//------------------------------// // CH44: A Heart to Heart Meeting // Story: Kingdom Hearts F.I.M: Rise of The Elements // by Spirit Shift //------------------------------// In the darkness of the control room, dimly lit only by the various glowing screens hovering around, an accented mechanical voice echoed out. “Brain scan... complete.” Over by a small cluster of screens, Kayaba Akihiko smiled serenely. “Thank you, interface. Now let’s see here.” With a wave of his hand, several screens floated over to him, completely lighting up his little corner of the abyss. Kayaba hummed to himself he examined the screens of data. His eyes flew across the screen as data streamed down it. “Interesting,” he muttered to himself. “Kirito is about as I expected, but young Asuna appears to be harboring a few secrets here and there. But… it seems as if a few these new girls have some experience already. I’ll be sure to make use of that.” The voice popped up once again. It’s voice echoing from almost every direction. “Sir, are you certain about this particular course of engagement? If I may express my meager opinion as your interface, I must pronounce that this is not your normal modus operandi.” “Interface,” he grinned, turning away from the screen to look out into the darkness, “your opinion is noted, and it is correct. Normally, I wouldn’t need to be so... invasive. After all, I’ve had quite a few years to watch over Kirito’s mental state. However, because we have such unique guests, I feel as though they should receive a similar treatment. However we don’t have the time as of now. Ergo, this is the only efficient way to proceed.” Kayaba lifted a finger and the screens all formed into one widescreen. On it sat several figures with various loading bars under them. “But please be sure that this remains a fair boss battle first and foremost. Like normal, they shall need to win to pass,” he finished. The voice remained quiet for a time, before talking again. “What shall I do with the original floor 98 boss; the Cockatrice?” Kayaba paused and glance upwards in thought. “Um…” he muttered, humming. Kayaba scratched the back of his head before shrugging and focusing back on his work. “Well, I guess we can delete it. We don’t really need it now.” “I see. Are you certain we could not repurpose the monster as a hidden enemy on a lower floor? Perhaps we should hold onto it’s data as a replacement should this custom arrangement succeed in its intended task.” Kayaba looked up at the figures on screen, the loading bars for each one almost complete. His grin widened just an inch. “Oh, interface… you sorely underestimate our adversaries.” ~~~ Twilight let out a light groan as she stood up, more from sitting down for so long than from being tired of healing. Stretching her back she, let out a heavenly sigh when she felt a few pops come from her spine. “How are you? Feel better, Rarity.” Rarity stood up as well, fully healed and healthy. “Completely resplendent, darling,” she said, smiling over at the mage. However, when she then looked herself up and down she moaned sadly. Although her body was spotless once more, her clothes were still torn and dirty from the fight. “I am slightly miffed about my wardrobe,” she pouted, fixing up her hair where she could. “You guys done yet? Come on!” The two turned when they head their friend’s voice calling them by the opposite of the entrance. Dash was hovering by the door while the others were currently making their way across the room. Twilight and Rarity, the latter now fully healed, quickly made their way to the others. Once they reached then the group collectively opened the next door and ran up the stairs to the next floor. Weapons at the ready, they stormed into Floor 98. Everyone immediately took stock of the new area, the entire floor looking like an ordinary square room of plane violet walls. Gazes flittered around the room, only to be surprised when they found that it was completely empty. Asuna and Kirito were quick to check the ceiling as well due to bad memories of a similar situation. “Wha… where is the monster?” asked Dash, her Keyblade still held tightly. “Maybe this is a big old restroom before the big boss?” wondered Pinkie. Kirito shook his head, physically unwilling to let his guard down. “No, there are two more rooms, if there was going to be a restroom, it only makes sense to put it on Floor 99. Not to mention that we can rest before moving on in a room we’ve already beaten. Why would we even need a rest room?” he reasoned, stepping forward cautiously. “Let’s all move around,” suggested Asuna. “But be careful, we don’t want to activate any traps.” As Dash flew forward, Twilight