Kingdom Hearts: SfE Part 2 - The Final Keyhole and the Mark of Mastery

A crystalline heart escaped the helpless Earthling, put into storage for analysis later. The false boy emptied, lingering black smoke consumed it's new Vessel. The vessel's body shifted, emanating a dark smoke. The smoke acted as a barrier to keep itself safe while submerging the Master of the Disease the Universe had given only one name to. Darkness. With an orange tan and aged hair turning into a powdery silver, this new body stared with yellow visual receptors at the scene before itself. "Hmph, a child of the true Dark... How pitiful." Raising a hand in a controlled and hard gesture, waving to his own children of the Diseased Darkness, It's Master had every tendril that dared listen to him attack. "Run while you can little tick..." which a pearly grin of slightly sharpened teeth, he watched his new body handle the control of his darkness. "Your Master Xehanort is going to cleanse this universe of your stench."

 

"Where are the others?" Kairi asked Sora, looking around Pride Rock. "Do you even know where we are?"

"I don't see anyone around us," Namine commented, scanning around the savannah.
"We must have been separated," Jeffrey replied. "We'll probably have to search around. I'll keep lookout as we go..." He summoned his katana into his mouth. "Nn hahe homehing hahhenh." His voice was muffled by the weapon. He decided to dismiss it. "Never mind, I'll just summon it when I need to." Namine giggled.

 

Riku and Valerie had seperated, Riku creeping along the bushes. He had spotted Namine, not being able to see Jeffrey in his stalking position. Alright... time to see what this kitty can do.... he pounced, snarling for a few seconds before seeing the two. "Uuuugh! Thats the 2nd time!"He groaned in annoyance.
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"We're in Pride Rock. This is where Simba and the other lions live... heh, maybe we can see Simba and Nalas cub! I never got the chance last time!"Sora couldn't help but smile. But for some reason he couldn't help but feel like something terrible had just happened. "She tried to EAT ME!" "Yeah, but I convince her not too..." "Yeah, after she thwopped you with her paw." "Hmm...?"Sora lookd over to see Kurix and Roxas, Kurix shaking off a pounce and Roxas with a claw mark on his back. "Hey Sora..."Roxas said. "Wow. you two look like you just ran into a ghost. what happened?"Sora scooted Kisa closer to him.

"Some crazy lioness tried to eat me! We could hear her stalking and all, but still!"Kurix huffed. "She's a lioness, thats what they do. Hunt prey animals to survive."Roxas said.
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Valerie was still being a 'magestic gazelle', trying grazing out with a group of other grazing animals. Eugh.... why do gazelles have to be herbivores? she huffed, resisiting her urge to bounce around the savannah.

 

The darkness subsided as quickly as it had come. Gexln's skin was now a pitch black colour, his eyes a deep blood red. He looked similar to his previous Dark Form, yet very different. He had vicious looking fangs, he had razor sharp claws. There was one distinct difference though. Gexln, in his new Dark Form, now had wings.Darkness itself radiated from Gexln with each step he took towards Xehanort.

Spoiler

He raised a claw and pointed it straight at Xehanort. Without a word, and with frighteningly fast speed, Gexln dashed at Xehanort and lashed out with his claws.

 

With a little sneer, Xehanort sped towards Gexln, giving a powerful punch aimed for the face. "Think you can overpower ME!?" With multiple attacks from the familiar ally's body, and the multiple tendrils of diseased darkness. Impossible to dodge, only good to fight back. Summoning the illusions of the dead, another was added to the pile.
"Please... Help me! Gex! Please! Help me!" It was, of course, the person he saw "die" in front of his eyes. Eden.
The illusions of whispy forms held hearts, as the Master of Diseased Darkness could not recreate the voices of the dead without their hearts. So within each illusion was a black burning heart, screaming in diseased pain.

 

Gexln ducked under the punch, and instead of swinging out with his claws once, he spun around quickly in a vicious 360 degree arc, the claws causing Gexln to became a miniature tornado of death. He tried to close the small gap between himself and Xehanort. "You WILL bring her back!" he yelled, voice distorted by the darkness.

 

Xehanort licked his new lips in slight excitement. A body so young and vibrant... She would surely make the best of hosts! "Why? Because you couldn't bring her back?" He sneered. "Remember, 'Gex'... Kill me, and she will never have a body again." Quickly gripping with the pink hands pumping of disease, he tried to hold the neck of the Nobody of the Pure Dark, in an attempt to choke him.
The wails became louder, the hearts screamed further, everyone tried to claw at Gexln with all their might. Few tried to hesitate, but failed horribly. The illusion manifested out of Eden's heart held back the most, but lashed out the most scratches and screams.

