World Refugees Final Mix

It had taken some time and a lot of work, but Aya came prepared with more than just herself. Not only had she rounded up what crew she could track down but she had gone above and beyond, seeking out those capable of lending a hand. A dozen world's Denizens of Light were here, meaning at least a dozen world's heroes were around here. Gradually, they began to show up in the large square before the castle, directed there by Aya.

Hercules was there. As was Prince Phillup. Mulan with Mushu perched atop a shoulderpad. The Radiant Garden Restoration Committee. Howl. Jack Sparrow and William Turner. Aladdin. Jack Skellington. Balthier and Fran.

And yes, Balthazar, a student of Merlin with an uncanny resemblance to Nicholas Cage.

The end result was an all-out blitz that buffered the infiltration teams from the bulk of the Heartless employed to guard the place. Chernabog too, even, if he could reach them. All in all, Aya looked pretty damn pleased with herself as she strode through the halls with the other keyblade users. Things were looking up! Heck, even those damn head voices had shut themselves up while she was working.

"It's kind of sad." she remarks aloud, "I don't know Terra, Ven, and Aqua so well, not like the other Refs did. So they don't know who I am either, it seems." She shrugged a little and tightened her grip upon her unusual weapon, the Spine.

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"Y'know..." Aria started, having caught Aya's remark. "Most of us didn't really get to know them that well either."

Terra avoided them (probably because he thought they were nuts) but, she didn't know why Aqua and Ven were scarce or even if it was intentional.

She absently fiddled with her tiki-torch fire staff as she walked. It wasn't an ideal weapon but, it would have to do.

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"Really? Kind of a shame, but maybe it's for the best. Y'know, so we don't wind up messing up their stuff too much. Good luck to them. Maybe they'll run into Xehanort."

Aya thought back to her rather unhelpful vision of Xehanort she grabbed earlier. It really didn't give any clues to location so she really couldn't say if he was in here with them or not. "I'm bettin' they'll definitely want a stab at him." Meanwhile, Aya pushed a little bit ahead of the group, confident enough in her toughness that she could take point. Part of her really just wanted to show off since it'd been well over a year since these guys had seen her fight.

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Further down the hallways, hidden in shadow, was a single guard patrolling the floor. He was flanked by a Heartless and a Nobody - a Zip Slasher and a Miner - and he was heading straight toward the group.

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Having taken point, Aya was the first to spy the Heartless and guard-and also the first to react. A grin spread across her face and she advanced, "Alright let's get this show on the road-"

She stumbled a little, her face pulling into a frown, teeth gritted.

In an instant, her good mood was gone. Infuriated, she took out her irritation on the Nobody ahead, being slightly familiar with the 'Miner' type and even recognizing it as one of Koios's personal Nobodies. It did make her wonder a little if he was being full of it earlier and had no intention of allying with her. "Shut up!" She blurted out, driving the point of the Spine at the miner.

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thirteenth_brat

Roxas shook his head at the stumble. Apparently Aya didn't quite have everything together yet. As long as she could fight, though, it wouldn't be a problem. After a small debate, went for the other figure. It wasn't a Heartless or a Nobody and while he knew from experience that Zip Slashers were nasty little pieces of work, he was pretty sure the Refugees could handle them. This other figure, though, seemed to be commanding the Heartless and the Nobody both. That didn't bode well.

'Not that anything ever does bode well for us,' he thought with a certain amount of bitterness.

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Aria frowned at the Zip Slasher. It wasn't a type of Heartless she had much experience with.

She squawked when it lunged at her. It was lucky that her staff stood up to its attack. She'd never really used it for blocking much before.

Luckily they had a tendency to pause after attacking. Unfortunately she only managed to give it one good thunk with the staff before it was attacking again...

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The Miner made a quick dodge, letting Aya's momentum carry her behind it before turning, glass-tipped pickax driving upward in a smooth arc.

The Zip Slasher spun in retaliation, blades flashing green. It took but a second to reorient itself before lunging once more.

Upon noticing the Keyblade in the boy's hand, the guard froze, eyes narrowed. He'd expected that Sora's friends would come for him sooner or later, but never this quickly. It should have taken them longer to figure out where he was being held... unless someone had betrayed them. He glared at the group before turning to run and alert the other guards on the floor, leaving the Miner and Zip Slasher in charge for now.

