Sora ducked out of the way as Cloud swung both his blades, he'd taken Zack's weapon, and cleaved the massive heartless into pieces before leaping upwards to slam into another Heartless mercilessly dicing its wings before cutting it in half. Sora raised his blade and yelled out a spell, lifting up a massive cloud of Heartless before crushing them within and orb of force.

"Sora," he heard his father bellow and felt a hand grab the back of his shirt and pull him away.

Where he'd been standing, Vincent appeared, his face darkening in annoyance as his kill was stolen from him yet again. Sora felt his father's hand disappear as Vincent vanished in another furling cloud of shadows, the pair had been doing this dance since the battle had begun and neither showed any signs of weakening, Sora had no idea how they were keeping up with one another since they seemingly vanished and reappeared at random in all sorts of places. So far, Auron had managed to stay just ahead of Vincent and the latter hadn't been able to so much as scratch anyone with any of his attacks. Sora cut through another Heartless, and then he heard the familiar burst fired caster shots that signified his brother was nearby. He cast his gaze around furtively and saw Leon dropping towards him; he barely had time to react as his brother caught him in mid-flight and dragged him downwards.

This was such a strange place. It both possessed gravity, and yet seemed weightless. You could literally walk upwards as if ascending a flight of stairs and yet be stepping on nothing at all. By the same token you could go flying in the vertical plane the way he and his brother were currently doing as if you had been thrown out of Cid's airship.

"Now," Leon called.

He released Sora, and they both turned towards the pursuing mass of Heartless, Sora called out a fireball spell while Leon fired what looked like a small sun out of his caster, the two spells slammed into their pursuers and they disintegrated in the resulting explosion. Leon spun around in the air and landed on all fours, rolling to his feet. Sora landed next to him, but then Leon was in the air again, slashing his next foe with the blade of his caster, leaving Sora alone once more. There were so many Heartless it had proven impossible to maintain any cohesion as a unit, especially when Auron had started throwing people out of Vincent's path. At that point it had degraded into a free-for-all with occasional bouts of teamwork like what he and Leon had done. Sora could still feel the presence of everyone burning inside him and keeping him from falling over from exhaustion.

It was such a strange, yet comforting feeling, and the fact that the people he knew, even those like Seifer who he disliked. After everything that had happened these past weeks he couldn't fairly say he hated Seifer, or any of his gang. They were just sandlot bullies, Xehanort was actually full blown evil and the two couldn't share the same spectrum of emotion in Sora's mind, the worst Seifer had ever done was send Sora, Roxas, or one of their friends home with a bloodied nose or a split lip. Even Larxene had never killed anyone the way Xehanort had so offhandedly done. He bolted out of the way as Loz came rocketing past with Tifa, the two gripped their hands and spun in a circle, using their feet to kick out at the Heartless around them as they spiraled downwards. Sora pushed off, slashing through another enemy.

There was a flash off to one side and he spied Yazoo firing madly in every direction, standing back to back with Kadaj, he fired an ice blast, freezing the Heartless facing Kadaj as he rose past them, the momentary lull let the pair kick-off and catch up with Sora.

"Thanks," Kadaj said grudgingly.

"Have you seen Xehanort?" Sora asked quickly.

Yazoo fired a shot point blank into the mouth of a large feline Heartless which shrieked and fell away. "Not yet, he's a coward."

Sora nodded, pushing himself sideways, he landed against one of the huge winged Heartless, Kadaj landed next to him and dug his twin bladed sword into the monster's spine and began running upwards, and tearing open it's back as he went. Sora followed slashing the wound open more as the pair ran upwards. Roxas appeared next to him as he leapt of the head of the dying Heartless, his twin keyblades glowing vibrantly.

"Have you seen the girls?" He asked desperately.

Sora shook his head; any answer was forestalled as a wyvern-like Heartless dove at him, slamming its head into his stomach and knocking the wind out of him. Its teeth flashed and tried to eviscerate him, the only thing between its teeth and his inside was the keyblade jammed between its jaws. Tifa landed on its back a moment later and slammed her fist into its back, electricity coursed over its body and it spasmed, its hold on Sora's keyblade slackening. He shoved it back and kicked upwards, calling out a thank you to Tifa as he sped away, there was a moment of calm around Sora and he took the moment to try and find everyone. He saw Kadaj and Yazoo, Roxas was by himself, but a moment later Riku shot out of a throng of Heartless and joined him. Leon, Cloud, and Loz were together and Tifa was still below him. He caught his father pop back into existence, followed a moment later by Vincent, the two clashed yet again then vanished once more.

