Video Game: Kingdom Hearts SOS: The Road To Light

Not a moment ago Steel had been content to sit and watch; it didn't really seem they had the power to get out of this, and even if they were all about to die in a terrible way he... didn't really feel upset about it at the time. More than anything it felt like death was just a sultry temptress leading someone on at a nightclub at this rate: all 'will they or won't they?' Cause be honest they had come close several times already and this event alone was proof their opponent was far more powerful than them.

Then... No Heart had strutted in with perhaps the most aggravating plan yet. He could get over comparing them to pawns since most villains were just arrogant like that. This guy clearly was in a position to brag, so whatever, right?

Right.

He would not abide, however, the complete and utter robbery of Aux's free will. Not to mention the illusion that he had manifested to outright abuse Aux and his position in pretty much every way. All with the ultimate goal of using the boy to kill one of his own best friends. Steel may have been frozen in place, but his fingers seemed to be clenching tightly around the phone he had been casually browsing through mere minutes ago. The horrible cruelty was on par with... well... it was something that he would do. The old him. The original him? Steel Zero? The Storm's Eye. Yeah, he found that he was settling on the Storm's Eye.

But regardless of what you called him, it ultimately boiled down to the fact that Steel was once again reminded of a past life. It seemed like the reminders were everywhere. It made him sick to think he had come from a creature so... deluded. It was also equally horrifying that the being was still alive and well, likely tormenting the citizens of his own dimension with his own vengeful and misguided good intentions. However, what mattered more at the moment was the scene unfolding in front of him. The pure anger he felt kicked up essences of his own darkness and felt that inherited power seething within his twisted looking eye. However, he did not reach for that particular power: it could be honed on its own time, but for now, it was useless. No, he instead found his mind wrapped around a rather different power. Equally inherited from his predecessor, this power took new shape within the keyblade, but was still just as strong as even within him.

Time Immunity.

With the single thought of "Speed Rave" energy rushed around him. Even with no verbal cue, the command had been accepted and his power immediately broke him free of No Heart's spell. He ghosted out of Ananta's grip, his clothes practically phasing through her hand as his phone vanished and was replaced with Artisan Shard.

"You Dastard!" He wasn't even finished shouting by the time his leg had kicked No Heart's weapon away from his neck with a single agile movement. With his next, his powerful claws swiped at the enemies chest. Though they were wickedly sharp, there was no way that even his supernaturally honed claws would cut through armor imbued and crafted with the magic of the keyblade. However, that in no way meant that the force of Steel's blow wouldn't knock No Heart back a relatively good amount of space. He quickly made to close that space as he dashed forward for another blow, weapon primed for a lunge toward No Heart's lack thereof. He was confident that he had either freed the others from the stop spell or at least given Aux a distraction. He was unwilling to abandon his assault on their most dangerous opponent, as even a single second of hesitation could give the man all he needed.

"Give Aux back!"

 

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If there was one thing she now knew she hated, it was a monologue. Being helpless in a situation where she had no control over her movement and was forced into listening helplessly. Why couldn't No Heart just use this as a tactical advantage and kill them. Something something 7 lights. The girl only began to really panic when they mentioned killing others or killing her. Obviously she wouldn't want 4 people to die for her sake. But... it wasn't like she wanted to die either. And seeing Aux struggle with this made her heart hurt. As he went to kill her. Kaida knew this was where it was going to end for her. She closed her eyes preparing for it.

Then... there were other noises. When she opened her eyes, Steel was attacking No Heart. And the blonde could move again. She wanted to shout out a thanks to Steel for saving her life. But she had to focus on the possessed Aux marching towards her. Kaida finally could fully summon out her keyblade as she prepared to block whatever attack he was going to bring to her as she said, "Aux. Please snap out of it. I know you're still in there." she narrowed her eyes a bit and said, "Unless you're now weak? Come on... don't give up on me now...." she meant it as a taunt, and hoped it would work.

 

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Frozen in place, Stratos's thoughts started to race as so many things happened at once. No Heart had appeared, being the one to freeze them in place. He spoke with Aux about how his plans had been meddled and interfered with, and while Aux had been originally sent here to kill Kaida, it seemed that there was no real intention for the boy to play out. Quite as Kaida had mentioned earlier, Aux in the end seemed trustworthy, but the situation he was placed in did not as the suit of white and black armor coated him once more. As Aux moved to kill Kaida, Stratos was trying to force himself to move. He couldn't just stand by, helplessly and watch one of his friends be killed in such a heartless way. Not at the hands of their own friend, and not at the behest of the man they wished to defeat. He couldn't just stand there. But that was all that was all he could do. He was frozen, helpless but to watch events play out the way they would. He wanted something, anything, to stop Aux. To stop no heart.

