Kingdom Hearts - Blades of Three Realms

[[XIII] Roxas]

Vanitas was caught only partially off guard by the sudden change in Shiro's presence and attack pattern. Wielding Void Gear he blocked and countered the assault from both Shiro and Izanagi as best he could, wincing from the few strikes that did manage to connect with his body, while also dishing out a few strikes of his own. "Well, well, well. It looks like at least one of you has some real bite," Vanitas continued to smirk. "I'm game. Give me your best shot!"

Xion was pretty shocked by the whole thing, to say the least, of seeing Roxas get dragged down into the darkness like that and then watching as Crystal went and dived in after him. And now Shiro's presence was all scary and ominous. Just what was going on? She really hoped they were all going to be okay after this.

*~The Realm of Darkness~*

"Alright, we really need to get out of here," Crystal decided while looking up to see if the way out was even still open.

"You're being awfully calm about this," Roxas observed. "I thought you were afraid of the darkness."

"I never said I was afraid of the darkness," Crystal stated simply. "Being alone and trapped in darkness, yes, but the darkness on its own isn't a thing that warrants being frightened of. In the right hands it can even be utilized in the same capacity as the light to do good for the world."

"I think King Mickey and some of the other Keyblade Masters would disagree with that logic," noted Roxas.

"Understanding the real nature of darkness is difficult for those who have only ever embraced the light," Crystal shrugged. "Light and Darkness need not clash. If they would only coexist in balance, then perhaps the worlds might really have a genuine shot at peace. But as long as this imbalance exists and is perpetuated by villains like Xehanort this cycle will inevitably continue. Anyway, I couldn't just let you get trapped down here alone. That's a fate I wouldn't wish onto anyone."

"Okay, so then how do we get out of here?" Roxas wondered a bit since he wasn't sure a Corridor of Darkness would exactly do the trick.

"The way is still open so all we have to do is hitch a ride on a good friend of mine," Crystal gave a sort of mischievous looking smile before extending one hand out to materialize Light's Shadow into hand and pointing it upward and causing a magical summoning array to appear over them both. "Summon, Diablos!" Countless bats suddenly appeared from nowhere, congregating into a huge inky black blob of gravitational magic from which emerged a large crimson and black demonic figure. "Dark Messenger!" Diablos infused the remaining gravitational orb with a secondary magical array before ripping a chunk off and hurling it up through the rift overhead. The demonic creature would then take Crystal and Roxas both in his arms while rising dramatically up from the Realm of Darkness.

*~Angel Grove~*

Diablos emerged from the darkness vapor that still rippled along the city street beneath Vanitas. The demonic creature then flew a safe distance away from the rift, placing Crystal and Roxas down closer to where Xion and Roveth were presently situated. Vanitas, meanwhile, became distracted from his clash against Shiro and Izanagi when he saw that girl and the boy who so reminded him of his light half rising up from the darkness in the arms of a freaking demon!

"What the hell?!" Vanitas exclaimed. But before he could protest any further, such as demanding just who and what the hell that girl was supposed to be, Vanitas was slammed full on by the great big blob of gravity magic causing him to plummet down onto the pavement as his sudden loss of concentration had also closed off the rift into the Realm of Darkness for the moment. Now he was nothing more than a sitting duck weighed down by the intense heavy pressure of heightened gravity produced by Diablos.

Crystal helped Roxas over to Xion. "Take him back to the Command Center so he can get some rest. The rest of us will finish things off here... and I'll explain later."

"You'd better," Xion was going to hold her to that one. She then vanished from the battlefield along with Roxas in a flash of pink and green light energy to return to the Command Center.

Crystal turned to Roveth. "Sorry, it looks like I might have kept Shiro waiting a little too long while I was down there. What's the game plan?"  

