Chapter 21

As Kira exited Yen Sid's office, she thought long and hard about the speech he had given her about her destiny. She was terrified of the path she had to walk now. It put her friends and family into danger beyond any of their dreams. She could die a painful death by a number of enemies. She should just turn her back to it and never look back again.

But, there were people depending on her to save two universes. She was the other half of a true hero. Sora would never let her live it down if she ran away now. And then there was Luna. She pulled out her cresent moon hairpin. She had to save Luna from the darkness. She would be the worst best friend ever if she didn't. She held the pion close to her heart and muttere, "I'm coming for you, moonglow."

She quickly placed it back in her pocket and started running down the stairs. Shadows appeared all along the stairway, but she made quick work of them. As she approached the portal to the Star Room, she tripped on her own feet and tumbled down the stairs into the portal.

"Damn it!" Kira yelled as she picked herself off the floor. Pain shot up from her left ankle all the way up her leg. She felt the ankle and nearly cried from barely touching it. She sprained it pretty badly. But, she had no time to worry about that. Three Shadows and two unknown Heartless surrounded her. The unknown Heartless had a much more refined appearance than Shadows, appearing as a noble knight-type warrior at first glance. A closer examination revealed thet were just as beastly as the other Heartless. Their muscular forms were clad in a bluish-black body suit bearing the Heartless emblem and purple inverted emblems trimmed in gold on the knees. They wore black, silver trimmed shoes that end in spiral toes, silver wristbands, and a silver knight's helm decorated with two angular, eye-like spirals on the front and a yellow stripe at the base of the curled silver plume. It's true Heartless behavior came out on a close examination of their fierce blue and red-tipped claws, and their shadowed faces with bright yellow eyes and toothy maw.

Sora's voice spoke into her head, "Those are Soldiers! Be careful!"

She smiled hearing that joyous voice. "Are you all right!"

But, she heard no reply. Worry instantly came over Kira. It quickly turned into anger. She used that emotion to rip apart her enemies. Poor creatures didn't stand a chance against a rage filled teenage girl whose sort of boyfriend could be in horrible danger.

She limped out of the room and onto the next staircase. No Shadows were trying to attack her, which was odd. They usually swarmed her like bees. She stratched off the dried blood on her arms from the glass cuts. Her good foot stepped on something wet and she slipped. "What's with me falling today!" she yelled. Her hand was in the liquid she fell on and examined it. She gasped seeing bright red blood dripping off her slender fingers. She knew it belonged to Sora. He was in major trouble.

When she entered the Moon Room, no Heartless appeare to attack her. Where were they? She exited the room to the final stairway in the tower. A small trail of blood led down the stairs. She ran down them, despite the pain in her ankle. Sora needed her and she wasn't going to let him down.

When she finally reached the main room, fear entered her body. There was Sora, laying on the ground bleeding from multiple wounds. Shadows and Soldiers were slowly deavouring his flesh. Tears welled up in her eyes and she unleashed her fury. Heartless were defeated left and right until there was no one left but her and Sora. She ran over to his side and held him close. His eyes fluttered open and sighed. "You're already becoming a hero."

She smiled through her tears. "What happened to you?"

"I was heading up the stairs when that Alexander creep showed up. He wanted to stop me from meeting you. We started fighting and I was winning. Suddenly, he summoned some dude with a red cloak and guns and they ganged up on me. I didn't stand a chance. They defeated me and got all the Heartless in the tower to eat my heart, then disappeared. You saved me. Thank you."

She hugged him tightly. "I'm just glad you're safe."

The floor shook under them. Something was coming and it was huge. She turned her head and screamed. A massive, quadrupedal Heartless was behind them. Its body was predominantly lilac in color, but its back and all four of its legs were violet. Each of the Behemoth's legs had two toes with black claws. It had two large, curved tusks sprouting from its lower jaw that were white on their upper half and lilac on their lower half. The Behemoth's conical, black horn was on its forehead. Like most other Heartless, it had yellow eyes and a jagged maw. Its Heartless emblem was on its chest.

Sora slowly stood up and summoned his Kingdom Key. Kira got in front of him. "You're in no condition to fight! I can handle this on my own."

"No! I'm going to help you. I owe you that much. Besides, Behemoth Heartless are hard to defeat alone." He kissed her lightly before getting into battle position. "I'll distract it down here. It's weakness is it's horn. Climb up it's back and whack it a few good times. Got it?"

She was still blushing from the kiss and simply nodded. She circled the Behemoth and barely hopped up on it's leg. As she began climbing, balls of energy rained down from the sky. Thank God for her ballet training or else she wouldn't have been able to dodge them in her current position. She finally made it onto it's back. She fell to her knees immediately. Her ankle couldn't take it any more pressure. She crawled to the horn and began smacking the horn with her Keyblade. After a few hits, the Behemoth fell on its knees. She continued hitting it, knowing this battle wasn't over yet.

It quickly rose back up and it shocked her with Thundaga. Her body went numb. Her muscles wouldn't move. She began to slip off the Behemoth but regained enough movement to hook her Keyblade around the horn. She climbed back up and locked her arms around the horn as the Behemoth leaped into the air. When it landed, one of his feet crushed Sora under it. He screamed and writhed in pain. Kira yelled, "Leave him alone, you fat Barney wannabe!" She gave a final stab to the horn and the Behemoth died.

She carefully landed on her feet and ran to Sora's side. He was unconscious and blood gushed from his mouth. Loud sobs escaped her body as she held him close. A figure appeared beside them. Kira recongized it to be Alexander. She let Sora down and lunged at Alexander. "You did this to him, you bastard!"

He blocked the attack with his Keyblade. "Your weak Kingdom Key stands no chance against my Bond of Flame. You're been warned. Stop now if you want to live." He disappeared into a portal of darkness as Kira collapsed to her knees. What was going to happen now?