Chapter 16: A Dream, A Wonderful Dream
"N-No...!" Shina clutched the sides of her head and backed away slowly. As she started shaking her head she swung one hand out and had a pale look in her sparkling eyes.
"Y-You're not real! You can't be real!" It was the first real acknowledgment she had made of Kairi's presence and it was straight up denial that she was even here.
Kairi slanted her eyes and fought back the sorrow buried within to look her big sister in the eyes and tell her, "Why can't you see me Shina?"
"Because you're. Not. REAL!" Shina stamped her feet down and flailed her left hand out towards the younger Kairi standing a few feet away, "She is!"
Kairi wasn't about to give that fake any attention. She buckled her feet down and stayed determined to convince her sister the truth, "Look me in the eyes Shina!"
She laid a hand over her chest and pleaded with all her heart, "You KNOW who I am!"
Shina stared straight out and Kairi's eyes began to wobble with her sister's reflection in them. Shina shook her head, starting slowly, then getting fevered with anger.
"NO! You're not HER!" Shina pointed to that fake again and her voice broke down desperately, "I saved her! I did! You're...you're just a fake created by Gravitus!"
The delusion ran deep within Shina's mind and seemed adamant about not letting go. Kairi turned her furrowed brows upon the Sage, and found that he was trembling with impotent rage.
He curled his pincers into his arms and growled, the volume rising into a full on screeching and hissing fit. As vile saliva spewed from his maw he lurched forward and his shout snapped Shina out of her mental conflict.
"KILL HER! KILL HER NOW! DO NOT LET THAT BLASPHEMOUS DRIVE EXIST ANY LONGER!" He was scared...of the Neo Drive?
Shina looked over her shoulder at the Sage and appeared shocked by his anger. Then she turned upon Kairi and levitated off the ground, spreading her wings to their full majestic width.
"I've let you impostors get in my head long enough!" Shina swung her arms down before her hips and began to glow, "I'm ending this NOW!"
The overwhelming pulse of Shina's power shook Kairi at the knees. It was a relaxed wave, but one hiding a terrifying sadness and rage.
Kairi stood her ground, and clenched her right fist. She then glanced slightly over her shoulder and murmured, "Mom...thank you."
She then raised her head high and with her eyes flared open murmured some more, "I...WILL put our family back together!"
She unleashed her own pulse of power to counteract Shina's, causing her to slant her eyes in disgust. Shina then flexed her fingers and a series of spears surrounded Kairi.
Kairi gazed at them all in a second and closed her eyes. As the spears descended she thrust them open with a symbol buried within her pupil, and a chilling aura surrounding her body. Absolute zero temperatures slowed the spears' descent and then froze them over inches from her body.
She then bent at the knees slightly and charged valiantly at Shina with a roar. Shina flinched and barely moved to the left in time to avoid the tackle. Kairi quickly did a 180 and dove at Shina again, where she dodged out of the way with a spin.
Shina then spread her wings and pointed one hand at the ground. As Kairi landed a series of crystallized blossoms erupted from the ground. Kairi kept sliding along the ground as she turned around, evading every blossom with carefully timed thrusts to the left and right.
She widened her eyes and charged forward, turning her body into a spear to piece the crystals. At the last one she kicked her feet out and smashed into Shina's gut, going down to the ground after.
Kairi bounced off on impact and dug her feet deep into the ground. Shina quickly got up and shook the hit off. She turned sideways and raised her hand out, sending out a large laser.
It flew into Kairi's face and she pulled away to the left, only for the laser to bend and curve after her. Kairi drew an aura sword out of her right hand and attacked the laser head-on. It bounced back briefly and then resumed its assault. It curved to the ground, bounced up, and tried sliding behind Kairi's arm to hit her face.
Kairi pulled her sword back and swatted it down, then leaped back high into the sky. The laser kept pursuing and started whipping around her to induce confusion. Kairi stayed calm and swung her sword around whenever the laser got close. Every hit chipped more of it away until it was soon too small to pose a threat, and one final cut eliminated it for good in a flurry of sparks.
Shina appeared as the sparks formed and latched her arms around Kairi. Then, with one hard turnaround she threw her towards the ground, then flapped her wings to summon a mighty gale that'd further the impact.
