Terra Unbound - Progress

Progress</u>

"Keep your eyes on your opponent!"

"I'm trying!" Terra yelled, clad in his repaired armor, as he fired a Blizzard spell at a piece of wayward furniture that tried to attack him.

Watching from the top of the steps are Yen Sid and the three fairies, Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather. The three fairies watched on in anticipation while the old master watched on with a stoic expression, arms crossed.

Gripping his Keyblade tightly, he sliced another of the oncoming furniture with a battle cry. A lamp grazed his shoulder, the armor clad warrior instinctively gripping his shoulder. He did a take when a couch came flying at him and barely dodged it in time by diving to the ground. He pushed himself from the ground… until he hit the dirt again when a dresser nearly nailed him on the head.

Cursing under his breath, he pounced into the air, did a quick handspring and landed away from the other floating furniture, giving him enough space to try another Shotlock. He pointed his Keyblade at the furniture, locking on as many as he could. When he got a certain amount, he became coated in yellowish aura and literally zipped to the furniture, hitting as many as he could with his Keyblade. He spun around a little in the air before taking off like a blur again, hitting the remaining furniture until they all bite the dust.

The aura fading away, he lightly landed on the ground. "Yes!" He exclaimed, pleased with himself when he finally managed to control the Shotlock: Lightning Ray… until he was smacked onto the head by a piece of furniture that he missed and fell to the ground. "Ow…" He muttered as the furniture, a bookcase, just floated by. Of all things, how the hell did he manage to miss that?? …Or maybe that one just appeared after he took out the others…

The three female fairies, whom started to cheer when Terra had managed to control another of his Shotlock attacks, covered their mouths to stifle their gasp and made sorry looks as they looked at the downed warrior. Yen Sid, though, made a bored expression when the young man forgot about his warning. He sighed through his nose. "I suppose a break would suffice," he said to everyone as the furniture disappeared in bursts of light.

Terra, still on the ground, only raised his arm and raised a thumb up.

Minutes later, Terra sighed in exhaustion as he plopped onto the ground, in the clothes he had worn eleven years ago, consisting a high-collared skintight dark grey shirt, two red straps crossed his torso, almost like suspenders, a pair of tan hakama with gray around the waist where the yellow badge of Master Eraqus is at the obi-sash-like belt, a lighter stripe of tan on the bottom hem, a black wristband on his right wrist, his armor still present on his left arm along with a black fingerless glove and his feet are now clad in his dark brown, gold and red armor boots; he had a towel hanging off of his neck, sweat trickling down his face. Using the towel, he patted off the sweat on his face.

"Terra," Flora began as the three of them go to Terra's side, the red clad fairy holding a cup of water. "would you like a drink?" She offered the cup to the brunette.

Gingerly taking the cup, he nodded in thanks. "Thank you," he said politely and took a swing of the cool liquid.

Yen Sid watched on the interaction of the four and made a small smile. In 51 days, the young man had managed to regain control over most of his abilities…

51 days ago…

The four in the Magician's Study waited patiently for Terra and Mickey to come back through the portal for what seemed like forever. Finally, Mickey stepped out of the portal followed by the brunette haired warrior, who now had his armor on his left arm. Yen Sid smiled proudly while the fairies rejoiced at their accomplishment. "I see that you're back to your old self Terra," the old master said.

The aforementioned young man nodded and summoned his Keyblade to prove it. "Yeah, but it wasn't easy…" He stated as he shouldered it.

The three fairies made happy faces. "That's wonderful dear," Flora said, getting the brunette's attention at them.

"Who are you?" He asked.

"Oh, pardon our manners," Flora smiled sheepishly. "My name is Flora," she looked at the green one, "This is Fauna," then at the blue one, "And this is Merryweather."

"We used to be Princess Aurora's caretakers until the events that happened almost eleven years ago," Fauna added.

Terra's eyes widened at the mention of the blonde princess then retracted. "…I see," he muttered, memories of his visit to the Enchanted Dominion coming to him…

No one seemed to notice though… except for Yen Sid who raised a brow a little.

Though, it's not only the mummer that he raised a brow at. He sensed something was a bit off with Terra… or more like his Keyblade.