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thirteenth_brat

"Hey!" Roxas dashed after the guy, cursing under his breath. The last thing they needed was for the enemy to send for back up.

Of course, another reason to follow the guy was that doing so could, hopefully, help in locating Sora.

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Aya was pretty curious about that guard too. Was he human?

She was quick to swing herself around when her target suddenly sidestepped on her, having been confronted with this kind of evasion before. Her weapon swung with her in a wide and strong swipe, intercepting the pickaxe before it could knock her upward and swatting it aside.

Not one to waste close quarters, she swung her other hand in, curled into a fist, to punch the Nobody in its approximation of a head.

"Roxas!" she called out, following up her punch with an upward swipe of the Spine, "Don't run off without us!"

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"Roxas!" Aria called almost the same instant as Aya.

The Zip Slasher occupied her enough that she couldn't try to follow him right away. She didn't know if it would but, she was pissed off enough to see if Stop would work on their opponents.

She gathered the energy for a Stopga while blocking the Zip slasher's latest attack and released it when it paused. Hopefully the spell's range was enough to get the Miner as well. If the things weren't immune it would make this battle much easier...

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Time stopped around the Heartless and Nobody alike.

The guard, however, remained unaffected, and continued his retreat. He raced around a corner and his comrades came into clear view, obviously startled by his sudden appearance.

"Intruders," he shouted at them. "They've come for the boy! Call the Heartless and Nobodies; we'll need reinforcements!"

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The Nobody froze in place in front of her. Aya, being a reasonable person, did what any reasonable person would do and kicked the stopped Miner over before running off after Roxas and that guard.

She slid around the corner, skidding to a stop and took in the appearance of what was now multiple guards. Aya lifted a hand to point at the group and chanted, her words coming out breathless and raspy with the exception of the final command: "Blizzaga!"

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"Man, am I glad to see you guys," Sora exclaimed, looking curiously at the incapacitated guards. "Where are we?"

A sudden roar shook Alexandria to its core. Chernabog was furious. Someone, somewhere, had initiated an attack. Heartless and Nobodies everywhere suddenly rose from their watchful stances and immediately set about retaliating. No one was safe, no matter if they were involved in the attack; every Denizen of Light was a potential victim. Chernabog himself joined the offensive, striking down buildings and sending innocent lives flying.

The castle shuddered. "What's going on?" Sora demanded, summoning his Keyblade to his hand.

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thirteenth_brat

Why was Roxas not surprised that Sora was clueless? Besides the fact that clueless was a common state for Sora.

In any case, he seemed not only to be unharmed, but ready to fight. This was helpful, considering the ruckus. What to do, though? They could go and deal with Chernabog, who was likely killing anyone still hanging around outside, or go find the other search party.

Briefly, Roxas filled Sora in on what he'd missed, what was going on and what their options were. This was followed by one of Sora's more insightful moments as he pointed out the fact that they had a fairly large party and might be able to afford to split up.

"All right then..." Roxas agreed, a bit reluctantly, "Fine. Who's gonna go play with the evil god and who's gonna go find the others?"

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"This is a shadow mirror world of a place called Alexandria. Jagannatha created it as a place to imprison all of the Denizens of Light that exist." Aya said quickly, returning her Aledebaran pistol to the holster strapped at the small of her back. She'd taken care to just kneecap the guards rather than go for headshots since they were both trickier and she didn't want to completely traumatize Sora here.

Roxas pretty much filled Sora in on everything else. Aya seemed to zone out a little, distracted by the pulsing sense of extreme danger rattling around her skull, a still-lingering side effect of the fear-curse she was struck with several Star Markets ago.

"I'll take the demon." She said grimly, taking off to look for a balcony or window of any kind. Her now free hand dove down beneath her shirt, tugging a necklace out from underneath. "I'll catch up later, got it?" If I live through this. she thought.

The necklace tugged free revealed a small yellow jewel caged in metal threaded through the chain. Aya's hand closed around it and immediately intricate moving circles etched in light appeared, rotating around her feet. "Lord of storms, come to my aid."

