Nexus: Heroes Will Rise

by tmb1112

Universal borders have been erased and beings from thousands of universes now live on the same world: Nexus. In the first Saga of Nexus, Awul was saved, but the mysteries of Nexus remain. Now our heroes sail across the sea to Aebrith to search for lost loved ones and save the world. MCs from DBZ, KH, Soul Eater, FT, Blue Exorcist, Bleach, 7DS, OP, Ben 10, SAO, HxH, and many more!

66. Nexus HWR 10-8 Darkness

Nexus HWR 10.8 Darkness:

Royal Palace, Pyraxas

"R-Riku?" Usopp began, taking a step towards the teenager. Riku's head was bowed and he was laughing in a low tone not his own.

The silver haired young man slowly lifted up his head while facing away from Usopp. He looked left at Kairi and then forward at the cloaked Nobody staring confusedly at him. Kairi gasped when his eyes looked her way though. Riku's eyes were yellow instead of green.

"What is your name?" Riku questioned the figure near the hole in the wall. His voice was dark, deep, and the short Nobody in the room examined him closely.

"Noxagh," the boy with short spiky black hair replied.

"Noxagh," the silver haired teen repeated, a smirk spreading across his face. "I can guess why you are here," the tall figure continued, and his mouth lowered into a straight line. "Take her," he said. His voice was deeper than usual and it sounded like someone was speaking over him.

Usopp walked backwards nervously. He stared straight at Riku's back and flinched as the silver haired teen started turning around. "Where did your confidence go?" The silver-haired man asked in his same creepy voice.

"Riku," Usopp began hesitantly. Riku showed no reaction and Usopp gulped. His lip quivered and he opened his mouth again, "Ansem?"

The person in front of Usopp nodded his head once.

"Riku!" Kairi shouted. "RIKU!" She yelled again, trying to shake the teenager inside Ansem awake.

"I said take her!" Ansem yelled, glaring back at Noxagh.

Usopp started to panic. Why does he want them to take Kairi? Could Kairi get Riku back? He opened his mouth to speak but Noxagh did first.

"Who are you?" He asked. The black haired teenager wearing a matching black cloak smiled. Noxagh started walking forward while keeping his eyes on the tall teenager. He was intrigued by this current development and did not listen to Ansem's instructions to take Kairi away.

"I am your leader, in a way," the man replied. He was still in Riku's form so it was not as obvious, but he turned back to Noxagh anyway. His eyes locked with the coal black ones of the Nobody. Noxagh's face took on a look of recognition at the sight of Ansem's eyes.

"Xemnas's Somebody," Noxagh said, his eyes narrowing. "I've always wondered," he began and took another step forward, grabbing Kairi tightly by the arm as he did. She spun in surprise as she had no idea how close he was until that second. Kairi flinched in pain from his grasp on her arm, and she tried pulling away, but Noxagh's grip was iron tight. "The boss has us all looking for our Somebodies," Noxagh continued while taking another step towards Ansem. "Yet, he doesn't want us to find his. Why is that?"

The smug look that Ansem had lowered for a second. Here he was, in control for the first time in months, and he frowned. "Xemnas' Somebody? No. I am his Heartless. If Xemnas and I were to meet, it would be very bad, for everyone." Ansem turned smug again and nodded at the short teenage Nobody before him, "Now take your prize. Naminé's Somebody. I am sure Xemnas will be very pleased."

Noxagh looked at Ansem and thought for a few moments. While he thought, Kairi started speaking to Riku softly. Riku's mouth twisted into a snarl and he took a step forward.

"Don't worry, I'm leaving," Noxagh said. He lifted his right arm up and his palm slid out of his black sleeve pointing straight at the ceiling. A blue beam shot off his hand and into the roof, blasting a hole straight through it and the two on the floors above it.

Usopp dropped his jaw and he stared closer at the cloaked figure. That face, he thought, it's Gohan. When did Gohan become a Heartless? Do I- His eyes bugged out and his thoughts stopped midway. Noxagh lifted off the floor and started flying up towards the hole in the roof. "Wait, Kairi!" Usopp realized the girl was being taken and he screamed her name.

Kairi shouted back down to Riku but Ansem did not even look up at her. He steadied his breathing and turned around to Usopp who was screaming Kairi's name.

The pirate pulled out his slingshot on reflex and pointed it up. Before he could fire though, a black sword slashed his slingshot and knocked it out of Usopp's hands. Usopp looked down and saw Riku smirking back at him. He suddenly realized he no longer heard any screaming from above. Usopp snapped his head up but Noxagh was gone, and Kairi gone with him.

"Too bad," Ansem spoke. Usopp realized just how close the two of them were and he backed up a step. Ansem stepped towards him closing the distance even shorter than it just was. Usopp froze in place and his body covered in sweat. The person in front of him looked like Riku, but he knew who this was. This man had enslaved him and forced him to do unspeakable things for years.

He almost took another step back, but froze instead with an expression shifting from fear to rage. "What are you doing Ansem?" Usopp asked, his voice rising in volume. Ansem actually looked surprised with Usopp's angry attitude. "Why did you take over?!" Usopp yelled at him.

Xehanort's Heartless did not respond for a few seconds. Then, calmly, he asked, "Why wouldn't I?" Usopp tensed up and the Heartless going by the name Ansem took another step towards him. "Are you really that surprised? You know better than most, the type of man I am. I just decided I wanted my body back."

"It's, not yours," Usopp said, trying to stand up to the monster in front of him. He glared into Ansem's eyes, "Why now? Why did you wait so long?"

"Timmy Turner said he would kill me if I took over again." Ansem said. He rose up his black sword and slashed it down in front of him. "But Turner is dead."

"Wh-What?" Usopp asked, his voice shaking. "Timmy's dead?" He questioned.

"Well," Ansem began. He held up his weapon and pointed it at Usopp so the point was only a foot away from Usopp's muscular chest. "I took over Riku, and I am quite sure that Turner would know, if he were alive. So where is he? Shouldn't he be here right now, stopping me?"

Timmy's dead? Usopp thought. Nami's going to be devastated.

"I became suspicious that he was dead a long time ago," Ansem said in his overlapping voice. He lowered his weapon, "But enough about that. I am leaving."

"What?" Usopp asked confusedly. "You're, not going to kill me?"

Ansem looked at the young man with an uncaring gaze. "I could not care less about you." He waved his free hand in Usopp's direction. "However, this will keep you occupied long enough for me to leave this place."

In front of Usopp a black pool formed on the floor. Out of the darkness arose a pitch black figure exactly Usopp's height. It had the same body shape and hair style only entirely black. The dark figure had no eyes, no features, nothing except Usopp's shape, and claws.

"Goodbye," Riku said. A portal formed beneath him, and he vanished.

"Wait!" Usopp shouted. He leapt back as the beast swiped at him and he fell to the floor. The sniper scooted backwards and rolled to the left for his slingshot when his dark version dove at him. He looked back for a second while he grabbed his slingshot and he saw the disappearing wisps of black from the portal Riku's body stepped through. Riku, he glanced up at the broken ceiling, Kairi.

Usopp's body stopped trembling and he smacked the creature with the shaft of his Black Kabuto as it dove towards him. He knocked the Heartless creation to the side and stood up holding his weapon confidently, but with an enraged expression on his face. "What am I doing?" He yelled as he fired Pop Greens at his dark enemy. "I spent all that time arguing with Riku, and now he's gone!" He fired another Pop Green after weaving his opponent around the room, and this one was too close for the shade to dodge.

Vines wrapped around Usopp's dark twin and Usopp kept yelling while pulling back his slingshot for another shot. "I let them get taken! I just sat there, and let it happen!" Guilt flooded through him as he was the only one left of the three he entered the Palace with. "Exploding Star!" He fired and an explosion blasted his vines and his enemy to pieces.

---

A black portal appeared on the roof of the east wing of the Fire Lord's palace. Out of it appeared a silver haired young man in a yellow shirt that had a black X across the front of it.

Ansem stepped onto the roof and looked around. He frowned and stated out loud, "I was trying for Sin City. Why are we here?"

"GIVE ME BACK MY BODY!"

"Quiet down," Ansem said, Riku's mouth actually moving unlike when the real Riku tried to speak. "You are not as weak as last time, but do not think yourself stronger than me. This is my body again."

"Why? I thought we had an understanding. I, thought you changed."

"Changed?" Ansem asked skeptically. "There is no such thing. You let me in, and you did it again when you started treating me like your ally instead of your enemy." He chuckled. "You're doing the same thing with that boy Killua. You believe in the good in people too much. You used to be so much smarter."

Riku was yelling as loud as he could inside Ansem's head. The monster was taunting him, and he wasn't having any of it. "Killua is good! If you can't see that then you're as blind as ever!"

"He betrayed his old friends," Ansem stated out loud. "It will happen again. Now, it is time to go-"

"He wouldn't betray us!" Riku yelled. Ansem's face twisted in anger. "You'll never understand what it's like having nakama, comrades, FRIENDS! I gave you a chance Ansem! I didn't shove you down inside me because I know what it's like being trapped that far down!"

"You didn't shove me down because you couldn't. I am too strong," Ansem countered.

"You're wrong!" Riku yelled, and unlike the times before, this time his mouth actually opened up and his voice came out sounding usual. Their face distorted into confusion and anger. Ansem thought he had complete control and he roared, making a huge aura of black surround him and flare up. Riku's body started to transform and as hard as the boy fought it off, he could not stop his skin from darkening and Ansem's appearance from taking over.

The Lord of Darkness's body emerged on the roof wearing his usual garb. He had on a long black cloak that went to his feet. It was different from the Organization's cloaks, white at the bottom, and open down the middle to reveal his dark-tan muscular chest. On the center of his chest there was a red outline of a heart, and inside that outline was pure blackness. His silver hair became straighter and longer, and his face looked sharper, and much more menacing.

