Redemption Frägment

Chapter Fourteen: Death Match

Weapons had been clutched tightly on the way up in the elevator, the doors dinging open to reveal a grassy field encased in a dome of clear glass, displaying the night sky. The combatants slipped out one at a time, regrouping with their backs to each other so they could survey the entire area. Ansem shifted, eyes drawn to the moons; one a fiery orange, the other a bloody crimson. Both made him shiver.

“What is it, An?”

Ansem turned toward Sora and Riku, the brunette watching him with a guarded expression and the silver-haired one watching him with question in his eyes.

-Darkness sings in your blood.-

-Do not deny me my birthright.-

-Come back to me.-

Ansem looked down at his Keyblade. The knuckles of his hand around the hilt were bone white, his body trembling. More eyes turned on him when he dropped suddenly to his knees, Riku giving a soft gasp of his name. His vision was swimming, his forehead burning, and he curled his body onto his hands and knees as he threw up onto the ground before him.

-Stop resisting me! Once you’ve become part of me, all the pain will go away.-

-Leave me alone! I don’t want to be you anymore!-

-A barren field, covered with all the Keyblades in existence. Three knights, each one glaring hate from behind their masks at him.-

-Who am I?-

“What’s wrong with him?” Seifer asked, green eyes darting around the area as Zack knelt beside Ansem, his hand on the boy’s back. A helpless shrug from the SOLDIER and soon his son was kneeling on Ansem’s other side, looking into his gold eyes.

“Ansem?”

“It’s… it’s coming. Can feel it. Tainted, tainted with so much darkness…” Ansem coughed, Riku pulling him to his feet. Ansem wrapped his fingers around the hilt of the Redemption Keyblade, a sigh of relief escaping him as the gentle feeling of healing magic washed over him. The sickness at bay, he leaned on Riku, gold eyes closed.

Sora moved a bit closer to the pair, his own Ultima Keyblade held at the ready. Seifer suddenly let out a curse as the earth beneath their feet began to shake. Sephiroth and Zack crouched to keep their balance, Mako-enhanced eyes searching for the source of the shaking, not finding anything.

“Move!” Ansem screamed as he shoved Riku to the side, launching himself right after the silver-haired youth. Not even a second later, the earth beneath them exploded outwards. Ansem hit the ground and rolled, coming to his feet beside Riku, both lifting their weapons to the ready. Ansem’s golden eyes narrowed at the creature that was still shrouded by brown dust and falling earth.

The world became black and white then, Ansem’s eyes shifting in the spectrum to see through the shroud. Several small glows came back from the side, his mind registering the positions of his companions, and one large glow in the dirt shield. Redemption swept out to the side, its wielder pushing off and rushing to meet the assailant head on. The small glows moved, retreating from the larger glow. Redemption howled as it swung to kill.

The spectrum was roughly changed back as a large tentacle grabbed Ansem, the appendage wrapping around his middle as another slithered out of no where to wrap around his wrists, staying his Keyblade. Disoriented, Ansem hung there, hearing shouts of his friends and the pained yelps as another tentacle swept the field. A shake of the head and he was staring down at the creature that held him.

-Ah…- the voice brushed over his mind, sickeningly oily, corrupted. -Fresh meat. And so much of it.-

Ansem growled as the maw of the beast opened, the jaws snapping shut a few bare inches from his face. He gave a cry and fell into the dirt, rolling away from the creature and backing up to join Sora and Riku.

“What is that thing?” Zack shouted, raising his broadsword to block a claw sent his way. Sephiroth responded by slicing Masamune through the offending limb. A shrug and the two were retreating back, along with Squall and Seifer.

The creature turned to face them, its beaked mouth opening in a feral grin. The creature was a mixture of beasts, mottled earthen colours, with long tentacles and crab-like claws. A hard, shiny exoskeleton made up its body, along with a long, curved, bladed tail that was stained a dark brown. Legs were sharp skewers of hardened shell, its eyes a sickly yellow, and its head almost human with a behemoth visage. It could speak, which meant it was sentient, and its mere presence made Ansem sick again, the boy retching quietly behind Riku, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand as he glared at the creature.

“I’ve never seen anything like that in the books from Hollow Bastion.” Ansem whispered. “I’ve no idea what it is.”

“So we’ve no idea how to beat it.” Sora said, shifting his hold on his Keyblade, one foot sliding back to provide leverage when he lunged. Riku did the same, Ansem following a moment later, all three in the same exact stance. The creature before them shifted, a guttural sound Sora assumed was its laugh reaching their ears.

