AN: Updating after forever. Thanks for the newest reviews, they move me to write. If there are things in here that clash with the game, I'm very sorry, I try to avoid it, but I don't always remember everything.


Disclaimer: Sadly, its not mine.



Through These Eyes

Chapter Four

Could've Been Magic



"Now I'll follow my own way,

And I'll live on to another damn day

Freedom carries sacrifice,

remember when this was my life.

-Life of my Own, Three Doors Down



The keyblade was weak. Its gold color dull and the normally warm metal cooling rapidly.

Sora didn't have time to worry about it. The fire monster had, as hoped, turned on him, and it was all he could do to keep it from catching him with those spiked hands and sending him flying across the cave.

The keyblade flickered, failing to block the next blow. Sora fell back and crab crawled desperately away. The heatless loomed above him, pulling back one heavy arm for a killing blow. Sora held up the keyblade, a thin and faulty barrier between him and destruction. He focused his power into it, watching with wide eyes in the time-slowed world of impending death as it brightened, responding. It had to hold. It had to hold. He closed his eyes.

The blow never fell. Instead there was a horrible high pitched shriek followed by a grunting moan. Sora cracked an eye.

The red headed Ari, reluctant evil king destroyer, stood behind the dying heartless with a fire-laced keyblade in his bleeding hands.

He had powered the already lethal weapon with Blaze Sword.

Ari himself did not know exactly what had happened. He knew they had been fighting, and losing. That a boy had run into the cave, screaming a challenge to the monster and holding what looked to be a giant key. And losing. Ari hadn't known what to do, there he was, standing, watching as their savior fell back. Ari watched, holding a virtually worthless sword and with no plan to save the innocent who had tried to help them.

It was then that the key had formed in his hands, appearing out of thin air, replacing his previous weapon.

The rest had been instinct. He swallowed, watching with rapidly glazing eyes as the giant writhed on the ground, shrieking, before falling still and dissolving into darkness.

Sora picked himself up, eyes locked on the newly revealed keyblade master. He couldn't squash the spark of jealous. But before he had the chance to question the boy, his forgotten companion, the red eyed Princess Marlene, had run full tilt, skirts lifted to her knees, into the cave and wrapped her arms around Ari.

The boy did the only thing he could in such a situation.

He fainted.

~~~~~~~~

Darkness.

Darkness was easy. It was merely a lack of illumination. No hardship, no struggle, just an unending blackness.

No, it was the light that was difficult. Light had to be made and protected. It could be smothered, hidden, and destroyed. But it could also be created, in a way that darkness never could. Just one spark could set a city ablaze, or a soul.

Riku was in the dark.

And he couldn't find the light.

More importantly though, he couldn't breathe.

He was being slowly crushed, huge claws digging ever deeper into his chest as the pressure increased. His eyes were still open, but dull and glazed. His hands clung loosely to the lizard's leg, but he had given up on pushing it away.

Elena paused in the destroyed door way. She lived two floors down, and had both heard and felt the dragon's entrance. She watched as the beast reared up for a moment before slamming down again, weight crashing onto Riku's broken body. The silver haired teenager rocked with the impact, gasping in pain. Blood dripped from his mouth.

She didn't know what to do. She didn't have a weapon and couldn't remember her spells. Desperate, without thinking, she ran into the bedroom... To deliver a hard kick to the lizard's tail.

Its eyes widened, and it reared again, twisting its head around to look at her. It kicked back, huge clawed foot sweeping her off the floor and into the far wall, watching as she slid down it, unconscious.

Its head swayed on as it hissed and turned its attention back to the boy beneath its feet.

Who wasn't breathing.

~~~~~~~~

Reno was not a hero. He didn't want to be a hero. Hadn't wanted to be a hero since he was five years old and playing in the concrete garden outside his father's work.

Still, he was loyal, and he was brave, in a cruel street-wise way, and he didn't run away when another Turk was in trouble. He would have sacrificed the boy, he didn't really like the kid, didn't really trust the kid, and he was pretty damn sure this sudden attack of the reptilian kind was the ever enigmatic Riku's fault, but he couldn't abandon Elena.

Damn his morality.

He thumbed the mag rod to full power, enough voltage to fry a herd of chocobo.

"Beat it, Gex." He cast Thunder and the electricity arced from his nightstick to pop and sizzle on the dragon's wing.

It swung around mid hiss, surprised and hurt, its huge tail crashed against the wood flooring and the plaster walls cracked. The shock wave knocked Reno off his feet.

Outside the storm raged, wind dashing rain and hail through the wide hole in the building.