Ansem rolled his shoulders and cracked his neck to either side. "The further into the darkness I dive, the less you will be able to lash out," he spoke aloud calmly. He looked out from the roof over all of Pyraxas and held up his arms. "Look at it. The flames of-"

"SHUT UP!" Riku roared in his head. Ansem flinched and he closed his mouth with an annoyed expression on his face. Riku's voice was loud, so loud he could hear it in his ears even while the boy was stuck in his head. "All those flames mean my friends need my help. And WE are going to give it to them!" Riku willed his body forward and Ansem could feel the tug on his legs.

"Haha, hahaha! You actually think you can move me?" Ansem questioned while laughing. He could hear Riku's mental groans in his head as the teen pushed harder, and Riku focused more on only his right foot now. Ansem's yellow eyes darted down and he watched his foot inch forward, then take a full step out of nowhere. His laughs stopped, and rage filled his eyes. "ENOUGH!"

"No!" Riku shouted through his own mouth, though it was still laced with Ansem's voice. "I may have been wrong about you, but you are just a Heartless. A powerful Heartless, but one nonetheless. I was tricked by the fact that you could make words like a person, but really, you're nothing but a monster. And I know that people can change. I can change!"

"You're wrong!" Ansem growled. He spun left and snarled, "Just to prove it, let's go have a look at the one you put so much faith in. Luthor's spy. A murderer. Killer." He floated off the ceiling and down to the side of the third floor.

Ansem laughed as they descended and stopped right outside a window. "Through this city, your comrades are losing. You have not seen half of them for weeks or more. Now Kairi is gone too. All of them will slip through your fingers and you will drop into despair." The dark man laughed harder as he could feel even more darkness in Riku's heart as he spoke.

"That may be true," Riku growled, through a face that was snarling because the man he was sharing control of it with was enraged that Riku could still use his own mouth. "But there is only one thing that matters at this very moment. Whether darkness or light will win in the end? I know, and it is what gives me the strength to fight you."

"What strength?!" Ansem yelled. They turned and smashed through a window next to them. The two of them could feel the darknesses of the people inside and a few of them were very strong. One of those darknesses was the one of the boy they were looking for. He was in the very next room over and Ansem laughed as they felt him grow stronger. "Even now, the darkness in that boy is growing. He will betray you. He will survive because he is strong-"

"He is strong," Riku agreed, and he forced them forward faster. Ansem's face took on an expression of shock as he raced towards the wall where a portal of darkness appeared. "But that strength comes from his light!" As Riku shouted it he felt Killua's darkness fade to almost nothing, and the teen grinned.

Ansem and Riku, looking like one seriously menacing figure, flew through the dark portal to the other side where they floated above Fire Lord Sozin's grand hall. Riku wiped the grin from his face, as Ansem could not wipe the grin away himself as he suddenly lost all power over their body. It can't be, the Lord of Darkness thought in that one moment Riku took back control and Ansem sank down. Riku's body did not shift back to normal though, as he was only filled with more darkness than ever at the sight down below.

He made it in at the last possible second and saw Sozin standing there with so much lightning condensed around his right hand that half of the room was sparking with it. The Fire Lord manipulated it all on the tips of two of his fingers then swung that hand forward in a fluid motion that flowed from the rest of the smooth movements he had been making with his arms to hold the energy there. Riku's eyes started to follow the lightning, but his body would not have been fast enough to do anything about it. He looked down and saw the bolt shooting across the room at one of the three people facing Sozin.

Luffy turned his head right while the bolt flew to the opposite side of the room as him. Sozin chose his target well, picking the only one out of the three of them who could resist his fire powers. His own lightning was not this powerful, but in redirecting the most powerful attack that Killua could throw at him, he knew he had Natsu trapped.

Natsu's eyes widened as the bolt flew his way. There was nothing he could do but lean back and from reflex alone he started lifting his arms to try and defend from the blow. There was no time to think, and he still could not think as he was slammed into on his left side. The speed at which the object slammed into him so as to reach him before the lightning, it was so fast that he got thrown across the room. While he flew off though, his eyes focused on where he was just standing, where the bolt of lightning was about to hit, where the boy with spiky white hair had his arms extended and his hands opened up.

Killua shoved Natsu and his own eyes opened wide, and then even wider as the bolt hit him. He had been through electric shock torture to prepare him from attacks as powerful as lightning, the only problem was, his own attack was hundreds of times stronger than anything he had prepared himself for. His wide eyes turned glossy and the pupils in the middles faded and turned from black to gray. Electricity coursed through his body while Natsu slammed into the wall and Ansem sank into the recesses of Riku's mind.

Killua's body never stopped sparking until he hit the floor. Luffy was sprinting over before then and he dropped down next to Killua to look at the boy closer. Killua's shirt was ripped apart, the remains of it shredded by the force of the attack that hit him. Where it hit on his chest was clear too, despite the black burns all around it. The hole, the nickel-sized hole that spewed blood over the blackened skin around it, it was all too real. Luffy reached down for Killua's shoulders and he shook the kid a few times, shouting his name. Killua's eyes were wide open though, his chest was not moving.

He was gone.

Riku could feel himself slipping. He was not giving in to Ansem, but he knew the feeling, and imagined it was what Sora felt those times he would turn Anti-Form against his will. He glared at Sozin and got ready to attack, when he felt something dark outside of the palace and his head spun left. Noxagh! He's still in the city, which means Kairi's still here too. He looked back down at Sozin who turned his attention to Luffy and started marching forward towards him.

Riku's eyes darted over to the wall that Natsu crashed into but the Dragon Slayer was not moving under all that rubble. Luffy did move though. The rubberman got up after resting Killua down carefully. He turned to Sozin and an aura of Conqueror's Haki burst off of him so powerful that Sozin stopped in his tracks. Luffy's right forearm shone black and the pirate opened his mouth wide, then chomped down into it.

Riku watched as Luffy started to transform, then snapped his head left again. Kairi could be taken at any moment. If they teleport away with her, she's gone for good. I can save her. He looked back down, Luffy, don't let him get away with this. The man who looked like the Lord of Darkness turned and shot back through a dark portal in the wall. Back in the throne room, Sozin lifted off the ground with flame towers beneath him, and Luffy shot off the ground with steam coming out of his fat, Gear Fourth thighs. Their final battle had begun.

---

Upper Residential Area, Pyraxas

Standing atop a ten story building in the financial district's upper section, were two men. The district was set up where there was a large area for business below the walls of the Upper Residential Area, but the district continued past the walls for those business executives and more influential members of society to stay and work in the magnificent city. At the moment however, half of the district was on fire. The fires started all over the city by various battles were not being put out fast enough; the streets were flooded with panicked civilians and the soldiers were all too busy hunting and getting their asses handed to them by the intruders. Chaos was filling the city and smoke billowed up on all sides of the Royal Palace in the center, where all of the tremors shaking their city's foundation were originating from.

The men standing on the edge of the tall building were focused on a single figure running through a gateway into the Upper Residential Area. The taller one on the right with jet black hair and a freckled face had a giant smile on his face and was leaning forward with glee plastered on his face. His grin spread ear to ear, I thought my plan was foiled now that Astaroth was killing young Rin, but you have proved me wrong, young Okumura! And if you can survive an encounter with the King of Rot, then I am now positive it is going to work!

A dark shadow covered the roof of the building, and Saburota Todo stopped grinning so madly off the edge. He turned his head a little and gazed out the corners of his eyes at the teenager next to him, standing with a golden rod risen in his hands, and massive black flames rising up behind him in the shape of a great demon. Todo chuckled, then spoke in an ominous tone, "I see you knew I was about to silence you, Renzou Shima." He turned his body more and stood face to face with the teenager who was smirking back at him, pointing the tip of his K'rik at Todo's face, and narrowing his eyebrows while looking as dangerous as possible.

Shima glared into Todo's eyes and spoke in a smug tone, "You didn't hide that killing intent of yours very well, boss. But, I have to let Lucifer know, hopefully before Astaroth reforms in Hell and releases the news to everyone." Todo frowned and narrowed his eyes more at Shima who smirked at the reaction. "I know," Shima continued, "that I'll be pissing off Astaroth by taking away the one thing he can brag about from today, that he found the other son of Satan, but it will put me in better standings with Lucifer, so it'll be worth it."

Todo's body covered in orange flames, and giant arms simultaneously ripped out of the mass of black flames behind Shima. "Yamantaka-kun, protect," Shima ordered, and eyes snapped open on the demonic monster behind him. Todo hesitated at the giant demon's menacing glare, and the sight of those black flames made him hesitant to take a step forward. Shima spoke while his boss hesitated, "As much as your plans rely on them not finding out, I have plans of my own."

Todo glared at Shima, but the corners of his lips did curl back up like the boy's already were. What is he thinking? He is right, there is no immediate need to dispose of him. Whether he dies or not, Satan will soon learn of Okumura Rin's arrival on this continent. The flames around Todo's body went out and the man started chuckling darkly, then louder with his head tilted back, letting Shima see inside his mouth all the sharp teeth there that showed Saburota Todo was no longer a human. "I will let you leave," Todo said and looked back down into Shima's eyes, "as I am curious as to what your plans truly are, spy." Todo turned around and walked back to the edge of the building, but Shima did not release his black flames or dismiss Yamantaka. Todo chuckled one last time before he leapt off the building, and he mocked in a quiet voice, "'This tongue of mine is what's gonna keep me alive,' huh?"

---

Farther inside the Upper Residential from the western gate that Okumura Rin was entering from, three other fighters were already making their ways up towards the Palace. "Go on ahead!" Gray yelled to the two boys who were moving faster than him and slowing down to keep his pace. Gray stopped for a minute and started panting with his hands on his knees. The other two looked back at him, but Gray looked up and shouted, "Now! I'm right behind you!"

Ben frowned. He did not feel great either, and his lungs ached every time he took a deep breath, which he had to do a lot considering they were sprinting through an entire giant city. He nodded at Gray though and decided that maybe the ice mage was more damaged than he was. "Come on," Ben said to a hesitating Dash, and as he started running forward again, a green flash of light surrounded him. Just for a few seconds, just long enough to reach the Palace. XLR8 appeared, and when Dash saw it the little kid nodded and sprinted forward.

