Time to Rise Again

"Huh...?"
Cat hadn't even noticed that she was bleeding. She was too focused on the strange girl.
How did she even know who I am... and who does she think she is? Saying that Sora's not a hero... she's just trying to psych me out by saying random stuff...
She laughed having remembered when Sora had said that on his second journey.
She got up and thuogh about whether or not she should tell Crimson about what happened in there. Suddenly shadows appeared.
"Nngh... they never quit, do they?"
She summoned her keys, ignoring her wound, and began to strike down the low level heartless. Fighting would always clear her mind.
No, I can't tell him. Not yet... after all I don't even know how to get back... dammit. There's gotta be a way to stop all of this...
Once the heartless were gone her keyblades disappeared and she walked up to Crimson.
"Listen, I say we keep moving. If the heartless are gonna follow us then we might as well make it fun..."
She smiled a smile that she knew he couldn't resist and started walking ahead.

 

"Thank you..." she said, trying to compose herself. As the thunder had suggested, it started to rain, and Asuka shivered slightly. She was wearing pants, but her top had no sleeves, and the rain water was cold. "We should get back and clean up," she said, since they both had dirt on them. "Then look for the others...I have a feeling they may be here too, and I don't know if I'm comfortable with them wandering Midgar with no knowledge of the area's past."

 

Leon held out a hand to feel the rain, "Okay", he agreed as he started to head back to Asuka's bike with her. Before he could reach the bike a shot of darkness hit the ground infront of him and an armoured figure slowly marched from the direction of the attack. Instantly, he drew his Keyblade and prepared for a fight as the enemy also seemed to proceed to do so with it's weapons.

The armour continued forwards and as it did it summoned it's weapons from the darkness. A pair of identical swords. As it slowly walked forwards it raised it's weapons in an attacking stance and continued directly towards Leon and Asuka. It appeared to be a man dressed in armour to them.

Holding his ground Leon was ready for a fight, the armoured man was clearly using the power of darkness but Leon could only tell from the previous attack as he could not sense his light or darkness as many others could. He wasn't able to know that the armour was nothing but darkness.
"Think we can take him?", Leon asked Asuka, "Or should we try and get out of here before he attacks again?". For some reason, Leon felt that the armoured opponent wanted to prevent them from leaving, but his movements gave the feeling that they could escape before he could attack again. This could be troublesome as Asuka had a clear point about the others not knowing of this world that she hails from, but the enemy might not take kindly to them leaving.
"On second thought, maybe you should go ahead of me. I'll catch back up", Leon suggested as the enemy got ever closer from the distance.

 

Asuka summoned her Keyblade and stood beside Leon, ready to attack. "I'm not leaving you," she said, eyes locked on the armor. "How good are you with magic?"

 

Leon looked back at Asuka and smirked, "Fair enough", he said as he turned to face the armoured enemy again. "I'm pretty lousy with magic", he replied to her question as he rested his Keyblade on his shoulder.

The armoured enemy continued to get closer, within a minute he would be only a few feet away from them.

 

"Damn...guess this will be a physical battle, I'm in no shape to do strong magic," Asuka said. She sensed a strong darkness coming from the armor. "Whoever this is...their darkness is extremely strong. Any ideas what to do?"

 

"Kill it with fire", Leon stated in a comedic tone as he shot a simple casting of fire at the enemy by pointing his keyblade and firing like a gun, complete with him saying "Bang" in an under-emphasised way.

The fire hit the chest plate of the armoured foe dead on, but barely seemed to leave a mark nor slow it down. It raised it's right arm above it's head as it walked and slashed down unleashing a circular blade-like wave of darkness at the duo.

 

Shinji kept on running as he turned his head, Heartless were coming his way as he cursed to himself, he was seperated from everyone again and now, the Heartless targeting him came in a bigger numbers than last time. "Okay Keyblade, good for wiping out Heartless, bad cause said Keyblade can track you by Heartless."

He turned his body around to slice at a Knight Heartless and skidded his feet against the floor, coming to a halt as the Heartless following him stopped, waiting for the next move.

"Why do I wish I had Sora's boundless energy?" He thought to himself Sora could take on 1000 Heartless alone but only be a bit tired out by the end of it

"Okay, if they want a fight, I'll glady give them that wish." SHinji then held out his left hand as No Name was summoned to his hand and he stared at the Heartless. "Let's go." He said as he ran towards them and the Heartless lunged at him.

 

Asuka smirked at Leon's comment. She followed up his attack, cloaking her Keyblade in fire and hurling it through the wave of darkness, dissipating it before it hit either of them, and making contact with their enemy. The impact of the Keyblade made a very small dent in the armor, but did not do anything to stop it from moving. "This guy's tough," she said to Leon, "None of our attacks are even slowing it down. Perhaps we should attack at the same time?"