Someone. Something.
Anyone. Anything.
Move. Move. Move.

The boy lurched forward as suddenly, he was moving forward. Looking at the cause, it appeared that Steel had charged at No Heart, moving beyond the shackles of Time, and had managed to attack. With the attack being a success, the stop had ended, and Stratos looked towards the wolf man saying, "nice work Steel!" He was still unsure what it was that Steel did, but whatever it was, it seemed to be working. Moving towards No Heart, an uncharacteristic look of rage crossing it, the boy shouted, "No Heart! We won't let you get away with this!" While Kaida and Hikaru seemed to be dealing with Aux, No Heart seemed like fighting as well and leaving one unchecked would be disastrous. And so, in an instant, Stratos vanished moving to Zantetsuken one of the clones that No Heart had just summoned.

 

Ananta's eyes moved around when she heard No Heart speaking. His voice was distorted and immediately she noticed the armor he was wearing. Her hand was still attached to Steel as she saw him...play with his phone? Her face would have scrunched up in disgust if she wasn't frozen in time. As No Heart monologued, Ananta started to figure out what she could do to help. She already knew Aux was probably going to prove everyone else right and go back to being a bad guy. That was gonna hurt Ananta's feelings since she felt so strongly that he was a changed man. Eventually, she was proven correct and the boy was back to wielding armor and mindlessly attacking Kaida.

Her eyes moved back to Steel to see his cloak phase through her hand. She was confused and soon knocked out of that spell. Not wasting any time, Ananta slung a Gravira at Aux to try and impede his march. She then stood up to one of the clones that No Heart sent her way and she started to swing at it, shooting off Fire magic to burn them.​

 

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He stood there watching everyone get frozen. He smiled a little. Aux was still there and had not said anything to what he had said. It was not all that surprising. Large clanking of heavy armor was heard. Aux turned around slowly, recognizing that sound all too well. Of course there was someone else who wanted them dead. No hear the famous person he heard of countless times. That was when Aux asked, 'How did you find us?!' He was tacking them he thought. Just like everyone else who seemed to find them. Then no heart said, 'All of you have. And I can see with your eyes frozen in fear, you must find me to be some sort of villain, but in fact, I'm just the referee...' He did not know about everyone else but he was not afraid that part of him was long gone. 'My plan was simple. Find 13 darknesses and 7 lights from scratch and watch them grow into powerful warriors. These warriors would then clash in an epic battle where in the end, I would gain the X-blade and control Kingdom Hearts.' There was 12 of them currently did that mean that of the 12, 7 of them were the light? 'I came here to see you finish what I started. You were sent to the realm of darkness to finish Operation Pandora.' Aux thought for a moment before turning to Kaida. He immediately turned back to No Heart and scowled at the Master. 'No...' he replied quietly. No Heart pointed to Kaida with his other hand. 'Now dark apprentice. Destroy her.' Aux continued to remain on his hands and knees, trying to fight the dark control. His arms shaking and his his head smashed to the ground, he was facing dire internal conflict. He watched as Aux walked menacingly towards Kaida. He had to stop this. Standing up to no heart was not a option by himself, but Aux on the other hand he might be able to stop. He looked over to Aux and mad his choice. Then something unexpected happened and Steel went after no heart. 4 people had to die apparently and he was not about to let that happen.

Then Kaida said, 'Aux. Please snap out of it. I know you're still in there.' He watched she narrowed her eyes a bit and said, 'Unless you're now weak? Come on... don't give up on me now....' He did not think that talking was going to work with Aux but he had to be hopeful. No Heart summoned six clones of himself to surround himself with. Aux still in the process of attacking Kaida wasn't heading his friends words. 'Expunge the light.' What was the one thing that could help in this situation? As he thought on this he made his way towards Kaida. He was not that far to begin with. He arrived quickly next to Kaida and then gave he a quick smile. "This needs to stop." He stepped forward putting himself between Aux and Kaida. "I will not let you hurt anyone here," he said to Aux. While it was true that he did not know Kaida that well she deserved to live. It was not like Kaida need the protection from Aux but it was more so the help he was offering her. "I will do what I need to." He was vaguely aware of the keyblade in his hand and had no memory of summoning it. "If I have to die so I can help stop this or so others can live so be it." What was next he could not say. "Light will always show no matter how dark things seem to be." They need a light to fight the darkness. They needed someone with the power of light...