Kairi smashed onto her back and tumbled and bounced a few yards back, ultimately landing on her feet. Shina was closing in when she raised her head. Kairi grit her teeth and slid to the right. Shina swerved and remained level a foot off the ground as she pursued Kairi.
Kairi took to the sky as Shina swept the ground with a wide berth of aura, and then pelted her in the back with energy spheres. Shina turned and kept flying with her back to the ground, using a shield to deflect Kairi's attacks while thrusting spears towards her.
Kairi snatched one out of the air and felt her elbow crack trying to keep it in her hand. She dodged the other spears and lunged hers down with all her might, creating a sonic boom in the air.
Shina cupped her hands before her chest and aura spiraled between them like the formation of a new galaxy. She thrust them above her head then lunged them out to unleash a massive star-filled beam. The spear tossed at her and some of them she summoned were atomized in an instant.
Kairi curled her wings in front of her body and fended off the beam's powerful wrath. She was constantly being shoved back. There was an opening she felt she could exploit, but she'd have to be quick.
She cupped her hands together and pushed the pointer fingers out, gathering aura at their tips. When she felt she had enough she parted a slit in her wings.
She grimaced at a sensation behind her and her head turned on its own to see three spears aimed at her back. She fired her piercing shot through the center of the beam without a second's thought. This widened a safety net big enough to free up her wings and block the spears.
But at the same time Shina barreled through the center of her own attack and smashed her fist deep into Kairi's gut. It felt like her innards would pop out of her back at any moment. Kairi snapped off Shina's fist and went flying high over the fake city.
Shina instantly warped behind and raised her right leg as high as humanly possible, kicking the heel down upon Kairi's head. A few increasingly larger sonic booms burst out from Kairi's straight descent with the ground.
Kairi spread her wings near the end to slow down. The ground still broke on impact, but at least she didn't wind up on the underside of the city. She hunched over and panted a couple times from shock, then froze as a shadow was cast over her body.
Shina was there with her palm flooding with light, aimed at Kairi's face. Kairi bit her lower lip and lunged up, grappling her arms around Shina's one and pulling her down and around to the ground. She then locked one arm around her arm to keep her from moving and raised her other fist.
Her body trembled at the sight of Shina. Her hesitation lasted until her knuckles cracked from her tightening her fist just that little bit extra, but by then her punch came too late.
Shina broke down into atoms and hastily reformed behind Kairi, whose punch cracked the ground. Kairi pulled back immediately and tried to go for a counterattack. Shina grabbed her by the elbow and held her down. Then, she raised her other hand for a repeat of her last attack.
Kairi's eyes trembled and, for just that moment, Shina hesitated herself.
"RAAAAH!" Kairi roared with determination and forced all her strength into her legs to stand, and then to pull her elbow free from Shina's grip. She pushed forward with the other arm and smashed her fist down across Shina's face.
A staggering blow that sent Shina stumbling back quite a number of feet. She recovered and pulled away with Kairi's knuckles grazing up the front of her face. Kairi staggered back and stood upright to catch her breath.
Shina breathed slowly as well. If the constant battling wasn't tiring her out by now, then clearly some other factor was at play.
In this moment of solidarity Kairi clutched her fists and thought, "It feels like the Cosmos Drive can have whatever powers Shina wants to have..."
Kairi grimaced, and felt a little outmatched, "And Shina always had a good imagination. H-How am I supposed to combat that?"
She closed her eyes but kept her other senses sharp, "Think Kairi, think!"
"DO NOT LET UP!" The Sage exhaled in a panic, "SHOW THIS CRETIN YOUR DIVINE POWER!"
Kairi forced her eyes open and watched Shina gather aura in her hands and raised them above her head. Kairi stood sideways and watched as her sister cleaved the aura down in a massive slicing wave across the ground.
Kairi zipped to the right and moved forward. Shina repeated the attack with little time between them, and Kairi sped to the left and inched forward. Shina divided her hands and attacked down both Kairi's sides, this time the aura lingered as walls to limit her movements.
Kairi scrunched her forehead and nevertheless charged forth into danger. Shina paid her bravery in kind by laying her palm down flat and unleashing a wintery gale. It didn't have much force, but was hundreds of degrees below zero.
Kairi could feel a chill down to her bone and was forced to use one of Mercury's Drive to keep herself hot enough to survive. Shina widened her eyes in surprise and gave Kairi the opening to slam her fist down atop her skull. The ground cracked into a foot deep crater and the winter's wrath came to an end.
