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Kyle McKenna stood across for Noelle, a rather testy girl with a melancholy personality. Noelle stared back with a bored look on her face and her arms crossed, "Do I look like I'm interested in fighting?"

"No. But I'd think a lady such as yourself would be interested in surviving this whole ordeal. No one said we have to kill each other, only fight. And, you're the first person I've been lucky enough to run into this whole time. And Kefka did say we only have 30 minutes."

"There's no guarantee Kefka will even keep his word and not blow the place up after we all defeat each other." Noelle pointed out coldly, "Beat each other up is only playing into his hands." She paused again uttering under her breath, "Idiot."

Kyle still caught the word and became slightly irritated, "That may be true, but if he does keep his word, and doesn't flip the switch after the 30 minutes then think about the people we'll have saved by cooperating. I'm sure that the time limit is almost up. We have others to think about."

"Others?" Noelle almost mocked his words. She didn't care much about the others. She came first above all else, not that this boy would understand that, "I don't care about what ifs and wishful thinking. I'm not fighting you and playing Kefka's stupid little game. And you're stupid for falling for it."

"Enough with calling me stupid!" Kyle snapped. He'd spent the past several days with her and her attitude. She was always down and condescending, it was irritating to Kyle, and he'd had just about his fill, "Look, our time is running short, and there's no sign of anyone else we can fight. You can sit there and wait for the inevitable, or you can fight me, and we can hope for the best... what's your answer?"

Noelle dropped her arms to her sides and rolled her shoulder, "Fine." she admitted before summoning her spear, "If you're that big of a hurry to die, than so be it."

Kyle summoned his Katars and took a fighting stance, "That's more like it! Come on! We don't have much time!"


[Meanwhile...]


Humming a happy tune along the lonely halls, Jenny strolled along trying to ignore the earthshaking explosions elsewhere. With the song she was playing in her mind, she just kept walking, hoping deep down that she would find someone to else her loneliness. She hadn't noticed it before, but she'd really become quite, not only used to the others, but dependent on them. She didn't know what to do or think without everyone around, she had always had others to occupy her thoughts and feelings, with that many people around, it was hard not to be doing something at any given time.

As Jenny rounded around corner, she saw ahead the back of someone about to disappear around the next turn. Desperately, Jenny yelled out across the distance and took off at a dead run hoping to catch them before they vanished into the maze. The figure stopped and turned to meet her gaze.

She almost fell over as she cut her pace to stop and stare at the person standing before her. She knew him, but she couldn't figure out why he'd be there. She hadn't seen him since almost the beginning of their journey when he vanished, "Mac? Is that you?"

The black mage stood silently with a nod. Jenny continued almost ecstatic to have found him, and here of all places, "Mac! It's been so long! How have you been? WHERE have you been? What have you been up to? Why did you leave?" Jenny paused before her last question, "What... are you doing here?"

Mac simply looked at her through empty eyes, a heartless gaze like a black hole, emptiness down it it's very core. Something wasn't right, this wasn't the same Mac, Jenny knew before.

"H-hey..." Jenny tried once more to break the silence, "How bout we go find the others? I'm sure they'd all love to see you're alright."

His silence remained intact as he summoned his spell book and flipped through the pages slowly.

"What's the matter?" Jenny asked, still trying to get through to the boy, worry coating every word "H-hey... talk to me."

Mac stopped on a page and glanced up from the book locking eyes with Jenny before uttering one word, "Sorry."

Jenny looked at him, rather confused, "Sorry? Sorry for wha-" Jenny let out a scream as she ducked underneath a fireball flying down the hallway. She stumbled back and summoned her flute, "I don't know what's gotten into you. But if it's a fight you want..." Jenny took a deep breath, her nervousness showing through the trembling of her hands, "It's a fight you'll get!"

[Simultaneously...]

"Well well, if we don't have the lazy ones of the party. Didn't I say there was a time limit? What have you been doing? The dance floor is almost full, and you haven't even done a jig yet! If you don't get moving soon, you're going to miss out, and the party is going to BOMB! So get those bodies moving and... 3...2...1... Dance!"



[Kyle vs Noelle]


{Cue: Wanderer On The Offensive}

Noelle was the first to act, quickly she tossed her spear at Kyle who knocked it to the side and started forward. Two spears shot out of the ground on each side of Noelle sliding right into her grip. She tossed both as fast as they had appeared replacing them with two more a second later. A steady barrage of spears held the Katar user at bay only for a little while, but his advance was thick with hazards. The closer he got, the most vicious Noelle's onslaught became. As he ducked underneath another spear and knocked a second away, the earth exploded as chunks of jagged rocks came at him from different angles.

As yet another wave of spears came at him, Kyle was knocked straight up into the air as a slab erupted upwards from directly underneath him.

As he flew up, Noelle aimed a spear loaded with seeds. Kyle bent back and went into a dive straight at the ground. Noelle threw her loaded spear as Kyle began to spin. The spear hit him and exploded into a shower of seeds. Accompanied by the seeds, Kyle hit the ground and drilled under. he burrowed deep to the point that there was no sign of him above ground.

The battlefield went silent as Noelle's gaze darted left and right. Suddenly, Kyle reappeared out of the ground directly in front of Noelle. Noelle backed up crossing her arms creating a cross of rock between herself and the Katar user, almost piercing him in the center if it had not been for his fast reflexes. Noelle jumped over her own obstacle and came down at him with a spear. She struck ground instead as the boy backed away about a foot then advanced once more. Noelle swung the spear up again but watched at the tip was cut clean off by Kyle's katars. Another spear replaced that one in her other hand out of the ground as she swung around in the other direction. Kyle dispatched this one in the same way, his blades blurred through and sliced the spear in half.

Noelle gritted her teeth and created yet another spear and stabbed directly forward at Kyle. Kyle cut the tip off again but took a blunt blow to his chest. He glanced down to notice it's perfect placement right over his heart. She really isn't playing around.

