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Tyler dropped into a slide as the heartless's blade passed over him. As he was standing, another stepped forward in front of him, only for him to split it up the front as Lightning killed the one behind him. Sazh sprinted past both, guns blazing and dropping heartless faster than the heartless could keep up with. They had tried following Cloud, but instead of that, they had ended up taking a wrong turn and found themselves on a path along the top of a cliff, a massive swarm of heartless trying to go the other way along it.
Tyler flipped into the air, slashing two floating jar heartless before grabbing a third and turning it so that it was facing back along the path just as a glowing sphere of energy above it shot outward in a beam, blasting through a dozen heartless before Tyler smashed the jar into the ground, destroying it. Lightning flipped over him while he was still crouching and slashed a pair of knight heartless, then swung her free hand, a thick bolt of lightning hitting the ground and blasting half a dozen more. Sazh aimed his guns upward and launched a barrage of fireballs out of them, the fireballs flying over Lightning and falling into the heartless, blasting them, sending even more off the edge of the cliff. Tyler shot forward, sprinting through a clear path they had formed, slashing anything in reach as he ran. Then, he skidded to a stop, blocking a knight heartless's blade and spun the knight stumbling past into Lightning's blade before she stepped up beside Tyler and they continued, quickly slaughtering their way through the heartless. But it was exhausting. Finally, the pair fell back and Sazh stepped past them, opening fire for a moment before tossing a red crystal into the air and opening fire again, blasting it on the way down. Instantly, an explosion went off, vaporizing a dozen heartless before Sazh's summoning robot, an Eidolon, Tyler thought they were called, burst out of the smoke, tearing into the heartless with its staff, fire spells, and Sazh's bullets for what few it missed.
"I didn't realize you were so good at fighting armies," Tyler said, leaning against the wall of stone on the safe side of the cliff.
"When they're close like this, I barely have to aim," Sazh grinned. "Every shot hits something."
"Sounds like fighting Cy-bugs," Tyler said.
"Don't remind me," Lightning groaned.
"It worked out pretty well," Tyler said.
"I almost died," Lightning said.
"But it gave me the balls to actually do something," Tyler countered.
Lightning stared at him for a moment before shaking her head, smiling. "Touché."
Tyler looked back to where Sazh and his Eidolon were steadily working their way along the path. He had tried to summon the massive robot from his fight with Sephiroth, but he had been unsuccessful in figuring out how. Lightning had said that it was probably just that there was something like a cooldown between uses, but he still didn't know how to do it.
"Shall we get back to it?" Tyler asked.
"We should," Lightning nodded.
They both turned, catching up to Sazh just as a massive black hand shot out of the warm of heartless ahead of them, sending a massive spray of heartless flying in all directions as it did before swatting Sazh's Eidolon off the cliff. Sazh swore, leaping backward as the hand crashed down where he had been before a second rose, beginning to try to lift its body up.
"Fuck," Lightning swore. "It's one of them."
Tyler watched as a Darkside, the same giant heartless as had been in his own world when it fell, rose from the swarm of heartless, turning to them. "Well, we might as well not wait for it to make the first move."
He sprinted forward, but the Darkside's fist swung around, crashing into the face of the cliff to Tyler's right, boulders beginning to tumble down the cliff instantly. He swore, changing his course slightly and running up the wall of the cliff at an angle. Lightning shouted in surprise, but just shy of him, the only boulder that was a threat to him bounced, missing him and crashing down where he had been. Then, Tyler leapt off of the cliff face and over the other heartless, driving his keyblade into the Darkside's face. Instantly, he set off three fire spells inside of the Darkside's face, making it roar in pain, staggering backward, toward the drop off. Its foot shattered the edge and it began to fall. Lightning screamed, but Tyler leapt off of it at the last second, using a gravity spell to crush a group of heartless flat, clearing himself enough room to land in a roll, regaining his feet and spinning, slashing a ring around himself. A moment later, Lightning and Sazh broke through the heartless behind him, clearing them before the three tore into the other side.
