega was sure of it! "When did this happen?" Stitch sniffed, looking even more on the verge of tears. "….six years..." He said. Omega didn't ask anymore, nor could he. He wasn't going to make Stitch tell him anymore. Whatever happened was so horrible that Stitch was obviously still affected by it. Omega curled his fist in anger, but he uncurled it and looked down at the ground. What could he do? Lulu heard Omega walk in, but didn't turn her head to see. "Took you long enough! You should rest up; we'll be heading out once all of us….." She turned as she said that and stopped abruptly. Omega could understand why. He was carrying Stitch on his back, a difficult task since Stitch was much heavier than he looked. He hadn’t necessarily wanted to be doing this, but he knew that she wouldn't react well to him any other way. There was a short silence, followed by, "What is that?" "This is Stitch." Omega said simply, letting Stitch jump down on one of the empty chairs. "He stowed away when we left Traverse Town and helped us at the Trabia Garden.” "And why are you telling me this?" Lulu managed to say. Lulu looked calm, but Omega was sure that her temper was about to rise once he said what he was about. She did not take surprises well at all. "Because, I sort of agreed to help him." Omega said. “Excuse me?” was all Lulu seemed to be able to say. Perhaps out of shock or anger, she seemed to be at a complete loss for words. At that moment Zell decided to walk up as well. "Ah, I thought I heard the ramp come back up. What took-" He started to ask, but stopped when he saw Stitch. Luckily, he didn't react as badly as Lulu. "Who is this?" "Stitch." Stitch said, not waiting for Omega to speak for him. "Omega help Stitch." "It talks." Lulu said. Her calm demeanor was now completely gone, something that did not usually happen, so Omega must have really angered her this time. "Of course it talks." Stitch stuck his tongue out at Lulu in response. Lulu turned back to Omega. "I want an explanation now." "Omega, I really don't understand either." Zell said more calmly. Omega blew air out of the side of his mouth. Where to begin? Well, finally got around to updating this. Enjoy and let me know what you think!

To be honest, I never thought they removed this mechanic. The lack of it in gameplay footage for awhile could be because it was disabled when shooting the footage to be used. Or it could be there was a bug while programming it in HD that needed ironing out. Who knows, but there was never a chance that the drop gauge was removed from the game.

The soundtrack and combat are the main draws for me. Aside from Stand by Me, which I'm not a fan of, the music has been a consistent delight to listen to. I can't wait to listen to it more. I've watched the rest of the universe and played the Judgment Disc and the story is definitely a disjointed mess, but I'm hopeful that there are some good stuff in it.

I already have a PS4 and always intended to buy it for PS4 even before I got one. So this is honestly a pretty clear choice for me.

Here's a concept pic of my main character's Keyblade. The idea was to go for something simple, to be expected of a starter weapon, like the Kingdom Key. The name is... iffy, but at the same time I can't say I can think of one that's more appropriate to what I want to achieve with the story. EDIT: Darn it, I meant to put this in my art thread.... oh well.

Hehe, good. That makes me feel better about my decision. For a long time, they were in the story, but eventually I just couldn't justify using them since they just weren't working. Though Hitchhiker's was almost able to be kept, though it would have made the fic more zany then what I was looking for. J.D. from Scrubs also was the Doctor that Omega met up with in Chapter 1 instead of Aki Ross, but obviously he was excised.

Well, I'm not really sure, but I guess I don't mind too much. I can't really blame you for not realizing I was just showing off my own art.

Thanks once again. Will try and get the next chapters out soon. Here's a fun fact about this story. When I was writing it, I was heavily inspired by a fanfiction called the Keyblade War by laredotornado. He was a bit of a jerk who kept removing and trying to add things that just didn't fit with Kingdom Hearts. Though at the time, I was a teen, inexperienced and wanted to put in things I liked as well. And two things that were in the fic that I liked was The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and Scrubs. Both were also present in my fic, but have since been removed as I just felt they neither fit and I wanted to turn this story into something that felt more like the games.

A retcon would be new information that would change what was already established. This isn't a retcon because her not mentioning Mickey doesn't mean she didn't meet him. It's just that he's not brought up at all because Ansem never talks about him and Aqua probably wouldn't want to dwell on it if it happened recently. Like maybe she actually believes that Mickey got caught up in a huge Heartless attack.

