A Dark Metamorphosis (Kadaj)

[Kadaj]

The Remnant said nothing nor did he move from his spot in the center of the tree house, even with that strange scratching sound coming from the door a second time. The odds of the wind blowing in the exact same place two times in a row to cause such a noise, was pretty unlikely so the odds favoured the fact that the two dark hearted beings were no longer alone in this world. It wasn't just the Keybarers that the Heartless were attracted too. No. It was anyone who had a strong enough heart for them to feast upon... or whatever it was that they did. Kadaj didn't care, as usual. He knew his heart was strong and it was thanks to the countless battles against the Heartless that he were able to grow stronger. His eyes fell upon the winged woman once more and the silver-haired man could only question how on earth... or Gaia, she became a Keybarer by sitting on her rear end all the time?

Not paying it any more thought then that, due to the obvious fact that she was sitting down and staying still to avoid getting even more cold from her wet wings and clothing. Still watching her though, Kadaj paid careful attention as she adjusted her wings, folding the right one behind her back yet still using the second as a means to keep her warm... perhaps more as some sort of make-shift shield. Her right arm was free, which caught the Remnant's attention, remembering that she used her right arm to hold her Keyblade while nailing in the nails into her cloak a few minutes ago. So, she could feel it too huh? The strange, almost invisible presence blending into the Darkness as well huh? Either that or she was worried at what could be scratching at the door. Most likely a Heartless. Closing his eyes and lowering his head, Kadaj slowed his breathing silently and relaxed, tuning his senses once more to try and 'see' what exactly was happening outside. The window was covered with the cloak and would take too long to pull out the nails without actually damaging her cloak.

An image flashed before his eyes, but it only lasted for a split second. It wasn't long enough for Kadaj to make anything out apart from countless yellow dots on a jet black background. The storm itself seemed to have calmed slightly as the rain and hail was beating down upon the tree house with less force now. The winds however, still seemed pretty strong as the whistling and howling coming from the cracks in the floor and walls depicted otherwise. Still with his eyes closed though, the Remnant prepared himself for what was about to come, aside the possible Heartless gathering in force outside the tree house. Taking a few breaths, the Remnant glanced at the winged woman and smirked at her with a dark look in his eyes.
"You might want to shield yourself... and then get ready to fight..."
Was all the warning he gave her.

The silver-haired man then opened up his heart to the world, allowing the Darkness to be absorbed into it. The tree house started to shake and creak as what seemed to be strange tendrils of Darkness start to seep in through the walls and floors, towards the Remnant. These tendrils were pretty opaque, but their colour were a dark purple/blue colour, the same as the wisps that escaped the bodies of defeated Heartless. The scratching at the door paused while this happened as if whatever was outside suddenly became confused. It was amazing! This Darkness was amazing! Kadaj could feel himself regaining his full strength and stamina, as well as the injuries upon his chest and shoulder healing at a much faster rate. This only happened for a few seconds though, since Kadaj knew allowing the Darkness into your heart could be a terrible mistake is you didn't know where to stop.

Thus a moment later, the tendrils vanished as mysterious as they had appeared before the silver-haired man shot his arms out either side of him quickly, pointing his palms at the walls either side of him.
"HYOOH!!"
Kadaj shouted as he suddenly released the Darkness within him, closing his heart to the world and everything else around him once more, returning it to it's coal-like state. The instant the Remnant shouted though, releasing his Darkness, all four walls of the tree house suddenly splintered and shattered into millions of pieces, blasting outwards in every direction. The roof too suffered the same fate as along with the rain and hail falling down, tiny splinters of wood accompanied them. Taking another breath and allowing the rain to sodden his hair and clothing for a moment, Kadaj opened his eyes which glowed slightly more brightly for a second, before returning to normal. He scowled at the winged woman before drawing his Souba and pointing the twin tips at her.

Yet it wasn't this woman he planned to fight, since by time the wooden splinters of the tree house finished falling to the ground, hundreds if not thousands of Heartless' yellow eyes darted up and became visible all around them both. So it seemed that it was BOTH the Darkness of this world and the Heartless that were growing in size due to the world having been taken over. To tell the truth as well, Kadaj really wasn't expecting this to happen. Sure Destiny Island is the home of Sora, Kairi and Riku and the world itself was rich in Light, but Kadaj didn't expect the Heartless to spawn here at such an alarming rate.

[Deleted]

The strength of the Heart did not depend on how many fights against the greedy Heartless, who did not care if they had stolen a weak or a strong Heart (A good or evil Heart.), a warrior has fought. It did not depend on any physical strength at all. It depended on the experience and the emotions that warrior has felt when he had chosen his reaction. Almost everything was built upon choices.

