Woot, chapter 59! Finally, right? My only defense is that I didn't realize how much I loved Demyx until I had to write about Sora and co. beating the crap out of him. ;_; And then the Goofy thing... let's just say I spent the better part of writing this chap in tears.
Anyway, yeah, this is one of my shorter ones, because I thought the endpoint would be a good place to stop. Don't kill me. -quivers-
Enjoy!
Disclaimer- I do not own Kingdom Hearts, just the characters and settings that are obviously not in the original games.
Immediately, Char sprang forward, blades at the ready, fully prepared to slice into the Nobody's currently-prone body. Other than darting his eyes fearfully in her direction, though, Demyx remained unmoving, strumming away at the strings like nothing was happening.
An instant later, though, she understood why he hadn't dodged her attack, a realization that came rather strongly in the form of an invisible barrier pushing her back.
"The hell?" she grunted, hastily steadying herself just before she could fall.
Just behind her, Donald shook his head irritably and made a movement that resembled rolling up one's sleeves. He lifted his staff as if to cast a spell, but the lightning bolt that dropped directly over the Nobody's head had no effect, either; the sparks puttered out uselessly, sloughing harmlessly off the barrier.
"What's going on?" the duck shouted, glaring at the miniature broom in his hand. Probably thinking this was a repeat of how his old weapon had shattered in Agrabah, Char assumed.
She refocused her glare on Demyx; this time, though, a sense of slight nervousness marred the anger that she typically felt around Nobodies. Although she had witnessed Roxas and Demyx train together in the pieces of Roxas' memories that she had watched, she was unfamiliar with this aspect of the Melodious Nocturne's power.
Because I had to get bored and go get some ice cream, she recalled, feeling stinging shame at the memory of how she had acted, only six weeks ago.
Quickly, she shook the feeling off, knowing she couldn't afford to be distracted now. It wouldn't do to go and let herself get killed in the heat of battle, right after she had made it out of Anxclof's fury alive.
She looked up just in time to see a mass of transparent shapes coalesce in front of them. Immediately, she searched her memory for the name of these creatures; they weren't Demyx's lesser Nobodies, the Dancers, but something she had never seen before. The flame of nervousness inside of her leaped just slightly at the unfamiliarity.
"What are these?" Sora asked, a little warily. He thought their shape looked familiar, and after a moment of mental digging, he realized they resembled music notes – fitting, in light of how Demyx was still playing away at his sitar and creating an almost-inaudible melody.
The Keybearer's mouth twisted wryly. I guess those piano lessons Mom forced me to go to when I was little taught me something.
Goofy just shrugged with an audible gulp.
"They haven't attacked us yet," Char pointed out, "so I don't –"
But then the beings, moving in one, eerie line, swept up around Demyx, their watery composition slightly distorting the view of his black Organization coat.
"Get out of the way!" Donald yelled. This time, his Thunder spell ripped through the watery shapes like a knife through hot butter, and some of them imploded with loud, multiple squelches. At first the duck blinked, startled; then a smug look came over his face and he nodded triumphantly.
"Hey, good idea, Donald," Goofy said, and lunged, shield-first, at the nearest creature.
Sora and Char joined the Disney residents, slashing away at the plethora of foes before them. Almost against his will, Sora found himself keeping an eye on Demyx, even as the Photon Debugger carved its way toward the dirty blond young man. Other than a newfound tremor in the way his fingers plucked the sitar's strings, and the occasional eye dart toward them, he played on, seemingly oblivious to the battle going on around him; Sora could even hear him humming along to the sound of his instrument.
The brunette tried not to think on that oddly human action too much. After all, these were supposed to be his – Sora's – enemies; Yen Sid had told them as much, and Char, who had had more contact with the Organization than any of Sora's group, had all but enforced that anathema.
But she had a reason, right? She had to leave her home because of them.
Then again, he wouldn't have met her if she had not had to leave Hollow Bastion in the first place, and he couldn't exactly fault them for that.
He nearly groaned aloud, managing to rein it back in before it could escape and alarm any of the group, when he remembered that if he had never met Char, he wouldn't be undergoing the emotional confusion he had felt in the past couple of weeks. Kairi would pop up in his mind when he thought of the one he loved, and he wouldn't feel so much worry at remembering the secrets that others kept from him.
Thankfully, Char saved him from these headache-inducing thoughts. "New Keyblade?" she asked brusquely, clearly more focused on swerving to drive three beings away.
