Sora grips Kairi's hand tightly as the two fly in the air. It takes a moment for Sora to orient himself, but as soon as he does, he pulls Kairi into his arms and lands on his feet. When Kairi finds her feet, he steps in front of her, Bond of Flame held in his grip.
The monsters pulling themselves out of hidden tombstones may have once been the town's residents, but now are indistinguishable by the unmoving, white masks covering their faces and the dark holes through their chests. A mummy, an old woman with grizzled hair and one eyeball bouncing around on her mask, and a small child wearing a simple grey sleeping gown pick themselves up from their resting places; at the same time, two Hover Ghosts and an ice-cube-enclosed Snowy Crystal appear behind the transformed citizens.
Sora reacts only when the Heartless appear, and Kairi touches his arm lightly. "You don't see them?"
Sora's shoulder twitches at her words. "There are… they're here too?" He squints, but doesn't appear to see anything. "Stay close behind me," he instructs.
"You're not going to do something stupid, are you?"
"We've got to get to Jack first. We can deal with the spirits later." At this, he runs forward, Kairi following close behind.
"In front of you!" Kairi yells, and Sora forklifts the child spirit into the air. Kairi puts on a burst of speed, soaring between the mummy and the hag spirits. The child spirit lands with a small thud behind her, but the spirit itself makes no noise.
"Get on my back!" Sora commands, and though Kairi's eyebrows rise apprehensively, she doesn't hesitate to leap and latch onto his moving backside.
"I think this counts as stupid!" she shouts as Sora points his Keyblade straight forward, a cone of energy gathering around the tines. One of the Ghosts rears back, apparently preparing to fire something, and Kairi raises her body, grabs onto Sora's long spikes with one hand for support, and launches a small Fire out of the palm of her other hand. It collides with the Ghost's chest and knocks it off balance so that, when it fires its claws, the hands-on-strings smack into the ice cube Heartless.
Sora leans forward to compensate for Kairi's shift in balance, but when his Keyblade has finished charging, he shouts, "Hold on tight!" Kairi drops to hug his neck as Sora's Keyblade jerks forward, plowing through the Heartless in his way. Even when he's cleared the enemies, he continues to race forward with Kairi still clinging onto his back, jumping up the front stairs of the mayor's house. Jack's scream has fallen silent by now, yet Riku is still waiting at the top of the stairs. "Cover me," he yells as they near, and he runs into the house.
Kairi detaches from Sora's back as they duck into the house. She covers her Keyblade in a small coating of Light to illuminate the dwelling's interior. Everything has been trashed beyond repair; huge gouges are carved into the walls; windows are shattered; a few walls are collapsed, completely broken through; and shredded clothing litters the floor.
"Riku, Sora!"
"I know," Sora says hurriedly. "We need more light in here." He points his Keyblade at the ceiling, and energy gathers at the tip.
Kairi grabs the shaft of his weapon and directs it at the floor. "Don't!" she hisses. "This house is built vertically; if you knock out any more supports, you'll bring the entire house down on top of us."
"But we need to find out where Jack is, now," Sora insists.
Riku moves further into the dark house. Way to Dawn is held in both hands defensively, securely across his torso instead of his usual, aggressive, over-the-head grip. Something on the upper levels of this house reeks of darkness, but somehow it's able to access the ground floor. It isn't until Riku steps on a thick, rubbery cord that he realizes the danger they're in.
"Get out of here NOW!"
The entire house implodes the next second, and Kairi barely manages to save herself through an instinctively cast Reflega spell that envelops her in hexagonal tiles. Chunks of plaster and black cables whip across the other side of the barrier, until Kairi realizes that cables are actively attempting to penetrate her shielded bubble. One tentacle tries to jab between the tiles, causing each to spray outward in a shower of light shards. The tentacles recoil for a split second, allowing Kairi to sprint for the open doorway. Feelers loop around her feet, trying to trip her up; they fall on her back and shoulders, like sandpaper clinging to her skin; some reach across the doorway, but one slice of Destiny's Embrace has them wiggling in pieces on the floor as she breaks into the cool nighttime air.
"Sora?" she yells as she clatters down the stairs, as black lassos try to draw her back in. Once she reaches level ground, she turns around and jogs backwards slowly, calling, "Riku!"
An entire section of the house explodes, revealing a gigantic mass of black tentacles that squirm and shy away from the moonlight. In the midst of them, Sora dodges, twists, flips, and swings his Keyblade in a desperate attempt to break free, but even so, the tentacles begin to draw him back into the house.
Thinking quickly, Kairi casts Thundara while visualizing it differently in her mind. It takes a bit of effort, but, instead of raining down around her, the bolts of lightning streak out from her in a straight line and cut through the thick cables reeling Sora into the mayor's house. Significantly loosened, Sora recalls Bond of Flame and slices through his bonds, dropping to the ground. He dodge-rolls out of the way, right before two tentacles shoot out of the ground where he just landed.
Too late, Kairi releases the same thing might happen to her. Three tentacles blast out of the ground at her feet; at the end of each tentacle is a small white bud which is harder and sharper than the rest of the tentacle, pummeling her thigh and slicing a small cut on her arm. Before they can whip around her body and tie her down, though, Kairi wraps her Keyblade in flame and spins around like Yuffie taught her, clearing a small open space.
"Where's Riku?" Kairi yells.
A huge beam of light extends from Sora's Keyblade, giving him an extra six feet of reach which he uses to hack up tentacles in front of him. "I lost him! We were grabbed by different tentacles." He aims for the house.
"You're going to bring down the entire house on him!" she warns.
He grins at her over his shoulder and smiles. "He can take it."
