Updated the fic like I said I would! Nothing huge. Mostly just fixes with grammar, typos, and awkward wording. You won't suddenly be learning any new details by going back, so don't worry about needing to reread anything.
Notable Changes:
- The grammar fixing mostly had to do with shifting everything to a more consistent past tense. Or maybe I made it worse. Who knows? I went to school for art, not English.
- Toned it down on the cursing. Didn't realize how bad it was in earlier chapters.
- Chapter divides now represented as "oOo" rather than line breaks just cuz it looks nicer.
By the time the four arrived at Center Tower, a massive crowd was already gathered up front. With the rest of the city off the grid, they thought this would be their closest thing to a safe haven. None of them would've expected it to be a trap in disguise. With no other light present, Heartless nimbly crawled into the fray, overjoyed at the ease of search for their prey.
"Oh, crap," Cody spoke in frightened awe at the sight. With how dark and desolate the city had become, it looked like the world might finally cave in.
"Yo, Cody!" A familiar voice called him out. "Over here!"
Amidst the chaos, a familiar trio acted as leaders of the masses. Tyler, Justin, and Syuzo diligently directed the MidiCity residents to safer areas while also fighting alongside the few battle ready residents against the infectious swarm.
"Tyler," Cody and the others ran on over. "Uh…" He was about to ask for a brief status report, but just a small look around was more than enough to fill in for that.
"You got here just in time," Syuzo said. He still somehow managed to retain his top idol cadence despite everything going on. "We came here hoping to use the stage up there, but it looks like the elevators are the only thing in there right now with power. We were at a bit of a loss for a sec."
"Don't worry!" Loudred exclaimed with vigor. "We'll get to the bottom of this right this in—"
Justin interrupted the rendezvous with his wildly waving arms. Building debris had started to rain down from above. He pushed Syuzo and Tyler aside from a piece of rubble that made their way to them, and Al and Mokona used their telekinesis and magical gem shields to fend off the rest.
Cody took another nervous look around. The Heartless would not let up, and the building had started to decay at the worst possible time. The people of MidiCity did not have the manpower to take this all alone.
"Hey," he spoke to Loudred, Al, and Mokona. "You guys stay behind and help protect everyone."
"Are you sure?" Al cocked his brow.
"Yeah. These guys need it more than me. And…" He'd already started to run along to the entrance.
I gotta give that guy a piece of my mind, one-on-one.
As he entered the building, his stomach tied into knots over the scene. Even though he was only a few footsteps away from the door and a hair's short of the loud ruckus outside, he could already feel the unease of the near pitch black lobby. Everything laid still and silent. There was nothing but shadows to greet him. And it would only get worse the further he ventured.
He gulped and slowly continued his timid strut to the elevator. He could feel his teeth clatter as he slowly panned his vision across the area out of sheer paranoia, like one of these stray shadows would suddenly come to life as a night terror.
…!
His heart thumped out. Out the corner of his eye, he saw something move. Right by the reception desk.
What did he act all scared for? He was the Keybearer for Pete's sake! He fought ferocious monsters on the daily! He could handle whatever was there easily.
…
…It was nothing but stray sheets of paper that had flown off naturally from the sloppy pile they were laid atop. It was absolutely nothing. How could he be this silly?
…!
There was something else.
His head flipped behind. It wasn't a stray shadow but a stray Shadow. Or rather dozens of them. In the dark, the only way he could tell they were even there was through the eerie glow of their moonlit eyes. It was like an entire stream of detached faces just stared at him with doll-like eyes. These things were mooks. They were the lowest form of Heartless he and his friends had encountered thus far, and right at that moment, they were the most terrifying things he'd ever seen.
He raced over to the elevator as he cursed his decision to even take a detour in the first place. The moment it opened, he hopped right in and slammed his fists on to the keypad. The doors squeaked to a close, just slow enough that the Heartless had time to squeeze their limbs through the tight space. Cody screamed bloody murder as he swung his Keyblade to the front like a scythe to chop off their arms. And he screamed even louder as he felt the monsters pound on to the sides. And he screamed and screamed until everything stopped and all was silent once more.
