Thirty-Seven

Thankfully, Riku didn't pass out, and the removal was relatively easy and clean. Except for Riku's crying.

"I didn't cry!" Riku snarled, performing a quick nose-dive on the vehicle. After he was healed, the platform tipped. He sprinted off, landing on a parked hover vehicle of some sort.

"I saw Xemnas ride up on it," he admitted when I asked how he knew it was there.

Currently, we were dodging constant attacks from Sara's dragon thing. There was no sign of my sister yet.

I rolled my eyes, "You so did."

"Shut up!" He banked left sharply.

I hit another disc of light into the dragon. It squealed and wiggled, sending out…hordes of heartless. Really? Really?

"This is so not fair," I whined, smashing one out of the sky. "Why can she control heartless, and all I get is this crappy key?"

"I'll take it if you don't want it."

"No. It's mine. It likes me more anyway."

"Whatever." He stood, activating a shield.

The heartless ship crashed into it head-on, blasting into smithereens and tumbling into the endless expansion of skyline below. The others were a cake walk.

"So, what's the plan?"

"Well," Riku pointed. "Those glowing tubes on the side seem to be vital to something. We should see what happens when we blow them up."

"Why?"

"To kill the dragon?"

"What if Sara's in there?"

"She'll be injured, we rescue her, put the necklace on her, and go home."

"Ok. What if she's not in there?"

"We find her, injure her, rescue her, put the necklace on her, and go home."

"You make it sound so…so simple…"

He shrugged, "It's a business thing. Father does it all the time."

"Alright, let's get to destroying this monster."

Riku grinned, "Destroying stuff, that's something we're good at, right?"

I nodded, "Destroying stuff and messing up situations. We should go professional."

"Dibs on being the CEO."

"It's not like I'd know what to do."

We kept up the playful banter as Riku maneuvered the ship into place. It took a lot of twisting, but we finally managed to get alongside the dragon.

More heartless appeared.

"Get closer to the tubes!" I called over the clamor of firing weapons, "I'll take care of the ships!"

"Got it!"

He swerved, and I activated my wisdom form. "Eat light, suckers!"

Riku laughed, "Can you get cheesier? At this rate, Sara looks cooler than us!"

I shot them endlessly, diverting some hits to the tubes. "Sara managed to stab you in the shoulder, twice. I think that automatically makes her cooler than us!"

"Man, that sucks!" He quickly activated a shield as they opened fire. I scowled, but waited.

To my surprise, a surge of dark energy slammed the rest of them into the side of the dragon.

"I will be cooler than her!"

I laughed and deactivated my drive. Without another word, I severed the glowing tube.

Weird goop splashed all over us, both of us groaning in disgust impulsively. The dragon rolled away from us.

Smoke began to leak out of the sides, and the whole twisting structure tumbled to the ground.

"Sweet! That was easy!"

Riku and I fist-bumped, celebrating our epic-ness.

Of course, we didn't notice the tornado until it sucked us in.

Riku and I batted the darkness off uselessly, to no avail. It smothered me, pushing down on my throat. I couldn't talk. I couldn't breathe.

"Hang on!" Riku screamed hoarsely. He revved the engine and sped through the thick fog. I brushed off the tendrils sticking to my coat, and we broke through.

000

The intruders have arrived. I grinned to myself, tracing the grooves of my arm rest idly with a fingertip. The tall one. He'll suffer. For so long I laid on that street, shivering and crying to myself. No more. The boy dies. And it'll be me driving the knife into his heart. I shut my eyes and sighed, leaning back in my chair. He would look up at me with those green eyes, begging for mercy.

And I would merely twist the handle.

Beautiful.

"SARA!" I could tell by the rasp in the short one's voice that he was screaming at the top of his lungs. Still, I could barely hear him over the roaring wind.

I smiled to myself, enjoying the intricate design.

"The carving on this chair is magnificent," I finally met their eyes. "Isn't it?"

With a snap of my fingers, three heartless wizards appeared.

"They're trying to hurt me," I whimpered. "Help me."

