Fire Against Fire
"How're your wounds?"I asked Rex, toppling over backwards as I tried to stand and laid on my back, tired from the movements Maleficent had forced my body to do.
"They're... uncomfortable, but I'll be fine." He sat next to me. Clearly he was just as tired if not more so than I was. "Let's just rest for a while. ...By the way, I'm, uh... sorry about earlier."
"Huh?"
"I kind of... read your mind. I didn't know how to jolt you back to consciousness, so I figured I'd find something in your head I could use. I usually avoid doing that." He scratched his head and stared at the floor as he explained this. Under normal circumstances I might have felt uncomfortable with it, but these weren't normal circumstances.
"well, thanks I guess. For the record... I looked at Aleri's heart. And yours, although I'm not sure it was a heart I looked at."
"What I have isn't really whole. It's just a broken piece of Al's heart. But, well, that piece of him - me - happened to be killing him from the inside, so I separated from him. ...So, you can see peoples' hearts, can you?"
"See them, explore them, accidentally make them implode." I cringed at the memory of the poor boy.
"What, does it not work on witches? Might've been handy." Rex jested, lightening the mood slightly.
"One; she has a guard around it. Two; I don't have full control." I sat up and rubbed my neck, rolling my head to relax it.
"That's fair, I guess. ...So, how do you feel? Is your strength returning?"
"Slowly. Although that thunder spell did a number on me." I rolled my shoulder backwards trying to get rid of the aching in my joints.
"Less of a spell, more applied science. Well, not really science, either. I'm sure one of my buddies would've liked that, though. He's fond of stuff like that. But yeah, sorry. I mean, the best tactic would've been to make another puppet to distract you instead of coming down myself."
"It would've stopped you getting stabbed." A massive pang of guilt filled my heart as I glanced at his stomach.
"...Hmph. I guess I can live with a couple of stab wounds." He shrugged. After a short silence between us, time reminded me of the objective.
"We should catch up in a minute."
"We might have to take down Riku in order to defeat Ansem. You know that." I sighed and looked at the ground, sadly.
"I know. I just... Hope."
'Hope that Riku didn't give in like he did in Mori's universe.'
"I hope everything works out with you two, as well."
"Meaning?" Rex gave me a funny look. Confused maybe?
"Your life-link. Don't tell me you didn't notice...? Both you and Riku have been linked to Ansem. If he dies, he can drag you both with him. I don't know how to deal with it, but I still hope you guys can come out of it together." I pondered this for a moment as it sunk in. If Ansem died... Riku and I could also die.
"Really? Well then... I guess... I'll have to take on Riku's load too. He has a purpose. I don't." Rex smacked my head from behind.
"Hey, cut the self-sacrifice talk, it leaves a bad taste in my mouth."
"People do crazy things for the things they care about." I smiled inwardly.
"Won't you just make things worse for him if you die, but he goes on living?" I shook my head.
"He has Kairi and Sora. He doesn't need me."
"...Maybe he doesn't. Still, wouldn't you rather be with him? If you just resign yourself to the idea that you'll die to save him, then you're already dead. It's not wrong to want to live." Almost exactly what Mori had said. Accepting it dooms me to live it.
"But it's wrong to let a friend die when you could save them."
"So you're just weighing lives? ...I can't say I speak from experience, but I don't think the value of lives can be measured or compared. Maybe it's naïve of me, but I want to find an outcome where everyone lives through this."
"It is naive of you, but not in a bad way." Things don't always work like that. A lesson I learned early on.
"You feeling well enough to go in?"
"yeah, gimme a hand up, will ya?" He got up and stood over me, hauling me to my feet. "Thanks." A wave of coughing took over my speech and I felt the same liquid splatter my gloves. Black blood. "Crap... That's not good."
"Er, uh... yeah, what you said. You sure you want to fight Maleficent right now?" I shrugged at his dumbfounded expression.
"I probably shouldn't but I never listen to reason so why start now?"
"Fine, just don't break down."
"I'll try not to. There should be a spell somewhere on my book to give me even ground with her. I'll check when we see the situation."
"She's turned into a dragon." I looked at him curiously. "What?" I assumed he and Aleri had contact telepathically due to their hearts being two parts of a whole. But a dragon... it would be difficult to defeat her, even with a group of skilled fighters.
"Aw, crap." I summoned my spell tome and flicked through the pages to a spell that increased power levels temporarily. I uttered the incantation but was shocked to find that I started growing in size and scales were appearing in place of my skin! "Argh! Aah! It hurts! Wait, what's going on!?" The sound of ripping fabric alerted me of my clothes tearing, unable to contain the metamorphosis.