After about another three minutes, they finally left the walkway, instead finding themselves on a massive rounded area with a sheer cliff face on all sides, making it an arena, save for the path back. As they reached it, more and more heartless began to arrive from a path on the other side, where there was a drop on each side. Tyler grit his teeth, forcing his aching body back to one hundred percent output, he and Lightning working to keep the heartless' attention, Sazh working to slow the oncoming flood. And still the heartless continued to swarm. At one point, Lightning summoned Odin, but Tyler barely registered it. His body was on autopilot, spinning and slashing his way around and around through heartless, trying to stay near Lightning, but also trying to stay alive. His brain only registered Odin's presence when Odin's sword passed within three inches of his stomach, then a lightning bolt hit so close behind him that the hairs on his head began to stand on end.
After about five minutes, three Darksides rose around them. Tyler and Lightning began to head for one, Odin for another, and Sazh began to stay out of the last's way. Tyler sprinted up his and Lightning's target's leg, leaping off of his knee and driving his keyblade into its chest. Then, he formed a fireball in his free hand and hurled it into the Darkside's face. The explosion made the Darkside stagger backward before Lightning slashed its shins. It fell to its knees and Tyler dropped to the ground, summoning his keyblade back before he and Lightning both darted past its head, splitting it wide open in an "X". It roared, standing up straight and staggering backward. Then, as it stopped at the edge, it began to struggle to maintain its balance, so Lightning and Tyler both turned back toward it together, sending a pair of lightning bolts blasting into its chest, sending it over the edge. Tyler turned to Odin's target just as he jumped, his propellering blade shredding the Darkside's front the whole way up before Odin slashed back down, a lightning bolt blasting into the Darkside just as the sword left it. The Darkside staggered backward then fell to its knees, beginning to fade quickly. Tyler and Lightning turned to the last one just as the Darkside's fist began to tear through the heartless, heading directly for Lightning. Panic flooded Tyler and his hand snapped out on instinct. In a flash of light, Alexander appeared in its humanoid form, catching the Darkside's fist. Then, Alexander turned, pulling the Darkside's arm and smashing it to the ground before grabbing its head with both hands and squeezing. For a moment, nothing happened. Then, its head exploded. The body faded quickly as Alexander turned, squatting down as it did and sweeping its arm across the ground, sending nearly fifty heartless spilling off of the plateau they were on in one go.
"Alright!" Tyler grinned. "Don't knw how I did it, but I'm not complaining!"
"Let's go!" Lightning said, turning and charging into the heartless again.
Tyler followed, both tearing into the heartless quickly, Sazh shooting the swarm off to the left and Alexander stomping into the swarm ahead of them, sweeping aside, or crushing, entire lines of heartless one after another. Tyler smiled as they began to be able to see through the swarm. They were getting close to the end. Running out of heartless. They could actually win this.
As if on cue, the paths on both sides of the plateau exploded into the air. From one side, a massive black heartless with three spider-like leg spikes tipped in red an upper bdy covered in spikes with a pair of long arms with three glowing red claws on each hand and a blocky head with a mouth filled with wickedly sharp teeth leapt over the remaining heartless, slamming into Alexander and tackling it off of the cliff. A moment later, the heartless scrambled back over it, roaring in a high, vibrating screech. On the other side of the plateau, a giant white creature, similar to a Darkside, but with an entirely white body, spiked shoulders, its fingers all joined, blue tentacles around its neck like a scarf and reaching backward, and the odd inverted heartless symbol the white creatures from before had had in place of a face.
"What is that?" Tyler asked, staring at the giant.
"No idea," Lightning said, facing the spider thing. "But I think this is the bigger threat."
"I'm not so sure," Sazh said, facing the remaining heartless, still numbering over a hundred.
"At least we have Odin still," Tyler said, just in time for Odin to leap at the spider thing, only for it to slash him across the chest, sending him crashing down on the edge of the cliff before rolling off of it, already shining and beginning to fade as he returned to wherever they were summoned from. "Shit."
"Everyone be careful," Lightning said. "Sazh, try t keep them off of us."
"I'll do my best," Sazh said promised.
Just then, Fang appeared beside him in a flash of light. "I'll help Sazh fight them. I can't summon Bahamut, though."
"Having you here is enough," Tyler said. "Let's go!"
