To say I was happy would be an understatement. I was ecstatic. I finally acknowledged my feelings and now I was going out with Luna. Figures it would take a slap and a make-out session with her to get me to realise running from my feelings was a bad idea. That and going missing for two days. Anyway, back to the matter at hand.

I woke up a little later to find a still sleeping Luna's hooves were still wrapped around me, and her head was nuzzling into my chest. I shook her awake as gently as possible, and my reward was a hoof to the face, followed by Luna apologising as she became aware of her surroundings.

"Noctis, I'm sorry if I was...too forward."

"I'm the one who should be apologising. I kept my feelings hidden when I should've just told you from the outset. If I had, we would probably have had a lot more time together before now. So, I'm sorry. I'm sorry I didn't admit that I loved you earlier." She simply pecked me on the cheek. "Uhhhhh....what was I....oh, right. So, should we tell everybody about, y'know, 'us'? I just want to know if and when you want to, ‘go public’. before someone, most likely Die, comes in and-" I was interrupted by the door to my room exploding inward, and Ven standing sideways on the wall, with Die almost right next to him.

“Room service!” Ven said with a grin.

"Awwww, and here I thought there would be a mess." Die chuckled.

“Eh, it looks like something happened at least.” He looked at her “Also, you were right, it’s starting to hurt.”

"How did I I know it would be Die...What. Are. You. Doing here?" I said through gritted teeth, while Luna tried to move me off the bed so she could pull up the covers and hide in them.

“Just checking up on ya,” Ven said, walking from the wall onto the roof.

"Ven, get off the ceiling. Discord'll kick your ass if you get the Swagwagon dirty in any way."

“I’m not actually touching it. Wind powers are best powers.”

"Die, Ven. I'm asking nicely. Please leave. Do not make me break out 'the voice'."

Ven chuckled“Trust me, princess, I’ve heard louder than the Royal Canterlot Voice, at point blank.”

"I was not referring to that voice."

“Oh... Die, shall we take our leave?” Ven asked, suddenly afraid.

"In a minute." she said as she turned to face us. "Noctis, you'd better make her happy. And Luna, keep him from getting himself killed. Oh, and be good. But if you can't," she turned towards the door, "Be sure to name the first one after me." she ran out the door laughing like a hyena, with Ven flying after her with an evil laugh of his own. Neither of them even bothered to look back at our faces turning blood-red from embarrassment.

"Well that was typical. At least now we don't have to worry about breaking the news ourselves."

She threw a pillow at me and scowled as she finally succeeded in knocking me off the bed. "Shut up, Noctis." was all she said before pulling the covers over herself completely and forcing us both to sleep with a quick spell.
__________________________________________________________________

My wake-up this time was noticeably less than amicable.

“NOCTIS, LUNA! WAKE THE HELL UP! WE’RE IN TWILIGHT TOWN!”

“AGH!” I shouted as I rolled off of my bed, landing face first on the cold steel of the floor, while Luna simply shot up, launching a spell that barely missed my sister. “Dammit Die, do you have to be so loud?”

“Of course, WE’RE HERE!”

“Ugh, can you please not be so loud, Day Warrior? And please leave so we can prepare.” Luna requested irritatedly.

“Ok, see ya.” she said, turning to leave. “Oh, by the way, Celestia and Discord are a couple now.” And she was gone.

I took a moment to register the new information before turning to Luna. “Wait, so Discord and Celestia...”

“Honestly, I’m not surprised. Discord always did love her. Unfortunately, she didn’t know how she felt about him when he first confessed, and it wasn’t until after we had sealed him in stone that she realised she loved him too. Of course, then it was too late. Maybe now they can be happy.” She said with a hopeful look.

“Well, here’s hoping that it works out.”

“Attention passengers, we are disembarking now, so please get your flanks topside.” A mechanical voice said over the intercom system.

Luna and I just shrugged before we got ready to leave. I placed the ‘IS’ key-chain on a small string and tied it around my neck, while Luna put on her regalia and tapped it, activating the disguise spell Discord had placed on it. It only took a minute, and then we were off to the deck, where everyone else was already waiting. Die, Tox, Shade, Aqua and Jolt were sitting around talking, and Celestia, in her own disguise, was nuzzling up to Discord.

“Save it for the bedroom you two.” Die said, causing an immediate break-out of red-faces. I noticed, but I ignored it in favour of a more pressing matter.

“Where’s Ven?”

“He went down earlier.” Discord said calmly.

“Oh, ok. So, we gonna get going now, or are we gonna wait until we’re old and grey?”

“Very well, any preferred destination?”

“I dunno, ummm...”

“How about the sandlot?” Luna asked, receiving a few looks from everyone. “What, I studied this world too, y’know.”

“I brought the weapons!” Clare shouted as she flew into the room, carrying a HUGE burlap sack.

“Finally,” Sparky said with an eyeroll. He then walked over, opened the sack, and pulled out a sword almost as tall as him, the others from Lumos’ world began to pull out weapons as well. Clare pulled out two extra: a bow and a staff, though she was being more careful with the bow than anyone else was with any of the given items. Also some of the others seemed to look at it she had with fear.

“Interesting choices Clare.”

“If anyone else took them, they would end up either killing themselves, or everyone.” She said calmly, but she was eyeing the bow with fear just as much as the others were.

“Clare, Lumos told us never to use the PB.” Aqua said, placing a blue-grey whip on his belt.

“PB? Nice abbreviation. Gonna tell me what it means and why you’re wielding it when the guy who most-likely made it told you not to?”

“It means Planet Buster, he told us never to wield it because it could easily destroy the very world you fire it on. I’m bringing it so that if the rescues of Ven, Aqua, and Terra have happened, I can blow up the castle that never was. Also because I’m the least likely of us to actually fire the damn thing. This bow is the reason I’m afraid of what ‘Nihl’ can do.”

“Well, a little advice.” I leaned in close to Clare. “When the shooting starts, try not to wet your pants.” This earned me a fist in the gut, followed by being slammed into the ground by her ‘gravity’ power.

“Asshole.” she muttered

“Well, at least it took your mind off the pointless worrying.” I groaned through the pain as Luna tried to alleviate it with a spell.

She turned to Discord, “Just get us down there, dammit.”

His eyes widened a little in fear, “Yes ma’am.” He said, and snapped his fingers.
__________________________________________________________________

We found ourselves right in the middle of the sandlot, and there were several pairs of eyes on us.

“Well this is awkward,” Shade said quietly.

“It could be worse.” I replied, almost shocking our watchers.

“It... talks?” A girl said, who I recognized from the KH2 library as Ollette

“Yes, he does. His name is Noctis. Now, if we’re done with pointing out the obvious, we need to find our friend Ven. Have you seen him?” Luna said irritatedly.

“That flying blond guy from just a moment ago?”

“Yeah, probably him. So, he was here in the sandlot? Where’d he go?”

“He had a struggle match with Seifer, and then said something to him, before flying off. Try asking him.” The one I recognized as ‘Hayner’ said.

“Well, where can we find Seifer and his cronies?” I asked.

“Try looking behind you.” A voice behind me said.

I turned around, and lo and behold, there was Seifer and his two friends, Rai and Fuu.

“Hey. So, where’s Ven?” I said nonchalantly.

“He said you would be looking for him, and to go to the old mansion in the woods.”

“Thanks. See ya later, maybe!” I said as I ran off on the path to the Old Mansion. The rest of the group looked at my retreating form as if I’d gone crazy.

“I’ll go after him. Where will we find you afterwards, or do you want us to wait for you when we get there?” Luna asked.

“Probably the mansion’s library,” Everyone turned to stared at Clare, “What? It’s where the hidden zone is. Besides, Ven probably already got it open, so as long as Noctis doesn’t break the computer, we’ll be fine.”

“Alright then. We’ll see you there.” Luna replied as she ran off after me.
__________________________________________________________________

“Ven, wait up!” I yelled as he entered the mansion, my call seemingly unheard. Just as I was about to follow him though,

“Noctis!”

I turned to see Luna running towards me with a mildly angry face.

“Don’t run off by yourself. We have to be there for each other, and we can’t do so unless we stick together, right?”

“Well what about Ven, who’s there for him when he’s off by himself?”

“Ven is currently more capable of defending himself at the moment, seeing as he has more knowledge of his environment, and enemies, and has a body he is used to. You are still learning how to use your new form. Which begs the question, why did you decline when Discord offered to create an item which would allow you to temporarily take a human form?”

