Raid #71

She'd never get used to the darkness.

The inky waves crashed onto the shore as lightning flashed on the horizon, the rumbling thunder echoing faintly as the storm approached quickly. Aqua stood on the dock, the wind wildly tossing her blue hair about her face as she looked out over the ocean with a fierce gaze. No matter how many dark covered wastelands she had endured, no matter how many creatures of darkness she had fought, she was completely unprepared and shocked to see the islands suddenly turn into a state like this. Once, Destiny Island was the stuff of legends to her, and so long ago she had finally visited it to see that it did live up to the stories it created. It really was full of Light- and no one was about to ruin that.

The young keybearer had been taught that her duty was to protect the balance of the worlds. Aqua did her best to uphold that mission, but right now she wasn't just protecting the balance... This fight was personal. She was going to fight to protect the world where the new generation of heroes hailed from, and more importantly, for the unbreakable connection this world seemed to represent for not just herself.

Aqua wrinkled her nose as a few drops of rain began to fall on her face, and she looked up at the sky. The storm had moved quickly and was now above the island, a torrential downpour threatening to fall at any given moment. The clouds were so dark that even though it should have been around mid-day, the world looked like it was just having a thunderstorm at night. Aqua shuddered a bit, and knew that if a moon were showing, someone, somewhere, was surely mocking her.

It was then that the sparse raindrops stopped and a steady downpour began.

Aqua gasped, her skin beginning to crawl, and it was not because of the cold rain. She knew that a being (multiple beings? There had to be) of darkness was close by, and she broke her hard stare at the ocean to look for whoever was causing the destruction of the islands. Aqua summoned her keyblade in a bright flash of light, and held it out to her side in her usual battle stance. "Who's there?!" She managed to call out over the rain, thunder, and crashing waves. Even if they didn't hear her, the message imposed by her glare and keyblade was enough: get out.

As torrential heavy rain began to pour down from the blackened, lightning-stricken clouds, a man emerged out of the shadows in timing to the call made by the wielders of light and darkness present. Cold raindrops trickled down his raven-black hair as the red-eyed man emerged from the place within the island he had told Marlene to hide, having come here to retrieve her when she had gone missing within the darkness. A tattered crimson cape blew out behind him as gale-force winds whipped at the coastline from the incoming storm, also tussling his coal black hair, revealing the black-strapped bodysuit and golden armor he wore underneath. The islands were now being coated in a light coat of condensation from the downpour, bending the green leaves of the foliage at their weight and turning the golden color of the sand into a depressing brownish-grey that stuck to his boots. But he moved as silently as the breeze, which was unheard compared to the deafening sound of thunder overhead, but it was not something which caused Vincent to flinch or even look up.

He had operated in rain before; a time or two during his journey with Cloud, out in his travels during the Geostigma crisis, and again in Edge during the assault from Deepground. Like it had begun when Sephiroth had been called back to their world time and time again, the arrival of a dark storm seemed to be the herald of the arrival of dark forces... and if they were anything as deadly as Sephiroth could be, it was a horrific and terrible darkness. But, why here? Why this small world, dotted with tropical islands like this one, where all was calm and tranquil in it's natural state? Did it have something to do with the fact this world was the home world of the keyblade master, Sora, and his friends? It belonged to them and their loved ones, and it was through him working with Cloud that Vincent had first come to recognize this place as something special, but he hadn't actually realized how peaceful and heavenly this place seemed until he had come here.

He would have liked it if she had been here with him... but, that had just been a dream, and now that time had passed. He had to focus on the present.

Sora had helped them so much... he had defeated Ansem and driven his dark presence out of Hollow Bastion on more than one occasion... depending on which half it had been at the time. But he had also helped the Hollow Bastion Restoration Committee out when they needed it, which he was loosely affiliated with since AVALANCHE made up most of the committee, and completely revived it as the city of Light which was now Radiant Garden. The keyblade master had saved their world and kept back the dark forces looking to either demolish the world or their citizens, so it was time that they returned the favor with his home world, when the young boy needed it the most while he was busy fighting to protect the Light in other worlds. He may have not been present during those events, but hearing them through the Restoration Committee about the young man's exploits was never a hard thing to miss, and as long as he was now caught in the middle of things he may as well be involved in what was going down here with the dark stench he could sniff out. Especially to make this world safe for the children - not only those that lived here, but ones that crossed through here like Marlene had - so she need never fear the darkness that this world had had wrought upon it by those who thrived on greed and power.

