Chapter 34: The Reunion
The Trix, Seneschal and their enforcers surrounded Bloom and Taren after they excited the palace doors, uncertain how they found them but they did to get their hands on the Dragon's Flame. Taren feared if they learned that he has one it they would be after him, but he won't let them lay a finger on Bloom.
Icy slowly descended to the frozen ground and kept her cold hard stare at the two. "Did we spoil a romantic moment? Too bad, and quite clever to be in the one place we never would have guessed. The lifeless rock you were born before our ancestors destroyed it. Pity you never get to see your real mommy and daddy."
Bloom did not like how Icy talked about her parents like trash, never forgetting the sacrifice her sister made for her. "I know what you came for, and I won't let my sister's sacrifice be for nothing. I won't let you get the Dragon's Flame! As a princess of Domino and a Winx!" Bloom vowed she wasn't going to be back down by the witches anymore for what they did to her.
Taren smirks as he was ready to fight alongside her despite the odds. "You also have to deal with me as well. Ready?"
Bloom nods and smirks. "Ready. "Magic Winx!" Transforms for combat,
almost surprised by Bloom's sudden change of attitude and not afraid of them anymore, but didn't stop the Trix's confidence in beating her. "Isn't that touching, but we don't have all day, Seneschal, you deal with the key brat. We'll deal with Bloom." Icy told him as he nodded in response to separate them. "You forget one thing, both of you are no match against the element of ice!"
Threw her hands across and made a howl as a wall of ice rose from the ground, separating Taren and Bloom before the two could find out what she was up to. Bloom was about to fly over to help him but saw Stormy flying right towards her, blasting lightning bolts from her hands and forced Bloom to fly away, dodging the coming attacks as she can.
"Sorry, but this time, your boyfriend isn't going to come and rescue you!" Stormy teased her. "Now be a good fairy and just give us what we want!"
"Never!" Bloom growled and brought up a force field to block the next attack but made a surprise attack on the witch by flying under and kicked her right in the stomach. Stormy didn't see it coming and staggered backwards when she clutches her stomach., same for Bloom who was shocked she just did that out but felt good to do it. Knowing the training she went through and learning from her friends helped a lot.
"You three are gonna be so sorry you ever messed with me and my friends!" Bloom proclaimed. A couple of icicles flew towards her, forcing the princess to back away and found Stormy below her was an illusion.
"My, my, aren't you quite the fighter." Icy, Darcy and Stormy appeared in the air and snickered at her.
"We have to be careful she means business and I still can't summon a Grimm." Darcy told her.
It did puzzled Icy when they arrived as the Grimm they summoned vanished moments afterwards, whether it was by magic or something left behind on Domino. "She must have done something, but we don't need them to finish her. Stormy, would you do the honours?"
Stormy was ready for some payback and make them suffer. "With pleasure." Conjures a ball of lightening in her hands and tossed at Bloom.
The fairy flew over it, barely dodging the lightning blast. She was without her friends to help and Taren was having his trouble below, with very limited chances of anyone living here at the moment, she didn't need to hold back without hurting anyone. Soaring higher across the palace with the Trix right behind her, using everything she can to keep her wings flapping and the magic to prevent them from tiring out while trying to find Taren, but the snow storm had gotten more difficult to see. No doubt the work of Icy using her powers to prevent that.
She dodges two more bolts of lightning from behind, ducking and flying over, almost came very close enough to feel the static from her hair. But out of nowhere came an energy barrier right in front of her, forcing the princess to pull back and stopped in mid-air and pulled back before the trap was sprung.
Icy took the advantage with Bloom almost caught in Darcy's net, sending a burst of sharp icicle crystals out of her hand at Bloom. The redhead pulled away and brought up a magical force field in time before they could impale her, however each one felt strong and powerful. This fight was taking a lot out of her and needed to escape before they could get the Dragon's Flame.
"You can't win, Bloom! Just surrender and we'll make it quick!" Icy called out.
Bloom narrowed her eyes at her, thinking she would fall for her tricks. "Like you being the honest type."
