The Girl That Never Was

by Onomonopia

Devoid

The streets were abandoned, devoid of any life within them. There was also a darkness in the city, a darkness created by the dome of darkness that covered the sky, blocking out the sun. Yet as Xion walked through the streets she felt slightly better than she had in a long time. At least she physically felt better. The fact that there were only buildings covered in darkness and all of the ponies that should have been there were missing made her nervous.

Since the two of them weren't being attacked at the moment, Xion summoned her keyblade and removed the keychain from it, returning its form to the Kingdom Key. The key returned to its regular form for only a minute, as Xion pulled out Applejack's keychain from within in coat and attached it to the key. In a flash of light the key changed shape and form, before the light died down and Xion was allowed to look over her weapon.

It was pretty much what she had been expecting. The main blade was a tree trunk and the teeth was a large, red apple. The guard of the blade was a wagon wheel, with a few spokes attached to the handle. And the keychain was another red apple. What Xion hadn't been expecting was the massive boost of strength she got from the blade, making it her most powerful weapon to date.

'This will come in handy,' Xion thought to herself as she took a few test swings, getting a handle on her weapons before she started to slink through the streets. "So we come across one city where all the ponies have been mind controlled and now we come across one where all the ponies are missing. What are the odds the next city we come across will have something weird going on with it?"

'This isn't the time for jokes, Xion,' Sombra said in a serious tone. 'This isn't like the other city we went to. Dark things happened in these streets and I can feel the horror and panic that went on here like it happened the other day. The Heartless took this town, Xion. And they didn't leave any ponies behind.'

"That's not good. That's...I don't know, how many ponies make up a city?"

'Back in my day the biggest city would hold over fifty thousand ponies. And they've only gotten bigger in the thousand years I've been sealed away,' Sombra revealed in a nervous tone.

"Which means all of those ponies have most likely been turned into Heartless," Xion growled before she lifted her blade. "Can you feel Twilight at all in this city? Or am I going to be fighting her Heartless and most likely her Nobody?"

'...no, I can feel her Rainbow Power. It's faint but it's still hear,' Sombra clarified for Xion. 'But it's at the center of the city and we can guess how easy it will be to get to her. Not to mention I feel a lot of Heartless moving around here. We're going to have to be on our guard.'

Xion nodded to Sombra before she started to move through the city, racing through the abandoned streets with her eyes open. She had made it a few city blocks before a couple of Shadows spotted her. Instead of running off to gather more forces, the Shadows lunged towards the keyblade wielder with reckless abandon.

Xion didn't spend much time on the Shadows. With her new keyblades added strength she cleaved through them with no issues, leaving the streets empty except for her a short time later. Yet the moment the Heartless were cut down, she then snapped her head in the direction that they were heading. Xion narrowed her eyes for a moment, gaining Sombra's attention.

'What's up, Xion?' Sombra asked.

"I think that the cloaked being is here," Xion muttered as she started to walk towards the center of the city. A cry of pain escaped her lips and she fell to one knee, seething with pain as she clutched at her left shoulder. "Dammit all, that hurts. What is happening?"

'Your body is breaking down faster than I thought,' Sombra said once he had managed to worm his way out of Xion's pockets. 'You using your dark powers to defeat the Heartless outside of the dome has advanced the rate at which you're falling apart. I don't know how much longer you have, but I do know that it is not long.'

"All the more reason to find Twilight quickly," Xion snarled as she pushed herself back up to her feet, still clutching at her shoulder with pain.

'Xion, you do not need to be pushing yourself right now. What you need is to take a moment and rest, recover from what your dark form did to your body,' Sombra advised in a concerned voice. Xion ignored him and pushed on through the pain. 'Xion, listen to me. If you push yourself too hard now your body will break down and you won't be able to get to the beach.'

"We'll get to the beach after we make sure that Twilight is safe," Xion snarled in reply, before she closed her eyes and staggered from the pain.

'Xion, I am telling you to stop and recover!' Sombra snarled.

"Why do you care so much?" Xion asked Sombra, who was grateful to see that her question had gotten her to stop moving. "Why do you care so much about me? I'm a puppet to you, remember? A pawn in your game that you're using to return you to your former power and then to take over Equestria."

'And restore the balance of light and darkness,' Sombra added on.