DING!
That was the noise that would've been made had the elevator worked in full power. Instead, the shaft came to a jutting halt, and the boy, who had already been in a standing fetal position from the constant wall smashes, spun and twisted around from the violent jolts before slamming right onto the steel floor. He lifted himself up with bated breath and prayed that his head smash wouldn't be the last straw for the throttled shaft to disconnect and fall.
With all his might, he forced the doors open, and a loud creak echoed throughout the empty floors. As he took a look around the floor he found himself in, the topmost floor, he shuddered at just how close it was to what he expected. Now far and away from all the ruckus outside, it was like he'd entered a box separate from the rest of the world. Furniture was carelessly tossed all over the place, somehow making the area feel more like a haunted house than the "ghost" infested first floor. The closer proximity to the crystal above meant that the nearby windows offered much more light than before, but it somehow added to the eerie nature; like he was trapped and that was a searchlight just barely out of reach.
His eyes continued to trail along in both fear and curiosity until they finally traced over the one glimmer of hope in this entire tower. Right across from him stood a stage surrounded by cameras and computers; one of those specialty stages Syuzo had mentioned no doubt. And right above the stage on what appeared to be an elaborate backdrop decoration hung a massive bow with a fanciful keyhole right in the center. He couldn't believe his luck. He didn't need anything else to confirm what it was.
With an excited fist pump and a hushed "Yes!", he reached out for his Keyblade…
…And was hit by the sudden force of a ball of pink magical energy. His body was sent flying toward the wall and right out one of the windows. All the while, he could hear Heather's haughty taunts gloat over her successful sneak attack.
The very tips of his fingers held on for their dear lives as he was left to dangle helplessly atop this massive tower. If he made even one wrong move, that would be it. He could practically feel his body fight the urge to freeze and shut down right there from all the paralyzing terror. In his head, he wondered if Lord Death would cut him slack and look the other way if he was unlucky enough to screw up.
"Did you think it'd be that easy?" Heather climbed out the window to greet him at the ledge.
He was far too terrified to quip back. His brain was a tumbling mush and it took far longer than it should've to realize why she had followed him out. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" As he felt and witnessed her stamp on his fingers with her heels, he belched out possibly the loudest string of words that had ever come out of him.
"No hard feelings," she shrugged. "The big witch with a 'B' doesn't want you breathing."
"You're straight up going to kill me now?! You can't seriously be going this far!"
"Oh, honey," she sighed condescendingly. "This isn't our world anymore. You've gotta readjust your moral standards if you wanna make it."
"THIS IS BAD IN EVERY WORLD!"
"So what?" The lull of her words were mixed with the thinnest of poison, and it was like her transition to a full blown supervillain was already set. Cody could feel his strength whittle away with each scrape of her shoes. There was nothing he could do but watch.
"Oh, quit looking at me like that," she rolled her eyes. "If you were in my shoes, you'd do this to—"
One of the stage appliances smacked right across her cheek, forcing her to lose balance. There was barely even enough room to make another step let alone regain her footing. With barely even a struggle, Heather's screams flowed up into the air as she fell and fell and fell. The only indication that she didn't go splat on the concrete at all was the abrupt cut-off, a sign that she had teleported away in the nick of time.
What the? He muttered to himself in his head. Suddenly, a bright, blinding shine flashed on by. He could feel himself almost lose himself from the distracting blare alone.
"Yo," Trent ducked his head out the window.
Wh…
"Need some help?" He didn't look particularly pleased to see Cody, but it seemed there was a part of him that felt he had to help the guy out of obligation. He began to climb out with one arm reached out as he readied himself to lift Cody back up. But on his other arm…
While Cody was near frozen and distracted by Heather, Trent had made his way to the rooftop and grabbed ahold of the crystal all by himself.