called out to her. “Don’t soar too high! Kayaba knows that you can fly now. He might have changed something about the air.” Kirito flinched and clenched his teeth. “That’s right. I don’t think aside from that dragon there have been many flying enemies. There could be traps.” He began scanning the sky vigorously. Dash shrugged and flew a bit lower, not very high, but not at head level either. In an extremely alertful manner, everyone spread out to cover the room. Together, their collective eyes scanned pretty much the entirety of the area. Dash, feeling confident, flew a little bit higher and did a complete 360 examination of the floor. Not seeing anything, she just shrugged and descended to the ground. “I don’t know guys,” she called out, her voice echoing faintly. “I don’t see or feel anything.” Hearing no response she looked around again, this time for her friends. Upon seeing absolutely no one around her she quickly brandished her Keyblade and took a ready stance. To her surprise the Keyblade in her hand began glowing a soft pale red glow despite her not channeling any magic through it. “Hello again,” said a sweet voice. Eyes widening, Dash turned around to see none other than herself standing a few yards away from her. To her relief it really was herself this time, from her messy ponytailed hair to her normal clothes, it was a near mirror image of her body. The only difference that she could find had been the clones bright pink coloured eyes. “Who… are you?” she asked wearily. The copy of her smiled and gestured along its body. “Oh, darling, please. Even with this… err, appearance, it is still the same Rainbow you met the last time your form was copied. You really seem to enjoy being cloned.” Dash let out a loud groan and threw her arms down in anger. “But if Kayaba copied me why do you keep showing up? Hell why’d you show up last time.” Rainbow let out a small giggle and winked. “Well... being you, I only know as much as your heart does, consciously or not. But if I had to take a guess I’d say that maybe it’s your Keyblade’s fault?” the clone wondered, cutely tilting its head and smiling at Dash. Dash looked down her Keyblade and examined the now dim but constant glow of the weapon in her hand. She glanced back up at her counterpart, whom had also summoned her own Keyblade and was also glowing in a similar manner. The only difference was that she noticed that the entire copy’s body was glowing faintly with the same color. Rainbow cheerfully wiggled the weapon in its hand. “You see? Clearly, it’s trying to tell you something… or well... maybe it wants to realize something.” Dash began grinding her teeth in frustration. “Then tell me already!” Rainbow shrugged and began to strut around the room. “Well I don’t think I’m allowed to. For one thing, this body I’m inhabiting is programed to fight you. I still retain that urge so guess you have to defeat me first,” it said, pointing its blade at its counterpart. Suddenly, bright rainbow coloured wings appeared on the clones back and it rose high into the air. Glowering, Dash spread her sky blue ones and flew up to meet her. ~~~ As AJ rose her Keyblade in defense as her clone came down on her with the force of a rocket, completely cratering the ground underneath its original. Though her knees nearly buckled from the impact, AJ remained standing. Even so, AJ gave her clone a small grin. “Well now… this ain’t really fair now is it?” she asked, examining the eerily black gauntlets and grieves that her counterpart was wearing. The clone simply stared at her, its fist pushing down on the flat of her original’s blade. AJ’s knees bent even further until her clone was looking down at her with identical eyes. “Well, ya know...” it said, its voice monotone, “maybe ya should’ve played fair.” Her grin bending down into a strained frown, AJ pushed back. Slowly she stood back up until the two stood on an even level once again. With shocking speed, her clone slammed its other fist deep into AJ’s gut, completely knocking the wind out of her. In another swift motion the clone came around with a hook that connected with AJ’s cheek and, sent her rocketing deep into the wall. As AJ’s eyes cracked open they widened when she saw her clone charging a pitch black energy attack with its fist, an attack that looked exactly like her own light blast technique. With a swing the energy was sent hurling towards her. Struggling to move, AJ found herself stuck in the rock her counterpart had punched her into. Just as the wall around her cracked from her efforts, AJ felt the blast hit her and explode outward. Unlike the warm energies her Beowulf utilized, this attack was cold