Of Keys and Hammers

by zcritic88

In a realm beyond, the Four Chaos has taken notice of a realm tied close to the heart. They squirmed into the darkness and sought to corrupt if to reach a prize beyond the light. Will the Light of Order, be able to repel this ancient evil?

66. The Crucible

At a train station in Twilight Town, Baldred stepped out with a couple of bruises under his armor and a heart filled with regret. The memories of a warm smile, filled his soul with a radiant hope, he looked above the sky to find a sunset a possibility and retraced his steps. Back to the park where he met the mystery solving kids, no one he recognized was there, save for a blonde rough neck and a small mage in blue robes. With one help unavailable, he went to the rough corner of the town and talked to himself. "Palace of Twilight... Palace of Twilight, where are'th, thou?"

He found the hide out of misfits and entered, finding them none the wiser and trying to get by with a poker game, Dorlu was the dealer, ready to shuffle cards, he noticed the lost Undead and greeted him. "So it seems fortune has graced us, yet again." Lea and Lauriam bothered to turn around, the red head waved. "Well, look who's come back. Finally got things out of your system?"

The Bearer of the Curse grumbled. "I've told my companions from the town over, that my duty takes me here. I'll be back amongst you all, when you finally cease your crestfallen attitudes. But that isn't why I came." Lauraim guessed. "It's about your duty," he looked towards Elrena and Medy. "What ever that is," Elrena shrugged. "He's gotten just about everything he wanted to move on, what more does he have to do?"

That was something Baldred wanted to know as well. "I don't understand it much either, but I'm suppose to seek this Palace of Twilight and the town has the name Twilight." Isa quickly turned to the Undead and asked back. "Palace of Twilight? You're not going to find that in the town."

The Undead wanted to yell why that is and stopped, he put his fingers under his chin. "Hmmm." Medy asked. "Hmm?" Lea guessed. "Hmmm what?" He realized what the Palace of Twilight is and Baldred asked. "That palace... is in this world. But not in the town? I'm to find my way out of the town and... find it." The red head looked to Isa like he might have suggested something dangerous and turned to Baldred. "If you do find it... and you find anything weird, you would... let someone know? Right?"

The undead turned. "Perhaps, if I haven't found someone I've been looking for, I could disappear in an hour. What ever the time is here." The group found the timing awkward, Isa dully advised. "You could find someone before it becomes sundown. Don't get yourself killed, this will be on our heads if you do." The undead had no plan of that. "I've survived my last adventure, the only real difference is I'm on my own. If I return, I want to know what in the blazes are you playing."

He opened the door and waved his goodbyes, on the sound of a door clicking close, the group gazed upon Isa. Lea was trying not to grit his teeth. "Way to go, you told him about the mansion. He's definitely not going to come back if he finds something."

Isa wanted to get to his game. "That got turned into a dead end. If, he does disappear in there, someone is going to have to fetch him." Elrena guessed. "And by someone, you mean you?" Isa nodded. "I'll have an excuse."

Elsewhere, at a library.

Xion finished a comic involving a dog dressed up as an astronaut, put it away and yawned. Olette put a super hero comic of unimportance away and asked. "Getting tired?"

The black haired girl nodded. "Yeah, what a long day." Olette offered to escort Xion and asked the boys. "I'll be heading home for today, let me know when something happens."

Pence and Hayner waved the girls good night and let them take off, it was an uneventful stroll back to the train station, where a particular boy in a hood looked like he saw something. Xion called to him. "Dupmic, I'm ready to go home." The hooded boy turned around to see Xion and her friend, he smiled to Olette. "She's told me what you did, that was pretty sweet of you."

The local girl appreciated the gratitude. "It's not a problem for a friend. What were you looking at?" Dupmic scratched his head. "That, Baldred came back to town and he's acting weird again. Xion, you can make it back, I'll see what the guy's up to before returning."

The black haired girl asked. "What do you mean by weird?" Dupmic tried not to look at Olette as a witness. "He's wandering into that pipeline that leads to the mansion." The local girl had her hands at her hips, she asked with a scowl. "And how would you know, that place is important?"

Dupmic answered quickly. "Because I heard no one ever goes there without a reason." Olette hummed. "True, but if... you see him do something in there, you'll come to me first. Okay?"

Dupmic took that as a deal and went off to the track of the Undead. Olette asked Xion. "Is, there anything you need to share with us? I won't get mad."

The black haired girl puffed her cheeks and confessed. "There are and it is a reason my brother might be lying again. We came from a dark place and it took us seeing Baldred get... treated as he was, for us to get the nerve to get out of there. That Mansion was our first taste of the outside world before then and if Baldred find's something in there... he could be in serious danger. You know someone who could help if that knight does?"

The local girl chose to not put together the clues and put her hand on her friends shoulder. "I know just the guys, your brother will come to me and we'll go to them. They're the only ones that know how to get there." Xion exhaled. "Thank goodness." She gave Olette a quick hug of a goodbye, let go and went to the station.

At the Mansion of Twilight Town.

Baldred gazed upon the mansion, basked under the twilit sky and is by far the largest building in the land. He connected the dots and pushed the closed gate forward. "The Palace of Twilight," The gate opened, the man marched towards his next task with confidence. "At long last, I get to prove my own merit."

He opened the door and walked in, finding nothing too particular, he looked in the upper stairs and around to the décor to no avail, a little lost, he went to the basement and found a particular boy looking around blind, Dupmic asked himself. "Where did he go?"

Baldred wasn't impressed. "If you were going to follow me, you should not get lost as I have." Dupmic sharply turned with his heart leaping, he froze stiff and was completely silent, Baldred looked at the room with the odd screens and a collection of buttons with numbers, something glowed from under the desk. The boy was surprised by the knight crawling under and asked. "What are you doing?"

Baldred saw orange markings he was familiar with and answered. "I thought I find something here. It appears someone came here before. A common flavor. Anonymous?" Dupmic shifted his eyes away as Baldred thought. "What kind of nonsense is that."

The boy spoke quickly. "Just nonsense, we should get back into town, we're not suppose to be snooping here." Baldred wanted to agree, look at the buttons and thought to press, causing a reaction. He grabbed the mouse on impulse and saw the cursor move. "So this is the sorcerery they call, tech." He found a particular file called Twilight Town and clicked, bars showing an empty password slot shined on the screen. "...Would this show me what I should know?"

He pressed a letter button and saw a letter on the screen, then to a back space to delete the number. "Common flavor... common flavor." He remembered a couple ice cream stands he seen and had the solution to the tip of his tongue. Dupmic realized the Undead is about to uncover a password and asked out loud. "Who put that clue there in the first place?"

Baldred had no idea. "I remember seeing those soapstones, they are vague and often they lead nowhere, but they sometimes lead to somewhere interesting." He pressed an s, e, a and saw the space too much for the word in his mind, he gasped to the space bar and pressed it. Dupmic looked to his shadow, like he was giving a silent order. Baldred typed in. "s, a, l, t." He pressed a button and heard something activate next to him, a light glowed, Baldred turned to see it. He took another step and felt something holding him in place, he looked down to find a shadow grabbing onto his leg. Dupmic drew out his halberd keyblade and pleaded. "Baldred, you don't want to go over there. This place is connected to another world and it is one, I'm familiar with."

The knight looked more determined. "That abyss tainted Castle? You're doing nothing to convince me otherwise." Tug. Baldred was pulled away from the light, Dupmic nodded. "Yes, the one those wackos are using. If you go over there, they will kill you and they can easily kill you."

The Undead laughed to that. "Won't be the first time I traveled the Dark, or anywhere as dangerous. They suspect one with a key to storm over there and unleash the might of an army. Not, one simple man." Shadey raised himself from the ground and was about to tug him away, the Undead continued. "I know not, of what I'm suppose to do in there." Dupmic was ready to turn off the program. "Then why go?"

Baldred answered rather passionately. "For taking on unknown and impossible tasks is what I do, as of any Undead worth their salt would do. I am to either do that and find the power lost to mankind or abandon this and live out the blissful dream."

The shadow creature was about to toss the knight to the door, Dupmic signaled him not to. "Shadey, wait. What do you mean lost to mankind? What's so important about that, for you to do this?" Baldred took a deep breath. "Once, the Lord of Light banished the Dark, and all that stemmed from humanity. And man assumed a fleeting form." He raised his head up like a teacher lecturing a student. "That and what became of those of my world, are one in the same. We are all naturally Dark. But, why would banishing it, have damned us as it did?"

The boy lowered his weapon. "Beats me, but the wack jobs over there, covet the Dark and that's going to lead them all straight to Hell. If it hasn't already. Do you think anything over there will help bring that World back? Will help with our pro-" He stopped and sensed Baldred realizing. "The Fragment of Darkness, if I learn the truth of where the Dark had gone... perhaps that could help the others find their own answers?"

Dupmic's lips shifted in his thoughts. "Do you think that explains why the Darkness is so dangerous for you guys as well? Why something like Nashandra exists in there?" Baldred nodded. "It's the key to breaking the cycle, it might be too late to anything for me, but not for you all." He was more determined to enter the light. "That's why, if you want me to not go over there and find that world, you're going to have to kill me. I'm not going to stop until I get my answers."

Shadey acted like he gasped in shock, Dupmic was more astonished and waved his hands. "Oh, no, no. We're not doing that. Shadey, let him go." The shadow creature obeyed, Dupmic gritted his teeth. "Me and a friend already set up a back up plan in case this happens. Don't try talking any sense to the people in that world, they're not going to get it."

Baldred approached the light. "I know they won't. I think I know just the trick to get past most of them. I hope we meet again." He stepped into the light, he felt a flash and found himself in a near identical place. He shifted his eyes and turned, finding Dupmic and Shadey, gone. The way out was blocked, save for a nearby room, calling to him. He went in there and found a dark circle opening a way into the Abyss, he approached the circle, placed his hand in it and felt it go through, he walked in and found himself with in a familiar Chasm. "You should have heeded that boys warning, now there is no turning back."

Baldred looked right and found Karla, standing up and leaning her right elbow on a rock formation, she gave a taunting smile, the knight wasn't amused and felt a foreboding Darkness ahead. "The world ahead is so close to the Dark Realm, it feels... strange." Karla nodded. "It is, if you need my help, find the rings. May the Dark, shine your way." Baldred felt a weird nostalgia and walked ahead, finding a gate way to something of neon lights.

Jump! Thud! He jumped across and found himself in neon lit city, with a dark, foreboding, grey castle, high on the horizon. He felt many yellow eyes staring at him from the ally way, took his chime and katana out. He used the chime to bless his weapon with light and taunted the encroaching Heartless. "Well?" The eyes vanished and squirming shadows dashed by the dozen, a neo shadow leaped from the ground and spun kicked, Baldred rolled back to dodge that and a pouncing of more shadows. He slashed into one and caused it to dissolve. He jingled his chime and hovered to summon divine light. "Begone."

At the Crucible of Nightmares.

The Guardian's of Light entered circular a multi tunneled arena, with, dark black crystal lining the floor and purple crystal lining the walls. At the center was a sinister statue of the Demon, Garland became. Riku lead the way to that. "Stay close, this is our clue to figuring out where to go." The rest did so and felt something off about the room, Ken peaked at the passage ways, leading into the void. "I think if we go over in there, that will be when the" he quoted his fingers. "fun part, begins."

Riku felt that was a good point and glowed his blade with burning light. "And I'll bet if we split up, we'll find ourselves in the same looking room over and over again. Any of you ever had that for a nightmare?"

The group felt that was rhetorical, Sora asked. "So if we make a marker, we will know where is where?" Riku nodded and gave a fierce smile to the Garland Statue. "Starting with this thing." He posed his blade like a spear and thrust. WOOSH! CLICK! As his blade made contact with the statue, it turned into a oval, wooden door with a keyhole, it was strangely familiar to Riku and he try to pull out, his keyblade was stuck, Sora and Kairi looked around to find a familiar cave with a chalk drawings, the trio were the first to be in a panic. Riku puffed his cheeks and he looked like he wanted to curse. "Ffffffor real?" He tugged again. "This can't be happening!"

Sora cringed. "Don't turn that, call the keyblade back." He twist his wrist. "Like this." Pew!

Riku thought that was a good idea, let go and tried to call to the blade. Nothing happened. Kairi opened her mouth with a nervous smile. "Well... that's not good." She asked. "Looks... like you to turn that and open the door."

Donald asked. "Why is that a bad thing?" Riku wished Donald didn't ask. "You know how the worlds have a keyhole that leads to it's heart? How... once upon a time, if a heartless finds this, it's the End of the World?" Aqua figured that much. "As it gets swallowed up by the Darkness?" She and Mickey remembered something, the Keyblade Master had her hands at her hips and wanted to scold Riku. "Is this the keyhole to the heart of your islands?"

The silver hair teenager nodded. "Yes, before me and the guys made that raft, I might have opened this door and let the Heartless in. The rest... was history." Ken's jaw dropped. "You seriously did that?!" Riku was more than embarrassed and was under a judgemental gaze from Aqua, Donald, Ana and Halvek. "I was a complete idiot back then. If you ask Mr. Genius in comparison over there." he pointed to Sora. "He'll agree." Sora scratched the back of his head. "You were."

Halvek blew a whistle to stop the argument. "Okay, that's enough. It's obvious Garland and anyone else with a sadistic imagination, is laughing at us now." He pointed at Riku. "We're doomed, so turn that key already and get it over with."

Aqua's lips stiffened as her brain tried to find the words to say. "If this place is like Castle Oblivion, then what is about to happen, isn't real. What ever happens, just try to get through it." She whispered to Ven and Ana. "Get ready to fight."

Riku closed his eyes, grabbed his keyblade and turned it, the door vanished and already, he sees the groups shadows shift and sprint to the door. The others slowly realized that, found an entrance to the cave and stepped back. WOOSH!

A cloud of darkness erupted and engulfed the party, their vision cleared and they found themselves on an island being torn about in a dark hurricane, a purple void radiated over the doomed world and the sea became barren. Ven and Aqua were the first to find a tide of heartless emerging from the dark sea, rushing after them a lot faster than they are use to, Aqua raised her blade to cast. "Sto-" SWIPE!

The tide swooped down and seized Aqua and Ven, they thrashed in the tide as it flew away into the void with them. Mickey was in a panic. "Aqua! Ven!" He was the next to find another anomaly, a massive shadow looming over him, Donald and Goofy. They turned to find a Darkside ready to smash them into the ground. The mouse sparked in light and flung himself after the fiend, it ruptured into dark tendrils and snared the mouse, it dragged him in and rushed it's tendrils at the shield bearer and mage. They screamed in peril as they were dragged off to their doom.

Another Darkside at the west, emerged from the ground and had it's heart shaped hole glow purple. Ana sparked in lightning and ordered. "This has got to be an illusion! Smash these things and be ready for a ride!" She bolted at it, hammer first and smashed the Darkside in the skull, it was sucked into the purple glow and took Ana with it.

Pulse! It blew a mighty wind and nearly knocked the remaining keybearers off their feet, Halvek wasn't as lucky and was flung off the island, he screamed. "I don't get paid enough for thiiiiiiiis."

The storm became worse and Riku realized. "This is how he's going separate us!" Kairi cringed. "Oh, so he can pick us off one by one? What are we going to do to stop that?"

Riku sweated nervously. "I have no idea." A storm of shadowy heartless risen from the void and collected south into a dark red void, Ken sparked his blades in flame and placed them together into a sun like fire ball. "Just stop the storm before it gets scarier." He dashed to the void and hurled the flame.

BOOM!

The red void was engulfed and dispersed, Ken called his blades back and felt the wind become less. "See," he turned, unaware that the flame wasn't flickering away. Sora and Kairi found an idea that would work, the Princess cheered. "You've gotten the idea, Lil' Bro." Ken heard the term and looked more embarrassed, she ordered with a more serious frown in whiplash. "Now get over here! That fire isn't enough."

The blonde boy is seeing a red glow from behind, didn't want to look back and tried to sprint to safety. WOOSH! The flame orb pulsed, tripped him and sucked him into the storm, the trio found a look of both terror and of the dumbfounded, swept into the Darkness, like a candle that's gone out.

Sora asked Riku. "There's a trick me, Donald and Goofy do in a pinch, with enough light, we can push back the Dark." Riku remembered the move. "A trinity limit?" Kairi gave a glow of light and stood with her back facing them. "Yep. With all of us here, we might have a shot." She flipped her blade, aimed it to the ground and gave a battle cry. "Hiyaaa!"

Sora flipped his, faced the darkness at the side of his friends and stabbed the ground, Riku joined in that brilliance, had his back facing his friends and filled his lock. Together, they unleashed the Divine Light of Destiny, shining against the Darkness that pushed back just as stronger. It forced it's way through with a howl of fury and dashed to Riku, who attempt to slash at it and was rammed in the gut for his troubles. He was sent flying and heard his friends scream for him. "Riku!" He was swept away into the void, the storm pulled at the remaining two, Sora and Kairi tried to hold hand in hand for a last stand and were yanked away from each other, the last thing they saw before the storm engulfed them was each other trying desperately to pull back.

