Corruption in Camelot

[Jack Darby]

When he arrived in Camelot, the scent of fresh air assaulted Repliku’s nose. The air smelled purer and cleaner than any that he had ever inhaled before, making him stop near the gate and simply take a moment to breathe in. As he looked around the place and scanned the horizon he could see a floating island. What was the name of the island that he was seeing? It appeared to be immense, and Repliku knew he’d have to get up there somehow. How though? His attempt to make anything out of Omnilium thus far had been a complete and absolute failure. Worry shot through him like a needle would sew thread, as Repliku was now concerned. The island looked like it was heavily fortified and would be an ideal place to build a home on, because unless there were flying Heartless, he'd have nothing to worry about from them. In addition, he felt like he was an ant as he looked at the island. Given he couldn't summon anything that could allow him to fly, Repliku knew if someone or a Heartless were to attack him from that island, he was most certainly going to be dead. The looks of the countryside were beautiful, and Repliku made a resolution in his heart. When he had the time he was definitely going to build himself a home here. 

If he couldn’t master the skill of summoning things using Omnilium, was he even going to be able to hold his own against the presence of Heartless? Why couldn't he use Omnilium right? Was something wrong with him? Or was it the environment he was in? Fear was an emotion the clone had never felt, but now was feeling in spades as he began to walk from the gate of Camelot further inwards. Black creatures swarmed around him in a group of fifteen, Repliku recognized them. These were "Shadows" which were the weakest form of Heartless. Scowling at the presence of them, Repliku knew he'd have to fight them off before he could continue on his journey.

The fact they'd found him this soon though? It was worrying because he was nowhere near ready to engage them in combat. His power level was that of a beginner, and Repliku knew that if any more powerful Heartless showed up he was screwed. As he slashed one of the Heartless with a brutal scowl on his face, Repliku noticed something odd. The heart didn't release. Hearts were supposed to release...unless he wasn't actually wielding a Keyblade. A Keyblade was the one weapon that could smite the Heartless permanently. Thinking back, Repliku began to remember something. His weapon wasn't a key. It was an intermediary to the Keyblade but was not the actual thing. A quick spin decapitated a couple of the Heartless, mere Shadows that had tried to ambush him from behind.

Damn it. It was times like these that he wished he were more like his template, Riku. After all, Riku could summon the power of the Keyblade and make short work of the Heartless. Repliku, however, was incapable of doing that, at present. After about an hour of battling the Heartless, Repliku had managed to turn the tables and win against them. Panting, to catch his breath Repliku made up his mind.

"There's no sugarcoating it. I need to get stronger as more Heartless will definitely be headed to attack me again."

[Jack Darby]

Once he had recovered from the battle of the Heartless that had which now left the Replica completely exhausted, Repliku realized that he was out of shape. In his current condition, his chances of survival if another group of Heartless showed up were slim. The odds were not in his favor, especially if any of the Heartless were turned out stronger than the weak Shadows that he had encountered. Was it right for him to do what he'd have to do in order to protect himself and as well the Omniverse from the very present threat of the Heartless? Repliku didn't have an answer. Another question came to mind, namely how was he supposed to get his hands on a Keyblade for his own personal use? Clones couldn't wield Keyblades to his knowledge, at least not normally. Roxas and Xion had been able to pull it off because they had some of Riku's memories within their heart. As the clone considered how few what had been made his few options were here in the Omniverse, he groaned. Getting up to the island was going to be more difficult than obtaining the power he wanted, that of a keyblade for himself. After all, he couldn't fly and he couldn't summon things with Omnilium properly.

His only attempts thus far, a Corridor of Darkness and a Book that was supposed to inform him more about the Omniverse had failed. They hadn't just failed, fallen short, but things felt miserably irredeemable for the young Replica.  "What does it take to become able to fly or use Corridors of Darkness in this place?!?" asked the clone in an exasperated tone. For he did want to know, but he was also irritated that some other hero type hadn't popped out of the woodwork and done something, anything against the Heartless. Apparently only he could handle that particular menace. Perhaps... if he did it might help him to become real... To become more than a Replica.

