Kingdom Hearts X(cross): Cadunt ad Caelum

You mutter a quick apology to the others and set off, leaping through the trees bough by bough in search of the theoretical end-point to the mission. You're light enough for almost anything to be a viable perch and you can only imagine what a slog through minor Heartless you must be missing on the ground floor, but you're still going too slow for your liking. It makes you antsy, restless, bordering on impatient. You clamp down hard on such feelings. Remember your training. You must be smooth, graceful, strike like lightning when the time does come, but above all you must be patient. And sooner or later you'll have to learn to trust your instincts, so you also try to ignore the nagging doubt that you've completely misread the situation and you'll wind up getting yourself lost crossing the mission boundaries.

Soon enough you realise your worries were unfounded with a surge of relief, albeit quickly tempered with a rush of anticipation. You crouch atop your latest perch, treebranch sagging slightly beneath you with a soft creak, and observe the clearing. There are indeed stronger Heartless lying in wait for your less-fresh comrades. Two of them in fact, so large and rotund as to be almost completely spherical save for their muscular, manacled arms. Their feet seem to just protrude straight from the bottom of their bodies without any discernable legs to attach to and their heads seem like tiny, be-hatted afterthoughts perched precariously atop the rest of their mass. Their skin is a deep indigo-black compared to the dozen or so pitch-black Shadows clustered around them, and they even seem to be wearing clothes. Or attempting to, at any rate. Their dark purple suits barely even lace up all the way, dull gold thread straining across their rotund frames. All the better to see the emblems on their chests, bright as a brand. A heart with a fleur-de-lys at the bottom, pure black with a scarlet trim and thorny, jagged lines dividing it into quarters. Clearly a far-different breed to what you've been training against thus far.

Different breed, different tactics. Already you get the feeling that a frontal assault would be a terrible idea for several reasons. They don't seem too intelligent, scratching their heads ponderously or staring into space, but that's no reason to underestimate them. You carefully circle the clearing, leaving your Keyblade wherever it goes when you dismiss it so as to keep both hands free, ears always straining to catch the telltale sounds of battle approaching. Careful, careful, survey the situation, and... aha. You think you see your chance. The big one on the left (well, right from where you're sitting now) is slightly further back than its fellow, the half-dozen Shadows on its side clustered just a little closer. You call Starlight back to your hand, and act.

A stream of water arcs down from on high, striking the big Heartless square in the back. It stumbles forward a step, seemingly more confused than seriously injured, but the Shadows around it are flattened like ninepins by the splashdown. A flick of your wrist and you switch spells, flinging a many-pointed crystal of ice from the tip of Starlight before the stream can even finish falling. It crunches and crackles and crystallises, becoming a swooping arch of ice as the Blizzard crystal strikes the Heartless in the back and bursts. Frigid air blasts in all directions as the already-wet Heartless are completely frozen over, left yellow-eyed statues helplessly staring in all directions absolutely bewildered as to what just happened. You leap from your hiding place at last, ice crunching and crumbling and shattering at your heels as you skate down the icy rail your spells left, taking the moment of dizzying descent to focus yourself. A thin film of lavender light flares around you as you let go of Starlight, flinging it ahead of you like a spinning disc. The first few layers of frost crack, the large Heartless lurching forward. You twist as you land and grunt with effort, drawing the Keyblade back and sending it spinning in a wide arc all around. Crack cr-crack crack CRASH and all around you your foes shatter into icy chunks, dissolving into wisps of black smoke. Only their Lux is left behind like the specks of precious ore in so much rock, gleaming bright as stars. You bring your wrist up with a grin of triumph and call it all into the band, the clear jewel shining brighter and brighter the more it absorbs.

Okay so you probably should have saved that for later. In your moment of misplaced priorities the other half of the group have wheeled around to face you, and the second large-framed Heartless has plenty of time to kick whatever fragment of consciousness it has to work with into gear. It hoists its own hanging belly up a little, as if struggling to deal with its weight, only to leap shockingly high into the air in an almost graceful arc right over your head. You throw yourself back with a cry of shock, turning the ungainly dodge into a handspring to save your footing, as the Heartless comes crashing down belly-first where you once stood with an earth-shaking tremor. Which, regrettably, hits you almost as hard as being directly beneath it might have. The shock thrums up through your legs and into your core, your very bones seeming to shiver painfully as it hurls you off your feet. The breath leaves you in a sickened gasp but you rise all the same, forcing yourself up to one knee.

Fortunately it looks like the big Heartless was just as winded by the impact as you were. Unfortunately it's still had time to recover, and the cadre of Shadows flanking it makes circling around to attack its less-lethal back more of a dicey prospect. You take a defensive stance and back up a few steps, warily considering your options. Stalling until the others arrive is a possibility, but... what about your rank?

