My Internet is down so I have to use a roundabout way to post these chapters for a while, which means updates might be slower. I hope that you'll understand. :)

Man, nothing is happening on the KH-verse in this fic. You know, other than finding Kairi's dead body. Well, I'm gonna change that with this here chapter 6. It's taking a while, isn't it? But hey, rushing into a story will leave readers confused! And I won't have that! No sir.

Anyway, enjoy chapter 6, wherein plot finally begins (in KH-verse)! :)

Ch. 6: Impact

Riku figured that the universe either really, really hated him, or just wanted to be an overall jerk – Kairi was dead, Sora was still MIA, not to mention Riku's only hope for assistance was now gone in the form of Lea's impaled corpse.

"I can't believe this," Riku intoned over and over to himself, shaking his head. "This…this has got to be some sick joke. Just some messed up joke!"

Whoever – or whatever – was behind all these weird goings-on, they clearly just wanted to mess with his psyche. Plus, it didn't look like they were making things easier on him as far as finding Sora was concerned. Riku had come to his friend Lea in Radiant Garden in hopes of at least getting some clues leading him in the right direction, but as if the universe was saying Your best friend vanished and his girlfriend is dead, so hey – why not have your only way of finding him bite the dust?, he just kept ending up back at square one.

"This…this is just going too far!" he growled.

His red-haired comrade lay dead at his feet, in the middle of his home. He'd been killed in almost the same way as Kairi had – if even more brutally. In addition to the familiar gaping and gory wound in Lea's chest, his own Keyblade had penetrated his pelvis and pinned the corpse to the floor. Judging from what Riku saw, it probably hadn't even been the finishing blow. It looked like it had been done out of sick satisfaction after killing him. As nauseated as he was at this sight, Riku could at least take something from this death.

The culprit was likely a Keyblade wielder, much like Lea and Riku himself. Who else could have taken Lea's Keyblade to do such a thing? Who would do something like this? Unless this person had stabbed it in quickly enough that it didn't vanish from his or her hands, he could only think of one person.

Xehanort.

But that was impossible. Xehanort was good and dead now. Sora had seen to that himself. But Riku couldn't think of any other Keyblade wielder who would have killed Lea in this fashion…no, even killed like this at all

"This…this can't have been Xehanort…right?" he wondered aloud.

Then a new but not-unfamiliar voice said unexpectedly from behind him, "No…it isn't him. Xehanort is definitely dead."

Riku whirled around to the direction of the voice, which had come from the open front door. Just outside the threshold of the stone doorway was –

"Roxas?!" Riku exclaimed in astonishment.

There was no mistaking this blonde Nobody. He was Sora's other self, after all, created when his best friend had unlocked his own heart to release Kairi's and turned into a Heartless. He looked exactly the same as Riku remembered, albeit slightly older, as he was one of the few Nobodies that could age along with their Somebodies. The mere presence of Roxas surprised him, but what really floored Riku was the state that he was in.

Roxas looked as if he'd come out and lost a fight with an angry bear. His clothes were shredded and there was a huge gash on his right pant leg that revealed an equally huge and bloody scar. His face and arms were scratched up and cut, and his blood streamed from his hairline down to his chin. The blood dyed his blond hair crimson in some places. He also looked like he was barely able to stand – he was bracing himself against the door frame with his right hand, which was also gripping the black Oblivion Keyblade. Whatever Roxas had gone through to look this way…it probably hadn't been pleasant.

"Riku…" Roxas grunted with difficulty. His voice was strangled. "I thought I'd find you here…"

"What…what happened to you?" Riku gasped.

Before Roxas could answer him, his knees buckled beneath him and he fell forward. Riku rushed to catch him before he hit the stone-hard floor. Oblivion slipped from Roxas's bloodied fingers and vanished in a whirl of shadow as it clattered to the ground.

"H-hey, pull yourself together," Riku said frantically, pulling the young blonde upright and acting as his crutch. "What happened to you, Roxas? What're you doing here? And why did you want to find me?"

Roxas drew in a shuddering breath before answering. "I'm the one who should be asking you that question," he exhaled with difficulty, giving Riku a weary yet hard sideways glance. "What are you doing here?"

Riku started. "Um…I'm here because…"

"You wanted some information on where Sora is, right?"

Riku was so shocked he almost dropped him. "Do – do you know something, Roxas?" he demanded desperately.

Roxas didn't answer his question. Instead he said in a low voice, "You noticed it, didn't you? How anything that could help you find Sora is being shot down one by one? Which includes having your other friends slaughtered?"

"Y-yeah," Riku confirmed shakily. "And I can't begin to imagine how many other people have been…" He couldn't finish the thought. He didn't want to think about it.

"Yeah…it's not something someone wants to think about," Roxas agreed as if he'd read Riku's thoughts.

"Is that how – I mean – why you're so…" Riku trailed off.

Roxas suddenly fell silent, staring down at his feet. His expression was unreadable, and Riku got the message.

"Okay, never mind," he sighed. "Forget I asked. But still…seeing you here…that means that…whoever took him isn't planning on killing him too, right?"

Roxas still wouldn't say anything, and Riku wondered if he was asking the wrong questions. He started to feel bad, and was about to dismiss the questions when the Nobody unexpectedly replied heavily, "Yeah. He's still alive. No one is planning on killing him…not yet, anyway."