and empty. Sheer pain spread up and down her body for several tense seconds. Thankfully, she had thicker skin than most and was able to more or less tank the hit. Although, when it ended she found herself falling to the ground, as the wall she was stuck in had been completely blown away. Not wasting a second, she put her hands under her and tried to stand up, wincing as she did so. She looked up, expecting to see her clone charging at her, but rather she looked up to see it staring vacantly into the sky. Taking deep breaths AJ reached up to brush some dirt from her cheek with her right hand, though as soon as it came close she was forced to flinch back when her Keyblade suddenly begin glowing with a bright orange illumination. “What in tarnation?” she muttered, going slack jawed at the sight. Hearing a familiar metallic “shing” her eyes snapped up to see her clone now in possession of an identical Keyblade. She looked down at it in confusion and watched as the copy weapon began glowing as well. Immediately, it spread to the clone itself and encompassed its body. The glow faded after a few seconds, becoming a dim glow. The clone blinked a few times, its eyes changing from AJ’s own bright green colour to a deep brown. It shook its head a few times before looking down at the gauntlets on its hands. To Jackie’s surprise the clone started furrowing its brow in anger. In one swift motion the clone ripped off the gauntlets and grieves and tossed them away, where they exploded into bright blue shards. “Terrible!” the clone scoffed, brandishing the Keyblade by itself. By this time, AJ had stood up and recovered slightly. “You… alright there?” she asked hesitantly. AJ flinched as the clone growled at her. “You know what,” it seethed, its voice oddly void of any of its originals accent. “I’m not!” Taking a running start, the clone jumped into the air and slammed its Keyblade down into the ground. “Quake!” An enormous shockwave erupted from the ground in AJ’s direction completely tearing up the landscape, earth, metal, and all. Frantic, AJ dug her blade into the ground and uplifted a boulder that she used to block the attack. However it was far more powerful than she expected and when it was destroyed and she was sent skidding back, her arms covering her face. When the dust cleared, AJ saw her clone standing there, several of the games caution signs floating around her and along the ruined floor. However, what caught her eye was her clones blushed cheeks and pouting face. “See what I can do?!” yelled the clone while stomping its feet. “I’m way better than some dumb old pair of gloves.” Bringing the Keyblade high into the air, a great brown light began shining from the tip of her weapon and the entire room started to shaking furiously. So much so that AJ found that she could barely keep her standing position. Her jaw fell when several enormous chunks of earth started to tear themselves out of the ground. ~~~ As two identical fireballs clashed in the middle of the room, two figures dashed through the flames and clashed, their attacks forcing the smoke and embers to part. Twilight scowled at the carbon copy of herself, its face expressionless in response. “Hello, Twilight,” the copy said. “This time there are no words, no acts. I merely wish to see how you handle my power.” Twilight, meanwhile, examined the slight purple glow of their weapons before shoving her clone back, and calling down a bolt of thunder. “Reflega!” the clone called. As the lightning struck her shield it split into several streams of lightning as they reflected off of the surface. All of them surged directly at Twilight. Eyes wide, Twilight teleported out of the way, just barely avoiding the large explosion that rocked the room. Reappearing behind her clone, she pointed Magical Element forward, the shaft crackling with magic. “Stop!” Twilight’s eyes widened as everything froze for her. Her body, the flow of her magic, her breathing, even the small bolts of electricity flying around her Keyblade all completely ceased to move. She was aware, she could see directly ahead of her, but even her eyes refused to move. Her mind exploded in a single word. How?! She could only watch as her clone simply turned its head to glance back at her original. Twilight stared into its blank grey eyes. The clone cocked its head. “Don’t tell me you don’t recognize that spell? Surprising. But I guess it's to be expected, with the way you sling spells around. You seem to have only the barest amount of awareness to the area around you. Twilight, try as she might still couldn’t move her body, even as an orange blow began filling her vision from below. “Mine Square.” The