#yiskah

So first up, the Party: Light’s Guard

They’re a neutral party of Keykids that don’t hold stock in Union loyalty or this War, they just want to protect the Light and World in general. Their immediate goal in the war is to protect the Dandelions until they leave, and then just help protect anyone who doesn’t want to fight in general as much as possible, as well as the younger Keykids who really shouldn’t be fighting, regardless of Union. Even knowing it’s a futile effort, they put their all into it.

The core members of the Party are my Keykids - Etheria is recruited by Brain a little bit after, but the party was founded by him, Yiskah, and Aella as members of Anguis. Vale, Rosalia, and Solis are all recruited early on. All of them except Brain were offered places amongst the Dandelions and turned it down 

The most familiar face: Etheria!

Age: 9 (arrival), 15 (death at the end of Union X)

Born in Enchanted Dominion, her mother is from a mercenary family who decided to settle down in one general place when she had Etheria. The father was a fae from the Spring Court who had to return to Court when Etheria was young due to Maleficent’s increasing bold attempts to expand her domain. Etheria was raised by her mother until Maleficent attacked when she was nine and killed her mother, drawing Heartless to the area. Etheria awoke to the keyblade when she fell into the Darkness between worlds, awakening in Daybreak Town and being recruited into Unicornis.

She represents the canon Keykid, so her story follows canon pretty closely - with a few twists. When the war is first starting to pick up, before the Dandelions leave, she’s attacked by a group of Leopardis members on the verge of turning Dark. Brain happens to be passing by and stops to help, chasing them off and helping Etheria to a house nearby that’s been converted into a meeting place for a neutral party - calling themselves Light’s Guard. They spend the war trying to protect any neutral wielders or the younger Keykids even as the Darkness spreads around them and they lose members to it.

Etheria clings tight to Light with the determined goal to protect at least the Dandelions even if she’ll never truly be able to protect anyone else. As the war drags on she begins to resent the Union Leaders who led them into this pointless war to begin with, and has an increasingly bitter rivalry with Master Aced, who for some reason seems to have it out for her (he’s noticed that she’s the favorite still remaining of Ira, Gula, and Ava, and Does Not Like Or Trust It).

At the end of the war she’s the only Keykid still alive on the battlefield after the darkness destroyed the World, her heart’s connection to Ephemera, Skuld, and Brain allowing her to cling onto the Light just enough to survive the destruction and acting as the anchor to allow the Dandelion’s Light to recreate the World - even in its broken form. And her heart makes a direct connection to Kingdom Hearts when it’s summoned due to it. In canon this… probably doesn’t mean much beyond perhaps explaining how the Missing Link protag eventually gets their memories back, but I have a couple of AUs where it’s absolutely pivotal to her character throughout the story. Ephemera and Skuld rescue her and wipe her memories but because she’s half-fae it’s imperfect and she gets her memories back much sooner than canon. She just… stays quiet about it because this isn’t the sort of situation she can fix, and it’s easier for everyone if she doesn’t say anything.

Canon plays out similarly, except Candy Crush Game Central Station is wrapped up by her and Ephemera much sooner and they return together for the entirety of the endgame segment. There is much pain involved. Especially since, when she pretends to be possessed, since she has fae magic, she casts a glamour over herself to turn her eyes gold and give her voice a reverb to really sell it. (Ephemera buys it until they start fighting and then he catches on and is devastated that she’s forcing his hand and sacrificing herself to stop the Darknesses). When she traps herself in the pipe with the Darknesses they kill her when they throw their little tantrum about being tricked, though she still dies hugging Chirithy like in canon.

Number 2: Yiskah!

Age: 18 (Death at the Keyblade Graveyard)

Born in the world of Atlantis, he fell into a Dark portal at 11 attempting to defend the world’s heart against Heartless, awakening to the keyblade and landing in Daybreak Town to be recruited into Anguis. He’s the oldest of the party and has had a very close friendship with Brain for years. He couldn’t bring himself to abandon all of the non-Dandelions to the war and so turned down Ava’s invitation when she offered it. He and Brain created a neutral party as a failsafe to protect the world and Dandelions against the Darkness as much as they were able for as long as they were able.

