Chapter XXVIII
Dragonfire
The Dragon had hit the tower straight-on, causing it to fall. I was losing my balance, but I summoned my bow and stuck it in the floor, to keep my balance. I caught Sora's hand as he slid past, supporting both of us in the inevitable crash of the building. Riku was out of our reach, however. The crazy Keyblade wielder ran down the tower, with the slope, jumping off at the end. "Riku!" Sora shouted.
However, our silver-haired companion had found something neat; it was a hover bike, complete with a platform on the side. "Hop on!" he shouted, and I banished my Keyblade and landed on the platform, while Sora landed on the seat behind Riku.
"You know how to fly this?" Sora asked Riku. Almost instantly, the bike fell about fifty feet in the air, but Riku regained control.
"More or less," he responded.
I added on, "Riku, if you weren't the only one who could fly this thing, I'd raise your voice an octave."
He ignored my comment, but continued. "This thing has a weapons system, so let's shoot that thing down. Sora, I'll leave the laser controls to you." He pressed a button on the handlebars, and a control panel flipped back to be in Sora's reach. "I'll maneuver and I can project a short-range shield to protect us. Zack, you use your bow and make sure nothing gets close to us. The dragon's bound to have guards."
"But can't you just use the shield to defend if something gets close?"
"No, it will only protect from ranged fire or missiles, not melee attacks or explosions." Riku hit the gas, and I maintained balance as we sped towards the dragon.
Sora shouted, "That looks like a missile launcher, on its tail. Let's take it out!" He aimed his lasers at it, and scored a direct hit. I saw a few Nobodies fly out of the dragon, and took aim with my bow. I switched to the normal bow, my first one. It may be basic and weak, but it had the longest range out of any of my arrows and a decent damage output. I launched my arrows, hitting a Nobody out of the sky for each one. Problem was that there were just so many of them. More than one got close enough to launch a melee attack, which damaged the vessel.
"I said to take them out before they get to the bike!" Riku shouted as he swung his Keyblade to defend against an airborne assassin.
"Wanna switch?" Then, I noticed something, down on the dragon's back. "Riku, look there, between the wings."
"Is that a… hole?"
"Yeah, I think we can get in through that."
Sora responded, "You're crazy, Zack. A crazy, deranged lunatic. I love it."
"We don't know where it leads, though." Riku said, hitting the bike to a hard right to avoid laser fire. "It might be a dead-end, and we'll lose the bike." Riku ducked and swerved, but laser fire got through the shield and hit us straight-on, causing fire to belch out of the bike.
A missile hit us, exploding and damaging the laser system. "At this point, we'll lose the bike anyway!" I said. "Let's go for it, I'll steer us in." I jumped over to the seat, knocking Riku back and aiming the crashing bike towards the hole. "Get ready to jump!"
"This is insane!" Riku shouted.
"NOW!" We jumped off the bike, which veered off. We landed not far from the hole on the dragon's back, and scrambled in after the bike hit the dragon's head and exploded, causing major damage to its skull. Inside, there was a narrow path leading up and down the thing's body, just big enough to crawl through.
"I'll bet you five hundred munny that Xemnas is at the head of this thing." Sora said.
"Seconded." I said, as we started to creep up the tunnel. When I made my way to the head of the dragon, I wondered where Xemnas was; he wasn't sitting in the throne, neither was the Nobody wandering around. "Where is he?"
"Wait, what's that over there?" Riku pointed out a small, white portal hovering to our left. Inside I could see nothing but gray space, swirling around in artful patterns. In the center stood a figure with silver hair, clothed in a white and black robe.
"It's Xemnas!" Sora said. "Let's get him!" He jumped into the portal not a second later. Riku turned to me, shrugged his shoulders, and jumped as well. I followed suit, feeling a mild tingling sensation as I fell through the portal. I closed my eyes, and when I opened them, I was standing next to Sora and Riku, facing Xemnas's back.
He turned around, and spoke in his demonic voice: "Heroes from the realm of light." He spat out the last word, his voice laced with venom. "I will not allow it to end this way- not yet."
News flash, Xemnas- three on one is not a favorable outcome for you.
"If light and darkness are eternal, then surely we nothings must be the same- Eternal." He spread his arms to his sides, to try to receive some power from the universe. That, or he was just being dramatic.
"You're right, Xemnas. Light and darkness are eternal." Riku said.
"Nothing probably goes on forever, too." Sora added on.
I finished our little speech by saying, "But guess what, Xemnas- that doesn't mean YOU'RE eternal!"
We summoned our Keyblades, and stood ready to fight. Xemnas laughed, his voice chilling my spine. "No more eternal than that radiance of yours."
(A/N: keep your eyes open for the next chapter, my friends! It will be out either today or tomorrow, if I have time. Until next time, ~Nano)