Sora felt himself be blown across the void and landed on his rear, in a thud. His eyes adjusted and he found himself in a dark cell, he got up and called out. "Kairi!" "Riku!" Nobody came, he felt himself alone and looked around, finding the cell door with a lock. He called upon the keyblade and nothing happened, nobody came, he felt a moment of helplessness and heard a voice in his head ask. "You're keyblade is still trying to answer you, but something here is keeping it away."

Roxas appeared out of him and used oathkeeper to unlock the cell, Sora felt relief that someone is with him. "Phew! So this is Garland's game?" Roxas nodded. "Yep. Have you been in this spot before? Alone, your friends are gone and you don't even have the keyblade with you?" Sora remembered. "I have, back when Riku was being a dumb jerk and took the keyblade. When I finally caught up with him, Donald and Goofy, he tried to attack me with the power of darkness and my friends protected me at the last moment. Then I vowed to keep fighting with my heart."

Roxas folded his arms. "Well, your friends are definitely not going to come and I don't think your heart is the issue in this place. What ever you do, be careful around here."

Sora promised. "I will, I think I can handle it from here now." Roxas faded back into him. "Show Garland who you are." Sora stepped out of the cell and found a long hall with a collection of dark cells, he ventured down and looked around to find dark, humanoid shades with wisp like eyes, one banged it's head on the cell to try and get out, while another was crying in the corner. He entered a room with a ladder and climbed up, realizing he is stuck in an asylum. Flip! He found a large door to open and thought to himself. "Where did he find out about this place?" \

He pushed it open to find a massive foyer of stone and a door leading out, he entered and felt something suspicious. He looked up and found something, bloated on the overlooking balcony. A large, winged demon with a massive club, the demon looked down upon him and jumped. Sora felt his heard beating. "You got to be kidding me!"

THUD!

The demon landed and shook the ground, it sprinted after him, the boy found pillars to the left and made a run for it, hoping it won't easily swing that club, it wasn't much for room and Sora took some pots and tossed it at the Asylum Demon, only annoying it in the first throw and doing nothing beyond that. The boy walked back in an attempt to fight and felt a breeze to his right, a raised door. He pressed his fingers in his mouth and stretched his lips wide to taunt the demon, it raised it's club to cave the boys everything in.

Roll!

Sora rolled past the gate, found a lever and pulled it, sending the gate down and exhaling. "Phew!" THUD! The demon tried to smash through the gate, failed and sent the boy against the wall. He sprinted to his left and saw a hall way, full of discarded junk and the body of a shriveled up archer, by it was a wooden club. Sora picked it up, felt the weight and swung it, he wasn't pleased. "I got to find my keyblade."

He went to the next room and found a set of stairs to his left, leading higher in the asylum, he looked above to find a round ball and something pushing it from behind. Tip!

Sora rolled out of the way of the rolling boulder, it crashed into the wall at the right and made a hole. The boy felt something get irritated and approached him from the shadows, a knight in black, horned armor, with a thick shield in one hand and a keyblade in another, Sora gasped. "There it is!" He smiled to ask. "Thanks for holding onto that, I'll be taking that back no-" The knight growled, sprinted at him and was ready to slash into him, Sora yelped, rolled behind the knight and jumped back as it swung behind. Sora posed for battle with his club and glared. The knight readied his shield and waited for Sora to make the first move, the boy smirked, rushed at him and as planned, the knight faced the blade right to swing. Sora jumped to the wall on his right and leaped behind the knight. SWING! He hit the knight in the back of the head, pushed it forward and smacked him in the back.

He kicked the knight down, reached for his keyblade and tried to pull it away, it was slipping from the black knights grasp, the knight came through, grabbed and rolled to throw Sora off, the boy let go, jumped and slammed the club at the knight. The black knight blocked with his shield and was pinned to the ground, Sora reached for the hilt of the weapon again and pulled, he took the club and smacked the knight on the arm, forcing it to let go. Sora jumped back with his keyblade, feeling a lot more comfortable and flipped it. "You got something else to try?"

The black knight reached for his belt to pull out a black sword, Sora flung the club he used at the knight and forced it to use it's shield, he jumped to the ceiling while it was distracted, bolted down behind the knight and smacked it in the back of the head with the hilt of his blade. He unleashed a quick combo as the knight was stunned and flung a ball of light at his foe, the black knight was sent flying to a wall in a death cry, smashed into it and slid down.

With one foe vanquished, Sora looked up the stairs and to the left, finding the Asylum Demon looking at him and marching towards the back of the foyer. Sora's eyes half dropped and he went up the stairs, Roxas voiced his input. "Now we can beat that thing and get out of here. It feels weird having to fight dirty like that." Sora agreed with that. "That stuff separate me and the keyblade, but it didn't take anything else."

He found a cell door and unlocked it, it lead him out into a view of a misty, mountainous world, he heard a string of a bow, turned to fight a shaded figure with an arrow aimed, jumped over it and smacked it across the head. He found more of the ledge and searched, to find a large door to the upper foyer. He sprinted, tipped over the edge and found the Asylum Demon looking above, Sora free fall and readied his blade to strike. SLASH! The blade sank into the demon's head, it roared in pain and tried to shake Sora off, the pull pulled and jumped to the demon's rear, the demon flapped it's wings and fluttered to him, with an attempt to crush him. Sora flowed to one of the stone pillars as the demon dropped, used his blade to swing himself around and flowed straight to the demon's skull again, stabbing it in the forehead and pulling out.

A geyser of dark ichor gushed and bleed all over the demon, it roared and tried to claw the dark off. Sora watched the ichor engulf the demon and sprout familiar hair like tendrils, the demon's chest melted into a hole shape heart. The club glowed a dark purple orb in sync of the demon opening a set of beady yellow eyes and it's lipless mouth having blue gums. It raised it's staff and slammed it downward, Sora flowed behind the demon, watched the staff make contact and pulse a stream of darkness. The smacked a quick combo and aimed his blade. "Freeze!"

PEW!

A bolt of ice magic froze the blubbery hide, The Dark Demon fluttered it's wings to get far away, spun and landed on it's rear, splashing a puddle of darkness that took form into four shadows. Sora dived down after them and watched the Dark Demon raise his staff in the air, firing a barrage of dark orbs at him. The boy rolled from the constant fire and the Demon slammed the staff to the boys location, Sora flowed to the door, jumped onto the staff and blitz to the Demons face, he kept balance on the demon's shoulders and blitz again. The Demon shook him off and waddled to the pillar in pain, thud! It pushed through the pillar and gaze upon the landing boy, it was ready to charge at him for an all or nothing attack, Sora readied for it and felt something pulse in his eyes.

The Demon stopped and shook, like something was wrong. Pulse! Sora felt eight connected lines in his eyes and something violent, muffling in his mind. The Demon placed a hand to it's chest and scratched something, eight arrows, surrounded the hole, the Demon began to twist and bleed dark icor once more. PHEW! A large, clawed arm ruptured around the Demon's stubby left arm and the Demon's head looked to be stretching. PHEW! A slug like blob of darkness burst from the head and shaped itself a set of jaws, the Demon wobbled it's staff and tried to step forward, it collapsed, Sora saw a slug like tail engulfing the Demon's lower body.

The twisting face revealed a set of yellow eyes and a maw full of teeth, it howled and flopped at him, being dragged along by the small hand, holding onto the club. Sora yelped and sprinted left to avoid the claw and slide down to avoid the tail slap. He focused on the Dark Demon's rear, hovered and fired a barrage of beams. He glided to what remained of the demons left hindquarters and in a frantic attempt to end the fight, slashed as much as possible. He hurled a gurgle to his left and back flipped to dodge the slug heard darting from the left and try to bite him. Sora jumped to the pillar and darted himself to the Dark Demon's head, stabbing into it and causing a rupture of light, it swiped it's head right to bash Sora into the wall, the boy slipped to the things cheek and climbed back on the forehead. The demon flung left to try with the other wall and failed, smacked it's tail and claw in frustration and lowered it's stubby hand to the club. Sora flipped to dodge the club swing, glowed in light and speared down into the demon's chest. "It's over now!"

PEW! PULSE!

The Demon was slammed to the ground, a pulse of light shattered the floor, both it and Sora fell, into the depths of the asylum, the demon dissolved and left Sora to continue falling, seeing the light from above become more and more distant. Until only the void welcomed him.

Thud! He felt himself landing somewhere in the darkness and finding an exit to a cave and to a purple light, most unwelcoming. He emerged to find an endless, dark sea, with barren strips of islands onto the infinite horizon, marked by eight pillars. He was speechless as memories came, Roxas asked. "That was not normal.

" Sora turned to find Roxas leaning on a wall and looking into the bleak horizon, he agreed. "Yeah, Garland must be that sick in the head," Roxas interrupted to input. "Which he probably is," Sora nodded to continue. "or that thing... turning into that, was caused by something else."

Roxas looked rather terrified himself. "From what we know, Garland turned himself into a paradox so he could escape the Forces of Chaos. Why did the symbol of Chaos show up?"

Sora guessed. "I think I also, heard something else, did you hear it?" Roxas nodded and was shivering. "One word. Kill. This place is suppose to reflect the things in the subconscious, old fears and moments we should be ashamed of." Sora felt his brain connecting past knowledge together. "And... what can get into our heads at any moment if we look at it for too long?"

Roxas struggled to breath. "Them." Sora looked ready to face the horizon and felt his heart, warning him. "Something, really feels wrong here. Even if it is... that place, something feels... wrong." Roxas agreed with that and advised. "Very wrong. If you see anything that should not happen, while you go over there. Try not to think about it. I think there is something Garland has overlooked." He tried to approach Sora and nearly fell, the boy held onto his nobody to help him stand up. Roxas stubbornly held on and faded. "I'll... keep that voice from coming back. We're in this together, other."

Sora felt the little confidence. "Yeah, we're in this together." He stepped across the endless sea and walked to the first island, finding an orb of darkness above. He looked up to find it descending and in a blink, found himself on a larger, grey island.

THUD!

A blue, horned behemoth fell from the sky and roared at it's prey, it sparked lightning from the horn on it's forehead and tried to zap Sora, the boy felt more experienced since the last time he fought this monster, rolled back and sprinted to the heartless's rear. He jumped on the things back and blitz the horn, quickly shattering it and causing it to bleed ichor. The behemoth rasped, tried to shake Sora off and fell, the boy jumped off and saw that the body was not disappearing like a heartless normally would, the shattered horn kept bleeding and made a puddle. Sora felt that was his first clue, a deep whisper reached his ear. "You're brave to come back here." Sora turned around to see who's there, finding no one, the whisper suggested. "If you want to survive, fight on like you have." The boy felt the suggestion agreeable, yet his chest was beating hard. He swallowed, short of breath and continued on.

Deep with in the void.

Riku was laying on his back, rock bottom in a shroud of regrets and was questioning all the life choices he's made to lead him into this. "How the heck did I screw that up?" He sat up and found himself in the dark void, remembering it as fondly as a bad rash. "Yep... this is where all of my mistakes lead me too." He stood up and focused. "This is just an illusion, I just... need to find my way again."

"HA! Like that would work again." Riku turned to the void and found an image he didn't think he would see again, a younger version of himself, in skin tight, dark blue clothes, with a white skirt and the emblem of the heartless on his chest, holding a wing like blade. The Past Sin smirked to him. "Face it, your stuck here." He rolled his eyes and approached. "If you didn't try to run away from your friends and handle that mess on your own, you wouldn't have been here in the first place."

Riku growled. "Shut up." The Past Sin, refused. "Oh, look who's talking. If you didn't wound up here, Sora wouldn't have gotten lost looking for you and you didn't have to help Wise old Ansem with his revenge project." He asked. "How many people, did you hurt to try to fix that? Huh?"

Riku lost count and the Past Sin answered. "Exactly, you can't even give yourself a number." He pretended to cry. "Oh, boo hoo I had to rely on the Darkness to help my friends and keep myself out of their lives." He snapped to him. "You knew, Sora kept looking for you and that he wasn't going to go home until he found you. Kairi kept waiting for you two until she couldn't anymore and ran off into danger again." He laughed sarcastically. "Some help you've been."

Riku readied to fight. "And then that Defiler fell from the sky when things finally got back to normally." The Past Sin put his hand on his forehead. "Don't get started on that. Those psychopath's unleashed nothing but Hell and dragged all of us into the game of Lunatics. Even some kid that should have just stayed home!" Riku cringed to that. "He probably should have," The Past Sin nodded and posed for battle. "But he didn't and no matter what he tried, he keeps following in your footsteps."

The Past Sin looked to the side, pitifully. "Even if he doesn't want to admit that he saved the worlds. Now, the idea that we need the Darkness to stop all of this, has gotten into everyone's heads." He asked Riku. "Where is that going to lead us? Back here?" The boy guessed. "Probably, what is even the point?"

The Past Sin charged. "I'll show you what the point is." He dashed in unnatural speeds, Riku side stepped and clashed with morning light, sending the Past Sin rolling back. It flung a dark ring at him to counter attack and flung to the air to spear into the boy, Riku deflected and countered again, he hurled a fire ball at the Past Sin and caused it to yell. He raised the sword in the air and dashed into the void, Riku jumped and flowed to avoid the rushing foe and flipped to avoid the pillars of dark. He raised his keyblade in the air and countered with his own, blended version. Piercing the Past Sin in multiple areas and using the pillars of light as a finisher. The Past Sin flipped and taunted. "You haven't changed one bit. All the Darkness you used is still in every move you make."

A white circle, appeared in the arena, giving way to a cragged chasm, Riku looked upon it and saw the circle be comparable to an eclipsed light. "What are you doing?"

The Past Sin scoffed, flipped his sword and was ready to hurl it to the circle. "Something you would have done to crack the secrets of the True Dark, that the poor sap talks about. How can someone be that aware of the Darkness and still don't know the answers we need?" He hurled it and turned to Riku, the sword punctured the eclipsed circle and caused it to break out in white wisps. "He, Aqua and that kid, all delved into the Abyss and found what made that world break."

He aimed his hand and Riku felt the eclipse staring at him, the boy guessed. "They found out, that it was watching them?" The Past Sin nodded and unleashed a downpour of affinity, pursuing the boy to no end, Riku back flipped to avoid the pursuers, focused on the Past Sin and shined a ray of morning sun, he fired a barrage of light at the Past Sin, who was nearly defenseless against the power of light, the boy flipped and slashed again, then again and finished with an aim that unleashed even more projectiles. The pursuers of affinity faded, the sword fell into the abyss and the Past Sin land on his side, unable to get up. He had one more taunt. "You're looking at your own future, an endless cycle that is only going to keep getting worse. Whether you like it or not." Riku clenched his fists. "But, what can we do about it?"

"What can you do?" He yelped, turned around and found a cloaked, armored figure of ash by a bonfire, Riku looked confused, turned around and found the Past Sin missing, he rubbed his eyes and looked back, finding the figure and the fire there.

"Who are you?!" The Ashen One tapped his hand by the fire. "Just a wanderer, I could be another illusion. Any wise man would strike at the first chance. Ha, ha, ha."

Riku lowered his weapon. "You were someone Garland found in that Castle?" The Ashen One nodded. "I think they remembered me as Benedict. You look like someone who could use someone to talk to, I'm the only other one here... right now." Riku slowed his approach to as. "Right now?"

Benedict looked to the eclipsed circle. "Yes, that madman doesn't know it, but he might have invited... unwanted guest into this realm of thoughts. The very thing of Chaos. Some things have certainly been created by Garland's hand, like that thing you fought, calling you out on things you regret... but the ones of Chaos are much worse."

Riku sat by the fire, felt it quite warm and asked. "So we really need to get past this Crucible before something goes wrong?" Benedict looked to the flame. "Not just that, you need to make sure your friends keep their sanity in check. Even the things that are natural to your core, can become twisted by what they find." He laughed sarcastically. "You're all in quite the pickle. Only a fool, would believe that the things lurking in the Darkness would want any of you as a friend. Most of them would just find you as an easy meal."

Riku exhaled. "Yet, we need to figure it out. If what Karla said, is true." Benedict looked at Riku sternly. "Oh she is speaking the truth. If you stare into the Abyss long enough, the Abyss will become you. When the monsters of the Darkness, come for you and your friends, what will you really do?"

Riku answered clearly. "Fight, like I always have." Benedict nodded. "And you won't be alone. You and the others still have time, travel together and keep a watch at each others backs. Heh. Don't be afraid to reveal yourself to the others, a pack is quite forgiving to one another. Tell this to those... who need the comfort."

Riku hummed and felt a strange air. "...Thanks, you feel like... you had quite a journey," He got up, feeling a little invigorated, Benedict stood up and lifted his great sword and his small dagger. "It brought me to some interesting places." He walked off and Riku stopped him. "Hey, I'm not done."

Benedict paused and listened, the boy asked. "Somethings about your air, feels... different. A little bit of flame, but a vast dark. How do you put up with that?" Benedict laughed to that. "I don't really know anymore. I try what I can to move on," He tossed something at Riku, the boy caught it and fond it to be a scroll with instructions. "What is this?" Benedict answered. "A miracle, if that tome didn't have it, this would serve you well."

