The Confrontation I Fear
Part II
Clashing Destiny
“Demyx,” Xigbar called out to him to get his attention. “You keep watch and tell me when Axel is coming.”
“Yeah, yeah…did they ever pick the wrong guy for this,” he complained and summoned his weapon, a blue guitar.
Even Saïx didn't know what exactly Demyx’s abilities were, but he would get to see them. His water marionettes had brought them the information that the rats from Hollow Bastion were also here. They were the ones that did them the favor of disposing of Marluxia and his traitorous breed. However, there were only three of them, and Xigbar had an ambush planned.
“Wow, hey, my marionettes picked up some weird resonance. Whoa, wait, even two. They resemble the wavelength of that Keyblader girl. And somehow Axel's managed to lure them all into our trap,” Demyx reported, and kept his marionette spell up.
It was his special ability to create water marionettes of himself to go and gather information. They could even be used for fighting purposes. It was the only kind of ability in the Organization that could be used for spying purposes; while Saïx and Xigbar had theirs concentrated on combat.
“We have five incoming signals. The Keyblader, one that resembles that signal farther behind, and two others, one with an awfully powerful magic ability, the other is kind of fuzzy. The lead of them is Axel,” he called over to Xigbar.
The man with the eye-patch had a disastrous grin on his face. This would be Axel's end, and by chance, they could even take the Keyblader captive. Xemnas would be very pleased.
---Valiant Hearts---
“Shit, I have to get away from them somehow. But the darkness corridors are downright flooded with Nobodies that are waiting for me. And I left Naminè all alone, damn.” Axel swore and took another jump over a wall.
The ninja girl was following him close up, ready to throw her oversized shuriken at him at any time. If that thing hit him without any defense, it would hurt like hell. Not to mention that the other ones already had caught up. They were barely fifty feet behind him and were slowly closing the distance.
“Dammit. Maybe I'll lose them in the forest that’s between the mansion and the town.” Axel swore again.
This was not looking good.
---Valiant Hearts---
“Yuffie! Where is he running?” Kairi shouted to the ninja who was jumping from roof to roof, having the Organization member continuously in her watch.
“There is this big ass wall at the end of this alley. There is like some crack on it. He must have his hideout or something behind there. I have no idea what’s behind the wall!” Yuffie shouted back, not turning her eyes away from the man in the black robe.
It was only a matter of seconds until she had to jump down, because the alley was about to end in a big plaza. Aiming as well as she could, she threw her shuriken after Axel, nearly hitting him.
“Kairi, pick that up for me, okay?!” she shouted, and took a detour about another roof to get down.
“What am I, her personal delivery service?” Kairi complained, but nevertheless picked up the ninja’s weapon.
“You know how Yuffie is, Kairi. She would do the same for you,” Aerith assured the Keyblader.
“I know. We have to catch up with him. I don't want to lose his trail,” Kairi said, and gave Aerith a nod and stopped.
“This will only take a second, dear,” Aerith said, and cast a spell.
“Time which flows, let us walk beyond your chains,” she recited.
The spell took effect immediately and they both continued the pursuit of the Organization XIII member with at least twice the speed. Sadly, this spell only lasted for about twenty seconds.
They had almost caught up when Axel vanished through the crack in the wall and Yuffie had joined up.
“Here, your shuriken.” Kairi then threw it to Yuffie while running.
“Thanks a lot. Now let's catch him. Leon will pick on me for ages if we let him get away,” Yuffie replied.
---Valiant Hearts---
“Where did she go?”
Olette was looking around. The man in the black robe had appeared and was being chased by the very same girl from the glass tower ornament, the town itself was frozen, and on top of all this, now she had lost the trail of where those people were running to.
But there was only one place likely to be of interest for those weird people. The girl would surely know what was going on with her. The Struggle tournament couldn't go on anyway with everything frozen, so she continued her pursuit of the girl.
“What's up with this today?” she asked and took the pendant in her hand.
It was warm and a feeling of power ran through her. And Olette knew that she had to keep going, for whatever reason. She had to know who those people were, had to know what those recent events were all about.
She would have had been better off not knowing.
---Valiant Hearts---
“Four of the five are about to enter! The last one is somewhere in the town, but keeps emitting that weird signal. Ten seconds until they arrive, Xigbar.” Demyx made his report.
“Good. Demyx, your job is over. Take cover. I'm going to blow this whole forest to bits.” Xigbar laughed and initiated his supreme attack.
Just seconds later, Axel jumped through the crack, saw Xigbar floating in the air at once, and noticed Demyx and someone else further back.
“Shit!”
Axel stood there for a moment like he was frozen—that is, until Kairi, Aerith and Yuffie came after him, cutting him off from the town.
Xigbar's plan was a success. They all were in position. The Keyblader wouldn't die so fast, but he had to blast them off anyway.
“Aerith, cast a barrier, this is a trap!” Yuffie shouted, seconds before the attack of the man with eye-patch rained down on the place where they all were standing.
“Crimson Needle Rain!” Xigbar shouted, and shot off countless energy-charged needles into the air, which came down like an arrow shower on the group from Hollow Bastion.
The impact was enormous and bathed the whole forest in a violet light. The place where the group of people had been standing was wrapped in dense smoke from the ground that had been destroyed.
Axel was fatally hit and fell down without even screaming out. Either he was instantaneously dead, or was playing dead.
When the smoke slowly vanished, Xigbar could see that he had only achieved one of his goals. The brown-haired woman had cast a protection spell just before he had launched his attack. However, it looked like there was quite some damage, though.
“Aerith, you okay?” Kairi asked her lifesaver.
The woman just nodded, unable to speak right now. It was amazing that she had managed to form that barrier around them that fast. But she herself had taken a lot of damage. This kind of barrier didn't just block the entire attack, it decreased the damage by a lot and the caster had to take all the remains of the attack.
“You are from the Organization too!” Yuffie yelled angrily at Xigbar and jumped right out of the barrier to get back at the man.
“So? You got a problem with that, little girl?” he laughed at her and rose higher and higher, over the trees with Yuffie blindly following him.
“Saïx! Demyx! Kill the girl! She's got to be in the mansion! Find her, kill her, now! I'm going to clean this mess up!” he yelled from far above them.
Saïx immediately vanished in direction of the mansion, but Demyx hesitated for a moment.
Kairi knew that someone the Organization XIII wanted dead had a good chance of being an ally to her.
“Aerith, can you fight?” she asked the woman.
“Yes, I'm fine; I just won't be able to cast any major spells like Nova or Ultima for a while,” Aerith replied and gave her a nod.
With that, Kairi rushed past Demyx, who was slightly confused. Didn't Xigbar say that he would keep those brats busy? He was about to go after Kairi and shot off a few water pulses when a few feet away an impressive fireball hit a tree and caused a likewise impressive explosion.
“You will not go anywhere. I'm your opponent!” Aerith called over to where Demyx was standing.
