When You're Strange
Chapter 3
Exit Light
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The three keyblade wielders rushed their opponent as a group. Sora reached him first and swung at the man, who ducked under the blow. Sora quickly turned and attacked the man from behind while Riku did the same from the front. The cloaked man caught both keyblades by their guards. Kairi swung down at him, but he quickly raised his foot and stepped on the edge of her weapon, trapping it between his sole and the ground. He then effortless tossed the two boys skyward and then quickly did the same with Kairi. As they were suspended helplessly in the air the man raised a hand toward them, summoning a mass of dark energy around them. As he clenched his fist the darkness closed around the three, encasing them in a ball of darkness. He quickly slammed his fist into the ground and the ball imitated the motion, crashing into the earth below. The ball dissipated to reveal the three comrades sprawled across the ground in pain. They managed to raise themselves up to prepare for another assault when they were met with a dark shockwave that sent them soaring. The unbelievable force of the attack was enough to actually cause them to slam into the bottom of the stands, despite how far away they were. Kairi managed to lift her head up, ignoring her broken arm. Her eyes widened as she saw a hailstorm of dark bolts approaching. She cast Reflega, protecting herself and her friends from the onslaught. With her remaining magic energy she cast Curga, healing her broken arm as well as the other injuries of her and her friends.
"No way," Riku muttered. "There's just no way. Not even Xemnas was this strong."
"We can't let this drag on," Sora agreed, handing Kairi an Ether. "We have to end this before he has a chance to get really serious."
Kairi uncorked the concoction and quickly chugged it down. As she finished she noticed a portal opening above them. The man dropped out of it, diving towards them with one fist raised.
"Scatter!" she screamed. The three managed to dodge the initial blow, but the shockwave sent them all soaring again. This time, however, each one was blown in a different direction. The man jumped toward Kairi with alarming speed and with a swift kick sent her crashing to the ground. She gasped for air she used her keyblade to help her stand, coughing up blood as she rose. Before she knew what happened she found herself raised off the ground with a hand tightly gripped around her neck.
"And they said you could fight," he chuckled.
"Don't… take… me… lightly…" she strained. She aimed her keyblade at his head and hit him point-blank with Pearl. The ball of light exploded brilliantly, causing him to drop his prey to cover his face as he screamed in pain. Kairi wasted no time; raising her weapon skyward she shouted, "HOLY!" A pillar of light burst forth from under her, sending the man tumbling backwards.
By this time Sora and Riku had finally caught up with the two and took the opportunity to use Session. The two unleashed a flurry of attacks on their black-cloaked opponent, knocking him back and forth between them like a tennis ball. The two paused just a moment in preparation for Last Saber, but that was all that was needed for him to get his bearings. The man dodged each of the lightning-fast stabs with remarkable ease. When the two unleashed Dark Cannon, raining down fireballs of darkness, he simply raised his hand and they all faded into nothing. They attacked with Master Hearts, extending energy from their weapons and slicing at their opponent, who dodged by merely levitating into the air. The two gave chase, flying at him while activating XIII Blades. The swords they summoned spun around them at blinding speeds, acting like a buzz saw, but shattered upon contact with their target's fist. The two tossed their keybaldes up, unleashing the finishing move All's End. The two weapons faced each other and began to pull the man in as they glowed with energy.
Dodge that! Riku thought as he and Sora landed on the ground. To his dismay, the man shot two tendrils at the ground and quickly pulled himself out of harms way. The two weapons fired beams of light and darkness at each other, hitting nothing. The weapons disappeared then reappeared in their respective owners' hands.
"How?" Riku muttered. "How did he dodge all that?" Sora and Kairi just stared. No one had ever been able to do what he just did. They were so sure they had him, but all he needed was a split second to get away. Their opponent loudly hacked blood, leaving a large splatter on the dirt in front of him. Within seconds it was gone, drank up by the parched soil.
"Not bad," he coughed. "But not good enough." He raised a hand and three tendrils shot out, wrapping around each of the three fighters. They were lifted up into the air and violently slammed into the ground. Before they could recover they were pulled across the hard ground, having their bodies viciously scraped against the earth. The tendrils then tossed them into the air then quickly hit them to the ground.
Kairi panted, coughing up more blood as she managed to pull herself up to her knees.
"We can't compete," she said. "He's too good."
"Don't think like that, Kairi!" Sora shouted. "We can still beat him! He has to have some sort of weakness! Some kind of flaw that we can use!"
"Besides, we have to stop him!" Riku added. "We can't let a guy this go free and do as he wishes! He'll wreak havoc in all the worlds!"
"That's great and all, but how are we supposed to do that?" she complained. "We're still way out of our league here, and… Wait a minute… He does have a weakness!"
