DISCLAIMER: Kingdom Hearts? That'd be Square Enix and Disney.


CHAPTER NINE: PLIGHT

She felt nothing. She heard nothing, smelled nothing, tasted nothing... saw nothing. Had it not been for her own mind, she would have been nothing. She was not floating through space, no; it was, purely and simply: nothingness. She could not describe it because, upon describing it, nothingness became something. She had only her consciousness to keep her holding on in this place: a space between spaces. Memories flashed through her mind: islands, Keyblades, Heartless, princesses, witches, Darkness… but there were two faces that stood out among the rest. Two young men, the two people she cared about above all others. If she had possessed hands, she would have smacked herself in the head. They were gone. They existed in space; she existed in nothingness. Did that make her nothing as well? How long had she been here, in this place where time did not exist? How much time had passed in the worlds? Five minutes, five years, it was all the same: a string of thoughts meshed together into an inconsistent jumble of ideas. Was this… death? Was it really this boring? She had felt no pain from the stab to her heart; she had only grown hazy, faded away.

"Kairi, hold on," a strong, almost childish voice soothed her Aha. She was dead and crazy. "I'll get us out of this; don't worry."

The voice promised, and yet Kairi saw no end in sight: only an eternal nothingness that stretched on ceaselessly into the future.

-- -- -- --

FOUR MONTHS LATER

-- -- -- --

He felt a soft hand nudge his shoulder. In an air of discontent, he pulled the covers closer around himself.

"Sora?"

"Mmf…"

"Sora, get up!"

He rolled over, as though such an act would completely dissuade his annoyer.

"No luck, Riku?" Great. Yuffie. "Hmm. Aerith said she couldn't get him up either. Guess it's time to bring in the big guns."

Sora opened his eyes. "No guys; I'm awake, seriously."

Riku cocked an eyebrow at him, smiling mischievously. "I knew a Yuffie threat would get you moving."

Sora scowled in jest. "Now that's just cruel."

"Just hurry up!" said Yuffie as she and Riku exited the room.

Four months had passed since Kairi had disappeared from their lives, and though it still pained Sora significantly to think about it, he finally felt as though his life was getting back to normal. With the help of his friends, he was learning to let go, to realize that holding on only hindered him. He recalled a rare conversation he had with Leon about a month after the incident.

"Sora, you need to stop sulking. I know it's tough, but you'll end up old, bitter and regretful if you keep going at this rate."

He shrugged coldly. "How would you know?"

Leon struggled with his words; Sora could tell he was uncomfortable opening up on the subject. "The same thing happened to me… when our world was torn in two. I never got over it. Don't let that happen to you."

Sora sat silently for a moment, contemplating his words. "What was her name?"

"Rinoa."

Aerith helped him recover the most actively out of the group, making him tea every morning, baking cookies at least twice a week. Sometimes he felt like he was half his age, and that Aerith was a mother trying to get him through a particularly difficult time in school. Still it helped, no matter how childish it made him feel.

Cid kept him busy, schooling him in mechanics he neither understood nor cared to understand. It was helpful, he had to admit, as Cid taught him how to repair their battered ship. However, he couldn't justify fixing it if there was no way to leave Radiant Garden without first clearing the of Hybrids that constantly popped up in numbers that astounded the resistance.

Yuffie was upset for several weeks after hearing about Kairi. The two had bonded over the short periods of time that they had seen each other. However, once she bounced back and began to act more like herself, Yuffie kept Sora's mind distracted by playing constant, albeit annoying, pranks on him. He learned to always be on his guard, because he never knew the next time he would be missing something of vital importance. They didn't call her a klepto for nothing.

Cloud kept him fighting, and although the two were at similar skill levels, he knew it helped keep them ready for the hoards of enemies that periodically attacked. Sora reveled in the fact that he often won, arrogantly boasting to the others about his superior skills… that is until Cloud took it up a notch and sent him flying into the side of Merlin's house. Sometimes he thought his head still hurt from the impact.

