Final Fantasy XV - Kingdom Hearts
Part 41
Summary: Two warriors of Light, the Chosen King and Keyblade Master, face an unseen Darkness.
*Fifthteen Years ago*
A little Noctis ran through the empty castle halls, giggling sneakily doing so as he was quite pleased with himself for tricking Ignis to going down the wrong way. The older boy may be the smartest person in the whole world, but he was naïve when Noctis played the innocent prince card. The little prince should have been in bed hours ago certainly and had Clarus not left him in Ignis' charge, he may have indeed been put to bed thanks to his dad's shield. It took some practice, a lot of sugar to keep his energy up and giddy for his plan tonight.
Carefully sneaking in the empty corridors with the moonlight being his only guide to illuminate his way through the darkness, making sure none of his father's guards were nearby to hear his snickers. He eventually found himself in the throne room where beneath the throne was a super-secret door that leads into the "antechamber" his father once told him about months ago, that only those of royalty may touch and open. But his father had made the prince promise to never, EVER go down there alone or without his father by his side.
Noctis did indeed promise he would do no such thing…mostly because he knew his father was indeed down there. So, he wasn't breaking a promise to his father, he's going down to the antechamber because his dad is there.
And Ignis calls his logic silly~
Noctis placed his small hand on the secret door leading to the antechamber, his royal blood unknowingly at the time revitalizing the old magic within the stone carvings. The doors split into two, parting ways for Noctis to enter the antechamber.
Carefully as his little slipper wearing feet could, Noctis climbs down the stairs leading to the bright room with the giant shiny rock his father told him about. He reached down the stairs and peers from a corner to see his father looking at the crystal, but he looked so sad. It was weird to see his father with that kind of face, it was like when Ignis learned about his grade wasn't up to par, but this face looked like he was in pain.
A small frown appeared on Noctis, his father is the strongest man he knew, even tougher but not meaner than Clarus. He felt apprehensive, thinking maybe his father wasn't in the mood for him and he came down here to be alone, but he remembered when he once got really sad, Ignis just gave him a big hug and said: 'Sometimes just being there is enough, even if they don't ask'. Mustering his courage, Noctis slowly approached his father.
He gets closer, but before he spoke, another voice chimed in.
'You've a visitor, Regis'.
Noctis lets out a small yell of surprise and turned to see standing against one of the pillars was Eraqus, that weird man who visits him and his dad. He had slightly tanned skin. Eraqus's black hair is tied into a short, high topknot, with one bang falling off to the right side of his face. He also has a short, triangular soul patch and a mustache.
Wearing a white red-lined haori that has a hood, along with slightly shorter than normal, light-colored hakama. Underneath his haori, he wears a navy blue shirt with a large white X pattern on the front. Eraqus wears pieces of armor, in his case gold and black armored boots and a dull blue-green section that covers his abdomen. This second piece of armor sports a symbol that the prince was sure was told about before but couldn't recall.
Regis turned to his son with a frown as Eraqus softly smirks at the two, the prince suddenly feeling sheepish, his previous confidence evaporating when his father stared at his son. He knew he would be grounded, and if he was lucky it'd be only for a month…
Instead of lecturing Noctis however, Regis merely pats his head and ruffles his hair, shaking him out of his sheepish stance and giggled instead. Noctis looks up to his father while placing his hands on his father's larger one, smiling at him. The sadness was gone from his father's eyes, he sees renewed hope within them. 'Noct, do you remember Master Eraqus?', he asked, gesturing his old friend. Noctis nods, how could he forget the man who told him and Luna so many stories? Tales of weird places from fairy tales, about how unique and different they were to his own home, heroes and villains.
The prince turned to Eraqus, who knelt before the boy. Gone was his smile, a look of contemplation took its place as he studied Noctis. Weirdly enough Noctis didn't feel that strange uncomfortable sensation tingling his spine like all those weirdos in suits gave him when they watched him. Eraqus is friendly and his dad liked him, so he must have been a good person. Eraqus glanced to Regis with what the prince thought was something like permission…?
At least that's the look he always gave his dad whenever they're dining together. Unaware of his father nodding to Eraqus, the boy looked puzzled when Eraqus turned to Noctis once again, and then he summoned that weird sword thingy…
'Noctis…'.
*Present*
'NOCT! WAKE UP!'.
Jumping up in his bed with a startled yell, Noctis looked to see Aqua and Gladiolus in his room, the master wielding her keyblade while Gladiolus slammed himself against the door, struggling to keep it closed. Something powerful was pounding on the other side of it, the frame of the door was being jolted from the walls by the pounding and loud breaking noises alluded him to believing it was on its last legs.
'Get dressed! We need to regroup with the others!', Aqua says, gesturing to the prince's clothes on the chair nearby. 'W-What's going on?', Noctis asked, scrambling to his feet to do as the master turned to the door. 'Gladio, move!', she ordered. Gladiolus threw himself away from the door, it bursts open. The wooden door is destroyed and rendered to splinters, daemon bombs fluttering into the room with their maws open and burning brightly in the room.
Aqua quickly fired a stream of icy mist on them, near-instantly freezing them into large chunks of ice that fall to the ground, shattering into pieces. '*That's* what's going on!', Aqua replied. 'Daemons have invaded the town, and very soon the heartless will join them!'. Noctis throws his boots on as questions ran through his mind, baffled by the appearance of the monsters of the night. Even with the eternal night plaguing their world, the daemons couldn't have appeared within Altissia even at nightfall. Their lights were just as, if not more, powerful as the ones back at Lestallum, they couldn't have been able to invade.
Aqua ran to the door and checked left and right for any more surprises waiting for them. She nods when it was clear, turning to the men. 'Come on! Let's go before more show up!', she says. They both followed Aqua, Gladiolus with his phone on his ear speaking to Prompto. 'Prom, we've got Noct! Where are the rest of you?', he questioned as they ran down the stairs and into the foyer. Before they could get out, Aqua stopped them and erects a barrier before them. The walls of the entrance were demolished by a thick sheen of flame covered steel crashing through the building. The walls fell apart and some of the ceiling collapsed onto the barrier, bouncing off the blue wall of magic.
Aqua grits her teeth from the shock of the attack as Noctis looked to see an iron giant with a blazing sword step into the building, crushing the fallen bits of the wall to dust and even backhanded another part of the standing wall to allow it easy access to the foyer. The master of the keyblade dismissed her barrier and ran to the giant. It brought its sword to her with a sweep, which the master leaped over while Noctis and Gladiolus were forced to duck for cover. The blade tore through the foyer, furniture ripped apart as the building was cut in half, the stairs decimated as splinters and debris flew all over.
Noctis fell onto the floor stomach first and covered his head as the splinters flew, some of the flying objects hitting him and he hears the weakened structures groaning under the weight of the ceiling above. 'Noct, move!', Gladiolus shouts, grabbing his prince and quickly throwing him back onto his feet, rushing him out of the building using one of the holes the giant created for them. With Aqua, she struck the giant's metal torso, splitting the corrupted metal open.
She soared past it, landing onto her feet and turned with her keyblade glowing golden red. With a cry, she fired a beam of intense heat that pierced the giant's torso and leaving a massive hole the size of a small car in its chest. The beam blasted through the broken remains of the roof and into the skies before it dissipated into nothing as the giant fell to its knees and sunk into the abyss. The master huffs, jogging to Gladiolus and Noctis standing by the bridge.
