Silver Linings
Chapter 29: "Their Hearts are Decided."
A/N: It's finally time! Time for A Fight to the Death! This chapter ended up being so long and epic that I split it in two. Chapter 30 will be uploaded shortly after this one...I hope.
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Ruin and Creation's Passage...
The rest of the group nearly ran into Riku when he suddenly stopped, having noticed the main feature of this new room.
Donald asked the question that was on everyone's minds: "Wak! Where's the floor?!"
The room was an enormous, empty cavity, similar to Twilight's View from earlier. Fittingly, most of the massive size of the Castle That Never Was turned out to be just empty, hollow space. This room was more hollow than usual; several white platforms floated in midair, but there was no apparent way to reach any of them without flying. There were no ramps, no stairs, and no platforms within jumping reach. Riku had lost his ability to fly, as well.
Luckily, Roxas and Xion used to work here. Roxas had never had any reason to go this high in the Castle, but Xion had done some exploring, so she explained the trick. "Don't worry. The floor builds itself as you walk on it. Just head for the blue line on the next platform." Xion demonstrated by taking a confident step out onto thin air, allowing her foot to be stopped by a glowing force field floor that blinked into existence right before her foot made contact with it. "See? No problem."
Xion led the way up the invisible ramp, building the whole thing so no one in their large group would risk falling off the sides. At the top of the ramp, though, she was accosted by a group of Assassin Nobodies. Everyone summoned their weapons, except Xion and Lambda.
Xion reached out a hand, but nothing appeared in it. "The Keyblade...it won't come anymore. Now what?"
Roxas stepped in front of her and summoned both of his Keyblades. "Then I'll protect you until you find it again!"
Xion gratefully stepped back. "Thanks...Thank you so much..."
Meanwhile, Lambda tried to enter Battle Mode, even knowing her Ars Magus would be pointless. Maybe she could still use her Overdrive, but... "Summoning Lux Sanctus... Error 404: Nox Nyctores not found. What?! Not found?! It's not that I can't summon it, it's actually gone?"
Riku ran in front of Lambda, brandishing Way to Dawn. "We'll find you a new weapon later! For now, let the rest of us handle this!"
Kairi cut in front of Sora and whacked away an Assassin that tried to leap out of the ground at him, then dispersed it with one more hit. "Well, I'm not staying behind! C'mon, Sora!"
Sora, Donald, Goofy, and Mickey did what they always did, making short work of the remaining Assassins. The party moved up more invisible ramps, slaying groups of Sorcerers, Creepers, and a slightly tougher squad of Berserkers on the way up.
Lambda grit her teeth; she felt so useless. "I've got to figure out what happened. Running checksum... IDEA Engine on standby, pending weapon link...unable to utilize in current format... Power of Darkness intensity at 2 percent... Located the Power of Light; intensity 98 percent, but I'm going to need training to figure out how to use that... Proximity alert? Oh, no..."
Kairi had already noticed the problem. "Guys, look out behind us!"
The Heartless that had formed when Kingdom Hearts exploded were climbing up the ramp to reach the heroes. ALL of the Heartless. Riku's response was somewhere between horror and annoyance. "There'll be no end to this!" Sure, the heroes of the Keyblade could definitely kill a bunch of Shadows, no matter howmany millions of Heartless there were. But that would take way too long, and who knew what Xemnas would do with this opportunity?
Luckily, the problem was taken out of their hands. "Go on ahead! Leave these creatures to us!" Maleficent appeared in a burst of green fire, followed by her loyal lackey, Pete.
"Maleficent?" Sora looked from the Heartless to Maleficent, wondering if he should just take the fairy's words at evil-green-face value. "Why are you helping us?"
Maleficent replied dismissively, "Do not misunderstand me. Remember, when I've destroyed them all, this castle will be MINE!"
Pete was less confident about this. "Are you crazy, sister? There's no way we can take 'em all!"
Maleficent merely grinned. "You underestimate me. Leave if you wish, but do not expect to come crawling back to me afterward again!"
Pete weighed his options, and noticed King Mickey among the heroes. Remembering an attempted heist from earlier in this adventure, Pete felt a bit of nostalgia. "Well, if it ain't the boat-boy King!"
Mickey smiled back (as usual). "Time to weigh anchor, Cap'n Pete!"
Pete scoffed. "What, like 'abandon ship?' No way! Wait for me, Maleficent!" He stomped down the ramp toward the unrelenting Heartless horde.
Sora gazed after them, torn between turning back to help or moving on to fight Xemnas. Wait, did he just consider helping Maleficent? Everything about this was nuts!
Riku grasped Sora's shoulder. "I can't say I get why they're doing this, but their hearts are decided. Maybe she wants us to feel bad for beating Xemnas for her sake."
"At least she'll be too busy wiping out Heartless to interfere," Lambda pointed out. "C'mon, the top of the Castle is just through this door!" Lambda turned toward the door, but hesitated and let Sora and Riku lead the group; she couldn't do much without a weapon, anyway.
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The Altar of Naught...
A short spiral staircase led the heroes to the apex of the Castle That Never Was. Contrary to the name that popped into Lambda's head, The Altar of Naught had no altar; it was just an open-air viewing platform right below Kingdom Hearts. Xemnas must have spend all his days gazing at his prize, which was now a bombed-out husk hanging just out of reach.
Speaking of Xemnas, he had his back turned to the group. "Oh, my Kingdom Hearts...ruined. Now I'll have to start all over again. Ah, but know this, Kingdom Hearts: I will give to you as many hearts as it takes." Xemnas swept around to face the heroes. "Chosen warriors of the Keyblade! Go forth, and bring me more hearts!"
