Disclaimer: I don't own "Matter of Time." That right belongs to Dream Street, or what's left of it.
Chapter 16: End of the World
"Let's stop standing here and get to the action!" Odd shouted as he aimed his arm at Xana.
"Calm down, Della- Robbia." Xana said. "We'd like to show you the winners' prizes." A large slab of wall flipped over revealing a tied up Jeremy, William, Lisa, and Riou. Aelita gasped.
"If you manage to somehow defeat us in battle, your friends shall be spared." Xemnas said. "However, if you lose, they shall be destroyed."
"Alright." Dartz said. Everyone looked at him. "We'll agree to your ante."
"Good." Anax said. "Is your whole team here?"
"It is now." Garrett said as he walked into the room.
"How did you get out?!" Robotnic asked in surprise.
"Attacking an armed man with a bunch of robots isn't a very good idea, just for future reference."
"Let the battle begin!" Anax shouted as he ran at Andrew. Klaus and Emma stayed to help him. Dartz, Ulrich, the keybladers, and Axel took on the organization, heartless, and nobodies while Sonic and co. fought Robotnic and his robots. The remaining warriors fought Xana. Dartz shot a few arrows to take out some of the heartless and nobodies as Axel and Ulrich just ran through the crowd of darkness- controlled humans to help Roxas, Sora, Kairi, and Riku with the organization. Andrew was using his sword to block Anax's attacks while Klaus looked for openings to stab Anax with his dagger. Odd got hit twice by Xana's sword.
"This isn't going well for us!" Odd shouted as he dodged Xana's third strike. Garrett shot Xana to get his attention away from Odd.
"Kick on someone your own size, tough guy." Garrett jumped to avoid Xana's attempt to down him. "Nice try. Maybe next time." Meanwhile Jet, Storm, and Wave finally arrived to help Sonic out. Sonic, Shadow, Silver, and Espio were currently fighting Robotnic himself while the others were covering them by fighting the robots. Knuckles and Storm were on a roll, beating back the robots left and right.
"You've gotten better." Knuckles said as he punched another robot.
"I could say the same for you." Storm said as he smashed two robots by slamming their heads together.
"Hey, where are Elise and Niki?" Wave asked as she hit a robot with her giant wrench.
"No idea. Probably still on Mobius." Tails said as he threw a ring bomb in the middle of a group of robots.
"You actually made it back?"
"Yep. I managed to build a replica portal opener. That's what we used to get here."
"You can't win, Anax." Andrew said between pants.
"I can and I shall." Anax said as he slashed Klaus, devirtualizing him. Emma hit him with her crossbow. "That's not very nice." Anax jumped into the air and threw his sword at Yumi. She was devirtualized instantly.
"Yumi!" Ulrich shouted. This single second of lost focus caused him to be devirtualized by Xaldin. Demyx used his sitar to summon up a large number of water dancers, and then charged at Axel, who used one of his chakram to block Demyx's attack. Roxas swung his keyblades at Xigbar while Sora jumped behind him and knocked him out with a well-timed slash.
"Nice teamwork." Roxas said.
"Well we are the same person." Sora said as he transformed into his wisdom form and started shooting at the heartless. Roxas ran at Xaldin and clashed his keyblade with Xaldin's spears. Sharon noticed the overwhelming number of heartless attacking Dartz and ran to help him. She threw a dagger at one of the assassins that was about to attack Dartz from behind.
"Thanks." Dartz said. He shot another arrow and destroyed a berserker that was about to hit her. "Now we're even."
"So we are." Sharon said with a smile. Xana had managed to devirtualize Odd, Sam, and Duke and was currently trying to hit Garrett.
"Hold still, you little nuisance." Xana said as he swung his large sword again. Garrett simply jumped over it and shot Xana again.
"No can do, Xana." Garrett said. He kicked the virus- controlled program into a wall and ran to help Andrew and Emma with Anax. "Looks like you two could use some help." Garrett shot Anax with both of his pistols.
"Thanks." Emma said. "We needed some help." Sonic and Shadow continued to dodge the many missiles Robotnic was firing at them. The rest of their friends had been defeated, but the robots had been taken down with them.