Shina suddenly threw her hands up and grabbed Kairi's wrist. Kairi tried to pull free but Shina threw her behind before her muscles could budge.
Kairi used her wings to stall in place and then flung a large sphere of aura from each hand. Shina took them head-on and was barely shoved back. She then detached many of the bits from her wings and fueled them with aura to make them shine.
The bits sped towards Kairi and started pelting her from all directions. The many strikes added up their force to start pushing her back, and a couple were sharp and managed to cut her along the arms and legs. Kairi crossed her arms before her face for safety and then focused deep within to call upon Neptune's Drive.
Her aura changed into a wavy form and the bits began repeatedly bouncing off her. Kairi thrust her arms out and dove down at Shina with the bits in pursuit, continually failing to breech her defenses.
Shina's eyes widened and she dodged back as Kairi smashed into the ground and quickly rose to her feet, proceeding forward without pause. Kairi swung her fists wildly at Shina and she dodged around them, leaving traces of her frame in her wake.
The bits formed into a sword and slashed down at Kairi's back. It breached her aura, shirt, and drew blood from the skin. Kairi grimaced down to the knees but her eyes flared up even fiercer than before.
She drew a sword in each hand and twisted sideways, using one of them to deflect the bit sword's attacks while attempting to slice Shina with the other. Shina dodged a few more attacks then blocked the blunt edge of Kairi's sword with her wrist, then shackled their arms together with cuffs.
Kairi flicked her other wrist around to deflect the sword then chose to flip behind Shina, using the cuffs to lock her sister's arm up next to her neck. She then took a few strikes at her back with a bare fist.
Shina atomized her body and appeared behind Kairi with swords drawn up towards her back. The bit sword thrust forward at her chest. Kairi activated Pluto's Drive and kept the assaults at bay.
But with Shina's quick thinking it'd only be a matter of time before her attacks would gain the properties needed to break through. Kairi needed to get some distance, and fast.
She charged her aura and smashed her palms flat upon the ground to expand the aura into a burst. She then lunged forward and thrust her palms out to obliterate the bit sword. Then she spun around and swung a couple projectiles into Shina's body.
Shina swerved out of the way of the second one and levitated off the ground, surrounding herself with a ring of spears. She started shifting around Kairi to mesmerize her and make it harder to tell when the spears would come out.
Kairi moved only at the exact moment the spears fired and still barely made it out of the way in time. But as each spear touched the ground it left a ripple of aura that resonated with Kairi. The heat of battle was making it difficult to think, but that pulse, that simple and small pulse, gave her just the memory she needed.
"Stingle, the Wasp, had the most peculiar power out of us. His ability of Final allowed him to crystallize his thoughts into pure power. With the help of Ficklewick, they created the Drives..." That is what the Sage had said. And the Cosmos Drive, being a combination of all those Drives from the past, wielded those same powers.
And the Neo Drive could mimic other Drives so long as Kairi saw them.
"That's it...!" Kairi widened her eyes and dodged a couple more attacks, curling her fists and concentrating within herself. The power Shina wielded now was reflected in Kairi's pupils as a spear symbol.
She then summoned two rainbow-colored spears with a more straight, uniform design and fired them at Shina. In the brief moment Shina went shocked Kairi was able to scrape her across the hips with the spears.
The Sage visibly grimaced and pulled his entire body back in a slant. Shina remained frozen for a good while, allowing Kairi to summon more spears to deal with hers.
"S-She copied my..."
"C-Cursed...Neo Drive...!" The Sage's ill-timed words got Shina's attention immediately.
"Wh-What did you call it...?!" She gasped.
"KILL HER!" The Sage's pale scream destroyed any trace of her curiosity, "KIIIIILLLLL HEEEEEEERRRR!"
Shina felt compelled to swing her arms in front of her and summon a towering crystallized bloom at Kairi's feet. Kairi sped back and widened her eyes to activate Gravitus' Drive. Her aura surrounded the skyscraper sized bloom and pulled it from the ground, then flung it straight at Shina.
Shina pounded the front of her crystal with dozens of spears and then broke through it with a charge at lightning speeds. She got close to Kairi and attempted to slice her up with her sword hands. Kairi summoned her own swords hands and danced around and over Shina, clashing blades as sparks went flying all over the place.
