The End of Light

[kefka]

***From First Time Flying, Hyperspace***

[glow=Yellow,2,300]The mad clown held onto his prey, claw-like fingers digging dangerously deep into the boy's flesh; there was no way for the boy to escape, unless he was a masochist who liked having large holes torn even wider.

And besides, the kid was not even conscious. Though unfair, Kefka wasn't one to play fairly. He watched hungrily as the crystalline ball grew close, and he couldn't help but laughing maniacally.[/glow]

[keybladedestiny]

Peter awoke. "Huh? What?" He gasped when he saw Kefka holding him. He violently tried to shake him off, accidentally ripping the clown's fingers out of him. His scream could not be described as human.

[kefka]

[glow=Yellow,2,300]Everything had seemed to be going his way for the most part, and that was good. Surely the reward for such grand work would be worth all this trouble. However, all the mad clown truly wanted was Terra, an old toy of his from his home world Cosmos.

But then he awoke, probably due to Kefka Sinking his claws deep into the kid's flesh, and ripped himself free. Angrily Kefka watched as Peter fell the several feet below his position; he'd survive the fall, but the blood loss would take him out in the end.

the harlequin lowered himself to the sands below to meet the boy and fired a ball of lightning at his ship, since this idea was now exhausted.

instead it was time to wait; Jones would feel the dying child's presence and soon make himself known. hey, it would be a chance to have some more fun.

"Well, boy...I've had fun..."

He grinned, gathering a ball of fire between his palms, waiting to deal the killing blow.[/glow]

[Davy Jones]

The roar of the ocean tides was deafening. The raw, seething power of all the ocean was as undeniable as night and day, and when the deathstroke had been dealt, it would make its presence known. The waves that lapped endlessly at the rocky shore of the island rose slightly, washing over the body of the armored boy and began to drag him out to the open sea.

The boy would sink like so many cannonballs, due to the weight of his armor, but odd enough he would find that he could breathe even with salty water filling the suit through the holes where Kefka had ripped at his body. Salt plus wounds... that can't be comfortable, either.

As he floated downward slowly, upside down due to the weight distribution and the underwater current, the boy might notice a dark presence approaching as though walking along something solid, though nothing was below him. The creature came into view, passing through a stream of sunlight casting odd shapes over him from the ripples on the surface. His face was squidlike, and one of his arms ended in a deadly looking claw. His free hand lifted a pipe to his lips and though they were under water, a trail of smoke curled around his hat.

The man leaned in, taking a long drag off his pipe before speaking slowly. "Do you fear... death?" he asked, the smoke curling from his lips as he did. "Do you fear that cold... abyss?"

He tilted his head, flipping a hand lightly to have the currents correct the boy's angle, putting him right-side-up. "I can forestall your final judgement... And all I ask in return is 100 years of service. 100 years, nothin' can touch ye... unable to be defeated... An' if that blasted Clown's goin' outta his way to destroy you, that means ye got something of value to ye... something he's afraid of..." he chuckled darkly, pointing the smoking end of his pipe at the boy.

"An' I want whatever that is... So what'll it be, boy? Serve me, or..." he looked down. The water below was dark... a wall of black seeming to go on forever. Deep below, massive tenticles rose from the shadows, grasping upward in eager hungriness.

"Or, help me feed mah lil' PET... Choose..." he tapped the pipe on his arm, emptying the contents to wait for Peter's response...

[kefka]

[glow=Yellow,2,300]Kefka waited, but the boy never returned. He hovered over the seas where he landed, and squinted to see through the waves. When throwing lightning and fire down to get a better view, he saw Jones, and his feathers adorning his hair caught on fire in anger.

He dove down, another crystalline bubble forming around him to act as a shield. He submerged deep enough to be at eye-level with Jones and the dying boy, and he made a dramatic pose, taking the heart out of his breast pocket and holding it firmly between his claw-like fingers.

"Oh, Jonesy, you rascal," said the clown, squeezing the beating organ several times. "You're going to kill the boy, yes? I do hope you're not--" he snapped his fingers, and a screen appeared at his side. Hopefully Atticus the Fallen would respond to his summons, so he could gloat.

