Final Fantasy XV - Kingdom Hearts
Part 17
Summary: Two warriors of Light, the Chosen King and Keyblade Master, face an unseen Darkness.
Cape Caem
'Are you certain you don't wish to swap? I'm fine driving', Ignis assured, looking at the bluehead. 'Oh no, I'm content doing it; besides you've driven most of the time since we met', Aqua promised, turning the car, 'Enjoy your break'.
Ignis hummed in gratitude, settling back into his seat while Aqua resumed her attention to the road. The drive was quiet, likely each of the oldest members were thinking on the task ahead of them but at the same time, they were thinking back to the younger members. It wasn't a secret that Gladiolus and Ignis were extremely apprehensive about letting their younger brothers going off with the others, especially invading an imperial base.
While they have had some experience in doing tasks like this, and they had faith in Noctis and Prompto holding their own, going separately from them was an entirely different situation.
The giant in the back seat was on the phone with his sister, giving her instructions about what to expect should the empire's forces return to the town and what to do. According to him, Iris had already been moved to a different location with the region, a cabin in the woods. Isolated and in a forest, they'd be safe she assured him.
Looking at Aqua, Ignis could see her jaw was tense and her fingers were clenched tightly around the wheel, likely her worries for the others were lingering on her mind. 'Are you concerned about Kairi?', he asked, looking ahead of them. There was no need to worry for Sora and Riku, the former had proven he was a force of nature on his own, and given what he had seen Sora do before, he had a good feeling the base would stand little chance against him.
If Riku is a master and as Aqua says his rival, then surely, he'd do splendidly with Donald and Goofy.
'…yes', she sighed. 'I know its silly to be worried since she has both Sora and Noct…but she also has a penchant for recklessness'.
'Hey kettle, names pot, have we met?', Gladiolus joked, hanging up his phone.
Aqua smiled in response, turning the car along the road. 'Funny…', she replied dryly.
'I understand your concerns, we're not exactly thrilled that we're not keeping an eye on our own too', Ignis said, 'But we can't discount our allies' capabilities either. Sora and Noct will keep her safe'.
'And likely Sora will pull something out of his ass that could nuke the damn base for all we know', Gladiolus reminded. 'Language Gladio…', Ignis huffed. Aqua giggled, 'Oh trust me, I'm no stranger to swears', she said, 'I remember my brother had quite the sailor tongue when we trained'.
'Sounds familiar…', Ignis hummed in reply, looking back at the giant. Gladiolus innocently smirked while wiggling his eyebrows. Then Gladiolus looked at her. 'Hey, been wanting to ask, who were your brothers?', he questioned.
At this, Aqua's smile dimmed and in the place of light, there was darkness. '…they're names are Terra, the oldest between us, and Ventus…or Ven for short', she said. Ignis looked at the woman when she stopped talking and just kept her eyes on the road. Glancing back to the shield, he subtly shook his head. That topic was not the appropriate subject to discuss before a mission like this. The next thing that happened was Aqua slowing down the car as they rounded a turn of the cliffside, and she stopped the car and parked it off-road. They looked to the ocean in disbelief as they all got out of the car.
'You've gotta be kidding me…', Gladiolus gasped.
Before the hovering over the ocean was a base in the skies, four giant building-sized propellers keeping it afloat with what looked to be a landing deck on top of it, the Niflhiem crest proudly painted upon the front of the airship/base. Multiple large cannons that size of a small house were stuck to the exterior of the ship.
In the middle of it, all was one of the giant magitek towers that from what Aqua was told by Ignis that amplified the soldiers of the empire to powerhouses.
'*This* is what the Marshal wants us to take down?', Gladiolus grunted, hands on his hip. 'How the hell are we supposed to get on that thing?'.
'…maybe we should have brought Sora for this one…', Ignis lamented.
'Can't disagree with that thought…', Aqua sighed.
Just as the three stood there contemplating their options, Ignis' phone rang. He answered it and after some talking, he nodded and told the caller "we're on our way" before hanging up. 'Well…it would seem the Marshal does indeed want us to take down that ship, and luckily for us, he has a way in', he revealed.
'And what's his plan?'.
