AN: Hey guys, we're back again with another chapter in Dual Keys, and I'm going to go ahead and say it now. This chapter turned out to be shorter than I had originally expected, even with me adding in a couple of things that weren't originally in it before.
Riku: Yeah? Like what?
AN: I'm not saying. At least not yet. More importantly, I would normally answer reviews here, even if it wasn't as long as the last chapter, but I really want you guys to get into the story, especially since it's winding down to the end now.
Ventus: Come on. You could at least answer one or two questions, can't you?
AN: Hmmm...Oh what the heck? Uh let's see...Oh! How about this one from "Dragon Rider 66", namely his question in regards to Oathkeeper as it pertains to Roxas?
Sora: Why're you asking us? You're the one who decides which ones to answer.
AN: I know, but I felt like it would be rude if I did otherwise this time for some weird reason. Anyways, to answer said question, Roxas's Keyblades will still be Oathkeeper and Oblivion. Ven was just saying that as my way of pointing how those two Keyblades are created from the bonds Sora shares with Riku and Kairi, at least in regards to Oathkeeper. Sora only has the Keychain at the moment, but Roxas will get the actual Keyblades themselves when he finally shows up, and after a few other events take place as well. I can't say more than that without giving away any spoilers though.
By the way, to anyone who's curious about how Sora and Kairi's armors will evolve, I can confirm right now, that they will indeed eventually become just like the suits that they wore in Keyblades of Future Past(And as we should all know by now, when I say they, I mean the Future Sora and Kairi that came back in time in that story).
Ventus: You know, "Monkey D. Conan" actually posed a good question about whether or not I knew about Nobodies yet. Can you comment?
AN: Well, while Ven does at least know that they exist, thanks in part to his encounters with Xemnas back in Keyblades of Future Past, he does not know the full details about them to really say he actually does know about them. He knows that such creatures can exist, but he doesn't know the full details about how they can come into being, or what they are like. At least not just yet. He'll be a little more well-informed on the matter when the sequel comes around.
By the way, to everyone who commented on the battle against Sephiroth, glad you enjoyed that so much, and happy to see our favorite FFVII villain can still get so much love from his fans. Not that it was ever likely to stop. I mean, who doesn't love to hate a good villain?
Ventus: Oh, and while we're answering reviews, I'd like to tell that one guest who posted on 4/21/18 that we did indeed see that the original timeline's version of Sora will be on the next episode of Death Battle. I'm gonna go ahead and call it now. Sora's got this.
AN: Yep. No question.
Sora: Like that was ever in doubt?
Riku: Hey, if you were to lose to some dude with angel wings, I think me and a lot of really powerful bad guys would be highly offended.
AN: Well, I'd say that's enough of the review answers, so let's get on with our story, shall we?
I do not own anything from Kingdom Hearts or any other franchise mentioned in this story.
Chapter XXI
Getting back to Traverse Town took a bit of time, but mostly because Ven had to go back to the ship and get some suits for Tidus and Yuna that would allow them to leave Mirage Arena and board the Shera safely. The blonde was really glad that Cid had the sense to store a few suits like that onboard in case of emergencies, and he made a note to thank the gummi block engineer when he next saw him, but for right now, they had more important matters to attend to. Those matters were the very reason why he made sure to give everything the Shera had to spare into its engines just to make sure that they got back to Traverse Town all the sooner, and the minute they arrived, they all made a beeline straight for house where the rest of their friends were waiting for them.
The first thing that actually happened after they got back was Wakka and Selphie grabbing Tidus in a group hug, happy to see the third pea in their pod, only to gape in surprise a minute later when Tidus introduced Yuna to them. That had earned him a little ribbing from Wakka, like pointing out that she seemed cute and saying that he had somehow tricked a really good one into falling for him, but Yuna did not seem to mind too much. In fact, she actually laughed a little bit at the teasing that the taller boy was doing, along with Tidus's attempts to dissuade said attempts. Not that Tidus ever said that she was not his girlfriend, and even if he had, they would not have believed him given the blush on his face and the doey-eyed look he got whenever he so much as glanced at Yuna during the conversation. Selphie would have joined in, commenting on how it was so great that Tidus had met someone he cared for so much while journeying across the stars, had she not decided to give Sora and Kairi a big thank you hug for finally finding Tidus, but she went right to work on that afterwards.
After all of that hype had finally settled though, Ventus finally got everyone to settle down and bring things to order so that they could discuss the reason why they were all meeting like this. "What exactly did you find out with those scans," the blonde asked. "We'll need to know everything you can tell us if we want to stop these new threats."
"Right," Cid nodded, waving for Yuffie to hand over some device that she had been holding onto for him. Taking the device, Cid immediately activated it, and everyone was greeted to the sight of a small, 3D holographic world map that covered nearly the entire room, and Cid was soon pointing out several of those various worlds as he gave the requested explanation. "From what we've gathered, the largest readings of the recent spikes are in Olympus Coliseum, Neverland, and Agrabah. Not only that, but according to Merlin, at least two of these are because of some massive Heartless boss that's recently started making much more active moves on those worlds."
"I can kind of understand why that would be the case for Neverland and Olympus Coliseum, but wouldn't Agrabah be safer from that type of thing now that we've rescued Jasmine," Kairi asked, thinking that since the captive princesses had all been freed, they would have been returned to their rightful worlds.
Sadly, her hopes ended up being dashed when Leon shook his head in a negative answer. "Sora and Ven may have freed the captive princesses' hearts, and the princesses themselves, but for some reason, they haven't returned to the worlds they came from," the swordsman explained. "We suspect they're all still in the castle at Hollow Bastion. For whatever reason, we couldn't tell you."
"To be fair, part of the reason is likely because they can't get back," Ventus suggested. "Don't forget, they were taken to Hollow Bastion by Maleficent, the Heartless, and…and Riku, and none of them seemed to use a vessel to do so most of the time. At least not from what we could tell. They're all likely stuck there simply because they have no way to leave."
"Maybe, but I feel like there's another reason besides that," Aerith admitted, a hand to her chin in thought.
Sora, Kairi, and all the others from Destiny Islands did not really notice though, as their heads had started to hang a little low from being reminded of what Riku's actions had caused. Sure, Sora and Kairi seemed like they were still willing to forgive him despite what he had done to the two of them especially, but the others were still a little on the fence when it came to Riku. After all, the guy had been responsible for their home being swallowed by darkness, even if he was technically manipulated into doing so, and that kind of thing is pretty hard to forgive. They quickly shook it off though, because whether or not Riku deserved some form of forgiveness or redemption was not the issue here. Right now, they had a matter of the newest upsurge in darkness to deal with, so they immediately put their attention back on track again as Cid and Merlin finished explaining what they did know about the readings.
Ventus studied the information for a minute, running a few details in his head as he did, while turning to ask, "Do we know anything about the Heartless in question?"
"I'm afraid not," Merlin admitted. "While I was able to determine that there were such horrible creatures in Neverland and Agrabah, I couldn't really tell what it was that you would be facing should you go to either location."
"Well then I guess it's a good thing that we know at least two people that might know something," Sora indicated with a smile, pulling out one of his summon charms when he did.
Ven immediately caught on to what Sora was talking about and immediately smirked as he pulled out one of his charms as well. A quick bit of magic later, and the meeting was soon joined by Genie and Tinker Bell. The fairy of the two was quick to launch into a furious flurry of bells and tingles that showed just how fast and possibly panicked her tone was, and while he could understand her now, she was going so fast that Ven was not sure he was able to interpret her words correctly for the most part. "Whoa, whoa, WHOA! Tink, slow down a minute! I can't understand what you're saying when you talk that fast," Ventus finally pleaded, getting the fairy to finally calm down a little bit. It may not have seemed like much, given that the bells still came almost as quickly as before, but apparently, it was better for Ven, because he was able to nod along and understand much more easily now. "Yeah…Uh-huh…Yeah, yeah, we know. We were just talking about how some new Heartless bosses had appeared on other worlds, including Neverland, and that's why I summoned you. Is there anything you can tell us about it?" Another pause that was filled with ringing bells, with Ven nodding, and once they had ended, Ven turned to the others so that he could translate in full. "Tink says that this Heartless is very large, like all Heartless bosses, and appears to wear a long, tattered, white cloak with black sleeves that are decorated with a flame-like pattern. Jiminy, is there anything in your journal that matches that?"
