Lost Kingdoms, Lost Hearts, Chapter 11: Fallen into Darkness
Helllooooo faithful readers I'm back and, after a long wait and many many writers blocks, have finally written and finnished the next chapter, plus I've had exams to revise and study for plus other more personal stuff, so I apolagise for the delay and hope the chapter was worth the wait :)
When writing this chapter I listened to a lot of Evanescence for inspiration (particuarly the songs Haunted and Sweet Sacrifice) so I'm hoping it'll have a dark and slightly gothic feel to it. Also Anti Sora will be reffered to as It (spelt with a capital I) to help make it clearer and I hope it doesn't get toooo confusing.
Anywho's enough chatting and now the adventure continues :) oooh and please don't forget to R&R x)
Panic flashed across Kairi's face and terror filled her thoughts and Heart as Sora began to screech in agony before her, his hands clutching his body as he twisted in pain, his baby blue eyes turning yellow and a black fluid dripping from his mouth.
"RIKUUU!" She screamned over at her silver haired friend and in a sudden flash he was by her side.
By the time Kairi had turned back around to face Sora he was silent, his arms loosly by his sides whilst his head was leaning back and more of the black fluid dripped from his mouth and onto his body which was now being enveloped by the substance.
"Riku what do we do? He's entering Anti-Form" Kairi said squeemishly, her hand held up to her chest were her heart was.
"Get ready Kairi we strike as soon as his Anti-Form is complete" Riku said drawing his Way to the Dawn and preparing a stance.
"Why don't we strike him now before the transformations complete?" She asked raising her Destiny's Embrace.
"Because the transactions only half done, if we attack him now we risk..." He began only to be cut of by Kairi.
"..hurting Sora" She realised.
"Not only that but we may damage his heart if its transforming between the dark and light sides, we could end up destroying it" Riku added as he glared in Sora's direction.
"I'll attack him head on, you cover my back" Riku said and stepped in front of Kairi, his focus solely on Sora.
Kairi nodded and watched with Riku, her heart beating so frantically in panic as she was about to fight Sora.
The black goo had stopped dripping from his mouth and now his whole body was reeking with the power of darkness, the only seeable part of his face were two massive amber eyes, that were glowing even in the light of the training arena.
His face was featureless, his hair as black as shadows and his cloths had lost all features as well, except for two what looked like Heartless symbols on his shoulders and pants. His hands seemed to have transformed into claws whilst what looked like black vapours or ribbons were rising from his body and slowly twisting in the air.
He was crouching, his bright yellow eyes set upon Kairi and Riku as he cocked his head to the side like a curious animal.
In a blur he had vanished and reapeared in mid-air in front of Riku a leg raised, and before Riku could react the Anti-Sora had kicked Riku across his face and sent him flying across the room crashing into the wall so hard a crunching noise sounded and a dust cloud formed.
Kairi gasped as her eyes followed Riku into the wall and looked back barely in time to raise her Keyblade to block a downward slash from his claws.
She leapt back and watched the Anti Sora, who was just gazing around the room and flexing his body parts.
Kairi decided now was the time to strike and cast a Thunder spell upon the unsuspecting Anti Sora who was stuck and staggered back as static jumped momentarily around his body.
His head twisted around to face Kairi and upon all fours began to charge towards her like a wild beast.
He lept at her, rolling in the air as a black blur and Kairi was unsure what to do, how would he attack, with a kick? a punch? hand to hand combat was more Riku's area of expertise.
She quickly erected a Reflera barrier in time to block what turned out to be a slash from the claws, which much to her shock had peirced her Reflera barrier and were making cracks.
She lowered her barrier sending out a wave of light as she did so, knocking the Shadow Sora back and she ran forward, slashing her Keyblde and felt it cut across the Anti Sora's body.
She gagged in shock when out of the quickly fading light a black arm extended and clutched her throat and she felt the claws graze her neck.
Anti Sora stood grasping her as she chocked, his head once again, cocked to the side like a curious animal. Kairi felt the claws ever so slightly peirce deeper and blood start to be drawn from her neck. Thinking fast she began to prepare a Blizzara spell on her Keyblade.
Before she could stab him though he had been kicked in the face and sent tumbling across the room dropping Kairi who landed on her knees.
She grabbed a hand that had been placed in fornt of her and was pulled up by Riku, his hair all messy with patches of dirt and rubble on him, whilst blood ran down the side of his face, two gashes on his cheek and forehead.
"You okay?" He asked whilst he stared in 'Sora's' direction.
"Yeah, just.. scared" She replied timidly as she began to heal his wounds.
"We really can't hold back now Kairi" Riku said sternly.
"I know, even though he doesn't have a Keyblade its still a Drive Form" She said as she mustered up her courage and started looking herself for her possessed friend.
"There he is" Riku muttered silently and Kairi followed his gaze, it took a moment but indeed she did soon see his big yellow eyes glowing and slowly maneuvering closer.