The two locked blades in a cross and the resulting collision shoved them off each other immediately with a spherical burst of air. Kairi lowered her hands and squinted her eyes, a flash of the spear symbol in the pupils.
She fired a few spears out and Shina countered with more of her own. Kairi summoned more to shield herself with a wall and when it shattered, charged forward. She rammed her head into Shina's gut and staggered her back.
Then she pulled away and blasted Shina with a few projectiles. Shina widened her eyes and her aura grew in size, freezing the spheres inches from her body. She then filled them with her aura and launched them back. Not taking any chances, she had them explode when Kairi tried dodging them.
Brushing with the blasts Kairi kept moving away and waiting for an opening to charge in. When she seemingly found that gap, she first lunged a spear at Shina and then charged ahead.
Shina caught the spear in her hand and then atomized at the last second to evade Kairi's punch. She reformed behind Kairi and stabbed the spear at her back. Kairi's eyes flashed with an atom symbol and she broke down as well. It felt strangely fuzzy, like each individual atom had its own senses.
The sensation lasted for a second and she appeared behind Shina. She could immediately swing her feet up and kick her in the back to knock her up.
Shina stalled with her wings and turned around. She dropped her hands below her waist and fired a sole blast towards the ground. Kairi pulled away and when the blast hit it exploded in a massive dome, wiping out anything around and below it.
Kairi was forced to go higher and meet whatever Shina decided to attack her with. Shina twirled away and then threw a powerful kick forward. Kairi grappled her arms around her leg to hold her down. But she had been fooled. Shina had kicked with a solid afterimage, and the real deal pulled back.
The afterimage became very, very sticky and kept Kairi from pulling free. Shina made a sole crystal at her sides and they grew, twisting into spiral cones that could contain an immeasurable amount of aura.
The funneled energy fired into a pair of thick beams with the composition of comet trails into Kairi. The afterimage was destroyed, but now Kairi was trapped against the front of the beams and dragged into the ground.
Her body burned, the pressure was great. But as long as she could focus for even a second, she could summon the power of Neptune's Drive to deflect the beams into the ground and give her some breathing room.
But the beams still applied pressure, even after she blew them aside. The cannons would remain a constant at Shina's sides. Kairi could try warping behind Shina, but her reflexes seemed sharp enough for that to not be feasible.
No. There was another way.
Kairi closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and swallowed her hesitation. She then crossed her arms before her chest and thrust her eyes open with a pair of crossed pistols glowing in her pupils. She summoned a gun in each hand and sped along the smoothed ground.
Shina squinted and laid her hand out, commanding the cannons to fire. Kairi hopped over the right one then ducked upon landing to dodge the left one. Then she charged her barrels full of aura and thrust the guns up to take her shots.
Shina's eyes widened and the chill in her body could be felt from down below. Kairi's fingers trembled on the triggers, but when she found the strength to pull she broke the triggers and the grip behind them.
Two small but deceptively powerful bullets sped through the air and pierced the cannons in the middle of their assault. Cracks spread throughout, filled with the Neo Drive's power, and proceeded to explode into shards. Shina threw her arms up before her face and gasped out a shriek.
Kairi curled her fists and bounced straight up towards her, summoning a fresh pair of pistols to rapidly pelt Shina across her body. She started a prolonged scream as she slammed her feet down into her gut and dragged her towards the ground with every shot she fired.
Shina's eyes stayed stiff with shock even as she hit the ground. Then she broke up into atoms and flew away, reforming a good fifty feet in front of Kairi. Kairi panted heavily and her right eye grimaced shut.
She grit her teeth and looked down, watching as crystallized ivy grew from the ground and twisted tightly around her leg to keep her in place.
"T-That's...my..." Shina was at a loss for words. Kairi pulled out a shotgun and aimed it at the ivy, hoping that one shot would shatter it.
Shina suddenly thrust her hands out and squeezed them tightly, "STOP! STOP!"
She tugged her hands back with all her might and Kairi felt her aura being ripped off and crushed. Her heart beat hastened, but her body did not tire. The Neo Drive's rainbow aura formed back around her body nice and easy.
Shina widened her eyes and did the same motions to rip out the aura again. But another one reformed in its place, and Kairi regained the shotgun in her hands.
Shina rapidly tried pulling Kairi's aura out but another one would always take its place. Her ragged gasps and pained whimpers soon tired her out, leaving her hung over with her hands on her knees and asking, "Why why WHY?!"
