Final Fantasy XV - Kingdom Hearts
Part 72
Summary: Two warriors of Light, the Chosen King and Keyblade Master, face an unseen Darkness.
*Within the Maze*
Looking left and right to see himself surrounded by adversaries, Mickey holds his keyblade tightly when he sees Larxene and Luxord appear on opposite sides of him. The yellow-haired vixen throws five knives coated in lightning while Xigbar fires five cards at the mouse king.
Mickey leaps into the air, avoiding both sides of the assault. Though as he hovered in the air for a while, another vessel comes from behind him to slice him in half with a pink scythe. The king's instincts kicked into overdrive and with an impressive backflip, he avoids having his small body be cut in half by the grim weapon.
The mouse king flips several times before he lands on his feet, eyes fixed on the four vessels before him. The man who carried the pink scythe laid said weapon against his shoulder, smirking at the mouse king. The king knew this one, among all of the vessels bar the Xehanort group, was potentially one of his most lethal allies in this war, the one who ruled over the castle and had used Naminé to try and warp Sora into a puppet of the organization.
Marluxia.
A tall and elegant nobody, Marluxia wears the basic Organization uniform of a black cloak, black boots, and black gloves. His hair is shoulder-length and rose pink with ruffles, eyes are golden, likely they were another color before him becoming Xehanort's vessel.
The female of the party laughed haughtily at the king, cold and empty as always when she smiles wickedly at the keyblade master. "I can believe the luck you've got mousy! Bad enough you're up against the organization, but four of us? Even *I* feel sorry for ya!", she mocks, laughing. Mickey huffs before her wicked grin turns more madder and cruel, knives in her fists held high before she speeds towards him with nearly invisible speeds.
She managed to appear before the king and plunged her knives toward his skull, only to have a shield intercept her attack with a loud *clang* booming within the area. Larxene snarled at the determined-looking Goofy, who did not budge from her attack nor even had his shield be knocked aside from her attack. The captain had both feet firmly planted on the ground and did an uppercut attack to throw her away from his liege, missing thanks to Larxene's lighting fast speed.
Once her feet touched the ground again, Larxene's eyes fall to the earth and saw a red glyph appearing beneath her. With a shocked yell, she quickly jumps back in time for a geyser of flames roared to life from where she stood. She backflips and lighting zip back to her group, turning her golden eyes on Donald, staff alit with magic and Goofy in front of the king, shield held high. Before she is about to rip into them, Marluxia hummed thoughtfully.
"You may want to wait a moment", he advises, turning to the entrance, "We're about to have a reunion". Larxene followed his gaze to see Sora joining the king and the others, keyblade in hand and gaze hardened at the sight of his previous enemies. This made the woman forget the interruptions the idiots of the king performed and with her wicked smile coming back, she takes up her stance. At least now she could hurt Sora in more ways than just physical pain.
"You three ok?", Sora asks, surprised to see no damage to his friends. "We've been cornered a few times, but nothing we can't handle", Mickey assured, frowning when he saw only Sora had arrived at their aid. "Are you alone?".
The boy nods with worry, wondering how much farther their party was into this place. He just hoped Kairi was not on her own, but his worries for his girlfriend would have to wait for now. Sora looked at his long-time companions, they each gave him thumbs up. With a brief smile, he nods and turns to their enemies, keyblade in hand and ready for the real fight.
Behind the three combatants, Xemnas huffs in amusement at Sora's timely arrival and started to levitate himself to the air. Dark energy surges in both hands before he slammed them both together and unleashed a grunt as he opens his arms. Blackthorns race out of his hands, his body in a dome of grey energy, and the thorns had started to trap everyone bar himself within the thorns. Likely in the unlikely event that they would attempt to flee from combat.
Their arena settled, the clash between light and darkness begins anew.
Larxene immediately rushes in for Sora while her compatriots hanged back, Marluxia disappearing while Luxord was already shuffling the cards in the air before him. Sora meets Larxene first, his keyblade swinging at her while she danced around his attacks. She tried to stab him after evading a swing from him, only to have her arm caught by Sora and then using planned footwork, he managed to place his left leg behind her and with an extra push, knocks her onto her back.
Larxene zaps away from him by turning into a bolt of lightning and zip-zapping a few feet from him. When she returns to her physical form, she throws ten knives at him, five from each hand. Unaware of Marluxia had appeared behind him and was already going for the newly turned master's head with one fatal swing of his scythe.
Sora swipes away the knives with two strokes of his keyblade and spins around to block the pink scythe from lopping his head off. Marluxia spins his weapon and unleashes a flurry of strikes that left trails of dark pink energy waves that acted like a secondary blade Sora had to deflect and keep away from. While he is busying with Marluxia, Larxene got up and rushed to him again, jumping into the air and throwing her knives at him.
"Sora!", Goofy calls out, jumping in and blocking the lightning coated knives from impaling his friend. Goofy's shield performed its take and the master was spared from a shocking pain, but then he throws his shield at the witch. Larxene flipped over it and laughed at the captain's useless attack, only to then to be struck in the stomach by Mickey's keyblade. The king unleashes a barrage of attack on her with his mystical weapon and strikes her back to the ground.
Mickey glances over his shoulder to check on Sora and Goofy, the two exchanging blows from Marluxia's weapon and then when he looked ahead of him he saw Donald and Luxord fighting.
The gambler was throwing cards at the duck while the wizard swapped between using defensive and offensive magic. The cards were so thin and small it impresses Mickey that Donald was keeping up with the man, not receiving a single scratch on himself as of yet. The duck shoots a gust of wind at the gambler, the powerful gales threw the cards up and all over which leaves the man exposed to more attacks.
Donald runs toward him and jumps, attempting to bring down gambler through brute force. Unfortunately for the wizard, Luxord smirks and vanishes when the staff's head nearly touched his forehead. Donald stumbles onto his feet, confused, and lets out a yell of frustration, not sensing Luxord had appeared right behind him. Too late to turn and identify the threat, Donald was helpless before the gambler as he snapped his fingers and then a cloud of purple smoke surrounded the duck.
