Mike AZ 2 here, I'm back and continuing where I left off.
Disclaimer: Dissidia: Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts and the Final Fantasy series were developed by Squaresoft. Don't ask me about Disney characters, those were created by Walt Disney.
Chapter IX: To a Foreign Space
Sora and most of his group rushed out of the archives. Ventus stayed behind as he stood face-to-face with Sephiroth. The silver haired chaos warrior sneered"Do you actually think you can win?"
"I'd prefer to call this a gamble, but enough talk" said Ven.
Sephiroth lunged at the blond keyblade master and attempted to impale him with a Hell's Gate technique. Ventus dodged and countered, only to be met with materia attacks from Loz and Yazoo.
"Taking on all three of us, are you? You don't stand a chance" sneered Yazoo.
"Want to bet?" quipped Ventus, dashing in between his three opponents and let out a tornado spin attack. Sephiroth teleported out of the way, even as Loz and Yazoo were knocked back, and lashed out with a flurry of sword slashes. Ventus backed out of range and cast Fire.
"Yikes, tough guy eh?" murmered the silver haired gunner.
"Now, now, Yazoo. Don't try anything rash" said Sephiroth, not bothering to look away from Ven.
The blond Keyblade Master tossed his keyblade at Sephiroth, who dodged and cast Meteor. Ventus quickly got out of the way as he retrieved his keyblade and hit Sephiroth with a blizzard spell. The blond back-flipped to the exit"I'd hate to fight and run, but catch me if you can!"
As Ventus raced out of the archives, Loz and Yazoo attempted to fire materia at him. Sephiroth smirked and teleported off"Let's make this game of cat-and-mouse interesting, shall we?"
Ventus ran through the castle halls, turning to blast back Loz and Yazoo as they attempted to nuke him with materia magic. The blond keyblade master rushed out into the courtyard, only to be intercepted by Sephiroth and a group of about a dozen manikins.
"Your bravery is wasted" remarked the silver haired swordsman, brandishing his masamune.
"Wrong again, Sephiroth!" shouted Sora, as a Fira spell caught the Chaos Warrior off guard. Cloud and Tifa charged at Sephiroth, only for two of the manikins to intercept.
Sora and Aqua cast spells at Sephiroth, while Ventus tossed another Strike Raid attack on the silver haired swordsman. Sephiroth teleported out of the way of the projectiles while the Manikins aggressively charged at the heroes.
Sora, Aqua, Cloud and Tifa fought back the Manikins, but were tiring quickly. Sephiroth's face twised into a slight smirk as he began to prepare his own deadly summon attack"Supernova."
At the silver haired Chaos Warrior's command, a gigantic flaming ball of energy came right at the heroes. Sora, Serenia and Aqua put magic barriers around themselves and their allies to counter the intense magical attack. Sephiroth glanced triumphantly at the heroes"You wasted your breath."
No sooner had the Supernova spell connected, a ray of light based energy struck the Manikins and the Remnants. Loz grunted"Who did that?"
A boomerang knocked Yazoo's weapon out of his hands as a flurry of bullets struck the silver haired gunner. Serah and Noel, who'd just joined in the fight with the manikins, were pleasently surprised when four more people joined the fray.
"Reinforcements, eh? I'm afraid that won't be enough" said Sephiroth, casting a meteor spell. Ventus avoided the firey spell and zapped the silver haired Chaos Warrior with Thundaga.
Loz and Yazoo attempted to blast Ven with materia, only to recieve another blast of holy magick. A voice addressed the reinforcement who had the spell cast"Nice one, Hope."
"It's not over yet" said a black haired woman, glancing at Sephiroth.
Sora took the opprotunity to race to Ventus's side and cast Fira on Sephiroth. The silver haired warrior countered with Meteor, only to recieve a Omnislash Ver. 5 blow from Cloud.
Loz got back up and charged at Ven, ready to punch him in the chest. Tifa got in his way with a Meteotiwst and pounded the living daylights out of the enemy martial artist with Final Haven.
Nearby, Sephiroth had weakened from Cloud's omnislash and was about to cast another Supernova, when the black haired woman skewered him with her lance.
"Good one, Fang!" cheered a familiar copper-haired girl.
"Ready to give up, Sephiroth?" said Tifa, facing the injured warrior.
The silver haired swordsman stood up"Loz and Yazoo may have fallen, but I will assure you this is not the last you hear of me."
"Aren't you forgetting something, Kadaj? Aeroga!" Sora cast a spell on the swordsman before finishing him with a powerful flurry of blows with his keyblade.
Watching the battle from atop the roof of the Land of Departure's castle, another silver haired warrior grimaced"This is turning out perfectly. The remnants wear them down, and soon I shall have easy pickings."
"Don't get carried away, brother. There are still too many" said another figure.
"Perhaps it is true, Nero. Very well, we'll withdraw and see how things turn out from here" said the silver haired man.
