Kairi began to regain consciousness, and when she opened her eyes, she saw that she was inside the Committee building. She asked herself what had happened, but she soon remembered the last thing that happened.
“Are you okay, Kairi?”
Kairi turned around, finding Aqua beside her with a worried face, just like the others inside the building.
“Yes I think so,” Kairi replied, putting her hand on her head where she could feel a small headache.
“Goodness. You had us very worried,” Ventus said.
Kairi started to get up slowly, “And that woman?”
“No idea. When I got up, I only saw her next to you before disappearing. I don't know who she was, but she was really skilled,” Terra replied.
“First Death, and now this,” Kairi said, rubbing her neck, “What that woman actually wanted?”
“The truth is that's what we want to talk to you about,” Aerith replied.
Kairi looked at the woman confused when without warning Yuffie she brought two small mirrors closer, one facing behind her neck, and another in front of her facing the mirror behind her.
“Tell me what you see?” Yuffie asked.
She was confused at her question, but when she looked at the reflection, she could see that the reflection from the other mirror showed some kind of mark on her neck. More precisely, a circle with small runes, too small to read with the human eye.
“What? That wasn't there before!” Kairi exclaimed upon seeing the mark.
“You can say it,” Yuffie said, “When they told me what it was, it scared me out of my pants.”
Kairi looked at her in confusion, when Merlin spoke, “I was able to recognize that brand. It's a magic seal, and from what I could feel, that mark was created to keep that specter from attacking you again, “
“I mean, does this protect me from Death?”
“If we talk about the physical incarnation, yes.”
“Well, it's good to know,” Kairi said, knowing that now that being, Death, will not attack her again without warning.
She soon noticed that there were fewer people in the building than before, “Where are Ansem and the others?”
“After what happened, Ansem and the others returned to the castle to investigate a little about this matter, as well as other cases,” Cid explained.
“What other cases?”
“Yes. The residents of Radiant Garden have reportedly spotted strange creatures roaming the area in recent weeks. The minority ended up in attacks, but at least they were solved by Tron,” Aerith replied.
“Oh yeah,” Kairi said, “Cid mentioned something to me about it when he told me, while Cid was nodding.
“The events were too isolated, and none of them were linked to the Heartless,” Leon replied, “Reason why we didn't give it importance.
“But after this latest incident, I asked Ansem to look into it. Although I already have the feeling of knowing what happens, “
“Merlin..,” Kairi started, but then she heard the door slam, and looking in her direction she saw a red-haired man that she recognized.
“Kairi, are you okay?!” Asked Lea, who had opened the door abruptly.
“Go ahead, break the door! As you’re not paying it!” Cid exclaimed.
“Axel?” Kairi asked, immediately followed by Roxas in as well, “Roxas? What are you two doing here?”
“Ventus has told us,” Roxas replied as she approached “Are you okay?”
“Yes, I'm OK. But aren't you and Xion supposed to-”
“We were on a break when Ventus called us, so don't worry about it,” Roxas said with a smile, “Xion and Isa are taking care of everything in Twilight Town for now.”
“Well, Terra, tell me: is it true that a woman has knocked you down like nothing?” Lea asked mockingly.
“You weren't there!” Terra exclaimed, “He was very agile. Really agile, “
“If you say it,” Lea nodded.
Kairi then turned her gaze to Merlin, “Do you actually know something about all this, right?”
“It's a possibility, but maybe I'm wrong,” Merlin replied.
“Then talk. What's all this about thins Death being around here and everything else?” Lea asked.
“Okay, I'll explain it,” Merlin said, “Several years ago, long before Xehanort destroyed Radiant Garden, there was a being of unparalleled dark power, capable of controlling even Death itself and binding it to his will. His name was Dracula.”
“Little we know about this being, but it is said that thanks to his magic he was able to control beings whose origin is found in nightmares.”
“You mean the Dream Eaters?” Ventus interrupted.
“No, but the idea is the same, no matter where you look at it. These beings essentially take what most terrifies people, and they take that form,” Merlin explained.
“Beware of the beings that are born and feed on fear,” Cid interrupted, who was leaning back in the chair, “Be careful what you fear in his presence, for that fear will turn into truth, to torment those around you. Do not fear them, for fear strengthens them, consuming everything in darkness, “
“Very good, Cid!” Merlin congratulated, “And I was thinking that you barely had any brain in that head of yours.”
“Sorry?” Lea asked, confused.
“Those are the phrases that we heard for a long time. They talk about creatures that transform into what we fear. Those of us who remember them still call them Fallen. I never thought that I would remember those texts after more than a decade of their disappearance, “
“Fallen?” Kairi asked, having the strange feeling of having met them before.
“Sinister creatures that are created in the same way as the Heartless,” Cid said, “Moreover, I would say that they are a sub-race belonging to these.”
“Like the Heartless, these are formed when both the heart and soul succumb to darkness. They are originally formless, until they come into contact with the essence of fear, acquiring both corporeal form and the knowledge of how that form works,” Merlin said.
“Zombies, skeletons, bats, giant lizards, mutants, demons… whatever you fear, they will become that. Although I have heard of some rare cases…” Cid said.
“Those things are really scary, really,” Yuffie commented on the story.
“Trust me, that's nothing,” Cid said.
“Was it said is that Dracula was able to control the Fallen at will, in the same way that Xehanort was able of control the Heartless,” Merlin said, “But this puzzles me, as both he and the Fallen have disappeared over a decade ago.”
“And the woman from before?” Terra asked, “Does it have something to do with this?”
“If the description you have given me of the robe is correct, I doubt it,” Merlin replied, “If I am correct, that robe belonged to the Order of the Phoenix, which has been considered extinct for years.”
“So are we talking about a copycat?” Ventus asked.