"Terra," the brunette looked at the old wizard as he lowered his Keyblade. "Do you feel something… missing after you regained your Keyblade."

This received some odd looks from everyone else but Terra looked at his Keyblade thoughtfully. "…Now that you've mentioned it…" All eyes are on Terra at this. "I was at the Station of Awakening where I got my armor and Keyblade back. Suddenly, a large Pure-Blood Heartless appeared and grabbed me when I was caught of guard. I…" He clenched his free hand as he said the next sentence, "I felt some surge going through me, like it made me weaker…"

"Hm…" Yen Sid strokes his beard. Terra had a random (and corny) thought that it's a universal law for people with beards to stroke them. He doesn't remember Xehanort ever stroking his small goatee, but he must have when he was alone. Just as he was about to poke fun at the topic, Yen Sid suddenly said:

"Let us see how bad it is." Everyone else in the room blinked.

"Wait, what?" Terra let out.

The next thing he knew, he's outside of the tower, the retired Keyblade Master, Keyblade Master/King, and three fairies at the top of the steps, while he is at the very ground itself.

"Try to use your abilities on these 'opponents'," Yen Sid instructed. He circled his hand and held it out at an area in front of Terra. In flashes of light, random furniture appeared, levitating off the ground by magic.

The brunette nodded and got into his fighting stance. He attacked the closest one, destroying it on the third strike. Okay, he still has his strength, but…

Something feels missing.

And, unfortunately for him, he's about to find out.

He quickly spotted another furniture heading toward him, and ducked just in time. As he eyed it, he figured maybe a Fire spell aught to do the trick. With that in mind, he pointed the Keyblade at the hammock, and shouted, "FIRAGA!"

However, instead of a huge fireball like he intended, a small wisp of fire came out, along with a farting sound as the wisp appeared and disappeared.

"What??" The brunette exclaimed, shocked by seeing the weakened Fire spell. Even the fairies and Mickey looked shocked, while Yen Sid watched on. The brunette did a take and rolled out of the way from an oncoming couch.

'Okay, maybe Meteor Shower ought to do the trick!' After the thought, he quickly focused on each and every one of them. Getting a certain amount, he readied his Keyblade; however, he didn't notice that the Keyblade is very dimly lit.

"Shotlock!" He shouted, pointing his Keyblade at them. However, a very weak bullet only came out, wobbling as it slowly floated over to a vase. When it makes contact, it popped with a farting sound.

"…" The brunette had a very shocked look on his face. It worked moments before against his armor! What happen-?

His thoughts were broken as he was hit in the back of his head by a bookcase and fell flat on his face.

"…" The other four stared dumbfounded as Yen Sid had a stoic look on his face. Then, he finally said:

"It seems we have a problem."

Now… (Day 53. XP)

After healing the warrior's injury in his study, the old master told everyone about his theory about what happened to Terra: when the Darkside Heartless had a hold of the said brunette, it somehow weakened most of his known abilities. To simply put, it's as if he's back to apprentice level again.

But he quickly told them that Terra can control his abilities by training. Since he was close to the Master rank (and pretty much technically is), he could perhaps relearn them and control them in no time flat.

When Terra agreed to stay to train, Mickey informed them that he had to get going, for he still had to figure out more of what the organization is up to. After he said his reason, he wished Terra good luck left through the door. A moment after, Terra went after him; moments after again, the brunette returned to the room, saying that he went to see Mickey off before he left.

Yet… he noticed that he seemed… tense about something…

As he stared at Terra, trying to figure out his disturbance, the brunette asked for his armor to be fixed up, which the three fairies immediately offered to do so.

Getting back to reality, he checked over the progress of the young warrior's training. So far the brunette managed to regain control over most of his Command Styles, along with most of his abilities. He also regained control over his most Shotlocks, including Lightning Ray just then. Oddly enough though, according to what Terra said, the young warrior said that he doesn't remember how to perform his Dark-based abilities, along with his Command Style Dark Impulse and Shotlocks Black Volley and Sonic Shadow. It does seem odd, though they decided not to worry about it right now.

