Ven ducked under a sheet of white flame that trailed behind Astelik's longsword. Part of him was in the present as he rolled forward to try and cut Astelik from below, but part of him was in a room in Castle Oblivion listening to Aqua talk.
"Ven, why did you call me up here? Did you want to tell me something?"
Eraqus was taking on the majority of Astelik's swings while Aqua healed him and sent magic from his side. Ven was trying to skirt around and avoid both the flames and the longsword Astelik was controlling.
"How did you do it? How did you keep on going in the Realm of Darkness, with our master dead, me comatose, and Terra possessed by Xehanort?"
Astelik was skilled even without Corruption, but he wasn't a match for the three of them without it. He wasn't able to blast them all back so he could focus on one Remnant. Eraqus was taking heavy damage as the spearhead, but Aqua was healing him steadily and providing him good backup.
"There was a time when I thought I was going to die. I had lost all hope, and there were Darksides surrounding me. The Realm of Darkness stretched on forever, and I didn't see any end to it."
Astelik let Ven swipe Wayward Wind across his chest, then dove under Eraqus' beam of Light to strike his leg. Instead of splintering off in chips and chunks, Astelik's heated sword made a clean cut through Eraqus' thigh, causing Eraqus' armour to buckle. The pommel of Astelik's longsword flew towards Eraqus, but Aqua knocked it aside with her own Keyblade before Ven engaged Astelik furiously.
"But then I saw yours and Terra's Keyblades. They cut through the Darksides like they were nothing. And I knew that you guys were with me and always would be, no matter where I was."
Astelik tried to barrel past Ven with torrents of fire, but Ven blew the worst of it away with wind magic and charged recklessly towards the Grandmaster. Astelik hadn't been expecting Ven to do something so rash, and was put on the defensive for a few strokes.
"Yeah, I get that, Aqua, but Terra's dead. He can't be here with us like we were with you."
Ven's Keyblade whirled about furiously, but Astelik's smooth white blade caught the teeth of Ven's Keyblade. Ven pushed forward, abandoning his reverse grip for brute strength as he tried to use both arms to pry away his weapon.
"We don't need Terra with us to get through this. Everything's going to be different, but that's fine. Terra won't be with us to appreciate the change, but we can be strong for him. I kept on going because of the future I might have with you and everyone else once I got out, and I'll keep going now because of what I can share with you and master Eraqus once this is over."
Ven looked up at Astelik's armour and tried to pull his Keyblade out of the lock Astelik had caught him in. Surprisingly, Astelik let him and leveled his blade at Ven. "You have lost your skill. Your feelings cloud your actions. You will never defeat any of them like that."
He twisted out of the way as Aqua teleported over to him and swung her Keyblade where his head had been. Eraqus shot out spheres of Light that detonated when they got near Astelik, pushing him near a corner.
"But what if I can't move on like you did, Aqua? What if master Eraqus can't? What if he just sees the place where Terra would have been?"
"Our master's stronger than that. You'll see. So are you, and so are we all. You can't let the Divine Beings do this to you. They think our Hearts make us weak, but they don't. They make us stronger than them. And we'll prove that to them."
"Well, well, fate does have a way of taunting us. I thought we might get a few hours of respite, only to come back to our dear leader being beaten."
The three Remnants whirled around to the entrance of the vault to see Alethia and Agatha coming back. They stood silhouetted in the doorway before moving in. They shot a look at Frost and Max, who were standing in a corner, before turning and summoning their weapons.
"I guess, Aqua. Thanks. Sometimes it seems like I'm the same kid I was when Xehanort came into our lives."
The three Remnants turned and charged towards Astelik, who was still backed against a corner. Ven's Keyblade became a blur of metal and Aqua's armour teleported all around him. Astelik gathered a ring of fire around him and surrounded himself in blinding light that even Aqua's Waterga spell couldn't dispel. Alethia's chain snaked around Eraqus' leg, and he jumped to the side to avoid it. Another length of chain tried to rip through Aqua's neck, but she dispersed it with a Firaga spell.
