Everyone seemed to like the fight scene against Vanitas in the last chapter. That's great. But I bet you're all ready for another fight scene now. Time for Kairi to show us what she's got.
But first, a word from the game's protagonist.
Sora plunged down, diving deeper inside himself. His memories of these dives into his heart were always hazy and vague during his waking hours, but he remembered in his dreams. And these visits were always different and unique.
But a few things remained constant.
He spotted the bright stained-glass glowing through the darkness, Sora approaching it fast. He twisted in midair, letting himself land lightly on his feet. He already knew the colorful design. He knew it showed himself on Destiny Islands, portraits of Riku, Kairi, Donald, and Goofy joining him. But he only spared the beautiful image a moment's notice.
He was looking for someone.
Sora closed his eyes. He wasn't alone. No matter what it looked like, he wasn't alone in this place. There were others within his heart. Waiting. He needed to find them.
Without moving a muscle, he reached out for them. Roxas. Ventus, The black-haired girl. He reached for them and silently called to their hearts. He reached for the connections between his heart and others. Faint whispers filled his ears. And when he felt something shift, Sora opened his eyes.
A short distance away from the edge of his stained-glass platform, close enough that he could easy cross it with an air slide or by gliding, was another platform. The stained-glass image was mostly green, but Sora couldn't make out much about the design at his current angle. He would need to be higher or closer. But he did see someone standing on it.
For a brief moment, Sora thought he was looking at Roxas. The blond boy looked a lot like him. But the clothes weren't quite right; his jacket was split down the middle between black and white and he had some kind of armor covering his shoulder. But more importantly, he didn't feel right. Sora couldn't describe it any better. He felt different.
Ventus. The boy standing there, eyes closed and slumped as he slept upright, was Ventus. Sora knew it without a doubt.
"He slumbers the deepest of us."
Sora turned. Behind him, two more platforms had appeared in the darkness. While a reasonable distance from Sora's stained-glass circle, the new pair of platforms were nearly touching each other. They didn't look identical, but the designs were primarily reds and oranges that reminded Sora of sunsets. And on each platform was a figure dressed in black coats, their hoods down to expose their faces.
One was the black-haired girl, the one who looked like a younger Kairi. She stood on her glowing stained-glass surface like a sleepwalker. The second figure, a familiar blond boy, stared at him with half-lidded and drowsy eyes.
"Roxas," whispered Sora.
He gave a groggy smile and said, "Unlike you, I'm not a sound sleeper."
Kairi forced herself to remain steady when they stepped out and a dozen Soldier Heartless scurried along the wide corridor towards them. She knew the subtype, from descriptions and foggy memories from her heart resting inside Sora. But she'd only ever faced Shadows when she briefly fought alongside Riku in Organization XIII's castle. After that, she only fought Lea and Merlin's enchanted flying furniture. This was a real fight and they were stronger than Shadows.
But she could do this. She wasn't weak and helpless. She didn't have to stay behind and be protected all the time.
Her fingers tightened on Destiny's Embrace. Then, glaring at the closest Heartless in its yellow eyes, she jumped forward and hit it in the head.
Her body knew the combos. Her arms swung fast and hard, her Keyblade knocking the Heartless back and forcing her to keep moving forward to continue the attack. Then, the abruptness stunning her, the Heartless disappeared into fragmenting darkness and a vanishing heart.
She couldn't stop though. Kairi twisted, knocking back a Soldier as it leapt towards her face.
Lightning rained down all around her, Donald casting Thundaga. Goofy covered the perimeter, spinning like a top as his shield sliced through his opponents. And flames continued to flicker out of the corner of her eye. Lea kept shifting between more traditional attacks and using strike raid techniques with a fiery element. The four of them cut through the Heartless without hesitation.
Then Kairi heard a sound and a few more Heartless, a mixture of Soldiers and tall metallic minotaur-like creatures, materialized. A moment later, twenty pale figures appeared out of thin air to join them. Nobodies. Some were Dusks, but others…
"Reapers and Ninjas," hissed Lea. "Not good."
Gritting her teeth, Kairi leapt at a white and flowery shape floating in the air. But then it abruptly changed its shape to something vaguely humanoid and swung a scythe. The handle caught her in the middle, knocking the air out of her. Then it flung her into the closest wall. She hit hard. Pain exploded across her back, but Kairi couldn't even scream.