"Screw this!" Stormy decided to attack her directly, throwing herself at Bloom who was caught by surprise when she was grabbed by the shoulders and thrown over.
Using the limited strength she had to keep herself in the air, but was losing to them badly and unable to keep up with more experienced witches like them. She only got lucky when Taren was with her and the Winx, but on her own was a different matter.
Taren was unable to come to Bloom's aid when he was having trouble himself, dodging a coming dagger from one of the attackers, swatted it from his right with his hand and kicked him aside before another came at him. Grabbing the first one to throw and used his keyblade. "Windaga!" Casting a twister at the two before they could get back at their feet.
"Don't count yourself lucky, kid. You might have a keysword, but we got numbers! A large pink-skinned humanoid pulled out a high-tech gun and started firing at him.
"Do not underestimate this boy, he is much stronger than he lets himself be." Sensachel warned them from studying the previous battles Taren fought in. "But keep him far from fairy."
"Shouldn't be a problem." One of them said before they fired at the keyblader they were hired for. Continued to pummel the teen with plasma and magical blasts they can use, thinking with enough numbers and strength would take him out by Tezzeret's orders. The cloud debris covered everything to make it hard to see.
"Did we get him?"
"I can't see, but he's gotta be-AHHH!"
One of them got cut off when blasted by a shining star, ice shards erupted and then saw Taren leap high in the sky, aiming his keyblade straight down at them.
"Mega Flare!" Cried out an attack to summon a fireball, creating a bright explosion after struck down on the surprised foes that did not have enough time to react. The Mega Flare blasted them and caused much damage to his opponents.
Taren landed back down, able to see all them groaning in pain and thrown all over the place by the fire magic. He did not know whether he could have pulled it off but it worked. "Wow, I almost had it and enough to beat these guys. Gotta thank Yen Sid for the training to use magic and Macbeth for the training."
He was trying to find out where the Cyber Lord could be hiding, knowing he wasn't among those who got hit by the Mega Flare, searching the area and keeping his guard up to know where the next strike will come. Taren could not waste any more time and needed to help Bloom as he can to escape. It was obvious they were separated on purpose to make it easier for the Trix. Looked above and found her in the air flying, putting up a fight against the three. "There they are. I gotta get her out of here-"
Without warning the snow burst and several tendrils shot out towards him, including Seneschal himself with his arms turned into blades.
"I'm afraid you will not be going anywhere, Drocarhen." Seneschal was able to escape the radius of the blast and took cover from the debris, his scanners on the wielder's magic had indeed grown and much stronger than he was last time, able to take out many. Shot the blades at the surprised redhead, but Taren leaped the gab between the two tendrils before the blades could piece him.
Taren rolled onto the ground until he turned to face Seneschal, almost fell into a trap that he must have laid and managed to get out of there in time, but didn't mean he got a cut on his left arm by one of the sharp blades.
Aqua Seneschal's tendrils retracted and stared directly at the keyblader but maintained the bladed arms for combat. "You might have improved, but you will not leave this world in one piece."
"Pity you can't summon the Grimm here, huh." Taren taunted and knew for certain he would have been overrun by the horde had he not found a keyhole.
Seneschal narrowed his eye and was frustrated but dared not show it, somehow having a clear idea the boy was behind it. But it didn't matter and had a mission to follow. "Whatever it is you done, won't change a thing!" Threw his right arm out towards the redhead who used the new keyblade in place to block the attack and the other snuck up towards his torso.
One of the enforcers sprang up from the debris and roared, throwing his large right fist towards Taren from behind to prevent his escape.
Anticipating his moves, Taren focused on the inner power, trying to tap into the Dragon's Flame he possessed himself but having trouble to understand how to use it when he needed to help Bloom and get back to Magix. His hands and keyblade were engulfed in an orange aura. "Tell me, does the name Chandra ring a bell?"
"Hmm?" Curious to know how he had heard of that name before until he believed Macbeth had still some of his memories from the previous event centuries ago. "And how did you know of this name? Macbeth"
"Doesn't matter. But what I found out is I won't let you get your hands on the Dragon's Flame from Bloom. And make you both pay for what you've done." Taren declared, lifting his keyblade and sprinting towards the Cyber Lord.
