(Battle Music Cue: Dread of Night – Dream Drop Distance OST)
Sora and Aqua chased the three Neo-Beings into the Ballroom, but as soon as they passed the doors, they heard the doors slam shut. They turned and saw that N8 and N9 had shut the doors, surrounding the two Keyblade Masters with N1 on the other end. N8 suddenly went after Aqua while N1 charged towards Sora. N9 climbed nimbly up to the railing near the domed roof of the ballroom, and watched from a crouched position. Sora and N1 were exchanged blows for a while as Aqua dodged and evaded N8's attacks before finally it stopped, its twin swords held steady at its sides. Aqua didn't know what to make of its sudden stance when she heard a familiar voice speak to her via D-Link.
"Duel Stance!" a voice that sounded like Ven said in her mind. Aqua's eyes widened in realization but it was too late. N8 suddenly attacked, striking her several times before flinging her across the room. Fortunately her armor took most of the damage.
"AQUA!" Sora exclaimed as Aqua landed and slid up to one of the pillars in the room, her back against the pillar.
"Ven?" Aqua asked as she climbed to her feet, a little dazed from the surprise attack.
"Close." The voice replied. She realized then that it wasn't Ven, but Roxas.
"Roxas?" She asked via D-Link, confused.
"That guy fights like the Samurai Nobodies I used to command. I know their weaknesses but you'll need to follow my instructions." Roxas replied.
"Right." Aqua said as she dropped back into her fighting stance. Instantly she charged forward, but just as N8 dropped back into a duel stance, she did too, waiting for a moment. Finally she saw her opening but before she could make a move, N9 landed in front of her, swinging the large shuriken at Aqua and driving her backward. Suddenly something slammed into N9, carrying her across the room before one stopped, sending N9 crashing into a pillar. It was Sora.
"Roxas told me you were in trouble." Sora said via D-Link before suddenly leaping up and barraging N8 with Firaga spells, forcing him onto the defensive. Meanwhile N1 came running towards Aqua, flinging a strange glowing red pyramid missile towards her from the tip of his sword. Aqua quickly cast a Reflega, causing the missile to explode in a burst of flames upon impact. N1 quickly leapt back before the outward burst of light magic caught him.
"That Spell! Was that a Fire spell?" Aqua asked as N1 landed.
"Neo-Firaga. We are unable to use the same magic you use, so we've had to create our own." N1 replied as he quickly dropped into his fighting stance.
"Then here's a taste of the real thing!" Aqua exclaimed, flinging a fireball of her own. N1 quickly conjured its own Reflect spell, a white sphere made of pyramidal tiles (A/N: Think EPCOT's Spaceship Earth) but when the Firaga hit, its explosion was twice the size of an ordinary one, the concussive force sending N1 flying backwards a fair distance. It was a Fission Firaga. Meanwhile, Sora was keeping N8 on the defensive with the Fire Blazer Command Style, constantly attacking while giving N8 zero openings. Sora suddenly realized that N8 was deliberately evading or blocking his attacks and suddenly.
"Sora behind you!" Sora heard Aqua's voice exclaim. Behind Sora, N9 had ducked behind a pillar and quickly popped out from behind it long enough to fling her shuriken towards Sora's back. Before it could reach Sora, he dropped into a dodge roll to his left, allowing the shuriken to fly straight towards N8 who managed to block but the force of impact of the shuriken knocked him onto his back while causing the shuriken to fly up and land embedded in the ground nearby. Sora turned towards N9 who suddenly threw something down at the ground in front of her, resulting in a thick black cloud of smoke. Sora whirled around towards the shuriken in time to see N9 appear in another black cloud of smoke, snatch the shuriken from the ground and charge towards Sora. Before Sora could do anything a large clear bubble flew into N9's path and suddenly exploded, sending her flying across the room. N1 and N8, who had recovered in this time suddenly found themselves barraged by these bubbles. Sora turned and saw Aqua was using her Bubble Blast Shot Lock, forcing the three towards the doors to the balcony outside the ballroom. (End Battle Music)
"We've got them on the ropes!" Sora exclaimed as he ran up towards Aqua, his Fire Blazer Command Style wearing off.
"Now let's find out who they really are." Aqua said. Before she and Sora could do anything, the three were back on their feet, N1 chuckling.
"You want to know who we are?" N1 asked, Sora and Aqua not noticing as N9 hid her free hand behind her back, creating the rectangular cube of the Neo-Stopga spell in her hand.
"We want to know what kidnapping the people of entire worlds has to do with your acquiring the Keyblade." Sora said as his and Aqua's helmets disappeared.
