Chapter 13: The Witch's Folly

Xion laid in bed the next morning, staring up at the ceiling silently. A night to rest and thinking on it hadn't done her any good. She was just as lost and confused as yesterday. She couldn't just do this blindly, she needed to learn more, figure more things out. Though... technically she had already made this promise already, just to Marluxia instead of the Voice... oops...

She slowly shook her head and rose from bed, leaving to go to the Gray Area...

She was suprised when Saix met her half way. "Number Thirteen, there is a mission of utmost priority that has just come in. The others have left already on their own missions, leaving it to you."

She blinked a few times. "Um, okay? What is it?"

"Dusk scouts have reported odd creatures attacking Somebodies in a world called the Land of Dragons. You are to go there, investigate, and report back what you see. Do not engage, are we clear?" asked Saix.

Xion nodded. "Okay, you think it's Heartless?"

Saix scowled. "If it were Heartless, the dusks would have told us. They may not be as intelligent as us humanoid Nobodies, but they are not stupid."

He opened a Dark Corridor for her. "Now go."

Xion walked through, coming out on a snowy mountain top and...

She froze. A chill ran down her spine, a tremor running down her hand, a tight pain filling her chest.

What is that feeling?! Wait... this is just like at Aurora's ruined castle... Xion... we... we can't be here!

Xion took in a labored breath and shook her head, spotting smoke off in the distance. "Someone might need our help!"

Xion! You were told not to fight, just... just get us out of here!

Xion narrowed her eyes. "I didn't think you were a coward."

Xion! Something's NOT right! I can feel it!

Xion brushed it off and walked down the mountain, heading for the smoke and...

She paused at a terrified scream, and then took off running. What she came across stole her breath away, and not in a good way. A town was burning, and there were creatures unlike anything she had ever seen chasing down it's inhabitants...

She locked onto the nearest one. It looked... like a deformed mixture between a dusk and a shadow. One arm was long and sharp like a dusk's, the other small like a shadows. The dusk's mask half covered it's face before melting into shadow, revealing a singular pulsing yellow beady eye. It's legs were uneven, one long and thing, one short and stubby, giving it a wobbly walk...

But upon it's forehead...

Was a symbol that sent awful chills down Xion's spine, and fear racing through every part of her body...

It was like a mixture of the Heartless and Nobody symbol, except horrifically disturbing. It was like the spiked Nobody symbol had been speared through the Heartless one, splitting it open. The two halves of the heartless symbol were impaled on the two pointed spikes on either side. A sickly black liquid seemed to coat the parts of the Heartless symbol, and the bottom part of the Nobody symbol, like black blood. On the top spike of the Nobody part of the symbol was a red chain, like an X, connecting the two halves of the ripped apart heart forcibly together, preventing it from falling apart, like a prison.

By the light... what IS that?

Xion watched, terrorstruck, as the creature chased down a fleeing woman, leaping after her and tripping her with it's long arm. It grabbed her and flipped her over before drawing it's arm back and thrusting it into her chest. The woman screamed in pain as the creature ripped her heart of her chest. It held up the heart and let loose a scream that drove a spike of agony through Xion's chest. She fell to a knee, gasping for breath.

She watched, horrified, as the woman's heart split open and darkness spilled out of it, wrapping around it. The creature shoved the heart back into the woman's chest, and then she began to scream and deform before Xion's eyes, slowly turning into a malformed mockery of what she once looked like. Xion took one look at it, and let out a scream of fear.

The two creatures turned and looked at her before releasing awful screams and charging for her.

XION! RUN!

Xion needed no further motivation. She turned and booked it as fast as she could.

Just make a Dark Corridor and GO!

Xion aimed a hand forward, ready to make one and dive through it... but... nothing happened! What the heck?!

A dark, sinister chuckle sounded out. "My my my, what do we have here?"

A barrier of black and gray energy sprang up in front of Xion, blocking off her escape path. She whirled to see the two creatures had stopped chasing her, and were standing there staring at her hungrily, yellow eyes filled with pain.

Thud... thud... thud...

Xion watched as a creature slowly walked to them. It looked to be a great horned woman. Out of the back of her head sprouted four horns, two black, two gray, intermingling and twisting. Her face was deathly pale, a hint of green and gray to it. Her eyes were glowing yellow, like a Heartless. Her lips, black as night. All through her face were gray glowing lines, almost like the ones dusks had. Wrapped around her was a gray and black full body cloak, with red twisted through it like bloody veins. One arm looked almost normal, a pale grayish hand with a ring on it that bore the awful symbol gripped a bladed-staff with a gray and black orb at the top of it. Her other other looked completely engulfed in shadow, pitch black, like a heartless. It emanated an aura of shadow that made Xion's skin scrawl. The woman's entire presence was awful, and literally painful for Xion to feel.