His eyes flashing with the reflection of a lightning strike out upon the ocean of dark waves which were now crashing on the shore more violently than they once were, Vincent's eyes caught sight of two figures standing out in their silhouettes against the brightness of the bolt, which he could sense before he had even stepped foot out of the shadows. The first was not only very hard to miss because of the bright glow of her brilliant keyblade she summoned, but the significance of the shape of the weapon, which Vincent immediately recognized. The young woman with blue hair looked about the age of the women from the Restoration Committee, but there was not an air of darkness about her, which immediately relieved the gunman. The last thing Sora and the Restoration Committee needed to deal with was another dark keyblader hindering their progress, and this young lady had a Light about her that not only was as brilliant as the gleam of her keyblade she summoned in the darkness, but Vincent had a sense she was immensely powerful as well. He shifted his stance as he came to a stop some distance away from her at the beginning of the dock on the beach, content she was not about to attack him, even if he did look like - and was, in a sense - a wielder of the darkness.

He turned to look at who was their adversary, a man in dark clothing wielding a dark sword and a dragon insignia on his belt. This man he couldn't tell much of from his senses, apart from the fact he was strong as well, and the darkness he was steeped in he wasn't trying to suppress in his heart like Vincent did with his alter-ego, Chaos. No, this man was not afraid of showing his power at all... and that told him all he needed that the man was partially, or maybe fully responsible for bringing the dark storm to the islands, and in turn must be accompanied by some dark presences one way or the other to bring about such a chaotic shift in the weather. The man had drawn his blade, much like Aqua had drawn hers, which meant either he was about to attack or simple had his weapon out to prepare to defend himself as she did. And most likely because of the darkness he had brought, he was not here to talk or negotiate, or else he would have said something to them by now that he was as such.

Vincent was secretly hoping that. He was done negotiating with villains who brought about terror and malice to their worlds.

Suddenly he spoke aloud to the girl so she could hear him, but since he had traveled so quietly with using the sounds of the raging storm above as a buffer, it almost appeared as if he simply appeared out of the darkness after another streak of lightning as he stood alongside her staring down at the villain. "This island... it is hard to believe that the keyblade master was once here, when it was at rest, but... this was his world." he spoke, slowly and calmly, so as not to startle the keyblader if she had not noticed him until now, talking in a admiring and grateful tone. Light reflected off the raindrops on his pale skin, but a slight curl to his drained bluish-purple lips brought about a soft and confident smile. "The boy could not be here, but he is out there, still protecting the Light. I don't know what his reason is to keep fighting... but, not all of us need a reason to." he added, inadvertently giving his gratitude to Sora, the reason why he felt obligated to protect his world. Quicker than the eyes could follow, he had pulled out his intimidating handgun, the tri-barreled pistol known as Cerberus, and pointed it at the man in black clothing. "I may never be accepted by the Light, or give myself completely over to Darkness, but when evil is when people start bringing chaos to the world. Looks like we have some work to do, wielder of the key."

He reloaded the gun with a sharp, gut-wrenching click, as if the gun was the mythical hound Cerberus itself, growling to defend it's master from a maniacal menace. Vincent did not batter an eyelash as the storm crashed and thundered above them, rain pouring down his face and clothes, not wanting to come between the two melee wielders if they were about to duel but not about to let the blue-haired keywielder face the man alone even if she wanted to.

But his senses told him that with more dark presences in the area, they would not be alone for long.... he just hoped Marlene would stay safe.

The heavy rain was pouring down with no end in sight, throwing down it's endless barrage as if an enemy artillery was firing shot after shot onto the beach. It was certainly doing this world no justice. Not helping the world reveal it's true colours, to welcome it's vistors and holiday makers with beautiful blue skies, bright sunny weather and a temperature that just screamed 'girls in bikinis!'. No. The world was once more under attack by the forces of Darkness and it appeared the attacks would never end upon this world of peace, this world of Light. The home of Keyblade Master, Sora. Was it merely that small fact that brought attack after attack here? Endless swarms of Heartless. Powerful Darkness deities. All wanting to claim this world for their own so they could use it as a weapon the brunette Keybarer and his friends? Seemed there were certainly some who thought that and so long as these guys continued to live, their attacks on this world would never come to an end in the foreseeable future.

