Final Fantasy XV - Kingdom Hearts
Part 9
Summary: Two warriors of Light, the Chosen King and Keyblade Master, face an unseen Darkness.
No sooner had the Regalia began to slow its speed, Aqua jumped out of the car and dashed to where the two wielders of the key's hunt took place. She ignored her friend's cries of her name, their worry clear but Aqua's own fears were dominating her common sense.
She ran to the clearing where even from the Regalia's parking spot, she could see a field of destroyed magitek soldiers and deceased wild beasts. The clear signs of battle was strewn across the plains, the smells of smoke and oil violated her nose along with plumes of smoke.
Yet her friends were not among the carnage, and despite how desperate she searched, Aqua couldn't see them anywhere. One side of her felt a relief that they hadn't been counted among the dead, but equally if not more so, she was terrified. Did the heartless or nobodies show up? Or did the empire send reinforcements?
Her heart was ramming against her chest, shoulders shook and her head was turning left and right madly for them, anything just to assure her they were safe or alive. "Where are they? Why didn't I just go with them!?", she berated herself. Gritting her teeth as her fists clenched tightly till her knuckles went white with fury. "Again", she seethed to herself, "Again I failed when it came to protecting the ones I care for".
With a frustrated yell, Aqua kicked the severed head off a soldier as hard as she could, like a football. The head sailed into a boulder and smashed to pieces upon impact, breaking even the tipping point of the boulder.
A fury coiled around her heart, a desperate anger she hadn't felt in so long, and images of her friends, her student and saviour surged in her mind. Aqua grabbed her head with both hands as she tried to block those horrible thoughts out, she couldn't think of the worst outcome for them, she refused to believe it. This sense of failure, it struck her heart like a knife plunged into her, she had failed them.
Just like with her closest friends all those years ago…
Her despair was halted for a moment when a hand fell on her shoulder. She spun on this person, seeing a very sympathetic yet hopeful Prompto looking at her. No words fell from his mouth, and for that moment she was grateful for the silence. Her fury was subsided, despair took its place in her blue eyes as she looked around the plains. 'I…I can't see them…', she whispered, her voice was so soft and small she almost didn't recognize it.
'Well, maybe they got away? I mean', Prompto said gently, looking around, 'I know Sora can do all kinds of crap but even he knows when its time to cut and run right?'.
'Not if Kairi was in danger…', Aqua lamented.
They turned to see Ignis with his phone, fiddling with the device. His eyes were narrowed and fixed on the device trying to work it. He sighed and pocketed it in the end, a look of worry was forming on his face. Noticing his friends looking at him, he said: 'I'm trying to contact Noct and inform him what's happened, but he isn't picking up'.
The younger friends looked at one another, eyes shined with worry as thoughts of regret formulated in their heads. It would seem splitting up had turned from a good initiative to a disastrous outcome for them all. Ignis approached them. 'The sooner we find Sora and Kairi, the better', he affirmed. 'I'm certain Donald and Goofy can keep him safe for awhile'.
'Hey, over here!'.
They all looked to see Gladiolus knelt before a patch of scorched earth. Joining him, the man rubbed away from dirt and showed pieces of metal, before he gestured to the large charred mech. 'Look, one the niffs MA-X things, and judging from how burnt the ground is, the damn thing must've fired a rocket', he explained. He stood up and then started to showcase the several patches of scorched earth. 'One of them must have hit it hard enough to screw up its aiming, there's spots everywhere with no planning'.
'Yes…I see…so likely Sora or Kairi may have damaged it enough for it to fire randomly, possibly destroying its own allies in the process', Ignis theorized, folding his arms.
'Yeah, but look here', Gladiolus said, pointing to a patch of dirt. The others looked and spotted foot prints that resembled large shoes, and slowly Aqua was starting to put two and two together. One pair of feet however was angled differently, one foot was facing the other pair while another in the direction of the other pair facing forward. 'We know any other teen with big shoes like these?', Gladiolus said with a smirk.
He frowned though immediately. 'Looks like they were too close to the explosion here, and Sora must have seen it, and judging from the position, used himself as a shield for Kairi'.
'Sounds like him', Prompto agreed.
Gladiolus took a few feet forward to the boulder, his amber eyes scanning the boulder thoroughly before he huffed. 'Look', he instructed. All eyes fell to the rock, several bits of it were on the ground and Aqua sees a large dent in it with pieces still crumbling down from it. She paled when she saw there was dried blood…
'The explosion's force was enough to send them flying and crash into the wall and look at the disturbed bits of the ground', he continued. The ground had noticeable prints in it, not footprints but more shallow holes and curved dentures. 'They tumbled down here, but one of them was knocked out', the shield listed. 'If Sora bore the full brunt of the explosion he would have been smashed into the boulder much harder', Ignis suggested.
