Kingdom Hearts ~another side~ Ch. 13

[Hayate]

A world that straddles the boundary between light and dark… Unwelcome guests beware…

Kingdom Hearts ~another side~

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~ Report 13: Lost in Oblivion ~[/b][/u]

With Roche in possession of the Gummi Ship NORA, Ciel had no means of escaping this floating island in the depths of black. Moreover, would his friends be able to locate him? The boy’s eyes once again fall upon the distorted castle behind him, strangely drawn to it. Was it the warmth of its light that was pulling him in, or the temptation of the darkness?

In either case, Ciel found himself standing in the citadel’s main foyer a mere handful of moments later. The entire room glistened a pale bluish-white. Intricate rose patterns decorated the walls, and diamond patterns lined the floor and ceiling. There was a distinct majesty about the room that reminded Ciel of Olympus Coliseum; at the same time, it brought thoughts of Aubade Town to his mind, though he knew not why.

A deafening slam pulls the lad’s eyes rearward, as the door he’d entered through closes shut. Whatever mysterious force drew him into the castle wasn’t about to let him leave. “…” He keeps to himself for the time being and gazes forward once more. Only one other door led out of the room, and it seemed to be Ciel’s only remaining option. Something was keeping him here, so he decides to seek it out…and disable it.

The large door slowly creaks open, as if sensing his approach, and Ciel steps into the blinding light beyond.

In the middle of his forward march, the clack of Ciel’s shoes against the rock-hard floor relaxes to that of a soft rustle, like the crunching of grass underfoot. The intense brightness surrounding him lifts…

“!!!”

…and he finds himself on Aubade Town’s Twinkle Hill of all places.

“I… I’m home…!?”

At the edge of the hill, leaning against a four-foot-high fence, stands a trio of friends looking out toward the white vastness Aubade Town so comfortably observed. The two girls stood almost equally in height (with the blonde winning out by just a couple of inches) while the boy’s height was roughly 2/3 theirs.

Ciel recognized the boy and the redhead in an instant, even with their backs turned. “Roche… Marin…” The blonde he recognized as well, albeit with a bit more shock. “Relena…?”

Relena turns to the teal-haired kid at her rear and motions a friendly wave. “Hey! You’re late!”

“W-What?”, a puzzled Ciel mutters. “Who, me?”

Just then, a fourth boy runs out from behind Ciel to join the three at the hill’s edge. He appeared to be between Roche and the girls in terms of age, and like Ciel, he had a full head of blue-green hair. Breathless, he greets the trio upon approach. “Hey, guys!”

“It’s about time, Ciel.”, comments Marin. “We almost gave up hope!”

“Probably taking another of his extra-long naps.”, Relena adds.

Ciel watches on as the group shares a laugh. “Wait. I remember this. This was back before the Heartless showed up. …Before Relena left us.”

The four friends look out toward the sunset, its rays of red and orange washing over the city. A brisk autumn wind blows over, and the group’s hair sways to its rhythm.

“I’m surprised you guys decided to spend time with me today.”, Relena begins to her entourage. “I don’t think your folks would like that you’re hanging out with such a ‘bad influence’.”

“You’re not a bad influence, Relena.”, says little Roche. “You’re lots of fun!”

Relena gives a moved smile as she ruffles Roche’s hair. “Heh. And you’re sweet for saying so. This may be the most boring city ever…but as long as you guys are around…it’s not so bad.”

“…Relena…”, Ciel somberly whispers at the four’s rear, wondering how a soul such as Relena’s could change so drastically. “…Huh?”

At that moment, the shadows that the group cast on the grass appear to spring to life; they detach themselves from the ground and take the form of two Shadows, a Soldier, and a Darkball.

Instinctively, Ciel draws the Pierce the Skies Keyblade and takes an attack stance. “Tch! Even in my memories…!”, he grumbles before charging in.

With a swift dash-and-slash, he makes quick work of the Soldier and one of the Shadows, but the remaining Shadow and Darkball manage to slither out of harm’s way and toward the other end of the hill.

Succumbing to his basest of Keyblade master instincts, Ciel gives chase. “Get back here!”

As the two Heartless flee through a light-filled doorway that opens up, Ciel follows and winds up in a white room much like the castle’s main foyer. There, he corners the Shadow and Darkball, now joined by a Wyvern and a Defender. Nevertheless, Ciel stands his ground. “Hmph!”