Kairi clutched her Keyblade tightly as she prepared herself for battle once more.
The Anti Sora began to charge and had It's claws drawn, vapours of dark energy drifting behind It.
Not hesitating Kairi launched her earlier prepared Blizarra spell in an arch, so a crescent shape of ice spread across the room.
Both Kairi and Riku were suprised when It avoided the spell by leaping thirty feet into the air almost at ceiling height and then did a nose dive straight towards them.
The two hopped out of the way in time to avoid the impact but were both suprised when what seemed to be two Anti Sora's appeared, one in front of them each.
Both acted fast and swung their Keyblades, their slashes missing however and Kairi suddenly felt a painful kick to her back and saw that Riku too had been kicked in the back by an Anti Sora and the two crashed into each other.
Kairi was able to turn her head just enough to see two giant black shoes come towards her and Riku, one foot each slamming into their faces and knocking them down.
Kairi fell flat on the floor, and as she pushed herself up saw that Riku had launched a bolt of dark energy at the corupted Sora.
The Anti Sora was able to dodge it and was swiftly beat by the rapid movements of Riku who was able to parry it's attacks and land a few of his own, casting a Fira spell point blank upon the seemingly suprised Anti Sora.
The creature fell backwards in pain and, fell once again when It was sliced by Riku across the torso, and fell to Its knees with smoke rising from Its body.
Riku was about to land a final downwards blow to Its head but before he could the Anti Sora had melted into the ground, like the Shadow Heartless, and a pool of darkness appeared underneath Riku. A black claw emerged out the pool and latched itself into Riku's ankle, blood seeped into the fabric of his pants whilst a foot emerged in front of Riku and kicked him high into the air.
The 'Sora' emerged from the pool and jumped into the air after Riku claws stretched before It so thay stabbed into Riku's chest. The Anti Sora then flipped them around so that Riku was beneath It. It pulled Its claws out of Riku and slammed Its foot down so Riku dropped to the ground like a brick, hitting it with such force that he dented the ground.
Kairi stood and watched in horror as her best friends were battleing and was too afraid to move, she couldn't hurt Sora and was scared Riku had... No! She wouldn't let herself think like that and called upon all the courage in her Heart and charged towards 'Sora' as he was about to drop and orb of dark energy on Riku.
She Warped forward and appeared behind the Anti Sora, able to deal several attacks to its back and after hooking her Keyblade into Its back, ducked and tripped It up with her leg, grabbing It by the arm and with, her Destiny's Embrace still hooked in, flung It around and up into the air.
He had dropped the dark orb though, but Kairi was fast enough to cast a Reflaga spell.
The orb struck the barrier and released a gigantic burst of dark power that was so strong it forced the barrier into the ground, indenting it much like Riku had before and Kairi grunted as she felt the force of it against her hands. Nonetheless the sheild held and by the time the darkness of the attack had disapated, Shadow Sora was already nose-diving towards them again
Kairi was quick to react and had cast a Magnera spell above him so that the It was tugged back and spiralled around the silvery orb at the centre of the spell.
She cast another right next to her previous Magnera spell so that the Heartless Sora was caught between them and pulled apart by the spells.
She leant down and began to heal Riku and she could feel the darkness that had seeped through his wounds, she looked up an through her barrier saw the possesed Sora being tugged at Its limbs and could hear the snaps of broken bones.
Riku groaned as he stood back up and saw Kairi's work, resummoning his Way to the Dawn.
"Ready?" Kairi asked looking at him and he gave her a gentle nod as they both prepared themselves for a tag team attack.
Kairi lowered her barrier and the two simoultaniously hurled their Keyblades at the suspended dark shape, immediatley after casting spells, Kairi casting Blizzara and Riku a Fira spell so that seconds after their Keyblades struck, Anti Sora was bombarded with the elements of fire and ice.
There was an explosion of energy in the air as Kairi resummoned her Keyblade, as did Riku, and the two looked up in suspence hoping that the assault had been enough to bring their friend back to the light.
Kairi released a breath as she felt herself tugged around and was shocked when she saw Riku's form fall backwards on the floor next to her.
It didn't take her long to realise what had happened, Dark Sora had clearly survived the magical assault and dove down to attack them again, Riku had saved her by quickly whipping her behind him so his body had taken the attack and sheilded her.
Kairi began to cry as blood ran from Riku's desperatly panting chest, and feeling determination and anger fill her heart she spun around and swung her Destiny's Embrace several times at the Shadow Sora, who was able to dodge most of her attacks until she flipped her Keyblade into a reverse grip and jabbed the Possesed Sora in It's chest, casting a point blank Waterga spell immediatly afterwards that sent It flying and slamming into the far wall of the room with such force that the room shook.