He was the de facto leader once Brain left, but he, Aella, and Etheria shared a lot of the responsibilities for running things. They protected as many as they could during the war, but he died on the battlefield of the Keyblade Graveyard after the Union Leaders vanished and left the remaining wielders on the battlefield to fall to the Darkness that destroyed the world. In canon he’s probably reborn as a nonentity, but in my main AU verse he’s actually the Missing Link protag because Etheria gets reincarnated as… someone else. No I’m not still annoyed at Nomura’s Xehanort bait and switch reincarnation implication after I’d already started writing out my verse plans. of course not.

Number 3: Aella!

Age: 16 (Death at the Keyblade Graveyard)

Born into the World of Olympus, she’s the demigod daughter of Athena. She grew up training to eventually be a hero, because her father was a minor noble and hoped for his daughter to eventually gain recognition and raise their family status. This mentality meant that she was killing monsters and solving problems… until she was sent after a monster that turned out to be a Heartless, and her sword or magic couldn’t even touch it. She awakened to the Keyblade, but accidentally opened a pathway to Daybreak Town in the process and decided to stay and join Vulpes to protect the world at large. She quickly befriends a boy who was from the same world as her, a demigod son of Thanatos named Valérios who arrived not long before her. They partied together for a while before she met and befriended Yiskah and Brain. They began to drift apart, and she eventually switched Unions to join Anguis, causing a bit of bitterness and resentment from Vale for the perceived betrayal and abandonment.

The rift seemed to heal when the war broke out and she invited Vale to join their neutral party, but the seeds of Darkness had long been planted and she was his primary target when he fell to Darkness and betrayed them, trying to kill the party and those they protected. Aella barely survived the betrayal, and became closed off and wary after the fact. She became colder and more aggressive when it came to pushing back the Dark bearers and protecting everyone they could, clashing often with Vale when he showed up. They had a final duel at the Keyblade Graveyard which killed them both, even before the Union Leaders vanished and the Darkness consumed everything.

Number 4: Solis!

Age: 12 (Death at the Keyblade Graveyard)

Solis was born to a Romani woman in La Cité des Cloches, though she was killed by the city guards when he was young. He mostly raised himself, with some help from various members of the Court of Miracles over the years, and grew into a particularly skilled pick pocketer and thief, with a propensity for showmanship when the mood struck him. He proudly claimed that he was on very good terms with Lady Luck - until he had a turn of misfortune when he pushed one of the guards too far and they turned into a Heartless and attacked him, drawing more into the world with their Darkness. He fell into a Dark portal and awoke to the Keyblade between worlds, landing in Daybreak Town and immediately taking to the Leopardis Union. He and Gula get along well.

He’s a bit of a social loner up until the war, making friends with anyone and everyone and jumping from party to party with cheer and friendliness, but he doesn’t really trust easily enough to have real friends. He eventually meets Rosalia, and they get along thick as thieves until the war breaks out and their Unions start turning on each other. They stick together though, and get recruited to the Light’s Guard by Aella when she helps them out of a sticky fight. Solis latches onto the party with a fierce loyalty and determination to rescue as many kids from the war has they can. He’s stung hard when Vale turns on them and tries to kill the kids, but the fact that they entire rest of the party fights back as well puts him a bit at ease.

But they all know it’s a hopeless war, and they can’t really protect anyone.

Solis dies in the Keyblade Graveyard when the Union Leaders vanish and leave the remaining Keykids to the encroaching Darkness, endless Heartless and Darklings picking off the surviving Keykids who all band together in the final moments to hold it back, until the last Lights are consumed.

Number 5: Rosalia!

Age: 16 (Death at the Keyblade Graveyard)

Rosalia was born of questionable parentage in Tortuga in the world of The Caribbean. She grew up in Tortuga for several years until she stowawayed on an outgoing pirate ship, only revealing herself when they were several days out and it would be more lucrative to put her to work then turn back. The Captain was impressed enough by her determination and audacity that he allowed it, putting her to work maintaining the ship to earn her keep as a crew member. She stayed for several more years until an attack on a merchant vessel went wrong and the Navy showed up to defend them. The ship was sunk and the crew killed, the Darkness drawing Heartless and sending her falling between worlds. She awakens to the keyblade and lands in Daybreak Town, gravitating immediately to Ursus.