“I dunno. I guess I’m just a little too proud or something like that. You know, I either reacquire my human form myself, or not at all.”

Luna shook her head slowly. “Noctis, you need to let go of your pride. It will on--”

A loud crash came from the inside of the house, with what sounded like wood splintering.

Luna shot me a look. “Please tell me he didn’t blow something up!” She said.

“Come on, let’s go find him before he breaks the computer systems or something.” I said, running towards the source of the sound with Luna in tow.

“What the...” Luna trailed off as she stared at the splintered remains of a door and the massive opening in the middle of the library. The opening was oddly metalic, and had stairs leading down it on the right side.

“Wow, Ven sure hates doors.” I said quietly.

“That was a very poor joke. Now, let’s wait until the others get here before we go find Ven.”

Almost on cue, Clare came flying in through the window, and said “Hello!” In a cheery tone.

Luna raised an eyebrow. “The window? Really? What’s wrong with the door? I swear, it’s like you’re taking lessons from Discord...” She said.

“It was faster,” she said with a shrug. “... Wait, what happened to the door, anyway?”

“Ven.” I said simply.

“Oh.” She rolled her eyes, “Anyway, everyone is almost here, so we should be good to go soon enough.”

“Clare, you didn’t even look behind you to see we were right there.” Celestia said as she came through the now door-less opening.

“True, but we still have to wait for Sparky, he’s still getting potions, ethers, and such.”

“Actually, he’s right behind you. We got the items in less than a minute.” Celestia replied.

“... Oh... Well, lets go then!”

“Yeah, lets. Wait, where’s Discord?”

“Ship, same with Aqua, they’re going to follow our energy signatures so they can land the ship on The World that Never Was properly.” Jolt said calmly as he jumped down, and walked through one of the doors in the metal pit.

“Wait up Sparky!” I said as we went after him.

“MY NAME ISN’T SPARKY, DAMMIT!” He shouted

“Ok then... Jolteon.” Clare said in a teasing tone.

“... Fuck it, I’m not even going to try anymore.” He said as he hunched over, and stuck his hands in his pockets.

“I don’t get it. What’s it me-wait, you hear that? It sounds like...someone’s torturing a flute.”

“Damn it, Ven’s whistling again.” I heard Jolt complain, as he turned down a hallway to follow the noise.

“VEN, STOP WITH THE EAR-RAPE!” I yelled in no particular direction.

“MAKE ME!” I heard from the direction Jolt started going in, followed by the starting back up of that infernal sound.

I walked in the direction of the noise, kicked in the door, and yelled “UMBRA!”, silencing the horrible whistling.

“................................................................................... Well, It’s about time you got here.” Ven said from a chair in front of a large number of monitors, and a caged section of the floor, with a blue beam passing through it. “I was considering going without you.”

I took one look at the computer’s programs. “Do you have any hacking skills?”

He pointed to the beam, “Three steps ahead of you.”

“Really? Then tell me why the beam is set to erase whatever touches it.” I said with a frown.

“It doesn’t really erase it, it turns it into a program, and chucks it into a virtual version of this world.”

“No, that’s this program.” I said, making a few adjustments, which, let me tell you, was hell to do with hooves. “The program you had running uses the same password, but it’s a false front. It’s meant to prevent anyone from entering the program by hacking the system. In short, you touch the beam, whatever part of you touches it is completely erased.” I explained.

He looked at the computer again, “Well, I feel silly all of a sudden.”

I ignored him as I was too focused on the task at hand, or hoof. “...and re-type the password aaaaaaaaand, done. There, we’re good to go.”

He looked at one screen and read aloud “Password incorrect, please try again”

“Dammit. I hate working on computers using hooves. You type it.” I said, getting off the chair and letting Ven do it.

“Ok, lets see... Sea Salt Ice-cream.” he muttered as he typed the passcode, being careful not to misspell it. “Ok, now then, lets go!” And with that, he leaped into the beam. We followed him moments later.
__________________________________________________________________

“Well, it seems to have worked.” Ven said, motioning to the broken monitors on his right as we appeared.

“Wow, Roxas had anger issues.” I said.

“You have no idea.” Ven said as he walked through a door, “This way to the Dark Realms!”

“Ok then. So, are we gonna have to fight an army of nobodies to get there?” I asked.

“Dunno” He said, walking up to an orb of darkness, “Oh, and if this is anything like Lumos’ dark passages, you may want a jacket on hand.”

“Why?” I asked.

“It’s like...” He looked like he was searching for the right words “It’s like going through a meat freezer... that has just been layered in honey.”

“Alright. Good thing I’ve got fur now.” I said with relief.

“Too bad your hooves are going to get all sticky.” Jolt said as he lit himself on fire before running into the darkness, Ven and Clare following closely behind. Shade just floated above us on a small amount of smoke.

“Well, see you on the other side.” I said to Celestia and Luna as I ran in after them.

Shade held up a watch almost identical to Ven’s, “Discord, beam me, Celestia, Die, and Luna up, will you? The keyblade bearer has already begun passing through...”
__________________________________________________________________

Oddly enough, we were in a bright blue room, with the nobody symbol flying around.

“What the hell are these things?!” I heard Jolt shout, as he shot fire at odd, skeletal beings, as well as Nobodies.

“DOES IT MATTER? JUST KILL THEM!” Ven said as several nobodies around him exploded.

“Ok, I’m gonna try something. Pray it works!” I yelled as I barely dodged a swipe from a green creature. “Dark...SPLICER!”

The creatures froze and I rushed through them, making multiple strikes on each one I passed. I reappeared beside Ven, smirking as many of the creatures unfroze and fell apart as the wounds caught up to them.

“Well, that was interesting.” Jolt said.

“KYAAAA!” We heard behind us, turning... Well... We saw two blue versions of the skeletal creatures raping Clare.

“I feel a little bit conflicted here.” I heard Ven say, before he snapped his fingers, and both beings exploded into hundreds of pieces.

“Ok, note to self, stay the fuck away from the blue ones...” I said as Ven helped Clare up, and handed her a jacket, from another of his many pockets, which she quickly put over her now torn up outfit.

“That’s it! I can’t take it anymore! I’m going home!” Clare shouted as she marched off toward the exit.

“Ven, stay with Clare.” I said, not taking my eyes off the remaining creatures.

“Aye, sir.” He responded, a small whirlwind whipping up around both him and Clare.

Jolt stepped up next to me, both fire and electricity covering his body, “We gonna do this or what?”
i could word it better, so that it’s less obvious
“Yeah. Jolt, something about the green ones seems off, like... I just don’t want to fight it.”

“Aww, is the little pony scared?” Jolt mocked.

“Shut up Jolt, this is serious. I think this thing subconsciously causes inner conflict or something.”

“Phht, whatever,” he said before charging, and cleaving one of the Gold ones in half with his sword, “It doesn’t matter, you kill them all the sa--.” and then a flaming lighting-bolt struck him in the jaw.

He stood back up, rubbing his jaw, “Damn, that hurt,” He looked in the direction it came from, before grinning, a gold one was covered in the same fire and lightning as Jolt was.

“Shit. The gold ones can copy us, and the green ones do something to our heads. What do the violet ones do?” I asked more to myself than to Jolt, trying to figure out a counter-strategy to their abilities.

While I was thinking, a current picked up, as a different gold thing created a whirlwind around itself. I then heard a voice in my head say <What? Are the powers given to us by the great Umbra too much for you to handle, little one?>

What? These things were created by Umbra!?

<Yes, yes we were.>

I looked over to the group to see one of the green ones staring at me. “Shit. JOLT! These things were created by Umbra, and the green ones can get inside your head!”

“DON’T CARE FIGHTING FIRE WITH FIRE!” Jolt shouted as his flame began to grow brighter, and change to become violet.

“THIS IS SERIOUS SPARKY!” I yelled. “The green ones can affect our minds, doesn’t that warrant caution?”

“I’LL CROSS THAT BRIDGE WHEN I COME TO IT!!” He shouted as the flames became a dark blue.

“Dammit.” I muttered, before rushing to engage the green ones.

The beasts began to all glow, and shift in shape, becoming replicas of me, Die, Luna, and Celestia, each with their respective weapons, and clothes. One of the ‘me’ replica’s ran forward, swinging a keyblade at me.

“Too slow.” I muttered as I ducked under it and thrust my own towards its throat. The blade phased through, and it’s own keyblade struck me, drawing blood from my side. My eyes widened at the sudden pain and I jumped back as quickly as I could, putting some distance between me and the impostor. “Dammit, what was that? My weapon just passed through, and his made contact. Why?”