clone sat the tip of her Keyblade onto the ground and large blast exploded from under Twilight. ~~~ Rarity and her counterpart tentatively circled one another. Both girls had their weapons out, but to Rarity’s confusion her clone held the weapon in its left hand even though Rarity herself was right handed. The girl eyed up an identical version of herself and, admittedly, admired it. Personally, she thought the facsimile’s bright golden eyes were especially gorgeous. However, she remained aware of the situation and kept a modicum of caution about her. Her clone, however, eyed its original with a far more critical eye. It’s gaze as cold as steel and no hint of admiration anywhere on her face. Suddenly, the clone stopped in its tracks. “I fear I may have chosen… incorrectly,” it muttered, scoffing. It’s voice was far more naturally accented than Rarity’s own. Rarity, stopping as well, tilted her head curiously. “Excuse me?” The clone turned to the side and held out its right hand, two fingers pointed directly at Rarity. “Perhaps a test then.” Before Rarity could respond, she felt an eerily familiar stabbing sensation through her shoulder. One of her own ethereal weapons had stabbed right through it. Like normal, no wounds were present but the pain itself was real. Not willing to repeat the Virgil incident, Rarity cartwheeled out of the way of three more weapons. “Poor reflexes, but you do learn quickly,” the clone muttered. It lifted its two fingers and flicked it down. “Let us try something else.” Understanding what was happening, Rarity deftly jumped to the side as three more blades rained down. Pointing her own blade forward, four blades appeared in front of her and shot out like bullets. “Basic.” The clone made no effort to move from its position as the projectiles came flying at her. With another flick, the Keyblades that Rarity sent at her stopped dead before turning back to face it’s owner. Rarity balked at the sight, her jaw falling open in a very unladylike fashion. She nervously took a step back, muttering, “H-how did…?” She flinched even more as the weapons were sent flying back at her. Rarity crossed her arms and two more weapons appeared and blocked the attack. Not willing to let those be taken as well, Rarity immediately dismissed them and rushed forward. She decided that if her power was vulnerable, she decided instead to make use of Asuna and Octavia’s teachings. Remaining still, arm and fingers still outstretched, the clone summoned a Keyblade in Rarity’s path, forcing her to clash against it and ruining her build up. “One such as us should never allow a singular enemy to come close. This is something you have clearly forgotten.” Struggling against the ghostly weapon, Rarity began to sweat, her brow creasing in exertion. Sidestepping the blade, Rarity rushed her clone once again. However, the second she took another step, dozens of Keyblades shot up from the ground in rays of brilliant blue, all of them shooting through her and lifting her up into the air. “Agh!” she screamed and pain seared through her body. Eventually the onslought ended and she finally fell to the ground. The clone lowered its hand and watched. “Pitiful. You should have expected such a move, as it should have been what you should have done.” Rarity groaned and stood back up, stumbling to her feet and breathing heavily. “I- I am not weak. What… gives you the right to lecture… to lecture me?” The clone cocked its head curiously as Rarity glared at it. Letting out a battle cry, she once again rushed the facsimile. This time, it made no motion to stop Rarity by herself. Rather, when Rarity got close and stabbed at hit. Her eyes shrank in shock as the tip of her Keyblade slammed into one of her clones summoned blades. She began stabbing at her, only for her clone repeatedly summoned and dismissed weapons, blocking each and every one of her strikes with little to no effort. Rarity momentarily wanted to summon some extra blades but she immediately remember that her clone had already taken control of them once. In lieu of doing that, she instead sped up her attack, only for the clone to speed up its own defense. The clone scoffed and flipped its hair even as its original straggled to get past its defenses. “You train yourself and strive to learn proper swordsmanship, but in turn you abandon the one thing unique to you. You’re scared of being weak but do you not see the power we possess?” Rarity finally backed off by taking a few large hops backward. Bt the time she had gotten a comfortable distance away, she had began breathing even more heavily than before. “The… the power that we have?” The clone nodded and switched her