"NO!" Sora, Riku, Mickey, Kairi, and Roxas simultaneously summoned their Keyblades and yelled their refusal.
Xemnas merely raised an eyebrow at the threat. "No? Then let me ask you this: why do you hate the Darkness?"
Mickey thought for a moment. "We don't hate it. It's just kind of...scary."
"It's not the Darkness we fight; it's what's lurking inside it!" Riku pointed his Keyblade at Xemnas, who was a prime example.
Xemnas replied, "So you accept Darkness, yet choose to live in the Light. Then why do you loathe those of us who teeter on the edge of Nothing - we who were turned away by both Light and Dark, never given a choice?"
Riku scoffed. "That's easy; it's because you mess up our worlds."
Xemnas allowed, "Perhaps...but what other choice might we have had?"
Lambda spoke up. "What other choice did you try to find? Even without factoring emotion into it, this plan is obviously all wrong. Assuming you want what you say you want, anyway."
Xion added, "You manipulated innocent children and your colleagues. You sacrificed millions of people's hearts; and all to complete how many Nobodies? Thirteen? Seven? One? No matter how much the Organization wanted to be whole, nothing could be worth all those evil deeds."
Riku continued, "And now all that work was undone in less than an hour, and not even by Sora, but one man you wronged and forgot years ago. Sounds to me like you were destined to fail."
Sora added, "Well, you were right about one thing, Xemnas; you obviously won't care about anything we say. So let's just get this over with."
Xemnas raised his arms over his head. "Indeeeed. I cannot feel sorrow, no matter what you think...what you feel...or how you exist."
A surge of strange energy rose up from the floor, blocking everyone's view. When it faded, Sora and Xemnas were nowhere to be found, and Lambda had passed out on the floor. As Riku watched, Lambda's cape with the No. 11 tags and the sword holding her braid together vanished into sparks of Light, and her hair unwound itself around her shoulders. She seemed to be sleeping comfortably. Not knowing what else to do, Riku knelt down and propped Lambda up on his lap to wait for Sora's return.
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Dive to the Heart...
Lambda found herself falling headfirst through an endless, murky abyss. Far below, a glowing green platform could be seen. She flipped around to land on her bare feet, noting that gravity seemed to shift as she approached the platform to let her land softly.
Looking around, Lambda took in the image on the platform. She recognized a sleeping image of herself in her bodysuit, although her braid was undone in the picture...and her hair hung loose on her own head, come to think of it. When did that happen? In the picture, she held a Keyblade loosely in her right hand; most of the details were obscured by her leg, but she could make out the distinctive shape of a Keyblade's handguard and part of a Keychain, so she felt confident of what it was.
Lambda's image took up most of the right side of the image and curled around the bottom of the circular platform. The upper-left corner had four small circles stuck together, each with an image of someone Lambda knew. Clockwise from the top, they were Riku, King Mickey, DiZ (with his face still hidden under bandages, since that's how Lambda had known him), and Professor Kokonoe. Along the bottom of the image, there was a low-detail scene of a young couple leaning against each other on a bench, looking at a sunset.
Lambda immediately recognized this Station of Awakening as a part of herself, like watching her own arm move. "So this is my heart?"
Your path is not set. Your future is not written.
"Who's there?"
Power sleeps within you.
"Not listening? Okay...whoa!" Three stone pedestals rose up from the stained-glass image. A sharp sword with Mickey's royal crest in a red circle on the gold hilt appeared over the pedestal in front of Lambda.
If you give it form...
A shimmering rod topped with three round, blue gems (also arranged like Mickey's head) appeared to Lambda's right.
It will give you strength.
A red shield emblazoned with Mickey's likeness appeared on the last pedestal.
Choose well.
Lambda considered carefully. This was obviously not just a dream, which meant this choice was more than just picking a weapon. "Hmm... Now that I have the choice, I'd rather not be a sword anymore. I wasn't exactly doing a stellar job at that anyway. But I'm intrigued by magic..." Lambda hopped up onto the pedestal on her right and grabbed the staff.
The Power of the Mystic. Inner strength. A staff of wonder and ruin. You choose this power?
Lambda tightened her grip. "Yes. This one sounds perfect for me." The rod vanished, but Lambda could still feel its presence.
Your form is set, but your path is not. Now, what will you give up in exchange?
Lambda had already decided. She jumped onto the pedestal with the sword, and gripped it for the barest instant before tossing it over her shoulder.
The Power of the Warrior. Invincible courage. A sword of terrible destruction. You give up this power?
"Yes. I do. Affirmative. Next?"
The sword vanished from the ground behind Lambda.
You've chosen the Power of the Mystic. You've given up the Power of the Warrior. The Power of the Guardian will remain here. Is this the form you choose?
Lambda nodded emphatically. "Yes, already! Whoever set this process up must've dealt with a lot of people with short attention spans."
Apparently to spite her, or perhaps just as the next step in the process, the stained-glass platform began to crumble from the edges inward, until Lambda's feet dropped into the void.
Lambda had a sense of regaining consciousness, except she was still in the same dream. She was back on a stained-glass pillar with the same design, but the background was yellow instead of green.
You've gained the strength to fight, and there will be times when you'll have to use it. Keep your Light burning strong.
A group of Shadows appeared and surrounded Lambda, and the rod from before appeared in her right hand. She gripped it in both hands and swung it at a Shadow. She did some damage, but it took a few more swings to destroy each Shadow, and she could tell she had no skill with this weapon.
