//------------------------------// // CH45: The Final Floor // Story: Kingdom Hearts F.I.M: Rise of The Elements // by Spirit Shift //------------------------------// Twilight blinked a few times and felt a rush of wind. Taking a look around, she realized that she was no longer alone. Placed around the room were the either alert or crouched forms of her friends. She gave a small gasp at the the sight of the group's collective sorry state. AJ seemed to share her concerns as she too looked around the room from her spot up against a wall. “Ah take it ya’ll had some strange fights too?” she asked, her voice low and exhausted. Pinkie, still in top shape, bounced around, oblivious to the heavy atmosphere.”Are you kidding me? I finally got to meet my Keyblade and it was awesome! We threw a huge party! Oh I wish you were all there. Tigger was there and he brought a bunch of his friends and we all road Geryon around and he was suuuuper annoyed.” Like a clock finally hitting twelve, Pinkie’s face began to change, her smile slowly disappearing as she stopped to look around the group. “A-are you girls alright… What happened?” Rarity, whom had turned away from the group to hide her slightly ruined make up, let out a mild sigh. Slowly, she reached into her satchel and pulled out a few cosmetic products. “I’m sorry Pinkie…” she began, trying to keep her voice even, “but I don’t think we all had as good as a meeting as you.” “What… exactly happened?” began Dash, sitting away from the others and leaning up against a wall. After a few minutes to of silence and reflection, she finally found herself calming down. With her calmer state she began to think rationally as well. Frowning, she thought back on the events only a few minutes prior. “Ain’t it obvious?” asked AJ. “Kayaba tried to pull a fast one and make us fight ourselves but some magic biz happened and we ended up fighting our Keyblades.” She turned to Twilight. “That sound about right to you?” Twilight nodded and put a finger to her chin in thought. “It’s probably a bit more complicated than that but I think you have the jist of it. Honestly, I really would like to talk to Master Luna about this phenomenon when we leave. For Rachelle and I this may be the second time this has happened.” She looked around. “Where are Kirito and Asuna?” Just then both of them appeared in bright blue lights. Kirito appeared first, his body appearing mid swing and let out a battle cry as he continued it. “Bastard you... “ as his swing finished he paused and craned his head around. Upon seeing the girls and no one else, he scoffed and clenched his weapons in annoyance. “Damn it...” he muttered. Asuna appeared in a similar fashion, her body mid dash. With a yelp of surprise she tripped and staggered forward. “Wh-what? Where?” she stammered, her head turning this way and that. Upon seeing Kirito, she quickly ran towards him and embraced him tightly. “Oh thank god,” she sighed. “I was so worried. Are you alright?” Kirito looked down at her with vacant stare, almost as if her were looking through her for a second. Hearing no response she looked up and locked eyes with his. Seeing the wavering and fear in his wife's eyes, Kirito’s widened and he immediately dropped his swords and hugged her back. “S-sorry.. just… yeah. I’m fine. How are you?” After releasing Asuna he looked around at the other girls. “I’m guessing you all fought yourselves as well?” Twilight crossed her arms and her brow furrowed slightly as she process the question. “In a sense we did, though our fights might have been different than yours. But… I have a question. Why did all of our opponents disappear suddenly?” “Please, pick me, sensei.” Everyone’s heads snapped towards a tall man in bright red armor with an amused grin and a raised hand. Kirito’s face immediately contorted into a look of immense fury and he brought Asuna close once again. Immediately, everyone but Dash armed themselves. Dash herself thought about summoning her weapon, but she immediately recalled what had happened before and scoffed. Instead her right hand began glowing with a soft pink light, the Spiral gun mark under her glove glowing. “You see,” he started, lowering his hand to rest with the other one on the hilt of the blade stuck in the ground in front of him, “being in a position such as mine, having such unique personas available to me is something I rarely get to have. I’ve examined the mental state of everyone in this game a dozen times over the last few years. The young hybrid being a small exception as he had managed to escape my radar several times by vanishing. I will be the first to admit that, with Kirito here, I may not have much time left in this world. I wanted to