Look at the allusions between them and you'll find it to be true. They're like - the Sora and Riku of the Destati timeline, which ( don't forget ) takes place some few thousand years after the original KH series.
I also needed to follow up on the 13th Reflection series, and I thought 'why not xemnas' for these two? I'll probably seriously follow this up with full length chapters for all of the data organization members, while I think about it-
Begin.
I also needed to follow up on the 13th Reflection series, and I thought 'why not xemnas' for these two? I'll probably seriously follow this up with full length chapters for all of the data organization members, while I think about it-
Begin.
The 13th Reflection
I
The Superior of the In-Between.
I
The Superior of the In-Between.
“Say, Suihei…”
“Yeah?”
“Where in the name of the Worlds did that doors take us?” Nor asked, taking stock of their surroundings with a critical eye. They’d ended up in front of a skyscraper, she noticed. With a steady barrage of rain pelting down on both their figures. Ice cold, but not enough to bother her. The question wasn’t exactly one that Nor really expected an answer to, though, considering Suihei’s lackadaisical approach to everything.
The scent of wet asphalt hung in the air. She glanced at Suihei. Suihei glanced back. “Well, what were you expecting me to say-“
Before them, the air rippled with a flux of data. An array of zeroes and ones rose from a circular point in the middle of the ground but a few feet away. Both girls leapt back, keyblades forming in their opposing hands while taking stock of the figure in front of them. He was tall. Incredibly so, actually.
Broad of shoulder, he cut an impressive, if not intimidating figure. His hair was long. Down to about the middle of his back, with a hint of spikiness to it that had Nor wondering, not for the first time, if this were just a natural thing for people of some Worlds. But the most enrapturing things had to be his eyes. A sharp orange, almost amber colour, that immediately put both girls on edge. Oddly enough, his coat seemed to be black and white – never remaining in place, but instead, constantly shifting about.
It may have come as a surprise that the immediate area away from the tower, the area that had once been a city dissipated into a confusing mass of . . . Nothing. Nor could see it with her eyes. ‘It’s a data simulation’, she reminded herself. ‘A place that Suihei found, that had to do with… something eons ago.’ She could manage this. It’d be alright.
All three of them remained silent, until the peculiar man began to speak. “Keybearers of another dawn…” His voice was a rich baritone that fell flat in many respects. There was no inflection, no melodramatics. Merely a detached, logical aspect to his inflection that caused Suihei to clench her the grip of her keyblade even tighter. “What is your purpose?”
Nor’d barely caught the question, as interested as she was in sitting in the rain. “Our purpose?” She asked incredulously, poising her keyblade overhead. An open stance, inviting even, towards the melancholic figure. Would the taunt work? She didn’t really know. But what she did know, was that she didn’t want to be here any longer than she’d already been.Ten minutesseemed to be a huge waste of time and emotional resources, when she could be snoozing. “Well, I dunno, maybe you should tell us who you are in the first place.” Dripping with sarcasm, her voice seemed to cut through the pretenses in a way that had Suihei coughing into her fist awkwardly.
The brunette took the time to interrupt the redhead “Nor.” The redhead looked over. “Don’t you think that maybe we shouldn’t be-“
Her sentence was cut off by a blur of the nameless figure. Twin red beams, ethereal as they were fleeting, whistled through the air, intent on striking both Keybearers down where they stood. Each girl proved quick on the reflex. Suihei brandished Neo-Kingdom Key with expertise, turning on her heel in a burst of speed to catch the ethereal blade between the teeth of the weapon, while Nor twisted out of the way and lashed out towards the Organization Member’s head with a precise blow, her own keyblade crackling with a lightning edge that seemed even brighter in the dark area.
Both girls were surprised in turn, by the silver haired figure dismissing the blades just as fast as they were formed. Before either knew what happened, Xemnas lashed out with a brutal roundhouse that caught Suihei in the side and sent her hurtling towards Nor. He was quick to follow it up, creating several condensed ethereal above him that blasted towards both girls.
It would have been rather unfortunate, too, if they were caught by it. Suihei, having recovered midair with a flip sent a pulse of mana through her keyblade. Hexagonal plates formed in front of the duo, absorbing the lasers before bursting forward with a rush of light and heat. Xemnas raised his hand, barely avoiding the intense burn from the reciprocated attack.
Regardless of this attempt, Nor was on him in an instant. She darted forward, slashing out with her keyblade once, twice, just barely catching the Nobody in his torso. The assault wouldn’t let up, however. Nor continued her aggressive strikes, fueling each slash with a different spell to put Xemnas on the defense instead of the offense.