Tifa rose up besides him, "you okay?"

He nodded, his face set worriedly. "I don't see Namine or Kairi."

Tifa rolled over and kicked a Heartless in the head, sending it away in a twitching bundle throwing a fireball spell that burst it into flames. "We're beginning to thin them down some, a bit ago we wouldn't have had this much breathing room."

Sora nodded absently as he continued to search for the girls, he spied a thick crowd of Heartless and rotated, kicking himself off of the air and rocketing towards the gathering. He slashed through the first few Heartless before their numbers stopped him, he felt something cut into his arm and realized he'd made a mistake. Then everything seemed to slow down, he looked up to see Tifa, her face strained with the effort, casting a temporal spell. Hurriedly he hacked his way free of the Heartless, now slowed down to just a fraction of their normal speed. Then they were back to normal, almost as quickly as they'd slowed down and Sora again had to push himself free of their mass.

Two more keyblades flashed then and he breathed a sigh of relief as Kairi and Namine came out swinging and casting spells from within the horde. Both were bruised but there was nothing injured about how they fought. Kairi took one instant to kiss Sora on the cheek before slicing another Heartless in half.

"Tifa!"

Sora turned upwards at Leon's voice and saw Tifa floating limply, a moment later Kadaj caught her as he soared past and pulled her floating body away from the battle.

"I'll take care of her," he called to them, "give us some room."

"Sora, give me your hand!" Namine called.

He grabbed her hand, Kairi grabbed his and it felt suddenly like a wind tunnel had opened up around them. Lances of ice shot out from all directions and skewered the Heartless around them, and once they were dealt with the hail of icy spears worked outwards, soon the Heartless were beyond any control as their instinct to flee and preserve themselves took over and they began to pop out of existence. When Namine released Sora's hand, panting heavily, there was only a handful of the Heartless left. Sora felt as worn as Namine looked, and Kairi seemed to have faired just as badly; but he could feel the energy from the others giving him renewed strength. He looked up to see Kadaj holding a glowing hand over Tifa, she stretched and rolled upright shaking her head in a daze.

"No, Dad!"

Leon's voice brought Sora's gaze downwards and he gave a cry of his own, Auron and Vincent were locked together, Vincent's sword arm was through Auron's left shoulder, and Auron had his own sword imbedded up the barrel of Vincent's caster arm. Auron was bleeding badly while Vincent seemed completely unphased by the wound and was trying to free his blade from Auron's shoulder. He finally wrenched it free with one great surge of strength, Auron cried out in pain, gritting his teeth as Vincent lifted the blade and brought it down towards Auron's chest. Sora clenched his eyes shut and kicked, even as he surged downwards he knew he couldn't get there in time; he didn't want to watch this. There was a howl of pain and he opened his eyes, staring in surprise, his own shock mirrored on Vincent's face as he stared at the keyblade sticking from his chest.

Roxas let out a long sigh, and sank to his knees, he'd never thrown his blade that far before. He'd even used his own will to guide the blade to its target: Vincent's back, right between the shoulder blades. He felt his body trembling at the exertion it had taken to keep the blade from returning to him like it had wanted to; he felt his vitality being restored by the energy of everyone supporting them and picked himself up. Pushing towards Vincent and Auron, the latter had freed himself from the former and was watching as Vincent writhed and howled in pain. He arrived just as Sora floated down besides his father; the others joined them a moment later.

Auron freed his sword from Vincent's arm, watching as his body began to change back into a more human form, he looked at Roxas thankfully.

"Get that blade out of him, it's killing him."

Roxas summoned the blade back, and Vincent stopped screaming, slumping over and breathing heavily as blood finally began seeping from his wounds.

"You…killed me, I'm…free?" He said, looking up at Auron, his eyes were no longer red and he seemed much more human suddenly, he even seemed relieved.

Auron knelt down, leaning Vincent on his back as he breathed laboriously, his blood pooling beneath his body.

