CHAPTER 1 – Save Me


A/N: There is currently close to no one interested~! Now, after this chapter I had a lot of debate on what I should do next. It literally took me months to make a decision and stick to it. But finally, I know what I'm doing, and soon so shall you.

Soundtrack: Buried Beneath by Red still. It was a big inspiration to this entire fic.

Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts or any characters used.

WARNINGS: Beware of confusing time skips and long deep-thought sequences.


Three months earlier


"Sora! It's time to get up for school!"

Said hero groaned and turned in his bed, wondering idly whether or not to ignore his mother's voice and return to blissful oblivion. His blankets were warm and his bed was soft. School was boring and the chairs were uncomfortable... His decision was made in his sleepy mind, and he buried further into the warm sheets. Dang, his mind made a damn good argument.

But as he was lazily drifting back off to slumber, there was a familiar thump, thunk near his bed. However, the sound had become so routine, that it didn't even stir him. A deep voice grunted, and suddenly his warm blankets were replaced by cold air. Sora gave a childish whine and tried to salvage his sleep with his own heat, curling into a ball to conserve warmth.

"Get up, you lazy idiot. How long do you plan on sleeping?" that deep voice condescended.

Sora mumbled something into his pillow that sounded a bit like an annoyed: "morning Riku..."

Riku apparently decided Sora needed a bit more convincing, and took the opportunity to smack Sora on his bare back. Hard. The poor boy yelped, jolting at the shock of the sudden pain and falling off the bed. On the floor, Sora heard Riku's chuckle.

"Riku!" Sora growled, clamoring into a kneeling position. "How would you feel if someone woke you up like that?"

Riku's glare was deadpan and terrifying, and his voice was low and monotone. His aqua-green eyes were shrouded by his long silver hair, and he stared down at Sora from his ridiculous height. "I would kill them." He answered easily, like it was the most simple thing in the world.

A pillow smacked Riku in the face.

Sleepy and irate, Sora stumbled to his feet and shuffled toward the bathroom in nothing but his boxers, completely unaffected by Riku's dark attitude. The brunette dragged his feet through getting ready, but eventually he made it down the stairs with his shirt on right-side-out and Riku in tow.

"Did you do Mr. Spencer's worksheet?" mumbled Sora as he trudged into the kitchen in search of a breakfast-like item.

"Yep." Riku confirmed, taking an apple. "Did you?"

Sora grumbled something incoherent before finishing with a slightly more intelligible, "did at least half of it..."

Sora's mother appeared from the hallway, peeking into the kitchen to find the two boys loitering there before leaving. She smiled immediately at Riku, not too terribly surprised he was here even though he clearly didn't spend the night last night. "Riku! Good morning!" she chirped in an overly-cheery voice, "You should use the front door more often, it works just fine!"

Riku sent the woman a droll smile for her familiar sarcasm. "Morning, ma'am."

"Dad at work?" Sora asked his mother, trying to sound respectful through a mouthful of half chewed banana.

His mother scrunched up her nose delicately. "Yes. Don't talk with your mouth full."

Sora swallowed.

Eventually it was time to go, and the two of them trudged off to school with Sora's mother calling out her well wishes to the two of them. On the walk, Riku explained what Mr. Spencer's worksheet was suppose to teach them, all while Sora just sort of watched Riku's mouth move. He got distracted like that, and while the last thing he wanted was to block out the words Riku was saying, mundane things like school didn't interest him.

Riku had always been intelligent. And athletic. And strong. And attractive. He was good at everything, and everyone knew it. Sora remembered Wakka always mentioning that, as long as he stuck with Riku, things would work out. Riku knew what he was doing. He could be counted on to do things right.

Which was why it hurt so much when he couldn't count on Riku. He was Sora's best friend, and the only one he could rely on. When Riku turned to the darkness and his back on him, all Sora could think to do was fight to bring him back. Sometimes he wondered if Riku ever really needed him. He had seemed so competent, even when the darkness sought to control him. Was Sora just trying to feel self important by thinking Riku needed him?

"Are you even listening?"

