I do not own Kingdom Hearts or any of the characters.

Too Late

Tyler hooked the last link of the chain through the loop at the top of the pendant, then closed his hand around it and closed his eyes, focusing on all of his memories of Lightning, his feelings for her. He had no way of knowing if it would work, but he was going to have the link on his keyblade's chain no matter what happened. With his eyes still closed, he clipped the keychain to his keyblade and felt the keyblade respond, accepting the pendant as a charm. He opened his eyes, finding his keyblade shining. Then, the light faded, leaving it as an entirely different weapon. The main section of the keyblade, the handle and blade, were clearly modeled after a gunblade, though unlike Lightning's half-leaf cleaver blade, this one was a straight, double-edged blade. The main section of the weapon was silver, with the sides of the blade black, but with silver writing in a language he didn't recognize. The teeth of the keyblade was a thin strip of metal, a small blade, like a bayonet, at the end of the blade on the back, fused seamlessly to the blade. It was about five inches long, with the cross section connecting them about an inch thick, and an inch of the bayonet-like blade above the cross section, then another three inches or so below it, the entire thing sharpened, both ends pointed, and the bayoneted barely an inch away from the blade itself. The grip was the same as Lightning's gunblade's grip, then there were two metal strips about four inches long before the blade, the bottom of which was flared slightly on the front edge in order to reach a little past the top of the front metal strips. The guard was a pair of concave, silvery, metal plated that wrapped from both sides of the top of the grip around in a thin circle down toward the bottom of the grip, though they both ended a couple inches shy of meeting the base of the grip, leaving the guard open. Both guards had intricate, sweeping green lines spread along them, thicker at the top, then thinning as they moved toward the bottom.

He stared at the keyblade for a long while before smiling and channeling magic into it, feeling it respond perfectly, meanwhile the keyblade itself felt weightless. It was perfect. He let it disappear and stood, grabbing the black robe he'd forced Oswald to give him before walking out to the cockpit. The others all turned to him in silence, all of them having given up trying to argue that he shouldn't go.

"You're sure we can't change your mind?" Noel asked, Tyler glaring at him coldly.

"If it was Serah, no one could stop you," Tyler said.

Noel sighed, nodding.

"I don't want you to go!" Alice cried suddenly, hugging him around the legs.

He sighed, kneeling down and hugging her. "I know, Alice. But I have to go get Lightning. You'll be okay. And I'll be back real soon. Then we can go somewhere fun and play all day."

"Promise?" Alice asked.

"I promise," Tyler smiled. "Stay here with Serah and the others until then alright?"

"I will," Alice nodded.

"Good girl," Tyler nodded, then stood, looking to Oswald, who sighed, opening a Dark Corridor.

"I can't promise you'll come out anywhere near her," Oswald said. "Forcing yourself to get lost in a Dark Corridor just to find the darkness has never been tried. You could just get spat out in a world somewhere in the Realm of Light."

"I'm not going to just get lost," Tyler said, summoning his keyblade. "I'm going to follow our connection."

"It's Overture!" Serah gasped.

"Overture?" Tyler asked.

"A gunblade Lightning wielded in our world for a while before it collapsed," Noel said. "You really should ask her about her life story once you save her. Might help you pass the time while you're there."

Tyler nodded and Oswald opened a Dark Corridor. "See you all soon."

He stepped into the corridor and the portals on both end sealed instantly. He gripped his gunblade tightly, and a moment later, the darkness swarmed toward him, hurling him like a boat in a storm. He squeezed his eyes closed, clutching his keyblade and focusing his every thought and emotion on Lightning. Then, he splashed down in water. He waited for a moment before he began to float in any direction, in this case to his right, then swam that way. After a moment, he broke the surface and opened his eyes, finding himself floating about five hundred meters away from a long stretch of beach with black stone running along it a short way from the water, and massive stone arches and spikes reaching out of the water, as well as spread over land, all of the stone having glowing blue lines over it here and there. He looked up at the perpetually dark sky a glowing ball of light hovered just over the horizon behind him like a sun, except that it was too dull to light up the world. Realm of Darkness was more fitting than he though. Even the sand on the beach was a dark, charcoal grey.

He finally reached the shore and walked out of the water, grimacing at how heavy his cloak was now. He used an Aero spell to dry it, then summoned his keyblade, closing his eyes and, once again, focusing on Lightning. After a moment, he felt drawn to a path off to his right, so he turned, walking that way. Within moments, Heartless arrived, and he slaughtered them easily with his new keyblade. Fighting with it felt effortless. He supposed he shouldn't be surprised. The keyblade was formed from his feelings for Lightning, which were the strongest he had. Nothing meant more to him than her.

He stopped as a pair of Darksides rose in front of him, but he raised his keyblade and a pair of enormous lightning bolts exploded down on the pair, blasting them both into oblivion instantly. He kept walking. He wasn't sure how far, or how long, he walked. He wasn't sure how many Heartless he killed. He just knew that he kept walking. And walking. And walking. Anything that appeared around him, he destroyed. Finally, he stopped as the found himself at another beach, and saw a city in the distance. It was lit by an almost ethereal green glow, there were several massive buildings with glowing green strips of metal wrapped around and around the tops of them, the biggest of which looked like some kind of palace, and stood in the center of the city, and the whole city was devoid of life. Tyler walked forward, using magic to remain atop the water as he walked across it. He kept an eye out for any water-type Heartless that wanted to fight, but nothing jumped out at him. Finally, he stepped onto the shores of the city's island and headed into the city. He looked around as he walked. He was willing to bet this was the ruins of Lightning's world, so there was a strong chance that Lightning was drawn here. If he could find her, he could give her his cloak. He had his keyblade to defend himself from the darkness, but she didn't even have her gunblade. She'd need the cloak more than him on the way out.

