Chapter XLII- Hollow Bastion (Part 3)
Maleficent walked across the carpeted floor of the grand hall, where her greatest work is about to reach it's end. She looked across glass cases, each containing the princesses from the worlds she has destroyed.
Innocent Snow White, strong-willed Belle, diligent Cinderella, beautiful Aurora, courteous Alice, and headstrong Jasmine.
And of course radiant Kairi though she didn't get her glass case just yet, at the request of Riku.
She had her doubts about the girl being the final princess but now that she knows her true potential she can finally begin to open the Final Keyhole.
A decade ago when she invaded this world she came across the research of this Ansem person. Putting all the reports together she discovered that he was working on project for a artificial Keyhole, one that if finished would open a direct portal to the realm of darkness. There she would find the Heart of all worlds, the very one lost to legend millennia ago.
Unfortunately Ansem seemed to have disappeared the very day she invaded leaving his work unfinished. She decided to halt her search for this world's Keyhole and complete the work that was left behind. It was strenuous work, being unfamiliar with the level of technology that was at her disposal but she eventually learned. She even utilized the Heartless machine that creates new Heartless. She perfected a spell that transports any stolen Hearts to be delivered straight to the machine. She sent her lackey out into the worlds to help gather as much Heart's as she requires.
Now the results of her work is right in front of her. Designed similar to a Heartless emblem was an artificial Keyhole connected to long wiring and pipes.
Making her way up the staircase she looked over the entire hall, preparing for the spell that would extract the princesses's Hearts.
"Oh purest of Hearts!" She declares, her staff glowing with green fire. "Relinquish yourselves and reveal to me the Keyhole!"
One by one the princesses lose their color as their Heart's got pulled out of their bodies. Six pure orbs of light circled around Maleficent. She grinned in anticipation.
"So, I see the path has emerged at last."
Maleficent regarded Riku without turning her head to the boy, not even noticing the change in his voice.
"Yes. The Keyhole to the Darkness."
"Unlock it and the Heartless will overrun this world."
"What do I care?"Maleficent scoffed. "The darkness holds no power over me. Rather I will use it's power to rule all worlds."
"Such confidence." Riku muttered to himself. He eyed the swirling Hearts above them. Maleficent squinted at the sight of the spell.
"Oh, impossible! The princesses of Heart are all here it must work!"
"It must be her." Riku stated pointing at the redhead. "Without her Heart she will never be able to release her power."
Before Maleficent could open her mouth, she heard a loud crash sound coming in the far distance.
"...Prepare for your defeat Maleficent!..." echoed a voice from the distance.
"It seems the King's fools have finally arrived, no doubt to stop us on the brink of success. I'll deal with them myself." She declares. "You stay here and guard the princesses." She said descending down the stairs to meet Sora, Koga, and the others.
Riku looked up to the Princesses's Hearts and smirked. He put out his his hand and the Heart's gathered together and formed a Keyblade. It was a darker design of Sora's Keyblade with red and black, it's teeth also formed the outline of a heart.
"Yes, this will do quite nicely..."
With a mighty kick, the twins knocked open the doors into the castle chapel. Donald and Goofy following rushing in with them.
"Prepare for your defeat Maleficent!" Koga shouted heroically back flipping into the room twirling his Keygun.
Only to discover the room is empty.
Koga slumped over disappointed.
"Dang it, I had a good feeling about this one!" Koga said.
"It was a good entrance Koga." Goofy said.
"I know!" The starry eyed youth whined. The group continued down the long hall of the circular chapel.
"Hmm." Jiminy said, pondering to himself.
"Something up Jiminy?" Sora asked.
"I'm just wondering. This is the thirteenth main room we found in this whole castle, and ever since you and Koga fought Riku we've not seen even one Heartless."
Donald turned to him. "Yeah, that is strange."
"All that preparation and we've hardly even fought a Heartless!" Koga sighed. "I don't know what they're waiting for."
"I don't think you need to wait for an answer." Sora stopped them.
There several feet away from them Maleficent stands with a smile on her lips.
"So you have finally arrived." The witch says.
"Maleficent I presume?" Koga asks.
She gave a courteous bow. "Pleasure to meet your acquaintance."
"The one who took our home,along with countless other worlds, messed with Riku's head, and been a major pain in the neck since we started our adventure?" He growled clenching his fists.
