Night of Fate
The "key" in his hand was the size of a sword. The "blade" was silver and cylindrical. If it was a normal key, the loop functioned as a hand guard, and was gold and boxy, while the handle was black. The "teeth" of the key was shaped similar to that of a crown. A length of chain hung from the bottom of the handle, and at the end of it was a bangle, which was three circles connected together.
"This is…" Sora said, his voice barely a whisper. "My… keyblade…"
He gave it an experimental swing. The weapon was heavy, and he would need two hands to use it best. He heard footsteps and dropped his hand and let go of the weapon. It vanished.
A man stepped around the corner of a house, saw him and waved. Sora returned it nervously. The man walked across the street and disappeared around another corner.
After Sora was sure he was gone, he called the keyblade again. It reappeared in his hand.
"I remember…" he said softly, inspecting the weapon. "This is my keyblade, Kingdom Key. I used it to… to… what did I have it for?"
I fought something, maybe, Sora thought, dismissing the weapon. He walked on, deep in thought. I've had it for a long time. Almost as long as I've known Riku. I use it to, to, fight. Protect. But why?
The dirt road ended at the beach, but Sora, lost in thought, did not notice until he heard the ocean. The lights from the houses no longer reached the beach, so the only the moon and stars cast meager light upon him.
He was not near the docks where they landed earlier that day, but further along the beach. A small dock, probably for fishing, jutted out from the beach.
A figure stood at the end of the dock. Figuring it was his friend, Sora walked towards the dock. As he approached the dock, he could make out it was indeed his friend. The older boy stood at the end of the dock, facing the sea.
Sora walked down the beach and towards his friend. The water lapped against the dock as he slowly moved to the edge.
"Hey, Riku," Sora began as he reached his friend. He said nothing more as Riku turned towards him.
"Sora," he said, his voice ominous. "You discovered it, right?"
"Discovered…?" Sora said, glancing down in thought. "You mean…?"
His head shot up and he summoned Kingdom Key. "This, you mean?"
"Yes," Riku said, his eyes lighting up. An unreadable expression flashed across his face. Riku lifted his hand. In a flash of light, a keyblade appeared in his hands.
Unlike Kingdom Key, it only had a rudimentary appearance to a key. It was essentially composed of wings. The blade was a black and red demon wing, the teeth was a gray, feathery angel wing. A gray bat-like wing and a white angel wing formed the hand guard. The keychain was a simple chain with a black heart-shaped emblem with a red border.
"Way to the Dawn," Riku said, naming the key. He let his arm drop and turned back towards the sea.
"Riku," Sora finally said. "These are weapons. But, why do we have them?"
Riku did not immediately reply, instead turning around to face the ocean. Sora stepped beside him. The light of the moon and stars barely lit the ocean, only reflecting dimly off the water. The smaller islands and ocean were nothing but shadowy silhouettes.
Riku finally spoke: "I noticed… them, I guess… almost as soon as I stepped out of the cave earlier."
"Them?"
Riku shook his head. "I can't really explain. It's like… I smell something. Sense it. Like a shadow out of the corner of my eye."
"Shadows…" Sora said thoughtfully. "Like… living shadows, right?"
Riku nodded. "You remember too. I felt them more in the islands than here, but they're here, in this town. Everyone's in danger."
"Right," Sora agreed. "So what do we do about it? We're gonna help, right?"
"Yeah. But first we need-" before Riku could finish, the two heard a shifting sound from behind them. Sora and Riku spun around. Short, bug-like creatures with glowing yellow eyes crawled upon the dock.
Sora leapt to the right off the dock, Kingdom Key appearing in his hand. Half the creatures leapt off after him. As he landed in knee-deep water, he spun around, spinning Kingdom Key above his head. He struck the leaping shadow creatures, several bursting on contact. Many splashed into the water around him.
He batted a monster away and then dashed towards shore. As he hit the sand, several more of the creatures formed and attacked.
He shouted as they slammed into him, knocking him to the ground. He felt sharp claws dig into him and he shouted. Gripping his keyblade, he forced himself to flip over, succeeding in flinging the monsters off. On his knees, he rolled to the side. Leaping to his feet, he spun his weapon and destroyed several more of his foes.