From here the party of three sees the city is suffering from a full-scale assault from daemons. Land, sea and even the skies were plagued by the monsters of the blight. Sounds of battles commencing, destruction wrought upon the city of water and the sounds of people crying out in fear, Noctis could only watch in utter horror at the sight that laid before him. He hears voices calling for aid, soldiers barking orders and instructions, pleas to the deceased gods for divine protection. Noctis leaned against the railing of the bridge, bile rising in his throat forcing him to clasp his mouth.
These people were helpless against the daemons, the soldiers probably have almost no experience in combating the daemons, he feared they may not even have any means of keeping the people safe during a daemon invasion.
Is this what it was like for the people in Insomnia? Seeing their homes being attacked and destroyed before their eyes, seeing everything be consumed by the fires of war and having no one to shield them? He feels sickness running through him, along with a deep resentment to his current useless state. Here he is, a prince of Insomnia, whose slain daemons, heartless, nobodies and all other manner of foes, now unable to even protect himself.
'We need to find the others…', Aqua announces, shaking her head. 'Gladio, did you reach Prompto?'. He nods to her and says: 'Yeah, he said he's gotten Luna and Ignis out of the hotel after we left. They're with Kairi and the other two'. He swipes his phone to ring them, hoping they would tell him where exactly they ran off to since their talk was cut short earlier. Thankfully Prompto picked up after the first dial and said: 'Gladio! What happened!? Are you guys ok!?'.
Putting him on loudspeaker for the rest to hear, Gladiolus replies: 'We're fine Prompto, where are you guys?'. 'We're nearby the secretary's place! But we're being chased by daemons everywhere!', he says, judging from his speech he was running with the others. 'Is Riku with you guys?'. 'No, I thought he was with you!', Gladiolus grunts.
Aqua took her phone out (a flip phone) and dialed Riku's number and stood at the edge near the waters. She patiently waited for a response from him, but all she got was dial tones and after the fourth, she hung up. Shaking her head impatiently, Aqua turned back to Gladiolus. 'He's not answering his phone', she says, 'Either he's in the middle of a fight, or he lost it'. Nodding, Gladiolus placed the phone to his ear. 'Prompto, listen to me. Find a place to bunker down with the others, and when you do, text us where', he instructed.
'Got ya! We'll- GOOFY LOOK OUT!', Prompto yells before the line goes dead. 'Prompto? Prompto!?', Gladiolus shouts. With a yell of aggravation, he stuffs his phone into his pocket as Noctis finally gains control over his ailment and after some deep breaths, turns to his shield. Aqua stepped up and looked at the two. 'We need to move, Ignis and the others should still have their phones, they'll contact us once they're ready', she said in an assuring tone. 'What about Riku?', Noctis asked. Aqua sighs. 'I can't go looking for him yet, so long as you two are in the open', she lectures, 'For now the best thing we can do is see what we can do for the people'.
Gladiolus nods in full agreement while Noctis looked down, doubt plaguing his mind. What could a prince with no power do for the people he is meant to protect when even he could not save himself from all this carnage. He felt a hand on his shoulder, making him look up at Aqua and sees strength within her eyes. She gave him an encouraging smile and gestured to the city. 'Our friends are waiting for us, Noct. Along with your fiancé', she said.
He feels his cheeks heat up from that harmless tease, yet somehow thinking of Lunafreya and the others in the city sparked something within the future king. He steels himself and shoves his fears aside, nodding to Aqua. Together the trio raced into the city, the master in front as the prince followed.
All the while unknowing to himself, a powerful light begins to glow within the prince's heart.
*Prompto's Group*
Dragging the unconscious Goofy from the fight with only Kairi and Donald taking on the horde of daemons, Prompto heaves Goofy onto his feet and threw an arm over his shoulder. He glances up to see the bombs were detonating left and right, creating a pathway of thunderous explosions that destroyed the paths, buildings and anything else within radius of their explosions.
The redhead used Flowmotion to leap over the bombs while combing swordplay and magic into one, freezing those buggers while slicing the goblins that jumped at her. Kairi jumps on top of a bomb's frozen form and leaps into the air. She aimed the keyblade at the red-skinned iron giant that was making its way to the party. Kairi a chain of yellow lightning that encased the daemon in a web of shocks, killing it as the rest of the lightning chained towards the goblins, shocking them and leaving holes in their forms.
She lands on her feet while bringing her keyblade down onto a bomb, splitting it in half just as Donald blasts two goblins in a wave of frost, freezing them. Kairi spins and throws her keyblade in a buzz saw motion to the frozen monsters, shattering them on impact as her keyblade boomeranged back to her in time for Kairi to strike down another goblin.
Donald turned to the army of bombs flying to Lunafreya and Ignis, aimed his staff and fired a torrent of water at the daemons. The magical wave sucked them into its cold substance and washed them over the land and into the canals of Altissia. Small explosions rumbled within the waters, likely due to combing lightning with water after all. The duck lifted his staff, aiming at the iron giant approach him and created a giant stone pillar spike above himself. He swung his staff at the golem, making the spike launch towards the giant. The stone pierced its stomach and finished it off.
Kairi joined Donald after making sure the daemons had been quelled, at least for now. They turned to their charges, Goofy waking up after Prompto gave him a potion while Lunafreya helped guide Ignis to the two.
The captain waved off their worries with a tired smile as he summoned his shield again while Kairi looked at the Oracle and Ignis. 'Are you two okay?', she says, panting slightly from all the fighting. 'We're fine if a bit shaken', Lunafreya assured, though the redhead sees the woman was struggling to keep herself up. Ever since Ardyn did whatever he did (she was still short on the full story of what's happened), the Oracle's health had begun to steadily decline and moreover if Prompto wasn't around to continue to check on her Kairi would fear she'd collapse.
After she had woken up after her break down, no sooner had she gotten dressed she was attacked by two goblins within her room. Kairi slew them easily luckily, but she then went to warn the others only to find Donald bashing the head of a goblin while Goofy was keeping Lunafreya and Prompto safe from them. She had so many questions about this but when more started to flood the place, they were forced to use the fire exits and escaped outback of the estate, ran into the streets and be ambushed by more daemons.
'I don't get it! Why are the daemons suddenly popping up all over Altissia?', Donald said impatiently, 'I thought the lights were supposed to keep them out!'. They turned to Lunafreya, frowning. 'The lights in Altissia are nothing when it comes to the Starscourge running its course', she explains, clasping her necklace. 'Without my powers as an Oracle or the astrals, there is nothing to stop it from growing'.
'Meaning without either, it is only a matter of time until almost everywhere is filled with daemons', Ignis says, 'Lestallum, Galdin Quay, Hammerhead to start with'.
Kairi looks at Lunafreya's crestfallen face, seeing the light that the woman once displayed even in the harshness of the empire and whatever was thrown in her way waver greatly. It was like she was becoming greyer and dimmer with each passing moment as the night went on. Herself she couldn't deny she wasn't feeling the same sense of defeat within her heart, her strength is limited and even now she could feel the weight of her pain grow.
Donald must have seen the two's forlorn looks because he quacked loudly and flailed his arms up and down. 'Come on! We gotta keep going before they come back!', he said loudly. 'We gotta find somewhere safe and regroup with Aqua and the others!'.
'Donald's right', Prompto said quietly, stepping near Ignis to guide him, 'We're in the open and there's gonna be a lot of daemons breathing down our necks soon!'. Much of the party was in silent agreement to the two's concerns as Kairi took point and leads them into the town. Luckily for them, she had a good memory of the section of the city they're in. Unlikely there would be any remaining boats left for them to use, so the ocean was out of their hands.
Running along a street as more daemons begin to pollute the town, goblins hopping on the rooftops while some bombs formed around the edges of the streets, booming sounds of iron giant's footsteps surrounded them.
