Author's Note: So this one's a TAD shorter than usual. Only by a couple-hundred words or so. But, it is shorter, so I feel like mentioning it. However, you also get two different scenes and a ton of stuff! Woohoo!
"He got better."
xx
The four of them reached the town. Aerith led them to a little outdoor café and they all sat down. A couple of small children looked at Rinoa's wings with awe, but no one really said anything about it. Apparently, such things were rather normal in Hollow Bastion.
"So, what does all this have to do with my Keyblade?" Kairi asked.
"Arguably, it has everything to do with your Keyblade," Aerith said.
"Well, not the part about all the fighters living here," Rinoa said apologetically. "That was just me babbling."
"But most of this stuff comes down to your Keyblade—all Keyblades. The Worlds have just now started seeing them again. For so long they went without them and things fell out of balance. Now they're trying to right themselves again and you get stuff like this."
Rinoa gestured to the area they had just left.
"So, it's basically Xehanort's fault," Namine declared, her fingers itching for her sketchbook, but she didn't want to mess with pulling it out of her bag.
Aerith and Rinoa nodded in response to her question.
"Does that answer your question about your Keyblade, though?" Aerith asked.
Kairi nodded.
"Shall we talk about the Limit, then?" Rinoa asked, clasping her hands together in expectation.
The other girls nodded.
"So how do you two feel about the Limit," Aerith asked. "Let's start there."
"It's rather effective," Namine said. "Both on people and on Heartless."
"We've only done the Limit twice," Kairi added. "I'm pretty comfortable with it for the most part. I just want to see if there's any improving to be done. And to know why we couldn't summon the lion like we did last time…"
"Lion?" Rinoa asked.
Before Kairi or Namine could answer, Aerith asked another question:
"Who else was in your party that last time?"
"Sora," Kairi and Namine answered simultaneously.
Aerith made an understanding noise.
"I'm not following," Rinoa said.
Aerith pointed at Kairi. "Falcon." She pointed at Namine. "Owl. Do you follow now?"
Rinoa's eyes went wide. "Oh! That's good! And that would make Sora the…"
"Lion," Aerith said. "Fitting, isn't it?"
Rinoa nodded.
"So each of us has a personalized light form of sorts?" Namine asked, pulling her sketchbook out of her bag anyway.
"It would appear so," Aerith said. "The Light from your Limit takes on personifications of the people in your party in the form of animals."
"So that's why I couldn't summon the lion," Kairi said.
"But why couldn't we summon a light form for either of you, then?" Namine asked, looking up briefly to ask this question before returning to her sketch of two birds.
"Your hearts are not nearly as connected to ours as they are to Sora's," Rinoa answered. "Try and see what you can come up with fighting alongside Riku or Xion sometime."
"Any other ideas for improving?" Kairi asked.
"Practice," Aerith replied. "Just don't overexert yourself. And keep the Limit to a final resort as well, like Limits should be."
Kari and Namine nodded in understanding.
"Light is a very powerful form of magic," Rinoa said. "It's not like Fire or Blizzard or Thunder. It's powerful white magic. You'll have to learn how to keep a handle on it, for even light can get out of hand."
"Don't use that Limit when it's just the two of you," Aerith added. "Just in case something does happen."
Kairi and Namine nodded again.
"You look daunted," Aerith said. "Are we unloading too much on you?"
"No," Namine said quickly. She had finished drawing the birds by now.
"Just processing," Kairi said. "That's all."
"Making magic carries a lot of responsibility," Aerith said. "Especially when it's more powerful magic."
There was a brief moment of silence as the profoundness of Aerith's words sunk in. Namine even paused in her drawing.
"Who taught you that?" she asked.
Aerith smiled. "It was a mouse," she said. "Before he was king."
Namine and Kairi exchanged glances.
King Mickey?
Sounds like…
I can't imagine him not being King…
Well, he can't always have been King…
I wonder how long Aerith's known him…
Mickey knows everyone, it seems.
Yeah, so does Aerith…
If Aerith or Rinoa noticed the silent conversation going on between Kairi and Namine, they didn't mention anything about it. Namine flipped to another page in her sketchbook and started drawing out the King. She thought that maybe she could trigger a scene with him and Aerith, though she wasn't sure if she could go that far back in the past—especially with two hearts that she wasn't all that connected with.
"I think we should teach them Holy," Aerith said, rather suddenly. "They've already demonstrated that they have the capacity to handle it."
Rinoa looked at Kairi and Namine. Namine looked up from the image, she only had the King finished. Kairi, who had just been sitting there quietly, cocked her head expectantly.
"Sure, why not?" Rinoa said.
"How do you teach something like that?" Namine asked, erasing one of the King's ears in an attempt to fix it. "Holy is huge magic."
"And what did the two of you just do with Light?" Rinoa replied, raising an eyebrow.
"But we weren't even thinking about it," Kairi said. "It just happened."
"So will Holy," Aerith replied. "You just have to control it."
"Well, when can we start learning, then?" Kairi asked. "Or practicing, or whatever it is that it's actually called."
"We can start tonight," Aerith said. "Or tomorrow morning. If you two don't mind staying overnight, that is."
