Well, here's the long awaited Part I of Chapter 7. I plan on releasing three parts for Chapter 7, so I hope you enjoy the action.
(Just a friendly reminder, the titles in brackets are recommended music tracks to play while reading; you can find them easily on YouTube.)
Also, anything with 1.5 or 2.5 for Kingdom Hearts tracks are referring to the 1.5 or 2.5 remixed tracks from the HD remakes rather than their older counterparts. I'll likely be using the original and HD tracks interchangeably)
[Vim and Vigor 2.5]
Kairi glared at the Heartless and Dark Spirits entering the city. There must be a few dozen spirits, but hundreds upon hundreds of Heartless.
Even here?! Won't they ever rest?
Kairi understood that Xehanort was targeting this world and that the Heartless was unavoidable, but when she thought of Katara and the rest of the villagers, who helped her recover and even tried to find Riku when she couldn't, having to face the atrocities the Heartless brought, Kairi's blood boiled. She couldn't let another world fall, for Katara, Sokka, and Suki to lose their loved ones, assuming they even managed to survive. She thought about her adopted father, the mayor of Destiny Islands, who she lost when Destiny Islands fell to darkness; the anguish she felt over losing him was unbearable.
I won't allow this world to fall. I have the Keyblade now. I'm not powerless.
"Kairi, get everybody to safety. I'll hold them off!" Katara gathered some water, but Kairi placed a hand in front of Katara, blocking her.
"No, I'll take care of this one. I have a vendetta to settle," Kairi's eyes pierced Katara.
"But you're still hurt. And how can you fight these things without bending?"
"I won't need it. Get your brother and his fiancée out of here. Hurry!" Kairi turned to face the Heartless, but Katara grabbed her shoulder.
"We'll do this together then. I'll have your back," Kairi nodded her head, deciding against debating Katara any further. The Heartless swarm had made it to the town's center and most of the pedestrians, other than a few stragglers, had evacuated. The local militia, a group of trained waterbenders and foot soldiers, were guiding everybody else to safety.
"Well, here goes nothing," she closed her eyes as she hit the buttons on her Armor, allowing her to transform. The design of her Armor had completely changed to fit the conditions of the tundra. Covering her thin parka, Kairi now wore an aluminum reinforced, navy blue wolf pelt tunic lined with white fur that covered the upper half of her body and a thick, similar loin-skirt around her waist that extended down to her knees and parted down the middle and back up to her groin. Navy blue shin and forearm guards, reinforced with thin, lightweight aluminum, were strapped around her limbs. A large brown cape lined with white fur extended from her neck down to her knees and similar brown boots covered her feet. A white lunar crescent symbolizing the water tribe crested the front of her tunic, but a red crown insignia fell in the center of the crescent. Finally, a helmet made from a wolf's pelt topped off her intimidating appearance, giving her the appearance of an honorable Southern Water Tribe soldier.
"Wow…" Sokka gleamed, "I made that?"
"Not exactly. It's more complicated than that. I'll explain later," something caught Kairi's eye.
"Duck!" Sokka looked behind him just as Kairi slashed the incoming Shadow with her keyblade. Sokka's eyes widened.
"I'll explain that later too. Stay behind me," Kairi began sprinting towards the Heartless, preparing herself to cast a spell. Slashing through the first ranks of Shadows, she managed to get in the middle of the hoard and cast Thundaga, taking down a few of the weaker varieties and stopping the stronger enemies from advancing. She began a combo of parries and strikes, knocking down a few Soldiers and Neoshadows; then, she charges her Keyblade with electricity and finishes them with Thunder Surge. She ducked as a nearby Soldier spin-kicked at her and knocked it down with a decisive strike before continuing her onslaught.
Katara could see her father, the chief of the tribe Hakota, and her grandfather, her former Master Paku, running up to her.
"Katara, Sokka, I'm glad you're safe," Hakota placed a reassuring hand on both of them.
"Now, do any of you know what those are?" he asked.
Katara and Sokka's eyes widened with shock, Sokka's forefinger hanging in the air, while Suki just smiled, "I knew she was more powerful than she looked."
