Sorry this chapter is late as well, I rewrote it multiple times because I wanted to do it justice. So I hope all of you still enjoy.
Inverted Sky: KH Chain of Memories
Chapter 27: Castle Oblivion part XXVII
As Sora and Teng gazed toward Marluxia approaching, they gave each other a quick glance and nod. Both having an understanding of one another, on a similar, yet different level as the brown-haired girl and Riku. Immediately following this brief exchange, Teng rushed forward with his weapon at the ready. His speed seeming faster than what he had previously used, making Sora instantly think that he had been empowered thanks to their friendship.
Despite this not being totally accurate, it also wasn't entirely wrong either. It being due to his newfound desire to fight for others, rather than himself, that Teng was able to bring out previously unused power. This seeming to make enough of a difference against his opponent, as he surprised the pink-haired man. Whom instinctively slashed his weapon at the boy when he got too close, but missed his target. Teng himself swiftly ducking and sliding across the floor to avoid the weapon, all while using this momentum to kick the man in the stomach.
While the attack wasn't enough to hurt Marluxia, it was enough of a distraction for Sora to come up with a spinning air kick across his face. With a grunt of pain, the man was sent tumbling to the side and across the floor. But before he could stop himself, Marluxia was hit by several blasts of darkness. Each one feeling like being struck by a club, causing his body to jerk backward even more from these impacts. As the pink-haired man growled and winced from this, his glaring gaze quickly focused on the two teens across the hall.
The pair standing back-to-back with mirroring stances, which had them standing upright and having their Keyblades pointed at their foe. Letting out a brief huff of annoyance, Marluxia lifted his scythe and slashed it through the air. This created a large arc of pink and black energy, much larger than any of the previous ones he had created before. As he hurling it toward his opponents however, it was swiftly destroyed. Both Sora and Teng had slashed the air as well, only at an angle. Of which caused the resulting arc of black energy to form an 'X' shape. As the two energies hit, Marluxia's arc was swiftly absorbed, allowing the teens' attack to continue forward.
Growling silently in annoyance, the pink-haired man leapt to the side in order to avoid the 'X'-shaped blast of darkness. His glare remaining fixed on the now high-fiving pair, to which he simply shook his head. "Tch! I won't let this happen. You might defeat me with numbers...but you won't be 'him' that way." he declared under his breath, obviously frustrated at the sudden turn of events.
Though he had said these words to himself, Sora couldn't help but blink a few times as she could still vaguely hear his voice. But before she or Teng could press their attack, Marluxia quickly spun his scythe in a flourish before stabbing it into the floor. Immediately after doing so, an eruption of pink and black energy surged around the man. It rapidly forming into a torrent of swirling power, which started solidifying into thorn-covered vines. These seeming to be what the man used before, only now, they weren't simply coming through portals.
As these vines started whipping out at the pair, Marluxia himself seemed to disappear within the mass. All the while, Sora and Teng flipped themselves away from the thrashing attacks. Quickly moving to the opposite side of the hall, they tried to gain some distance so that they could try and analyze what they were up against. Yet they couldn't seem to move fast enough, as the vines were already snaking toward them. It being a bit alarming as they just kept expanding, filling the empty spaces of the room in mere seconds.
By the time they reached the opposite wall, much of the hall was already swarming with these vines. The thorns carving through the walls and floor without any resistance, as if they weren't even there. But the teens turned to each other, sharing another quick nod as they moved back-to-back once more. "This would be kinda cool if it wasn't something trying to kill us." Sora muttered with a shrug, an aura of darkness beginning to coat her blade.
"You're not wrong." Teng responded in a sigh, unable to argue with this as his own weapon gained its own black aura.
Just as the vines flooded toward the pair, they swiftly slashed at them. The darkness around their Keyblades seeming to briefly extend outward, slicing through dozens of the vines in a single swipe. Immediately following their initial attack, the two then began rushing forward, cutting through the sea of vines as they did. As they reached the area Marluxia had previously been though, there was only a heavily damaged wall. "Where did he run off to?" Sora uttered silently, looking around the area quickly.
This eventually leading her to look up, just as Marluxia descended down at her with his scythe. Yet rather than attacking her, he stabbed the blade into the floor, directly between the two. Both of whom had moved to make their own swings at the man, but never finished them as they were suddenly blown back and away from one another. Marluxia causing a blast of darkness where his scythe hit, allowing him to fully separate the pair. Particularly Teng, as the pink-haired man angled the attack so that he would take most of it. Keeping the boy away long enough for Marluxia to finish fighting Sora, or at least...that was the hope.
