Disclaimer: I might buy a share in Disney and Square Enix so I can say, "yes I do own Kingdom hearts" At least a microscopic percentage of it anyway.
Far from Home
For as far as he could see there was only darkness, endless darkness stretching out to every horizon. But this darkness was different to any he had experienced before. Unlike the crushing darkness you passed through when apparate, this was warm and comfortable. He felt exhausted but couldn't think why, he realised that he was using all his energy just fighting of the urge to go to sleep. As he drifted slowly through the darkness, he could fell himself slowly fading away. Time didn't seem to exist here, wherever here was. He could have been drifting for minutes, days of weeks or years or for a millennium, they were all the same to him.
He thought of his friends' back at school. He wondered if they were safe, had they noticed he had gone yet, were they looking for him yet. Then he thought about the man, the one who had attack him and his friends, who had all but killed Draco and who had sent him here. It was strange, he knew what he had done to hi and his friends, yet he wasn't angry. The whole matter felt so distant now, like a far off memory. He knew that he had lost his wand, but he just didn't care. It was like the dark void he was moving through was keeping him separate, isolated from everything on the outside world, alone. All he could do was float onwards.
He had drifted for what seamed like an eternity, when he began to notice a tiny white dot on the horizon. As he gradually moved closer, it got bigger and clearer. For weeks it seemed he watched it grow closer and closer, taking form until he eventually came close enough to make out what it was. It was a towering white door made from what looked to be polished white marble like it belonged in grand cathedral. It stood on a small rocky outcrop that lead nowhere other then to it's self and the mysterious door. As he got even closer still he became aware of a black shadowy figure stood against the door. Although Harry couldn't make out much about the appearance, the red crossed heart on his coat told him enough. This was the man who had thrown him into this perpetual darkness so long ago. He landed softly on the edge of the rock, as he did so the man spoke to him.
"Greetings Harry, I trust you are well?" he said in the way two normal friends would greet each other.
"What is the place?" Harry replied looking around into the dark and them up at the door.
"Look as far as you are able, you will not find even the smallest glimmer of light. Welcome… Harry… to the gates of Kingdome Hearts."
"Who are you?" Harry asked now forcing his attention back onto the man.
"As I said, you will learn soon enough. By the way, do give my regards to the King when you see him."
"What? What King?" Harry asked puzzled. But before he could press the question, he was pushed forcefully of the platform by an unseen force. Unlike before when he would have floated, he began to fall. Faster and faster he fell through the darkness, plummeting towards its darkest depths. As he spiralled downward, out of control he started to blackout. Just as he was passing over threshold of unconsciousness, he collided with a hard, cold surface.
It was some time later when Harry final awoke. It was dark, and for a minute Harry thought that he was back in the endless abyss once more, but as his eyes gained focus again, he realised that I was in fact just night. He had woken up in an alleyway, in what looked like a small town. Immediately he reached for his wand, but it was nowhere to be found. Alone, unarmed and totally lost, Harry new he wasn't in the best of situations. Deciding there was nothing else for it, he started to walk along and out of the ally, trying to find out where he was. Leaving the close confines of the ally, he stepped into a wind open area populated by many building, several of which were shops. At the far end were a set of great wooden doors that reminded him of the doors at Hogwarts, this intern reminded that he needed to find a way home. Choosing to closest one to him, he climbed a flight of steps and opened the door. Unnoticed by anybody, a lone shadowy figure stood on a nearby rooftop silently looking down on the unknowing Harry.
"Can I help you?" cam a polite, friendly voice as soon as Harry had entered the shop. The voice belonged to the shopkeeper. He was a fairly small man, wearing smart cloths with a blue waste coat, and seamed to be a nice enough person. "If your interested, we have a range of rings on offer, of you're here to sell I'm shore we could work something out." Not having any money, Harry had to decline.
"No, but cold you tell me where I am…" seeing the confused look on the shop keepers face he added, "…I'm a little lost." The man's expression softened in understanding.
"Why certainly, you're in the 1st district of Traverse Town. Where are you from?"