She’s fairly easygoing until a fight is picked, and then she gets intense. She’s got lots of friends to party with, being used to working in a large group, but her intensity and power means no one she’s willing to put up with tends to stick around for long so she doesn’t have a steady group. She eventually meets Solis, and they hit it off immediately and tend to stick together more often than not. When the war breaks out and their Unions turn against each other they start distancing themselves from their Unions, eventually being recruited by Aella into the Light’s Guard. Rosalia likes them, and like Solis gets protective of the many kids they pick up. She nearly kills Vale when he turns on them and tries to kill the people they’re protecting, stopped only when he runs away and she’s not willing to leave the others behind to chase after him.

She’s front and center at the final battlefield, tearing her way through any Darklings, Heartless, or semi-dark wielders who get in her way. She aims for the Union leaders, pissed off and betrayed that they set all this up and they all know it, but they’re all so focused on each other and Etheria that she can’t pin them down long enough to actually fight them through the many other wielders. She very nearly falls to Darkness herself when they disappear and she realizes they’ve abandoned them all to Darkness in one final betrayal, and only Solis and Etheria calling for her aid in watching their back pulls her back to clinging to Light.

Not that it matters, when the Heartless kill them all and Darkness consumes everything in the end.

Number 6: Valérios!

Age: 17 (Death at the Keyblade Graveyard)

Born in the world of Olympus, Valérios grows up a bit of a pariah because of his very obvious status of being a demigod of some sort of Underworld god. He can see and hear whispers of the dead, and he nearly got himself in trouble several times when he was young when he tried to warn people who he saw were close to death. Everyone was a bit scared of him, and he spent more time alone listening to the whispering dead than he did involving himself with the living people around him. He found a Dark portal by chance when he was a bit older and walked willingly into it to find out what would happen. It tried to drown him out, but his Light and wish to help others and become a Hero was still bright enough to awaken his keyblade and guide him to Daybreak Town, where he joined Vulpes to take advantage of the fresh start.

He was still a bit of a loner, cold and kind of off-putting, but he found people to party with despite that. He eventually met Aella, and they bonded over their shared world and its expectations and the wish to become a Hero written into the stars. But time and increasing Darkness and strain of the Unions slowly caused them to drift apart, and Vale was extremely bitter and resentful when Aella left Vulpes to join Anguis and her new friends, his one real friend abandoning him as well. He begins leaning closer and closer to the Dark as the war breaks out and death and Darkness starts drowning everything else out, feeding his feelings of abandonment and betrayal.

It recedes for a time when he’s invited to join Aella’s new party, but he still feels apart, like he’s just extra and everyone else is friends while merely tolerating him. The Dark whispers louder and louder in his head, his thoughts caught into a downward spiral, until some minor incident where he’d separated from the party during a mission causes him to snap and fall. Everything around him is fake, a lie, and if death and Darkness are the beginning and end of everything anyway then he might as well hasten that process. No lie is worth this fake Light, everyone is born and dies alone. He’ll return everyone to that same lonely state he’s been in his whole life.

He attacks the party off an on as the war continues, clashing especially with Aella and Rosalia, until the final battle when he duels Aella one final time and they kill each other even before the Darkness consumes everything.

He didn’t dare to move. He listened, holding his breath, as the sounds faded away. Silence fell on the abandoned storage house where he was right now, but he still didn’t dare to move yet. Not before he was absolutely sure the fight was over.The nightmare had started from a surprise attack. Yiskah had warned them that they were never completely safe, but the attack was still unpredicted. Yiskah and him, Tarasqe, got attacked by the members of a criminal organization where Yehochanan used to work. They were forcefully taken with them and made unable to protest with brutal violence. That all was for one reason: to lure Yehochanan out. He was a man who didn’t stay long in one place, so he was challenging to track down. So the organization attacked the most vulnerable parts: his sister and friend.