When the winged woman had entered the tree house, she had expected to find shelter from the weather and Heartless. She had wanted to rest from the exhaustion of fighting the Heartless that had seemed to grow stronger every minute. Selena knew that if she had not fled, her death may have come. She knew that she had no chance of fighting them, at least, not alone.

Lady Luck must have been plotting against this winged keybearer due to the warning the swordsman had given her. The warning, his dark expression and the tone of voice he had spoken it in gave her reason to stand up and so she did rather quickly while summoning her Heartsickness keyblade to her unshielded right hand.

Before the swordsman opened his heart, her right wing returned to shielding her right side although her eyes can still see the purple/blue opaque tendrils slink their way to her room mate. Her mind wanted to use the keyblade in her hand to hack them away from him but her heart kept her body still, telling it to wait.

As soon as her ears heard his shout, her head and body shifted away to avoid the brunt of his dark attack. After a few seconds, she shifted that same right wing away from her side to point her keyblade in the swordsman's direction, barely a few inches apart from his own strange, two-bladed sword though her attention was not at him or at the falling rain and splinters of the former tree house.

Selena was visibly surprised to see thousands of Heartless crowding around them but a smirk graced her pale face. We're in one hell of a fight. Better make the most of it. were her thoughts as she turned around to slash at the Shadows that had begun to jump in her direction.

The fate of her cloak that has hidden her wings for so long had never crossed her mind. It may as well be hidden underneath all of these Heartless and splinters if it isn't completely destroyed.

[Kadaj]

Kadaj frowned at the winded woman as he watched her raise up her Keyblade and point it in his direction. It was only a moment after that, when he saw her eyes glancing around his figure and off to whatever was behind him. Well, judging from what was currently behind the winged female herself, it wasn't too hard to guess as to what might be behind the Remnant himself. Not saying a word though as he instead listened to the sound of the destroyed tree house falling around them, Kadaj's mind wondered for a moment, drifting off away from their current situation and instead pondering what might happen after the outcome of this battle. Hey, she was a Keybarer... this number of Heartless wasn't going to prove too much trouble for her... right? Well, she had a temporary ally to fight alongside too, which should even the odds slightly.

Two vs two thousand? Yeah, they were good odds.

Kadaj just closed his eyes as he heard the wind whistle through the damp feathers that made up Selena's wings. Remaining standing still, rooted to the spot, the silver-haired man waited for the Heartless to come to him... which oddly, they didn't. The Remnant opened his eyes to see several of the Heartless heading past him, straight towards the female. it was obvious. A keybarer was present in front of such a humongous force that surely they'd all be attracted to her. This was going to be a good a chance as any to escape and leave the winged woman to her fate, but after having conquered Destiny Island himself and absorbing some of the Darkness that was currently present within the world itself... well, lets just say that the Remnant wasn't about to let the Keybarer have all the fun.

Thus a loud slice of steel echoed out from Kadaj's position, as his Souba flashed before him and sliced away the few Heartless that had bounced past him on their way towards the winged female. Kadaj's glowing, turquoise eyes flashed as he reopened them, glancing at the female through the silver veil of hair that covered his eyes. Dark blue and purple wisps slowly made their way skywards, accompanied by the brightly glowing hearts that were released. Kadaj's eyes turned upwards as he did his best to ignore the rain getting in his eyes, watching the hearts float up until they vanished into nothingness.
"I thought only a Keyblade could release the hearts of these creatures...?"
He asked, lowering his Souba down to his side and relaxing slightly, putting on a stance that would make an onlooker think that the battle is now over... which it most certainly wasn't. Kadaj was obviously confident in his abilities and did he actually now consider the Heartless to be a minor threat? If that was the case, then exactly what did he consider a large threat? Or were there more twisted and wicked plans formulating within his mind?

[Deleted]

At this point, Selena would not care if the swordsman had decided to make his escape when the Heartless were mainly focused on her. She knew that they were mainly attracted to her Heartsickness keyblade but also knew that there was also a high possibility of the black creatures being attracted to the winged woman's dark Heart as well.

Her attention stayed on the Shadows though had spotted a few of the Neoshadows among the black mass surrounding them both. Her mind did not accept any distractions from the falling rain that would get in her silver orbs to the sight of the falling splinters and her body had already known what to do with the keyblade within her hand. The woman kept moving while taking down each Heartless as if one mistake would end her existence.