Tumbling to the ground and coughing weakly, Kairi only managed to dodge roll out of the way because things tended to get rough during sparring and she knew better than to stay still. The scythe still almost sliced her before Goofy slammed his shield full-force into the Nobody and knocked it away. The flame-engulfed Keyblade flying into its head drove it further back.
"Kairi!" shouted Donald, the Curaga washing over her and easing the pain of forming bruises.
Shoving herself to her feet, she croaked, "I'm fine."
"Don't let them surround us. Keep them away from the door," said Lea. "And the Ninjas clone themselves. Watch out for that."
Spotting one of the minotaur-like Heartless charging towards Donald, Kairi shouted, "Light!"
Orbs of light fired rapidly from her Keyblade slowed the Heartless down, but not enough to stop it. The delay gave them enough for Goofy to jump in though. He unleashed a powerful combo with his shield against the metallic figure. Donald took advantage of the situation to pull an ether from his pocket.
Seconds later, the Heartless was entombed in ice. Which quickly shattered when Kairi went after it with a spinning aerial combo.
Breathing a little harder as she landed, Kairi glanced around the corridor. There didn't seem to be any fewer opponents than before. And more were scrambling and scurrying in from the side halls. She couldn't tell how many Heartless and Nobodies were swarming towards them now.
This wasn't going to be easy.
Blowing her hair out of her eyes, and being thankful that she decided to cut it before all the fighting started, Kairi dashed towards a greyish Nobody. The Ninja slashed at her, but the girl rolled out of the way of the knives. She followed up by swinging her Keyblade at its legs. The Nobody fell to the ground as it lost its footing. But before she could follow through on the attack, two Soldiers closed in on her.
"Fire!" she shouted.
Flames swirled protectively around her Keyblade and body before flaring out at the Heartless around her. Lea, appearing next to her without warning, sent a brief wall of fire to knock back those she missed. Her Fira spell might be good and she could control how it manifested, but Lea was still the expert when it came to Fire magic.
"You miss fighting Merlin's furniture yet?" asked Lea, taking up position at her back.
Grinning to herself, Kairi said, "Why? Getting tired?"
"Nah. I'm good. Don't let them gang up on you though. These guys are meaner than his temperamental footstool."
An angry and frustrated shout from Donald preceded a particularly vicious Thundaga. Soldiers, Dusks, and one Ninja jolted violently before bursting into darkness and nothingness. Goofy slammed his shield into a flower-like Reaper Nobody, destroying it. And swinging his Keyblade down from his unorthodox shoulder-bracing hold, Lea knocked a minotaur-like Heartless back before following up with a combo of spinning strikes that imitated a very different weapon.
Kairi couldn't help being aware of exactly how much more experienced they were than she was. Even Lea was better at fighting, even if it was with his chakrams.
But she refused to give up. She wouldn't back down. She was going to protect Sora.
No matter what.
Sora had a million questions. There were so many things that he wanted to ask his other half now that he had the chance. He knew so little about his Nobody now that he thought about it.
Anger and a sense of betrayal from the so-called unfeeling Organization members when they only saw Roxas instead of Sora. Desperation and a self-destructive attack by Axel to protect Sora because of how much the boy reminded him of the Nobody that he missed. A photograph of a friendship from a programmed world. Glimpses in dreams and visions, fights that didn't physically happen and admissions in the deepest realms of slumber. And a confusing collection of feelings and memories that didn't belong to Sora.
It wasn't enough to really claim that he knew Roxas as a person. But it was enough for Sora to know that he wanted to know him better. He wanted to be his friend.
Sora had a million questions. But now that he was standing in front of his partially-asleep Nobody within his heart, the one that came from his mouth wasn't any of the ones that he originally planned.
"Where's all the whispering coming from?"
"You hear them?" murmured Roxas.
Sora nodded. Soft, faint, and constant whispers came from all directions in the darkness. They'd started when he tried to locate Roxas within himself and hadn't stopped since. Some barely audible and others distinct enough to make out words. And familiar. He knew these voices. And now that he was paying attention, they seemed to be growing clearer.
"Hearts," continued Roxas in a drowsy voice. "Hearts connected to your heart. And hearts connected to our hearts. The voices are your friends and ours."
He listened closely. Roxas was right. The loudest were his best friends. Sora could pick out their voices from among the others.
Riku. Kairi.
Donald. Goofy.
And there were others. Dozens. Perhaps not as strong and loud, but he could still recognize their voices. And the harder he listened, the easier it was to identify the different people from his past.
Hercules. Ariel. Jack Skellington.