He charged, the giant creature's arm shooting across the ground in a winding, waving motion, like a snake, before it grabbed him, hurling him into the air. He began to fall as it formed a massive sphere of white and black energy, holding it above its head, like it meant for him to land on it. He hurled his keyblade into the sphere and it exploded, the creature staggering backward before collapsing. Tyler landed in a roll, grabbing his fallen keyblade and sprinted forward, slashing the creature's face. He swung his keyblade around, slashing it again before one of its tentacles slammed into him, launching him away. He flipped, crashing into the spider heartless's side and dropping to the ground, It drove a leg down at him, but Lightning tackled him out of the way. Tyler blasted the spider's stomach launching it into the air before standing, Lightning returning to facing the spider as Tyler charged at the giant again. He rolled out of the way of a slap, the creature's hand cracking the ground, then leapt onto the hand, sprinting up it to the creature's head, slashing it on the way up before flipping and slashing again, hurling a fireball into the creature's face. It staggered away, roaring in pain before its hands shot out to catch Tyler again. He spun, slashing both, his blade meeting them like they were metal before knocking them away. He flipped and landed on the ground before darting forward and slamming his keyblade into its foot, once again feeling like he had hit a metal wall with a lead pipe. The creature's tentacles stabbed down at him and he dove out of the way, the tentacles stabbing into the ground instead. As he stood, a sphere of dark energy appeared beside the creature's head. Unlike the last, which was as big as the giant's body, this one was about the size of its head, slightly bigger than Tyler's torso.
Tyler dove to the side just as a dozen spiked, vine-like constructs made of dark energy shot out of the sphere, stabbing into of the ground in a trail after him. As Tyler stood, the creature's hand slammed into him, hurling him backward. He crashed into Sazh's back, his shot hitting Fang in the back of the right shoulder instead of its intended target. Fang shouted in pain, staggering forward, a heartless lunging and driving its sword through her abdomen instantly. She stood frozen for a moment before destroying the heartless and staggering backward to Sazh and Tyler.
"Are you okay?" Sazh asked.
"No I'm not okay," Fang growled. "You shot me!"
"My fault," Tyler said. "You were stabbed."
"Must be my lucky day," Fang said. "Its blade went through the same spot as Caius stabbed me earlier."
"I was hoping you were healed," Tyler said.
"Not fully," Fang said. "I have to head back."
"Go," Tyler nodded.
Just as Fang disappeared in a flash of light, Tyler spun, catching Lightning as she sailed through the air. Her back was coated in blood with a three jagged wounds running from her right shoulder to her left hip, her shirt and jacket hanging from the spider's claws, and her bra laying in pieces below it. Tyler stepped in front of Lightning instantly, summoning his keyblade to himself again as he looked between the two giant enemies and Sazh looked around at the remaining heartless. Then, Alexander rose from the edge of the cliff, covered in dents, cracks, and some chunks broken off, and raised one hand, the other holding him up above the cliff. The spider began to turn, only for Alexander's hand to crash down on it, crushing it before Alexander began to shine and faded.
"Thank God," Tyler sighed, turning to the giant. "Hang in there Lightning. I'll heal you as soon as this thing's dead."
"Don't worry...about me," Lightning said, barely even able to sit up, and avoiding doing so to try and keep from bleeding too bad.
Tyler glanced at her worriedly before turning back to the front and charging. The giant swatted at him but he dove to the side, barely avoiding it before regaining his feet and continuing. He reached its leg and leapt onto its knee. As he jumped higher, however, the giant's hands slammed closed on him, pinning his hands to his sides, his keyblade spinning into the air. He struggled to free his hand, but the giant's grip was as solid as its body. The keyblade stabbed into the ground as the giant began to squeeze Tyler. Tyler screamed in agony as his left arm began to crack and his rib cage compress. It had been a long time since his terrible luck had bothered him, but it seemed like it was finally ready to give him everything it had saved up. Fang, Noel, Lightning, himself. This was without a doubt the worst day he had had.
"Firaga!" Sazh shouted, a gigantic fireball slamming into the giant's face and exploding into a fireball the size of the giant's entire upper body.
