//------------------------------// // Oblivion // Story: The Girl That Never Was // by Onomonopia //------------------------------// If Xion still held any doubt that she didn't have a heart, those thoughts were banished from her mind when she found herself face to face with the three beings that stood before her and fear clutched at her heart. Saix smirked at the girl while the Maestro and the cloaked boy stared at Xion with hidden faces, yet she could feel the danger radiating from all of them. Xion held her keyblade in front of her, yet she felt the blade shaking in her grasp as the fear began to take hold. "So this is what it took to finally get you to do what I asked," the Maestro said to Xion, who gritted her teeth as she turned her full attention to the metal being. "I had to annihilate this city, which I did not wish to do, and have Saix tell his little minion to lock away Twilight's heart. You have forced me to change a great number of things in this world in order to get the results I desired. I am not happy about that." "Well you happy is the last thing I want, so..." Xion spat back, but there was no confidence in her voice. Only fear and anticipation for what was to come. The cloaked boy took a step forward towards Xion and she instantly spun to face him, but Saix held up a hand and the boy stopped his approach. "There will be time for that soon enough, but for now I have a few...questions to ask this puppet," Saix told the boy with an emotionless face, before turning his gaze upon Xion. For a brief moment he studied her, before a scowl crossed his face and he shook his head. "So this is the final result of all of Vexen's hard work? A half formed puppet that can barely follow any task it is given? If there is any need for further proof of Vexen's failure-" Xion lunged towards Saix and slashed at the Nobody with her keyblade, catching Saix off guard and getting his eyes to widen with shock as he realized she was upon him. Yet instead of cleaving through Saix's skull, Xion's keyblade clashed against a keyblade as dark as the knight. Xion snarled as she turned to look at the cloaked figure, who stood to the side with his keyblade extended. Saix growled before he lifted his claymore to strike at Xion, but before he could strike Xion backflipped away from the two and raised her guard once more. "Well aren't you just quick to fight?" Saix asked with an angry scowl as he and the cloaked boy began to approach Xion. The Maestro held up his hand and the pair stopped, allowing Maestro to walk towards the girl. "Seems that your body is falling apart faster than I predicted. You've been tapping into powers that aren't entirely yours, haven't you?" Maestro asked. When Xion didn't answer, he continued on anyway. "See, this is why I was so angry when you fell into Sombra's clutches. Had you done as I asked and unlocked the secret of the Ambassadors hearts, then you would still be in relative alright condition. In fact, you may have lived another year. But after doing as Sombra taught you, you have cut the life force I so graciously gave you into shreds." When the Maestro mentioned the dark king, Xion glanced down at her pocket hoping to hear some words of encouragement or at least some confirmation that Sombra was there. But the silence that resonated from her garments made her already shaky nerves even worse. "Are you surprised that he is gone?" the Maestro asked Xion, who snapped her attention back to the Maestro. "He is a coward pretending to be a villain. The moment he realized what you were up against and saw how hopeless it was he fled for his life, leaving you to fend all for yourself." "Well, that would be the smart thing to do. And he always did say how much of a genius he was," Xion replied with a smirk, trying not to let the Maestro see how betrayed she felt at the moment. "Besides, him leaving saved him the mental scares of seeing what I'm about to do to you. I'm not the same, scared little weakling you brought to this world, Maestro. I've gotten far stronger since the last time we've met." "Oh, I have no doubt about that. All heroes or villains I bring to different realities get stronger in some way, provided they don't die instantly," Maestro agreed with a shrug. "And yet all of them eventually end up fighting me. And I am still here, whereas they are not. So how well do you think you are going to do against me, puppet?" Xion gritted her teeth and tried to look angry, but deep down she knew that the Maestro's words were true. She had felt his real power first hand and knew that she was no match for him. What made the matter worse was that even if she could tap into her full powers of light and darkness, she wasn't sure if her body could hold up under the strain. 'So either the Maestro kills me or I kill myself try to kill him. I never get to win, do I?' Xion asked herself bitterly. Maestro read the expression on her face and his own metal face seemed to darken for a moment. "You believe that I came here to kill you, puppet? No, I have no such interest of dirtying my hands doing such an action. It is far beneath me to waste my time on nothing," Maestro told Xion before he turned and walked away from the girl, getting her to look at him with surprise. Then Saix and the cloaked being began to walk towards and Maestro looked over his shoulder. "So I promise the two of them that they could kill you instead. It seems that in nearly every reality Saix sees you as a useless waste of time. This one just wanted to kill you more than the others." Saix lifted his claymore into the sky and changed the heavens from a beautiful blue day to a pitchblack midnight, complete with a white moon in the center of the sky. His body began to glow as a white aura surrounded him, before his snapped his eyes open and glared at Xion with a feral intensity. In a flash of moment he lunged towards Xion, who kicked off of the ground and leapt into the air to avoid being struck. Yet the moment she had taken to the skies the cloaked boy followed after her, lashing at