*Cape Caem caves*
The three warriors stared down the Marshals' transport with looks of dread, sweat dripping down their foreheads and genuine fear.
'You gotta be kidding us…', Gladiolus groaned.
Before them were two imperial magitek speeders waiting for them upon the back of a tow truck being held up by two stands. In great condition absolutely, seeing as they were polished and in perfect condition along with several members of the Crownsguards explaining to them that their engines run on magitek technology that will last them long enough for them to get them in and out of the ship.
'These are the only methods of transport my men were able to procure that were easy to use and small enough to get close to the ship', Cor explained, arms folded. 'They're easy to handle once we get started'.
'Wait…we?', Ignis asked.
'I'll be joining you on this mission. We don't know what exactly we're facing on this ship, and we're not taking any chances', Cor said. He gestured them to follow him. They went to a table where more of the soldiers were standing, several plans were on the table along with schematics of the airship. 'Here's our plan', he said. 'Four engines are powering the ship's flight, heavily guarded'.
'All we need to do is break down two of them to cause the ship to fall, after that we make our exit and let this thing fall into the ocean'.
'Huh…that's it?', Gladiolus asked, 'Just go in, cause some damage, get out, done?'.
'Not exactly', Cor said, 'We've also received word someone of interest is on the ship, a vital member of the emperor's council'. 'The chancellor?', Ignis asked. 'No, someone else. Some new guy that, according to our reports, is an absolute daemon of a soldier', Cor said. 'So, we're gonna remove him?', Aqua asked, folding her arms.
'Yes, and that will be your mission', he said, looking at the bluehead. 'Scientia has informed me you'd be the most capable of dispatching more…vital members of the empire'. Aqua gave the spectacled man a subtle glance of annoyance before she ultimately nodded to Cor. 'Excellent, then here's the next part', he continued. With a nod from the Immortal, his men placed upon the table six small beeping devices. 'While Aqua is dealing with the target, we'll plant the bombs in the control rooms for the engine'.
'Kinda a bit of an overkill isn't it? Just take one engine out and the rest would follow wouldn't it?', Gladiolus said, looking at the bombs. 'Better safe than sorry, Gladio', Cor reminded, 'Unless you want the empire to bring this thing into future battles'.
'No, no. We're quite content with see this thing sink to the bottom of the ocean', Ignis cuts in before Gladiolus could argue back. Nodding, Cor addressed the rest of them. 'Then we have our mission, while we plant the bombs, Aqua deals with the target. Once both tasks are completed, we'll leave using the speeders and then once we're out of range, we'll detonate the bomb'.
He handed each of them an earpiece radio and after explaining it to Aqua how it works, then each of them hopped onto the speeders, Cor with Ignis and Gladiolus with Aqua. Gladiolus was on the seat and grabbed the handles of the machine, Aqua hopped on behind him and after some "just hold on" from Gladiolus, she reluctantly wrapped her arms around his waist.
Times like these she truly wished she had her glider…
The machines hummed to life and slowly levitated up from the truck and then, the two speeders sped off out of the caves and into the skies. Aqua already felt her stomach lurch from the sudden speeding momentum, though she had a good guess, not to the same degree as her companions. Gladiolus let out a few swears of surprise and even groaned from the speeding momentum.
The base was in sight, and quickly they sped towards it using the systems stealth mode to approach it without the empire picking them up. 'Alright', Cor said, using the earpiece to communicate with the team, 'Gladio, head for the right and land in the docking bay, your engine is there'. Gladiolus confirmed and glanced at Aqua. She gave him a nod and they dived towards the docking bay while Ignis and Cor headed for their own.
Gladiolus managed to land within the bay with only some collisions here and there, bumping into a few walkways and even crashing into one unmanned M-AX unit. Aqua was surprised he didn't make the blasted thing topple over like a cut-down tree. Landing the speeder on the landing zone, they hopped off it.
Taking in the sight Aqua sees several unmanned machines in rows left and right of the bay, several soldiers were standing there like statues. According to the schematics Cor was given from the spies, the magitek soldiers were often left "switched off" when the ships were deploying them, a method to conserve more power. On the ship it was no different it seemed, and likely using the stealth mode on their speeder was keeping them docile.
