The Final War, Light Vs Dark

Drawn by the epic and exceptionally talented Xero ​

Gexln was surprised to see Xero come running in. What was R thinking? What if Roe recognized her Nobody? There was nothing he could do about it now though. He decided that he would have to hope that she, like R, caught onto what he was playing at. "The sunglasses are part of the uniform, Agent X. Surely you haven't forgotten? They come with the job of secret agent, after all. Ignoring that, are you Agent R's replacement? I wasn't aware that you would be accompanying me on this mission" he responded. He turned to look at Roe once again. "Miss Roe, correct? I hope you can forgive Agent X's rude intrusion, she's still learning the ropes" he apologized. However, despite having Xero there he couldn't change their objective. Get the stone, get it back to R. It sounded simple enough in his head. He opened a dark corridor that lead to the dark realm. "Well ladies, shall we get going?" he said, trying to sound as casual as he could.

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The sound of metal against metal echoed in the area as Kaxar defended with the dream shield against Anti-Kaxar's keyblade attacks. It was tough work, and she was somewhat thankful that she didn't have a lot of knowledge on fighting. Again Anti-Kaxar lashed out at her with the keyblade, and again Kaxar blocked it with the shield. At this point it was a battle of endurance, and Kaxar didn't think she had it in her to continue. She wasn't sure how she was going to win at this point, how could she win a battle that she had a shield vs something as powerful as the keyblade. A hazy idea formed in her mind, something she wasn't particularly fond of, but something that seemed like she had no choice but to use. She had to embrace the Nobody side of her.

Anti-Kaxar leaped forward and lunged forward with its keyblade, attempting to impale Kaxar on the end of it. This time, however, Kaxar didn't simply block with the shield. No, she was done hiding behind a shield while others did the work for her. This time, she had nobody to rely on but herself. "I'll never fall to the darkness!" she called out. A sphere of light appeared in her left hand as she held the shield to deflect the attack by anti-Kaxar. "And I will save him from the darkness!" she yelled, determination in her voice that had not been there previously. Kaxar spun around in a circle, dragging her hand on the ground as she did so, and from that motion several beams of light formed in a circle around her, before all expanding to the point that they formed a wall around Anti-Kaxar. Kaxar then leaped up into the sky and pointed her hand at Anti-Kaxar, her hand still glowing with the power of light. From that hand, a gigantic pillar of light exploded from it, hitting Anti-Kaxar and vaporising her instantly.

Kaxar landed on the ground cautiously. Had she done it? Had she truly defeated her darkness? Her, the girl that ran from confrontation? She got her answer when a blinding flash of light appeared before her eyes. When it faded, she found herself standing in front of the mysterious tower again, with the others. A huge smile appeared on the girl's face, a smile that brought warmth to all that gazed upon it. "I did it!" she said gleefully.

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Once again, Caleb's sword bounced off Shadow-Gexln's harmlessly. He was tiring, and fast. He would have to end the fight quickly, or risk losing it due to fatigue much in the same way he had lost to the real Gexln. Fortunately for him, Shadow-Gexln had seemed to tire too, no longer laughing at him. "Not as strong as you thought you were?" he taunted. This seemed to anger Shadow-Gexln. The creature leaped into the air and his blade began glowing a deep purple color. This was not a good sign for Caleb, and he knew it, it meant he was using a darkness based attack. He was right. Caleb leaped out of the way as Shadow-Gexln came crashing into the mosaic, right in the place Caleb stood mere seconds ago. The mosaic shattered, destroying it and splitting it into several pieces. Caleb simply fell through the air as both of the warriors' blades clashed in mid-air, until both of them landed feet first on the mosaic below. This mosaic had three new pictures on it: the moment he met Gaius, the day he was born, and finally..Gexln himself, an image that represented the day that Gexln had threatened Caleb's new home.

Caleb looked up at Shadow-Gexln, who was seemingly waiting for Caleb to make a move. "What is it you want me to see?" he questioned, to which he got no response. Shadow Gexln raced over and swung his blade at Caleb, who parried it with some difficulty. Shadow Gexln reacted just as fast as the real thing though, and counter-attacked quite quickly. Caleb couldn't react fast enough, but he did manage to get the dream sword in between Shadow Gexln's sword and his own flesh. The Dream Sword slid harmlessly away from him, falling over the edge of the Mosaic into the abyss below. Caleb slowly turned to look at Shadow Gexln. He tried to summon his own blades again, but to no avail. "I won't let this be the end of me..it can't be the end" he said to himself.