Gray sighed and let go of his legs when the other two sprinted away. Thought so. Don't want to hold them up. He took a few more deep breaths, then started jogging forward again at the same pace he had been moving before.

Far ahead of Gray and getting closer to the Royal Palace every second, the two speedsters were breathing heavily as they prepared themselves for what they thought they would find up ahead. Neither of them felt great after their fight with Astaroth and the Impure King, and even though all the miasma was rotted away, they were exhausted from all the fighting they had been doing since that morning. The suns were already past being right over their heads, meaning that it was sometime in the afternoon. The kids looked around the city as they ran up the streets, and they saw flames coming off of so many roofs, and they saw people screaming and running away from wherever explosions were coming from.

The two boys slowed down as they neared the western walls of the Royal Palace. They were still over a block away, but Ben transformed back into his human form, and Dash could see that his older friend looked as troubled as he did. As the two looked around on the intersection they were in, Dash saw something that made his eyes go wide. The kid pointed a hand and yelled, "Ben, look!" The older boy spun left and looked down that street on the intersection as well, and just like Dash he saw a brown-haired man whose bangs were sticking straight up and who wore a pair of black pants and a white button down shirt looking their direction. His eyes were wide like he had seen them appear out of nowhere because of their speed, or maybe just saw Ben transform out of his alien state.

"It's Shinichi," Ben said, recognizing the guy they met when they got off the train the day before.

The man who helped them find their way out of the train station started jogging their direction. Ben frowned and glanced towards the Palace where he heard another explosion come from, but then turned back to Shinichi who looked like he needed to say something. "What's up?" Ben asked, and the man running his way slowed down.

The thin, brown-haired man had a straight expression on his face. Shinichi Izumi looked down at the two kids. "What are you two really doing in this city?" He questioned. Dash's eyes opened wide, while Ben just frowned as the man proved he really did see them do something out of the ordinary. Ben's eyes darted to the man's side where there was a pistol, and he recalled how Shinichi's wife Murano mentioned being a nurse for Fire Nation soldiers.

Still, Ben remembered how the man and his wife were kind to them, and he decided to give him the benefit of the doubt. "We came to take down the Fire Lord," Ben responded seriously to the figure in front of him. Shinichi's eyes opened wide for a second, before going back to normal faster than Ben expected. Dash was still wide-eyed though and looking at his friend in confusion as to why Ben would tell him something like that. "We're part of the Resistance," Ben continued while looking into Shinichi's eyes to see what he thought about that.

Shinichi did not have any reaction to it though. And then, the older man bared his teeth, making Ben and Dash take steps back with widening eyes. "You imbeciles!" He yelled at them. Ben prepared for the man to reach down to his waist, but instead Shinichi pointed his right arm at them, and the two children dropped their jaws as his arm tore apart. His skin shredded in five lines that morphed into blades, and a pair of eyeballs stuck out of the top of his arm. "Migi, kill them," Shinichi said, and his right arm slashed towards the children.

Ben surrounded in a flash of green light that turned him into an alien that looked very similar to his human form, only now he had a brown monkey tail sticking out of his butt. "Why are you attacking us?!" Saiyan Ben yelled at the man in front of him whose strange power he was trying to overlook for the moment. Ben dodged blades made out of Shinichi's own body, and Dash did the same though with less difficulty. Shinichi's right hand was fast and the blades were swiping at the two boys faster than most people in the vicinity could see, at least anyone who did not start sprinting away as soon as they saw what Shinichi's arm did. "The Fire Nation is a part of the Cooperative! I know you know they're bad, Murano even looked like she felt guilty about working for the military, and it isn't hard to tell why!"

"You don't know anything! You've killed Murano!" Shinichi yelled towards the boy. Ben's eyes opened wide, and Shinichi's arm stopped slashing at the two dodging children for a minute while he continued yelling. "There are too many Lords in the Fire Nation for you to just take down Sozin and think it will work! Those Lords are all probably on their ways to Pyraxas as we speak to 'give support' to the Fire Lord. If he wins then they can say they came to help, and they'll gain favor with him by showing their loyalty, but that's only one reason they're coming!" Ben and Dash looked even more confused, and Shinichi stomped towards them furiously. "The other reason, is that if the Fire Lord falls, they want to be the ones who take his place! It is a win-win for them, coming to Pyraxas, so all of them are going to do it!"

Ben's eyes were slowly widening as he was putting two and two together. Shinichi continued yelling at him, "If your other comrades are really taking down the Fire Lord as we speak, then those Lords converging on the city will start fighting right here in Pyraxas. Not just them either, but High Lords Spriggan, and Ren, and Alligator, they'll send their armies this way to take over more land for their nations. This city is going to turn into a battleground! Streets will run red with blood," he slashed his right hand forward as the two boys went wide-eyed, but the kids were still too fast for him to connect with, even if he had halved the distance between them subtly while he was shouting.

Dash dodged left, then right, as another arm blade came down and cut into the floor where he was just standing. He did not know how Shinichi's arm could harden enough to cut straight through stone, but the older man was doing it somehow. "But," Dash started yelling, and he gulped as Shinichi looked his way and into his eyes. "How can you take the Fire Nation's side, while, they still have slavery?"

Shinichi's arm shrank back and the man stopped attacking. His mouth opened, then closed and he let out a sigh. "You did this because of slavery?" He questioned in a dark voice. "Do you have any idea what you're talking about?" Dash's eyes opened wide, and his mouth closed, because truthfully he did not. "You really don't understand what you're doing if you thought this was a smart idea." Shinichi's arm turned back to normal and he turned his back to the hopeless children. "Go, play hero as much as you want," he mocked while starting to jog away. "I'm going to find Murano and get out of here, before the war you've started gets us all killed."

Ben watched as Shinichi ran off, and the boy flashed green again, making his black eyes go back to normal and his tail disappear. "Ben," Dash whispered. Ben continued to stare after Shinichi, but he listened as the kid next to him continued in a quiet voice, "We're the good guys, aren't we?"

Always, I want to say. I mean, he was just making excuses for himself, right? Reasons he wouldn't stand against the Fire Lord, reasons why he would not stand against slavery and injustice? "Of course we are," Ben responded, and he actually sounded confident enough out loud that Dash let out a sigh of relief. "Shinichi is a coward, not like us," Ben told his friend, turning and looking down into his eyes as he did. "He won't be the only person that doesn't understand what we're trying to do, but you can't let people like that get to you, okay?"

"Yeah, got it," Dash said with a nod of his head.

"Alright," Ben said. He turned towards the Royal Palace again, though now with doubt creeping through his mind. "Come on," Ben began and started walking towards the giant western walls of the Palace. "We still have a battle to win."

---

Close to the middle of the Upper Residential Area, between the walls to the Royal Palace and the ones separating the area from the Lower Residential Area, a pink-haired boy standing atop a roof watched as a one-armed mage ran up the street below him. He followed Gray's path up the street for a second, then looked back west towards the outside of the city, where another figure was running up the street behind him. He's about to catch up to his friend. This is my only chance.

Okumura Rin was running up a paved street towards the Royal Palace he saw miles away. There were flames shooting out the top of the building, and he saw a bunch of lightning bolts fly out of there as well. Got to go join in that fight, I wonder how Luffy's doing against- Rin stopped short, his feet skidding to a stop in the middle of the road. There were some other people on the street, running up or down the block in panic and yelling about the fires spreading everywhere. He stopped though in the middle of the street, and stared up the block twenty yards to where another figure stood in the middle of the road like him. The boy standing there had messy pink hair similar to his that was messy but black. "Shima," Rin said, and though Shima was too far away to hear his voice over all the shouting people, he could read lips and grinned when Rin said his name.

"Hey there, Rin," Shima greeted. Rin started walking up the street towards his old friend, but this time Shima did not run off as he got closer. The black cat at Rin's side eyed Renzou Shima nervously, and the smile the teenage boy gave Kuro did not make him feel much better. "I think it's safe to talk now, since Todo just left, and Astaroth's been destroyed." Rin's eyes opened wide at what Shima was saying, and he came to a stop only five yards in front of the slightly older teen.

"Why- what are you doing here, Shima?" Rin questioned. He so much wanted to believe that Shima was trying to help him back in Sin City, and he had kept telling himself that Shima gave him so much information for no purpose other than to help him. Here he was again though, apparently having watched the battle against Astaroth. Just like Mephisto, Rin thought, the idea creeping through his mind already after his talk with Mephisto, but being pretty much confirmed by Shima's appearance before him now. Mephisto told me that the whole reason he sent me after Astaroth was that he wanted to see how I fared against him, but, but why did Shima tell me that Astaroth was here? Did he do it to help me? To help Yukio? Or like Mephisto, does he have some kind of plans for me? "Shima," Rin started, and he had a hurt, betrayed look on his face that he was trying to hide, trying not to let Shima see how much he was currently doubting him. Still, he had to ask it, "Are you using me?"

"Using you?!" Shima asked incredulously. "Why would you think something like that?! I'm not nearly as clever as you think, though I'm glad you think so highly of me!" Shima laughed, and Rin looked to calm down a little, a small smile forming on his face, even though Kuro still looked completely on guard like that monster made of black flames they saw in the cave in Sin City could appear at any moment. "Rin, I just wanted to warn you that demons are going to be constantly coming for you from here on out…" Rin smiled genuinely, and Kuro actually let down his guard a little, because this was something they already knew from what Mephisto told them while time was frozen, and there was no way Shima could know that, so the other teen really must have thought he was helping them at the moment. Both of them stopped feeling relieved though, and their faces covered in sweat as Shima continued, "…since I'm going to go tell Lucifer where to find you."

Rin's jaw dropped and again he started to look betrayed. Shima held up his palms in front of himself defensively though. "Hold on, it's not what you think," he said. Rin regained a confused expression, and Shima spoke in a soft voice as there were still some people running by them on occasion and he could never be too careful.