She supposed it was to be expected; she'd never held a weapon in her actual hands before, having relied on Murakumo's flying blades until now. She resolved to learn how to actually fight as soon as possible. Luckily, the strength of her conviction seemed to empower her staff in this dream, and she was able to defeat the rest of the Shadows more easily.
Behind you!
A Shadow appeared behind Lambda, but when she swiped at it, the Heartless sank into the ground and spread across it as a pool of Darkness. Lambda's hover Ars no longer worked without Murakumo, so her feet got stuck in the mire. She was inexorably pulled down into the depths...
...And then she woke up on another personalized platform - a blue one, this time. There was nothing else there but a set of double doors that stood up on its own, apparently leading nowhere.
The Door is still shut. If you think you're ready, open it and see what awaits you.
"Sounds good. Or maybe you're just being overly vague. I'll deal with whatever I find, good or bad." Lambda grabbed the handles of the doors and pulled them open, releasing a blinding wave of Light. Shielding her eyes, Lambda walked through the door...
...And woke up in DiZ's computer room in the mansion in Twilight Town. Three people were crowded into the room with her, blocking all the exits. Namine stood in front of the stairs up, Xion waited in the doorway to the pods, and DiZ stood on the platform of the Transfer Device. The computer terminal was smashed.
Hold on; the Door won't open just yet. First, tell me about yourself.
Lambda approached the person most likely to know what was going on. "Namine, is this your doing?"
Without preamble, Namine calmly asked, "What scares you more than anything else?"
"...What." Okay, this was clearly not actually Namine. An aspect of these tests, perhaps? "Well...loss of identity. The idea that I could be forced to be someone else terrifies me, right down to my core programming...or my heart, really."
"Losing yourself...is that really the scariest thing there is?"
"What could possibly be worse?" Lambda asked incredulously. "Never mind, I'd rather not find out."
"..."
Lambda stared for a while, but Namine said nothing more. Lambda shuddered and turned away. "This is creepy. How about you, DiZ? Er, Ansem? ...I'm just going to keep calling you DiZ."
"What do you want most out of life?"
Another big, vague question. Luckily, Lambda had done some things today (it was still the same day...right?) that helped her find an answer. "To make a difference only I can make."
"Is making a difference really such a big deal?" That didn't even sound like how DiZ would talk at all.
Lambda huffed, "Obviously. Isn't that self-evident? Making a difference makes a difference."
"..."
"I think I see a pattern here. Xion, do you have a question, too?"
"What do you care about most?"
"Isn't that a mashup of the other two questions? Well, earlier today I would have said Riku, but thinking about it now, that's partly because my relationship with him is such a big part of who I've decided to be. So I guess what I care about most is myself. Not exactly heroic, but it is what it is, and I am what I am, weird voices in my head nonwithstanding. I'll make sure of it."
"Are you really so important?"
"Let me rephrase: being myself is most important. I'm not really wired for narcissism; there are people out there who are just as important as me, and they're usually more important in the grand scheme of things. But I can only change the thoughts of myself."
"Is being yourself really so important?"
"I could say it's the most important thing anyone can do. Especially with Xehanort and his Heartless and Nobody running around, trying to twist everyone to his will."
You're afraid of losing yourself. You want to make a difference. You want to be yourself. Is that right?
"Oh, that voice is back. Yes, those are my final answers."
Your journey begins at midnight. The road ahead will be difficult, but a bright dawn awaits at your journey's end.
Lambda smiled. "I know. I already started my journey in the darkest place there is. Are there any other tests, or can I wake up now?"
Lambda suddenly felt very sleepy. "Okay, I guess there's moaaah..." She trailed off into a yawn and fell asleep standing up.
She woke up on a red Station...meaning she hadn't woken up at all. "More nonsensical dream tests? Normally I'd be intrigued, but the last thing I remember is facing down Xemnas, so I'd really like to get back to reality sooner instead of later."
So much to do, so little time. Take your time. Don't be afraid.
"I'm not afraid, I'm irritated...and worried. I have a bunch of friends and a loved one out there, and all of them could be in danger while I'm unconscious and unable to help! Well...they can defend themselves, and it's not like I could help with no weapon. I hope I can at least get a weapon from all this hassle."
A spotlight shone down on the center of the platform from somewhere overhead. Lambda stood up at the edge of the platform and gazed upward to try and find the source of the Light.
Step forward if you dare, but beware; the closer you get to Light, the greater your shadow becomes.
Lambda just rolled her eyes and strode forward into the middle of the spotlight. "If my shadow were worth worrying about, I would've been able to stab Sai'x instead of tackling him. Tell my inner Darkness to bring it on whenever it's ready."
Sure enough, Lambda's shadow, cast by the spotlight, tried to rise off the ground and turn into a Heartless, but where Sora got a Darkside, and Riku had Ansem, Lambda just got a Mega-Shadow. It wasn't even a Gigas Shadow!
Lambda couldn't help but feel disappointed, somehow. There was supposed to be an actual challenge here, she was sure. The Darkness was a dangerous, but useful power. Riku struggled so much with his Darkness that Lambda had just locked hers away behind Restriction 13, not even noticing as it withered. She had high hopes for her surplus of Light, though. She'd just have to get stronger.
The Dream Rod appeared in her hands again, and she bopped the Mega-Shadow over the head until it popped, causing no particular fanfare. "Is that all-"
The puff of Darkness released by the Mega-Shadow cleared away to reveal Nu-13, the pale Prime Field Device that still resembled Lambda a bit too much. Nu was in full Battle Mode with her comparatively upgraded copy of Murakumo, and she was already opening several wormholes for Sword Summoner. "Target acquired. Terminating."
