Pure darkness was all that Sora could see. He had no idea where he was at. He was the only glowing light in this neverending darkness.

"Hello! Is anybody there?!" Sora yells out, with his voice echoing in the distance. For a moment, Sora saw a small light that took the form of a person. Realizing that it might be someone friendly, Sora runs towards the direction of the figure. Each footstep felt like a step in a puddle. Every action he took, disrupted the flow of darkness. The floor started to move. Sora's balance was shaky, he could walk properly. He looks up to see a wave of darkness coming towards him.

Sora's first reaction was to use the Keyblade. He called for it but it didn't appear. Not wanting to get caught up, Sora ran away as fast as he could. But it was too late. The wave of darkness had taken him. He slowly descends ever deeper into the darkness.

"A…" There was a voice that echoed. Sora couldn't figure it out. "Ra…"

The voice was getting more clear through Sora. It was a girl's voice. It took a while for it to finally be clear enough for Sora to recognize. They were calling out for him.

"Sora… Wake up! Please wake up!" A ray of light goes through Sora. The intensity of the light got stronger as Sora was blinded.

Sora slowly opens his eyes to see him on the ground. The whole world was moving all over the place. It felt extremely nauseating for him as he tries to stand up. He heard gunshots, explosions, electricity, yelling. Sora's head was throbbing in agony. It took about a couple of minutes to see Ruby shooting at Grimm that was closing in on the two.

Ruby wanted to simply take Sora back to Goodwitch with her speed so that she could come back to help the others. However, almost like it was completely coordinated, Grimm popped up all around the two of them. Ruby couldn't defend herself while carrying Sora over her shoulders. She readied Crescent Rose to shoot at Grimm to keep them at bay.

"Ruby…" Ruby is caught off guard from the sudden deep and weak voice. She looks over at Sora who had summoned Master Keeper and was using it to stand up. "Gotta help you…"

"Sora! Stay down!" Ruby looks in front of her as she jumps back from a beowolf attack. Crescent Rose turns into its Scythe form as she twirls it around her. She rushes over and slices the beowolf, using trees to her advantage. She made sure that Sora was doing alright. It looked like Sora had a concussion from the multiple blows into the trees to the boulder that Ruby found him at. But no matter how much Ruby tried, more and more Grimm appeared. She couldn't fight them all off at once. She needed to find a way to just escape.

Ruby reloaded Crescent Rose as she shoots multiple gunshots at different Beowulf in different areas, going for a single path that she could use. Once she saw a clear path, she puts Crescent Rose in its standby position before picking Sora over her shoulders.

'He's… light.' Ruby thinks to herself before rushing through the small group of Grimm. Master Keeper drops from Sora's hands as it shoots chains of light that kept some of the beowolfs from pursuing the two before disappearing.

The Final Piece

By: NexusMHX

Chapter 11: Pawn of Darkness

Riku readies Braveheart in his usual battle stance. He charges towards Cardin with both weapons clashing. A massive shockwave knocks down a few trees with Riku having to use both of his hands to keep the standstill steady while Cardin was simply using one hand.

'He seems stronger than when he fought Sora…' Riku side steps to get in a quick spin slice. Cardin retaliates with trying to smack with his mace. Riku jumps back before pointing his Keyblade in the air and shoots a Dark Firaga at Cardin.

Cardin simply chuckled at the fireball as he swings his mace ready to intercept. Suddenly, the fireball splits off to multiple small fireballs that hit Cardin's back, launching the big knight forward. Cardin recovers quickly as he runs over Riku, smashing his mace at him.

The power Cardin possessed was powerful. Too powerful as Cardin overpowers Riku sending him spinning into a few tree branches.

"Seriously? This guy is pure muscle…" Riku looks up before jumping back as Cardin slammed his mace into the ground. "Though… He's quite dumber."

Riku shoots a quick Lightning spell to provoke Cardin to come closer to him. His plan works as he uses Cardin one-track mind to dodge and counterattack. It was a simple strategy that Riku normally wouldn't use. But the circumstances required him to not be reckless or else there could be issues that he wouldn't be able to recover from.

Cardin pissed from the slice, rushed in with a flurry of attacks that Riku had to dodge from. However, he was already in the motion of dodging as Cardin readies another swing. Riku had to pull up a barrier as it slowly cracks before exploding, sending both Cardin and Riku back. Riku groans from the pain. He gripped his sides, feeling that his ribs could be slightly fractured. He quickly fumbles in his pocket before taking out a Hi-Potion before chugging it down.

The drink was rather sweet, giving off a fruity flavor that was all too familiar to Riku. The drink slowly used its medicinal properties as the pain slowly numb down. It's not enough to fully heal the injury, but it's enough to keep the pain at bay until Riku had actual medical attention or someone that could use better healing magic that he can.

Cardin erupts from a bunch of trees that had fallen on him. He roars in anger as dark energy surrounds him. Riku readies his Keyblade, keeping caution about what his foe had in store for him. Cardin's energy surrounds his mace as purple lightning shoots from the tips into the sky. Dark clouds surrounded the general area.