Sora blinked, before realizing she was referring to the Photon Debugger. "Uh, yeah," he said, looking over his shoulder at her even as he swung the Keyblade down on one of the music notes. It vanished with a satisfying sound that palliated his stress, if only for an instant. "I found it in the virtual world."
At this, Char swung her head up, staring at him with wide eyes. "No way," she gaped. "But how could you even get a Keychain –?"
She cut herself off right then and there when something distinctively squishy collided with her arm. Whirling toward it so she could properly punish the source, she thrust one sword toward it, snarling as the blunt hilt clobbered the watery creature that had run into her. It flew back at the impact…
…right into one of its fellows.
Both immediately exploded.
Sora stared, wide-eyed, before whipping around to face Donald and Goofy, who were having difficulty with a small group; though none of the enemies attacked, enough of them surrounded the two Disney residents to evoke claustrophobia, as evidenced by Goofy's uneasy countenance. "Guys, knock them into each other!" Sora called to them. "It takes them out faster!"
"Gotcha," Donald shouted back with a nod, and delivered a hefty swipe to the side of one music note, effectively pushing it into one of its comrades. The two of them almost seemed to merge for a moment before exploding with a splash that would have soaked Donald, had he not twisted out of the way with a startled quack. Goofy simply gave them a grateful nod before attacking with his shield.
Char gazed at the spot where the two enemies she had taken out had once been; then she turned back to the main group with a pleased smirk. "Well then," she said, "this ought to make things much easier."
Demyx cringed in Sora's periphery, but said nothing.
This was one of those rare times when Char didn't hate being right. Sora's rather strange idea of grabbing the beings by the tips of their music note-shaped forms and swinging them into each other, while seeming asinine at first, proved to facilitate matters immensely. Soon, they had eradicated the enemies entirely, and just as they turned to fix angry glares on Demyx, the shield that had protected the Organization member vanished, leaving him open for assault. "Uh-oh," he gulped, even as the four of them turned to fix angry glares on him.
"Not exactly what I was looking for," Sora said, gripping his Keyblade tighter, "but I'll take it." He charged, with Goofy and Char at his side.
They fell into their standard attacking pattern, while Donald furiously cast spells just behind them. Sora tried to focus only on striking with all the strength he had, instead of the guilt that flared within him at the yelps of pain that every blow induced. Roxas is your Nobody, not you, he told himself.
He was even more confused at how half-hearted even his mental voice sounded.
Goofy, who was closest to him, seemed to notice their unspoken leader's conflict. "Sora, you okay?" he asked, gripping his shield close to his side as it returned to him.
"Yeah," Sora answered instinctively. "Just… a little tired, is all."
Well, he comforted himself, that wasn't exactly a lie. Between realizing – and eradicating – Donald and Goofy's suspicions of Char, along with going Twilight Town and the virtual world, so many events had packed themselves into today. Frankly, it was a wonder exhaustion was not weighing more heavily than it was on him.
He earned a doubtful look from the knight, but in the end, Goofy's politeness won out over his curiosity. "Well, if you need healin' or anything, just say so," he said, and resumed his onslaught on Demyx.
"Right…" Sora sighed, and got back to it.
Char heard the two of them, and craned her neck around Demyx's prone body to try and hear better. However, the attempt didn't succeed, and she felt a wave of frustration when Sora only let out a quite audible sigh and resumed his steady assault with the virtual world's Keyblade with a resigned, heavy expression.
Part of the frustration came from not knowing how to reassure Sora. The other came from remembering all too well the sight of Anxclof's blood. From the almost-maybe-unmistakable guilt as every tremor that each blow to Demyx's prone body sent up her arms came in tandem with a squeal of pain from him.
He's just a member of the Organization, she told herself firmly, just another enemy.
Still, though, it didn't help that these monsters had to look and act so damnably like people.
At this point, Demyx had apparently had enough of letting them attack him, for he lashed out with his sitar, effectively throwing Sora, Goofy, and Char backward. Fortunately for Sora, weeks of journeying and training gave him the coordination to straighten in midair and land on his feet; it was only by the grace of good balance that the dog and the redhead managed not to tumble head over heels to the ground. Goofy did have a more difficult time due to the size of his weapon, though.
"Now what?" Donald hissed from behind them.
That question didn't ruminate in the group's minds for long. Demyx stroked his weapon's neck for a moment, almost as though making sure it hadn't sustained too much damage, before bringing it close to his body and playing his fingers along the strings again.
