I keep taking a while on this. Sorry about that. I'm getting so close to finishing this story and I need to quit stalling.

Anyway, for this chapter, it'll be the second combat and then the first. The first battle should go by pretty quickly due to the main event of this chapter.

I'd have to say that the funny thing is that both Saki and Jade are being fought in this chapter. I know that doesn't really make any sense, though in some of their mannerisms, they're rather similar. Maybe that's why? I dunno.

Other than that…

SparkyIceblaze135: Thank you!

Here's chapter 18!

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Chapter 18: Jade's Last Stand

Heeding Roselyynn's advice, Roxas and the others went down the hall and hoped nothing would happen like with what Roselyynn pulled in greeting to them when they got to Saki's door- which was pale and made of marble, carved with ornate symbols with a spherical one being the main point of focus. However, they were hesitant to open up the door.

"…Zexion, maybe you could throw something at the door? Like an illusion to see it isn't a trap when we come in?" Demyx asked cautiously, about ready to hide behind Lea (who was very unapproving of such).

Zexion nodded and told everyone to stand back, about to do so when he opened up his Lexicon, only for the doors to open, revealing Saki.

The group paused when she spoke as her dull grey eyes scanned over them a moment. "I'm not going to just ambush you for my own amusement. You could've just knocked on the door." said she, in a rather deadpan way that reflected her bored yet blank expression.

They remained suspicious of Saki, and she sighed, shaking her head a moment before taking a deep breath. "You want me to prove it, huh. Alright then, I'll show you," she began, and then explained what she'd do. "I'll close the door, and then try opening it and see what happens. Deal?"

"…Deal." replied the second combat group cautiously to Saki, and she did exactly as she first stated, closing the marble doors in their faces. The guys waited a few minutes, before having Zexion open the door, his Lexicon in hand just in case, as well as everyone else being armed with something.

All that happened was Saki speaking. "Come in." called she from somewhere in the room. The group cautiously walked in to find that the room was dark, but once everyone was in, the doors closed behind them, startling Demyx and causing him to hide.

A spotlight hit in the middle of the room, revealing Saki sitting at a table drinking… something. It looked like it was tea considering the teapot and teacups set around the table, and she also had a book in hand, though her staff rested by her chair.

She had no need to look up at the heroes: for she already knew of their presence in the room. She remained emotionless when she spoke once more, "See? I did nothing to you."

Everyone still had their suspicions, and Neku spoke. "But you will once we step further into the ring." Saki sighed in response to what Neku said, and she proceeded to look at them, but she appeared sad.

"…Do you really think I want to fight? I'd prefer if you skipped fighting me; I won't mind if you do leave. All this fighting in itself is pointless." stated Saki, before she blew some hair out of her face and then put the stray strands behind one of her ears. She remained seated, not getting up.

Saki watched how the heroes didn't move in response, still uncertain if she were being honest. She frowned at them, sadness still evident on her face before she did get up; snapping her book shut and the furniture as well as the book vanished. Her staff, which happened to be the Ancient Staff, glimmering in the light, and Saki got into her battle stance, tapping her staff on the floor and revealing the rest of the room, showing that Saki was on a center point similar to the one in Roselyynn's room, and it was surrounded by stairs.

This room also resembled Saki's chamber in the Tower of the Illusion, but when the heroes stepped forward, areas of the floor slowly began spinning and the center point rose as did Saki, and the stairs went down, creating steepness around the circular area.

"Great. She can snipe us from the center of the room." Lea said unenthusiastically. However, when the battle began, Saki didn't attack, and the group circled around curiously, confused as to what she was doing.

So, they tried to fly up there, only for Saki to stop them with and illusion and smack them down. They tried to hit her with some ranged attacks, only for her to reflect them.

"What are you doing? Aren't we supposed to battle?" shouted Roxas. Saki nodded, but when she responded, they couldn't hear her.

"What did you say?" yelled Roxas at Saki, and she frowned, but she didn't come down, and she couldn't repeat what she said because she was still too quiet. Zexion decided to try and confront her, breaking the illusions she tried sending at him with his own.

When he did get up to Saki's platform, Saki attacked, and then there was a power struggle between her and Zexion, and the rest of the second combat group observed from below. Roxas sighed at this. "Well, what do you know? It's basically what happened last time when battling Saki." Roxas stated rather boredly.