The others joined in, swinging their blades rapidly at me, opening wounds all over my body.

“Shit.” I yelled. “Let’s see how you like this! FIRAGA BURST!”

“The hell? Wait...SHIT!” I yelled as the realization hit me. “CURA!”

A green beam of light erupted from my keyblade and struck Jolt, and his wounds started to heal almost immediately, though the spell wasn’t strong enough to heal them completely.

<Well, that was interesting, eh, whatever.> And with that, the Green forms charged. This time attacking with claw and foot.

“Just what I was waiting for. DARK BARRIER!” A spherical barrier made of dark tiles sprung to life around us. One of the creatures hit the barrier, and just bounced off.

“Well, at least it works. I’ve gotta come up with my own moves though, can’t keep copying techniques used by Riku and Sora forever.” I muttered as I tried to come up with a counter-strategy. “Come on, gotta think! This would be so much easier if I had some damn back-up besides this hot-head!” I yelled.

Suddenly, a hand was placed on the head of one of the green ones, and it began to wither and fall apart, “Seriously,” Tox said, “Can’t even handle creatures like these on your own?”

“Ha ha. You try fighting using my body and see how you do! Especially with this idiot rushing in and making proper planning impossible!” I said, pointing at the still unconscious Jolt. “So, got any plans?”

She hit a few more with her ungloved hand, each of them dying almost instantly, “Yeah, I help you, Aqua and Shade deal with the Violet, and Mirum and Ven kill the power-snatchers.”

“Ok, but we need at least one of them alive. I want to find out just how Umbra created them.”

She grabbed the last green one with her gloved hand, and slammed it into the ground, “That’s almost exactly what Die said. Although she just said she wanted something to interrogate.”

“Ok, just as long as you don’t leave her alone with it. We’ll more than likely end up with a huge mess to clean up, though we will get whatever information we need. The mess isn’t worth it though, most of the time.”

She turned, and started to walk to the exit, the now unconscious creature held in her hand, “I was planning on my own approach to this situation.” She said, turning her head back to reveal her mouth, in an evil grin. Still couldn’t see her eyes though.

“Ooookaaay, so, who should go forward to the other side? Cause if there are more of these things on the World, then solo is most definitely not the way to go.”

“Well, We’re done over here!” Ven shouted. I turned to see the gold ones in pieces, and the violet ones floating in the center of a large orb of water.

“OK. So, I’ll go on to the other side. Who’s going with me?” I called.

“We all are, stupid,” Ven said with a grin.

“Ok then. But riddle me this. Where is Umbra if he’s the one who created these things? I don’t wanna go through there to find he’s waiting with a mini-gun or something.”

“It’s possible they are like heartless in how they get around. Though why they aren’t affected by the keyblade itself is a better question.”

“They were, or at least all but the green ones were, though technically it was just them fucking with my head making me think I was fighting them when I was really fighting Sparky. I think...” And then we exited the space between.

Ven held up his watch, “Guess who’s back?”

“A very handsome, if somewhat annoying, wind master?”

Ven chuckled, “Close, but no, it’s just me.”

“Oh, how can you belittle yourself like that? Do I have to come down there and beat some sense of self-worth into you?”

“Nah, I’m good. Discord, could you beam down whoever you can?”

“Aye, sir, that I can!” Discord’s voice said, and moments later, Discord, Celestia, Luna, and Die appeared. Almost immediately, I was tackled by Luna.

“That is the LAST TIME I ever let you go off without me there to save your sorry flank!” She said as she tried to decide whether to hit me or kiss me.

“Anyway, we’ve got ourselves a little test subject with us, don’t we Tox?” Ven said, turning toward the covered woman, who just dangled the green, unconcious creature by the foot.

“Oh, I am gonna enjoy this.” Die said, cracking her knuckles with a sadistic grin as she stepped towards it.

“Just be sure to leave something for me to interrogate, sweetie.”

“Dude, if you want something to interrogate, do so while she’s working. Otherwise, you’ll get nothing.” I said.

“Trust me, I can get whatever info I need.” A grin appeared on his face that only a madman would normally carry, “I know some of the best torture tactics used throughout the history of my world, including some that are only theory.”

“I don’t wanna know what they are. Just do them where we won’t have to see.” I said.

“Yeah, yeah. Also, Die, have you told them yet?” Ven asked, turning to my sister with a simple smile.

“Told us what? About your ‘relationship’, or about my sister and Noctis’ ‘relationship’?” Celestia asked with a smug smile.

“I’ll take that as a ‘yes’ on both counts.”

“Not really. Discord had cameras installed in each room to, as he said, prevent the theft of the toiletries.”

Aqua turned toward Discord, “Damn it, that was one time! One. Time.”

“If it has happened once, it will happen again.” Discord said in a way similar to a monk. A very calm, disconnected monk.

“Wait, why would someone steal toiletries?” I asked, confused.

“THE TOILET PAPER WAS MADE OF GOLD, OK?!”

“Woah, really? Why? Actually, don’t bother, you’re Discord, why should anything make sense when it doesn’t have to, right?”

“Where did you think the expenses for all the crap ‘Jolteon’ bought came from?”

“Seriously, why do you call him Jolteon now?”

“A TV show, and game series from earth, I’ll tell you about it when its over. To summerize: a Jolteon is a small, furry, yellow, dog-like creature with electric powers.”

“So, Sparky has similar powers to a cartoon dog-thing? HA!”

“Actually, so does Aqua, and even Lumos.”

“Really? Meh, at least I like them enough not to make fun of them about it, but Sparky’s too good a target. So, shall we get going? I wanna rescue Lumos before I’m old and grey.”

“That would take thousands of years, if you’re still as long lived as before. Also, indeed.

“Hmmm, I actually don’t know if I’m immortal anymore. I can’t feel the Orb’s presence, yet at the same time, I can. Doesn’t make sense, does it?” I said, scratching my head.

“Actually, it does. It’s like a microwave, it uses radio waves to warm something, while the same waves could be used to send signals.”

“Ok, that doesn’t make a lot of sense to me.”

Ven face-palmed, “And I thought you were the smart one... Lets just go.” He said as he turned to leave.

“Look, I don’t know much about physics, I just know I could pass some of its limitations after I became a SOLDIER. Now, I feel even less bound by the laws of physics, but it doesn’t mean I understand them.”

“That’s because you’re a pony, ponies and physics don’t mix.”

“You mean like me and Sahagin?” I asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Let me explain in simple terms, you’re a pony, yet you can shrug. This means you have shoulders, physics says ponies shouldn’t have shoulders.”

“Good point. Except the physics of our worlds never encountered ponies that could use magic, or fly, or raise the sun and moon, so I don’t think it could accommodate for them, do you?”

“Exactly.” He said, as though making a point.

“We’re getting sidetracked, aren’t we? We should be getting to rescuing Lumos.” I said.

“Yes. Yes we should. Meet me at the large tower in the center of the city, Tox, watch over our prisoner.” And with that, he began to fly down the back-alleys of the city, shouting “COME AT ME BRO!” Followed by the death-shrieks of several creatures.

“HEY! WAIT UP!” Die shouted as she went after her boyfriend.

We let out a collective sigh. Tox, with our prisoner on her back, and the rest of us started walking through the now completely empty street. Soon I found myself surrounded on both sides by Luna and Celestia. “You know, if you wanted to know if you were still immortal, you could just ask my sister and I.” Celestia said as we walked through the somewhat empty streets, taking out whatever came our way. “We can perform a scan to find out, if you want.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Since when have you been able to do that?”

“My sister and I have been able to utilise that ability since four years after we were granted our powers and immortality. And just so you know, I already performed the scan while you were asleep, and yes, you are still immortal. The orb has just taken on a new form.” Luna said.

Aqua was suddenly in front of us in a ball of water that almost covered his whole body.. “Let me guess: the keyblade?” He asked, interested in the conversation.

Luna nodded. “Correct. That is why Noctis is still able to use the magic the orb once gave him access to though at the moment it is limited to telekinesis and the techniques he copied from playing those games. Basically, it is as if he is learning to control its power all over again.”

“Ah, that makes sense... One sec.” His water disappeared and he fell to the ground, landing with both feet in the same spot.

“What are you-” Tox began, before a massive spike of ice came out of the ground, launching Aqua into the air. He managed somehow to land on top of one of the taller buildings. He looked around for a moment, before jumping down, surrounding himself with a ball of water that barely broke when it hit the ground, and was then absorbed into him.

