Chapter 39
Ballroom Blitz
Kefka hummed a tune as he busily tied Belle to the neck of the ornate chandelier. Doctor Facilier had gagged her with a handkerchief, so all she could do was stare in bewilderment and fear at her lunatic captor. Doctor Facilier leaned against the railing at the edge of the balcony on the front end of the room. He watched Kefka at work with a bored expression, though his gaze sometimes shifted to the view of the cloudy sky outside through the windows that lined the back end of the room up to the ceiling.
"We searched all around the place. What are we even supposed to be looking for?" Facilier asked. "Supposedly, it's in the form of a clock, but we have yet to find anything of the sort with a substantial-enough aura." He looked over to his shadow on the wall, who simply shrugged. He pulled a small painted voodoo doll out of his pocket and contemplated it. "So, once we catch the Keyblade wielders and their friends in our net, what do we do then?"
"Ha!" Kefka retorted. "Well, then we'll just have to tear this place to pieces until we find it." Belle's eyes widened in terror at Kefka's comment. The jester saw this and briefly made a scary face to taunt her. He looked back at Facilier, who simply raised an eyebrow and slipped the doll back into his pocket. Kefka saw the door begin to open and studied it with intrigue. When he saw who was on the other side, he gasped and pointed at them.
Sora, Mickey, Kairi, and Goofy ran into the ballroom and gave a quick sweep to find their enemies and captive friend. Goofy was the first to see Kefka and Belle on the chandelier and let out a loud gasp, alerting them to the situation above. Angered, the four of them summoned their weapons.
"Let Belle go!" Sora shouted up to the clown.
Kefka appeared to think about it for a moment, but shook his head. "Sorry, but I'm not really one to take orders," he spat back.
"Welcome, one and all," Doctor Facilier called from above. "It is a shame that our communion could not be under warmer circumstances, but we have our own business to care for. And you have no business in that." He flicked his wrist, and the group was surrounded by six Hook Bats, two Lance Soldiers, two Neoshadows, and a Zip Slasher.
Sora and Mickey focused on the Zip Slasher. It blocked their first swings and performed a spinning attack to retaliate. Sora pointed his Keyblade at the floor and cast Blizzard, freezing the surface beneath the spinning Heartless' feet. Due to the decreased friction, the Zip Slasher traveled faster than it intended, and careened into the Neoshadows, cutting them to ribbons. When it finally stopped itself, Sora leapt at it and slashed at it in the back of the head, putting an end to it.
Kairi cut two of the Hook Bats out of the air. One stopped in midair and let out an ultrasonic scream in her face. She ducked to the side and grabbed the Heartless by the hook while it was immobile and swung it around, using the wider area offered by the wings to swat the other Hook Bats out of the air, stunning them. She then cast Thunder, destroying the Heartless.
Goofy blocked the Lance Soldiers' attacks even when they were on opposite sides to him. A few jabs struck him, but he was otherwise consistent. He noticed when both lances lost patience and took control, signified by the Soldiers struggling to keep them in place. He waited for the right moment, then dove out of the way. The Soldiers' free arms were caught in the "mouths" of the others' lances, and they were tangled up together. The lances thrashed about, trying to get free, but to no avail. Goofy pounded the Heartless with his shield until they were no more.
The door up on the balcony opened up. Oblivious to this, Doctor Facilier took a pair of white-and-purple dolls out of midair and dropped them off of the railing. The dolls expanded into humanoid creatures with what appeared to be a purple and silver bodysuit, arms broken up into alternating silver and purple segments, each arm lined with four blades, and a small cap strapped by bandages with a long cloth hanging down in front of its face. The Nobodies dropped through the ground as if it was not even there. A few seconds later, the heads poked up out of the floor and stared at Sora and Kairi, who were now standing back-to-back.
"Assassin Nobodies," Sora grumbled. "When they raise their arms up, that's when they're about to strike. But it's also an opening to attack and bring them above ground, so take it. And watch out for when they run at you, because that's when they will try to explode along with you."