Kairi could only guess at the answer as she looked at the shotgun in her hands, "Each of these Drives have their own aura, and that includes the Neo Drive itself..."
Kairi stared straight at Shina but found the Sage's panicked expression more interesting, "Shina can only pull out one aura from a person at a time. When she tries a second time, the other one returns..."
She slanted her eyes and came to realize what everyone else had ultimately been told, "The Neo Drive counters the Cosmos Drive!"
This filled her heart with so much fire that it put her in a mild state of euphoria. She pulled the shotgun trigger without hesitation and shatter the crystal ivy. Some of the shards lodged into her muscles but she didn't care.
"I CAN save her! I can do it!" She split the shotgun into a pair of rifles and ran at Shina as fast as the wind. Shina raised her head with big, doe-eyes and suddenly warped away hundreds of feet into the air as Kairi took aim and fired.
Kairi looked around for a while until she found Shina's shadow beaming out across the ground...cast there by a powerful, azure light.
Kairi's eyes grew wide as she saw not one, not two, but dozens of miniatures suns falling from the sky around Shina. Shina's aura exploded around her, and she pulled her arms forward and then stretched them back with tremendous force capable of shaking the air.
"You're not her! Y-You're just a fake! Stop trying to trick me!" The suns began a rapid descent across the entire city. The atmosphere of the cage turned red hot, and smoke sizzled off the ground.
Kairi twisted her fist back by her hip and saw these blazing stars as little more than an obstacle standing between her and her sister.
"This isn't a trick! And you know it Shina!" Kairi's pupils shone with the symbol of a galaxy and she thrust her eyes wide-open. Every single one of those stars were surrounded by her aura and made obedient to her will. She loathed using the power of Gravitus' Space Drive.
But, it allowed her to part the suns and open the way towards Shina. Kairi then thrust her hand out and made an even bigger hand out of aura. It rocketed through the air and snatched the stunned Shina in its grasp. Then with one hearty tug, Kairi pulled her back to the ground.
She dispelled the hand and twisted her fist tight, thrusting it out full strength into Shina's forehead and gritting her teeth until she could feel bone-against-bone.
Shina snapped off Kairi's fist with the sound of a shotgun going off and smashed back first into the ground, tumbling away quite a few feet and surprisingly, staying on her back when she was through.
Kairi staggered forward from the strength of her punch and stabilized by putting her hands on her knees. She was panting heavily and sweat dripped from her face onto the ground. She forced her head up and stared at her sister with trembling eyes.
"P-Please...just look at me Shina...!"
Shina cobbled together her strength to stand and had her head halfway towards the ground. She squeezed her hands around her head and started shaking it back and forth violently.
"You're not her you're not her! YOU'RE NOT HER YOU'RE NOT HER YOU'RE NOT HER!"
She flung her hands towards the ground and flailed them about without any sense of control over herself, "I had to be the one to save her! Me! It had to be me!"
Her aura was in a flux and pulsed like the ground at the beginning of an earthquake. She barely held her feet on the ground as she swung her head back and grabbed her head once again, looking to be in incredible pain.
"WHAT WOULD'VE BEEN THE POINT OF EVERYTHING IF I DIDN'T?!" She threw her head downward and squirmed to the right, "ALEX DIDN'T DIE FOR NOTHING!"
Kairi's heart was wrenched tight, but she had to pull her head up as aura starting shooting off Shina's body and flew all the way out to the edge of the cage. The blasts created large, barely visible images taken straight out of Shina's memories. From the first moment she could remember as a baby to the present day, it was a photographic memoir of her most cherished moments and the people involved in them. The images swirled around the cage, sometimes crossing over with one another.
"AAAAAAAAHHH!" Shina let out a pale wail and the images flashed, bringing the people within to life by the hundreds. Without a second's pause this massive swarm flew down and converged upon the sister's location to attack Kairi.
With their numbers bordering on the millions and growing larger by the second the battlefield became pure pandemonium as Kairi was swept up in the crowd and dragged far, far away from Shina, who remained untouched.
"S-Shina!" She cried out as she reached her hand out.
The beaten warriors behind her couldn't do anything but sit or stand there as the tidal wave approached. Suddenly, however, an unarmored Auris stood between them and thrust her right hand out with her eyes flared wide-open.
