[center][b]9:  The Dark Curtain[/b][/center]

[i]She's taking too long.[/i]  The Remnant was shaking his head.  [i]At this point, she should have manifested her Keyblade.  What's causing the hold up?[/i]  Ever since Lidia underwent the Keyblade Inheritance Ceremony, she'd been reflecting on who she was.  Over two weeks have passed since that occasion, and she had yet to exit her contemplations.  The manifestation of her first Keyblade should have occured after a day, or two at the most.  Not fourteen days without any sign of formation.  At this point, his patience was running extremely thin.  He had trained to a point that put him on a plateau beyond his expectations, but he still knew that going up against the goody-goodies would be troublesome.  That's was the biggest reason that he allowed her to train alongside him.  Sure, it provided him some amusement to see her struggle, but he needed a good and viable back-up in case things went sour.

The problem was, his back-up wasn't working out as he anticipated.  She was slow, ineffective, absolutely horrendous in battle... the only things that made him stop from destroying her himself were two small things.  One, she could communicate with and control the Heartless, but even that was flawed.  The only other thing that really made him pause was a small comment/prophecy about She Who Would Be Queen of Chaos.  If this was what Lidia was meant to be, he didn't see it.  But, he curtailed that urge to annihilate her, just to see if she really was this.  He was curious.  [i]Now either prove me right or prove me wrong.[/i]

Finally, Lidia opens her eyes, and breathes deeply.  She was sure that she had finally reached that point of understanding, that she finally knew herself.  "I think I got it."  She gets to her feet and rubs her hands together.  Looking around, she doesn't notice her sensei.  She yells out for him.  "I think I got it!"

"About time."  The Remnant turns around and walks over to the crater where she was sitting in contemplation.  She was up on her feet, aware.  He fires a Dark Blizzara down, creating a ramp for him.  Sliding down it, he stops feet in front of her.  "You took your time."

"It was only a couple of hours.  I don't see why you..."

"Two weeks."  The Remnant holds up to fingers to illustrate his point.  "Not a couple of hours, but [i]two weeks[/i]."

"Really?"  Lidia shakes her head.  "Didn't feel that long."

"Never mind that.  What's your Keyblade based on?"  The Remnant dismisses Void Gear and focuses on this girl.

"That really took me a long time."  Lidia puts a finger to her chin.  "Well, I knew what I was based around:  Darkness and Chaos.  That part was easy.  But when it then went into what I was meant to do in regards to those things, that's when I began to stall."  Lidia sits on a small boulder.  "I didn't know what I was meant to be.  Yes, my father told me I would be important and change the world, but that was really, really vague."

"That's when I began to list off professions.  You know, find something that would fit me?  What thing out of Darkness and Chaos can be important and bring change?  That was very tough.  It was hard to think of those choices.  Most of them just sounded silly, to be honest.  Quite a few didn't sound like me at all.  However, one just kept popping into my head, and I just kept saying 'no' to it.  Mostly... because it scared me.  It seemed too big for me.  There was no way I could handle something like that."

"But it kept sticking around, like a little tick that wouldn't let go once it attached to you.  Finally, I got so frustrated that I just accepted that part just to see if it would go away.  And when I did... it was... serene.  Not peaceful, but... content."

"What was it?"  The Remnant finally sits down on another boulder, staring at her.

"It was...  It was like I want meant to rule.  You know, like a princess, or a queen."  Lidia shudders a little bit.  "To be fair, that still scares me."

"Why?  Because some hermit told a quote/unquote 'prohpecy'?"  The Remnant merely shakes his head.  "I don't put stock in prophecy.  I say that I choose what lies in the future for me, not some idiot soothsayer who claims to tell the future."  He gets back to his feet.  "But I can guess why that idea stuck with you."

"Really?"

"It boils down to one thing:  Power."  The Remnant brings out Void Gear.  "Any person with half a brain would know that power can make or break a person.  Everyone craves it, whether they admit it or not, and those with it want more.  Physical power, mental power, spiritual power, mystical power, political power.  They need it, they crave it, because it gives them a sense of comfort and security.  And when it comes to power, not many things can trump the power of royalty."  He spikes Void Gear into the earth at his feet.  "The big difference between you and other people is that you have power already to achieve that.  It's just sleeping beneath the surface, waiting for the right thing to wake it up."  The weather overhead begins to turn for the worse, the temperature dropping and the winds rising.  "Consider this your wake-up call.  Now, FOCUS."

Lidia nods, stands up and closes her eyes and extends her hand outwards, focusing on her outstretched hand.

"Imagine the look of it.  Picture the heft of it within your hands.  Feel the texture of it within your mind."