Kyle's blades sliced the spear to pieces in a split second, allowing him to advance close enough to attack. Noelle summoned her real spear and stabbed forward, sure his blades could not cut it. Kyle caught the spear his his own blades and twisted it in place. Noelle suddenly lost her grip on the spear and watched it spin off to the side. Kyle followed up with a flurry of strikes. Kyle spun around swinging his weapons across Noelle's torso. She winced and held in her tears when the strikes left cuts behind, some quite deep. Suddenly, she was off her feet and on her back after Kyle swept her legs out from under her.

Kyle stood over her ready to bring down his blade but stopped, realizing this should be his victory, and to go any further would be wrong, "Looks like I win."

"Don't be so cocky." Noelle slammed her fist onto the ground next to her, a blunt slab of rock jutting forth and knocking Kyle away. Noelle jumped to her feet and summoned her spear. She stabbed it into the ground, resulting in a sudden growth of a forest of spears spreading out wide before her chasing after Kyle.

With a swift turn, Kyle faced the oncoming attack and met it head on. Kyle stabbed his weapon into the ground and pulled up while stepping forward, ripping a gash in the ground that shot forward and grew. The earth splintered and turning onto a jagged wasteland along the direction he'd swung. Blades of rock jutted out along the growing split in the ground, cutting right through Noelle's attack and heading right at her. Noelle dodged out of the way, and landed on one knee.

Closing her eyes, Noelle concentrated while holding her hand to the floor. Suddenly, two giant poles sprang forth with a coiled vine growing between them. Following that, a platform holding a giant spear blasted out stretching the vine till it seemed it would almost snap. The whole contraption was aimed directly at Kyle. Then, with a slap of her palm against the ground, the weapon let loose and fired the giant spear.

It flew so fast, Kyle barely had any time to defend himself. The spear was too large and moving too fast to dodge so he did the only thing he could do. A large wall of rock formed in front of him. The impact resulted in a giant explosion of rock, soil, and dust. Noelle stood silently, sure that this would not be the end of her opponent.

As the dust settled, the wall was nowhere to be seen but in it's place Kyle stood garbed in a a stone armor. His Katars were coated in rock making them three times as large and several plates lined the rest of his body turning him from super fast pinball to an armored tank. Kyle charged forward raising his fist.

Noelle's eyes widened at the sight and quickly created another giant spear and shot it with shot it with her giant crossbow. The spear flew at Kyle who this time didn't stop to defend himself. Instead, he brought his fist forward and stabbed his massive katar right into the point of the giant spear. The spear splintered and exploded leaving nothing behind to halt his advance. He kept right on coming as Noelle tried to create another spear to fire. It too late through as he was already upon her.

Kyle ground his fist back and thrust it forward. An odd feeling overcame Kyle in the next few moments, the feeling of seeing the world suddenly drop below you, and then fly away as wind rushes past your face. Next he was upside down and crashing into the earth once more. He struggled to his feet, dizziness making it impossible for him to stand straight. He overheard the deep rumbling voice of her summon, "Are you ok human?" Titan asked bending down over Noelle who nodded and stood up, "You should be more careful human. You'd have been smashed if it wasn't for me."

"Yeah, I know, thanks. Can we hold off the lecture for now though? We need to finish him before we do anything."

"But human, you're bleeding."

"I'll be fine, we can take care of it after."

After Kyle regained his composure, he ran forward. Titan reached into the ground with his giant fist and pulled up a massive chunk of earth. He tossed it at Kyle in hopes to crush him then and there. He wasn't so easy to dispose of as he smashed right through it and kept on running forward. Titan raised his fist into the air and brought it down at Kyle. Before he could crush him however, a large object came at him from his side, large enough to knock him over.

Out of the earth a giant snake, nearly the side of Titan, burst forth. It tackled the giant to the ground and began it's collosal wrestling match with the other summon, wrapping around his limbs in an attempt to pin and subdue him as Kyle dealt with Titan's summoner. Kyle ran forward and used the back of his fore arm to smack Noelle and send her through the air. Noelle braced herself and took the impact as best as she could. She flipped and rolled on the ground before stopping on her knees.

She flung her arms up and following them a cloud of spears came out of the ground and arced over her head at Kyle. Kyle brought up his arms, the spears simply colliding with his armor and shattering to pieces. Kyle resumed his attack running forward and dodging a huge chunk of earth knocked up by the two giant summons fighting one another. He had to halt his advance for one moment as Midgardsormr crashed in front of his after Titan got loose and threw him.

When the coast was clear, he ran forward again, met by another of Noelle's giant spears. He bashed it apart like the last, and ran up to her. Before she could react, he grabber her by the throat and lifted her off the ground with ease, aided by the power of earth.

Noelle kicked and squirmed to get free, but Kyle's grip was firm and unrelenting. Noelle closed her eyes, concentrating of a way to get free when suddenly in her minds eye, she saw a shower of greens and yellows. Her eyes snapped open as she swung an arm around, a rock slab bashing into Kyle from the side. He dropped her, and Noelle ran back gaining a tiny bit of distance.

Noelle rubbed her neck as Kyle stood to his feet. He ran at her again, but suddenly stopped in his tracks. She closed her eyes and concentrated on the lights she'd seen before. Out of Kyle's armor, plants, sprouted out and covered him, wrapping around and digging into the ground. The seeds she'd placed on him earlier used his earthen armor as soil and took root. In moments, the katar wielder was covered and chained to the ground by these plants commanded by Noelle's will. Unable to move, he called out for his summon's aid, but was left horrified as his summon was slammed to the ground behind him shaking the ground like an earthquake. Midgardsormr decintegrated back into the ground, and vanished.

"Shall I crush him, human?" Titan said looming over Kyle, who tried his best not to cry out for help.

