In Sublime Manor's library, Si'Lea sat at her desk while Aqua sat in one of the love seats. Si'Lea was impatiently rapping her fingers on the desk, staring straight at the opposite end of the room.
"Umm…so are we just going to sit here and wait?" Aqua asked, Si'Lea glancing her way.
"I paged the Professor. He should be here soon." Si'Lea said before hearing a knocking on the doorframe.
"You rang and I appear, Master." Professor Von Drake said as he stepped into the room with a cheery tone.
"Glad you could make it, Professor. I wasn't sure what you'd be doing right now." Si'Lea said as the Professor stepped to the front of the desk, comfortably resting his hands on the edges of his lab coat.
"Oh just finished doing a little tiding up. Had a little laser malfunction the other day but all's well that ends well." The Professor replied, Si'Lea leaning forward in her chair.
"Then perhaps you can help us solve something of a mystery that has us two Keyblade Masters a bit vexed. We believe there might be something about the heart of a Keyblade wielder that could be useful to or tantalizing to a Nobody." Si'Lea said as Prof. Drake cleaned his spectacles.
"You mean like the Heart's Three Stages?" Drake asked, not giving much thought to his answer but the answer confused the two Masters.
"Three stages? What do you mean?" Si'Lea asked as Prof. Drake put his glasses back on, looking up at Si'Lea with a curious expression.
"Oh-ho! Goodness me! I though you knew, Master! Well, to be fair, it's not easy to notice." Prof. Drake said, as Aqua leaned forward in her seat.
"Well don't just stand there, explain!" Si'Lea said as Von Drake shrugged.
"Well it's quite simple. Back when I served his majesty, King Oswald, he shared much of his knowledge about the Keyblade and such with me. He explained that the moment a Keyblade bound itself to a person's heart, the heart itself enters a form of transformation that could be divided up into three stages: Juvenile, Adolescent, and Adult. These are merely terms of convenience mind you." Von Drake explained, sitting down in one of the chairs before continuing.
"Now, the juvenile stage usually is when the Keyblade wielder is only just discovering their powers or if their powers haven't awakened yet. Once their power awakens, they enter the long and difficult adolescent stage. It's during this stage that the heart is unstable and is constantly in conflict with itself as its power slowly but steadily grows. Eventually, it reaches the adult stage, where the heart stabilizes and its power is focused and controlled." Prof. Drake explained as Si'Lea sat back in her chair, her eye widened in realization.
"That's her plan! That's been her plan all along!" Si'Lea said.
"What is?! What's who's plan?" Aqua asked. Si'Lea was about to reply but fell silent as they heard the front doors open.
"Professor! Professor Von Drake! Are you here?!" Nixe could be heard shouting from the entrance hall. Si'Lea subtly motioned for silence from Aqua, Aqua nodding back in response and looking towards the door.
"Nixe? I'm in the library!" Prof. Drake called back. Nixe soon entered, not noticing Si'Lea or Aqua at first.
"I was wondering if I could get your help. Hi Master Aqua. I was wondering if you knew anything about treating injured Re~e…" Nixe said, turning white as a sheet, her eyes widened in horror. She slowly looked towards Aqua who sat calmly with her hands in her lap, looking towards her with a stern yet unreadable expression.
"I uh…don't suppose you're alone, are you?" Nixe squeaked as Si'Lea moved to loom behind her, her arms crossed over her chest with a glare of anger.
"How ever did you guess?" Si'Lea asked, Nixe freezing in place. Si'Lea started to put her right hand on Nixe's shoulder but was stunned a black and white blur slipped past on her blind left side, shoving Nixe forward and moving to where she'd been standing. Riku turned to glare defiantly up at Si'Lea who was surprised by the Replica's appearance.
"I take it that you're the one known as Riku." Si'Lea said as Riku gave a nod.
"That's correct." Riku replied, Aqua standing to her feet.
"Riku, explain yourself! What are you doing here!" Aqua ordered. Riku merely glanced at her out of the corner of his eye.
"Aqua, you know as well as I do I'm not the real thing. However, your question is worth answering. I've been sent to protect Nixe, sent by a mutual friend and ally. The same ally you've come to these worlds with intent to rescue." Riku said as Aqua stared at him.
"But protect her from whom, I wonder. The Sisterhood, or from me?" Si'Lea asked. In a flash, she'd summoned her Keyblade and swung but Riku had leapt clear of the swing, maintaining his position between Master and Apprentice, his sword summoned to his hand and held defensively.
"I suppose you could say both. Especially considering the memories that Namine repaired, memories the real Riku possesses but cannot access." Riku said, not taking his eyes off of Si'Lea, the two engaged in an intense staring contest, both daring the other to make a move.
