The tendril attack was starting again and Sam wasn't showing any signs of waking up. Ashe brought up her blade to block this round of attacks as the creature added in something new, lightning. Ashe couldn't dodge, not without Sam getting hurt. She would have to block the tendrils as best as she could, and take a hit from the lightning. This was going to hurt. But before anything could impact, there was a strange flash of light. The light was warm, and very familiar. Ashe had felt it once before, when her world had been swallowed by darkness. She had always thought that it had been that light that saved her. There was a surge of energy inside the warrior woman, as if the last day hadn't been nothing but pure chaos.

The tendrils and the lightning were deflected by the light. No, that wasn't right. Ashe turned to see Sam, laying there on the ground, eyes opened, holding up a weapon she had never seen before. She hadn't seen it before, but she knew what it was from the stories Leon and the others had told her. It was a Keyblade. Sam had a Keyblade? He seemed no worse for wear. He used another attack Ashe had never seen before, some sort of magic came out the front of his Keyblade, it seemed to do a lot of damage to the creature. It was time to finish it off.

Ashe was only moments behind Sam as he rushed forward. All she could think about was protecting him, protecting these townspeople, just as she had done on Aumi. Ashe felt that warm light again, but this time it felt a little different. The light was forming some sort of barrier around her, like a lightly blue tinged bubble. But this time, that warmth wasn't coming from Sam, it was coming from her. [i]"Is this, magic? How am I using magic?"[/i] She had no more time to think as the creature tried to attack her. Ashe brought her blade up to deflect it, but it was blocked by the barrier instead. As she surged forward, leaping into the air to deliver a final blow, the barrier disappeared.

She sunk her blade into the creature one last time, and as her feet hit the ground once more, watched as the creature disappeared, defeated. Ashe released a breath and pressed a hand against her wounded side. [i]"Sam has a Keyblade, I used magic. What the hell is going on here?"[/i] Things were a lot less hectic than they had been moments ago, but they weren't out of the woods yet. They were both bleeding, they had no idea if the Emperor had survived, and they still had to get home. Things weren't over quite yet. "If you had a Keyblade, why didn't you use it sooner?" Ashe asked, as she walked over to Sam.