Two Different Witches
Shinigami-sama sent Sora and the others to a mission, although it was more for Sora, the other students wanted to go with him and the headmaster let them do it because of some troubles that could affect the boy. The Keyblade wielder expected to encounter the other Darkness, but he found Pete instead. Now that he knew that Maleficent was in the castle, he wanted to know why she was doing there.
The group was moving through the castle as they defeated the Heartless they found, the castle was big, but it was difficult to get lost since there was only one path. The castle was similar to the one in Radiant Garden so Sora knew where to go, but then they reached a part that was new for him.
"Three doors…" said Sora.
"We will have to split up," Kid told him.
"There are Heartless behind all the doors," said Maka. "It's doesn't matter which door we take, we'll have to fight anyway."
"Alright, I'm going first!" said Black*Star as he ran to the door in the middle, with Tsubaki in his hands.
"…"
"Moron…" Maka muttered.
"He'll be fine, don't worry," said Sora. "So, how are we going to do it?"
After a minute, they split up in two groups, one group was Maka, Ox and Kilik and the other was Kid, Kim and Sora. Since Maka can detect the Heartless with her new perception ability, they decided that she and Sora should be in different groups. Sora didn't know why but Kim was a bit distant toward him, whenever he looked at her, the girl just looked away as if she was scared of the Keyblade wielder. Jacqueline knew the reason, but she couldn't tell him or anyone about it.
"This is less scary than the mansion, right sis?" said Patty.
"Maybe it's because we're more this time," replied the older sister. "I just hope that we don't get separated like in that mission."
"I'll have my eyes opened if there's another bridge," said Kid. "By the way Sora, that witch, is powerful?"
"Yeah, although she prefers to let others to do her job," answered Sora.
"Others like that weird guy?" Liz asked. "Pete was his name?"
While Sora, Kid and the sisters talked, Kim followed them slowly and looking at the floor.
"Kim…" said Jackie and the pinkette looked at the lamp that was in her hand.
"What is it?" said Kim with a sad voice.
"I should be the one asking that," said the black-haired girl. "Are you sad because of what Sora said about that witch?"
Kim didn't answer immediately, but her partner was right, she was sad because Sora had also a grudge against witches.
"I thought that since he wasn't from Shibusen, he wouldn't have anything against witches, but it looks like I'm wrong," said Kim.
"Hey, just because he hates her, it doesn't mean he'll hate you," assure Jackie. "Sora's not like that."
"But still, I'm scared now," said Kim. "What if Maleficent knows about me and tells everyone that I'm one of them. I'm with a shinigami and a Keyblade wielder, I don't think they'd let me go just like that."
"Don't worry, if anything happens, I'll be with you," said Jackie to reassure her partner. "But you should act like you usually do or they will suspect."
Meanwhile the other group was fighting Heartless and moving through the castle, Maka was thinking about what Pete said when they encounter him at the door, he said that her boss, Maleficent, was in a meeting. The girl thought that it could be more witches, Medusa or even Arachne. She told the other members of her group about it and they agreed with her.
"You should have told the others before crossing the door," said Soul.
"I know, but I realized a bit late," Maka replied as she used Soul to slash some Heartless.
"She must be strong if Sora couldn't kill her yet," said Kilik when he defeated a group of Heartless with his two partner-gloves. "Her "assistant" was really lame though."
"Well, you saw Sora's reaction when he recognized him," said Harvar while Ox used him to electrocute the rest of the monsters.
"If Medusa is here," began Ox, "then this mission could be very rewarding for us and Shibusen."
Maka looked a bit worried suddenly and the Demon Scythe noticed.
"Are you thinking about Crona?" asked Soul.
"Yes," replied Maka. "If she is here I could ask her where Crona is."
"And when you say 'ask her'," began Soul, "you mean 'beat her up until she tells you', right?"
"More or less," Maka admitted, "I could let Sora to take care of her too."
As this group had a talk about Medusa, Black*Star was running to reach Maleficent before the others.
"Black*Star!" exclaimed Tsubaki. "Why did you start to run so suddenly?"
"Didn't you hear it?" asked the boy. "There's a witch in this castle, if I kill her and take her soul I could have a witch's soul and transform you into a Death Weapon when I recollect the other ninety nine souls."
"Sora couldn't kill her yet," said Tsubaki trying to slow down her meister, "what makes you think that it'll be different if you fight her?"
"I'll use my stealth abilities and took her by surprise," said Black*Star. "Just like the true assassin I am."
