A/N: I'm so sorry that this chapter took so long, guys, sorry! Dx School's murdering me, but hopefully I'll get used to it soon.
Disclaimer-I do not own Kingdom Hearts. DDx Otherwise Quince would totally be in it, and Stefa, too! xD
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"Well, look what the cat coughed up." Quince's smug voice sounded from behind Bo Peep, her sheep, and Stefa. Naminé, Quince, Jessie, and Buzz were looking up at the two Organization members with angry expressions. "Are you sure you're pretty enough to be a barbie, Larxene?"
"Shut it, traitor." The Nymph snapped. "We're going to take out this world, and this time, you're going with it."
"Over your dead body." Quince growled fiercely, Maybe Memories appearing in his hand. Naminé, with a determined expression, also called upon her Keyblade. Larxene scowled at them.
"Zexion has been killed and so has Lexaeus." She snarled viciously at them in a voice that could make blood freeze. "And Demyx left the Organization." So that was the real reason why she was so pissed.
"It's not our problem that your Superior held out on all of you and Demyx quit because of it." Naminé snapped at the Nymph; All around her were kind of surprised at her fierceness.
"Wow, Nam." Stefa murmured quietly.
"You see, it kind of is your problem." said Larxene, snapping, and summoning several dozen shadow heartless. They formed on the ground and all around, jumping toward them on the ground; Several, for some strange reason, headed for the door. Buzz Lightyear, having gotten over the initial shock, turned on his laser and began to shoot the heartless nearby with it. (A/N: Every dog has his day.)
"Head straight for their leader!" The spaceman ordered although he continued to attack the heartless. Stefa and Naminé nodded in understand, leaving Quince to help protect Bo Peep and Jessie as they climbed up the toy shelf, which was not easy to do when you were a very breakable doll.
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"Roxas, have you found that keyhole yet?" A slightly annoyed Nalani asked some ten minutes later. It seemed the boy was more or less interested in finding the keyhole and was now enjoying his time as a lion. Ceron laughed as Roxas stared at Nalani with a confused expression. "You know, the keyhole, the heart to a world? Unless you want to let this world fade into darkness..."
If Lions could blush, Roxas would have been bright red. "Right. Sorry." He murmured, recalling Oblivion to his mouth.
Several lionesses, who were coming from the grasslands, yelled, apparently being chased by something: Heartless. "Roxas, go find that keyhole." Ceron called to the blond Nobody, perking up immediately at the chance to do something. His long-sword appeared in his mouth, and so did Nalani's staff.
"This is a little awkward." Nalani's voice could barely be heard since she was pretty much eating her staff. "Firaga!" After changing her body's position, she was able to get a large flow of fire to shoot out from the tip of the EaKaze, thus destroying several of the heartless.
"Try eating a sword; I could accidently impale someone." Ceron murmured although the thought did seem kind of funny. He ran toward the heartless and shook his head to get his long-sword to move; This destroyed several more of the heartless.
"These stupid things keep multiplying. Thundaga!" Nalani tilted her head somewhat so that her staff was kind of in the air. Bolts of lightning destroyed more of the heartless. However, the heartless kept coming.
"I think that there's someone here summoning these heartless," Roxas told them as he joined up, "Let's go see."
"Kiara's out there!" Nalani suddenly remembered. Definitely not good. The three of them immediately set out for the grasslands.
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Angelic Destiny flashed into Kairi's hand out of pure instinct. How was she going to take on three jaguars, though? She got to her feet as the female crouched and then sprung into the air. Kairi held her Keyblade so that it was covering face, so she was pleasantly surprised when the cat never seemed to reach her. Sora was standing before Kairi in a protective stance, he had apparently just knocked the one back.
"It looks like Sabor had friends." The Keyblade master muttered to no one in particular. Riku jumped down from above, and finally the wild cats fled. Sora grinned at Riku before turning back to Kairi. "You okay?" She smiled and nodded, closing her eyes as she did so.