As much as the others helped him get over Kairi's death, Riku gave him the greatest sense of comfort. Sora knew he understood better than the others, that Riku cared about Kairi just as much as he did. They talked about it every night for weeks after her death. Sora knew Riku worried about him… didn't want him to end up as miserable as Leon, so unable to let go of the past that he changed his name. He recalled a conversation they had held a couple months after losing Kairi:

Sora stared out the window of his bedroom in the keep, looking out at the misted night. He heard footsteps approach his room as a knock came to his door.

"It's open."

Riku peeped his head through the door, walking in and taking a seat at the edge of Sora's bed.

"You've seemed a lot better lately," he observed.

Sora turned away from the window, leaning against it as he faced Riku. "You know… I feel a lot better. It's like… a little more relief with every day." He slumped over to the bed, taking a seat next to Riku.

"That's good to hear," Riku smiled, his sapphire eyes bearing into the deep blue of Sora's.

Sora looked away, toying with the zipper on his hooded sweatshirt. "What about you? How are you taking it?"

Riku shrugged, letting his back slump against the wall. He pulled his feet up, curling his toes over the edge of the bed. "I'm working past it, thanks to you."

Sora tilted his head. "Huh? What'd I do?"

Riku seemed to struggle with his word choice. "You know, it's like you said awhile ago. With Kairi gone, it's just you and me. We have to look out for each other. I… ugh… this is going to sound horrible…"

"Go ahead," Sora urged. "I won't be mad."

"I feel like we drifted when the two of you were together, like our friendship creviced."

"You… did?" asked Sora, baffled at Riku's revelation.

He sighed, hair falling across his eyes as he looked down. "Yeah. I mean, we were so close when we came back to the island, after the conversation we had on that beach in the darkness… Everything was the same for awhile, but then you and Kairi got together… It's such a selfish thing to say."

"Riku, I never realized," said Sora, feeling regretful for letting his best friend drift from his life. He reluctantly shifted his hand, placing it on Riku's forearm. "I'm so sorry."

Riku tensed up slightly at his touch, but didn't move his arm away. "I mean, don't get me wrong; I'd give anything to have Kairi back here with us. I don't want you to think-"

Sora shook his head, his spiky hair waving slightly. "Riku, I know what you meant. I should've paid more attention to our friendship. I'm sorry we drifted, I really am."

"At least we didn't drift too far," Riku smiled sadly, glancing out the window. "It's not like I went into the Darkness again or anything."

"Oh, c'mon…" Sora waved his hand, disdainful. "You'd never go back to the Darkness."

Riku looked down at his hands. "Maybe not voluntarily…"

Sora frowned. "You're still worried about Dark Aura, aren't you?"

"Dark Aura, Dark Shield, the fact that I can open portals again… everything."

"Well, maybe it's just because of the influx of Hybrids, like Leon said before," Sora rationalized. "And it's not like you don't have control over it. You were still able to use it in The World That Never Was, but you never left my side, never tried to help Xemnas. Why should this be any different?"

Riku relaxed visibly. "Yeah, you're right. Thinking I would abandon Light based on abilities I have no control over is just stupid."

Sora smiled. "I remember you saying once that I don't choose the brightest friends…"

"I knew that would come to bite me in the ass one day," he stood from the bed, making to leave. "So, you feeling okay?"

"Yeah," Sora nodded, smiling in reassurance.

"No need to call Aerith in with her tea?" he joked.

Sora snickered. "Nah, I think I'll live."

"Okay then," Riku said, stopping briefly at the door. "'Night."

"'Night," he yawned. "Hey Riku?"

"Yeah?" he asked, pausing and turning back around.

"Thanks for everything."

He chuckled. "What did I do? That was all you."

More than two months had passed since that conversation had taken place, and still Riku often made an effort to make sure Sora was recovering. He had noticed recently that his efforts had become more sporadic, occurring less often than they had in previous weeks. He suspected that Riku had noticed the obvious improvement in his mood, and was trying to help him overcome it. Sora wondered, almost fearfully, if it was because of Riku that he was improving. His warm smiles, his joking jabs at Sora, his need to make sure that Sora well…

No, he couldn't let those suspected feelings come back. He had denied them years ago, and he would continue to deny them. Riku and Kairi had always existed synonymously in Sora's life so that Sora could - at least somewhat easily - ignore anything he felt for Riku and direct it toward Kairi, who he also had feelings for. He thought even Kairi had suspected something, judging by the way the two sometimes acted around each other.