"'Not what I think?'" Rin questioned. "Are you, on my side?" Rin asked, seriously wondering at this point.

"Of course I am buddy!" Shima yelled in response.

"Then," Rin continued, and he scratched the back of his head for a moment. "Tell me," he continued, having a sudden idea. He made a serious expression and spoke in a demanding tone, "I want to know about the Umbrella Corporation, and that Light group you mentioned in Sin City."

Why not? "Sure, but don't tell anyone you got the info from me," he said. The pink-haired teen whispered that last part with a hand cupped to the side of his mouth as if it were a secret, which it really was, though he was downplaying the severity of it by joking like that. "Anyway, the Umbrella Corp's pretty boring, just a bunch of demons I work with who get to do whatever they want without facing consequences from Cooperative governments since it's a criminal organization no matter where you are in Aebrith. We only don't operate in the far northeast, but that's because that's technically Satan's land, though really Lucifer is the one who rules up here." Shima scratched his chin for a few seconds, then started again, "Well that's about it for them, but the Light, whew! That's a lot more fun to talk about. There are not many in the inner circle, and they are a seriously tough crowd. You've already seen Klarion back in Sin City, but I heard a rumor that one of your friends, this Kirito guy, took out a member of the Light last week. Ra's al Ghul's death came out of nowhere, it had everyone up here riled up wondering what to do about it. We're pulling strings with about every government we've got a hand in, which is all of them, to put big bounties on that buddy of yours."

Rin could not get the confused, stupefied, somewhat angry look off of his face. He did not know what to make of what Shima was telling him. His old friend was telling him so much that he did not know, so much about these villains, and helpful information that he could assist his friends with, but Shima kept using the first person to describe these groups. Rin wanted to thank Shima for telling him about Kirito's bounties, but when he said "every government we've got a hand in," it made Rin remember that the person in front of him was working with those people who were putting bounties on his friends. Shima kept talking, pretending like he did not see the mental struggle Rin was going through at the moment. Rin interrupted him though, "Are you, a member of the Light?" Rin questioned, looking into Shima's eyes seriously to check if the other boy was lying in his response.

"Me? No way," Shima said and crossed his arms in front of his chest. Rin thought his old friend was telling him the truth, but it was getting harder and harder to tell. He did not know what he could believe anymore, even though Shima seemed to only be telling him the truth. Shima laughed a few times, then continued, "I couldn't be in that circle, Vandal Savage gives me the creeps." He shivered to accentuate how much he got chilled by that guy he just named. "Plus," Shima continued, "Light members are dropping like flies these days. Not only Ra's, but I heard that Black Manta got arrested after some big battle in Atlantis…" Rin's eyes opened wide, as he was there for that battle. I had no idea this organization spreads that far. Atlantis is closer to Awul that Aebrith. Could, could the Light be in Awul? Rhodar, or the RNG, could they already be infiltrated?

"You should be cautious of the Light," Shima continued, and Rin shook from his deep thoughts to stare into Shima's eyes with his giant ones. "Even though a couple have gone down recently, they are not a group you want to take on lightly. They will be coming for you though, so best of luck! I hope you can handle what's about to be thrown your way, Rin," Shima smiled brightly at the teen in front of him. He turned his back to Rin whose eyes closed a little so they were back to their normal size.

All of that was useful information. "…since I'm going to tell Lucifer where to find you." "Shima," Rin called out, right as Shima took a single step away. Shima stopped, and Rin questioned at his back, "Is this really who you are?" Shima did not turn around. His mouth curved down but Rin could not see his face while his back was turned to him. "I did not believe it at first," Rin continued, "but now that I can't figure you out, even while it's just the two of us speaking alone, I think I have a grasp on what you're really thinking."

Shima's eyebrows lifted up, and the corners of his lips rose as he turned back around. Rin had his mouth open and was about to elaborate, but the look on Shima's face when the teen turned to him, it struck him silent. Everything Rin was thinking, the explanation he had for Shima's strange behavior, none of it made sense anymore, thanks to a single look from his "old friend." Shima was smiling, but his eyes were devious. His eyebrows were raised playfully, but the corners of his lips were curled just up enough that Rin did not think the smile was real at all. The bangs of his pink hair shadowed over his devious eyes, even while Shima laughed in a way that sounded exactly how Rin remembered the boy always laughed around him, so carefree. That laughter still sounded like it did back then, but it no longer sounded carefree at all to Rin, yet as Rin tried to pinpoint what it did sound like, he came up blank for answers.

Shima stopped laughing and he looked straight into Rin's eyes as the shadows vanished from in front of his own. "You could never understand what I'm thinking, Rin," Shima said. The boy did not laugh after he said it. He just kept that same look on his face that completely blew Rin's mind, and then turned and started walking away from him again. Rin opened his mouth to say something, but he did not know what to say after that. He did not know who he was talking to anymore. His mouth closed, then he opened it again, but at the moment he opened it, a group of people that was running down the street surrounded Shima and ran right past. As they were running past him though, one of them blocked Shima from Rin's sight for a moment. In that instant Shima was out of Rin's line of sight, the older teen vanished.

Kuro and Rin spun around, looking every direction for a sign of the mysterious boy, but they could not see him anywhere. "Rin," Kuro began softly. Rin looked down at his familiar speaking to him through their telepathic link. "I think, Shima is a bad guy," Kuro said, feeling bad for its master as it said it, because the cat knew how Rin would feel about that.

"A bad guy?" Shima? "Don't mention that bastard's name." That's right, I forgot to ask him about Izumo. She wouldn't tell me what he did to her, but she, she sounded so betrayed when I mentioned seeing him. He, he was trying to help me though, wasn't he? Why else would he tell me all that stuff? Rin was stumped. He did not know who Shima was anymore. We're friends, Rin thought confidently. Something Shima told him a long time ago echoed in his mind, "Pff! What am I doing? Hahaha, I was trying to avoid you as much as possible, but here I am, talking to you like always. Ahhahaha, ahahaha! It's way more of a hassle to avoid somebody." Shima was the first one, to forgive me for lying about being Satan's son. He treated me like a friend, while Suguro, and Koneko, everyone was treating me like an enemy. He didn't care that I was Satan's son, even when his own family had suffered because of him. So, even if he is working with bad people, even if he's a part of the Umbrella Corporation or the Light or whatever! He's still my friend!

"No way," Rin finally responded to his cat. Kuro looked up at him in surprise, and Rin smiled down at the furry creature, "This is Shima we're talking about. Does he really look like a supervillain to you? Hahaha!" Rin started walking forward towards the Royal Palace, still laughing loudly and as convincingly as he could, though Kuro would not be fooled. Rin stopped laughing after a few seconds and just stared ahead with a wide smile on his face. Shima, next time we meet, for sure, I'm going to figure you out! Until then… I really hope you weren't serious about telling Lucifer where to find me. If demons come after me, they'll be coming for my friends too. I, won't be able to forgive you, if they get hurt because of that. If they do, then we really will be, enemies.

---

God damn it I'm so exhausted. Gray stopped running again, putting his hands down on his knees and taking wheezing breaths as he took another break. He lifted his head and stared towards the Royal Palace in the distance, but the tall western walls were blurry to him and he had to blink a few times to make them more clear. People were mostly running west towards him, but the young mage stood back up straight and started jogging east and up towards the center of the city once again.

Is it the miasma? No, Ben and Dash seemed to get over that pretty fast. I mean, we're all still feeling the effects, but, Gray suddenly realized it and his eyes darted to his left side, the empty arm socket. It's only been a few days. The blood transfusion at Pon-Gatso and Kairi's magic worked wonders, but of course I wouldn't be a hundred percent. Hiei might have been right, we could have waited a little, but it's strange. By deciding to go right away, we came at the same time that Luffy's group arrived here. Out of all the cities, all the countries and lands, they came here, today. There are no such things as coincidences. Silva being Killua's father excluded maybe, I mean, like, hold on! Gray shook his head around and realized he was getting slower with every step he took. The mage ground his teeth and picked up his pace, lifting his pale-faced expression and staring up at the Palace ahead.

Gray was running up the street, while a man was running down the street towards him. Gray was a few feet to the left side of the road, and the man was going to run past him on his right side. The two barely cast glances at each other as they were running past, but they did glance. Gray took three more steps after passing the man, then slowed down, his eyes gaining a confused look to them. He slowly turned around, to see the man who ran by him had stopped as well. The figure turned around and looked back into Gray's eyes.

Gray's eyes widened as he examined the figure's face, and the eyebrows that made him suspicious confirmed what he thought at the first glance. "It was crazy! There were Chimera Ants, and mutants, and so many fire benders! Ben even fought Sanji's brother! I'm serious! Tell him Ben! The guy had green hair, but he totally knew who Sanji was and said he was his brother. It wasn't hard to believe, he did have those stupid swirly eyebrows. "Yonji," Gray said, staring at the figure before him with a dark expression.

"Gray Fullbuster," Yonji said in response. A smirk spread across the green-haired man's face. He had big headphones over his ears connected by a black band over the top of his head. There was a pair of sunglasses pushed up to the top of his forehead, and the man wore a suit of green clothing from neck to feet. He had on a dark green cloak with a lighter green number four on the front left side of it, and under that cloak he wore a green jumpsuit of long light green pants and a long-sleeved shirt of the same color, with only a thin yellow belt separating the two. He had on big green boots, but Gray's eyes lingered on the gloves on his fists that looked strange and gave him a bad feeling in his gut. "When those kids you were with met me on that battlefield," Yonji continued, and his smirk vanished as he started snarling. Gray saw a scabbed cut over the man's left eyebrow, and a purple welt on the left side of his face that he did not notice before, but Yonji continued in an even more annoyed tone as he saw where Gray was looking, "They caught us off guard, fought me without my Raid Suit ready." Yonji opened up his hands and then curled his fingers back in slowly so each one cracked as he balled his fists.