She turned to Gladiolus summoning his sword at the ready. 'Alright, guess here's where we part ways', he said, taking out his phone. Joining him, she sees his phone had a map, likely how to navigate the ship. 'If Cor's guys were right, then your target should be on the top floor', he said, 'and my engine is just on the second floor'.
'Then I can just use the elevator shaft to make my way up', she stated, looking around for the said passageway. 'Better not, take an elevator and you'll probably be stuck in one full of Nifs', warned the shield. Then he sees the woman sporting a smug look. 'I never said I'd take the elevator itself', she replied in a coy tone. She then jumped to one of the walkways and sprinted down it to a corridor where an elevator was, based on the map, leaving the shield to his task.
The blue head snuck her way down the corridor, keyblade in hand and keeping her eyes and ears open for any patrols or just a scientist or worker casually walking down the corridor. This place didn't seem to have any form of cameras from where she was standing, maybe they were confident that nobody in their right mind would dare try to infiltrate this place. The whole corridor felt so empty and dismal she noticed, the very mechanical and robotic scenery disturbed her.
The only "décor" that didn't make her feel like she was walking facility was the blatant emblemed of the empire's seal on them. The dull hums of the engines were her only musical entertainment, several voices over the intercoms too busy and hectic for her to discern from the other. Soon she found an elevator and opened it.
Inside was no different than outside but her critiques aside, she sees the number above the door was lowering which meant she was going down. Or was she?
Looking up she sees the latch and using her keyblade, hits it open. Aqua climbed out of the elevator and was rewarded with the wild winds rushing up and blowing her hair wildly as she felt unsteady with the quickly descending elevator.
'Going up', she said to herself.
Aqua leaped up to one of the girders held in between to more and then began her long ascension up to the top floor…
*Formouth Garrison*
It didn't take the team very long to get the attention of the empire, having Donald blowing up the front gates does that. Also, the prospect that Prince Noctis himself was attacking their bases would likely get someone's attention, and then all forces would certainly be directed towards the prince.
A situation Riku was betting on.
The silver-haired master was cutting his way through the mechanical soldiers, leaping over them and firing darkness at them. With his keyblade in his right hand and left-hand glowing with darkness, Riku was happy to say their assault had given them the advantage over the enemy base. He leaped into the air as an MA-X unit was lifting its bony metallic limbs to aim. He fired a barrage of violet fireballs at it, exploding upon impact. The machine's limbs were not only melting quickly but they broke apart in places.
As it collapsed to the ground, Riku dashed past the fallen machine as he uses his darkness to summon a blade of energy. Whilst spinning in mid-air at an angle, he becomes a spinning disc that cuts and carves past his enemies, the magiteks stood little chance at surviving his brutal attacks.
And unlucky for the empire, he wasn't their only biggest threat.
Following close was Donald whacking any soldier in the knees and casting a torrent of magic at his enemies. Donald lifted his staff upwards and with a quack, summoned down three golden bolts of lightning upon the army of soldiers, their size was enough to swallow five of them each and those close to the blast zone were shocked and had their circuits fried.
Goofy rammed into a soldier with his shield and knocked it down. As a soldier brought down its axe on him the captain leaped into the air like a rocket, shield first and caught the enemy off guard. The shield smashed into the jaw and broke it apart. In the air, he dived towards a speeding sword wielder and crushed it with his weight and shield, breaking it apart.
Then finally was Prompto, providing covering fire to the others and keeping the snipers at bay for them. Switching between his pistol and rifle, the blonde did his job and then some, using flares from his gun to momentarily blind the enemies, using his machine to create a gravitational sphere to hold them in place, and even using one of his machines with a saw to rip and tear.
'How we are doing over there?', Riku yelled, decapitating a soldier mid-spin.
'I think we're winning!', Prompto yelled, rolling away from a swiping sword. That attacker was then clobbered by Donald, smashing his staff into the skull of the machine and destroying it. The duck turned on two more running towards him, which were then picked off by Prompto's careful shots. The two raced to Riku as Goofy gave one more uppercut to the final soldier, knocking it into the air before he followed them.
