Chapter 32: Further Preparation
Aros had been staring into space for a while now, bored out of his mind, the empty bleak room offering him no excitement.
'You would think they would send someone to keep an eye on me… Makes it more fun when I can talk to someone.' He continued to smirk a little though, knowing that he had Sora under his control…
…At least, for now.
Back in the living room, Kaine and Victor were relaying info to Cloud about what had been happening on their world after they had left.
"Right after you guys left," Kaine began. "Vampire activity spiked. Bodies began to pile up on our doorsteps. The government is covering it up as best they can under the guise of a big rise in criminal activity, but I doubt it'll last that long before either we are discovered by the common folk, or worse…"
Victor continued "The point is, there is no point in us 2 hanging around when Alucard will probably just be able to handle things himself without us. That is why we plan on joining you for this little road trip."
Cloud replied, "Well, any help is always welcome, but I think any chances of completing our journey is impossible now. Riku is injured, and Sora… Well you know already."
"Don't worry. Give it a day or two, and both those problems will be gone."
"A day or two? Your optimism isn't shared by me. Even if you somehow get Sora back, Riku will be out for a month minimum."
Victor stood up and walked out of the room, saying "Do not worry. I'll show you."
Alucard walked slowly towards the prison cell that contained Aros. He stood outside, looking in towards an already aware Aros, with a wide smile on his face.
"Ahh… Alucard, the great vampire himself, we meet at last." Aros slowly stood up. "Same old song and dance, I assume?"
"Aros. You are a mysterious creature indeed" Alucard began as he paced slowly in the room. "Who would suspect our good friend Sora, who from appearances seems to house only light, could contain within him something so impure, so tainted with darkness. Is anarchy really all you seek? Or is there something else you want from all this?" Alucard paused for a second to look at Aros clearly. "Not that I expect you to answer any of my questions." Alucard removed his coat. "So let us proceed with what I've come here for." Alucard drew his pistols.
Aros leaned forward, his grin growing wider. "Yes! That's it! Come at me! A fighter with no remorse for anything!" Aros began to glow with a pitch black aura. He strained against his chains, breaking them after a few seconds of struggling.
Alucard stood his ground, not moving an inch. "Despicable. You would willingly injure your host just to fight me?" Alucard uttered slowly, referring to the burns Aros was receiving from the silver chains that had ripped through his clothing.
"I am the most powerful being alive! You think some petty chains will stop me? I'LL SHOW YOU!" Aros focused all his energy into a powerful blast, shattering the chains and sending the debris towards Alucard. With what appeared to be a simple hand gesture, Alucard deflected the fragments to the wall, where they harmlessly bounced off and fell to the ground. Wasting no time, Aros, now fully transformed into his Heartless state, lunged towards Alucard, aiming for the throat.
"A common mistake."
The next few seconds were a blur to anyone else, as with impeccable speed Aros continued to swipe and claw at Alucard, while the other simply just dodged and didn't even fire a single bullet. After about half a minute of this, Aros was getting impatient.
"Come on, fight me! Or do you fear my power?" Aros shouted as they stopped for a few seconds, Aros never taking his eyes off Alucard.
"Please allow me to apologize, I wished to assess your power before our battle truly began."
"And?"
"And I have reached my assessment. You have much energy. Such is expected of the body of the Keyblade Master. But you…" Alucard tossed his guns to the ground.
"You are weak. You rely heavily on the powers dormant in your host, but are unable to fully comprehend them. A lot of smoke, but no fire."
"How dare you! You call me worthless and treat me like I am inferior to you? I WILL BE MORE POWERFUL THAT YOU CAN EVER IMAGINE!" Aros black aura flared so powerfully that it filled the cell with its bleakness.
"In that case, I will allow you what you desire." Alucard picked up his black white pistol, turning the handle of the black one towards Aros and leaving it on the ground. He emptied the clip of the white one and replaced the ammo with a single bullet, before inserting the clip back into the gun. "You may take it if you desire."
Aros smiled. "You are giving me one of your guns? This will be the undoing of you, Alucard." Aros picked up the gun and checked its ammo. It was fully loaded. "With this device my victory is secured!"
Alucard suddenly flashed out of sight, causing Aros to spring into action. Like before, they began circling the room, Aros trying to get a steady aim on Alucard. He kept firing at Alucard, but none of his bullets seemed to hit. All the while, Alucard was once again refusing to attack Aros; he just kept dodging all the bullets. 'Damn it! I have to change my tactics or I'm gonna lose it over this guy!' Aros thought as he suddenly changed direction, attempting to crash right into Alucard, but he easily dodged this as Aros fired yet more bullets at nothing. Suddenly, he pulled a move Alucard was not expecting, he stopped in the middle of the room.
'Now I see… By making himself an open target, he wishes me to shoot my one bullet at him, and then he will take his chance.' Alucard stopped also, surprising Aros but not enough to break his composure. They both took aim at one another. Not one to hesitate, Aros quickly began to unload what he had left into Alucard, who simply stood there and took it. Aros continued firing until the gun jammed, one bullet left to go.
