The castle walls echoed with the sounds of battle. Katie had felt like she had been running for hours, commander Riku, which is what she had started calling him in her thoughts after the strict order to keep running. Only a few times were they delayed due to nobody minions being an obstacle. Riku had remarked with surprise at the change in weapons the guardians had.
The groups rounded a corner and quickly descended down a flight of stairs that were leading into a large room, which was the center of the battle. Lesser nobodies were scattered about the room. Katie quickly spotted Natalie and Sora fighting side by side, the flash of red and brown hair among the gray husks was hard to miss.
"I got your back!" Katie shouted as she charged straight into the mass of nobodies towards the pair. Blasting a pack of nobodies into nonexistence with firaga, she placed herself next to the fighting pair.
"Oh my gosh- Katie!" The fiery red head exclaimed in shock when she glimpsed the guardian approach from the corner of her eye. Briefly turning her attention back to the dancer that was gliding up, with a brisk jump she sliced the nobody in half with ease using her axe. "I'm so relieved to see you're okay" she spoke over her shoulder to her companion.
"I'm relieved too" She said with a chuckle while she bicycle kicked a Dusk square in the face following up with a quick stab in it's chest using her knife.
John still stood by the stairs watching in awe at the battle ensuing before him, Riku and Katie already charged into the fight. The nobodies hadn't seen to notice the male standing there, completely "not on guard". He reached back into his mind and tapped on the blue light that was Aqua. "Aqua.. so much fighting, why always fighting?"
He felt a wave of calm wash over his body as if Aqua was standing right beside him. "I know, you're not the only one wishing the fight would be over for good. But, your friends need you. Your support gives them strength." John's lips curled into a smile hearing Aqua's words echo in his head.
John responded calmly "You're always right~" He felt a sense of laughter coming from Aqua. The male was happy to feel that she was amused at his recognition of her smarts. This made him think back to his missions while being a "puppet" for the organization. During that time Aqua and he were constantly conversing. She taught him tricks for mastering magic and even some better fighting techniques. He definitely benefitted from the boost in strength.
"Time to make quick work of this" He whispered to himself. Releasing the hold on his weapon, letting it fade away in a swirl of dark energy he charged forward freezing nobodies where they stood using blasts of blizzard. Quickly shattering their frozen forms with the force of gravity. John stood directly in the middle of the mass of the fight, scoping with his eyes in attempts to find his friends. He sure could hear them, but didn't see them. The amount of nobodies were like walls, his friends directly on the other side. He stopped searching when through a small space between some Snipers he spotted a blur of teal. 'Is that…Paige?' he thought silently, and without even thinking he rushed forward utilizing gravity to throw the Snipers to the side. Paige was standing next to Sora, looking extremely frightened. The spiky haired male was slashing down all the nobodies that came into range of his keyblade. John dashed forward closing the distance between him and his friends. Paige screamed as he nearly collided into her, throwing his arms around her. "Paige!" John cooed as he tightened his arms around her.
"John, where'd you come from?" Paige rasped as she was calming herself. She felt as if she was on the verge of having a heart attack. "I thought you were a nobody. I was not ready" She brought her arms up to give her good friend a tight hug.
Sora whirled around at the sound of Paige's scream. "Paige are you-" He cut off midsentence when he saw John, who was now parting the hug he was sharing with Paige. Sora felt his throat constrict the moment he felt the guardian's blue eyes land on him. The guardian jumped forward and locked his arms around Sora. He couldn't help but gasp, letting the keyblade disappear from his grasp so he could bring his arms up around the male.
"I'm sorry-" John's words were muffled by the hard kiss from Sora. He was held by the shoulders and let Sora's lips stay firm against his. He eased into it, and closed his eyes. His hands moved into the soft tresses of Sora's hair.
Sora smiled and broke the kiss. "I forgive you, don't worry."
John smiled and pecked him on the lips. Sora's eyes met John's and they held each other's gaze.
"Look out!" Paige yelled. She jumped in front of the two boys and used her adrenaline rush to push back a Dancer before it could attack.
John and Sora gave each other a nod. They stepped in front of Paige and, combined their power, and let out a huge barrier. It was strong enough to take out the horde of enemies. Seeing that they were gone temporarily, Natalie and Katie rejoined the company. Riku was the last to catch up. Everyone except for Riku was jumping for joy around each other, clearly Natalie and Sora had missed their once captive friends.
"I know this is great and all, but we can't celebrate just yet. We need to leave now before more come." Riku spoke up sternly.
"Right!" Everyone chimed in with agreement.