Surprisingly, to them, Sora, Kairi and Shalua did not encounter any Deepground soldiers after walking through the streets of Edge for quite some time. It was odd to the two keybladers, how they have managed to wipe out most of Edge and they were nowhere in sight.
After walking around for several more moments, Shalua stopped suddenly, causing Sora and Kairi to stop as well. They heard her huff before she pulled out her gun, holding it firmly in her hand. "Someone is here," she said quickly before she walked fast towards the end of the building they were walking along side.
Following her lead, Sora and Kairi both summoned their keyblades and ran after her, trying to run as quietly as they could. Soon, they were right behind Shalua, who put her gun out in front of her right when they got to the corner of the building. And she was right; someone did come out from behind the other side of the building, holding up his gun right at Shalua as she did the same for him.
Only problem was, he wasn't a threat.
"Vincent?" Sora and Kairi said in unison as they held their keyblades down. The gunman did not take his eyes off of Shalua yet however, and he instead glanced down at the name card she had on her lab coat.
"You WRO?" He asked emotionlessly, loosening his grip on his gun.
"Who's asking?" Shalua asked him, not loosening her grip on her gun unlike Vincent, who eventually lowered his.
He sighed. "Vincent Valentine," he admitted. "Reeve sent me, and I also happen to be acquaintances with them."
The way Vincent referred to them as acquaintances confused Sora for a moment, since he thought that they would be friends by now, but then again, it was Vincent speaking…
Shalua hummed for a moment before she lowered her gun, turning her head to look at Sora and Kairi. "So, you two do know the Edge residents," she said. "Sorry I doubted you."
"Reeve?" Kairi questioned, ignoring the fact that Shalua had just admitted she did not trust the two keyblade wielders.
"My boss," Shalua explained further before she turned to Vincent, introducing herself to him. "Name's Shalua of the WRO. The Commissioner has told me much about you."
Vincent nodded at her introduction before he turned to the two keyblade wielders. "What are you two doing here?"
Sora and Kairi looked to Vincent, Sora being the one to speak. "We saw the place you were living in was getting destroyed on the news, we weren't just going to sit back and watch them get away with it."
"Look," Vincent began. "As much as I appreciate your wanted assistance, you two should—"
"That will not be necessary Vincent Valentine," Shalua interrupted him. "You know why this city is empty, because of Deepground, even though we see no trace of them. Now, I came here for other reasons, so we can use all the help we can to track them down and put an end to their schemes." She turned to the keybladers. "They're staying."
Kairi quickly mouthed a thank you to Shalua before she heard Vincent sigh. "Actually… I think I might be leaving them with you," Shalua continued to say to the gunman. "Like I said, I have other business, while you three want to look for Deepground. You guys can work together while I go do that." She then turned to Sora and Kairi saying, "Do you think you can handle it?"
"No problem," Kairi gave her the thumbs up. Shalua quickly nodded to her before beginning to walk off. But before Shalua could leave, Vincent's voice stopped her.
"Other business?" He questioned.
Shalua stopped to reply to him. "The Commissioner keeps telling me I am wasting my time, my time searching for my… Reason to live."
It looked like Vincent was about to ask her who that was, but before he could, Shalua walked off, out of the sight of the remaining three. It was then silent around them for several moments, and Sora was about to say something, but Vincent beat him to it.
"You two shouldn't be here," he said before he turned his back to them and began to walk away.
"What are you talking about?" Sora asked, making Vincent stop dead in his steps. "Without the WLA helping you, this world could use all the help it can get."
"I can assure you that this world has all the help it needs," Vincent continued to argue, turning to face Sora. His red eyes staring right into the young keyblader's made Sora lose his words for a moment, but he found them soon enough.
"Really? That's not what we see," Sora continued, turning his head to look at Kairi in hopes that she would nod and agree with him, but that never came. Instead, she just stared at Sora, as if she was asking him to stop trying, like it was not worth it. Seeing that he was not going to get any assistance from her, he turned back to Vincent. "People are dying in your home world; one would think that you would want all the help you can get."
Vincent's eyes dulled slightly at Sora's words, but they quickly vanished. Then, before Sora could even try anymore, Vincent turned his back to him and began walking away, his red cape fluttering in the wind behind him.
"Vincent!" Sora yelled, about to run after him, but a hand on his shoulder stopped the keyblader from doing so. The spiky haired wielder turned his head down to see that hand belonged to Kairi.
"It's no use Sora," she told him, letting go of his shoulder as soon as she knew he was not about to go anywhere. "He'll come around to our help eventually, we just need to give it time."
Sora sighed. "If you think I am leaving…" He began.
"I didn't say we should leave, I actually think we need to stay," she relieved him. "We'll just stick in town; look around for any of these Deepground soldiers. If we find any I am sure Vincent won't be too far behind. Hopefully then, he will see we aren't going anywhere, and finally accept our help."
Before she could continue, Sora turned his head in the direction of where Vincent once stood, but he was long gone, not even in sight anymore. "That or we'll find these Reeve guy. I am sure he will want our help, then Vincent won't have a choice but to accept us."
He sighed again, but looking right into his girlfriend's eyes made him show a slight smile. "I guess it's our only option for now, right?" He said, with Kairi nodding to his question. "Then let's start looking around the city, see if we can find any more members of Deepground or the WRO so they can get us to Reeve."
