Chapter 16 - Flight of the Dragoon

“Demyx!? What are you doing here!?” Roxas drew back, shocked by the very sight of his ex-colleague.
“There’s no need to be so rude, Roxas! The only reason I’m here is to say hi.” Demyx lightly answered, acting laid back as always.
“But you ... you were erased a while ago!” Roxas argued back to him, confused by Demyx’s presence. “Sora erased you!”
“Well I‘ve returned, that’s all that matters.” Demyx replied cheerfully, showing his innocence.
“Wait, you can’t just come back, Demyx! From what I know, it’s impossible for a Nobody to revive after erasure!” Roxas explained to him, his voice began to echo round the room as he tried to contradict Demyx’s existence.
Demyx chuckled, “Well, it looks like I defied the physics of a Nobody. And besides, what about you? You were erased a while back as well, weren’t you?” Demyx pleasantly argued back, his voice grew somewhat horribly louder as it echoed.
“I never did get erased, I returned to Sora’s body. The reason I’m back is because he lost his life, and now his Heartless is being controlled by Number XV: Xaphire!” Roxas explained cautiously, feeling an eerie aura entering the atmosphere around him.
“Hold on, Xaphire’s still around!? Wow, that guy must be made of steel!” Demyx commented, crossing his arms with an impressed-like smirk across his face.
“Let’s just keep to the subject! You cannot just defy the physics of erasure, no one can!” Roxas refused not to go off the topic until he gains the truth of Demyx’s existence.
“Just chill, Roxas! Nothing is impossible these days.” Demyx shrugged, trying to keep his cool.
Roxas suddenly saw something dark glint in Demyx’s eyes just a nanosecond before he blinked.
“But there are always explanations for the possible. So tell me the truth, Demyx! How are you still able to exist after you were erased!?” Roxas yelled at him, he was beginning to be frustrated with Demyx stirring his answers so the truth doesn’t surface. Roxas knew something wasn’t right about Demyx’s presence.
“Calm down Roxas, you’re going to bring this place down with your temper.” Demyx jokingly warned him.
“STOP TAKING THE MICK, DEMYX! TELL ME THE TRUTH!” Roxas roared, finally losing his patience.
At that moment, Roxas’ two Keyblades appeared in his grasps. The Oblivion Keyblade rose towards Demyx’s direction, showing that Roxas was at the point of threatening Demyx to receive the truth. Demyx just stood there calmly, gazing at Roxas with no expression across his face. Suddenly, dark mist began to seep out of his eyes and mouth. Darkness filled his eyes completely to the point that his whole eyes were pitch-black. He now began to talk in a whispery, eerie voice.
“I am a fragment of your memory, taken by this Castle and created into reality. You are to be tested for survival in order to escape this world.” Demyx spoke out, his voice echoed throughout the room.
“So that was what the symbols had meant! We have to be tested in different areas!” Roxas realised, finally figuring out what the symbols and the statement had meant.
Well ... most of it.
“I’m really lost here, what is going on?” Riku finally spoke out, all this time he did not understand a thing of what Roxas and Demyx was talking about.
“You would have understood if you still had your memory.” Roxas commented with a small smirk. “Riku, be ready with your-!”
Suddenly, Roxas had been thrown back against a wall by a powerful gush of water. He fell to the floor the moment it stopped, wheezing heavily from the shock of how unexpected that attack hid been. Demyx had summoned his unique Sitar and began to strum it with a pick. Darkness continuously flowing out of his jet black eyes, he had them fixed onto Roxas. He was the target. Roxas swiftly leapt to his feet and instantly began to sprint towards Demyx, being wary of the next attack.
Demyx suddenly yelled out, “Dance, Water, Dance!” in a loud gurgling, whispery voice.
