War Amongst The Dead[Plot]

[Aerith]

Snowfall on Forbidden Lands
--------
[Frozen Landscape remixed by Tweek; from Final Fantasy VII]

Alanix noted all the other Organization members who arrived. Unfortunately, Vexen was among them. But no one said she had to fight right next to him.

Further thought along these lines was interrupted by the appearance of several missiles headed straight for the Champion. Would it be that easy? Could they all leave once the dust had cleared? No. He put a stop to them with some darkness attack, causing a large explosion in mid-air. Certainly, the display was a powerful one. But Alanix knew that power could show itself in vastly different ways.

As long as Lethe and Kyza remained unharmed, she would stay. She knew they would quickly follow her away from the field of battle should she decide to leave.

...Perfect. Snow. Now, she couldn't see hardly two feet in front of her, meaning anything that was happening down below was lost to her until the storm passed.

She almost regretted trading that cloak and those boots for her old attire. Almost. Concentrating, she shifted her internal element to ice for some relief. And then, she waited.

[Summary:
Alanix used Shifting Soul.
Current element is now ice.
Posts until next use: 3
Uses remaining: 4]
_____________________

Kairi could see the Champion put Mickey's Keyblade into the ground, and a fresh wave of anger crashed over her. She let go of Sora's hand and took one step in the Champion's direction, determined to do something.

Before she could move any closer, however, a Gummi Ship appeared in the sky and shot missiles in his direction. Hope surged within her for just a brief moment. Maybe that would be enough to stop him.

Unfortunately, it was not to be that easy. The missiles exploded in mid-air, thanks to a blast of darkness. Once the dust had cleared, the Champion was already railing against all those gathered here. He then pulled out yet another sword, and suddenly it was snowing.

Kairi couldn't see a thing, and she even managed to lose complete sight of Sora in the snowfall. It didn't help that, while stumbling through all the white, she tripped and fell headlong into a snow drift. While struggling to get out, all she could feel was all of her exposed skin freezing. Where were warmer clothes when you needed them?

Finally, she managed to pull herself free and tumbled out into more white. The disorientation was intense. "Sora?! Where are you?!"
_______________________

Lanying could not help but arch an eyebrow at the brashness of that Gummi Ship pilot. Although, he had the right idea. Instead of waiting around for the Champion to declare the fight started, they should be bringing the fight to him. After all, he had not been polite when he had destroyed Radiant Garden.

The missiles, of course, were not enough. She had somehow suspected that. From what she had heard, the Champion had the powers of the entire universe on his side or something like that. He certainly had enough swords. Did he have no originality? Lanying had multiple weapons, of course, but they were entirely unrelated.

Before she could move, the Champion shouted some unnecessarily dramatic words and suddenly made it snow. That was it? This was the terrible power they were going to face? Some snow?

Raen was close enough to her that she could still see him, so she turned to him and smirked, summoning her Keyblade. "I think he's inviting you to play."

If anyone here was going to benefit from this storm, it was going to be Raen, not the Champion.
___________________________

Sephiroth was here.

Aerith's stress levels suddenly shot through the roof. She had the urge to pull Cloud back onto the Gummi Ship and fly back to Radiant Garden with him. Dealing with the Champion was bad enough, but Sephiroth, too? No. Cloud really could break if put under enough duress.

Sometimes, it was frustrating not being as strong of a fighter as the others. She was limited to sitting back and healing whenever needed.

Do we really have to fight? There has to be some other way.

She could see Ava here, too, and her heart sank further. She didn't want any of her friends to get hurt, including the one who was on the other side.

Missiles rained down from above, but the Champion brushed them off as though they were nothing. He then addressed them all and proceeded to change swords to one Aerith had never seen before.

It started snowing. Fiercely.

She instinctively moved closer to Cloud, seeking any warmth he could afford her. On any other occasion, she might have laughed and joyfully started a snowball fight with her friends. But this was no laughing matter. The only person she could see anymore was Cloud.

"What now? You aren't... you aren't going to attack something you can't see, are you?" And leave her all alone. That was the second part that crossed her mind, but she kept it to herself.

