Riku is the first to sprint towards the palace gates, and Sora's already on top of the situation. A beam of light shoots from the tip of Oathkeeper, slipping between the two shut doors. On the other side, a booming sound echoes, indicating the opening of the door; immediately, they begin to slide outwards, just in time for Riku to slip inside neatly. Sora grabs Kairi's hand, and together, they make a break for the opening gates just as the first explosion rocks the palace grounds.
"Reflega!" comes a shout from inside, and a ripple of hexagonal tiles reveals the impact of falling boulders against Riku's spell. Sora and Kairi catch up, and the three wait until the avalanche of boulders ceases.
In all his trips to Agrabah, Sora has never been beyond the palace gates. Now that he's finally inside, he can't see anything through the dust. He can't see anything at all, but Kairi and Riku are already running around the pile of palace chunks with their Keyblades and he follows.
"It's over there!" Kairi motions, and Riku allows her to take the lead, despite her lower speed. Sora and Riku jog along behind until Kairi suddenly stops and points her Keyblade confidently, which glows with magic. "Stopra!"
Sora glances around anxiously. His Scan picks up on a presence ahead of him, but he still can't see anything ahead. Kairi and Riku, on the other hand, burst forward to take advantage of their opening.
There's still a lot of dust in the air which reduces visibility, and Sora touches the materia on his armband, given to him by the Hollow Bastion Restoration Committee. Dashing forward to join his friends, Sora yells, "Aeroga!"
A blast of wind whirls around him, driving dust away and bearing him up into the air. His Keyblade quivers as it nears the enemy, and Sora swings when a sudden burst of energy surging from the Keyblade into him makes him aware of the figure in front of him. Even though he can't see the object per say, Oathkeeper is able to sense and attack the target. It's all he can rely upon for now.
Kairi and Riku hover above him, born upon his Aeroga spell. Kairi looks slightly surprised at her increased air time, but takes advantage of her heightened position to fire off the long list of magic spells she's picked up on. She really has a knack for support magic, complementing Donald's offensive magic; just one shot of Fire has set a portion of the target ablaze. Riku continues to lay powerful blows into the transparent enemy, and from his position below, Sora can see slight wavers in the air as the enemy shudders.
Suddenly the entire adversary is in motion, released from Kairi's Stopra. It droops, sinking downwards; Sora hears the shifting of a massive object next to him and swings. His Keyblade connects solidly, but the hide of the creature is tough, and Oathkeeper bounces off. Aeroga keeps him in the air, and he tries to hit the monster another time. This time, the tines of his Keyblade sink in slightly, each stroke dealing a greater amount of damage. The final stroke sinks in and tears satisfactorily, and Sora pushes away as the monster howls in pain and rage.
Before he knows it, a gigantic force slams into him, crushing the air from his lungs. Knocked out of the range of Aeroga, he begins to fall. A force surging through his Keyblade allows him to recover and deal a formidable aerial payback to an invisible force he can't see, digging into a tender area. The pointed star-shaped tines tear their way through, but the monster shakes free, flinging Sora into the air.
"Sora!" Kairi screams as Sora flies in an undignified, uncontrolled manner.
"Sora, you sap," Riku yells. "Watch it! Keep your eyes on the opponent!"
"That's the problem!" Sora fires back. "It's not like I can actually see—"
"Reflera!" Kairi screams, and blue hexagonal tiles flash six inches in front of Sora's eyes as something huge slams into them. In return, the tiles blaze hot white and explode outwards, embedding like shards of glass into the shape of a lashing tail.
"I got it!" Sora yells, pulling Oblivion out of one of his many zippered pockets and swapping the two keychains quickly. Positioning his Keyblade pointing straight down, he dives for what he hopes is the base of the tail. The disappearance of Oblivion's jagged black tines and patterned shaft into nothingness, along with a sudden force of black particles similar to Heartless grime blasting into his face, confirms this.
The monster howls in agony, and Sora suddenly finds himself being thrown around like a rag doll. Riku yells above him and Kairi screams, but he's unable to comprehend either of their words.
A gigantic claw rakes along the length of his back, dragging him free. Tangled in his belts and buckles, Sora is unable to slide free and is lifted into the air violently, leaving Oblivion stuck in the creature's tail. He's a lot closer to Riku and Kairi now and can distinguish their words.
"Sora!"
"Sora, you dimwit! It can live without its tail! Attack its head!"
Putrid air washes over him, and Sora looks for the source. He still can't see much; only the torn remains of the palace walls and the interior of what he assumes is Princess Jasmine's private chambers, judging from the presence of the screaming Arabic princess hiding in the corner of the room.
