The Sapphire Sorceress
Disclaimer: The rights to Kingdom Hearts belong to Disney and Square Enix.
Act 77: A Fight To The Death
"Ah, it seems you are special, too."
The World That Never Was: Ruin and Creation's Passage ( Kairi's POV )
How much time has passed since I was forced into this rift between the universe and nothingness? Time didn't seem to matter in this kind of realm, but I knew that my body had to keep moving. The final battle was on the horizon against Xemnas. If he was truly the "Superior of the In-Between" like Aqua claimed, then I knew that my remaining strength left in this tired body of mine had to help me out of this pathway before the beings that reside here finish me off. I tried moving my legs around, but they were unable to even wiggle let alone move.
"Come on, these bones of mine have to wake up!" My mind tried sending out the signals to my nerves in order to move around these bones to no avail. At least my hands and fingers were capable of getting moved, even if it was slow for me to dig into the surface I was laying on. How long was this vast area in this space exactly? Deciding to rely on my hands, the arms began to reach out and grasp onto whatever surface I was dragging my wounded body in order to find my friends again.
"You...have to keep moving forward..." To reach that light that I'm trying to keep safe along with my friends. If I could overcome someone like Aqua, then getting back to them shouldn't be too difficult. You can keep going Kairi these hands of mine haven't given up, and neither will I!
Pushing my arms up to propel my body higher into the air, these hands kept on pushing forward while my legs kept remaining as limp as noodles hoping to find a sign that my long ordeal would finally be over with and the exit was in my reach. Wait, it can't be they've found me?! Those horrible yellow eyes were beginning to pop-up, which was looking at my fragile body from that far away meaning this place wasn't safe for me.
"I have to get out of here!" With newly discovered fear settling into my beating heart, which renewed spirit my hands increased their speed of clawing at the floor I was trying to move down to avoid seeing those black blobs getting bigger in shape and size. It didn't seem like I had gotten any further, but when I looked back again those shadows had indeed gotten closer to me like they were simply waiting for my body to give up rather than run over to me right away. They were just toying with their food at this point.
'There is no way I can fight off that many in this state retreat must be my only option here.' Despite how much further I pulled myself there seemingly was no end in sight for escaping this pathway that I was stuck in with these heartless, so I used a couple of fire spells to ward off these creatures until a voice rang in my head that didn't sound like Namine speaking to me.
"K-ai-"
That definitely wasn't my nobody's voice, since it sounded more clear and it was a different sounding feminine tone that my mind was listening to right now. If there was something talking to me I would have to grasp onto that hope, a small thread in the darkness to break free of this situation I was slowly drowning in trying to keep my mind from going back to sleep.
"Is tha- ou th-e?"
The sound was getting louder, but these heartless were now running after me to finish what Auxaq began in our final battle. A fight to the death with that nobody who in a strange way gave me one final lesson as a bizarre mentor of mine, the will of the heart can only be as strong as the brain in one's mind and that meant luck could only get me so far in life. In short, to leave this pathway between light and dark I must push forward through twilight itself!
Scratching, clawing, and digging myself through this pain I was forced to endure and while my nails were actually bleeding from the amount of pressure that I was putting on them to get out of this rift, and then I saw nothing but white in my sight as I pushed my body further along before my arms and hands finally gave out when I felt someone wrap their hands around my body.
"Kairi! It is you!" Opening my eyes, the image of a blonde girl made me think that Namine was holding me but after shaking my head I could see my Spider-Woman friend Gwen was actually cradling my body. I must have looked like a complete mess if she was asking for someone to help me get patched up.
"What happened to her?" Aladdin asked when he looked over Beast's shoulder to observe my injured form while everyone else was dealing with some nobodies that were trying to attack them before that huge green giant-sized man grabbed onto the huge claymore-wielding nobodies around like playing dolls.
