Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts. I own the OCs. I own the plot. End of story.
Chapter III
Skyler had spent the rest of the day in her Gummi ship, setting up the laptop that she would receive and send messages from. She finally stepped out in time to catch the last few rays of sun creeping back behind the horizon. They sky was stained pink, red, and a golden yellow. It set a calming mood over Destiny Islands. Skyler liked that. Back at school, it was never completely calm. Something was always going on. A sword fight, an archery class, people having a stupid fight in the hall. It was never as quiet as this. It was never as serene.
Skyler started down the sandy beach. The waves lapped up, barely missing her as they slipped up the shore, then splashed her a bit as they hurried back. Skyler found a large rock further down the beach. She settled onto it and turned to face the horizon. She liked the peace of this place. Skyler turned as she heard soft footsteps behind her. It was another girl.
Her red hair framed her face nicely. Some of it dangled past her shoulders. She had on a small pink dress. She approached Skyler with a smile, then stopped next to her, placing a hand on the rock.
"You must be Skyler," she said, holding out her other hand. Skyler shook it quickly.
"And you must be Kairi," she replied. The girl smiled and nodded.
"Sora and Riku said they met you on the beach earlier,"
Skyler smiled and laughed a little.
"Yeah, I'll never forget that," she sighed. "Riku was shoving Sora's head in the sand,"
Kairi laughed as she pictured what that had to look like. The two talked while they watched the sun go down. Skyler told Kairi about her life at the training academy and about Kaylee and Nicolette and Kairi told Skyler about life on Destiny Islands and she told her a little bit about Riku and Sora. Once the last bit of sun light slipped away, the girls departed in different directions. Skyler went back to her ship and Kairi went to wherever it was she wanted to go.
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As the moon rose, Kaylee was finishing setting up her laptop. After the meeting, which mostly consisted of staring at and glares towards Kaylee, Axel had shown Kaylee to her room and she had spent the rest of the evening there. Well, until she heard Xemnas yelling outside her door.
"Kexlae!" he shouted. Kaylee shut her laptop and shoved it under her bed. She opened the door and nearly slammed into Xemnas as she hurried out. The Superior glared down her. "Follow me," he ordered, turning away and starting down the hall. Kaylee followed nervously, wondering what he was going to have her do.
Xemnas led Kaylee outside, where there was a large, circular training arena. Axel stood in the center, chakrams in hand. The rest of the Organization was gathered around the arena. All eyes turned to Xemnas and Kaylee as they entered. Xigbar threw a black bundle at Kaylee. She caught it and held it up, revealing it to be a black cloak. Xemnas then pointed to the arena. Kaylee knew what that meant.
She scurried into the huge arena. She stood across from Axel, then unsheathed her sword before putting on the cloak. She looked back towards the Organization, who where all anxious to see the fight.
"Just think of this as a sort of…test," said Xemnas. Kaylee gulped and turned back to Axel, who was now in a fighting stance, chakrams ready. Kaylee gulped again and slid into her own fighting stance, holding her sword directly in front of her.
The two stayed still for moment, watching each other. Kaylee then decided to make the first move. She lifted her sword and lunged forward, aiming for Axel's shoulder.
"Squee!" she shouted as her sword came down. Axel held up a chakram to protect his shoulder, and then looked at Kaylee, puzzled.
"Squee?" he asked. "What the heck is 'squee'?"
Kaylee pulled back, bringing her weapon to her side. She looked at Axel and replied simply,
"Tis my battle cry,"
Axel shook his head, then darted at Kaylee with one chakram held out and the other held firmly at his side. Kaylee lifted her sword, hearing metal clanging on metal as the weapons met. They pulled apart quickly, and Axel went in for another attack. Kaylee dodged it by tucking down and doing a forward roll. They were now on opposite sides of the field. Kaylee turned to face Axel again, only to see that he now had a wall of fire erupting behind him; his chakrams were held above his head.
"Oh crap," Kaylee squeaked as a string of fire snaked its way towards her. She jumped to side, barely avoiding it. Axel grunted in disapproval. He then shot another sting of fire at her. She jumped again, but the fire grazed her arm, burning a bit of her sleeve. She winced as the freshly-burned fabric hit her skin. She growled as she jumped for him, avoiding his flames at all costs.