"Lightning?" he finally called out as he began to near the palace in the center of the city. "Lightning! Are you here!?"

He reached a set of stairs leading up into the palace, sighing and walking up them. He allowed his heart to guide him, and after a moment, he reached the door into the palace, leading directly to the throne room, and stopped, staring. There was a path leading off to the right and left, and a short flight of steps leading down to a short rectangle of floor over a chasm. Floating just past the end of the walkway was a throne, and seated in the throne, was Lightning. Her outfit had changed, however. She now wore a pair of black armor sleeves that consisted of metal splints down the outsides of her arms to her wrists with a strap around her upper arm and forearm to hold them on, black gloves, a black cuirass that left her back and sides exposed aside from several straps to hold it on, a short white cape with a high collar and red on the inside, a pair of white clothes that hung from the sides of her waist that were both red inside as well, black armored leggings on that covered her hips, then transitioned into boots starting from her knees, leaving her inner thighs uncovered, and a pair of armored battle panties, for lack of a better term to describe them. She sat with her legs crossed and her arms on the throne's armrests, and watched him silently.

"Lightning!" Tyler smiled, starting forward. "I found you! I'm so sorry I couldn't catch you."

Lightning watched him for a moment before sighing, pushing off of her throne and floating down to the floor. "You certainly took your time getting here."

"I'm so sorry!" Tyler said, hugging her. "I'm so sorry! You looked really good in that armor, though. Where'd you get it?"

"I was created wearing it," Lightning said.

Tyler's heart stopped as a pair of flashes of red smoke and lightning lit up the right side of his peripheral vision, as well as the bottom. Then, a blade drove itself through his chest. He staggered backward and Lightning pulled her red and black sword free of his body, allowing him to collapse to the ground, staring at the rec shield on her left arm, adorned with the Heartless Emblem and with the bottom end a spike and black metal wire in a mesh around the outside.

"No," he said, tears flooding down his face as he healed himself. "No! Please, tell me this isn't real!"

"You should accept it," Lightning said. "This is all your fault! You did this to me! You abandoned me!"

Tyler's nightmare flashed into his head, Lightning lost in a void of darkness and calling out to him. His heart shattered. This had been what it was about. He had been warned, and yet he had done nothing.

"Lightning, please!" Tyler said. "Please come back to me!"

"Come back to you!?" Lightning scoffed. "A loser with abandonment issues and who lacks confidence so much that if I don't pretend to orgasm for him he'll break up with me out of shame? I'd rather die! Giving my heart to the darkness was the best decision I ever made. I'm so much stronger now! And I'm finally free of you! And now, I'll even get to kill you and put you out of my misery! This day just keeps getting better and better!"

She raised her sword and slashed downward and Tyler spun, launching himself at the door, barely avoiding her blade. He couldn't door it. He couldn't fight Lightning. He couldn't kill her. So, he fled. Except, just as soon as he left the palace's steps, Lightning suddenly shot past in in a red blue, appearing in front of him and slashing upward. He shouted in surprise and fear, blocking the strike with his keyblade, only to go rocketing upward into the green metal coiled around the palace, cratering the piece he hit. Lightning launched herself up at him and he hurled himself to a different chunk, only for Lightning's impact to shatter the entirety of the structure, sending all of the pieces falling, Tyler sticking to his with magic. Lightning smirked at him from her own chunk.

"And once again your cowardice shines," Lightning said. "What's wrong? Afraid to fight, coward?"

She launched herself at him and he moved to block her sword, only to instantly explode through the chunk of metal he was on and streak toward the ground. He focused his magic and formed a barrier, softening the impact enough to survive without any actual broken bones, but it took all the strength he had to stand. He looked down at his keyblade and stopped, tears forming in his eyes as he stared at the shattered blade, barely reaching half its length now before being broken off. He couldn't do this. He couldn't fight Lightning. Even if he wanted to, he couldn't now. He fell to his knees, beginning to sob, and Lightning scoffed.

"What failure you are," Lightning spat. "It doesn't matter what you do, you always fail. Too weak to fight, too weak to protect someone, too slow to come after them before it's too late. You're not even good enough to make them feel anything in bed other than the need for a shower. I'm so glad to be rid of you. Just die like the weakling you are."

She shot forward, slashing, only for a deafening clash of metal on metal to ring out before she leapt away. Tyler stared up at Odin as he knelt, stabbing his weapon into the ground and holding his hand out to Tyler. Tyler stared at his face, and could almost imagine he looked sad. Then, light enveloped Tyler, and a moment later, he was in the cockpit of the Gummi Ship. He had failed again. He folded forward, beginning to sob new, and Fang and Vanille, the only two present, went to try and ask what happened, only to stop as they found his broken keyblade. Instead, they both simply held him silently as he wept.

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