The thunder and storm outside was getting worse; he had to hurry if he wanted to have any chance of saving the raft. Wondering if Sora and Kairi were already on the island, he rushed downstairs.
Shockingly, his mother was sitting at the table reading. But then, she did love night, and reading books was her favorite hobby.
The woman looked up to her son. With a serene, motherly smile, she greeted him.
"Good morning, Riku." The boy nodded nervously, still standing on the bottom step. The door was only a few feet away, and his mother wouldn't be able to stop him.
"Mom?" He asked, finally stepping down off the step. The smile grew wider as his mother set her book down beside her.
Suddenly, the boy leaned down and took his mother into a deep, strong hug, a desperate hug, and he sniffled a little bit.
At first, she was surprised, but then she embraced him back gently, rubbing his back.
"I love you. And I always will, no matter where I am." Riku told her. He was confusing his mother, and as he stood, she looked him over, trying to figure out what was happening.
But before she could say anything, the boy dashed out the door, even as she yelled after him, and disappeared into the night.
"Mom!"
Riku snapped up in bed, covered in sweat and shaking slightly. The boy glanced around the room; he was sleeping on the sofa in Sora's house. Sora was sleeping on the floor, for some reason.
"Mm… some ketchup with those fries please… and hot sauce… maybe some mustard…" Sora clutched his pillow as he turned over.
Thunder crashed down outside as the storm got worse.
"It's just like… that night, so long ago." Riku muttered, staring out the darkened window into the midnight sky.
Axel was racing back to the castle, as the beast roared ahead of him, letting him fall behind ever so surely.
He remembered that he'd been told (somewhere) that this beast once attacked a city called Edge, outside of Midgar's remains, on Cloud's home world. Said warrior destroyed it, but it must've just been sleeping.
(SEE ADVENT CHILDREN FOR DETAILS!)
Breath heightened, Axel knew he'd never make it in time.
Suddenly, his eyes got wide and he slid to a stop.
"You IDIOT!" He smacked his forehead, realizing that spending so much time with Demyx might not be a good thing for his common sense. Creating a dark portal, Axel appeared in Xemnas' office in no time.
"Axel?" Saix asked, taking Xemnas' place in the office.
"Big… dragon… thing… city boom… we all die!" Axel stuttered. Saix lifted his eyebrows.
"What?" He asked.
Suddenly, Bahamut screeched past Saix's window, shattering the glass. Axel jumped back, but Saix simply stood stoically.
"Oh." Saix stated. Axel looked at him like he was nuts.
The two sauntered down the hall as Saix called out for the other members. Luxord materialized next to them.
"Larxene." The woman was coming up behind them as Saix spoke to her. "Where's your bitch?"
"Marluxia's with Demyx. I don't know where they are." Larxene smirked.
"So it's the four of us." Luxord began.
"Against that freak thing." Axel smirked.
Luxord shrugged as the left the building. "I don't much mind those odds." He joked.
Bahamut smashed into one of the towering buildings of the dark city. It began to crumble and shake an earthquake in the middle of the city.
Axel summoned up his weapons, as did the others. Luxord summoned two gambler nobodies.
"Go! Find Demyx and Marluxia."
With that, the two bowed and disappeared.
"Auron!" Roxas cried. The boy was in the underground, the roof above him being shook apart. His voice could barely be heard over the noise, but Auron came down the hall after him, bleeding and sweating.
"We can't handle them like this." Auron concluded. The two turned and began running away from the Terrace. Ahead of them were the Terrace's civilians, running for their lives.
"This is too much like War of the Worlds." Roxas complained.
"Please tell me that I'm not Tom Cruise." Auron moaned.
Despite their situation, Roxas managed a chuckle as they came up out of the tunnel.
Everywhere he looked, people were running like mad in circles, dodging death blindly. Heartless were coming out of the woodwork.
Roxas swiftly leapt out to take care of them. Two swept up behind him, and he slashed back. Another came at his front, but was quickly dealt with by a struggle bat.
