Wootah: On with the Anti-battles! This chapter is entirely fighting, as is the next one. Good stuff, eh? Then it's on to HB. My brother's Eagle Ceremony is tomorrow. Anyways, I can't wait to do the next chappie, since I've known its uber-cool ending almost since I first came up with Stromwind and the Windgates. Welp, read and review, everyone!
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The Heartless, a vague imitation of his brother in form only, hissed at Arc, then leapt forwards, wicked night-black claws extended.
He parried with his sword, then shoved, throwing the Anti-Dar'ck back. It landly lightly, then sprung forwards again, catching him by surprise. Arc reeled back as claws slashed at his shirt, leaving bloody red gashes. Quickly recovering, he swung with his right, his shield catching the Heartless in the head, slamming it to the floor. It hit the ground wetly, splashing like water into a dark puddle which quickly dispersed.
"Where'd it go?" he said, looking about in the half-lit gloom. Something stirred to his right, and he jumped to face it. There was nothing. "Crap..."
Something grabbed his leg, and jumped backwards. He slashed at the tentacle of shadow with Sequence as it groped blindly after him. It dispersed, but was soon followed by others. They tore at his legs slickly, leaving a cold, numbing sensation where they touched him. He stumbled back away from the swaying arms, tearing his legs out of their grasp and slashing wildly with his sword.
"Damn..." he cursed as his back tapped against the wall behind him.
A tentacle split at its end, forming fingers until it was a hand, soon followed by others, which merged with it. They came twisting together before him, hands becoming fingers, arms becoming a hand. The giant shadow hand, almost as big as Arc, reared back, then swung forwards to crush him.
"Back off!" he shouted, swinging Sequence. The sword cut deeply into the offending limb, which reared back in pain. He smashed it with his other hand before it could recover from the first blow, then raised his sword arm back to finish it off.
He felt his arm go numb as tendrils of darkness encircled it, coming from the gloom of the wall behind him.
"Oh..." he whispered softly as he looked up at his arm, entangled in the essence of the Heartless. He gasped as dark coils encircled his throat, pulling him back. His body pressed against the wall as the dark arms wrapped around him, strangling him, crushing him against the cold stone with their even colder grip. His entire body felt numb, empty.
The hand of darkness flowed and morphed, standing taller. Soon, the Dar'ck shaped Heartless stood before him, watching hungrily as he slowly died.
-
"You're not Sora!" shouted Orchid as she struck with the keyblade. The Heartless parried easily with its own shadow of a keyblade, and they bothed watched each other warily. The Anti-Sora blinked coldly, then sunk into the floor. "What?"
She watched warily as it skittered around on the floor like a shadow, zig-zagging this way and that. She turned quickly as it went around her, then jumped in surprise as it charged right at her. She landed lightly just as it went under her, turning just in time to watch it spring up from the floor, dark keyblade swinging.
Orchid cried out in pain as the blade struck her in the shoulder, leaving it cold and numb as she dodged back. The Heartless walked slowly towards her, then shifted strangly, seeming to blur before her.
"What the...?"
Suddenly, multiple images of the dark keyblade weilding boy were before her, walking in all different directions. Confused, she lunged and swung at the one heading towards her. The Glass Rose passed through like it was smoke, and it disappeared instantly. She hesitated for a second in surprise, then stumbled forwards as she was hit in the back. Turning, she faced the two Heartless there. They both split, going opposite directions, curving to attack her in a pincer movement. Choosing one, she headed off to the left, and struck at that one. Their blades met, then the shadows parted before her, nothing more than an illusion. Cursing under her breath, she turned just in time to block and be knocked back by the other shadow of Sora.
She was about to charge it, when it puddled into the ground again. It and the three remaining shadows shuffled around her, moving erratically, and despite her best efforts, causing her to lose track of the real one. They came up again, surrounding here, one in each of the four directions. She turned, trying to decide which one was real, pivoting uncertainly. She was unprepared when they all rushed her.
Four blades connected, and she screamed in cold, numbing agony.
-
It was so cold. Yet, that just made everything crisper, clearer for him. It was all laid out before him with clarity like he had never seen with before. It was useless. All of this struggle was useless. Everything started in darkness; everything would end in darkness. That's just the way it was. He could see it clearly. Why couldn't he before? Why did he think he had to fight before?
Arc struggled in his mind to remember what it was all for. Why had he been fighting? This journey... all it had gained him was bruises and hurts, wounds and pains. Nothing but pain. If he fought now, he would just hurt more. And for what? So he could continue living? Continue hurting? It wasn't worth it.
Something shook inside of him, there in the darkness. This wasn't right. He had been fighting for a reason. That reason was... that it was right. That he was helping people. That he made them happy, saved them. People like... his friends. Orchid. Montblanc. Squall, Zell, Cloud, Aerith, even Yuffie and Rikku. People like Ricksen, and Melina. Like his brother Dar'ck. Like Jenine.