"Gotcha." Aros smirked, looking at the blood-soaked body that lent against the wall.
Alucard suddenly raised his gun and aimed down the barrel of Aros' gun.
"Gotcha." He pulled the trigger. The bullet went straight through the black pistol, destroying it before piercing Aros in the chest, the bullet lodging itself right on his heart. The shockwaves sent Aros flying back into the opposite wall, crying in pain.
"Grragh! What have you done to me? Hnngh!" Aros grunted as his black aura evaporated. He convulsed over and over, being in incredible pain.
"The bullet inside you is a very special one indeed. While it will not kill you, it will suppress your negative energies from taking control, unless Sora allows it from now on. The bullets you fired at me were all cheap, standard non-silver bullets. Not worth the brass they're made of." Aros looked up to see a clear lack of bullet-holes in Alucard, as f he had never been shot.
"As I told you before, you are pathetic. Alone you have fallen." Alucard picked up his black pistol, correcting the jammed bullet and then reloading it. "Alone you shall remain."
"This isn't the end of me! I'll be back, you hear me!? I'll-" A gunshot rang out as Alucard shot Aros in the head with a non-silver bullet. Aros' clothes evaporated to reveal Sora's slightly tattered ones, telling Alucard that Sora was back to normal.
"It is done."
An hour later…
Riku waited by the front door, arm in sling, for Frank to appear, or for something to happen, but nothing did.
'What the hell am I doing out here? Frank obviously sent me out here just to make me look like a fool, and I remember him saying once to not go outside… Is he trying to get me killed, or scared?' Riku thought.
As Riku turned towards the door, he heard movement behind him. He turned his head just in time to see a demonic figure lunge at him, which he dodged just in time. "What the hell?" The specter swiped at Riku, forcing him to jump back, but he lost his balance upon landing and fell to the floor. Scrambling to his feet, he tried to think of a way of circling around the thing, but it would not move from the door. Seeing another attack coming, Riku decided to try calling his blade to his good arm, and succeeded in blocking the attack at first, but the enemy proved to be too strong for Riku's untrained arm and was pushed back to the floor. The enemy then took hold of the Keyblade and flung it to one side, unarming Riku and leaving him defenseless.
The demon's attack was, however, cut short by a sword cutting though it's body, not killing it but frightening it off.
"You have much to learn, Riku." The voice (and the blade) came from Sophie, who was standing over Riku. Riku attempted to get up, but was forced down by Sophie's boot, taking care not to step on his broken arm.
"Hey, get off me! I can't get up!"
"If you want to get up, you'll have to get me off yourself. No point letting you up if you can't even defeat a simple demon of the dead, a memory of something lost."
"I'll make you regret those words!" Riku summoned his Keyblade and was about to swipe at Sophie's leg, but his slow speed allowed Sophie to simply punch the Keyblade out of his hands. Riku, not one to give up, tried the same thing again, but this time Sophie seconded her counter by punching Riku in the face. "Are you getting a laugh out of embarrassing me, Sophie? Enough with this! Let me up!" Riku shouted.
Much to his surprise, Sophie let her foot off of Riku. Riku was cautious at first, suspecting a trap, but eventually got back up.
"I am not joking around Riku. We are both out here because you need training, and fast. Right now you are as weak as can be, and I intend to put you on the fast track to becoming even more powerful than you once were."
Riku looked around. "Ok, but why the wilderness? Didn't Frank explicitly tell me and the others not to venture out here?"
"Indeed I did, and believe me, there is a very real danger of being out here. The more we linger, the more likely we are to attract the wrong sort of attention. There are far worse things than vampires and heartless lurking out here. Rest assured, if you know what's good for you, you won't waste my time out here, so there will be rules, and you will follow them to the point, or I will leave you out here to die in an emergency." Riku nodded and listened to these rules.
"Rule 1: At all times, when we are fighting each other, you must come at me with intent to kill. I will not accept anything less."
"Rule 2: Unless I explicitly say so, you will not, under any circumstances, attempt to re-enter the mansion, even if we are attacked. When things follow you out here, they never stop unless you put them down for good, or you put the fear of god into them."
"Now that I have given you these two rules, let us begin. The first test is a test of endurance. The aim is simple: you must strike me. I will not make any attempts to harm you unless you are attacking me."
Sophie shifted her poise, readying herself for Riku's attack.
"You may begin when you are ready."
For the next few minutes, Riku made several attempts to strike Sophie, but could not hit her. His untrained arm was just too slow and she was easily countering his every move. After a while, Riku was gasping for breath.
"God… Dammit… This is too much…" Riku panted in-between breaths.
"This is barely anything Riku. I intend to keep this up for as long as takes to get you into fighting shape." She waited for Riku to catch his breath. " The enemies you have will not give you a chance to have a tea break in-between fights, Riku. Continue fighting, now."
"Hold on a second… I never asked this, but, I thought you were dead?"
"Of course I wasn't dead. Like I'm gonna let a stab wound kill me... I'm a vampire, remember Riku?"