Cody was so shocked and appalled, he spontaneously regained all the strength he needed to pull himself back up and back through the window on his own. As if he would let this nutjob save him.
"Alright," he started in leveled fury. "I don't know if any convincing is gonna work on you, but you're going to put that thing right back where it came from. Okay?"
"Yeah, no," Trent replied as he shifted his gaze over to the gem with disinterest in his eyes.
"That's this world's energy source, Trent. The entire world's energy source."
"Oh, dang. It's starting to crack a bit."
"WHAT?!"
After careful inspection, small cracks were indeed riddled through the rock's surface. He should've realized it sooner. No doubt this was the reason why the light was dim enough that he didn't lose his eyesight just being near it.
"What did you do?!"
"Look, man, I just tore through a bunch of the circuit breakers connected to it. I didn't think it'd actually damage it."
"You freaking did that on purpose!"
"No, I literally just said I didn't," Trent answered back with his voice raised.
"Oh, yeah, and I should believe you?" Cody threw up his arms. "After what happened back at the Void?"
"I needed to leave. What was I supposed to do?"
"Not that!"
"You think I'm doing all this because I want to?"
"Yeah," Cody scoffed sarcastically. "I bet whatever reason you've got will suddenly give you a green flag to go on."
"I'm doing this for Gwen, okay?!"
…
"What?"
"What?!"
Before he could say anything more in response, the Phantom Gwen had already run ahead to face Trent head on with both shock and outrage.
"What do you mean, 'for me'? You think I'd appreciate seeing you screw all these people over?"
Maybe it was because he was so used to her "being there" that, against all common sense, his concerns had shifted to keeping her safe and away from her boyfriend who was growing increasingly unstable by the second. He fought with himself over whether or not to shout out at her right then and there, and in his internal freakout, Trent finally let out his rage in full blast. With a punch to the air, a streak of green sped right through Gwen's nonexistent body and hit Cody right in the gut. His body flew straight out of the window and just flew and flew and flew until he finally made a painful tumble atop a neighboring rooftop.
There was a split second for Cody to catch his breath before he witnessed Trent reappear into the scene with the quick burst of black fissures. He didn't want to believe it back when Ashley ratted her teammates out, but those bits of magic just proved it. He really did sell himself out to Maleficent. The sheer rage from their last encounter back at the Null Void came back with each step they took towards one another. With their minds now set, they ran with their weapons on hand.
oOo
"What the?" Tyler nudged Justin's shoulder as he pointed up towards the surrounding buildings. A small portion of the city's lights flickered back on; a result of Trent's anger distracting him just enough to drop the crystal cold turkey before he teleported away. The Heartless were still restless, but the crowds grew all the more resilient with this new development. That wasn't what the two were marveling at however. "Dude, isn't that Trent?"
Cody and Trent's fight quickly turned into a game of parkour. The two zipped and zoomed through the sky as each of their attacks held the might of propelling blows. Justin could only nod in disbelief in response. Their conversation attracted the attention of Cody's three teammates who looked on with looks of unease.
"Isn't that his friend?" Loudred was the first to point out. "The one back from Traverse Town?"
"Why are they fighting?" Mokona had the tone of a child who just walked in on their parents in a heated argument.
"Should we really have left him off on his own?" Al asked wearily. "Shouldn't we…?"
Loudred surveyed the area. "I mean, we can't just leave. It's still pretty bad her—"
"'Scuse me, sorry, coming through!" Chuchu blurted out as she made a beeline towards Center Tower's entrance, beating Heartless with a certain witch's wand as if it were a mallet along the way.
"At least try to do magic!" Ashley looked on at the act in dismay. "Give that back if you're going to be treating it like a hammer."
"You're so silly, pyuru," Moa mused with mocking glee.
"Are you really in the position for requests?" Retoree replied snidely.