"Really? I thought you made that up to try and trick me into thinking you were on a noble mission," Xion added, before she glared down at the horn in her hand. "Why, Sombra? Why do you care?"

'...look Xion, I may be an evil king, but I'm not a heartless, pardon the irony,' Sombra said with a chuckle. 'I have had numerous apprentices over the years, but none of them have ever had the skill, talent or patience as you. In fact, it's safe to say that your magical skills may already match mine, if not surpass them.'

"Excuse me?"

'I may be evil, but I am no fool. In just a few weeks you have brought your magic and skills with both darkness and light to a level that I cannot reach. I know. I tried,' Sombra bitterly admitted. 'Yet you have far more potential than me. You could reach a whole new level of magic and surpass me in every way. I'm including being evil on that list, but I doubt you'll do that.'

"Too bad that my dark and light powers are killing me," Xion said with a dry chuckle.

'We'll get to fixing that eventually. But the reason I care so much Xion, if you must know, is that I want to see how far you can go. I want to see what new limits you'll get to or if you even have limits at all,' Sombra said with what sounded like genuine joy in his voice. 'Would I love to have my body back? Sure. Would I love to rule the Crystal Empire again? Of course. Would I desire to see Celestia and Luna cast into Tartarus where they burn for eternity? I'd sell my soul for that if I hadn't sold it already.'

'But above all of that I want to see you grow. I want to see you become the magical master that you can be. You see Xion, you've done what no other apprentice of mine has done. You've impressed me, to the point that I actually care about you. And no other being has managed to get that out of me,' Sombra revealed.

"Sombra..." Xion muttered with a small smile at Sombra, before a bolt of lightning cracked across the sky. The earth heaved under Xion's feet and she was flung to the ground, grunting with pain as she landed back first onto the concrete. "Ugh, that hurt. And now my shoulder's hurting again. Freaking great."

'Xion, stop complaining about the pain in your shoulder and look up. Because I guarantee that you'll have something else to complain about,' Sombra advised Xion. Xion shook the pain from her eyes and looked up as Sombra advised, only to feel the color drain from her face as she realized what she was looking at.

A colossal Heartless made of pure darkness was towering over them. The Heartless had a heart shape hole missing in its chest, allowing the two to see right through it. The Heartless had strands of black hair that shot out in every direction and a scarf of darkness covered the face of the Heartless. Yet what drew the eyes of Xion was the twin yellow eyes of the Heartless, eyes which stared down at her.

Before either Sombra or Xion could speak the Darkside brought back a massive fist and hurled it at where Xion was standing. The girl had just enough time to through herself out of the way before the fist collided with the concrete, shattering it to pieces and generating a shockwave powerful enough to send her flying across the city street. She rolled to a stop next to a fire hydrant, where she pushed herself up to her feet.

Her keyblade was back in her hands a moment later, filling her with confidence as she glared up at the Darkside. The Heartless brought back another fist and hurled it towards Xion once more, yet this time Xion was ready for the Heartless this time. She kicked off the ground and landed on the wrist of the Heartless, before she started to race up the arm of the Heartless and headed towards its face.

'Xion, you aren't at full strength! You need to retreat and heal!' Sombra roared, but Xion couldn't hear him at that point. With a roar she hurled herself off of the shoulder of the Heartless, sailing towards its head with her keyblade held over her head. The Heartless turned its head just in time to take a keyblade to the face, snapping the Heartless head to the side as her blade slashed across its face.

The Heartless began to fall to the ground, yet Xion didn't give the Heartless a moment to breath. She landed on the side of its head and drove the end of her keyblade into the side of its head, firing multiple burst of firaga into the Heartless head. She hurled herself off the side of the head and aimed at the Heartless's eyes as she fell, unleashing chunks of ice into the eyes of the Heartless. The Heartless crashed into the ground as the ice struck its eyes, finishing the Heartless off and causing it to vanish into the darkness once more. Xion stared at the spot where it had vanished for a moment before she turned and continued on her path.

'That right there is what I'm talking about,' Sombra said to Xion, who lifted the horn so that she could see it. 'When I first met you we fought a Heartless that was nowhere near as big as that one, yet you barely managed to take it down. Yet this time you walked through that giant like he was nothing. All in a matter of weeks. Your progress is like nothing I have ever seen in any of my apprentices. Or me in fact.'

