Chapter 21

(Swinging at Shadows)

While it had been pure instinct that had kept her from harm on that first strike, Kaiyou's mind took over after that, and upon landing with one foot, she threw her weight into a spin that slammed the end of her Keyblade into the face of a Heartless that had just burst up from a bubbling black pit. These weren't like the little cricket Heartless in Twilight Town, these were larger and had longer antennae and sharper claws.

While the idea of a game of Compare and Contrast the Heartless seemed amusing, it was best left for a time when Kaiyou had, well, more time on her hands. At the moment, she was dodging back from a retaliation strike from the Heartless she'd hit. Dodging back another step, Kaiyou lifted her sword up to block the next strike, then, while the Heartless was pulling its arm back to slash its claws at her again, Kaiyou stepped forward into the opening, closing well within its reach, but also bracing her Keyblade with her weight as she drove the blade through the Heartless's chest.

While the tactic successfully killed the one Heartless, two more leapt out of the shadows at Kaiyou's back while she was distracted.

"Thunder!"

Completely blinded by the blast, Kaiyou flailed with her blade, "You Stupid mage!" she shouted, "You hit ME with that!"

"Sorry!" the mage called back.

"Aros! Behind you!" Dagger called, and blinking blue dots from her eyes, Kaiyou swung her blade around one-handed, and managed to get a glancing blow off whatever was behind her. Squinting around her Blue-Dot-Special, Kaiyou leapt at a shadow that had turned towards the group of four that were huddling against Emily's tombstone as if a dead little girl could save them.

'Maybe I AM dead?' the thought occurred to Kaiyou as she hit the Heartless dead-center in the back and turned it to black smoke, 'The last I remember of my world was the train exploding, after all.'

'Kaiyou! Pay attention to the BATTLE!' Umi snarled.

Irritated at her psychotic Voice and the mage, Kaiyou spun away to find her next unfortunate target. Still half-blinded, she saw her Idiot mage lifting his hands, "Blizzard!" he shouted, pointing his hands towards the closest Heartless to him- and still managed to miss. "Aww! I wish I had a gun!" he complained, "This magic stuff stinks."

"Protect!" Dagger shouted, throwing her own spell towards the group of natives. In a flash of light, a shell formed over them. "Shell!" she cast directly afterwards and the shield glowed softly.

Hoping that the shields would work, Kaiyou turned her attention back towards the battle as her target turned towards her. Leaping up, she chopped downwards in an overhead swing that knocked the Heartless backwards. Following that, she stepped forward and slashed its chest, making it dissipate. "Aros-" the Idiot mage started, then just cast, "Blizzard!" this time, aiming her direction.

Furious, Kaiyou let the spell hit her- seeing as how she didn't have much of a chance to dodge it. Hitting the reflection shield her clothes cast automatically, the spell split, washing out from her in a wave of frost. Turning, Kaiyou slashed the briefly frozen Heartless that had been about to attack her from behind.

'That's twice that idiot has hit me!' she raged to Umi.

Helpfully, her Other voice replied, 'You can pound his face later... Donald was SO much more useful than him.' Kaiyou spun around, trying to find the other Heartless she knew were in the area. a Heartless leapt up from the shadows on the ground and slashed at her face before she had time to blink. Instinctively, Kaiyou threw a block, but claws still got through to rake down the side of her face, drawing blood.

Dodging to the side before the next strike could come, Kaiyou slid around behind the Heartless to hit it, but her attack was blocked, and they both sprung back, the Heartless landing crouched on a tombstone. Eyeing its yellow-eyed face, Kaiyou held her blade ready and set her feet in the ground, ready to leap forward and attack.

Seen from her peripheral vision, Kaiyou only had time to blink before a black shape darted forward, slamming hard into her side and sending her rolling. "Aros!" Dagger gasped and Kaiyou looked up, just in time to see her get hit again, knocked back towards the group of natives Kaiyou had volunteered to protect. Eyes focusing, Kaiyou realized belatedly that her anger had blinded her and the Heartless had lured her away from the group, leaving Dagger, who had no weapon, to protect herself and their charges with spells alone. Between them lay at least five Heartless, plus the one attacking Dagger, and the Idiot was on the other side, missing his targets every time he tried to cast. In the end, he was just getting chased around the cemetery.

Cursing under her breath, Kaiyou leapt to her feet and launched herself at the Heartless that stood in her way, about to attack again. Hitting it hard enough to kill it in one blow, Kaiyou dug her toes into the dirt and leapt upwards, letting the next Heartless dive forward under her- attacking where she'd been a second ago. Landing on a gravestone, she leapt again, pushing off it hard enough to rock it, and landed on her next target, blade pointed downwards. Apparently not expecting her move, the Heartless didn't have the chance to block and died, flailing. Rolling to take some of the impact, Kaiyou got her feet under her again and threw her weight to the side as the fourth Heartless attacked and missed.