"Got it," Kairi affirmed. One of the Nobodies started waving its arms slowly. Kairi brought her Keyblade under one of the spikes and pulled it up, dragging the Assassin out of the ground and throwing it to Mickey, who sliced it in midair. Sora did not get to the other Assassin before it started slashing its arms around while "swimming" toward him, so he was forced to guard against its attacks. When it stopped attacking and rose up out of the ground, it stood there for a second before thrusting a quick punch at him. Sora twisted and leaned backward so that the jab went above his stomach, then swung his Keyblade to hit it in the gut, sending it flying.
It shifted into a diving position and tried to land back in the ground, but Mickey had other ideas. "Zero Gravity!" he shouted, pointing his Keyblade in the direction of the Nobody but at a slightly higher angle. A transparent sphere surrounded the Nobody and its projectile motion stopped, though it began to slowly rotate in the sphere.
"Nice," Sora complimented. He threw his Keyblade and the Strike Raid cut right through the Assassin. The sphere that had encased it collapsed upon itself when the Nobody disintegrated.
Doctor Facilier frowned, but his attention was drawn from the action below when he heard footsteps behind him. He turned and gaped in surprise.
Riku, Donald and Beast stood on the balcony, and they had spaced themselves around the landing. Donald stood in front of the door; Beast stared in horror at the way Belle was restrained from the opposite end of the balcony; Riku, in the meantime, was running straight for the witch doctor, Keyblade in hand.
Facilier fumbled for something to counter the Keyblade wielder's assault, but he was set off-balance when Donald shot a Blizzara spell that hit him in the arm. He stumbled backward to try to avoid Riku's strike, but he was still hit with a grazing blow that knocked him off of his feet. He tumbled over the railing and fell to the floor below.
Sora ran over to Kairi and covered her eyes, bracing himself for a crunch, but saw wisps of dark smoke wrap around the witch doctor, adjusting his position and slowing his descent, until he landed softly on both feet. He uncovered Kairi's gaze and let out a quick apology.
"Kefka!" Facilier called up to the clown. "I believe that it is time for a change of pace!"
Kefka considered his options, then snapped his fingers. "Come on out! Time for a ballroom blitz!" he shouted to what appeared to be nothing.
Just then, the room shook. Circular shockwaves appeared across the floor, materializing in a seemingly random pattern, but Kairi soon noticed a rhythm in each step. It's as if someone's dancing along to a song, she thought. She gasped when she realized that was exactly what was happening, and something was about to make an appearance. She followed the shockwaves, noticing a quick series of them breaking a few feet apart in the same two spots, then continue taking larger leaps in between steps. Her eyes widened in horror as she realized where the next one would be.
"Sora, move!" she warned as she pushed him out of the way, running along with him. She did so just in time, too, as they narrowly avoided being hit by the shockwave.
But instead of a phantom burst, a leg popped out of thin air. It stood four feet tall, had pitch black skin, and wore a light grey stocking, a pitch black dance shoe, and the leg of light grey tight shorts. With the next step, the other leg appeared, and a waist materialized to join it. A yellow belt appeared at the top of the pants and a blue skirt with pointed tips spread out around it. It spun around on one foot, spreading out a continuous stream of shockwaves, and the top half of its body appeared. It wore a blue long-sleeved suit adorned with the Heartless emblem on the front, a yellow band around the top part of the waist and another around the right upper arm, three loose ribbons that looped around the left shoulder and joined at the armpit, and a tall conical hat with a tan-colored decoration on top that resembled a closed-up flower head. It had a round black-colored head with yellow eyes, much like nearly all Heartless, and bare black-colored hands. In its right hand it held a yellow handle attached to a long, thin, white ribbon with a red metal square strapped to the end. The Heartless stood ten feet tall and the ribbon was twenty four feet long.