“We better move. Now.” He said as he broke into a sprint.

“Aqua, what is it? What’s wrong?” Celestia asked as we followed him.

“ARMY COMING! RUN NOW! UNDERSTAND!?” He shouted at the princess in the unmistakable tone of fear.

“Army!? What kind of army!?” Luna asked with worry.

“THOSE SKELETON THINGIES, THREE KINDS THAT WEREN’T IN THE DARK AREA! JUST RUN, DAMNIT!” he launched himself off the ground into a wall, and launched himself again, performing ice spike wall jumps rapidly down the street, easily outdistancing us. I looked over, and saw Jolts legs crackle with electricity as he began to move at superhuman speeds, and shade turn into a puff of smoke that followed, the only ones that stayed with us were Tox and Discord.

“This is not how I imagined this going. Anyone got any ideas?” I huffed as I continued running.

“Run faster?” Discord suggested, floating on a cotton candy cloud.

“Don’t make me poison you,” Tox said in a icy tone, her eyes flashing from inside her outfit.

“Yes ma’am,” Discord said as he shrunk away.

“Tox, leave him alone. Discord, do you think you could slow them down, even a little?” Celestia asked.

“No, but I could teleport us.”

“Sounds like a plan. Do it!”

“Aye aye!” Discord said, before snapping his fingers, and we were all sitting on a huge cloud of cotton candy, with a table and tea set out in front of us.

“Woah, cool. So where are we?”

“Look down, and see.” Discord said as he took a sip of his tea.

I poked my head over the edge of the cloud. “What...the...hell?” We were right above a massive army of red, gold, green, light blue, dark blue, purple, and orange skeleton things.

“That’s....a lot of ugly bastards.” I said.

“Damn strai-- One second, got a call,” Discord said as he pulled out a phone. “... Ok, on it,” He snapped his fingers, and another cotton candy cloud appeared, with Ven and Die on it. I took one look at them, and I did the first thing that came to mind. I facehoofed.

“Die, please tell me you didn’t use Wound Transfer. Please...” I muttered to myself.

“She did. For some reason the healing spell wouldn't work on me.”Ven said before looking down, and seeing the army, “What the fuck is that?”

“One, DIE YOU IDIOT! You know that move makes whatever wounds you receive twice as bad as they were on whoever you transferred them from. Two, that’s Umbra’s army.”

“[color=gren]Die, why would you worsen the wound? I could've just let it be.”

“Cause Ven. I can recover from it. I couldn’t heal your wound, but I’ll heal from it naturally. Plus, I’m stubborn. Do you really think you could talk me out of it?” She smirked despite the pain in her arm.

“That’s a fair point.” He looked back down. “On another note... Umbra’s... army...” Ven started to gain an evil grin, “This is gonna be good!” He said as he began to stretch.

“Ventus, do not do anything reckless.” Celestia warned him.

“Princess, you obviously don’t know me well enough.” Ven said before jumping off the cloud, and going straight up.

“... Fuck he’s gonna do it.” Tox said, “Discord, move the cloud about a macro-metres south”

Ven then landed softly, his body glowing a little. Each step he took sent large sections of the world around him into the air, where they floated around him, the buildings began to get torn out of the ground, and he threw all of this to the side, leaving a barren wasteland. The parts of the army remained after this charged him head on, only to be held back by an invisible force. Ven swept a single hand to the side, and all of the creatures were cut cleanly in half. The glow around him slowly faded, and a deep cut appeared in his right arm, though he didn’t seem to notice it as he flew back up. I noticed that his eyes were mostly glazed over.

“Yo, Ven? You alive in there?” There was no response, not even a twitch as he went up..

“Uhhh, guys? I think Ven’s broken...” I said.

“Yeah... That’s happened before.” Tox said, shaking her head.

“When exactly did this happen before?” Celestia asked.

“From what he told me about it, that technique throws him into his subconscious, I haven’t actually seen him use it before, but he talked about it. He called it the ‘White Wind’ technique.”

“Well, how do we get him out of his subconscious and back into the real world?”

“Three weeks and a cup of hibiscus tea.” She said flatly.

“WHAT!? FUCK THAT, I’M Go-”

“Fooled ya.” Tox pulled down her masking cloth a little to reveal a grin with sharp teeth, “Wait 5 or so minutes, and the tea part was serious, but we got that.”

“That, was not funny.” Die replied with a glare. “But it was good.” she conceded with a sigh.

“But anyway, the gash is weird, he never mentioned anything along those lines.”

“That could be because of Die’s recent use of the Wound Transfer.” I suggested.

“No, from what he told me, there would be something like a paper cut from the pressure, but nothing even nearly this deep.”

“Maybe he put too much power into it? The more power he puts into it, the higher the pressure, correct?”

“Wrong, it’s a technique that requires him to put the maximum amount of air pressure possible on his whole body, making it respond in an inhuman way. The pressure is high enough that, if it weren’t on every inch of the body, it would break every one of his bones.”

“Woah. Then what if it’s not the exact same technique? What if it’s an alteration?”

“Probably not.”

“Well then, for now, we should focus on the tasks at hoof. One, we need to wake Ventus up, and two, we need to rescue Lumos, correct?”

“On it,” Tox said, before putting down the green creature, and punching Ven in his... his...let’s just not say testicles and pretend we did.

His eyes burst open, “AGH!” and he fell off the cloud, before rising slowly, holding himself. “Why would you do that?!”

“Cause you decided to be reckless with that move of yours? What was it, the white wind or something?”

“Wait how do... Oh, she told you, didn’t she.”

“Yes, she did. Now, give me one reason why I shouldn’t shove some coal so far up your ass you’ll be coughing out diamonds for being so reckless.” Die said in an eerily sweet voice.

Ven shuddered “Thanks for the mental image. Anyway, how about taking out an army in ten seconds flat?” He crossed his arms, still wincing in pain from... what Tox did, and the gash in his arm.

“Hmmmm....I guess that is a pretty good reason. However, you still owe us for almost getting yourself killed. And don’t try to tell me it wouldn’t have killed you. We both know you’d be lying.”

He rolled his eyes, “Fair enough,”

“Just ignore her Ven, she’s only going to try and trick you in some way. You don’t owe us anything.”

“SHUT UP NOCTIS!”

“Anyway, lets go,” And with that, the cloud began to move on its own, Ven sitting at the front of it, he held up his watch. “Guys, go to the Castle that Never Was.”

“I thought you’d never ask.” I said as I steeled myself for the fight to come. “Look out Organization bozos, here we come!” The cotton candy cloud began to accelerate rapidly. I felt like it was going too slow, so I prepared to take off.

“I wouldn’t recommend taking off, we would leave you behind.”

I glared at him for a bit, but I sat back down. “So, do you think we’ll run into Riku or Sora or anyone else there?”

“Possible, but I doubt it.”

“Ok then, but after we get Lumos back I’m going to find a Master to teach me how to wield this thing.” I said, summoning my keyblade and waving it around a little. “And since the only masters available are Yen Sid, Mickey, and possibly Riku, the Tower’s my best bet for finding them.”

“Eh, whatever.” Ven said with a shrug.

“Seriously? You seem to be good enough as is. Well, except for having your ass handed to you by those things Umbra made.” Die remarked.

“Yeah, that was pretty interesting, actually. Anyway, we’ll be at the castle momentarily.”

“Good. I want to kick some ass. Anyway, Ven, what kind of creatures did you encounter before that army of Umbra’s things showed up.”

“Nobodies, mostly.”

“That’s weird. This is a sleeping realm, so there should only be Dream Eaters here.”

“Not if the Nobodies were already in the world.” Ven said plainly.

“....shut up.” I huffed. “But if that is, or was, the case, then why didn’t Sora and Riku ever encounter them in Dream Drop Distance? Were they under orders not to go after them or something?”

“Nobodies have personalities, maybe they know better than to mess with them.”

“Would they have messed with you if that was the case?” I pointed out.

“Well, they haven’t met any power users before, so I guess they’ve learned..”

“Yeah yeah, blah blah, I’m sure this conversation is riveting for any who can follow it but we’re here.” Die said, pointing to the massive castle right in front of us with an arm I could have sword had been broken a few minutes ago. “Now, do you want to knock, or can I?” She smirked.

“Go ahead.”