"We can't let them hold us back here, a push forward means we will get closer to Sora and the others on this battlefield!" Mulan spoke, her troops followed that command very well as they fired off several arrows in the direction of enemy nobodies with their snipers aimed at them. Then, one man in a purple outfit with glasses fired off a single bow, which turned into several smaller ones that began to fire at the nobodies who likely didn't expect that kind of maneuver.
"Sorry guys, but I think I'm the one with the bigger score in this little game."
"Don't think Miss Mulan here cares about a bagging contest Hawkeye, she looks like she wants to personally carve up this "Xemnas" guy personally although I wouldn't mind asking if she is single later..." Oh, Tony would be trying to hit on the head of this small army from the Land of Dragons in this kind of situation.
"Forget about your lack of a real romantic life for a minute, Tony. We gotta help out Kairi," My ears heard the sound of Miss Marvel telling the genius inventor to go and help out Hiro and his friends while she ran over to my side. "Gwen, do you think that you can go on ahead to tell Sora and Riku about this while Pete and the rest of us handle things here?"
"Yes, but we shouldn't be that far away from where Sora is in this huge ******* room."
"Mind that language, Gwen! We're still in a PG setting." I saw that "original" Spider-Hero scold my dimension-traveling friend before webbing up some of those weaker Dusk nobodies up; compared to before when most of these guys couldn't handle a small pack of nobodies everyone here was actually handling these hollow beings with little trouble. Were these nobodies getting weaker or is it really the case of somebodies becoming stronger than these empty creatures?
"What on earth happened to you?" Miss Marvel asked me while trying to wrap some kind of bandage over my bloody hands along with my other badly wounded sections of my body.
"Heh. Well, the short of it is there is one less Nobody we need to worry about fighting in this battle..." That came with a bittersweet tone as I knew that Aqua didn't deserve to lose herself because of Xehanort or get manipulated by Xemnas. At least I would be able to honor the memory of that Keyblade Master I knew by helping Sora end Organization XIII for good.
"You fought one of those black hooded guys?"
"Actually the member was a she, Miss Marvel." Giving her a smile despite the fact my body was struggling to even pick up my upper frame off the ground I knew that explaining the whole story would take a lot of time, so I asked everyone what happened to that huge moon that was Kingdom Hearts or what happened to the real Ansem who was with Mickey and my other friends when I was sent away.
"I...ummm Sora might be able to explain it better than us, but whatever did happen the result is that "moon" is just a huge crater in the sky now."
Indeed, the huge artificial Kingdom Hearts no longer was filled with the souls of those hearts stolen by the darkness leaving nothing but a hollow shell much like a nobody in its destruction. All of their efforts were now left in ruins along with this castle, and this entire battle was the result of their desire to become normal again under the influence of Xehanort's own Nobody.
"Kairi? Kairi!" Sora! My ears perked up when they heard that soft voice belonging only to my friend who was seemingly trying to move past the crowd of people surrounding me along with...Riku?! The Riku who didn't look like that fake Ansem was looking at my body with a look of horror, which was the opposite reaction I had when I saw his beautiful face that resembled that one I saw on the islands before he left me again. My eyes wanted to let out tears, but just seeing him made me speechless and it was hurting me just to move my head around to see him.
"You're okay..." I felt Sora wrap his arms around me...roughly that I asked him to kindly lighten his grasp on my body causing Goofy and Donald to laugh at the whole moment.
"No worse for wear despite these injuries, but...Riku you look like the you that I knew from that island." The image of a grown-up version of that boy who was Sora's rival was almost breathtaking for me. Just like with Sora he certainly looked older than before, even if his outfit looked like his old clothing giving me a small taste of nostalgia.
"I guess you can thank Ansem...the real one who saved me and the universe at a great cost." Cost? Wait don't tell me that when that explosion happened he...
"Xemnas left us alone once Kingdom Hearts was destroyed, but these nobodies and heartless kept coming after us." That would mean you and Sora had to deal with those guys with the help of the many people we've visited during our journey throughout the universe. All of these different personalities coming together in order to deal with a common problem made me feel proud. Together, a united front against the threat plaguing everyone's lives couldn't hold us down anymore!
