//------------------------------// // CH16: Of Fathers and Family // Story: Kingdom Hearts F.I.M: Rise of The Elements // by Spirit Shift //------------------------------// “No, you are!” “No, you are!” “No, you are!” “How about we agree that we both are… together,” she suggested. “Agreed my love.”         “Please, now that everything’s perfect, I only have one thing to ask of you.”         “Anything!”         Virgil reached a hand into his coat pocket. “Will you,” Rarity’s excitement grew more and more with each millisecond as he slowly took his hand out.         Only to slap her clean across her face. “PLEASE WAKE UP!”         Snapping back to reality, Rarity quickly looked around trying to try and figure out what happened. There was Dante and sexybuns Virgil. There was a missile lying on the ground in four pieces. There was Twilight and the rest, there was Lady, and in front of her stood Dash, glaring fiercely at her.         “What the hell was wrong with you, we were calling your name!”         “I…. uhhhh.”         Dash sighed. “Forget it, just pay attention, stuffs about to get interesting,” she smirked pointing toward Lady who held her still smoking missile launcher aimed at the two devils.         “Stay back, this isn't your fight Lady!” Dante called out.         “Shut up!” Lady aimed directly at Dante and shot out another missile. Dante merely dodged, and continued his fight with Virgil. Lady, not content to stay behind and watch like the other girls, ran up to them only to get knocked to the ground by a strike from Virgil.         Moving her weapon out in front of her, Lady managed to block Virgil's secondary attack. “Twilight was right! You forced him into this!”         “Is that what you think?” Virgil lightly shook his head. “Foolish girl.” Moving his blade to the side Virgil blocked an attack from Dante and the two resumed fighting. Lady quickly got back up and aimed her missile at the two. Only for Virgil’s words to echo in her mind.         Dante’s and Virgil's fight came to a head when they ended up striking a mutual blow on each other. Dante slashed right across Virgil's chest, while Virgil used the momentum to swing around and do the same. Both of them fell to their knees completely out of breath. The rare seconds of silence were broken by the sounds of someone clapping. Dante turned to the girls, only to see that they weren't the cause. Seemingly appearing from nowhere, Jester stepped into the center of the room. “Bravo, Bravo!” he exclaimed, clapping with each syllable. “I never dreamed that things would go this smoothly, don’t get me wrong, the key-wielding kiddies threw me for a loop, but in the end, Well done everyone. Well Done!” Virgil looked from Jester over to the girls. “Keys? as in Keyblades?” he muttered to himself.         The girls themselves were currently glaring daggers at the clown, AJ and Dash even clenched their fists, preparing to summon their weapons in the event of a fight. Twilight, however, tried to figure out how he sneaked past them, they were standing right at the entrance of the room.         Ignoring them, Jester quickly made his way over to Lady and gripped the barrel of her launcher. Before she could respond or attack, Jester shoved her to the ground, and took the weapon for himself. “Now don’t be a bad girl, Mary.” he muttered darkly before returning to his normal clowny voice. “Or you can expect a spanking from daddy later!” Jester began doing a small dance with the launcher still over his shoulder. “Jester’s gonna spank your butt, spank you on da bu~ut!”         “Insane buffoon!” Virgil interrupted. Jester turned to see that Virgil had stood up and that his katana was pointed right at him. “I don’t know where you came from, but you don’t belong here.” Virgil dashed toward Jester, swinging his sword in a downward slash. “Now Leave!”         Jester easily caught his blade between his hands mid slash, stunning Virgil and rendering him unable to move his blade. “Zowie, that was close. But you taken quite a trouncing today, haven't you Virgil. All worn out from that little spat with baby brother. You could have chopped me into confetti by now 12 ways to Sunday if you were in tip-top condition.” He slowly began to lower Virgil's blade against his will.         Pinkie held up both her hands in order to try and figure out all 12 ways.         “Damn you!”         Jester violently pushed Virgil away. “You have lost…..”         Everybody watched to make sure that virgil didn't fall off the edge of the platform when they looked back, in Jesters place, stood a tall man in a black suit with burns going up the side of his  face. “....because you underestimated humans."         “That’s not possible, he was dead. I was sure of it!”         “What the hell man, how are you still alive!”         “I’ve got it! I found out 12 different ways to get to Sunday!”         Lady’s eyes shrank when she looked up to see the figure of her father, standing alive and healthy. “W-what’s going on…”         Arkham turned to Lady. “Good girl, pure and innocent….. just like your mother.”         “You basta-” Lady quickly pulled out a gun and aimed it only for Jester to appear behind and tightly gripped her head.                  “It’s time for your spanking, my dear!” Jestor harshly slammed Lady’s head into the ground, knocking her unconscious. Jester turned to face Virgil         “Lady!” Twilight screamed, she tried to get to her, but found that something was holding her back.         “You want to know why the spell didn't break?” he stood up and began to walk around. “You had two amulets, and Sparda’s blood. You had everything you needed to unleash the evil!”         “I know that I’ve said it before, I don’t like anybody, who talks more than me!” Dante began shooting both guns at Jester, who merely zipped around, laughing and teasing him the entire time. Gravity seemed to have no effect when Jester started zipping around and avoiding bullets on the walls and ceiling.         “You are wounded and weak! You risked your life for the girl, and fought you brother to a standstill. Even I can do, this!” From the ceiling, Jester jumped down and landed feet first on Dante’s face, driving his entire head into the ground.         That was it, now it was time to step in. Dash prepared to rush forward, only to find that she couldn’t leave the ground. The other found out that they were in similar positions. “T-Twilight, I can’t move!” Dash grunted, struggling against the unseen force.         “Not only that, but I can’t seem to summon my keyblades,” added Rarity.         “Consarnit!”         Twilight looked down, and under all of their feet, glowed a giant magic circle. In the middle, was Jesters smiling face. “He’s locked us down with magic!”         “That jackass can use magic!?”         “That’s right kiddies, so don’t go anywhere! Things are about to get fun!”         The girls looked up to see the stoic face of Arkham. “Two amulets, a set of Sparda’s blood.” he began walking toward Lady, who herself, had regained consciousness. “I need one more key.” Bending down, Arkham picked up the forgotten missile launcher that Jester had dropped when avoiding Dante.         “Sparda sacrificed two things to seal the tremendous power, his own devil’s blood, and a mortal priestess. Therefore, to unlock the seal, I need the blood of that priestess.” Arkham viciously stabbed Lady’s leg with the bayonet at the edge of the launcher. Lady screamed out in pain. “I needed you, my daughter, because in your body flows the blood of the sacrificed woman. His spell cannot be undone without your blood!”         Lady’s blood spilled forth, and as if beckoned by some strange force, flowed directly toward the middle of the room, mixing with the blood of the two brothers.         Jester removed the blade from her leg and chuckled a bit. “It was such a hassle, you know. If any of you had died before getting here, my little plan would have gone to waste. Therefore, my job was to make you battle each other in order to weaken you! I even had to spend some effort setting up that little trap for the keybrats, so they wouldn't interfere. But at the same time, I had to guide you here, and make sure that you were kept alive.”         “You liar, I almost died over that stupid ball!” Dash grunted.         “Oh boo hoo, I didn't care if any of you died, I needed these three.” he said, pointing to Virgil, Dante, and Lady. “I even went so far as to dress like a complete idiot.” Jester began laughing profusely, not bothering to notice Virgil and Dante stand up, or Twilight muttering a counterspell. Lady quickly kicked the launcher into the air and out of his hands. Immediatlly standing up, she caught it and aimed it directly at Jester, who stopped laughing long enough to see two swords and 5 keyblades pointed directly at him. He found himself surrounded by Dante, Virgil, Lady, and all 5 girls. “It’s time for the clown to bow out, Arkham,” Virgil stated. “Dude the show’s over.” “Give up,” Twilight added. “This joke isn't funny anymore!” Pinkie puffed. “This circus is over!” Arkham looked around, but otherwise showed no sign of worry or concern. “Impressive, I expected no less from sparda’s descendents, or the wielders of the legendary keyblade.” Rarity flipped her hair. “You didn't seriously think that a spell of that level would contain someone like Twilight, did you?”         Arkham looked directly at Twilight looking her up and down he quickly noted the connection. “Ahh I see, you were taught by the Night Walker.”         “I don’t know who that is!”         “Why don’t you ask your friend then,” he said, glancing directly at Dante before turning to Virgil. “Aren't you forgetting something? The spell is broken now. What do you think will happen next?         What did happen next surprised everyone. The circle containing the blood at the center of the room rose out of the ground. Immediately after that, the entire tower began shaking horribly, and the whole room began to rise up, causing everyone to stumble in order to keep their balance. “Let’s welcome chaos!” Using their distraction, Arkham dropped to the ground and leg swept everyone into the air, before anyone could recover, he continued his spin, kicking everyone off of the edge of the now ascending room. Dash quickly recovered and charged back up to attack him, only for Jester to blow her back down with an exploding party ball with his face on it.         