Once again, my thanks to Brightshadow 5, who has greatly added to this fic.
Disclaimer: If I owned it, it would be a lot gorier.
7. Rage.
Sora was the first to break the silence.
"You... Axel... But... You died! I was there! I saw you attack those Nobodies with everything you had, and then fade away..."
"Gee, don't act like you're happy to see me," Axel said, rolling his eyes. Sora smiled and, for the moment, seemingly didn't care how Axel had come back from the dead. The two shook hands and smiled.
Kairi got over her shock and realized she was overjoyed Axel was alive. Not fully caring what she was doing, she ran full-speed into Axel and gave him a back-breaking hug.
"Need... air..." He gasped, though he didn't try to fight her off. When Kairi looked up, her eyes were shining with fresh tears.
"I just wanted to... thank you," she explained. Axel looked confused.
"Thank me? I kidnapped you, remem-"
"But, in doing so, you got me off the island," Kairi reminded him, "and I got to see Sora so much... Sora and Riku so much sooner!"
"You're really happy to see me?" Axel asked. Kairi nodded, not realized she was still hugging him.
"Kairi, you might wanna back off," Riku joked, "You're making Sora jealous."
Kairi turned around much faster than necessary and saw Sora's face, pink with a fresh blush. While she was laughing on the inside, she couldn't help but wonder something on the inside. Why would me hugging Axel make Sora jealous?
You really don't get it, do you? Namine asked suddenly. Kairi was used to her popping up whenever she wanted by now.
What
do you mean?
I mean that Sora's the jealous type.
But why would he be jealous? We're just friends!
Sure. Keep telling yourself that. But think back to that morning two days ago when you realized that you had been using Sora's shoulder for a pillow.
Kairi turned beet red, which earned a laugh from Namine.
What?
You went all red, Namine told her smugly.
So? That doesn't mean anything.
Oh? So, if you fell asleep and woke up with Riku's arm around you, would you be as embarrassed?
Sure...
You're so full of it.
Kairi returned to the outside world in confusion. These cryptic little remarks were becoming aggrivating and she always felt like Namine knew something she didn't.
"Um... Kairi. We're about to start the first round. You wanna come back to planet Earth?" Sora asked, waving a hand in front of her face and snapping a few times. She shook her head, clearing it, and fake-smiled brightly.
"Yep! Who are we facing first?"
"Just the normal 20 or 30 heartless. Not too bad," Sora responded, calling his keyblade to his hand. Phil spotted it still in it's Kingdom Key form.
"Kid, you might wanna put this on," he suggested, dropping a keychain into Sora's palm. He attached it to his keyblade and it morphed immediately. The hilt had cloud-like swirls that snaked up the length of the blade. The key portion was a medly of lightning bolts, all vivid yellow and dangerously jagged. Sora pricked his finger to test it.
"Ow!" He yelled, pulling his bleeding finger away from the edge of the keyblade and sucking on it. He whimpered pitifully. Darran laughed quietly, leering at Sora with scorn.
"Good job," Riku said, rolling his eyes. Kairi and Lifelle chuckled softly. Sora shot them a mock hurt glare.
"Alright, Darran, Lifelle, and Riku, your turn!" Phil said, leading them to the arena. Kairi, Sora, and Axel, who had been spinning his chakrams around his hands lazily, followed as well and were assualted by a defeaning roar coming from the thousands of spectators in the stands. A brawny, brown-haired man strutted from the center of the arena, looking pleased with himself.
"Round 2," Phil yelled into a newly-acquired megaphone, "is the team of Riku, Lifelle, and Darran, against these formidible heartless!"
As if on cue, 25 bubbled of darkness poofed in the arena and an array of shadows, soldiers, and blue rhapsodies were before them in a split second.
"Ah, the fire-resistant ones. This will be fun," Axel muttered, grinning wolfishly. He, Sora, and Kairi, watched as their friends cut through the ranks of enemies with ease. It was hard to decide who was the most skilled in fighting, for they all fought in different styles. Riku was keen on slashing and calling forth a hovering shield in the nick of time. He had not even been touched yet. Lifelle was sprightly in her attacking, and she tripped out of hte way of the soldier's she was fighting's swipes of his claws daintily before neatly slicing through it with ease. Darran was very quick, and he never had to strike twice to fell as heartless. Overall, the battle lasted about a minute long. Phil deemed them the winners, earning them an earsplitting cheer from the crowds.
"You guys were great!" Kairi congradulating them.
"Thanks," Darran replied, actually cracking half a smile. He looked quite proud of himself and smirked at Sora, who had his eyes narrowed and was kicking a rock across the arena.
"Round three! May I present Sora, Kairi, and Axel!" Phil announced. The crowds cheered, if possible, louder than before as the trio watched the same types of heartless as the last round appear in a flash of swirling black and purple.
"You ready?" Sora asked. Kairi nodded. Sora already knew that she was just as good as he was with a keyblade, having trained during their year in between returning to the island and being summoned to save the worlds again.