Sitting down cross-legged, Repliku closed his eyes and concentrated. Summoning the rainbow orb of Omnilium to his hand, Repliku attempted creating a giant stairway up to the floating island that made him feel insignificant. When nothing happened, Repliku's hand impacted with his face, facepalming several times in fact because the Replica just didn't know what to do. How did one work Omnilium? Why had Omni told them so little?

Yet before he could commence creating anything, a sharp kick from a man in a black coat that seemed to be made out of darkness itself hit him on the side, the sudden pain sent him into the ground.

"You're nothing but a replica, a pale imitation of the original!" The man said as he took the Soul Eater from Repliku and snapped it like a twig, before incinerating the remains of the sword for extra cruel measure. The sound of the blade shattering caused a burning liquid to well up in Repliku's eyes. Without the Soul Eater, how was he supposed to protect himself from the powers the Heartless had? How was he going to prove he deserved his own identity without that blade?  "I summoned the Heartless by the way, and there's nothing you can do to stop me... Especially without this pitiful piece of crap imitation you call your blade!"  The man then punched Repliku, sending him crashing to the ground in intense pain, and said to him. "Go ahead. Try and prove me wrong, Repliku. Show your strength. Summon your sword... if you have the courage to do so. Prove to me that you have the strength and I'll stop sending Heartless to Camelot. Otherwise, the next one I send will be a Dark Side. You and I both know you aren't strong enough. You're welcome to try though."

Gritting his teeth, the young clone of Riku forced himself onto his feet. Holding out his hand he concentrated. Darkness shot down both of his arms and he brought his hands together, Soul Eater forming in a small explosion of Darkness Energy in his hands. He'd then spin towards the man, preparing to slash at him, only for the man to disappear in a flash of black light. Great, his opponent could somehow teleport away and was going to summon more Heartless to the area. At least he knew he could still summon Soul Eater, so he wasn't entirely helpless. Still, he'd need more in his bag of tricks than the paltry few attacks that he had now. Actually, right now he had nothing that could help him fight.

"It's official. I need someone to train me...badly."

[Jack Darby]

To say the young clone of Riku was having a horrible day was to put things mildly. Right now, his day was absolutely miserable. Six more swarms of about thirty of the weaker Heartless had shown up, and had subsequently ended up getting massacred by Repliku. When he got his hands on the asshat who was summoning the Heartless, it was going to be painful. Cleaning up the mess would be hard even if he had a Key-blade, which he didn't presently possess the power to summon. Of course the Key-blade was not his only problem, presently. Without any techniques other than being able to summon Soul Eater should anything with more power than a Shadow, or a weak Heartless show up he was going to have a difficult time surviving. The thought of such was sobering to Repliku who now knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that he needed someone who could train him. Omnilium could create anything, and so it stood to reason that it could also create anyone, and perhaps allow him to create someone to train him. There was just one problem with that, and that was that he had no clue how to use Omnilium. Repliku had been trying, but all his efforts had been for naught. 

"Damn it. How hard is it to learn how to use Omnilium?"   Really he wanted to get up to that floating island, but none of his tactics thus far had been successful. At first he had attempted to summon a giant staircase leading up there, which had messed up. He'd attempted to levitate himself next, but couldn't even achieve such for himself, which was irritating as he really wanted to get up there. What would it take? 

[Lord Dominator]

“Hey, kid, what are these things?”


The rough, menacing voice came seemingly out of nowhere. Then, from a small copse of utterly perfect trees, strode Lord Dominator, a writhing Heartless grasped in her hand.

She was in her full armour, standing an impressive seven-foot-tall, broad-shouldered and apparently thickly muscled. Lava burned across both gloves, lightly singeing the Heartless as it struggled to try and get free from her grasp.

Then, the faceplate of her visor rose, and revealed a smirking face. She rolled her eyes, and cocked her head to the side.

“They sure seem to love you.”

Her voice was a lot more feminine all of a sudden, and those strangely malevolent pink eyes of hers looked the boy up and down with obvious scepticism. Had she really come all this way to find this boy was the source of the only interesting thing for miles?

