Chapter IV
"The Keyblade Master?!" the voice rang angrily through the stone room. "He's here, in OUR realm?!"
"Yes, Lord Teluha." Juli responded softly, her head bowed and her gaze refusing to meet his.
"And he is still ALIVE?!"
The girl winced at the shout, her eyes falling closed. "My Lord, it was not my responsibility to destroy the Keyblade Master."
"No," he rumbled in response. "You are quite right, Julian. It was your sister's job to take care of things above, and she shall suffer for her failure."
Juli frowned at this, her eyes opening to a silted point.
"You, however, are to take care of everything down here, and the fact that you have seen the Kayblade Master, and he still lives for you did not dispose of him, is highly unforgivable!" Teluha's voice rose as he spoke into yet another yell.
"But my Lord," Juli's head lifted as the man before her stood. "The Princess! Her being in our captive-"
"Makes him weak!" he roared in response, forcing Juli to wince once again. "I can see that you and Atari are unable to fulfill the simplest of tasks that I give the two of you. I shall just have to try something new." he extended a skinny hand, snapping long, bone-like fingers.
From the shadows melted a cloaked form, one which was not much taller then Juli. The face was dark, no light penetrating to help with identification, the cloak nearly floor flowing like all the others. A gloved hand lifted to the figure's chest, the body then bent into a respective bow.
"You know your orders." Teluha practically purred in delight. "Go, carry them out, and do not disappoint me."
The figure lifted and nodded, then turned on a heel and exited from the chamber in smooth strides.
"As for you," Juli flinched as Teluha's voice took a sharp turn to it. "Gather Atari and get back into this chamber. You've new orders to carry out."
Swallowing the lump that had so suddenly decided to take residence in her throat, Juli nodded. "Yes, my Lord." she stood and quickly exited without a second glance backwards.
'Master Riku...' Pretender's mental voice was soft. 'Master Riku...Wake up. You're about to-'
A hard blow to the arm forced the had-been sleeping Riku to jolt awake in alarm. His hand went instinctively to Pretender and drew him up, swinging the Keyblade hard.
"Hey, hey!" came Sora's familiar voice in protest. "Watch where you're swinging that thing!"
Riku clutched his Keyblade tightly, panting slightly due to the sudden awakening he had just witnessed.
"Its called Decafe, Riku. Drink it sometime."
'I say,' Avenger snickered. 'Is your Master always this jumpy, Pretender?'
'Shut up, Twig.' Pretender snapped in response.
"Alright you two, none of that." Sora snorted. "Especially not first thing in the morning."
"What time is it?" Riku asked groggily.
"No idea." Sora replied. "This place has no real day or night you know, but I figured that since the streets are a lighter grey then they were about three or four hours ago, it must be morning."
Riku groaned softly as he shifted his position. A chair was not his favorite place to sleep, but it was one he was definitely getting used to. His grip on the Keyblade relaxed and he lifted his free hand to his face, pulling the blindfold away from his eyes to rub them.
"Whoa..." Sora took a step forward.
"What?" Riku blinked his visionless eyes slowly, listening as Sora took another timid step forward.
"Your eyes..."
"What about them?" he arched an eyebrow at this.
"They glow..." Sora sounded almost unbelieving as he spoke these words.
Riku felt the other lean forward for a better look and leaned back himself. "Dang, Sora, back off."
Sora wrenched back at the other's sudden move. "I'm sorry, that's just so...so strange."
Yeah well..." Riku mumbled in response, tying the blindfold back around his head.
"Why do they do that?" Sora questioned, his tone now calmer then it had been, but still held that curious edge to it.
"Do what?" Riku turned his head in the other's direction again.
"Don't give me that, why do your eyes glow, Riku?"
He paused for a moment. In all actuality, he himself wasn't sure why his eyes did what they did. Of course, he couldn't see them to really describe their effect, but he really didn't think that him being able to see his own eyes or not was really a big deal at the moment.
"And once again, you've become a Space Case." Sora sighed, shaking his head.
"What are we going to do about Kairi?" Riku finally spoke, wanting to change the subject to anything else in anyway possible.
"I don't know." Sora again sighed. "Maybe she'll just turn up somewhere...Who knows?"
A loud explosion drew both's attention to the window.
"Shit." Riku frowned as he sprung to his fee. "C'mon, Sora! We'll discuss Kairi later!"
The two skidded out the room's door, making their way quickly down the stairs. Oddly enough, Riku did this easily, but the lack of questions from his best friend meant that this matter concerned Sora far more then it did himself.
'Typical.' he thought, tightening his grip on Pretender. 'Sora the Hero to the rescue.' he rolled his eyes behind the blindfold at that thought.
The two reached the bottom floor in sync, their stepped matching up as they headed for the outside domain.
"Wait," Riku ground to a halt, his head turning to face nearly every direction it could without him moving his body.
"What?" Sora frowned, having stopped just ahead of the other.
