6H: VOTE VOTE VOTE! Okay, time for the chapter.

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Kingdom Hearts-Shattered Fragments

Fragment 12- Moonlight Castle

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They quietly walked along the tall, black, iron fence that surrounded the huge castle. The moon sat behind it as always, making the whole face of the structure in shadow, as well as the expansive lawns leading up to the castle. Kai led the group, flying low to the ground along the fence and looking at the castle as he went, scanning the area for guards. The three fighters followed him along in the darkness, as they couldn't use their wings yet.

Suddenly, Kai landed, kneeling on one knee, and then stood fully up, nodding at them. He easily flew over the fence, while the three of them climbed up it. Landing on the grass of the other side, they scurried across the field and through the shadow of the massive building.

"Heartless, dead ahead." Ryosuke said in a calm voice. He drew out his sword and held it at ready.Cedeile summoned the heartblade, swinging it out in front of her. Kai drew his claws out. They broke through the small groups easily enough, but after they defeated them, a large flank came before them. Aru placed her one hand upright in front of her like praying, and then with her other drew a circle in the air in front of her.

"AQUA!" she yelled, and water shot from the outline of the circle, wipeing out sevral heartless. Cedeile swung the heartblade around her in a semicircle as the heartless jumped on her. But they hit the invisible wall left by the heartblade, and disappeared in a flash of light. Kai slashed through them with his claws, getting them covered in blood as he sustained damage. Ryosuke killed many easily with his sword. A few decided to drop from above him, but he spotted them and threw his sword through them, slicing each perfectly in half.

"AERO!" Aru called, summoning a pillar of wind to protect her. She had thrity heartless around her, and her magic was running low. She watched worriedly as the heartless tried to get through her sheild. Kai turned and saw the wind, as it emmited light. Aru stood inside, trembleing. Her spell wouldn't last much longer.

"Aru, hold on!" he yelled, running to the crowd of heartless. He drew out his claws as he flew in, taking out a few on his first dive. Trying to pull up so he could land, sevral heartless latched onto him, biting him arm. He threw them off, and went back at them for an assult. Finally being able to plant his feet on the ground, he started decimating them and slashing through each one by one. Cedeile saw this too, and ran over to help.

"Hey Ryosuke! Aru and Kai need help!"

"I'm sort of busy." he called from the center of a horde of heartless, slicing through two and then bringing it back around to kill another.

"Alight, I'll go then!" She ran and began plowing through some of the creatures, emitting them into pillars of light as they were purified. Aru's spell weakened and she was beginning to feel the strain. Luckly, Cedeile and Kai were able to kill all the heartless before Aru's spell completely faded.

"Aru, are you okay?" Kai asked, helping her off the ground.

"Yes. But I'm almost out of MP." she said.

"How do we get you more MP?" Cedeile asked. Aru shook her head.

"It's alright. My MP charges up on it's own. Even without combat. Let's just keep going." They resumed their trek towards Moonlight Castle.

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"Lady Chain, we have a few uninvited guests." annouced a servant, bowing.

"Who are they?" she demanded, sitting on her black throne and druming her fingers in an irrated way.

"It is the young brat who tried to break in before. This time, however, he's got the heartblade master with him."

"Oh good. Let's invite them in for a party then, shall we?" she sneered.

"My lady?" She turned to him.

"I SAID INVITE THEM IN!" she yelled. The servant trembled, falling back on the floor. She sighed and then went back to her calm self. "The heartless will have alot of fun with them..."

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So, the main doors creeked open wide when the group of rebels came up to it. They stopped dead.

"The doors are just wide open for us? Come on! How stupid does Lady Chain think we are?" Cedeile yelled. Her voice echoed across the lawn.

"You idoit! Keep it down, will you?" Ryosuke hissed. Cedeile looked at him sideways.

"The only idiot around here is the first of us to go in those doors. It's a trap." she stated. Aru slowly approached the doorway.

"Great. Aru's lost it." Ryosuke smacked his head as he watched her. She turned back to them.

"I think it's okay. There are probably some heartless inside." she proceeded to go though. Kai follwed, leaving Ryosuke and Cedeile outside.

"Well?" he asked. She sighed.

"I guess we don't have a choice." he said, and the two ran in.

Inside, the castle was grey and black. There was no lighting, but the group could see fine. A large staircase layed out before them, gently curving up the the second floor and above. Huge tapistries hung from the wall. They slowly moved forward, watching all around them for heartless.

That was when they dropped from above-some normal heartless, and some armored ones. The assult began, as the four attacked using their own weapon or style, and wiped them out, but more and more replced them.

"It's no use!" said Cedeile as she moved up the stairs. Her enemies followed, so she quickly turned and purifed them all in a flash of bright light. Continuing to run, she looked back at her comarads. "Aren't you coming?" Aru jumped over the heartless she was attacking and followed up the stairs, casting some various weaker spells as she went. Ryosuke and Kai ran to where they were, killing more heartless on the way. All four of them burst through the wooden doors at the top of the stairs, and shut the door behind them. They all let out sighs of releif until some heartless jumped down from the ceiling and blocked their way.

"Aw, damn it!" Cedeile yelled in frustration.

