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mimi_sardiniaOkay, so this is a direct continuation of what is now being referred to as my Zexion-bunny.
I totally spammed![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
serinance with this on AIM so now the rest of my Flist is getting it.
Anyway, recap of the last post for this bunny:
Zexion and Lexaeus experimented with a way to prevent a Nobody's soul dissipating if the Nobody was killed. They don't have time to take it to the rest of the Org before CoM events happen but it ends up working when Lexaeus is killed but a crystal that holds his soul is left behind.
Zexion gets the crystal, survives the fight with Repliku but is either banished or is forced to flee that world in the fight. He later return to the World That Never Was, around the same time DiZ's computer blows a hole in Kingdom Hearts and lets a lot of the hearts escape. Lexaeus' soul crystal acts as a guide to finding Elaeus' heart and, as a result, Zexion also finds his own.
So what happens afterwards?
Once upon a time King Mickey calls Sora, Riku and Kairi to look into a situation he has been asked for aid on.
There is a world, further out from Radiant Garden so it didn't have as much problem from the Heartless, that is dominated by magic. Magic is a part of everyday life there and is considered that world's highest pursuit. The world is ruled by a council of High Mages who all are part of a university that studies High Magic.
When the Trio get there they are told that the University had a member who joined it a few years before (this story is set something like two or three years post-KH2) who has become increasingly murderous, secretive and generally dangerous. What's more, this person has in his possession a talisman of great power that he stole from the High Mages, but he has yet to unlock it's power and the High Mages are worried that once he does he will have the power to destroy them and go on to conquer other worlds.
Sora the Trio go to confront this person only to find that it is an ex-Org member - Zexion.
Actually, Sora may not remember him all that much because the only thing he ever saw of Zexion was notes in the Ansem Reports about Ansem the Wise's assistants - he didn't even meet Zexion in Castle Oblivion and he can't remember those events anyway, thanks to Naminé's handiwork.
Roxas remembers him however, as does Riku.
Anyway, confrontation happens and Zexion - who insists on using the name Ienzo again - accuses the Trio of blindly trusting the High Mages and instantly jumping to unsavory conclusions due to bad memories involving him. He also accuses the High Mages of totally twisting the facts so as to prevent Ienzo from completing a totally harmless project and of attacking him, whether in person or by proxy via assassins.
Despite arguments against it, and against believing Ienzo at all, Sora decides the only way to make sure is to look into Ienzo's mind (or heart - which could be another test as well, to see if Ienzo's claim of having a heart again is true) to find out the truth.
One of the problems Ienzo has had up until now however is that his body, soul and heart are not totally stable together, causing a strain on him. The reasons for this are partly due to the magic to protect his soul and partly due to being a Nobody for something like 10 years before regaining his heart. While searching for the truth Sora accidentally discovers this instability and instinctively *locks* the parts of Ienzo's being back together.
This obviously causes a bit of backlash for both of them but Sora recovers in minutes and Ienzo in about an hour or so which gives Sora, Riku and Kairi time to talk over the information Sora gained from Ienzo - Riku still not trusting Ienzo because of his memories of Castle Oblivion but Roxas begrudgingly on Sora's side.
Turns out Ienzo's reason for being on the High Mage's world is so he can find the magic he needs to restore Elaeus - whose heart and soul are within the crystal the High Mages referred to as the "powerful talisman" and claimed that Ienzo had stolen from them. Ienzo has been secretive, and he has been killing the High Mages' emissaries, but those "emissaries" were as he said - assassins and mages out to kill him and steal Elaeus' crystal from him.
There was one incident of this type that particularly stuck in Ienzo's mind, mainly because it was the first and it was also a big lesson to him that having a heart again can lead one astray, if one is not careful. Early in his time in the University, as he was making his way up the ranks to a point where he would be able to conduct the experiments he needed, he was befriended by one of the mages who made subtle offers to help Ienzo get what he wanted. Ienzo allowed himself to trust the mage and told him what the crystal was and what he was wanting to do with it. The mage betrayed him, tried to kill him and take the crystal so he could turn Elaeus into some sort of summonable slave.
That was the first person Ienzo had to kill to protect himself and Elaeus.
When Ienzo recovers from being locked together again he is actually rather cheerful. Sora's reintegrating his various parts means he can finally carry through the final stage of his project - the real part where he rebuilds Elaeus' body and restores his friend to life.
