Suddenly out of the darkness appeared Kairi. There was fear in her eyes as she yelled "Sora, help me!"

Xemnas started toward her with an evil grin and his ethereal blades. Immediately, Sora ran to cover her, getting to her right before Xemnas did. Acting on instinct Sora jumped in front of Kairi putting his arm out and shielding her with his back to Xemnas. He looked into her eyes but saw nothing. He realized it was only a shadow too late as pain took over his mind.

Riku saw the whole thing, Xemnas had seen Sora's weakness and took advantage of it. He tried to yell to warn Sora that 'Kairi' was only an illusion, she wasn't really there. But he was too late.

He watched as Xemnas's blade pierced Sora's back. His back arched as he gritted his teeth and cried out in pain. As the blade was pulled out of Sora, he fell forward crumpling onto the ground. Dropping his key blade, it clattered against the ground.

Riku ran towards him. Riku could already see the blood soaking through Sora's clothing. His breathing was labored, but on the positive side at least he was still breathing. Riku dodged past Xemnas's attacks he grabbed Sora's key blade. His duel wielding wasn't as strong as Sora but it would do.

Riku pointed Sora's keyblade at Xemnas and yelled, "My name is Riku! You have hurt my friend, prepare to die!"

"I did you a favor, he was only holding you back," Xemnas said with a smirk before firing an attack at him. Riku dodged that attack easily.

The battle went on in stalemate for a while until Xemnas turned his attention toward Sora. He was still lying where Xemnas left him, struggling to hold onto consciousness. With a look toward Sora then Riku that communicated Xemnas's whole plan, he glided to Sora. Looking down at Sora with disdain he leaned down and picked him up by his spiky hair. Sora groaned in pain as he was held upright.

"I think your friend could use a haircut, right about here." He said holding his blade over Sora's neck.

Riku readied his keyblades, "Leave him out of it. Let's fight just you and me, fair and square."

"Alright then, drop his keyblade," Xemnas ordered still holding Sora by his hair.

The sound of a Keyblade falling to the ground echoed against the walls of whatever dark and light space they were fighting in. The keyblade disappeared in a flash of light and teleported to Sora's hand where he tried in vain to hit Xemnas. Unfazed, Xemnas dropped Sora letting him fall face first back to the ground, where he lay for the remainder of the battle seemingly forgotten by the two fighting intensely.

There was death in their eyes as they fought, each wishing it on the other. The battle was close with no major development until Xemnas pinned Riku with both blades. Xemnas smiled evilly into Riku's face, feeling his blade start to shift under the weight. But, before Xemnas could strike, his foot struck Xemnas in the chest causing him to fall back. Without a moment of hesitation, he lifted his weird vampire angel bat winged keyblade and plunged it into Xemnas's chest. As he began to fade he looked at Riku.

"You have only delayed my ultimate plan, ha ha…" He used his last breath to say before he completely faded away leaving a lingering chuckle in the air.

As soon as Xemnas faded Riku yelled "Sora!" and ran to him. He looked bad but was still alive. "Don't worry buddy, you'll make it. We just have to get out of here."

"Light," Sora said pointing at something.

"No, no light, look at me you're going to make it," Riku said.

"There," Sora said again pointing. This time Riku looked.

Sighing in relief he said, "Oh, that light. Haha," He let out a tense laugh. "You ready to go, do you need help?" He didn't answer. "I'll take that as a yes." He picked him up like how he used to give him a piggy back rides at home on destiny island.

"Thanks," Sora said faintly his eyes still closed.

"You're heavier than I remember,"

They walked into the light.

They walked for a long time. Sora hardly moved, he hardly breathed. He was conscious but barely. His side hurt a lot but the pain was fading, giving way to darkness.

Suddenly the pain was gone and he was standing in a field. The moon was bright and he was on the dirt path between fields of tall grass. Everything looked too real. Looking down Sora realized he wasn't in the outfit the fairies had given him anymore, he was wearing his old outfit. The red one he took his first journey in. Strangely, it wasn't too small, it fit just right. Before him stood a man in the classic organization XIII clothing about the same height as him.

"I can make all your worries go away," He said with an outstretched hand.

Sora stepped forward to take his hand. NO! there was a loud call from somewhere. Sora looked around turning in a full circle. Directly behind him was Riku looking the way he did back on Destiny Island.

"There is going to be pain but, please come back with me, Sora. We need you," Riku said. He outstretched both his hands. His eyes pleaded with Sora to come with him.

