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.-.-.-.

Chapter Ten- One Hell of a Show, One Hell of a Mess

Vincent was surprised, to say the least, when Kairi came running out into the middle of the battlefield, where he was having an extremely terse conversation with the supposedly surrendering commander of the Imperial Guard stationed in Baron. Said surprise only grew when, mere moments later, she pulled out her Keyblade, and proceeded to stab the commander right through the heart. The commander was dead before he hit the ground. There was a moment of silence, and then, pandemonium broke loose. The citizens of Baron, who had just been assured they wouldn't be harmed, became infuriated, drawing their weapons and opening fire towards Sora, Kairi, and Vincent. The princess threw up a Reflega spell, and mercilessly cut down the one who opened fire. The gunman, desparate to figure out what the hell had just happened, ran for cover. No sooner had he reached that cover than he heard his communicator going off, registering a signal from one of the Magitek Armors they had captured.

"Cecil, what the hell is going on?" Vincent raged, his fury growing by the moment. "I thought you and Kairi were the ones responsible for garnering the ceasefire!"

"F-forgive me..." Cecil replied. Vincent couldn't quite tell through the static, but it sounded like the paladin was weeping. "I didn't mean to... I tried to stop her..."

"What do you mean 'you tried to stop her'? Cecil, what the hell just happened?"

"The orb... Its magic... I didn't... But I couldn't... I'm sorry..."

And then the terrible realization hit. "Cecil, do you mean to tell me that you used the Manipulate materia I gave you and ordered Kairi to fight?"

"No! I didn't... I didn't mean to. I mentioned our fortune in being able to avoid having to slaughter everyone in Baron, but... The orb... the spell... it still activated, and..."

Vincent's gauntleted hand met his forehead with a sigh of exasperation, causing him a fair amount of pain. "So, to clarify, Kairi has been given inexorable orders to slaughter every single person in this town, whether enemy, civilian, or ally? Orders she cannot disobey and you cannot undo?"

"Yes... C-can... can you undo them?"

"No." Vincent answered, his voice clipped. "Only the one who gave the initial orders can undo them, and it seems you've failed at that... Then we have only one option. Stay right there. I'm coming to your position."

He put away the communicator, and cast a glance at the battlefield. Sora was back to his full strength, and was using said strength to kill all those in his way as he tried desperately to reach Kairi, who was now using her not inconsiderable prowess with magic to destroy everyone in her way. Vincent's crimson eyes closed as he grimaced. He should have known there was no way this plan could end but in tragedy. The fighting would now be interminable, and the Wild Rose was nowhere in sight.

No matter... he thought, shaking his head. All I can do now is try to keep the fallout from this screw-up under control... Damn it all, Cecil, why didn't you drop the damn materia after the last of the guards was taken care of?

As his thoughts descended into a cacophony to match the outward battle, Vincent ran as fast as he could, dodging past bullets fired at him, and ducking beneath the powerful blasts of Magitek Armor fire. When he finally reached the bunker where the Armors were stored, he dashed inside, sealing the entrance tightly behind him. After taking a moment to catch his breath, he caught the scent of burnt flesh, which gave him a fair idea of the horror that would meet his eyes once he turned around to see it.

Bodies of Imperial Soldiers were everywhere, bloodied and unconscious, the largest pile of which was set aflame, causing a sick and heady scent to fill the air, like the foul breath of Hell itself. A few of the soldiers still alive on the ground were writhing as they burned to death. Unable to properly move, but able to feel the pain as they burned to death, they fit in with this place's now hellish atmosphere. Eyes stinging from the smoke, Vincent felt something wet trickle down his face. Whether these were tears or a drip of blood from a dead man above his head he had no time to investigate, for he had finally found Cecil.

The white and silver paladin stuck out like a sore thumb against his dark surroundings, though the ash and stench of the place were beginning to tint the heavenly warrior a hellish shade. He was lying on the ground, conscious, but unable to move, as both his legs were slashed open, and bleeding heavily onto the floor. If he didn't get proper attention from a healer soon, he would die from loss of blood.

