Final Fantasy XV - Kingdom Hearts
Part 81
Summary: Two warriors of Light, the Chosen King and Keyblade Master, face an unseen Darkness.
*Nobody Team*
The shadows of this colorful yet dark world followed them wherever they went, and where there were shadows, there was heartless.
Prompto had lost count of how many skirmishes they had to take part in and counted way too many close calls to comfortably say they were breezing through this task that laid before them. Despite there only being two varieties of heartless within this dark world, what they lack in diversity they made up numerous numbers. Every clearing they had to fight every shadow variety and with each one they clear; they would find themselves in another again and again.
Truly Lunafreya must be watching over them or her grace blessed his luck to have skilled allies by his side. Without a doubt, Axel is their ace in the hole when the bigger and meaner heartless that popped up before them, the pyro reducing them ashes the very moment it had the nerve to stand before them. Prompto however wouldn't let the guy have the spotlight all the time though, he made damn sure he'd be pulling his weight with her guns and tricks, those gigantic shadows never expected him to blind them and blast them to oblivion.
The only disadvantage he noticed in the team was Roxas and Xion's lack of formal training. Sure he was the last person to give a critique about fighting prowess and skill, but after everything that fell to his feet and all his trials, he could safely, as unfortunate and mean as it may sound, that many of the victorious had to have been possible because of Axel's help or their enemies weren't anything to brag about.
When he wasn't so busy keeping himself from being torn apart by the heartless, the gunner occasionally surveyed his younger friends and couldn't believe just how vast the gap of power between them and the other guardians is staggering. Roxas' style is so wild and relentlessly ferocious it was like his temper manifested into a physical form of keyblades, but as Prompto remembered, his style could also be easily countered by a stronger and much more experienced fighter.
With Xion, he'd easily compare her to Kairi with her attacks mostly sticking with two-handed for maximum strength, but where Kairi's style is refined with grace, experience with a touch of elegance and her strength enough to strike down enemies with just one-handed strikes. Xion is the complete opposite of her. Her strength wasn't even enough to bring down a neo-shadow with extra hits or a short burst of magic, and he sees her robe didn't do her any favors with the cloak getting stepped on.
A massive contrast to how wild and powerful she was when they did fight each other.
Axel likely had noticed it from the very first fight because if he wasn't back to back with Roxas, he was by Xion's side covering her and taunting the bigger threats to him. Prompto knew Axel could be a lethal threat whenever he wanted to get serious, but the display of skill, ferocity and even clever tactics Axel showed in their fights almost convinced him that maybe becoming a keyblade master wasn't as far fetched as they thought for him.
As fortune had smiled on them again, they were able to collect their breaths while traveling down a corridor with the red-haired keyblade wielder leading them on. From what Prompto understood from Axel's explanation, him constantly using the dark corridor (whatever that was) had given him the sense to track down heartless or ward off the darkness from tempting his heart to surrender. Granted most of the more "nobody" spiel went over Prompto's head but if it meant they'd find the heartless and take it down then get back to the others as quickly as possible then he's was cool with it.
The only thing about this world that perplexed him the most was the strange pattern of the heartless. No matter how long they would be in a corridor or a passageway, for whatever reason they never seem to be invaded by the heartless or hell ambushed, but only when they reached the clearing would those monsters show their ugly faces and try their luck at claiming their hearts. He wondered if the heartless were worried about losing numbers or thought fighting in a corridor would be no more help to them than it'd help the guardians.
He lets out a tired huff and made his gun disappear, figuring it'd be okay for him to walk on without a firearm and give his hand a break. Walking in silence with the group, whether it was because of the constant fighting taking their toll on the gang or because truly nobody wanted to talk after what's happened, Prompto took out his camera and started to swipe through the photos in Eos. To try and keep his mind off the tragedy that's becoming sadly easier to accept, he sees through the photos of the remarkable adventure he was a part of.
His smiles slowly becoming fonder and gentle whenever he sees the good times they had, from one photo showing Sora and Noctis fishing with the latter a fish the size of Donald and Sora with a makeshift spear. Showing off his islander methods and bagging as much fish as the king of fishing, it was a moment where the two bonded and their light-hearted competition was something he wanted to capture. Another photo made him snicker and grin like an idiot.
Showing Aqua was casually sitting cross-legged upon Gladiolus's back while he was doing push-ups, a book in her hand and looking both very invested in the book while her cheeks were rosy red, and a girlish smile adorned her face. Gladiolus' expression was one of a smug grin and determination to show off, a moment where the two thought they were alone and in a way bonding together in peace. This was before they left the Galdin Quay and after setting up camp, him being the sneaky photographer that anyone from the paparazzi would be proud of.
The next photo is probably one of his favorites. It showed himself with Kairi taking a selfie together during a hunt, the two of them in perfect sync, and both performing as awesome as they could. He remembered how they worked in perfect harmony to take down one of those imperial machines, her cutting down its legs while he shot out its weapons and after she flipped and slashed its body at once, she landed beside him and joined in his selfie with a peace sign and wild smile.
Even before they were separated from their friends, their synergy was so comparable to his brothers. A real friend who was on the same wavelength as him.
"What's that thing?".
