Not Quite a Radiant Garden Anymore [Open]

[Fate]

Troubling Signs
Pessimistic Time from the Code Geass OST

[Note: Anyone can enter this thread; I'm specifically looking for Loz and Maleficent as well as an Organization member. Anyone in Radiant Garden right now is welcome.]

It was only a day after a powerful force of darkness had swept through Radiant Garden, leaving destruction in his wake. The town center shops were mostly destroyed, only some left. No one had been killed through the whole ordeal, some saying it was because of the Restoration Committee's effort to fight back. However, anyone that had been present at the fight knew it wasn't because of that. It was only because the force of darkness had already won; he had tainted their hearts, and this world, with darkness.

That left Kadaj to figure out exactly what was going on. He currently overlooked the town center from far away, a blank look on his face. He had to admit that he was a bit disappointed. If this guy wanted to destroy Radiant Garden, why didn't he just do it? If you had the power to destroy, then why not do it? Though, he knew the answer to that, grinning as he thought of it. It was no fun to watch a world get destroyed without seeing the faces of the pathetic citizens beforehand. He turned his disappointment from the mysterious stranger to elsewhere.

Maleficent; wasn't she supposed to be the Mistress of All Evil or something? That was how she introduced herself to him. If she was so powerful, why couldn't she do what this guy had done? He fought off almost the entire Restoration Committee, something Kadaj knew even he couldn't do alone. That fact just angered him, causing him to grimace. This guy was more powerful than he was, possibly even more powerful than Sephiroth by the looks of it. Whoever he was, he was going to have to deal with Kadaj if he found him.

He wasn't about to go looking for a fight right now; the guy had disappeared and probably would be back sometime, or at least that's what Kadaj thought. For now, he just had to look at the damage, revel in it, and maybe do some terrorizing. Yes, that could always be fun. He started making his way into town, eager to start some trouble.

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[Demyx]

A corridor of darkness appeared on one of the buildings in the marketplace. Demyx stepped out of it, having just arrived in Radiant Garden. "Man, why do I have to check out the place where a strong dark force appeared...?" he complained to no one. Normally he liked doing recon. However, doing recon on an area that was just attacked and the attacker could be nearby didn't sound like the ideal job to take right now. Why couldn't they have sent Zexion? He would've been a better choice for this job.

Oh right, Zexion was making him do this job for ditching out on the last couple missions. Demyx sighed. "Man, its not MY fault they don't always give me missions I feel like doing," again complaining to no one. Though now he started to take a look. "Woah..." he said as he looked at the damage from afar. It looked like whoever had attacked really meant business. Though not everything was destroyed. Did that mean the attacker was stopped or that he as up to something else? Whatever the case, Demyx had to find out somehow.

He sighed again. "Why do I get the feeling this mission isn't going to end well for me?" he asked aloud. Shaking his head, he opened another corridor of darkness and used it to get off the building he was on. Now it was time for him to find some info and then get out of here, the sooner the better.

[Loz]

Man, I Miss All the Fun

Loz walked alongside Kadaj, as they made their way into Radiant Gardens. Yazoo had decided to pass on their little adventure, though he might change his mind and decide to catch up with them later. Apparently one big fight had gone down in the Marketplace, and they had missed it! He was still a little fuzzy on the details though, but apparently it had been some warrior of darkness who was trying to get rid of the light, to tip back the big imaginary scale thing that his brother had explained to him, though he didn't really understand that entirely either. He just knew that the light had grown too big and powerful, and it was up to them to fix the problem.

"So Kadaj," he called out slightly louder than necessary considering the short distance between them. "This mysterious darkness guy, he wants to destroy the light too, right?" he paused for a moment, as if thinking about what he had previously said. "Doesn't that make him our ally?" It made plenty of sense to him. If they had the same enemies, then that meant that they were on the same side. Of course, he knew better than to rely just on his own thinking. Kadaj and Yazoo were both smarter, and usually knew to correct him when he was wrong.

[Matt]

What a Mess...

Faas surveyed the Marketplace, shocked by what he saw. When Yuffie had said the area was in ruins, he thought she had been kidding, but it really had been virtually left to nothing but ruble. "Wow." That was all he could really think to say. It was hard to believe one man could have done all of this, especially with so many strong opponents against him! Whoever this guy was, it was clear that he was trouble, and chances were he would be back to cause more chaos.

From what he understood, the man, this "tool of the darkness", had come to snuff out the light, for some strange reason. The exact reason? Who knew. Servants of the darkness were completely crazy; their minds twisted and corrupted by it. Their reasoning couldn't be expected to make sense. But the thing that really seemed strange to him: Why didn't he follow through? Apparently he had had the entire world at his mercy, so why not finish it? He heard that the man had made it sound as if he was choosing not to, because it was too easy or something. Once again: making absolutely no sense.

