Chapter 6
"Oof! Ow." Kim and Jake groaned as they hit the ground. The portal they'd flown through had somehow taken away most of their speed, but the landing was still less then gentle.
"That wasn't fun." Jake muttered as he rose to his feet, rubbing his side.
"No kidding." Kim grumbled, doing the same.
"Augh! That little trip is enough to hurt you? This won't be nearly as fun as I hoped." Came a mock disappointed voice. Turning to the other side of the room, the duo found another cloaked figure standing there. This one already had his hood down, revealing a man with a blond mullet.
Their aches and pains forgotten, Kim set herself into an offensive stance as Jake transformed into his dragon form.
"And you would be?" Kim asked.
"The name's Demyx." The blond Nobody stated casually, his couldn't-care-less attitude angering the teens. "I'm number nine. It looks like the others gave me the team weaklings. Fine by me, I'm hardly the right guy to take on that ghost or the guy with the messy black hair."
"You think we're WEAK?" Jake yelled in outrage, his whole body tensing. "I'll show you weak, you incomplete nut job."
Demyx said nothing, but his face turned hard as he raised his hand. Water rose up from the ground, created a dome around him before gathering into a ball in his outstretched hand. When all the water was gathered, it let loose a flash of light as it turned into a blue sitar.
"Let's play firefly." He stated coldly.
The teen heroes charged at that, making quick work of the distance between them and their enemy. However, when they reached the halfway point, Demyx began strumming.
"Dance water, dance." At his command, water left his sitar and created a number of humanoid and musical note forms and attack.
Caught off guard by the move, Kim reeled back as one of the humanoids slugged her in the face. Regaining her focus, Kim turned her fall into a back flip, her feet ploughing through the liquid body and causing her attacker to explode into water droplets before getting back upright and dodging another.
Jake opted to fly over the bodies of water and headed straight towards Demyx, claws ready to rip him apart. But as he got close, five musical notes took into the air and spun so their circular parts slammed into Jake's head and chest, one after another. With a cry of pain, Jake fell to the ground on his back before leaping back to his feet and lashing out at the following water spirits with all five of his limbs, his tail occasionally wrapping around one and tossing it into an approaching enemy.
The whole time the battle continued, Demyx just watched, casually playing his sitar as the physical forms he created continued to weaken his enemies.
Roxas grunted as he landed hard on his back with Namine pressed against his chest, saving her from the blow. Opening his eyes, he quickly checked Namine over, relieved to find her unharmed, before turning to the portal behind them and growling as a black and white force field rose before it, imprisoning them inside.
"Damn Xaldin, let me at the pain in the neck."
"You won't get the chance traitor." A cold voice stated. Roxas' eyes widened in upsetment as her turned to face his old friend turned enemy. Namine gave Roxas a sympathetic look as they rose to their feet. Roxas however, never saw it. His dismayed eyes stayed planted on the read head glaring daggers at him.
"Axel." He said softly, his voice shaking a little.
'Yeah. Me." Axel replied, his face and voice harder then stone. "I'll be your killer, traitor. Got it memorised?"
"I was hoping this wouldn't happen." Roxas muttered, finally breaking eye contact as he frowned at the ground. "You and I were friends."
"Exactly. Were friends." Axel responded venomously. "But you had to turn on us and end it. I'm loyal to the Organisation, unlike you, and so I'll destroy all traitors. Prepare to die." With that, he threw his arms out to his sides and released powerful flamethrowers from each. Eyes wide in panic, Roxas pushed Namine back just as the flames travelled around him and met right where she'd stood only seconds before, creating a giant ring of fire around them.
"Don't do this Axel." Roxas warned, though his tone and eyes clearly told Axel that he was hesitant.
"Try and stop me." Axel retorted, summoning flames again, this time in the form of two fireballs. The balls quickly grew and with a flash of red light, turn into red and white chakrams held loosely in his hands.
"I guess I have no choice." Roxas sighed sadly, looking down at the ground again. However, when he raised his head again, all hesitancy was gone, replaced by defiant determination.
"I betrayed Organisation 13 because I couldn't abide the horrific acts it commits." He stated, extending his arms, crossing them at the forearms, his hands glowing white. "I have a heart Axel. I don't know how, but I do and it tells me I have to save this world. And I won't let you or anyone else get in my way." As he finished, the white glow from his hands shot out to his sides.