Unfazed by his words and almost let out a chuckle. "We will see.." Clashed his bladed arms to intercept the coming strike, although somewhat surprised how fast the boy was able to predict his movements and blocked each strike. Dodging a coming wave and pulled away for one of the enforcers to attack him.
Taren looked to his side and ducked the coming swing, using the moves he learned from the Specialists and Macbeth, crouched down to swipe his foot across and threw his fist right up to the startled attacker's chin. But what came to a surprise was the channelling of the magic flew to his fist and sent his foe who was twice his size, straight in the air and fall right back down into the snow.
Seneschal saw what happened and almost astonished what he had just witnessed. Now for certain the young keybearer's magic was very much like the Domino princess's. His scanners picked up the girl's signature and the Trix high above them with the raging blizzard and needed to prepare for their trap.
'Interesting.'
Taren breathed easily and looked at his hand, almost like fire but different in a way, amazed he just sent a big guy in the air. He could feel it now.
The power of the Dragon's Flame, a part of it flowing through him and almost built a connection just for a moment. Clutching his fist and returned his attention to Seneschal who stood there without being affected by the cold.
He had no time for any more distractions and needed to get to Bloom. "Much as I like to stick around, Cyclops, but don't have time for this and rather finish this up."
"Finally. We can agree on something."
Not certain what he meant by that, but before he could ponder it several robots almost like the one back in Alfea during the school dance materialised, surrounding him.
A realization struck him that this was a set up, they needed to separate him and Bloom away to make it easier and the Cyber Lord used the enforcers to keep him distracted. Thinking fast, leaping to the nearest robot and the blade only made the construct stagger back with it's legs to support it until the Royal Spark cleaved right through it from above. Spinning the keyblade to deflect the energy beams, trying to attack the next one.
But this left him wide open for Seeneschal to pull out a blaster and shot him.
"AH!" Taren cried out in pain and staggered, the beams were able to hit him from all sides. But they didn't hurt him, caught into some net to force him to the ground.
The part of the mission was a success and now needed the girl. Contacting the rest on the status. "This is Aqua Seneschal. The boy has been captured."
Taren heard every word he said and tried to break free of the beams to stop them. He spotted several ice creatures coming closer from all sides, possibly waiting for the moment to strike. 'No! Got to… break free!' He hated how helpless he was unable to do anything. Now wishing his friends were here, and maybe his parents as well.
Icy moved forward to notice the Winx girl reaching her limit. "Had enough, Bloom?"
Rather than saying another word, Bloom threw her left hand and blasted a powerful fire blast at the Trix, only to be struck by their dark magic. She panted with how exhausting this was and unsure how long she could keep this up.
Icy tapped her ear and turned to the two a minute later. "Let's head back and maybe someone else who can be more persuasive." Gave a sinister grin, she used her magic to teleport away.
Left alone and exhausted, Bloom didn't know what she was talking about. But for a minute, fully realised what she meant. "Taren!" Using the last remaining energy she had left to search for him and soared through the air, flying as fast as possible to push further to save him.
Energy beams shot out of nowhere and all stuck at the startled fairy. Bloom cried out and trapped by the beams in mid-air, struggling to break free. She was left vulnerable when a bolt of lightning hit her several times when she could not defend herself or without mercy.
Forced her to a wall and found the Trix with several floating robots hovering around them, no doubt the cause of her to be trapped by them.
Icy grins and walks towards the downed fairy. "Figured you come for your keyblader, but I should think more about your life then his." Looking down at Bloom with her watery eyes and continued to explain their reason. "You should know by now that our three ancestors went so far as to destroy Domino to get it. They understood the power of the flame and waited for centuries, biding their time for the perfect moment to strike at Domino to obtain it. And they almost succeeded, except that your sister, Daphne the Nymph had to spoil everything by saving your life, so they had to get rid of her."