Roxas caught sight of Demyx’s water clones appearing from every direction, spinning uncontrollable around him. Roxas swiftly halted to a stop and braced himself for the incoming attack. Unexpectedly, all the clones collided straight into Roxas from every direction. His whole body was thrown upwards towards the ceiling, his whole body spinning uncontrollably. He took a moment to gain the bearings of his area and immediately gained control of his own body. But, Demyx was one step ahead of him. Demyx sent himself flying into the air until he was leveled face to face with Roxas; he strummed his Sitar at an immense pace and summoned water-jets into Roxas from all sides. Roxas’ body smashed to the floor due to the insane force from the jets. He weakly rose to his feet, struggling to gain centre of balance. He took in a deep breath and leaped back into the air. Demyx used his water-jets to strike Roxas like a torpedo. Roxas caught sight of the incoming attacks and swiftly evaded, the water-jets just narrowly missing him. He instantly struck his Keyblades against Demyx as he shot past, catching Demyx off-guard. Demyx lost control of his body as he flew and collided into the nearby wall. Shaking his head, he took no time at all to immediately turn and launch himself off the wall back into the battle. Roxas braced himself for what was next.
Demyx once again bellowed out, “Dance, Water, Dance!!!” in his croaky, whispery voice.
Orbs of water suddenly appeared above Demyx that were the larger than basketballs. Within a second, they shot towards Roxas at an alarming speed. Roxas swiftly retaliated and parried most of the orbs, but one managed to hit him squarely on the forehead. He crashed to the ground and lifelessly rolled to the other side of the corridor, completely unconscious. Demyx lowered to the ground, his feet tapping the floor upon contact. Unexpectedly, Riku struck him on the back with his Keyblade, causing Demyx to lose his footing and toppling over on the floor. Demyx swiftly leapt to his feet and switched to Riku, appearing oddly amused.
“The boy with no memory … Let’s see if you can actually wield that thing, shall we?” Demyx chuckled horribly, smirking as dark mist continued to flow from his eyes and mouth. “Rock on!”
“I know I can use my Keyblade better than you can use that ridiculous instrument of yours.” Riku mocked him, strengthening his grasp on his weapon as he prepared to clash.
Demyx gasped, “How dare you mock my music!” He spat in his gurgling voice, showing that he was insulted by Riku’s remark.
Riku swiftly leapt out of the way as Demyx strummed his Sitar once again, water-jets narrowly missing Riku’s body. Riku retaliated and swiftly leaped for an uppercut, but Demyx span to the side just before contact. Riku span and stuck towards Demyx instantly. Demyx instantly blocked it with the Sitar, and swiftly strummed the instrument. Water suddenly collided into Riku and threw him out the way.
“Blizzaga!” A voice suddenly roared from behind Demyx.
Demyx turned in retaliation as swiftly as he could but it was no use. He froze on the spot. Roxas tread towards the frozen Demyx and gazed at him.
“There was always one problem with your music; it always froze when it was cold.” Roxas stated coolly.
He raised his Oathkeeper Keyblade towards Demyx’s frozen body and pierced it. The Ice cracked the moment the Keyblade struck and shattered in mere seconds. Demyx fell lifelessly to his knees, his Sitar disappeared from his grasp.
“You sneak! You only pretended to be knocked out.” Demyx grunted in his low whispery voice, wheezing as he struggled to breath, “Man, that smarts!”
“Don’t bother complaining. You were always the weakest within the Organization.”Roxas snarled at him. “I have no idea why Xaphire had used you against me.”
“Heh heh … if you put it that way, then I must be a warm up to Xaphire’s game of tricks.” Demyx whispered back.
“What do you mean?” Roxas curiously wondered.
“I’m most likely not the only one you’ll be facing off against.” Demyx struggled to explain.
At that moment, Demyx’s body began to fade away.
“Arh man, not again!” He screamed out.
He disappeared.
“So, there’s more or you, is there?” Roxas moaned under his breath, gazing at the area were Demyx disappeared.
“You know … I feel sorry for that guy.” Riku admitted unexpectedly.
“What!? Why? During my time in the Organization; all I saw him do was complain, lie back on a sofa and do nothing at all!” Roxas argued back.
“He sounded like he didn’t really want to fight at all.” Riku calmly shrugged. “As though all he wanted was peace and quiet.”
There was a moment of silence at that point between the two of them. Roxas gazed towards where Demyx disappeared, starting to realise what Riku meant.
“I guess you’re right about that, fighting was never his forte. But then again, he was only a fragment of my memory, and he was just a Nobody so he only pretended.” Roxas sighed, rubbing the light bump on his forehead.