"No..." Noelle said with a smile before a massive crossbow formed beside her. It was bigger than the rest, and the room between she and Kyle made this giant weapon almost point blank. Noelle stood silently for a moment, taking a second to choose her next words with care. Quoting a famous poet, she spoke:

" Startled at the stillness broken by reply so aptly spoken,
'Doubtless,' said I, 'what it utters is its only stock and store
Caught from some unhappy master whom unmerciful Disaster
Followed fast and followed faster till his songs one burden bore--
Till the dirges of his Hope that melancholy burden bore
Of 'Never--nevermore.' "

With that, the spear fired off and crashed into Kyle. It tore the binds that held him to the earth and carried him straight across the arena until smashing into the wall, crushing him into oblivion. Unbeknownst to Noelle, the same bright light that saved all the unfortunate heroes from their unavoidable deaths before him, engulfed Kyle and whisked him away.




[Jenny vs Mac]


{Cue: Other Promise!}


Jenny brought her flute to her lips, watching Mac as he placed his hand to his spell book. The two locked gazes before Jenny gently closed her eyes. A barrage of fireballs flew at the girl as she played the first note on her flute. Following her song, a portal opened behind her and a number of meteors flew out and matched the boy's spells clashing with them resulting in a wall of fire between the two. The black mage let loose another barrage of attacks, a number of fire and blizzard spells. Jenny picked up the flow in her song and began to dance in slow sweeping motions, moving her feet to the tempo of the song, her eyes never opening to view the world around her, it was only her and her song.

All of the mages attacks were met by a wall of resistance created by the meteors. Every shot he though would hit her she dodged in her dance swaying out of it's path, only to return the attack with a number of meteors that whizzed by the mage who was forced to jump out of the way.

How is she this strong? She's just playing a flute, yet her attacks are actually outdoing mine!

Mac's spell book flew back and forth through it's pages firing off numerous spells one after another to strike the musical time mage. As her song picked up, so did her speed, haste sped her step and she avoided every attack without any effort. She moved with such grace, the music hanging in the air, that it was as if she was gliding across the floor. The music, no longer sounded like just that of a flute, more instruments joined he reverberating the sound of her instrument. Finally, a voice joined in as siren appeared behind her, harmonizing with the music.

Suddenly, Mac's spells stopped working, the fire between them vanished. He tried to fire off his spells but the disappeared only second after leaving his palm. Gritting his teeth in annoyance, he ran forward and released his book. In his hand a chain formed, replacing his book. He closed the distance and swung across to smack her but she ducked underneath in the flow of her music. Back and forth he swung his chain to try and knock her weapon and away from her. At the very moment he would have hit her, her music held a note for a moment, suddenly stopping the chain at the last second. He eyes opened and she ran forward dropping the flute from her lips.

She closed the distance and smacked mac across the face with her flute, following that she spun around and brought the back of her heal into his side knocking him to the side and unfreezing time. As he stumbled to the floor he was surprised to find her coming at him her flute not playing but the music still carrying on without her. To him, she had only moments before been in danger of being hit, and now, in the blink of an eye she was beating him up.

With lightning speed she was upon him again with the power of haste and proceeded to wail on him. Using her flute as a night stick, she smacked him back and forth freezing time at random intervals to add to the combo before he could continue his flight through the air. As he flew he was suddenly locked in place, but not frozen in time, bind wrapped around him and locked him in place as she ran forward and jumped into the air. She came down on him with two consecutive hits from her feet. He stumbled backwards, darkness covering him before he roared in frustration and sent her flying back with a wave of darkness.

She stood to her feet and squeaked a bit before blowing into her flute to stop the chain from taking off her head. Jenny jumped up and landed on the chain itself and ran along it. She played her flute as she ran, several portals opening up all around Mac. She let time resume itself suddenly and jumped up. The chain continued its course hitting only air. Mac gasped as he suddenly came to the realization of all the portals surrounding him. Each released a volley of meteors that absorbed him into a cloud of smoke fire and debris. Just he he would have thought it was over, Jenny flew through and kicked him straight across the face sending him sprawling on the floor.

As he slowly struggled to his feet, he looked up to see her playing her finale. His gaze then drifted up to the giant portal above him, "N-No way! She can't beat me! She isn't that powerful!"

His words fell on deaf ears, his voice carried away by the music, as a gigantic meteor fell from the portal. He looked back and suddenly found her a great distance away beside siren playing the last note of her song, "No.. way.." With that, the meteor crashed down upon him. The resulting explosion shook the entire dome and left a giant crater.

"Beautiful job Jenny." Siren spoke when all was quiet.

"Right. Thankyou." Jenny replied, not quite sure of herself. But she had won, but at what cost? She couldn't help but wonder and question the fate of her old friend.




[Elsewhere...]

{Cue: To You Dear}

Rubble was everywhere in the small dome arena and silence loomed over everything. There was little movement except for pebbles rolling off tall piles of shattered pillars. At one end of the dome, a cough could be heard from a rather lucky brawler. Al stood on top of a pile and looked out over the rest of the disaster zone. He spotted Kyle struggling to get free from being pinned between two pillars.

"Hold on! I'm coming!" Al yelled over to Kyle as he rushed over, jumping from pile to pile of rubble. He reached him in seconds and immediately got to work lifting the smaller pillar off of Kyle. Kyle pushed as hard as he could before something gave and he slipped free. Al let got, and the pile collapsed in on itself, leaving Kyle to feel very lucky.

"Where's James?" Al asked, looking around. Kyle only shook his head. A bit away, a hexagun lie on the ground beside a pile of rubble before vanishing a second later, "You don't think he's dead do you? He has to be alright... right?"

Kyle sat quietly taking in the destruction around him. It was like a war zone, which was exactly what is was at this point. All the emotions he'd felt before that drove him as far as he had gone had left him. He was now only in shock. First Kyla, and now this... it was all almost too much for him.

At an opposite end of the arena, Kichi dug his way out of the rubble, pushing himself out and taking a deep breath of relief, "Looks like we made it Timmy." Kichi looked around wide eyed, "Timmy?"

Another pile nearby shifted, and Louis crawled his way out, "I'm still alive!" He announced, not really caring whether or not anyone else cared.

"Louis!" Kichi yelled running over, "Where's Timmy?"

"Timmy?" Louis asked forgetting himself for a moment, "Wh- Oh! Well god, I don't know. Does it look like I've been out for long enough to know that?" Louis said as he pulled his leg free and looked around at the destruction, "Damn..."

