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Kingdom Hearts: Dark Dawn	By : RotSeele Category: Kingdom Hearts > AU - Alternate Universe Views: 3168 -:- 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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Forty-Four - Edge/Midgar

Kai barely heard Rinally’s scream as he ducked under the howling morning star aimed for his head. He brought Sanctuary up in retaliation, catching the chain with the hooked blade at the end of it. He spun his Keyblade in a wide circle to loop the chain around the long part of his weapon, then yanked as hard as he could while twisting his body in a circle. He heard Haiku grunt as she lost her grip on her morning star, and continued with his followthrough to throw her own weapon back at her. She wasn’t expecting that, nor was she expecting Kai to flicker through the air after the weapon and land three successive hits on her torso with Sanctuary.
In the moment Kai had spun, he’d caught a good glimpse of the situation taking place on the other side of the battlefield. He saw Haiku’s companion, the man with the claymore, staring at a giant hole in the church’s side with a wide manic grin. Rinally was a good twenty or thirty feet away from the man, clutching to her staff with wide maroon eyes. Kaoru was nowhere to be seen. Kai quickly figured out what must have happened.
As much as he wanted to go to Kaoru’s side, as much as he wanted to reach Rin, he couldn’t afford to. His enemy was still very much active, and if he couldn’t take care of her, he couldn’t take care of the man either. But he knew he was starting to slow down. He wasn’t used to his Black Knight mode yet, and he couldn’t sustain it as long as he wanted to. He could use it in bursts, and it had helped him against his enemies only twice before now. If he didn’t put Haiku in the dirt soon, he would lose his advantage and he would be relegated back to his usual tricks. He could only hold onto the hope that Kaoru would recover soon and would get back to the fight in time to protect Rin.
“He’s dead, isn’t he?” Haiku laughed, clutching her side. Kai looked at her and decided his blow must have bruised, or maybe even broken, her ribs. “That’s too bad, don’t you think? All that potential, wasted. You know, you’ve got some potential yourself. Why don’t you consider coming to work for us?”
Kai responded by pushing off with his left foot and striking for Haiku’s neck with Sanctuary’s edge. She bent backwards and grabbed her morning star’s handle as she did, flicking the spiked ball up toward Kai’s face. The flickering black material that acted as both a cloak and “wings” came up between him and the ball, doing its best to be a shield. The spikes still pierced through the flickering material and came close to gouging out Kai’s eye. Kai disengaged, spinning around to face Haiku again. He went low, changing his center of gravity, and adjusted his grip on Sanctuary.
Haiku started laughing. “I suppose you’re right. If it were that easy, we would have Sora and his little brigade on our side, wouldn’t we?”
Kai felt a bloom of heat against his back and heard Rinally’s voice fading in the background. He heard a deep male laugh and it took all his willpower not to look. “You really are overconfident, aren’t you?”
“Kid, I’ve been fighting longer than you’ve been alive.” Haiku told him, twirling her morning star to build up speed. “I’ve been fighting this war between Darkness and Light since the beginning of it all. You only recently awakened to your Keyblade. And this fancy armor of yours? What do you really expect that to do?”
Kai shrugged. “I expect it’s going to protect me. It’s armor.”
Haiku laughed. “You’ve got a good sense of humor, kiddo.”
“What do you expect to do, lady? You’re fighting a war that can’t be won. Darkness and Light are two sides of the same coin. You can’t destroy one without destroying the other.”
“It isn’t about winning. It’s about protecting the worlds. You Keyblade wielders disrupt the careful balance between Light and Darkness, and each time you fight, you tilt the balance too far one way or another. If you’re gone-“ Haiku stopped, her teeth bared in a feral smile. “I don’t know whether to be impressed with you or severely disappointed.”
Kai shrugged again. “I don’t really care how you feel. But I get it now.”
“It really is a shame. You and your little friend Kaoru have some of the rarest Keyblades in the known worlds. You two could be of real use to us if you chose to switch sides.”
“I’ll tell you the same thing I told Hiromu. I picked Kaoru. He’s my Light. You won’t be able to sway me one way or another.”
Haiku’s eyes flicked to Rinally. “And her? What about your little sorceress?”
Kai’s Heartless eyes flashed. “I picked her, too. She’s my friend.”
“Well, your friend is about to die. Shouldn’t you go save her?”
