Chapter 14: Chris Talonflight: Friendship

We clashed; her Lurebreaker against my Soul Eater. Ashley pushed me back a few feet, before I did a back flip behind me. I landed, and fired a weak bolt of dark energy at her. She dodged it, and began firing blasts at me from his keyblade. I used the darkness to propel me through midair in a gliding move. Then I called on Nudge to throw me towards Ashley. My ally did as required, as well as conjuring a dark shield around me when I landed behind Ashley. Ashley was distracted with fending off Nudge, and I took the opportunity to kick her down. However, Ashley then summoned a circle of light around her, knocking Nudge into a wall, where he became entangled in a pile of chairs. I then engaged her in a slashing duel for a few moments. Then, when I again locked blades with her, I summoned a storm of black electricity. The storm slammed into Ashley, sending her flying.

"Not a scratch!"

Ashley had deflected the brunt of the attack with a storm of meteors! I growled. She learns fast, when she actually STARTS learning. She didn't practice at all until we started this trip; unlike me, who started earlier back in Traverse Town. Nudge ran up to me and hopped on my shoulders. He swayed for a moment, and then seemed to fuse with me, putting my into my dark form. I summoned the second Soul-Eater, and faced off with Ashley again. Ashley charged me. Bad move. I deflected her keyblade with my two Soul Eaters. I launched myself into a karate kick, which missed, but I used my momentum to rebound off the wall and slam into the ground, creating a dark shockwave. The shockwave slammed into Ashley, who recovered quickly, and fired a blast at me with her keyblade, knocking me from my feet. I rolled, and came up on Ashley's left. I then sank into the ground, like a shadow heartless, and dashed around Ashley. The wall of darkness I inscribed around her stayed there after I surfaced. Then I made the trap close in on her. However, when the wall exploded, Ashley stood there, having used a cure Materia at the last second. In anger, I slammed my swords together, and called on the power of Last Chaos, the dark keyblade. I flew at her. She tried to block my strike, but my animal strength broke his block, and pushed her back. She dodged and ran. I pursued. I had a strange sense of déjà vu. I made a fist, and Ashley was entrapped in a fist of darkness.

"Give up?" I asked, putting Last Chaos to her throat. It was the first time I had gone darkness form since Traverse Town, and I didn't enjoy it. But I really REALLY wanted to win the tournament!

"… Yeah." She smiled at me. "Nice blindfold."

I dropped the dark hand, and we fell to the ground, laughing. It was strange, in the middle of an arena, to burst out laughing. Then I allowed my dark form to fall away from me.

Wow… I never thought I would beat her… she's the keyblade mistress after all. But then, she doesn't have full use of her powers yet. She's only just begun to tap into her abilities, preferring to rely on her physical skills, while I began using my powers from the start, with Nudge's guidance. He sure is smart. Sometimes I wish he was human, though…

Dismissing thoughts from my mind, I went to the designated rest stop. Frostmourne was there, getting ready for his next match: Cloud. Cloud hadn't lost a single match yet, while I had lost one. Frostmourne hadn't lost any. The rules of the tourney were that if you gained two losses you were out, until you reached the finals, which we had just entered, during which one loss would get you kicked. It was down to me, Cloud, and Frostmourne.

"Hey!" I said to Frostmourne. He merely turned and walked off.

"What's his problem?" I muttered.

(Cue song "Points of Authority" by Linkin Park)

Cloud and Frostmourne faced off. Frostmourne flicked his wrists, and the two metal wings that ran along his arms flipped up into his hands, like a pair of short swords. Cloud merely lifted his huge sword. David swung his fist, and it bounced off Cloud's sword. Cloud then ran forwards. His swing seemed to cleave Frostmourne, but Frostmourne wasn't there. Frostmourne was behind him, flipping down his wing-swords back into punching position. He began punching Cloud in the face, several hits, too close in for Cloud's sword to be of much use. Frostmourne managed to kick Cloud after the punch combo before Cloud swatted him away with the Buster Sword. Frostmourne landed on his feet, and they faced off again. Frostmourne went for a sliding kick to the feet, which Cloud easily jumped over. While Cloud was turning around, Frostmourne was already there, and he threw Cloud to the edge of the arena. Frostmourne rebounded off the wall and kicked Cloud in the face several times, before Cloud flung him away with a single strike again.

Man, Frostmourne is fast! I thought frantically. So far, Cloud was taking a tremendous beating, although his massive swings had to be hurting Frostmourne as well. How can I take someone that fast?

Cloud launched into a series of slashing combos, which Frostmourne had trouble deflecting because of the massive size and weight of his weapon. However, once the combo ended, Frostmourne leaped on top of Cloud, driving him to the floor, and pushed off of Cloud, slamming him into the floor while Frostmourne used the push to land safely. However, Cloud slashed a weak swing with his sword, which sent Frostmourne flying towards a wall. I thought that Frostmourne would splatter like an egg on the wall, but he landed, impossibly, and rebounded off the wall to slam an unsuspecting Cloud into the ground, drag him forwards, throw him into the air, and send his flying into a pile of jars with a blast from what I suspected was a stun blaster.

Frostmourne stood there, alone on the field. There were a few moments of silence, as the crowds took in the insane violence. I too, thought that Frostmourne had gone too far.

Then I heard a crumbling sound, and Cloud emerged from the pile, bloodied and battered, but still defiant. He sent a huge piece of rubble flying towards Frostmourne, which Frostmourne deflected, but Cloud was already next to him, and Cloud's slash connected, wounding Frostmourne severely in the the shoulder. I also heard several bones break. Frostmourne stood up, equally grim, injured, and defiant. It was a wonder that either of them could stand.