He lets out a much louder yelp than he would have liked, throwing his camera up in the air and juggled it accidentally to catch it. Prompto managed to clutch his treasure to his chest and turn his head to an innocent Xion looking at him like she didn't almost give him a heart attack. He pants and turns ahead of him to see a smirking Axel and an equally curious Roxas looking at the device in his hands. Prompto nervously chuckles as Xion peers over his shoulder and at the camera, like it was something from a dream or something.
"It's a camera…", Prompto answers. Roxas raised a brow and walks towards him. Looking at the sleek and small device, he frowned. "This? But it so small. And doesn't even print out pictures", he says, baffled. "You're thinking of a polaroid", explains Prompto holding his up, "Mine's a little more advanced and takes real high-quality pics". "Camera? Polaroid? Pics?", Xion repeats, confused. Prompto looks at her while Roxas frowns, likely remembering she probably has little worldly experiences than he did, however limited.
"This thing takes pictures", Prompto explains casually and simply, standing near her, "Watch". He aims it at Prompto, and the nobody of Sora smiles. He crosses both arms and flashes both friends backhanded two-finger salute while sticking out his tongue. A quick flash of light brightens up the corridor and then to the awe of Xion, an image of Roxas appears in the small screen of Prompto's camera. "Roxas! You're in the thingy!", she exclaims, pointing at it.
"That's just a picture", assures Prompto with a silly smile, "It's made to make memories of events and activities to look back on". Xion looked at it as Roxas joins her side while Prompto shows them several more photos of Eos and their journey through it. Some made them giggle and gasp in awe at the sights of the landscape, the team, and some of the exotic foods made by Ignis. Prompto telling them why he took the photos while at the same time explaining the tricks behind them.
He even showed a few of Axel much to their delight, Roxas remarking playfully at the more embarrassing photos while Xion had this very wide-eyed and awe look. Ahead of them Axel just smirked softly at them, grateful for Prompto's effort to cheer things up. "So, there's one with Aqua being a total boss-
"WAIT! WHAT WAS THAT LAST ONE!?", Xion squeaks loudly, almost grabbing the camera. Surprised by the outburst, both boys looked at her as she stares at the screen like she was mentally trying to change it. Curious, Prompto swipes back to the image Xion went crazy for and lets an "oh" out of his lips. It was showing Lunafreya bidding her two pups a sad farewell to her two dogs, Umbra and Pryna, both one their backs while she rubbed their tummies.
"Those are Luna's dogs. The black's Umbra and the white ball of fluff is Pryna", explains Prompto with a nostalgic smile. Xion squealed in delight, grinning adorably at the dogs. "They look sooo cute! And fluffy too!", she gushed, beside herself. Roxas placed his hands on his hips, surprised. "You've never shown THAT interest in dogs before", Roxas says, "I always thought you preferred cats". Xion pouts and crosses her arms, almost childishly. "They're mean…one scratched my nose once and hissed at me!".
Axel snickered, remembering where her hate for cats was first discovered. A mission in Twilight Town, she encountered a rather feral cat during their search. Being Xion, who liked anything fluffy, she tried to pet it innocently. Sadly, the cat didn't like her invading its space, so not only did it hiss, rather aggressively at her, but when she leaned in it swiped its claws at her nose and left three rather nasty claw marks on her face.
He remembered how horrified and scared the poor girl was to the point she hid behind him when he checked on her. He did have to scare off the cat with a quick burst of fire and make it scurry off into the alleyway, but the girl was crying the whole time. She couldn't figure out why something so small and cut would hurt her and thought she was a monster while he healed her claw marks. After promising to get her more ice cream, he tried to explain that cats were, all in all, just ungrateful jerks who liked being jerks.
And then they met a dog and she affirmed dogs were superior to cats.
Prompto smiles at the girl's enthusiasm for the pups, and then she turns to him. "Can we see them when we save the world?", she begs. "Sure, pretty sure they'll love the extra tummy rubs", he answers. Xion's eyes sparkled with excitement, she practically glowed in the dark world and then jogged to Axel. "Let's hurry then! There are puppies to belly rub!", she exclaims, running ahead with Axel chasing her while calling her.
"…I think we made a mistake", Prompto says with a weak chuckle. Roxas laughs and pats his back before they too started to run after Xion and Axel.
Arriving at one more clearing where there were no more roads waiting for them to traverse and explore, but once all four stepped into the area, a violet barrier shoots up behind them and bars their path. Slowly forming within the center of the area, a swirl of darkness and a violet pool appears before them. Two muscular arms shot out of the ground, slowly pulling itself from its prison. A large darkside pulls itself out of the pool, towering the four guardians with dark red eyes and veins of violet adorned its face.
"Think this is the one?", Prompto grunts as the darkside towered them, fists raised. "Hope so…alrighty then, let's get to work!", Axel says, calling his chakrams.
The heartless throws a large fist at the guardians, forcing them to split up to evade the attack. Its giant fist pummels the ground, shattering it and sending tremors through the land. Roxas leaps towards it with a yell, keyblades in hand, and swinging them quickly. The darkside raised its other hand to grab for the boy, only to be stopped by a ball of light flashing before it's evil eyes, blinding it temporarily. Roxas then crosses his keyblades across his chest and opening his arms up to cut off the hand of the beast.