"Alright, you want to know. Then I'll tell you." N1 said just as N9 smashed the Neo-Stopza cube, causing a shockwave of energy to fly out in all directions. The helmets of the two Keyblade Masters suddenly reappeared just as Aqua quickly threw a Reflega spell around her and Sora, just as the shockwave hit.
"Nice timing." N8 said as N9 chuckled darkly.
"Thank you." N9 replied as they approached the time-frozen pair, the Reflega still in place.
"Now let's get that Princess and the rest of these people before the spell wears off." N1 said as the three passed the Reflega. Suddenly the three found themselves launched towards the wall and slamming into either the pillars or the wall. As they recovered, they saw Sora and Aqua were not frozen in time but in fact quite active.
"A little something you should know about the Reflect spells. It blocks everything that hits it, including Stop spells." Aqua said as she and Sora both aimed their Keyblades at the three.
"Now what?" N9 mumbled. N1 then happened to glance towards the balcony and saw something.
"Mission accomplished." N1 said before launching a large white-blue cube of glowing energy towards the Keyblade Masters, Aqua quickly blocking the Neo-Blizzaga with a Reflect spell while Sora's Keyblade suddenly made thirteen clones of itself made of light that quickly launched towards the three just as N9 quickly dropped another smoke bomb. When Sora's Thirteenth Strike Shot Lock entered the black cloud of smoke he was dismayed to see that the three Neo-Beings had escaped.
"What? Where did they go?" Sora asked.
"I don't know, but I'm certain we'll meet again." Aqua said as their armor disappeared.
"What did they mean by, 'Mission Accomplished?'" Sora asked. Aqua turned towards him and was about to answer when she saw something that made her pause in awe.
"What is it?" Sora asked as he followed her gaze out the windows of the Ballroom and saw a figure in a black coat, with an unconscious Belle over its left shoulder. The figure then gave a quick two-fingered salute before disappearing in a Corridor of Darkness.
Earlier…
(Battle Music Cue: Dance to the Death – KH2)
An armored Kairi pulled Belle along through the corridors of the West Wing, Vanitas running along after them, despite being bound. As they continued running, they heard a loud roar echo through the halls.
"It's the Beast!" Belle exclaimed as they ran.
"He could probably use some help!" Kairi exclaimed as she let go of Belle and started glowing with a white aura while floating slightly off the ground while she moved. Her power as a Princess of Heart allowed her to instantly activate any Command Style without building it up first and she had just used that power to enter her Rising Sun Command Style. They suddenly rounded a corner where numerous Manikins were crowded around a single point in the hallway. Suddenly the Manikins were thrown in all directions, revealing Beast in the center, smashing Manikins in an almost feral fashion. He didn't notice one coming up behind him but a sphere of white light shot past him and stuck to the face of the Manikin for a moment before exploding, shattering the Manikin above the waist although the rest of it followed soon after. Beast spun around to see Kairi, Belle, and Vanitas approaching him.
"Belle!" Beast roared as he charged towards them as if about to attack. Kairi, not knowing what to think, quickly raised her Keyblade in a defensive posture but was surprised when Beast pounced clear over them and landed on a Manikin that was coming up from behind, smashing it into the ground. He then spun around towards the three.
"What are these? More of those Heartless?" Beast asked.
"I don't know! I've never seen these before! None of us have!" Kairi replied.
"Neither have I." Vanitas added, visibly scared and shaken.
"Where's Lumiere, Cogsworth, and the others?" Belle asked as she looked around.
"COGSWORTH!" Beast bellowed into the castle but no reply came. He then growled, turned and started running on all fours down the hall towards his chambers, Kairi, Belle, and Vanitas close behind. They could hear Beast occasionally bellowing for Cogsworth as they followed him. Finally they entered a hallway with windows along one wall. As they ran past, Vanitas slid to a halt and looked out one of the windows, his eyes widened at what he saw.
"THERE THEY ARE!" Vanitas exclaimed as the other three regrouped with him and gazed out the window to see a well-kept garden with a fountain and a large tree. Within the garden however were several Manikins with the unconscious servants in hand as they paraded into a swirling blue vortex lined with grey cubes with glowing olive-green edges.
"Where are they taking them?" Belle asked but before anyone could answer, they heard a loud crash. They turned and saw that Beast had smashed through the window and was now bounding down the side of the castle towards the ground. Kairi quickly grabbed the chain on Vanitas, forming the leash again with one hand and grabbing Belle with the other.
