Kingdom Hearts: Warriors of Light
Fight To The Death-Chapter 31
"Come on, we need to keep moving," Ti-Day instructed. Sora still persisted in asking about Kairi despite the fact Ti-Day had no intent on losing focus on finding her and Ni-Ne instead of just talking about them. Ti-Day was busy leading his group along some ledges on the outside of the castle. Fighting heartless was difficult due to the fact that one missed swing could mean falling over the edge.
"Ti-Day!" Leon shouted from a level below. Leon was clearly visible one ledge below Ti-Day and his group. He had his gun blade in hand as though expecting danger. "Where's Kita?"
"We split up," Ti-Day said. "She started down below. What are you doing here?"
"This is my home," Leon said. "I came to defend it. When was the last time you saw Kita?"
"When we got here," Ti-Day informed him.
"I caught a glimpse of her heading up to the chapel. You should get up there cause I haven't seen her since. I'm afraid that may be where Ansem is," Leon said sounding worried.
"We're on it!" Ti-Day said making his move to head north. "Oh, and Leon, if you see Riku, just know that he's not himself."
"Haven't seen him," Leon said. "Get going. Kita could be in trouble." He turned and ran in the opposite direction. Ti-Day hastily made way for the nearest lift stop he could find to head for the castle chapel.
"What if Riku's up there?" Goofy asked.
"Then Kita is definitely in trouble," Ti-Day said arriving at a lift. He and the others jumped on and began the slow accent.
Meanwhile, in the secret room behind the castle chapel, Hercules, Simba and Beast were forced to retreat before being caught to attempt finding another way in. Kita, now heartless was left with Riku, Ansem and Siren in the mysterious room. Kita had been given new clothes. She wore a torn cloth skirt that resembled Riku's, a tight black top with a heartless symbol on her chest and black ropes wrapped around her arms and legs. On her back, a dark blue growth was forming. It was as though the darkness was eating her slowly. She stood with Riku before Ansem as he continued in his examination of the dark hole in the wall.
"Shall I bring the other princesses now?" Siren asked sounding excited.
"Yes," Ansem confirmed. "It is time to open the gate to the darkness." Siren disappeared in an aura of dark mist. Ansem turned to Riku and Kita who looked like soldiers standing before him, waiting for orders. "You will have to stop anyone who interferes." Ansem looked at Kita's shining heart that was now incased in a glass jar. Her heart had been forcefully taken as one of the Princesses of Heart. It was only a matter of time now before the other princesses would arrive and the door to darkness could be opened.
Kita was staring forward in a blank stare. As a heartless she looked even angrier than when she was just mad. Ansem turned to her and grabbed her face. "Isn't this better?" he asked. "You should have joined me long ago." Kita jerked her head away, her angry eyes narrowing even more. Ansem laughed and turned his attention back to the dark hole. Siren returned down below where the capsules were located. Riku and Kita walked down to join her. A fleet of heartless was also present holding the princesses captive.
"NO!" Ariel yelled seeing heartless Kita descending the small set of stairs.
"Get in your capsule!" Kita shouted. As she held up her hand, Ariel flew backwards and landed forcefully in one of the capsules and had the wind knocked out of her. "That goes for the rest of you…" Kita said threatening the other princesses who now looked nervous and gave up fighting the heartless and willingly entered their capsules. Riku smiled as though he was turned on by Kita's forceful attitude.
"Kita? What happened?" Princess Kidagakash asked as her capsule door began to shut. A tear rolled down her cheek. The last princess had been found and now there was nothing that could be done to stop Ansem from succeeding in his plans. Siren was looking at Kita approvingly. She seemed impressed by Kita's powers and the force she used for the good of evil.
Siren turned to head back up the stairs to join Ansem. 'Kita, you fool… you'll be the downfall of your father. I'll make sure he never succeeds… I will take over. He will never win.' Siren stood on the platform where the dark hole was. She stood to the side near some of the copper pipes. Ansem was leaning over some of the machines watching Kita inspect the capsules. Riku was doing the same. Ansem turned to Kita's heart in the glass jar.
Just then, Ti-Day and his group arrived in the castle chapel. They were running as fast as they could and soon spotted the open tunnel in the wall. However they noticed a hole in the wall beside that in which the stones had been smashed away. Ti-Day ran towards the smashed hole. "Kita?" he called out checking to see if she was inside.
"Ti-Day?" came Hercules's voice echoing back through the hole. "Ti-Day! We need your help! Kita's been turned into a heartless!"
"What!" Ti-Day asked in shock. "How do you know?"
"We saw Riku stab her," Simba said sounding anxious. "He made a force field in front of the door so we couldn't get in, so now we're going around."
"Come on guys, we're almost through," Hercules said chucking stones out of the tunnel. Ti-Day stepped into the narrow tunnel and was followed by Donald, but before Goofy or Sora could enter, Sora started to think out loud.
"Kita's a Heartless?" Sora asked nervously.
"Right you are Sora..." Siren said appearing next to him, smirking. He jumped and stood next to the others.
"Who are you!" Sora asked with his Key Blade pointed right at her.