They snapped into a flurry of attacks.

I never realized what I could do with heartless. It's simple. I control all the hearts. Thus, I control all the heartless! It's a beautiful system.

Absolutely beautiful.

The tall one slashed, only to find his target gone.

It had teleported behind him, and it launched a fireball straight at the teen's backside.

I roared with laughter when the spell hit its target, making the boy leap and yowl with pain. I kicked out my feet and rocked back and forth, hugging myself to keep warm.

It's still cold.

My laughter cut off as I was roughly grabbed by the arm and thrown to the ground. Immediately, I snarled, twirling and slamming my foot into the short one's face.

The tall one grabbed me from behind, tossing me farther away from the throne.

My hip awkwardly slammed into the floor, and I groaned, rolling over. I pulled a throwing star out and launched it.

The boy merely batted it away with his sword.

I growled, pushing to my feet. A streak of pain zipped up my leg, making me collapse again.

No.

No, no, no, no, NO!

I forced myself up again, ignoring my protesting limb. I am not weak. I will not be weak. I will win!

I pulled out my dagger, sticking out my hand.

The tall one rushed me. I ducked under his slash, slamming my elbow into his tailbone.

I ignored the tingling on my funny bone, looping my leg in between his and kicking.

He tumbled to the ground.

The other one slammed his weapon into my leg.

I screamed with rage, shoving him with all my might and leaping for the throne.

I was yanked back by the tall one.

No matter. I bit on the arm hauling me.

"OH GOD! GET HER OFF ME!"

Blood welled up in my mouth, and the muscles under my teeth spasmed violently.

Something knocked into my head, I tumbled to the ground. Stars buzzed before my eyes, flashes of black taking over my vision…

No.

I reached for my necklace.

There's fire. There's so much fire. You're on fire.

They started to scream and run around like headless chickens, and slowly I crawled back to my throne. My beautiful chair.

I let go of the spell. "They're hurting me!"

This time I didn't underestimate them. I brought out a small army, led by a darkside.

"Sonnuva…"

The shorter one smashed into the darkside full force, driving his blade through its head. To my horror, it collapsed and dissolved.

"NO!"

The tall one had dealt with the others, and now they headed for me again.

"NO!" I could feel my left side pulsating still. I need more time. I need protection!

I reached for the feather in my hair.

There's a barrier. You can't get past the barrier.

The tall one caught on though.

"SHOOT HER HAND! THAT'S CONTROLLING THE ILLUSIONS!"

The short one pointed his blade at me.

"It's over Sara."

And he shot.

000

She was ours. We had her. The shot passed right through the barricade (like I knew it would), and hit her hand. The illusion flashed out of existence, and we stalked forward.

She threw something at our feet.

The next thing I know, my surroundings began to blend together (well, more than usual) (man, I should really start wearing my glasses), and blackness began to creep in through the sides.

I hardly felt it when I hit the ground.

I woke up on a platform, surrounded by nothing but grey. Grey, like Sara. She wasn't good or bad. She just wanted to see the world die for what it did to her.

Sora lay beside me, still unconscious. There was no sign of Sara.

"Sara!" I screamed, "Show yourself!"

Sora climbed off the floor. We stared at each other for a moment, then nodded.

We have to hurt the one we love.

"It's a business thing," I whispered. "Father does it all the time."

"We're helping her," Sora murmured. "She's coming home with us."

Silence expanded the vastness.

A single sound.

A footstep.

Another. Another. Another. Click, click, click, click…small footsteps. A small girl appeared in the distance.

In her hands, she held two sai. She stared straight at us, stepping quietly. Yet, each click roared through my eardrums.

Slowly, I brought my fist up.

"We can do this."

Sora bumped his knuckles to mine.

"Yeah."

Sara stopped, eyes on us. Slowly, she twirled her knives. Her eyes never wavered.

"Sara!" I pleaded. "Snap out of this! This isn't you!"

"Come home with us Sara!" Sora added, "It'll be ok, I promise!"

"Intruders."

And with that one word, she lunged.