A flush of darkness abruptly obscures Princess Jasmine from view; Sora is able to visualize the monster as he continues to inhale the stench washing over him. He spots a gaping maw of perfect white teeth that prepares to engulf him. Within that maw is another, smaller set of teeth which salivates eagerly. Something tugs at his… not his heart, but something underneath, something deeper. He momentarily blacks out as the tugging becomes more persistent and the double set of jaws prepares to engulf him.
"TRINITY LIMIT!"
Their voices are much closer to him. In fact, right next to him: Kairi's soft skin pushing against his left shoulder, Riku's muscled deltoid pressing against his own. Lines of energy tracing out an intricate Trinity Mark serve as a platform for the trio to stand on. With both of his friends directly behind him, they raise their Keyblades in unison and fire beams of pure light outwards. The monster recoils and its claw tears through Sora's clothes as it stumbles backwards into the palace. Screams echo from within the palace itself, but the relentless Trinity Limit continues to bash in the face of the invisible monster in front of them—
A rain of white pebbles materializes from thin air in front of them, dropping to the floor below. Piece by piece, larger chunks of white stone break away. The image of the monster wavers, then becomes visible. Sora can see the entire creature, and it's unlike anything he's ever seen before—Heartless or Nobody. He can see the black hole in its chest where its heart should be, and the pieces of white mask cracking in front of him reveal a face which might have been kind and grandfatherly once upon a time, but is now wracked with crazed obsession. Its double mouth creaks open, and through the agony, it croaks, "My princess… Jasmine…"
Sora hesitates as the Trinity Limit wraps up. The mask is almost completely removed, save for one chunk still covering an empty eye socket. The uncovered eye is bloodshot and crazed, darting around frenetically. The monster turns around slowly, peering into the hole it created in the palace. Into Princess Jasmine's private chambers. "My princess… princess…"
The Princess of Heart within ceases screaming. Everything is quiet for a moment. Sora can't stop watching, repulsed and curious at the same time. Then, Jasmine whispers, "Grandfather?"
A flash of white light accompanied by wisps of darkness. In one swift strike, Riku has cleaved the monster in two, from the back of its head down to the hole in its chest. The monster wails desperately as it begins to disintegrate into dark dust, but instead of splashing onto them as grime, the dust evaporates into glowing blue particles and dissipates into the atmosphere.
Sora and Kairi alight on the ground as the rest of the monster dissolves. Kairi makes eye contact with Riku as a large green flower blossoms upside down above Sora's head, sprinkling golden particles into his skin. Riku glances down at the tines of The Way to Dawn, where a couple blue particles still linger, then back up at Kairi.
"What was that?"
Riku glances at the few glowing blue sparks floating in a little glass jar in the computer's scanning bay, then up at the Gummi Ship's communications screen, which is projected onto the windshield. Visibility is reduced considerably, so Riku has the ship's autopilot on cruise. "What is this?" Riku asks.
Cid's scruffy face fills the entirety of the projected screen: stiff blond hair, five o'clock shadow, permanent goggle marks embedded in his forehead, and a toothpick hanging between his teeth. He grimaces as he analyzes the preliminary data sent to him by the Gummi Ship's computer.
A brief memory surfaces in Riku's mind: in the brief time he'd spent fighting in the Underworld in Olympus, training to get even stronger than he already was, he'd seen a pyrefly. A natural phenomenon brought in by a contestant from another world, pyreflies were basically concentrations of disembodied spiritual energy wandering aimlessly. They left behind glittering trails of shimmering white particles which eventually dissipated into the atmosphere. The sample he'd obtained from Agrabah looked similar, except these were a soft blue.
Riku is startled out of his thoughts by a loud harrumph from Cid. "You've got a problem, kid."
"Say what?"
"This sample size is too small," Cid growls. "Six specks of identifiable material? The databases don't match any data or past research to the electromagnetic and photovoltaic output of these particles, but I contribute that to the fact that you've only got six specks of dust! The error of margin is way too high, kiddo."
Riku's brow furrows. "So you need more of this glowing stuff in order to analyze it?"
"I can't make heads or tails of it," Cid answers, wiping his nose with the back of his fist. "The thing is, whatever you've got in there doesn't seem to be alive, yet the readings for life are off the charts. This isn't something science can analyze, so Yuffie going to fetch Merlin."
"Who's Merlin?" Kairi whispers, patching up Sora's torn clothes. Sora slumbers in the back area, recovering his strength.