Lambda gulped. "Maybe I should have just kept my mouth shut for once."
Suddenly, Lambda found herself pinned to the ground on top of an inescapably powerful Gravity Seed, with dozens of swords planted in the glass all around her. None of them hit her, but all were within an inch from her flesh. Nu-13 hovered over the outdated Unit, her face utterly impassive, her Petals arranged to pierce Lambda's heart from multiple directions simultaneously, just a killing machine doing what it was designed to do...
A voice entered Lambda's head again, but this time it was her own: the control protocol's predetermined responses. I am... Lambda is an inferior unit of the Murakumo line. Self destruct? Y/N?
N. No. No! "NOOO!"
Don't be afraid.
Petals pierced Lambda's chest. Pain! So much pain!
You hold the mightiest weapon of all. And don't forget...
Bleeding out. Vision getting blurry. She couldn't do anything. Nu had won... Lambda's protocols had won...
You are the key that will create the future.
Everything faded to black.
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Memory's Skyscraper(?)...
When Sora opened his eyes, he and Xemnas were alone in the city below the Castle, right in front of Memory's Skyscraper. However, this clearly wasn't the real world (or whatever passed for real in the World That Never Was), since the area was reduced to a single platform around the Skyscraper, and after the edge dropped away there was nothing but a psychedelic, warped illusion of a cityscape surrounding the arena.
Sora returned his attention to Xemnas, who seemed ready to fight, but hadn't summoned a weapon. Sparks of energy (probably that Nothing stuff Xigbar mentioned) surrounded the Superior's gloves, but their use wasn't immediately apparent. Sora summoned the Kingdom Key and took a cautious battle stance.
Xemnas casually strolled toward Sora, who recognized this tactic from the other Organization members. Rather than tell the Nobody to take him seriously, Sora let Xemnas fall into the same trap as his "friends". Sora knew just how close to let Xemnas get before putting up his guard to feel out this new enemy's attacks.
Sure enough, Xemnas attacked right when Sora thought he would, extending red lasers from his hands and beginning a long series of sweeping attacks. Sora blocked each one; this fighting style felt familiar...
Wait, he remembered! "I've fought you before! You were that guy who attacked me out of the blue in Hollow Bastion...but when was it?"
Xemnas smiled, but the expression didn't reach his eyes. "I'm impressed...not only do you partially recall that event, your body remembers how to react to my attacks."
"Is that when you started messing with my memories?" Sora asked. "Well, I won't let you do it again!"
"Try to stop me, then...perhaps the outcome last time was a mistake." Xemnas finally stopped attacking; Sora had managed to block every swing of his Ethereal Blades.
Sora tried to counter, but Xemnas cloaked himself in a huge ball of Nothing and zipped away to another part of the arena. Sora used a Quick Run to follow and blocked another pair of attacks, but this time the Keyblade wielder forced his way through Xemnas' assault with a combo of his own. Xemnas took several hits before slipping away again.
"You're tougher than the rest of the Organization, I'll give you that," Sora acknowledged. "The rest of them couldn't handle being blocked at all."
"Indeeeed. You haven't even seen a fraction of my true power. For example...Guard!" The next time Sora attacked, Xemnas conjured a wall of energy that repelled his Keyblade. Xemnas immediately dissolved the wall and tried to turn the tables, only to find that Sora wasn't fazed at all.
Sora punched through Xemnas' attacks and laid another beating on him. After knocking Xemnas away, Sora followed up with a pair of Blizzaga spells for extra damage. "I'm no slouch, either! I'm going to take you down and get back to my friends! Then we can all go home together!"
"Such trifling ambitions...how did a simpleton such as yourself defeat my Organization? It makes no logical sense." Xemnas spun into an even longer combo, circling around Sora to search for gaps in the Keyblade wielder's defense.
He didn't find any; Sora had grown stronger and more skilled throughout all his journeys. The first time they'd fought, an assault like this would have forced Sora to frantically Dodge Roll to try and gain some breathing room, but now the Keyblade wielder stopped each attack on an impenetrable defense, then knocked Xemnas' blades aside to make his own breathing room.
"I beat them the same way I'm going to beat you; with the power of my friends!" Sora engaged Limit Form, blasting Xemnas away, and immediately launched into a series of Sonic Blade lunges.
Xemnas slipped away after the third of six lunges, and created a strange field around Sora. It didn't restrict his movements, but it delivered a painful shock to his entire body about twice every second. Xemnas cloaked himself in a sphere of Nothing again and gloated from out of reach. "Such bravado; even all alone, you continue to chatter about your friends. But even with their power, you can eventually be made to kneel." Sora grit his teeth as Xemnas zipped over to the Skyscraper and launched himself to the roof, content to sit and watch Sora slowly break down. "Stay down below me where you belong, insolent boy."
Sora dashed to the base of the Skyscraper himself, and focused on charging power in his Keyblade through the constant pain. "Haven't you...heard? A Keyblade wielder can go anywhere he wants!" With a quick flex of the power he'd built up, the field around Sora shattered.
The Keyblade hero then jumped up the side of Memory's Skyscraper and began running up the vertical wall in flagrant defiance of gravity. The so-called laws of physics could be bent and broken much more easily than Sora, especially in a weird pocket dimension like this one.
Xemnas leapt off the roof to meet Sora halfway up the wall. Time slowed for both of them as they neared a decisive clash. The first to strike would be the victor...