~I have my work cut out for me as it is back in Radiant Garden...~
The figure of a lone swordsman appeared from over the horizon, walking along the beach towards where the forces of Darkness and Light could be felt. Clothes sodden from the falling rain, long brown hair thrown back over his shoulders with a few strands sticking to his face, the blue-eyed male continued to slowly pace himself across the beach, taking a second to glance down at his boots to see the sand starting to stick all over them. Casting his head back up as a bolt of lightning flashed throughout the sky, the SeeD started to hear the distant sound of battle. He was getting close now. Though the swordsman didn't pick up the pace. He just walked along at his own speed until the familiar scene of the infamous Destiny Island beach came into view.

Lifting up one of his gloves hands, Squall Leonhart brushed a hand baclwards through his hair to remove any stray strands that might have wanted to blow into his eyes in the passing, relatively strong winds. Coming to a stand still, Squall crossed his arms before his chest and frowned in disappointment. Seems like the party had started before he arrived. A man dressed in pure black was staring down a woman with blue hair who was accompanied by a figure in crimson and black hair. Facial expression unchanging, Squall's sharp blue eyes locked onto the figure of Vincent for a moment.
~Crimson cloak and black hair... Golden armour. Hm... That must be who Cid and Aerith keep mentioning...~
He thought to himself as he continued to stand his ground and watch from a distance as the battle begun to unfold further details. A strange female-like creature descended from the thickened skies above and quickly unleashed some sort of thick gas upon the blue-haired female and her crimson cloaked partner.

A moment after that and some red-haired kid came falling down from the skies as well. Squall however didn't follow the red-head down as while he were staring up towards the skies, a third figure was spotted falling out of a Dark Portal. So it was raining heroes and villains today, not the usual raindrops? This time, Squall watched the figure of G Slayer crash into the wooden bridge and smash into the water below. The tiniest of smirks appeared on his lips for a second as he raised one of his arms up from his chest and placed his palm against his forehead. Shaking his head from side to side, Squall let out a small sigh.
"I bet that hurt..."
As the gray-haired man emerged from the water once more, the Proud Loin noticed that the red-head had decided to play with the female who produced the gas-like cloud moments before. This was going to be one busy battlefield at this rate, one where every hero was going to need eyes in the back of their heads and watch their six's.

Starting to walk once more, Squall found himself leaping up a hill to find himself at a raised vantage point where the wooden bridge stretched across a small gap of sea to a small island with palm trees. Knowing the G Slayer was down in the sea nearby, Squall decided to pay him no heed for now and watch what was happening between Yukimura, Aqua, Vincent, JENOVA and Felix before deciding on what move to make himself. Reaching one arm out before him, the leader of Restoration Committee seemed to grasp at thin air before a flash of light escaped his palm to reveal his one most trusted companion; his Revolver Gunblade. Swinging the half-gun half-sword up to rest on his shoulder, the Proud Lion stood his ground and waited a better chance to attack after perhaps witnessing what the forces of Darkness were capable of.
"You owe me big time, Sora..."

Aqua blinked as she saw something move in her peripheral vision. It was hard to see the portal that appeared- the dark, swirling entity hardly stood out against the bleak state of the beach, and the loud, almost liquidy sound it made was hard to hear over the storm. Regardless, Aqua did see her first opponent, an individual in black attire with a rather large and lethal looking sword. Her lips curled into a sort of snarl as he spoke- greedy?! How?! She didn't understand, although she knew from experience that those who allied themselves with darkness liked to spew nonsense to try and catch their opponents off guard. She opened her mouth to retort when another silently came up and stood beside her.

While the man looked threatening (and his sneaky entrance didn't help, either), with his metal gauntlet, torn cape and piercing red eyes, Aqua could sense that he was on her side, and offered him a faint smile. The grin faded as soon as it had came, though, nodding solemnly at the man's words. She knew who he was talking about. She also knew what it was like to return to a ruined home, and vowed to herself that Sora wouldn't have to do that.

A determined glint appeared in her eyes as she looked at Vincent, "Let's start with this one first?" She said with a wry grin and was about to launch into a command style to attack Yukimura when a chill ran down her spine and she suddenly felt a lot colder- an extremely dark, evil presence had joined the sword wielder.