To Mickey's surprise, the duck has been turned into a six-sided die, and a sentient one. With an expression of shock and surprise on the face of it with the duck's sailors' hat as the numbers, Donald lets out several "waks" of surprise, confusion, and bafflement as Luxord admires his handy work. Mickey grunts and tries to jump down and lend his friend a hand, only to be interrupted by Larxene appearing behind him and grabbing the hood of his jacket.
Mickey was jerked back and thrown away from Donald, still in the air as Larxene chases after him. They engaged a dual in the air, two of the fastest members of their respective sides clashing in the air leaving their comrades to face off each other.
The tip of the scythe was caught in Goofy's shield, allowing Sora to make a quick run to strike at the pink-haired nobody. Marluxia yanked his scythe out of Goofy's shield in time to raise it and allow the pole of his weapon to take the hit from Sora's keyblade, saving himself. The nobody pushed the boy off and used the pole to smack him in his side. Sora grunts out in pain but yelled out when Marluxia slashes his chest and throws him into the air.
But before he could chase after the boy, Goofy stepped in, and shield tackled the previous usurper of the organization. The man grunted out in shock, amazed someone like Goofy had the bravery and strength to lay a hand on him, and more so Goofy didn't have even the smallest glimmer of fear within his eyes. The captain of the knights struck at the grim reaper poser with his shield, pushing him back and bent his knees and jumped up with his shield striking Marluxia's jaw.
The man staggers backward, giving the captain space to throw his shield and smack him right in his chest, knocking the pink-haired warrior into the thorns. Hitting them he was stricken with dark energy burning into his back, Marluxia yelled out in pain while Goofy runs the landing spot where Sora nearly slammed to the ground.
Catching the boy with both hands, Goofy sets him down and handed him a potion to patch up his wound. Gratefully the boy downs his bitter drink and once he feels his flesh knitting back up, he quickly jump-kicks back to his feet and calls for the keyblade once more to protect them from Marluxia's scythe. The pink bladed polearm was thrown at them and had they been a few seconds late both would have their heads rolling on the ground.
Sora swung the keyblade upward just as the blade reached him, harmlessly spinning in the air them. But Sora grabbed the weapon and throws it right back at Marluxia, along with several spheres of magic for the added touch. Marluxia hissed and uses his darkness to disappear from the weapon, tearing through the thorns with the spheres of light chasing it.
With Luxord and Donald, the duck was bouncing across the field yelling as the man was trying to strike him with his unlimited cards, cursing at the speed and bounciness the duck displayed. The duck kept hopping like a mad duck the second he realized he had been turned into a die, evading the attacks while getting more and more frustrated at how long it was taking for him to change back. Sora had warned him about his previous fights with this man, how he had been turned into a card, and die.
Except where Sora said it took a total of two minutes for him to regain his body, Donald swore it was taking FAR longer than two minutes. He wobbled and hopped around the field was Luxord kept firing cards at him, growing angrier and angrier at this predicament he had been put in. Here he is, the court wizard of the king's group, forced to run as a die like a complete buffoon while his friends were fighting back against them.
He sees Mickey being assaulted by a barrage of knives and lightning, Larxene using her duplicate trick to rip away any ground or space for the king to navigate. Furious between the die predicament and seeing his friend being ganged up by this loudmouth brat of a woman, Donald lets out an enraged roar as he stays in the air, steam whistling from his die body as he even turns bright red with anger.
He charges to the clones and with a bellowing roar, tackled the back of a clone and sent her crashing into another, both were cloaked in sparks and lightning while the real one stops and looked at what had happened. She lets out a "what the" before Donald tackled her next with a yell, right into her stomach. Donald sets his die body on the ground and starts to attack Larxene while dodging her attacks, getting minor scratches on his body that were at best superficial.
Even as wide and bulky his die form is, even Larxene had trouble hitting him with how quick and unpredictable his movement was, and with all his tackles that just seemed to be endless, he was easily eating away her patience.
"You feathered freak!", she screams, swinging her fist at him. Luckily, Donald's torturous existence as a die had finally come to an end, a puff of purple smoke boomed around him as he ducks underneath her knife covered fist. Mickey rescued his friend by blasting Larxene with a pearl attack, striking her in the back and forcing her to leap further away from the two.
With Sora and Goofy, the two pushed back Marluxia with their joint attacks with the captain guarding Sora's flank and the hero matching one of his worst enemies with greater strength and determination to win. With all three fighters of the organization backed to the wall, Xemnas smirked, amused. He aimed his hand and sends a large torrent of grey and dark energy into Luxord's body, making the man gasp in surprise before he hunched slightly over and the as he stands stall, his body glows in the darkness.
Power runs within him; new feats of strength he never attained before and would even go so far as to say he is just as strong as Xemnas was in the past. The thorns surrounding the fighters slithered back and returned to Xemnas' body as his dome of grey and black disappears. He gave the guardians of light one final smug smile and chuckle before a dark corridor takes him away. Sora called out his name, frustrated that the man runs away instead of settling the score here.
Mickey though kept his eyes on Luxord, standing before the four with a chuckle and smirk. He holds up one card before with a flick, dispenses a total of five in hand. "Exactly, what I needed", he says, his cards glowing faintly in red energy. He crosses both arms, and then extends them outwards, sending cards from his body around the arena. Slowly in the place of the thorns where they once acted as a ring, the cards grew as tall as a body and as wide as an ornate door.
Trapping the combatants in the space, no one notices Luxord had one card already between his two fingers and was eyeing Sora in particular. With a flick of his hand, the card flies towards Sora. The king of Disney Castle quickly sees the flying card and yelled for Sora's name, jumping in between him and the card.
Mickey swipes his keyblade and deflects that card. However, the piece of paper did not cut nor were there any signs of damages done to it. It turns straight up and faced the hovering king, suddenly a vacuum of light pink energy envelops around Mickey. The king had no hope of escaping the vacuum and was sucked into the card while yelling out in surprise. His body disappeared and the card, no longer plain white, shows the mouse king was trapped within in.
"MICKEY!", Donald and Goofy cried out as the card flies back to Luxord. Sora curses lightly, Luxord however looked far more amused. "One final game, Sora", he offers. He holds up Mickey's card and says: "Rules are simple, find me within these cards and strike me down within the time limit". The moment he finished that sentence, a green sphere appeared around Sora's torso, green and grey glyphs of clocks surrounding him and startling the two members of Mickey's court.