Sora looked between the two. He faced Riku, "Okay, I'll come." He took Riku's offered hands and let him lead him down the long path.

Sora woke up. He was lying on his back in the sand. There was a dark ocean beyond the rocks with a big bright moon looming overhead. He opened his eyes for a second, he could see Riku sitting next to him out of the corner of his eyes. Sora's eyes were too tired and they closed again.

"To tell you the truth, Sora, I was always jealous of you." Riku said. He wasn't expecting a reply and continued. "I wished I could live life the way you do. Just following your heart."

Sora tried to answer but couldn't make a sound, he could only listen.

"At least there is one advantage to being me, something you could never imitate. Having you as a friend." Riku said.

That was the last Sora heard before he drifted off into a dreamless sleep.

Riku stared off into the distance with a worried look. What if they didn't make it to help in time? Sora had already lost a lot of blood and was looking paler than ever.

Riku looked over the vast expanse of water. He noticed a bottle bobbing along in the surface. He reached out to grab it and got the the bottom of his pants wet in the ocean, it was warm. It was a glass bottle with a message inside. He popped the cork and took the message out.

"It's for you," He said skimming the letter. It was really more of a poem than a letter. He started to read it aloud for Sora, even thought Riku knew he couldn't hear him.

"Thinking of you wherever you are. We pray for our sorrows to end, and hope that our hearts will blend. Now I will step forward to realize this wish and who knows, stating a new journey may not be that hard or maybe it has already begun. There are so many worlds but they share the same sky. One sky, one destiny. Kairi" His eyes were tearing up by the end.

Riku looked at Sora, he didn't appear to have moved or made any hint he was listening. Riku put the note in his pocket. If, no when, Sora was better he could give it to him.

Riku looked back over the vast expanse of water when a light suddenly beamed down from the heavens. Every fiber of him was pulled towards that light it felt warm and bright. He swore he could even smell warm chocolate chip cookies, the ones his mom packed for him to share at destiny island. He always ate them before anyone could ask to share them.

He stood up and began to walk into the water. He got to his ankles then looked back at Sora's limp form on the sand.

"I would never leave you," he said knowing Sora couldn't hear him. Riku picked him up and walked into the ocean toward the light.

When the light engulfed Riku it was like he was melting away. He felt the everything around him disappear including Sora. Suddenly he was flying, no wait falling. Everything was moving too fast. The cold salty sting of water jolted him back into the world.

After a moment Riku got his bearings back to reality, he was in the ocean and the water was cold. In the distance he could see Destiny Islands, his old home. There was even Kairi waving at him!

"Sora, we made it!" He yelled looking around. He saw Sora slowly sinking a stream of bubbles coming from his nose and clothing.

"NO!" Riku gasping a big breath before diving after him. Sora was sinking faster but Riku grabbed his arm before pulling him up to the surface. He made sure Sora's head was above the water and swam to Destiny island.

The closer he got to the shore, Kairi's expression changed from joy to fear. From behind her Goofy, Donald, and Mickey ran out to Riku. Riku gently handed Sora to Goofy before he collapsed on his knees in the sand. "I'm fine but he needs help." Riku said trying reassure them.

"We have got to get him to Radiant Garden, Merlin can heal him!" Micky spoke quickly. "We can take the gummy ship, I parked it on the other side of the island."

Donald took the keys and ran to go get the gummy ship started. Goofy quick walked behind being careful not to move Sora too much. He looked even worse now that he was wet, like a drowned rat. Everyone else ran to the tree house to gather their stuff for the journey back to Radiant Garden.

Inside the ship there were not enough seats. Luckily, in the back there was a long bench made three people. They placed Sora on top, laying down he took up the entire bench. Kairi came back from the tree house with some gauze and other first aid. They wrapped his side with the gauze to staunch the bleeding. Goofy, Donald and Micky took command of the flight deck flying as fast and stable as possible.

They arrived on the gummy pad in Radiant Garden in record time.

"We have an injured!" Riku yelled while disembarking like he was in a war zone. The gummy pad operator was prepared for this. He brought out a foldup gurney from the storage closet. Rolling it over to the ship where Riku waited holding Sora. They laid him on his back. Luckily, Merlin's place wasn't too far from the gummy pad. Micky ran ahead to tell Merlin and get the house ready.

"Don't worry we are almost there." Kairi said stroking Sora's matted hair.

When they arrived at Merlin's house he was already waiting for them. Inside he had cleared the table and laid a clean white linin on top.