“He seemed to me like more than ‘only a fragment of memory’ and more than ‘just a Nobody’ to me.” Riku commented, crossing his arms.
“Well, if that’s how you see it, that’s fine by me.” Roxas shrugged in a bored manner. “But we need to press on.”
They began to head over to the doors on the opposite side of the door they entered in and opened the set of doors the moment they reached them. On the other side of these doors, they caught sight of what seemed to be an arena. There were lit torches placed on various stands around the arena itself, giving it a magnificent orange glow. There were another set of doors on the other end of the arena. Roxas and Riku swiftly nodded to each other and headed down a flight of stairs towards the glowing arena. The moment when Roxas placed a foot on the arena’s sandy ground; a Dark portal instantly appeared close in their sight. Another hooded man in the Organization cloak appeared; he was fairly muscular and taller than Demyx had been. Roxas held out his Oblivion Keyblade towards the cloaked Organization member, ready to clash blades.
“Show yourself!” He commanded, cautious not to show any opening and weak points.
“Such a strong command ... from such a weak child.” The member deeply chuckled as he slowly threw back his hood.
“Xaldin, I knew it was you!” Roxas cheekily admitted, giving off a cheesy smile that could match Sora’s own.
“So you were expecting me? After Demyx’s poor performance, I guess I must show you how a true man fights.” Xaldin shrugged with a calm voice, whispers beginning to appear In his voice.
“What, with your cooking knives!? Come on, the last time you’ve slain anything properly had been the Christmas turkey!” Roxas cheekily mocked.
“So I was right; you are still the weak, pathetic child that I knew.” Xaldin spat in his whispery voice.
His eyes suddenly turned pitch-black, a lot faster than Demyx had done, and the dark mist began to seep through his eyes and mouth. He began to raise his arms apart and his six Lances flew to his sides, grabbing three of them while the other three stopped and suspended in mid-air. Roxas grasped onto his Keyblades tighter and Riku got himself ready to strike. But at that moment, Xaldin threw his arm towards Riku’s position and a gust of wind took Riku by surprise, throwing him out of the arena and colliding against the wall. Once he was out of the way, an invisible barrier appeared and enclosed around the whole arena. This meant Roxas was trapped inside the arena and Riku could not intervene the fight.
“Riku!” Roxas called out to him.
There was a small grunt from outside the arena.
Roxas then turned to Xaldin, “Why did you do that!?”
“It wouldn’t have been fair if it had been two against one, so I decided to level out the playing field.” Xaldin shrugged, not caring at all.
“It was our three weapons against your six!” Roxas argued back. “You had the advantage!”
“I do not count weapons.” Xaldin stated calmly.
Roxas sighed, trying to think on what to do. It wasn’t too long until an idea popped up in his head.
“Well then, maybe I should even this fight out a bit more.”
Roxas then crouched down and crossed his arms, covering his face. His muscles began to tense up as power drew into his body. Within a second, a bright, light aura began to engulf his body, continuously getting brighter. Xaldin watched the process, waiting patiently to end. After a short, swift moment, Roxas threw his arms and legs out and shut his eyes tight, his teeth clenched together. The room filled up with the blinding aura and took a few moments to die down, revealing Roxas in his Final Form. His two Keyblades span around him at a calm pace.
“Well this is new.” Xaldin chuckling in his whispery voice, showing a slight surprise.
“I’ll show that I can beat you at your own game!” Roxas proudly bellowed out to him, clenching his fists tightly so that he was ready to clash.
“Acting tough isn’t going to get you anywhere.” Xaldin warned in a threatening tone, his whispery voice horrifically echoing the stadium.