Letting it go, Kaiyou caught her balance and started forward again as Dagger collapsed to her knees right in front of the shields she'd cast on the other four. "Blind!" she desperately cast on the Heartless attacking her, but apparently, it didn't need sight. Again, Kaiyou leapt and launched off a tombstone and hit the ground running- right past the last Heartless in her path as the one standing over Dagger lifted its claws to attack.

Skidding, Kaiyou slid in and blocked just as the claw came down, wincing as her foot caught on a root hidden in the grass and twisted slightly. Shoving with all her might, Kaiyou threw the Heartless back and leapt forward to attack it.

"Aros! A little help over here!" the Idiot mage begged as he ran away from three Heartless that gleefully chased after him.

"Get over here where I can do something, then!" she snapped at him instead, realizing that the combination of being tired, hungry, and being on an adrenaline jag had the effect of making her very cranky. She'd been fine before the battle. At least the mage did what he was told and ran towards her, the three Heartless close behind him- the same three that Kaiyou had avoided in her mad dash to protect Dagger.

Dispatching her current opponent with a hard bash to the face with her blade, Kaiyou went into motion the moment the mage ran past her, rolling in behind him and slashing with her blade, hitting the three across the chests, a sharp snap in her right ankle informed her that she'd probably just done some rather serious damage to it, and the blow, unfortunately, didn't kill them. However, the bolt of Lightning the mage cast- and nearly hit Kaiyou with again- made them dissipate into black smoke when they were caught in the backlash from her reflect.

Irritated at him, but her mind on business, Kaiyou looked around to locate any remaining Heartless. Panting, she slowly straightened, and frowned. That had been a mess... She'd been relying on Dagger and the mage to help with the battle, but now that she thought on it, Dagger had said she didn't have a weapon- Gary had taken it from her- and the mage, well... he didn't really have anything to bash at things with either. She'd gotten used to having the competent and capable Goofy and Donald behind her. It was a mistake she wasn't going to make again, even if she had to find the two some sturdy sticks.

With the threat apparently gone, Kaiyou finally turned around and stumbled, having to stab her Keyblade into the ground and lean on it to stay on her feet. 'Oh, that hurt,' she hissed, taking her weight off her right foot.

"Aros!" Dagger gasped and got to her feet, jogging over to him, "You're hurt!" she touched the blood running down Kaiyou's cheek.

Shaking her head, Kaiyou leaned away, "We've got more important things to worry about; such as finding somewhere a little easier to defend than here." She eyed the dumbstruck teens, girl, and cat, and sighed. This wasn't going to be easy...

Pushing off her sword, she lightly stepped on her right foot, and while she really didn't want to lean on Dagger, she found that she had no choice as her ankle sent a sharp stabbing pain up her leg and all the way to the back of her neck. She fell against Dagger's shoulder with a gasp. "Aros," Dagger insisted, "You push yourself too hard. At least let me heal you."

It wasn't that Kaiyou wanted to act tough- it was more that she just didn't think it was right that Dagger was fussing over her- like boyfriend-girlfriends did. Dagger had said she loved someone else, but that was after they'd kissed. Flushing at the memory, Kaiyou only grunted, not wanting to admit that now that adrenaline was wearing off, her entire body hurt like heck.

Closing her eyes, Dagger took a breath and began casting her healing spell.

"Oh!" the Idiot mage grinned, "Me next!"

"You didn't even get a scratch," Dagger replied. "Aros is our only real fighter right now."

Finally, Dagger's shield spells shattered, their duration running out, and the three kids and cat breathed. "What... were those things?" the teenage boy demanded to know.

Opening her eyes and looking at him from where she leaned heavily on Dagger, Kaiyou answered, "Heartless. Is this the first time you've seen them?"

The blonde girl nodded. "Where did they come from?" she asked, still tightly clutching the Book to her chest.

"Darkness," Kaiyou stated enigmatically, not wanting to explain something she didn't really understand herself.

The Idiot mage, however, had a better answer, "Specifically, the Darkness in people's hearts. They're a crazy scientist's experiment gone horribly wrong." He folded his arms as he started up his lecture, "You see, some thirteen years ago, there was this guy named Ansem the Wise who was doing some experiments on the Heart and its properties when-"

"Hey!" Kaiyou snapped at him, "You talk too much."

Binx hissed, "What have you got to hide?" he demanded to know.

"Nothing," Kaiyou replied, "It's just, once he starts, he doesn't shut up." Or so she'd noticed in the very brief time they'd been together. He didn't even require an audience to talk to!

"There, Aros," Dagger said and stepped back, "Better now?"

