A/N: 6.22.11: I am going to edit out a HUGE thing in this chapter. HUGE. You'll see when you read it. But, obviously, if you've never read this story before, you wouldn't know what it is. It's one of two huge edits I'm going to do in this story.
Old: In reference to what I had Naminé do in the last chapter... Well, I do what I want. :D Last day of summer, loves. :3
A million different thoughts were running through Stefa's head as she, Kairi and Naminé ran down the slope leading away from the Postern. Returning to the Radiant Garden and seeing so much of it, in addition to returning to Atlantica, brought back so many memories. As she ran, she thought of her first adventure, and how she had lost her mother. That had been when Jewel's Grove was only teeming with Heartless. Now, however, it had been destroyed and the people there... Who knows what had happened to them? She thought of Kath, how she had come so close to touching the Shadow back by the lake, and, trusting Stefa and her stories, what if she tried to do it again? What if a Shadow simply took her heart before the world was destroyed? Stefa slowed to a stop, 'I lost my parents, Quince... I don't think I can handle losing anyone else.'
Kairi and Naminé noticed immediately and doubled back to join her. "What is it?" asked Kairi, looking into the hazel eyes, which were wavering with tears. "Stefa..." Somewhat alarmed, she threw her arms around Stefa's shoulders.
Stefa shook her head. "I can't lose anyone else," she mumbled. "My home is gone, my family, my friends... I'm so afraid. I really can't lose anyone else."
"You won't, Stefa, you won't," reassured Naminé, if not a little naively as she added, "You could always return to Destiny Islands with us when the journey's over."
Kairi's facial expression looked quite like Sora's when he was determined. "We're going to take care of it, I promise. We'll get back your home, and I bet you that your family's already in Traverse Town, or something." Stefa sniffled and nodded. Hearing the words was much more reassuring coming from Kairi.
"Oh, how sweet," someone said from behind them. Kairi released Stefa and turned around as Radiant Destiny flashed into her hand, but it was only Axel.
"Axel! What are you doing here?" asked Naminé.
He grinned. "I heard the three of you were in a bit of a pickle, but you look alright now. Mostly, at least," he added at the look on Stefa's face.
Radiant Destiny disappeared as she and Naminé returned their attention to Stefa. "Thanks, Axel," said Kairi with much appreciation.
Neither of them noticed the chakrams flash into his hand, but Stefa, wiping away her tears, did. "Axel?"
Naminé turned back, her eyes narrowing slightly. "You're not Axel."
"What do you mean? Of course I am." The expression on his face was hurt, but it wasn't hurt enough to look like a true emotion.
Chain of Memories flashed into Naminé's hand. "Zexion!"
"Zexion? But Riku said that Zexion would never fight with his own hands," remembered Kairi, confused, as she recalled her keyblade.
"I wouldn't under normal circumstances," replied Zexion as the imageof Axel faded into his own appearance. "These days, there seem to be few normal circumstances in the Organization. It would be fun to avenge my fellow's defeat, though, so..." A black book appeared in his hand. "Let's do this."
Stefa attempted to steel herself, forgetting thoughts of Jewel's Grove, Quince, and her little cousin without a heart. "If we keep doing fight after fight, I think I might not last," she mumbled as Shadow Heart appeared into her hand. None of them had ever witnessed the Schemer fight and had little idea of what to expect.
XxX
The battle with Saïx was becoming rather tedious. Any time that he got annoyed by their ganging up on him, he summon a gust of wind to knock everyone back. Nalani wiped blood away from her lip as the wind knocked her into a wall. "Damn it!"
Her ears pounding with blood, she heard Roxas speaking, as if from a distance, "There is a positive to all of this, at least Saïx can't use the power of Kingdom Hearts to go into his Berserker mode."
"That is a positive," Riku admitted, "but not much of one. His defense is higher than usual." Nalani became thoughtful. If Saïx was spiking up his defense by keeping them away, why not bring him closer?
She raised her staff into the air as she ran to the front of the group, everyone staring at her as if she were crazy. "Magnega!" (A/N: I've never used the Magnet magic in my playing of Kingdom Hearts II, so I hope that's the correct form) Saïx, who had been watching their struggle to make a plan with amusement, felt his body getting drawn forward. It was almost as if Nalani's staff was attached to a gigantic magnet.
"What is this?" he hissed as he tried to hold his ground with his claymore. His body was finally dragged toward Nalani; he fell on all fours at her feet. A cruel grin slowly spread across her face as Sora put his keyblade to Saïx's throat.
"It's about time that you're the one on your knees for me."
"I've wanted to do this for a long time," said Roxas as he took up a spot beside Sora. With cat-like speed, both wielders struck at Saïx with three keyblades, knocking him against one of the cement walls.