“Ven, you just cost us our hearing for the next ten minutes.” I said as I dismissed BP and covered my ears as best I could. Luna took one look at me and followed suit, as did Celestia, Discord, and Tox.

“SOLAR BLAST!”

A massive beam of energy shot out of her arm and blasted into the castle. The contact created a massive shock wave that threatened to tear the clouds apart, and the noise was worse than being blasted point-blank by an ambulance siren being amped by a megaphone. For some reason, only Ven was unaffected by the blast. After about a minute, Die finally cut off the flow, and the beam abruptly thinned out and disappeared, leaving a gaping hole in the side of it.

A few seconds later, Ven yawned, and said “That wasn’t so bad.”

“Are you kidding? The first time she used that move, I lost my hearing for a week straight.”

“And I have the power to remove all air around me, making a sound proof barrier, I believe I win.” He said with a grin.

“And you couldn’t have placed this barrier around the rest of us, why?” Celestia asked with a hint of annoyance in her voice.

“I could’ve.” Ven said, keeping his grin, before jumping off the cloud, and rocketing toward the castle.

“We’ll get him back later. Right, Dissy?” She said, grabbing one of Discord’s arms and interlocking it with her own while batting her eyelashes at him.

Discord shuddered, “Right.”

“Pffft, Ven is so dead.” Die said, chuckling.

“Shut up Die. Celestia, don’t go overboard. We do kinda need him alive.”

“Hmph, fine. Now, we need to separate into groups in order to speed up the search f--”

<Oh shut it.> A voice said in my head.

“What the fuck was that? You heard it too, right?”

“That would be Umbra, or at least one of his crappy puppets.” I replied disdainfully, summoning BP again.

<Eeyup.> The voice said, and Umbra appeared, floating in the air in front of us with a strange, mishmash keyblade in his hand.

“The fuck is that?” Tox said, her eyes flickering with rage.

<Oh, just the perfected blade of sin: False Harmony.>

“You mean the thing you used to separate me and Akumu?”

<Oh please, that was a cheap knockoff of the keyblade of hearts.>

“Well, that thing doesn’t look like much. What’d you do, use ‘soul food’ to make it or something?”

<Half right, the ‘soul’ part,>

“Wait, you used souls to make it? Who?” I asked.

<Nopony you know, in a sense.> He grinned.

“What do you mean, in a sense? What have you done, monster!?”

“Let’s just say,” a serpentine voice said behind us “One version of ‘Equestria,’ no longer has element bearers.”

Celestia’s eyes widened in rage as she turned to face the figure.

“So, this is where you turned up, huh Akumu?” I said calmly. “Now, what. Did. You. DO!?”

<We just stole the souls of a certain group of six ponies, and a dragon.> Umbra began to float in circles around the cloud, but suddenly he was engulfed in flames.

“How. DARE YOU!” Celestia screamed with fury as she undid the illusion hiding her wings and horn, rising into the air to meet him head on as she did so.

<Now that is just flat out rude, princess.> Umbra said as the flames moved off his body, and into the symbol in the hand-guard of the blade. He didn’t get a chance to counter though, as walls of light surrounded him and started to close in, creating sharp spikes as it came closer and closer.

Umbra yawned, and slipped into a dark passage, appearing just outside of the sphere, <Seriously? You people are idiots. Oh, also, me and Akumu... we’ve gone through an... upgrade of sorts.>

“It matters not. You have commit grievous offences, and you shall pay for them. Noctis. You and everyone else are to rescue Lumos. I shall handle Umbra and Akumu by myself.”

“Sorry Celestia, but FUCK THAT! You are not fighting the both of them by yourself. I’m staying. The rest of you guys can go.”

“Hey Noctis,” Akumu said, stepping in front of me, “Recognize this?” he asked as Tsuki no me appeared in his hand.

“So, it remained. I see. But you don’t have the Orb. I do, and that’s all the advantage I need.” I said.

“Ah, but I don’t need the orb, thanks to Umbra.” He said, his eyes sparkling with pride.

“We’ll see about that.” I said, throwing BP at him and taking to the skies.

Umbra just knocked the blade to the side, ignoring its disappearing act, and Akumu followed my movement with his eyes as I re-summoned it and shot a giant fireball at him. The fireball curved, and went into the blade Umbra held, just like the fire before.

“Dude, if you love fire so much, then why don’t you just ask it out. Too hot for ya?” I asked.

<Because it’s weird to ask out your favorite food.>

“So you eat fire? That’s gotta cause some serious heartburn.” I joked, charging him, trying to run him through.

He smiled as he disappeared, <I see what you did there,> He appeared right behind Tox, and cut her arm with the blade, <First blood.>..

“Shit!” Die yelled, rushing Umbra and running Taiyo no me through his arm before he could react.

To everyone’s surprise, Umbra laughed. Moments later, his arm exploded into a ton of tentacles, which began to rapidly strike her blade from almost every direction that didn’t cut them.

“Let me guess. This is possible because you used to be part of Lumos, right?” I asked as I tossed BP through the tendrils, severing them and allowing Die to retreat with her blade, holding onto Tox with one arm.

<Sort of, Lumos could only change it because of his metal power, my power is different.> The tendrils floated back and reattached, before they reformed as two arms, his other arm followed suit. he pulled out two different gauntlets, one I recognized as the two bladed one as before, the other was different.

“NOCTIS! Something bad is happening to Tox!”

I turned to see that Tox’s body was changing. Her outfit slowly disintegrated, to reveal a black skintight one underneath it, her flesh slowly turned black, darkness was slowly spreading up her arm from her cut. Her teeth became jagged, and her eyes hardened. Claws grew out of her hands, and her legs gained a new joint in them. She stood up slowly, grabbing Dies arm. The flesh on that spot withering immediately.

“AHHHHHHHH!” She screamed as she pulled away.

<Finally, I was starting to get bored.>

“SHUT UP! WHAT DID YOU DO TO TOX!?” I yelled.

<It’s not so bad,> Tox’s voice said in my head, sounding a bit like a snake’s, <I think I understand now.>

“Understand? Tox, what are you talking about? This isn’t you. Don’t you dare let him beat you.”

<Beat me? Oh, you misunderstand.> She warped behind me, and slashed my foreleg with her claws.

“FUCK.” I yelled as I severed her hand and glided away from her, clutching my bleeding leg.

She frowned. <And here I thought I wouldn’t have to use this.> Her arm began to bubble, and a new hand slid out.

“Sorry Tox.” I said. “DARK FIR--” I stopped, unable to move, thankfully, I was standing on a cloud wide enough to catch me so I didn’t fall to my death.

<Ahh, paralysis poison, how I’ve missed using you.>

Hey Tox, you can hear my thoughts now, right? Since you’ve switched? I mean, the ones from the Space Between could hear them, so I assume you can too. And if so, I’ve got one thing to say.

<Too bad you can’t speak then.> Umbra’s voice said.

Well then, tell her this for me. Time for heads to roll.

<Yeah yeah, whatever> Tox’s voice said as she appeared above me, punching me through the cloud.

Oh, and Umbra, you forgot about something. I thought, smirking as I fell towards the streets far below.

<Yes, yes I did, wish I knew what, but I did.>

You forgot about Luna. I had just enough time to see the Night Goddess appear behind Tox and shove her longsword through her throat, before the cloud closed up again and I continued to fall towards the ground at increasing speed.

Sorry Tox. I’ll make ‘em pay double for you.

Tox appeared above me, the sword stuck in her neck, <Don’t.> she ‘said’ before stabbing my chest with her claws.

“That’s what I was waiting for.” I said, smirking as I ripped the sword out and forcibly closed her wound telekinetically. “DARKNESS ABSORPTION!”

The darkness began to flow out of Tox’s arm, and her claws disappeared, she kicked me away, before the darkness returned to normal. <Fuck you,> She held up a clawed hand, and a large drop of poison fell. I righted myself mere feet from the ground.

“It’s not quite done yet Tox. You see, I don’t have to maintain contact. Once the spell is cast, it’s effect continues until all the darkness is purged. I’m not losing a friend, even if I have to absorb all the darkness that ever existed. I’m not letting you die.”

<I see. To bad you already took all the darkness. This isn’t dark corruption, this... this is Sin.>

“Fine then, I’ll absorb that too. Tox, whether or not you’re on my side right now, I’m gonna save you. I never leave anyone behind when I can help them. YOU HEAR ME UMBRA, AKUMU! YOU CAN’T HAVE HER! SHE’S OUR FRIEND AND WE WILL SAVE HER!” I yelled, charging towards her again.