'Hey come on Nifs!', Riku yelled, stabbing a soldier through its robotic stomach. 'You've got PRINCE NOCTIS here, and *this* is all you got?'.
'Yeah! Do we have to handcuff him for you?', Donald bellowed, joining in the charade.
The four heroes were now standing the magitek enhancing machine, Prompto explained what it was on the way in. Before Riku or Donald tore it apart, Prompto let out a yell. On the walkways, a single soldier started to man one of the turrets and turned the gun on the four.
'Looks like they're answering your taunts "Noctis"', Goofy said, already raising his shield immediately. The machine burst with bullets, trailing upon the ground as Riku and Prompto ran in different directions, Goofy held his ground and with his shield, he was defending against the bullets. Donald immediately ducked behind the captain, the bullets were pelting his shield madly and even pushed him back from the force.
While they acted like the decoys, Riku ran towards the turret, leaping into the air, hand aimed at the turret. But then the gunner suddenly turned on him, opening fire on him. With a yell, Riku quickly erected a barrier around him, just in time to protect himself from the bullets. The bullets crashed against his barrier as he fell back down to the ground, barrier up.
Fortunately for Riku, Prompto was close enough to the turret and he tossed a sphere-shaped object right at the turret, landing beneath the gunner's feet. The sphere detonated, creating a huge dome of blue and white electricity for three seconds. The soldier's body was sparking with electricity and it spasmed until it collapsed backward, turret fried and crackling as a fire started.
'Problem solved!', Prompto yelled, waving at the three.
Lowering shield and barrier, the three other worlders sighed in relief. 'Glad that's over…', Riku said, shaking his hand, 'Let's turn that thing into scrap'.
He gave Donald a nod, and then the duck stepped forward, the machine was a few feet away. He lifted his staff in the air, channeling a large amount of magic into it. It cackled and sparked; small traces of lighting surged around it as the staff glowed yellow.
'THUNDAZA!', he cried.
A giant bolt wide as a house rocketed down from the skies and utterly consumed the machine before the party, not only destroying it but taking a gigantic chunk of the ground it once stood on with it. When the dust settled, there was nothing more than broken pieces of scrap along with a large hole that probably was at least ten to fifteen feet deep, faint sparks of electricity fluttered around the hole. Donald shook weakly, dropping his staff as he rested his feathered hands on his knees.
Goofy immediately approached him and patted his back, worry in his eyes. The duck gave the captain a weak thumbs-up as he panted and shook from exhaustion, not used to using that level of magic. Prompto looked at the destruction before them in awe whilst thinking back to a certain Astral, only one being could replicate that form of power.
Just how strong is that duck…?
'Is he gonna be alright?', Riku asked, looking at the two.
'He's a little winded…we should probably get going', Goofy replied, hoisting Donald upon his back. 'Before more imperials show up'.
'Uh, guys…', Prompto said slowly, pointing to the southern skies.
All eyes turned to see a fleet of airships floating above the base, a total of twenty to be sure. Riku clicked his tongue as he summoned his keyblade again while Prompto got his pistol ready. 'Goofy, mind Donald, we'll handle them', Riku instructed. Goofy nodded and quickly scampered away to hide and care for Donald, leaving the two boys behind to face the imperials.
As the ships flew above the base, heaps of soldiers jumped from the bays and surrounded the boys, creating a sea of imperial magiteks. Back to back, Riku and Prompto glared at the horde as they both thought of their next move, and if they could even move fast enough…
'Didn't expect to meet again so soon, Highness', a voice boomed from the intercom.
Prompto and Riku turned to see one lone ship that was lower than the other dropships. 'You were foolish to come here', a different voice bragged.
'That's Caligo…but who's the other guy?', Riku asked, not taking his eyes off the ship.
'Sounds like Loqi…another imperial general guy…I think…?', Prompto said, wrecking his brain for any memory of the man. 'Surrender now, or we will make you wish you had!', Caligo taunted. But then Riku lowered his weapon and took a step forward to Caligo's ship, smirking at it. He held up his keyblade and yelled: 'Don't remember me Caligo? It's me! Noctis 2.0!'.
