Tears from the sheer force of Riku throwing him wicked at his eyes as Sora tried to stay on target. His knuckles turned white as he gripped onto the handle of his keyblade as hard as he could. Pink hair..pink hair.. Luckily, Marluxia was rather easy to keep an eye on as he prepared to strike. Just as he was about to swipe his keyblade at him, he tumbled right through, smacking the wall. He gasped as his back squarely collided with the wall, knocking the wind out of him briefly. When he opened his eyes, he squinted at an explosion of rose petals around him. Did he just miss..at point blank range? Though he tasted blood in his mouth, Sora forced himself to stand up, looking around wildly but all he could see were the rose petals floating around.
"Prince Riku must trust you very much to toss you right at me like that knowing how I fight. You don't have much battle experience, do you?"
Sora couldn't pinpoint where the voice was coming from but now there were shots of dark magic coming at him too. They whistled past his ear whenever they were close, causing Sora to flinch. He cried out when a sudden burning pain raked down his side. One of them had skimmed past him just enough to break the skin.
"Hey, assholes! Two against one isn't fair!" he cried out, gritting his teeth as he tried his best to guard with his keyblade. He sighed in relief as a huge fireball casted from someone down below flew by, making Xigbar have to come out of his hiding spot.
"Hm, perhaps Prince Riku isn't the best influence on you." There was a dark chuckle right by his ear. Sora nearly fell over as he quickly swung his keyblade. It came into contact with something as there was a clang of metal against metal. The light pink blade of Marluxia's scythe was inches away from his face with his keyblade being the only thing holding it back, though..it was odd. If this guy was a deadly assassin, he probably could've taken Sora out easily by now. Why was he holding back?
"Sora, don't stay in those rose petals for too long." That was..Riku's voice, but it was in his head. Right now, Sora didn't have time to sweat the details. Following the advice, he swiftly kicked one of Marluxia's legs and hopped out of the floating rose petals down to a lower tier of the tower. He nearly slipped off the edge as he feet stumbled, legs feeling oddly heavy. He shook his head after a yawn, almost feeling like he was about to nod off. So that's what it was.
"Huh. I get your trick now. You wanted to put me to sleep. Your goal isn't to kill me. It's to bring me back alive somewhere, right?" Sora wore a confident smile. There was something oddly familiar with fighting Marluxia. It wasn't that he knew him before, but he found that combat like this came easily to him. Perhaps his body was starting to at least remember something. Maybe it was some kind of muscle memory that his conscious self wasn't aware of but another part was. Now, swinging around the keyblade just seemed like second nature.
"Clever boy, but even an absolute idiot could figure that out. Why would we want to kill a prince of light. It's much more entertaining to see them fall to darkness as you will eventually."
Sora stopped the swing of Marluxia's scythe, hearing it slice through the air behind him. However, as soon as he thought he had him, he'd disappear in a spiral of rose petals, zipping around Sora.
"You have to go by sound. You heard it. His scythe makes a unique sound as it slices through the air. Close your eyes and listen." It was Riku's voice again.
"Close my eyes? Are you crazy?" Sora feared he was going to end up walking right off the edge of the building if he did that.
"Just do it, pes sher."
All of Sora's own instincts were screaming not to, but with a deep sigh, he closed his eyes, engulfing his vision in darkness. Instead, he focused on the sounds around him. There was the distinct poof whenever Marluxia teleported like a ribbon running through an object. As soon as he heard the slice, he struck with his keyblade to approximately where he thought Marluxia would be. When he heard a grunt, Sora grinned triumphantly. Opening his eyes, he saw Marluxia hunched over on the ground, clutching at his head. Where the keyblade had smacked his temple, a bit of blood trickled down.
"Hmph, I'm onto your tricks, assassin."
"How clever. It seems you've retained your skillset from before you were put to sleep. We were under the impression you'd still be groggy and easy to capture as long as we could separate you from the Elven Prince. Looks like we'll have to change up our strategy." Sora backed up some when Marluxia started laughing as he got back up on his feet, swinging the scythe around a few times. "All I have to do is find out what makes you tick..lose it in a sense."