When Sora slices Bond of Flame horizontally, a gigantic wave of Light sweeps into the house and dissipates. For a second, it appears as if the attack has had no effect; but then, with a groan, a clean cut materializes on the ground floor and the entire top half of the house slides off, toppling over. The tentacles writhe, emitting hissing, sizzling noises of pain as bright moonlight spills over all of them momentarily. Then a gigantic cloud of dust races over them and hides all, but Sora touches Aeroga on his armband and a small area clears around them. Kairi draws closer to Sora as the two wait for the next move.
A hundred white-tipped tentacles bombard their wind barrier, lashing around wildly as the unexpected wind pushes them off course. Still, many are able to penetrate in a spear-like manner, shooting straight for the two living beings. Sora grabs the keychain of Bond of Flame and whirls his Keyblade in a wide circle. The two chakram-like extensions on the Keyblade spontaneously burst into flame, and Kairi huddles behind Sora as he maintains the spinning fan of flame that knocks the black spears aside.
Kairi faces the other side of the wind barrier, where other tentacles have gathered. They hover just outside of the circle of light created by Sora's spinning fire shield, so, going off the fire theme, Kairi rapidly fires multiple balls of Fire into the whirlwind.
Aeroga ends in a violent explosion that rockets everything it's engulfed into the air: the dust cloud, Kairi's tiny Fireballs, and all the tentacles trying to reach them. In the two seconds of time afforded by the conclusion of Sora's spell, Kairi and Sora catch a glimpse of their true enemy.
The house is completely demolished, reduced to a mound of rubble, but what used to be the mayor is still alive and well. Sora recognizes the pyramid-shaped figurehead from his brief visits to Halloween Town: the mayor had two different faces back then, one for happy occasions and the other for unhappy situations. However, the converted mayor now has both faces up front. His unhappy face is twisted into a feral snarl while his happy grin bears a bloodthirsty glee. Though the mask is unmoving, his body beneath is in constant motion: it dissolves into thousands of cords that split and tangle into a huge mass of writhing black.
A single, pale hand extends from the mass, still reaching for an invisible handhold. On the ground below, lying on a nest of severed tentacles, lies Way to Dawn.
Intense green eyes slide over to his master's face. The subordinate's blank white face holds no expression whatsoever as he waits for his master's next move.
"RIK—"
Sora grabs Kairi's arm, almost wrenching it out of her socket. Her call to Riku dissolves into a scream of pain, and she looks at Sora through watering eyes. His face is determined and firm, yet slightly apologetic. With incredible strength, he swings her around by her arm and flings her fifteen feet away from him. She hits the ground and tumbles out of the way, just as hundreds of Air-Tossed tentacles crash back on top of Sora.
Kairi rolls to her feet and races at the mass of tentacles, slashing wildly. "Sora! Dammit! You idiot! That was stupid!" Her left shoulder explodes in pain as she moves her arm too far backwards on her third swing. Jumping backwards, she holds Destiny's Embrace with both hands defensively and mumbles a Curaga spell. The tentacles are so busy converging on Sora that nothing disturbs her, but she can't think. Riku and Sora, buried in hundreds of tentacles, unable to move, suffocated or pierced until their bodies bleed dry—
Halloween Town is definitely not a place that inspires happy thoughts.
The familiar green flower opens above her, sprinkling golden points of light that seep into her skin. The pain in her shoulder fades away, but the despair hanging over her doesn't. She's whole and well and useless against a barrage of tentacles. She can hold her own against five Heartless, maybe ten—but she stands no chance against a hundred writhing snakes around her, each with its own deadly white tip. The tip of her Keyblade falls as her will to fight fades. Riku's hand has disappeared into the mass underneath the transformed mayor; Sora is wrapped in a tight bundle of black tentacles thirty feet to her left. No matter how many bolts of Thundara rain down from the full moon sky, no matter how many balls of Fire she launches, Kairi doesn't even appear to be making a dent in the tentacles surrounding Sora.
A winding black feeler loops around Destiny's Embrace and rips it out of her hands. She tries to call it back, but nothing happens. She holds out her palms in front of her, firing off significantly weakened balls of Fire. Her vision flickers; her skin appears to shimmer. There's only one Hollow, but it has an overwhelming number of tentacles. They latch onto her legs and arms, preventing her from moving. She cups Fire in her hand and doesn't release it, allowing her to burn through whatever she touches, but that's too slow to prevent the masses that continue to coil around her, crushing her limbs. A couple tentacles break free from the rest and rise above her, their pointed white tips aimed at her.
Her scream comes out as a strangled hiss of air when three tips punch through her body, one pinning her right shoulder down and immobilizing it. She can feel blood seeping from her stomach into her dress, weighing it down, and something warm is pumping out of and running down her leg. Overwhelming heat rolls over her in waves; each surge jostles her vision and knocks her breathless. She can't breathe; even more black loops tighten around her body, tying her down as even more rise above her, ready to deal the killing blow.
Something is trying to force its way out of her throat. Blood, bile, her lunch, she doesn't know, but she can't hold it down. Tears stream from her eyes. Her heart hammers, attempting to tear itself out of her chest. Her limbs shake uncontrollably. The full moon above explodes into white light, dazzling her with its brilliance.
And then something… someone leaps out from her body. Her body is solid and radiantly white, from her pale, glowing skin to her tiny white dress to her white blonde hair tossed over one shoulder. In one arm, she cradles a large sketchbook; with her other hand, she suspends several different colored pencils in midair.
Kairi's Nobody, Namine.
A/N: Holidays are finally here, so I had just a little time to write. There's a lot of action in here (and a little reference to Bleach!), and much more epicness is planned for the Nobodies... but some exposition is required first to explain how the hell Namine popped up when she did. Happy holidays, and please review!