"Keep it up, Shadow." Sonic said. "We might be able to get close enough to him to transform."
"We only have four emeralds, Sonic." Shadow said as he jumped over a missile. "As long as Eggman has the other three, we can't do anything.
"Leave them to me." Sonic said. He sidestepped another missile and ran at Robotnic at full speed. He passed Eggman and stole the emeralds from his laser. Sonic ran back over to Shadow. "Let's do this quick!" Shadow nodded. He held up his emeralds and Sonic held up his. Sonic's fur suddenly became a golden color, as did Shadow's. The red spots on Shadow's spines turned a dark red color.
"Let's do this." They said in unison. "Dual Chaos Inferno!" A beam of chaos energy flew from their bodies and hit Robotnic, devirtualizing him. They returned to their original forms just to be shot back to earth by a tarantula. Sonic and Shadow came out of the scanners.
"Cheap shot." Shadow said. Riku's sword destroyed the tarantula that defeated Sonic and Shadow, whose energy got sucked into it.
"Eight more." Riku murmured as he grabbed his sword and ran at Marluxia. He quickly dispatched the heartless that got in his way and stabbed Marluxia in the stomach. Marluxia disappeared in a cloud of smoke and his energy, along with that of the dispatched heartless, was drained into Riku's sword. "Make that six."
"Nice one, Riku!" Kairi shouted from her battle with Vexen. "I could use some help!"
"On my way!" Zexion looked down at the ensuing battle from atop one of the platforms floating above the floor.
"Should I do it now?" he asked his companion.
"Not yet." Larxene said. "Wait until the time is right." Zexion nodded. Larxene jumped down and devirtualized Emma with one of her kunai. She landed next to Anax and started slashing at Garrett, who nimbly dodged and shot back. Larxene was defeated quickly, but not without Garrett taking a major amount of damage. Sora noticed Kairi and Riku struggling with Vexen and ran toward them, whilst changing into his Valor form. He stabbed Vexen in the back, causing him to disappear.
"Looked like you could use some help."
"Some would be greatly appreciated over here!" Axel said as he continued his duel with Demyx. Riku was about to follow Sora and Kairi over to help him, but noticed Xigbar regaining consciousness nearby. He stabbed Xigbar, absorbed his energy and moved on.
"Five more." He murmured. Dartz continued to shoot down heartless and nobodies until he noticed Xana running at a preoccupied Andrew.
"Andrew! Jump!" He shouted. Andrew didn't bother to figure out why. He just jumped strait into the air, over Xana's attack. Anax, fortunately, was attacking at the same time. The attacks collided with the program in front of it, causing Xana to disappear and Anax to take major damage. All of Xana's monsters exploded, littering the room with scrap metal.
"Thanks!" Andrew shouted.
"No problem!" He shot an arrow at the last nobody. He and Sharon split up. Dartz ran to help Andrew and Garrett with Anax while Sharon went to take out the retreating forms of Luxord and Lexaueus. Aelita, who was hovering over the battle looking for a lone opponent, noticed Zexion standing on a platform blow her. She flew down and kicked him off.
"What the-" he was shot by an energy field and disappeared in a cloud of smoke. "Doesn't matter. Anax will defeat them." Zexion noticed his companions Luxord, Lexaueus, and Demyx disappear. "Now it's up to master Xemnas, Xaldin, and Saix." He muttered as he disappeared. The remaining warriors surrounded Xemnas, Xaldin, Saix, and Anax. None of the four looked even the least bit scared about this.
"Let's finish these fools." Anax said. He stared Andrew and Dartz down. Dartz had finally sheathed his bow and had his sword ready for the final strike. Xemnas, Xaldin, and Saix nodded. They threw their weapons at the warriors in front of them. Sora, Kairi, and Roxas were devirtualized, but Axel and Riku managed to doge Xaldin's spears. The battle continued. Riku looked at his sword.