"You betcha," Jiminy confirmed, having whipped out the book at the start of the meeting and already begun flipping through the pages in an attempt to locate any of the details that Ven had mentioned in an attempt to find a match to any of them. "Here it is! According to this, it's called the Phantom, and it's definitely a tricky one to beat. It does not have a physical body, further emphasizing its ghost-like appearance, and is often able to make itself immune to all but a certain type of attacks. The only way to damage it is to attack the glowing orb that acts as its heart, and to know what type of attacks to hit it with, you have to be able to take notice of the orb's color. If it's red, then use fire attacks, if it's blue, use ice, yellow means you should use lightning, and white means that you can hit with normal physical attacks."
"Sheesh, and I thought that overgrown ape that Carpet and I saw in the desert outside of Agrabah was crazy," Genie admitted, turning all attention onto him so that they could hear what this one looked like. "The thing had a snake head that looked like a dead ringer for the one on Jafar's staff, has six arms with a curved sword in two of the hands. There a white sleeve with gold trim on each arm, a white tunic with puffy gold sleeves over its torso, white, gold-and-turquoise trimmed pants on the lower body, and a brightly colored sash around its waist with bright orange tassels and a gold apron with that Heartless symbol on the center. Oh, and the feet look like they're covered by gold and brown shoes, while the toes curl into some sharp hooks that point down into the ground."
Jiminy was already checking his journal again, until he landed upon the entry that he was looking for. "This one's called Kurt Zisa, and it's an even meaner fella to beat that the Phantom, if you can believe that," the cricket revealed. "It can trample over and rush its enemies, spin its swords around in a windmill style that can deflect attacks and injure anyone who gets to close, and leap up into a rapid spin before dive-bombing opponents. It can also bite people if they get too close to the head, but here's the really scary part. It can also cast a bunch of different spells that would make things really difficult for whoever's fighting it. The most notable being that it can prevent others from using magic through the use of the spell, Silence. It can also summon large sandstorm tornados that eventually fuse together into one giant one, create large fireballs that slowly hover around the area acting like mines, and after taking a certain amount of damage, it'll even shoot out orbs of electricity from the ground, ending with an especially large one. I'd hate to say it, but this one might be especially tough to beat."
Everyone nodded in thanks to Genie and Tinker Bell for their help, allowing Sora and Ven to dismiss them both, but the information was not exactly much of a confidence booster. Sure, they knew what they were up against in two of the three locations, but hearing how tough those two were made everyone more than a little nervous. Add in the fact that they still knew nothing about what was waiting at Olympus Coliseum, and you would not be able to fault any of them for being a little freaked out about how bad their chances were if they fought any of these guys that were lying in wait for them. Well, most of them were freaked out, but one of them was apparently still feeling somewhat good about their chances.
"Doesn't matter how strong they are, or what kind of power they have. They're still Heartless, and that means that they're still vulnerable to the Keyblade," Ventus insisted. "Sure, we might end up in the fight for our lives, but we can still stop them, so, we're going to get to each of these locations, defeat the Heartless there, and work our way back until we've gotten them all."
"I'm afraid it's not that simple," Merlin disputed.
"Of course it isn't," Selphie sighed, somehow having already guessed that was coming.
"These Heartless are not just powerful, but growing stronger with every passing moment," the wizard revealed. "If you go after any one of them, you won't have time to deal with the other two before they become too strong to be stopped, and at that point, they'll also likely have sent the world they're on into darkness."
"Yeah, that's definitely not good," Wakka groaned, voicing everyone's thoughts in just those few words.
Even Ventus was growing a little worried now. It was one thing to take out such powerful Heartless bosses one at a time, or even all at once if they were on the same world, but if these were as strong as had been indicated and growing stronger, they were likely going to be in for the fight of their lives, and that was without accounting for how their enemies were all on different worlds. Not only that, but each of these worlds were so far apart, that even if he and his friends were to split up, they would not be able to send backup to any member of their group fast enough, even through use of the Warp-G. Not that he was planning on splitting up the team right now. Even if they only needed just one Keyblade to do the job, it was still smarter for all three of the currently available wielders to stick together. In his mind, they were at their strongest when they were all together, and they definitely needed to be at their best for a fight this big. He just had to figure out how to make that happen, even if it did seem like it was impossible to do at the moment.
Sadly, he was the only one that felt that way, because Sora was of a different opinion, as proven when he was the one who ended up saying, "If that is the case, then we should split up."
"No way," Ventus denied. "Of all the bad ideas you've had since the start of this journey that is definitely one of the worst. We're stronger together…"
"And we're always together even if we're apart," Sora interrupted. "Besides, there are three locations, and three Keyblade wielders. That's one for each. If we don't have enough time to go to each place one at a time, then it makes sense for us to split up."
Ventus did not want to admit it, but he knew the kid was right, so he just sighed in defeat before giving a quick nod. "All right then. We'll take the Kingdom to Olympus Coliseum where we'll drop off Sora and Donald. Afterwards, we'll head to Agrabah, where Kairi and Goofy will handle Kurt Zisa, and I'll go on to Neverland to meet with this Phantom." When the blonde had finished his outline, he looked around to see various looks of disagreement, and he could only groan a little in response. "What's wrong now?"
"Your little team line-ups," Yuffie revealed. "Considering how tough each of those fights are going to be, don't you think you should have three people on a team at bare minimum?"
"Sure, but we'd need a small army to pull that off, and last I checked, we've only got the five of us," Ventus pointed out.
"Not quite," Leon disputed, moving off the wall he had been leaning against, and standing at the ready before the others in the room. "You've got a pretty good number of volunteers standing right in front of you."
"And before you say anything about how this would be disrupting world order or something, I'd just like to point out that there doesn't really to be much more we could do to cause problems for that at this point," Tidus piped in, already seeing that particular argument coming.
"More importantly, we've just been sitting on the sidelines and letting you guys do all the work up until now, and I'm getting sick of that," Yuffie admitted. "Sure, we've been keeping Traverse Town safe and all, but we can do a lot more than that, so why not let us help you fight?"
Ventus appreciated the offer, but there was still a flaw in that plan that he had to point out. "You guys do know that if you leave with us, Traverse Town will be left defenseless, right?"
"Oh will it," Merlin asked. "Don't think I'm going to be taking off any time soon. I'll stay here to hold down the fort while the rest of you are handling those wretched Heartless. After all, who better to defend this town than Merlin the wizard?"
There was no way around it now, and from the looks on everyone's faces, it was clear that Ven was not going to be able to say anything that would dissuade their friends from coming along. To be quite honest, he was actually glad that was the case, and he could not help but smile a little just to show that. "All right then, you guys can all help, but I don't think we'll have enough room in the Kingdom for everyone."
"Then it's a good thing that I've got both the Shera and one other ship in the hangar that we can use," Cid pointed out. "We can split up the teams in between those three ships and they'll each head straight for their target location once they're ready to go."
Ven looked to his fellow Keybearers, seeing them smile in agreement with this, and then nodded in reply to Cid's plan. "All right then. Here's how it's going to go: Leon, Aerith, Cid, and Yuffie, you'll head to Agrabah with Kairi. Wakka, Tidus, Selphie, and Yuna, you're with me on Neverland. Sora, you take the Kingdom with Donald and Goofy to Olympus Coliseum."
"Are you sure that's the best idea," Leon asked. "Sure, the Destiny Islands kids are all good fighters, and I know you said that Yuna has a pretty powerful ability, but they're all still rookies when it comes to dealing with Heartless like these. Maybe someone from my team should go with you to Neverland while one them goes to Agrabah with us."
"They'll be fine, Leon. Besides, you and the rest of your friends are more used to ground-based combat, and if I know Neverland, then I'm betting we're going to have to do a lot of flying when we face the Phantom," Ventus pointed out. "From my understanding of Blitzball, you have to do a rather impressive amount of fighting underwater, so that makes Wakka and Tidus well suited for this fight, and since they've been fighting with one or both of the other two for so long, it makes sense for Yuna and Selphie to come with us."