Shadow-Gexln walked over slowly to him, while Caleb sat there helpless as ever. He raised the blade as he prepared to do the final blow. As the sword came down, Caleb rolled out of the way and gripped Shadow-Gexln's arm. "I'll never...let you kill innocent people!" he yelled out as he turned the blade on Shadow-Gexln himself. Shadow-Gexln looked visually surprised and furious, he took a few steps towards Caleb, clutching his chest, before finally dissappearing altogether in a cloud of black vapor. Caleb closed his eyes as the dark mist surrounded him, and when he opened them he was standing back at the mysterious tower, breathing heavily and eyes wide in fright. He had done it, but in those last few moments of the experience he had felt true, terrible fear.

 

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"Sup? I'm Roe." Roe said as Xero ran up to the two. She looked at the young woman puzzled, "You look... Kind of like... Whoa, what the--?!" Roe was startled as Gexln summoned a dark corridor. But she soon looked at it in amazement, "Awesooommme." She said as she put her hand in the corridor. She then put her whole arm in and laughed. She did it again but then suddenly something pulled her inside, "Hey!!?" Her body was engulfed by the corridor and she suddenly found herself in the Dark Relm. However she didn't know where she was.

When she looked to the side she saw a rather tan man with white hair tightly holding her arm. "Let me go you creep!"

"You're darkness... It just might do." The man said as he gave Roe a mischievous grin.

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Xero just looked at Gexln with a what-the-f*ck-are-you-talking-about look on her face. She then looked at Roe and then back at Gexln. It then clicked in her mind that Gexln was probably playing some game to keep his identity a secret. She groaned as she rolled her eyes. Once Gexln summoned the dark corridor saw saw Roe messing around with it and then soon saw her get pulled in by something.

"Roe!" Xero practically grabbed Gexln's arm and dragged him into the corridor as she rushed through, "We can't let anything happen to my some-- I mean her!" She cut herself off remembering that she can't blurt out things from the future. Once they were through the corridor, Xero froze in place as she stared wide eyed at the man before her...

Ansem was right in front of her. Her anger began to build up inside her as she clenched her fists. "You..." She growled her words as she whispered.


Ansem grinned at the girl as he felt the amount of darkness she possessed. She might actually work as a host for him... It was then that he saw two others come through the corridor. Both with a strong dark energy. He held the girl tightly in place, "Can I help you?" He asked casually with a smirk.

"LET HER GO!!"The female nobody practically screamed at him. He only chuckled, "Why should I? She would make an excellent host for myself."

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Valinton was almost completely paralyzed and lying on the ground not far from the group. Ansem had extracted his darkness some how and he was too weak to get up. He weakly looked at the girl Ansem was holding hostage, "A host...?" He said to himself. He didn't know what Ansem ment by "host" but after a battle with him he knew it couldn't be good.

 

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Gexln was surprised when Roe got pulled into the dark corridor. Where he had made the dark corridor, in the dark realm, there shouldn't have been anyone there to pull her through. He hurried through the dark corridor, determined to find out who had pulled her through. The instant he stepped through the dark corridor, he saw a man holding her arm. He had never met the man personally, never seen him, but he recognised his dark scent easy enough; it was the same scent as the one that Xero had within her. "Ansem" he growled.

Gexln remembered the emotions that Xero had shown when she spoke of Ansem, she sorrow in her voice and the hatred she showed. Xero had quickly become one of the few people Gexln thought of as a friend, and now here he was, standing before the very thing that had caused her the most pain. He wanted to drop the secret agent act, but on the off chance that Roe remembered him later he really didn't want her knowing who he was, so he would have to play this situation carefully. Why had he decided to send R away so quickly? Gexln now made it obvious that he was holding his blade, Darkness' Sorrow. He had had it the entire time, but this was the first time he held it like the weapon it truly was.

"Ansem, on behalf of the agency that I represent, I'm going to have to ask that you come give yourself up, release the girl, and come along quietly. Don't make this any messier than it has to be" Gexln said, although the tone in which he spoke heavily hinted that he really hoped Ansem refused his request.

 

Ansem only laughed at Gexln's request, "I'm afraid I can't simply let het go, I need her as my host." He grinned and then suddenly saw Xero charging toward him screaming with anger.