Yellow light poured from the gem and the smell of ozone filled the air. "QUETZALCOATL!" Another large flash of light appeared right outside the window as a sleek-looking feathered serpent appeared, form wreathed in lightning. With little hesitation, Aya leaped from the window and onto the summon.

She gave the Keybearers and Aria a salute. "Wish me luck!"

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"Yeah... luck. I'm just gonna look for the others." Aria really didn't think she was up to messing with the evil god at the moment.

Of course now she had to go back up all of those stairs since there wasn't really a better way back into the city from way down here unless one could fly.

She grumbled a bit and waited to see what the others were going to do.

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Chernabog turned to face the summon and its rider with a scowl that could crumble mountains. There were the challengers. Here they came, coming to face him at last, rather than attacking his underlings. The ground rumbled with his fury. Heartless, taking this as the signal to move, leaped into the skies to stop them.

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Aya shuddered a little on the inside at how quickly she got Chernabog's attention. Then again, riding in on a summon derived from an Aztec deity would turn a few heads. "Hope your watching this, Koios." Aya murmured. As she approached, lightning began to dance amongst the thick black clouds overhead, dull and distant flashes at first.

At the base of her vision, Aya could see a black mass lifting like smoke though only as it all drew closer did she realize that it was a teeming mass of Heartless rising at Chernabog's command. Quetzalcoatl screeched at their approach and Aya tightened her one-handed grip on the creature's bumpy scales. "Wait for it." she cautioned.

The Heartless drew closer, spaces between them rapidly shrinking, blotting out the ground. Still the pair flew forward, ever moving towards Chernabog himself. Thunder rumbled overhead, the natural consequence of lightning.

"Not yet..."

Seconds passed and Aya could hear them now, the faint whispy chittering their movements made. Blank yellow eyes peered up at her and shadow wings beat furiously.

"NOW!"

At Quetzalcoatl's command, lighting rained from the sky in massive chaotic blasts, ripping through the thickly concentrated masses of flying Heartless. The pair flew, spinning and squirming through the chaos, even diving right at Chernabog's forehead at one point only to abruptly swerve away. The electric deluge lasted for a solid minute, accompanied by earth-shaking peals of thunder before dying down.

"Good, good." Aya whispered to her summon, pushing her body down flat against the hide of her mount. "Now let's get in close again."

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A thundering bellow sounded throughout Alexandria the attack faded away. Chernabog now moved to face Aya and Quetzalcoatl fully, and as the few Heartless that survived the initial massacre stubbornly kept after them, one giant hand stretched out to grab them from the sky, Darkness teeming from the demon's skin. They had made the extent of their threat known. Such arrogance from a mortal creature. It would have to be extinguished.

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It would have been a nice opportunity to admire the devastation wrought by the lightning-inclined summon but Aya knew better. Did she ever know better. The pair kept moving, Quetzalcoatl spiraling through the air with grace befitting of a serpent. While there was no doubt each turn and swerve was done to avoid a swooping Heartless, their path inexorably drew them closer and closer to Chernabog himself.

Arrogance indeed. Aya resolved that if this was to be her finest hour; her final battle, then damn it she'd go out with the defiance that made her infamous.

She saw the gigantic hand coming and immediately pushed up onto her heels, reverting to a one-handed grip on her mythical mount. "BREAK!"

Quetzalcoatl dove downward, Aya jumped upward, forcing the demon to "choose" between two targets. At least it seemed like a choice for while the summon peeled off to evade, Aya leaped willingly at the outstretched grasp. Her left arm pulled back and, as she fell to meet the dark god, thrust it forward to forcefully eject the Spine from the Ryan-engineered subspace pocket built into the fingerless glove she wore.

Howling like a barbarian, she stabbed the Spine deeply into the demon's palm as its fingers closed around her.

In the meantime, Quetzalcoatl found himself beseiged with the remaining flying heartless, immediately mobbed by black winged forms. As they latched onto him, he spun and writhed to forcefully whip them off his body. Any that dared to get close enough to his face were promptly bitten.

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While the Spine bit deep, the only sign of discomfort Chernabog deigned to show was a mere tightening of his fist around Aya. Darkness poured from the wound in waves. As his grip continued to tighten, the demon's intent became excruciatingly clear: he was going to crush her, and the serpent would follow shortly.

