I do not own Kingdom Hearts or any of the characters.
Other
Tyler sighed, staring out across the cracked purple ground before them. There was a deep ravine running away from them with a massive, wide-open section, then a stretch of cave systems beyond that. And way off in the distance, dozens of miles or so, he could see a dark castle surrounded by darkness. The Heartless were supposed to be coming from there, but so far it was quiet.
"I don't like this," Tyler said. "It's too quiet."
"It's always like this before a battle," Lightning said, still leaning on his shoulder.
"I don't like it," Tyler said again. "It feels...foreboding. Like we're all expecting to lose someone."
"People die," Lightning said quietly. "That's a fact of life. There's just a higher chance during a battle."
"I'm not letting anything happen to you," Tyler said.
"I know," Lightning smiled. "And I won't let your luck pay us a visit this time."
Tyler smiled and looked to the side, seeing Noel standing with his arms wrapped around Vanille from behind, his chin on her shoulder, and Serah leaning back against him, smiling contentedly. "You think he actually told her?"
Lightning looked over and smiled as well. "No. But she'll probably make the first move anyway by the end of today."
"I hope so," Tyler said. "They look good together. And I know he'll never let her be hurt again."
"Agreed," Lightning nodded.
Tyler looked back to the front just as something roared far out before them. He and Lightning both stood, Tyler summoning his keyblade as Lightning drew her gunblade.
"Looks like it's time," Tyler said.
Lightning nodded just as a massive cloud of darkness began to form in front of them. Tyler took a step back just before a massive silver creature appeared in front of them, looking similar to a Darkside formed with blue tentacles wrapped around its neck like a scarf and four reaching backward from it on the sides, then with an inverted Heartless symbol that was only a slightly lighter shade of grey than the actual creature and was longer and skinnier on its face. The creature leaned forward, as though trying to look at Tyler up close, except its face was completely featureless except for the symbol. Tyler slashed the creature across the face and it recoiled, staggering to the side before turning back to the front, its entire body vibrating for a moment as a distorted roar rang out. Then, its arms rose into the air, stretching upward, before swinging downward. Tyler and the others barely had enough time to react before the creature's arms slammed into the wall, all but shattering it.
Tyler landed hard on the floor, which collapsed instantly. He grit his teeth, waiting to be crushed, but after several minutes, the collapse stopped and he pushed himself up, looking around. The creature was gone, but its strike had opened a massive path straight up to the castle Leon had told them to defend. Tyler looked around as the others all stood, all of them unharmed and with their weapons drawn.
"This might be a problem," Lightning said.
"Nothing gets past us," Tyler said, spinning his keyblade and taking a couple steps forward.
"Maybe we should take the fight to the Heartless," Fang suggested. "You know, kill them before they have the chance to make it this far."
"Good idea," Tyler said. "Unfortunately, I think we might have our hands full."
Darkness began to cover the walls of the cliff, as well as the debris, around them, Heartless dressed like medieval knights with spikes for legs and swords extending straight along their arms from a handle in their right hands stepping out of the darkness.
"Well well," Lightning smiled. "These ones know how to have some fun."
"Let's just hope they're not as good as we are at it," Tyler said. "Lightning, Fang, usual game?"
"Always," Fang grinned.
"We have a usual game?" Lightning asked.
"Highest kill count," Fang and Tyler both grinned.
Lightning laughed. "Sure. I'm game. Noel?"
"You know it," Noel grinned.
"I want to play!" Vanille pouted.
"Of course you can play," Fang grinned. "And I'll give you a special reward if you beat me."
"No talking about sex around me please," Serah said. "Double for you two." She glanced at Tyler and Lightning, who both turned scarlet. "Oh, and I'm playing too."
"Out of curiosity, what are the Heartless waiting for?" Noel asked.
"For me to give the order," a voice said as black and green flames sprung up from the ground before going out, leaving a woman with pale greyish green skin, a black cloak with a spiked collar, a headdress with a pair of large curved black horns, and a long wooden staff with a glowing green orb at the top and a pointed end on the bottom. "I must admit, when I sensed a keyblade, I was expecting it to be that other brat. However, I suppose having two brats with keyblades running around would be too troublesome to allow. Kill them."
Then, she was gone in a pillar of green flames again as the heartless charged. Tyler and the others began to fight instantly. Tyler ducked under one sword and slashed the heartless up the front, destroying it, only for another to take its place. He blocked that one's sword and Lightning shot it before shooting her own.
"Hey, he was mine!" Tyler complained, slashing two before they could strike him.
"Gotta move faster," Lightning grinned.
"Okay, fine," Tyler grinned back, spinning and slashing in a circle.