"If my senses do not deceive me, I feel the heart of a Keybearer," said the horned woman, stepping between the two creatures.

"W-who are you?" said Xion, her legs shaking.

The woman grinned a sinister grin. "I am Maleficent, leader of the Ascended. I was not expecting to encounter a Keybearer so soon..."

She studied her before slowly extending a hand. "I'll make you an offer child, join me."

Xion flinched away.

Maleficent chuckled. "You seem fearful, but there is nothing to fear. If you are concerned about becoming like... these lesser Ascended, fear not. Those of strong will retain their form, those who have both strong will and heart retain both form and thought, like myself. Surely a Keybearer would as well, don't you agree?"

X-xion... w-we need to g-get out of here...

"How!?" demanded Xion

I... I don't know... I just... I've never... been so scared... not even Aqua's Heartless... made me feel like this...

"Will you accept?" asked Maleficent.

Xion summoned Oathkeeper. "N-no!"

Maleficent made a tsking sound. "Unfortunate. I had been hoping you would be willing, but alas, recruitment is none-negotiable. All will ascend."

Maleficent pointed at her. "Take and turn her."

The two ascended screamed and charged at Xion.

FIGHT!

"I know!" yelled Xion aloud, diving away from one creature and swiping her keyblade to block an attack from another.

She screamed in pain the moment her Keyblade came in contact with the creature, feeling awful pain spike through her arm and into her chest. The Voice cried out with her as well.

D-don't touch them! Even with the Keyblade! U-use the light! Use Shock!

Xion back away and aimed her Keyblade. "Shock!"

Light erupted at the creature and detonated, blowing it back. She was stunned when the ascended rose to it's feet, barely damage.

Oh wow... uh... they're tough... they're... really tough...

The other one screamed and leaped at her while she was staring at the former. She barely managed to bring her keyblade up to block. She cried out in pain as the creature hit her keyblade, driving her back and to the ground. It raised an arm into the air, ready to drive it down...

XION! USE MY POWER!

Xion gave a startled gasp as pure, raw, energy, flooded out of her chest and into the rest of her body. Light rippled out of Xion and blasted the creature off her in a bright explosion. When it cleared, she felt something in her other hand...

She gave a startled gasp to see a second Keyblade in her other hand. It was white and black, with a checkered handle. It had a pure black guard, with the symbol of a heart connecting the handle and the blade. There were several spikes shooting out of the guard to ward off someone else trying to grab it. The blade part looked actually more like a sword than the two Keyblade's she had seen up to this point. It's end was a twisted blade, spiking off behind it. Yet... there was something wrong with it. It looked cracked, broken, incomplete, a rusty faint glow within the blade itself, making it look dim.

It... it was... it's name...

Two-Become One.

She didn't know how she knew it, but she did. Yet... it did not look like it's name sake, it's conflicted broken look didn't seem right...

"Two Keyblades?" came Maleficent's voice, curious.

It's... our strength... Xion... use it...

Xion rose to her feet, feeling an unusual and hardened determination. She blitzed the ascended creature, both keyblades glowing with light, dragging along the snowy ground. She leaped at it and swung both Keyblade's at once. The pain she felt at her Keyblade's touching the monster lasted only a second before they severed it's head from it's shoulders. The creature, to her surprise, let out a sigh of relief as it died, it's body dissolving into darkness, it's ruptured heart flying out and fading into the air.

"I... I did it! I beat one!" she exclaimed.

"Hmph, congratulations are in order I suppose. Pete dear? Would you handle this?" came Maleficent's voice.

SCREAM

Xion turned to see a blur surging at her. She barely had time to register a large man-like thing coming at her. One leg was that of a Heartless, one of a Nobody, it's arms were the same. It had a twisted, adjoined face, one half being a mouse, the other being a Heartless. It's chest was a mixture of armor, and the black skin of a Heartless. On it's chest, the awful ascended symbol.

Xion raised her blades to block as it surged at her and thrust a punch at her...

She screamed.

She screamed as she had never screamed before as it bashed aside her defenses, pushed right passed her Keyblades and slammed a fist into her chest. Her eyes bulged, all the breath left her body, pain lit every ounce of her, and in her chest, where her heart should be, screamed in agony. She flew through the air and landed in a heap, her vision turning black...

Xion? Get up! Xion!

Xion took one ragged breath before her head tilted back and she closed her eyes, pain overtaking her, and a dark twisted feeling starting to spread through her chest...

Kairi stood, on a platform, her dive to heart, wrapped in a sickly black prison, watching the event happening outside of the body she was trapped in with utter dread.

"XION!" screamed Kairi.