[Lagunamov]

At least the ground is not made of lava. On the other hand, I'd have loved some turrets.

[/i][/size]

The missiles exploded midair thanks to an energy blast from the charcoal man. Of course. It was worth the shot to try, though. But, now he was yelling at him and accusing Elrick of being a coward. Really? The guy who had powers beyond what they could understand was calling him a coward for using everything at his disposal? Someone definitely needed to take a better look at their thesaurus.

“You call it cowardice, I call it pragmatism!” he yelled back, even though he knew the guy was already going on and on, drunk on the sound of his own voice. It still felt good to call him out. “And if I had the chance to drop the moon on you, grind your corpse and feed that to pigs just to make sure you are dead, I’d FUC…” he got interrupted in the middle of his counter speech by a blinding light from one of the man’s swords. Once the light went away, Elrick found himself standing several feet deep into snow, snowflakes in the wind hitting his face like pebbles.

“If he shows up right behind me to kill me, I’ll have his villain card removed for over using clichés…” he snarked irritated as he unwrapped the blue cloth usually found on the sheath of his sword and improvising a scarf and winter mask with it to protect his face. It took only a couple of seconds to get it tightly wrapped around his head, covering up to his nose, leaving only his eyes and part of his forehead exposed to the wind.

“Thanks for providing me with a second element and a large burst of my main one, though,” he smirked below the hastily made winter mask, grasping on the hilt of his blade ready for whatever may come.

------------------------------------

It appeared someone had decided to take the chance nobody had bothered to take, and shot missiles from a ship to the robed card carrying villain. Naturally, it didn’t work. Most people probably expected that, and as such, Xigbar cared very little for the results of that. Of course, had it worked, he could leave easily and continue with his usual duties of eavesdropping and blackmailing.

And before he knew it, the Champion had gone beyond what normal reason would suggest, and completely modified the weather of a fricking desert. “Ok, who else thinks this is a bit of over the top?” he said to, apparently, nobody. As far as he could see there was nobody around him.

Then again, in that storm, it’d be a miracle if he could see more than two meters ahead of him. Which left him so useless he decided that if the storm didn’t go away in two minutes, he’d just leave the place entirely.

------------------------------------

As the sentiment approached the large congregation of living beings, it could start to sense things more clearly among them. Many warriors of light, a couple of creatures from the dark, and half a dozen indifferent ones. Among the dark ones was a familiar presence that had come to the Graveyard more than once, and now it could see to whom that presence belonged to. A large man in grey robes, with pitch black skin and crimson red hair. The remaining presences became clear as well. But, that was uninteresting to the armor.

No, there was something worse in its mind in that place. An extremely powerful heart, devoid of any darkness. On its own, an absolute like that was a threat. But a Keyblade wielder on top of that? If Animositas could have felt anything, it would have been fear. Instead, its mind focused on one thing, hastening its flight as much as it could towards that presence.

The flight got dangerous, however, when the climate changed. The sentiment started to lose balance on the Havoc, but managing to keep concentrated on the task at hand, it carried on. It descended furiously and fast, or as fast as it could with that wind, and rammed the pure hearted one with its enormous weapon, lifting off quickly into the air and flying away from the battlefield.

Animositas didn’t simply hit and run however. The target hit had gotten itself stuck on the front of the large rifle thanks to the opened shaft, allowing the armor to remove her from the battlefield and deal with her elsewhere. And elsewhere was found quickly.

Reaching a different area of the world altogether, Animositas descended quickly to the ground and stopped abruptly, turning sideways. The girl was flung away from it, falling on the snow. This new area consisted of a closed off section that could only be accessed by air, with mountains on the back and a cliff downwards from where the armor had arrived. Several large rock pillars could be found in that closed off section. Not that anyone could see them, since the storm was raging even there.

Luckily for the sentiment, its lack of eyes was about to prove useful.


[Sky Menace activated. Two more post available for use.]

[Fate]

Really? Snow? Damn it all to hell.