"We're all kids inside. We just can't act like kids because of the situation we're in now. We have to grow up and keep on moving even if we lose friends."
Ven ran towards Alethia and knocked aside the chain several times before she retracted the chains and held a pair of short sickles in her hand. She laughed as the two of them traded blows at lightning speed before sending out chains to hold Ven in place.
"Ven, do you know what Terra and I wanted to do after this? We wanted to start a life together. Not the same one we had before, but a new one that would make us happy. He won't be able to do that anymore, but we still can."
To live a new life? As a suit of armour, just walking around as a chunk of metal? Ven blew away the chains with a blast of Light and jumped several metres away from Alethia. The idea seemed completely foreign to him. He hadn't even considered it before. Eraqus had walked in before he had been able to give an answer, and they had sat in silence until Frost and Max had found them there.
Suddenly a wave of power entered the room along with the other four vessels of Corruption. Ven noticed how Alethia stiffened when she saw the other Grandmasters, and he realized that Corruption was using their dead friends as puppets in front of them. If a Divine Being used Terra's lingering sentiment and forced Ven to work with it, Ven wouldn't know if he'd be able to control himself he gained freedom of his own body again.
He didn't know if he wanted to.
"You cannot even defeat humans without my aid, pathetic vessels." The three Remnants, along with Max and Frost, were now surrounded by Corruption. Ven would find it bitterly ironic if none of them got a life to live afterwards. What if all their lives winked out? But lives winked out everywhere, what made their lives so different from the others?
"What of Sora and the candidate for the Kingdom Key?" Agatha asked. Even as she did so, Corruption flowed through her. It spread through all seven Grandmasters as they acted like a conduit for the Divine Being.
"He evaded me." Corruption gathered in a huge sphere above all of them and it flowed with death and decay. "He fled into the Realm of Darkness with his apprentice. Being caught between Light and Darkness is something I would wish to avoid."
Without warning, the Grandmasters threw the huge blast of Corruption at the Remnants. But Aqua had been building a Portal behind them, and Ven grabbed onto both Frost and Max as she and the others were blown backwards into the Portal. Ven felt Corruption gnawing away at his armour, and did his best to protect Frost and Max from the blast.
He felt Eraqus holding onto him, casting spells to protect them from the worst of the Divine Being. They ran through the Lanes Between with Corruption flowing right next to them. Aqua hadn't set a destination in mind when she had made the Portal, because she knew Corruption would follow them like it was doing now.
Ven was suddenly aware of Aqua and Eraqus shooting spells and shredding as much Corruption away from them as possible. Ven summoned his Keyblade Rider and shot forward as fast as she could; even faster than the time she had dove down into the Realm of Darkness to save Terra.
He looked down at Frost and Max and saw that they had passed out from all the Corruption in the air. But their bodies and Hearts seemed to be fine, and that was what mattered. If there was ever a time for the Kingdom Key and Kingdom Key D to come out, it would be now. Unfortunately, it didn't seem to work for them if they were unconscious.
Ven was aware of Corruption eroding away at his mind, and he seemed to be getting more lethargic. He felt detached and was slowly forgetting things. Why was he holding onto these children? Where was Terra? And where was he? What was the point?
He realized that the two children she was holding weren't there anymore, but he couldn't bring himself to care. He felt he was losing control, and his thoughts were getting slower and slower. Then a roar filled the air.
It wasn't jarring or frightening, it was powerful, slow, and seemed to come from the very air itself. The sound didn't fill him with strength, but he suddenly remembered something else Aqua had told him. "Sometimes you have to try even when there isn't any point. You have to believe, and when you can, and it's only the strongest Hearts that can keep on believing when the odds are against you."
That's right. He could believe. He could believe for Aqua and Eraqus, but more importantly, he could believe for Terra and he could believe that Terra's sacrifice wasn't in vain. Terra wouldn't die for nothing, and Ven would make sure of it.