Bloom listened and remembered what Daphne told her, but also about the dark keybearers who were as dangerous as the witches. But seems they don't know is Daphne had survived the battle with them before the loss of their homeworld. "I found out about my family and how Daphne risked her life to save mine.
"Died saving the Dragon's Flame, the most powerful magic in the universe, happens to be inside you." Icy sneered over the thought of her arch foe possess what they were after. "Which we are about are rip out of you to get the power we have waited for our entire lives."
"But what about Tezzeret? What does he get in all of this for destroying my home?" Bloom questioned them, trying to find out about what the relations between them.
The Trix thought she might as well know on her last moments and answered. "He was somehow trapped in a dimensional void and was freed by our ancestors. But he also needed something else, something about the rest of his forces locked in the dimension by your family centuries ago." Icy explained. "Since the Ancestral Witches failed to do so thanks to your sister, we picked up where they left off, and will carry through the mission. Right, sisters?
Both Darcy and Stormy nod their heads to confirm. "Right."
Icy returned to face Bloom. "You see, our ancestors were old and worn out, they wouldn't last long for what would come. But we are young and strong."
"And yet you relied on someone else to do the job for you." Bloom gave a snarky remark of how they try to get the most powerful magic in the Magic Dimension by someone's help.
Using her power to not hurt the girl too much for that insult and the wound of her pride for being somewhat right. "Oh yeah?" Blasts a powerful wave of ice to encase her body to the wall, leaving only her head and torso untouched. "Yoy haven't got a leg to stand on, princess."
Bloom struggled and while trying to break free from this ice using her magic, but was too weak.
Darcy uses her psionic magic to keep her down while Icy traps Bloom in a block of ice.
Icy approaches her and grabs her chin. Almost giving a sad expression but strongly believed this was the way. "This will be quick and I shouldn't get too attached to that brat you were with. What our partners have in mind won't be pretty for what we will do with you."
"Icy! Do you have the princess?"
They hear Seneschal calling to them on audio and responded. "We have and about to extract it out of her." Looks at Bloom for a moment and back to her comm. "What about the brat? That keyblader?
"Excellent. The boy is restrained and about to be... eliminated."
Bloom gasped and feared something bad will happen to Taren, fearing for his life and gave a pleading expression. "NO! He's got nothing to do with this! Please let him go!" She could feel warm tears running down her cheeks over the fear of the person she grew to love. Despite her current state, her love for Taren was unable to ignore and tried to break free.
"Look at that! She loves the keyblader! Aw sweet. Yuck!" Stormy cackled and savoured the moment of the look on the scared expression on the fairy's face.
"I apologies, princess, but as he is the living descendant of the Drocarhen. I cannot take the chances. But I will make it swift and painless. Farewell."
Icy sighs and almost pitied her with Bloom now silent, chocking and weeping on her tears to learn about her boyfriend's suppose execution. No stepping down when so close to her goals, what she had to do to obtain where she is now and can't stop just now. "No turning back. For Dyamond." Icy whispered under her breath without anyone knowing. Darcy decided to put her out with her magic, knocking the redhead unconscious. "Sorry, but just business. Darcy. Stormy. It's time."
The Trix began their incantation, channelling the magic into the Vacuums. The years of searching, training and studying the magic was within their grasp. With the help of Tezzeret and his army and the Grimm, they would become one of the most powerful forces in history alongside the Ancestral Witches, Maleficent and even the Organization XIII. "Savour the moment, we are about to become one of the most powerful witches the Magic Dimension has ever seen, and pretty soon this world as well."
Bloom could not know what was happening and felt herself entirely drained, almost like something reached inside her and pulled it out of her chest by force. Screamed out once the magic of the flame formed into an orb of golden light after emerging from her chest. The orb hung for a moment and still for a brief moment, felt a connection from it until the feeling was gone and watched it being pulled against its will into the triangle and vanished a moment after.
One of the hired thugs run towards the Trix after they completed their mission. "Hey, did you get it?"
Ruining the moment as Icy narrowed her eyes towards the fool for stumbling in. "Yes, we got it, you idiot. Tell your boss the good news."