At that moment, Xaldin swiftly threw his arms in front, pointing towards Roxas’ direction. His Lances reacted to his command, flying towards their target at a blinding speed. Roxas had no time to think, he swiftly slid out of the way of the Lances, just narrowly slicing the fabric of his left sleeve. Roxas then instantly leaped towards Xaldin, aiming for a vital opening in his body. He swiftly threw his arms to command his Keyblades on striking Xaldin, concentrating on his attack. But Xaldin was able to summon his Lances just in time to parry the attack. All weapons clashed against each other in an all-out frenzy, metal ricocheting against each other as it echoed around the arena. Roxas rapidly drew back his two Keyblades, trying to gather his thoughts. Then, with no time to spare, both Xaldin and Roxas flew in for a close clash. Both face to face as they passed each other, Keyblades and Lances flying and ricocheting all around them. Roxas halted his movement in the air and span his body round, Xaldin swiftly did the same. Both now facing each other once again, Xaldin threw out both his arms in command and all six lances suddenly few to his hands. He spun them at a fierce speed and a huge gust of wind had been summoned into the arena. Roxas attempted to dodge this attack but got caught up by the winds strong force; he got thrown back against the invisible barrier, his back smashing against the barrier as though it was a brick wall. He fell to the ground of the arena but swiftly recovered just inches above the floor. In retaliation, he threw his right arm horizontally across as a command and the Oblivion Keyblade flew in to strike Xaldin. Xaldin easily threw one of his Lances to parry the oncoming Keyblade, feeling like it was nothing to him.
“Come on, Roxas, that was pathetic!” Xaldin roared in a now gurgling voice. “Are you even trying!?”
What he didn’t realise was that Roxas planned that to happen. To Xaldin’s surprise, Roxas abruptly appeared behind him from out of nowhere and swiftly struck with an uppercut. It caught Xaldin completely off-guard and sent him flying up high into the air. Roxas took no time to hesitate and launched himself towards Xaldin. Upon level with him, Roxas instantly vertically span sideways, both Keyblades flew round and struck into Xaldin from Roxas’ command. Xaldin was sent flying to the ground, but was abruptly caught by the clash of the Oathkeeper Keyblade as Roxas instantly appeared again towards the left. Xaldin collided against the invisible barrier, completely dazed from Roxas’ frenzy of attacks. But Roxas wasn’t finished. He appeared again face to face with Xaldin and struck him with a powerful kick to the side. Oddly, echoes of whispery chuckles filled the arena. At that moment, unexpectedly, Xaldin recovered and halted his movement. In his retaliation, he sent Roxas against the invisible barrier, his grasp on Roxas’ neck. He then caught one of his many Lances that were hovering by his side and attempted to strike Roxas down. Roxas swiftly caught his Oblivion Keyblade from mid-air beside him and parried to prevent the attack. The weapons ricocheted against each other; both Xaldin and Roxas used as much force as they could to overcome each other. Roxas was able to brush of Xaldin’s grasp but he continued to force his Keyblade against the Lance. Roxas was at the point where had his feet against the barrier to offer himself stable support and extra strength, but Xaldin’s might was beginning to over-power his own. Roxas swiftly changed his motive and slid out of the way to avoid the Lance and dropped to the floor. Roxas prevented himself from colliding to the ground due to his hover ability. He noticed Xaldin point at him from above, commanding his Lances to strike once again. Roxas had no time to hesitate; he shot out of the way as Lances began to strike. He zigzagged his way around the arena as the Lances continuously struck and narrowly missed him. Xaldin flew to his Lances and grasped hold of them. Roxas halted to a stop and gazed at Xaldin’s weird change of movement. The Lances suddenly gathered and joined together to create some sort of large Dragon-looking figure. Roxas caught sight of Xaldin leaping on top of the Dragon-like Lances and rode on top of it with ease. Roxas watched carefully, he had seen this attack before. Xaldin rode the Dragon-like Lances as it circled the arena. Xaldin then rose swiftly towards the ceiling and the Front Lance switched to point downwards towards Roxas’ position. At that moment, three other Lance appeared and attached onto the Front Lance. Light began to shine on the tips of the Lances, continuously glowing brighter. Roxas knew what was about to come next.
“Fear the Dragoon’s Breath!” Xaldin bellowed under his gurgling voice, proudly laughing as the Lances continued to charge up power.
A tornado began to rapidly spin from the Lances tips and directed straight towards the middle of the arena, where Roxas was currently positioned in his hovering stance. Roxas knew that even if he tried, he would not be able to evade the incoming attack. The tornado struck to the floor, colliding into its desired target. Roxas had been engulfed in the attack, yet he was prepared for this. Xaldin watched and the tornado took out the whole arena, laughing and amused by the destruction. But that suddenly stopped. He noticed that Roxas was unharmed from the attack; instead he was engulfed by a very bright barrier with Hexagon shapes linked all around his body. Roxas had cast Reflega.
