Kaida coughed up more blood as she regained her composure and tried to stand up again, only to be knocked back down by a blow from Northex's bow.
"You ran from our fight, Kaida." He growled. "We're finishing this…NOW." He raised his bow, an arrow forming in his hand as he steadied his aim for the girl.
Riku's eyes widened as adrenaline rushed through his viens . There was no time to think. He and the King rushed to stand as a shield in front of Kaida, taking Northex by surprise. This girl was vital to the questions they all had, whether they would like the answers or not, and there was no chance that they would let her go like this into whatever afterlife she was destined to join.
Luka took their defensive move to an offensive level. With Northex distracted by Riku and King Mickey, he ran toward the man at full speed, shifting into his liger form as he did so. Jumping through the air on his powerful haunches, Luka pounced on Northex, taking him to the ground. His long canine teeth were clearly visible as he snarled at the Nobody.
"Leave her ALONE!" He roared. "You have some nerve beating up girls!"
"She's a weed that needs to be rooted out and destroyed!" Northex pushed Luka off of him, managing to stand up again. He glared at the two keybladers guarding the female nobody. "What reason do you have for protecting her? You don't even know her!"
"Maybe not." Riku began. "But we need her." He glanced back at Kaida. Her eyes were focused on him. For a split moment, he could have sworn that they were blue, the same wide blue eyes that would stare up at him so innocently for answers and comfort. No, he couldn't let himself believe anything just yet. "And I think, at least at the moment, she needs us."
Northex scoffed in annoyance. "Well isn't that touching. I thought you didn't need anyone, Kaida, but obviously you need to find someone to hide behind when things get a little tough."
Kaida's entire body filled with rage at Northex's comment so much that she began to shake a little. Her wide eyes seemed to have been set on fire. A renewed spirit allowed her to stand up again. "I'm not hiding, Northex. I'm right here, ready to take you on! I'm not sure how I got here, but no matter what we will finish this fight. I guarantee it!"
King Mickey looked at the girl in horror. "No! You can't fight him!"
"I have to!" Kaida retorted. "Now move out of the way!" She ran past Riku and Mickey before they could block her path. Her fans found their way back to her hands and she sent three waves of large ice shards hurling toward Northex, who seemed to dodge them with a frustrating ease that angered her more. A smile appeared on his face, causing Riku's stomach to drop. He watched both Nobodies closely, knowing that some new idea had just occurred to Northex.
Northex raised his bow again, this time with three arrows, at Kaida as she made her way closer to him. She was almost five feet away from him, before Northex decided to change directions. Instead of aiming for Kaida, he took aim for Luka, who stood off to the side and was now in his humanoid form. In the split second that he changed directions, Northex took his shot, piercing Luka with two arrows in his left shoulder and grazing his cheek with the third. The boy let out a cry of pain as the arrows penetrated him, causing Kaida to stop in her tracks. A look of horror was etched on her face that Riku thought was impossible for Nobodies to make.
Kaida's voice changed, as if it was another person talking, as she screamed. "NO!"
All eyes turned to her. Another sadist smile appeared on Northex face, as if confirming some notion about Kaida in his mind. This new voice sounded familiar but not. It struck a cord within Riku that made his adrenaline rush more to where he could feel his heart beating against his rib cage. He was anxious and somewhat scared of this new change. One thing can mean many different things, and if that trend was still going then he wasn't going to be caught off guard. A little fear could be a good thing in a situation, as long as one kept it in check and didn't let it over run them.
"Ichigo…" Luka said, breaking the brief silence as he pulled out the arrows from his shoulder. Kaida quickly covered her mouth, realizing what had happened. His gripped his wound tightly with his hat that had been discarded earlier to help stop the bleeding "Don't worry about me."
Kaida responded coolly in her usual voice, snapping back to her former persona. "I'm not."
"You shouldn't be." Northex added.
Another series of arrows came Kaida's way. This time however she was the one able to block them easily with her fan, each making their own metallic sound as they bounced off the fan and faded. A sickening smile however came to Northex's face, instead of anger or annoyance, as he looked at the girl that made even Riku's stomach twist into knots while Kaida slipped backwards a few steps from her opponent.
"But you are worried, aren't you?" Northex continued. Kaida remained silent and still. As if silence was better than answering. However the anger expressed in her face and eyes, did enough talking for her. "I'll make my offer one last time, Kaida." Northex held out his hand to the girl for her to take. "Stop being so stubborn and join me in making Kingdom Hearts. Don't you want a heart again? A real heart? To be complete?"