The giant Heartless danced around the ballroom, creating shockwaves with each step and swishing its razor-sharp ribbon around. Sora, Kairi, Mickey, and Goofy ran around to avoid getting stepped on. Fortunately, the shockwaves did not have a wide radius and dissipated quickly, and the ribbon almost never went down to their level, though Goofy once had to duck to avoid getting his head and hat sliced.
Up above, Beast roared at Kefka, who simply laughed and shouted banter at the party on the floor. He willed himself to calm down and remain focused. Childish tantrums would get him nowhere. No, he needed to keep a level head if he wanted to save Belle. But first, he had to get the clown out of the way. He gauged the distance between him and the chandelier, then looked behind him. Donald noticed his sly look and tilted his head in confusion, then quacked in surprise when Beast ran straight for him.
Beast grabbed Donald by the arm and ran back to his previous position. As soon as he reached the farthest point he could run, he threw Donald off of the balcony. The screaming duck soared through the air until he landed roughly on the chandelier. The chandelier began to sway from the force of the landing. When Donald regained his bearings, he clambered around and swung his staff at Kefka, who blocked the hit. Donald cast Blizzard spells, one of which the jester simply slapped aside and the others he was forced to back away. Donald smirked, knowing that this at least got Kefka further away from Belle, so she was out of the line of fire. Donald shot a fire spell, but Kefka deflected it while giving him a smug smile. Angered by the clown's arrogance, Donald leapt at him and attempted to assault him. However, Kefka flipped upside-down, balancing himself by two fingers, and kicked Donald off of the chandelier.
Mickey leapt and grabbed onto the Heartless' skirt. He used it to pull himself up and then kicked off of its back. He grabbed Donald and then cast Reflect to protect them from the ribbon. However, when it did make contact with the sphere, it wrapped itself around it and carried them with it. Mickey maintained the spell until the Heartless slackened the ribbon and dropped them. The Reflect spell protected them when they hit the ground and also when the Heartless stepped right beside them. The barrier dissipated and sent blasts at the foot, twisting it and disrupting the Heartless' balance. This moment of confusion gave them time to reunite with Sora, Kairi and Goofy.
"Any ideas to stop this Blitz Dancer?" Sora asked.
"Blitz Dancer?" Donald asked, bemused by the name choice.
Sora shrugged. "If there was anything wrong with naming each unique Heartless, Jiminy wouldn't have been doing it."
Donald conceded the point. Goofy observed the movements of the ribbon. "Say, maybe if we wrap up that ribbon somehow, we can make sure it doesn't cut us to pieces," he suggested.
Kairi noticed the pillars all around the perimeter of the room. "Sounds like a plan," she agreed. "But we'd have to jump into the line of fire to trick the Blitz Dancer into getting its ribbon stuck."
Sora looked at his Keyblade. "Let me see what I can pull up…" He concentrated, imagining what sort of tricks would work to counter the lightning-fast lashings of the razor-sharp ribbon. He realized that only a whip would be fast and flexible enough to match it, and considered which of his recent allies would have been able to use a similar skill. He remembered one person who was able to swing across a chasm, ensnare enemies, and simply lash out at them.
Hoping that losing her magic hair and healing powers did not change things with the Dimension Link, Sora reached his heart out to Rapunzel and drew on her strength. He watched his Keyblade transform into a ten-foot bullwhip made of silver-colored metal fibers. At the moment, the whip was coiled up to make it easy to carry.
He smirked and turned to his friends. "Someone give me a boost," he requested. Kairi pointed her Keyblade beneath him and cast Aerora. A wind funnel lifted him off of the ground. Mickey and Donald pointed their weapons above Sora and cast Aerora as well. The wind funnel expanded into a tornado that lifted him up to chest level with the Heartless and which he was able to steer mentally.