“Time for the Dragoon to fall, Xaldin!” Roxas roared proudly.
He threw his arms towards Xaldin’s position and a blinding ray of light suddenly sped straight towards the target from the barrier. Xaldin tried to dodge but it was far too late. Xaldin had been caught up by the intense light ray. The ray was so strong that it destroyed the barrier shielding the arena completely. The barrier shattered into pieces as it was blown away from the attack. Riku shielded himself as tiny shards of the barrier flew in his direction. The light ray finally died down and Xaldin fell lifelessly to the floor. His Lances all disappeared at the moment when he hit the ground of the arena.
“N-never thought y-you could produce an attack that strong …” Xaldin stuttered as he gazed up towards the towering Roxas.
“I will be honest; I’m only beginning to find out what my powers are capable of.” Roxas chuckled.
His body reverted back to his original form.
“Tch! You’re still such a child!” Xaldin spat distastefully.
“How would you know, you’re just a fragment of my memories.” Roxas tiredly argued, gazing down on him like a piece of garbage.
“Is that what Demyx had told! HA! We are more than just memory fragments!” Xaldin roared with pride. “You’ll see very soon …”
His body had then been engulfed by the Darkness and disappeared from sight, his laughs still echoing the arena as he left.
Roxas gazed oddly, “What does that mean?”
Roxas then switched round and noticed Riku running up towards him.
“That was crazy!” Riku shouted out to him as he halted to a stop.
“Heh heh. Sorry you couldn’t join in.” Roxas lightly joked, smiling pleasantly. “I wonder who would be next to fight? My guess it that it maybe Xigbar; seeing as it’s going in the order of the last six members that were erased.” He then wondered.
“I don’t really know who that is … but it would be best to rest first though; we might get a fight that’s stronger than this one, especially as you used that transformation of yours just now.” Riku warned Roxas cautiously.
“Nah, I’ll be fine.” Roxas assured him happily.
Roxas began to head towards the doors that entered the next area. Riku followed from behind but was wary of Roxas’s condition, feeling that they were not prepared for what’s about to come. There was a moment of silence between the two, both thinking of different things. This was broken by Roxas.
“Riku, is any of your memories returning to you?” Roxas wondered curiously.
“Nothing has come up.” Riku sadly answered, shaking his head.
“That’s a pain.” Roxas murmured. “I thought it was a good idea of me to check on that.”
They grasped hold of a handle each and nodded to each other, ready to enter through the doors. They pushed the doors, only to be caught off-guard as the doors threw themselves open. Roxas straightened himself up and helped Riku to his feet as he had fallen to the floor. The Room they had entered in had been completely pitch-black. There was no light in the distance meaning that both Roxas and Riku were unable to judge how large the room had been. Roxas noticed the set of doors slam shut from behind them, causing the light that was left to vanish from the room entirely.
“Xaphire is going to have to install some light in these rooms. This is just getting ridiculous!” Roxas pleasantly yet loudly joked, hearing his voice echo all around him.
All of a sudden, the whole floor instantly turned into molten rock; catching fire to both Riku and Roxas’s feet. The floor became a circular molten arena. Within seconds, fire rose around the edges of the arena, but the walls and ceiling were still unable to be seen.
“WOAH!!! PUT IT OUT, PUT IT OUT, PUT IT OUT!!!” Riku screamed loudly, running around the place as his feet continued to burn.
But Roxas just stood there, staring in front and began to breathe heavily. He was unharmed by the heat and the molten rock covering the floor. But, it was what this indicated shocked Roxas to the core.
“No ... No it can’t ... it can’t be!” Roxas worriedly moaned; his eyes wide with sudden realisation and shock.
A Dark Portal began to appear towards the centre of the arena. A slim, tall, cloaked figure strode out from the Darkness inside.
“I won’t ... I won’t ...” Roxas began to shake violently, shaking his head in denial.
The man halted to a stop, he threw back his hood to reveal his identity. But Roxas didn’t need to be shown to know who this figure was.
“I WON’T FIGHT YOU, AXEL!!!” Roxas roared.

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