Although… Terra had been working none stop, perhaps determined to truly return to his old self before the tragedy years ago. He dug into his pocket and took out a pocket watch, seeing that it is now lunch time.

"Everyone, let us return inside for lunch," he called out to the four at the ground level.

"Is there cake involved??" Terra whipped his head so fast, the three fairies cried out in shock.

At Yen Sid's stern glare, the brunette faulted. "I'll be good…" He meeped, making the sorcerer shake his head with a sigh as he went into the tower.

It's weird that no one knew the young man had a monstrous sweet tooth…

Well, actually, not that bad. But still, it's pretty noticeable.

The Sorcerer's Study

Fortunately, lunch just happened to be some rice along with beef (much to the Keyblade warrior's disappointment), along with soy sauce (If only there's some of mom's homemade gravy to go along with them… yum.) So the five of them sat at the table and ate their lunch quietly. Though, Terra is the only one using chop sticks while the other four used forks and knives.

A moment later, Yen Sid looked up at the brunette, swallowing his piece of beef before speaking. "In a month and three-forth, you've managed to regain most of your abilities." Terra had a piece of beef in his mouth as he looked at the sorcerer.

Releasing the piece of beef from his mouth and placing the plate onto the table the brunette scratched the back of his head, quite pleased with himself as evident by the sheepish smile he made.

"However, you still have a long way to go to regain your powers fully," Yen Sid's next sentence shot down his thunder.

"Uh… right, I knew that," he defended lamely. "I will go back and train once we're done with lunch-"

"And another thing," the brunette was cut off by the elder wizard, "I believe you should have a day off. You have been training nonstop since arriving here."

"Well, yeah, I have to. If I'm going to be any help to defeat Organization XIII, I gotta get my powers back!"

"Yes, but you have to be strong physically and mentally," the wizard pointed out. "You cannot defeat your opponent with a clouded mind, lest your anger cloud your judgment."

Terra's eyes widened as he remembered his journey through the worlds and of his possession by Xehanort. He shook his head, trying to clear the images from his head, he hung his head. "You… have a point…"

Yen Sid nodded knowingly. "After lunch, you'll have your day off to wherever you feel will make you comfortable."

Then something stuck the brunette as odd. "Wait, how can I access to other worlds? I haven't regained the ability to turn my Keyblade into my rider yet-"

"Don't worry, you'll see later," Yen Sid with a smile and a certain glint in his eyes.

After lunch…

"Here Terra," the wizard handed a familiar star shaped object yet colored ruby red with an orange lightning bolt.

The brunette blinked. "The Star Shard?" He looked up at the older man. "Didn't Mickey use this nearly eleven years ago?"

"Yes," the sorcerer nodded. "But this one is modified to go to one world and a return trip back here."

Terra took the object from him and examined it. "Huh," he murmured, impressed a little.

"Now I suggest you go outside and let your heart decide where to go."

"Err… okay," the brunette said slowly, confused. The retired Keyblade Master stared at him with a stern look for a moment. It finally hit the Keyblade warrior. "Oh! Right! Sorry." He quickly hightailed it out of the tower, with the charm in hand.

As soon as the young man left, Yen Sid sweat-dropped behind his head. 'Is it just me, or has Terra been a bit slower lately?' He asked himself. 'Maybe a break will do him good after all…'

With Terra…

As soon as he set foot outside onto the ground, he looked around cautiously before looking at the red Star Shard again.

'Let my heart decide where to go?' He repeated in his head, 'How the hell is that going to work?' But… he never doubted the sorcerer's wisdom once. So… he has to give it a shot, right?

However… he has, absolutely, no idea how to do that… He's never the one with magic after all. That's Aqua's specialty.

'Oh, now I'm stalling myself! Now c'mon, think!' He exclaimed in his head, covering his eyes with his right forearm, the hand still clutching the red Star Shard. After doing so, he tried to think of a place to go to.