"Lay him on top," Merlin instructed. "I need to clean the wound. Xemnas's ethereal blade are concentrated darkness. If left untreated it could cause some major issues."

"Major issues?" Riku asked tentatively.

"Well, It hasn't been studied in depth but it's hypothesized to disconnect in the heart. Which as we know can cause mental issues and multiple personality disorders." Merlin said looking through his cabinet for something. "The hard part about treating infected darkness in wounds is that it isn't up to me, it's up to him. I can help him fight it but in the end, it's up to him."

They laid Sora's unmoving form on top of the cloth. Merlin finding the bottle and bandages he was searching for moving back to Sora.

"Where was he hit by the darkness?"

"On his back here," Riku said pointing to the bloody gauze. "It goes all the way through to the belly."

They carefully unwrapped the Gauze revealing the wound. It was reddish brown with the drying blood. But after they cleaned away the blood they could see it was no ordinary wound. There was blackness pulsing around the ring of where he was stabbed.

Merlin took a couple drops from the bottle and dropped them on the wound both front and back. He then waved the wand around chanting foreign words, sparkles coming down off the end of his wand towards the wound. The sparkles fell into the wound congregating along the edge where the pulsing blackness was. It began to pull at the darkness trying to lift it up.

Once the sparkles were laid, Merlin put down his wand. "It's up to him now, he must fight the darkness for control."

Sora awoke in the darkness. He was floating gently in the warmth. But he was falling and he could see a stained-glass floor approaching underfoot.

He landed feeling the coolness of the glass. It was him, a mural of him. Somehow it felt familiar like he had been here before. He looked up from the ground to see someone else standing on the other side. They were wearing an all-black trench coat the hood was down to show a familiar face, but Sora just couldn't recall who he was, everything was hazy.

The figure walked toward him readying two keyblades. "Thought you got rid of me, huh?"

"Wait…" The recognition flashed in Sora's mind. He had fought him before in the World that Never Was. He had said something about being his 'other', whatever that meant. "Stop," Sora called out to him, "What did you mean 'other'?"

The figure stopped, "I am your other, your nobody."

"Oh, Ohhhhh yeah…" Sora said remembering that time he created a nobody by sacrificing himself for Kairi.

"I am Roxas, and I deserve to exist," He proclaimed running toward Sora with his Keyblades scraping the ground.

Roxas held nothing back. Sora dodge-rolled away in the nick of time. Sora materialized his own Keyblade and parried the next oncoming attack knocking Roxas' darker Keyblade across the floor. Then when he saw an opening he tackled Roxas to the ground, holding the Keyblade over his head.

"I already beat you once, I'll do it again. Why are you still fighting?" Sora asked.

"Because I want to live!" Roxas yelled pushing Sora off with his feet and striking him with the other keyblade.

They fought for a while, they were evenly matched in strength and was lull in the battle, both were panting and tired.

"Why can't we both exist? we could be friends!" Sora asked hopefully between breaths.

"Because life doesn't work that way, there has to be a winner and a loser." Roxas answered cynically. He readied his keyblade for another attack, before he ran towards Sora.

"Where would you go? There is nowhere left for you, the organization is done." Sora said jumping out of Roxas' way.

"I just want to eat ice cream with Axel and her again," Roxas said.

"Axel is dead and I don't know who 'her' is but she probably dead too," Sora yelled at him. He dashed forward and hit Roxas in the side with his keyblade.

Roxas fell to his hands and knees. "What?" Roxas said letting his keyblades disappear.

Sora looked down at him holding the keyblade ready to attack. Roxas looked up to meet his eyes. When Sora looked at him all he saw was himself, a scared young boy who just wants to live life, whatever that may mean.

Roxas flinched expecting an attack, but none came. Instead Sora stretched down his hand open palmed.

"Why?" Roxas asked not taking the hand.

Sora with his hand still outstretched answered, "Because I realize now you are a part of me."

Roxas looked up into Sora's eyes but he saw no malice. His instinct took over and his hand reached up to take Sora's but last minute realized what was going to happen to him.

If he took that had he would cease to exist on his own and would become nothing more than a part of Sora lost in a memory.

Roxas slapped Sora's hand away and pushed him away. "I am not just some piece of you! I am my own person! Get away from me and let me live!"

Sora was taken aback. "I know but I can help you exist."

"No, you can't! You're only trying to trick me!" Roxas said.

Sora tried to answer but was interrupted by Roxas' keyblade smacking him across the head.

He fell back from the hit but never felt the landing. The world faded into comforting blackness with only him.