I updated again! Holy shit! I know it's short but I'm breaking up the fights so deal with it! I was going to write more for this chapter but I thought it would be a good idea to break it up. There's one more chapter after this one and then an epilogue thingy. Yay! I hope you all like. Maybe I'll get the next bit out tonight! ^^ I don't own Kingdom Hearts. Enjoy.
"So it comes down to this, hm?" Xemnas said softly as the group came to a halt before him.
"It seems so," Roxas said coldly, his voice reminding Axel of the first time he had seen him, a cold hearted and evil master. "It's time to repay for all of the sins you have committed."
"Oh, and what about you? What about all you have done, Roxas Hikaru?" Xemnas replied.
"We've forgiven him," Sora spoke up. "He's been forgiven, you however, have not been." The silver keyblade jerked up so that it was level with Xemnas's chest. "We will kill you."
"You'll have to go through me first," Saix snarled, knocking away the keyblade with his huge claymore, batting it aside as though it were merely a twig and not a heavy weapon.
"Enough talk," Luxord said calmly, pulling out a deck of cards calmly.
"Who are you?" Xemnas demanded, examining the black cloak Luxord wore with a critical gaze.
"I'm just like you, my boy," Luxord said, grinning. "Only more experienced. I was born, my friend. I was not…created."
"It seems we'll have to talk more later," Xemnas said calmly.
"Dead men can't talk."
"Men, you have your orders," Xemnas said stiffly.
Saix smirked and lunged, swinging his claymore directly at Luxord. Luxord ducked swiftly and danced away, drawing the man back and away from the others as the blue haired man attacked furiously. He winked once at Roxas and flung a card from his deck directly at Saix, hitting the man squarely between the eyes.
"I'll take this bad boy somewhere else."
With that, they both disappeared. Lexaeus reacted instantly, slipping between Axel and the others, swinging the large tomahawk at the Neko's head. Axel drew his chakrams and blocked, green eyes lighting up.
"Hey Xemmy," he called, easily holding Lexaeus back. "Remember that rut? It has yet to fade."
The chakrams flared then and he leapt away, spinning the circles of fire in his hands before swinging both at Lexaeus, the movement fluid as if he had been born doing it. Demyx quickly joined the fray, cracking the ice and bringing up a well of water, slamming it into Lexaeus back.
Roxas moved to help but Xemnas blocked him with a glowing red sword. "Your opponent is me, boy. The Hikaru's will all die by my hand for you have overstayed your welcome."
(INSERTBREAKHERE)
Saix was startled to arrive on a small balcony that branched off from a rather large white and grey castle. He looked out beyond him and was startled to see a twisting labyrinthine of corridors and empty blue and red space.
"Where have you taken me, card dealer?" he demanded, whirling around.
"My home," Luxord replied simply, shuffling his cards nonchalantly. "I believe you draw your power from the moon, do you not?" He gestured above them and Saix looked up.
A large luminous moon hung in the black sky above them, it's heart shaped surface stirring something deep within him. Was this what they had been searching for? Kingdom Hearts, as Xemnas had always called it, the realm that they would find their hearts.
"Draw all the power you need. You will still not beat me," Luxord told him.
"We'll see about that," Saix snarled, a shimmering light spiraling down from the moon and gathering along the edge of the huge claymore.
He lunged and Luxord flipped a card into the air. The card suddenly grew, larger than Luxord and it stood before him, blocking his vision of the blond haired man. He growled and smashed his claymore into the huge seven of hearts and plowed forward towards the man he had exposed.
A card was behind Luxord and he nimbly jumped into it, his body flattening out with the surface. Saix didn't hesitate to swing his claymore but suddenly the card was flat and had split into three cards, all of them twirling around him with their backs to him. He tried to keep his gaze steady on the one that contained Luxord but decided it would be better just to smash them all.
And that was precisely what he did, only to have all three vanish in a flurry of sparkles.
"So angry. Such anger will get you nowhere."
Saix spun around, swinging his claymore up and slamming it down upon the man. Well, at least he thought he did. Instead, Luxord once again became a card so the heavy weapon only ended up pinning the card down, doing no damage at all. Saix grinned, realizing he had the man in a place where he could no longer move.
He leaned on the claymore to hold the now wiggling card down as he drew a knife from the folds of his cloak, something he always carried around just in case. Just as he was about to pierce the card, the card split in two, spinning away from him though the original still remained pinned.
Wondering which one contained the real Luxord, Saix let his weight leave the claymore, his eyes following the dashing card above him. However, this had given Luxord the opportunity to slip the other card out and suddenly appear in human form before him.
"I see. You're one of those 'oh, shiny' kind of people aren't you?"
Saix growled low in his throat and lunged again. Luxord darted away and waved his hands once. A new deck of cards appeared in them and Luxord began to shuffle them, all the while building Saix's anger as he dodged the attacks with liquid grace as if it was the easies thing in the world to do, as if Saix was weak.
"I'm not usually violent by nature, but what can I say, you bring the worst out in me," Luxord said, halting so abruptly that Saix did the same.