"You mean you didn't see where he went?" Kichi asked, looking around frantically for his friend, "He was right in front of me when it all went to hell. Where'd he..." Kichi's mind drifted back to the chaotic moments occurring after the massive attack used by Kyle. Both he and Timmy had landed together, the destruction was coming down on them, Timmy brought up his shield over Kichi, everything was collapsing in on them, everything went dark, and then...

"Where could he be?" Kichi asked again.

Louis turned and snapped, trying to shake the horrible headache he had burning through his skull, "I told you! I don't know! I didn't see anything! I just managed to get lucky and not be crushed by those damn pillars, shut up!"

Kichi looked at him for a moment, wondering whether or not he should snap at him, but he swallowed it understanding the other boy's situation and looking around some more. He climbed down from the pile of rubble and ran around, calling out over and over for his friend. Finally an answer came back to him, "Kichi!"

Kichi turned and saw his friend half covered in rubble, "Hold on!"

He ran over and started immediately digging away at the rubble, but was defeated over and over as move fell in to replace it, "It's alright Kichi. You can stop."

"What?" Kichi asked confused before continuing to dig. the boy's digging was stopped by Timmy's hand grabbing hold of Kichi's wrist, "But... but!"

"It's alright. It's fine... I'll..." Timmy tried to calm down his friend but slowly loosing consciousness, "I'll be... fine."

"No! Timmy! Stay awake! You need to stay awake! I'm not leaving you here!" Kichi yelled desperately as he dug faster and faster resulting in nothing, "Stay awake!"

Timmy smiled a bit, but couldn't keep his eyes open anymore, then, a bright light covered his body, and where a moment before, Kichi's friend laid, was empty space, the quickly closed up with rubble.

Kichi clung to the rubble, staring in shock, not able to cry or scream, or anything in response to his friends death.

Louis stood a good distance away, unable to bring himself to go over and comfort him, but he couldn't help but feel the emotion that flowed and had to hold back tears of his own. The arena shook, and several walls started to spring up with no mercy for the still shell-shocked combatants.

Louis yelled out to Kichi, but his words were in vein as a wall rose up between them. The rubble was quickly absorbed in the same light the combatants had, and vanished, leaving only open hallways in an endless maze.

Louis stood there for a moment, then turned without another thought, and continued his wanderings through the maze in search of his next opponent.





A frustrated knight stands at bitter mortal combat with a furious dragon. An ancient rivalry reincarnate in a band new world. Will the knight prevail? Or shall the dragon burn the knight alive?

To be Continued...
Chapter 7 ~ Dungeons and Dragons

Amazing! Jenny fights like Al! lol Kicks with a shorter bo staff and magic thrown in! Well, more magic than Al, anyways >.>

But it was amazingly awesome~ And Al SURVIVED! WOOT! And go Noelle! woo...would not like to be on her bad side...then again, she does like to hide behind me... biggrin

HOLY DOMESTIC BOVINE FROM THE NETHERWORLD SHAPED LIKE A OVERGROWN SHEEP!!! O_O

Rhiko, you just made myself feel a kajillion times cooler than I actually am. o-O I really feel like I should go hug Mac right now and be like... sorrie for owning. o/////////o"

And dude.... Noe owned too! No offense of course to Kyle(2) he had some pretty awesome moves. But Noelle! Grah, the way you wrote it out and how she executed her attacks were really cool to picture up. I might have to sketch out a couple. @/////@" It was a really cool idea to pitch earth against earth. I like Noe's determination and how she's so headstrong~!

As always, loved the way you took our powers and easily thought up new ideas and combos and whatnot. And the music choice was really well done.

And go Kyle! Lol Keep on surviving~! XD You can do it!!! Though I'm now really sad for Timmeh D:

Yay! Another good chapter! Can't wait for the next one. I loved the words at the end. So mysterious.

Episode 2 ~ Begin

[[Chapter 8 ~ Deeper into Darkness]]

[[Cue: Music]]


The eerie darkness never fell from the dome, no light returned to give hope to the combatant's will. With heavy hearts and guilt burdened minds, they stride on with one final goal in mind, surviving this tournament. Everyone remaining had in one way or another proven their worth, and exercised their will over another to survive. This was the cruel hand fate had dealt them. Given no choice but to fight their closest allies otherwise die at the hands of an unreachable foe. An ultimatum of catastrophic proportions.





Kyle sped down the halls hacking away at heartless as he went with his spear endowed with light. Al followed close behind aided by his wind, even still, unable to overtake his crazed partner, "Hey! Hold up! What's the rush?!"

"No time to slow down! The longer we wait, the worse this is going to get! This fight, the darkness, these heartless, this maze, these combatants... this will all only get worse the longer we let it drag on!"

"How can you be so sure?" Al asked still desperately trying to keep up, staring as heartless after heartless that got in Kyle's way were destroyed and turned into hearts that floated away into the sky.

"Trust me... I know it may not make too much sense... but I have a... sense... for these things, and I can feel this situation is getting allot worse... besides that, just look around."

"Well, I'd like to think positively. What if this is as bad as it can get?" Al mentally slapped himself for even thinking such a stupid thing in a situation like that, let alone say it.

Kyle stopped abruptly, the wind weaver almost crashing into him if it weren't for some quick reflexes, "Are you serious? This is Kingdom Hearts. On top of that, we're dealing with Kefka. This is only the beginning, I'm sure of it. So come on, don't let up, we have to keep moving." Kyle finished with that courage empowering smile he always tried to give whenever he took on the role of leader then spun around to cut down another heartless and reduce it to another freed heart. With that, he ran forward once more.





Kichi sat in a hallway, his arms laying limp next to him staring at his feet, "What's the point... if all I get for trying is..." Kichi swallowed hard trying to suppress his emotions, "Timmy... we were both supposed to survive this together. And now you're gone? What now? What am I supposed to do?"

"Keep fighting." a small voice suddenly rang out from beside him. Kichi swiftly looked at the figure that seemingly appeared out of nowhere. A small hooded boy in golden robes stood over the tonfa wielder expressionless and still, "He'd want you to keep fighting. To not give up. And survive in his stead."

