DSICLAIMER: I don't own Kingdom Hearts or any of the worlds or characters (save for the enemies) that appear in said chapter below.
Chapter 5
Shoring Up Defenses
A ripple of light formed in the shape of a Keyhole suddenly appeared in the grand hall of the castle in the world known as the Castle of Dreams. Cinderella, the princess of that world quickly stopped to take a look at who was emerging from the portal. She had been pacing in utmost nervousness. She, along with all the other princesses, had returned to their home worlds but a few hours ago before Onyx launched his great attack on all of their worlds. It seemed so obvious that Onyx wanted to cripple them all to the point of no return. They had been betrayed by those they had trusted; a well-thought out plan indeed. No one would have suspected that Onyx had such far-reaching effects on the minds of the Keyblade wielders that were now practically beholden to him. Lucky for Cinderella and her world in general, the woman emerging from the Keyblade portal had not and would never join forces with the likes of Onyx.
The auburn haired princess, no, queen of Radiant Garden was the one to arrive in the world of Castle of Dreams, her Keyblade already drawn and ready to battle with. Cinderella ran up to her the moment she saw her fellow princess and hugged her tightly. They had all been through the same ordeal but Kairi was here ready to fight.
"You're all right Cinderella?" Kairi asked and Cinderella nodded. Kairi patted her on the shoulder. "We'll pull through this. I'm here to help with you."
"Thank you Kairi…" Cinderella said with a warm smile. "My husband's out there fighting and I…" She trailed off, afraid to finish her sentence. Kairi smiled back at her with the same amount of warmth that she had been shown.
"That's what I'm here for. I'll protect for. Do you know how well the battle's going out there?" Kairi asked, her eyes narrowing a bit in preparation for battle. Cinderella heaved a sigh and nodded her head a fraction of an inch in both directions.
"From what I can guess, the battle was going very well." Cinderella said with a heaviness to her voice that was unbecoming of a princess of heart. "But they've pushed us up to the gate and I can only guess even that might fall soon. Our archers are dealing damage. From what I hear of it in the quarterly reports, they felled one of the Keyblade wielders against us. The other then got wise and hid."
"Well, somehow, I'm more than certain that my presence will draw him out of hiding." Kairi said with a confident smirk on her face. She certainly looked ready for battle as both she and Sora had changed to their usual mission clothes before joining with the war council. Kairi's basically consisted of a t-shirt that looked like it was just the right size for her. She also wore some jeans that were not tight-fitting but free flowing for optimal movement. "We princesses of heart have to stick together. I'll protect this place but…"
"What is it Kairi?" Cinderella asked her with concern on her face.
"This war is just getting started." Kairi said with a fierce determination. "When we win this battle, gather up all the troops as fast as possible and…bring them all to Radiant Garden. We're going to mobilize and army and take Onyx down." Cinderella nodded and Kairi gave her a thumbs up before pelting out of the hall and into the courtyard. The gate that led into the courtyard was beginning to shudder but Kairi wasted no time with it. She raced her way up the ramparts and pushed past the archers, all of whom were lifted by her presence…if not by the light that was never tainted by the darkness then by the fact that she was a powerful warrior in some sense, even if they had never met her. Kairi looked into the throng of men and Unbirths gathered below and she jumped off, swinging Destiny's Way in between her legs as she landed, eliminating various Unbirths.
Many of the creatures seemed to sense her presence and so acknowledged her existence. But unlike the Heartless, they did not instinctually attack her presence but carried on with their assault. Nevertheless, Kairi used the momentary pause to her advantage to sweep around with her Keyblade and destroy many of the creatures that were threatening the soldiers of the Castle of Dreams. Some of the soldiers even gave her berth as they knew that she would require some vague use of magic in her attack. And she did. As some of the creatures began to hem in around her she sent a pillar of flame into the sky. Her black magic had certainly improved over the years. If not because Sora had helped her in some sense, then because she had trained with Merlin bi-weekly. The flame incinerated many of the Unbirths near her. But some flying creatures managed to evade her blast…but Kairi had a plan for that.