Indeed, while Chuchu led the troupe up front, the rest of the Plasmagica girls, Cyan, Moa, and Retoree, paraded the witch's tied up body above their heads like a funeral casket from behind. Ashley struggled to decide if this was less or more humiliating than the vomit incident.
"It's not like I know any spells," Chuchu replied. "What do you want me to do? Guess? Firrrr…ra…ga?"
Suddenly, an absolute flurry of fireballs burst out of the staff's tip. The Heartless surrounding the girls were incinerated on sight. All five of them reacted as if they'd just discovered fire itself. If it were Ashley herself wielding it, the damage would've been even worse, but this beginner level spout was more than enough for them to drive forward a path.
"Alright, sorry, move it, excuse me, insane firecracker here!" The rabbit girl resumed her push through. They made it effortlessly into the building, earning incredulous looks from Syuzo and all the other citizens who were gathered up front. In no time flat, they were past both the outer and inner Heartless nests and into the elevator.
Awkward silence loomed between the five in the cramped and dimly lit space. From the vague glimpses outside, they could see the full scope of the infestation that surrounded them as well as the ruthless fight above the ground between Cody and Trent. They slammed right into the tower with full confidence, but it was hard not to clam up knowing the real scale of things.
"D-do you really think we'll be able to stop this?" Retoree stuttered.
"Yeah, pryuru," Moa tapped the tips of her fingers on to her lips in deep contemplation. "This is a lot messier than I thought it'd be."
"Hey," Chuchu shook her head. "We can't just start doubting ourselves when we're this clo—"
"I'm so sorry."
Cyan had interrupted their moment of uncertainty. She had hid at the very back of the pack, and her bandmates all turned over to her with curious faces.
"For what?" Moa tilted her head.
"For earlier," Cyan sighed. She reverted to her more downtrodden behavior from before her little adventure began. "I know you guys wanted the band to keep going, but I got scared and tried to force us all into a hiatus without anyone's input."
"It's okay," Retoree gave her a warm smile. "Y-you were just trying to keep us all safe."
"Yeah, but—"
"No, she's right." Cyan blinked in surprise at Chuchu's interjection. She had butted heads with Cyan the most over the decision. "I'm sorry that I didn't take your feelings seriously. I was so bent on saving the city that I didn't even think about how scary a situation this must've all been for everyone." She smiled. "No matter who was right or wrong, what matters now is that we're all together, safe and sound."
Cyan's eyes glistened at her friend's words. "Chuchu…"
"Uuuggghh," Ashley groaned as she waved her legs around, limply. "Enough with this sappy fluff. Are you trying to make me puke glitter here?"
The Plasmagica girls could only giggle playfully at Ashley's misery as the elevator made its full ascent to the topmost floor. By the time the door creaked open, a near blinding light was the first thing to greet them. The crystal was laid carelessly on the floor, long abandoned by its captor who decided he had more important things to attend to. The small cracks Trent discovered had quickly spread throughout the surface, and while the light was immense just based on close proximity, the constant flickers painted a much more dire picture.
"Isn't that…?" Cyan gasped.
"For the love of…" Ashley rolled her eyes. While she was technically opposed to Trent at the moment, she still couldn't help but feel annoyed at the absolute flippancy he'd exhibited towards this mission. That he was audacious enough to just leave the key item unguarded like this was simply unbelievable. "I guess this makes things easier then…"
The witch shifted over to her wand that was still trapped under Chuchu's grip. "Do you mind?" She asked in a monotone beat.
"You're not going to pull anything funny, right?"
"Promise."
With four prompt nods, the girls finally went and untied their little hostage. From then on, the five quickly plowed through their preparations. The Plasmagica quartet meticulously tuned their guitars and bass and carefully readied a drum set on to the musty stage. Meanwhile, Ashley had whisked the crystal back to the top of the tower and rewired everything so that what paltry energy still present in the building would direct over to the various cameras, computers, and other broadcasting functions that filled the messy room. She'd mostly did her part silently and robotically away from the others when she was suddenly startled by a tap on the shoulder from Chuchu.
