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Shadows of Birth Chapter Seven - Spark of Hope

It took them almost three times as long to get back to the house than it did to get to the cave. Once the group reached the humble abode, almost all of them were about to pass out. There were numerous Heartless along the way and that didn't help matters any. Damien had placed Layla in her own bed after treating her wounds. After putting Venair on the couch, they decided to have two people constantly watching him in case he woke up, on the first shift stood Riku and Goofy.

It wasn't long before Layla was awake. When she noticed she was in her own room, she thought everything was all just a dream. As she sat up, she felt pains in her arms and tail. After realizing it was all real, she closed her left claw to a fist and put it against her heart.

"Ah! You're awake!"

Turning left, she noticed Sora walking in with a wide smile. "First of three, I just hope Consus is next."

Layla turned and began to climb out of her bed. "Is he alright? I don't remember a thing after we got hit." Once she noticed Sora's expression change, she began to fear the worst. "He isn't... dead is he?"

Sora shook his head, "No, but pretty much as close as you can get. He turned into a Shadow Heartless."

Staring at Sora, Layla felt like she was part at fault for what had happened. ...It's no good to think of what has happened. We need to figure out what we're going to do with him. He can't stay like that forever...

"Come on, let's go get something to eat. We talked Damien into cooking something for you when you got up."

She gave a weak nod and stood up, following her friend out of the room. Sora instructed her to go into the living room with Riku and wait for him to bring it out. Being too tired to argue, she did as she was told. As she entered the room, she saw their enemy lying unconscious on her couch. She felt quite angered that he was still alive, but understood why Consus had not done the deed. "Riku, where's Consus at?"

Riku gave a smile, just noticing she had come to join them. "He's right over here on the chair. He's out cold right now."

"Yeah, Sora told me. I just don't understand..."

Riku stood up and walked over to her. "It's alright. There's a lot of things we don't understand, like how these two are truly connected."

She shook her head. "No, what I don't understand is how I didn't get harmed by that attack. I felt the same amount of pain Consus did when the attack landed, but he seemed to get the rough end of the stick on it..."

"Listen, Layla. It's not your fault this happened. Venair got a good attack in at a time Consus left himself open. It could have happened to anyone on the battlefield trying to show mercy to his enemy."

She looked into the chair to see the small black form sitting up in the chair, hardly able to believe that this was what the half-dragon had become. "Yeah, I understand. How do you think we're going to turn him back?"

Riku gave a small sigh, "We'll have to first find out where his heart even went. I didn't see it fly away when you guys were hit, so my guess is it isn't too far." He turned his gaze over to the bloody Elf lying on the couch. "I just don't know what we would do to get it back in him."

"Ugh... Cherrina...?"

Layla jumped when she heard the voice in her head. She swiftly turned towards the rousing Heartless and attempted to smile. "Consus, are you alright?"

"Oh, Layla... I don't know. I don't really feel anything. For some reason, I'm having trouble doing anything like this..." As he opened his eyes, he heard a small gasp from Layla as she saw his eyes. They were the same red as his real eyes, but that seemed to be the only thing that made him stand out to other Shadows. "Did we beat him?"

"Well, we didn't lose the fight. I guess the fight never really got decided at the cave, Venair is unconscious on the couch next to you."

"...Did I make the wrong choice, letting him live?"

She hesitated a moment before answering, "If you felt in your heart that you wanted him to live, then no."

"...but thanks to him, now I don't have one."

Layla showed a frown for a moment, but then looked back up at the Heartless, trying to think of a way to cheer him up. "We'll get it back, I swear it."

"You don't understand. When a Deathbringer like me kills something... The Keyblade he wields devours the heart.

She gazed at Consus in shock. He was finally sitting up on his own and looking sadly into Layla's eyes. "...So it's likely that Venair has it."

"If that's true, he has the power of two Deathbringers... and has the control of Bloodlust."

She then gazed back to the sleeping Elf and let out a sigh. "What are we going to do when he wakes up? If he has that much power, we don't stand a chance."

"Go into a fight ready to lose, and you will lose." Riku said as he leaned himself against the wall. "We need to figure out ways we can win, not how we're going to lose."

Turning slightly, Layla watched as Sora and Damien walked in with a plate in each hand. Sora looked cheerful until he heard what Riku had just said. He was about to say something until he noticed that Consus was awake. "Good thing you're up, you scared us all to death, man!"

Consus tried to show whatever smile he could, "Thanks...

"...Ugh, what in the hell happened to me?"