"Tendril!" She scream, pointing her blade at the ground and suddenly great tendrils of earth emerged from the ground and wrapped around the Unbirths before they could get away, squeezing them into black oblivion. The tendrils then disappeared and the ground looked, on the whole, rather normal. But Kairi knew that the battle was nowhere near finished. This was proven even more true when she heard a whooshing noise above her. She quickly raised her Keyblade above her as another Keyblade collided with it and broke contact. When Kairi looked she saw the form of a rather skinny girl whose clothes were more revealing than what she had worn at the age of fifteen and whose long black hair was tied in a ponytail. She also had a very distinctive look of rage on her face.
"Harlot!" the young woman yelled and she charged at Kairi. Kairi's face twisted into that of determination and she batted the woman's blow away from her and sidestepped her subsequent lunge at her. She aimed a blow at the woman's backside but she blocked it. The woman whipped around to face her and her Keyblade was raised above her head. Kairi didn't care to notice any of the distinctive features on the woman's Keyblade especially since she was an enemy that needed to be defeated. And the woman's snarl was enough to show that she needed to be killed because otherwise she wouldn't stop. Kairi brought her own Keyblade above her head and the two circled round, keeping in perfect step with one another. The woman then attacked her and Kairi parried the blow. All of the blows that followed took place up near the women's faces.
Finally, Kairi broke the pattern and aimed for the other woman's midsection. She managed to block that blow and took a swipe at Kairi's feet. Instead of jumping, Kairi brought her Keyblade down to block the blow there. It caught the woman off balance and as Kairi brought her blade up quickly the woman was forced to jump back. Kairi was tempted to chuck her Keyblade at the woman's head to throw her off balance but she soon decided that something so forceful was not necessary. The woman leapt into the air and brought her Keyblade down hard. Relying on her past cheerleading skills, she flipped backward and avoided the blow from the woman. She then realized the woman was relying on physical attacks which meant…she was vulnerable to magic.
"Force!" Kairi yelled and suddenly a great crushing black, gravity spell settled over the woman, drawing away her breath as she tried to regain it. For as the gravity pushed down on her, it acted as a vacuum and sucked all of the air out of her body. Kairi knew that it was cruel…but it was necessary. Soon, she dropped to the ground, the life and air gone from her body. Kairi quickly checked to make sure that was the truth before she turned back to the now ceasing sounds of battle. They had won here on Castle of the Dreams. Kairi knew that the others would win…but what price would they have to pay in the end?
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Donald and Goofy had thankfully landed inside the castle at Beast's Castle. Well, really they had managed to beam themselves down into the parlor where Belle had taken refuge, wanting to be close to the fight but not too close. Adam himself was surveying the battle among the ramparts and so, after a very brief and spirited conversation with the princess (or now rather queen) as well as Cogsworth, Lumiere and the others they hurried outside. A ladder was hanging directly off the ramparts and Donald climbed up it first, followed by Goofy. When Adam saw them he was overjoyed.
"I was wondering when someone would come and I'm more than happy to see it was you two!" Adam said jubilantly but Donald's temper was short and he knew that they had no real time for exchanging pleasantries.
"Wak! We don't have time for this! What's going on with the battle?" Donald yelled out loudly and Adam cleared his throat. he turned towards the bridge, where the din of battle was coming from down below. Donald and Goofy also looked at the bridge over the ramparts, Donald jumping up and holding on in order to see clearly.
"As you can see, the soldiers I've set up over the past twelve years are quite skilled at fighting them…but we have one problem…" Adam said with a grimace and both of the Disney Castle court members knew exactly which problem Adam was talking about: the Keyblade Wielder. It was true that two of them had been assigned to Beast's Castle but one of them had already been destroyed, or rather knocked unconscious, in the dungeon halls of Radiant Garden, courtesy of the Keyblade Master.
"Don't worry! We can take him!!" Donald yelled with full confidence and Adam nodded. Goofy, however, did not share such an optimistic opinion.
"Are ya sure Donald?" Goofy asked. But Donald didn't respond and instead started pushing the Captain of the Knights down off the ramparts and onto the bridge. Thankfully, Goofy was bumping his head all the time and so, even when he landed with a crash onto the bridge below, he suffered no real damage. Donald quickly came up beside him.
"Let's fry 'im!!" Donald yelled and Goofy nodded an affirmative, holding his shield before him. They began wading their way through the crowd, Goofy knocking enemies around with his shield and Donald casting all sorts of magic to fry through the throngs of Unbirths blocking their passage. The dynamic duo managed to at last break through and emerged to an area outside of the battling armies to where a certain blue-haired Keyblade wielder was standing with a wicked smirk.
