Kingdom Hearts F.I.M: Rise of The Elements

by Spirit Shift

CH58: Split Up

“Fire” Dash yelled, as she dropped down from the sky in a blaze of glory.

Scorching under her feet laid the smoldering remains of the heartless she had just dive bombed. Around her, cautiously approaching, were three of the same fidgeting masses of darkness. They were small and weak, yet still in the shape of the dragon heartless she had battled before.

“Tch” she sucked her teeth while readying her blade. As her eyes fell from enemy to enemy she couldn’t help but feel as if something were wrong, something… incorrect about something. Was it something about this world? Something about these particular heartless? Or was there something wrong with her?

As much as she extended her senses, she could quite place what exactly this off feeling was.

So instead, she charged forth, swinging her keyblade down on the heartless in front of her, and continued her search.

Meanwhile, Twilight quietly led her group out of the settlement and into the plains. Following them were two dragon warriors, Talos, the loud fighter wielding a broadsword, and Areth, the stoic warrior who wielded only a set of razer sharp metal gauntlets.

As the group moved away from the settlement, Twilight slowed to a stop while AJ moved to stand next to her.

“You doin’ alright there, sugarcube?” she asked, concern written across her face.

Twilight shook her head. “No, but we have a job to do.” She held out her keyblade, both hands clutching the handle. “We can figure out our feelings later.”

A dim glow began to flow around her weapon, growing slowly and eerily.

“Scan!” Twilight called out At once the glow that had been building around her weapon shot out in all directions, creating a sphere that only grew and grew until it had reached the horizon. After a second, the glow died down.

“I found them,” said Twilight, turning to the group. “I found a powerful heartless nearby. I’m sure it’s surrounded by smaller ones as well. Let’s go!”

Talos turned to Areth and gave him a wry grin. “You ready? Don’t you dare die out there, weakling.”

Areth merely gave him a side eye, his frown only slightly deeper than normal. However, when he tried to walk, he found the broad end of a broad sword holding him back.

“Halt“, Talos said, all mirth gone from his tone. “I’m serious. How the hell did you convince Trial to let you come with us? He should have sent an ACTUAL warrior like his son.”

Talos turned to look at Areth, their eyes meeting before Areth’s own turned away. And his avoidance was all Talos needed.

Without a second thought, he shoved Areth back and stood over him. “I knew it!!” he yelled, getting the girls attention. “You’re a coward and a failure!” he bellowed, raising his blade.

Immediately, he was grappled from behind by a girl in orange. AJ wrapped her arms up under his and locked her grip behind his head. Chinlock in place, she pulled him, almost effortlessly, a few feet away.

“Now what the sam hell are you doin’!” she screamed.

Both Rarity and Twilight stood over Areth. While the former helped him up, the latter glared daggers at Talos who continued to struggle against AJ’s grapple.

“Why did you do that! Aren't you partners!” Twilight chided, trying to keep her voice neutral.

“Partners?” Talos spat. “With him? Hell no! He’s not supposed to be here! Tyros is!” As well as he could, he pointed at Areth with a rigid finger. “He probably begged him to switch places! A coward begs, a warrior would have challenged Tyros for the right!”

Areth growled and tried to take a step forward, only to be stopped by Rarity, who simply shook her head.

“Listen,” Twilight began. “It doesn't matter who came with you, we’re here to protect your people. Anyone who’s brave enough to come out is welcome to fight!”

Talos sneered at her, but ceased struggling nonetheless.

With a nod from Twilight, AJ let Talos down, who scoffed. “I bet he won't even be able to touch them.”

Twilight rolled her eyes and waved her Keyblade in a small arc in front of her. Both Areth’s claws and Talos’ sword gained a faint whitish glow.

“Neither would you without my magic,” she said.

Talos looked at his blade for a few seconds before scoffing and putting it back across his back. “I wasn’t talking about the weapons, keyblade user.”

As Talos turned to walk away, Rarity whispered to Areth. “Don’t listen to him,” she said, her voice soft and serene. She looked up, avoiding the scar and looking into his eyes. “If your friend Tyros allowed you to come, then he MUST believe in you as a warrior!”

