Holy crap, an update! Also, we reached 500 reviews!

I love you guys sooo much and this makes me feel even worse!

So, long explanation incoming:

It's been over three months since the last update and life just... well got in the way. It's my last year of school and that is a bit chaotic and well, life is complicated as is...

But yeah, the fact that I wasn't able to write anything for this chapter slowly started to eat away on me. And then there's the fact that I started to write something else and put out over 16k words within a month, while this chapter was sitting there, not even half finished since december... But I somehow managed to pull through all the shit and depression I had going on lately and managed to finally finish this chapter (thanks to an embarrassing amount of whisky)!

Anyway, I won't ramble too long now and give you the newest chapter!

Enjoy!

Some of us called it "The brightest day in blackest night". I call it what it was, a massacre...
Stumbling out of the capsules, we were immediately plunged into the pure chaos that was this world.
Men and Woman fighting the seemingly unending hordes of Heartless and Nobodies. We were outnumbered and outgunned from the start and most of us already knew that we only fought so we wouldn't lose all hope.
I saw heroes and monsters fall alike on that day, but even now, after all these years, there are things I cannot explain, however much I would like to...
- A member of the ground forces.

Sora wasn't sure how long it took him to wake up after the impact, but the fact that the others were still hanging in their seats concerned him. with a groan he managed to release the metal contraption that was holding him in his seat. Gravity took in and with a surprised gasp, he hit the ceiling of the capsule.
"Great..." he muttered as he pushed himself back onto his feet and rubbed the shoulder he landed on.
"You... ugh... wouldn't mind giving me a hand here, would you?" Roxas groaned as he came to.

Within a few minutes they all came to and were helped out of their overturned seats, all while the sound of battle slowly rose from the outside.

"We should hurry, who knows what's already going on out there..." Noctis muttered as he manually pushed open the lock of the capsule, revealing the barren wasteland that was the Keyblade Graveyard. The only thing that stuck out besides the massive amount of Keyblades that were stuck in the ground everywhere, was the fact that the Castle That Never Was rose over the stone pillars not too far away.

Within seconds Sora could see men take in defensive positions around the craters their capsules left, while their comrades slowly made their way out of them as well.
Something didn't sit right with him, however.
"Where... Are the Heartless and Nobodies?" Lea asked as he summoned his Keyblade.
Almost immediately the ground began to shake and dark cracks burst open.

"You just had to ask, didn't you?" Roxas asked the redhead annoyed as he summoned his Keyblade as well.

(Strength of a Thousand Men, Two Steps from Hell)