-So it is true. You ARE a fragment of that little brat. I will enjoy destroying you.-

The three were left with no time to ponder what the creature meant that curved weapon of a tail lashing out, sending Ansem to one side, the other two Keybladists to the other. The earth left scarred, the muscular appendage lifted into the air once more, only to come crashing down in Riku’s direction.

A swipe of Sora’s blade knocked the deadly tip off course by a fraction, just enough to make Riku’s leap out of range enough to spare his life. The three were back together then, rushing the creature before rock released the bladed tail for another strike.
The creature didn’t seem too worried at the sudden change in range, one rock-solid claw lashing out and connecting with Riku’s side. The massive hybrid was shifting then, entire body moving to follow the first claw, second raising up to slam down in the general vicinity of Sora’s skull. A quick dodge roll prevented him from painting the floor with grey and red, the brunette moving to pull his beloved to his feet, Curaga cast on the silver one’s no doubt shattered rib cage.

Ansem, on the other hand, had other things to worry about. His fellow Keybladists being subjected to constant rain of blows from the meaty pincers, that left the many tentacles with the task of lashing out at the saffron-eyed boy. Ansem twisted, leaping to avoid having his legs knocked out from underneath him, bolting around to the creature’s right flank once he had solid earth beneath him again.

Almost too late did he see the tail coming down at him, Ansem quickly placing one foot across the other and changing direction before he was skewered. The blade was embedded in dirt once more, twitching to remove itself when a sound like an explosion echoed within the dome, fire and debris crashing into the tough exoskeleton shielding the tail, a crack visible when the smoke cleared. Lashing out, Redemption connected with that crack, earning a howl of rage and pain from the creature attached to the tail.

"Move!" the shout was followed by another explosion, Squall darting through the smoke and severing the tip from the rest of the tail. Taking the opportunity opened by the lion and his knight, Ansem bolted toward what he hoped was a safe distance.
The creature was enraged by the loss of one of its deadly weapons, bladeless tail lashing out to crash into Squall’s middle, lifting him off his feet and crashing into the equally leather-bound SOLDIER general. The two were thrown back by the sheer velocity, both forms testing out the solidity of the glass dome encasing them, the loud cracking sounds neither from the glass nor in any way pleasant.

-Fools!-

Seifer barely had time to register the blow dealt to his lion when one pincer came for him, the claw connecting in a very solid way and sending him through the air and into the grass-coated earth. He rolled, finally coming to a stop against a fairly large rock, body curling up instinctively at the massive barrage of pain.

This left Zack alone to assist the smaller members of the party, Buster Sword raised to fend off an onslaught of tentacles, Sora slamming his Keyblade into them and forcibly removing them from the creature’s body.

"This is not good!" the brunette Keyblade master shouted, taking in the losses on both ends. A tail and a few wigglies for the thing and they had three temporarily out of commission.

"It looks like Palmer’s cooking, no shit this isn’t good!" came the SOLDIER’s response, massive sword coming down to sever a few more tentacles that were aiming for his son. Said boy in question was running through the barrage, Riku rolling as a pincer came crashing down at him. Those standing were thrown off-balance for a few seconds, the very ground sounding its displeasure at the newest injury.

Ansem could do little more than swipe at any tentacles that came his way, not daring to move forward to assist the others lest he leave something of himself open for attack, and even in defending himself he wasn’t faring too well. A few late parries, a few blind blows, and he was looking worse for the wear, skin littered with forming bruises and drying lacerations, and the attacks from the behemoth were within such short intervals of time that he had no hope of casting healing spells on anyone without dire consequence.

The fallen three were beginning to regain themselves by that point, Squall rolling to the side and getting to his feet just as the General straightened as well, Masamune gathered up as he bolted toward the monstrosity, both Seifer and Squall following close behind.

The creature suddenly being attacked from two sides instead of one, the constant battering the others were receiving lessened a little, allowing for a few quick healing spells to be cast, at least enough to lessen the more serious wounds. Hearts were beginning to feel a little lighter at the change of fortunes, only to be crushed as one of those meaty pincers finally found its target.

Riku let out a cry of nothing short of agony as the curved concentration of chitin was pressed to his stomach, point breaking through the barrier of his flesh and erupting out the other end. Vermilion painted the emerald grasses, pincer lifting and jerking downwards, Riku’s limp form slamming into the ground with another eruption of horrifying red.

Attentions not drawn by the first cry were certainly drawn by an echoing ones from Sora and Zack, SOLDIER turning from the assailing appendages to get at his son. A mistake, one the brunette Keybladist didn’t have time to warn the elder of, still-bloody pincer slamming into the back of the man’s shoulders and forcing him to the ground. The brown earth was stripped of blades of green in the path the mako-enhanced body took, finally coming to a stop and laying as still as his offspring.

