6H:I left you with such an awful cliffie last time, didn't I?

Anaretsu: I hear no anwser.

6H: Duh! Whatever. Here's the next chapter where you find out if Cedeile and Aru die.

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Kingdom Hearts-Shattered Fragments

Fragment 18-Return of the Dragon

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"AHHHHH!"The two screamed, facing a fall to their inescapible deaths. Cedeile shot her eyes open, and extended her hand, praying that this would work.

There was a violent swinging motion as they swung from the edge platform. Aru opened her eyes.

"We aren't dead?"

"Not yet." Cedeile replied, gradually pulling the two of them up onto the ledge. Aru let out a sigh of releif.

"You really had me scared, you know?" she scolded. "Don't ever do that again."

"Like I tried to nearly kill us." Cedeile retored sarcasticly. The heartless stood before them ready to attack. "I bet that the mask monster is sending these things after us."

"Yeah. We can't keep fighting them, or we'll run out of strength."

"Why do you say that? Is your MP low?" Cedeile asked worried.

"No, it's fine! I'm just thinking reasonably." But before she could continue, a Heartless lashed out towards them. Cedeile jumped backwards, flying through the air and looking down on the heartless. She landed smoothly on a ledge above, sighing.

"How stong do you think Mask face is?"

"Really strong. The power in that room when I was attacking it..."

"Stronger than Lady Chain?"

"Lady Chain didn't even begin to use her power on us. Even when she was going to kill you guys, she had done it with little effort. So I have no doubt that thing will be as strong or stronger." Aru explained. Cedeile sighed. It felt like everything was against them. Behind them came a surprise attack as an armored heartless broke out of the ledge. Cedeile jumped up into the air, doing a flip and landing on a ledge on the other side of the mountain-house. Just when she got her footing, more heartless appeared.

"I'll get you!"

"No, Cedeile! Jump! I'll get them!" Cedeile did just that. Aru put her hands together, forming her fingers as if she was holding a gun. "FIRA SHOT!" she called, and as if pulling the trigger of a real gun, several fire balls decended below them. Cedeile continued jumped through the air, almost flying from ledge to ledge. Aru stopped the heartless with her new attack. "FIRA SHOT!"

"Aru! What about your MP?"

"It's fine. Fira shot takes so little MP, that my MP can fully charge between each shot."

"Nice!" Cedeile was about to land on another ledge, when it crumbled due to a heartless attack on it. "Damn it!" Cedeile cursed as she felt them falling. Aru grabbed onto Cedeile tighter. Using quick thinking, Cedeile put her feet against the wall, sliding down it as they fell. Useing it as a if it was flat, she pushed herself off it and went for a nearby platform. "Whew. Glad that worked."

"Didn't I tell you not to nearly kill us again!" Aru yelled. Cedeile sighed in relief, ignoring the magician, and looked around.

"It's pretty far up from here. And it's even farther to the ground." she mumbled. "Man, where is Ryu! I thougth his sword would be fixed by now!"

"You never know. Maybe they got attacked."

"D-don't say that!" Cedeile trembled. "Besides...Ryu can fight without his sword...right?"

"I don't know. But it's probably not very likely that they got there. So his sword probably isn't fixed yet is all." The two looked at the ground far, far, far below them. Then they both looked to the top, just as far away.

"Well...let's just keep going then." She was about to launch herself into the air when a fireball crashed into the building beside them. They looked out to see a huge, flying, black phoinex. The heartless symbol was strewn across it's back. "Damn it! How do we fight that thing?" Aru climbed off of Cedeile's back and watched the huge bird fly around.

"It seems strong." she said, her eyes following it's every movement.

"Since when is a monster not strong?" Cedeile remarked. They watched as it flew back past them, leaving a gust of wind in it's wake. "You know what! I don't care if this is a town of masks!" she said. She lifted her mask off her face and threw it into the wind. "I can't fight with that damn thing on!"

"Cedeile!" Aru exclaimed.

"What? I'll just get another before anyone from town sees us. You can do that right?" She asked, not worried in the least bit.

"Of course, but that's not the point." Another fireball nearly hit them. Cedeile glared at the beast and summoned her heartblade.

"Okay, you idiotic heartless!"

"Cedeile!"

"It's not like anyone can hear me anyway! Anyway, you, you demon from hell, are going back to where you came from! I'm gonna purify you!" She jumped off the ledge just as it was passing and landed on it's back. Taking a second to gain her balance, she searched for a weak point. "Okay, I see... your weakest point-your neck!" So Cedeile began slashing at it's neck. It screeched in pain-every slash erupting with a stream of light. Aru stood on the ledge, giving Cedeile support fire when needed.

The plan worked great for awhile, until the phoniex got angry and started doing barrel rolls to try and knock Cedeile off. She clutched onto the huge bird as it spun around through the air. It even flew up into the sky, just anything to get the agonizing human off it's back.

As they rose, approaching the top of the house-turned-mountain, Cedeile looked over to see the masked monster standing in the middle of the flat platform that was the very top. And orange surface layed below it, as some wall curved around part of the area in the back. Cedeile glared at the monster, as it stood there, one clawed hand over it's face, as if in sorrow. The bird still flew higher, through the clouds above and into the atmoshpere. Cedeile, still holding tight with one hand, let her hand with the heartblade come free. She aimed at a spot on the neck.

"Take this, for a promise I made long ago!" she cried, remebering the last night on the island.

"I promise! We'll see them together!