"What the heck is this?" Riku looks around him, trying to keep his guard up. Purple lightning strikes random places around the forest from the clouds. Riku saw that the purple lightning formed into a cage as it came closing it. He summons a barrier to block the attack as all the lightning hit Cardin. Riku at first confused as he looked at Cardin who simply gave off a devilishly smile. Cardin shoots bolts of lightning from his mace that disintegrated the tree with its sharp intensity of heat.

Riku melts into the shadows, sliding to another tree to avoid the lightning strike. Cardin shoots the lightning from his mace like a shotgun, it spreads out. Multiple trees get knocked down as some of them ignite in fire causing the grass to ignite around them. Riku groans as he summons water to douse the fire before moving to the side.

"Ballonga!" Riku raises his Keyblade conjuring up a massive orb of energy. It floats to Cardin who tries to use his lightning to explode the ball. However, the orb just explodes launching Cardin in the air before multiple smaller balls of energy surround Cardin exploding. Riku jumps into the air before shooting multiple dark orbs of energy at Cardin, smacking him into the ground with a massive explosion.

(Play Riku's Theme KH2)

Cardin went into an enraged state, yelling out in pain and anger. Riku simply looks at the man in pity, gritting his teeth in anger. "He was a bully that would harass others... But no one should have to suffer punishment as harsh as this."

Riku grips his fist as he looks at Cardin. He was on his hands and knees, the pupils weren't in his eyes. Just pure white. He smashed the ground, hoping to ease the tension of the pain he was experiencing.

"Just a little bit more. I'll save you from this." Braveheart glows with pure white light.

'The Keyblade's light. It can restore the even deepest of darkness.' A phrase came to Riku as he spins around in confusion. 'Find the center of his heart… And bring him back from the darkest of clutches.'

"Who's there?!" Riku yells out before noticing stomps coming towards him. Cardin decided to ditch his mace and just use his hands. Each arm engulfs in darkness, becoming claws. Cardin sliced rapidly, yet had no precision. Riku was able to dodge all of them.

Riku twirls his keyblade before swinging upwards to catch Cardin off guard. Using his speed and momentum, Riku takes his chance to slam his blade downwards, before thrusting his weapon, barely piercing Cardin's armor. He jumps back as Riku holds Braveheart in both hands as he gets into position.

Cardin barely recovers as now he's going more on pure instinct. He charges at Riku swinging his arm with all of his might. Riku felt the wind from the massive charge as it came closer to him. Though he didn't waver. He kept a level head as both of his hands gripped even tighter on Braveheart.

"Yaminoken." Riku's form of the technique, Zantetsuken. A mixture of both darkness and light surrounds Braveheart. Riku breathing steadily came to a soft pace before moving past Cardin in a brief instance, slicing him one time. Cardin looked around confused before suddenly the impact of the attack reached his brain as he flops to the ground, unconscious.

Riku lets out a sigh of relief as he makes his way towards Cardin. The darkness that was consuming Cardin had almost disappeared completely. Riku made sure that Cardin was actually unconscious as the effects of the potion numbness started to die down. His ribs felt agonizing to deal with. Riku plops to the ground, slowly using Curaga to try and numb the pain more.

"I need to go help Roxas and the others… Tsk." Riku grunts in pain. He peeks over to see that during the area where Ruby was defending Sora. "Well… That's good..."

Riku thinks back to the voice that echoed into his head, It wasn't a voice that he was familiar to at all. The voice belonged to an old man, with wisdom behind his words. It felt like his quick teachings provided Riku just the right way to help Cardin from his dark clutches.

"Better than I measured. Guess the boost that I gave Cardy B was a good amount. Ah brilliant." Yami kisses his hand before flicking it in the air. His strategy was going even better than he had realized. He couldn't contain the excitement built up in him. "It's quite beautiful. I've never seen anything like it! Who knew that affecting a man with unpure darkness from a Keyblade of Darkness could have this effect. I was write this down. This is history in the making for future Keyblade wielders. I should try it on more people. OH HOH. That's going to be a lot of fun to try out!"

"It's just one thing. Stop getting all hyper about it." Lily says in disgust. Yami simply ignores her with Orion continuing to play a tune.

"Leave the man be, Lily. He's making successes. Unlike us. He hasn't failed us yet. In fact, it's going better than what his measurements are. The concussion, the Keyblade Master being wounded. A few more things, and there's the possibility that we could just take that goddamn Keychain for ourselves."

"... Fine. He can be happy and all that. But he could be less annoying about it."

"Fair enough," Orion says before looking at the fight between Siris and Roxas. "Now here is a duel that has caught my attention. One who uses white magic. Another who uses…"

Wassup my homies! This is NexusMHX here with another chapter of The Final Piece! I actually had to take a lot of time to create a proper fighting style for Riku. Kingdom Hearts has the tendency for x mashing, with some of the bosses actually having some strategy. I made Riku a more defensive and reaction-based fighter. However, Riku is also known for being smart and can oppress his foes rightly if he has a proper idea in it. But besides that, finding a good way to write a fighting scene was actually quite difficult for me. Especially since it's one whole chapter. But in any case, I hope that you all enjoyed it. If you did, please give this a follow/favorite/comment for more content. This is NexusMHX signing off! Stay Classy!