Final Fantasy XV - Kingdom Hearts
Part 54
Summary: Two warriors of Light, the Chosen King and Keyblade Master, face an unseen Darkness.
The very first time Sora has ever set foot on Radiant Garden, he knew that the world was a home to the heartless from the very moment the air of the world reached his lungs. When it was known as "Hollow Bastian", a world that was warped and twisted into an ugly place that the dark ruled over, Maleficent's place of power and home to the final keyhole to the darkness.
When they reclaimed for Leon and the gang, after seeing how far their work had come in restoring it to the glory days brought hope to the boy that even after so long in the clutches of darkness, a world can return to its purity.
Now seeing Radiant Garden, surrounded by the darkness once more, memories of the dark world resurfaced back in his mind.
With the Highwind XV merely orbiting the world from a safe distance after their first attempt to get close, the guardians could only gaze in worry at the world before them. Cindy had tried to get into contact with Cid and the other members of the Restoration Committee, only getting static or silence on their ends. 'This ain't good, nobody's picking up', Cindy announces, 'The heartless are probably blocking the signal or took over the darn place'.
'What the heck caused them to suddenly take over?', Ventus questioned, looking at Mickey, 'We didn't feel ANYTHING like this when we were there'. Mickey nods in agreement as he crossed his arms and pondered. 'Could a more powerful heartless has spawned, and the lesser ones are following them', theorized the mouse king. 'What about the Organization? Maybe they're doing this?', Prompto asked.
'I wouldn't say so…', Riku huffed, 'They've never shown an interest in worlds before, and with the war getting close I doubt Xehanort would waste anything on conquering worlds now'.
'We can figure that out later, but right now we need to go help', Kairi says strongly. 'How? Cindy can't get us close enough to land', Prompto reminds. Their first attempt had the ship shake like it was being shook as if they were in the middle of an earthquake with almost everything going haywire with alarms and the power in some parts shutting off completely. And that was when they tried to get close. They didn't want to guess how horrible landing the ship would be, but many guessed it'd be the last thing they'd do.
'I can't land her with all that darkness mucking up the systems, but I can transport ya'll to the world if we use the teleporter', Cindy says while flicking a few switches. 'Trick is though, it's gonna pick a few locations within the city…'.
'Can't you just transport us all to the castle?', Axel asked with a groan. 'Can you stop being ungrateful and appreciate my help?', chastised Cindy with a roll of her eyes. Before the redhead could retort, Gladiolus pats him roughly on the back and says: 'Stop bitching, we've got a way in'. The tone that promised bodily harm shut Axel up quickly. 'Better than nothing, thanks Cindy!', Sora says as the others head for the teleportation room, jogging after them.
'Just let me know if ya'll clear the signal! I'll try to land her then!', she yelled as the party descended via the elevator.
Once everyone was on the platform for transport, the room hummed loudly as a bright light enveloped the others and then they were gone…
*RG, Market District*
Once his vision was no longer blinded by the hyper bright light that was the miracle of technology, Sora could see himself within the familiar yet distinctly different market district. He lets out a gasp of dismay when he sees how bad the heartless had wrecked the whole place, and the idea of so much work Leon and the others had put into restoring this world be washed away tugged at his heartstrings. Clenching his fist as pain turned into anger, he looked around more to survey the world.
The sky was violet and green with the dark with bolts of violet lightning flashing in the skies, darkening the world in a poisonous green, the sounds of combat filled the air with destruction of the world booming around him, it was as if they were in the middle of a warzone. Overhead he spots heartless flying in the skies with giant balls of green flames being thrown across the city like they were catapulted.
This was not the work of Xehanort or his vessels, he knew that the moment he set foot here. This darkness was strong but he knew it well enough to distinguish it from the Seeker of Darkness, and only one person off the top of his head would be so adamant in reclaiming this world for herself.
Maleficent.
'Sora!'.
He turns to see the party had been reduced to only five, including himself. Kairi jogged up to him with Donald, Goofy, and Prompto behind her, the gunner taking in everything of this new world. 'Where are the others?', he asked as Kairi joined his side. 'I dunno', she says, looking around, 'Cindy did say we'd be teleported to different locations in the city, maybe they ended up somewhere else?'.
Nodding, Sora and Prompto quickly whip out their phones and dialed their companions, putting their devices on loudspeakers. 'Hello? Is anyone on?', Sora said as his phone beeped. On his screen he sees Riku answering while Prompto says: 'I've got Noct!'.
'Everyone here in one piece?', Riku asks, yelling, 'Whose with who?'. 'I've got Kairi, Donald, Goofy, and Prompto with me!', Sora answered.
'Noct's with Mickey, Ven, and Axel!', Prompto says. 'Good, I'm with what's left of the party', Riku answers, showing the others behind him. 'Looks like we're at the central town square'. 'We're at the market', Sora answered, 'And Prompto said Noct's at the bailey'.
'So what's the plan?', Prompto asked, looking at Sora's phone. 'First off, Sora, head into the town and find someone from the RC, give us an idea of how bad things are here. Noct, take the others and go for the computer room through the bailey, that's where all the research is on the Replica program', Riku says on the phone. 'What's that?', Noctis questioned.
