Author's Note: So I was going to wait until tomorrow (today) evening to post this, however, then I realized that there is a high chance I won't be near my computer then, so, since I already have this written and betaed (thank you to my wonderful beta chickendip), that I'd post it now. (Forgive any spelling errors in my Author's note, I'm up really late (early) as I'm typing this.
Anyway, the important bit of news... Yes, I am running parallel to Can't Escape. However, Can't Escape is only running parallel to PARTS of Dead Inside. As far as Sora's story goes, we're even. Where Riku and Namine and Castle Oblivion are concerned, I'm ahead of her. Basically, Riku and Namine are in Hollow Bastion, they go back to CO for the raid, a few other things happen, THEN my charries show up in HB. If that's confusing, PM either me or her and we'll try and explain it. I may also just blog about it, once I get confirmation from her about what all I can talk about without spoiling stuff.
Regardless, this still runs parallel to the latest chapter in Can't Escape. Well, as parallel as you can with the time difference. Gah, timey whimey.
Other than that, if you haven't been keeping up with Can't Escape, I suggest you at least go read the latest two chapters. There's not a whole lot of stuff that'll confuse you if you haven't read the whole thing already. The link's on my page.
Erm... I think that's everything. Rar and I spent a good 30 minutes earlier today trying to figure this out. Yay for me getting confused and her characters adding stuff.
Not that I can say much, in the chapter I was writing today... well... Riku and Namine have turned it into 3 and a quarter. And they're not done. Yes, let me repeat that. It will be at least *4* chapters by the time I'm done with it. And I had just been thinking... "It'd be nice if they'd give me a chapter or two out of this..." Yeah, well, wish granted. And you're all going to both love and hate me when we get there.
Oh, Flightfoot, since your question won't be answered in an upcoming chapter... Ven met Rinoa in Hollow Bastion in chapter 5 of Before the Epilogue. He kept asking about her wings and powers. That's how they know each other.
Enough of me blabbing... Enjoy the chapter!
"Don't do that!"
xx
"You going to test out your drive forms?" Riku asked Sora as they started hacking through the Nobodies.
"Yeah, I'll do that now I suppose."
He concentrated for a minute, then frowned.
"Can't seem to get Valor…" he muttered. He concentrated again. "Nor Wisdom…"
"Why do I get the feeling that this is going to backfire any minute now?" Riku wondered, taking out a few Creepers with a well-placed Thundaga. "That was two attempts in a row…"
Just then, both Leon and Axel both disappeared. Riku looked over to see a shadowy-black Sora streaking through the Nobodies, batting and scratching away.
"Where'd Squall go?" Rinoa asked.
"Don't worry about it," Riku said, not liking the anxiousness in her voice. It wasn't worried-anxious, it was "I'm-going-to-kill-someone-if-something-isn't-done-soon-anxious." He very quickly decided that he did not want to be on Rinoa's bad side. And that was saying something.
"Sora's just gone and thrown himself into Anti-Form," Roxas said. "They'll be okay."
"Provided Sora doesn't hurt himself," Riku muttered.
"What do we do, then?" Rinoa asked, frowning.
"Make sure Sora doesn't hurt himself," Riku said, intervening as a bunch of Creepers awkwardly tried to sneak up on the not-paying-attention Sora.
"Combo?" Roxas asked, looking at Riku.
Riku nodded and extended a hand. Roxas took it and the two of them focused their power. A shield of light formed around them almost instantly. With a shout from both boys, the shield was pushed outwards, knocking nearly all of the Nobodies back several yards.
"Impressive," Rinoa said, sending her blaster edge at a Dusk that the expanding shield had missed.
About then, Sora phased out of Anti-Form.
"Make someone else disappear next time!" Axel grumbled.
"Sorry!" Sora called. "I don't really have much control of that."
He started hacking away at some nearby Dusks to build up his Drive counter again.
"Well, that was interesting," Leon muttered, taking his gunblade to the closest Creeper.
"Round of Eternal Session?" Riku asked, looking at Sora.
Sora nodded and the two of them began their combo.
Not to be outdone, Axel looked over at Roxas.
"Shall we show them what we've got?" he asked.
"I'm not sure what you're getting at…"
"Oh, come on, think of all the Heartless-killing days we had!"
Roxas' face lit up. "Oh! Sure!"
