A/N: We're getting closer to the end, guys! Enjoy~
Disclaimer: I own nothing but Shadow, Kurai, & Night.
Kingdom Hearts 2, Shadow's Story
Chapter 25
The Other Twilight Town! Roxas & Night's Twilight Town…
We returned to Twilight Town to solve the mystery of the picture and the ice cream, and as we walked, Goofy brought it up.
"Hey! I think we're almost there!" he said as we walked. We paused and looked at him.
"Huh?" Sora asked, confused.
"What?" Donald said, equally confused.
"Gawrsh, aren't we here because of the picture?" Goofy told us. He pulled out the photograph. "Look, I'll show ya!"
"Yeah! Goofy's right!" Donald agreed.
"C'mon, let's go find this mansion!" Goofy said.
"Yeah!" Sora and I said. We walked to the Old Mansion, and when we got there, we saw Hayner, Pence, and Olette lying on the ground. The gate behind them was open. Sora and I ran to Hayner.
"Hey, are you all right?" I demanded of him. Hayner started to get up. "What happened?"
"We came here looking for Kairi," the sandy blonde replied. "Then those white things attacked us…"
"You gotta be careful!" Donald told them.
"Yeah, you guys didn't have to go and do that," Sora agreed.
"Of course we did," Hayner snapped. "Kairi's our friend, too, ya know."
"You're right…You know, I never thought of it like that before," Sora said.
"Word is, this mansion gets a lot of really strange visitors," Hayner told us.
"We thought this place might be the gateway to some kind of alternate Twilight Town," Olette explained.
"What do you mean, alternate Twilight Town?" my brunette friend asked them.
"Hey, Goofy, do you think we could see that crystal of yours?" Pence asked. Goofy nodded and pulled out the pouch and crystal.
"I made that pouch myself, and I still have it," Olette said. "So there shouldn't be two of them here."
"And this is the trophy Seifer gave you," Hayner added, holding up the Four Crystal Trophy. "You left it behind, remember?"
"It's the only one of its kind," Pence explained. "Same for the crystals—red, blue, yellow, green—only one of each color. But you've got your own!"
"So…where'd you get it?" Hayner asked. Sora and I thought back to when the King had given them to us.
"The pouch is from the King," Goofy answered. "When he gave us munny for the train ride, he gave us the crystal, too."
"But then…where did the KING get it?" Pence wondered.
"See? There's gotta be another town out there like this one. That would explain how the King got that pouch and the crystal. Everything makes sense," Hayner said. Sora, Donald, Goofy, and I looked at each other.
"It…does?" Sora said, totally clueless. I smacked my forehead and groaned.
"That other town must be where whatever's missing from here went!" Pence explained.
"Like Kairi!" Olette added.
"I get it!" Sora realized. Out of nowhere, a few Dusks appeared, but King Mickey suddenly appeared as well and sliced through them, destroying them.
"Watch out!" he warned us. The four of us fought alongside King Mickey and beat the Nobodies. Once finished, Mickey turned to us. "I got somethin' to tell ya. I found out where Ansem is—Ansem the Wise! The real Ansem! He snuck into Organization XIII's stronghold."
"And we've figured out where Kairi is!" Sora and I said excitedly. "We're pretty sure we're right."
"But why'd you all come here?" the King asked.
"Someone gave a clue," I answered.
"Who?"
"Well, Your Majesty, Sora and Shadow think it mighta been Riku and Kurai," Goofy told him.
"It's just a feeling we had," we explained.
"Well, if that's what ya think, you're probably right," Mickey replied simply.
"You mean Riku and Kurai are okay!" I said eagerly.
"If that's what ya think…" Mickey said again.
"We've waited long enough, Your Majesty!" Sora and I said impatiently, Sora folding his arms. "Tell us what you know!"
"It's not for me to say," Mickey said sadly.
"But Your Majesty! Why?" we argued.
"I don't wanna break my promise," he said quietly.
"You made a promise to Riku and Kurai?! So they're okay! We can see them again!" we cried out excitedly. Mickey covered his mouth when he realized what he had said.
"Huh? Who's Riku and Kurai?" Hayner asked as he walked over.
"Our best friends," Sora and I told him.
"That's IT!" Pence exclaimed.
"Your Majesty? You got the pouch with the crystal from Riku and Kurai, didn't you?" Olette asked Mickey. "And you promised not to tell, right?"
"Gosh, guys…" Mickey said, getting nervous.
"That's enough!" Donald snapped.
"Yeah. Let's go!" I said. Sora and I turned to face the mansion.
"Riku! Kurai! Kairi! We're on our way!" Sora said determinedly. We all entered the Mansion Foyer.
"There's gotta be a computer somewhere," Mickey commented as we walked in.
"A computer…Do you think it's connected to that other Twilight Town?" Pence wondered.