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Xero ran full speed toward Ansem, her scythe ready to attack, "YOU SON OF A B*ITCH!" She practically screamed at Ansem as loud as she could as she swung her scythe at him. The fact that she was attacking him didn't even seem to faze the man. For just when the blade was about to make contact, his guardian appeared and deflected Xero's scythe.

The deflection threw Xero off as the blade simply bounced off the heartless. As she was wide open for an.attack, the guardian took the opportunity and threw its fist into Xero. She flew back toward where Gexln was and landed on the ground. She lied there for a moment taking in the pain and then quickly got back up.

She suddenly felt a bit dizzy, and then she knew that what was going on. "Gexln..." She quietly said, "Stay away from that guardian. It's able to extract darkness like you are.. I'm guessing it does with any sort of physical contact.." She remembered the feeling when Gexln extracted the darkness from her when Ansem took over. The guardian didn't take much of her darkness, but it was enough to get her attention.

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Roe began to squirm around and finally got free of his grasp, "Get away from me!" She then ran over and hid behind a rock, "I'll deal with you later, child." she heard Ansem say. She looked to the side and saw Valinton lying on the ground. "I'm not... Going to die here... I've been trapped in this goddamn place for centuries... And I'm not going to just throw all of my attempts to escape away..." she heard the man mumbling to himself as he slowly got up.

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Valinton stood up and glared at Ansem as he walked over next to Xero, "I'm guessing you'll need help.." he casually said. The girl just looked at him with wide eyes, "Y-you!!?" Valinton raised a brow, "Have.. we met? I highly doubt it since I've been trapped here for over 900 years..." He said as he took out his katanas. "Either way, I'm Valinton." He said.

 

He smiled as many of them managed to come out unharmed. He had some more things to say to them now that they have unlocked an extra potential. "To begin, congratulations on making it through the ordeals. Those who have never possessed a keyblade now have a chance to summon one. It could take some time however. Next comes the hard part. You have chosen an attribute and rid another. Now you can learn much more powerful abilities that use the combination of the one you chose, and the remaining. I myself have the path of a Guardian and have sacrificed the wand. Because of this, I can create skills that are primarily defensive and a minor offense. You can all do the same."

After a long winded speech, he turned his back to them all. "The war is starting, you should all rest for the night before we talk tactics." He walked up to the tower looking tired and winded. Putting that many people under was exhausting after all. It could have killed him if Beuce wasn't there to assist.

 

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Gexln decided that if he was going to fight Ansem, he wouldn't be able to hold back. He needed to be at full strength if he was to pay back Ansem for what he had just seen him do to Xero, which meant he had to drop the agent act. He heard Xero tell him about Ansem's power of darkness extraction. "If he has to get into contact with me to extract my darkness, then it's pretty simple isn't it? Just don't get hit" he said. Normally if someone said something like that, you would assume they were kidding, but the tone of which Gexln spoke implied he was deadly serious. "I've always wondered what it would be like to kill someone like you, now I guess I'll get to find out" Gexln said to ansem.

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Kaxar listened to what Eon said. If what he said was true, then that would mean that Kaxar would develop great defensive abilities, but no offensive abilities whatsoever. How was she going to fight without any offence? She didn't like the idea of fighting, but if someone were in danger would she be able to fight the threat off with just defence? She decided that instead of resting like Eon said, she would spend the night training outside the tower with her keyblade; she knew she would need mastery of the weapon if she were to stand any kind of chance.

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Caleb had finally recovered from the fear that Shadow-Gexln had put within him. He pulled himself together and stood up straight. So, if what Eon had said was right, then he would be able to develop great offensive abilities, but almost no magical ones. He was fine with that, he would need all the strength he could muster if he were to protect people. However, one thing in particular caught his attention: Eon had said those without keyblades would have a chance to summon one now. Did that mean he would be able to create a weapon like the others wielded? He would need to practice it if he were to develop that ability. He saw Kaxar going off on her own, presumably to train, so he decided that he would do the same thing, not stopping until he got it right.

 

Spoiler: Part 1 Music

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It wasn't very long after his father had appeared before him that Kel charged in. This was finally his chance to proved how stronger he's gotten, so once he was in range, he swung his sword downward. The end result was for the blade to be blocked with very little effort. That much wasn't much of a shocker so he went in with continued attack, each one however blocked with the littlest of ease. The cycled continued until eventually Kel attacked with all his might and the attack was caught, which surprised him. He knew that his father was strong, but this, this was something entirely different. After that, the real fight began.

