Sorry about the long delay, but our computer wouldn't run the internet. But...now...We got a Dell! Sweet...This thing rocks..

BHK rolled out of the way of another pillar of fire that had made its way toward him. This didn't stop him though. Beyond the blistering heat, the potential to be attacked from any direction, and the fact that the castle was falling, what bothered him the most was Axel hadn't even started fighting yet.

'He's toying with me.' BHK thought. 'Either he's trying to gauge my reactions, learn my moves…or he knows he can win.' "Aero!" BHK yelled, using the wind spell to protect him from the latest flame assault. 'At least, he thinks he can beat me.'

"Here we go!" BHK rushed at the hovering Axel. "Gravira!" The spell took Axel by surprise, and forced him down to the floor, where BHK had just reached. BHK drove into him, unleashing blow after blow from his Keyblades.

But it soon proved to be no use. Axel was faster than BHK could have imagined. He had dodged quite a few of the attacks, and in turn, used his own wind spell to buffer BHK back.

"I suppose I underestimated you" Axel stood, grinning. "This could actually prove to be fun." His circular blades lazily orbited around him, but now started to spin sharply. Axel pointed at BHK. "Go!" He commanded.

For a moment, BHK was confused. 'He's telling me to leave..?' But then it was painfully clear as one of the blades rushed passed him, cutting deeply into his right shoulder. BHK held the pain in, refusing to show weakness, but his body betrayed him.

His hand dropped the Keyblade and instead put pressure on his burning shoulder. The spinning blade had returned to Axel. "The Fire and Wind Blades." Axel said, grabbing them both, "I made them myself. They were named after, and contain, my personal favorite combination of Elements. They follow my every command. Very deadly when I want them to be, you can vouch for that I'm sure."

The burning sensation was fading, and BHK chanced a look at his shoulder. The wound was black and already sealed. BHK picked up the Oathkeeper and stared at the Fire and Wind blades.

'They act like the Lightsabers on Star Wars….' He couldn't help thinking, 'They cut with precision, and are so hot, they cauterize the wound, instead of letting it bleed freely.' BHK glanced at his shoulder again before raising his own blades. 'The only difference, this crap is real…. And it hurts!'

Axel twirled his creations. "Ready for another go?" BHK dashed toward the oncoming Axel. They met in a blaze of fire.

Auron watched patiently from his position on the ground. As soon as the battle had started, Cloud and Sephiroth had more or less forgotten about him. The old ronin wondered vaguely about what had happened between the two. He didn't bother putting to much thought into it, though. He was sure he'd never know.

Cloud was knocked to the floor, and Auron stood up. He wouldn't be forgotten so easily. Auron leapt into the sky, and slashed his sword down toward the Angel's head. It was blocked by Sephiroth, but had served its purpose. Cloud had returned to his feet.

Auron and Cloud attacked from both sides, and even Sephiroth could just barely keep up. Auron scored a deep gash into Sephiroth's back, which was matched by a heavy blow from the Buster Sword.

Sephiroth teleported some distance away, with his back near a wall so that Cloud or Auron would not be able to get behind him again. "Not bad," Sephiroth said. "But let's see you try this one!"

Sephiroth vanished. Auron quickly scanned the area, but could find no trace of the warrior until Cloud cried out. Auron whirled around to look at his ally. The blonde was on his knees, bleeding from a newly formed cut on his leg.

Cloud yelled again and Auron watched as the blonde's back was slashed. Auron couldn't even see the attacks, but now understood. Sephiroth was disappearing and reappearing at such a speed where he was virtually untouchable.

Auron couldn't allow Cloud to be cut into ribbons. "Stay still!" Auron called to Cloud. The old man unlocked a small amount of energy within his sword and leapt into the air. Upon his return to the earth, he drove the blade into the ground, and forced the energy out.

"Dragon Fang!" Auron twisted the blade, and a ring of explosions circled Cloud. Sephiroth was unveiled and caught in a blast. He was blown back to the wall he had just used as a defense, but Cloud was already charging him.

"Sonic Blade!" Cloud blasted into Sephiroth and forced him through the stone wall. Cloud's momentum carried him through as well. Auron walked over and peered over the edge, expecting to see two fading dots falling for the Rising Falls.

Cloud and Sephiroth had been lucky. They had landed (hard) on one of the various floating platforms that orbited the castle. Auron jumped down to help continue the fight.

Sora swung wide at Diz, who easily blocked, and sent a whirling kick at Sora's head. Sora's rusty limbs were still too slow to dodge, but Goofy shielded him from the attack. As Diz tried to keep his balance from Goofy's buffer, Sora slashed low, aiming for his opponent's legs.

Diz quickly launched himself in the air to avoid the attack, but was brought to his knees from the force of Donald's Gravira. From his crouched position, Diz gave the trio a small applause. "You work well together," he said, "and I can now understand how you got this far. But in the state you are in, I can't see you progressing any farther."

Sora growled. "What's that supposed to mean!" Diz glanced at Sora. "What do you think? The level of power you possess is inadequate compared to the task you have set for yourselves. Even together, you lack the strength to defeat the upper class of Unknown that the Organization houses. All in all, I overestimated your strength. What a disappointment."

