Author's notes: There's a bit more Spyro (although it's post Dawn of the Dragon now) in this, but just this chapter.
OKAY GUYS! No one, NO ONE has voted in the poll on my profile as of when I checked it! Come on, guys! Someone please vote.
Missed
Riku wandered through Rabanastre, his father at his side. The two were trying to figure out how they could get a hospital to treat Rachael…
"I'm dead." Riku decided finally.
"What do you mean?"
"I'll leave this world and hide in another – Warfang, probably, and you will say I'm dead, thus meaning that Rachael is no longer associated with me and the hospital will treat her for their normal price." Riku explained. His father pondered it.
"That might work…"
"Mhm. And after Rachael is up to full health, Sora and Roxas will 'discover' that I am alive." Riku explained. His father nodded.
"That might just work…"
Sora bit his lip. "Does Rachael agree with it?" He asked. Riku shrugged.
"I'd rather her live and disagree than die."
"Fair enough." Sora shrugged. Roxas nodded.
"So, which world, again?" The Keyblader of Twilight asked.
"Warfang; I know Spyro and Cynder, but no one knows what I look like there. Thus, if anyone tried finding me there, it would be all but impossible."
Sora and Roxas nodded in understanding. Roxas then opened a portal for Riku.
"It'll take you to the Twilight Falls; you'll have to find your way from there." He told the older teen. Riku nodded.
"Tell Rachael goodbye for me." He said, before waving and leaving through the portal.
Riku stepped out onto the grass, and looked around at the twilit area. He walked over, slowly, to the water, and looked at his reflection. He was the black hatchling again, and the Heartless symbol was clear on his forehead. Riku glanced around, jumped up and flapped his wings a few times, getting airborne, before flying off.
He came to a village eventually, with humanoid cat-like creatures living in it. The sun was beginning to rise, he noticed, revealing a forested area and a valley. Riku descended, landing in the village. He folded his wings and glanced around.
"Hey, Spyro, wake up."
Riku knew that voice. He glanced over his shoulder. Spyro and Cynder were lying side-by-side, asleep, and Sparx was attempting, attempting being key, to wake them up. Riku chuckled, walking over.
"Well, fancy seeing you here." He commented. Sparx did a double take.
"Oh, well, if it isn't Houdini."
"Hey, it wasn't my fault your catapult hit me and knocked me out. When I woke up I could hardly remember my own name." Riku glared at Sparx.
"Well that's too bad… you seem just fine now."
"My brother found me and helped me." He looked at Spyro and Cynder again. "Let them be, they'll wake when they're ready." Sparx wasn't watching him, though.
"What are THOSE?"
Riku turned to see what Sparx was pointing at; Heartless, only Shadows and Neoshadows, but still Heartless.
"Heartless." Riku growled. "Might want to wake them up." He advised.
"That's what I was doing." Sparx commented dully as Riku darted forwards and bit one of the Neoshadows. Bad idea.
"Ah shit." He tried spit it out, but found it impossible to do. It had melted into a shadowy puddle in his mouth. Then he felt it slip down his windpipe. Oh fuck no… If it solidified inside of him, he was done for. He felt something build up in his throat, and his windpipe clogged. He coughed to clear it, and blood splattered onto the grass. It hadn't solidified, but it was doing some damage in his lungs. He paused.
Rachael.
Well, that was one answer he'd been searching for. No one was sure what was wrong with her, other than it was a problem with the lungs. She didn't have a collapsed or punctured lung, so it was the only logical explanation.
A flash of fire shot behind him, and he glanced over his shoulder to see Spyro, awake and closing his mouth, having burned a Shadow to death.
"Thanks." Riku nodded.
"Don't mention it." The purple hatchling glanced at the blood warily. "You okay?"
"I'll survive." Riku replied, lashing out with his tail at a stray Neoshadow. It faded as the arrowhead tip sliced through it. He glanced off to the side; Cynder was fighting a group of Neoshadows. "Don't use anything related to shadows; it won't do any good on them. They're Shadow and Neoshadow Heartless, so it goes without saying." He warned, before gagging, blood slipping past his teeth. "Ah, god…" He stumbled forwards dizzily. "Sora?" He waited a few moments. "Sora? Roxas?" No answer. His world began to spin. "Someone… answer me…" He collapsed and went out like a light.
"Riku? RIKU!"
Riku groaned. His world was blurred, and spinning a bit. He could see the head of an unfamiliar dragon hatchling, a golden one with white colored spikes. The silvery mark on its forehead seemed familiar, but Riku couldn't get a grip on reality to figure it out.
"Riku?" The hatchling asked.
"That's my name…" Riku replied, squinting. "…Sora?" He forced himself onto his feet. "My head…" He complained.
"Are you okay?" Sora asked. His response came in the form of Riku gagging, and blood splashing onto the grass, painting it red. "Riku! Holy hell, what's happened?"