Axel encircled the nearest two-dozen or so Nobodies in a ring of fire. The ground began to take on a molten look. Roxas darted about the circle, bashing the Nobodies with plumes of light. Axel threw chakram after flaming chakram at the rest of them. Within a minute, all the Nobodies inside the circle were dead. Roxas slowed down, twirling Oblivion casually in satisfaction. Axel caught his chakrams and the fire died down.
"Not bad, partner!" Roxas called out.
Axel gave a mock bow.
"Okay, gonna try for Master Form again," Sora shouted. "I apologize if it backfires, though it shouldn't…"
There was a burst of light and Riku disappeared. Sora, however, was standing in golden clothes and wielding two Keyblades; his own, and Riku's.
"Sweet!" Sora exclaimed, working Way to Dawn into a spin. "By the way, nice combo, guys!"
Roxas and Axel grinned.
"Should we show them our combo?" Rinoa asked quietly, hovering by Leon.
"Let's wait," Leon said. "Wouldn't want to spoil their fun."
She laughed and sent her blaster edge spiraling about amongst some Creepers.
Sora captured a bunch of the Creepers into a whirlwind before killing them all with his blades. He ricocheted off a nearby building and came crashing down on some unsuspecting Dusks.
"Impressive," Axel mused, casually tossing a chakram about.
"You should see Final Form," Roxas told him. "That's impressive."
Axel wasn't entirely convinced, considering Sora had just cast about as much Thundagas as Larxene used to do back when she was particularly pissed off at somebody.
"And I thought I chain-casted," Rinoa laughed, casting several Thundagas of her own.
"Glad to see that worked," Riku said when Sora dropped out of Master Form.
"Yeah!" Sora said. "Now to test Final…"
"Need help getting your Gauge up?" Roxas asked.
"That'd be nice, yeah," Sora replied.
The two of them linked arms. They glowed white with light before each shooting off in a different direction, sending off pillars of blue-white light as they did so. Roxas seemed to have a better idea of how to direct the pillars of light, but Sora's still did a good bit of damage. As each of them performed this attack, they seemed to gain a second Keyblade apiece, the second one made entirely out of light.
"And the Nobodies just keep coming," Leon muttered, taking his blade through a few more.
"Gauge still isn't full enough for Final," Sora said when he and Roxas had finished their attack.
"Here," Rinoa said, casting a spell on Sora. "This should help."
Sora had gained an orange glow.
"What spell is that?" he asked.
"Aura, helps you activate Limits better and faster. Try out Final Form."
Sora nodded and concentrated. In a white flash of light Roxas disappeared and Sora was in Final Form, wielding Oathkeeper and Oblivion.
"Well, that's appropriate," Riku observed.
"I think it's time we finish this job," Sora said.
Rinoa grinned cast another couple of Auras. Riku charged up a Dark Aura, Axel lit up another circle of fire. Sora grinned and glided over to the nearest bunch of Nobodies. Then, without even touching the two Keyblades that he was currently wielding, he sent them after the unsuspecting Nobodies with gusto. Each enemy disappeared in light.
"Hey, Sora!" Riku called out.
"Yeah?"
"I'm not going to hit you this time."
And with that, he launched himself at the nearby Nobodies.
"I'd stay clear, if I were you," Axel warned over his crackling flames.
"Duly noted," Squall said.
It didn't seem to matter. Riku shot about the battle area, missing Sora in his gliding telekinetic light-based prowess, Axel in his circle of inferno, Rinoa in her chain-casting Meteor glory, and Squall in his own version of epicness.
Considering he had just Lionhearted the nearest fifty-some Nobodies and a couple of Heartless that had come to see the Keyblades.
After Leon had finished his Limit Break, Rinoa stopped casting Meteor. Axel's flames died down, Riku sent up five pillars of light to end his attack. Sora quietly slipped out of Final Form and Roxas joined them.
"I know why Riku didn't hit you," Roxas muttered.
"Yeah? Why?"
"Because Kairi's not here to yell at him for it."
"Really?" Sora asked.
Roxas grinned.
Riku rolled his eyes.
"Well," Leon said, surveying the Nobody-less area. "That seems to have taken care of things."
"They'll probably be back though," Riku muttered.
"If you just keep an eye on the area, things shouldn't get too bad," Rinoa said. "I mean, this place has a relative balance, even if it does lean toward the side of darkness."