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"So this is the Deep Jungle? It's so pretty." Kairi said sometime later when they had made it to the old camping ground. Sora was very unsurprised to see that it had been cleared out; No doubt that Tarzan and Jane had sensed the incoming danger and had fled--but would they have really left the gorillas? Well, there was always a chance that they had taken them with...
"It is, isn't it?" asked Sora as he looked around the empty area. "I guess I was so preoccupied with finding you guys that I didn't really notice." He admitted.
"So, where's that keyhole?" Riku finally asked, looking around the area warily. "I'm surprised heartless aren't jumping out everywhere."
"Yeah, we haven't seen any yet, have we?" Kairi thoughtfully added. "It's odd."
"Lucky's more like it." stated Sora as they walked through the deserted area, heading for the cave.
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"Larxene, you're blaming us for something your Superior did, don't you think that's just a bit unfair?" Stefa asked in a calm voice when she and Naminé had reached the top of the small bookshelf. Larxene was, if possible, a lot scarier than usual. She turned to face them, slowly. Even Reixka looked a little bit scared as the Nymph faced their enemies.
"Larxene," said Reixka, speaking at last. "That other one's on the ground, he might try to seal the keyhole. It is just in the door's keyhole... Oh. Oops." She added weakly when she realized that she had mentioned where the keyhole was, but hold on a second... it didn't seem very much like an accident. Stefa stared at her other with confusion while Naminé began to slice at the heartless that were jumping down from higher shelves and the walls.
"Quince!" Stefa hollered as she got a hold of herself. She looked over the edge to find said boy taking care of more heartless, but paying attention all the same. Buzz Lightyear seemed to be shepherding the two woman below to a safer spot. "The keyhole's in the door--go seal it!" She ordered. Quince rolled his eyes at her, but answered with a smile. He easily pulled away from the surrounding heartless, knocking them away with his Keyblade or just jumping over them; The door was still a good deal away, so he had a while to go.
Stefa turned away from the edge to see Larxene glaring angrily at Reixka now. "You did that on purpose!" The Nymph accused. Her companion appeared both guilty and indifferent, if that was possible.
"The fight to destroy wielders is both annoying and pointless," Reixka pointed out, "And there's no need to start a war over it." Larxene smirked, but it was cold.
"You are definitely her Nobody," She weakly gestured at Stefa, "So naïve." The Nymph added in a growl. "This is a war. A war for power."
"Nobodies don't need power," Naminé stated, her voice was now soft and light, "We're not meant to exist." She still hadn't yet gotten out of the habit of referring to herself as a Nobody.
"You're one to talk, aren't you?" Larxene hissed as she turned away from Reixka. Both of her hands were full with the small kunai. Stefa and Naminé held out their Keyblades as they prepared for a bitter fight. When the Nymph launched her small kunai, though, both girls threw themselves flat against the book shelf instead of trying to block them. Reixka nodded her head.
'Clever.'
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Kiara was laying on her side in the grasslands; She was obviously unconscious. A male lion was standing before her in a protective stance. He had a very dark brown (almost black) mane with a cream-colored chest and a dark brown coat. His eyes were vivid green as he glared at an older lioness before him. The lioness had a very scrappy appearance; The bottom of her right ear looked like someone had taken a chunk out of it. Her eyes were a vivid red, her fur a type of orange, and her chest and underbelly a cream color. She was actually very intimidating. Probably the oddest thing about the lioness was the fact that darkness was hanging off of her like water.
"What the hell is this?" Roxas growled as he, Ceron, and Nalani scurried over to Kiara's side. The lion standing before her began to growl at them dangerously.
"Kovu, isn't it?" Nalani asked pleasantly. This lion would take very good care of the princess. His expression softened slightly at the fact that Nalani knew his name. "Don't worry, we're here to help. We're friends of Simba, Nala, and Kiara." She assured them. He nodded.