A stunning aquamarine barrier was erected from her palm, acting as a dome that tower hundreds of feet high, yet was stronger than the millions of warriors could ever hope to scratch.
She narrowed her eyes as the warriors battered the shield and murmured, "You can do it...Kairi!"
Kairi was clawed, grabbed and cut at but kept a fire alight in her eyes as she pushed forward. She squeezed her fists and exploded with aura, blowing most of her assailants off and propelling her forth like a bullet.
"You were always the kindest person in the whole wide world to me! I looked up to you and tried to follow your example!"
"Shut up...!" Shina muttered from within the crowd.
"You taught me so much about video games, reading and fighting! You were a better teacher than any of my teachers were!"
"Stop it stop it stop it!" Shina's voice got louder, and Kairi knew she was getting closer.
"I know you better than anyone else ever could! You loved to eat mom's stir-fry because she was the only person who cooked carrots the way you liked them! You always liked to sit on the right side of the couch when we played video games because you found it easier to see the TV!"
"No, no, y-you don't know anything!" Shina's voice broke down.
Kairi's eyes flared wide-open with further determination and she started punching away large chunks of the crowd and agile-y flying around the rest.
"You have a body-sized polka-dot pillow in your bed so you can always feel like you have someone sleeping next to you! You never took your shoes off in other people's houses because you thought people made fun of your big feet! You don't like cabbage, or beets!"
"SHUT UP S-S-SHUT UP!" Shina's voice was getting closer and louder by the second.
Tear flung out of Kairi's eyes as she yelled louder, "YOU NAMED YOUR OWN TECHNIQUES! YOU WERE A GRADE-A STUDENT! YOU WERE FRIENDLY EVEN WHEN PEOPLE WERE RUDE TO YOU! YOU ALWAYS SMILED WHEN I WAS DOWN! AND YOU LOVE YOUR FAMILY MORE THAN ANYTHING IN THE WHOLE ENTIRE WORLD!"
There was so much Kairi wanted to say but time was running short and she could make out Shina's body within this bed of chaos.
"A-And most importantly..." Kairi reached into her right pocket and gripped tightly onto the headband buried within, "YOU HAVE A LITTLE SISTER WHO'LL LOVE YOU NO MATTER WHAT!"
Shina went silent and Kairi punched through the remaining wall of obstacles with the headband in her fist pulled behind her back.
"SHINA...!" She grit her teeth and punched the headband into Shina's face with all her might, and the tears rolling down her cheeks flying right off, "YOU IDIOT!"
The pandemonium came to a sudden stop as a resounding shockwave erupted from the impact and threw Shina a hundred feet back. As she slid along the ground the swarm broke apart down to the atomic level, leaving things the way they were before.
Kairi landed and dropped onto one knee, resting the headband close to the ground while trying to catch her breath. She looked over at Shina and saw her frozen upright with her arms limp by her hips. She didn't seem capable of moving, or even breathing.
"Shina...?" Kairi whispered in worry.
The Sage appeared behind her and flailed his arms around in a tantrum, "CURSES CURSES CURSES! You heathen child! How dare you hurt my Goddess! Your divine retribution shall be SWIFT and PUN-"
"...Hey, Mr. Sage..." Shina's body twitched and her voice started off meek and kind. But as she raised her head and turned to look at the specter her eyes stared with an icy chill and her voice reflected that.
"Why doesn't my 'sister' have that headband?"
The Sage clicked his many tongues and muttered, "W-Why does that matter? Kill this fake at on-"
Shina's eyes widened all the way and she pounded the Sage with a deeper, angered voice, "You TRICKED ME!"
The Sage was reduced to silence as Shina turned all the way around, throwing a hand back to point at Kairi, "That...is my sister!"
Then she pointed over to the younger one and exclaimed, "Not that FAKE you tried passing off to me!"
"I-Its just a stupid headband you incredulous little girl...!"
"JUST a headband?!" Shina growled fiercely like a lion and thrust a pointer finger accusingly at the Sage, "As if a mutated zealot like you could ever understand what a true bond of love is!"
Kairi's mouth was agape and fighting the urge to smile at her sister laying that ugly bug out like a rag carpet, just like he deserved.
"You...!" The Sage didn't get another word in before Shina raised her hand up and lit the palm with aura.