With one arm remaining, the darkside staggered backward silently as it always does, but Xion and Axel get behind its legs and together slammed their keyblades into its limbs. Smashing the joints and breaking its stance, causing the heartless to fall on its back with a heavy thud. Prompto plucks out a grenade, specially made by Cindy of course, and yells for Roxas while he remained in the air. He flings the grenade to the boy, Roxas dismissing one keyblade to catch it and with a front flip he flings the grenade onto the heartless' face.
He then aims Oblivion at the grenade and shoots a ball of fire at it, which causes a massive explosion and enshrouds the heartless in fire. The body quickly evaporates into nothing but miasma and smoke, but a false heart made of violet crystal flutters out of the heartless' chest and slowly into the air. It shifts into a beam of darkness and flies back down the path Roxas and company came from, likely back to the door where Sora's party waits.
"Well…that was easy", Axel remarks, dismissing his keyblade, "Was expecting something a little more…tougher".
Prompto nods in agreement, although he felt relieved. At least they didn't have to waste more energy and stamina on the heartless, but that raised more worries about their predicament, and possibly a growing concern of his. With the heartless only attacking them in the clearings and now this very sub-par threat dealt with so easily, it gnawed on his mind that maybe this whole ordeal was just a big-time waster Xehanort conjured up to try and delay them from stopping him.
Or worse, is the old man only playing with them to give the party false hope that they may have a chance to make a come back from this?
"Let's go back to Sora and the others", Xion says, "Maybe Aqua and Ignis already dealt with their heartless". She then beams excitedly, "And the sooner we save the world, we can go play with Umbra and Pryna!". With her statement laid bare, she excitedly runs back to Sora with Axel yelling for her to stop and wait while Roxas chases after them. With a smile and hope renewing in his heart, Prompto chases after them…
*Aqua's Party*
"And that makes, what the eleventh clearing is done?", Gladiolus asks, hefting his sword on his shoulder, "I swear these corridors are getting longer…".
"It's a possibility that the darkness is making more and more pathways to further delay or misguide us", Aqua says dismissing her keyblade whilst looking around. Their journey to slay the heartless that held back the guardians had taken a much more bumpy road than anyone would have liked, the dark world seemingly turning against them and halting any signs of progress with the team. Heartless becoming more numerous and each fight she felt was taking more time away from them.
The only upside to their situation was the fact the heartless pose no threat to anyone among her party, with all four of them at the peak of their strengths easily decimating the heartless with ease and clearing the area was as easy for her as it is to breathe. The problem within however was the seemingly endless dead ends and distractions that held no reward for challenging it and passing through.
Only thanks to her experience in the dark realm she's able to lead the party to safer roads and detect where the darkness gathered up. Granted it isn't perfect and many times she would be stopped in her tracks after another assessment of their position, but at the very least she had the others to break her out of an ambush or worse. She turns to see Ventus with hands behind his head and a low groan escapes his mouth. "Ugh…how many more do we gotta do? I've never done so much fighting before…".
"What, you tired already?", teases Terra. The boy pouts at him while Aqua giggled and Gladiolus smirks. "How aren't you tired?", asks the boy. "Oh come on, this is a piece of cake compared to what Eraqus put us through!", argues the older man, "Sides, didn't you train with Aqua and Gladio for a year?". Ventus rolls his eyes before Gladiolus pats his back and walks past him, saying: "Yeah he did…could learn a thing or two from him, ya know".
"Pfft, excuse me?", questions Terra, "Last time I checked only one of us needs a shield. Real skilled warriors don't need a shield". At this Gladiolus smugly remarked: "Real warriors don't get their asses handed to them by a woman dodging them to the point of exhaustion". Aqua snickers, remembering their spar years ago when she won through having more stamina and grace than Terra simply smashing everything in sight.
"…least I didn't throw up afterward", Terra adds with a smirk to his sister. Aqua blushes and scratched her neck while the other two laughed quietly to themselves. "But seriously, you're the one who could learn a few things". Gladiolus folds his arms as they walked on ahead of Aqua and Ventus, continuing their little argument on skills though without any pettiness or even anything negative. Much to Aqua's delight, the very moment those two started to talk and fight together, it was like they were two old friends who hadn't caught up in months.
A giant relief came to Aqua when she saw whatever resentment or grudge Gladiolus held to Terra had disappeared throughout their adventure, the two men making light comments on each other's styles and skills while bragging to the other about their feats. A brotherly rivalry was formed between them and with each fight, they would compete for the highest skills and/or who'd kill the strongest heartless within their fight, and while she did hold some reservations to their competitions possibly getting to worrying degrees and their egos may put them in a bind, she withheld her concerns.
Part of her did wonder if Gladiolus was being this friendly to Terra out respect for her sometimes, but if it means he can keep whatever grievances aside until they finished the war then she couldn't ask for any more than that. Plus, she was rather surprised by how well Terra had taken to her and Gladiolus being an item, in fact, better and way more jolly, if a bit teasingly, more than Ventus did. He chuckled and even teased she must have been acting like a high school girl during the first few months of being in a relationship, and probably blushed like a tomato every time Gladiolus did something affectionate.
Begrudgingly she didn't deny he was right.
She wisely kept the more intimate details to herself…and after threatening to perform a terrifying interrogation to Rikku, Ventus kept his mouth shut as well.
