And just like I promised, the second chapter has been uploaded for my fans as a bonus! Ennnnnnnjoy!
Chapter 4: End Game
Turning on her heel, Kairi grunted and slashed with her Keyblade horizantally towards the jumping Neo Shadows. "Fire!" Flames burst from around her and her friends, protecting them all from the attacking the Neo Shadows. The shadows roared in pain from the heat that burned their...flesh? Shadows? Whatever was the surface of their skin, it was burned.
They burst into shadows that faded into the air. Once the dome of fire ceased, Kairi breathed heavily, grasping the two Keyblades as hard as she could. Sweat formed and cascaded from her forhead. She felt an awful strain from within her chest at the same time. Believe it or not, but she was warned.
"Don't tell me you reached your limit so soon, little girl." The old master called out from the sidelines. He found the fact that she was so young, full of pure light, and had a strong enough heart to handle the force of 2 keyblades intriguing. "But I should warn you." The elder snapped again, more Neo Shadows appearing. "More isnt neccesarialy better."
"Hm." Even with the obvious strain, Kairi smirked at the challenger. "I know that! Don't try to lecture me." The young teen said with confidence booming in her voice. She prepared for the new formed heartless to pounce any second.
"Kairi!" Kairi stopped and peeked behind her. The shocked faces of Selphie, Tidus, and Wakka was all she could see.
'There goes keeping this a secret...' Kairi sighed and turned her attention back to the heartless. "Find some kind of cover. Don't worry about me." She clutched the Keyblades and got into a fighting stance. "I can handle myself."
Even though Tidus and Selphie didn't want to leave Kairi and wanted to help, Wakka convinced them that it would be best to leave Kairi to her own. "She obviously has abilities we can't comprehend." He rested his hands reassuringly on their shoulders. "If something bad happens, we'll jump in." He left it at that and took his friends to cover.
The dark master allowed the less interesting teens to retreat; they seemed to possess little power in their hearts. It was nothing worth chasing after. But the teenager infront of him, the child that's capable of wielding two keyblades and ingore the strain of it all, was a more fascinating subject. However, she did seem to be tiring quickly. "Put the keyblades down." Xehanort tried to coast her. "It's obvious that you can't yet handle the strain."
"I don't need you to be concerned about me." Kairi charged towards the Neo Shadow, full intent on protecting her friends from them.
"Now Kairi, there're a few things you should know before we further your training." Sora said, standing in his all black attire. Kairi nodded with determination. It kind of surprised Sora with how things got set up. He thought Riku would've been the best condadidate to teach her, but somehow he got involved in doing the job.
Oh well. No turning back now. "You know how to summon your keyblade, right?"
"Yeah." She nodded and held out her hand, summoning Destiny Place in a beam of light and some flower petals. "In order to use my keyblade, I must..." Kairi paused and looked down at the intricate designs of her keyblade. "I must feel the need to fight. In order to protect my friends." She looked back up at Sora. "Right?"
"Beats me."
"What?" The confused princess questioned.
"Keyblades are like snowflakes." Riku added in from behind Kairi. He leaned against the wooden door of the shack that was built into the rock side. "The feeling you need to feel to summon each one is different."
"To summon my keyblade, Kingdom Key, I need to be fearless." He paused for a moment and summoned his keyblade into his right hand. "I can't fear the darkness or what resides in it." He grinned and de-summoned his keyblade. "It's the easiest for me to summon. That's why it's my favorite."
Riku stood off of the wall and walked to where his friends were. He stepped to the side of Kairi and summoned his Keyblade, Way to Dawn. "I must recall my desire to journey from the darkness and towards the light." he added.
"I see." Kairi was very interested in these topics. She was still learning afterall. Even though her skills with the keyblade is minimal, Sora has stated that she's better then when he had first got the keyblade. When she asked Riku, he said that she's around the level of when he had first got Soul Eater. Even though the praise has been good, she felt that Sora and Riku was giving her too much praise. She barely had any combat experience, outside of killing 3 heartless. Sora and Riku had encountered countless heartless and nobodies! They could probably deal with them in their sleep now.
"I was wondering." Kairi began, desummoning Destiny Place. "Can you wield 2 keyblades at once?"
"Yeah it's possible." Riku answered. "Roxas, Sora's Nobody, was real skilled at dual wielding."
"Yeah he was." Sora remembered his fight with the nobody. "I would've lost if I didn't take him by surprise at the end."
"Hm. Same here." Riku agreed. He hadn't known Sora fought his nobody once. If he was good enough to outmatch both him and Sora, that only lead Riku to ponder one question: Where did he get the skill to do that?
"But I can use 2 also!" Sora added in. "Although the only ones I'm any good with is Oathkeeper and Oblivion." Sora chuckled. "In a way, they remind me of you guys."
Riku smirked alittle, but Kairi had wanted to see a demonstration of it. "If you wouldn't mind Sora...Can you show me?" She asked hestiantly.