"Everybody! Move!" somebody shouted and they all decided to abide the order, as some of the cracks started to burst open wider as massive Darkside heartless rose out from the ground. All around them, pools of pure Darkness started to form and more and more Shadows and Neoshadows began to emerge from them.
Most of the soldiers around them opened fire without hesitation, while some charged forward to engage them in close combat.
A gust of wind darted past them and impacted with one of the massive Heartless. The blue armored dragoon took a moment before he leaped upward from the head of the monster, soaring high into the sky and disappearing for a moment, before he came crashing down again, an enormous blast following his decent. It seemed there wasn't any form of resistance in the Heartless as Kain impacted, passing clean through it and landing on the ground beneath. Silently, the massive body started to fall, but before it could hit the ground, it dissolved and disappeared.
"Well, what are we waiting for? We've got a universe to save!" Luriél said with a smirk before leaping into the fray herself.
Riku nodded and summoned Way to Dawn "She's right, let's go!"
All of them followed the green haired girl's example and leaped forward as well. Within seconds, many of the Heartless seemed to focus their attention on the Keyblade wielders in their group. Shadows and Neoshadows leaped up from the pools of Darkness that slowly started to spread across the whole battlefield. With a wide swing, Sora managed to slice through two that were leaping toward him, but the sound of another blade cutting the air on his other side told him that there seemed to be some coming from there as well.
"At least pretend you are trying!" Luriél told him jokingly as she dodged another Neoshadow, that was quickly evaporated by a blast of Light, coming from Kairi.
"I'm at ten, how many have you got?" the greenhead asked the redhead jokingly as she jumped over a soldier, slicing a Heartless in half "Scratch that eleven!"
Sora couldn't help but grin about the banter Luriél and Kairi started to throw at each other.
"Sora!" Roxas called out, extending a hand towards him.
Without putting much thought into it, Sora grabbed the blond's hand and was quickly lifted off his feet and thrown forward. Landing next to Riku, the friends only exchanged looks before thirteen blades of Light appeared around them, beginning to spin violently and mowing down multiple Heartless in the process.
"We've got to take down the Darksides!" Aqua called out to them from nearby, as both their groups united.
"Give me a boost!" Kairi shouted as she ran towards Cloud and Zack.
The two SOLDIERs crossed their swords to form a pad for Kairi to be launched off from. As soon as the redhead landed on it, both lifted their swords, catapulting her upwards toward a nearby Darkside. Dashing forward, Kairi reached the massive Heartless and proceeded to blast it in the head with Light, before bringing down Destiny's Embrace on it, slicing from one shoulder down to the hip of it, leaving a glowing white gash, from which the Darkside began to dissolve into Darkness.
"That's still just one!" Luriél called out as Kairi landed back on the ground, while fighting off an Invisible Heartless herself.
A wall of flame rose from the ground not too far away from the two, enveloping another Darkside in it. With a trail of flames behind him, Lea sprinted towards his target, dodging the attacks of other Heartless in the process. Diving into the flames, he appeared from behind the Heartless, who had slammed down its fist on the wall of fire, where it expected the redhead to burst out of the flames again.
"Burn baby!" Lea shouted as his Keyblade ignited and he drove it into the Heartless' back.
Within a second, the wall of flames closed in towards the Darkside, burning it up bit by bit, before it went down on his knees. Taking her chance, Aqua leaped over it, bringing down a massive shard of ice and piercing it through the head and ending it.
"Showoff..." Lea muttered to himself, before swinging around and slicing an attacking Heartless in half.
Passing past the redhead, Ventus and Roxas charged at another Darkside, which was about to smash a group of soldiers with its fist.
Exchanging a quick look, they split up to attack from both sides. Distracted by the soldiers, the Heartless didn't notice them approach, but as they jumped towards it, it quickly turned towards one of them. Trying to catch the blond teen out of the air, the Darkside left his flank wide open, allowing the other one to bring down his Keyblade on the arm of it. The powerful strike cut the arm right off, taking away one of the Heartless' weapons.
"Let's finish this!" Ventus told Roxas as they landed side by side in front of it, flipping his weapon to its usual backhand position.

Charging at it again both brought down their weapons on it and sliced cleanly through it, quartering it in the process.

With a fist bump mid-air, the two blonds gracefully landed on the ground once again.

All of them continued their fight, slowly carving a path through the sheer unending seeming hordes of Heartless.

The fighting stopped as a thundering wreck of a ship came crashing through the sky, small silver pieces dropping from it as it made it's decent.

"I was already wondering when our old comrades would show up..." Lea told Ventus with a sigh, before realizing he wasn't talking with Roxas "Uhm... my old comrades."

As the ship passed over them, a bigger piece of the ship broke free and fell towards them. Slowly unraveling, a massive Twilight Thorn revealed itself and landed nearby to them, crushing a smaller Darkside in the process.

"That one is mine, got it memorized?" Lea called out as he began to run towards the massive Nobody.

Before he reached it however, two others shot past him, apparently on a race towards it as well.

In a red and a green blur, both girls reached the Nobody at the same time. With a flick of her wrist, Luriél summoned a massive thorny vine that wrapped itself around the Nobody, incapacitating it, but exhausting her as well.

Taking the chance, Kairi ran up the vine and with a jump was above it. Holding out her hand towards it, a thing bright ray of light pierced through the Nobody's head, before it slumped and was crushed completely by the vine and dissolved into nothingness.

Landing next to the now panting green haired girl, Kairi held out a small golden bottle "Here, might help to keep you on your feet."

Giving her an annoyed glare, Luriél took the elixir "Thanks..." after emptying the bottle and throwing it away, hitting a shadow with it, she looked at the redhead and chuckled "That one was mine though."

"Like hell it was!"

"Kairi, Lulu!" Riku called out to them as he ran past them, before sliding down on his knees and slicing through an Invincible Heartless and jumping back on his feet "We need to get to the Castle. Now!"

Nodding, both girls began to follow the silver haired teen, as they made their way towards the massive castle that loomed not too far away.

The castle itself wasn't floating in the air like it used to back in the World That Never Was, but was rather held up by massive stone pillars that pierced through the outer walls in some places. As they came closer, Riku noticed that from the holes the pillars had punched, more silver forms started to poor out, to join the Heartless and Nobodies in the battle.

"Watch out!" someone called out to them, before a pristine white blur went above them, cutting down a Dragoon Nobody, that was about to bring down its lance on Riku.

Landing on one knee in front of them, the white armored man swiftly rose back to his feet to cut down two more Nobodies that landed close by. Before he reached them however, a second man joined him, driving his lance through one of the two Berserkers and grabbing his sword to slam it into the other.