He marched on into the shadows, Riku wanted to ask more and stopped himself as the knight faded. "May the flames, guide thee." The mysterious knight disappeared, Riku took a deep breath and turned to find a lit passage. He stepped to the other side and found a rather normal looking section of the Crucible, very much a hostile place, but one he recognized.

He heard panting to his right and found Halvek running his life, going behind a door and pushing to close it, Riku sprinted to the Kharadron to help him out, let him know help came and together, they closed it.

THUD!

Something rammed it's head across the door, silence was heard. The boy asked the Daurdin. "Didn't think I find you getting yourself out of that mess." Halvek grumbled, felt it was safe to leave the door and looked around. "Oh, don't remind me. One moment, we were looking at something you and your friends had gone through a long a time ago, of which would have warranted a trip to the courthouse for ya. The next, I was smack dab, in the middle of nowhere, with a bunch of Dinosaurs and one of them was looking for a nice Kharadron in a can."

Riku cringed. "Sheesh, that would be a nightmare for you." Halvek confessed. "I'm not that helpful without me gizmos and the trees were too thick for Ol' Bountiful. So what was yours?"

Riku answered with a heavy heart. "Everything I would have told myself, past regrets." Halvek groaned and put his thumb to the door. "Well, your trip down the rabbit hole was said and done. Since you've probably helped fixed your end of that, it's old news." He asked. "So, are we going to let a grudge aside and get to work?"

Riku was about to answer yes, as the door busted open. "ROAR!" Halvek sprinted left and talked fast. "Starting with this one." Riku rolled left to avoid a head butt from a foe that caught him by surprise; a large, red bull like dinosaur with stubby arms and a mouth full a teeth. "A Carnotaur?!" The Carnotaur realized it missed, quickly turned and roared, Riku taunted the dinosaur. "Have a bite of this, scale face."

On a beach.

Kairi felt herself alone in the sands and to the endless sea. Traveling the sands for what felt like ages, names close to her teetering on the brink of being forgotten about and occasionally, she had a couple moments of just standing there. The voice of Namine, rang into her mind. "Is this what you were doing every day, for a whole year? Standing here and waiting for them?"

Kairi turned to find Namine looking at the shore and to her, the Princess had her hands behind her hips. "Yeah, when Sora closed that Door, the worlds began to restore themselves. I was there to see Sora coming to me before we got separated, he promised that he'll always be there with me. That he'll come back." She looked to the shore again. "So I waited, even when things started to become a blur." She looked back to Namine. "Then I found my chance to go look for him and Riku. Heh, that caused a lot of trouble."

The nobody recalled. "You got away from someone that wanted to use you, and when you heard from Sora again, you got captured again by some very bad people that wanted to use him."

Kairi nodded. "I couldn't let that happen, I wasn't going to sit there and cry about it." She winked. "That was when you came and helped me get out of there. We found Riku, who gave me something to fight with." Namine remembered that. "And then the three of you met again after such a long year." She promised. "Don't worry, this is what the Nightmare is. Getting separated for what feels like forever. We'll find a way out of this."

Kairi promised back. "And this time, I can fight back and go find those guys. I'm a lot stronger than I was when this whole mess began."

"Are you sure about that, Princess?"

The deep voice, interrupted Kairi and Namine's heart to heart, Kairi turned to what looked like an island coming apart. Namine turned around to find the sea disappearing, the Nobody walked into her other half, wishing Kairi luck.

The Princess approached what looked like a broken down mountain with strange, yellow eyes and a particular man, waiting for her. She jumped over the ledge to confront the figure, a dark man with long white hair, golden eyes, a dark coat and a white suit that revealed a bare chest with a heartless emblem. The image of the Dark Seeker, sent shivers down Kairi's spine, the Princess glared. "You're not real. Sora kicked your butt a year ago."

The Seeker of Darkness folded his arms. "Perhaps, he did. Yet, I keep coming back," he slowly approached her. "you've kept yourself hidden from me for years and your attempt to fight back, is laughable. How much longer are you going to keep deluding yourself? That your light will make a difference for them?"

Kairi braced for battle and asked. "You really love hearing yourself talk? I'm not hiding anymore, I'll keep getting stronger and I'll keep fighting you until you stop coming back. If you want my heart so bad, come and get it."

The Seeker of Darkness hmphd. "Very well, Princess." Kairi felt something pooled in her shadow, she flipped to dodge an uppercut from the Guardian, then another and another. Kairi focused on the Darkseeker, glowed in light and blitz after him. WOOSH! T

he Guardian charged to blind side her, she back flipped and watch the Guardian appear behind the Darkseeker. Both it and the Darkseeker charged after her, Kairi high jumped with a glimmer of golden wings, summoned orbs of golden light and rained destruction upon the Darkseeker.

She landed with finesse and watched the Guardian dissolved, the Dark Seeker turned to her and glowed a black aura. "You are going to wish he was here to protect you. Every light must fade, everything will return to darkness." The void consumed the arena, a blue orb of eldritch energy formed, drawing upon the surrounding light into it's mass, like a black hole, it was sucking Kairi in. The Princess tried to sprint away and was being caught into the event horizon. "Not yet. I'm not losing to him."

The Dark Seeker taunted her as she struggled. "You are but a tiny candle of light, accept your end." She turned and saw a barrage of dark red orbs coming after her, she refused to give up and felt light on her feet, she sprinted and gave a glow of light, gliding against the event horizon and moving a lot more nimbly, she spun to dodge the projectiles and circled around, after the Dark Seeker that followed with the center mass launching Guardian's at her.

PEW!

She glittered in light and flowed to the Dark Seeker's personal. She unleashed a quick combo and flung a star of light at him, doing critical damage and following with an ice spell. The Dark Seeker flung back and pressed his hands together, firing a dark beam in defiance, Kairi flowed out of the way, disappeared from the Dark Seeker's site and appeared right behind him, ready for a hearty swing. SMACK!

The Dark Seeker was flung to the epicenter and tried to pull against it, Kairi boasted back "I will never go out, not so long as my friends need me. Not so long as there is something to fight for." The Dark Seeker caused the epicenter to rapid fired dark energy, Kairi flipped and aimed her blade, the Dark Seeker growled. "Why do you consider anything, worth it? Sooner or later, you will confront nightmares beyond the reach of the Light, so long as there are those that keep calling to them, I will keep coming back."

Kairi glared at him. "As long as you keep coming back, I'll be here to send you back to the Darkness you came from!" The beam fired. "One day, people like you will just be a nightmare."

PEW! The beam shot at the Darkseeker and sent him falling into the epicenter, the epicenter reacted to the beam, shined with the light and popped. The suction stopped and Kairi hovered to the floor. She felt relief and closed her eyes. "Phew! Glad he's gone." Thump! Thump! Thump!

The relief, vanished, she felt a sharp, pain in her chest. She opened her eyes and her mouth dropped, glowing like the flames of hell, an eight pointed star appeared. A voice, whispered into her mind. "What do you think, we're made from?!"

Laughter came from all around here, as a figure emerged from the gates of hell, a familiar, armored sorcerer with a demonic skull for a helmet and decoration of burning skulls. Kairi steeled her nerves. "Zagor!"

The Chaos Sorcerer glowed his hands in eldritch fire and caused the dark world to radiate in the glow. "One way, or another, we are shaped by the foundations of Darkness! Not even you, Pure of Heart, is left unscarred by it's wonders." Kairi heard moaning from all around and turned to see twisting faces of darkness. She smirked at him. "Yeah? You're just a wannabe big shot, that found that break because someone kept bringing this to our worlds." She scowled. "You're just another Dark Seeker!"

Zagor's laughter became more unhinged. "Why thank you, Princess. I do try hard." Snarl! Seven figures crawled out of the rift, possessed madmen of twisted, flesh, bone and armor, one of them jolted his head at Kairi, glowed bright green eyes and dashed after her. Appearing in front of her in an instant and splitting his torso open to reveal a hungry maw that was about to chomp at her being. Kairi yelped, upper cut the Possessed Marine with her keyblade and sent it back with a burning sizzle, she flung a star of light and had the fortune of hearing the marine scream. A winged Marine flapped and sprinted after her. "You look upon the future, girl."

Kairi form changed her blade into a staff and skid away, she flung orbs of light and saw the Marine's flesh sizzle off, the rest sprinted after her. Kairi focused her staff and summoned multiple crystals of light, she fired a beams into one of the crystals and watched it reflect a barrage of light at the Possessed.

She panted as Zagor clenched his fists and fired a ball of fire at her, Kairi cast reflect, was sent flying and saw something glowing around the eight pointed star. The Possessed had burn marks and sprinted, Kairi flipped her keyblade, stabbed the ground and unleashed a holy circle of light underneath the madmen. Light enveloped them and disintegrated them, giving the Princess the chance to look upon the marking and saw the emblem of the Heartless, Zagor laughed at her and let loose pillars of Darkness. "More horrors will come unto your worlds. Until we finally devour the Light and all who relish it, you're a but simple prayer, Little Angel." A dark mawed, claw of many yellow eyes emerged from the darkness and a voice hissed into her mind. "And that little prayer, isn't enough."

The armored form of a demonic entity, with horns curled like a heart, crawled out and stuck it's blue tongue. "How many more, will die before they realize they have no hope?" Zagor asked back, delighting in Kairi's horror. "Yes, brother. How many more will she grow attached to?" His eyes glowed in flame. "She can only watch them die so many times."

Click! "Only once!"

PEW!

Kairi was surprised of a light coming from from the void, looking like a missile, smacking into Xaw'Rak's face, distracted him towards something annoying him. Thud! TINK! TINK! TINK! Another voice, right besides Kairi, ordered her as he shot at Xaw'Rak and side stepped. "Close this rift and then deliver some justice to this worshipper of evil!" Kairi felt a chill of a ghost, Xaw'Rak turned to the assailant and glowed his middle maw as Zagor asked. "You've made the mistake of coming here, Loyalists! Are you so eager for her to watch again?" He reached into the void and yanked a silver armored marine from the void, the other marine rolled to avoid the torrent of flame.

Kairi slowed her breathing, glared at Xaw'Rak and aimed her blade to the rift underneath him. "Go back where you belong and don't come back!" PEW! A beam made contact with the rift, nothing seemed to happen and Xaw'Rak aimed his mawed arm at her, shooting a tongue that wrapped around her and yanking her towards him. "We have already brought it here, Princess. It's denizens, hunger."

Kairi slashed at the tongue and screamed, severing it's hold on her and getting an even footing. A glow of a heart radiated from around the rift as Xaw'Rak grew his tongue back and was peppered by gun fire. FLING! A grenade hit him in his abdomen like maw and the heart's light became stronger, the infernal hold retracted into it, Xaw'Rak raised his arms to smash the marine and was thrown off balance and realize he was being drawn in. It howled and reached for the Princess and the Marine, the two stepped back as Zagor saw what happened and focused his power in hysteria. "Do you think the Light will make it that easy?! We are here to stay!" Kairi sprouted wings and flew after Zagor. "No you are not!"

SMACK!

She combo'd the Master of Possession in fast speeds and kept him distracted as Xaw'Rak struggled to keep a hold, the light was repelling his grip upon the world. Zagor swung his staff with demonic might and bashed Kairi on the torso, he looked ready to kill.

PEW!

Another missile fired at the Sorcerer, Zagor turned to it and with a flip of a wrist, had it miss. Kairi gritted and dashed after him again, parrying blow for blow as something large came rushing. STAB!

A giant knife stabbed Zagor in the stomach and a silver marine grappled him. "Would you take the hint and go back to Hell already!" Xaw'Rak slipped and was pulled into the rift, screaming an eldritch noise, Zagor vanished and appeared behind the marine, grappling him and forcing the marine to look upon a Kairi who is having a flash back. "Look upon this face you've caused. Let's see if she'll make something more, exquisite, seeing this-" PEW! SMACK!

Zagor was flung asunder by a slash of light, loosening his grip on the the marine that fell to his side. Zagor turned to the direction of the blow and swung his staff, missing the spec of light and being blitzed. Kairi's breath worsened and her eyes were watering. "Shut up already!" SMACK! "Shut up!" SMASH! "Shut... up!"

Zagor felt the burning of light upon his flesh and aimed his staff at her, the skull helmet shifted into a more menacing grin. "It matters not, through your pain, we will live forever!" He broke into laughter and his hand pulsed in power. PEW! TINK!

A bullets pelted him again and a bullet made contact with the side of his head, the glowing stopped and blood came from Zagor's vox, he fell over to his side. Thud! A rift opened, and a dark tendrils emerged to drag the Sorcerer into it.

With that battle over, Kairi shook and looked to find those who aided her, she recognized the marine who had a missile launcher behind him. Dabriel grunted. "Good riddance." He nodded to Kairi and turned to leave, the Princess grabbed him by the hand and embraced him. Breaking down into a sob. Nathanel approached to see his confused brother and a heart broken girl. "Now look what you done, brother. We got to explain ourselves."

Kairi kept a cry. "I don't care if you two aren't them. Hah...hah... I just...I just..." Dabriel patted her on the back and let her cry, Nathanel let her have a moment and lowered himself to her level. "It's... hard to explain all this, but we came as soon as we got word of that sad fool creating this place. It's a ripe one for the Chaos gods to play around in. Whether he knew it or not, his game was going to get more foul than it did."

Dabriel bluntly corrected his brother. "There are few places we can go and this war has taken a toll on all of these good civilians." Kairi calmed down and asked. "So you really are angels that came?" She let go and rubbed her eyes as dark scenery became a little illuminated. Dabriel nodded. "Yes."

Nathanel took his turn to correct his brother on a missing point. "Even if that Heretic was an illusion made by his Masters." He looked to Kairi. "But now, it is your turn to be that angel. Somewhere in this Crucible, some of your friends have been beset by the Gods of Chaos, that boy who you're always fond with, is in danger of losing his mind."

The Princess immediately thought. "Sora! How?!" Nathanel stood up and shrugged. "I don't want to tell you the details, you will put it together when you see it." Dabriel looked on to a rift of light forming. "We cannot follow you there, this is your battle."

Kairi puffed her cheeks. "Why not?" Nathanel wondered why. "According to that Cat Xenos, if you and the Guardian's of Light do not overcome this by yourselves, you won't gain the strength to really take it to the Chaos gods. Our hearts have been torn by endless war to where we'll just prove them right." Dabriel nodded. "Too dark."

Kairi exhaled and scowled. "I don't care if you've came from a place like that. You've always been here since we first met," she pointed to her chest and felt her eye ducts tired from the crying. "Even if it is always going to hurt to remember you," She approached the rift. "I got to keep bring brave for the others, like how you two were."

Nathanel was half flattered. "We've lost that sense of fear a long time ago, the real brave ones are those who take a stand against evil when it shows up." Dabriel nodded. "You will show a power, far greater than anything the Chaos gods could imagine. That is how you will end this war."

Kairi nodded in agreement. "That's what I'm going to tell Sora, that we have that power." She whispered. "I'm coming." She leaped into the rift of light and left a whisper for the marines. "Thank you."

The marines were left alone in the dimming world and turned to each other, Dabriel asked. "What now?" Nathanel guessed. "Wait for Captain Hofneil to finish his duty and report back? It's not like we got anywhere else to go." Dabriel laughed to that. "We're ensuring these strong hearts earn the future we don't have."

In a narrow cave.

Ken fought his way through strange, troll like monsters and a strange lizard with spear thrusts and handy pyromancy, not knowing what was around the corner, set him on an edge. "Not this again."

"Wielder of the Flame, does thou here my voice?"

Ken exhaled, snapped to reality and peaked his head to find a tunnel. "Yeah, you're the only one here that isn't trying to kill me. I want a word with Garland about this, seriously why have Riku bring that up?!" The Firekeeper knows not. "Ones sin would eat away at thine soul." Ken guessed as he found the coast clear and entered. "And it's no wonder he's been hard on me every time I find something that might as well have Darkness written all over it." He felt pity. "He's been scared for me."

He noticed something crawl down from the room at the end of the tunnel, two thin legs, dropping a strange spider with a pincer for a tail and a set of glowing orange eyes. Ken didn't mind it too much, until it rapid fired fire balls in a spray. He rolled in between two and lowered himself in a sprint. "That's what your playing with?"

He smirked and speared the spider in the face, getting a good look at all eight limbs, an armored exoskeleton and more importantly, a narrow room. The armor spider used two of it's legs and sliced at Ken horizontally. Ken rolled over it and flung a fire ball at it's face, doing little damage and annoying it, it slammed it's legs and face at him, the boy rolled back and slashed his blades at the pincer. He saw the horizontal slash, heard the hellish shriek and back flipped, firing quick shots at the eyes mid flip, he flung a grenade of light and watched the spider vomit something, looking black, caustic and having an odd smell. Ken cringed and ran back to the tunnel to get away from it, finding it pouring in and look ahead to find the passage closed off by fire. He felt a heat blow against his back and reached the end, turned around and watched an inferno burn. "That's tar?! Is this thing for real?"