"Gawrsh, he don't look too nice." Goofy said worriedly and Donald just scowled.
"You're going down!" Donald said, at his final words he sent out a bolt of lightning at the man who easily deflected it away from him. "Uh-oh…this could be bad…" And Donald was right on the money. The man sent a chilling wave of blizzard at the duck in an attempt to freeze him but Donald erected his own reflect shield to block the blow. But the man was running forward quickly now. As he dashed along he sent little tongues of flame leaping at the duo. Donald managed to protect them with reflect spells but it wouldn't last long once they came near.
"Gawrsh, Donald, what do we do?" Goofy asked with a small iota of fear creeping into his voice. Donald tried thinking as he protected them from the magical barrage. Then suddenly, an idea popped into his head. It would probably have worked even on Sora if their best friend wouldn't know what was coming.
"Shock Shield, Goofy!" Donald exclaimed and Goofy nodded in acknowledgement. But it was too late to enact any sort of plan. The Keyblade wielder came crashing down upon them. Donald quickly dashed behind Goofy who brought his shield up. The Keyblade kept bouncing off the shield as Goofy kept moving it around to block the attacks. Donald started slowly shifting around to get behind the man, who was now verbally antagonizing the captain of the knights.
"Come on you coward, aren't you gonna fight back! You're just a coward!" the man yelled as he kept beating on Goofy's shield until at last he felt something hard hit the back of his head and he stumbled a bit. He whipped around to see Donald facing him threateningly.
"No one calls my friend a coward!" Donald yelled with a scowl so deep it almost scared the pants off of the man. But he instead scowled himself and sent bolts of lightning at the court magician. Donald countered with his own bolts of lightning and the two thrummed and crackled with the sound of combating electricity all over the place. Both the mages seemed stretched to their wits end at casting these spells but Goofy himself was busy during this time. He was quickly spinning his shield in his hand for it to gain momentum. Soon, Goofy was spinning it at a speed that was not even thought possible.
"Donald!" Goofy yelled as he jumped back and threw the shield at the Keyblade wielder. He gave a small a-hyuck as he did so and Donald jumped back as well, diverting some lightning bolts onto the spinning shield. They struck the shield and generated such a current that the man before them was taken by surprise when he hit the shield. Unfortunately for him, the shield was moving too fast for him to climb out, and due to the electricity coursing through it the man was soon shocked to death and the battle against the Unbirths at Beast's Castle was ended.
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In Agrabah, the Unbirths were quickly falling despite the fact that both of their leaders on that world were still standing. This was aided greatly by the fact that Genie was casting a multitude of magic spells into the arena that quickly obliterated their foes. Once Sora and Genie had both arrived, Aladdin had little to no chance at all to swing his scimitar into the thick of battle. Not that he minded, the attack had been pretty fierce at the beginning so he was kind of tired when his big blue pal and his good friend Sora arrived to help turn the tide. And the tide was certainly turning. He had never expected to be betrayed by the members of the Order of the Crown…none of them did. According to Sora, some members had joined Onyx in the fight and helped him with the Princesses of Heart in order to obtain Kingdom Hearts. Jasmine confirmed that fact the moment that she returned.
But those thoughts didn't matter because soon Agrabah would be completely free.
"We did it!" Sora yelled triumphantly as the last of the Unbirths were cleared away. He gave a high five to Aladdin who returned it happily. And yet, despite being the cheerful former street rat that he was, he still had a sense of foreboding. Truthfully, Aladdin had grown a little more serious over the past twelve years what with being the Sultan and all since the former Sultan died of old age as they knew he would.
"I think there's still a little bit left…" Aladdin said with a grimace and Sora looked at him before he looked over to the clearing dust and smoke of Agrabah. From there he saw two figures emerging. Aladdin took a step forward, as if to help Sora deal with these two new arrivals but Sora put a hand on his shoulder as if to hold him back.
"I'll handle this." Sora said with a stone cold look on his face. He left Aladdin's side and proceeded towards the two Keyblade wielders, one male and one female. The female, with raven black hair looked to be the younger of the two, as though she were the apprentice of the man. Sora approached them and they smirked.
"Well, Aimee, would you look at this? The Keyblade Master himself." the man, with his long brown hair tied in a ponytail told his apprentice. She nodded a bit before speaking.