Kichi stared, his eyes red from what were probably tears, "Y-You're right. He would! I can't give up now!" Kichi stood to his feet, spurred by this burst of inspiration, "I'll keep going! I won't give up!" Kichi looked up yelling at the top of his lungs, "Just you watch Timmy! I'll survive! I... I won't let you have died in vein!"

Kichi summoned his tonfa and ran on, only to stop suddenly and turn back to the boy. He opened his mouth to speak, but found the boy he wanted to thank was already gone, "Where'd he go?" Kichi shrugged, and continued on, noting mentally he'd have to thank him if he found him again someday.





Bobbi was awake for Kefka's announcement, but hadn't comprehended most of it. Things were still setting in. Her mind was trying to put 2&2 together to equal... she had killed Rae. Of all people... her. Bobbi held her head, a headache setting in, an aftershock of using so much power at once when she took out Rae. But then she thought about it, she had at least seen Rae fall. She looked around left and right, but there was no sign of Rae, "Where'd she go?"

"Where'd who go?" a voice suddenly came from behind her causing Bobbi to jump out of her skin, spin around and draw her bow.

Bobbi was equally met by a large gun spawned from nowhere, she followed the barrel to the wielder, finding the person using it, not at all who she expected. Maggie stood with her finger on the trigger, "Hey, calm down. Calm down. Didn't mean to startle ya."

Bobbi hesitantly dropped the aim of the bow to the floor, but kept the arrow on the string. In her mind, Kefka's words kept repeating over and over, 'Everyone here has finally fought and defeated at least one other person!' ... 'Murder... murder... MURDERER...'

Bobbi shook her head trying to shake the thoughts, "What are you doing here Maggie?"

"Well... I can't stand staying in place too long, so I have to keep moving, otherwise, I think I'd go insane. So, here I am, wandering this maze, and now I've found you here in this arena thingy."

Bobbi didn't really say much, only nodded.

"So... does that mean you defeated someone too?" Maggie asked, acting pretty lighthearted over the whole thing. Perhaps deep down it did bother her, but she always tried her best to put up a good front, so it never showed. To Bobbi, she appeared to be taking the concept of fighting and defeating their friends a bit too well for her taste.

"Yeah... what of it?" Bobbi said raising her emotional guard with anger.

"Oh... no reason. I was just curious as to who, ya know?"

"That's none of your business." Bobbi snapped.

"Common... you can't tell me who? I won;t be mad... I promise. I'll tell you if you tell me." Maggie bent down lower and looked up into Bobbi's eyes innocently.

Bobbi couldn't help but fall to Maggie's charm. She always had an innocence about her half the time that was irresistible, "Ahhh... fine. It was Rea. OK?"

"Really?!" Maggie seemed really surprised, "I have to admit, I'm surprised. What would ever drive you two to fight?"

"Enough questions alright?" Bobbi cut her off, "What about you?"

"Oh me?" Maggie smiled, "I fought Amy and Dani. Rio was with me at the time but we got separated. Amy and I had an awesome fight. It was a load of fun. As you can see, I won. I think Dani is still around here somewhere though... unless someone else got her. But man, I'm sure she would've given them one 'ellova time. That girl's allot stronger than she looks, especially when she's mad."

Bobbi couldn't help but take the way Maggie talked about her fight with ill taste, "Why are you so damn cheery?!"

Maggie reeled back, taken by surprise by the sudden explosion of words.

"You're talking about our friends. We're fighting our friends. We had to beat our friends! We still have to beat our friends! Not to mention, now... now I've got to fight you!"

Maggie suddenly showed her depression on her face, her head dropped and stared at the ground as she held to her gun weakly, "I... I only wanted everyone to survive if I could help it. Amy and I... we both decided to fight because it would be for the best. Not like we had a choice in the matter. But... to us... it didn't make a difference which one of us was defeated, as long as we were helping the others... am I right?"

"Yeah?" Bobbi didn't want to buy the sob story. Tightening her grip on her arrow she added, "It doesn't matter anymore. It may not matter to you if it's you who lives of dies... but... I want to keep living... even if... it means going through you!" Pulling her bow string tight she aimed it directly at Maggie. Heartless gathered on the roof of the mini-dome, and stared as the darkness seemed to concentrate around Bobbi. Then, without hesitation, she let the arrow fly.





[[???]]

"Hey... Kyla... do you feel that?" Rae asked, rubbing her arm nervously.

Kyla didn't look up from her drawing as she asked, "Feel what?"

"You mean you can't feel that? I feel this... I don't even know how to explain it. Immense darkness growing. It's immense. I'm surprised you can't feel it."

"Hmmm..." Kyla answered rather distracted by her drawing, "Well, I don't know. Maybe you're just worried is all. I'm worried too, just don't let it get to you. We'll find a way out." Just as she finished her sentence, Kyla finished her drawing, a series of golden flashes originating from her book illuminated her face. Closely following, light suddenly appeared in little balls floating all the way up and down the isle between the cells. She couldn't see far, but with the extra light, Kyla could make out Michelle. The girl stirred and slowly opened her eyes with the sudden existence of light. Several other similar sounds could be heard throughout the line of cells.

"Ugh... who turned on the lights? I'm trying to- holy crap?! Where am I?" the drowsy voice of Timmy echoed from down the hall, "Is this some sort of prison? What am I doing in prison? Wait... I thought I was dead? Am I dead?! This can't be heaven... can it? No... wait... this is hell isn't it?! No!!! I can't be in hell! I wasn't one of the bad guys!"

"Hey! Hey! Hey!" Rae shouted over Timmy's panic, "You're not dead! It just looks like Kefka isn't done with us yet."

"Is that you Rae?!" Timmy asked the obvious question, but before she could answer another voice cut in.

"Ugh... Timmy? Calm down for a moment would you? That attack you guys hit me with left me with a real headache ya know that? Quiet down... please." James asked, his voice sounding like it was coming from the cell next to Kyla's.