"What happened to you?" Vincent asked, kneeling by the fallen man's side.

"I... tried to stop her." Cecil coughed. "I told her to... disregard that order. But... she..."

"She maimed you because you were standing in her way." Vincent finished, shaking his head. "Cecil, how could you make such a foolish mistake?"

"How was I to know the spell was still active...?" Cecil asked, trailing off into a coughing fit that sounded like he was attempting to remove his own lungs. "I- I'm sorry..."

Vincent handed the man the one healing potion he had. "Here. Take it. It should help ease the pain and keep you alive until help arrives... If it ever arrives..."

"What are you going to do?" Cecil asked weakly, gratefully accepting the potion he was given.

Vincent sighed heavily. "Thanks to this situation arising, I have to do what I was ordered to once, only a short while ago. Do something that made me come back to myself before. Something I couldn't bring myself to see through."

This time, he was certain the moisture on his face was his tears as he gravely stated, "I have to kill Princess Kairi."

.-.-.-.

To say that Golbez was in a foul temperament after having heard of the ceasefire orders from his own troops would be an utter understatement. He spent the next several minutes pacing angrily across Emperor Mateus's throne room, while the aformentioned ruler looked on the scene with an amused disinterest. A single soldier came into the room, and said, "Y-Your Majesties?"

"WHAT NOW?" Golbez raged, turning back to face the faceless soldier, electricity crackling between his fingers.

The soldier visibly shrank back. "S-sir, th-the rebels have attacked our troops during the ceasefire. Our troops are fighting against the few rebel insurgents with all of their strength. We'll be able to beat them back, sir!"

Golbez was surprised for an instant, but recovered very quickly. "Send for more reinforcements. I want to be sure they are all crushed into the dirt right here and now."

After the soldier left, Emperor Mateus let a twisted smirk spread on his face, and a small chuckle escape his lips. That chuckle soon turned into a full on laugh, one without mirth, but rather, with triumph. "With their own pathetic struggles, they have harmed support for their own resistance. They had their enemies cornered, surrendering without a fight, and what do they do? Try to slaughter them wholesale. Any citizens of the Empire who even dreamed of supporting them before will withdraw their opinions now, after seeing this utter disaster! All that is left is to let this battle run its proper course, and stamp out the ones who began it. Isn't that right, Golbez?"

"Yes, my Lord." Golbez answered, his voice a monotone. "Their rebellion will be dust."

.-.-.-.

Kairi had managed to steal a Magitek Armor from one of the Imperials she had killed earlier, and was using its onboard weapons to slaughter hundreds of Baron citizens, be they soldier or civilian. She had to kill them all. They all had to die! She pressed the button on the Fire Beam Cannon once more, and blasted through a hundred walls.

She was less pleased with the situation when, out of nowhere, a Thunder Beam crashed into her Magitek Armor, utterly disabling its movement.

"How dare you fire on me?" she shrieked through the communicator. "I am Princess Kairi of Radiant Garden, and I-!"

The Magitek Armor disintegrated beneath her, and she fell unceremoniously to the ground. She drew her Keyblade, and began looking desparately for more Baronians to slaughter. She turned back to face the one who had disabled her craft, and found herself face-to-face with Vincent.

"Oh! Vincent, it's you!" Kairi shouted, visibly relieved. "Hey, maybe once this battle is over, we can help fix the damage and rebuild Baron! Wait... people will still live in Baron, won't they...?"

"Right. Rebuilding." Vincent stated, his face unreadable. "There will be a lot of rebuilding necessary after this fight."

He pulled out Cerberus, and levelled it at Kairi's head, causing her eyes to widen in fear.

"Forgive me... Princess..." Vincent whispered, barely audible above the fighting.

A flash of light and a gunshot later, Princess Kairi felt herself fall to the ground.

Vincent-? Why did you..?

.-.-.-.

Vincent's hands had been shaking as he delivered the final blow. He hadn't intended for it to come to this. He'd never expected something like this to happen. But he was left with no choice.