"What?" she hissed.
"Jeez, sorry," the bunny girl pulled back in response. "I just had a question since we're almost ready to go live." She took her time to scan the room and marvel at the sheer amount of equipment that was accumulated into the small space. "Were you really just trying to broadcast me singing? Nothing…weird?"
Ashley sighed. "Yeah." She could feel her face begin to burn in red. "I was going to reroute pretty much all the energy in town here so when you sang and started harvesting everyone's musical energy, the crystal would overheat itself with how much it was absorbing all at once."
"Isn't that a bit…?" Moa overheard with eyebrows raised in confusion.
"Yeah, yeah," Ashley shook her head to herself. "'Overcomplicated garbage'. I know. I get it already." In fact, repeating it to four of her would-be victims made her feel all the more embarrassed that she was so deadset on it to begin with. There was very little proof that any of that would've worked out the way she claimed it would've. In all likelihood, the city would've been tainted with a loud unprompted performance and nothing else.
As Ashley began to mull back into her self pity, a faint giggle came chimed from the stage. The witch arched her brow and saw Cyan having her own little fit. How rude. It occurred to her now that her plan was most likely a bust from the start, but she didn't have to rub it in.
"I'm sorry," Cyan wiped a small tear as she settled down. "It's just…I kinda get the feeling you didn't actually want to take down MidiCity to begin with.
"I think you just wanted to listen to music."
…
Her mouth was open, but nothing came out. The four band members noticed Cody and Trent zipping away outside again and took it as their cue to reign everything in and get ready to play. As Ashley turned away and moved her attention back to the equipment, she kept replaying Cyan's words to herself. She kept thinking about all the frustrations she constantly had to hold back at Maleficent's base, of everything she had to hold within herself so she could continue posing as the perfect right hand. She kept thinking about the fear she tried so, so hard to convince herself was all in her head. The fear of fighting for survival. The fear of knowing that any wrong move could be her last. The fear that Maleficent had all the power in the worlds to just kill her where she stood. She thought about the times she spent just lazing around in MidiCity, how relieving it was to just be free in what was essentially her own musical playground.
With a quick incantation, flick of her wand, and a look of silence, all the room's equipment started to glow…
oOo
No noise was exchanged between the two boys but the uneven rhythms of exhausted pants as Cody and Trent stared each other down. Their fight had led them from Center Tower all the way to the top of the very concert stadium Cody had encountered when he first arrived in this world. Just like it had back in the Null Void, their fight escalated to a pair of feverish tantrums, and they had expended much of their energy already from their rigid needs to let out steam. By the time they made it to their current destination, they'd reached a silent agreement to catch their breaths, and everything shifted to a tense staredown.
It felt like ages passed on that very stadium rooftop through the density of their mutual silence. Between his labored breaths, Cody gulped. He chased Trent up that tower for a reason, and if they were just going to end up fighting again, this rare moment of "peace" was his one chance to speak.
"Look," he yelled off with a hoarse crackle in his throat. "I am honest to God trying to understand you."
"Yeah," Trent coughed. "Sure you are."
"Why do you keep doing that?" He just didn't understand. "I'm asking, so help me out here. You just dumped it all on me back on the island. Why is it a problem now?"
"I already told you back at the Void," he responded with heightened irritance.
"No, you didn't," Cody let out an aggravated sigh. "I'm sorry I suck at reading the room, but I had to piece everything together, and then you just blew up in my face 'cause I guess I didn't get it right away." Cody let out an audible sigh and slid his hand over his brows. "Look, I really don't want to fight you, and I don't think you want to either. So can we just sit down and talk this out?"
"If you really didn't want to fight, you would've just left me alone already."
"Well, I would've," Cody groaned as he grew just as increasingly irritated as his foe was. "If it weren't for the fact that I caught you with a witch pact of all things. Are you out of your mind?"
