Inverted Sky: KH Chain of Memories

Chapter 20: Castle Oblivion part XX

"So...trying to make friends with the enemy I see." Riku commented as he gazed to Sora along with the others.

The brown-haired girl merely smiled sheepishly while shrugging her shoulders; "Well...if they do become friends, then they won't be enemies anymore, right?" she responded, making the teen boy just sigh softly.

While he obviously didn't like the idea, he couldn't entirely deny Sora's reasoning, even if it was a bit naive. "I guess...I'm just glad to see that you're alright." the silver-haired boy muttered while shrugging his shoulders slowly.

"Aw~, did my absence bring out the softie in you?" Sora questioned in a teasing tone, nudging him briefly with her elbow.

Riku simply huffed and looked to the side, crossing his arms in the process. "Not even a little." he declared firmly, yet it just made the others laugh lightly.

"Well, I'm glad that you guys came all this way for me." she said while smiling to each of the five.

All of whom returned this expression, to which Mickey spoke up soon after. "It's the least we could do, after everything you've done." he declared, to which he then glanced around the hall.

"We should probably start thinking of a means of getting out of here. At least...after we've rescued Namine." the mouse continued, making Sora blink a few times in question.

"How do you know her?" the brown-haired teen asked curiously while tilting her head to the side slightly.

"She seems to have been the one to call us all here. Plus, she helped me when I was about to fall into darkness, as well as both of us to get to this level." Riku explained as he made a quick gesture to Mickey and himself at the end.

Tapping her chin thoughtfully, Sora gave a slow nod of her head in response. "Sounds like Namine alright." she hummed out with a soft smile curled her lips once more.

"And we're definitely going to need everyone to save her." she hummed out with a glance to each of her friends.

"Especially if we can't convince even a few of them to simply let Namine go." Sora continued, offering a quick shrug toward the others.

While Riku arched a brow briefly, he gave the brown-haired girl a inquisitive glance. "And how many do you think you could get on our side?" he asked, clearly not entirely convinced that such a thing is possible.

"None." was all Sora started with before waving a hand.

"But it's not about getting them on our side...at least not yet. It's mostly about getting them not to fight against us." she continued on, causing everyone's surprised and curious stares, to turn into understanding ones.

"I think most of them might be willing to do that, but others...not so much." Sora added in a somewhat sheepish tone as the others nodded their heads.

"I guess the only thing we can do now is move forward, and hope your last speech got through to a few of them." Mickey said slowly, him sounding hopeful that it would indeed be the case.

The girl glanced to him briefly with a quick nod in agreement, to which the group then turned toward the next set of doors. "We're probably only a couple floors from reaching the top, so we'll have to make sure to take extra care." Sora said silently, knowing that the Organization was likely up to something devious.

As they moved up to the doors, Goofy looked up in thought for a moment. "Gawrsh fellers, do ya think they're gonna split us up again?" he uttered out, just as Sora and Riku opened the double doors.

"Wait what?" the former of the two uttered out, immediately before the light beyond the door seemed to shine brightly around them.

Closing their eyes to the light, each of the five were blinded for a few seconds. Upon reopening them however, they all realized that each of them had indeed been split up. While Mickey, Donald and Goofy were all still together, the other three were entirely separated from each other. Glancing from side to side, there was a member of the Organization standing not far from them. Mickey and his two friends faced off against Marluxia. Riku glared toward Lexaeus across the way. Kairi simply blinked briefly toward Zexion. While Sora glanced between both Axel and Larxene, both of whom already had their weapons summoned.

The last three standing in a familiar area of Hollow Bastion's castle, a place where the brown-haired girl had once fought a similarly hooded figure. But while she knew it was a place she came to before, thanks to the alterations in her memory, she couldn't place how or why. Her attention quickly returned to the two standing across from her in this large circular hall, to which she merely gave a small smile and nod in greeting.

"Well well...it looks like we'll be getting one last fight after all." the blond declared with a small grin curling her lips.

Sora raised a brow briefly before sighing silently; "I guess I should have seen it coming, that you guys would split us up like this." she muttered while shrugging.

"Divide and conquer...it's a simple, yet very effective tactic." Axel commented as he moved into a battle-ready pose, to which Larxene did the same.

Though the brown-haired teen looked as though she didn't want to fight, a grin quickly formed on her features. "Well...I guess I'll finally get to see just how strong you two really are." she hummed out in an excited tone, summoning her Keyblade.

"Guess you will." Larxene claimed before rushing forward with electricity instantly coating her form, making her look like a bolt of lightning streaking through the air.

Just as she reached Sora however, the teen had already ducked under her attack and rushed toward Axel. Whom blinked briefly before he lifted one of his chakrams into the air, this causing an eruption of flames to burst up from the floor in the teen's path. The fire swiftly engulfed the brown-haired girl, yet she reemerged an instant later within a large sphere of ice. Of which slammed hard into Axel, as Sora's momentum continued to propel her forward.

The red-haired individual was knocked backward from this impact, before stumbling against the wall. While the attack also caused the ice to shatter, Sora just smirked lightly as she grabbed a few of the shards in her free hand. Then, without any delay, she spun around and threw these pieces of ice at the rapidly approaching bolt of lightning that was Larxene. Before they could even reach the young woman though, the electricity reduced the ice to mere steam.