Her eyes had spotted the rising Hearts that were released by the Remnant but did not let the swordsman's idleness distract her. Instead her attention were on the few Heartless that had lunged at him more likely as revenge for their fallen brethren than the lust for his black Heart, her left wing quickly shifted out of the way as her free hand had thrown three spheres of silver Heart's Blood at them before that same wing returned to its position. For a brief moment, Selena felt her free hand numb but she shook that same hand a few times to rid of the numbness before forming it into a fist. It did not take long for the feeling to return to that hand though it was likely that this action occurred unnoticed.

The winged woman had no doubt that the flame like substance would hit their targets but it had also completely given her away in the sense of the chains of memories that one can safely describe as ‘Binds our Hearts so tight to the point of suffocation due to our ever day dependence on them’ . The swordsman had seen her use those same flames against him at Traverse Town. Surely this action would jog his memory more than just the sight of her black wings.

For ten years that Selena had been separated from her homeland and for that many years she has had wielded the Heartsickness keyblade. It was enough time for her to learn how to wield her keyblade correctly without hurting herself too much and when to use the Heart’s Blood because using that flame drains her almost literally. It was why the keybearer rarely used her rather peculiar ability to conjure ice cold flames fueled, in a sense, by her own blood. It was her unique strength as well as her weakness.

In order to prove her ten years’ worth of experience had paid off, the dark keybearer kept fighting the many Heartless that slowly started to swarm around her. Her mind blocked out anything that could be labeled as a ‘distraction’ from the piercing howls of the wind to the Remnant himself who seemed to be just standing there with his twin-bladed sword pointed to the ground and not at his foes. Despite this, she kept moving until a sharp pain from her right wing was felt and involuntarily hissed under her breath. Selena glanced at the somewhat injured wing to spy a mere Shadow Heartless hanging on there. How ironic was it that the swordsman had mentioned questioned about an annoyance similar to this situation and it happened?

Certainly, he must have jinxed her.

Her mind had already judged the weather seemingly ‘safe’ enough to fly as her both wings, despite being soaked, stretched out and in moments, the dark keybearer was off the ground to the stormy skies while scattering ebony feathers where the winds blew. Unfortunately, the Shadow Heartless that had weakly clung to her right wing fell to the darkened ground from a considerable height with a ‘poof’ and a floating pink Heart.

Her silver eyes slowly observed the storm as both Heartless and swordsman thus the fight were on the ground. It appeared to have no end and growing worse with each passing moment. Rain and hail was hitting her and her wings so soon her said wings will be too heavy to stay up in the air. The storm was horrific yet startling beautiful but perhaps that was an opinion from a fellow child of the Darkness.

After a few passing moments, Selena returns to the ground where the battlefield was and continued to fight.

((OOC: Icky. Muse death. >.<'))

[Kadaj]

Kadaj closed his eyes for a second and took this most inconvenient chance to listen to his surroundings. The Darkness... the pure, evil, Darkness that swirling around both himself and his female fighting buddy, felt so extraordinarily... magnificent! Destiny Island was one with the Darkness itself, and after once being a beacon of Light... words were not enough to describ just how wonderful a world this place had become. Shame the Keybarer had to mess everything up with her presence being here. Her heart, the Keyblade... it was these that drew the Heartless here. Without them, this world would have plunged fully into never-ending Darkness and ultimately, could have become lost to the Light forever.

Pity...

A second later, the Remnant brought up his arm wielding the Souba, only to slice a Shadow in half that had lunged at him from the endless mass of darkness and yellow beady eyes.
"Foolish creatures... to attack one of the Darkness... one of your own in hopes to take my heart for your own greedy desires?!! Enough!! You will all bow down to ME!!!!"
Kadaj said, shouting out the last sentence as loud as he could, the muscles in his body tensing up fiercely as the young, silver-haired youth shot both his arms up into the air. Three large glowing patches appears on the floor around the Remnant in a triangle formation, and without warning, three massive pillars of flame exploded out from the ground and rocketed up into the pitch black sky. Kadaj had unleashed his Flame Pillar technique. The heat coming from the three pillars was indescribable, which only allowed the many Shadows and Neos to get caught within the large swirling torrents of flame, to have been incinerated instantly.