"Really?" Trent shook his head in annoyance.
"Like, you expect me to just leave a friend alone knowing they're getting involved in something shady?"
…
He could almost laugh.
Really? After all this time?
"A friend, huh?"
"Yeah," Cody blinked. "Do you prefer 'ex-friend' or something?"
He was seriously on the cusp of hysterics right now. If Cody was any closer to him on the roof at the moment, the guy would probably be able to hear his thinly veiled attempts to hide his chuckles. Cody really was something else. He wasn't even sure if his amusement was from the usual maddened disbelief or not.
"Trust me, there are way better ways to save Gwen than teaming up with Maleficent."
"No, there aren't."
"Of course there are. You don't have to follow me and my 'group of weirdos', but you can go form your own and go from there."
"Shut up."
"What?"
"Shut up."
"You're doing that again," Cody threw his arms up in the air. "Don't get mad and start insulting me. Just tell me what's your beef, man."
"Oh, yeah?" Trent cocked his head with a smile. One of those cool and confident looking smiles of his that he became known for back on the island. One of those fake smiles. "If you're so curious, what do you think is going on?"
"You really want me to say it?"
"Yeah." He gestured out his arm flippantly. "Be my guest."
"...
"I think you're jealous."
Trent nodded. "Oh, yeah?"
"You thought you found someone to wallow in the same pity party as you, and you're mad that I changed while you're sulking around because you can't imagine a world where you aren't jerking off to how miserable you are."
"And that's your answer?"
Cody nodded matter of factly. "Uh huh."
That struck a nerve.
One moment, Trent stood around in a calm silent fury, the next, his dagger was barely an inch away from gashing across Cody's face. The Keybearer stumbled backwards and glared up at Trent who almost seemed energized from his outrage. If he'd kept his mouth shut, perhaps he could've avoided this second round, but there was a part of him deep down that knew that was exactly what Trent needed to hear.
He lifted his Keyblade and shielded himself off from yet another incoming dagger jab. As the two boys pushed and pushed, trying with all their might to win the battle of dominance in this stalemate, he finally got a good look at his friend's face. Eerily calm and despondent, this was the angriest he'd ever seen him.
It was honestly kind of sad.
-bzzzt-
?
With neither moving an inch, the duo carefully nudged beside them to where the stadium's massive outer projector towered. Once blank and depowered from the blackout earlier, the screen burst to life with somewhat familiar faces. Cyan and the other girls from Plasmagica adorned the stage, but they now resembled deformed mascot caricatures of a cat, rabbit, dog, and sheep; exactly how Syuzo and the other two were like during their show much earlier.
"Uhm…" Cyan coughed nervously. The quivers in her voice reverberated in the city skies from the sheer size of her platform. "I know everyone is scared, and we've all been for a while, but…
"...Things will be okay.
"A lot has happened the past few months in MidiCity. Sometimes too much. Sometimes we all just wanted to hide until everything went away. But…there's a lot of people fighting to protect us. And even if we're scared, the least we can do is show our support." She gasped for air like she had let everything within her out in that one monologue, and finished it off with a solemn look. "Plasmagica won't run away, and neither should anyone else. Because MidiCity is our home. So whether you're out here fighting or staying safe at home, please enjoy our newest song, 'Ryuusei Dreamline'."
"And all through the night, I still hope, I still wish on shooting stars,
And in their fading light, I still sing the song of our hearts."
Trent stood there absolutely dumbfounded. He was aware of the strange power music possessed in this world, but he hadn't exactly paid enough attention to the mission briefing to figure out why that was the case. Cody however looked around him in anticipation. With each escalating note, crystalline diamonds twinkled between the skyscrapers. The city lights were still weak and dim from the earlier chaos, and for a brief moment, right before everything burst into life, it was like gazing out into a twilight sea.
"When I'm hurt down deep inside, it's a thing I try to hide,
That I still look up and pray to the sky."