==EARLIER==

It had been months since Dominator had left her mountain fortress. Building her forces had been fun at first, but she soon remembered the tedium of it. Even with Omnilium speeding up the process somewhat, it was boring, repetitive work. To make matters worse, there was very little payoff for it. She sent the Dombots out to continue harvesting and collecting Volcanium X, but they barely managed to bring in more than they cost to operate. It was demoralising, really. And it was boring, too. What was she supposed to do? Browse funny cat videos on the Dataverse? Ugh. She’d already SEEN all the good ones.

Not that there were good ones.

Shut up.

ANYWAY! She’d decided to explore, finally get out and see a little bit more of the Omniverse. If she wanted to burn it all to the ground, she might as well learn the layout first, right? Especially since it seemed like it was going to take a lot more effort than destroying the galaxy the first time around. Depressing. She’d destroyed entire planets! How was it that she was actually letting herself get worried about destroying one town? One city? One nation?!

Nevertheless, if her experiences out in the Steppes were anything to go by, and the performance of her Dombots wasn’t being drastically effected by something else, she was right to be wary. She knew better than anyone that going unprepared against a larger and more powerful force was a recipe for destruction. She was used to being that larger, more powerful force. It was just going to take a little longer than she would have liked to build herself back up to that level, that was all.

Irritated, depressed, and frustrated at a lack of destruction in her life, Dominator’s mood had not been improved when she set out from the Camelot gate. She’d heard a lot about Camelot, seen a lot of it on the Dataverse too for that matter, but she hadn’t breathed its air before. She hadn’t heard the sweet birds singing or seen the pristine blue sky above, and the beautiful floating city hanging there, defying her.

It made her sick.

Setting off in a random direction, she’d soon gotten herself good and lost in the woods. This was, in fact, part of her intent. She wanted to get a feel for the land, and what better way to do that than go out without any preconceptions? Besides, she was in a terrible mood, but she wasn’t an idiot. If she came across any villagers in her current state of mind, she wasn’t sure she’d be able to resist the urge to do something just horrible to them, and she was not convinced that the defences of Dominator Mountain could deal with an assault by one of the Factions. Not yet, anyway.

If she happened to come across some cute wild animals, though? Or if some opportunistic bandits decided to try and assault the lone woman out on her own in the wilderness? Well, then she’d have all the excuse she needed to vent some frustration, and harvest some precious Omnilium.  

And then something actually interesting had happened. Completely to her surprise.

A tiny black shape had lunged from the darkness with deadly intent. If she’d been a moment slower, she would have been slashed by the claws of the diminutive menace. Instead, she ducked her head down, and rose sharply to impale the shadowy being on the points of her helmet.

“Now, that’s not something you see every day.” She mused, as she dislodged the Heartless with a flick of her hand.

It wasn’t the last, of course. More came, and soon Dominator had summoned her armour, enjoying the sport of blasting the desperate little monsters out of the air with her cannon.

==Present!==

The Heartless in Dominator’s grip became more desperate, and Repliku might be surprised to notice that the usually-emotionless creature looked… frightened. Bright wisps of pure, ghostly white Omnilium began to rise from the creature as Dominator focused her will upon it, intent on unmaking the beast and returning it to pure nothingness.

Heartless? Lord Dominator deserved that title at least as much as the monster struggling for its very existence in her grasp.

Before she could complete the work, however, an enormous Heartless – tall enough to match her eye in her armour, and shaped like a barrel around its girth – charged out of the shadows behind her, and sent the green woman sprawling to the dirt near Repliku. The Heartless she had been unmaking scurried away the moment that her grip relaxed, and Dominator rose to her hands.

“Oh, you just made your last mistake.”

[Jack Darby]

The armor she was wearing was one that could only hold immense power. As such, Repliku knew better than to piss off an individual who could likely easily destroy him. Especially since he couldn't cast... his line of thought dissipated when he watched her grip the Heartless and attempt to unmake it with Omnilium, but it didn't work as the vile beast scurried away, and a Large Body appeared. Shit. He was unprepared to deal with a Heartless of that Caliber, and he didn't have a keyblade at his disposal which meant permanently felling the thing was going to be out of his wheelhouse of capabilities, perhaps if the two of them were to work together they could come up with something. 