 

Gexln writhed in pain as he began choking. Frantically he started kicking out with his feet as a desperate attempt of getting free. "I'll do whatever...it...takes" he said as he lashed out once more with all his might in one good, strong kick.

 

Jeffrey turned around, hearing the grass rustling as Riku landed. "Who's there?!" he shouted growling, his tail lashing. He saw the silver leopard. "Oh, Riku." Jeffrey licked his paw awkwardly.

"Well, according to Sora, we are near the lions' den," Kairi told Kurix. "It makes sense that they'd try to attack a prey animal so close to here."

 

"But she tried to-" "Kurix, chill out. I convinced he not to eat you. Now she's probably going after some gazelle or something...."Roxas huffed. Sora nodded. "Do you guys wanna come with us. we were about to see how Simba and Nala were doing."Sora said. "Sure..."Roxas sighed. Kurix huffed, turning around. "Uh-oh...."he could see faint smoke in the sky trailing off from a distance.
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Valerie saw the gazelle starting to run away. Whats their problem...? she sniffed the air, catching the smell of something burning. "ew, smoke..."she went back to grazing-but then it hit her. "Smoke? Smoke?!"she turned, seeing the grass on fire not far from her. "FIREEEEEE! Fire fire fire fire fiiiireeee!"she started to sprint away, not wanting to be trapped in the flames.
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"Sorry. Didn't recognize...."Riku could see the fire not far from them. "Oh yay, one of those wild fires... Good thing we're all..."he turned, not seeing Valerie. "Where is she...?"

 

Xehanort gagged in weakness, being kicked in the stomach made him retreat a bit. This allowed Gexln to escape, though the illusions manifested from hearts' attacked the Nobody of Darkness, many retreating back as their conjurer was injured. Few illusions( the Eden one included) attacked still.
"You little piece of--!" The parasite winced, another kick hit in the highly sensitive female chest and he fell.

 

Gexln dropped to the ground, coughing and having little breath. He turned around, realising he had no hope of defeating Xehanort. He grabbed the walkie talkie from the ground, grabbed Eden's diseased heart and began running towards the gummi. Just give me a little time, Eden he thought as he rushed to the gummi, his pride hurt more than anything as he returned back to his regular form.

 

Equius had been waiting at the door, jumping at the sight of Gexln. With a frantic sqwuak, he ran to what was Ashir. A thick smoke hung about the air, heavily laced with numerous scents that would burn the senses. A woman laid in the bed, a large woman that had upon her a crown of five burning sticks that never seemed to burn anything else. With airy clothes and a smokey gray skin, she arose. Ascending with four see through wings, that, along with the pointed ears, signified her as a fairy. Purple eyes of confusion greeted Gexln, no longer brown from the boy. "I... Gexln... You are Gexln. And I am.... Am..." clicking her tongue, the fairy wasn't sure how to understand a new voice. "I am... her Kenna. I... oh... I remembered." she weakly tried a smile, but seemed nervous at that.

 

"Yeah yeah. Out of my way" Gexln said as he pushed past Kenna. He put the diseased heart on a shelf (assuming there are shelves) and put the walkie talkie next to it. He then sat at the controls of the Gummi. He looked at the controls and didn't look at anything or anyone else. "Ashir, we need to find Sora" Gexln said gruffly.

 

Assuming he had meant the now her, Kenna oblidged and tried to keep all smoke to a minimum. "Yes. Gexln." she looked at all the controls, wondering which one did what.
Equius stared at the heart, staying by the shelf and resting under it. It was hard though, as it kept whispering.

 

Gexln looked at Kenna now. "Do YOU have any idea how to fly this?" he questioned.

 

Kenna bit her lip, unsure quite herself. "I... I don't know. I really don't know. She knew how to fly it." Staring at the heart upon the shelf, she frowned. "Whose is that anyway?"

 

Gexln looked at the controls again. "That's Eden's. And i plan on returning it to her. Now, try and fly this ship. I don't care where you fly it to, anywhere else" Gexln said as he turned and walked towards the other end of the gummi ship to get some rest.

 

Kenna grabbed the wheel, frantically trying to keep the ship on a steady path. "Ohh...." she bit her lip, scared that she would crash them into a world.
The heart kept whispering though, the words of the dark garbled and confused. Some words sounded like pleas of help, others sounded like attempts to threaten murder.

 

"A fire?" Kairi asked, seeing the smoke. She turned her head towards Sora. "What if the others are over there?"

"Let me guess. Val?" Jeffrey asked, sighing. "Where would she even go without you?" He looked at the cloud of smoke. "It's pretty close..."