"Flattery will get you nowhere child." She says. "But anyways I'm afraid you are quite too late to stop me. Soon the final Keyhole will be unsealed and all worlds will be plunged into darkness. It is unstoppable."
"We'll stop it!" Sora declared summoning his Keyblade. "And we'll stop you!"
"Yeah!" Koga summoning his weapon as well. "After coming this far there's no way we're gonna let that happen!"
Maleficent's smile dropped as she gave the heroes a icy piercing glare. "You poor simple fools. You think you can defeat me?" She slammed her staff on the ground as dark thorns started growing against the walls. "Me, the Mistress of all evil!" A chunk of the floor beneath her rose into a makeshift platform as she began her assault.
A pair of new Heartless appeared on each side of Maleficent. They dressed like mages and held a magic staff while they floated in the air.
Wizard
"Freeze!" Koga said shooting an icy blast at the Heartless. It absorbed the magic and countered by blasting Firaga at them. Knowing these Heartless are immune to magic Koga and Donald focused on Maleficent while Sora battled the Heartless.
Koga fired at the witch but she deflected the shots with a shield she put up around herself. She laughed at his defiance against her will.
"A bolt of lightning to strike them down!" Above them a swirl of dark thunderclouds appeared on the ceiling. She pointed her staff at them as her platform flew away and lightning rained down. The group scrambled around as they tried to avoid getting hit.
"Come out!" Maleficent said summoning more Heartless to her fold. Sora rolled under a charging Defender only for a Shadow to grab his leg, immobilizing him. Goofy smashed it out of the way but it left deep scratch marks on Sora's leg. This didn't stop Sora as he took on the rest of the Heartless.
Donald and Koga tried using their magic to hit Maleficent but her platform moved around too much. She waved her staff in a circular gesture as a large portal opened up behind all of them.
"Meteors of heaven! Unleash thy fury!" She said as massive meteor rocketed from the portal. Koga saw one coming towards him and gasped.
"Wind!" Donald shouted. Koga was surrounded in a veil of wind which protected him from the initial impact. He grunted as he was knocked around. Luckily the Areoga spell protected him from the bone crushing meteors.
Koga turned to the witch and saw an opening. The next impact he used the momentum to propel himself towards Maleficent from behind. He crashed into her and nearly knocked her off the platform. She turned around and lit her staff with green fire before she smacked the boy. He toppled over the edge but as he fell he quickly used a gravity spell which forced the platform to collapse onto it's epicenter which happened to be Maleficent. She cried out as the stone crashed against her body, cutting and bruising her badly.
Badly wounded she weakly backed away as all four heroes cornered her.
"Do you need some help?"
From the passage to the right they saw Riku walk into the chapel with confidence in his step. In his hand was a new Keyblade, much to everyone's confusion.
"A Keyblade? Riku where did you get that?"
Riku held up the weapon proudly. "This, the Keyblade of Heart is created from the Hearts of the Princesses of Heart. While incomplete it still has it's uses." They noticed Riku's voice was off, like someone else was talking along with Riku. "Unlike regular Keyblades, this one is able to unlock people's Hearts as well as the darkness inside. For example..." With no hesitation he thrusted the blade into Maleficent's chest. Everyone gasped in surprise as darkness seeped from the hole in her chest. "Now open your Heart, surrender it to the darkness!" He plunged the blade deeper as more darkness spilled out. "Become darkness itself!"
He slowly pulled the blade out as he backed away from what was about to come.
Maleficent looked at herself eyes widened. Her wounds faded as she looked almost overjoyed. She glowed green as darkness spilled out of her by the bucket loads. "This is it! This power, darkness... the True Darkness!" She erupted into a pillar of flames as the darkness covered the floor in a thick smoky fog. When the smoke dissipated, in Maleficent's place was a newly transformed version of her. She was now a gigantic dragon, even larger than the gummi ship. It's scales were black as night with a purple underbelly. It's yellow eyes glared down at the heroes, green fire spewing from it's nostrils.
"Um, is it too late to call this a draw?" Koga squeaked.
Maleficent threw it's head back as it roared. The entire castle shook with it's power.
"Come one, we gotta take her out!" Sora said.
