Hey everybody! I know it's been…what? A year? Maybe more?... since I updated last, but in the words of Ned Kelly, such is life.

I enjoyed writing this chapter. There isn't much story development, just a long fight scene and some hints at character development. The next chapter I put up will have more of the dialogue and explanations that so many love and so many others simply suffer through, but in this chappie, it's all action, baby!

Before anyone asks, yes this was a fully choreographed fight scene, all originally created by me.

Also, remember that, as I embellish in detail quite often, the wordiness of the passage does not always match the rapidity of the "real-time" action. Maybe that makes me a poor author, but hey, if I was really a great writer, someone would be having you pay to read my stories.

I own no symbols or elements of this story besides the original character Sirian Bale, the original storyline, and that sweet sweet cane.

All other story elements are property of their respective owners.

(Painfully obvious, but now I'm legally covered.)

/

As they rowed up to the small island, several days after Sora's battle with Sirian, Riku, Sora, and Kairi could see a commotion on the beach. When they finally docked their boats on the small pier, they had seen Wakka, Tidus, and Selphie all gather around Sirian's feet. They looked a little worse for wear, but Sirian was in pristine condition.

"Hi guys!" Sirian beamed, "How about a warm-up battle before we train?"

"Don't bother!" Tidus interjected as Riku opened his mouth to speak. "He just beat all three of us, with only his left hand. And we still didn't stand a chance!"

"Um, are you sure we should spar right now, Sirian?" Sora said unsteadily.

"Yeah," Riku added, "we don't have our wooden swords." Riku's voice pointed at the trio sitting bruised in the sand.

"That's fine," Sirian said with a smile, "Just use your Keyblades." To the surprise of the three Keyblade wielders, their friends were not shocked or confused. Wakka smirked and watched them from the corner of his eye, Selphie bit her lip and watched them excitedly, and Tidus positively beamed with anticipation at the three of them.

"What?" Sirian said in response to the look on Sora's face, "Did you expect them not to notice anything? I leaked a few specific details, but I did leave you to tell them your own stories."

/

The next few hours passed quickly, with Sora, Riku, Kairi, Tidus, Wakka, and Selphie discussing everything openly for the first time. It felt good not to have to keep their adventures secret anymore. The young sextet had agreed to spar, like Sirian had suggested, as a warm-up. So after a few stories, they had gotten everyone caught up on the powers, strength, and general background of the Keyblades. Kairi had also healed Wakka Tidus and Selphie, so they were back at full strength even after losing their match earlier.

Sirian was ever-so-gallantly snoring in the sand across the beach.

"Wait," Sora said, once the summit was complete, "what are you three going to use for weapons? I mean, no offence, but the weapons we used to play with were just toys… Our Keyblades and Sirian's cane are on a whole different level."

"We don't use those little kiddie toys anymore!" Tidus said with pride, raising his staff as Selphie produced her nunchaku and Wakka his blitzball.

"But, all your weapons look the same as a year ago…" Riku looked confused. He had noticed that he seemed to be more and more confused lately. If I'm not careful, soon I'll be just like Sora, he thought with a grin.

"Sirian got these for us!" Selphie squeaked excitedly.

"They look just like out old training weapons, but they're balanced better! I dunno where he got them, but they're 100% battle ready, too!" Tidus added.

"Ya," Wakka chimed in, in his slow island drawl, "they sure stood up to the beatings during our training pretty well." Wakka held his blue and white blitzball, proudly tucking it under his arm.

"They seem magic, too," Tidus added, "Like, Sirian taught us different techniques with them. Like Wakka can recall his weapon no matter where it flies off to! We still need more practice and training, though, you see we-"

"So you three have been training with Sirian, too?" Kairi interrupted gently.

"Ya, Tidus was just beggin' Sirian to teach him to fight, and I sure don't mind a good match now and then!" Wakka jerked a thumb toward Selphie, "And she joined in 'cause she's got a huge crush on Siri-"

"I do not!" Selphie yelled in protest, stomping her foot in the sand.