Hayner stood smugly in front of Roxas, bouncing the bat off his shoulder. Roxas rolled his eyes.
"Let's get to work, already!" He complained as Hayner laughed and continued attacking. Auron backed up towards Roxas.
"Where can we send the civilians?" Auron asked. Roxas let his eyes wander, trying to come up with an answer.
The answer was given to him.
Coming from up the path was Seifer and his goons, hacking away at the dark beings. Behind him was a small mob of scared civilians. It looked as if he was trying to lead them to the train station.
"That's it." Roxas muttered. Turning back, he stared up at the tower behind him, the train station. Auron stared at him.
"We'll send them to Yen Sid. They'll be safe there." Roxas grinned. Auron chuckled.
"Smart kid." He muttered before leaping into action.
Demyx awoke with quite the headache.
"Where… am I?" He muttered. Flashes of memories spilled out before him, but none of them really made sense.
Demyx couldn't see a thing, but he realized that someone was stirring beside him. It had to be Marluxia.
"Marly?" Demyx muttered groggily. The man groaned in response. "Where are we?"
"I don't know, I can't see worth shit." He complained, shuffling around.
Suddenly, Marluxia flipped the switch and light engulfed the front room of their gummi ship.
The two were under water, somehow having ended up under the sea in Atlantica. They were in the ship, and the ship was balancing on a pointed rock, and around the rock were fish – very large, very dangerous fish. One looked like Godzilla fish, with teeth the size to match. A barracuda swam by and Demyx began shaking.
The two partners looked at each other frantically. They screamed like sissy girls.
"AAAHHHHHHHHHH!"
"Cloud!" Yuffie called out.
"I'm on it!" He replied, already speeding down the hallway. Heartless were everywhere on the ship, and the closer the ship got to Twilight Town, the worse it got.
Slashing through two foolish enemies, Cloud made his way to the back room.
"Cloud!" Tifa greeted, punching a heartless in a wall effortlessly. Said blonde diced up a heartless that had been approaching her back. The two nodded to each other, and continued as the ship flew towards Twilight Town.
Sora woke up in a sweat, having his dream switch from happy to terrible in mere seconds. Roxas was in trouble that much he knew. He had to do something! He couldn't just sit there! But he didn't want to bother anyone else.
With that, not even bothering to put on a shirt, Sora ran down the street, clad in jeans and barefoot. His crown necklace was bouncing up and down on his neck. He was going to Twilight Town to help Roxas, and heaven help him, no one was going to stop him.
Rushing through the storm and the rain, Sora smirked and laughed a little.
"It's so much like that night." He told himself while splashing through the mud.
"In here!" Roxas called.
Many civilians shuffled through the doors, hurriedly and nervously following their self made leader. Roxas scanned the crowd for Olette and Pence, but could only find the former.
"Olette." Roxas called, and she ran forward.
"All right, everyone, file onto the blue train!" Roxas told them. As they began doing so, Roxas sighed happily to see that the train had elongated to fit more people. But, it would still take more than one trip for the whole town.
"Olette." Roxas looked at her. The girl nodded.
"What's going on?" She asked panicking. Roxas shook his head.
"Take care of everyone, all right?" He told her as the last ones filed onto the train.
"What about you, what's going to happen to the town?" Roxas sighed as the roof of the building began falling in slightly.
"I don't know."
The train began pulling out, and Roxas lifted Olette onto the train. She reached out, still holding his hand. Why was she so attached to him? She asked herself.
Roxas jogged a bit so that Olette could hold his hand. All the memories he had of Twilight Town when he was there flooded his mind.
"You may not remember me", He began, as the train pulled out and she let go. "But I will never forget you!"
Confused and frightened, Olette still reached out to him even as the train disappeared out of Roxas' sight.
"Roxas!" Behind him, Seifer's gang came up. Roxas ran up to him.