The roar that had awoken him was still ringing, but it had softened into a deep humming. Corruption still surrounded him, but instead of him being pushed around by Corruption, it felt like he was being pulled towards somewhere else. He found himself tumbling over and over, feeling surprisingly at peace, until he lost consciousness. For some reason it felt like he was falling asleep, something that Remnants couldn't do. Despite the situation everyone was in, he felt at peace as he was lulled to sleep by the low hum that was drawing them ever closer to a destination Ven didn't know about.
"What in Light's name is he doing here?"
Raphael had been expecting a reaction like that from Jack and Mist. The moment Vanitas walked out of the Portal into the Dark Meridian followed by Raphael, Rayne and Jason, the two of them looked at Vanitas like he was going to kill Rayne in front of them.
"We told you to get Raphael, not Vanitas as well!" Jack yelled at Jason, "Kingdom Hearts, what were you thinking?"
"Either both of us came, or neither of us did," Raphael said, "He won't attack any of us."
"This is ridiculous," Jack said, "Why do we have to-"
"Why not?"
Raphael hadn't noticed a new addition to the group. It was a boy, around fourteen or fifteen. That age when you could start seeing the man that the child would grow into. His face was covered by a hood, and he wore a black cloak of Darkness, just like the one Raphael had been given by the Keyblade Masters before he was sent to the Keyblade Graveyard. All that remained of it was a tattered band around his forehead.
"Seth, this guy isn't like us." Mist said, "He used to work for Xehanort."
"A thousand years ago, yeah, Jason told me." Raphael was trying to figure out who this kid was. He could only see the brown skin around his mouth and chin as it moved. "A thousand years ago, Marek tried killing and/or using every Remnant on this beach. So what makes Vanitas different from him?"
"Marek's redeemed himself several times over." Jack said, "How do we know Vanitas won't turn on us?" Vanitas giggled, enjoying, or pretending to enjoy, the drama unfolding. Raphael never knew if Vanitas was pretending or not nowadays. Sometimes he would seem sane, but sometimes he would go back into an irrational and unhinged man, and the dark fire would relight and start flickering haphazardly.
"How did you know Marek wouldn't turn? You trusted him, even before he redeemed himself." The kid in the black cloak was talking again, and Raphael admired him for standing up to all the Remnants. There was a pause, and he muttered, "It's not what you are, it's what you can become."
Jack looked at Jason and said, "If anything happens to Rayne because of this, it's on your head." With that, he walked off.
Raphael looked at Jason and Rayne, both of whom had stiffened at Jack's words. Jason put a hand on Rayne's shoulder, and she swallowed the angry words that were begging to burst out. Between Jack and Mist, Raphael was surprised that Rayne didn't have anger management issues.
"She's stronger than her parents in some ways." Riku said, "It shows in situations like these."
Raphael was surprised that Riku had been so quiet up until now. He nearly wasn't as talkative as he had been before Gran Pulse.
"My Heart's catching up with me." Riku said cryptically. Raphael was confused, but his attention was drawn back to Vanitas.
"So, righteous Remnants, what do you guys normally do in between saving the world?"
Raphael looked around and saw Jason walk away. His first thought was that Jason was walking to Jack and Mist, but instead he saw the silver figure disappear into the forest briefly. In retrospect, Raphael wouldn't want to be around an agitated Jack and Mist, and he didn't think Jason would want to step on that landmine either.
"Speaking of agitated Rikkisons..." Riku drew Raphael's attention to Rayne, who was walking down the beach with tensed shoulders. "You don't want to be around any Rikkison in a bad mood."
Regardless, Raphael started walking towards Rayne, noticing that Vanitas was tagging along beside him. He didn't mind. If Vanitas wanted to learn about friendship, then who was Raphael to deny him that?
"See what I have to put up with every day?" Rayne sat down and looked back at Raphael, who sat down next to her. "I can't believe they still think I need Granddad to protect me."