Kaida broke her silence with her built up anger. "No! For the millionth time, no! I'm not interested in joining you or making Kingdom Hearts! Besides a new heart won't make me complete again."
Northex brought back his hand and folded it behind his back. Instead of being defeated, he seemed to have had some truth confirmed for him. "Because you already have a heart, don't you?"
Tension increased from everyone in the area. From the corner of his eye, Riku could see that Luka was completely unaffected by this statement. Was this what he was talking about earlier? Riku glanced over to Kaida, who seemed frozen in shock. Although one could also thing she was literally frozen to the ground considering the ice spreading from her feet.
"A true Nobody would have jumped at the chance for a new heart, but you…," He paused to glance over Kaida. "You've resisted me and the Organization since the beginning. With whatever feelings you have for these people, you've proven that you are not a Nobody, and maybe you are in some abstract sense that you use to claim to be one of us. Still, you could have been such a good partner and ally, whatever you are." The same sickening smile appeared again as he continued to look over Kaida, although his eyes seemed to stuck on her exposed leg from the high slit in her skirt. "or something else."
At that moment, Riku wasn't sure if he was feeling more outraged that he wasn't sure what this meant Kaida was or that Northex was openly acting like a pervert toward a girl almost half his age. Kaida's face, however, had reached a new level of paleness.
"You're sick…" She said in utter disgust to the man, doing her best to hide her exposed leg from his sight.
"No matter. I've always sensed that you were different somehow, Kaida." Northex said calmly. "Now, I have a new way to solve this situation once and for all."
Suddenly, the doors of the mansion flew open. DiZ stepped outside into the sunlight, appearing to be almost like a floating shadow in his purple garb. Eyes flew from Kaida and Northex to the man now entering the area. Riku felt himself release a small gasp of air from his mouth as he saw the man he once worked with to help his friends and defeat the Organization. At first he didn't believe that this could possibly be the same man. Didn't he watch Ansem disappear after his decoder exploded in Xemnas' world? That quickly changed when the man spoke in his deep familiar voice.
"Ichigo! All of you! Run!" He shouted. "Get out of here and away from this man!"
"Stay out of this, old man!" Northex shouted in return before turning his attention back to Kaida. However, she was already taking heed to Ansem's warning by opening a corridor of darkness behind her.
Kaida waved franticly to Riku and the others with her fan to come to her and her corridor. "Come on! Just go through the corridor!"
"Not so fast, girl!" Northex ran toward Kaida, briefly disappearing for a moment before reappearing right in front of her, revealing his hidden hand that was holding a large orb of darkness. Without wasting time, he slammed it straight into her chest causing Kaida to crumble to the ground, drop her fans, and her corridor of darkness to disappear, even the ice and frost beneath her melted away. Her face was etched in pain as she wrapped her arms around her arms around her chest tightly where the orb of darkness had entered her. Riku and the King moved backward, joining Luka who had regained his composure and was standing again. He was still gripping griping his wound tightly.
"That should fix things." Northex stepped back, almost as if to admire Kaida's pain. "There are only two options from here, Kaida. You'll either die fighting the darkness or give in. At least then you'll be a true Nobody who would be more than willing join my side. Either way, it doesn't matter to me."
Northex was soon engulfed in his own corridor of darkness and vanished within seconds, leaving no trace of his presence. As soon as he was gone, Kaida screamed in pain. If Riku could have a guess, she had probably held in her pain until the Nobody was gone and couldn't see her scream or rile in the pain he had put her in. Again he felt a mix of emotions flood through him. He felt sorry for her. He wanted to stop her pain, to take away the Darkness. It wasn't about answers anymore. If there was any chance that this was Ichigo, then they needed to save Kaida. Even King Mickey looked at the girl with empathy for her pain. There was also Ansem, who now decided to join them from out of his cozy lab. There were more questions Riku had for him too. If he had heard him correctly, Ansem, or DiZ, also called Kaida by his sister's name.
"Ichigo," DiZ took off his violet disguise from his face, showing his identity as Ansem the Wise, as he came closer to the girl, past the iron gates of the house. "Fight it. You have to."
"Fight it, Ichigo!" Luka echoed desperately, getting as close to Kaida as he could on her level. A dark aura was beginning to form around the girl. The Darkness was slowly growing stronger within her. "Come on! You're stronger than the Darkness. I know you are!"