Carefully settling her weight on her right foot, Kaiyou leaned on it. "Yeah," she replied, "Thanks." Taking a breath, she stated as succinctly as she could, repeating what little Donald and Goofy had told her and what she'd picked up on her own, "The Heartless are exactly as the name says: Heartless. They have no hearts and propagate themselves by stealing the hearts of people. They appear to be semi-mindless and follow the orders of Maleficent and the Organization Thirteen- the latter of which are noticeably dressed in long black coats with hoods. Have you seen them?"

Snorting, the teen boy replied, "On a night like tonight, they wouldn't be the least bit out of place." Tipping her head to the side as she wiped blood off her cheek, Kaiyou quirked a brow, encouraged, the boy continued, "It's Halloween."

Sighing, Kaiyou rolled her eyes, "Of course," she muttered, 'Lady Luck loves me so much,' she observed to Umi.

Stepping forward, the cat announced, "I've seen them."

All eyes turned towards Binx as he took a seat, tail-tip twitching. "They were discussing lighting the Black Flame Candle when Max," he looked towards the teenage boy, "broke in and lit it for them. I believe they said the first step of their mission was a success."

Eyeing Max, Umi stated sarcastically for Kaiyou's benefit, 'What a moron.'

Ignoring her Other, Kaiyou shook her head, looked around, then started off. "Let's go."

Extending a hand, the blonde girl stepped forward, "Wait! Where are you going?"

Kaiyou looked back over her shoulder and stated in as deadpan a voice she could manage, "We," she corrected, lifting a finger to make a circle that included not only her companions, but also the three native kids and cat she was speaking to, "are going to kill some witches," eyeing the four, she added, "And you four are going to be my local guides."

Mentally, Umi finished what Kaiyou would have said if she'd wanted to get punched by Max, 'Only fair, considering that We're doing you a favor and YOU partially caused the problem. –you know, Kaiyou, this is why I say you shouldn't BOTHER helping people. They make messes and then after you've helped them out once, they EXPECT you to clean up the consequences afterwards. That's what's gotten you into trouble so often, you know, people taking advantage of your kindness.'

"You haven't even told us your names yet," Dani objected- though it was a reasonable request, the tone of voice she'd used made Kaiyou want to just walk off without telling them anything.

A moment passed and Kaiyou looked around their little group, and she realized suddenly that she didn't know the mage's name- and he was staring at her expectantly. Turning to face the three kids, she stated, "That's Dagger, he's an idiot, and you can call me Aros."

"What!" the mage objected, "My name's Laguna!"

Turning away again, Kaiyou started off.

"Wait!" Max objected and she stopped again with a sigh at the tediousness of all this introduction-type stuff. "I'm Max, this is my little sister Dani, and she's Allison."

"I'm Binx," Binx finished, though Kaiyou had already picked up his name from eavesdropping.

"Alright. And while we're standing here exchanging names, phone numbers, and life stories, the Heartless are probably running around stealing people's hearts, and a trio of witches are eating the children's souls, and a pair of Organization members are stealing the Nobodies that are left." Kaiyou pointed out sourly, the delays and Umi's peanut gallery comments pushing her beyond the limits of her patience, "Can we get going now?"

"Geez, he's impatient..." Max muttered.

Laguna sighed, "Not really like Sora at all."

Furious, Kaiyou turned and launched herself at Laguna, fingers latching onto the mage's robes and yanking him down to look in the eyes, "You- shut up! I don't want to hear another word about Sora- I don't even want to hear you breathe like you're going to say that name. Is that clear?"

Eyes wide, Laguna nodded slightly and Kaiyou released him, stepping back and turning away, "Besides, I was doing fine till you came in," she grumped, "I was going to tell them. Now they probably think I'm working for Maleficent or something."

Laguna lifted a finger, "You're not?" he asked innocently enough.

Swinging around, Kaiyou aimed a kick at him, but allowed him to jump back and dodge her effortless retaliation, "Of course I'm not!" she snapped, "Why would I want to work for an old hag with no morals," she ticked off the points on her fingers as she spoke, "for no pay in a job with no possibility for promotion unless I knocked off said Old Hag?" Dropping her hands, she stomped onwards.

'Kaiyou... when was your last PMS?' Umi asked helpfully.

'...uh...'

Pushing aside the disturbing thought, Kaiyou looked towards Max and Allison, who took the lead with Dani between them, "We'd better get back to town and find Mom and Dad and warn them," Dani suggested.

"Yeah," Max agreed, looking worried.

"Where do you think you're going?" a voice from above called, and Kaiyou summoned her Keyblade again, then scowled as she found her three opponents too high in the air to attack.

AN: Please tell me if anything in this chapter looks odd. Sometimes FF.n eats paragraphs. thank you!

Next Chapter: As if the fight before weren't enough, and nearly dying before that, Kaiyou has no choice but to continue to fight until it either kills her or she kills it. At this rate, the former is more likely to happen.