There was a concussive blast through the air, like a bomb exploding, or the vibration of speakers turned up to maximum volume, that Leahna could feel through her body the moment the door swung open. Next to her a few steps away, she noticed out the corner of her eye Scott being pushed backwards through the sand by the gale force of the wind blasting out of the door, raising his key over his face to protect himself. Leahna impulsively did the same, using her key weapon to help shield her eyes from the sand being whipped across the beach like a ferocious sandstorm. The wind became so strong that it felt like the gale force wind of a cyclone, forcibly pushing the two of them away from the rocks of the message wall across the sands of the secret beach. It was then Leahna felt the aftershock of the door opening, seismic tremors shaking through the earth beneath her feet, causing her and Scott to loose their balance and fall over.

As she got up, feeling uneasy as the ground shook violently beneath her, Leahna looked up and froze. In the sky, she could see the wind carrying pieces of wood, branches, and brick spinning through the air. But that wasn't what stopped her. In amongst them she could see a bathtub, a sink, a hot water heater and even a car, all twirling dangerously through the air on an invisible wind. It had to have been a cyclone, and what was even worse, it had hit the homes on the beach. It meant her and Scott's house could have been destroyed. If she and Scott hadn't woken up and left, they would now be in that cyclone, probably injured or even worse.

"C'mon!" Scott yelled, already back on his feet, talking Leahna's hand and trying to pull her to her feet. "Leahna, get up!"

Leahna yanked her hand away from Scott and stood up on her own. The last thing she needed right now was Scott telling her what to do. "I can get up myself. I'm not helpless."

Scott looked a little hurt. "I'm not saying you were. I was only trying to help you up. That cyclone is coming this way, we have to find cover fast. Let's go."

Leahna did not move and looked up in the sky again. She thought about what was happening back at home. "Hmmm. I'm… I'm not so sure." She tried to think. What would her mum want her to do if she was in danger?

"Larnie, please, listen to me." Scott called through the wind. "That cyclone is coming this way. We don't have time to stay here. And here's no way we can possibly go back now."

"Yeah, I know." she said understandingly through the wind to him. "But… I just can't leave my family and friends, they could be hurt." Scott had moved to the beach from far away, so he didn't have any family, and besides Larnie there weren't any friends of his that lived in the neighborhood. But Leahna did have family and close friends living around her. She wasn't sure if Scott could understand how she felt unsure if they were still alive or not.

"Your family and friends are probably safe." Scott reassured her, his eyes meeting hers. "If you made it back there now only to get yourself killed, trying to look for them, how do you think they would feel? Take control of what you can do now, save yourself and worry about them after the storm's passed. We don't have time to argue, we need to take shelter. We've gotta take care of us now."

Leahna thought for a moment longer. She put herself in her mum's shoes and picture what she would say. Leahna, get to a safe location. Stay there until it's safe. Then call me, and if you can't, be in a place I can find you. "Yeah, you're right." Leahna finally agreed. Leahna's family and friends meant the world to her. Scott understood that, was trying to put himself in her mother's shoes too, nothing was more important to her mum than the safety and happiness of her child. He just wanted to make sure she was okay so she could get back to her mum.

"Let's go find some cover." she decided. She just hoped her mum and friends would be okay. How would she find them after this storm was over if her house was gone?

Scott breathed a sigh of relief. "That's good. I don't want to have to say to your family and friends why I couldn't have done everything I could, to stop you from walking into that storm, to save your life. You're my friend, I don't want you to die."

Leahna nodded at him. "Yeah, I know you're only trying to be there for me." She lead him towards the trees up the beach. "We should find some shelter from the storm in between those trees."

Suddenly, before they could get to the trees, a black pool appeared in front of them. It swelled with the same darkness as the shadows had come from, but it was much, much bigger. Then from out of it rose a giant shadow; unlike the smaller shadows that had little bug-like antennas, this shadow had tentacle-like Medusa hair that was wrapped around its entire face, except for its glowing amber eyes. It had a muscular upper body, but in the center of its chest was hollow, a hole carved straight through it in the shape of a heart. Its legs were short and disproportionate compared to the rest of its body, and its feet were curled at the toe.