Keyblade over to her right hand. Slowly, she lifted the blade and pointed it right at Rarity, who flinched back. “Our defense is also our greatest offense. This is how we should be fighting.” Taking a step, the clone began rushing forward, its arm pulled across her shoulder and readying a diagonal slash. Rarity braced herself, ready to block it. Maybe I should try the same thing she did? she wondered. “You should always strike your opponent's weak spot.” To her confusion, after covering only half of the distance the clone slashed down and swung through the empty air. Without her noticing, a blade materialized from under Rarity and swung upwards, slamming into her chin. Despite feeling the blow, Rarity only staggered backwards a step. Unfortunately, her moment of unbalance was all her clone needed. Now right in front of her, the clone prepared a real strike. “And strive to take advantage of their openings.”   The clone came at her with a swing from the left, and as she tried to block it, another blade slashed across her back. Rarity barely got through flinching when the real blade collided with her ribs and sent her skidding onto the ground. The clone scoffed and arrogantly waved her hair once again. “You couldn’t even handle that predictable move? You definitely don’t deserve to wield me.” ~~~ “Sir!” said the voice, slightly panicked. “The integrity of the system has been compromised and the tower’s stability is rapidly failing.” Kayaba, trying to ignore the viscous shaking going on around him nodded. Chunks of rock fell to the ground around him and hundreds of bright red caution and warning signs blared across every screen in the dark area. From behind him, the sounds of various things in the darkness fizzled and disappeared, leaving small blue glowing shards to float upwards. The voice echoed out again, even louder. “Sir the preservation program is failing due to the immense amount of energy and resources being diverted to re-stabilizing the core code. I suggest abandoning this experiment immediately. Percentage of events coinciding with hypothesized parameters are approximately 26.9% and decreasing fervently. Frankly, it’s just not worth it.” Kayaba continued to stare up at the screens in front of him. One screen displayed the main source of the disturbance, clearly indicated by it flashing red. On it was a live image of AJ and her clone, whom had basically uplifted nearly the entire floor in the form of large boulders and had started hurling them around in a jealous rage. The girl herself merely did what she could to survive and fend off the clone’s attacks while trying to get close. To her credit she was doing it well. Unfortunately every time she got close she would get tossed back again. The next screen over, the second worse and remaining a constant red, were of Twilight and her clone. Twilight had survived the explosion and the two had been dueling it out with large scale spells. Their match was a pure chess game that Twilight was only barely keeping even, and even then it appeared that the clone was doing more teaching than actual fighting. The third was of Dash and her clone. Unlike the others, Kayaba couldn’t really see into their fight. The screen itself had been completely clouded. The last thing Kayaba saw before the screen went clouded was the clone summoning an enormous hurricane. The pink screen simply had the girl throwing a party and celebrating with her clone, the entire room completely decorated and the two were eating cake. Kayaba took one look at it and decidedly ignored that one for the most part. The next, regular blue, screen was of Rarity whom had been knocked down by her clone. That one seemed to share the others strange occurrences, but it wasn’t nearly as literally game breaking as the others. The last two screens were a bright blue and beheld the scenes of Kirito and Asuna fighting themselves. Kayaba waved those away, content with how those were proceeding. He smiled as he looked up at the five other screens. “Such wonderful abilities. Magic? Flight? Terrakinesis? This ‘Keyblade’ sounds like something from a fairy tale. But… I suppose it was a mistake trying to completely duplicate the weapons and the girls. Despite my attempts, it seems that I’ve completely lost control over the constructs.” he let out a deep sigh. “Shame, really. But I suppose it’s too much for this virtual world to contain.” Even he staggered when a particularly large earthquake proceeded to shake the room. With a wave of Kayaba’s hands, he brought all five screens together into one large screen. Reaching out he pressed his hand on the luminescent panel and the entire thing completely turned