 

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Ignis continued looking around for what was causing everyone to freeze when all of a sudden she lost the ability to move as well. She tried to get her arms and legs to budge but it felt like she had lost all sense of feeling in her body. What was even more aggravating was that she was still aware of what was going on around her. Unfortunately for her, that also meant she and the others had to watch as No Heart appeared in front of them and began some silly monologue. It was times like these that Ignis wished the bad guys would just shut and do what they needed to instead of listening to their own voices. As the thought passed, she watched as Aux began to fight back against No heart, but to no avail. He was soon covered in that armor of his yet again and he had begun to go after Kaida.

Ignis tried to move herself to try and get No Heart, with little luck. Just then, she noticed Steel moving and knocked No Heart's keyblade away, causing them to get free. She didn't really understand the logic behind that, but she wasn't going to knock the chance by. As Kaida dealt with Aux with a few others, Ignis tried to help Steel out with his own problem. She watched as a clone of No Heart came towards their direction and she blocked its attack, getting held up.

"Oh joy, I get to deal with a clone. How exciting." She sighed heavily, being stuck with a knock-off instead of dealing with the real thing.

 

Beuce struggled with everything he had against the stop spell, but it was far too powerful for him to break. No Heart walked up and spoke to Aux, the only one who remained unfrozen. It seemed like Kaida had all but told the future. Aux turned against No Heart, refusing to follow his orders to murder his friend, but his true intentions mattered very little. No Heart ignited the darkness inside Aux and took control of him. Beuce's eyes went wide as the hulking man walked ominously towards Kaida. He ordered every muscle in his body to tear through the magic. He pleaded with the Shedim Lords to give him the power to do something. Anything. They were finally on the right track. They were masters. They couldn't possibly be this powerless. Beuce would've screamed in frustration if he could move his mouth. He was helpless.

But they weren't all helpless.

Steel awakened a power from within himself and broke free of the stop spell, delivering a kick to No Heart, breaking his concentration and freeing them. Wasting no time, Beuce spun on his heels to face No Heart. A.J. and Hikaru had gone to protect Kaida. "Beat some sense into him, will you?!" Beuce called out to the three. There was a time when they wouldn't have stood a chance, but not anymore. They had the power to fight back. "We'll deal with this." He said, glaring at No Heart and his clones. He held his keyblade forward, parallel to the ground, and its power was awakened. The two gems that acted as the keychains began to shine and transfer their energy into the other, becoming one force. "Dichromatic Resonance!" A red and blue aura surrounded him, and his mixed powers attuned to one another. He charged at No Heart, but the clones barred his path. The man gave a swipe of the now red-coated magical end of his keyblade. a pillar of light with a pale rose tint roared through the sky, as though it battered aside the air that stood in its path. It crashed to the ground with incredible force, attempting to remove the duplicate in his way. "Steel! Don't let him cast, and we might be able to do this!"​

 

When AJ had jumped in front of her to protect her, she felt quite a bit of surprise before she felt an immense amount of gratitude. She barely knew AJ, at least not enough to expect him to risk his life for her. It meant a lot. But the feeling didn't last long as Aux knocked him away and she reached out towards AJ quickly hoping to grab him but it was no use. Then she watched as Hikaru jumped on Aux, and Aux grew wings and soared into the air. He knocked Hikaru off of him before he dive bombed at her. Kaida summoned out both of her keyblades to block him in an "x" formation.

Kaida tried to weight her options here, trying to understand that he was under the control of someone else and that she should try and spare him. But he was going all out. Kaida didn't think it was worth risking the lives of so many people for her. She wanted to fight him all out, try to show off her full strength. But as her thoughts became all over the place, she looked to all of her friends and stopped at Hikaru and there was a look of apology on her face.