Sora placed a hand on his chest as the glyph disappears, staring at Luxord as he flicked his hand to add more cards to his current hand. "Of course, it wasn't going to be that easy", he says, "Where's the fun in the game if there is nothing to be lost?".
He snaps his fingers and a bright flash blinds the trio temporality to escape from their sights. When their visions were no longer impaired by the cheap shot, the trio sees Luxord had vanished and only his co-workers remained, likely as an obstacle to delay Sora. The master huffed in frustration when he saw the cards started to rotate and pick up speed, Luxord's taunting yet encouraging voice echoed on the battlefield.
Sora grips his keyblade as Marluxia and Larxene rush in to ambush him, but Donald and Goofy jumped in front of Sora and held back their attacks, Goofy stopping Larxene and Donald using magic to hold back the pink-haired nobody. They both gave him encouraging looks with determination burning in their eyes, pleading him to rescue their king. While he worried how well they would go against two of Xehanort's vessels alone, Sora reluctantly puts his faith in their skills and runs into the center of the field.
Soon as he stepped into it, Luxord appeared before him and throws five cards from each hand at the boy, in response Sora calls for fire to surround his body and engulf the cards. He expends his firewall to covered more ground and makes Luxord jump away from him, but Sora dashed out of the flames and got close enough to bring down the keyblade on him. However, when he sliced Luxord, all that happened is his body disappeared and a card fluttered to the ground.
He had forgotten the man could do that.
The boy sensed a presence and turns around to identify it. He narrowly parried one sweep from an oversized card that nearly lopped his head off and swats away another that went for his hips. Luxord spins and saunters to the boy while swinging his giant cards at him. The boy uses more strength to slice the cards in two and stabbed at the man, who disappears away from the boy once again. Sora groaned, irritated by this cheap tactic.
Sora then sees the man appearing just a few steps from him, throwing up a bunch of cards that, from what he could glean, symbols of the nobody and fireballs on them. Once they fluttered to the ground like feathers, Luxord spins around like he was closing a door behind him, a card appearing on his back, and then it falls forward to the ground. Like snakes, the cards shuffled together on the ground and then slithered to Sora's feet.
The cards stood up and had their backs facing the boy, hovering around him. Remembering this from his previous battle with the man of fate, Sora narrows his eyes as he desperately wracked his memory for what symbols were on the cards and which of these would reveal the man. He could hear the faint ticking of the countdown rumble in his ears, pressuring him to make a choice quick. This felt so much worse than the first time, where at worst it would be only his life that would perish.
Now he was playing for the king's freedom.
He sees one card careful turn as to avoid giving away the symbol it carried, but Sora spots a glimpse of a fireball on it and then an idea occurred. He spins the keyblade and fires one burst of magic at the card and once it was done, he turns on his heel and strikes the card right behind him. The card is sliced in half and shows nothing but blank while the other explode at a safe distance and takes two cards with it.
Two remaining, Sora throws the keyblade around him, letting it spin like a saw through the air. The keyblade cuts through the card behind him and revealed it be an explosion that propels Sora forward. He kicked the other card, his foot firmly planted in Luxord's stomach when the illusion is destroyed. The gambler groaned in pain as Sora calls his keyblade back and strikes the man twice and when he tries for a third hit, his keyblade hits nothing but air.
Sora lands on his feet and spins around swiftly to see Luxord with man-sized cards behind him. With a calculated smirk adorned on his face, the gambler sends the cards before Sora, barring his way. "You know the rules?", he inquired as the cards showed a consistent change on the faces. From circles to x's, another game Sora was forced to endure in the past and he feels the aches from previous failures. But this time his reflexes were shaper and reaction times here and now trounced his reaction speed in the past.
He hits all five circles before him, the cards disappeared and Luxord slumps, time glyphs surrounded him monetarily and left him helpless. Sora immediately charged in and starts to strike Luxord when he got the chance, not letting up and delivering several hits on the man. He strikes him hard enough to throw him away from the boy, then proceeds to fire an onslaught of light bullets at the man. Luxord's cards appeared as he soared over the ground and like walls, ate the magical light, and keep their user safe from harm.
The man of fate disappears within a card while Sora leaps and flips over the onslaught of cards flying towards him like knives. Given how thin and long the cards are, Sora didn't evade them unscathed sadly, taking several nicks and slashes across his body.
Luxord reappears farther from the boy, in both hands are five cards each and with a quick toss, he scatters them across the ground surrounding the boy. Sora looks at the ground too late to react when the cards suddenly shoot up and surrounded him, turning into tall walls. On the faces of the cards were fireballs and lightning bolts, each glowing the respective colors before they fired their magic at the hero.
Sora ducks, rolls, jumps, and does everything in his power to escape these attacks, having a mixture of success and fails in the process. Burns on his clothes and flesh, but that wasn't all the warrior had to deal with. When his feet touched the ground, he was struck in the back by something sharp and let out a cry of surprise mixed with pain. Sora spins around to see in time Luxord with another over-sized card in hand disappear and then on his left see him reappear with another attack.
Somehow the two elements didn't affect him as they did to Sora. The boy knew his magic would not harm him while he tried to slice him up like a blender, but now caught trapped with everywhere being attacked, he had no recourse to fall back on. Sora just managed to deflect a swipe of the card to the head but took a hit to the back by a fireball and is thrown off his feet and face-first onto the ground. He rolled away to avoid a bolt of lightning from striking him, flipping back to his feet as Luxord shoots more cards to the ground.
Surrounded by a horde of explosive cards, Sora doesn't risk striking them for the fear of creating a chain reaction of explosions. The boy of the islands is forced to dance around them and avoid using his weapon to protect himself, as he starts to feel his time was reaching the unfortunate climax of the fight. Luxord is unrelenting however throwing his cards at him while at the same time switching them up to create all sorts of trappings for the boy to deal with.
It is here Sora realized just how this man was going to win this bout if he doesn't come up with a back plan. Luxord knew an upfront fight with Sora would only end with the boy as the victor, and so to deal with him in a time limit, keep him on the defenses and leave absolutely no room for another means of coming back from the fight. The master feels the sweat of the pressure hinging heavily on his brow, unable to fight back without risking more injury.
