first of all, Kurix, i know you mean well, but i think the way you worded your above post might be the reason we are having this discussion. however, as Jones said, this is fictional, and therefore it is garenteed that it might not follow all the rules of reality and physics (i doubt many professional authors have such a great understanding on the matter).
Jones: i agree with your above post. on a side note: nice play on words with "Doesnt Matter"
and now, on with the show, er, story.
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Chapter 14
The Tragedy of Xando, Prince of Shadows
By the time Sora, Riku and Kairi made their way to the top of the cliff, Xando had already engaged with Xehanort and Valzog. Immediately upon seeing them, Valzog disengaged with Xando to meet the reinforcements.
“You have already lost!” Xehanort said to Xando while their blades clashed, “Your little ‘army’ cannot defeat the Heartless!”
“We haven’t lost yet,” Xando said, jumping away from Xehanort.
“Your cause is lost!” Xehanort shouted, “You’re fighting for a lost cause! Surely you realize this!”
“Maybe,” Xando said, pointing his sword at Xehanort again. “But don’t you realize that those are often the only causes worth fighting for? And besides, I have a different cause than the rest of the people here. Your demise.”
Xando charged at Xehanort with sword in hand. Xehanort fired a blast of flame, but Xando merely dived under it, rolled to his feet, and continued running. Xehanort attempted to freeze Xando in ice, but Xando created a wall of flame to instantly incinerate the ice. Finally, Xando got too close for Xehanort to effectively cast a spell on him or raise his weapon, so Xehanort created a barrier of magic, hoping to block the impact.
At the last minute, Xando created numerous ghost swords, and all of them simultaneously struck the force field; the force nearly overwhelming the barrier Xehanort created. Xando, along with his ghost sword, began an onslaught of attacks, hoping to shatter the magic wall into pieces. Things broke. Not the swords. Xehanort jumped away moments before being skewered from numerous directions and landed some 50 feet from Xando, launching a barrage of thunder as soon as he landed.
Xando fused his ghost swords together into a sort of giant shield to absorb the majority of the impact. Nevertheless, enough force remained to drive Xando back a few feet despite the brunt of the damage being taken by the shield.
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Sora raised his Keyblade in time to barely block Valzog’s attack. Valzog jumped back and immediately launched a volley of ice spells, which would flash freeze anything unfortunate enough to be hit by them. From Valzog’s left flank, Kairi launched a bolt of thunder, hoping to distract Valzog long enough for Riku and Sora to escape the onslaught of ice. Without so much as even a gesture, a wall of ice formed and absorbed the blow.
Riku dodged out of the way of the latest blast of ice, but the spell grazed his right foot, immediately incasing it in a thick layer of ice. Noticing the hero down, Valzog quickly aimed another blast right at him, hoping to turn him into an ice statue to decorate the area. At the last second, Sora jumped between them and created a magical barrier, and the blizzard spell froze that instead of either of them. Sora quickly dismissed the spell, blasted the icy ceiling with a fireball, and jumped out.
It was at this moment that Sora noticed that the sky had been gradually darkening, clouds covering the sun at a rate too fast to be normal. Sora smiled; he knew only four people that might be powerful enough to do that, one of them was busy battling Xando. Sora’s thoughts were confirmed when a 10.0 earthquake hit, threatening to force everyone off their feet.
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On the top of the castle in Radiant Garden, three wizardly figures stood, creating havoc for the Heartless armies.
“Just got word from Terra,” Ansem said, running outside from below, “Maleficent and Pete appear to be
controlling about a fourth of the Heartless currently laying siege here.”
Athos nodded and turned to his two companions, a smile forming on his face. “Master Merlin, Master Yen Sid. I think it is time to unleash a little chaos on the Heartless.”
Both grimly nodded, and all three of them proceeded to pool their magic together. The theory was that the power of three of the greatest wizards in the universe was enough to create massive hurricanes, earthquakes, and who knows what else. Merlin, Athos, and Yen Sid were about to test that theory to its limit.
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Xando and Xehanort were one of the few that weren’t knocked off their feet in the then second earthquake. Xando took a moment to observe what mischief the sages were getting into, and smiled when he saw a fireball the size of a small mountain form and unleashed upon the armies of Heartless, carefully calculated to avoid harming the defenders of the world. Thunder storms, tornadoes, blizzards, and all sorts of high-level magic imaginable, and even some that weren’t, were being unleashed by the trinity of sages.
“You have some skilled magicians among you,” Xehanort observed, “but it won’t change a thing.”
