War Amongst The Dead[Plot]

[Fate]

Battle just keeps going.
--

Before he could land a hit on Raen, snow was flung into Kadaj's face. Then, Raen aimed for his torso with his sword, making sure to get it away fast enough so it wouldn't be disarmed. He supposed the kid had gotten better, much better, since he last saw him. The snow hit him full force, but it didn't stop the remnant from at least defending himself from the blows Raen tried to get to him. Unfortunately, that was about all he could do at this moment, pissing him off. Then he had the nerve to just blast cold air at him, really cold air, before attacking something else.

... Mickey? No, the Dark Mickey thing. Three fighters, two of them being Raen and his friend from Land of Dragons, were attacking the thing. Kadaj whipped his head around to see this, his eyes widening. No one would have been able to escape that attack, their combined efforts well done. The Dark Mickey was killed, which meant all of the fighters would have something to focus on. All of them. Kadaj didn't like these odds, not one bit. And when Loz had his own opponent and Yazoo had not followed them to the Graveyard, it didn't look good for the forces of darkness.

He didn't care. Only cowards left in the middle of battle, and he wasn't one of those. He might as well help Loz. Jumping quickly, he aimed for Leon with a vertical strike, then going horizontal twice. He wasn't leaving until he was either dead or the fight was over.

--

By the time Lillian got to her ship and inside it, she had thought long and hard about leaving the battlefield. Yeah, she was scared of the darkness. Yes, she didn't want it tainting her ever again. But her friends were out there and she needed to help them. She was a soldier for goodness' sake. Running away from battle was just unheard of, cowardly. No other battles had scared her before, so why was she running away from this one?

But how the hell was she going to get back to the battlefield when there was a bunch of snow there already? Fighting in that was far too annoying, which she knew from experience. But, since it wasn't snowing anymore, things could be made a little bit easier. She didn't want to fight in the snow, but maybe there was a way around it...

Elrick. His idea of flying in with the Gummi Ship had been perfect for this. And with her long-ranged attacks, she could pull it off. Fine, no more wasting time. She practically jumped into her pilot seat, starting it up and flying the ship straight back over the battlefield. Once she got there, she could see that the numbers of the fighters had significantly lessened. There were still fighters from both sides, but their numbers had lessened.

Whatever, shooting time. She put the ship on auto-pilot and opened the door, kneeling as she aimed for one of those men dressed in black, the short-haired one. With quick shots, she aimed her Strong Shots at them. However, they didn't end up like they normally did. They were black in color, not blue. What the hell?! That wasn't right... Whatever her shots were now, she didn't like it. But she kept shooting, nonetheless.

[Battle Report:
Lillian used Demolition
Four posts until next use, three uses remaining]

--

... And now he was the only Organization member left in the Keyblade Graveyard. Lexaeus claimed he needed time to think, a lot of it, and left Zexion by himself on the cliff. Now he was stuck watching the fight, the few remaining at least. What to do? He wasn't about to go down there since that would be absolutely pointless. He had done what he could already.

... Or not. A ways away from the battlefield, away from all of the other fighters, there was something peculiar. He wasn't quite sure what it was from this far away... was it Kairi? What was she doing that far away from the rest of the fighters? And was that blood? He couldn't see much from this far away, but it was enough for him to want to investigate. He concentrated and created a Corridor of Darkness, letting it absorb him. Moments later, he arrived at his destination.

Kairi was standing in front of him now, though it sure didn't seem like her.

[/font]

[Lagunamov]

A first time for everything.

With the storm waning and its duty finished, the Sentiment moved back in the snow a couple of steps and looked around. Its focus was drawn to the ground to the side of the rock that now served as a tombstone, looking down to the Keyblade the girl had dropped. Kneeling forward it picked it up, examining it for a couple of seconds before attaching it to its lower back between its belt and the cloth around its waist. A second weapon could certainly come in useful in the future.

Approaching for the last time the rock structure, Animositas reached forward and held onto the handle of the Havoc. It gave it a second of silence for the girl below, before pulling back the weapon from the structure. With that support gone, the pillar collapsed further, trapping the mangled body of the young girl below.

Turning around and after taking notice of all the blood around and on itself, the sentient armor changed its form into that of the fallen one, taking enough notice so as to make the illusion appeared hurt and covered in blood and bruises. The storm had ended, and its presence was better left hidden. Particularly now that someone had emerged from a Corridor of Darkness.

Turning towards the newcomer, the Sentiment spoke for the first time. “What can I do for you?”


[Shadow Facade activated. Kairi's appearance.]