The sky was littered in a brilliant sea of floating music notes that all glistened like airbourne crystals. In their shimmering stasis, beams shot down into the streets and decimated the Heartless in their pure warmth. Trent clicked his tongue. He finally understood what was going on. Team Maleficent had more or less lost. But who cared about that? Certainly not him.
"And yet you still wonder why, every time I think of you and I,
I bottle in a weak cry."
Trent lunged his dagger forward and his opponent yelped in response. Cody was distracted from admiring Plasmagica's work and nearly forgot what kind of situation he was in.
"Dude!" He waved his hand in outrage. "Hurting me isn't going to make a difference now."
But the point of it was just to hurt him. Nothing more, nothing less.
"Awestruck and breathless, so now I'm restless.
I move out with a mist,
And in my tears I make my wish!"
The music far drowned out the clangs of their clashing steel. In Plasmagica's calming storm, they were but a blot in the backdrop. Nothing else mattered in that moment. Not Maleficent's influence, not the dying Heartless, not the music, nothing. Just a solid fight between two friends.
"And all through the night, I still hope, I still sing to shooting stars,
And in their blooming light, I never want for us to part,
And all through the days, I still pray, I still reach into your arms,
So when you're gone, we will never be too far."
Where does he get this energy? Cody thought to himself. He could feel the beads of sweat bounce off his skin as he constantly pulled away from Trent's blade at the skin of his teeth. A faint glow circled around both him and the Keyblade, a sign that the song resonated power into him. Despite that, he was at the very cusp of being overpowered by Trent who stood immune from the musical effects.
"As the days go passing by, with my heart now strung and dry,
All the memories flash by in my mind."
"Hey, Cody!"
At the first moment of a safe opening, Cody swept his head behind him to see Loudred, with Mokona nestled atop his head, floating closeby to the roof. Off in the distance, Alakazam put all the strength he had in him to lift the two up telekinetically. Cody didn't even need to ask why they were there. Already glowing from the music residue itself, Loudred's stereo-esque antennae horns blasted out like limelights. Cody could feel the faint tingling within him increase into a hum. His friends were redirecting as much extra energy as they could right into him.
"And yet I still wonder why, are you not out with your smiles so wide,
Even brighter than the sunrise."
There wasn't time to even mouth a "thank you". Trent just continued going in for the kill. Things once again began to even up, and as the might of Cody's strikes built up with each consecutive hit, Trent could only groan in frustration.
"Warm with amazement, I still embrace it,
So while tonight is lit, can I just ask for one more wish?"
Mokona giggled with glee at each bit of magic he sniped to the scene. He carefully aimed at Trent's footwork, just enough to possibly trip him over. Trent, of course, was not having it. This was supposed to be a fight between just him and Cody, and those three whatevers had no business being there. After nearly stumbling over one particularly well aimed shot, he decided he'd finally had enough and flicked a beam of magic right back. Mokona was cleanly knocked off and was saved only by Al's careful telekinetic waves.
"To be by your side."
"Hey!" Cody exclaimed. "Eyes over here, asshole." Trent was finally on the receiving end of the duel's anger. Swipe after swipe, hit after hit, Cody just kept coming at him until, finally, Trent's ivy dagger flung straight into the air and became lost into the city streets.
"And all through the night, I still sing as I weave this tattered hope,
And all through the sky, I still leave a star piece before you go,
And all through my eyes, I still pry as I see where time will flow,
So in this shining light, you will hear our song and you will know."
Despite it all, being weaponless still did not stop him. Trent switched over to throwing out magical blasts, the same kind that Heather seemed to have gained after she aligned with the green witch. Their force was even stronger than what Cody had witnessed between Heather and Ashley combined. The situation with Mokona had caused Al and Lourdred's concentration to slip, and Cody was down to the ground with his light ever so slightly dimmed. He couldn't believe it, but Trent's sheer emotions bested him despite all his advantages. He braced himself. Trent headed towards him with menacing steps, his green glowing hand raised.