“Did they ever pick the wrong guy for these missions. Why does it always have to be me? And why do I get the worst opponent every time? Jeez…I can't believe this.” He then pointed at Aerith, summoning his instrument back. “Time to die.”
---Valiant Hearts---
Olette had finally reached the plaza. The town was still frozen, but that way she could make it still to the Struggle finals. At least that was one positive effect these weird happenings had.
From beyond the wall, Olette could hear explosions, and when she looked through, a blond man and a brunette woman where fighting each other, shooting off things like it was the natural thing to do.
It was like in some fantasy stories, people using magic and all weird kinds of stuff to settle things. But this was real, not inside a book, not inside a dream. She could feel the heat that some of the trees were emitting. They must have been on fire.
There was no sign of the man she had seen at all. He must been further in. Most likely inside the mansion, but who were these people?
Tightening her grip on the glowing pendant, she entered the forest area, trying to pass by unnoticed.
These people were not likely to be very friendly.
---Valiant Hearts---
On top of the trees, Xigbar was quite busy with just Yuffie. She was far too fast to get hit by his needles, no matter how hard he tried. On the other hand, she didn't have any time to launch an attack of her own.
Yuffie jumped from one tree to another, vanishing into the foliage of the tree, out of Xigbar's view. This was not good. There was about any direction she could attack from next.
Ferociously looking around, turning around every few seconds, he heard something right behind him. With a fast turn around, he shot off an entire load of needles in that direction just to see that he had fallen for a trap. He had pierced nothing. Just something in the trees had made a sound.
“Shit, where is she?!” he swore and suddenly felt something on his back.
“Right behind you, dumbass!” Yuffie shouted in his ear and jumped off, leaving four little orbs on his robe.
Before he could react to this, the orbs exploded, leaving him in a cloud of smoke.
That, by far, wasn't enough to seriously beat him. He coughed at the smoke and looked around the girl had vanished again. He wouldn't tolerate this hide and seek game forever. Randomly shooting needles at the trees all around him, he eventually forced Yuffie to move.
Yuffie was agile and smart when it came to fighting and tactics, but someone that could shoot off any amount of needles at any time was quite the horror for her. She just had landed a hit with mithros, small bombs from which she had still around forty left, but it didn't seem to have inflicted any damage. And now he was shooting blindly around
Discarding this plan of surprise attack, she switched to a plan of getting him into close combat. He wouldn't be able to hit her directly with those needles at a short range. Leaving four of the small bombs on the tree, she left, and he noticed her but was too slow to hit her. She was even faster than Tifa, but not even remotely as strong. Her strengths lay in tactics and surprise attacks, but those wouldn't work here.
“I really should have switched with Tifa. This guy is a pain in the ass,” Yuffie complained and continued to jump from one tree to another.
Just then, the battle of Aerith and Demyx changed the whole situation. A few trees were burning and another few had fallen. She wasn't able to float like Xigbar and it got much harder to move with every tree that fell.
Now the situation was to her disadvantage. Yuffie had to think of something and it had to be fast. It didn't take too long. Any moment now, the bombs on the tree would explode, hopefully distracting her enemy long enough to get in close range.
Xigbar was just about to fire off an entire load of needles when the bombs that Yuffie had set exploded. Thinking that he had been chasing an illusion, he looked at where the explosion came from. But there was nothing, only the burning top of a tree. He had fallen right into her trap; he of all people fell for such a simple trick.
Yuffie could see from where she was standing that the bombs had set the tree on fire, and set everything on this chance. She wasn't able to do much like Aerith, but she was still able to use magic. Charging her shuriken with a magnet spell, she threw it right after Xigbar when he was about to look back.
He immediately shot off needles, but they all got drawn to the approaching shuriken weapon. Just before it hit, the ninja grabbed her weapon and made direct contact with Xigbar, kicking him right in the face.
Yuffie jumped after her shuriken and used it to block off all of Xigbar's needles. Now, she hung on him, out of the reach of this weapons, but floating sixty feet above the ground. A fall from that altitude and she would not get off lightly.
Xigbar was struggling to get Yuffie off, but she had managed to get on his back and was holding him firmly. There was no way to reach her in that position. But he could float; she had to keep clinging on him to not crash into the ground. A malicious plan formed in his head and he started to rise higher and higher, ninety feet, a hundred-twenty feet, a hundred-fifty feet, two-hundred feet and further up.
“Do you plan to take a vacation in the sky?” Yuffie asked and continued to hold him, restricting his actions.
She had his arms in such a way so that he wasn't able to shoot anywhere but the ground. If he tried to break away, he would most likely break every single bone in his arms. Not even with his superior strength was he able to give counter to this position. But he didn't need to.
He just kept silent and when they had reached an almost six-hundred-foot altitude, he suddenly went wild and almost managed to throw off Yuffie, just to shoot off a couple dozen needles straight into the sky.
“I'm right behind you, not above you, idiot.” Yuffie grinned and now knew how she would get away from this.
A free fall would be certain death, but Yuffie had a trick up her sleeve. While Aerith was master of magic and Tifa was downright a monster of physical strength, Yuffie's talents were centered around manipulating things and item-based strategy.
But before she could do anything, Xigbar suddenly started to descend almost in a free fall. The air drag put them both in a horizontal position, and it now became apparent what Xigbar had planned. The needles he had sent flying straight in the sky were about to hit them. They were at a five-hundred-foot altitude when Yuffie jumped off and prepared for a battle in free fall.
These wasn't necessarily the best conditions, but Xigbar had to descend with her if he wanted to land a clean hit. The air roaring around her, Yuffie took her shuriken and threw it right at Xigbar who got hit on his left arm, and the shuriken flew away.
“Ha, throwing away your only weapon? Aren’t we a little desperate, little girl? Afraid of death, are we?” laughed Xigbar.
Yuffie did a somersault in midair and expanded her air resistance with a little trick. While doing the somersault, she threw off a dozen of the bombs she had used before. She had once used this when they had still lived in their own world and was skydiving with Cid's airship, the Highwind.
Focusing her mind on her weapon, she stretched her arm in the direction it was and did barely noticeable movements with her fingers. Xigbar was about to shoot at her when he heard a roaring sound and the shuriken he had just seen fly away was coming back.
Yuffie had changed her fighting style after seeing Kairi fight against a flying Heartless while she was bound to ground.
“Bloodfest manipulate version!” Yuffie shouted, and the shuriken was roaring and hitting Xigbar like an out of control beast.
His robe was cut on countless spots and he had taken quite some damage. But that was not all Yuffie had planned. The shuriken returned to her just to serve as a skydiving tool. Another three seconds later, the bombs above her gave away an explosion, and the shockwave sent Yuffie on her weapon flying on the wind.
While this was initially supposed to be a technique for fun, it now happened to be quite useful.
Xigbar was roaring in rage and started shooting like a berserker after Yuffie. She got hit quite a bit but that was intended. It was the only way to build up the necessary amount of energy. But now she had to get more distance between her and Xigbar, who couldn't descend as fast as she could with the push from the explosion shockwave.