'Our only way to bring Roxas and Naminé back', Kairi says. Immediately the keyblade wielding king's face turned from confused to resolute and he nods. 'Gotcha, we're on our way'. 'Good, we'll head to the castle and see if we can find the others there, good luck!', Riku says before ending the call. With their tasks set, the party of five ran into the streets to find their old friends, weapons drawn.
Despite how vastly developed and different the town was since the last time Sora had been here, he leads the team through the streets as if he had been living here for years now. Everywhere they went the destruction of the world only brought them more worries for the RC and questions about how strong the heartless were and just how many of them there was to commit such a huge attack on the city. Then again Sora remembered Maleficent hadn't shown how strong she had gotten over the years since he had fought her, and every time they did meet face to face he could never gauge how powerful she was.
'Any ideas who's behind all this?', Prompto asks as they ran down a flight of stairs. 'Yeah, maybe. Remember that witch we told ya about?', Donald says. 'Maleficent? The what, wicked witch of the west?', jokes the blond. 'Something like that…', the duck grumbled at the joke. 'She's been using the heartless for years, but after we put a stop to her plans she was mostly just moseying around the worlds', Sora explained, 'She was looking for some black box or something last time we saw her'.
'Think that box was important?', Kairi says as the reached what could be a neighborhood of sorts. 'I mean, anything she's looking for has to be bad news for us, right?'.
'Knowing Maleficent?', Sora huffs. Just before he could say something else, they hear a building being destroyed nearby for them to stop running and turn to the direction of the noise. 'That way come on!', Sora says, racing towards the noise.
Through the street and into an open area with a fountain in the center, they see several civilians being guided down another street with one guard yelling instructions to them with another fighting off the heartless with a lance of sorts. A horde of heartless had already dominated the square, some heartless soldiers were dancing on the roofs of the homes of the people, neo-shadows skittering in the ground, buildings and leaping at the townsfolk trying to flee.
A rock troll heartless was swinging its massive axe at anything close to it while some crimson jazz heartless flutter in the air leaving explosives spheres in their dances, large bodies body slamming on the ground and buildings.
The large bodies though were being dealt with by Tifa, as Sora points out, punching and kicking them like there were massive soccer balls. Her raw power was more than enough to destroy the durable fat monsters, but the party sees she must have been fighting for some time based on how weary her movements were and the numerous wounds on her body.
On the roofs, the soldiers were dealing with likely another member of the RC, and by far the most bizarre-looking one among them all. A quadrupedal animal with dark red and orange fur and a thin brown mane. They could see the right eye is scarred, and the remaining eye is ochre. The animal is adorned with a variety of beads, earrings, and feathers around its head, with golden pastern braces and brands on the legs. One of these brands is the number XIII". It also has a flaming tail. There is also black patterns on the legs and what appeared to be face paint.
The beast was clawing and biting the soldiers while performing summersaults and backflips to destroy the soldiers. Whatever it was, obviously it wasn't a regular beast based on how quick it was eating the heartless numbers like it was in a buffet.
'They're not gonna last much longer!', Kairi says as they rush into the fight, 'Let's give them a hand!'.
Splitting up as they reach the square, Sora immediately ran to the rock troll when it marched to the two guardians of the people. He jumped over the troll and landed right before it, Oblivion in hand and stared down the giant heartless. Upon seeing the slayer of its kin, the troll forgets the easy meals and pounds its chest with its huge hand and brings down its axe on Sora.
'Reflect!', Sora cried out, hand raised. A dome of light covers him entirely and the very moment the weapon of the heartless lands on Sora, a blast of magic shots all around Sora and strikes the troll. The power behind his attack was enough for Sora to slay the troll as it's body disappears, the heart fluttering to the skies to return to its host. He turns to the two guardians as more people flee the city, his face went from determined to surprise when he finally has a better view of the two. One of them was very likely the human form of the nobody, Xaldin, if Sora remembered right.
"Xaldin" merely glanced at Sora after he struck down a crimson jazz, giving the boy a reluctant look before he nods. 'Your aid is appreciated, Sora', he greets. Taken aback by the genuine noble and benevolence in his tone, Sora clumsily nods in response. 'You're welcome…err…', he says slowly, not sure what his name was before becoming a nobody. 'Dilan…', he reveals, 'And here is Aeleus'. The other guard merely glanced to Sora, before returning to ordering the people to flee with his weapon on his shoulders.
Aeleus wears the same guard outfit as Dilan: a grey uniform with white cuffs and a red heart on the chest. There are blue hearts on the cuffs of both of his gloves. Aeleus's Axe Sword also appears much closer to an axe than a sword. He has very angular and strong features, with a square chin, straight nose, and sharp cheekbones, blue eyes, and small eyebrows. His hair is auburn and slicked back into rather odd, messy spikes, and that was coming from Sora of all people.
Dilan is a tall, broad-shouldered man that wears a dark slate grey guard uniform, which is adorned with a curled heart symbol and white gloves. The front of his jacket sports two rows of gold buttons, silver highlights, and a red and white heart like the one on his gloves. Wearing a belt and knee-high boots, both of which are black. Dilan's hair is black and worn in long dreadlocks. He keeps most of his dreads tied into a low ponytail, but one dangles over the right side of his face. He also has thick sideburns, eyebrows, and violet eyes.
