Final Fantasy XV - Kingdom Hearts

Part 71

Summary: Two warriors of Light, the Chosen King and Keyblade Master, face an unseen Darkness.

Soul Eater clashes with Braveheart, sparks flying from the collision of steel, the two Riku's dual before Ansem, watching with mild interest.

That smug look on the younger version of himself almost made Riku lash out angrily and wildly at him regardless of the power gap between them. The younger version shows not only was his strength inferior to his older counterpart, but the master can detect and spot several flaws in his fighting style.

Granted it was his old stance he used back in his days of weakness absolutely but his is far more refined and honed compared to his. The only reason Riku could not capitalize on the weakness in the stance is because of the darkness Xehanort had granted him. The power coursing through him combined with all the abilities he carried from his time as Ansem's vessel gave him equal footing against the older Riku.

The Dark replica steps back while deflecting Riku's attacks, still sporting that smug grin even as he gave up grounds for the master. One strike from Riku managed to push him back and surrender more space to him, only for Xigbar to butt in and leap above the boys. Upside down like the cocky sniper he was, he unleashes fire pink arrows at the boy.

Riku does not budge from his spot, because Ignis stood in front of him with both daggers drawn and without missing a beat deflects each arrow away from them. Only with the fifth one did he reflect it to Xigbar, narrowly missing his head. He scoffs and lands back on the ground with Dark Riku staring down at the two guardians, now frowning darkly at Ignis. In response, Ignis merely flips his daggers into the reverse grip and readied himself.

"Good timing", praised the master.

"Shame I missed", Ignis remarks, "Though at least I'll have the chance to make him suffer a tad longer for what he's done".

Their light banter is interrupted by Xigbar raising both arrow guns and unleashing a torrent of arrows upon them like a gatling gun. "Keep your eyes on the birdie, boys!", taunts Xigbar as the two split off to dodge the storm of arrows.

While Riku ran to the left, his dark version dashed towards him to continue their battle. Ignis becomes the main target of Xigbar's, using both arrow guns to try and mow him down. The advisor flips and jumps over the barrage of arrows as they strike the wall and ground, sometimes having enough time to deflect them back at him. But this game had lost its fun long ago and Ignis refuses to allow this man to treat him like a mouse being chased by an overweight cat.

He flicks his dagger at Xigbar, letting his now free hand glow in violet light. Xigbar expertly shoots the dagger out of the air, stopping the attack but in turn allowing himself to be distracted enough for Ignis to slam his hand onto the ground and cry out: "Stonga!".

Xigbar looked at the man in alarm before the rocks around him shot up, four balls of stones with one materializing above his head the size of a boulder. The small balls rushed to Xigbar, and only by his amazing reflexes was he able to shoot all them of by crossing his arms for the first two and then spread them both out and fire to the other two. He managed to teleport the moment the boulder came down on him, appearing above it.

His smug victory is short-lived when Ignis appears from the dark and stomped on Xigbar's face. The sniper falls back off the stone as Ignis uses his scarred face as a platform to jump off him, turn around and fire an array of dark fire at him. Xigbar is hit by the array, small explosions covering him as Ignis lands a few feet from him.

When the smoke clears, Xigbar is clutching his arm with a scowl on his face, cloak licked by embers and scorch marks on his face, but nothing Ignis could happily call lethal. Not that it lessened the satisfaction of seeing this man burn for what he had done to his friends. Xigbar huffs and uses his good arm to fire more arrows at Ignis, who remains on his spot and starts to deflect all the arrows with his daggers easily.

Ignis opens his arms with both daggers to send a wave of force to blow away the other arrows and then runs towards Xigbar. The one-eyed man of the organization huffs as darkness cloaks his body and his stance goes from hunched pain to him standing upright again. He raises his hands together and then inserts them into black and white portals around him.

Ignis only had a fraction of a second to react in time, fore when he looked from the corner of his eye he spotted the same portal with Xigbar's hand and arrow gun aiming for him. The advisor grunts as the arrow are fired and his senses picked up from sound they were being fired from another direction too. He spins around and throws his dagger at the oncoming attack, the strength in his throw being enough to cut through the barrage of arrows.

He then turns and slammed his free hand onto the ground just as the arrows were in the range of striking him, a pool of darkness opening and swallowing him quickly.

Xigbar turned around too late to fire at Ignis, who had reappeared just three steps from him and rushes out of his transport. Xigbar's arrow guns, however, were quickly slammed aside by Ignis free arm and with his weapon in hand, he tries to slice or cut Xigbar. The vessel starts to use his arrows guns as clubs to either deflect or protect himself from Ignis dagger, their weapons clashing and battling for supremacy.

Meanwhile, the two Riku's fought on with the younger one using mostly ranged attacks, firing a never-ending barrage of dark fire on Riku. This tactic forced the master to stay on the move and dodge the onslaught of attacks, sidestepping, and using his dark powers to teleport further from him. Only when the younger version got too cocky for his well-being did Riku take the chance to show him up.