She gradually left his range of attack and he screamed in wrath. That girl would not get away! Not from him!
He started charging for another supreme attack and put even more energy in it than before. He wasn't paying any attention to his condition anymore. His only intent was to kill Yuffie. Above him accumulated a lot of needles, a proper ocean of them. If those hit a defenseless Yuffie while she was descending, it would be fatal.
The ninja could see what he was doing. She had anticipated that he would at one point try to hit her with that, but this was rather unfortunate. Still at a three-hundred-foot altitude, she started to charge her own attack. Yuffie hadn't taken all his hits for nothing. If this failed, the only resolve left was to hope for help from Aerith—but the forest below her was already an ocean of flames.
Xigbar had finished charging. He would pierce that girl to death, and it would mean to be on the edge of nothingness when he finished the attack. Xigbar yelled out, ordering the needles to descend at an absurd speed.
“Crimson Needle Rain!” he yelled, and this time it was much much stronger than before. Not even Aerith would have blocked this with a simple barrier.
The ridiculous amount of needles was coming closer. Yuffie couldn't finish charging the energy till it reached its peak and would have to leave it off if she wanted to avoid a direct hit.
Throwing the shuriken above her, using it as the middle point to accumulate the energy, she let off her last resolve for this fight.
“All Creation!” Yuffie shouted, and let off a massive energy beam in direction of the needle rain. This would never suffice to block them all off, but the chances were high that she could get away alive.
The beam roared through the needles, blasting the whole center of it away, and vanished in conclusion. The rest were barely more than what Xigbar had used for three or four of his attacks, but they still hit Yuffie and she took direct damage.
This was it, she couldn't go on anymore. With her last strength, she picked up the little bag she had the bombs in and threw them in the direction of the ground. Xigbar had long stopped descending, and she just had to stop the free fall. She was almost a hundred feet away from where they had set off and Yuffie would crash into the massive stone ground of the plaza if she didn't do something fast.
The shuriken returned upon her manipulate command and was then used again as skydiving tool. The bombs in the bag made a much greater explosion than intended and Yuffie was virtually blown away. She somehow managed to slow down the fall through the upcoming shockwave, but still landed with absurd speed.
Yuffie was very lucky. She crashed through a glass window directly into a grocery shop. The shop was a mess, but she somehow survived. However, there was no energy left in her to fight. The others must be in almost the same condition.
Xigbar was the same. He had problems maintaining his appearance and was about to order the withdrawal. He was sure he had killed Axel with his first supreme attack and that was sufficient for now. But the girl should be dead. No way could she have survived that fall.
---Valiant Hearts---
“So…can't we solve this by reason, maybe? You're looking like someone who would understand,” Demyx started to hold a monologue. “See, we are—” He was cut off by Aerith.
“If you wanted to solve this by reason, why did you attack us?” she asked.
“Well, you see, that’s…it's not how it looks.” Demyx turned around.
“Oh man, I told them I wasn't cut out for this mission. Why does it always have to be me?” he spoke to himself.
Aerith was a bit puzzled by his behavior, and usually she would have tried to solve this without violence, but they had already attacked them. And from the scale of that attack, they had intended to kill them.
“People of the flames, dance!” Aerith recited, and sent a Fira a few feet away from where Demyx was still talking to himself.
“Unfortunately, we will not be able to solve this with reason. If you don't want to fight, you can just go,” Aerith told him.
“Afraid I can't do that. You see, the Superior would be really mad if I let you go alive,” Demyx replied, and pointed at her.
“Dance Water Dance!” he shouted, and started playing his instrument.
“Those that dirty the world, Barrier, protect me!” Aerith recited, and first cast a barrier, followed by a reflect spell on herself. This would give her some safety. But unfortunately, her opponent, although a magic user, didn't use the usual approach.
Demyx created quite a lot of his water marionettes and had them attack Aerith. Up to now, they just shattered on the barrier, but through that, Aerith took continuous damage. She couldn't put up with this forever, and reciting any major spell was impossible with that permanent disturbance.
Aerith took down her barrier and immediately let off a gravity spell in front of her which drew all the marionettes to that one point. If they just shattered on something simple as a barrier, they couldn't be very robust. A single grade two spell would do the trick.
“Ice that even freezes the time, obey my command!” she shouted, and sent a Blizzaga flying to where the spot the copies had been gathered. Now it was time to get serious. Yuffie was fighting up there and Kairi had her own problems probably. She couldn't bother either of them to help her.
“How do you like this?!” he shouted, and sent dozens of water balls at her, forcing her to counter them with fire spells.
“What do you people want from us?” Aerith shouted while evading the flowing water balls.
“Oh, it's you that want something from us, isn't it?!” Demyx replied and stopped his attack.
He played now a rather powerful tune on the instrument, summoning pillars of water that he could move around at will.
“Flood Water, flood the ground!” he shouted, and sent the pillars all over the place, the whole forest gradually transforming into a giant marsh.
With water at his disposal anywhere, he would be at a huge advantage. Although his skills were more focused on information gathering and other things, he did have some combat abilities. And one of them would surely let him win this match. The woman had already taken much damage from Xigbar's supreme attack, and wouldn't stand another powerful hit.
“Don't you think it's a shame to set this whole place under water?” Aerith called and started to recite her own spell.
“Great Earth, powerful force and core of life, rise and show your power!” she shouted, and just seconds later, the ground cracked open and an earthquake shook the whole place.
“Holy, who would have thought that this woman has that much power?” Demyx complained, and now switched strategies.
The next tune was screeching and shrill. Around him appeared a few bars made of water, thin and floating in the air. Aerith had no idea what trick was coming now and began her own spell. She couldn't use her limit techniques in an one-to-one fight, nor did she have the time to recite a more powerful spell than the basic grade three element spells, so she was at a huge disadvantage here.
Demyx sent the bars flying. In midair, they transforming into edges that cut down anything in their way. Tree after tree fell down after one of those things penetrated their trunks.
Aerith could evade the first and recited an emergency protection to block the next incoming edges.
“Saint of the Holy, protect me!” she shouted, barely in time for the next attack.
A white glowing light surrounded her and lessened the damage she took, but mainly protected her from being sliced in half.
Now was the time for counter attacks.
“Heir to the skies, hear my plea! Bestow upon me the power of Siren!” Aerith called out.
An invisible shockwave clashed with the water edges that Demyx used and destroyed them way before they could hit Aerith. She successfully destroyed his bind to the spell he was using.
“You've got a lot of nerve doing that!” he yelled, and played an aggressive tune. He was now back to the water balls. Despite the earthquake spell, the whole place around was becoming wet, and soon she would have no place to hide.
But he would not beat her. Aerith had endured much worse and this fight would not be her last one, especially not against such a guy. Water was one of the weaker elements, and she now had regrets for never have learning lightning magic from Cloud. It would have proven to be very useful here.