“The Order of the Phoenix,” Lea said, “I think Xigbar mentioned that name when we were in the Organization XIII. He said that he found an abandoned tower that belonged to the order. But he said there was no use interacting there, “
“It would surely be the remains of the tower,” Merlin replied to Lea.
“Ok... we have a specter that shouldn't exist, and a woman of an order that shouldn't exist,” Roxas listed, “Does anyone else think something is wrong here?”
“Yes, something does not fit in all this,” Lea said and soon a strange noise began to be heard outside the house, “What's that noise?”
“I'll see,” Yuffie said and opened the door, but she closed it suddenly when she opened it, pale, “Guys we have company!”
Leon, Lea, Terra, Ventus, Roxas, Aqua, and Kairi, in that order, left the house after Yuffie but found absolutely nothing. They looked closely too but found absolutely nothing.
“Well, I don't see anything here..,” Kairi said to Yuffie, but she jumped as she looked at Kairi.
“Behind you!”
Kairi immediately turned around, and scared, she started backing slowly, since right in front of her was a man, or worse. He appeared to be wearing a single extremely tattered and torn robe, although what made her most nervous was that the body itself was all purple and half rotting. And this thing was slowly advancing towards Kairi.
“It must be a joke, isn’t it?!” Lea said and sends his chakram, hitting the thing on the head.
The sudden blow caused it to vanish into a cloud of darkness like the Heartless, letting out a heart and a glowing sphere at the same time.
Kairi breathed in relief, but the calm did not last long, as soon several luminous circles with pentagons appeared on the ground, and from them more creatures identical to the first began to rise, beginning to surround them.
“Are they what I think they are?!” Lea asked.
“Fallen!” Aqua exclaimed, preparing her Keyblade
“Exactly!” Leon said with his pistol saber at the ready.
“We better clean up while Tron prepares the defense system against these things,” Yuffie suggested.
Kairi summons her Keyblade and prepares to fight, but for a moment she is confused when she sees the mark of a bat with outstretched wings on the forehead of some of the zombies as if she had seen it before, but being completely incapable of remembering it, she shook the idea from her head and got into position, just as she had been taught, just before the zombies rushed on them.
Leon was the first to start attacking the creatures with quick movements with his weapon, not allowing them to easily surround him. At the same time, Yuffie dedicated herself to keeping the distance between her and the zombies, while she launched large numbers of shurikens at them. Lea was also busy fighting them using his Keyblade, although on more than one occasion he turned them into Chakram to launch them against the most distant zombies and used his fire magic against the closest ones until she could recover the weapon from her.
Kairi was fighting as best she could with the knowledge she had, but she could see that as the fight dragged on, she became more expert and saw very well that with enemies like these it was necessary to maintain distances, so she did not hesitate to start to use her Firaga spell, which proved to be a very useful spell against them.
Aqua advanced fiercely, striking the Fallen with her Keyblade left and right, sometimes using her magic to contain the monsters' surprise attacks. At the same time, Roxas fluently struck the zombies with his two Keyblades, wreaking havoc on the enemy with her swift attacks. It wasn't unusual to see him take down three of them in one go.
Terra fought fiercely by striking nearby Fallen with his Keyblade, demonstrating his physical superiority against the countless zombies. At the same time, Ventus goes from side to side beating the Fallen and using his agility to eliminate the monsters that ended up near him.
After several minutes, most of the zombies were dispatched. Kairi was about to be attacked by the last remaining zombies at the same time, but soon a sphere rolled towards them and exploded, turning them into hearts and luminous spheres. Kairi breathed in relief when she saw that she had finally finished.
"It seems that Tron has managed to form a system against these beings,” Leon said.
"Yes. I will thank it as soon I see it,” Kairi said with a smile.
“I must admit, princess. You have done quite well for your first battle after waking up. I thought you would be rustier after sleeping so much,” Lea congratulated Kairi.
"Thank you!" Kairi said, “You should thank Master Aqua for it though.”
"True,” Aqua said.
"Still she's been fine fighting together after so long, hasn't it?" Roxas asked with a smile.
As they thanked each other for the battle, they did not notice a person who was watching everything and seeing that the zombies were not effective, he squeezed his hand in anger and left before he was seen by anyone.
"Now we can truly admit that the Fallen are back,” Leon said, “You should inform Yen Sid about this.”
"Right now,” Ventus said, taking the Gumíphone from him when it suddenly started ringing. Confused, he took the call, showing Ansem the Wise on the screen.
"Ansem? What happens?" Ventus asked.
"Ventus! I'm glad to see that you're doing well!" Ansem exclaimed.
"What's going on? Why you say that?" Aqua asked, approaching the Gumíphone, but she reasoned quickly, “Are you under attack?"
"Yes, it is!" Even said, appearing on the screen, “While we were investigating the appearance of that specter, the castle was invaded by Fallen! Those things haven't appeared in years!
So Ansem put himself on the screen, “We need you to send help as soon as possible. I doubt that Dilan and Aeleus can hold out forever, “
"We are going now!" Aqua said, closing the Gumíphone.
"You don't have to say anything, we've heard everything,” Lea said.
Aqua looked at Kairi, “Kairi, I think-"
"Don’t say nothing!" Kairi interrupted, “I'm going too, whether you want to or not.”
"I did not expect less from you,” Aqua said with a smile, Kairi smiling back.
"Well come on, let's go!" Roxas said, starting to run, with the others behind him.
Cid leaned out the door, watching the group move away towards the castle, “The truth is, I'm surprised you didn't tell her. You've been about to drop it in her face,” Cid said, now looking at Merlin, “Why didn't you tell the girl?"
"She isn’t prepared to know that, Cid,” Merlin replied.