“No,” Xando admitted, “I will!” Xando suddenly charged towards the Master of Shadows once again. Xehanort launched another fireball, but Xando vaulted over it and Xehanort, landing just inches behind him. Xehanort barely had enough time to turn and pull up his Keyblade before Xando brought it down. Xehanort struggled for a moment then managed to push Xando back some, but they were still locked in place.
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Sora gripped his arm and bit his lip to keep himself from screaming in pain. Moments ago, he had fired a fireball at Valzog, who had somehow absorbed it into his Keyblade. He then charged, vaulted over Sora, and landed a glancing blow on his arm. At the moment of contact, the energy from the absorbed fireball was released, badly burning Sora’s left arm.
“What… are you?” Sora growled through clenched teeth.
“I am… but a mere shell,” came the enigmatic reply.
Valzog then jumped out of the way as Kairi flung a blast of ice at his back; Sora barely got a force field up in time to block the friendly fir… er, ice. As soon as Valzog landed, he turned and just barely managed to bat away a bolt of darkness, launched by Riku, who had finally broken the ice incasing his foot.
“You cannot win,” Valzog said, his voice sounding strangely deep, even through his helmet, “perhaps you may win the battle today, but Master Xehanort will win the war!”
“I find that hard to believe,” Riku said, raising his Keyblade, “You’re going down.”
“A battle between the dark ones,” Valzog growled, “this should be fun.”
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Xando pushed himself away from Xehanort and unleashed a fireball. Xehanort likewise jumped back and he himself threw a great ball of fire. The two balls collided midway between the two and exploded. When the smoke settled, Xando was already lashing away at Xehanort’s defenses, trading blows with his opponents at an almost one to one ratio.
“What do you hope to accomplish?” Xehanort asked, “What do you gain in fighting me? You don’t seem to have the same goals as Sora and his lackeys.”
“You’re right,” Xando said between strikes, “I do have my own goals. Vengeance.”
“Maybe I can help you there…” Xehanort began.
“Then stand still!”
Xando and Xehanort then traded a few more blows, Xehanort glancing over his shoulder from time to time, watching Valzog engage the Keyblade Wielders.
“Will you sacrifice your friends for vengeance?” Xehanort asked mockingly.
“What do you mean?”
Xehanort disengaged and jumped back. “Just look over there.”
Xando looked, just in time to see things turn bad for Sora, Riku and Kairi.
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Riku held up his Keyblade to block Valzog’s next move, but the quick thinking Valzog, who had learned Riku’s fighting style by now, suddenly sidestepped and did a half spin, punching Riku with his off hand as hard as he could. Riku, not braced for an attack from behind, flew through the air a few feet then skidded to the ground, unconscious but not dead.
Kairi, seeing her friend down, charged at Valzog. Valzog swung at Kari, but she sidestepped and attempted to strike him from behind. However, Valzog had survived many years on his ability to quickly adapt, and so he continued his horizontal slice around to meet Kairi’s Keyblade. Kairi, not expecting the maneuver, lost her footing and fell to the ground, spraining her ankle on the way. Valzog then released a fireball at point blank range, sending Kairi into a wall. She then collapsed to the ground, unmoving.
Sora, after seeing two of his friends go down in a matter of seconds, snapped. He charged headlong at Valzog, blind to the thunder spell the Dark Soldier was forming with his free hand.
Xando clenched his teeth and released a baseball-sized fireball. Laced with electrical energy as well as flame, it slammed into Valzog, throwing off his aim and sending the lightning harmlessly overhead and simultaneously shocked him and burned him. Sora, unable to stop his momentum, crashed into the rock wall, right next to Kairi.
Xando turned back to face Xehanort, but was too late. Xehanort was already charging, his Keyblade glowing strangely. Xando held up his sword in defense, but Xehanort changed the angle of his slice.
The fell Keyblade, laced with dark energy only a master of dark arts could conjure, slammed into the tip of Xcalibur. The Keyblade then proceeded straight through, cutting the sword straight in half to the hilt. In a powerful blast of pure energy, the magic of the sword exploded, sending Xando into a wall. A quick blast of ice from Xehanort froze his hands and feet, effectively chaining him.
Xehanort then turned to the badly beaten but still living Sora. “You all will die a painful and slow death,” he said, his voice deathly quite, “for daring to interfere with my destiny.”
Sora, still too weak to stand, could do nothing but sit next to the battle bruised but still living Kairi and watch as Xehanort and Valzog, who had recovered by now, encroached upon him.
“You all will die,” Xehanort spat, “and then no hope will remain for your precious light.”
“I doubt it.”