"Come on, Sora. You're running out of time", Luxord warns playfully as he flicks more cards at him. He lifts his hands and as Sora stands there trying to catch his breath, he is suddenly surrounded by a cylinder wall form of cards. All of them were trap cards with the fire symbol on them, trapping him.
"Victory is mine, Sora", bragged Luxord. He clicks his fingers and the cards start to glow red. Within the unmoving tornado of cards, Sora grunts out in dismay before his grip tightens on his keyblade. He had no choice but to risk it all.
As the cylinder of cards detonates, turning into a tornado of explosions, Luxord smirks in victory. Yet…he still senses Sora's time…wasn't up.
Several rays of light pierced the cloud of smoke until a burst of the divine light clears the cloud, hundreds of slashes of light shining wildly and with one burst of strength, the cards that hadn't detonated were ripped into shreds as the cloud clears. Now standing, wounded but alive, Sora carried both Oathkeeper and Oblivion in his hands as his clothes patched themselves up and turned into their clash of black and white.
Even with obvious wounds on his face and body carrying the damage of Luxord's ultimate, Sora stared him down with determination and unyielding might. Luxord grunts as he calls for more cards, summoning all he had for this one toss. One last chance to make or break.
"Looks like we're in the end game, shall we see if this final attack shall determine the victor?", he asks as his body glows in dark grey energy while Sora's body shines.
"All in", Sora affirms, crossing his arms over his chest.
Luxord cries out and fires a barrage of cards at Sora with the full intent to rip him into pieces. Sora jumps towards the storm of cards, opening his arms and spinning around wildly like a hurricane of swords. Sora's hurricane slices and cuts through the cards, the speed he uses was so quick he was cutting at least fifty cards with each turn, protecting himself and reaching Luxord. The man of fate just smirks as the boy rushed past him and lands on his feet behind him.
Darkness soars from Luxord's as he staggered in place, cards falling from him, and only when the darkness needed for the X-Blade is depleted from him, he falls to his knee. His body beginning to fade away and soon he would return as a human. Sora reverts to his normal form while walking to face the man, and too his surprise he does not see any remorse or sadness. Instead, the man looked satisfied and even proud.
"You… were born for these kinds of games…", he says, respectfully. He then scoffed, and before Sora could say anything, the man flicks a card to the boy. Instinctively, Sora managed to catch the card. He blinks and stares at it, openly asking the obvious question. "It's a wild card…you've earned it", Luxord says simply, "Ignis was right…perhaps the cards weren't in our favor after all". Sora looked at him, begging to ask the question yet somehow he felt as if it did not need to be spoken.
"It could turn the tables…", he mutters quietly.
Strange as it may have sounded, for all the organization had done, Sora truly felt no malice or even animosity towards this man. It might have been him, but he truly felt as if Luxord, among all of the organization, was the least…evil? He felt…bad, that this man had to go through this end once again because of Xehanort.
With a smile, Sora says: "Play ya again, when we're just guys". Then, Luxord chuckled, and then it turned into genuine laughter, shaking shoulders and head thrown back. The man shakes his head, a smile donned on his face. "*just guys*? Sora, you are far from just a guy…but…", he jokes, before his smile turned softer and friendly even, "I would very much, like that". With his final words given, the man of fate disappears as the darkness leaves him, his body evaporating into nothing.
All that remained is a card floating in the air, and then the same light purple glow shines. Mickey's body performs a front flip whilst being covered in the light before it leaves him, and he returns to his normal form. He gave the boy a grateful smile and nodded to him, saying: "Thanks". With a wink and a thumbs-up, Sora grinned as the cards that had him trapped with Luxord fade away.
Once gone, the two masters looked to see their friends, miraculously, standing their ground against the organization's former usurpers. Donald dodging Larxene's knives while firing magic at her as Goofy blocks and clumsily avoids Marluxia's scythe. They both shared a quick nod and rush to lend a hand to their friends.
Donald jumps back from Larxene's insistent stabbing tendencies despite her lightning-fast strikes, only getting his clothes nicked and cut here and there. The woman swung her leg to the duck's bill, manages to strike him away and on his back, but when she dashed to confirm the kill, Donald bounced off the ground but during a flip he aimed his staff at the ground and fired a burst of magic that rocketed him to the air, evading Larxene.
The woman looked up at the flying duck, a hand on his hat, and aiming his staff at her. Donald waves his mystical weapon and slowly created a barrage of what appeared to rocket. He yelled and waved his staff at her, firing the rockets at the woman as they burst forth. Larxene leaps and jumps from the chasing fireworks as Donald falls to the ground, firing more and more rockets at her and uses his free hand to chant other spells on standby.
Larxene grits her teeth, her short patience had reached its end with the persistence Donal had displayed. For as long as it had been, the woman is certain that he was never this strong during their fight at the old castle, if nothing else he was more of a sidekick to that heartless hero. But now it was as if she is fighting someone completely different, and what further enrages her is that he was still the short stack of the loser guardians of light.
And she, Larxene, was having trouble with this feathered freak.
Crossing her arms over her chest as the rockets flew toward her, she bathes her body in electricity. The yellow lightning spreads around her and struck the rockets and detonated them all, ending Donald's barrage of attacks and freeing plenty of space for the woman of the darkness to exploit. Like a bolt of lightning, Larxene zips across the field and reels her right hand to deliver a shocking pummel to the duck, who lacked the same reaction speed his friends possessed.
"Donald!".
Sora appears in a blink of an eye, standing between the duck and nobody. His keyblade is raised to stop the fist, the lightning however slithers on the keyblade and onto Sora. Immediately Sora is coated in lightning, shining brightly as his entire body is shocked like he had been struck by a million bolts, his screaming agony ran through the battlefield. Donald could only stare in the horror of his long-time friend being in pain before Larxene hisses.
"Outta the way, loser!", she snarled before kicking him in the side of his head, removing him from her path. Sora skids on the ground, only stopping a few feet from the two, twitching and shaking in agony as flickers of electricity coats his body. The woman scoffs at him with a callous smirk, taking satisfaction from the payback she had been waiting to dish out to him. The only thing that'd be even more satisfying is if that red-haired brat saw her boyfriend in such a pathetic state.
One thing at a time she thinks then turns to Donald.