conduct another experiment before the game ends.” Twilight, whom had summoned her Keyblade already, listened with interest. “You copied us and made us fight ourselves in order to conduct a sort of research project?” Kayaba’s grin grew. “Indeed. You seem very intelligent. Tell me young lady, when faced with new and promising results that you don’t quite understand, what course of action should a researcher take? You attempt to replicate those results and establish a source or explanation for those results. I was curious about magic so I attempted to copy you all as NPCs based on collected data.” Kirito wasn’t the only one nearly growling, the fire of rage that had begun to dwindle in Dash rapidly began to burn brighter the more he talked. She was tempted to pull a Dante and summon Spiral to put a bullet in him, but held back nonetheless. Kayaba hung his head in a mock display of shame. “Of course, I regret to say that my parameters were set to low… or perhaps… my expectations were too high. You all are clearly still young and fail to tap into the amount of power you truly possess. My copies were, as they were designed, able to bring out a projected amount of power that dwarfed yours and surpassed the scope of my small game. It began to grow too much and I cut the experiment and deleted the physical copies.” Asuna, still held in Kirito’s grip turned to face him, a glare burning a hole through his head. “What about us? Psychological torture to weaken us before we defeat you.” Her gaze fell into a sad look and she began shaking slightly. “Reminding us of who we lost… who we couldn’t save? Was that necessary?!” Kayaba lowered his head and closed his eyes. “Ahh yes, another good question. Simply put, I was curious about whether you two had the resolve to end this.” Asuna tilted her head curiously. “What?” “You see, so many people have adapted to this world, so many have given up on leaving. Some have even grown attached and, aside from you and several other groups, nobody is genuinely trying to escape anymore. Another error on my end is that I allowed this game to grow boring. In fact, I too have become slightly bored.” Kirito bent down and gripped his weapon once more. “Then does that mean--” Before he could say anything further, Kayaba held up his palm and continued. “Therefore, I really am glad you came here today, Kirito. Frankly, I’ve been waiting ever since that day on floor 75. You remember… don’t you; the day where you exposed me and we dueled.” Opening his eyes he lifted his head and stared straight into Kirito’s. “You lost, and I still let you live.” His smirk growing, he projected his voice majestically. “So I ask you, Kirito, would you like to repeat that day? You and I, one dual, this time for the lives of the remaining 4976 people trapped in this game. If you lose I will delete the game without releasing anyone.” Kirito’s grip tightened profusely as he lowered his head and hid his face. Everyone, including Asuna stared at him in concern. “Well…?” asked Kayaba. After almost of minute of silence, Kirito took in a deep breath and exhaled it. “You know what… there was a time where I would’ve taken you up on that offer without a second thought. For years I’ve waited for this moment because I knew you would offer it to me. I knew that in the end, no matter who I brought with me, I would have chosen to fight you alone.” Asuna let out a sigh and her gaze fell sadly. However, Kirito’s next works caused them to snap back to him in surprise. “But… I just… I can’t say yes.” Kirito lifted his head and turned back to the girls. “I can’t say yes, not when Asuna and these girls have so willingly risked their lives. To keep them from fighting would be to spit on their efforts. Honestly, I haven't changed at all these past few years, I’m still selfish and overconfident.” Kirito turned back to Kayaba, a determined smile on his face. “But I do learn, it just takes me a while.” Kayaba’s smile only grew. “And what, pray tell, did you learn?” Just as Kirito opened his mouth he felt a tough hand pat his back. “He learned to stop bein’ such a worry wort.” He turned to find AJ standing over his shoulder smirking. “Big tough knight here wanna hide us all behind a shield and keep us away from danger. Probably forgettin’ that we could trounce him too.” Kirito could only give her a forced, awkward, and slightly pained smile. “Something like that, sure.” Kayaba let out a small chuckle as he shook his head. “Kirito... this is a multiplayer game. But anyhow, I think we’ve had enough of my final boss monologue.”   