"Would you shut up!" Ryosuke yelled back.

"Why don't you! You don't have to purify them all!" she retorted.

"Huh?"

"It uses my energy to purify every single one." she admitted. "But I'm the only one who can do it."

"Cedeile..."Ryosuke sighed, a worried look now on his face. He turned to the others. "Guys, let leave this room and go back out there. I got the feeling that Lady Chain is somewhere on one of the higher floors. And we can find her useing this." He pulled out the fragment radar.

"Why do you say that, Ryosuke? Does Lady Chain have a fragment on her?" Aru asked. Ryosuke nodded.

"Yep.The radar is going off. She still a ways off, but she's in this castle. And she's got at least one shard on her. Let's head off. We'll just run from combat as much as possible." They all braced themselves and then threw the doors back open, heading for the stairs. Heartless followed them, but they ran onward. Kai took flight, flying to a stairway and leading the way for them.

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"Lady Chain, they are coming right for us." a servant annouced, bowing in front of her.

"What? What about the heartless?"

"They are running from them, my lady."

"No! Why haven't they killed them yet!"

"I don't know, my lady."

"Well, you shall receive them, then." she said. She withdrew a glittering peice of crystal and held it between her thumb and index finger. "THIS will make you stronger." She titled her head upward and laughed to the ceiling. The servant cowered in fear at the insane noise, afraid of what might happen to him.

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The group left the stairs and ended up in an empty, square room with a single window through which moonlight streamed through. Cedeile stepped forward.

"What do we do now?" she asked.

"Watch out." Kai said, looking around the room nervously. "There could be a trap hidden here." As soon as he finished his sentence, the servant burst in the room from a door behind Cedeile. He screamed in agony as he began to change into some kind of heartless monster. The wings on his back grew and became more demon-like. Horns burst thrugh his head. His hands became more and more unhuman, and his body lengthened. The final touch were yellow glowing eyes. When the transformation was complete, the thing before them was no longer a bat servant of Lady Chain, but a Gargoyle DemonHeartless.

"Holy!" Cedeile muttered. The creature gave a mighty roar, and launched an attack on Cedeile. She was flung across the room.

"Cedeile!" Aru screamed. She turned to the beast. She brought her hands to her sides and then raised them as if summoning a creature from the ground. "EARTHA!" she yelled, as pillars of rock flung up from the ground, damaging the monster. Kai dashed forward and jammed his claws through one shoulder of the beast as hard as he could. "AQUA SPIRIT!" Aru yelled, calling forth a mythical spirit that looked as though made of water. The spirit dashed forward and made contact. Ryosuke rushed in, attacking with his sword. While the guys kept it busy, Aru ran to Cedeile. "Her HP is at zero." she said to herself. "CURA!" she said, bringing healing light onto the heartblade master.

"Ugh...thanks, Aru."

"No problem. Now get in there. I don't know how much longer those two can hold out." Cedeile nodded, running in with her Heartblade. She attacked the monster-every point of contact sending light into the beast. Kai was vicously attacking the beast, and went to go for a wing, when the monster peirced Kai's arm, and then sent him flying into a wall.

"Kai, you okay?" Aru called. Kai hoisted himself up, but had to rest against the wall.

"Yeah..." Aru smiled breifly and then turned to face the monster.

"FIRE ARC!" she yelled, sending a firey arch hurling at the beast. Ryosuke drove his sword through a leg. The monster knelt on the ground, weakened. Ryosuke turned to Cedeile.

"Now, Cedeile! Do it!" Cedeile raised the heartblade in the air and consentrated all her energy to the staff. She thrusted it downward, hurtling a massive beam of light at the creature. The body slowly crumbled away and then ceased to exist. There was a tiny clinking noise as something fell to the floor. Ryosuke walked to it and picked it up carefully. "It's a fragment! But then, why is the radar still going off?" he took out the bottle and put the new shard inside.

"Well?"Aru asked, and Cedeile ran over as well.

"There was a fragment powering him up. I bet Lady Chain did this." Kai dragged himself over to the group.

"Geez, Kai! You fight like a madman! Are you sure you're alright?" Cedeile shook her head at him.

"I'm fine. You guys need to go and find Lady Chain."

"What about you?"

"I can't go, Cedeile. I'll just stay here until you beat her."

"You can't stay alone! It's way to dangerous." Aru insisted. "I'll just heal you and-" Kai put up a hand to stop her.

"No, don't waste your magic. The longer we sit around, the more time Lady Chain has to plan against us. Just go, you guys! Please, save Nightville!" He begged. Cedeile and Ryosuke nodded, running off. Aru was about to follow when Kai grabbed her hand.

"Kai?"

"Aru, be careful okay? Lady Chain is strong." he said. His breathing was heavy from the strain of his injury.

"I will Kai. We'll come back, I promise." she said, knowing the significance of a promise.

"Before you do run off..." he wrapped both arms around her and pulled her close. Whispering into her ear he muttered, "Let me tell you Lady Chain's weak point..."

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6H: Heh heh heh. Ending the chapter here is so evil...but I'll do it anyway! Don't forget to VOTE For Rinoa or Tifa!

Anaretsu: Stop pestering them.

6H: I'll make posters!