Despite his instincts telling him to look, Kai managed to keep his attention focused on Haiku. He launched himself at her with all the speed he could muster, but didn’t quite launch into his Nightmare Raid attack. He didn’t want to use that much power just yet. Haiku wasn’t worth it, and he needed to save his strength to face the man with the claymore. He knew Rinally was handling herself; he could smell the smoke in the air, the burning scent of ozone, and he could feel the chill of ice and heat of fire against his skin. As long as she didn’t run out of mana - which, if she got the opportunity to drink those mana potions Elena had given her, she wouldn’t - Rinally could hold her own for as long as it took for him to reach her. He swung Sanctuary slowly for all the power behind it, exploring Haiku’s defenses. She seemed to know what he was after, because she kept her morning star swinging and close to herself, rather than trying to lash out with it and keep him at a distance.
How long they traded blows, Kai didn’t know. He ignored everything else around him, even that pulsing feeling of intense Light against his mind, to focus on fighting Haiku. She was grinning at him, batting his strikes aside with practiced ease. Kai knew he was outclassed here, even for all his strength. He couldn’t do this on his own, but he was damn well going to try.
He ducked under the chain of the morning star and dropped low. He avoided Haiku’s kick to his solar plexus and caught her ankle with the hooked blade of Sanctuary. He yanked hard, swinging his arm wide to pull her off balance, only to find the tables turned on him. Her smirk was his only warning that she’d tricked him, which barely saved his life as the spiked ball of the morning star howled in for his face. Kai tapped into his power over Darkness and flickered away before the spiked ball crashed into his skull, but when he reappeared only five feet away from Haiku, on his knees and using Sanctuary to just keep himself upright, he could feel hot blood sliding down his face.
He reached up and gingerly touched the gash that went from the edge of his left orbital socket to the front of his chin. He couldn’t tell how deep it was, but it was incredibly painful and bleeding profusely.
I can’t keep this up. Kai thought as he pressed his hand to the wound. It stung and protested the pressure, but Kai didn’t have anything else with which to use to staunch the bleeding. I can’t get close to her, and I can’t get within her guard long enough to really hurt her. I think I broke some ribs, but they don’t seem to be bothering her. Kaoru, where the hell are you?!
He felt a hand grasp his shoulder and cool healing magic flowed through his body. He flinched as he felt his wound stitching itself up, leaving only smooth, flawless skin beneath his hand. Rinally crouched beside him, her head turned away from Haiku to look at the man with the claymore. She was panting, with sweat rolling down her face. She was dirty and her clothes were torn, but she was still ready to fight. Kai nodded to her and together they rose, standing back to back, facing their enemies.
“Looks like the calvary’s not coming, brats.” growled the man with the claymore. “Got any last words?”
Despite himself, Kai grinned. “Yeah, I got some. Go fu-“
The claymore came howling in toward them faster than Kai could react and faster than Rinally could cast a defensive spell. Haiku and her morning star attacked at the same time, catching them in a pincer attack that would end up with both of them dead no matter how they decided to react.
Kai watched his end coming. Rinally clung to him, her eyes wide and filled with frustrated tears.
The air suddenly shimmered with prismatic light and both the blade of the claymore and the spiked ball of the morning star were suddenly stopped. Kai recognized the shield immediately: it was Kaoru’s Holy Shield.
Rin let out a soft breath. “He can’t cast this without being close to us.”
“But he did.” Kai replied, just as shocked as Rin.
A pulse came off the Holy Shield then, clear like a ripple in a lake. The claymore and morning star were thrown backwards, and as they went, so did their wielders. Haiku and her companion hit the dirt, tumbling in a helter-skelter manner before coming to a violent stop. Another pulse rippled off the Shield, but this time inward, brushing against Kai and Rinally. Kai couldn’t help the flinch he gave because of the touch of the Light, but his Darkness reacted, and his fatigue slipped away little by little. He glanced at Rinally, noticing that her skin had regained some color and there was a fierce fire in her maroon eyes. He grinned.
“He’s my Darkness.” Kaoru’s voice came from behind them all, from the direction of the church. “And she’s my best friend. They’re my greatest treasures, and my greatest power. I won’t let you hurt them.”
Both Kai and Rinally turned toward the church, unsure of what they would see. It was definitely Kaoru. Kai recognized Guardian, the gold and white Keyblade softly glowing as it was held in Kaoru’s right hand. But Kaoru seemed different somehow.
“He’s wearing armor just like you.” Rinally said, her voice tinged with awe. “White Knight.”