"Anyway, I hope you're not planning to hire this little brat as, like, a cabin boy, or something. Besides, we all know what happens to cabin boys." He chuckled at his own sick joke, and then turned serious. Or at least he made himself look serious.

"Yes, let us just see how pointy-hat likes this."[/glow]

[MeadowSong]

[glow=Purple,2,300]***A streak of darkness crosses the sky***[/glow]

[Atticus the Fallen]

Following the streak of darkness, the dark screen beside Kefka would reveal the face of the Fallen... the one responsible for Jones' little... re-negotiation. He regarded the scene with those glowing eyes, taking in everything... Jones... Kefka... the KEYBLADE.

Instantly, the water would warm up, a result of Atticus' rising temper. It would ebb quickly, however, as he seemed to calm back down, noticing the boy was not moving... A sigh escaped him before he addressed the clown.

"It would seem that our dear friend Davy Jones is not acting in our best interests..." he said calmly, though with that edge of dangerous that would chill even the most empty soul. He turned away from the screen slightly, making his point that THIS is is final word.

"Remember that heart I gave you? Destroy it," with that, the screen disappeared.

[Davy Jones]

Jones grabbed at his chest when Kefka squeezed his heart, doubling over in pain and dropping his pipe so that it sank slowly to the depths. He gasped again and again as Kefka continued to take little strikes. He coughed, inky bile escaping his lips as he bent over, looking up at the clown.

"Damn you..." he muttered, glancing behind to see the boy was in fact... dead. There was no bringing him back now... He growled darkly, having to think of something else before-

"Remember that heart I gave you? Destroy it,"

"NO!" Jones gasped, eyes wide. "Y-you wouldn't!"

[kefka]

[glow=Yellow,2,300]Kefka listened intently to his orders and shook his head, waving the beating heart carelessly in his hand, squeezing it every couple seconds, like a stress ball.

"Destroy it? Finally." He grinned, looking to Davy Jones as Atticus' image disappeared. Sneering, he gave the pirate a mad look of contempt. "Should've listened, Squiddles."

It was now time. He cupped this rotting organ in both hands and began pulling and twisting as if it were molding clay. When he contorted it to a confusing enough shape, he raised one hand and pointed at it with his finger.

"Lightning." A line of electricity bounced seemingly from his painted fingernail and pierced the cold, clammy flesh. It immediately burst into fire, billowing putrid smoke pouring from the singed wound.

"Acid-born." The blood what still lingered in the beating ogan soon began bubbling, its consistency thinning, turning corrosive, boiling and crumbling the structure. Kefka dropped it on the floor of his bubble as it melted and burned, and stomped on it several times.

"Nothing personal; you're just too insignificant to consider. Kwee-hee-hee!"[/glow]

[Davy Jones]

"NOO!" the captain of the Flying Dutchman called out, attempting to lunge forward and claim what was his. But it was too late. His skin began to melt away, his insides lighting on fire. He "fell" to his knees, the water around him failing to quell the pain. He threw his head back and roared in pain, portions of his flesh burning away.

And then... he chuckled... He doubled over, holding his chest in pain as he slowly began to dissolve away. "You're a fool..." he coughed, black, inklike blood clouding the water in front of his face. "Ye... just threw away yer freedom..." he laughed... then fell forward and began to sink... Massive tenticles reached up to embrace him, and take him deep into the inky black below... where nothing is ever seen again... to rest for eternity in his own locker...

A massive ship became visible just outside the realm of vision. It drew closer and closer until scooping Kefka up so that he could stand upon the deck without trouble. He would begin to feel a familiar sensation overtake him, the feeling of becoming immortal. Pirate Heartless and pirate proper alike stepped forward, the latter changing from odd fishlike creatures to mere men as they strode forward. The little ones would bounce up and down expectantly... something had changed.

One of the crewmen stepped forward, looking to Kefka with a bewhildered look. "You... destroyed the heart..." he said, then looked to the rest of the crew a moment in order to indicate them for the clown. "You're the new captain of the Dutchman..."

