Butterfly Wings

Third District

"Okay," Sora said. "Where is the leader we have to beat?"

"Well, before you fight you should go see Zombie Aeris in First District to get an item..." Kimi started.

"Zombie...?" Sora repeated, baffled, then shook his head. "Where do we have to go to stop the heartless leader?"

"That shows up in Third District."

"And then what?"

"I don't know!" Kimi protested, sounding more annoyed that he was still asking than anything. "I told you, that's all I know. But we should really see Zombie Aeris first. Free item!"

"Do you know the way to the third district?"

"But-"

"Do you know the way or not!"

Kimi sighed deeply. "Alright, fine. Let's go."

Remembering her saying that about fighting Leon, Sora said, "Go to the third district, right?"

"Duh," she said. "Hey, follow me, I'm pretty sure I remember the way." She headed through the door.

Beyond, Leon was nowhere to be seen. They were in the open center of the second district, and heartless pulled themselves from the ground and appeared in midair.

"Come on, this way!" she shouted, dodging around the ragdoll heartless. Sora tried to follow. One of the ragdolls jumped him, kicking him in the side, but he managed to stay on his feet and keep going. They entered an alley on the other side and turned a corner. There was an ornate, colorful door at the end. Sora ran toward it, only to come to a sudden halt as more heartless appeared directly between them and the door.

Kimi tried to run by, but then jumped back to avoid the ragdoll heartless's attack. She counterattacked, smashing her sword against the side of its helmeted head, then ran sideways to avoid the shadow thing's lunge. The keyblade appeared in Sora's hand again, and he hit the nearest heartless to the side. He started to run through the gap in their line to the door, but Kimi wasn't following.

"It's clear, let's go!" he called.

"No way, we've gotta finish them off!" she shouted, hopping backwards to avoid one of the approaching shadows. "It's important!"

If she knew... Sora turned back and continued the fight, smashing apart one of the smaller heartless. One of the ragdolls kicked him into the wall and he fell, just managing to raise the keyblade in time to parry the next attack. Then he was up again, striking it back hard enough to stun, then stabbing it through the gap in its faceplate. It burst apart.

"Hey!"

Sora spun in time to see Kimi tossing something toward him. He caught it.

He felt something, or nothing, radiating into his hands, a numbing cold rather than the burning iciness of the heartless' attacks. He thought he should drop it, but it didn't seem to matter. He opened his hands to see a thin, clear shard of crystal. It looked a bit like the material of Kimi's sword.

"I think that's a lucid shard. Cool, huh?"

Lucid... This was lucidity?

Kimi had walked up to him. Now she plucked the shard from his open hands, holding it up to the sky to better examine it. Sora felt warmth sluggishly making its way back into his arms as the cold faded."Cool, huh? What was the description...the crystallized essence of emptiness." She pocketed it. "I was wondering about those. I guess it's just that they're hard to see. Keep an eye out for them, okay? They're pretty important."

"O-okay," Sora said.

"Alright, let's go!" She headed through the cheerfully colored door. Sora followed.

The third district was lit up everywhere but dark, as if the light couldn't spread beyond its confines. The signs glowed brightly and even the railings between the upper and lower areas were made of light, but the ground was so dark he could barely see his feet.

It was also empty of life.

Sora took a few steps in and discovered it wasn't truly empty as more monsters appeared from the air and ground. Kimi ran by them, grabbing the top of the glowing rail and jumping over it without hesitation, as if she knew where she was going. Sora ducked under the blow of a heartless and followed.

He was in the main center area. On the other side was a glowing golden fountain, lit up so bright it seemed like day. He took a few steps in.

Behind him, he heard a pair of startled shouts. Before he could turn, something heavy hit him in the back, knocking him flat against the ground and pinning him under the weight. At least he hadn't fallen atop the keyblade, which was stretched out in front of him.

"The key!" voices chorused, one on either side of him. Sora turned his head slightly, catching a glimpse of a...duck's head? He struggled, and the weights atop him moved off, one jabbing him with an elbow in the process.

"So they've shown up," Kimi spat, sounding much like she had seeing Kairi. That alone made Sora feel more positive toward whatever-they-were that had just hit him. He started to look at them, but before he could get more than the confused impression of severely deformed giant animals, the ground rumbled and his attention was directed to the blocks shooting up out from the ground to block all exists, ragdoll heartless dancing bonelessly atop each.

Then the ragdoll things were on the ground, surrounding him and the others. Sora charged, swinging the keyblade and hitting them until they broke apart.

In seconds, they were gone. As strange as the new arrivals seemed, they appeared to be a good help in a fight.

The ground rumbled again, worse than before. Then the sound changed, seeming to come from above. Sora looked up into the black sky.

Something was falling.

Chunks of purple armor crashed into the ground: gauntlets, boots, a torso...As Sora watched, they leapt into the air, assembling into a headless suit of armor. There was nothing attaching them to each other, but they held themselves in the air all the same despite the gaps, as if there was some invisible thing inside.

Then the head fell. It seemed to bounce when it touched the invisible connection of the armor at the shoulders, then spun around in the neck, making it horrifyingly clear there was nothing, invisible or not, wearing the armor, finally thunking firmly into place against the top of the armor.

It was as tall as the buildings that ringed the district. Sora didn't even come past the ankle of one boot. And it was made of nothing but hard armor, no vulnerable points, no way to fight it.

By his side, Kimi raised her sword and ran toward it with a battle cry that sounded more like exhilaration than anything.

Courage.

Destruction.