"Just to be clear, I'm okay with going to Agrabah. I don't want to switch teams," Yuffie insisted with a smile, earning a smirk from Leon that almost seemed humorous for some reason.
That would have to be addressed later though, because they had a mission to get underway, and their goals were all now well set. Well, almost all of them. "So, which team am I going to go with," Jiminy asked.
"You'll go with Sora's group, but remain on the Kingdom so that you can coordinate the mission with Chip and Dale from there," Ventus informed him, earning a nod from the cricket in response. "Now, let's move out and get to work."
Everyone immediately started gathering up their weapons, items, and equipment when Ven finished saying that, and once they were sure that they had everything they would need, they headed for the hangar, where each of the ships were waiting for them, with the Keybearers of each team taking the lead of their respective groups. As they were nearing the ships, Ventus suddenly remembered something he had almost forgotten about, and quickly brought them to a stop. "Sora, whatever you may end up having to deal with at Olympus Coliseum, I can guarantee that it'll most likely be in a tournament that's recently opened up. If Phil tries to deny you entry, tell him whatever you have to, short of anything that would prove disturbing for the world order. Whatever it takes, you have to get into that tournament. Understand?"
"Yeah, I've got it," Sora replied with a smirk. "Don't worry. The next time you see us, we'll not only have beaten this big bad threat, but we'll have our names up there with all the rest of the past champions."
Ventus could not help sigh a little with a smile on his face at how carefree Sora was about all of this, or the fact that the kid suddenly seemed much more interested in winning a tournament than he was in stopping the newest threat, but then again, that was just the way that Sora was and he had learned to live with and even admire it a little. That did not mean that this conversation was over though, because there was still something that needed to be addressed. "Well, now that we've gotten that cleared up, I'll need you to give all of your summon charms to Kairi."
"What?! Why," Sora whined, not wanting to give up some of his most powerful items.
"Because you won't be able to use them in the tournament," Ven explained. "There's even a special magic field in place around the arena to make sure that no one can use something like summon charms during those tournaments, so taking them with you would be pointless and only serve to make them extra weights in your pockets. At least if Kairi has them, she'll be able to make good use of them."
Sora could certainly see Ven's point after learning about that, so he nodded to his master and quickly rushed over to his girlfriend so that he could hand over the charms. He did not do so without mentioning that he would want them back later, even if his tone was joking, and Kairi could only smile in response while assuring him that she fully intended to do so anyways the next time she saw him. This little interaction quickly caught Yuna's notice as well, and she just had to comment on it. "I think it's very sweet of you to let your girlfriend borrow those for now, even if it does involve circumstances beyond your control, Sora," the summoner said.
Sora and Kairi both stiffened up a little when they heard Yuna say that, and they could already sense the grins that were forming on their fellow Islanders' faces before they had even started appearing. "Ya see? Even someone who just met you two already knows that there's way more between you guys than just friendship," Wakka teasingly commented. "Just make it official already and get it over with, ya?"
"What? You mean they aren't already a couple? I thought they were since Ven introduced Kairi to me as Sora's girlfriend," Yuna innocently asked, never noticing Sora and Kairi waving for her to stop talking the whole time.
When the other three heard this, they immediately turned questioning looks to the two, young Keybearers, who were now blushing bright red, and counting down in their heads to the explosion that was just waiting to happen. The minute they hit one, Selphie let out a loud squeal of glee at glomped Kairi in a huge hug as she cheered, "I'm so happy for you! You guys are finally together! How did it happen? How'd he confess? How did you confess? Did you guys kiss yet? I'll bet that your first kiss will be super romantic."
"Selphie, come on. Give 'em a break, will ya," Wakka chided, though half-heartedly. "Confessing was probably hard enough for these two. Do you really think they would've kissed each other so soon? Sora probably would've freaked out the minute he realized that Kairi was going to kiss him and backed away so that he could just give her a handshake or something."
"I did not! I may not have been expecting her to kiss me until she already had, but I did still kiss her back," Sora protested, not realizing what he was saying until the words had already escaped past his lips. When he did realize it, his hands immediately slapped over his mouth, and his already intense blush grew several times stronger, and Sora could swear that his face was liable to fall off with how hot it was getting.
Selphie and the other two boys were all turning shocked expressions between Sora and Kairi for a minute, the latter of whom was now blushing as brightly as her boyfriend, until finally, Selphie squealed once again and shouted, "You have to tell me everything right now, Kairi!"
"Oh gee, you know I would, but we've really gotta get going. Worlds to save, Heartless to fight, and darkness to beat, so I'll see you guys later. Bye," Kairi rapidly replied, and she was soon rushing over to Leon and his pals, all of which were just boarding the Shera without another word.
"Thanks a lot, Kairi," Sora mentally groaned, knowing that she had just thrown him to the wolves with that hasty departure, whether it be unintentionally or otherwise. He was soon sputtering and stammering anything he could think of without being fully aware of what he was trying to say, much to the others' amusement, until he caught sight of his master smirking from the corner of his eye and immediately frowned at said blonde in response. "You're enjoying this, aren't you, Ven," Sora demanded, somehow just knowing that this was the blonde's somewhat delayed payback for the earlier comment he had made about seeing Aqua in mermaid form on Atlantica.
Ven made no moves of either confirming or denying that claim beyond his smirk growing a little more, and after letting Sora's friend get in a few more teasing remarks, he finally waved them over to the ship that would transport him, the Islander trio, and Yuna to Neverland, while leaving Sora to board the Kingdom with Donald, Goofy, and Jiminy. Once everyone had boarded their ships, they all launched from the port and moved to start flying side by side, until they reached a point that was well away from Traverse Town, having one final thing that they needed to do before heading out.
"All ships, this is Ventus and team Guardian Wind on board the Celsius. All ships check in and confirm your groups," Ventus reported from the bridge of his team's gummi ship.
"Cid here on the Shera. Team Destiny's Embrace is ready to roll," the gummi engineer reported with a grin that was shared by everyone in said team.
"This is Sora on the Kingdom. Team Kingdom Key is ready to take the tournament at Olympus Coliseum by storm," Sora reported, gripping the controls of their ship tightly in an effort to contain his eagerness for action.
"All right, this is it. Everyone, you know your destinations, so lock coordinates in and set Warp-Gs for maximum power. Let's punch it," Ven ordered, and a moment later, the sky was lit up as the three ships all shot off into interspace at warp speed, each heading for a different destination that promised a battle that they would have to bring nothing short of their A-Game and more in order to win.
While heroes were moving to keep the Realm of Light safe, Riku was continuing on in his long trek to find whoever had spoken to him before or the light he had sensed earlier. He had sparse communication with whoever that person who spoke to him was since that first time, but he had soon lost contact completely. Riku was not sure if that meant the guy was out of range or something else, but he was not getting too tied up about it since he had picked up a trace of that light he had sensed earlier again. With no other ideas on a direction to go, Riku just figured it would not hurt to try and trust his instincts again and followed after this light, even if he was a little hesitant to do so. After all, his instincts had lead him into allying with Maleficent and the guy who had caused him to end up in this place, so he was not entirely sure about going with a gut feeling right now, even if it was all he had to go on for the moment. Still, there was not much he could do to change that case, so he had to believe that he could trust his instincts here.
Of course, said instincts also tended to remind him that he was all alone in this place, and he was surprised that he was not starting to receive audible answers when he started to talk to himself, or really just think out loud. This was definitely a place that Riku could see messing with your head if you were not careful, and if the person that mystery light belonged to had been here long enough, he had a hunch that they would be at least a little off in the head. Then again, another part of him could not help but feel like this person was stronger than that for some reason. Maybe it had something to do with how familiar they felt when he sensed them the first time, or maybe he was just praying that was the case because it meant that there would be hope for him if he ended up stuck here for very long. Riku did not really care what the case was right now. All he wanted to do was find the person who the voice was looking for and then find the "key that belongs to this world," as the voice had called it.