[Castle]

When the false King was cut in half, and the darkness around it faded, Sora shut his eyes and turned away. He had to take a second to remind himself that it wasn't the real King Mickey. Even so, the sight was a little much, and he wasn't about to look at it again.

He opened his eyes and scanned the area. There were still some fights going on, some between people he recognized. He spotted someone nearby, the man who had dealt the final blow on the false King. Sora started to approach him, thinking that speaking to him would be the right thing to do.

Suddenly, a little shock went through him. The sight and smell of blood on the ice became very prominent, but there was something else. He froze, filled with foreboding. It the same thing he'd been feeling since before Sephiroth left.

Something was still very wrong.

He swept his gaze over the battlefield again. It looked like everyone was caught up in their own battles. In this circumstance, that was good enough for him. Sora turned around and jogged back the way he and the others had come, motioning to Riku as he went,

"Come on! I think we can find Kairi with the Highwind!" he called.

He accelerated to a sprint and raced to the gummi ship as fast as possible.

[Fate]

I always have to be the first to find out-- getting very tired of this.
--

The voice sounded like Kairi's voice, and it looked like Kairi. Yet, there was something wrong with this picture. Something wasn't adding up in this picture. How was it possible for Kairi to end up over here, so far away from the other fighters, during the storm and have gotten into a fight with something? The logistics weren't adding up to Zexion. He knew that she had been with Sora and Riku, who were a far way away from here. There was only one explanation.

"You are not Kairi," he said very bluntly, giving the one standing in front of him a wary look. The odd thing was that he still could not sense anything of this person, nothing at all. Could nothing feel different though? It did in this case. Perhaps a clever illusion of sorts. He considered himself the Master of Illusions, but this was... different. Why couldn't he sense anything?

Either way, he knew one thing. Whoever was impersonating Kairi was most likely the thing that killed her. There was no other explanation for it. And, unfortunately, since he was the first one on the scene, he needed to tell the rest; fighting this impersonation of Kairi would do nothing for him or anyone. He would need to tell Riku and Sora first, most likely Riku and not the latter. Sora seemed to be in his Gummi Ship anyhow and Zexion wasn't about to test using a Corridor of Darkness to appear in something that was going to be moving at any second.

With that, he created another Corridor of Darkness, letting it absorb him once more before reaching Riku. He seemed to be following Sora, though that was going to be quickly stopped. "Riku. You need to stay here. I have something that you need to hear."

[/font]

[Lagunamov]

Not so easily fooled it seems.

The youngster who had come to the remote location had seen through the façade quickly. He referred to the form the Sentiment was wearing by name, indicating it had known her, explaining how it could tell so easily. Regardless of whether the cover was intact or not, he disappeared before Animositas could silence him. But, why would it silence him in the first place? Oh, right.

Sora. The Keyblade Master from the girl’s memories. If he became aware of her death, his reaction would be unpredictable. From what it could tell, he would either remain the same but mourn, or go completely ballistic and chase after her murderer, stopping at nothing. And he was already at the Graveyard. It would be only a matter of time before he found out and came to this desolated place.

Animositas would not give him the satisfaction of seeing her murderer so easily. If he wanted it, he’d have to come chasing. And when he did, he would be made privy to her last thoughts of despair. If time weren’t of the essence, it would have tried to dispose of the body further. But, alas, it was best be off as soon as possible. The body would have to simply rest under the pile of rubble.

And with that, the Sentiment stepped into a blue portal of energy, leaving the world that had been its resting place for so many eons.

[Castle]

Sora didn’t notice whether Riku was in the ship with him or not. He was already in the air, scanning the landscape for any kind of sign. The only break in the white monotony of snow were the dark forms of rocks and cliffs, with no hint of red or pink. However, something finally caught his eye. He straightened up on reflex to get a better look at it. It was a pile of rubble, but...

"What...?"

He parked the ship and exited once more onto the surface of the world. The snow crunched under his shoes. Other than that, it was silent, save for the wind. The sounds of fighting were too far away to notice. He cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted Kairi's name. Only his echo answered.

The pile of rubble was in plain sight. Sora found himself drawn to it, his heart rate picking up a notch as those fingers of apprehension squeezed the inside of his chest. Suddenly, he saw the dark red blotches on the stones, and somehow, he knew. He knew, and it was bad.

His eyes widened. His lips parted soundlessly. Once the spell of numbness faded, he stumbled forward and grabbed one of the larger rocks. He pulled it aside with minimal effort and let it fall out of the way. After that, he dug with more urgency, disregarding the scrapes that appeared on his bare fingers.

"No," he whispered as he dug, "No, no..."

And then he found her.