She whirled around to face her newest challenger, and her blue hair would've swayed a little if it wasn't plastered to her face. Aqua supposed she couldn't be too surprised at the appearance of a new enemy- the aura of darkness that was trying to infest this world was too strong for the swordsman to be the one causing trouble. What she was surprise at was that her newest opponent was a creepy alien-esque woman. Aqua narrowed her eyes, briefly wondering if this woman was some sort of Heartless or Nobody.

The blue-haired keybearer wasn't given much time to ponder, however, because the woman exhaled a revolting looking cloud of green gas. Green gas that was rapidly advancing due to the wind. Aqua decided to do the one thing she could do to defend herself against this: hold her breath. In hindsight, this plan was not thought out very well, as she had not allowed herself to take a breath, and it wasn't long before the colorful lights signifying oxygen deprivation were popping and appearing before her eyes. Although the wind had blown the gas past her by the time she finally took a gulp of air, her lungs ached and she felt lightheaded and dizzy. She stumbled back a bit, close to falling off the dock. Aqua kept telling her brain to pull herself together but she just couldn't react fast enough and was sure JENOVA was going to attack again, and didn't see Vincent's state due to being so horribly dizzy. However, someone else had arrived on the scene, falling from the sky, bringing their sword down upon the dark alien lady. Again, Aqua had no clue as to who this person was, but was glad to see that more warriors had come to help defend the Light.

As she regained consciousness, the Keyblade Master noted three others had arrived while she regained oxygen. Another minion of the darkness had crashed his way in, a denizen of Light (she smiled as she realized this), and another being of darkness that gave her deja vu in more ways than one. Seeing as some of the others had already busied herself with attacking, Aqua figured it was finally time to enter the fray.

Locking her cerulean eyes onto Yukimura, Aqua just sent him a fierce glare as she glowed white, and with a burst of light she launched herself at him, swinging her keyblade as ice crystals spurted from the ground all around him, as she used her Diamond Dust command style.

It had been the longest journey, and the first major one he had taken in his life... which, sad to say, came after his almost permanent death. Being revived through experimentation by Lucrecia, and further experimented on to sustain his degradation in amusement before being locked away by Hojo, he had been transformed from his original human form along with being sealed away in a coffin, which he had convinced himself through nightmares that he deserved as punishment for his sins. Sins to stop the madness of the unborn child of the one he loved from being injected with JENOVA cells, only to be awakened by Cloud and his group to ask questions of what had happened in his resting place, refusing to join them until Hojo was mentioned. He had never heard of this 'Sephiroth' before... but learned all too quickly through his adventure as he battled the swordsman taken form by remnants of JENOVA herself, that the greatest swordsman to have lived became as such because he was Lucrecia's child. Since then, battle after battle of Remnants and Deepground, he had found the resolve to finish what he had started with a second chance and stop the madness that all originated from one foreign entity - JENOVA.

So when JENOVA suddenly appeared behind them from the darkness and attacked them herself... there were few things in his lifetime that surprised Vincent, and made his crimson eyes open a faction in sudden realization that she had re-assembled a sentience of her original form. This, was one of them.

With no time to waste as he turned to the young woman next to him, the ex-turk didn't need to call out for Aqua to warn her of the incoming enemy as an answer to her question, as Aqua held her breath. As he held his own - as vampiric as he was, he was not undead, and still needed to breathe for his immortality - he knew the gas cloud falling around them was not going to be navigated through quickly enough before their breath held out. He immediately launched from the spot and dove into Aqua, offering his cape over her head as he attempted to push her out of harm's way, so at least she had a air bubble to breathe with even if it had to be the trapped air of his musk-scented cloak. This was also the gentlemanly thing to do to stop the rain bucketing down on her, but now was not the time to be thinking of such things. As of now, he could not hold his own breath for longer than Aqua could, so once they reached the clean air offered by the gale-force winds of the storm coming in he pushed her out of it before swallowing the polluted air itself.

He coughed sightly, the poison afflicting through his lungs and into his system... but that did not matter much, as Hojo had made his body near-indestructible. As soon as the poison made enough damage... well, his body would soon take care of the toxin before it reached his heart. He breathed into the tall collar around his neck to try and filter the air and the potency of the venom seeping in... it was not the first time JENOVA had attempted to poison him, and it would not be the last. As the air cleared around him while he remained crouched down low to the ground as the pollution floated upwards and away like smoke, he rose slowly to his feet at the womanly menace above him, the one that caused so much malice to his and other's lives on his home world. "The dark harbinger, the calamity from the sky... JENOVA. Leave her to me." he declared in a low and deep tone of voice to not only the keybarer, but the newcomer that had arrived on the scene and attacked JENOVA with some sort of gravity attack.