Searching through the labyrinth in peace, the master amongst them tried to sense for Xehanort within the dark world, wondering if he had succeeded in whatever mad plan he conjured since acquiring the X-Blade. If what he says about the old legends regarding the first great war, then with the X-Blade all things were at his mercy, for him to recreate the worlds as he saw fit or worse, destroy the realm of light and let the darkness rule overall with him as an overlord.
But those goals seemed too lofty for him and closer to Maleficent's goals. The young master tries to understand whatever madness possessed the man who once was comparable to her old master, trying to glean an answer from her encounters with the lord of darkness. But nothing was making any link to the man who brought the war to them, nor could she even comprehend the reasoning behind this attempt to ruin all worlds for the sake of his curiosity.
Not even Terra knew what his end game was, after asking him earlier in their search. Did anyone within the new organization know about his main goal? Or like people such as Larxene, were they along for the ride, or did they have their purpose that was on the same road Xehanort is taking? So many questions lingered on her mind and no answers were to be found, furthering her frustrations towards the man…and her anger.
Flashes of the moment where a pure heart had to die for them to survive, the saddened smile on her face and anguish that wrecked her friends' hearts, and then to learn another innocent heart had been extinguished, seeing her former apprentice in absolute agony. Aqua truly didn't think it was possible for her to feel any more hate for that man, but he proved her wrong. But that wasn't what she needed, her anger had clouded her judgment and had caused her to make mistakes in the past.
She kept telling herself that if she could at least take a few pages out of Noctis and his brother's books and just simply pummel the old man with every fiber of anger in her, then it suffice.
"So Ven…this Rikku, what's she like?", Terra asks, smiling. The boy blushes and stammers a few details, mostly how free-spirited she is, her playful nature, and just how spunky and sporadic she was with him. Then he added how flirty and teasing she could be, which made Terra face him. "What do you mean? Just regular teases or what?", he asks, genuinely curious. "I mean she's…ya know…teasing?".
"She also wears a bikini twenty-four/seven", Gladiolus says with a roll of his eyes, "I mean so does that Yuna lass…". Terra raises a brow at the man and looks back to Ventus' hotly glowing face before he chuckles. "So she's teasing you with eye candy?", he remarks. This makes Ventus squeak and looked away, called out while Aqua giggled at the teasing. Terra sighed and rubbed his neck as they continued on their search, "I can't believe you two managed to get together while I was gone…just as well master didn't know about it".
"What, your master would've had an issue with all this?", Gladiolus asks. "Of course! Do you know how protective he was of Aqua when she started asking about boys and started to grow up?", Terra laughs, "I swear he took as to Land of Departure for the sole reason because it was an empty world and isolated from villages and cities. All to keep his daughter safe from boys!". Aqua pouts and crosses her arms with a huff. "Now that you mentioned it, whenever I asked him he'd tell me all sorts of ridiculous things about boys…that I stupidly believed".
"Oh really? Even that cooties talk?", Ventus asked, blush gone and in its place was the smile he is known for as Aqua rubbed her shoulder self-consciously. "…yes…", she sighed, then faced everyone. "He told me, and I quote", she starts, then clears his voice and putting on her best deep male voice, says: " "If a boy kisses you, cooties will spread and lessen your chances of becoming a keyblade master", and I, being stupid and naïve, believed every word he said".
"Cooties? You seriously believed cooties was a real thing that could damp your chances of being a more useful keyblade wielder?", Gladiolus says, trying his hardest not to laugh at his girlfriend's naivety. "I was seven! A-And in my defense the only boys I ever grew up with were those jerks in my village and Terra and Ven!", she argued defensively, "Plus, those boys were always trying to kiss me…ugh".
"Village?", Terra asks as he and Ventus looked at their sister. She turned to the confused, before slowly realizing something she hadn't thought about before. They never knew where she had originally been before coming to the castle. Now that she thought on it, she didn't know where Terra came from either and while they had an understanding of Ventus' origins, vague as they were, they didn't know much about his world either.
With a warm smile, after Gladiolus shot her an encouraging nod, she says: "My homeworld. Before I came to live at the castle, I grew up on a farm with my mother and the animals". "You were a farm girl?", Ventus asked, excitedly, "No way!". "Huh, weird you never brought it up before", Terra says with a shrug, "But then again we barely interacted with each other when we were brought to the castle, only talked when we trained".
"…where did you come from?", Aqua asks softly. Terra frowns and looks to the darkened sky, his expression unreadable and even forlorn. With a shake and a sigh, he says: "I don't remember…it's been so long since I thought about it". Aqua gently squeezes his arm comfortingly, but the warrior just smiled in good nature. "It's okay, if I don't remember it, then it wasn't important to me", he says casually, "Home is where the heart is after all".
Aqua nods in agreement with Ventus, but as they were about to continue the banter they had missed, Gladiolus whistles. They looked ahead to see the next clearing before them and much like the other party, standing there before the guardians is another darkside looming over them except the veins on its face were dark blue and veinier like it was pushing its body to the very limit of its mental fortitude. Aqua glares at it as she calls her keyblade, sensing the false heart within it, the key to opening the door to Riku and the king.