As Kel's blade was tossed in a manner to throw him off guard, the man made his first attack. While Kel had manage to block the attack, the force behind it was something else. Combine it with the darkness radiating form his body and you get an explosive impact that damaged him even though he guarded. Now on the defensive, Kel was constantly being pushed back by his father, taking some kind of damage each time their blades made contact.

Spoiler: Part 2 Music

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Soon enough he was pushed to the edge of the platform, where he was forced to withstand a onslaught of attacks until he collapsed on his knee. As his father looked down on him, a small voice rang through his head. So this is as how far your resolve goes, you'll never surpass anyone at this rate. No, he could do this. He WILL win this fight. When the seemingly final blow was struck, Kel miraculous angled his blade so that the attack would slide off. Then channeling all the remaining Strength that he could muster, he dealt his own final blow. "Black Onslaught!" The blade glowed in a purple hue as the attack struck down his father. With his task finished his vision started to blur, but not before catching a glimpse of his fathers approving face before both him and Kel's consciousness faded. Next thing he knew, he was awake back at the tower.

 

Ansem laughed at the boy's threat, "Do you really think that you can defeat me that easily? HA! Your darkness isn't even as strong as the child over there!"

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Xero just stared at Valinton for a moment then remembered that they were in the past. But... He seemed different... A lot different. Not anything like the emotionless killer she remembered from the future.

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"I'll help you in this battle, but in return, you help me escape this place." Valinton said as he looked at Xero with a smirk, "Deal?" The girl just gave him a suspicious look and then said, "Fine. We'll help you get out." Valinton's smile widened after she agreed. Once he gets out, he'll finally be able to confront Xindai for trapping him.

 

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Gexln didn't turn to look at Valinton. He acknowledged that he was there, and that he was offering to help. However... "That won't be necessary Valinton. This guy claims darkness isn't strong, i'm going to show him just how wrong he is about that" the Nobody responded. He certainly wasn't happy, but a cocky grin appeared on his face as he spoke. The smile caused by the prospect of a challenge. He swung his blade, Darkness' Sorrow, in a arc in front of him with such speed you could hear a loud whistle as it swung, yet it was way too far away from Ansem to hit him. It was a demonstration of technique and an indication of his will to fight. "He's not going to live long" he spoke.

 

Keiko opened her eyes. She just laid on the ground and blinked, looking up at what it seemed like a ceiling above her. She couldn't really tell. And boy, did her head hurt. Her whole body felt like it was floating, but at the same time it was hard to move any of her limbs. So she just stared up, trying to figure out what was going on exactly as she waited for her body to cooperate with her. The girl tried to retrace her steps in her head, hoping that would give her some idea of what to do. 'Let's see, I'm laying on a floor in a room... I think...? And I was... Where was I? And I think I was doing... what was I doing again?' Keiko groaned, suddenly realizing that she had no clue what in the world was going on, or where she was to begin with. It seemed like all her memories were lost somewhere, or maybe that's what happened. Or maybe she wasn't existing to begin with?

"Ugh..." Those thoughts were just making her head hurt even more. She reached up and touched her forehead after making some effort to move and then bumped something from her eyes. Suddenly, the room was blurry. "Oh... glasses," she muttered, slipping them back over her eyes. She had glasses? Since when?

"Wow, what happened?" Keiko asked herself as she forced herself to sit up. There was no time to lay around, she had to figure out what in the world was going on! Rubbing her forehead once more, and being careful to not knock off her glasses again, she then pushed off from the ground into a standing position. "Whoa." She waved her arms around, feeling suddenly unstable from standing up too quickly. She caught her balance and then pushed her glasses up her nose, looking around at her surroundings. She was in a room of sorts, and the room was very small, but then what? How did she get here?

"Um, hello?" Keiko called out, hoping someone would come in and tell her what she was doing here. Biting her lower lip after not hearing any answers, she looked to her left and saw a window with no glass on it. Raising an eyebrow, she walked over to it and had a look outside. The sky was a weird orangish color, and it seemed like she was on an island in some sort of looking dream cloud. She could see stars too if she looked hard enough. "So weird," she mumbled and scratched her head. Were all skies and places like this? Probably not. So many questions...