The man immediately gave chase after the brown-haired teen, even before she could recover from the impact she took. Thankfully, Sora managed to block his swings by using her rotating through the air to her advantage. Once she landed, she swiftly planted this foot into the floor to full stop her momentum. As she did this, the ground cracked slightly and even shook briefly. Sora then making a powerful thrust at the man, all as the blade sent a burst of darkness at the man. Whom spun around the weapon and made another slash at Sora's neck. Yet she ducked under the scythe and moved to deliver a fist into the man's ribs.
Though, Marluxia had turned his spin into a flip in order to leap over the girl's head, a smirk curling his lips as he made another stab at her. This was swiftly caught by the teen's free hand, as she faked her punch attempt in order to lure him into such an attack. Sora then pulled Marluxia closer and thrust her Keyblade forward once more. The blast of darkness shot forward, seeming to engulf the man. But in the midst of her excitement and desire to finish the fight, Sora didn't notice the fact that the man's left hand was behind his back.
By the time her attack was over, she realized too late that her weapon didn't actually hit anything. All that remained where Marluxia had been, was a gathering of black wisps in the air. With widening eyes, the brown-haired teen turned to look over her shoulder. Seeing the glint of a blade coming at her, Sora tried to quickly bring up her Keyblade to block the attack. Yet she was too late to fully stop the scythe from stabbing into her side. The brown-haired girl winced from the pain, her managing to keep the blade from piercing anything too vital, but it was still immensely painful.
"I told you..." Marluxia began, his eyes narrowing slowly as he met the teen's gaze.
"...I won't allow you to beat me like this." he claimed in a firm manner as he never broke eye contact.
As Sora looked back into his similarly colored blue orbs, she couldn't help but once again feel as though there was something deeper to this fight for him. Like a hidden desperation was boiling beneath the surface of his currently cold exterior. But during their brief stare into each others eyes, Sora quickly noticed the wisps of darkness behind her beginning to take shape. Her gaze widened once more as she turned back around, looking up to see the grey-skinned creature resummoned with its scythe slashing down at her.
Before she could try and get away however, Marluxia pushed his blade deeper into her wound. Forcing the girl to stay in place, all as the lightning fast strike from the creature came streaking down. Sora held her free hand up with a shield spell, yet she couldn't help but close both eyes tightly and brace for impact. Her hearing the blade pierce through the barrier, before impacting with something else. However, she didn't feel any sudden pain or such, making her slowly reopen her eyes. Yet she immediately regretted doing so. As the sight before her was that of Teng, standing in front of her defensively, with the scythe's blade stabbed entirely through his chest. Even the boy's Keyblade had been broken in half, which Teng ended up dropping as he just stared at the weapon in his chest in utter disbelief.
Sora's own eyes widened in utter horror, to which her gasp for breath hitched in her throat. Turning herself to her friend, she pulled the blade in her side free, at the expense of gaining a slightly deeper cut. But she ignored the pain as she blast the creature with a burst of dark energy, all while pulling Teng off the scythe. Then, with a movement almost too fast to see, Sora moved the silver-haired teen away from Marluxia. Said man a bit shocked at what just happened, him not expecting Teng to recover so quickly.
During all of Marluxia's thoughts, Sora knelt down, placed Teng on the floor in front of her, and immediately began casting multiple healing spells on him. "You're okay...You're okay...You're okay..." she repeated over and over, clearly in a deep panic.
Tears quickly welled up in her eyes, as her trembling hands hovered over the large wound. Which was already beginning to exude wisps of darkness, showing that the boy's essence was fading. Teng himself was locked in a state of pain, his breathing shallow and his eyes were mostly closed. But even through this, he could hear the girl saying this phrase. It being obvious that she was trying to convince herself of this, even more so than him. After a few moments of constantly using Curaga spells, it became apparent to them both, it wasn't working.
Yet this realization just made Sora shake her head in defiance, pumping more and more power into this magic. "Come on..." she whispered in a pleading tone, her voice cracking from the tightness in her throat.
"Please..." the girl choked out while the tears fell from her cheeks.