A brief battle ensues, and the Heartless are dispatched with a bit more effort than is typically required from the kid with the Keyblade. He tucks his weapon away and takes a moment to catch his breath and assess. “So much for finally being back home… What’s the deal with this place? It’s showing me my own memories? Why…?” A tingling sensation in Ciel’s hand turns his eyes downward as something suddenly materializes between his fingers: a strange blue crown-shaped card. Within the card was an image of Aubade Town. “One question gives way to another…”, gripes the boy as he grasps the mysterious card tightly. “Well… I’m not gonna get the answers I want just standing here.” Facing north, Ciel climbs to the top of a small flight of steps and enters the opposing door.

The next floor brings Ciel to his home world once again -- this time, in the middle of a raging inferno. “Whoa! W-What the…!?” Understandably alarmed at first, he calms once realizing the illusion at play -- the flames didn’t burn, nor were they even hot. “This gets weirder and weirder by the second…”, the boy comments. Upon closer inspection, Ciel comes to realize he was standing inside an average Aubade Town household. And as he puts his ears to the wind, he notices a chilling sound beyond that of the crackling flames: the sound of spiteful laughter. He approaches a nearby window, peers through the splintered glass, and spots a figure standing right outside.

The figure was that of a female with golden shoulder-length hair and a grin that oozed malice.

“!!!” Dashing for the front door, Ciel grips the doorknob, flings the door open, and leaps into the light. “Relena!”, he cries out into the void, finding himself in yet another white room. “…That look in her eyes… It didn’t look…human…” During the teen’s in-thought spell, another group of Heartless appears to confront him -- three Neoshadows, a Wizard, and an Invisible -- prompting him to heave a sigh of frustration. “Clear a floor, and the Heartless show up… Perfect.” Drawing the Pierce the Skies again, Ciel goes to work.

…With slightly more effort than before, the Heartless party is eliminated, and Ciel is left even more winded. “Never thought I’d get sick of one place so much so fast…”, remarks he before moving on to the next floor.

‘Level 3’ sees Ciel return to the past Aubade Town a third time, this time as part of a crowd of residents in Morning Plaza. The mob faces down Relena, apparently driving her away from the city.

With a look of desperation, Relena shouts at the crowd. “You’re kicking me out!? You can’t be serious!”

‘Wait… Is this…?’

“Kicking me out of my own house is one thing, but out of my own world!? I’ve lived here my whole time! Where am I supposed to go!?”

The crowd fills with assorted unintelligible murmurs, but they made it abundantly clear that they didn’t care what Relena should do from here on or where she should go.

In the face of this unbelievable act of cruelty, Relena pleads to those in the crowd she considered friends. “M-Marin! Claire, Serah! Why are you guys just standing there!? You’re not even gonna stick up for me!? Say something!”

Ciel spots Marin, Claire, and Serah in the crowd as well, and he too wondered why they refused to defend the would-be evictee. ‘They…won’t even look her in the eye…?’

“After all we’ve been through, you’re turning your back on me…? How could you…?” Relena’s eyes begin to well up with tears, and she bares her teeth in betrayed anger. “I hate you! I hate you all!”, she screams.

“Stop…”, says Ciel, putting his thoughts into words. “I don’t want to see anymore of this…”

“You’re just like the Heartless -- unfeeling and self-indulgent…!”

“Please… No more…”

“I hope the darkness devours all of you!!!”

Ciel brings his hands up to plug his ears. “STOP! ENOUGH!” Once the crowd noise dies down and Relena ceases her shrieks of hate, he removes his hands from his ears and opens his eyes to find the crowd of Aubade Town citizens had vanished; only he and Relena remained. The blonde keeps her head down and her hands at her sides. She made no sound. “…Relena?”

The silent Relena reacts to Ciel’s call to her with a mild twitch. All of a sudden, in a spectacle that could only be described as nightmarish, the teenage girl undergoes a horrific transformation: her skin, hair, and clothes turn black. Her body convulses violently as she grows in stature. She develops a much more muscular build. Her arms grow longer; her legs become shorter and thin out toward the feet. Her hair becomes like tendrils that completely enwrap her face until only her eyes were visible. Two small, twisted wings sprout on her back. And perhaps most bizarre of all, a great heart-shaped cavity appears in her abdomen.

Ciel goes cold with paralyzing fear as he stares down the menacing gaze of a Darkside.

As he stands there with eyes open wide, the towering Heartless knocks him clear into Hub Park with a firm backhand.