"What the hell...?" There was something strange going on here, she could feel it. Elrick had flown ahead of her to another part of the world, which of course was of no issue. She followed as fast as she could, going through the canyon-like area somewhat bewildered. She heard a Gummi Ship being fired in the area ahead, only making her run faster until... crap. Where the hell did this snow come from?! One minute ago, this world was just a desert wasteland with absolutely no life, and then all of a sudden snow comes out of nowhere. Now she couldn't see what the hell was going on out there, but she could pretty much figure out that some sort of enemy was there. That's why the Gummi Ship was firing earlier, probably Elrick shooting too knowing him.

She just hoped that whoever this enemy was, it wasn't the Champion. She had fought him once and her heart had already been tainted, a fact she had repressed and refused to acknowledge. There was no way she wanted to fight him again, though she would if she had to. Her thoughts immediately became derailed from that and changed to "Dammit, now it's cold."

[/color] Lillian did the only thing she could do and zipped her coat up the entire way, then proceeding to make her way into the battlefield through the snow. Her guns would be almost useless in this crap-- she couldn't see, so therefore she wouldn't be able to have a clear shot on the enemy.

This just sucked.

--

Others started to come onto the field, people of light on the ground and other things on the cliff high above. Katherine knew none of these people, though could easily tell which ones she was going to fight. There were quite a few with swords, which she could contend with. They would be her main priority. After that, when she defeated them --no if, when-- and they were disposed of, she would have to see how many were left. She was not the only one fighting alongside the great swordsman. There were others of the dark here too, though their numbers were far fewer than those against them.

Or she could focus on the one that was firing missiles at them if he decided to come down. Yes, that would do. He would just need to come down here and face them all. Fortunately, none of them had to dodge. The swordsman created an orb of sorts that protected him and the rest of his allies from the missiles, thankfully. She looked to him at this moment, listening to him talk briefly as another sword appeared in his hands. This was one she had never seen, though she didn't see it for long. Light sped out and engulfed the entire battlefield. A blinding ability perhaps? Well, this certainly didn't help his allies either.

Snow. Snow came once the light vanished. How was this supposed to be remotely helpful? No one could see in front of them and the wind was bitterly cold, blowing the snow everywhere. Katherine was unfortunate enough to be one of those without too much protection except for long sleeves and her pants-- thank God for her boots as well. Well, at least there was one advantage for her. If anyone got close enough to see her, she'd be able to bind them before they could do anything. And that would be it for them. With that in mind, she started moving forward to try and find someone.

--

Snow. Really? Did it have to be yet another blizzard? Kadaj had already established that he hated this sort of thing back in Radiant Garden. But now thanks to the Champion they had to freaking fight in it. Fine, he could manage that. It would be hard, but he could manage it. He looked to Loz, who was pretty much the only person he could actually see, with an idea in his head. Both of them still had their speed and could just easily bounce off each other. If Loz could use his speed to simply plow ahead, then Kadaj would be given a way to fight that wasn't through snow. It was the only thing he had at the moment. Besides, no one could see right now. No one would see Loz coming.

"Brother, why don't you run ahead through this snow? Make a path for us," he told him, grinning all the while, "No one will even see you coming." He didn't move for the moment, waiting for Loz to do exactly that so he didn't have to try and jump out of the snow only to fall into more snow. It wasn't hard enough to stand on top of-- bummer.

--

Forces were gathered, more light than dark. No one attacked at first except for a lone Gummi Ship taking the initiative, which Zexion almost decided to follow suit with meteors. However, the Champion blocked the missiles with his own and then proceeded to engulf the area in light. Once it cleared, snow, wind and more snow was everywhere. No one could move, much less see. He could still sense others, especially the Champion, but it was useless without the ability to see. For goodness' sake, he had just left the cold after fighting with Raen. At least the cold wasn't quite as bad as it was with him.

Raen. Oh this would be perfect. He would know how to utilize this. Vexen and Aixfeur would as well, which made things easier. Thinking quickly, he looked to Vexen. "Use this to your advantage. Creating more of a blizzard would be useless, but using ice needles when everyone has limited visibility would work for us." This was about the only useful thing he could do at the moment. Once the snow cleared, if it did, he would be of more use. But at the moment, he could only strategize and... use abilities. He wasn't a melee fighter. He didn't need to move to attack. And of course, he had ranged abilities he could use. Meteors would probably be sufficient for now until he could see again. The Lexicon glowed, meteors quickly descending into the battlefield. He could still sense the Champion, his scent unwavering. Those meteors, if he aimed correctly, would be going straight for him. If others got hit, that was not his problem.