Harry didn't know what to say. He couldn't chance telling him about Hogwarts, in case he was a muggel, but if he didn't he would probably never get back. In the end he decided to chance it. "Hogwarts" The man stayed quiet for a minute as if deep in thought, before answering.
"Hogwarts, don't think I've here of it." Harry's heart sank. Felling a little depressed he excused himself from the shop and went outside, hoping for better look in the next shop. He was outside now and walking up to try at the next house, when he heard a noise behind him that caused him to stop dead in his tracks. Turning he found himself, to his disbelief, looking down at three of the shadowy creatures that he had encountered in his dream. They moved towards him, twitching all the while as if dancing to some unheard music, there brilliant yellow eyes focused on him. Harry began to move backwards, when suddenly his right hand was enveloped in a bright white light. Although he could not see trough the light, he could feel something thrust into his hand. The light faded to reveal the masteries yellow and silver Keyblade also from his dream, but he didn't have time to think about such things now.
As one of the shadow creatures jumped at him trying to claw his face, Harry swung with all his strength. He hit the heartless head on, causing it to fly backwards, dissolving into darkness as it went. The other two were quickly defeated before they could react. He looked round to see a forth heartless disappearing behind the shop he had been in earlier. Harry gave chase. This one looked different. It was blue in colour, and seamed to wear a metal helmet of some kind. It even seemed to stand upright more as it ran. As Harry raced after the creature and followed it to a pair of wooden door, arriving just in time to see the door close behind it. Harry shrugged and followed it through.
As the heavy door swung shut behind Harry, the shadowy figure stepped forwards out of a doorway a little further down the street from where Harry was moments earlier. Harry looked round, at his new surroundings. He was in a long street serenaded with tall buildings. As he was looking round he glimpsed the creature disappearing into a building over to the left. He set off after it but was stopped by the arrival of five more of the shadowy creatures. By the time they were defeated, the fleeing creature had got well ahead of him. He followed the creature into the door he thought it had gone into. High above the street, the shadowy figure leaped down onto a rooftop opposite the hotel continuing to stalk Harry.
The room Harry was in was long and thin with another door at the far end. The creature however was gone without a trace, leaving him to guess at where it went. Rather then going deeper in the building, he followed the room to the far end and back out into the street. By luck he had made the right choice. The creature in question was standing in the middle of the caught yard. Not wanting to let it escape again, Harry jumped down to the lower level and charged at the creature. Harry stuck hard with the Keyblade sending it flying backwards, but unlike the others it got up again and lurched itself at Harry. It clawed hands clashed with the Keyblade causing Harry to jump back before striking out once more, but still the creature wouldn't die. The creature dive again, this time getting under the Keyblade and sinking it's claws into the flesh of Harry's leg causing him to hiss in pain. Shaking the creature of he lashed out with the hand guard, stunning the creature before a final strike of the Keyblade finished it off.
Harry sighed in relief knowing that the chase had come to an end but unbeknown to him he was still being watched. The shadowy figure leaped from his position atop the clock tower to land silently behind Harry at the opposite side of the square. Harry continued oblivious to the figure's presence contemplating the chase and the creatures he'd defeated.
"They won't stop." The voice was calm and serious, and seamed to cut through the darkness like a knife. But what was most noticeable was that it's youth. The owner of the vice cold have been not much older then him.
"Who's there?" Harry spun round, drawing the Keyblade, to face the direction he thought the voice had come from. Through the darkness he could make out a faint shadow, but it was impossible to pick out any details.
"They won't stop, not ever, not until they get your heart that is" The voice returned in the same calm style that felt so out of place with it's youth.
"My heart?" Harry replied in a confused manner.
"Yes, that's what they want, the Heartless, they want hearts, as many as they can get, and being a Keyblade master, yours heart right at the top of their list." He paused before continuing in a more questioning way. "But why would it choose you? You're just a kid" he finished by saying something far to quietly for Harry to here, it was more like he was thinking out loud rather then actually talking to Harry. "Then again, so was he."
