The Uprising
Hooray! I (probably) never have to do a Dive into the Heart scene again! Although I'm pretty happy with how it turned out and I hope you are too. Anyway, we're back to focusing on Kairi (sorry if you aren't a fan of hers, but I personally find her interesting when she's not being totally ridiculous) so if you missed the last chapter, you may want to jump back and read about her and Namine's joint Awakening. Also, don't forget about Aros and how Xigbar was snooping around the archives…
Having trouble imagining Tidus and Wakka in their older forms? No problem! Enduro of DeviantArt generously gave me permission to use their designs as inspiration. .com/?qh=§ion=&q=lost+kingdom+designs#/d258r5
Argh... Links don't work... Well go to deviantart and type in Lost Kingdom Designs and you should find it.
Should I use the Riku design for dearest Repliku Delta? Give me a response in your review!
Please Review. They make me happy. :)
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"No!"
Kairi woke with a start at the base of the main island's dormant volcano. She had apparently dozed off while reading a work by Destiny Islands' most prominent and only scientist; and to her dismay had dirtied her once tidy school uniform in the process. She quickly brushed the volcanic soil from her crisp outfit and shoved The Mechanics of Memory into her bag. She frowned as she remembered the strange dream she had experienced. Could it have been real? Her analysis of the bizarre adventure was interrupted by the low rumble of thunder in the distance: a storm on a collision course for both land masses on the tropical world.
After stretching for a moment, the princess headed back into town at a relaxed pace, occasionally stopping to talk to store clerks and other pedestrians. As the mayor's adopted daughter, Kairi was well known throughout the islands as a sweet-natured yet peculiar girl and the entirety of them were on good terms with her. Being familiar with nearly all of the residents, Kairi was naturally curious when she saw a strange man in a black coat lurking in the shadows, a smirk on his damaged face. The islander quickened her pace, only to see the man teleport to another obscured location ahead of her. The man was following her, and he definitely had strange abilities to help him with his hunt.
Now nearly at a run, Kairi raced through town, curving through little-known alleyways and shortcuts, only to find that the man tailing her was matching the route at a perfect pace. Arriving at the beach, the princess, finally fed up with the game of cat and mouse, spun around to face her follower. "What do you want from me?" Snickering to himself, the man removed his hood, revealing a seriously scarred face, complete with an eye patch and long black hair drawn into a ponytail. "Relax, princess." He stepped forward, hand outstretched. "I'm not here to hurt you, just to offer you something you want… For only a little something in return." Kairi gripped her bag's straps, ready to use it as a flail. "I don't want anything you have to offer." The man now laughed openly as he summoned his arrowguns in a flash of purple light.
"What if I said I could bring you to Sora?"
With a shuddering breath, Kairi continued to back towards the dock. "How would you know anything about that?" The Freeshooter, impatient to leave, strode towards the girl with confidence. "I'll explain on our way out, seashell girl, now stop asking so many questions and let's motor." He grabbed her slender arm tightly and began to lead her away. Kairi struggled for a moment before reaching down, scooping up a handful of sand and thrusting it into her kidnapper's one good eye. "Argh!" The captor clutched his eye in pain as Kairi sprinted the distance towards the dock and jumping into one of the spare boats. Xigbar screamed in frustration as she rowed away, her arms thrusting the paddles in and out of the water as fast as she could go. The angry waves slapped the side of the boat as the storm overhead rolled in. The vessel moved slowly against the elements, making minimal progress on the girl's escape.
A quarter of the way to the smaller island, Kairi turned her head to see Xigbar recovering from the attack and walking towards her craft angrily on the water… No, not on it. She soon realized. Over it. With a devilish smile on his wounded face, he raised his arrowguns to end his targets getaway attempt. Knowing that it was only a matter of seconds before the attacker would end her plan, Kairi turned around in the boat, her hand outstretched. Concentrating on the light overflowing inside of her, she summoned the power she had just recently discovered inside of her. It was much more difficult than in the dream, but eventually Kairi sent out a compressed beam of energy from her open palm, shooting the boat forward towards the island that she and her friends hung out at.
Gripping the vessel's sides as she floated onto the shore, Kairi jumped out just as a light rain began to fall from the darkened skies. Tidus, Wakka, and Selphie, all changed out of their school uniforms and into their normal attire, were on the beach, just a short distance away. When Selphie saw her best friend scramble onto the sand, she ran to greet her, jump rope trailing behind. "Kairi!" The girl brought the princess into a friendly embrace before noticing the troubled expression on her face. "What's wrong?" Breathing heavily, Kairi pointed at Xigbar advancing across the water, the rain around him pausing in midair before leaving his wake of gravity manipulation and falling back onto the frothy ocean. Selphie gasped and led her friend back to Tidus and Wakka, to whom she pointed out the dangerous man. Tidus gripped his rod in both hands, his facial scar glistening in the tropical shower. "Who is that?" Wakka too lifted his weapon of choice, a Blitzball, which he expertly spun on his finger. "We'll stop him, ya?"