"Well, anyway," Riku said, trying to prevent a time-wasting detour in the conversation,

"Are we all ready to spar?"

"It's about time!" A voice declared. It was Sirian, yawning, stretching, and making his way over.

"Oh! You're awake!" Selphie blushed, wondering how much he had heard.

"Selphie, when you yell you could wake the dead." Selphie turned away from Sirian for a quick thirty second sulk.

"Okay, so who's sparring against who?" Sora asked the group.

"Easy," Sirian said, still stretching, "you six against me." The whole group went quiet.

"That's ridiculous, even for you!"

"Fine then," Sirian rubbed his chin in thought, "I guess I should even the odds…" He snapped his finger, epiphany showing on his goofy face. "I know! I won't enhance my attacks with magic. But if I go melee-only, I don't have to hold back! Deal?" Riku grabbed Sora before he could burst out again, dragging him backward with one hand planted firmly over the brunette's mouth.

"Okay, deal." Riku grinned. "Just give us a sec to hash out a strategy." Sirian shrugged.

"Okay." As he twirled his cane and went to splash some water from the falls onto his face, Riku whirled on Sora with a maniacal grin.

"Look, I know what you're gonna say, Sora, but how long have we known this guy? Almost two months now? And how many matches has he had? A few DOZEN? Well this is our first real chance to see him lose a match. It's just a warm-up, like he said, so we'll beat him quick and get down to training!" Sora met Riku's insane expression with a sly grin.

"Right…" A quick high-five and they were ready to go.

"You two don't hurt him!" Kairi, Tidus and Selphie looked at each other. The same thought went through all three of their minds.

Was I the only one who said that?

/

As the six teammates took a loose battle formation, Sirian flourished and raised his cane. He gestured toward them.

"Who will lead the charge?" Sirian smiled. Much to the surprise of everyone there, Kairi rushed in first, wielding her Blooming Flower Keyblade.

"Don't go easy on me just because I'm a girl!" Sirian knocked strike aside with a heavy kendo strike, flourished, spun, and unceremoniously shoved her aside with his left arm, using his cane to block Riku's Keyblade in mid strike. Sirian shoved their locked weapons upward, breaking Riku's guard. Sirian caught the silver-haired boy with a knee to the solar plexus while his can flashed out to the side, parrying the Kingdom Key just as Sora struck. Sora attempted a heavy-handed counter attack, but Sirian dodged, leaving Sora in a vulnerable half-bow. Sirian dispatched a still-reeling Riku with an elbow to the face, then pommel-slammed Sora on the back, then kicked him in the stomach. As his leg came down, Sirian executed a textbook kendo strike to a still-double over Sora, sending him crashing into the sand.

Sirian now faced a three-pronged melee strike from Kairi, Riku, and Tidus all at once. Sirian sidestepped, grabbing Kairi's hands and using her Keyblade to block Tidus's staff while Way to the Dawn was stopped sharply by Sirian's cane. Sora pushed Kairi into Tidus, buying himself a few extra feet of distance and a few moments of extra time. Sirian's right arm simultaneously slipped past Riku's guard while still maintaining their lockup, allowing him to elbow Riku in the solar plexus. He heard Riku mutter something about 'the exact same spot' as he used a judo throw to put Riku out of the action until he regained is wind. He focused on Tidus and Kairi again.

Kairi charged again, and this time Sirian let her run through him, placing a foot on her stomach and rolling backward, whispering 'please forgive me' and throwing her across the sand in a painful series of somersaults with her own momentum.

"You told me not to go easy on you!" Sirian called to Kairi as he rolled away from Tidus's ground strike. Tidus tried his own overhead kendo strike, but Sirian blocked it by sliding his left hand down the length of the cane, forming a high horizontal guard. The high lockup left Tidus's abdomen exposed, and a karate front kick from Sirian knocked the wind out of him, stunning him and putting him on the ground.