The ball of poison struck, and I felt a burning sensation throughout my entire body as my fur, feathers, and skin were melted. “FUCK THAT HURTS!” I yelled as I started falling again, hitting the ground a few seconds later, creating small cracks. “Alright, I guess I’ve got no choice. DISCORD! YOU STILL GOT ONE OF THOSE ITEMS ENCHANTED WITH THOSE DISGUISE SPELLS!?”

“Just one, and it’s almost out of power!” Discord shouted, blocking an attack from Akumu with a sword that looked like it was made of fur.

“WELL TOSS IT DOWN HERE! I DON’T GIVE A DAMN HOW LONG IT LASTS, I NEED MY OLD FORM, EVEN IF ONLY FOR A LITTLE WHILE!”

“Take it!” Discord threw a small metallic blue disc at me.

I caught it and realised one thing. “HOW DO I MAKE IT WORK!?”

“JUST SLAP IT ON, DAMMIT!” He blocked a blow that would have decapitated him otherwise.

I shook my head as I put it on my right leg. Unlike the times I used the orb, this change took a while, and it hurt like hell. The first time it changes you involves a lot of snapping bones, and ripping skin. In my case, lacking skin, I grew new skin which was stretched, ripped and magically sewn back together multiple times as I became human again.

My disguise spell gave me a new outfit too. A dark blue jacket with the right sleeve rolled up to the elbow and some sort of armor on the left shoulder, a red t-shirt, blue and red gloves with the moon on the right glove, and the sun on the left, and black shoes.

<You had so many openings during that transformation,> Tox hissed as her mind spoke,

“Then why didn’t you take any of them?”

<Only a coward attacks an opponent when they are weakened.>

“That proves it. You’re not one of them. Not completely. You’re still our friend.”

She scoffed <You’re right, they’re just enhanced heartless, I am a pure Sinner.> she said with pride, <Now, since you’re going to be serious now, I might as well start using my Sin powers.> Her arm turned gold <Greed.>

I pulled the Infinity Spectrum keychain from my neck as I raised Blackout Prizm. “Tox. Do you know what this is?”

<A keychain, it transforms a keyblade into a seperate form. That one is Infinity Spectrum, the alternate form of Blackout Prism, both designed by my people.>

“Ah, but that’s only a vague description. This keychain is very special. See, I kept asking myself why it felt so important, why the name and symbol kept popping into my head. Now I know. This keychain,” I attached it, and BP transformed into its solar counterpart. “Represents redemption.”

<Redemption? what a stupid concept, while it is possible, what has been done cannot be reversed.>

“What’s been done to your body may be permanent, but I still believe I can save your mind. You’re not too far gone for that.” I retorted.

<You don’t think Umbra and Akumu haven’t tested this with others? The Sinners cannot be purified, only killed and destroyed.>

“Says you.”

<Enough talk, this is turning into a fight from Dragon Ball Z.>

“Whatever.” I said, rushing Tox and making a vertical slash to try and sever her arm.

Suddenly, she was gone. Everywhere I looked, I couldn’t see her. All I did see was the falling bodies of the princesses of the sun and moon, as well as Discord.

“LUNA! CELESTIA! DISCORD!” I yelled as I ran towards them yelling, “AEROGA!” and forcing wind to flow upwards, slowing their descent, but not stopping it. Thankfully it slowed them enough that they hit the ground with no damage. Discord then got up, brushed himself off, and teleported himself and the princesses back to the cloud with a wave. I shook my head and went back to looking for Tox.

“ALRIGHT YOU COWARDS! COME OUT AND FACE ME!” I yelled in rage.

Two voices spoke in my head simultaneously, <Light believes it is the fastest thing around, this is not true, for wherever light goes,> The three appeared around me.

“Darkness gets there first, right? Good thing I can wield it safely now that you and I are separated Akumu.” I said, smirking as I vanished into the shadows at our feet.

<Funny, that’s actually related to why we’re here.> Umbra’s voice said

“Yeah, how so” I asked, “You know what, don’t bother telling me. INFINITY RUSH!” The ground erupted in pillars of light that grew in larger and created a massive cube of light, surrounding and blinding them as I reappeared and made several swift strikes against them, causing severe damage to the buildings and the streets around us.

<Aw... I knew we should have let her become better before turning her.> Umbra’s voice spoke again, chilling me to the bone. <Such a shame she had to die in such a way.> The light cleared enough for me something that made me sick to see. Tox’s body was on the ground, torn apart and burned, with Umbra squatting over her, closing her eyes as her corpse started to fade away. <Requiescat en Pace, Tox the poisonous.>

My anger reached it’s boiling point as I realised the that I had failed to save her, and that Umbra dared to pretend to care. “SHUT UP! DON’T YOU DARE TOUCH HER! YOU HAVE NO RIGHT AFTER WHAT YOU TURNED HER INTO!”

<Says the one who killed her.>

“Don’t try your mind games on me, Umbra. This is where you die.” I said.

<If I die, Lumos will fade out of existing, Mirum and Malum are one, me and Lumos are another. We are two in one.>

“Then it’s a good thing he’s right behind you, ready to lock you up and throw away the key.” I said smugly.

<I have eyes in the back of my head, you know.>

“Too bad you don’t have them underground.” I said, as my copy disappeared.

<What the fu--> He never finished since I stabbed Infinity Spectrum right through his heart. “Don’t worry, you’re not gonna die, your powers are just being sealed, and about your sinblade. The souls you used are gonna be returned. Unfortunately, the blade’s power is such that even without the souls, it will remain, but with its powers greatly reduced.”

He let out his low, barking laugh, <Their Souls can’t be returned, stupid, that world is dead already. I turned that one into my army, and Ven did a good job killing them off.>

I closed my eyes and took a breath as I registered the information. “I see. Then I guess I’ll make sure they find peace.” I said, driving my blade further into his chest.

He grabbed the blade of IS, <Fool> He said plainly as he pulled it out of his chest and threw it away, and his body began to fade, <Unlike Tox, me and Akumu aren’t Sinners.>

He snapped the sinblade in half. That which came from it was a horrible cross of seven voices screaming and a bright flash, when it cleared, seven different blades were floating around him.

“You’re gonna pay for that.” I said.

He grinned, <Sure I will.> he ‘said’ as all the blades cut off various parts of his body.

“Let me guess. More tendrils?” I asked, summoning IS back to my hand and taking a stance.

The pieces began to smoke, <No, you couldn’t be more wrong. That was the souls of the blades acting against me. A bit surprising, to say the least. I thought it would happen while it was one blade.>

“So, even now the souls fight you. Just proves you’ll never win.”

<That wasn’t my last trick,> He said as he pulled out a glove with his remaining arm, and tore something out of himself. The glove glowed for a moment, before a metal orb dropped into it. Almost immediately, his body turned to dust. <At least three quarters of me will live.>

“What are you talking about?” I asked confusedly.

<That orb... is-> and then his head evaporated.

The orb continued to glow for a moment, before it became white and black, in a similar pattern to that of the robes Xemnas wore at the end of kingdom hearts 2, with the symbol of the heartless on it.

“I must say, I wasn’t expecting that.” A familiar voice said behind me.

“Lumos?”

“Close enough.”A black cloaked man wielding a blade said as he stepped in front of me.

“Lemme guess. That’s Nihl?” I asked.

“Gee, I wonder how you knew.” Lumos said with a grin, “Also, I’m ‘Lux, the incomplete’ not ‘Lumos the neutral god,’ anymore.”

“Ok then, Lux. Do you remember me? Or Die, or Clare, and Ven?”

“Will you stop asking stupid questions already, Noctis?” He pulled back his hood to reveal him being exactly the same, with the exception of the whites of his eyes being black.

“Dude, I don’t ask stupid questions.” I said with a small frown. “And I’m not the one who created that thing that killed the populations of two towns and an entire world.”

“Fair point,” He walked over to the orb that Umbra made. “That's weird.”

“Yeah, he made it just before he ‘died’. Now, where are those sinblades?” I mused, looking around.

“You mean these?” I heard from above me, and I looked up to see Akumu standing on the largest one.

“AKUMU! Give up. Umbra’s dead, and you’re outnumbered, as well as outmatched. Or do you wanna make this your last stand? Go ahead, all it means is I’ll get to go home a little earlier and spend time with my girlfriend.”

“HA! Now that’s a good one. Umbra planned for this, actually, he knew that seperated, we couldn’t win, so he gave me... his soul.” He said with a grin, “He set it up so that when he died, I would inherit the blades, giving me eight.”

