Chapter 37—Fallen
Maleficent had certain things that she disliked about the situation that she was currently in. She hated that certain people seemed to just assume that she was subservient. She squeezed one green hand into a fist as she noticed exactly what the nobody was talking about. He knew she wasn't fool enough to try and kill Luxord when they were still in a position to help each other.
"You want me to deliver the keyblade bearer to you…" She let it trail instead of making it a question because that much was obvious, what she wanted was more detail.
"Yes, that is what we require. This will allow us both to get rid of a thorn in our sides. The Trinity goes where he goes. Particularly the Key of Twilight." Luxord if anything, knew how to lure someone into taking a risk. After all, that's how you make your money.
"Do you not worry about the Key of Darkness?" She asked with a raised eyebrow.
"What worry about what is so close to my kind?" He asked raising an eyebrow in turn. "We've been watching the exploits of the Trinity. The keyblade bearer's weakness is the Key of Twilight."
"That's all well and good… but it still doesn't give me an idea of why you want me to bring them to you. The plan seems foolish." She looked over a Pete who was silent up until now and noticed the peculiar look on his face.
"Well, we would be… if it weren't for the second part of your task." Luxord had a predator's smile if she'd ever seen one. His teeth gleaming in his mouth as his bearded face appeared to be menacing. "We want you to… subdue the Key to Darkness. Without her, in the World that Never Was… the rest of the Trinity will encounter a few problems…"
"And what will I get from this profitable truce?" She asked as she leaned forward, yellow eyes unblinking.
"The Superior sees you as a very powerful ally. He will give you a share of power, once we have done what it is that we want with Kingdom Hearts, we shall transfer a part of the power to you." He shrugged idly. "After all, it isn't power that we want to gain with this venture. Merely hearts. Once we get that, what happens with Kingdom Hearts is only secondary."
"That is a fairly appetizing deal." She looked over at Pete. "I think we shall accept. After all, the largest gamble would be the one you're taking."
Luxord decided not to comment on that remark. After all, he felt no need to argue the truth. He turned and walked towards the wall a black portal appearing.
"Then we merely wait for your signal."
"I don't believe this! I don't fuckin' believe this!" Axel growled as he stared at the large barrier that surrounded the first district.
He was supposed to be on patrol duty. He was supposed to finish it quickly so he could meet Roxas before they had to meet with everyone else and decided how to get to the world that never was. Instead, he was running for his life from the Silenced Dragon, definitely a tactic of Maleficent. Dragons always reeked of her style. He thundered his way through the gates and up the steps to where he remembered the warning tower was and called for them to sound the alarm.
As the alarm rang through Radiant Garden he turned and pulled out his chakram. He was not about to let this thing makes its way to the barrier. From where he stood, just on the outside of the barrier again, he could see it, in the distance, looming ever closer as its slow feet carried it to them.
He was quickly joined by others, he could see Riku's silver hair and Sora's unkempt spikes. He could see Roxas and Demyx and Leon on the other side of him. And later came Yuffie, Tifa, Kairi and Cloud. He called upon his fire and glared furiously at the creature.
"You recognize that Rox?"
"Yep, the Silenced Dragon… one of Maleficent's strongest minions. This isn't going to be fun." The blond replied as he hefted his two keyblades. "Not fun at all."
"Is it a heartless?" Sora asked quietly and both boys shook their heads.
"The Silenced Dragon isn't a heartless… It's a keyblade killer." Roxas admitted and Sora nodded his head grimly. If it was looking for keyblade masters, it definitely found them.
"This isn't going to be easy." Riku whispered and brushed Sora's arm before he grimly faced forward and lifted the Way to Dawn.
"That's not even the half of it." Leon growled before he surged forward.
The Silenced Dragon in and of itself is a large, hulking metal creature. Each sword strike merely bounced off. Fire seemed only to heat the metal, melting it a little in some places. Sora hissed deep in his throat as the tail managed to catching him around the leg, knocking him over.