He couldn't go to the Land of Departure; the last time he saw it, darkness was eating away at the world. He felt a pang in his chest and he quickly thought about something else. Twilight Town? No, most of the Organization members go there on missions, so that's out of the question…

Then… he remembered the world he went to, where he first met Riku and made the lad his successor. The light there felt… comforting…

Wait… is it just him or is the Star Shard in his hand getting warmer? He checked it and became shocked to see the shard glowing orange, with a pure white light encircling him, a strange warmth overcoming him. A flash of orange and white light appeared around where Terra is. When the light settled, though, Terra is gone.

At the World That Never Was…

Rain was slightly drizzling upon the Dark City. Neon lights blared brightly, though they sometimes flicker before blaring brightly again. A large skyscraper looms over at the middle of the city, a fair distance away from the castle of white steel.

However, in the middle of the road in front of the skyscraper, a lone figure with a black coat and a hood over his head stood there, unflinching as the rain fell upon him, and slid on down on the coat.

Puddles formed on the road, but, suddenly, they started to fill with some sort of black substance. Other black 'puddles' started to form around this being. Then, rising out of the 'puddles' are muscular looking thin 'shadows'; with long zigzag antennas, claws for fingers and glimming yellow, yet hollow, eyes.  

They all twitched and moved a bit as they examined the being they surrounded.

Heart…

Heart filled with darkness!

Dark filled heart!

The figure, somehow, heard them talking amongst themselves; it's as if he was one of them. However, he became used to it whenever he went through the city. The first time was to clear his head of the problems they were having. The other times…

Under the hood, he smirked as he held out his right hand to the side. Some black energy, coursing with blue electricity, appeared in his hand before materializing into a weapon. A key shaped weapon…

Keyblade!

It's a wielder of the Keyblade!

Devour the Keyblade bearer!

They all pounced at the cloaked figure, ready to steal his heart. The smirk, however, didn't leave the figure's face; because this is what he wanted.

With the swipe of the Keyblade, all of the Neo Shadows are killed off in puffs of black and purple smoke. As soon as the Neo Shadows are gone, more rose up from the ground and attacked him. With the Keyblade in hand, he maneuvered his body athletically and began to cut down the Pure-Blood Heartless. A Neo Shadow quickly came up to his side to strike him; however (and quiet amazingly too at that) the figure back-flipped away from the Heartless, literally into the air and landed on one of the spikes sticking out of the skyscraper.

The figure's Keyblade glowed with dark energy as its wielder focused on the remaining Pure-Blood Heartless – who were wondering where their meal had went. When he got a certain amount he jumped into the air as a black aura surrounded him and used the same motion as a certain Keyblader did last chapter to fire off bullets made of dark energy, unlike the ones made of light energy.

The next thing the Heartless knew, they're being bombarded by multiple darkness powered bullets until they met their end when the figure used his left hand to fire off a barrage of energy bullets. After firing off the bullets and the Heartless gone – for now – the round sphere made of darkness vanished around him and he landed gently back onto the spikes before jumped off at the top of the stairs. The rain had stopped falling as soon as the Heartless had vanished and clouds began to disburse, letting the heart-shaped moon show its radiant yellow glow upon the world of nothingness. The moon's rays shined upon the figure's Keyblade, showing the blade in the color of brilliant silver and the guard crimson red before it disappeared in dark energy.

The figure looked at his hand and made an annoyed sound. 'It seems I can't control it yet…' He thought bitterly. He clenched his hand. 'But… I have gotten this ability recently. No matter though,' under the hood, Xemnas made a fiendish smirk, his amber yellow eyes glowing a bit, 'when the time comes, I probably won't need No. XIII, the puppet, and Sora!' He chuckled sinisterly to himself.

"For now though… Roxas should resume gathering hearts for Kingdom Hearts," he silently mused to himself. "He's still useful… for now." He gave one last glance at the moon before letting himself being engulfed in a quick Corridor of Darkness he summoned then vanished from view.

Unaware to him, someone eavesdropped on him. In fact, he had been watching him since Xemnas gained that inverted yet familiar Keyblade. From behind the large truck, the Freeshooter made a half-smirk and chuckled softly as he crossed his arms.

"You may have a bit of Terra's abilities," he mused to himself, "But you still have a bit of Master Xehanort within you…" With that, he vanished in a dark portal as well…