Chapter 25
Fields Of Honor

The quartet cruised toward the Land of Dragons. Alex stretched. They had been in Hollow Bastion for quite a while. And the thousand Heartless battle had been a pain in the neck. He was glad to be out and about again.

A silence had descended on the ship. In the amount of time they had been in Hollow Bastion, they had learned about Ansem the Wise and his apprentices, as well as the truth about Xehanort's Heartless and Nobody, and Organization XIII's plan. And on top of that, Kairi had been kidnapped. All was not well.

"Alex," Donald began. There was an obvious edge to his voice. "If there's anything else we should know in advance, tell us a bit sooner." Alex chuckled, but it was forced. "Sure thing. But that was the bulk of it."

Alex sighed. Now that the showdown at Hollow Bastion was over, his guilt was free to haunt his mind. He still blamed himself for letting Kairi get kidnapped by Saïx. He had left her behind when Goofy was knocked out, and the Nobody had been free to abduct her. Now she was being held hostage by Organization XIII.

He held his hand out, and the Lockshield appeared in inky black smoke and rested in his hand. The opposite of the Keyblade, with similar powers and properties. When the Keyblade defeated a Heartless, a heart was released, which Organization XIII immediately stole. Alex's Lockshield wasn't exempt. He was being indirectly controlled by the Nobodies as well. Though that wasn't exactly a surprise. Xemnas, the Organization's leader, had apparently become aware of the game Kingdom Hearts II.

"We're here," Sora announced cheerfully, abruptly breaking the others' thoughts. "The Land of Dragons again."

The quartet appeared in the village. It was still as burnt and barren as they remembered it to be. They started walking through it, trying to find anything recognizable. Frankly, they had no idea what to do. But it was worth a shot anyway.

"I wonder how everybody's doin'?" Goofy asked, speaking for all of them. Donald stopped, noticing something ahead. "Look!" Everyone else stopped and followed the duck's gaze. Just beyond the rubble in front of them was a guy in a black coat. His hood was up, so they couldn't see his face. The man looked back at them, stared for a second, then started running toward the mountain path.

"Wait!" Sora yelled, starting to chase the hooded man. Suddenly, from behind them came a familiar voice. "Sora!" Everybody turned back and saw Mulan coming toward them. She stopped and caught her breath, apparently having been running for a while.

"Mulan, hey," Sora quickly greeted her, wanting to get down to business. "No time to talk. We gotta catch that guy!" Mulan stood up straight and started walking forward. "I'm following him, too!" she stated.

Donald smirked. "Then let's go!" They all started running up the mountain.

The five of them followed the man in black to the summit. Or, at least, they had been led by that guy to this place. The man in question was nowhere to be found.

Mulan took a good look at their surroundings. "Looks like he got away," she finally admitted. Goofy glanced at her. "How come you're after somebody from Organization XIII?"

"What is that?" Mulan asked, not familiar with the Organization. "The guy in black," Sora explained. "One of the bad guys!" Donald added.

"I knew it!" Mulan exclaimed, placing her hands on her hips. "There's a rumor in the Imperial City about a spy in black, lurking in the mountains. I'd been up here tracking him, but when you arrived, I lost him."

"Oh," Alex grunted sympathetically. There wasn't really much else to say. Goofy lowered his head. "Sorry!" he apologized, feeling incredibly guilty. Mulan smiled. "Don't apologize." She looked around again. "But I do wonder where he went."

They heard a soft rumbling sound. It was rather familiar. Mulan and Alexander looked up at the hill above them, where they had faced down Shan-Yu and his army of Rapid Thruster Heartless previously.

The rumbling became more intense. At the top of the hill, small shapes began to line up at the top. They immediately recognized it. It was another army of Rapid Thrusters. Donald rolled his eyes. "Again?" he mumbled in resignation. Alex glanced at the wizard. I was about to say that, he thought to himself. Joumae laughed. Gotta be quicker about it next time, Alex.

The Rapid Thrusters charged toward them. Everyone brought out their weapons. "Okay," Sora decided, "first things first!" The whole group charged, but Sora stopped after a couple steps. Alex noticed this and stopped also. The other three kept on running. Sora and Alex turned back to see the man in black from before.

