The "battle" reminds me of Joshua's Jericho, if that means anything to ya'll.
Chapter 13: Surprising Defeat
"In order to walk, you must put your heads together and know which foot to move, where to move it—you four are the brains of this body. But your own minds must know exactly what they want at the same point for the cat to respond. I'm sorry that I can't be of more assistance, but I've got to go help the ground cause."
The Water Dragon vanished once again. Molly walked to the cage and descended to the floor. She winked up at the four teenagers and dove into the churning water below.
"We're alone inside a giant cat, underground, and it doesn't look like we're getting out any time soon," Criss mumbled. "What'll we do?"
"The only thing we can do," Riku shrugged. "Walk."
"How're we supposed to get this thing to walk?"
"Like the Water Dragon said," Kairi smiled. "Our minds have to agree."
"So, if we all want to cat's right paw to move forward..." Sora said. The crystal cat shook, but the chairs in the middle only swayed a little as the giant cat's right paw took a step. "I guess that's it."
"If we all just thought 'walk forward', do you think it would listen to that?" Criss asked. Instantly, the cat began to walk of its own accord, without stopping. "I guess ambiguity isn't much of a problem."
"I wonder if we could just get out of the tunnels?" Sora asked. "It's too big to just walk through them."
"You forget," Riku smirked. "We live on a world where anything is possible. Think 'get to the surface'."
The cat shrank to about seven feet tall, small enough to get through the tunnels, but big enough to allow them breathing room. Although Criss stopped thinking about the surface, the cat continued to the rushing water.
"I guess it continues following a command till we give it another," Sora shrugged. "What do you think this cat is going to be able to do? And why us? Riku, Kairi, and me aren't even from this world."
"I think it was always you, Sora," Riku said. Finally, he'd pieced together the puzzles, and it had clicked on a light inside his head. "Because you're the Keyblade Master and Kairi is the Princess of Hollow Bastion. Criss is a mage of the Ages, the strongest, according to Molly."
He stood from his red seat, watching the outside from the eyes of the cat. They ran along the tunnels, ladders and stones flashing by. Criss stood, too, to stand beside him. Sora and Kairi joined them at the other eye, but Criss didn't notice. To her, Riku looked torn, like something did seem right.
"I didn't...I didn't know what it was that I had that made me the Sakimi-Tama, the Soul of Love. Then I realized...I had things in common with the Father of the Heartless."
Criss gave a double take, yelping. "What?!"
"By the way you said that silver was the color of royalty, I figured out that Yan has silver hair, just like me. His eyes are aqua, like mine, or so I think. He was willing to do whatever it took to get what he wanted." He sighed, glancing at Kairi, quickly. Criss almost didn't catch it. "I was willing to give myself to the darkness to get off that wretched island. And...the one thing I loved blinded me from everything else.
"Until...I came here. Something about this place broke me from my own spell. I guess its because I was stronger than Yan, able to love something else, that I'm the Sakimi-Tama."
"I guess...that makes sense," Criss said. "It makes perfect sense. Of course, we won't know until we actually meet him."
"You mean you've never seen Yan before?" Riku was surprised.
"Nope. He stays in his fortress all the time."
At last, the cat came to a halt just outside of the tunnel. The Shikon surveyed the land before them. Miles of farm led straight into the streets of Yan-Shu. Whatever crops might have been there were undeterminable. Because, about a mile to the left and a mile to the right and three straight ahead, people stood in the fields. Criss gaped at them, eyes wide as dinner platters and mouth dropped.
"Everyone on Yan-Shu must be here!" she gasped.
At the head of the crowd stood YaYa, Molly, Bar, Mars, and the messengers from Nekopolis. Standing between Mars and Bar, her arms draped casually over their shoulders, was the lovely Shu. YaYa's army stood in arms, their chests crisscrossed with ammunition. The Nekopolitans carried a haggard stockpile of weapons and armor that ranged from as simple as a slingshot and stones to as complex as beaded armor, hand-held automatic elephant rifles, and a thousand other means of destruction.
And farther back were the normal townspeople, armed with whatever weapons they could find. It was a ragged group, huge in number, small in tactical talent. But they were the only hope of saving their world.
"I see you found your way out, Shikon!" Shu shouted up at them. "We are ready for your commands!"
However, on the opposite end of the fields, where the cat had joined the leaders of the rebellion, an army of two hundred and one marched seamlessly forward. The black Children were each different, each uglier than the last. Some had seven eyes on stalks that all swung around of their own accord, and some had teeth that looked like tyrannosaur jaws, while still more stood on feet like needles.
At the head of this crowd...was Riku.
Except Riku was right next to Criss.
Which was completely impossible.
Yet there he was, in garb similar to Yan's Children. A black heart struck through, with four chambers, the red sickliest of all, patched on his chest. Criss glanced at Riku, then down at the man who stood below.
"Yan!" Shu called over the crowd. "You're going down. This is our last stand! The last stand of Nekopolis!"
"This is my world, Shu," said Yan below. In the instant that she heard his voice, she knew this wasn't Riku. "If you want to take it from me and my Children, you must kill me—a cat!"
The crowd fell silent. Yan's entire visage had changed so suddenly that it stunned even his Children.
"A cat, a cat! Oh, how precious! Come here, kitty. Please?"
It was then that Criss realized that he was talking about them.
"That's why it was a cat," she said. "He can't help but love them."
"Then let's go to him," Riku said. He took his seat, the others following quickly. "There can't be two people in the same world with my face. Especially not one as evil as he is."
The cat lurched forward. Just as they were about to reach Yan, Criss noticed a movement out of the corner of the cat's eyes. She ordered the cat to stop, and it did. Riku looked around the interior.
"What happened?"
"I stopped it. Something's wrong with the Children. Look."
The four leapt from their seats for a closer look. The Children looked up at the cat, then down at their Father as one. They seemed almost to talk to one another. A buzzing sound, like a hive full of angry bees or a dozen chainsaws going off all at once, filled the air.
Then, to the shock of all who stood present, the Children turned on their Father.
Two hundred Children attacked Yan, all at once. Criss winced as the silver was buried beneath darkness. When the Children stopped moving, Criss caught a glimpse of a lock of silver hair.
She blinked.
When she opened her eyes again, they were gone. Just like that. Gone. No Yan. No Children. Nothing but the blank farmscape before her. Riku tugged on her shirt. She turned to him, but he was looking straight up. Following his gaze, she saw something she hadn't seen for five long, long years.
A star.