“How futile…” He mocked, twisting his body out of the way before responding with a flurry of agile blows. It was like he came from everywhere at once. Every time Nor would block, there was another ethereal blade at the edge of her vision. The heat radiating off of them was ridiculous, with sparks bursting every time her Keyblade met the Nobody’s peculiar ethereal weapons. Rain hissed from the deadlock, and though her strength was impressive, it seemed to hold nothing to snuff when it came to Xemnas’ own impressive physical constitution.
Xemnas conjured another ethereal construct, suspended but mere inches from Nor’s face. He caught sight of the other keybearer, quick to rush to the aid of her friend with a blur of speed that would have surprised him, if he held the capacity for it. Suihei lashed out, not with her key, but with a roundhouse that Xemnas managed to block with his forearm.
The strength behind it was enough to stagger him. Distract him enough for her little friend to twirl out of the way and slice at his legs. Xemnas would have none of that. Seizing Suihei by her ankle, the Superior of In-Between attempted to toss the girl towards her ally once more. She didn’t seem fond of that, if the flames bursting at her feet were a sign.
He let her go mid-toss, allowing her to recover for just a few moments. They were moments that both Keybearers used to their advantage. Once again, they rushed towards Xemnas in tandem, and once again, they were deflected with rapid flicks of the ethereal blades.
Deadlocked in an intense struggle, neither girl managed to catch the blunt lasers that struck their backs with such force that it stunned them.
It was painful. Not unlike getting shocked with enough force to blow the air out of their lungs. But they persisted still. “Be Embraced by Nothingness…” Xemnas intoned forebodingly. Around them, a veritable forest of thorns, formed from a peculiar substance. Nothing, Nor had been told by Nyx. Incredibly powerful Nobodies could harness such a thing. Just who- was this guy?! “Nothingness… is Eternal.”
They had to move. Fast. Already, thorns rushed towards the Keybearers, who remained locked in place by Xemnas’ surprising strength.
“Suihei!” Nor hissed out, blue eyes meeting hazel for but a second as a sign to break the limits that seemed to stop them from doing any significant damage.
Suihei seemed to get the idea, at least. “Got it!” Much to Xemnas’ surprise, both redhead and brunette blurred out of the way of the thorns that threatened to tear them to shreds mere seconds before.
Nor took the initiative to bark a sharp curse to Xemnas. “Outta my way!” Metal whistled through the air, both girls rapidly transitioning from joint slashes – vertical, horizontal, diagonal - punishing Xemnas from opposite sides with rapid stabs that made their arms appear a blur.
Xemnas grunted- the first sign that they had been getting anywhere with actually causing serious harm in the first place.
“Let’s go!” Suihei whistled out, banishing her keyblade in order to draw both her hands back. Apparently, she’d decided that holding back wasn’t in her options, and had taken the initiative to draw on a Distortion Drive - Finalé, that that. Light swirled in one palm, whilst Darkness thrummed in the other, before she rapidly fired the blasts. A nonstop assault that was just barely fended off by a hastily crafted shield.
Xemnas attempted to warp behind Suihei, yet Nor was far from inactive.
Yet he was unable to pull away from the assault.
Her own hands thrummed with pure elemental energy. Composed of nearly every type of offensive magic she could force together to create a new, sixth element. “Don’t run away just yet!” She cackled, rapidly thrusting her own arms. Pure energy swirled towards Xemnas, just barely blowing past Suihei, who twisted out of the way with the gliding ability that the Drive provided her with.
The resulting explosion saturated the air with mana, yet they were far from done. “Together!” Nor ordered, both girls standing back to back – it was a good thing that the off-gray energy that seemed to surround Suihei drifted over towards Nor, too, as both girls called their Keyblades back to them and were on Xemnas in less than a blink of the eye.
He met their blows with an assault of lasers once again, but…
Now he could see why they were back to back. Their Keyblades extended to monumental lengths, resembling actual blades more than keys as they swung with such titanic force that the very air rippled with shockwaves. He continued to warp and teleport out of the way, twilight thorns meeting each girl’s blade with such force the air resounded with the sound of electricity sparking and the scent of ozone.
“This is it!” Suihei cried next, holding her hands out with a pulse of Twilight visibly distorting the air around the duo. Thirteen swords twirled around them like the edge of a razor, before they warped? No, no, there was no tug of magic. It was simply the speed behind them. Each of the thirteen blades hovered around Xemnas rotating around him until they became a blur, before they paused suddenly, and lanced forward. Once again, the Superior of the In-Between managed to dodge them, just barely.
Yet even then, the blades continued to hound Xemnas, with Nor giving a sharp whistle and a snap of the fingers that caused them to reform, and shoot one at a time. While the first two were easily avoided, and the next seven, just barely – the remaining four blurred towards Xemnas at such an obscene speed, that he was struck and knocked clear off their feet.