"Heh, it's weird hearing somebody be so proud of me, let alone you being proud of me," Xion replied with a small smile.

'You're someone who's worth being proud of. Now come on, we're getting close to Twilight.'

=======
No. XIV
=======

Neither Sombra nor Xion had been expecting a dome within a dome, yet as the two reached the center of the city that was what they found. A giant, violet barrier blocked their path and through the barrier Xion could see ponies on the other side of it. There was only a few of them and they all looked terrified, but Xion was just relieved to see that some of them had managed to survive.

What she didn't like seeing was a violet alicorn in the center of the barrier, who sat with her horn glowing and darkness blazing in her eyes. 'That can't be good. Twilight's tried to tap into dark powers in the past, including my power once or twice, but if she's like this then something is wrong.'

"Is this her barrier?" Xion asked Sombra as she approached the barrier, getting the ponies behind the barrier to back away from her.

'Yep. This is one hundred percent alicorn magic. Meaning it should take all of ten seconds for me to deal with this and let us in,' Sombra said as his horn started to glow, but before he could do anything Xion covered his horn with her hand.

"Hang on, it looks like Twilight has been using this barrier to keep out the Heartless," Xion noticed as she pressed a hand against the barrier, feeling a bit of pain lance through her hand. "That's impressive, actually. The Heartless are normally impossible to keep out, unless you lock a world, but she's managed to construct a barrier that would keep out all darkness, including mine. She really is as good as you said she is."

'Feh, she's alright, but I've seen what real talent looks like and Twilight's a five in the talent department at best,' Sombra said with a sigh of disgust. 'But her magic lacks imagination and the ability to be flexible. See this barrier you're so proud of?' Sombra asked, before he fired a bolt of darkness from his horn and tore a hole open in the barrier.

The ponies let out a gasp of horror as Xion stepped through the barrier and backed away from her in terror. Xion ignored their reactions and walked over to where Twilight was, only to be stopped when a small dragon stepped in front of her path and glared up at her. Xion raised an eyebrow at the small dragon, before Sombra let out a cackle that turned the dragon's attention towards her hand.

'Well look who it is, the little dragon that thinks himself a hero,' Sombra mocked with delight, while the dragon narrowed his eyes at Sombra's horn. 'I had wondered what Twilight was doing here without her pet, but it seems she brought you along with her. What's the matter, was she afraid you'd pee on the floor with her gone?'

The dragon narrowed his eyes at Sombra's words, but then he turned his full attention to Xion. "Yep, it's you alright. Twilight told me that a strange being with a changing face might be coming this way, so I've been on the lookout. Btu she also told me if I had any doubts that they were also carrying Sombra's horn. And since you've got the annoying blowhard, I guess that makes you the being."

"You and Twilight heard about me from one of your friends, didn't you?" Xion asked the dragon, who nodded his head. "Yeah, we came here to find Twilight. We've met with the other five members of the Ambassadors and gotten the keychains from them, which leaves Twilight as the only one left. But I can tell that something has happened here."

"We were here dealing with a small amount of Heartless. They were tough, but with what Twilight had learned about them she was able to deal with them without too much trouble," the dragon admitted before he hung his head. "But then another being showed up, one that turned the tide of the battle. He wore a black cloak and had a strange weapon the likes of which we'd never seen before. And he commanded the Heartless to fight us like a general would."

'The cloaked being,' Sombra whispered to Xion, who nodded her head.

"Twilight found that the Heartless are generally mindless beings, but under the cloaked beings control they fought far more organized. It was all Twilight could do to keep the small amount of ponies you see here safe. She cast this barrier to defend us, but not before she was struck by the beings key like weapon," the dragon revealed before looking back at Twilight. "And now she's in the state you see her in. We can't snap her out of it. I don't know what else to do to help her."

'That's because you are an idiot pupil of an idiot pony who is another idiot student of the biggest idiot in all of the land,' Sombra replied with a laugh, gaining him a glare from the dragon. 'Step aside Spike and allow two professionals to deal with this.'

'So what are we looking at here?' Sombra asked Xion once the two had walked over to where Twilight sat. Xion looked directly into Twilight's eyes for a long moment, snapping her fingers once or twice before a sigh escaped her lips. Xion then summoned her keyblade and pointed the tip of it towards Twilight, getting cries of shock from the ponies that were watching.