"So, can you be friends with your parents?" Vanitas butted in. "I've never had either. Well, I suppose Ven was my parent, since I was born from his Darkness, but I don't think we had a typical relationship."
Before Raphael could argue that Ven wasn't Vanitas' parent, Rayne replied, "Most kids aren't nine years younger than their parents and fighting alongside them after they have a few years of consciousness." Rayne said, "I don't think I'm the right person to ask either."
Vanitas looked at Raphael, and so did Rayne. "I don't know much about your personal life." Raphael felt like he was under an X-ray and muttered, "Can't you ask Riku?"
Riku took over Raphael's body and said, "Sure, I can tell you guys about Raphael's personal life. I've had a while to dig down ther-"
Raphael gritted his teeth as he mentally shoved Riku to the side. "That wasn't what I meant!"
"Well, you're the only person who's had a close to normal life." Rayne said, "And you know all about us. Tell us about you."
"Well, what do you want to know?" Raphael hugged his legs to his body as Riku listened with interest.
"How do you feel about your friends now?" Vanitas asked quickly. If Raphael didn't know better, he'd almost think Vanitas was eager to know. He probably was. He didn't know where this fascination came from, but maybe it was a sign of Vanitas mellowing.
"Nothing's changed." Raphael said, "If they appeared right now, I wouldn't attack them, even if they might attack me."
"Do you really think things could go back to the way they were?" Rayne asked bluntly, "Your life changed the moment you were cast out."
"I want to be able to just live with them again. It doesn't have to be the same, but if I'm alive by the end of this, I want to meet them again." Raphael noticed the sharp glance Rayne had shot at him, but he didn't respond.
"Why?" Vanitas asked, "They want to kill you. They hate you. Is your trust that easily brought?"
"Forget what I said about it not needing to be the same." Raphael said, "I guess I want them because I sometimes want the friendship that I lost."
"If you could go back to how things were, would you?" Rayne asked, "If you want the old friendships you had, do you want the old life you had?"
Raphael thought for a moment, but he didn't need to think for long. "No. I'd rather live like this with knowledge than live in ignorance. I'd rather die knowing about the Divine Beings than live thinking the Grandmasters were actually good."
"But the call of this intangible friendship is enough to make you reminisce of your old life?" Vanitas asked, "You're not doing a very good job of explaining this."
Again, Riku forced his way into Raphael's body and said, "He wants to feel accepted, and he felt that way when he was with his old friends."
"We accept you here." Rayne said, "What's the difference?"
"I knew what I was back in my old life." Raphael said, "Here, I don't know what to do, and that scares me."
"No, you find it hard to accept yourself." Riku added, "That's difficult to deal with, I know."
"But you'd rather be scared and living this life than being happy and living your old one." Vanitas said, "On the other hand, you wish for the sense of certainty you had before, but you'd still rather be living this life."
"When you put it like that, it seems really inconsistent." Raphael laughed, "But I guess that's how I feel. If you look at it rationally, I'm a lot worse off now than I was, but I'd rather be here than anywhere else."
He looked at Vanitas, and realized that he hadn't gone into an irrational fit of laughter in the whole conversation. Maybe most of it actually was an act. An act to be the person everyone thought he was: insane and unstable. But why would he do that?
"Maybe he thinks that's all he should be. That he doesn't deserve better after all he's done."
That didn't sound unbelievable, but what would Riku know about Vanitas?
"You called me Master of Light and Darkness in the Keyblade Graveyard. I guess it didn't make much of an impact because I hadn't gotten all of my Heart back, but now, well," Riku trailed off again, and Raphael thought he was done until Riku added, "I was Master of nothing and servant to all. Vanitas and I have more in common than you'd think." He was getting more and more reticent, almost like he was back at the Keyblade Graveyard.
"What about you, Seth? Do you prefer this life or your old one?" Rayne turned around to ask the boy whose face Raphael still hadn't seen. He had been standing in the shadows of the dead forest behind them, and Raphael had been too preoccupied with Riku and the others to notice.