XxX
There was something shocking about Zexion refusing to fight as he was quite good at it. Kairi, Naminé, . Zexion's Lexicon had transformed into Kairi's Keyblade; It would have been comical to see him wielding the Keyblade had the three Princesses not been losing badly. The Schemer sniffed at the air, a cold smirk making his facial expression seem even darker.
"Well, well. It seems that Number VII is meeting his end." Zexion closed his eyes and shook his head. "It was foolish of him to come here." He opened them again and looked up the path where he had knocked the girls. "I had better finish up before they come looking for you."
When Stefa finally got up, she no longer saw Zexion standing and waiting; Instead, the old Quince, the Quince who could utilize darkness, was standing there. The familiar crimson red Keyblade was dangling in his right hand. Stefa's eyes narrowed into a deep glare as she ran forward angrily. "Don't be rash!" Naminé called after Stefa had come right before Zexion, but it seemed that her words hadn't been heard.
"What does this remind you of?" asked Zexion quietly as he stabbed the Keyblade into Stefa's gut somewhat at the same time she had been following through with a slash to Zexion. Stefa grimaced at the memory, temporarily just holding her Keyblade in midair as she remained momentarily shocked. Naminé, cheaply using a portal some would say, had appeared behind Zexion and knocked him off balance with a swing from Chain of Memories. As Zexion fell to the side a little, he withdrew the Keyblade with a small sickening noise; His glamour fell once again and he became himself.
"Maybe this battle isn't the smartest one for you to battle?" Kairi's groggily voice suggested as she came up behind Stefa. Embarrassed at her silliness, Stefa pushed her bangs out of her face, and shook her head.
"No way. I'm not leaving you two alone." said she with a firm tone. "I got stabbed in the gut, you have to imagine that surprised me." Kairi stared at her with a hard expression, but it soon softened when she realized that Stefa wouldn't leave them.
"Alright." Kairi agreed. Beside Stefa, Naminé had begun to glow with a white light.
"Naminé?" Both girls asked at the same time. Zexion, holding his Lexicon, which was also glowing. In a large flash of light, Naminé's form was drawn into the book. Kairi and Stefa stared in shock.
"Naminé!" cried Kairi, angrily running forward, and striking, not at Zexion, but the Lexicon. She slashed at it several times with a mixture of anger and desperation. Stefa ran forward, and without thinking, held her Keyblade before her. A silver light shot out from the tip and hit the book. Kairi took a few steps backward as the Lexicon began to glow once again, but this time, it threw Naminé out of it. "Clever." Kairi complimented with a small smile.
"Aren't older Organization members supposed to be smarter than this?" Elie taunted the Berserker from where he lay on the ground. Without being able to go into Berserk mode, and with such good fighters on the other side, Saïx was losing rather badly. Glaring, Saïx got up and jabbed his Claymore into Elie's gut in one swift motion. Surprise etched Elie's face as she flew backward and violently clambered against one of the house's walls.
"Elie?" Leon called, worry clear in his tone. She weakly held up a hand to show that she was alright. Everyone else turned their attention back to Saïx, a beat too late. Saïx had already summoned a portal.
"Until next time," He said, bowing as he retreated into the portal.
"Coward." Ceron remarked rather bitterly as the portal disappeared. He turned to face everyone else. "Now what?"
"We should head for the Castle." Riku answered simply. He temporarily allowed Way to the Dawn to disappear before he ran off. Sora, Roxas, and Nalani followed behind him without hesitation.
"We'll take Elie inside." Cloud told Ceron, "Go scout out the Great Maw for us." Ceron nodded in agreement and also set off after the others.
Bolts of lightning struck just where Kairi had been standing a few minutes ago; Naminé was out still, even though they had rescued her from the book some minutes ago. "So he can steal our weapons, looks, powers, and trap us into his little book? I'd call that God-modish." Stefa bitterly remarked as the bottom of her jeans were singed by a badly aimed fira spell.
"At least he can't really aim." Kairi, always optimistic, remarked. Stefa had to agree with that; Otherwise they probably would have been defeated by now. They were still managing to hang on, which was amazing.
"You're not really all that hard to fight," Stefa said to Zexion, "but since you can copy anyone else, it makes you annoying." Zexion, obviously not liking that remark, called the Oblivion Keyblade to his free hand and ran forward to strike at the Princesses. Stefa blocked with Shadow Heart, holding two steady hands on the Keyblade, and pushed him off.
Kairi held out Angelic Destiny; A pure white beam of light shot out from the tip and pierced Zexion in the side. "Looks like I finally figured out how to channel my light through the Keyblade." The Princess remarked cheerfully. The light had been warm and very terrible on Zexion's skin; Bad enough to have actually pierced through the top layer of skin. Blood was covering many parts of the once delightful path; Stefa's stomach wound had caused a lot of it, but cuts that covered the Princesses' skin had caused a lot, too. Finally, Zexion's blood began to drip to the ground, too.