She then proceeded to point her Keyblade in the direction it had been blasted and unleashed a gigantic Firaga fireball that flung across the room like a cannonball crashing into the spot were Anti Sora was and exploding upon impact in a wave of fire.
As she expected It had mannaged to survive her attack and was already darting towards her. It melted into the ground a few moments later and made its way over.
Kairi thought fast and knowing she wouldn't be able to predict it's next move she grabbed Riku and Warped away just in time.
She reappeared in the air and cast a perfectly spherical Reflera barrier around her and placed Riku down. Much to her suprise he was already healing his own wounds with Cura whilst she decided to kneel down and help speed up his healing with her own magic.
"Thanks" He grunted as he stood up and flexed his muscles to destiffen himself.
"Are you alright now" Kairi asked concerned, her hand still glowing green in case.
"Yeah I'm fine. We have to find a way to stop him. If he gets out and into the tower, or worse, the town, his dark powers could corrupt everyone there and turn them all into Heartless" Riku said seriously, his eyes looking down trying to find the now vanished Anti Sora.
"I know Riku, but he's so powerful, even more powerful than Donald and Goofy's Anti Forms. He's so feral, and his speed is beyond anything I've ever seen before" She replied worryingly as she too scanned for It beneath them.
"We may have to use Drive Forms" Riku said looking at her with bright eyes and dipped brows, making her return the expression.
They formulated a battle plan and Kairi repeated it over and over again in her head before they were ready to descend. They nodded at each other before Kairi released the dome of hexagons around them and they fell to the floor, they landed and stood back to back circling around as they awaited the dark monster to strike.
The suspence made Kairi shudder as her eyes darted around desperatley for a flash of yellow. She was suddenly shocked into action when Riku called out her name.
She spun around and saw that It had launched Itself at Riku delivering a kick in mid air that Riku had blocked with his Way to the Dawn. As Anti Sora fell, Riku kicked out to the side striking the creature in the back. Kairi recated fast and whilst the Shadow Sora was shaking off the attack, She struck with her Destiny's Embrace several times, before casting Blizzard on Its arm to make it freeze up.
After this Kairi had struck It in the face with her Destiny's Embrace earning a slight screech of pain from the Heartless Sora as It fell backwards.
Before It could hit the floor however Riku had grabbed Its neck and thrusted his Keyblade through Its chest, so that black smoke was erupting out of the wounds.
Riku then proceeded to grab It in a headlock and grabbing the back of Its head with his previously Keyblade possesing hand and flipped Anti Sora over him slamming It headfirst into the ground with tremendous force.
Kairi proceeded to stamp her foot on the floor and as she did a pillar of stone erupted out of the ground beneath Anti Sora knocking It into the air.
Riku leapt after It pulling out of his Way to the Dawn and flipping Anti Sora over so It was facing the ceiling and delivered sevaral slashes to Its back, before stabbing It through the torso once more, and flipping them over so Riku was above It and he proceeded to stamp on Its chest and deliver a powerful punch to Its face seconds afterwards.
As Anti Sora plummeted to the ground, It showed signs of recovery so Riku responded by casting a powerful bolt of Thundaga that crashed into Anti Sora and crashed It into the ground.
Kairi had waited intently, finally deciding to attack. As Shadow Sora fell to the ground she used Stone to create and trap It in a massive stone box.
She then cast Blizzard so that several seven foot long icicles formed around the box and with a flick of her Keyblade impaled themselves through the stone box.
She hadn't finnished and not wasting any time she cast Quake so that a shock wave stormed across the arena so that the heavy walls of the box crumbled and collapsed upon its encased victim.
Kairi then relaxed herself whilst Riku did the rest. He was still in the air and fired a dark bolt from his hand so that it crashed into the rubble and then holding his Keyblade with both hands above his head. He roared as he slammed it down upon Anti Sora with so much force and power that bits of rubble were flung into the air and were scattered across the room.
Riku leapt several feet back and landed just as Kairi had run up to him.
The two leapt back a bit further just in case and waited for the dust to settle as they glared at the spot were they hoped they had defeated their possesed friend.
They both gasped as a foul force seemed to push against them and moments later, heard what sounded like a savage roar rip through the air and peirce their ears, chunks of rock sent flying as the Anti Sora emerged from the pile of rubble, revealing Itself to be the source of the noise.
This was the first time Kairi had ever seen an Anti Form display a mouth, aside from Riku's. It's mouth was a jagged, toothy opening.
Whilst finnishing It's roar and lifted Its head up so it was aimed at the ceiling and gathered a sphere of dark energy above Its mouth, pulling in the darkness from around It.
Kairi and Riku looked at each other in dismay, unsure what to do next. By the time they looked back the orb had already become several meters wide in height and diameter.
The now beastly 'Sora' lowered Its head the orb following it so it was facing Kairi and Riku and they could see several flurescent purple rings near the centre of the orb and a darker blue ball at the very centre.