His throat closed. He removed more of the rocks and revealed more of her form, more of the damage. There was blood everywhere. It got on his hands, but he didn't notice. Finally, she was unearthed enough for him to kneel over her. He cupped her cold, pale face in his scraped and bloodied hands.

"Kairi," he said, his voice tight, "Kairi, I'm here. Open your eyes. Please..."

She didn't move. She didn't breathe. Sora brushed her red hair away from her closed eyes. His fingers traveled down her cheeks and across her neck. "Kairi..." He put one hand behind her head and the other behind her shoulders, lifting her up slightly. His arms were shaking. "Kairi... no..."

Slowly, gently, he wrapped his arms around her and held her close to him. His whole body was shaking now, and he rocked back and forth slightly while he cradled her limp and broken form. Tears fell unnoticed from his eyes. He was too busy seeing the past. When it caught up to the present, a single, hoarse cry tore from his throat.

In the end, he couldn't protect her.

[Loz]

Hey-- Who's Shooting At Me?

Great, it was this colorful, glowing sword attack again. Only this time Loz's Dual Hound was pretty much useless, after having just been broken a few minutes ago. Now all he really had to block the assault with was his Velvet Nightmare, which he wasn't able to use as well (it didn't help that he wasn't using it with his dominant hand). It still worked fine, but it was difficult to protect himself completely; it left his left side more vulnerable. This was the reason for the long gash that slipped through his defenses onto that arm.

Luckily, at that moment, Kadaj showed up to show up to help, attacking the man. Part of Loz was glad to have his brother's help in dealing with this guy, only because it was taking so long and it was proving to be harder than he had thought it would be. But at the same time he didn't want to give him the impression that he NEEDED his help; he didn't! Beating this loser was something he could handle himself.

Right as he was about to inform the other remnant of this, Loz spotted something coming down towards him from the corner of his eye. "Huh?" Moving just in time, he managed to avoid the dark bullets, though was still caught in their explosion. Somewhat momentarily blinded, he couldn't get a good look at who was shooting at him. He could at least, however, tell that there were more shots coming his way, so he didn't hesitate to dive out of the way of those.

[Nothingness]

The Swordsman of Legend Takes the Stage

Yes...so many swords. Some legendary, others not so much. But there were still SO MANY!He would make sure to leave this place with at least one sword! But, who would he take from? Let's see, there was a souba, a katana, a rapier, a gunblade and buster sword ("I already own those!"), and a strange, dragon-shaped sword. For a moment, he thought that it was a Locksword, but no--it looked so ineffective. A legendary sword must be powerful and LOOK powerful!

The man cloaked in red watched the fighting, high above on a cliff at the outskirts. His eyes focused on the silver-haired youth with the souba. "It may not be one of legend, but it IS an intriguing sword." He gasped when he saw who the youth was attacking. "Squall!?" It was decided in that moment. His friend would NOT come to harm!

"SQUALL! MY FRIEND! IT HAS BEEN TOO LONG!" Gilgamesh quite literally flew through the air and landed, just as literally, like a stone in snow. Rolling and all. When he leaped onto his feet, he drew Zantetsuken from the rift and said very quickly to his friend, "You may leave, my friend. You have given me this sword, and now I shall defend you with it once again. GILGAMESH FIGHTS AGAIN!" He pointed Zantetsuken at Kadaj. "YOUR WEAPON IS FORFEIT TO ME! And, as for you! ENKIDU! THERE IS FRESH MEAT, HERE!" A rift opened up and out sprung Enkidu, his loyal companion. Fangs barred, the wolf charged at Loz, ready to tear into him.

[Gilgamesh used Summon Enkidu]
---
Raen was glad that the dark King was dead, but his stomach turned at the sight. They hadn't killed some copy--they had simply destroyed the King's REAL body while it was possessed by the darkness. He closed his eyes and shook his head; an image like that wasn't leaving his mind any time soon.

"Speaking of leaving," he turned his mind back towards the battle. Kadaj had left and gone to fight someone else. "Hey, pretty boy! Get you ass back over here!" Raen ran through the snow and fired off three spears of ice at Kadaj. Two versus one was never a fair fight...unless you had the partner.

But he stopped when some really weird looking guy crashed between Kadaj and the person he was dueling. "Uh...what the hell?"

[Raen used Dark Blizzard, two posts until next use]
---
Leon finally felt like the fight was about to end when Kadaj dropped right down and stuck his sword. It took all he had to hold onto the blade, but couldn't jump back in time to avoid getting four long cuts across his chest. "Dammit," he coughed as he caught his breath--he couldn't keep this up much longer now.