Wakka and Selphie, being the mid- and long-range fighters, had used the first few action-filled minutes to notice the positions where their partners attacked from and to reposition themselves in order to reinforce them without hitting them in the crossfire. What they should have noticed was that their team had taken over a dozen hits in less than ten seconds thanks to the 'full frontal assault' technique, but Selphie rushed in anyway, and Wakka took little time to plan when he launched his blitzball strike.

Sirian deflected the blitzball, and then ducked under the whip-like nunchaku, sticking his cane into its path. Selphie's weapon was now wrapped around Sirian's. With a few creative flourishes and dance-like spins, Sirian had tied and tangled the nunchaku around Selphie. Wakka, however, had now gone into his attack sequence, launching another blitzball strike. Several things then happened with such rapidity that Sirian was the only one who knew several of them happened at all.

Seeing the offending blitzball coming, Sirian leaned back from the temporarily helpless Selphie, but left his left foot planted behind her ankles. Just as he reflected Wakka's blitzball toward Selphie with his cane, he raised his left foot, and the combination of the impact and the leg trip left Selphie in a tangled heap several yards away.

Sirian used a high full-body guard to defend himself as Kairi attacked from behind, and Wakka launched himself into the air to strike again.

"Gomen nasai, Benihime-san." Sirian leaned out of the way of Wakka's attack, allowing it to catch Kairi's forehead with full force. Sirian then deflected the blitzball again after it rebounded off of Kairi and batted it, sending it screaming back at Wakka. He had done all of this so quickly that Wakka was still in the air. Wakka crossed his arms in front of him, defending against the blow.

"Ha-ha, didn't hurt a-SPLASH-"The impact knocked him so far backward that he landed in the water, several yards away from the dry sand, cutting off his boast mid-sentence.

The Sextet had now learned their lesson about rushing in without planning. Riku and Tidus squared off with Sirian as Sora and a dazed Kairi retreated to regroup.

"Kairi!" Sora called, "I need your Keyblade! I can transform on my own but I need your weapon!"

"Right! Here! I'll keep healing you guys while you fight!" Sirian looked a tad surprised as he fended off Riku and Tidus's flanking maneuvers.

"Sora can transform alone now?" He puzzled aloud. "Kairi can use magic without a weapon to channel it?"

"We've been training, too!" Riku said, accentuating the sentence with a powerful high swing as Tidus swung for Sirian's ribs. In an awesome display of athleticism, Sirian dodged both of their strikes, leaving his foes unbalanced, and grabbed Riku's ankle. He then threw Riku into Tidus, sending both of them to the ground. As they lay dazed on the sand, Riku muttered something about being sick of being thrown around, while Tidus whined about the Keyblade that was digging into his ribs and how heavy Riku was.

Selphie swung her nunchaku, which Kairi and Sora had untangled as Sora prepared to transform, at Sirian, but he deftly deflected it, reflecting it back at her as it struck her head with a loud thud. A moment later, he had swept her legs from under her and sent her flying across the sand.

"Ooo, I give up." Selphie held her aching head as she sat in the sand. While Selphie was capitulating, Sora was advancing on Sirian, his red outfit flashing and two Keyblades whirling in his hands. Sirian clashed with him, pushed off, swung, parried, and clashed again. Sora had certainly been working on his dual wielding skills.

Meanwhile, Wakka was finally up on solid sand again, shaking saltwater out of his clothes, stretching his throwing arm, and waiting for the perfect time to strike. As he circled the fray and watched, he got a tingling up his spine that told him to attack right then.

"Take THIS!" Wakka yelled, leaping high into the air and launching his special strike just as Sora and Sirian pushed away from another clash. For everyone involved, the next few seconds seemed to come in slow motion. Sirian saw the attack behind Sora, and as soon as they had pulled back from the clash; he set his body, low and powerful, to make a stabbing thrust. Sora had heard Wakka's yell behind him, and performed a high-jump flip to avoid the blitzball as well as Sirian's cane. Watching the ground through the flip, Sora saw Sirian adjust the angle of his cane ever-so-slightly, in order to hit the blitzball straight on. If Sora had not jumped, he would've been sandwiched between to very heavy blows. The blitzball flew back to its owner at double speed, but Wakka's arms were down from the follow-through of his throw, and he could not react in time to guard.