Ciel lands in the park grass with a thud and a short skid across the ground. “Ugh… Okay… That hurt…”, he groans, struggling to stand up. The Darkside wastes no time in advancing upon its prey after its attack, and it looms over Ciel with mute anticipation. “Okay, ‘Tentacle Face’…”, taunts the boy as he readies the Keyblade. “…Let’s dance…!”

[BGM: Destiny’s Force]

The Darkside starts out by curling its clawed fingers into a fist, enshrouds it in evil energy, and hurls its empowered fist down at the boy below. With a well-timed leap backward, Ciel evades the incoming punch and the shockwave it generates. When the Darkside’s fist collides with the ground, however, the energies enveloping it cause a swirling black vortex to open up, through which numerous Shadows emerge. Ciel grits his teeth at this, as this was one of his least favorite types of Heartless: ones who summon and employ lesser Heartless to support them. Forced to grin and bear it, the teal-haired boy quickly disposes of the Shadows via Strike Raid. As soon as the Keyblade returns to Ciel’s hand, he sprints up the length of the Darkside’s arm and advances toward its head. Once within range, he lets loose a rapid attack combo that severs a number of the Heartless’ tentacles, closing the combo with a fierce Windcutter. The Darkside reels back for a moment while Ciel jumps to safety in the grass below. Just then, the severed tentacles that had fallen from the giant’s head and face wriggle about on the ground before taking the form of a legion of Neoshadows and Darkballs. A startling sight, to be sure, but Ciel charges in regardless, challenging the legion’s numbers individually. As the last Neoshadow falls to the Keyblade, the Darkside is seen to have recovered, gathering energy to its palm again. But rather than slam Ciel with the built-up energy, it detonates, causing a multitude of maroon orbs to rain down from the sky. Ciel is forced on the move for fear of being struck. As he runs about the battlefield, he takes aim at the Darkside’s head and shoots off a volley of Fire. While most of the fireballs have the misfortune of colliding with the Darkside’s raining orbs, several meet their intended mark and strike the colossus’ face. “Gotcha!”, shouts Ciel with accomplishment. In his inattention, though, a lone orb of dark energy strikes mercilessly at his back, and he goes down in an instant. “Oof!” The boy picks himself up shortly, however wobbly the blow from behind made him. Looking to the Darkside with blurred vision, he notices it lowering to its knees and pointing the gaping hole in its chest upward. A wicked force begins to accumulate within the heart shape, swirling with blue, violet, and white. With its arms held out to its sides, the Heartless releases condensed shots of darkness that, once fired, home in on Ciel’s light and fly at him. “Oh, not again!” Like before, Ciel is forced on the move, as the Darkside’s energy rain was much more accurate. When one of the dark bullets gets so close that it burns Ciel’s ankle, he goes down a second time. “Agh!” The injured kid weakly picks his head up and sees one last bullet flying at him. “Tch! I don’t think so!”, he defies, propping himself up with one hand and brandishing the Keyblade with the other. As the projectile of churning darkness draws close, he encapsulates the blade with Reflect magic and holds it like a baseball bat. Then, with a fierce backhand swing, Ciel knocks the projectile away -- ‘out of the park’, as it were. The bullet rockets in the opposite direction and collides with the Darkside’s face, interrupting its attack and toppling it over. The last of its energy spent, the giant Heartless’ body devolves into a puddle of black slime.

Ciel slowly rises to his feet, nearly all of his strength drained from him. His job in this memory now complete, a doorway into the white opens up before him, and he staggers through.

…Expecting to end up in another white room, Ciel goes wide-eyed to find himself in the Lanes Between, standing on an invisible floor. ‘Another memory…?’, he thinks, wondering what curve ball the mysterious castle would throw his way next. As he glances around, his eyes happen upon an object in the distance. The distance was far too great to determine what the object was, but as he approaches, Ciel could just make out the sound of crying. “…Is that…?”

Indeed, the entity whose sobs echo across the artificial Lanes Between was Relena, some time after being driven out of Aubade Town. “I hate them…”, she snivels. “All those years together, and I meant nothing to them… I hate them all…”

Ciel had almost backed away immediately. “Oh, no, not again…”

“I’ve been rejected by the light… I have nothing now…”

“No, that’s not true…! Relena, that’s not true! You don’t have nothing! You still have--!”

“Yeah… That’s right… The light may not want me anymore…but there’s always that…”

“Huh…?”

As she speaks, Relena’s voice grows more and more deranged. “You would never turn your back on me like the light did…would you…?”

“…Relena?”