"This might look like suicide but you need to trust me so HOLD ON!" Kairi exclaimed before she pulled the both of them out the window with her, letting go as soon as they cleared the window. Neither Belle nor Kairi screamed but Vanitas did as they plummeted towards the ground. Kairi then pointed her Keyblade at where they would land, firing a swirling sphere of compressed winds at the ground. When they were mere feet from certain doom, they suddenly found themselves being held aloft by a powerful updraft of wind from the sphere Kairi had launched earlier, the winds slowly dying down until they were safely on the ground, unscathed. Vanitas however promptly fell onto his side, scared stiff from the experience while Belle was impressed.
"Kairi, I never knew you had that kind of power." Belle said with a smile as she caught her breath.
"I have a good teacher." Kairi said as they saw Beast start tearing into the Manikins in a rage. Kairi started charging towards the Manikins carrying the servants when she was knocked back by a sudden burst of light. (End Battle Music).
"KAIRI!" Belle exclaimed as Kairi landed in a shrubbery nearby, her Keyblade landing near Belle. (Optional Music Cue: The Nightmare – Dream Drop Distance OST)
"Do you have any idea how inconvenient this is for me?" a girl's voice asked angrily. Belle spun back around towards where the flash of light had appeared. Standing in place of the light was a figure about the same height as Sora, Kairi, and Ven wearing a grey variation of the Organization XIII robes but with red triangles lining the edges of the robe, even traveling up parallel to the zipper and around the hood. Instead of the typical black gloves however, the figure had on a pair of white dress gloves. The figure even wore a pair of heeled boots exactly like the ones worn by Larxene or Xion except a solid white instead of black. In the figure's hand, pointed at where Kairi had landed, was a polished silver scepter that had a round red ruby encrusted at the top, with a tiny silver crown attached to the top of the ruby. The figure began to approach Belle.
"BELLE!" Beast roared as he threw aside the Manikins he was attacking and charged towards the figure. The figure quickly spun around, the scepter pointed at Beast.
"Stop!" The figure exclaimed as her scepter flashed. Beast suddenly froze in time, frozen in midair. The figure then reached up and pressed her gloved hand on Beast's forehead, causing time to return to normal for him but instead of finishing his pounce, he dropped to the ground, unconscious.
"That takes care of this…creature. Now for you." The figure said as she turned back towards Belle. A pair of Manikins approached Beast and began carrying him towards the portal.
"Let him go!" Belle yelled as she started backing away, the figure stopping next to Kairi's Keyblade on the ground.
"We have no interest in harming you or anyone we have taken here. We merely want answers." The figure said.
"What about the ones from the other worlds?" Vanitas asked as he climbed to his feet. The figure looked at him curiously for a moment, cocking her head to one side as if studying him. She then raised her free hand, revealing a glowing blue square in her hand, which suddenly caused a holographic image of Belle to appear with several scrolling lines of text beneath it. The image and text began cycling through various people from Beast's Castle before the figure pressed the square with her thumb, causing the images and text to cycle to an image of Sora. The text below his image turned red, a sign appearing between his image and text that read "Keybearer: Master Rank. Threat Level: Extreme."
"You resemble this one, and yet I don't think you're him." The figure said as the image and text disappeared back into the square. The figure then reached down and picked up Kairi's discarded Keyblade, looking at it curiously before it suddenly vanished, earning a frustrated sigh from the figure. The figure then turned back towards Belle.
"Well now that we've wasted enough time, I think it's time we were leaving." The figure said as she started approaching Belle.
"NOOOO!" Vanitas exclaimed as he managed to climb to his feet, his helmet forming on his head as he knelt over and charged headfirst towards the figure who whirled back around towards him with the scepter raised.
"Stop." She said, but Vanitas didn't.
"What?!" the figure yelped as Vanitas plowed straight into her, causing her to fly across the garden and into the outside wall of the castle. The figure began to climb up onto her feet and glared at Vanitas from under her hood. She then stormed up to Vanitas who charged her again, but she quickly slid to the side and swung her scepter down at Vanitas's feet, tripping him then hitting him hard in the back with the scepter. Vanitas hit the ground hard, the figure standing over him.
"Now who are you really?" the figure asked as she reached for Vanitas's shoulder, but the second she touched him, a loud sizzling sound was heard as a sickly green smoke started rising from her hand. She quickly recoiled with a cry of pain, cradling her hand as the green smoke continued to rise. She looked at the palm of her hand and saw that part of it looked as if it had been eaten away by some form of acid, leaving behind a strange green glass-like substance. She turned her hand sideways and shuddered in horror as what appeared to be small bits of green glass fell from her wound. She stood up and backed away, cradling her hand.