Right now, the only thing that Riku could see that belonged in this world was shadows, darkness, and a general feeling of creepiness that made him feel a bit disgusted by how he had given into such powers so easily before. The more he thought about it, the more he felt like he should have known how dangerous such powers are, and yet, it was not until he was now in this place of never-ending darkness that Riku truly realized how evil the darkness was. Riku wanted nothing more than to be rid of his dark powers forever, and yet, the dark flares he could feel inside of him seemed intent on preventing that. He tried to ignore it, he tried to push it down, and he tried to do everything else he could to keep it out of his system, but no matter what Riku tried, it always managed to find a way to come back into him in these painful bursts, and he just could not understand why. He wanted to get rid of this power; he wanted it gone, so why was it not going away? What did he have to do to get rid of this horrible thing that had caused him to nearly destroy his best friends?
Riku was not going to get his answer any time soon, but what he was going to get was an ambush by the Heartless. One that consisted of several Shadows, NeoShadows, and some winged ones that he did not know about until now, and from the way they were all glaring at him, Riku just knew that they were not looking to be his friends. The Shadows were the first to pounce, with NeoShadows closing in to claw away at him soon after, but Riku managed to dodge them with a spin of flipping and rolling. Normally, he would have fought back, but he did not have a weapon on him, and even if he did, he was not really feeling like he was in fighting condition at the moment, given how the darkness in him would keep flaring up at the most random of moments. Besides, maybe if he managed to get away from these guys, the darkness inside of him would go away. It was a silly thought, sure, but Riku was clearly getting desperate enough to not really care at this point.
"Get away from me," Riku shouted as he jumped out of the way from another NeoShadow's attack. Apparently, the winged ones did not get that memo, because they were soon ramming into him from behind, and he was quickly knocked into the midst of some Shadows that were already prepared to dog-pile him once he had fallen. Soon after, several NeoShadows joined the dog-pile, and it was all Riku could do to just move around in an attempt to keep them off him, until finally, he just burst in more ways than one. "I said…leave me ALONE!"
The last word of his previous sentence had been quickly punctuated by the more fearsome blast of the dark powers inside him, but what had Riku really surprised and worried was that it did not feel like a random flare. This time, he knew that he had made it happen intentionally, and that was what really scared him. "What…What did…Just do," Riku stuttered, glancing down at himself in slight horror, until he registered that something was starting to form in his right hand. He glanced down just in time to see a haze of shadows disappearing to reveal that he was holding Soul Eater firmly in his grasp, much to his surprise. "So now you're back too, huh," Riku mused as he looked the sword over. He then fixed a glare on the Heartless that were still attempting to corner him, dropped into his usual battle stance, and decided, "Fine. Then if you won't leave, I'll just have to make you go away!"
Just like that, Riku was throwing everything he could at the Heartless. He was slashing, bashing, and blasting every one of them that he could, though the blasting came much more rarely since he did not want to use his dark powers too much. Sure, he was okay with fighting off the Heartless now, but that did not mean he was going to start using darkness against them. He was not even entirely sure if it would work, especially since he was in their domain. Sure, they got blown back by that explosion he unleashed a minute ago, but that probably could have just been a small coincidence, or they could have been blasted back by the mere push of the explosion, so why take the chance and do it more than was strictly necessary in his eyes? Besides, it was not like he needed to use the darkness that much. His swordplay alone was turning out to be enough to beat back the Heartless, and Riku was going to stick with that as much as he could for as long as possible.
That idea turned out to have a few more holes in it than Riku realized, because while the NeoShadows and Shadows were easily dealt with, the winged Heartless were still a very serious problem, mainly because they remained out of his reach until they got an opening to attack him, a rare sign of strategic planning on the Heartless' part. Add in the fact that Riku did not have very much experience fighting enemies that were up in the air, and you could see just why Riku was soon getting overwhelmed again. At this point though, Riku did not really see much point in winning. He was just trying to open up a path for him to escape, so he simply ignored any of the Heartless he could not beat and focused on slashing his way through the ones that he could. It was not much of a better plan, but as previously mentioned, Riku was getting desperate, only now it was showing even more than before.
Riku's desperation soon became his undoing, as the Heartless finally knocked him off balance, and he fell to the ground, dropping Soul Eater when he did. He would have tried to stand back up again, but at the moment, he was feeling incredibly tired, and the dark energies inside of him were flaring more painfully than ever, like they knew he had nothing left to give in his efforts to contain them. Apparently, the Heartless could feel it too, because they were closing in on him slowly, like predators stalking their prey when they knew said prey was cornered with nowhere left to run. No matter where he looked now, Riku could not see any way out of this, so he just sighed in defeat, closed his eyes, and seemed to accept that it seemed to be his fate to begin and end this spiral into darkness alone. All the same, he still whispered, "Sora…Kairi…I'm so sorry for what happened…And all the trouble I caused. I just wish that I still had time to make things right again. Maybe…Maybe now I can truly…Be one with the darkness…and fade away forever. I guess that it's just how things were meant to be for me."
As it turned out, the ending blow that Riku had expected never came. There were no sudden dog-piles, no barrage of vicious slashes, and not even a simple kick or hit to the head. Instead, Riku only felt a faint light glimmering around him, and a moment later, he felt a gust of wind suddenly blew past him while the sounds of the Heartless being obliterated rang through his ears. When the last sound of a Heartless being destroyed finally faded, a new voice spoke to Riku, and it was one that he immediately recognized as the one that had spoken to him before, only this time, it was clear as day, and clearly much closer than before. "Don't worry. You're safe now," the voice squeaked, but Riku still refused to open his eyes, unable to really believe that. That soon ended when he felt something gently grab his hand as if to check and see if he had a pulse, and the same person then asked, "Riku? Are you okay?"
Feeling the sensation of someone holding his arm is what finally brought Riku to open his eyes, and when he did, he was a little surprised at the sight of the person in question. The main reason being that said person was actually a large mouse who was probably only tall enough to reach his waist at most, that is if you were to include his large, round ears in the measure of his height. Aside from that though, he looked just like any other mouse with black fur and a long, thin tail, and he was clad in a black shirt that was lined with white lines, and with a red ring along the cuffs of his sleeves beneath a black vest with two yellow buttons near the bottom, and a zipper that reached about halfway down the vest. His red pants appeared to be rather baggy with white lining along the pockets, while the pant legs appeared to be pulled up slightly by elastic blue straps, and his big shoes were yellow with the tips and lower halves being black, while a pair of blue straps intersected over the tops of both shoes. Rounding out his appearance, and probably the simplest part of the mouse's attire was a pair of large white gloves, and yet somehow, Riku still felt like he could feel the mouse's bare hand running along his arm in continued attempts to rouse him.
"What…Who are you," Riku finally asked.
"Oh! Right. I guess with everything that's been going on, I never did introduce myself when we spoke earlier," the mouse chuckled with a sheepish smile. "Well, my name's Mickey. Mickey Mouse and I'm the king of Disney Castle and a Keyblade master like your friend's teacher, Ventus."
"King of…you mean that you're that king that Sora has been helping those other guys look for," Riku asked.
"Yep, the very same," Mickey confirmed. "Although, I really only meant for them to stick with Sora and Ven so that they could help protect the worlds while I was here looking for what we needed save the worlds from the Heartless, and so that I could try to find an old friend."
Riku would have liked to ask Mickey a few more questions, but his attention was quickly drawn away when several more Heartless suddenly appeared to surround them, including a number of the winged ones that were giving Riku so much trouble before. In an instant, Riku was back on his feet again, scooping up Soul Eater as he stood, and Mickey had spun around to glare down on the Heartless as well, summoning his Keyblade as he did. Riku only paid little attention to the Keyblade in question, but he did notice enough about it to realize that it was also different from Sora's, much like Ventus's Keyblade was. Mickey's Keyblade was mainly blue with a blade that was decorated with stars, while the teeth were a crescent moon and star. The guard appeared to be made of two shooting stars, and if he had a chance to look at it, Riku would have noticed that the Keychain was designed like a crescent moon. At the moment though, Riku was really more concerned with the Heartless that were surrounding them, including one massive monster that appeared to be a large swarm of Shadows that towered upwards like a tornado.