Whether for luck, or for whatever cosmic reason, some strange, six-armed man dressed in red appeared, called him friend, and told him to leave. He wasn't about to ask who this really weird looking man was, but he knew that there was no way to keep fighting. "Thanks, uh, Gilgamesh?" He walked backwards, facing Kadaj and Loz the whole time before getting a safe distance away and turning around and moving as quickly as he could towards Cloud and Aerith.

[Aerith]

Back down. Now.
--------

Lanying looked away from the King's body, a gesture that might have been perceived as callous by some. But the time for wallowing in feelings was not now. There were still enemies present who needed to be summarily punished. She wished the Champion had not left. Now, she could not pay him back for what he did to King Mickey.

Revenge would have to come later, if ever. It was not an idea the dragon attached to her spirit supported. Such a desire was the result of an imbalance of emotion, and a dangerous one, at that. It could quickly spiral out of control.

Kadaj, ever so unfocused, had left Raen and moved his attention to a brown-haired swordsman, but Raen was not letting him off the hook so easily. Neither would she.

Of the orbs left orbiting around her, she struck the largest one with her Keyblade, sending it to accompany Raen's ice spears that were headed straight at Kadaj. The remaining two orbs, she struck in quick succession toward the other silver-haired man.

Come.

One simple word was all it took to call Qinglong to her side. The azure dragon instinctively knew what to do. In the air, he shot toward the second remnant, using the confusion created by all the attacks flying around to tear into his target's face at close range.

[Summary:
Eastern Radiance has dissipated.
Posts until next use: 6
Uses remaining: 2

Lanying has summoned Qinglong, the Azure Dragon of the East.
He remains by her side for one more post.]
______________________

Aerith saw Leon heading toward them and hoped that meant they were leaving now. She had had enough of the fighting, especially since now, the Champion was gone. There was no point in killing each other.

She did notice, as Leon came closer, that he was wounded. A dose of healing magic helped fix that up well enough.

"Please. Can we leave now?"

[Summary:
Aerith used Curaga.
Posts until next use: 3
Uses remaining: 5]

[Fate]

Kinda busy.
--

Boring. Leon wasn't up to fight with him full force right now. Loz did a pretty good job at handling that. But now... what the hell? A six-armed man landed in front of him and seemed to know Leon by some other name. And was yelling at the top of his lungs. Could he speed up this conversation, or move? He wanted to finish Leon right here and now and this man was in his way. Oh wait, Raen was here too and wanted him to come over to fight some more. It was nice to know people actually wanted to kill him.

And send spears at him too along with his friend's light ball. The snow made it harder to dodge, which made two of the three spears hit as well as the sphere of light. Kadaj recoiled a couple feet and held the spot they hit for a second, then glared at the large man standing in front of him. Six-armed man, or Raen? Six-armed man was more interesting. And shouting at him. Loudly. He was sort of forced to listen. Sorry Raen, Kadaj is busy now. With the Souba in hand, he pointed it at Gilgamesh and leaped into action, attacking from up high. Let's see how good this guy was.

Oh, yeah, his brother was getting attacked by a dragon and a wolf. Too bad. He had better be able to hold his own.

--

Lillian stopped shooting, the silver-haired guy getting attacked by a wolf and a dragon. Why add to it? There weren't even many people of darkness left to attack besides these two and the silver-haired guy with a wicked long sword. Maybe it was time to leave now. Did they really need to draw out this fight much longer? She didn't feel like it anyway.

"Hey, Elrick!" she yelled out as loud as she could, "Wanna leave now?" She could keep shooting from up here if he said no. Silver-haired guys needed to go down. All of them.

[/font]

[Cloud]

Ready To Leave

The silver-haired man seemed to have been distracted pretty easily. He had apparently already forgotten about Cloud completely, now fighting two of the other warriors from the side of Light instead, neither of which he really recognized. Okay then... They seemed to be handling themselves just fine though, so there was no reason for him to get involved in that fight.

He was about to come to the conclusion that there was nothing for him to do, when he heard Ava challenging him again. Oh, were they still fighting? Cloud hadn't thought so. Honestly, he didn't really want to fight the Chaosling, who clearly had no intention of harming anyone. So it wasn't like there was any point in doing so. Unlike Ava, he didn't exactly consider battles to be fun. Still, he didn't really want to tell him no and seem like a complete jerk, and he definitely didn't want to come across as a coward. Maybe a quick fight wouldn't hurt.

Fortunately, at that moment, Leon came walking over to them, serving as a distraction. Cloud realized that he looked pretty worn out, not to mention the multiple wounds that he was bleeding from, and suddenly felt bad that he hadn't bothered to go help his friend at all. "Are you all right?" he asked seriously. At least Aerith was casting a healing spell on him.

