Kingdom Hearts: Warriors of Light
Heartless in the Night-Chapter 30
Where am I? Why is it so dark? Kita? Ti-Day? Sora? Anybody! Hello! Can someone hear me! Anybody!
"Step aside!" Beast roared as he lashed forward and sliced four heartless at once. Behind him, Hercules was spinning in circles striking every heartless who came within three feet of him. Kita had chosen to use her Atlantian keychain on her key blade to ensure a strong reach of her blade to knock out heartless. Simba was slashing heartless left and right as he circled the room trying to clear the stairwells. Kita was well aware of which direction she was moving and so kept one eye on the entrance to the lifts at all time.
Because the stairs had become heartless waterfalls, they had no choice but to back into the dried up fountain in the center of the ballroom. They would need to climb it to reach the second level and just plow their way to the lifts from there. "Move towards the fountain!" Kita commanded. She was now back to back with Hercules as they moved together in the fountain's general direction. Beast wasn't having any trouble moving forward because he was so much larger than most of the heartless anyway. Simba continued running circles around the room, up and down the stairs destroying everything in sight.
Kita bumped into the fountain first. Hercules moved behind her to stop the heartless from snagging her as she began to climb the fountain. When Beast backed into the fountain, Hercules began to climb. Beast was able to jump up without climbing because of his height and Simba just stopped running on the second level after climbing the stairs for the umpteenth time. "Come on, it's right here!" Kita said ducking down and running forward hurriedly. Hercules did the same and so did Beast and Simba to round up the group. They were directed straight through a small door that emptied into a large cylindrical stone room full of lifts that opened up to the sky. Kita ushered everyone onto the first lift in site and took off as soon as Simba landed on the lift making it sway. The heartless were left jumping up and down trying hard to reach out to the escaping warriors.
"Oh man, I thought we weren't going to make it," Hercules said breathing hard. "The heartless here really are terrible."
"I don't care how bad they are, I'm not going home till I have Belle safe with me," Beast said also huffing and puffing.
"Don't worry, she's not in as much danger as the other princesses," Kita explained. "Course now I'm a little more worried about Ni-Ne." Everyone was silent. The slow lift rides were always awkward times to have conversations. "Well, get comfy cause it's gonna be a while before we get there." Kita explained.
Riku walked up a flight of steps to meet a tall man with long white flowing hair at the top. The man was looking at a huge glowing hole in the wall in the shape of the heartless symbol that was casting green, red and blue light all over the room. Below them were seven capsule chambers, only one being occupied at the current time. As Riku reached the top platform where several machines and pipes were also located, a dark mist appeared and Maleficent stepped out of it.
"Well?" Maleficent questioned Riku as he stopped in front of her. The man with white hair was still facing the hole.
"He attacked me from the back with the Key Blade," Riku explained. "The power you gave me wasn't enough to stand against him."
"Pity, I thought you were strong and wouldn't need it anyway," Maleficent said. "But if I must give you more than so be it. Do not fail again." Maleficent raised her staff above her head and prepared to send dark magic upon Riku. However, she was cut off. The man with white hair turned to face both of them.
"Perhaps you need the 'true' power of darkness," the man said. His voice was cold and deep. His eyes glowed of bright orange like fire. "Darkness is the heart's true essence, and only when you submit to the darkness can you fully posses it's true power." Riku watch the man as he stood before him, arms folded. "Surrender to the darkness."
Riku closed his eyes and thought hard about darkness. He lifted his arms and felt the dark powers surrounding him. An aura of black and purple smoke surrounded him and almost lifted him off his feet. For a moment he was completely surrounded by the dark cloud of smoke, but when it cleared, Riku was wearing something different. It was as though his closed had meshed with his skin and he was nothing but dark blue muscle with red hands. A white, torn rag wrapped around his waist. The heartless symbol appeared on his chest. His eyes no longer had pupils. Riku was something of a dummy now. He was heartless. A devilish grin appeared on his face as he took a deep breath and looked up at the man with his empty eyes.
"Much better," the man said smiling in approval. Maleficent looked disappointed that she hadn't given him this newfound power of darkness. But Riku looked rather satisfied with the change. "And please, take this with you." The man handed Riku a key blade. It was black and sharp at the end with a dark red handle.
"Thank you Ansem," Riku said bowing his head. Riku was surrounded by the dark mist and disappeared again from the spot.
"I hope you know what you're doing," Maleficent said, still sounding angered.
"It is you who has not fully accepted the power of darkness," Ansem said. "I suggest you do so as Riku and Siren have. Now go and brake the warriors in half." Maleficent looked even more annoyed being given orders, but she disappeared anyway. Ansem left his spot from starring at the large colorful hole and instead transported himself to his bedroom chambers.