He fired pepper shots as the fire died down, when the way was clear, he used his air magic to zip back to the spiders face, skidding in between fire balls and spearing into the Armor Spider's face. The thing shrieked raised it's body up in a death throe and disappeared in blue mist, the mist swirl and coalescent into something, a strange sword like stone with a circle, it was wedged on a piece of burning rock. Ken approached it and found a flicker of something in the stone, he reached for it and focused, drawing out a rather colorful, spider like soul. "...Wow. Wished I didn't leave that Kiln behind." He sat down and found nowhere specific to go. "So... how do I get out of here?"

He looked to the strange stone and touched it, he felt a white light and a void of black, alone in the darkness, he felt something staring back at him, the spider's soul crawled into his chest and gave Ken a skipped beat. He drew his weapons and saw a collective glitter of something, along with yellow eyes. He looked to his feet to find himself in a cragged landscape and to the sky, finding no ceiling. The Firekeeper asked. "Wielder of the Flame, is thou, familiar with this nightmare?"

Ken shook his head. "Not really. But I know a bunch of heartless that want a piece of me, now that I'm all alone." He stood up and readied his legs, ready to confront the heartless. Stepping out of the shadows, were strange, humanoids with demonic wings, red claws, a pair of black pants and hoods that looked to have horns, each of them, held something that made Ken uneasy, keyblades.

One of the Darklings noticed something with in the boy, a shine of light, it pointed. "There it is! The X Blade!" Another Darkling posed for a fight and shrieked. "Get it!" At the instant, a horde of Darklings flew after the boy, Ken yelped at the sheer numbers, stabbed the ground with Firekeeper's Wish and used a pillar of flame to jet himself out of reach, the Darklings that weren't scorched, flew after him. Ken saw a clearing in the far distance and flung himself there, knocking the Darklings back into the pile of a rabble. He was quickly surrounded once more, by Darklings that were either, reaching out for him or were shoving, striking each other, or were fighting each other wall grabbing on to him. Ken struck back in a panic to get them off and noticed a bolt of lightning coming from above.

BOOM!

Lightning shook the Darklings away and flung them into twitches of electricity, Ken waved the dust off her face and saw Ana on top of Moonfang, the boy's eyes glittered. "Thank goodness!" Moonfang gave Ken a smirk as Ana raised her hammer blade at the Darkling swarm. "Return back to the shadows, demons, you won't lay a hand on him aga-" Woosh! The Darklings sprinted after Ken and completely ignored Ana, Ken inhaled and breathed out a poisonous mist, he swiped to the side and behind to keep them away. Moonfang breathed lightning at the Darklings as Ana shot lightning bolts and asked. "What did you do to draw this many?"

Ken answered back. "Nothing, I just got here when they all came for my blood. But why just me?!" Ana smashed her blade to the ground and unleashed a shock wave as she tried to answer, a Darkling pounced on Ken's back and grabbed onto his fleshy arm. "The X blade is all mine now! Let's see what Kingdom Hearts is really made out of!"

Ken struggled to break free, Moonfang chomped onto the Darkling's head and tossed it aside, Ana was in a blabber of confusion and signaled Ken to get on. "This is a war over, nonsense!"

Ken agreed with that and wanted to jump on. PEW! PEW! PEW! He and Ana noticed a couple sniper shots shooting the Darklings dead, some where nearly hitting them too. Ken turned to see a sniper on a flat mountain and signaled Ana that she needs to get to safety, he jumped onto the Darklings with a flow and leaped to the sniper. He landed on the mountain and found a man in a dark grey robe and a keyblade that resembles a silver crossbow, he gave a faint laugh. "So the X Blade really, does have a mind of it's own. That crazy goof ball was right after all!"

Ken felt a blood vessel pulse and yelled out to the figure. "For the last time! I am NOT the X blade!" The robed man flickered to the boy and reached out to him, completely ignoring the words, Ken glowed in light and smack the guys weapon off. He jumped back to hear the man give a cocky laugh and summon his blade back. "Looks like it ain't too happy about this war." He asked Ken. "Do you really think you can stop these idiots from reaching Kingdom Hearts?!" He aimed. "As if, that matters now."

Ken flung a wave of light at the man, who teleported and fired. Ken side jumped to the right and fired back, he speared to the man and screamed. "Would you make sense?!" PEW! The man form changed his blade into twin hand axes and parried the spear shot with one axe, he swung to strike with another, Ken ducked and back flipped. He glowed in flame and summoned a flaming Nodosaurus to head butt the man to the ledge, giving Ken time to dismiss Firekeeper's Wish and form change Cadia's Light into a lascanon.

He aimed, pulled the trigger and fired a dark beam. Surprising both him and the man. Ken stopped in a shock of peril and the man frantically pressed his axes together to form a giant crossbow. The boy tried to dismiss the altered weapon and felt his fingers pulling the trigger instead, firing more dark beams and changing into a launcher that hurled globs of darkness. The boy's mind was at a blank and tried to stop it, he managed to change the weapon back into a keyblade, he dodged the frantic shots and slammed his blade into the ground, earth quickly rumbled after the man and split to erupt, to Ken's horror, a pillar of darkness shot out instead of a jagged stone. The man screamed in pain and the boy asked looked to his hands, with the blade in hand. "How am I doing that?!"

ROAR! Leap!

Moonfang flew across the mountain and let Ana drop down, the intimidating aura of lighting was a warning for Ken to stop attacking, the Stormcast turned to robed man and to the boy's vision, became someone in a brown robe. Wielding a warhammer, the man panicked. "You?! Do you think you can stop this or my master now?!" He pointed his thumb to the on going battle and aimed, Ana was completely confused, smashed her warhammer to the ground and caused the earth underneath the man to rupture, knocking the man over the edge and screaming to his death.

The robed warrior turned to Ken, the vision returned back to Ana, who asked sternly. "Lad, what was that?"

Ken pressed his hands together. "I wasn't trying to do that, light, fire and earth were suppose to come out of that, I swear." Ana kept tense, but knew Ken was as honest as they come. "What the eart want's to express, comes out as the intended power. Darkness should not have been that."

Darklings leaped to the mountain and one of them barked. "There it is, Geo has it in his sights!" They gave a combined battle cry and rushed after Ana, Ken jumped onfront of Ana and aimed with flame, flinging a fire ball to rupture into tiny fire balls and pelt the Darklings, or that was the intention, he shot out fountains of light to still these dark souls. Ana form changed her hammer blade into a glaive. "Find a way outta here, while I keep these maniacs." She swiped and carved a swath. "Something isn't right."

Ken agreed with that and saw a glimmer of light in the center of the war zone. "There!"

He glided over to the light and landed, he flipped his blade to do something and found someone approaching from a glitter of light, a man in a white hooded robe, holding a grey keyblade with black markings, a horned face above the hilt and a blue eye at the tip, Ken froze in his tracks. The man laughed the shock off. "I can't believe this war has brought about the original keys potential!" He clapped. "So like a heart, this things bright light, brought about the deepest of shadows." He asked himself. "If this is just an extension of Kingdom Hearts, imagine the kind of power with in?" He approached Ken, who was too scared to move. "Come to me, let us open the gates to Paradise."

Ken felt his fight of flight instincts kick in, he chose to fight and smashed his keyblade against the man, who parried and pushed him back. The man dropped his child like wonder and was ready to attack. "Are you kidding me?! Looks like I got to force fate, once again."

Ken back flipped and barked. "Would you get away from me, you weirdo!" He stabbed the ground for a particular pose of a loose fire storm and summoned pillars of light instead. The man teleported to the boys personal and swung, forcing the boy back and gaining the upper hand, Ken pulsed out a wave of Darkness to push the man back and gained breath, Ana and Moonfang crashed into battle to see the dark pulse and the man grabbing Ken by the cybernetic arm. "It's time we finish this."

Ken's eyes turned into a fierce anger, he snarled and yelled. "ENOUGH! THIS NEEDS TO STOP!" Much to Ana's horror, feathery grey wings sprouted from Ken's back and radiated rays of light and darkness, the man freaked out and pulled at the boy. "What... what are you doing?! Stop! I command you to stop!" Ken wheezed in more anger and cracked in body, his body was engulfed in grey and he yelled once more.

"ENOUGH!" The image cracked and let loose a shock way of grey. Ana and Moonfang felt blinded for a moment and felt their vision returned, finding themselves on a silver gummi ship and Ken landing on his back, in complete confusion. "...What was that?!"

Ana shrugged. "I don't know either, would you mind telling me, what you think that was about?" Moonfang blinked upon sensing the boy's confusion, Ken tried to get up. "I don't know. None of that makes any sense and I didn't... feel like I was there." He looked out the window to find an odd world with a town in view, barely noticing it, Ana looked to the window and to her right, finding something she didn't wish for Ken to see. "But that certainly does." The boy jumped, had a closer look at Radiant Garden and looked left to find the Planet Killer approaching it with glowing guns. He broke down into a panic. "No...no...no...no!"

He saw the door and rushed through it, Moonfang growled, disappeared into Ana and gave a mental suggestion, Ana agreed with that and charge in. "Come on, we got to stop that!" She charged to the door and found Ken running down the high tech halls of a battle ship, like a complete lunatic and searching for something or someone.

She saw distant, blue light and flew after the boy. Ken's mind was in a complete haze, one thing was on his mind. "Find the elevator, find Abaddon and-" "Run that heretic over and fire!" He looked ahead and found a weird, uncorrupted battle tank, running over a Black Legionnaire that had a plasma gun and firing every gun it has, on top was a familiar Commissar. Ken leaped on the tank and looked upon what the tank was firing at, a rather large squad of Chaos Space Marines that are accompanied by two Obliterators, firing back. Ken charged Cadia's Light and fired at the left Obliterator, gaining the attention of the Commissar. "Took you long enough, boy. Do you understand what you need to do?"

Ken was lost in a war mode and nodded in silence, Ana caught up, recognized the insignia of the Imperium and yelled. "What in blazes are you doing here?! Are you another nightmare?"

Tahm heard someone from in the tank and addressed him. "Agreed, Hank. But focus on firing." TINK! The Leman Russ fired it's battle tank on the heretics and blown many to bits as Tahm turned to Ana and Ken with dull eyes. "What would be a blessing in this dark place, is oblivion for the Nightmare. We must, pave our way to the heart of it. You know who awaits?" Ken answered as he fired at the Obliterators head. "Abaddon! Is there anything he can do besides throw people at us?"

Tahm nodded as a side lascannon punctured a marine and made way to the injured Obliterator. "Yes, but remember, this is your nightmare. The things back there, are real enough to hurt you and this one is real enough, to cost you another arm, if you're fortunate."

Ken finished off the Obliterator and moved on to another one, Tahm ordered. "Push forward, for the Emperor!" The Leman Russ pushed against the tide of traitors and Ana saw Chaos Space Marines arrive with what looks like heavy guns, she flew over the rank and fire soldiers and smashed her way to them with a battle frenzy.

At a familiar town with a vast ocean.

Ven came through and found Aqua laying on her side, he shook her awake and stirred her to the sight of a town at it's prime, that was under a dark purple cloud. She kind of wished she didn't wake up. "Oh no." She stood up as Ven asked. "This was Radiant Garden?"

The woman nodded. "Yes, I know where this is going. Ven, do you know, how I learned about what happened to Terra?" Ven gasped. "No way, it happened here?" Aqua took the lead. "Yes. Let's get this over with." The two went down a flight of stairs, finding someone looking up to the grand castle, a muscular man in a black shirt with a red harness, and a light brown robe pants, Ven immediately recognized an old friend, who was set off by white hair and golden eyes. "Terra..." He leaped down to confront the cognition, ahead of an Aqua who was having a relapse and realized Ven jumped down ahead of her. Ven landed and flipped his blade for battle. "This isn't funny, Garland, why are you showing us this?"

The cogniotion looked upon Ven and slowly approached, reaching a hand out, Aqua caught up, pulled Ven away and drew her blade. "Because I remember this, everyday." The shine of the keyblades and familiar air, caused the cognition to stop and struggle, like there was someone in there, fighting the dark hold. The struggling stopped and a voice, very familiar, spoke. "This whole thing is pointless, Terra's heart has been extinguished a long time ago." He drew the keyblade with no name. "Smothered by the darkness with in him." He tried to smash the two with the blade, the two flipped across the arena for a better advantage.

Aqua was ready to attack. "We're not going to stop trying. One day, we will get Terra back. Now, come and face us." The cognition stared at them board and hopped into a dark rift, Ven felt something right behind him, jumped a spin and side stepped a dark rush that went into a zig zag around him and Aqua and finished with a smash to the ground, erupting pillar of earth. The two took that as their chance to strike, Ven closing onto the cognition with lightning speed and Aqua unleashing a barrage of fire balls. The Cognition glowed dark, swiped the dark blade at Ven and fired a barrage of dark bolts at Aqua, Ven parried as Aqua deflected the bolts back. The fight was a mental tug of way of waiting for the moment to attack, staying nimble against the attacks and avoiding dark tricks, including a dark red hand appearing in front of the Cognition and attempt to crush the two.

Ven and Aqua struck an in sync blow and pushed the Cognition back, the arena became shrouded in a dark aura and growled. "If you are so eager to pursue him into the Abyss," Darkness glowed from behind him. "I will gladly guide you too him!"

He screamed and unleashed a familiar Guardian that roared, flew out of sight and caused shadows to form under the two, they rolled out of it to avoid the Guardian's attempt to upper cut them and waited until it returned back to the Cognition, then they attacked as one. The Guardian hurled shock waves and fire balls at the two, then let the Cognition swing at them again, the duo attacked with caution and watched out for the Guardian trying to push them away, the battle lasted until the Cognition struggled from something glowed a light and flipped the keyblade at his chest. The Cognition gritted his teeth. "This'll teach you. Get out of my heart!"

Ven was a bit amazed that Terra kept fighting as Aqua whispered. "Get ready to charge him." Ven wondered why as the Cognition looked like he was about to loose consciousness, the Guardian dissolved into a puddle of darkness and the Cognition fell in back first, he and Aqua sprinted after the sinking Cognition and jumped in to grab him, finding themselves pulled into the void. The Cognition and the light, were gone.

The two kept falling into the abyss, until they landed on cold metal. They felt a pulse of an eight pointed star with in the void and they regained their sight to find what they landed on. What looked to be a twisted Temple to Chaos, dark red lights glowed and a frenzied machine roared. "YOU AGAIN! DIE!"

Ven felt the words directed at him and turned to find a bulky, mechanized walker of metal, flesh and insanity, the horned man with in aimed it's right arm, a long dueled autocannon and fired at him. "DIE!" Ven sprinted right to avoid the gun shots. "DIE!" BOOM! BOOM!" "DIE!" Ven leaped above the shots and hurled a barrage of lightning, the Helbrute jolted and screamed louder as he charged after the boy with the mechanical tendrils for a left arm, he spun his upper torso. "WRAAAAARGH!"

Ven jumped back and was in a corner of mechanized nightmares and gun fire. STAB! The Helbrute screamed like a maniac and used his tendrils to reach for who ever stabbed him in the back, an Aqua who's charged her keyblade up with the light of the sun. The Helbrute ruptured with in, his melee shoulder blew off from the power and thrashed to get her off. "NO! NO! NO! I WON'T DIE IN FAILURE! I AM MAZAR, THE DARK SHEPARD! I AM GLORY!"

The man with in was incinerated in holy fire and gave a death scream, Ven felt something specific and warned Aqua. "Pull out, you're going to blow him up!" The woman took the que, pulled out and jumped, she watched the death machine waddle in an attempt to kill someone and fell over on it's face.

Ven was shivering and Aqua asked. "How, in all things Dark, did this get into our heads?" The boy guessed. "Maybe... because a part of me was with Sora when he came here?" He shook his head as Aqua felt that made sense. "If that was one of your dreams, then it's no wonder you don't bring this up."

She noticed the elevator and Ven recalled the dream. "I don't remember this place that well, but I know this place is filled with traps." He mustered the courage to lead in, Aqua followed him, not annoyed in the slightest. "It's less that you don't remember the dream and more than you don't want to remember. I think I can put this place together from what I was told."

Ven knew who ran the place. "This was the hideout of those Chaos worshiping psychos!" Aqua nodded as she and Ven entered the elevator. "They came before I found my way back and before Xehanort and Archaon made their move to get back. It isn't just that they worship the Dark gods, they are willing to destroy themselves to be like them. What we saw happen to Terra, they are more than happy to do to themselves."

The boy's lips pressed together and he turned to her quickly to hold a scream. "That's completely insane!" Aqua agreed with him. "That's not all, their leader and their champion, made they magnum opus of Blasphemous Darkness. Mixing a heart with a daemon and a heartless. Creating something that our friends, do not wish to describe." She wondered. "I knew Garland wanted to hurt us in the heart, but I didn't think he pick this."

Tap!