'Yeah, because look at this', Gladiolus said.
The party could see what appeared to be more foot prints but something was being dragged away to cover them up, thin lines followed a mass of smoothed dirt with dry and nearly invisible droplets of red. 'Looks like Kairi must have dragged Sora away from the fight when things were starting to go boom', the shield said. 'Well that's great, it means they're alive!', Prompto said with a cheer.
Yet no one else shared his optimism, everyone else's eyes were darkened with worry. Aqua walked ahead to look for more tracks, but to her dismay she couldn't see any more tracks. The winds of the plains must have blown more sand and dirt over Kairi's tracks, or perhaps more wildlife stomped them out of sight. And none of them knew their numbers to contact them, only furthering the situation they were finding themselves in.
'While they live, Prompto, we don't know where they are…and keep in mind Sora is severely wounded', Ignis said. 'He may also have shrapnel in him as well from the explosion'.
'W-W-Well, Kairi knows how to treat wounds like that! Right Aqua?', he asked. 'Sides, magic! She can just cast that cure spell and poof!'.
'Its not that simple Prompto…magic can't heal severe wounds like that so quickly', Aqua said with a shake of her head. 'If it were so, then we'd never carry potions'.
'Which means Kairi's got a wounded Sora, is stuck alone in the desert with all kinds of wild beasts, the empire and the heartless on her ass', Gladiolus listed, getting to his feet. Aqua frowned at the information, fist clenched with worry. 'W-What should we do? I mean, we've still got Noct to worry about', Prompto pipped up.
The other two men gave each other conflicted looks, duty calling them and their first thought on the man they've sworn to protect. Yet the thoughts of abandoning their new friends did not sit well with either of them. Sensing this, Aqua turned them. 'Then you three go and rendezvous with Donald and Goofy', she said. 'I'll go look for Sora and Kairi'.
'Absolutely not', Ignis said. 'We won't abandon you like this'.
'But-
'I'll go with her and look for the kiddies', Gladiolus said with a grunt. 'You two go make sure his royal pain in the ass hasn't gotten himself killed yet'.
They looked at the shield, his fellow Crownsguards more surprised than anything else. Noticing their looks, he chuckled. 'Look, I can track them once we get something, but unless you know how to track…', he asked, looking at the master. She gave him a dry look and a roll of her eyes. 'Fair point…but shouldn't you go to Noctis? You're his "shield" right?'.
'Yeah…but I also happen to like those kids, so it balances itself out', Gladiolus shrugs.
Aqua sighed, but none the less shot him a grateful look as Ignis and Prompto nodded. 'Very well if you're certain, we'll head to Keycatrich and return to you two once we've picked them up', the chef decided. 'Keep your phone on and at the ready'.
Gladiolus nodded and once Ignis and Prompto headed off, the two began their search…
Elsewhere
Grunting with effort as her body screamed in exhausted agony, the heat of the sun bore down on her exposed flesh as the sweat dripped from her forehead from the combined exertion and heat. Yet she willed herself to keep pushing onwards, gritting her teeth as she dragged her boyfriend to safety.
Kairi looked around the plains for a place of shelter for herself and Sora, panting and feeling her throat drying up slowly from the heat. She adjusted Sora to get a better grip on him, one arm over her shoulder while she kept him up by holding onto the back of his pants waistline. She was thanking all her lucky stars for her training, at least carrying Sora wasn't the most strenuous thing she could do. If it wasn't for the heat and the drawn out fighting, she'd carry him back to Hammerhead…
As it was, she could feel her strength waning with her thirst growing to the point where she started to feel lightheaded and dizzy. Pressing on she looked around and with luck she found a spot where for now they could at least cool off.
Two large boulders outstretched upwards gave a wonderous amount of shade for them, one of which was pressed against it and looked more like a make-shift tent made of stone. The sight renewed her strength and with one quick adjustment of carrying Sora, she dragged the two of them to the spot.
Once in the shade, she let out a breath from feeling the cooling sensation and no more sun beaming on her skin. Carefully, she placed Sora onto his knees and once she steadied him, she checked his back. Her heart sank when she sees the several tears in his jacket along with several dry lines of red scrolling down his back. The shrapnel was stuck in his back, and she feared if any of his wounds would be infected by now.
'Okay…okay…', she said, taking several breaths to calm herself.
Kairi then started to strip Sora's upper clothing as carefully as she could, the greaves first then his jacket and finally his tank-top. Kairi fought off the blush on her cheeks when she sees the muscular form of his again, using his clothes as makeshift blanket for him to lay down on. Taking another breath to prepare herself, Kairi gently laid him down on his clothes with his elbows supporting his head.