And of course, Sora was the first to strike. Roxas and his Samurai had been excellent practice for this moment. Sora's Keyblade slipped under Xemnas' guard and smashed him in the chest, staggering the so-called Superior too badly to counterattack. Sora kept flying upward for a moment, but then kicked off the wall to come rocketing back down to Xemnas, which put him back in range to hack the Nobody to shreds and smash him into the wall. He then caught the hapless Nobody Master on the teeth of the Kingdom Key and dragged Xemnas all the way down the wall to the ground.
"So...that time wasn't a mistake..." Xemnas dissolved into wisps of Nothing, just like the rest of the Organization, but Sora was still trapped in this pocket dimension.
While looking around for a way out, Sora heard Kairi's voice. "Sora! Where are you?!"
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The Altar of Naught...
"NOOO!" Lambda jerked into a sitting position, suddenly fully awake, but not yet alert.
Riku was already by her side; he'd been guarding her since Sora and Xemnas disappeared and Lambda collapsed. "Lambda, you're okay! What happened?"
Slowly, Lambda came back from utter, screaming terror to a more rational state of mind. "I...I don't know. That bizarre place...was it a dream? I can't be sure; I haven't had any dreams that were just dreams before, so I doubt it. The last part was really scary, though..."
Kairi thought to herself that this description sounded really familiar, but she couldn't put her finger on it, and she was more concerned with Sora's whereabouts at the moment. "Sora! Sora, where are you?"
Sora wavered into existence about a foot off the ground nearby; he fell on his face, but immediately pushed himself to his feet.
Kairi was elated. Her call brought him back, just like when he was a Heartless! "Sora, you're okay!"
"Yeah." Sora was indeed okay, but... "That was too easy. Where's Xemnas?"
Lambda did a scan. "Scanning... Target located." She pointed up at Kingdom Hearts. Xemnas floated right next to its surface, staring into the yawning hole in the center.
"What in the worlds is he doing up there?" Mickey asked.
"Knowing him, he's about to tell us," Roxas muttered.
"Kingdom Hearts...oh, what terrible damage you've suffered. But know this: I will offer you more hearts, again and again, until we both are whole at last. Hear me, Kingdom Hearts! You can no more be complete without me, than I without you! Lend me your power, so that we may be complete - the power to erase the fools that hinder us!"
"Can he do that while Kingdom Hearts is in this condition?!" Xion sputtered. She seemed to have some instinctive idea of what Xemnas was trying to do.
"Hearts burning with rage..."
Sora yelled, "Don't do it, Xemnas!" Who knew what Kingdom Hearts would do to him in its erratic, incomplete state? Whatever was about to happen, it would probably be bad for everyone.
"Hearts quivering with hatred...!"
"Just stop already!" Mickey begged. Hadn't Xemnas hurt enough people already? Millions of hearts had already been stolen from innocent people, or were brought into being as doomed half-existences, all for this pointless farce!
"Hearts scarred by envy!"
"You'll never win!" Donald pointed out. After all, Ansem the Heartless had a complete Kingdom Hearts to work with, and did it help him at all? Exactly.
"That foolish Ansem claimed the heart's true nature was beyond his understanding, but it's not beyond mine! Hearts are the source of all power!"
"Then by your own propaganda, you're the most powerless person here, and you've made enemies of the most powerful people in the worlds." Lambda replied, though she spoke too softly for Xemnas to hear her from up there on his ego trip. The heroes around Lambda heard her, though, and they took heart (and thus power) from her assertion.
Surprisingly, Kingdom Hearts did respond to Xemnas' call; pink motes of power flowed into him, and suddenly there was a blinding flash of Light. When everyone could see again, Xemnas seemed to have vanished.
Sora searched left and right. "Where'd he go?!"
"Scanning...he hasn't moved. He fused with Kingdom Hearts! I don't want to wait around and figure out what he could do to the worlds like that, but how can we fight him now?"
Sora pressed a hand over his heart; maybe it had the answer. "There has to be a way..."
Sure enough, a huge door appeared in midair, floating between the Altar of Naught and Kingdom Hearts. The design was somewhat different (there were Nobody sigils poking off the top of the frame, for one thing), but Sora recognized that it was the same kind of capital-D "Door" as Xehanort's Heartless had summoned from the other Kingdom Hearts. This wasn't Xemnas' doing, though... No, it was everyone else's.
Mickey summed it up. "The worlds gave us this doorway. They want us to be the guardians of their destiny."
"Just one destiny for all those worlds?" Sora asked.
Mickey grinned. "Well, of course, Sora. You're the key that connects everything, after all!"
"Then it's up to me." Sora steeled himself for one last epic clash.
Kairi took his hand. "You won't have to fight alone."
Xion noted, "It's partly my fault Xemnas got this far; I've got to help out."
"We'll be right with ya, too!" Goofy added.
Donald yelled, "I'll beat him up myself if I have to!"
Riku chuckled. "Remember, Sora? Last time, we faced each other from different sides of that door. This time, let's go home side by side."
"I'll try not to just be dead weight," Lambda sighed.
"Here, use this." Namine spoke up. A flash of Light surrounded Lambda's hand, heralding the appearance of Namine's personal sketchbook. "Merlin's new Panel Grid upgrades might finally come in handy."
Lambda opened the sketchbook, found the Panel Grid, and clutched it gratefully. "Thank you, Namine."
"Tee hee...you're welcome."
"Did Namine just giggle? That's new, but nice. We must be on the right track," Roxas noted.
