For those of you who are following this story, I owe you all an apology for such a late update. I'll be honest here – I am absolutely sick of chapter 9. I really am. Don't get me wrong; I really like how it turned out. I just spent so much of my time reading it over and over and OVER again trying to make it all make sense and not corny that by the end of it all I cringed even looking at the words "chapter 9". *sigh* So, sorry that this chapter came a little slow. I had to for lack of a better term "un-sensitize" myself to this fic. (Plus my computer was being a jerk. I've had this Dell computer since I was in 6th grade and the age is starting to show.) I'm trying to get as much out as I can while I still have time (college for me starts February 25th) so needless to say I've been looking at this fic a lot for the past month.

Ah well, enough about me. Enjoy chapter 10, and thanks for being super patient. You guys are awesome.

Ch. 10: Null

There's nothing like learning that your missing friend turned out to be the mass murderer behind everything to completely ruin your day.

The precise second when Sora had finished spilling everything, Riku's mind had jammed. His thoughts wouldn't process, and his entire consciousness felt as if it were stuck in a state of perpetual limbo. He couldn't accept what was happening; nothing would register in his mind. The shock had struck him completely dumb.

At some point a faraway voice called out, "Riku!" and finally snapped him out of it. He blinked a couple times, and looked to Syaoran, the source of the cry. The boy wasn't holding his twin anymore, and Roxas was no longer in sight. Syaoran had also drawn that katana from its sheath, a four-foot blade in all of its wicked sharpness. He was eyeing Riku in urging, though he couldn't understand why.

"Syaoran?" His voice sounded hollow, even to him. "What…"

Syaoran's amber eyes glinted with firmness. "You have to get your act together. You won't get anything done that way!"

Riku's mind scrambled to reorganize itself in order to assess the current situation. Syaoran looked ready for a fight, now that Tsubasa was off his hands. Riku still couldn't see Roxas anywhere – or Tsubasa either, for that matter. Maybe Roxas was just hiding him in the shadows and out of sight until it was over?

Ugh, just thinking about what the outcome to this might be made him feel sick all over again.

"I'm getting bored," Sora interrupted, his tone turning all shades of bland. "How long are you going to just stand around and talk? Do I always have to be the one to make things interesting?"

Both Riku and Syaoran looked to him, former in helplessness and latter in fury. Sora's expression was mildly pleasant and carefree, like he was in the middle of watching two puppies tussling around playfully. Riku saw Syaoran's fingers around the handle of the sword tighten in anticipation of whatever Sora might throw at them. When Riku saw his expression, he saw that Syaoran was willing to go to any length to free Tsubasa from his curse, even if it meant doing as Sora was egging him on to do and taking his life. Riku remembered back when he had once possessed that same resolve into saving his best friend from endless sleep multiple times, even if it had meant that he would have to live or lose himself in the darkness forever as a result. But now… he couldn't find that determination, right when it mattered most. He was spending too much of that energy staying angry at himself.

Riku felt his gaze tighten. Sora… he thought helplessly.

His old friend gave a very put-upon roll of the eyes. "All right; fine then," he said at last. "If that's how it's gonna be, I might as well make it good."

Sora then flicked his gaze toward Syaoran and locked eyes with him for a split second. At first, nothing happened, and Riku began wondering if Sora had just been playing with his words – at least until Syaoran let out a garbled gasp of pain. That brief window was all the opportunity Sora needed to rush him and deliver a roundhouse kick to Syaoran's head, sending him flying backward and landing on the hard floor with a sickening thud. To Riku's horror, Syaoran didn't move.

"Syaoran!" he cried once out of desperation, but there was no reply. Seeing his comrade out of commission fueled his rage toward the sick monster that he'd once called friend. He roared in fury and charged at Sora, Keyblade in hand. He was easily blocked and parried, but Riku wasn't about to let someone he barely knew get hurt on his account. He stood between the unconscious Syaoran and Sora, who had been advancing on him, and held him at sword point.

"Don't you dare lay another finger on him," Riku snarled. "You've got no right messing with him!"