As Kaylee darted for him, Axel threw a chakram at her. She lunged away from it, but it circled around and one of its sharp edges tore her burnt sleeve. Oh well. At least it didn't cut her. Axel caught the chakram as it came back towards him. He smiled as he blocked a blow from Kaylee. She sighed, then lifted her sword and attacked again, this time aiming for his side. Axel surrounded her blade with fire, causing her to quickly pull away.
Once she was sure there was no damage done to the sword, except for a blazing hot tip, she smiled as she readied to attack. Axel gulped as he quickly realized his mistake. By protecting himself from a most likely harmless attack, he'd given her a more powerful weapon. The steel of her sword was now giving off the heat from his fire. Kaylee ran at him, swinging her sword in the air wildly. She struck him in the side just as the heat was wearing off.
Axel fell over in shock. He dropped a chakram, letting his hand wander to where Kaylee had just hit him. The fabric of his cloak was torn a little. It felt a bit warm, but she hadn't hit too fiercely. His skin wasn't cut. Bruised at the worst, but not cut. He groaned as he forced himself to his feet, picking up his chakram. He spun around to face Kaylee, who was back in her fighting position. Axel lifted his chakrams and tossed them into the air. They criss-crossed over each other and whizzed past Kaylee, hardly missing her head.
Kaylee ducked as the chakrams curved back. Axel caught them at the same time, almost knocking himself off balance. Kaylee lift back up then lunged at Axel, sword raised. He held up a chakram and continued to block blow after blow until he was finally able to catch her sword. It banged between two of the spikes on Axel's weapon. Axel took this as an opportunity and pushed as hard as he could, knocking his opponent to the ground. Kaylee landed with a thud, looking back up at Axel. He threw a chakram into the ground next to her, inches away from her arm.
As he bent down to pick it up, Kaylee stuck her blade in one of the circles that the spikes protruded out from. She clutched the hilt with both hands, pushed down so that Axel couldn't pull the weapon from the ground. Growing aggravated, Axel pulled with all his might, ripping the chakram from the dirt. Kaylee slipped in the process, and dug her blade into the ground to prevent herself from ending up with a face-full of dirt. She pushed on the pommel, lifting herself to her feet. She then gripped the hilt and tugged on it, struggling to release the weapon.
"Not so easy, is it?" Axel questioned, his voice heavy with arrogance. Kaylee grunted and pulled, stumbling backwards as the sword was removed from the dirt. She turned around, to see that Axel had let his chakrams disappear. Kaylee sighed with relief after realizing the fight was over. She sheathed her sword and looked at the Organization. Most of them seemed surprised she'd lasted that long.
Xemnas motioned for her to come out of the arena. Kaylee nodded, and started to walk away. Axel strode after her, hand on his bruised side. As she walked, a twinge of pain in her arm reminded her of Axel's attack. She glanced at it, noticing through the rip in her cloak that the chakram had given her a small cut. She stopped in front of Xemnas, who simply looked down at her. Axel stepped back to the line of Organization members, watching Xemnas intently.
Kaylee looked into the face of the Superior. She couldn't make out the expression he wore. Was it satisfaction or disappointment? After a long minute, Xemnas spoke.
He said, "That was rather impressive, Kexlae,"
Kaylee continued to look at him. "I-it was?" she asked. He nodded, and then walked off. Each Organization member followed after him in rank order. Axel gave her a nod of approval as he passed, which seemed like a good compliment considering how arrogantly he presented himself. Demyx gave her that same warm smile as before when he walked by. Kaylee smiled back at him.
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Late that night, Nicolette shut down her lap top and left it on the desk. She then peeked down out in the hall to see if anyone was still awake. Ever since Yuffie showed her the room, Nicolette had kept herself up there, working with the lap top and wondering about her friends. Now she felt the need to practice with her sword.
The hallway was dark and quiet. No sounds could be heard from any of the rooms. Nicolette smiled as she decided everyone must be asleep. She belted on her sword and started downstairs. Little did she know that one person was still up: Leon. And he noticed her in the hall. And curiosity got the best of him as he got up and followed, grabbing Revolver on his way out.
"Where are you going?" Leon asked as soon as Nicolette put her hand on the door knob. She jumped and spun around, sword hitting her thigh.