"Well, we better go now! We've just been ambushed by-AHH!" He was too late to finish his sentence when suddenly blasted by a magical sphere and thrown across the room. The Trix were taken by surprise and to see the person who came in was some hooded figure, but what caught their attention was in the unknown intruder's gloved hand.
A keybalde!
They all thought and assumed to be one of the keybearers but looks different, the cloak came off to reveal some sort of knight in dark pink and black armor. The Keyblade is round and curvaceous to the point of appearing harmless. One side of the hilt is formed in the shape of a breaking ocean wave, while the other is formed into a beige vine of sand that wraps around the shaft, which is colored to resemble a sunset. The vine connects to a bouquet of colorful flowers, which form the teeth of the Keyblade and entwine to outline a heart. A red silken keychain connects the hilt to the paopu fruit token.
Out of nowhere two of attackers sprint from behind to try and attack her, but the keyblader did not seem to notice them while walking towards the Trix. Until they noticed glowing circles on the ground when her would-be attackers inadvertently set them off, explode and sent them hurtling in all directions. None of them were
The armored knight aimed her keyblade towards the three and spoke with a feminine voice. "Get away from her, or end up like your friend."
"No way, a keyblader here?!" Stormy started to freak out but didn't take chances of this one.
"Icy, we got what we came for, let's just go!" Darcy told her, not take the risk of pushing their luck.
Icy agreed with them and decided to have their celebration another time.
Bloom felt so drained and weak when the Trix stripped her of her magic. She failed to protect it as she promised her sister and fear they will go after Taren. She felt ashamed to not do anything, no longer feel any magic at all and completely drained. She started to hear a faint voice, no longer feel any ice but now warmed up and suddenly healed.
"Can you hear me? You're gonna be alright, sweetheart."
She heard a woman's soft voice that stirred the fairy to open her eyes, before her was a knight with a curvaceous built frame of some sort and dark maroon red black armor. Opening her eyes to fully recovered and looked to her possible saviour, slowly getting up.
"Uhh… Who… who are you?" Bloom asked her and discovered the keyblade beside her. "A keyblade?"
"So you know us? That's good and saves the trouble." She responded and slowly helped her up. "I'm sorry for not coming so soon but we were taken by surprise."
"Is she alright?" Bloom looks over to hear a familiar voice. "Stella!"
Stella wore the same clothes Bloom had worn to avoid the freezing temperatures of Domino, her best friend rushed over to her. "Oh Bloom! I'm sorry! Had we should have come with you had we known the Trix somehow found out!"
"Stella, the Trix, they ambushed us and attacked me, they were so strong." She couldn't hold back the tears and felt ashamed to admit it. "They took my powers and the Dragon Flame!"
"Oh no." Stella could not believe this had happened and felt she was partly to blame for not coming. "We'll get your powers back, Bloom. That's a promise of a Winx. And certain Taren will wanna tag along to kick their butts real good."
Hearing his name suddenly remembered what they were intended to do and became frantic when she reached out to grab the startled Stella by the shoulders. "Taren! Is he alright?! Did you save him?! They said… they were going to.."
Before she could burst into tears the knight reached out to comfort her. "Calm down, he's safe. The others came in time to save him before they could lay a finger on him."
Bloom was so relieved and let go of her friend. "Oh thank goodness." She couldn't be happy to hear but not sure how to tell him. But she almost forgot what her sister had told her, something about going to the lake that holds the answers to her powers, hoping it could hold the key to stop the Trix and the evil forces that was about to be unleashed. "But we have to warn Alfea, everyone will be in grave danger if we don't stop them."
"Let's get to the others first." The woman helps her up on her feet. "To be honest, this didn't turn out how I pictured out meeting to be."
Both Bloom and Stella turned to the unknown keyblader and never gotten her name.
"Oh, I'm sorry, we never got to ask who you are?" Bloom wanted to know and thank her.
"We'll fill you in once we get everyone out of here. Obviously she wants to thank you for saving her boyfriend."