"An informed magician," Riku replies. "The Hollow Bastion Restoration Committee's headquarters are located in his house."
A poof of smoke on Cid's side of the screen announces the arrival of the esteemed wizard with hyper ninja Yuffie in tow. Cid leans back and allows Merlin to inspect the data.
"Interesting," Merlin murmurs as he pushes his spectacles further up his nose and peers at the screen. "It appears as if these particles are small bits of spiritual energy."
"What does that mean?" Kairi asks.
Merlin's eyebrows rise as he looks at the Princess of Heart. "Surely you should know; I hear that you are an exceptionally talented magic user. Magic is simply the manifestation of an excess of one's own spirit energy."
Riku, Kairi, and Yuffie fix Merlin with blank stares. Cid adds helpfully, "What the hell?"
Merlin sighs. "Everybody has a spirit, or a soul, if you will; the soul is the source of life to every organism. Every creature has a basal level of this life energy that replenishes and maintains itself as long as the creature is alive. Some beings, however, are born with an excess of spirit energy, more than is necessary to keep them alive; this excess is manifested as magic, and can be directed via several different mechanisms for differing utilizations, whether destructive or healing."
"So how do these… spirit particles relate to the monster we fought?" Riku asks.
"That… I do not know," Merlin admits. "I do believe that a larger sample size would assist in the investigation of this phenomenon. You said that these spirit particles originate from an individual monster? Seek out another monster and, if possible, collect a sample from it as well. The larger the sample size, the more accurate results."
"You're asking us to look for another battle?" Kairi exclaims. "What if this was a one-time thing?"
Riku shakes his head. "It wasn't. That feeling that I got around the monster… it's still with me."
If Kairi searches deep enough within herself, she can still feel the foreboding that Namine holds. Still, she doesn't want to believe it. It's only been six months since Riku and Sora came back to the islands. Only six months.
"Something big is on the horizon, and we've got to meet it head-on," Riku continues. "We'll fight it down before it gets too big. Do you have an idea on where more of these might appear?"
Cid shakes his head. "I can tell you the statistics outputted by the 'spirit particles' Merlin identified, but there's not much else that we can derive from such a small sample."
"Continue the Heartless cleanup," Merlin advises, preparing to disconnect. "But be on the lookout for those monsters."
Riku nods, also resting his hand over the disconnect button. "Alright. Over and out."
The moment the screen's projection winks out of sight, revealing the windshield once again, Riku reacts instinctively. While he wasn't able to see anything outside while the communications screen was in place, now that the windshield has been cleared, Riku spots the huge, crackling ball of energy off to the right, ready to T-bone them.
"Aren't we supposed to dodge that?" Kairi yells as Riku attempts to swerve out of the way.
"I'm trying!" he shouts, pulling against the resistive controls. "The missile has a Gravity spell attached—I can't pull away! Sora, get up here—"
"Sora's resting," Kairi interrupts plaintively.
Riku's expression darkens. "Then go wake him up! This is urgent!"
"Let me rephrase that: he's in a coma for another ten minutes for accelerated healing."
Riku splutters in exasperation. "Why—of all times—how—alright Kairi, come up here and copilot!"
Kairi stumbles into the copilot's seat, her eyes bugging at the complex controls. "What… how… what am I supposed to do?"
"Redirect the force fields to the impact site, fire counter-missiles—"
"I'll just push random buttons!"
Window washer fluid sprays across the windshield, repellant pads erect themselves in front of the Gummi Ship to push obstacles away while a grappling hook flies off into space, and a random rocket launches straight ahead.
The impact is far more violent than Kairi imagined. Her unbuckled-in body is thrown from the copilot's seat into Riku's as the ball of energy tears into the right side of the ship. The ship drops into an uncontrollable spin as it enters a world's gravity field, but before Kairi's soft body can smash into another unyielding surface, muscled arms wrap around her torso and keep her in place.
"Pull the steering wheel to the left!" Riku roars into her ear, and she obeys. The entire body of the ship groans as Kairi tries to control their tumble into the atmosphere. Flames curl around the edges of the windshield. Something explodes, vibrating throughout the ship; at this, the steering wheel goes slack and the Gummi Ship plummets towards the ocean.
A/N: If you've been directed here from my other story GP:LOL, I love you doubly - I seriously don't know anybody who likes both Glee and Kingdom Hearts. They're sort of two separate worlds, on two different planes of existence. But seriously, I've been with Kingdom Hearts far longer than Glee... and Kingdom Hearts is far more consistent, has a ton of depth and character development, has plenty of supernatural ability to play around with... AND ITS FREAKIN' DISNEY.