They gasped as the dark power was released and stormed towards them tearing up the ground and burning the air as it did so.
Kairi erected a Reflaga dome just in time and saw that Riku had erected his Dark Sheild, that looks a lot like Reflaga but the glass like effect had a blue and purple hue.
Both of them grunted as they felt the force of the blast aginst their hands and soon began to weaken.
Kairi screamed in pain as she reached her limit and looked over to see that Riku had been forced to his knee's to keep the blast at bay.
Kairi wondered if the blast would ever end and could feel her hold on her barrier slipping and cracks appear amongst it. She heard Riku cry out and saw him blasted away and enveloped in the burst of darkness.
Soon she too fell to its immense power and her sheild shattered like glass, and she screamed in agony as the darkness enveloped her and she felt herself slam into something solid.
She was kept against the wall, The blast seemingly never ending and pain ripped through her body and made her choke up blood, she thought herself soon to be dead, until her eyes were hit by light and she flopped to the floor.
She desperatly heaved for breath and clutched her chest as she felt her skin burn. Somehow, and she had no idea how, she found the strength to push herself up and look around, she found the unconcious body of Riku a few feet away from her, his hand twitching slightly as his silver hair shone faintly through blood.
She looked around to search for the Anti Sora and quickly decided enough was enough. She called upon the power in her heart and felt new life and energy fill her as she entered her Wisdom form as regal blue light bathing the area.
She stood up with the worst of her wounds healed and proceeded to cast Cura on herself to reverse the rest of the damage.
Out of the corner of her unsuspecting blue eyes she saw the Anti Sora appear above Riku and was about to deliver a finnishing blow. She was able to Warp in front of the shadow crature and fire a point blank magic bullet into its shoulder.
The Anti Sora fell backwards and flashed away with a huge hole cut through Its shoulder that reformed and healed with darkness a few moments later.
She glared It down, this was no longer the friend she knew and had to defeat It to bring him, Sora, back into the light, She had just got him back and was not about to loose him again.
She raised her Fairy Harp which already had static jumping around at the tip and pointed it at Anti Sora a Thundara spell at the ready and she widened her eyes when Anti Sora appeared in front of her and punched her back into the wall.
She recovered just in time to see It go for the still unconcious Riku, Its claw outstretched and about to peirce his flesh and rapid fired a series of magic bullets at It before It could strike.
The possessed Sora went smashing into the floor and recovered in no time flat, appearing in front of a startled Kairi seconds later swiping Its calws.
She did a handless cartwheel out of dangers way, hopping, flipping and dancing out of the way of a series of attacks, she did a series of more acrobatic movements to dodge a few more slashes before doing a graceful spin uleashing several ribbons of air that sliced into the Anti Sora like blades.
The Anti Sora let out a slight growl as It staggered back wards and growled again after It was blasted by a Thunder spell. It darted forward at Kairi again, uleashing a series of slashes and kicks most of which she was able to dodge, however the onslught was endless and she could feel herself begining to weaken.
She was right and moments leater was hit in the face by a kick followed by a slash to her stomach and she whirled around creating a small tornado of flames as she did. The Anti Sora backed off and away from the attack, and much to Kairi's suprise was struck by a Keyblade an then punched away by a fist glowing red.
She turned her head to see Riku in his Valor form, his Way to the Dawn and re-summoned Metal Chocobo in his hands.
"Thank God you're okay" Kairi exclaimed as she ran over to and drapped an arm over him.
"We really need to end this, our bodies are to exhausted to continue doing this. If we carry on we'll both be too exhausted to carry on" He said hugging her back and turning to face a recovering Shadow Sora.
"So what's the plan?" Kairi asked breaking the hug and staring at him unsure how to beat the monster before them.
"We smash him down anyway we can and hope it's enough to wear him down and return him to normal" Riku stated rather loudly and ran towards the oncoming Hertless Sora.
Kairi gave a slight breath and nodded to herself before following Riku and she was there to witness the brutal battle between the two of them.
Using it's immense speed Anti Sora was able to land the first blow, slashing Riku across the chest and cause blood to come rushing out. Riku forced the feeling of pain away and delivered a bone shattering punch to its stomach before thrusting his Metal Chocobo through its shoulder and jamming his Way to the Dawn through its leg.
Following these attacks Riku proceeded to lean back and place his hands on the ground, locking 'Sora's' neck between his legs and heaved him over despite that It had sunk its claws into Riku's legs.
Once It was halfway over Riku let his body drop downwards were his weight was on most resulting in him lying face up to the ceiling and slamming the Anti Sora head first into the ground, whilst simoultaniously moving his feet into a position to snap It's neck as his head struck the solid floor.
Riku stood up, his muscles aching from using such an attack and pulled his Keyblades out of the seemingly defeated Sora of darkness, who was motionless for quite some time.