"Two?" Axel cried, not believing his eyes. He never expected that, Roxas only ever had one.
"Oathkeeper ensures my promise to save this world is fulfilled." Roxas stated, pointing a white Keyblade with a blue and gold star at the end in his left hand at Axel. "And oblivion ensures me the power to do it." He finished, raising the black Keyblade in his right over his head, pointed at Axel as he dropped into a fighting stance. "Let's fight."
With that, the two warriors charged. Namine watched helplessly from behind the fire as blades hit chakrams in a fast moving, deadly dance.
Claw slashes appeared in the last water spirit before the water molecules dropped to the ground a second later before the panting dragon. Two things had amazed the puffing partners about those creatures. The first was that their blows were able to do damage to their liquid forms, as if they were solid. The other was that they packed a hell of a punch.
"Is that the… best you got?" Jake challenged between breaths, trying and failing to sound unimpressed.
"Actually, that's just the beginning of what I can do." Demyx responded coldly, his carefree attitude long gone. Strumming again, he leapt forward and a giant wave appeared under his feet, heading for the heroes fast. The wave moved much to fast for either opponent and hit them dead on, the force knocking them right back into the force field on the other side of the room, their cries of pain reduced gargles.
As the water died down, Kim struggled back to her feet, coughing repeatedly as her lungs tried to expel the water they'd consumed. Jake managed to get back on all fours before his own coughing fit disabled him, his whole body shaking from the exertion.
"You two actually thought that you could stop the Organisation?" Demyx taunted as they finally managed to get control of themselves and prepared to fight again. "I'm one of the weakest members and you haven't even landed a single blow yet. You're hopeless."
"If we were alone, that might be true." Kim gasped, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath. "But together, we might just surprise you." She finished, opening her eyes and revealing the flames within.
"Lets show him what we can do." Jake cried, opening his wings. Demyx strummed his sitar again and created two geysers where they stood, but just as he began to play, Jake took off into the air as Kim jumped on his back, completely avoiding the attack. Demyx growled in annoyance as he directed his weapon skyward and played again, this time sending a barrage of bubbles at them.
"Give me some credit." Jake called confidently, as he dived to meet the assault. Kim pressed herself to him as he hung left before retracting his wings and spinning right, dodging the bubbles. The magical reptile bobbed and weaved effortlessly through the barrage, never dropping his grin or his speed as he dived toward his target.
Growling, Demyx created a circle of geysers around himself, forcing Jake to pull back at the last minute. However, just as Jake halted himself just outside the geysers, Kim leapt of his back and flipped over the offending water before going into a mid air spin kick. Unprepared for such a move, the blow caught Demyx right in the forehead and sent him five feet back before hitting the ground with a groan, breaking his concentration and letting the water fall harmlessly to the ground.
"So who's pathetic again?" Kim asked as she landed deftly on her feet, smirking as she fell into another battle stance.
"Grr, you will pay for that." Demyx scowled, his eyes full of rage as he got back up and started playing his sitar again. Kim and Jake gasped as a whirlpool swirled around the mullet haired Nobody before growing outward, forcing them back. Upon reaching it's full size, Demyx had it release dozens of water whips from the top and had them all surge toward his enemies.
"Whoa."
"Oh, man!"
Kim quickly summoned all her gymnastic ability, jumping, flipping and bending in every direction, barely avoiding the whips, while Jake took to the air and performed every aerial manoeuvre he knew, not doing much better then Kim. It was clear that they weren't going to be able to keep it up for long, especially since their muscles were already screaming at them in overexertion.
"We've gotta find a way to stop h- AAHH!" Kim cried as a water whip latched onto her leg in mid flip. Having caught it's prey, the liquid rope pulled back, dragging Kim effortlessly towards the whirlpool.
"Kim, hang on." Jake cried as he did a loop, dodging three whips at once, before changing course and flying back towards the ground.
"I don't really have much choice." Kim retorted in panic, her eyes lighting up in fear as she approached the whirlpool.
Jake flew as fast as he could down to her, but before he could reach her, five water whips appeared in front of him, forcing him to detour and waste just enough time for Kim to enter the aquatic vortex with a garbled scream.