Sora pointed his Keyblade at the man. "Hey! You! Quit sneaking around!" Alex bashed a couple of Rapid Thrusters that were right behind Sora. They were stuck between this Organization guy and the Heartless army.

Some kind of dark sword appeared in the guy's hand. Alex's breath caught in his throat when he saw it. He'd seen it far too many times before in Chain of Memories. And this guy was using the right stance for this weapon to be used. It was the Soul Eater. "Riku..." he breathed. Sora's eyes widened slightly, but he made no comment.

The fight was rather half-hearted. Sora and Alex mainly focused on the Rapid Thrusters Riku barely even fought them. Often, he just stood there and took their attacks. But when he did move, his attacks were laced with darkness rather than the usual Nothing Threads of the Nobodies, which confirmed Alex's suspicion. Riku's dark powers gave him wide and long-ranged attacks, knocking Sora and Alex back and destroying a few of the Heartless around them. The battle went on and on like that, with no certain victor.

Sora lowered his Keyblade. All of the Heartless were gone. He turned back to the man in black. He shrugged and ran off again. Sora ran after him, but stopped as the guy rounded the corner. "That guy..." Sora muttered. "No... Why... would he?" He stretched a hand forth and took another step. "Riku?"

Donald, Goofy, Mulan, and Alexander approached Sora. Donald looked up at Sora. "Are you okay, Sora?" he asked worriedly. Goofy looked around. "Did ya get 'im?"

"Hmm..." Sora mumbled, coming out of his thoughts. "Oh – he's gone," Sora muttered.

Donald jumped in surprise. "What? You lost him?" he shouted irritably. Sora and Mulan exchanged looks, then they all got back to business. "Anyway..." Alex said with a sigh. "What now?"

Goofy thought about it. "I think that we better get rid of all the Heartless first." Donald nodded his approval. A moment later, the whole mountain started to shake and rumble, nearly throwing the five of them off their feet. The shaking only lasted a few seconds, but they were left bewildered. "What was that?" Mulan asked, looking around almost nervously. "Come on, we better get off the mountain."

Sora nodded. "Okay." They all walked back the way they came, but Sora couldn't help but steal a glance at the clearing again, trying to see if something or someone was there.

As soon as they were back at the Ridge area, the rumbling started up again. Alex looked up at a hill to the side, where something big just flew out of the snow. Looking close, Alexander saw that it was a huge dragon Heartless with spikes all over the top, big wings, and four pairs of cymbal-like appendages on the underside. "It's a Storm Rider Heartless!" Alex yelled.

The Storm Rider flew away from them and from the mountain, heading for a familiar structure in the distance. "It's heading for the city!" Mulan exclaimed, pointing for emphasis. "We've got to warn Shang!" With no further words between them, they all resumed running down the mountain path, hoping to reach the palace before the Heartless did.

Sora and the gang ran into the imperial square. The square was empty; there wasn't a single Heartless in sight. "Huh?" Sora mumbled. "It's all clear."

It was at that moment that four Bolt Towers and an Assault Rider Heartless appeared in front of them. Alex summoned his Lockshield. "As usual, one of us has to speak far too soon!" he groaned. The rest of them brought out their weapons. Alexander regarded the Heartless quickly. These particular types were powerhouses, and they didn't have spare time to formulate a strategy for these things. So they went with the first least time-consuming idea.

"Light!" Sora shouted. His head and limbs snapped back, and light shot out from his garments. When the light faded, Donald and Goofy were nowhere to be seen. Sora's clothes were now a bright gold. He held two Keyblades, though "held" is a loose term, for the one near his right hand was floating and spinning, suspended by some kind of flickering gold light. This was Master Form.

Sora jumped forward and attacked. It seemed that Master Form specialized in aerial attacks. Plenty of spinning and swiping at enemies there. For the finisher, Sora started spinning around in place in the air, and a wide halo of light encircled him. All the enemies within that halo got sucked into some kind of vortex and spun around Sora. Then Sora did a 360° slash with one Keyblade, defeating all of the Heartless within his little vortex. Sora landed on the ground and reverted. Donald and Goofy reappeared. Donald was still nauseous and Goofy was still fine. After giving Donald a chance to recover, they ran for the palace gate.