He shoots a single dark firaga at the older boy, and this proves to be a fatal choice. Riku air-dashed and slices through it easily. His momentum does not end there as he manages to get close to the false Riku and land a single strike of the keyblade from his shoulder to his waist, cutting through the dark bodysuit and throw him back.

Dark Riku grunts in pain, placing a hand on his chest before he looked at Riku with fury then turned to shock when the other Riku had already stood before him again with his hand opened as dark fire surges.

"You like this attack? How about when it's fired at *you*!?", Riku taunts.

The blast rockets the false Riku across the field and on his back. He grunted out in pain and slowly gets to his feet as Riku is already in the air and keyblade in hand to plunge it into his empty heart. But just when Riku was about to put down one of Xehanort's vessels, only to be intercepted by Ansem, suddenly appearing in front of him.

Violet spheres appearing around him and they launched a stream of lasers at Riku. The boy managed to lift his keyblade to shield himself from most of the attack, but the lasers struck him enough to blast him away from Ansem and his false brother.

Riku backflips in the air and lands on his feet, skidding backward and then falls to his knee. He curses out the pain as his body fought the searing heat the lasers discharged on him. With clenched teeth and a pained hiss, he glared back at Ansem as Dark Riku returned to his feet, that smug look back on his face as if Riku was the one who had the odds against him the whole time. He made a mental note to punch him if he got a chance.

Ansem, however, had a disappointed look on his face, as if he was expecting more from Riku. Whether he does or not didn't matter, because now he raises his hand and creates a large ball of darkness, violet, and dark blue. He channels more darkness into it before letting it fly towards Riku, either it'd kill him or worse, make him a vessel for Xehanort.

"Riku!".

Appearing from above, Noctis slammed the Sword of the Tall right on top of the dark ball. The mighty sword demolished the attack and sent it crashing into the earth beneath the king. Saving Riku in time, Noctis dismissed his sword and calls for his crossbow and fires a stream of Armiger arrows to the two beings of the dark.

Both jumped out of the way, evading the attack. Noctis dismissed his weapon and quickly turned back to Riku and hands him a hi-potion. "Am I late?", he asked casually. Riku chuckled lightly as he heals up and stands with his king, frowning when he sees no one else but Noctis. "Where are the others?", he asks, turning to Ansem and Dark Riku.

"You tell me", Noctis answers, calling his keyblade, "Woke up on my own, figured the others are further in". Riku lets a worried growl rumble in his throat, hoping nobody was on their own against whatever these vessels had in store for them. "Then we'll have to hurry up and finish this", ordered the master. Noctis grunts in agreement as Dark Riku dashed and swung at the master. Noctis takes this chance to go against Ansem while leaving Riku to fight his lesser, deciding that is a fight he'd wanna settle himself.

Ansem levitates away from Noctis while at the same time leaves more of those violet spheres for the king to deal with. The lasers launched to the king like an armada, Noctis retaliates by using Katana of the Warrior and quickly slashes the lasers into nothing but particles and warps to Ansem. He calls for the Sword of the Father and the Wise, swinging them both at Ansem. The heartless keeps evading and dodging the king's strikes as if he were a formless being that could bend and twist away from anything thrown at him.

The seeker of the dark fires more spheres of darkness at the king of light as he maintains his distance from him. Warping and phasing through the attacks, Noctis reappears higher up in the air and calls for some of his Royal Arms to surround him. He aims his right hand and the ghostly weapons charged to Ansem at high speeds, cutting through his spheres and forcing him to go on the run. Ansem keeps flying away from these attacks while using his dark power to protect himself from the divine weapons.

While he was too busy fending off the ghostly weapons, Noctis takes this opportunity to call for the Blade of the Mystic and perform their missile warps, firing three ghostly swords at Ansem. The three weapons bypassed his arms and all three struck the bringer of the heartless in his chest. Noctis finishes this combo with a fourth warp strike using the blade and himself.

The gap closed, he struck at his stomach with a side-ways slash and blows the older man away. Ansem regains control and hovers in the air with a grunt, looking at his stomach and sees a slash and blood leaking from him. He turns on the king as Noctis stands before him on the ground, calling his Ultima Blade and staring down the man.

Before Noctis could resume their fight, he was struck in the shoulder and stomach by Xigbar's arrows, making him yell in pain. Another had struck his chest and knocked him off his feet and onto his back with a thud. He hisses as Ansem stands on the ground, his wounds instantly healing thanks to the darkness. With a grunt, he crosses his arms and then opens them with a roar expelling from his throat, darkness beginning to seep out from beneath his feet and slowly spreading across the battlefield.

It started to even coat the walls and Noctis takes on look at the man and Xigbar and feels their strength significantly grow even more. However, Ansem has his back turned to the king and then starts to fly away. This does not go unnoticed, as Riku cried out for him to stop and leaps after him.

"And where do you think *you're* going?", Dark Riku asks, appearing alongside him. Before Riku could do anything, his dark replica hits him with a roundhouse kick and knocks him back to the battlefield. Riku bounced off the ground as he loses his grip on the keyblade, letting it clang loudly in front of him. Noctis called the boy's name as he felt his Armiger patch him up quickly in time, seeing Xigbar aiming his arrow guns at the boy again.