Bloom's face became bright as red the moment Stella called Taren her boyfriend, she wondered if they found out or just not yet realised they became a couple. Hoping the Keyblader didn't bother. "Stella, let's just get going to find the others. I'm sure she-"
"Boyfriend?"
They noticed the tone of the woman's voice, almost curious as she looked directly at Bloom, making her feel nervous for some reason. "Uh, well… that's, eh, you see… maybe talk about this another time!"
"Are you friends of his?" Stella asked her when hearing her voice sounded surprised when hearing about this.
"Stella!" Bloom thought it was embarressing to ask a question and thought to focus on the situation.
"Not really." They see her armor flashed in a bright light, revealed to be a beautiful woman with dark red hair and blue eyes, wearing winter clothing and still held the keyblade. "I'm his mother. Kairi Strife."
The moment she revealed her name surprised both Bloom and Stella to meet one of Taren's parents for the first time, they could clearly see some traits from between the two. Bloom recognised her from the books from the library. Stella now felt embarressed for revealing this to his mother and put Bloom in an odd situation, especially Taren for dropping hem in it. "Eh.. well, this is... awkward."
Moments earlier…
Taren was in a struggle for his life, restrained by the beams and on a kneeling position with no chance of escape with those ice monsters surrounding him and the cronies the Cyber Lord brought with him.
Not sure what was going on if Bloom was still fighting the Trix, Unable to move his limbs to call someone for help.
For a moment, Taren felt something as though something cried out and along with Bloom's voice. Not certain what that was but he felt her in pain and as though a part of her was… gone. It scared him, not certain why but feared something had happened to Bloom.
Narrows his eyes towards Seneschal, fighting the restraints. "What did you do to Bloom?!"
The Water creature turned to him. "Your mission… has come with a failure as we now at last have the Dragon's Flame."
His fear came true and now they could use it to release their trapped forces.
"And now… to finish what was started long ago. Eliminate him." Taking his orders, they surround him and prepare to fire on the order. But before they could do anything, the storm around them suddenly became tense, blowing the snow in their faces.
"What is this?"
"Hey! What's with this weather!"
"Are those Trix at it?"
Not sure what was going on when Taren spotted some sort of elf with long blonde/white hair and light purple skin, wearing an earthly brown robe with green garments on top. This being flew over the group and shot out his hands, creating a storm around them, blowing the surprised cronies away along with the creatures, but keeping Taren in the circle.
Not sure who this saviour was but was grateful. "Uh… thanks?" Not sure if he understood him but still had trouble for the robots.
"Need a hand? Stactic Sphere!" Taren heard a familiar voice and found Tecna and Musa in the air with their fairy forms. Tecna captured the drones and caused them to malfunction, what he saw was a small fox-like with two tails critter leaping towards the first robot and did something to it, causing circuits to spark and malfunction. The ones for Musa she used her sound magic to disrupt their circuits along with her Titan Shinobi cutting two in half. Freeing Taren from the beams and able to move again.
"How did you get here? And uh, what is that?" Taren pointed to the creature that crawled up to Techna's shoulder.
"Allow me to introduce my Titan, Springer, small but good at solving puzzles and traps, and even better with technology to fix or sabotage just recently." The Fairy of technology explained about her summoned Titan.
"We heard there was a trap and came to help." Musa told him after landing down to the ground.
"But before we could, a horde of monsters and Grimm got in our way." Tecna explains. "We were outnumbered and suddenly these two keybladers arrived and helped us."
To hear there were other keybladers and maybe someone Taren knew, but before he could ask them, Seneschal emerged from the snow along with the remaining creatures gathered to his aide.
"This planet shall be your grave! Destroy them." Giving out the order, forcing the creatures to attack along with his enforcers. Taren, Tecna and Musa were about to make their attack. From afar the large yeti beast made its comeback, making the keybearer think this might make the situation difficult.
"Flowers of the wind!" Green vines sprouting everywhere, snaring up the monsters and the startled and panicked soldiers from the ground. Throwing them about like ragdolls while the ice creatures were shattered easily, the wind user that came to Taren's help released a powerful twister to blow the captured foe away with their guards down.
