This is it, folks. The final chapter of Kingdom Hearts V. It's been a blast working on this story, and I hope you're all looking forward to the next one. The background song for this chapter is Endless Forms Most Beautiful by Nightwish.
Chapter 13: One Giant Leap For Mankind:
The Moon – Hellfire Club Compound:
Explosions rippled across the surface of the moon as all three sides fought with intense ferocity. With the sudden reduction in enemy troops, the battle was quickly turning in the heroes favor. Iron Man and War Machine tore through Lorwardian and Dark Elf spaceships like butter with one Repulsor blast after another while the Hulk brought ships down with his bare hands. Thor swung his hammer to knock a squad of Lorwardian foot soldiers into space before frying them with a massive lightning bolt. Bucky and Hawkeye picked off Leroys one by one from their magical air capsule on the roof above the compound's entrance.
Loki was up to his usual tricks, confusing and disorienting Dark Elves and Lorwardians with illusions before knocking them into the air, where Vanitas quickly took them out with bursts of Darkness. Quicksilver had laid out a large portion of the soldiers of both factions of the Hellfire Club with running punches. A strike team of Dragons breathed fire, ice, and lightning at the enemy combatants below as Aqua fired off Shotlocks at the swarms. While Coalition soldiers held the exits, Dilan forced his way into a cluster of Dark Elves trying to make a run for it to create some chaos. Unfortunately, that proved to be his undoing.
Despite his speed and mastery over the wind, his Aeroga spells and other wind-based abilities were less effective in the airless vacuum of space, and the elves' plasma rifles began to overwhelm his defenses until a lucky shot hit him right in the heart, killing him instantly. Aeleus scattered the Dark Elves with a flurry of lunar soil as he rushed to his old friend's side. Though they hadn't been close friends even in their Organization XIII days, they had served in the Royal Guard together. And Malekith would pay for the death of his comrade. With a roar of fury, He swung his massive axe-sword and sent a wave of earth hurtling towards the next Dark Elf he saw before charging back into the fray.
Falcon made another strafing run to give the Silent Hero some cover while Scarlet hurled several boulders up into the fleeing ships overhead, flinging them with enough force to cripple a few of their engines. The Lorwardian fleet was now drifting aimlessly overhead as they crawled out of the way of an incoming orbital bombardment from the Hellicarrier. As the battle dragged on, bodies began to pile up on both sides. Neither the forces of Earth nor the Coalition troops really wanted to kill their enemies, but they were painfully aware of the fact that none of their foes would ever surrender, and only success or death would keep them from their mission.
Inside the lunar fortress, the strike team split up. Violet Ant-Man and the Wasp made their way towards the security station. The hallways were littered with the corpses of Leroy clones and vanilla humans wearing the skull and tentacles uniform of HYDRA, but even though they were alone, they shrunk down or turned invisible at the slightest sign of movement, just in case. Upon reaching the security center, they found that the entire room had been trashed. Computer monitors and wall-mounted screens sparked and fizzed as the lights flickered on and off. Blood and scorch marks stained the walls, ceiling, and floor, and there were more than a few bodies piled up against the back wall. The trio tensed when they heard someone enter the room and whirled around to find themselves facing a blue-skinned gargoyle with bright red hair.
"You're too late, humans," Demona spat. "Malekith has the Aethir, and with it he will remake reality in his image. The Infinity Gauntlet will be hours." Ant man didn't give her time to react before he shrunk down and attempted to punch her, only for her to swat him aside. Wasp activated the wings on her suit and began firing her stingers at the rogue Gargoyle. Violet put up a force field right as Demona attempted to claw at her, knocking the Gargoyle back. As Demona got angrier, her eyes began to glow bright red as she leaped into the battle anew with barred fangs and a menacing snarl.
While that trio dealt with Demona in the security station, Black Panther, Stitch, and the Stoppables were heading towards the hangar to keep Maleficent's lackeys from escaping aboard Captain Hook's pirate ship the old fashioned way. After wandering through corpse-filled hallways like those their comrades were finding, full of Leroys, HYDRA remnants, and the odd Dark Elf body, they emerged into a cavernous spacecraft hangar where the Jolly Roger hovered just above a set of metal steps leading up to the ship's deck. After taking brief surveillance sweep to confirm that the controls for the hangar doors were in another room that was overlooking the hangar, the group made their way towards them only to be stopped by two plumes of smoke that appeared in front of them.