"Right behind you," Kairi said. Sora grinned before he nodded and began walking in the direction opposite to where Vincent was heading. Breathing in a sigh of relief, Kairi began to follow him.
But she stopped when she felt a sharp pain in her chest,
Kairi let out a faint gasp when she felt it, and she even stumbled forward, falling onto her hands and knees with one hand clutching her chest. This feeling was familiar… Similar to the ones she had been having in the past few weeks. In these weeks, she had felt several ounces of pain; most of them not being that bad, but she recalled two times that they were so painful she nearly fainted. This was one of the ones that was not that bad, but it was still painful.
It felt like the light of the worlds was leaving, and the darkness was slowly seeping into her heart.
However, as soon as it came, the pain vanished, finally allowing Kairi to breathe properly. She slowly loosened the grip on her chest and lifted herself back up off the ground, finally finding her footing after a few short moments.
Right when she got back up, she noticed Sora had come back from where he was walking to, and he looked at her oddly. "Are you coming or what?" He asked.
"Y-yeah," she replied. Thankfully, from the way he was acting, he did not see what just happened. Once she responded to him, he turned back around, continuing to walk in the direction he was originally walking.
Kairi quickly followed him, but she could not help but could only wonder what this pain was. She couldn't explain it to anyone, not even Sora, but he still worried about her even if he couldn't understand what she was feeling. The two times where it was the worst, it literally felt like the light that made up the worlds left. Even when the Princesses of Heart were killed at the hands of Xehanort, she never felt a pain like this because their hearts were still in the worlds (being in the X-Blade and the key that unlocks hearts) they were just in the wrong hands. But when she felt this pain, it felt like they were gone, vanishing from existence. She would feel this pain for an hour at the least, before she suddenly felt the light return again.
But why was this happening? Was it something with the Princesses? Were they all okay? Are they feeling the same pain?
She didn't bother to question it anymore because she knew she had to catch up with Sora.
…
After walking around for what felt like hours, swerving through several allies, and climbing several buildings for better views, Sora and Kairi still could not find any sight of Deepground. It got to the point where it began to get frustrated to the two and, eventually, they began checking every corner of the city for any of the soldiers, but still, nothing.
Several more moments passed before the two finally heard something, but it wasn't an extremely welcoming sound. They heard the sound of a woman, laughing with an evil laugh not far away from them. Knowing that they were most likely not going to find anything else, the two keybladers quickly ran over in the sound of the voice.
Eventually, the two arrived in a small, open area surrounded by houses, with a woman standing in the center. Her hair was almost as red as Kairi's, if not redder, with eyes that matched. She wore a swimsuit like styled outfit, being made out of metal that went around her breasts and hips, but revealed her stomach. She also had black leg coverings that were similar to Aqua that cut off about half way up her upper leg and had a red piece of fabric attached to her lower back that somewhat worked as a skirt. She also had red sleeves on which, from there angle, the keybladers could not tell what was attached to. In her hand, she held a long sword that looked like it was made to two red ones but they were connected by a metal piece, which is what she held on to.
"You know," she began in a thick accent, looking up at the sky. "This is the first time I've ever felt the rain on my skin. But then again, I haven't even seen the sky until a few days ago."
"What…?" Kairi questioned, saying it softly. However, the woman obviously heard her since she turned around to face the keybladers, and her grin faded.
"Dang it, I was hoping you were someone else…" She began before her grin returned to her. "But why should I complain, two keyblade wielders in my presence? And one of them is a Princess of Heart? I am flattered."
"How do you know who we are?" Sora asked, preparing to summon his keyblade.
"Everyone in the worlds knows who you two are," she continued. "While I am glad to see you in my presence, I would prefer if you leave, I am waiting for the Proto Materia to arrive."
"Proto… Materia?" Kairi said in confusion.
"The key to controlling Omega," the woman continued. "Vincent Valentine…"
"Vincent?" Sora said shocked, turning to Kairi. "What does Vincent have to do with this? And who's Omega?"
"Oh so you do know the gunman," the woman hissed, raising her weapon. "I was hoping you would… How about… You tell me where he is? If you do, I will be sure to kill you quickly."
"You are not going to be killing anyone else," Sora spat. He knew for sure now that she worked with Deepground, but finding that out only brought on more questions. She seemed to be avoiding the question as to who Omega was… But he knew it couldn't be a good thing.
She grinned wider. "If that is the case, then I will be sure to kill you slowly, and make sure you suffer." She raised her weapon. "Time for you to die at the hands of Rosso the Crimson!"
Sorry for not updating in a while guys! Had a lot going on, but I'm back now!
But the very good news is that in my absence, I have wrote the first three chapters of Entering the New Void and so far it is turning out better than I expected! It definitely won't be released until after this story is done, but since I have a lot of it written that means faster updates when it comes out!
So who is happy to see Vincent? Everyone? Great! Now who is happy to see Rosso? I am, she reminds me of a more crazy Larxene in the game and I loved it!
Also, I AM IN NEED OF YOUR ASSISTANCE! So I really, really, really need a new 3DS game, like I NEED one. Can you guys give me some suggestions? I need a good RPG game! Please give me multiple suggestions! Something that is addicting!
So please R&R and look out for the next chapter! Your support for this story has been AMAZING so far so keep it up! The first boss fight is next so the hype is real!
SHADOWS ASSEMBLE!