"You sure seemed dead to me…"
"Worried about Sora suffering something similar?" Riku froze. Sophie walked up to him. "You are very tense Riku, but you needn't be so nervous. If you fear death, it will come for you and Sora all the more quicker. I know you've been through a lot in your recent years, but you must learn not to let your worry be so controlling. Let it all go." She stepped back and took her fighting stance again.
"Now, enough talking. Come at me."
A few days later, the group is training in different areas of the mansion…
"Yaah!" Kaine jumped at Victor, brandishing his Keyblade. The two were training outside the mansion, but a little closer to the wilderness than anyone else. Victor jumped up high, grasping on to the edge of the mansion roof, before they both jumped at each other, Keyblades clashing in mid-air high above the ground below them. Rather than fall back to the ground, they began swinging fiercely at each other, barely moving in mid-air. Eventually Victor got the upper hand forced Kaine back, only to have Kaine come flying right back at him.
Riku was also still training with Sophie, the last few days having allowed him to get better with using his weak arm to fight. While still not on the level he used to be, secretly Sophie was firm in her belief that at the speed he was improving, he might surpass himself soon enough. Not that she'd ever admit it though...
…Besides, Riku still hadn't actually hit her yet.
Meanwhile, Cloud was on the roof of the house, fighting… well, no-one. To anyone who might see him, he was blindly swinging his sword at non-existent enemies. But if they looked a little closer, they would notice that he had his eyes closed. In his mind, he was thinking back to all the past memories he had. Of Aerith. Of Tifa. Of… Him.
'Sephiroth.' Cloud at that moment threw a swift and powerful strike behind him, only for it to be stopped in it's path. Cloud opened his eyes to see Alucard holding his sword, smiling under that large red hat he wore.
"You could cut someone with that." Cloud relaxed, letting his sword fall to his side as Alucard let go.
"Alucard… Why are you up here? Were you watching me?" Cloud asked, curious as to the vampire's motives.
"I have been watching you since I arrived here. Watching you endlessly torment yourself with the darkness you run away from all the time."
"I am not running away from the darkness."
"Aren't you? Then why haven't you fought him yet?"
"Because of the things he says."
Alucard stopped smiling. "And what words does he utter that poison your heart?"
"Makes you believe that darkness is the only solution."
"Is that all?" Alucard smiled wickedly at Cloud, causing him to look away. "Has his words poisoned your dreams as well?" That caused Cloud to look up. "Cloud. You should not lose faith in your light. The more you believe that your heart is shrouded in darkness, the harder it will get to reach that light you are seeking."
Cloud looked down. "But I don't understand how to believe when I've lost so much." Cloud waited for a reply, but he didn't get one. He looked back up. Alucard was gone.
Sora, however, was following Frank down to the basement of the castle, not knowing what Frank intended to do…
"Well, here we are." Frank uttered. Ahead of them was a wide open basement, with very dim lighting across a stone room, with nothing so much as even a table or a weapon. Completely empty, save for the support pillars at the sides of the room, which were also blank and devoid of any uniqueness to them.
'I hate this place already.' Sora thought to himself.
"Now. No-one will disturb us down here." Frank told Sora.
"Why would we want to avoid company?" Sora asked.
"Because you require a training that is foreign to your friends. You are the only one in your little group that isn't either human, or a pure-blood vampire. Because of that, you did not grow up with the ways of a vampire, but if you wish to continue on with your life from here, then you must be ready to do whatever it takes to survive." Frank drew an old training sword from a sheath hidden behind his coat. "It has been a while since I used a blade, but I am sure my skills have not diminished much, if at all. If you must learn the ways of the vampire, then you shall learn the first, most important one; speed."
"Speed? You mean like running so fast no-one will see you, stuff like that?"
Frank chuckled. "No, Sora. You are nowhere near the level of fighter for that sort of thing, especially a half-blood. But you can learn to move faster than most humans for now, maybe eventually faster than the fastest. Maybe you will naturally accept it, maybe you won't. The only way to know is through battle. Draw your Keyblade."
Sora obliged by drawing his Keyblade and entering an offensive stance.
"Now, the rules to this engagement are simple. No use of any attacks outside swordplay and hand-to-hand. That means no magic tricks, got it?" Sora nodded. "Good. If you wish to hit me Sora, then you will need to move fast. After all, I am a pureblood, and thus I am much faster than you. But speed is not everything. If you mindlessly throw barrages of attacks at your enemy, you only tire yourself out with no real guarantee of any positive outcome as a result. Plan every move you make, Sora. Learn to make snap decisions that count, not ones that just show your weaknesses clear as day to your opponents. Got it?" Sora again nodded in response. "Very well, let us begin."
The two fighters- no, warriors- ran toward each other, ready to clash.
Chapter End
A/N: WORST. END POINT. EVER. And now comes the inevitable though that I may leave you guys hanging for ages again, but don't worry! I am really sorry for this long wait, and I will make it up to you if I can. For those of you that remained, please continue to have faith in me, I am very grateful for it!