Tron. Jiminy. Mulan.
Woody. Buzz. Leon.
Belle. Stitch. Peter Pan.
Joshua. Simba. Rapunzel.
Pooh. Jack Sparrow. Cloud.
Aladdin. Neku. Tinkerbell.
Mike. Sulley. Mushu.
Anna. Cid. Genie.
Lea. Merlin. Aqua.
So many whispering, distant, and familiar voices. His friends scattered across numerous worlds. And yet he could hear them. Inside his heart.
"Reach out. You can feel them," murmured Roxas. "You can feel the connections."
Listening to the voices whisper, Sora focused on one in particular. His hand moved until his fingers brushed against an invisible gossamer thread that he was certain wasn't there a moment before. He gripped the thread gently and the voice became crystal clear.
"One more smackeral of honey should do it…"
Sora grinned and whispered, "Silly old bear."
"…Sora?"
Startled by the response, Sora let go and lost his connection to Pooh. His voice returned to a soft whisper in the darkness.
"They're louder when they think about you. Or us," mumbled Roxas quietly. "Or when you reach out for them. And when your heart calls to theirs, sometimes they can feel it. Even if they don't realize what it is they feel."
Well… That was interesting. He knew that his friends gave him strength and that they were a part of his heart. But he never imagined that he could do a trick like this.
He couldn't wait to tell Riku and Kairi.
Grinning to himself at the thought, Sora turned his attention back to Roxas and the girl. They both slumped on their individual stained-glass platforms, resembling sleepwalkers without the walking part. They swayed in place, their breathing slow and even. Even Roxas' eyes were groggy and unfocused. They were truly asleep even as Sora spoke to them.
"Uh," said Sora quietly, taking a step in the direction of the black-haired girl, "don't take this the wrong way, but… Who are you?"
"No one," she murmured.
"Xion," answered Roxas in the same moment.
Smiling, Sora said, "Hello, Xion. It's great to meet you."
She gave a quiet hum and there was a faint hint of a smile on her face, but didn't respond further. She continued to sleep. But at least he had a name now. That was more than he had before. Maybe one of the others would know who Xion was.
The dark corridor opened in the middle of Radiant Garden, Riku's running feet hitting the decorative stonework without pause. The castle loomed overhead. And somewhere in there, his friends waited. He regretted not trying to open the corridor inside. But the architecture had changed so much with repairs and he wasn't certain where inside he would come out. He didn't have the time or patience to try narrowing down an arrival point to a specific room when it would easier to arrive somewhere more open and to just run the rest of the way.
But within seconds of arriving, Riku was forced to jump out of the path of a dozen charging Mechanitaurs. Large, strong, and metallic, the Heartless acted as a single unstoppable unit. And when they didn't hit Riku, they smashed through a stack of crates and didn't even slow down.
Then he noticed the screaming.
He ran towards the sounds. Considering the kind of person his best friend was, there was a decent chance that Sora was already in the middle of the chaos. As he turned down a different street, Riku spotted more. More Heartless. And Nobodies. They were only Dusks, but even those could be dangerous.
Radiant Garden shouldn't be swarming like this. They were supposed to have defenses. It should have been safer than most worlds. Vanitas's parting taunt rang in his ears.
He found the source of the screaming, a man and two kids tucked in a corner between two buildings. A swarm of Soldiers were creeping towards them. The man looked like he was trying to defend the children with a wooden plank from a busted crate. But the desperate look in his eyes meant that he knew his chances were slim.
The man probably remembered the first time Radiant Garden fell.
Raising his Keyblade up, Riku sent a Thundaga crashing down from the sky. The electricity jolted through the Heartless, the creatures spasming and twitching wildly before exploding into darkness. The cringing kids, probably no older than eight, glanced up at the sound and the man smiled in relief. Riku twitched his head.
"Go. Find somewhere safe," he said.
They started to obey, stepping away from their corner. But then they froze, their expressions shifting to horror.
Riku spun, his Keyblade catching the leaping Dusk in midair. A couple more jumped from the shadows despite losing the element of surprise. But a tall figure appeared out of nowhere and tore through the pair.
"Hurry," ordered the man. "Head towards the Restoration Committee's headquarters. You'll be safer there."
This time, the trio nodded and managed to start running. And Riku had a moment to actually pick up a few more details about the new arrival. The brown hair, the thin scar across his face, the black jacket with the stylized red lion head on the shoulder and the fluffy collar, and what looked like a gun-blade-thing… Riku recognized the description from Sora.