“Eight? Last I checked, there were only seven. Unless you’re talking about Tsuki no me as well. In which case, bring it on.” I said. “After all, that blade belonged to me, so it’s only fitting I be the one to destroy it.”

“Gladly. Now then, let me show you the power Umbra taught me, but was afraid to use with only one soul!” He said, as he slipped on a glove identical to that Umbra used to create the orb.

“I’m guessing that’s what you used to get the souls to create your precious sinblades.” I spat.

He grinned, and said in my head <Exactly, and now, to quote a wise man: ‘Death solves all problems - no man, no problem.’>

“... Did you just Quote Joseph Stalin?” Lux asked, a look saying ‘what the fuck’ on his face.

“No shit, Sherlock,” Akumu said with a chuckle, “With his soul,” <Came his mind, and everything it held.>

“Ok talking in two voices. Creepy as fuck, but not gonna change a thing.” I said.

Akumu spoke the next part, both out loud, and in our heads “<We’ll see. Envy mode.>” and with that, he disappeared.

“Fuck. Lux, be careful, he can mess with our heads and make us attack each other.”

Lux picked up the orb, “This... this is a heart...” He chuckled, “That bastard is less predictable that Discord.”

“I heard my name.” Discord said, popping in out of nowhere, almost completely healed.

Lux just stared at him, before turning to me “Mind explaining?”

“Uh, sure. Discord from my world is a good guy now. It’s only cause of him we were even able to get here on the Swagwagon.” I said quickly, searching for Akumu/Umbra.

“The... what the fuck?!?” He shouted as a sinblade crashed into Nihl knocking it out of his hands, before both disappeared. “Well that isn’t good.” he deadpanned, “give me a moment.” The orb began to glow, and his robe disappeared, changing into a simple long sleeve shirt, and pants, made of the same material as Ven’s old outfit, and covered with pockets.

“Nice gear. Hey, if you’re here, where are Ven and the others anyway?”

“Still in the castle, said they had something they wanted to look for. Now then,” He held his left hand to the sky, and a white and black scimitar fell from it, landing perfectly in his hand, followed by taking a dual wielding stance, “lets kill this bastard.”

“Gladly.” I said, raising IS, as Nihl reappeared in Lux’s other hand.

Lux charged forward, fast enough that I could barely follow the movements myself, and he made a swift uppercut with Nihl, which Akumu dodged with a slight adjustment to his stance. Lux then threw his blade straight down, right before it hit the ground, it entered a dark passage, and flew out, going through Akumu’s leg.

“Gah!”Akumu shouted, before doing something I didn’t expect: he began to pour light into the wound, closing it up, and making it heal.

“Light? Really? I didn’t expect you to ever use it Akumu. Or Umbra? Or are we gonna have to come up with an entirely new name for you?” I asked as I tossed IS at him. “SPARK RAID!” The blade only nicked him, but it separated into several spinning blades of light which flew in all directions.

Akumu managed to dodge each blade, “Oh, I’m still Akumu, I just know everything Umbra knew, and have his powers as my own.” he said, as a flintlock pistol appeared in his hand. He pointed it at me, “Glasis.” he said as he pulled the trigger. “and I would be a fool not to use them.” A beam of light blue shot out of the barrel of the gun.

“Shadow Slide.” I disappeared just as the bullet passed through the space I had occupied just a second earlier, impacting harmlessly against one of the remaining buildings, and reappearing behind him with IS raised. Just as I brought it down, one of his ‘sinblades’ floated up, blocking the attack. “[color= blue]Sonvabitch.”

“Well that’s a familiar use of blades.” I heard Lux say from somewhere, sounding muffled, “Also, Noctis, you’re doing it wrong.” and with that he physically burst from Akumu’s chest. He wiped the blood from his face, before saying “THAT, is how you use darkness in battle.”

“Dude, now that’s what I call a heart-attack.” I said, chuckling at my own bad joke.

“Whatever, he’s healing faster than I could.” He said, looking back at his work with an approving smile.

“Whatever. Just hit him once with Nihl and it’s over, right?” I said.

“Not quite, Nihl does destroy, but only the parts it DIRECTLY touches, if you nick his ear, that part is gone for good, and can’t be regenerated, but the rest of him remains.”

“Then pass it to me, and I’ll decapitate him. Problem solved.” I said, reaching out to grab it from him, and getting my hand swatted away.

“Sorry, but to keep others from stealing it, it’s set up so that only I can wield it without my hand getting fucked up.”

“Oh, right. Like with the other weapons you made? Then wouldn’t Xemnas be able to use it, since he helped make it?” I said, wondering why Akumu was just standing there and letting us have a conversation. Turning to look, I got my answer: he wasn’t there at all, he was going upwards toward the clouds.

NO! DIE , LUNA AND CELESTIA ARE STILL THERE!

“NOPE!” Lux shouted as he appeared above him, sinking his heel into Akumu’s face, before disappearing, and reappearing behind him, giving a sharp kick to the spine, followed by several other teleportations, and hits to sensitive areas, the last, being a place found between ones legs.

“Ouch, I felt that.” I said, holding back a laugh as I ran towards the spot Akumu was going to land at.

Lumos’ cheeks puffed up, “Shadow dragon’s...” (wait for it,) “ROAR” He shouted, and with the word, came a large amount of darkness, tearing everything in it’s path to shreds. The blast narrowly missed me by a couple inches, not counting the bit of hair I lost. Akumu got the blunt of the attack though, losing one arm, and everything below the chest, while leaving a massive gash in the ground and completely obliterating the rest of the remaining buildings.

“Gah, leaves a rotting taste in your mouth.” Lux complained, as he was spitting out little bits of darkness, which instantly disintegrated whatever they touched.

“Dude, where’d you learn that!?” I exclaimed, awestruck.

“You mean that technique specifically, or dragon slayer magic in general?” he asked, before saying, “White Drive.” a pure white aura appeared around him, making him, and the air around him, look like it had been bleached.

“Dude, what’s with the glowing? And I wanna know where you learned about, what did you call it, ‘Slayer Magic’, as well as the technique, you gotta tell me how you learned that.”

“Dragon slayer magic is something I read about in a manga called ‘Fairy Tail,’ other forms of dragon slayer magic are fire, lightning, poison, sky, and iron. A level higher than that, is God slayer magic. Unfortunately for me, there isn’t enough knowledge on it, or how it is used, to properly replicate it.”

“Cool. So, think you could teach me Light and Shadow sometime? I mean, after I learn how to use a keyblade properly I mean.” I said, just as the magic in the disc I’d been given started to run out. “Awww, crap”

“What?” He asked, looking at Akumu’s regenerating form with interest.

“Remember how I used to be able to switch forms at will? Emphasis on ‘used to’. I had to give up my human form and my sword when Umbra released my darkness. It saved my life, but it also gave Akumu my human body and Tsuki no me. The only reason I’m human now is cause of this disc thing Discord gave me so I could disguise myself as a human again, and the magic’s about to run out.”

“It looks sort of like a keyblade armor thing. Could I see it?”

“Sure, but I’ve got about ten minutes before I switch back to my pegasus form, which was previously devoid of skin, thanks to Tox.” I said, shaking a little.

“Tox is here too? Where?”

I thought about lying to him, but I shook my head, knowing that he’d just find out later and it would be worse because of the lie. “Lux...I’m sorry. Umbra turned her into one of them, and...she’s gone, Lux.”

I saw the aura around him fade, and he grit his teeth, “No... NO! I REFUSE TO ACCEPT THIS!” He shouted as a large amount of darkness and light began to pour out of him.

“WELL YOU HAVE TO! AND I HAVE TO LIVE WITH THE FACT THAT I’M THE ONE THAT ENDED HER LIFE! I THOUGHT I COULD SAVE HER AND I WAS WRONG!”

The darkness and light began to take the shape of an orb, “Where is the body?” He asked, a look of rage on his face.

“I don’t know. Umbra did something to it before we started fighting again, and now I have no idea what happened. The worst part is that he actually had the nerve to pretend to mourn her death.” I hissed.

“Very well then,” He jumped up, grabbed Akumu’s still legless body by the throat, and slammed him into the ground. A flurry of fists fell onto his face, each moving faster than the last, and with each one the crater Akumu was in grew larger. “WHAT DID HE DO WITH HER BODY?! TELL ME!” His shouted, “TELL ME! TE-” he stopped as a black katana went through his chest.