Donald did his best to keep the goblins off their backs, striking them with all forms of magic he possessed while Goofy kept the rearguard in check. Kairi cleaved and cut her way through the daemons that came close to them, putting all her strength into tearing them apart. She wielded Destiny's Embrace, figuring she could use the two form changes she was used to using by now as opposed to more experimentation.
Nearing a bridge that took them to another district, Kairi was then struck by a goblin that pounced on her from the rooftop. She tumbled and fell to the sidelines of the street, the goblin striking her in the stomach. She swung her keyblade at it to wave it away from her, growling at it. The goblin skipped away from the princess, jumping on a restaurant's outside table before leaping to the building. Prompto, after getting assurance from Ignis, raced to her and helped her to her feet.
Kairi waved off his worries, but then she felt her pocket and froze. Panicking she started to pat her pockets like she was trying to squish bugs climbing her body. 'It's gone!', she cried. 'What's gone?', Prompto asked. 'Sora's necklace! I had it in my pockets!', she states.
Kairi turned to the building where the goblin resided and to her absolute fury, it was carrying Sora's necklace in its short monstrous hand like it was taunting the girl. Prompto looked at it with bitterness, wishing for his gun to put a bullet in the smug little monster's face. Kairi let out a cry of fury and ran to the building, using Flowmotion to scale it in seconds. 'Kairi! WAIT!', Goofy cried out as Donald yelled for her too, but the princess of light chased after the goblin, abandoning the others.
'KAIRI!', Prompto yells, stepping towards the building but futility outstretching his hand to stop her. As the battle rages on, Prompto turns to the others with despair. Now without a means to combat the daemons, Donald and Goofy shared a glance of hesitation and bafflement. Donald nodded to him, his face showing focus. 'We've gotta keep going', he said with remorse but otherwise steadiness in his tone. Prompto turned to the duck in shock, but before he could argue, Lunafreya placed a hand on his shoulders.
'I don't want to leave Kairi to her own devices as much as you, Prompto', she says with strain in her voice, 'However, we are no more help to her than picking up sticks and hitting daemons'. Prompto's face deflated in defeat, knowing the two were tragically in the right on this matter. However, he pulled his phone out and immediately sent a text to the others about Kairi running off, detailing where they were when she split from the team. 'Okay, any ideas where we could run to?', Prompto asked, seeing as they were down their offense.
Donald and Goofy shook their heads, the city a mystery to them as Prompto. Lunafreya folds her arm in thought before Ignis spoke up. 'If I recall correctly, there is a basement beneath the secretary's estate', he says, tapping his stick as he says this. 'Perhaps we could use that? With Donald's magic creating a barrier at the entrance, we shouldn't have to worry for daemons sneaking upon us'. There was a collection of sounds agreeing with the blind man. Donald and Goofy took point this time, heading ahead with the others trailing behind them.
Climbing a flight of stairs, Goofy charged up with shield first and clatters away a horde of goblins, knocking them aside or some even over the steel railings near them. He throws his shield towards bomb closing in on them, splitting it in half via mid-section of its mouth while Donald casts Magnet on a horde of goblins, sucking them all into a single spot.
With a raise of his staff, he erects a pillar of stone beneath Goofy's feet that sent him flying into the air with a cry. Ten feet in the air, Goofy grabbed the handle of his shield with both hands, pressing his feet onto the shield as he dive bombs onto the group. His shield glows with cartoonish light and the moment he stomped on the dog piled daemons, a small explosion that sent waves of air all over was made. The daemons were destroyed thanks to the captain, giving Donald a thumbs up as he gestures the others to follow him.
It took time but soon they were running past the shops displaying the clothes and other unneeded items for the team. Just when Goofy climbs the top of the stairs, he was immediately struck by a ronin. He just barely manages to keep the tip of the long katana from piercing his chest with his shield, falling onto his back before the others. Donald looked up to see the ronin slowly make its way down to the others, its wooden sandals clacking loudly on the stone ground beneath it.
Prompto gulps worriedly at this powerful daemon, nervously looking at Donald and Goofy. Could they take on something like this without their keyblade friends or Armiger users? He gestured Lunafreya to stay in the back with Ignis as the blind man sported a look of frustration, no doubt feeling that helplessness Prompto was plagued with as well. If they had the others by their side with the Armiger this daemon wouldn't have been an issue, but now it may as well be Ardyn for all the difference it'd make.
The ronin swung the sword in a sweeping strike, Goofy on his feet fast to block it from chopping off their heads. Digging his heels into the stone, Goofy held his ground and only moved an inch thanks to the striking power of his adversary. Donald used his magic to pour a waterfall of water upon the daemon, soaking it entirely but doing no damage to it. That was until the duck jumped a foot into the air, quacking loudly to bring lightning down on the ronin.
Combined with the water-soaked flesh and cloth, the daemon practically turned into a light bulb with sparks of lightning sparking all over it, dropping the katana from the pain. It staggered and fell to its knee in defeat, which gave the captain a chance to rush in and deliver an uppercut with his shield, sending the ronin to the air. Donald then casts a lower-tier Aero spell that threw the daemon aside and into the lower levels of streets, ridding themselves of this monster.
Their victory became short-lived however, for the ground began to shake and sounds of breaking stone began to ring out. Everyone let out a yell of surprise as Lunafreya grabbed onto a lounging table to look into the city with eyes wide with horror.
Slowly rising from the depths of the ocean, is a heartless. It was twice the size of Titan, a Darkside that stood in the ocean with the blight surged around it as Altissia's buildings begin to crumble and break apart, all levitating to the skies. Buildings, homes, nothing was spared from the magnetic power of the heartless, lifting its giant claw-like hands to the skies while a sphere of red and black began to swirl and form within its palms.
It stares into the orb with orange-red eyes, before letting it fly up into the skies above Altissia, growing into larger and larger sphere, more of the city starts being sucked up to the void above. As such, heartless of shadows and neo-shadows began to swarm and appear within the city, demon towers appearing in numerous numbers and flying and likely hunting for more hearts to possess and consume. Those of the party with eyes could only watch in utter dismay of the sight, the army of daemons and heartless completely overwhelming them.
The Oracle felt it all crumble away, the will she had built up from everything she had fought and survived from had completely shattered into pieces. Her strength vanishing to nothing as her light, her hope faded into the darkness. Lunafreya fell to her knees in defeat as Prompto held onto the railings in dismay, shaking unable to bear witness to what seemed like the end of their world while Ignis stood there resolute.
Even the warriors of other worlds could only look on in despair, glancing at each other. Donald's face fell to defeat while Goofy softly shook his head. They were outmatched, outnumbered and extremely underprepared for what may come next.
'Guys!'.
The group looked to see racing up the stairs is Aqua and her two, reaching them. When they looked to the distance, Aqua's face fell at the sight. 'No…', she gasped with Gladiolus and Noctis looking at the sight in horror. 'What the hell is *THAT*!?', Gladiolus shouts, grabbing the railing. Aqua lowered her head. 'A Darkside…', she reveals, 'It's a pureblood heartless…one of the strongest of its kind'.
She gestures to the sphere. 'That sphere, its pouring darkness into it. When it reaches full power…this world will be consumed by the heartless'. They all stared at the woman bar Lunafreya, then back to the heartless. Noctis gripping the railing tightly as he stared heatedly at the heartless, the prongs of the railing digging into his palms. 'What…what do we do!?', he asked, looking at Aqua. The woman shakes her head, turning to him. 'You can't do anything…but if I can take down the heartless, that will stop the darkness', she explained.