Lea frowned as he observed and noticed something. "She's not doing this at full power or giving it her all. She seems to be purposely pushing us away so we can skip her."

As the fighting continued, Neku, Demyx and Roxas looked at Lea, surprised at his observation (Demyx showed the greatest reaction). "She's not? Why?"

"It might relate to what Roselyynn said. Saki must know we need to hurry, but Roselyynn also mentioned how we need to help stop the Commander before it's too late." Lea explained, and then, they saw Zexion knock Saki off the platform, and instead of catching herself, she fell, and Zexion got off the platform too and carefully went down in hopes of possibly saving Saki, but she saved herself, and it gave the heroes an opportunity to attack.

And they did, but she didn't fight back, and as a result, they held their last attack when Saki fell and rested a moment, but she seemed irritated when they didn't attack her. "Take me down and move on! We don't have time to stall!"

"But you haven't been fighting back." Neku retaliated. "It only makes this fight all less fair."

Saki lowered the platform and gazed out the window. She looked worried and then spoke, "They're drawing closer, and our oblivion too is getting closer… The ones with the task of defeating the Commander are drawing ever closer, but they need to go faster. You're almost done with your own task too, but please, finish me and get moving!"

"Why?" asked the heroes.

Saki yelled out of desperation in response, much to their own response. "We don't have much time! Just get it over with!"

The heroes couldn't bring themselves to do it, so Saki decided something else. She pouted, crossing her arms and said, "Fine, you've defeated me. Go!"

"But that fight was too easy?" asked Demyx, but Saki didn't seem to care. She healed up any wounds the heroes may have taken and then ushered them out of her chamber, telling them to head to Sol to defeat her.

They still objected, feeling like the battle was still too brief and too easy, but she ignored such and made them leave. The last thing she said was that, "Only Sol is left. She'll give you more of a fight than I."

Then, Saki shut the doors, breathing; "Good luck…" as the heroes went to the next room, unsure of what just took place.

XxXxX

As the other two groups had been taking down Yami and Roselyynn, Pit and his team got to their first challenge where they were to defeat Jade once again. A jade carpet led to wooden doors carved with hammers, and the heroes went forward.

But they stopped at the door when Dark Pit said, "Careful. We'll have no idea if she set a trap."

"But would it seem like Jade to be so sneaky? From our knowledge, it seems unlikely." said Joshua, who knocked on the door to see if something happened.

The rest of the group (excluding Joshua) stepped back and armed themselves. The doors opened, revealing Jade in the back of the room at what appeared to be a work desk. Slowly, our heroes walked in and the doors slammed shut behind them.

"Hmph. And so it seems you have arrived. Your speed is much to be desired." said the first general. She didn't bother getting up from her chair at this time, and kept tinkering on at her work.

"Cut the talk. Just what is going on, and what are you up to?" Sora asked, edging closer. Jade chuckled a moment before looking back and smirking at the group. However, it changed to a frown as she shook her head.

"Soon, there will nothing to be up to. You need to hurry before it's too late." Jade explained dismissively as she started to open up the exit door. But the five found it suspicious. There was no way Jade was just going to let them go so easily.

They stood their ground in silence. Jade huffed and stood up. "It seems we both know that this cannot be so easy, don't we? Very well." The doors closed and the room went dark.

It lit up again and the room appeared to be like a strange arena now. Jade was near the back of the room where her work desk would've been, but the platform seemed separated. Interestingly, she had a different weapon in hand, being an Atlas Club, but they learned something about Jade too.

She could control her three puppets (Plus, Minus and Equal) without using their control pads. In fact, the three of them were practically three separate entities that served her that she could control regardless. The fight began when Jade set up a barrier around her space and left her three puppets to fight the five of them. It appeared Jade wasn't going to fight until they were taken down.

Plus teleported at Pit and took him off guard, nearly knocking him over if Dark Pit hadn't caught that and slammed into Plus with a kick. "Pay attention! Now is not the time to stall!" Pittoo shouted at his lighter counterpart, and he shook himself back into it. Sora and Riku were getting into the fight and handling Minus while Joshua took on Equal.