"Hold on," Gray began. How does he know me? Who am I kidding, they probably know all of our faces by now. "Yonji, your brother Sanji," Gray knew it was a long shot, but he was going to go for it anyway. "He's in the city right now," Gray continued.

Yonji's eyebrows lifted up, and he looked to his left, then his right. The man then turned back towards Gray and smirked again, "He's not here, so I don't really care." Gray's eyes widened and his bottom lip lowered at how little Yonji seemed to care about this. The man did not look to be lying, and he actually started laughing at Gray's expression, "That weakling wasn't worth our Vinsmoke name. I always thought he offed himself because he couldn't handle the shame of being born into a family better than him."

Is this guy stronger than Sanji? Crap, fighting Sanji at full power would be tough, though I think I could probably beat him. But right now, one-armed, weak and dizzy, against this man who's bragging a strength higher than Sanji's, I have to come up with a plan- Yonji kicked off the floor and Gray's bottom lip dropped even more at the man's speed, before his dropped jaw got snapped to the side with the rest of his face as Yonji's right fist slammed into him. "Ugh!" Gray gasped, spit and blood flying out of his mouth as he was lifted off the floor and thrown to the side of the road. He slammed back-first into the wall of a building, and gasped out a glob of bloody spit again at how hard he hit it.

"This is all you've got?" Yonji questioned. Gray opened his eyes that were clenched in pain, and he saw the green-haired figure walking towards the wall he was slumped into. The concrete wall only cracked a little when he slammed into it, but Gray wished he had flown straight through it, as he now stood with his back against the wall. Gray tried raising his arms to block Yonji's next attack, but his eyes widened as only his right arm crossed in front of him. Yonji laughed out loud and slammed his right fist into the exposed right side of Gray's chest where a left arm would have been crossed in front of, had he had one.

Gray gasped in agony at how powerful the punch was. His vision got blurry and then flashed white as a fist slammed him straight into the face. Yonji's laughter echoed in Gray's ears, but Gray could not protect himself, finding it difficult to even stand let alone try a counterattack. Yonji backed up for a second, then as Gray's eyes opened up, he lowered his jaw and lifted his gaze to the fighter who had jets coming out of the bottoms of his boots and was now hovering in front of him. Yonji had a smug look plastered across his face, and he pointed his legs behind him to propel himself faster towards Gray before slamming both fists into his stomach at the same time.

Gray bent over the fists, while Yonji laughed at how he could feel the concrete wall behind Gray's body. He had punched so hard that final time that the cracking wall broke into pieces and Gray was thrown into the rubble before it all collapsed down on him. Underneath a pile of concrete, Gray had his eyes open staring at nothing but blackness. Is this my punishment? He thought, his body aching all over. He lifted his right arm, but it got stuck in front of his chest and there was such a heavy piece of rubble right on top of him that he was finding it difficult to move it. For what I almost did, to Kirito? He flattened his right hand against the bottom of the piece of debris, and his muscles started straining as he pushed up against it. Even though he would normally be able to move something dozens of times the weight of this debris, at the moment it felt like a million tons pressing against his chest. No. It's not, what I "almost" did. Sure, I, I almost killed him, but, that's not all.

The ice mage's teeth clenched and his fingers curled in more against the bottom of the debris, debris that started to shake. I broke Kirito's trust. Not just in me, but, but in anyone. We made the No Matter What pact, and, and now he probably can't trust anyone who made it with him. He cried, when I betrayed him. He's been betrayed, so many times, and yet I… I broke that oath we made! The broken wall over Gray started to shake, and the man with green hair staring through the hole in the wall at it started to grin. "Still got some fight in you, do ya?" Yonji punched his fists together in front of him, and then the wall on top of Gray froze. The green-haired figure took a step back, his eyes darting around as ice spread from the rubble right over Gray, to all of the debris on the floor and even the edges of the hole in the wall.

Everything shattered at once, and Yonji leaned away as some ice flew out at him. The man then snapped his gaze back forward and glared angrily at the man standing before him. Gray's bloody and swollen face only made his expression look more determined, and he rose up his right fist like he was ready to go all out against Yonji if he had to. Yonji floated back off the ground though and he clenched his own fists out in front of him again, fists covered in powerful gloves of his Raid Suit that Gray knew first hand how powerful they could be. The mage was ready to defend himself now, but he also knew to be cautious. Yonji however, got over Gray's determined expression quickly and started laughing again, "What's with that look? Are you that determined not to get killed? Too bad, I needed to vent-"

Yonji had started to pull his right fist back while he spoke, but he stopped speaking mid-sentence and decided not to fly down at Gray and punch him in that aggravating face of his. He froze and tensed up, because Gray's face suddenly looked horrified, his eyes turned as wide as saucers, but the mage was not looking at him. Yonji followed Gray's gaze to right behind himself, and he slowly turned around as he felt the air on his back heating up. It's right behind me! He thought, the feeling of a monster filling his mind as he turned to see what caused the sudden shadow to fall over him. The heat intensified as Yonji turned and stared at the wall in front of him, rising up and curling over his body, covered in steam.

Yonji lifted his gaze up the steaming wall of water in front of him, up to the twenty meter tall woman's shoulders that were bubbling with boiling water, to her face that he could not make out any features of because the front of it was veiling by a smokescreen of steam. All Yonji could see from that face, were the glowing red eyes behind the steam, glaring straight down at him like he was a bug about to be squashed. "Hold on-" he started yelling, then the right hand of the giant water woman that was bigger than he was smacked him out of the air and into the floor.

"What were you just about to do?!" The giant woman roared, while everyone even close to the nearby vicinity sprinted as fast as they could away from the giantess.

Gray stepped out of the hole in the wall and looked up. Juvia? The giant woman rose her right hand and a huge sphere of boiling water appeared above it. Gray's eyes darted down and he saw Yonji getting up out of a hole in the ground, then he shot up in the air thanks to the jets under his boots. He opened his mouth to yell, then did a backflip in midair to dodge the left hand that swiped across Juvia's front. As Yonji was flipping to avoid her swipe, his jaw dropped and his eyes grew huge at the sight of Juvia's right hand coming down with the sphere of water ten meters in diameter heading straight for him. "AHH-" he started screaming, at least until the boiling water sphere slammed into him and drowned his voice out.

"Juvia!" Gray shouted up to the giant woman's head. The redness to Juvia's eyes started to fade a little and the steam in front of her face shifted away, but Juvia kept her right hand pointed down with a constant flow of water slamming down like a high-powered waterfall on Yonji's head.

"Gray-sama," Juvia called down, her voice low and booming. "Are you alr-"

"Stop it!" Gray shouted up at her. Juvia's eyes opened wide, and Gray shouted, "You're going to kill him!"

The constant jet of water flying out of Juvia's right hand stopped, and the huge woman shrank down, ten meters, five, and then down to her normal height. She stood ten feet in front of Gray with eyes that were huge as she saw how he was looking at her with so much fear, but fear for her, not of her. Juvia's lips trembled, and the girl whispered, "Juvia cannot help it." When Juvia's face reformed as its normal appearance, he could see streaks of dried tears on her face, and she started crying again as she spoke to add more to them. "Juvia, k-killed people," she said, her voice hoarse as she did.

"Oh Juvia," Gray muttered, shaking his head. She leaned back in horror, but Gray stepped towards her, and he said in a guilty voice, "I'm so sorry." She opened her eyes wide in shock, and he whispered, "I knew, there would be side effects, but, I brought you back anyway. I didn't know, what those side effects would be."

More tears started pouring out of Juvia's eyes. Her chest was heaving and her heart beating a thousand times per minute. It felt like it was going to fly right out of her chest. "Gray-sama," Juvia whispered, his words getting choked-up as they came out of her mouth. "If, Juvia can't stop, herself from killing people," she sniffled a few times, then looked straight into Gray's eyes and began, "then she would rather kill her-"

"Don't finish that sentence!" Gray shouted. Juvia froze with her mouth open, and she looked down, but he stepped towards her since he could see from her expression that she still felt the same way. "Don't you ever, feel like you would be better off dead," Gray said, and he put his right hand forward so it was up against Juvia's left cheek. She leaned into it and shook her head, her eyes clenched tightly as she did not know what to say, if there was anything she could say. "After all I went through to get you back, Juvia, I can't lose you again. Don't you ever say you want to die," he said, his voice scolding. She started to lift her gaze, her eyes widening as he spoke. She made eye contact with him right as Gray finished, "If you were to die, I couldn't go on. I know that now. I know because I had to go through that once, and I can't do it again. So please Juvia, whatever you were thinking of doing, promise me you won't. It might be selfish of me, but I'll make sure you don't lose control again! I'll stay by your side for now on, no matter where we are, no matter what we're doing. I'll be by your side, and I'll protect you!"

Tears were welling up in Juvia's eyes again, but for a different reason as she could see water on the bottom of Gray's eyes as well. Gray opened his mouth to continue his heartwarming speech, but his eyes grew huge as he saw something behind Juvia. With the hand he had against her cheek, Gray pushed extra hard and threw Juvia out of the way, right before a jet-propelled foot slammed straight into his face. It would have hit Juvia in the back of the head, and the girl who looked up from where she was thrown on the ground dropped her jaw as Gray took the blow straight in the nose for her. Gray flew off the foot while Yonji spun his red face towards the girl now. His face was dark red from the searing burns he got from all that boiling water that Juvia had attacked him with, but his Raid Suit seemed to have protected the rest of his body. As he turned to Juvia with an enraged look on his face though, that furious expression vanished and was replaced with unease as the shocked girl turned her gaze to him. As they made eye contact, it was like a switch was flipped in Juvia's head and the girl's body covered in steam.

"Oh no you don't!" Yonji yelled. He shot towards Juvia like a missile while she rose up a hand towards him.