Lightning bolts shot out of the sky around the ring of heartless, blasting a dozen or so into oblivion before Tyler slashed upward in front of himself, a line of black spheres of Gravity Magic falling before him, crushing even more. Then, suddenly, the others were using his idea, their spells blasting heartless near-constantly. Tyler saved his own magic on instinct, though he wasn't sure why, and noticed Lightning doing the same. However, before much longer, a creature with a fully white body that moved like it had no bones, a large head that was flat like something had cut the top off, the same symbol as the giant creature on top of its head, and a mouth that looked like a zipper open and exposing a set of pointed black teeth in a secondary mouth inside flipped over the heartless and shot toward Tyler as though it were a leach swimming through the water. He slashed it and its body began to jiggle and ripple as it flew away. The heartless swarmed it instantly, slashing it several times before it burst into a cloud of what looked like white light and small bits of glowing something or other.
"The hell was that?" Tyler asked.
"No idea, but it wasn't alone," Lightning said, pointing to the tp of a cliff beside them where dozens of the creatures were swarming down the side of the cliff.
Tyler quickly used his keyblade to clear them a path away from the cliff and they ran, making it to a much larger open area before more heartless and white things appeared, ignoring each other in favor of Tyler and the others, whereas behind them, the creatures were fighting each other relentlessly. Tyler readied himself and both the heartless and other things charged. And suddenly, they were fighting again. Tyler was barely even able to keep track of his score as he fought. he dodged, flipped, slashed, and stabbed anything that wasn't a friend that he could reach. Then, suddenly, another keyblade spun through the creatures and heartless from seemingly out of nowhere, slaughtering them all before returning to its wielder, a boy about sixteen with brown hair that stood up to the left in a spiky mess, an open, black, short-sleeved jacket over a dark blue shirt with a double-ended red pocket on his stomach, black shorts with dark blue wrapping between his legs, fingerless black gloves, black shoes, and a pair of red thigh pouches strapped to his legs with yellow straps. He wore a crown-shaped necklace on a silver chain, and had silver pauldrons over his jacket. His keyblade was silver with a straight, round blade, which was clearly still magically sharpened, teeth that formed the outside of a three-pointed-crown silhouette, and a golden guard around the grip with a silver chain hanging from the base, the charm looking like a silver silhouette of Mickey's head and ears.
"Another keyblade?" Lightning asked.
"That must be the kid Leon mentioned," Fang said.
"Sora," Tyler said. "Thanks for the save."
Sora glared at him in silence for a moment before pointing the keyblade at him. "Who are you? How did you get a keyblade?"
"I think we have more pressing concerns right now, don't you?" Tyler gestured around.
"Answer the question," Sora said. "How'd you get that keyblade? And why was Organization XIII saying that I should ask you abut the Heartless attacking?"
"Who the fuck is Organization XIII?" Tyler asked. "You know what, forget it. We have to stop the heartless. You can go bother someone else."
Tyler heard Sora's foot push off the ground and spun, raising his keyblade just in time to block Sora's. They pushed against each other for a moment before Tyler formed a sphere of wind in his hand, swinging it at Sora, only for a shield to appear around Sora, blocking the spell but still allowing Sora to be thrown back.
"Fine," Tyler growled. "I'll deal with you first. You guys go on ahead. I'll catch up."
Fang, Vanille, Serah, and Noel all turned, obediently running toward the castle the Heartless were supposed to be coming from, meaning to head the Heartless army off. Tyler sighed, knowing Lightning was going nowhere. He crouched, readying himself, and Sora sprinted forward, slashing at him rapidly, their blades clashing again and again. Finally, Tyler managed to deflect Sora's slash upward, willing his blade blunt and slamming it into Sora's gut, lifting him off the ground before jumping and slamming a kick into his chest, hurling him backward, catching his keyblade. Big mistake. The moment his hand touched Sora's grip, magic energy began to rage through him, sending agony searing through his body, making him collapse, spasming on the ground. After about three seconds, it ended as Sora summoned his keyblade back. Tyler groaned, Lightning helping him up, watching him worriedly.
"I'm fine," Tyler said, feeling the excess magic that had remained in him settling and merging with his own. "Sora, I don't want to fight."
"Then answer my question!" Sora snapped.
"I don't fucking know!" Tyler said.
"Fine then!" Sora said. "I'll beat it out of you!"
Both charged, Tyler blocking Sora's first slash then flipping over a leg sweep, landing behind Sora and slamming his once again dulled keyblade into the side of Sora's head, sending him staggering to the side. Sora stumbled before catching himself with his keyblade, eyes narrowed at Tyler.
"Give up Sora!" Tyler snapped. "You're not beating me!"
"We'll see!" Sora shouted, sprinting forward, slashing at Tyler rapidly.