I really gotta stop announcing my attacks, he thought as the attack made contact. He was hit hard, and as he flew backward he saw the pier rising up to meet him.

"Ah, man." He landed with a heavy thud on the solid hardwood. "That really hurt. I'm out for now." He muttered, collapsing in exhaustion. Sora and Sirian set their feet, squaring off again. Kairi had healed Riku and Tidus, and as they rushed off to fight again, Kairi ran over to cast her healing spell on Selphie and Wakka. They had already given up, so they couldn't rejoin the fight, but she could at least make sure they weren't hurting too badly.

Sirian now faced a difficult challenge: He was standing in the middle of the beach with three opponents encircling him. For the first time in this sparring match, Sirian was put on the defensive. The three took turns striking, in an attempt to find and exploit an opening in his defenses. Sora, dual-wielding Kingdom Key and Blooming Flower, was the primary attacker, and Riku and Tidus were mainly engaged in trying to flank Sirian. They attacked at every weak spot or opening in Sirian's guard, but he always managed to move just far enough to avoid getting hit or to flick his cane around him just in time to deflect what would have been a devastating attack. Still, despite his obvious superiority in battle, fending off attacks from all sides had disallowed him from making any attacks of his own.

"Sora!" Riku called from amidst the fray, "Change of plans! Go long-range! We'll keep him busy!" Riku and Tidus doubled their efforts as Sora jumped back.

"Kairi!" Sora threw Blooming Flower to her as he reverted back to his standard form and silently casted a Thunder spell at Sirian, forcing him to dodge and preventing the attack he had been about to launch on Riku. Kairi joined the melee-mob just as Sora's outfit turned blue. He glided around the outside of the fray, shooting his magic bullets at Sirian whenever he saw an opening.

"Chikuso!" Sirian moved even faster in order to keep up with the three melee weapons as well as Sora's bullet attacks. His mind raced.

They think they're losing because they still haven't landed a hit yet, and they're even wearing down, but this is bad. It's all I can do just to keep up with them all, and if this drags on my stamina will give out, and Kairi renewed two of them with her magic! If I don't do something, they'll win this battle through attrition!

He looked around desperately for a way out of his predicament. In a moment of dire focus, he observed everything around him in still-frame detail. He had just parried an attack from Riku, meaning that the strongest melee attacker would not be attacking again for a precious second or two. Sora was using his gliding Quick-Run technique to try to get into a better position to attack, and was just setting his feet to attack again. Kairi was about to strike, but Tidus, opposite of Kairi, had left an opening as he was preparing to attack. Behind Tidus, Sirian saw the sea wall at the top of the beach. He took a deep breath and dove through the gap in Tidus's guard, dodging Kairi's strike and causing Tidus to flinch. Sora's bullets quickly began impacting the sand as he rolled and ran toward the sea wall. He reached the wall, spun, set his feet and reflected the barrage of bullets. The three dumbstruck warriors did not allow him a long reprieve, and engaged him immediately. With his flank protected by the wall, Sirian was now much easier able to cope with the tri-horned attack.

In fact, Sirian almost immediately noticed something that had escaped him in the more hectic standoff earlier: Kairi was weak.

Now, of course she wasn't as strong as Tidus or Riku to begin with, but at the moment she was much weaker than she usually was. Of course, Sirian thought, in all the commotion, Kairi forgot to heal herself! And Sora didn't get healed either! Between the battering of the weapons, Sora was prowling like a lion, searching for an opening. Sirian got an opening first, however, when one of Tidus and Riku's attacks aligned perfectly. He was able to block both of them at once with his right hand, and with his left he grabbed a slowly tiring Kairi's hands, using her once again as a guard. He spun around her, lashing out and landing a strike on Riku. Sora swung around to the left side of the group, firing more bullets, so Sirian spun back inside of the circle, parrying Tidus and spinning Kairi, who took a few stray hits from Sora's attack.