In the midst of trying to save her newly found friend, she lost concentration on everything else. This making her almost startled when feeling a hand placed on her cheek, to which she gazed to Teng as he was actually smiling. "It's okay Sora." he said weakly, despite his expression never fading.
"I couldn't ask for a better end than protecting my very first friend." the teen continued as the darkness escaping his wound started to increase.
At the same time, Teng's form began disappearing at the same rate, showing that he would soon vanish entirely. Seeing this happening, Sora to let out a gasping breath from her desperation. The girl slowly tilting her head down, the long brown locks upon her head falling over Sora's face. "But...I don't want you to die at all." she spoke silently, sounding as though she could barely manage the strength to speak.
"I know, but I don't regret my choice." Teng stated while smiling a bit wider, to which the brown-haired girl's eyes refocused onto him through her mess of hair.
The silver-haired teen gazed to her for a moment before chuckling softly; "It's funny...I've always kinda thought of you as a friend and rival, because of Riku's memories. But, I don't think it was until now that I actually felt like those feelings were real for me as well." he said as his hand on Sora's cheek slowly fell away, the boy's strength fading along with most of his body.
Catching his falling hand in her own, Sora just gazed to him with tears running down her cheeks. "You shouldn't have to die here. You should have been able to go on adventures of your own. Laugh, cry, play, explore...you should have the chance for all of it." she sobbed out while forcing a smile on her features, as if making one final plea into the universe.
"That would have been nice...but I think I still got the chance to do all of that during my brief time here. I just regret not taking your offer sooner." Teng said as much of his torso was gone.
Just as Sora was about to speak in a trembling tone, the boy simply shook his head and offered a final smile. "But I'm happy I did in the end, at least I was was able to protect you...my friend." he whispered out, his body fully vanishing.
The remaining dark wisps hovered around Sora briefly, before slowly disbursing into the air. However, these few moments seemed to last for an eternity, as the brown-haired girl just gazed with her tear-filled eyes to the fading darkness. But when they were gone, she just fell onto her hands, her face being obscured due to her hair. Yet Marluxia could practically feel the powerful emotions boiling over within Sora. Him slowly readying himself to fight, knowing that 'this' would provide the results he was looking for. Despite the somewhat sinking sensation he felt from watching this exchange, he kept thinking that it was for the best...until he wasn't sure anymore.
This moment hitting as Sora sat back onto the floor and let out a primal scream of pain, rage and agony. Being the very first friend she had ever lost, the impact of this was beyond anything she had experienced before. The rage and despair in her cry echoed throughout the hall, sending a shiver through Marluxia's entire body. But it was the immediate blaze of darkness that poured out of the girl that truly shocked the scythe-wielding man. It being utterly overwhelming, as he was pushed back and into the wall. Which seemed to be quaking and shaking from the sheer force of Sora's screams.
As she poured out her anguish to the air around her, the black wisps of energy she generated began swirling around her. Though, some of the fragments of black energy seemed to materialize from nothing, which joined with the torrent surrounding Sora. Whom slowly went silent as the energy began funneling back into her body, causing everything to go quiet once more. There being an almost disturbing silence in the hall before it was broken by the brown-haired girl.
"I'm sorry Marluxia..." she said in a soft voice, yet there was a clear unbridled fury lingering in her tone.
"I said I wouldn't attack you out of anger...but I don't think I can keep that promise anymore." Sora continued, turning toward the man as her eyes were glowing a bright gold color.
"I hope this is what you wanted..." she finished, appearing in front of Marluxia with a punch across the face.
This blow snapped the man's jaw entirely, to which he was sent tumbling around the rounded wall in a limp manner. The impact dazing Marluxia to the point of barely even being conscious as his body practically broke and snapped with each rotation over the wall. Him not even feeling the pain, as the sheer amount of it had left him entirely numb. Which even made him briefly deafened, as the only awareness he had was his sight.
It being the only thing letting him know when he was suddenly grabbed by the back of his head and then slammed against the floor, onto his side. Marluxia vision rapidly began to fade as the only cognizant thought he could muster, was to gaze up at the teen he had been fighting. Her now being coated in complete darkness, with eyes that burned gold with anger. Much of her body radiated wisps of dark power that made the air vibrate. But what was the most striking, was the slit-shaped pupils she looked at him with.
'I see...' he thought, his body already beginning to fade from the amount of damage it took.