"It might be. And there should be a way into the Realm of Darkness there," Mickey agreed.
"Riku and Kurai told you that, didn't they?!" Sora and I demanded of the King.
"Please, Sora and Shadow. I made a promise," Mickey said quietly.
"Hey! Stop pestering the King!" Donald scolded us.
"Right. Sorry…" we said. We walked through the library, and then to the Computer Room. In there was a computer with several monitors.
"There!" Mickey said.
"We found it!" Sora said excitedly.
"How does it work?" Donald wondered.
"I can handle it," Pence told us, and he sat down at the computer and started pressing buttons. "Okay…Here we go…Ah!"
"What's wrong?" Hayner asked.
"I can't go any further without a password," Pence explained.
"Do ya have any idea what the password might be?" Mickey asked. Sora and I thought about it.
"Well, we only got this photo…" Goofy said, and pulled out the photo.
"And the salty-sweet ice cream bar!" Donald reminded us.
"Yeah, the one Donald ate up," I remembered, rolling my eyes at the memory.
"It was in the box right next to the photo," Goofy told them.
"Hey, that's it!" Mickey realized. "Ansem the Wise loved ice cream!"
"Okay, what's the name of the flavor?" Pence asked us.
"The name of the ice cream was…Sea-Salt Ice Cream," Sora and I told him. Pence typed it in.
"It worked!" he exclaimed. An odd machine near the wall buzzed to life.
"Let's go!" we said.
"We'll be here to hold down the fort," Hayner told us.
"Say hi to Kairi!" Olette added.
"You bet!" we assured them. We entered the machine and were turned into data. We reappeared in the same room, or so we thought.
"Are we back in the same place?" Sora wondered.
"Look!" Donald said, and we turned to see the computer next to us totally destroyed.
"This is the other Twilight Town," Sora and I said in unison. "Roxas and Night's Twilight Town." The two of us saw in our mind's eyes a boy dressed in black and white clothes with a silver dragon like me smashing the computer.
"There's gotta be an entrance to the Dark Realm somewhere," Mickey said, his mind set. "Let's split up." Mickey ran into the Basement Hall, and we followed him. Inside, we saw a black and green portal of light.
"There…" Sora and I murmured.
"This is it," Mickey agreed. We went into the portal and found ourselves in Betwixt and Between. There were Nobody symbols that were floating everywhere in all directions.
"What is this place?" I wondered.
"Well, which way should we go?" Donald asked.
"Riku! Kurai! Kairi!" Sora and I called out. Suddenly, Nobodies surrounded us from all sides. We tried to fight them, but they just kept coming. "It's no use!"
"Don't stop moving, or the darkness will overtake you!" Axel's voice rang out. He jumped in and sliced at a few Nobodies with his chakrams. "Get goin'!"
"Why?" Sora and I asked.
"Don't ask. Just do it!" he ordered. Suddenly, two of the Dusks pulled Axel down. Sora and I ran over and attacked them, taking them out each with one shot.
"You okay?" I asked as we helped him sit up.
"I kidnapped Kairi, but she got away from me. After that, Saix caught her. He's a member of Organization XIII. Saix. Got it memorized? Now go save her!" he told us. A Dusk appeared out of nowhere and came straight at Axel, me, and Sora from behind. We whipped around and took it out.
"Leave us alone!" we yelled, and I snarled. The three of us fought off the Nobodies, but there was no end in sight. Eventually, we ended up back to back to back, just the three of us.
"I think I liked it better when they were on my side," Axel said.
"Feeling a little…regret?" we taunted him.
"Nah…I can handle these punks. Watch this!" he said, and leapt into the middle of the horde of Nobodies. He focused his energy, his chakrams spinning around him spouting fire. He screamed, and released an inferno that whirled around him. When it had cleared, the Nobodies were obliterated.
"Whoa!" Sora and I gasped. We saw Axel lying on the floor nearby. We rushed to his side as he faded away.
"You're…fading away…" Sora murmured sadly.
"Well, that's what happens when you put your whole being into an attack. You know what I mean?" the redhead chuckled weakly. "Not that Nobodies actually HAVE beings…right? Anyway, I digress. Go, find Kairi. Oh, almost forgot…Sorry for what I did to her."
"When we find her, you can tell her that yourself," Sora and I replied.
"Think I'll pass. My heart just wouldn't be in it, you know? Haven't got one," he said, and laughed weakly again.
"Axel, what were you trying to do?" we asked him.
"I wanted to see Roxas and Night. They…were the only ones I liked…They made me feel…like I had a heart. It's kind of…funny…You both make me feel…the same…" he said, but stopped himself, his expression hardening once more. "Kairi's in the castle dungeon. Now go." He used the last of his strength to open a portal for us to go through.