Sora kept a brave face on, readying his keyblade. What was this guy getting at.
"Ah! Those arrows hurt, you brat!" There was a voice from above, and Sora watched as an eye patched man suddenly jumped down with Ventus' light arrows following after him. "Marluxia! You really know how to plan out an attack, huh?" The tone was painstakingly mocking. Marluxia only rolled his eyes.
Glancing down towards the ground, it seemed the sniper had jumped down to where the others were. Ventus was continuing to shoot arrows along with Xion full on charging at him as soon as he landed. Roxas was busy with Axel. The two clashed again and again. Roxas' face was already singed from Axel's fire every time he struck. Not letting up for a second, Roxas slashed around with his two keyblades, striking when he could. He used his advantage of agility, weaving around any attacks with grace.
"You can join our side, Axel. I know you know you don't belong with them just as Xion and I realized," Roxas said with a grunt as a kick collided with his side.
"You don't understand. You know I was taken in by them. I owe so much to Lord Xehanort. We were all a team: friends, and just because your precious prince decided he was going to run, you decided to follow after him and leave me all alone." Roxas knew that yell and quickly dodged out of the way as slammed both the Chakrams down where he was. Roxas grit his teeth as he could practically feel the anger and desperation in his voice cutting right through him like a blade in the dark.
"If you knew what they did to him, you'd understand. What was done to all of us." A few tears of frustration dripped from his eyes. "I'm going to help you. Xion and I will help you. We're going to right the wrongs of the past." He cried out as he came charging right at him.
Sora's breath caught in his throat when he felt a cold blade right against his neck. When did he get so close. He could feel Marluxia's presence right behind him. An intent to kill was hanging thick in the air. Sora feared to breathe it in.
"I'll find out what makes you tick, lionheart. Everyone has a switch. It's just about figuring out where it is. Until next time." Once the blade was gone from his throat, Sora collapsed onto his knees, having to catch his breath. He hadn't even moved yet he felt such a paralyzing fear. The only thing that snapped him out of it was a familiar flash of silver. Riku came barreling right at Marluxia, protectively standing between him and Sora.
"Not to worry, your highness. We'll be taking our leave. I look forward to seeing how this one progresses under your charge." He smiled at Sora, though there was something else behind that smile. As Riku lunged forward, Marluxia vanished in a flurry of rose petals again, teleporting to a nearby building. "Xigbar, Axel, we're leaving. I'm sure you'll find plenty of time to fight all of them at a later date."
At that command, Xigbar happily teleported to where Marluxia was.
"Damn, kids. I tell ya, they really pack a punch. What happened to respecting your elders?"
Roxas gave Axel a pleading look as if to say "don't go with them." Axel had a similar expression but went back over to the other two with a shrug. All of them watched as the three were engulfed by shadows and soon disappeared.
"Dammit, Axel." Roxas punched at the ground once he had sheathed his keyblades.
"Roxas, we're going to save him." Xion ran up, pulling him into a hug. "This is only the first battle of many after all." Roxas only nodded solemnly as he hugged her back.
Riku slid his keyblade back into its scabbard offering Sora a hand to help him up.
"You alright? You seemed to be holding your own pretty well for a while, but Marluxia's pretty tough."
"Yeah, I'm okay. I think if he wanted me dead, he would've made that happen quickly. That last move just took me by surprise is all." A soft smile spread on his lips, happily taking Riku's hand.
They all took a moment to settle back down. Minor injuries were taken care of by Riku and Namine's magic. Namine brought them all to her mansion nestled in the woods. In such a peaceful place, it was easy to calm down again after such a sudden fight.
"That fireball you launched at the sniper was amazing, Kairi. You have such strong magic," Olette said, playfully bumping her arm.
"O-oh, you think so? It's not much, but I guess I am pretty good at my fire spells," she said with a slight stammer, nervously combing her fingers through her hair.
