Riku was looking out of the Highwind, stunned. The town called Salom was in ruins. Even from thousands of feet up, Riku's eyes could see that all of the Heartless were centered at one place.
"Hey Shadow, could you hand me some binoculars or something?" Riku squinted, trying to see why all of the Heartless were in one area.
"Hold on," the ninja replied. He walked over to a closet filled with everything useful, from ropes to toilet paper.
Shadow found some binoculars and brought them to Riku. He took them, looked toward the mass of Heartless and gasped. There she was. The girl for whom he had braved the darkness. The girl who's love he had wanted so much, he betrayed his best friend.
"Kairi," he whispered. "I'm coming." He went toward the door only to find Cloud standing there with his arms folded.
"Move," Riku said.
"What are you planning to do?" Cloud wondered aloud. "You're not just gonna jump off the plane to save that girl?"
"I'll do what I have to do…" Riku summoned his keyblade. "Please move."
Yuyami, who had been watching the scene, got up and walked toward Riku. His body was tensed, ready for an attack if the boy got desperate.
"Relax," he said smiling. "You can't just do something crazy to help her. You gotta think with your brain and not your heart."
Riku shook his head, "No, thinking with my brain has only taken me into the darkness. This time…I'll fight with my heart."
Suddenly, he sprinted toward the door. Cloud tried to step in front of him, but was swept aside by the force of the keyblade. Riku opened the hatch and jumped out to help his friend.
"Damn!!" Yuyami looked out of the hatch and smiled. "Well, I guess I would look like wimp if I didn't jump." He took a deep breath and stepped out into the void.
Cloud was speechless. Those kids just jumped out of the plane like it was fun. He looked toward the others and was surprised. Shadow was shouldering a parachute pack and walking toward the hatch. He looked turned toward them and leaned back into the outside.
Vincent smirked and his eyes began to glow. His body began to radiate a red light and Cloud covered his eyes, knowing what would come next. When the light dispersed, Cloud saw the monster known as Chaos standing in Vincent's place. It flexed and walked toward the door with a smirk still on its face. It spread its wings and jumped out of the plane.
"What the #$^@! Is everybody $&@%@%* crazy around here!!!" Cid came striding from the cockpit, yelling. "What are we doing, committing suicide or somethin!?
Cloud smiled and walked toward the door, a black wing sprouted from his left shoulder. "We gotta go save Riku's girlfriend," he said before jumping out.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
This is it, Kairi thought. She watched as the huge foot came down toward her. At least I tried to find you, Sora. I…I love you.
She closed her eyes and tensed as the foot came inches within her face. When nothing happened, she opened one eye and then the other. She saw that the Darkside was gone and dark smoke was left behind. She saw a figure walking form the black mist and her heart stopped. It can't be, she thought. It can't be him.
"Hey, you okay." The brunet smiled and held out his hand. "Don't worry, you can rest now. I'll take care of the rest." He held the Kingdom Key in the other hand.
Kairi ignored the outstretched hand and hugged him, sobbing. "Sora…" she cried. "I've missed you so much!!!"
The boy frowned and held Kairi's shoulders. "How do you know my name? Have we met before?"
"What…?" Kairi wiped
her tears away and shook her head.
"What are you talking about? I'm
Kairi."
The boy scratched his head. "Um, I don't know anybody named Kairi."
"That can't be…" Kairi stood up with difficulty.
"Here I'll heal your wounds." Sora closed his eyes and she felt her physical pain being lifted away, the pain in her heart remained. "Look we'll talk later. I gotta help your friend."
"I, I'll help her. You take out the Heartless."
"Fine," he nodded and ran toward the Darksides.
Kairi shook off her worries and ran up the stairs of the building Fayne had fallen onto. On her way up, she took the ether she got, out of her pocket, and downed it. She got to the roof and saw Fayne there, struggling to get up.
"Hold on. Just be still for a second." Kairi used Curaga to heal her friend and helped her up. "How do you feel?"
"Fine now." Fayne looked over the building and saw Sora taking on the Darksides. "Who's the stud?"
Kairi swallowed and looked at him. "We have to help him."
Suddenly Fayne looked up into the sky and frowned. "What the hell?" she muttered.
Kairi looked up too and her eyes widened. Five figures were dropping from a huge gummi ship. In the lead was a silver- headed guy with a black coat. She squinted. "Riku…" Kairi whispered.
Riku slammed into one of the Darksides with explosive force. Using the Heartless as a cushion, Riku fell to the ground without a scratch. He looked and saw a boy fighting two Darksides at once. "What the…?" he muttered. "Sora?"
Yuyami had used Aeroga to break his fall and was now running toward Sora to give his assistance in the destruction of the Heartless. Cloud and Chaos were using their airborne capabilities to swipe at the Darksides and fly away continuously. Shadow had landed on top of a building and began running down it, destroying Heartless that were sprouting from the wall.
"Sora!!!" Riku shouted, running toward him. "Sora, are you alright?"
Sora's keyblade began to emit a yellow glow as he prepared to use Ars Arcanum. "How do you people know me?" he asked suspiciously. "I've never met any of you in my life." He jumped toward the Darkside and began to hack away at its chest.