"That's my mother, Zira," He stated as he turned his attention back to the woman. "She wanted me to kill Simba, and since I refused... this has happened to her." Behind her were some more scrappy lionesses. One standing in the front of the others bore many similarities to Zira, aside from the fact that the lioness had a large black spot over one eye. Said lioness looked a little nervous and didn't seem to want to be there. "And my sister, Vitani." Kovu added at Nalani's look.
"So what do we do?" Ceron asked. He was still holding the hilt of his sword in his mouth, and because of this, he was standing to the right of Kovu.
"We have to take her out." Roxas stated in a leader-ish commanding voice, but he still looked at Kovu out of the corner of his eye to receive an okay. Kovu nodded determinedly.
"It's the only way."
"But someone should stay here and watch Kiara," Nalani argued as she faced Kovu. "She's your mother, it'll be too hard for you to fight her anyway... Take Kiara back to Pride Rock. We'll be okay." She added at Kovu's skeptical look. Finally, he nodded, and with little effort, he got Kiara on his back and ran off.
"Foolish." Zira remarked as she stomped one of her front paws. A wall of darkness formed before Roxas, Ceron, and Nalani where it then fell on top of them. The three of the split into different directions to avoid the attack. Roxas and Ceron, having just zipped to the side, ran forward to attack the lioness. Zira, having never fought against anything more than teeth and claws, was caught off guard by Oblivion and the fact that Nalani could use magic.
Roxas easily knocked her backward where Nalani began to cast thunder spells like crazy.
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"Enough with the foolishness." Larxene hissed. She was breathing heavily, unable to believe that Reixka was standing back and observing. Stefa and Naminé were equally exhausted and the most injured by far. The Nymph held out her two hands, and the room around Reixka, Naminé, Stefa, and Larxene began to shift into something dark. Another dark realm battle. Distant shouts from Quince, Bo Peep, and Jessie could be heard as they disappeared from Andy's Room.
Larxene and Reixka were facing Stefa and Naminé with annoyed expressions. The vivid jade eyes of Larxene were practically burning into Stefa's flesh; She could tell that now, more than ever, the Nymph wanted one last rematch. A rematch that would mean the end of either Stefa or the Savage one herself.
"Take care of Reixka." Stefa heard herself murmur as she charged at Larxene with Shadow Heart. Her heart was pounding viciously against her chest, and she could feel the adrenaline flowing within her. It seemed that Larxene had anticipated such an ignorant move. She threw out her foot and caught Stefa square in the stomach.
What Naminé and Reixka were doing couldn't really be called fighting; On Reixka's part at least. She continuously summoned heartless and some Nobodies to take care of the artist. In fact, Reixka was doing everything in her power to prevent herself from having to fight Naminé directly. "Do you take after Zexion or what?" Naminé murmured as she destroyed two shadows with several strikes of Chain of Memories. Fighting so many heartless was getting a tad annoying. When her sky blue eyes met Reixka's pale ones, she could tell it was something else; It was almost as if Reixka didn't want to fight because she considered Naminé a friend.
But why?
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Riku offered a hand to Kairi while Sora ran ahead to the tree glowing with blue butterflies. The three of them were soaking wet from having to climb up the waterfall cave. With little effort, Riku heaved Kairi onto the stone ground. She huffed a thank you as she attempted to catch up with her breath. There was a nice gash running up the front of her right leg from nearly falling off of a rock as she tried to climb. The blood was still dripping from it, slowly. They followed after Sora, Kairi in awe as the butterflies flew off of the keyhole.
Much to the Princess's surprise and delight, a butterfly landed on her nose. It was actually kind of cute despite the fact that it definitely resembled an insect beneath those beautiful wings. Its body tickled Kairi's nose, and she couldn't help but giggle. The butterfly gracefully flew off, following the others out of the cave. There were several cuts behind Kairi's legs from the multiple meetings that they had had with Sabor's old friends.
Riku and Sora had not escaped unscathed, either, but since they were both wearing long pants, it wasn't as easy to notice their cuts. A beam of light shot out from the tip of Kingdom Key and entered the keyhole, sealing it, and causing its image to disappear. Sora turned around and smiled at the other two. "All done," He announced as Kingdom Key disappeared in a flash of light. "I really wish that Tarzan and Jane were here, though." The Keyblade Master sheepishly admitted. Kairi nodded.