The two stared intently at her, waiting for her answer with hope.
"Sora, have you recovered enough for another Limit yet?"
"Not yet. What are you getting at?"
Kairi used her keyblade to pull herself to her feet.
"My Pearl and Holy spells seemed to hit him hard," she explained. "I think he's particularly weak against light spells. If we can hit him with that technique we've been working on, we might be able to end this!"
"Yeah! It might just do the trick! Riku, do you have an Ether?"
"No. Didn't you have one?"
"I gave it to Kairi."
The two turned to her but she shook her head. The two boys sighed and pulled themselves up. Their opponent was casually walking towards them, his dark aura swirling around him.
"Riku, you have to keep him busy," pleaded Kairi. "Otherwise we don't have chance."
"So I'm doing all the work again?" he smirked.
"Please, no jokes."
"How long do you need, Sora?"
"A minute," he answered. "Maybe two."
Riku nodded. "Make sure to keep your eyes peeled. When he sees that I'm the only one attacking he'll know something's up."
His two comrades nodded. "Be careful," Kairi warned.
Riku charged forward, swinging his keyblade as fast as he could, but not landing a single hit. He still pressed on, hoping the pointless attack could still buy time, but his assault was cut short by a devastating punch to the solar plexus. Riku fell to his knees, completely out of breath, and was quickly kicked to the side. He forced himself up and charged again, but was sent to the ground by a right hook. As he attempted to stand he was yanked up by his hair and then had his head repeatedly slammed to the ground. He felt his bleeding forehead trickle the red liquid down his face. Dizziness began to set in and he was now unable to focus on anything, but he still got managed to see the figure walking away towards his friends. Riku refused to give up. He was going to get them the time they needed even if it killed him.
"Hey, cockbite," he yelled. The figure stopped and gazed at him. "Yeah, you cockbite." Riku forced himself to his feet, trying with all his might not to fall over. "What makes you think we're done?" Riku knew he wouldn't be able to keep himself balanced long enough to run at him, so instead he jumped. He brought the keyblade down as hard as he could, but the man easily caught it. Riku screamed in pain as the man broke his arm, making him drop his weapon. A swift knee to the stomach and Riku fell to his hands and knees. With a cruel stomp on the head, Riku lay limp and defeated on the ground.
The man let out a light chuckle. "You've got some chutzpah, kid."
"More than you'll know," said a voice. The man turned to see Sora and Kairi standing directly behind him with their keyblades raised in the air.
"SOLAR!" they both cried.
An enormous pillar of blinding light shot up from underneath the two, violently knocking the black-cloaked man skyward. The man looked down to see Kairi holding her keyblade like a gun, pointing it at him.
"Pearl Chain!"
Balls of light began streaming out of her weapon, and thousands of Pearls began rapidly pelting him. He the pain was intense, but he was still able to notice that the magic spheres bounced off him rather than exploding like her previous attack. Kairi finished with her assault and Sora appeared in the air. With blinding speed he zoomed back and forth, batting all the Pearls that had bounced off the man back at him, this time exploding on contact. After Sora had hit the last one he sent the man toward the ground with a powerful strike from the keyblade. Sora seemingly warped next to Kairi and the two raised their weapons, summoning a giant orb of brilliant light.
"PURIFY!"
They swung their weapons, throwing the attack at the man as he plummeted toward the ground. On contact, the orb erupted with a massive explosion of light and sound, so much that the ones who launched it had to turn away and cover their ears. After the explosion had ended two looked for the results, waiting for the dust to clear. Kairi began to feel woozy and lost her balance, falling onto Sora, who gently held her up.
"Did… Did we get him?" she asked, not entirely awake.
Before he could answer a hacking sound came from the dust cloud. As it cleared he saw the man, crouched over on one knee and holding his chest, vomiting blood onto the ground. His coat was mostly torn, but the hood remained.
"It can't be," Sora whispered.
The man managed to painfully pull himself to his feet.
"Ok," he coughed. "Now that was impressive."
Before either Sora or Kairi could react the man raised a hand. Kairi suddenly flew towards him, pulled by an invisible force, until her head was held firmly by the hand that summoned her.
"KAIRI!"
Sora ran forward only to be sent flying by a shockwave fired by the other hand. Kairi attempted to swing her keyblade, but her wrist was caught before she could.
"No more cheap shots, babe," he said, and squeezed her wrist until she dropped her weapon. "You may not have a lot of experience, but you're definitely deadly to a guy like me." Kairi struggled as the hand around her head began to squeeze tighter. "Looks like I'll have to take you down first." Kairi screamed as electricity shot through her body, lashing out at every inch of her. Within seconds, she fell limp and was silent. She was dropped to the ground, where she lay motionless. "Au revoir, mademoiselle."
