With a wrathful scream, Larxene thrust her hands up towards the heavens. All that electric power that had been building up and swirling around her shot up into the sky as a colossal column of intertwined lightning, slamming into the sinister dark clouds gathering above. Those clouds surged with energy now as they angrily churned and sparked before unleashing a barrage of lightning bolts that rained back down to earth, endless and overwhelming.
It was as if mortals had pissed off almighty Zeus himself and now the thunder god was wreaking his righteous vengeance.
Sora and the others scrambled and scattered. It was all they could do at the moment not to get turned into human lightning rods, much less actually fight back.
Larxene half smirked, half sneered, eager to press her assault now that she had the stupid goody-goodies on the ropes. She spread her hands out wide to either side of her, flashes of electricity coiling around her arms like otherworldly snakes. Just as she was about to strike however, she was distracted, thrown off guard by something blurring past her.
Or rather, someone.
That someone wearing a hideous green and yellow hoodie (probably to hide an even more hideous face) and wielding a blade shaped like a bat wing, making a beeline straight for the goody-goodies.
Oh-ho, you had got to be kidding. Whoever this clown was, Larxene so did not have time for this BS!
Snarling, she hurled the thunderstrike she'd been powering up, but aimed it instead at the newcomer.
As if sensing the danger, they screeched to a stop just in time to avoid getting lit up like a neon sign, the bolt instead leaving a smoldering scorch mark on the ground just an inch short of their toes. They then turned back to regard Larxene, their face hidden in the shadows of their hood.
Pointing a supercharged dagger at them, Larxene snapped, "Listen, shrimpy, I don't know who you are or where you came from, and honestly? I don't give a crap! Christmas Barbie and In-Desparate-Need-Of-A-Haircut Barbie over there? I got dibs. They're mine. So whatever rock you crawled out of, you can just scurry back under it, you hear me, you little screwball? Scram!"
They didn't say anything, just continued to stare at her in silence. After a long, tense pause, they then shifted their footing and lifted their weapon towards Larxene, taking a battle stance. Darkness swarmed over the ground around their feet and from it, several Heartless rose up, apparently summoned by this freak, ready to aid their master in a rumble.
"Hehe, so you want to play? Fine by me." Larxene grinned, conjuring the rest of her daggers as the air shimmered around her, several Lesser Nobodies appearing to back her up as well. "You don't mind if I bring my own toys, right? I'll try not to break yours… too much."
With that, the two groups charged at each other.
"Pffft, the big bads are locked in a pissing contest now and forgot all about us. Here's hoping they pummel each other to oblivion," Axel snorted.
Despite Larxene's new distraction, the lightning storm still raged on without any sign of letting up. However, with her attention pulled away, she had failed to notice that the goody-goodies had all found refuge under a large icy shelter Elsa had conjured over their heads. Now beneath its relative safety, the gang watched on as the two dark forces threw down.
"If only!" Rapunzel groaned in response to Axel's comment.
Elsa shook her head, "Yeah, unfortunately it's more likely one will take out the other, leaving us to fight whichever one is still standing."
"But that's a good thing, right?" Axel shrugged. "If one of them gets whacked, that cuts our job in half, less work for us. Only one baddie to deal with instead of two."
Hugging one arm to her abdomen while her other hand fiddled with her braid, Elsa said, "Depends. We might be losing an opportunity here, not joining in the fight and helping one of them take out the other. Enemy of my enemy, you know? Really it comes down to who do we want to face off against ourselves? Which one do we want to be the last one standing? Who do we want to win?"
Axel batted a dismissive hand through the air, "That's a no brainer, we want to focus fire Larxene down first. She's way scarier to fight, trust me, so if we have the option to snipe her early we should take it."
Elsa sighed, "I don't think it's that simple though. What if we all jump in to go after Larxene and whatever dark power is tugging Kairi's strings pulls her out of the fight so she can go after Rapunzel again while we're still busy with Larxene?"
"Better than the alternative, right? I mean, we wanna save this Kairi chick and pull her back from the dark side, don't we? Maybe it's just me, but pretty sure teaming up with the human tesla coil to totally nuke Sora's lil girlfriend is not the way to do that."
With a frown, Elsa said, "Still I-"
"She's not my girlfriend, Kairi's just a friend!" Sora huffed, hands balling into fists at his sides.
