Authors Note: It appears I made a mistake in the last chapter; I called the iris the cornea. Thanks for the pointer, owns-all-nobodies!
Chapter 15: Test of Strength
Underground Hollow Bastion – Time Unknown
Sora and Sophie stood ready to battle Zangyre as he slowly stepped forward. He showed no emotions on his face as he began to gather a small amount of darkness in his hand, what looked like the darkness that Heartless were made out of. Then, out of nowhere, darkness sprung up from the ground and sent Sophie flying. When she landed, Sora could tell she was knocked out.
"Well, it isn't very fair if it's 2 on 1, now is it?" Zangyre told Sora in a matter-of-fact tone.
"For all I know, you could be really strong and I might need the help!" Sora shouted.
"I always knew you couldn't stand up on your own two feet in life. From your younger days as a child, to battling the Heartless and Nobodies, you always had people by your side, because alone, you are worthless!"
"That's not true! I can defend myself!"
"Then prove it! Fight me like a true warrior!"
"I can't! I… don't have the keyblade."
"I know. It has left you for a certain reason I will not discuss. You can get it back, but I will not tell you that either. You must discover it yourself as you fight me, or you will die here."
Zangyre then gathered more darkness in his hands and threw it at Sora. Sora was easily able to dodge the first volley, but Zangyre had thrown a second volley and that made contact. Sora was thrown back much like Sophie, but didn't get knocked out.
For the next few minutes, it was an uphill struggle. Sora couldn't land one hit on Zangyre (and the lack of his magic know-how was a definite drawback), and yet Sora was being pounded at every waking moment. He then realised he had one shot to get it right, as Zangyre had left himself open to an attack. Sora wasted no time in attempting decoy measures by making Zangyre think he was attacking from one side, but attack from the other side. Unfortunately, Sora was just not fast enough, and Zangyre knew he was going to try it before he started. He grabbed Sora by the leg and enveloped it in darkness, then let go, all so fast Sora never realised. Just as Sora stood upright, ready to leap at Zangyre, the darkness n Sora's leg made a sort of beam to Zangyre's hand, which was still covered in darkness. Without warning, he yanked the beam, causing Sora to fly over him and into the wall. He wasn't done there however, as he pulled on it again and again, and again, until Sora showed no signs of movement.
"As long as you don't have the Keyblade, you are weak." Zangyre said, continuing to walk towards Sora.
"Just another pitiful vampire from the alleyway who thinks he's so tough…" He stopped walking and gathered a large amount of darkness in both his hands before mixing the darkness together to form a ball of darkness about the size of a blitzball.
"Waiting, to be put out of your misery." He thrust down at Sora with the darkness.
But before the darkness could bake contact with him, a bright light flashed before him, and he opened his eyes to see…
Darkness. Nothing but darkness. He looked down and noticed he was now standing up, but where was the floor, and why did this place seem vaguely familiar?
Suddenly, light bellowed from the now visible ground below him, as it transformed in to a massive stain glass floor. He knew where he was now. The Station of Serenity. He looked at the stain glass, which had a different design from the last time he was here. He saw himself and Riku standing next to each other, but with their backs to each other and their eyes closed. He also noticed all his old friends in the background. Kairi, Tidus, Leon, Yuffie, Aerith, Cloud, Wakka, Selphie. He looked further, and also saw Donald, Goofy, and Mickey.
'Wow… all my friends are always beside me, as they always were…' Sora thought.
But what he noticed next was that the image of him showed his eyes open. And the eyes were red, just like now. But what scared him the most was that darkness seemed to be emanating from that part of the glass, but not over taking the picture.
'So that's why I can't use the keyblade… I'm falling into darkness? Is it because of what I am now?'
'It is because you believe there is no hope… because you believe your heart can no longer overcome darkness… because you think that you now live in darkness.' A mysterious voice said calmly In Sora's head.
'But… don't I?"
'But do not fear. Your light is as pure as any, and can overcome the biggest darkness of all…'
'Light… Always overcomes… Darkness…'
'If you realise this, then you will regain your true strength. You know of what I speak. But first… you must be tested.'
And right on cue, several Heartless appeared off the floor from the darkness, all Shadows and NeoShadows. They slowly began to walk towards Sora, who was still defenceless. He looked around, reciting the line in his head.