 

"Let's try it, we'll both use a ranged attack", Leon agreeded and aimed his Keyblade again to prepare for another Fire spell waiting for Asuka to give the command to attack.

 

"Let me bandage you up," Luna told Cat, running along side her. "If you're not careful, you could get light headed and pass out." She looked towards Crimson. They hadn't know each other long, but she knew that Cat would probably agree if Crimson sided with her. Their eye contact was golden and Luna smiled.

"She's right Cat," Crimson said, smiling. "We need to come up with a gameplan and find everyone else." He put his arms on her sholders, attmpting to make eye contact. "Besides, what am I going to do if you're in a coma?"

 

Cat laughed at his last statement and knew that he wouldn't let her go so easily.
"All right, I guess I can't win this fight..."
She smiled and let Luna bandage her arm as she spoke to Crimson.
"You know... It wouldn't be the end of the world if I was in a coma. After all, we both lived most of our lives thinking we'd never see each other again."

 

All the more reason for you to get better," Crimson softly. "The islands are gone, but I think we can get them back, just like when your great grandfather did all those years ago. Together, we can do it, and bring back our home. We could be together again." He felt a pain in his stomach, like he wasn't sure if he was telling the truth. Right now, all he wanted to do was get his gome back and be with his friend. He would do anything to get his home back, even if he ended up losing his own life. "Once we get back home, we can start a new life."

 

When she heard him talk about their home she felt horrible. She wanted to tell him about what she saw and about that girl but she was afraid that he would give into the darkness to save it.
"Hey, if were gonna do this then you've gotta promise me something."
She stared into his eyes and said it while on the virge of tears.
"Promise me... that no matter what... you won't let darkness consume you."
As she said this she could picture the most likely scenario. They were fighting that girl and she was about to kill Crimson. Cat, reacting in the moment, rushed in and saved him by giving up her own life. He ran to her and started crying. He got up and yelled out that she was a cold, heartless monster and then... Darkness consumed him, and he became a monster himself.
She began to cry and hugged him. She knew that it wasn't real but she was afraid that it would happen someday.

 

Crimson couldn't see himself going into the darkness. He was the decendent of Riku, but history wasn't going to copycat himself. Still, he was able to feel his inner darkness and sense the darkness of others. It was probably due to his relation to Riku, or it could be the power of the Oblivion. Still, he didn't rely on his darkness, and there was a small piece of it in Cat's heart. He knew that there had to be a balance. When Cat embraced him, he knew it'd be wrong to upset her. Still, he wasn't going to lie to her. Lying at this time was just as good as betrayal. Still, the future wasn't written in stone. "I promise I will never hurt you; my darkness doesn't control me and it never will."

 

When she heard him say that she felt a bit better. She thought that if he knew that he had a promise to keep, it would be harder for the darkness to completely consume him. She stood up and said,
"We really should get moving. I get the feeling that there's a powerful darkness somewhere in this world."
She walked ahead and she could feel that the darkness was powerful. She wondered if it was Kuragari... or that girl.

 

Shinji elminated the last of the Heartless that attacked him as he dismissed No Name in a flash of light. "That won't be the last of them." He said a bit annoyed, it was be wishful thinking if that was the last of the Heartless as he looked around. "Wonder when I'll see home again..." He thought to himself, a bit sad at remembering the scenery Twilight Town held and it's residents who were engulfed by the darkness.

"No Shinji! no time to get emotional about that, if the worlds are restored, so will Twilight Town!" He thought postively and took some step before Way to the Dawn started to react to something. "Huh? What's this?" He asked himself as a beam of light shone in a direction. "I guess I should follow what it's leading me to." He thought to himself and soon, he started walking in that direction, which lead to the others.

 

Asuka nodded. This time she covered her Keyblade in a Blizzard spell, then said to Leon, "Let's hope this works."
She threw Fenrir at the same time Leon launched his Fire spell, and waited to see if their joint attack would stop their enemy.

 

Leon's spell hit at the same time as Asuka's creating a bundle of steam from the ice and fire combining. This hid the enemy behind it making it hard to tell what was happening. He waited in suspense and prepared for battle still, but when the steam cleared the opponent was gone and faint flickers of darkness where vanishing. "Did he use some kind of portal?", Leon thought out loud.

 

Asuka caught Fenrir as it flew back to her. "Yeah...that's the remains of a darkness portal. Whatever that thing was...it's gone for now. We should head back now."
She started to walk towards her bike when she stopped in front of her family's grave. "I owe them all that much..." she thought, and using her Keyblade, she used a small stream of darkness to carve three names into the main headstone. She sighed, looking away and dissipating the Keyblade, then got on Fenrir and waiting for Leon to join her.