"NO!" Eyes wide in fear for his friend, Jake gained a little bit of altitude before dropping into a dive, heading straight for the centre of the whirlpool, his sight firmly fixed on Demyx, dry as a bone within the spinning water around him. More water whips tried to get in his way, but Jake just threw his in front of him and pulled himself into a spin, mimicking the source of water whips and shattering the whips as he passed as if they were made of glass, not loosing even the slightest bit of speed.
Just as he reached the top of the whirlpool, he took a deep breath and released the strongest flamethrower he could down the dry column. Demyx' eyes widened as the flames came, much to quick for him to protect himself and let loose a blood curdling screamed as he was consumed.
Once again, his focus on controlling the water was broken and the liquid dropped to the ground, a gasping Kim in tow.
"There's an experience I could have done without." She mumbled when she finally caught her breath again. Getting back up, careful not to slip in now the ankle deep water, she turned to face Demyx again and found him still smoking from Jake's last attack.
"I'm tired of playing with you." Demyx growled, panting heavily as his grip tightened around his sitar. "This ends NOW!" With that, he played a powerful, angry tune and a tidal wave appeared before him, making a beeline for exhausted teens.
"Awe man!" Jake cried in fear as he grabbed Kim and took to the air, trying desperately to get above the wall of water. But the wave was much to big and moving to fast. Though they got close, the wave still had eight feet over them when it reached them.
Thinking fast, Kim activated her shield seconds before the wave crashed down, swallowing them before hitting the force field and heading back throughout the room. Even that much power couldn't break the confining field.
As the water surged back his way, Demyx smirked and threw up his hand and the water disappeared, back to wherever it came from. His smirked disappeared however, and was replaced be wide eyed disbelief as a grunting teenage girl and a growling red dragon jumped back up to their feet, glaring at the water wielder.
"How are you still alive? It's impossible." Demyx gaped, his hands shaking noticeably. That was his best shot. The two before him shouldn't have been able to withstand it.
"What part of 'she can do anything', do you bad guys not comprehend?" Kim asked smartly before turning a confident smirk to her partner. "I'm bored with this guy. His attacks are getting repetitive. What do you say we finish this?"
"I'm all for it." Jake replied, taking her hands and flying into the air again.
Demyx' tired eyes widened in terror as they approached, and he played his sitar again, creating more water balls and sending them wildly at the reptile.
Once again, Jake dodged them all with ease before he pulled his body upright, spun in the air and threw Kim towards Demyx with all the strength he could muster.
Kim sped at the horror struck Nobody like a rocket. Focusing as much of her suit's power into her fist as she could, giving it a strong, blue glow, she threw it forward and straight into and through Demyx' gut. The water wielding Nobody wasn't even able to scream as Kim's momentum knocked him off his feet and sent both of them ploughing hard into the wall with a resounding BOOM and a pain scream from Kim as she fell to the ground holding her right arm and shoulder where she'd impacted. Demyx slid down the wall with his back to it, his body shaking from the agonising pain he felt, only pained squeaks leaving his mouth. Just as his butt made it to the floor, the second attack came and Jake's claws impaled his chest, right where his heart should have been.
"I think we win." Jake said lowly, glaring down at the mullet head. Demyx just gave him one last looked of pain and hatred before his body broke apart into the black wisps. Number nine was no longer a threat to anyone.
Sighing in relief as the last of the black wisps disappeared, Jake let his body drop to the ground in exhaustion. Breathing deeply, he gathered his energy and turned to the still whimpering teen heroine and flinched at her condition.
Though the suit had finished repairing any damage done to it, it was clear that the collision had done a number on Kim's whole right side. Her shoulder was clearly broken and her leg was swelling, probably sprained.
Taking a deep breath, Jake pushed himself to his feet and turned to the exit. Seeing that the force field was gone, Jake smiled tiredly and gently pick up Kim, careful not to put her in any more pain then necessary.
"Don't worry Kim, I'll get you out of her. You'll be fixed up in no time." Jake told her reassuringly. Giving him a pained smile, Kim just nodded her head as he slowly carried her to and through the portal, hoping the others were still ok.
The loud clinking of metal hitting metal was constant within the ring of fire as the two titans battled it out. Roxas was fast and his moves held plenty of power, but Axel moved just as quickly and was extremely unpredictable.