"Okay, that's new," Riku admitted, having never seen the Heartless do anything like that before. "And I'm definitely not happy to see those overgrown bats again."
"The 'bats,' as you called them, are called Flutterings, and as for the Demon Tower, it mainly exists here in Dark World, which is only accessible through the Realm of Darkness. Many things are possible for creatures of darkness when they're in their own realm," Mickey growled as he began to summon forth a powerful aura of light, clearly intent on fighting through these Heartless no matter what was thrown at him.
Barely even a moment later, Riku was fighting again, this time alongside Mickey, but if you were to ask him, Riku would tell you that he was just unnecessary support in this fight, because Mickey was dealing out a vast majority of the damage that the Heartless were being dealt. The little guy was moving so fast, he was like a blur racing around the Heartless and dealing out damage that could not be noticed until after he had struck, and none of the dark creatures seemed to be able to even touch him. At one point, Riku could not help but notice that when the king had paused, one Heartless did try to grab him, only to end up being vaporized by a powerful wave of light a second later, so he had to wonder if they really could not touch Mickey. Then again, the guy was glowing with a powerful aura of light magic, and he did not hesitate to throw out even more of said magic by blasting away with several orbs of light that extinguished the Heartless with just by passing near them.
Riku's observation of the king's very amazing abilities ultimately left him open to an attack from some Flutterings, and his cry of pain immediately drew Mickey's attention back over to him. The mouse king immediately spun around to destroy the trio of NeoShadows that he had already been fighting, and then rushed over to Riku in order to cast an effective healing spell in order to help the boy. "Try to stay focused, Riku," Mickey advised. "We need to get through this fight together if we want to help Ven and the others save the worlds."
"Right," Riku nodded in response, and he quickly rejoined the fight with his strength fully restored again. This time, he put all of his focus into his own battles, while leaving any further analysis of Mickey's fighting style for later, and this proved to be very beneficial in their efforts, because the Heartless were soon fighting an uphill battle against the pair. Even the Demon Tower seemed unable to really handle the two for very long, as it swung around and threw out several Shadows many times, only to have its swings repelled either by Mickey's light magic or a dark shield that Riku managed to conjure up without even thinking, while the Shadows it deployed were quickly dispersed and destroyed by one of the two in a few simple sword strokes.
Eventually, the fight finally came to an end, and any remaining Heartless were quick to run away from the two combatants in fear after seeing how their fellow creatures of darkness were so handily defeated. When they finally left, Riku huffed out a long breath of relief and dropped to the ground, with Soul Eater clamoring to the ground next to him before it disappeared into the shadows that it had previously been summoned from. Mickey was quick to approach the boy in order to make sure that he was okay, but Riku quickly waved him off, insisting that he was fine. That statement was quickly disproven when the darkness inside of him suddenly flared again, much to his frustration and Mickey's slight panic.
"No, not now," Riku growled in pain, attempting to push the darkness out of him, hoping that he would make it clear that it was not welcome inside of him anymore once again. "Why won't…you just…go away!"
"Try to push it down, Riku," Mickey cried out. "If you let out here, the Heartless will come running back, and with much more powerful reinforcements than the last time."
"So what? I need to keep it inside me or risk getting torn apart? I'm not sure which is worse," Riku complained with a grunt. "I don't really care what they send at this point. I just want this power gone."
"But…but you can't get rid of the darkness inside of you," Mickey revealed, surprising Riku a little. "Every heart has darkness in it…well, almost every heart anyway, but it's still just a natural part of who we are. All we can really do is try to keep it contained inside of us so that it can never take control of who we are."
"I don't know if you've noticed or just forgot, but it's a little late for that in my case," Riku pointed out.
"Well yeah, you did let the power of darkness into you, but you can still control it, right," Mickey asked, confusing Riku a little. "That Heartless may have taken over your body, but that wasn't all his darkness that you were using, or that of the Heartless. Those first fires of dark power all came from inside of you, and since it is a power that came from you, then that means that you can control it."
Riku mulled this over for a minute before he finally nodded in response, closed his eyes, and attempted to focus a little better, mentally commanding the darkness flaring inside of him to go back down to where it had come from. After a few more minutes, the painful flares finally ceased, and he could feel the darkness inside him finally calming down. When the power and pain finally subsided at last, Riku began panting in exhaustion, making Mickey concerned once again. When the king tried to approach, Riku just waved him off again, saying, "I'm okay…I just need a minute to…to catch my breath."
"Well that may be all that you do have, because we need to get moving," Mickey revealed with a serious expression. "If we're going to seal the Door to Darkness, we still need to find the Kingdom Key of this world, and since we're hoping to make extra sure that it stays closed, we also need to find my long-lost, old friend."
Riku nodded in understanding, and finally managed to stand up, though he did so a little shakily at first, and needed Mickey to support him when he nearly fell again. When he was finally on his feet, Riku decided that now was as good time as any to ask. "How did you get here, anyway?"
"I just followed the light from your heart," Mickey explained, surprising Riku a little. Mickey then smiled, knowing what had the boy so confused, and explained, "Just because your heart had been filled with so much darkness, doesn't mean that the light inside of you was ever extinguished. Deep down inside, there's always at least a little bit of light in everyone." The king's face then fell into a bit of a scowl as he amended, "Well…almost everyone. People who truly let darkness into them entirely rarely ever have any light left in them. I know of only person who has done that, and there's without a doubt, no chance of the light ever finding him again."
"I see," Riku nodded. "And I'm glad that you did find me, but what I actually meant was how did you get into this place?" At Mickey's confused look, Riku elaborated, "How did you get into this world of darkness? Maybe we could use it to get back out."
Mickey's expression then fell quite a bit at that, while appearing somewhat sheepish at the same time as well, somehow as he explained, "I hate to tell you this, Riku, but we can't use the path I took to get in here to escape, even if we wanted to. You see, it's not so easy getting into the Realm of Darkness in general, let alone, getting back out, especially now. As far as I've learned, it's only when a world gets consumed by darkness that an entrance appears in the realm between, so I just had to wait for a chance to sneak in."
"Oh…So then…You got in here, when…" Riku started to ask, having a feeling he knew exactly what world's falling had opened the path for the king.
"Yeah. It was when your world, Destiny Islands fell that I finally found a way into this place," Mickey admitted with a sad smile, knowing just how much hurt hearing that was causing for the boy before him.
Riku sighed sadly before turning his gaze towards the sky and saying, "I don't think anyone's ever going to forgive me when they find out what I did, and I'm sure that Sora and Kairi have already told the others who made it out safely by now. I'm not even sure if I can forgive myself. I destroyed my home and all because I just wanted to leave it so badly."
"Hey, don't be so hard on yourself, Riku," Mickey encouraged. "You made a mistake, sure, but the fact that you feel bad about it proves that you're still yourself on the inside. You just gotta help all of your other friends see that, and when they do, I'm sure that they'll be able to forgive you. Besides, if you hadn't done what you did, you and your friends probably wouldn't have been able to become the only hope for the worlds, and we may not have ever met."
When he heard that, Riku could not help but let a small, friendly smile grace his features for what felt like the first time in ages, and he asked, "You're really optimistic, huh?"
"Well of course! After all, there's no real point in focusing on all the bad stuff all the time, because doing that can only make you and the people you care about suffer even more. The only thing you can do to make things right, is to accept that sometimes, bad things do happen, and while we will occasionally make bad choices, we can always make things right again by never giving up hope and always keeping our friends in our hearts. That's something that some real good friends reminded me about a long time ago when I was in a dark place that I thought I didn't have a way out of."
Hearing such words of encouragement brought Riku's spirits up a little more, and he gave the rather wise king a small nod of thanks, to which Mickey could only smile brightly in response. The two then gazed at their surroundings a little in silence after that, until Riku finally said, "That friend of yours that you're trying to find here…Would it happen to be another Keyblade master?"
"Yep, I'm sure of it," Mickey proudly declared. "And if I'm right, then it's also someone that Ven and I have been trying to find for a very long time. Plus, if we're really going to make sure that we succeed, then I'm sure that we're going to need her help."