"This is stupid, we're rushing in head first into something we know absolutely nothing about."
Sora thought about this for a moment. "Which is normal for us." he finally responded, sounding a bit impatient.
"Which is why we ended up in bed for days at a time waiting injuries to heal themselves up." Riku snorted in response. "Go to the window and look, WITHOUT being seen."
Sora groaned at this, but did as he was told.
"Well?"
"There's nothing out there..." Sora took a step back. "That is so weird, I mean, we just-"
Another explosion blew, sending both boys rather rudely from the building's premises, via a crumbling wooden wall. Riku pushed himself to his feet with a grunt of pain. He flexed his hand and stopped. Pretender had been separated from his hand.
"Riku! behind you!" Sora bellowed.
With a quick turn, Riku avoided an attempted attack. The air that brushed against his face as he leaned back told him that he'd barely been missed. He spin again at the crinkling of material, hoping he'd managed himself out of harm's way. A sharp blow to the shoulder convinced him other wise.
"Sora! What are you doing out there?!"
"I'm BUSY!" came the grunted reply.
'My Master is currently unavailable right now,' Avenger mused. 'Please shut up and deal with your OWN problem!'
"Ugh!" was all Riku could say in response to the other's Keyblade.
'Master Riku, I really MUST insist that you call me to your hand before I am carted off by some filthy Heartless!'
Again Riku's hand flexed, Pretender appearing in it seconds later. He twisted the Keyblade around and brought it to a defensive hold in front of him. The offending person lunged again, colliding a set of weapons with Riku's, ones he himself couldn't place.
"Keyblade Master." it hissed and used the fact that its weapons and Riku's were locked to flip itself over Riku's head to get to Sora.
"Sora!" Riku called, spinning just as a frey of Heartless swarmed his way.
He couldn't tell now if Sora had heard him in time or not, but a fresh sense of panic washed over him like a wave when there was no response from the younger boy. He swung his Keyblade, slashing and hacking through the masses. The Heartless kept swarming, their numbers seeming to come out of no where.
"Holy." the command for the spell echoed through the area.
Everything seemed to stop. The Heartless froze in place, Riku's Keyblade stopped mid-swing, even his breathing seemed to have ceased. Then, as if it had all been sped back up, a shockwave of energy shot through the street, forcing Riku to his knees, gripping his head. The pressure of the spell impacted with the sound of a bomb being dropped, its effect incinerating the Heartless instantly.
Once able to breathe correctly again, Riku's head lifted slowly. He reached a hand for his chest, as if checking to make sure he was, in fact, alright before he pushed himself to his feet.
"Sora?!" he called, his voice etched with panic.
"He lives." came the soft reply. "The spell does not kill those True of Heart."
He started at this. It didn't harm those True of Heart? Then why hadn't he been killed?
"The Unknown?!" he gasped, turning his body rigidly in every direction.
"Gone. Called back to Teluha."
"Who?" Riku had turned back to the other.
At that point, Sora groaned, obviously coming to." What-" he gasped and Riku heard him scramble to his feet. "You! What are you doing here?!"
"Saving your life." came the smooth response.
"Why?" Sora snapped. "What would your Master say?"
"I HAVE no Master!" the other snapped back.
"S'that so? What happened, Atari?" Sora's tone was venomous. "Get tired of being on the losing side?"
"The last time I checked, Keyblade Master, they ARE the winning side. Your's is losing, badly I might add."
"Alright!" Riku interrupted before Sora could retort. "What's going on and WHY, Atari, did you save our skins?"
"I need your help." came the growled reply.
Sora snorted at this. "Why should we help you?"
"Because if you don't want to end up killing your precious Princess the next time you meet, you'll help me."
"What?" Riku's face scrunched in confusion.
Atari sighed. "We've much to talk about. IF you say you'll help me, I'll explain."
Riku hesitated at this point. He didn't know what to do or say in response now.
"Riku," Sora sounded surprised. "You can't honestly be considering this." Riku didn't respond. "Riku! She's out enemy!"
"Then why did she risk her neck and probably her life to save us?"
Sora didn't respond this time.
With a deep sigh, Riku turned in Atari's direction again. "Fine, we'll help you."
"Wonderful. We-"
"IF," Riku continued. "You help us get Kairi back." he stuck his hand out to shake and confirm their deal.
It seemed to take a few, very drawn out moments for Atari to decide on this, but after what seemed to be careful consideration on her part, his hand was gripped firmly and shook.
"Great, where do we start?" Riku asked with a half hearted grin pressed to his lip, ignoring Sora's groan from behind him.
"With the problem." came Atari's calm seeming response.
((Well, well...Lookie there. I finally finished it....S'about damn time. -rubs the back of her neck- It's a lot of writing...I do it all on note book paper first THEN I type it all up! So its a lot of work to get this thing done! Oi...By the way, this whole story is a brand new attempt. I've shifted my writing style for it. This isn't something I normally do. So! With that said...We'll start in on the NEXT chapter...))