I do not own Kingdom Hearts or any of the characters.
Fighting For A Lead
Tyler stared at the waves, watching the ship, the same three-mast ship he had seen before landing on this world, as it tossed and rolled. Rain battered against the shore, pounding against his skin. He squinted as he looked up, staring at the dark clouds overhead. He knew those clouds.
"This world's finished," Tyler said.
"Maybe not," Vanille said. "The heartless may not be here yet. If we can kill the one drawing them, maybe we can save this world."
"Worth a shot," Lightning nodded. "Where is it?"
"Ahoy there!" a young voice shouted.
They all turned, a young red-haired boy wearing green tights with a lighter green tunic, green fairy shoes, and a pointed green hat with a red feather in it landing in front of them. He had a tiny double-edged dagger in his hand and a tiny blonde girl in a matching outfit with a pair of glowing wings that dropped golden glitters as she flow hovering over his shoulder.
"See Tink," the boy said, "It's not him. Sorry, she thought she saw our friend."
"Okay," Tyler nodded. "Are you having a problem with monsters?"
"One, yeah," the boy nodded. "I actually came to get help from my friend. He has a weapon that's really effective against a heartless. A keyblade, I think."
'Like this?" Tyler asked, summoning his. "We're here to help. There's not much time, though."
"Okay," the boy nodded. "I'm Peter Pan. This is Tinker Bell. I'll make this quick. The dust is pixie dust and it lets you fly. You have to think happy thoughts to do it, though. After that, control is instinctive."
As Peter was talking, Tinker Bell flew over them, pixie dust covering them all. Tyler stared down at his hands, watching golden dust fall off of them.
"Happy Thoughts huh?" Tyler asked. "Family."
Vanille and Lightning both looked over at him as he began to hover over the ground. He smiled slighter, before settling back to the ground, smile fading. Memories of the nightmare that had taken his family filled his mind.
Vanille sighed, lowering her head and closing her eyes. "Fang." She rose off the ground, hovering before opening them again. "You have to focus on the happy parts. Even if some of the other parts aren't as happy."
Tyler sighed, nodding and trying again. This time, he was able to hold the happy memories in his mind. He looked to Lightning, who was concentrating but going nowhere. She groaned irritably.
"Go," Lightning said. "You need to stop it now."
Tyler nodded and turned, watching Peter and Vanille fly away. After a moment of trial and error, he shot after them. He tested his control, getting used to flying, just before the heartless came into view from around a cliff on the island they had arrived on. It was a massive creature with a giant stone skull for a head, the head alone being about five hundred feet across, with its body being a massive octopus with pitch black skin and blue markings running the length of all of its tentacles.
"Shit!" Tyler breathed. "I don't think my keyblade's big enough."
"Happy Thoughts Tyler," Vanille reminded him. "We can do this. Peter, you find someplace safe to wait. We'll handle this."
"No way," Peter said. "I'm fighting with you."
"No," Tyler said. "She's right. Your knife wouldn't even break the skin on this thing."
Peter thought for a moment before nodding. "Okay. Be careful."
Tyler and Vanille nodded and took off toward the heartless again. Tyler Swung the keyblade around, launching a barrage of fireballs. As they began to explode against the heartless, one of its massive tentacles swung around at them, Tyler noticing the air behind the tentacle growing hazy.
Tyler flew over the tentacle, slashing it as he passed. Once past it, he flew toward the main body, only to have to fly away from more tentacles. He looked to the side, seeing Vanille launching spheres of transparent grey magic at the octopus rapidly.
"Go now!" Vanille shouted.
Tyler flew up at the octopus again, noticing the tentacles were moving much slower. As he reached the main body, he began to fly around, slashing it rapidly and randomly. The heartless roaring in pain and anger. Tyler launched a fireball into the octopus's aping maw of a mouth, turning to circle the mouth as it exploded.
The explosion sent several teeth flying out of its mouth. Then, a tentacle slammed into Tyler, launching him into the water below. As he surfaced, Vanille's healing spell reached him. He stared up at the heartless, barely seeing any damage. He could feel the happy thoughts slipping, the less happy ending's memory fighting to the front.
"Tyler!" Vanille shrieked suddenly.
He looked up just as a tentacle scooped him up, squeezing. He screamed as he felt his bones straining. Then, suddenly, he was falling. He looked up just as Lightning caught his hand, stopping his fall. Above them, a white-armored knight with a black shield, silver highlights, silver horns, and a double-bladed weapon with curved, jagged blades was tearing into the heartless. There was darkness seeping out of the wounds now, looking like black smoke.