They rushed forward. Maleficent, for her large size, was quite fast. She shot a blast of green flames from her mouth at Goofy. The force was so strong it knocked the knight against a wall. It then spun around swiping her tail against them. Donald jumped over it but Koga and Sora got hit. Donald used Stop on the dragon and it seemed to work, only for a few seconds though, which Donald used to launch thunder spells at her. Infuriate, she gnashed her teeth at the mage only to get smacked on the snout by Koga. Sora ran up and jumped onto her back and attacked her from the back of her head while Goofy threw his shield and it bounced off her eye. She roared and summoned balls of green flames to lock on and launch themselves at all of them. She then pulled her head back and unleashed a torrent of flames that burned the stone ground. The heroes backed off as the flames expanded.
"Tinker Bell!" Koga concentrated. "We really need to fly right now!" The pixie appeared in a puff of light and quickly sparkled her pixie dust on them before returning to her world. They all lifted into the air before the flames can reach them. He turned to his feathered friend. "Donald, dual Stop, let's try it!"
Together the two of them used stop on Maleficent at the same time, making the spell last long enough for them to attack.
"This is for our Island!" Sora said flying forward towards her.
"And for my friends and family!" Koga said following behind him, Donald and Goofy next to him. Sora powered up his Keyblade with light as he slashed at Maleficent repeatedly. Koga flew around and fired continuous blasts at her. Donald used gravity on her while Goofy followed Sora's example and hit her repeatedly with his shield.
Then, the twins grouped up together and cried out as they slammed their Keyblades into the dragon's back. She let out a defeated roar as she collapsed lifeless on the ground, green fire mixed with darkness expelling from her body as she dissolved. The thorns on the wall vanished along with her body. Soon there was nothing left of Maleficent except the tattered remains of her robe. Koga looted through the robes and in it he found all the remaining research notes from Ansem, he also found a ashy black summon stone. He stuffed them into his bag, saving them for a later time.
"How ironic." Riku taunted from his hiding spot. "All that talk about not delving too deep into darkness only to suffer the very same fate. She failed to noticed the darkness eating away at her Heart. A fitting end for such a fool, but I must admit she was a worthy asset."
"You don't have to suffer the same fate Riku." Sora said. "Don't you see you will end up just like her if you keep giving into the darkness!"
Koga put a hand on his shoulder as he looked onward with a grim expression. "Don't bother, this isn't Riku anymore."
"Koga I know you have your issues with Riku but he's still ou-"
"No, I mean he's literally not Riku, someone else is using his body." Sora whipped his head back to Riku, finally noticing the eyes are no longer blue but a sinister yellow.
The Riku-impostor laughed crossing his arms. "Very perceptive boy. Yes, Riku gave in too much to the darkness and left him open for me to take control of his body."
"Then who do I have the pleasure of speaking to?" Koga said angrily. He hates to think that this has happened to Riku, he's even more mad to think Riku would be so stupid as to let this happen to him. He promises if he ever see's him again he's gonna punch him for his stupidity.
"If you insist on knowing who your adversary is, then meet me at the Final Keyhole where you will witness everlasting darkness!" He said before vanishing into a portal.
"Riku, how could you let this happen to yourself..." Sora said sadly.
"Don't worry, he'll be back to normal when we smack the darkness out of him." Koga said. "Now lets hurry before this new enemy does anything rash."
They ran forward towards the final chamber. None of them noticing another figure watching them from the upper part of the balcony. Their face hidden by their long black coat. They chuckled dryly.
"Oh my Shadow, how you interfere with my plans. You live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far. But no matter, should you succeed or fail, the pieces of this game shall fall in my benefit, it is only a matter of time..."
Personally I like the Maleficent fight in Kingdom Heart Birth By Sleep because she utilizes all her abilities from the movies.
What, you think I'm gonna write this fanfic without including Xemnas, or ? ? ? as he's called in this game? Sadly I must inform you that the secret boss fight will not show up in this fic, but it's still important that he's watching the events that are about to follow.
As for Riku-Imposter's Keyblade of Heart... I've done my research and all Keyblades seem to have the power to unlock people's Hearts but it seems that this particular Keyblade is special as it unleashes the darkness inside you as well, sort of like turning you into a Heartless.
If there's a major grammar error going on in this fic please let me know because I can't keep rereading every chapter and scan for errors, I lack the patience.
Until next time...
HAVE FUN!