AN: Just thought i'd clear something up before someone yells at me. Saix only has one claymore, but i gave him another to make him more impressive. carry on.
Chapter 8
Focusing his energy, Gohan caught himself in the air and floated down to a soft landing just as his senses picked up the force field sealing his exit.
"Now that was just rude." Gohan mumbled, frowning at the way he came in before inspecting the place. The room held nothing but empty space. The entire side wall was a giant window that clearly showed the full moon, but other then that, the place was nothing more then a giant, round waste of space.
"Good thing my tail's gone." The young half Saiyan stated as he looked out the window. He was about to turn away, but a faint, pink glow in the corner of his eye caught his attention. Looking up, he stared slack jawed at what looked like a nearly complete, enormous, gold heart with a pink, glowing outline hanging in the sky. At the sight of it, his senses kicked in and he almost collapsed from both the shock of, and the raw power emanating from the object.
"So much power. It's unsurpassable. What is that thing and how could it possibly be that strong?"
"Interesting. You say it's unsurpassable and yet it's incomplete." With all that power flooding his senses, Gohan was unaware of the Nobodies entrance. Turning slowly to face the cloaked man, the teen tensed and dropped himself into a defensive stance. The Nobody however, just dropped his hood carelessly. "You have the ability to sense powers, allowing you to know where your enemy is and what your chances of defeating him are. An even more effective ability then the magical version. Tell me, what does it tell you about the comparison of our powers?"
"That you're about as powerful as I am." Gohan answered. "Be grateful it's me you're fighting and not my father. He'd defeat you with ease."
"True, he and the other man like him are strong. If it wasn't for the draining effect fighting an army all day has on a person, they would have destroyed Vexen within minutes." The Nobody nodded. "But I'm in a class far beyond Vexen, and Larxene, who gave you significant problems, in both skill and power. I am Siax, the second in command of Organisation 13, and I will ensure that when the Heartless arrive to this world, you will be taking my orders." Tensing his body, Saix held his arms out to his sides and two bluish-black columns of energy arose. Solidifying, they turned into two, blue claymores that Saix threw and caught upturned as if the heavy weapons were light as feathers.
"I refuse to let that happen." Gohan growled, his aura flaring around him. The two stared each other down, neither one making a move for nearly two minutes, before simultaneously charging each other.
Meeting halfway, Gohan's leg collided with Saix' claymore. Both pulled back and a second later, the opposite arm collided with the second claymore before they both jumped back.
"Definitely impressive." Siax conceded, preparing for another attack. "Any other unarmed opponent would be dead by now."
"Not all of us need weapons to wield our full power." Gohan retorted as he took to the air. "Now let's see you handle this."
Throwing his hands out, Gohan fired multiple ki blasts, all aim right at the cross scarred Nobody. Saix quickly held up his claymores, blocking the blasts, bringing a smirk to Gohan's face. Moving as fast as he could, he disappeared from sight and reappeared a second later in front of a wide eyed Saix just as the last two shots hit the claymores and launched a kick into his chest before Saix could react, knocking him right back to far side of the room before he hit the ground. Not giving Saix a chance to recover, Gohan flew after him and threw his hands out, creating a large energy beam, directly at Saix' chest.
"ARGH!" The shot hit before he could so much as twitch, ripping the cloak to shreds and revealing the damaged body underneath. Desperate for the beam to cease, Saix raised his left arm as quickly as he could and slammed the claymore into Gohan's head.
"AAHH!" His head throbbing, Gohan was knocked halfway to where he'd made his shot, cracking the ground when he hit. He took a single second to take a deep breath, then quickly rolled onto his stomach and push off the ground and into the air as an airborne claymore past under him, cutting a few strands of hair as it past.
"Your strength and speed surpassed my expectations." Saix stated, panting softly as he ripped off what remained of his cloak. "Were you holding back against the Heartless and Larxene?"
"No, Saiyins grow stronger after every fight." Gohan responded, rubbing his head before he cupped his hands at his side. "Speaking of fights, I think it's time I ended this one. Ka Ma Ha Ma HA!"
As Gohan thrust his hands forward, releasing a massive, blue energy beam right towards him, Saix crossed his Claymores and furrowed his brow in concentration. Both swords glowed with bluish-black energy. Saix grunted loudly as the beam made contact with his weapons, his arms tensing as he held the blast off. He was well aware that the attack could destroy him and as it pushed his swords back towards him, he gathered more energy. Just as the blast was about to overtake him, he gave a loud yell and flung his claymores back out to his sides, the power used in them ripping the energy blast apart.
"What?" Gohan cried between gasps for air, completely bewildered. He'd put almost all of his strength into that shot and Saix had still managed to deflect it. What made it worse was that with his strength mostly spent and Saix still looked ready for more.
