"This is really getting ridiculous." Rayne said, "I think we've spent more time on our Riders than we have on the ground since we got here."
None of the Remnants said anything for a bit, then Jack said, "We have to hurry."
"With battle between Light, Corruption and Darkness about to take place," Rayne said, "I don't think any of us were planning on taking our time."
Jack shook his head and replied, "I mean, we need to get out of this world quickly. We've been here too long."
"What do you mean?" Mist asked, "We've haven't even been here for a day."
"Just feel all the Light in the air." Jack said, "I remember Jason telling me that time in worlds further into the Realm of Light passes quicker. Time is dependent on the speed at which Light moves, and unconstrained by Darkness, time in this world passes a lot more quickly than it would do on the Dark Meridian."
"Wait," Mist cut in, "Raphael said that it had been a thousand years since the Keyblade War, but how did he measure that time if all the worlds move at a different pace?"
Jack shrugged and replied, "We can ask him that when we get back. My guess is that he was just going by the time flow in Radiant Garden, since he came from that world. My point is, Jason and Raphael could already have been waiting for us for days, depending on where Vanitas sent them."
Mist and Rayne nodded, and they sped up. Still, they would have all done so anyways, because they were nearing the Solis Base, and could see explosions erupt from it.
"Do we have a plan yet, or are we just going to try and wing it again?" Mist asked.
"Well, Raiden's going to kill Armstrong with Corruption's power," Jack said, "And Light probably wants to kill Armstrong as well. Once Armstrong's down Light will want to kill Corruption too."
"So are we trying to save Raiden?" Rayne asked, "Don't forget, Darkness is probably possessing Armstrong, so it's not like he'll be a pushover."
"Damn, this is complicated." Jack muttered, "It's a three way battle between the Divine Beings. Will they actually attack, or just hold back because they're scared of one gaining too much of an upper hand?"
The question was left unanswered as they got to the center of the fire and saw Raiden and Armstrong squaring off, surrounded by machinery and flames. Armstrong was on a metal spar some metres above Raiden, who was standing on the ground.
There were cracks in his black armour, and his chest heaved as wearily growled, "I said my sword was a tool of justice." Raiden's head was lowered, though his rage was palpable. He slowly unsheathed the crimson sword that had belonged to Sam as he continued, "Not to be used in anger or vengeance. But now I'm not so sure, and besides," He looked up, and his eye had the blood-red aura of Corruption leaking out of it. "This isn't my sword."
The crimson aura of Corruption sprang from his body, as a sleek coating of Darkness quickly spread through Armstrong's body. Armstrong jumped down to the ground, and gathered Darkness into his fist. He slammed it down, creating huge pillars of fire to spring from the ground. One hit from those fists would spell death or at least serious trauma. Nevertheless, Raiden didn't show any fear, and Sam's sword whirled about like a wind of destruction, slicing at Armstrong at close quarters.
As they watched Raiden and Armstrong darted between columns of flames that would spring up from Armstrong's fists, Jack sadly realized the implications of Raiden wielding Sam's sword. Sam's sword was his way of life. It represented everything he lived for, and would never part with it as long as there was life in his body. The only conclusion was that he had gotten his long-awaited duel with Raiden, and it hadn't ended in his favour. Jack had been right, and he didn't feel good about it.
Suddenly a quick flash of Light darted towards the battlefield and struck at Armstrong from behind. Pierce's Remnant quickly dodged Darkness' counterattack, though Corruption took advantage of Darkness' lapse in attention and scored a deep slash across Armstrong's abdomen.
"Sneak." Darkness growled, "How like you to hide behind honourable ideals, only to shirk them when the time comes."
Pierce's Remnant shot out a burst of white fire, but Darkness sent out columns of red fire streaming out through the whole battlefield. Corruption leapt above them, and ran along the machinery, getting behind Light and slashing from behind. Light twisted away and Corruption's blade only glanced off the Keyblade Armour.
The battle would have gone on like that for a long time. Vessels of Divine Beings didn't fatigue like the Remnants, and Light and Darkness would have kept on hurling fire at each other while dodging Corruption's slashes from the side. Sometimes Darkness would gather dark fire into his fist and thrust it into the ground, creating huge pillars of fire, and Light would skirt around them, throwing his own firebolts towards Darkness that simply bounced off. Corruption would dodge both of these and dart in and out, slicing here and there. All of his strikes hit, but the wounds sealed up under the power of a Divine Being.