They worked best together, so why not take advantage by tearing them apart, he mused. Just as both girls called their Keyblades back to one another, he made his move. Lurching forward, he broke through their iron-tight guard. Nor tried to give a word of warning to Suihei, but Xemnas quickly kicked the redhead away with suchforce that she was blown off her feet and sent hurtling a few feet away.
“Can you . . . Spare a Heart?” He inquired, gripping Suihei in an armlock to toss her up into the air and catch her in a net of pure energy. It was obviously quite painful, from how the girl was lurching in a silent scream. The voltage was so powerful, that it managed to blow the brunette clear out of her Drive. Limbs flailed, muscles spasming in agony that drove Nor insane, watching.
“Suihei!” She cried out. Attempting to close the space between them proved… difficult, however, as Xemnas was quick to learn from his mistake, and attempted to keep the two separated by creating a duplicate of his own. It managed to hold her off for a few tortuous minutes, yet even thin, it appeared that Nor wasn’t entirely too fond of waiting. Her keyblade lashed out, sending a wave of darkness, then light towards the duplicate whenever it managed to get close.
When she managed to close the gap between her screaming friend and Xemnas, Nor made sure to grab him by the arm with an agile leap. She bashed his face with the teeth of her Keyblade, causing him to drop Suihei to the ground. The girl landed in the ground in a heap, but that didn’t matter. What mattered was that Xemnas seemed intent on winning one way or another, even if that meant crushing both girls beneath his heel.
He slammed Nor into the ground, causing Suihei to blur into action once more. She leaped forward, legs wreathed in a plume of fire. Suihei came barreling down on Xemnas with such intense heat that his concentration was broken in an instant. She tossed him with her ridiculous strength, allowing him to remain in the air for precious seconds while Nor pushed herself back onto her feet.
“You may go together…” Both girls glanced at one another again, then flicked their eyes up in shock at the seemingly endless field of lasers that floated around them. With a gesture, they came flying towards Suihei and Nor, attempting to overwhelm them with sheer numbers alone.
“Together!” Both Keybearers said, blurring into motion to block, reflect, and disperse each laser with a flick of the wrist.
A twist, a pirouette, a leap over one another’s shoulder to cover wherever the other may have missed.
Both girls worked in perfect sync with one another, their speed only serving to increase as the assault picked up to truly obscene levels. Together, they continued to block, and block, and block – until Xemnas had truly expended all of his energy in attempting to overwhelm them.
Their efforts didn’t go unrewarded, as Xemnas was upon them in another burst of speed, attempting to debilitate Suihei by bashing her back in with one of his Ethereal blades. “Oh no you don’t!” Nor hissed, turning fast enough to catch her friend by the wrist. Suihei was tugged out of the way, yet in her place, Nor was struck with the intense blow.
“Nor!” Suihei exclaimed, worry clear on her features. But the other Keybearer would have nothing of it. She held her Keyblade out for Suihei to grasp, and Suihei needed no cue on what to do. She focused, kicked off the balls of her feet, and dashed forward, grabbing Nor’s keyblade as she did so. The assault on the Nobody was brutal. Explosive with power, even if she was fatigued. Suihei cuffed him in the chin with her Keyblade, then the chest- the legs, the thighs, then used both Keyblades while spinning like a top to completely push him away from both of them again.
By the time she landed? Nor was already back onto her feet, looking exhausting from the grueling fight, but no worse for wear. Heck, Suihei felt like she’d collapse at any given moment! But she held out Neo-Kingdom Key, pointing it directly at the still flying Xemnas. Nor, taking the initiative, settled her hand atop Suihei’s.
The Keyblade radiated with light, a spiral of energy pulsing from the blue seamline that separated that dark steel from the silver edge, before it burst forward in an explosion of pure power that tore through Xemnas.
Neither heard his final cry of perishing, both content with collapsing against one another with twin sighs of absolute exhaustion.
Sensing that one ( or rather, both ) of the combatants had defeated their opponent, the simulation began to dissolve. Code and data whirled around both Keybearers. Both girls remained leaning against one another, even as they were settled right on the cool marble floor in front of the peculiar gate that had led them to such a . . . debacle.
Norwin was the first to speak.
“Remind me to never. Ever. Decide to follow your idiotic ideas in testing this place again. ” It was certainly less of a warning that Suihei would’ve liked, but it was better than nothing.
“Trust me.” She groaned, fishing through her pocket for a potion. “I don’t intend to.”. . . guh. And the worst part probably was that Suihei needed to get back to the main city before her little pets got worried. “We can totally put it off for an hour and rest. I’m beat.”
Of course she’d be the lazy bum and fall asleep right against Nor.
A life and death battle, and the girl decided to go to sleep as a reward to herself.
Sometimes Norwin really wondered why she dealt with the little brat. She really did.