[Battle Report
Zexion used Meteor Mirage
Five posts until next use, three uses remaining][/blockquote][/size]

[Axel]

This is almost unbearable.
--------

Saïx had arrived shortly after Axel had, sporting odd new clothes. That would take some getting used to. Then again, Axel wasn't wearing his cloak anymore, either, which meant he actually looked normally proportioned. Nothing too fancy, of course. He hadn't exactly had the time to pick out a new wardrobe, so for now, he was just wearing a plain, dark-red t-shirt, a black jacket, khaki cargo pants, and black-and-white running shoes. Ah. Much more comfortable shoes than those boots ever were. It would be much easier to move.

Or not.

After the Champion stopped some missiles and spouted some really boring and pointless lines, he changed swords and covered the entire area with light. When the light dissipated...

Snow. Oh, hell no.

He could hardly see a thing, and the temperature was dropping to uncomfortable levels. But that's not why he was so frustrated. He was frustrated because Vexen would find such an environment enjoyable. Damn the Academic to a furiously blazing hell.

The Flame almost jumped down and summoned his ring of fire just to see if he could provide some sort of beacon for their allies. And with any luck, he'd catch the Champion in some of that fire. But then he heard the sound of meteors falling.

No. He would be staying up here, well out of the path of those things.

[Castle]

Somehow, Sora knew that those missiles weren't going to do much. He was right. He also knew that the Champion was going to give some sort of villain speech, and he was right about that too. However, he did keep it shorter than expected, too short for Sora to shout for him to shut up and get to the point.

However, what happened next was unexpected. The burst of power wasn't a surprise, but the effect of that power was. He'd shielded his face with one arm, and now that arm was stinging as the snow struck it. He lowered it and squinted against the blinding flakes. In the space where Kairi was, there was only white.

Alarmed, he looked in every direction. He could still see Riku, barely, but Kairi was nowhere to be found.

"Kairi?!" he shouted.

He he heard her voice cry out, but it was muffled and hard to pinpoint. Suddenly, explosions sounded in the distance, somewhere in front of them. Acting on a hunch, he summoned the Keyblade and waved for Riku to follow him.

"Come on, let's go!" he said, running with some difficulty through the snow in the direction of the noise.

[Zack]

Zack was anxious. He had been the whole time on the ship. They were going to be up against that Champion guy and he wasn't sure how well this was going to go. However, they had to try. They couldn't let this guy get away with what he was doing. Plus, it sounded like they were going to have lots of help, so maybe they might have a chance.

When they landed, they all hesitated a bit before leaving the ship, Zack the last one to do so. They weren't the only ones here, and he was surprised to see everyone else that had come here. However, the Champion wasn't alone either. This was going to be a tough one, Zack could tell. He brought out his sword and got ready. One of the people attacked the Champion with missiles, but it didn't work. Then the Champion all of a sudden made it snow. Zack couldn't help but look at their surroundings now. At least this would help out Raen. "A little snow isn't going to stop us any right guys?" he said over to Raen and Lanying, with a smirk.

[Nothingness]

Time for Action

It didn't take long for more people to appear. The Organization on a cliff, people from Radiant Garden next to them, and the Champion's forces across the field of battle. The thrill of combat began to pulse through his body at the sight of Kadaj. He'd make sure that the cocky son-of-a-bitch would die here.

Hearing the sound of missiles firing, he quickly looked above to see a Gummi Ship. "Pointless attack," he thought, knowing well the Champion's powers. And indeed it was. However, the next thing that happened was a bit more out there.

After the Champion called out to them, he summoned a snowstorm. It took a moment to register all of that, but he certainly didn't mind it. In fact, he reveled in it. He could practically sing; the snow had made him so happy. "Oh, yeah. This is definitely good for us." His voice trilled, grinning at both his companions. The cold, instead of dulling his senses as it did most people, heightened them more than anything. While his visibility was that of everyone else, he never had any problem discerning movement within the storm.