"On, Blitzen!" Sora called, getting the Blitz Dancer's attention. Kairi giggled at this taunt. "Let's dance!" he challenged, taking on a stance similar to Riku's battle pose and curling the fingers of his left hand up a few times in a daring manner. The Heartless danced around and flicked its ribbon at Sora, but he uncoiled his own whip with a flourish and cracked it through the air, deflecting the razor-sharp tool. He rode the wind, maneuvering his tornado around the ballroom, getting his foe to focus solely on trying to hit him wherever he may be, but however fast the Blitz Dancer lashed out, Sora lashed back just as fast.
Satisfied that his enemy was so blindly focused on him, Sora drove his tornado at a backward-diagonal path behind one of the pillars, which the Heartless followed with its ribbon. He swung his whip from left-to-right and swatted the ribbon around the pillar. When it came back around, he willed the tornado to push him upward. Seeing that this attack failed to do anything, the Blitz Dancer pulled on its handle to try to swing the ribbon back up, but found that it was stuck, having wrapped around the pillar so many times that it wrapped upon itself.
Sora jumped out of the tornado and changed his whip back into the Keyblade. He bounced off of the pillar and, imagining a touch of Blizzard magic to attach slick ice to the bottoms of his shoes, slid on the flat surface of the taut ribbon. When he reached the Heartless' hand, he swung his Keyblade down and sliced through the ribbon right at the handle, letting it fall limp against the pillar, and leapt into the air. The Blitz Dancer stared up at him in shock and fear. Sora came back down and brought his Keyblade down square in its face.
The Blitz Dancer stumbled back, dazed and clearly hurt by the blow. When it came to its senses, it realized that it had just lost its weapon and would have to improvise. It made leaping steps all over the ballroom, but once in a while it jumped across the room, right at the party, creating a much larger shockwave than before.
Sora met up with Mickey. "I only got one hit in and it's already going nuts like some of the other big guys," he observed. "And I don't think I'll be able to pull off another D-Link, so I don't really have anything that can keep up with it."
"You don't have to. We just need to keep it in one place," Mickey told him. "But how do we restrict its mobility?"
"We could make its shoes heavier," Kairi suggested. "It'll be like walking in deep mud."
"That could work," Mickey said. He, Sora, Kairi, and Donald pointed their weapons at one of the Heartless' feet. "All together now."
"Graviga!" Sora, Mickey and Donald shouted. Kairi was only able to shout "Gravira", but the imbalance might have served to disrupt the Heartless' balance further. Dark purple orbs shot out of the tips of the Keyblades and staff and hit the dancing monster's feet at an instant when both feet were on the ground. The Blitz Dancer tried to take another step, but found it to be much harder than it was a few seconds ago. It lifted one leg with all of its might, but this caused serious pain in its foot.
"Now!" Mickey directed. Donald cast Thunder to put a charge on Goofy's shield, then the knight threw the shield, which now had an immense speed and power boost, at the Heartless' ankle. Suddenly unable to support itself on one foot, the Blitz Dancer collapsed. The five heroes immediately started attacking the prone giant.
Up above, Beast was focused on finding a way to rescue Belle. He noticed that Kefka was distracted by the action below, and decided that now was the time to act. He backed up a few feet, then ran to the edge and leapt off. He grabbed onto the wall, then jumped off from there and landed on the chandelier. The chandelier shook violently and a few pieces broke off and fell to the floor. Goofy blocked some from hitting him and Donald with his shield while Sora cast Reflega to protect himself and Kairi and Mickey cast Reflega to protect himself. Some pieces impaled the Blitz Dancer. Kefka grabbed onto the chandelier for dear life, but Beast clawed at him.
"Whoa! Not nice! Bad Beast!" Kefka scolded while clambering around the chandelier to avoid his attacker, who only pursued him with fiery anger.
Mickey delivered one last slicing blow to the Blitz Dancer, cutting it from its left shoulder to its right flank. The Heartless faded into nothingness, leaving behind only a crystal-like heart that floated up and faded into the in-between.