He felt a sharp stab of pain near his heart as the young woman fell to the ground. Perhaps it was simply psychosomatic of the more emotional trauma he was facing in this act. Or, perhaps it was a result of the bullet still encapsulated within his body from where he had been shot earlier. He lowered Cerberus, and dropped it to the ground.

I'm so sorry, Princess. I wanted to help you... but in the end, all I can do is destroy...

He was startled out of his train of thought mere moments later as an all-too-familiar figure came charging towards him, letting out a battle cry of extreme rage and sorrow.

.-.-.-.

From the moment the fighting started up again, Sora knew he had to reach Kairi. He had to get to her, to protect her, to stop her from getting hurt.

"Out of my way!" he snarled viciously at the soldiers blocking his path.

He stabbed Oblivion through one man's torso, then used it to cut off another's head. It didn't matter what became of those in his way- all that mattered was Kairi's safety.

Finally, there was a lull in the battle, where Sora could run up to where he saw Kairi standing, Keyblade out. Vincent stood before her, gun drawn. And then, a flash of gunpowder later, Kairi was falling to the ground.

It wasn't right, it didn't make any sense! Kairi was just fine one second, but now she was falling down, and it looked like she was bleeding really badly from her chest! No... no, this couldn't be right! Kairi wasn't falling down, she couldn't be, it wasn't possible! The auburn hair that flowed past her wide sapphire eyes were replaced in a flash by ashen silver and aquamarine. Riku was falling, had fallen next to Kairi. Both were improbably, impossible bleeding and broken before their assailants, it couldn't be happening, he had to be dreaming, it just couldn't-! Not again! Not like this!

Can't-!

Not-!

Sora's mind was on total shutdown. Rage penetrated to the very core of his being. He was nothing but the rage filling his body, they were one, the same. He would do anything, everything in his power to make the ones who destroyed his loved ones pay. Hatred was his obsession, and he had his first target in his sights. Egged on by a deep, dark desire to avenge the fallen, and by the sadistic laughter of the darkness in his heart, he charged, his vocal chords aching from the strain of the one word he was capable of forming at this point. One long, painful screech of denial.

Oblivion clashed with golden gauntlet time and time again as one-word epithets began entering Sora's mind. How many were merely thought and how many were actually screamed aloud, he did not know. All he knew was that he was going to make Vincent suffer.

Bastard! Murderer! Monster! How could you? She never- And you just- DIE!

The darkness pooled around him, and he no longer cared. He would use whatever means were necessary to extract his vengeance. As his posture and attacks lost their civilization, so did those of his opponent, until each was as animalistic as the other. Sora egged on into beasthood by his rage, and Vincent in defense of his own life.

And then, suddenly, he blacked out. He had no knowledge of where he was, who he was, or if he even existed anymore. There was nothing left for him to live for... Nothing...

When he finally came to himself, he was standing back on the islet where he and his friends always used to play. The structures still stood, and Riku stood by his side, looking out over the ocean, the way they were before Mickey's letter ever arrived. Only, Riku looked like he did when he was a child. Suddenly, Sora himself felt much shorter, and he knew he was back to being a child with Riku.

"Someday... Someday, Sora, I'm going to get off this island!" Riku stated, looking determinedly ahead.

"Right!" Sora giggled. "We'll find a way! Together! Won't we, Riku?"

Riku's smile turned to more of a concerned frown as he looked at Sora's face. He pointed towards him, and asked, "Sora, are you okay? You're-!"

Sora put a hand to his left eye, and withdrew it, feeling moisture dripping down his cheek. But instead of the phantom tear of yesteryear he expected to see, his eyes were met with blood. Riku's position seemed oddly skewed now, and Sora screamed in horror when he realized why. His eye, his left eye was gone, ripped out of his head, leaving a gaping, bleeding hole where it had been.

The child form of Riku turned to face him, a silver wing now attatched to his back, and a cruel smirk on his face. Those eyes were not his- they were the catlike slits of his father.

"Sora, what's wrong?" Riku's childlike form asked, all innocence, sounding wrong with his current appearance.