Remembering the result of the last time he had done that, Char raced forward again, bracing herself for her blades to slice into watery music notes, only to be thrust backward by the contact of something striking her middle. Immediately, harsh pain lanced through her belly; as she tried uselessly to get her breath back, she realized the Elixir Riku had given her hadn't gotten rid of the bruising from the battle with Anxclof.
She looked up just in time to see the bubbles Demyx had summoned push Sora and Donald, who had rushed forth to help her, away. The former put one hand to his stomach, breathing hard, while the latter simply fell on the ground, twitching, before he could right himself.
Char instinctively stepped forward to give him a Potion, before remembering she didn't have any healing items on her; the memory of how badly Anxclof had almost beaten her testified to that. Thankfully, Goofy took it upon himself to extend a helping hand to his comrade, and with a grudging grumble under his breath, Donald accepted the item.
"Sora, we need to be careful," she called over to the Keybearer, who immediately glanced over at her. "I'm out of healing items."
Sora's eyes widened. Before he could say anything along the lines of an apology or an offer to give her some of the Potions he had packed, Demyx came hurtling toward them on multiple cascades of water. Simultaneously, Sora and Char leaped out of the way, nearly crashing into each other in the process; but Goofy, who was straightening from having administered first aid to Donald, got the full brunt of the attack and was thrown into the air.
Sora could only watch, surprised, as the knight landed heavily on his feet. From what he – Roxas – remembered of Demyx, the mullet-haired Nobody was significantly less fierce than he was acting in this fight.
Silence, traitor, Demyx had hissed just before the battle had begun, and Sora suppressed a shiver at the memory of that voice's coldness. The coldness that he knew was uncharacteristic, even then.
But then the waterfalls were twisting around in midair, and before the brunette could dodge again, the deluges had slammed into him full force and knocked him to the ground.
Sora barely caught himself with his hands before he could crash face-first. He half-expected the Nobody to call down an apology to him, with the name that wasn't his likely tacked on; but either Demyx had forgotten about his relation to Sora's Nobody in the heat of battle, or he just didn't care anymore.
From the looks of things, the latter seemed more likely.
"Sora, you okay?" Char shouted over to the Keybearer.
"Yeah," he called back, getting to his feet a little shakily. The stinging pain in his fingers told him that that was at least half a lie, but he didn't want to say anything for fear that his allies would immediately start throwing healing items at him. Even he knew they would need to conserve those.
"Stop!" Donald finally screamed, lifting his staff and casting a Thunder spell on their still-airborne opponent. The lightning bolt that the spell dropped on Demyx's head showed up as a barely-visible set of sparks to the four standing below, but clearly, it was enough to break his concentration. With a yelp, he dropped to the ground, landing on his feet by some miraculous feat of coordination.
"Now we've got you," Char hissed, and leaped forward, blades first. Donald let out a battle cry and followed her, waving his broom-staff all the way; clearly, he had forgotten how ridiculous he had found the weapon at first in his desire to finish this fight. Goofy got to his feet and, wincing at the blood that ran freely from a waterfall-inflicted injury on his flank, followed after him, albeit with a somewhat shaky grip on his shield.
Sora noted he would have to help the knight soon, before the blood loss became worse. For now, though, he merely tightened his battered fingers around the Photon Debugger's hilt and joined his friends.
It took a few more minutes of steady attacks – and Sora fighting off the contrition that was born anew every time the Keyblade made its mark – before Demyx flung them away again. This time, though, the bubbles or the contact of the sitar slicing into Sora's belly did not push him back; it was the distinctive feeling of something crashing down on his head and throwing him backward, instead of into the pavement.
In the split second it took him to register his comrades' cries of surprise and pain – clearly, they had gotten blasted by the same force – Sora realized the identity of the peculiar sensation on his shoulders: water rivulets, dripping from his hair down onto his clothes.
He also realized Demyx hadn't ceased in his attack, and was walking toward them, waterfalls offsetting his every step. With a taunt of "Like it?", he twirled in a way that caused his sitar to become barely more than a dark blue blur; every spin he made announced the arrival of more waterfalls whose impact on the ground the Keybearer could hear more than see.
Demyx's initial assault had thrown Donald and Goofy off to the side; the view of them trying to catch their breaths became distorted in the multiple curtains of water that still crashed down. However, Char, who had been trying to get closer to their opponent, caught the brunt of the blasts and was launched backward. Instinctively, Sora reached out to try and catch her, but she flew past him and landed heavily on the ground beside him.