It staggered backward and Tyler fell to the ground, his leg snapping as he landed. He summoned his keyblade to himself, using it to force himself to his feet, glancing over at Sazh as Sazh fired at the advancing heartless horde, even more beginning to arrive from a sea of darkness that was swarming over the ground. Tyler swallowed hard, turning back to the front where the giant was pushing itself back up. Tyler hobbled over to Lightning and fell to his knees, swallowing hard.
"I'm sorry Lightning," Tyler said. "I don't think we'll win this one." He raised his keyblade, a green light flashing from the end of it before more green light shone from Lightning's back before sinking into her, her wounds sealing but leaving jagged scars. "Damn. I guess I was more tired than I thought."
"It's alright," Lightning said, pushing herself up to her knees. "We need to get out of here."
"I love you Lightning," Tyler said, Lightning's eyes watering instantly as she realized what he was about to do.
"Don't you dare," Lightning said. "You aren't allowed."
"We can't let this thing loose on this world," Tyler said. "But we're not going to survive this fight on our own."
"The let me stay," Lightning said. "Maybe if I stay-"
"Serah, take her," Tyler said.
Light enveloped Lightning instantly, teleporting her away. Tyler sighed and pushed himself back up, turning to the giant as it reached for him.
"I really didn't want to have to try this," Tyler sighed. "Sazh, you can leave if you want."
"If I did that, you'd never be able to win," Sazh said. having been pushed back to stand beside Tyler. "I'll stay. Vanille and Serah can take care if Dajh. And now he'll have Alice to play with."
Tyler nodded and grit his teeth, his entire body screaming in agony as green light spread from his keyblade, enveloping him and healing his wounds before turning white as Tyler shot forward, slashing the giant's hand aside and leaping at it. It roared, rearing back and stabbing at him with its tentacles but he slashed them all aside, sprinting up its chest, the magic enveloping him keeping him attached to its chest like gravity had shifted. Then, he jumped as he neared its face, slashing upward and splitting its face open, the creature roaring and retreating as its face sealed. Three tentacles slashed at Tyler and he deflected them before raising his keyblade, the fourth crashing down on it and blasting him into the ground, cratering it. He began to stand just as the giant's foot crashed into him, sending him blasting into the heartless. They swarmed toward him but he slammed the blade of his keyblade into the ground, spheres of light bursting out of the end and spiraling around him, slaughtering the heartless and clearing a ring around himself, allowing him to leap over them, sprinting along the ground again as his vision began to blur slightly. He focused magic into his eyes, sharpening his vision again, his pain intensifying as he over-exerted his already empty magic reserves even further.
He reached the giant again and again its tentacles stabbed at him, but this time, someone short and in a black cloak flipped past, slashing the tentacles and severing them with a keyblade with a white paint bottle for a grip, a black blade that curved into a ring that ended in a point just shy of closing at the end with a black star in the opening. On the back side, sky blue paint was attached to the blade. The paint was coming from the base of the hilt forming the two sides of the hand guard in a frozen pair of splashes with the back side's paint reaching up around the blade, curling around it once before forming a sort of wave toward the ring, with a little paint reaching up onto the ring, forming the keyblade's teeth. The charm was a pair of crossed, black paint brushes with blue paint on their bristles. Tyler and Sazh stared at their mystery pilot as he hurled his keyblade, the keyblade spinning through the air and tearing through the swarm of heartless on the opposite side of them before curving back around, their pilot catching it, as before holding it in reverse grip.
"Who...who are you?" Tyler asked. "How do you have a keyblade?"
Their pilot turned toward them slightly before stabbing his keyblade into the ground and hurling his cloak into the sky. As he did, a blue light shot along the ground from his keyblade to Tyler, shooting up Tyler's legs to envelop him before fading, restoring his magic and making his pain vanish. Tyler let the magic aura around himself vanish as he stared at the pilot. He looked a lot like Mickey, but instead of two massive, round ears, he had a pair of long thin ones, like a rabbit. He wore a pair of black cargo shorts with silver pockets, a dark blue belt, black sneakers with blue tongues and soles and silver laces, and a short-sleeved hoodie with dark blue inside the hood and pockets, silver drawstrings, and a silver zipper up the front, and a pair of fingerless gauntlets with dark blue on the backs of his hands and the rest black. On his head, slightly off-center to the right, rested a silver crown that was half as tall as his ears.