He fires them at Riku, but both Noctis and Ignis stepped up and deflected the attacks quickly. Now staring down a smug-looking Xigbar, who was casually laying one of his guns on his shoulder. "Hey, let's speed things up!", he boasts, "Gotta keep the line going!". Ignis uses a spell to heal up his friend and readily stares down Xigbar as Noctis called for Night's Sky. Riku huffs and returned to his feet, picking up his keyblade in the process.

Xigbar gave the men from Eos a smirk and says: "Never thought I'd be picking fights with you again, Iggy". Ignis scoffs as he pushes his glasses up with a finger, staring down the man. "Hey now, don't give that look. I was not the one who took your eyes", Xigbar mocks.

"Quite right, I'd be ashamed if you were the reason for my temporary loss of sight", Ignis rebukes, "I doubt I'd be able to bear the shame that scum such as yourself is the reason I lost my eyes". Xigbar's smirk twitched, that jab hitting him as Ignis continues, daggers brandished. "But things are vastly different from the last time we clashed. No Ardyn to save you, and your master has abandoned you", he lists.

"Pfft, what? You think you've got a chance against us because we don't have the old men with us?", Dark Riku taunted, "I thought your eyesight came back, sounds like you're more blind to the odds than I thought!". "This coming from the boy who ran with his tails between his legs and left the heartless do the work? I wonder where all that bravado comes from", Ignis replied curtly. Dark Riku must have been more offended than the others had thought because next thing they knew he was right before Ignis with his sword coming down on him.

He brought the sword down just as Ignis leaps back from him, narrowly evading from being split in half. That is until a small flash of light appeared between his glasses and then they fell to the ground, cut in two. Ignis looks down at them then back to Dark Riku, now sporting a crap-eating grin on his face. "Hope those weren't important to you", he sneers. Ignis furrowed his brows and both king and master sensed something changed within Ignis.

Dark Riku rushes him with another smartass comment raising. When he swung his sword at Ignis, the man in a blink of an eye caught the attack and repelled it. The sword was thrown out of Dark Riku's hand as he staggered backward, but Ignis wasn't done. With his daggers crackling with lightning, Ignis zips around the boy, striking him while zip-zapping around the battlefield. He leaves multiple chains of lightning with each stopping point, and with the last zip-zapping, he appeared behind Dark Riku and strikes him in the back one more time before zip-zapping away from him.

At a fair distance, he raises his hand and in a very calculated voice, proclaims "Cataclysm". He clicks his fingers and then the stopping points where lightning gathered all struck Dark Riku, completely encasing him in blue lighting. He yelled out in pain as he is lifted off the ground from this attack, and the lightning trails up and into the skies. Finally, a large bolt of blue lightning descends from above and struck the boy.

Dark Riku roars in agony as his body is surrounded by lightning that splits the earth beneath him. With a beastly shout, the replica uses his dark powers to create a barrier that would keep the pain off him long enough to escape the bolt. He teleports out of it and a few feet from the others, panting and grunting with pain as smoke rises from his body, eyes bore into Ignis with unbridled hatred and seething rage.

Then Ignis cocks his head at him before he pulls out from his breast pocket another pair of glasses, flicks them open, and stylishly puts them back on. He faces the boy with his new lens and smirked. Dark Riku gritted his teeth and readied to attack, but then Riku steps in front of Ignis and stared down his poor imitator.

"This is between you and me, let's finish this", Riku challenges, raising his keyblade. Dark Riku growled but accepts the challenge and goes for Riku just as the master dashed to him. With the Riku's fighting, Noctis and Ignis took their fight to Xigbar, now smirking confidently at them. The king calls his keyblade to his hand while Ignis shifts his daggers in the reverse grip.

Xigbar teleports and reappears behind them, firing a barrage of arrows on to the duo. The king spins around and erects as a wall of crystal to protect the two. Raising his left hand, bathing in white crystals, Noctis calls for Ignis and the man runs towards Xigbar by running around the barrier. Xigbar aims both arrow guns at the advisor, crosses them over his arms, and fires smaller but much faster and plentiful grey arrows at him.

Ignis runs at him regardless of the hail of arrows, shielded by the ghostly weapons of Noctis' ancestors, the larger weapons shielding him while he rushes into the Xigbar.

Realizing this Xigbar teleports again just as Ignis reached him, appearing upside down in the air and takes aim at the advisor.

"Don't look away!", taunts Noctis, appearing right in front of him. Unable to react in time to the sudden appearance of the king, Xigbar was pummelled by Noctis. Five consecutive hits with the fifth slamming him back to the ground right as Ignis reached the landing zone. Xigbar backflips and landed on his feet, quickly combining both arrow guns into a modified looking sniper rifle and aims it at Ignis. The shot fired was much stronger than his usual arrows as well as twice as fast. It is only thanks to enhanced sight and reflexes combined Ignis was able to dodge it.

Xigbar fired two more at him before aiming at Noctis and firing it at him, then teleports again once the two were distracted by his arrows.