"Wait a minute… the way we both act?" he rolled over in bed. "No, I'm imagining things."

"Sora, what the hell - you still haven't gotten up yet?" he heard Riku's steps approach his room again. "You're usually a bright ball of freaking sunshine; what's gotten into you?"

Sora sat up and stretched. "I'm up, really; I was just thinking."

"A rare occurrence."

He grabbed his pillow, whipping it at Riku's head. Riku simply blocked it, laughed, and left the room.

Slowly Sora rose from bed. He walked to the bathroom, took a shower, and dressed for the day. He meandered downstairs to see Riku, Leon, and Yuffie immersed in conversation.

"Hey guys, what'd I miss?"

"Leon has a theory on where the Hybrids are coming from," said Yuffie.

Sora pulled up a chair at the table, listening intently.

"I think it has something to do with the portal that's activated when you unlock the door with a Keyblade," he explained. "It might function as the opposite of a keyhole."

"What do you mean?" Sora raised an eyebrow.

"Well, when you seal a keyhole, you seal the Darkness from that world," Leon continued. "When you open one of these, instead of the Darkness being sealed, you're sucked into a world that is neither nothing nor something: a Hybrid world."

"Empty space," said Sora in comprehension.

"More or less," Leon shrugged. "I'm not really sure, having never been there. Did you notice anything besides the mist and the blankness?"

"No, just Ansem's Hybrid and Kairi. What would we be looking for, anyway? A keyhole? Because there was nothing there," Sora scratched his head. "Just disorienting pseudo-nothingness."

Riku slammed his hand on the table as though he had been struck with a brilliant idea. "Wait a minute… If there were multiple keyholes here, maybe there are multiple portals too? And maybe one of those leads to… whatever we're looking for."

"That's not a bad theory," Leon contemplated.

Sora smiled. "Looks like we've got a better mission today than Operation Kick Some Hybrid Ass. If we can find it, maybe we can clear the smog so we can get to other worlds."

Yuffie frowned, her eyes fiery with jealousy. "Why do they get to travel to different worlds while we're stuck on this one?"

Leon shrugged. "Because they have Keyblades and a vessel."

She crossed her arms over her stomach. "Hmph. We haven't been anywhere since we left Traverse Town. That was over five years ago!"

"You're not going to try to stow away when we leave, are you?" asked Riku, a slight smirk on his face.

"Huh? What gave you that idea?" she asked with a look of untarnished innocence that effectively fooled no one.

An exasperated Leon rolled his eyes. "No one can leave until we solve this smog problem. We have to find the keyhole, go to the Hybrid world, and lock it so they can't keep transporting here… that is, assuming our theory is correct."

"Sounds good to me, Leon," said Sora, rising from his chair. He looked at Riku. "Ready to go?"

Riku nodded, standing. "Any suggestions?"

Yuffie contemplated. "The keyholes probably aren't in town; that'd be too accessible. I wonder where they would've planted them… In the mountains? The trails?"

Riku shrugged. "We'll scout around, see what we can find."

"Okay, have fun! Try not to get into too much trouble!" she laughed.

"Never!" answered Sora, bolting out the door with Riku close behind.


Sora shifted a small pile of rocks out of his way, examining the cliff for crevices.

"You know, I doubt one of the keyholes is hidden under rubble in the middle of nowhere…" Riku mused, leaning against it as he watched Sora examine the rock.

"Do you have any better ideas?" asked Sora. "We've been looking for hours. Usually I run around, fight a bunch of Heartless and Nobodies, and end up locating a keyhole within a couple hours."

"I have to admit, I didn't think it would take this long," Riku grumbled.

"It never does," explained Sora. "It may have to do with the fact that we're dealing with the real Ansem this time. Well, his Hybrid, so he probably has a similar personality and intelligence level. Anyway, you knew him better than any of us, I mean-"

"Sora, quiet!" Riku's voice sounded apprehensive. "Do you hear that?"

Sora listened down the cliff's path. He cocked his head slightly at the approaching noise. It sounded like the wails of people being slaughtered, their voices ringing out moments before being eternally silenced.

He jumped to his feet and called Ultima as Way to Dawn appeared in Riku's hand. They sprinted down the path, charging toward the cacophonic screams.