Twilight nodded. “She’s right. I saw how they treat you. I know you can’t say it, but I’ve seen that look before.” Twilight stared him right in the eyes. “You want to prove yourself? Fight the heartless, not him!”

Areth’s stoic demeanor broke. For just a second, his brows unfurrowed and the small etchings of a smile formed at his lips. However, just as fleeting as the wind, it passed, and his normal expression returned.

Areth nodded, and moved forward.

~~~

Spinning through the air, Dash came down in a thunderous crash on a writhing mass of darkness. In a split second she turned and sliced through two more before flying into the air and raising her Keyblade into the sky, ready to use her signature spell.

“Thunder!” she called, her voice booming through the sky.

Silence ensued as the heartless she had been aiming at stared up at her. Cocking its head and observing her with its wide yellow eyes.

Dash’s mouth formed into a tight frown. With a deep growl, she threw her keyblade down, slicing through the heartless instead.

However, before she could call it back, a searing pain tore through her back, throwing her down to the ground.

A pitch black heartless flew above her, just outside her blind spot, taunting her just like the previous one.

Dash hissed through her teeth as she looked up at the heartless. Slowly, she got to her feet.

“Spiral!” she called, summoning the sterling silver rifle she received from her time on Dante’s world. Bracing herself on her back leg she let loose three shots in quick succession towards the enemy in the air.

However, to her shock, the heartless flew through the air with surprising speed, easily evading the shots as they whizzed by it.

“Damn,” Dash cursed under her breath. “Well at least I get to try my new move,” she said, a small smirk finally coming back onto her face.

Exhaling a deep breath, she allowed her magic to flow into the demonic weapon. Just like she suspected, it was receptive to her power, just her keyblade was… or at least how it had been before.

With her magic flowing through the gun, it began to emit a small glow.

Unfortunately, her channeling was cut short by the sound of wind rushing and the sight of the heartless rushing towards her at max speed. Breaking her concentration, Dash blocked the attack with the broad side of her rifle.

Locked in place she struggled, pushing against her enemy while trying not to fall backwards. If she fell backwards and allowed that monster to mount her, it would be all over.

And she could feel it, her back leg losing ground, if she let it keep pushing it would force her back before long. ‘Her mind raced, should she try to let go and roll back, would she be able to counterattack? Can she channel lightning through Spiral like she could her keyblade?’

As she held on, she shut her eyes and attempted to concentrate her magic into Spiral. But try as she might it wouldn't take, she needed more time to build the magic up.

“Oh my god you’re so damn useless on your own!” a voice rang out.

Before she could react to the insult, a sudden shock wave finally broke Dash’s guard and forced her backwards and onto her back.

By the time she had been able to lean up and see what happened, the heartless had already been sliced in two and were disappearing.

And behind the fading wisps of darkness, a silhouette stood. A short figure, almost her own height with seemingly straight hair and a very sharp looking weapon.

“Who’s there! Who said that!!!” Dash yelled, struggling to see through the fading mists.

Suddenly the figure leapt at Dash, who by that point, had managed to recover her keyblade. However, instead of a charge, she found herself wrapped up in a tight Pinkie Pie hug by none other than the girl herself!!

“P-Pinkie… I… you? Did you do that?” she asked, looking over at where the heartless just was. Her bewilderment immediately swapped back to anger as she looked back at the girl in her arms, “Did you SAY that!”

Pinkie pulled herself away from her friends and looked at her in the eyes, a small smile on her face. “Say what, Dashie?”

Dash also stared at her. Her voice sounded normal, nothing like what she heard through the mist, and her hair was just as poofy as it always was. She looked back again at where she was just fighting, a single brow raised in confusion.

“N-nothing,” she muttered.

The two separated, Pinkie hopping in place in front of Dash. “I’m so glad I found you! Are you alright? Why’d you run off? Are you on a secret mission?! Are you hungry!?” she asked, rapid firing several questions at once.