"Who are you!?" Leahna demanded, hoping she could first try to talk her way out of this fight, as the bigger shadow seemed to show some sentient qualities. The shadow raised it's fist and slowly slammed it down towards them, prompting Leahna and Scott to jump out of the way before it came crushing down on the spot they were last standing. Leahna scowled at the shadow. If it wanted a fight, it was going to get one. Nothing was going to stand in her way to get to her family and friends. But how, even with Scott's help, was she going to fight an opponent twice her size?

Scott ran in first, dodging the shadow's slow swipe at him with his hands, and boldly stabbed his weapon into the hole in the monster's chest where the heart shape was, thinking it was its weak spot. But as his blade entered the hole, it seemed to have no effect. The shadow reached a hand down to him to grab him before he could see it coming. It picked him up and lifted him above its head, and with Scott unable to do anything as he couldn't free his key out of the monster's fingers, it brought him down fast and slammed him into the ground.

Leahna wasn't sure what to do. The shadow wasn't like one of the little shadows. How did Scott muster the courage to fight it like that? Leahna didn't feel she was as brave; the shadow was now punching his fist into Scott on the ground repeatedly, she was afraid she was going to get hurt or worse, which her mum wouldn't want her to do. Wait, what am I thinking? She thought. Scott's getting really badly hurt, and I'm doing nothing. I've got to help him! And if I don't defeat this thing, we won't get to shelter in time before the cyclone hits. I have to get through this if I want to see my loved ones again.

The shadow creature was focusing on Scott too much to care about Leahna, and brought up its fist again to pound him further into the ground. His other hand was unprotected, so Leahna stepped around to try to go unnoticed as she got closer to his hand. She felt the fear rising in her tummy, but she fought against every instinct to run. Don't be such a coward Larnie! You can do this! Your loved ones are depending on you! I'll save you, Scott! Motivated, she ran forward and slashed at the monster's other unprotected hand.

The shadow unexpectedly knelt to its knees, punching its injured hand into the sand from Leahna's blow. Darkness swelled up from beneath the earth and into the monster, as if it were recovering its strength.

"Scott!" Leahna yelled. "Are you okay!?"

Scott stood up slowly and held his chest painfully. "Yeah. Like a million bucks." he said sarcastically, but besides a few bruises he appeared to be okay. Scott was standing closest to the shadow, so as it lowered it's head to the ground to recover, Scott brought up his blade and struck at it's head. Sparks flew out from the impact point where the keyblade hit, and the shadow deeply moaned, as if hurt or in pain. Then it reared up its head and stood upright again, its hand brand new and completely restored.

"Hey! Over here!" Scott yelled at the shadow, trying to get its attention. He strafed around the shadow, causing the beast to turn its back on Leahna. "Now, get it from behind!" Leahna realized what Scott was trying to do. He was trying to draw the shadow's attention from her so she could sneak attack it.

"It's no use, I can't reach its head!" Leahna called over the howling storm above them, which was now booming with the sound of thunder and the flash of lightning.

"You're not that short!" Scott yelled back, evading a palm swipe the giant shadow made as it oddly moved in slow motion.

"No, I mean its weak spot is its hands! Attack them so I can get to its head!" she yelled back at him.

"Why didn't you say so?" Scott shouted back above the pouring rain, and sliced his sword at the shadow as it outstretched his hand towards him. The key cut through the shadow's hand, causing it to buckle over and punch its hand into the sand. Leahna ignored the tremor and spotted her chance, running up towards the creature. With some impressive agility she ran up its arm it was using to balance itself, and once she was on its shoulder, she hacked at the creature's head with her blade, making it bellow in pain again.

Suddenly the creature's free hand came around and grabbed hold of her. "No!" Scott yelled in desperation. Leahna gritted her teeth and smashed at the creature's hands with her keyblade, causing it to drop her. Scott slid through the sand on his backside and moved beneath her in time, catching her awkwardly but enough to brake her sudden fall.

