Chapter II

The rain was heavy upon the ground. Animals and people alike sheltered themselves within their homes, oblivious of the ensuing battle in the streets. The battle that was a small factor in deciding the fate of their happy world.

Riku stood there, under the extreme pressure from the enemy's grip. Blood soaked the cloak that was wrapped around his body. He could hear the Heartless laugh at him in his head. He couldn't give up. Not now. He made a promise to an old friend, and he was determined to keep it.

Riku summed the strength to overcome the monster's influence.

"I think you've had enough." Riku raised his right hand and struck with the Keyblade, clearly slicing the demon in half.

The Heartless watched as their brother fell to the floor, melting into a black fog and becoming one of the shadows. The demons hissed and growled, afraid they would soon meet the same fate as their friend.

Two of the Heartless leaped into the air toward Riku. The Keyblade Master met them in the air, slicing at them as he passed them. More Heartless joined the fray, leaping into the air after their fallen comrades, hoping to get a taste of Riku's strong, suculent heart. Riku met their leaps with more slashes and used their writhing, exploding bodies in order to propel himself higher into the air.

Riku found himself outnumbered and with no movement ability at all. He took the two Heartless to his left and used their bodies to allow himself to lunge at the two Heartless to his right. Riku slashed one Heartless through its head, but saw to his disappointment, that the other demon was too far away for a solid attack. Riku threw the Keyblade at it before beginning to fall to the ground. He watched as the blade seared through the monster, causing it to explode into a mass of black fog. The Keyblade turned and flew back toward Riku. He caught the blade and hit the ground hard.

Riku needed space. He was being surrounded once again by even more Heartless than before. He needed to clear some space where he wasn't so easily overpowered. Riku looked around desperately to find a place where he could go to escape from the surrounding army of darkness.

All at once the Heartless began to look up toward one of the buildings. It was the very building where Riku heard the sound come from. The monsters around him began to snarl uncontrollably. Riku couldn't understand why they would suddenly turn away from him. He wondered what could have taken their attention away from him.

Then he felt it. The surge of energy. Both Keyblades began to vibrate forcefully. It took Riku awhile to recognize what it was. It was a heart. It was incredibly powerful. Riku recognized the energy emanating from the heart. He felt it before...on him.

Riku eyes grew wide. Whoever was up there was making one of his Keyblades react fiercely. A tear trickled down Riku's face.

It...it couldn't be it?

Riku looked around before realizing the Heartless were being drawn to the impressive mass of energy on the rooftop. He needed to beat them to it, or he may never find out where it was coming from.

The Keyblade Master leaped over the Heartless high into the air. He landed on the front steps of the huge building. He looked up toward the roof, where he could still barely see the figure of a person standing there. Riku saw that the Heartless were already climbing their way up the sides of the building, their eyes hungry glowing. Riku needed to find a way to quickly scale the wall.

As the Keyblade Master, Riku recognized that the Keyblades gave him certain abilities over natural laws, such as gravity and time. He realized he needed to use thesae abilities to reach the top of the building, though he was hesitant since he had never tried to use these abilities before.

Riku leaped up onto the banister on the side of the steps aznd then onto the building's front wall. He used the Keyblades to rearrange the laws of gravity about him and he began running up the wall. Riku raced to get to the top. All around him the Heartless appeared, coming up out of the wall as he passed. They ran after him, determined not to let him have the heart first. Riku slashed at their reaching arms and swung the Keyblades wildly, cleanly cutting through the demons as they appeared and attacked him. He watched their bodies fall to the ground in an explosion of black fog upon the pavement as he continued up the side of the building.

As he drew closer to the rooftop, the Keyblade in his left hand began glowing and vibrating. Riku was losing control of the weapon. He looked ahead and saw Heartless falling toward him with their arms outstretched and their claws ready to rip through his flesh. The active Keyblade flew out of his left hand and whirled upward toward the top of the building, destroying the falling Heartless as it touched them.

