Here's chapter thirty - five. Eddie Camp, an anonymous reviewer, and explosivebagel for reviewing last chapter.

Chapter Thirty – Five: Enter the Darkness

Riun trudged slowly through the wilderness, sniffing. He was cold…he was tired…and he wanted to go home. He fell to the ground and curled up next to a tree trunk, trying not to cry. I have to be tough, he told himself over and over again. But he still couldn't stop himself from sniffling.

He didn't like this…being along. The adventure had been fun for the most part when he'd been with Mala and Gillick. Now, though, he was remembering the assassin that had attacked them and the vicious Knight. He shivered, curling himself into a tighter ball and whimpering.

…He soon discovered he was too scared to fall asleep.

He uncurled himself and sat with his back against the tree, hugging his knees. To try and keep his mind off his current predicament, he began gathering small sticks from nearby and piled them up before him. Then, remembering Gillick's lessons, he extended his hands towards the pile and muttered, "Fire." A small ball of fire flew from his outstretched hands and lit the twigs on fire, much to his delight.

"That's an interesting ability."

Riun jumped and let out a surprised squeak at the voice. "Who's there?" he yelped, looking around wildly.

"A friend, perhaps."

A man materialized before him, with pale hair that fell to cover his eyes. His armor glittered in the light of Riun's fire. "You're a Keyblader?" he gasped.

The man nodded. "My name is Viril," he informed him, "leader of the Dark Army."

"Really?" Riun shot to his feet. "That's so cool! The Dark Army's the best!"

A small smile curled Viril's lips. "I'm glad you think so." Then the man suddenly grew somber. "Would you like to join us, young one?"

Riun's eyes flew wide with surprise. "What? Me?"

Viril nodded. "We can always use an unaffiliated Keyblader."

"Huh? I'm not a Keyblader," Riun explained, feeling puzzled.

"Really?" Viril didn't sound surprised at this admission. "Then how are you able to use magic?"

"Um…I just can." Riun shrugged, unable to explain his bizarre abilities any further.

Viril gave a small snort of amusement. "What's your name?"

"Riun."

"Well, Riun, people like you are special; it's not often that people without a Keyblade can use magic. It's even more of a reason for you to come with me to the Dark Army."

"Can I really come?" Riun asked, excitement at the prospect blazing away his former fear.

"Of course," Viril responded, turning away. "And who knows? Perhaps you will come to have a Keyblade of your own, in time."

"Really? My own Keyblade?" The thought of being one of the legendary Keybladers filled Riun with a wild hope, and he plunged into the undergrowth of the forest after Viril without a second thought.

"Riun, this is Xuren. He will be your mentor, for the time being."

Riun looked up at the man before him curiously. He knew that this person was a Keyblader and a supporter of the Dark Army, but…something about his eyes was giving Riun the chills. Still, he was a Keyblader, and he was for the Dark Army, so…that meant he had to be good, right? "Hi, Xuren."

Xuren gave him a predatory smile. "You look afraid of me. Am I really that frightening?"

"Um…n-no," Riun replied nervously.

"Don't scare the boy, Xuren," Viril growled. His long bangs parted slightly to reveal glowing red eyes. Despite the fact that the leader of the Dark Army was supporting him, he found the sight…unnerving.

Xuren seemed to, as well. "I'll behave," he promised. "Come on, kid." He whipped around and hurried away, leaving Riun to trail after him.

Several moments of silence stretched between the two as they walked. Finally, Riun couldn't bear it anymore, and piped up, "Where are we going?"

"Somewhere," Xuren replied mysteriously.

"But where is somewhere?" Riun protested.

"You'll find out soon enough."

Seeing that he wouldn't get any more out of the man, Riun lapsed back into a reluctant silence. His eyes kept shifting back towards the Keyblader, wondering about him. "I know someone who has eyes the same color as yours," he commented, thinking the amber coloring of Xuren's eyes was similar to Gillick's.

"Really?" Xuren said, his voice an odd mixture of curiosity and malice.

Riun suddenly felt nervous about this chosen topic, but continued it, nonetheless. "I don't see a lot of people with that eye color. Is it normal?"

"Far from it."

"Really? Is it for special people? Like heroes?"