[kefka]

[glow=Yellow,2,300]As Davy Jones descended into the Abyss, he and the Keyblade Wielder's body were brought aboard the Flying Dutchman as it ascended. When above water the clown dispelled his bubble and leaned forward, his neck outstretched, his hands on his hips. He looked over the boy and kicked him until he rolled.

"Hmph!"

He then stood back up, his hands still at his hips. He turned to the Hammerhead whose body seemed to be changing back to a human form. "Captain, you say? Well, then! As captain, I order you to inform me what Squiddles said. Freedom?"[/glow]

[Secondary Characters]

The man had a quizzical look on his face as it morphed from hammerhead back to that of a normal person. He looked to the others, shrugging a bit as though he didn't know how to break it to the clown. The others would simply coax him forward, forcing him to be the one to bring Kefka up to speed.

"Ye don't know, sir?" the man asked, looking bewhildered. "I though' ev'ry body knew..." he pointed at the clown, at his heart. "Ye destroyed the cap'n's heart... That makes you the new cap'n o' the Flyin' Dutchman. An' it means you picked up his curse..." he crossed his arms, trying to denote something like Pirate Sympathy.

"Ye're immortal... but ye can only set foot on dry land one day out of ten years... Yer duty is to ferry souls from the livin' world to the next... but Cap'n Jones never did THAT, so I can't really expect ye to stick to it either... As fer us..." he nodded to everybody. "We be yer crew. Immortal, owin' a hundred years or more to serve before we can go free..." he shrugged a bit. " 'cept fer the Heartless... Some pointy-hatted feller just dumped them on our ship all a-sudden. Told Jones he had to make these waters a breedin' ground for their like. Again. Up to you what ye do, but ye can't go on land fer another ten years..."

[kefka]

[glow=Yellow,2,300]"Curse? I was told of no curse...

"ATTICUS, YOU PINHEAD!" He literally combusted into flames, though he and his clothing seemed completely unaffected. The soggy wooden floor beneath him turned black with the flames and heat, and he marched up to the pirate, his eyes narrowly glaring the man down.

"So I am stuck on this deathtrap, am I?" He reached out and grabbed the man by the neck, his fingernails digging into his skin. The flames would begin burning the man's neck and chin. He hoisted the pirate up some, and brought his face close.

"I do not follow rules--not even the rules of some ridiculous little curse! I am a god, and will do as I please!" He lifted his other hand and stabbed into the man's chest, twisting it several times, and pulled out his heart. The body exploded in a cloud of darkness and a Shadow took his place on the ground.

"Anyone else gonna tell me where I can and can not go, hm?"[/glow]

[Secondary Characters]

Other, SMARTER crew members would simply hold their hands up and go back to their duties. They figured the mad clown would figure it out on his own if he tried to leave the ocean. He could go up as much as he wanted, sure, but past the atmosphere, he'd find himself re-entering the water from the bottom. If he tried to step onto dry land, he'd find himself falling into salt water. Face it, some things not even Gods can get around. A curse is one of them.

As for the Heartless, they bounded up and down happily, welcoming the new, confused looking shadow into their little group. They would set about to various tasks on the ship, which was already beginning to heal from Kefka's little temper-tantrum. He might notice a small burn on his leg beginning to heal as well. Part of the crew, Kefka, part of the ship.

If he tried to blow THIS vessel up, he'd feel the reprecussions... If he tried to venture beyond the limits of his curse, he'd be forced back where he began. This clown was TRAPPED.

[kefka]

[glow=Yellow,2,300]Being that Kefka's temper was always less than "good", he stomped off after those who would dare raise a hand against him. To each one of them he delivered his judgement: death of their former lives, and rebirth as Heartless.

To the rest of the crew he ranted and raved, running around the Dutchman, barking orders and jumping up and down in frustration.

Aggrivated, he looked about this vessel for something to do. He approached a short, plump man and stabbed his finger forward, as if accusing him of something.

"You!" he cried. "Keeping a sharp eye!?"

He was demented.

"ATTICUS!"[/glow]