They look around and found none other than Flora hovering in the air, she smiled at her friends, but when her eyes stopped at the surprised Taren she couldn't have been more relieved. "Taren!"
Taren was more than happy to see her and wanted to say something about before. "Flora! Wow, I'm glad you-whoa!" Without a second to say anything he was suddenly tackled to the ground when she threw herself at Taren and felt her arms wrapped around him tight. "Easy! A little warning next time."
Musa and Tecna were having a hard time not to laugh and smirk over the scene but had other situations at hand. "Uh, Flora, maybe not a good time when we have a job to do."
"Right." Flushed over how she acted and wanted to talk to him but had to deal with this. "Stella should be with Bloom by now to help her, we got to take these out."
"Only problem is there too many for them to deal with." Musa says with worry as more of the ice creatures appear.
Taren had to agree and perhaps use his powers to help turn the tides, but spotted Seneschal sneaking away, narrowed his eyes at the Water Creature but the creatures began to build up their numbers to over take them. "We gotta finish them off and get to the others." Using his keyblade to propel himself to attack the first dozen of them for a fast strike while, giving the others the chance to take on the rest to buy much time as they can with their summoned Titans to assist them.
Seneschal observes and knew only a matter of time for them to reach their limit, letting the creatures to do the work for him to finish the Winx for good. Receiving a message from the Trix.
"The flame's in our hands. We've had to leave under some unexpected guests." Hearing Icy's voice spoke through.
"The Winx?" Questioned her as he could only find three of the Winx members, the Solarian princess was not present.
"No. Another keyblader, but this one wore armor and looked strong."
"What?" Hearing this did not bold well to hear more bad news, this could only mean their foes have finally crossed through the barrier. Leaving them to their fate would make it easier to be certain. "Deliver the magic to Tezzeret, I will remain behind to ensure they do not follow."
"Yeah, not gonna happen."
Caught off guard to find an unknown individual suddenly appear, but what caught his attention was the keyblade in his grip. "A keyblade? But the armor... then you-"
"Took us long, but it was worth the wait." The keybearer remarked and propelled himself towards the Cyber Lord's chest, who immediately blocked the strike with his bladed arms and forced him into defence.
The other creatures and his forces try to gang up on him with his back turned and focused on his opponent but were not prepared against a keyblade user. Spinning his keyblade to counter their attacks, blocking and slashing several through the torso, legs, head, and arms.
"Faith!" Creating several pillars of light from beneath the ground, propelling them in the air and back down with some damage. Even Seneschal was taken by surprise when he was thrown across the area. "You should have warned them about me."
The Cyber Lord growled and recovered from his attack but was too slow for another surprise attack. "Thundaga Shot!" A powerful bolt of lightning struck him, crying out in pain and received more damage, clutching to the damage by his shoulder and staggered. The warrior with the keyblade armor was very powerful and had more experience then the others he had faced. Unable to risk facing him when realizing who Seneschal was up against, he had to alert his associates as they have completed their task.
"This… is not… over. The Fallen will rise again!" His body was engulfed in blue light and slowly fades away before the keyblader could finish him. Grunted to lose the chance, but to see the young redhaired keyblader with the fairies, he had other priorities at hand.
"What did he mean by that?" He pondered but found the fairies and the keyblader with them facing against an alarming number of the monsters with a giant sabertusk yeti joining in. Decided to think of it later and offer some help.
"There must be an endless supply of these ugly critters! We should head to the castle for cover." Tenca suggested with so many coming towards them.
"Well one thing's for sure, they're nothing like the Grimm." Taren stated after destroying two more, another snared up by a vine with Flora's help. They had no chance of taking them all at once without taking some breather or an escape route. "Take this!" Blasted them with magic to shatter their forms, but he was running out of magic and can't hold on for much longer.
Suddenly the ground shook and all the creatures around them were destroyed to pieces by a light blur. This surprised the group as to wonder who or how it happened when standing before them was the keybalder knight. Taren was amazed to see an actual keyblade armor after he heard stories about them from his family and friends, Yen Sid taught them the roles of the armor when achieving greater levels such as a master rank. But uncertain who it is under the armor that just came to their help.