Kaida let out another deafening scream as she started grabbing her hair. Sparks flew from around her as she continued fighting the Darkness. The aura was growing larger around her body. Riku cringed as another surge of pain went through Kaida's body that promptly caused her to scream again. He could faintly see tears forming in the corners of her eyes. The sound of a door caught Riku's attention, causing him to glance up to see Kairi also leave the mansion. It seems like she wasn't in the islands after all. However she remained silent, behind Ansem, as everyone watched Kaida struggle.
"Riku," Mickey said firmly, to get his friend's attention. "I know this is hard for you, but what are we going to do if she turns into a Nobody like Northex said? If he was right, then Kaida wasn't a Nobody at all, just a magic user."
"I…I don't know." Riku replied honestly. "We'll cross that bridge when we get there. Only if she's not a Nobody, how can she open corridors of Darkness?"
Riku didn't want to think about that possibility at all, no matter what the odds were. Then there was a matter of what Kaida was, should she be his sister or some other creature. Luka seemed to know exactly what she was, or at least had a theory, but still hadn't told any of them. If he wasn't so concentrated on Kaida, then he would have made him talk, but that answer could wait for now. At least until this was over. Riku's thoughts were broken by a small noise that he found to be Kaida whimpering as the aura sparked more as it got darker. She was losing her battle.
"It hurts…" Kaida whispered. "so much."
"No, don't give up!" Luka pleaded. "You can't stop!"
Without thinking, Riku continued on Luka's pleas. "Don't give in and don't stop fighting. You can't die or disappear or turn into a Nobody, if you really aren't one now. I don't want you to disappear,…Ichigo." Riku didn't even realize that he had called Kaida Ichigo until a few moments later, as Kaida stared up at him with those wide pain-filled eyes. It was as if he had broken something inside her by calling her that name instead of the one he was supposed to, or perhaps something else was relit.
"Riku," Kaida began. "I'm sorry. It wasn't supposed to be like this."
The dark aura around Kaida expanded to consume her entire body, completely hiding her from sight. The trio, who were closest to her, were taken by surprised and moved back from the event. Riku had been so sure that she might have been able to save herself. His head dropped, along with the others, not wanting to see what came next. Ansem even raised a gloved hand to help shield his eyes from the sight. Suddenly, from the center of the Darkness, a flash of light that shined brightly appeared. Again everyone watching was caught off guard and snapped their heads up to see what exactly had happened, but were forced to look away as the light grew brighter. The Darkness was quickly turning into a strong blinding light. Was Kaida winning, after all?
Time seemed to pass slowly. The minutes it took for the light to fade away seemed to stretch out for hours. As soon as he could, Riku opened his eyes and saw that there was no more Darkness or Light lingering. In fact, he didn't even see Kaida, there was only a heap of black on the ground that Riku saw was a person in a black cloak. Kairi left Ansem, who slowly slipped back into the Mansion, and joined her friends while keeping a distance away from the dark mass. For a few moments, the person didn't move or make a noise. Riku wasn't even sure if it was still Kaida laying there, if they were alive until they began to move. First, the fingers began to twitch and then the hand and the entire arm. Then the whole body began to move, reaching for the fans Kaida had dropped earlier. Luka was taking deep breaths, analyzing the person in front of him, but the confused look on his face seemed to indicate that he wasn't getting anything useful or anything at all.
The figure stood up, they seemed to be fairly weak however. They swayed from side to side as if trying to find their balance. Its head moved in all directions as if the person was confused and trying to make sense of what was going and where they were. Luka stood up with them and as if his understood the situation, even if he couldn't get a firm reading on the person. He firmly took hold of the person's arms to help hold them steady. The dark hole in the hood was directed right at him, possibly eye to eye. They were both roughly around the same height. Luka was also the only person close enough to see the face hidden under the hood, but it obviously pleased him, considering that a wide smile immediately spread across his face.
"What are you smiling at?" the figure asked, only it wasn't really Kaida's voice. Instead it was the voice she had used after Northex shot Luka. The figure's head snapped up in surprise, like Kaida's, after the word's left its mouth. Riku's anxiety rose slightly. For a moment he thought it would change back to Kaida's voice, but it didn't. "M-my voice…what happened? My hair…"
"It's good to have you back, Ichigo." Luka said, cheerily. "You really had me fooled. You had all of us fooled."
