Saying sorry is an understatement…I'm SORRY [the caps make it better xD] for abandoning this fic! The truth is that I have another story [an original fantasy novel, actually] that I'm planning on getting published in the near future, and I've been working on it non-stop for the past couple months. This story and the other one were actually both stopped at chapter 8 when this craziness started, and now Save Me From Myself [the fiction story] is haflway through 14. It's just been chaos…but I finally got back in the swing of updating both simultaneously! This chap is short but sweet, and I plan on trying to synchronize working on them again. Thank you to all of you who've reviewed and given DiP so much love! I'm so very grateful to have fans that put up with me x3 I love you guys, and happy reading! |*| Wolfess |*|


Riku appeared nothing more than a silver blur as he wove in and out of a never ending spread of tall, gusting pines. The needles in the canopy were dense and tangled, blocking out a cloudless, blood-red sky. The wolf was panting heavily, sides heaving, and the adrenaline that coursed through him was mixed with a stronger dose of raw, unbridled terror. He looked around him wildly, mapping an escape, and was faced with never-ending pines. He gave an angry yell, surging forward, and stumbled abruptly into a deep riverbed. His sliding stop generated a bit more dust than it should have as he came to a halt on the bottom of the fissure, turning his seafoam eyes to the skies. The red that painted that which should've been blue was unreal; it looked as if someone had smeared the heavens with freshly spilt blood. It was void of any birds, a sun, stars, or a moon, remaining just a naked canvas of crimson. The air was silent, heavy with the smell of death, decay, and worse, and the wind that had been blowing angrily through the pines had come to an eerie standstill. A scream sounded clear and loud on the air, the hackles along his spine raising almost immediately from both alarm and rage. He would know that sound anywhere! With a snarl just as primal as the cry had been, he leapt forward towards the sound of his mate.

As his paws came into contact with the ground once more, the scenery around him had suddenly changed. He was no longer in the dusty, barren riverbed. Instead, he stood in a clearing surrounded by that same never-ending forest on three sides, the remaining side behind him a tall, jagged, and unwelcoming wall of crystal. The ground was made up of the same bleach-white, glittering material. He flipped around, taking in his new surroundings with confusion. As he contemplated the change in atmosphere, he heard another cry, this time from Kiba's throat. The silver wolf froze as he followed the noise, looking back towards the pines and starting towards them without a second thought. As he ran towards the tree front it seemed to get farther away, and soon he was hearing Kiba's pleading whimpers and Sora screaming for his help in unison. He pushed himself to run harder, faster, but the treefront seemed to sink back from the clearing more and more. The chorus of distress grew softer and softer until it died, and with its halt came a halt to his useless pursuit. Tears stung the corners of his eyes as confusion overwhelmed him. Riku shook his head back and forth, bewildered and angered, and turned to face the rock wall behind him. Maybe if he found a way to climb it, he could help them! His gaze traveled up the wall of glassy rock until it disappeared from sight, allowing them to slide back into the red abyss of the sky and the moon that had newly appeared there. He stared at the pearlescent orb, knowing full well that it hadn't been there before, and a column of silver light began drifting down from it. He followed the illuminated braid until he saw that which it was lighting up. Tsume stood in front of him, directly in front of the wall, and Riku sighed with relief.

"Thank God you're here!" He looked back at the forest. "Come on! We have to go help them!" He started towards the woodland but stopped as he noticed Tsume remained motionless. He looked back at him. "What the hell is wrong with you?! We need to go get Kiba and Sora!" The gray wolf was seemingly frozen, lifeless at best, and Riku took another step towards him. "Tsume?" He stifled a small-horrified noise as he noticed Tsume's eyes were missing. He took a step back, appalled, and shook his head in disbelief. He looked up at the moon again. The orb was white and shining for mere seconds before, with a sound resembling Sora crumbling up paper, a small mass of black appeared in the center and spread to cover the disc. 'What the hell?!' The beacon of light similarly shifted hues, and he looked back at Tsume to see that the color wasn't the only thing that had changed.

"Hello Riku." He bared his teeth as Ansem stood where Tsume had been. He looked exactly like the guise Riku had worn for all that time, the bottom edges of the trenchcoat tattered and billowing slightly. The wolf gave a hellish snarl, ears folded against his head.

"What did you do to my friends?!" The man laughed, the sound brushing some intimate place in Riku's mind with shards of broken glass. It took almost all of his self-control not to shiver.

"Don't humor me, son. We both know that no one could ever befriend or love people like us. We are children of darkness, you and I…"

"No!" He shook his head angrily, still grimacing and flashing razor blade canines. "No! The darkness doesn't control me anymore, you don't control me anymore! I'm nothing like you, and I'm certainly not your son!" That laugh sounded again, and he winced slightly.

"Oh come now, my son…" He stepped towards him tone mocking as well as casual, and the wolf immediately crouched as if ready to pounce. "We both are aware of the presence of darkness in the human heart. It's as natural as love, happiness, and all other benevolent emotions. Everyone hides it within their conscience. But only those strong enough to come to terms with that can use it."

"You're wrong!" He raised a brow at the wolf, standing directly in front of Riku now. The shadow from the moon had, creepily, followed him. "There's darkness in everyone's hearts. I understand that better than anyone ever could. But those who think they can control it completely are fools! It eventually controls them in the end, and they become obsessed with it, like you. There is nothing good that comes from darkness!" A small, wry smile graced the man's tan features.