She watched, horrified, as Xion went still. She could see everything from her prison within Xion's chest, the girl's parasitical body holding her there to slowly leech off her. She was dumbstruck to see, to feel, the the prison begin to wither and die around her. She knew what it meant. Xion... Xion had taken the entirety of that blow... unknowingly for the both of them...

Xion's own fledgling heart... one that had been slowly forming, feeding off of Kairi's to grow, couldn't stand up to that kind of pain, that kind of devastation, that the creature inflicted. Kairi could feel it rupturing, dying...

She watched, as from the darkened skies, descended a manifestation of Xion, landing on her back, her eyes closed, in the middle of the platform. She walked over and knelt down, worried. She could feel it, the girl's heart trying to keep itself together, drawing on Kairi's to stop itself from splitting open and turning into one of those creatures. It wasn't enough... it would buy the girl only a short time...

And if Xion turned into one of those creatures... Kairi would go with her...

She sucked in a breath as something struck her. The prison, it was dying, and Xion had been forced... asleep... so did that mean she could...?

Kairi focused her efforts and pushed at it as hard as she could manage in her weakened state. With the prison decaying, and Xion's consciousness fading, she broke through...

Kairi coughed and gasped, blinking a few times and sitting up.

"Oh, you took that blow rather well child," came Maleficent's mocking voice.

Kairi glanced down at her hands, at Xion's hands, at the two Keyblades, and gripped them tightly. She could do this... she could save herself, no, save them.

SCREAM!

Her eyes flickered up to see Pete charging her. She rolled and sprung to her feet. She could feel the drain and pressure on her heart start immediately. Her heart had not recovered even a fraction of the energy she needed to consciously control a body and stay awake, especially with Xion drawing on her to survive. Her time was limited. She either won and got out of here within a few minutes at best, or it was over.

"No games, witch," she snarled out.

She dug a foot into the ground and used it to spin. "LIGHT!"

She unleashed Salvation, sending light ripping through the air in all directions. Pete and Maleficent both cried out in pain, being driven back by the intense light. She leaped at the witch and stabbed her Keyblades into the ground, releasing Stock Break. The witch was thrown back and landed in a heap. Immediately, Kairi felt for it, for the darkness between worlds. She used Xion's power and tried to open a corridor, she was pleased when it worked. The Witch had probably been personally disrupting the pathways. She dove through without a word, coming out in the empty remade Traverse Town.

She collapsed to the ground, wheezing, her Keyblade's vanishing, clutching her chest painfully. "Oh... it... it hurts so much..."

She weakly struggled to get to her feet. She was out of immediate danger from the creatures, but the wound was still there. She needed to do something, and she needed to do something FAST. Xion wouldn't last long, and neither would she. She needed something to heal the devastating wound. If the Princesses of Heart were all gathered, she figured they'd be able to heal the damage, but they weren't. They were all back in the original worlds save for Aurora, Kairi figured she was probably still at the Land of Departure. She didn't think one Princess would be able to stop this long enough for the other's to be fetched to help.

So what was left then? She needed something, ANYTHING with extreme light...

Wait...

Her eyes lit up. "The Cornerstone of Light..."

She hesitated briefly, uncertainty filling her. She remembered how strange the object had made her feel, yet, she remembered the other half of the sensation. The desire to take in it's light...

There was no other choice. Either she went to the Cornerstone and absorbed it, or she and Xion died. She imagined the Cornerstone Chamber in her mind, and tried to open a portal to it. She was surprised when it was blocked, she felt it's light rebuff the little darkness Xion had in her heart, refusing entry. She tried again, focusing her light alongside the darkness, and was surprised when a door of light instead opened and she was pulled through by tendrils of light.

She landed before the Cornerstone. She glanced up at it, at the large swirling orb of light resting on a pedestal. Just like before, it's light began to swirl and condense towards her, as if begging for her touch. This time, she didn't deny it. She staggered to her feet, ignoring the dizzying warmth emanating from it, took a step forward, and placed both hands on the Cornerstone.

SHATTER

The Cornerstone exploded in a nova of light and glass, yet, did not damage her. The light swirled around Kairi, around Xion's body, as if searching for a way in. It rushed at her, through her chest, and poured into her heart. Kairi gasped as light rippled through her heart, fully restoring her power and energy back to her strength before Aqua's Heartless had tried to consume her, and then soaring far beyond it. This light... it was unlike anything she had ever wielded before... only the overwhelming light of Kingdom Heart's could obviously rival it.

She focused as the light continued to pour into her, using it to mend Xion's damaged fledgling heart. She smiled, content, and raised her hands into the air, lost in the sensation and warmth of the Cornerstone's light, until it all had been absorbed into her heart. Slowly, she lowered her hands, breathing in and out.