Sora turned back to the fight and re-joins as the two guards protect the people.
Just as Tifa punched a large body into a wall and follows it up with a powerful roundhouse kick that sent a crimson jazz into the skies like a football, she was struck in the back by another large body's tree-like arm. Tifa lets out a yell of pain and lands on her side, grunting with pain as she rests on a knee. Clenching her fist, she turned to the large heartless suddenly being destroyed.
Behind it stood Prompto with that switchblade before he sheathes it and takes shots at the large bodies nearby. 'You ok, miss?', he asks as he busies himself with shooting the heartless. The girl grunts a "yeah" as she staggered back to her feet, grunting with pain. 'There's too many of them…wait, who are you?', Tifa asked, not recalling seeing this person. 'Oh nobody! Just a friend of Sora's!', Prompto replied as he takes down one large body, 'And name's Prompto!'.
'Sora?', Tifa says, turning to see the two familiar friends of his taking down the soldiers near the red lion with magic and shield while seeing a girl vaporizing the crimson jazz heartless in the air. Then finally to her heart's delight, she saw Sora joining Kairi in taking down the floating red lantern-shaped heartless with his keyblade hacking and slashing through them all. No doubt about it this time, the way he fought and how quick he moved was clear to the martial artist that this was the real deal.
She felt something brush against her arm, making her look to see Prompto holding out a potion for her. 'Here ya go!', he says with a cheesy grin. The woman nods and takes it, crushes it and feels her pain disappear. 'Thanks, now lets clean this mess up!', she says with renewed vigor. The woman dashed towards more of the large bodies as Prompto helps pick off the shadows on the rooftops for the two members of Mickey's court.
With the combined effort of the RC and other world heroes, the heartless were routed swiftly and what remained of the civilians had finally escaped to wherever safe point was left. After he looks around and sees no more of the shadows, Sora nods and dismisses his keyblade, turning to Kairi as did the same, smiling at him for a job well done.
As he was about to speak, Sora was then enveloped into a hug by Tifa. 'There you are! It's great to see you again, Sora!', she says giving him a sisterly hug.
Kairi however, frowns at the woman and approached them. Sora chuckles shyly and hugs the woman back, grinning softly at her. 'Long time no see Tifa!', he greets with equal measures of joy. She loosened her hug, smiling brightly at the boy as his friends with the red canine joining them. The raven turns to Kairi's forced smile as she patiently waits for this woman to release her boyfriend. Only she was allowed Sora hugs.
'A friend of yours?', Tifa asks as she relinquished her hug on the boy. Sora brightens as he addresses Kairi. 'Yeah! Well, kinda. This is Kairi, she's…', he starts before Kairi cuts in. 'I'm his girlfriend', she says in a matter of fact way. This brings a light hue of pink to the boy's cheeks as he bashfully smiles at her while their trio of friends snickered quietly. It was as though he would never get used to her announcing she's his girlfriend.
Tifa, however, remains ignorant of Kairi's possessive and slight jealousy as she nods. 'Oh? So you're the girl he's always daydreaming about?', she asks warmly. And Sora's pink hue upgrades to intense blushing as he waves his hand at Tifa to stop. 'N-N-NO! I mean, yeah b-b-b-but not as much as you're saying!', he denies. Kairi looks at the boy, smirking at him as he stills and sweats more. With a playful wink, she turned back to Tifa. 'It's my charm', she says like it was common knowledge.
Tifa rolled her eyes at the confidence radiating from this girl, but their town was saved by them and her butt was pulled out of the fire because of them. Deciding that the poor boyfriend has had enough being teased for his obvious affection for Kairi, Prompto steps in. 'What's happening anyway? Was this world always filled with heartless?', he asked. At this, Tifa frowns and shakes her head. 'We get heartless sure, but not like this. Its an invasion, a full-scale attack by Maleficent', she reveals.
The three veterans looked at each other, confirming their belief that the old witch was indeed behind this assault. 'But how? She doesn't have that much power over the heartless anymore', Donald asked, recalling one of the members of the previous Organization XIII managed to snatch control from her. 'Donald's right, she hadn't been this strong since she first took over Hollow Bastian', Goofy concurs with his long-time friend. 'And something tells me Pete isn't the one calling the shots either', Sora adds with a scoff.
Tifa shakes her head with a sigh. 'It doesn't matter right now', she says, gesturing to the Dilan and Aeleus, 'Right now we've been trying to get the townsfolk to safety but with all the heartless around we're stretched thin'. 'Indeed. There are still districts filled with people we've yet to lend our aid to'. This information came from…the red canine. All eyes of the other world heroes fall to the animal, now looking at them with a bemused yet curious glance. 'What?', he asked.
'Y-you can talk?', Sora said, blown away. The canine growls. 'Yes, I can talk, boy'. Tifa, however, ruffles his mane playfully. 'You're the last pup to call him boy, Red', Tifa remarks with a grin. Red growls and shakes his head to rid his mane of her hand. Kairi's eyes widened with utter glee as she knelt and scratched his chin, cooing him. 'Aww, he's a cutie, a warrior and a talking dog!', praises the princess of light. Instead of growling at the attention, Red strangely enjoyed her scratches and even nuzzles into her, earning a giggle from Kairi.