The man of the darkness appears farther away from the two and charges up energy within him. Using this he dispenses the energy into his arrow guns and fires a spread of arrows upon the two. With Noctis able to avoid them thanks to warping and phasing, only Ignis had the real battle of evading and parrying the arrows while getting nicked here and there. With his friend being stayed by arrows, Noctis air dashed to Xigbar, swinging his keyblade at him.

Xigbar teleports again away from the king and when he appears again, he takes potshots against the king of Insomnia. Only thanks to his crystal barrier were Noctis spared from getting shot, and in response, he fires two ghostly arms at the man. Xigbar shoots one with a blue arrow instead, strong enough to break the ghostly weapon while he evades the other weapon.

Ignis races to his king, noticing several arrows he managed to deflect had fallen to the ground and were sticking upwards. His concerns were founded when he saw the glow from them in a sinister light, suddenly realizing what was coming next. They started to detonate around the man in pink energy, nearly taking his legs with them. The man of the king's retinue waves his free hand to cast a dark barrier around himself, realizing running would only increase his chances of losing a limb.

Within his shield, Ignis channels some of his dark powers, bathed in darkness.

Pushed back by another strike from Noctis, Xigbar grunts out in pain and glared at the king. "What's wrong? This all you got?", Noctis taunts, "Kinda expected one of Xehanort's top men to be a little more of a challenge". Xigbar spits out blood and scoffs at the confidence this fledgling of a keyblade wielder spouts. He grinned madly and replied: "Aww, ya want me to get serious? Okay then!".

Xigbar teleports again further away from Noctis, reappearing in the center of the battlefield with his body glowing in dark energy. He levitates in the air as he combines his two arrow guns into one large bow and fired one single arrow into the air. This arrow creates a spatial rift and then next thing Noctis knew it was raining arrows infused with dark energy. The arrows were endless and covered the field slowly while Noctis uses his Shield of the Tall to hunker down and protect himself from the rainstorm.

The arrows bounced off his shield like hailstones, bucking his shield and made him grit his teeth to soldier through this assault. As the wave of arrows goes over him, he thought that would have worn Xigbar out enough for him to attack, except the man appeared beside the king and blasts him with a fully charged shot that blasted the king away from the sniper. The man then fires homing arrows at the king as he bounced off the ground and flips onto his feet.

Noctis parried one arrow but two managed to strike him on his shoulder and left side, making him yell in pain. Xigbar then proceeds to unleash a barrage of arrows upon the king, forcing Noctis to use some of his Armiger to try and mitigate some of the pain while he uses his arms to block the attack. He hisses and grunts out as each arrow cuts his skin and flesh, slowly pushing him back from this onslaught of pain.

"Keep standing still your majesty, makes my job a lot easier!", sneers Xigbar as he shoots the king of light. Then he sensed a dark power surge from behind him, and knowing that advisor of the king, Xigbar immediately turns around to put an arrow between his eyes. Except Ignis was not there, just the emptiness of the battlefield. He frowned in thought, he was certain Ignis was right behind him, he even sensed his presence right there.

There again he felt his presence and spun around to shoot him, but again there is only a weakened Noctis before him. He lowers his guns, slightly concerned that the advisor was somewhat turning into a ghost. Xigbar feels a slash across his right shoulder, making him yell out in shock and pain. He turns and fires at the direction where the attack came from and only ends up shooting the air. Again, he is struck on the back, and when he staggered forward he feels something cut his right leg.

Enraged and panicking slightly, Xigbar teleports into the air. Now with the higher vantage point, he thought he would have a better view of wherever Ignis was and aimed his guns at him. Yet again he could not see him. He is nowhere to be seen on the battlefield. The only people he saw were the two Riku's still fighting but no one else.

His search is cut short when he feels the two daggers cutting into his back and then a kick to his stomach. Xigbar coughs in pain and is then stomped on the back of his shoulders, slamming him back to the ground with a loud thud.

The one-eyed sharpshooter gets to his feet, grunting with pain running through his body as Noctis stands up, healed thanks to his Armiger. The gunner turned on the king with a yell and fired one of his blue arrows at him. The arrow does not even reach halfway to Noctis, it is deflected by an invisible force and it harmlessly is planted onto the ground with a light "ting" sound deflecting it. Now standing before Xigbar is Ignis, except with his body cloaked in violet darkness with one dagger held up high across his chest, his eyes glowing violet.

Ignis lowered his arm to show the man the cold and disinterest look on his face, completely emotionless in his stance. Xigbar aims his arrows guns and unloads a barrage of arrows at Ignis, but the advisor in response fires a large spike of black ice at the arrows. The shard is as large as Gladiolus which though it was being chipped by the arrows, it still rocketed towards Xigbar like a large dart. Xigbar dodged the shard from impaling his shoulder.

When he was safe from the spike, Ignis was already right behind him back to back. Xigbar freezes when his senses finally picked up on Ignis, shocked the man moved so quickly he could not detect him in time.

"H-How? How the hell are you doing this?", he demands.