Sora stared amusedly at the Keyblade Riku was holding to his throat. "I almost forgot what one of these things looked like," he mused with a mocking smile. "Sure brings back memories of the good old days, doesn't it, Riku?"

"Yeah, and it makes me sick just thinking about it!" Riku spat. "Looking at you now, those memories make no sense to me at all!"

"Ooh, don't be like that, old buddy," Sora said, pretending to wince in pain. "What happened to being best friends, huh?"

"I'd rather get possessed by Ansem five times over than call you my best friend now!"

Sora whistled through his teeth. "Whew. That's cold, Riku."

"Even if that's the case, I'm a raging inferno compared to you!" Riku snapped at him. "At least I'm not a backstabber who slaughters people who called him a friend because of petty revenge! I never thought that you of all people would stoop so low!"

Sora suddenly grinned wickedly, like Riku had brought up an interesting topic, and chuckled once. "Speaking of backstabbers…"

There almost wasn't enough time to react. The tone of Sora's voice alerted him almost simultaneously with Roxas's shouts of warning out of nowhere, and Riku barely managed to avoid the blade that had made as if to pierce his heart from behind by leaping away from where he stood to a spot several yards away. Once he was safe from danger at the immediate moment, he was able to focus on what had just happened – only to see Syaoran's sword in the empty space where his chest had been.

Riku was almost too stunned for words. "Wh-what the…" He proceeded to stare at the boy who'd turned his weapon against him, already facing him with his sword poised for another strike. "Syaoran?!"

There was definitely something different about him this time around. The expression on Syaoran's face disturbed Riku more than the fact that he'd almost killed him. It was frighteningly cold – much like Sora's had been, except there was no other emotion. It was as if any and all sense of self and feeling had been severed from his mind and heart. Simply looking at those dead eyes made Riku shiver, like the temperature of the dark room had suddenly dropped twenty degrees. One of his eyes – the right one – was completely hollow and flat in color and devoid of any shine. Riku had no idea what that could be signifying, but that wasn't his biggest worry.

Sora groaned in frustration and shook his head in dismay as he placed his free hand on his hip, like he'd suddenly lost a game that he was previously winning. "Dang it!" he complained. "It was so close!"

"What did – are you the one that made him like this?!" Riku demanded in outrage. "What did you do to him, Sora?!"

"Geez, quit yelling, Riku." Sora picked his left ear with his little finger. "Look, I didn't do anything to him – well, not directly at least. That side of Syaoran was always there – it's usually buried deep, but still there."

"And you expect me to believe that?" Riku countered harshly, sarcasm thick in his tone. "I'm not an idiot."

Sora's eyes hardened the tiniest bit. "Oh, so you don't believe me, huh? Fine. Just ask my know-it-all Nobody. He knows that it's the truth. Don't you, Roxas?" he added scathingly to the blonde, who had suddenly appeared in the back corner of the room.

Riku's heart sunk like a stone in water. He looked upon Roxas's face in dread, his heart sinking even further by the agonized expression upon it. A shadow had seemed to cross Roxas's face – Riku couldn't tell if it was from the flickering light of the lamps or the prospect of having to explain this to him.

"Roxas…it's a lie, right?" he pleaded. "It's got to be a lie! Syaoran couldn't have…!"

The Nobody refused to make eye contact with him. Instead, he opted on focusing his gaze on the still-incarcerated Tsubasa, who looked even paler than before. He looked like a marble statue in the firelight.

It was a long while before Roxas answered him. "No," he said reluctantly, drawing in a deep breath. "It's not a lie. Sora's telling the truth."

"What does that –" Riku couldn't finish the question, because Syaoran had lunged for him again. He leapt at Riku's throat, the sword in his hand positioned to strike the jugular, but Riku immediately countered and sidestepped. He could have taken that moment to strike back, but he'd been hesitant. The Keyblade wasn't any ordinary weapon. He could accidentally hurt Syaoran permanently if he wasn't careful. Not to mention, Riku just barely knew him well enough to feel guilty about doing anything to hurt him long-term. It would weigh on his conscience heavily – and probably for a long time, too; given how he'd handled these kinds of situations in the past, he didn't doubt it.