One dissipated in with an accompanying flicker of orange fire to reveal the grey skinned form of Hades, while the other rose up to human height before whirling away to reveal Maleficent's raven Diablo. Currently, the shapeshifting bird was in a form with a human body, but with wicked sharp draconian claws, wisps of darkness and green fire rising off his half-human battle form as he prepared to face the intruders. In response to their sudden appearance, Black Panther activated the Vibranium claws on his suit and charged. Kim and Ron ducked under a fireball Hades sent in their directions while Stitch scuttled over to confront the Greek god.
Kim and Ron, having faced far weirder things than Diablo's human/dragon combat mode, went after the bird man. Because of the invincibility of Vibranium and Jumba's fireproofing, Stitch and T'Challa raced over to face Hades. Kim and Ron dodged the wild swings of Diablo's claws before Kim landed a swift kick in the shapeshifter's side. Meanwhile, Black Panther went straight for the lord of the underworld's exposed arm, startling Hades when the Vibranium managed to give him a scratch. Not enough to draw blood, but still enough to leave a mark. Stitch picked up the fireballs lobbed his way and threw them back, stunning the Olympian long enough for the prince of Wakanda to land a few punches unopposed. Hades quickly recovered, the fight went on.
Meanwhile Sora, Donald, Goofy, Riku, and Kairi sprinted through the twisting corridor of the citadel's command center. While Black Panther's team was covering the hangar and Vanitas' troops were holding the exits, they needed to apprehend Maleficent and her inner circle now before she could get away. It was good to finally have the gang back together, teaming up to take down the bad guys, just like old times, true, none of them missed having to deal with Xehanort's machinations, but compared to his mind screwing plots, Maleficent's straightforward plans were a breeze to deal with. Although there was no sound in the corridors they walked through, they could hear the rumble of explosions and the roar of combat coming from all directions.
Donald and Goofy brought up the rear, making sure they weren't ambushed from behind. Riku too point, checking the path ahead of them for signs of Hellfire Club troops. Sora and Kairi walked side by side in the middle of the pack. They kept their Keyblades ready as they made their way through the base. Fortunately (or unfortunately depending on how you looked at it), they didn't have to do that much fighting. The fighting between Maleficent's loyalists and Malekith's rebels had greatly reduced the Hellfire Club's ranks, meaning that they wouldn't need to spend as much time dealing with the lackeys and could devote more energy towards bringing down the Club's leadership.
Inside the central command chamber of the fortress, the villains were faring no better against each other than they were against the defenders of Earth. Yzma had already been killed, while the surviving leaders of HYDRA such as Gideon Malick and the recently rescued Baron Von Strucker had managed to escape to Earth. Things had been bad enough when Malekith had arrived, but when he managed to sway the Lorwardians to his side, Maleficent knew that it was time to fold and retreat to fight another day. Now the upper echelons of the club were in the middle of a fighting retreat as they raced to where the Jolly Roger had been docked in the base's hangar.
It was a madhouse in here. Dark Elves fought the last of the Leroy clones and the remainder of Maleficent's goons while Nebula whirled through the crowd, cutting through the elven ranks and felling them with her sword. Captain Hook alternated between sword swings and gunshots to slow down the advancing mob of Dark Elves. Though the Dark Elves were formidable, between the Avengers' high tech weapons and Nebula using their Black Hole grenades against them, the Dark Elf army had been reduced to a fifth of its original strength. And that was ignoring the women and children hiding in safety aboard the Nathalis. Hook ran his enhanced blade through an elven warrior's chest when he saw Malekith appear behind him and Advance on Maleficent's unprotected flank.
Taking aim with a fallen Dark Elf plasma rifle, Captain Hook fired straight at the Elven king's heart. His smug grin turned to horrified shock when the plasma bolt passed right through Malekith like he wasn't even there and struck Maleficent. The Mistress of All Evil stumbled back in shock as Hook threw down the weapon in horror and raced to his old friend's side, apologizing profusely as he did so. Maleficent gasped for breath as violet blood poured from the deep wound in her chest, staining her black robes as she collapsed to her knees and struggled to stay upright. Hades, who had felt her pain from down in the hangar, teleported up and lunged forward to catch her as she fell. While the hologram of Malekith flickered out of existence Hook was about to prepare a Curaga spell to heal her injuries when the real Malekith appeared behind the dark fairy and removed her head from her body.
Earth – D.E.S. Nathalis:
Malekith and his lieutenant looked out the window in triumph from the safety of their cloaked command ship as S.H.I.E.L.D. Quinjets descended towards the moon's surface to mop up the last remnants of Maleficent's half-baked attempt at a power grab. That ignorant with did not know when to give up and admit she'd lost. And it had finally cost the Mistress of All Evil her life. Now, with her out of the way and the Unchained Legion in hiding, there was only one thing left to do.
