Chapter 18

"Well, well, Princess," Ururl said all of a sudden. Leia jumped at Ururl's voice suddenly filling the cave they were in. "It appears your family has come to rescue you."

"Han." Leia whispered to herself, smiling inwardly.

"But how were they able to find you, I wonder?" Ururl closed his eyes, looking for the answer, and then reopened them. "Ah, f course, it appears the Keyblade master is here as well. Perfect, I can now crush them all at once."

"No, please don't," Leia said. "You can do what you want to me, but don't hurt them."

"Ah," Ururl smiled evilly. "Ever the one to think of others before for yourself. No wonder your heart's light is so strong. But no, I think I will plan a little welcome party for them."

Han, Luke, Jaina, Sora, Donald, and Goofy slowly entered the cave entrance.

"Are you sure she's in here?" Han asked Sora.

"Yes," Sora said. "I feel her."

"Then let's go on then." Han said.

They continued on into the cave, completely dark except for where candles had been placed along the cave walls.

"Charming place," Han said sarcastically. "All you need is some drapes and you can really spruce up the place."

"Han, quiet." Luke said. "Something's up ahead."

Han brought his blaster up and Luke and Jaina ignited their lightsabers. Sora also brought his Keyblade to attack position, as did Donald and Goofy with their weapons. The extra light from the lightsabers allowed them to see more of the cave, but nothing in it.

"Luke, are you sure something was there?" Sora asked.

"Yes, I definitely heard something."

Donald and Goofy both gulped.

Suddenly thunderous footsteps began to approach them. The entire cave shook as three giant creatures came out of the darkness. They resembled the creature that Sora and Jaina fought on Coruscant, only much smaller, but still big enough to cause some trouble.

"Heartless." Sora said.

"Like the one from before." Jaina said.

The Heartless continued to approach.

"So how are we going to do this?" Jaina asked

"Sora, Jaina, you take the one on the right," Luke said. "Donald, Goofy, can you take the one on the left?"

"Sure." Donald said.

"And Han and I will take the last one in the center," Luke said, by the time the center monster was right on top of him. "Now!"

Luke ducked as the Heartless swung three of its arms at him, and tried to dodge as the other three came at him, but he was not quick enough. Luke was thrown back against the cave wall. The Heartless then turned to Han, who was firing his blaster at it.

"Come on, just die already!" Han said after firing his blaster at it many times, but the beast just kept on coming. It roared as it approached Han, the blaster shots doing nothing. Once it got close enough, the Heartless knocked the blaster out of Han's hand, sending it flying away. Then it picked Han up in all six of its arms and started squeezing him. Han groaned in pain as he heard many things breaking when suddenly a shaft of green light emitted from the monster's chest. For a moment it looked surprised, but then, releasing Han from it grasp, slumped over onto the floor, dead. It then dissipated into tiny dark blobs and disappeared into nothingness. Luke stood where the monster had been, gasping.

"Thanks, Luke." Han said, recovering from the attack. He then retrieved his blaster from where it had fallen, fortunately still in one piece.

"Welcome." Luke said.

Meanwhile Jaina and Sora had their hands full as well. Sora was using the incredible power of his Forceuser Keyblade. As the monster used its arms to thrash Sora, Sora one by one blocked each of the arms, causing the monster to roar in pain. Jaina then jumped in and began striking it with her lightsaber but before she could, the Heartless opened it mouth and shot out a beam of dark energy. Jaina barely had enough time to get out of the way.

"That's a new trick." Jaina said. "Have to watch out for that one."

As Sora and Jaina fought their beast, Donald and Goofy also fought theirs. But as both groups fought, they suddenly realized they were both on top of each other, with two Heartless surrounding the four of them.

"Donald, Goofy," Sora shouted to them. "Let's get them together."

They both nodded, understanding what Sora wanted to do, and combined their magic power to use the Trinity Limit. A circle of white light with strange markings appeared beneath them as Sora jumped into the air, backflipped, and hit his Keyblade in the center of the circle. A blinding white flash appeared for a few seconds and when it was gone both the Heartless were lying dead.