"Are you alright?" Cecil asked the trio as he and Kain were sure that no Enemies were about to attack.

Riku gave him a quick nod "Yes, thanks. Where are the others?"

"Fighting their way towards us." Kain replied calm, swinging his lance to parry the attack of a brave Dusk "We will be here soon, I am certain."

Unsurprising, most of them were at the base of the castle within a minute, while those waiting continued to fight off every new Nobody that dropped from above.

"So, what now?" Lea asked as they were all gathered, blasting an Assassin Nobody into oblivion with a fireball.

Before anybody could give the redhead an answer, a booming voice filled the air around them. Even though the man it belonged to looked old and frail, it was still enough to intimidate many of the soldiers fighting all around.

"Once again this field is ground to the final battle of its era. And once again, those fighting for the self-proclaimed Guardians of Light will fail. Don't you fools see? The only way to salvation is equilibrium! I am willing to offer each of you mercy, if you join me. There is no point in dying today if it is for an impossible goal! If you are fool enough to believe what they told you, you all are already lost... And to your Guardians, I have only one thing to say: Come, we will await you." Xehanort's voice echoed over the plains, loud enough for everybody to hear.

Looking at his friends, Sora, who walked forward so everybody could see him, let out a deep breath "This is it... Anybody of you impressed by the old man?"

With a smirk on his lip, Riku came towards him "Do you really think it would?"

"Good to hear that." the teen replied with a nod "Let's go, we have to end this today!"

"You go, I'll stay back and make sure none of these critters try and follow you to fall you in the back." Cecil told him calm, before turning around to face the armies that fought all around them.

Before even allowing Sora to argue the paladin's decision, Kain followed suit and came to his friends side "He won't be alone."

Following his example, Terra, Noctis and some others joined them as well.

"Wait..." Kairi exclaimed, reaching into her pocket and pulling out a small pendant with thirteen swords on it.

A bright golden glow appeared from the small amulet and from the dust on the ground, thirteen figures rose, first made of pure light and then slowly fading into the figures of thirteen armored knights. The tallest of them, his helmet adorned by a golden circlet walked up to Kairi and got down on one knee, offering his sword to her "You have summoned us, and we will fight this battle for you, Princess. What is your order? My knights and I will follow whatever you say."

At first looking surprised at the massive knight in front of her, Kairi pointed at those who have volunteered to stay behind to keep anybody from following them "Join them and keep them safe from harm."

With a silent nod, the knight rose again and together with his twelve, stepped to the side of Cecil and the others.

Another armored figure appeared between all of them, but this time not forming out of light and dust, but rather coming down from the sky and crushing into the ground. Within moment, the thirteen knights and everybody else had their weapons raised and at the ready, while the dust slowly settled again.

Surprised, Ventus lowered his Keyblade "That..."

"T- Terra?" Aqua whispered, hope clearly audible in her voice.

For a moment, the man remained silent, still on his knee from the landing, but he turned her head towards the blue haired woman.

After another moment of silence, he slowly began to speak "I am... not Terra..."

His voice sounded stripped of all emotion as he spoke, almost as if it was a Nobody who was talking. However, every single word that was spoken by him sounded like it filled him with unspeakable pain, as each word was followed by a short grunt of pain.

"I am here... to fight..." he continued, his head slowly rising up to the structure above them "I have waited... too long... to reclaim... what is mine..."

"What is yours?" Riku asked the tall man confused.

"I... remember you... I waited... for you..." the armored man told him as he rose to his feet "I... will take... everything... back... My body... My heart... My life... everything Xehanort took from me... I will take it back!"

With tears in her eyes, Aqua slowly walked towards the man and gently touched his helmet, where his face would be below "I promise you, Terra is going to be free of Xehanort before this is over."

As always I hope you guys enjoyed it!

So, as I noticed after finishing this chapter that I never really specified who all the people on the ground are, I'll make a short list of who is with which group:

Castle Group: Sora, Riku, Kairi, Roxas, Lea, Ventus, Aqua, Terra's Lingering Will, Cloud, Zack, Aerith, Squall, Rinoa, Goofy, Donald, José and Panchito (yeah, those guys are there as well)

Everybody else is staying back to keep anybody from following. This includes: Cecil, Kain, Noctis, Terra, the Warrior of Light, the Knights of the Round Table and basically everybody else that survived the Dissidia world. It's one hell of a battle, so I will probably come back to them before it's over and clear up who is down there.

But that's something for another chapter.

Till then (which is hopefully within the next three months, preferably even less)!