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Kingdom Hearts: Dark Dawn	By : RotSeele Category: Kingdom Hearts > AU - Alternate Universe Views: 3169 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts. I do not make any money from this story.

Chapter List
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Twenty-One - Tsenacommacah/Jamestown

Rinally watched as the forest began to shake.
For a moment, she thought a giant Heartless was coming through the woods, ready to break out of the trees and bowl over all of the warriors. She was prepared to fight, to do her best to keep the two sides from clashing until Kaoru came from Jamestown with the one person who could stop the settlers from making the biggest mistake of their lives.
The Indian braves stood restlessly behind the trees providing their cover, arrows nocked to bowstrings and held at the ready. Their eyes, like Rin’s, were on the other side of the forest, across the wide open field between. The world had been quiet for some time. The birds and animals had all fled, and it seemed as though the wind itself had decided to hold its breath until something explosive happened. And it looked as if something explosive was finally about to take place. The trees shook here and there as something moved among them, and she caught flashes of dark shadows coming closer. She clutched her staff and waited for the Heartless to burst out of the trees and swarm over the waiting men in a tidal wave of chittering darkness.
What came out was worse.
Men bearing guns and other weapons - pitchforks, machetes, swords, clubs - filed out of the trees, their expressions set in a decidedly angry tone. They formed ranks, perhaps two or three men deep, and stood just outside the cover of the trees. Rinally sucked in a deep breath as she saw a white horse emerge from the trees, stopping just behind the ranks of men. Upon the steed’s back was a large man dressed in a dark purple outfit and a ridiculously feathered hat. His meaty hands gripped his horse’s reins and the hilt of a saber, which he was waving around as he shouted at his men. Those carrying rifles raised them up and began to arm them. Those carrying other weapons shifted their weight and let out a roar that would terrify anyone who wasn’t determined to stand and fight for what was theirs.
Rin closed her eyes and fought not to scream. Kaoru! Kaoru, where are you!? This isn’t like facing the Heartless; these are real human lives! The people who die here are gone for good!
The braves hidden among the trees below let out an answering bellow. Rinally opened her eyes and pushed her fear away. Kaoru was trusting her to protect these people. No, not just Kaoru, but Pocahontas and Nakoma as well. She couldn’t let any of them down. She stood abruptly and raised her staff toward the sky, taking a deep breath. She had to stop the attack before it started.
The Thundaga spell Rinally began to shape didn’t draw on her own energy. It drew on the energy of the world around her, on the heat in the air and the fury of the storm that was beginning to build in the sky. It would be powerful and earth-rending, and in the words of her sorcery teacher, very, very, very showy. She wanted it to be showy. She wanted it to be scary. She wanted it to make each side think twice before they decided to bolt off and attack one another. She wanted it to be loud and bright, as if it was being summoned to the earth not by a human, but by a god.
The men yelled wordless cries of battle at one another, and began to charge one another. The land between them shrunk with each stride they took, narrowing Rinally’s window of opportunity quickly. Rinally grasped her staff in both hands, raised it higher. Her voice was drowned out by the thunderous boom of a giant bolt of lightning cracking through the air from the sky to her staff to the ground between the citizens of Jamestown and the braves. The heat seared the air and the bolt itself tore through the earth, flinging up clods of dirt and grass as it plowed through the open space between the two opposing forces. Rin didn’t stop with just the Thundaga spell; she called upon her power and unleashed an Aeroga spell, too, driving the clods of dirt into a tornado of debris that spat out at high speed at both sides, pelting them hard enough to leave bruises. She swung her staff left and right, sending two more, albeit less powerful, Aero spells toward both sides, knocking the men who were still on their feet to the ground.
“And stay down!” Rin shouted, even though they wouldn’t be able to hear her.
Both the villagers and the braves looked to be frozen, their faces stuck in expressions of pure fear and awe. Many of them had pushed themselves to their knees and either had their hands clasped together in prayer fashion or had their hands raised to the sky, begging or praising or questioning. The only one still moving on the field was the man on the white horse.
From the distance Rin was from him, she couldn’t hear what he was saying, only that his voice was very loud and authoritative, and it was filled with hate. When one of his own men began to question him, the saber swung. It was only through sheer luck that the man didn’t have his head taken off by the flashing blade, but he still earned a deep slice along one side of his face that began to bleed profusely. Then the man on the horse raised his saber, pointing it toward the braves that were beginning to regain their feet and bellowed something that seemed to Rin was an order. Some of the men refused, pointing at the land destroyed by Rin’s spells. The man on the horse spat at them, his face turning a mottled shade of red, and he stabbed his fingers at them, yelling loudly. Then he grabbed a gun from a man close to him and kicked his horse into a gallop.