The cards no longer looked like cards, instead taking the shape of small black, red, and white daggers, all of them still flat as paper. He brought his claymore to protect himself as Luxord began flicking them with sharp flicks of his wrist, determined to sneak his daggers through the small wholes near the end of Saix's claymore. It was the section that was protecting his face and with a well placed flick, he would be able to kill the man. But Saix seemed to catch onto this and twirled the claymore quickly, bringing the handle up to his face so there was more coverage, all the while advancing on Luxord.
"Oh blast, I'm all out of cards," Luxord sighed.
No sooner had the words left his mouth, Saix attacked again. Luxord was growing bored, he really was. The man was a complete amateur, letting his anger rule him when the moon, his element, would do a much better job at such a task. He drew a single card out of his pocket and with quickly nimble movements, shaped it into a heart.
Then, he stopped and grabbed Saix's claymore firmly the next time he swung it, holding it still. He ripped it out of the blue haired man's grasp and sent it scattering with a strength it didn't appear he would have.
"You-" Saix started but Luxord seized him roughly with one hand, holding him still as he backed him up against a wall.
"Xemnas told you that you don't have a heart, didn't he? But you do. Blood runs in your veins and you feel anger. They are echoes, I will say that, but the blood is real. Physically, you have a heart. Emotionally, not at all. You only remember what it likes to feel, back when you were Somebody," Luxord said softly. "Poor thing. Now you'll be just like them."
"Just like who?" Saix breathed.
Luxord patiently twirled the heart shaped card and then suddenly slammed it into Saix's chest, piercing his jacket and then his flesh. "The Heartless, my dear boy. I'll see you later."
As Saix faded away, Luxord found he didn't feel the least bit sorry. After all, in the heat of the moment, he had told the man a very important secret, something he need to guard more carefully in the future; it seemed battle just excited him too much sometimes. It didn't matter now, the man was dead. His secret was safe.
(INSERTBREAKHERE)
Axel's chakrams glowed with flame as he flung one after another at Lexaeus, each one coming right back to him after being deflected. Demyx was keeping the big man on his toes, literally, bursts of water erupting up from beneath him.
Lexaeus lunged away from one of Axel's attacks and smashed his tomahawk into Demyx's shoulders. The merman shouted in pain but didn't fall, summoning up more water as his gaze grew deadly. A column of water shot up out of the sea and slammed into Lexaeus, shoving him back several feet.
Axel slashed at him with his chakrams, spilling blood upon the ice and making it even more slick. As the scent of iron tinted blood reached his nose, Axel felt his rut seize a firm control over him again, his vision growing a deep red as he focused in on Lexaeus, the fire growing hotter on his chakrams.
He flung one of them again but Lexaeus made a quick sweeping motion with his tomahawk and several stone spikes darted through the air towards him. They bypassed the chakram, which he blocked, and headed straight for Axel. A jet of water knocked them sideways and suddenly, dozens of little Demyx water clones were in front of Axel, taking several more hits from the stone spikes before falling in small puddles and seeping into the ice.
Axel ran forward a few feet and caught his chakram before sending a wave of flame straight towards Lexaeus. Lexaeus braced his feet and took the fire, letting it radiate around his weapon, causing the black metal to glow red hot. Then he whirled and attacked Demyx again.
However, Demyx was ready this time around. He waved his arms and he was suddenly encased in a protective water shield. The tomahawk hissed and steam rose off of it before suddenly breaking through the shield. Axel reacted instantly, dropping the chakrams and tackling the big man full on, barely moving him an inch. Lexaeus shifted his shoulders to throw him off but Demyx had grabbed the big man's arm, yanking him forward. He still didn't budge but it gave Demyx the leverage he needed.
Water floated up from within the protective water shield and twined around Lexaeus's wrist, no doubt squeezing it until he dropped the tomahawk. Axel bunched his legs up so he had his feet braced against the orange haired man's back before he sprang off of him, satisfied now that Demyx could handle himself while he grabbed his weapons.
As soon as he touched them though, something odd happened. Flames spiked up around him and raised to strange heights, at least twenty feet tall. Axel watched in amazement as they raced along the ice, not melting it but forming a barrier around him and Lexaeus, locking Demyx out. Unsure of why it had done that without his command, he grabbed them firmly and faced the man. His tomahawk had somehow ended back up in his hand, probably how Axel's chakrams seemed to go straight back to him.
"Protecting your friend?" Lexaeus mused.
"Apparently so," Axel murmured. "Well, let's get this on with shall we?"
Lexaeus gave a battle cry and came at him. Axel ducked to dodge and then let the flames from his chakrams lick at Lexaeus, burning him once before returning back to the spinning wheels. The Neko jumped back to avoid another hit and raised the chakrams above his head, going with instinct. The flames seemed to grow hotter and Axel jumped towards Lexaeus.
Jets of fire suddenly burst forth from the icy surface, spiking towards the sky. More and more appeared, filling up the area around them and Axel felt a strange thrill zip through him as the fire burned hotter and hotter around him and more of it appeared until he could see nothing in front of him but flames.
Several tense minutes passed and slowly, the flames died away into nothingness. There was no trace of Lexaeus though a few smoky tendrils of black mist trailed up from the ice before vanishing as well. Axel fell to his knees, suddenly feeling very drained. Black spots began to cloud his vision and he was briefly aware of Demyx running towards him before his vision closed off altogether.