blank, disintegrating into tiny red shards soon after.” ~~~ Rarity let out a wheezing cough as pain surged through her body. Shaking she turned her Keyblade upside down and used it to pull herself to her knees. Her hand tightly clenched the blade and she took several deep breaths and ground her teeth furiously. Feeling completely worthless, her eyes began darkening even more. The clone stared down at her. “You want to feel strong don’t you?” it said. “You fear that you are a burden on your friends?” Rarity’s eyes widened and she turned her head to look at her clone. The clone took a few steps forward. “You need to understand your own power. Utilize your talent and listen to your Keyblade, for we are capable of so much more.” Letting out a grunt, Rarity put her weight on her Keyblade and brought herself to her feet. As she held it tightly she realized that she could feel something flowing through it and into her. She looked up at the clone and realization surged through her. “Th-then tell me! What am I supposed to do?” she asked, her eyes no longer clouded. The clone smiled, however when it opened its mouth to answer, the Keyblade it held shattered. It too shattered along with it. “Wait! Don’t go!” Rarity yelled, reaching out. She tried to move but her legs gave way and she fell back to the ground. Eyes going blurry, she could only watch as the image of herself floated away and her tears fall to the floor. ~~~ AJ swung her Keyblade with all her might, completely shattering the boulder that her clone had thrown at her. “What in tarnation is wrong with you?” she yelled over the tearing wind whipping around the room. In the middle of the room stood her clone, effortlessly hoisting enormous chunks of earth around it. The clone was still pouting adorably. It stomped its foot, cracking the ground, and responded. “What's wrong with me? What’s wrong with you? I chose you so why do you still want to use those stupid gloves.” AJ flinched, her brow knitted in confusion. “I… uh… what?” The clone childishly stomped twice more. “Don’t think I can’t feel it! Even when you swing me around I can still feel that you’d rather be punching stuff.” AJ looked down at the Keyblade in her hands. “Wait… are you… but how?” she stammered. In an instant the clone shattered into a thousand pieces. The source of their control gone, the rocks plummeted back to earth. The shockwave threw AJ back against the wall once again. ~~~ Flipping through the air, the Twilight clone froze midway and cast a barrier just in time to block the flaming Keyblade that her original had thrown at her, sending it reeling back the way it came. “You’re learning,” it muttered glancing behind it. There was a flash and Twilight appeared behind her clone just as the barrier dropped. Hands outstretched, Twilight let loose a fireball that slammed into the back of her clone and sent her rocketing to the ground a releasing a blast of smoke. Twilight landed and summoned her weapon back to her. She stared at the smoke intently, waiting for the clone to emerge. Feeling a tingling sensation, Twilight teleported just in time to dodge a lightning strike from above. Upon reappearing, Twilight threw up a shield and braced against another explosion from the mine squares that had been place around her the second she reappeared. As the explosion subsided, a grey glow encompassed Twilight’s form and she let out a silent curse as she felt her arms becoming increasingly stiff and hard to move. When she tried to talk her mouth barely opened to let out her voice. It was as if her body had cursed to move at a fraction of its normal speed. For her, this had happened several times in the past few minutes, strange spells that would slow her down, shrink her, and even spontaneously set her on fire. Each time, Twilight would have to cast remedy just to fight back. However, even Twilight could tell that she was sorely outmatched. The clone finally stepped out of the smoke, unharmed and expressionless. As it made its way to Twilight it began speaking. “I must admit, you do seem to have mastered the basic spells and you use them well. You’ve also developed a good sense of spacial awareness just from this fight. However, I fear that is not enough.” The clone held out its hand, Keyblade in its grip. “What do you think your skill is? You have the magic, use it effectively and stop relying on the same old combinations.” There was a green glow from the tip of Twilight’s Keyblade and she felt her speed return to normal. She stumbled forward a step before regaining her stance. Through bared teeth and gasping breath she responded. “What.. what do you mean?” The clone stared at her. “Think about