Sora nodded and held out his hand. "I'm not sure how good I am with this. I haven't Dual Wielded in awhile. Atleast while I'm not using Drive." A slow steady beam of pure light formed in Sora's left hand and a beam of darkness appeared in Sora's right hand.
"Maybe I should-" Riku began, before being stopped by Sora.
"No it's fine." Sora showed obvious struggle with summoning the two keyblades. Kairi took note if the apparent difficulty that Sora was having. "I can handle this."
Finally, the Oblivion and Oathkeeper came to Sora. Black electricty circled around Oblivion for an instant. The Oathkeeper had white stars fall for the same length of time.
Kairi had to admit, Sora looked pretty impressive dual wielding keyblades. The black and white keys went will with his outfit, as well.
However, Sora quickly dropped to one knee and dropped the Oblivion Keyblade, forcing the key to vanish into the darkness that it appeared from. "Sora!" Kairi reached out for her friend in great concern. He seemed to have been in a great deal of stress.
Riku ran forward before being stopped by a hand from Sora. He looked up at his bud and grinned his signature grin. But they all knew that Sora was feeling the effects of using two keyblades. His face had a glow to it now, due to sweat forming on his face. But, even with all of that, Sora stood back up and held out the Oathkeeper.
"That's the best I can do at the moment." He smiled sheepishly. "I'm out of practice."
Riku sighed heavily and looked down. "If that was the case you should've just asked me to do it." Riku said and put a hand on his hip and one in his pocket. "I don't like the feel of it, but I can use Oblivion too."
All of this talk was going right over Kairi's head. But what she did understand was that using two keyblades at once takes a considerable amount out of the user. "Why?" She thought outloud.
"Why what?" Sora asked, hearing Kairi's question eventhough it was barely above a whisper.
"Oh! I wanted to know why dual weilding keyblades take such a strain on you." She said, placing both her hands behind her back. "That's all."
"Actually, different Keyblades gives different strains." Riku said. "Like I said earlier, every keyblade are different. When dual wielding, it's all about finding the ones the mix well together."
"Oblivion is a keyblade to thrives on anger and the need for power. But the Oathkeeper is a keyblade that lives in the realm of light and is summoned from pure and sincere thoughts." Sora chuckled and wiped some of the sweat from his head. "Obviously trying to balance both emotions puts a strain on the heart."
"Oh." Kairi spoke. She looked at her right hand and summoned the Destiny Place to her hand. 'I wonder if I have what it takes.' She said. There was no strain when she used her keyblade.
"I'm a choosen wielder of the Keyblade!" She shouted and battled with the creatures from darkness. She sliced and diced! Shadows went flying from the attacks of teh young Keyblade wielder. She grunted and shouted as she put more and more effort into her swings. She had Sora as her combat teacher and Riku for a consultant; these shadows were nothing to her!
'Where did this come from?' Xehamort thought as he watched the little girl slaughter heartless after heartless with nothing more than a few swings. 'Just a second ago she seemed ready to kill over. But now, it's as if she's a completely different person.' His smirk soon disappeared and a scowl replaced it's place. 'My heartless was right; she's more of a threat than I thought.' Ansem, the Seeker of Darkness, had warned Xehanort about the island; He had informed him of the boys Sora and Riku and the female Kairi. He had told him that she possessed no combat capablity, but her pure heart would pose a threat.
His instincts seemed to be correct.
"Gyahh!" Kairi shouted and stabbed the keyblades into the ground, causing fire to surround her in a vortex. The Shadows began to roast in the flames and were sent flying away from Kairi, leaving only her and the aged Keyblade Master.
However, she fell to one knee and used both keyblades to keep herself up. Oathkeeper vanished from her exhausted grip and she climbed to her feet slowly. Her legs shook a bit, obviously from fatigue. None of the less, she put up a defensive stance.
Only sound that could be heard was Xehanort clapping.
"You seem quite skilled in these arts." Xehanort called over to her. "However, there are some things that I don't think you quite comprehend." He began to walk towards her, obviously putting her on the edge.
"For one, anyone can dual wield." He said, surprising the princess a bit. "It's not about skill. It's about how much your heart can take before breaking." He smirked.
"Break?"
"Yes." Xehanort formed a heart from darkness in his hand. "A Keybearer is decided by how much power their hearts hold. Once they are choosen, a keyblade is linked to their spirits. And when the keyblade is being used, the heart devotes it's powers to that keyblade." The dark heart glowed slightly and beautifully for something constructed from darkness. "There is no strain. For the keyblade is simply using the hearts power to use it's own. However, when there are two keyblades," The heart glowed brighter. It almost turned into a blinding light. It was enough to make Kairi shield her own eyes from the brightness. "The amount of power that is taken away from your heart is astronomical. That's why it's not advised to dual wield keyblades. And why most masters stick to one." By time the light cleared, Xehanort stood behind Kairi, keyblade behind his back.
