The Sapphire Sorceress
Disclaimer: The rights to Kingdom Hearts belong to Disney and Square Enix.
Act 67: The Melodious Nocturne
"You shouldn't judge anyone by appearance."
Hollow Bastion: Ansem's Study ( Kairi's POV )
"I think it's finally time you get some answers, keybearer."
Answers? I didn't know what this person meant, but before I could ask this elderly man anything everything faded to black as I suddenly saw a bright light come into my vision just as before when we all got sucked into that digital world.
"Kairi, you're okay!" Sora! Donald! Goofy! They managed to escape that computer network along with myself and we have reunited with each other again while Squall pointed at a computer monitor behind him.
"Is that us?" All of us were moving around on the monitor, but our bodies were modeled in 8-Bit sprites.
"Tron...hang in there." He must still be stuck in there dealing with that MCP from what Sora told me about what happened after we got separated from each other. I felt bad that Sora, Donald, and Goofy had to go through those trials without me but I told them about what happened while I was being tortured by the MCP. If it wasn't for that man who showed up I would likely still be trapped in the digital world...
'Who was that man in red, and why did his outfit remind me of DiZ?'
At least now we can find out more about what exactly is going on here, and the first step involves putting in the correct password to unlock the computer.
"Riku and the King..."
Data error? Yikes, even this computer might not have any info on the whereabouts of Riku could be right now. At least we knew Mickey was waiting for us in the other room once we were done in here. Goofy took his turn at the computer, his fingers were typing in a question about the nobodies anything related to Organization XIII should pop up shortly.
"What's this? The data is corrupt." How could the files get corrupted exactly? I figured the MCP might have something to do with this, but my gut was saying that it could be the work of a nobody instead considering only files about nobodies are corrupted so far. Sora and Donald were beginning to type at random on the computer as I tried to get them to stop before they broke something when an image appeared on the monitor.
"Who's this guy?"
"Welp, I see ya got things workin'!"
"Oh, Your Majesty!" Mickey had shown up happy we got things working even though all we have is the image of an elderly man...who looked like the person who helped me out from that drowning situation! He looked remarkably similar in fact!
"Ansem the Wise!"
"Come on, are you teasing us again?" Despite the fact, this man's skin tone looked much paler than the Ansem we knew Mickey was convinced this was indeed Ansem the Wise.
"Look, THIS is Ansem. You know, the guy we all worked reeeally hard to defeat?" At least that is who we all assumed was the one true Ansem, but Mickey quickly explained that what Sora destroyed was simply a heartless...meaning Sora only destroyed an impostor.
"Aw, I can't believe it..."
"Uh, I'm kinda confused. If he's a fake, then what happened to the real Ansem?" Mickey's whole reason for showing up here was trying to learn about Organization XIII's plans from Ansem's computer but it seems that he was now just as confused as we were about things, but Goofy seemed to have come to some kind of revelation about something important.
"Well, let's see. Some feller named Ansem, who wasn't really Ansem, became a heartless. Does that mean a Nobody got created when that happened, too?" That would make sense actually due to the nature of nobodies and heartless.
"Yup. And that Nobody is the leader of the Organization." T-The leader? How could Mickey possibly know about that unless he's seen or heard about this guy, which apparently the king actually did in the past only he couldn't remember where this was...
'Still, the real Ansem might know who this impostor really is once we find him.'
"You! You started all of this! Because of you, Riku...Your Majesty, do you know where Riku is?"
"Oh, yeah Riku told me that you were helping him out when you were last together dealing with Xion." Mickey...only said that he was sorry while acting pretty hopeless about whatever is going on with our friend.
"Sora, Donald, Goofy, and Kairi. I was plannin' to go get help from Ansem the Wise. But - now I know I forgot the most important thing. Helping others should always come before asking others for help," I was surprised to hear those words coming from someone of royalty, but Mickey wasn't like most kings I learned about in class. "We're safe and sound - and free to choose! So there's no reason we shouldn't choose to help our friends." That's right!
'What's going on outside?!'