'Light… overcomes… Darkness…'
A path appeared to Sora's left. Sora immediately took the path, dodging an incoming Heartless and ran to wherever the path took him.
The path seems to go on for ages, but eventually Sora reached another big, round stain glass floor, much like the last one, almost the same, only it only showed Sora and no-one else. Like the last one also, the image of him was emanating darkness.
The path disappeared as suddenly, and again, Heartless appeared all around Sora. He was trapped.
Without warning, a NeoShadow sprang at Sora, and with a last ditch attempt, he shouted out his best friends names, swinging his hand as if he still had Keyblade.
"Kairi! Riku!"
Sora awoke back in the real world to realise he had blocked Zangyre's attack with none other than the Keyblade, albeit with a new design. Zangyre was stunned by this, and unable to react fast enough, Sora swatted him away with the Keyblade.
Zangyre got to his feet with a shocked look on his face. That face quickly turned to a calm one. 'So, he has his precious Keyblade back. So be it.'
Zangyre and Sora then began to trade blows with each other, neither one letting up. They both were determined to put the other down.
Sora eventually pushed Zangyre back, and then went for the finisher.
"Strike Raid!" Sora shouted as he threw the Keyblade like a boomerang. It connected the first time, and Sora called it back to throw a second time. He threw it 2 more times and connected, and went for the fourth and final blow. But before he could connect with it, Zangyre disappeared and reappeared behind Sora. Sora sensed this and immediately called back the Keyblade, but he was stuck from behind just as it re-entered his grasp. Sora turned this round, and threw it again. This time however, Zangyre caught the Keyblade and threw it back at Sora. Sora, not expecting him to grab the Keyblade, was struck by the rebound.
"Well done, Sora, I commend you. You have done better than I expected. However, it is not in your best wishes to follow the path you are taking. You should let all your problems go. You do not need to fear us. Join us…" Zangyre said calmly, the last two sentences in a low tone.
"No! I don't care what it is you guys are planning, or how I am involved, but if you guys try anything, then I'll stop you!" Sora shouted. He than noticed Sophie was getting to her feet. He pulled her up.
Like clockwork, the doors leading to the room were all opened simultaneously, allowing Riku and company to get inside at last.
"You guys okay?" Riku said as he ran up to Sora.
"Yeah, we're okay. You hear that, Zangyre? As long as we're still standing, we'll take you all down!" Sora shouted.
"Oh, you'll take us all down, will you?" a mysterious voice announced.
"Ah, he has decided to grace us with his presence…" Zangyre said, as he looked up smiling lightly.
"Who's there? Show yourselves!" Riku shouted.
"This one is feisty. And they believe they are worthy enough to see me in person…" many laughs were suddenly heard. By the sound of things, more than one person was with this unknown.
Sora looked to the ceiling with angry eyes.
"We will meet soon enough, Sora. Until then… keep up the good work." Again, many people laughed. And with that, he was not heard from again.
They looked around the room and noticed that Zangyre had run off. But in his spot was a disk. Cid walked over to it and picked it up, looking at it curiously.
"Hmm… this must be the stolen data, I'll have to take this back to the castle and get it loaded back onto the hard driver of that computer."
"Well than, I think we're done here. But just in case, we'll go back with you to make sure there are no troubles." Sora said, looking to Riku for acknowledgement.
"Yeah, sure, why not?" Riku said.
And with that, they all left for the castle, contempt that their work here was done.
Ansem's Castle – Midnight
After Cid had replaced the data, everyone had gone to sleep. Everyone except Sora and Sophie. Now that Zangyre was gone, they couldn't sleep at night anymore, as his 'spell' had dispersed.
Sophie had gone out to do something (she said it was none of Sora's business), but Sora was just exploring the wilderness at night time. He eventually stopped and sat down at a cliff top near the dark depths. From where he was sitting, he could see the castle Maleficent used to hide in and plan her schemes until she disappeared in The World that Never Was.
'I don't know why, but I just feel like exploring for once. Seeing as how I have a near limitless amount of stamina, I kinda see why Riku wanted to escape from the islands, because he wanted more space to move around.'
"Having fun, Sora?"
Sora turned around and saw Frank standing behind him, smiling.
"Didn't expect you to come here." Sora said, before looking forward again.
"Well, I thought I should tell you more about that new Keyblade you utilized against Zangyre today." Frank told him.