[Kuukyo_Fushichou]

Shiro didn ot let up in his attacks, though on one particular strike from Vanitas that did hit him, he had to break off as sparks hit his chest and pain shot through him, he hadn't stopped moving though, or stopped breathing, as he dismissed the gloves, only to call up both Revival and Ancient into hand once more and lit them up with a combination of his own light and ranger energy, along with Izanagi getting the hint and unleashing Zio to encoat the keyblades with lightning magical energy before Shiro spoke out in the same cold tone "you've messed with the wrong people... MUGEN LIGHTNING STRIKE RAID!" he shouted out, before flinging both Keyblades, directed by both his thought and Izanagi's bouncing the keyblades when they were deflected, hit Vanitas, or miss, right back towards the opponent, meanwhile after that Shiro had done a few backflips to land near Roveth and Crystal, taking a calm even breath, which seemed to crackle bits of energy through him "i have an idea, we utilize the prime colors of Dino Thunder to release Triassic mode for me, and then you two go into Super Dino Mode and we press the three on one advantage, four on one, if you count Izanagi whose using my Infinite Lightning Strike Raid to distract Vanitas." he said, it was clear he was focused on defeating Vanitas, but the anger was still white hot, making his mind clearer, and able to think beyond just 'attack ,attack, attack' like a berserker. "if we press him enough he'll get sloppy, and that's when we strike him hard enough to send him packing."  

[[XIII] Roxas]

Now that he was out of the Realm of Darkness and no longer in any immediate danger by being back at the Command Center with Xion, who had reverted to her normal attire upon their arrival, Roxas was feeling the pain and bruising from everywhere Vanitas had hit him and from the multiple impacts he had had with the pavement during combat with him. He should have been resting, but instead he had Xion help him over to the monitors so he could at least see what was happening because otherwise he was going to feel even more guilty about being the one to put Crystal into danger like that by being so reckless against Vanitas.

"Are you sure you don't want to lie down?" Xion asked him with concern obvious in her tone.

"Not until they make it back safely," Roxas protested. "She saved me when I'm supposed to be the one protecting her. I'm such an idiot."

"Roxas, it wasn't your fault," Xion defended him. "Vanitas seemed to have it in for you even if you hadn't responded to his barbs like that."

Roxas couldn't really argue with that. Whoever Vanitas's light half was that Roxas seemed to remind him of so much, Vanitas didn't seem to care that he was taking his hatred out on the wrong person. More like he seemed to lavish in it. "How long were we missing in the Realm of Darkness?"

"Not long," Xion answered. "Only a few minutes. But you both had us pretty worried, enough that Shiro seemed to snap as soon as Crystal was gone. He gets real different when he's angry."

"Crystal told me she did what she did because we're friends," Roxas spoke while staring intensely at the monitor to see how the others were fairing against Vanitas.

"I think Axel would approve of that logic," Xion gave a slight smile.

"And she also told me that I really do have a heart and not a borrowed one either, but a real one of my own," Roxas continued. "And you know what, the way she said it, I felt like it might really be true. Although she also said a lot of other stuff that was just complicated and confusing so I'm not sure I really got most of it. She has a very unique perspective on the relationship between light and darkness though."

"Well, I definitely don't think she's wrong about you having a heart," Xion pointed out. "You're too sweet and kind not to have one. And you care more than you let on at times, but if you didn't care you wouldn't get so angry when what you care about is threatened."

"Yeah, I guess that's true," Roxas gave a slight laugh and winced because that kinda hurts right now.  

[Kuukyo_Fushichou]

Shiro and Roveth both tapped their belts once more, revealing keys, this time the Dino Thunder Blue and Red Ranger just as Izanagi was cut down by Vanitas, leaving Shiro to falter for a moment almost as if nearly coughing out blood, but he held himself firm, as the both of them called out "Legendary Ranger Mode! Dino Thunder, Power Up!" before the Dino Thunder symbol appeared, and went through their chests, transforming them from their preferred ranger forms to Dino Thunder Red and Blue Ranger as Shiro had brought up his hand quickly, ignoring the immense pain in his head and chest, not his heart persay, but just the pain in general from the attacks that de-summoned Izanagi, as he brought out what looked to be a white shield that looks like a triceratops of sorts, Roveth taking up the right side and forming energy from the morph in hand and charging it into the Shield, while the one holding the shield did the same.... Roveth did however sneakily reach out with his free hand however and flung out three cards, two of which remained hidden, while the third formed into Gearfried the Iron Knight, who would work to defend the three while they worked with this.  