As Roxas blocked on chakram with Oathkeeper, he quickly had to move Oblivion near his face to block another. Throwing all his weight into it, he swung his blades out and pushed Axel back, but before he could make an offensive move of his own, his fiery opponent jumped back into his creation, out of Roxas' sight.
"Grr, come on Axel, stop hiding like a coward." Roxas snapped just as his ears picked up movement behind him. Whipping around, he raised Oblivion just in time to stop both chakrams from cutting off his head.
"I'll fight however I wish, traitor. Got it memorised?" Axel retorted, letting go of the chakrams. Concentrating on them, he held his hands out and ignited them, while simultaneously making them spin rapidly. Gasping in pain as the flames passed his Keyblade and burned his arms, Roxas swung Oblivion and pushed them away, taking a step back in the process.
Axel smirked at the look of displeasure o Roxas' face and increased the flames so they covered every inch of the chakrams, not just the edges, and directed them right back at his former friend.
Caught between the fire wall and approaching, flaming metal, Roxas raised both his Keyblades and frowned as he concentrated. Both blades started glowing with a strong, white light from one end to the other. With a grunt, Roxas swung the Keyblades as hard as he could at the chakrams, expertly hitting them so their attack was redirected at Axel, though the light had extinguished the flames. Gasping as his eyes widened, Axel ducked just before the deadly rings past, losing a little bit of his hair as they flew overhead.
"You're not the only one with powers, remember?" Roxas stated calmly, holding his glowing blades up, in preparation for the next assault. "I have power over light."
"That won't be enough to save you." Axel growled furiously, his hands fiddling with his chopped hair. He quickly jumped through the flames and retrieved his chakrams before charging through and at Roxas again, but just as he entered his ring again, it was to hit by nine javelins of light, that converged at the last minute, in the chest.
"ARGH!" His eyes scrunched shut in pain as he fell back, he, he didn't even see as Roxas jumped into the air and spun like a ball as he reached Axel, his still glowing blades slashing away at his body repeatedly. With another cry, Axel crashed into the ground with a thump, half his body on both sides of his fire wall.
Panting slightly, Roxas growled at the fire walls around him, more then fed up with the heat, imprisonment and the advantage Axel got from them. Focusing more of his power into his Keyblades, he held them together and slammed them into the ground. The light spread quickly from the Keyblades, across the floor and exploded upward as it reached the fire ring before exploding outward. As the light died around the drained Keybearer, he grinned as he found that the fire was now nothing more then a memory.
"ROXAS! LOOK OUT."
"DIE TRAITOR!" Turning back to Axel so fast that his head hurt, Roxas' eyes opened to the size of dinner plates in fear as Axel held his arms out towards his chakrams, one floating behind the other, forming a line pointing at Roxas, and let loose a huge amount of fire.
The burst of flames collided with the first chakram and passed on the second, each time growing stronger, before the super charged flamethrower, spinning like a horizontal tornado, made a beeline for the newest hero.
"AAARRRGGGHHH!" Unprepared, Roxas didn't have the time or needed to build a defence and with only his still glowing Keyblades between him and the flames, he was quickly consumed and thrown back, his back slamming hard into the wall while the flames continued to pour over his body. The flames continued to come and torture his body for a full half a minute before Axel fell to his knees in fatigue. Roxas finally stopped screaming as the flames ended and without the force of them restraining him, he fell to the ground, barely breathing in ragged breaths. His body was still on fire in multiple places and everywhere else was charcoal black. If it wasn't for the protection of the Keyblades, as little as they could do at that point, and his naturally super human endurance level, he'd have been dead the moment the blast met him. As it was, he only had a minute left at best.
"That's what… happens… to traitors." Axel gasped as he sat down, thoroughly exhausted.
"ROXAS!" Tears clouded Namine's vision as she ran towards her friend, praying that he wasn't already dead. The idea of Axel attacking her was pointless in his condition, so she had no reason to watch him, not that she would have anyway. Roxas was the only thing on her mind.
Upon reaching the boy, she quickly used her bag to put out the fires before turning him over gently and looking desperately for any sign of life.
"Roxas, please don't… don't leave me." She sobbed, placing a finger on his black neck, desperate to find a pulse. Before she felt anything, the dying boy gave a slight cough, removing ash from in his lungs, and a choked breath. It was horrifying to look at, but it was enough to make Namine smile.