"This life, without a doubt." Seth said, "I was a kid who knew nothing before. Now I have a proper master and I have a purpose. You guys aren't my friends, more my superiors or colleagues. But I like being around you guys and Marek."
"Don't try and analyze the Heart," Rayne told Vanitas. "Ansem the Wise attempted that for decades, but he never got close."
"But they play such an important role in our lives," Vanitas said, "Don't tell me none of you want to understand it. What about love? What about euphoria?" He held up his hand and an Unversed flickered into existence in front of him before darting back into his black suit of armour. "I understand hatred. I understand greed. I understand fear. I've had them living inside me for a thousand years and more. But what you people call friendship or love is something I don't think I'll ever understand."
"Xion understood." Riku said, using Raphael's mouth. It was obvious whenever Riku took over. His voice deepened into what he assumed was closer to Riku's original voice, and an old sadness tinged his words.
Vanitas, Rayne and Seth looked at Raphael, and Riku continued. "Xion started out without a Heart, but she grew one." Riku clenched Raphael's fist as he spoke, and vivid memories washed through Raphael's mind.
"I'm not a fake!... Tell me, what should I do?...Riku, please! You have to stop him…"
What was that? Raphael had never felt such an onslaught of emotions before, even when he was trying to control the feral Heartless he had injected himself with.
Riku was still speaking, and Raphael tuned himself in again. "Xion had friends even if she didn't understand her Heart, even if she didn't even know she had one. And with that Heart she had the courage to sacrifice herself for Roxas and Axel."
"So it led to destruction and death." Vanitas said, "The more I hear about these emotions, the more surprised I am that they don't form Unversed." He summoned his Keyblade, causing everyone to draw back slightly, and he twirled it around for effect. "Ven had a Heart, and all it caused him to do was to kill himself just to kill me." He turned to Rayne and asked, "How's that for a child-parent issue?"
"Ven wasn't your parent." Rayne said, "You were two sides of the same coin."
"Indeed we were. I was one side, and he was the other. And what happened when Xehanort chipped me off? Guess I do have a daddy after all! Does that make Xehanort the midwife?"
Rayne sighed while Raphael laughed, mainly at the mental image of Xehanort's armour in a nurse outfit. Riku cringed internally, which made Raphael happier. He was finding Vanitas funnier and funnier. Until Vanitas turned to him and said, "So far every Keyblade Wielder I've known has been in some passionate love that strengthened their Heart beyond belief. Am I right in assuming that only happened for the first ones?"
Raphael glanced at Rayne quickly before muttering, "Yeah, romances like Sora and Kairi don't happen anymore."
He hoped that the subject would end there, but Vanitas and Rayne were staring at him avidly. He looked behind him at Seth, and his hood revealed his smile. "Look, being a Keyblade Wielder means being on duty at all times, which doesn't leave much time for other stuff. Besides, that aspect of life never interested me much. I was always more interested in other stuff."
For some reason, Vanitas seemed more tense as he gripped the sand around him. Rayne was clearly enjoying herself, and Raphael wished there was some way to divert the conversation.
"Ask her about Kain Highwind." Riku suggested. "The Kain Highwind?" Raphael was taken by surprise and answered aloud. He looked at Rayne, who was deliberately looking at the sea. "Tell Riku he needs to shut up."
"Trust me, it doesn't work. Light alone knows I've tried."
Rayne chuckled and said, "Considering what we're up against, expressions like that don't hold the impact they used to."
"Fair point." Vanitas said, "Now answer the young man's question."
"I know what you're thinking," Rayne said, "And nothing happened. He wasn't even a member of our organization. He just came and went a lot. Helping us was his side job, he usually had his hands full dealing with things on Baron."
Riku took over Raphael's mouth and added, "And you just happened to be around when he dropped by?"
"Granddad was around every time he dropped by," Rayne shot back, "I don't see you accusing him of anything."
"Jason asked for a report. You started conversations."