There was a silence that was so great you could hear a feather drop; nobody had dared to make a sound. Even Prompto's jaw was hitting the ground (or at least if it could). Then they heard a howl of inhuman rage over the intercom, a rage so great Riku almost mistook it for a heartless.
'YOU! YOU'RE THAT LOOKALIKE!', he screamed, and if Riku could see him he'd probably would be as red as paint. 'DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT YOUR ACTIONS HAVE DONE TO ME!?'.
'I'm guessing making you look like a complete idiot in front of all your military buddies?', Riku yelled back, smugly.
Another cry of rage before total silence as the dropship bay opened. But instead of more magitek soldiers, only one man leaped from the hangar and landed a few feet before Riku. It was no magitek soldier, it was someone far more deadly.
Ravus.
The near white-haired man glared down at "Noctis" in disgust as Riku's smugness was replaced with unease as he turned his gaze to him. With a scoff, Ravus raised his arm. 'All forces, retreat. This base is lost to us', he ordered.
'B-B-But High Commander-
Caligo, with his voice failing to hold back that inhuman rage, attempted to argue but the commander spoke. 'That is an order, "general". Fall back, and leave this to me', he said, emphasizing "general". Caligo, begrudgingly, ordered the remaining forces on foot and air to fall back to wherever their main base was, leaving one ship for Ravus behind for transport of course. Once the remaining army fell back, Ravus turned to Riku.
'So, you're this doppelganger I've heard so much about', he said, his voice was cold and unamused. Riku stepped in front of Prompto, blocking Ravus' view of the less experienced boy. Something was off about this man, his presence wasn't like the other imperials or magitek soldiers Riku would go so far as to even say it was something dark.
Almost, akin to the heartless dark.
'And you are?', Riku questioned.
'That's Ravus, High Commander of the Niflhiem Army…and the big brother to Noct's fiancé…', Prompto said, quietly adding the last part. 'Oh…great…', Riku grunted.
Ravus looked at Prompto and the area, brows furrowed when his count was shorter than the last time he had encountered the royal party. 'And where's that brat of a king? Off hiding like his father?', he taunted snidely. 'That's none of your business', Riku said. 'Now you can get lost like the rest of your army, or we can do this the hard way'. Ravus raised a brow at the boy's threat, almost insulted he'd have the nerve to even speak to the commander in such a tone.
That rebellious look in his eyes…it reminded him of Noctis, and that only fuelled the man's ire. 'You've a lot of nerve boy', he growled, drawing his saber. 'As High Commander of the Niflhiem army, I will have you and your party executed for treason against the emperor'. '…You can try', Riku said, shifting into his stance. 'Word of advice? Treat me like Noct, and you're gonna regret it'. Ravus smirked cruelly, as his prosthetic arm was glowing violet as a dark aura glowed from him.
'Fool…who said I was going to perform the deed?'.
Then as he lifted his false arm, a portal of red and violet appeared around the man in white. Riku's eyes widened in horror at the sight and as the portals began to spew out the creatures of the darkness. Shadows at first that were slowly taking form of Ravus himself, but they were ink colored with yellow eyes piercing their dark voids. Just like Riku had done two years ago, Ravus had created a group of Anti-versions of himself.
This man has gained the same power Riku foolishly took before…
*Fort Vaullerey*
Warping to a walkway, Noctis crouched low and placed himself against one of the watchtowers nearby, hiding from a patrol of magiteks. Leaning to the edge, he looked up to another tower to see Sora on top of the building, waving at the prince in confirmation.
Least one of them was in position and more importantly out sight.
Noctis warped up to Sora just before more soldiers could spot him. From there they had a clear view of most of the base. Ahead of them was the magitek enhancing device fully operational and going, protected by a dome of red laser barriers. 'Looks like they're not taking any chances', Noctis grunted, crouched down with Sora. 'So how do we turn it off?', Sora asked, looking at the older man. 'Good question…', the prince hummed. Then Sora's GP went off, vibrating silently in his pockets (at Kairi's insistence) and he answered. 'Good news, I think I found the control room…place…', Kairi whispered on the other end.