"What do you mean? Who are the Heartless, and who are you for that matter? Answer me!" he shouted the last as his frustration began to grow at the confusing stranger. He raised the Keyblade and pointed at the stranger threateningly.
"A challenge? Very well, show me what you can do then, chosen one." The stranger stepped in to full view for the first time. Harry was right, he was young. He looked to be only a little older then himself. He was dressed almost entirely in black. He wore jet-black boots, jeans and a coat over a black shirt. Over his forearms he had had a set of silvery black braces that stretched from elbow to the wrist, which met a pair of black fingerless gloves. The jeans, coat and gloves seemed to be made of a strange type of material. It looked strong as iron, but at the same time as light and fluid as silk. It seamed to be made of thousands of little plates, each set likely on top of the next. Harry recognised it immediately, he should know, he had come very close to the owner of another set once before, Dragon hide.
As the stranger stepped forwards Harry got into a fighting stance, with the recently acquired Keyblade held firmly in both hands. His opponent held out his right hand and in a flash of light, similar to how Harry's Keyblade had appeared, a large scythe materialised, which he rested gently against his shoulder. At the top was a slightly curved blade, which had a sharp, silvery gleam. The blade was attached to a long black handle made from ancient wood, which together with the blade made an extremely sinister and deadly looking weapon.
Harry, hoping for a quick victory decided to try and act first before his appointment had chance to strike, but he wasn't fast enough to take the advantage. Both Harry and the stranger charged at each other, one with the Keyblade held high, the other with scythe pointed forwards and both with full intent to use them. Harry tried to strike first, but hit nothing but air. The reason, the stranger had used the none-bladed end of the scythe to pole-vault high into the air and clean over Harry's attack, landing neatly behind him. Harry stood amazed at vanishing assailant, until thud behind him followed quickly by a swishing noise, alerted him to imminent danger, with seconds to react.
Although Harry managed to get the Keyblade into a defensive position in time, the force of the impact caused him to stumble backwards and in those few seconds he dropped his guard. 'WAM' Harry hit the deck hard after receiving a powerful blow to the stomach from the base of the scythe. Though it had winded him and probably cracked a rib, he knew knowing he couldn't afford to stay down for long if he wanted to live so he forced him self to his feet. Harry didn't have long to wait before he was forced to dodge another strike which he accomplished by side-stepping, allowing the blade to come crashing down on the floor, shattering the stone work. Again he was forced to backstop a large sweeping slice that came so close to hitting him it cut through the outermost layer of his school robe. He was forced to dive and role time and time again in order to survive constant, unyielding barrage. After only a few minutes he was sporting a great deal cuts from where he had not reacted fast enough.
He knew that couldn't keep playing the defensive, at this rate he would be exhausted within ten minutes. He had to take the offensive, and he knew just how to do it. Since he couldn't mach his opponent in terms of power, he would have to beat him terms of speed. The light and agile Keyblade should be able to run circles around the bulkier scythe. Not wanting to waste any more time, Harry pushed forwards as hard as he could and began to pummel the stranger with everything he had and immediately the stranger was on the defensive.
As it turned out the scythe wielder had been holding back, and was faster then Harry expected. In fact he was much faster. Despite having the larger and heavier weapon, he was able to manoeuvre it into the path of the Keyblade to expertly block every move Harry made. Despite this he was starting to be driven slowly back. Again and again Harry lashed out in an unending bombardment of slashes and stabs, until finally he managed to break through his defences and landed three consecutive blows to the strangers midsection. The stranger stumbles backwards much the same way as harry had earlier, but before harry could land a finishing blow, he had jumped backwards using his scythe to propel himself far enough into the air to reach the opposite end of the caught yard. As he landed free had clutched his chest where he had been hit with his free hand while suppressing grunt of pain. He recomposed him self and began to talk to Harry once more.
"Very good, very good. I have to admit I wasn't expecting you to hold out as well as you did, I'm very impressed." He spoke lightly and in a manor you would expect to here between the best of friends, this only proved to antagonise Harry further.