I liked the music and the visuals, but outside of King Regis and some of Nyx's moments, I didn't care for the story at all. The movie also made me really dislike Luna, who before I didn't care much for to begin with. I wanted to like her, but this movie just made me wish she'd get killed, even though I knew she was definitely gonna live.

Thank you on all points. I am glad your enjoying the story so far and the characters.

Chapter 3: Garden of Shadows Trabia Garden, that’s what it was really called. Specter was a code name, something that only members of SeeD were supposed to know. Just in case any enemy was likely to intercept any transmissions. This way the students could be trained without worrying about unexpected attacks. There were several other training worlds like this out there, all of them under different codenames. The world was a dark place; the ground was a purple color, while the trees looked dead. A lingering shadow fell over the place due to clouds that never parted so no stars or any kind of light shown through. It wasn’t the nicest world to begin with, what with being mountainous and snowy, but seeing it look like this was unsettling. As they stepped out onto the dark world, they immediately feared that what the man in black had told them was true. The training base still stood, but it was severely damaged and looked as if it would collapse at any moment. The air had a faint musty smell to it. “Looks like they were overwhelmed.” Lulu said, leaning down to inspect a damaged machine. “A very large attack wave of strong Heartless, no doubt? “Yeah, looks like it.” Zell replied. His voice was heavy, much unlike how he usually was. He scowled and continued speaking. “I don’t expect we’ll be finding anyone here.” “Probably.” Omega said solemnly. “We can’t go back without knowing for sure, though.” His fist clenched as he walked forward and studied the place closer. As he did, three Soldier Heartless materialized in front of them, ready for a fight. “Still here.” Omega said, drawing out his gunblade and slicing down on one of the Soldiers, while the other two were taken care of by Zell and Lulu. No more appeared after they had fallen, but Omega didn’t put away his weapon. “Probably will be more, let’s get moving.” He said, moving forward into the wreckage. The inside of the complex was just as bad as the outside had suggested, if not more so. There were slash marks on walls, as well a scorch marks and holes. The lighters flickered on and off as they searched through the hallways. Omega was worried that they may not find anyone, which was a feeling that the others shared. They didn’t have to say it for him to know though. A sudden crash was heard and all three of them pressed up against the wall. They knew better than to attack without knowing what it was. Zell poked his head over and gave the all clear sign. Whatever it was had gone. “Maybe someone is alive?” Zell whispered to the others. “Hopefully.” Omega said. Lulu as well. However, they didn’t find or hear anything else and the hope that they might quickly fell apart. Despite this, they searched the entire place just in case. Thirty minutes into the search, Lulu suddenly stopped and folded her arms. A troubled look appeared on her face. Omega turned to face her when he saw this. “Hey, what’s wrong?” Zell turned to her as well. “I was just thinking. We were not the only ones sent here, right?” “Right.” Both Omega and Zell said. “So why haven’t we seen them yet?” Lulu asked them. There was a very uncomfortable silence, and all that could be heard was the sound of an approaching storm. None of them wanted to say what they were thinking. “They….they probably just haven’t made it yet.” Zell said, but with no real conviction in his voice. Omega tried to say something to add to that, but the words didn’t come out. He too was hoping that they had indeed not made it to this world. After all, there were no ships here from Traverse Town beside their own. “I think-“, Lulu said, looking from side to side, “that we’d better be careful. That creep in black definitely has something to do with this, and he may be watching.” “Agreed.” Omega and Zell said together. They heard another sound, a loud banging this time. They suddenly tensed up for a moment. A smart movie, as Shadow Heartless suddenly appeared all around them, starting their attack immediately, the three friends barely having time to dodge and block before Soldiers joined in as well. While Omega slashed at the Heartless with his Gunblade and Zell punched the Heartless, Lulu used her magic both to cause damage and distract the Heartless while they tried moving away from them. This hallway, while big, was still not an ideal place to fight and the quicker they got to a much better area, the quicker they could effectively take care of the Heartless. However, more Heartless just kept materializing, making it near impossible to actually move out of the way of their assault. The three of them kept fighting, still looking for a way out of the situation. “Perhaps we should just charge them?” Zell said. “No, very bad idea at the moment.” Omega replied. “There’s too many of them, and we’d leave ourselves