Drawing Fimbulvetr, he walked into the storm, barely being hampered by the blizzard. Looking back at Lanying and Zack, he said, "Let's see if we can flank them." Hearing the familiar sounds of meteors crashing down, he added, "Let's stay close for this."
---
Leon grimaced as the missile salvo was so easily destroyed. Well, it was a good idea. Shame it didn't pan out. "Ah hell," he groaned as the blizzard kicked up. Keeping his sword close, he waited. There was no point going on the offensive if he couldn't see. Even if he flanked them, the snow and cold was just as hampering to him as it was to them. Staying together was their best bet right now.
---
Luxord smirked, watching the pilot's attempt fail. "How unwise--letting your hand tip so early. Oh, what is this?" The snow began to fall and obscure everything. The cold chilled him to the bone, but as any good gambler knew, one must always take advantage of things. Turning to his fellow Organization members, he said a little too jovially, "Well, I'll see you all on the other side of the board!"

Hopping off the cliff, he landed softly in the snow. Without much difficulty, he began running towards where the Champion had been, occasionally flipping into his card state and tossing snow around. Naturally, he made a wide berth around the meteors, but that didn't stop the sadistic grin he had. "I won't have any problems dealing under the table with this. Oh, no. Not. At. All."

[Slash]

I have been given a gift.

[/center]

Aixfeur's eyes widened slightly at the arrival of the snow.

Mother?[/color]

To her, calling the snow 'mother' was not odd in the least. She barely remembered her parents, and now that she wasn't human she had no ties to them. Her mother was a blizzard and her father was the cold steel of a blade. Iceheart provided the steel, and now her mother had arrived to help her, too.

Thank you, mother. I will kill them for you.[/color]

She moved soundlessly into the snow, as naturally as if she was a snowflake herself.

Demon of Winter. That had been her name, hadn't it? She would live up to it now.

________________________

Saïx turned to Axel. "This is our chance. We can all flank him if we move now."

He then disappeared into the blizzard, hoping that the other Organization members could figure that out.

[Cloud]

Well This Is Annoying

Cloud was hardly paying attention as some Gummi Ship fired missiles at the Champion or as the attack was stopped midair by a beam of darkness. His head was still reeling after the discovery that Sephiroth was there. He looked down, trying to avoid the cold pair of eyes which he knew were probably staring at him. Mocking him.

Suddenly, he was snapped back into reality by the sting of icy wind on his face. What had just been a warm desert had instantly become an artic blizzard. Cloud could barely see anything other than the blinding whiteness of the snow, though he was able to make out a nearby Aerith moving closer.

He wrapped his arms around her, pulling her close. With the freezing weather, Cloud wanted to provide any warmth for her that he could. Plus he was honestly pretty cold himself. "No..." he answered after a slight pause. "Guess there's no point in that." It would be stupid to try to go on the offensive when you couldn't even see the enemy. He couldn't see anyone, aside from Aerith. Though chances were the enemy probably couldn't see any better than they could, which made the move seem sort of questionable...

Despite the annoyance of all the snow getting in them, he was keeping his eyes peeled for any attacks, just in case. "Hopefully it won't last long..."

[Aerith]

I have a bad feeling about this.
--------

Her cries had gone unanswered. She couldn't hear any answers over the storm, anyway. Just as she was about to begin the arduous process of trying to locate Sora, something rammed into her from above. It knocked the breath from her, preventing her from screaming, but it did carry her into the air, much to her shock.

She wished she could see. Was this the Champion's doing?

After what seemed like forever, she was dumped onto the ground. Though, who knew where she was exactly? Even Kairi herself couldn't tell. Her assailant also remained hidden from view thanks to the blinding snow.

"Who are you? Where are you?

[Lagunamov]

In a world of darkness, only blind men can see.

[/size][/center]

The storm kept on raging, the snow hitting the armor hard, concealing Animositas from the girl. It could sense her several meters ahead, quite possibly getting ready for an attack. It mattered little. The sentiment had the upper hand thanks to the storm.