“If they’re gonna treat me like a Heartless…then that’s exactly what I’ll be…!”

“What…!?”

“I don’t need them…! I don’t need any of them! The raw and unprejudiced darkness is the only friend I require!”

“No, stop!!!”

“TAKE ME, O FORCES OF DARKNESS!!! I HAVE NO NEED FOR THIS MISERABLE EXISTENCE ANYMORE!!! I WELCOME YOU WITH OPEN ARMS!!!”

One overwhelming swell of dark power later, and Relena vanishes before Ciel’s eyes. “Relena! Relena, where are you!?” His desperate cries would be met with the Lanes’ typical silence, and the guilt starts to sink in. “Darn it, what’s with this place!? Is it trying to tell me something!? …Well!? Answer me, you stupid castle! Why are you showing me all this?!? These aren’t my memories!”

“…That’s because they’re MY memories.”

“!!!” Ciel spins to his rear and, to his shock, finds Relena -- the present-day Relena -- standing a handful of yards away with her hands on her hips. Almost impulsively, he reaches for the Pierce the Skies…

“Ah-ah-ah.” …but not before Relena holds out her hand and pulls the boy in with Magnega.

“Aah!”

Relena holds Ciel up by his collar and gives a sinister smirk. “…Hey there, shorty.”, she greets. “Let’s have us a little chat, huh?”

“…”

…The south door of a white room bursts open, and Ciel is forcibly hurled through it and onto the floor. Relena joins him moments later, and the door closes shut behind them. The look Relena gives to the fallen Keyblade wielder was one of sheer hatred. Any provocation at all was likely to compel her to take the boy’s life.

On the ground, Ciel reaches out his hand and prepares to summon the Keyblade… “Gah!” …but a sharp heel to the back of his hand prevents him from doing so.

“Oh, no, little man.”, Relena growls with her arms crossed. “Can’t have you ‘Keyblading it up’ just yet. Not before we’ve had our talk. …You enjoy your little trip down Memory Lane?”

“W-What do you--? Agh!”

“Must’ve been real nice to see what once was, what could’ve still been. We had something really special. The world was our oyster. And sure, maybe my mischief did get out of hand at times, but it was all in good fun, right? But nooooo. Those losers at the top of the Aubade Town food chain just couldn’t have that, could they? They felt that the best way to punish a 17-year-old girl was to kick her out of her own home and make her leave her entire life behind. And what did her best friends in the world do to stop them? Nothing!”

“I-I didn’t--! Argh!!” Each time Ciel spoke out of turn, Relena’s pressure on his hand intensified, to the point where it started to bleed.

“Not a thing. All they did was stand there and let their bastard parents berate me, belittle me, and prove with their words just how much they hated my very soul. And I thought to myself, ‘Wow. If they’re not saying anything, that means they must agree, right? They must despise me just as much as the adults do. Did all those years of laughing and playing suddenly mean nothing to them?’”

“Please… Relena, just listen to--! ARGH!!!”

“I’m done listening! I’m through listening to every stupid, lousy excuse you and your worthless friends come up with! Your silence that day told me everything I needed to hear!”

“But I wasn’t even there! Roche and I thought you just up and left! That’s what Marin told us!”

“HAHAHAHAHA! Oh, that is rich! ‘Red’s’ really got you and the small fry wrapped around her devious little finger!”

“…”

Relena removes her heel from Ciel’s hand, and he grasps it in pain. “Well, now you know you truth -- the cold, hard reality that ‘Red’ sheltered you from. Stings like the back of your hand, doesn’t it? And while we’re on the subject, allow me to throw some more reality your way. If I were you, I wouldn’t get too comfy living at home. It’s only a matter of time before you, ‘Red’, and the small fry follow in ol’ Relena’s footsteps and you’re kicked out of Aubade Town too.”

Ciel meets Relena’s eye as he strokes his stinging hand. “What do you mean…?”

“You three may have made a cushy living for yourselves as the ‘big Heartless exterminators on campus’, but sooner or later, the adults are gonna come to the same realization you guys did back then: the Heartless can track Keyblade wielders through the Keyblade. It’s like a homing beacon. And as long as you wield the Keyblade, the Heartless’ll never stop coming. Once they realize that…”

“…No… T-They wouldn’t do that… We’re just--”

“‘Just kids’? So was I. And my parents didn’t give it a second thought. All the people you’ve come to know and love will suddenly turn their backs on you, just like they did to me. Friends… Family… Even sweet, loving Claire.”

“!!!”