"Who are you, and why did you bring me here?" He snarled.
"I'll make you a deal, defeat me and ill' tell you all you wish to know, lose and… well we'll see what happens." Harry tightened his grip on his Keyblade as his anger reached new limits.
"That shouldn't be to hard." He replied, through a see of red, believing the same tactics would prevail.
"You shouldn't be over confident…" as he said that his scythe disappeared in a burst of light. "…Things have a tendency to change…" He reached his right hand into his coat and pulled out something that Harry not seen since entering the wizarding world, a gun. This gun though, was unlike any other he had ever seen. It had two side-by-side barrels, with a third staked on top forming a triangle of firepower. The gun in general was bigger then a normal handgun and with its black silver finish, much like the scythe, it looked very intimidating. With flick of the wrist, the gun was broken open and out of an ammunition belt concealed within his coat he drew three Materia infused rounds and loaded them into the three chambers. Another flick and the gun barrels were sealed once more and ready to fire. "…For the worse."
Harry, realising what was coming, re-entered a fighting stance, ready to continue. Hoping to take advantage of his superior speed once more leaped forwards to strike before his opponent had chance to react, but without the bulky scythe to hold him back the man was much faster then his already impressive speed. 'BANG'. The first bullet hit the Keyblade's hand guard, the force of the impact sending it flying out of Harry's grasp and high into the air. 'BANG'. The second round hit the Keyblade whilst in mid flight, sending it sailing across the caught yard and into a second story wall. 'BANG.' Final bullet hit the ground inches away from Harry's left foot, causing him to trip as he jumped back out the way. The man cracked the gun open again, emptying the chambers before reloading.
Deciding he had one option left, he quickly got up and dived forwards hoping to take the man by surprise with an unarmed attack. But seeing it coming, the man held out his empty hand, palm facing forwards at Harry. Harry had seconds to wonder what he was doing, before a fireball suddenly formed and shot forwards from his hand and hit him full force in the chest sending him crashing to the ground. After a ten seconds Harry got to his feet, albeit with great difficulty, and turned to his opponent determined to carry on. However, he was now exhausted to the point that he could belay stand let alone fight. He steeped forwards, but promptly overbalanced and fell to the stone floor once more. As the darkness began to take him he looked up into the face of the attacker, now standing over him, before he finally passed out. The last thing he concisely heard was a slightly concerned voice saying, "…I think I went a little to hard on him."
…Elsewhere…
In a warmly decorated office a wise looking old wizard is sitting alone, lost in comp contemplation and clearly worried. The uneasy quiet of the room is shattered by the frantic knock coming from the far side of the closed door. He had barely invite the person in when the door was flung open and in rushed the frantic from of an old, stern faced which, also known as professor McGonagall.
"Albus" She said in a tone that clearly showed her to be distressed. "Albus" she repeated, "Hagrids come back from the searching the forest, he's not found him either. We've looked everywhere, he's not in the castle of the grounds, he's just vanished."
"Clam down, Minerva" Dumbledore said in a soft friendly manner.
"Do you think he was taken, by he who must not be named?"
"Minerva please, if we are expected to lead the fight against Voldemort, we should at very least call him by his real name. But to answer your question I don't think so. That would be far to rash a move for Voldemort to make, and Snape would have reported any such plans to us at once."
"But it's been five days since he went missing, even Ron and Hermione don't know happened to him. You know how close those three are, if he didn't tell them he was going leave, I don't think he left of his own accord."
"We must be patient" he said retiringly, "All available members of the Order of the Phoenix are looking for him as we speak, it is only a matter of time until we locate him."
"But Albus he may already be dead…"
…Back in Traverse Town…
For the second time in as many days Harry woke up in unfamiliar place, but at least this time he found himself in an environment much more comfortable the n the alleyway. It was a bedroom, fairly basic in terms of furnishings, there was a bed a few tables and chairs and that it. Most noticeably was the prevailing red colour scheme of the room.