Something broke from the eerie silence, Ven turned to find someone crawling from the corner, it looked like a pathetic, excuse for a man, crawling with his eyes rolled up, grey and trying to say something in a rasp. His eyes directed to what it was connecting to as Aqua had the fortune of watching the man's mouth open up a collection a teeth, inner mouths and a giant spike for an esophagus. Ven's eyes widened to the rest of the man, what was thought to be the rest of it's body was a thick shoulder, connecting a bundle of malformed flesh, claws that use to be the bones of a rib cage and legs of spine like bone. The thing pulled itself upward and revealed a torso with a single, twitching eye and a lid that seemed to be breathing. "Ggggrrrrrr"

Aqua turned around to find three more, mewling, malformed things of flesh and bone, something that should not even animate anymore, looking ready to pounce. She and Ven stood back to back, she whispered. "When they pounce, we are going to give that firestorm a try."

The boy asked. "How are we going to do that." Aqua glowed her blade in flames and encourage Ven to do the same. "Just lean forward with the charge up flame and stab the ground." Ven thought of one better and enveloped himself in wind, Aqua smiled to the plan, she readied her move as the Chaos Spawn sprinted after them. Ven flexed and summoned a twister that mixed in with flame, becoming an infernal tornado. They unleashed the Fire Twister upon the Chaos Spawn, set them on fire and flung them around, reducing them to charred corpses that scattered into ashes.

Aqua exhaled as Ven looked up at the show, he was about to saw something encouraging and noticed something coming from the ceiling, a mass of something squirming. He stabbed the ground, caused it to burst a hole and ordered. "Aqua, this elevator is way too slow."

The woman wanted to know why Ven said that and felt something drip on her shoulder, she looked up to find something dropping from the ceiling, a near endless tide of flesh, claws and tendrils. She rushed to Ven, grabbed him and dropped down the hole, finding an endless, warping abyss. She noticed a door way a couple drops away, sprouted the cool wings of a bird and flew to the door. Landing in a hall way and hearing the elevator shatter. Ven got off of Aqua with brotherly embarrassment and turned to see the tide of Chaos Spawn, fall into the mouth of Hell, a rather long fall. Aqua had the chance to process what she saw and vomited, Ven looked around at the weird feeling of danger looming, Aqua was shaking from something unseen and asked. "Those... those were all the rejects?! Why are people so stupid to be apart of this?"

Ven had no idea and looked on to the right path with a turn to the left. "I think in the dream, this way leads to that... fight." He advised. "Keep a straight path, don't look back and definitely don't look around." Aqua asked. "Oh because this place isn't what it se-" She felt something coming and turned around, finding a pushing wall of Chaos Spawn slithering through. She froze in horror and Ven held her by the arm, she was pulled away from the sight and followed down the hall and to the left, there was an open room ahead in the far far end. She and Ven blinked and when they opened their eyes, they found a hall way of misshapen flesh, limbs, eyes and mouths. Ven flipped his keyblade into a glider, hoped on and tugged the Keyblade Master to get on. He floored it, the glider zipped past the hall and the tendrils tried to grab them. Aqua flickered more fire balls at the flesh and burst arrows of burning quills for good measure, in a few seconds, they reached into the room and found one misfortune awaiting them, a hole leading down into an Abyss.

Blip! BOOM!

The two turn around to find an explosion, leaving behind strange smelling liquid and a wall of fire. Aqua turned around to find a mechanical man in a red robe, looking at his handy work, she jumped off and drew her blade. "Who are you?! Are you responsible for these... things?!"

The man bleeped as Ven got off his glider and reverted it back to a weapon. "Typical, I came here to ensure this heretical nightmare is purged in holy flame! That won't hold them back for long." He saw the wall of Spawn pushing through the fire and looked to the hole. "We're going to die here if we don't think of something sustainable. Let me think."

His lens like eyes give signs of a loading screen, Ven cringed. "Can't we think of something... faster?" Aqua looked around for a solution, found that the blasphemous markings of Chaos wasn't going to help and felt a jingle in her pocket, she searched and found three green rings. Her eyes shined and she called to the two. "That's it."

She tossed Ven a ring and called to the mechanic. "You, catch this!"

Fling! The man stopped his download of an idea and caught the ring. "Illogical, what would these do against that?"

Aqua put the ring on and approached pit to the Abyss. "It's something I learned, if we jump down there, the Abyss is going to consume us." She turned her head to them. "But, with these rings, we can survive down there. They won't."

Ven's instincts took over and he put on the ring as the mechanical man gave it a shot and put in on, the boy asked. "Are you saying we'd rather take our chances in the Darkness?!" Aqua nodded as the spawn were moments away from spilling in. "Because we actually have a chance down there. Expect us to find the worst, but it's better than what's here wanting to eat us."

The man agreed. "Logical." He approached the hole to dive in and Ven witnessed a horror of his own, watching Aqua swan dive into the Abyss. He sprinted after her. "Aqua!" He fell into the void with her and the mechanical man simply jumped. Feeling a long fall down and instincts of danger spiking. In a few moments, they landed on something, yet found nothing. They made a sprint forward from a danger above and turned around to find the tide of spawn drop down after them, and continue to fall into the darkness. The drop, continued for a whole minute, with the silence coming, the man dusted himself. "That could have been better, executed."

Ven agreed with that and yelled to Aqua. "What were you thinking?! How many times have you been through this?"

The Keyblade Master was expecting something and answered. "More than enough times." She asked the man. "I think I heard of you, Magitinus of the Adeptus Mechanicus? Or Ad Mech?"

The Ad Mech's optical twitched up and down as the vox of a mouth spoke. "One and the same." Ven found that too good to be true and folded his arms. "And how should we know you're not part of this nightmare as well? Leading us deeper into Dark places?"

Magitinus answered dully. "You don't, not on your own. I was sent here by that Cat Xenos to ensure that your descent into this botched game doesn't end in complete madness. The creator of this crucible, didn't take into account that the mental scope is a nesting ground for Chaos." Ven found that insane enough to be believable. "And now we're back into the game?"

Magitinus nodded. "We should be among safer grounds if, you proven insane enough to jump into the Abyss, four times already." Aqua drew her blade to the unknown. "Insane, or brave enough. But this means the others are not safe if the Forces of Chaos are sneaking in here. Ven, you know of some of the stories I had about what happened before we woke you up?"

Ven nodded. "About how Ken kind of turned Castle Oblivion, inside out and brought more stuff from that world to us?" He drew his blade in expecting something as Magitinus explained what he knows of the mentioned boy. "The child who defied the Prophecy of the Eldar and ascended a Lasgun to heights, illogical. He's the rebellious student?"

Aqua wouldn't say that. "Not, rebellious. If everything he knew about Darkness wasn't set in stone prior, this place did. How the people who abuse that power, often end up here as the Monsters we fight and who we have to go down here to clean up the mess." She exhaled. "If anything, it makes his fight against the real thing, that much harder."

Ven noticed a flicker in the right corner of his eye and turned with a gasp, finding a white flicker, nothing appeared. Aqua pressed her lips together and rolled forward, Ven side stepped and Magitinus stepped back and fell on his rear from the impact, of a grey, winged, goat like entity. It had something of a skirt and a skin tight suit of ghostly grey. It had giant machetes in it's hands and those machetes smashed down after Aqua, glowed purple and were swung at Ven, creating a horizontal wave of dark power.

Ven rolled over that and the Abyssal Demon vanished in the dark. Aqua flipped, turned and shot thunder bolts to the sky at the demon. BZZT! Ven sprinted behind the Demon to attack. It vanished again, appeared in between the three, curled it's wings and unleashed a shock wave. The keybearers were knocked back and Magitinus braced the damage, took out an arc pistol and fired, the Abyssal Demon lowered itself and overall, confused the keybearers perception of depth. The two focused and fired beams of prism energy and of zigzagged light energy, causing the Abyssal Demon to flap back in recoil, Ven glowed his blade in divine light and sprinted after it. "Take this!"

SLASH!

With one final blow, the Abyssal Demon collapsed, glittered in white and vanished. The danger, died with it and the three were allowed to look around and find a door of light, rather far away. The three made a run for it that felt like forever and eventually, they reached the door and stepped across, finding themselves in the familiar structure of Pandemonium.

Magitinus relaxed and found a door to the left, leading somewhere foreboding. "Haaaa. Now I have a moment." He turned to the Keybearers and warned them. "The only way to halt the influence of the Dark gods with in this place, is to dive into the Heart of this Nightmare and kill what it manifests as. You were made familiar, with the Black Legion?"

Aqua remembered it well. "I have, their... Planet Killer, was the first thing I crashed into when I saw what they did to one of the worlds. They were not prepared for me nor the justice I gave to them."

Ven guessed with a head scratched. "They got massacred?" Aqua nodded. "They sought destruction and got their wish, Ven... I want you to be very careful with where we're going." The boy knew why. "They are nothing like the Warriors of Chaos that Archaon had and we would rather face all those heartless at the entrance of this place than we would with... all their guns?"

Magitinus pointed to his chest, his upper legs, his abdomen and to his head. "If they hit any of these parts of your body and made solid contact, you will die. It is by a miracle that one of you survived the impact of a bolter round, it is designed to explode upon penetration." Ven cringed at the violence. "And that was how one of us, lost an arm." He readied to go further in. "We need to find this Heart of the Nightmare before the others do."

He and Aqua hurried to the door and noticed Magitinus not coming along, Aqua asked. "Are you coming? You act like the type that would enjoy sending these wackos back into the Pit." Magintinus wished he could. "If I were alive, I would have made that battle my own. But, there is something, I could lend you to make the path easier."

He took out two canisters with handles and presented them to the two. "Use these wisely, preferably on any daemons engines, Helbrutes or any infernal machine you will find." Ven knew what they were. "Bombs?"

Magintinus nodded. "Melta charges. My craft and study of the Machine Spirit is unmatched across this Galaxy. You've seen the aftermath, first hand?" Aqua smirked and took the melta bombs. "Bryn and the others would'nt have became good friends if it wasn't for you. We'll come visit you when this is all over. Okay?"

She winked in gratitude, the Ad Mech turned to leave in the unknown. "When the mission is successful. Keep taking care of the Machine Spirits for me."

The duo promised him they will and went past the door, finding themselves onboard a narrow corridor of a space ship and feeling hostile air. A menacing, horned Space Marine and a squad of guardsmen, noticed them, the Black Legionnaires pointed to them and aimed a glowing pistol. "Intruders! Slay them!" The guardsmen aimed their guns, the keybearers looked to each other and to the foes, ready to deliver a rightful smite.

In an inky black cave.

Donald and Goofy were being thrashed by inky tentacles with sickly green blisters. Mickey flung orbs of light to pop the blisters and force them to let his friends go. In turn, they charged after an encroaching horde of inky black creatures that felt familiar, knocking them into the muck bellow. The three musketeers pushed on to the center of the mass, a glowing heart that resembles a drawing, enshrouded in ink. Phantoms of Ink, rushed after the three to do battle, Mickey used on of them as a platform and jumped to a higher ledge to rupture one of the tentacles loose, as Donald and Goofy unleashed an beam of lightning from a shield to vaporize the Ink. They moved the beam to the other tentacle, with a little team work, the trio popped the rest of the tentacles and caused the heart to shine loose. The trio shined in light with the heart and flew out of the cave all, bursting out and having a look of a giant, monster of ink and green eyes. It dissolved into nothingness and howled as the trio were guided to a dark, yet tranquil castle. With the danger averted, Donald took the chance to ask his king. "This was the exam you took?"

Mickey nodded. "It feels like it, it was a dream where a world of ideas were was consumed in dark ink and this Blot was the cause of it." Goofy wondered. "That explained why Master Yen Sid wanted Sora and Riku to take this and see what they'll find if they go deeper."

Mickey agreed with that and lead to a strange door. "My path lead somewhere else though, no one knows where the world of dreams will really take you." The trio went past the door and were nearly swept by a sudden large Dinosaur that rolled from a burst of earth. They found Riku doing battle against the Carnotaur and having a glow of ice. "No wonder you went extinct! Those arms are useless!"

The Carnotaur stood up and tried to circle around the boy, Halvek was keeping away from the fight and noticed the three. "Well, well! You came at just the right time. This fight helped keep us all put."

Riku noticed the guys and signaled that they keep out of the fight. A shine of light appeared from behind him and he roared. A blizzard blew and red eyes glowed, a blue skin, whit fur yeti appeared, to challenge the Carnotaurus. The dinosaur backed away, looked at the audience keeping a bold stand and back to the approaching Yeti, it took the chance and charged it. Riku and the Yeti side stepped and carved into the dinosaur with frigid ice, the boy jumped onto the Yeti's back and rushed to the foe with the force of an avalanche and the snow to back it up. Burying the Carnotaur in a blanket of snow, Riku back flipped as the Yeti beat his chest, the dinosaur, wasn't getting out of it.

Victory was achieved, Riku waved the Yeti off. "Thanks Harold." The Park Ride Mascot turned to the boy and stepped aside, Riku noticed a green glow in the snow and approached it, he dug into it for a moment and found a silver cased summon charm, with a dinosaurs foot print and a color of floral green, the boy smirked and turned to the Yeti that faded away and suggested something. Riku considered it and let the charm flicker away. "He could help us, you and he are one and the same thing."

He approached the group and tell them the news. "I'll bet that dinosaur came from deep with in my nightmares. He checks out if Halvek had anything special to report." The Kharadron bluntly describe his experience. "I had no available gizmos to use and that thing stalked me from the jungle before coming at me. Then he bashed the door open and thought the two of us were easy pickings."

Riku nodded. "Until, we proved we weren't and it had no choice but to commit. This should make, around half of us together now. Your Majesty, anything you and the others ran into?" Donald hummed as Goofy was blunt. "Just something about King Mickey's adventure into the world of dreams. It was spooky."

Riku believed that and asked the mouse. "He didn't show up in there?" Mickey shook his head. "There wasn't any sign of Oswald and I didn't think there would be things that odd happening here." Riku sighed and lead to the unexplored room. "There might have been a glitch that arrived and warned me about something going on. If he sneaked in, then the Forces of Chaos will as well."

Halvek jumped. "How did you find that out?" Riku answered. "A knight named Benedict, told me. He has a strange air about him." Goofy gasped. "He's one of the fellas from that world." Riku nodded. "The one Ken met, the figment that came at Castle Oblivion's final moments and the one who he and Kairi summoned to help drive Xehanort away. There is so much dark, yet," he snapped his fingers to find the words, Goofy guessed. "A lot to tell he's had a hard life?"

Riku felt that would work. "And a flame to keep going, even after he's seen his world go out. Maybe, one day, one of us will figure out what his deal is." He opened the way and guided the group in, onto what feels like the inner workings of a battle station. The markings of an eight pointed star, with a single unblinking eye in the center, showed them where they are. Riku kept himself from throwing up as Donald tapped his foot. "Great, just great."

Mickey felt it was an appropriate response and saw a five man group of bulky armored Black Legionaries, lead by a sorcerer in similar armor. The Sorcerer gasped. "We are assault on all fronts! Terminators, show them why you are the Bringers of Despair!" A terminator with a glowing sword aimed his bolter at them. "For the Warmaster!" Goofy jumped in the way and raised his shield as Mickey empowered it with a reflect spell, giving Donald and Riku the chance to unleash something.

On an dark island

Sora finished off a trio of demonic, sword wielding heartless with a boomerang and blitz combo, sending them falling to the ground and in a pool of their own ichor. The disorienting image return to the dark sea and Sora journeyed to the next island, finding a group of dark orb like heartless bolting at him and a light bulb like heartless with three eyes and four angelic wings. Sora glided to the angel, combo'd it fast and kicked it around, the angelic star flapped it's wings and enveloped itself in a twister, Sora glided away from that and fired ice balls at the dark orbs, before returning to the angelic star for a thrust into it's abdomen. Sending it falling into the sea bellow, the dark orbs were blitzed in comparison and in a slash, splashed to the sea with an odd hint of red ichor. Bodies floated and Sora tried not to think about it, then came a winged heartless in a hooded, crimson tipped cloak, hints of skeletal hands with black muscles, carrying a mighty axe. Emerging from the sea, is a large, rhino like minotaur with gorilla like fists. The Rampager sprinted after Sora, horn first and shoved him across the sea, the boy flipped his keyblade to hero's origin as the Executioner sprinted after him.

Flip! Sora dodged and countered the Executioner, using his blade to disarm the foe and sinking it into it's torso. He fliped upward and smacked the heartless in the head, sending it falling face first into the sea and bleeding. The Rampager sprinted where Sora was going to land, jumped and pressed it's fists together to smash him into the ground, Sora glided left and hit the Heartless in the underbelly, giving off a quick combo and form changing his blade into a shield. He hurled the electrical shield at the Rampagers face and flowed towards his weapon to bash the foe in the face again. "Ha! See ya!"

He raised the shield up and fired a lightning bolt to finish one combo, the Rampager staggered, tried to focus on Sora and roared, bursting into flames and attempt to impale him with the horn. Sora blocked the horn, swiped his shield right ward for a back hand and thrust the shield forward to give the Rampager a punch in the chest, it coughed a glob of red and fell over. Sora turned the shield back into a weapon and looked upon the mess of bodies and of a crimson color, taking over the purple sea. "No matter the foe, you find a way to prevail. Look upon the broken bodies and see your victory over them."