He sighed, realizing that he was ranting, even if only in his head. Okay, okay, this guy didn't make any sense; there was no question about that. However there was no time to be wasting trying to pointlessly analyze his every action. What was important was fixing the damage that he had done, right? Right. But where to start... It looked like everything had been destroyed. Well, he supposed they would just have to start back at square one. Best thing to do was to find a way to help, and do it.

[Fate]

He's Not the Only Tool of Darkness Around Here

Kadaj turned his head to Loz as the other spoke, thinking before he came up with a response. He typically ignored questions that Loz had since Yazoo always seemed to have the answer. He only answered if the two didn't come to the right conclusion by themselves. This time he didn't have Yazoo right here next to him though, so he needed to answer questions. It was a good question to ask too, which wasn't unusual for Loz.

"Seems like it," he answered to his first question, "Everyone's saying he's some tool of darkness or something." He stopped to think for the second question, though only pausing briefly. "I don't think he is... if he was really our ally, wouldn't he have tried to get us to help him?" Kadaj had a slight frown on his face now, his words not sounding incredibly happy; instead, they sounded somewhat desolate in manner of speech. This guy that had come and attacked Radiant Garden didn't seem to need their help or Maleficent's. He was powerful enough alone to hold his own against a group of fighters, one of them apparently Cloud. That was something that Kadaj knew he could not do alone and it annoyed him.

"Come on, let's go," he said, walking a little bit faster and trying to get rid of the annoyance he felt. They weren't too far from town now; what they would do there was a little bit questionable. Kadaj just wanted to see the damage he caused first hand. He also wanted to show that this guy wasn't the only 'tool of darkness' around here. They would have to learn that real quick.

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[Nothingness]

Keeping Occupied

Leon stood a few yards back from what had once been a general goods stores. Looking at it, though, you never would have been able to tell what it was. There was a giant gash along the top of the stone front wall as well as numerous impact dents in the rock walls, the entire inside looked like an explosion had taken place, many of the wooden ceiling struts were either broken or barely hanging on, and two of the four corners of the building had collapsed. "Completely irreparable." Leon thought with disgust. Taking his gunblade out, he walked over to one of the remaining corners of the building and tapped his gunblade on the corner; a few rocks fell from the ceiling, along with some dust. Checking his left and right, he quickly swung his gunblade, slicing through the wood and stone as if it were butter, and jumped back slightly as he watched the whole building cave in.

He didn't find it easy to destroy a building he had helped erect, but he knew that it was a process that had to be done. Hardly any of the buildings that...that man had damaged were safe enough to even walk in, and so they had to be rebuilt from the ground up. "That man...the darkness..." Leon knew that he would be finding it harder with each day to remain optimistic, because for every day that went by, he knew that the darkness would grow. As it was now, he still had plenty of hope for their future, but how long would hope sustain him and the others?

Stepping over the rubble of what had once been the building, he saw a lone wood support still standing. Carefully walking over to it, he cut the strut in half. He felt better, taking his frustrations out on this. Turning around he saw Faas surveying the wreckage. "Hey," Leon called out to him, "You mind giving me a hand with this? We need to clear out all of this debris" He needed a distraction right now, anything to keep his mind off of the events of yesterday.

[King Mickey]

No Answers, Only More Questions

During the flight between Land of Dragons and Radiant Garden, Mickey had plenty of time to mull over the details of what had just happened. He couldn't remember Maleficent ever showing interesting in conquering Land of Dragons before. She seemed more obsessed with returning Radiant Garden to its Hollow Bastion state. But as far as he knew, Radiant Garden remained undisturbed by the likes of the witch.

More intriguing to the king was the fact that Kadaj was working with Maleficent, even though the relationship looked to be a bit strained. It was obvious that Kadaj wasn't exactly thrilled to be taking orders from someone else. On the other hand, Maleficent was keeping Kadaj on an extremely loose leash. That could turn out to be advantageous to Mickey later.

A beep on the console alerted him to his arrival at Radiant Garden, and he leaned forward in his seat to better steer the Gummi Ship to an easy landing just on the outskirts of the city. To his utter shock, the nearby marketplace looked like a tornado had just blown straight through it. With urgency, Mickey exited his ship and looked around, taking it all in. Debris was everywhere, though it didn't look like there were innocent bodies strewn about. Mickey hoped the only thing wrong with Radiant Garden was the destruction of buildings. He needed to find someone he knew and fast.

Then, he spotted Leon across the marketplace. Mickey dashed over to him, waving a hand in greeting. "Leon!" He skidded to a halt next to the big swordsman and looked up at him with wide, concerned eyes. "What in the world happened?"

[Nothingness]

Your Majesty?