A nod from Axel, and the three fighter sprang to action. Kairi smiled as heartless after heartless fell from her blade, vanishing in a puff of smoke or darkness. She dogded a soldier's slumsy swipe and aimed a blow at his neck, only to be stopped mid-swing by the creature being incinerated before her cerulean eyes. She looked to her right to see Axel grinning, having the time of his life. She spun around again to watch Sora take care of the last 3 shadows with a single swipe of his keyblade.
Wow... Sora's so...
So what? Namine asked in the back of her mind.
Nothing, Kairi snapped.
Sora turned to smile at Kairi, putting his hands behind his head in his trademark pose. His grin was short-lived, however. The gate separating the arena from the notorious Underworld was thrown about 50 feet from where it was, mammoth teeth marks scoring the deep metal. Saliva coated the gate.
"Oh no..." Sora said to himself. The spectators in the stands screamed and hurried to flee the stage as a massive, 3-headed black dog ran out of the Underworld, it's red eyes on Sora and all three sets of teeth bared. It roared with unmatched ferocity and rushed towards the keyblader, it's claws leaving deep scratches on the ground it tore up.
"Sora!!" Kairi screamed, running to be alongside with him. He shot her a wild, scared look.
"Kairi! Stay back! It's me Cerberus is after!" He warned, dodge rolling from the creature's massive jaws.
"I don't care!" Kairi yelled back, rushing at the beast. She ignored Sora's cry of "No!" as she flung herself at the colossal canine, using it's head as a springboard. She landed on it's back and was immedately flung off.
"Kairi! No!" Sora yelled, though Kairi could barely hear him. Her head smacked against the concrete floor-level stand and she felt the ground around her head suddenly get very sticky and warm.
"So... ra..." She tried to say, but her tongue felt thick and it was hard to speak. Kairi's eyes fluttered to see Sora holding her head and Axel, Darran, Lifelle, and Riku in the background, battling Cerberus. Sora was screaming something, but it was like watching a someone speak in a silent movie. Sora raised one hand and Kairi saw it come back from the back of her head drenched in blood. Her blood.
Sora desparately fumbled in his pocket and threw a potion in the air. Kairi felt her head get very warm and then very cold. She shook her head as he hearing rapidly returned.
"Kairi! Kairi, are you okay? Kairi, say something!!" Sora pleaded, sounding close to tears.
"I... I'm okay..." She mumbled, fighting back the sudden blackness of exhaustion and blood loss that was creeping around the corners of her eyes.
"Oh, thank god..." Sora whispered, half-picking up Kairi to hug her. She felt her heart sputter hyperactively and her hands get clammy.
"Well, isn't this sweet?" Came a nasty, leering voice. The two teenagers came out of their embrace and saw Hades, Lord of the Dead, standing before them.
"You... it was you!" Sora snarled. He let go of Kairi and stood up, his hands shaking. Kairi saw his eyes almost instantly turn blood red and shot as he growled gutterally deep in his throat. His clothes started to burn, literally burn, and change from their normal colors to deep, blood red and pitch black. Soon the flames ungulfed his entire body, and his keyblade turned ghostly black with a dark smoke swirling from the tip.
"Sora..." Kairi whipered, her eyes wide and frightened. He turned to look at her with wild, uncontrollable eyes. Eyes that Kairi didn't know. She couldn't see the playfulness or laughter she was so accustomed to seeing in them and at that moment she knew the Sora standing before her was the not the Sora she had grown up with, but a new Sora that she was quite frankly scared shitless of.
He returned his feral gaze to the Lord of the Dead, who seemed as confused as Kairi felt. Not-Sora held up a single hand, black and crimson flames swirling around it, and shot a single ball of Hellfire at the death god. It hit Hades with unexpected force and sent him flying backwards 20 feet. Sora sped up inhumanly fast behind him and began hacking and slashing at his neck. Spurts of blood flew from his body at each slice, yet Not-Sora seemed uncapable of stopping himelf.
"Sora! Sora, he's dead! Stop!" Kairi yelled. Not-Sora didn't seem to hear her and kept slashing at his neck, blood running down his pitch-black blade. Hades' cold, yellow eyes were glazed over in shock.
"Sora, STOP!" Kairi yelled, preparing to run to his side. A gloved hand restrained her, however.
"Let me go! He's not... Sora..." she screeched, struggling against the arms that were holding her tighter than iron chains.
"He's... beyond control," Axel said, watching Not-Sora slash at the body unrelentlessly.
"But... What happened to him? Let me go! I need to find out what's wrong with Sora!" Kairi screamed, struggling futilely against Axel. He didn't budge an inch.
They stood there, watching the creature slice what was once Hades to ribbons. After about a minute, the flames surrounding Sora's body faded almost as quickly as they had come and his clothes glowed for a moment before returning to normal. He took a step back and turned around to face Axel, Kairi, and Darran, Lifelle, and Riku, who had just finished silencing Cerberus, whose body was slumped lifelessly on the stands opposite them. Sora's eyes were wide, horror-struck, and thankfully back to normal.
"What... did I do?" Sora asked, his voice barely a whisper. He looked down at his hands, covered in Hades' blood, and blacked out.
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LV-chan.