"Imagine our reward from Onyx if we were to defeat him." Aimee, the young female said. Sora's face twitched upward into a smirk.
"We'll see about that." Sora said plainly and his fingers twitched, calling Kingdom's Crown to his hands. He got into his usual battle stance and faced them down. The two chuckled and summoned their own Keyblades. Sora didn't care to note the details about them…only that they were the enemy. The two ran at him and he held his Keyblade up, swiping it in front of him to block both of their blows. He twirled out of it to give him some space for maneuvering. They didn't give him much time for Aimee took a jab at Sora. He parried it and forced her Keyblade up before trying to kick at her feet. She didn't fall for it and jumped. That didn't matter to Sora, however, since he fully expected it. He instead took that moment to parry the attack from the other man, whose name was Clive for easier reference.
Sora spun around on the spot and carried his Keyblade with him in order to block both of the attacks. As he came out of his defense, Clive was now in front of him and Aimee was in the back. Clive struck first and Sora batted the blow aside before tacking a jab at him which soon turned into an uppercut since Sora was forced to whip his Keyblade behind him in order to block the blow at his backside from Aimee. He knew the fight wouldn't last much longer if the two kept striking in tandem. So Sora whipped around again to face Aimee and aimed a blow at her midsection. She jumped a bit as she parried the attack and Sora carried his attack forward. This sudden move caused their Keyblades to grate against each other as the offensive was pushed on Aimee. Aimee tried holding him off, but it was looking hopeless.
Clive went for an attack at Sora but Sora just shifted his position and the attack blew right past him. But this also forced Sora to break the attack on Aimee. He broke off and twirled around, holding his Keyblade at the ready. As if reading each other's minds they sent a rush of lightning and ice shards at Sora. Sora anticipated such a move and quickly cast a low level reflect spell. As they juiced up the power on their spells, so did Sora, expanding his shield before transforming it into a great wall of fire. The two Keyblade wielders leapt away from it and Sora released the spell. However, unexpected to the two others, Sora did not wait for the fire wall to fully drop before he came charging through the flame, his Keyblade held diagonally across his chest. He locked blades with Clive and pushed him off.
Clive flipped backwards before rebounding and flipping over him. Sora easily blocked that blow with to his backside and fluidly transformed it into a lower parry from Aimee's attack which then changed into an upper parry from Clyde's attack. Sora knew that if the battle carried on against both of them much longer things would not go very well for him. He spun around again and the two were so surprised by the speed and ferocity of the spin that they backed off. That was all Sora needed. He quickly came out of his gyrating twirl to throw his now flaming Keyblade in a fire raid that soon seared and ripped through Aimee's flesh. He hadn't wanted to kill her but she had left him with very little choice. Aimee screamed in agony as her flesh burned away and the blade seared through her very beating heart, causing her to crumple in absolute agony before the last of her life was drained away.
This seemed to anger Clive beyond the point of no return. He gave a feral cry and rushed at Sora, jabbing his Keyblade forward with great strength. Sora batted it aside but was soon forced to parry an attack from up above. Clive was striking faster now and he aimed below at Sora's legs. Sora jumped to avoid it but swung his Keyblade down. He knew that Clive would feint the attack due to his own attack. That was why Sora quickly transmuted his attack upward to block the attack there as his feet landed on the ground. Clive made a hit for his head which Sora made jerk to the side before twisting the blade away from him. Clive screamed again and ran at him. He struck up above, down at the feet, and about three or four blows were traded near Sora's midsection before they both spun out of their attacks. Both of them were breathing heavily, each facing a skilled opponent.
Clive lunged forward and jabbed once more at Sora. Sora held a Keyblade in front of him and the blow just seemed to glance off. Clive raised his Keyblade above him and swung it down like a mighty hammer to try and slice straight at Sora's body. Sora rolled away from the attack and managed to come back behind Clive. Clive had no time to react before the blunt side of Kingdom's Crown was crushed against his backside. He stumbled forward before whipping around and dashing forward again. Sora aimed a blow at his feet, which he blocked with the Keyblade, before he followed up with a roundhouse kick to the knees, causing Clive to collapse. But Clive would not be denied and took one last swipe at the Keyblade Master's legs. Sora had no choice. He leapt over the attack and as he came down, Kingdom's Crown pierced the man's flesh and heart, leaving both master and apprentice dead on the desert streets of Agrabah. Sora sighed heavily with both relief and defeat. He hadn't wanted to kill them…their blood was on his hands…but how much more blood was on theirs. Sora shook the thought from his head and quickly went to the palace where Aladdin looked him up and down.