"That blast almost destroyed me." Saix stated, relaxing his body posture. "For that attack to be so strong, you mustn't have much energy left."
"True, but you weren't that much stronger then me to begin with and it would take a lot of energy to block that attack." Gohan snapped, regaining his breath. "I can sense your power's gone down by a lot too. You aren't much better off now then when we started."
"But the difference between you and me is that I didn't start at my full power." Saix responded nonchalantly.
Gohan froze at that, fear evident in his eyes. That can't be right. He thought desperately. If he's telling the truth then… there's no way I can beat him. It's impossible.
"I can see fear and disbelief in your eyes as clearly as the blood falling down your head." Saix said as he raised his claymores. "You're fully aware that you haven't got the power to stop me, but are clinging to the hope that I'm lying." He continued, catching Gohan off guard with how accurately he was describing his emotions. "Let me show you my strength."
Turning to the moon, Saix gathered his energy to create what almost felt like a beacon to Gohan. A few seconds later, the Saiyan found he was more or less correct as he sensed a huge surge of energy suddenly infuse itself with Saix. Gohan's fear doubled as Saix started glowing bluish, twice as powerful as he was before.
As the energy coursed through his veins, Saix turned back to Gohan with none of his previously calm appearance.
"I gain my power from the moon." He stated gruffly. "You don't stand a chance."
An instant later, Gohan jumped in freight as Saix suddenly appeared right in front of him, a claymore slamming against his chest.
"AARRGHH!" Gohan ploughed to the ground and made a large crater, almost breaking right through. Saix had definitely picked up his game. When the claymore had hit, the force of the contact was more then enough to send him off like he'd been shot from a catapult, but it also released a surge of energy, like a shockwave, creating a double whammy.
Gasping raggedly, Gohan tried to get back onto his feet, but before he could manage it, another blow, exactly like the first one, struck his right side and with another pain filled scream, he careened straight into the far wall, creating another, slightly smaller, body sized dent.
Whimpering in pain, Gohan gathered as much of his strength as he could and pulled himself out of the wall before taking into the air, narrowly avoiding Saix' next attack, but still getting hurt and propelled by the energy wave released from the claymore's impact with the now ruined wall.
"Do you really think that flying is enough to save you?" Saix growled. Not waiting for an answer, he jumped up and kicked off the wall with incredible strength, propelling him right at Gohan, far too fast for the injured Saiyan hybrid avoid. Crossing his arms, Saix swung both claymores outward, hitting the teen with both in the gut and chest.
"AAAAAARRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHH!" As the shock wave struck again, twice as strong as before, Gohan rocketed off, again, to the far side of the room and created the biggest crater yet as he hit the ground, causing pieces of the floor and dust to fly everywhere.
"It appears I'll have to do some redecorating." Saix stated cockily, as he quickly approached the immobile Saiyan. Staring down at the boy, Saix found no response. Gohan's black hair was matted with blood and his body was covered with open wounds, bruises and swelling. His breathing was extremely ragged, it was clear that for every inhale and exhale he was feeling immense pain. Seeing him in that useless stated, Saix dropped his guard and just stared victoriously down at his opponent.
"Now that I've defeated you, there's no way that we can be stopped. My associates will be finished with your allies within the castle shortly, if they're not already, and it's only a matter of time before our armies will capture those fighters beyond our walls. Powerful Nobodies will arise and Organisation 13 will be unstoppable. You and your friends will make it so."
Gohan, though only half conscious since the crash landing, snapped his eyes wide open at that, fully returning to awareness as images flashed through his mind. His parents watching happily together as he played with Videl. Training with Piccolo. Learning about technology with Bulma. Fighting alongside Vegeta. Meeting the other six heroes gathered outside the castle. Roxas and Namine's faces lighting up as he accepted their help.
These guys will destroy everything He thought furiously as more and more memories of his friends and family flashed before his eyes. I won't let it happen.
"I…" Saix looked faintly surprised as Gohan places his battered hands beneath him, pushing himself back onto his feet. "won't…" His aura flared as strong as before as Gohan fixed a fierce glare on Saix, throwing him off. "let that HAPPEN!" He finished with a roar. With an animalistic scream, his aura doubled in size and intensity, creating cyclone level winds around him as his power grew exponentially, blowing Saix back a good distance.
When Saix finally managed to stabilise himself, he looked up and found a sight he hadn't ever expected to see. Gohan stood in the crater as if none of his injuries existed. But what really caught Saix off guard was the animalistic rage in the boy's eyes.
"You're going DOWN!" Gohan screamed, his voice increasing in volume with each word. A split second after he'd finished, he was right in front of Saix and ploughed his fist into the Nobody's gut. Before Saix could do as much as gasp in pain, Gohan had already kicked both claymores out of his hands and delivered a brutal uppercut, sending Saix skyward.
