Kingdom Hearts Fan Fiction ❯ Kingdom of Hearts: Noble Nobody ❯ Chapter 5 Heart of Darkness (Part 2) ( Chapter 5 )

Chapter 5: Heart of Darkness (Part 2)

 

~At the Burrow

 

Leon sat in the swivel chair in front of the large computer monitor his head was currently supported by his right hand while Aerith was standing behind him her hand on the back of the chair. On the screen King Mickey gazed down upon the two lovers but his face was that of total business. “So Leo agreed to try and find his heart?” asked Mickey of Leon.

 

“Yes,” replied Leon as he looked up at the king, “Cid has just sent a message earlier stating that they have arrived on the surface of the World that Never Was and that Yuffie and Leo have already gone off to look for it.” “Good,” said the king with a sigh that gave off his exhaustion. “Now we might be able to find out how to restore the others to their hearts,” said King Mickey with some relief in his voice. At least I have finally heard some good news, thought the king.

 

“Have you been able to find out what the cause of why there have been so many Heartless attacks recently?” asked Aerith of the king. “We have found something,” said the King a little reluctantly. This pronouncement caused Leon to lean forward slightly in his seat in interest and even caused Aerith to grip the seat a little bit harder.

 

“When we investigated the worlds that were attacked by the heartless we found that something had happened to the seals on each of the worlds.” “Were the seals that Sora had made weakening?” asked Leon as he leaned even further forward in the seat. “Actually,” said the King sorrowfully, “it's worse than that…the seals have been unlocked.”

 

“Unlocked?” said Aerith confused, “but how could that be?” The king sighed, “we don't know but I have a guess, and I am sure Leon probably has figured out by now what that guess is.” Leon nodded, “the only thing capable of breaking a key blade's seal is another key blade,” said the warrior darkly.

 

“Exactly,” said Mickey as he closed his eyes in order to try and not show the trouble within his heart. “But why would a key blade wielder want such a thing?” wondered Aerith out loud. “We aren't sure,” said the King as he opened his eyes once again, “but our course is clear: we need to find the ones responsible for this and put a stop to them and then try to once again seal the worlds.”

 

“We will have to find Sora and Riku again,” said Leon pointedly. “I know,” said Mickey as he gripped his forehead as if he felt a sudden headache. “But I wanted those two to try and get some rest, it feels wrong having to bring those two back so soon. After all it has only been a few months since the defeat of Xemnas and Organization XIII,” said the King.

 

“Trust me King Mickey if I know Sora he will no doubt be all too happy to be on another adventure,” said Leon with a smirk.

 

King Mickey laughed as he drew his hand back from his head, “yea I know what you mean, Donald and Goofy have been absolutely miserable since we got back from their last adventure together. No doubt they will be ecstatic to be going on another mission with Sora. But we might want to hold on for a little while until we at least know what we are up against. I don't want to bring the boys in too early and cause unnecessary problems.”

 

Leon nodded, “I trust your decisions my King. We will report back to you if we get any messages from Cid or if we can find anything on Ansem's computer which might help you in your mission.” “Alright,” said King Mickey, “see you guys later then.” With that the video screen went blank and then went back to the running lines of green code that usually marked the screen of the computer within the Burrow.

 

Aerith came over and sat down next to Leon brining her knees underneath her head, “we are going to be in big trouble again?” she asked the gun blade wielding warrior. “Looks like it,” said Leon, “but I doubt that we would need to call on Sora and Riku quite yet. The attacks haven't been totally out of control and so far the King's men have been able to clean up most of the damage.”

 

“You're worried about them aren't you?” said Aerith with a smile as she looked up at Leon who began to blush at the woman's comment. “Well the kid kind of grew on me,” said Leon with a chuckle causing Aerith to giggle at her lover.

 

~The World that Never Was

 

Leo had made it to the giant castle that he saw off in the distance, the towering white marble of the castle floated off in the distance. Leo felt himself become drawn toward the castle as if he was a piece of metal drawn to a magnet. Yuffie came up behind the young nobody panting, “I told you to slow down way back there,” said the ninja huffing. “Sorry,” muttered Leo, “I just felt myself going faster and faster and I couldn't quite hear you.”