Gaping in shock, Sora reached out with his hand already glowing green with mana; he knew she would probably be all right, but the fear that had overcome him after leaving her with Anxclof was impairing his better judgment and desire to conserve his healing capabilities. At a flicker of movement in his periphery, he turned just in time to see Demyx barely a few feet away from him. A shocked cry pulled itself out of Sora as he hastily brought up the Photon Debugger into a guarding position.
Thankfully, the gesture, born of instinct as it was, proved a valid one, as Demyx had thrust out with his sitar in the same instant Sora's arm had come up. They spent a few moments locked together by their weapons, and as his arms strained under the weight of the sitar and Demyx's strength, Sora was struck by the look in the Nobody's narrowed emerald eyes. Anger glowed at the forefront of his gaze, but beyond that…
The Keybearer almost would have had to do a double take, if distractions weren't potentially fatal.
Because he could see… regret,that made itself obvious even with the way Demyx had narrowed his eyes in effort.
How could that be, though, if Nobodies had no hearts to feel with?
Doubt rushed in on Sora with all the staggering capability of the waterfalls that had all but rendered Char unconscious. Again, he reflected on how much easier things had been when his enemies had all but lined themselves up in front of him and told him of their evil.
"Sora!"
Donald's shout from behind Demyx drew Sora's gaze, making him crane his neck to be able to see over his taller adversary's shoulder; the weight of Demyx's sitar all but pushing him down forced the brunette to move his body slightly upward to see. Even now, Donald and Goofy were charging toward them, ferocity twisting their faces.
In the same moment the knight tossed his shield, the mage snarled and thrust his staff upward. Sora felt more than saw the rough shield slam into Demyx's back. In response, the young man let out a squeal of pain and cringed, causing the sitar's pressure on the Keyblade to slacken.
Sora knew this was as good an opportunity as any, so he heaved upward with the Photon Debugger. Demyx stumbled backward…
…straight into the flames that Donald had just conjured.
Demyx cried out as the fire landed against his back, but somehow managed to string together the level of concentration necessary to launch a set of bubbles at Donald and Goofy. The Nobody's reaction reminded Sora uncomfortably of how Hades' flames had nearly crippled Char.
Thinking of the redhead, he suddenly gasped and whirled around, concern taking over his battle instincts. Relief rushed through him when he saw her rising to her feet, thankfully only a little unsteadily.
"You okay?" he asked.
He earned only a nod in response before she bounded off the outcropping of rock that she had crashed into and joined Goofy in attacking Demyx. As she became nothing more than a blur of crimson hair and silver blades in the ferocity of her onslaught, the Keybearer couldn't help but shiver. Remind me never to get her that mad.
Still, the sight of her belligerence having returned still coaxed a tiny smile to his face, and he raced after his friends with Photon Debugger at the ready.
Having depleted the majority of Demyx's strength, the fight began to slowly but surely turn in the party's favor. The exhausted way in which Demyx swung his sitar at them – almost as though it had gained a couple of pounds – easily indicated his growing fatigue. Even the waterfalls that still assailed them every once in a while became smaller, losing their crippling capability in the process.
And yet, oddly enough, the expression of determination on the Nobody's face never once faltered, even as the number of blows raining down on him multiplied. At least no blood spattered the ground around him; the crimson liquid that did touch the castle courtyard belonged only to Sora and his companions.
The brunette found himself clinging to the fact that Demyx wasn't bleeding. If only to prove that these Nobodies – these all-but-humanoid Heartless – were exactly the same as he had first assumed: echoes of humans, only hollow forms of their prior selves.
"Sora, wake up!" Char roared, leaping back from her steady stream of attacks to cast an expectant glare at him.
Sora blinked a couple of times, the aftermath of her knocking him out of his reverie making him briefly sluggish. Then the adrenaline pumping through his veins in response to the requirements of battle hit him, and he gave her an apologetic look. "Sorry," he said, before charging back into the fray.
Char just rolled her eyes; inwardly, though, her mind was reeling, an unwelcome sensation to feel in the midst of battle. Despite the amount of injuries she and the others had undoubtedly inflicted on Demyx, no telltale crimson stained the tips of her blades. Ordinarily, she would have passed it off as his and the rest of his kind's lack of heart and left it at that…
But everything that had gone against her research and knowledge and turned them on their heads – Anxclof's love for Roxas and vice versa; Saïx's words in Twilight Town – all of that was severely undermining her assumptions.
