Naminé vs. the Taciturn Stalwart & Duh!

With an Amazonian cry ringing through the air, Naminé charged at the Taciturn Stalwart. She was almost in Keyblade's reach when Lexaeus's arm shot out. His massive hand palmed her face, effectively stopping her assault. His fingers tightened their grip on her head, lifting her entire body off the ground. Naminé's limbs flailed about, desperately trying to loosen his hold. Before she knew what happened, Naminé was flung upside-down, causing her to slam into one of the posts lining the arena.

As she felt her body start to unpeel from the pillar, Lexaeus smashed his tomahawk into the ground causing pillars of earth to burst out, pummeling Naminé's defenseless form.

"This guy's all business, isn't he?" Kairi asked rhetorically. "He's like a gorilla...without the fur."

"Not a good time for jokes right now," Naminé groaned as she massaged the small of her back. "That was extremely painful." She winced in pain. "And pitiful. He didn't even need to use his weapon much."

"Best thing to do is just brush yourself off and keep moving forward, right?"

"Right." Naminé cricked her neck back into place and ran straight for Lexaeus again. He tried to palm her face once more, but before she got into range, Naminé flipped into the air, pirouetting upside-down over the behemoth's head and smacking him from behind with the Keyblade. "You know what they say, the bigger they are..."

As she quickly attempted another flip-and-run, Lexaeus' hand shot out and managed to snag Naminé's leg in mid-leap. Naminé could only brace herself as he slammed her into the ground like a rag doll. Surprisingly, her body rebounded off the tiling with surprising trajectory. While Naminé was flying through the air, Lexaeus leapt up, barreled down on her and brought down his tomahawk, sending her crashing down to earth causing a huge terran shockwave that reverberated throughout the arena.

"...the more bones they break," Kairi finished.

Naminé winced in pain. "That...smarts," she groaned. The ground beneath Lexaeus rumbled as he landed with a crash.

"Give up," he stated simply. The memory witch slowly got to her feet.

"Like Hades I will!" she shot back.

Lexaeus chuckled. "So be it." He roared again as his aura of power increased exponentially, pushing Naminé to the edge of the arena.

"So this guy's a total Super Saiyan rip-off," Kairi said. "He may be powerful physically, but our strength comes from the heart, remember?"

Naminé gritted her teeth. "You've got that right, sister."

* * *

"So there you are!" Yuna cried impatiently. Tidus and the others had made a much needed pit stop after they were ambushed by some Heartless.

"Aren't you a sight for sore eyes!" Tidus greeted. "Have you found the others yet?" Yuna quickly relayed Riku's orders. "The mineshaft? Where's that?"

Peter Pan rubbed his chin in thought. "On my way over, I think I remember passing by the entrance." He soared up above a few feet. "It'll only take ten minutes if we fly," Peter said.

Tidus shook his head. "Hate to tell you this, Peter," he said, "but not all of us have useful faeries that can help us out." Yuna cleared her throat, glaring at him with a stern expression. Tidus winced and quickly added, "Excluding present company of course." Yuna nodded, satisfied with his amendment.

Wakka started tapping him on the shoulder. "Um...Tidus?"

"Well, anyone can fly!" Peter replied. "You wanna try?" Tinker Bell was tugging on Peter's sleeve trying to get his attention, resulting in her being waved off. "Not now, Tink!"

Tidus' eyes grew rounder. "Sure! I've never flown before!" he shouted excitedly.

"Tidus..." Auron coughed but was completely ignored.

"All you need is a little bit of pixie dust and some happy thoughts!" Tinker Bell kicked Peter in the back of the head. He whipped around impatiently. "Tink, what's gotten into you?"

"Happy thoughts, huh?" Tidus closed his eyes. "I wonder what kind of..."

"TIDUS!" Auron, Yuna and Wakka yelled in unison.

Tidus' eyes snapped open. "What?"

Wakka jerked his thumb behind him. "It's right over there." A few feet behind the group was the mineshaft entrance.

Tidus stood silent for a moment. "Oh." He grinned in embarrassment. "I guess we stay put and wait for the others then."

Auron rolled his eyes. "Good idea," he said sarcastically.

Yuna began to hover away, but Tidus stopped her. "Hey, Yuna? Do you really have to leave now or you wanna hang around with us for a bit longer?" Tidus smiled warmly at her. "I've never talked to a real faerie before."

Yuna winked coyly at Tidus. "Why not? I've got some time to kill."

* * *

Naminé didn't know what else to do. The only advantage she had at the moment was her speed and agility allowing her to escape most of Lexaeus' assaults. Raw unrestrained power kept pouring out that encased him with an undeniably strong aura. "Doesn't this guy ever quit?" Naminé huffed.

"I know!" Kairi agreed. "He's almost as crazy as Saix!"

"Guess it's a good thing that we beat Saix already. We don't have to worry about them double-teaming us."

