The first two days passed without incident and though the King kept the city and its people preparing for war many wondered whether or not there was any real danger. The first signs of danger became readily apparent though, Rikku's Grace started to skyrocket with activity, at the end of the third day there were over one hundred hits from the system within one hour. After that no one needed convincing that the danger was real. The worst part was that the Heartless were different, they weren't the usual black forms and shades that Sora and Roxas remembered. These wore armor and carried weapons, and while they were slower than the regular Heartless, they seemed smarter and more coordinated.
The appearance of the new Heartless worried the King and anyone else who knew anything about Xehanort's experiments. It was a sign that Xehanort had learned how to manipulate the Heartless further. It was the afternoon of the fourth day that the first sightings of the Heartless army were called in. The scouts were recalled though some squads had to take a longer route to avoid the Heartless, as was the case with Leon and Cloud's squad. Battle plans were drawn up. The enemy had to pass through a gorge to get to Hollow Bastion and it was in that pass that the King would fight them, when their numbers would count for less than it would in a siege or open battle. The bearers would be with the King, which meant they'd get to see the battle, but it was made very clear to them that they were not to fight unless attacked.
Sora yawned lazily, wiping sleep from his eyes. "I'm tired."
Riku smiled at him, he was dressed differently, no longer in street clothes, he now wore leather armor, similar to what the Elites wore, and presumably it was from his Aunt or Uncle.
"You wanted to fight, this is part of fighting."
"Being up before dawn sitting on a pile of rocks and freezing?"
Riku nodded, smirking. "Yep, this is easier than the training so quite whining."
Sora scowled and looked over the edge to the gorge below, Laguna and his Knights were arrayed in three diamond shaped wedges pointed in towards the gorge, they'd already mounted and he could just make out Laguna riding back in forth in front of the mounted soldiers. Sephiroth and the Elites were somewhere nearby, he wasn't sure where, but they weren't fully assembled, still waiting for late comers who had to avoid the Heartless to join the battle. The last group that might join the battle was far behind them, the bulk of the army, called Soldier, Sora could think of more creative names, waited inside Hollow Bastion.
He didn't really see why, but the King wanted to keep them there. There was a murmur in the camp and Sora turned to see Ansem ride up to edge of the cliff face and stare out over the Knights and the gorge beyond them. His chocobo was pure gold, and it pawed the ground restlessly, chomping on its bit as it looked about. Maleficent, Cid, and Merlin joined the King a moment later. Cid rode his own gray chocobo, but Maleficent and Merlin both walked which Sora thought was a little odd.
Maleficent reached out a hand, and from out of the predawn gloom her raven fluttered onto her fingertips. She brought it close, listening as it croaked to her before nodding and letting it fly again.
"They've come."
Sora looked over at Roxas, Kairi, and Namine, he had the feeling that he was the only one excited about this. They all looked grim, he supposed that he should be afraid as well but, well this was their destiny right? They were supposed to do this, Roxas kept looking towards Riku nervously, Sora wondered if he was trying to draw strength from the older boy who seemed so calm in the face of all this.
There was a low rumble then, and everyone's eyes turned towards the gorge as the first Heartless marched into view, and that was the strange part. They weren't shuffling or skittering in every direction, they were marching. Cohesive ranks could be easily seen in their movements as they came towards the assembled forces of Hollow Bastion. The sun began to rise behind the King's camp, and Sora saw the glint of light off metal armor and weapons. These were just like the ones that had been appearing in Hollow Bastion, they were armed and intelligent, and there were thousands of them.
He looked at the Knights, Laguna was no longer out in front and visible, he had moved into the ranks, the force of Knights seemed dwarfed by the massive army of Heartless bearing down on it. Sora felt something cold and hard settling in his stomach as he viewed the two disparate forces, could they really win this?
"Cid is your toy ready?" The King asked.
In answer Cid raised a small device and squeezed, a light shot up into the sky, followed seconds later the earth shook violently, chocobo's screeched in terror, people dropped to the ground, all accept for the royal entourage who remained standing calmly, soothing their shaken mounts.