Katara snapped out of it, "We need to go help her."
Katara was about to pull Sokka and Suki into battle, but Paku stopped her with a hand.
"You can waterbend at those Dark Spirits as much as you want, but you might as well be splashing around in a pond without knowing how to quell their grudge," Paku looked towards the cluster of Spirits floating from above, "There is a way that you can do purify these spirits with waterbending." A rogue Spirit made it out of the fray and Paku stepped forward.
"Watch closely," he commanded as the Spirit charged. Paku deflected the Spirit with a water whip, knocking the Spirit back. The Spirit attempted to charge again, but Paku managed to bend two tentacles of water to his hands and grab the Spirit, knocking it down. Before it could get up, Paku then raised two tendrils of water from the ground, twisting them around the Spirit. The water, from the base up, started turning a bright yellow as warmth and energy surged through the tendrils. The spirit's dark purple form began turning green as the light overcame the Spirit, and Paku breathed deeply as the light faded. The calmed Spirit flew away into the distance and returned to the Spirit World.
"It might take a little more effort depending on how much of a grudge the Spirit holds or how powerful it is, but I trust that you will be able to calm these Spirit's, Katara," Paku turned and began walking towards them, "Lakota and I will help in any way we can to get the civilians out. You should focus on helping your friend."
"Understood. And thank you," Katara turned to Sokka and Suki.
"Let's go."
"Right," they both said before the three charged into the frosty battle.
Kairi was managing to keep the hoard of Heartless back, setting up a line of mines with her magic to prevent them from getting any closer to the town square and keeping them in the narrow street. She just needed to prevent the flying varieties from entering the city, so charging her Keyblade, she collecting them using Magnega and finished the weaker of the flying varieties with Thundaga. She then used the windows as platforms and jumped onto the roof of an ice building, preparing Blizzaga to hit several of the stronger targets. She managed to launch her spell, but a few stray Air Soldiers and a large, flying Dark Spirit managed to catch her off guard, knocking her down to the ground with preemptive strikes to buy the other Heartless and Dark Spirits time.
Kairi quickly recovers by leaping to her feet, but barely manages to keep balance on top of the ice building before blocking another hit from an Air Solider. She dispatches two of the Air Soldiers before facing the other three and the Dark Spirit. She takes the fight to the air and jumps, assaulting with a succession of strikes before landing a finishing blow on the Dark Spirit. As she lands, her Keyblade begins to naturally glow with light. Letting her Keyblade lead her, she raises her Keyblade to face the Dark Spirit, a beam of light shooting out that overcomes it. The Dark Spirit turns from purple to blue and the purified Spirit flies away contently.
Meanwhile, Katara enters the battle with a wave of water, jumping over the mines before riding the wave to knock out a large number of the Heartless underneath. Using the moon's power, she summons a barrage of icicles from the ground, cutting through the ground and the Heartless in a straight line. She then turns the large icicles into water and breathing, she parts the large amount of water to either side, squashing the Heartless against the buildings. Running into the middle of the road, the parting waves dissipate, but she bends a ring of razor sharp water around her. Expanding the ring, she allows the piercing water to cut through several ranks of Heartless, destroying them on the spot.
Kairi noticed that Sokka was damaging some of the stray the Heartless without issue, but Suki couldn't do any damage at all; knocking a few Neoshadows away, Kairi approached them quickly.
"Regular weapons won't work against the Heartless," Kairi looked at Sokka's sword, "I see. You're sword is made out of Gummi blocks."
"Don't you mean meteorite?" Sokka asked.
"I'll explain later. Hold out your war fans, Suki," Suki obeyed and Kairi lifted her Keyblade, "I'm going to transfer some of my power to your weapons."
A faint glow could be seen as Kairi summoned light to the tip of her Keyblade. The light transferred from the Keyblade to the fans.
"You're war fans won't be too powerful, but it will be enough," Kairi reassured her.