"You're flying," Tyler breathed.
"Yeah," Lightning nodded. "I found my happy thought." She smiled, pulling him up to stand on her feet. "Family."
He smiled and nodded, remembering his life since he met her, from the end of his world to the present. The memories were stained with sadness, but they still made him happy. Then, he remembered the resort, sitting on the beach under the fireworks. He remembered the way she looked, watching the fireworks, smiling at him. A weightless feeling filled him and he lifted off of her feet, summoning her keyblade. Unlike the usual flash, this time, a massive sphere of blinding light appeared around his hand before stretching outward then finally fading, leaving a new keyblade in his hand. This one consisted of a rectangular grip with black sides and notches in the front perfectly formed to his fingers, a guard consisting of a pair of pure white angel wings reaching up and outward from just above his hand then folding back down to meet the bottom of the grip, a chain with a small bolt of lightning as the charm. Above the grip, there was a standard western-style sword blade made out of pure light, with small wisps of light spiraling around the blade in opposite directions, roughly a dozen total spread along the blade.
"New look?"Lightning asked.
"Guess so," Tyler nodded, raising the keyblade. "Let's see."
He sent a blast of magic through the keyblade and a blast of pure light shot out the tip of the blade, punching through its tentacle. It roared in pain and both of them shot upward, tearing into it. Tyler smiled. Suddenly, the fight didn't seem so impossible. He spun as a tentacle shot toward them and grabbed Lightning, flying over the tentacle, slashing it. He spun, hurling her to the main body before flying up to the skull.
There was darkness radiating out of the skull, and when he was level with it, he could see a pair of glowing yellow eyes inside. He narrowed his own eyes, a ball of light forming at the end of his keyblade.
"Rise and shine!" Tyler said, pulling his keyblade back. "Come on out!"
He swung the keyblade with both hands, the ball of light flying into one of the skull's eyeholes, and exploded, making light shine out of the skull. The octopus shrieked in pain, shining before exploding into darkness.
"We did it!" Vanille cheered.
"Not yet," Tyler said, watching the darkness.
Suddenly, the cloud of darkness was cleared away from the center, forming a massive ring around the creature at the center. It was a massive pitch black dragon with glowing yellow eyes and massive claws. Tyler spun his keyblade once before the dragon took off, shooting toward him. He flew forward, rolling out of the way of a swipe, slashing the dragon's side. It roared, batting him aside as it flew at Lightning. Lightning's knight appeared in front of her, lightning flying off of its sword. Then, it slashed, a disk of pure electricity shooting out and into the dragon. It roared, beginning to fall.
Tyler flew to meet it, only for it to flip and take off toward Vanille. She fired a couple of spells at it, and it veered off, flying around her. Tyler stopped to watch as she swung her strange branch around then downward, a dozen small golden barbs flying out with cables attached, wrapping around the dragon and trapping its wings to its sides, the barbs digging into its flesh. Before Tyler could do anything, the dragon's wings broke free, the dragon roaring as it flapped, Vanille being yanked into motion, following the dragon.
"Vanille!" Tyler shouted. "Shit!" He flew after the dragon, which suddenly flipped.
"Oh shit!" Vanille swore.
A moment later, the dragon passed her and flipped again, making the cables wrap around Vanille, immobilizing her and beginning to bite into her skin, earning a scream of pain. The dragon dove and Tyler dove as well, slashing the keyblade, sending out a sphere of compressed wind. The sphere hit the dragon and exploded, the wind blades that shout out of it tearing gashes into the dragon. The dragon roared, tucking its wings as it began to speed up. Tyler swore, hurling his keyblade. The keyblade spun through the air, cutting the cables just ahead of Vanille, freeing her. The blade barely scratched the dragon's tail, but it roared, snapping its wings out and pulling a right angle turn on a dime. Then, Vanille crashed down in the water. Tyler dove in after her, quickly catching her and surfacing, finding Lightning peppering the dragon with bullets and lightning spells. He rose out of the water and stopped beside her, Lightning taking Vanille as Tyler summoned his keyblade again.
Suddenly, the dragon roared, exploding into darkness and falling past them. Tyler watched as the darkness settled on the ship and faded, leaving the ship purple and blue. Then,the ship came alive. Purple flames blazed to life in a pair of spots on the front of the hull above a broken section of boards, which formed a jack-o-lantern smile. The sails unfurled to display their rips and holes, the cannons began to belch purple flames, and a deafening shriek echoed through the air.