So, it was decided that Pit and Dark Pit would handle Plus. Her eye glimmered mischievously before she set herself ablaze. It was decided then that now would probably not be a good time to use Melee attacks. So, the light angel and the dark anger decided to fire at Plus with their Bows (the Palutena Bow and the Silver Bow respectively). It surprised her, causing her to stop. However, another thing she didn't see coming was when Pit and Dark Pit decided to use Melee Attacks and wiped Plus out.

Sora and Riku effortlessly took down Minus with an Arcs Arcanum attack from Sora and a Dark Firaga from Riku. Sora grinned and did a quick taunt with his Keyblade as he twirled it in hand, and Riku smiled at him. As for Joshua, it was a bit more difficult to take Equal down, but when Plus and Minus were down, it weakened the purple-haired 'puppet'. A powerful blast from Joshua's Jesus Beam wiped Equal out and Jade's barrier went down.

Jade exhaled and spread her wings. She flew over, mocking Pit and Dark Pit for their lack of flight before landing. She held her Atlas Club effortlessly in hand and held it like a baseball bat. Pit frowned, raising an eyebrow at Jade's stance while she held her club.

Jade hadn't struck yet, so Pit decided to make a quick comment. "I know I'm not an expert on club posture, but are you sure you're holding it right?" Jade didn't make any sort of expression back. Sora gave him a weird expression, raising an eyebrow and frowning.

"Pit, we're kinda in a battle here! I don't think now is the time to talk about Club-"

Jade took the opportunity to strike, coming in fast and swinging her club. The five of them barely dodged her attack, and Sora dodge-rolled behind Jade. He attempted to attack her from behind if she hadn't retaliated. Sora blocked with his Keyblade and tried his best to take the impact from Jade's blow. Riku came in and tried to take Jade on one side if Jade hadn't caught his Keyblade.

With a burst of strength, Jade managed to knock the both of them back. She showed no sweat and no emotion whatsoever as she analyzed her opponents. "Hmph. You really think it's that easy, do you? Humor me." Jade unleashed a charged attack that seemed to have an area-of-effect-like occurrence upon impact. It gave Sora, Riku, Pit and Dark Pit barely any time to react as Joshua quickly teleported up.

The attack hurt a lot. Jade rolled her eyes and got back into her stance. "Oh come on, boys. You'll be no match for Luna or Yume, or even our Commander if you're going to pull the 'oh no, I'm caught" act. Besides, it's five against one. You have the advantage over me, don't you?" She scolded them in their time of weakness.

Jade did have a point. The quintet tried to recover, and Sora took a deep breath. He unleashed his Final Form and rushed at Jade, attacking her with his Synch Blade. Jade grinned at the sudden determination. "That's more like it!" She shouted at the five.

Pit went in with Melee Attacks to help Sora while Dark Pit and Riku were more on the support side of the situation; firing from a distance as well as managing shields and healing. Joshua was keeping a steady stream of attacks to further take damage off of Jade.

Their teamwork caused her to eventually fall to her knees and drop her Atlas Club to the floor with a loud clatter. The General took deep breaths and smiled at the five of them.

"You have to show stronger teamwork and attack in the next fighting. Luna is up next, and her defenses aren't easy to take down. Make sure to pick up the pace too, for that matter. You may be taking us down somewhat quickly, but you must get to the Commander before it's too late! Hurry." Jade opened up the door and motioned for them to go.

"Why is it so urgent to leave?" Sora asked. Jade wasn't able to respond.

For now, the best thing they really could do was keep moving forward. Now definitely wasn't the time to stall. Hesitatingly, the group left Jade in order to move onto Luna, who was the next General.

Hopefully, she wouldn't be as difficult to defeat quickly.

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Instead of what I was initially going to go with, Sol and Luna will be faced the next chapter; and with the chapter afterwards it will be the next two. I know it will end up delaying Naminé's group since I was going to have a different order by a chapter, but regardless of such, the other group would be able to complete their work and it would take another chapter for Naminé's group.

I'm sorry this took so long though. We only have a few chapters left and this few year ride will be over. Despite the cringiness of my older writing style at the beginning (by god, the characters arguing in the first few chapters of the story. Blegh), I feel like this story is a great example of my growth as a writer.

Other than that, please review if you'd like, please try to refrain from flaming if possible and please tell me how I can improve.

I will see you all in the next chapter.

Ciao!