"Well, our time here was nice, and I'm glad to see you and your kingdom awake, Princess Namine, but I think it's time we get going to other kingdoms," Riku spoke up after clearing his throat. He hated to leave, but he felt guilty staying relatively safe in here while monsters wreaked havoc on towns and villages outside. They had to keep to their mission after all.
"Um, about that..I've decided something, and I hope you'll be alright with it, Sora," Kairi said, twiddling her thumbs.
"Oh, what is it?" Sora looked to her curiously.
"Well, I've been thinking ever since we arrived here and what I want to do. I've been contemplating it this whole time, and I..think I want to stay here for now with Princess Namine. She knows magic so well, and I think I could learn a lot from her. I also want to get even better at fighting. I know I'm strong, and I could spar with you and Riku, but I want to help protect this place. So, I'm going to stay here while you two go off on your mission. I promise that I'll join back up with you guys for the big final fight, but this is just something I need to do for myself. I've met some good friends here too."
Riku looked from Namine to Kairi with a nod.
"If that's what you want to do, go ahead. I'm sure Sora and I will be alright."
"Are you sure, Kairi? I'm really going to miss you, you know. I mean, our trio dynamic won't be the same, but I understand. We gotta figure ourselves out, try to get our lost memories back." Sora looked like he was about to start crying. Riku soothingly patted his back.
"You guys won't have to travel around and fight by yourselves. Ventus, Xion, and I will join you." Roxas wore a deadly look of determination. "Because we want to help Axel, and we won't be able to do that if we're stuck here or at home."
"Oh, great. I get to babysit," Riku teased. It wasn't uncommon to see a look like that on Roxas' face. He made it every time he wanted something and was going to get it.
"You always say that! You're only a few years older than me!"
"So? I still feel like a babysit whenever you two are around. Now, you got one more with you," Riku chuckled, unable to hold back his laughter.
"Ai maes Ai shor cor o," Roxas said quickly.
"Kai eindaer. Ai kyr byrol sai jhyri."
"Hey! I understood some of that!" Sora interjected triumphantly.
"Since when?" Riku gave him a "I totally don't buy that" face.
"Miss Aqua gave me this book. She even wrote down slang stuff too." Sora fished around in one of his pockets, pulling out a small book. There was the Elvish alphabet along with phrases and translations. "Because I want to learn your language. Then you can't get away with saying stuff behind my back."
"Huh. You know I'm actually somewhat impressed."
"Haha, I'm definitely gonna miss all the banter from you guys, but I promise we'll see each other again soon, okay?" Kairi pulled them both into a hug as they were in the middle of arguing. "Here." She took out two charms she had in her pocket. She usually used them as hair ties, but she gave one to Sora and the other to Riku. "These charms will keep us together."
Sora's eyes widened as he looked over his before tying it to his keyblade's scabbard.
"We promise, Kairi! Please take care of yourself. I'm sure you'll be just fine here. Learn even bigger and better spells." Sora hugged her again for a bit longer, trying to take in what this felt like before pulling away.
"You promise you'll look after him, Riku? You know how Sora can be."
"You have my word." Riku knelt onto one knee much like a knight would. He would keep Sora safe. He had to. It was difficult to put into words, but the connection called him to. He chuckled to himself, thinking how comical it must look for a prince to bow.
Around morning the next day, Namine organized three horses for them all. Most of the supplies were loaded onto the horse only Ventus would be riding on. Roxas and Xion paired up on the other followed by Riku and Sora.
"I'll keep you close in my heart, Kairi. I'm sure we'll all be stronger when we meet again." Sora held out his hand, giving hers a squeeze once she took it.
With a final wave, Riku urged his horse forward, and the other two followed shortly after. He looked to the sky, watching the massive gates open again to a less friendly world outside. Marluxia had definitely been trying to capture Sora alive. He was going to find out the reason for it, though just thinking about it put a weight on his chest.