At a moment of peace, he glanced up. The creatures filled the beach. A flash of lightning and the subsequent thunder startled him. A storm had formed in the few moments of attack. He gripped Kingdom Key with two hands and slashed forward, dashing through several his enemies. At the end of his dash, he spun his weapon around and destroyed more of the creatures. Only a few monsters remained, and he ran at them, swiftly striking each creature.
He scanned the beach, searching for enemies. Satisfied, he ran towards the dock.
"Riku!" he yelled. The older boy ran from the other side of the dock, shadowy monsters at his heels.
"Watch out, Riku!" Sora said as he hefted his weapon. "Strike raid!"
He flung Kingdom Key and it flew end over end and struck the creatures, obliterating them. He quickly recalled Kingdom Key, the keyblade appearing instantly in his hand.
Sora skidded to a halt near the end of the dock. Riku joined him a second later. Sora could not see his features in the darkness. Lightning flashed and it thundered, and Sora felt the first few drops of rain.
"We gotta get back to the house!" He said. Riku nodded. Sora turned and dashed towards the road, Riku behind him. The rain quickly picked up strength, and it grew harder to see. Sora had to rely on the frequent lightning strikes to illuminate his path.
As they reached the road, the shadowy creatures skittered along its edge, yellow eyes staring in at them. The monsters moved around them, encircling the two, preparing for an attack.
Sora and Riku hefted their weapons, ready for battle. Before Sora could make a move, though, Riku stepped forward and gestured.
"Sora, you go on ahead. I'll handle this."
"You sure?"
"Yeah."
Nodding, Sora rushed forward. A few steps from the horde of monsters, he leapt, flipping over them. He swung Kingdom Key as he flew, striking a few monsters. Upon landing, he took off towards the house.
Kairi jerked awake. She sat in the chair by the fire. Her father was busy putting the fire out. She shook her head and rose from her chair. She glanced around. They were the only ones still in the yard.
"Your mother's inside," Keon said, answering her unasked question. "Sora and Rku haven't returned."
"Oh, okay," she said. It had become considerably darker, and she could no longer see the moon and stars. "A storm?" Her father grunted in affirmation.
She turned around and headed for the house. As she crossed the yard, however, a gust of cold wind hit her. She shivered and a cold, ominous feeling ran up her spine. A faint rustling sound reached her ears and she glanced around, then back to her father. The older man now stood straight up, scanning the yard.
"Um, dad?" She called out. The wind picked up again, and lightning flashed in the distance. Keon quickly moved in her direction.
"We should get in the house," he said. She nodded as he walked by, and moved to follow. Her father entered the house, but as soon as he crossed the threshold, an unnatural burst of air struck Kairi, flinging her back away from the house. As she landed roughly in the grass, the door to her house slammed shut, as if some strange force closed it.
She pulled herself up and dashed for the house. A few steps from the house, she slammed into an invisible barrier. It rippled and reflected like a mirror, then turned invisible again.
A sound from behind reached her ears, and she spun around. Shadowy monsters with bright yellow eyes crawled towards her. She cried out and stumbled back, hitting the force field. She glanced around her at the shadow creatures that slowly approached from all sides.
No way out… she thought. Maybe I can just go over?
She pushed off from the barrier and leapt over her attackers. She ran to the other end of the yard. Another force field barred her escape.
She turned around and faced her attackers again. The way they moved reminded Kairi of insects, swarming towards a larger foe.
"Somebody help!" She yelled, doing the only thing she could think of.
In the most unexpected way, something reacted to her cry of help. The creatures parted, as if a great force shoved them out of the way. With the encompassing darkness of the storm clouds, the light of the stars and moon made it seem like daybreak.
"What…" Kairi mumbled. She stood frozen, staring up at the skies. Her attackers had also stopped moving, stopping their approach.
A bright, silvery light glowed, like a star. It shot out, spinning around and around, before rocketing down at Kairi.
Kairi threw her arms up and covered her face as the ball of light slammed into the barrier, shattering it like glass.
Kairi cautiously lowered her arms. The light had stopped at about eye level, a few feet away from where she stood. It lit up the whole yard, and the monsters scattered, hiding from its glow.