Sora looked up and met his friend's sea green gaze. "Oh. Sorry." he muttered immediately, and quickly turned to look ahead of them. The school was in sight, and from this distance Sora could make out Kairi's red hair. Axel was right. The color red did travel the farthest.

Go figure.

"Don't tell me you were just looking at me the whole time and not listening." Riku scolded dully, his hands in his pockets as he stared at the school.

"I was looking at you? Sorry, I was thinking." Sora said, brushing it off.

"That's creepy, dude." Riku said, ribbing him lightly.

"Shut up."


Present


The islands were absolutely beautiful this time of day. The sun setting over the water made everything look like it was burning, even the ocean. Riku felt a bit of heaviness in his chest staring at it after all this time. He remembered how badly he had wanted to get away from this place. How desperate he'd been, how much he'd wanted it. After he had learned of the possibility as a child, he had longed for it dearly. His home world was a prison surrounded by water. And now he had tasted it, that bit of deliriously delicious freedom and adventure. He had seen so much, learned so much, and experienced more than most would in their lifetime.

At a heavy price.

The dull ache in his chest returned, or had it ever gone away in the first place? He felt scarred, wounded and unhealable. He wondered if the destruction wrought by the darkness would ever be fixed, even after he accepted it as a part of himself. Sometimes he found himself staring into space, looking at all the mundane, normal things around him and recalling what it felt to hold Soul Eater or Way to the Dawn. That feeling of power, like nothing could defeat him. He had to pretend he hadn't experienced any of it. For the sake of normalcy.

Riku sighed heavily and leaned back against the wall from his spot on his bed. A textbook sat open in front of him and papers were scattered on the rumpled bed covers. After his life-changing adventure, he had to do homework. He could kill himself for the irony. His hand lazily rubbed the center of his chest, the ache having not yet vanished. It was easy to ignore at this point. Maybe he was wrong and it wasn't internal scars left by the darkness, and he really had a tumor or something in there. Wouldn't that be ironic? He probably deserved it.

With dull eyes Riku glanced out the window, again taking in the sight of the beautiful sunset. He knew this sight by heart, the line of the horizon, the outcroppings of surrounding islands, all lit in red, yellow and orange by the lowering sun. The play island was in his sight as well, and he knew if he squinted he could just barely make out the paopu tree on his favorite little island...

Wait.

What is that?

And that smell...

No.

Riku launched forward, throwing his door open and rocketing down the stairs. He ignored his parents' questions as he leapt into his shoes and bolted out the door. He didn't know what was going on. There was no plausible explanation. They had destroyed the Heartless, they couldn't possibly be back. The darkness shouldn't be here. Not on their peaceful island. Riku's footsteps clattered loudly on the dock as he ran to his boat, untying it quickly and jumping in. They had just gotten it back, and hadn't even been back for half a year.

But Riku looked toward the paopu tree island and still saw those black tendrils of darkness reaching into the sky, writhing in the air like they were alive. Horror filled his chest when he saw another boat at the dock. Who was it? Not... He refused to think of Sora. There was no way. It wasn't possible. So he sloppily tied his boat to the dock and clamored out of it, his urgency making his steps clumsy. With unsteady steps he sprinted to the seaside shack and stomped up the stairs, taking them two or three at a time. He burst out that door at the top and stopped dead at what he saw.

In the center of that little island across the bridge was a swirling vortex of black. Tendrils of it leapt into the air and pooled on the ground as a figure stood in the middle of it. Colors like violet and blue writhed in the blackness that enveloped the figure, that figure that was so incredibly familiar even with their back turned to him.

Choking on anguish, Riku snapped out of his horror-stricken state and stumbled forward, his feet clattering on the bridge. His tongue seemed to be somewhere in the back of his throat, but he managed to choke out, "Sor-"

But the words died on his lips and he froze in his tracks when the figure turned around slowly. What he saw was not his friend. It was something else entirely. His friend's familiar bright blue eyes were without an iris or pupil and glowing bright yellow. Otherwise he was coated from head to toe in black, darkness writhing around him like snakes.

Riku couldn't believe it. It was impossible. "Sora?" he called, unsure and positively floored.