"Name's Siren Key Blade Master," she said almost striking a pose to introduce herself. "I'm that lovely friend of yours who lived in Ni-Ne, but as you can see, I call the shots now."
"What!" Ti-Day said storming back out of the small tunnel. "What did you do to Ni-Ne! Cause if you hurt her, I'll destroy you one piece at a time!"
"Awww... Ti-Day, I saved your life and this is how you repay me... What a bad boy. Although, I do love a bad boy."
"Back off woman," Ti-Day said holding his staff threateningly in her face. "What did you do to Ni-Ne?"
"Oh, don't worry about her," Siren said. "I'll take good care of her. It's Kita you should worry about, I believe she's had a change of heart… literally." Ti-Day was gritting his teeth. Talking to Siren was useless. She wasn't going to help him, or tell him what happened to Ni-Ne, but Kita was just inside the room on the other side of the wall and he couldn't just forget about her. "Fire Dragon, burn her!" Ti-Day shouted casting a spell from his staff. A huge swarm of fire shot out at Siren and went right through her.
"AHH!" Siren screamed falling backwards. It was enough time for Ti-Day, Sora, Goofy and the others to get into the hole. Ti-Day quickly put the bricks back in the wall as Hercules dug through the other end.
Siren sat up slowly feeling truly pissed off. A hole in her stomach slowly healed back together as she looked to the spot where the warriors had disappeared. "You honestly think you can escape me?" Siren said pouting. "It's too bad that Kita will murder you once you step into that room." Siren laughed and disappeared in a dark mist.
"We're through," Hercules said as he pulled the last few bricks aside. The hole was still to small for all of them to squeeze through, but they could see into the room now. What they saw didn't look good. In the center of the room Ansem, Kita and Riku stood by Kairi who was encased in a glass coffin. Kita was holding a heart in a glass jar. Six princesses were trapped unconscious inside capsules on both sides of the room.
"What's going on?" Sora asked looking onto the scene.
"Ansem, there in the middle. He's using the princesses to open the Door to Darkness," Ti-Day explained. "We read about it a long time ago, when King Mickey told us to find information on Ansem's plans. Looks like he's about to succeed."
"Then let's stop him!" Sora said running forward. He busted out of the wall and ran straight for the coffin with Kairi inside it. "Kairi!" Sora shouted as he lifted his Key Blade. Ansem, Riku and Kita turned around to see Sora running towards them madly. Kita merely lifted her arm and held Sora in a binding grip with her heartless powers. "AHH!" Sora shouted slamming into a halt.
"Sora!" Donald shouted coming through the wall followed by Goofy.
"Well, guess hiding here is kinda pointless now," Ti-Day said shrugging his shoulders and stepping out.
"You…" Riku said spotting Ti-Day. "We're busy so get lost!"
"Oh yeah, think I give a crap?" Ti-Day said marching forward. As far as he was concerned, Riku was long gone, so he was the enemy because of what he did to Kita.
Ansem hastily grabbed the glass jar with the heart in it from Kita. Kita looked angry about it. "Destroy them," Ansem commanded her. Kita turned her attention instead to the warriors. She still had Sora in a tight grip. Hercules looked at Sora who was now turning purple from a lost of air. He ran behind Kita and cut her with his sword.
"Sorry bout that," Hercules told her as she grabbed her back in pain. Sora dropped to the floor and ran for it. Kita was quick to recover and started chasing Hercules. She pulled out her key blade which now had a different form. It was the same design as Riku's key blade, but still silver like it always had been. She was quick on her feet and started swinging madly at Hercules who realized he had underestimated heartless Kita's fighting power.
"ROAR!" Beast shouted as he intervened. He scratched Kita down her back and made her fall flat on her face. Beast had sliced right through the blue fungus on her back. Black blood began oozing out as she groaned in pain.
"You'll pay for that!" she shrieked as she lifted her arm and used great force to shove Beast into the wall. He hit the wall between two of the princesses so hard that the wall cracked and he was knocked out.
"Stop it Kita! We're your friends! Don't you remember us?" Simba asked.
"You are no friends of mine," Kita said coldly. She mimed in the air picking up Simba with her hands and squeezed hard. Unfortunately for Simba what she was miming came true. He was lifted up into the air and squeezed so hard, many bones in his body cracked under pressure. He roared loudly as he was tortured. Hercules was frozen unable to believe his eyes. Kita opened her hands after a while and Simba dropped from midair limply and slammed onto the floor. He wasn't moving anymore.
"NO!" Hercules said running over to Simba. He feared that no lion could have lived through what Kita had just done. Donald ran over and splashed some potion into Simba's mouth.
"Put him aside somewhere," Donald said. "He'll die if he keeps fighting!" Hercules carefully picked up Simba and moved him to a corner where he'd be out of the way of battle. He then rejoined the battle. Riku seemed to have chosen Ti-Day as his only opponent. They were fighting intensely one on one on the stairs that lead to the higher landing in the two-story room.
"Riku… Stop!" Ti-Day shouted. Though 'stop' was one of Ti-Day's spells, nothing happened to Riku. He continued pounding back.
"Your magic won't work on me at all now," Riku explained. "I've become one with the darkness and it protects me from your foolish attempts to hurt me."