"Are you okay?" Scott asked quickly as she got up out of his lap.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Leahna replied, dusting wet sand off her. "The shadow, it's down. Get to its head!"

Leahna and Scott ran together to strike the shadow a finishing blow, but the monster rose up with its hand rejuvenated, making them miss their opportunity. The shadow raised its hands above it before Leahna and Scott could reach it, gathering a ball of dark energy between it's hands. The ball started to get bigger and bigger, until it stopped. "RUN!" Scott yelled, and the creature threw the ball after them as they retreated, exploding into the sand behind them, the aftershock powerful enough to throw them off their feet and into the sand. Leahna picked herself up and as she did, she noticed the sand had turned black. The dark energy left behind by the ball had caused this, and slowly pools of shadow began to form out of it, creating new smaller shadows, like the ones Scott and Leahna had previously fought. Scott looked at the closest shadow near him, reaching for his key weapon. The shadow was quicker and lunged to attack him with his claws, but before it could reach him, Leahna grasped her weapon, and swung it at the shadow, destroying it.

"Thanks." Scott said gratefully, finally grabbing his blade and getting to his feet.

"Yeah." Leahna said casually, still a little mad at him. "Thank me later when we beat this thing."

They got up and started defeating the smaller shadows together as they had done before, smashing them with their blades one after another. Once they were all gone, they turned to focus on the giant shadow, which was now standing above them and slamming both its fists down towards them in a sneak attack. Leahna leaped out of the way to avoid the attack, looking up to see Scott had managed to do the same. "Now!" Scott said, and together they both counter-attacked the creature's hands, slashing their blades into them as it lifted them up from the ground. The giant shadow buckled to the ground once more, exposing it's head. Leahna and Scott ran forward and stabbed their swords into the monster's face. Finally, it let out a defeated moan and collapsed to the ground, dissolving into wisps of shadow before it finally disappeared.

"We did it!" Scott said exasperatedly.

"Yes." Leahna said breathlessly.

But there was no time for victory. Still on the beach, Leahna felt what must have been an earthquake rip through the ground, tearing sand and earth up into the wind as it was sucked into the sky in some kind of monstrous funnel. She realized it must have been the cyclone, but it was all being sucked up into some kind of strange vortex in the sky… like the one she had seen in her dream. It felt like it was the end of the world, as everything around them – sand, rock, trees, even the ocean – was being pulled up into the vortex. For some sort of stability, she stayed close to Scott and hung onto him as the world seemed to be sucked up around them. Scott did the same, looking bewilderedly around them. This was crazy. Could a cyclone really do this much damage? She felt like she was Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, watching the world be blown away outside her window.

Suddenly the wind intensified, and she felt herself literally being swept off her feet, lifted up into the air of the ground by the cyclone. She yelped in surprise and thought she was going to be blown away along with everything else on the beach, until she felt a familiar, reassuring, firm grasp on her wrist, holding her down.

"You're not going anywhere!" Scott yelled above the wind, stabbing his key sword into the ground to act as some kind of anchor to hold onto. "I've got you!"

"Don't let go!" Leahna scolded him, not sure if she could trust him to hold onto her.

"Trust me!" Scott called back. "Feel my hand? That's solid. I'm not going anywhere. And neither are you. I'm with you." He grunted, holding tightly onto his key sword as the wind lifted him into the air as well. The wet sand beneath them that buried the key's blade, however, was starting to give way and crumble.

The sweaty skin between Leahna's hand and Scott's was starting to make her loose their grip too. The ground was really shaking violently now. Suddenly the key pulled itself up from the sand, and Leahna lost her grip in Scott's, both of them flying up into the air. "Leahna!" Scott called for her out of concern, as he was swept up though the air beside her. Leahna reached out for Scott to try and keep him with her, but as she tumbled through the air up into the vortex, she lost sight of him in the cold darkness. Scared for her life and if she would survive falling from the height she was out now, the beach now far beneath her, the only thing she could keep hold of was her new key sword she clung tightly to.

The last thing she remembered seeing before she blacked out was the gaping vortex that she was heading towards, and the dark sky beyond.