“Eternal force that binds down all things, cease on my will and lend me the power of eternity!” Aerith finished the spell, and anything in a two-hundred-foot range was virtually frozen.
Time magic was quite straining, but she just had to try this. This spell only worked for about one minute and that was not enough time to gather the force for an Ultima. But to counter his element attacks, she had to sacrifice this forest. It would eventually grow back and be more glorious than ever before.
“Hear me, oh king of the flames! I desire your power, desire the strength of the flames, and demand destruction upon the world! Opening the door to your realm, bring devastation and burns over my enemies!” she recited the summon spell.
There were about five seconds left of the time spell, but the gateway had already opened. Although it was not the full recitation, the effect on the forest would be quite disastrous.
As time resumed, Demyx was thrown off-balance. In the ground, in the center of the forest, was a huge crater, burning and emitting a very strong heat. Where had it suddenly come from? And where was the woman? Something very fishy was going on.
Aerith had taken cover a bit further away. It would only be seconds until the summon was finished and the whole forest was an ocean of flames. Casting a barrier to protect herself from the effect of the summon that was about start working, she recited another spell.
“Powerful force in all things, loan me a shell to withstand destruction!” Aerith recited.
Demyx noticed that something was about to virtually set his ass on fire and had built himself a protective chamber with water walls three feet thick. He thought that nothing would be able to penetrate his most powerful defensive magic.
And there it was. The summon, the Lord of Flames, Ifrit, made his appearance in the forest and unleashed his power. Fireballs soared through air and clashed into trees and the ground, walls of roaring flames set the whole place on fire, and upon Aerith's mental command, Ifrit even threw a lava rock on the slightly unsure Demyx.
To him, that thing looked rather dangerous, and he enforced his protection spell just before the lava rock hit the front wall and left an enormous explosion. Ifrit let out a bestial roar and left the same way he had appeared.
Demyx had only taken mediocre damage but was at a disadvantage now. There was barely any water left to summon in this now ridiculously hot place. He wouldn't stand another attack of that summoned beast, but the woman didn't look like she was in the condition to repeat that spell anyway.
“Looks like I'm in a pinch now,” Demyx said as he looked around.
The whole forest was burning. In no time, he wouldn't have any water left to attack her. He just had to finish her off before that happened. Playing another tune, he used his water marionettes again.
But that trick was already old. Aerith couldn't use the gravity spell now because the recitation was way too long. It was not really a spell suited for combat purposes, but there were always other means. One particular combo should be sufficient to erase all of the marionettes.
“Master of the skies, heir to destruction and the eternal freedom, lend me your power and blow away my enemies!” Aerith recited the first spell.
In the middle of all this, the burning forest, the torn ground, the countless water marionettes, and Demyx apparently preparing a big attack, she created a tornado, which had devastating effects.
Not only did the fire around them become fiercer, but the whole place was full of flying branches, still burning. Demyx had to duck a few times and got still hit by those things.
The second effect was that all marionettes were sucked into the tornado. That had been Aerith's initial goal. And now she could blast them off all at once, even without the gravity spell.
“Great destruction, devastating forces of the flames unleash your power and show me the end of a star!” Aerith ended the spell.
A massive explosion in the middle of the tornado destroyed all of the marionettes at once. However, Aerith had forgotten that through the whole situation, this Nova spell was much much stronger than usual. The following shockwave blew both parties off ground and sent them flying.
While Aerith was still protected by the shell spell, Demyx had no means of defense and was hit by a burning tree. This battle was going completely out of hand. The fire got stronger by the minute, and even through the protection spell she had cast, Aerith could feel the heat. It was immense. It was a mystery how Demyx survived this.
But the man had enough. This wasn't worth it. He didn't want to get killed.
“See you! Visit my concert!” he shouted, and opened a portal that led into darkness.
He was way too far away for Aerith to follow him, and so she looked out for the others. Going through this forest now was impossible. The fire had become too strong to pass through even with a shell spell. She only could hope that Kairi was okay.
Aerith left through the crack in the wall and started looking for Yuffie. She must have left the forest long ago, or she would have noticed her.
---Valiant Hearts---
“Stop running away, Nobody!” Kairi shouted, in pursuit of the still-masked Organization member.
Saïx was about to enter the mansion when he was stopped by Kairi, who fired off a Blizzara spell in front of the Nobody, freezing the door.
“What is it that you want? Why do you interfere with our plans?” he asked without turning around.
“Why? Because you people attacked us the other day, tried to kill the others! Don't you dare to try to out-talk me,” she replied, keeping her guard up. He could launch a surprise attack any moment. She knew that these people were not as dumb as the Heartless or Ansem's pawns. This would be a tough battle for her if he decided to fight against her.
“Do you hate us? Do you feel rage when we hurt your friends?” he asked, still looking at the frozen door.
“I hate what you're doing, not what you are. And rage is not the only thing to give you power and determination in a battle. I'm not dumb enough to fall for your little tricks, Nobody,” she answered with a smirk.
Kairi would not fall for any mind games, she had had enough of those back when she was fighting Ansem at the End of All Worlds. And this was nothing compared to what she had endured back there.
“So be it, then. I will put an end to this. We don't need you anymore. You shall find your end here,” he said and finally turned around, unmasking his face.
“I'm Saïx, the Blood Moon Dancer, Keyblader. And my name shall be the last one you ever speak,” Saïx said, and summoned an enormous sword.
“You're welcome to try, Saïx,” Kairi replied, and tightened her grip on the Keyblade.
This was no ordinary Heartless or weakling. She could feel the power he emitted. He was most likely much slower with that massive weapon, so she had the advantage of speed on her side.
Kairi did the first attack and rushed straight towards Saïx, making him believe she would take him head-on. The Nobody just laughed and moved along with her towards the center and fell right into her trap. Kairi directed her left hand towards the ground and unleashed a fire spell directly under her feet. Using the impact of it, she threw herself of into midair and directly aimed with a vertical swing at Saïx. Surprised by the tactic, he didn't have the time to react and got hit. Kairi followed with another couple of hits in succession and finishing with a brutal thrust at his shoulder.
Saïx was flying to the ground, and for the blink of an eye, Kairi thought that was already all he had. But she was terribly wrong.
Saïx stood slowly up, moving his neck a bit and making a few cracking sounds with his joints. He didn't show any sign of damage and now rushed at Kairi with a surprising speed. That guy was much faster than he looked.
Saïx first did a vertical swing, followed by quite a few fast horizontal ones, making Kairi jump out of the way repeatedly. One clean hit from that monster and she would be sent flying across the whole place.
Looking for a moment to analyze the situation, Kairi jumped on a statue, kicked it in midair and used the recoil to land on a wall.
“What a monster. How in the world am I supposed to beat him? He is almost as fast as I am and much stronger. And after that brutal air attack, he doesn't have a scratch. Maybe I could—” Kairi was thrown off her monologue.