Following him into the sky, Gohan let loose a series of vicious blows. The blows came so quickly that Gohan's arms and legs were nothing but blurs to Siax and it felt like he was being hit in ten places at the same time. Having enough, Gohan launched a tornado kick, landing it perfectly in the very centre of Saix' chest and sending the blue haired nobody crashing to the ground, creating a crater even bigger then the one's Gohan's body had left behind.
His body too sore to move, Saix opened his eyes just in time to see Gohan thrusting his hands forward, golden energy gathering in his open palms.
"It's time for you to die." He growled, giving Saix one last hate filled glare before releasing the huge beam. The blast encompassed and destroyed Saix, along with the floor he laid on and that below, before the Nobody could even gasp.
With the force field protecting the portal gone, Gohan quickly headed for it, feeling his pain and fatigue returning as the sudden explosion of power returned to wherever it came from. Making it through the portal, he just had enough time to notice six worried faces before the last of his strength gave out and everything went black.
Danny's reaction to the sudden plummet was to turn intangible as he hit the ground, catching himself halfway through it.
"Well aren't we the clever one." Pulling himself back up, Danny scanned the room and scowled as he found another Organisation member, this one with a scar on one side of his face and an eye patch and black, greying hair tied back.
"You the one that separated me from the others?" Danny asked angrily, his eyes glowing brightly as he prepared to charge his opponent.
"Nope, I don't have that kind of power." The nobody responded casually, unperturbed by the aggressive look of his enemy. "I'm Xigbar, number two."
"That's not a number I'd go around calling myself." Danny retorted before jumping into the sky. Throwing his hand out, he released an ecto-blast right at Xigbar.
"I see I got the smart-aleck." Xigbar smirked as disappeared from his spot, effectively dodging the blast, and reappeared instantly on the opposite side of the room. "Must be number three's way of getting back at me for teasing him about his beast fetish. Or he thought I'd get a thrill over a battle of wits." In two quick flashes of purple, twin arrow guns appeared in Xigbar's hands, aimed right at Danny. "Let's see if your body is as quick as your tongue."
Wide eyed, Danny quickly went higher into the air and started bobbing and weaving as a barrage of energy arrows were let loose from the guns, reach out to the far corners of the battlefield.
"Aahh!" despite all his speed and manoeuvring, the shots repetitively hit his arms and legs, occasionally striking his chest or stomach. Whimpering from the pain in his shoulder from a particularly nasty shot, Danny failed to pay attention to the still flying assault and found himself staring right at another energy arrow aiming right in between his eyes. Terrified, and with no way of moving in time, the half ghost did what came naturally and turned intangible, allowing the shot to pass through him, along with five others.
"Heh, the little sneak." Xigbar smirked, ceasing his assault. "Your powers originate from the ghostly plane if our research is accurate. If you wish to, you can phase through most substances of the living realm. Though, Heartless and Nobodies seem to touch you fine."
"Well what do you know, tall, dark and gruesome did his homework." Danny smirked, making himself tangible again. "Too bad knowing that won't help you touch me." He added confidently, charging down with his fists drawn back. Xigbar just smirked back and disappeared right before Danny could hit him. Scowling in frustration, Danny levelled himself and scanned the area for his opponent, expecting him to be standing nearby with that same cocky smirk plastered to his face.
What he didn't expect to see was the room alter before his very eyes. Danny watched in shock as perfectly square, bottomless holes suddenly appeared randomly around the room while the walls and ceiling grew thick spikes of varying sizes. To top it all off, the entire area started glowing faintly with an eerie green.
"What the?" Danny gasped, completely perplexed. "How did that happen?"
"I have great power too, ya know." Xigbar responded cockily from behind the ghost boy. Danny turned warily and put some distance between them, annoyed by the smirk still in place on the Nobody's face. "I have power of space. I can manipulate it however I wish. It's how a move so suddenly from place to place. Though I have to admit, this time, I had to really focus to warp the place enough to fight you. Unlike my previous opponents, you can fly and turn intangible. So to counter that, I've turned the entire area, and everything in it, into a more ghostly realm. Lets see if you can phase through my shots now."
Xigbar resumed his barrage before he even finished speaking, except this time, even his energy darts had a slight green tint to them. Not able to move in time, Danny created a shield in front of him and grunted as he struggled to keep it up. Seeing he wasn't faltering, Xigbar warped himself again, appearing behind Danny a second later, guns blazing.
Unprepared, Danny screamed in pain as twenty shots quickly hit his back and knocked him down, right through one of the holes. Snickering, Xigbar raised his arm and warped the ground again, removing all the holes he'd created.
"Well, that was almost too easy. I was hoping for a more challenging fight, but he's already imprisoned in the ground. Good thing he's already dead in his ghost form. That aughta hold him until more Heartless arrived."