"I... think you're turning into a dragon. That or a giant fish." A dragon as well!? I glanced at the spell tome and noticed my error. A page was missing. I'd casted the wrong spell! I turned my back to Rex, to hide the fact my clothes were about to come off completely. I fell onto my hands and knees as the transformation neared its completion. My clothes were completely shredded by this point and laid in tatters on the stone floor. My form was complete, but I was still slowly increasing in size.
"Well, I guess it could work." My voice was gravelly and deep. Reminiscent of Galefrix.
"Shame about your clothes. Hope your room isn't too far."
"I think I can get there quick enough. Time to fight I guess." My voice was getting less and less distinguishable and melded into a growl.
"Alright, let's kick her ass!" As Rex charge through the corridor I was too big to fit through, I took a detour through the stain glass roof. I could smell where the others were. The Ballroom! I dived and crashed through the roof, landing on the back of a black and purple dragon. Maleficent. I was considerably smaller than her but big enough that I could bite her neck and expose her soft underbelly. The ballroom was on fire and covered in giant thorny vines, nothing like it had looked at the party.
"Focus on her face!" Aleri ordered. I obliged them by forcing Maleficent's head down for them to attack. It was an amusing nod of confused thanks I received from Al that gave Maleficent her chance to whip her head around and bite my neck. She followed up with slamming me into the thorny walls. This made me roar loudly in pain, my ability to speak now gone. Maleficent then pinned me to the floor and tried to bite my face. However I was biting back, making it harder for her to get a good grip. Rexial came to my aid and attack her front legs, weakening her grip on me and giving me the chance to kick her off and climb up the thorns. My smaller, slender shape meant I was more agile than she was.
"Spread out!" Aleri barked, the group scattering to make it harder for Maleficent to attack. I used the logic that as a dragon, I could breathe fire, but all that came out was a puff of blue fire. "It was a good effort."
"Shut up, Al." Rexial grunted. Maleficent released an inferno of green heat and stomped around wildly. I was hanging upside down from the ceiling, having lost half my grip when the stomping started. Rexial had leapt onto the vines to avoid the flames and for some crazy reason, Al decided to grab onto Maleficent's neck and was hanging on for dear life while Sora, Donald and Goofy evaded the fire on the ground. Distracted by the boy clinging to her neck, I took my chance to drop onto Maleficent's back, pinning her down once more and ceasing the blasts of combustion. Aleri was flung into the air and came down with a heavy swing of his Keyblade, TELOS, aimed straight for Maleficent's head. I timed the shot perfectly and aimed another puff of blue fire to catch light to TELOS, increasing the damage done.
"ORAAAAA!" The flame exploded around the point of impact and sent Maleficent reeling. "Yeah-hah, that was awesome-!" Having been knocked back by the recoil, he bounced twice before coming to a stop on the floor. "...I take it baaaaack..." Worried for him, I lost focus once more and Maleficent threw me into the wall above Aleri. My sense knocked out of me, I fell to the floor, on top of Aleri. "OOF! ...Whyyyyy...?" He wheezed from underneath me, putting his hand on my side and using his healing magic. As I was soothed, a sort of rumbling purr sounded from my belly. I didn't know any more as I blacked out from the impact on the wall and floor.
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"Raven, get up!" My eyes cracked open, the purring reoccurring as I nudged Rexial with my snout. "Hey there. You, uh... slept through Maleficent disintegrating. Is that normal for witches? ...Oh, actually, could you get off of Al real quick?" I stood up shakily, dizzy from my recent sleep, but used my tail to scoop Aleri out from underneath me. "Thanks. I'd tell you that you could just go right back to your nap, but we need to defeat Ansem and all." The purring resumed and I curled into myself, shrinking. Was I changing back? "Right, that."
He turned around and tried to herd Sora, Donald, and Goofy out of the room. I nudged the remains of my clothing that had attached to my scales during my transformation. Rex had left but Aleri was still there and he sat up.
"Ngh..." As I was starting to lose my scales, I nudged his back. "Owww...! Why aren't I just using my healing magic?!" He casted Cura upon himself before standing up. "Right, we were fighting, and I went flying, and then a dragon fell on me." It sunk into his head as I stared at him, now at some strange mutant stage. "Oh." I nudged the clothes again, trying o tell him what was happening. "You... want me to fix your clothing?" I rolled my eyes and slipped behind an especially thick vine, now small enough to do so. It took only a few more seconds before I was back to my normal form. Naked. Just as I was wondering what I was going to do, Aleri's beige coat landed beside me and I glanced around the vine to see he was turned away respectfully. "Covering yourself with the shreds of your last outfit would be kinda tough. You can use my coat until you get back to your room." I picked up the coat and put it on and started buttoning it up. "Thanks. I didn't mean to turn into that."