Riku none-the-less stood over and watching it wearily whilst Kairi waited with her Destiny's Embrace and Fairy Harp held at the ready.
Kairi blinked and she let out a small squeal of horror when she saw that the Shadow Sora had moved.
Riku was astonished too, as the Heartless version of his best friend was now facing him upside down, their eyes mere inches from each other and before Riku could think anymore the Anti Sora had latched both Its claws into Riku's shoulders and flipped him into the air, the claws still firmly hooked in and Riku was spun around and had several vicious slashes delivered to his back, before he was flung back around so he was below Anti Sora.
It pulled a claw out and held it in the air, a sphere of black power forming in Its palm which It then smashed into Riku who plummed to the floor as black vapour rose from his body.
Seconds later the Heartless Sora dove for Riku, another Sphere in hand, one that surely would have killed him. Kairi decided she had to step in and grasping both Keyblades like guns she launched a barrage of magic bullets at the descending black form, which battered and rammed It away from Riku and Kairi was able to summon a pillar of fire which she was able to blast 'Sora' into.
Much sooner than she had anticipated, It had leapt out of the pillar seemingly unscathed and darted towards her. She was startled at first but quickly raised a Keyblade and prepared a Blizzard spell.
They never met however as Riku had risen at the last minute and kicked the Anti Sora across the room and smashing into a wall.
He turned to face Kairi but spun back round a second later to elbow the lunging Shadow Sora in the face, he extended his arm out and spun around slashing across It's head leaving a deep gash, before he bought his other Keyblade around slashing It across It's torso.
As 'Sora' staggered backwards he stepped forward raising both Keyblades above his head, bringing his Way to the Dawn down first so its teeth carved a deep wound into Its shoulder and was followed moments later by his Metal Chocobo which struck at an angle near It's neck.
Anti Sora gave a howl of pain as It staggered away and crouched to the floor only for Its face to be met by Riku's foot and was flung across the room crashing into a wall yet again, though this time Riku's Metal Chocobo followed and pinned It to the wall.
In a flash Riku was in front of It and delivered several kicks before slashing away causing It to roar in pain.
Kairi had begun running after them but stopped when a cloud of seemingly black smoke enveloped the area around Riku and Anti Sora, and Kairi stood staring with wide eyes as she heard several clangs and grunts of pain from Riku, and shuddered in shock when she heard a clang and then Riku's Way to the Dawn come spinning out of the cloud a second later and clatter on the ground.
She looked back in time to see the a red and silver blur of Riku fly out of the cloud and crash into the ceiling with a giant thud before he plummeted to the floor.
Kairi looked back at the cloud and saw that Anti Sora was inhaling it back into It's body.
It cocked its head to the side and in a sudden suprise movement shoved Its head forward and opened Its jagged mouth and screeched, black rings of sound erupted from Its mouth and shattered whatever got in their way.
Kairi had whipped up a Refelera barrier which took the force of the blast, however the sound still rang through and reverberated around the inside of her sheild, making her clutch her ears in pain as it peirced them and the ghastly sound rang through her skull.
She fell back in alarm when the black figure of Shadow Sora landed on her sheild, its claws trying to peirce them and break through, Kairi smiled to herself though and lowered her sheild sending out a shockwave as light as she did so, knocking It back.
She followed up by casting Blizzard and encasing It in ice, she then proceeded to cast Stone so several spikes shot up out of the ground at an angle and punctured the ice and impaled the trapped monster.
Black spikes of shadow erupted out of from Anti Sora though, shattering the ice and destroying the ice spikes, and began to run at her on all fours.
Kairi had thought ahead and cast Stopra upon her charging target, and proceeded to cast Thundaga, immediatley afterwards she cast Stopga on the descending bolt of lightning so it was falling incredibly slowly.
She then cast Reflaga, with her Destiny's Embrace, around her almost frozen target and threw it up into the air as she released her Stopga's hold on the lighting bolt which fell and struck a mere moment before the Reflaga barrier had formed at the top.
Kairi looked on in hope as she saw the lightning fill the dome in a bright yellowish-electric blue light, and threw her Fairy Harp into the air, with both hands now free she clapped them together so that her Reflaga barrier imploded and the burst of light burst inwards, and she caught her descending Fairy Harp moments later which she held out in front of her and traced two fingers along its full length from teeth to handle as it bagan to glow a white light, and as the light from her Reflaga faded she tossed her Fairy Harp at the faint outline of Anti Sora and an even bigger explosion of light erupted upon impact.
She caught her Destiny's Embrace and launched a massive pump of water from it's tip as her Fairy Harp reappeared in her other hand seconds later.
She stared on where her series of spells had just struck and waited to see the result, she wasn't waiting for long though as she noticed a shadow appear underneath her and she jumped back to avoid a giant ten foot claw erupt out of the pool. Her eyes widened in astonishment when the claw oppened up and out of its palm leapt Anti Sora, which stabbed Its claws into Kairi's chest, drawing blood, and rolled onto Its back so Kairi was above It and then kicked up against her so she went flying upwards.