Though none of the Remnants could have known, this was how it had gone on for aeons; Light and Darkness at each other's throats while Corruption darted around them, always there but never noticed. The Divine Beings weren't aware of it either, but had adopted this fighting style out of instinct, hammered into them after aeons of battle.
The battle would have gone on like that for a long time had Rayne not stepped forward. She was trembling with anger, as she said, "We have to kill them. Stop them for defiling Pierce's memory. We have to stop them."
"What are you talking about?" Mist asked, appalled Rayne's sudden change in character. This had happened when they first fought the Lightsworn in the Badlands with Sam. Why was she this angry?
"Look at them!" Rayne yelled, "We must stop this endless battle. We must return them to whence they came. We must unite!"
Rayne ended with an unearthly roar and broke free of Mist's grip. She rushed forward and jumped from their vantage point on top of the ruined machinery into the fray, summoning Equillibrium to her hand. Jack and Mist quickly followed after her, readying their weapons for battle.
Light saw them first and growled, "Insignificant Remnants. You have no place here." It left the battle and jumped up over Rayne to attack Jack and Mist, who were flying down after Rayne. Rayne whirled around, but Light quickly blew Jack and Mist into the ground. They made more cracks in the ground as they crashed to the earth, unable to cast an anti-gravity spell in time. Jack and Mist quickly regained their footing, and tried to parry Light's downward strike.
Pierce's Keyblade, Hidden Resolve had always resembled Jack's Wanderer's Judgement. When the two of them clashed, the resemblance was further emphasized. Black biting into black, the two Keyblades clashed, but Hidden Resolve kept on going, fueled by the power of a god, and cut a foot long slash through Jack's shoulder. Mist raised her gauntlet to fire off a spell, but Darkness barged into her, slamming her into metal machinery with a sickening scrape.
Rayne whirled around and went to attack Darkness, but Corruption suddenly dashed in front of her and held her back with quick sword strokes. Jack stumbled back, charred bits of armour falling on the ground, and holding up Wanderer's Judgement shakily. Mist staggered to her feet and started to cast Cura on the both of them. Darkness laughed and rushed towards her again. Jack stepped in front of his vessel, but Light kicked him several metres into the air, and there was a hollow clang as he landed on the broken machinery above them. Mist jumped clear of Darkness, but wasn't prepared for the explosion of flames that erupted around Darkness and sprung into the sky.
Rayne roared as she saw Mist fly out of sight, enraged at the sight of flames clinging to Mist's white armour. She jumped above Corruption and fired off bolts of blue lightning. They glanced off the black coating of Darkness' Vessel, and he laughed. "Pathetic. You cannot harm me"
Rayne kept on bellowing inhumanly as she parried Corruption's quick slashes and fired white fire towards Light. It absorbed the attack easily, and jumped towards Rayne, who had dropped to the ground and was running towards Light. "We must unite!" Light shone through Rayne, but it was more chaotic than the Light coming out of Pierce's Remnant.
Rayne dodged Hidden Resolve as it came down, and Light jumped back, dodging Rayne's counterattack. It stood there for a moment, almost nervous, as it watched the crackling mass of energy that emanated out of Rayne.
Corruption suddenly darted forward, trying to thrust through Rayne's armour, but Rayne whirled around, and used Equillibrium to deflect the deadly sword. Corruption stumbled forward, thrown off balance by Rayne's deflection of his blade. As it made to recover, Rayne thrust her spare gauntlet into Corruption's chest. Corruption staggered away immediately, limiting the damage to its vessel, but the damage had been done and Corruption started leaking slowly out of Raiden. There weren't any physical wounds to Raiden as he collapsed on the ground, though his face looked gaunter and thinner than it had when they had first met. Raiden tried to stay standing, but the toll Corruption had taken on his body was too great on his Heart, and he collapsed wearily on the ground.
Darkness then charged towards Rayne, and he lasted longer than Corruption did. Armstrong's fists were quick, and there weren't any opening for Rayne to take advantage of. Still, Rayne dodged and deflected Darkness' charges effortlessly, using power none but a Divine Being could rival. Unnerved, Darkness drew back his fist to blow back Rayne with brute force, but Rayne took this opportunity to dash forward and plunged her Keyblade through Darkness' Vessel. Darkness quickly blew Rayne back with a wave of Darkness, but it was too late, and Darkness started leaking out of Armstrong as well.