Sora didn't know what to be more shocked about. The fact that Frank knew he had a new keyblade, or that he knew the identity of Zangyre.
"How did you know about-" Sora was but off by Frank.
"The Keyblade? The name of that man you fought in the sewers? Which one would you prefer to know about?" Sora shot a glare at Frank. He was playing games with him. Again.
"Oh come on, Frank, not now." Sora turned back around, agitated.
"Okay, okay, I give. I can sense when someone has grown in strength, even if it's in more ways than one. And I can sense you've grown in more ways than one. Not just the Keyblade that has bolstered your ability, has it?"
Sora knew he was referring to blood. He thought back to his 'little accident', if you could call it an accident. He practically butchered 3 vampires.
"Anyway, call out your Keyblade." Frank requested.
Sora extended his hand forward, and summoned the Keyblade to his hand.
The difference was obvious (I am comparing it to the Kingdom key). The handle of the Keyblade was mainly black in colour, but several dark gradients of red were visible on the handle and chain point. Further along the blade was still black, but 4 laces of gold twisted around the blade up to the bottom of the key part of the weapon, where 2 crimson red hearts laying on each other (seemingly forming a rectangle). They also seemed to be dripping blood down the blade, the flow ending halfway down the blade (near the top, some of the 'blood' was on the gold laces). Finally, 3 thin black spikes stuck out of the hearts, completing the Keyblade.
"The Keyblade has changed. It always reflects what the user feels in his heart. Because you feel that your current 'state' may be dragging you into darkness, well… you can se what it shows."
"Not like you to call Vampirism a 'state', is it?" Sora said.
"Well, I assumed that was what Riku called it, because that kid has no idea what it's like. Only those who have experienced something can truly judge it." Frank said, sternly. Sora knew that Riku and Frank didn't exactly have a good friendship between each other, but normally Frank would treat it like a joke.
"And Zangyre? How did you know who he was?"
"I've known who Zangyre was for quite some time, it just didn't occur to me you'd encounter him so soon. But it seems the family takes you with high regard, as you can see. The Master of Shadows is what they call him, and he is indeed a brother of the family, and a high ranking one to boot. Next time you see him, if you think for even a second he is taking the battle seriously, run. Run like hell and do not stop until you are out of his sight. Don't stand in shadows either. It's not just a nickname; he has the most control over darkness out of everyone in the family except the father."
"Oh yeah? He wasn't so tough."
Without warning, Frank grabbed Sora by the collar and pulled him up, being careful not to expose Sora to the silver on his gauntlets.
"If you wanna treat this like a game, then I will have nothing to do with you when you throw yourself in to an early grave. When I speak about the family I am always serious. Don't forget that. So I suggest it would be best to follow my advice, or go get yourself killed, much like your 'best friend' will end up doing if he's not careful. Got it?" Sora had never seen Frank so angry since he wet snooping around his stuff on Destiny Islands. He also noticed that Frank was putting a lot of pressure on Sora's windpipe. Guess having a half-dead body had its advantages. Frank dropped Sora to the ground.
"Sorry… I was being big-headed and just joking about. I'm used to people just mocking me for that, not grabbing me by the collar and scaring the life out of me." Sora said.
"You cannot ever for a minute treat this unserious, Sora, or it'll be a one-way ticket to hell. You don't wanna die when you're a vampire. We are condemned to hell for being bloodsuckers, and our deeds will tell whether we deserve forgiveness for falling victim to a vampires bite."
They looked at each other for a moment, till they heard Riku shouting.
"Sora? You out here?" Riku shouted, in the distance.
"Time for me to go. It'd be best that unless someone else sees me with you, we keep our talks private. Under stand?"
Sora just nodded. Frank turned around and walked away. Just as he disappeared, Riku found Sora.
"Oh, there you are! What are you doing all the way out here? I woke up and Sophie said she didn't know where you were, so I got worried."
"Well, don't worry about it." Sora said.
"I do worry though. Anyways, Cid said he wanted to see us, so come on."
And with that, Sora and Riku started their long trek back to the castle, but eventually, Sora picked up Riku and began to use his super speed to run them back to the castle.
"How the hell can you carry me and run so fast?"
"Do you need to ask?" He was of course referring to his vampiric strength and agility. They ran off toward the castle, with Riku smiling. 'This is pretty cool' he thought to himself.
End Chapter