With a snap of his fingers, a large ornate white cross shaped shield appeared in front of him. Unlike his original shield, this one lacked the inner red cross, the signature of the Knights of Blood Oath Guild he used to command. Lightened mood short lived, the group all prepared themselves as Kayaba rose it with his left hand and took his sword in the other. Taking a defensive battle stance, Kayaba placed the shield in front of his body and held the sword next to his head, the blade outstretched past the shield.” Pinkie, however, just raised her hand. “I have a question! There’s like…” she began counting, “five… like seven of us. Earlier you said that you like things to stay fair, isn’t this unfair?” Dash growled and glared at Pinkie. “If this pompous asshole what’s to fight us on his own then let him.” “I see your vocabulary is as vibrant as your messy hair, young girl,” retorted Kayaba narrowing his eyes. While AJ couldn’t help but nearly burst out in a fit of chuckles, Rachelle’s face, and hair, began turning various shades of red. Kayaba continued. “Now, Kirito, Asuna, Keyblade wielders. You do remember that you’re on Floor 98, correct. By the game's rules you have one more challenge to complete.” Immediately after he finished, the room began to shift. Everyone stared at the ground as the distance between them and Kayaba lengthened considerably. None, however, could move from their spot as they found themselves growing further from their target. Finally, the room settled, no longer the large open area it used to be. To everyone’s shock, the room had become an extremely long hallway, with Kayaba still standing where he was. As he watched the group's collective looks of confusion, his smirk grew. “This last challenge could be viewed as one of attrition,” he called, his voice effortlessly carrying over to the group. “You must make it to me with enough energy and health to fight me.” Dash held up her fist and yelled back at him. “What? You want us to run a freaking marathon? “No, my dear. For each one you kill is another you save.” Before the girls or Kirito could question him a single glue-ish grey teleportation glow appeared before Kayaba. Out of the glow came a random soldier wearing generic grey armour. Then a second one appeared, this time it was a woman wearing a set of dark orange armor. Then another wearing a dark cloak clasped with brooch shaped like a coffin and decorated with a creepy looking face and dismembered skeleton arm. Like that, more old characters continued to rapidly appear. With each new appearance both Kirito’s and Asuna’s faces grew steadily more horrified. Twilight, seeing their expressions moved a bit closer and whispered. “Guys who are they? Do you know them?” Asuna, her eyes now watering, simply brought and hand to her mouth and closed her eyes. Kirito, though equally in shock, gulped. “They are… they were players in this game. I recognize a few faces, some of them were our friends, our teammates.” Kirito eyed the several players as they appeared. They were wearing bright white and red armour similar to Kayaba. “Asuna probably knows a lot more of them than I do. A lot of these people were either on the front lines or in her guild... In The Knights of Blood Oath.” Soon enough the entire room was alight with constant glows until the entire hallway before them had filled completely with dead players. Each and everyone bared both their weapons, and their vacant, lightless eyes towards the characters. Twilight studied them and, in her mind, recounted Kayaba’s earlier words. “Kill them to save them?’ We clearly have to fight through them but what good would that do?” Rarity stepped forward and touched Asuna’s shoulder. Tears had begun falling down her face. “Asuna, darling. You once told me that those who die in this game have their minds… disposed of in the real world, correct.” Asuna’s eyes snapped open as her mind connected the dots. “So… are you saying that-” On the other side, Kayaba’s grin grew just a bit wider. “There used to be a bit more than this, you know. But, due to earlier errors, a few were probably lost. Either way, you have 30 minutes.” At his words a large timer appeared on the wall behind him in enormous red numbers. As it did the entire colour scheme of the room changed to match the dark and urgent red colour. “Thirty minutes is all the system can handle at this moment. Afterwards, the program keeping them alive will fail and their minds will be dumped, as per the emergency protocol.” Kirito watched as the once thought dead characters in front of them slowly develop miniscule cracks on their faces and body. Kirito’s shock and awe had long since become righteous fury and he quickly began rethinking his choice earlier. “He wants us to kill our friends to save them. Nobody had died yet, Kayaba’s been saving them all for this moment!”