In a daze, she slowly reached for the strange light. As her hand entered into the light, she felt something at her fingertips. She gripped the object and the light reacted. It flashed out, washing over her. She clenched her eyes shut to avoid being blinded, but in a second the light faded.
The object in her hand became heavier. She opened her eyes. Her first instinct was to call the object a machete, but she dismissed that thought almost immediately. Although it weighed similar to the tool, it had no sharpened blade, not to mention its brightly colored and elaborate appearance.
She studied it thoroughly. A guard shaped like an upside down heart surrounded the black handle. It flared out at the top and inner bottom. The coloring of the guard invoked imagery of the beach, the sandy brown side transforming into the blue color of the sea on the other. The sandy side also extended and coiled around the blade-like shaft, which was colored orange and deep red, reminding Kairi of the sunset. At the very end of the shaft, the sandy colored coil became sandy colored leaves and vines, with different colored flowers adorning it. At the base of the blade and hilt, was a gold cap. A bangle, shaped like a paopu fruit, was attached to the base by a braided red and orange cord.
A shuffling noise snapped her out of her daze. The shadow monsters had returned their attention to her and had started approaching again.
Here goes nothing…
Sora swung Kingdom Key, destroying several monsters in one strike.
"This is brutal," he said, pausing. Despite Riku holding the monster horde from earlier off, they still filled the path to Kairi's house, delaying him.
The lull in the fight came to an end, and the monsters struck. He struck the first from the air, and then leapt forward, spinning his keyblade. He struck several of them as he landed, then sprinted past, dodging several leaping monsters.
The monsters were not very sturdy and died in one strong blow, but their numbers would overwhelm him if he stopped to fight them all. He focused on fleeing and fighting only the ones he could not escape.
I've gotta get to Kairi anyway, Sora thought as he ran. A light suddenly glared in his eyes. He skidded to a stop.
The clouds had parted and a silvery light shot down. It flew towards where Kairi's house was, roughly. Sora had to look away as it flashed brilliantly.
The monsters where all stunned by the phenomenon. Taking advantage of the distraction, he ran directly for the house. He was a few houses away when the monsters finally started moving.
"You guys are really getting annoying!" Sora said as the monsters attacked again. He batted away three that lunged at him, and then leapt forward, bringing his weapon down on another.
Grinding his heel in the dirt, he spun around, slashing all the monsters around him in a circle. Seeing that they were destroyed or knocked away and that none were nearby, he ran for Kairi's house again. Several monsters formed ahead, but he dashed or leapt over them.
A short moment later, he was in front of the house. Sprinting across the front yard and along the side yard and into the back yard.
There stood Kairi, surrounded by the creatures. Well, 'stood' was misleading. It seemed as if she was trying to fight off the monsters with some object, most likely something she found, but Sora could not tell for sure through the darkness. However, there was no sign of the silver light at all.
In a few steps and a leap, he brought his blade down on one of the dark creatures. In a few moments, he had made short work of the monsters attacking Kairi. After he had disposed of the things, he straightened up and turned to Kairi.
"Kairi, you shou-" he started, but froze, seeing the object in the girl's hand. "Is that a… keyblade?"
"A what?"
Before he could clarify, a loud sound thundered. Glancing in the direction it came from, he saw a pillar of dark energy blasting into the sky.
"That's where Riku is!" Sora shouted. "Kairi! Get inside! I'll be back later to help!"
"W-wait! Sora!" Kairi called out, but he was already on the move.
Kairi deliberated for a moment. She wanted to follow Sora, but he told her to remain there, and it seemed he knew what was going on.
I might get in his way, she thought. She glanced down, at the object in her hand. What did he call this again…?
The loud noise from earlier sounded, even louder this time. The ground shook with it. She looked up and saw the dark pillar erupt again.
Almost without thinking, she dashed towards where Sora ran off to. Out on the road, she saw the pillar shooting up like a fire.
She shivered as an unnaturally cold feeling washed over her. Then her weapon rattled in her hands, as if trying to catch her attention.
Fear nothing.
Kairi jumped. She held up the weapon. "Did, did you just speak to me?"
Fear nothing. I will assist you.
Kairi stared at it for a moment. It just spoke to me.