The voice returned and Sora tried to ignore it, he found the sinister light on the horizon and made his way to it, caught by surprise of a glowing brass orb from the sky. The cragged landscape returned and from the dark, came a pack of four, werewolf like heartless that duel wield dark axes, lead by an alpha with a skull for a head, tendrils going out of the skull and axes with bigger teeth.

The Alpha howled for blood and the pack sprinted in a berserkers frenzy, Sora jumped away from the pounce, focused on the Berserkers and turned his blade into a shield, he summoned an orb of lightning and use the shield to rain sparks upon the pack. He dived down at the stunned group, slammed a shock wave and crushed on of the berserkers in the spine, he sprinted to the remaining in the speed of light and form charged his blade to a shield to be ready for the Alpha. It rushed him with it's axes and smashed into the shield, then slammed it's head into it, Sora shield bashed back, summoned a digital keyblade and riposte the Alpha.

Fling!

The Alpha was tossed back, flipped on all fours and saw Sora revert his shield back to finish it off with an x cross slash. The Alpha pounced at him and was sliced clean, bits of its flung past the boys head. Sora had a look at the arena and was disturbed by the quantities of blood. Then the arena faded and the boy found himself upon a crimson sea.

The voice returned. "Count the bodies that sought to slay you! Would it have mattered if they disappeared?" The boy didn't wish to look back and took a step over the small rock, finding floating bodies, of heartless he was more familiar with and of nobodies who were adversaries. Sora shook his head and answered back to the voice. "But those were different! They were monsters!"

The voice asked back. "Were they?" The sea bubbled and boiled, sixteen figures emerged from the sea, bloodletters. Lead by a larger red daemon with a demonic axe, it spoke. "Were they?"

Sora backed away and felt snarling behind him, the herald asked. "What of those that sought to use you and your kin? Of those who you bothered remembering their names? One, becomes a hundred," It changed it's voice to boys own. "A hundred, became a thousand!" The demons approached, the herald hissed to it's own voice. "Blood flows, you will spill, the blood." Sora braced for a fight, the daemons laughed as the voice in his mind laughed with them. "Spill their blood! Or they will spill yours!"

That demand made Sora cold, the bloodletters charged, the boy dashed after the herald, ducked to avoid an axe swing meant for his neck, stabbed it in the chest and hurled it to the swarm of bloodletters, breaking the horde to a manageable thirteen. He enveloped himself in ice, rushed the horde with a bash, smacked a daemon and hurled it to half to cause an explosion that resulted in frozen bodies. He ducked and suffered rather gashing cuts for glancing blows and enveloped himself in fire, blitzing the other half back and resulting in more bodies. He finished the remaining two off and watching their heads fly off.

Leaving an infuriated Herald to shoulder bash him and go for his head. "BLOOD!" SWIPE! Parry! The daemon punched Sora in the face upon being parried and tried again. "MURDER!"

Sora rolled right and dashed to the daemon in a sonic drive, piercing it in the heart again and following with a glow of light that the daemon didn't like, it howled as the boy was ready to hurl him. "Get off of me!"

FLING!

The Herald was tossed across the sea and had a gape in his chest, it kept standing and growled with blood dripping from it's tongue. "Add me to the bodies!" It dashed at him again. "The bodies!" Sora bashed it across the head, right in the cranium, heard a crack and knocked the Daemon aside, splashing into the blood like all the others.

The boy panted and looked on the horizon, finding something with in it, he approached it to have a closer look, an island with a giant skull, it's mouth was open, almost inviting. The voice offered. "You've survived, many battles, come and see why."

Sora breathed through his teeth and didn't want to go, yet, something kept driving him forward, the bodies stopped resembling heartless and began to take more shapes. One looked like a jaguar, another looked like a sack of some kind, another was a mound of black scales, many were foes Sora recognized. On a particular island, was a dead, pale looking warlord from a foreign land, with a reptilian hound feasting upon his dead flesh, the hound looked up to him, snarled and barked. It sprinted at Sora and flickered four more of it's kind, the boy changed his keyblade to the happy gear and flowed straight on top of a flesh hound. Screaming a battle cry and smacking the hound, two of the hounds pounced at him, knocking him off, one tried to pin him down while another was trying to reach for his throat. He kicked the hound on the stomach, slashed his blade through the teeth and into it's throat, then rolled away from the other and cleaved it in the neck. He form changed his blade to claws and tore the hound in it's abdomen, then finished the another hound with claws across it's throat. The two hounds circled around him, Sora switched his claws to yo-yo's, taunted at the hounds to come at him and used one yo-yo to vertically cut a hound in two, while dodging another bite and flinging a yo-yo across the hounds neck, using the bladed yo-yo to sever it's head.

Leaving behind even more bodies and finding his keyblade, stained with blood. Sora was feeling sick and was completely lost in the crimson. A metal hand, touched him on the shoulder, triggering a fight instinct before he heard a voice speak. "Sora!"

He swung back and was parried by a electrical, glowing keyblade, he recognized the blade and the owner, a certain, silver, space marine captain. The boy realized how grave of a mistake he made, pulled back and was backing away like a child who was about to be punished for something. The marine insist. "Sora. We know what that thing is trying to do." By the marine's side was an apothecary with bandages, Sora couldn't believe it and think it is another mind game, too nauseous from the smell of blood and too disoriented to keep much of a guard. "You can't... you can't be real."

The apothecary approached with the bandages. "No, the battle strewn ocean isn't real and if you continue to follow it, it will unmake you. Especially with the wounds you suffered."

Sora looked weak in the legs as the marine gently had him stand and convinced him to let him apply wrappings to the cut wounds, the boy looked like he was about to cry. "Wh...what are you doing here? What is Khorne doing here?"

The apothecary looked to the captain grimly. "Shall we tell him, Hofneil?" Hofneil nodded. "We must, Pyriel." The space marine explained. "It's this Crucible that Demon created, he know not, but he created a zone that is ripe for the Ruinous Powers to make manifest upon those who witness the blunt of their horror. We came to ensure you wit stand it, but I fear our aid would matter little when you enter that island."

Pyriel agreed and felt the bandages setting in. "Sora, you've sustained much more than simple cuts. None, faced the Eternal War, without losing something dear to the heart. If you confront what lies with in that island, with us, those wounds you've endured, will open once more."

Hofneil looked on to the skull island with Sora and warned him. "What you must do, is inevitable. That is what Khorne is counting on." The boy kept his breath slow. "So this is what Karla is talking about? Every time I stop one of these guys," he looks at the bodies of various villains. "from hurting me or my friends, Khorne wouldn't care."

Hofneil nodded and was ready to march to battle. "The words of the Dark Child? Yes... that holds truth. For every defender of the worlds and for every murderer, blood will be spilled. Even when you don't wish for it. Even those with a pure heart, cannot avoid staining themselves with blood." Sora guessed. "And the stuff the other three are made of have two different sides to that coin. Stuff they can use to even get into Kairi's head. That's why we can't beat them by ourselves. But what I been hearing to stop them is" he clenched his fists. "stupid!"

Hofneil agreed with the thought. "It's borderline heretical, to believe that the Darkness would solve anything. After everything it has caused, that is the last thing we need to hear."

Sora looked up to the marine. "But... we need it or this will happen all over again and we won't be as lucky the next time these guys come for our worlds. The only guy with any of the clues, doesn't even have a straight answer to give about what we need to do."

Pyriel asked. "Or has he? What does he keep saying again?" Sora answered reciting the quote. "Find strength, the rest will follow." He shook his head at the confusion and marched onward, ready to confront Khorne, Hofneil asked the boy. "Strength of what?"

"Nothing you gnats, can ever possess!" The trio heard the growl and found something crawling from the ocean of blood, a large, heavily armored demon, with a head looking like a mechanical rhino. He had mighty wings, an axe in his right hand and his other hand were of talons, Hofneil wasn't too concerned and his backpack shifted to a jet pack. "Sora, I believe I didn't get the chance to show my medal with this. This Daemon Prince should provide a demonstration."

Sora looked at the marine and wanted to lecture him. "Come on, you weren't that bad." He grabbed onto the marines arm, with a plan in mind, the Marine knew where it was going and ignited his jet pack. "Then hold on!" He jetted himself towards the Daemon Prince, charging in head first, the prince readied his axe and yelled. "Pathetic creatures!"

As the marine drew close and the demon prince swung, Sora spun his blade to form a reflective barrier, pushing the axe back and smacking the prince hard with the marine. The Daemon Princes as knocked on his back, flickered back on his feet and looked behind to find the marine flying upward, charging up plasma and flinging it at him. The Prince stepped aside and wanted to swing again. FRWWWWW! SPLAT!

He was stabbed in the calf and felt his leg torn by the teeth of a chain sword, he grabbed the marine and brought him to his face, seeing Pyriel looking quite triumphant and drawing out a plasma pistol. FLING! "It's over, daemon!"

The Prince heard the voice of a boy, looked up and saw a boy already raising his blade up, glowing in light and dropping down.

SMACK!

The Daemon was knocked onto his stomach, tried to get up and felt a stab in his neck, light ruptured and caused him to become unstable. He slithered into the ground in defeat. Sora cheered, spun his blade and placed it in the back of his head. "We showed him!" Thud! He turned to thank his companions. "Right guys?"

In a turn of the eye, they were gone. Sora felt he was alone again, but with the solace that he doesn't need much of an escort. He took a deep breath, switched his keyblade back to it's primary form and approached the island, finding the skull rather large, of bleach white and a primordial presence. He entered it and found himself climbing a set of brass stairs, walls of bloodied spikes decorated what looked to be a citadel and pillars with the Symbol of Khorne, stand tall. The air of battle filled his lungs and the sound of weapons being forged sang, the boy realize he was far beyond the reach of Darkness and has stepped upon the Realm of Blood. The stairs had an end and guided Sora to two images, in the distance was the imposing, horrifying sight of a gargantuan throne, decorated in skulls, sitting on top of it was a massive, armored warrior, with eyes glowing red in fire and a hunched up expression of anticipation. The other, was of a wide arena, littered with bodies of armored foes, be it daemon or mortal, standing on top of a hill of gore, was a foe that gave Sora flash back of a battle with in the ruins of a canyon.

The chains, decorative skulls, the crimson armor and chain axe sparked an aching pain with the boys heart, Kharn gave him a cold stare with his lens glowing green. He stepped down from the hills, each one giving a rather sickening squish, Kharn snorted. "I knew those lap dogs wouldn't dare follow you here. They wouldn't want a repeat of last time."

Sora posed for battle. "This fight isn't with them this time! This is between you and me!" Kharn tilted his head like he was in a haze, Sora felt the image of a bloodied berserker with a keyblade jabbed into his neck shine before his eyes. He shook it off as Kharn pointed to him. "Do you really think, you'll find a way to truly defeat us? Every heartless and nobody you slain, nourishes us. Every foe that you stand against and seen to their deaths, nourishes us. Every cry for justice you have and always will speak, fuels your every blow." He's gaze was upon the boys heart. "You spilled so much blood, just so you and your friends will live another day. Did it really take you until now, to realize that?"

Sora growled. "I guess telling you all to get lost, isn't going to make that better." He felt the Blood god's gaze upon him, Kharn's grip tightened in his answer Sora shook his head to the Butcher. "I guess we'll just keep trying until you are all sent packing. Even if it's going to take a while."

Kharn revved up Gorechild, through it, a roar, comparable to a dragon, screamed. "There is no escaping the endless cycle. You will learn that mistake soon!"

He blitzed after the boy and swung Gorechild left wards. Sora rolled right, got behind Kharn and slashed the Marine in the back. Kharn turned mid slash, felt another roll sticking behind him and turned to kick behind him, getting Sora in the gut and sending him flying. The boy flipped on his back, rolled to regain balance, glowed his blade like a boomerang and flung it at a charging Kharn, the Betrayer shoulder bashed the blade, was cut deeply in the arm and yelled. "Kill! KILL!"

Sora saw his attack didn't slow it down, called his blade back and parried the blow of razor sharp teeth and a muscular super soldier with ten thousand years of experience, he was shoved against the wall and tried to keep his footing, Kharn broke the parry and swung Gorechild at the boys neck. Sora flowed to the pile of bodies and watched Gorechild tear a chunk out of the metal wall. Sora focused, hovered and fired beams of light. It actually pushed Kharn back for a moment, the Betrayer sprinted through the light, Sora had to cut his attack short as the berserker leaped at him, axe coming down.

Kharn saw something glitter in his lens and was too bloodthirsty to care, something of light came at him sword first. A red haired girl with a flowery keyblade, an aura of golden light and a furious yell. "Get away from him!"

PEW! Sora saw something spear Kharn in the chest by surprise and knocking him on his back, a sudden Kairi that flipped, dismissed her aura and landed on the blood stained battle ground. She turned to Sora, saw the shell shock on his face and backed to his side. "Sora, no matter what happens. I will be the one to protect you as you've protected me."

The two faced the marine getting up in a stoic haze, Sora promised. "We're going to get out of here, Kairi. This guy's just a bad dream."

Kharn heard that and screamed. "Maim! Kill! Maim! Kill!" He charged at them. "WRAAAAGH!" He swung Gorechild, the duo jumped right in sync and struck the berserker as one, burning into his armor, Kharn lunged the axe at the two's heads.

TINK!

Kairi lead into the parry and Sora pushed with her, their light unified and pushed back against the Betrayer. PUSH! He was shoved back and he aimed his plasma pistol at them, grunting something comparable to gibberish. PEW! The two deflected the hot shot together and flung a star shape projectile at him, Kharn was pushed and charged again. Tink!

The duo lunged at Kharn, forced him into a parry and slashed at his abdomen, Kharn took the hit and head butted the two, forcing them back. "S..Skulls! Skulls! Skulls!" He dashed at them, the duo skid to the left, Kharn skid with them and swung again, Sora had his turn to lead the parry with Kairi's light pushing it forward, they felt the strength more intense, jumped above and sprouted something that set Kharn into a complete daze, angelic wings.

He leaped after them and used Gorechild to get them grounded, the duo landed and pulsed in light together to send him flipping off, Sora and Kairi saw their opening, Sora asked. "Are you ready?"

Kairi nodded. "Let's wake up from this!" They gave a battle cry together and rushed to Kharn, sword first. Stabbing deep into the Berserker's chest and pushing him to a wall, the duo let their keyblades fly with Kharn and watched the maniac fall, Kharn breathed heavily landed on his legs and tried to pull the keyblades out, they weren't coming out. The warrior raised his axe and charged, giving a tired, desperate battle cry. "B...Blood! I must... have blood!"

Kairi kept holding onto Sora's hand and jumped far away from Kharn, she was finding the butche's predicament, sorrowful. "Is that all you care about?"

Kharn's adrenaline slowed down, he marched upon the bodies and felt Gorechild to be weighing down upon him. It was comparable to a rabid beast that was in it's final moments. "Spill... blood." He tossed his plasma pistol, held Gorechild with both hands and made one more sprint, Sora and Kairi held on together and the wings blocked the teeth. They felt a exhaustion from Kharn and watched him fall on the ground. Then, did their blades return to them. Thud. Kharn's fingers twitched as his body bled. The two heard the shaking of skulls and looked upon the throne, finding Khorne annoyed.

Daemons gathered around the arena and a winged woman with a spear and shield stepped on a ledge to see the aftermath. "This, changes nothing. One day, you will see the Blood god gaze upon your worlds, only when they have their final battle, will they learn that the blood will spill."

The duo saw a crack in the sky, Sora shook his head at the valkyries words. "You guys don't get it, do you?" Kairi took her gaze away from Kharn and asked. "Is there a point to all the bloodshed? Or is it just a game?" Sora took a deep breath, had a look at Kairi, then back to the daemons. "What ever it is, one day people are going to learn to stop the fighting. When they stand, hand in hand against you, you'll go away." Kairi agreed with that. "And never come back." She looked to the crack in the sky with Sora and took flight, the Valkyrie snarled at them and was going to roar at the daemons to chase them, Khorne spoke.

"Noooooo. Let, them fly away."

The duo ascended higher to the crack and were enveloped by the light, for a brief moment, Sora and Kairi felt their hearts beating as one. Tap! The light faded and they found themselves in a strange, metallic storage room. They took a moment to process what they saw, felt their rhythm returning, Kairi asked Sora. "If that comes to bother you again, you can tell us. I love you, Sora... remember that. That is what we need to show these maniacs, that our hearts won't break."

Sora blushed at the confession, was tongue tied and tried to say something, then a door opened and a horned black armored man with a cloak of fur and a long demonic sword entered, asking with a rather snobbish attitude. "What are slaves, doing in here?" He shook his head and aimed his plasma pistol. "This just won't do."

Sora growled. "Get out of here!" He leaped at the Chaos Lord and blitz into him, pushing him out and into a room with an elevator, Kairi gasped, wanting to cheer for Sora and remembered that she could fight. "I'm coming Sora! Save some for me."