Sora was now desperate to catch Sirian, and he opportunistically leaped over the group, firing down from above, but Sirian used a dizzy and dazed Kairi as a human shield, rolling her across his back and then tossing her across the sand when Sora landed from his aerial assault. Sora immediately zipped off to check on Kairi, desperate to heal her.

"Kairi, are you alright!" Riku yelled after her.

"She'll be fine," Tidus said sternly, "don't lose your focus!"

"Why ever did I teach you that?" Sirian asked rhetorically. Dispatching Kairi and distracting Sora had definitely restored Sirian's advantage in the fight. With one well-executed guard, Sirian threw Riku off balance, allowing him to grab Riku's free wrist, spin away from Tidus's attack, land a vicious tae kwon do kick to Riku's ribs, and judo throw him away for the umpteenth time that day.

I have to eliminate someone before they regroup! Sirian deflected Tidus's next attack with a one-handed cane parry then landed a wild-fisted left haymaker to Tidus's cheek. As the boy stumbled, Sirian landed a series of fast and vicious combination of cane strikes. Tidus landed in the sand with his staff several feet away.

"Ow… I think I'm done…" Tidus simply lay in the sand rubbing is aching head as Sora, now back in his standard form, and Riku rushed to engage Sirian once again. Sirian decided that he would rather eliminate Kairi before things got too intense, so he ran straight at the Keyblade-wielding duo and dove at them, bowling both of them over. He made his way to Kairi, easily slipping behind her. He held the point of his cane to her neck.

"You lose." His face softened. "Please don't make me strike you again, Benihime-san." Kairi sighed and smiled.

"Oh fine. I guess I forfeit!" Somehow, her smile only got wider.

/

"I guess this is where things get serious." Sirian watched as Sora spoke, his yellow outfit matching the sand he stood over, Way to the Dawn spinning away a few inches from his left hand.

"I guess so…" The pair took a fighting stance. "I guess you can only do two forms without help… Valor and Wisdom are what you call them, right?.. And it appears that this time, Riku doesn't have enough power to put you into Final Form by himself."

"Maybe not," Sora said confidently, "but you remember, I was able to at least keep up with you in Valor Form earlier, and right now…" Sora raised a Keyblade and green Cure magic enveloped him. "I think you're a little more beat up than I am."

"True," Sirian said, his grin not fading. "It does seem that you have the advantage. Now you had best capitalize on it before something happens to that advantage." Sora smiled in return and charged headlong at Sirian. Sirian met Sora's right-handed strike with his guard and dodged the long, sweeping left handed strike that followed. Sirian and Sora exchanged blows, neither of them scoring even a glancing hit on the other. As the broke apart, even Sora was slightly out of breath. Sirian smiled wide, an idea coming to him, and charged directly at Sora.

Sora tried to deter Sirian with a few blasts of Blizzard magic, but Sirian simply dove sideways out of the icy projectiles' path and kept charging. Sirian's heavy-handed attack was met by Sora's Way to the Dawn, spinning in front of his left and to act as a shield. Sora swung at Sirian with his left hand, but Sirian grabbed Sora's arm, preventing the swing. They then spun, disengaging, and Sora brought both weapons around in unison in a clockwise-spinning strike. Both were halted by Sirian, who aimed a quick, low kick at his opponent. Sora leaped to avoid it, but before he knew it, Sirian was in the air next to him, his cane raised up and aimed downward, about to stab Sora like a spear. Sora used an Aerial Dodge maneuver to avoid his foe, but Sirian's eyes stayed locked onto the Way to the Dawn Keyblade as it spun around Sora.

There! Sirian hurled his cane down through the handle of Way to the Dawn, pinning it to the ground. Sirian hit the ground as Sora noticed what he had done. Sirian bolted toward the entangled weapons.

"Thunder! Thunder! THUNDER!" Sirian dove and dodge-rolled as peals of lightning struck the ground around him, desperately trying to rearm himself. He reached the weapons, drawing them out of the sand and facing down Sora.