Riku shook his head and sent a green sickle of energy directly at the other Darkside's neck. It disappeared in a flash of smoke almost the same time the other was destroyed. Sensing that their main attack force was destroyed, the Neo-Heartless retreated into the shadows.
"Riku!!!" Kairi ran toward him, waving.
"Kairi." Riku smiled.
She hugged him and said, "How have you been?"
"Alright I guess."
Sora came walking up with his keyblade in hand. "Okay, now that that's over, could someone tell me what's going on?"
Kairi looked at Riku as the others began to crowd around to listen. "Sora, you really don't remember anything?"
The brunet shook his head and shouldered the Kingdom
Key. "No, I don't have any memories of
anything. All I remember is darkness."
Riku nodded. "This must have happened to you while you were in Oblivion."
"Oblivion?" Kairi asked.
Riku told his story of how Ansem appeared and sent Sora into
the dark void. "I'm sorry I couldn't
save you, Sora. The darkness was too
powerful."
Sora shook his head. "Um, I don't really know if I believe you or not. How do I know that this isn't some kind of trap set for me."
Riku smiled and held up his hand. "Did you ever wonder why you were missing a glove?" Riku took off the white glove and threw it to Sora. The brunet caught it and compared it to his own. Exact match. He pulled the glove over his hand and smiled.
"Well, I guess we have a lot of catching up to do."
"Why don't we go back to the ship? Cid is waiting." Cloud suggested.
Sora stared at the blond. "Who are you?"
"Oh, this is Cloud. The ninja is Shadow." Riku gestured toward Vincent who had reverted back to human form. "This is Vincent, and the other keyblade master is Yuyami."
"Oh, this is another keyblade master. Her name is Fayne." Kairi added.
"Hey." Fayne raised her hand in a two-finger wave.
This is nice…
Sora looked around. Was he hearing things now? He wouldn't disbelieve it with all of the crazy things that began happening.
Not hearing things…
"What…?" Sora muttered.
Riku frowned. "Hey Sora, what's wrong?"
Everything…
"Nothing…"
"Well come on let's go, the others already started walking." Kairi said.
Yuyami looked at her and touched her shoulder. "Kairi, I'm sorry…"
"Don't worry about it, it's okay."
It's not okay…
"Stop…" Sora whispered.
Hahaha, here I come…
"No."
"Hey Sora, snap out of it." Riku looked at the brunet. "Are you sure you're okay?"
"He's coming." Sora gripped his keyblade.
"Wha-" Riku was interrupted by an explosion of dark energy that engulfed them but did them no harm. Instead, it formed some kind of barrier around them that kept them in, and others out.
"What's going on!?" Kairi shouted, summoning her keyblade once again.
"I don't know, but whatever it is, it's about to get crushed." Fayne tensed, waiting.
Yuyami swung his keyblades. "Be on your guard," he warned.
A dark hole materialized in the ground and out of it rose a sinister looking boy. He looked to be about their age and had coal-black hair, and blood-red eyes. He was clothed in a trench coat, pants, sweater, and boots, all of which were black. He smiled and looked to the outside of his barrier. Cloud and the others were trying to get in, but weren't succeeding.
"They're a persistent bunch, aren't they?" he asked.
"You must be that Ansem guy!!" Sora shouted.
"Hahaha. Please, don't ever refer to me as that failure, Ansem." The boy ran a finger through his hair. "I hail from a higher plane of existence."
"Who are you?" Yuyami asked quietly. He felt a terrifying power within this dark boy and was truly afraid for the first time in years.
"Hmm. Over the centuries, I have acquired many different names. The dark one, the destroyer, Armageddon…the list goes on." He chuckled. "One that hasn't quite caught on is 'the ultimate dark force'." He smiled at Yuyami. "For now, just call me Seryl. It's what my mother used to call me before I killed her."
"What?" Kairi gasped. "You killed your own mother?"
Seryl shrugged. "It was to happen in the near future anyway, I just quickened the pace."
"Look, let's do some math." Riku said. "There're five of us, and one of you. That means that the chances of you getting your butt kicked are pretty high."
"I think your arithmetic is a little off…" Seryl closed his eyes and began to whisper.
"Stop!!!" Sora fell to the ground holding his head. "Leave me alone!!!"
"Riku, do something!" Kairi was panicked, seeing Sora in so much pain.
Riku tried to walk forward, but was stopped by Sora. "Don't worry I'm okay, now." He smiled and swung his keyblade at Riku's jaw. The blow connected and sent him flying into a building where he lie motionless.
"Riku!!!" Kairi screamed.
Fayne rushed toward Sora, who's back was turned, and swung her keyblade at him. Instead of connecting with Sora's back, it clanged against a wicked scythe wielded by Seryl. Fayne changed her attack and began to swing at the boy instead. Yuyami jumped in also and began swinging his two keyblades at Seryl. The dark one fended off the two keyblade masters with ease and began to launch a powerful attack of his own.
Kairi looked at the boy being controlled by Seryl. His eyes emitted the same blood-red glow as his master. "You're not Sora. I don't know who you are, but you're not Sora!!!" She screamed as she ran forward to attack her one true love.