Xigbar was now upon the shoreline, his floating boots making no impressions on the sand. "Beat it twerps." He said, spinning his arrowguns similar to a gunslinger of the old westerns the mayor craved. Wakka was the first to react, stepping forward after pushing down his fear. "Stay away from my sista!" The Organization member ignored the warning, moving past the Blizball enthusiast and towards Kairi. "Come on now, poppet. We don't need to get your little friends in on this. Just come with me, and no one will get hurt." He reached to take his captive, this time ready for another frontal attack, however he stopped short when something surprisingly hard connected with the back of his head. Xigbar froze tensely as his amber eyes boiled with memory-summoned rage.
"I said to stay away from my sista. Or we'll have problems, ya?"
The rain began to fall in large drops as Xigbar slowly yet deliberately turned to face his attacker. Lightning illuminated his maimed features that were twisting into a scowl. "I try not to kill many people on any of my missions, mostly because the cleanup is such a drag, but I think for you three, I'll make an exception. Besides," He said, aiming his weapons in separate directions at Selphie and Tidus. "The waves will probably wash your blood away." His fingers began to put pressure on the triggers, but his focus was redirected, when he saw the Blitzball flying through the air towards him. With ease and confidence, he aimed and fired at the projectile, destroying it midair. Tidus took the initiative to attack the intruder frontally with his rod, which was quickly blocked by Xigbar's forearm; however the risk was not in vain as it caused the Freeshooter to stagger backward, tripping over Selphie's jump rope, which had been pulled taut by herself and Kairi.
Without missing a beat, the gunman shot out a host of arrow crystals that hit their marks with precision: the rod and jump rope had both been obliterated in the same manner as Wakka's blitzball. "I'm through babysitting this bunch." Xigbar's cry heralded the manipulation of gravity, causing all of the islanders except for Kairi to lift off of the ground, their arms and legs flailing. Kairi approached her assailant hesitantly, but mustered up enough courage to summon a bold voice. "I command you to let them go." After her attempt was met merely with the Organization member's laughter, the princess bit her lip and gazed at her weightless friends. Her face hardened and she ran with surprising agility towards the dark man and kicked him squarely between the legs.
Xigbar's face froze and he fell to his knees. As he groaned in pain and retracted into the fetal position, Kairi fled to the Secret Place, knowing that she could draw him away from her friends. Looking backwards as she ran into the safety of the graphitized cave, Kairi did not notice Xigbar teleport upside down in front of her until she was mere centimeters from his elfish nose. "Boo!" The girl screamed and fell back as the Freeshooter's amused form inverted into a right-side up position. "Did you really think it would be so easy to escape me? As if!" A small army of Snipers materialize along the chalk covered walls of the cave, their guns aimed upon the exit to prevent any escape. "You're coming with me, sandy, whether you like it or not. I'm staging an uprising of my own and I need the assurance of a keyblade to make sure that book worm, Zexion doesn't get in my way."
Kairi backed into the mysterious door, using it to brace herself. Her eyes drifted down the cave wall, taking in the old drawings, most of which had been drawn by the six teenagers, but stopped at a crude interpretation of herself and Sora sharing a Paopu Fruit. Sora… Two warm tears slid down her flawless cheeks as Kairi straightened her posture to face her opponent. "Some things happen for a reason. I won't let you interfere with my destiny!" She stuck out both hands before her and shot out twin beams of pure light which were matched by constant purple rays of energy from Xigbar's arrowguns. The two attacks met, shooting of dangerous sparks that filled the room with a bright illumination. The flow of power slowly swelled, brightening with each second until it climaxed into a bright flash that blew Kairi against the door, knocking her unconscious and sending Xigbar flying out of the entrance and into the pool at the end of the waterfall, breaking his fall. Sopping wet, the Freeshooter emerged from the pond and stripped off his soaked Organization coat, disposing of it in a diminutive shadowy portal. Shirtless, he now returned to the Secret Place to find his Snipers standing around the silent form of the princess, slumped upon the floor.
Smirking at his success, he slung the ragdoll over his shoulder and exited the islands through a Corridor of Darkness.
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Coming up on The Uprising is the return to the Altar of Naught! So prepare for some Aros action and please review!