The reason why he couldn't do this until now is that the only way he would be able to do it is if someone willingly gives up a part of their own life force. It has to be willing so Ienzo was never able to forcibly use one of his attacker's life force to do this part and his own up until now was too unstable and too concentrated on keeping himself together for him to do it.
So the final stage of Ienzo's project happens, and Sora even offers to stand guard so as the High Mages don't try to stop it. Ienzo hadn't told them however that it needed for him to sacrifice part of his life force, so after it happens Ienzo is left in a very bad state, and while now restored to life, Elaeus is not very good either.
They'll both recover eventually - "life force" is one of those things that will replenish with enough time, if the person has peace to recover in. Said peace however is not something they will have on the High Mage's world because the High Mages will try to exact revenge on Ienzo, a point that when Ienzo says as much Sora proposes giving them a lift offworld - say back to they're original home world, Radiant Garden.
Leaving the High Mage's world results in the High Mages themselves confronting the group, accusing the Trio of betraying them by siding with Ienzo, and of being party to the destruction of a stolen treasure of theirs. This results in a fight between Sora and Riku and the High Mages while Kairi gets Ienzo and Elaeus onto their gummi ship.
They end up getting away safely and despite worries on the reception they'll get they do head for Radiant Garden and Sora gets into an argument with Leon about letting the two ex-Org members return home and they are eventually allowed to stay - under probation.
The Trio head for Disney Castle to tell King Mickey what happened and eventually return home and everyone lives happily ever after.
.............
Note: The world of the High Mages was inspired partly by the Forgotten Realms country of Halruaa, where magic is very widely used and even the common peasant knows a spell or two to make their life easier, and partly by Unseen University of the Discworld books - particularly of what it was like in the early books, before Ridcully became Archchancellor and the wizards were a rather murderous lot who worked their way up the ladder of rank by killing those above them and maintaining a healthy paranoia about the ones below.
All in all, I think this has to be the complete plotbunny I have ever had. If I thought I could get it finished and had even a hair's chance of getting the characterizations right I'd write it, but I know what I'm like, this acts like a multi-chapter epic in my head and I'd more than likely give up before I'd finished even the first chapter and if I'd even got any headway in it I don't trust my characterization skills anyway.
Still, the bunny wants to spread-eagle itself across my brain and regale me with fluffy post-story slashiness between Ienzo and Elaeus, because really, it all started as a resurrection plotbunny that would result in a happy slashy ending for those two.
I totally spammed
serinance with this on AIM so now the rest of my Flist is getting it. Anyway, recap of the last post for this bunny:
Zexion and Lexaeus experimented with a way to prevent a Nobody's soul dissipating if the Nobody was killed. They don't have time to take it to the rest of the Org before CoM events happen but it ends up working when Lexaeus is killed but a crystal that holds his soul is left behind.
Zexion gets the crystal, survives the fight with Repliku but is either banished or is forced to flee that world in the fight. He later return to the World That Never Was, around the same time DiZ's computer blows a hole in Kingdom Hearts and lets a lot of the hearts escape. Lexaeus' soul crystal acts as a guide to finding Elaeus' heart and, as a result, Zexion also finds his own.
So what happens afterwards?
Once upon a time King Mickey calls Sora, Riku and Kairi to look into a situation he has been asked for aid on.
There is a world, further out from Radiant Garden so it didn't have as much problem from the Heartless, that is dominated by magic. Magic is a part of everyday life there and is considered that world's highest pursuit. The world is ruled by a council of High Mages who all are part of a university that studies High Magic.
When the Trio get there they are told that the University had a member who joined it a few years before (this story is set something like two or three years post-KH2) who has become increasingly murderous, secretive and generally dangerous. What's more, this person has in his possession a talisman of great power that he stole from the High Mages, but he has yet to unlock it's power and the High Mages are worried that once he does he will have the power to destroy them and go on to conquer other worlds.
Sora the Trio go to confront this person only to find that it is an ex-Org member - Zexion.
Actually, Sora may not remember him all that much because the only thing he ever saw of Zexion was notes in the Ansem Reports about Ansem the Wise's assistants - he didn't even meet Zexion in Castle Oblivion and he can't remember those events anyway, thanks to Naminé's handiwork.
Roxas remembers him however, as does Riku.
Anyway, confrontation happens and Zexion - who insists on using the name Ienzo again - accuses the Trio of blindly trusting the High Mages and instantly jumping to unsavory conclusions due to bad memories involving him. He also accuses the High Mages of totally twisting the facts so as to prevent Ienzo from completing a totally harmless project and of attacking him, whether in person or by proxy via assassins.