“Oh, I can see her face now. ‘Oh, Ciel! You’ve been luring the Heartless to our peaceful home this whole time? You’re awful! I hate you!’”

“Shut up…! I don’t believe you…! Claire isn’t like that…!”

The blonde sadist places her hands on her hips again and leans forward slightly. “Awww… Does it hurt ‘cuz it’s true? Such a poor baby.”, she taunts.

Ciel shows his teeth again. A magical wind encircles his left arm. “I said…shut up--! Aah!” Only a few milliseconds from summoning the Keyblade, Ciel is suddenly knocked across the room by Relena’s kick. “Ugh…”

As her heels click against the floor as she walked, Relena summons yellow knives between her knuckles. “Don’t worry. I’m not gonna break you. You’re a toy -- I’m not done playing with you just yet.”

Ciel watches helplessly as Relena bears down on him, clearly making ready to end him. “…”

“…ARGH!!!”

In what could very well have been an act of divine intervention, Relena is struck from behind by a Firaga. As the flames burn a hole in her white cape, she leaps away toward the north steps. A reasonably bewildered Ciel is suddenly picked up off the ground with Gravity and carried toward the south end of the room. There, a pair of warm smiles stands to greet him. “M-Marin! Roche!” Just as he and Roche had arrived to assist Marin at Radiant Garden, Ciel’s two best friends had appeared to lend him a helping hand. He meets the two one-by-one in a tight embrace, incredibly relieved by their arrival. “I can’t believe you guys are here! How’d you find me?”

“I followed your light.”, explains Marin, mirroring the words of Yen Sid.

“And I just followed Sis’ Gummi Ship!”, Roche simply adds. Holding up his Keyblade then, the boy casts, “Curaga!”

A warm amber glow sweeps over Ciel’s body, and his wounds are instantly healed. “Ahhh… Thanks, I needed that.”

It’s at that moment that the trio is called out to from across the room. “Well, I hope you’re proud of yourselves!” Relena is seen removing the charred remains of her cape and dropping it onto the floor. “That was my favorite cape, and you ruined it.”, she sneers. “You three have a real knack for getting under my skin; you should know that I’m in an EXTREMELY foul mood right now.”

“What do you say we skip the stupid banter and get right to the part where we kick your butt up and down this room?”, Marin boasts, having nothing more to say to the sadist as of two worlds ago. “…Ciel.”

“Yeah?”

“Take this.” Marin holds out her hands and presents Ciel with the magic orb Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather had given her. “It might be just the thing we need to defeat her once and for all. You too, Roche.”

Ciel and Roche cautiously place their hands on the orb. The sphere reacts to the two’s touch, and a distribution of energy occurs; Ciel receives the orb’s green portion, the red portion transfers to Roche, and the blue portion stays with Marin. As a result, the three of them experience a sudden rush of power that invigorates them. “Whoa…!”

“Wait for my signal, okay?”

“Right.”

Just then, a thin bolt of lightning strikes the ground between the three, and they jump in a startle. Turning to Relena, they see her with her left hand on her hip. In a creepy monotone, she utters, “It’s rude…to ignore people.” Bringing up her right hand, Relena snaps her fingers, causing the landscape to change: the two sides now stood on a white pillar surrounded by four white columns in the middle of a blackened abyss -- a most appropriate setting for what was sure to be their last battle.

In response to this scenery shift, Ciel, Roche, and Marin draw their Keyblades in perfect unison.

Relena’s lips curl upward into a grin, and she readies her knives once more. “…Let’s have some fun…!”

[BGM: Another Side -Battle Version-]

The Aubade Town trio charges straight ahead toward their enemy. Relena bombards them with a flurry of electric knives, flinging them one after another. Meandering through the assault as best they could, the three move in and take a joint swing at Relena in close quarters. With a short leap backward, Relena teleports away to evade the attack and reappears to the party’s rear. Throwing her arms out, she calls down a row of lightning bolts to keep the three on their toes. Ciel throws out a Reflega to absorb the lightning, while Marin and Roche veer off to the sides. Here, Marin fires upon Relena with a hail of Ragnarok. As Relena defends her front from the barrage, Roche slips around to her backside and lays into her with Ars Arcanum. The blonde momentarily reels, but quickly retaliates against the boy with Teleport and a knife slash across his back. Roche goes down, and Relena turns to the incoming Ciel. His Keyblade meets her knives, and she’s pushed slowly backward. Then comes Marin from the side. Two against one hardly seemed fair, Relena thought. Briefly vanishing from the battlefield, she returns within seconds alongside a duplicate of herself, each to contend with one of the two standing Keyblade wielders. Meanwhile, Roche shortly returns to his feet and goes to assist Ciel against Relena #1. Distracting her with a Mine Square explosion, the youngster succeeds in encasing the Heartless woman in ice, after which Ciel slips past her defenses… “It’s over!” …and pierces the emblem on her back. The ice breaks away, and Relena seizes with numbness. She lets out a low pained groan…