"Her hearts been locked," Xion revealed, getting Sombra to sigh in reply. "The only way she can snap out of the state she's in is if someone unlocks her heart from within her heart. This isn't going to be easy."

'It's something convoluted. Why am I not surprised?' Sombra snarked in reply. 'I don't want to know any of the details or anything like that. All I want to know is can you undo it?'

"I don't know. I've never-"

'...dive...'

"Actually, I have an idea. If I can dive into her heart, I should be able to," Xion muttered as she stood up and walked a bit away from Twilight, before turning around and pointing her key towards Twilight.

'Can you do that?'

"Only one way to find out."

"Only one way to find out what?" Spike asked, getting Xion to glance down at the dragon. "What are you going to do?"

"Hopefully I'm going to be able to save Twilight from what has been done to her," Xion replied as a sphere of light emerged around the tip of her blade. When the sphere appeared, a small orb of light appeared just above Twilight, with a sea of darkness inside of it.

'Do you know what you're doing?' Sombra asked.

"For the first time since I've gotten here, I do. This is what Maestro wanted me to do originally, so I know exactly what I'm about to do," Xion replied with a sigh, gripping her key slightly tighter. "How ironic that to save Twilight I have to do what that monster wanted. I bet if he was watching now he'd laugh at me."

'I can laugh at you if it makes you feel any better.'

"Thanks Sombra. Always got my back." And then Xion fired a beam of light from her keyblade right into the sphere over Twilight's body. An unlocking sound could be heard and a moment later Xion vanished from the view of the ponies and the dragon. She had dived into Twilight's heart.

Comments

[badninja]

So after all of this should we consider Xion a keyblade master?

[Mother3Forever]

[rikusorasephiroth]

8236617
No. She'd need a heart of her own, but she's specifically made to copy a heart based on memories absorbed, and thus can never truly have her own heart.

[GamePlayer64]

8236617
A Keyblade Warrior but not a master... yet.

[the other sans]

It's faint but it's still hear
didn't give the Heartless a moment to breath
She landed on the side of its head and drove the end of her keyblade into the side of its head
Btu she also told me if I had any doubts that they were

1. Here.
2. Breathe.
3. Redundant line, better to use It in this case.
4. But.

[Reishin Amara]

Ha ,I'm betting that Sombra becomes a keychain while Xion gets a body...I mean..it's basically his job right now anyway.

[Clockwork Unity]

Massive strength boost? I'm having kingdom hearts flashbacks, using Oblivion to one shot everything but Ansem.

[Flutters Is Shy]

8236950
Until Final Mix. They nerfed Oblivion. By the time you get it, its shit compared to what you have. It is honestly a slap in the face that they lowered its damage.

[Anachronon]

So Twilight's heart is trapped in darkness and Xion "has to do what Maestro desired all along". Does that mean Xion will have to beat down Twilight in order to save her? With that I mean that she would have to put her from her "Being of Light/Harmony Magic" status to "Neutral" and fill her to some degree with darkness? Or does she have to beat the darkness inside of Twilight in order to "release" her?

Sombra meantîoned that she tried to use dark magic and failed and that it went wrong somehow this time.

Hm, I'm intersted to see what happens next. No matter what.

[Clockwork Unity]

8236999 At least it still looked cool.

[fractalman]

8236641
Pinnochio grew a heart. As Sombra pointed out, she seems to be growing a heart of her own. She's almost aqcuired 6 keychains corresponding to the Elements of Harmony, aka the local deus-ex-machinas. Finally, a certiain someone messed with her, and who knows WHAT that's changed.

[rikusorasephiroth]

8237176
No. Pinocchio was MADE WITH a heart. Same goes for Sally.
Xion and the Riku-replica were made to be REFLECTIONS of hearts, using memories.

[Daemon Wolf 22]

8237176
A Deus ex Machina is something that comes out of nowhere, no foreshadowing, no on-screen mentions, no nothing, and saves the day, and tends to vanish as quickly as it came. NOT something that comes as a result of plot-important macguffins the characters specifically need in order to win, NOT something that's been built up to for a whole season. The Elements of Harmony may be instant win buttons, but every single time the ponies had to WORK to get those instant win buttons.

[fractalman]

8239453
Your nitpick is noted.

[Texus]

I saw that the story is complete and the way it happened it seems to soon, but it is still nice.