Saïx was beating his weapon repeatedly against the wall, which was starting to crumble.
He still had a calm and concentrated face and didn't say a single word, just forced her to avoid one hit after another as he kept her on the defensive.
Kairi had to try it. When Saïx did his next vertical swing, she used her Keyblade and blocked the attack. The impact was so strong that her joints screamed in pain and she almost was crushed onto the ground, but she could withstand that. Holding the Keyblade in one hand and enforcing the resistance with another hand on the crest of it, she took up a power struggle against Saïx.
Saïx started to laugh and looked directly in Kairi's eyes. Her eyes were those of someone that was determined to win at any cost. Well, he would give her a chance!
Saïx jumped back and waved with his left hand to invite Kairi to try to beat him.
Kairi didn't take the invitation and used instead a Cura spell to heal the wounds she had taken from when Saïx's had managed to hit her slightly.
The pain in her joints vanished, but mental exhaustion was now a problem. She wouldn't be able to use magic for quite some time. For once, she would have been really happy if Aerith showed her overprotective side and supported her in this fight. This was someone she just couldn't take on alone.
“You're wasting my time. I have important things to attend to, and you're not part of them!” Saïx yelled, and stabbed his sword into the ground, trying to open a portal into the darkness.
Kairi was in quite a pinch. She didn't know what Saïx was doing, but took this for a chance to attack him. Running towards him at fast as she could, Kairi unleashed her full repertoire in an attack.
In the moment Saïx opened the portal, Kairi jumped above it and landed directly in front of an amazed Saïx. She first hit his right arm and followed with an attack against his chest.
Saïx yelled in pain. This time her hits actually showed an effect, and he was thrown off the ground. Not wasting time, Kairi jumped after him and continued the combo in midair. While concentrating hits on arms, hands and shoulders, she finished the all-out attack with a brutal spin attack against his chest.
Saïx crashed into the mansion wall and fell down. That must have been enough for serious damage. Kairi was breathing heavily then, as she had used much more force than usual to actually inflict damage on the Nobody.
“So…so you can fight. Then I shall get serious too,” he said angrily, and summoned a new sword, discarding the old one that was still stabbed in the ground.
Unlike before, Saïx's face was torn in anger and rage; he let out a roaring scream and from what Kairi could see, his eyes were going blank. That was certainly not a good sign.
With a completely different level of speed, he virtually shot towards Kairi and sent her flying with a single horizontal slash. She crashed into the already crumbling wall. She tried to scream out in pain but the impact had her robbed of her breath.
There was no way to fight against him in that state. Kairi got up before he launched his next berserker attack and fled onto the other intact wall. But Saïx didn't come. He stood there, looking at her with blind rage, and then threw his massive sword into the intact wall.
Surprised by that brutal act, Kairi jumped off and landed behind the wall. As if the actual situation wasn't bad enough, a girl seemingly of the local town was standing there, holding a Keyblade and looking at her with great eyes.
---Valiant Hearts---
Olette had followed the unknowns to the crack in the wall. But she wasn't able to go any further. As she tried to step through the opening, just below her opened a mouth of pure darkness, sucking her in, not leaving her a choice.
For once scared and afraid, Olette was surrounded by the darkness. No glass tower, no Twilight Town, nothing. Just the obscurity around her and the same voice she had heard before.
“Darkness and Nothingness clash to claim the heart of all hearts. One is trying to consume all hearts into darkness, ever searching for more hearts. The other, obscures the light, a false truth, neither ally to darkness or light. The time has come, the door shall open. Power, Knowledge and Friendship are the keys that will lead to light. The Chosen shall not fear, they are not alone.”
Around her, the darkness vanished into little pieces, shredded away by a bright light sent from the pendant Olette wore. And beyond the darkness was nothingness. She couldn't tell if she was falling or not, but after just the blink of an eye, she was in a place she recognized all too well.
When she looked down, the ornament of stained glass had changed. The redhead, the girl she had seen just now in Twilight Town, and the graceful blond were still the same. But the empty ornament, the one with the crossed weapons, was now showing her portrait.
Olette was surprised. This whole thing had been going towards this. What did this place want to tell her? What was this 'quest' the voice talked about, and what was the darkness and the nothingness…?
Slowly walking towards the crest of the crossed weapons, Olette could feel that something else was here. Not the neutral voice, but something that had ill intentions, something evil. A cold shiver went down her back and she had no desire to look over her back. Something…was there, and that was all but a good sign, but it didn't look like there was any way out of here. Olette continued to walk to the crest when she got goosebumps from the feeling that someone was watching.
Standing right on top of the crest that showed the crossed Keyblades, Olette called out into the darkness.
“What I'm supposed to do now? I don't know! Tell me, or better, let me out of here!” Olette called, and waited for an answer.
And the voice answered.
“The heart decides. Do not fret; a choice of the heart is never wrong. It shall create power anew.”
Why was it that everything the voice said made Olette worry more? Now she had to stand here and make some heart decision, whatever that meant. This was far beyond anything she had experienced so far, and it was scary. The voice was bad enough, but the constant feeling of being watched made it worse. Fearing that she would never get out of here if she started to argue with the voice, she followed the instructions.
Closing her eyes, holding out her right arm, she just waited for something to happen. But apparently Olette did something wrong, because nothing happened.
“Strength comes with great responsibility. Never waver, never hesitate, but stay calm.Darkness will try to corrupt the mind, will promise even greater power. The heart of strength has to be even stronger than the power itself. The crest is the light that leads, and the light will lead to the crest.”
Olette hated riddles. Sure, she knew about power. The strong had to protect the weak, had to fight for the right thing, that was natural. And those that strayed from that path would in the end lose their own self. What about that crest? This whole thing about darkness corrupting the mind was also not very promising.
Olette looked down, standing on the crest. It showed two crossed Keyblades, two weapons. Was that strength? Being able to fight like this?
Still clueless, Olette reached out again, concentrating on the crest below her.
Olette almost let the weapons that suddenly had formed out of light in her hands fall. They were the same weapons she had seen on the crests, but to have them real, to see them with her own eyes, to feel them, was odd and somewhat terrifying.
“Great strength is the ability to protect, not to destroy. Righteous protection and malicious obstinacy can not be discerned by the heart alone. Knowledge and friendship shall be beside power; fetching it back should it stray from the right path.”
The voice became silent after that, and Olette looked at the Keyblades that had just appeared out of nowhere.
They were both the same, shaped like giant keys, with a crowned crest, the blades entirely silver and the hilts gold.
“What the—are these…real? They certainly feel like it. But where did they suddenly come from? And why did they come to me?” stuttered Olette, and gave the Keyblades a curious look.
They really weren't all that fancy or something, plain weapons to serve the goal of fighting. But whatever it was, if it involved fighting, she wasn't new to that. Since she had trained for Struggle every day, this shouldn't be much different. At least, that was what Olette was hoping.