A sudden rumble interrupted our conversation, the noise likely wasn't anything good if we all felt that shock in here so we decided to investigate what is going on together. After heading back the way we came here we saw Maleficent, the witch was very much real and in person but she quickly vanished once she got a good look at us leaving the matter of cleaning up these nobodies and heartless to us. Not only were these new heartless, the fact there was a different brand of nobody from those white husks, but the mere fact they were working together is what troubled me most of all.
"We have to push forward, Kairi!"
No matter how hopeless things might get we can't afford to give up! Charging at the enemy we put in all of our strength into taking down these guys despite how stronger they've become! Dodging their attacks was much easier due to how I've become used to their speed of attack, and while these guys had lots of numbers on their side we still had our combined power! I also noticed that my own magical abilities had gotten more powerful since when I first began to train on a daily basis, such is why when I began firing off several blasts I was surprised to see how easily these heartless were getting destroyed.
'Was this enjoyment? Am I feeling good about destroying these guys like Sora?' Before I merely did this in order to help others because it was what I believed in; now I was laughing when I cut down some more of these guys like Sora instead of remaining calm or focused on the mission. For the first time in quite a while, we actually were having some fun together even while on a mission. Goofy and Donald were taken back with how much fun we were having even while fighting off this hoard of enemies.
Cutting through the last of the sword-using heartless we knew that this was not over by a long shot when those fairies from earlier returned saying that had apparently picked the wrong side.
"Well, if you are thinking about supporting someone like Maleficent that would be the WRONG side." Of course, it doesn't mean they can't ever switch sides to fight for good and noble reasons...or go on about wanting to find treasure guess that works as well. Running outside we found more of the nobodies waiting for us. Piercing them with our weapons we continued our way upwards but then...
"Whoa!" I could feel a powerful force suddenly come down like from the sky itself, a huge wing covered on side of his body, the long white hair extended down from his head, and whatever this guy was supposed to be I trembled at the mere power oozing from him.
"Sora, It's Sephiroth!"
"Ain't Sephiroth the one who's supposed to be the dark part of Cloud's heart?"
"Did Cloud tell you that? Then he must understand now."
"What is your issue with Cloud? I mean from the way Aerith and Cloud himself were acting lately it seems like you are more than just his dark half..."
"I will do nothing. Cloud is the one who hungers for darkness." What? Cloud has some kind of score to settle, but why would he be the one to look for darkness rather than overcome it instead...
Before I could ask him more he simply walked away saying that he would give cloud what he wanted by snuffing out his light, such a threat meant he was going to hurt Cloud in some way!
'Could he really be some kind of angel? No, those beings couldn't act so corrupt like Sephiroth if Cloud's words meant anything...' For now, we had to find the King and make sure that he was safe.
Hollow Bastion: Restoration Site
"We'll help!" Squall and Aerith are here as well? I heard Aerith warn us about the nobodies that we could see appearing behind us. Despite our sharp, swift, and decisive strikes these nobodies were even more nimble than those more common husks we fight from this organization. They were becoming determined to stop us from getting any further ahead likely because Mickey might be close. Grasping hold of my weapon I took down as many as I could while Sora, Donald, and Goofy fought off some on their own.
"How's about we light things up a bit?" Sora said, his keyblade suddenly began to send out many different colored explosions at these dancing creatures while I simply used some basic fire spells to help compliment the show my friend was putting on finishing off this pack of nobodies.
"The King's in the bailey. You better head over there!"
"Got it!"
Running through some damaged part of this castle area I could get a glimpse of a huge valley along with a whole lot of heartless running around with Leon and everyone else fighting off this huge army. They needed us to help fight off this huge swarm and we were the only ones who could help cut down that amount of heartless.
"Okay. fellas, you've gotta go find Riku right away!" Mickey?!
"But Leon and the others are our friends too!"
"Don't worry. There's always losta help here. We'll take care of this fight." That doesn't mean we have to sit on the sidelines while everyone else has to struggle; a keyblade warrior shouldn't let others take on such problems without helping out.
"Donald! Goofy! Take Sora and Kairi and get goin'."
"Hold on a minute, Your Majesty! Perhaps Riku wouldn't mind...if he waits for us a while longer." We had to fight in this battle no matter what, but it seemed like Donald and Goofy were loyal to their king...until I saw the wink in Donald's eye. Right...be good.