Hearing this washed relief over Riku. Finally, some good news. He knew that Sora was still alive, but at least now he also knew he wasn't going to be killed for the time being. They still had time to find him and rescue him. Hope wasn't lost yet.

"So, do you know where he is, Roxas?" he asked urgently. "Well?"

"Listen, it's not as simple as just finding Sora and rescuing him, Riku," Roxas warned him. "Especially considering the fact that –"

He was suddenly interrupted by a violent fit of coughing, causing blood to spew from his mouth onto his free hand. It didn't last too long, but once it was over the blonde Nobody felt even heavier in Riku's arms. Riku quickly led him to a nearby couch and sat him down on it. Riku lowered himself to one knee next to Roxas on the hard ground.

"Roxas," Riku said, shaken by what he'd just witnessed. "Never mind my questions; don't talk so much in this condition. You'll only hurt yourself!"

Roxas glowered at him through his sudden weakness. "It doesn't make a difference to me whether I'm hurting myself or not," he said curtly, though his voice sounded raspy from the coughing. "I can't afford any pleasantries right now. You wanted to know why I look like this, right? Or before that, why I'm even here at all talking to you?"

"Well, I –"

"Then here; maybe this will get your butt in gear," Roxas cut him off. He leaned back in his seat and closed his eyes as he let out a huge sigh. "I know where Sora is."

Riku's heart stopped for a fraction of a second longer than it should have at those words. "Wh-what – you do?!" he spluttered incoherently. "But how –"

"Long story." Roxas's eyes were still closed, but his blood-blotted face looked resigned. "But the reason I look like this is part of why Sora's missing, and part of why both Kairi and Lea were murdered." His voice was tinged with bitterness as he said that, and Riku could guess why.

"Anyway, once I realized what was really going on, I came to look for you," Roxas went on, finally opening his eyes, which suddenly took on a faraway look. "And it's a good thing I found you when I did. It might still be possible to save him."

"So what you're telling me is that you've known what's been going on this entire time?" Riku asked desperately. "You know who's behind this?"

Roxas nodded weakly and wiped some of the blood away from his brow. "Yeah. This person…he's been going around to all the different worlds, including some you've never seen or heard of, and causing all sorts of carnage – curses, tortures, murders – you name it, he's done it. And he's doing all that simply for the sake of causing pain. No more, no less."

"Wh-what do you mean by that?"

"Well, let me put it this way…" Roxas sat up again with difficulty, braced himself by resting his elbows on his thighs, and stared down at his feet again. "Kairi isn't the only Princess of Heart he's messed with. Let's leave it at that."

Riku felt his eyes widen in pure horror. Oh…oh my God…how can – I can't believe – that's just so –"

"Messed up," Roxas finished for him. "An understatement, probably, but you're right. "You can't even call that evil, since there's no reason behind what he's doing. Morality doesn't exist for him, and he commits these acts with no trace of guilt at all. I fell victim to that lack of remorse."

Realization hit Riku like a sack of anvils. "So that's why you're –" he gasped.

"That's right," Roxas said, raising his blood-soaked hands and examining them. "He did this to me. The only reason I haven't disappeared is because he got bored of me, and I took that chance to get away. Now you've got to go and confront him." He raised his head and stared Riku in the eyes, blue to cyan, and continued, "I can tell you – no, I can take you to where he is. Once we get there, you can deal with the person behind this carnage. But first, you have to promise me something."

Before Riku could ask what he meant, Roxas suddenly grabbed Riku by the collar and pulled him so close he could feel Roxas's ragged breathing on his cheeks. Riku could feel the tension in his grip and grew wary at his firm, no-nonsense expression.

"Promise me this, Riku," the Nobody hissed into his ear. His voice was as firm as his expression, and shook with suppressed anger. "Promise me that – no matter what happens – you will kill the one behind all these crimes. I don't care who does it, or when it happens, or even how you do it. He just needs to die. Do you hear me?"

There was a double meaning behind those words that Riku detected but couldn't figure out, and he couldn't deny that it was somewhat disconcerting. He wondered just who it could be for Roxas to want him dead so badly that he didn't care about the means or the cost.

But there was no time to dwell on it. Time was ticking with no reprieve, and Riku couldn't afford to waste it – not if it involved this monster deciding to change his mind at the last minute and kill his best friend simply for pleasure's sake. He nodded in affirmation.

"Don't worry," Riku promised determinedly. "I'll definitely have this guy dead for all his crimes. I swear it. You can count on me."

Roxas took in his words for a brief moment, and finally released his hold on him. "Good. Just wanted to make sure," he said, managing a half-hearted grin. He moved to rise from his seat on the couch with some difficulty. "But if you're going to do this, you're going to need some help. So I'm going to take you to some other acquaintances of mine. They're waiting for you."

Riku opened his mouth to ask what he meant by that, but Roxas just opened up a corridor and shoved him through it before he could.


Soooooooo slooooooooowww…

Ahem.

Well, I hope that this chapter erased any lingering doubts of whether KH would have an integral impact on the plot. I am killing a lot of KH characters, though, and it's not even halfway through the fic…and I'm not favoring TRC's universe over KH's; what are you thinking anyway? *shifty eyes*

But seriously, I'm not. It just ended up this way when I finished drafting this, I swear.

Anyway, come next chapter and the two universes will finally meet! :D Took me long enough, didn't it? Haha XD

Hope you enjoyed this, and thank you so much for your amazing patience. I will put up chapter 7 as soon as I can! Thanks, and read & review! :D