But Riku had been right to trust Sora, and after falling for only a few seconds they landed hard. Riku pushed himself up onto his hands and knees and looked around. They had landed on the back of the metal dragon that had destroyed the tower. Riku could feel his hair being blown back by the wind as the dragon flew seemingly unaware of its stowaways.
"You OK?" Sora asked him and Riku turned his head to see his best friend standing next to him looking down concerned.
"Yeah," Riku said starting to get up. Sora helped him to his feet and then stood back letting him straighten up. Now upright, Riku stood rubbing the shoulder that Sora had nearly dislocated. He turned and looked back at the ruined castle fading into the distance. "Well that's one way to get off that roof," he muttered under his breath and turned back to Sora who was holding his head. When Sora took his hand away, Riku could see bright red blood in his palm. Alarmed, he grabbed Sora's head examining the triangle shaped cut left by the falling tile.
"Geez Riku its just a little cut. I'm fine," Sora said surprised by Riku's reaction, "Its barely even bleeding." He pushed his friend's hands away and Riku unhappily dropped the issue.
Gesturing around at the dragon Riku said, "Is this thing a nobody?"
Sora shrugged, "I don't know." He turned to face the head of the dragon that rested on top of a long neck covered in metal scales. "Let's check it out." And he ran off between the two great wings.
Riku easily caught up and ran along at Sora's pace. He could hear Sora panting and laughed. "Bet I can beat you to the head!" He shouted then took off ahead of Sora.
Sora gritted his teeth and dug down deep trying to speed up. Riku always thought he could beat him at these sorts of things and for once Sora wanted to prove him wrong. Somewhere in his mind there was a voice telling him it was stupid for them to be acting so childish as they rode an unknown monster through a world that was falling into darkness. But Sora's competitive side had taken control and he ignored the voice of reason focusing on catching his tall silver haired friend who was pulling even farther ahead with every step.
Riku stopped at the neck and looked back shooting him a superior grin before beginning to climb. He was already halfway up the neck when Sora reached the base. Sora looked up apprehensively but if Riku could do it so could he. With a deep breath he grabbed the scales of the neck and began to climb.
Riku clung to the top scale and looked back down the way he had come. "Whoa!" He laughed nervously. He was so high up he couldn't see the ground anymore. No wait, that's not it. There was no ground left to see! The nobodies' world was gone except for a few flying bits of debris some of which were the size of buildings. Sora was far below clinging to the dragon's neck carefully making his way up. "Hurry up Sora!" Riku called down then hoisted himself over the wall in front of him and dropping lightly into an enclosed flat area on the top of the dragons head. All childish glee from racing Sora was gone. He walked forward intending to look out over the metal dragon's snout and see where they were headed. But he never made it. Something hit him hard in the back sending him flying to the ground.
"I...want...a rematch," Sora gasped finally climbing over the wall and falling with little grace into the enclosed space. Out of breath from the climb he hunched over with his hands on his knees gasping for air. When Riku didn't respond he looked up. Riku was lying face down in the middle of the empty space not moving. "Riku!" Sora shouted and forgetting how exhausted he was from the climb he sprinted over to his friend who stirred and sat up by the time Sora reached him. "Riku," he said, "are you-"
"Look out!" Riku shouted and Sora whirled around summoning his keyblade just in time to block the beam of light aimed at his chest.
The blast held him in place for a few moments then disappeared. Sora lowered his sword wary of another attack. In front of him was an armored man sitting upon a spiked throne with a long sword in his hand. Sora was sure it had been him that had fired the light when his back was turned, but now the man was as still as a statue.
Riku jumped to his feet and dropped into a battle stance next to Sora. The whole scene seemed too familier. "How...how can he still be alive?" Sora asked him.
"I don't know..." Riku said just as surprised by the resilience of Xemnas. "But he won't be much longer," his voice was stronger the second time and he readied himself to charge.
Xemnas lifted his armored head slowly at Riku's comment and Riku charged forward only to be hit in the side with Xemnas' long sword sending him flying to the side. "Riku!" Sora shouted as he ran at Xemnas more cautiously. Riku quickly made an aerial recovery and fell back to the ground on his feet running forward once more. He watched as Sora, having completed a combo on Xemnas, was forced back by a forcefield that had appeared around the armored man still sitting on his throne. Riku ran forward as the forcefield disappeared attacking Xemnas and landing a combo just before he was also forced away.
Sora and Riku stood side by side in crouched positions trying to find the best way to make it past Armored Xemnas' defenses. But before they could act, Xemnas swept his long sword in an arch in front of him and the friends were sent flying off into space far away from the dragon and its master.
Sora stopped tumbling and began to fall, but his instincts took over and he began to fly like he was in Neverland again. The dragon was far off in the distance now and it had pulled its wings in front of it like a shield. Sora looked around and floating with him were pieces of buildings, all that was left of the nobodies' world. But Riku wasn't beside him anymore.