Leon turned around--that was one of the last people he thought that he'd see again. Well, Mickey wasn't technically a person, despite being more human than most people. "Your Majesty? It's good to see you." Hearing Mickey ask about what happened, Leon paused for a moment, stepping over the rubble towards the mouse King. He didn't particularly want to tell Mickey the events of yesterday, but there were no two ways around it. The King needed to know., no matter how much Leon didn't want to talk about it.

"...and then he told us that we were 'infected' by the darkness, and that it would only grow inside each of us." Leon finished his story. Saying it made it seem all the more real, and made him worry again about the darkness the man claimed to have infected them with. A part of him hoped that the King would be able to help, but he knew that was a slim chance.

[Matt]

You Must Be...

Still trying to decide what to do first amongst the mess, Faas was relieved to have someone show up to make the decision for him. He turned around to see Leon asking him to help clear the debris. "Okay!" he called back back with a slightly forced smile and few nods of his head. Having an order to follow was much easier than having to come up with something for yourself to do. Deciding that Leon must not have had anything else to say, he set off for the nearest building-- or building remains, more specifically, to help start picking up.

Faas stared at the enormous mess in front of him. There was sure a lot of wreckage here, and it all looked pretty heavy. Gosh, where was Merlin when you needed. He wished he knew how to levitate stuff around like he did; that sure would come in handy right about then. Oh well, he guessed he would have to do things the hard way. Bending over, he picked up a large piece of wood that was once been part of a support beam with both hands. Grunting at it's weight, he called behind his shoulder. "Hey Leon, where do you want me to put thi--?"

Turning around, he saw that the brown-haired swordsman was talking to a very short... Mouse. Although he had never met the surprise guest, he had a guess who it was: King Mickey. He had heard stories that included the old friend, who had apparently played a very important role in helping to defeat the darkness in the past. Still with the very large wooden fragment in his arms, he moved over to the two to see what was going on. "Hey, my name is Faas. You must be King Mickey. Nice to meet you." He would have shaken his hand, where his arms not full. Thinking of which, his arms were beginning to tire, and he looked over to Leon. "Where are we supposed to put all of this stuff?"

[King Mickey]

Grim News

The longer Leon spoke, the more clouded Mickey's face became. This unknown invader, who had apparently been too much for the likes of Leon, Cloud, Yuffie, and others combined to handle, not only had laid waste to the hard work of the Restoration Committee, but he had also said some troubling things about the darkness in each of their hearts. Mickey was skeptical of these claims, and he voiced his opinion with confidence. "Leon, don't let it bother you. Any darkness inside you can't control you unless you let it. You're strong, and so are the others. And I don't think you're gonna let someone who doesn't even know you tell you what's gonna happen inside your own heart."

Having finished giving his reassurances, Mickey's thoughts briefly flicked to Riku. He'd be much better qualified to explain to Leon and the others why they shouldn't worry. But since Mickey was ignorant of Riku's current whereabouts, the king would have to shoulder the burden to the best of his abilities. Unbridled fear would eventually lead to paranoia, and Mickey did not want to see the most prominent members of the Restoration Committee withdraw into themselves, afraid to take any action they felt might agitate this alleged growing darkness inside them. They couldn't just hide under the covers and expect Radiant Garden to rebuild itself.

Another face walked up then, carrying a large piece of broken wood. Though Mickey didn't recognize him, the boy seemed to know Leon already, so the king returned his greeting. "Nice to meet ya, too, Faas." The youthful energy Faas devoted to this cleanup task lifted Mickey's spirits. He smiled widely at the boy, then turned his attention back to Leon just as Faas asked his question about where to put all the debris. "Leon, if there's anything ya need me to help with, just let me know."

[Nothingness]

Feeling Reassured

"I was hoping you would say that, your Majesty." Leon gave a rare smile to the King, feeling much better about their situation knowing that his own hopes weren't dashed. As long as he didn't let the darkness take hold of him, that man's prophecy was simply a bunch of empty words. And if that man ever came back, Leon and the rest of the Committee would make sure to prove him wrong.

Turning around he saw Faas coming towards them, carrying a rather large hunk of wood. Leon wondered why the boy hadn't just tossed it out of the rubble, but figured that a little direction would have been for the better. "Uh, just toss it over there." He pointed at a spot against one of the Marketplace's far walls. "We'll try to separate out all the stone, wood, and metal. We don't need to go and get more materials if we don't have too--salvage whatever you can."

Hearing a King's request to help would normally have surprised Leon, but knowing this particular King's kindness, he wasn't. That being said, he wasn't entirely sure of what the King could do to help. "Well, I'm not quite sure. The whole Committee is going to be working pretty hard cleaning up this mess and fixing everything, and I'd hate to delay you if you had any business." He did feel a little rude in saying that to the King, but he knew that whatever made the King leave was much more important than helping the Committee repair a few buildings.