'One more and I can unleash my most powerful attack." Riku jumped at Saix and devirtualized him. Anax attacked Garrett, Dartz, and Andrew. Xaldin attacked Aelita, Axel, and Sharon. Xemnas attacked Riku as soon as Saix disappeared. "Dark Aura Burst!" A large black shockwave radiated from Riku's body, knocking Anax back and defeated Xaldin and Xemnas. Anax got up and stabbed him, sending him back to earth. Anax then sent a blast of dark energy that knocked back everyone except Dartz and Garrett.
"Let's finish this." Garrett said.
"You took the words right out of my mouth. The boys ran up to Anax and dealt the final blow, Dartz with his sword and Garrett with his pistols. Anax lay on the ground motionless. The two went to help their friends up.
"How long do you think it'll be before our lives go back to normal?" Sharon asked.
"That's not likely to-look out!" a hole appeared under Sharon. She fell in, but grabbed the ledge. She looked down and saw the digital sea. Dartz grabbed her hand before it slipped off the ledge.
"I can't hold on!" Her hand slipped from Dartz's and she fell in. A geyser came up from the sea, proving the impact. Jeremy, Lisa, William, and Riou ran over.
"She's gone." Jeremy said. He looked into the hole sadly. A tear fell down Dartz's cheek, but he wiped it away before his friends could see it.
"She fought nobly." Dartz said. "To save her world. For that she'll always be remembered.
Later
The gang was in Ulrich and Yumi's dorm. Sora, Riku, Kairi, Roxas and Axel had gone back to Hollow Bastion, Sonic and co. went back to Mobius to find that Niki had finally woken up. She and Espio were currently in a very promising relationship. Andrew, Klaus, and Emma were on their way back to Japan. Everyone was sad at the loss of his or her friend, but none as much as Dartz. He was currently lying on his bed staring at the ceiling, showing no emotion whatsoever.
"We really should try to cheer him up." Yumi said.
"What can we do?" Jeremy asked.
"Leave him alone." Duke, Riou, and Garrett said in unison. "These things blow over after a while." A few hours later, Riou left to go to bed. He was about to enter his room when he heard Dartz strumming his guitar. He decided to wait and listen. Dartz started singing after a few seconds.
It's
just a matter of, it's just a matter of
It's just a matter of
time
Yeah...Ooh ooh ooh...
It's just a matter of, it's just a
matter of
It's just a matter of time
I know you want to
make things right
To move ahead, find a way to win the fight
And
though it's hard to keep the faith
We'll make it through if we
take it day by day
They say that all good things
Will come
to those who wait
And if we believe in each other
I know we can
make it together
Baby it's just a matter of time
If we can
take it slow everything will be alright
Let it flow, and I know
that we'll find
It's just a matter of time
When you feel
down and out of touch
And no-one's there, no-one's there to lift
you up
Life's not as bad as it may seem
Just hold on tight and
never lose sight of your dreams
They say that all good things
will come to those who wait
and if we believe in each other
I
know we can make it together
Baby it's just a matter of
time
If we can take it slow everything will be alright
Let it
flow, and I know that we'll find
It's just a matter of time
It's
just a matter of, it's just a matter of
It's just a matter of
time
It's just a matter of, it's just a matter of
It's just a
matter of time
And if we ever lose our way
I know we can
find a brighter day
There is no mountain we can't climb
It's
just a matter of time
Baby it's just a matter of time
If we
can take it slow everything will be alright
Let it flow and I know
we can make it together
'Cause baby it's just a matter of time
If
we can take it slow everything will be alright
Let
it flow
And I know that we'll find it's just a matter of time
I know that we'll find it's just a matter of time
"You wrote that?" Riou asked as he entered the room.
"Yeah." Dartz said as he sat his guitar on its stand. "I've got a few others too. Maybe I'll try some in the band during its prom performance."
"That sound really good, Dartz. Think you'll get over Sharon."
"Yeah… yeah. I think I will." Dartz smiled and fell asleep.
That's it for the chapter and the story. Since I only got one review last chapter, I'm not putting up the preview. There will be three versions of the sequel. Mine won't be up for a while, but Cdc100's version may be up at any time. If you have a preference as to which story, between The Hopper Chronicles and Graduation I finish first, either tell me in a review, or vote on the poll in my profile page. See you guys and gals next time!