Xuren turned to look at him, his eyes gleaming with a wild light and a wicked grin on his face. Riun inadvertently took a pace backwards, feeling unnerved. "These eyes," he informed him, "mean that someone has been touched by an extreme form of darkness. The color of the eyes grows darker and darker the more someone's exposed to it, until it changes all together…into blood red." Xuren's disturbed grin broadened. "Someday you may have eyes just like these." With that, he whipped around and headed away, leaving Riun to follow again and ponder what he'd learned.

Gillick was…touched by darkness? What did that mean, anyways? How did it happen? Did Gillick have some connection with the Dark Army at some point? He had no answers to his questions; the only thing he knew was that he liked the warrior much better than he liked the Keyblader.

It was a shocking thought, and almost caused him to come to a complete halt. He preferred being around Gillick than being around a Keyblader. The older boy was short tempered and not always caring, true…but there seemed to be a sort of goodness in his eyes. With this Keyblader, though…he couldn't find any of that. When he looked hard, he could see a small flicker of it, but that was only when he was really looking for it. He swallowed hard. Keybladers were supposed to be heroes…didn't that mean they had to be good? Maybe he was a different kind of hero, like Gillick.

…His heart, much as he tried to ignore it, was telling him otherwise.

"We're here," Xuren informed him, breaking him out of his thoughts.

Riun peeked around the man to look at what lay before them. His face contorted into a frown when he saw a ruined town through the trees. "Why are we here?" he questioned, looking up towards Xuren.

The man glanced down towards him. "The Light Army is here; Viril wants us to fight them."

Riun swallowed hard, looking nervously back at the destroyed town. "You mean…go out there and attack them?"

"Some will," Xuren informed him, the wicked smile that was becoming disturbingly familiar etched across his face. "But those are only the distractions. When those Light Army bastards are busy killing them, we'll attack from the shadows." His eyes gleamed maniacally. "They won't see us coming…until it's too late."

Riun whimpered, backing away from the Keyblader. "I don't like this idea," he protested.

Xuren turned to look at him, the dark smile replaced with an angry frown. "No one asked what you 'liked.'"

"B-but…you're just letting people die…" Riun trailed off, tears stinging the corners of his eyes.

"Suck it up!" Xuren snapped. "You're part of the Dark Army now; this is how it works." Then a sadistic grin replaced the frown. "You'll learn to love the blood; trust me."

The idea of becoming so hungry for blood finally made the boy snap. "No!" He took several steps backwards. "I don't want to! You're mean! And scary! And…and…" He let out a small cry of frustration. "I wish Gillick was here!"

Tears streamed down his face for several moments before he realized everything had grown deathly silent. When he turned his gaze back to Xuren, he saw the man's amber eyes flickering with darkness and a barely suppressed fury. "I thought I'd heard," he growled, "that Gillick was traveling with some runt."

"X-Xuren?" Riun stammered as the man began to stalk towards him.

"Who would've imagined that he'd turn up with his old friends?"

Xuren summoned his Keyblade, raising it above his head. Riun cried out in alarm and fell backward. "What are you doing?"

"Getting rid of a nuisance!"

Riun squeezed his eyes shut, giving a wordless cry of fear. However, a cry of pain drowned out his. Then someone was at his side, screaming in his ear, "Run, Riun!"

For a moment, he thought Gillick had come to rescue him. Then he realized that, though he recognized the voice, it belonged to a girl. He blinked open his eyes to see Xuren jerking an arrow out of his arm, and Mala tugging on the boy's sleeve to urge him forward. He needed no more convincing to scramble up and hurry away with the thief girl. He expected to hear sounds of pursuit, but they never came.

After a while, the two stopped, panting. Mala was shaking, looking as if she were about to be sick. Riun whimpered, looking up at her. "Mala…"

"That wasn't fun," she commented, sinking down and hugging her knees.

Riun, shaking, stumbled over to her and wrapped his arms around her. "Thank you for saving me."

She laughed humorlessly. "I almost wasn't quick enough; I was frozen for a while before I could convince myself to move."

"But you still did." Riun released her and fell backwards, feeling stunned. "I thought Keybladers were supposed to be the good guys."

"So did I," Mala agreed in a whisper. She shook her head. "I don't understand; I've seen them do a lot of good things! But now…" She shook her head again.

"Maybe…we could go find Gillick," Riun suggested.

Mala hesitated a moment before nodding. "Yeah. He might be able to answer some questions for us." She stood shakily. "And I'd like to know…why exactly Xuren called the Dark Army his 'old friends.'"

And that is the end of chapter thirty – five. Please review?