"Just up here!" yelled Riku as they turned the corner of the fissured canyon, facing three Hybrid beasts. Sora was baffled by their size. They towered over the Keyblade masters, at least twice their height. Their grotesque, scaly bodies were supported on legs that seemed too small and weak to hold their weight, but they stood looming over the two nonetheless. They uttered the most horrific, earsplitting sound Sora had ever heard: a shrill, crackling bellow that resonated through the canyon. Keyblade gripped in his right hand, he took one look toward Riku, nodded, and attacked.

He jumped onto the closest beast's back, striking it in the head repeatedly. It reared up from the pain as Sora gripped its thick scales to keep his balance. He swiped at it again, its anger building. Sora braced himself, but the Hybrid threw him from its back, rolling him onto the ground below. He tried to block the blow with his Keyblade, but the Hybrid's small leg pierced into him, sending a searing pain into his stomach.

"Heal!" Sora yelled, casting Curaga. He stood back up and faced the Hybrid, hitting it face on. The scaly beast fell to the ground, disappearing in a cloud of gray smoke. He stopped for a moment as Riku defeated his enemy. Sora jumped at the third, swinging his Keyblade as a voice interrupted him.

"Call him back, call him back… I'm not wasting another perfectly good Hybrid just because they can defeat it."

Sora and Riku whipped their heads toward the voice. Upon the top of the cliff stood a tall man in a black trench coat, its hood drawn so that his face was obscured in shadows. He wielded a scythe not dissimilar to that of Ansem's Hybrid.

"Really? You copied Organization XIII? How original," Riku taunted.

"More original than your miniscule mind can comprehend," the hooded man retorted. "Oh well, this may fulfill some nostalgic revenge…"

"That doesn't make any sense!"

"Riku, we need to get out of here," Sora whispered, his voice shaking.

"We can take him," Riku growled, his grip on the Keyblade tightening.

Sora panicked. His heart raced, his limbs shook. "That's Ansem's weapon, the one Kairi - listen, that thing can smash Keyblades. If it touches you once-"

"Quarreling among yourselves… that can't be good for morale," he laughed coldly. "But I suppose it's all the better for me."

The cloaked man jumped from the high cliff, bracing himself and landing gracefully on his feet, balancing the scythe cross his chest. "What's wrong, Sora?" he taunted as Sora and Riku backed away. "Are you afraid I'm going to do to him what Ansem did to your precious damsel?"

"Run," Sora said under his breath as the hooded man approached them.

"Sora, if we-"

"We won't survive. RUN!"

He tore away in the opposite direction, Riku following closely.

"Now that's something I thought I'd never see from two Keyblade masters," the man shouted as he chased after them. "Running away from a foe. I may have thought you were stupid, but never cowardly!"

"Don't listen to him," Sora said to Riku as he ran beside him. "We can't even get hit once; we won't stand a chance if we stay and fight."

Sora led them through the jagged canyon, cutting along ledges and sprinting through paths to dissuade their attacker. Out of sight of the cloaked man, he jetted into a crammed crevice that barely hid himself from the outside world. He grabbed Riku's wrist and pulled him into the small cavern.

He braced himself against the wall, Riku standing parallel to him. Sora looked at Riku, light eyes baring into piercing blue. A slight smile tinged Riku's lips in the dimly lit fissure. Sora felt his heart leap at the sight. He could feel Riku's breath flush down his visage, spread to his neck…

"That was close," whispered Riku. Sora closed his eyes as Riku's words brushed like soft kisses upon his face, their lips mere inches apart. It was almost…

He snapped his eyes open. No. No, no, no, no, no. He cleared his throat.

"Yeah, tell me about it," Sora whispered as Riku's hair billowed slightly from his own breath. "But I think that's the first time we ever ran away."

"Like you said, we didn't really have a choice," as Riku spoke, Sora found it difficult to concentrate on his words, but rather paid attention to his voice, its round baritone echoing through the small chamber. "You know, I'd probably be dead if it weren't for you."

"Ah, c'mon, Riku," Sora smiled, absentmindedly stroking Riku's palm with his thumb.

His heart jumped again. He was still holding his hand? He dropped it quickly, lowering his own to his side. Riku raise an eyebrow but dismissed what Sora knew he saw as odd behavior.