'Wait, you're telling us, you're gonna fight your way there…?', Prompto said, horrified, 'There's like an army of…EVERYTHING there!'.
'We don't have a choice! If we wait around, we'll lose this world and there won't be anyone to stop Xehanort or Ardyn!', Aqua growled, her tone final and adamant. 'Donald, Goofy, take them somewhere safe! And…wait', she starts, before she sees they were missing someone. 'W-Where's Kairi?', she questioned, looking at the two. Prompto rubbed his arm nervously, meekly looking at the woman. 'S-She, Sora's necklace was stolen by a daemon, she chased after it', he says.
'SHE WHAT!?', Aqua shouts, for the first time since they met her baring her rage. Aqua looks in the city streets, desperate to find her apprentice yet all she could see were the hordes of daemons and heartless flooding the city with their darkness. For all she knew the girl could have been swept up in the ocean of darkness at this point. She couldn't even detect her light anymore, the darkness' power acted like a protective barrier to fog up her senses, the amount of the darkness that remained here nearly reminded her of the realm of darkness.
'And what about Riku? Has *anyone* been able to contact him?', Ignis chipped in. 'I've texted and tried calling him but nothing!', Prompto states, grabbing his head with both hands. He let out a yell, stressed and close to having a panic attack as Goofy tried to calm him while Donald paces in place. Aqua looks at her friends, each of them sporting looks of helplessness, uselessness, and fear, their world is being destroyed before their eyes and they are unable to even attempt to resist the fall. Aqua places a hand on her heart, clasping her badge and closing her eyes.
With inhale of breath, she opened her eyes. 'I'll go look for Kairi, then send her to you all', she announces, turning to the other guardians of the prince. 'Keep trying to reach Riku, tell him what's happening and to meet me as soon as he can'. Before they could argue, likely against her going into the ocean of darkness alone, Aqua raised her hand. 'I'm the only one amongst us who can navigate through here without succumbing to the darkness, and defend myself', she stressed. She then turned to Donald and Goofy. 'I'm leaving them in your care, protect them, ok?', she pleads.
The two glanced at her, then to each other with affirming nods, then saluted to her. 'We'll keep them safe!', Goofy announced, strong and proud. 'You go find those two and bring them back! Ya got it?', Donald said. Aqua gave them a smile and a nod, washing away their fears. Goofy quickly helps Lunafreya to her feet as Donald leads them to their original destination with Prompto guiding Ignis, leaving only the three behind.
Noctis looked down at his feet, once more feeling helpless at the situation. A king that cannot protect his people, forced to run away to save his backside. Never had he felt so ashamed of himself, chasing after Donald and the others. Gladiolus gave his girlfriend one look that was reserved for her, his tough demeanor faded as she, in turn, shows apprehension on her face. Gently, the shield places a hand on her cheek and brushes her cheek.
'You come back safe, alright?', he asked…pleaded, even. To hear that level of warmth and concern for her, Aqua could feel strength within her heart spreading along her body, gently placing her hand on his. She smiles at him, eyes shining. 'Promise', she assured. She then raises herself and gives him a peck on the cheek, smiling with a hue of red dashing on her cheeks. Gladiolus nodded and reluctantly jogged off to the others.
Watching him go until he was out of sight, Aqua summons Brightcrest, turns to the city of darkness, then leaped into action…
*Elsewhere*
Chasing down the goblin into an open town square, Kairi managed to reach it and stabbed it right through its back. The daemon perished under her attack as the chain falls to the ground with a light clink sound. Panting angrily and huffing, Kairi turns her eyes to the chain and picked up, dismissing her keyblade.
She gently brushes the dust off the crown, her anger subsiding as a wave of relief washes over her heart. Slowly however guilt begins to take over her, remembering she had abandoned Prompto and the others to the daemons that were slowly populating the city of water. The cold winds rushing by her feels unnatural, the air itself felt as though she had been taken to a place where a heart of light should never wander to. The sounds of rushing waves instead of the calming lapping of water made memories of the day her heart was lost, her home destroyed.
Kairi holds the chain close to her heart, the pain coming back to remind her of why she had to lose him. After everything she said, promised, worked so hard for, she still ended up being used to get Sora into a horrible situation. Now he was lost to them, taken by those of the darkness with nothing but horrible intentions. "It's not fair", she thought darkly, "Every time I want to be helpful…every time he gets hurt pushes himself…is because of me".
Her shoulders shook as sadness and anger clashed within her heart, anger at her incompetence and sadness at the cost of her shortcomings. While she allows herself to tear into herself, she feels the darkness surrounding her and upon looking up, Kairi sees she was surrounded by invisibles and neo-shadows, hunched over broken buildings while the invisibles surrounded her from the air.
A trap laid for the princess, a cooperation between heartless and daemons to lure her into a spot away from her friends. If she didn't feel so low, she might have felt flattered they worked together to draw her away from backup, like she was as much of a threat to them as Sora or Riku.
Surveying how many of them there are, Kairi summons Destiny's Embrace in her hands and stuffs Sora's necklace in her pocket. The invisibles made the first move, swooping in and swinging their swords at her. Kairi jumps into the air to avoid the four-winged monsters, their blades clashing together as she soared into the air. Two invisibles flew upwards to her like bullets, but Kairi aimed her keyblade downwards to them and blasted a breath of intense flames that would have reduced them ashes if there was any flesh remaining.
An invisible soared to her, bringing down its sword onto the keyblade wielders blade as she blocks the attack. Kairi strikes back, however, knocking aside the blade and swiping the key across the invisibles chest, destroying it as neo-shadows spun towards her. She erects a barrier of wind around her, effectively creating a dome of razor-sharp blades that sliced and cuts the heartless to pieces. She then falls back down to the ground, but not before charging her keyblade with energy and slamming it onto the ground. A wave of blue energy covering five feet of her destroyed the shadows close to the princess.
A duo of invisibles rush in and begin to swipe their swords at her, the girl parrying and deflecting the dark steel while backing up. Kairi throws their swords off her so she could spin around and slice through a neo-shadow in half, then when she turned around to face the two attackers she fires off a shot-gun like spread of ice shards at them, striking them in their chests and piercing them, which finished them off.
Kairi grabs her keyblade with both hands to block a rampaging neo-shadow that struck at her. She pushed it off herself and fired a blast of light at it, disintegrating it. She was then struck in the back by another neo-shadow, its dark claws tore into her back and caused her to stagger forwards. In doing so she spun on her feet and shoots one stream of light at the attacker, destroying it. Kairi uses some of her magic to heal herself, narrowly sidestepping a blade from an invisible. But in doing so, she turned too late to see another invisible cutting into her left arm with its sword.
She cried out in pain, only using the shock and pain to strike back at it with a quick upward slice. Kairi looked at her arm to see the crimson liquid coat her arm and profusely as well, making her use more mana to heal her wound before she bled out. Slowly she was surrounded by neo-shadows prowling around her, like a pack of wolves cornering a weakened prey. They all leaped to pile on her, but Kairi quickly grabbed the keyblade with both hands and with a thrust to the sky, cried out: 'Faith!'.
Seven pillars of light surrounded her, spinning too fast for even quick heartless like the neo-shadows to avoid. As they spun around the princess, they start to spin outwards into lines that cut through the horde of heartless, even healing her to a degree. She musters the energy to quickly shift her keyblade into the Cross-Pike, spinning it around in her right hand and entered her Strike Form. Kairi unlocks the weapons and grabbed the other dual pike with her left hand, spinning them both in her hands as she runs into the fray. The shadows and invisibles all rushed at the girl of blades, some striking at her while many perished under the onslaught of whirling blades.