"Well then, I guess we can't afford to waste anymore time," Riku decided, turning in a seemingly random direction. "Just before I was attacked, I was following a strong light coming from that direction, and I can still feel it coming from there, but it's slowly getting weaker, like something's trying to overpower it."
"Then we've gotta hurry," Mickey determined, turning a confident look in the same direction, showing that he could sense that same light too. "I'm not losing anymore of my friends to darkness, and especially not Aqua. Not after all this time."
Riku nodded in agreement, even if he did not fully understand why this was so important to Mickey, and the two immediately raced off in the direction that the powerful light was coming from. Hoping that they could reach it before whatever darkness was bearing down upon it had a chance to snuff it out. What they did not know, was that Aqua had in fact been fighting against the darkness of this place at that very moment, in what seemed to be the ruins of Dwarf Woodlands, and she felt like she was starting to lose.
The blue haired Keyblade master's long journey through Dark World had started out peacefully enough in this particular area, until a strange set of mirrors suddenly pulled her into a fight against a phantom of herself that seemed to take great pleasure in announcing all of her doubts to the worlds. Aqua had never would have believed that she would literally become her own worst enemy, but she knew that this phantom was more than just another enemy to fight. She was the weakness in Aqua's heart. This more than anything proved that the countless hours of wandering were starting to get to Aqua, and she feared that this was a sign that the darkness had finally found the cracks in her heart. What scared her even more was that the phantom she fought against was likely to be the final apparition she would face before the darkness finally took her over.
Aqua did not want it to end here. She still had so much left that she had to do, and she had to get back to her friends somehow, but no one was able to avoid losing faith forever, and her resolve was finally beginning to wane. Despite the promises she had made to Ven, Sora, and Kairi, Aqua was truly beginning to feel doubts about her escape from this place seeping into her very being, and the sights that were beginning to surround her as she continued her wandering were not really proving to be encouraging. "Another world I know," Aqua admitted as she entered what looked to be the woods of Enchanted Dominion, or what was left of them at least.
Her analysis of the area soon came to a halt though when her eyes finally found a pair of familiar figures walking just a few feet ahead of her, and her heart seemed to flutter a little at the sight of them. "Terra. Ven," Aqua silently cheered, tears of joy beginning to form in the corner of her eyes at the sight of the two, even as she started to rush towards them. A moment later though, the two boys suddenly began fading into particles of light, making her slow down for only a moment as she thought over what this meant. "Are they…phantoms…?" She wondered, but she quickly pushed that concern aside, even when they disappeared completely, causing her to pause in her pursuit. "I don't care if they are, or if I fall into the darkness. I miss them!"
A moment later, a vast swarm of thorns sprung up from the ground in front of her, just as Aqua was about to rush forward again. When she realized this was happening, Aqua immediately summoned Master's Defender into her hand and leapt back out of reflex, glaring up at the overgrown vines so intensely that you would think they would instantly burst into flames at any moment under her gaze, or that she was just naming the vines as her newest target for the blame of keeping her from her friends. Either way, she was not going to let some weeds impede her journey, and Aqua made that very clear as she angrily shouted, "Get out of my way!"
If he were being totally honest, Ven actually would have preferred to have Leon and his gang backing him up, but he knew that they would be of more help to Kairi since having so many experienced fighters would make up for her lack of in-field experience. That said, he would have sent some of these guys with Sora, but the Olympus Coliseum games only allowed a team of up to four people, and somehow, Ven had a feeling that whatever threat Sora would be facing was going to be much easier to deal with than the Phantom or Kurt Zisa. At least, he had to hope it was, plus, with Donald and Goofy there, he had to believe that Sora could handle the matter there. So, he had to figure that, even though these kids were not that experienced in fighting major Heartless like this boss, their numbers would turn out to be a huge advantage in their favor. Plus, there was always the fact that he could ask Peter Pan for help too, so his worries were not too great.
Although, he did wish he could test out the combat capabilities of these kids a bit more thoroughly, but as it stood, they could only make do with what he could learn in one of the ship's cargo holds. Needless to say, he was a little impressed, but not to a great extent. Tidus tended to prioritize his swordplay over everything else, and while Wakka would infuse his attacks with magic elements, Ven knew that such a tactic would drain him of his magic reserves very quickly. Selphie was a bit of a wild card, given that she was very skilled with her nunchucks, but would throw out some magic at random moments, so Ven was not entirely sure how to measure her skills. Yuna turned out to be the best when it came to magic, but that only made sense since she was a summoner of Spira, so Ven had to figure that she was probably the most practiced warrior out of the entire group. Still, despite whatever weaknesses this group had, Ven chose to focus on their strengths, and how they could make up for the weak points of another member on the team.
The blonde Keyblade master did not have too much time to plan though, as the ship's alarms soon let them know that they had reached their destination. Seeing as it was their first time seeing another world from this position, aside from Traverse Town, Ven did allow the group a minute to gaze down on Neverland in awe for a minute before finally herding everyone over to the Celsius's teleporter. A moment later, they had all appeared down in the captain's cabin of Hook's ship, and Ven had to admit, he was a little surprised that there were no Heartless waiting to ambush them, and that Hook had not already returned to reclaim his vessel. Then again, Peter and Tinker Bell were both already there waiting for them, so that did explain why the old codfish was not already back yet.
"Hey, took you long enough," Peter joked when he saw Ven. "Tink said you guys were going to be coming to help deal with that Heartless, but I figured you would've been here sooner." He then glanced over at the group Ven had brought with him and added, "And that you would have Sora, Donald, and Goofy with you when you came. Who're these guys?"
"Sora and the others have some other things to take care of right now that are just as important as this Heartless. These guys volunteered to help me out with dealing with the Phantom," Ventus explained as simply as he could without revealing anything about other worlds to Peter. He then waved to the four and made some quick introductions before getting right down to business. "So, where is our dark friend right now, anyway?"
"He's over at the clock tower. From what Tink saw, this Phantom thing has possessed it or something so that anyone who gets close gets blasted with some weird spell that puts a countdown on them that runs along with the clock. I didn't think it was a good idea to stick around long enough to find out what happened when it reached zero, so we flew back here. I'm just glad that the spell was canceled once we had gotten far enough away," Peter explained with a hint of grimness in his tone.
"That sounds similar to a spell from Spira," Yuna gasped, making everyone turn to her. "It's a kind of black magic that a friend of mine said is sometimes used by a few monsters that threaten the people of my home. She told me that it's called Doom. It basically places a countdown on the target, and when it hits zero, they either end up in a deep, unconscious state at best, or just…dead at worst."
"Yeah, I don't like the sound of that," Wakka shivered in reply.
"Maybe we have a way to counter it in this instance," Ven reasoned, having already processed all the newest information. "If the countdown of this spell runs along with the clocks on the clock tower, then maybe we can prevent it from running down with a time spell."
Yuna hummed in thought when she heard that, until she finally said, "If this were the normal Doom spell, then I would say that it wouldn't work, but in this case, I think that it is possible."
"Well then, I guess we now know our plan. Avoid the Phantom's attacks, hit it with whatever element matches the color of the orb inside it when its revealed, and use time magic to stop the clock," Selphie confidently cheered.
"You make it sound so easy," Tidus teased, though it was obviously an attempt to cover up how worried he really was.
"Just remember that we will be flying when we fight it, so keep your eyes on ever direction around you," Ventus reminded the four, knowing that chances of them entering an aerial battle had gone up to a complete guarantee after learning the Phantom was at the clock tower. When the four nodded in reply, Ven looked over to the fairy of their group and said, "Well, you know the drill, Tink. Give us your best shot."
Tinker Bell immediately saluted in reply and quickly spread pixie dust over Ven and the other boys of the group, but it did not go unnoticed that she intentionally avoided giving any to Yuna and Selphie. "Tink, Yuna and Selphie too," Ventus told the pixie, his tone showing that this was not up for debate. Tinker Bell just crossed her arms and looked away with a huff, making Ven sigh tiredly before he began to appeal to the jealous fairy's better nature. "Come on, Tink. We're going to need their help to stop that Heartless and keep your home safe." He then lowered his voice and added, "Besides, I doubt either of them would be interested in Peter, so you don't have to worry about that."