her with his keyblade. Xion was forced to construct an aerial barrier to protect herself from the onslaught of attacks by the cloaked boy, before she shattered the barrier and used the shards to push him back. Xion landed on the ground and turned her gaze towards Saix, who leapt into the air and came crashing back down claymore first. Xion thought she had gotten out of the way of the attack at first, but as the claymore struck cement and massive shockwave was sent out from the impact and struck Xion head on. She cried with pain as she was sent tumbling across the ground. "Come, puppet, you were created to replace the keyblade wielders! Do not tell me this is all you can do?!" Saix sneered at Xion before he hurled his claymore at her, forcing her to dodge to the side to avoid being hit. As she rolled to her feet the cloaked boy met her there, driving a boot into her gut that doubled her over. He twirled around and slashed at her in a diagonal arc and Xion barely got the Kingdom Key up in time to deflect the blow. The impact was still strong enough to send her flying backwards, where she slammed onto her back and felt pain course through her body. "Be gone!" Saix roared as he lunged towards the fallen girl, swinging down at her with his claymore. Xion rolled to the side to avoid being impaled by the weapon, yet the shockwave it generated hurled her across the road and into the side of a building, where she felt pain burn through her once more. She managed to push herself up to one knee, just in time to see Saix lunge towards her once more. "Fire!" Xion roared as Saix closed in on her, catching the lunar Nobody of guard and then catching him in the chest with the fireball. Saix staggered backwards as the flames grabbed hold of his cloak and licked at his body, leaving him open to an attack from Xion. Xion dashed forward and slammed the hilt of her blade into the skull of Saix, snapping his head back and getting him to drop his weapon. Xion snatched the hilt of the claymore and, with a roar, used all of her might to swing it around and crack it against the side of Saix's head. She followed up the attack by swinging the hilt of the claymore into the gut of Saix, before bringing the claymore up in a vertical strike to slash across Saix's body. Saix was sent tumbling across the ground, leaving him vulnerable to another flurry from Xion. A boot to the side of her head stopped her offense before it could begin and a moment later Xion found herself face down in the mud, with pain burning in her skull. She pulled herself up to see the tip of Oblivion being pointed towards her, getting her to look past the blade to see its wielder looking down at her underneath his cloaked features. Xion snapped her blade up and knocked Oblivion to the side, but by the time she was back on her feet the cloaked being had already recovered. "Look, I know who you are," Xion said in an exasperated voice to the cloaked being. "You may not know me. Heck, I may not have ever been created in your world, but I do know you. And I know that you are a kind and fun loving person that would never fall under the influence of someone as evil as Saix or Maestro! You can't let them have their way!" The cloaked being lunged towards her once more, firing ice out of his hand and forcing Xion to raise her blade to defend herself. She slashed through the ice before knocking a strike from the cloaked being to the side. The being followed up by ramming its shoulder into her chest, knocking her off balance for a moment. He then raised his keyblade and went to impale Xion, but this time Xion weaved to the side before smacking the blunt side of her keyblade against the cloaked beings head. The being staggered back, yet brought up his keyblade once more and began to walk towards her. He lunged towards her once more and slashed down at her. Xion brought up her key and blocked his vertical strike with her horizontal one. The two strained against the other, with neither able to get the upper hand. "This isn't you! You're better than this!" Xion pleaded, yet her words fell on deaf ears. "Listen to my voice! Roxas!" For a brief moment, upon hearing the name, the cloaked being seemed to be confused for a second. Then an explosion of lunar energy erupted from besides the two and they both turned their heads to see Saix bathed in lunar light and power. He slowly lifted his head to glare at Xion, before he hoisted he claymore into the sky. "ALL SHALL BE LOST TO YOU!" Lunar light consumed Saix and with a scream of madness he hurled himself towards Xion. The cloaked being leapt away from her and left Xion as the lone target for Saix's wrath. She raised her blade to defend herself, only to be knocked off her feet as Saix slammed his claymore into her keyblade. Her guard was broken and she was sent hurtling backwards. Saix bellowed like a madman as he hurled his claymore at Xion, who constructed a barrier around herself to deflect the attack. Yet to her horror the claymore bounced off of her barrier and went flying towards the ponies, who screamed with terror as the weapon impaled itself into a wall mere inches from where one of them had been standing. Xion glanced at the ponies and realized that Twilight was getting to her hooves, looking at the battle that was going one with confusion upon her face. "Twilight! Get the ponies out of here! I'll hold them off!" Xion screamed at Twilight, hoping that the alicorn understood. Xion then forced herself back to her feet, glaring down Saix as he floated into the air and charged himself with lunar light once more. She then looked up at the blackening sky, narrowing her eyes and preparing herself for what she was about to do. "This is over, Saix. I won't let you hurt any more innocent for your won selfish desires!" Xion bellowed before she was consumed by a tidal wave of darkness. The force of the darkness was so great that it swallowed the land and eclipsed the moon. Saix and the cloaked boy backed away from Xion slightly, before Xion ripped herself free of the darkness and