"No objections here." Staying in the Keyblade Graveyard any longer was not something he was interested in. And seeing as the Champion had already left and the battle seemed to be over, there was really no reason to stay. He glanced over at Leon, as if waiting for him to announce that they were leaving.

[Loz]

There Should Be A "One-Crazy-Pet-Per-Fight" Rule

The blindness caused by the shots was didn't last long, quickly fading away. They had, apparently, come from some girl in a gummi ship that was flying up above. Loz was about to go on the offensive against whoever-she-was, when he was suddenly distracted by some very loud yelling coming from behind him. Turning around, he saw it was coming from some crazy looking six armed man in red, who had appeared.

Kadaj could handle the mutant freak, Gilgamesh. Loz had his own target to worry about; brown-haired guy, Squall (as he had just been called), seemed to think he was going somewhere. Yeah right.

Unfortunately, the remnant's hands were becoming a bit full as it was. Out of nowhere, a wolf had appeared next to Six-Arms and was now charging straight at him. Like that wasn't enough, at almost the exact same moment some Asian girl summoned a freaking dragon, which was also heading his way. "You've got to be kidding me."

Unsure of how to block both attacks, not to mention generally unnerved by the viciousness and appearances of the strange creatures, he chose to simply try evading his attackers for the time being. Without waiting to have a huge chuck of flesh bitten off, he turned and bursted about 30 feet in the opposite direction.

Now with a little bit more room to breath, he looked back and began shooting at the beasts his Velvet Knightmare, firing at both.

[Used Speed Burst thing; 3 posts until next use]

[Nothingness]

FACE MY WRATH!

Leon felt the pain alleviate with Aerith's magic. "Thanks a million. And yeah, we're leaving." Leon lead Aerith and Cloud back to the airship, where they found Yuffie already waiting to leave. Within minutes, their ship had taken off and the Keyblade Graveyard was quickly becoming just another star in the distance.
---
"Uh, so...yeah." Raen scratched the back of his head and walked over to Lanying. "I don't know about you, but I don't think there's much we can do with Big-Red over there." He wouldn't deny that he wanted to take down Kadaj really badly, but he'd rather just take out the remnant. And besides, if this freaky looking guy beat him first, well, more power to him.
---
What? That was his attack!? "How pathetic!" Gilgamesh raised Zantetsuken and blocked Kadaj's attack with ease. At the same time, he reached into the rift and pulled out Orihalcum, the short sword that belonged to the monkey-child, Zidane. Well, in some dimension he stole borrowed it. Regardless, where it came from isn't important. Gilgamesh attacked Kadaj's side quickly with the sword, using Zantetsuken's broad side as a pseudo-shield. "I could beat you with four arms tied behind my back!"

Enkidu, on the other hand, took a bullet to his hind leg and quickly jumped to the side, avoiding the rest of the spray. He growled at the remnant, though when he saw the dragon approach alongside him he howled in appreciation. Renewing his assault, he began to zigzag towards Loz, loping through the snow. Once he got close enough, he dove, low, eagerly attempting to wrap his jaws around Loz's leg.

[Aerith]

No further need to stay.
--------

Qinglong twisted fluidly in mid-air to avoid the bullets, and a stream of fire shot from his jaw toward the silver-haired gunman. Immediately after that, the dragon flew upward and vanished in a burst of light.

Lanying turned to Raen and nodded. "I agree. We have lingered here for far too long. The Champion was the most important concern, and he has left. To where, I do not know."

In the back of her mind, she was worried about her home. Certainly, the Champion had largely been quiet since the destruction of Radiant Garden, but there was no way of knowing if he would decide to resume such destruction. And if he did, there was always the chance that he would choose her homeworld first.

"We should leave."

[Lagunamov]

I need something better to do.

How disgusting. Elrick’s face contorted itself, trying to keep his anger down from what he had just seen. The mockery of the King that had been sent to attack was not a mockery at all, but his actual body reanimated and coated by darkness. Or, that’s what it looked like at the very least. Either way, it was sickening. Only someone twisted could ever conceive such a thing.

Sheathing his sword, he stood and looked around. The battles around were starting to seem so pointless without the man who had commanded the dark forces around. The same thought process seemed to be shared among people, with many of them leaving gradually.

And then he saw someone he knew pulling off a similar trick of his. The sight made him chuckle beneath his breath. “I think we’ve been spending too much time together Lillian!” he joked as he looked up at her, standing on her ship and shooting at some guy on the ground. “But, I’m good to go. Throw me a rope or something.”