"I guess what I'm trying to say is thanks," Riku said, his warm breath lingering on Sora's lips.

"Okay, cool it," thought Sora. "Riku's completely at ease and there's no reason you shouldn't be."

Sora forced himself to relax, slumping slightly against the cave wall. He smiled in a false confidence that he hoped he conveyed effectively. "Well, someone had to save you from your own stupidity."

"My stupidity?" his voice held a false air of insult.

He shuffled his foot, gently nudging Riku's in the process. Sora shook his head, looking downward to stare at the ground. "I don't know… just… the thought of losing you too? I don't think I could deal with that."

"Hey, Sora, look at me," the breathy words washed over his face again. He slowly raised his gaze, eyes lingering for a moment on a muscled bicep.

Riku shook his head, his bangs falling over his eyes. He put a hand on Sora's shoulder. "I'm not going anywhere."


After being convinced that their opponent was far enough away, Sora and Riku hurried back to the keep, where they found Leon and Aerith pouring over a giant map of the area.

"You're back!" Aerith smiled. "Did you have any luck finding the keyholes?"

"No," Riku sighed. "But we've got some bad news."

The two looked at them expectedly.

"Someone in Radiant Garden has a scythe like the one Ansem's Hybrid had," Sora warned. "They were wearing a black trench coat like they were in the Organization or something… They even insinuated that they were part of the Organization."

"Hmm…" Aerith put a hand to her chin, pensive. "Well, it is possible that you were dealing with one of them."

"What?" a baffled Sora and Riku said in unison.

"If a person's Heartless dies before their Nobody, they will be restored as whole once you defeat the Nobody," Leon explained. "I thought we went over this before."

"Don't you think that's something we would've remembered?" Sora asked in an annoyed tone that did not suit him. "Who the hell are we dealing with? Not Xehanort…"

Aerith frowned. "It's a definite possibility."

"But Ansem and Xehanort hate each other!" Riku exclaimed. "Why would they work together?"

Leon shrugged. "I've heard of stranger alliances."

Sora went to bed that night in a sour mood, his mind contemplating the chaos in their situation. Ansem's Hybrid was likely the ally of a now whole Xehanort. They had a weapon, if not multiple weapons, that could kill its victims with a single swipe or stab. How could he even combat something like that? If he and Riku had been slightly slower… Sora rolled over on his back. He couldn't fathom losing his best friend, his link to sanity those past months. His heart ached at the thought of Riku meeting Kairi's fate. He sighed, knowing he was fooling himself if he thought those feelings were only those of a strong friendship. He had effectively masked them when he was with Kairi, so much that he had managed to convince himself that they never really existed at all. But they had, and in Kairi's absence they resurfaced. "Sora, what's wrong with you?" he thought. "Riku's a guy. He's not like Kairi… not anything like Kairi. You're using him as a substitute."

He knew his rationalization was entirely false, that Riku was in no way a substitute. If that had been the case there was no way his feelings would have rivaled what he felt for Kairi. "It's not that strong. It can't be… It's not like I-" he wouldn't let himself think the word. To be sure, Riku was nothing like Kairi. She was sweet, well mannered, soft… Riku was sarcastic, slightly rude, muscular… "Those muscles…" Sora thought, envisioning his sleeveless biceps, his hard, sinewy chest in the morning when he was searching for a shirt… He snapped open his eyes. "Guy, Sora. Guy."

Besides, how would Kairi feel if she knew? "Heartbroken beyond recovery." But she had told him that time would go by, months would pass, that she wanted him to move on.

He remembered what she had said about their hearts. "I won't need it as much, but someone else might. And you'll need theirs. Just remember that we'll always be connected as long as we remember what we had."

Sora rolled onto his side and let his eyes close. Maybe he had slowly been letting go, his fingers unlocking, hands slipping away. But how could he possibly forget Kairi? He had said that she alone had his heart, his soul. How could he possibly give them to another? Who was to say they would be accepted in the first place?

Sora yawned, his exhaustion a welcome feeling. He relaxed, slowly drifting off to sleep with the thoughts that had slowly consumed his mind, plaguing his conscious like a slowly rising current.