completely exposed from behind.” “Well, we could use a very good distraction right now!” Lulu said, causing the other two to laugh slightly despite their situation. A large piece of what looked like part of a wall suddenly flew over their heads and hit the Heartless in front of them, causing all three to suddenly stop what they were doing in surprise. Omega thought he saw a blue creature where the wall had come from, but it disappeared quickly. “W-what was that?” Zell said, completely surprised by this. “At this point I wouldn't care if it was pink elephants." Omega said as more Heartless began materializing in front of them. Some of them moved in the direction that the wall had come from. “Whatever, just move!” Lulu shouted and began to run over the place where the wall had been. Omega and Zell regained their sense as well and quickly followed her. “Isn’t there anyone coming?” Zell called out “I doubt it!” Omega replied. “It doesn’t matter if we can get to our ship!” Lulu said. “This is a lost cause.” Getting out of the destroyed building turned out to be easy after that. Omega, Lulu and Zell had to deal with Heartless, but not quite as much, since they seemed to be chasing that blue creature Omega thought he had seen. They all ran as fast as they could before finally making it out. They did not come out the way they came, and the only thing they knew was that this was not the same way they had entered. “How far away are we from the Gummi Ship?” Omega asked, breathing heavily. “I don’t know,” Zell said, his hands on his knees, “but it might be on the other side for all we know. We did have to lead them through a quite a chase.” “There’s nothing to be done about it.” Lulu said, clutching her stomach and breathing just as heavily as her friends. “Going back in there would be a bad idea no matter what.” “You said it.” Zell said. After a moment they regained their composure and began running again. As it turned out, they had ended up on the other side of the building and had a long walk ahead of them. It didn’t matter, though, as it was still easier than trying to get through a building full of Heartless. But then again, they still had to deal with the occasional Shadow and Soldier Heartless. Thunder could be heard, with a few bolts of lightning appearing as well. They soon saw the Gummi Ship right where they had landed just a few minutes later. “Ah, finally.” Zell said, a happy expression appearing his face. Omega couldn’t help himself either. “It’s in one piece. The Heartless haven’t touched it.” As soon as they tried getting closer to it though, a force field suddenly activated and trapped them. A large black Heartless appeared right in front of them. An image from his dream suddenly appeared in his mind. It was the same kind of Heartless, no doubt about it. “Oh, you got to be kidding me.” Omega growled, any happy feeling he had vanishing. “I hate déjà vu.” he added, making Lulu and Zell look at each other confused, but they both shrugged it off. The Heartless started off by forming a ball of energy in its fist and slamming it into the ground. “Now! Aim at the head! Give it everything you've got!" Omega said. He jumped onto the fist, and began striking the Heartless’ head, Zell following his example with a charged fist of energy, punching it right in the face. “Move!” Lulu said. Omega and Zell jumped out of the way as Lulu sent a Fire spell at the Heartless, followed by a Blizzard spell, Thunder Spell and finally an Aero. The beast stumbled slightly, allowing Lulu to throw of one last spell before it burst into dark energy and faded, taking the barrier with it. Someone began clapping behind them. “Impressive, I didn’t expect you to take out that Darkside so quickly.” Said a familiar voice. All three of them turned to see the man in black standing on a large piece of broken wall. “But then again, SeeD is supposed to produce excellent fighters, so this isn't all that surprising." He smiled, rather menacingly. “So you did have something to do with this!” Omega said, raising his Gunblade in gun mode at the mysterious figure, standing his ground firmly. Lulu and Zell got into their own fighting stances, their eyes focused on the man as well. Lulu clutched her Moogle doll tightly to her chest. “So I did.” The man in black said. “In a way, you could say I directly caused this.” “What do you mean?” Zell said anxiously. He clenched his fists tightly. “Isn’t it obvious?” the man said, a horrible smile appearing on his face. “I controlled the Heartless and had them destroy this place. It seems like a simple idea to grasp, personally.” “What!?” Omega said his anger quickly rising the more the man spoke. “You did this!? What for!?” Lulu said as anger formed on her face as well. She held up her Moogle doll, bracing herself for the next round. “To get you three here, of course.” The man said, his smile not fading in the slightest. “Not too hard, truthfully. But it still got us very far in other areas as well.” “You!” Omega said, leaping for forward and trying to strike the man with his Gunblade in sword mode now. This turned out to be a stupid idea, as the man caught the blade in his hand. “Tsk tsk, forgotten your