'…you're not keeping him, Kairi', Sora said, crossing his arms. Kairi looked at him with a small pout but before she could argue her desires to adopt an awesome creature like Red, Prompto jumps in quickly. 'So what can we do to help? I mean, heartless butt-kicking is what we're good for!', he offers. Kairi ceases her puppy time and stands with the others as Tifa goes over their roles. 'Right now we have to get these people to safety, then we can deal with the other districts', she says with remorse, 'I wanna help, but dragging all these people into the warzone, we may as well leave them to the heartless'.
'Where do you plan on taking them?', Sora asks. 'The castle', Tifa answers, pointing to it. 'Several roads are leading to it and we have a security room for our residents in this district. There's more for each one to save us from clustering everyone up'. Sora nods and gestures himself with his thumb. 'Then me, Donald and Goofy will head to those districts, Kairi and Prompto can help you guys protect the people here', he suggested with a grin.
Kairi looks at him with a frown but before she could argue, Red speaks up. 'Not a bad idea. At least with the six of us, we can keep the people safe, and Sora's group clears out the other districts', he surmises. Tifa nods in agreement, patting Sora on the shoulder in gratitude before she yells to the two guards to go ahead of them. They nod and guide the people to their designated safe zone while Red chases after them in case more heartless spawned.
'You know where to go, right?', Tifa asks. Sora nods, informing her that the layout was different but finding people in need of a hero was a gift of his by now. This gets a laugh from her as she hugs him again before she jogged off to catch up to the others. Leaving the six guardians behind to talk about their change of plans. More so Kairi and Sora, seeing the two members of Mickey's court were better suited for sticking with Sora while Prompto, having no clue where to go, was better off with protecting the folks.
The three of them split off to their tasks, leaving the keyblade wielders to talk. Sora scratched behind his head awkwardly as Kairi's frown softens to worry. 'I don't like this', she states. 'I know, but they need our help', he argues before Kairi shook her head. 'Not what I meant, buster', she chides with a wag of her finger. Her stern looks change back to worry. 'I don't want to be away from you', she confesses. Sora's looks lose the seriousness as Kairi, bashful and guilty, looks away while rubbing her arm self-consciously.
'I know I sound like a brat and shouldn't be acting like this right now…but, I just got you back and, well', she mutters softly while shrinking more and more with every syllable. Gently Sora takes her hand and prompts her to look at his confident smile. 'I know, believe me, when I say I'm regretting this…but you don't know the town like I do, and getting lost isn't something we can deal with right now', he explains with wisdom she always believed he carried. He cups her cheek and warmly smiles.
'But I need you with Prompto and the others in case Maleficent or whoever's behind all this shows up. You're probably the second strongest one among the six of us'. Her eyes widened at that statement, the praises she got from him before warmed her heart but now she felt as if she was on cloud nine from it. In the eyes of her beloved, she saw complete confidence in her and the level of trust he would only give to someone like Riku or Aqua. To be on the end of those looks, her heart soared.
'I don't have to worry about you holding your own anymore, right?', he asked. Kairi nods enthusiastically, grinning happily at his question. Sora's smile widens to a grin and to seal the deal, he leans in and kisses her. Kairi wrapped her arms around his neck and pulls him closer to her, both eyes closed as they exchanged warmth and love. She had forgotten how wonderful it was to be able to do this with him, experience a sensation of love she could only compare in fairy tales.
They broke the kiss with themselves panting lightly, blushing but grinning. They heard their friends calling for them to join them on their respective tasks, making them snicker. Sora nods to her, 'Show them what you can do', he encourages. With that and gesturing his necklace on her neck, he winks and runs off to catch up to his friends with more spring in his steps than a jack-rabbit. When he runs around a corner, she hugs herself and squeals with delight before calming down and summoning Dearly Beloved.
Placing a hand over her heart, she calls upon her armor and dons it, helmet and all. With confidence at an all-time high and strength breaking her limit, Kairi races to Prompto. Today is the day she would stand by Sora's side as his equal…
*Hallway to Computer Room*
With another heartless air soldier brought down by Noctis' crossbow, he warps across the pathway to bring the Shield of the Just down onto an armored soldier, crushing it into nothing. Another armored knight tried to stab at the king, Noctis merely phase around the attack and once he was on the side of the knight, draws his engine blade and splits the warrior in half via waist-section.
'How are we doing?', he asked over fight when he saw Ventus cast a bolt of lightning on a large body. 'Getting there!', the younger boy remarks as he rolls away from the morning star heartless from crushing him. Once it lands on its gut, the youngest apprentice of Eraqus swings his keyblade and strikes the heartless and cuts through its dense armored body. He jumped into the air to chase down more of the air soldiers while Mickey flips around the battle striking heartless wherever they were.