The Heartless decides it doesn't much care about your rank or any number of other concerns, instead violently hurling itself forward and sprinting belly-extended straight at you. Still it's far enough away, and slow enough even at top speed, that you have time to react. A surge of magic from Starlight and you're dodging out of the way in the nick of time - leaving a patch of treacherous ice where you once stood. Its heavy, stomping foot comes down and sllllip- crrrash! The Heartless comes down hard on its front, bouncing and skidding until it careens headfirst into a tree-trunk with a heavy thonk. It lies still, perhaps confounded as to what could have possibly led to these circumstances. You move to capitalise on its weakness only for the lingering Shadows to findally make themselves known. Suddenly beset on all sides you desperately fend off their attacks, disengaging from the flock with a hop, a skip and a jump to make some space. The Shadow cluster spreads out, gazing at you with eyes like lambent yellow lanterns, twitching and juking left and right as they ponder how best to make a meal of you. You flick your gaze left and right, watching carefully for the first sign of a flanking maneuver, judging the big one to be too stunned and injured to be much use to its fellows right now.

You judge wrong. The first thing you notice is movement, just out the corner of your eye. The next is the big-bodied Heartless shaking its fists in the air and hopping from foot to foot in a silent expression of outrage that you dare humiliate it so. But then it charges, simply hurling itself to the ground and skating on its belly like a furious seal far faster than it could ever run, and you freeze. You freeze in place, staring at this massive Heartless growing bigger and bigger as it races towards you, too fast to dodge now, too massive to just block. There was a time to get out of the way but it came and went and now all you can do is watch your comeuppance zooming up to you, burning red with fury.

"STOP!" a voice cries, and it does. A sound like the ticking of a great clock echoes and fades through the clearing as the Heartless freezes in place, not from cold but in time. Your confusion lingers for only a single second. The next is spent taking a long, almost exaggerated step out of the line of fire, then another one for good measure. The end of the third second sees the big Heartless unfreeze, resuming its berserk charge as if it were never halted - and you suppose, from its perspective, it never did. You just vanished in the blink of an eye and now it's going too fast, can't stop itself, headed straight for the-

CRASHBOING it goes as it hits the next tree so hard it rebounds, spinning out wildly like a top as it goes. Muscular arms and stubby legs flailing wildly like a flipped crab as it bounces back and forth through the clearing, smashing into its own fellows only to shatter them into black smoke and Lux. You watch it slide to and fro with something close to sympathy until it finally, mercifully, bounces off one last tree and comes to a stop. It's so easy to imagine the concussed groan it would be making if Heartless could speak. Only then does your saviour at last appear by your side.

"You alright?" Ephemer asks, silver eyes scanning you up and down in concern.

"Yeah, yeah of course," you reply. Then add, sheepish and apologetic, "I could've taken the other one too it just... startled me is all."

"I know," he replies, and the shocking part is he's completely sincere. He shoulders his own copy of Starlight and flashes you a playful grin. "What, weren't planning on doing any cooperation in your Union Cross mission today?"

"Was anyone?" you reply.

He snorts. "Yeah, that's fair."

Silence falls, enough for the sounds of the others drawing closer to filter through the trees. You cast a somewhat wary look at the surviving large Heartless, half-expecting it to pull out yet another trick. But no, thank heavens for small mercies - after the discombobulation it just got it seems to be having trouble with standing up again, let alone attacking. You gesture toward it.

"You gonna-?"

"Hm?" He follows your gaze. "Oh, nah." He rotates his shoulder exaggeratedly. "Really tired myself out fighting to get here and throwing out that spell, I think I just want to take a rest for a minute. Would you mind doing the honours?"

"Oh! Um. S-sure, I mean, if you want." You turn away, blinking rapidly, desperately searching for something to cover your flustered confusion. Luckily you find just the thing - a single wayward Shadow, miraculously spared by the bigger Heartless bouncing all around, glancing this way and that as if trying to work out if it should attack or flee. You raise Starlight and swing it through the air, as if casting a lure from a fishing rod, and a glimmering cord arcs out to perfectly strike it on the head right between its crooked antennae. You yank it back with a flick of your wrist, spin it around over your head, and with another brisk flick you fling it at the other Heartless like a missile. Both come apart with the force of the impact in puffs of black smoke, Lux spilling out across the grass. This time it's safe to raise your free hand and gather it all up, letting out a sigh of relief and satisfaction as glimmering stars from all across the glade come flying into your wristband. The once-clear jewel now shines with light. You smile at Ephemer appreciatively.