Sora was seeing red, and none of it was coming from his beloved. Electric blue was fixed on the creature, flashing wildly as he seethed with hatred, knuckles bone-white as he gripped his Keyblade. He was moving forward then, leaping to avoid defensive attacks from the behemoth, blade smacking others out of the way. Still, his progress as far too impeded, or so his current train of thought was telling him just as the offending pincer was completely severed from the segmented limb.

Sapphire shifted to follow the path of flashing silver, and had he not been near bursting with anger, the following sight might have scared him into a corner followed shortly by fetal position. In short and very crude terms, Sephiroth was pissed off. Pupils dilated and glow bright enough to blind, the silver-haired man was hacking the creature to pieces, carnage littering the ground amidst oily, blackened blood.

Not caring to be left with nothing but a steaming carcass to have his own revenge over, Sora barely resisted knocking the elder man away as he leapt forward, his own blows coming has fast and hard to the behemoth as the general’s own. He was running, heart hammering and throat almost too tight to allow breath, but allowing a yell of every obscenity he had ever heard spill from Cid’s mouth, Keyblade cracking against the remaining pincer and crushing it into uselessness. The two were blurs then, flashing silver visible in between blows to the gigantic creature, who now was howling in pain and rage.

The creature quite distracted, Ansem bolted towards the two recently fallen, letting out a sound at the battered bodies lying in the grass. Ansem said nothing, simply working on a healing spell as quickly as he could, trying to close up the hole through Riku’s midsection before it was the death of him.

Just about then, did the foreboding feeling hit him. He looked up, frowning and wondering what else could be going wrong, only to have his vision blocked by a white jacket, Squall covering Zack just as Seifer covered him.

“What—”

“Shut up, keep healing, and keep your head down!”

He heard similar shouts from where Zack was being held, less frantic-sounding but in no way Squall’s usual cold tone. Sora hit the ground nearby, Keyblade before him and hands clasped over his head. This only stirred more confusion in Ansem, until a light blocked out all chance of vision, forcing all eyes closed. The earth shuddered beneath them, bucking upwards and groaning, rock splitting beneath the packed layers of dirt as thunder split the air, the cacophony drowning out all else.

He lost all contact with the earth for a moment, lifted into the air a few inches only to fall back once gravity took hold of him again, grunting against Riku’s bloodstained chest as he felt the larger weight of the blonde hit his spine.

Almost as suddenly as the whole ordeal had started, it stopped, leaving the party on calm earth once more, slowly getting to their feet, those who could. Ansem glanced around, panting and rather dazed. He didn’t feel ill from the monster’s presence anymore, and the dome that had caged them in was completely obliterated, a snow of glass littering the ground in a large silvery halo. He turned to look at Sora as he approached, appearing not a little shaken as he moved to finish up the healing of Riku’s wounds, Squall having already revived the black-haired SOLDIER.

Sora knelt by Riku, helping with the string of healing spells, the party utterly exhausted. Sora allowed a breath of relief when sea-blue eyes blinked open, focusing first on Sora's sweat-stained face and then drifting around to look at everyone else. Squall and Seifer were on their feet, helping Zack up as Sephiroth joined them. The black-haired SOLDIER was pulled into a tight hug, Sephiroth whispering harshly to him as Zack clung, before nuzzling him comfortingly. Sora pulled Riku to his feet, turning to help Ansem. He offered a smile, Ansem giving a weary one in return.

“Now we’re free,” Seifer muttered. “Let’s go home.”

Sounds of assent murmured through the group, the party moving gingerly over the shattered glass to the freedom beyond. Their walk out of the broken dome was not hindered, Sora looking around for something, finding it finally and asking Chip and Dale to pilot the gummi ship to their location. It seemed to be a mutual agreement that they weren't going to walk any further than required.

Ansem fell back to the tail end of the group, a hand pressing to his forehead. He no longer felt ill, but now his head was pounding. Flashes of images, voices, sounds were all invading his senses, forcing him to stop moving. Both hands were pressed to his head as if to ward off the headache.

“Ansem,” Riku’s voice only made the pain worse, the others turning to look back at the boy in question. He moved forward, reaching out to press his palm to Ansem’s shoulder.

Almost immediately Ansem cried out, his vision blacking, his world turning upside down. He was barely aware of Riku and Sora calling his name, of arms wrapping around him to slow his descent. His body jerked once and he was lost in darkness.