Riku watched the chandelier sway erratically as Beast continued his attempts on Kefka's life. Considering the thin area of the chandelier arms, the wild movements and the probability of them breaking off with substantial force, he realized that trying to jump to it would be a risky maneuver. So, he decided to try something that he had not practiced with the blindfold. He was sure that, with his regained affinity for his dark powers, it would be no trouble. He judged where he should come out, then held his hand forward and concentrated on the darkness.
A corridor of darkness appeared in front of him. A similar dark portal appeared near the ceiling, right next to the trunk of the chandelier. He ran through the portal and, after a brief moment of running in utter darkness and cold, dropped out of the other portal. He grabbed onto the trunk and let himself slide down, then stopped himself when he was level with Belle. He inched around until he was face-to-face with Belle.
Igniting his finger with a dark flame, Riku scratched the ropes binding Belle, burning through them until they simply fell away. Belle started to drop, since there was nothing holding her up, but Riku caught her in his other arm.
"Hmm?" Kefka noticed Riku freeing Belle. He screamed in anger. "No fair!" he pouted. Beast turned his head to see what he was whining about, and breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that Belle was about to be brought to safety.
But Kefka would have none of it. He jumped off of the chandelier and threw a large ball of fire at the point on the ceiling where the chandelier hung. Everyone watched in horror as the fireball sailed toward its target.
"Go!" Beast commanded Riku, gesturing for him to save Belle. Riku swept Belle up and jumped away from the chandelier. Belle screamed, realizing that Beast would not get to safety in time.
The fireball exploded on impact. Sora turned to Mickey, Kairi, Donald, and Goofy. "Run!" he shouted. He, Kairi and Goofy ran for the door as fast as they could. But Mickey stayed where he was as the chandelier began to fall. Riku landed on the floor and ran beside Sora and Kairi. Belle simply stared up in horror as the chandelier fell with Beast still on it.
Mickey pointed his Keyblade up at the damaged decoration. "Zero Graviza!" he shouted at the top of his lungs. Particles of silver light shot out of the tip and wrapped themselves around the chandelier until it was encased in an enormous transparent silver sphere and was entirely motionless.
Sora stared at Mickey's work, impressed. Riku set Belle down on her feet. Goofy pointed up at Beast. "He's still stuck in the spell!" he shouted.
"Goofy!" Riku called out to the knight. He crouched and cupped his hands together in front of him. Goofy nodded and ran toward him. He stepped into Riku's hands, and Riku vaulted him up and over the chandelier. He wrapped his arm around Beast's and pulled him out of the spell as he soared over. They landed together and, as soon as Beast regained his bearings, ran to hide behind the side pillars.
The others decided to follow their example. Mickey backed away slowly while they reached a safe position, holding up the Zero Graviza spell for as long as he could. Finally, he withdrew his Keyblade, turned around, and ran to join the others. Riku conjured a Dark Shield while Sora and Kairi cast Reflega to maximize defense.
The chandelier crashed to the floor and exploded into many pieces that were blasted in every direction. Some embedded themselves into the walls or pillars; a few bounced off of the magic barriers; others punched holes through the windows leading to the outer balcony. The damage was immense. Huge cracks were broken in the floor, spreading out from the very center.
As the dust cleared, Sora, Riku and Kairi let their barrier spells dissipate. They, Mickey, Donald, Goofy, and Beast collapsed in exhaustion. Belle and Beast were simply amazed that everyone was unharmed.
On the other side of the room, Kefka laughed and danced about. Even though nobody was killed, the destruction he had caused still offered amusement. Doctor Facilier tapped him on the shoulder to get his attention.
"Perhaps now that you have had your fun, we should take our leave before they recover," the witch doctor advised. Kefka shrugged, which Facilier took as an agreement. He snapped his fingers and a Corridor of Darkness appeared behind them. They stepped through and exited the ballroom.