She thought back to the battle with Anxclof, to what she had thought would be her very last sight in the living world. Why would Anxclof bleed and Demyx not?
With a huff, the redhead concentrated all of her annoyance into attacking, ignoring the way her bruised muscles screamed in protest at the exertion. Dammit, but falling down that hard had hurt.
Nonetheless, her mind kept wandering to the anomaly between numbers XIV and IX and wouldn't let go of the possible reasons why. Instead of dwelling on it, though, Char focused on putting as much power into every slash she delivered as possible. It wouldn't do, to succumb to confusion and doubt – not now that she had gotten this far.
On Char's other side, Donald looked slightly exasperated, but chose not to address Sora's lapse in favor of casting another fire spell. The multiple flames wove together in midair before crashing against Demyx's back and effectively dispelling the waterfalls that had been about to hit the party again.
Yelping, Demyx barely dodged the majority of Donald's spell, only to get caught on Goofy's shield, which knocked him backward.
"I think we're starting to get him," Donald said obviously. He hissed indignantly as the remnants of Demyx's waterfalls came showering down on his head and brought up his staff as a makeshift umbrella. Sora, Goofy, and Char weren't as quick, however, and quickly became soaked by the rain-like droplets; indeed, for a moment Char thought the clouds that had gathered over the course of the day had opened up and let some of their burden down on them.
Demyx leaped back, still keeping up a steady flow of bubbles at them despite the distinct tremble in his step. Goofy let out a startled, high-pitched scream as he slipped on the newly-slippery ground, water flying in all directions on his impact with the puddle. His shield flew off in the other direction as well.
"Watch it!" Char hissed, racing past him. "We're going to have to watch our step now."
Her words earned a smile from Demyx, at which she felt a newfound current of rage surge through her. Snarling, she batted his sitar away from his body with one sword – he still kept a death grip on the instrument, of course, and briefly looked shocked that she would dare ruin it – before lashing out with the other one. The smugness on his features disappeared at once as he recoiled, and he launched another series of bubbles at her.
Before they could hit her, however, a hoarse snarl was heard from behind her, and a well-aimed ice crystal shot through the bubbles, impaling and popping all of them at once.
Demyx gasped, momentarily halted in his assault by the unexpected turn of events. Char blinked – as far as she knew, Key-boy didn't have the Blizzard spell; or if he did he never used it in front of her – and turned to see Donald lowering his staff and giving her an expectant look.
"You're welcome," he said at her bemused look.
Behind her, Sora made as if to join the melee, only to stop in his tracks when he noticed the crimson tainting the puddle that Goofy had fallen into. Without hesitation, he put one glowing hand against the reopened injury on Goofy's side, at which the knight gasped in pain, and murmured, "Heal." The wound sealed itself shut, and Goofy gave his leader a grateful look before picking up his shield and charging after his friends, albeit at a more careful pace.
Dodging around the puddles to avoid Goofy's fate, Sora barreled into Demyx from the side, Keyblade out. This time, the Nobody didn't have time to block with his sitar, and thus got the full brunt of the blow.
He rose up, panting audibly, and even from here, Sora could see his fingers tighten around the sitar's neck. Wordlessly, the group surrounded him, weapons at the ready in case he tried anything. Donald tightened his grip on his staff and renewed his glower; Goofy just peered determinedly at Demyx over his shield; and Char…
"Why won't you just go down already?" the Keybearer heard Char mutter.
And maybe it was Roxas, but Sora suddenly wanted to turn and berate her for saying that.
He shook it off and focused on their opponent, who was surveying them now with wide, panicked green eyes. The Nobody's fear had a contagion about it, and even Char found herself tensing with how thick it was in the air.
And maybe it was her wavering resolve, but Char suddenly felt sympathy for Demyx.
She could imagine that Xemnas had sent the poor boy here to finish Sora off, and Demyx had probably just figured he could play off the part of Sora that was Roxas and get him that way. Clearly, Demyx hadn't counted on Sora not remembering the past that he and his Nobody had shared.
Then again, though, it wasn't as though Sora hadn't known anything about Roxas at all. The memory of her revealing Roxas' identity came to Char's mind immediately and coaxed a cringe out of her, but she could also recall the day of the sultan's ball when she had overheard Sora ask the peddler about Roxas.