"This doesn't concern you, boy. Stand aside, or do you think me blind in both eyes to not notice that you're injured?" Si'Lea said as Riku glared back at her.
"Don't insult me. We both know I stand no chance against you, even if I were at full strength. Either way, I'd lay my life on the line to protect her, even unto my dying breath. Because that's what a real friend does. Oh, and for your information, this has been a concern of mine since day one." Riku said, unwavering in his defiance. Nixe was surprised, almost awestruck at Riku's bravery.
"Riku." Nixe said in awe. Si'Lea was noticeably surprised by his staunch defensiveness of her.
"Then I have only one question: What have you done to her?" Si'Lea asked.
"If you think I've tried to take advantage of her, I can most assuredly guarantee you that nothing of the sort has happened." Riku replied.
"I did kiss him, but I was the instigator." Nixe said as Si'Lea glanced her way for a moment.
"Then what did Namine send you to do?" Aqua asked.
"My mission was threefold. One: Protect Nixe at all costs. Two: Find a way to make her strong enough to possibly achieve the rank or equivalent skill of a Keyblade Master or to mount an effective defense against the Sisterhood of Seven. And Third: Eliminate any Sisterhood members I encounter, barring Namine, with extreme prejudice. As a Replica, I am immune to their powers to manipulate emotions and can counter them." Riku explained.
"You've been trying to make her stronger?" Si'Lea asked, mildly surprised by Riku's answer. Her stern gaze had noticeably relaxed at this.
"That's correct. With some help, I can vouch that Nixe has become much stronger than she was before." Riku said as Nixe looked at Si'Lea.
"Yeah, because someone was holding me back." Nixe commented, Riku quickly looking at her from over his shoulder.
"Nixe!" he said, warningly trying to calm her down.
"Well think about it! I've advanced further in less than a day than I have in the whole of my Apprenticeship, all because someone wouldn't let me go out into the worlds! What does it tell you that I had to run away just to see another world for the first time?!" Nixe asked, clearly angry at Si'Lea. Si'Lea however was glaring at her with an angered expression.
"Nixe, that's enough! There's a reason I haven't let you leave Sublime and it has nothing to do with your rate of advancement!" Si'Lea said as Riku quietly stepped aside, allowing Master and Apprentice to stare each other in the face.
"Yeah? Well, here I am! Freshly returned from visiting not one but seven different worlds and I'm still just fine!" Nixe argued.
"And how many fights did you get into each time?! How many of the Sisters did you battle?! How many times did you fall for their tricks?!" Si'Lea asked.
"Plenty! I came this close to beating Third! I fought Seven and Prishe in one world, had to face Oswald and a bunch of goons in another, not to mention all of the Heartless I've battled! Riku's been there to help of course but we've managed to at least win or draw each fight!" Nixe argued proudly.
"Oh, then perhaps you think you're ready for your Mark of Mastery Exam, is that it? You go on one adventure, and you think you're ready for the mantle of responsibility?! Well I've got news for you, Nixe, this little stunt, just disqualified you for your Mark of Mastery Exam for at least another year if not several more!" Si'Lea declared, Nixe's face falling in shock for a moment before scowling in anger.
"Now, you better get out on patrol before I decide to take your punishment further!" Si'Lea ordered, Nixe's scowl deepening in defiance. There was an awkward silence for a moment before Si'Lea suddenly had to summon her shield in defense of a sudden attack from an angered Nixe, (Battle Music Cue: Black Powder - BBS). Si'Lea looked at her with an expression of anger from over her shield.
"I guess I'm just going to have to show you how far I've come, mother!" Nixe said as Si'Lea scowled.
"This is only proving my point, Nixe!" Si'Lea argued as Nixe took another swing but struck the shield. However, Nixe quickly stepped up onto the shield, using it as a spring board to leap into the air and vault over Si'Lea but the Keyblade Master quickly raised her Keyblade in defense, swinging at the errant apprentice but Nixe blocked. Aqua, Riku, and Prof. Von Drake saw the exchange taking place.
"Si'Lea! Nixe! Stop! You're not helping anything!" Riku yelled, he and Aqua chasing after the two as the fight spilled into the entrance hall., the two gradually making their way towards the hall to the ballroom.
"We've got to do something to stop them!" Aqua said, watching the two exchange blows down the hall, Si'Lea having put Nixe on the defensive. They were suddenly distracted by the front doors flying open, Laaurim at the door with his scythe in hand, catching his breath.
"Laaurim, what's the matter?" Aqua asked, Laaurim looking up at the Keyblade Master with a look of panic on his face.
