Ahhh! My story's being noticed! I glomp thee, Emilee for your review, it's much appreciated. As well as yours, Kuramasgirl and Ed. Now look, don't get all excited because I updated within like…a week or something. I have exams next week so I'm probably going to be busy studying (Lie…) but I'll try to write as much as I can to make my undying fans happy (feels like she's got a horde of fans even though it's not that many) Anyways, here's chapter 3, hope you like. As always, please review and tell me what you think! Oh, and Brooke, FYI, I changed some stuff after you read it so you might want to just glance back over it for the changes. Enjoy!


Chapter 3: Deep in Our Hearts

And there they were, waiting. It seemed as if they knew every way of escape and blocked them all. Where were these Heartless coming from anyways? There just seemed to be no end to them. Aerith had given up hope now. No matter how hard they tried, they just couldn't get away from these monsters. But just then, as all seemed lost, the Heartless looked around at each other then walked away, almost as if they were disappointed. Sora and Aerith both stared in bewilderment. They had just walked right into the hands of the Heartless and they were just walking away now? But why?

Aerith was the first to get her wits about her and she looked down at Sora, "We should keep going. The others will be waiting for us." Sora returned her look, his own expression one of worry.

"But, what about Riku?" Aerith gave him a kind smile and he almost felt a little better….Almost.

"Don't worry, I'm sure he'll be there waiting too. He can handle things." He gave her a not-so-real smile and nodded. Her words couldn't quell the anxious feeling in his heart. They started on their way to Cid's shop.


There was a smirk on his face as he looked over the sea of writhing black creatures surrounding him. It was time for his revenge. Riku wouldn't let the darkness get away with what it made him do to Sora and these Heartless would be the victims of his pay back.

Their stare was rather unnerving though. He felt frozen by their piercing gaze. They took small steps in towards Riku until they were right at his feet. But they didn't attack, just stared like begging dogs. Riku wished he could have shoved the monsters away from him; something about them sent a shiver down his spine, but nothing worked, he couldn't move. Then a soft, deep voice echoed through the district.

"Give in to the darkness. Receive its invincible strength." Riku broke from his frozen trance as his head flipped around, searching for the source of this voice.

"Who's there?" He commanded, forgetting about the Heartless. The creatures at his feet started clawing at his legs while others in the mammoth crowd leapt towards him. Riku took out the few in front of him with the Soul Eater but couldn't turn around fast enough to prevent the ones behind him from latching onto his back. He stumbled forward from their force and the Heartless grabbed his hands, pulling him to the concrete.

"Open you heart to darkness once again." The voice beckoned again. Riku refused to obey this command though. The Heartless has started to pile on top of him, but somehow he still managed to bring his feet under himself. The Soul Eater was still in his hand, so he gripped it tightly and cut through the Heartless in front of him, knocking most of the ones on his back off in the process.

"Never!" Riku shouted as he stood back up and slashed at the creatures that had finally started to fight back. He muttered under his breath, "I have a promise to keep." As if telling this mysterious voice, but reminding himself of that as well.


"It's been too long. He would have been here by now." Sora cried, giving a pleading look to his six companions. Aerith had been right, when they arrived at Cid's shop everyone was already there. Everyone but Riku, that is. Sora didn't want to go along with Riku's plan in the first place and it was bad enough he had to leave him behind, but the fact that him and Aerith hadn't been attacked, or even followed, by a single Heartless made that anxious feeling in his stomach much worse.

"It's too dangerous, we're not going back." Leon said coldly, not even looking at the pathetic excuse for a Keybearer pleading before him.

"But, what if he's hurt and needs help?" There was no answer; nobody would even look at him now. He could tell Donald, Goofy, and Aerith wanted to help him, he could see it on their faces, but they just didn't have the courage to go against what the others said.

"We can't just leave him!" Still nothing. Sora couldn't believe this. Did no one but him care if Riku lived or not? He growled angrily and the next moment he was out the door with the Keyblade in his hand.


No matter how many Heartless he destroyed, they were simply replaced by another. He would tire long before their numbers even seemed to get smaller. And if knowing that fact wasn't enough, this mysterious voice continued to tell him to surrender his soul to the Heartless and become like them, which didn't sound too pleasant to Riku at all.

"Why do you continue to deny that which you desire the most?" Riku hissed angrily. He didn't desire the darkness; he didn't need it. But a smile found its way onto his face, he could sense aggravation in that last comment. It would seem that the voice was getting just as tired of repeating itself as he was of listening to it.