your previous fight. What you could have done? Nothing in this world has any magic defense. You could’ve taken the entire beast by yourself with the simplest of status spells. Yet you've relied on elementals. Let the avian girl focus on that. You’ve yet to utilize your full potential, and that drags us both down. For example… a binding spell.” With a flick of its weapon a yellow aura surrounded Twilight and she froze. Her body shook with effort but no matter how hard she tried she realized that unlike the other spell she could still look around and talk, but her motion had once again been completely restricted. “Blackout.” The clone flicked her Keyblade again this time a black aura surrounded Twilight and she found her vision completely gone. Pitch black was all she could see. Try as she might to remain calm, Twilight began to panic, for she realized that she was now defenseless. “Do not panic. Apply your magic and resist the spells,” the clone instructed her. Twilight still panicked, finding it hard to relax when your enemy began acting as your teacher. But even so, she tried to calm herself and access her magic. Inside her body it remained, untouched by the afflictions. Feeling it well up inside her, she pushed it outwards and felt her body relax. Stumbling to her knees she looked down at her hands and found that she could see and move once again. Her head snapped up to see that her clone was now crouched in front of her and was looking her in her eye. Its eyes were still blank and empty. “Game over,” it said plainly. “Those kinds of spells, combined with well placed attacks from your friends would have served to utterly cripple the hydra beyond regeneration, if not then at least the battle would have been less trying. Experiment more, learn what you can do beyond your perceived limits.” Twilight stared up at it, her eyes wide and her jaw stuttering. “Who… are you?” she asked. The clone gave Twilight a small smile and glanced down to the still glowing Keyblade in her original’s hand. “I am what I’ve always been.” Before Twilight could say anything else, the foux Keyblade in the clones hand shattered, taking the clone along with it. “Wait!” the girl called out. As the blue fragments flew away and vanished, Twilight looked down at the Keyblade in front of her that she thought she knew so well. ~~~ Storm like winds raged furiously around in Dash’s area, completely spiraling into the massive hurricane that her clone had called down. Thunder and lightning flashed alongside the rain that had begun falling sideways from the gale force winds. After a few minutes, enough water had turned the hurricane into a full blown typhoon. The colorful girl herself tried her best to fly around the perimeter of the room, struggling against the flow of wind in order to not to get sucked into the massive beast of nature that her clone created. Frankly, it was just like fighting an actual weather phenomenon. Dash had no idea how to even start. Whilst trying to find an opening she had been forced to periodically duck down and dodge the seemingly random lightning bolts that flashed in her direction. Her ponytail, flapping in the gales, had long since come undone and her clothes had become more than a bit tattered and beaten from the fight that she had been sorely overpowered in. The more she thought about it the more she seethed. Not only had her clone began using magic that she didn’t even know her Keyblade could use, Dash found that her own Keyblade had ceased to work entirely. Just like before, magic simply refused to flow through it, causing her to achieve no end of frustration. Being beaten by a fake had been bad enough, but knowing that the fake could use her own Keyblade better than her nearly had her tearing her own hair out. It definitely didn’t help that she had her clone teasing her throughout the entire fight. As she circled the typhoon, Dash’s face paled as a large chunk of ice whirled around the bend and suddenly crashed into her, sending her flying back and throwing her into the wall near the ceiling. After a few seconds, Dash spat out a glob of blood as she climbed out of her mini hole in the wall. Growing increasingly irritated, she found herself grinding her teeth. “You know…” Dash flinched as her clone’s sweet voice somehow reached her ears despite the fact that she knew that it was in the eye of that storm, “if I could give a bit of strategic advice… As an avian, you should be able to ride the flow of the wind to reach me. You should try that.” Dash’s hand gripped tightly the wall and her fingers began cracking the stone. She let out an audible growl. There it was again, she thought, that stupid fake