All at once, a veritable sandstorm rose into the air, engulfing every stray Heartless unfortunate enough to get in its path. The deluge surged upward, a giant swirling mass unhindered by any obstacle, until it finally reached the hand holding the famed Ice Wolf hostage. Forcing their way through Chernabog's dark fingers, the sand drove its way into the wound. At first, the demon simply ignored it. But as it began to grind in the wound, and more of it kept coming from seemingly nowhere, the pain easily forced its way to the forefront of his mind, along with the threat that the Denizens of Light posed. His fingers were gradually pushed open little by little.

Koios watched in dark satisfaction as enraged disbelief twisted Chernabog's face. Now was his chance. He slipped into a Corridor, reappearing further up in the air a second later to swipe at a Heartless pestering Quetzalcoatl, and entered another only to step out onto the demon's very hand. A sneer crossed the Nobody's face.

"This is what I think of you and Jagannatha leaving us all here to die," he told it conversationally, and swung his glass-tipped shovel like a sword at the fingers trapping the Refugee. This new wound, coupled with Aya's generous stab and his sand, was more than enough to make Chernabog release her, swatting instead at the Nobody. He started to fall, but instead of summoning a Corridor to take him to safety, Koios continued the assault on the demon, making full use of the abundant sand.

Down below, there wasn't a soul who failed to locate the source of their troubles. Grounded Heartless and Nobodies were backing everyone into corners. Still many stood to fight, as did one Refugee with a father and his family, both determined to protect those in the courtyard they currently stood in. The young woman stood favoring one leg, clutching her rapier defensively in trembling hands. In a spare moment, when the Heartless had their attention turned elsewhere, she pulled out a black stone, whispering, "Help them." With a bellow of challenge, Bahamut rose into the sky with Quetzalcoatl and struck immediately at the demon towering above them, careful to avoid hitting Aya and Koios. Narrowly evading a swipe from Chernabog's uninjured hand, the dragon veered around quickly to the other summon's side, biting and clawing at the creature's assailants.

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"...shit."

Aya's eyes widened as she quickly realized that stabbing Chernabog in the hand didn't really cause the kind of deterrent she was aiming for as the fingers closed around her like a vice. Sucking in a breath, she pushed herself against the Spine, nearly curling around it so the more he crushed, the deeper the weapon would be driven into his flesh. She was also shocked to discover that the darkness pouring from his wound was actually pretty painful to her, especially at this close.

Her bones began to creak, about to snap when something else moved about around her-sand. Lots of sand, she realized, pouring past her and into the wound created by the Spine. The pressure was pushed away from her and she grasped for breath, struggling and squirming her head through the curled thumb and pointer finger of the demon.

Aya was greeted with the site of booted feet balanced on Chernabog's hand. Peering upward, she caught sight of familiar flannel, only to hear Koios address the demon shortly afterwards. "Thanks." she rasped to him moments before his strike, which mostly released her. Mostly, because she hung on to her Spine before it slipped free of the demon's flesh, putting Aya into a freefall.

Fortunately, the newly unburdened Quetzalcoatl was quick to dart in and catch her in his coils before she wound up splattered on the ground. Reorienting herself, Aya was also further surprised to see that Bahamut had joined them which meant Ray was around here somewhere.

Quetzalcoatl took off for Chernabog's face while Aya swatted away the rare flying Heartless that managed to get by Bahamut's defenses. While it would follow for the godly serpent to start biting and clawing, he refused to get in that close to the demon, opting for the opportunity to line up a "shot" of lightning breath at Chernabog's glowing eyes instead.

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The demon turned a withering glare upon the pair. Koios was still attacking his hand, aggravating the wound. It didn't seem to matter if the Nobody was actually hit - the sand always kept coming, a relentless plume that gritted and ground into him, and the Darkness just kept pouring out. Not one to let a possible advantage go to waste, Chernabog instinctively grabbed hold of it and sent it flying to engulf the Refugee and her summon. Bahamut quickly flew by them in warning before turning to face a new set of enemies: lesser Nobodies, Dragoons and Sorcerers.

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