[Loz]

Let the Fun Begin

"Yeah, I guess you're right." he replied to the answer to his question, nodding absentmindedly; not even bothering to stop and question his brother's thinking. Sure, it didn't seem to be that obvious a conclusion to him, but there was no point in him trying to out-think Kadaj. Not to say that he was close to perfect; none of the remnants were nearly perfect. He could make mistakes just like anyone else, but either way it was still better to simply go with whatever he said, and not wasting time trying to figure things out himself.

Loz began to walk faster to keep up with Kadaj's sudden increase in speed. He wondered why he seemed in such a rush. It wasn't like they didn't have all day to cause chaos for all of the unsuspecting citizens of Radiant Garden. Boy would they be in for a surprise when they showed up. They would show everyone how real tool's of darkness do things! The two were now crossing through the Bailey, and though they had yet to run into anyone to play with yet, the Market was close by, and that's where Kadaj had said a lot of people would probably be. He turned to his soon to be accomplice, grinning mischievousness. "Ready for some fun?"

[Matt]

Questionable Company

Faas returned Mickey's large grin with a smile of his own. The King definitely seemed like a pretty nice guy. Despite the fact that it didn't look like he would be taken up on his offer, it was certainly a kind gesture for him to volunteer to help them clean up the market like that. "Okay then." he said simply, glancing over to the area where Leon had pointed. He didn't want to be rude, but they couldn't stand waste too much time talking. Besides, his arms were getting tired... "Well I should probably get back to work now."

With that, he headed over to drop off the heavy load he was carrying. As he was doing so, he caught a glimpse of two men walking towards the market from the other side of the Borough. They both had bright silver hair, and were dressed in tight black leather. Now he might not have had the greatest reasoning behind the thought, but he had a feeling right away that they were up to no good, just by the looks of them. After all, they simply looked like you average stereotypical bad guys. Plus the way they were walking... It just seemed like they were on a mission, and an evil one at that.

Having tossed the wood aside, he ran back over to the two the two that he had been talking to previously, to let them know what was going on. "Leon, there are two suspicious looking guys about to enter the market." He realized the moment he said this how silly it probably sounded, so he hastily added. "They both have silver hair, and are dressed in all black... It just seems like they're definitely up to something." Leon might or might not find the claim very plausible, but he would at least want to check into it. Better safe than sorry, right?

[King Mickey]

Round Two?

On the one hand, Mickey had figured Leon would decline his offer of help that way. On the other hand, Mickey was determined to give any help that he could. His only true "business" was to piece together a way to restore the balance between light and darkness without resorting to the destruction of worlds. Part of him eventually wanted to find Riku again, but for now, the situation here was more pressing.

"I'm not in a hurry to be anywhere. Besides, helping others always comes before helping myself." He grinned at Leon, then watched Faas move off to discard his burden. "He seems awfully young, Leon..." Of course, Sora had probably been somewhere around that age when he had first taken up the task of the Keyblade bearer. Mickey wasn't convinced that this was the same circumstance, though.

Suddenly, Faas was coming back over and said something about two strangers coming this way. Mickey blinked. "Wait...did you say silver hair and tight black leather?" Was Kadaj here, too? Already? But Faas had mentioned two silver-haired men garbed in black leather. That was certainly interesting. And potentially dangerous.

He turned to Leon, giving him a serious look. "You might want to be ready for a fight if Faas saw who I think he saw."

[Fate]

Let's Get This Party Started

"Always Brother, always," Kadaj replied, grinning maliciously as well. They had reached the Marketplace at last and just as the silver-haired remnant predicted, loads of people were there. They were working hard to fix up their precious little town after it had been so wonderfully destroyed. Though, as Kadaj stepped further in, this time at a slower pace, he grimaced. He saw a group of people working that were from the Restoration Committee, only a couple which he story of recognized. However, there was one that stood out from the rest: Mickey.

"Looks like I get to have my rematch," he told Loz, then looking at him, "See that mouse over there? He's the one that stopped my plans to destroy a world. It was because of him that I failed." His tone turned bitter at the end, a glare forming in his eyes. People, or creatures he supposed, like Mickey aggravated him. They fought so blindly for the light without knowing what sort of damage they were doing. It took people like Kadaj to snap him out of it, though he doubted the mouse had changed his view on the light since they last met.

"Let's go say hello. We wouldn't want to be rude after all." With those words, Kadaj started walking over to who he saw. There was a kid that he didn't recognize and a brown-haired man he sort of recognized. Mickey was the one that stood out to him though, of course. He grinned as he approached them, keeping his arms at his sides as he decided to speak. "I think I might recognize you from somewhere. Have we met before?" This question was obviously rhetorical and sarcastic, asked in a cheerful sort of manner. Kadaj kept Souba in its holder, not bothering to even reach for his weapon; if they wanted a fight, they'd bring it.

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