"He looked at me as a niece, anyways." Rayne said with finality, "He worked with my dad and was around when I was a baby, and even before then. Nothing would have happened anyways."
"And how did you look at him?" Vanitas asked, "It occurs to me that almost all of human interaction is based on how we view each other, and depends on the coincidence that the viewpoints of both parties coincide."
Rayne let out a sigh. "Alright, when I was younger, I sometimes thought of going out with him. But nothing ever happened between us, alright?" She turned to glare at Riku, who didn't react.
"Maybe something could have." Vanitas said, causing Raphael to tense for some reason. He was starting to find this uncomfortable as well. "Maybe special circumstances-"
"Fine, maybe if we were in a parallel universe where Kain and I were on the run from an evil dictator and every other Keyblade Wielder had been wiped out, something could have happened." Rayne's voice was getting more tense as she spoke. "But another apocalypse notwithstanding-"
"Just to let you know, my last name's Highwind." Seth spoke from behind him, and Rayne shot him another glare along with a fire spell that lit up the tree above him. Raphael laughed nervously as Seth danced out of the way, and Vanitas soon followed. This time he laughed a genuine laugh. The dark fire of insanity was almost extinguished, and it was as if Vanitas was another person. His retreat from insanity made Raphael feel elated.
"What are you laughing about?" Jason walked over to them, causing heads and helmets to jerk in his direction. Raphael, Vanitas, Rayne and Seth all chorused, "Nothing."
Jason gave all of them a long look before sighing. "Almost like having apprentices again." He looked at the tree that was still burning from Rayne's fire spell as Raphael and the others got their snickering under control. "Jack and Mist have calmed down and we're discussing what to do next."
Everyone nodded and started to follow Jason to the other Remnants. Raphael picked up on Riku's amusement and relief. Why relief?
"Sometimes you read into my emotions too much." Riku said, "Don't overthink or you might sprain your brain."
Riku didn't randomly throw insults either. Did he bring up Kain as a distraction for something? Raphael traced back the conversation and remembered they had been talking about his barely existent love life, and before then they had beene talking about Xion.
Raphael didn't get an answer. He sighed and fell in step beside Rayne as everyone made their way to Jack and Mist. Seth was walking slightly behind Vanitas, but their outlines were suddenly blocked by Marek's suit of armour falling out of the sky.
Seth whirled around immediately to see Marek in front of him. He remembered what Joshua said, and now he believed it. Marek was acting strangely; he was staying silent and looking around him slowly, like he had never been here before. A Keyblade of Darkness would hardly work against a vessel of Darkness, and Seth knew that he had to summon the Kingdom Key.
He couldn't.
Nothing came to his hand. He looked frantically around him as Marek approached him. He tried to gather Light into his palm, but what he gathered was weak, and before he knew it, Marek had sent him blasting backwards with a corrosive Darkness that ate at him even through his dark cloak.
"You can't be Sora's descendent! No descendent of a great hero would use a Keyblade of such tainted Darkness!"
Maybe he couldn't summon the Kingdom Key because he had turned to Darkness. The thought struck him with fear. There were people counting on him, and it was his responsibility to summon the Kingdom Key, but now he couldn't do it if he didn't renounce Darkness.
And he knew that he would never give up what Marek had given him.
He was pulled up to his feet as he clutched his chest and felt Jason gripping his shoulder tightly. Ahead of him, Raphael was clutching his head and on his knees while Rayne stepped in front of him with her Keyblade drawn.
Darkness didn't say anything, but Rayne knew in an instant that she was in danger.
"Your Kingdom Key and Kingdom Key D are useless against us." The thing that unnverved Rayne most was that she could hear Marek's voice with Darkness behind him. It was more powerful and grating, but there was still a twinge of Marek's voice behind his Remnant.
"What are you doing here?" Rayne asked, noticing her parents sprinting across the beach towards her.