Kairi strikes rival a runaway train with speed of a bullet, she became a hurricane of destruction for the shadows. She leaped, flipped and spins around the dark beings, her pikes tearing them all apart and cutting even the invisible's blades to pieces. Kairi then jumps into the air, reconnecting the pikes into a cross once more. She spins the weapon like a propeller, spinning faster and faster until she used it to propel herself into the sky.
'Tornado!', she shouts, spinning the weapon above herself.
Kairi's magic manifests and creates an incredible wind of dark green, surrounding her in a tornado. She sucks up the heartless into the tornado along with debris and water, hitting them monsters with earth and water as the debris smashed into them while the water, with a touch of her magic, crushed them with the weight and force of it. Kairi unlocks her weapon and dives down, spinning like the tornado striking at everyone and everything in her way, slicing all. With one front flip, she slammed both pikes into the ground, splitting the tornado.
The gale splits in two, the shadows and invisibles not destroyed by the wielder were thrown into the ocean or the buildings around them.
Kairi reverts into her normal form as more invisibles begin to appear around her, the girl grunted. They charged at her, only for a blade of darkness to race across the field and pierce each of them until nothing remained.
Kairi turned to see leaping towards her is Riku, bringing Braveheart down onto two more invisibles while performing a buzz saw like spin at the neo-shadows that tried to jump and pile on him. The master of the dark splits them apart, firing dark firagas as he spins, combing magic and swordplay. He finally flips and landed before Kairi, keyblade in his hands as he turned his back to her and faced the heartless head-on while she did the same.
'Why are you away from the others?', he questioned, his voice strict and deep with constraint anger. Whether it is directed to her for going off alone or something else Kairi neither knew nor cared, she was just as angry at him as herself. 'They stole Sora's necklace, I came to get it back', she stated as-a-matter of fact, eyeing the invisibles that were regrouping and more spawning in. 'You abandoned Prompto and the others for that?', he asked incredulously, she heard a tone of disappointment in him. 'And where were *you* this whole time? Huh?', she asked.
Riku scoffs, blocking an invisible's attack and then stabbing it in the stomach. He unleashes a barrage of darkness at the neo-shadows while Kairi fires pearls of light at the invisibles in the sky, the two opposite sides working together to slay the heartless. An invisible reached Kairi, but Riku shoved her aside and erects a dark barrier with his left hand. Once the sword of the heartless struck the barrier, said barrier reflects its attack and destroyed it.
Riku turns around to see neo-shadows jumping at him, only to all end up in a cloud of golden lightning and be shocked by Kairi's magic. She gave Riku a cold look as he rolls his eyes at her, turning back to fight off more of the growing number of heartless that persisted. Kairi throws her keyblade at the incoming invisibles, letting it spin and strike one down. She used her left hand to cast Magnet, sucking in three of the invisibles into one spot. Her keyblade spun through them and decimated them before returning to its master.
Riku bathed his keyblade in dark flames, with a yell he thrusts it forwards, firing a Mega Dark Flare at the group of shadows nesting in the broken building ahead of them. The giant ball of flames smashed into the building and then exploded into a dark explosion, destroying the building and the heartless within it. Looking up he sees only a few of the invisibles remained in the sky, the neo-shadows giving up on trying to capture the girl while fighting Riku.
Riku leaped into the air, charging headfirst to the invisibles as his body glowed dark purple and then he vanishes into nothing. He re-appears like he was rapidly teleporting, striking at the invisibles in the sky with immeasurable speed, before ending it all with one final dark firaga in the center of the group. He fell back down to the ground on his feet as Kairi fires off one more Aero spell, sucking up the heartless and throwing them into the ocean.
When no more showed up, Kairi thought she could take it easy and relax, but no. She felt tension and stress built up in her, and when she looked to Riku it merely got worse as he turned to her. This silence between them, this sense of antagonistic between the two feels unnatural to Kairi, but somehow, she couldn't push aside how angry she felt to the older boy. 'Go back to Noct and the others', he says, turning away to the Darkside.
Irritation grew within the girl, furious by how dismissive he is towards her. Like a master done with their impatient apprentice and just wished for them to get out of their hair. Kairi stomps over to him before he tried to walk off and grabbed his arm. '*We* should go back to Noct and the others! They need our help!', she insisted. Riku turned on Kairi with a scowl. 'You're the one who abandoned them for a necklace!', he reminds harshly. Kairi glares at him as he yanked his hand roughly out of her own hands.
The two friends glared at each other, almost daring the other person to say something on the tip of their tongues. It seemed Riku took the challenge because he turned to face her properly. 'Go to Noct and keep them safe, that's an order', he said. 'Excuse me? I'm not some apprentice you can dismiss at your leisure Riku!', Kairi rebuked, insulted by this. Riku raised a brow at this rebellious attitude from his friend, despite knowing just how stubborn the girl is. 'Where were you when everything started?', she questioned, 'Ever since you told me what happened to Sora…'.
'I was trying to figure out how to deal with all this, but then I saw you surrounded by the heartless', he starts with a grunt, pinching the bridge of his nose, 'You shouldn't have run off like this! Especially knowing Noct and the others can't keep themselves safe from the heartless!'.
Guilt-ridden with that knowledge she did up and left the group because of the necklace, Kairi felt the shame that she prioritized an item so close to her over the well-being of her friends. Looking back on it, she did understand why Riku is upset with her. Yet knowing this, however, clasping the chain within her pocket, she feels anger to him. Why was he treating her like a student on the first day? She's fought off hordes of daemons AND heartless on her own once, fighting them now was far easier than she first started.
Having someone she cared for so much and looked up to, treating her like this not only infuriated her but also hurt her too. 'I know I shouldn't have run off like that, but that necklace is Sora's!', she growled, 'It's all I have of him right now! So, forgive me, Riku, if the only blasted thing of the boy I love is something I don't want some filthy daemon to keep!', she shouts, eyes wide with anger and hurt. Riku's face showed surprise and some form of remorse for his tone, but that was pushed down as his own eyes glowed with anger.
'So, you're ok to go off to save some jewelry and leave our friends to fend for themselves?', he accused. 'I did not leave them defenseless! Donald and Goofy are there!', she argued. 'And why didn't you regroup with us instead of going off on your own!?'. The anger she felt, the loathsome feeling deep within her heart from everything that's happened since the battle had finally reached a boiling point. Nearly dying, losing her lover, her faults coming back to haunt her, Riku being so condescending and dismissive of her was just the nudge to push her over the edge.
Despite this overwhelming anger clutching her heart, the logic side of her mind was desperately telling her to stop it. The pain she feels, the sadness of losing him was not Riku's fault, and she knows he was trying to protect her. But no, for once she would not back down and cool off, if Riku was going to be angry at her like this, then she should have the right to bite back. 'Because I trusted you to stay with Noct and the others! Guess I made the wrong call on that!', he barked.
'And going off on your own worked so well the last time, huh?', she taunted. The words coming from their mouths, Kairi is shocked she had the nerves to say them as much as Riku does. The pain from their words cut deep however, she almost felt the prickle in her eyes from their argument and musters her will not to cry from it. They shouldn't be arguing like this, in the middle of a horrible battle right now with likely the world at stake, not at each other's throats like enemies.
'ENOUGH!'.
They both turned to see Aqua marching towards both, looking completely done with their argument. The looks she gave them was a mixture of anger and disappointment with her eyes like she was baffled by their actions. Not that Kairi could fault her entirely, here were two keyblade wielders squabbling like children fighting over a toy. In the middle of a battle as grime and terrible as the one they found themselves in.