"This fight is useless." He growled, mostly unhappily, as he called upon a portal. Before he could enter it, Demyx's freaked out form stepped out of another one.
"That mouse king killed Lexaeus!" He exclaimed.
"What?" Zexion asked in a sharper voice than he had meant to use; Demyx jumped at the sound. "Sorry." The Schemer murmured.
"I tried to stop it, but then those three girls with the weird clothes attacked me." He explained, unable to fight the whimper from his voice.
"There he is!" Rikku's excited voice shouted. Making their way up from the Castle Gates were the Gullwings: Rikku, Yuna, and Paine. Yuna pulled out her two pistols and took aim.
"Let's get back to the Castle." Zexion said to Demyx, who quickly pulled into his portal. When Zexion went to return to his own, he found Naminé standing in front of her own, his was long gone. "What is this?" Naminé smiled sweetly, an oddly unnerving thing, and knocked back the Schemer with her Keyblade. As Zexion was backed away from her, several pistols met the side of his body, thanks to Yuna.
Kairi grasped hands with Stefa, who nodded in understanding. They bent their arms inward a little, and made it so that their Keyblade tips met at an angle. (A/N: Think of what shape this looks like: a heart.) A light began to emit from their hands, as well as from the tips of their Keyblades; The white light intensified and covered their bodies, and the whole area for the records. Then, it shot outward, and hit Zexion squarely in the chest. For a few minutes, nothing could be seen of the area except for the blinding light.
When it faded, the Gullwings ran forward to see the outcome. Zexion was laying on the ground, his body dissolving into darkness; Stefa and Kairi were both on their knees, purely exhausted. Naminé took a few steps and bent over Zexion. For some reason, pity grasped at her heart as she held out her Chain of Memories Keyblade. "Sorry." she murmured so quietly that only Zexion could hear her. He rolled his eyes as a light shot out from the tip of her Keyblade and hit Zexion where his heart would be; He began to fade faster.
"Take care of Number XIII, he needs it." The Schemer commented before fading away completely.
Riku, Nalani, Sora, and Roxas had stopped at the top of the bailey to shield their eyes from the blinding light. "What was that?" Nalani murmured as she began to run down the steps, and that's when she realized she was alone. Riku, Roxas, and Sora had simply jumped over the wall, putting them ahead of her. The mage heaved a sigh as she jumped over a wall, and followed after them.
"Rikku!" Sora called, spotting the Gunner first. She turned around and smiled; That was a good sign.
"It's good to see you all in one piece." Paine remarked when they had joined them. A white light had engulfed Kairi, Stefa, and Naminé, healing them.
"Thank you, Yuna." said Kairi with a small smile. Angelic Destiny disappeared in a flash of light, as did Shadow Heart and Chain of Memories.
"What happened?" Roxas asked as he crouched before Naminé, who was sitting on the ground beside Kairi and Stefa.
"Zexion equals defeated." Stefa answered, smiling triumphantly.
"Lexaeus, too." Naminé added.
"The King's here." Kairi stated, remembering what Demyx had said.
"He is?" Sora asked with surprise, but Riku simply smiled.
"Of course he wouldn't stand by and let the Radiant Garden be taken over." He stated, holding out a hand for Stefa.
"We couldn't seal the keyhole." She told Riku with a frown. "That Organization member said something about it being unsealed with deep darkness by Reixka." Riku nodded in understanding.
"In that case... I might be able to lock it." He said.
"Oh, no." A quiet voice said from above; no one had heard or noticed his presence. The cloaked figure rose their arm, and as the group headed up the path, they were abruptly stopped by an invisible barrier. "You may find it wiser to go check out the Great Maw, it seems there's, ah... Trouble brewing." The unsuspecting group looked up abruptly, no one else had that voice beside Xemnas.
"Xemnas!" Sora, Roxas, and Riku shouted in unison; Their Keyblades had materialized back in their head.
"C'mon, let's head for the Great Maw!" Rikku urged them, suddenly unnerved by Organization member Number I's words.
"It's not like you can reach him, anyway," added Paine cooly. Glaring daggers at the Superior, the boys reluctantly agreed, and the group of them headed for the Great Maw.
"Oh. My. God." Nalani was staring in disbelief. The group was inside of the fissure cave, and staring at the large canyon ahead of them with shock. More than a million heartless and nobodies were filling the area.
"I think we might need back up." Kairi stated, shaking her head in disbelief. Yuna pointed out several areas in the canyon.