…before a derisive “Psych!” precedes her disappearance into nothingness. Moreover, a surprise Thundaga from above adds injury to insult, stunning Ciel and Roche for a time.

Left standing were Relena #2 -- the real Relena -- and Marin, who manages to hold her own against the blonde’s quick succession of attacks. As she swings the Deepest Blue in a horizontal arc, Relena nimbly flips away. At that moment, a sort-of afterimage of Relena flies out at Marin. The redhead throws her Keyblade out in front of her to defend, but the image passes through her as would a ghost. The second that Marin lowers her guard, Relena swoops to slice at her with her knives. With a backward flip of her own, Marin escapes the sneak attack with only a few tears in her blouse.

“Awww… Hope you weren’t too fond of that shirt.”

“Tch!” Marin ignores Relena’s attempts at humor and rushes forward again. Relena opts for her duplication ability a second time, but Marin was prepared to counteract it. She seizes one Relena by the wrist and launches her into the air.

“Hey, what are you--!?” Seizing the other Relena by the wrist, Marin proceeds to spin her around with such force that the two of them lift off the ground -- and catapults her at the first already-airborne Relena. “W-Whoa!” The original Relena and her duplicate collide in midair, instigating a forced merge between the two. Momentarily immobilized by this, the now-whole Relena fails to dodge, let alone counter, the Zantetsuken that immediately followed. “Gah!” Much like a cat, the sadist lands on her feet; Marin’s attack indeed left her weakened, but for no more than a few seconds. Ciel and Roche take advantage of this slim window by launching a co-op attack they liked to call ‘Phoenix Raid’. Comprising one part Strike Raid and one part Fire magic, a flame-coated Pierce the Skies twirls through the air in Relena’s direction. She easily leans out of the way of the first hit, but as the twirling blade of fire arcs up and double back, she makes use of Teleport to avoid its flight pattern. Before long, Ciel and Roche’s ‘Phoenix Raid’ has Relena on the run, and the two even have themselves a chuckle at this sight. “Hmph! How like a couple of toddlers!”, remarks Relena at their merriment. Throwing out her hand, she magnetizes the flying Keyblade with Magnega and hurls it at Marin. Ciel and Roche cease their attack before causing the redhead harm, giving Relena ample opening to create not just one, but four duplicates. With a collective smirk, the five Relenas vanish. “Let’s see how ya handle THIS!”, her voice ominously booms. Appearing at one end of the battlefield in a row, Relena and her clones rocket to the other end knives-first -- running the Keyblade masters through -- and disappear again. Relena’s hellish laughter rings noisily as she and her clones continue their appear-stab-disappear method on Ciel, Roche, and Marin. Their attack pattern erratic and impossible to discern…

…but not impossible to cut short. Before his stamina was utterly drained, Ciel points his weapon at an incoming clone and cries, “Stop!”, freezing that particular clone in time, at which point one of his friends eradicates it with a single slash of the Keyblade. An additional three uses of this tactic reduces Relena’s party to one. The three frantically seek out the last Relena standing, only to be struck in the back by a stream of lightning.

“Nice team effort…”, Relena commends from the center of the pillar, “…but not good enough.” To close her offensive with style, she first flings her knives out to all corners of the battlefield. Before flying off into the black void, the knives pause midflight and turn pointed at the middle. Then, holding her arm up with her palm facing upward, Relena casts Magnega again, creating a powerful magnetic field that pulls Ciel, Roche, and Marin in to keep them pinned.

“Argh! Can’t…move!”

Finally, Relena jumps to a far end of the pillar and lets her trusty knives do the rest.

Along the cutting edge of each knife, electric energy begins to build, eager to unleash itself upon the three Key bearers.

“Looks like playtime is over…”, says Relena in a cold whisper.

The eight knives fire upon the trio with beams of electric light, and when they meet in the center, a thunderous explosion shakes the battlefield to its core! Lightning sparks fly every which way, and a cloud of smoke blankets the field.