Everyone harshly crashed to the ground below, but most of them quickly picked themselves up when they saw Arkham walk toward the edge. “Just sit and wait…….. wait for the birth of a new God! I shall take over the power…. of SPARDA!” With that, the room rose out of sight, with Arkham laughing like the power hungry villain that he was. The shaking only become worse, as if the entire tower was shifting form. Rocks fell from the walls and ceiling as the basement, the bottom of the tower, continued to rise toward the top, forcing everyone to move and protect themselves from falling debris. Stepping onto a loose rock, Lady nearly fell further, only to be caught by Twilight just in time.         Eventually, the shaking stopped and silence reigned. Twilight pulled Lady up to stable ground and began breathing deeply. Slowly, Twilight got Lady to stay still so that she could heal and bandage her leg up. “I hope the others are okay…” she thought “Do you see what I mean now?” Lady muttered.         Twilight looked up at her, seeing only anger on her face. “Wha-”         “I actually believed him,” she said, punching the ground, “and he tricked me. I thought, that, for once, everything I knew was wrong. Well it was, I was wrong about him.”         “Lady…..”         “Twilight, you said that you were looking for your brother?”                  “Yes….”         “Well here’s some advice, the next time that you see him, kill him. If he’s out to kill you, then that’s it, kill or be killed. Got that!”         “Lady, I won’t-”         “You don’t have a choice!”         “Yes I do, I’m not going to kill Spike, I won’t do it!”         “So you’re just going to sit and wait until he kills your friends off one by one? From what I’ve heard, he’s already taken one of them-”         Twilight flinched. “He didn't kill her…..”         Lady slowly got up, wrapping bandages around her leg herself. Picking up her launcher  she turned back to face Twilight. “You sure about that? Do you have any proof that she’s even still alive?”         Any further protests died in her throat, it was true, she had no idea what happened to Shia after Spike took her. She could be dead for all she knew. She had no possible way of knowing what he did with her, and she wouldn't know until she saw Spike again. But what then?         “It’s no use, just hunt him down and kill him, before he can kill any more of your family. Don’t be like me, don’t wait till it’s too late-”         “Well screw you!”         Both girls turned toward the new voice, climbing out of a pile of rocks was none other than Rachelle Dash, even though she looked slightly battered, she quickly strode over to Lady with a enraged expression. Poking her in her chest and looking her straight in the eye, Dash began ranting furiously.         “You have no right to tell Twilight not to be like you when you’re just making her exactly like you when you tell her to kill her own brother, a revenge seeking, emo bitch! Just because your dad is messed up, doesn't mean that Spike is, if you want to go on a blood rage, keep it to yourself, in your family, on your hands!”         “How can you still trust him after he-” “ I don’t believe for a second that he killed Shia!”         “You don’t have any-”         “I don’t need any goddamned proof! I know for a fact, right here,” she yelled, pointing to her heart. “that Spike, evil or not, would never ever harm his friends. Shia is alive and safe somewhere, and when we’re done here, we are going to find her, got that!”         Lady stared down the smaller girl before sucking her teeth and turning away toward the large column jutting out of the floor the lifted up the room. “Whatever, if you want to delude yourself, go ahead. I for one, won’t make the same mistake twice, this time, I’m going to finish him off.” Aiming her launcher toward the tower, she shot out a grappling hook from the underside of the cannon. Hooking on to something high up, she gave a few tugs to test the stability of the hook.         “No matter what you think, the simple fact is that he’s out to kill you now. If you don’t want to see everyone you love die, you’ll follow my advice.” With that, she retracted the cable and flew up the begin her ascent on the tower.         With Lady gone, Dash huffed in annoyance and turned toward Twilight, who continued to stare at her with wide eyes. “How can you have so much blind faith in Spike. Lady had a point, we don’t even know what he did after he took Shia.”         Dash lent a hand and helped Twilight stand. “Because, I’m not a dork. Seriously, weren't you listening. I don’t need proof and neither should you. In fact, how can you not have faith in him, you’re his sister after all.”         “I just….”         “Come on, let’s go find the others, we got separated after all the shaking.”         “O...okay.”