Kai looked from Rin back to Kaoru just as the blonde boy stepped a little closer with a measured, deliberate step. He realized she was right, but she was wrong, too. Kaoru’s armor wasn’t like his at all. Kai used the power of Darkness to form his armor from Darkness itself, encasing his limbs in hard shadows and the deep light that existed in all Darkness. Kaoru had used the power of Light to armor himself.
The plate armor was form-fitting to Kaoru’s body, glowing softly with muted light. It didn’t seem like it would protect him at all, but Kai knew differently. The pure light encircled his chest and stomach, and trailed down his thighs and behind him in an almost cloth-like fashion, as if he were wearing a coat rather than armor. Darkness lurked at the very edges of those plates, revealing the deep darkness that existed behind every Light. His legs and arms were covered in chainmail-like armor that glimmered each time Kaoru took a step forward. Armored boots went up to his knees. Like Kai, Kaoru had no helmet, but his electrically charged, fly-away blonde hair did little to hide the white diadem that wound around his head. Small motes of light trailed around his shoulders, coalescing and flitting apart as they decided, giving the impression of wings.
Reaching them, Kaoru lifted his hand, and the Holy Shield burst apart into tiny motes of light, flickering and disappearing into nothingness. Then he stepped between Kai and Rinally, forming a triangle with Light as its head, and Darkness and Shadow behind. Kaoru raised Guardian and pointed it toward Haiku and her companion. He didn’t say anything, didn’t give a signal, but Kai and Rinally knew what to do.
Both Kai and Kaoru shoved off, blurs of white and black, speeding toward Haiku and her companion. Sanctuary and Guardian struck the morning star and the claymore respectively, driving Haiku and her companion backwards. Kaoru and Kai kept close to one another, weaving their attacks into a sinuous dance that allowed no quarter for their enemies, nor did it allow them to get a fix on where the next attack would come from. With the power of Light and Darkness behind their attacks, Kai and Kaoru pounded away at their enemies, relentless and unforgiving. Now they had Haiku and her companion running on the defensive, and they were giving everything they had to their attacks, committing every ounce of power to their blows. Behind them, Rinally cast her healing spells, Cures and Curagas sent their way if she even thought they might need it. She even launched a few offensive spells when she found an opening, but they weren’t as powerful as they could have been.
Kai and Kaoru split apart at last, each one taking on their own opponent. Kai squared off against Haiku again, while Kaoru once more faced the man with the claymore. No matter how they moved, it seemed as though Kai and Kaoru were innately aware of each other, knowing exactly where to move to keep from getting into each other’s range. The noise that filled the area was deafening as Keyblades crashed against the morning star and claymore. Despite their inexperience, Kai and Kaoru were holding their own better than they had before against Haiku and her companion. Both Haiku and her companion were no longer smiling, rather wearing serious expressions as they met the attacks of their opponents. It wasn’t so much that they were evenly matched, but that Kaoru and Kai could move almost instantly to react to whatever Haiku and her companion decided to try.
Kaoru slid Guardian along the claymore’s edge on an angle, allowing his body to slide past the slash and close the distance between him and the black-eyed man. He released Guardian’s hilt with one hand and slammed his closed fist, knuckles first, into the man’s side, just under his last rib. The man grunted and dropped his shoulder, shoving Kaoru backwards so he could get the claymore between them. Kaoru danced backwards and drew his arm back to release Guardian in a hard throw. At the last instance, the Keyblade exploded into bright golden motes, and Cascade rained down on both of them. The black-eyed man howled in severe pain as the prismatic rain touched his skin and he thrashed like a wild animal in a trap. He swung his claymore as if that would help his situation, but all it seemed to do was make things worse. Each time he cut through an array of the motes, they would explode into a thousand more, and a thousand more again, becoming a fine mist that seemed to cover every inch of him.
Kaoru caught Guardian as it reformed and rushed toward the black-eyed man, coming in low. He avoided a wild swing of the claymore, feeling the wind of it rush over his skin. He flinched, but held his course, rushing toward the black-eyed man as fast as he could. He struck fast and struck hard, landing successive hits on the man’s hips, sides, and chest. He didn’t feel anything give under his strikes, but he was certain his opponent would be sporting some nasty bruises if he survived Kaoru’s assault. He took a moment to glance toward Kai, watching his friend become more or less a black blur as he spun around Haiku, striking at her with Darkness-enhanced speed. Kaoru looked back toward his opponent, ducking under a strike aimed for his head and juked to one side, angling Guardian down and to the left to let the claymore scrape down the Keyblade instead of Kaoru’s body. Sparks flew from the collision of the two metals, showering Kaoru with the bright motes. He closed his left eye to protect it from the bright light, scared that the sparks would land on his skin and burn him.