"Of this, you are not mistaken. The darkness is addicting, controlling, and manipulates the soul." His wicked smile widened considerably until he looked like something akin to the Cheshire cat. "But others may be blind to exactly that. Your friends will fall, just like you did. Your friends will fail, just like you did. And your friends will become something they can't stand to look at, just like you…"

"Shut up!" A thunderclap sounded from his throat as he cut up through Ansem with Soul Eater, landing behind the now diagonally sliced man. He landed behind him and flipped to face him, ready to lunge again if need be. With a start, his eyes landed on empty space. Ansem's laughter sounded all around him, echoing into the forest, and bouncing off of the crystal wall with a haunting reverberation. He shook his head vigorously as if it would block out the sound. 'I'm going crazy…'

"You were weak when your friends needed you the first time. You fell prey to the darkness in your heart as easily as you fell for the boy with the keyblade. And now, after you've ran and ran from it, the darkness is catching up to you again…" Riku shut his eyes tightly, Soul Eater disappearing in a cloud of black dust. He continued to shake his head, slowly now, from side to side. "But this time, are you so sure it's you it's after?" He blinked then looked up, back towards the tree front, and caught his breath in his throat. Tsume stood in front of him again, dripping with blood, and still void of any eyes.

"Tsume?" He whispered the wolven's name, but as he uttered it, the animal was suddenly enveloped in licking black flames. His eye sockets became aflame with golden light and, as he stepped towards Riku, he made that same soft yet menacing hiss that the heartless did. He'd slipped into his anti-form. Riku shook his head. "No…" Riku backed up slowly, calling for Soul Eater, but it never came. Tsume got closer and closer until the silver wolf's backside rested against the glassy wall behind him. The heartless Tsume stopped, parted his jaws in a wolfish smile, and started laughing hysterically like a madman. He gulped, staring into the lifeless yellow light that had taken up residence in Tsume's sockets, and was about to run for it when his peripherals slipped to the fuzzy masses on either side of him. Sora and Kiba were near the tree line, both lying in bloody, crumpled heaps, and neither of them were moving. A stabbing pain in his gut told him that they weren't going to, either. He laid his ears back, tearing his eyes away from the bloody corpse of his mate. "You bastard!" Tears began to fall from his eyes and he leaped at Tsume's throat, a hatred he hadn't felt even when trapped in the darkness welling somewhere deep in his chest. He hit his target with precise accuracy, feeling his fangs sink deep into the wolf's flesh, and he clamped down with as much strength as he could send into his powerful jaws. Blood as black as the shadows cloaking Tsume ran from the corners of his mouth and stained his muzzle, running rivers down the animal's chest that it belonged to. He hung from the heartless with dead weight, pulling and pulling, until the whole of Tsume's throat slipped out of his neck and into the keyblade bearer's mouth with a sickening plop. He pushed himself up and spat it out, panting out of a mix of horror and adrenaline, and stared down at the messy, shredded mass of muscle at his feet. A deep, throaty chuckle sounded from the creature that was once Tsume and Riku looked back into its eyes with raw, unbridled terror. A malevolent smile spread across it's muzzle, showcasing a mouthful of teeth that were too sharp, and the yellow of it's eyes burned red.

"Oh come now, Riku." He shook his head at the sound of Tsume's voice, shocked and scared, and it stepped closer to the silver animal. He shut his eyes tightly as the creature's muzzle stopped uncomfortably close to his ear. The whisper was faint, but it was clear enough to engrave it in his memory forever. "You of all people should know that heartless don't bleed…"

With a start, Riku shot up with a yelp. He sent Sora, who'd been curled up next to him, scrambling sideways with a similar noise and leaping to his feet. The kingdom key appeared in a flash of bright, bleached light that resembled a strike of lightening. He looked all around wildly and saw nothing but the sleeping others and rain outside the mouth of the cave. He looked back at his mate, finding him sitting staring at his paws and breathing heavily. He dismissed the tool as quickly as he'd summoned it and walked over to him.

"Riku?" The silver wolf didn't answer. He leaned towards him and was shocked to see tears streaming down his face and onto the rocky floor. He tried to nuzzle him, but the wolf leaned away as if Sora would strike him. He winced. "Riku?" His mate suddenly fell against him, sliding down his front legs and sprawling on the floor helplessly. He began sobbing.

"Sora…Sora I…" the rest was lost in a wave of shakes and soft sobs, the chocolate wolf hesitating before lying down. He folded his paws to his chest, laying his head on Riku's ever-shifting ribcage. He pressed his chin down just enough to let Riku feel it, giving him a sort of canine hug, and allowed him to cry. They lay like that for some time before the shivers and tears came to a slow stop. The keyblade bearer waited a few moments before he spoke.

"You wanna talk about it?" Riku hesitated.

"No." The answer wasn't meant to be cold, but Sora was the only person that would ever have known it. He nodded.

"Nightmare, right?" The silver wolf nodded and Sora sighed. "I thought they had stopped by now."

"They'll never stop, Sora…" The answer was filled with as much hopelessness as he currently felt. Sora sighed. He knew any further pursuit of the question would produce just as many results as he was currently getting, no matter how much he badgered.

"Well, we can talk when you're ready. I love you, Riku."

"I love you too…" With that, the conversation came to a complete halt and Sora slipped into a dead sleep. Riku watched the heavy drops of rain splash to the ground outside the den, thundering heart finally slowing. He thought the nightmares would've stopped by now, too. Truthfully, he hadn't had one in a while. He wondered if he would ever really be free from Ansem. Would he be plagued and followed all his life like this? Forever harassed by nightmares and silhouettes? He shook his head, forcing his eyes shut, and listening to the rhythmic tinkling of the rain on the step outside the mouth of the den. His future was still a mystery. The fact that the darkness was gaining strength, getting just as strong as he feared it might, was not.