"I'll be fine. Go on ahead," Suki's eye were determined as Kairi left the two, running off to fight at Katara's side. A few Neoshadows approached Suki, which she gracefully eliminated in a few swift movements, knocking one of the Neoshadows into the other two and slicing into them with her war fans. A stray Soldier took advantage of Suki's focus to land a jump kick, but she gracefully deflected the kick, sending the creature flying towards Sokka. Sokka prepared his sword and sliced into the Heartless powerfully, the gleam of his sword piercing the scattered, fading remains of the fallen Heartless.
Meanwhile, Katara was defeating a few Search Ghosts when Kairi made it to her side. Without warning, two Wyverns and a Defender spawned in front of them. Kairi tried to strike the Defender, but it protected itself with its large shield and began shooting fire. Katara barely made it on time, bending a stream of water to protect Kairi. The water immediately turned to steam.
"I'll use the cover to knock out those Wyverns. Attack the Defender from behind, if you can," Kairi prepared to jump.
"Wait!" Katara stopped Kairi.
"…what's a Defender?"
"The big one with the shield," Kairi jumped and began striking one of the Wyverns. Katara gulped at the Defender, but narrowed her eyes in determination. Summoning a sheet of water from the ground, she began sliding on the water, bending it around her before sending a large wave at its back. She then surrounded the Defender with water and had the water seep into its armor. Once inside, she builds up the water pressure inside the large Heartless, immobilizing it. With a violent move, the water inside explodes outward, sending the armor flying and destroying the Heartless.
Kairi, in the meanwhile, had destroyed the first Wyvern, but then jumped onto the other Wyvern's back to avoid Katara's attack. After the Defender was destroyed, Kairi notices a handful of Dark Spirits left from the original onslaught. She also noticed a new legion of Heartless in the distance and a distinct hole in the city's ice walls where the street ended. Kairi, with renewed urgency, yells for Katara to get out of the way. Kairi then plunged her Keyblade into the Wyvern's back, sending a discharge of light that destroyed it. Jumping off the disintegrated Wyvern, she charges her Keyblade with the remaining light and performs Hurricane Period, striking down the rest of the airborne Dark Spirits from the sky with successive blows. Then, using the momentum from her previous combo, Kairi leaps from the final Dark Spirit up into the sky before charging her Keyblade with magic to perform one of her ultimate moves, Faith. With her Keyblade blazing with light, Kairi strikes the ground with sheer force, columns of light piercing the Dark Spirits in every direction, purifying them simultaneously while allowing Kairi to regain health.
Kairi kneels to the ground, panting in exhaustion as the final purified Spirits leave. Katara moves to Kairi and notices the wounds she took from earlier. Katara bends some water and prepares to heal the wounded Keybearer.
"Thanks, but that won't be necessary," Kairi gives Katara a thumbs up before moving her Keyblade over here. Casting Curaga, the green energy flows over Kairi, closing her wounds and revitalizing her.
"Unfortunately, I don't have much magic left and I don't have any Ethers," Kairi said to herself, "and there's another wave of Heartless coming. I'll have to manage without any magic."
"You can manage with waterbending," Katara helped her up.
"I'm not sure who you are or where you draw your power from, but you proved earlier that you know the fundamentals of waterbending. I'm sure you'll be fine."
Sokka cut down a lone Neoshadow while Suki took out a Soldier before the two ran up to meet them.
"That was amazing! Kairi just flew in the air like 'whoosh!' and then hit the ground with that Key-thingy like 'bam!" and took out all of those enemies in one hit!" Sokka beamed, "You're just as powerful as Aang!"
"Yeah, but…" Kairi tried to explain, but couldn't put her explanation into words.
"Kairi's…a little drained. She doesn't have enough power to do…whatever that was again. But she can waterbend."
"Then really should really get some back-up," Sokka grunted, "I don't think we're going to manage against another wave."
"I miss when we were just fighting firebenders," Suki wiped some sweat off her brow, "I'll run and grab some waterbenders; you should stay here and do whatever you can."
"Got it," the other three agreed before Suki ran off past the square in the direction Paku and Lakota disappeared in.
"We should fight them before anymore can enter the city from that hole in the wall," Sokka suggested. Kairi and Katara nodded in agreement.
"Let's go."
And that's Part I