"Just shut up already." Riku replied, still hacking away at the Heartless, which was starting to take it toll on his strength. The air suddenly filled with a wave of tension and the creatures cowered away from Riku. He would have scoffed over-confidently at this had the ground not suddenly turned into whirlpools of black, blue and purple colors. This looked all too familiar, much too alike to that night back on Destiny Islands.

"If you insist on resisting, then I will force you to submit." The voice growled, not sounding in the least bit happy with the decision it had to come to. Shadowy tendrils, which looked something like mist, began to rise from the mixing colors. This wasn't any smog though, because when the dark wisps swiftly lashed out at Riku they were obviously solid enough to wrap around him. He soon found himself constrained, these thing clinging to his wrists, ankles, and waist as well as his neck. He tried to pull against the tendrils, but when he did they tightened and he was starting to find it hard to breathe after a while, so he was forced to his hands and knees.

"What are you doing?" Riku shouted, taken back by the panicked tone in his voice. Was he afraid of the darkness, or maybe what might happen once it took control again? The wispy shadows began to gather together and started wrapping around him; around his arms, his face, everywhere. The voice laughed, a cold, empty laugh that chilled Riku to the bone. He couldn't take any more, he was just too…. scared. He clenched his eyes shut and hoped that it would end soon.


Sora threw open the door to the Second District a most determined look on his face as he ran down the stairs into the square. There wasn't a single Heartless in sight and he hoped beyond hope that everything was okay. He turned the ally that lead to the Third District and froze dead in his tracks. There was a heap of writhing black tentacles lying in his path. They seemed to be gathering and then melding as if trying to take a shape.

Sora stepped back as this thing began to rise and he grabbed the Keyblade in both hands. This lump did actually start to form something and when it was done it resembled a dog of sorts. One made of melting black wax that it for it dripped blobs of darkness and where ever it stepped it left behind dark puddles. It was obvious this creature was a Heartless because in spite of the oozing forehead it was on, the red outlined heart that almost every Heartless bore was visible. The creature turned towards Sora and he was entranced by the pair of lucid blue points staring at him, so unlike the golden ones of a normal Heartless.

The creature's lip curled back into a snarl and a low growl started in its throat. It began to take slow, almost unwilling, it seemed to Sora, steps towards him. Sora followed its lead and for every cautious step it took towards him, he took one step back. The Heartless suddenly rushed at him and he had just enough time to spin out of its line of attack. In doing so though, he caused himself to lose his balance, giving the Heartless a perfect opportunity. The creature's jaws clamped down on his arm and Sora winced, expecting pain to rush through him. But there was none. Instead, his arm felt very cold and he could tell it was on the verge of becoming numb.

Sora tried to pull his arm out of the creature's mouth, but this resulted in it tossing its head, which actually caused sharp pings of pain throughout his arm. Sora growled softly to himself and looked into the Heartless' eyes, hoping to maybe intimidate it with a stern glare. His gaze began to soften though as he stared into those unnatural eyes. If this had been any other Heartless, he would have found those eyes to be empty and devoid of any emotion. But this wasn't any other Heartless and its eyes weren't missing emotion, Sora caught glimpses of sorrow and regret and fear in the blue lights.

It was then, staring into those eyes, that Sora realized what it was he was fighting. It wasn't some kind of new Heartless. In fact, it wasn't something new at all; he had fought against it many times before. Usually as a friend, but all too recently an enemy.

"Riku!" Sora cried, finally realizing that this Heartless was his childhood friend. The Heartless jerked its head at Sora's sudden outburst, obviously startled. Sora winced but knew he had to grin and bare it if he wanted to get Riku back. Though, he wasn't sure how he knew it was Riku. Something deep within his heart told him and that was all he needed.

He dropped the Keyblade and slowly raised his hand towards the Heartless' snout. The Heartless stepped back defensively to this, which only ended up dragging Sora along with it. Though the creature's movements were causing Sora a lot of pain, he didn't stop moving his hand towards its snout until he was touching its strange, melting skin.

"Riku, please wake up." He muttered, looking up at it with a kind smile, trying to hide the pain he was feeling. The creature began to growl and it arched its back up, continuing to try and move away from Sora. He let his head fall gently against the Heartless' nose, which only intensified its growls, but at least it had stopped moving back.

"I know you're there, Riku. You have to come back, me and Kairi still need you to protect us." The growls stopped and Sora found himself sitting on the ground, Riku lying in front of him curled into a tight ball and shivering.

