He was floating.

Darkness circled decrepitly around his forgotten form as he wearily made his way through the hordes of Heartless that had made themselves right at home behind Kingdom Hearts' closed doors. His mind was focused on his only goal; heck, he didn't have the strength to think of another goal. He wanted to leave this place. Why was he here? Where had he gone wrong? His plan had been to save Kairi and turn out the big hero in this whole plot. But he had went wrong somewhere.

Ah, yes.

Getting involved with Maleficent in the first place was his mistake. How foolish was he? It wasn't practical, it seemed, for him, the hero of his Island, the strongest there and a dependable friend, to be the one so prone to darkness. He didn't want the darkness near him. He never wanted to experience such mind-numbing pain again, the pain that Ansem had put him through. Sora was his savior for ridding him of Ansem...but should he be saying that?

No.

He was a villain. Villains never get the girl, the weapon, or the honor of saving the universe from untimely destruction.

And he didn't get the burden.

He realized why it had been he who had been destined to be the Keyblade Master. Sora had seemed weak at heart, and someone who would be a valuable ally to him, not one who had a strong heart and the ability to wield the Keyblade. But when he had opened his heart to darkness, all of that had changed. The Keyblade had sensed his obvious acceptation of the darkness and chosen Sora over him. He should have never accepted the darkness. He should have stopped asking all of those damn questions.

But they wouldn't stop coming.

Wearily, he sank down to his knees, a hand holding himself up tiredly as he stared into the rest of the dark abyss that lay in front of him, taunting him as his legs ached even now. Oh, how much did he wish he had someone right now, someone...anyone would do. Even if it was Captain Hook he'd still celebrate about it. He lay down, mindful of the shadows crowding around him. Let them take his heart. He didn't want it.

Riku closed his eyes.

And slept.

There was someone there.

The figure stared down at the sleeping boy, even as his sword raised slightly, swiping off the Heartless with a careless gesture here and there. He knelt next to him, tilting his head to the side to examine his face. A mass of soft silver hair fell over his hand, and he pushed it out of the boy's face. Something disturbed him about this boy. Carefully, he slid his arm under the boy's neck, and the other under his legs, lifting the child-like form up. He stirred, jerking slightly against him as he walked toward the abyss. The boy, he decided abruptly, was coming with him. There was no other way that he was going to survive behind these doors.

"Fool." He muttered as the boy jerked again. "Selfless, sympathetic fool..."

Now is that freakishly short or what? Well, believe me, I have a story line, so if you want to listen to Riku rant, and this strange man...err...carry him, then read on! (Note: No, I'm not going to upload the same exact document to every single chapter and name it differently every single time just to fool you reviewers...which are, hopefully, not listening to me rant and rave about something completely off the subject and typing up a review demanding I continue this.) Who is this guy?! I wanna know!