Jenine.
Her smile. The way she was always smiling about every little thing. How she was always tinkering with things, curious to know what made them tick. Her fascination with how things worked. How she enjoyed the life of things, even things that weren't alive. How she enjoyed life. And that she loved him.
He remembered the soft brush of her lips against his.
"No!" he screamed. Darkness shattered around him, like nightmares in the morning sun. The Heartless dodged back quickly, narrowly avoiding his sword swing as he broke free of his draining prison of depression. Fractured shadow arms pulled back into the gloom of the walls, sliding around to return to their master, which watched cautiously, hissing at the man in frustration and open hatred. Arc stepped forwards slowly, pushing his tinted lenses up over his eyes. "Nice try. But not good enough."
He leaped up into the air, then came down hard, shield first. The Heartless dodged out of the way, but not before he caught it in the arm with Sequence. It hissed angrily, then slashed at him wildly, forcing him back and giving him several nasty cuts. He blocked the next few blows with his shield, then faked a punch with it and caught the Heartless with the sword again. It opened its jagged mouth, then opened it more than it should have been able to, its mouth becoming its whole body. Then the Heartless lunged forwards at him, engulfing him in its darkness.
The dark mass was still. Then it shifted slightly. There was a shaking.
"Not gonna work again!" yelled Arc, bursting out of the Heartless suddenly. The pieces of darkness scattered about, quickly gathering back into the Anti-Dar'ck. Arc stood there, breathing heavily and wiping a little blood off the corner of his mouth as he eyed the Heartless angrily. He spat red on the floor, then snarled, "Okay. Let's go, punk."
-
Orchid's body twisted and fell limply to the floor, her legs giving out beneath her. Propping herself on one arm, she couged wetly, then got unsteadily to her feet, cautiously eyeing the four Heartless. Swaying a little, she swung the keyblade in front of her, the Glass Rose slicing swiftly through the air.
"Well," she said, holding the blade confidently in front of her, "if I can't tell which one of you is the real one... Then I guess I'll just attack all of you!"
She swung the keyblade to the side, going into a crouch as she faced the shadow before her.
"Moonlight Rave!"
She sped forwards, quickly blurring out of sight. She appeared immediatly behind the Heartless, turning gracefully, pivoting on one foot with keyblade held lightly in one hand, as if part of a dance.
"Step!"
She blurred
again in the direction of the next Anti-Sora. It stumbled as the
Glass Rose struck it, and she appeared behind it.
"Step! Step! Step!"
In quick succession, she continued her path around, striking the other two shadows, and finishing in the center of the room, where she started. As she turned lightly on her feet, the shadows parted, and only one Heartless was left.
"Finale!"
She blurred out again, and explosions rang out about the dark figure. Dark essence spattered in the air, only to be sucked into the keyblade as it passed. But when she turned, it was still there. Standing there, eyeing her coldly.
"Well...now I know which one's it," she grinned. Then she lunged again.
-
"Planet Diver!"
Unnatural flames burst out around Arc as he came slamming down on the Heartless. It burst apart into inky darkness, then formed spikes in the air, and came slamming back. He grunted in pain as they cut into him, then jumped back, clutching his side with his right and weilding his sword in his left.
"That the best you can do?" he taunted.
The shadows became a Heartless again, long haired and staring. It hissed from its jagged mouth, then darkness slid across the floor from its feet, lashing up from the ground in front of Arc. He cut at the dark tentacles, then charged forwards. He jumped to the side as it lashed out at him with its claws. It jumped back out of the way of his counterattack, then raised its hand before it.
Dark arms came pouring from the ground, reachind out to grab Arc. He shuffled back, but the arms extended. One caught his ankle, and he slashed free from it with his sword, but another got his leg, then another and another. He cut wildly at the hands, but they continued to multiply and lengthen, grasping him, encircling him. He gasped as one started crushing his throat, the cold numbness spreading through out his body. Struggling to move, he did his best to break free, but their grip was too strong.
He watched as the Heartless's hand, still raised before it, slowly closed. The shadow hands gripping him melded back into the single giant hand, slowly crushing his body in its grasp. He tried to wriggle free, but it was no use.
Then, with one decisive movement, the Anti-Dar'ck, the shadow of his brother, slammed its clawed fist closed.
Arc's head lashed back as he screamed in agony, the shadows closing in with monumental force, crushing his body, his soul, his very being. The darkness exploded around him, then returned to its master, leaving him limp and broken on the floor.
The Heartless smiled a wide, jagged grin. Finally, it would sate its hunger.
It walked slowly over to the motionless figure. It stood over him, watching the blood ooze out from underneath the body. Then it slowly bent over, reaching one clawed hand down to pick its meal up.
A hand, cold and mechanical, shot up and grabbed its wrist.