Dash, already used to this, simply brushed the dirt and soot off of her outfit and waited out the onslaught.

“Pinkie, what are you doing out here?” she asked simply. Completely ignoring all of the other girls' questions.

“Looking for you, silly!” she giggled.

Dash rolled her eyes. “Yeah, but did Twilight send you?” she said, leaning in close.

Pinkie simply shook her head. Said shaking had the hilarious side effect of hitting Dash in the face with her curly pink locks and causing the girl in question to laugh.

Dash sputtered and spat around before groaning. “Whatever. I’m looking for Jinkei.”

Pinkie tilted her head. “The keyblade user? What for?”

Dash opened her mouth to talk, but paused for a second before turning away. “Don’t worry about it, I just wanna talk to him. You should go back to Twilight.” she said sullenly.

“Don’t wanna!”

Dash turned around to see Pinkie standing staunchly with her arms crossed and brow furrowed. “Not till you tell me what you and Twilight were talking about!”

“You… weren’t listening to the telepathic link?” she asked, slowly.

“Nope!” Pinkie said proudly. “I’m not allowed to ‘cuz my thoughts are too loud!” She gave an excited thumbs up and a cute wink.

This just caused Dash to stare at her for a second, utterly unsure of how to respond. Eventually, she decided to just leave it alone and attempt to move on, both physically and metaphorically.

“Whatever, just go back to Twilight, she’s probably worried sick,” Dash tried to move past her, only to be teleported back to directly in front of Pinkie.

Challenge accepted, Dash furrowed her brow and, in the blink of an eye, took flight above and around Pinkie. She barely got a meter away before being transported back to Pinkie’s eye level.

This occurred several more times as Dash tried to escape Pinkie’s questioning gaze, each and every time not getting more than a few seconds away before being pulled back by Pinkie’s unique magical spell.

Eventually, after one attempt caused her to fall face first into the ground, she threw her hands up into the air and yelled. “Fine! You wanna know why I wanna find Jinkei so much!?”

Pinkie just threw her arms out, her eyes wide and mouth a straight line “Mmhm!!”

This took the wind out of Dash’s sails and she calmed down with a single deep breath. “I… I need to know,” she started, mumbling. “I need to know if Trial’s story was right. Jinkei was there. He’ll know the real story!”

“You think he’d lie?” Pinkie said softly.

“I don’t know,” Dash spat. Her fists locked in a tight grip, she stared at the ground. “Maybe… I mean, what if he is! What if he’s wrong and Areth lied, I…” she trailed off.

Dash fell to the ground in a squat, her face hidden near her legs. “I just want to believe in Spike.”

Carefully, Pinkie moved over to Dash’s side and sat next to her.

“Twilight and AJ think Spike’s gone off the deep end, that he’s out here destroying worlds and… and they might be right.”

Dash felt a soft hand on her back, and just as she looked up, Pinkie wrapped her up completely in a hug.

“Oh Dashie, I know how you feel!” Pinkie cried, holding her tight.

“You… you don’t think he did it?”

Pinkie continued to hold her friend. “I… can’t say I do completely. A part of me thinks he did, but another thinks he’s still our friend. It’s hard to think about.”

Dash began to feel a slight shaking, a single glance told her it was coming from Pinkie’s shoulders.

“But all I know is that it's tearing us apart. I hate seeing my friends fight!” she said, sniffling lightly. Her voice shaking, she continued. “I just want us all to be happy and laugh, but when we talk about Spike, everyone gets quiet and angry and then you three start arguing and I… I just don't know what to do. I feel like I can’t do anything.”

Dash hesitated for only the slightest moment before wrapping her own arms around her friend as she sobbed quietly.

Author's Note:

Copied from my blog post cuz i want you guys' opinions. But

I'm trying to figure out a decent chapter upload schedule. Should i attempt to do Both ROTE and Sunset helpers once a week or do a biweekly alternating schedule for both. One week ROTE and the next week Sunset Helpers. Or should i literally just upload when i finish a chapter. What do you guys think?

Also if you wanna come say hi, get an update on the fanfics, or just hang. Come chill in my server. We hold drawing parties, watch togethers and we set the chat on fire

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Comments

[IceFire1865]

Brilliant work, can't wait to hear/see more :)

[Spirit Shift]

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