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~*~*~*~*~​

A figure casually walked through Twilight Town's Forest, seeming like they had nothing better to do. There was a noise, like someone groaning and the figure stopped walking. Then, soon enough, a shadow was standing over Sapphire.​

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"Man, what happened to you, eh?" Xara said as she crouched down beside the wounded girl and tilted her head as she looked at her. She then reached out an index finger and poked the strange girl in the cheek. "Did you make someone mad~? Yeesh. I'd hate to be you right now. But since I'm not you, guess I'm good." Xara let out a chuckle and then looked down at the girl again, moving her finger from her cheek. "Well, I don't know which side you're on, but I guess that doesn't matter right now. So, I feel a bit nice today." ​

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Xara pulled out a Mega Potion from one of her pockets and cast it over the girl. Soon she was enveloped in a green light and things were getting patched up as far as Xara could see. "Merry Christmas!" The purple haired girl exclaimed with a smirk and then stood back up. "But no, seriously, who's rocker did you tip over? Are they still ticked off and fuming somewhere?" Xara took a look around to be sure it was just her and this girl she didn't know. She wasn't ready to give her own name out or her side.​

 

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The heartless raced through the forest until he came across Sapphire laying flat against the ground. Standing above her was a girl giving her a mega-potion. "That will take care of any exterior injuries, but what's wrong is far worse than that." R said, making his presence known. He hurried over to her and kneeled over Sapphire. "The darkness in her heart has overtaken her...She won't be able to conquer it alone. I'll have to put her through awakening." R said, standing and summoning his spiked keyblade. With a black light radiating from the tip, Sapphire's chest began to glow. The next thing he knew, he was falling. A deep black surrounded him. Beneath him, he could see hints of stained glass, but it was mostly covered by a thick darkness. This was bad, She was almost lost. It was likely too late to save her heart. All he could do was save her mind. ​

 

"Eh?" Keiko turned around when she heard the sudden voice behind her. Finally, someone had responded to her! But one look at the source of the voice, she knew that wasn't what she was expecting at all. Maybe a person, but a giant mouse? "Um..." Keiko heard the first question, but she didn't know what to say. Then a second question was asked of her. She stood there a moment, trying to piece together the questions in her head. This giant mouse... guy... was probably wondering what in the world she was doing here. "Um, I actually want to know that myself..." she laughed nervously and rubbed the back of her neck. "Sorry if I'm, um, intruding... in your... house. Is this your house?" she asked with a genuinely blank look on her face and looked around once more, then back to the giant mouse. 'I must've hit my head pretty hard... This is one weird dream...'

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~*~*~*~*~​

"AH!" Xara jumped back when someone came out of no where. It's the person she ticked off! she first thought as she backed off, but then when the guy knelt down by the girl and was explaining what was going on, Xara blinked and then relaxed. So this wasn't the guy that the girl ticked off. He seemed to be on her side, the darkness. But why was he helping? Was she a comrade? Or a new ally to the dark side? But she couldn't ask questions. It seemed like both the guy and the girl faded out of reality, leaving Xara somewhat alone. She sighed out, walking back over to the two that were in the dark trance and sat on the ground. There wasn't much she could do right now but just stand back and watch over the two maybe.

"The dark isn't all that bad you know," Xara said, resting her chin on her propped up arm. "I mean, yeah, it's scary at first... But you get use to it. It's actually kind of soothing once you don't fight against it." Maybe the girl couldn't hear Xara, but Xara didn't want to sit around and do nothing but guard them. That was kind of boring. So she was just going to talk and give her two cents to whatever or whoever was listening to her.

 

Finally, the time had come, it was getting close to night. Eon had no other choice but to scope out the other side of the Keyblade. He put on a brown cloak. This way no one would recognize him. The tower was quiet as he shrouded himself in darkness moving towards the entrance. "Hmph, my kids would probably say this is dangerous... I cant stop now." He muttered to himself.

Eon tapped his shoulder to activate his armor. Once then, his keyglider appeared as well allowing him to travel to where the darkness was most strong.There was a corridor that lead to some strange time period. An abnormal anomaly. Eventually it lead him to a group, someone known as Gexln was in control of it. Eon was simply going to watch them, see if they had any plans. However, they were unorganized. They were even fighting. Eon sensed more than just one group of darkness through his search. Darkness scattered was always a good thing for the light. It was then he accidentally stepped on a tree branch, surely they would hear him after that.

 

Ansem began to levitate and he had a smirk on his face right before he rocketed toward Gexln, his Soul Eater weapon in hand and the guardian with its fists ready to swing. Ansem quickly slashed at Gexln multiple times as the guardian seemed to wait for Ansem to give a command.