He noticed, but could not look directly at in the moment, the other forces that had gathered. There was no ignoring the loud crash of the man he had glimpsed while whirling around, that looked like a copy of the man he had fought and met before with red hair and rapier, whom the imitation itself he had encountered in Twilight Town recently. What was he exactly, a 'clone', or a Remnant of the man that quoted LOVELESS? Whatever the degrading facsimile was, it had only attacked the group in Twilight Town that Kadaj and Loz had been part of, muttering loud and coherently about S-cells. S-cells were Sephiroth's cells, and it did not take much guesswork to realize that since the LOVELESS quoter had a black wing like Sephiroth, that the degrading facsimile needed similar cells of JENOVA's in order to function and work. So it wouldn't attack him, or anyone else here... unless it held a smarter intellect behind it's zombie-like facade.

Within the next second he noticed surreptitiously an ally that had come to assist them... brown hair, black leather, symbol of a lion and a gunblade... it could only be who his fellow friends from his home world kept mentioning. When their world of Gaia had come under raid from the first wave of Heartless, they had become separated, and some of AVALANCHE found themselves on Hollow Bastion with this man named 'Leon'. Hollow Bastion had also fallen under attack from the darkness, and soon that group had moved to Traverse Town, when they came into contact with the first Keyblade Master they knew of while Vincent traveled with Cloud to Olympus Coliseum. Vincent had been too busy moving around behind the scenes and split off from Cloud at the time, but he heard bits and pieces from the others to know enough that the man had helped out both his friends and Sora a lot, but the man himself to him was a complete mystery. He didn't care so much about that, as a man's business was his own which he didn't want to get involved with, but as long as his friends trusted him then so did he.

And then the final figure, which caught Vincent by surprise as to his presence as well... the man that had been behind the Heartless invasion of the worlds and had been defeated by the Keyblade Master himself. Or Heartless, as he was well known more-so to his true nature, as well as the known fact that he was the half of one man which had started the darkness invasion and the destruction of the worlds and the worlds between them. Xehanort's Heartless, but... Sora had defeated him. If he had returned, that meant that like Sephiroth had, there must have been some Lifestream-like force within the sea of stars the Seeker of Darkness had refused to be diluted into and returned like the Remnants had along with their brother soon afterward. If Sora and the rest of the Hollow Bastion Committee did not already know he had returned, if Vincent did not tip them off, then he knew the latter's leader would.

Speaking of which, the gunblade wielder was being attacked by the man in question, all of this registering within Valentine's mind as he remembered his own safety at risk as he kept focused on JENOVA looming above him. Leon could handle himself, as well as the young woman whom had gone to face the man in black they had been facing off with at the beginning, before this sudden wave of combatants blew in. Much like the winds the storm had done that was now thundering and pouring down above them, and the wielder of Cerberus raised his intimidation weapon, slicked hair dripping condensation down his back he ignored as he absorbed all this information. He had these new allies, but it looked like Xehanort's Heartless was not alone, and had joined forces with the young man with the dragon buckle. The crimson copy he was uncertain about, and had not attacked him in Twilight Town, so until he went against that unspoken gesture and attacked him or his allies he was not a threat in his eyes. The young man that attacked JENOVA, also with redish hair, might have had some devastating power with altering his weight but did not have the same experience battling JENOVA as Vincent had with her in the past.

For these reasons, the poison sapping away his health in his system and the growing force of the presence hidden deep within his body, the man had no choice when it came to what he had to do. His body started to glow with a brilliant red aura, as he mentally restrained the beast he held back from unleashing using his Protomateria, activating Chaos Augmentation throughout his body. One moment he was there, the next he was gone and appeared above JENOVA in mid-air from his speed increase, leaving behind a wispy trail of crimson and ebon light streaking off his body like a fireball. Speaking of which, he activated the Fire Materia inserted into the relief keychain of his Cerberus, firing a large rapid fireball from the gun swinging off his fingers that would cause a large explosion upon impact.

He didn't answer Felix's cry if he was okay; he let the action do the talking for him now. The beast within was about to be unleashed... this would be one hell of a storm to weather through.