"Riku?" Sora muttered as he reached out to touch Riku's arm. He gasped as his hand fell onto Riku's bare skin. What had happened? Riku was so cold and Sora realized that he could clearly see Riku's breath as white puffs of mist. Sora felt something grab his wrist suddenly and Riku's eyes shot open. Sora looked down at him worriedly.

"Are you alright?" Sora asked, but he didn't get a response. After he figured out where he was and whose wrist he was holding, Riku's panicked look faded, but it was replaced with a more serious, sorrowful one. He started to pull Sora closer to him by his wrist, but then he just tackled him into a tight embrace. Sora was just so warm and he was so cold, he couldn't help it. Besides, the memory of the darkness taking over him was all too fresh in his mind. He needed to do something to steady himself and hugging Sora seemed to be working. Sora just sat there, unsure of what to do and a confused and startled look on his ever-so-slightly-blushing face.

Riku glanced around once he seemed to have stopped shivering. His gaze fell on the Keyblade still lying on the ground and, though he couldn't remember anything after the darkness took over, he somehow knew what had happened. He looked away from the Keybalde and buried his face into Sora's shirt,

"I'm sorry." Even though Riku whispered this and his voice was muffled by his shirt, Sora still heard him and he looked down at the top of Riku's head questioningly,

"For what? You didn't do anything." Sora said with a soft smile. He didn't blame Riku for anything; it was all the darkness that had done those things.

"I….I broke my promise. I couldn't protect you." Riku clenched his eyes and pulled Sora into an even tighter embrace, which made the other boy rather uncomfortable. He was trying so hard not to cry at his failure, but he knew that if he pulled away right now the front of Sora's shirt would be damp. Why did this have to happen? And not just once, but twice. Was it possible for Riku to keep his promise?

Sora put his hands on Riku's shoulders and pushed him away. At first Riku was afraid to look at Sora, but when he did look up he saw that Sora had that stupid smile on his face and, like usual, Riku couldn't help but smirk back. Sora started to say something, but was cut off by a strange sound behind him. Both boys turned to look at the fountain in the square. A very large black spot was sitting in front of and it soon something began to emerge from it. It didn't take long for Sora to recognize the thing coming from the black spot as a Darkside.

He turned back to Riku only to find him already standing and the Soul Eater in his hands.

"You go on and head for Cid's shop. Everyone's waiting, right?" Sora jumped up and grabbed the Keyblade, then marched right back over to Riku's side.

"No way! I'm not leaving you behind again. And besides, if you get to make a promise the so do I and I'm going to promise to always be there when you need me, righting right by your side." Sora said confidently, scowling at Riku. He was about to protest, but something about Sora's face made him smile and he just shook his head.

"Alright then, but my promise comes before yours, so if you get into trouble I get to push you out of the way." Sora grinned and then the two looked at the Darkside with serious, determined faces and charged in to take it down.


"It's no use, the door's not coming open." Donald whined, falling down onto the ground. Everyone had pitched in to try and open the door to the Second District so that they could follow Sora, but somehow it had been locked of jammed or something. Yuffie, Aerith, and Cid had gone to check the Third District door, but they must not have been having any luck either because they were still there.

"I told that kid it was dangerous, it's his own fault if he dies." Leon muttered as he leaned against the wall net to the door. Goofy, who was propped up against the door and panting, looked up at him angrily.

"How can you say that? Sora's you friend, you should care whether he dies of not." Goofy suddenly fell back as the door opened against his weight. Leon and Donald glanced around the door and saw something that made everyone breathe a sight of relief.

Sora and Riku were walking towards the door, leaning against each other for support. The battle against that Darkside had been difficult and they did walk out of it looking a little worse for ware, but at least they were alive. Sora grinned and waved to everyone and Riku smirked.

"Hey, what took you guys so long, the party's over." Sora said as Yuffie, Aerith and Cid, who had obviously gotten though the Third District door, came running towards them, shouting something he couldn't understand. Leon just shook his head and Donald and Goof ran up to Sora, nearly knocking him over at they showered him with relived hugs like it was the last time they'd ever see him again.


I'm so sorry for all the rulers, but it was the only wayI could figure out how to seperate all the different parts. Now, I'm just a little curious....that part with Riku and the dark…er, wisp things; did that seem a little….well, maybe kinky, to anyone? Or is it just me? (Laughs nervously) anyways, please do review; I do have to say that I think this is the best chapter so far. Get a little RikuXSora fluffyness…not really, but I think so! So there!