"What are you?" she asked as Vanitas rolled over slightly, looking at her through his helmet but he said nothing. When she saw the N13 on his helmet however…
"You're…you're one of the 14th-Series?" the figure asked but before either could respond, they saw a bright light appear from within a nearby shrubbery. Suddenly, Kairi leapt up from behind the shrub, fully armored and hovering in the air with her Rising Sun Command Style active.
"I don't know who you are, but you're not getting away with this!" Kairi exclaimed. The figure grunted in annoyance as a Neo-Stopza cube appeared on the tip of her scepter. Kairi quickly leapt forward, but was suddenly slammed into the ground by an unknown and invisible force, knocking the wind out of her simultaneously.
"KAIRI!" Belle exclaimed as she attempted to run help her fellow Princess of Heart but was stopped by the sudden appearance of a tall figure in a black coat and white shirt, the marking N10 on the back of the coat. Kairi's helmet vanished, revealing her face as she saw this tall figure. Her eyes widened in shock and horror.
"That's quite enough, Princess. It is time for you to come with us." The figure said as it pressed its palm to Belle's head, causing a brief green glow to appear between its hand and her head, causing her to fall unconscious in his arms. The figure then handed her off to a Manikin and then turned towards Kairi.
"You!" she wheezed.
"Have we met, Princess?" N10 asked her.
"Xeh-…Xeh-…" she gasped but the wind was still knocked out of her. N10 merely chuckled in amusement as a Corridor of Darkness opened nearby, depositing a figure in a black coat.
"Not bad. That's six outta seven and the seventh is right here." the figure said, looking at Kairi, as it took Belle from the Manikin, with one arm.
"Do you want to take her with us?" N10 asked, turning to look at Kairi who was inexplicably unable to move. It was like something was pressing down on her from above, something invisible.
"Nah. I think we have enough test subjects for now." The figure said as it started floating by magic into the air, flying straight up towards the balcony attached to the ballroom above them and leaving N10, the hooded girl, the incapacitated Kairi, and Vanitas. N10 then turned to the girl and started walking towards the still open portal.
"Come, let us return." N10 said as the girl glanced at Vanitas for a moment before turning back and beginning to follow after N10. They then heard the rattling of armor that caused the two to pause and turn towards Kairi who was staggering to her feet, the magic preventing her from moving beginning to wane.
"Don't bother, Princess. You cannot stop us now." N10 said but Kairi was undaunted and swung her Keyblade straight out to her side, the tooth pointed straight down, as a ring of energy formed over the tip of her Keyblade before firing a long beam of the same energy straight towards where Vanitas was lying helplessly on the ground. The beam hit the padlock on his chains, causing the chains to suddenly evaporate in a burst of smoke. Vanitas quickly leapt to his feet, let out a battle cry and charged towards the two Neo-Beings. The hooded girl quickly remembered the acidic effect Vanitas had on her when she touched his shoulder and quickly shoved N10 through the portal, following after him. The portal closed before Vanitas could reach them.
"What?! No!" Vanitas exclaimed, his helmet vanishing as he looked all around for a sign that there was someone left, but saw nothing. He then heard the rattling of Kairi's armor and whirled around to see Kairi limping towards him but otherwise unharmed save for having a very pale complexion. Vanitas quickly hurried to her side and helped to hold her up, her arm over his shoulder.
"Are you alright?" Vanitas asked as Kairi shook her head.
"I feel sick." Kairi said shakily as Vanitas helped her sit down just as Sora, Aqua, Ven, Terra, and Riku dropped in, literally, from the ballroom balcony overhead, using the same Aeroga method Kairi had moments ago to safely land.
"Kairi!" Sora exclaimed as he ran up to her.
"Vanitas! Get away from her! How did you get free?" Terra asked angrily as he and Ven summoned their Keyblades.
"I set him free. He tried to help, but it was no use. They took Belle, Beast, and everyone else." Kairi said as Sora took over for Vanitas in helping her.
"Kairi, you look like you've seen a ghost. What happened?" Aqua asked as Kairi looked towards Terra, her mouth quivering in fear.
"I…I know who's doing this…at least…I think I do." She said shakily.
"Who? Who is it?" Riku asked, worried for his friend. Kairi then looked up at all of them, a look of horror clear on her face.
"It's Xehanort…he's back."
End Chapter 8.
A/N: All I can say to this is…DUN-DUN-dun.