"Don't worry we'll fix you up in no time." Their bright smiles eased the pain that was running through my body.
"Thank you, Sora and Riku." All three of us were truly back together once more in a strange world, but we had to focus on the matter at hand in dealing with the leader of this scheme.
"So, are we ready to do the big climatic battle with this evil overlord or what gang?"
"We shouldn't waste our time with silly questions; you know the answer to that already." I saw Hiro crack his knuckles together in response to "Iron Man" while everyone else looked ready to fight the head of this group of nothingness until Sora stopped them.
"Actually, Tony. I don't think you're ready for someone like Xemnas compared to Keyblade Users like us. No offense!"
A keyblade was strong against the darkness, after all, it is mine that got me through many situations and battles with the heartless. While Tony's suit and Hiro's technological advances were helping them out against these lesser beings fighting Xemnas was out of the question if he was strong enough to have fought Sora with a small fraction of his strength if Riku's words about Xion's creation are correct. This would be the final challenge for all of us to face before we can go back home.
"How touching, but there is a Nobody you all need to destroy now." That can't be her speaking to us! Maleficent, the black fairy witch alongside her faithful minion Pete! Were they actually helping out or trying to reap the benefits of the destruction of Organization XIII like I had to suspect was their true reasoning for siding with us?
"Don't try anything once Xemnas is dealt with, Maleficent!" While I couldn't follow in Sora's lead my eyes glared at the scheming villainess while she merely waved her hand at us like we were children that should be scolded.
"We aren't stupid enough to waste time and energy fighting against the winning party. Our goal is simply to acquire this castle as our own, so with the former residents nearly out of the way moving into the place shouldn't be that hard." Likely to plan out some future plot that would cause trouble, but right now that is the least of our problems that we need to handle.
"Yeah, the words there usually mean you're gonna do something super evil later!" I asked Spider-Man to wait a second before he fired off some webbing at Maleficent and Pete.
"She makes a good point about dealing with the matter at hand, but that doesn't mean you're exactly off the hook for what you've done to Riku and many others." With a bunch of heroes and people from other worlds keeping watch on these two, we might not have to worry about this witch until our fight with Xemnas is over.
After getting several rounds of healing spells from Donald and Sora my body was beginning to regain some of my strength that was zapped away from me during my final encounter with Aquxa, which I had to explain to Sora and Riku who were shocked that I barely managed to survive against such an opponent like her.
"I never thought that all three of those people would be lost to the darkness or in the case of Ventus remain asleep for seemingly eternity," Riku's words certainly made what I did feel all the more difficult to accept. "Do you think that once Xemnas is gone Xehanort's plans will be ruined?"
"I can only hope so, Riku..." Something was telling me that even with the Organization gone there would still be problems besides Maleficent. Looking up at the pathway that would likely bring up directly to Xemnas in this vast room I knew the end was indeed drawing to a close. Everything would likely be restored to normal like when that fake Ansem was defeated by Sora. This time I wasn't going to let either of my friends slip away from me now that I can help out.
"Well, if it ain't the boat-boy King."
"Time to weigh anchor, Captain Pete!"
"What, like "abandon ship? I don't think so!"
Mickey was here, but I wondered how he must have felt about Ansem the Wise and his unfortunate fate since he seemed close to that person from what I've learned about their history with each other with Riku helping fill in the blanks.
"They're doing what their hearts command. We can't interfere."
"Well, it just means we can follow our hearts to make sure these two don't start any trouble. I'm sure you guys can handle the rest from here, so we'll be watching your backs with any stragglers. Now, go and kick that Nobody's ass!"