He sat up groggily while the world came back into focus once more, as memories of the fight flooded back to him. He lifted his shirt expecting to see burns from the fireball that had knocked him to the ground, but found that it hadn't left so much of a scratch. Further examination revealed that he was not bruised, cut or marked in any. Not wanting to temp fat he stood up carefully and found that his mussels protested stubbornly as he went. He was still engaged in the room when the door to an adjacent room opened and in walked a familiar figure.
"Your awake, good…" the man would have continued if he didn't have to avoid a practically violent slash from Harry's Keyblade. The man landed on the far side of the bed and immediately had to shield himself from the flying remains of a bedside table that stood directly behind him moments ago. "Easy, easy, I just want to…" 'SMASH' a nice new hole in the wall could now be found where the man's head once stood. "Seriously, I'm not going to hurt" 'WAM' a wooden chair now laid in pieces strewn across the floor. "Ok, ok calm down, I'm not gong to hurt you I just want to talk, Ok?"
Harry held the Keyblade trained on the man's head for a moment before letting the tip drop a little. He stared darkly at the man before he replied. "Why did you attack me before?" he growled.
"You're the Keyblade Master, I had to know what you are capable of in a fight. I was fairly impressed by the way."
"What's a Keyblade and why am I its master?"
"That's a question, which requires a lengthy answer, time is something we simply do not have right now I'm afraid. It must wait until we are in a safer location."
"Where are we?"
"We are in a hotel in the 2nd district of a world called Traverse town."
"Another world?" Harry asked in a shock. "How?"
"I'm not really shore, but I intend to find out" he paused letting his words sink in to Harry. "What is your name?"
"Harry, Harry Potter." Harry replied still in a state of confession.
"Well, Harry, I'm afraid we may have very little time here before we discovered. I would recommend that you get ready to fight." no sooner had he said this, several dark portals formed on the floor announcing the arrival of several shadow heartless. With a flash of light, both Keyblade and scythe were drawn and ready for use. The five heartless twitched violently before leaping to attack. These heartless seamed stronger then the ones before. They would no longer be killed of with one hit of the Keyblade, in stead it took two or three blows before one was defeated. This meant that you were more open to being attacked from one heartless, when you were engaged with another.
Despite these heartless being stronger they were soon defeated although Harry now had a rather deep gash across his right hand where a razor sharp claw had made it through his deference. He turned to say something, but was immediately cut short when three more heartless jumped out of the shadows and down onto him. They bore down onto him before he could bring the Keyblade up into a defensive position; the claws aimed strait for his neck with no chance of Harry stopping them. "BANG, BANG, BANG' the three loud shorts rang out as they each hit one of the three heartless in mid air. As they died there bodies evaporated into a dark vapour that involved Harry where he stood. Seconds later, the darkness lifted to reveal a shocked and stunned Harry looking down the three barrels of the gun.
"Thanks" Harry said a little dazed.
"No problem," the man replied simply, "But I don't believe this is over yet" As if on cue, several of the helmet wearing soldier heartless materialised. Harry automatically raised the Keyblade ready to strike, but was stopped short. "Not this time Harry, they'll just keep coming, and theses are much stronger then any you have faced up till now. This isn't are fight." He said as he put away his gun and drew out his scythe, nodding towards the window "Get ready." Harry having a good idea of what was coming next, braced him self for the jump. "Now" he yelled as he brought his scythe down on to a gas heating pipe, neatly severing it and allowing the gas to flood out into the room. Harry meanwhile, not wanting to be to close to what was about happen, had dived headfirst through the window. The other followed him through turning in mid air to fire a fireball back into the gas filled room. The room exploded, obliterating the soldier heartless instantly, and throwing broken glass and other shrapnel out in to the back street.