Kaida backed away briskly and looked across at Aux and Kaida let go of her two keyblades as they dissipated into light. She stared and yelled, "Take one instead of four then!" she looked briefly at No Heart and then looked at Aux and managed out nervously, "If that's how it's gotta be to save four people. I accept that..." she felt a stray tear pour out as she finished, "Just please let them go."​

 

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He turned to Beuce when 'Beat some sense into him, will you?!' He was not sure how he was going to do that. Stopping Aux might have been simple if in was not for No heart controlling him. Aux seemed to hesitate for a few milliseconds before the remnant took the reigns back. Aux hovered above the ground before backhanding him with his fist, sending him back a dozen feet away from them. 'Begone thought,' he commanded in his dark monotone. He was not about to give up. As Aux stepped closer towards Kaida, Hikaru quickly jumped onto Aux's back and tried to pull him back by his neck. He watched as No Heart held up Hikaru's head and made him watch as Aux attacked Kaida. He did not know what options he had left. It would have been nice if there was some what to fight the darkness. There was the light but he did not think that he could use it. A large burst of smoke was created from Beuce's attack, before the No Heart clone rushed out of the dust cloud and clothes lined Beuce. The man was smacked to the ground, No Heart's foot pressed against his chest triumphantly. Pointing the keyblade to Beuce's face, the clone spoke; 'Scary isn't it? The feeling of despair.' Kaida then said, 'Take one instead of four then!' she looked briefly at No Heart and then looked at Aux and managed out nervously, 'If that's how it's gotta be to save four people. I accept that...' she felt a stray tear pour out as she finished, 'Just please let them go.' He just could not alow this. He could barley stand he was slowly making his way back to Kaida but he was not sure if he could make it back in time. If he could he could offer himself up. Aux was more powerful then he had thought. There is always hope he thought. There was always light in the darkness.

 

Ananta was blasted backwards by the spells that were flung at her. She fell to the ground, feeling rather singed. She looked up to see everyone else getting apprehended and captured by No Heart's clones. She heard the words he spoke and saw Kaida start to offer herself up. Ananta slammed her hand down and propped herself up, eventually staggering to her feet and swaying a little bit. She was able to resist most of the damage, but it still took a toll on her and she felt the pain of every spell. She moved towards Kaida, holding her side. Kaida offered herself up and, of course, Ananta felt rage inside of her. She felt a rage and sadness, knowing that Kaida was doing the wrong thing right now. A look of understanding came to Ananta's face as she finally stood beside the girl, staring Aux straight on.

"Kaida, I'm sorry, but I can't let you do this alone." she said, her eyes glancing over to the yellow girl. "He wants four, right? So that means...." she stopped a second and a smile was on her face. "If anybody deserves to be sacrificed...well...." she thought, before fully turning her face. "I won't let you go alone. You're my friend and I just can't give up and let you do this alone. I won't give up on anyone, anymore." She gave a thumbs up to Kaida and glared at Aux. "I know you're not like this, Aux. Please come to your senses and come back to us." she held her hand up to Aux in an effort to get him to stop.

A single tear shed on her face, just as it did for Kaida. She knew where she was going, she could never back down. She was determined to make things right.​

 

Beuce groaned as he was slammed into the ground, followed by a massive boot driving him further down. The wind left his lungs, and he gasped, struggling to fill them with oxygen once again. He reached up, pushing against the man with a growl of exertion. His eyes slid over to Kaida and Aux. AJ was quickly dealt with. Kaida stepped forward to No Heart and Beuce gritted his teeth in frustration. "KAIDA!" Beuce shouted out in rage. "You think we fought all this way just so you could go and sacrifice yourself?! Give us a little more respect than that! We're not going to lose you or anyone else! If you want to go and get yourself killed so easily, then why did we fight tooth and nail through this whole time?! We're going to win. We're going to win..." The second one was muttered, more to himself.

He looked up at the No Heart clone above him. They'd done nothing but hit wall after wall this entire time. They'd always managed to climb over it, but this one was so dauntingly high it seemed to stretch into forever. He gritted his teeth. They'd never given up before, and he didn't intend to start now. The tasks before them had always looked impossible, but every single time, they'd gotten through it together. "Well, I've never had glass ribs before..." He slammed his fist against the ground, channeling magic through it. A bright light appeared beneath Beuce, and exploded against his back. The enhanced physical force from his strength pushed him upward violently, giving him the shove he needed to break away from the clone. However, he heard a loud crack as No Heart was shoved off him. Pain radiated radiated through his chest. "Don't you dare give up on us. We won't give up on you..." The man called to Kaida. ​

 

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The very Kel had tried to move after having been frozen in time, an blizzard spell was fired at him. His instincts told him block and he did so sparing him from most of the damage, but still leading to his lower half being frozen stiff. Try as he might, nothing physical would break through the ice. Thus Kel tried something different, he cast firaga multiple times down on the ice until it had cracked as well as sending one towards also frozen Luna. Cracked enough for Kel to break through the ice through his own strength. "We've gotten this far without sacrificing anyone and that doesn't mean we should start now."