Inside, he quickly made his way to his bed, took off his coat and laid in on the bed, pulling the covers over himself. But upon closing his eyes he heard his door creek. He looked up in the dark room to see a woman's figure coming towards the bed. A pale hand reached out and slowly the woman climbed onto the end of Ansem's bed. "And what are you doing in here?" Ansem asked.
"You looked like you needed a good night 'kiss'," Siren said crawling closer to Ansem.
"No thanks," Ansem said laying his head back down pretending Siren wasn't there.
"You break my heart Ansem," Siren said pouting.
"You don't even have one," Ansem said sounding a bit annoyed.
"Neither do you," Siren said inching ever closer. She held her body over Ansem and looked down at him, her hair draping down over both of them. "Come on, just one kiss?"
"I am a married man you know," Ansem said looking into Siren's devilish yellow eyes.
"Please… you're not fooling anyone," Siren said laughing. "Kita's the only one who believes you. Besides, you treat her like crap anyway. Didn't you try to kill her once?"
"I think we both know it's a good thing I didn't succeed," Ansem said. "But what bothers me is the fact that you didn't bring her with you."
"And miss out on my chance to have a little fun with you?" Siren said. "You're not much of a romantic."
"I told you already," Ansem said looking mad. But before he could say another word, Siren planted her lips on Ansem, her tongue swimming through his mouth. Ansem didn't even try to fight her off. Instead her embraced her tightly and became more aggressive in his kissing. They began tossing around, entwined in the sheets. Ansem grabbed Sirens hands and prevented her from moving. Siren was beginning to struggle and tried to escape, but couldn't. When Ansem began kissing her neck instead, Siren took the opportunity to kick her leg up and shove Ansem off of her.
He looked at Siren with his fiery eyes, seeming disappointed. Siren teleported herself from the bed to the chamber door. She stood with her arms folded looking insulted. Ansem looked at his hands to see that they were covered in black stains. "Hmm, I thought you wanted to play."
"You're a sick bastard is what you are," Siren said. She turned without another glance at him and left the room.
"Fooling around are we?" Maleficent's voice spoke from the hallway. Siren looked up and saw the old witch standing in the way clearly waiting to catch Siren in the act.
"None of your business hag," Siren said pushing her way through.
"Who are you calling a hag?" Maleficent said snapping on Siren. There was an intense anger burning in her eyes.
"You, or are you deaf?" Siren said, not even flinching.
"Don't you dare disrespect me you whore!" Maleficent shouted. Siren was definitely mad this time. She slapped Maleficent so hard it caused her to stumble backwards into the wall.
"Watch that pitiful mouth of yours before I rip it right off your face," Siren said now infuriated. Maleficent started to growl like a wolf ready to attack. She lifted her staff to cast a spell on Siren, but Siren deflected it back before the spell even touched her. Maleficent doubled over and held onto her staff for support.
"You think you've won?" Maleficent asked. "This is far from over." Maleficent was slowly surrounded by purple clouds that seemed to grow larger and larger. Siren watched unimpressed. As the clouds cleared away, a dragon remained where Maleficent previously stood. It growled and blew fire threateningly. Siren merely snapped her fingers causing a swarm of heartless to appear around the dragon. The heartless began attacking the dragon as the dragon blew green fire back at them, but the dragon was seriously out numbered. Slowly the dragon gave up, unable to battle any longer. That was when Siren walked right up to the dragon and looked it in the eyes.
"You lose," Siren said. She thrust her arm right through the dragon's chest causing it to roar loudly. Through the blood, Siren pulled the dragon's heart out holding it in her hand. "Game over." Siren squeezed the heart until it burst and blood shot out everywhere. The dragon shrank and collapsed into only a heap of black clothes. It was all that remained of Maleficent. "Hag," Siren said walking away from the spot. She threw the bloody heart remains to the ground.
"Finally!" Simba shouted, happy to see that the lift riding had finally ended. Now many floors up in the castle, Kita and her group departed the lift and entered the castle chapel. Kita opened the door and peaked inside expecting something to jump out at her. After seeing that the coast was clear, she pulled the door open and allowed the others to join her entering.
The chapel was very dark. Kita had once remembered it having windows, but now some king of stone alter and a huge heartless symbol headed the chapel at the end of the entrance isle. The group slowly made their way down a dark green carpet entering the round part of the chapel. Kita lowered her weapon to look up at the heartless symbol that was mounted high above their heads. Other than that, she didn't notice any other doors or anything in the room to suggest that Ansem was using it.
