the shade stretched in a playful manner, it's tail flickering slowly back and forth amused at the three staring down at him perplexed at its very existence. Gale began to move before his mind could catch up ready to strike the final blow. he only had one chance before the copycat shade would strike. a chance gale missed, as his body had become sluggish no longer able to keep the fit form he used to. the copycat leapt through the air, diving through the floor, just as gale's blade crashed down where it had been mere seconds before. Frustrated, gale slammed his fist down, "nooo.." he cant let it escape it needed to die before it could spread. Just then, a black tail shot from the darkness coiling around him, until he could no longer move. staring him right in the face, the copycat, gaped its cracked grin ready to plunge itself deep within him and feed. his eyes slammed shut waiting for an ending that did not come, as lave leaped forward dispatching the shade with one lunge of her keyblade. gale sighed with relief, he was about to be eaten by a shade, the walls within his heart and mind crumbled as emotions he locked away resurfaced.
Lave looked down on gale, sweat pouring from his face as he made his way back to his feet. something was clearly wrong, the gale she knew could handle that with ease. " what's wrong you're not acting like yourself".
"I don't know... I feel so... weak". gale managed to spit out as he tried to gather himself.
"kids this isn't the time lets move!" snow yelled as he barrelled past the two throwing gale over one shoulder. as he dodged a hippo ballerina shade a shadow began cast over the stairs behind where they once stood as it slowly crept toward the distracted trio. as they ran lave tripped over the stairs tumbling into snow, as they rolled down the stairs they took down everything within their path. this included all the magic broom shades and heartless that where determined to get in there way. as they hit the bottom both gale and snow leapt up with a grin laughing,
"Yeehaw, Haha!" they turned to each other confused. lave finally realizing what was wrong. Gale had began to feel their emotions, their strengths, weaknesses, everything. she knew gale he could flip emotions like a switch depending on what he needed, that's what fueled his soul slaying art. with that she understood why gale had become so weak, but this wouldn't stop him for that she was sure.
snow helped lave to her feet as gale tried his best to loosen himself up and get a feel for his sword again. Snow looked up the spiraling stairs, he knew it would be a matter of time before it caught up and had them pinned in a corner. he spun around dusting the dust off him setting off for the door, gale and lave watched him as he cocked his head back smiling, "nothin to worry about, lets ride". he shoved the doors open as they ran through exiting the tower. weapons raised ready for the fight the shade followed out slowly forming a dark black puddle in front of them. a book slowly rose from the puddle, as its pages flipped a black smoke poured from the book Blanketed the ground. snow threw his arms out pushing gale and lave behind him as he took a step back. the book had been possessed by a shade, and he wasn't prepared for what happened next. a menacing black figure towered over yen cid's home, as black wings unfolded. a demonic figure raised it's hands preparing to strike down. his fist hit the ground shaking the ground under their feet as shades splashed out their eyes toward their new prey.
lave was dumbfounded, she couldn't believe the shades could manifest in such vast ways. the heartless were powerful, but they weren't killing machines. they were just dark beings searching for their hearts, compared to them shades were evolving monsters. she watched as snow ran waving his fist shooting to distract the menacing shade in front of him. gale in vein began to dispatch the smaller shades protecting lave while she concocted a plan. from what she could tell the towering figure wasn't a shade, so she deduced the book had to go. she called out to her comrades, "the book!" as she ran through her enemies with strike raid. This had finally freed up gale to do some damage, he called out to snow as he drifted by on his shiva bikes. snow reached out grabbing gales hand pulling him on to the back of his bike. they speed off instantly freezing everything in their path, as lave charged her keyblade shotlock aiming at the figure. lights shot through the sky in rainbow colors like shooting stars as the keyblades formed flying at the demon. as the demon was knocked back snow hit the brakes as gale leaped off the back. he searched deep within feeling a hot light that coursed through his body focusing it into his blade. the blade began to grow red as it grew in size thickening with every second until it became a glowing red zweihander with a floral hilt. gale spun swinging the sword down as he hit touched down to the ground, the blade nearly missing the book. however, that is all it took as just as the blade hit the ground, the earth split fire bursting through the cracks scorching the book. as the book began to burn the menacing demon began to shrival, shrinking back into his home amongst the pages of the book. the shade burst from the book then a small shadowy mist with red eyes as gale swung a flaming streak of magic with his blade at it cutting it in two. for now yen cid's tower saved from the darkness...
yen cid sat in his chair waiting for the three to return. he could not make sense of how malificient broke into his home with the barrier he had placed. just then a door to darkness opened in his room a woman dressed in black robes holding a staff stepped through. "I see your servants are having a difficult time with my FRIENDS". she said with a twisted smile. "these knew forms of darkness will be quite handy as I gather the seven princesses of heart".
"the light of seven hearts is beyond you malificient heed my warning you will gain nothing from joining the darkness" yen cid told her.
"all things belong to darkness and I will rule everything once I gather the other six." yen cids rose in horror at hearing she had already collected one of the princesses. malificent turned readying to return through her dark passage. "oh and a parting gift, know this the shades have already devoured many worlds... not even the great sorcerer can stop them now". she said as she walked through laughing. as she vanished. yen cid already knew what needed to be done for now he needed to wait for the trio to return.
snow watched as gale pushed open the doors to yen cids study, as he carried an exhausted lave. after the fight the shades vanished leaving only the rare few heartless. lave had fallen to the floor exhausted from gale using her soul which led to there current perdicament. "welcome back" yen cid greeted as they came up to his table. lave managed to stand on her own again as the three explained everything that had transpired. "I see this is more dangerous than I feared...". gale had practically become a novice without his drive forms to fuel him and when he did use them he put the others at risk exhausting them to the point they couldn't fight. snow was even more concerned for gale though as he remembered him copying his emotion, would gale lose himself if he stayed like this for to long. yen cid interrupted his train of thought, "find malificient she is the key to all of this, find her and the shades before all hearts are lost". each had their own reason for accepting, gale the shades, snow hoping to find what he lost, but it was lave who gladly accepted jumping up reassuring the old sorcerer that they would do their best. they set off for their home base. twilight town, as yen cid watched concerned for the rocky path they were about to take.