Sora looked on in horror at the two bodies that lay strewn across the ground.
"Kairi… Riku…" As Sora turned to look at the man, slowly beginning seeing red. "You…You… YOU'LL PAY!!!"
Sora dashed forward with blinding speed, wildly swinging his weapon at his enemy who weaved back and forth to avoid the flurry of blows. Sora couldn't focus on anything but making his enemy suffer, and failed to notice the retaliating attack until it was too late. Sora felt something cold enter his stomach, halting his attack. He looked down to see a spike of darkness through him. He felt the energy leaving his body as the world began to fade to black…
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The three of them quickly peeked through the door. Seeing that no one was there, they quietly hovered in. Their small size and ability to fly indefinitely was particularly useful for sneaking around.
"And what are you three doing?" asked a female voice. The three fairies flinched and slowly turned to see a familiar headband wearing ninja waiting by the door.
"Us? Nothing! We're not doing anything! Why would we be doing anything?" answered Yuna, desperately trying to cover for herself and her partners.
"Yeah!" added Rikku. "It's
not like we snuck in looking for treasure, or anything like
that!"
"Moron!" Paine shouted.
"As I thought," said Yuffie. "So you're looking to swipe some treasure from us, huh?"
"N-No, you got us all wrong!" insisted Rikku. "We heard rumors that Leon got his hands on rare device."
"We just wanted to get a look at what it was," said Yuna. "We weren't going to just take it."
"Oh, really?" Yuffie raised an eyebrow.
"Don't tell Leon," Paine begged.
"We've worked really hard to get his trust!" added Rikku.
"Please, don't ruin it because of a little misunderstanding!" finished Yuna.
Yuffie stared hard at them then suddenly beamed a smile.
"I guess you're lucky I'm the one that caught you. I don't think anyone else would've believed you."
"You mean, we're off the hook?" asked Rikku.
"Bad habits die hard," she answered. "Just don't go it again. If anyone else, especially Leon catches you, you're through."
"Thanks for understanding," said Paine.
"No problem! I know what it's like to resist old habits. You three aren't the only one's who used to be treasure hunters."
The three pixies exchanged glances.
"You?" they asked.
"That's right! But don't say nothing!"
"We won't!" Yuna promised.
At that moment a corridor of darkness opened but inches away from them. Out stepped a man in a tattered cloak carrying three bodies, one over his shoulder and one under each arm. The Gullwings hid behind Yuffie as she pulled out her shuriken.
"Good," the man said, "Looks like someone's here."
"Who are you?" Yuffie demanded.
"What are you doing here?"
"You haven't earned the answer
to the first question," he chuckled. "As for the second, I'm
just here to drop these off." The man dropped all three bodies to
the floor. All four of them instantly recognized one of them.
"Sora!" Yuffie shouted in horror as the three pixies flew down to him. They all looked beat up, but Sora looked particularly injured. There was an extremely red and large circle on his exposed chest.
"By the way," he continued, "You'll want to bring that healer friend of yours. I did what I could, but curative spells really aren't my forte." He waved his hand and another dark portal opened. "When they wake up, tell them to meet me at the end of the ravine. You can come too, if you'd like." He walked through and disappeared with a fiendish cackle. Yuffie kneeled down with her friends.
"Is he...?"
"He's alive, but his pulse is weak," answered Paine, both hands on his neck. "He needs help now."
"This one's banged up, but still Ok," said Rikku, referring to the silver haired boy.
"The girl's taken a beating, but with some rest she should be fine," said Yuna, hovering above the girl that Yuffie suspected was Kairi. "Still, some healing wouldn't hurt."
"Go and get Aerith, and Leon, too," Yuffie ordered. The three nodded and teleported away. Yuffie gazed at the defeated trio in front of her.
That guy, she thought to herself. Was he really strong enough to do this to you?
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So there it is, the big fight. I wanted the title to be something related to the events without being obvious with would win. It's still kinda obvious, but not overly so. It's actually part of the Metallica song "Enter Sandman." After some critique about the way I described limit in the previous chapter being too short and choppy, I decided to try to different ways to describe it in this chapter, as well as use one of the limits I made up, "Solar." Tell me which one do you think is best (though I think I already know the answer).
I ended the chapter with Yuna, Rikku, and Paine because even though I haven't played FFX or X-2 I still liked their characters in the KH2 game. Also, I have a thing for comedic minor characters. I decided to let Yuffie catch them because she was the material thief in FFVII and there would be some relations between her and the treasure-hunting Gullwings. Anyway, I promise that our mystery villain will no longer be nameless or faceless after next chapter. But that might be a while off 'cause I'm still thinking about exactly what I want to have happen. Like I said, I have a few plans for the story, but otherwise I'm just letting the rest flow out. See you next time.