Inside the room, after taking down two of the magiteks, looked at the screens with her phone on her ear. 'Okay, so…um…how do I turn it off?', Kairi asked, looking at every button and monitor like a paranoid clean freak hunting for bugs. 'How the hell would I know?', Noctis asked. 'And what makes you think *I* know any more!?', argued Kairi. 'I'm stilling trying to figure out what an "email" is!'.
Noctis groaned, he just had to be paired up with technology-challenged teens…
'Sora, any advice?', Kairi pleaded.
'Well Kairi, in my experience when you need something to turn off, you gotta go with the old method!', he said. 'And what would that be?', she asked. 'Smash everything in sight!'. Kairi blinked in reply, then looked at the computers and then at her keyblade. She smiled. 'Are you guys insane? There's no way-
Noctis was about to continue his lecture when he suddenly heard smashing and breaking at the end of Sora's phone. The barrier ahead of them suddenly went off along with miraculously the magitek soldiers all shutting down and collapsing to the ground. His jaw was slack as Sora looked around the base, impressed. 'Huh, didn't know the magiteks were connected to that computer…', he said, bemused.
'Did it work? I've smashed practically everything', Kairi asked.
'…tell her she's just taken out an entire base…', Noctis said dumbly.
'What did he say?'.
'Let's just say Kai, you've got the highest kill count today!', Sora said with praise.
'…suck it Riku~'.
'Whatever just hurry to the machine, we'll meet you there!', Noctis huffed. Ending the call, Sora followed the prince as he warped towards the machine. Sora leaped and dashed in the air just as the prince warped right before the machine, barely functioning courtesy of Kairi's smashing. The boys turned to see her running towards them, waving at them with obvious glee. 'Okay, now we just have to destroy this', Noctis said, looking at the device. 'Think I've got some flasks left', he muttered.
Sure enough, he pulled three thunder flasks from the Armiger and placed each of them on the machine, making sure they were all neatly tucked into it to ensure they didn't fall out. Once done, he turned to the keyblade wielders with a nod. Sora summoned his keyblade and aimed it at the flasks but Kairi spoke up. 'Hold on, could I do this?', she asked. The two boys looked at her oddly before she summoned her keyblade. 'I just wanna see if I can use my tier three spells', she revealed.
Noctis folded his arms as Sora looked at him for what appeared to be permission. Although the prince just wanted to get out of here as quick as possible, there was no need to rush. Not only did Kairi bring the barrier down, but she practically took down the entire base without any of them breaking a sweat or harm. All things considered, he believed she earned this little request. Shrugging, he gave them a nod and stepped back.
Grinning, Kairi grabbed the keyblade with both hands and aimed it at the device. Taking a breath, Kairi's keyblade began to glow a gentle golden red. A small ember fluttered to life at the type of Destiny's Embrace, growing slowly into a campfire sized flame. 'Firaga!', she cried. The giant ball of fire blasted off Kairi's keyblade and sped towards the machine. The impact not only exploded to near blinding the three, but the force blew them all off their feet and six feet away onto their backs.
The explosion was loud and near-deafening, all of them groaned from the small pain from the impacts of landing on their backs. 'Ow…', Sora groaned, rubbing the back of his head. Kairi rubbed her head, looking sheepishly at the glaring boys. 'Heh…looks like my magic's good to go', she giggled shyly. Noctis glared at her as they got back to their feet, wiping the dust off his clothes. Ahead the destruction Kairi had caused was impressive, to say the least.
The entire ground was scorched black with several bits of metal scattered around the place, some of it was on fire as a large plume of smoke rose from the resting spot of the machine. 'Let's just get out of here, before the Nilfs catch on we've just committed terrorism'.
Before they could get going, Sora looked up to see a dropship looming over the base. 'Too late', he grunted, summoning his keyblade. Kairi and Noctis looked, both they groaned and summoned their weapons. The dropship bay doors opened, but while the three were expecting a platoon of magitek soldiers to rain down from the sky, they were not expecting a lone woman leaping off the ship and dive towards them.
The woman landed a few feet before them, landing on the ground as if she just jumped from a crate than fifty feet. She stood up and stared at the three, a large spear in hand. The empire's commodore, Aranea Highwind had arrived.