"To test my counterpart." Marek raised his Keyblade and blocked Heaven's Clarity as Raphael sent it in an arc towards Marek's helmet. Rayne looked at Raphael and saw that his eyes blazed with chaotic Darkness. He growled and sent a blast of Darkness towards Marek. It was more powerful than anything Riku or Terra could have conjured, but Marek blew it away into the sea, tearing a chasm in the still water and spraying the three of them with a light spray of cold water.
"You must unite to defeat us." Marek said, "Two halves cannot do anything. You do not have the courage to do so."
"I-I don't need courage to give into my power!" Raphael growled as he swung Heaven's Clarity that was shrouded with Darkness of the X-Blade that spat and crackled, obviously out of Raphael's control.
"It always takes courage to unite one's Heart." Darkness said, before rushing towards Raphael blowing him back several metres across the beach just by pure force, despite clashing head on with half of the X-Blade.
By now, Jack and Mist had rushed over with Jason and Seth behind them. Rayne rushed over to Raphael while keeping track of what was happening behind her. Darkness didn't seem to be doing anything, and Jack stood in front of Marek with Jason and Mist flanking him.
Raphael had himself under control now. He had felt a huge tug in his stomach when Marek had first arrived, and his head had throbbed painfully as the X-Blade roared and he felt like it was trying to pry his ribcage open and escape. He didn't know why he had reacted so strongly when Rayne hadn't.
Rayne helped him up and they started edging towards Jack, Jason, Mist and Seth. Darkness wasn't doing anything, but the other Remnants were roaring with controlled Light within them. Then Jack said in a soft voice, "Your move, Darkness." He spat out the last word as if it stung his tongue on the way out of his mouth.
And still, Darkness didn't do anything, not even when Rayne and Raphael skirted past him to join the other Remnants. It looked at the pair and said, "You cannot win if the death of another scares you into hiding." Marek's gauntlet clenched and tendril of Darkness whipped out towards Raphael and Rayne.
Jack sprang into action as Rayne brushed it aside with a strong Reflega spell. Darkness then turned to Jack's shining Keyblade and met Wandering Judgement with Darkness' Embrace. This sparked the other two Rikkisons into action and Mist skirted over to Rayne and the two of them shot several streams of lightning at Marek. Marek leapt over them and went to engage Jack, quickly blowing him back with the sheer force behind his Keyblade.
Abruptly, Darkness pulled back and jumped away, facing the sky. The other Remnants looked up and quickly jumped out of the way as well. One second they saw a speck of light in the sky, the next they saw it grow until it was like a sun that illuminated the Dark Meridian, casting clear shadows upon the black sand. One second later they were thrown away at the impact of Sora striking Marek from above.
Raphael didn't think Sora had a chance, but Light blazed out brilliantly from his golden armour, and at first Raphael thought Sora had powerful control over Light. But then he felt Riku's feeling devastation crash through his entire body, and knew that the Light coming from Sora's Remnant wasn't his own. This was made evident when Marek directed an ethereal sword of Light into the forest that Sora sent at him, which cut a massive swathe of trees in its wake.
Raphael had never appreciated how much power a Divine Being could offer. All his experience had been in the forms of vessels that only had part of a Divine Being. But now all their power was concentrated in one vessel, and Raphael had never experienced sheer force like this. He didn't know how or why Sora had come into the Realm of Darkness, but he knew they all had to run now.
Raphael got up, his long hair being blown around by the ambient Light and Darkness that was resulting from the two vessels fighting. Seth was having trouble standing, but the others were slowly moving backwards out of the way. He noticed a small girl creeping behind them, but was too absorbed in the fight between Light and Darkness to process the fact that there was another human that had found her way into the Dark Meridian.
The two vessels were trading blows with their Keyblades, but tendrils of Light and Darkness clashed all around them, sending fragments of Corruption streaking throughout the beach. The two of them shot into the sky, and Sora came crashing down less than ten metres away from the Remnants.
"We have to get away from here," Mist said, "They'll destroy this place in an instant."