Gwen started the rally while everyone else from her world was confused about the fact a "mouse" was indeed a ruler with a duck and dog being his "royal" servants, but Sora and Riku laughed at their confusion over this including me. Aladdin, Mulan, Beast, Jack, and everyone else whose lives we helped out were giving us a nice send-off into battle sharing their hopes of victory with us proving everyone with a boost of confidence and determination for victory.
The World That Never Was: Altar of Naught
Walking up these final stairs taking us higher up to this huge pillar that seemingly was the top of this huge fortress of nothingness, there was a sudden chill in the air surrounding our bodies knowing who is waiting for us once we finish our climb.
"Are you ready for this, Kairi?"
"I have to be, Sora." Looking at Riku and the others I knew my body was still not 100%, however, all of our strength would be required to overcome this head of all nobodies left. Seeing the man who dragged me into this world in the first place, the anger that was building up inside of me became mixed in with relief over realizing this ordeal was almost over. We only had to defeat this one last nobody to let everyone who's been fighting to help us find peace in their worlds once more.
"Oh...my Kingdom Hearts...ruined. Now I'll have to start all over again." Xemnas said to us while not bothering to face us, his attention was directly focused on this broken version of that Kingdom Hearts Sora and Riku saw when dealing with Xehanort's Heartless. He was looking at the warriors of light now, his golden eyes shined with deceit and manipulation before ordering us to refill that "moon" in the sky.
"Warriors of the Keyblade! Go forth, and bring me more hearts!"
"No!" Not gonna happen, the days of you using people are coming to an end! I held out my keyblade along with Sora, Riku, and Mickey showing my defiance.
"Denizens of light, answer this: Why do you hate the darkness?"
"Aw, we don't hate it. It's just kinda...scary. But the world's made of light AND darkness. You can't have one without the other, 'cause darkness is half of everything. Sorta makes ya wonder why we are scared of the dark."
I used to fear darkness myself, but only by going through it did I understand how it could help out someone like Riku who relied on it to do good for the universe. It isn't the darkness that is evil, but the people who beings who use it for vile purposes.
"It's because of who's lurking inside it."
"Then allow me another question. You accept darkness, yet choose to live in the light. So why is it that you loathe us who teeter on the edge of nothing? We who were turned away by both light and dark - never given a choice?"
"That's simple. It's because you mess up our worlds."
"That may be...However," However? I heard that voice coming from Namine who was still able to communicate with me, even as she is stuck inside of my body. "What other choice might we have had?"
"What about your followers? Nobodies like Roxas, Xion, Axel, and Aqua! They're all gone now, and what were their lives to you in the end? Nothing but disposable pawns to throw away for the sake of your false Kingdom Hearts!" He looked surprised about my outburst while Sora and Riku knew what I was trying to convey to this emotionless leader of nothingness.
"They were valued comrades who've existences came to an end too soon. Rest assured, the actions they performed for the sake of this Organization are not for nothing. They will know that I will put their efforts into ending this pitiful resistance that you've offered. I am merely justifying my right to exist; such an action can't be considered evil by your own standards." What a load of nonsense! He still doesn't have a sincere thought about his "comrades" who were now all gone, even if some of them betrayed this group.
"Just give it a rest! You're Nobodies! You don't even exist! You're not sad about anything!"
'I can safely say that must be the case for Xemnas. His "anger" even now seems more like an act.'
An act? Then, what was genuine about this person if not his own feelings? Shaking my head I knew we were headed for a confrontation with the end of this short debate no matter what more was said on both sides leading to our unavoidable battle.
"Very good. You don't miss a thing. I can not feel - sorrow...No matter what misery befalls the worlds. No matter what you think, what you feel, or how you exist." Guessing the "negotiation" is over with when I saw him raise his arms upwards, but then instead of running forward the next thing I knew Sora had disappeared from us being in some other kind of place or realm.
"This is just like before when he got sucked away into that bizarre world to fight his other self..." He didn't fully understand that place and neither did I, but I knew that he had to be in some other world right now.
"What are we gonna do then, Donald?"