"…the darkness Riku manipulated within my heart. After regaining my sight, I mastered its other gifts…", Ignis coldly informed. "It turns out, there is more to it when nurtured properly and without allowing the mine to be swallowed by the heartless". Xigbar lets a nervous chuckle escape him as his smirk returns to his face. "Heh…is that right? Shame you're wasting your potential with that brat of a king", mocks Xigbar, "Could probably have taken him out long before he'd became too much, and then boom, you'd be king".

He spun on Ignis with his right armed hand but Ignis' dagger was already planted within the weapon, piercing it and thus rendering it useless. Xigbar's jaw falls at the reaction time his foe possessed but what truly took the breath away from him was seeing Ignis giving him a look so cold and downright murderous it sent a chill of fear through his heart.

"The audacity you possess…trying to assume I would stoop so low as to usurp the man I call my brother", Ignis chastises with restraint anger. "Unlike like you, you backstabbing scheming scum of the darkness, my loyalty cannot be bought by promises of power nor will I be blinded by lust for power". Xigbar tries to smash his usable gun on Ignis' skull if he couldn't shoot him the bludgeoning him was his only option.

But when he tries this, Ignis blasts the gun with a spark of dark lightning, destroying the weapon. "I understand why got along so well with Ardyn. You are both nothing but snakes", harps Ignis. "And for every pain, you inflicted on Sora and the others", he continues, his aura glowing more intense and darker as Xigbar feels true terror coursing through his body. "I am going to make you pay".

He vanishes in a blur of violet, catching Xigbar off guard. But before he was able to escape the wrath of Ignis, he was struck again on the shoulder, then the stomach, back, sides, and even his cheek felt the sting of the wind brushing against the cut on his cheek. He tries to detect and spot Ignis for a counter, but he may as well be invisible for all the help his naked eye is giving him. With a snarl, the one-eyed sniper tries to use his broken gun to hit Ignis.

Only for a keyblade to halt the attack with a clang. Xigbar glared at the king of Insomnia defiantly halting his last means of self-defense. The king knocks the weapon out of his hand and with his keyblade bathed in Armiger light, he struck Xigbar with a slash from his left hip to the right shoulder and knocks him into the air.

"Iggy!", Noctis calls.

His right-hand man just before Xigbar, Ignis carrying his black flamed infused spear in his right hand held up. "You're through!", exclaims Ignis as he throws the spear. Xigbar couldn't muster enough strength to teleport away from the attack, the spear pierced his body and soars into the sky behind him, disappearing back into Ignis' pocket dimension as the sharp-shooter falls to the ground like a broken rag doll.

The two members of the retinue watched Xigbar, miraculously get to his feet weakly and staggeringly, before ultimately he collapsed on his knees, defeated at last. As he knelt there in defeat, darkness floats from his body and into the air, turning into a small tower of darkness before quickly disappearing into the setting skies. Slowly Xigbar's body starts to fade out, mirages shimmering around his body as darkness leaked from him and evaporates.

"Figures", Xigbar says with a lazy tone, as if his death was such a minor nuisance, "If I had a keyblade…this would have ended very differently". This makes Noctis scoff in disbelief. "You? A keyblade wielder? Pfft, like you were good enough for it", chastises the king. Xigbar chuckled cockily at that jab, smugly grinning at the two. "Oh, I am worthy", bragged Xigbar, "That old coot had promised to bequeath me his. Why else did you think I put up with all this garbage?".

"Xehanort would have given you his?", Ignis says, then scoffs and shook his head. "You're far more delusional then I thought". Xigbar slowly rises to his feet, grabbing his shoulder as his body slowly shimmers and fades, glaring at Ignis. "Oh? That what you think, specs?", the man sneered. "It would have been wasted on you", Ignis says firmly, "That much should have been obvious". Xigbar scoffed at the man's final jab, a dark corridor consuming him.

Noctis raises his weapon but one arm held out halts him. He and Ignis looked up to see Xigbar standing on the edge of the tall wall surrounding them. With a callous smirk, he steps back until finally, he allows himself to fall back into the abyss.

Noctis grunts, wondering if Xigbar did this to just deny them the privilege of them seeing him fade away into the darkness like another heartless. Not that he'd care, either way, the man was finally out of their lives. Now all that remained to press onward, was to rid the false Riku.

The dark version of himself is wildly striking at the master, sparks flying as the weapons of opposing realms clashed in the fated battleground. The darkness covered Soul Eater while Riku's dark power cloaked his body as the two used only one hand to clash.

Dark Riku reflects Riku's keyblade and tries to stab at him, only for the master to use quick footwork to sidestepped the thrust. The darker replica staggered forth, using too much strength in his momentum and the other Riku gets behind him and kicked him in the back, jumping off him.

The replica stumbles forward, but spins on his heel and fired a blast of dark fire at Riku. The master air dashed away and avoids being burnt to ashes, swing his keyblade to fire of dark energy blades at his fallen reminder. Dark Riku matched this attack with a single disc of darkness coming from one swipe of his sword and cuts through Riku's attacks. The master flips over the disc and lands back on his feet to face the younger warrior.