Blaine's the first to catch up with the two of you. He picks his way across the broken ground, hops a raised tree-root, and pauses at the edge of the clearing to prod his hat-brim up with the tip of his Keyblade. There's still a bang of ashy grey-brown hair in his eyes but that part doesn't seem to bother him. He glances at the suspiciously clear clearing, then at you with your prominently full wristband of Lux.

"You sly dog, you figured out the toughest enemies were the furthest in and came straight here," he says, sounding completely unenthused. "With a criminal mastermind such as yourself competing with us how could we possibly stand a chance."

Strelitzia fights her way through the undergrowth next, midway through brushing her hair back into place when she notices you and Ephemer. "Oh, there you are! Are you two alright? Once I lost track of you I started to get worried!"

"Don't worry, we're fine!" you reassure her. "Though, hah, admittedly you can thank Ephemer for that."

"Thank you, Ephemer!" Strelitzia says immediately, so sincerely that he can't help but avert his eyes and nervously scratch at his silver curls. You just grin and watch him suffer.

Then, finally, the fifth member crosses the proverbial finish line. You hear Lapis coming by her heavy footfalls and puffing breaths long before she actually comes into view. She has her Keyblade shouldered, sweat glistening across her face and exposed arms. She's easily the tallest and broadest out of all of you, with a physique that not only belongs in Ursus but probably puts half the Union to shame in the process. Her fur-lined jacket is tied around her waist like a skirt, her eyes and close-cropped hair so blue that you've heard it said before the two of you could be siblings.

"Woof! That was something!" she exclaims. "Must've been like, two hundred Heartless. Three hundred, easy." A quick sniff. "So that's probably me top of the rankings today but hey I bet you guys had fun too, right?"

"Oodles," Blaine replies.

"C'mon, let's head back," says Ephemer. "No point standing around talking about rankings when we can just go see for ourselves!"

He gets no argument there. Once the five of you are all rested up and satisfied that there's no Heartless left anywhere in the forest, you head back to the Citadel.

There's no Foretellers there in the Fountain Plaza to congratulate the top-ranking warrior and formally promote anyone of course, hasn't been for a long time. As rare as Union Cross missions may be, they have far too many more important things to be doing these days than coming down and chatting to every graduating class in the Citadel. Instead one of the Chirithies takes command of the ranking board (with the aid of a footstool), needing to go up on tiptoes and hop a little to put a pin in the highest name. Once its job is done it hops down from the stool and waddles away. You idly wonder whose it was - each one of you gets a Chirithy, a bonded spirit that looks and feels like a particularly large tabby-cat plushie that walks on two legs, with a miniature purse hanging around their neck (lacking in pockets, you see) and equally miniature cape. Completely identical down to the sweet, high-pitched voice, but they certainly never have trouble telling each other apart. Your Chirithy is sitting on the edge of the plaza's titular fountain, bouncing up and down eagerly awaiting your return with your score. You shuffle your way through a crowd that's more curious onlooker than actual participant and crane your neck to see the board.

Looks like... looks like you came first! You can't help but beam. You really came first! But as your eyes trail down the list - Ephemer second, Lapis third, Blaine fourth, Strelitzia a respectably close fifth - you realise something. When you look at the actual scores themselves, Ephemer is practically neck and neck with you. Close enough that if he hadn't let you finish off that second big Heartless, he would've surely placed first instead. Did he know? Was he deliberately giving you first place, or just too careless to realise what he was giving up? The question makes you frown as you fade back into the crowd and sit down by your Chirithy.

"How'd you do?" they ask.

"Came first," you say.

"... well gee you don't sound very happy about it," they remark.

"Yeah- no- I know I shouldn't be ungrateful!" you reply quickly, twisting your fingers through your hair. "It's just a little complicated, is all. Any messages for me?"

"Hmmmmmm..." Chirithy sticks a rounded paw into its purse, rummaging around through its contents and scanning a few paper scraps with eyes made of glossy sky-blue thread. "(Old notice of examination, time and date, spam, spam, boilerplate from the Union desk, spam)- oh!" They pull out a newer-looking piece of paper. "There's going to be a party tonight, down by the beach! Everyone who just graduated to solo missions gets to come and bring a friend, and they take walk-ins. Chirithy passed it to me."

"Whose Chirithy?" you ask, already preoccupied.

"Chirithy," Chirithy replies, as if this will enlighten you any further. You nod as if it did.

"Well, tell Chirithy..."

[ ] You'll be there on the dot. You've got no other plans this afternoon, and you think you should make the most of any opportunity to spend time with old classmates in other Unions.
[ ] You might show up a little later. You want to go hang out with one of your friends from Anguis first, swap stories, maybe talk about some things before you jump right into a party.
[ ] You might show up a little later. You want to spend some time alone first, maybe wander around town and check out some of the new shops first, just work through your thoughts and decompress for a while. Maybe you can even scope out the venue ahead of time.