"Gotcha." Okay, Mickey, I guess we should be heading to find our other friend now and go off to fight in the army despite the fact you told us not to do just that. I knew this must hurt Donald and Goofy to disobey their king like this, yet when I looked at their reactions I knew they were doing this because they wanted to help out in this huge battle to protect Hollow Bastion. Running down to the valley was the heartless were I knew that we had a huge force to overcome, but together we should be able to handle this threat as one unit!
"Running off so soon? Well, it would seem that only one of you gets to be in the performance of our "Melodious Nocturne" then... " That voice it must be her!
"Kairi!" I blinked when I saw that Sora and the others were trying to run over to me, but they were pounding on some kind of an invisible wall...a barrier!
"Just go Kairi! We will catch up after we deal with these guys!" By that he meant those jewel-themed nobodies that were trying to distract him, the servants of Auxaq who must have created this barrier to keep me on the outside unable to break this magical barrier.
"I can break this down with my keyblade and magic if you just help me, Sora."
"We don't have time for that! You can handle things on your own until we get there we trust in you, and I have faith in you Kairi!" That...I know you believe in me but...
"Go before it is too late!" I had to fight my own feelings of refusing to move to turn my back on Sora to head off toward the heartless army without him, Donald, and Goofy with me. If they had put their faith in me, then I had to return the favor back to believe they can overcome whatever Auxaq is planning now with Sora and myself.
'Have to hurry...can't let Sora and those fighting down in that valley down!' Running past any nobody or heartless that might spring up to attack me I had focused on getting to the huge wave of darkness waiting for me below. Then, I found myself looking at one of the stronger nobodies appearing in front of me, the one who in fact nearly took my life when we last saw each other.
'Funny that someone who could be so dangerous has quite the bizarre personality...' He looked confused when he saw just me instead of Sora or my other friends by my side.
"Hey, guess you're going solo today."
"You're the guy messing around in the underworld. How could someone like you lose your soul and become a part of Organization XIII?" Instead of looking angry, his face resembled the expression of fear or rather he was pretending that he was scared.
"Don't judge a book by its cover. Heck, the most of the other guys thought you were a push-over after I drenched you in that dreary place a while ago." When I tightened my grip on my keyblade he suddenly turned his back on me, and whispered to himself even though I could hear him?
"I knew she was up to something when that new version of Larxene asked that I fight this girl. Those eyes look much different now..."
"Why are you so frightened? I thought you guys didn't have any hearts?"
He quickly turned around like I was saying a stupid question to him.
"Oh, we do too have hearts! Don't be mad..."
"Quit it with the mind games. Sora is sick of this and so am I!" Demyx merely turned his back on me again, but this time his eyes and face looked more serious and determined than earlier.
"Don't talk about that traitor." Traitor? I didn't get what he meant, but it seemed like he was going to actually fight me this time. I had to survive this battle, and failure wasn't an option for me with so many others counting on my efforts! As he gathered up water to form that sitar of his I knew that he wasn't anyone I should underestimate, so I made the first attack with some lighting spells taking advantage of his elemental weakness.
Those water clones got in the way before I could shock this guy likely his way of trying to drown me again. Without Sora and the others, I could drown if I don't take them down on my own!
"Dance; water! Dance!"
Ugh, the same old song and dance literally as these clones kept moving around me, a pack of watery vultures trying to feast on my body once I was defenseless. This time, however, I put in my remaining power into blasting these guys with fire and lighting magic, the blasts managed to remove a few of these copies however the others began to fight back with their own sitar. Dodging the attacks from this many clones wasn't easy, and I was likely running out of time before they would swarm over me like before in the underworld.
'Fire and lighting are doing well, but perhaps is the real key to defeating these guys.' Watching some more clones head near me, the tip of my keyblade pointed at their bodies to fire off ice magic freezing them solid before I cracked them with my sword. With however much magic was left I finally eliminated the rest of these copies while shattering them into nothing but icy shards.
"Uh-oh!"
Charging at Demyx I refused to give him a moment to run away, so I whacked him with my keyblade as much as I could before he tried blasting me with a huge pillar of water while he continued moving around the area with that sitar of his playing some kind of tune that might actually be controlling the water in some fashion. As he kept strumming his musical weapon I had to keep looking out for huge bursts of water pillars that kept coming out of nowhere. Running away from these attacks I tried my best to get close to him, but these water blasts made it hard to even get near Demyx.