"It's alright to miss your friends," She said. "I bet they miss you, too." Her voice was so reassuring that Sora couldn't argue.
"How are we getting back to the Gummi Ship?" Riku asked as he gazed around at the empty cave; It seemed a lot creepier without the light from the butterflies. Sora rubbed the back of his head.
"I think I might have seen a docking point outside of the cave..." Kairi groaned at this statement.
"Ugh, you have to be kidding!" She sighed. "I think I've received enough damage from those Jaguars..."
"They really don't like you, Kairi." Riku stated with a smirk that quickly turned into a smile, and then a laugh. Sora couldn't help but laugh, either. It was nice to be cheerful even though their friends and family might---No, they couldn't think that way. Kairi playfully smacked Riku's arm.
"It's that perfume," Sora said with a smile. "You smell like a patch of strawberries, so they probably think you're food."
"With or without the perfume, I think that they would consider me food." Kairi pointed out although she was blushing a little. "I just think that the perfume attracts them more to me than you two... but if they were human, they'd probably go after the two of you." The trio laughed together. It was a pure and complete thing. Even if they didn't have their home, they still had each other.
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Nalani, who had used a lot of her magic healing Roxas and Ceron (because they got a bit carried away at times), was panting and taking a break. It was a shock that Zira's fellow lionesses weren't helping her out because she was taking a pretty bad beating. One of her legs appeared to be broken or at least sprained because she was limping. Her side had a long gash running along it from Ceron's sword. Blood was staining her fur coat in several places. Roxas had deep gashes running along his side from the places where Zira's claws had stuck him.
With her powerful teeth, claws, and darkness, she was quite the force. Ceron had a faint mark over his throat from where Zira had, out of pure instinct, tried to take out his throat. Nalani felt her magical power catch up with her, so she held up EaKaze (to the best of her ability) and cast three thundaga spells in a row. Zira's back legs gave out of her, and she was having trouble supporting herself with her front paws. She stomped both of her paws and fell down completely, but not before sending out a formidable attack.
Her fellow lionesses fled the scene as a black crack began to form in the ground. The ground began to split at its seams as black flames also rose up from the depths. Nalani wasn't exactly sure what to call it. Darkness fire? Just darkness? Some kind of ashy fire? Whatever it was, there wasn't a spell that she could use that would rival that kind of black magic.
Roxas charged at the fallen Zira with Oblivion. Surely such an injured lioness couldn't protect herself now? He was closing in the distance between the two of them when some of the 'flames of darkness' rose up below him. The duel Keyblade wielder roared in pain as he was thrown onto his back and hit a rock structure, and then he moved no more. "Roxas?!" Both Ceron and Nalani hollered at the same time. The mage pointed her staff at Roxas to the best of her ability.
"Cura!" Some of Roxas' injuries healed, but not all of them. It had to be left at that because even if Nalani were to use curaga, he still wouldn't get up, and Zira needed to be finished before things got worse.
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Dazed and tired, Stefa struck at Larxene with Shadow Heart, but she was stopped short by yet another lightning bolt. Its power caused her to topple over, and it was then that she realized that herself, Naminé, Reixka, and Larxene were all in their regular forms and sizes. Stefa sighed, or maybe it was a groan, as she pulled herself back onto two legs.
"Tsk tsk, you're growing soft," Larxene murmured softly at Stefa although it was obvious that she had taken her fair share of hits. "Maybe if we had brought Riku into this then you would be a bit more lively..." A devious glint filled the Nymph's eyes as she paused for a minute. "Or perhaps Quince? How terrible of you to play with their hearts..."
"Shut up." Stefa heard herself murmur, but it was weak. She fell back to one knee and coughed. Would this ever end? Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed that Naminé was still fighting off heartless and nobodies; Reixka still wouldn't allow her Keyblade to touch Naminé's skin.