"They're called Heartless. They seek out bearers of the Keyblade in order to eliminate them, and consume the Hearts of individuals, leaving empty husks called "Nobodies" behind. The nobodies typically don't have minds of their own, but if you have a strong enough will power..you can maintain your human form and mind. I was created by a "Nobody" named Vexen. " Repliku began, panicking internally at the problem they were now faced with. A heartless of that size was beyond anything that he had ever fought. Of course, he didn't remember how the Heartless fought, and it would take him several minutes to examine it most likely. So much for being prepared to deal with the menace.  "What we really need..." began Repliku as he rushed at the obscenely large Heartless, and attempted to slash it with Soul Eater. "Is a damn miracle, because I don't possess the one weapon that could permanently smite these...abominations!" 

[Lord Dominator]

Dominator kept half an ear on the information she was being given, but mostly, her focus was on the large ‘Heartless’. The creature stumbled about as Repliku charged and slashed at it, creating ample opportunity for a distraction. Still, she made a mental note. Creatures that could replicate themselves were always of interest. Her own Dombots had a similar capability, but they were a lot more fragile than these Heartless seemed to be, and these things weren’t even made of metal!

Still, she had rather more important things to worry about than quizzing this boy on the nature of the creatures trying to kill him; like making sure that her killcount remained the highest in the immediate area. She was not going to let herself be killed by some fat shadow.

Her visor helmet slammed back down into place, and she ducked down low before sprinting forwards as fast as she could, her sneaker-clad feet picking up a great deal of speed as she tore across the open terrain.

This time, it was her turn to catch the large creature unawares. As it flailed around trying to land a solid punch on Repliku, both of her hands sealed about its waist, and she strained as she lifted the Heartless into the air. Hoisting the creature bodily above her head, inside her armour, sweat beaded on her brow, but her lips pulled back into a wild, excited grin. It had been such a long time since she really tested herself, it felt good to put the old armour back through its paces!

In the next moment, she was falling backwards, and taking the Heartless down with her. Twisting, the monster broke her fall with a titanic crash that shook the ground, and had her magma-covered elbow lodged heavily in the beast’s guts. Gravity and molten metal took the wind out of the monster, at least for a few moments.

“Haha! Now that's what I’m talking about!”

The woman’s voice was horribly distorted by her helmet; as deep and foreboding as any evil overlord could hope to be, and she rose from the downed Heartless with one arm melding into the barrel of a large cannon, looming over the unfortunate Heartless like the spectre of death itself.

“First thing you need to learn about the Omniverse, kid.” Dominator’s voice boomed from within her helmet. “If you hit it enough, everything dies.” It was a simple lesson, but one which had held true for every creature she’d encountered in her stay to date – she doubted that the Heartless would be the first to break that trend.

[Jack Darby]

While he was just a replica of Riku who could never truly be his own person, the clone had to admit that he was impressed. She was certainly a skilled combatant as it would have taken him hours to do what she had done to that Heartless in mere minutes. Of course the armor was also impressive. For a non-keyblade weapon the armor that she wore including the cannon was certainly a powerful piece of technology. Watching as she beat the Heartless down, and pointed the large gun at it, before blasting it's head off, Repliku thought about something. If he could get her perhaps to teach him more about the Omniverse, he could get strong enough to where he could put those things down easier. And find the summoner of the Heartless and summarily execute them for bringing that problem here. 

He'd walk closer, and drop to one knee in front of here. There were no words to describe how awestruck with what she had just done the clone was. Repliku looked up at her for a moment, and begged. "Please...teach me to be powerful like you... make me able to stand against those creatures and survive what the Omniverse has to offer... I am unable to even summon things with Omnilium properly. I've been trying for hours to make a bridge, stairs or something up to Dalaran, that floating island up in the sky. Also, if we stay in one place for too long we may attract even more attention from the Heartless." The clone's voice was soft at the last part, as he didn't want to offend Lord Dominator who had saved his actual bacon, even though he didn't know who she was.  "And I'm Repliku, or Riku-Replica, but you can just call me Repliku I suppose." 