"James?! James?! Is that you?!" a frantic voice of a love struck girl originating from Michelle's cell, "Oh god! It is you! James! It's me Michelle! Thank god you're alright!"

"Michelle?! Michelle?! That's really you isn't it?!" James yelled, suddenly breaking his own request to express his excitement for seeing his long lost love, "What are you doing here?! You're supposed to be at Disney Castle where it's safe!"

"Well I was until-" Michelle tried to answer when she was interrupted by an incredibly obnoxious voice.

"Sorry folks for ruining this sickeningly sweat reunion, but I'm interrupting your scheduled programing for this special news bulletin. This just in... two fighters prepare to go at it with gun and bow in hand. Who will win? Who will survive?! Oh the torture! Or the suspense! Oh the pleasure!" Kefka appeared on a number of floating mirrors that formed from nothing, "Just thought you all would want to watch your friends kill each other while you looooooosers wait here for your OWN demise. Have fun! Ahahahaha!"

As Kefka vanished, his picture was replaced by a crystal clear image of Maggie and Bobbi at a stand off at distant ends of their arena.

"Go Maggie!" Amy yelled out exposing her presence, "Kick her butt!"

"Amy?!" Rae barked with a hint of concern, "What kind of a thing to say is that?!"

"Well, Maggie beat me... so... I might as well cheer for her. If she loses here, what does that say about me? So, I'm going to cheer her on if she can hear me or not." Amy paused for a moment before yelling out again, "Woo! Maggie! You go girl!"





[[Cue : Music]]

Maggie hunched down ducking underneath another arrow as it flew overhead. Returning fire she shot her alchemy gun, each shot embewed with a different property. Bobbi ran to the side dodging an explosive shell leaving a small crater behind her. Swiftly she loaded three simultaneous arrows onto her bow and fired them off.

Maggie braced herself while jamming an new ingredient into her gun. Each arrow split into three more arrows, then each of those arrows exploded into a shower of ice that clouded Maggie's vision of Bobbi entirely. Before the arrows would overcome her, Maggie locked the gun into place and pulled the trigger. Instead of the singular shots that had come out before, a flamethrower burst forth and engulfed everything directly in front of her in flames turning the arrows of ice into steam. Maggie held her finger to the trigger, leaving the stream of fire in front of her as long as she could. Just as the flame was dieing down, a single arrow pierced the fiery wall and entered the very barrel of Maggie's gun.

Maggie threw the gun away as it exploded from the inside and broke apart due to the fragile components Maggie had used to make the gun. Through the steam arrows one by one pierced the smokescreen leaving swirling holes trailing behind the projectiles. The arrows were almost perfectly accurate despite not clearly being able to see the alchemist. Once an arrow grazed the back of Maggie's leg leaving a trail of ice that grew several inches from the impact point making it harder for Maggie to move only making it easier for Bobbi to aim. Clearing the smokescreen and flying out into the open Maggie rolled out of the way of an arrow reaching into her celestial alchemy pocket pulling out the ingredients she needed. Taking one in each hand, she pressed them together. White engulfed her fists as she punched out. Throwing punches at the air in Bobbi's direction resulted in several spheres of holy to fly out and home in on the archer.

Bobbi fired off a few arrows to counter the spells but soon realized the number of punches she could throw greatly outnumbered the number of arrows she could fire. As as many as 20 holy spells about impacted Bobbi, she grabbed hold of her bow at opposite ends. There was a small spark at it's center as she pulled and each end came apart. Bobbi spun around holding on to one end of the bow connected to the other end by the wire. The wire extended, answering her hearts command. Swiftly the weapon had gone from bow to whip in a split second. Twirling the whip around like a baton Bobbi deflected and cut up the holy spheres to ribbons. When the coast was clear, Bobbi snapped to a halt swinging the whip over her head and hitting the ground in Maggie's direction and returning the bow to it's original form on command.

As Maggie ran forward to try and close the distance some more, Bobbi fired off several arrows the intercepted the alchemist. Effortlessly, Maggie reached out with her hands coated in light and grabbed hold of each arrows flying by in between a separate finger until her hands were full. Sliding to a stop, she looked at both of her hands full of arrows and grinned at Bobbi giving her performance a little flair holding up the arrows in a lazy manner. Bobbi snapped her fingers resulting in the arrows exploding in ice engulfing Maggie's hands and forearms.

Maggie shook her arms around a bit trying to free them of the ice but gave up. Then, running at Bobbi she finally closed the gap, blocking the last few arrows allowing them to stick into the iced over hands and exploding, slowing her down slightly but not enough that she couldn't reach her before it became too heavy to carry.

Bobbi snapped her bow in two again and snapped the whip on Maggie, who rocked to the side following up by thrusting her iced over arm into the bow string that held the two parts of the bladed whip together. The string wrapped around her arm, becoming entangled and making her arm almost unmovable. Pulling back with all her might, Maggie jerked the whip right out of Bobbi's grip them brought her free arm directly forward and plowed Bobbi with her iced over fist shattering the ice and sending the archer careening backwards. Maggie reached into the pocket again and pulled out a golden stopwatch. Throwing it into the air, the stopwatch exploded, an ethereal pair of hands spun out of control shooting off energy into Maggie. She felt the burst of energy and shot off like a bullet passing right by Bobbi and skidding to a stop behind her in mid flight. Taking the other iced over hand, she smashed the girl back in the other direction, once more freeing her arm.

Bobbi recalled her whip in its original form of a bow, and stabbed an end into the tile floor. Splitting a hole and leaving a trail of ice, she managed to stop herself before Maggie closed the distance again. As Maggie stood over her and went to bring her fist down, Bobbi rolled out of the way and placed her hand against the floor, a stream of ice flowing over and freezing Maggie's feet solid. Maggie struggled to get free and punched the ice off with her fists breaking her feet free after a couple hits. When she looked back up, Bobbi had already gotten range again and was charging up a big arrow. Maggie had no time to run because just as her mind calculated what was happening, it was too late. Bobbi shot the massive arrow. The arrow left a half-circle path straight towards Maggie. Maggie did the the only desperate thing she could thing of, that just might have been the stupidest but smartest thing she could have done. She punched her fist into the ground and lifted up with all her strength. Aided by her many alchemical enhancements, she tore up a huge slab of the tiled floor and used it as a giant shield. The arrow impacted the wall, freezing it over in a split second. Maggie jumped back as the ice flowed through the creases and cracks in the slab, then exploded carrying forward ice and tiles that threw Maggie a good distance away.