"Hey, we're getting off-topic!" Jiminy yelled, bouncing up and down on Sora's shoulder. "Did y'all forget about Xemnas already?"
"No, but I almost forgot about you," Lambda replied. "You're right, though; the less time Xemnas has Kingdom Hearts in his clutches, or vice versa, the better."
"Last time, we needed two Keyblades to seal the Door to Darkness," Goofy recalled. "How many Keyblades d'ya think we'll need to open this one?"
Riku scoffed and summoned Way to Dawn. "It doesn't really matter; we definitely have enough. On three?"
Kairi summoned Destiny's Embrace. "Sure."
"One..." Mickey summoned the Kingdom Key D.
"Two..." Roxas summoned both his Keyblades.
"Three!" Sora summoned the Kingdom Key, and everyone pointed the tips of their weapons at each other to use a supercharged Release beam. The beam struck the giant door dead center, first creating a Keyhole and then unlocking it. The Door to Nothing swung open slowly, revealing a fantastic swirl of multicolored light; what could be on the other side?
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Destroy the World of Nothing!
Through the door was a similar place to the Dark City. Nondescript black buildings pressed in on both sides, forming a single path to follow.
"Where's Xemnas?" Sora yelled.
"Scanning...okay, never mind!" Lambda pointed up at the enormous, mechanical dragon looming over the city.
Xemnas stood atop a spike on a golden crown adorning the dragon's head, though it was almost impossible to make out the black speck of his coat from such a huge distance. He spoke as though musing to himself, but loudly enough to be heard clearly, even from such a long distance. "So, it seems your hearts have led you to obliteration. Perhaps it doesn't pay to be too loyal to one's heart. I will have to be sure and remember that."
With a simple gesture, Xemnas commanded the dragon - the World of Nothing - to attack. A massive, clawed hand lashed out and seized a random building, then hurled it at the heroes before going back to clutching a broken-off tower.
Without warning, Kairi cut the whole falling building in half with one swing of Destiny's Embrace, causing everyone - including herself - to just stare for a moment as two solid, five-story-tall chunks of concrete thudded into the street on either side of the group and disappeared. "...How did I do that?"
Xion guessed, "This place is inside Kingdom Hearts, right? Then the most important factor is our strength of heart. If we just do what comes naturally, we'll be fine!"
Xemnas watched expressionlessly from several miles away. With a crook of his finger, he summoned walls of concrete one after another, barring the heroes' path.
Sora rushed ahead, slicing rapidly with the Kingdom Key. Somehow, he ended up on the other side of the walls, and then they fell apart. "C'mon, let's go!"
Riku commented, "It's a good thing being a badass comes naturally to Sora, then! I won't let myself be outdone, though!" He charged down the street, letting the rest of the group follow him.
Xemnas called out, "Your hearts are strong indeed, but this is Kingdom Hearts - my Kingdom Hearts. You're outnumbered and outgunned." The street rose up as another building, bumping everyone into the air as another building fell down from above.
Sora cut the falling building in two, then the one falling right behind that one, creating platforms for everyone. "We'll be fine! You should be worrying about yourself, Xemnas!" Sora cut more floating buildings apart and created a path through the air, putting a new definition on the words "sky scraper". The heroes behind him instinctively nailed every jump on the fragments to keep up.
Mickey had the least trouble keeping up; acrobatic flips were his favorite way to get around. As they carried on, he explained why Xemnas still wasn't invincible. "Even if the millions of hearts that make up Kingdom Hearts are on Xemnas' side, they're all flimsy, artificial monsters. A million times Nothing is still Nothing."
Lambda skipped off a particularly small fragment. "Right, and since the other worlds are on our side, we're still stronger than him."
Namine added, "Yes. Even you, Lambda. Otherwise, you wouldn't be able to keep up with the rest of us."
Lambda perked up - she was still feeling kind of down about having no weapon of her own at the moment. "Hey, that's a good point. It looks like we made it, too!"
The group touched down on a catwalk suspended from the base of the World of Nothing. Two giant black cylinders hung from the dragon's legs, connected by a huge white tower; the hollow tubes glowed red. Donald asked, "Well, now what?"
"Scanning...energy buildup detected in right cylinder. These things are giant laser guns! Firing rate estimate: 30 seconds. Don't be standing on the catwalk when it fires!"
Riku looked at the general shape: two round objects on the end of one long shaft. "He's not even being subtle about blowing us up with his dragon's enormous-"
Lambda interrupted, "Riku, that's crass."
"Whoa!" Goofy stumbled away from a lesser Nobody that suddenly appeared. "Hey, I know these things...they're bombs!"
Sora recognized them, too. "Maybe we can break the cylinder if we knock 'em in!"
"20 seconds!"
Kairi batted a bomb Nobody into the red core of the cylinder, followed by two more that had the misfortune of spawning in the path of her swing.
Goofy spun around with his Goofy Tornado, batting bombs into the core in several groups. It seemed that knocking them in any direction caused the Nobodies to be sucked into the core.
Donald launched his Donald Blizzaga spells around, but they didn't displace the Nobodies, so he was forced to Reflect when a group of them blew up on him.
"5 seconds! Get clear!" Lambda jumped toward a pole up above them, using it as a fulcrum to get enough momentum to jump aaallllll the way over to the left cylinder. Everyone followed her lead; Goofy got clear of the danger zone just as a MASSIVE purple beam blasted out of the right cylinder; it surely would have annihilated anyone and anything in its path if someone had been left behind.