"Our next move is clear, Algrim," the Dark Elf king remarked. "With two Infinity Stones in our possession, we must recover the Gauntlet, and steal the other four from the Unchained Legion."
"But my King," Algrim protested. "Do we even know where the true Gauntlet is?"
"No need to fret, Algrim," Malekith replied. "The Aesir may have tried to throw us off the scent with a false gauntlet in the palace vaults. But with the two stones close enough together, I can sense the hiding place of the real Infinity Gauntlet. The Dark Dragon thought he could protect it by hiding it beneath the dark miasma of his old lair, but we were born in the darkness, and know how to see through it to what lies beneath." Algrim nodded his head in approval as he went to inform the helmsman of their next destination.
Suddenly alarms began to blare as a glowing white portal appeared in front of the command chair. Algrim and his king immediately slid into combat stances as a swarm of armored Keyblade Wielders came charging out of the glowing circle. Malekith roared in outrage as he charged forward and engaged in a duel with the blonde, knife-wielding woman leading the attack. How dare they? The dark elf king fumed as he dodged one of the golden knifes the Unchained commander threw at his head. How dare these Unchained violate our sanctuary? Behind him, more Svartalfar warriors came charging up the stairs towards the bridge, answering the summons to battle.
He swung his sword at the woman's neck, only for her to dismiss her knifes and summon up her Keyblade to parry the strike in a flash of light. Sword and Keyblade danced across the narrow metal floor of the bridge in a deadly game of cat and mouse. When the woman's defenses lowered, he lunged forward and took the offensive with single-minded purpose, hacking and slashing as he drove her back to the portal from whence she came. But he was so focused on keeping his opponent off balance that he failed to properly pay attention to what her underlings were doing.
As he forced her back to the portal, the blonde Unchained cartwheeled backwards, kicking him in the face. For a moment, the Dark Elf king stumbled, disoriented, and surprised that a mere human could do any significant damage to him. As the woman landed on her feet again, she whistled loudly, giving her Legionnaires the cue to fall back. As Malekith recovered from the sting of her kick, he looked up to see two Unchained sprinting towards the portal each carrying a container bearing distinct glows of red and orange.
"NO!" He roared as he charged forward to recover the two Infinity Stones. But it was too late. Lerena knocked him back with a Thundaga Shot spell as she and the two Unchained carrying the Soul and Reality Stones retreated through the portal. The elven king regained his footing, only for his eyes to widen in horror as the portal closed in a flash of light, leaving no sign that the Unchained Legion had ever been here at all. For a moment, he simply dropped to his knees and let out an earth shaking roar of unbridled fury. His lieutenant and even his own people shied away from him to avoid amplifying his wrath.
"We will see this through to the end, Algrim," Malekith snapped as he rose to his feet, whirling around to sit in his command chair. "We have come too far to turn back now. We will obtain the Gauntlet and steal back the Aethir, or we will all die trying! Revenge will be ours! ALL AHEAD FULL!" As the ship lurched forward and began its course towards their next destination down in Earth's atmosphere, Malekith stared ahead angrily. I will avenge you, Nathlis, Olenir, he vowed as tongues of fire from reentry began to streak past the bridge's central window. He was so focused on thoughts of revenge in that moment that he failed to notice the uneasy look Algrim shot him as his second in command looked down at the scores of Dark Elf women and children huddling helplessly in the lower levels as their king drove them all down towards a single-minded quest for vengeance.
The Moon – Hellfire Club Compound:
With Maleficent's death, the battle soon ended. Malekith's brutal execution of their leader demoralized a large chunk of the remaining Hellfire Club forces, who were quickly taken into custody. Not everyone had been captured though. A small group, consisting of Helga, Diablo, Nebula, Hook, Cruella, and a handful of others freed from prison during the recent attack on Radiant Garden had managed to escape with Hades aboard the Jolly Roger. The ship was last seen attempting to flee the solar system with S.H.I.E.L.D. Quinjets being piloted by Neku, Shiki, Beat, and Rhyme in hot pursuit before vanishing through a massive Corridor of Darkness. Sora had a feeling that they'd be back soon enough, however.