"Let's see just how big an advantage this dual-wielding thing is!" As Sora watched Sirian charge at him again, he uttered three commands.

"Revert!" His clothes returned to normal and Riku's weapon returned to him as he rejoined the fight.

"Fire!" A great wheel of flames encircled Sora, causing Sirian to dive away from him and instead move toward an unprepared Riku.

"Heal!" Green Cure magic again covered Sora, replenishing his depleted health and energy, but it was too late.

Just as he entered the battle, Riku was set upon by Sirian. Riku blocked the first strike but was easily overpowered. Sirian continually attacked, whirling and flourishing as his cane flashed against Riku's weapon. At first Riku blocked about half the strikes. Then only a third of them. Before long he was beaten down to the point of being defenseless, and with one final horizontal slash, Sirian removed Riku from the fight. As Riku admitted defeat and his weapon came to rest in the sand, Sirian heard Sora on the other end of the beach.

"Power!"

Riku's weapon disappeared and landed once again in Sora's red glove.

"Quite the strategy," Sirian said, "but sacrificing your teammate to execute it seems a little cold, don't you think?"

"Actually," Sora started, dropping his serious expression, "I was planning on using Wisdom Form, but since Riku was done, it would have been hard to fight in that form. And since Riku and Kairi aren't fighting, I can use their weapons in this form!"

"Very good strategizing. You truly are becoming a really great fighter. But now neither of us can use magic, you because of your Valor Form's restrictions, and I because of the terms of our sparring match! So let us put you to the final test of pure swordsmanship!" The combatants rushed at each other again. As they clashed, Sirian seemed to be a blur to Sora. In the momentary pause of their clash, Sora saw that Sirian had moved so quickly that he was able to pin Sora's primary weapon down by entangling it with his cane once again, and had stopped his left arm from swinging forward with his bare hand just like before. Sora pulled hard on his right arm, tearing the weapons lose and sending them into the air above the two fighters. As both young men grabbed at the weapons, they disengaged. When they saw the weapons they had grabbed, Sora was dismayed to see a cane in his right hand and a Keyblade in his opponent's. Without hesitation, however, Sirian charged again, leaving himself open. Sora brought the two weapons in his hands together in a scissor-like fashion. Sirian blocked Sora's Keyblade with his own, but that left no defense against the cane Sora swung. It connected at full speed with the side of Sirian's neck.

"Rookie mistake; using a weapon you don't understand." Sirian took absolutely no damage from the strike. It was as if the cane had barely touched him. He spun the Keyblade in his hand around, dislodging Sora's from it. As he reaffirmed his grip with the Kingdom Key facing down, he landed a vicious diagonal upward strike on Sora, who was still in awe of the cane's apparent disobedience to him. The hit sent Sora sailing across the sand, and when he came to rest, his Valor Form had vanished, and the Way to the Dawn along with it. Sora recovered slowly, trying to stand as Sirian slowly walked up to him.

"Things just got a lot worse for you, as far as this practice match goes." Sirian walked up, twirling the Kingdom Key and sounding almost disappointed. "But I must say, your Drive Forms are much more complex than I thought they were." Standing over Sora, he threw the Keyblade down, digging it into the sand next to Sora. "Now you still have a chance," he explained, "So stand up and finish our warm-up with honor." Sora slowly stood and grabbed the Kingdom Key. He looked at the Keyblade and at the cane, then at his unarmed opponent. He smiled.

It's just practice, he thought. He swung both weapons at Sirian, who merely sighed. He jumped over the Keyblade swing but let the cane hit him. It again stopped just as it hit him, causing no damage. Sirian then wrapped his arm around the cane, holding it fast, and hit Sora with a powerful karate front kick. As the last member of the Sextet stumbled away, Sirian twirled his cane and stretched.

"Nice warm-up, everybody!" He beamed, but only a chorus of grumbles and groans responded. "Now, who's up for some real training?"

"… Anybody?"