As everyone landed safely on the left cylinder, Lambda reported, "30 seconds to left cylinder discharge. We did a lot of damage to the right cylinder; we'll break it on the next pass."
"Let's break this one first!" Sora jumped around, whacking bombs left and right.
"Why do these bombs keep showing up? They're just helping us break the big guy." Riku blasted a clump of Nobodies with a Dark Firaga, then whacked the only survivor of the explosion with his Keyblade.
"Maybe they want us to win?" Roxas wondered as he smacked away Nobodies with both hands.
"Lambda, why aren't you helping?" Donald griped.
"I have no weapon and limited spell casts, that's why. I can't waste any on these nuisances; there are bound to be bigger threats further inside." As much as it irked Lambda to have to hold back and let everyone else show off without her...
She had arranged five casts each of Firaga, Blizzaga, and Thundaga, along with ten Cures and two of Merlin's new Magnega Panels. The rest of the space was used on Panels that powered up the spells' damage output, such as Level Up Panels and Double Magic Level Link Panels. It had taken Lambda this long to set everything up, what with the hectic chase. Hopefully, she wouldn't need all those spells, but a chance to use some of them would be nice.
The bombs that had been tossed into the left cylinder finally took their toll; as the laser's energy finished charging, something big exploded inside the core. A chain of explosions rocked the whole cylinder. "Get to the other side!" Riku grabbed Lambda around the waist and leaped across the gap between the two cylinders. Everyone followed as the left cylinder fell off of the World of Nothing and crashed to the ground far below. Riku touched down on the right cylinder and bragged, "I do all my own stunts."
Sora countered, "So do we! And we do teamwork, too! Donald, let's go!"
"Yeah!" Donald leaped onto Sora's shoulders and readied his Duck Flare spell, sending rockets flying straight into the core by the dozen. "Take that! And that! And a GIGADUCK FLARE!" The cylinder's sheer size made its core seem closer than it was, but Gigaduck Flare created a spectacular explosion even from so far away.
Meanwhile, Sora's hands were free, so he and Goofy threw their weapons and repeatedly re-summoned them to whack more Nobody bombs. Between the three of them, the last bit of structural integrity in the right cylinder was utterly smashed in five seconds flat.
"You three work well together!" Xion jumped up to the pole and looked higher up, but it seemed like the only place left to jump was WAY up on the big tower in the dragon's clutches. "That's a long way up... But I have strength of heart, right? If I believe in myself, can I fly?"
A spray of yellow sparkles accompanied the appearance of a familiar red greatsword in Xion's hands and a pair of elaborate wings on her back. Xion had used these weapons only once before, and that was the memory that hurt the most, but now... "Yes, I can!" Xion launched skyward with the wings that accompanied her manifestation of Sora's Sonic Blade skill.
Everyone else just jumped the whole way up. Lambda had to roll her eyes at everyone's flagrant abuse of physics, but she kept pace with the rest. This would probably be lots of fun if the fate of all worlds wasn't on the line.
The jump took them into a giant, Nobody symbol-shaped window on the tower. Inside the tower was a single room, with a piston-like structure that was obviously a generator of some sort set into the back wall.
Lambda decided it was time to use some spells. "Target acquired. Firaga! Blizzaga!" The Firaga arced over to the generator and exploded, but the Blizzaga spell just set a pinprick of blue-white energy where Lambda's fingertip was when she cast it - a mine for enemies to stumble into, if this enemy could move. "...Oops. Let's try again...Blizzaga!" This time, she got right up next to the core and poked it as she cast the spell, causing the ice mine to explode immediately and do significant damage.
Everyone else crowded in and started hacking the core to shreds with their Keyblades. They did so much damage that they triggered a defensive barrier and a squad of Dusks and Creepers to appear.
"Let's take care of these guys first!" Sora called out.
"No, allow me. Magnega!" Lambda held one hand over her head, creating a field of red-and-blue magic that drew all the Nobodies in. As they helplessly swirled over her head, Lambda yelled, "Thundaga!" A single, giant bolt of yellow lightning lanced down from above and crashed into the clump of Nobodies, causing them all to shock themselves and each other. They were all defeated with a satisfying series of pops.
The barrier around the core went down, and the other heroes immediately went back to whaling on it.
Namine, whose attention wasn't taken up with physical effort, warned, "Riku, above us!"
One of the World of Nothing's giant claws was reaching into the tower to try and smash the heroes flat. Riku instantly generated a Dark Shield over his free hand and jumped into the claw's path, forcing the metal menace to rebound from a kid barely a fraction of its size. "You're done, Xemnas!"
Another barrier formed over the critically-damaged core, heralding the arrival of a squad of Assassin and Berserker Nobodies - just another pointless distraction and a waste of servants.
Thinking quickly, Xion dismissed her Sonic Blade sword and wings (she was thinking of just calling the set "Sonic Blade") and summoned the jaw-sword combination of her Ragnarok manifestation. "I'll call this one 'Ouroboros.' I'm not sure if this might be mixing mythologies, but...Ragnarok!"
A swarm of orange streaks burst from the jaws of the newly-named Ouroboros. Each projectile homed in on a different Nobody and knocked its target into the air, where they were easy prey for a combination of Donald Thundaga and Goofy Tornado. Donald's spells didn't hurt his allies, so the Knight Captain scooped up the enemies and let the Royal Magician finish them off.
The barrier fell once more, allowing Mickey to rush in first and deal the final blow. Cracks formed on the Nobody symbol marked on the core, and the whole mechanism exploded in a burst of Light that washed over everyone...