Sora raised his head, seeing Riku picking himself up made him feel less silly.
"What was that?" Kairi whispered.
"Oh wow, look." Roxas was pointing towards the Heartless.
There was a rift torn in their ranks now, as if someone had rolled a ball down the length of the ranks. It was closing up now as Heartless moved to fill it, but the sight of the massive tear in the formation was still stunning. What had Cid done?
"Again," Ansem said calmly.
This time everyone was braced for the earth shattering force, and saw what did the damage. A lozenge shaped object was hurled towards the Heartless and when it impacted there was a massive explosion that killed dozens if not hundreds of them.
Sora stared dumbstruck at the damage. "What is that?"
Riku was staring too; for once he seemed at a loss for words.
"I think," Roxas began, "it's a cannon."
"A what?" Sora asked, perplexed.
"It's similar to a caster, but it uses some kind of powder to fire instead of magic. Remember the explosion when we first went to Cid's house?"
Sora thought, and remembered the explosion, Merlin coming up the stairs shrouded in smoke, and the tremor that had ripped through the street. Was that what Cid had been working on?
"How do you know about them?" Namine asked.
"I read about it once, supposedly caster's replaced them because it was cheaper and safer to use magic than the powder that cannons require to fire."
Riku snorted. "So we're using an antiquated weapon that might explode in our faces, that's smart."
Cid heard the comment and scowled at Riku. "It's working isn't it boy?"
Riku didn't say anything, watching as a third shot tore into the Heartless lines. Despite the damage, they seemed unaffected, marching forwards inexorably and getting dangerously close the Knights. Ansem opened his mouth to speak but was cut off by a screeching that pierced the brightening sky and sent shivers down Sora's spin and into his heart. Everyone watched in horror as a gargantuan Heartless rose above the horizon on massive wings and began flying towards them.
"Cid can your—"
"On it your Majesty."
The cannon burped again behind them, and the round sailed out into the sky. The Heartless flew straight at the shot without flinching, and the two collided in a spectacular explosion. There was a pause as everyone held their breath, waiting to see if the Heartless had survived. The smoke cleared, and the monster continued flying towards the encampment, letting out another piercing shriek.
Maleficent snorted. "Your piece of crockery is no match for something like that. As ever magic must be called upon to deal with such things."
She struck the ground with her staff, there was a flash of green and flames enveloped her, the King, Merlin, Cid, and the five bearers moved away as quickly as they could. Sora watched as something massive and black loomed out of the pillar of green flame, Maleficent was gone; in her place was a black scaled dragon with glowing green eyes, acidic saliva dripped from its gaping jaws and where it fell flames leapt forth. Without a word the dragon crouched and sprang to the skies towards the massive flying Heartless, letting out a war cry of its own to answer the shrieking monster. The two collided in mid-air and a deadly ballet began as the combatants writhed above the battlefield.
The King raised his hand and two blue lights shot into the air, Laguna's Knights charged, hundreds of multi-colored chocobos rushed towards the Heartless army. They slammed into the first rank and plowed through into the second and third before losing their momentum. That was when the fighting truly began, as Sora watched he saw Knights fall from their mounts, in a few cases they were picked up by flying Heartless and thrown to the ground to be swarmed by dozens of opponents. He thought of Laguna in that mass of armor and weapons and felt the cold knot in his stomach tightening.
Riku looked over at him, and for a change his voice was gentle. "It isn't what you imagined is it?"
Sora shook his head, reaching out and gripping Kairi's hand for comfort. He looked to the King, and was surprised to see how pained Ansem the Wise appeared to be. Besides him, Cid was sitting sullenly on his mount, his cannon was useless with the two armies engaged, and he'd failed to stop the giant flying Heartless which Maleficent was now driving further over the gorge.
The King sighed as he looked up at Maleficent, and then at Cid. "Merlin, will they ever see eye to eye?"
Merlin gave a benign smile. "I fear Sire that the two can't abide each other long enough to look at each other's feet let alone into the other's eyes."