lunged towards the pair. With an unholy roar she slammed her now dark infused keyblade into Saix's claymore, cleaving through the weapon and splitting it in two. She then slammed her right arm, which was also consumed by darkness, into Saix's stomach and set him rocketing back with an explosion of dark energy. She then lifted that same arm into the sky and fired a dozen dark blasts, all of which rocketed towards Saix as they locked onto him. Yet Saix was saved from the same fate as the other Organization members that Xion had fought when the cloaked being intercepted the dark attacks, slicing through them with Oblivion. The cloaked being then turned towards Xion, who seethed with anger and glared at the cloaked being with black eyes. She kicked off the ground and appeared before the cloaked being in an instant, slashing down at him with the kingdom key. This time it was the cloaked being that constructed a barrier around itself to deflect Xion's strike and the barrier shattered to hurl dozens of barrier shards her way. Xion dove down into the darkness to avoid being hit, slithering past the cloaked being and appearing before Saix. Saix's eyes went wide as he found himself face to face with Dark Xion, who snarled at him before she swung her dark arm around and slammed it into the back of the cloaked boys head, sending him flying across the ground. "You still think I'm a failure of a being? That I'm nothing more than a cheap imitation?" Xion asked Saix, before she channeled all of her dark power into her left hand and cocked it back. "Well this cheap imitation is doing being a puppet! Is done being a fake! I am going to be my own person!" Xion let out a roar as she swung her fist towards Saix, planning on punching clean through his body. Then a metal fist slammed itself into the side of her head and the next thing Xion new she was upside down in the air. A metal leg then rammed itself into her back, getting her to scream with pain as she heard bones break. Three more strikes knocked nearly all of the sense out of her, before a final fist to the face sent her crashing down into the dirt. Xion weakly coughed in pain as the dark form around her faded, leaving her a broken wreck that could barely move. She shakily lifted her head up to see the Maestro standing over her, glaring down at her with an emotionless expression. Xion gritted her teeth as she started to lift her blade, but before she could the Maestro stomped his foot down onto her hand. She screamed with pain once more, releasing the keyblade and clutching at her hand. "Done with being a fake? That is what you believe you are capable of doing?" the Maestro asked Xion, who glared up at him. The Maestro then reached down and picked up the Kingdom Key, glancing it over before turning his gaze back down to Xion. "Everything about you is fake, girl. That body. Those memories. And especially...this key!" The Maestro then grasped the keyblade with both of his hands, flooding his shattered power into it. Cracks formed along the blade and handle of the weapon as the power overwhelmed it, before in a flash of light the keyblade shattered into thousands of pieces. No emotion could be found in Xion's eyes as she watched the pieces of her weapon fall to the ground in front of her, before the keychain with a silver mouse head landed in front of her. She slowly reached out for it, only for the Maestro to slam his boot onto it and destroy the keychain. "How is this so hard for you to understand? Every about you has and always will be fake. False. A copy," Maestro told Xion, who stared up at Maestro with a broken look in her eyes. "Remember that you were never chosen by the keyblade. You were given a fake one to mirror the one that the true wielder has. It was as fake as you." A roar of rage then exploded from Xion's lips and she pointed her hands at the Maestro, fire crackling along them as she prepared to unload every last ounce of magic she had into his face. "Fake as me?! I may be a fake, but at least I won't be the one who's fried to a-" Xion's words died in her throat as the tip and teeth of a black blade erupted from her chest. A small gurgle escaped Xion's lips as she slowly looked down to see the upper half of Oblivion sticking out of her body. Xion then slowly looked over her shoulder to see that the cloaked being was standing behind her, having driven Oblivion clean through Xion's body. Xion then turned her head to look back at the Maestro, before a small light began to glow in her chest. A moment later a small heart within an orb of light emerged from her chest and slowly started to ascend into the sky. Xion and the Maestro watched it ascend until darkness began to circle around it, swallowing the heart whole and dragging it into the darkness. Xion's body then began to fall apart, with cracks forming along her limbs and parts of her beginning to deteriorate. "So you did create a heart for yourself after all. Who would have guessed Expected? Known?" the Maestro asked Xion, who gave him an emotionless stare in reply. Maestro then shook his head before he lifted his hand and fired a beam of shattered magic that consumed Xion. The rest of her body burned away until there was nothing left but the Oblivion keyblade and Xion cloak. The keybalde vanished and returned to the grasp of the cloaked boy while the cloak vanished into darkness a moment later. "And that is the end of that." "You told me that I would be the one to kill her," Saix said in a weak and angry voice as he picked himself up off the ground. "Your fight with her made it clear you were incapable of finishing her off," Maestro snapped back before he turned his head towards where the ponies had been, only to find that all of them had vanished. "Twilight. No matter. The time is almost at hand to change the fate of this world. To see what happens when darkness consumes it. And then your Organization will have its armies of Heartless and Nobodies...and I will finally get to see what the Ambassadors Heartless shall look like. I am quite excited."