Xehanort turned to the source of the voice. There he saw Xando, a strange twisted smile on his face.
“Haven’t you learned in Super Villain School?” Xando said, “Only expose your back to a corpse!”
Xando then superheated his body, easily melting the icy bonds (and the stone wall behind him) in milliseconds. Xehanort attempted to freeze him again, but Xando sidestepped the blast. He slowly walked toward Xehanort, stopping only to pick up the near useless halves of his sword. He then gripped them as tightly as he could, and Sora winced when he saw blood starting to trickle down from Xando’s hands.
“It all ends now, Xehanort,” Xando continued, “I have been planning for this day for a long time. All this,” Xando gestured to the battle below, “I planned for it all. It was all part of the plan!”
“And now your plan ends, right?” Xehanort guessed, unconcerned.
“No,” Xando said, his voice turning disturbingly dark, “this is just the beginning.”
Xando charged at Xehanort in a blind rage. Xehanort launched a powerful fireball, but Xando rolled under
it then jumped into the air. Xehanort took a step back as Xando came crashing down then, with Valzog joining up with him, proceeded to force Xando onto the defensive. Xando, uncooperative in his present state, pressed on the offensive, ignoring several blows, some of them fairly serious, and continuing to bash his blades wildly at his two opponents.
All Sora could do was watch the spectacle before him. Part of him was amazed that Xando could still fight after the beating he was receiving, part of him feared the inevitable conclusion of this battle. And a small part of him, so small he didn’t even notice it until after the battle, was questioning why Xando had suddenly snapped.
Xando continued to launch blow after blow, none of them hitting, while receiving blows from opposite flanks. Finally Xehanort, growing bored with the battle, maneuvered himself so that Xando was between himself and the cliff edge.
“Say goodbye, Shadow Prince!” Xehanort yelled, sparks of electricity already forming in his hand.
Everything happened at once. Riku, just regaining consciousness, turned his head towards the source of the voice. Kairi opened her eyes and watched as Sora, his pain forgotten, charged toward Xehanort. All in vain, as the deadly bolt was released before Sora ever got close. Xehanort released the bolt, and Xando, unable to move in time, could do nothing but take the full force of the impact and was sent flying toward the edge of the cliff and the perilous drop beyond.
Sora changed direction and charged past Xehanort and Valzog, heedless of the danger. Xehanort prepared to unleash a fireball into Sora’s back, but a strange, hooded figure with a flaming sword jumped from a higher ledge in between them. Sora fell to his knees, slid to the edge of the cliff, and barely caught Xando’s hand as he flew down. Unable to stop his own momentum, Sora slid off the edge and barely grabbed the side with his free hand.
“I… I won’t let you die,” Sora gasped, “Not here, not now.”
“Die, Sora?” Xando said weakly, “That is the last thing I will ever do.” Xando stopped for a moment to release a weak laugh at his joke.
“You can’t die, Xando. I won’t let you!”
“You can’t stop the flow of time, Sora. No one can. We don’t live in a fantasy, Sora. This isn’t a fairy tale, a novel, a movie, a fanfic, or a video game. This is the real world, Sora. The hero doesn’t always win in reality, and if they do… it is at a cost. There can be no triumph… without loss. No victory… without suffering. No freedom… without sacrifice. Sometimes… a hero has to do something else… besides beat the villains and come home covered in glory. Sometimes… he has to make a sacrifice so that a lot of people; people he’s never even met, and who don’t know his name; can live. And sometimes, courage and determination …aren’t enough. Sometimes, even a hero can be… too late.”
Xando was quite for a moment, and then continued, “You know, I would have given almost anything… for a death scene like this. Too bad I won't get to …read the notices.”
Xando smiled and, before Sora could react, he let go of Sora’s hand. Sora could only watch as Xando plummeted down and out of sight.
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Xando closed his eyes, the smile still on his face.
You sneaky devil…
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Xando said.
Fine, play dumb if you want. However, do you think it’s necessary?
“If you know what I’m up to, you already know the answer to that. In any case, it’s out of my hands now. The future, the fate of all the worlds, I have placed into the hands of those three.”
With a little help from your hooded allies.
“Too true,” Xando said calmly. Then turned his head up. Since he was now falling upside down, he saw the ground coming up to meet him.
“Wait just a little longer, Colette. I will return to you soon,” he whispered, then closed his eyes and waited. “And so we go.”
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EDIT: the two chapters together was too long for my tates, so i post them seperately next post.
side note: i listened to To the Stars when writing Ch 14. its still stuck in my head, lol.
with all due respect,
Merlin326