"Axel…" we murmured sadly as he faded away completely. I howled in mourning for the loss of him,, sounding like a wolf, and we stood up. We soon all four stood before the portal. "This leads to…"
"Aw, come on! Let's get going!" Donald said impatiently. We left through the portal, and Sora gained the keychain for the Bond of Flame Keyblade. The Bond of Flame Keyblade represented Axel's chakrams. We soon exited the portal to a new world, which started in an alley of a dark city. Mickey walked back to the street and looked up at the sky. We walked over to see what he was staring at and saw a giant fortress floating in the sky with a heart-shaped moon. It was a haunting welcome to The World That Never Was.
"Axel said Kairi's in the castle dungeon," Sora told the King. Thunder rumbled across the sky as dark clouds swirled.
"Then we better find a way to get to that castle!" he replied determinedly. We left the Alley to Between and traveled through Fragment Crossing, fighting Shadow Heartless the whole way through. We eventually reached Memory's Skyscraper, and it started to rain. Sora and I looked up as lightning flashed through the sky. Suddenly, we heard the sound of steel on steel.
"Sora, Shadow!" Donald cried out. We turned around and saw two Samurai Nobodies blocking Donald and Goofy.
"Donald! Goofy!" we shouted. We tried to run to them, but our vision got hazy all of a sudden. We turned around and saw two figures in black cloaks appear behind us. The Oblivion Keyblade appeared in the tall one's hand, while the claws of the other began to glow.
"A Keyblade?" Sora gasped.
"Light?" I gasped at the same time. They ran at us, and we blocked their attacks, but in a flash, we were at the Station of Awakening. The tall one who was fighting Sora now had both Oblivion and Oathkeeper in his hands while my opponent used light at his disposal. Sora and his foe ran at each other, blocking the other's attacks, and I slashed at mine, our clashes at each other resembling that of a pair of rabid wolves fighting over territory.
"Wh-who are you?" Sora and I demanded.
"Someone from the dark," they spoke in unison. Sora and I knocked them back.
"You can't be Riku?" Sora said to his opponent.
"You can't be Kurai?" I growled to mine at the same time.
"Riku?...I defeated a Riku once," the tall one replied.
"Kurai?…I defeated a Kurai once," my foe answered at the same time his companion spoke.
"You what?!" we said furiously.
"Tell us…Tell us why they picked you both!" they yelled, and we fought them again. Sora's opponent ran at Sora, dragging his Keyblades along the ground with screeches, sending up sparks. He attacked Sora, but Sora dodged. Meanwhile, I was snapping and snarling at my opponent, and he was to me. We continued this as Sora and the other guy went at it. Sora blocked Oblivion with his Keyblade and knocked it away. Oathkeeper struck upward but was also parried. He struck downward again, and Sora continued to block. As Sora struck, the figure jumped into the air and spun, landing on his feet. My foe and I slashed at each other as they fought, and I darted with blinding speed back and forth to confuse him, but he kept perfect track of me. The figure who Sora was fighting jumped at the brunette and Sora leapt to dodge, but was hit by Oblivion and thrown up into the air. The cloaked young man jumped up toward him, and Sora flipped upside down and blocked both Keyblades, and then flew to the floor. My opponent and I took to an aerial battle for a moment, and he knocked me into the floor, hard. The pair hovered in the air and noticed the tiles on the floor of Riku, Kurai, Kairi, Donald, and Goofy.
"We see. That's why," they said in unison again. They fell to the floor, where I resumed my fight and Sora with his. The figure Sora was fighting tried to strike him with Oblivion, but the brunette jumped away and continued to dodge his attacks. Sora deflected one strike, opening the way for the young man to pound relentlessly with his two Keyblades against Sora's one. I struggled to maintain my strength, and what happened next seemed to happen simultaneously. We both lost our fights, Sora getting his Keyblade knocked away as one knee gave in while my opponent pinned me to the ground. Sora tried to run to his Keyblade, but the young man stabbed his Oathkeeper into the floor between Sora and his Keyblade. Sora and I struggled against our anger. Sora held out his hand to summon the Keyblade, and it vanished from the Oathkeeper's hold. I realized my tail wasn't pinned, and I swiftly used my tail to yank my opponent back away from me.
"What?!" the pair gasped at the same time. The Keyblade flashed into Sora's hand, and our next moves were timed perfectly: Sora slashed down as I crunched onto my foe's neck with my fangs. Once that happened, the pair began to walk forward, the two Keyblades dropping from the young man's hands and clattering on the ground, and then vanishing. They stumbled forward, their hoods falling off. The young man's golden blonde hair showed as my foe's silver head showed. They stood up and turned slightly to us.
"You make good others," they said in perfect harmony. The world faded to white and Sora and I were back at Memory's Skyscraper. It had stopped raining.
"You make good others," we murmured, pondering the pair's last statement.
"Are you both okay?" Donald asked as he and Goofy approached.
"What…just happened?" we asked.