Kairi, feeling the crawling darkness behind her, swung with all her strength towards the elders blind spot. The clash of keyblades, however, sent the young woman flying back abit. She landed on her back, keyblade a few inches away from her reach. She groaned from the pain that was now in her back and hand from having the keyblade forcefully removed from her grip. She sat up and reached for her keyblade and stood, pointing the tip at Xehanort, who still haven't turned to her yet.
"Why are you here." Kairi demanded.
"Does it matter?"
"Answer the question!"
"Ah! Was that anger I heard?" He turned to her. "Such a being of nothing but light, it should be impossible for you to generate hatred."
"Hates a strong word."
"So it is." He said disappointed. "Well let's see if I can get you to feel that strong." He slashed his keyblade towards her direction. A gust of darkness flew from the ground and towards Kairi.
She was too tired to move quick enough. All she could do was put her Keyblade infront of her and hope for some kind of defense against the weird attack. What she recieved, though, was an overwhelming force that sent her flying into the wooden shack behind her and with a loud, sickening, crack she broke the door down upon impact.
"Kairi!" Selphie managed to shout from her state of shock.
"That does it!" Tidus grabbed a fairly large rock and turned to Wakka. They stood and watched long enough. It was time to give Kairi some back up!
"I'm behind you man!" He suddenly had his signature soccer ball in his hand. Where that came from? Tidus didn't know. But Wakka was skilled with it. It would come in handy.
Armed and ready, the two boys charged the old man, leaving Selphie behind the saftey of cover.
Xehanort, waiting for Kairi to reemerge from the wreckage, simply sighed. "I'm above hurting children." He spoke metaphorically of course. What he meant was that he was against fighting people who had no power. Of course, he sensed the two charging teens and their measly aptitude for combat.
He turned and swung his keyblade casually. A gust of wind came from the blade, but it was nothing like what Kairi had recieved. This gust was barely above a storm. But yet, it knocked Wakka and Tidus off of their feet instantly. They landed on the beach with a thud. But sense sand broke their fall, getting up wasn't the hard part. Getting their wind back was.
Tidus did his best to breath, but a large hand took control of his head and lifted him up into the air. He struggled and fought in vain trying to free himself from the mans grip.
*Cling*
Like an automative defense, the air whipped behind Xehanort deflecting a flying Destiny Place that was aimed at the Masters back. Kairi's keyblade vanished and returned to her, who was just finishing climbing from the dubris. It was apparent that there was almost no fight left in the young wielder.
"Have you ever lost a friend?" Xehanort inquired with a dark tone.
Kairi just remained silent, fearing to answer his question.
"It's such a terrible feeling. I've lost so many friends in my long life. Some old, some young." He went on. "But you know what stayed the same?" He turned his head towards Kairi slightly. Only his eye was visible to her. "Their killer."
Tidus went up in black flames, his fighting now desperate cries and mumbled words that was lost in Xehanort's glove.
"TIDUS!" Wakka charged forth, but was caught by Xehanorts other hand; his keyblade vanished without anyone noticing.
"Stop it!" Kairi ran forward, swinging her keyblade down towards the smirking mans head. Her attack was stopped though, a barrier being what kept her attack from the mans head. She gritted her teeth and pressed the keyblade harder into the barrier.
The oldman chuckled. "Burst." he whispered, breaking the barrier with a violent explosion. Kairi shrieked and flew into the broken shack again. She dropped her keyblade upon impact and it slid against the ground, vanishing in light and petals.
"So that's it." Xehanort whispered to himself, dropping Tidus and Wakka. Wakka crawled towards his friends body. There was nothing left from the old Tidus; his body too severely burned to be recgnoized. The surfer boys face became disgusted and he turned away. Selphie's crying in the background didn't help at all.
Xehanort however, was now standing over the now unconcious Kairi. She didn't put up as good of a fight that he had hoped, but she did show potential. He smiled. She would make the perfect candidate for the X-Blade.
''What do we do with them?'' A voice called from the darkness. Xemnas appeared, his hood up, besides Xehanort. Them, he was referring to, was Wakka and Selphie. Tidus has long been turned into a corpse, and Wakka would just seek revenge. Selphie was too scared to even move from cover.
"They're not important. Do with them what you want." Xehanort replied coldly to his ally. "I got what I came here for."
A Corridor of Darkness appeared over Kairi's body, sucking her up into the chilling darkness. Xehanort followed after her and waved bye to Xemnas.
"Have fun."
Xemnas chuckled and turned, seeing Wakka gritting his teeth at the man. Xemnas began walking towards the beach, electricty forming around his right hand. "Can you spare...a heart?"
Either it's more laptop or but editing on this thing is the hardest part of this story. I think it's deffective. Haha. I press bold on one sentence, and everything EXCEPT that sentence gets bolded. And when I try to bold everything except what I want bolded, IT BOLDS! Like this part. When I try to unbold, my whole story goes bold! - Ugh. Haha anyway, I hope you enjoyed that chapter FAV/REV/ALERT! (stupid story editor...)