And is blown back by a burst of magic that kicked the air out of her lungs. The woman of lightning backflips and lands on her feet, raising her head to see a very, VERY angry Donald. His magic was sparking wildly around him as his eyes were red with fire, even his feathers took on a reddish hue to them as if he were boiling with rage.
Undeterred, Larxene cackles cruelly while standing up. "Aww, did seeing your buddy getting shocked ruffle your feathers?", she mocks cruelly. With steam screaming from his ears, Donald waves both arms up and down while hovering above the ground in a furious fit, his magic splitting the ground beneath him before creating a small crater beneath his feet. The duck roared: "YOU'RE GONNA PAY FOR THAT, YA GIGANTIC PALOOKA!".
The duck's staff shined in pure magical energies with little popping magic around the tip, himself levitating in a bubble of energy as magic swirls around him. The mage aimed his staff at the woman and fires seven beams of magic at her that bent and twisted toward him, forcing Larxene to leap and dance around them. Except when she was close to one by flipping over it, the beam explodes into fireworks. The blast strikes the woman and sends her into the air.
The rest of the rays chased her and exploded when they were close enough, blasting her in firework magics. Higher and higher she goes with each strike from the duck's awesome magic, casting a never-ending assault of magic and awe.
Larxene snarls and blasts the magic away with a burst of electricity, her eyes boring into Donald with the fury that matched his. She swings her arms to throw her knives, turning them into thick and huge bolts of lightning at the duck, but Donald meets her with a feathered hand raised and fires a stream of energy of magic at them. The stream swallows the lightning and blasts towards Larxene, zipping further up into the air to avoid the stream of mana.
With a growl as lightning grows denser and wilder, she elongates her knives into claws and then dives right into the ground. Plunging her claws into the ground, she conjures up several pillars of lightning around the area. Donald's bubble shields him after he added more mana to preserve it, but his eyes fall to the slumped Sora, a pillar of lighting readying to erect beneath him. Donald aims his feathered hand and fires off one ball of green magic that not only blasts Sora out of the erecting pillar but then healed him.
Sora quickly flips in the air during the blast, his eyes locking with Donald's for a moment, together forming a counter.
The court mage returned his furious gaze to Larxene, seeing her bathed in bright lightning and closing the distance between her and the duck. With an enraged yell, Larxene starts to stab rapidly at Donald's bubble barrier. Though Donald's fortress managed to hold off several of her attacks, the more she struck the quicker and more powerful her attacks got until her attacks seemed invisible to even the most trained eyes.
She reeled her fist back and with all the lightning she carried within her very being, she punched the bubble with every fiber of her rage and being. Donald's bubble bursts open and he is thrown across the field, caked in lightning. The duck skids and bounces off the ground, rolling onto his side after coming to a halt. The woman panted, grunting from the exertion her body endured with all the hits that feathered freak managed to land on her.
Larxene's victory is short-lived though, her yellow eyes expand in disbelief when Donald got to his feet, despite the pain his normal glass body had taken. He still had the livid look in his eyes, his magic still running wild through him and he even lifted his staff to continue the battle. "Why…how…HOW ARE YOU STILL STANDING!?", she demands, "You were NEVER this strong against us!".
Donald huffs grumpily and readies himself to cast whatever spell he was going to need put an end to this fight. Larxene's enraged look shifted slowly into one of smugness, cockiness even. "Pfft…what am I whining about?", she sighed dramatically, "Even if I gotta kick your feathered butt as many times as it takes, there's no way you can win against me". Donald stubbornly hated to admit it, but even with all the training he and Goofy had done to catch up to Sora and the others, his power wasn't enough to win the fight between himself and a member of the organization.
And that is why he is going to win this fight. Because what Larxene never seemed to get a grasp on, why Donald and the guardians were going to win this, is because they were not going at these fights alone.
Larxene narrowed her eyes at him, realizing he hasn't done anything since she mocked him, and looked to where Sora's twitchy body was. It is only when she saw he was no longer there did she turn back to Donald, now smirking at her smugly, did she suddenly realize she had been played. Quickly Larxene spins around and sees Sora too late to stop history from repeating itself.
With a final cry from the boy, Sora swings his keyblade and cuts her down, speeding past her mid-swing. The woman stands still, her body not registering the fatal blow being dealt with her, taking in too slowly to realize she had been slain once again. When the darkness is spirted out of her body like her comrades slain by the master and king, Larxene staggered and collapsed to her knees, looking at her hands and sees her body was already fading out like before.
"You…gotta be kidding…", she cursed, begrudgingly accepting her demise at Sora's hands. Sora stares at her, panting from the adrenaline leaving his body. "Look on the bright side…you'll be recompleted", Sora says, strangely wanting to comfort her.
"Did I ask for *your* opinion?", Larxene snapped, "I lost! To a bunch of losers like you!". Sora's expression does not change, feelings intact from the snappy response. He may not remember entirely the whole story of his time in the castle, but he still feels a sense of déjà vu. The woman then heaved a giant sigh as she lowered her arms, done with all this. "But…I guess it could be worse…Become that old coot's heart tank? Pfft…no thanks", she says.
"Did…you wanted to be a part of all this?", Sora asks, curious. Larxene huffs and looked away from the boy, before weakly shrugging as her strength evaporates. "Honestly? I was along for the ride. I don't care whatever that old coot wanted", she explains half-heartedly and vaguely. Sora tilts his head, confused as he tries to remember if the woman cared about anyone else bar her fun and amusement. "Along the ride with who?", he asked.
Larxene turns her eyes back to the questioning boy, then smirking mischievously and placing a finger on her lips, chooses her final words and her last way to screw with the boy. "My secret", she teases before she disappears into the next world.
Sora watches the vixen disappear, wondering when the next time they will meet. Even if she was cruel and malicious, he strangely hopes the next time they see each other, maybe they could be friends. Speaking of friends, Sora rushed to Donald, falling his hands and knees, panting and shaking. He kneels to check on him and sees the duck weakly smile at him.
"Ya did it…", he praised.
The boy pats his shoulder, grinning. "Couldn't have done it with you", he reminds, gently punching his shoulder.