But these blades outweighed the light Struggle bats by far. It would be harder to swing them around.
To test this, Olette did a few attacks she knew from her Struggle experience, vertical hits and horizontal hits, spinning and hitting thin air in a jump. It was much more exhausting than Struggle, and a lot harder to keep control of the blades, but it would work out.
And just before she knew it, Olette was surrounded by weird creatures coming out of the ground, entirely pitch black.
“You've got to be kidding me. This is the worst! I'm supposed to fight these…these…things?! That’s not funny at all!” shouted Olette.
The dark things came closer to her and Olette took a few steps back.
“Go away, go away!” she yelled at them, swinging the Keyblades around in front of her.
There were too many. She couldn't leave this tower, and these things were coming closer every second. There was no choice but to put these weapons to practical use.
The little creatures came jumping at her, trying to scratch and bite her. Olette hit them by far not as fast as she could with a Struggle bat, but it was enough to stay uninjured for the moment.
The things didn't have any stamina at all, nor did they defend themselves. One or two clean hits, and they vanished back into darkness.
Olette had the advantage of two weapons and a lot of training, but this was still not easy. Those things were seriously trying to hurt her, which was a lot more stressful than the thought of just losing a Struggle match. One could give up in Struggle and just try again later, but this was different. Olette didn't think the monsters would listen to reason.
This was crazy! The black things were seriously trying to hurt Olette and they continuously tried to get to her. Olette let out an angry scream in the darkness despite that there was no one to hear her.
Quickly, but looking out for her guard, Olette literally jumped around on the tower, first defeating two of the beasts with horizontal swings, the next ones that came with a jump, fell to a vertical backslash and yet another one that had appeared out of the ground was taken by a round and round spin attack.
It took a while and Olette repeated the pattern she just used to lessen the rows of the things and there gradually became less and less of them.
The last dark thing fell to her movements, and Olette was quite exhausted. She had to look for another way to fight, this was just too hard with the weapons. Maybe if she attacked them more directly, head-on. This was not Struggle. The enemy wasn't a human. Those things didn't look very bright, so they might not even be able to defend themselves.
Olette really hoped that the test was over now or at least that this was the last of those monsters. It was a lot more than Struggle. Not to mention that she had by far enough for now.
“Did I pass the test? I really want to go home now! Let me out of here!” she shouted angrily in the darkness.
And as if to answer her call, now a bunch of silver, almost human-shaped creatures appeared.
Olette hoped that this would come soon to a end. She was not in the condition to fight an endless amount of these things. Moreover, it gave her a feeling that this was really dangerous. She didn't want to know what would happen if one of those things actually managed to hit her. Olette let out an annoyed sigh and tried the head-on approach with the silver monsters.
Some of them were too fast, but Olette had two weapons on her hand, so she could even attack when something was at her back. While they evaded most of the attacks that came head-on, they were easily tricked when Olette suddenly changed directions, and thanks to the all the training in Struggle, she was rather fast. Slaying them from behind, most of them fell after a few hits, while others wildly jumped around, making her often dump an almost-beaten enemy to fight another.
However, there weren't as many as those dark things and it wasn't long until she had defeated all of them.
What kind of terrible test was this? Would Olette be fighting until she would dropped dead from exhaustion or until one of these things killed her?
“This is hellishly stressful, and who in the world thinks of such tests, a devil?” Olette spoke to herself.
And as to answer her, the ground, the whole tower, started to shatter to pieces. Unable to run anywhere, she almost panicked for a second, but that wouldn’t help now. A cold, more hellish freezing engulfed Olette when she fell down into the darkness, and she closed her eyes, holding both of her weapons crossed in front of her, just hoping she would get out alive.
When Olette opened her eyes, she was surrounded by the creatures again. But this time, she was in Twilight Town! Time still seemed to stand still, but it was full of the silver-like creatures. She was back where the darkness had sucked her in.
How much time had passed? Were her friends okay? Olette wanted to go back to the sandlot, but she would have to make a run for it. The weapons had vanished but the creatures were now dozens. Even if she had a weapon, she wouldn’t be able to take all of them on all alone.
The only way left was to go through the crack. On the other side was the ground, torn to pieces, and two people, a pretty woman and a weird-looking man with an instrument who seemed to be fighting.
Her instinct gave her goosebumps and when she turned around, Olette could see that those creatures were coming after her. They were already all over the place.
Olette tried to call the weapons back. She couldn't just go in there without any means of defending herself.
“The key is all along, always and for all time with the Chosen Ones. Call free its true nature,” echoed a voice through her head.
She had…
Olette took off her pendant, holding it in her right hand, and tried to call the weapons back. At first, nothing happened, but then a dazzling light emitted from her hand.
It was not the same as before. It had a curved crest, was golden all over, and her pendant was attached on the hilt.
This would work.
Olette turned around and ran through the crack. The woman had just taken cover, and the man was protecting himself with a water wall. It was high time to get out of here.
One Keyblade was not as good as two, but she could hit harder with just one. Someone was fighting in the mansion garden. Sounds of swords clashing echoed over the whole place. The gate had been smashed down, and one wall had been demolished.
Who on earth were these people? What the hell was going on?
Just when Olette decided that it was not a good idea to stay here, the girl she had seen running after the man with the black robe jumped right next to her.
For the fraction of a second, Kairi was too astonished to say anything. But the roar of Saïx got her back to her senses instantaneously.
“Who—who are you?” Kairi asked, confused.
She had to hurry. Who was this girl? Why did she have a Keyblade? There wasn't much time for explanation.
“Olette. Who are you? And what are these weapons? What are you people—” Olette was cut off.
The wall literally exploded and sent them both flying. Olette hit the ground hard, while Kairi was able to roll up.
“I see. So there was another Keyblader. However, we have no use for you. You will die alongside with your little friend here,” Saïx said calmly, and summoned a new sword.
Kairi wouldn't beat him. Not alone. Maybe that girl, Olette, could fight. It was a slim chance, but she had to take all possibilities into account. Having a weapon, even if it was a Keyblade, didn't mean that one could fight. But after all, she herself had learned to handle a Keyblade quite fast, so there was still a chance.
“You—I mean, Olette—can you fight?” Kairi shouted.
She didn't have time to ask more than that. Saïx was hot on her trail, repeatedly doing fast swings, forcing the redhead to concentrate on evading.
“Yeah. A bit. But…what, do you expect me to fight against this guy? He literally blew up that wall! A wall!” Olette shouted back, and got up.
“If you don't, we will both die here!” Kairi shouted angrily back.
That was enough to make Olette understand. This was no game. That guy seriously tried to kill them.
“You, you…don't have another of those things? Those weapons, I mean!” Olette shouted, finally realizing that she had to go along with what the girl said to get out of this mess.
Kairi didn't get what the hell the girl was getting at. Saïx kept her occupied and from behind came a sudden explosion that distracted all three. The whole forest had been set on fire.