"I don't know, Goofy!"
There might not be much we can do, but somehow I was able to see that Sora was in some bizarre dimension that looked like a series of buildings like the ones outside of this castle with a huge skyscraper with several monitors at the center of this area. Xemnas likely just wanted to fight Sora one-on-one instead of dealing with the rest of us.
"We can put our trust in Sora to win this one..."
Looking over at his other best friend who didn't have a shred of doubt in his mind about Sora emerging the victor in this solo duel. Looking at Xemnas, his weapons seemed to be two red beams coming out of his hands, a stark contrast to many of the other weapons used by Organization members. He also moved at a speed that seemed equal if not faster than even Aqua's speed when I battled against her. Mickey remarked about the choice of weapon Xemnas was using in this battle.
"If this is Xehanort's Nobody, then why isn't he using his Keyblade?" Keyblade? I knew that Master Xehanort taught skills to Aqua, Terra, and Ventus, however, I didn't expect him to be a Keyblade user like myself and Sora. Looking over at Mickey for some answers he merely suggested that like Master Eraqus Xehanort was gifted with not only a special armor but his own keyblade that he used not only to battle with but also to inject his heart into Terra's body.
"Forcing one's personality into another sounds horrible. Isn't that what that fake Ansem did to you, Riku?"
"Yeah, I didn't even realize how much control I'd lost until over my body for the sake of power and that stupid rivalry with my friend..." His tone was filled with regret about his choice to follow Maleficent and later that heartless of Xehanort.
Watching the battle I watched Sora run around Xemnas who also were capable of teleportation, which made hitting the leader of nothingness all the more difficult for Sora to overcome.
"Guard!" When he tried hitting Xemnas with his Keyblade, a grid-style barrier blocked his attack much like Auxaq's own method of defense. Despite this Sora was actually capable of moving past these beam slashes to land several hits on Xemnas with his blade. Xemnas was rather talented with these beams, his next blows were able to knock Sora back fairly easily while continuing to float over to Sora not giving him much of a break.
'He's all alone in this fight with no one to help him if things got rough.' No Donald, Goofy, and Riku to come to his aid meaning he needed to win this battle entirely on his own relying on those skills and abilities that a Keybearer has were buried within.
"Come on, Sora! Ya got this because we believe in ya!"
"You've gotta win this one!"
Cheering on with Riku and Donald, even if Sora couldn't hear us knew that we were supporting him with our thoughts and hopes as he managed to break through Xemnas and his defenses to strike him several more times with his keyblade.
"Kneel!"
A series of orbs revolved around Sora that looked to be sucking the very life out of his body making me wince in pain just watching this attack hurt my friend like this.
"Come closer." Xemnas floated away from Sora making me wonder what he was trying to do next until I noticed that he was now standing on top of that huge skyscraper in the middle of this battle arena. Sora likely was being drawn over to this building, and he actually began to climb up the huge building following Xemnas who drew out his red beams trying to attack him in mid-air. Instead, the opposite happened when Sora was able to counter this attack by knocking Xemnas downward with his keyblade before slamming him into the building with powerful force making us all gasp.
"That's the Sora I know!" Riku seemed happy when he said that makes me smile knowing that he likely has given up that personal envy he's had over Sora being gifted with the Keyblade and not himself. That darkness born from Riku's desire to explore the universe along with besting Sora in his personal rivalry with my lov- err best friend was no longer there; a bright light that shined through that black muck was in the form of the Riku I was staring at on top of this castle.
Sora kept getting in more blows on Xemnas who seemingly wasn't using his full power in this fight if he was simply relying on his beams and some barriers to protect himself from harm. That said Xemnas was actually rather talented with his attacks that kept hitting Sora no matter if he went into a Drive Form with his old outfit that allowed him to roll around or not. Sora responded by driving his Keyblade around in a frantic pattern that Xemnas couldn't stop or block no matter what he did against this attack.