On the other side of the battlefield, Mickey quickly joined Goofy in his struggle against one of the strongest members of the organization. To the captain's credit, he mostly had to deal with fatigue and a few bruises in the time he used to keep the man of the dark off Sora during his task to rescue Mickey.
Marluxia's long weapon stole more space from the two residents of Disney Castle and with the sinister blade so sharp and powerful, obviously Goofy struggled to get close without potentially losing a limb. Mickey on the other hand could keep up the pace with this man, flipping over his polearm and even boldly run along with it thanks to his shorter and lighter stature. Marluxia teleports away when Mickey was in arms reach of the man, reappearing behind him and almost brings his weapon down to slice the king in half.
He was tackled by Goofy, the shield slamming right into his back and staggering him long enough for Mickey to spin around and strike at him with his mystical weapon. The king hits Marluxia several times in a furry of swift hits with the final one swung upwards. Marluxia is then thrown into the air but teleports again further from the two.
With a flurry of swings from his scythe, he fires dark pink-ish blade-shaped energy at the two. Mickey is then grabbed by Goofy, throwing himself in front of the attack with his mighty shield up high and feet firmly planted in the ground. The attacks struck the shield and any other man would have long been tossed aside or even their shield would have been split into pieces. But Goofy didn't so much as budge an inch from this insane onslaught of attacks.
"Come on!", he cries and then propels himself through these attacks, shield taking all the hits. Even Marluxia was flabbergasted by this display, not even Sora would be bold enough to charge through his attacks with the confidence this clumsy fool of the king's party possessed. Goofy reaches the man and swipes his shield to the left and catches the tip of the scythe within the gaps of his shield's design, effectively halting any attempts of a riposte of the dastardly blade.
Mickey refuses to waste this golden opportunity his trusted friend has given him and jumps to close the gap. But Marluxia coldly smiles at the two, just as Mickey's keyblade nearly lands on his head, he teleports again behind both guardians and swung his scythe up and struck them both into the air. Goofy yelps in pain while the king squeaks in surprise, quickly flipping upright as Marluxia reappears to unleash a ruthless combo upon them.
Upside down, Goofy spins and throws his shield at the nobody, which was quickly deflected by the scythe. In doing so left him open to a free hit from Mickey, who dashed toward him and places the tip of his keyblade on his chest. He blasts Marluxia with a burst of light and blasted him away from himself and Goofy.
Marluxia lands on the ground and once he stood up properly he swung his scythe and created a whirlwind that immediately sucked up the air, dirt, and rock around them. Including Mickey and Goofy, both being sucked into the vortex-like paper caught in a hurricane. With the two guardians spinning around unable to get their feet to the ground, they were rendered helpless and easy prey for the nobody, brandishing his scythe and raising it to secure the kill.
But before he does, Goofy managed to flip himself up upright and then spin around willingly with arms outstretched and likes closes together like he was trying to stand on his tippy toes. Spinning faster and faster, Goofy appeared as a blur of green as the whirlwind that ensnared himself, and Mickey started to take on a neutral color and Mickey was able to escape it. Marluxia feels the wind trying to pull him into it, planting his feet firmly on the ground and grabbed his scythe with both hands. The blade glows a sinister dark light and with a swing, he fires a giant blade of dark pink energy that rips through the earth and towards Goofy.
Because of the suction of his whirlwind, Goofy practically brought the energy attack to himself. The captain lets out a yell of a surprise when his eyes managed to glance at the attack during his spinning. The captain holds his shield in front of him just in time to be in the position of the attack reaching him and smacking him out of the whirlwind he took over, feet slammed into the ground as he desperately tried to stop the momentum the attack carried before he was crushed into the wall.
Mickey rushes Marluxia, engaging him in a battle of steel on steel. Marluxia fires razor-sharp petals at the king while trying to slice the mouse king in half, meeting on his keyblade and the air around them, occasionally slicing bits of the old dried earth. Mickey jumps over pole and leaps to Marluxia, missing him again when he teleported to evade his demise. Mickey turned around, well-aware of this man's seemingly predictable attack patterns, and fires a magic barrage at him.
However, he hits nothing but the air.
Mickey spots him just a few feet from him, his hand carrying a dark ball surrounded in dark green rose thorns. With a cruel smirk, his yellow eyes gestured the ground and when Mickey follows his gaze, he saw his feet were standing on pure darkness and around it was more of those thorns. He quickly tries to jump out of this trap, only to be struck by a vine of thorns that slashes his chest, more stretching out and wrapping around his arms, legs, and even his neck.
Held helplessly in the air as the darkness begins to stimulate with power, Mickey struggles against the thorns cutting into him, yielding little success other than more harm done to himself. Marluxia's smirk turns into a cold smile as he readies to rid the guardians one of their masters, but he quickly leans his head back to avoid being decapitated by a shield that zoomed over his head.
His yellow gaze falls to Goofy, but he is then struck in the forehead by something made of metal and it made a loud *clang*, making him grab his head in pain. Shaking his head from the pain, he looks down to see what Goofy could have possibly thrown at him.
A…horseshoe?
He blinked, opening and closing his mouth, unable to find the words. "Guess somebody doesn't know one of life's valuable lessons", Goofy says, his shield coming back to him. Marluxia glared at the captain, insulted. "You dare lecture me, YOU of all the fools in Sora's party?", Marluxia sneered, eyes dead focused on the king's shield. Goofy nodded, not registering the insult. "Yup, tossing horseshoe is kinda like how life works", he says, knowingly.
"It's all about focusing on your goals".
Marluxia grits his teeth as he brandishes his weapon, ready to remove Goofy from the realm of light. Yet the captain is completely calm and even casual about the fight as if he were just giving a young man a valuable life lesson. "I sincerely hope, a slow as your brain functions, you put a lot of thought into those being your last words", he warns. Goofy just smiled and nodded. "Well no, I don't think those will be my last words, I still got a lot more to say to Sora when he grows up", he says, "Because you didn't learn your lesson".
"And what was it, pray tell?", he mocked.
"You ain't focusing on your goal, remember?".
Marluxia's eyes shot open and quickly turns to Mickey, now bathed in light. With a yell, Mickey's light covered the thorns and trails down to purify the darkness beneath his feet. Nature's chains undone, Mickey is free to resume the bout once more, all thanks to his trusted captain of the guard. Marluxia growled in fury, he had been completely fooled by possibly the stupidest member of Sora's group, and he did it so easily.