Despite arguments against it, and against believing Ienzo at all, Sora decides the only way to make sure is to look into Ienzo's mind (or heart - which could be another test as well, to see if Ienzo's claim of having a heart again is true) to find out the truth.
One of the problems Ienzo has had up until now however is that his body, soul and heart are not totally stable together, causing a strain on him. The reasons for this are partly due to the magic to protect his soul and partly due to being a Nobody for something like 10 years before regaining his heart. While searching for the truth Sora accidentally discovers this instability and instinctively *locks* the parts of Ienzo's being back together.
This obviously causes a bit of backlash for both of them but Sora recovers in minutes and Ienzo in about an hour or so which gives Sora, Riku and Kairi time to talk over the information Sora gained from Ienzo - Riku still not trusting Ienzo because of his memories of Castle Oblivion but Roxas begrudgingly on Sora's side.
Turns out Ienzo's reason for being on the High Mage's world is so he can find the magic he needs to restore Elaeus - whose heart and soul are within the crystal the High Mages referred to as the "powerful talisman" and claimed that Ienzo had stolen from them. Ienzo has been secretive, and he has been killing the High Mages' emissaries, but those "emissaries" were as he said - assassins and mages out to kill him and steal Elaeus' crystal from him.
There was one incident of this type that particularly stuck in Ienzo's mind, mainly because it was the first and it was also a big lesson to him that having a heart again can lead one astray, if one is not careful. Early in his time in the University, as he was making his way up the ranks to a point where he would be able to conduct the experiments he needed, he was befriended by one of the mages who made subtle offers to help Ienzo get what he wanted. Ienzo allowed himself to trust the mage and told him what the crystal was and what he was wanting to do with it. The mage betrayed him, tried to kill him and take the crystal so he could turn Elaeus into some sort of summonable slave.
That was the first person Ienzo had to kill to protect himself and Elaeus.
When Ienzo recovers from being locked together again he is actually rather cheerful. Sora's reintegrating his various parts means he can finally carry through the final stage of his project - the real part where he rebuilds Elaeus' body and restores his friend to life.
The reason why he couldn't do this until now is that the only way he would be able to do it is if someone willingly gives up a part of their own life force. It has to be willing so Ienzo was never able to forcibly use one of his attacker's life force to do this part and his own up until now was too unstable and too concentrated on keeping himself together for him to do it.
So the final stage of Ienzo's project happens, and Sora even offers to stand guard so as the High Mages don't try to stop it. Ienzo hadn't told them however that it needed for him to sacrifice part of his life force, so after it happens Ienzo is left in a very bad state, and while now restored to life, Elaeus is not very good either.
They'll both recover eventually - "life force" is one of those things that will replenish with enough time, if the person has peace to recover in. Said peace however is not something they will have on the High Mage's world because the High Mages will try to exact revenge on Ienzo, a point that when Ienzo says as much Sora proposes giving them a lift offworld - say back to they're original home world, Radiant Garden.
Leaving the High Mage's world results in the High Mages themselves confronting the group, accusing the Trio of betraying them by siding with Ienzo, and of being party to the destruction of a stolen treasure of theirs. This results in a fight between Sora and Riku and the High Mages while Kairi gets Ienzo and Elaeus onto their gummi ship.
They end up getting away safely and despite worries on the reception they'll get they do head for Radiant Garden and Sora gets into an argument with Leon about letting the two ex-Org members return home and they are eventually allowed to stay - under probation.
The Trio head for Disney Castle to tell King Mickey what happened and eventually return home and everyone lives happily ever after.
.............
Note: The world of the High Mages was inspired partly by the Forgotten Realms country of Halruaa, where magic is very widely used and even the common peasant knows a spell or two to make their life easier, and partly by Unseen University of the Discworld books - particularly of what it was like in the early books, before Ridcully became Archchancellor and the wizards were a rather murderous lot who worked their way up the ladder of rank by killing those above them and maintaining a healthy paranoia about the ones below.
All in all, I think this has to be the complete plotbunny I have ever had. If I thought I could get it finished and had even a hair's chance of getting the characterizations right I'd write it, but I know what I'm like, this acts like a multi-chapter epic in my head and I'd more than likely give up before I'd finished even the first chapter and if I'd even got any headway in it I don't trust my characterization skills anyway.
Still, the bunny wants to spread-eagle itself across my brain and regale me with fluffy post-story slashiness between Ienzo and Elaeus, because really, it all started as a resurrection plotbunny that would result in a happy slashy ending for those two.