"We've got a major situation out there! Heartless are swarming the barracades! We've had to fall back from the fourth district and are having to make emergency evacuations of the third district! I've never seen a siege like this before!" Laaurim said as Aqua hurried towards the door. She looked outside and although she couldn't see the Heartless, she could hear the people panicking along with flashes of light reflecting off the clouds, showing where the Guardians were fighting back with all their might. Aqua looked back at the fighting Keyblade Wielders and then towards Laaurim.
"Take me to the front lines! I'll see what I can't do to hold the line! Riku, you coming?" Aqua asked but Riku shook his head.
"You go on ahead! I'm going to see what I can do to stop those two before it's too late!" Riku replied, turning and hurrying after the two as Aqua nodded.
"Right, come on Laaurim, we haven't a moment to lose!" Aqua said as they hurried out into the First District.
"Right behind you!" Laaurim replied.
"Is there anyone we can call for reinforcements?" Aqua asked as they ran.
"I've already contacted President Liore in Steadfast! He, the Turks, and the rest of the Steadfast Guardians are on their way and should be here soon!" Laaurim replied.
"Good, and with any luck, maybe Sora will be here soon!" Aqua said, looking to the sky as thunder rumbled overhead.
In the Third District…
It was chaos! Heartless were swarming in from the Fourth District. Most of them were Shadow, Soldier, or the small, weak, but numerous types of Heartless while an occasional bigger Heartless would appear such as a Large Body or Armored Knight Heartless. The Guardians were fighting tooth and nail against the onslaught. Vanille was largely hanging back and helping to coordinate the evacuation of the Third District.
"What's going on?! Where did these guys all come from?!" Arlene asked as she threw a fist full of kunai into a crowd of Shadow Heartless, destroying three of them but five more appeared in their place. Fang came spinning in with her spear, sweeping her spear around in a circle, eliminating a large swath before Ludro hit a large cluster with a Stopaga spell, allowing Medy to bombard the time frozen Heartless with a super pressurized stream of water, the water having enough force to cut a person in half but laying waste to the Heartless.
"Hold the line! We let them take the Third District we might never retake the Fourth!" Fang yelled as Vincent flew overhead, raining a hail of bullets down on the Heartless, each bullet finding its mark on a Heartless and destroying them. He landed near them, reloading his gun.
"This is just the beginning. They mean to take Sublime at long last." Vincent said.
"What, you mean they mean to take us down finally? Why now?" Arlene asked, pulling some fresh kunai from one of her pouches.
"Is it because we killed one of the Sisters?" Ludro asked, pulling a deck of cards from inside his coat and starting to shuffle it.
"Well we had to expect some kind of retaliation I suppose!" Fang replied as they saw another wave of Heartless approaching but this time they were accompanied by a few Darkballs, Neoshadows, and Shadow Stalker Heartless.
"Where is Laaurim with the Master?! He was supposed to be back by now!" Arlene commented, only to notice several rose petals fly past on the wind towards the Heartless.
"You were saying, Arlene?" Laaurim asked as he spun his scythe over his head before taking a sweeping swing towards the Heartless that sent a wave of rose petals and cutting winds into the swarm of Heartless, slaying most of the weaker ones in one hit while injuring the stronger ones.
"Nice shot but that's not going to work for long!" Arlene said.
"Then let me take a shot!" Aqua said as she ran past the line of Guardians, Keyblade summoned as she started to barrage the Heartless with Blizzard spells, quickly entering into the Diamond Dust Command Style and using its power to cut deep swaths into the Heartless' numbers.
"Alright! Always count on the Keyblade Masters to show those Heartless punks who's boss!" Fang cheered with a grin but Laaurim noticed something nearby that made him grit his teeth.
"Master Aqua has the Heartless coming in from the Fourth Entertainment District but they're coming in from the market district now! Bolster the defenses there! Quickly!" he yelled as they noticed an adjoining area where the Third and Fourth Districts met was being overrun by Heartless. Laaurim, Arlene, Vincent, and Medy quickly hurried to engage the Heartless, firing off magic spells, using their weapons, and whatever they could to drive the Heartless back but the wave of Heartless seemed undaunted.
"There's too many of them!" Laaurim declared but Arlene saw something that made her smirk.
"Yeah but we just got some back up! Everybody duck!" she yelled, the four guardians doing as instructed, ducking down just roughly nine small missiles came smashing into the crowd of Heartless, obliterating a fair swath of them.
"Yeah! It feels good to break out the old nickel launcher every now and then!" President Liore declared with a smirk as he, the Turks, Judge Gabranth, Jeckt, and Ren accompanied by Angelo, hurried towards the front line. Laguna had a large nine barreled missile launcher on his shoulder but the launcher suddenly vanished in a flash of light, to be replaced by his machine gun.