Rayne turned to Light, not wondering why it had not worked with Darkness to bring her down, not wondering why she hated everyone with such fervour, not wondering why she was so intent on destroying what was left of her brother, she stepped forward slowly, gathering even more power into Equilibrium.
"What are you?" Light asked as it slowly stepped forward.
"You shall pay for this." Rayne yelled, "I must unite!"
Light snorted, and ran forward, brilliant, white streaks of Light snaking through Hidden Resolve. Rayne fired lightning that seemed to streak out from her gauntlet instantaneously, grinding a hole through the broken machinery milliseconds after it left her hand. Light jumped over this spell, somehow knowing that this Light was something he couldn't absorb, knowing that if the lightning bolt hit him, his vessel would be vaporized into nothingness.
In retaliation, Light sent tendrils of Light tearing through the air, intent on grinding through Rayne and kill her forever. Light expected Rayne to jump over them and close in for another strike, but amazingly she raised Equillibrium and sent a wave of Light that wiped out the oncoming tendrils like the waves wiped out tracks on the sand. Light quickly raised Hidden Resolve and landed on the ground; unharmed, but alarmed at this sudden surge of power that Rayne possessed.
Rayne ran forward, sending waves of Light forward to harry the furious Divine Being, raising her Keyblade above her head, aiming for an explosive double-handed downward strike. Light raised Hidden Resolve and parried the blow, but skidded back from the impact and only stopped when slid into the flaming machinery.
Enraged at being matched by a mere human, Light gathered as much of itself as it could, and charged headlong at Rayne, creating a huge gouge in the ground as it ran, Light swirling around it, making it seem like a comet. Pierce's armour was lost in the Light, and nothing but a Divine Being could have met it head on.
But though Rayne possessed the strength of a Divine Being, and her mind had been seemingly lost, she still retained some of her skill. She sidestepped Light as it charged past her, and fired another bolt of pure lightning as Light sped past It stumbled, crashing through the metal machinery and its momentum kept it flying until it sprawled on the ground almost a hundred metres away from where the battle had taken place. It quickly got to its feet, but Rayne had already jumped above it and threw Equillibrium at Light. Her Keyblade didn't spin in a circle like the Raids Sora and Ven loved to use; instead, it flew straight, true, and almost as fast as her Lightning spells.
As Light looked up, it saw a flash, then found his armour crumbling as the huge hole Equillibrium had shredded grew even larger. As Pierce's Armour crumbled to the ground, Light escaped from its ruined vessel, but instead of flying away into another Lightsworn, it withered away in the air and thinned out into smoke like the other Divine Beings as they had been purged from Darkness and Corruption.
Jack and Mist had cured themselves and had watched the gory spectacle. The Light around Rayne seemed to be fading as well, but it still seemed to be in control, and she raised Equillibrium towards the two of them.
"Rayne, stop!" Jack yelled, and he jumped down and rushed over to where Rayne was standing. Rayne's helm tilted in his direction, but it wasn't Rayne who spoke. "You have divided me. I must unite. The two of us must unite."
"Who are you?" Mist asked, "Why are you possessing Rayne?" Jack held Rayne by the shoulders and said, "Let go of her."
"I cannot 'let go' of her, just as you cannot 'let go' of your lineage, Rikkison." Rayne growled, "I must be united!"
"Give Rayne back!" Jack yelled, shaking Rayne's Remnant by the shoulders. The Light suddenly flickered, and Rayne gasped under the strain. Mist tried soothing Rayne's aura, but it was too chaotic and flew out of her control.
Whatever was possessing Rayne raised her hand and her Keyblade flew to her hand. It was shrouded by Light, and Rayne started to bring it down towards Jack. Jack quickly jerked back, and his amour cracked from the strain, as it hadn't been fully healed. Rayne fired off white flames, but Mist quickly yanked Jack out of the way.
"The two of us must unite." Rayne yelled, and thrust her gauntlet towards Jack. Jack sidestepped and grabbed onto Rayne. "Stop. I know you're in there. just stop."
Rayne shook herself free, and Mist said, "We have to dive into her heart."
Jack nodded. "I can hold off Rayne, do it quick."
Mist shook her head and yelled, "Your armour's still falling apart. You won't be able to move quickly. I can hold her off."
Jack started to argue, but conceded the point when a bit of his armour fell off as he dodged Rayne's strike. He jumped to the side and adopted the meditation stance. Mist drew in Light to her gauntlets and readied herself against Rayne.