As she flipped through the air she saw the Anti Sora flip back onto its feet and jump up at her grasping her around her neck and spinning her around several time before letting go and smashing her into the ground.
Kairi gagged and squealed as she felt ribs crack and blood gush out of her mouth and run down her chin, her Fairy Harp lay beneath her as her body had crashed on and shattered the bones in her arm.
She stared up to see 'Sora' land away from her a few moments later, Its head tilted in intruige once again.
With her free hand, she erected a stone box around herself and cast Curaga on her broken bones, so that her broken arm was realtively fixed and internal damage that she had not felt before had now healed up.
She was able to stand with only minor miscomfort, some of her ribs were still cracked though and she knew she wouldn't be able to maneuver very quickly with them like that but she didn't have time to heal them, she had to get back in the fight before Anti Sora went for Riku again.
She magically whipped her Keyblades around her so that they sliced each wall of the 'box' into four peices and she opened them up so that they formed behind her like a peacock tail. She was suprised to see the Shadow Sora still there before her and, not wasting time, she flicked her Keyblades so that the slates of stone levitated from behing her back and flung towards Anti Sora.
The feral being seemingly foresaw this and was able to slice through several slates like butter whilst smashing through others with kicks, and sometimes merely hopping out of the way of others all the whilst not really moving from the spot It stood on.
Kairi bought around the stone 'ceiling' of the box which was still in one peice and with one swing of her Keyblade sent it hurtling towards Anti Sora.
As Kairi had expected It had dodged the assault and leapt above the slate of rock, and then went on to slash downwards with its claws and slice the slate into ten peices.
As It landed It's feet melted into a pool of darkness and extended at a rapid pace towards Kairi and some of the shadow extended out of the ground like spikes and extended as they got nearer and were moving too soon for Kairi to evade.
Not knowing what to do she crossed her Keyblades over in front of her whilst she turned her head and closed her eyes waiting for the multiple spikes to impale her.
She felt something warm and wet hit her cheek but never the sharp sting of the spikes through her flesh. She opened her eyes were she saw that Riku had appeared in fornt of her, the spikes punctured through his skin and his blood had splashed and landed on her.
She dashed around him and destroyed the spikes with fire magic whilst making the extended shadow receed with a light from her Destiny's Embrace.
She caught a panting Riku, who drapped an arm over her shoulder as she held him up and began to cure his injuries.
Both of them looked up at the Anti Sora which was crounching down and observing Its hands and touching Its own face.
With a jolt It stood upright and leaned Its head back and grasped the sides of its head whilst it squirmed on the spot.
The two stared on as It seemingly pulled the darkness back off of its face and Its body form change, becoming more lean and muscular whilst red vein like patterns emmerged on its clothing, outlining the muscles of the torso and running down the legs.
For a moment the two thought they'd bought Sora back but were terrified when they saw a shape try to form in one of its hands a long form, like that of a Keyblade. However it disipatted as Shadow Sora ripped a chunk of darkness off of Its face and Kairi and Riku could see his skin again.
Anti Sora lowered Its head very slowly, revealing a face, a young looking face that was almost completely identical to Sora's apart from three things; His hair, whilst in the same style, was jet black, had golden yellow eyes, and his skin was far paler, almost white.
He smiled eerily at them whilst they looked on in horror, and both were scared even more when It... He? Opened his mouth to speak. At first there was nothing and Kairi let Riku go as his wounds had healed and he was able to support himself, but very soon noises emerged.
"V..V.. Van... Ven... Mast..Xe.. Van..." It began before its eyes widened and darkness clamped around and covered his face once more.
Kairi and Riku looked at each other in confusion as to what It had tried to say and shook it off, charging towards Anti Sora whilst It was still disorientated.
Riku in a flash of Scarlet, had dashed past it slicing both blades across and making it fall to its knees before he spun around and impaled it through its chest stabing it through various parts of its body with his free Keyblade.
"Riku get back!" Kairi ordered and as soon as he was clear she used what must have been the last of her strength in this final assault, She used great a great amount of power whipping up a Tornado spell that lifted Anti Sora of its feet and went spiralling around the vortex, She proceeded to levitate stone chunks of the arena and toss them into the Tornado before summoning boulders of ice and tossing them is as well so that they would slam and crash into It.
She finnished by casting a series of Thundara bolts down into the vortex so that she had blended the elements of air, ice, earth and lightning into one final assault.
Riku appeared and gave her a nod before darting of and leaping into the Tornado. Kairi closed her eyes as she 'felt' every part of her spell and with her force of will was able to maneuver and manipulate the chunks of stone and ice to Riku's adavntage.