"Come on, keep to the beat!"
"Beat this," Glaring at Demyx I moved past another set of pillars to land a couple of attacks with my keyblade. "Your music is as shallow as this water!" Before I could do more damage he began to send out a couple of water bubbles that exploded when they were near me. Demyx certainly didn't look thrilled as he must have been underestimating me judging by how furious he looked at me.
"Artists always have their share of critics!" Is that why you're popping out more clones for me to fight instead of you, Demyx? Knocking my blade into these copies I knew that with there being fewer clones to deal with there would likely be a shorter amount of time to wipe them out with a barrage of magical spells. I began to gasp out air knowing that fighting this nobody was extremely tiring with no one to help me out.
"Water!" Of course, Demyx had to stack the deck blasting me with more of those water bubbles I had to block with my keyblade to avoid getting knocked off my feet. Then, I saw one of the clones rushing up at me hitting my back with that water-version of the real Demyx's sitar making me wince in pain. Looking at the other clones my keyblade fired off more ice attacks, but this time Demyx made them disappear while creating a pillar of water in my face that threw me onto the ground.
'Can't surrender no matter what pain I have to endure...' Biting my lip I got back onto my feet to rush after Demyx again while he kept moving around this part of Hollow Bastion to make it difficult to hit him, even if I could finally catch up to his current position before he moved out of range for attack. Hold on...if he's using water to move around, then why can't I use ice to counter that?
Grinning, the old trick I used before was just what I needed as the water on the ground slowly turned into slippery ice that Demyx couldn't easily move on giving me the opening to blast him with fire and lightning spells to keep him stuck in this spot to ensure he won't spawn a few more clones to distract me from trying to end this battle in short fashion when Demyx spawned more water pillars.
"Like it?"
"No, I don't so quit mocking me!" Drawing out an either to restock magic I continued blasting lighting spells and then Demyx began to kick a solo song while I was suddenly position behind him.
"Time for our last duet, keyblade wielder!"
"You mean this will be your swan song?" Turning around I managed to land a blow to him before he could hit me with his sitar, his body flew up into the air making it easier to send out fire magic to hurt him some more.
'How is still able to withstand this much punishment?' He certainly was stronger than all of the opponents and creatures I've dealt with so far when it comes to dealing with Organization XIII someone like myself was certainly in way over their head dealing with these guys on my own.
"Dance; Water! Dance!" More of these guys? I cut through as many of these water copies as I could with physical strength before relying on my magic pool. Despite the number there were going down a lot quicker than before, the reason likely being Demyx was close to defeat judging by how nervous he looked when he saw me remove more of his water clones.
"What the hell is with you, kid?" I ignored his question, the goal in my mind was to get rid of all these water duplicates before they all began to swarm around my body. Using each second I had my magic and keyblade reduce the number down to just a few causing Demyx to freak out, and when I swung around a few of these copies back at the musician he began to scream at me.
"You're acting just like that traitor!" Sora? Why did he call my friend a traitor unless he's not talking about Sora? Xion and Roxas!
"What did they do exactly that you're so angry about, Demyx?"
"Shut up, keybearer! You don't have any right to know, and you certainly have no right to push me this far!" His blonde hair was slowly falling over the front of his face as he began to fire off several bubbles of water at me trying to really finish what he started by drowning me again...
Pointing my keyblade at Demyx I fired off all of the magical power left to shock the bubbles before they hit me, and instead, all of the water burst around Demyx giving him quite a violent jolt while I tried to get back from the water that was electrified. He was stunned and I knew that if I didn't finish him now it would be over for my run, life, and time as a keyblade hero like Sora.
'No hesitation, no holding back, and no fear in my heart!' I charged at Demyx to land the finishing blow after jumping up in the air to come down hard at Demyx, so when I saw the sitar getting impaled instead of Demyx I gasped in horror at his frightening grin.
"You're nothing like that traitor, brat!" He sent out a huge burst of water that sent me back sending me onto the ground in pain, but his sitar was broken and very much unplayable at the very least. From the one eye I could see while the other was covered by my wet hair he was hurt but in a huge rage over his broken guitar.