“I see. So Demyx is most likely beaten. I will not fail like he did,” Saïx said and jumped back. He would only need a little bit time to get back in his berserker mode.
“Look out! He is about to enter a berserker-like state. When he charges at you, just evade his attacks, evade them at any cost!” Kairi shouted to the girl that came running towards her.
“Tell me your name, at least. I can't shout 'you' forever. And do you have another of those weapons? I'm a bit used to fighting with two weapons from Struggle, so it's worth a try,” Olette talked in a hurry.
What? That girl claimed to be able to what? Sure, she had tried to summon Oblivion at the same time as Oathkeeper, but she couldn't manage to maintain both of them in shape.
“I'm Kairi. You can maintain two Keyblades? Well, can't hurt to let you try. We need to take any chance we have to get out of here. Escape is not an option anymore with the burning forest. What kind of Keyblade do you use? Balance, magic or power?” Kairi asked. “Hurry, spill it.”
“Power. It's what suits me best,” Olette said.
She didn't like the tone that Kairi had but Olette didn't know how serious the situation really was.
Kairi picked Hero's Crest in a hurry from her belt and gave it to Olette. “You injured?”
Olette took the pendant, held it in her left hand and tried summoning it the same way she had done with her own pendant. This one was shaped like a golden medallion. At Kairi's question she shook her head. She only was a bit exhausted, both physically and mentally.
Kairi cast a Cura spell on herself and looked for where Saïx was. He wouldn't just stand around charging energy and be a sitting duck for her attacks. Kairi found him standing on the roof of the mansion. He must be ready any moment.
Olette had managed to summon Hero's Crest a few times but it disappeared shortly after. Something was wrong.
“How do you summon that—what do you call it, Keyblade? I just can't get it to work!” Olette asked the other Keyblader anxiously.
“Try to think of protecting someone dear or your world,” Kairi answered and looked around.
She could make use of that broken wall. Saïx was only blindly trashing anything that came in his way, so she could win some time with that.
Olette closed her eyes for a moment and thought of Hayner and Pence and the people of Twilight Town. If she had the power to, Olette would protect them.
Kairi didn't use Hero's Crest usually. It was a brutal and heavy Keyblade that restricted her magic abilities. When she looked at Olette to see how her progress was, the girl was standing in a weird combat stance and holding Hero's Crest in her left, her own Keyblade in her right. How in the world was she able to do that?
But now was not the time for that. Saïx roared and was rushing down from the mansion towards them. Kairi was about to jump off when Olette hold her back.
“I have an idea. In theory, this should work like beating your Struggle opponent until he gives up. I've never fought with two versus one in Struggle, but I really hope this will work,” Olette said, and started running towards the berserker Saïx.
Fighting two versus one was a very efficient method of demoralizing someone. Kairi shook her head and ran after her.
Saïx was head-on with Olette when she jumped and literally flew over him, leaving him confused. Kairi saw through her plan and rushed as fast she could at Saïx.
That was his big weak point. He was someone who could only concentrate on the enemy in front of him. He would never attack someone else until he had defeated the enemy before him.
Undetermined which of the girls he should attack first, Saïx got hit pretty badly in the back from Kairi. She had jumped and launched an attack in midair on him. That was at least enough to throw him off balance, and Olette took that chance. She went literally berserk on Saïx and used the longest combo she knew.
Kairi was standing behind Saïx who now was taking damage from the other girl and she also started to attack him. Nobody could defend against two sides at once.
“Now!” Kairi shouted. She took a step back and was about to use a technique she had learned from Tifa. Take all your power, rush at the enemy and hit a vital point with massive force.
Olette had her own view of what was called a combo finish. She made a spin, hit Saïx's chest area repeatedly, and virtually threw him off ground with the following opposite-vertical double hit.
Saïx had reached his limit. He was sick of playing around with little brats. Just before he could do anything, before he hit the ground, he was taken by Kairi's attack and literally crashed through the mansion wall.
“Did we do it?” Olette asked, insecure.
“Doubt it, but I sure hope so. Don't let your guard down,” Kairi replied, and slowly walked towards the hole in the wall.
Olette waited where she was, quite a few feet away from where Kairi was now.
Saïx shot out of the hole with insane speed and before Kairi could defend herself, he hit her with an incredible brutal horizontal slash.
The redhead was sent flying across the place and crashed into Olette, taking her along. Both crashed on the ground, about twenty feet away from Saïx.
“I’ve had enough of your little games. I have more important things to attend to!” he yelled, and rushed towards the two girls.
Kairi had lost consciousness from that hit and Olette kind of panicked now. She didn't have a snowball’s chance in hell of defeating this man. He had knocked out Kairi with just one hit.
Unable to decide where to run to, Olette crossed both Keyblades in front of her and awaited Saïx's attack. He took her head-on, hammering on her defense, and with a last brutal hit, he sent her flying.
Olette was breathing heavily and at the end of her strength. If this went on, she had no chance. This was completely different from Struggle. Sure, one could use the same techniques, but not only were the Keyblades heavier than a Struggle bat, they also had a different shape and the match wasn't just over after two minutes. The heat from behind, the angst for one's own life, and all the other thoughts people had in real combat were a totally new and frightening experience for Olette.
Kairi and Olette both had given all they had, but Saïx was still not beaten. He seemed more furious then ever.
However, Demyx had long left and Xigbar was also not in this world anymore. He had taken some damage, but that hadn't affected his ability to fight at all. But there was no saying when the others of the group would catch up, especially that one woman who had created that barrier in almost the blink of an eye. It would be a shame to let them live, but he had to hurry.
Saïx was about to finish this ridiculous fight when he was called off. It was not Xigbar—he would just have ignored that—it was someone else from Organization XIII.
“Saïx. Leave those girls alive. Our plan will benefit greatly from those two. We can eliminate them later,” echoed the voice in his head.
What in the hell was the Superior thinking? Why should he leave those brats? One Keyblader was more than enough to make their plan a success. But he had no choice. Disobeying the orders of the Superior was disobeying and betraying the Organization.
Saïx opened a portal, much to the surprise of Olette, who was left not knowing what devilish trick would come now. He walked through it and vanished into the darkness. Left were a half-destroyed mansion, a completely destroyed garden, and a burning forest.
Olette slowly got up and walked over to where Kairi was lying on the ground. She was still unconscious from that hit and Olette was unable to carry her. They were trapped in that burning hell.
But their rescue was already here.
---Valiant Hearts---
Aerith found Yuffie in the grocery shop and brought her to the keyhole gateway that was still open. There were signs that someone bleeding heavily had come by, but if one of the Organization dared to use this portal, Tifa, Leon and Cid were still on the other side, so there was no need to worry about that.
Aerith didn't have the time to give Yuffie more than an emergency Cura. She had to look for Kairi; she was beyond that burning forest, imprisoned. There must be another way there.
Aerith looked around and found that the trail of blood led just around the corner. What she found there was beyond her imagination.
