Drive Fact #4: Sora's Anti-Form hangs on a ledge by his foot.
Driving Me Crazy
Chapter Five: In the End…
Shade was the first to step out onto the cool green grass on the floating island. Taking in a few quick sniffs, his eyes narrowed to slits.
"Grr…" growled the heartless.
Valora leaped out of the train with his Keyblades flaring.
"Come on out Nobodies! You can't hide from us! Shade knows you're here!"
"Can you just shut up?" Wisora snapped as he stepped out of the train, his blue gloves sparkling with a magical glow. A white bolt of thunder flew from his hands as it nailed a Dusk, who had just appeared over Valora's head. Sparks showered on the Valor form, and he quickly covered his eyes.
"Shit! Man, watch where you're aiming that thing!" Valora hollered.
A Sniper materialized out of thin air and aimed its lasers at the red form's back. Wisora was the first to notice, but in a blur of silver, Finora got Valora's back.
PING! In a brisk stroke of Finora's left hand, the Fenrir caught the red bullet and deflected it back towards the Nobody. Caught off-guard, the Sniper was soon smashed to pieces as the Oathkeeper impaled it head-on.
"Yay!" Finora squealed with glee. "Did you see that, Shade? I got it right in the head! S-Shade?"
Shade did not hear him, for darkness filled his mind, and he gave out an ear-splitting howl as he dashed away towards the tower, smashing through the Nobodies that got in his way.
"Uh oh. Shade! Wait for me!" In a burst of white light, repelling the Nobodies from his position, Finora glided forward, chasing the black heartless.
"Finora! Stop!" Master cried out as he charged out of the train and into the frenzy of Nobodies who were being beaten by a whirl of blue and red. However, he was out of hearing range, and Finora disappeared into the mysterious tower, flinging the Nobodies backwards with his flying Keyblades.
Sora dove around a Dusk and then unleashed a series of strikes, obliterating the Nobody and stunning the rest as his Keyblade swung around.
"How…did the Nobodies get here?" asked Sora as he spun his Ultima Weapon around and dug it into the head of an oncoming enemy.
"I don't know, but I don't like it." Master grunted as he guarded himself from three Nobodies who were trying to outflank him, but he blasted them away with a simple fire magic.
"We're gonna have to follow Finora."
"Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Master!" Valora called out as he parried an attack from the twin-sword wielding Samurai nobody.
"Doncha think we get rid of these bastards, no?" He countered the blow with a lunge at the middle, and the Nobody ceased to exist.
Master looked around him and noticed that the Nobodies had surrounded the remaining Drive family and Sora. Looking down at his Keyblades, he gave a gentle smile.
"No problem."
The yellow Drive form swung the Sleeping Lion at a nearby Nobody and started to spin around in a circle. The rest of the Nobodies near his proximity were soon sucked into the swirling vortex of the Master's power. The momentum of the spin was so great that the Nobodies had merely become deadly projectiles as the Master halted himself in a blast of golden light. His Keyblades rotated around him for a few moments before they returned to his hand. He landed slowly to the ground as the remaining centripetal force of the flying Nobodies had done their damage as they collided with the rest, leaving a few left to fall victim to the Keyblades of Sora, Valora, and Wisora.
"A blaze of glory," Wisora muttered quietly to no one.
"Let's follow Finora, then?" Sora asked as he lowered his Ultima Weapon.
"Yes, let's." Master grinned as he swung the silver Sleeping Lion onto his shoulder.
And they ran into the tower.
Shade appeared at the portal and saw the stairways infested with more Nobodies. Internal range against these inferiors that should never exist coursed through his veins, and he gave a fearsome snarl as he charged though the Nobodies.
The Nobodies also sensed the dark presence of a heartless. They do not fear the heartless, for they have no hearts, yet they quivered as this one in particular ripped through the crowds like a paper shredder.
"Shaaaaade!" Finora hollered as he popped his head from the same portal.
"Ooh!" He ducked as a Dragoon's lance sailed through the air and nearly snipped off the highest peak of his spiky brown hair, leaving his halo hanging over his eyes.
"Shade! You gotta watch where you are aiming your enemies!" He jumped out onto the portal and stomped his feet, fixing his halo again. He looked up and promptly raised his two Keyblades in front of him as three Dancers impaled themselves into the Fenrir and the Oathkeeper like barbeque skewers.
They exploded into a brilliant sparkle of white light as Finora went into a wild tantrum.
"SHADE! You're in big trouble now!"
Nobodies left and right were obliterated to kingdom come as the wrath of both the heartless and the angelic form rained on them as they ran upstairs.
Valora took a quick peek into the staircase and saw several Nobodies lying unconscious, and weapons were strewn everywhere.
"Looks like those two did the job for me." He gave a low whistle as he stepped out of the portal and kicked a nearby dusk. It gave a slight noise, which was soon silenced as the Kingdom key speared through its head, and it dissipated.
"Never mind," Valora sighed as he finished off the rest of the Nobodies.
Wisora entered the stairway and perked his eyebrows at the fussy Valor Form. Sora and Master followed suit.
"Man, they're like kids," Valora chucked a Samurai off the stairway. "They get into something, and they don't come back to clean up their mess! I swear I'm gonna beat them both into a goddamn bloody pulp and hope that they make sure that the enemies stay dead!"
"I don't think you should do that, Valora." Sora gave a nervous grin as he scratched his head. "I still need those two to put myself together, even if I have to reunite with Shade…"
"You're afraid of him?" Master looked at him as he began his ascent.
"No, just uncomfortable." Sora shrugged.
Wisora looked at him and silently moved on.
Shade burst into a room at the top of the stairs. A table lay undisturbed and bookshelves brimmed with knowledge surrounded the room. The star-shaped window revealed the odd atmosphere of the world around them.