Relena smiles, satisfied by her hard-earned victory. “…Hmm?” However, even before the smoke starts to disperse…a shimmer. “!!!”

Within the smoke cloud, the party is seen enclosed inside a Reflect bubble to absorb the blast. It was now Ciel’s turn to grin. “Heh!”

“Why, you…!”

An opening under the bubble allows Ciel to pass through, but he vanishes into thin air before his feet ever touch the ground.

“What the!?” Before she even has a chance to react, Relena is subject to numerous slashes from all sides due to Ciel’s Time Splicer.

Within the same time frame, Roche and Marin exit the Reflect bubble and plant their feet on the ground below. ‘Big Sis’ turns to ‘Little Bro’ and instructs, “Okay, follow my lead!”

“Mm-hmm!”

The blows she receives seem to drive Relena back toward the center of the pillar, almost guiding her. When his attack was finally through, Ciel stands several feet away with both hands gripping the Keyblade. Breathing heavily, Relena looks to the kid with a scowl. “You done already…!? What’s the matter -- still can’t bring yourself to finish what you started…!?”, she roars at him.

“Oh, I’m not finished yet…!”, Ciel returns with.

“Huh…?” The Heartless girl looks to the right and sees Marin in the same stance. Looking to her left, she spots Roche. The three had made a triangular formation around her. At her feet, a magic glyph shines with a blinding white radiance. Identical glyphs of green, red, and blue shine at the feet of her opponents, forming a triangle. “W-What are you about to…!?”

Ciel, Roche, and Marin then hold their Keyblades up over their heads, and a sphere of surging light appears above the triangle.

The intense light it gives off appears to burn Relena’s skin. She doubles over in piercing agony. “Argh! What…is this!?”

“This…”, Marin sighs, “…is your end, Relena.”

Relena brings her head back and looks up at the tiny white sun gleaming on top of her. It shone like the light of Aubade Town she once adored and had long turned away from. For the first time since becoming a Heartless…Relena felt genuine fear and dread. “The light…! It burns! It burns so much!” Her desperate cries devolve into bloodcurdling screams…

…as the warm light of the Trinity engulfs all.

The sheer brilliance of the Trinity’s power soon passes, and only Ciel, Roche, and Marin were left standing. All that remained of Relena was a shred of black fabric from her one of her elbow-length gloves. The three move sluggishly toward the center, weary from both the battle and their world-jumping escapades. Marin kneels down to pick up the piece of fabric and gently runs her fingers across the leather. Parting her lips, the redhead softly mutters, “…Goodbye, Relena.”

Before her, Ciel and Roche lower their heads to share in Marin’s impromptu moment of silence.

With that, the three face the south and move toward an exit, ready to return home at long last.

“Leaving…so soon…?”

“!!!” The voice from behind was the bad dream that Ciel, Roche, and Marin were unable to wake up from. The bug-eyed Shadow that kept coming back from the dead, no matter how many times they poked and prodded it with the Keyblade. Ciel turns 180 degrees to his rear and sees nothing but a gold blur rushing at him. With Keyblade firmly in hand, he thrusts at the blur with the full force of his weapon just as it wraps its manicured hands tightly around his neck. Volts of biting electricity course through him as he’s driven backward to the edge of the pillar.

“CIEL!!!”, Roche and Marin cry in fearful unison.

The almost-impossible-to-kill Relena stands a lifeless wreck, with tattered clothes, burned skin, ruined hair, and bloodshot eyes. She breathes heavily through her teeth to exhibit her rage. With her trembling fingers around Ciel’s windpipe, Relena threatens to shove the 15-year-old over the edge and into the nothingness that awaited below.

Of course, that wasn’t to say Relena’s situation wasn’t precarious in and of itself: the Pierce the Skies had been thrust straight into her abdomen and through to the Heartless emblem adorning her back. With her weak point compromised, Relena wouldn’t be long for this world and was keeping herself together through willpower alone.

At the other end of the blade, Ciel has difficulty breathing, as Relena’s grip on his throat has him gasping for air. Moreover, her fingers were electrically charged, causing him constant numbness. Like having a defibrillator affixed to his neck. It was merely a question of how Relena chooses to kill him: choke him to death, stop his heartbeat, or push him over.

Roche and Marin wouldn’t give her that choice. They draw their Keyblades as well. “Let go of him!”, Marin angrily barks.

Relena warns however, “Take one step closer and he takes the last dive of his life!”

“Grrrr…”

“R…Relena…!”, wheezes Ciel.