"What will you do when you finally have to choose? You've been through a lot with both of them... Maybe it would be easier if I took you out of the picture!" Larxene's voice was filled with anger. Stefa heard her quick footsteps as the Nymph charged. Suddenly, they stopped, and just as suddenly, she felt something sharp pierce her arm; It was just a kunai, nothing to worry about.
Stefa yanked it out of her skin and threw it at Larxene, missing her by inches. Blood spilled out of the wound as she did so. She was tired of Larxene trying to mess with her head, mostly because it was working. Her feet basically ran on their own toward Larxene, but with some determination, Stefa thrust Shadow Heart at the Nymph. Several bolts of lightning hit Stefa, but this happened at the same time as Shadow Heart pierced something.
She looked up, and was surprised to see that Larxene's eyes were wide. Stefa looked at where her Keyblade was and saw that it had not only pierced Larxene's skin... The Keyblade had gone straight through. Larxene, who had been tired and focused on attacking Stefa, obviously hadn't been anticipating the attack so soon, otherwise Stefa never would have attacked her so.
The heartless around Naminé fell away, much to the girl's relief. She had scratches and cuts on her arms and legs. There were several gashes around her chest where a shadow had attempted to take her heart. Reixka had called them off when she had seen that Stefa had 'accidently' impaled Larxene. "Oh my God." Naminé heard herself whisper. The four of them were in shock.
Stefa, shaking her head with disbelief, did not attempt to pull on Shadow Heart. Dazed and in some severe pain, she fell into a sitting position. Shadow Heart flashed out of Larxene's stomach and into her hand. Blood was dripping from the end of it. Larxene's stomach was bleeding terribly, and darkness was already surrounding her body. The Nymph closed her eyes and sighed as she fell backward; The sadistic and angry expression was finally wiped from her face.
She opened her eyes and looked at Reixka with a small smile. "Sorry." Larxene did not say this out loud, but she mouthed it right before she faded away completely. The darkness around them fell away, but Reixka ran forward anyway and bent over the spot where Larxene had been. She felt the ground, hoping for Larxene to pop up somewhere. Even the blood disappeared as the three of them reappeared in Andy's Room.
Reixka finally got a hold of herself. Well, alright, not exactly... Anguish and blood thirst washed over the nobody like an ocean. She turned around and glared at her other with such an expression that it was terrifying. It was so hard for her to believe that she had just helped the murder not too long ago. "When I said that I'd kill you before," She murmured quietly as she slowly made her way toward Stefa. "It was nothing in comparison to this." Fear flared into Stefa like five fireworks, but after so many lightning strikes, she could barely will herself to move.
The slow walk turned into a rapid run as Reixka held out her Cherry Blossom Keyblade; She was planning to impale Stefa, as well. An eye for an eye.
Chain of Memories caught the Cherry Blossom Keyblade before Reixka got within a foot of Stefa. Naminé hadn't bothered running all the way, she had just thrown her Keyblade at Reixka, causing the brunette to back off for the minute.
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"Should we go to the Pride Lands or Andy's House first?" Kairi asked Sora once they were back in the Gummi Ship. While Kairi had escaped an attack from the three jaguars, Sora and Riku had received more abuse from them.
"I'm not sure if I'm too up to more felines," Riku murmured quietly. That was true, but also the fact that he wanted to see Stefa kind of badly.
"Pride Lands," Sora announced have either not heard Riku or not cared. "It looks like Roxas just sealed the keyhole, too."
Exhausted was not even close to a good adjective to describe how Roxas, Ceron, and Nalani felt. They were laying below the rock structure of Pride Rock. Apparently, that's where the keyhole had been since that's where Roxas had sealed the keyhole. It hadn't been too hard to defeat Zira after she had no longer been able to get up. After Nalani had healed Roxas, Ceron had stabbed her in the chest. While it had not been a beautiful sight, it had to be done.