The King snorted, Merlin gave a bow. "if you'll excuse me Sire?" Ansem nodded, and in an explosion of blue smoke, Merlin vanished and in his place a blue drake rose to the sky to join Maleficent in her battle with the much larger Heartless, blue lightening joining her green flame.
Sora looked away from the aerial battle to gaze back at the fighting below, he realized that most of the Knights had lost their mounts and were fighting afoot. They were slowly being pushed back too, he looked to the King desperately, who still sat calmly atop his golden chocobo and watched battle below.
Someone brushed by him, and he turned to see Sephiroth and a woman, Paine he supposed, walking past him. Paine paused to ruffle Riku's hair before joining Sephiroth at the King's side.
"The Elites are ready." Sephiroth intoned laconically, looking out at the battlefield.
"It took you long enough get out there and reinforce Laguna."
Sephiroth didn't respond, turning towards Sora and the others, "let's show the Knights how a real battle is fought."
Sora frowned and turned, his heart leaping into his throat. Where had they come from? Behind him were assembled hundreds of black and silver clad Elites, he searched their faces for his brothers and Tifa, finally spying Tifa and then Leon and Cloud. Tifa winked at him, his brothers didn't respond to his gaze which stung but he understood he supposed, this wasn't the time.
Besides Sephiroth, Paine stepped forwards, he scowled. "What are you doing?"
"I'm fighting for my King." She responded calmly.
"You are not going to fight."
She smiled coyly at him, kissing him in front of all assembled. "Catch me if you can." And with that she dropped off the edge of the rise and rushed towards the battle, drawing her sword as she fell. Sephiroth took a deep breath, regaining his composure before dropping after her, like an ocean tide the mass of black clad Elites flowed over the edge and dropped into the gorge below. As they passed, Sora felt a hand grip his shoulder tightly and he saw Leon give him a reassuring smile before he vanished over the edge as well.
There was a curious chirp from behind him, and he turned yet again to see Big Red strutting up to him proudly. He smiled; wrapping his arms around Red's armored neck.
"Thanks for bringing them back safely."
The chocobo squawked triumphantly, "Sora look." Sora turned at Kairi's voice and looked up to see the giant flying Heartless falling from the sky, its wings charred and torn, it hit the lip of the gorge, and then tumbled into the middle of the Heartless ranks, effectively cutting their number in half. Above, the two dragons bellowed and dove; searching for new targets, green flame and blue lighting raked the ground cutting swaths of destruction as the dragons flew overhead. The Heartless began to falter, Sora looked towards the Knights and saw them falling back, the Elites moved forwards in a line, hands outstretched. There was blinding flash, and a wave of white energy surged forth from the line of black and slammed into the Heartless, shredding them where they stood, shattering their resistance. The Elites lowered their arms and charged, the Knights remounted where they could, and where they couldn't simply joined the Elite's charge on foot. The mounted Knights quickly outpaced the Elites however, and for a moment Sora thought they would be trampled by the chocobos, at the last moment, the Knights pulled their birds back and in a single motion the chocobos leapt over the line of rushing soldiers and landed atop the opposing Heartless, sowing further confusion as the Elites and dismounted Knights crashed into their front.
From that point on the battle was one sided, there were one or two cases were the Heartless held out, but those positions were quickly reduced to ash by Merlin and Maleficent. There was even a point when three giants loomed up out of the Heartless army and had briefly driven the Elites and Knights back, but then the two dragons fell upon them, burning and charring two, and lifting the third into the air and tearing it to pieces. When the battle finally ended, the remaining Heartless were fleeing in disorder, pursued by those Knights who still had their birds and two very angry and bloodthirsty dragons.
The sun was directly above their heads when the King finally called a cease to the combat and led the doctors and healers into the gorge to tend to the wounded. Sora walked besides him, leading Red by the bridle when he heard Cid state jubilantly.
"We won!"
Ansem nodded solemnly. "At what cost, and can we do it again?"
Sora frowned, uncomprehending until they reached the battlefield. Twisted limbs, groans and cries from the wounded and dying soldiers and animals, and above all the sight and smell of blood. He lost his breakfast then, and he wasn't alone.