The master glared at the two, before speaking to Riku: 'Why weren't you answering your phone when we needed you?'. Riku looks away, shame painting his face before he muttered: 'I just…wanted to be alone'. Aqua's glare intensified at this pathetic excuse, almost insulted that this is the reason why he couldn't get into contact with them or at the very least assure them he was at the very least safe. 'Yet here you are lecturing her about abandon the others while you just ignored them?', Aqua accused.
Riku turned to her to open his mouth but ended up just closing it with a sigh, looking down. Shaking her head, Aqua gestured the direction she came from. 'Go. Noct and the others have headed to that direction, regroup with them and this time answer the phone when they call', she ordered, using what Kairi dubbed the "Master authority" tone. The kind of tone that would make even Xehanort shake in fear on the receiving end of it.
Without a word, Riku scoffs and jogged off and then leaps onto the buildings before jumping out of sight of the girls. Kairi feels the stare on her as she looked away, rubbing her arm. Aqua says nothing, just keeps glaring at her with disapproval. Deciding to just bite the bullet and get the lecture over with, Kairi takes a deep breath, exhales and looks at her master. 'You're angry…', she starts lamely but Aqua raised her hand. 'I'm angry at Riku for his behavior, that's unbecoming of a master', Aqua explains. 'I'm disappointed in you, however'.
Kairi looked down, almost wishing she was angry instead. 'It was bad enough you rushed off leaving Donald and Goofy to take the work themselves, but what was worse you put yourself in danger like this again', she states, her tone tough and master like. 'Kairi, this penchant for recklessness needs to stop. If Riku hadn't arrived, or if NO one arrived, you wouldn't be here right now'. Kairi clenched her fists, angrily. Why? Why is everyone constantly throwing that in her face?
Every battle she was in she had proved not only she could handle herself but exceed herself in the same fight. She had fought off countless enemies, on her own or with someone, fought a man even stronger than Sora and had come out without losing a limb or even taking that many hits. Does everyone just simply assume she couldn't keep herself safe? That she needed to be constantly watched or protected because of her status as a princess of light? What did she have to do for people to see she wasn't that damsel in distress anymore?
'I can handle myself just fine, Aqua!', she shouts, startling her master slightly. 'Even if Riku didn't show up I could have beaten them all! I did so long enough before!'. 'It wasn't the eternal night when that happened and you darn well know you were on deaths doorstep when we found AND Sora!', Aqua said, reminding her. 'This time, they wouldn't have given up if you were on your own and you know as much as I do the heartless only retreated because they sensed me and Riku showing up!'.
Kairi opened her mouth but Aqua cuts her off. 'Kairi, I understand you're angry, and hurt that Sora isn't here with us, but that is no excuse to throw yourself into the neck of things!', Aqua stated. 'You-
'Do you understand?'.
Aqua stops at that question, Kairi's face down, eyes hidden by her bangs. 'What?', Aqua asked, 'Do you, really, truly understand how I feel?', she asked again. Clenching her fists with her shoulders shaking. 'Let me ask you something Aqua…when everything happened to you and the others…when everything was taken…did Terra and Ven fight each other because of you?', Kairi asked. Aqua's face shifted to concern at this, Kairi's tone is a mixture of anger, frustration, sadness and…guilt.
She shook her head and raised it to face her master with tears running down her eyes despite the anger plastered on her face. 'Did Terra give into the darkness because he was trying to figure out where your heart went? Did Ven sacrifice his own heart to free yours from within himself?', she listed. Aqua's face turned to shock at the girl as she shook. 'Did you have to go home and stay behind while they were off finding each other? Fighting every day? Getting hurt while you were safe at home? Did you feel so useless that you were always the one stayed behind while your friends had to go off and fight?'.
'Kairi…', Aqua gasped, as the Kairi grabbed her head with both hands. 'No! Of course, you weren't! NO ONE BUT ME WAS! Constantly pushed to the sidelines, constantly told for my safety stay behind!', she screamed. Shaking her head, she faced her master. 'I became a keyblade wielder to protect Sora! To be there when he needed me! So that for once I didn't have to be saved! But look at what happened! He's captured, because of me!'.
Her hands shook as she summoned her keyblade, quivering and shaking as both anger and guilt raged within her body. 'In the end…it's always my fault. Everything that happened to him is because of me…I thought…I thought maybe, if I could learn how to use this, I'd be able to help him, to prove I was more than just a princess of light…'. She shakes her head as she lets out a cry. 'But I was wrong! I screwed it up and now we've lost Sora!', she screamed, throwing the keyblade to the ground with a loud clang.
Aqua just stared at her student, her disappointment evaporating and transforming into remorse and genuine understanding of her student's pain. Looking at her own keyblade's chain, remembering her pain of what she endured to help her brothers. Looking back at her student, arms wrapped around her she tried to hold back that sob that wanted to break free, maybe she was tired of crying, maybe she wanted to stop feeling like this.
The master may not know what it felt like to be in those positions where your beloved friends are at each other's throats for your sake, that were you used as a means to harm the one you loved and how desperate it must make a person feel to want to help those close to your heart. She did, however, know that desire, that power a person must have felt when you were willing to allow yourself to throw it all away to save someone dear to you.
She thought back to those years on her own, how she gave up the chance to stay in the realm of light for Terra to be safe, or when she locked Ventus in place only she would know to keep him from Xehanort. She looks to the thrown keyblade, understanding that sense of self-doubt and questioning her qualities of being worthy of being a wielder of such a weapon. The same pain she had to endure many times in the dark realm.
Aqua picked Kairi's weapon up as she approached the girl, still not facing her and gently embraced her. '…I won't pretend I know what you went through, nor will I insult you by saying I understand', she assured gently, 'But I disagree with a lot of what you said'. She gently creates a gap between them and lifts Destiny's Embrace in her hands to Kairi. 'This keyblade is yours, and you were chosen by it not because you are a princess of light, but because of that heart of yours', she explains. Aqua gestures her to take it, and she could see the doubt within her student's eyes.
'…Sora's capture is, weighing on everyone Kairi, though the pain you must feel, I can't imagine', she continued, 'But it was not your fault'. 'People like Ardyn, they know how to manipulate and exploit the heart, especially when it comes to love'. Aqua closed her eyes, thinking of her brothers and master, how their bond was abused by Xehanort and his partner, the scum who took so much from them, creating rifts within their bonds. More of a reason why she knows deep down when they all finally reunite; all their ties will mend.
'If the roles were reversed, do you truly think you would be any different than Sora on that day?', she asked. Kairi shook her head, not trusting her voice in case a sob escaped her again. Aqua gently rests her hand on her shoulder, smiling. 'You've grown so much since we came here, far exceeding the expectations I had for you', she praised, 'But you're still learning, you still need more time to train. But most importantly, you're still only scratching the surface of what you are capable of'.
She offers the keyblade to her student once more, sensing the faith rejuvenating in her eyes as she looked at the keyblade. 'You said you wanted to be there for Sora when he needs you, right? Then now's the time to fulfill that promise by bringing him home'. Kairi looked at her master, not seeing a smidgen of doubt in her eyes but complete faith in her student. She smiles through her tears and giggles lightly, grabbing her keyblade and reclaiming it, making it disappear back to where it belonged.
Then the girl hugged Aqua tightly, her master hugging her back warmly. "You are stronger than you believe Kairi…", she thought to herself.