Tyler blocked and deflected the strikes, Sora actually forcing him back this time. Tyler grit his teeth, struggling to fend off Tyler for a moment before Sora pulled his keyblade back, magic energy beginning to streak back along it from a single pint just in front of the tip, forming a point. Tyler slashed sideways as he spun in the other direction, barely managing to deflect the stab, and Sora spun, slashing at Tyler. Tyler flipped over the blade and kicked at Sora but he ducked under the kick then swung his keyblade downward, slamming the blade into the ground. Instantly, four spheres of magic energy appeared around him, spinning. One of them slammed into Tyler's gut and hurled him away. Tyler bounced once and flipped, stabbing his keyblade into the ground and skidded to a stop, ripping it free and looking up as Sora leapt into the air directly in front of him, arms both pulled back but separate. Then, red light flashed off of Sora, leaving him in a red jacket over a black shirt with a dark grey pocket, red shorts with black between his legs and a symbol on the front of his legs like an odd kind of spear pointing down toward his red shoes. And then Tyler noticed the much more important change. Sora was suddenly holding two keyblades. His normal one, and then a keyblade with a black guard with purple lines over it like a circuit board, a black blade with a glowing blue line up the center to where fur glowing blue teeth extended off of the back of the top in a semicircle around an orange disk. And there was red electricity flying over Sora's arms and torso.
Sora spun, slashing first with one keyblade, then the other, both keyblades slamming into Tyler's own twice before Sora kicked him, sending him flying and bouncing off the ground. Tyler rolled to a stop and pushed himself up, healing himself, only to shout in surprise as Sora already caught up with him. Tyler leapt to the side, avoiding the first slash and Sora spun on a dime, darting forward in a blur and slashing at Tyler again, both keyblades whipping through the air in blurs, slamming into Tyler's faster than Tyler could keep up with. Finally, one of them, thankfully dulled, slammed into Tyler's gut, hurling him backward. Then, as Sora sprinted forward to finish the fight, a bullet slammed into the ground in front of him and he flipped backward, landing on his feet as Lightning stepped up beside Tyler, returning her gunblade to its sword-mode as Tyler stood, cracking his neck and readying himself.
"Thanks for that," Tyler said.
"We'll handle this together," Lightning said.
Tyler nodded and all three charged, their blades clashing with each other's rapidly. Sora was good, but with Lightning's skill, he was struggling to hold them off. Tyler ducked under a slash and Sora spun instantly, slashing upward with the other keyblade, Tyler blocking it as Lightning blocked Sora's other keyblade's slash. Then, both slammed a hand into Sora's back, two Aero spells blasting him and sending him flying forward. Sora flipped, landing on his feet and charged again, keyblades held diagonally toward the ground at his sides, however, when he reached them, they both slashed upward in an "X", Lightning and Tyler both stepping back out of the way as Sora leapt into the air, flipping and slashing another "X" at them, much closer this time. Both blocked a keyblade and Sora pushed off of their blades, throwing himself into the air. Then, he flipped, landing on his feet and sprinting forward again, slashing at them from behind, only for both to back flip over him, Sado slashing and blasting him in the back with an Aeroga, the tornado picking up and spinning Sora for a moment before hurling him. Sora flipped, landing on his feet and glaring at them, only to stop when a fireball exploded to the ground between them.
"Enough Sora!" Leon's voice called out as he ran over. "He's not an enemy! His name's Tyler, he promised to help just like you did."
Sora looked between them before standing up straight again, flashing and returning to his normal outfit and only one keyblade just as a duck and a humanoid dog that Sado recognized as Donald Duck and Goofy ran over, Donald holding a small staff and Goofy a shield. Just a shield.
"Sorry I attacked you," Sora said.
"You're not forgiven," Tyler said. "If you're done attacking me for no reason, I have heartless to kill and friends to help."
Tyler turned, running after his friends with Lightning just behind him. They reached the others just as Serah swung her arms down, massive chunks of ice appearing over the last group of heartless around them and falling, crushing the heartless.
"Looks like you guys have it handled," Tyler grinned.
"Barely," Fang said. "How'd it go?"
Tyler glanced back at him, seeing Sora holding two keyblades in his mind while remembering the pain that had caused him. "He's got skill. He has the ability to-"
He stopped midsentence as his entire body went cold, the others all stiffening. He turned, staring at a wall of darkness as something began to step out of it. However, after a moment, the darkness faded, leaving Caius this time in a full black body suit with dark grey skin, glowing gold eyes with cracks around them also glowing gold, and his sword radiating darkness and black flames.
"Shit," Tyler growled, summoning his keyblade again. "He's a heartless."
"Indeed," a voice above them said, everyone turning to stare at the newest stranger as he pointed his excessively long sword at Tyler. "You interest me. I wonder, can you kill me?"
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