Tsubaki sweat dropped. "I hope the others arrive before us."
Black*Star continued running, destroying the Heartless he encountered in a breeze and after sprinting for a few minutes, he reached a dead end.
"Oh boy…" said him. "This was the wrong door."
"Then let's go back and go with the others," said Tsubaki. "I'm sure they're in the right path."
The boy turned around and when he was about to start running, he noticed a lever at his left.
"Hey look," said him. "Maybe this will activate a secret door or something; I'm going to pull it."
"Wait Black*Star, maybe you sho-" Tsubaki tried to stop him, but the boy pulled it anyway. The girl waited for the worst, but surprisingly nothing happened.
"Huh? It was a fake lever," said Black*Star and Tsubaki sighed in relief.
However something was going to happen with Sora's group, they were in a long corridor and at the end there was a huge door that Kid thought it would led to Maleficent. When they started to walk to the door, suddenly a metallic fence fell, leaving Kid and the Thompson sisters on the other side, while Sora, Kim and Jacqueline where in the side of the door.
"Not this again…" said Liz.
They tried to break the fence, but it was no use.
"Damn, what shall we do now?" said Jackie.
"Keep going," said Kid to them. "We'll find another way, or try to go with the others."
"Are you sure?" asked Sora and Kid nodded. "Fine, just be careful."
The shinigami left, leaving Sora with Kim and Jackie. The Keybearer felt a bit awkward since Kim was acting a bit weird since they entered the castle, he wanted to know what was wrong with her but also he didn't want to bother her. He continued walking while Kim followed him, keeping the distances.
"Aren't you going to talk with him?" asked Jacqueline and Kim remained silent. "You always got along with him."
"Because I felt more comfortable with him," replied Kim. "He's not a meister that wants to kill witches to help someone to become a Death Weapon, but now…"
"Kim…" said Sora who was waiting for her at the door. The pinkette startled a little and looked at him.
"Yes?" said the girl.
"I'm going to open, stay sharp, okay?" said Sora, he was more serious than usual and the girl felt bad because it could be her fault since she didn't talk to him since they entered the castle.
"Right," said Kim and Sora opened the big door and they went into the next room. Behind the door there was a wide circular chamber and at the end of it, there was Sora's enemy, Maleficent, it looks like she was waiting for them or at least for the Keybearer.
"Look who is here," said the witch. "It's been a while, Sora."
"Not as much as I'd have liked," replied Sora. "It was you the one who has been sending Heartless to Death City?"
"I don't think you're in a position to ask questions now, are you?" said Maleficent. "But yes, Xehanort told me to lure you to some place and since I don't like that Shinigami and his academy, I decided to attack their city."
"Oh, so now you follow orders from Xehanort?" taunted Sora.
"Contain your tongue before I cut it," said the witch. "My sympathies are not of your concern."
"You were in a meeting with someone, right?" said Sora. "It was him?"
"That's none of your business," replied Maleficent and then she looked at Kim who was silent all the time. "Let me say that it surprises me that you're friend of that traitor, I thought you were on the Shinigami's side."
Kim started to get nervous and almost panicked when Sora looked at her.
"Don't tell me she is…" thought Sora and then he noticed that Maleficent has thrown a dark spell toward the girl. The spell was too fast for Kim to dodge, but fortunately Sora used a Reflega to protect her.
"I don't care if Xehanort wants you alive," said Maleficent, "if now I have the opportunity to kill you, I'll take it."
"Sora, I…" Kim said.
"We'll have to fight, stand up," interrupted Sora without looking at her.
The witch started to glow and a green fire started to appear around her, Sora knew what was going to happen so he hoped that Kim could focus on the fight and forget about what Maleficent said to her.
While Sora and Kim were about to fight Maleficent, the other group found a dead end too and they started to frustrate since they've been walking in circles for a long time.
"I'm starting to lose my patience," said an upset Kilik.
"Maka, can't you see the witch's soul?" asked Soul.
"No, and neither her heart," said the girl. "It seems that there is also an ability to block the Heart Perception."
"They're fighting against the witch," said Ox which surprised the others.
"What? How do you know that?" asked Maka.
"I'm always aware when Kim is in danger, she's fighting against the witch, so Sora and Kid are also fighting," said the boy and suddenly an explosion could be heard
"Looks like you're right, let's go back and cross the door they used and fast," said Kilik and then the wall at their right was destroyed by another explosion, but this time it was Kid who used Liz and Patty to do it.
