Revenge of the Hearts

Chapter XVIII

"This is what I wanted. No need to rely on or work with other people. I just want to drift through the water in silence." ~Haruka Nanase (Free!)
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We ran out of the castle, but we didn't have to go far to find the Heartless. Already just outside the castle there was a brawl going on with Heartless and Nobodies. If the outside of the castle was like this, I don't even want to imagine what the inside of the town looks like...

Just then, we spotted Maleficent and went into battle stance, summoning our weapons. She sneered before disappearing under a veil of green-black fire. As soon as she did that, another swarm of Heartless appeared along with the Dusks "Heartless!" Maleficent's voice echoed. "Leave the white ones. Turn your attention to Sora and his friends!"

"Uh-oh!" Goofy gulped as both the Heartless and Dusks slowly approached us. In a fell swoop Donald casted Thunder in order to scatter the swarm and it worked. Sora then casted Magnet to draw all the Heartless into one spot as I jumped up and brought my Keyblade down, taking all of them out at once. Goofy slid around on his shield, taking out the ones we had missed.

The three floating girls from earlier came out from a corridor from the castle. "Where's Maleficent?" Brunette asked.

"Looks like she ran away," Sora informed.

"Well, that was PRET-ty lame of her," blonde rolled her eyes.

"I guess we picked the wrong side," silver sighed.

The three turned away from us and began to converse amongst themselves, deciding what the next best course of action to take. We all stood there awkwardly, listening in to their incoherent conversation. "Umm, hey...if you're looking to pick sides, why don't you pick Leon's? They can always use help." Sora interrupted.

"Does this Leon have any treasure?" Brunette asked as the trio turned back to us.

"Yeah, lots of stuff!" Donald exclaimed, spreading his arms wide to show how much he had.

"Perfect!" Blonde cheered.

"Come on," silver nodded.

"Who ARE you?" Sora asked.

"Oh, we're nothing worth mentioning," brunette assured.

"Just three treasure fanatics," Silver replied.

"Later, taters!" Blonde grinned as she waved goodbye to us with both of her hands as they disappeared into blue, silver, and yellow light, leaving behind sparkles.

"Did Leon...really have any treasure?" Sora asked. I shrugged in response as Goofy began to tap his head.

Donald snickered as he ran off and we turned to follow. Just when we were about to exit the castle, three Dusks appeared. "We don't have time to deal with you!" Sora growled as he jumped up and took them out in one strike and we continued on forward.

Once we exited the castle, a huge bright orb of light shone, stopping us in our tracks. "Whoa!" Sora shouted as I shielded my eyes from the blinding light. From the light, a man with long silver hair, a single black angel wing protruding from one side of his back as he dressed in black clothing that had red running all over it, including a strap that made an "X" on his otherwise bare chest with silver armored shoulder plates on each of his shoulders. On his hand, he carried a long sword. As he got up, he turned around to face us. "Sora, Sakura, it's Sephiroth!" Donald cried.

"Ain't Sephiroth the one whose supposed to be the dark part of Claud's heart?" Goofy asked.

"Did Cloud tell you that?" Sephiroth smirked. "Then he must understand now."

"Just what are you gonna do to him?" Sora demanded.

"Nothing," Sephiroth replied curtly. "Cloud is the one who hungers for Darkness."