Dark Riku cackled as his body glowed in the darkness, slowly his feet leaving the ground before he vanishes. Recognizing this attack from previous uses, Riku immediately raised his guard and looked around for him, only to sense he was above him. Dark Riku descends upon Riku from above, just missing from plunging his sword into his skull when Riku rolled away from the attack. He dives into the darkness on the ground and repeats this attack at least seven times, getting closer to plunging into Riku.

The final attack had him slamming the blade into the ground when Riku avoided him, but the strike sent a shockwave of darkness that struck Riku and knocks him on his back. Dark Riku wastes no time and jumps, holding the blade in reverse and dives to Riku.

Just as the tip reached Riku, the dark replica is struck in the back by Noctis. With the mace of his ancestors slammed into Dark Riku's back, the dark replica was thrown across the battlefield and skidded along the ground before he managed to flip onto his feet. With a snarl at the king, seeing Ignis help Riku back to his feet and heal him. "STAY OUT OF THIS!", roars the corrupted boy. He places both wrists against each other as dark flames gathered, manifesting into a boulder-sized ball of dark fire.

With a roar, Dark Riku fires off this boulder towards the three guardians. Scorching the dried dead earth and turning the heat up to a heatwave that only islands could rival, the boulder almost reaches the three. Noctis nearly calls for his arms, only to see Ignis dashing past and stand before the boulder. The man crosses his daggers across his chest as darkness cloaked his body, turning from light to a chilling aura of violet and grey.

Ignis aims both daggers at the boulder and yells as a large dense beam of black and violet ice soars from his daggers' tips and toward the fire. Upon impact, the cold nearly froze the boulder instantly, covering it in a dense layer of frost and dousing any heat it carried. Now hurtling towards them all was a giant boulder of ice and a more manageable threat. Ignis dismisses his twin daggers and calls for his spear.

With a spin and a thrust of the weapon, the spear's blade stabbed into the giant boulder and not only does it halt the momentum of the lethal attack, but it shattered in chunks of ice. Ignis unfortunately, however, falls to a knee as the darkness leaves his body as well as his weapon. With a grunt of pain and exhaustion running through him, he remains on a knee, too tired to fight on. This does not stop the master from wrapping things up, however.

Riku speeds towards his dark replica with a yell, catching him off guard and landing a hit on his shoulder with his keyblade. The darker boy growls as he is slammed into a wall by the attack but kicks off it to charge towards Riku. Both meet steel with steel, the younger growing more frustrated and desperate to land a devastating hit on his "replica", but the master meets all these attacks with an equal measurement of strength and accuracy, skilfully reflecting the attacks and keeping himself safe.

The vessel breaks their constant clash by spinning around and slamming his sword with enough force that Riku reluctantly leaps backward from him. The lookalike then fires off several balls of darkness that mostly strikes the ground surrounding Riku, almost as if he is blindly shooting at him out of desperation. Except, Riku had quickly deduced the plan. All it took for him to see through this tactic is a glance at the positions of the balls and his feet.

Dark Riku is essentially creating a minefield to trap him.

Riku quickly aimed his hand down and fires off one small burst of darkness that helped him rocket up into the air, escaping this trap. But Dark Riku gives chase, forgoing his tactic to trap the master. This is exactly what Riku had hoped he does out of sheer youthful recklessness and lack of foresight.

The master changes Braveheart out for The Way to Dawn keyblade, not just to spite his younger self but also for a boost. His body glows in a dark aura as he grabbed the handle of his keyblade and proclaims: "It ends here!".

Like his replica, Riku vanishes before his sight, not before he saw the look of realization dawning on his replica's face. And unlike his false clone, Riku was not striking from above but from the sides. He appeared on his left and struck him, then reappears in front and strikes him, and the cycle of him appearing and disappearing around him repeats for a total of twenty strikes, each increasing the speed of his warping.

Final at the twenty-first strike, Riku is above the cut and bleeding replica. He spins and tossed his keyblade at him, stabbing him in the stomach which sent the boy down into the minefield. He then aims his hand at the boy, darkness covering his arm and fired the last dark firaga his replica will ever be struck with. As Dark Riku lands on the ground, the ball of flames strikes him and explodes, detonating the other mines surrounding him.

In a horrible display of dark flames and smoke rising, the force of the explosions making Riku backflip and land at a distance from the barrage, he recalls his keyblade and stands up in a relaxed stance. The fight had been won.

When the purple smoke cleared, he sees in disbelief Dark Riku was standing up, hunched over with plenty of wounds adorning his body and like Xigbar, sees the darkness leave his body and rise to the skies like a dark tower for a few seconds before it entirely evaporates. The replica pants and grunts in pain, slowly lifting his left hand and glaring at it, fury, shame, and disbelief all mixed in his eyes. "You're not…real", he gritted out.

A confused "huh" escaped Riku for a moment, as his clone seethed: "I'm…the real one…". Riku narrowed his eyes, and asked: "Aren't you me from the past? self? When Ansem possessed me?". As much of a stain that was on his past and ultimately his greatest shame and failure, Riku would never forget that outfit nor that darkness that had tainted his heart so long ago. Seeing how this, in another life, could have been where he would have ended up were it not for Sora and Mickey, it made him feel something within him…

"No".