"Wrong way, I guess," said Liz and Patty laughed.
"Kid?" said Maka. "What are you three doing here; shouldn't you be with Sora, Kim and Jackie?"
"Yes, but we got separated," said Kid. "A fence blocked us and we couldn't go with them."
"Really?" said Kilik. "A similar thing happened to us, we had to fight some Heartless inside a cage, but then it opened and we could continue, but we're in a dead end right now."
"Sora and Kim are fighting against the witch right now," said Soul. "We should hurry instead of being chatting."
The Keyblade wielder and the Lamp Meister were fighting Maleficent who transformed into a black dragon, Sora already expected and he remembered how he fought against this form before, but the witch was now stronger than before. Kim was a bit distracted, but she could fight, however, her fire attacks weren't very effective against the dragon.
Sora hit Maleficent in the face and stopped her from using her fire breath, when she was about to strike the boy with one of her paws, Kim used Jackie to create a huge fire ball that damage the dragon's paw.
The dragon turned around and started to swing her tail, Sora jumped and Kim started to fly using her partner. Sora used Thundaga to paralyze the tail and it worked, since the dragon roared and turned to them. She aimed her head to the roof and used her fire breath to create a fire storm.
Green fireballs started to fall and some of them hit Sora and Kim, but they could recover quickly to counterattack. Sora took advantage of his position and wrapped his sword in ice and hit Maleficent in the head when he fell, causing the dragon to totter, however the witch recovered quickly, she did a spin attack really fast and hit the Keybearer with the her tail and then the dragon was about to crush Sora, but Kim was faster and could attack before Maleficent finished her attack.
"Wollantern!" The pinkette hit the dragon's head with Jackie who created an explosion and then another she performed a much larger secondary explosion that caused a significant amount of destructive concussive force. After that attack Maleficent had to retreat because of the damage the girls caused to her.
Sora looked amazed at the two. "You were incredible," he told them and Kim couldn't help but smile a little at the compliment.
Maleficent started to stomp the floor and created shockwaves that were directed to the two teens. Sora grabbed Kim by her shirt and dragged her to an elevated position.
"Listen, we're going to combine our attacks, okay?" said Sora.
"Wait, do you want to do a soul resonance?" asked Kim bewildered and the boy nodded.
"I know that fire attacks don't affect her much, but maybe with my fire magic and Jackie's fire techniques we could stun Maleficent and make her lose the transformation."
"It's worth a shot, Kim," said the lamp. "Let's do it."
The meister doubted but at the end she agreed to try to do the resonance with Sora. The two started to concentrate and they could feel how their souls matched easily. A white aura appeared around them for a second that confirmed that the Chain Resonance was successful.
Sora and Kim jumped toward Maleficent and charged their attacks, the boy used Firaga and the girl threw a fireball similar to Sora's spell. The two attacks combined when they got near the dragon and started to shine with a golden light. It created a huge golden fireball that could compete with Sora's Mega Flare, however the explosion wasn't as powerful as that spell but when it hit Maleficent it caused a huge damage to it and made her back away.
Before the witch could recover, Sora and Kim appeared behind her and prepared another attack.
"Fire Combination!" shouted the two and both swung their weapons and created a great wave of fire that could sent the dragon flying and crash against the wall and it looks like now she was unconscious.
"Did we win?" asked Kim.
"I wouldn't be so sure of that, brats!" said Maleficent who was still transformed, although it seemed that the attack did its work and left her almost defeated, but she could still move.
She stood up and then used her fire breath to cover the whole chamber. Kim noticed and used Jackie again to fly, but she grabbed Sora so he wouldn't get burned. She was starting to get more comfortable with him, but the girl was still uneasy.
"Thanks!" said Sora and Kim just nodded.
"Watch out!" warned Jackie who was watching at the dragon.
Maleficent looked at them and this time she was going to use a black fire breath to make them land, but before she could execute her attack, Black*Star appeared suddenly from above and got on the dragon's head.
"Yahoo, I'm going to tame this dragon!" shouted the boy.
"What's that idiot doing?!" said Kim who didn't expect Black*Star to appear so suddenly.
Maleficent managed to get Black*Star out of her after he hit her several times with Tsubaki's Kusarigama Mode. She took the chance to try to smash him with her tail, but then an attack came from the door that Sora and Kim used.
"Death Cannon!" said Kid who was in the door and shot his hand-cannon and hit the dragon's head and body.