It still amazed Noctis that someone so small like Mickey was able to one-shot the heartless and move with such speed and agility, then again he is a master like Aqua and Riku. The king of Insomnia turned on an armored knight swinging its blade at him, only for the king to call for his spear and plunge it into the heartless. This horde of minions started to gnaw at his patience and the idea of him just going wild with his Armiger was starting to become preferable, but as Mickey had suggested, going all out on the small fry would be a waste of their strength.
Axel joined his side with a swing of his keyblade, slicing through two-minute bombs that tried to detonate on him. He fires a large sphere of blazing fire at the two-morning stars, detonating upon impact and lightening up the room with his attack. The pyro smirks at his handiwork as Noctis repels a dual blade's choice of weapon and throw it over his head. 'Axel, above!', called out Noctis. Axel jumped into the air, grabbing his keyblade with both hands and splits the heartless in half with a grunt.
Mickey leaps in front of Noctis just as more dual blades rush in, waving his keyblade to fire off several pearls of light. The three spheres of light danced in the air while striking the heartless, the powerful magic immediately disposed of them for the four wielders of the keyblade. 'Quickly before more show up!', the mouse king orders, sprinting ahead. Together the four ran down the corridors that had been marred by the war taking place outside, smells of smoke and intense heat filled the hallways.
Several alarms were going off with a few corridors being doused by sprinklers in a vain attempt to put off the powerful flames as the warriors picked off the heartless that tried to halt their progress. Noctis would occasionally glance at Axel's determined dead set look on his face, every heartless they slew only made him more antsy and impatient to get there in time. The king still had questions about this replica thing they were going on about, but the moment he heard it was Naminé and this Roxas guy's only chance to be reborn again he saved them for later.
He already promised Lunafreya she'd get a chance to see Naminé again when this was over, and a good part of him believed Roxas might have had a part in saving Sora back in Eos.
Reaching a clearing with only one corridor remaining that at the end of it had a very large ornate door, they see several heartless trying to break down the door by bashing it with the large bodies and hammer frames attacking the door. Luckily the door itself as Mickey points out was protected by powerful magic based on the shine on the door and energies surging on the white door. That wasn't what entirely captured their attentions, all eyes fell to the two, or really, one leader of the horde.
Standing behind her minions with her staff glowing with dark green fire, Maleficent waits patiently for her lowly subjects to open the door. Pete kept yelling at them to work faster, bragging that the scientists inside wouldn't stand a chance against a horde of heartless. Before Axel and Ventus could announce themselves, Noctis pats their shoulders and had them face him. With a malicious smirk, he lifts two magic flasks in his hand and then gestured the horde.
'Time to make an announcement…', he whispered evilly. The king throws his keyblade above the door and warp strikes to just inches below the ceiling, planting his feet against the wall and displays the flasks. Maleficent and Pete's eyes turned upwards to the king, the cat man looked surprised while the witch raised a brow. Noctis throws the flasks into the heartless horde, warps away from them as the flasks smack two soldiers in their helmeted faces.
A massive explosion of lighting and fire cloaks the corridor leading to the door, consuming the heartless and would have done the same had Maleficent not erect a barrier of dark flames to protect herself and begrudgingly Pete as well. The king of Lucis warps back to his friends as the corridor is now doused in small embers and crackles with lighting, the witch turning on the four keyblade wielders.
'You three!? And this guy!?', Pete shouts, shaking his fist at them. Mickey stepped forth with Noctis, the two kings staring down the two troublemakers. 'You never change, Pete. I thought after the last time you and Maleficent's scheme failed you would've learned by now', chastised the mouse king. Maleficent scoffs at the tone of the keyblade master, 'I had hoped whatever world had taken the brat Sora away would have imprisoned you as well, you little rodent', Maleficent threatened. Noctis placed a hand on his hip with a smirk.
'Well, jokes on you, that happened to be *my* homeworld…and guess who's decided to go sightseeing?', Noctis taunts. The witch's eyes turned to Noctis; a look of unfamiliarity shifted onto her fair-skinned face. 'And who is this? Another wielder guardian of light? Or just another lackey of yours?', she mocks with indifference.
With confidence, Noctis announces: 'The name is Noctis, king of Lucis and fishing!'. He then draws his keyblade as while as summons his Armiger. 'And official keyblade wielder'. His Armiger shoots forth and tightly hovers around the two villains, Pete looking around in horror of the amount of ghostly weapons trained on him as Maleficent glances around her. She turns back to Noctis as he aimed his keyblade at her. 'And in a few minutes, witch slayer', he warned.
'Why are you attacking Radiant Garden, Maleficent?', Mickey interrogates. 'I am merely reclaiming Hollow Bastian, it was mine once if you recall, your majesty', she replies tersely while condescendingly. 'This world belongs to me, after all'. 'I'm calling bullshit on that one', Noctis spits, 'Sounds to me like somebody lost to a certain keyblade wielder and is a bit of a sore loser'. Maleficent glowers at the king as the Armiger presses closer to her, warning her of how quick and easy it would be for Noctis to rid Sora of his old enemy in a blink of an eye.
'You won't win, Maleficent! Sora and the others along with new guardians are here, you won't stand a chance', Mickey says confidently. Pete, however, laughs arrogantly at the mouse king's statement. 'Is that what you think, squeaky?', sneered the oaf, 'That brat was nothing last time we saw him, and I got a good feeling he ain't no master still!'. Mickey crosses his arms at his former captain while Noctis moves his ghostly weapons a little closer to Pete, happy to say the idiot was right below the Mace of the Fierce was right above his head.