training for a moment it seems.” The man said in that calm voice. “It’s quite a shoddy blade anyway, don’t you think? Let me fix that for you!” He added as he, with amazing strength, broke the blade clean in two. Omega barely managed to register any kind of surprise as the man kicked him aside. Zell went to help him up, but Lulu kept her sight on the man as he did. “Tell me this, why did you want us here?” “Well, let’s just say it’s a little experiment. A test of sorts.” The man said. “Very good plan.” Lulu said with sarcasm in her voice. The man simply smiled more, as if he actually found her more amusing than anything else. Sweat began to form on the back of her neck as the man approached her, but she didn’t back down. “Got you here, didn’t it?” the man replied. “You’re a monster!” Zell shouted. “What makes you think that?” “You destroyed an entire world just to get us here!?” Omega said as Zell helped him up. “What else could you be otherwise!?” He stared at the man, hatred flowing through him as he put his Gunblade back in gun mode. He pointed it at the man. “And you don’t even feel any remorse for it, do you?” “It’s true, I did attack this world. But, are you not responsible for this as well?” “How would that click?” Zell snarled. “What if I told you that this place was only attacked right when you guys got the assignment to come here?” The man said, his voice calm and cold now. A horrible silence filled the air as his statement sunk it. “Impossible!” Zell shouted. “That’s utterly absurd!” Lulu said. “There’s no way that could have happened. You couldn’t have even known we’d be the ones sent here!” Omega said defiantly, but it felt like something hard had fallen into his stomach. It couldn’t be possible, it was stupid to suggest it was. But this feeling… “And why not?” The man said. “Think about it, if I didn’t know, then how could I have told you back in Traverse Town?” “That’s-“ “And even then, you guys didn’t even know what was going on here. You just knew an incident might have happened. You didn’t know anything, but instead of making sure you could get here fast enough, you three went out hunting monsters for fun. Just like the children you are.” “That’s not true, we tried to find out what was going on!” Omega shouted, but the feeling in his stomach was even worse now. He stole a quick glance at his friends. Neither of them had shown whatever they were feeling on their faces, but he knew instantly what they were feeling just from that glance. Zell’s fists were clenched and he looked like he was about to be sick. Lulu’s knees were shaking slightly, but she still held her ground. “Talking to one person hardly counts.” The man said, his smile now gone. “The fact is, that you didn’t take any real initiative to finding out if there was a problem.” “That isn’t fair. How were we supposed to know?” Lulu said, her voice trying to stay calm. “A trained soldier, complaining about fairness?” The man said, chuckling now. “What a ridiculous idea, don’t you think? Wake up! You aren’t going to save anything if you’re not ready to accept the idea that you might screw up.” The words stung, they shouldn’t have, but they did. Omega’s hand shook as he pointed the Gunblade at the vile person in front of him. Lulu was right, it wasn’t a fair assessment, no matter what he might said. From the information they got, they couldn’t have known. And even if they did, what would they have accomplished? “Even if we had… would we have saved anyone?” Omega asked quietly. The man looked at him and then, in the coldest way possible, without a smile on his face, he got his answer. “No.” Omega’s eyes flashed at that. “Then what is your point!?” He growled. “What are you trying to say? Do you even have anything to say? Or are you just trying to mess with us?” The man said nothing, which only made him angrier. “I refuse to believe that. No matter what, we would have saved them.” “That’s right!” Lulu said, her knees no longer shaking, her voice no longer trying to hide her distress. “We may not have known and we may not have tried hard enough to find out, but that only means we’ll try harder from now.” “We aren’t gonna let people like you hurt anyone else.” Zell said, punching his knuckles together and then placing his right leg forward. “That’s right, we’re gonna make sure to stop you right here and now!” Omega said, the right corner of his mouth going up in a small smile. “We couldn’t save them, but we can at least bring their murderer to justice.” ‘And how will you do that without a weapon?” The man said, his smile returning. “You have no idea what you are getting into, with a broken weapon and already tired out from having to fight so many drones of Heartless. And to top it off,” He pointed above them, where a huge ball of darkness was growing even large above them. Flashes of purple lightning was streaking the sky in rapid succession and the wind was blowing ferociously around them. “If you insist on fighting, you will be pulled into the destruction of this world. And what will you have achieved then?” Omega didn’t even blink. “As long as we’re together, we manage something!” Omega said as the three of them got into a battle stand