Sora, Donald, and Goofy ran up to the gate and crashed into it. They pushed it and pulled the handle as hard as they could, but the gate wouldn't budge. "Open up!" Sora yelled, banging on the door. Mulan looked around for an alternate route. There was a climbable pillar that they could use to enter the building from the rigging above. "Over here!" Mulan shouted.

Alex, knowing the plan in advance, jumped onto the pillar and hugged it, then started climbing his way to the top. With his fear of heights, he didn't bother to look down. He assumed that Goofy, Donald, Sora, and Mulan were making their way up as well. Alex reached a piece of the rigging near the ceiling that the pillar was supporting. He jumped to it and hung there for a second. He then inched his way to the wall of the gate, seeing a hole that led to the antechamber. Alex swung a bit, then jumped into the hole and into the antechamber.

The five of them dropped down to the floor. Though Donald stumbled a little bit on the landing, they had all made it through okay. There was a man in black near the door to the throne room. Before Sora could do anything, Alex walked forward and shouted, "Braig!" Sora, Donald, and Goofy exchanged confused looks.

The man flinched, and slowly turned to face them. He slowly lifted his hood, revealing the head of Xigbar. "Haven't had anyone call me that in a long while," Braig's Nobody remarked. Four Sniper Nobodies appeared around the five fighters, which turned to face the enemies. When Alex looked again, Xigbar was gone. Or so he thought. He turned around to see the Nobody sneaking out the front door.

Nevermind him. Focus on the Snipers! Roxas scolded him. But it was a good thing, because one of the Nobodies had just fired a bolt at him. Using the Lockshield's power to use his enemies' abilities against them, Alex warped in front of the round and whacked it back toward the Nobody. It was a direct hit, and the Sniper dissipated. Sora also tried the technique a few times. The Snipers were defeated rather quickly.

They all ran through the doors to the throne room, arriving rather unceremoniously. The Emperor was sitting in his throne, and Shang was standing beside him. Alex had the grace to bow and mutter, "Er... hello, Your Excellency." He was still getting used to formalities. Mulan sighed in relief. "It seems this place hasn't been attacked yet."

"Not quite," the Emperor disagreed. "There was a man in black here." This surprised all of them. "The Captain fought with the man, but was defeated." Shang squirmed for a moment, then turned to the Emperor. "To my dishonor."

Sora nodded passively. "Did this man happen to give a name?" The Emperor shook his head. "He kept his hood up the whole time. He was rather rude."

"Rude?" Sora repeated. "Then it was Riku!" Alex laughed openly at this remark. Just then, a loud crash resonated through the Imperial city, and the ground began to shake violently. "The Storm Rider!" Alex shouted, before anyone could ask him. "It's here!" He grinned and summoned his Lockshield. "Let's go take it out!"

Donald led the way down the steps, but no one followed yet. Sora had folded his arms, and was in deep thought. "It's a dragon that can fly... How are we supposed to attack it?" he murmured.

"Hmm... A flying opponent," the Emperor thought aloud. "To fight something that can fly, one must fly himself." The quartet gave him a funny look. "Birds know that height means dominancy," His Excellency explained. "If you get high enough, you will find a weakness."

Shang nodded in approval. "In battle, anything can happen. Pay attention to your surroundings, and see if you can find something that will give you an advantage."

Alex chuckled. "Sound advice." Donald stomped a webbed foot on the floor impatiently. "Let's go already!" Mulan nodded. "Right!"

Mulan heaved, and the huge door slowly slid open. As soon as she had gotten halfway open, the Storm Rider dropped down and roared, startling her. She backed up involuntarily, but Sora put a hand on her shoulder. She nodded, and they all ran out to the square.

The Storm Rider circled them as they brought out their weapons and got into a fighting stance. Once it reached one of the corners of the square, it turned around in place to face them. You're kidding... Joumae gasped. Everyone else got uneasy expressions as well. The Storm Rider looked like it was ready to charge right at them. It was. And it did, passing right over them and forcing them to dive out of the way.