 

Yuffie stood up and held a stitch in her side, “well at least you stopped,” said the girl. She then looked up at the white castle, “so this is where your heart is?” “I don't know,” said Leo calmly, “I just said I was attracted to it, I don't know what it means.” “Well this is as good a place as anywhere else,” said Yuffie sighing. Suddenly three dark shadows began to form behind the ninja.

 

Leo threw Yuffie to the ground just as the Heartless made their first attack, the nobody's blades appeared in his hands almost instantly he made a quick horizontal slash taking out the three that had tried to jump the young ninja. “Whew, thanks Leo,” said Yuffie as she stood. “Don't let your guard down yet,” commanded the nobody, “this is only the beginning.”

 

Sure enough several more heartless appeared, they begun to cluster as more and more began coming out of buildings out of the ground and some appeared in flashes in the sky. Soon the square was filled with over 200 heartless. “There's so many of them,” said Yuffie in shock as she swung out her giant shuriken blade, “we'll have to fight them,” said Leo grimly as he gripped his blades' hilts tightly.

 

“I was afraid of that,” said Yuffie with a nervous laugh, the Heartless seemed to bristle for the attack and suddenly they leapt at the two fighters. Yuffie leapt into the air and started flinging several throwing stars taking out a few of the oncoming Heartless. Leo leapt through the smoke of these defeated heartless his blades singing as he plowed through the Heartless mass his strike continued as he went in a straight line until he hit a rather huge Heartless with a big belly which through him into the air. Several Heartless leapt into the air, Leo turned spinning in the air as the blades connected with several of the Heartless causing them to vanish in their black smoke.

 

Two heartless came above Leo and tried to initiate their attacks but were quickly defeated when two kunai blades struck them causing them to disappear as per their idiom. Leo came down again but his blades seemed to have changed, thorns now grew out of the hilts of the blades. Leo came down causing a huge explosion as several of the Heartless flew into the air and disappeared. As the smoke cleared Leo was standing in a crater the Heartless stared at him as they maneuvered themselves around the rogue nobody.

 

They all leapt at the Nobody as the fight seemed to go into slow motion, Leo suddenly brought his blades up, the one in his right hand caught the leading Heartless in the chest causing it to disappear, his left came around in a back handed swing taking off two of the Heartless' heads. Going with the swing Leo leapt into the air twirling his blades as he did so causing even more heartless to fall.

 

As the teen continued into the air several more heartless came after him, as they leapt up to meet him however the ground underneath Leo exploded as thorns came up and struck the creatures. More fell away as Leo now stood upon a mound of thorns staring upon the Heartless with a cold look that would freeze most men in their tracks. As he gazed over the battle though he saw that Yuffie was now much closer to the castle and was actually at the front steps of the massive structure. He also saw that she was in real danger so leaping down to the ground he took several more Heartless out with his blades.

 

Leo battled his way over to the ninja who was now trying to fend off several of the creatures at once, when all of a sudden two of the heartless leapt and drove their claws into the young ninja's back causing her to cry out in pain. “Yuffie!” cried Leo in shock, he sprinted forward as he slashed his way to the young ninja, Yuffie collapsed upon the ground as several more heartless jumped on top of her.

 

Leo's blades struck and batted the heartless away from the young ninja; Leo leaned down and gripped Yuffie's unconscious body in his arms. Picking up her head Leo gazed down on her, Leo felt a pain race through his chest. “She still has her heart,” said Leo quietly as he held her in his arms, he wasn't sure why he said it or why he sounded so sure but he knew.

 

The heartless whom had backed away from the warrior's previously vicious onslaught were now gathering around the two. They bristled themselves for the attack against the young gray headed nobody and his unconscious friend. Leo's eyes were totally in shadow at this point.

 

The Heartless leapt forward just when Leo looked up his eyes filled with a terrible rage, suddenly the ground around the two erupted as debris flew around the two. A green aura pulsed around the Nobody as the marble crumbled and fell away a humongous flower erupted from the ground rocketing the two to the top of the castle. As the two were lifted off by the large plant several heartless leapt upon the flower's leaves and stalk and began climbing up to the two.