and got ready to launch into a new attack- A bright light suddenly enveloped them for a few brief moments, but it felt much longer than that. And when it cleared, the damaged Gunblade in his hand was gone, replaced instead with a new weapon. But it didn’t look so much like a weapon as it did as a giant key! It had a black guard on it that, a sharp steel blade, the end of the blade helped with the key similarities by having teeth that formed a crown like formation. A keychain also dangled off it, some kind of box with a crystal and the omega symbol on it. “What the?” Omega said, his eyes no longer on the man in black and instead on this new weapon. Lulu and Zell had dropped their stances and were staring at it as well. But the thing surprised Omega most was that the man in black… was laughing. “Excellent! My experiment was a success.” He said. “You have finally awakened to your power!” He then clicked his fingers and several Heartless materialized between him and the three friends. There were Shadows and Soldier Heartless, but there was another one they hadn’t fought here yet. It looked like a bigger, and fatter, version of the Soldier, with huge hands and feet. Despite how it looked, it hit very hard and tended to go berserk when it too much yet. It was known as a Large Body and it wasn’t to be taken lightly. Their attention was immediately taken away from the strange weapon and to their immediately predicament. “Show me the power of the Keyblade!” Keyblade? There was that word again. In Traverse Town he had called Omega the “Chosen Wielder of the Keyblade”. Was that what this weapon was called? He didn’t have time to think further on it when two Soldiers jumped right at him. Instinctively, he slashed at them and they both exploded into a black mist while two pink glowing hearts also floated away. Omega had never seen anything like that happen before when he had destroyed a Heartless. He had no time to reflect on this when two Shadows tried attack him as well, but a blast of fire ended that. He looked back and saw that Lulu was holding her hand out, palm facing forward. She smiled at him and he grinned back and nodded in appreciation. “Omega! Let’s take em down and worry about it later!” Zell said as he placed a hand on Omega’s shoulder. Omega looked at his friend and nodded. The Large Body was running at them now and Omega held the Keyblade in front of him in a guarding position, which stunned it long enough for Zell to run behind it and kick it in the back of the head. He and Omega then dived out of the way as another blast of fire from Lulu hit it square in the torso. Omega then jumped up and sliced right through the Large Body. The Heartless then exploded into a fine black mist as well, a heart also rising up from where it had been. The man in black was laughing again now, as well as clapping. “Excellent, excellent!” He said, a large smile on his face. “That was an impressive showing.” “And you’re next!” Omega said as Lulu and Zell moved to flank him. “Am I?” The man said, his smile never faltering as he held up a hand. “Shall we test that too?” A ball made of fire and lightning appeared in his hand and he threw it. Something huge crashed down in front of them, sending a cloud of dirt their way that they covered their eyes for. When they looked it was a large figure, clad in golden armor. He held up his hand and large barrier appeared before them, blocking the ball of lightning and fire from reaching them. “This has gone on long enough!” The armored figure said. He had a soft, but slightly deep voice. It was calm, but there was an element of quiet strength behind it. “It seems you’re going to interfere now.” The man in black said, that infuriating smile still on his face even now. “It doesn’t matter though, I got what I wanted.” A dark portal opened up behind him. “Hold on!” Omega said. But the man in black had already stepped through and was gone. “There is no time. We must leave immediately.” The figure said. The ground shook horribly again as he said that. “I’ll explain soon enough, but you have to leave now.” The ground shook violently again and the ground started to crack. There was a flash of light and the figure was gone. Though his voice lingered. “If you want to know what’s going on, then you must go now!” “He’s right.” Lulu said. “We have to leave.” “Darn it.” Omega nearly shouted. “Just what is going on? What just happened right now!?” It didn’t make sense, none of this made sense. What was the point? Zell had the same expression on his face that Omega had, only Lulu was able to remain focused. “It doesn’t matter, we’ll find out later!” Lulu shouted at the two of them. Omega regained his sense and nodded. The three of them ran straight for the Gummi Ship. They watched from the cockpit of the Gummi Ship as the Trabia vanished and was consumed by the Darkness. As he watched it go, Omega felt nothing but a cold emptiness inside him. He didn’t know what was going on, but he wasn't going to rest till he got answers to this. Kingdom Hearts The Other Story

I'd have to finalize his outfit and Keyblade before I did that. Probably won't be till after Chapter 3 is up. But thanks.

Very nice concept.