"Speaking of balance," Leon said, putting an arm around Rinoa. "We should probably get back to Hollow Bastion. There's still Heartless to deal with there."
"Would you like some more help?" Roxas asked.
"I think we have it covered for now," Rinoa replied. "But we will call you if something changes. Or, rather, Cid will call you."
Riku nodded, showing at least someone understood.
"You guys have means of getting back?" she asked. "If not, I could teleport you."
"Nah, we've got a star shard," Sora said, elbowing Riku.
Riku pulled the star shard out of his pocket.
"Okay then!" Rinoa smiled. "We'll see you around then!"
With that, she and Squall headed back to the Ragnarok.
"Well, that was certainly a way to spend the afternoon," Axel said, cracking his knuckles.
"Agreed," Roxas said. "Do you think the girls are back from shopping yet?"
"They weren't back when Rinoa summoned you?" Riku asked.
Roxas shook his head.
"Then it is unlikely that they are back now," Riku replied.
"But we just spent…"
"Roxas," Axel said, putting a hand on the blonde's shoulder. "How many times do I have to tell you? Girls are a completely different species!"
All four of the boys laughed at that.
xx
Axel and Roxas decided to go get ice-cream after the day's events. They invited Sora and Riku to come along, but the latter two declined. Instead, they decided to go over to the play island and practice their Keyblade-wielding skills. Sora wanted to improve his magic and Riku wanted to get better at light-based attacks.
"Still working on getting those level three spells, aren't you?" Riku asked, watching Sora cast two Magneras in a row.
"I can get the basic ones," Sora replied. "Especially when I drive. But Magnega and Stopga are harder."
"You use Magnet and Stop?"
"Well, Donald usually did," Sora replied with a shrug. "But I've seen Ven and Aqua use them and they look pretty awesome. I want to be able to do that too!"
Riku laughed and went over to help. Light attacks could wait until tomorrow.
xx
As the evening wore on, Sora and Riku made their way back to the main island. They were joined not too long afterwards by Roxas. Axel, apparently, had other things that he wanted to do and had disappeared by use of a star shard.
"So what do you think the girls are up to?" Sora asked, sitting in a tree down the street from their houses. "It's getting late!"
"I'm sure they're fine," Roxas said, leaning up against the tree. "I mean, they can handle themselves against most enemies."
"Most?" Riku asked. He was sitting in a different tree, one closer to the nearby path.
"Okay, that's an understatement. I'm sure they can handle anyone. I mean, it's not like they're going to go up against anything worse than Heartless or Nobodies right? Not in any of the places they'd go for clothes."
Sora pondered this. "Twilight Town's got Heartless and Nobodies. Hollow Bastion's got Heartless…"
"Wouldn't it be funny if they went to Hollow Bastion and helped Cid with the Heartless problem?" Riku laughed.
"That would be funny!" Roxas agreed.
"Hey! I think that's them!" Sora said, looking down the path.
Riku beckoned them to be quiet. The three of them waited until the girls were closer.
"…Plus, if we tell them now," Xion was saying. "It'll save explanation later. Since we're bound to run into them again."
"That settles that then," Kairi agreed. "We'll tell them."
Riku laughed and jumped out of the tree, landing right behind Kairi.
"Tell us what?" he asked.
Kairi jumped a good six inches. "Don't do that!" she complained.
"Hi!" Namine said, looking excitedly over at Riku.
He smiled. "Hello."
"So, tell us what?" Roxas asked, continuing the question. "Does it have anything to do with you being gone for like, a whole day?"
"We weren't gone that long, were we?" Namine frowned.
"I feel like girls could shop forever!" Sora exclaimed.
"Time passes differently in different worlds, does it not?" Kairi mused. "Could not the same apply for other universes?"
"Say what?"
Sora's words captured the essence of what he, Riku, and Roxas were all thinking.
"So we were in a parallel universe today," Namine said.
"We're nearly positive it was the one that Joseph was from," Kairi added.
"How can you be sure?" Riku asked.
"Well, Cid seemed to have heard of a Joseph that fit the description," Namine said. "Plus, the stuff that we were hearing about their Riku and their Namine fit what Joseph had said about them. Rebellion and all."
"Start from the beginning," Riku said.
"Right, so it all started with the star shard going off in Kairi's pocket…" Xion began.