'Well, well…look at what I've got here', she said, her tone was playful and cocky, 'Prince Noctis…'. She turned to Sora and Kairi with a raised brow. 'And…two teenagers with giant keys…?', she said, confused and curious. 'Keyblades, thank you very much!', Kairi huffed. 'Thanks for clearing up that confusion, sweetheart'.
Aranea spun her spear over her shoulder and laid it against her, smirking through her helmet. 'Okay prince, here's how this is gonna go: You can either come quietly', she said, before her spear was suddenly active and sparking with red lightning, 'Or I knock you on your ass and drag you back to the emperor'.
Noctis huffed and with the others, readied himself. 'Or option three, we take you down and send you packing!', he replied.
Aranea smirked at this, almost impressed by the prince's confidence. 'On your ass it is!', she said. Suddenly she lunged towards the prince like a bullet and with a thrust of her spear, she stabs it forward to him. Noctis quickly parried her attack by summoning one of his shields Gladiolus gave him before splitting up. While he was unharmed the sheer power behind Aranea's attack knocked him off his feet.
Then she jabbed at him again while in the prince was in the air and because of this she sent him flying further from the dragoon. The prince's shield disappeared as he warped to a tower and landed on the walkway. Aranea turned to her bounty, only for Kairi to bring down her keyblade upon the dragoon. The queen of the skies blocked her strike as she danced around Kairi's swipes and swings, seemingly untouchable.
When the princess's attack was dodged again by the dragoon leaping backward, she aimed her keyblade at the commodore. 'Blizzaga!', she shouted. A large spread shot of ice spiky balls fired towards the older woman. Aranea didn't dodge the attack, but instead, she grabbed the spear with both hands and as the electricity sparked within the weapon, she swung her spear upwards. The force of her attack destroyed the ice by splitting them into pieces and sending them flying upwards into her domain.
Kairi gasped, never seeing anyone just smacking away a tier-three spell like that. Even Riku's never done that before. Aranea gave the girl a coy smirk as if she was amused by her attempts to hurt her. 'That all you got?', she said in a sickeningly sweet tone.
Kairi gritted her teeth before her keyblade shined brightly as the dragoon swung her spear at her again. This time Kairi lifted her keyblade, changing from its regular form to the Dual-Blade and into her Strike Form. Kairi not only managed to parry Aranea's strikes effortlessly but while she was spinning her swords she nearly managed to nick Aranea's chin and would have even sliced her jaw in half had the dragoon not leaned backward.
She jumped back from the girl's strike and stared down the princess, Kairi spinning her blade before gently laying it against her shoulder, freehand placed on her hip as she smugly raised a brow. 'That all *you* got?', she mimicked. Aranea gave her a smirk as if impressed by her. 'Oh, so not just a pretty face', she complimented, 'but can you handle me in *my* domain?'.
Next thing they all knew, she knelt before suddenly shooting up into the sky like a missile. Kairi and Noctis looked up in shock as the woman easily was as high as the airship, an inhuman amount of strength to even leap over the base's walls.
While in the air, she readied herself to dive down and take Kairi out, but what she wasn't expecting was seeing Sora just five feet below her and flying up fast. 'Let's do this!', he said, summoning a new keyblade in hand and then changing it into a new weapon.
A key chain he had gotten from an old-world he had visited twice, a weapon with pirate-themed designs as the blade shifted, changing into a halberd with the same pirate design. Into his Strike Form, Sora reached the dragoon and started to strike at her with his spear. Aranea barely had a chance to take in the fact that this boy had not only managed to jump at the same height as her but now she was fighting someone who can keep up with her.
They clashed in the spears thrusting against each other, sparks flying all over and both managing to keep themselves from harm. Aranea brought down her weapon on Sora's, forcing him to descend to the ground. She dove after, spear out as she dived. Sora, however, flipped himself, spreading out his arms and legs and the next thing the woman knew, she flew right past him as his descent slowed down. Aranea turned her head to see him, but he smacked his spear into her back, sending her faster towards the ground.