The interesting part was that Zira's pride had dragged Nalani, Roxas, and Ceron up to Pride Rock afterward. They had explained the battle with ease and told Simba that they were at a truce and they wanted to come back to the Pride Lands. King Simba's decision had only been further decided when Kiara and Kovu had practically begged him to agree.
The Pride Lands were sealed and happy again, what a wonderful ending. Simba had even agreed to allowing his daughter and Kovu to be together. That really was good.
Suddenly, a lioness with auburn fur, a lion with chocolate-colored fur, and one more lion with snowy-colored fur came running up to Nalani, Ceron, Roxas, Simba, Kiara, Nala, and Kovu. "Sora!" Nala and Simba exclaimed upon spotting the chocolate-furred lion. He had then been tackled, pinned, and nuzzled until the King and Queen got a hold of themselves.
"I see all's good here." Riku stated with a small smirk.
"Who invited Kimba?" Ceron murmured weakly. (A/N: Dun hurt me serious Lion King people. Dx) Although Simba had offered them all of the potions he had, they were all still tired.
"We defeated the bad guy, sealed the Pride Land, and got those lovely two lions together," Nalani remarked, nodding her head at the embarrassed Kovu and Kiara, "I call that a good day."
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Naminé's breathing was heavy, but she would be damned if she was going to stand aside and allow Reixka to kill Stefa. It was no use for Reixka to try to defeat Naminé, who obviously wouldn't be going down unless she was killed ten times over. Reixka reluctantly called upon a portal and disappeared into it, but not without glaring at Naminé and Stefa venomously.
Pleased just a tad, Naminé turned her attention back to Stefa, who was staring at her blood-stained Keyblade with disbelief still. She sighed and put away Chain of Memories as she kneeled before her friend. "Stefa?" Stefa, surprisingly enough, looked up at Naminé and smiled a little.
"Thank you." She mumbled weakly. Naminé smiled back.
"Anytime." She said before sighing. "Staring at that Keyblade won't help you... You did what you had to do."
"But, I..." Stefa couldn't think of a good enough argument, so she allowed Shadow Heart to disappear in a burst of light.
"Is our problem under control up here?" Buzz's deep voice asked as he, Bo Peep, Jessie, and Quince climbed to the top of the bookshelf. Bo Peep, Buzz, and Jessie seemed unsurprised to see Naminé and Stefa in the smaller versions of their human selves, so they must have been told everything by Quince.
"Mostly." Naminé admitted with a faint smile. "I kind of think we've overstayed our welcome, and we have more worlds to take care of, anyway." She said, getting to her feet, and offering Stefa a hand. The two of them looked pretty terrible with all of the cuts, scratches, and obvious lack of energy. Quince nodded in agreement.
"If anything else happens, you'll be able to reach us," He told the other three. "I doubt anything will come up, though."
"Well, hot diggidy dog!" Jessie cheered, throwing her hat into the air. Bo Peep smiled serenely.
"Thank you all so much." Quince took off his hat as he bowed.
"No problem, m'am."
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"Guys?" Kairi called into the transmission. She had been working from the ship in an attempt to reach Quince, Stefa, and Naminé for a while now.
"They're still not back?" Sora asked both impatiently and worriedly.
"Right here, guys." Naminé's soft voice announced over the transmission. Roxas smiled with relief.
"Are the three of you okay?" He asked. Quince scratched the back of his head.
"Depends on what you mean by okay..." He murmured under his breath.
"Where's Stefa?" Riku, always quick to notice her disappearance, asked.
"Resting." Naminé answered with a weak smile.
"Meet us back in the Radiant Garden." Sora commanded as he closed the transmission.
"I want to know what happened to Stefa!" Nalani's voice growled viciously before Quince clicked off the screen, too.
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A/N: I'm afraid I have to cut it off there because I really have to go to bed... So, I killed off Larxene. Dx I'm sorry, guys, I didn't want to, but it had to be done apparently. Stefa shouldn't feel very safe when Marluxia and Reixka begin to hunt her down... -Shudders at the thought- Hehe, Nalani, Ceron, and Roxas pwned Zira. :3
See you next chapter. :D