Good job, she told herself, assuming that maybe having a dry tone, even in her thoughts, would restore some normalcy to the unbalanced confusion her mind had become. Good job, Nightblaze; you tell Sora the truth in hopes of clearing his mind, and instead you just screw him over even more.
And yet she knew she could never feel completely guilty about telling most of the secrets between them; most of the secrets, because she wasn't going to tell Sora she knew about Riku anytime soon.
But why not? she wondered. It would help Sora so much to know that his friend was okay. She tried to pass it off on her promise with Riku – to come with Sora and guide him on her path to vengeance – having occurred before all this nonsense, but something didn't feel right about that.
She didn't get any more time to think about it, because suddenly Demyx drew himself up and began strumming away at his sitar.
"Uh-oh," Goofy gulped.
"We don't want him summoning any more of those things!" Donald hissed, clearly remembering the watery beings that this action had previously summoned.
Char nodded, knowing that if there was any time to finish him off, it was now. She took a step forward; but Sora beat her to it.
In a swift movement that fighting the Dusk Nobodies had perfected, he dipped behind Demyx and managed to deliver a powerful slash to Demyx's back. In response, the melody that had begun to peal out into the moist air came to a sudden, rather disarming halt. "Aww… booed again," Sora heard Demyx murmur, even as he crumpled and the sitar turned to bubbles in his grip.
Leaping back, chest heaving with exertion and the dying remnants of battle adrenaline, Sora watched, eyes wide, as the fact of the Nobody's loss seemed to sink in. Demyx stared at his now-empty hands, then up at Donald, Goofy, and Char, before settling them very briefly on Sora.
Then Demyx brought his hands to his head and let out a howl, so full of frustration and sorrow that even Char lowered her weapons, stunned into silence. He dropped to his knees, even as dark tendrils swept up from an invisible source beneath him and began to devour his form.
So this is how Nobodies die, was all Char could think as the shadows swallowed their adversary entirely.
Forcing herself to push her instinctive logic away, she mentally whispered a command for her weapons to vanish. As they heeded her unspoken words, the darkness wreathing Demyx disappeared, revealing Sora, who had been standing behind Demyx as he had – for some reason she couldn't bring herself to think the word died.
Almost as soon as her eyes settled on him, though, she promptly wished they hadn't.
Because so much confusion and turmoil and grief lurked in those sapphire eyes that she found herself fighting for breath with the lump that had suddenly settled itself in her throat.
Focus, she told herself sternly, chasing away the blurriness plaguing her vision. You can't go and cry every time Sora gets an emotional boo-boo. It's just Roxas making him feel that way, anyway.
The thought – so familiar from the ones she'd had of everything he did that surprised her at the start of this journey – failed to soothe her, predictably enough.
She tore her gaze away from him and assessed Donald and Goofy, focusing her mental energies on sizing up their injuries instead of her horribly gaping soft spot for that dork. For the most part, Donald seemed relatively unscathed but for a few shallow cuts on his body. Additionally, water gleamed on the feathers along his arms; vestiges of Demyx's waterfalls, Char assumed. The observation made her uncomfortably aware of the newfound heaviness of her jacket, and she grimaced slightly as she tried to shake some of the water out, to no avail. Her arms jolted in pain at the abrupt movement, but the way she saw it, bruising and a bit of bleeding weren't the worst things she could walk away with.
Goofy, in contrast to his comrades, had gotten more heavily wounded. Although the blood had stopped dripping from his more onerous injuries, they still looked red and angry, and he was almost swaying on his feet.
Yet the two animals' expressions had one thing in common: worry for the boy they called their leader. Char hesitated, before opening her mouth to speak, readying an inquiry as to his status on the tip of her tongue; he was unlikely to answer truthfully, but she figured she had to at least try.
But the brunette only drew himself up, Photon Debugger at the ready, and cast a newly venomous glare around the area, as though trying to draw out every shadow behind the rocks of the courtyard. "Anybody from the Organization who'd like to be next?" he demanded.
"Sora, don't antagonize them!" Donald berated him, glancing around as if he expected another Nobody to leap out and avenge its fallen friend.
"Seriously," Char added, barely concealing how badly his outburst had startled her. "Not that I don't appreciate the sentiment, but I'd think your friends' safety is more important right now." She threw a meaningful glance at Goofy before giving Sora a hard stare.
To his credit, he met her glower with a fair attempt of his own; in spite of his show of belligerence, the emotions she had detected earlier were still raw in his gaze. Char narrowed her eyes and held her ground, at the same time reflecting on how he could evenly match her glare now. Either she had gone too soft, or he'd toughened up more than she had thought.