Yet before she could issue a plan, she sees Gladiolus marching towards it, greatsword in hand with Terra marching alongside him. "No time to waste, let's bring this down fast", Gladiolus orders. "Right behind you", Terra grunts as he calls for keyblade. Together the warriors ran down the path towards the darkside, blades out. The heartless fires a ray of darkness at the two, but with his shield in hand, Gladiolus steps in front of Terra and runs into the beam, holding it.
Terra then jumps over the shield and runs on the arm of the heartless, swinging his blade with one arm. Each slash creates a flash of light that cuts and cuts through the heartless' limb with each strike, stopping its beam and allowing Gladiolus to rush on. The older warrior then jumps forward with both hands grabbing the giant sword while Terra reaches the head of the darkside and at once, both warriors cleave through the heartless with the strength that split the walls surrounding the group.
At once they both land on their feet, standing behind the decimated heartless for a moment before the body pops into smoke, only the false crystalized heart lingering in the air was all that remained. It condenses into a beam and soars back to the door, leaving the four guardians. "One down, more to go", Gladiolus remarks, giving Terra an arm bump. "Let's not keep the others waiting, need to show who's the strongest after all", bragged Terra.
"…you two do know you've still got me, Sora, Kairi, Riku AND Noctis to compete with, yes?", Aqua asks deadpanned. Both men glanced at each other, remembering the feats and skills of the five and the massive gap between them.
"…sixth strongest", Gladiolus affirms.
"Yeah, sixth is good", agreed Terra.
"Good", Aqua states, "Off we go then, back to the others!". All four raced back to the door.
*Ignis' Party*
Spinning in the air with daggers in hand, Ignis whirled towards the darkside and buzzed across its neck, decapitating it with the force of a hundred runaway trucks. His attack was so strong he managed to lop off the first five inches of the walls that surrounded the trio of guardians. Landing on his feet as the heartless' body disappeared, he pants as the false he does the same thing as all the other parties had witnessed and then fly towards the door.
"That's done…", he pants, pushing up his glasses while Donald and Goofy joined his side, "Hopefully the others have finished with their own searches".
"I sure hope so…Mickey and Riku are probably just as tired as we are", Goofy says worriedly. "Then we shouldn't be standing around here, let's go back to them and help!", Donald commands. "After a small respite first, let us take our time for now and once we're certain we shall not collapse on the way to our companions then we shall make for it", Ignis stresses wisely. The very last thing the team needed for anyone to be too exhausted to stand up.
Flicking his wrists to dismiss his weapons, Ignis senses that the others had successfully exterminated the heartless that barred their way and judging from the strengths of their hearts he sensed none had been far too worn out or harmed at all. Good fortune at long last, but how long this good luck will last is up for debate. Though he feared it may lean to being a very short-lived period, given their situation. Much of what he theorized had started to become more and more likely cases as their search for the keys progressed.
The darkside was probably the only heartless that were chosen to protect the keys to the door, and despite them being one of the strongest pureblood breeds of heartless, this one proved to be less than a challenge and more akin to a minor inconvenience. He thought with only himself and King Mickey's royal friends they should have had a hellish time trying to even reach the first half of their search, yet not only were their interruptions minimal at best and at worst, but they were fewer than there should have been.
With the others being nowhere near the state any enemy would have preferred them to be in and considering Xehanort has yet to commence the final phase of his plan and reap the spoils of his work, it all started to appear to Ignis as nothing more than time-wasting. There is no other use of this method nor is there any other way anyone could look at their situation. Did something go wrong for the old fool or was perhaps all part of his grand plan?
Whatever the case is, victory was not anywhere closer to the party and should further delays be had then it will be further away from the realm of light and closer to the darkness.
As they jogged through the dark corridor, his thoughts went back to his king and the two people who became precious to his heart, and the tragedy that the old man had forced upon them. Clenching his fists in anger and silent fury, he broke forth into darkness enhanced sprint, bypassing Donald and Goofy.
"Forget what I said and hurry! We're not leaving those three on their own any longer!", ordered the advisor of the king. Donald and Goofy both nodded at once and broke forth into a speed that only managed to trail behind Ignis by two feet as they all dashed down the corridor to their friends.
*Sora's Party*
The very second the door vanished into light, revealing practically a sea of heartless of every pureblood that lied in wait for them, Sora and his two companions burst forth like divine forces of light.
Bathed in light, Sora tore his way through the heartless in his Ultima Form while Kairi in her Element Form rained down arrows with her bow and Noctis took to the skies with his Armiger and keyblade. They practically ripped their ways through the heartless like they were hurricanes of blades ripping through paper, practically dwarfing the numbers with sheer superior power. No time would be wasted, the second they were on the other side of the door Sora sensed his two fellow master's lights growing weaker and faint.
"Where are they!?", Noctis yells as two royal arms plunged into the heads of two darkside heartless. Sora surveys the ocean of shadows before him and sees in the distance was a single beam of blue light hitting Kingdom Hearts, the beam came from a single mountain with a veil of light around the mountain. Fighting around the mountain in the sky was none other than a darkness enhanced Riku slashing and destroying heartless left and right with what the boy could only describe as pure abandonment of all self-preservation and desperation to claim as many as he could be he fell.
"Up ahead!", roars Sora as Ultima brings down six neo-shadows at once, "I can see Riku!". Noctis yells in response and practically blazes towards Riku, surrounded in his Armiger to slash the heartless. With Riku's safety left in the hands of the king, Kairi and Sora started to thin out the numbers together, his blade cleaving and cutting down the monsters while Kairi's arrows plunge and pierced their dark forms.