Alex saw an opportunity. Quickly getting back onto his feet, he started running after the Storm Rider. He dived and got a hold of the Heartless's tail. He stood up and slowly got his balance as the others, one by one, jumped onto the Storm Rider's back. The Heartless rose up into the air, carrying the five fighters with it.

Alex smirked. "This is the Storm Rider's weak point, guys." He walked up to the Heartless's right horn on the top of its head and whacked it as hard as he could. The Heartless roared in pain, and lightning began to shoot down from nowhere at them. The other four scattered, but tried to attack the horn and avoid the lightning the best they could. Goofy wailed as he stumbled after a lightning strike and fell off the dragon Heartless.

"Goofy!" Sora yelled, looking down. Goofy managed to land on his feet; they were close enough to the ground now. But he wasn't getting back up.

The Storm Rider jerked forward. Alex knew what was up. He quickly wrapped his arms and legs around one of the dragon's huge horns. The Storm Rider flew forward, up, and back again in a loop, throwing the others off. Alex let go of the horn as soon as the Heartless leveled out. He resumed bashing the weak horn.

Suddenly, the Storm Rider flew straight up, throwing Alexander off. Alex fortunately landed on his feet, like the others. The Storm Rider landed on the bridge connecting the two parts of the square. Two bright walls appeared on either side of their small area. "Watch out!" Alex shouted to all of them. "Those walls will shock you if you touch them!" The walls began to close in, shocking a certain Donald Duck who had been caught off guard. Everyone kept their distance from the walls after that.

The Storm Rider was forming some kind of electrical energy in front of its head. Seconds after this fact sunk in, a beam of lightning shot across the center of their "arena". Fortunately, none of them had gotten close enough to get hit. The Storm Rider charged for another round, and the walls got as close as they could get. There was still a few feet for them to stand in without getting shocked one way or another. The Heartless fired another beam, then flew up into the air. The walls dissipated.

The Storm Rider positioned itself at one side of the arena. It spread its wings as far as it could, and started sweeping the whole area, flying toward the five of them. There was no way to dodge it, but... "Sora!" Alex yelled.

Sora got the message. He ran toward the Storm Rider, and slid under it right before it collided with him. From there, Sora whacked the dragon's belly with his Keyblade, sending it up into the air. It landed back down on the ground face-first, temporarily stunned for the moment.

Alexander wasted no time. He jumped up to the creature's head, whacked the weak horn a few times, then shouted, "Blizzara!" A large cluster of ice crystals fired at the horn, damaging it more effectively than a regular Blizzard spell would've done.

The Storm Rider roared in pain, and flew back up into the air, knocking Alex away from it. It flapped its wings furiously, trying to keep itself up despite the damage it had taken. It failed, and started to fall to the ground... straight at where Mulan was standing. She hesitated, and lost the time she needed to run.

"Mulan!" Shang yelled, running toward her. Shang grabbed Mulan and forced her down, covering her body with his. Fortunately for them, the Storm Rider dissipated into darkness right before it collided with the ground. Sora cheered. "Way to go!" Alex watched the huge dark heart rise into the air from the Heartless's body. Another heart for Organization XIII.

Mulan and Shang looked into each other's eyes. Sora folded his arms, Donald started tapping his foot, and Goofy scratched his nose. Seeing the quartet, Mulan and Shang quickly separated. A plethora of fireworks started going off above the Imperial palace.

The five companions stood at attention in the throne room once more. "Once again," the Emperor remarked, "you have served China well. It would please me to reward you. What is it that you wish?"

Donald shook his hands together with glee. He was apparently thinking of munny. Goofy's stomach growled. He was apparently thinking of food. Sora thought about it. "Well... You say a guy in black came to see you. What did he say?"

"That is all you request?" the Emperor asked in surprise. Donald and Goofy tried to indicate their requests to Sora. "Yes," Sora replied. The other two sighed and hung their heads. They looked up again to listen.

"Dragons have crossed our lands and left a great web of paths," the Emperor explained. "These dragons wield much power, and they are the source of many gifts to both man and nature." The quartet nodded. "But it would seem someone of evil intent disturbed one of our dragons, and transformed it into what you call a Heartless."