Then he relented, and sighed. "Sorry," he said, rubbing the back of his neck with his free hand. "Guess I got carried away." He began to move toward them. "Goofy, are you –"
Suddenly he let out a startled cry and stumbled. Before Donald or Char could do anything more than take an instinctive step forward, he had caught himself from where he'd slipped on one of the puddles.
"Oh yeah," Char said almost dismissively, "those were there, weren't they?"
Sora rolled his eyes, albeit with a bit of genuine annoyance mixed in with his playfulness. "That would've been nice to know…" As he spoke, he continued forward, keeping a careful eye on the ground below to avoid repeating that little mishap, and handed Goofy a Hi-Potion.
"Thanks, Sora," the knight rasped out gratefully. He ducked his head. "I'm just sorry I got hurt so bad."
Sora shook his head. "Don't be," he said with a smile. "We're just glad you're okay."
Looking on, Char realized the reassuring tone to his voice was genuine, not feigned or strained like she had anticipated. Folding her arms, she watched him and Goofy get to their feet.
"So," she began, "exactly how many healing items do we –?"
"There you are!"
Sora, Donald, and Goofy froze before slowly turning toward the source of the familiar voice, identical expressions of panic on their faces. It was almost comical, until Char pivoted around and saw the mouse king standing at the entrance to the courtyard, arms folded and one foot tapping reproachfully.
Oh, great.
"Uh…" Sora stuttered.
"What did you guys do to piss him off?" Char muttered under her breath, so only the Keybearer and their other companions could hear.
"We kind of… disobeyed him," Sora explained in an equally low voice, and Char wondered what that exactly entailed.
"You three," Mickey suddenly addressed him and the other Disney residents. Said fighters immediately shot to attention, albeit with nervousness etched into every line of their faces. Goofy twiddled his thumbs, Sora stared at the ground, and even Donald looked abashed.
In spite of herself, Char avoided Mickey's gaze as well, slight unease making its way through her veins. Yet at the same time, she recalled the little smile she had seen on his face just before asking him where Sora and the others had gone, and couldn't help but wonder just how severely any punishment could be.
Sure enough, Mickey only surveyed them a moment longer before smiling and dropping his arms back to his sides. "You guys sure have lots of friends to help, don't you?"
At Mickey's relinquishing his austere pose, the trio had already relaxed, but at the king's words, they allowed small, tentative smiles to spread across their faces.
"You guys okay?" he asked, approaching them. "I heard the fighting coming from down here and I thought I'd check it out." His gaze lingered on the injuries that not even a good healing spell or elixir could fully eradicate. "Were there lots of Heartless or something?"
Sora shook his head. "No, Your Majesty. It…" He hesitated then, a fact that did not go unnoticed by either Mickey or his companions.
Seeing that his inner turmoil had not yet vanished, Char took it upon herself to step in and explain. "It was an Organization member," she said, at the same time giving Sora a look that she hoped conveyed both her concern and her annoyance. She understood that knowing at least a part of him had known their opponent had to be wearing on his resolve – a process she hadn't exactly helped, what with the whole Roxas-being-his-Nobody confession back in Ansem's study.
But at the same time, she also knew he needed to pull himself together long enough for them to help Leon and the rest of the Hollow Bastion crew. She thought of the scant potion she had deigned to give Aerith earlier today, and her fist clenched.
Mickey's eyes widened. "Not Xehanort's…?" he asked, trailing off, almost as though he dreaded the answer.
"Uh, I don't think so," Goofy answered. "I mean, he didn't look like An – uh, Xehanort's Heartless…"
Even as he spoke, his focus clearly floated above the mouse's head, hovering somewhere above the cliffs that made up one side of the courtyard. Char blinked, confusion overtaking her prior irritation at Sora, and tried to see what the dog was looking at. However, she couldn't see anything other than a vague gray shape moving toward an off-white one. Maybe he's watching the Heartless fight the Nobodies? It was odd, considering the goal that the two creatures had in common – destroy the bearer of the Keyblade – but then again, so many other weird things had happened today that she didn't really think too much on it.
That was her first mistake: not dwelling on the sight. Her second mistake was looking back down at the others.
"No, that wasn't Xehanort's Nobody – just one of his cohorts," she explained.