As the blond approached her foe, Sora immediately moved to the side in order to avoid the brunt of the attack. However, many sparks and bolts of electricity still shocked through her while Larxene passed by. Yet despite also being in a direct path to hit Axel, the older teen suddenly changed direction and came to a stop. At the same time, Sora then dodged and flipped over the red-haired man's chakrams.

Gaining a bit of distance from the two, Sora smiled a bit as she was a bit impressed by the pair's cooperation. 'They do seem to have a bit of teamwork going, but it doesn't seem very well practiced.' she thought to herself, an amused grin tugging at her cheeks.

With a quick glance to the two though, Sora then flipped her Keyblade in a reverse grip and crouched slightly. Seeing this pose, Axel couldn't help but blink briefly as he knew he'd seen it before. But he quickly had to dodge to the side as the teen threw her weapon in a wide spinning arc. This also making Larxene duck out of the way before both she and the man rushed at the brown-haired girl.

Her actually seeming to be waiting for the two, as her hands were up in a defensive stance. With a blaze of flames, and burst of lightning, the pair threw their weapons at Sora. Said girl moving out of way of these attacks, yet was instantly bared down upon by the two, as they were already in front of her. Sora being in mid-dodge when her opponents' weapons returned to their hands, to which they immediately slashed them toward her.

Watching this with a narrowed gaze, the teen caught her Keyblade in the same moment. This allowing her to bring it up to block Axel's chakram, all while catching Larxene by the wrist. Though she managed to stop these attacks, the pair then stabbed their other weapons toward the girl. Both smirking ever so slightly as they actually appeared curious if the teen was somehow going to escape. Of which, she actually did manage to do.

By leaning to the side and letting Larxene's blades pass by her face, she used her hold on the young woman's wrist to block Axel's weapon. Once she did this, Sora blinked briefly, as if surprising herself. But she then just forced the pair back a few steps with a shove, before moving forward and drop kicking them in the stomach. As the two hit the wall behind them, Sora landed hard on the ground. "Ow..." she uttered out silently in a groan, to which she then flipped herself back to a standing position.

"Note to self...drop kicks are cool to look at, but really painful to do." Sora continued to herself, rubbing her now very sore backside.

Grunting and huffing from pain, Axel and Larxene pushed themselves off the wall, which now had indents in the shape of their bodies. With a near growl, the blond almost seemed to glare at Sora before shoving the red-haired man when he wobbled a bit too close to her. "Alright, that's it." she called out before rushing forward with great speed.

The young woman now looking more like a beam of light as she blasted herself at Sora. Whom smirked slightly while readying her Keyblade and angling it slightly. This making it so that when Larxene thrust her daggers forward, she was deflected down at the ground. As her attack hit the floor, it cracked heavily and sent a surge of electricity all throughout the entire room. Both Sora and Axel however, leapt into the air to avoid the large wave of lightning.

As she turned her gaze up to the teen, said girl was already coming down with a downward slash. Something she managed to avoid, thanks to the red-haired man throwing both chakrams against the weapon, causing it to miss. With a quick roll and leap backward, Larxene rejoined Axel as they both stared toward Sora in silence. "We're not really getting anywhere, huh." the latter of the two muttered silently.

"Oh, ya think?" the former stated in a sarcastic manner, rolling her eyes as she did.

Axel took in and let out a breath as he then smiled lightly; "In that case, we should end this with a final attack." he stated, sounding almost overt in the way he spoke.

Though the blond turned to him with a gaze that showed she didn't want to end the fight yet, she just nodded slowly in response. "Fine." was all she said, to which the pair then held their hands out.

"We'll be putting all of our power into this attack, so don't hold back." Axel declared, still seeming blatant with the implications behind his words.

Sora tilted her head to the side ever so slightly in curiosity, yet she gave a slow nod in response. "Alright...I won't." she said in an almost soft manner, hiding a small smile on her face.

The girl dismissed her Keyblade and slowly shifted her body so it faced the two fully. She then placed both hands together and closed her eyes, a massive white magic circle appearing under her feet. It covering over half the hall as the teen's opponents continued to gather large amounts of fire and lightning magic in front of them. But as they watched this circle form, they couldn't help but blink a few times in surprise, neither one knowing what this spell was.

Within the complex design of this circle, there being a series of five smaller circles in a star formation. The one pointing directly ahead was glowing a fiery-red, while the two at either side were an icy-blue and a sparking-yellow, respectfully. The last pair were a greyish-white and a vibrant green that looked similar to the hue of healing magic. As Sora smiled lightly to Axel and Larxene, she simply offered a nod before whispering; "Ultimate Magic Blitz."


Alright, we're slowly coming to the end of this part of the story...again. We'll probably have a few chapters more than what there was previous, so look forward to that. Unfortunately I could only do chapters 20 and 21 this week. I got halfway through 22 before I just ran out of inspiration. But since I already have a head start, it should make it easier to get 22-24 done for next week. I hope all of you enjoyed this chapter. Until next time.