He swiftly turned as Syaoran leapt at him for the third time, but this time Riku was a moment too late. The boy's weapon grazed Riku's abdomen – the wound wasn't deep, but it still hurt pretty badly. Then out of nowhere – Syaoran delivered a karate kick straight to the gut, right where he'd made the cut. The air whooshed out of Riku's lungs like an accordion and he flew back a good ten feet before landing on the rock-hard floor like a sack of potatoes, probably earning him some nasty bruises.

"Whoa, awesome shot!" Sora cheered from somewhere to his left like he was watching a boxing match. "Kick him in the chest next!"

Goddamn it, Sora…! Before Riku could get up, Syaoran was on him again in an instant. Riku could see the dead expression still etched into Syaoran's face as he proceeded to stomp Riku's chest with his boot, forcing a cough and a scream of pain out of him.

"Riku!" he heard Roxas cry out in panic.

Riku felt blood splash onto his cheeks and neck, and he both heard and felt one of his ribs break. Pain seared through his abdomen like fire. Something told him that Syaoran hadn't lifted his foot off of his ribcage. His mind was going numb from the pain, and it hurt so much to breathe that he almost suffocated from the agony.

Even with all that aside, some part of him was absolutely daunted at how much raw strength this kid possessed – even after learning that he wasn't really human. From what he'd observed of Syaoran up until now, it seemed like this strength was actually kept at bay on purpose, probably to seem as normal and safe to be around as possible. Seeing Syaoran like this now only worsened this realization.

Riku barely noticed when Syaoran finally unpinned him from the ground, but he couldn't miss the fact that he was lifted from his position on the floor by the collar and then slammed into the nearest wall with the force akin to that of being attached to a battering ram, leaving him pinned against it. The resulting pain almost made Riku black out, but he managed to hang on by the skin of his teeth. Not only was Syaoran pinning him to the wall a foot off the ground, but he was choking him at the same time – and Riku had neither the means nor the strength to escape from his iron grip. He couldn't even muster the energy to lift his legs to kick him away. He had to fight to stay conscious by this point.

Riku suddenly felt something cold and sharp brush underneath his chin – Syaoran was now holding his sword at Riku's throat. So not only was his ally brainwashed into becoming a mindless killing machine, not only was he beaten up with an inch of his life by said ally, but he was now just seconds away from actually dying here, in this strange place no one knew existed, knowing that he'd failed to save his friend. He could still hear Sora cheering Syaoran on from somewhere in the background and constantly reminding him, "Be careful not to kill him yet!" through his dizziness. That bastard. Man, this was a really, really lame way to go.

He fought to open his eyes, and he was met with Syaoran's soulless stare. The touch of cold metal on his neck intensified, and Riku knew it was only a matter of time before it would slice open his jugular. Since he had no other way out of this situation that he could see, he fell back on what was normally his first-resort (reversed now because he hadn't seen this coming) method when facing down enemies – he tried talking Syaoran down.

"Syaoran." Riku's voice sounded like a dying badger, but he ignored that and pressed on. "Syaoran, it's me; it's Riku! Listen to me – you have to stop what you're doing! This isn't who you are. This is inhuman!"

Nothing in Syaoran's countenance changed as far as he could see, and Riku wondered if he could even hear his voice in the state he was in. That possibility almost urged him to give up in despair. Riku quickly chased those thoughts away – he had to keep trying, or this wouldn't end well for any of them.

"Can't you remember why you decided to come here in the first place?" It seriously hurt to talk, but Riku wouldn't allow himself to give in to the pain. He couldn't afford that. Too much was at stake. "You came here to save Tsubasa! If you don't, then you and Sakura will both disappear, right? Isn't Sakura your important person? You can't let that happen! Get your act together, Syaoran! You have to!"

Not even that seemed to do the trick. Syaoran's eyes hardened all the more and Riku could feel the muscles in his arms tighten in preparation to slit open his throat – even though Sora had specifically ordered him not to. Well, that was just his luck. His usually-first-but-now-last-resort method into snapping Syaoran back to his sense had failed miserably, and Riku knew in his gut that Roxas didn't have the strength to help him out of this one or else he would've stepped in ages ago.