"Wow...," was all she could say.

So much strength and power... it was insane... what's more. She was healed, she was restored. If she went back to the Land of Departure, to her body, she could wake up right now. She flexed her grip, tightening her gloves. Then, she could go smash Xehanort's skull in. No need to get Xion involved in it...

Because...

Truthfully, Xion had... nothing personal to do with it, as much as Kairi had used to refuse to admit it. Xion... was born to be a parasite, born to kill her and consume her heart, taking it for her own. Yet, the girl had refused to do so. She had refused to kill her, sleeping for a week to try and help her recover. It had... shocked Kairi, to finally come to terms with what Xion had been created to do VS who Xion actually was. Xion... was not a monster, not an evil creature hell bent on intentionally leeching her memories and power...

Though, she was a bit grudging in admitting that. There were not words to express the terror of waking up day by day, missing more of her memories and power, struggling to try to hold onto them...

She shook her head and scolded herself. "Enough. Just... pull yourself away from her heart and head home."

She closed her eyes and focused inwardly, frowning as she noticed all the sudden how intertwined their hearts had become, Xion's fledgling one snaking through Kairi's whole one, wrapping around it like the parasite she had accused the girl of being, even if she didn't want or mean to. It made her uneasy... when had that happened?

Kairi focused her light, and tried to pull them apart...

She froze as Xion screamed in the back of her head, screamed a scream that only the one she had let loose after Pete had hit her could rival. Immediately Kairi stopped, confused and bewildered. What was going on? Why the pain? Why were they so intertwined? Wait... oh no... oh no no no...

It hit her then. By allowing Xion full access to her heart and power to fight the ascended, she had lowered her defenses, allowing Xion's body begin to truly fulfill it's purpose, to absorb and consume her heart. Not just nibbling away and working at her defenses, no, she had let it in. Her heart and Xion's had become intertwined, snaked within one another, partially merged in a feast, driven by the design to consume. If she ripped her heart away from Xion's fledgling one, could the girl survive it? Or even survive on her own?

She anxiously ran a hand through her hair. "What am I supposed to do?"

She glance down at Xion's hands, trembling. "I... I... have to make a choice..."

It was either strip her heart away and potentially kill Xion... or... be consumed and killed by her...

She closed her eyes, tears starting to well up, as she reached inside and gripped their hearts, ready to rip them apart...

And...

And...

She...

She sobbed and let go, falling to her knees. "I can't... I can't do it. I can't kill an innocent person..."

Xion had no choice in her birth, and what she was created to do. Xion had tried to be nice, and comfort her all this time. Xion had been treating her family and friends well, and had even started to worm her way into Aqua's Nobody's 'heart', as much as the cold woman refused to show it, Kairi could still 'feel it'. Could she really kill Xion for her own sake? Take her life away from the girl before she truly had a chance to live it? No... she... couldn't... as much as she wanted to live, she would never murder someone innocent to do so...

"I envy you Xion," whispered Kairi bitterly, "I wish I could have had what you have now. The love and care of my family and friends looking forward to the future, my Master's friendship..."

"I guess... I'll have to entrust them to you," said Kairi sorrowfully, choking a bit, "Help them regrow their hearts, help them become who they once were and move on..."

Her mind drifted at that thought. What she had been trying to reject, despite the evidence stockpiling for it. Anyone Xion deeply interacted with, showed care for, showed signs of a burgeoning replacement. A body without a heart was an unnatural thing, she figured, that once gone, a body would try to replace it the first chance it got. Once born, a new fledgling heart could be nurtured. She had literally seen and felt it between Xokie and Garnet. Between Xion and the others, it was even deeper, especially with Axel. Perhaps... it was because of what Xion was, a replica of a Princess of Heart, did the power of a Princess help heal a missing heart faster than normal?

It made her wonder... did growing a heart naturally apply to Xion as well? How much of her heart had been made by leeching off hers? And how much had been born and molded out of her interactions with others?

She supposed it didn't matter at this point, for once Xion... ate her... she'd be a complete person anyway...

Kairi took a raged breath. "Xion... I'll... watch over you and help out as best I can, like a big sister I guess, until... the process... is complete and I'm... gone."

Kairi closed her eyes, a tear sliding down her face. "I guess... you'll be my living legacy, and, maybe you'll be better than me, and with my power... especially with the Cornerstone... you can stop Xehanort."

She nodded. "Yeah... as long as she stops Xehanort... I... I'll be content to go... that... that'll be worth it... right? It... it has to be..."

She sobbed quietly before aiming a hand forward, imaged Xion's bedroom in her mind, created a dark corridor, and walked through. She laid down on the bed before pulling her consciousness back to her heart and dive, and shoving Xion's back to the front...