Harry landed heard and had to cover his head, strait away and shield himself from the flying dabry. Within in a few seconds he had received several nasty cuts and lacerations but luckily, none them too serious. He looked around to see the young man in a similar position also with several cuts and scrapes. For a second they remained where they were, panting for breath. But they had only had a few seconds to rest when the alleyway was suddenly filled with the dark portals that signal a coming heartless. The two immediately formed a back to back defensive position, each facing down opposite ends of the ally and into a sea of shadow heartless. Harry's spirit drooped at the sight of so many heartless, but regardless he got ready to fight. "You must chose your targets carefully," came the now familiar voice from over his shoulder, "attack only those in your path, forget the rest, they don't matter. Follow me." With that he took of up the ally with Harry close behind him, both cutting down the numerous heartless in their way. When they reached the end of the alleyway they jumped down into a shallow open drain, turning round Harry could see the pursuing heartless army growing rapidly in number.
"In here" Harry looked to see him standing in the mouth of a large drain opening in the wall. Taking the hint he quickly entered quickly followed the scythe wielder. When they were clear of the entrance the man turned around and fired three fireballs into the roof of the drain opening causing in to collapse, sealing them in, and the heartless out
Harry fell to his knees exhausted from the running and fighting. "Will that hold them?" Harry asked through his panting heavily.
"It should," he replied also a little short of breath. "But it's best if we don't linger here. There's a safe house a little way ahead, we can rest there." The drain hand opened up into a large cavern that was partially filled with water. After wading their way through the water, they climbed out onto a bank and from there up to a section of wall built in the rock face. Walking through the doorway they climbed a short flight of satires to find a large stone floating in mid air. They both climbed onto and the stone which began to rise through the ceiling.
When the stone tile had stopped, they were both standing in a old abandoned house that looked partly dilapidated, a shell really, but in the current situation Harry wasn't to concerned. "A powerful wizard used to live here. The protective spells he put in place around the building should still be functional, we should be safe here, for a while." Harry, now that he was no longer fighting for his life, was beginning to notice the numerous injuries he has sustained, as the adrenaline was now giving was to the pain.
"You injured?"
"Nothing serious." Harry replied through clenched teeth after discovering a practically painful cut.
"Here, take this" the man said reaching into his coat and removing two blue vials, throwing one to Harry.
"Thanks" Harry replied, opening the vial and draining the contents. It tasted cool and medicinal, and as soon as it passed his lips he felt the pain lesson considerably. As he looked, he could see his many abrasions knitting them selves together before his eyes. In no time at all he was all but healed only the most significant cuts remained and as only faint marks.
"Hi-potions, never leave home without them." The man said before turning to Harry. "Now would be a good time for any questions you have, it may be a while until we have such an opportunity again."
"Ok" Harry, said, "Who are you?"
"Xaldmoss, and to cut a long story short I'm here by order of the king under the instruction to act as your guide and guardian on you journey."
"I see", Harry didn't really understand, but he had other questions that wanted answering. "Before, you were using a type of magic that I've never seen before, and without a wand or words, What magic is that?"
"Year, I meant to give you this, but we were interrupted." He reached into his coat and pulled out a small, pail green sphere. It seemed to shimmer unnaturally in the pail green glow it gave off as it was held up for Harry to see. "Materia," he said, "A low level fire Materia to be exact, this is the source of the magic I use, here," he said as he tossed it to Harry.
"How do I use it?" Harry said as he caught the orb and gazed transfixed into its cloudy surface.
"It binds to your weapon or armour, in this case your Keyblade, try it." Harry summoned the Keyblade, into one hand while he held the Materia in the other, then he taped them Materia onto the hilt. As soon as it touched the Keyblade, the Materia gave of a strong green light before it diffused into the blade and the light subsided. "Now all you have to do is feel for the Materia with your mind. Once you've found it, it will respond to you command."
Harry got up and stood on the raised platform in the centre of the room. He closed his eyes and began to try and fell for the Materia. It wasn't as hard as he thought it would be, whiten a few minutes he had found a feeling of warmth that he had never felt before. He stretched out his hand and after a few moments he shouted "FIRE" The familiar ball of fire developed and flew across the room. The second time he tried he found the Materia much faster, and after a few more attempts he could find it almost strait away. Feeling contempt with his new magic, he began to ask more questions. "If this is another worlds, how did you get here?