The black creature with Sora's form blinked. It was unmistakably him. The spikes of his hair were inky black, just like his skin and clothes, but it was definitely him. He looked like... Riku couldn't think, couldn't speak, couldn't breathe. What was going on?

And then, in a blink of an eye, Sora changed. His skin returned to a normal color, although he was paler than before, making his dark lashes stand out contrastingly against the white. His hair returned to brown, and his clothes had changed. The colors were strange; dark violet in place of blue, maroon instead of red... And there were patches on his shoulders, depicting a very familiar shape in vibrant red: a Heartless symbol.

And his eyes were no longer blue.

They were luminescent red, glowing against the darkness around him.

Riku stared.

His friend had...given into the darkness? Had he become a heartless? 'Ansem' had been a heartless, while looking very human. That could very well be what had happened. But for what reason would Sora have for turning to the darkness? Sora, the one who's heart was so strong it could hold and heal others? The one who brought light to the worlds? The one who sealed away the darkness, and yet still found it within himself to accept Riku for the dark being he was?

Yet the very human Sora looked straight at Riku, his face unreadable as his red eyes burned into him. Riku found his hands trembling. He didn't know what was going on. He hated this, whatever it was. It wasn't Sora who was standing there, in the same damnable spot Riku had when he'd found the darkness all those years ago. It wasn't Sora who was surrounded by writhing black snakes that threatened to consume him. It wasn't Sora because Sora would never let that happen. It was impossible.

Riku watched Sora's lips twitch. A slight smirk. He watched his friend lift his arm, and offer him his open palm. Offering him a choice. It sent ice through Riku's veins, seeing his friend echo him in the most terrifying way. Sora stood in the very place Riku had on that horrible night, and Riku stood in his. It made Riku's stomach turn. He didn't realize he had begun to shake his head, vehemently denying. This was wrong. It needed to stop.

Sora's lips turned down, and slowly he retracted his hand.

Riku shook his head for a different reason, finally uprooting his frozen feet and dragging himself forward. "No," he said lowly, "No, Sora. Come here. Stop this." He ordered beseechingly, his eyes not hiding his horror as he reached out to Sora.

Sora just stared at him, his chin tilted down as he gazed up at him from underneath black eyelashes. His eerie blood red eyes glowed as he stared at Riku, sending shivers of fear down his spine.

Riku approached him slowly, feeling dread seize his heart at the realization that this was... actually happening. "Sora," he said again. "This isn't you. Come to your senses." Riku's foot touched the sand, finally across the bridge. "Just talk to me, alri-"

The darkness swirling around Sora's body lashed out, thrashing against Riku's chest and flinging him away. Riku grunted at the impact and cursed when his back hit the bridge, forcing himself into a sitting position as he clutched his chest. The darkness had hit him right over his heart, causing it to throb in agony. Gasping, Riku clamored to his knees to rise to his feet. "Sora..." he choked, his teeth grit against the pain.

Sora looked... unconcerned. He didn't care that Riku was hurt. It didn't bother him. That alone made Riku die a little inside, to see that uncaring look on his best friend's face. It really couldn't be him. But it was.

The dark being Sora had become only glared at Riku once wordlessly, daringly. Riku fumbled to his feet and staggered toward Sora as the shadows writhed more urgently. The tendrils reached up out of the ground and slowly wrapped around Sora's body, enveloping him in an icy embrace. First it clung to his wrists and ankles, and crept upwards, slowly, so slowly.

Riku was shouting, now full out running despite the ache in his chest and sudden numbness of his legs. The wind buffeted them, trumpeting out its rage and taking Riku's voice away with it. The sun had disappeared, leaving them in the dimness of twilight. Sora did not break eye contact with Riku as the darkness wrapped around him, swallowing him. He was sinking down, down into a dark swamp of despair. And still he stared, with the most unreadable expression that Riku couldn't even begin to fathom.

And even as Riku ran towards his friend with all his strength, he didn't reach him until he was pulled into the darkness.


A/N: Very sorry if the time skipping is confusing. Beware, there is more to come. Feel free to review, thank you!

Much love,

Rain