All the pent-up anger, the grief they took onto their hearts and hate developed to Xehanort is unleashed upon these creatures of darkness, teeth gritted and hand clenching the weapons as tight as possible and anger in their eyes instilled fear into these ferocious monsters of shadows. But even in the whirlpool of their anger and pain, they were in sync in perfect harmony. Sora's slash arcs cleaved through the ones behind them and Kairi would strike down more in front of them, then when she needed cover Sora would be right there to blast them away.
If Sora needed to focus on a particularly tougher force of the dark Kairi would strike down every single heartless that had the false hope of coming near them. Placing five arrows on her bow, glowing in golden light, Kairi fires off fives rays of straight light the pierces through the shadows and those stupid enough to stand behind them, clearing ahead of her while Sora's keyblade is thrown in a disk motion, cleaving and slicing through the shadows while the swords whirl around the two masters to keep them safe.
Two darkside heartless bring their fists down to them, making Sora grab Kairi's hand and propel them both into the air to dodge the fists. In the air, Kairi flips upside down and fires an arrow each to the darksides and pierces their foreheads, destroying them. Sora's keyblade spins back to him and with an effortless catch, he and Kairi spin around in the air, together with glowing in Kairi's pure light. Reverting to their normal forms, Kairi and Sora both grabbed their keyblades and held them above their heads.
"RAIN OF LIGHT!", they both cried.
Firing two golden beams from their keyblades into the darkened cloudy skies, a shower of light in the form of light rains down upon the ocean of shadows. Like arrows from angels above, the light pierces and struck down hundreds of the shadows, practically obliterating the world of shadow below the two warriors of light. And as a bonus, the light phases through the flying king without so much as being acknowledged by the king.
As the rain of light destroys the heartless below the two, Noctis' Armiger finishes off any of those flying purebloods as he blasted towards Riku. The silver-haired master cuts down another trio of neo-shadow before he is punched in the back a darkside from behind, sending him crashing into the mountain and being planted into it. Grunting in pain, Riku opens one eye to glare defiantly at the darkside who had the nerve to strike him be eviscerated by Noctis' Raksha blade.
"What took you so long?", Riku grunts out as Noctis yanked him out of the wall and flies them both up to the top of the mountain. "A lot of shit happened, kinda in a rush here!", Noctis says hastily as his Armiger hacks away the attack heartless and the ones chasing after them. Riku looks to see his two best friends practically rain death upon their enemies, shielded by Kairi's light as the numbers of shadows begin to thin out and even sensed the darkness growing weaker.
But all he focused on is the two of them, seeing Kairi back to normal and Sora in a much better state compared to himself. A deep sigh of relief escapes him as he relaxed and slumped into Noctis, his body at its limit, and finally ready to accept that long-needed rest as the king does all the fighting for him.
Once Noctis reaches the top of the mountain, he passes through the veil like a breath of warmth washes over him. Landing on his feet and letting his Armiger cease, he throws Riku's arm over his shoulder and holds him by the waist of his pants and carries him into the center. There he sees Mickey standing there with his keyblade pointing to Kingdom Hearts, looking like he had just survived the worst fight of his life, and judging from the light surged around him, the king feared even the fierce warrior was on his final legs.
Only when he helped Riku to sit down does Mickey finally turn to him, exhaling softly when he sees the two keyblade wielders were alive. "Noct…good to see you", he breathes tiredly. Noctis nods in agreement to the mouse king relieved that at least two more keyblade wielders were still here. Speaking of which, he turns slightly to see Kairi and Sora gracefully land before them and run over to Riku.
"Riku!", gasped Sora as he and Kairi slide to his sides. "Just hang on, I'll heal you up!", Kairi assures, placing both hands on his shoulders and immediately starts to heal him. The oldest boy sits up properly, glanced at both friends, and then to their surprise, pulls them both into a very tight hug. They froze from the sudden embrace, but this hug had turned into something neither knew they needed and immediately embraced him as well.
"I…I thought I lost you two…", Riku confesses, almost struggling to get his words out. This confession struck their hearts, two faces appearing in their minds as they held Riku tighter. "Riku…Naminé and Luna…t-they…", Kairi whimpers. The silver-haired master holds them tighter, affirming their words and through the connection of their hearts tells them he knew. Even Mickey couldn't keep his sorrow hidden for long when he glanced at Noctis, who looked away.
"Noct…I-
"It's ok…Sora's…well, we might be able to pull something once we finish off Xehanort", grunts the king. He turns to Mickey and says: "Where's the keyhole and the old bastard?". At this, Mickey frown as he turns to Kingdom Hearts. His eyes showed anger and frustration as his keyblade kept the beam connecting between him and the darkened heart-shaped moon. "He's gained full control over Kingdom Hearts…", reveals the king as the island trio joined the two.
"But…where is he? And if he's gotten full control over it, then how come…nothing happened?", Kairi asks, "Whatever he intended to do hasn't happened yet, has it?".
"Not yet…", Riku sighed, and then reveals what happened.
*Earlier*
"XEHANORT!", bellows Riku, flying towards him with darkness enshrouding his form while Mickey leaped towards him.