A gasp escaped her lips as she bore witness to the wound on his back. She could see small patches of burns not too severe, just enough to be bright red, but what truly caught her worries was the bits of shrapnel stuck in his back. His back was stained with blood that thankfully stopped leaking out, but now the shrapnel needed to be extracted. Kairi had thankfully had the spell for it, yet she gave her boyfriend one more look of guilt.
'I'm so sorry, but if I don't get the shrapnel out, it could get worse…', she said, mostly to herself.
Once she had him settled, Kairi knelt beside him and summoned her keyblade in her right hand and carefully held the tip over Sora's back. With one more intake of breath, Kairi said: 'Magnega!'.
Red and blue spheres no bigger than her head formed over Sora's back, slowly the shrapnel was extracted from his back, small splotches of red burst from the extractions on his back and more blood leaked from the wounds. Sora didn't even move or make a sound, which Kairi was relived on one hand but now it only worried her just how much blood he did lose. She swallowed back her bile from the blood as her face turned pale.
She moved the magnet aside with the shrapnel in it, letting them be buried in the plains and dust. Taking a breath to calm her own nerves, Kairi turned to Sora's now bleeding back and waved the keyblade over the wounds, casting the cure spell over him. Green tendrils and flowers shined around his back, the wounds closing but she could see the scars were still fresh and likely will be easy to re-open if he moved again. Taking a deep breath as she felt woozy from her magic draining, she slumped against the rock.
Least now all she had to worry about was keeping them alive and hydrated until Aqua or the others finds them.
Looking at Sora's sleeping form, she mustered up some energy to carefully lift him further into the shade, hoping to move his body out of sight from the road or view from the skies. Further in though not by much, Kairi carefully laid on him his side with his jacket as a pillow and helped put his tank-top back on despite her eyes wanting to drink more of his physique in. 'There you go, lazy bum', she teased lightly.
As much as she would want to continue dragging him to Hammerhead or a Haven, the princess couldn't risk it. If another dropship found them, or they were attacked by the wildlife or worse, she knew she couldn't keep herself and Sora safe at once. Fortunately, she had a method of keeping herself and soon Sora hydrated, thanks to a neat trick.
Lifting her hand up, she created a small swirl of chilly winds and frost before solidifying it into a small chunk of ice. Immediately the cold seeped into her palm as it was already dripping water, and she gently lifted it up to her lips and drank some of the melted ice.
She made a mental note to thank Merlin for that if she sees him again.
Leaning against the rocky wall with her "beverage" in the palm of her hand, she looked out to the plains to see the sun still beaming down upon the earth. No sign of any animals or imperials which was a refreshing sight to her, but she pondered why the heartless hadn't tracked them down yet. She wasn't certain how anyone is able to sense or detect heartless, maybe it was the darkness within people's hearts?
Either way the princess sipped more of her ice chunk, pondering what her next plan was. The heat was far hotter than the islands and carrying Sora was an exhausting task on its own, with the heat and the distance of Hammerhead she knew she would have a better chance of bursting into flames than even get halfway to the garage. "If it wasn't for daemons coming out at night, I could travel with Sora when its cooler", she thought to herself.
Kairi then pulled her phone and checked the time, giving her a few more hours before darkness fell. She lamented the lack of phone numbers her phone contained, and if she made it out of this, she was going to get the other's numbers.
As time passed, Kairi summoned her keyblade out of boredom and studied it. She frowned at the overall design of it though, and she recalled just who it was who gave her this keyblade. 'Riku…of all the keyblades you could have given me…you choose the most flowery, pansy looking thing imaginable…', she mused. It still perplexed her that this mystical powerful weapon had chosen her of all people to be a sworn guardian of light.
She just wished this thing didn't look like someone made a keyblade out of a garden. Then she looked at Sora's pocket and spotted something poking out of one. Curious, Kairi gently reached in and to her delight, it was a familiar looking item.
Her lucky charm.
Gently clasping it in both hands holding the delicate thalassa shell-based item, a fond and loving smile appeared on her face as she looked at Sora. A promise between the two of them to bring them together again, and it seemed once more it did its job. Looking down at it, Kairi noticed a magical charm around it, only seen by those who uses magic. Judging by how well cared for the item showed, Sora must have had the charm…well charmed, to keep in pristine condition.
'You kept it with you, all this time', she said softly, touched and feeling her eyes sting with unshed tears.
Gently she held it over her heart, eyes closed as the memories of this link between them slowly surfaced in her mind. One of the hardest things she had to do, was to wish him luck by handing him her charm and then see him off.
Bad enough the first time they were separated was not by choice as far as she could remember, and then the second time they were forced to be apart was so he could continue to bring their friend back home. When they both came home falling from the skies as if the heavens heard her prayers, she thought it'd be the end, they'd finally go back to the life of youthful fun and be free of using the keyblades.