"On my ship, The Litany of Fury, that's how we going to travel to all the different worlds."
"Where is she?"
"She's in orbit, her size means she can only land in places with specially designed docks, only a few worlds have them. Most of the time we have to use a smell lander craft to shuttle back and forth to the world's surface. Right now the lander is parked behind those great doors in the 1st District. Once we've rested we'll head there through the 3rd district. From there it's just a short distance to the-" he was interrupted when the house violently shock. They both waited in silence for a few seconds when second tremor hit the house followed by a loud screeching roar.
"What ever that is, it's big." Harry said squinting trough the darkness out of a broken window in the direction of the noise, trying to pick out a shape.
"That's not are only problem."
"What?" harry asked still distracted.
"It's coming from the 3rd district. What ever it is, it's big and it's standing between us and the ship."
"And we can't go back the way we came because of the Heartless and the cave-in, So we have no choice but to that way." Harry said as realisation dawned.
"Get ready, this is going to be hard, You up to it?"
"Yes" Harry replied forcefully in an attempted to hide his apprehension.
"Good, this way then." Harry was led out into the inside of grate chasm, from there across a set of moving stepping stones and up to a door set into the rock face, before Xaldmoss stopped him. "On the other side of this door." Harry nodded knowing full well what he meant. "Keep moving, you'll be harder to hit, find a weak spot and keep hitting it and use the terrain as best you can. Do all that and you'll come through just fine. Ready?" Harry just gazed blankly at the door, determined hide the volatile mixture of fear, excitement and dread that was boiling away wit n him. After a moment's hesitation the door retracted upwards revealing the entrance to the brightly-lit 3rd District.
At first, the place seamed totally deserted. There was no sign of any heartless of either the normal or giant verity what so ever. The 3rd District was by far the smallest. It was basically just a small square clearing with a few doors and stairs leading to the other areas of the town. The only feature of any interest was the set of huge wooden doors on the far wall. Not taking chances, the pair walked cautiously to the middle of the caught yard, weapons drawn and ready for the unexpected. No sooner had they reached the middle, the floor shock violently as numerous stone pillars raised themselves from the floor blocking the all the exits and effectively trapping them where they were. Before they could react properly, a loud piercing scream thundered down from above alerting them to the arrival of their opponent. The floor shock under its weight as it hit the floor, causing them both to stumble backwards slightly. While looking up at the monster towering over them.
For the most part, the creature looked like a giant scorpion. It had six legs in total, each carrying many spikes and ending in a particularly vicious looking barbed point. It also had had a large tail with ended in a long needed like tip that every now and then would drip a little drop of viscous green venom as the tail swayed to and from. At the front, where the head should have been, the body raised up into a more humanoid shape, complete with two normal arms and head. Its whole body was covered in black armour with areas highlighted in purple and red and, most noticeably, it carried the large crossed out heart insignia of the heartless printed body on its breastplate. The end affect was that it looked like a nightmarish centaur like creature, which stood at least twice as high Harry. This thing looked like it certainly handle it's self, especially as it had now produced a large spiked mace that it held threateningly in its right hand. It shrieked again causing the air to ripple in front of it from the force before charging forwards mace first.
Harry dived clear seconds before the mace came crashing down forcefully onto the stone floor, leaving a mid-sized crater in its wake. He got up again just in time to dodge a swipe from a barbed claw, and then another swipe of the mace. On and on the continued with Harry not getting chance to strike back for the need to dodge. He was about to be impaled by the scorpion tale when, with three loud bangs, three bullets tore passed Harry's head and strait into the heartless's chest plate, not causing much damage but successfully distracting it long enough for Harry to escape death. Three more bullets rang out but were batted away harmlessly by the mace. With the creature concentrating on the gunman, Harry was able to get close enough to sink the Keyblade into one of its hind legs causing it to fall to the floor and howl in agony. Getting back up, the heartless rounded furiously on Harry brandishing his mace wildly.