An ever so faint smile tugged at his lips while his eyes closed, Sora slowly pulling a clawed hand back. 'It looks like I can rest at ease after all...the Organization is finished...' Marluxia finished inwardly, just before the teen's hand pierced through his chest.
Immediately following her attack, the pink-haired man vanished without a trace. Leading for Sora to take in and let out a few breaths, before letting out another primal scream. While her normal voice carried through, it seemed somewhat layered and distorted. After running short on breath, the teen just dropped to her knees. The darkness coating her disbursed, leaving Sora with tears still rolling down her face and absolute despair in her haunted features.
As silence returned to the hall, the girl remained frozen in place for what felt like hours. The devastation of what happened, made it so that she couldn't even form a proper thought. However, she was brought out of this somewhat, upon hearing Maleficent's voice in her mind. "Sora!" she called in a mildly annoyed tone, startling the teen ever so slightly.
"Pick yourself up already...this isn't the end." the witch declared firmly.
Yet Sora couldn't find the strength or will to respond, nor even to move. Seeing this from the inside of the teen's mind caused Maleficent sigh heavily, to which she continued on in a more normal voice. "He's not gone Sora, your little stunt earlier caused you to absorb his essence inside of yourself. So if you hurry...you might be able to save him." she explained.
Sora's eyes, previously devoid of light, suddenly regained a spark as she looked to herself briefly. "W-What? Is that true?" she asked quickly, almost panicked.
"What do I have to do?" Sora added, almost not seeming to actually care if it was a lie or not.
"I will provide you with what you need...you merely have to provide the power necessary." the woman answered in a simple manner.
After these words, the witch seemed to rise up from Sora's shadow being cast on the floor. As she did, she held out an orb of dark energy in her free hand. "Merely pour your dark power into this...and you can bring him back." Maleficent stated.
Without even a second of hesitation, Sora placed a hand over the orb and practically flexed her whole body. There being a massive flow of darkness that seemed to rapidly be absorbed into the sphere in the witch's hand. Watching this, Maleficent herself sighed heavily and shook her head. "Hmph...if I knew you would have 'this' much power left, I would have made you do this for me instead." she muttered silently before Sora fell to her knees and began breathing heavily, all of her power having been drained.
"Perfect." the woman said before crushing the sphere in her hand, making Sora gasp briefly.
"Just don't forget that you now owe me for this." Maleficent added as her form began to fade.
It being replaced by what looked to be the Heartless Sora fought in the India Wilderness. But this too disappeared as the shape of Teng soon appeared in its place, to which both teens just stared at one another in shock. "But...how?" the boy spoke up, looking around briefly before to himself.
While he looked the same as before, there was a distinct line of darkness that connected the two. Though, the brown-haired girl just sniffled while wiping away the tears that were still falling. "I...I don't know." was all she could muster before quickly hugging the other teen.
"I'm just glad you're here." she continued, all while trembling from emotion and exhaustion.
Looking to her in a bit of a confused manner, Teng eventually just offered a small smile and nodded. "I'm glad too." he said softly, slowly returning his friend's hug.
As they embraced for a few long moments though, the boy suddenly seemed to go limp in the girl's arms. Looking to this in a panic, Sora called out to Maleficent in her mind. 'What's happening?!' she yelled, Teng looking as though he had passed out.
'He's adjusting to his new form. It'll take some time before his essence will settle, so he'll need to sleeping for the time being.' the witch responded in a sigh, as if telling the girl through subtext, not to yell.
Sora let out a sigh of relief before looking to Teng as he faded into her shadow, to which she took in and let out a breath. "But he'll still be okay, right?" she asked, her nerves slowly starting to calm.
'Of course...now you better head back to the others, there is much to do.' Maleficent urged, her presence seeming to fade from the forefront of the teen's mind.
Giving a slow nod, Sora turned her gaze toward the doors of this heavily destroyed hall. Said exit was entirely untouched however, as if all the carnage that occurred, never even happened. "That's...one tough door." she muttered silently, wobbling to this door in her exhausted state.
And there you have it, the one scene I really wanted to make sure I got right. I considered doing Teng's revival differently in multiple ways, but I felt like this was appropriate. Anyway, I hope everyone enjoyed this chapter. The next one will probably be the finale of this part, as it'll just be to tie up loose ends and such. Let me know what you thought. Until next time.