If only he were more powerful than he was now, he could have done something more to be of use. His slash barely fazed the Heartless, but she easily mopped the floor with the blasted thing. Her power was one that he admired, and wished that he had. "I am a clone, created by that Nobody Vexen I mentioned, based off of the genetic patterns of Riku, a wielder of the Keyblade." 

[Lord Dominator]

Dominator’s armour melted away, leaving her towering over him merely because she was very tall, rather than because she was very tall and covered in thick metal plating. One eyebrow raised archly at the boy’s request, and she sat down heavily on the body of the downed Heartless, crossing one leg over the over and regarding him for a few long moments.

“You mean, you can’t do this?”

Raising her hand, Dominator concentrated, and the rainbow light of Omnilium began to slowly coalesce. There was an obvious look of concentration on her features, brow furrowed as she called up that power from within herself. Ordinarily, she might have finished off the creature she was sitting on by reversing this process, but, right now, its corpse made a perfectly acceptable seat, so why bother changing it into something else?

The shimmering energy flickered and danced in her palm, until it was about the size of a basketball, held there mesmerising in the intensity of its glow. It took several minutes of concentration and focus, but when she was finally done, there was a ‘pop’ noise and the orb disappeared, replaced in her hand by… a pineapple, cut open and filled with ice and delicious frothy liquid, a small umbrella, and a straw, which she sipped at for a further moment, holding up a finger to forestall any questions until she was done.

After enjoying her sugary treat for a second, she then met Repliku’s eye.

“I might be able to help you.” She said, “But, the question is, why should I?”

Hopping down from the corpse, Dominator began to circle the boy, gesturing with her drink as she spoke.

“It doesn’t seem like you have much to offer me. You’re a clone created by a total nobody? Why should that impress me? Clone troopers are so last season, it’s all about the killer robots now.”

She stopped in front of him again, shrugging her shoulders and sloshing the liquid in the pineapple carelessly onto the floor.

“Besides.” She said, “If you can’t use it, that means you’re not really a person at all, just a copy of a clone of someone else. Does not look good on your resume.”

[Jack Darby]

"I can use Omnilium, it is just EVERYTHING I have tried to summon to get up there,"  He'd point up at Dalaran. "Has resulted in complete and utter failure on my part. I've tried summoning a giant staircase, a ladder, an escalator, and a few other things to get myself up there, but none of them have actually worked."  It was true. "And while I may not be able to use Omnilium properly YET, I will be able to. Please... teach me how to be strong. I'll do whatever it takes in order to become your apprentice, and learn the level of strength you possess." 

The clone looked at her now. Fire was blazing within his eyes as he was determined he was going to get stronger than he was, that he was definitely going to become his own person. His skills needed to grow, he knew that much if he was to stand a chance of survival. Surviving here in the Omniverse meant being able to take on your opponents, and fight them to a stand still. It meant having the kind of power he had witnessed from Lord Dominator. He'd rise to his feet. 

He'd hold out his palm and a rainbow colored orb of his own appeared. If Omnilium could create anything one wanted, then it would create the means of salvation against the Heartless. While this was probably cheating as most of the Keyblade Masters had years of training as did their students, Repliku didn't give a crap right now. The Heartless were out there, causing problems likely all over the Omniverse and that meant that he had to do something about them... something drastic. 


Slowly he'd use the Omnilium to bring into shape a weapon, a weapon similar to the ones that Sora and Riku as well as others possessed at one time. The weapon in question was a Keyblade, but it was one of his own making, and one that he could command and master. It was a good thing that he'd made it after several moments of concentration. Unfortunately however he was not going to get the chance to practice as about 10 Soldier Heartless,  30 Shadows and two of those bigger things came out of the Darkness around Dominator and Repliku. 

"Now we have the way to permanently kill them with a single strike."  said Repliku.  "This blade, the Keyblade Black Heart shall cut each and every one of them down to size!"  Channeling his anger, Repliku dashed at the Soldiers first. Eliminating the ones that were more powerful was a definite must as he wasn't about to let Dominator hog all of the glory. The Red Nocturnes tried to fire fireballs at him, but using his acrobatics Repliku was able to dodge their attacks. It was like he was no longer holding back. The presence of the Keyblade had given Repliku a burst of confidence that he hadn't had before. While it was true that he had not faced this many Heartless before, he knew that others had in actual fact battled more numerous amounts of these creatures. 