The braves let out their war cries and raised their bows, drawing back on their bowstrings. Rin raised her staff again and this time used the weaker Thundara spell, once again churning up the earth before the horse. The animal shrieked and reared, throwing its rider. The man lost his grip on the gun when he hit the ground, making a noise of pain. The horse bolted clear across the field, refusing to be stopped. The braves, too, retreated from Rin’s spell, stopped only by an older man dressed in the raiment of a chieftain. The man in purple struggled to his feet and frantically grabbed for the gun, only to snatch his hand back as Rin’s Blizzard spell formed a spiky chunk of ice over the weapon, keeping it from being grabbed. As if realizing his most potent weapon had been stolen from him and he was alone facing an army of armed men, the man in purple sprang to his feet and brought his saber forward, making threatening gestures with it.
“Ratcliffe!”
The voice boomed over the battlefield, making everyone stop and turn to look. Rin let out a wild cry of pure joy and rushed down off the hill, crashing through the trees and brush until she emerged out onto the battlefield.
Ahead of her on the opposite side of the field, two horses charged toward the man in purple. On the back of one was Kaoru. He sat on the back of the horse almost awkwardly, as if he wasn’t quite sure how to sit in the saddle. Yet he remained on the animal’s back, gripping tightly to the reins. The other horse had two men on its back - Thomas and the man Rin believed was John Smith - who rode with a little more expertise than Kaoru, even though they were riding double.
Ratcliffe, the man in purple, produced from somewhere inside his doublet a silver-barreled pistol. He aimed it at John and Thomas and bared his teeth in the most cruel expression Rin had ever seen someone make.
Before he had a chance to fire it, there was a deep male shout and a female one, and a stone flew out of nowhere to strike Ratcliffe’s hand with unerring accuracy. He cursed and dropped the gun to clutch his wounded hand, turning to glare at his attacker. Out of the corner of her eye, Rin saw Kocoum struggling with Pocahontas, who held a slingshot. Nakoma stood behind them, clutching her hands and staring at both of them with a worried expression. Then the man dressed as the chieftain approached the struggling pair, making Pocahontas freeze.
The next events happened so quickly, Rin wasn’t sure what exactly took place, only that she needed to abruptly change direction and race as fast as she could toward Pocahontas.
Even as John and Kaoru approached on their racing horses, Ratcliffe bent down and scooped up the pistol. Instead of taking aim at John again, Ratcliffe turned the gun toward Pocahontas. Nakoma saw the move and gave a cry of warning, but it was a little too late.
Just as Ratcliffe’s finger squeezed the trigger, Kaoru’s Guardian Keyblade slammed into Ratcliffe’s arm, changing the aim of the bullet just enough. The gun barked with thunder and Rin saw the chieftain’s eyes go wide before his face screwed up in intense pain and a blossom of blood spurted from his chest area.
“Father!” Pocahontas screamed, shaking off Kocoum’s restraining hold. She ran to her father and scooped him up into her arms, clutching tight to him. Her hand pressed to the wound, blood staining her fingers red. Rinally slid to her knees as she reached Pocahontas, reaching over the woman’s blood-smeared hand to press her own against the wound.
“I’ve got him.” Rin said to Pocahontas, whose eyes began to fill with tears. “I’ve got him.” Her hand began to glow with green light as her Curaga spell began to take effect.
Suddenly, Kocoum let out a fierce war cry and lifted his hatchet toward the sky before charging Ratcliffe. Ratcliffe fumbled with his pistol for a second, then lifted it up again. The pistol barked. Nakoma screamed. Pocahontas and Rinally looked up from Pocahontas’ father in time to see Kocoum’s steps falter. Ratcliffe grinned with victory and fired the pistol again. Kocoum’s legs crumpled beneath him and he collapsed to the ground, which greedily soaked up his blood. He didn’t move. Rinally couldn’t even see his chest rising and falling with breath.
Nakoma screamed again in deep denial and ran forward, only to be caught by Thomas. They had at last reached the battlefield and had dismounted, rushing to try and help, but had arrived scant seconds too late. John raced toward Ratcliffe, but before the man could lift the pistol to fire upon John, Kaoru flung Guardian with more ferocity than Rin had ever seen him throw the Keyblade. The weapon crashed into Ratcliffe with enough force to knock the man’s arm wide, if not break bone, and then John was upon him, yanking the pistol away and punching Ratcliffe square in his mouth. Then he turned the weapon on Ratcliffe and, without taking his eyes off the man, asked, “Kaoru?”
Rin focused her eyes on the wound she was healing, as if doing so would make the impact of Kaoru’s words hurt less. But it didn’t.
“He’s gone.”
Nakoma let out a shrill cry and crumpled to the ground, tears streaming from her face. Thomas clutched her to him, holding her tightly as he cried himself. The men around them, Indian braves and townsfolk alike, lowered their weapons and stared at the body of Kocoum, at John Smith, at Thomas and Nakoma, at Kaoru and Rinally, and at each other. No one seemed willing to raise a weapon anymore. No one seemed willing to make a move beyond dropping their rifle or hatchet or bow and arrow.