"I think they're way ahead of us." The former summoner stated; Sure enough, Cloud and Leon could be seen fighting back to back on top of one part of the canyon, Yuffie and Tifa were fighting on the other, Ceron could be made out fighting inside of the canyon, a large flame shot out of one part of the canyon showing Axel was there, King Mickey was taking out heartless and nobodies alike with the aid of Donald and Goofy, and even Cid could be seen fighting off heartless with a large spear. Stefa was staring at the scene with awe.
"Let's go help them out." said Sora earnestly. He had done a one thousand heartless battle before, but this looked a lot more exciting.
"Promise me you won't get yourself in a position where I have to rescue your butt, again." Riku smirked. Sora made a face, grabbed Kairi's hand, and entered the fray. Kairi glanced backward a purely terrified expression.
"We're right behind you." Roxas assured the auburn-haired girl as he gently grabbed Naminé's hand. Then, the two of them ran after Kairi and Sora.
"Yay! A real fight, finally!" cried Rikku happily, practically jumping after the four. Yuna laughed and Paine shook her head.
"We'd better follow her before she does something stupid." The warrior commented before she and Yuna also entered the fray.
"Can we really do this?" Stefa asked Riku and Nalani nervously. Nalani shared her look of apprehension only her chocolate eyes were burning with determination.
"Don't worry, Stef, we can do anything together." Her friend assured her, giving her a quick hug. "EaKaze."The intricate staff appeared in a flash of orange light. "See you on the other side!"
"I'm still not so sure about this." Stefa murmured uncertainly.
Riku chuckled and gave her a swift kiss on the cheek. "You've already been chosen by a Keyblade, so it's a little too late for second thoughts." He joked as he called Way to the Dawn forth. His expression softened. "We'll go together." Stefa stared at him for a minute before nodding in agreement.
"Alright." Shadow Heart materialized into her hand as they also headed for the Great Maw.
"This is exhausting." Kairi noted as she ran at a Large Body headfirst; She was bounced back as its stomach jiggled.
"Attack them from the back, Kai." Sora told her with a chuckle as he jumped and attacked the heartless from behind. Looking rather confused, the large body disappeared in a cloud of dust, a captive heart floating toward the sky. Kairi frowned, unhappy that she hadn't been able to do that. Her violet eyes suddenly widened at the sight of an Assassin Nobody.
"Sora!" She exclaimed, pushing him hastily out of the way and blocking its attack with her Keyblade. "Lazy bum." Kairi taunted her boyfriend as she took several swings at the nobody and killed it. Sora stared at her with shock.
"Wow, thanks, Kai, that was a close one." said he sheepishly. Kairi ran forward and crushed her lips against his. Sora stared in shock a second before he returned it, Kairi's arms wrapping around his neck.
"Sorry to interrupt the love fest, but in case you've forgotten, you're surrounded by millions of fiends after your hearts." Nalani said with amusement as the two blushed and broke apart.
"Oops." Kairi muttered, giggling. There was the sound of a metallic slash behind her and Sora; Ceron had just defeated a shadow that had been staring at them with a greedy expression.
"I wonder how long it will take for someone else to lose their heart?" asked Reixka from beside her. No doubt she was hoping for that someone to be Stefa.
"Soon enough, I'm sure." Marluxia's voice chimed in. "They can't defend their hearts forever." Reixka's eyes were practically burning a hole in Stefa's back; The two-sided heart Princess turned instinctively to see who was looking and met the similar face. Stefa glowered as she began to climb up the canyon's walls with Nalani hot on her heels, casting thundaga on the Heartless that got in her way.
"Stefa! Nalani!" Riku sighed, heading after them, and getting stopped by a wall of Large Bodies. "The hell?" He growled angrily, jumping over them by pushing one a little to get over, and heading up the side of the canyon.
Stefa reached the top of the canyon without too much trouble. She was panting from the effort, but was satisfied when she saw the three Organization Members. "I think you're ass has been kicked enough for one day, so make it easy on yourself and come with me." It wasn't something that Stefa wanted to say, but she knew it had to be said. She took a few steps forward and held out her hand. "Reixka, I know you don't really hate me, you're just jealous. You want to become whole, and I can help." Reixka stared at her, and took a step forward; That was surprising.
She quickly withdrew her hand as a scythe slashed at the spot where it had been. Marluxia stood before her, looking cross. Larxene summoned a portal and pushed Reixka inside before she joined Marluxia. "This looks oddly familiar." Larxene spoke quietly. Flashes of a memory passed into Stefa's head: Lots of blood, bodies, and two Organization members standing inside of a train station.
"And once you again you're alone." Marluxia added, taking a step and swinging the scythe again, Stefa fell backward, and saw surprised expressions on the Organization members' faces as a hand yanked her up.
Nalani was grinning. "Are you stupid? First you try to take on a God by yourself and now two Organization members? Why don't I ever get invited to join the fun?"
A/N: I was too lazy to edit this completely, but I did edit out that important thing: Elie turning into a Heartless.