*HE* used *HIM*.
With a roar of shame and fury, Marluxia swung his scythe at the king, firing off a beam of energy at him. Goofy quickly tossed his shield to intervene and luckily his weapon proved to be the attack's undoing. Mickey would go so far as to say it worked…too well. As if…Marluxia was not *trying* to kill Mickey of the bat.
His twisted smirk solidified the king's worries as the shield was knocked further from himself and even more so for Goofy, laying face down on the earth. Mickey's eyes widened as he turns pale, suddenly realizing what this man was planning and cried out for Goofy to run. Marluxia's scythe is bathed in grey as the blade is coated in a miasma of darkish pink energies and even grows. "What good is a shield if you cannot protect yourself!?", he mocks. He brings the weapon down onto the ground, sinking the curved blade into the earth, and fired a blade-shaped energy wave the size of a truck towards the captain.
The speed was too great for Goofy's reaction time to run, yet he faced this with his head held up high and determination. Even if he was the one to go first into the new worlds, he was thankful he saved his king and hoped in some way his efforts would at least ensure only he would fall.
Before he welcomes his demise, Sora appeared right in front of his old friend, and with the blade held in both hands, he roars and slammed the blade against Marluxia's attack. Halting it at first before his legendary blade cleaved right through it and dissipated the entire attack, saving his friend from an early death. Goofy looked at the boy, relived he was fine, and most importantly safe, but the young man stood up and faced the nobody. He glanced over to the captain, smiling.
"You've always had my back when I needed you, figured I'd play the shield for payback", he said, winking. Goofy smiles back gratefully at him, proud of the young man who stood before him.
Marluxia watched the two, his anger vanished and in its place…acceptance. He didn't even register Mickey reaching him and with a yell, brings down the keyblade onto the former ruler of the forgotten castle. The battle was over.
Like all the others, darkness quickly evaporates from him and soars to the skies, disappearing to help create the legendary weapon. As he felt his life slowly seep away from him, he dropped his scythe to the ground, letting it disappear in petals before he falls to his knees. Looking at his hands slowly fading away along with him, he lets a tired chuckle.
"Oh…so now it comes back to me…", he said exasperatedly, perhaps annoyed it choose the worst time to come back. Looking at his hand, he then chuckled…a real laugh. This somewhat spooked Sora, never hearing a nobody laugh so genuinely. "Is…that a real laugh?", Sora asks, more so to himself. This makes Marluxia chuckle again, low and soft. "It seems…my heart is remembering what it is like to feel".
"Really? That's good", Sora says, softly smiling. Goofy smiled subtly behind the boy, more about him than Marluxia's joy. It warmed the captain's heart to see Sora is capable of making friends, even with his enemies. "And now, I am on the cusp of reclaiming my identity", Marluxia says, nearly joyfully. "My purpose for being…".
He looked at Sora with a genuine look of gratitude and says his final words: "Thanks to you, Sora". His body disappears like all the others, the final image of him for the boy would be a smile that was grateful, and almost human of Marluxia. Biting his inner cheek, Sora looked down and even wondered what could happen the next time he meets him…or his human form.
The four gathered up with Donald still too winded to continue the hunt, Goofy kneeling to his old friend and pats his back comfortingly. "You two hang back for a while, we'll go on ahead", Sora says. "Sorry bout that…", Donald grumbled, earning a light chuckle from the boy. "Look after him, Goof", Mickey says, "I'll head after Xemnas while Sora goes help the others".
"Be safe, both of you", Goofy ordered. The two nod and split up, going down their separate roads.
*Further in*
Sometimes fate can be truly a cruel mix of despair and hope, something Kairi had started to notice when it came to the bonds that connected the people close to her.
Here on the great battlefield where the first great war had taken place would be the reunion between Axel and Saix, and only one is going to walk away from this bout. She hadn't felt this apprehension about engaging a fight since she first met Ardyn, and she wasn't even the target of this fight. Ahead of them stood Xemnas, Saix and that hooded member Demyx had told Axel awhile ago. Kairi held back a scoff, somewhat honored that her first fight against the dark thirteen would be against Xehanort's nobody.
And gratefully she wouldn't be alone in the fight.
"Well, guess this was inevitable", Axel says unamused, directing this disdain toward his old "friend", before glancing at the hooded one. "And who's the plus-one?", he asked. The "plus-one" says nothing, still and silent while Kairi glanced at her, trying to gauge her and even see if she of all people knew them. Prompto by her side stared at the trio of nobodies ahead, keeping his breath steady and robotic fingers loose, ready to pull the first shot.
"Inevitable indeed", Xemnas concurs, then gestured the hooded one, "And this *guest* of ours has an old score to settle with you". Kairi frowns and glanced at Axel, seeing no recognition in his eyes. Looking back at the silent member, she wondered if this was indeed someone from his past, or was an old adversary of Sora's, but she couldn't recall him ever bringing this one up.
"You a traitor of darkness, as it is of light", Xemnas eludes, almost taunting them of their lack of knowledge of this one. Kairi felt a twitch in her brow at him describing the person as an "it", and Prompto's jaw tightened too, likely that description may have hit a little too close to home for him. She made a mental note to hit that smug nobody in the face as hard as she could. With a shrug, Axel casually yet coldly rebukes: "Well, I guess I can live with that".
Xemnas simply glanced at their silent guest, saying: "It is a being of whom we have no memory of". More questions booming in their minds, Kairi convinced this had to be someone new. If even their allies didn't know them, then how else could they someone they knew. "A true nobody, hailing from the edge of oblivion", Xemnas says, as if this was a rare species.
"The being before you was recreated…from the records left by Vexen", Saix adds in, "And the many experiments performed by Young Xehanort".
"Does this mean they're a replica?", Kairi asked in her mind, fuzzy with all the details. Or was it an entirely different matter altogether?
"It was erased from all memories, and it harbors absolutely no knowledge of itself, it doesn't even know who they are", Xemnas continues: "Even I forgot it, and like the others, I cannot recall who it is or why I forgot". Turning to the three, "Truly, a perfect pawn for this very battle".