Juvia opened her right palm and growled, "Water Slicer!" A blue magic circle appeared in front of her palm and a half dozen whips of water as sharp as blades flew at Yonji. The green-haired fighter dodged the blades with ease though, and he flipped over Juvia's head right as two more whips of water flew out of the top of her magic circle, going right beneath his feet as he brought up his legs. Juvia was not able to turn in time, and Yonji brought the fist he had pulled far back forward, slamming straight into Juvia's spine.

"That'll be enough to break-" Yonji started talking before his fist even connected, because he knew Juvia would not be able to dodge from that close. When his right fist connected with Juvia's body however, his fist went straight through her and out the front of her chest. For a split second, Yonji thought he had punched her so hard that he completely impaled her, but the smirk that started to replace his shocked look faded just as fast. His eyes focused on where his hand went through, and he saw water surrounding his arm around the elbow.

"Imbecile," a dark voice snarled, and Yonji rose his gaze from his arm that he was finding hard to dislodge from Juvia's back, up to the girl's head. Her head started to turn around, and then her neck turned fully to water so that her face could turn a full hundred and eighty degrees. Her lips were curled up at the edges, but her eyebrows were narrowed down to show she was still pissed. The girl was smirking though, and she said in a smug tone, "Did you think you could touch me? Gray-sama is the only one Juvia wants to touch her! And you hurt him!" Her voice got extra deep at the end and her eyes flashed bright white for a second, before steam started to come off of her entire body.

Yonji could feel Juvia's boiling body burning through the Raid Suit on his right arm. He reached to it with his left and yanked backwards, finally pulling himself out of her, only for Juvia to raise a hand and growl, "Water Lock." A sphere of water surrounded the shocked man who reached up and grabbed his throat as he had just tried taking in a deep breath when he was encased. Yonji swung around his arms trying to disperse the water, but he could not do it, and his face was starting to get pale. "Hahaha," Juvia chuckled, a menacing look in her eyes as she stared through the translucent sphere back into Yonji's.

Shit, I can't touch her. Her magic is too, strong. Fuck I need to breath! Yonji grabbed at his throat again and his bloodshot eyes were rolling back into his head.

"Juvia," Gray whispered, having staggered to his feet behind Juvia once again. She heard his voice and her smirk wavered, her eyes widening as she realized what she was doing, then narrowing again as she remembered how Yonji attacked her Gray-sama. "Look behind him," he said, his voice just as soft. "And let him go," Gray finished.

Juvia frowned, Gray's suggestion sounding like a terrible idea to her. She had Yonji exactly where she wanted him. She had failed to finish him off before when she saved Gray, and he came right back and attacked them again. "Gray-sama, I should finish…" Juvia trailed off as she listened to what Gray said first, and looked behind her Water Lock. Juvia looked out into the middle of the road, and she saw a young woman around her age standing there. The girl had darker hair, hair that was messy and disheveled with different lengths on each side. She looked banged up, but the expression of fear and nervousness on her face, as she looked straight towards Yonji, it made Juvia's arms shake. What made Juvia's smile vanish completely though, and what made her drop her arms to her side and release the Water Lock, were the two children that young woman was holding in each arm.

The water sphere surrounding Yonji collapsed, and the man inside of it did as well. Yonji fell flat on his face and stomach, and the jolt to his chest caused him to cough up a few buckets of water. Across the street from them, only seven meters away, the woman who was watching in fear that her husband was about to be killed lifted her gaze from his squirming form to the two behind him. She looked at the blue-haired woman first who had lifted up her hands and started staring at them in disgusted horror, then to the man who told the girl to release her husband. Gray stared past Juvia for the moment and straight at the other woman, "Take Yonji and get out of here, Azula," Gray ordered.

Azula frowned deeply as he knew her name, but it only made sense as she knew his as well. She opened her mouth to say something, when the little boy in her right arm opened his mouth, clenched his eyes, and started wailing. "Shh Azorai," she began, only for the child's twin to start sobbing in her other arm. "Soren, Azorai, just, just hold on," they were getting louder, and her attempts to get them to shut up for a second so she could say something to Gray failed. The fire bending Princess glanced at the floor next to her, wondering if she could put the kids down for a second, but then her eyes shifted back to Yonji who was on his hands and knees, and then to the mages who were glaring at her as if they knew what she was thinking.

The Princess of the Fire Nation started walking towards them, but she stopped when she was next to Yonji, and she leaned down and whispered something into his ear. The furious man on his hands and knees opened his eyes wide in surprise, then snapped his head the other direction and saw the two mages he was fighting standing side by side, and glaring down at him like if he stood against them again, it would be the last time. Yonji grimaced, Damn it. Showing me mercy. How pathetic. He pushed himself up to his feet, and then turned his back to the two glaring at him.

"Let's go," Gray said, putting his right arm around Juvia's back and turning her around. The two of them started walking up the city towards the center, while the other two started heading the other way. They walked away from each other, separating, somehow without killing one another. No one said a word, but two babies screamed the entire time.

Once Gray and Juvia were far enough away that Gray did not think they could be heard any longer, he whispered to the girl next to him, "You did it." Juvia glanced at him confusedly as they continued to walk, but Gray was smiling and he clenched the hand he had around her back tighter on the shoulder farther from him, pulling her closer to his body. "You could have killed him, but you didn't do it. You know why, Juvia?" She shook her head at him, and Gray turned to look her in the eyes, "It's because you aren't a monster. You're loving, and caring, and kind, and a thousand different amazing things. That piece of you, this anger you're feeling, it doesn't have to control you."

Juvia sniffled a few times, and then in a tiny voice she whispered, "It's so hard." She wiped her eyes and looked into Gray's eyes lovingly, "But if Gray-sama thinks I can do it, then, I… then Juvia will believe him." She dropped her head down onto his right shoulder and nuzzled into it with her eyes closed. "I love you, Gray-sama."

"Yeah," Gray whispered, and he pulled her tighter to him again. "I love you too."

"Awww," a voice said in a dragged out way behind the two of them. Gray and Juvia spun around, and the teenager standing behind them with a messy mop of black hair flashed them a smile. "That was cute," Rin said, and the black cat standing on his right side smiled too. Rin and Kuro were just thinking about Shima's appearance and how mysterious and evil he sounded, so they were happy to get it off their minds.

Juvia's initial anger that someone was breaking up a moment between her and Gray vanished, and the girl smiled wide at the sight of the boy and cat behind her. "Rin! Kuro!" She exclaimed. Juvia held out her arms, and the cat that ran towards her leapt up in the air and right into her arms. Juvia giggled a few times as Kuro rubbed his head into her shirt, then she tilted her head confusedly and asked, "Have you always had two tails?"

Gray grimaced deeply for a second as he realized why it was Juvia was now able to see Kuro's split tail. Rin saw Gray's dark look vanish before Juvia lifted back her gaze, and he made a mental note to ask him about that later. The half-demon then turned his gaze to the east, towards the Royal Palace where a giant explosion that rocked the city just originated from. "We should get over there," Rin suggested. The others all followed his gaze up the city, and they watched as a beam of orange light surrounded in flames blasted out of a wall.

"Natsu?" Gray muttered, then shook his head as he examined the beam closer. "No," he said, his voice deep. "Shit, he might not be able to handle this on his own." Gray took a step, and then stumbled forward as he did not see the chunk of wall on the floor right in front of him. He did not see it because beneath both of his eyes, his face was so swollen that the bumps blocked parts of his vision, his vision that was already half red because of the blood in his left eye that dripped down from the open head wound above his eyebrow.

"Gray-sama!" Juvia shouted, dropping next to him and grabbing him by the right arm with both of hers to help steady him and get him back on his feet. "You already lost too much blood," Juvia said, looking to his left shoulder with a wince.

"I've been meaning to ask about that," Rin began while looking down at where Gray's left arm used to be.

"Later," Gray said, trying to keep his voice as stern and serious as he could. He stood straight up and paid extra attention to the floor this time as he started walking. "We have to go now though, if we aren't at the Palace soon, we won't make it in time."

"In time to do what?" Rin asked, walking up on Gray's left side at a quickened pace. It was less than a jog, but he did not need to go any faster to keep up with Gray's staggered way of jogging forward while staring at the floor. "I'm beat after fighting Astaroth, Kuro too, and you two don't look much better."

"I can keep fighting," Juvia said in a serious tone. Rin snapped his head to the right and looked past Gray at the woman who kept staring straight up the block without noticing Rin's shocked look.

"Did you just, use the first-person?" Rin asked.

Juvia flinched and froze for a second, before picking up her jog again to stay on Gray's right side. The cat she was still holding in her arms looked up at her face concernedly, and Juvia appeared upset so the cat opened its mouth to ask what was wrong. The group of four froze.

"To the Royal Palace!"

"Don't listen to any orders from the comms! The enemy has hacked them!"

"Regroup at the Palace!"

"Everyone to the Palace!"

The four invaders of Pyraxas had just reached an intersection, and as they did, they became able to hear the voices shouting on two sides of them. The voices were mainly coming from their right sides down the block to their north, but there were also some more right behind them coming up the street they just ran up.

"This is perfect," Rin began. The others looked to him in confusion, but Rin was taking the sheathed Kouma Ken off of his back. "As we are now, I hate to admit but we'd be no help against a High Lord. A bunch of grunts though," Rin drew his demon sword from the sheath and it burst into blue flames, just like his body and hair that grew two horns out the front of it. "We can take them no problem."

Juvia smiled in relief. Juvia did not want to go back to the Palace anyway. The hardened look she had on her face a minute ago while staring straight up at the Palace was not because she was determined to get up there fast, it was just she was thinking so hard about what she would find at the Palace that it had been troubling her. Those men, and Nami-san. And, Kirito tried to stop me, just like Gray-sama, but Juvia did not listen to him. Will he be mad at me? No. Kirito, saved Juvia. Gray-sama keeps telling me, how it was Kirito who saved me. But he is so angry at Gray-sama now. Why? When Gray-sama lost an arm? Why-

"Who goes there?!"