"A Neoshadow; when I went to bite it, it turned into a puddle and slipped into my lungs. I think the same thing happened to Rachael in one of the worlds where we become animals; here, Pride Lands, some other world we don't know of." Riku explained. "It's not the best of feelings, having a Neoshadow in your lungs when you're trying to breathe."
"God, Riku, you really know how to get yourself into trouble."
"Runs in the family, I guess." Riku replied. Sora laughed.
"Guess it does." Riku's sentence silenced itself as blood clogged his windpipe. He coughed again, spitting the blood out of his mouth.
"Sora, have you found Riku?"
Riku quickly recognised Roxas's voice.
"Yeah," Sora replied, "he's in back shape, though."
"I'll get your dad."
"Thanks, Rox." Sora waited a few moments, before his father spoke over the radio.
"Sora? What's wrong with Riku?"
"I can speak-" Riku was cut off, gagging and coughing blood up.
"He's coughing up blood; there's a Neoshadow in his lungs." Sora explained.
"My gods."
"I think," Riku paused, spitting the remaining blood out of his mouth, "that there's a Neoshadow in Rachael's lungs, too. Ask her if she ever swallowed a Heartless." There was a pause, before his father spoke again.
"She confirmed it. Any clue on how to get rid of it?"
"Not one." Riku was wheezing now. Sora glanced at him.
"Riku, are you okay?"
"C…can't… breathe…" Riku barely managed to get out, before stumbling. Sora darted forwards, folding his wings over his spikes to keep them from stabbing Riku as he landed on his younger brother's back.
"Dad, Riku's passed out, he can't breathe."
"Goddamn it, Sora, get him back here now!"
"As soon as Roxas opens a portal for me I'll come running." He glanced around the village, the two hatchlings, the purple and the near-black one, were watching him, almost suspiciously. Sora's attention was diverted as a portal opened. He pushed Riku though it. "Roxas, once Riku's on the other side close the portal; I'm going to make friends with the locals. Get another world under our flag."
"Good luck."
"Same to you. Riku dies and you can join Axel and all his buddies in whatever Hell Nobodies go to."
Roxas laughed. "Hey, I though we agreed, no bashing Axel."
The portal closed.
"Yeah, yeah, thanks, Roxas, tell the hospital that they're under direct orders from the Keyblade Master to treat Riku. If they don't then they can expect to get their heads lopped off by a giant key."
"I really can't see you following up on that one…"
"Who said I was doing the dirty work?" Sora retorted. "Get Riku and Rachael treated; Sora out."
"Understood. Roxas out."
Sora sighed. "Well," he muttered, glancing at Cynder and Spyro, "got friends in every world I've been to, time to make some here."
Bee-beep. Bee-beep.
Bleach? Why do I smell bleach?
Riku forced himself to crack an eye open. Was he… in a glass case? An oxygen mask was positioned over his mouth and nose, and he could feel a heart rate monitor attached to his chest.
"They're scared of you."
The voice had been muffled by the glass, but Riku still recognised it as his older sister. He glanced over in her direction. She was sitting in a chair against the wall of the room. Riku nodded, unsure if she'd be able to hear him speak. A portal opened in the room, but Riku was unable to see who had stepped out of it. The Neoshadow in his lungs shifted about uncomfortably, causing Riku to cringe.
"Riku…"
Riku looked to his side. Sora was standing there with a hand pressed up against the glass. Riku raised his hand and pressed it against the glass.
"Hey," Riku smiled, which Sora returned, before looking at Sam.
"What's with the glass?" Riku heard him ask.
"It's something the hospital cowards did to keep the Heartless from escaping if it decides that it wants out. It won't work, though."
"I hope the Heartless doesn't want out." Sora commented. "It'll kill him."
"I know."
Riku's hand fell. He was all but on death row now. Sora noticed and glanced over at him.
"Hey, it won't." He tried to sound positive, but the worry was evident in his voice. Riku sighed and kicked at the glass case. It was going to drive him insane soon. Sora laughed at him, then glanced at the padlock, the only thing keeping it closed. "Idiots." He called the Kingdom Key and pointed it at the lock. It clattered to the ground with a bit of a sparkle, and then Sora pushed the top off the case. Riku was quick to sit up.
"Thanks…" He nodded. Sora laughed, before noticing that Riku had stopped moving for a moment, before yanking the mask off and coughing into his hands. Despite his effort, blood seeped through his fingers. Sora glanced at the heart rate monitor, which was beeping faster now, and shut it off. He gave a slight yank on the wires that connected to the patches on Riku, which gave out and fell to the floor. The Keyblader of Darkness was doubled over, on his knees, continuing to cough blood up. Sam was rapid-tapping the red button on the wall to request a doctor or someone to hurry over. Sora wrapped his arm around Riku's stomach and carefully pulled the elder brother out of the glass case and laid him on the floor.
More blood slipped between Riku's lips as he tried desperately to clear his continuously clogging windpipe. A sharp pain suddenly struck in his lungs. He tried to scream, but no air left his mouth, only blood. Sora noticed the pained expression on Riku's face, but had no time to react before the Neoshadow tore its way out of Riku's lungs…