Riku looked to his left and sees his Other, glowing in light and floating near him with a hand on his shoulder. "You beat Ansem and you're still here", he says, reassuring the boy. The Other then turns on the Dark Replica and says: "This guy… is me!". Without delay, he flies towards him and when his fallen lookalike just raised his head to see, he places his hand on his heart.

Darkness bursts forth from the boy as he lets out a horrible cry of pain. Yet the Other did not stop what he was done despite the horrified look dawning on Riku's face. The darkness envelopes his fallen replica and then when it was clear, the body was back in the organization cloak with the hood thrown over his head.

"I knew it…its a replica", the Other says. He then smirked. "Just another soon to be a vessel. I've been waiting for this". The Other then entered Dark Riku's body as darkness envelops the two of them. He then floats out of the darkness with Dark Riku under his arm, flying in the air as the darkness fades away. Now in their place is a perfect replica in the organization's coat, falling to its knees then upon its face like a broken doll.

Riku stares at the doll, surprised to see it was a perfect replica before he called for his Other. "Wait, take the vessel!", he says, "This is your chance to have a body of your own!". However, the Other turns and refused. "The world already has you", he says as he turns to face Riku. "Besides, there is someone else who needs that more than I do".

It dawned on Riku upon one more glance to the replica, remembering that there was indeed another who needed it more than his Other. He gives the Other a grateful look though it was clear on his face there is remorse. Even after everything that has happened, with how hard his Other tried to become his person, he would still do whatever it took to make Naminé happy again. He still had her in his heart the whole time.

The Other nods to Riku as his body shines in golden light, slowly encasing his body. He wishes the master good luck before he and the dark one both disappear. Wherever they were going, even for his dark self, Riku hoped they found the peace they could not find in this life.

He sighed in remorse, staring at the body as Ignis and Noctis join his side, the king having an exasperated look on his face. When Riku looked at him, the raven sighed. "How many of you are there? Between Sora's lookalike and Kairi's…I am surprised there's no Axel twin", he sighs. Riku chuckled lowly, then he looks at Ignis pushing his glasses up, looking in pain and weary. He senses his dark powers had done more harm to his body and worn him out worse than they expected.

"Seems I may have gone a little overboard…massive consumption of mana and overusing the dark power is quite the harming mix", he sighed, "But what's important is Xehanort is two men down and we have a body for Naminé's heart to rest".

"So what do we do? I wanna help her out but…", Noctis says with unease, not wanting to disregard Naminé's chances of joining them. "We've still got the others to deal with…", Riku replied understanding.

"Then perhaps someone from Radiant Garden could assist us?", suggested Ignis, plucking his phone out, "I can contact Ienzo and see if he can get somebody to pick up the replica".

"We can't wait around for that", Riku warns. "Without a doubt, I'll remain here and rest up before re-joining the battle", he offered, "Once the body has been taken, I'll catch up". The master and king nod with his plan, deciding it'd be their best option for Naminé to gain a body for herself. The two rushed off into the maze, Riku going for Ansem while Noctis running for his friends to lend a hand.

"Ienzo? Its Ignis. We've claimed another replica for you, is there anyone you can send to transport it?", requested the advisor as his body heals. He nods and confirms the suggestion would work, albeit it was more out of lack of other options. Ending the call and now waiting for the pickup, Ignis starts to ponder on the possibilities of the progression of this battle altogether. Should things play out in their favor would Xehanort have a backup plan for such an event?

The man had gone through great lengths to ensure this war would occur, to begin with, and even if he is a man who believes destiny cannot be changed, would he allow things to play out regardless if it means he'll perish? Somehow Ignis could not believe he would accept defeat that easily. With two of his vessels already defeated, likely this is a step closer to creating the ultimate key to Kingdom Hearts, it would only be a matter of time for the rest to be forged.

His thoughts break when a corridor of darkness opens and stepping out from it is Demyx. Though he looked rather skittish and ready to run despite his smiles and chilled looks. The former vessel looks at Ignis and heaves a huge sigh of relief, putting a hand on his chest.

"Iggy, my man! Great to see ya", he greets, "And no one else that may wanna hurt me!". It still perplexes the advisor how a man with such disdain for fighting had survived his time with the previous organization.

The water user looked at the fallen replica and raised a brow at the advisor as if he were expecting the body to at least be standing. Ignis holds back a sigh of irritation and gestured the replica. "This is it. Hurry and take it back to Ienzo, I believe he'll be putting it to use soon enough", he instructs. Demyx nods and lifts the replica over his shoulder, grunting with slight exertion. "Righty, I'll be off then!", Demyx says, "Pretty sure you guys got it covered over here, right?".

"You're welcome to come back and lend a hand should the need arise", Ignis offers half-heartedly, knowing the man's aversion to fighting. Demyx gives him a very uneasy smile, chuckling awkwardly and bids him good luck before he goes through the corridor. Ignis sighed, shakes his head, and then looks down the path Noctis took, and without a moment's hesitance, he follows suit.