"Do we have enough beds?" Rinoa asked. "I don't think we have any spares."
"Drat, I always forget," Aerith muttered. "Well, I'll sleep on a couch. Tifa would probably…"
"We can sleep on the couches," Namine said, finally satisfied with the King's ear. "It's really no big deal."
"If you don't mind…" Rinoa said.
Kairi and Namine shook their heads.
"I need to build another room onto the house," Aerith mused.
That got them all laughing.
xx
"So many Heartless!" Xion grunted, slicing her Keyblade through several Possessors. "Have we not sealed this Keyhole yet? Because this isn't the first time one of us has had to come here and deal with them here."
"No, I sealed this one myself," Sora replied, jumping up and gliding over to one of the Avalanches that was flying about. "It seems as though the Heartless are just content to settle for people's hearts since they can't get to the World's hearts."
"Pity, I was hoping that the Heartless would just go away."
"It's not as bad as it used to be."
He landed back on the ground, taking out the last few Possessors as he went.
"Not even close," he continued, performing a bit of a victory swipe.
"I feel like I have memory of that," Xion mused.
Sora laughed. "Probably. Hey, I think there's some more over there."
Using his Keyblade, he pointed to an area by some trees where it literally looked like Heartless were waiting for them. Xion nodded and the two of them hurried over.
"This isn't even as bad as Hollow Bastion, now that I think about it," Xion said, taking out a Scarlet Tango. "They have to deal with hordes of Heartless of this magnitude every day. We've only been coming here every few days or so."
"I've sealed Hollow Bastion's Keyhole too, though," Sora muttered, frowning.
Xion shrugged. "Hollow Bastion has problems."
"You could say that again."
They grew silent for a few minutes as they continued to deal with the Heartless. Most of them were pure blood, though there were the occasional Emblems. They had noticed over the past week or so that the Emblem ones were disappearing over all the worlds. Riku had mentioned at one point that this was probably because the Emblem Heartless had been manufactured and it was coming to a point that there just weren't many left.
"I do wish we could be done with this though, right here," Xion said. "After all those Possessors, I've got enough munny for, like, six ice creams. I could go to Twilight Town with Roxas. I think he said he was just going to laze on the beach all day today."
Sora laughed. "Well, I could try for a Drive Form," he said. "Maybe that would take care of the last of them."
"Sure, go for it," Xion said. "But do you have any left?"
"I've got one," Sora said, lowering his Keyblade slightly as he concentrated his power.
He felt a bit of darkness flare up and he knew that he was getting close to triggering Anti-Form. He would have to go into Final Form before he tried Driving again after this. It wouldn't be any harder going enemy-bashing with Roxas than it was Xion. But he needed to trigger Final Form to bat away the darkness.
Thankfully, he didn't trigger Anti-Form. Instead, he triggered a form he hardly ever used: Limit. It had been a while since he had used this form. The last time he had, he'd been with Donald and Goofy. How long ago that had been…
Xion had disappeared. Her Keyblade now rest in Sora's right hand, Oathkeeper was still in his left.
"Well, well," Sora said, looking down at the two Keyblades. "This is new."
He took a moment to look himself over. He was, indeed, in Limit Form. They only differences were the newly-acquired ability to dual-wield and the disappearance of Xion. Shrugging this all off, he launched into Sonic Blade. He knew that attack would work to effectively wipe out all (or at least almost all) of the remaining Heartless in the area. And that's what Xion wanted to happen because she wanted to go home.
He didn't blame her, he wanted to see Kairi—but she was out learning how to control powerful magic. He couldn't stop that.
Even though he was slightly distracted by thinking about Kairi, he managed to get all of the Heartless. He nodded in satisfaction at the lack of the yellow-eyed monsters. He phased out of Limit Form, seeing no need to keep it up. Xion's Keyblade disappeared out of his hand and reappeared in her hand as she came back.
"That's that," Sora said, banishing his Keyblade and dusting off his hands.
"Well then," Xion mused. "That was quick."
"Sonic Blade. Pretty sweet attack," Sora said. "When it comes to slicing attacks like that, it's pretty much second only to Dark Aura."
"That one's one of Riku's specialties, isn't it?" Xion asked.
Sora nodded, though he winced a bit too.
Xion laughed.
"It's not funny," Sora said.
"What, because you were on the receiving end?"
"No, because Riku wasn't himself…"
Xion stopped. "Oh."
They were silent for a moment.
"He got better," Xion said quietly.
Sora nodded. "Yeah, he did."
There was another small bit of silence.
"Well, I'm glad I can be useful in triggering a Drive Form," Xion said. "I wasn't sure if there was anything in that regards that I could help you with."
Sora smiled crookedly at her. "It's not like I'd like you any less if you couldn't. You're an awesome friend."
Xion smiled. "Thanks."
Sora smiled too. "We should go, though," he said. "Before any more Heartless show up. I don't want that Sonic Blade to go to waste."
Xion laughed. "Yes, let's head out. I want my ice cream."
Sora laughed as well. He dug his hand into his pocket, reaching for the star shard. He offered his other hand out to Xion and she took it.
"Ready?" he asked.
"Yes," Xion replied.
He activated the star shard.