"Thank goodness." She said softly as she closed her eyes and concentrated. Her hands, placed on his neck and chest, quickly gained a white glow that spread throughout Roxas' body.
"What the?" Axel cried, his fatigue leaving as panic set in. "But she can't heal Nobodies. We're not alive enough for her power to work. But Roxas' skin…" The charred skin covering Roxas' body was quickly returning to it's natural, lightly tanned colour right before his eyes. At the same time, his hair had grown back to exactly what it had been like a few minutes before and his breathing was becoming more relaxed, natural. The white glow still covering his body, Roxas opened his eyes and smiled warmly up at his saviour.
"He does have a heart." Axel mumbled, as Namine finished her job and dropped into Roxas' waiting arms, partly to hug him in relief and partly in energy depletion.
"Namine, thank you. I owe you my life." Roxas said softly as he looked into her eyes, his own shining with gratitude.
"You've saved me before." Namine responded tiredly, giving him a kiss on the cheek before pulling herself off of him. "Now go and finish this. We have a world to save and not a lot of time to do it in."
"Right." Roxas responded with a grin before he got back up on his feet. Wiping soot off his torn clothes, which he very thankful at that moment that they were completely destroyed in the blast, he turned a hate filled glared on Axel.
"You're hit and run and cheap shot strategies won't help you now Axel." He spat venomously, summoning Oathkeeper in his right hand. "My strength might be drained, but I still have enough to end this for good."
"You, someone with a heart, would kill another living being?" Axel asked fearfully, trying to play on Roxas' conscience.
"No." Roxas stated coldly, holding the white Keyblade in both hands as he pointed it at his foe. Axel rose, panicky, to his feet and stepped back as the end of the Keyblade started glowing white, Roxas' power of light being channelled and enhanced by the blade. "You're already dead Nobody. LIGHT!" With a roar, Roxas released a powerful light beam from the Keyblade straight at Axel.
"NOOOO!" Axel screamed as the beam consumed him. The blast was far more then the pyromaniac could and his scream was quickly silenced as his dark form exploded into black wisps of energy seconds after the blast hit him. Ending the blast, Roxas panted, dismissing his Keyblade while he smiled, looking where Axel once stood as the force field sealing them in went down.
"And I still have a fair bit of energy to spare. I always new I was stronger then him."
Catching his breath, Roxas turned to head back to Namine, only to find the girl beside him with a proud smile on her face.
"Just remember to stay focused next time." She said softly, taking his hand in her own as they headed for the portal. "If you kept an eye on Axel, you wouldn't have needed my help."
"True, I made a mistake." Roxas admitted as they returned to the previous room. "I'll be more careful next-"
"Namine, Kim needs help." Both blonds followed the slightly panicked voice and found Jake next to a pained looking Kim, her left hand still gingerly holding her shoulder. "She's hurt all down her right side."
"How did that happen" Roxas asked as Namine quickly got to work, despite her own drained status.
"She practically ploughed through a wall when landing a killing blow to Demyx. I threw her too hard." Jake stated guiltily, looking at the floor in shame.
"Don't worry, she's fine." Namine said to him reassuringly as the white glow on her hands faded and Kim sat up.
"Now that's better." Kim sighed in relief. However, her eyes went wide in concern as Namine collapsed beside her. "Are you ok?"
"Just tired. Healing takes a lot out of you and Roxas had a severe full body issue back there. Just let me…rest." The explained just as she fell asleep. Kim and Jake just sighed in relief while Roxas sat down and placed Namine's head in his lap, sure that it was far more comfortable then the ground.
"Man, you look like you were burned head to toe… holly crap, you were!" Jake cried, looking at Namine and putting two and two together.
"Yeah, I got distracted and paid for it." Roxas sighed. "But I'm good now. I just hope the others are relatively ok. Namine really needs to conserve her strength."
"So what do we do now?" Kim asked softly, not wanting to wake the blond girl up.
"We wait for the others. You and I might be healed, but we're all tired out. Besides that, Xemnas is by far the oldest and most powerful member of the Organisation. It'll take all of us combine to stop him, especially since we're not at full strength."
"Then we wait and rest." Jake agreed, looking at the other portals. "Hurry guys. As much as a rest sounds good, we don't have much time."