The battle had been long and exhausting for both sides, and the heroes had not won the day without casualties. Dilan, a few S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents, and some Coalition Intelligence operatives all gave their lives to ensure that the Hellfire Club would be stopped once and for all. Not to mention the suspicious fact that the Unchained Legion had failed to make an appearance at all for the entire duration of the battle. Riku would have expected them to have at least tried to steal the Infinity Stones Maleficent had acquired. But no, there hadn't been any sign the Legion had even entered the fray at all. And to the agents of both S.H.I.E.L.D. and the Coalition Intelligence Network, that was extremely worrying.
At least Rose and Agent Romanov have the Secret Warriors standing by waiting for the Legion to show their faces, Sora thought to himself as he and Kairi walked together out the front doors of the citadel towards the Quinjet that would take them back to Earth. The oxygen tanks in their space suits kicking in as they crossed the threshold, one of Tony Stark's most celebrated accomplishments allowing them to transition from one environment to the other without missing a step.
The Society of Advanced Cultural Knowledge and S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Inhuamn strike team had abstained from the fight against the Hellfire Club to conserve resources for the much more important battle to come. With the Hellfire Club broken, the fledgeling alliance between Earth and the Coalition needed to sweep up both Malekith's Dark Elves and hunt down the Unchained Legion. The latter would be the harder of the two tasks, as they first needed to expose all the Unchained sleeper agents hiding in Earth's governments and society. Then they needed to drag the organization out of the shadows and destroy them in such a way that the Legion could never reform again.
Riku had figured all of this out with Aqua, Vanitas, and Coulson. That was why he was bounding across the lunar surface to check in with his closest friends. To let them know what was going on so they could get ready for the next battle. He landed in front of the happy couple, who were no doubt discussing when to finally have their wedding, and was just about to open his mouth when a sudden burst of light knocked them all across the moon's soil, kicking up lunar dust as they fell. Riku looked up and saw Sora shakily rising to his feet as he turned to face the new arrival.
Marluxia, now High Praetor Aurilam of the Unchained Legion, stood before the Destiny Islands trio. Flower petals and wisps of light whirled around his body as the light faded. Before anyone could say or do anything, he had his scythe in his hands, and he lunged forward as he plunged the blade into Sora's stomach. Kairi screamed, alerting everyone else in the vicinity to what was going on. Avengers and Coalition citizens alike came racing over to help, but they would never get there in time.
"Sorry it had to be this way," Aurilam commented with mock regret as he whirled Sora around and positioned the brunette so he was between the Graceful Assassin and his friends. As he had done before with Namine, Aurilam was using Sora as a human shield. "But the Endgame requires that X – Blade of yours," the former Organization member went on. "So I'm going to have to ask you to be our guest for a few weeks while we sort all the details out. Come along, now." And with that, they vanished in another flash of light. Kairi was hysterical as she scrambled over towards the patch of blood that marked where Sora had been standing, while all Riku could do was stare in mute shock as he realized that even though Aurilam had deliberately aimed to wound, there would be nothing stopping the Unchained Legion from murdering his friend once they had what they wanted.
Don't worry, Sora's not dead. I've just had this cliffhanger rolling around in my head for as long as I've had the idea for this saga and I'm excited to finally write it out. A shocking cliffhanger like this should keep everyone's interest high during the wait for Kingdom Hearts 6, which I won't be starting until after Thanksgiving. After today I'm taking a week off from writing fanfiction, and then I'm going to be spending the next month and a half working on Cloak and Dagger, which as I've said will explore the events that transpired on Earth while Sora was flying around the galaxy in this story.
The decapitation at the end may have been a bit over the top, but it's just to show that this time Maleficent really is dead. She won't be coming back either. Malekith will live past the end of this current saga though, as I do have plans for him in regards to the Fallen Ones that the Unchained are so afraid of.
One of the things that I find interesting about Algrim is that despite being a fairly flat character in Thor: The Dark World (the final version, anyway, there were deleted scenes that were supposed to give the Dark Elves more development), he actually ended up betraying Malekith in the comics. While I've mostly adhered to Marvel Cinematic Universe canon as far as character backstories and personalities go, that was one element of his backstory that I thought would make interesting story potential to be explored in fanfiction. So I've planted the first seeds of distrust, a sign that Malekith's drive to avenge his wife and child may be alienating himself from his once fervently loyal subjects.
Diablo's battle form is based on the form he uses for combat in the Remember the Tides fanfic series. Anyone who spots the Voltron: Legendary Defender quote (which I blame Netflix for getting me hooked on) gets brownie points.
Bonus brownie points if you're a fan of Rachael Caine's alternate history novel series The Great Library and recognize my repeated use of the phrase "Iron Tower".