For a while, it remained floating above the ground on the rifle, examining how to proceed. The girl seemed infuriated, or scared. It was hard to tell emotions apart. Of course, emotions would make very little difference. At least for Animositas, that is.

“Who are you?” it mimicked the girl’s voice, letting it be carried by the wind to her ears. And with that, the living armor sped towards her on the Havoc, holding onto its handle with a tight grip and flipping its body mass as it approached. It shifted backwards, lifting the rifle into the air with both hands, and swung it sideways as hard as it could, aiming at its newly acquired target.

[Sky Menace deactivated. Three posts cooldown.]

[Aerith]

I'll have to do this myself this time.
--------

Through the wind, Kairi heard the sound of her own voice come back to her. Was that just an echo? No. It sounded too full to be an echo.

She got her answer soon enough. The sound of something coming at her made her instinctively summon Destiny's Embrace. She barely saw the weapon that had targeted her, but she threw up her Keyblade in an attempt to block it. The impact shuddered up arm and made her stumble back a few paces.

"I'm Kairi. Why are you doing this?"

Holding her Keyblade protectively in front of her, she waited. There wasn't much she could do in this storm, since she could not see her opponent. And attacking blindly would probably put her at greater risk.

Who did she know who could mimic voices? Certainly not Kadaj. And the Champion had said he did not want to kill her. So, who was this?

If she didn't figure it out soon, she might never see Sora again.

[Lagunamov]

Cooling down.

[/i][/size]

She blocked. Impressive, specially considering her impaired sight in this weather condition. But, could defensive actions be enough? Animositas certainly didn’t think so. After the swing, the living armor landed on the snow, sinking deep into it. Some snow managed to get inside the armor around its feet, slowing it down a tad. Walking on those feet of snow was certainly a problem, but Havoc needed to recharge before it could take to the skies again.

And there she went again. What was it with female Keyblade Wielders, always asking for reasons? Her entire existence was reason enough. “Why do you have a Keyblade?" Animositas yelled out in the voice of the last Keyblade wielder it had encountered. Another girl, not much older than the new target. Not that age mattered. Age was indiscriminate when it came to Keys and power.

Taking a couple of steps forward, with the snow parting around its body as it moved, Animositas summoned four small crystal orbs that floated around its body. A couple more steps forward, and an orb of energy, pitch black in color with red aura surrounding it had completely formed in its left arm. A final pair of steps and both the energy orb and one of the crystals had been shot forwards towards the girl, the snow caught in the raging wind parting ways as the projectiles moved.


[Crystal Stalagmites activated, two more posts of use.
Energy Blast casted. One remaining use, five posts cooldown.]

[Aerith]

...Is it ever going to stop snowing?
--------

Whatever was attacking her spoke to her again, but this time in a slightly different voice. "I... I have a Keyblade because Riku gave it to me. Is that why you're attacking me? I don't want to fight. Please."

Unfortunately, her opponent did not share the same sentiment. Kairi could hear--her?--moving through the snow. Light illuminated the area briefly as some sort of ability was activated. Projectiles were coming for her.

Acting quickly, she summoned a sphere of blue light around her to stop both attacks in their tracks. A little bit of confidence surged through her as she felt her fatigue melt away within the shield.

She could do this. She had to.

[Summary:
Kairi used Royal Ward.
Posts until next use: 3
Uses remaining: 2]

[Lagunamov]

Assault.

[/i][/size]

So the Keyblade came from someone else. Interesting, but unimportant. It most likely meant this so called Riku had performed the rite of passage on her, allowing for the ability to summon the weapon. At the very least, she was proving to be a decent target to remove, nullifying Animositas’ attacks with some sort of shield. Good thing there were backup ammo still available.

Sensing the girl not that far anymore, the sentiment began moving faster, starting to sprint, albeit not as fast as it could, and readied two more of the floating crystals, making them float in front of its body as it ran. The rifle morphed into its blade form, deciding on a small weapon for this assault.

When the armor was only three meters away from the girl, it jumped quickly into the air forward, almost gliding above the snow, and shot the two crystals at her, followed quickly by a diagonal slash with its Keyblade.


[Crystal Stalagmites in use. One remaining post. Only one remaining crystal.]