"Uh uh! You're outta here ya parasite!" A single blast seemed to be all it took to wipe the Sage's specter off the face of the universe.
Shina hung her hand down and breathed a sigh of relief. But as she began to turn the Sage's spirit suddenly returned behind her, now five times its original size and most of his limbs digging into Shina's body.
Shina lurched forward at the abdomen and trembled violently. The Sage hissed and howled, "You think this power is yours you naive little larva?! This divine might belongs to the Goddess! Your foul touch shall not command it any longer!"
"A-Ack...!" Shina gagged and hunched forward like a marionette being tested for the first time.
"Shina!" Kairi cried out in shock.
"I should have done this from the start! I let your similar appearances deceive me...! But it seems that there is truly no replacement for our Goddess!" The Sage started forcing Shina's arms up and his mouth oozed with slime, "Still...! Her will shall be carried out by her most devout follower! I will return this universe to zero, and with it...Usher in a new era of eternal peace!"
"N-Not on MY watch...!" Shina fought back and pushed her hands against the sides of her head. Suddenly, a projection of herself at truly titanic proportions appeared behind the Sage with its foot raised.
"I'm not gonna be anyone else's meat puppet! Especially not yours!" She stomped her foot down upon the Sage and seemingly, took him out for good this time.
Unfortunately, his specter returned behind her again, this time growing to level the playing field between them. Shina's spirit trembled and turned just in time for the Sage to throttle her neck with all his remaining limbs.
The strength of his grab slowly shrunk her spirit down to an easier to manage size, "I AM the Cosmos Drive you naive runt! So long as my spirit inhabits it, you will never make me vanish!"
He started shoving her down and his slime spewed all over her spirit, "My devotion to the Goddess far surpasses your so-called 'love'! How foolish of you to think that you'd best me alone with such a frail power, heretic!"
"She is not alone!"
Kairi was shocked as her mother suddenly ran right past her as a blur with the Null Armor cube in her right hand. Auris raised the cube to Shina's body and it activated upon contact with her chest.
Auris pulled away and the armor covered Shina's body with a similar appearance to what Auris had. The spirits both shrank back down to a more manageable size but the Sage still had his mealy hands wrapped tight around Shina's neck.
And the armor was already breaking at the seams, with sharp rays of blue light burning out of the cracks.
"This IS power! No armor can contain it!"
Auris shone a smug smile and laid a single finger up against her cheek, "The point isn't to contain it, you ugly bug."
Auris' bangs were swept forward as Kairi sped by in the air, a black shine in her pupils as her left arm became covered in darkness.
The Sage froze, loosening his grip on Shina's neck and giving him just enough time to mutter "D-Devimoth's..." before Kairi grabbed ahold of his face and smashed him against the ground full of murderous intent.
Kairi squeezed her hand tightly around his face to keep him from talking or screaming and gripped the other hand around her elbow for support.
"You'll never mess with our family again you bastard!" Kairi's face stretched as she channeled all her remaining power into one furious, triumphant roar, "GO TO HELL!"
She crushed the specter's head under her palm and it, along with the rest of his body, broke apart into a small flurry of spirit particles that disappeared within seconds.
Kairi laid her hand on the ground and was very nearly out of breath. Her vision was hazing too. In the midst of this quiet moment she heard a loud "Clank!" and looked over her shoulder to find Shina dropping to her knees, and the Null Armor breaking off her.
The Cosmos Drive's power deactivated a little after and with it, everything in his fake city started to just...disappear, becoming twinkles of light in the sky.
Kairi got up and slowly walked around Shina. She looked up at her mother, who quietly closed her eyes, nodded, and backed up.
Kairi looked at Shina's face but she was looking at the ground with a quiet whimper.
"Shina...?" Kairi's voice raised her sister's head. Kairi began to kneel down right in front of her, taking her time as her sister's eyes looked mournful and watery.
Shina laid her hands on her knees and trembled. Her smile came off as forced just from how tired she looked, but everything else about it was genuine.
"...Y-You're..." She found her voice once Kairi had knelt down all the way, allowing her to pat her on the head, "So big now..."
Kairi's cheeks turned pink and her eyes darted for the ground, "S-Shina..."
Shina let out a louder sniffle and murmured, "You're not as cute as you were before."
Kairi's pupils shrank to the size of pin needles and she stuttered with red cheeks, "S-Shina!"