Elsewhere on the Planet Killer

The last of the guarding Black Legionnaires tried to make a run for it and was blasted to pieces by a demolisher cannon. With the last of the Black Legion dead, Ana gave Ken and Tahm the que, Ken jumped off the Leman Russ and saluted the Commissar. "It's obvious, but the way is clear."

Tahm let the guardsmen in the tank know and addressed Ken like he is a soldier. "I see that, Keybearer." Ken wanted to sneak ahead. "I'm going to scout ahead, we got to keep moving before more of the Black Legion gets here."

Tahm rested his arms on the tip of the tank and smiled to him. "If by we, you mean you and Ana, then yes. Me and my platoon are not meant to follow you that deep into the nightmare." Ken sharply turned to him. "Whaaaa? What do you mean you can't follow us? It's time we remind Abaddon that he isn't welcome here!" Tahm appreciated the zealotry, but still raised his tone against the disrespect for authority. "The Nightmare of the Despoiler, you mean?" He caught Ken in shock and lowered his tone. "Kendry, this is a battle you, the chosen of the Keyblade and those that followed, must traverse. We are just there to pave the way."

Ana agreed with the Commissar and advised Ken. "He's right, lad. This whole place has gotten to you. If we charge in head first, this could mean our deaths." The boy turned to her with a confident jump. "I know, I learned that lesson the hard way. But the two of us, could beat him. I know we can beat him! We need to beat him if we are to get out of here." Ana thought it was possible and smiled under her helmet. "Ya got me this time, we'll send him back to hell."

Ken smiled back and turned. "I think we really do got it from here, thank you for-" He found Tahm and the Leman Russ gone, Ana was just as shocked. The two looked to each other like they didn't get to say goodbye to some good friends and marched on. Finding a room with an elevator and a regal looking Chaos Lord being pummeled into submission by Sora and Kairi, the two raised a keyblade together and shot an orb of light that disintegrated the marine.

Ken rubbed his eyes as Kairi noticed the arrivals and gasped. "Ken?! Ana?! Is that really you?" Ana waved as Ken realized Sora and Kairi really are there. The boy dashed to them and gave both an affectionate tackle, Sora was completely confused. "Whaa?"

Ken whispered. "You have no idea how good it is that you guys are here." Kairi had to tug Ken to get him to let go. "You have no idea where we been either," Ken realized it was awkward and guessed. "I think I do, the Forces of Chaos sneaked in here and messed up Garland's game with us. What ever he might have had plan, definitely wasn't this. We're on board the Planet Killer."

Sora gasped. "The same one that blew up Traverse Town?" Ken nodded. "The same and Abaddon is up that elevator, waiting for us." He breathed in and out. "How did they mess your trip up?" Sora became still, not really wanting to talk about it as Kairi was brief. "They used Zagor, right after I beaten up someone that caused our problems in the first place."

She tugged to Sora. "They'll get it Sora." The spiky haired boy took a deep breath and exhaled. "Mine, had everything to do with Khorne. All he cares about is seeing us kill," Ana gasped. "By Sigmar, so he brought about the same demon that haunted ya before?"

Sora nodded. "Kharn almost had me." he looked to Kairi. "But...Kairi came and saved me, we took that psychopath down together and got out of there." He folded his arms and asked. "Ken, I know Abaddon has done a lot of things to you." He pressed his fist against his chest. "But you're not alone, we're all in this together."

Ken nearly blushed and saluted back. "Thank you, Captain Sora. We're in this until the end!"

"ROAR!" SMASH! "WAAAAAAA!"

The group were blasted by another surprise, a Black Legion Terminator was rushed through a wall by a wooden Carnotaurus, that proceeded to maul him. Following the wooden dinosaur, was Riku overlooking it, Donald and Goofy being quite intimidated by the ferocity, Mickey being more focused on the other people in the room and Halvek trying to squeeze through the mayhem. "Oh, that's was a massacre."

He saw the group and counter two short. "Where's Ven and Aqua? I'm missing some heads?" Riku felt the Carnotaur was done killing the terminator, dismissed it and ordered Halvek. "Calm down, let's count who's here and think of a plan." He counted Sora, Kairi, Ana and Ken. "You guys look well."

Kairi smirked as Sora casually said hello back. "Good to see you too. I think we got a way to shut all this down and it's a little ways ahead." Ken nodded. "The heart of the nightmare is ahead of us and I kind of know who it is. Abaddon, the guy who shot off my arm, blew up Traverse Town and is the reason most of us have nightmares from Zagor."

Riku folded his arms and guessed. "Sounds like a good reason to get some payback." Ana agreed with that and lead to the elevator. "Aye, he may not be the real thing, but a little justice ought to help us be at peace with ourselves. Kendry, what are we going to expect?" Ken followed her with the crew. "He's big, got a dangerous claw, a scary sword and he can shoot. Hard to get at his level and if we're not careful, he'll pick us off one by one."

Riku asked. "But," Ken had his thumb to the Stormcast. "With Ana drawing his attention and smacking him, we'll have time to let him have it with our own stuff. Anyone object to the plan?"

Most shook their heads and Kairi took a deep breath. "After everything he has done to us, he needs to go." Halvek guessed. "So you of all people, have given us a license to kill?" Ana figured that. "That man needs to die, even if he isn't real, his death would have been good news for that Imperium."

Donald and Goofy felt an odd light agreeing to that and Mickey sighed. "So we've came to this?" Riku nodded. "Yep. Sora, you got second thoughts?" The spiky haired boy had bad news. "We're stuck having to do that, but with him gone... maybe we won't have to do that to someone again." Kairi explained to Riku. "I'll tell you when we have a good chance."

Ken pressed a button and caused the elevator to ascend. "Ven and Miss will follow us once the path is clear, we're going to get into a lot trouble for this."

Riku hummed and asked. "Are we? We're going to show the Chaos gods that the chump they send, don't mean anything to us and when we eventually find a way to stop Archaon and his buddy, they're next. Do what you got to do, we'll pick each other up afterwards." He cheered. "Are we going to stop Chaos and bring peace back to the worlds?" The group cheered with him. "Yes we are!"

Somewhere in the Planet Killer.

A Chaos Sorcerer watched in disbelief and horror as half of a Space Marine squad was frozen solid by the diving of an ice pheonix, a particular blue haired woman with a keylike sword rushed through the other half with spheres of light and smiting their evil souls. He ordered. "Hold the line you fools! The Despoiler will have our souls flayed if we don't stop these puny mortals!"

A boy with spiky blonde hair landed next to him and took a deep breath. "Flay this." "RWAAAAAR!" He let out an inhuman scream and drew out a typhoon with what looks like sharp teeth, the storm mauled the Sorcerer to bits. With one more wave of the Black Legion slain, Ven and Aqua were ready to advance deeper in, following the sound of a distant massacre and of the sound of a tank, Ven asked Aqua. "Who was that guy talking about? The Despoiler?"

The Keyblade Master was quick on her feet and answered with contained anger. "That was the Title these psychopaths use to refer to Abaddon. He was the reason that Zagor Wacko came to our worlds and he was also the one who waged war upon us all. Ken never told me anything specific, but Abaddon has done more than enough to make him our enemy."

They found a room with an elevator recently ascended, a Warpsmith and a squad of elite looking marines with strange nozzled weapons, were trying to intercept something. The Warpsmith beeped. "March! Burn! Salvage!"

Aqua ignited, leaped high, turned into a fiery bird and dived down after him. "You missed a spot!" WOOSH!

The marines turned to her in shock as the Warpsmith turned and used a tendril with the maw of a mechanical dragon, to spew a flame. Aqua crashed in between then, unleashed an inferno and incinerated them all. Ven was starting to realize that it was no wonder the Black Legion became scattered the moment Aqua crashed into the Planet Killer, felt both awe and intimidation and saw her stand up to dust herself. The keyblade master heard noise in the next room, signaled Ven to wait on que to attack and lead in, to their surprise, they found room with a large window, overlooking a world being invaded and on a balcony, was a man in a black coat, using a crystal to activate something. Showing a room full of Heretics and a window overlooking Traverse Town, some of the lesser guardsmen were getting excited over an ensuing show alongside Marines without helmets, others of the guardsmen and cultists looked horrified, while most of the Marines stood their stoically. A red beam fired from the ship, upon a world that just noticed it's doom. The keybearers watched in horror of the destruction and the faint hearing of a death scream.

Ven's mouth dropped and Aqua looked upon the heretics with more disgust. The man with the crystal, wanted to turn this off. "Man, it's no wonder this moment never left their hearts." He let loose a rather faint set of words. "This is so... wack."

Aqua recognized Braig's voice and was about to attack him. "What are you doing here?! Did you have ANYTHING to do with this?!"

The man in the coat turned to the two and waved his hands in front of him. "Easy, easy there, Master. I was in just as much of the dark as everyone else who saw the explosion in the sky. I came to this crucible, while that paradox was busy trying to fix this game of his. I thought I check out this crib to find what made this your tick." Aqua growled. "You're still not welcome here."

She and Ven readied to fight, Braig knew this was a fight he wasn't going to win and raised a finger as a corridor opened behind him. "Ah, ah, ah. Every minute you waste, is one more minute to risk someone, somewhere in here, running into something they never want to see in this hellhole."

Aqua immediately thought. "Abaddon."

Braig nodded and knew he had a point to pick at. "To think, that in a moment, that little world you grew to love so much and all the people who were on that world, trying to make a better life for themselves among the lost, went poof." He had his hand mimic the explosion, the Keybearer's empathy to who ever was thinking of that moment made them think about the deeper implications, the sleaze bag of a man asked. "To meet, the freak who gave the order to wipe it all out and to hear that it was because all those people were a roadblock. Could you imagine, what will be on your mind at that moment?" Aqua was horrified for the one person who knew the details, Braig asked. "What do you think is going to happen if that someone, meets him again?"

Aqua imagined something horrifying. "Ken..." Braig tried to laugh to the implications and didn't have the stomach to do it all the way, an odd pain came out of the laugh. "Ah... ha. Yeah, I wouldn't want to think about it either." He turned to the Corridor. "Just so we'll be on the same page, I'm going to keep this to myself. It would be more interesting that way." He waved and stepped in. "Laterrrrrrrs!"

The keybearers wanted to chase after the dangerous man, Ven called him. "Hey, wait!" The corridor disappeared with the man, Ven was pretty annoyed as Aqua couldn't believe what she was about to say. "He's right about this, someone is going to take that monsters actions a lot more personally and I won't be surprised if that makes a reaction."

Ven agreed with her. "We got to find the others before that happens." They saw a trail of bodies that were run over by a tank and looked left to see the aftermath of a tank going up against super soldiers and mutated things. They recognized the handy work of two people and followed the trail.

Deeper in the Planetkiller.

The Guardians of Light were in a tilted hallway leading up to somewhere. Sora and Ken had the first look of what seems to be a throne room, Riku and Ana noticed the walls distorting, finding faces of watching demons. As the group went closer, the faces became more noticeable, until they entered the room and found a large man in thick, black armor that had brass highlights, resembling demonic faces, skulls and a belt with a symbol of chaos, sitting upon the throne, with a talon claw tapping on the arm rest and a left hand holding a glowing blue, demonic sword. The man opened his eyes to reveal a glowing, hellish orange, Goofy and Donald were shaking in the legs as the keybearers drew their weapons, they spoke the name. "Abaddon."

The Warmaster didn't even acknowledge them and glared at those who were a threat to him, he stood up from the throne and had his gaze upon the one armed boy that was glaring back. "You've really brought more to the slaughter? If you think you will EVER be rid of me, you are more pathetic than I thought you were!"

Ana growled and stood next to Ken. "Shut it, Tyrant! We've came here to bring you to justice for what you've done!" Abaddon raised an eyebrow at the familiar looking warrior. "Really now? All this for an illusion?" He raised his talon in the air and showed a vast sphere, with the illusion of a heart. "The universe is unchanging to the facts! What I am, is but of many!" His talons punctured the sphere and illusions flickered in the presence of the Dispoiler, the resembled a certain Seeker of Darkness that set the Destiny Trio and the three Musketeers on edge, using his voice and engulfing the spear in darkness. "From the obsessed who plundered forbidden secrets!" Then to a Warrior of Chaos and spiraled the sphere out of control. "Those who are but one of the many depraved, fools who bring ruin upon you all." Then to the black daemon engulfing the heart in darkness. "and lurk among the shadows of your minds!"

The illusions scatter and Abaddon crushed the orb. "You are all, fools if you think you can ever vanquish us. We will keep coming back until you all break!"

Sora was ready to attack Abaddon. "It might be true that the pain you cause, isn't going to magically going away. But we stay together despite that and go on." He taunted him with a justified scowl. "Are you going to keep talking, or are you going to fight!"

Kairi stood next to the boy with the same scowl, Abaddon slowly walked to them and laughed. "Ha! This won't even be a fight!" He flickered and appeared before Sora and Kairi, his talon was prepared to impale them, the duo jumped over the talon as one and together, cut a slash of light on Abaddon's face, Riku and Mickey took the chance to spear into the Warmaster's armor in light and Ana sparked in lightning and flung herself hammer first. "For us!"

POW!

Her blow sent the Despoiler tilting back, he looked shocked but relatively unharmed from the attacks, Halvek found a corner to camp on and summoned a three man turret, he jumped on and ordered Donald and Goofy. "Help me man this! We got to give him everything our minds can make!"

The two saw the chance, agreed and hopped on, a shell that greatly resembles Goofy's shield, popped out of the nozzle, the three cheered. "FIRE!" PEW! PEW! Two warheads of inky black and ice shot at the Despoiler, one covered his face in explosive ink and the other enveloped his body in ice. CRACK! CRACK! SHATTER!

Abaddon broke out of it and his eyes brunt through the ink, he swung his sword at the keybearers like they were flies. PEW! PEW! PEW! He felt sharp, burning pricks in his back, back handed the group with his talon and turned to find Ken with a smoking keyblade and another glowing in dancing fire.

FLING! The burning keyblade was tossed at the Despoilers face and burst in lava, Abaddon screamed in pain and rage. "WRAAAAARGH!"

PUNCT! A quadruple burst of light stabbed him deep in the back and ruptured from his chest. Flicker! He teleported to the other side of the room and his gaping hole of a wound knit itself, he shook the lava off and aimed his gun talon at Ken. "I will flay you all for this!"

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

Ken yelped and spun Cadia's Light to deflect the gun fire. It was overwhelming him and puncturing the barrier, Kairi jumped to her rivals side and posed her blade in a defensive position. "Like this, Lil Bro!"

The barrier became stronger, Ken gasped. "Or..." the barrier glittered and he stopped spinning, he posed for a slash as the ripples of bullet holes twisted. "Like this!" FLING!

Bolter bullets of light flung from the scattered barrier and a shock wave vaporized the shots Abaddon fired. They tinked against the armor and made Abaddon more mad. "Is this really the best you have to offer?" He laughed and taunted. "No wonder, your worlds were ripped to fall!"

He teleported to the turret and had his sword ready to slash the crew horizontally. Goofy pressed something with his foot and caused the turret to jump out of the way and to the left, a spring. SLASH! The sword cut through the spring and left the turret to lie motionless, Abaddon rushed to the turret with his sword forward, the crew jumped off and ran for their lives. A burst of demonic energy caused the turret to compress and explode.

Mickey conjured balloon of light as Ana focused her power on them, to give off a unified, static charge. They flung the balloons at Abaddon and electrocuted him, the Despoiler bull rushed them and shouldered them to a wall. SLASH! SLASH! SLASH!

Sora and Riku appeared around the Despoiler and rushed him with slashes of light, disappearing and reappearing to do it again, in rapid succession. A pillar of light consumed the Despoiler, the boys turned to see their handy work, seeing only a few scorch marks on the Warmaster. Abaddon approached the two with his sword and swung to the left in a horizontal way, in rather frightening speeds, the boys joined together in a parry and were knocked asunder. Abaddon readied to impale the two with his claw.

FLING!

Kairi leaped at his face like a star of light, smacked him and blinded him, she jumped to the disoriented boys and cast wind magic, she ordered. "Go, go, go!" She and the boys made a run for it and regroup with Donald, Goofy and Halvek. Riku asked the three gun men. "Nothing we're throwing at him is working that much!"

Kairi agreed with him. "Even our best attacks do nothing but tickle him." Sora thought of something and called to a dizzy Mickey and Ana. "Guys, we got a hail merry to do! Hurry!"

The two agreed with that as Ken thought of something, stabbed the ground with both blades and caused a mini volcano to erupt from under the blinded Abaddon, scorching him in heat, it melted through the armor and burnt the Despoilers flesh. Yet it continued to nit together, he stabbed the ground again to form more lava and saw he was doing a lot of damage. "I know what you guys are going to do! He keeps growing back, what we chop off!"

Riku saw the odd boy standing far from the group. "Are you crazy?! If you keep doing that, he'll focus on you!" Mickey thought the idea was sound. "He would, but if we hit him with... that move, while he is regenerating, like what happened last time. It might be enough."