"Are you all right?" Aladdin asked and Sora nodded. His eyes were drooping a bit but that was just because he was a little exhausted. He would be all right in no time. "Well, we got 'em Sora. Thanks."
"No problem." Sora said wearily, waving the matter aside. "Now I have a favor to ask of you." Aladdin looked at the king of Radiant Garden expectantly. "Onyx has gone too far this time and we need to stop him. We're gonna build up a huge army at Radiant Garden and take him down."
"You want me to gather up some soldiers here and take 'em to Radiant Garden with me?" Aladdin asked his friend and Sora nodded. Aladdin smiled. "No problem." Sora smiled back. Now, all that was left was to see how the other defenses had gone.
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Mickey quickly leapt around, dodging the attacks of this practically berserk Keyblade wielder. His blows came slowly but they were powerful and Mickey could only hope to slow him down. It wasn't very hard but Mickey was beginning to think that the guy would never tire. Besides, he wouldn't be the only one left if Phillip hadn't intervened and helped defeat the last one. Mickey was powerful, certainly. But he was growing old now and it was harder than it had been back in his own prime. Mind you, he was still much more powerful than many members of the Order of the Crown. None more so exemplified than now. Mickey landed farther away from the man and fired off a large chunk of blizzard at the man. It hit the man in the backside and he screamed in pain.
The man whipped around, and with a feral roar, charged at Mickey as though he were a bull. Mickey avoided the blow and struck the man with a fierce blow to the back of the head. He crumpled immediately, blood streaming from the back. Mickey sighed. Phillip ran up to him, away from the area where the last remnants of the battle were being cleaned up. They quickly had a short conversation regarding sending the army to radiant Garden to prepare for fighting. Phillip was, of course, more than willing to oblige. Mickey nodded in thanks and sat upon a nearby rock, his legs dangling over the edge. He was a little tired, but there had been quite a heavy burden on his heart these few days. Eight attacks on the only eight truly sovereign worlds and Mickey had detected a great darkness…somewhere.
Suddenly, Mickey felt a twinge behind him and he turned around to face the forest behind him. There was nothing there…but Mickey could have sworn that he felt something there. He had thought it was darkness, however faint. But that didn't mean anything. Darkness barely existed anymore…only in a very small amount of those who had remained allied to darkness before. But still, there was darkness that he had felt there. And it felt awfully familiar. And yet it did not feel malignant. But Mickey had no time to discern and sift through these feelings anymore for he was worried about the safety of the other worlds. So he opened a portal back to the war council chamber on Radiant Garden with his Keyblade and stepped through, oblivious to what would happen there soon.
Author's Note: Okay…I said Friday and I meant FRIDAY!!! Now then, what did Mickey sense? Well, you'll find out when I post next chapter. A few things to notice about this chapter. Yes, our heroes have fought Keyblade wielders before but they were all dead for years and a piece of crap. This is their prime. Yes, I made Aladdin sultan for two reasons: it's been thirteen years since he got married and also as a tribute to Douglas Seale who died years ago and had provided the voice for the Sultan (kind of like how Ricardo Montalban died some time ago…sniff). Anyway, all the fights in here were for a specific purpose, especially Sora's. Kairi won't get enough real action here and Riku will so yeah…and Wonderland would be too hard. On that note, do you know how hard it is to write four distinctive Keyblade battles in one chapter that are exciting and to write them so you (the reader) views them the way I choreograph them? It is EXTREMELY hard!!! That made this chapter very hard to write so you better have liked them battles! Tell me which you thought was the best and review on ALL of them for me, please. Two more things: can you imagine if they put a Tonberry Heartless in the game…we'd all be screwed. And also, it's my birthday today so I'm 19 at long last! I'm the age of Sikaru…hah…that's funny and totally unplanned (though today was supposed to be the debut of this story). Oh well, please review and Dare to Be Silly
P.S. Next chapter brings in our two important Disney characters...but I don't know when I'll post it.
P.P.S. I updated my profile for an OC you've met before but since I will be making him more important (I just realized this) I feel he needs more mention.