Cascade finally stopped falling, leaving Kaoru facing his opponent without the shimmering display of his Keyblade’s power.
The black-eyed man’s lips split into a wide, feral, vicious grin. The claymore shivered as he hauled back on the weapon, bringing it up for another attack. He lunged forward faster than Kaoru had expected him to be able to move, and it was just by sheer luck and Rinally’s Barrier spell that Kaoru managed to avoid being skewered. The claymore skidded along the Barrier and kicked up a cloud of dust as it slammed into the ground, but it didn’t remain stuck for long. Using his body like a pendulum, the black-eyed man swung himself to the opposite side of the claymore and yanked it out of the earth, showering Kaoru with clods of dirt. He saw the glint of sunlight on metal and threw himself to one side, falling into a tumble roll that brought him back to his feet so he could swing Guardian around and stop the claymore from digging into his spine. Their was a high-pitched squeal as metal struck metal, and Kaoru twisted his body out of the path of the claymore to avoid being sliced on its sharp edge.
“Not bad, kid.” the black-eyed man growled. “Not bad at all.”
Kaoru didn’t reply, staring at his opponent and trying to catch his breath. He had to defeat this man, and defeat him soon. He didn’t know how long he was going to be able to stay in White Knight mode, and he was already feeling the strain of sustaining the armor along with the exhaustion born of his on-going battle. Still, he couldn’t see a way to defeat the enemy before him. The man was bigger and stronger, and certainly more experienced. He knew how to use his weapon as both offense and defense, and he wasn’t giving Kaoru much of an opportunity to get within his guard. Cascade had been Kaoru’s best chance, but even with the dazzling display of light-infused rain, he hadn’t been able to get close.
“You know,” the man said, “you could stop all this right now. All you have to do is pledge yourself to us. To the Brotherhood. We can teach you how to use your power to its fullest. We’ll protect you. We’ll give you everything you could ever dream of.”
“I want my friends back.” Kaoru said sharply. “I want Hiromu and Tae back. I want Paradise City back. I want you to stop trying to destroy everything Sora’s trying to protect.”
When he saw the man’s lips tic to one side, Kaoru knew the attack was coming and coming fast. He saw the feint for what it was and jumped high, avoiding the sweep of the claymore that should have hit his ankles. He saw the surprise in the man’s eyes as he came down and knew the man was overbalanced; he couldn’t retreat in time to avoid Kaoru’s next strike, and would have to abandon his weapon in order to gain a safe distance. Knowing this, Kaoru feinted for the man’s arm, as if to break his wrist to keep him from being able to swing the claymore if he managed to regain the weapon. As the man released the claymore’s hilt to avoid the strike, Kaoru switched his target, bringing his Keyblade down low for the man’s knee. Too late did his opponent realize the true target, and he wasn’t able to avoid Guardian as it howled in for the vulnerable joint.
SNAP
The sound was loud and wet. The man let out a savage howl as his knee broke. Without the claymore now to balance him, he fell heavily to the ground. He clutched his broken limb, howling like a savage wind or rabid wolf. Those black eyes focused on Kaoru and his lips lifted in a feral snarl. Kaoru lunged forward, determined not to let the man get another attack in. Guardian sped for the man’s chest, intending to intercept any attack that was coming, as well as to try to keep the man down. Instead, Guardian hit dirt as the man rolled to one side. But rather than going for the claymore and continuing the fight, the man raised his hand and opened a portal of pure darkness. Kaoru recognized the forming image on the other side as the Paths, the World Between Worlds.
“I won’t forget this, Keyblade brat!” the man snarled. “The next time we meet, I will kill you!”
“Stop!” Kaoru started forward, but there was nothing he could do. The man practically fell through the portal and it closed immediately after him. Kaoru slowed to a halt, staring at the space where the man had once been.
He heard a woman cry out, and looked up to the sky and saw Kai hooking Sanctuary’s blade around Haiku’s ankle as she hung almost suspended in the air above him. Then Kai swung his Keyblade, sending Haiku hurtling back down to the ground. She hit the ground with enough force to create a small crater. Kai landed lightly, his Black Knight mode dispelling as soon as he was still. In sympathy, or maybe because Kaoru was just as exhausted as Kai, his White Knight mode burst off his body in a corona of light. Holding Guardian tightly, Kaoru hurried to join his friends, hoping that Haiku wouldn’t just vanish like her companion.
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Kingdom Hearts: Dark Dawn