"You stupid, ignorant, and rotten bitch! How dare you break my sitar!" He began to wobble around likely still in shock from my lighting magic, his foot began to stomp down on my left leg causing me a lot of pain.
"Who the hell do you think you are exactly? Thinking you're anything like that traitor, the truth is your nothing but a worthless, irrelevant, and dumb chick we're just playing with like all somebodies!" Each word came with more stomps to my body from those black boots on his feet adding more pain to my body while he continued ranting about how useless I was to everyone. This was not true and I knew it in my heart, but Demyx wasn't acting like himself at the start of our fight it was like he really was furious at me.
"How could you just break it, Arpeggio. It is the only thing that makes me feel like I have a beating heart in me," He clutched the broken musical tool in his hands while looking at me with lost eyes. "You took my heart away from me, so I'll take the traitor's girlfriend as retribution!"
I knew he was going to drown my lungs if I couldn't do something quick, but I saw that he was distracted in the middle of his rant about the broken guitar allowing me to blind his eyes with a flash of light from my keyblade.
Using my other leg that wasn't being crushed to knock him back a few feet, and when he tried using his broken weapon to block my keyblade I moved behind him to strike him only to end up in a huge burst of water.
"I'm not going to lose to a weak keybearer like you! That traitor is mine to fight!" Even now he was a lot more powerful than me, but he was also getting sloppy with how angry he was right now. Ice, the only weakness besides water that seems to be working against this nobody and watching Demyx send out more water bubbles I decided to freeze them with Blizzaga combined with Aero magic creating a small blizzard wave causing the bubbles to shatter on the ground.
"I'm not a fool and you're making me look like one!" Seeing one of the shards was long and sharp enough I rolled over to the ice before he could blast at me with more clones or pillars and with enough aim I threw it right at Demyx piercing his body before throwing out more of these icy lances.
"That's...one heck of a performance..." I ignored his quip, the keybladei n hand I finished this battle with one more stab to the middle of his chest while he was unable to move his body with the ice stuck in his body.
"Aw... blew it again." My leg was close to collapsing due to the pain I had endured, but I didn't move as Demyx's weapon evaporated with the ice shards I had impaled him with to keep him in position. Then, he merely slid out from my keyblade while going even more mad with his defeat by my hands.
"Damnit! Why couldn't it have been Roxas instead?! No wayyyyyy!" He began to thrash around as darkness poured out of his body, and finally, his body like the water he used evaporated into the air being reduced to nothing. Despite emerging as the victor my body nearly fell down as the battle was physically and mentally draining to myself. I knew that I had to know if Sora and the others were okay, but they would likely want me to go down and help out the others in the fight that was still ongoing with the heartless.
'What should I do?' Sure I wanted to know if Sora and the others were okay, but with all of those heartless waiting below, I had to step in considering the weapon I use to fight off darkness like those creatures. Limping down to the valley I ran into shadows who got in my way, but then I felt a hand come down on my shoulder.
"Geez, seems like we've both had better days than today!" Yuffie? I was grateful to see this ninja right now considering the amount of heartless that were here, so we combined our efforts as she threw around her ninja star while I took down the others with my keyblade.
"So, where is your pal Sora?"
"Dealing with a nobody, and I just took down one of Organization XIII..." She gasped when I explained why my leg was bruised and likely somewhat broken as she cast a Cura spell over my leg to help ease some of the pain.
"I'll go check on Sora, but Squall could use your help dealing with those other heartless up ahead." Nodding, my legs ran as quickly as possible over to another part of this huge open area where Squall was dealing with more of those knight-themed heartless. As he blasted them with his gun-sword I attack one of the heartless that tried sneaking up on my first mentor.
"I see that you've gotten slightly better from our last training session, Kairi."
"Glad to see you too, Leon." His "compliment" made me smile, which gave me all the more reason to cut through these heartless while they tried blocking my weapon with their own little blades; the small unit slowly grew larger with those spike-balls came down along with a few air-borne heartless trying to blast us with their little zappers. I was lucky that Leon quickly made his weapon grow in size, the large range of his glowing Gunblade managed to help remove some of these guys while I fired off a few beams of light at these soldiers trying to rush at us.