"Why won't you give up?" Frostmourne and Cloud growled at the same time. Their answers were in unison.

"Because I'm fighting FOR something!" they both screamed.

Out of nowhere, a huge paw came slamming down on each of them. They fell, both unconscious. I looked up, shocked, and remembered what was to happen at this point in the game.

Cerberus, the four-headed watchdog of the underworld, had attacked.

Hercules ran up. "Get out of here!" he yelled at me and the rest of my group. We complied, running forwards, but not towards the exit. Instead, Donald and Goofy grabbed Frostmourne and Cloud and carried them out, while Hercules, Ashley, and I faced the menace.

"One head each…" I said to Hercules. "Fitting…" I nodded at Nudge, and we ran forwards.

"Let's make this easy." Ashley winked at me as she fired a stream of meteors at her targeted head. I began unleashing blasts of dark energy at the head that I had targeted, while Hercules began charging at his target.

I saw a blur in the head that Nudge had taken on, and I realized that Nudge was inside the monster. He had leapt on the back of Cerberus, and used the technique where you could sink into the ground, but instead he had sunk into Cerberus. Nudge was perfectly safe, but it caused Cerberus tremendous pain. I aided Nudge by encasing each of Cerberus's limbs, as well as his neck, in bands of darkness and lifted. It was the hardest thing I had done up to that point. However, although it nearly killed me, I managed to keep Cerberus from moving. While I had restrained Cerberus, Hercules had been moving in. He was about to stab Cerberus, when Nudge leaped out of the monster, and was accidentally hit by Hercules.

"Nudge!" I yelled!" dropping the restraining field, I ran to my little friend, who was lying motionless on the ground.

"Oh gods…" Hercules breathed. "I'm… Chris, I'm so sorry…"

"Shut up and kill the damn dog!" I cursed. Ashley and he complied, stabbing the monster in the heart, killing it effectively, and banishing it back to its dark grave in the underworld.

I cradled the head of my friend in my lap. "Come on…" I took out the Cura Materia from my pocket, and rolled it on the small Shadow's wound. "Come on… You can't… you can't die…"

Nudge's eyes opened, and stared painfully. He was alive: barely.

"Come on!" I yelled. I picked up my little friend and ran for the others. "To the Gummi Ship! We've got to get him to Merlin and Aerith!"

"But we can't!" Donald protested. "We've go to get to Neverland and lock this keyhole!"

"I don't care!" I yelled. "Tell you what: YOU guys stay here, find the keyhole, and fix up matters between Frostmourne and Cloud, and work on Neverland; I'M taking Nudge, my FRIEND, to Traverse Town where he can get HELP!" With those angry retorts, I picked up Nudge, created a portal of darkness, ignored my friends protests, and ran through out into the first district.

I burst in through the doors of the Accessory Shop…

"Anyone Here?!"

It was empty.

"NO!" I yelled. I lay Nudge down on a table, arranging his limbs in what I hoped were a comfortable position. I had come to really like the lovable little heartless who was not a heartless, and I couldn't imagine going through the worlds any more without his support. I loved the little guy. He was like the little brother/puppy I had never had. Although powerful, his personality was that of a little child, curious, happy, lovable, and kind, even if a bit rowdy some times.

Please… I spoke to nothing. Please don't let Nudge die…

Materia?

Yuffie's voice ran through my head. Throughout all of my journeys I had missed Yuffie, and for that reason I had refrained from turning the Materia she had given me into anything. Now I had an idea.

I created a dark portal to what I hoped was the world of Yen Sid. I had noticed long ago that Yen Sid was Disney backwards. Whatever. All that I knew was that he was the most powerful magician in every single world, more powerful then even the King.

I stepped through the portal, and found myself in utter blackness.

The Void! I had accidentally sent myself to the place in Gummi Space that everyone dreaded: the Void. I tried to remember what Frostmourne had once told me of it. "It's a strange area where there is simply nothing. Its worse even then the World of Darkness, 'cuz in the Void nothing at all exists, not even darkness. It's merely... nothing."

Well this sucks. I thought, as I summoned a portal of darkness, and disappeared from that terrible place. However, right before I entered the portal, I thought I saw Rodney, lying down, gripping his weapons, dressed in a gray robe. It's just an illusion! I thought. However, he disappeared as I went through the portal.

This time, I found myself in a large castle, on a huge staircase. I sprinted upwards, until I reached the top, then I rammed open the twin doors, and fall on my knees before the old wizard.

"Please!" I begged in a quiet voice. "I will do anything, pay any price, if only you will just give this Materia the power of your strongest healing spell!"

"Why in the world would you need the strongest healing spell?" The Wizard asked sternly.

"Because without it my best friend in all the worlds will die!" I sobbed. "And I cannot let him die!"

"Who is this friend?" he asked inexorably.

"He is a Shadow Heartless. His name is Nudge."

"And why would you seek to heal a Heartless?"

"Because he saved my life and the life of my friends when our world was overtaken by darkness!"

"Ahh, a Tame Heartless. I have heard of them." Yen Sid muttered. "You have much to learn, young one, and your wish is substantial, but I cannot give you what you ask freely. You must earn it!" he picked up his wand. "Let us discover: how strong is your heart!"

Epic Cloud vs. Frostmourne fight! And Nudge is wounded! Can Chris get the spell in time? Review!