"Um…Just going for a walk," she said innocently. Leon raised an eyebrow and pointed to her weapon.
"With that?"
Nicolette's hand made its way to the sword's hilt. "I can ask you the same question," she replied, indicating the gun-blade in his hand. He shrugged.
"You going to answer me?"
"I like to practice swordsmanship," she replied simply, her grip on the hilt loosening.
"Want a sparring partner?" Leon asked.
"You?" she asked, shocked, although she didn't know why she felt that way.
"I'm up. I have nothing to do. Yes or no?"
"Sure,"
"Then let's go,"
He brushed past her and opened the door, standing to the side so she could first. She walked past him in the same manner he had and waited for him to slowly and quietly close the door. He led her around the side of the building and they each got into a starting position.
"Let's see how well they trained you over there," he said. Nicolette smirked.
There was a long pause, each of them watching the other intently. Every now and then, Nicolette would transfer her sword from hand to the other or raise it above her head. And every time she did that, Leon tensed, only to find out she was merely testing to see his reactions. Although how much information she would gather from that, he wasn't sure. But apparently the small observations she had made satisfied her. She raised her sword and charged at him, only to be blocked by Revolver's thick, heavy blade. She pulled back and he made his first attack, aiming at her shoulder.
Nicolette blocked him as quickly as she could, swinging her arm down to push him out of the way. It didn't work as well as she hoped, for the next thing she knew, Leon had knocked her to the ground. She gasped for breath and pushed herself to her feet, seeing Leon back in his fighting stance. She charged again, aiming for his side. He blocked her and stepped to the side. Nicolette stumbled and turned on her heel. As soon as she faced him again, she charged once more.
This time, the blades met in the air. But it was only for a split second, for the holders pulled the weapons back quickly. She jumped back at him, finding herself blocked by the gun-blade. She jumped back as he attacked. Nicolette found it hard to block him this time, and almost didn't. She caught his blade on hers and backed up so that she held her sword at arms-length. She pushed her sword up and down the large steel blade. Leon cocked his head slightly, wondering what it was that she was doing. He caught on quickly that she was distracting him, and attacked before she could.
The two got into a battle of clanging steal, moving back and forth in what seemed to be a straight line. Finally, Nicolette broke the continuous string of pointless attacks by forcing her weight backwards, flinging herself into a back flip. She straightened up and lunged at him again. Leon blocked only to find himself back into that same string of back-and-forth attacks.
They broke apart, both breathing heavily. Beads of sweat rolled down their faces.
"You're pretty good," Nicolette commented. Leon grunted in response. She shrugged and flung herself at him, sword raised. He blocked it and knocked her to the ground a second time. She smiled as she got up and attacked once more. They fought with all their strength, swinging their weapons at each other every chance they got.
After a few minutes, Nicolette smirked again. She had taken her time to understand his reactions to quick attacks, so now it was time to change strategies. There was another pause during which the both caught their breath. Once Leon could see Nicolette was in a fighting stance, ready for the next round, he tensed, ready for more endless attacks.
To his surprise, she did nothing. She just stood there. He took advantage and lunged at her. Their blades met in the air and pulled apart in the blink of an eye. They found themselves back where they started. And once again, Nicolette did nothing. Leon was forced to attack her again, this time their blades remained in contact longer than before, but were soon forced apart.
Leon found himself very confused. Why wasn't she attacking? Was she getting tired? He shook his head, not ready to fall into any traps. And just like he had expected, she jumped at him again. The fought back and forth for another five minutes before Nicolette ended the battle. As soon as the blades came in contact for the hundredth time, she swung her arm down, her free hand gripped Revolver's hilt, which Leon clutched tightly. She dropped to one knee and used the dullest part of her blade to sweep his feet out from under him.
Leon fell to the ground with a large thud. He gasped, wind completely knocked out of him. He the slight metallic twang of metal, and look over to see that Nicolette had thrown her sword into the dirt. She held out a hand and helped him up. Both were breathing heavily, exhausted from their little duel. He smiled as she pulled the blade of the ground and sheathed.
"You're not too bad," he said.
a/n
Okay, that was fun chapter! Hope you liked it! In the next chapter, Skyler will fight Sora just for the heck of it. Sounds like fun, huh? R&R!
-Wolf