The figure quickly pulled back its hood, revealing a delicate face similar to Kaida's, but icy blue had replaced the dark brown in the eyes. There was a faint hint of rose color in her cheeks that matched her lips, and stood out as her white hair tumbled down to her waist. Her bangs were long enough now to be tucked behind her ears or be brushed to join the rest of her hair. She pulled pieces of her hair in front of her eyes in order to examine it closer, to prove that it was no longer black. She opened her fans that had also changed from black to a pale yellow with the same designs only in silver.
"Again," Luka pulled the girl into an embrace. "It's good to have you back, Ichigo."
"I hate you, Luka…" She said softly, making the boy chuckle.
He was right was all Riku could think as he stared at his sister. He could hear small gasps from the King and Kairi at their striking similarity to each other. Although this wasn't the sister he remembered from the islands. How could this be the same girl who laughed in pigtails and danced in the waves as they broke on the shore? She was so much older now, so different from that little girl, like a whole other person. A few minutes ago she was another person, and only Luka could see through it. By now she had to be his age when he had been sucked into the mess of Kingdom Hearts. It had been so long since they had seen each other. Those lazy childhood days they had all spent on the island together seemed like a lifetime ago, something they couldn't go back to ever. Riku hadn't expected Ichigo to be the same when they found her again, that would not have been realistic. Of course she was going to change, but how she would was the only question. Certainly not this much, at least in Riku's thinking. She could even use magic now. While Ichigo had lived on and grew up, Riku had kept holding on to an old picture of a young girl he would never see again. Although what exception what he to that rule? Hadn't he changed just as much as her? He had definitely changed over the last few years and his struggle with the Darkness. What would she say or think about him when she found out about the mistakes he had made?
"Riku." Kairi said softly, breaking Riku's train of thought and bringing him back to reality.
Ichigo was now standing in front of him. She was tall for a girl. She was definitely taller than Kairi, and maybe as tall as Luka or Sora. However, she still had to look up in order to meet her brother's eyes. Her blue eyes, the same shade as his own, were wide as she studied his face. Her body was tense, as if she was waiting for judgment from him. As if she was waiting for his word of acceptance. Although, Riku was just as nervous as she was. For a split moment, she was that young girl on the island again looking to him for guidance on sparring or swimming. Most of all, she looked like girl who asked for his protection if she wasn't strong enough as her eyes began to turn watery and red. No, Ichigo's eyes actually were starting to tear up. Only when Riku noticed this, Ichigo looked down. Perhaps she wasn't too much different from the sister he once knew.
"You kept it." Ichigo said, her eyes now focused on the necklace around Riku's neck.
"I had to." Riku replied. "To find out where you were, and it worked."
"I thought you would get rid of it."
Riku arched an eyebrow. "Why would I do that?"
"I didn't think you would remember it." Ichigo confessed.
"Of course I remember it. You wore it everywhere." That was how Riku had identified it in the first place.
Ichigo sighed. "If you did remember…I thought you would get rid of it. so it wouldn't remind you of me."
"That's the reason I kept it," Ichigo looked up, surprised at her brother. "Because it did remind me of you, so I would remember to keep looking for you. You didn't think any of us had forgotten about you, right?"
Ichigo wiped away the tears she couldn't hold back with her sleeve. She tried to fix her composure to hide her emotions under a calculated mask, but was failing. It was as if she was trying to pull on the same face as Kaida, but she wasn't her anymore, even if he didn't understand how. Riku pulled his sister into a tight hug close to his chest, allowing her to hide her face. In a few seconds, his shirt was beginning to absorb the tears Ichigo had been holding in as she wrapped her arms around him.
Through her tears, Riku heard her muffled voiced. "Thank you…"
A small smile appeared on Riku face. Yes, even with the changes, this was the same sister he knew and lost back on Destiny Islands. The one they all loved and mourned, and now she was right here. She was alive. After a few minutes, Riku felt Ichigo stop crying, and in fact felt her body go limp. Her arms fell to the side. The only action he could feel her doing was breathing. He gently moved his sister's body, and saw that Ichigo had fallen asleep.
"Rest well, little sis"
~End of Act II~
Author's Note: Hey, everyone! Here is the end of Act II! I hope you all enjoyed it, and thank you for sticking with me to this point. It's been rough, but I feel successful by staying by this story. Please do me the honor of staying with me through the third and final act! Again thank you!