Keeping up the attack, Bobbi jumped into the ice half-pipe left behind by the arrow, and skated down it gaining incredible speed. As she reached the end, Bobbi loaded one arrow after another and fired them off in vertical succession. The arrows detonated into ice and by Bobbi's command formed a ramp than angled straight up. She slid right up and off into the air. With a back flip, she bend around and aimed her box upside down.

Maggie stood to her feet and side stepped the first of many arrows. Improvising, Maggie grabbed hold of one of the tiles left behind of the destruction and spun it around, smacking the arrows away, and collecting ice onto it's surface. Moving with the momentum of the spin and blocking more arrows, Maggie stepped to the side a few times before bending down in one smooth motion, grabbing hold of another tile, and throwing the original into the air. It spun forward hitting some of the incoming arrows and growing larger with ice before finally Bobbi angled her body to avoid it. But to her surprise, the larger tile hid behind it the other tile that collided heavily against the airborne archer.

As Bobbi crashed into the floor and the ice dissipated around the arena, Maggie took a deep breath dropping her arms to her sides, "Well, that's that. Better go check if she's o- HEY! You guys get away from her!"

Maggie ran forward uppercutting a shadow and roundhouse kicking a soldier that had gathered around Bobbi's unmoving body. She looked left and right, then down at Bobbi hoping they hadn't gotten to her heart. Her eyes shifted to Bobbi's arm that twitched for a moment, then the girl sat up in a flash. Maggie jumped back trying to get clear, but it was too late. The archer spun her whip around and caught Maggie by the leg. Feeling a sense of deja vu from her last fight, Maggie was thrown into the air, and felt weightless for a moment as the whip let up and she reached the tip of her flight. Bobbi snapped the bow back together and drew back the string, by her feet and all around her, a coat of ice grew over the floor. Aiming her arrow, she fired. Immediately following, the ice terrain turned into a jagged field and spikes that fired off turning into arrows.

The cloud of ice projectiles engulfed Maggie, first knocking her higher, then eventually following her down to the floor where they continued to crash into her and grow outwards into a small jagged hill of ice over her body.

Bobbi breathed heavily, her fight with Rae had taken allot of energy, but now it seemed even though she had used more to fight Maggie she wasn't nearly as tired. A smile grew across the archer's face, a characteristic unusual for her. Something about this area had made her stronger if she wanted to be or not, but whether this was a factor in her victory or not, she had won.





[[Elsewhere...]]

{{Cue: Other Music}}

Louis stood silently over the crying girl a small frown on his face as she sputtered out broken words, "Go away! Leave me alone! Don't hurt me! Please... just... leave me alone."

Louis' facial expression didn't change as he spoke softly, "Poor girl... don't worry. I'm not going to hurt you." He bent down and knelt on one knee, "I'll help you... if you'll let me. I can make all this pain... go away."

Louis smiled warmly at the girl as she raised her head to meet his gaze, her eyes glossed over with tears, as she asked, sniffling between words, "R-Really?... You can... do that?"

"Certainly. Anything to help a lady in need." Louis said tilting his head to the side and extending a hand to her as a friendly and helpful gesture. Dani slowly shifted her eyes away from the boy's tantalizing yet terrifying gaze down to his hand, her mind said take it, but her heart screamed the opposite. Around them at separate ends of the hallway, heartless stopped and gathered around to watch the two with savage interest.

Dani's hand shook as it extended towards his, tears flowed for a moment as if the action was almost painfully impossible for her to perform. Right as it almost touched, it snapped back and with both arms she shoved him back and threw him several feet and through the wall behind him. He stood to his feet stumbling a bit rubbing his head. Stupid girl... too terrified to even know what's good for her. Fine... I'll just have to show her what she needs. Then maybe she'll understand.

Louis stood to his feet and drew his sword, an arena forming as the walls dropped between him and Dani. Dani stood to her feet, her head hanging limp and staring at the floor. Louis held his rapier at the ready, prepared for the attack.

Kefka appeared on a mirror, "If it isn't the little darkness siblings. You two would be quite the cute little couple don't you think? You have so much in common... you both use darkness, you both have a great sense of humor... ok maybe I made that one up... most of you don't laugh at my jokes!... But most importantly... you're both blood thirsty, cold blooded, KILLERS! Now go on and kill each other now! Go go go!"

Dani didn't waste any time, her ribbon shot out and grabbed onto Louis' sword taking him by surprise and ripping it from his hands. He ducked at the ribbon came back holding tightly to the rapier and swinging right where his neck would have been. Flipping his gun around and firing off a series of bullets, each was deflected away masterfully by the ribbon holding the rapier. Concentrating on the ribbon holding the rapier, he was taken by surprise again as another ribbon came from beside him and struck without warning. It wrapped around his gunning arm and jerked it up his shots ringing off the roof pointlessly.