"Go further ahead Cloud needs you!" Leon was fighting off more of these guys while I did as I was told since Squall wanted me to conserve the remaining strength I had for the other ones. Running down further into this cavern area Cloud was already fighting off some more of this knight heartless pack.
"About time." No thanks for helping you out I guess...
Charging at these guys I focused on dealing with these guys before they could go after my hurt left to weaken me further. Cloud's sword while bandaged up was very much sharp enough to cut through some of these guys with his physical strength adding to the swing of that blade. Standing next to him we waited for the hoard to come after us before swinging our blades to take them out. Teaming up with all of these warriors and heroes felt great and it seemed like I had grown up from when I was sleeping all those months ago...
"This is the last of the small fry," Cloud remarked as he chopped down one of the big spike heartless with his blade while I stabbed a soldier trying to run away. "I got a feeling he's still watching me. Go ahead to see if there is anyone else out there in need of help, keyblade wielder!"
"It's Kairi, and roger that." Following the advice I slowly jogged along with some pain still coming up through my hurt left leg that was going to feel sore as hell tomorrow. Okay, the huge storm is waiting for you and Sora below and you can handle this even without much back-up to aid us in this huge battle to come.
Running into another part of this pathway I felt a presence that made me shiver in fear, the sight of no one around didn't ease this feeling away from making my heart beat faster.
"So, you've managed to eliminate Demyx by yourself. Such a feat only confirms your status as one of the chosen..." The deep voice was booming, the feet that were moving forward stopped suddenly like I was frozen solid. Looking around I saw a figure of darkness come through one of those portals, but I could tell that whoever this was is much different from the other ones I've met.
"W-Whhat do you want with me?" I couldn't see his face under that hood, but I heard a chuckle of amusement pour from his lips before I felt hands come down on my shoulders.
"To provide your friend the proper motivation." Looking up my eyes widen at Axel who managed to sneak up behind me. Absentmindedly, my hands moved over onto his gloved hands while trying to understand what he was doing here.
"Sorry, Kairi. Boss will turn me into a Dusk if I don't follow this order, the icky jobs are just the worst for me." That is how it is then? Fine.
"How troublesome, and here I thought we could make this as painless as possible..." You were wrong about that! Bringing out my keyblade I blocked Axel's weapon before it hit my face. Seeing it begin to burn I knew that he was going to take this battle seriously, but he didn't look like he wanted to even fight me at all.
"Consider what your precious friends are doing with my keyblade wielder. If you were to lay down and come with us, she could be called back from her mission before doing serious harm to him."
"Like messing with his head to hurt him!" I barked, the keyblade in my hand was pushing next to Axel's weapon expressing my anger about Sora's condition.
"That is the consequence of the actions his other half made or should I say sides. In any case, you two heroes are too important for the universe to be destroyed, so why not save the lives of many by allowing yourself to be taken?"
"I'm not some damsel that must be saved like before!"
"You are someone who will be making sure your friend doesn't have to suffer any additional punishment like you have, Kairi." He must have known that my fight with Demyx made me weaker than before and if Axel was looking at him in fear...this might be his leader...
"A-Are you Ansem?"
"I am that man, and I'm not that man." Another contradiction like a true nobody. Sighing, I let down my weapon while turning around to look at this man who likely was the head of this Organization.
"Don't let Sora get hurt, the people here need him to take care of those heartless..." I wanted him or Axel to at least provide me a small amount of assurance about this. My surrender had to come with some amount of hope for Hollow Bastion.
"I'll watch out for him, Kairi."
Axel said with a surprising amount of sincerity in his voice as I followed the head of this group into this portal where only nobodies have come through until now, and I saw the world around me change into a hollow pathway that likely would take me into the hideout of this group. I might be in trouble once more, but this time I could help Sora and the others by helping them find this place or at least taking down as many of these guys as possible once I arrived in the home of all beings without a soul.
[ Things are picking up as events seem to have gone down like the main story, but Kairi deserved to take down one of these members and I had to use Demyx sorry fans of him. :/ As for Sora and Auxaq during all of this that will be shown next time along with the last we will see of Xaldin in this story as Organization XIII becomes Organization VII as in Final Fantasy VII ha ha...that Remake is going to take forever. ]