It was only because she managed to correct herself in the air and using the spear's electricity to blast a burst of energy to give her some way to slow down her fall did, she return to her feet unharmed. Sora landed a few feet away from her as Kairi and Noctis joined his side, weapons in hand as Noctis summoned Blade of the Mystic. 'You can't beat all of us', Kairi warned. Aranea was about to make a snarky retort when suddenly, they heard the sound of a swinging sword. Next thing they knew the dropship had been split in two.
They all turned to the destruction above to see the ship explode into flames before it fell onto the base, shaking the ground. Aranea glared at the burning ship and turned back to the confused trio. 'What the hell happened!?', she demanded. Then a presence was noticed, but this felt inhuman…
'Keyblade wielder'.
They all turned to one of the watchtowers, a single man landing upon it gracefully. 'Who is this?', Noctis said. When he got no response, he and Kairi looked at Sora, eyes wide open with genuine fear in his eyes.
'Kairi…Noct…run', he said, pushing them behind him as he grabbed the halberd.
'Sora?', Kairi questioned, horrified that he was this scared.
'Who is it!?', Noctis demanded.
The man smirked…
*Nearby*
Overlooking the base on the bike, the young man grabbed his sword. 'I found you…', he said.
*Airship*
Kicking open the air vent grate, Aqua slipped out of it and gracefully landed in the corridor. Looking around for anyone in case they heard the fallen grate, she breathed an air of relief when she sees she's still alone in the corridor. Ahead of her was a door with a security gate near it, meaning her target was just ahead of her.
Summoning her keyblade, Aqua approached the door and smashed open the security gate, opening the door in front of her. 'Aqua, we've just planted our bombs', Ignis spoke in her earpiece, 'Have you taken down the target?'.
'I'm just outside his office, this shouldn't take much longer', Aqua assured. 'Gladio, have you planted your bomb?', she asked.
'Working on it…', Gladiolus grumbled back, 'Had some trouble with a few scrap heads'.
'Based on the fact we haven't heard the alarms, I'm assuming you've remain undetected?', Ignis asked. 'Did you doubt my sneaking skills?'. 'A huge man with tattoos and a giant sword sneaking around a heavily fortified airship? Surely no one would notice', Ignis remarked.
Aqua giggles quietly at the grumbles Gladiolus made before returning to her task at hand. She opened the door, entering the room. This was the commander's room, based on how pristine and well furbished the place was. Carpet floors, several leather chairs, a desk, and one white leather seat. Behind the desk were several monitors that were showing several spots of the ships via cameras, along with a large keyboard.
The chair was spun around not facing Aqua, which gave the master the impression her target wasn't aware of her entering. Quiet as a ghost Aqua slowly approached the seat, keyblade in hand and ready to strike. Close enough, Aqua silently took a deep breath and stabbed the keyblade right through the seat.
Nothing happened…
Confused, Aqua grabbed the seat and turned it around. All she found was a hole she made, but nobody or any trace of someone having been there. 'Where…where is he?', she asked herself.
'Right here'.
Aqua's blood ran cold, her eyes widened as her body stiffened. Slowly she turned around to identify the voice despite after so many years of hearing it. Standing at the entrance, now covered a violet barrier, was a man.
Silvery-white, eyes yellow with dark skin.
Wearing two intersecting straps over his chest, red ones dropping much lower down and almost resembling crisscrossed suspenders. The same medal she carried over her heart was his belt. He wears a skin-tight, black, high-collared shirt. His hakama are dark grey near the top, with several loops for his belt and two buttons, both of which are undone. The rest of the pants are tan with a small, lighter stripe of tan on the bottom hem. Also wearing a plain black wristband on his right arm, while his left arm is significantly more armored.
'Its been a while, hasn't it?', Terra asked, grinning darkly.
A/N:
*Slams head on desk* This was the longest chapter I've ever done…
So three fights, changes with some characters, new/old faces showing up, and more trouble on the horizon. Next time…more fights… *sigh* Hopefully I'll make it another good one.
Q1: Do you wanna see Cindy in the next chapter?
Q2: Can anyone guess what Form Change weapon I'm giving Riku?
Q3: Has anyone figured out who is who?
Q4: What did you think of the Airship Base?
Q5: Do you wanna see Lunafreya in the next chapters?
As always, thanks for reading! Stay Awesome but more importantly Stay Safe!