*Further in*

Fate often brings people together, and like destiny no matter what one does, it is unavoidable.

In this case, for Gladiolus, it was seeing Terra again alongside Aqua and Ventus, jogging to the clearing where the man who stole the body of their friend lied in wait for them. Along with Terra, using Xehanort's keyblade, is Vanitas. Of course, the boy of the darkness would never miss the chance to further torture the students of Eraqus, and adding someone dear to Aqua's heart to mix was all the better.

The three guardians stood before the two vessels, in their stance and ready for the next battle. Ventus however, nearly to Terra while calling his name, but was stopped by Aqua. "Look closer, that's not our Terra", she stressed, stepping forward to keep her brother safe. Ventus shakes his head stubbornly and replied: "I'm still calling his name, even if it's not him".

He then turned to Terra with the determination he had lacked in the past and without a doubt in his heart, says: "We have to light his way home". Aqua looked at her brother before Vanitas cuts in. "Hey, guys. Feeling a little left out here", he says impatiently.

"Hold on a bit brat, we'll kick your asses in a minute", Gladiolus says. Ventus then says: "You're coming home too, Vanitas".

In response, Vanitas scoffed and says: "My home is in you, idiot. You know what's gonna happen, I'll disappear forever". He lays his keyblade on his shoulder and then in a very condescending tone, says: "Don't you have any love for your brother?".

"We're not brothers. We're the same!", stated the boy from the realm of light.

Vanitas tilts his head, confused before he began to laugh maniacally, placing his free hand on the helmet as his laughter boomed in the clearing. Even not knowing him as well as the other two, Gladiolus could not help but feel contempt for this brat, the arrogance in his voice, the condescending attitude towards Ventus. And here in the middle of the great war, he acted like a teenage bully. "If you truly think that, then you're more of an idiot than I thought! Your naïveté is disgustingly hilarious!".

"We are nothing alike! I was always within you, all Xehanort did was free me from that cage you call a heart!", exclaims the boy of darkness. Ventus grits his teeth and waved a hand, exclaiming: "Then go back to where you came from!".

"…make me", taunts the helmet-wearing boy.

Terra, having been silent during this whole exchange, chuckled. He raised his head and opened his eyes, smirking at them. "If it is darkness you desire, Ven, worry not. I have plenty of darkness to go around", he bragged. "Soon, we'll be together again, all three of us…maybe we can include Gladiolus if you want, Aqua".

Instantly, the master aims her keyblade at him, eyes burning with hate for this mockery. "Stop this! You're just using our friend's body for your sick games!", she ordered. Instead of being intimidated, Terra chuckled mockingly. "A keyblade master who wields her keyblade in anger? How shameful", he mocks, "I expected that from Sora and Riku". Aqua lets a low growl emitted from her throat, but she refuses to be baited by his audacity.

Aqua lowers her keyblade, the rage within her quelled. She was not here for revenge nor blood, but because of the people who mean so much to her. "I fell into darkness, and for nearly twelve years I've wandered the dark realm", she says. "And now, here I am".

Closing her eyes, feeling the strength from all the bonds connecting to her heart, and with a warmth radiating from her side by her heart's pillar of strength and light. "And now, there are two things I want, with all my heart", she says. Opening her eyes and showing the power she had gained from her trials, she proudly says: "Xehanort…I will cast you out of Terra's body!".

She and Ventus readied themselves for their most challenging fight yet, while Terra smirks at Gladiolus. "And you? Here for payback? Or is it to shield her from her weaknesses?", he mocks.

"I'm here to do three things actually", Gladiolus reveals, calling Blade of the King. "First is keeping my king safe, second is putting an end to the pain you've done to Aqua and the others…and third…", he lists. He stares down Terra as his body glowed with the blue light, slowly cloaking his body as the armor Terra had granted him hummed with renewed power. Taking up his stance as Terra and Vanitas readied for their clash, Gladiolus shouts: "Is kicking your ass out of Terra's body!".

The five charged into the fray…

A/N: The first fight is done…and many more to go…

Next time is Sora's fight, despite the little teaser for Aqua's fight, just figured I'd do the ReMIND DLC's cutscenes after the fights and to build up the future battles.

Sorry if this one wasn't so good, Xigbar is really hard to do, you'd think he'd be easy since he's a super Prompto…maybe I just suck? Probably.

Anyways: QUESTIONS!

Q1: Thoughts on this chapter?

Q2: How was the fight?

Q3: What did you think of Ignis in this fight?

Q4: Whose fight are most excited for?

Q5: What are you looking forward to the most in this arc?

Q6: How was the Riku's in this one? Annoying or easy to follow?

Q7: Which fight in the game, ReMIND especially, was your favourite?

Also, to any writers reading this, what sort of music do you listen to when writing?

And important, due to work obligations coming this week, the next chapter MAY not be posted next Sunday. I cannot promise I will get it done by this Sunday coming but I will do my best to get it done. So if you don't see the next chapter, you'll know it'll come either on Thursday or Sunday.

As always everyone, thanks for reading! Stay awesome but more importantly stay safe!