Grimacing, Elsa began, "Guys, I think we're losing focus here, we need to-"
"Oooooo, someone's blushing," Axel snickered, poking Sora in the cheek as he began to singsong. "Sora and Kairi sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-"
Elsa snapped, "Axel! That's not helping, please just-"
"Quit it!" Sora swatted the Nobody's offending hand away.
Elsa tried again, "If you two will just listen, there's another factor I think we need to con-"
"Whatever," Axel gave a small hmph. "Larxene is definitely priority numeros uno, so if the chance to eliminate her is being gifted to us on a silver platter, you bet I'm gonna take it!"
"But-"
The one word was all Elsa could get out before Axel vanished into a Corridor of Darkness he'd summoned around himself. In the blink of an eye, he'd popped back out over the brawl between the two big nasties, fiery chakrams swinging as he joined the fray.
"I'm going too!" Sora announced, eyes flashing with determination as his grip tightened around his Keyblade. He turned, ready to charge out into the ongoing lightning torrent.
"Wait!" With little thought to her own actions, Elsa snatched Sora's arm, halting him in his tracks. "What about the Waypoint Keyhole?!"
"Huh?" he glanced back at her, blinking, then down at her hand. Her bare hand on his wrist.
She started, seeming to realize her slip at the same time and quickly withdrew her hand, wringing it with the other one. There was no time to worry about the mistake however, no time to fret over whether her moment of thoughtlessness could have hurt him. Just trust yourself. Moving on, she elaborated, "Larxene said Corona is already falling to Darkness. That Heartless are swarming it even now and any second they'll find the Keyhole. Shouldn't we be trying to stop that?"
Sora's eyes widened, then he glanced towards the cliff overlooking Corona. His brow furrowed, then he shook his head, "I dunno… it sorta looks fine to me."
"No but… can't you feel it? This sort of… icky… negativity lingering in the air," Elsa attempted to explain, though the words sounded weak, lame to her own ears even as they left her lips. Could she be just imagining it…? She uncertainly glanced to Rapunzel, who wordlessly nodded. She felt it too, whatever it was. Something wasn't right. Trying again, Elsa said, "And earlier, I saw it… Corona seemed, ah… darker. I saw lights going out."
Sora pursed his lips to one side. "...and Larxene pointed this out to you? The whackjob who literally controls all things lightning and electricity and cut the power to Mr. Tyrann's mansion? C'mon, Elsa, it was probably her just putting those lights out in the city with her powers. She was probably bluffing, trying to trick you."
"But why would she do that?"
"To distract you from whatever she's really trying to get away with maybe? Mess with your head, make you doubt yourself and your actions so you'll hesitate or slip up and give her an opening? Not sure, but it's like I said before: the Keyhole always shows up for me to lock in the nick of time. Trust me, Corona will be fine in the end, you'll see, and we'll all-"
"Look out!" Rapunzel suddenly shouted, whipping her hair past Sora. He spun around just in time to watch the golden locks deflect the winged blade of the girl in Riku's hoodie. It seemed Elsa had guessed right — Kairi or whoever this was had ducked out of the battle with Larxene the second the lightning witch had another opponent to keep her otherwise engaged. Axel and his fellow Nobody could be seen locked in their own heated duel now a few yards away beyond the thunderstorm.
The girl in Riku's hoodie recovered quickly from being fended off, her sword slicing through the air again. Sora parried it this time with the Keyblade and the two became a frenzied flurry of clashing strikes.
"Go!" Rapunzel told Elsa as she looped her hair in her hands, nostrils flaring and body tensing as she readied for her next attack. "Help Axel! I'll stay here to back Sora up."
Elsa hesitated. "Are you sure?"
"Yes, this makes the most sense! Kairi's after me, right? So if I try to go help Axel myself, Kairi will probably just follow me and we'll have to face off against both at the same time, which just sounds like a recipe for disaster. So Sora and I will handle Kairi while you and Axel kick Larxene's butt!"
Elsa lingered a second longer, indecision clouding her eyes. Finally, with a reluctant nod and one last quick glance back towards the still eerily quiet Corona below, Elsa ran out into the electrical typhoon towards the two brawling Nobodies.
The girl in Riku's hoodie paid her no mind as she ran off. She was too focused, too zeroed in on one and one person only: Rapunzel. The only reason she even seemed to be dealing with Sora at all was because he was in her way. An obstacle standing between her and her ultimate goal. And even though she and Sora were trading blows now, her shadowed gaze always seemed concentrated just past him on his ally with the magical hair. It was almost kind of creepy.