She opened one eyes and through the whipping winds saw Riku bounding from rock to ice to rock slicing at the spiraling and turning Anti Sora before It could react.
Riku got faster and faster until each strike looked like a scarlet line, appearing for a moment then vanishing again, until he ended it by appearing directly above Anti Sora and slamming both staticly charged Keyblades down simultaniously upon It creating a shockwave that disrupted and ended the series of spells Kairi had cast.
She fell to the floor facing down whilst using her Destiny's Embrace to support herself, and was suprised that she was still conscious with sweat dripping down her face as her eyes felt heavy.
She was startled when she heard a thud next to her and looked up to see a panting Riku.
"You think that did it?" Kairi panted, looking at the slowly fading winds of the tornado and the boulders of ice and stone drop to the floor.
"I dunno.. but when I stabbed him.. my Keyblade's started to absorb the darkness around.. his body which gives me.. an idea" He stated whilst gasping for breath.
"Whats that then?" Kairi said looking back down at the floor for even holding her head up was too much effort now.
"If I stab him again and absorb as much of his darkness as I can and then you use the pure light of Holy, I think we can cleanse him and eradicate the darkne-ooft-!" He grunted and Kairi saw him go flying across the room and skidding into the ground.
She forced herself, despite how much it ached, to move in time and dodge a stone crunching kick from Anti Sora, whose movements seemed slower and sloppy.
At least one good thing had come from that final assault; It had been despeartly weakened and was now using the last of Its dark powers to try and defeat them, however they themselves were now to weak to fight back.
Again she flipped back in time to evade another attack and flipped through the air to make a distance.
She felt an ache though as she landed and felt her ribs hurt and the power of her Wisdom form start to slip away, if she didn't strike now there would be no hope and doing the best she could launched a Blizzard spell, even doing that was too exhausting and she fell to the floor.
The Anti Sora raised its claw, with bits of darkness now seemingly melting of it and down its arm and was ready to deliver the final strike.
It never did and Kairi heard it screech in pain as Riku impaled it with his Way to the Dawn whilst his Metal Chocobo was held at its chest.
"Now Kairi whilst my Keyblades taking the darkness off of him" he called down to her.
She pushed herself up despite the incredible pain and raised her Destiny's Embrace and pointed it at the captive Anti Sora.
"Holy" She mummbled with a breath and the brilliant white light burst forth from her Keyblade and enveloped Anti Sora in its brilliant glow, Riku still behind It.
She held the blast as long as she could as the roar of the creature rang through the air and despite that her hand felt like it would fall off and her nerves felt like they were on fire she kept it going until the roar had faded, she had to bring Sora back, she just had to endure this pain and he'd be back in the light, with her.
Her hand flopped to her side and both her Keyblades vanished and blue light enveloped her once again, reverting her cloths to their usual colours and loosing the frilly cloth around her knees. She fell to the floor and was caught by Riku who had also reverted back to his normal form.
"We did it" he muttered as he held an Elixier up to Kairi's dry and bloodied lips, lifting her head to help her drink it.
She drank it down and felt some of her stregth return as she gulped down the golden liquid, pushing it away when she had the strength to support herself at least and told Riku to drink the rest.
As he did she stood up and looked out across the room, it was a complete mess, the room had been dented and battered, the arena practically non-existent and the golden memorial of Phil had several dents upon it.
She looked around and noticed a semi naked Sora lying in a foetal position, his caramel brown hair and tan skin were back, the way they should be, his tattered cloths exposing his body and as Kairi staggered towards him she pulled out a large peice cloth from the bag on her waist and placed it over him.
She began to cry at the sight of him beneath her, seemingly asleep, so vulnerable and so different to his sweet, usual self compared to the monster they had just had to fight. Riku appeared behind her and pulled her into a one armed hug and she cried briefly into his shoulder.
"What happened?" She asked after several moments through her sobs, as she looked down on him again.
"I used my Keyblades to absorb the darkness from him, but it began to enter my body and would have bought 'him' out if I'd continued, thats why I let your Holy spell hit me, not only to eradicate the darkness around him, but destroy the darkness I was absorbing as well, instead of it festering and building up inside me" he explained as he rubbed her arm to comfort her.
"Look at him, I can't even begin to imagine what he must have felt, to be taken over by so much dark power" Kairi said whipeing her tears away.
"We have him back now, and we can finally put him to bed" Riku tried to comfort her.
"Oh My! What on earth happen..." They heard a high pitched and worried voice behind them say and turned to see the figure of King Mickey behind them, with Master Yen Sid, Lightning, Hercules and Merlin behind him.
They all met up with Sora in Riku's arms, Hercules took Sora from him and with Lightning took him down to the hospital wing.
Kairi stared on as Sora was taken out of the room, worrying for him and was only bought back to reality after Yen Sid had transported the five of them to his office.