"That's 'missile' sir!" Cissnei corrected.
"What did I say? Bah who cares, because now it's a party!" Laguna said as he cocked his rifle and opened fire, laying down a steady spray of bullets into the swarm of Heartless. The arrival of the Steadfast Guardians had turned the tide, the Heartless now being beaten backwards as the Guardians started a slow but steady push back towards the Seventh District. Meanwhile the Reaper's Game had arrived as well, helping Vanille to evacuate the civilians from the Third District.
"We're pushing them back! Keep going!" Ren shouted as she hurled a round disk into the swarm, the disk sawing through several Heartless as it arced through them and returned to her hand. Angelo was charging in and grabbing Shadow Heartless in her mouth and thrashing them about, mauling them and clawing them. Isa had gone full berserker and was tearing into the Heartless with his claymore while Reno used his night stick combined with his fire powers to incinerate the Heartless. Jeckt however was going all out, causing immense damage to the Heartless' numbers. All of this came to a screeching halt though the moment they crossed over into the Fifth District and saw a couple of Behemoth Heartless approaching from the Sixth District.
"They're sending in the big guns!" Reno yelled. They then heard what sounded like cannon fire and suddenly saw large black spheres crashing into the ground behind them, the spheres turning into large swirling black pools of Darkness, allowing Heartless of varying sizes to emerge, effectively trapping the Guardians.
"Where'd they come from?!" Reno asked as the two groups of Guardians formed into a single large group, Aqua amongst them. Gabranth however saw what the others had missed.
"Up there on the rooftops! The foul beasts are using those cannons to open passageways to allow the enemy to flank us!" Gabranth yelled, motioning towards the rooves of the buildings. Scattered across the rooftops were several Heartless that resembled the Cannon Gun Heartless but had a more trumpet-like barrel on the top of their head and were a bright shade of red instead of the usual purple.
"We can't do anything until we take out those ca-Huh?!" Cissnei asked as they suddenly saw flashes of light coming from the rooftops, the Cannon Heartless being obliterated with each flash. Finally, they saw why as a diminutive figure bounced around with Keyblade in hand, slaying the Heartless as fast as he could go.
"It's the King! He's here! Long live the King!" Gabranth declared but Aqua suddenly sensed something that made her grin, spinning back towards the First District but looking skyward as she saw a familiar Keyblade Glider come streaking in.
"He's not alone! It's Sora!" Aqua declared as Sora came flying low through the districts until he was right over the center of the Sixth District. At this he leapt off of his Keyblade Glider and landed right smack in the center of a sea of Heartless, surrounded by some of the strongest Heartless there were. Aqua and the other Guardians couldn't see where he'd landed for a moment before the five shining white pillars of Sora's Trinity Drive Shot Lock erupted from the ground, obliterating every Heartless caught in its wake. They could see Sora standing in the center of the large gap he'd made, fully armored and with the Kingdom Key in hand.
"Aqua! What's going on?!" Sora asked as Aqua hurried up to him.
"I don't know! It looks like the Sisterhood's begun their final push into Sublime! We need to hold the line and beat them back to their source!" Aqua said as Sora gave a nod.
"Right, but weren't you with Si'Lea? Where is she?!" Sora asked as Aqua glanced over her shoulder towards the First District, Aqua letting out a groan of frustration before responding.
"Ugh, Nixe's lost her mind and she and Si'Lea are currently having a very heated argument! I don't think Si'Lea even knows about this at the moment!" Aqua replied as Sora gave a nod.
"Well then let's see what we can do to soften up these guys so that when they do arrive, we'll be able to finish them off!" Sora replied, Aqua summoning her armor.
"Right! It'll be just like old times, right Sora?" Aqua asked as Sora gave a nod.
"You got it, Master!" Sora replied before the two Keyblade Masters dove into the fray, fighting off the encroaching Heartless.
…
Unknown to the Keyblade Masters and the Guardians, the entire battle was being watched from the Seventh District, the Horned King standing from atop a large black Behemoth Heartless, one larger than the ordinary Behemoths, and with a dark but elegant throne upon the back, watching as the battle got closer and closer to the Seventh District. As he watched, a Corridor of Darkness opened behind him, depositing the First Sister.
"Is everything prepared?" she asked, watching as the front lines gradually got closer.
"They are playing right into our hands." The Horned King reported as First smiled.
"Good. Continue the siege for as long as you can. Keep them focused away from the mansion. My sisters and I have a long overdue appointment, with Master Si'Lea and her little Apprentice." First said before disappearing in a Corridor of Darkness.
End Chapter 56