There is a small glow of light in her hand.

"Think of who you are, think of what you want.  Channel those feelings into that weapon.  It is more than a weapon.  It is an extension of you."

"An extension of me..."  Another flicker of light within Lidia's hand.

"This key is more than just an extension of you.  It is you!"  The temperature continues to plummet as the winds continue to rise.  "It is your hopes, your dreams, your anger and sorrow.  It is your power given form!"

"Power given form..."  Another flash of light, this one extending out from her hand.  She raises up towards the sky.

"Your weapon is your right!  Your weapon is you!  Now show it to the world!"

Lidia screams loudly as her eyes finally open.  One final flash of light, and the Anarchy Tiara has been formed.  Looking at it, she marvels at it.  It was light in weight, and suited to fit her.  A broken star as the keychain.  A handle with only a red guard on one side, the other with a silver blade.  A white shaft of the weapon ends with a broken crown, black and jagged.  She gasps for breath she didn't know she needed.  "I did it.  I did it!"

The Remnant chortles darkly.  "Welcome to the club, Lidia."  However, as soon as he sees the newly-formed Keyblade, it vanishes.  "What?!"

Lidia is likewise stunned.  "No!  No, I had it!"  She tries to focus once again, and the lights that signal a Keyblade's attempted summoning emerge, but they quickly flicker away.  "Come back, come back..."

"Bring it back."  The Remnant storms up to her.  "Bring it back now!"

"I'm trying!  I'm trying!"  Lidia continues to focus as more summoning sparks appear, but no Keyblade.  "Come on... come back to me.  Come back..."  She drops to her knees, raising her hand up, believing that would do something.  Sadly, it does nothing.

"No!  I did not waste months of my time training some idiot girl so that she could summon a Keyblade for a few seconds!"  The enraged Remnant pulls out Void Gear and points it at Lidia's face.  "Bring it back, right now, or I swear to Darkness I'll gut you!"

"I...  I can..."  Lidia coughs up some dark liquid from her mouth.  "I can..."  The coughing intensifies, making her double over as more dark liquid escapes from her mouth.  Eventually, she vomits up more dark liquid, before cramping up, curling into a ball, passing out and landing face-first into the darkened spew.

"This... this was such... a waste..."  Enfuriated to the highest point he had been since he emerged, the Remnant gazes at the prone body of Lidia.  In pure 'Kill' mode, he raises Void Gear up as high as it can go before dropping it down with as much force as he can muster.

Before the killing strike can be made, the dark liquid condenses around Lidia, covering her in a solid dark cocoon.  The Void Gear strikes against the cocoon, causing it to wobble.

Enraged even more that his intended target was shielded, he strikes three more times at the cocoon, each one causing the cocoon to wobble.  However, any sense of extreme lingering hatred is tempered by the Remnant's thoughts.  Was this meant to happen?  Was she not able to fully realize the power of the Keyblade because she wasn't ready yet?  Still more than a fair bit irritated, he turns around and leaves, but not before saying, "Looks like you were nothing but a utter waste of my time.  Looks like if you need to do something right, you'll need to do it yourself."  Leaving the crater, he pulls out the black diamond that he stole from Lidia's stasis tube.  Disgusted at the thought of her, he tosses it aside.

The cocoon shudders, as its occupant begins her next stage of life.  Gone would be the young teenage girl with hope in her Heartless eyes.  Gone would be the doe-eyed innocence.  Gone would be the girl who, while born of darkness, wanted to aspire to do good things.  Gone would be the Lidia of old.  And from this organic cradle of darkness would a new Lidia come forth.  One who would be the Dark Princess her father always wanted.  One who would, in time, ascend and become Queen of Chaos, as she was meant to be.  Let the Interferences beware.  When she wakes, chaos and darkness shall follow her.

[center][b]|\-/\-/|---EPILOGUE---|\-/\-/|[/b][/center]

Weeks after Lidia's cocooning, Stumbling out of a portal comes an old man.  Hunched over, garbed in purple and gray, he walks for a short while before coming across the crate where Lidia lay.  Only, the crater was not as it should be.  The cocoon which held Lidia grew, now extending to the edges of that crater.

"Ah, perfect.  "It's going as I thought it would."

The man looks over and notices the black diamond.  Leaning over, he picks it up.  He looks at it for a moment before pocketing it whtin his robe.  He turns and heads back towards the portal before pausing one more time and looking at the massive cocoon.

"It appears that Master Havik was right about you, child.  You may very well tip the tides in the battle between Order and Chaos."

Content in what he saw, the Chaos Hermit returns to his realm, to once again speak to his master and leader.

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