Everyone turned their attention to Venair, who hastily sat up and was rubbing his head. He soon noticed he wasn't where he was supposed to be and began to look around. He was quite confused, wondering why he was in the same room as all those he had tried to kill. "What the hell do you want from me?"

Riku pushed himself off the wall and was standing next to Venair's feet, "It's simple. We want to know what you did to Consus."

The elf gave a smile. "I only did to him what he deserved. He's the brat that denied the name of Deathbringer and let me live in the first place."

Layla was about ready to kick the bastard. His attitude just really pissed her off. "And what about his heart? What happened to that?"

Venair looked at the Dragoness confused for a moment, but then he held out his right hand and watched as Apocalypse formed in his hand. Riku and Sora both pulled out their blades in swift reaction. "You must be mistaken. If I had his Heart, I would be able to kill all of you right now, easily..." As he continued to gaze around the room, he soon came across the new form of his son. He gave a small look of shock at first, but that soon turned into a smile as he looked yet again at the black dragoness. "You... It's you!" He jumped forward and felt as Inferno formed in his left hand, swinging both weapons down at the close Layla.

With nothing to protect herself, she raised her claws up to block the attack, but then felt something form in her grasp. When she opened her eyes, she was shocked to see that she had blocked both of Venair's attacks, but taking a closer look at the weapon she held, she wanted to scream.

"It's true... You hold Bloodlust! You have what I seek, woman!"

"Not so fast!" Riku jumped forward and kicked the Elf hard into his side, causing him to fall to the floor. They could tell he still wasn't perfectly healthy from the last fight, so Riku planned on using that to their advantage. "You're not going to touch anyone!"

Venair let out a grunt as he stood back up, feeling both blades disappear from his hands. He watched as almost everyone in the room had begun to inch their way closer to him. "I won't attack you fools. Not yet."

"Damn straight you won't!" Layla said, drawing her blade back to her side. "Now tell us what you know! Apparently, you seem to understand what's going on."

The elf let out another grunt, he couldn't believe how naïve they all were. "Why should I tell you? It's not like you would kill me anyway. You listen to your 'dear friend' too much to do that." His gaze then turned to the black form on the chair again, feeling angered that he wasn't the one to hold his son's power. "No, I think you kids need to figure out this puzzle on your own. I have other duties to attend to."

"No!" Sora jumped forward to grab the elf, but he was too late. In a cloud of black smoke, Venair had disappeared. "Damnit! How can the bad guys always do that but we can't?!"

"...What do we do? How do I have his heart...?" Layla was in shock. She thought about the time when they were in their Drive form together. She let out another sigh, turning to the dazed Shadow. She didn't even know if he understood what had just happened.

"It's alright... I know it's safe with you, at least."

She jumped, forgetting the mental link she had open. "Yeah... That's the first positive thing that has happened today."

"How the hell did that happen...? I need to figure out what the hell those kids did to get that strong... Through all the battles I've been through, this is the first time anyone has merged together like that, let alone pass off a heart." Venair was sitting on his throne, surrounded by several Heartless. A few of them were trying to mend the precious Cyrstal the damn snake destroyed, but it was useless. Noticing there were a few Neoshadow Heartless in the mix, he called them forward and gazed down upon them menacingly, "You three will all be given the right to fight by my side in my blade. In order to understand them, I need to get stronger and find a way to merge with one of you. If you die, you still help me through your death, but if you survive, you get the honor of ruling the world at my side."

"Can't sleep?"

Consus was startled to hear Layla's voice in his head, but soon relaxed. "Not a wink. I just don't know what to think of what has all happened..."

"Consus... I'm sorry.

"What for? You did nothing wrong, hell, you were a big help on the battlefield. Being an actual dragon... that was pretty amazing. I wouldn't have even known how to walk right if it wasn't for you."

"I just think this all could have been prevented. Maybe I shouldn't have said anything when you were about to-"

"I wasn't going to do it whether you had said something or not. Venair has to know more about who I am. Both him, and my mother."

Layla hesitated a second before she responded. "Her name was Cherrina, right?"

Yeah... Did you see her when the Memory Crystal broke?"

The dragoness recalled the look on Consus' face for a moment back in the cave. She remembered seeing a deep longing in his heart for her. Apparently, she was the nice one of the family._"Yes, I did. She was beautiful."

"Yeah... I'm certain she's alive, now. After you pushed me away from Sora and were trying to bring me back, she spoke to me. You and Mother helped me to control my power, but right now it seems like it was all for nothing..."_

"Don't say things like that! Trust me, once you turn back to your regular self, you'll be thankful for everything!"