Vincent grabbed Auron's tunic and pulled him close, "kill him, destroy him, do not let him do this to anyone else…."

His grip slackened as his words rattled out with his breath as his eyes closed and he sunk back, his chest slowly ceasing to rise; then his body burst into the shadowy fire that he'd used to move around before and he vanished. Auron stood up and looked at his own wound as Tifa began tending to it.

"He couldn't fight it, that entire time, I couldn't save him."

"What are you talking about?" Leon asked in annoyance, he looked worried sick and it occurred to Roxas that he'd actually been frightened for his father despite his distant demeanor.

"When you shadow shift like that, you're no longer physical, you're pure, unbridled emotion. So long as you can keep your heart strong you're in no danger but you can get lost if you're not able to retain your emotions. Your memories fade and you become a Heartless."

He looked down where Vincent's blood still pooled, "this poor boy was in pain, terrified and desperate, but unable to escape the hold that Xehanort had on him. I tried to unravel Xehanort's hold on him during the battle but I couldn't. The Heartless part of him was too much a part of his being."

His gaze flicked to Roxas, "that keyblade separated the Heartless from him, broke Xehanort's control and let him go free; in a way you gave him what he most desired, good work."

Roxas didn't feel like he'd done good work though he felt no remorse over saving Auron. Heartless or not, Vincent had looked human enough and it bothered him a little to think about killing another human being with his blade. Namine took his hand tightly and smiled at him, kissing his shoulder softly. He felt worlds better after that as she leaned against him.

"I still don't see Xehanort." Cloud muttered, his eyes scanning the vastness around them.

Roxas looked around too, and realized that Cloud was right; there was no one else here. Just their group, not even a single Heartless remained anywhere that he could see. Where was Xehanort? Then the world turned upside down, and they were suddenly back in the heart chamber, only they weren't on the floor, they were in the air. They dropped like rag dolls to the ground with shouts and cries of pain. Roxas pushed Kadaj off of him, the latter cursing and trying to get Tifa's chest off his face. There was a cold, steady clapping then and Roxas rolled over to see Xehanort standing again on the raised platform, clapping and smiling eerily, worse than the eerie expression was the fact that he was still transformed and his hands bore the massive claws from before.

"Congratulations, you've beaten everything I've been able to throw at you; now you're finally able to fight me directly."

He spread his hands apart, the ground shook and everyone screamed as black spikes shot from the ground and impaled them, lifting them off the floor and into the air. Yazoo, Cloud, and Tifa were able to get airborne, but spikes shot from the walls and got them in mid-jump. Roxas felt his heart clench as he realized who was still left: himself, Sora, Namine, Kairi, and Riku. Xehanort's smile was cruel as he beckoned them with a clawed hand.

"Come bearers, the longer you take, the more pain they'll be in; the only way you can save them is if you kill me. So come, come try your luck."

"Sora," Leon groaned, "don't worry about us, kill him."

Roxas felt terror clenching his chest as he looked up at Cloud, his brother was staring at him silently; his gaze intense and commanding and Roxas hated what they were saying: leave them here, and fight. He shook his head, but Cloud just stared back at him with the same intensity. Roxas remembered the conversation they'd had after Rikku had died and swallowed biting his lip and nodding nervously. A smile crossed Cloud's face and his expression softened. Roxas looked at the others; all of them were looking at the five bearers with the same expressions. Roxas turned and found the other four there with him, they had to do this. As one they turned towards Xehanort who was still smiling insanely, relishing the pain he was causing as they came towards him.

Xehanort spread his hands, and something that looked like glass spread out from him and passed over Roxas and the others, it ended in a dome like shape and encircled them all.

Xehanort chuckled coldly. "There, that way if anyone does get free, they will not be able to interfere. Come bearers," he rose up on his wings, spreading his arms out invitingly. "Let us see which is stronger, the Light, or the Shadows."

Author's Note: Hmm....well that turned out a little differently than expected but here we go everyone, now the crescendo (this is the part where V raises his arms and everything blows up). So yeah, here we go, Vincent is gone, everyone who could interfere has been stuck (like a pig I might add) and it's all down to the bearers. God I hate when the world depends on a bunch of kids don't you? So cliche.