"Oh really?" Sora shot back, "Then how do you like this?" Sora came at Diz with a spinning Vortex, as the lead to set of his chain of attacks, but the chain was instantly broken as Diz smacked the Keyblade away. Sora's eyes widened. "Your attacks are too wild. Any proud fighter could block them."

Sora growled again and renewed his assault, this time he came from above with a heavy overhead smash, but Diz sidestepped, and at the same time, drove a fist into Sora's abdomen. Sora fell to all fours as he gasped for breath.

"That time," Diz commentated, "you were far too slow. I could dodge attacks like that with my eyes closed, all day long." Sora pressed his forehead against the cool floor. He could feel his anger bubbling up to the surface again. Somewhere in the floor and walls he could hear cracking, it reminded him that the Hollow Bastion was about to come tumbling down.

Diz seemed to hear it too, but before he could act, an Unknown appeared at his side. "Master," he said, "the Phase 1 team has been wiped out." Diz showed no surprise on the visible parts of his face. "Very well. I am done here," Diz looked over the Keyblade Master again. "A complete waste of time. Deal with him Enigmatic Man, and I might overlook your failure." Diz strode out of the broken doorway, Sora attempted to pursue him, but E. stood in his way.

"Now," he said, "you deal with me." Sora's grip tightened on his Keyblade. "Fine then. You're master comes next."

BHK's renewed Aero spell was holding up nicely against Axel's constant attacks, however BHK knew that if he stood in the fire for too much longer, he'd be burned to a crisp.

Axel still had risen from the last Gravity spell, and BHK dodged a spout of fire to run toward him. In defense, the Fire and Wind blades came at him, but BHK wouldn't be taken by the same trick so easily.

He slid under the first blade as it sliced through the space where his head had been. BHK knocked the second blade aside with the Oblivion. Axel was surprised to see his precious creations avoided so easily. BHK grinned as he shouted the words; "Ars Arcanum!"

His Keyblades glowed with the familiar golden energy of the technique, and BHK let them do the work. Axel caught the full blast from the Arcanum and was smashed as BHK plowed into him. BHK ended in a double smash that forced Axel through his own fiery border, and smacked the back of his head against the stone wall, rendering him unconscious.

The ring of fire died down to embers. "Phew…"BHK gasped. "Lucky break. I was running out of energy again…." BHK checked his watch. He had done the opposite of what he had planned. 5 minutes remained before Hollow Bastion fell.

Cloud flew through the air, matching Sephiroth blow by blow. But to Auron it was clear. Cloud was fighting a losing battle. Cloud's energy was already fading, and Sephiroth knew it.

The One-Winged Angel disappeared in a whirl of dark feathers and reappeared behind Cloud. Sephiroth blasted Cloud with a ball of dark energy and the blond warrior fell back to the platform.

Sephiroth descended as well. "Fool," He said looking upon the semi conscious form of Cloud Strife, "You came to Hollow Bastion with only half of the energy you had before. Any warrior, soldier, or a common street fighter knows that rest is one of the most essential ingredients to survival."

Sephiroth hooked his sword. "Until you give me an opponent truly worthy of this fight, you don't deserve to die." Sephiroth lifted Cloud with one arm, and tossed him over to Auron. "Take him with you. Hollow Bastion shall shortly be no more." Sephiroth disappeared in a flash, leaving one floating feather behind.

The platform stopped. Auron and Cloud had returned to the Castle Gates.

Enigmatic Man shot a ray of light straight for Sora's chest. Again, the Keyblade Master was rescued from the attack by Goofy and his shield, which reflected the beam back at E. Enigmatic Man dodged.

Sora, Donald, and Goofy were all exhausted. E. was even trickier than Diz had been. He used energy to do battle. No weapons, or hand to hand combat, only long range attacks. It made it nearly impossible to get a hit on him.

"Stop it!" Donald yelled at the Enigmatic Man. The ground was starting to violently shake now. "Don't you see that if we keep fighting, we'll run out of time! We'll all be caught in the collapse!"

"Yeah!" Goofy and Sora added together.

"No." E. said. "Only one party shall escape with their lives today." E. stepped to the side. Another new gummi ship stood behind him. "If you defeat me in time, you will be able to escape. If not…then you will be crushed by the rubble that will be Hollow Bastion."

"You guys are all crazy!" Sora yelled. "But fine! If that's how its going to be, then stay here!" Sora charged in with the Keyblade shining. The light that was put off by it disoriented E, and allowed Sora his one chance.

"Strike Raid!" Sora called, as he hurled the Keyblade at E.

"Thundara!" Donald yelled.

"Tornado!" Goofy spun into E. as the three attacks converged onto one point. The Enigmatic Man.

E. slumped down, defeated, and Sora called his Keyblade back to him. "Go then." E. whispered. "Escape now, but do not go chasing after the Organization if you wish to live….You aren't ready. Not yet." E. faded away into nothingness.

The floor began to split in half, and Sora spun to retrieve the Princesses, but they were already gone. "C'mon Sora!" Goofy said pulling at the Keyblade Master's arm. "We've gotta go!"

Sora forced himself to believe that Belle and the others had already gotten away. Donald, Goofy, and finally Sora ran as fast as the could to the new gummi ship. The castle was falling around them.

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