Rin looked up at Kaoru. He stood beside Kocoum’s body, Guardian held tightly in his hand. His armor was moving with prismatic light, fully encasing his right arm and his chest. His blue eyes seemed too bright as they focused on Ratcliffe, and whatever was on Kaoru’s face seemed to scare the purple-clad monster, because Ratcliffe’s eyes went wide and his face became pale beneath all that sweat.
“Kaoru,” Rin started, almost afraid of what her friend was considering in that moment.
“Just keep healing.” Kaoru whispered, just loud enough to be heard but with enough of a whipcrack to betray his anger and tell her to stay out of the way.
He started forward, adjusting his grip on Guardian. Ratcliffe scrambled backwards like a crab, trying to get away from Kaoru. His armor was starting to give off a slight diffusion of light that made him seem to almost glow. Kaoru stepped past John, who lowered the pistol and took two quick steps back away from the Keyblade user. Ratcliffe scrambled to his feet and grabbed his saber from where it lay on the ground, then whirled to face Kaoru, trembling.
“You called me a Keyblade rat, back there.” Kaoru said. “Which means you know what I can do. They told you, didn’t they?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about!” Ratcliffe snapped, his saber wavering. He looked to his left and right, looking for help, but the men just stood there, watching.
Kaoru lifted Guardian. “Don’t lie.”
Ratcliffe paled and the saber shook harder. “You aren’t supposed to be here! You weren’t supposed to show up at all! They told me this was a closed world! Not even Sora - whoever he is - had been here before!”
“So they let you have those black rods. They told you how to use them. You used one on John Smith and turned him into a monster. You used him to stir up the men from Jamestown, who have only ever known peace and friendship from Pocahontas and her people, and for what? For the gold that doesn’t exist?” Kaoru snapped. He used Guardian to point behind him. “You killed him for what?! That precious person was destroyed by your greed!”
Ratcliffe’s eyes bulged and he bared his teeth. “You know nothing, boy! The world isn’t turned by good feelings and love! The world is run by the strong! By those who don’t hesitate to get what they want! Those savages have enough gold to make us all kings! To make me a king!”
“We have no gold!” Pocahontas yelled, her voice breaking with sadness. She clutched her father’s hand, then left him in Rinally’s care as she moved to join Kaoru. She stood by his side, her arms spreading wide to take in every bit of the land behind her. “This is our treasure! This land! These people! Our friends and family! They are everything to us! They should be everything to us, not gold or riches or being king!”
“I will have my gold! Even if I have to kill the lot of you!” Ratcliffe’s eyes returned to Kaoru. “And I’ll start with you, Keyblade rat! Yes, they told me about your kind, those who interfere in the affairs of others, strangers in a strange land. They told me about the power of the Keyblade, the vaunted weapon of the Light, and they showed me the power of Darkness. I saw it for myself when I made John my unwitting puppet. You can’t defeat me! You can never defeat me!”
Ratcliffe threw back his head and laughed maniacally as he lifted his saber toward the sky. Behind him the forest roiled and rumbled with darkness. Kaoru tensed as he saw thousands upon thousands of Shadows tumbling out of the trees, joining together until they were one big blob of darkness. Yellow eyes rolled around in a large head before stilling on a face cowled by darkness. The shape of the body resolved itself into two massively muscled arms and a broad chest that had a gaping heart-shaped hole in it. Its thick legs allowed it to tower over the battlefield. Men yelled in shock and bolted away from the giant Heartless, joining the braves who quickly surrounded their wounded chieftain and Rinally, weapons ready to protect them.
The Darkside’s head swept from left to right, then focused on Ratcliffe. Before Kaoru could shout a warning, the Darkside’s hand swept down, hurtling across the open space faster than anything Kaoru had faced before. He barely had enough time to dodge backwards and take Pocahontas with him. The wind from the Darkside’s fingers snatched at the clothes on Kaoru’s back, nearly flinging him into the air. The Darkside’s hand closed around Ratcliffe.
The man’s laughter was suddenly cut off.
The Darkside’s arms bulged suddenly and its head cocked to one side before it began to shudder. The Darkside’s body bulged this way and that, as if there were gasses trapped inside it, seeking a way out. It went on like this for minutes until the disturbances in the Darkside’s body gradually subsided. The monster’s cowl and face began to rearrange itself, resolving into a black likeness of Ratcliffe. He flexed his arms, studying the muscles that bulged with each movement. He turned the monster’s body, grabbing onto the trunk of a thick tree and tearing it, roots and all, from the ground. Laughing, he swung it like a club and then focused on Kaoru.
Kaoru gripped Guardian tightly and planted his feet, ready to fight.
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Kingdom Hearts: Dark Dawn