His room was one Kairi had been in only a few times, but it stayed the same none the less, a perfectly circular room with a pale cream carpet and golden brown walls with various stuffed bookshelves and cabinets around the room.
At The centre of the room was a long rectangular wooden table with a variety of books and ancient looking objects on it and at the table in a tall wooden chair, with his usual stern expression was Yen Sid, and behind him Kairi could see out of his star and moon shaped windows, the faint glow of Traverse Town and the stars of the night sky.
Mickey stood against the wall whilst Merlin disapeared into a room to Yen Sids right.
"So tell me exactly what happened" Yen Sid said calmly staring at both Kairi and Riku in a way that made Kairi gulp nervously. She didn't know were to begin and couldn't look Yen Sid or even King Mickey directly in the eyes.
Fortunatley Riku had stepped in. He explained about all the training they'd done about how Sora had mastered and acomplished his Valor and Wisdom forms, then how he'd suddenly morphed and twisted into his Anti Form, and had brutally battled them placing them near death many times, How the boy who looked like Sora had emerged and what he had uttered.
Kairi, who had hardly spoken at all at this point, had noticed a sudden shift in both King Mickey and Master Yen Sids posture with the mention of the boys appearence and she immediatley knew something wasn't right.
Riku finnished explaining how he had absorbed the darkness from him and Kairi had expelled it with a Holy spell that was empowered by the pure light of her Heart.
They finished and were bought warm cups of tea and slices of bread to eat and four chairs were whipped up for them to sit on by Merlin.
They went over the events once more, and discussed in depth the power of Sora's Anti Form before Yen Sid came to a final conclusion.
"Hmmm all I can say is that it's miraculous that Sora didn't enter his Anti Form sooner, to have sucessfully transformed into Valor and Wisdom form that many times and not force the dark reserves of his Heart to the surface shows he has great potential for them" He explained as he stroked his chin and was looking through a book.
"But why was it so powerful? I mean, Sora does have incredible power both at his disposal and locked away, but for it to have taken two accomplished Keyblade weilders in Wisdom and Valor form to take 'im down in Anti Form, which uses no strategy of intelligence in battle, just don't seem right" Mickey squeaked reflecting his Masters pose.
"I agree, both Donald and Goofy's Anti Forms were particuarly powerful, but nothing we couldn't subdue or outwhit with a combination of spells and strikes" Riku said leaning back in his chair and looking up at the ceiling of the room.
"It does pose quite a troublesome dilema. Sora does have great potential and as Riku and Kairi explained can enter his drive forms many times without his darkness emerging, but for it to be beyond the usual power scale.. its baffleing" Merlin thought with a quizzical look, as he stroked his beard.
"Well cosidering the sheer amount of darkness that was used in your battle I'm hoping he won't ever enter an Anti Form that volatile again" Yen Sid looking up from his book and writing something down on a peice of paper.
After sitting silently and listening to the discussion Kairi finally cleared her throat and asked the question that had been plauging her mind the most.
"What's going to happen now?" She asked timidly her eyes wide with sorrow as she looked around the room. Master Yen Sid looked at her for a moment and then gave her a warm smile.
"Nothing bad I promise you. For now he will rest for a few days before he continues his Drive Form training.." Every one whipped their heads around at this and looked at each other nervously.
"Although from now on King Mickey will be there with you to observe him and help conrtol him, just in case it happens again, although I severly doubt it will" Yen Sid finnished and stood up and walked to one of his windows.
Kairi gave out an internal sigh of release and looked down to blink away a tear, as a huge weight of releif was lifted of her shoulders.
"Go now. Rest. Regain your strength. Merlin would you be so kind as to take them down to the Medical Ward?" Yen Sid asked.
"Yes of course Yen Sid. Come now, we need to get you checked out" Merlin said standing up and whipping the chairs away with his wand.
"Mickey I would like to speak to you concerning Sora's training as well as... Other matters" Yen Sid said as he turned to face his pupil.
Kairi looked over at Riku with an anxious expression and he mirrored it back to her.
They could say no more as they arrived and were ushered of to seperate beds were they were scanned, healed and fed until they were ready for sleep.
The last thing Kairi thought of as sleep took her was Sora smiling at her, telling her everything will be okay...
Aaaaand Ta-Daaaa! Hope you guys enjoyed this chapter and the action was exciting and awesome, I based a lot of the Anti Sora's movements and attacks on Demon Fox Naruto, as it seemed to fit the feral nature of the Anti form that I wanted to create, and I hope you all noticed the special cameo in between their fight ;)
I apologise if this chapter got confusing, but I didn't want to keep writing Shadow Sora or Anti Sora ect. so I refered to Anti Sora as= 'It' to save time :p
Anywayses please R&R all thoughts and opinions welcome and I hope you keep reading, Peace.
Next Time: The Aftermath: Kairi and Riku visit Sora, whilst his training continues, and Kairi and Riku are assigned new missions.