Xero jumped back as Ansem charged at Gexln. To be honest, she was scared to fight Ansem. She didn't show it, but she had this feeling in her gut that she didn't like. For as long as she's hated him for taking over her, she never thought of what she would do if she ever looked at Ansem face to face. The attack she attempted just now wasn't out of courage. It was blind rage.

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Roe stayed hidden behind the rock, her heart pounding. She had no idea what just happened or where she even was. The young woman- or Agent X as what she seemed to be after Agent G called her- she looked really angry once she saw the man who pulled her through that portal thing. Did... They know him?

Something caught Roe's attention at the corner of her eye. She looked next to her and saw some kind of a fragment of something. She picked it up and looked at it. It seemed to have a deep purple color mixed with black, like a swirling design. It looked interesting to her. She looked around to make sure no one was watching and put it in the pocket of her jacket.

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Valinton noticed Xero jump back instead of charging in to help her friend as Ansem attacked. He hesitated for a moment as he looked back and forth between Xero and her friend. He sensed that her friend was quite powerful so he assumed that he would be fine for a while. Finally he jumped back next to Xero, weapons still in hand. "What're you doing?" He asked. He noticed Xero was breathing quickly and her eyes showed fear. On the outside she looked serious and rather angry. But on the inside... She was frightened, "You're not afraid are y--?"

"Shut up, I'm not afraid!" Xero snapped at him as she turned her head to face him with angry eyes. He could tell that she was in denial. Valinton just gave her a blank stare and then sighed. "You know, the minute I saw you, I sensed that there was something inside you... Something that wasn't exactly apart of you yourself..." Valinton said. Xero scoffed, "That's none of your business..." she turned away with a dark expression as Valinton continued to look at her.

"It's an even darker part of you that you fear... Something you yourself can't seem to defeat... It haunts you and you can't do anything about--"

"I said shut up! It's none of your f*cking business!" Xero shouted at him and then walked off, opening some sort of portal as she did and went through. Valinton looked over at Gexln and then began running toward the portal. He had run through just before it closed. The world around him was black and white and he just looked around with a strange look.

He saw Xero storming off.

 

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Gexln ducked and weaved in an attempt to avoid the seeker of darkness' attacks, throwing in the odd parry of blades in amongst it. He had noticed Xero leave after he was attacked, something he was dissapointed with but not shocked. Despite all he had said before about how he would be fine, he knew that if it came down to brute strength Ansem would probably win. Ansem had an immense amount of darkness within and around him, much more than Gexln himself had. Even if he could get the edge on Ansem, he couldn't actually kill him or it would prevent Xero from ever existing. But he couldn't just let Roe get possessed by the seeker of darkness could he? What was he supposed to do?

"Ansem, if you take that girl things will happen, things you can't possibly comprehend" he lied. "This is your last chance to back down before I end you" Gexln added. Almost expecting Ansem to refuse to back down, the Nobody of the Dark prepared not one, but two dark firagas in his hands.

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Caleb was trying again and again to summon the keyblade, like Eon had said he could, but no matter how much he tried it didn't seem to be working. "How am I going to kill that heartless without the keyblade?" he questioned aloud. He then hung his head in dissapointment. "All I wanted was to kill the heartless and protect everyone else, prevent them from suffering just as I have" he said honestly, and as though the keyblade had been waiting for this admission, a bright light similar to his summoning flooded around his hands, and when it faded he was holding a keyblade, The Lionheart Keyblade. He held it vertically and inspected it. The worksmanship was truly amazing, whoever made the blade certainly knew what they were doing.

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Kaxar threw her keyblade to the ground in a fit of anger. Nothing she did seemed to work, she just didn't have the combat experience. As the keyblade hit the ground, she heard the familiar sound of it being summoned as it appeared in her hand. She sighed. "Why can't I get better? How will I be able to save him at this rate?" she wondered. She then turned as she heard the sound of yet another keyblade being summoned. Caleb had summoned a keyblade. Instantaneously, an idea formed in her mind. Caleb seemed to know what he was doing, and she knew he had combat experience from all the times he'd helped fend off heartless from her village. She walked over to Caleb. "U-uh, Caleb, I think your name is...could you..could you teach me how to fight?" she questioned.

 

Ansem raised a brow at the boy's attempt to stop him from taking the girl he had found. He only gave Gexln a huff before he commanded the guardian, "Submit!" He called out as he rushed toward Gexln once more, the guardian attempted to attack Gexln itself with its fist. "The girl has much strength with her darkness, and I will have it for myself."