She glanced back down the road. The cold feeling had vanished, and now all she wanted was to help Sora and find out what was going on.
Sucking in a breath, she ran towards the black pillar.
It took her a few minutes to get to the beach. The first thing she saw, though, was Sora slam into the dirt road, as if he was thrown with great force. Riku landed in much the same way a second later.
"Are you guys okay?" she asked. They had already started getting to their knees as she rushed to their side. Then she saw what had tossed the two boys.
A giant black shape rose up. Like a bigger version of the monsters from earlier, it was more human-shaped than them. Its head was wrapped in black tendrils and it had a large, heart-shaped hole in its stomach. Its arms were muscular and disproportionately long. Its legs were also disproportionate, being too short, so it leaned forward and rested on its knuckles, like an ape.
Riku pulled himself up and launched himself at the creature, slashing at its head. It struck out, faster than Riku expected, and slapped him to the earth. The monster reared and brought its arms up, preparing to smash him.
"Strike Raid!" Sora yelled, hurling his weapon at the monsters face. It staggered and fell back.
Sora ran forward and to Riku's side. Riku recovered and the two boys leapt forward, striking at the creature. It proved futile, though. The monster batted Sora and Riku out of the air in quick succession, knocking them into the dirt.
As they got up again and prepared another attack, the weapon in Kairi's hand rattled again. She gripped it with both hands and lifted it.
You must act.
She released a frustrated breath. "How am I supposed to fight that thing?"
You must fight. I shall show you. Point me at the heartless.
Confused but without alternative options, she did so. The shaft of the weapon glowed bright gold. The monster, about to strike at Sora, focused its glowing yellow eyes on Kairi. Directing the tip the weapon at its head, her weapon fired, the glow turning from light to bright flames.
The fireball lanced forward and struck the monsters face. It reared back again and howled, its voice sounding like an amalgam of cries from many different animals.
Sora struck at it again, but the creature had just enough strength to smack him away. It turned around, towards the water, and crouched low, like a predator cat, and leapt. It flew high through the sky, halfway across the water and the play island, and then slammed into the sea, causing a huge splash. A few seconds later, it rocketed out of the water, flying towards the play island.
"Sora, get Kairi!" Riku ordered. Much to Kairi's amazement, he ran forward, kicked off a palm tree and flew off of it in pursuit of the monster. Kairi heard Sora make a sound like he wanted to argue, but the other boy was gone.
Before Kairi could do anything, Sora had ran over, grabbed her wrist, and hauled her to the same tree Riku kicked off of. He picked her up, leapt at the tree and launched off. Kairi screamed as she felt herself tumble through the air.
Sora felt the wind in his hair as he flew through the air. He would have, figuratively, paused to enjoy it if he did not have to fight a giant monster in the dead of night and needlessly put his new friend in danger.
She had stopped screaming, thankfully, but he did not blame her. Kairi had her eyes tightly closed.
He felt his momentum drop, so he angled his body downward. Riku had apparently frozen a chunk of seawater to bounce off of, so Sora aimed for that. He twisted in midair, striking feet first. Sora channeled the magic energy that let him leap like he did into his legs, and then took off again.
A few seconds later, he landed on the soft sands of the play island. He sat a shaky Kairi down then scanned the beach for Riku.
"Don't get comfy, Sora," Riku called. He pointed across the water. "That thing jumped over to that island."
"Okay," Sora replied. He glanced towards where Riku directed, and readied himself for another jump, but Kairi spoke up, stopping him.
"W-wait up," she said. "Take me with you guys."
"No way!" Sora replied immediately.
"Hold it, Sora," Riku spoke up. "She's got a Keyblade."
"Eh?" Sora said. He glanced over at Kairi. "Oh. Right, forgot about that."
Kairi held the said object up and studied it. "That's what this is called?"
The monster howled and the unnatural thunder sounded again.
"Forget it," decided Riku. "If she wants to go, let her. C'mon."
The silver-haired boy sprinted at a tree and leapt again. Sora grabbed Kairi and leapt after his friend.
"I don't know how you do this, but either I learn or I stay out of it!" Kairi cried as Sora flew through the air.
The island was significantly closer to the play island than the play island was to the main island, so the trip was a lot quicker.