Xemnas swung around his beams while teleporting around his little arena he created moving at a quicker pace to not let Sora harm him anymore, but Sora attacked him with a huge series of light-based projectiles similar to that move Auxaq used in my battle with her. Sora had to dodge the fast speed Xemnas used while swinging around those beams that almost cut into Sora's arm when he tried counterattacking the leader of all nobodies. Then, Xemnas once more used that life-draining attack on Sora to draw him over to that huge tower while standing on top of the huge building once again.
"Can Sora do it?!"
"He's gotta win!"
"Do it for all of us..." Riku took the words out of my mouth while we all were pleading with destiny to side with Sora and by extension all of the people fighting to protect our worlds from the darkness once more. Sora once more avoided Xemnas and his red beams to land more blows on his chest to knock him into the wall as they fell down before Sora landed several thunderbolts from his Keyblade seemingly defeating him?
"So, it wasn't a fallacy."
That's it? This couldn't be the end with how easily the battle went, but sure enough, Xemnas was laying on the ground fading out of existence like all the other members who were defeated by the three of us.
"Sora! Where are you?" I had to call out to him to let him know that we were trying to reach him once that battle was over, but then I saw nothing but a bright light like when that fake Kingdom Hearts was destroyed by Ansem.
"Sora, answer me!"
Huh? That thumping sound behind us had to be SORA!
"You're okay!"
"Where's Xemnas?"
Then, this was far from over after all...
Donald pointed at Xemnas directing our attention at him suddenly in front of the broken heart in the middle of this starless sky hovering over us.
"Hear me, Kingdom Hearts! It seems we must begin anew. Ah, but know this: I will give to you as many hearts as it takes. Mark my words! You can be no more complete with me than I without you. Heed me, Kingdom Hearts! Lead me your power, so that we may be complete! The power to erase the fools that hinder us."
So, he's going to absorb the power left in that device to destroy us all? That...is not good!
"Xemnas! No!"
"Hearts quivering with hatred..."
"Xemnas! Don't!"
"Hearts burning with rage..."
"You'll never win!"
"Hearts scarred by envy..."
"We'll stop you and your warped dream!" I shouted at Xemnas who was becoming more unified with that broken Kingdom Hearts by the second. I knew that this would be the final battle, a decisive encounter to determine the fate of all life in the universe.
"That fool Ansem said that the heart's true nature was beyond his understanding. But it's not beyond mine! Hearts are the source of all power!"
As we shielded our eyes from the blinding light blanketing Xemnas before he seemingly vanished from sight again but I knew that he wasn't done with us just yet.
"Xemnas! You can't hide from us!"
"We're not gonna let him get away now!"
I agreed with Mickey while pointing over towards some huge doorway that appeared in front of us all of a sudden.
"What's goin' on?"
"Kingdom Hearts..."
"Let's go. Xemnas must be inside."
"The worlds gave us this doorway. They want us to be the guardians of their destiny!"
Everyone in the lower section of the castle, my friends back on Destiny Islands, and the many other people we've met were supporting us! We can't let them down!
"Once we go through, there's no turning back. It's victory...or oblivion. So, Sora...are you ready? Kairi...are you ready for this?" I looked at each one of the people who would fight alongside me in this last stand against Xemnas knowing they were determined to win. Xemnas wouldn't go down easily, and this fight meant putting our beating hearts and soul on the line. As for the answer to Riku's question well that was something I already knew, even before he asked me and Sora about being prepared for this upcoming showdown.
"I'm more than ready!"
[ We are ready to enter the last part of the KH 2 saga and with it the beginning of the end. Just a few more chapters before this series concludes, but no doubt there are some unanswered questions left. They will be answered once Xemnas falls in this final battle with Kairi now involved in the struggle for the balance that keeps the universe safe. I hope to the final battle justice since I know things are going to get Square Enix Final Boss crazy in the next part thank you all for sticking with my story. :P ]