"Jesus, it's just one thing after another with this thing!" Lightning growled, Vanille stirring and taking flight again.
"Let's sink this ship!" Tyler snarled.
Lightning and vanille nodded just as the ship lurched forward, shooting into the air, revealing four sail-like fins on the sides of he ship near the bottom, two per side. Tyler rolled his eyes. Of course the ship could fly too. He sighed, flying after the ship. As he caught up to it, he swung the keyblade backward, gripping it with both hands, light shining from the blade. He slashed the ship, light shining from the gash, the ship's face contorting in pain as it roared.
"Watch out!" Lightning shouted.
Tyler's arm raised the keyblade on instinct, a barrier of translucent hexagons forming into a half sphere around him, a volley of purple fireballs crashing into it. The explosion threw Tyler backward into Lightning, who caught him as Vanille launched a fireball. The spell hit a cannon and resulted in an explosion that blew a chunk of the ship off, leaving purple fire burning around the hole. Tyler grinned, he, Lightning, and Vanille blasting the cannons as fast as they could. As the last of the eight cannons exploded, the central mast fell sideways, dropping off the ship and fading into darkness.
"This is almost too easy," Tyler said.
He sent another fireball sailing at the ship, only for the ship to explode, the dragon flying out again. However, half of its body was trailing as darkness. It roared as its body slowly dissolved into darkness, fading as a heart, a stereotypical Valentine's Day shaped one, floated out of the darkness, fading from sight after a few seconds. It seemed the dragon hadn't had enough time to fully reform its body, resulting in its death. Tyler stared up at the clouds as they slowly began to lighten before clearing.
"We did it," Lightning breathed, completely in awe that they had actually won.
"Thank God," Tyler sighed, just as his keyblade flashed, changing back to its normal form. "Now, where's Peter Pan? We need to ask if he's seen Alice or Sarah."
"You did it!" Peter shouted, grabbing Lightning and Vanille in a spinning hug. "Thank you so much!" He grabbed Lightning by the face and kissed her, only for Lightning to slam a fist into his gut, then his jaw.
She began to fall but Tyler caught her bridal style, floating back up level with Peter, both glaring.
"Sorry," Peter said sheepishly, still rubbing his jaw. "You remind me of someone."
Tyler felt Lightning stiffen in his arms. "What do you mean? Who?"
"Some girl named Sarah," Peter shrugged. "She came with this little girl and I helped her fight off a bunch of heartless that were after the little girl."
"Fight? With what?" Lightning asked.
"She had some weapon that went from a sword to a bow," Peter shrugged.
"Did she have pink hair?" Tyler asked, knowing Lightning would want to get specific but not have the heart to risk being wrong. "And was the little girl named Alice?"
"Yeah," Peter nodded.
Just like that, Lightning was shooting through the air, cheering and grabbing Tyler, spinning and hugging him. He hugged her back, laughing and shouting for joy.
"You know them?" Peter asked.
"We've been looking for them," Tyler said. "Do you know where they went?"
"She said something about finding a place the heartless couldn't go," Peter said. "Something about royalty, I think. But then this black portal opened under her and the little girl and they fell through. I don't know where it went, but when the heartless tried to follow, balls of blue fire and waves of normal fire shot out and destroyed them."
"Good," Tyler smiled. "We may not know where they are, but they're being protected."
Lightning nodded, her hand still in his, and looked up at the sky before doubt began to show. "How long ago was this?"
"About two days," Peter said.
Shock filled her face before being replaced by joy. She cheered again and Tyler hugged her, Lightning instantly hugging him back.
"Is there anything else you can tell us?" Vanille asked.
"Well," Peter said, holding a hand to his chin as he thought. "I could swear I smelled candy from the portal. Oh, and I heard car engines, except really loud and higher pitch than I've ever heard."
"Race cars," Tyler said. "Thanks. We gotta go now. Fang! Take us home!"
Light enveloped them and as it faded, Tyler rolled his eyes at Fang's grin.
"I'm not going to refuse your offer, but just make sure you don't fall for me if I do," Fang grinned, referring to his wording before.
"Hah hah," Tyler said, rolling his eyes again. "Pass thanks. We have to find a world with race cars and candy."
"I know the place," the pilot spoke up instantly. ""It'll be a day of travel."
"Okay," Tyler nodded. "I'm going to sleep. That was an exhausting fight."
"Same," Lightning said.
As Tyler passed Vanille, he paused, leaning close to her ear. "If you love her, be honest with her."
Then, he passed her as she tried to fight her blush off and headed to his room, passing out instantly.
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