'Besides, even if he's gotten a little tougher, we got our boss leading the charge!', cockily said by Pete. Mickey's frowns, his eyes narrowing at Maleficent, now glaring at Pete. 'Be silent, you gibbering oaf!', she hissed angrily.
'What are you talking about?', Mickey demands. As far as they know no one ruled or commanded Maleficent, even Xehanort would have no sway over her. 'Who is leading the heartless now!?'. Maleficent's looks turned smug as black flames suddenly sprout around the two of them, protecting them from Noctis' arms. 'A king of our own, your majesty', she snidely hints before the two villains disappear into the darkness.
Gone with the wind, Noctis dismisses his ghostly arms as Mickey clenched his fists. 'She couldn't mean…', he muses quietly. Shaking his head, Mickey turned to the door and raced on with Axel and Ventus trailing behind him and soon Noctis joins them after some thoughts on the witch. The moment they approached the door, the magical barrier disappears and there is a slight crack in the door, opening slightly.
'T-They gone?', a voice asked from behind the door.
Before Noctis could say so, Axel steps up. 'Wait a second…I know that voice', he sighed. Axel approaches the door and pushes it open, forcing it back with the "guard", who stumbled back with a loud yelp and tumbled onto his back. Entering the office of the mayor, the king takes in how messy and "fortified" it looked compared to outside, with the table being thrown on its side as a barricade, papers scattered on floor like they were all in rush to get things done.
Several sounds of computers beeping and alarms going off could be heard from the corridor on the left, voices yelling over one another. On the floor in front of the fallen table, to the king's shock, was a young man who couldn't be much older than himself looking at the group. What immediately put him on guard was the fact he was wearing a black cloak similar in style to Xigbar's, with somewhat close-fitting sleeves and pointed shoulder pads. He has golden eyes like Xigbar and dirty-blond hair, the latter of which is quite distinctive since it is an odd mullet-like style, and he has several individual bangs that fall over his face.
'Demyx', Axel states before he approaches the young man and heaves him up to his feet by grabbing the collar of his cloak. He pressed him to the wall as the young man squeaks with fear while the trio watch with careful eyes. 'What are you doing here? How'd you sneak in the castle anyway?', questioned Axel. 'W-W-W-WHOA! Dude calm down! I'm not the bad guy!', pleaded the former nobody, waving his hands in cartoonish speeds.
Axel scoffs at him, disbelievingly. 'Oh sure you're not, you're just here for what, to take avoid doing any work from your boss?', he accused. Demyx gulps and meekly looks away. 'I mean…kinda…b-b-b-but I'm not working for cue ball anymore! Swear on my heart!', he says, before weakly chuckling, 'Never thought I get to say that again…'. While Axel refuses to let go, Noctis just watches on while trying to get an idea on the guy. Truth be told, Demyx reminded him of Prompto when he first met Gladiolus, the nervousness and the attempts of humor, pitiful as they were, were genuine.
Interestingly, unlike Xigbar and even Axel at first glance, he feels no ill or malice from Demyx. The guy was truly afraid of Axel, and if he was right he should still have all the strength he possessed as a nobody. Yet he hadn't even attempted to fight back. A gamble at best, but the king uncrosses his arms. 'I think he's telling the truth, Axel', the king says. 'Y-Yeah! Listen to that guy! He knows what he's talking about! …I think so anyway…'.
'Noct', started Axel, before he was suddenly whacked on the head by a long polearm. 'Get your hands of Demyx!', cried a sweet voice.
Axel releases his grip on the previous nobody while vainly trying to defend himself from the polearm. Quickly putting Demyx behind her, Aerith turned to Axel with her staff in hand. 'Axel, I will not tolerate any roughhousing in the mayor's office, especially when we're in the middle of a war!', stated the woman with a very strict motherly tone. Axel opened his mouth to argue while rubbing his head, but the woman raised a hand. 'No excuses! Apologize to Demyx right now!'.
'What!? B-But he's…', starts the red-haired pyro but Aerith merely patted her staff, warningly. Axel groans and while glaring at the previous nobody, he grits out an apology. It took all the strength within the trio not to laugh at this sudden change. Aerith turned to Mickey and the other two with a kind and warm smile. 'Its relief to see you returned', she greets, then eyeing Noctis. The king waves and says: 'Noctis, friend of Sora's'. This put an even warmer smile on her face at the mention of the boy. 'You found him then?', she asked.
'Yeah, and likely he's cleaning your city of heartless', Noctis informs, 'Along with everyone else'. Demyx nudges Aerith with a cheery grin. 'Ha! See? Looks like we're not out for the count yet!', he says. Aerith nods as Mickey approached her. 'Aerith, what happened here? How did Maleficent even get into the city?', he asked. 'And do we even know who's helping her with all these heartless?'. Aerith nodded and gestured them to follow her into the main computer room.