Riku pushed faster up the building to catch up with the spinning Keyblade, but something else now drew his attention. The figure on the rooftop jumped out away from the building just as the Keyblade was nearing him. Riku struggled to watch as the rain burned his eyes. He saw the figure reach his arms out and grab the Keyblade. The figure caught the weapon in his hand and began to fall to the ground.

Riku watched this in amazement. He could not believe what he was witnessing. The figure couldn't control that Keyblade. Riku knew this. It was simply impossible. The Keyblade already had a master. That Keyblade belonged to a long lost friend, the one true Keyblade Master, the one Riku was risking his life to find. It was impossible that this stranger could wield it, unless... No way. Not possible. Riku wasn't going to accept it. The master of that Keyblade passed into the darkness a long time ago. It just wasn't possible. Had the Oblivion taken on a new master? Had he been freed? Was he finally awake?

Riku percieved the figure swiftly falling toward him with the Keyblade in hand. He rushed toward the figure with his Keyblade drawn, ready to strike if the stranger also had the intention of doing so. The Keyblade Master doubled his speed up the side of the building and drew in closer to the rooftop as the stranger dropped quickly toward the ground.

The two warriors met, and for awhile, time seemed to be at a standstill. Riku gazed up into the darkened hood of the strange person, and for an instant, thought he witnessed two livid yellow eyes staring back at him, glowing with a dark, but hungry fire. Riku's eyes grew wide at the impossibility.

"Heartless!"

It was impossible. Simply impossible. A weapon as pure as the Keyblade could never have been attracted to one of them. The sheer thought of that was insane. They are the scourge the Keyblade was designed to destroy.

They passed each other. The stranger passed Riku but quickly grabbed him, moving too quickly for any normal person to notice. Riku felt his warm breath upon his shoulder. His voice was light and crisp, just like His. It was so reminiscent of him that Riku nearly lost concentration. The stranger's voice flooded Riku's mind.

"Behind the darkness lies the door to the light. The treasure your heart seeks is hidden there."

Riku's eyes grew wide. "How do you know this?"

"I have traveled the darkness and have seen what lies beyond the door. Seek out Ansem's Second Report. There you will find what you have been searching for. The one you call Sora."

"But what if I fail?"

"Then maybe our journey meant nothing after all."

The stranger slipped away down the building. Riku continued running upward until he reached the rooftop. He leaped onto the flat roof, turning to watch the figure slip away into the darkness of the street below. The rain still beat upon Riku's shoulders heavily.

Riku heard a sound from behind him. He whirled around to find the Heartless forming themselves from the shadows to come at him once again. Riku steadied his Keyblade. The monsters ran at him, their eyes screaming with intense hunger. Riku called another spell, realizing the fight would be harder without his other Keyblade. This spell came to him more easily, being as how he cast it many times before. It was the simplest of all spells. The Keyblade Master began to murmur the words, and as he did so the Keyblade glowed with a purple light. Riku directed the energy toward the oncoming group of demons. The monsters stopped as a dark ring formed around them. The ring began to spin and form a large sphere of energy around his enemies. Riku focused his power through the Keyblade and lifted the sphere high into the air. Riku held them there for awhile, looking to see if they would try to escape. He then uttered the execution word of the spell and watched as the dark sphere closed in and collapsed around his enemies, crushing them into the shadows.

Riku looked around and saw that the Heartless seemed to have mysteriously disappeared. Riku quickly sent his Keyblade away before the creatures could detect his heart again. He leaped off the edge of the roof and landed roughly in the street below. He wondered what the strange person meant by what he had said. His words echoed in Riku's mind.

What had he meant by Ansem's Second Report? Riku started to walk through the now desolate street. He wondered what the stranger had meant by his journey meaning nothing. He hadn't a clue what Riku had gone through searching for the friend he cared so much for. Then it hit him. He remembered the stranger's words.

"Maybe our journey meant nothing..." He had said our! Riku felt excitement build within him. Had he found his beloved friend? Had his journey really come to an end?

Sora. Have I finally found you? If that was you then why didn't you tell me? Why did you leave me here? Especially now when I need your help the most...I need to find it. Ansem's Second Report. It could help me find you. I will find you, and when I do, I'll want some answers.