Sora in order to rescue Kairi had battled at least a thousand of these in Hollow Bastion. It meant that Repliku could at the very least hold his own against the buggers, and help Lord Dominator to win, even if he didn't know who she was. 

"Also, I never got your name..." said Repliku, throwing Black Heart and destroying a couple of Shadows who were trying to sneak up on Lord Dominator so that they could attack her from behind. A cowardly tactic that Repliku would never employ was what they had attempted. Of course he did know that he needed more power still. Even with the power of the Key, he still needed to gain the ability to use magic back so he could have more up his proverbial sleeve. And perhaps if he could get his hands on a suit of armor like that one she had, he could be even more of a threat to the Heartless.

[Lord Dominator]

Dominator raised an eyebrow at the boy as he vented his frustration. Still, when he demonstrated that he could in fact create something, anything, that meant his value increased a hundred times over. It also meant that she could have a bit more fun with him. After all, if he was a Prime, the chaos he could cause was that much more impressive in scope and scale.

It wasn’t long before more of the strange shadowy creatures formed to try and do battle with them, though. Dominator sighed and rolled her eyes, discarding the pineapple drink over her shoulder, where it bounced off the helmet of one of the soldier Heartless.

Her armour formed back around her as she stood up straight, and cracked her neck. There were a lot of them, but as individuals, they weren’t particularly strong or menacing. She flinched backwards when the boy flung his sword in her direction, raising one arm, only to realise that he had struck down some of the smaller creatures that were threatening her. Irritated, her visor snapped back down over her face, and she was protected.

“Lord Dominator.”

The word came out like the growl of a feral beast from inside the metal cavern of her helmet. It seemed like the Heartless were mostly interested in Repliku, which was good enough for her. The boy’s acrobatic display of fighting prowess definitely made him seem like a more sound investment of her time.

“Make sure you leave one of them alive.”

The command thundered out over the din of battle as Dominator began to spin on the spot. If there was one cure for the blues, she always thought, it was a target rich environment. The cannon reformed over her arm, and she unleashed blast after blast of hot, scalding magma into the Heartless ranks.

On its own, the blasts couldn’t kill most things outright. That wasn’t, really, what they were for. Instead, the clinging magma formed a binding prison of slowly solidifying metal; encasing the creatures to allow Repliku an easier time in his blade dance of death.

Until, at least, one of those larger ones came hurtling in towards her. She shot the cannon point-blank, and the magma splashed harmlessly over its bulk, spreading out in a hardening, gummy mass of molten metal.

The creature slammed into her, but this time, she was at least ready and braced for the impact. Together, they carved furrows into the pristine green grass below until Dominator brought it to a halt. It lashed out with one fist, which she caught in her gloved hand. It drew back the other, her own hand still reforming from the cannon, and she brought her head whipping forwards, crashing into the creature’s blank face and forcing it to stumble backwards, where her leg hooked behind its own and sent it stumbling down to the ground under the weight of its own hefty bulk.

“Is there any reason these things are following you everywhere?” She asked, as she raised one foot, and brought it down heavily on the skull of the downed fatty, “Or are you just lucky?”

[Jack Darby]

"They seek out the bearers of the keyblade in order to destroy them, so that they many continue to try to corrupt the hearts of worlds, and destroy them. They're mindless, but drawn to hearts of Light as well." stated Repliku as he slashed one of the Soldiers who got a little too close with Black Heart. Dominator's fighting abilities were impressive, but he couldn't stand around and gawk as much as he wanted to. There was work to be done. These Heartless had to be eliminated in order to make way for Repliku to actually get some useful abilities returned to him here in the Omniverse. Sure he had summoned the power of the Keyblade, but it wasn't enough on it's own. The blade could only do so much unless he came up with special techniques of his own for it. The clone made a mental note that he was going to have to leave one of the Heartless alive so that Dominator could do whatever she wanted to the thing. 