Sora grit his teeth and his unrelenting attacks continued, while Rapunzel did her best to provide support from a distance, her hair lashing out strikes to try to tangle and trip up their opponent. But she was always too agile, countering every swing of the Keyblade and deftly sidestepping every flick of Rapunzel's mane.
"Kairi, why?!" Sora suddenly shouted at her as the clang of their weapons rang out once again, blades locking together and bringing them to a fleeting standstill. "Why are you doing this, what's wrong with you? What happened? Just talk to me, let me help you! Please!"
She didn't answer him, just remained stoically silent as she shoved the Keyblade back with her own sword before making a jab for his heart. Sora threw up a hasty block with his weapon, putting them in a deadlock once again as he snarled, pressing all his weight into pushing her back.
His eyes darted to his bracer briefly, which gave a tiny fizzle as if to say, yup, still broken. Frowning, he glanced back to his opponent and tried again, "Were you the one who trashed my arm brace? You weren't… were you? I told the others you'd never do that, no matter how messed in the head you might get. Tell me you didn't do this, Kairi! Tell me you didn't stab me in the back!"
Still she said nothing. Instead she ducked down, avoiding Sora's swing as she withdrew her weapon but only long enough for her to whirl around, slashing the sword back up at his belly, forcing him to leap back to avoid getting gutted. She lunged after him, seemingly determined to keep him on the retreat as her bat-winged blade kept slashing at him, driving him to stumble further backwards as he clumsily deflected each attack.
Just then, a yellow blur shot straight for her face with a resounding SNAP! Rapunzel's hair! She'd managed to land a hit! The girl staggered back a step, one arm raising a second too late to shield her face from the flaxen strike as it knocked back her hood. As the arm lowered once more and she gave a shake of her head, the face of Kairi framed with raven hair was revealed once more, eyes squeezed shut. Those eyes snapped open now and like Sora had seen once before, they were entirely clouded over in darkness. Wisps of shadows leaked out from the inky orbs and oily blackness trickled down her cheeks like some sort of warped tears.
Sora inhaled sharply as he stared at her now. She stared back, though there was no recognition in her obsidian gaze, no familiarity. Nothing. It was like she didn't know him or if she did, she just simply didn't care. Slowly, almost mechanically, she raised her free hand before her, palm faced towards the sky, fingers splayed. The ground before her feet began to burble with the gesture, a pool of Darkness erupting. It began to sprout yellow eyes, one pair at first, then another and another. Hundreds of them. Then it burst up and grew into a massive swirling spire of Heartless. A literal demon tower.
Eyes wide, Rapunzel and Sora watched this new monstrosity in horror, mouths agape. With a thrust of her hand, Kairi sent the frenzied twister of monsters surging straight for them.
With a gulp, Sora glanced down at his bracer again. "Now would be a great time to miraculously not be busted and start working again, buddy!"
Its reply came in the form of coughing out a dark puff of smoke before flashing an angry spark of neon blue that painfully stung Sora. He winced.
Right. Still no help on that front, it seemed. Back to Keyblade basics then.
He scowled up at the churning mass of Shadows as it closed in, looming high over them. He knew it was either coming after him or Punzie. And it was not gonna get Punzie.
Not if he had anything to say about it, dammit!
"What are you-?" Rapunzel gasped as Sora suddenly charged off straight towards the abomination. Realization dawning a split second too late, she reached a hand out after him, "Sora, no!" Ignoring her shout, he dove Keyblade first into the vile depths of the whirling tower of Shadows.
Then and there Sora was swallowed whole, disappearing without a trace.
Author's Note: Punzie: "Sora no!" Sora: "SORA YES!" Lol, ding ding, round 1 of the final epic battle is off to an explosive start! It ended up being a divide-and-conquer tactic but who's really surprised there, could we really see those 2 baddies actually keeping cool heads long enough to actually work together? Still, there's much of this battle royale left to unfold, so we could still see some different pair-offs and face-offs yet! Also… BAM: demon tower! Cuz who doesn't love a good old fashion demon tower? xD I originally wrote this whole fight sequence as one chapter but it ended up being just too dang long so I broke it down into 3 smaller chapters. I wanted them to be roughly the same length each, but didn't work out that way - you just know I gotta put the chapter splits where the best story beats were (aka the most cliff hanger-y moments for drama and funsies xD) So yeah, this chapter may have been a bit short, but each chapter from here is going to get progressively longer and longer, you've been warned xP
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