Mickey nodded. "I see." He strode forward, his eyes narrowing in determination. "Well, I guess now that we're all here –"
An explosion sounded from above them, making them all jump. In the same instant, Goofy gasped, "Look out!" and barreled into Mickey, effectively knocking the smaller monarch to the ground. Just as Donald swerved to face Goofy – presumably to berate him for the action – a large blur came hurtling from the cliffs' direction and collided with the knight's head.
Goofy tumbled backward, bounced off one of the protruding rocks, and eventually came to a halt on the ground. "Goofy!" Sora cried, running toward his fallen teammate with Donald and Char hot on his heels. After a moment of shocked silence, Mickey rose as well and followed after them.
Donald and Sora fell to their knees on either side of Goofy, the former shaking his longtime friend urgently. "What're you doing?" he demanded, though his voice trembled audibly. "You're the King's captain! You gotta get up!"
"C'mon, wake up," Sora whispered, his heart beginning to pound. No, his mind whispered, we didn't get this far just to lose someone now, this can't be happening, no…
And yet it was happening; he was losing a friend, again. He tried not to blame it on himself, but once the idea had entered his mind, it refused to leave.
Char hung back, hardly daring to breathe. She heard Mickey whisper "No…" behind her, but it didn't matter. She knew she should have just dismissed this as just a casualty of battle, but it didn't matter.
Because she had seen those two enemies fighting on the edge of that cliff, she should have anticipated they would knock some debris loose and one of these idiots would want to take the blow for whoever would get hit.
And yet in that thought she felt like a hypocrite, because she had pulled the exact same stupid altruism not three weeks before for one of said idiots.
She felt her legs moving forward, and before long she had knelt beside Sora. He didn't even acknowledge her presence, just continued to stare numbly at his fallen comrade, as though just the power of his gaze could make the dog jump up and smile and laugh sheepishly and be chided by Donald again.
Char hated the tiny part of her that was saying too bad, not even a Keyblade wielder has that much power.
"Goofy…?" Mickey tried, one more time. And suddenly Char wanted to damn all formalities and whirl around and scream at him to just shut up already, words weren't going to bring him back.
As it was, though, she only lowered her head, let her already-long bangs obscure her eyes and hope Sora and Donald couldn't see the way something had begun to brim there.
"Oh, Goofy…" Donald groaned, laying his head against the knight's chest.
"This is not happening," Sora told himself aloud, crawling toward Goofy on his hands and knees, almost to tell himself that if he got closer, he could see that Goofy was all right. Predictably, that didn't work. "It can't be happening," he repeated, finally just giving in to despair and hanging his head. "It can't…" Combined with the mixed feelings he had gotten on taking out Demyx, this was almost too much to bear.
He nearly reached forward to cast a healing spell, scooping together every bit of mana that whispered in his body for one last Cura. But something caught his hand, and he looked over to see Char shake her head, something like grief on her face. It took him a moment to register she had stopped his hand with hers.
He also realized he was getting very close to seeing her cry for the second time that day.
Movement flashed in his periphery, and he forced himself to care enough to tear his gaze away and look over. What he saw restored a tiny bit of hope to his drained heart: for the terror and sorrow that had never graced Mickey's gaze when Sora had seen him had lit out, replaced by a fire that rivaled that of the one Hades had nearly crippled Char with.
The mouse tightened his gloved hands into fists and whipped his head around to glare at the ravine trail that was visible just beyond here. "They'll pay for this," he hissed. There was no questioning who they were: the Heartless and the Nobodies and the Organization, whose presence had weakened Goofy enough to have succumbed to the attack in the first place.
Almost as if realizing this, Mickey grasped the hem of his coat and whipped it away, revealing a dark red ensemble. A flash of light briefly rent the air to announce the golden Keyblade materializing in the king's hand, and he charged off to avenge his fallen knight.
Donald drew himself up, screeching in fury, and bolted after Mickey, ridiculous broom-staff brandished all the way. With some effort, Sora rose, staring after them. He looked down at Goofy's body once more, in a last-ditch effort for his hopes to make sense.
Nothing.
And with that, the final barrier of grief melted away from his heart, replaced by a slow, burning anger that mimicked that of his comrades.
He turned to Char, who had already gotten to her feet. A hard, blazing look had come into her eyes, and the trademark dual swords had already appeared in her hands.
"Let's go," was all she said.
Yeah, uh... everybody's pissed. And sad. And exhausted from NINE PAGES OF BOSS FIGHT DEAR GOD WHY DID I DO THAT.
Review, please!