Tinker Bell immediately gained a slight dusting of pink on her cheeks, and immediately raced over to the girls so that she could avoid having anyone see her blushing. Both girls giggled a little as the pixie dust fell on them, making the others think that they felt like they were being tickled by the small shower somehow. Whatever the case, it did not matter, because they were all now ready to fly over to the clock tower, and Peter did not waste any time in leading the way there as they all flew in formation with each other. They would have taken the time to watch in awe as the sunny, peaceful island where no one ever grew up disappeared and became replaced with the night skies and bustling city of London, but with the mission they were on being so important, they knew they had to focus, so none of them really bothered trying to take in the sights and surroundings beyond what was actually important.
Making sure they all stay focused is what allowed Tidus to spot the massive Heartless boss coming up on their right, just before it took a swing at Ven with its large claws as it passed. Thankfully, Tidus managed to intercept that attack with his own sword before Ven was hit, but they all still came to a halt in midair as they watched the Phantom float over to a position directly in front of the clock tower. Looking it over, they could all see that the Phantom lived up to its name, but if one were to add a scythe, they would have to say that it would have made more sense to name it something like Grim Reaper. The fact that there did not seem to be anything underneath its large cloak only served to make it a little more disturbing. Uneasy or not, they all still drew weapons and prepared to charge, with Peter making the first move, against Ven's better advisement. As a result, the Neverlander ended up getting hit with the Doom spell that he himself had warned the group about, and they all watched as several ghostly flames appeared on the numbers of each face of the clock tower, while the long hand started to slowly countdown from their starting position at the top.
"I need some covering fire," Ven immediately shouted, and Wakka, Selphie, and Yuna were all happy to oblige by throwing out a few long distance attacks, Wakka with his ball, and the girls with magic. None of the attacks did any damage to the Phantom, but they were not meant to, as Ven just needed the Phantom's attention off him long enough to reach the clock tower and cast a time spell. When he finally got close enough, he immediately aimed Guardian Wind towards it, and shouted, "Stopra!"
The minute he had cast the second level version of the time spell, the hands on the clocks all froze, and when he turned to Peter, Ven breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that the countdown above his friend's head had also come to a halt as well. "Yuna was right! We can stop the Phantom's Doom spell with time magic," Ven informed the others.
"That's great, but how long will it last," Tidus asked as he dived down to avoid getting hit by another swing from the Heartless boss.
"Considering I used an advanced version of said spell, I'd say it'll last a good while," Ventus replied as he rushed over, casting an Aeroga Shield on everyone he passed. When he finally came into the battle zone again, he cast the defensive spell around everyone he had not already done so for, climbing upwards in order to avoid a blast of dark magic that the Phantom fired at him seconds later, and added, "It still won't last forever, so keep an eye on either the clock tower or the countdown above Peter's head. The minute either start going again, let me or anyone else who can at least cast Stop know."
Everyone nodded in response, and then returned their focus to the Phantom, just in time to see that its core had appeared from beneath its cloak, and Ven immediately caught notice of its blue color. Remembering what Jiminy had said, Ven quickly went into action by throwing out all of his best ice magic, be it Blizzaga, Freeze Raid, or the Absolute Zero Shotlock. He was not alone in his icy attack, as Selphie was quickly throwing out a few ice spells of her own, with Wakka enchanting his ball with some ice magic before throwing or kicking it towards the core as hard as he could. It was not going to last forever though, as Selphie's last ice spell hit right after the core had changed from blue to red, signifying the need to change elements. True to the nature of his usual fighting style, Ven did just that and started using any fire-based ability or magic he knew, with Yuna jumping in moments later with some fire spells of her own. They only got a few hits in before the orb changed again, but this time, it turned white, signifying that the Phantom was now open to an attack from all of them.
Everyone immediately rushed in to hit the Phantom's core with everything they had, and between Wakka's various Blitzball strikes, Selphie's nunchucks, and the sword skills of Tidus, Ven, and Peter, anyone would think that the Phantom would be feeling enough pain right now to be slowed down at least a little bit. That did not turn out to be the case, as the Phantom was still just as swift in its attacks as ever, even before it reabsorbed its core into its cloak. In fact, if Ven had to guess, he had to figure that they might have actually ticked it off a little with their surprisingly well-coordinated strike against it, because it was now coming after them with a vengeance. It was clawing and slashing at them left and right, and when it was not doing that, it was firing energy blasts at them that drained them of their strength while regenerating the Phantom's own power. They only found out the latter of those two after Wakka made the mistake of flying up when he should have rolled to the side in order to dodge one such blast, and even after getting healed by Yuna, Wakka was still clearly feeling a bit drained.
Ven could only snarl in annoyance at this turn of events, and, upon deciding that it was time to kick things up a notch, he slapped his shoulder guard and summoned out his armor. When the armor had fully materialized, Ventus quickly charged in, blasting the Phantom with a few wind spells as he went, thinking that it might force the Heartless's core to reappear again. Sadly, his efforts proved futile, because the core did not appear by the time Ven had reached the Phantom, but that did not stop him, as he was soon unleashing a few close-combat strikes that he was sure would help with the encouragement. He did succeed in a sense, but it was not in the way that he wanted. The only thing that Ven encouraged was for the Phantom to deal another blow to him, and this time, he was sent flying right into the clock tower. Selphie immediately rushed to Ven's side to help him back up, and while she was doing that, the core did finally appear, this time in a shade of yellow, which prompted Yuna and Wakka to start hitting it with lightning based attacks. When it turned white again, Tidus and Peter took the chance to rush in and start slashing away at the core, only to manage a few hits before it disappeared again and they were slapped aside by the Phantom, just as Ven had finally regained all of his senses.
After making sure the two boys were able to correct their flight paths before they were blown too far away from the battle, Ven turned his gaze back to the Phantom as he tried to think of another way to expose the Phantom's core. None of his own tactics had much luck, and he was not entirely sure that any of his Command Styles would be able to do the job either, and that was assuming he could get the time to build up the energy that he needed for so much as one of those abilities. Then there was the matter of how they hit it, because they could only do so with one element based on the core's color, and for the most part, only he, Selphie, Yuna, and to some extent Wakka were able to do so. Ven knew that there was little chance of them being able to encourage the Phantom to change its core to an element they could all hit it with, so he quickly cast that idea aside in favor of just trying to think of a way to get the core out into the open.
Surprisingly, Ventus ended up not needing to, because Yuna beat him to the punch after she had called out her summon, Valefor, and had the avian creature attack with a powerful gust of wind that it summoned forth by flapping its large, dragon-like wings. When the blasts hit, the Phantom ended up getting blasted away, and its cloak was soon pushed back enough for its core to be completely exposed. Not only that, but Ven was surprised to see that they were lucky enough for it to be unveiled at a moment when it had turned white, signifying that it could be hit by physical attacks. He was wondering just how they could luck out to such an extent, but he put it aside for later, and instead shouted, "Anyone who can hit with nonelemental strikes, give him everything you've got now!"
"Valefor, hit it with Energy Blast now," Yuna commanded, and the aeon immediately fired several destructive beams at the Phantom's core, causing it to do far more than just flinch under the assault. In point of fact, the Phantom had ended up getting blasted right into of Peter and Tidus's range of attack, allowing both boys to start slashing it with some of their best sword strikes and moves.
They both flew back when they saw the core change to a blue color, and Yuna and Selphie both took that moment to begin blasting it again and again with their best ice spells. The girls kept this up for a few more minutes until the core changed colors again, this time showing it was vulnerable to lightning, and Wakka did not hesitate to coat his ball with lightning magic before launching it towards the core. Despite its dazed state, the Phantom still managed to dodge Wakka's pitch, and Ven could only watch in dismay as the electrified ball hurtled on towards the ground far below. At least until Tidus suddenly came around and kicked it back towards the Phantom. When the ball hit, it came straight back at Tidus, who immediately kicked it upwards before head butting it back at the Phantom, striking the Heartless's core again. Once more, the ball ricocheted back to Tidus, only for him to punch back to where it came, and have it bounce back off the core and up above him. Tidus watched the ball climb higher and higher before shooting upwards as well, and after spinning around in the air several times, he nailed the ball with a hard kick that sent it flying right into the core again before it finally returned to Wakka, while the Phantom was pushed back a short distance.