"The tower's about to fall. Unless we keep it up, the train station's gonna be blocked in." Roxas groaned, looked around in an attempt to think of something.
A huge rumble broke the air, and the group perked up. Rushing outside, Roxas sliced a group of Heartless in half as Seifer, Fuu, and Rai followed him.
The clock tower above the Train station was indeed about to collapse, and it seemed as if there was no mortal way to keep it from doing so. Heartless were spawning out of the crack going across the center of the tower.
"There has to be something." Roxas thought aloud desperately.
More civilians were rushing up the hill, eager to board the train. Roxas glanced at them and sighed quietly.
"Get them on the train before the tower falls, that's our only option." With that, Roxas leapt forward to lead them, blocking heartless attacks, and slid to a stop next to them.
To his surprise, he saw Rikku and Paine among the ranks, fighting off heartless. Roxas ran up to them.
"Rikku, Paine!" He called. The two turned and flew to him in their fairy form. "Lead them to Yen Sid's tower." The two nodded and flew off, leading the civilians.
"I knew he wasn't normal. Just look at him."
General Vanguard was in his study, watching the chaos unfold around him. His soldiers were already outside, fighting the enemy. It seemed they weren't fairing well.
"Excuse me sir?" A soldier asked.
"I said, He's not normal. That one." He pointed his finger out the window to Roxas. The soldier nervously looked out to him.
"With all respect, he looks normal… sir…" The soldier watched as Vanguard smashed his cigarette into his ashtray.
"I will find out your secret boy." Vanguard muttered. "I promise."
Sora kept running through the rain. He had to get to the boat, he had to get off the island.
"Sora!"
Damn. He'd been caught. But, with a chuckle, he realized he hadn't been caught by the person he'd thought would've caught him.
Turning, Sora saw Aisu rushing through the rain in her jeans and a blue pajama shirt, glaring even through her rain covered glasses. Smiling, Sora remembered when they were young how his sister would comment on how she needed window wipers when it rained.
"I'm coming with you!" Aisu demanded.
"To the island? What for?" Sora said coyly.
"Don't you dare! I know what you're doing! You're going off again, aren't you?" She accused.
"You got me." He muttered. "It's urgent. I didn't even wake the others, I have to get going." Sora turned to leave.
Sora pushed the boat off the dock and looked back.
Aisu was in the boat.
"AISU!" Sora screeched. She stuck her tongue out.
"I'm going with you." She demanded. "I don't care what you say, I am going with you."
Growling, Sora gave in, and so the twins floated off in the ocean.
A little while later…
"Okay, how does floating in the ocean get us to another world?" Aisu complained.
Sora sighed. "This ocean is connected to a place called the World That Never Was." Sora told her. "I have a feeling that a place called Twilight Town is in danger."
"So, why aren't you going to this Twilight place?" Aisu commented.
"Because… I don't know. But I think something's going on in the Never World that's affecting Twilight Town, too." Sora told her.
A shore came into view. Sora grinned. But the grin faded when he saw, far behind the shore, flames, and destruction.
"No", He whispered, running up ahead. Aisu reached after him, but he was already gone.
"Man", She muttered. Suddenly, she heard shuffling. "Who's there?"
A girl stepped out, with brown hair and a bit taller than her.
"Who're you?" Aisu asked.
The girl blushed and smiled. "I'm Mitsuka."
Sora rushed up towards the city. A huge dragon like beast was annihilating it, fire every where and nobodies rushing about, attacking it in return. Sora gawked at the site of the great Dark City in flames. Cringing, he rushed forward.
"Axel!"
The red head spun around and grinned at the sight of Sora running to him.
"What took you so long? Certainly not getting dressed?" Axel taunted as Sora grimaced.
"Well, if you want, I could always go back, get dressed, and THEN come save your ass!" Sora offered angrily. Axel shrugged nonchalantly.
Bahamut's large claw slammed into a tower, and with a thundering boom debris began raining down upon the ground. Saix, who was leaping from building to building, summoned his claymore and hit it against the side of a building, propelling him into the air.