"Aphex Twin!" cried Kilik, he used Soul Resonance with Pot of Thunder and Pot of Fire to create a large blue ball of energy that he threw to the dragon and created an explosion when it made impact with her.
All those attacks could make Maleficent return to her normal form and that left her exposed to the next attack.
Maka entered the room with Soul in her hands, she and the white-haired boy performed the traditional Soul Resonance and created the Witch Hunt that they were going to use to kill Maleficent, however when the girl was about to cut the witch in half, she disappeared.
"Argh, we were so close!" exclaimed a frustrated Soul.
"Where did she go?" asked Kid.
The boy started to look around and Maka spotted the witch in a window and pointed at her, so the others could see her.
"Now I remember why I hate that stupid organization," said Maleficent. "All the kids of Shibusen are annoying and nosy."
"Why don't you come here and said tell us in the face?" said Soul.
"I'll retire for now, but we'll see soon, Sora," said the witch. "And be careful with what's inside you, it'll be too much for someone like you to resist."
After that, Maleficent disappeared, leaving Sora confused. He didn't know what she meant with "what's inside you" and that was making him a bit nervous, but the others reassured him.
"Surely she was just trying to confuse you," said Soul. "By the way, you didn't mention that she could transform into a dragon."
"Yeah," said Sora scratching his head. "I forgot about that, I was more focused in finding that hag and try to get some answers from her."
"Did you get something?" asked Ox.
"The only thing she told me is that Xehanort is the one who told her to send the Heartless to Death City to lure me there," said Sora. "I should have known that she was also behind all of this."
"We should thank her for that," said Kilik and Sora looked at him as if he was crazy.
"If you're saying that you like to have Heartless in your city," he said, "then I'll have to hit you in the head so you recover your common sense."
"I mean that if there weren't Heartless in Death City," explained the Pot Meister, "you never would have come."
"He's right," said Tsubaki smiling. "If it wasn't for them, we wouldn't be friends now."
Sora smiled. "Yeah, although there was a possibility that another Keyblade wielder had come to Shibusen, you know?" said Sora. "Besides, if the people at my home told me that a boy in a suit and with three white stripes in his head was looking for me, I think I would be interested in knowing him."
"Saying it like that, you make me look like if I'm some kind of stalker…" said Kid.
"You don't know who was with Maleficent before we arrived, right?" asked Maka.
Sora shook his head. "She didn't want to tell me obviously," he replied.
"I'm going to investigate this place," said Kid while he walked to a door that at the right. "If witches use this place for meetings maybe I can find something out."
"Wait, we'll lend you a hand," said Maka, Tsubaki, Ox and Harvar who were following him.
"I'll leave the investigation for the eggheads," said Black*Star.
"Yeah, I'm going outside to get some fresh air," said Kilik as he walked, along with Soul, Fire and Thunder, to a door who led outside and Black*Star and the Thompson sisters followed him.
Now the only people who were in the chamber were Sora, Kim and Jackie. The Keybearer was about to cross the door to follow Maka and the others who went to investigate, but then he thought that he should talk with Kim about what Maleficent said. He took the doorknob and closed the door so no one could see them and he turned to look at the two girls.
Kim started to walk backwards because Sora had a serious expression on his face that she didn't like and scared her. Kim usually was a tough girl, but now that Sora knew what she was she felt vulnerable. The boy was walking to them, when Jacqueline stood in front of Kim to protect her.
"Sora, please," she began, "don't do anything to Kim. I know that you hate that witch, Maleficent, but Kim is not like her."
Jackie knew that she didn't stand a chance against Sora, but she was willing to protect her meister no matter what.
Then Sora realized why Kim was more distant and self-conscious, she was scared of him, the girl didn't want the others to know that she was a witch too since they would spurn her. Sora started to feel bad for her, but he was also sad because his friend feared him, it was the first time that happened and Sora started to feel like if he was some kind of monster and then he started to feel light-headed again.
"I…I'm sorry," said Sora which took the girls by surprise, they didn't expect him to apologize since he didn't do anything bad so the two started to feel confused.
"Why did you say that?" asked Jacqueline.
"At first I didn't know why Kim started to be more distant," said Sora, "but after hearing Maleficent, I understood the reason of her behavior and I'm sorry. I know that I can be scary when I get serious on a fight or when it comes to Xehanort, but just because I hate Maleficent, it doesn't mean that I hate you Kim."