"And all through the night, I still hope, I still dream of shooting stars,
And in their blazing light, you'll know that we are not that far,
And all through the days, you'll still say, we were here right from the start,
Dazed in a gaze, we will never be apart."
Trent stopped in his tracks. He just realized what he'd just done. All that magic had just come out of him. All of her magic had just come out of him.
He couldn't stoop that low.
In Cody's eyes, Trent might've won, but…
…The fact that he resorted to her without even a second thought…
"Still dreaming that, our song will be one heart."
The song was over. The fight was over. The Heartless were all gone.
Meanwhile, back at Center Tower, the four Plasmagica girls huddled all together in a post mini-concert celebration. It was the most joy anyone in this world had had in months. Ashley stood silently in the corner, taking in the sight, and taking in all the uncertain feelings that she finally acknowledged within herself.
Both her and Trent teleported away without a word. Darkness finally left MidiCity.
oOo
The MidiCity of before finally returned. With all the Heartless gone, the streets were filled, newly rejuvenated with life. After being stuck for months on end carefully monitoring their surroundings even for something as measly as a grocery run, the residents let loose with their new found freedom. The neon signs blared bright abound, a near indecipherable medley of tunes seamed into the ambience, and, despite its fragile scars, the crystal of Center Tower was back proudly looking over everything from above.
Following the tower incident, Syuzo, Tyler, and Justin were put in charge of helping residents recover from the immediate aftermath. At first, Cody and friends had jumped in eagerly to help, but a teasing headshake from Syuzo and a simple point up to the tower's tip was enough to alert them that their job wasn't quite done. Indeed, Cody had been so emotionally worn down from the previous fight, he'd nearly forgotten about the Keyhole, and he could only scratch the back of his head in embarrassment when the four walked in and were all greeted by the real heroes of the hour.
"Boo!" The girls all jumped out enthusiastically from behind Moa's drum set.
"Can I have your autographs?" Mokona cried out in response, earning charmed giggles from the girls.
"Thank you so much for protecting the town," Chuchu marched up to the four with a gracious bow.
"Why are you thanking us?" Al laughed softly.
"Yeah," Loudred added with a wide smile. "It's you guys who did the heavy lifting."
"Well," Cyan stepped up with a meek smile. "You all saved us. We wouldn't have been able to pull ourselves together like that, so…" She joined Chuchu's bow followed by Moa and Retoree further back. "Thank you!"
Cody looked at the scene with a fond face. There was a part of him that started to look at their entire MidiCity adventure as a failure after that confrontation against Trent. But seeing the four now, it didn't matter what happened or what he tried or failed to say or do. These girls were changed for the better.
He held up the Keyblade to the stage's decorative piece. The room was engulfed in pure light, and, right outside, the cracks on the crystal were no more.
oOo
"ARE YOU INSANE?! YOU ACTUALLY TRIED TO KILL ME!"
"It's not like you actually died."
"Did you hit your head on your way out of the island? What is this?!"
The mood was absolutely rancid back at the castle. After the three apprentices were all teleported back, Heather didn't hesitate to rip Trent a new one over his apparent murder attempt. And rather than chastise him over it, Maleficent turned a blind eye—she was quite amused by his nonchalance over the situation—in favor of her increasingly routine rounds against Heather and Ashley instead.
"You pull a stunt like that again, I am aiming for your head."
"Go ahead."
"I mean it!"
"I'm sure."
No doubt Heather wouldn't be letting up for the rest of the day. Maybe not even the rest of the week. But even then, with all her shrill screams and yells, the world was silent for the third apprentice witch. Ashley sat off away in the corner and looked out through the window into the ongoing dawn of this little deserted waterfall kingdom.
She refused to pay her spiraling thoughts any heed.
Can you believe in the time I started writing this fic, cringe culture died and then ressurected itself. Damn. u_u