"Leon?"
The man glanced over. His eyes landed briefly on Riku's face and his Keyblade. Then he nodded.
"I guess it was about time that I met the famous Riku," he said. "Sora talks about you all the time. You and Kairi."
"I heard plenty of stories about you too." Riku smiled. "Thanks for watching out for him in Traverse Town."
"It didn't take him too long to find his way. Especially once he met Donald and Goofy. But we are all grateful that we met him," he said. Glancing over his shoulder, Leon said, "Since you're here, we're trying to get everyone to safety while Cid gets the automatic defense system back up. The Nobodies attacked and destroyed the primary computer for the system before we drove them back. Could you lend a hand? We still need to clear out the market and we're stretched thin protecting everyone."
The impulse to continue towards the castle was strong. Vanitas's words and an uneasy feeling that he was running out of time gnawed at the back of his mind. Sora and Kairi were in danger.
But Sora and Kairi were Keybearers. Sora was practically a Keyblade master in all but title. They could defend themselves. No matter what was after them, they could fight back.
All the people in town, however, were vulnerable.
It wasn't really a choice. He couldn't do anything else. But that didn't keep him from feeling as if he was abandoning his friends.
"You know the place. I'll follow your lead," said Riku.
He needed to get it done fast. They would track down everyone, herd them towards a more defensible position, and take out any Heartless and Nobodies in the way. And once they were safe, Riku could continue towards the castle.
Hold on, Sora and Kairi. He would be there as soon as possible.
Breathing hard as he slashed his way through yet another Reaper, Lea refused to miss being a Nobody. He never wanted to go back to that. But as he was being forcibly reminded, being human had a couple disadvantages. Especially in a fight. He wasn't quite as strong or durable as he'd been the last several years. And his endurance, while decent after constantly sparring with Kairi, had definitely taken a dive.
And the Heartless and lesser Nobodies just wouldn't stop coming.
For every enemy that they took down, a couple more arrived to take their place. Sometimes Lea would clear them some space with some more widespread Fire magic or Donald would call down a few Thundagas. That duck definitely loved his destructive offensive spells. But keeping the end of the corridor clear was vitally important and something that they'd managed so far.
Barely.
Throwing his Keyblade through a Soldier, Lea glanced over. If he was running out of steam, then Kairi was on her last legs. She was still fighting though. A little slower and a little sloppier, but still going. The girl was a vicious thing for someone with no darkness. Years of frustrated helplessness was being channeled into each strike.
Donald and Goofy were backing her up, showing off their own vast experience. Goofy was quick with his shield to cover her back. And even if the court magician was a bit stingier with his healing spells, Donald kept her from getting too hurt. Not to mention that the occasional Curaga would keep her from completely running out of energy, the spell also restoring strength. Lea hadn't needed to jump in for a while. The pair were doing great at keeping her from being overwhelmed by the continuous waves of enemies.
She was also managing to keep an eye on him even with all the fighting. When she saw Lea get hit particularly hard by an attack he couldn't avoid, Kairi would immediately use Cura on him.
And no matter how good that he might be at fighting, Lea couldn't avoid everything. Especially since he was trying to handle the Reapers and Ninjas before they could get near her. They were almost as vicious as the Organization members in charge of them. And they loved playing with sharp objects. As durable as his black coat might be, he'd collected several tears in it and a couple cuts (half-healed and no longer bleeding thanks to Kairi's magic). Most of the slices ended up his left arm because he still instinctively kept trying to block attacks with a chakram that wasn't there.
"This is getting annoying," said Kairi, sweat-streaked hair sticking to the side of her face. "And I've lost count."
Giving a breathless laugh, he said, "That's fine. We'll call it a tie."
"There's more Nobodies now than Heartless," said Goofy. Smashing a Dusk with his shield, he asked, "Do you think they're running out?"
"We can only hope," said Donald.
A wave of the wand and a Waterga spell swirled protectively around the duck before launching at the closest enemies. Every impact splashed almost explosively before hitting more enemies. Lea had no interest in Water spells, but he could appreciate the effectiveness.
And the Nobodies weren't instantly replaced. Part of Lea, the optimistic and completely in denial part of him that had kept believing that he could keep Roxas safe even as everything kept falling apart back then, hoped now that Goofy was right. He wanted to believe that they were reaching the end of it. They might be close to winning. They might actually be running out of Heartless and Nobodies for the moment.