Slash. Slash. Slash. Slash.  It seemed all he was doing was cutting down Shadows, and Soldier Heartless as more of the buggers kept coming. When they were down to their last few, he'd finish off all but one of the Heartless, and leave that one for Dominator to do with as she pleased. Her help with the molten blasts she was firing from that strange gun that he really wanted for himself was something he couldn't have done without to be honest. Even with the key, he was not powerful enough for a prolonged battle...yet. 

"Now that we've dealt with our Heartless problem, are you willing to train me some?" asked Repliku.  "And what are you going to do with the remaining Heartless?" queried the copy of Riku.

[Lord Dominator]

Lord Dominator wasn’t really sure she followed at all, but she wasn’t going to question it that much. Corrupting the hearts of worlds sounded interesting, though, as a general rule, she was more interested in tearing the hearts out of worlds and grinding them beneath her sneaker-clad heel.

As she turned back to survey the carnage, beneath her visor, Dominator allowed herself a bright grin. Seeing so much devastation in the once-lush surroundings filled her heart with glee. But, if she was going to pull off her little ‘prank’ she was going to need him to take her seriously, and not see her for what she was.

A bad guy.

“You wanted a lesson.” Dominator said, allowing the armour to melt back again. It was just so much easier to work when she had a tactile sense of the world around her; the armour plating helped to keep her safe when she was fighting, but it wasn’t so great for trying to do delicate work, like ripping out the very stuff that fuelled a creature in the Omniverse.

Walking easily to the downed Heartless, she laid her hand upon it, and turned to regard the boy over her shoulder.

“Look.” She said, “It isn’t complicated. To make something, you have to know what you want. To get the fuel to make it? You have to destroy something, or else it comes out of YOUR pool. Can't get something from nothing.”

It was a lie, pure and simple. Dominator knew full well that there were many ways to get more Omnilium; some of it just seemed to well up in her when she did anything, but, the boy didn’t know that. This should teach him all sorts of things. Mostly, it’ll teach him that killing will make him stronger, which is a lesson that should prove quite fun to watch him put into action – and the chances were high he’d get himself killed long before it occurred to him to try and turn on her.

The woman’s gloved fingers pressed tight against the rubbery flesh of the Heartless beneath her, and she took a deep breath and cracking her neck as she turned back to the restrained monster. Her voice was a calm as she lectured. 

“Just like making, concentrate on UNMAKING. Draw their power into yourself. Take everything they have. With something like this, that’s not much, but get yourself a nice, experienced Secondary, and you can wring out every last drop of emotion for extra power.”

Again, the fear came over the Heartless, and this time, there was nothing to stop Dominator going all the way. Rainbow light played across its form as she unwove the strands of its creation. It wasn’t a quick process; no quicker than it had taken to create, and every second of it was clearly agonising for the desperately-thrashing shadow monster, right up until the moment it lost the last ounce of energy it had to try and resist.

Then, the creature melted away, briefly visible as a series of tiny rainbow orbs before they were sucked up into the glove and were added to Dominator’s power.

She straightened, then, and flashed a grin to Repliku.

“Now.” She said, “You wanted to go up to that island, right?”

[Jack Darby]

When she dematerialized the Heartless by converting it into Omnilium, and told the clone that the way to get more power for himself was by killing others, Repliku thought about it. Doing so would allow him to get the power he needed so he could find the source of the Heartless which he already planned on murdering with extreme prejudice for summoning them here in the first place. Now that he knew he could make himself possess more power out of doing the deed? Repliku was completely sold on his plans for the individual who had the Heartless summoned. They were going to regret that foolish decision of sending the Heartless after him, and Dominator for as little as they'd be alive anyway. Repliku wasn't going to allow the Heartless to last long, nor the idiot who had summoned them to this place. 

"Yes. I was trying to get up to that island. I've heard that they possess books on magic there, and given I once had several magic spells at my disposal, I'll need to regain them before long. After all, with more and more Heartless coming after us each time..."  Repliku then realized something he hadn't before. If more and more Heartless came after them, that meant there was more of a chance for him to gain power, more of a chance for him to become stronger than he was, and more of a chance for him to become more than simply a clone. Perhaps he'd prove worthy of an actual name for himself that was more fitting than Repliku, a name of his very own. 

It was something that made the Replica excited. 