Riku landed a few seconds before Sora and Kairi, and the monster barreled out of the trees at the older boy.
As he leapt up to intercept the attack, he called out: "Sora, give Kairi some pointers!"
Sora nodded and set Kairi on her feet.
"Kairi, you think you can do what you did earlier?" He asked her. She glanced thoughtfully at her keyblade for a second, and then replied.
"Yeah, probably."
"Good. Stay back and cast it when you think you can get a shot in. Also," he said. "Don't worry too much about hitting us."
After she nodded, he spun around and took off after the monster, Kingdom Key appearing in his hands.
Riku was doing considerably better than before, but it seemed he was more focused on dodging attacks than attacking.
Sora made eye contact with him, and Riku nodded before launching an attack. He feinted, rolled under the monsters arm and stuck at its head, before kicking backwards and out of its reach. Sora leapt and landed on its arm, then sprang off, bashing its head with his blade. The attacks were minor, but provided the two with enough space to regroup.
"Well, you didn't get smacked around like a rag doll," Riku commented. "You must be doing something right."
"Cut it out, Riku," Sora replied. The monster turned to face them, but a fireball struck its head and staggered it.
"Its head is its weak point," Riku observed. "We should focus on that."
"But its arms will get in the way," Sora said. "We should at least disable one of 'em."
"No time just act!" Riku said as the monster recovered and charged them.
Sora slid to the right, striking the oncoming monsters arm. His attack knocked the monsters arm out from under it.
It crashed into the sand and Riku took advantage of this and struck, sliding in and striking the thing in the face. He struck it several more times, but one of the arms moved to slam in on him. Sora jumped in and struck the arm, holding it at bay.
Riku forsook his advantage and flipped away. Mid leap he struck the arm away and Sora slipped away. The monster climbed up again. Instead of rushing, it moved back.
"Okay, this is more difficult than we thought," Sora stated. Three fireballs shot overhead and slammed into the monster. One struck its chest, the second its shoulder and the last grazed the side of its head.
It did not react as it had when Kairi struck it earlier, but it still reacted.
"I think I get it," stated Riku. "Magic hurts it more than what we do."
"Maybe we can one-shot it with a magic attack," Sora offered. The monster moved and the duo reacted.
It charged and slammed its arms down, kicking up sand. It rose up and slung its arms around, striking out. Sora and Riku leapt out of the way just in time as a spell from Kairi shot over the two and landed at the monsters feet. A fireball struck it in the head a second later, and the monster fell back.
"Riku!"
"On it!"
Sora jumped for the fallen monster, Kingdom Key gripped in both hands, glowing gold. Riku was a step behind him, Way to the Dawn glowing silver. They swung their keyblades down at their foe, blades of light extending out.
"Master Hearts!" They yelled, cutting it across the chest, halfway severing it and its left arm. A second slash removed its legs and right hand.
They landed at its feet. Sora dismissed Kingdom Key and grinned at his friend and Riku smugly grinned.
"Sora, Riku!" Kairi called. They turned and saw her running towards, waving. They turned and returned her wave. Sora took a step towards her when the monster shifted behind them.
Sora and Riku spun around and Kairi froze in her tracks as the body of the monster jerked up. It fell forward imply and swung its remaining arm down at the boys. It missed, striking at their feet, but as soon as it touched the ground, its arm melted into a black pool. The torso and other body parts did likewise, disappearing into the expanding black. It swallowed Sora and Riku's feet, trapping them as if it was tar. The started sinking rapidly and Kairi dashed forward, grabbing onto Sora as he sunk. His descent caused her to stumble, falling forward into the pool.
Unable to free themselves, the three vanished into the darkness.
Fin
Author's Notes: In case anyone isn't sure, the monsters are Heartless, specifically Shadows and a Darkside. I know I described its (read: the Darkside) movements as more gorilla-like than in the games, but the lethargy of the Game!Darkside would make this fight scene more awful and boring than it already is. 'Sides, considering the short legs and long arms of the thing, it makes sense for its locomotion to be gorilla-like.
Also, here's to hoping I get better at the fight scenes.
All feedback (good, bad, pointless, rambling, constructive, critical, fiery, etc.) welcomed.