Even worse, Sora now possessed the audacity to point out his epic failure and rub it in his bloodied face. "Wow, Riku. You know, after everything I've ever seen you do, I'd expected this fight to be more…oh, I don't know – even? Syaoran knocked you fifty ways to Sunday without even trying! You've gotten pretty rusty. What could have happened to you? Oh wait; don't tell me" – Sora jabbed a finger in his direction – "it looks like you've softened up over all these years, huh? Am I wrong? I mean, you didn't even try to attack him once through the whole thing!"

Anger flared up in Riku's chest once more at Sora's callous attitude. "I won't hurt him for doing something he wouldn't want to do!" he managed to growl as the blade against his neck pressed even closer. "Not that you would understand, the way you are now."

Sora's eyes tightened visibly in the dim shadows. Syaoran suddenly lifted Riku away from the wall and proceeded to throw him down to the ground – hard. He bounced once and slid the rest of the way back to the interior area of the room, where Sora was standing.

"Oh, so you're trying to rationalize now?" he assumed darkly, looming over Riku. "Since when did that help you?"

"It never helped me with anything!" Riku's chest was really close to killing him through the pain it was doling out to him alone from talking, but Riku was just so mad at his old friend that he ignored it. He struggled to push himself up, and he glared at Sora venomously the whole time. "And it never helped anyone! All it is is somebody trying to justify and get away with an excuse to every sick and twisted thing that they do, trying to figure out something that they don't and shouldn't understand, and thinking that no one knows what's going through their heads when that's all a pack of lies! Rationalizing is just an underhanded way for people to get everyone else to forgive them of everything, and to put them in the right and everyone else in the wrong! That's what you're doing, and look where it got you! It didn't get rid of any of the darkness in you – it only added more, and you're still not happy because of that no matter how many people you torture or kill! So there's no chance of me trying this thing you call 'rationalizing'. I'm telling you all this as the up-front truth. This isn't Syaoran's doing, and I'm not about to let him get hurt for it, because it's wrong!"

Something about those words suddenly changed the feel of the atmosphere around them. Sora looked to be at a loss for words, and his face flitted between anger and bewilderment like he couldn't decide between the two emotions battling for dominance in his mind. Riku was in so much pain now that he couldn't feel anything – his entire body had gone numb.

"You…" Sora backed off and away from Riku, his eyes flashing with fury. "Where do you get off –"

"Riku!"

Both of them turned to the source of the voice, and relief washed through Riku strongly when he saw that Syaoran had finally come back to his senses. He almost didn't notice the look of pure horror upon Syaoran's face once he saw the state that Riku was in. He ran to Riku's side and tried to help him up. Syaoran actually looked pretty close to crying, which was kind of unexpected. "Oh my God…" he whimpered. "Oh my God…"

"Welcome back." Riku didn't know where he found the energy to say anything after that massive unloading he dished out on Sora, but that didn't matter. He was just glad that he wouldn't be breaking bones anymore.

Syaoran, however, ignored Riku's greeting, his voice saturated in guilt. "I – I did this to you, didn't I? It was me? Oh, God – I'm – I'm so sorry, Riku; I didn't mean to –" He broke off, unable to continue.

So he doesn't remember what he did? Riku mused. Well, I guess it's better that way.

Suddenly, everything else froze as the unmistakable sound of a blade slicing through flesh hit his ears.

And you got a fight today! Hooray! Riku got totally pwned, though. Gosh, I just realized how mean I am to him. Sora even hung a lampshade on how pathetic he was. (Hooray Tropese! *shot*) Whew…well, anyway, it was necessary for the plot. Moving on.

This was definitely easier to write than…CHAPTER 9. *DUN DUN DUUUUUN* Again, sorry for the late update. And another apology in advance for the next chapter being on hold as well – I do have a oneshot to work on, after all!

Bye for now; I'll (eventually) see you chapter 11! You will forever be in agony at not knowing who just got mortally wounded! Mwahahahaha! *evilface* But seriously, it shouldn't be too hard to guess…right? XD