"I promise too!" 'Sora! I didn't forget our promise! You're my best friend, and I won't die before we meet up again. We'll go see other worlds together! Just like when we dreamed as kids!' she thought, invisioning the last glimpses she had gotton of him. A few tears streamed behind her as she squeezed her eyes shut before unleashing her attack. A bright light came from the end of the heartblade, erupting and engulfing the bird and Cedeile. It screamed in agony as Cedeile gently floated off of it, falling gently down through the light. She slowly opened her dark emerald eyes.

"Ce-"She heard from the distance, like a voice from a memory.

"Sora?" she asked before blacking out and falling down out of the light and through the air.

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A cloaked figure ran up to the house mountain at tremedous speed, then leaped into the air. It flew up the side of the building, the wind blowing aginst him. Ryu had rushed to the house when he saw the big black bird flying around, knowing that it was a heartless. He figured that Cedeile and Aru would need his help. He landed on a ledge to take a rest when a bright flash of light in the sky caught his attension. The black bird had become engulfed in it.

"What the?" he asked, looking up at it in shock. "What if-CEDEILE!" he yelled, persuing upward. 'Cedeile-you promised that you wouldn't be killed! You can't die on me yet!" he yelled in his mind, extremely worried about the black haired girl.

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Benida carefully moved along the ledge, holding onto the wall tightly as she went. Slowly she moved to the edge and looked down. It was very far. Even though she wasn't nearly as high as Aru or Cedeile, it was still quite far. She grimaced at the thought of falling.

"No! I have to be strong..."she whimpered. She went to move to the edge so she could lower herself to the next ledge when she slipped. Screaming, a million paniced thoughts ran through her mind, until strong hands grabbed her sides and lifted her back onto the platform. she clutched onto the wall scared, and realised that someone was with her. She turned to look at her savior- a guy with a dragon mask, that rested on the top of his head...his face was revealed. His dark navy eyes looked back at her.

"Are you alright?" Ryu asked her. She nodded, enchanted by his deep eyes. "Have you seen a girl with black hair in a braid?

"Um...I think before in my room when that monster first showed it's true form."

"The bird?"

"No, the mask demon." Ryu looked up to the top of the mountain. He couldn't see Aru or the black bird anymore. But where was Cedeile? Suddenly, he saw it-a speck of red falling through the sky. He launched himself from the platform, heading towards it, whatever it was. Because that speck of red could be Cedeile. Benida watched him zoom up the mountain and sighed. "Maybe...I just won't tell papa that you removed your mask..."she whispered to him.

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Ryu willed himself to fly faster towards the falling red. When he started to get closer, he could tell it was Cedeile. As he flew upward, he passed where Aru stood. she watched surprised as he passed.

"Ryu? He must've gotton his sword fixed!" she said happily and began to try on scale the mountain herself. Ryu got closer and saw the Cedeile was falling very fast. He had one chance at this...only one shot. He landed briefly on a ledge and then pushed himself off with great force, zooming upward to the unconcious girl. He grabbed onto her, almost being knocked by from the colliding of oppisite forces, and landed somewhere above on a ledge. He looked as the heartblade master opened her eyes.

"...Ryu...?"

"Hey there. You alright?"

"Of course I'm fine." she said as he gently let her down. "Sora protected me."

"Who?"

"My friend. Right before I started falling, I heard his voice calling out to me."

"You know, I was worried about you and Aru. Look at the mess you got yourselves into." He said, trying hard to not show how worried he was. She smiled at him.

"Um...Ryu? You can let me go now." she said to him simply. Ryu blushed and took his arms away-he'd had no idea he had been holding her like that after he put her down. "Hey! Isn't this like when you kidnapped me?"

"I did NOT kidnap you!" he yelled. She laughed at him. Aru climbed up behind them.

"Ryu! I thought I saw you before. Are you okay, Cedeile?"

"Couldn't be better! Now, let's get to the top of this thing and fast." They all looked to the top of structure and were about to depart when another black phoinex soared down, shooting fire balls at them. Cedeile smacked her forehead. "Ugh! I'm really sick of these stupid heartless!"

"And I'm not going to rescue you from a death fall again." Ryu remarked, crossing his arms.

"Let's try to sneak past it to get to the top." Aru suggested. The other two nodded. Aru climbed back onto Cedeile's back and the trio was off, Cedeile and Ryu zooming from ledge to ledge to make it to the top and dodge the huge bird as well. Aru shot at it every once in awhile useing her Fira Shot. The bird swooped in close, nearly knocking into them. Ryu stopped on a ledge, grasping the handle of his sword.

"Ryu?" Cedeile called from another ledge.

"Keep going. I'll catch up. Just don't fight the mask monster without me." he said. Cedeile nodded and continued upwards. The bird swung around and came right for him. He pulled out his newly repaired sword and jumped up into the air, flipping around and landing on the bird's back. "Okay, Silver Eye. Let's see how your work holds up." And with that, he thrust it into the beast. It screeched in agony, and started to dive without any sign of pulling up. Ryu smirked, very pleased with the repairs on his sword, and he leaped back onto the structure, continuing to join his friends.

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6H: Yeah, things are getting hot!

Anaretsu: It is summer, you know.

6H:Yes. Hey, right as I'm typing this, only the first 7 chapters are posted. Isn't that funny?

Anaretsu: Don't forget the stupid trailer.

6H:Hey! I thought the trailer was good! Anyway, I'll see you all in the next chapter!