"Gru….?" He perked his eyes quizzically as he stepped slowly into the room, sniffing the air for somebody. He then crouched on all fours and started to zip around the room, searching for the one who would make him be part of Sora again.
"There you are, Shade!" A voice with a hint of irritation emitted from the door.
"Ku?" The heartless squinted at the silhouette of a familiar angel. Radiant light flickered around the silvery form as he glided through the doorway. A childish pout was on the face of the form. Finora was not very happy at the moment.
"Now, sit!" He commanded.
Faster than a blink of an eye, Shade sat down on his rump and purred softly. He scratched his head slightly as Finora ranted, his Keyblades swung lazily behind his back.
"You've been a bad boy, Shade. I told you to wait for me, but you went crazy again. I'm gonna tell on Master that you went evil again…"
Shade lowered his head and whimpered.
"Or I could eat your share of ice cream and not tell Master at all."
The heartless replied with a grin. He knew that he'll never get the ice cream, but its better than have Master rain almighty on him.
"Aww, Shade…" Finora smiled as he squatted down to rub heartless' head.
"I'll let you have some of the ice cream after we solve Sora's problem." He tapped the heartless on the nose.
"Ku….Kweh! Kuuuuwweeeeh! Kyu Myuuu!" Shade pointed at the tall chair behind the table.
"What? Yen Sid is not here?" Finora tilted his head and scratched his face. He looked up to search around a bit before he realized that some source of power had indeed gone amiss.
"I don't sense him either. Hm…How are we gonna tell Sora that Yen Sid's not here?"
"Tell Sora what?" Valora crossed his arms as he leaned against the doorway.
"Uh oh. I think we forgot something."
"Yeah, you apparently forget to properly wipe-out the enemy in one fell swoop. And I ain't gonna be a janitor for your messes. Sure, I could just report you guys to Master, but I ain't the type, ya know?" Valora gave several hand gestures as he walked towards the two drive forms.
He looked around the room and noticed something is not right.
"Now, where tha hell's that tall guy with the long beard go?" He glared at the two.
Finora and Shade looked at each other before they replied with a shrug.
"He's not here, isn't he?" Master queried as he enter the room with Sora who was straggling from behind.
"I can't sense him anywhere," Finora frowned as he scratched his head.
"It's alright. He might be elsewhere in order to escape the Nobody invasion."
"It's alright… It's ALRIGHT! Look…Master," Sora gave a long breath before he let his stress rise beyond the high point. "Yen Sid's not here. That means I can't go back and save Kairi if there are six of me wandering around. And you think that it's alright?"
"Whoa, I think Sora's right," Valora nodded. "This is a case of emergency. As much as I do love being myself out here in the real world, wondering what Kairi would think of us might be bad."
Master looked at him and then turned towards Sora, sighing, "I'm sorry, and I'll promise you that we'll fix this together before Kairi would ever notice we exist."
Sora looked at the yellow figure before he turned his gaze out the window, staring at the large world that confined Kairi.
"Hm…" he sighed, crossing his arms. "Well, I hope so."
"Kui?" Shade sniffed.
"Eh…Where's Wisora?" Finora asked.
Stand in a crowd full of Nobodies, Wisora crossed his arms. Despite being the quickest out of the Drive family, he was the last to come up the stairs, and he came in a bad timing. There were three Beserkers on his left, five Samurais on his right, and a dozen Dusks ready for his defeat.
With the Bond of Flames in his right, he raised his arms high. White lighting emitted from his arms and coursed itself through the Keyblade, cause it to spin in a circle rapidly. A radiant golden light formed around the center as it spun faster and faster, until Wisora gasped the Keyblade and slammed it into the floor.
BOOOOOM! An explosion rocked the tower and smoke permeated throughout the rooms. Sora waved his hand in front of him, trying to rid the smell of burnt Nobodies.
"What was that?"
Wisora quietly arrived at the door, dusting off the ashes that fell on him.
"Flare," he quietly muttered.
Valora gagged, "Ya need to work on that, Wissie. You're gonna give someone breathing problems."
Wisora replied by glaring daggers at the red form. Valora perked his eyebrow at the Wisdom form in return. Rolling his eyes, a sphere of whirling air appeared in Wisora's hands, and he tossed it in midair. And a second later, the room was smoke-free.
He looked around and walked towards the bookshelves.
Sora then asked the Master Form, "So, what now? Yen Sid won't be coming back, right?"
But the yellow clad Sora hushed him. "Actually I have another alternative."
And he stared intently at Wisora as the blue form pulled out a black book with silver linings around the border and started to flip the pages in it.
At last Wisora gave a smirk as he turn around to face the other Soras.
"You found the pages about Sora's clothing?" Master questioned.
"Something similar."
"Like?"
"To become whole again."
"And what does it say?"
Wisora studied the words that lay on the pages. "In order to become whole again, we need to find the sources of our powers."
"What does that mean?" Valora interjected, confused by the words.
The Wisdom form thought and about it and gave a simple answer, "The Drive Essence."
"The Drive Essence?" Sora asked.
"Yeah," Master understood, "They are crystals that give us the power to-."
"Kick ass!"
Master chuckled, "Well that's true, Valora. When Sora becomes one of us the first time, a crystal is formed to maintain the power. So I do hope you kept them, right Sora?"
"Uh…" Sora frowned as he scratched his head. "To be honest. I don't have them. And I don't even know they exist…"
The entire Drive family stared at him, wide-eyed. Even Shade had his full attention at Sora with his yellow eyes.
"Well, this sucks major ass," Valora broke the silence as he crossed his arms.
End of Chapter Five.