"I don't go down so easily." He growled, low in his throat, angry enough to very well kill the thing before him. If it was any and all possible.
Luxord looking down on the battle that was being waged beneath him. At the petty struggling of the warriors who apparently had never seen the Silenced Dragon before. There was a simple to defeat it. If they ever figured it out. But right now that was the point. Maleficent wasn't doing her job fast enough. Luxord decided to do it for her. Lifting his hands up into the air, he opened a portal to the World that Never Was. Inside the dragon's body.
"What the hell was that?!" Leon yelled as he jumped back as the dragon trembled.
"Hell if I know!" Riku shouted back as he wrapped an arm around Sora's waist and hauled him back as the tail swung at them.
The Silenced Dragon opened its mouth in what should have been a quiet sound was a gargled yell. Suddenly the dragon released a real roar before the dragon split open from the inside out, a large black hole erupting from inside it.
"Oh shit." Cloud growled as they realized idly that it was absolutely fruitless to run.
The negative space that was pulling the dragon inside out grabbed them in thick tendrils of darkness dragging them inside the dragon's gaping wound. Sora wrapped his hand tightly around Riku's as thick drops of blood splattered against his face and arms. This had to be the most grotesque thing that had ever happened to him. The wind that seemed to come from nowhere dragged against his face smearing the blood and suddenly like in a dream Riku was in front of him as the wind began battling itself.
"Come here Sora!" He yelled but the wind stole his words away.
Sora desperately pulled at Riku as the older boy pulled at him until their arms were wrapped around each other. The dragon that was above, behind, around them let out a surprisingly piercingly cry as it slumped dead, the portal beginning to collapse as well. Sora couldn't see Radiant Garden anymore and he shut his eyes to the sights around him as he buried his face into Riku's shoulder.
"We're going to be fine." Riku rasped into his ear.
The older teen looked around and spotted the others, some clinging to each other, some flung out to the vast reaches of the tunnel that they seemed to be in. He managed somehow to catch Leon's eye and he nodded faintly when the wind around them completely stopped. The group collapsed to the floor in painful tangles in a strange passage way.
Leon was the first on his feet. He wiped some of the blood on his face on the sleeve of his jacket and looked around. The way that they had obviously come from was closed off, probably destroyed when the dragon collapsed. Not that it mattered too much to him, the dragon was dead. Good enough. That left the other side of the path; from where he stood he could see a faint light.
"We all alive?" Leon asked from where he stood looking over those that had come through the portal with him.
Kairi's brief choked sob answered him. "Not Hayner." She whispered and Leon ran to her side.
The young blond boy was lying on his side, his head at an unnatural angle. Leon carefully reached out and checked his pulse to find no beat at all. He let out a heavy sigh and reached out and carefully shut the teen's eyes. Kairi still sat beside the corpse and glared down at her hands, her anger was almost pliable as she stared down, tears dripping off her cheeks.
"That fucking bastard is going to pay!" She growled under her breath, her aura tainted with darkness unlike anything that Leon had seen before. But now, now he understood why she was called the Key to Darkness.
"Well, we can't do that here." Cloud murmured from where he stood at the edge of the group, closest to the beacon of light.
"And what do you suggest we do with Hayner?" Yuffie asked quietly.
"We have to leave him." Tifa spoke quietly. "There's no way we can take him with us and there's no way to get him back."
"And we have no way to get back." Riku pointed from where he sat with Sora in his arms, looking back the way the came, into the dragon's swiftly deteriorating body. He pressed a kiss to the top of the cinnamon haired boy's dirty hair. "Come on Sora."
"There… is one thing we can do." Axel murmured letting flame flicker off his fingertips. "We can give him a funeral fit for a king."
"Do it." Kairi whispered as she slowly laid the young man in a more comfortable position.
They stood somberly as flames enveloped the body, quickly. The silenced stretched on until the there was little more then ash, Axel having used untold amounts of heat in his fire. A few words were murmured under soft breathes and painful heartbeats slowly subsided before they all filed away. Quietly, and disheartened, but also angry and ready to fight.