"Hey! It's you! We were wondering where you went." Musa remarked while was grateful for his timing.
"Sorry, I had to take care of the others, but unfortunately the one named Aqua Seneschal vanished. But you seem to have done a great job." Commenting them and turned to face Taren. "It's really you, Taren."
"Wait, how'd you know my name?" Taren wasn't sure why, but something about this knight seemed… familiar, but when he spotted the keyblade resting on his shoulder. "That keyblade…." He whispered as if he knew it belonged to someone.
The knight gave out a soft chuckle and shook his head spoke and approached him slowly with a soft voice.
"Hey, is something the matter?" Tecna asked him out of curiosity.
Taren didn't say anything and studied the keyblade and then had a familiar feeling about him as well as the voice. He could not believe it.
Even after a year… But it had to be. "No… way." His body started to shake, his heart racing and eyes widen in shock. Emotions swelling up and tried to keep himself calm as he could.
"Taren, what's wrong? Do you know him?" Flora reached for his shoulder and noticed him strangely quiet and shaking.
"I... I think so." Swallowed and spoke shakingly, trying to not sound too hopeful he was certain of the keybearer's identity. "It's… really you?"
Nods his head and the armor vanished in a flicker of light, revealing to the girls an older male with rough spiky hair, strong-built and shared a lot of similarities to Taren but without the red hair and has blue eyes.
"Yeah. It's me, son." Sora smiled, unable to hide the happiness of seeing his son again. "Look at you. You've grown."
Tecna, Musa, and Flora stood there, completely blown away to discover this keyblader, turns out to be Taren's father, Sora, known to many as one of the heroes of Magix that came to their aide years ago against.
"D-Dad?"
Sora nods his head. "It sure is, but we can talk later. Just have to deal with this mess we're in."
"But... There are so many of them!" Flora mentioned. "We might not be able to defeat them, even with our Titans."
"Not to worry, this is nothing compared to the ones I've fought when I was your age." Sora stated and did not seem bothered by the large numbers, brought his keyblade to a fighting stance. "So what do you say, Taren? Care to see if you can keep up with your old man?"
Blinks his eyes to hear his father wanting to see him in action, this almost felt like a dream but so real. Grabs his keyblade with his hands, gripping it firmly and filled with newfound confidence. "You bet! Only I'm gonna beat that record of yours someday." Grins with determination before turning back to his friends. "Go find Bloom and Stella, we'll catch up to you in the palace."
Thinking it would be a possible solution to buy them time and allow the keyblade wielders to hold them off while trying to regroup in the castle. "Alright, we'll call you when we found them. We'll make sure Bloom is safe." Tecna told them.
"Good luck!" Musa said before flying off with Tecna.
Taren nodded and about join his father when suddenly Flora pulled him to her and kissed his cheek, surprising the redhead by the approach. "Just don't get hurt." She smiled but still worried about him.
Watches her fly off, but not before catching Sora with a sly grin on his face. "She seems nice, can see you were busy."
Blushes and stuttered in front of his father. "Well-uh, she... Flora... I-I mean... Look can we just focus on this! Least mom isn't here to see!" Trying to fight off the flushed red on his cheeks. "I'll explain later when this is over."
Sora could not help but chuckle and how much of seeing this reminded him back then with Kairi, but didn't say anything of where she was since helping the rest of them. This will be interesting how he made friends and certain attractions.
The creatures storm in to attack them along with the yeti letting out a battle cry to join the fight, thinking two small humans would be easy. Little did they realize how sadly mistake the odds are against them.
And now we have only Bloom to reveal her Titan for the final battle, I got something in mind and also hope you enjoyed it! Took awhile but been taking on a course for jobs, but now sadly summer is completely over and Autumn is here. Yay (!)
But hope you enjoyed the battles and things are going to get very interesting not only has Taren's family showed up, but will learn about his relationships. And can thank Stella for for that lol
Next one be shortly and will have ideas for the battle of Red Fountain, the Specialists will have their titans revealed so no worries! Until next time!