Sora backed up, and started running for all he was worth. The island was crumbling into flames and ruin behind him, the empty void only filling with the tears still flowing down his childish face. Kairi, as she looked when she first came to the islands, reached out for him, standing in his way, but then, suddenly, she fell, bullet holes appearing in her chest, sending her to the ground. Riku's child form lay still to his side, having been pierced through by the Masamune blade, still impaled in the sand beside him. Sephiroth smirked at Sora for only a moment, gripping his blade, before fading into nothingness and feathers. All his childhood friends lie dead as children around him, corpses burnt and decaying from the flames. He ran as fast as he could towards a figure in black. Tall, looming, blonde hair spiking up. His child self clung to his father's pants leg, begging for protection, only to have his support vanish from beside him as Cloud walked off into the distance.

"DAD!" he cried out, whimpering and desperately reaching for the fast-receding figure.

He was met with his face in the sand for his troubles. The sand hardened into glass, and he found himself, still in child form, standing upon a stained glass window. He looked out across the distance and saw two figures conversing with one another. One looked exactly like him in his current appearance- the other looked like Roxas. But there was something decidedly off about both of them.

"You're fighting a losing battle, Ventus." Sora's mirror image taunted. "Such a double-edged sword, this friendship you cling to as your power. Break it, bury it, and it becomes a lure to the darkness."

"He won't give in!" Ventus, the Roxas lookalike shot back. "He can't. He's not like you, Vanitas. He's not weak!"

"Without the support of his friends, he is but one person trying to hold back a veritable sea of his own despair." Vanitas replied, mocking. "You're as good as gone. As his darkness grows stronger, so do I."

Suddenly, Anti-Sora sprang up before Sora himself, causing him to shriek with fright. He tried to run, but there was nowhere for him to go. Anti-Sora pounced on him, drowning him, pulling him down into darkness. And Sora couldn't even fight anymore. There wasn't a point.

"Giving up already? C'mon, Sora! I thought you were stronger than that!"

The impossibly familiar voice rang through the boy's head, causing him to snap violently awake. For a brief moment, he imagined he saw Riku looming concernedly above him, but a blink later, the familiar face transformed into Cecil's.

"You're awake? Oh thank the gods..." Cecil murmured, sinking back into his chair in relief.

Sora was confused. "Where-?"

"We're back in Castle Altair. The Wild Rose came to our rescue after everything started going towards the inferno. Their White Mages have been looking after all of us nonstop for the past three days. Bartz had some extremely bad stab wounds from a lance, but he's recovering. They pulled the bullet from Vincent's chest, so he's in better condition. My legs are almost fully healed, and Edward's been his usual self- cowering in a corner. Faris transported us all here once enough members of the Wild Rose showed up to make it feasible to leave." Cecil replied.

Sora tried sitting up, and was met with pain for his efforts. His ribcage was bandaged up tight. "Wh-where's-? Where's Kairi? Is she okay? Did she get hurt when the Empire attacked us after the fake ceasefire?"

Cecil looked visibly uncomfortable. "Sora... don't you know? D-don't you remember?"

"I- I remember Vincent aiming a gun at her, and-" Sora cut himself off. "Is Kairi all right? Did Vincent hurt her?"

"Sora..." Cecil began gingerly, unsure of how best to put what he needed to say, "Kairi is... gone."

Sora's heart skipped a beat. "G-gone? What do you mean, gone?"

Cecil sighed. "We don't know... We don't know where she is or what's become of her. But... Vincent was successful in his mission... I don't think we'll see her again..."

"Cecil, what the hell are you talking about?" Sora raged, his torso screaming in protest to his sudden movements. "WHERE IS KAIRI?"

Tears spilled from the corner of Cecil's eyes. "I'm... I'm so sorry... It's all my fault. I didn't... I didn't mean for it to happen, but..."

The pale blue eyes met Sora's own, shining with tears as Cecil dealt the final blow. "Vincent had no choice but to shoot Princess Kairi. She's dead, and we can't even find her body..."

.-.-.-.

And that is where it will end for now. We'll be entering a new story arc next chapter. Hope you guys enjoy!