A trickle of black blood came out of his mouth, “Wha...”

“You’re a fool.” Akumu said, barely audible, “Umbra’s given me the knowledge to kill you, did you really think you could win?”

“SHIT! LUX!” I yelled as I charged Akumu and slashed wildly at him.

“That’s... wow, not even trying to use frozen heart, are we?”

“I don’t need it anymore. I have this one. WOUND EQUILIBRIUM!”

“Just wondering, how much energy you got left? Also,” His arms split, similarly to Umbra’s, only to form eight arms instead of the tendrils, “I say it’s about time I end this crap.” He landed on a disk of darkness, a blade in each of his hands.

“I haven’t... got much left... Akumu. Just enough for... one more spell. Then I’m... done.” I huffed, my body starting to revert back to it’s previous form, melted skin and all. “But I think...you know...what spell it’ll be.”

“We’ll see.” He said, looking at me with a look, not of fear, not of assumed victory, but one of curiosity.

“Akumu...do you remember the first technique I ever learned after my sister and I relieved the Orbs. I assume you would since you were around since that day.” My wings were ripping through my sides now, and the pain threatened to make me pass out.

“Long before, darkness is always present.”

“Then you know the first move Die and I ever mastered. The one move we can always use. Soul Transfer.” My arms had turned into hooves, and my legs were following quickly.

“Your point being?” He cracked hes neck, and stabbed a sinblade into the ground.

“Do you remember what it does?” My face was becoming longer and more equine.

“It let’s you use your sister’s techniques, and merges your personality, so?”

“It doesn’t just let me use her techniques. It let’s her use mine too! Soul transfer.” I yelled as my transformation finally ended and my consciousness started to fade from the agony.

Akumu just had one of those looks on your face you get when you think ‘what the fuck did i just see,’ before saying “... Well this sucks.” and then he felt something ram into him, like a bullet train slamming into a car at full speed.

“THAT ONE’S FOR TOX!”...
__________________________________________________________________

“I should have seen that one coming from a mile away.” Akumu said as he stood slowly.

“SHUT UP! I’m gonna gut you, Akumu. And for your information, Celestia and Luna are gonna be fine, so you failed on two fronts. Now, draw your blade, bastard.”

He held up his eight arms, each holding a sword, and grinned, “Eight steps ahead of you.”

I didn’t bother replying, simply choosing to rush towards him, Taiyo no me raised above my head as I ducked and weaved through his flailing blades and severing the arms when they came too close. As I got close I stabbed my blade through his throat.

<You’ve improved, for some reason, as much as I hate you, I must say, I’m getting a warm, fuzzy feeling inside from seeing someone actually do this well.>

“That’s the power of soul transfer.” I said. “Combined with the fact that now I can do this!” I said, smirking as I summoned IS, much to his intrigue.

<... Dafuq?> He asked as I pushed Taiyo no me through the rest of the way and raised IS to strike. He jumped back, with Taiyo no me still in his throat, <You just made this a hell of a lot more fun!> he ‘shouted’ as he tore the blade from his neck, the wound healing quickly with his newfound ‘light’ power. He flipped the sword a couple of times, only for it to disappear like IS would.

“Surprised? I learned that trick during the training on the Swagwagon.”

“No, I’m really not, I can do the same with Tsuki no me, so it’s understandable that it’s solar counterpart would have the same ability.”

“Yeah, yeah. I’m gonna enjoy this.” I said, taking a stance used by samurai warriors, my legs spread, Tnm parallel to the ground and positioned so that it was at chest level and running across my chest with the blade facing outwards, and IS raised to face the sky.

“Lets just get this over with, I’m on a schedule, after all”he said, his sinblades fusing back into one, and his arms changing from eight to four, and wielding the sinblade in his left top, Tsuki no me in his top right, and his lower arms holding a pair of guns. “Navitas Reposita” He said, and the guns began to glow softly.

Akumu moved fast, like before he was only playing around, and was suddenly trying. He dashed froward, and made several gashes in my arm with Tsuki no me before I could even react, though for some reason, the sinblade just kept getting stabbed into the ground.

“Trouble controlling your blade?” I asked, smirking despite my wounds.

“Ha! Hardly, this thing is easier to control when all together, which, considering that these are the elements, is a little wierd.”

“Well, I hope you enjoy this next move. LIMIT REMOVAL!”

I felt the energy rush throughout my entire body, and I moved at speeds that matched Akumu’s with ease, landing several swift blows on him.

“Hey, I know that move!” Akumu said, in an eerily cheery tone, “Though I call it... UNLEASH!” He said, and moved fast enough that he physically disappeared, leaving a small cloud of dust.

“Forget about something?” I said as I barely dodged his blows.

“Did I?”

“Eeyup. You forgot about the nasty side-effect of Unleash.”

“Yeah yeah, damage taken is damage doubled.”

“That’s Limit Removal. Unleash cripples the user after two minutes, and I believe you have about 30 seconds left.”

He grinned, “Better make the most of it then,” He appeared behind me, and said, with the barrels of his guns against my shoulders, “DIMITTAM!” and a huge bolt of energy shot out, breaking the bones, “Deactivate technique: unleash” he said, just before the limit was reached.

I grimaced as I hit the ground.“Dumbass. You just signed your death warrant.” I said, as my vision started to fade.

He pointed at me, “Sigillum Potentia. Welcome back to mortality.”

My vision was almost completely gone by this point. “V...Ven...help...” was all I could muster up with what little strength I had left.

“He can’t hear you,” Akumu said, as he poised Tsuki no me over my throat, when suddenly, both his arms and his legs exploded, as did his chest. “...Dafuq?”

“YOU FUCKING BASTARD!” I heard Ven’s voice shout, as he crashed into Akumu’s falling body, which was quickly regenerating. Ven then ran over to me, and started to pour a foul tasting liquid into my mouth, “Here, it’s one of those potions. I know it tastes terrible, but drink it anyway.”

He was right, it tasted like raw sewage mixed with manure, but I drank it nonetheless, grimacing the entire time. “...Thanks...you’re a good...boyfriend...now kick his ass...”

I saw the whites of his eyes turn black, the irises changed to be orange, and his teeth sharpened to a fine point, “Right away, ma’am.” He said as he stood up, and a black wind surrounded each of his hands. He sheathed Tai Fuu No Me, and a demonic-looking blade appeared in his hands.

Ven let out an ear-piercing shriek charged forward, at the now-healed Akumu, who was paralyzed by the sound. Ven managed to swing the huge sword hard enough to break Tsuki no me, and sever both of his left arms. Ven picked up one of the guns as he kicked Akumu away, and pointed it at his chest shouting, “POTENTIA LEVO!” the beam ripped through him, but when the light faded, he had no wound. The dark wind around him began to form circles. The then exploded off of him, cutting everything they touched. If I weren’t lying down, I would be dead, thanks to Akumu’s spell.

Ven appeared behind Akumu, who had jumped over, and severed his arms with two swings of his sword, before grabbing Akumu’s head with his feet, and turning it, creating a sharp cracking sound echo through the air.

“Let me give you a warning, you stupid bastard:” Ven said, his voice distorting “YOU. DO. NOT. HARM. MY. FRIENDS. OR. MY. GIRLFRIEND!” With each word, he cut Akumu in half in a different direction each time.

Blood fell from Akumu’s mouth, and his pieces slowly pulled themselves together. Meanwhile, Ven poised the blade over the Sinblade, and swung downward, saying ““Aeterna sigillo.” Blade struck blade, and the Sinblade glowed for a moment, before turning to stone.

“D-damn you,” Akumu said, before exploding into a mass of tendrils, all aimed at Ven’s chest and head. Ven just held up the blade, which glowed black

“LUPUS DENTE DIVIDENDO LUNAM” He shouted, and a black wave, surrounded by red shot from his blade as he swung it, cutting through each and every one of the tendrils, only leaving Akumu’s head, and a bit of his chest.

Ven walked over to Akumu slowly, flattened his hand, and stabbed it into his opponent’s heart, “Ducenti anno sigillo.” He said, and Akumu, just barely finishing his regeneration, was turned to stone. Ven pulled out his hand before the transformation reached the spot, and placed his hand gently on the chest, “Energiae Furari. Sui Sana.” He said, and his wounds closed.

The blade faded out of existence, and Ven collapsed, unconscious before he even hit the ground next to the statue of Akumu.

I smiled, feeling my consciousness fade away, and the embrace of sleep.