"Good job, guys." Sora said.

"But, Sora, something's wrong," Jaina said. "The Heartless bodies are still here. Shouldn't they have disappeared if they were dead?"

Apprehension began to dawn on Sora's face as he turned to the Heartless lying on the ground. He could only watch what happened next. Both of the monster Heartless opened their mouths, the dark energy beam aimed right for him. Knowing he did not have enough time to dodge or block the attack, he braced for the end, when he suddenly felt he was pushed out of the way.

"Jaina!" Sora yelled out to her as the twin beams of energy hit her. She had pushed Sora out of the way, getting hit by the dark beams instead of him. She cried out as the dark energy enveloped her.

"No, Jaina!" Sora yelled as the two Heartless creatures started to get up. Sora stared at them, his eyes burning. He brought his Keyblade up, and went for the nearest Heartless. He jumped up and slashed down, severing the monster's head from its body. It disappeared before it even touched the floor.

The other monster however had fully risen and was coming straight towards Sora. Sora just looked at the monster, aimed his Keyblade and said "Fire".

A huge fireball, bigger than he had ever made before from the spell, hurtled toward the Heartless. It completely enveloped the monster in a ball of flame, incinerating it. Not even ashes remained. Sora then turned to look at Donald and Goofy, who cowered as Sora looked at them.

"Sora!" Luke's voice suddenly called through the gloom, snapping Sora back from wherever he was. His eyes cleared of their fury and he turned to Luke.

"Luke, I, what, Jaina," Sora stammered, not sure what had just happened.

"Sora, where's Jaina?" Luke asked.

"Jaina, pushed me out of the way, she disappeared. Then, something happened, I don't know."

All was quiet for what seemed like forever.

"That was the Dark Side," Luke told Sora, breaking the silence. "Because I opened you up to the Force, it made you susceptible to the Dark Side of the Force, though I never thought it would affect you." Sora looked down at the ground in shame. "But, it was because you care for Jaina that happened, that you felt anger when disappeared. It is alright Sora, it was just a momentary lapse to the dark Side. Now that you know of it, it should never happen again."

"But, Luke," Sora said. "It felt so powerful."

"No, it is no more powerful than the Light Side, just faster," Luke said. "But now we must continue, for Jaina's sake, and let us hope we can do all we can to save her as well."

"In a moment," Sora said, turning to Han. "Han, I'm sorry about Jaina, I failed to help her."

"Sora, I know you're upset, so am I, but Jaina sacrificed herself to save you. And in the end, I'm sure you're going to save her."

Sora, still very upset, agreed with Han, and then they all continued their walk in the cave, one party member less.

Leia felt Jaina's disappearance in the Force like a sudden blow, nearly knocking the air out of her.

"No, not Jaina too." She began to cry, but stifled it as Ururl began to laugh.

"Ah, how the mighty Jedi have fallen. Their most powerful are now dwindling, and soon they shall all be gone, as shall the Keyblade master." He smiled, pleased with himself. "And then Master Ansem, all the Heartless shall be under my control, and you shall bow to me." He turned his inner eye back to his guests.

"Now, let us continue our game."

"Are you sure you know where we are going?" Threepio asked Artoo in the darkness of the cave.

Artoo beeped a response.

"Well, I know we have to follow them, but why so secretly?"

Artoo beeped again.

"Oh, I see." Threepio said solemnly. "What a dreary place this is." He said looking around and bumped into Artoo. "Artoo, why did you just stop."

Artoo bleeped.

"What? Oh my!" In front of Threepio and Artoo a huge mass of Shadow Heartless had gathered. "Heartless!" But then Threepio noticed that none of them have taken any notice of either of the droids. "Why have they not noticed us?"

Artoo beeped in an annoyed tone at Threepio.

"Of course, I forgot." Threepio said. "But how shall we get passed them?"

Artoo beeped a response.

"Is that the only way?"

Beep.

"Well, then," Threepio said. "Let's get to it."