Juvia's troubled look that reappeared as she kept thinking about sad things vanished again, though this time instead of a smile of relief, an intense look appeared on her face. Gray leaned in to the side of her head as she prepared for the men running at them from the north, "Don't worry. I'm right here. If you feel yourself going too far, just remember I'm at your side." Juvia's cheeks turned red and she nodded a few times really fast, and then her head started steaming and her skin became even redder as Gray planted a small kiss on her cheek.

That should keep her mood up for now, Gray thought. But this is bad. He turned towards the enemies and lifted his right fist to prepare for a fight. The enemies were faltering at the sight of Rin who took point in front of them, and then they backed up even more as Kuro had leapt out of Juvia's arms a minute ago and suddenly transformed into a monster cat taller than a human at Rin's side. Gray did not look towards Juvia as he thought it, but in his mind he imagined her giant steaming form as she pummeled Yonji into the ground, the bloodthirsty smirk on her face as she held a Water Lock around him. Juvia, what did I do to you? I said it's alright, but I shouldn't have put this burden on you. I was selfish to bring you back without thinking of the consequences. There could have been better ways to do it, but I was just so desperate. I won't make you live like this forever. I swear, I am going to find a way to cure you of whatever this is. No matter what.

---

Vistarion

Inside a laboratory deep underground a massive city five thousand miles away from Pyraxas, a tank full of liquid trembled. Inside the round cylinder that stretched from the floor to the ceiling twenty feet above, was a figure with cat ears and a long tail. The figure's body was still forming, his body incomplete, but his mouth was a part of him that was complete, and he could not stop cursing in anger.

"Calm yourself Jackal," Tempester said. Another demon of Tartaros, this figure was completely covered in brown fur that got thicker and darker around the bottom of his square jawline to give him a black beard. He wore a dark green cloak, but the hood was down revealing his long mane of blond spiky hair that dropped beneath his cloak so it was impossible to tell how long it was. Tempester had his arms crossed in front of his muscular body, and the demon said in a deep voice, "You have been through the process before. Hell's Core cannot put you back together any faster. Now tell us, what was it that killed you?"

"That damn Fire Lord!" Jackal screamed.

"Hahaha!" Another voice much deeper than Jackal's bellowed laughter through the underground chamber. Ezel moved closer to the tube that Jackal's body was reforming in, using the six tentacles sticking out below his muscular light-blue torso to move forward. All four of the twenty foot tall figure's buff arms were crossed in front of his chest, and he kept laughing through his mouth full of razor sharp teeth. His teeth were not even the sharpest thing on him though, as on top of the monster's shoulders were a bunch of protruding spikes that matched ones sticking out of the sides of Ezel's head. "You must have really pissed him off for him to try and kill you, Jackal!"

"Grrr," Jackal snarled, glaring at his fellow demon through the liquid around him. "It wasn't even me who had him all pissed," Jackal grumbled in annoyance. "Pyraxas is under siege, but stupid Sozin incinerated me before I could enjoy the rest of the battle."

"Was Sozin winning?" Tempester questioned. The serious demon started scratching his chin as Jackal hesitated to answer.

"In that case," Ezel said, and he flexed his arms at his sides before cracking his neck either way. "I'm going to take the city!" He yelled out.

"Do not get ahead of yourself," Tempester said to the larger demon on his right side. "We must first check whether or not the city is up for grabs, and if it is then I, Calamity, will take-"

"Actually, you weak little insects won't be going anywhere," a high-pitched voice said in the darkness of the far side of the room. The demons spun to look over there, sweat on all their faces, even Jackal's inside the tube full of liquid. A thin figure with wavy black hair started walking out of that darkness into the dim blue light around the Hell's Core regeneration tubes.

"Wall Eehto-sama," Tempester greeted, bowing his head a little as he did.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Jackal scowled towards the thin man walking towards them. Wall smirked in his direction, and Jackal leaned back a little at the devilish grin of sharp teeth that looked so unnatural on the face of a human. It was hard to think of this person as just a man though, as the floor beneath his feet started quaking with every step after Jackal's remark. He had little black holes all over the bottom of his jaw line, and screws in either of his earlobes.

The Machinas man walked all the way up to Tempester and Ezel, then between them as they moved to the sides for him. Wall Eehto stepped up to Jackal's regeneration tube, and he reached a hand out for it, pressing his palm up against the glass. "Did you get hurt again, little insect?" Wall questioned, only a foot away from Jackal's body now. Jackal dared not say anything in response, as all it would take would be a flicker of one of Wall Eehto's fingers to shatter the regeneration tube.

I've never been interrupted in the middle of reforming before. Would I, still come back? Or, is that it? Jackal's face filled with anxiety and he kept silent, but Wall's eyebrows furrowed like he wanted a response from the demon. Finally, Jackal gulped and just nodded his head at the powerful man. "Well that's too bad," Wall said, and he removed his hand from the glass. He curled his hand into a fist and slammed it forward and Jackal opened his mouth wide in shock, then dropped his jaw further as Wall stopped his fist just in front of the glass and started cackling at Jackal's afraid expression.

After Wall got in a good bit of laughter, he turned his back to Jackal and looked at Tempester who had asked him a question. "The High Lord has heard about the situation in Pyraxas already, and he's sending Spriggans to deal with it." Wall Eehto smirked at the demons in front of him, "Looks like we're the ones getting all the fun!"

---

Royal Palace Throne Room, Pyraxas

"You are all that remains Straw Hat!" Sozin roared, and he laughed darkly while flying to his right. He stuck his left hand out and shot a beam of red light that propelled him even faster away, and then Luffy's giant fist flew through the spot he was just flying. There was now a beam of red light there, but Luffy just bit his lip to ignore the pain and curved his arm, snapping his fist in the direction Sozin dodged to. Blasts of red flames shot out of the soles of Sozin's feet, and he did a backflip that put him right over Luffy's fist as it went below him. Luffy could not hold it in this time and roared in pain as Sozin's feet shot flames straight down into his extended arms that did not have a strong enough Haki coating to prevent being burned.

Luffy's arm snapped all the way back to him, and the pirate started panting even more heavily than he already was. Sozin flew towards him though, not giving him a moment's reprieve, and yelled as he pulled back a fist, "I invented the fire bending technique of redirecting lightning! Killua Zoldyck was a fool to try it, not that he knew that I would be able to send it back. I aimed at Natsu Dragneel because he was the biggest threat left to me, but I am fine with the outcome either way! Such a powerful boy, dead because he wanted to save a friend!" Luffy's eyes widened and a pulse of Conqueror's Haki blasted out from his body while he slammed a fist forward. At the same time, Sozin punched his own right fist completely covered in red at Luffy, and the two fists collided in midair. Sozin's irises widened and a smaller white circle reappeared in the centers of them, and his Haki aura pushed out against Luffy's.

The two of them roared at each other and pushed harder into their punches. Their auras pushed back and forth, while all of the debris from broken floor and pillars and glass and ceiling littered around in the throne room lifted up and started spinning around them. Bolts of lightning sparked away from their bodies and slammed into the outer walls, smashed into the floor, and shot up into the sky above the Palace. Everyone in Pyraxas looked towards their Palace only to see a tornado of debris spinning around above the top of it, lightning bolts flying in every direction, and the very city to be shaking as a result of it.

Sozin stopped roaring and he clenched his teeth. More! MORE! The haze from below got thicker and drew into his body, but Luffy ground his teeth too and the pirate screamed out, "YOU BASTARD!" Sozin's eyes widened at the look of rage plastered across the pirate's face, a second before the force against his own hand felt like it doubled. Luffy smashed Sozin's fist away, and roared, "KONG GUN!" His giant fist slammed into Sozin's chest and the High Lord's body bent over it, before flying off down into the floor near the edge of his Palace so fast that he left a trail of white through the red haze the air. He smashed through the floor on one side of the room, and a bunch of machinery below the ground broke apart and exploded. Luffy did not notice it, but to his left, the Supernova started to flare out again, stabilizers Doc Ock put throughout the throne room failing because of their fight. The pirate would not have cared even if he knew though.

Luffy glared through the hole in the floor and out past the walls of the Palace, to the walls outside that separated it from the Upper Residential Area. He hit Sozin so hard that there was a giant crater in those high walls, and then the entire wall blew apart around that crater that stretched from the floor to its top. Luffy grit his teeth, then his facial expression filled with even more rage as out of that explosion flew a man covered in a reddish-orange flaming aura. "Stop making fun of Killua," Luffy snarled loudly, his body bouncing in midair thanks to steam pumping out beneath his thighs. "You killed him," Luffy shook with anger as he said it. I was right there! He was my friend, my nakama! "YOU KILLED HIM!"

Sozin's eyes were glowing white with nothing else visible inside them, no irises, no pupils. The man was enraged like Luffy, and he roared back, "I DID!" He shot towards the pirate right as Luffy pointed his legs back and shot himself towards Sozin. Sozin flipped to the right in midair, but Luffy saw it coming and punched that way. Sozin pointed a hand down and pumped a jet of flames out of his palm, lifting himself ten meters in a second and avoiding Luffy's fist. Luffy turned his punch though in mid-swing, and sent it flying straight up through the jet of flames towards Sozin.

"RAAA!" Luffy yelled in anger and pain, as the Haki around his knuckles burnt away, as he pushed his fist towards the most condensed of Sozin's flames. The Fire Lord's eyes grew huge at the sight of the fist flying straight through his jet of flames, and he slammed down a second hand to double the size of the red beam. Luffy roared again, though this time it was only in pain, and his attack lost focus from the agony. He missed Sozin who dodged away from his attack, and then the Fire Lord rushed Luffy while the pirate's eyes were still clenched from the pain. Luffy heard him coming with Observational Haki and his eyes snapped open while he pulled a fist back, but his opening eyes became huge as Sozin was not in front of him like he thought.

"Too slow," a voice said behind him. Luffy started to turn, but his senses could not keep up, and a leg slammed into the side of his head, not only covered in flames, but a black aura of Haki as well. Luffy flipped over and over on his way out of the air, before hitting the ground in the middle of the throne room and breaking straight through it, then dragging a trench through a bunch of steel machines beneath the ground. Sozin floated down towards Luffy, but his entire Palace shook and he glanced backwards at the Supernova.