The old master merely turns casually to face the two as the world begins to bathe in darkness, showers of dark meteors fall from the corrupted Kingdom Hearts and destroying the world around them. Riku stabbed to the man as Mickey channels his magic within his keyblade. Xehanort repels Riku's attack with no effort or even a fraction of his true strength with a single swipe of the X-Blade, throwing the boy back to the ground.
"Ultima!", cries Mickey.
"Stopzia!", answers Xehanort, entrapping Mickey in a glyph in the form of a clock. Frozen in time, the mouse king was helpless to stop Xehanort from striking him back to the platform where the terrible fight between Kairi and Sora had taken place.
Both masters fell to the ground, wounded, weary, and defeated as the world is shrouded in darkness. Riku lifts his head to Xehanort as the old man nearly completes his goal, the fate of all worlds would soon be in his hand. Riku forces himself to his feet, turning his head to see two rays of golden light fly towards him and Mickey. But before he could say a word, Mickey quickly aims his keyblade and fires a large gold beam from his keyblade and straight for Xehanort.
Blinded by his victory, it took the old man too long to realize his foes from the realm of light and was struck by Mickey. He lets a gasp of the shock out as a large dark pinkish globe appears from his chest, then bathed in light as the globe shines with it.
Riku and the king are shielded by the deceased Oracle's light just as a wave of shadows and darkness washes over them.
*Present*
"After that, Mickey's been keeping Kingdom Hearts locked with Xehanort trapped inside it, and…well, you can probably tell I've been having my hands full…", Riku grunts as Kairi finishes her healing.
"So does that mean Xehanort's trapped forever?", Sora asked hopefully with a frown. Riku shook his head. "No. We've opened a portal within him because of his ability to traverse space and time", he explains, "This trap is only holding him back". Mickey nodded with a grunt, "And sooner or later he'll be able to escape it. All I can do is hold him here", says the mouse king. Noctis and Sora turned to the portal device (the pink globe) with the darkened moon looming over them all. "…can we use the portal too?", Sora asks.
"…yes", Mickey reveals just as the rest of their friends finally arrived.
They are given a quick rundown of the situation, and after some brief reunions and healing, Mickey speaks up. "Right now, this world is on the brink of destruction, and without closing the keyhole we can only hold the heartless back", Mickey explains. "Huh? Wait, you and Riku didn't find it?", Prompto asks, confused. Riku aims his hand to the ground and with a light grunt, blows the dust off the ground and reveals the giant keyhole. Except much to the previous sealers of the keyhole, there is a dark barrier shielding it.
"Oh, we did…but that old man made damn sure we can't do anything with it", Riku curses, "If we wouldn't die to him bringing the world to the breaking point, he'd make sure we'd die trying to protect this".
"And if a heartless touches it, the barrier will break and this world's heart will be consumed", Mickey says. "But if we beat Xehanort, we can save this world?", Ignis asks. Both masters nodded. Looking at the portal, Sora steps up. "I'll take care of Xehanort", he says firmly. The team looked at him, seeing him gently smile and nod. "This is my fault…so it's my problem to fix", he argues but then Noctis steps forward.
"Like hell you are, I've got a score to settle with that son of a bitch", the king argued. Sora opens his mouth to counter him but Noctis gestures the portal with a thumb. "I'll race you to him, first one to reach him gets the kill", he challenges. Sora raises a brow as the king smirks cockily at him. "Okay then…it's a race", agreed Sora. "Sora, Noct…", Mickey says, "You two…".
"We've got this Mickey, if we can take Ardyn then the old man is just one more tough boss to get through", Noctis says confidently. Sora nodded in full agreement, and without a word, they both walked towards the portal before anyone could say a word or try to stop them. But as they marched, slowly joining their side were their companions, on Sora's end was Kairi, Riku, Donald, and Goofy while on Noctis' is Prompto, Ignis, Gladiolus and finally Aqua. Both looked at their friends, not a single trace of hesitation or fear. Instead playfulness.
"Kairi", Sor starts but Kairi gives him a fake stern smile. "If you think I'm letting you go on without me, you've another thing coming buster!", she says. Taking his hand, giving him a true smile that had been vacant from her wonderful face for far too long, she says: "Wherever one of us go, we all go". "Girl's right", Prompto says, patting Noctis' shoulder playfully, "We can't let you guys have all the fun!".
"Sides, you two would be useless without us!", cheekily says Donald with Goofy chuckling. "Without a doubt, after all", Ignis says with a friendly smile, "Do you honestly think we'd risk losing you two?". "If you're gonna bring Luna and Naminé back, then you've gotta be alive for that to happen", Riku reminds with a brotherly smile. "And there is no way in HELL we're gonna explain to Luna why you went and died on her!", Gladiolus laughs.
Sora and Noctis smiled at them, then looking at the warm smile adorned on Aqua. It changes into a surprisingly cocky smirk and with a smug look, she says: "I'm not going to miss out on seeing my apprentices wiping the floor with Xehanort". She turns to the portal with a strong and resolute look and then says with all confidence and determination within her heart. "More than that, this time we won't lose anyone else".
All ten fixed their gaze on the portal, and after one final moment of peace before plunging into their most dangerous battle yet, the keyblade wielders called their divine weapon and the five of them opened the portal, teleporting to the final battleground.