"Gawrsh, I dunno. You both just disappeared. Then me and Donald had to fight some Nobodies," Goofy answered.
"Oh. They said…they defeated Riku and Kurai…" we said.
"Who said that?" Donald demanded.
"Those guys. In the black coats," We explained.
"But nobody could defeat Riku and Kurai," Donald pointed out.
"Y…yeah. You're right," we agreed.
"Black coats mean Organization XIII. They musta been tryin' to trick ya," Goofy told us.
"Yeah, that must be why we didn't see them!" Donald realized.
"Huh?" we said, confused.
"You must be tired, Sora and Shadow," Donald told us.
"C'mon, let's just find a way to get into that castle!" Goofy said. Donald and Goofy walked on ahead, and Sora and I took one last look behind us before heading out after the others. We soon met with King Mickey at the Brink of Despair, where the road ended.
"Dead end?" I asked the King.
"There's gotta be a path somewhere," he replied determinedly. We saw a section of the flying castle shine brightly, and Sora and I blocked the blinding light with our hands. The Keyblade appeared, and Sora took it, and my claws glowed in response. We focused our energy at the castle and a beam shot out from the Keyblade while another beam shot out from a focus point in my claws. Once they shot out, a ramp appeared.
"Kairi…We're almost there," Sora and I said quietly. We all five walked up the ramp and into Nothing's Call. "Kairi! Where are you?"
"Shhhh! Remember where we are! This is their stronghold!" Mickey hissed at us, and ran off.
"Wait! Your Majesty!" Donald called after him.
"Be careful! I think we got company!" Goofy warned us. We fought some Nobodies as we continued through Nothing's Call to Crooked Ascension. We entered Twilight's View and readied ourselves for a fight in the Hall of Empty Melodies. We walked in, ready for just about anything.
"Sora, Shadow…You've done well," Saix's voice called to us. We looked and saw Saix on a very elaborate high ledge.
"Where's Kairi?" Sora demanded as I snarled.
"Who knows? I expect she's catching up with her friends from the darkness," Saix replied.
"What do you mean?!" we yelled.
"She doesn't need you anymore," the blunette said simply.
"We're supposed to believe that?" we snapped at him.
"Well, you don't have to…But you can believe this. Organization XIII has no further use for either one of you…Just look there," he said, pointing to the heart-shaped moon. "Our Kingdom Hearts…Thanks to you, we've collected countless hearts…Can you hear their euphoria? Now, all they need is one more helping from the Keyblade and light bearers!" He snapped his fingers and hundreds of Shadow Heartless emerged from the walls.
"We gotta fight!" Donald cried out.
"But—Kingdom Hearts!" Sora and I said in desperation.
"Sora! Shadow!" we heard Kairi's voice call out to us from above. We looked and saw Kairi standing on a ledge above us. "Sora! Shadow! It's really you!"
"Kairi!" Sora and I shouted to her. Shadows covered us piling on top, and Kairi gasped.
"You leave Sora and Shadow alone!" she yelled at the Heartless. Sora and I struggled and pushed the Heartless off from us.
"Get off!" we growled, and stood up. We looked up and saw Kairi fighting alongside Ansem and a dark creature against the Heartless. "What's going on?!" Suddenly, a single shot of what looked like a laser arrow landed nearby, destroying a Heartless. We looked at it, but then a myriad of projectiles obliterated the Heartless surrounding us.
"Have you been good boys?" Xigbar's voice called out.
"Show yourself!" we ordered. Xigbar appeared on the elaborate ledge.
"Oh, it sounds like you haven't," he remarked. "Sora and Shadow! Roxas and Night!"
"Roxas and Night? Did he just call us Roxas and Night?" Sora and I asked Donald for clarification. He nodded.
"You've both really put Organization XIII in a pickle. I guess that must be why the Keyblade and light chose you. But MAN, did they pick a pair of duds this time. Neither of you look like half the heroes the others were," he said, rambling.
"Are you done rambling?" we demanded.
"Rambling? As if!" he retorted. "All I'm trying to tell you, traitors, is that your time is up!" He threw his hands up and his shooting katars appeared. He threw them to his sides and cocked them.
"Here he comes!" Goofy shouted in warning. Xigbar jumped down and smirked at us. Sora, Donald, Goofy, and I fought Xigbar hard, using a barrage of our strongest magic, preferably Thundaga. We eventually fought Xigbar until he could no longer hold his weapons. They clattered to the floor.
"Why did you call us Roxas and Night?" Sora and I demanded. Xigbar looked up at us.
"Wouldn't you like to know…" he said, fading away.
"Hey! Hold on!" we said, but it was too late.
"Sora, Shadow! It's Kairi!" Donald said, reminding us, and we took off to go to her. We fought through the area, and finally, finally got to Kairi, Ansem, and Ansem's creature.