"Oh my God," Sazh breathed. "He's King Oswald.
"Who?" Tyler asked.
"He was the king before Mickey, but he got exiled by Mickey when Mickey took over as king," Sazh said.
"What for?" Tyler asked.
"I don't know," Sazh said. "I only know that much from talking to Mickey. He won't talk about it."
"I'm not surprised," Oswald said. "He never did enjoy talking about things he did wrong."
Tyler watched Oswald for a moment longer before spinning and slashing a knight heartless as it leapt at him. "Can you handle that thing?"
"Easily," Oswald said. "Handle the weak ones."
"With pleasure," Tyler said. "Let's go Sazh."
Sazh nodded and began to shoot the heartless, Tyler tearing into them with his keyblade. As they did, Oswald charged the giant. It swung at him but he flipped over its hand, landing on the other side before jumping again, slashing its face before landing on its head. He waited a moment then leapt off, avoiding the giant's hand and allowing it t slam into the giant's head. Then, he flipped, swinging his keyblade and sending a bolt of lightning exploding into its head. As he landed, he darted forward again and jumped, flipping over the giant's other hand, this time landing on its arm and sprinting up it. The giant roared, a sphere of darkness appearing beside the giant's head only for Oswald's keyblade to hit it, causing it to explode, knocking the giant sideways. Oswald leapt into the air, summoning his keyblade back and pulling it back, the blade glowing before he hurled it into the giant's face, the blade stabbing into it before an explosion of light went off, destroying its head. Oswald flipped, landing lightly as the giant's body tipped backward, falling off of the cliff as it faded. Oswald turned back to the other heartless and summoned his keyblade back, pointing it at the sky, lightning bolts beginning to rapidly blast into the heartless, slaughtering them in seconds. Tyler stared at him in shock as Oswald let his keyblade disappear.
"You're amazing!" Tyler breathed. "But...why help now? Why not before?"
"Because Lightning wasn't begging me to save you before," Oswald said.
"Lightning?" Tyler blinked. "Why didn't you help her when she was in a coma if you care so much about her then?"
"I don't care about her," Oswald said. "But her begging was getting annoying. Don't expect me to save you again, though. Annoyance or not."
"I won't," Tyler said. "Thank you."
Oswald grunted and raised his keyblade, light enveloping him again, leaving Lightning in his place. Lightning threw her arms around Tyler instantly, kissing him for a moment before pulling back and slapping him.
"Don't you ever do something stupid like that again!" Lightning snapped, tears running down her cheeks.
"I won't," Tyler promised, looking to the side.
Below them, a swarm of heartless were marching past, only for Leon and Cloud, along with the rest of their group to arrive, beginning to slaughter them. Tyler focused his magic and began to run down the side of the cliff, Lightning and Sazh both following. When they reached the bottom, they tore into the heartless around them drawing the heartless' attention enough for Leon and the girl with the long black hair, Tyler was pretty sure she was named Tifa, to reach them.
"Nice of you to join us," Leon said. "How was your path?"
"Terrible," Tyler said. "There was this massive spider thing, and a giant grey thing, oh, and about double this many."
"Including Darksides," Lightning added.
"Sounds like fun," Tifa said, punching a heartless and sending it blasting through the rest.
Tyler rolled his eyes, focusing on fighting the heartless. Together, they quickly fought the heartless back, Cloud and the other girl, Yuffie, joining them after another minute, making the work even easier. After about twenty minutes, they finally stopped as the heartless began to disappear into clouds of darkness that appeared under them then faded again.
"Is it over?" Tyler asked.
"We need to get back," Tifa said. "To make sure they didn't get in behind us."
The others agree and they all hurried back to the town, finding that it was clear and the citizens of the town were celebrating, including Sora, Donald, and Goofy.
"It's over," Tyler sighed. "Thank God."
"Thank you guys for all of your help," Tifa smiled.
"No problem," Tyler said. "Cloud, thanks again for saving us."
Cloud nodded and Tyler looked to the other two, both of whom nodded.
"We should get going," Lightning said. "We need to check on our friends."
The others nodded, all saying goodbye before they were teleported back to the ship.
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