Nero glanced towards the fallen Sephiroth, who'd reverted back into Kadaj"That remnant could still prove useful. Brother, you should return to base while I retrieve the fallen body."
"I have no doubts about your abilities, but remember that I'm the leader of the Tsveits" responded his brother.
Back in the battle, Sora and his friends had managed to defeat Kadaj, Loz and Yazoo. The brunette hero squared his shoulders"That was easy."
"It seems you were underestimated" said a voice, as a dark haired man with a blue and black outfit appeared before the heroes.
Ventus felt a vague dark aura emiting from the man"What are you?"
The man responded"I may as well tell you, as I'm afraid it won't do you any good. My name is Nero, that is all I will tell you."
"Go pack your bags, your boss won't succeed with whatever he's planning" said Sora.
Nearby, Kadaj stood up, despite his injury"If case you're wondering, this battle was just a warm up. Did you perchance think that the appearence of Kuja and the Cloud of Darkness was a coincidence?"
Ventus scoffed"Like we care, and how did you know that?"
Kadaj sneered as he resumed the form of Sephiroth"The forces of discord are enhanced by the Twilight Eclipse. Despite the increase of the power of light, the world order is in for a rough ride."
"Stay in my memories where you belong, Sephiroth! Meteorain!" Cloud cast one of his devastating limit breaks. Nero and Sephiroth vanished out of the way as the meteorain blasted the remaining manikins.
Tifa was astonished"The nerve of those guys. There is never an ounce of decency among the warriors of Discord, how was Sephiroth able to revive himself easily anyway?"
"Who knows?" said Cloud.
The heroes' four reinforcements stood by their side. Hope, now a platinum haired man with a white jacket over a t-shirt and pair of pants spoke"I'm happy we weren't too late, Sora."
"Hope? You've really grown" smiled Vanille.
The platinum-haired young man nodded"Yeah, though I wish we were visiting under better circumstances."
"Did Cosmos or Lightning send you here?" inquired Tifa.
Hope shook his head"I haven't heard from Lightning or Cosmos. Snow, Fang, Vanille and I were on our seperate ways, I had joined the Academia to uncover the secrets to my home world's history. But then, in the middle of broad daylight, the sun seemed to get a bit dim."
"The Twilight Eclipse... It's full effects are yet unknown. But I doubt it's too pleasent" shrugged Cloud.
Fang chimed in"I heard that some of the Academia's researchers had rushed to get their eyes examined. Hope, Snow, Vanille, Sazh and I formed a group with a couple of Academia's members and set out to investigate in a Gummi Ship. Gummi Ships are not hard to build, after all. They've been more common, lately."
Serenia was astonished"Things are really just getting wierder."
"My thought exactly kid" said Sazh.
"Where's your gummi ship?" inquired Sora.
Hope gestured to the outer areas of the Land of Departure"We didn't want to get in the way, so we landed our custom ship, the Guiding Wind, beyond the courtard."
"Then we saw you guys fighting Sephiroth and some of his goons and came here to help you" said Snow, cheekily.
"But if Sephiroth and the Cloud of Darkness are active, I can't help but think it might mark the rebirth of Chaos. Sounds impossible, but there were Manikins here as well" said Cloud.
Sora shrugged"That's probably not the case, though we still don't know exactly what we're dealing with."
Noel addressed Hope"Did you find anything out while you were at it?"
"I'm sorry, but I don't know the whole story behind our current situation" sighed the platinum haired young man.
"Director Esthiem!" called a voice as another young woman approached the group.
Hope addressed the woman"What's up, Alyssa?"
"The Guiding Wind's radar just picked up some kind of anomaly" replied the woman.
Sora was amazed"So you're actually the director of a group called the Academy?"
Hope shrugged"Yeah, though research is not the only focus of our goal. I also wanted to find a source of power for Coccoon that dosen't rely on the fal'Cie. I put that on hold so I could investigate the mysterious eclipse, we came here by chance."
"Snow, you're here!" cried Serah, spotting the blond man with the bandana.
Snow grinned"Glad you're okay, Serah."
"I hate to break up this reunion, but we need to get a move on" interrupted Cloud.
Sora glanced up to the sky for a moment to see a white glow not too far from the eclipsed sun"Yeah, we have a lot to do. We don't know where the Twilight Crystal, the source of the eclipse's magic, is. I will explore the worlds beyond that vortex up there, but we don't know if Sephiroth will attack this place again."
"I've been a little busy, so I can't really go fight alongside you. Some of us should probably remain here, if that's all right" said Hope.
Aqua nodded"I don't mind having guests here, there is an archive if you want to find something out. Last I checked, the records go back to just before the worlds were divided from each other."
"Thanks, I'll keep that in mind" acknowledged the platinum haired young man.