[Kuukyo_Fushichou]

Shiro narrowed his eyes despite his pain, and growled out "Triassic Power, ENGAGE!" before the shield began glowing, switching to be colored Like this (with the sword still in the shield.) and his shoulders getting gold pauldrons, his helmet changing design, and the white triangles turning golden and blue in color, a massive aura of strength flowing from Shiro as Roveth had nodded to Gearfried, who had dispersed, and the blue ranger brought his hands up in an X-formation "personally, you did the wrong thing by attacking Roxas like that.. now FEEL THE FURY OF THE DINO!" he called out, as he begun gathering power once more, using what was left he could channel safely without demorphing back to Super Megaforce form "SUPER DINO MODE!!!!" he roared out, as the white colors on his suit actually expanded out, becoming spikes on the boots, and on the arms and sides of the legs, for his though, his almost top-most shoulder spots jutted out into full blown spikes, and finally the helmet actually came to life and Roared with raw power and Roveth took up a very feral and aggressive stance.  

[Kuukyo_Fushichou]

Shiro would use the Shield of Triumph to block the attack from Void Gear, meantally wncing as he felt the shockwave of the hit, but he'd turn the attack aside and proceeded to summon Revival once more , and only took a step back, before white light flooded the keyblade's tip just as Roveth charged forward with Tenebrex and Lockdown and begun his own feral assault on Vanitas, with Shiro joining in with slashes of his own, aiming at critical points once more with his light channeled Keyblade, or shield-punching Vanitas mid strikes, not letting up at all between the two of them assaulting Vanitas.  

[Kuukyo_Fushichou]

Roveth of course nopticed he was being ignored, and smirked a bit before jumping back and letting up as shiro increased the pressure by flicking out the shield to the side, and swung his Revival and met with the Void Gear, causing a massive clash of light and darkness, causing chaos energy to run rampant from the strike a good bit, before Shiro activated the Shield of triumph's abilities, pulling the two of them into the triassic dimension, as the shield became a sword (AKA sword popping out.), and igniting it with both light energy, Dino energy, and doing the same with his keyblade "while i'd love to give you a tour of this world... i'm ending this right now! TWIN NINE LIVES BLADE WORKS!!!!" he shouted, before starting to slash with both Keyblade and Sword of triumph multitudes of times, going for almost the full swing throttle of the move that defeated the Hydra by Heracles, thankfully not killing his arms in the process due to the enhanced strength and reinforcement from the Ranger uniform, and with each slash there was light and dino energy behind it to do major damage.  

[Kuukyo_Fushichou]

Roveth had glanced to shiro, who was currently standing there staring at where Vanitas had disappeared to, but decided not to chase after him, Roveth just shook his head and gave off a 'tsk' noise, before using the remainder of Super Dino Mode to help Crystal clean things up, and once the last of the unversed were cleaned out, he'd De-morph, just as shiro had done the same, before moving to one knee and spit out a good bit of blood as well as coughing up the rest of it still in his throat and lungs "Ugh! ******** hell..." he muttered to himself, Revival still in hand as he grunted, panting. Roveth of course panted himself, it -was- tiring, and the Legendary Mode -was- quite strenuous to use in general, adding in the fighting and damage, it'd mount up, but Shiro got the worst of it outside of Roxas due to Izanagi being de-summoned after that 'fatal' blow.  

[[XIII] Roxas]

"Thank goodness you're okay!" Roxas greeted Crystal as she re-materialized inside the Command Center.

"Shouldn't I be the one saying that to you?" Crystal inquired with a raised eyebrow. But then she smiled. "Yes, I'm fine. The Realm of Darkness doesn't really effect me much and I'm not the one who took a beating from Vanitas."

"I did try to convince him that he needs to rest, but Roxas insisted on watching the monitors until you got back," Xion explained.

"Somehow, that doesn't surprise me," Crystal nodded. "Anyway, Shiro and Roveth should be right behind me. And I guess we've still got some things we need to talk about."