Jason nodded but suddenly they were all aware of a small figure hiding behind a twisted tree. Seth's mouth dropped when he realized it was Lydia. It made sense that she would be with Sora, but he wondered how Sora had gotten her to the ground before he charged at Marek. He turned to Jason and said, "We're not leaving Lydia here, are we?"
"Of course not." Jason muttered, although Seth wasn't sure if Jason was just doing it because of what Lydia could do. Jason quickly constructed a Portal that opened behind them. But just at that moment, Marek dashed towards Sora with the speed of a comet, and Sora gathered thirteen ethereal swords that blazed like miniature lighthouses. They surrounded and shot towards Marek in a sphere, but he gathered Darkness in front and behind him and charged forward to Sora, knocking him into the Portal the Remnants were all running into.
Rayne suddenly grabbed Raphael's wrist as the waves of Light and Darkness from the clash of the Divine Beings sent them hurtling away from any specific world. Raphael's last glance of Marek was him trading blows quicker than lightning against Sora, each blow causing another ripple of Light and Darkness that sent them bouncing and spinning through the Lanes Between.
He felt something wear away at his mind and realized that it was Corruption, born from the clash between Light and Darkness like it always was. He was given a slight respite as Rayne cast a Protect spell around them, but even that started to wear away from the tinges of Corruption in the air.
Then came a rushing sound. It was soft but deep and resonated in the air, like the universe itself was being drawn somewhere. Raphael thought of it as a huge beast sucking in air, but nothing could be so big or powerful as to draw in the multicolored space they were in now.
Jason made his way over to Rayne and Raphael. "We're being led somewhere. We can't stop moving."
Rayne tried leaving or making a Portal but found she couldn't. "So what do we do? Just wait until we arrive somewhere?"
"There is little else to do." Jason replied, "Besides, I think we may already be arriving."
Jack and Mist had joined them as surreal scenery came into view. Normally they would descend into a world's atmosphere, which would take several minutes from space. But in this world, it seemed they were already in it. Either the mountains were unbelievably tall, or some magic was going on.
Rayne seemed to have read Jack's thoughts as she yelled, "There's no way there can be mountains that tall without being completely frozen. Where are we?"
They were moving faster now, or maybe they were simply provided with more references to gauge their speed. Rayne looked down as far as she could and saw little white dots she thought might be sheep or houses. It was only when she then realized they were clouds, the huge ones that heralded storms and squalls, that she could truly appreciated how high up they were. On the ground they might encompass the entire horizon, but from her point of view the clouds were as small as chips of metal from a shattered sword.
They sped over a massive expansive of green grass and grey rock with ridge lines and spurs that extended far past her vision, even though she was tens of thousands of metres high. They continued over what she thought was another blue ridge but was actually an immense wave that poured water endlessly off a ledge that disappeared into nothingness. It was only later that she realized they had glimpsed the end of the world, and that this world was actually flat. They travelled past the sea which had been falling off the edge into nothingness and deduced the sea reflecting the sun's must have been bright by the way Raphael was shielding his eyes.
Looking back, she saw a bright sun, far larger than it had the right to be, and she even thought she sensed a person in that huge beacon of light. It was impossible. Stars were just balls of flame. But inside the star she sensed something ancient yet young and virile.
Rayne looked ahead and saw the coastline in the distance, and within minutes they were flying over green hills and forests. They had slowed down immensely and dropped in altitude, although Rayne hadn't noticed it at the time. Now they were only flying as fast as the soaring birds that graced the sky with their lofty presences.
Lower and lower they fell, all the while heading away from those huge mountains which now seemed so surreal, and slowing down more and more. Eventually they came to a halt and lay in a grassy forest. The Remnants slowly got up, all of them shaken. Raphael was the only one who needed to check his body for any bruises or broken bones. He was perfectly fine. As he rose to his feet, Mist voiced the question everyone was asking themselves in their heads as they slowly rose to their feet. "Where in Light's name are we?"