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Xero stormed off back into Timeless River to clear her thoughts as she walked over by the river. She sat down on the ground and rested her arms on her knees as she burried her face in her arms. Normally she would never run from a battle like this. But for some reason she ran from this particular fight. Because she was afraid. There was no lying about it. It was obvious that she was indeed afraid. But why? Why was she so afraid to confront him? Even she didn't know the answer.

"What's wrong with me...?"

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Valinton quietly followed Xero to the river and saw what had looked like she had given up. But what for? He didn't even know why he was following her. Was it because he wanted to help her that much? Even if they had just ment? It seemed odd, even for him, that he'd want to help someone he barely knew.

Valinton walked up behind Xero and just looked at her for a moment trying to think of what he could say. He only sighed and sat down next to her. He saw her fist clench as soon as he sat down, a sure sign that she wasn't happy that he was there.

"What do you want now...?" a muffled voice said to him. Valinton looked straight ahead. He knew that he probably shouldn't ask the question he was about to ask but he did anyway, preparing himself for an explosion of anger from the girl, "Why are you afraid..?" He stiffened up a bit as he waited for her to snap... But, she was quiet.

Valinton sat there quietly as he waited for an answer. It was probably about two minutes after untill she finally answered, her voice sounded shaky as she spoke, "I don't know..." Xero said. Valinton was about to say something else but Xero began to speak again, "I really don't know... I've never been afraid to fight... But now... I don't know what's wrong.."

 

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Gexln nimbly leaped to the side to avoid the Guardian's attack. All his fancy footwork would eventually tire him out, he knew, but for the moment he was fine. "You're not going to take anybody's darkness, not for a long time" he retorted. Despite Ansem being incredibly powerful, thinking about it then Gexln realized that he could probably manage Ansem after all, if there was one thing he knew well, it was darkness and how to overcome it. If he knew how to summon the keyblade he had summoned earlier, it would have made things much easier, but he had no idea how to do it. Darkness' Sorrow had never failed him though, and it wasn't about to start. He released the two dark firagas towards Ansem, as he prepared two more and launched them at the seeker of darkness also.

​

"Again!" Kaxar shouted at Caleb. Caleb stood several feet away from Kaxar as a look of surprise passed his face. "Kaxar, you've deflected the last three attacks I've thrown at you perfectly, wouldn't it be safe to assume that your defense is fine?" Caleb replied. Kaxar shook her head. "You've been holding back, Caleb. I can tell, you hesitate for a second right before you swing. The darkness..and the people that have fallen to it..they won't hold back, they won't give me a chance, so you shouldn't hold back either. So, again!" Kaxar repeated. Caleb let out a small laugh. "I suppose that's true enough" he answered, summoning Lionheart once more and beginning his attack again.

 

Ansem saw Roe attempting to escape and then was hit by the dark firagas that were coming toward him. He looked over at Gexln with an annoyed look and then commanded the guardian to create a dark shockwave to knock Gexon back and away from him. He quickly flew over to Roe and grabbed her, "I'll deal with you another time boy!" With that said, Ansem disappeared into Darkness taking Roe with him.

​

Roe suddenly began running across the dark beach in hopes of finding some way out. But when Ansem noticed her, she knew that she probably wouldn't be getting out the way she wanted to. Ansem had grabbed her and she struggled to get away. Once she noticed the darkness around her, she reached out to Gexln in a desperate attempt to get away. Then everything went black.

 

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Ansem's eyes shifted to Roe for a moment, but that moment was long enough for Gexln to see clearly. "Don't you even think about touching her" he growled. The guardian used a dark shockwave, something that Gexln had seen and done many times himself. He smirked. "You think somethin like th-" he started, only for the dark shockwave to rise in height, hitting Gexln. He was knocked back off his feet as Ansem flew over and took Roe. He quickly got to his feet and started racing towards Roe. "Roe!" he called out as he saw her arm reaching out towards him. She then vanished, along with Ansem into the darkness.

Gexln slumped down in place, still standing but clearly defeated. "I suppose if i'd stopped him Xero wouldn't be alive but still..I could have taught her how to control darkness, I could have stopped her suffering at least a little" he sighed. It was then he heard a twig snap. His attention was grabbed again. He whirled around to look in the direction to see a hooded figure there. "Who are you?" he questioned.