Gently she brushed her tears away with her thumbs. 'No more tears, ok? Not until we save Sora', she asked. 'Yeah…promise', Kairi assures, smiling. Together they both rushed off to re-join the others.
*Noctis' group*
Racing down the streets chased by shadows, the party of seven exited the alleyway just as Donald stops and turns around while the others ran past him. He erects a barrier of magic in the small space between the two buildings to delay the daemons and heartless, shocking them when they touched the grey barrier of mana.
He chases the others as they cross over a small bridge that on the other lied the estate and the basement where they agreed to hold up in. 'Almost there guys!', Prompto pants, guiding Ignis still as Goofy leads them to the other side. When they were almost across the bridge, the ground shook more violently and caused them all to lose their balances, falling onto their knees or in some cases of the weakened party fall entirely.
Noctis fell to a knee, looking ahead to see the bridge was being torn apart by the dark sphere in the skies power, rubble and metal was being torn from the bridge. Slowly with loud groans of breaking, the bridge was being levitated upwards to the sphere. The prince tries to steady himself while feeling the weight of being pressured down by the quick movement of the bit of land they were on. He stands up grabbing the stone railing of the bridge to see they were above the city and joined the ring of floating land surrounding the Darkside.
'Oh give me a break…', he groans out, stressed.
'Heartless!', Goofy yelled.
The prince sees a group of invisibles floating nearby their small island of land, swords drawn and intent clear when their yellow eyes glowered at the group of relatively helpless individuals. One invisible immediately flew towards Prompto and Ignis, the former letting a yell of terror and bravely turned his back to the monster to shield Ignis. The invisible swings its sword but Gladiolus tackled it with his shoulders and knocked it into the railing.
He quickly stomped on its head and killed before grabbing the blade before it could vanish along with the heartless. He turns on the invisibles while beating his chest. 'What are you waiting for!? Come and get me!', Gladiolus taunted, waving the smaller weapon of his choice. Defiantly staring down the heartless, Gladiolus gripped the smaller weapon with both hands while two flew towards him. He lets out a roar while he swings, splitting the swords and the invisibles in half, the shockwave of his attack rumbled in the stone beneath his feet.
Donald and Goofy kept to the other end of the bridge, fighting off the other invisibles that flew to them while Prompto helped Ignis get to some form of cover with railings, the boy using his body as a shield in case the fighters couldn't stop them. Noctis looked around to see if any more of the invisibles dropped their weapons so he could at least help Gladiolus, but none were to be had. He looked to the Oracle standing near Prompto, unaware of an invisible swooping towards her.
His blood froze as time slowed down to a crawl, the dull beatings of his heart was all he could hear. Flashes of the burning of Tenebrae boomed in his mind, seeing the Oracle he become so close to be left behind in the hands of the empire. Seeing her bloodied and hurt for him to fulfill a prophecy, to have it all undone by that bastard of a man. Now a useless king, unfit to rule or lead his company, unable to wield the weapons of his ancestors.
Clenching his fists, his body moved before he could think, as the prince, no, the king of Insomnia. If he is to perish here, at the very least he would go out protecting his love.
Noctis pushes Lunafreya aside and felt it…the cold grip of death.
Time stops for him, memories of his life up to this point flashes through his eyes, everything he did, wanted to do. He couldn't even breath in shock as his eyes fell to the dark steel that plunged into his stomach, slowly coated with the color of his blood. He couldn't even hear the Oracle cry his name, the inhuman rage of Gladiolus' roar or the pure desperate cries of Prompto before he was discarded from the blade, thrown off the bridge.
His vision darkens, Lunafreya's face was all he could see before he is swallowed by the cold waters of Altissia with a thud and splash. Slowly sinking into the dark depths of the seas, descending in strange tranquillity as his blue eyes flicker with a hand outstretched to grasp the tiny bit of light ahead of him.
His final thoughts oddly played back to one day…his last meeting with Eraqus…
*Fifteen Years Ago…*
The small prince looked at the old antique looking blade, thingy, Eraqus wielded. A strange light flickers within it, reminding the young child of his father's arms whenever he explained it to him. Yet strangely the light he feels from this weapon wasn't cold nor did he feel a weird sapping sensation from it, the light is warm and gentle almost like a friendly handshake.
Eraqus gently reverse grips the weapon and offers it to Noctis. 'Noct, you're father has told you of the duty of a king? Correct?', he asked. The prince nodded shyly despite knowing this man was one of the few friends his dad had and trusted. The way he spoke is something akin to Ignis' usual expecting kind, the kind where they knew Noctis was far better then he would admit to. 'Yes', he muses quietly and still very shyly.
Eraqus smiled softly to the boy, almost like he predicted. 'One day you will take his place, this is a gift from me', he says, 'If you wish to receive a blessing from an old friend, I ask that you take hold of this keyblade'. Noctis looked at the weapon's handle with apprehension, turning to his father like he was asking for permission to do so. He sees a pleading look within his strong eyes like he was hoping the prince to take this weapon. Turning back to the weapon in question, Noctis raised his hand to grasp the handle of the weird (but cool) sword.
Eraqus relinquishes his grip on the weapon to allow the prince to wield the weapon in his little hands, impressed by how the boy lifted the weapon with ease. Noctis felt that light course through him, warm and friendly but he felt strong, maybe Cor the Immortal strong with this weapon. He felt like he could take on the world with it, maybe even protect his dad too. Eraqus placed a hand on the boy's shoulder, proud of him, and recites: 'In your hand, take this key. So long as you have the makings, then through this simple act of taking...its wielder, you shall one day be. And you will find me, friend—no ocean will contain you then. No more borders around, or below, or above, so long as you champion the ones you love.'.
The weapon then disappears from Noctis' hands, making him gasp in surprise as Eraqus stood up. He gave the boy one more smile before turning to his friend with a look of respect and…sympathy? He nods to Regis. 'Take care on the long road, my friend', he says. 'This…will be the final time we speak'.
Regis claps a hand onto the man's shoulder, smiling at him. 'It has been a good few years if the gods are willing perhaps, we will meet again', he says hopefully. Eraqus nods in agreement, before turning to the entrance and leaving the antechamber. Noctis watched him go until he disappeared entirely…
*Present*
"Eraqus…", Noctis thought vaguely, memories of that day resurfacing in his mind. The last time he spoke to that old man, the day his dad had broken down in tears, the day he started to treat Noctis more like a normal son than a prince. As he sinks deeper into the waters, Noctis felt himself being pulled deeper not to his demise but to a place he swore he knew.
When his eyes opened again, he felt like he was standing on something but couldn't place what. He is surrounded by nothing but darkness all around him. There is no heartless or daemons around him yet he feels like he wasn't in Eos anymore. Why did this place feel so familiar to him? Had he been here before?
"Can you do it? Reach deep down into the untapped power that lies deep within the depths of your heart, Chosen King of Light?", a strangely familiar voice hums.
"Untapped power?", Noctis thought to himself, placing a hand on his heart. Closing his eyes, he tried to call to it, the source of power that lies within him. Digging into his heart, he feels a warmth spread from his body, a source of light growing within him as he opened his eyes to see his brothers standing before him, unscarred. The people who helped him on his journey, Cindy and Cid repairing the Regalia, Cor and the Crownsguard who've supported him, Iris, Talcott and Jared for their unwavering faith in him.
Sora and his friends, friends he couldn't replace or ever repay for their help, his father standing amidst the darkness of this place. The people he's felt close to, the ones who kept him going to fulfill his role as the future king. Even without the Armiger, when things got to their lowest, they were still by his side, unwavering and forever confident in him surpassing the challenges that would cross his path.