Arc grinned up at it through the blood that stained his face. The shadow hardly had time to react before it found itself being turned and flung over his body, landing hard on its back. It quickly scrambled to its feet, only to find a sword point at its throat.
"Checkmate."
-
Orchid blocked the attack, then counterattacked, hitting the Heartless in the side. It winced, then dodged back, shadow keyblade held before it. It started to warp and blur then.
"Oh, no you don't!" shouted the girl. She ran forwards and quickly attacked the Anti-Sora, destroying the illusions as soon as it created them. The Heartless sank into the floor, then skittered around her, then straight under. Expecting this, the girl was already turning when it passed, and blocked as it leapt out of the ground and attacked. What she didn't expect was this one to be a shadow illusion, and the real one to appear behind her. "Damn-!"
She hit floor hard, struck in the back. Scrambling to her feet, she barely managed to block the flurry of strikes that came next. In a slight pause, she pushed forwards and started her own series of strikes. The Heartless dodged back, trailing shadows that blocked her, then melted like smoke, surrounding and moving erratically as the Anti-Sora attempted to lose her in a maze of clones. She was so busy cutting through the swathe of images that she almost missed it when the real one dodged around and entered the crowd of itself. Wary, she jumped back as one of the shadows struck, then dodged as another did also. She blocked the next strike, then, taking a risk, turned and let the next one attack her back. The blade passed through her, only an illusion. This move bought her the time needed to bring up the keyblade and block the next strike.
There was a resounding clang, and all of the shadows disappeared, leaving one set of glowing eyes glowering at her from behind its blade. The Heartless pushed, trying to break her guard, and she let it forwards until she was sure it was over extended, then suddenly pushed back, sending it stumbling backwards from her.
"Now!" she yelled, charging
at it while it tried to regain its balance. "Meteor
barrage!"
The rose of her keyblade burst into color,
trailing the fires like the tail of a comet as she struck. The
Heartless staggered from the blow, unable to block in time.
"Slam!"
She struck again, this time from the other side, catching the Heartless in the jaw.
"Slam!"
This blow went downwards, catching the shadow on top of the head, sending it stumbling.
"Slam, slam, slam!"
She struck three more blows, the last one an uppercut, sending the Heartless flying into the air. She leaped up after it, hovering above it for a second as she readied the now power-infused keyblade.
"Apocalypse!"
Energy
charged around the blade, then she was slamming downwards, straight
through the helpless figure of darkness. The very tower shook with
her impact as she hit the floor, the Heartless exploding into
darkness behind her. The inky particles hung in the air for a second,
then were sucked irresistably down into the keyblade.
"Now...who's at the top?" she asked quietly as she stood and started walking towards the stairs.
-
The Heartless made to move back and meld into the gloom again, but Arc lunged forwards and quickly struck.
"Clockwork Dragon!"
His
arms blurred blue with the essence of time, then his blade and
mechanical hand snaked out like striking serpents, catching the
Anti-Dar'ck square in the chest. It stumbled back as blow after blow
rained down on it, faster than any human could possibly strike.
Hissing high enough almost to the point of shrieking, it covered its
head with its darkly clawed hands, unable to stop the attacks
slamming down on it.
"Wings of the Dragon, fly into the Azure Sky!"
The was a burst of darkness as he struck, and explosions rang out all around him. Dark globules of liquid squirted through the air as wounds barely held shut burst open with the force and stress of this last move. Arc collapsed on the ground in a mist of his own blood, landing hard on the stone.
"Well...I guess it's up to you now, little bud," he said softly. Then he closed his eyes, and gentle quiet enveloped him in soft, welcoming darkness.
-
"That's better," said Orchid as she tossed the empty bottle behind her and continued up the stairs. The hi-potion had taken care of most of the wounds she had endured during the last fight. She wondered how Arc was doing, and if he was already at the top. She got her answer fairly soon when she stepped out onto the roof of the tower, empty save for one man. He stood in the middle of a complex series of designs, a large wooden mace, tall enough to be a staff, held lightly in one hand. He was clothed in boots and leather pants, and nothing else excepting a bearskin, its arms draped over his shoulders and chest. He was large and well muscled, and his blocky jaw sported a light beard. His long, dirty blonde hair spiked back wildly, and his eyes were cold and dangerous. He cast no shadow, there under the starlit sky.
"Welcome, young Keyblade Master," he said quietly.
"Open the gates," she said.
"You mean bring down the barrier that prevents you from invading our stronghold?" he asked. He laughed, a rough, barking thing. "I gave your intelligence more credit than that, Flower of Arcadia. You know as well as I do that the only way that barrier is going down is if you fight me, and win. And you won't win."
"And why not?" she asked.
"Because nearly half your strength is your magic," the man explained. "And I've sealed all of it here. But all of my powers work fine. Nothing can seal the Windgates. You will die by their fury."
"The what?" said Orchid, bewildered. "Who are you?"
"I am Stromwind," said the druid. "And I am the last person you shall ever see."