Shina suddenly forced her arms tight around her sister's chest and pulled her head onto her left shoulder. She let out a few "Hics" and her heartbeat thumped loudly in Kairi's ear.
"Its...its really you..." Shina murmured, a tear or two falling on the back of Kairi's head.
Kairi let Shina hug her until she was satisfied, then started to wrap her arms around her chest as well.
"Sis..." She whispered.
When they raised their heads to look at one another their eyes were practically full of tears. Shina smiled big and muttered, "I...I...I..."
"I...I...I..." The sisters had a lot to say despite being at a complete loss for words. The two pulled each other closer and opened their mouths wide to cry their hearts out.
They were left undisturbed for five minutes, by which point their bodies tired out and they collapsed on their sides exhausted, the tops of their shirts soaked with their tears.
With everything having quieted down Auris played the role of medic and used her aura to give everyone else enough strength to stand back up. Gabriel and her then worked together to pick up the two sisters and carry them back to Saturn's bigger ship.
Mew stood back for a bit with Riku and Joe Dark smiled at Kairi full of pride. Joe Dark tucked his hands in his pockets and grumbled, "Well...that's enough excitement for me."
"Hehehe!" Mew looked at him and chuckled. When he opened his eyes he saw Aurian Pluto standing detached from the rest of the groups. The two's eyes met, and Mew's began to slant with slight disgust.
Pluto raised his brow and started turning and walking towards Saturn and Jupiter chatting it up with one another.
"Ahem...!" He coughed to grab their attention and, much to Mew's surprise, the proud king suddenly raised his arms with his wrists pressed together.
"I surrender, Catherine." There was nothing about his admission of defeat that sounded genuine, but Saturn simply ate it right up.
"Awww, I was hoping you'd put up more of a fight!" Saturn quickly slapped the aura cuffs on Pluto's wrists and wagged a finger at his face.
"I got a few more things to wrap up here. So you better just waddle on over to the Prism Cube and sit your ass down! I got a nice cold jail cell waiting for you back home!"
"Oh, I look forward to it." Pluto's tone was dripping with sarcasm but he nevertheless turned and began to short walk to Saturn's other ship.
Mew parted from his family and approached Pluto from the side to ask, "Where do you think you're going?"
Pluto gave Mew a snide glance and smirked, "To jail."
"I can see that..." Mew snarked back, and then remarked as he crossed his arms, "That ain't like you. You're up to something."
"...I can survive Catherine's brand of justice," Pluto admitted without any further prodding, "But if given the opportunity you'd kill me in a heartbeat."
Pluto's smirk widened into a smile and his confidence had never been stronger, "A few hundred years of penance in jail is nothing. I have survived worse colds..."
He began to walk and left Mew with an ominous reminder, "Time is not on your side, young Mew. I will simply outlast your justice...And make yours and all other worlds bow to me as King. Enjoy the rest of your life, knowing that my throne shall rest atop your grave."
Mew closed his eyes and turned his back towards Pluto, letting out a sigh before fighting back calmly, "Y'know, you didn't have to step in and help us back there."
Pluto stopped and Mew turned around to face him, "It would've been better for you if we died first."
"...Hmph." Pluto hung his head high and scoffed.
Mew felt reluctant saying this to the Disgraced King, but it was bugging him too much for him not to, "Maybe there is a good King buried somewhere in that black heart of yours."
He stared at the back of Pluto's neck not with anger, but with wishful optimism, "I hope your time in jail will make you think about that a bit."
"...You're annoyingly perceptive...for an idiot." Pluto whispered mostly to himself as he wandered off to Saturn's ship.
After a bit more wrap up Saturn programmed the Sagittarius Arrow to take the others back to Sancturia while her and Pluto took off in the Prism Cube for her space station.
Pluto silently sat there and began his long wait for sentencing while Saturn fiddled around with pages full of data she got from the Cosmos Drive. Her eyes were extra bright, her glasses extra foggy, and her body was thick with sweat.
"This data, and this data, and this too! Yeah with this, and that...and all these other things! Hahahah! Shina Aurora, you and I are gonna have some FUN someday!"
But as of right now her and her little sister rested in the comfort of the Sagittarius Arrow atop a few chairs, with their heads resting on Auris' lap. She stroked the sides of their heads and closed her eyes, humming a simple lullaby that slowly made them smile...
Next Time: Resting Up