"No problem. So, er, do you just transform sometimes, or was that some kind of spell?"
"I think it was a spell malfunction."
"Huh, must've been one crazy spell to do that on a malfunction." As I started doing up the top buttons I stopped, blushing at my new predicament.
"Uuh.. Al?"
"What's up?"
"It uh... Won't do up." There was a pause but when he spoke again, it was jittery and stammered.
"Okay, y-you can borrow my shirt too." A second later, his shirt landed by my feet too. I pulled my arms out of the sleeves of the coat and pulled the top over my head before pulling the coat back on properly.
"Thank you." I then stepped out and walked over to him, staying at a distance, not being at all comfortable without underwear.
"I'm sorry that the buttons aren't exactly useful. But hey, at least you can get to your room now!"
"Yeah, I guess. Thanks again." It was beyond awkward for me.
"Mind if I come with you?" I looked at him incredulously, blushing some more. "At least until we reach the door of your room. You probably shouldn't fight like that, and running doesn't seem easy, either. I owe you for shifting your weight off of me when you were barely conscious."
"Alright. It's this way." I walked over to an overgrown door that I'd used to enter the ballroom the last time I was there. "It wasn't this vegetated the last time I used this."
"Maybe it's been reacting to something...?"
"Probably Maleficent's Magic. It's just up here." I pushed aside a stone door that opened onto the corridor of my room. I hurried along it to the third door on the left which was my door. I entered eagerly while Al waited outside.
"Is that your room?" He asked through the door. I opened my wardrobe and pulled out my SOLDIER uniform and grabbed some bandages from the bathroom.
"Yeah, I just need to re dress my wound then put on a top. I'll give your shirt back in a sec. Do you need to stock up in potions?" I asked, seeing the stash in the medical cupboard.
"I could use an Ether, since I actually used an awful lot of my magic earlier, but otherwise, no." I grabbed the blue glowing cube and set about dabbing potion on my wound before bandaging it and then getting dressed.
"Alright, I'll hand it to you with your clothes." I replied, folding said clothes neatly.
"Thank you." I opened the door an presented the clothing and Ether to him. "Again, thank you." He slipped on his shirt and put his coat around his shoulders before proceeding to bite into the cube. "I think Rex stopped the others in the chapel hall so we could discuss our next move. Shall we?"
"Sounds good."
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"Good, you're here. We were just talking about what to do now, since Ansem's by the Keyhole with the princesses." Rexial informed us as we entered the Chapel.
"You mean you can sense him now? Does that mean Riku..."
'Did he give in?'
"We can't jump to conclusions. I can't sense that area clearly enough to determine whether Riku is still there."
"Our priority is getting Kairi and the princesses out of harm's way." I nodded, pushing aside my concern for Riku. He wasn't completely defenceless unlike the princesses and Kairi.
"Yes. We'll have to free them from Ansem before he opens the keyhole. Once that happens, darkness is going to pour out and start messing things up, starting with a flood of Heartless." Rexial agreed.
"I think it's already partially open. My wound is reacting to the darkness increase." I stated as my wound ached more.
"It can't completely open as it is... I think. It's missing something."
"I don't like the looks of it. He had us get rid of Maleficent either to distract us, or because he just wanted her out of the way." Rexial grumbled thoughtfully.
"Or both. Raven, show us the way." Sora said. The first time he'd spoken in a while.
"Wait, we should really think this through-" Rexial began but Aleri interrupted him.
"I'm sorry, but we don't have time. He could be prying the Keyhole open as we speak."
"Fine."
"We can plan as we head there." I suggested as he made a break for the exit.
"Alright, I get it, let's run!" The rest of us followed and Sora and I took the lead through the complex lift system.
"I never understood why these were so complicated." I groaned.
"Yeah, it's like they never heard of buttons. All the switches are in different places!" Al added.
"Who knows? It's not like Maleficent built this place." Rexial shrugged.
"She's done a fair bit of work though. But I guess since she can just go directly to a location, she didn't bother with the lifts." I said as we boarded the lift we needed.
"Yeah, she defaced the grand clock and turned it into a crest. Glad she's been evicted."