So that Storm Rider was once a genuine dragon... Roxas mused. "It is my belief that this young man came to warn me of that danger. Then, I could alert and prepare my troops," the Emperor added.

"Did you?" Sora asked. His Excellency chuckled. "I was about to, but he told me the situation had changed." Shang nodded. "He said four 'wise guys' had arrived, and they would take care of things."

Sora did a take. Smiling, he declared, "That's gotta be Riku!" Donald shot a worried glance to Goofy. Goofy asked, "But what's he doin' hangin' out with Organization XIII?"

He's not, believe me, Roxas commented with a groan. Sora shrugged. "Well, at least I finally know he's okay. That's good enough." Donald nodded after a moment. "Yeah, that's good!"

"Now then, Fa Mulan," the Emperor stated. "Do you have a request?" Mulan was quick to answer, but she stuttered. "I'd like Shang... I-I mean... well... The Captain..." The Emperor feigned impatience, but Alex could tell he was amused. "Yes, yes, my dear. What is it?" Mulan indicated Shang. "Could the Captain have a vacation, please?" Shang was surprised by this.

The Emperor chuckled. "I hardly expected such humble requests." He stood up. "In this case, I'm afraid I must refuse. Captain Li's responsibility is to protect the Emperor. And yet, Mulan..." he added just as she started looking downcast. "Yes?" she said, correcting her posture.

"Would you like to serve alongside him and protect me?" the Emperor asked. "What?" Shang and Mulan mumbled simultaneously. "Two reeds together are stronger than one," the Emperor advised. "But the choice is yours alone," he added. Mulan smiled and bowed. "Thank you, Your Excellency!" Shang walked over to Mulan, who smiled back at him.

Sora smiled, but then started wiping away tears. He was probably thinking of Kairi. Goofy and Donald walked over to him and tried to comfort him. Sora quickly looked away, embarrassed.

Alex, sensing that the request was taken care of, spoke up. "Um, Your Excellency? I have a request." The Emperor turned to him. "Yes, Alexander, what is it?"

Alexander shuffled his feet a bit, then asked, "Do you know of anything about a Keyhole around here?" The Emperor thought about it, then chuckled. "Follow me." Alex followed the Emperor, who led him to behind the throne. There was a loose piece of the carpeting. Alex lifted it up and saw a small keyhole shape in the floor. Alex summoned the Lockshield and held it directly over the keyhole. A bright blue beam shot out from the Lockshield and sealed the keyhole with a loud clicking sound. "There we go," he muttered, standing up straight again.

Suddenly, Mulan's sword flew up into the air. This surprised everyone, including Alex. A halo of darkness appeared around the sword. Alex recognized this, and knew what had to be done. Alex held the Lockshield out in front of him.

All the other people in the room disappeared. Although Alex guessed that, to them, it looked like a flash of light had occurred. A light flashed from the Lockshield, and the shining image of the Heartless emblem appeared beneath his feet. A strange wind started to blow against him as his surroundings were enveloped by another light. He looked around again. He was in the same starry expanse as he had been in at Timeless River. This time, however, it was in color, so he could admire it properly. And what a sight it was.

Mulan's sword pointed up and shot a dark beam into the air, which formed a large keyhole in the space above him. Alex looked into it, and saw the mass of Shadows inching toward the opening. Oh no you don't! he thought. Alexander twirled around the Lockshield a bit and then finally pointed it at the keyhole. A halo surrounded his weapon for a moment, then it closed in and shot out a beam at the Dark Corridor. When it collided, a dark green wall formed itself and covered up the opening. Another light filled up the whole space, and Alex was back in the throne room with the others before he knew it.

"What was that?" Sora asked him. Alex sighed. "That was another Dark Corridor. This place won't have any trouble from the Heartless and Nobodies for a while."

He turned to Mulan and Shang. "Well, I wish you two the best of luck." He paused, then turned to leave. "See ya!"

Disclaimer: I only own Alexander, Joumae, and the Lockshield. Every other element of this story belongs to their respective owners. Namely Square-Enix and Disney.