Ven could barely do anything more than stare at the two boys, hardly believing what they just pulled off. The teamwork between them alone was impressive, but the shot that Tidus just made had rendered him speechless, and that was without thinking about whether or not the younger blonde had ended up hurt by the electrically infused ball at any point. He quickly shook it off though when he realized that the core had changed colors again, this time showing it was vulnerable to fire again, and he immediately infused Guardian Wind with fire magic in order to unleash Fire Surge on the Phantom. Ven immediately followed up that attack with a round of the Flame Salvo Shotlock, peppering it over and over again with fireballs, until he saw the core turn white again. Taking his chance, Ven charged in, Keyblade at the ready, and swung at the core with one, final strike that made the Heartless finally freeze in midair.
After Ventus had flown a safe distance from the Heartless, everyone watched it with baited breath, as it slowly floated backwards to the clock tower, waving erratically and with little stability as it did. None of them even considered releasing their breath until at long last, the ghostly flames on the clock tower disappeared just as the hands had started to move again. When the flames vanished, the clock tower's hands also came to a stop as well, and the Phantom was soon clutching its abdomen, doubling over like someone who had received a particularly hard hit to the stomach, and allowing them all to catch a brief glimpse of the Heartless emblem on its back right before a crystal heart suddenly emerged from its cloak and floated upwards into the sky, disappearing when it had gotten high enough. With the heart inside of it gone, the Phantom slowly started to drop to the ground, only to never reach the surface, as it faded away from existence after getting halfway down.
After looking down to where their foe had been until a few seconds ago for a minute, the tense silence was quickly broken by Peter holstering his dagger and letting lose his signature victory crow for all to hear. When they heard him, the other Destiny Islands kids let out their exclamations of victory, with Yuna just giggling cutely at the impromptu celebrations, and Ven allowing a relieved smile to cross his features as he dismissed Guardian Wind. Once everyone had finished their respective victory cheers, they all flew over to the top of the clock tower, where Ventus immediately gave Peter and Tinker Bell his thanks for their help, and the two informed Yuna and the Destiny Islands kids that they were welcome to come back to Neverland any time they wanted before flying back home.
Once his two friends were out of sight, Ven looked to the group with a smile and said, "Nice work, you guys. You've definitely shown that you could hold your own, even in a tough battle like that."
"Hey, we may not be in the same strength level as Sora and Riku, but we can still put up a good fight, ya," Wakka boasted proudly.
"I'm just glad that monster is gone," Yuna admitted with a hand to her chest as she panted slightly. Seeing her so exhausted immediately drew Tidus to her side, and Yuna was quick to show him her gratitude with a small smile of thanks.
The level of cuteness between the two just now would have continued to escalate, had Selphie not opened her mouth and asked, "Are you guys going to share a victory kiss now? Don't mind us if you do. You can pretend we're not here."
"SELHPIE," Tidus snapped in protest, turning away so that neither Yuna or the others could see how red his face had become. Yuna had done the same as him, but went the extra mile of trying to hide it by covering her cheeks with both hands. There was nothing she could do about the smile on her face though.
Wakka, Selphie, and Tidus all shared a good laugh at that remark, but all good things had to come to an end, and Ventus brought that end a little more quickly when he finally calmed down enough to speak again. "Jokes and cute moments between lovebirds aside, we've still got work to do," the Keyblade master reminded them, getting in one more tease at Yuna and Tidus's expense while he was at it. "We should get back to the ship and try to rendezvous with either Sora or Kairi's group as quickly as possible."
Everyone nodded in agreement with that, and as soon as they had all teleported back up to the Celsius, Ventus programmed the navigation to set course of Agrabah, knowing it was closer for them, even with use of the Warp-G. Sure, he knew that would mean leaving Sora, Donald, and Goofy to fend for themselves a little bit longer, but considering that there should be a minimal amount of danger in a tournament at Olympus Coliseum, Ven was sure that his apprentice and friends could handle themselves for now. That did not stop a rather odd, uncomfortable feeling from forming in his stomach though, and Ven did not like what it could mean as it grew more and more with each passing second that they drew closer to Agrabah. To be honest, he was not sure if he should be hoping if it meant that they would not make it to Agrabah in time to help, or if it meant that Sora was in much more danger than he was expecting the kid to be.
Ventus eventually managed to shake it off as just the nerves one would expect a teacher to have for his student, and put all of his focus into flying the ship. There was not any point in getting all worked up over a bad feeling, especially if it was one that was only brought about from a teacher's concern for his apprentice. Still, given that he could feel his Wayfinder vibrating in a strange way in his pocket, Ven could not help but think that maybe his bad feeling might not have anything to do with the young Keyblade Warriors and maybe a little more to do with something else entirely.
AN: Okay, so originally, this chapter was just supposed to be learning about the secret bosses in Agrabah and Neverland, along with one of the big final tournaments at Olympus Coliseum, and then heading out, plus continuing details on Riku's journey through the Realm of Darkness. I was originally planning on making each secret boss have their own chapter, while highlighting the progress of Sora's team as they worked up through the tournament they would be entering, and maybe referencing a detail or two about how things are going for our heroes on the other side of the Door to Darkness. Unfortunately, the chapter ended up being a little too short for my tastes, so I decided that I would at least include the fight with the Phantom in here. I was also at least going to show Sora, Donald, and Goofy arriving at Olympus Coliseum and entering the tournament, but I figured that I would've just been dragging things out a little too much at that point.
That said, how many of you were expecting them to get Leon, Tidus, Yuffie, and all the others to help out in some of these fights? Yeah, that was planned since the start of things for the simple reason that I felt like those guys did not get enough action. I mean sure, you could fight against Leon and Yuffie at Olympus Coliseum, along with Cloud, but since I'm not making Sora go through such tournaments, it meant that they lost out on some actions scenes. Plus, that also meant that Cid and Aerith were left in civilian roles when we all know that both of them are fighters in their own rights as well. I mean, we all saw Aerith right there fighting Heartless on the front lines with Yuffie in KH2, so why not get both her and Cid into the field? Plus, if I'm gonna have Yuna, Tidus, Wakka, and Selphie all show up and be able to fight, do you really think I'm just gonna make them only be defenders of Traverse Town, or leave it Tidus and Yuna's battle against Sephiroth alongside our Keyblade wielding heroes?
Finally, we got to see Riku meeting up with Mickey in person a little earlier this time. I'm sure some of you might've noticed that said meeting was a mix of the ones that Mickey had when he first met Ven in BBS, and from when he found Aqua in the Realm of Darkness in BBS 0.2, right? Plus, we've got him helping Riku to learn a bit more on how he can control his darkness, so there's also that. We'll be seeing this little duo again soon enough, next chapter even, so don't think we're done with them just yet.
Now, next chapter is...You know what? There's really nothing I can say here that isn't already said in the preview, so why don't you all just go on ahead and move Onto the Preview!...
Sora and his team return to Olympus Coliseum, and immediately enter the newest tournament: the Hades Cup. Sure, the name alone is a huge clue as to who or what they might face in this tournament, but considering what it could mean for Hercules's world if they don't, the trio of friends are not too eager to just wait around for Ven or Kairi to arrive. At the same time, Kairi and the Traverse Town gang arrive on Agrabah and enter into battle with Kurt Zisa, and as she faces off with this beast, Kairi quickly begins to worry a little about how capable she is to handle the huge responsibility of ending the creature without Sora and Ven's assistance. Can Sora, Donald, and Goofy survive Hades's deadly tournament? Will Kairi and the other survivors of Hollow Bastion prove triumphant? What are the chances of Ventus and the rest of Team Guardian Wind arriving in time to help? And what about Riku and Mickey's quest to save Aqua? So many questions to be answered, so find out which ones will receive such graces, next time.
See what I mean? What more can I say at this point? Well, there is one thing, but I doubt I need to tell you what that is. Especially since I'm saying it now...
Please read and review, and see ya real soon!