But no, he and Riku had to be whisked away to become masters to prepare for the great battle of their age, to take the trial no other wielder had taken for over a decade. It was the hardest thing she had ever done, to willingly say goodbye to him for now, and wait until he returned to the place where he belonged. By her side. This charm, this small fragile thing was her only way of keeping a part of her heart with him.
Opening her eyes as one tear rolled down her cheek, she leaned over and gently pecked his cheek. Not a word was said, her heart sent its message to his own.
Standing up, Kairi looked around the small area where near the entrance of their small home there was something glistening in the sunlight. Curious, she checked both hers and Sora's pockets to see if they still had the gummi phones, which they did though Sora's screen was cracked in the upper right corner. Hopefully they'll have enough funds to patch that up soon. Once she confirmed their phones was still on them, she approached the object.
Nestled between some rocks and dirt, Kairi knelt and brushed them aside to find a small pendent. Silvery blue chains carried the pendent, the object was grey like stone with face of some sort of beast, and she felt a sense of light from it. 'Huh, how did I not see this earlier…?', she asked herself. Standing back up, she placed it in her pocket and turned back to the entrance, but the moment she did she did a quick turnaround.
Swarms of heartless began to appear before her, shadows, soldiers and even some new creatures. They looked to be those sabertusks Prompto and Aqua were hunting, but she sees the darkness had corrupted them too. Their scales were black as a shadow with the heartless emblem stamped on their backs, their tail ends now sported two edged axes, claws longer and more jagged, while their eyes yellow and glowing.
An entire horde of them slowly began to pile up before their small base, more than she had seen back at the mines. Kairi stared them down, eyes narrowed with determination before she glanced back at Sora's still sleeping form. He was exposed, the heartless must have sensed this and took this opportunity to final rid themselves of their most dangerous adversary she figured. Kairi realized now the only thing between the heartless and Sora's heart, was herself.
Memories of her being saved by him, the amount of times he bore the brunt of pain and agony to save her own life. Not this time.
'This time, its my turn to protect you', she said, her voice driven and steady. Kairi turned on the entrance whilst summoning her keyblade and erecting a barrier, keeping Sora safe. Turning to the heartless, she plucked out her charm and looked at her keyblade. Nodding to herself, she unhooked the chain and linked her charm to it.
In a brilliant light that caused even the heartless to flinch and recoil from it, in Kairi's hands was a familiar weapon that has vanquished countless foes, a weapon that carries the memories of her own and Sora's.
Oathkeeper.
Spinning it in one hand, Kairi aimed it at the horde. 'You want him? You're going to have to get through me!'.
Niflheim
Another day of hearing his radiance bicker with his allies, another argument about the Oracle's stubbornness, and Ardyn's personal favourite, the commodore's snarky responses to the chief researcher's shortcomings.
Oh how that woman had such an eloquent of snarky.
Luckily for the man of no consequence, there was indeed something of interest to attend to this time. One of Verstael's magitek soldiers managed to capture some footage before it was decimated, and what they saw admittedly got his attention mostly.
An anthropomorphic duck casting magic? A dog walking two legs? Truly in Ardyn's time things were far simpler.
However, what had truly captured his full attention were the ones wielding that mysterious key-sword. Even from watching what it managed to capture, Ardyn knew their light was something closer to Noctis' own, but what truly perplexed him was he felt sickened by it. It was warm and protective of the users, not cold and draining like the armiger he used all so long ago. The abilities and strength displayed by those wielders was far greater than Noctis' own abilities.
He hummed thoughtfully as he waltzed down the corridor, wondering and trying to remember of that old fool Regis had them secretly trained, or perhaps they were from a distant land. But their clothes and appearances, especially the duck and dog, strong implied something more…otherworldly.
Stopping his saunter, he raised his head with an amused smirk. 'Well now, a bit rude to be stalking now isn't it?', he said cheerily. With a elegant turn, his eyes landed upon a man dressed in black. He thought at first it was a sneaking rat of the Kingsglaive trying to either gain intel or more amusingly attempt to pick off a key member of the Niflheim military. Instead though, their cloaks were pure black, and their face was nothing like the people of this kingdom.
'Oh? And who might you be?', Ardyn questioned with a smirk.
'Oopsie daisy, so much for a stealthy approach', the man said with a sarcastic tone. He smirked though and nodded to him. 'Well guess introductions are needed'.
'Call me Xigbar'.
A/N: So…this happens.
Thanks for reading, and thanks to everyone whose been answering the questions I've posted, it really helps me get an idea what you folks wanna see, and just helps motivate me to write more!
Question: Can anyone figure out what summon Kairi found? If so, you're awesome!
2nd Question: Do you all enjoy the length of these chapters, or would you prefer longer ones? Please let me know.
3rd Question: Did anyone figure out why I choose those numbers for Kairi and Sora in the last chapter?
Stay Awesome but more importantly Stay Safe!