Both Consus and Layla were shocked to hear Sora's voice come out of nowhere. Layla let out a grunt, apparently not caring too much for being spied on. "How long have you been here?"

"The whole time. Just figured I'd listen since I can't sleep. You two get pretty noisy, you know." After he let out a good laugh, he then turned to a more serious tone. "Consus, I do have one question for you, though."

"What's that? Consus felt a bit annoyed. He never really liked having to ask for a question.

When did you find out that you're a Deathbringer just like Venair?"

Consus let out a sigh. He had never really explained his story to anyone, really. He felt he could be able to handle things on his own. "Well, I guess I should start from my Awakening... who's up from late night ghost stories from the Heartless?"

"Riku!Sora! We need help!"

Just outside the front door there was a loud explosion. As the two Keyblade bearers ran out side to check out what was happening, Consus had stealthy followed them out the door. As he stepped outside, he heard footsteps behind him and he dashed to the other side of the wall just before Layla and Damien ran out. He let out a small sigh as he turned his head around the corner to try and get a glimpse of what was going on. The group had made it perfectly clear that they didn't want him fighting until they figured out what they could do, so the only thing he could do was watch.

He saw both Donald and Goofy were already unconscious, the duck slightly seared from what seemed to be a fire attack. Riku, Sora, Damien, and Layla all stood in a row looking at the recovered Elf, who had a large wicked Heartless at his side. It kind of looked like some of the Neoshadows they fought before, but had four arms and had some of the purple gems they had seen before embedded into its skin.

"I'm ready to take what belongs to me. If you are not willing to give it to me, Layla, then you will suffer a much worse fate than death." The elf then turned his attention towards Damien and pointed his red Keyblade at the blue drake. "You will die first, that way she knows the true meaning of pain before she becomes my slave like the rest of the Heartless."

Layla let out a laugh. "So, you think just because you can control Heartless that you're all powerful? Well, we're not going to let you get Consus' heart!" As she flipped her right hand, Bloodlust formed in her claw. She could feel the rage of the weapon build up inside her, but held her attack until she saw what he did.

"You can't hope to beat me. Even with your abilities to merge together, you all will fall." He disappeared into a puff of black smoke, which surprised everyone. Before they knew it, he was behind Damien and kicked the snake to the side. Sora and Riku slashed at him, but Venair was quick to the air and once again conjured a yellow pulse, knocking everyone away.

As Layla recovered to her feet, she was forced to jump to the side as Venair had charged her, swinging both Apocolypse and Inferno rapidly. She was doing her best to block and dodge each attack thrown, but with two weapons the Elf was just incredibly fast. He had managed to land a few deep scratches along Layla's sword arm, which she was able to heal with her Darkness, but the pain never seemed to go away. She realized that she was starting to get into trouble and cast a shadow flame at him, catching the Elf off guard. The flames knocked him away and blinded him for a moment, giving Sora the chance to take a shot at him.

Once Sora had hit Venair in the side, he instantly warped away to where Riku and Damien were fighting the giant Heartless. From behind Riku, he thrust Inferno ahead and swiftly pulled his red winged blade from his hand. Damien closed in for a quick slash, but Venair was even quicker to warp away, this time back behind Sora. He cast a Blizzaga right into the center of Sora's back, completely freezing him in place.

Dashing forward, Layla Slashed at Venair with her claws, she knew he would try to dodge and followed up with a Keyblade strike, slashing him just below his rib line. He let out a deep grunt as he grasped the freshly opened wound. Layla followed her attack up with a kick, knocking him to the ground. She stood above him and pointed her blade down at him. "Will you give up already? This has gone on long enough."

Venair showed a smile. "Oh dear, you are so very naïve." And in an instant, he had disappeared again. Looking up, Layla's eyes went wide as she watched Venair's attack coming down at her. He had one blade coming straight down at her, but was arching the second to the side. She knew she couldn't block both, but knew she had to do what she could. Reaching her arm forward, Layla braced herself for impact.

"Layla! No!"

Watching as a small black form jumped in front of her, Layla let out a gasp as Inferno threatened to slice into her friend's small body. As it neared him, though, there was a small flash. Layla was forced to close her eyes for a moment as she felt Apocalypse slam hard against Bloodlust. Her arm was about to give in from the pressure of the blow, but soon felt as the weight started to lighten. Opening her eyes, she looked at her hand holding Bloodlust. There was another hand on top of her own, covered in a red glove with gold lining. Looking over, she soon saw the golden half-dragon standing by her side, holding Inferno in his bare right hand, unscathed. "...You're back!"