"Pfft, alright then…who is it then?", Axel questions, "If they're perfect for this, then ya have to have given it a name".
Saix smirks then turned to Kairi. "You called on one of the seven new hearts", he notes, unamused and unimpressed, "Truly you must be desperate". Kairi felt that sting for a second before she felt the warmth from the crown around her neck and stepped forward. "First off, I'm one of the originals, thank you very much", she clarifies, "Second, you're acting pretty tough for someone who was going to let the heartless do all the work".
"Girl's got a point!", Prompto adds in, "And trust me, she's like our fourth best master and next to Aqua, our trump card for magic!".
"As the blondie says, if I'm the traitor, he's the joker and she's our trump card", Axel states confidently. Kairi glanced at the two, taken aback by the confidence they had in her, and even a little bashful. This however doesn't even sway Saix. "So it isn't desperation I spotted within you…just foolishness and lunacy", sighed Saix. Axel lets out an angry "huh" but before he retorts, Xemnas cuts in.
"Without the battle between the seven lights and thirteen darkness, Kingdom Hearts requires the seven hearts", Xemnas reveals, then coldly smirked. "That is why we need to eliminate the guardians. Are you foolish enough, to believe you can stop us?".
Axel growled and shouts: "What do you think!?".
"I think you'll lose, Axel", Saix replies simply and straight to the point. This makes the guest break their silence and utter: "Axel". None would pay attention to this silent utter, except for Saix showing a look. A…hopeful one.
"Even if you possess the strength, this being cannot be defeated by your hands", Xemnas warns confidently. "Even if memories are lost from you both". Prompto steps forward and calls his gun. "You know you guys like your wordy speeches, and kinda have a bit of superiority complex", he notes, "But all I'm hearing is: "BLAH BLAH BLAH DARKNESS, LIGHT, NOBODIES, YADA YADA".
Xemnas raises a silver brow at the gunner, amused. "Here you guys are saying we'll lose, we can't stop you, but news flash buddy, we gave your boss a big old "screw you" when we survived against THREE armies worth of heartless, and pretty sure Noct and Sora are cleaning house right now", Prompto says with confidence he never had before. Kairi steps forth with him, her eyes glowing with determination. "Prompto's right. I may be a princess of light, but I am also a keyblade master and a guardian of light", she says firmly.
"And so long as I'm still standing with my friends, there is no way I'm going to stand by and watch them be hurt!".
"Damn straight", Axel agrees, calling his chakrams, "Let's skip the chit-chat and see if we can't win this!". With a yell, he throws his burning wheel-shaped weapons at the guest. Then to their shock, the guest calls for the keyblade they wielded during their training and smacks the two burning weapons back at Axel with ease. The wheels were caught expertly by Axel, now reverting them to his keyblade and shouldering it.
"Oh, come on, ANOTHER keyblade wielder on their side?", Prompto groans, getting into his stance. Kairi however looked at the keyblade in the guest's hand and gasped. "Wait…that keyblade, Sora used it before!", she says, remembering him showing her his old key chains. Axel pauses, and then a thought occurs to him, only one person could wield a keyblade thanks to Sora, and feared that this fight may be a repeat of a horrible fight from the past.
"Is that…you, Roxas?", he asks. Axel feared this could be another Dark Riku or Terra-Nort situation, Roxas' body being a vessel for Xehanort. The guest uttered the name of the boy who Axel holds dear, somewhat familiarity in their tone. Saix scoffs, and growls: "No, it's not Roxas, Axel!". Prompto and Kairi took a deep note of how he said their names, strangely as if he was trying to jog something from their guest.
The guest clutches their head, saying the two names that Saix seemed intent on them remembering. Staggering and weaving side to side as if they were about to faint, but then they suddenly rushed towards Axel, screaming. It isn't like a war cry or a scream to get the blood going, but to Kairi, it sounded like a mixture of anguish and rage and pain. It somehow tore her heart apart, like she felt a connection to this person.
Kairi jumps in front of the guest and with Dearly Beloved, slammed her keyblade against their Two Become One. She grunts at the power behind this shadow, despite their smaller frame compared to everyone else here they packed incredible strength. Kairi glares at her with gritting teeth of exertion before the guest faced her and she saw the guest looked almost like herself. A girl…
"W-Who are you?", she asked.
The girl just yells and throws Kairi off her keyblade, forcing the two keyblade wielders to jump back. She would have gone after they had Prompto not suddenly stood between them, gun aimed at her and firing a warning shot at her feet. The nobody jumps back, her stance tense and full of fury while the gunner switches out his normal robotic and goes for the gatling gun.
Kairi and Axel quickly re-join his side, weapons out as Xemnas disappears into a corridor of darkness.
The stakes of the fight had just risen…
*A little bit away*
Rushing unknowingly together down their separate canyons, Sora and Noctis come to a path each and spot their friends in a familiar scene.
Down the road he must travel, Noctis sees in the air is Ventus facing off against the masked boy Vanitas while on the ground floor, Terra's possessed body squared off against Gladiolus and Aqua. On his end, Sora sees his heart's light, Kairi, facing the cloaked girl with Prompto taking careful potshots at the enemy while Axel and Saix dueled in the distance.
Both quickly ran down their paths to join the battle…
A/N:
*Bows* I AM SO SORRY IS A WEEK LATE!
Work obligations took over my life for a week, and when I thought: "I COULD GET THIS DONE ON THURSDAY AND MAKE ANOTHER CHAPTER IF I WORK THROUGH THE FEW DAYS BEFORE SUNDAY!".
…but life said no.
Two fights down, only…a random amount to go! Again, you guys can choose who's fight we'll do next, choose in your reviews please and again, thanks for waiting!
QUESTIONS!
Q1: Thoughts on this chapter?
Q2: Which one was your favourite?
Q3: How were Donald and Goofy in this one?
Q4: Which fight are you excited for most?
Q5: Anyone wanna see Yozora in future?
Q6: Can ANYONE figure out the horseshoe reference is from?
This is probably the most development or action oriented chapter for Donald and Goofy I will ever do. Also to all the writer who read this, have you ever have an idea you wanted to put into a story but when you got that section done you forgot it and regret it? Let me know!
As always, thanks for reading! Stay awesome but most importantly stay safe!