But a more cynical part suspected a more unpleasant possibility. Especially with Reapers and Ninjas lurking around. Someone was directing them, waiting to show their faces. After everyone was worn down by the fighting, that's when they would make their move. He knew that they wouldn't fight fair. If they were involved, he would see them soon.
"All right. That's enough," said Kairi, breathing hard. Raising her Keyblade above her head, she shouted, "Light!"
Rather than the compact glowing orbs shooting out in targeted attacks, several bright beams of light slammed down from above. Intense and almost blinding, the huge pillars of light spun around her. And everything they encountered was vaporized. By the time the attack ended and Lea managed to blink the spots from his vision, the lesser Nobodies were gone and the corridor was empty.
"If you could have done that when we first met," said Lea quietly, "that first meeting would have gone very differently."
Looking wobbly on her feet and exhausted, Kairi grinned and said, "Thanks."
An all-too-familiar sound preceded the formation of a corridor of darkness. And two figures stepped out. Two figures that Lea halfway expected.
"Larxene," said Donald, glaring at her.
Sounding equally unhappy with their arrival, Goofy said, "And Marluxia."
"The two of you are back working for Xemnas and the rest of the Xehanort's Hearts Club?" said Lea, taking a step forward as he slung his Keyblade on his shoulder. Placing himself between his current teammates and his old coworkers, he added, "Whatever happened to your attempted coup? Decided you prefer being storage tanks for the old guy's heart?"
Crossing his arms, Marluxia said, "I do find it interesting that you took the path of a traitor, Axel. Especially this openly."
"Jealous that I'm better at it than the two of you were?"
Lea knew that this wasn't going to be a fair fight. Not when he was already out of breath, tired, and sore from fighting. Marluxia wasn't put in charge of Castle Oblivion because he was weak and he was smart enough to take any advantage, including using a human shield. And Larxene was vicious and cruel, knowing exactly how to cause pain with her blades and her words. She had a tendency to say something at just the right moment to off balance her opponent and then slice them down. And both of them were blinding fast and deadly.
Maybe once he would have been able to take them on, one at a time. It was his plan for handling them in Castle Oblivion if Sora didn't finish them off first. Back when he was at full strength and not worn down, he would have stood a decent chance. But even back at Castle Oblivion, fighting against Marluxia would have been a closer match than he would have preferred. And in his current state, and in Kairi's current state, the Nobodies had the upper hand.
"I don't know. The gig got us a power boost from the boss while you look like something the Dusks dragged in," said Larxene. "Not to mention that you got yourself annihilated because you wouldn't stop moping over losing that braindead loser that you were babysitting. So please tell me again. Which of us came out ahead, Axel?"
Lea's fingers tightened on his Keyblade.
"Now, we were ordered to pick up some missing replicas," she continued. "But that doesn't mean that we can't take a moment to visit some old pals."
His eyes settling on a barely-standing Kairi, Marluxia said, "There you are, Naminé. Causing trouble once again."
"Kairi," said Lea, his voice even and emotionless. "Backup plan. Now."
As soon as the words left his mouth, Lea swung his Keyblade down and put as much power as he could risk into forming a wall of flames. And, gritting his teeth, he held it in place.
It wouldn't last for long. He knew that. It was too big, too hot, and too powerful for him to keep it up. But it would buy them time. It would give Kairi, Donald, and Goofy a chance.
Run. Lock the door.
He couldn't spare a look, but he hoped that they obeyed.
Larxene and Marluxia would not get past him. They would not get the replicas, Roxas's one chance to return. They would not hurt Roxas, Kairi, Sora, and the others.
The wall of fire vanished, a powerful slash of a scythe extinguishing the flames like blowing out a candle. Marluxia twisted his pink and green weapon, Graceful Dahlia, in his grip. Grinning viciously, Larxene summoned up her collection of knives, Foudre, in a crackle of electricity.
Eight knives and a scythe versus one Keyblade.
He was really regretting not having a chance to restock on potions after their training. Without Kairi or even Donald to help with Cure spells, he knew this wasn't going to be fun.
Pushing that thought down, Lea spun his Keyblade in his hand. He wasn't going to back down. No matter how unevenly matched they might be. There was too much at stake.
"I don't know if you've heard," he said slowly, "but the name's Lea."
A lot is happening for these characters. But the important thing is that Kairi got a proper fight scene. And didn't get kidnapped or taken hostage. I think we all can agree that she deserves that much.
I hope that you enjoyed this chapter. The next one should be intense. More fight scenes.