Looking at his heart, Noctis nods with a small chuckle. 'I'm not sure if I can do this…don't even know how I'm supposed to be the king this world needs…but I know that you guys believe in me', he says. 'You've been by my side, when I'm at my weakest, always getting me into gear to push forward, to be better, and just reminding me I don't have to walk tall alone'.
Resolution and hope stirs within him as the ground beneath his feet slowly glows into the crystal blue light, he once carried within him, slowly extending and expanding on the ground bathing all those close to his heart in the same light. Noctis raised his hand, face turned to determined and with faith renewed in not just himself but his company, he glows.
'Power…of Light!', he cries.
*Above*
Gladiolus roars as he stabbed another invisible, rage consumed and like a wild bear tore his enemies apart while Donald and Goofy kept up the defenses, striking and blasting their enemies. The former shield of the prince blocked an attack from the invisible, but another swiped the sword from his hands and two more tackled the shield into the ground.
They tried to plunge their blades into him but Goofy threw his shield at one that struck its head and Donald blasts another with a ball of fire that burnt it to nothing. Goofy quickly helped Gladiolus to his feet as more of the invisibles began to swarm and cloud the skies around them. 'They just keep coming!', Goofy says, shield up high as Gladiolus clenched his fist. Donald kept aiming his staff at several of them, unsure who to blast first as they backed up near Prompto, shielding both Ignis and Lunafreya from the horde.
'Where's Aqua and the others when you need them!?', Prompto squeaks in fear. Gladiolus wished he knew the answer to that question as much as the others likely, antsy and waiting for the invisibles to attack. For all he knew, if he could delay the deaths of this group for even a minute longer, at the very least he will die doing his job as a shield to someone at least. The invisibles all swarmed and charged at them as Gladiolus stood with the only guardians of light among them, embracing his end.
But then, the invisibles were all decimated by light. The warriors and Oracle were being protected in a dome of crystal light while soaring all over the air were crystalized weapons ripping and tearing apart the invisibles. Destroying them all while keeping the team safe, earning looks of shock. Gladiolus looked to Donald, wondering if this was his work but the duck gave him the same look of bafflement and confusion he dawned on his features.
Behind them, a pillar of blue light shined down into the ocean and something quickly flew upwards into the air, glowing in crystals. They all looked to see Noctis flying in the air, surrounded by the royal arms once again with his engine blade in hand. 'Noct! Noct's alive!', Prompto cheered, clapping Ignis on the back. 'And he's got his army gear thing!', Goofy sings with joy. Donald didn't even bother correcting him, to ecstatic to see the prince was still with them.
Gladiolus watched in awe and admiration of his prince, no, his king there. A thought occurred to him and one look at his hand, made him clench it before he raised it. "Please…give me the power to protect them", he thought to himself.
Slowly materializing in his hand was the Masamune used by the Blademaster. He grins excitedly as he summoned Defender in his other hand, letting out a cry of victory earning the others looks. Their jaws hit the ground as Ignis resummons his daggers and Prompto calling his gun back to his hand. 'We've got our weapons back!', Prompto cries out in joy, grinning madly. Lunafreya watches in dumbstruck at this change, before she looks to Noctis in the air.
'Gladio!'.
They all turned to the edge of the bridge to see the three keyblade wielders jumping onto the bridge. 'We've gotta move you all...some…where…', she starts before her eyes fell to their weapons. 'W-What?', she asked, gobsmacked as Kairi and Riku just stared in confusion at their weapons. They all pointed to Noctis, now dashing towards the Darkside with the speed of light. 'I think we owe that little miracle to Noct over there', Gladiolus revealed, pointing to the king. Aqua followed his thumb, before nodding and turned back to him.
'We should go after him! He's gonna be surrounded by heartless!', Prompto said, waving his gun, 'We can back him up!'.
'He won't need it'. They turned to Kairi, watching Noctis fly towards the black sphere in the sky while his weapons surrounding him. 'Noct…doesn't need our help this time'.
Noctis raised his hand towards the sphere, his weapons all turning into ten rays of blue light that spiral around the king before charging towards the red and black sphere. They pierced the sphere in the skies, turning the red into blue as rays of light began to pierce the sphere until a brilliant light boomed within and detonated. The sphere exploding into nothing with a force so great it splits the waves and ocean and even for a moment, cleared the darkness in the skies to bless the world in a brief respite.
The king floats before the Darkside, defiantly as the royal arms he's collected begin to appear around him while his engine blade was carried in his left hand while he raised his right hand. His body is bathed in blue light as fragments of white crystals surrounded him, eyes glowing blue.
'You're going down', he declares.
Noctis flew towards the Darkside, like an arrow of light as the armada of arms flew along with him, striking the Darkside. The weapons of light struck and destroyed the monster with Noctis summoning his newest addition to the Armiger and with a cry, he brings it down unto the head of the Darkside. An explosion of light blinds the others as a force of wind brushes by them.
The Chosen King of Light had returned…
*Later…*
With the defeat of the Darkside and with the royal retinue's powers restored, the group managed to vanquish what remained of the darkness with their combined powers while they made their way to the bit of land where the Darkside stood prior its destruction. Using the gondolas that were still seaworthy to make it there, they all raced to the ruined town to find their king, worried if he became exhausted and fell into the ocean.
The party of nine found his majesty standing by the edge of the island, staring into the distance not moving or making a sound. Approaching him cautiously, none had dared to say a word, granting the king a chance to explain. He turned to the others, facing them all with a look that showed something within his majesty had changed greatly, an air of maturity and wisdom of a king surrounded him while his eyes appeared more awakened and aware.
He smiled at the party, placing his left hand on his hip before smugly nodding. 'What? Didn't think I could take it?', he joked. That's when they all looked to see what he carried in his right arm, much to the surprise and shock of the keyblade wielders.
In the arm of the king was neither a royal arm nor his Engine blade. In his hand was a blade with two shafts the represent the Citadels buildings in black steel with the Kingsglaive emblem made of grey steel at the top of the hilt of the weapon, with the handlebars bearing six swords on each bar. The teeth of the weapon is shaped like the crescent moon with a bladed tip resembling King Regis' blade, the chain connected to the weapon was a small crystal of blue.
Noctis lifted his new weapon to the others. 'Looks like your master had a backup plan', he said, looking at Aqua.
On the day where the eternal night had begun, the King of Light had become a wielder of the most powerful weapon of light. A keyblade.
A/N: …I'm so tired…
So this mega chapter had a LOT of work done to it! GAHHHH! Its over now. Noctis is a wielder of the key, gets his Armiger back with his brothers, and now can keep up with Aqua in company in the future. Bet Xigbar didn't see this coming~
Sorry if I focused too much on Kairi again, I didn't want to make her depressed in the later chapters and wanted to try and get her back on her feet while lashing out something I want to see in the future games or DLC. But now she's back on her feet and ready to rescue her boy!
If anyone has any questions, please ask away. Here's mine:
Q1: What do you think of this chapter?
Q2: How was the bequeathing scene?
Q3: Did you enjoy seeing Eraqus again with Regis? What do you think of them being friends?
Q4: Anyone excited for Episode Prompto and Kairi in the future?
Q5: Should I develop limits for Aqua and Gladiolus?
Q6: How do you think Ardyn is gonna react to learning Noctis is even more powerful?
Q7: Thoughts on the rift between Riku and Kairi?
As always, thanks for reading and the patience for this chapter. I'm not sure if I'll do another big one like this often, I just wanted to stop with all the gloom for awhile. Next time will be more chipper! Stay awesome but more importantly stay safe!