"Well, it was a start," Hercules said leaning again one of the walls. But as he did so, the wall that appeared to be solid brick disappeared entirely and Hercules fell through it. "Oof!" He shouted hitting the cold hard ground.
"What's this?" Kita said running over to investigate. Kita looked inside. It was very dark and without magic, they wouldn't be able to light it up and take a better look. Kita decided she was just going to walk through no matter what was waiting for her on the other side.
"Are you nuts?" Hercules asked watching Kita go. "You don't have any idea what's back there."
"What if it's where he's hiding?" Kita asked. "The wall isn't invisible for nothing."
"But, it's dangerous!" Simba said. "Should we try to find the others first?"
"Are you saying you want to go through all those lifts again?" Kita asked looking as though she had this fight already won. Simba looked defeated thinking he'd rather go through the doorway than ride the lifts again no matter what the cost.
"Don't worry. I promised Belle I'd be here to help you," Beast said looking as though he was ready to go through.
"Then it's settled," Kita said and she began to lead the way through the dark passageway.
It didn't take long to arrive at a dimly lit room. The room was very tall with two levels. The first part of the room contained cauldrons burning dim blue flames. Behind the cauldrons were capsule chambers with small blue lights inside revealing the fact that they were empty. But in the center was a clear coffin with a body inside. "Is that?"
"Kairi," said Riku's voice from the shadows. Kita about had a heart attack hearing his voice so suddenly. She fell forward through the doorway and grabbed her chest. Hercules made to move forward and help her up, but some kind of invisible force field was preventing him from getting through.
"Hey! What's the big deal!" Hercules shouted loosing his temper with Riku.
"Riku, don't scare me like that," Kita said getting up off the floor. She slowly rose from the floor and looked up at him. But as she did, she noticed he didn't look the same. His clothes were different now and the look on his face was scary. "Riku?" Kita asked feeling worried.
"Nice of you to drop in princess," Riku said staring at Kita.
"Huh?" Kita asked confused. "You've never called me that."
"But it's what you are," Riku said moving forward slowly. "And a pretty important one too."
"What do you mean?" Kita asked trying to stay a safe distance from Riku.
"Seven hearts, one door," Riku said as though he had just strayed off into some other conversation. "Six found, and now seven."
"Kairi? Is she the princess?" Kita asked looking at Kairi behind Riku figuring that was the only reason they were holding her.
"That's what they thought, but now they really know," Riku said. "And lucky me, I get to bring her to them."
"What?" Kita said, her voice becoming shaky.
"You Kita are the seventh Princess of Heart," Riku said looking straight into her eyes. Kita's eyes shot open and she stepped back realizing that he could possibly be right. She was Riku's prey now. He had come to collect her. "I thought we were friends Kita." Riku said looking disappointed that Kita was backing away.
"No…" Kita said. "You're not Riku. You can't be."
"Yes I am," Riku said. "And I'm hurt that you don't even believe me." Riku made a sad face. But his expression quickly changed to anger. "So are you coming with me or do I have to force you to?"
Kita stared at him thinking that both options were not to her liking and she would rather just run away. But Riku grabbed her with his dark force and kept her from moving. He forced her to stand in a battle stance before him. "Fight me!" Riku shouted as Kita breathed hard holding her key blade tightly. "Fight for your freedom."
"Please don't make me do this," Kita said, tears beginning to run down her face. Riku held out his new black key blade and prepared to fight. The look in his eyes was pure evil. He was dead serious about this, and Kita knew it. Hercules and Simba were shouting through the force field unable to get in.
"Ready?" Riku asked, not really asking for an opinion.
"No… please," Kita said, the tears drenching her face. But without another thought Riku charged forward at Kita, his blade pointing directly at her. The dark force had released Kita's body. But instead of running, she dropped her key blade just before Riku reached her. She closed her eyes and then Riku's key blade pierced her chest. "AHHHHH!" she screamed in agony. Hercules, Simba, and Beast shouted watching Kita slowly fall to the floor. A bright pink heart rose from her chest and into the air. Riku caught it in his hand looking like a pirate who had finally found his prized treasure.
"Thank you princess," he said victoriously. "Now my dear… welcome to the darkness." Hercules, Simba and Beast watched Kita closely from behind the force field. Though Kita looked as though she had just been killed, her eyes slowly opened to reveal nothing but black sockets. She looked like a zombie as she stood up and stared at Riku with her empty black eyes. Riku smiled and led her away carrying her heart in his hand and leaving Hercules, Simba and Beast trapped at the door.