"It's so strange, seeing the place like this..."
"But the crest of the heartless was Ansem's creation." I said, confused.
"It wasn't on the front of the castle when my boss knew Ansem."
"I'm just saying, the crest is all over hollow bastion. It's in the stonework and I doubt maleficent went through that much trouble."
"Weird... it must've been removed during the later renovations." Aleri suggested.
"It makes perfect sense, reading the Ansem Reports. Still, I have to see him for myself."
"He'll have all hell to pay for creating the heartless."
"And for his involvement in our own battles..." Aleri said, bitterly.
"Dude, you weren't even there." Rex reminded him.
"I still don't like him."
"And for what he's done to me and Riku." All the talk of Ansem and the thought of what he could be doing to Riku made me bitter.
"Yeah, and he's responsible for Organization XIII. Without his Emblem Heartless, they'd be up a creek." Organisation XIII. I had to deal with them after this. They'd been after me and Riku too. What was so special about us?
"Don't worry, we'll all kick his ass thoroughly." Rex reassured us.
"It's unbelievable. To think one person caused so much trouble and misery." Sora sighed, deep in thought.
"He was the leader of this entire world, and a brilliant scientist. It's not completely absurd."
"Just sick." I answered, remembering the details of his reports and what Mori told me he did to her in that reality.
"I still can't reconcile everything I know about him. I can't accept that a benevolent leader would not only condone those experiments, but propose them in the first place, and personally participate. What happened to him...?"
"Probably went mad with power. It's common." I said, remembering a tale of the Phelician King from a hundred years ago who went mad with power. He ordered that all harvests were to be burned, saying that a king was a god and didn't require food. He died of starvation in the end, thinking his hunger pain was his ascension to divinity.
"I don't know... my boss always said Ansem was a man looking for answers that he could never reach. Maybe he was desperate enough to go through with those experiments, and let the darkness in his heart run wild."
"That's likely too."
"Whatever the truth is, I'll find it myself. Maybe more digging around in the archives here... repairing the computers to a state where they're usable isn't exactly an afternoon's task."
"Is it just me, or is this elevator-lift-thing taking a while?" Aleri commented, breaking the seriousness that had overcast the group. But yes, it was moving slowly.
"They're really old and slow from lack of usage. And Rex, you could ask Ansem? From what I can tell, he likes to talk. Maybe he'd be open to telling you the story."
"That's funny, my boss told me he actually didn't like to ramble." Perhaps he'd changed in more ways than one? "Either way, this Elevator's going too slow. Al, can you speed it up?" Al cast a haste spell on the lift, turning the energy line from blue to red and increasing our speed.
"Okay, that Haste spell ought to move things along. Okay, that Haste spell ought to move things along."
"Good, I wanna get there by the end of this century."
"You don't have as much hanging on this as the rest of us." I muttered. He heard me though and looked at me oddly. "Sentimentally." I added for clarification.
"Exactly, I don't like wasting time on other people's business as much. I usually don't have the most emotional attachment to the task at hand, since I get dragged into my buddies' messes pretty often."
"Aw, don't lie, you do it on purpose." Aleri smirked, nudging his friend's arm playfully.
"Oh, please, I'm just making sure none of them get killed or emotionally broken while I'm not looking." He turned away, unable to look us in the eye, bringing a smile to Aleri's lips.
"Heh, sounds like you feel something after all." I challenged.
"I never said I don't feel! Ass..." He turned back around to face me. "You're the one who says I've got the least riding on this; I just want it over with sooner so I can do what I came here for, and that's looking for information! Whether this whole mess ends badly for you or not doesn't really affect my goals, but that doesn't mean I want you to fail or don't care at all."
"Sheesh, I was only teasing."
"Fuck off."
"I think you struck a nerve." Al told me. I felt bad inside.
"I was just... Trying to lighten up..." I held my arm and looked at the ground.
"Then you're talking to the wrong guy." He said. I couldn't tell whether it was a snarl or a snap or a growl. It wasn't a friendly joke though.
"Rex, apologize!" Aleri ordered.
"Why?"
"Because you're hurting her feelings!"
"Fine, fine." He sighed. "I'm sorry for hurting your feelings. Okay? We're done here." Despite his attempts to sound sarcastic, he was still genuinely sorry. Aleri still whacked him upside the head though, with a look of frustration.
"Stop trying to play the villain and apologize for real." The lift stopped and I was the first to get out. I didn't say anything to them though. Now that I was sad, I was finding it very hard to not be sad. Even their banter wasn't making me cheer up.
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