"So knowing what you want is the key to making things with Omnilium? Well in that case..I will have to practice more." 

[Lord Dominator]

“Yeah, yeah. I’m scared. Really.” The tall green woman said, buffing her nails against her shirt. “So, you had better run along so that you can get that magic and keep everyone safe, right? No time to lose!”

She stepped closer to the boy, and wrapped one arm around his shoulders, looking up towards the floating city. “The secret.” She said, “Is that only those of us who can use this stuff are really people at all. Everyone else? Just a construct. A robot. They might be convincing, but it doesn’t really count when you kill them, because they weren’t really alive to begin with, just like your Heartless.”

She stepped back smartly, and clapped her hands together. “Now.” She concluded, “I need to get back home myself, but I’ll just whip you up a transport, and you can be on your way.”

Thinking back, she tried to imagine the simplest flying device she could. It wasn’t that difficult. It still took her a good five minutes moulding and shaping a prismatic sphere of Omnilium before the orb popped into existence, though, as… an orb. Just a floating bubble of transparent material which hung in the air. That was what the annoying creature had used before, wasn’t it?

“Here you go.” She ushered, trying to push the boy into the ball. Once inside, all he’d need to do was walk in the direction he wanted, and it’d take him there… albeit at a walking pace, which raised all sorts of questions about how Wander actually managed to get between all the stars in the galaxy to begin with. “Go on up there and get all the Omnilium you need to save the world. We’re counting on you!”

[Jack Darby]

Pushed into a flying bubble, Repliku realized something he hadn't before. Flight was possible in the Omniverse. This was something he hadn't known, but should have. Of course he wasn't going to go around killing everyone he met, no matter what Dominator said. After all he didn't want more problems than he already had. The Heartless were enough of a problem without turning an entire city against him, or an entire Verse. At least now he could begin the path to learn magic and thus be more than capable of blasting the Heartless. Several creative ideas for new spells came to mind, one of which would involve the liberal flinging of small shards of metal at any Heartless unfortunate enough. Another was a powerful electrical spell, but in order to do magic here he needed to learn more about the various kinds of magic that worked here. Whatever Dominator had used against the Heartless, the cannon she had used was not magic he knew that much. While he was there, he could at the very least learn some about that, so he could understand if the Heartless could get technological weapons. As the bubble floated upwards and eventually arrived on the island, popping once he was up there Repliku realized something. If Dominator could effortlessly use Omnilium to create something like this, and had claimed that everyone in the Omniverse was not alive and could be used as fuel this presented a number of opportunities for him. Oh how he was definitely going to get the Omnilium he needed in order to learn how to use magic, so that he could blast any of the Heartless with any number of deadly spells, so as to make his life a bit less hectic. 

Now firmly on the ground of Dalaran, Repliku began to make his way around... awestruck at the floating city even more than he had been before. The construction was sublime, and the attention to detail exquisite. It reminded him in a way of the only home he had ever known, Castle Oblivion. Yet now was not the time to be nostalgic about his home. Speedwalking at an intense pace, Repliku made his way through the city even though he had no clue as to where he was in the city, and was hopelessly lost. One thing Dominator had said was right though. They'd be relying on him to wield the keyblade, unless someone came up with a machine or some sort of magic to repel the Heartless, something he'd have to look into, so he didn't have to deal with them all the time. After all, routine encounters would quickly lose the excitement they caused him, especially if the Heartless kept coming in large numbers.

[Lord Dominator]

Dominator shaded her eyes as she watched the boy take off into the air, and only when she was absolutely sure that he was out of hearing did she laugh. It was loud, it was carefree, it was utterly and completely heartfelt, and it soon had her literally rolling around on the floor in hysterics. She had no idea what the long-term consequences of her actions would be. She didn’t particularly care, either. One afternoon messing with that cloned kid’s head was more fun than she’d had in months. It was just what she needed to get her spirits back.

Getting back to her feet after she was done, Dominator wiped a tear from her eye, and shook her head, smirking up to the island. “I think that's just about enough fun for one day." She said to herself. 


She looked around the clearing, and put her hands on her hips.

“Now I’ve just got to remember which way is home."

Which was likely to be moderately more challenging.