"What is that thing?" Sora asked as he and Axel rushed to catch up.
"Something Cloud told me about." Axel told him. "Come on, let's catch up!" Nodding, Sora summoned his keyblade and turned into the Bond of Flame. Axel noticed, and laughed.
FAR AWAY
"Maybe if we don't move, they won't notice us?" Demyx offered.
"Just do like I told you and we'll be out of here in no time." Marluxia seethed. Sighing, Demyx nodded and placed the flat of his hand on the bottom of the ship.
The plan was to increase the amount of water between the rock and the ship immensely, so that the ship would be rocketed out of the water.
Closing his eyes, Demyx summoned up the water.
Too much water.
The glass on the gummi began to crack, and Marluxia glared at it warily. The fishes were gathering nearer the ship, as if pulled in. Marluxia glanced at Demyx. The boy was oblivious to anything.
"Demyx, hurry up." Marluxia told him nervously. That one barracuda was eyeing him dangerously… and it freaked him out.
The ship's hull began to crack. The glass was almost shattered.
"Demyx." Marluxia growled.
"Shut up." Demyx muttered angrily.
A part of the glass shattered, and a stream of water burst in.
"DEMYX!" Marluxia gasped.
"WHAT!?!" Demyx opened his eyes and lost control.
Suddenly, the glass shattered completely and water rushed in, and at the same time the ship burst upwards.
Both, once again, screamed like sissy girls.
"AHHHHHHHH!"
The ship erupted from the water, both still screaming, water flying everywhere, when Marluxia summoned up a net of vines to catch the cracking ship. It landed with a sound boom, and rocked back and forth a bit.
Both Marluxia and Demyx were sitting up to their waists in water, with their hair flipped back, matted, and sticking out in all sorts of odd directions. Eyebrows twitching, Marluxia turned to glower at Demyx.
"Who's bright idea was that?!?" He roared.
"Yours!" Demyx retorted.
Marluxia was about to complain again when he suddenly yelled out, stood up, and bounced up and down in place, grasping his man boob.
Demyx blinked weirdly.
"Uh, Marluxia?" He asked.
Marluxia reached down his shirt, and with a yelp, ripped something out; a fish. Growling at it, he spoke.
"You're mine."
Sora gasped for breath as he hacked away at the beast, flying by its jaws as it lurched towards him dangerously.
Saix flew over him, diving down to attack the beast's spine. Bahamut lashed out, slamming Saix into a wall. Sora called out his name when he too was thrown back.
On the ground, Larxene charged her fists with electricity, a knife between each finger. Glowering, she leapt up, spinning about from building to building until it came to Bahamut's height.
Latching onto its wing, Larxene released electricity.
A mighty roar erupted from it as Bahamut felt agony, and it stopped flapping its one wing. In doing so, the beast began turning so that the wing that Larxene stood on was horizontal with the buildings. Within seconds, Larxene crashed into a tower and screamed, falling to the ground.
Luxord's card caught her, and he grimaced at the beast.
"Such power. We must have a strategy." He mused. Larxene sat up, and then stood, and the card disappeared.
"What can we do?" Larxene added.
Saix was slumped against a building, standing up slowly. Larxene and Luxord ran up to him. As they did, Luxord shouted out to all the nobodies.
"Keep that beast in check!" He told them as they approached Saix.
"We need a strategy." Luxord repeated to Saix. The man groaned in response and stood tall.
"Where's Axel?" Saix began, but was cut off.
A flash of light came out of nowhere from the top of one of the buildings, light blue and shimmering. It flew across the way and collided with the beast. The light spread upon its skin like scales, and Bahamut threw its head back and roared in pain. Saix and the others quickly looked up to the tower the light had come from even as Sora and Axel approached them.
On the roof stood Mitsuka, and in front of her, Aisu. Sora's twin was smirking widely, and had a blue keyblade thrown over her shoulder.