As the pillars of flame blasted their way high into the air, the light coming off from them only revealed the sheer trouble that Kadaj and the winged woman were in. What was once a beach and a beautiful island, was now just a massive, endless swarm of moving darkness. After casting a glance over his shoulder, the Remnant noticed that the female had gone, only a cluster of feathers left behind in her wake. So she had flew? That was all well and good for her, but the rain was still falling and odds were that the winds could pick up again. There was only one way to escape this mess the pair of warriors found themselves in. So, after the Flame Pillars had died down, the Remnant quickly continued on the offensive, seeing as how all the Shadows and Neo Shadows were coming after him now. Gripping his Souba tightly, the Remnant span on his heels in a quick 360 degree circle, cutting down the Heartless that were within reach. As he span, a bright green glow started to escape from his right forearm, a sign indicating that a spell was being cast. The green glow itself? It was a piece of Materia embedded in the Remnant's arm, which he had absorbed into himself back on Gaia during the Geostigma Crisis.

It took a second for anything to happen, but when it did, the darkness of the storm was interrupted by a large, red glow coming from the skies above. With any luck, the winged female would spot this and fly to safety to avoid taking some serious damage. Suddenly, the clouds burst apart as a massive Comet came hurtling down from outer space, heading for the ground not too far away from the Remnant himself. Kadaj, having everything already figured out in his mind, waited for the lump of space rock to get closer to the ground. When the time was right, he jumped up as high as he could, charging up a Thundaga as he did so, which he fired off into the Comet as it crashed into the ground, throwing earth and Heartless alike in every single direction. The impact was deafening and violent, as a massive area of the Heartless struggled to find their balance. As the Thundaga struck the Comet, it caused a reaction that forced the space rock to explode violently, sending Heartless, rock, earth and sand in every direction imaginable.

Breathing heavily now from having launched multipule attacks in a row, Kadaj landed back on the ground where the tree house once stood. A large open area, free of Heartless was now present, to which the silver-haired man took to his advantage, by throwing open a Dark Portal to any random world he could think of. Anywhere that wasn't here, at least. As the Portal moaned into existence, Kadaj turned and raised a palm into the air, casting a basic Fire spell up into the sky as a 'signal flare' for Selena to notice. Normally, Kadaj would have just left on his own and allowed the Keybarer to suffer along with the rest of this world, but apart from Keldric, she was the only Dark-hearted Keybarer he knew of, thus she was far more valuable to him alive then dead. His energy drained, Kadaj could only hope that the winged female could spot and reach the Portal before it closed. The Remnant himself turned to face the swirling darkness and jumped through, his presence vanishing from Destiny Island completely.

-=Kadaj had left the Thread!=-

[Deleted]

How exactly did the female keybearer of darkness mess Kadaj's plan up? Surely the swordsman had realized that the Heartless was part of the 'world taken over by Darkness' package. The Heartless were born of Darkness and yet arrive when the world has the smallest sliver of light or completely taken by the shadows. Yes, Selena attracted the Heartless because she wielded the keyblade but the woman did not consider herself a 'light' of anything. Okay, so maybe she did mess up Kadaj’s plan due to the keybearer factor but at least it wasn’t on purpose.

The winged woman quickly glanced at the silver-haired acquaintance as her ears managed to decipher the outburst despite the howling of the winds and the hisses of the Shadows. Selena quickly decided to spread her wings once again and managed to take flight to the stormy skies once more.

She had been correct about her previous assumption of the swordsman having a temper but it seemed that he channeled it through his attacks. The Flame Pillar technique had made her cautious to make sure not to get caught in its inferno and mentally noted to not to get on his bad side.

The winged keybearer quickly returned to the ground and her keyblade slashes through the Heartless that remained. Her eyes noticed that the sand and waters of the island reflected a eerie crimson glow and looked up in time to watch the comet coming towards her and the Heartless but mainly the Heartless hopefully. Instinctively, Selena dismissed her Heartsickness keyblade and shielded herself with her ebony wings by the time the swordsman cast Thundaga on the comet.

The next few moments later, the keybearer found herself landing on her back on (and covered with) the sand next to her surprisingly intact backpack that she had left behind in order to find shelter inside the now destroyed tree house. Her wings weren't broken but were most likely going to be sore the next day. Her wings 'flapped' themselves a few times to rid itself of the sand as Selena sat up and shook her head before taking four potions from the backpack itself to stuff them in her jean pocket. It was then that the dark keybearer had noticed that the Heartless were gone, possibly temporarily.

It's going to take forever to remove the sand on my wings...mentally grumbled the winged woman as she stood up and her eyes noticed the signal flare. Instantaneously, her wings spread out as Selena had taken flight again while leaving the somewhat buried backpack behind. It did not take long for her to reach the portal and flew through it. The portal disappeared a few moments later.

Selena has left the Thread

End Thread