Sora addressed Serenia and Tyler"Maybe you two should stay here, we don't know what to expect beyond that vortex."
"We're still coming with you, I feel like I can learn more by traveling then if I stayed here" insisted the young red-head.
"Besides, adventuring is fun and all, we're not afraid of the Twilight Eclipse" piped the young blue headed teen.
Sora sighed after a brief moment"If you're sure, I won't stop you. Just remember that you barely had a few lessons in spells and keyblades, the Chaos Warriors and the Heartless won't exercise restraint just because of your youth."
Serah addressed Snow"Are you coming with us?"
"Why not? I gotta get in on the action" grinned her boyfriend.
Fang smirked"Typical hero behavior, not that I'd expect less. I'm going on this adventure as well."
"What about me?" whimpered Vanille.
"Stay with Hope, missy" responded the older Pulsian.
Vanille and Hope glanced at each other for a brief moment. The former turned to address Fang"Okay, but please be careful."
Sazh shrugged"I'm gonna stay here as well, adventuring dosen't cut it for me these days. Sora, Serah, give soldier girl my regards, okay?"
"We will" said the younger girl.
Ventus addressed the blue haired keyblade master"Want to come with us, Aqua?"
Aqua shook her head"I need to stay here, Ven. Just make sure nothing happens to Tyler, okay?"
"We'll be fine" said Ven, giving her a quick kiss on the cheek.
Tyler gave Aqua a hug"Sorry to make you worry, I just can't stand still when Serenia is risking her life with everyone else."
"I'll be okay, just be careful" whispered Aqua, hugging her son back.
Sora glanced back towards the Ragnarok II"Okay, if we're ready, we have some worlds to explore. If we're lucky, we might even find the location of the Twilight Crystal."
The group, minus Aqua, Hope, Vanille and Sazh, went back to the ship to prepare to head for their next destination. Cid addressed Sora"Ready for take off? That was quite a hectic fight over there."
"We're okay, Cid" said Serenia with a smile.
Sora addressed the pilot"We're headed for the vortex near the Land of Departure's location. Think the Ragnarok II can surivive the energy flux?"
"Who do you think you're talking to? We're off!" said Cid.
The heroes took off in the Ragnarok II towards the vortex. No sooner did they get close to the white paradox that the ship surged forward into the light. Moments later, it disapated, revealing a section of the Lanes Between that had a darker shade of blue. Sora was hit by deja vu at the sight of a nearby world.
"Is this the Realm of Sleep that Cosmos described?" inquired Serenia.
Sora nodded"Yeah, kind of, the world over there looks like one that Riku and I had been to."
Tifa glanced out a nearby window"It's still kind of pretty here. What do you think, Cloud?"
"If you say so" shrugged the spikey-haired blond.
"Well, let's check out the worlds in this section. I can't say for sure we'll find the exact location of our goal, but I'd like to take the chance of exploring new worlds here" said Sora.
Back at Yoran's secret headquarters, Arlene spied on Nero and the silver haired man who brought back the silver haired Chaos Warrior'I had a feeling he'd slip, but what could Nero be up to?'
"You must be mistaken if you think I'll join in your own plan, not that I'm one to talk" said Sephiroth.
"Oh, believe me, Omega will awaken. That silly Sanhille and Caius won't know what hit them, the worlds will know redemption, vengeance and nothingness. You, Loz and Yazoo were simply not spared for trivial matters" said the other silver haired man.
Lumaria came up behind Arlene"Care to explain why you're eavesdropping on our allies?"
"Quiet, Lumaria. I just don't trust that creep Nero and his brother. Then, there's Kadaj. I never had to worry about traitors while in Organization XIII, but I swear I will catch those two red handed" whispered the blond woman.
Lumaria grimaced"Don't forget we were traitors ourselves, you're not one to talk."
Arlene sighed sharply before heading down the opposite corridor from the room where Nero and Sephiroth were talking. Lumaria stared after her for a moment before heading to address Sephiroth"Why don't you three let me in on what you're planning?"
"The time is not yet right, and you're not invited" grimaced Weiss.
"My partner seems to be suspecting you" spoke Lumaria.
Sephiroth shrugged"I have no desire to assist the Tsviets. But this could be quite entertaining."
"I doubt Caius or the other guy will move against us that easily, they simply don't know enough of Weiss's plan" sneered Nero.
Okay, sorry for the delay but the next chapter is finally up. From this point, I will definately do some more 'world' chapters. Hm, I must not be thinking often enough, because I believe I just thickened the plot a bit. This fic may or may not be longer then my previous Kingdom Hearts/Dissidia crossover, but I'll see.
I'm thinking about including at least three or four disney and/or pixar worlds. Beyond that, expect another final fantasy world or two. That's all I can say without giving away too much. I want to keep spoilers to a minimum. I wonder if I should include characters from One Piece or Golden Sun.
Please feel free to review.