A portal of darkness, one of these that led to the corridors of darkness and that could be used to bridge any distance in a very short amount of time, was standing in front of her. The blood trail ended in it, so one of the Organization XIII members must have walked through it.
Not hesitating to use the portal, she found herself in a big entrance hall. The way was too short to lead to a different world, so it must be somewhere in this one. Through a big hole in the wall she could see the burning forest. She used the hole in the wall to leave the hall as the door was frozen, and she looked for Kairi.
And there she was, lying on the ground, right next to a girl with two Keyblades.
---Valiant Hearts---
Olette was sitting right next to Kairi, worn out and still not fully able to comprehend what had exactly happened. The brunette heard a sound from direction of the mansion, and although it was most likely just the wall breaking down, she looked there. A woman dressed in pink was standing there, apparently also injured. That woman was directly looking at them.
When Aerith approached them, Olette took position to attack Aerith in case she was also an enemy. At least, she had been firing off fireballs in that forest. A little bit of caution was appropriate.
“Dear, Kairi, are you okay?” Aerith just ran past Olette and earned a puzzled expression from her. “Where is the member of the Organization? And who are you?” Aerith looked at Olette.
“I'm Olette. If you mean that guy in black, he vanished into some kind of black hole,” Olette said, and sat down. She wasn't able to stand much anymore. What would become of her now? Who were those people? Those weapons? What…was she? Who…was she? Kairi would surely know the answer to these questions, but unfortunately, she was unconscious.
Aerith was quite happy, but on another hand she was just as puzzled. Someone else besides Kairi could wield a Keyblade? On top of that, two of them? Now that was new. But at least they had chased away all of the Organization members.
“Can you carry her? I don't know if the Organization really has given up for now or if they could ambush us one more time. I'm really sorry that I can't give you a Curaga spell, but let me see what I can do,” Aerith said, and directed both her hands towards the girls. “People of light, bless me with your salvation,” she recited.
Aerith finished the spell and felt that any more spells would put herself in danger. She had healed some of Kairi's severe injuries and some of Olette's, but it wasn't a full healing by far.
“I'm afraid we really damaged your world badly. But I'm sure that the forest will grow back. As for the mansion…” Aerith apologized.
“Don't worry. Nobody paid attention to those places anyway. But who are you people?! Coming out of nowhere and doing this amazing stuff,” Olette replied.
“It's not as amazing as you think. We would rather not have to do all that fighting. I would never have guessed to run into another Keyblader here,” Aerith explained.
“Who are you? What did those people want? Who are they? And the most importantly, why do I have these weapons? Who am I?” Olette blurted out.
“You…also that is…I fear I won't be able to explain all this right here. I think you should come with us. We will have time to explain everything to you,” Aerith said.
With that, Olette was satisfied, and took Kairi, carrying her piggyback to where the unknown woman was leading her.
“Oh, I'm so rude. I completely forgot to tell you my name. I'm Aerith.”
“Nice to meet you, Aerith, I should probably say. But it's not really nice under those circumstances,” Olette said with a false smile.
“I'm so sorry for that. We were looking for a way to another world and—” she cut herself off, biting her lip.
She wasn't supposed to tell people about the existence of other worlds. But this girl was a Keyblader, so she would know sooner or later anyway.
“I don't get what you're saying, but do we have really to walk through that?” Olette pointed at the portal of darkness. “And how do I get rid of these weapons?” she asked. “They're really unhandy while carrying her.”
“I only asked Kairi once how she does that, but apparently you focus your will on it and ask the Keyblade to return to its pendant shape,” Aerith explained. “And you won't feel much. It's just about a few steps, and then you're in a underground passage in your city.”
Olette tried that, but at the moment, her thoughts were way too messy to focus on anything, so she just stepped through the portal, still carrying Kairi.
For a moment, there was a cold and impervious darkness, but after another couple of steps, she was in the underground passage of Twilight Town.
There was another girl leaning on the wall, right next to something that closely resembled a giant keyhole.
“I really wonder if I want to know who you people are,” Olette said.
---Valiant Hearts---
He had finished his own mission. Naminè had successfully escaped through the keyhole gateway. She must already be in the other world.
It was his luck that the Organization thought he was dead. His luck that Xigbar didn't know he hadn't died with that attack. But he wouldn't make it. He had taken far too much damage. But he would see Naminè off. After the woman and Demyx had engaged in battle, he escaped unnoticed to the mansion, unseen by Saïx, who was fighting with the Keyblader, and entered the mansion.
“Axel! What happened to you? What’s happening out there? Is it the Organization?” Naminè asked her former guard and ex-Organization XIII member.
“That's nothin'. We're gonna make a run for it now. Naminè, when we reach the portal the Keyblader uses, you will flee to that world. You'll be safe there. I can't come with you; I'm still a part of the Organization. They'll think you're a spy or something. Don't tell them who I am. Got it memorized?” Axel explained, and took her hand, dragging her along.
He didn't have time to have her agree to everything. There was no saying how long the Keyblader was able to hold off Saïx. He was a monster, one of the most powerful fighters in the Organization.
“But where will you be going, Axel? Where will you hide from them? Will you be okay?”
“I'll be fine, don't worry about me. I'm opening a portal. We can't go outside.”
Axel tried to ignore the almost unbearable pain and opened a portal. It was good that Naminè didn't notice the bloodstains he left on the ground. She would be too worried about someone like him.
They passed the corridor of darkness in just a second and were at the point where Axel had been noticed by the ninja girl.
“Walk through that. If you encounter any black creatures that try to attack you, summon your Keyblade. Just use what I taught you. Never stop on that path. Got it memorized?” Axel said, and looked down at the blond girl.
“Yeah, I understand that. But what about you?” she replied, and gave Axel a questioning look.
“I'll be okay. I'll think of somethin'. You go now. Don't worry,” Axel said, and nudged her inside the portal.
Naminè turned around, looking at him. “Will I see you again?” she asked with a worried expression.
“If you want, I'll come and visit you. I'm not just gonna disappear. Promise, we'll see each other again,” he replied, and pointed in the direction of the other world.
Naminè gave him a final nod, a last smile, turned around and did a few steps on the road of darkness. She wanted to wave a last time at him, to see him off for the time being. But when Naminè turned around to look at Axel, he had vanished into the dark.
Naminè was now all on her own for the first time ever. It was a bit of an empty feeling, as if something had been taken from her—a cold icy feeling that let one shudder for no reason. Axel had been there as long she could remember, and she felt sad now that they had parted ways.
Not knowing what else to do, she strode forward, towards the world she knew and didn't. Hoping that Axel was okay and that she could meet him again soon, she looked back one last time despite knowing he wouldn't be there.
Naminè wanted to call out to him, just to look if he was still there and to put her mind at ease, but she couldn't be dependent on Axel forever. It was still strange to be suddenly alone, and by far not the best feeling she had experienced.
But he had promised they would meet again, somewhere. Naminè trusted him.
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