It dived at Harry who leaped backward only just avoiding the mace, which came perilously close to braking every bone in his body. Swinging at him again Harry was forced to deflect it with the Keyblade the impact sending pain full shock waves through the blade. It was about to lash out for a third time when it suddenly erupted in pain and collapsed to the floor. Harry glanced to see that Xaldmoss had managed to get behind the creature and that subsequently it was no missing the other hind leg.
With both hind legs missing or damaged, the creature had lost its mobility, and could no longer afford to strike out with his legs. Now it could only attack using with its mace and stinger. Taking advantage of their enemies dramatically reduced mobility, Harry and Xaldmoss easily out manoeuvred it and in no time at all had destroyed the four remaining legs. Although now lying in the middle of the square complete immobile, the creature still posed a serious risk as it was demonstrating with its frenzied use of its still functional mace and tale. A new tactic it employed was to strike the floor so hard with its mace that it sent out violent shock waves shock waves. Also its tale would whip out frequently with lightning speed and deadly precision, destroying everything it touched. In short, it was now impossible to get anywhere close to it without getting significantly hurt if not killed.
"We can't get close to it while it's got that mace," Harry yelled across the battlefield. "We have do get rid of that before we can get closer."
"Use your fire magic on it," Xaldmoss shouted back while blocking a tail swipe with his scythe, before using it to volt over several shock waves to land gracefully next to Harry. "Together on three, one…two…THREE!" Both he and Harry raised their hands and let lose a barrage fire spells. The creature blocked them all with expert skill, but every time he did so his mace was heated up a little more by the fiery magic. When the barrage had ended, the mace was no more then a brightly glowing pulp of semi-molten metal which fell apart then next time it was used. The scorpion heartless howled both in anger and in renewed pain from the deep burns that had destroyed most of it's right hand leaving it a shrivelled and blackened stump.
The heartless stopped shrieking and raised its tale to the full extent high above its head. The needle like tip began to glow with a brilliantly white energy, when it had fully charged it fired a beam of scorching light at Harry and Xaldmoss, exploding on contact. Luckily Harry out of the two wasn't the main target and so had not been hurt as badly. He was close enough though to the blasted to into a nearby wall.
Xaldmoss on the other hand, who had been the main target, had been blown to the far side of the square and was in a state of semi unconsciousness with the creature baring down on top of him, readying to fire another energy blast.
Reacting quickly, Harry sprinted up behind the creature and climbed up onto its back. He slashed the tale cutting just deep enough for the tale to go limp, allowing him to garb it bull if forwards, stabbing the tip into the creature's back. He leaped clear just as the energy discharged with a tremendous explosion the force of which propelled in further through the air crashing into the remains of a now decimated fountain. It was several minutes before any one began to show signs of life. It was Harry was the first to rise, wincing in pain before limping over to smouldering body of the heartless. As he grew close, the body twitched promoting him to raise the Keyblade, but the heartless didn't move any further. After a few minutes, Xaldmoss came too enough to stand and began to walk slowly towards Harry and the heartless, dragging the scythe blade behind him as he did so. He looked at the heartless and then Harry before raising the scythe high like an executioner. The heartless twitched again as is sensing the end before the blade fell, neatly severing the neck. As soon as the head had it the floor, both it and the body began to disintegrate into darkness, releasing a red heart that floated upwards a little before vanishing.
"Not so tough." Harry said sitting down to rest against a nearby wall.
"We need to leaves this world… immediately." Xaldmoss said sternly, though he couldn't help but betray his exhaustion, before limping off towards the large wooden doors. Not wanting to be left behind Harry followed suit. They passed hurriedly through the 1st District without stopping heading strait to the lander behind the world gates and from there to the Litany.
AN: Sorry for the slow updating but to be honest with you I'm a very lazy person. They never really explained how and what magic was in the game so I went for the good old Materia approach. Also I forgot to mention but in terms of the Kingdom Hearts timeline, this story starts while Sora is coming to the end of his hibernation, and will mostly be running as a parallel to KH2. So far I've had about 5 reviews, 4 of which were favourable. That's an 80 approval rate, not bad. Anyway review, please. Till next time…