Walking on the glass walkway the gave Noctis a visual marvel of the technology Radiant Garden displayed, it was no wonder why Cindy gushes about this place. It was large like the labs the Niflhiem had, but there were more skeletal parts of what could have been GS for all he knew about engines and vehicles, several computer voices booming about the current threats and situations. Leading them on, Aerith explains to the party that this invasion had started merely three days ago with on the third day Maleficent's heartless managed to fully enter the city.
Ventus points out the last time they were here heartless popped in parts of the city, Aerith explains while their security wasn't perfect with keeping them out, the numbers here would never be a common thing. If anything she believed because of their abilities to track keyblade wielders they managed to sneak in.
'We've tried to keep as many sections closed off from the heartless, but Maleficent found a weak point in one of our city walls and used that as an entry to the city', she explains as they climb a flight of stairs. 'Leon tried to keep the fight within that part of the city, but the numbers were too much and soon enough, our defensives were overrun by the darkness and whatever hope of keeping them in one place became a pipe dream'.
'Ever since that, we've been holed up here trying to keep the spooky witch out of here', Demyx joins in, 'Aerith was the only one keeping the barrier up the whole time!'. 'You guys don't have anyone else who can fight here?', Ventus asks, 'Where's Zack? Yuffie? Heck ANYONE else?'. Aerith lowered her head with her face shifting to worry, immediately Demyx chimed in. 'Zackster was the first one to the other sections of the city to fight off the heartless, but he…he's probably too busy kicking butt to say something'.
He gives the woman a sympathetic smile as she nods gratefully to him for trying. 'Everyone else of the Exterminator Squad has been radio silent since then, we've tried to get into contact with them but haven't heard anything since then', Aerith explains. 'And as much as we want to head out and help, we can't afford to leave this place without proper security'.
She finally takes them to the main computer room where inside they could see Cid busying with trying to get everyone up and running again while two scientists with Ienzo were trying to finish something. The young man turned to their visitors, relieved to see back up had arrived, smiling at them and greeting Aerith and Demyx, prompting everyone else to look.
The first scientist sports platinum blond worn long with two slightly shorter bangs that frame his face. He also has a rather large bright shade of blue. He is wearing a long white lab coat, grey vest, white collared shirt, and a purple ascot with black pants and silver-lined boots. He frowns upon seeing Axel, who was giving him the look of "oooh this awkward".
The other scientist is wearing a periwinkle lab coat, identical to those worn by the other two scientists save for the color. Underneath this, he w a dark grey vest, white collared shirt, and a violet ascot, as well as black pants and shoes. He also draped a red sweater or coat of some sort over his shoulders. Blond hair worn long and slicked back, sporting a mustache and goatee. His eyes are bright orange.
'Ansem?', Mickey asked with gasped, 'You're…'. The old man smiles nostalgically at the mouse king with a nod. 'Mickey, it's relief to see you and your companions', he greets warmly. His eyes fell to Noctis with a look of familiarity, like he's seen the young king before. Before he delves deeper into his memory, the old man shakes his head and gestured them to come closer. 'I'm sure you've seen our world is under siege by that wretched witch', he says.
'Just how bad are things?', Noctis asked.
'We're elbow deep in crap, that bad!', Cid shouts as he works on the computer, inputting commands. 'That old horn head screwed with our security! Must have had those little bastards damage some of our generators, without them, we barely have enough power to keep a freaking light bulb on!'.
Ansem nods with an obvious look of disapproval to the language of the man. 'Indeed…', he hums, turning to Mickey's group. 'Cid has been trying to reboot the defense systems but I fear he may have more results slamming his head against the monitors'. 'So far all he's managed to succeed at is keeping the lab up and running', Even says, 'And tragically until we can repair the generators, all the power we have is being diverted to this one room'.
Noctis crossed his arms at this with a very unamused look on his face. 'Seriously? I know you scientists LOVE your experiments, but maybe you could put them aside for, I dunno, protecting the city?', he questions. Even scowled at the boy before Ansem raises a hand at him, stopping whatever harsh retort he could conjure up. He turned to Noctis. 'I understand it may seem we have our priorities mixed up, Noctis, but we have someone of great importance being kept alive here'.
Axel's eyes widened as Even turns to him. '…the replica we have for Roxas is being kept on life support', he laments, 'When the systems first shut down, we had nearly lost the body. The only way to keep it alive was for Cid to transfer all power to the lab'.
Slowly it dawns on the king of Lucis the urgency of this sacrifice because on glance to the other room through a window he sees a large test tube with a body dressed in the Organization's cloak inside it. Monitors beeping from within as the lights flickered on and off, strongly implying the power was growing weaker and evaporating quickly. 'Then what the hell do we do? Can't you guys get more power from somewhere? Anywhere!?', Axels growls.
'We cannot with the heartless', Ienzo laments, 'Myself, Even and Master are the only ones who know how to keep the replica alive, Aerith is our only defense against the heartless and without Cid, we won't be able to keep the power going'. 'But is there a place with a back generator?', Mickey asks hopefully, 'Surely there's gotta be one'.