Once their final hopes disappear to decide the fate of all worlds, the remaining guardians all turned to the rising pillars of heartless looming around the veil, keyblade called. "Mickey, can you keep this up?", Axel asks as he eyes the heartless.
"For as long we need, be careful!", pleads the mouse king.
"Gotcha! Alrighty! Let's pick up the slack!", Axel yells. The five guardians charged towards the heartless as the veil grows weaker. Their final hopes lie with the true guardians of light…
*?*
When the light disappears, the party opens their eyes to find themselves in a world…not at all what they expected.
Instead of a desolate battleground devoid of all life, a realm of pure darkness, or even a platform in space like where Sora and Kairi trained with Aqua, it looked like a normal world Sora would have explored at some point in his journey. A large town stood before them with buildings clustered together and growing higher and higher until they reached as high as they could with a large building towering over the gang.
In the middle of an ocean, there were other islands with near-identical buildings that could have been replicas for all they knew with sky carriages connecting them. There are windmills all over the islands and ahead of them, several flowers in little boxed gardens with large patches of green and trees before them, the ground is made of white stone with tribal paintings on them but were unknown to the gang.
"Where the hell are we now?", Gladiolus asks, looking around.
"Got me…Sora?", Riku asks.
"Nope…no clue about this one", confesses the chosen wielder. Prompto frowns, not liking being in a world not even Sora had visited before. Then as his blue eyes wandered around, he spots a rather familiar emblem planted on the large building. "Uh Aqua? Does that look familiar to you?", he asks, pointing at the emblem. Aqua follows his hand and gasps in surprise. Stamped into the large building are the same emblem holding the straps on her chest, the same one Terra and Ventus carried and the same for her master's old keyblade chain.
"That's…our emblem", she says, placing a hand on it, "B-But how?".
"Gee…this world sure is beautiful and mysterious", Goofy hummed.
"Admire and wonder about it ANOTHER time!", Donald chastises, "We're not here for sightseeing!".
"Duck's right…we've got a score to settle…", Noctis grunts, stepping forward, "Let's get a move on".
Agreeing with Donald and Noctis, the rest of the party walked towards the town. Crossing the small port into the main town, it didn't long for them to realize the incredible silence in this large world, nary a soul nor heart. All eyes looked around for any local or resident of this world, maybe hoping that one of them could point them to Xehanort's location, maybe even insight to this world's history or even the name of the town.
But no.
"Sure is pretty quiet here…", Prompto remarks, "Are other worlds usually this…empty?".
"Sometimes but…not THIS empty", Sora answers. Noctis turns to his advisor, already looking like he was trying to sense the residents of this world. "I cannot detect any darkness here…it is as if we are the sole inhabitants of this world". Kairi frowns, but then turns to the right and sees Xehanort just walking around a corner. Before she calls out the others to his location, Sora then sees the old man walking down the street.
"There!", he yells.
Quickly he and Noctis chase after, but they stopped in front of a flight of stairs. Atop of them is Xehanort again, and when the others joined the two, the one the boys chased is now standing there. But he is flickering and twitching, almost akin to a glitch in a system, a blank expression adorned his face. Even the one ahead of them is an exact copy of it. "The hell is going on here?", Gladiolus asks gruffly, not liking this.
Then the Xehanort ahead of them changes entirely in front of their very eyes. One quick shimmer and suddenly before them is armored. Wearing a black suit of armor with red outlines and a black and silver mask with spikes. The greaves are silver with red outlines, and their gauntlets are red and serrated. Its boots are silver and red with high heels. Over this suit of armor, it wears a dark purple tunic decorated with red and two black belts around their waist.
"Oh give me a break, Xehanort's got keyblade armor too?", Prompto groans.
"Why wouldn't he?", Kairi asks with disdain, "He's a master too". But then she gasps when the Xehanort, who was idle and glitchy before them, turned into the same armored figure as the one who stared down the gang. She raised her head and says: "Guys…". Some raised their heads to see more of the armored Xehanort's looming over them, and from behind rising from the waters were even more of them.
Slowly surrounding the ten is a total of twelve armored Xehanorts, hovering around the last hopes of the worlds. "Are these the organization?", Noctis asks, "Cause if Ardyn is hiding in one of those suits I swear to the Astrals…".
"Whatever they are, they're not going to stop us", Aqua says, summoning her keyblades as the others replicate her action, "Get ready!". As the twelve armored figures hovered around them, calling weapons familiar to those of Xehanort's true organization, the guardians split off going after the replicas.
The great battle to decide the fate of all worlds had begun…
A/N:
Really sorry this is late, I just wasn't getting anywhere with what I wanted and didn't want to rush it either so sorry. Anyways, here we are! The battle against the old coot who started it all! Who will survive? Who will win? And what other tricks does the old man have in store for the heroes?
Only time will tell~
Sorry the fights were super short but again this is supposed to be a more laxed chapter, because trust me…even MORE fights are coming.
Questions!:
Q1: Thoughts on this chapter?
Q2: Bonding times? Which was your favourite?
Q3: Explanations done well?
Q4: What did you think of the Eos Team's part?
Q5: Excited for the climax? (Kinda)
Q6: What do you wanna see next?
Q7: Xion and puppies? Make it a thing?
As always, big thanks for reading! Stay awesome but more importantly stay safe!