 

Leo held out his hand and the flower started to grow thorns which lashed and destroyed the ascending Heartless while annihilating most of those still present on the ground. The Heartless were still not deterred and several more continued on with the ascending of the massive stalk.

 

Leo gripped Yuffie just as the stalk reached the summit of the castle, picking up the young ninja Leo leapt from the stalk and landed softly upon the ground, right before the stone steps which lead to the uppermost room of the castle. Turning around Leo saw that several of the Heartless had managed to make it to the top. The Heartless reached out toward the young man when suddenly the stalk shuddered and disintegrated right underneath the Heartless.

 

The shadowy monsters began falling their yellow eyes looked up at Leo as they fell the many stories to the ground; their bodies spinning hopelessly in the air before they impacted the ground leaving nothing but smoke in their defeat.

 

Leo gazed upon the scene of destruction far below him he then turned his attention back to the girl in his arms. Blood dripped from his hands where the gash on the back of the young ninja had bleed down and tainted his hands. Settling the ninja onto the ground face down Leo prayed that he wasn't too late, he knelt over the girl and place his hands upon her back and concentrated. His aura flared as he poured his energy into the young woman. As he concentrated the young ninja's gash slowly but surely closed up as the blood began to dry.

 

Soon the wound had healed itself and Leo watched Yuffie with bated breath hoping for some sort of sign from the young girl. Suddenly Yuffie gasped and her eyes fluttered open, picking herself up shakily she muttered, “what hit me?” She then spotted Leo, the young nobody had tears falling heavily from his eyes the young nobody tried to wipe them away quickly but he was too late.

 

“Leo…”mumbled Yuffie quietly, “Idiot,” muttered Leo with a small hiccup, “don't do that to me again.” “Hey,” said Yuffie as she reached up and brushed Leo's cheek, “that's my line,” said the ninja with a small smile causing Leo to snort. The two then turned their attention back to the steps before them. The two nodded as Leo helped Yuffie up and letting her lean on his shoulder he and the young ninja ascended the steps.

 

The two found themselves in a strange room: there were several doors that seemed to open into nothing but all of the ones to the side were closed except for one door dead center of the room. The central door was at the top of the stairs the entrance was completely black and seemed to open to nothingness.

 

As Leo gazed upon the door he felt a shock go through his body, Yuffie feeling the shudder turned her head to look at the young nobody. “Is that where your heart is Leo?” questioned the young ninja. Leo nodded, “call Cid, get him to come and pick you up,” said the gray headed nobody as he stared at the door with apprehension. “I'm coming with you Leo. We are in this together aren't we?” said Yuffie with a small smile. Leo shook his head as he let go of Yuffie letting her stand on her own shaky legs, “no, this is my fight, please Yuffie I don't want to have you hurt again,” begged Leo with pain in his eyes.

 

The young ninja sighed, “I guess it can't be helped then,” she said she then looked away as Leo ascended the stairs to the door. “Hey,” said Yuffie just as Leo had made it to the doorway causing the young nobody to look back at her, “you still have to spar me so don't you dare die!” called out the ninja as she looked up at him. Leo gave her the thumbs up and then entered the doorway.

 

Yuffie sighed and then grabbed her cell phone and dialed up Cid, “yea?” said the gruff voice of the pilot on the second ring. “I need a pick up Cid think you can make it up here?”

 

~On the other side of the door

 

Leo stepped out on a strange platform the thing seemed to be floating in space with nothing supporting it whatsoever unsure, Leo looked back only to found that the doorway had vanished. Sighing Leo turned around and then was greeted with a strange sight, a throne had suddenly materialized out of nowhere and on it was sitting a figure in a black cloak with their face covered by a hood.

 

The figure rose from the throne and as he did so Leo raised his blades in preparation from an attack. Instead the figure brought their hands up and pushed their hood back revealing their face. Leo's blades dropped to his side as he stared in shock at the figure, “Hello…brother,” said the figure. Leo gazed in shock at the face of a man who was only in his dreams or so he thought, “Riku…” muttered Leo.

 

The two twin brothers gazed at each other across the expansive platform, the calm green eyes of Riku meeting with confused and shocked brown eyes of Leo.