Ken signaled the group, that was the plan, Sora and Kairi were impressed and were the first to glow in light, then Mickey and Ana, then Riku, Donald and Goofy joined in the glow and even Halvek barked. "We've beaten these Chaos saboteurs left and right together! We'll cut off this negative asset as well!" Goofy and Donald agreed with that as Mickey and Ana pressed their keys in the ground and began a circle of light. The King cheered. "That's right! We will drive this monster out of our lives!"

Ana barked to Abaddon. "You hear that?! You're finished!" The Destiny Trio joined in the circle and caused radiant to shine, the power drew to Sora, who hovered to the center and aimed at the flame drenched Despoiler. Abaddon pushed through the lava and sprinted after the group, with Ken standing in the way and letting loose snake like flames.

Sora whispered to the Despoiler. "It's time for you to go!"

PEW! A flash of light shined and slammed into Abaddon, Ken was about blinded and shielded his eyes to get a look at the radiance. Abaddon was pushing through and was burning to the light. "WRRRRAAAAAGH!" SMACK! The clawed talon smacked Ken out of the way, sending him rolling across the room, the group gasped at the attack and they realize their attack wasn't working.

Abaddon laughed at them. "So the actual heroes, can't even fight a gnats battle!" He readied his sword and approached them. "You're light is pathetic! I've seen the children of Cadia fight with more ferocity!"

Ken saw what was happening and his breathing slowed, Sora gritted his teeth. "Come on, we need a little more." Abaddon balked. "Ha! You stand before the gods themselves! Sooner or later, they will have their due." He raised his blade. "And then, your whole galaxy will burn! The universe itself, will BURN!" The radiance turned into a barrier to block the demon sword, that revealed it's evil essence, pushing against it with ease. "ALL OF YOU, WILL BURN!"

Ken readied to shoot him and felt Cadia's Light shifting in something, in an aura of black flame, it shrank down into something unexpected, a tiny curved dagger with a black hilt, black, feathery wings and a blade of silver. He felt his instinct kick in and a voice in his mind, his voice, speaking out from his lips in a whisper. "Just you."

He stabbed the ground and a quick ripple of shadow zipped towards the barrier of light, appearing right in front of Abaddon, without the Despoilers notice. In an instant, a pillar of black fire erupted from the shadows and broke Abaddon's attack, the Despoiler was shoved back and the crew were complete surprised, their barrier dimmed, yet the ring of light kept a shine.

STAB!

Ken flowed to Abaddon, dagger first and stabbed him in the shoulder, Abaddon gritted his teeth and swung his blade at the boy. Ken skid across the shoulder with his dagger cuting and used Firekeeper's Wish to parry the sword, fire erupted and flung the sword off of Abaddon's hand. With the chance, Ken jumped off and stood in the Despoilers way, giving him a cold glare, his pupils dilated heavily and the iris twitched. Firekeeper's Wish slowly enveloped in black fire and Ken swiped his wrist to engulf it. Riku was in a panic. "Ken, what are you doing?!" The blonde boy kept his back to them and answered. "Sending this nightmare, where he belongs!"

The burning keyblade's tip dropped to the ground, like it was gaining weight, the hilt became the handle of a black wolf and the blade became of black steel, radiating the black flame of the Abyss.

Abaddon called his sword back to him and snarled. "With what?! The same power that the Ruinous Powers have already controlled?! Face it, you're galaxy is doomed!"

He rushed at the boy with his sword and swung, Ken slammed the Wolf Sword at the blade and disarmed Abaddon again, he stood more stable and opened his mouth. Letting loose a haunting battle cry, Ken bolted at Abaddon and cleaved him, pushing him back and finishing a combo with a dagger to the Warmasters face. It combusted, forced Abaddon to waddle back and boy's sword sparked. Ken flung a black fire ball and glittered in a strange light, the dagger and sword compressed together as Ken pressed his hands together, it turned into the head of a purple scaled dragon and it opened it's mouth to fire a beam of dark fire. Shoving Abaddon against a wall. The dragon head disappeared, back into the blades of Cadia's Light and the Firekeeper, shining brightly in the light.

Ken found his chance and sprinted after Abaddon, Kairi cheered him on. "Get him! You can do this!" Sora cheered with her. "Kick his butt!" The two were shining in light that flowed to Ken, Ana joined in the cheer. "Bring him to justice!" Mickey cheered. "Show him that we won't break!" Donald, Goofy and Halvek cheered as one. "Take Abaddon down!" The light was becoming stronger, Riku smirked and yelled. "Send him back into the Chaos!"

The light enveloped the blades and they became like that of a holy spear, Abaddon saw what was coming, pushed against the wall and charged back at the boy. "You, won't take me!"

Abaddon thrust his claw, Ken jumped on the claw and speared into him, a halo burst around Abaddon upon the spears penetration and a black flame burst from with in. Abaddon screamed for a moment and was shoved to the ground, the blades sizzles together in flame for a moment and return to their normal shine. Ken fell on his knees, looking on at what he done. Victory was achieved.

The onlookers were amazed by the finisher and Kairi sprinted to the boy and hugged him from behind in joy. "We did it, Lil Bro!"

Ana folded her arms in approval. "That we did, I hope the real one felt that."

Sora hoped so as well and wanted to help the kid up. "Even if he doesn't, we're finally done with him." He approached. "Hey, Ken, that was amazing."

Ken was still, Kairi felt something was wrong and tugged him. "Ken?" She crawled around to his face and saw one that was still, the pupils of his eyes shrank back to normal, yet it looked like it was staring at something else, she was worried. "Oh no."

Riku cringed to a good guess of what it was as Sora had a look, the spiky haired boy was completely confused and waved his hand at Ken's face. "Are you there?"

Riku broke the huddle and asked. "Guys, you saw what he used to kill Abaddon, that was an awful lot of it too." Kairi gasped and puffed her cheeks. "Are you kidding me?! If he didn't do that-" Sora agreed with her. "I don't think we would have lasted longer than we did."

Riku exhaled and flipped his keyblade. "I know, Abaddon was a lot more personal to Ken than to any of us. The kid was the one who faced him alone." He aimed his blade to the kid's chest. "I'll go see what the damage is. Be right back." Mickey wanted to stop him. "Riku, wa-" Pew!

Light enveloped Riku's vision and he found himself descending into a familiar town, that was basked in dark, the lights of the lamp posts flickered on and the neon lights began to shine. With in the center, was a simple park, with a collection of trees, something was moving under one. He landed, turned to see the stars of Traverse shining brightly and heard a sniffle. He followed the sound and found Ken with his keyblades beside him, laying by his lap however, was a planted sword of the Black Wolf and the strange, angelic dagger. Being a shadow cast by the light of the flame, the black flame died down and Ken looked upon it. "She was right, you're the flame of my shadow. You were waiting with me to set that right."

The Flame of the keyblade relaxed and let the set relax to the dim environment, Ken sighed. "You... are me, you're that reminder... that no matter what they say, I'm still me." He rubbed his eyes and smiled to the black flame. "If I need you again, you will come to me." The darkness of the flame merged with the natural environment, as if it was never there, Ken looked at the sky again and felt like the sword and dagger were watching with him.

Then he caught a glimpse of someone there, recognized Riku and yelped. "Eek! How long were you listening to that?!" Riku answered. "The whole time. So once your heart had enough with Abaddon, all that darkness took form into that?" He looked at the remnants of the Black Flame and especially at the angelic dagger. "Interesting."

Ken's lips stiffened and they wiggled. "Mmmm. Every bit of anger I had at him came with it. The power to punish those that worship evil and cast them into Hell they wanted."

Riku saw that. "And punish them, it did. And just like that... the Black Flame returned back to the darkness it came." He relaxed, Ken nodded. "But, it's still in there. It's always been a part of me, it just needed a reason." He asked. "How... much trouble am I in?"

Riku offered to help the kid up. "None, that Darkness was yours and you did what need to be done." Ken felt rather warm and took the hand, then the two heard a familiar woman screaming. "Ken! What did you do?!" Riku cringed. "But you might be in one soon if we don't clear that up." Ken heard the voice. "Oh crud, Mom's here."

In a jolt of surprise, Riku found himself back in reality and found Ken waking up in a jolt, Riku turned to the burning corpse of Abaddon and to two people that were completely shocked. Ven looked absolutely terrified and Aqua was trying to process what she saw.

Kairi turned to Aqua and thought of something. "We...we can explain." Ken was shiviring like a child who knew he was about to get punished. Sora tried to something to use to defend Ken as the area began to distort, changing from the hellish structure of the planet killer, into a glistening room of gold, silver tubes and a large, red eye with a slit black pupil. Markings of a half closed eye, decorated the room, Ana and Ken were the first to notice a large figure, standing over the body of Abaddon, Ken looked up to find an armored man, even larger than Abaddon, wielding the exact same talon as the Despoiler, wearing twisted black armor with golden trimmings, and markings of that red eye. The man wore the belt of some unknown beast and wielded a mighty, golden mace, Ken and Ana were completely speechless and the rest of the crew felt a figure of godlike power. The man asked, with rather self contained rage. "Who did this?"

The tone was like a parent who saw the murder of his own child, Ken was skidding away, terrified for his life, Aqua completely forgot of the black flame and stood in between the man and the boy. She asked. "Why do you need to know? Who are you?!"

The man fixed his gaze upon Aqua, a gaze so intense that it began to burn her skin. "You should know why. It is only natural." The burning gaze left her and focused upon the group. "And I know, what you're trying to do. He is not the only one who fell my son." He readied his mace. "You've all done this." The exhausted party readied for battle and Ken frantically got on his feet as the man addressed himself. "You stand before The Warmaster of Chaos, the Primarch of the Luna Wolves, the rightful Master of Mankind. And you shall burn!" He calmly chanted as the crew drew their first attack. "Let the Galaxy Burn!"

Aqua and Ven sprinted after the Warmaster, the Warmaster slammed the maul down and unleashed a shock wave that sent them all flying and out of breath. The Warmaster approached the only two that were standing, Aqua and Ven, he looked ashamed of something and ready to strike them down.

Then a stream of light came, the dark imagery disappeared and in a simple stroke of art, the crew found themselves in a familiar, neon lit district, blotlings crawled from the drawn corners and quickly set shop. Mickey looked towards the source of light and found a Rabbit that looked very similar to him, with a painted, make shift Keyblade dissolving. The Rabbit blew at his ears. "Sheesh, that was close." The mouse was astonished as Sora looked to find the savior, he, Riku, Aqua and Ven called to him. "Oswald!"

The rabbit approached them with a proud smirk. "Took me long enough to find you." The group got themselves up, Sora was ready to shake his hand in thanks. Oswald approached Mickey for the handshake instead. "I would have came a lot sooner if y'all didn't come together like that and showed those wise guys who's boss. It's nice to finally meet ya, bro."

Mickey took the handshake, Sora felt rather satisfied with seeing that. Ken was seeing a festival being set up and blushed. "Aw, is this another festival?" Oswald nodded and noticed, sitting under a tree, was a Namine trying to shake a passed out Roxas up. "It was there idea in the first place to make this place more lively, but you did the final thing to keep those demons out of here for good."

Aqua gasped. "Using the power of the Black Flame?!" Sora was split between defending Ken and checking up on Roxas, the one armed boy signaled him. "That doesn't look good, I can manage this." Sora heard the confidence and checked with Kairi on the nobodies condition, Ken took a deep breath and confessed. "Miss Aqua, yes. The light wasn't enough to finish Abaddon off and he was going to kill the others if I didn't do something. That was when the flame came and we did what we needed to do before taking that light and perching him in his black heart."

The rather passionate tone surprised Aqua, Ana approached and asked. "And that, slayed his evil soul. But you fell into a trance afterwards and Riku had to dive in there to get you out." Ken tapped the side of his head with his fleshy fingers. "Well... he didn't. Once I saw Abaddon fall over, I was under a tree looking at the night sky of this place, with the light of my blades keeping me company. That was when the Black Flame came, as the two weapons it turned into."

Riku watched Sora shaking Roxas awake, succeeding and asking a dozen questions, then approach Aqua's ear, whispering the weapons he saw. The Keyblade Master felt the description, rather soothing. "A dagger that looks like that and a dark Sword of Artorias?" Riku remembered the image of a card. "The Abyss Walker?"

Ken remembered. "So that's where it came from?" He finished his recap. "After a little talk, and the lights of the town came, the flame went back to the shadows. I don't think it's going to bother us anymore." The Keyblade Master looked at the boy like he did something rather incredible. "That's all it took?"

Ken nodded. "It's me, it's my shadow" he looked watery eyed. "and if we deal with a monster like Abaddon again or someone that tries to call my shadow evil, it will come back." He exhaled and Aqua gave him a hug. "And prove them wrong." Ken hugged back. "No matter what happens, I'm with you guys to the very end."

At the tree.

Roxas was being shaken awake by Sora as Kairi heard from Namine. "He was passed out?!" The nobody nodded. "And that was how Khorne was able to whisper into Sora like that. There's so much a brain can take and unlike the other Chaos gods, Khorne is very straight forward."

Sora found that hard to believe. "So he just went straight to using his stronger points? No way?"

Roxas exhaled and shivered. "Yes way. Very, yes way. What did I miss?" Namine was brief. "Sora meeting some old ghosts that gave him a nudge, a fight against Kharn," Roxas cringed. "That guy?!"

Namine nodded. "And Kairi going into the Brass Citadel to get Sora out of there. Kharn's heart was filled with so much bloodlust that seeing the power of Sora and Kairi combined, was too much for him."

Kairi sighed and her eyes shifted away. "Killing was the only thing that mattered to him and he wouldn't give up. How can a heart like that... fall so hard?"

Namine shrugged. "I don't know the answer for that. Just that Khorne has had that tight of a grip on him for so long. There isn't anything we can really do for someone that gone." Sora sat next to his other half and asked the Princess. "Even after what he did, you feel bad for him?"

Kairi nodded and sat next to him. "Kind of, he's hurt you in ways I don't want to think about and he wanted to help his master, turn you into someone like him. That had to have came from somewhere." She bit her lip with some anger. "I'm just glad he's gone and that he isn't going to come back."

Namine was relieved by that as well. "He felt a lot more real compared to that Abaddon we fought, but even if he wasn't an illusion, I don't think what you did would help him in the long run. He's back to becoming the problems of the Imperium and anyone else he comes close to."

Sora relaxed to the tree, kind of glad he doesn't have to deal with Kharn anymore. "Yeah, but if we meet someone like him again, we're going to have to do what we need to do."

Kairi gave Sora a side hug. "We'll face those people together and maybe, we'll just do enough to stop them. To not fall into the trap Khorne has laid for us."

Sora blushed and hugged back as Roxas exhaled and looked to the stars. "So how long are we going to be here? Garland's a little ways away still."

Namine guessed. "I'm picking up a powerful structure ahead, but after everything that has happened. We need a break." She watched Aqua break the hug with Ken and the one armed boy looking to find Riku. "So much happened back there. We need to put together some of the things that happened while we were separated."

Kairi didn't mind it and invited Namine to sit. "Some of us were brought to our worst, some of us were brought to our best and some were a little in between." The nobody sat next to Roxas, with a squinted face that wanted to correct her other half. "Kairi, Riku takes the Darkness a lot more seriously than the rest of us. That Darkness, haunted him for a year, when he saw what Ken did, he thought he was looking at the same mistakes he's made. But then once he went into Ken's heartscape... the world tied between the heart and dreams, he was okay with what he saw. That is weird."

The other halves thought about and did agree it was strange, completely unaware of Riku chatting with Ken and taking their business to them. The younger boy was in complete agreement with something. "I guess I am on my own if I want to figure that out. If I use that fire because I want to, I'm going to asking for trouble."

The group turned and found Riku giving Ken a noogie "Heh! We'll make sure you stay out of that!" Ken was rather cool with it, noticed people were watching and tapped the older boy on the arm, Riku didn't want to see his friends seeing him smile and broke from the affection. "Were you talking about something?"

Roxas nodded. "Yeah, some stuff we saw that shouldn't be that important now and a bit about what you might have seen when you went into Ken's heart." The silver haired boy pressed his fingers between his eyes. "I knew this was going to happen."

Ken drew Firekeeper's Wish and placed it on the ground, making a nice bonfire. "Since the Black Flame is only going to come if I need it and if I need it, I don't think we're going to be seeing a whole lot of it. It's pretty lethal."

Kairi felt that made sense and Sora asked. "How are you going to know if it is? That was the kind of thing Riku was talking about before... things happened." Riku sat down on the other side of the fire with Ken. "That's the scary part. It's at it's" he quoted his fingers. "safest, when it comes out naturally."

Ken nodded. "Like if the light isn't going to cut it on it's own. It's THE last resort. Any other attempt to use that seriously, is going to result in a lot of things Riku is scared of."

The older boy nodded. "We assumed the worst when you blacked out. At least this helps prove to us that idea that Karla and Baldred talked about works, we still need stronger clues." Ken gave Riku a side hug in a playful manner. "It doesn't look impossible anymore."

Sora agreed with that. "It might not, but it can lead to some dumb things. Riku, Kairi and I seen some scary things even before Chaos came in, what did you find?" Riku didn't mind the affection and started with his story. "The things I been telling myself for a while. It showed up as-"