Kairi wipes away some of the blood off of her lips. She can see Sora and Riku hovering up high, just out of reach to interfere but close enough to intervene should this fight go wrong. She grins and grips her Keyblade with both hands.
The other two Heartless had fallen before her, this last one would be no problem. Behind her, she can hear Aerith call out a healing spell.
And the cool, refreshing feeling of Aerith's Curaga spell gives her a small lift. She races forward as its large arm swings for her and skirts out of the way before it can hit her. She slams her Keyblade into its arm as many times as she can before it rears back.
She almost misses the other arm coming at her, but she slides out of the way in time. Instead of attacking the arm again, she jumps up on top of it and runs up it. It tries to hit her but she lunges for its face. She unleashes her inner light through her Keyblade and strikes, slicing right through its dark face.
She falls as it disappears and panics for a second, but she lands with a bit of ease in a crouch.
She feels fatigue set in and the adrenaline fade away. Her boys land just a way off and Sora instantly runs over to her, a huge smile on his face.
"Kairi, that was AWESOME!" She meets Sora's high five with her own before he picks her up in a hug and twirls her around twice.
She laughs as Riku meanders up, smiling at her and looking proud.
Sora sets her down and excuses himself to go check on Aerith and Yuffie. Riku walks closer and holds up his hand for her. She high fives him, feeling pumped.
"Very impressive, Kairi." Riku compliments her before trailing after Sora.
She follows her boys and makes her way over to the other three. She can feel her exhaustion in her bones and she wants to pass out but something feels off. Looming.
Aerith looks at her with concern, but she returns to Yuffie who is unconscious.
"Why don't we get her back to the castle. She's better off there."
"I think Leon and Cloud were heading this way." Sora tells them.
"Alright." Aerith looks up at them, "I'll stay with her and wait. You three should go check on the others."
Finding Lea, Roxas, and Ventus is easy since the three of them were together. They aren't able to talk long before Kairi curls up on herself a bit.
"Kairi?!" Sora worries, "Are you alright?"
"Y-yeah. But…just now I felt…" She looks up, face warped with fear and worry of her own.
Riku's instantly at her side and he bends down so he can look at her face, "What did you feel?"
"I don't know. It just felt…dark. Evil."
"Where?" Lea asks, butting in.
Kairi's brow knits in concentration, before she slowly turn and points out to the old castle. The one Riku had gotten possessed in. The one that Sora had given up his heart in.
"You're sure?" Riku asks, but Sora knows he doesn't doubt her.
He just needs to be sure before going back there.
"Yeah, it's that way…why?"
Riku sends Sora a look, one full of remorse, before standing up straight.
"We should check it out."
"Wait!" Kairi grips Riku's arm tightly, "Don't go."
"We have to." Sora tells her, "If you really felt something evil, Kairi, we have to go. It's our job."
Riku nods and Sora can hear Ven and Roxas' agreement.
"I'm with Kairi on this. Do you really think you can take on whatever she felt?" Lea pipes in.
"We have to try." Riku looks over at Sora who nods.
"Then I'm going, too." Kairi states.
Sora smiles, "Alright. But don't push yourself too hard."
Lea hates having to ride on Kairi's glider with her. But it's necessary to get over the large trench surrounding the old castle. He'd seen it in its prime. The large ascending waterfalls were no more and the floating platforms had long since fallen but it was still gorgeous nonetheless.
The redhead looks over to Roxas – who is on his own glider, having summoned it with a deftness that amazed everyone – with concern. He'd barely been able to handle going to Castle Oblivion. How was he going to handle visiting the place he was created?
And what awaits them there?
He doesn't have time to worry about it for long. A large Heartless emerges from the Castle and heads straight towards them. The red head watches as it cuts through the air on large wings. The Heartless heading for them opens its maw, showing a blackness even darker than its black skin, and hurls fireballs at them.
Immediately, they disperse so they don't get hit, and Lea has to hold onto the glider so he doesn't go falling off. Kairi steers her glider with a wild abandon that has Lea wondering if she has a death wish for either of them. Despite the recklessness she shows, she's good at it.
But Lea wants to laugh. This stupid Heartless is launching fire at them. He extends his hand right after Kairi comes out of a nose dive and stops the fire in its tracks without so much as a second thought.
And just as easily, he sends it careening back at the bat winged Heartless.
Each fireball meets its mark, but the Heartless brushes off fire like Lea does and he can hear a curse leave Kairi's mouth.
It gets closer and Lea thinks it resembles a dragon. One of the ones he'd seen in kids' fairytale books growing up in Radiant Garden, not the ones he'd seen in other worlds.
Kairi stays as still as she can while Lea stops another hail of fire. Instead of sending it back, though, he lets it all extinguish.
Riku and Sora race forward, crossing over each other and going out wide as if to bypass the Heartless altogether. Roxas and Ventus climb into the sky above the Heartless, drawing its attention to them as they weave around each other.
While it's trying to fire at the two blonds above it, Sora and Riku abruptly change direction and head towards it at a ridiculous pace. Their gliders vanish and their Keyblades take their place in their hands.
Roxas and Ventus stop their climb just as abruptly and turn, heading directly down, right at the Heartless's face. Lea almost panics, but forces himself to concentrate on not letting any fire leave the Heartless at all.
Sora and Riku hit the Heartless dragon in the chest, cutting it in an 'X' pattern.
It starts to roar and turns to its 'new' foe, giving Roxas and Ven the opening they need. Their own gliders disappear as Sora and Riku land on theirs and their blades let them slice directly through the Heartless's head.
Its cry fades as it dissipates.
"I'm friends with a bunch of showoffs." Kairi mutters to herself as she takes them to meet up with the others.
The four of them are continuing on, but at a much slower pace so that Kairi and Lea can catch up. When they do catch up, Kairi calls out in a mocking voice, "Really? Four moves? You couldn't have cut it down to two or three?"
Lea chuckles and Roxas calls out to her, "You're just Jealous you weren't part of the action!"
Kairi blows a raspberry at him and Lea is struck with the sudden feeling of wrong, but Roxas focuses on where he's going so he can't see if he felt it too.
No one else seems to think anything is wrong, so he brushes it off as the place they're landing in.