'Yes…but the pathway there is littered with heartless', Aerith says with sigh. Noctis stepped forward. 'Do you know the way?', he asked. She nods, which prompts Noctis to look at Mickey and Axel. 'Then me and Ventus will go with Aerith and get that generator going, you guys stay here and hold down the fort'. They nod while Aerith smiles in agreement along with the scientists. The woman picks up her staff and guides the two of them back to the entrance while Mickey goes over the plans with the scientists, leaving Axel to glance at the replica.
"Don't worry buddy", he promised, "I'll make sure your new body is safe". He was patted on the back by Demyx, now sporting a "cool dude" smile. 'I'll take that "thank you" whenever you feel like it', he teases. Axel raises a red brow at the guy, then the water user smirks. 'Who'd ya think brought the replica here?'. 'Oh? So you stole from Xehanort?', Axel asked with doubt in his tone. This made Demyx frown, then his face turned white as a ghost.
'…oh shit, I did…', he gulps.
'…dude how are you still alive?', Axel asks.
*Town Square*
Arriving at the town square after fighting their way through the heartless while saving some of the townsfolk, the four heroes ran for the gates. 'We're almost there!', Riku announces as they neared the exit. Before they could climb the slope towards it, they stopped when they heard something hit the ground. Turning back, they all witness Leon being thrown and slammed into the ground with a heavy thud, bouncing off the ground and skidding slightly before he stilled.
The mayor of the city grunts in pain, slowly getting to his feet while grasping for his sword. The four raced to him and Aqua immediately tended to him. She sees the man had taken quite the beating from whatever he fought, several wounds varying from cuts, bruises, and likely broken bones if she was certain. 'Hold on', she says, summoning her keyblade and healing him.
Leon grunts in relief, taking Aqua's help to get back to his feet. 'Thanks…', he grunts out. He looks at them before he says: 'Friends of Sora's, I'm guessing?'. Riku smirks in turn. 'Whatever gave you that idea?', he playfully asks. 'Meddling, showing upright when you're needed…plus, keyblades', Leon lists with a scoff, laying his gunblade on his shoulders. The weapon immediately caught Gladiolus' eyes, brows raised and awe.
'Holy…is that a gun…combined with a sword?', he asked. Leon turned to the larger man and nods. 'Yeah? Never seen a gunblade before?', he asked. The shield shakes his head, sporting a grin. 'Where'd ya get it?', he inquires. 'Gladio, you can't use a gun', Ignis remarks, 'You have horrible aim!'. 'Who needs to aim when I can cut AND shoot at the same time?', questioned the tall man.
Ignis opens his mouth for a counter-argument, but then before he could get it out, a horrible presence is felt by them all. Leon turned back up to the high wall were standing atop of it, his attacker is revealed to the party of four.
Looming over them beneath the corrupted skies, with a single black wing outstretched on his left while in his right hand was a long red blade emitting a red mist. Genesis smirks at Leon and the other world heroes. 'And who's this?', Gladiolus questioned as everyone draws their weapons. 'Don't know, probably someone Sora fought before', Riku confesses. All the while with their eyes on the man, the masters couldn't help but sense his power.
Not since Xehanort had they felt such imposing darkness like his, the sheer amount of power resonating within was on a whole new level. The darkness too wasn't anything like the keyblade master, there is no trace of the heartless on him nor could they sense he possessed a keyblade. They feared this man before them was not the commander of the heartless, but rather someone else who had something to gain from conquering the city of light.
Genesis flies into the air and then dives towards the warriors. He was so fast he managed to get right behind them all before they could even see him rush past, and because of their experiences, they just narrowly avoided his sweeping blade. Some evaded him while Gladiolus blocked his attack with his shield, but even he was pushed back from the attack. Scrambling to their feet, the five warriors stared down the man in red.
'I must say, I'm quite disappointed by the poor defenses this city has to offer', he chastises with a touch of arrogance. 'I heard there was someone here who once slew a thousand heartless alone, and what a disappointment it is to see, it wasn't any of your Restoration Committee members'. Leon barely reacts to the taunts, instead he dashes to him and swings his gunblade at the warrior in an upward arc.
Genesis parries Leon's strikes with just simple swings of his red blade, sparks flying off their weapons as Leon's speedy strikes were all blocked by Genesis', the man barely moving at all against his attacker. Leon brings his gunblade down onto him, just to be deflected by a lazy swing of Genesis that threw his weapon up in the air. The man in red aimed his hand at Leon and fired a blast of fiery energy that struck him and threw him back.
Leon lets out a yell of pain as he is thrown into the air, slamming onto the ground as his gunblade stabbed into the ground near him.
Genesis sighs with disappointment, turning to the others. 'With luck, you four will provide a decent challenge', he said without any form of belief in his hopes. As the guardians raised their weapons, prepared for their fiercest battle yet, a sudden dread settles within their hearts.
The battle for Radiant Garden has finally begun...
A/N: …part one…
So I'm not sure how many more of RG I wanna do, maybe two more but ya never know.
I'm sorry if this one isn't so good, I dunno why but I wasn't getting much ideas for this chapter and I feel like I might be hitting a wall with this arc. I'm not sure how to feel about it, but please let me know if you guys want this arc to continue, or I can do something else.
Please leave me your thoughts!
No questions this time, until I hear back on what you thought on the arc.
Thanks for reading, stay awesome but more importantly stay safe!