She raised the Keyblade over her head and swung it with all her strength. Lexaeus countered with his own weapon and parried the attack. As the two weapons collided, Naminé used the temporary momentum to aim a swift kick to the behemoth's shin, causing him to grunt in pain. He made a grab for Naminé with his free hand, but she had already dashed out of range.

Lexaeus let out another ferocious roar as his aura's power increased even further. With each step Lexaeus took, the ground shook underneath their feet. "Feel the true power of darkness!" The giant threw his weapon into the air and began stomping, causing huge quakes that forced mounds of earth to jut its way out to the surface. Naminé was forced to leap from earth pillar to pillar in an attempt to avoid the attacks. The Taciturn Stalwart finished by jumping into the air, grabbing his weapon and slamming it into the ground, causing a huge shockwave that knocked Naminé off her feet and flying into the pillar again. Lexaeus took advantage of the lull in battle to charge up his energy once more before taking off into the sky.

Naminé rubbed her aching butt as she stared at Lexaeus' form shrinking into a tiny flaming dot. "You've gotta be kidding me! He can fly too?!" She spat out some dirt that got into her mouth. "Who does this guy think he is, Superman?"

"I can't believe Lexaeus can channel so much energy!" Kairi said in awe. "I just hope he's not taking steroids. It's bad for the heart."

"Uh, earth to Kairi. Nobodies don't have hearts, remember?" Naminé shook her head impatiently. "Besides, you should be more focused on our life expectancy first!"

"Right. So, what do we do?" Naminé's eyes quickly scanned the battleground.

"Maybe we could throw all of these rocks at him," she suggested, kicking over some leftover dirt.

Lexaeus was at the peak of his trajectory and began rocketing back toward the arena. "Remember what Riku said? Use the environment around you!" Naminé didn't get it. "The pillars!" Kairi shouted. "Climb on top of the pillars!"

Naminé was stunned. "Wait...we can actually climb these? I thought they marked an invisible roof or something."

"You see how high that ogre is?" Kairi pointed out. "There's no roof! So, climb up already!"

"Don't have to tell me twice," Naminé said, hugging the pillar. She quickly shimmied up with ironic ease.

"Guess all those years of tree-climbing are paying off, huh?" Kairi commented. Naminé reached the top of the pillar and crouched to keep steady. Lexaeus plummeted to earth with a meteor impact, causing enormous stalagmites to burst out of the ground which would've destroyed anything standing.

However, the blast caused Naminé to lose her balance. Her legs flew out from under her and she landed with the pillar smashing itself between her legs. "You know, if I were a guy, this would be hurting like hell right now," Naminé muttered through clenched teeth. She placed her feet back on the top surface and stood up with shaking knees. "Now what?"

"Superfly!" Kairi shouted.

Naminé raised an eyebrow. "What?"

"Sorry, wrestling reference. Just leap off the top turnbuckle and go into a Five-star Frog Splash!"

"Kairi!" Naminé snapped. "Enough with the wrestling analogies; I got it already." She said a quick prayer under her breath, then jumped straight at Lexaeus, her blonde hair flying behind her. Lexaeus looked up and immediately tried to counter by throwing his tomahawk at her.

Naminé landed on the airborne weapon, propelled herself off the makeshift platform, smacked the back of Lexaeus' head with the Keyblade again and quickly leapt off. While his back was exposed, she spun into a lightning fast leg combo to the kidneys before she was forced to jump out of range.

She gritted her teeth in frustration. "Why won't he fall?! I smashed him with the Keyblade and he's still standing!"

"Naminé," Lexaeus roared as he summoned his weapon back into his hand, "I have the power of darkness on my side! Unlike light, the darkness is infinite!"

Like a bull in a china shop, Lexaeus shouldered his tomahawk and charged at Naminé. "It's not over yet!" Kairi cried. "Everything has a weak point! Lexaeus might be built like a tank, but there's one surefire way to bring any guy to his knees!"

Naminé nodded. "I didn't want to have to resort to this, but..." She dashed at Lexaeus with superhuman agility. "Wait for it..." It was like playing chicken with a speeding locomotive. As soon as she could see the red in his eyes, Naminé baseball slid underneath Lexaeus' legs, the tomahawk missing her by inches. Then in one swift motion, she slammed the Keyblade upward into Lexaeus' "little boulders."

Lexaeus' aura was immediately extinguished as he collapsed to his knees in pain. The tomahawk hit the ground with a dull thunk as the Taciturn Stalwart's eyes rolled back in their sockets, his mouth gaping open.

"Um...that wasn't exactly what I meant," Kairi said. "But that works too."

The giant gasped for air, struggling to get his wind back, but he eventually just went limp and smoked into nothingness.

"Imagine defeating the entire Organization that way," Naminé giggled. She could just see it now...

"Where's the fun in..." THWACK!

"You really shouldn't have..." KABAM!

"Anger and hate are..." CHONG!

Naminé shook her head. "Nah. Now that I've done it to their most muscular member, they'll be expecting that."

"Yeah," Kairi agreed as the light engulfed them again. "They're probably passing the iron cups around as we speak." She quietly sighed. "A shame really. It would make things go by much faster."