Xigbar was just about to relinquish his weapons when an explosion of green energy and debris that originally was part of the floor shook the room, causing the sharp shooter to fall down as a very ticked off, white haired teenager rose back into the air, breathing deeply.
"Your gonna pay for THHAAAAAAAT!" Danny screamed, releasing a ghostly wail just as Xigbar rose back onto his feet. The energy infused soundwaves ripped through the area, breaking chunks of the ground and walls off and scattering the debris as Xigbar raised his arms over his face, struggling to keep his footing. He wasn't able to resist long though and was quickly sent careening backwards until he hit the wall, each ecto-charged wave coming at him leaving him weaker and more battered then before.
The wail didn't last too long before Danny's lungs and energy gave out, causing him to cease his attack and drop on all fours, panting heavily. Xigbar fell into a similar position as the waves stopped hitting him, freeing him from his pressed position on the wall.
"I see that power does a lot,… but it's… also very taxing on you." Xigbar gasped as he raised himself slowly to his feet. That verbal assault had done a lot more damage than he was willing to admit, but with the state that Danny was in, he wasn't worried. Rather, he was intrigued. "Why would you risk such a move? If you continued to use it, or if it didn't have the desired affect, then there would be nothing alive left in you biological structure."
"My friends and family are counting on me to save them and our home." Danny responded tiredly as he slowly stood up as well, resting his hands on his knees. "I will give up my entire existence as long as they get through this ok."
"A drive from the heart." Xigbar commented. "I can't understand your motivations, no heart after all, but I can say that a foolish move is a foolish move, no matter what the reason behind it is. And the consequences of yours will be to be beaten by me."
Connecting his arrow guns together, Xigbar warped himself and reappeared standing on the ceiling, aiming his gun at Danny. Locking on, he fired a massive blast right at the ghost hybrid.
Panicking, Danny jumped into the air, sighing as it passed harmlessly below him. However, his panic quickly returned when his ears caught the sound of something surging through the air and he turned to find that the blast had changed direction and was once again heading right at him.
"Yikes!" Danny cried, dodging again. The blast continued on and hit the wall before rebounding, continuing on it's way randomly around the room.
"These won't go anywhere until they hit you." Xigbar smirked, firing another two large shots before pulling his weapons apart. Warping space again, he sent himself back to the ground and watched the show above with a sneer.
Left, right, up, right, down, wherever Danny flew to avoid one shot, another would threaten him a moment later. In his already tired state, this wasn't looking good.
"Well this is amusing." Xigbar called up, earning a growl from Danny. "But what do you say we make it more interesting?"
Waving his hands, Xigbar manipulated the room again, but this time, instead of altering the landscape, he made all the spikes covering the walls break off and fly right at his teenage foe.
Eyes wide in terror, Danny dived to the ground. It was the only place that spikes didn't some from, but that didn't help for long. All of the projectiles, both energy and solid mass, quickly followed him, while at the same time, sharp pikes would rise from the ground, forcing him to weave and spin continuously.
This is nuts. How do I defeat an opponent that can alter the everything in sight? Danny thought desperately as he managed a quickly glare at the disfigured Nobody before another pike made an attempt at his head. He has weapons from all over the battlefield following me. The only safe place is… where he is! Danny mentally jumped for joy as a plan struck him. He's keeping all this away from him- ow, stupid, falling spike - anyway, because it'll hurt him too. Which means…
Danny altered his course, bobbing and weaving through the assaults, but always making sure the moves led him to his target. When he finally managed to get within five feet of him, Danny dodged one last rising pike and shot an ectoplasmic energy blast right at Xigbar's face. Caught off guard, Xigbar screamed in pain as he held his face, losing his focus on the warped reality he'd created. Taking his chance, Danny made a beeline for Xigbar, his path finally unperturbed by pikes or falling spikes, and grabbed hold of the recovering Nobody.
"Lets see how you like the power you unleashed." Danny growled and threw Xigbar into the air, right where the three energy beams were about to collide.
"NOOOO!" Xigbar screamed as the blasts all collided, with him in the centre of it. His screams of pain continued as the combined blast surged, with his encased body within, towards Danny. Giving a smirk of his own, Danny placed his glowing, green hands together.
"Goodbye, tall, dark and gruesome." With that, he released the strongest ecto-blast yet right at the oncoming Nobody. The blasts met with Xigbar once again on the middle of it and with one last scream from him, the blasts exploded, taking the Nobody with them to oblivion.
"Now I bet he feels like number two." Danny stated before looking sheepish, despite no one else being there. "That was the only number two based pun I had."
As the room returned to normal, Danny let out a sigh of relief, allowing his form to change back to his human one. With his energy more suppressed, the boy definitely felt the tiring result of such an intense battle and it was with a very stiff, pained and tired posture that Danny made his way to the portal.
One thing's for sure. After this is over, I'm going to sleep for a YEAR!