When they could see again, the heroes were inside the crown on the dragon's head, judging by the shape of the open ceiling and how the purple clouds seemed to move overhead as the dragon's neck swung. In front of them was an ornate throne, and on that throne sat an armored figure wearing a face-obscuring helmet styled after a golden crown. A pulsing, reddish-orange thing snaked up the armor's legs, supplying it with the power of Kingdom Hearts like a blood vessel. In the armor's right hand was a massive red sword that was almost twice as large as the rest of the enemy combined.
"Scanning... Target identified as Xemnas. Threat level: SS. Deity threshold reached. Termination of target moved to maximum priority."
Lambda suddenly cast every single attacking spell she had left, as fast as she could. Xemnas' king-like armor was instantly covered in burns, scrapes, bent parts, and patches of ice. The barrage of spells had weakened Xemnas almost by half before the fight had even really begun...but now Lambda was out of spells.
"CURSED FOOL!" Xemnas roared with uncharacteristic rage. The armor gestured weakly with one hand, causing movement from all around the chamber. Suddenly, the heroes noticed that the walls of the arena were covered in perfect copies of Organization XIII's weapons. This included Axel's chakrams, even though he'd defected from the group, and the weapons of the members defeated in Castle Oblivion, but thankfully not Roxas' Keyblades. All of the weapons began to fly through the air, slinging blue and red fire, ice, lightning, crystals, rocks, vines, holograms, water, and wind at the heroes among a large variety of flying exotic weapons.
Riku raised a Dark Barrier around the group, holding off the assault, but the strain of maintaining the shield showed on his face. He didn't have enough Darkness to keep this up forever; not anymore. "Mickey, get ready!"
"Gotcha, buddy!" Mickey charged up the Power of Light until the Dark Barrier broke, then released it in one massive wave, destroying all the flying weapons.
"Nice work, Your Majesty!" Sora gave the King a thumbs-up.
Mickey scratched the back of his head bashfully. "Aw, it was nothin'! Now, let's deal with the real threat! ...Hey, Lambda! What're ya doing?"
Lambda had no weapons, no spells, and no armor, but she was still up in Xemnas' face, standing on his lap and kicking his helmet with her bare feet. "Chakram evaded. Continuing attack." She was barely a nuisance to the abomination the Superior had become. With an incoherent shout, Xemnas swung his massive sword and released a storm of crackling red energy to blast Lambda away.
"Lambda!" Riku caught her as she was flung away, then held onto her shoulder to keep her from jumping right back in. "Lambda, activate control protocol and stop! As your Master, I order you to stand down!"
Lambda finally stopped pulling forward. "A-acknowledged."
Riku sighed. "Release control protocol."
Lambda hugged him for a second, then pulled away to let him fight. "Thank you, dear."
"Don't you 'dear' me! You could've gotten hurt! Stay right there and don't jump in like that again!"
"Acknowledged, Master Riku...dear."
Riku chuckled at the addition. "Heh. Thanks for doing your best, Lambda. I'll take it from here."
"No, I will!" Sora leaped forward and smashed the Kingdom Key into Xemnas, ripping his armor in two from crown to boot. The disturbingly biological mass feeding power into the armor pulled away, shining a bright Light over the heroes.
When everyone could see again, they were on a white tower, standing alone over a huge city. Xemnas was on one knee in front of them, clutching his chest in obvious pain.
"I need...more rage! I need...more...hearts..."
Sora, being the pure-hearted idiot that he was, asked in a sympathetic tone, "Xemnas...there's more to a heart than just anger or hate. It's full of all kinds of feelings. Don't you remember?"
Xemnas just glared at Sora as he began to fade away. "Unfortunately...I don't." Most of the hearts that made up this Kingdom Hearts had never had any Light inside them. They couldn't infuse any emotions but hate and rage into Xemnas' deliberately empty shell, and now even those weak emotions were fading away. Xemnas vanished entirely.
Everyone celebrated for a few moments. The mess with Organization XIII and Kingdom Hearts finally seemed to be over. Mickey congratulated everyone, "Wow, you all did great!"
Suddenly the tower began to shake. "What's happening?" Kairi asked.
Namine replied, "This place won't last much longer without Xemnas maintaining it. We've got to go."
Riku moved to the side of the group. "I'll open a path!" He flung out a hand to open a Dark Corridor.
...Or not. Nothing happened. Mickey told him, "You don't belong in the Realm of Darkness anymore, Riku."
Xion spoke up. "I'll take it from here." She opened a Dark Corridor. "This goes to Destiny Islands. Let's go, everyone."
Roxas cheered, "Yes! We get to go to the beach!" He dashed through at full speed.
Donald mumbled, "Sure, why not?" and passed through.
Goofy added as he followed Donald, "I'm lookin' forward to seein' your home, Sora!"
Mickey was already through; he was always a few steps ahead.
Kairi stepped into the portal and waved at the last three heroes to follow her, starting with Xion. "C'mon, guys. Let's go home!"
"I wonder if it looks anything like the illusion from Castle Oblivion?" Lambda wondered. But as she got both legs through the portal, it began to waver and distort. "Threat levels rising. Riku! Sora! Be careful!" The portal vanished, leaving Sora and Riku behind.
Behind where the portal stood, far in the distance, was a glass orb caught between the spires of several buildings. As Riku and Sora watched, the orb shattered and released another mechanical dragon.
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A/N: The rest of the final battles and epilogue will be in the next chapter, which is almost completely written and will hopefully be posted shortly. As Hades would say, "Stay tuned!"