He snapped his gaze towards Luffy as the pirate climbed out from beneath the ground, and spoke as Luffy glared his way, "The Supernova is unstable, and even I do not know what will happen anymore, but the one way I have been able to stabilize it, is the same reason you are going to lose this fight." Sozin's body pulsed red, and three flares that ripped out of the Supernova at that second flew over to him and started spinning around like rings of fire. They spun around his waist, and diagonally in both directions over his shoulders and down to the sides of his legs as Sozin floated off the ground. "Your attack before did cause a little pain, but every second that passes, the amount of pain I will feel from a similar attack decreases. By now, I would no longer even be harmed from an attack of that magnitude."

Luffy was panting heavily, Sozin could see that, and Luffy knew Sozin could see that. Luffy was panting from his Gear Fourth state alone, but with all the heat in the room, with his own burns and bloody injuries, he was more tired than ever. Yet Sozin was not panting. The Fire Lord was taking all of the energy the Supernova gave him, and it was making him stronger and stronger. He's not bluffing, Luffy thought. Those rings of fire around Sozin grew more pronounced, thicker, and Luffy understood that even if Sozin could not take all of the energy into his body at once, the Fire Lord could control it all and take it in later. The haze was moving towards those rings of fire, and then a lighter haze moved from the rings into his body at a slower rate.

"Do you understand now?" Sozin said, seeing a look on Luffy's face that made him think the pirate was comprehending his strength. "Do you see how futile it is to keep fighting?!" Sozin lifted higher off the floor, while glaring down at the round-shaped pirate who was bouncing off the ground with tiny little hops on his small legs.

Luffy's eyes shadowed over by his elongated hair, and his mouth twisted into a furious snarl as he stopped himself from panting out huge breaths of steam. The Fire Lord lost his smirk and frowned deeply in an enraged way. "You choose to fight?!" Sozin yelled, and he rose his arms at his sides. "This fight is OVER!" Sozin roared and created fireballs above his lifting arms. Luffy rose an arm too in that moment, but he did not do so to prepare an attack. Sozin stared at the pirate oddly, and then the Fire Lord's eyes opened huge as Luffy brought his giant right arm right in front of his face, and bit into it just like he did when his arms were normal sized. Ripples of muscles jerked around his arm, then across his back and chest, down his left arm like his right, and Luffy grew even larger than before. He finally had to let out a breath of steam as his body could barely handle Gear Fourth, let alone this enhanced form of it. I won't have much time, so I have to hit him as hard as I can, as many times as I can!

The pirate's eyes darted to his side at a small figure lying on the floor, and the thoughts of how much time he had in this state vanished from his mind. He suddenly felt like he could last in it for as long as he needed to, for as long as it took to defeat Sozin. Luffy's arms grew twice as big as they already were before stopping, and his round body was so large that his feet started bouncing him higher with smaller, closer-together bounces. Luffy snapped up his head and the dark circles around his eyes had expanded so they covered half of his cheeks and much of his forehead too, with a thin pattern of swirling black lines like the ones on his lower chest connecting the two sides of darkness on his face. Sozin shot towards Luffy in rage, while the pirate who just doubled his size brought back his fists and yelled out, "THIS FIGHT IS FAR FROM OVER!"

---

Royal Palace Courtyard, Pyraxas

A hundred meters above the destroyed courtyard of the Royal Palace, a black portal appeared and out of it floated a dark figure. His eyes were dark yellow, his skin was so tan that it was almost brown, and his hair was silver, straight, and falling all the way down his back to below his waist. He wore a cloak over his shoulders that was open down the middle to reveal a black heart over his chest that had a red outline to it and a red X through the middle. The cloak was black near the shoulders but turned white halfway down his body around his waist, right where an inner part of his cloak stretched in and connected to cover up the front of his waist with a white button down. He wore black pants and boots, and clenched in the white gloves on his hands, the figure held a fully black Keyblade in his right and another black one only with a red blade in his left.

The figure floated out of the black portal and glared forward at another figure already in the sky. "I've been wondering when you were going to show up," the man in an all black cloak that had a silver zipper splitting it down the middle said. He had an eyepatch over his right eye, and long grayish-black hair tied into a ponytail behind his head. Xigbar smirked menacingly at the dark, silver-haired figure who continued to glare his way silently. "I know you're his Heartless and all, but we made new plans since we got here. Xemnas doesn't want to-"

"Where's Kairi?" the darker-skinned figure asked, his voice cold, with two voices speaking over each other: Riku's and Ansem's. Xigbar froze where he was, his mouth hanging open in mid-sentence. A bead of sweat formed on the one-eyed Nobody's face, while the man in a black and white cloak floated forward clenching the hilts of his Keyblades tightly. If he was holding anything other than the most powerful weapons in existence, the hilts would be crumbling inside his tightening grasp. "Tell me Xigbar, before I rip you to shreds," the dark figure snarled.

"Riku," Xigbar said, easing back in the air with another bead of sweat on his face now. "What's up with that look there, kid? Thought you were someone else!"

Everything Xigbar said while thinking he was speaking straight to Ansem stuck in Riku's mind, but he pushed it all aside for later. There was only one thing that mattered to him right now. "I'll only ask one more time," Riku growled, and a black aura surrounded his body with a white veil on the outside of it. "Tell me where she is, now," Riku demanded.

"Sorry kiddo," Xigbar said, and he rose up his arrowguns as he knew how this was going to go once he finished his sentence. "But that ship has sailed. Noxagh's long gone with your girl," Xigbar chuckled after finishing his sentence. "I mean, not your girl, Sora's girl," the Nobody corrected. Xigbar quickly connected his two weapons to make Sharpshooter in its more powerful form, as the furious snarl that spread across Riku's face did sent chills down the Nobody's spine.

Kairi's gone. Xigbar's a talker though. I might only have one chance at this. He's not stupid enough to just tell me everything if I ask, but if he thinks he's winning this fight, he might let slip a few things. Riku's angry look intensified, and on the face of Ansem, the Lord of Darkness, Xigbar could not help but nervously chuckle. "What's wrong, Xigbar?" Riku questioned, and he flew forward with his Keyblades both pulled far back behind him. Xigbar smirked and snapped his weapon straight forward, firing a huge red arrow of light at Riku's chest, Riku slashed both of his weapons forward, but before they connected with the arrow, a hole in space opened up behind him and that light arrow flew out of it and straight into Riku's back.

Riku's eyes opened wide in shock, then he clenched his teeth in pain and dropped out of the air a few meters. He snapped his head back up and panted a few times as he glared at Xigbar, "Fighting off Ansem's got you tired huh?" Xigbar questioned the teen, and Riku grimaced back at him like Xigbar was right on the money with that guess. "Well then, I might as well try my luck with you. I told the Fire Lord I was going to keep my distance, but Thymilph got his ass kicked so guess it's up to me now."

"I'm going to defeat you, Xigbar," Riku shouted at the man floating above him. His voice was still overlapped with Ansem's, but Xigbar was starting to feel a little cockier as that was not a tone or a sentence that the figure he was associating with that body would ever have used. "And when I do, I'll find Kairi and take her back."

"Good luck with that," Xigbar said with a laugh. "But a piece of advice," he continued, and his eye narrowed, his smile fading a bit as his voice became more serious. Riku actually hesitated, his heart rate speeding up, because he had never seen Xigbar even remotely serious before. He was always cracking a joke, always being sarcastic or acting funny, and yet as he looked at him now, Xigbar was definitely preparing to say something in a serious tone. "Stay away from Xemnas as long as you've got Ansem inside you."

That was it. Xigbar's expression returned to normal, and in a snarky tone he continued, "The darkness gets stronger here every day kid. Time's running out, but guys like us don't have to worry about it."

"I'm nothing like you," Riku growled.

"Sure you're not," Xigbar remarked back sarcastically. Riku ground his teeth and shot up in the air, pulling back his Keyblades again. Xigbar started firing his Sharpshooter down at Riku rapid fire, but Riku sliced every single one of the attacks apart with movements that were blurry to Xigbar's eyes. Xigbar ripped his gun apart and slammed down the individual smaller arrowguns right as Riku reached him, and the two of them pressed their four weapons against each other. Xigbar leaned his head forward over the crossing points of their weapons, and that intense look on his face reappeared for a second, "If you know what's good for you, you'll listen to what I said." The smirk reappeared on Xigbar's face, but his words continued to sound dark as he finished, "If you don't want this whole world going to shit that is."

---

A/N Hope you enjoyed! Thanks for reading the newest chapter of Nexus: Heroes Will Rise! This chapter was called Darkness, and it kind of spanned all of the different plot lines in the city. Noxagh kidnaps Kairi, and Ansem takes over Riku's body. Riku is able to come back, but only because Killua proves Ansem wrong by showing that people can change, pushing Natsu out of the way of his Super Lightning Gun that Sozin redirected to try and take out the opponent he was most wary of. Ben and Dash face off against Shinichi, the main character of Parasite, who says they don't know the consequences of what they're doing. Juvia saves Gray, and then Gray saves Juvia with what he tells her to get her mental state in check, though he knows it's not going to be that easy. Shima stands off against Saburota Todo, then goes down and tells Rin all types of secrets he probably shouldn't be telling. What are Shima's real intentions? Can Luffy handle everything Sozin throws at him while the Fire Lord gets fed more and more power from his Supernova? Why doesn't Xigbar want Riku to go after Xemnas? Next time we see the epic conclusion to the Pyraxas Chapter: Nexus HWR 10.9: Supernova.

Darugus chapter 65 . Oct 14

looking forward to the next chapter especially with that cliff hanger

Thanks for the review! Killua! Hope you enjoyed how the chapter turned out! Thanks again to everyone who read, reviewed, followed, or faved, and as always, 'Till next time!