With the feeling in his legs coming back to him, he was quick to head off towards the clone of No Heart that had currently had Beuce pinned. Kel quickly made a quick move around to his back and went for an attack. Resonance Blade! His keyblade became a lit with a green glow as it was brought down towards the No Heart clone.

 

Unfortunately for Steel, Beuce's advice was... unfollowable. It didn't take long for No Heart to cast at all... and that should've been easy enough to predict since he proceeded to spew even more hot air as he was always quick to do. His arrogance was frustrating, more because of how self-counteracting it was than anything else. He started going on about how they should be despairing over how powerless they are compared to him, and how they weren't making a difference, yadda, yadda.

But really, what did he want them to do? Give up? Wouldn't that be bad for his plans, though? No matter how you look at it, No Heart was the one who had been going on about needing seven lights, so... wouldn't discouraging them like this be a bad idea? Bragging just seemed like a major tactical flaw at this point. Sure, as far as the evil Master was aware there were probably always going to be suckers who would be willing to do things for the greater good, but it seemed they had awhile yet to go and he'd only have to wind up looking for replacements. Taunting them into giving up at this point was... well it was stupid really. Waiting until just before the "Final Battle" or some such to kill off four of their members seemed like a much better option. Then again, he also wanted Kaida dead specifically for some reason, so he supposed the threat of destroying others was just a result of that.

Still stupid to try and destroy their hopes though. Where did he think their precious light came from?

About 90% of it was hope.

Plus, Steel was kind of used to not making a difference... well... sort of? It had been his ultimate goal really... which was weird compared to most other hero-quests, but it was the whole "The world shouldn't have to pay for my mistakes..." thing, so... It was no skin off his back, really.

At least in this dimension, he wasn't completely stark-raving mad.

"Would anyone judge me for laughing at him?" He asked his two companions as both he and Aislinn struggled against their bindings, though it was a considerably more subdued attempt on his end. Probably better for them anyway since too much struggling would probably make things even harder for all of them.

"I've got a good reason for it and everything." He tacked the comment on as an assurance based on the fact that most people didn't seem to have the same thought processes as him about these sorts of things.

 

The girl had already closed her eyes and accepted her fate, when she heard others run up to her defense, and when others had yelled for her to not give up. But she felt resolved in her decision. She was not going to be responsible for the loss of other lives today. She wouldn't allow it. Even as she heard Hikaru scream her and Aux's names, her eyes remained closed until she heard his thanks for everything.Something seemed too quiet for the moment. And the girl looked at Hikaru just as he smiled, and told her she'd see him later.

Then Hikaru stabbed his keyblade into his chest.
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Frozen.

If she didn't know any better, she'd think someone cast time or gravity on her with how much she couldn't move. How much she couldn't react. How she felt all of the gravity of the world try to pull her down so all she could do was lay on the floor. It was a moment where her mind didn't really process... anything. Someone would have had to have replayed the scene to her over and over again for her to fully understand that she just witnessed her best friend's death. The blonde walked slowly closer towards the spot Hikaru was at and she swiped her right hand through it slowly. Like she was trying to make sure he wasn't invisible and that there wasn't some prank going on here.

But she knew it wasn't.

Kaida felt her hand drop quickly as she just stared at the space, but she wasn't looking at anything. She was trying to reimagine Hikaru standing there the way he was just a few seconds ago with that smile. But it didn't work. She took in quite a few deep breaths before the space between each breath increased until she summoned out her keyblade. She looked straight at No Heart. But she wasn't really looking. It was clear Kaida was out of it. There was nearly no expression on her face before she charged at them without making a noise. But the blonde got just close enough to hit them before she stumbled and fell.

Kaida tried pulling herself up with her keyblade. Her hands were shaky and she couldn't manage it. She stared at the ground and screamed, "WELL REF. ARE YOU ENJOYING THIS GAME? IS THIS REALLY JUST A GAME TO YOU?!" she gritted her teeth and looked up at the one cloaked in armor and hissed out, "I'll kill you. I'll make you suffer for this..." Kaida lifted herself up shakily and swung her keyblade but No Heart didn't even have to move an inch since it was a very clear miss and Kaida keyblade disappeared as she fell towards the ground again.

She started breathing heavily again, but it was almost like she was trying to keep herself from hyperventilating as she managed out quietly, "Hikaru...H-Hikaru..." she lowered her head completely to the ground as her face was hidden by her hair.​