Kim didn't say anything, she just listened carefully what Sora had to say.
"I don't know many witches," continued Sora, "but I'm sure that most of them are like you, nice people that care a lot about their friends. I felt horribly when I saw that you were scared of me so I'm really sorry; I hope that you can forgive me since you're my friend and that's the only thing that matters. I understand why you need to keep that as a secret so don't worry, I won't tell anyone about it."
"Wow, Sora that was…" said Jackie but she stopped when Kim ran and hugged Sora tightly. The Keybearer was taken aback by this, but he was glad that she was now the Kim he knew, although hugging was something that doesn't suit her.
"Thank you Sora," said the pinkette, "thank you so much."
"K-Kim, what are you doing?" asked Jackie who was blushing a little.
"Thanking Sora for being so sweet," replied Kim whose cheeks were also a bit red. "Plus it's a good excuse to hug him."
"But you're embracing him…" said the black-haired girl, still flustered for her meister's act.
"If you also want to, just do it," said Kim. "I won't stop you."
"N-no, well…I…" Jacqueline stopped talking because she couldn't find a proper answer. She also wanted to hug Sora for being so good with Kim, but she didn't do it.
"Man, maybe Donald and Goofy were right," thought Sora, "I always get mushy when I'm around a girl."
The pinkette noticed that Sora had a tired face and she thought that could be because of the attacks of Maleficent during the fight, but actually it was that he felt dizzy, just like before encountering Pete. Kim let go of him and started to use her magic to heal him and Sora started to feel great.
"Hey, now I feel much better," said Sora surprised. "How did you do it?"
"I'm a tanuki witch," she said a little embarrassed, "my spells specialize in healing and regenerating abilities. I was cast out of the witch society because of that, my magic goes against the instinct for witches to use their magic in destruction."
"Tanuki…" said Sora and he remembered the day at the market when Kim got upset with Tsugumi and Meme because they tried to sell her a jacket with the tanuki ears on the hood.
Kim saw how Sora started to smile with the word "tanuki" and that started to bug her.
"I hope you're not thinking what I think you're thinking," said her. "If you are, I'm going to charge you for my healing services."
Sora laughed. "Okay, sorry."
The people who went to investigate returned to the chamber, Sora looked at them an asked if they found something about witches.
"Yes, but not about someone that we know," answered Kid. "Where are the others?"
"Outside, waiting at the entrance," replied Jackie.
"And you three?" asked Tsubaki.
Sora and the two girls didn't know how to answer that question, but fortunately Ox said something before the others started to suspect.
"I knew it," said the boy and they looked at him. "Sora, I know that Kim is a beauty, but if you want to court her, you and I will need to have a duel to the death for her love."
"What are you saying idiot?!" said Kim.
"Okay, I think you're getting the wrong idea," said Sora sweat dropping.
"Harvar, you'll help me, right?" said the Spear Meister.
"A duel to the death?" repeated Harvar. "Sorry, but count me out, I am sensible enough to know how this is going to end."
"Hey, sorry to cut the chat, but we should leave this place before the madness start to affect us," said Kid.
"Oh, so you also noticed," said Jackie. "It's higher than at Death City, right?"
"Madness…" muttered Sora, he remembered what they explained to him about the Kishin when he ate at Maka's house. "That would explain it…"
"Explain what?" asked Maka.
"When we were in the forest, I started to feel sick," replied Sora. "It was the first time I felt like that, but I thought it was just a small dizziness."
The others started to worry, specially Kid, he didn't knew that madness could affect Sora since he was a Keyblade wielder and he assumed that the sword would protect its master, but maybe it was too much for Sora to handle at the moment.
"But you're feeling fine now, right?" asked Kim and Sora nodded.
"We better go before something bad happens," said Harvar who was walking to the door that led outside and the others started to follow him.
Sora summoned his Keyblade and started to remember the Mark of Mastery Exam and how he was fooled by Xehanort.
"I almost fell to the darkness," he thought and he made the sword disappear. "I hope this doesn't affect me."
I can't kill Maleficent since, like JMG16 said in his review, she will surely appear in Kingdom Hearts III and if she dies here it would be like a paradox or something. I remembered the scene of chapter 84 of the manga where Kim hugged Stein so I thought it'll be fine to put a similar one here. The end of this story is near, I'll try to make at least three more chapters, but the other Darkness will appear in the next chapter…or not, but I'm sure that all of you already know who is going to fight against Sora.