"Riku!" Sora called as he flew back towards the white dragon searching for his friend. The sound of something whistling through the air towards him made him look to his right to see one of the buildings had taken on a life of its own and was flying at him like a missile instead of floating contently in space. Sora quickly rose up letting the building pass underneath him. As it did so, he turned back in the direction of the dragon to see more buildings racing towards him.
Sora flew out to meet them, dodging and weaving between them to avoid being hit. The last one was too close and too fast for him to dodge, and he swung he keyblade with little hope that it would do anything to stop the huge building. Surprisingly, Sora's keyblade easily cut through the building and the two pieces fell away leaving him without a scratch.
As Sora began to fly towards the shielded dragon again, circles of light appeared in front of him. They spun in a slow circle together and beams of energy burst out at him. Dodging and weaving once more Sora escaped the beams by rising above them. Suddenly three more circles appeared in front of him and before he could move out of the way a single beam of energy hit him hard and held him in place while pain surged through his body.
He cried out but there was nothing he could do as his body, shocked with energy, refused to listen to his commands. After a long moment, the circles faded and the energy released him. He dropped like a stone until he was able to regain control of his movements. He hung in the air breathing hard. "Curaga," he mumbled and the soothing green light fell on him taking away the residual ache left by Xemnas' latest attack.
"Sora!"
Sora heard his name and looked up to see Riku standing on one of the buildings still floating peacefully in space. He flew up quickly and floated next to the building keeping an eye out for more of Xemnas' attacks.
"We gotta break that damn shield," Riku said.
"I don't think our keyblade will cut it," Sora replied. "We need something big like a battering ram." Suddenly the light bulb turned on. "Or a flying building with a keyblade wielder on top."
Riku looked at him with a glint in his eye, "Always wanted to ride a missile."
Sora laughed and flipped over to the back of the building. "Launching in 3, 2..." Sora swung his keyblade as hard as he could hitting the building with the flat side so as to not cut it in half and watched it and Riku go flying.
He flew after it quickly and saw it hit the shield perfectly in the center. "Bullseye," he said smugly pumping his fist in the air. But his happiness was short lived as the building merely bounced off the strong shield.
Riku however, was not ready to give up so easily. As Sora watched, he jumped off the building and, similar to what Sora had done, whacked the back of it with his keyblade. Unlike Sora, he used the sharp side and sliced the building into pieces. The pieces flew back into the shield and their combined force sent the dragon reeling. The shield spilt apart, back into wings, and Sora, wasting no time, surged forward.
He caught Riku as he fell and flew the both of them back to Xemnas who was still sitting on his throne. A few feet off the ground, Sora released the magic and they dropped onto their feet.
Not wanting to be swept back into space, Riku charged forward at Xemnas but the nobody threw up a forcefield yet again. Riku was expecting that and performed an aerial recovery landing in front of Xemnas as his forcefield dissolved. He struck forward and began a ground combo on the armor nobody only half aware that Sora had jumped over him and was attacking Xemnas from above.
Xemnas slashed at them with his sword again knocking them back, but the blow was not hard enough to send them flying off the dragon again. Both Sora and Riku performed aerial recoveries and landed shoulder to shoulder facing Xemnas. High above the nobody, four small circles of light appeared. Sora, recognizing them from before, told Riku quickly, "Dodge around them," before jumping to the side away from the first beam that struck the ground where he had been standing.
Riku followed Sora's lead and moved quickly to avoid two of the beams that began to move in his direction. He was on defensive, jumping and weaving around the energy beams, but Sora jumped past the circles and slammed into Xemnas with his keyblade. Riku was distracted for a moment watching him, and paid for it by getting hit in the leg by one of the energy beams.
Hissing in pain, he jumped not quite as high as Sora but high enough to make it past the energy beams, and stood once more in front of Xemnas. Sora was in the middle of a ground combo as Xemnas raised his long sword to throw him off. Riku ran forward and jumped in front of Xemnas' sword blocking it and giving time for Sora to land his finishing move on the nobody.
In a howl of pain Xemnas made yet another forcefield which sent the two of them flying back. They landed and Riku looked at Sora who nodded with a determined look on his face. They both turned to face Xemnas once more and in unison charged forward. Together, they jumped with their keyblades out front and the nobody threw up a forcefield to stop them. But in his weakened state, Xemnas' forcefield was not strong enough to block both keyblades. It shattered like a piece of glass. Sora and Riku, feeling almost no resistance, hit the armored man with their full strength. Both keyblades stabbing through the armor. Time seemed to freeze as a bright light enveloped Xemnas and as Riku closed his eyes he could hear the angry scream of the enraged nobody.
Snow days are definitely the best for writing. I think the first day of spring is like tomorrow and in snowed like half a foot last night. WTF I want winter to be over!
Anyways, I'm going to work on the next chapter later today and who knows, maybe I'll get it done and post two chapters in one day!