It took longer than it should have to make the connection, but after some fumbling around, Jack was able to make contact with Rayne. He jumped down to her glass podium in the Station of Awakening, and saw her surrounded by a wave of Light that swirled about the podium like the wind. It didn't follow a pattern, and wasn't limited to a certain space; it ran amok through the whole of Rayne's heart.
Landing, Jack was buffetted to and fro, but was able to keep his footing. He couldn't see anything due to the blinding and fast-paced Light, but walking around, he bumped into Rayne. She was floating amidst the chaos on her back as if she was suspended by a string tied around her waist, being thrown this way and that. Jack struggled up to her and shook her. The moment they touched, she gasped and her eyes opened.
"Dad, what happened?" She caught herself as she fell to the ground. "Where are we?"
"We're inside your Heart." Jack said, "You went berserk and drove away the three Divine Beings from their vessel. But you need to control yourself."
"I-I kept on hearing this voice." Rayne stammered, "I thought it was just the after effects of being in the Keyblade Graveyard. It's so angry, so full of rage and fury. It just wants to be whole again."
Jack nodded. "I understand. Rayne, you have to control it. You have to control yourself."
Rayne looked at him wildly and said, "This isn't me. I can't control or be something as monstrous as this."
"This 'monstrous' thing helped us all defeat part of the three Divine Beings." Jack replied calmly. "Their power was split between their many vessels, but you still saved all of us. Now you need to save yourself. You can do it."
She looked at him helplessly and Jack continued, "I trust you. I always have, except for when you tried jumping out of windows." The two of them laughed nervously, and Jack said, "I know you can do it. You just have to be brave."
Rayne looked at him, and held onto his hand. She then took a deep breath and reached out to the chaotic Light that swirled around them and tried to calm it down. Instantly the radiant chaos stopped, and the Light all receded into a sphere of Light that floated serenely. "Was that it?" Rayne asked hesitantly. "Why was it so easy?"
"Because it's part of you, just like your inner Light and Marek's inner Darkness." Jack said, holding onto Rayne's shoulders, "Don't be afraid of it. You can control it, and you can't let it control you."
Rayne looked up into his eyes and nodded. "But what is it?"
The two pairs of brown eyes stared into one another, as Jack hesitated, then said, "I'm not sure. We can ask Jason when we get back. For now, just control it."
Rayne nodded slowly. "I'll try."
Jack smiled down at her and said, "You'll be able to do more than try. I know you'll be able to do it."
Rayne smiled wanly. "You'd better get out of here. Mom might be having a little trouble out there."
Jack squeezed Rayne's shoulder once more, then went out of Rayne's Heart.
Mist stood there panting. Rayne was strong, and could block all the magical spells Mist sent her way. Her reflect spells were no use against Rayne's newfound power, and she had to constantly dodge Rayne's strikes and spells. It was a good thing Rayne thought only of attacking Mist, as she had no way of defending Jack if Rayne directed her attention towards him. Mist renewed the anti-gravity spell she had cast on herself to aid her movement when suddenly Rayne stiffened.
She stopped attacking, and stood there for a moment, then yelled out in pain. The Light surrounding her receded back into her, and she fell towards the ground. Mist ran and caught her and asked, "Is she alive?"
"I can't tell." Jack said. He had gotten to his feet, and sagged wearily. "But we have to get out of here." She gestured towards Raiden and Armstrong, both of whom she could see through the holes rendered in the dying machine when Rayne had been fighting Light.
"Will they remember what happened?" Jack asked, as he summoned his Rider to his hand. Mist shrugged, but summoned her Rider as well. Carrying Rayne, the two of them sped off into the distance. Jack looked down and saw Raiden and Armstrong getting ready to fight, and also saw the pile of armour that had once represented his son. This was a pathetic resting ground for his son, who had accomplished so much, but not for the first time, there wasn't anything he could do. Turning back, he flew off into the sky and disappeared through a portal.
Just in case you forgot about that little voice in Raphael's head...
Sorry this is a little late. Basically in one word, SAT's.
Just to confirm, the Three Divine Beings are a little weaker, but far from dead. Rayne only killed off part of them.
I actually planned to have Darkness say "Nanomachines, girl" to Rayne, but discarded it, thinking it would be too OOC. Still, a little disappointed I couldn't get that line, and the "bat-shit insane!" line in either.
Hope you all enjoyed. until next time!