trying to trick her into screwing up. “Shut up!” she screamed. “What do you know?!” Abandoning all strategy, Dash flared her ethereal wings and flew headlong into the tempest itself. In the eye of the gale, hovering serenely amongst the surrounding magic, the clone sighed and sat a palm to her forehead. “Oh dear... I do have a stubborn wielder, don’t I?” Slamming into the wall of the typhoon, Dash let out a scream of agony as she felt surges of lightning flare through her. All of her limbs instantly locked, the magic crackling around her even as she stopped being shocked. Completely dazed, she fell backwards to the ground. But before she could even fall, yet another boulder of ice slammed into her and threw her spiraling into the ground. Now forced back to ground, Dash struggled to her feet and looked up at the hurricane. It was then that she had finally realized the full extent of the spell that her double had cast. Not only had the clone manipulated the storm clouds she had created to form a hurricane, but it had also somehow used a water spell to summon rain and turn it into a typhoon. Dash didn’t even know she could use water spells. If that wasn’t bad enough, Rainbow had even managed to throw lightning magic into the mix, turning it into a full blown electric storm. And at some point some of the water had frozen enough to create large hail that, while being whipped around by the winds, created a rotating ice shield. It was then that she realized that she was looking at the apex of weather magic. Overcome with a sense of helplessness, Rachelle fell to her knees. Helplessness soon turned to anger, and anger into full on rage. Eyes clenched shut, she began pounding the ground with her fist and cursing repeatedly. “Damn it! Damn it!” she screamed. After a few repetitions her eyes opened to see the Keyblade in her hand. “Arrgah! What the hell is wrong with you?!” In a fit of rage, Dash hurled her Keyblade down onto the ground and sent it skipping and skidding across the room. Immediately, the wind that had been torrenting around vanished and the clone became visible once again. As the remaining water and ice clusters fell to the ground, it too gently floated down in front of its original. When its feet touched down, its wings faded and vanished. Rainbow looked down at Dash, the girl still cursing at the ground, pounding her fist so hard that the ground had cracked from the impacts. Rainbow glanced over at the discarded weapon behind her before leaning down and reaching out to touch her original, only to have her hand violently slapped away. Dash looked up at her, eyes glistening and jaw clenched. “What the hell even are you?!” Rainbow tilted her head curiously, and poked her cheek with the tip of her Keyblade. “Well… I was exaggerating before, I’m not you… well not completely. I am a part of you though,” she said, smiling cheerfully. Dash’s eyes narrowed further and her hand flew up and grabbed her other self by the collar of her jacket. In a swift motion she pulled her double close enough that their foreheads touched. “Bullshit,” she hissed. The clone didn’t react to the sudden threatening motion, simply looking down at her original’s eyes. “I was just playing around in the other world but… do you really not recognize me? I chose you. I’m linked to your heart. I can feel everything that you are and you should be able to feel everything that I am. Can you truly not feel me?” Dash’s grip tightened and she raised up her other fist ready to punch the girl in her grip. Rainbow looked dead into her own eyes. “I don’t know who the hell you are!” Rainbow sighed and close its eyes. After a second, it opened them, now looking back at the discarded weapon sadly. “Then… perhaps I shall wait until your heart opens up before letting you into mine.” To Dash’s surprise, the Keyblade held in her doubles hands began dissipating into minuscule blue fragments. The clone itself, however, gave no reaction, simply continuing to talk even as its body began dissipating as well. “But… at least listen to this advice,” it said, meeting Dash’s eyes once more. “The more you deny what's in front of you the more your heart will close off. Memories, light, magic… with a closed heart, the connections that link you to the world around you will falter until none of them will be available. I believe in you so, please… don’t forget what it means to hold a Keyblade.” And with that, the computer generated clone faded from Dash’s grip, leaving the girl sitting there, arm raised in a clenched fist and her head lowered. In the empty room a scoff echoed, cutting through the silence. “A closed heart? What the hell does that mean?” she muttered.