Louis gritted his teeth in frustration, drawing one of his daggers and cutting the ribbon off him. His attention drawn away from where it should have been, he felt a sudden sharp pain in his side. The rapier left a shallow wound after being thrown by the other ribbon. A sheet of ice slowly crept back over the wound, this being the only reason he wasn't skewered through. Grabbing hold of the blade once more, holding it in one hand and the dagger in the other, he ran forward screaming out angrily. There truly was nothing like having one's own weapon used against them. He got up on her swinging his rapier but was stopped mid-swing by her ribbons, each took hold of one arm and held tightly. Louis could suddenly feel the darkness flowing from him and into the ribbons, a disturbing sensation. Quickly moving to stop her, he jumped up and placed both of his feet hard against her chest and pressed off launching her backwards. Louis flipped backwards and planted his feet onto the ground freezing them in place the moment contact was made. Louis took both his arms back jerking the girl right back in his direction. Before she collided with the dark knight, he stopped her in place pummeling her with a series of flat palmed strikes.

pulling back and letting her stumble back a bit, he drew all the darkness he could to his hands and thrust them both forward at once. Darkness exploded around them and launched her backwards. The ribbons disconnected and Dani landed a good distance away rolling to a stop. Dani stood to her feet slowly, swatting at the heartless that stood around her nipping at her, tasting her and her darkness. The ribbons shot out into each of them, returning them to hearts that floated away but their darkness flowed right into her and manifested in the form of dark orbs floating all around her. She took a few confident steps in Louis' direction then fired off the orbs. At first Louis only bent to the side to avoid the first shot, grinning at her inaccuracy. His grin disappeared from his face as the orb expanded behind him in a massive explosion that pulled at his cloths almost sucking him in if it weren't for his feet frozen to the ground.

Several more orbs headed in his direction which he quickly made way to get far away. His feet coated with ice, allowing him to skate across the floor moving faster and faster. Each shot got closer and closer behind him with increasing accuracy until one finally flew in front of him and cut him off. Without the traction to stop he slid right into the mass which imploded the moment he was inside. The black sphere floated there a moment, the exploded releasing Louis and sending him sky high. In mid air, more black orbs sped past him and exploded turning the air into a 3D minefield. Louis spiraled out of the way of one sphere and shot his gun off randomly in Dani's direction, intercepting most of the orbs before they could reach him causing them to prematurely explode. Louis landed on his feet, crouching below another orb, then dashing forward.

For a bit, it was like dodge ball from back when Louis was a kid. Never touchable in a normal game, it often took several balls from several direction to take him out. Louis ducked and leaped and dived to each side avoiding the incoming projectiles. Before long, he took one final leap and was right under her nose. Louis cupped his fist in his opposite palm then slammed her in the gut full force. He flew backwards again, but without even a break in beat, the dark orbs kept firing off at him. Louis flipped his hand up commanding a wall of ice to blast out between him and her. The orbs swiftly passed through into the inside of the mystic ice. Suddenly, the ice shattered, and the barrage returned tenfold. On the other side of the wall, Louis could hear the series of explosions that would testify her defeat.

The wall collapsed, and Louis stared as the girl still stood, her ribbons multiplied into 4, and floating around her like a personal team of guardians. I underestimated her.

Louis ran forward, dipping underneath her ribbons and rolling to the side as another ribbon came down and cut a streak across the ground. The ground he gained was hard fought, and paid for with a number of new wounds, but soon he was at her again. Louis intended to finish it with one last strike. Darkness gathering on his arm, he thrust his palm into her chin and knocked her into the air. He drew his daggers and threw them out to his sides, each dagger was absorbed into a dark corridor just big enough for them. Another matching corridor opened on each side of her, out of them the two daggers, along with an array of matching dark darts shot out. Then, they reentered another corridor that intercepted their path after they made their passes. More portals opened one by one, soon her shape was dominated by the dark darts and two daggers accompanying her until Louis snapped his fingers and it all went away. The daggers emerged out of portals next to Louis and sped right into their sheaths.

Shaking his head, clearing it of anger, he walked over to the downed girl. He stopped next to her, looking into her eyes while she stared up at the ceiling. He keeled down to her once more, extending his hand, "I promise I can make this all go away. I'll help you... if you'll let me."

Dani's eyes slowly moved from the roof, to his eyes, his warm smile, that disturbing gaze. Everything in it... it showed warmth, but somewhere in his eyes, the warm gentle manner they lie on her, but there was only cold, calculating, terrifying malice. Despite this... his words spoke to her. He had beaten her, but he wasn't trying to kill her. Her mind reconsidered, despite her heart's objections. She glanced down at his extended hand. She sat up, still hesitant, but she made her choice. With a quivering hand, she reached out, and took his. Heartless gathered around, hundreds in number as immense amounts of darkness flowed off of Louis and engulfed both of them in the abyss...





[[???]]

"What's going on?! What happened?! Did he kill her?! Did he? What's your knight doing?! I thought you said he was ruthless?!" Kefka shouted at Seymour pointing violently at the screen in disgust.

Seymour looked at the screen with some interest now, "Whatever Louis is thinking, he's thought it through very thoroughly. Whether he kills her or not... he'll do it for a reason. It's all part of HIS master plan. He has no idea what you're planning Kefka. He'll only do what he must in order to succeed, that's for sure. Don't underestimate him."

"He probably let her go like a little wimp." Cory responded, laughing at the scene on the mirror, "He's too afraid to do anything. Just pathetic. So... now that we know the weakling is a failure, why don't I get in on this little party."

"Yes Seymour, why not? He seems like he would be a good addition. I say we let him go." Kefka said turning to Seymour and leaning in close, batting his eyes, "Please honey? I'll bake you a cake?"

Seymour sighed, their antics were rather annoying, "Fine."

"Oh goodie!" Kefka said before a mirror appeared below Cory and he dropped through. After the mirror was closed, he looked back at Seymour turning his face, to a scowl, " And don't think you're getting that cake. It was a lie... The cake is a lie?! The cake is a LIE?! THE CAKE IS A LIE!!!! Ahahahaha!"





A sunny day cooled by nature gentle breeze turns into a stormy night and by morning the fields are covered in a dense frost as two uninvited guests get to know each other at a party they were never meant to go to.

To Be Continued...
Chapter 9 ~ Dollhouse Rhapsody


((Writer's Notes: In case anyone is wondering why their character might be a bit off, that's because the darkness of the dome is infecting hearts and turning those susceptible, even if only a little bit, darker and darker... so, if characters seem darker than their usual selves, that's the point. Just roll with it.))

I read this last night, I was just too pooped to post.

I loved it!! Everyone is not waisting time trying to crush one another. <<; I couldn't help but snicker at Amy and Kefka.

"Go Maggie, Go!"

and

"Cake is a LIE!"

WOOT, ENTER CORY.