“Hahahaha… I gotta hand it to you guys…”, the blonde starts, the shudder of her voice bordering on deranged. “So much power tucked away under the surface, and I had no idea. Guess when it comes down to it, you can really deliver, huh? But if I gotta go out like this…I’m not going out alone…!”

Despite his position, Ciel gives a smirk. “You always were…a sore loser, Relena…”, he teases through his groans. He drives the Keyblade deeper into Relena’s stomach…

…which causes her further anguish. “Ugh!”

“And this time…you lose for good!”, the boy shouts as he twists the blade 90 degrees.

The sound of an unlocking door signals Relena’s end; shafts of light pour out from her emblem as she’s seared from the inside out. She screams at the top of her voice to the blackened heavens, and her most powerful Thundaga is called down to engulf both herself and Ciel with lightning.

“CIEL!!!”, shriek Roche and Marin from behind.

From the emblem out, Relena begins to crumble into dust. The deterioration spreads outward to her upper and lower body. Before the bitter chills of the castle take her entirely, she offers these final words to those she once called close friends:

“…I guess…I lose again… But…at least it was…fun…”

Just before her eyes fade away into oblivion…a single teardrop falls -- perhaps the last remaining shred of her humanity.

Driven to the brink of consciousness by Relena’s last-resort spell, Ciel stumbles backward, over the pillar’s edge and toward the darkness below…

…until an outstretched hand catches his at the last possible second. As her fingers clench Ciel’s, Marin lets out an exhausted sigh of relief.

To her rear, Roche falls over, utterly spent of all vitality. The Superquake clangs to the ground at his feet. In a whine, he speaks out, “Can we go home now…?”

His red-haired sister couldn’t help but laugh at this.


…Three days later… “Batter up!”

The baseball diamond in Hub Park is rife with activity and excitement, as was the norm. On the pitcher’s mound, Snow palms a baseball and stares down the kid at-bat. Across from him, Roche awaits his pitch with bat at the ready. With a tug of his cap and a fierce windup, Snow lets loose his signature fastball. The glimmer in Roche’s eye was testament to his confidence. He grinds his heels into the dirt, focuses intently on the flying ball, swings the bat, and…

“Strike 3! You’re out!”, cries the umpire.

“Argh!” Indeed, if there were any indication that life in Aubade Town had once again returned to normal, it was Roche’s inability to hit a fastball. At least the boy was in good spirits about it and wasn’t at all deterred from his dreams of going pro. “Hehehe!”

Meanwhile, at the far end of the park, Marin is seen leaning against a tree, still holding the piece of fabric that Relena had left behind after their battle days prior. She keeps to herself, occupying her thoughts with memories of the Relena she once knew and loved. “…”

“Gah! …Oof!”

“Hmm?” Snapping out of her trance then, Marin looks ahead and sees Claire standing over Ciel, having secured yet another sparring victory. “Hah. Surprise, surprise.”

Staring down the length of Claire’s sword, Ciel declares, “Just you wait! I’m gonna beat you someday!”

“Sure, you will…”, replies Claire, taking his claim only half-serious. Upon helping Ciel up to his feet, she -- as out of character as it was -- gently kisses his cheek.

“!!!”

“…I loved my present, by the way.”

As she runs off to join the others, Ciel brings his hand up to touch his cheek. He smiles, content that he was able to keep his promise.

“…I told ya she was into you.”

“Aah!” The teal-haired teen jumps when Marin sneaks up on his blind spot. “Stop doing that!”

“Doing what?”

“Ugh… Never mind…”

“Hehehehe.”

“…”

“Yeah, I know. You don’t have to say it. I remind you of Relena. But…maybe that’s not such a bad thing. She kinda rubbed off on us, y’know. I’m not saying I condone what she did, or that we should follow her example, but in the end she was still our friend. And we should never forget what we had.”

“I guess… But what about what she told me, huh? About our parents eventually kicking us out ‘cuz the Heartless are drawn to the Keyblade?”

The redhead smiles as she ruffles her friend’s hair. “We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. Besides, who else are they gonna turn to when the city’s swarming with Heartless again, huh?”

“Heh. Yeah, okay.”

“Now come on. Let’s go watch Snow bean Roche in the face.”

“…Yup… Relena definitely rubbed off on you…”

At the tree Marin was leaning against moments earlier, the piece of fabric from Relena’s glove is nailed into the tree’s trunk. Below it, an inscription carved into the bark:

‘Her heart is always with us’