The mag rod glowed, and another bolt of lighting danced across the lizard's sensitive wings.

Enraged the dragon twisted its body around, Riku rolling bonelessly beneath its feet as it turned. Its bulk crashed through one of the remaining walls. Its claws dug into the floorboards and its head lowered threateningly. Reno cast Thundagra.

It breathed fire.

~~~~~~~~

Light flashed through the windows, making shapes on the wall.

Black hands gripped glittering gold, glittering gold that changed to silver under the new touch.

Lighting struck outside, filling the room with light and casting shadows on the wall.

~~~~~~~~

"I don't want it."

Ari sat on the ground, keyblade between his feet. Sora sat across from him, peering up into his face. The princess was at his side, hand on his shoulder. "I don't want it."

"Are you sure? I mean, it's yours, I don't even know if it'll go with me." He was sitting cross legged on the dusty earth, head cocked to the side, and a chicken pecking absently at his clothes. He brushed it away. Where the hell had all the dumb birds come from anyway?

"I'm sure. I don't want it."

The princess rolled her eyes, she had already tried to convince her reluctant hero to keep the odd weapon, but he would have none of it. "Just take it Sora."

The brown haired boy shrugged and picked up Ari's keyblade. It was lighter than his own and had a weird cartoony look to it. "Now, princess, you said that if I helped you, you could show me where the keyhole is?"

"Yes. So I did."

~~~~~~~~

It felt like liquid metal flowing in his hand. It was cool, soothing, but full of an icy power. It felt like his sword.

It felt like his magic.

It felt like grim determination, strength and never ending life. Drink of me and you shall live forever.

It felt like his life.

But most of all, most of all, it felt absolutely nothing like Sora's. Nothing like love.

He stood up, lurching elegantly to his feet, metal boots scraping against the cracked floor.

Blood-streaked silver fell across his eyes and he smiled. Smirked in the face of the dragon.

His hand was tight on the icy silver keyblade that wasn't his, but had always been a part of him.

Lizard died in the light of Ragnarok, its crushed heartless anger and hopeless love leaving nothing but steam in the damp air.

~~~~~~~~

When Elena came to she was lying on a clean comfortable bed that was most defiantly not her own. She sat up, feeling slightly dizzy, and looked around. The walls were bare white, nondescript.

"Hey, you're awake; I thought you'd be snoring away all week." The wry voice sounded tired and very familiar.

"I do not snore!"

"Sure." Reno smirked from the doorway.

Elena was still too dizzy to glare, "What happened? Where am I? Please say you're wearing more than just the robe."

The redhead grinned lazily, looking very comfortable in the oversized fluffy bathrobe. His hair was dripping wet and, Elena realized, much shorter. "Your boy attracted a giant dragon, got my apartment destroyed and your head slammed through a wall, then disappeared."

"He's gone? What happened to the monster? Is it dead?" Elena leaned forward, face worried.

"Yeah, gone. I don't know about the thing, it wasn't there when I got up." "Oh." She was too tired to ask what had happened to him.

"Let her rest, Reno." Rude came up behind the red head, he was fully dressed, complete with sunglasses, despite the fact that it was still pitch black outside. Exhausted synapses in Elena's brain fired and she realized that they must be in his apartment. Rude lived in a different building than herself and Reno, closer to work but farther from the bars and shopping malls.

"We gotta keep her awake now, though. You know, the whole concussion thing." Reno was still smirking.

"Oh God." Elena rested her aching head in her hands, as if the night hadn't been long enough all ready.

~~~~~~~~

The keyhole was in a house. The basement of a house. The basement of Ari's house, to be precise. It was a two day walk from the Northern Mountains. Once there they were greeted with much cheer and although Ari's father was disappointed that they hadn't acquired a Galloping Snow Beetle, he was thrilled at the presence of Sora, who everyone seemed to know came from another world, as well as puzzling out Stan's renewed shadow problem, and poking at the keyblades. He also cheerfully explained that the chickens' sudden attraction to Sora was most likely due to a curse of some sort and that he had absolutely no idea how to remove it. "It'll wear off eventually, I'm sure, M'boy." he said brightly, patting Sora on the shoulder, "And until then you'll never be short companions."

"Or food," the still shadowy Stan muttered darkly, he had received a similar 'wait till it wears it off' diagnoses and was expressing his displeasure with the world to anyone who would listen.

When Julia found out why Ari had missed their date she swore to never speak to him again, and when Princess Marlene found out about Julia she swore the same.

The new keyblade locked the keyhole without any difficulty and when Sora leaned back against the wall, wondering what to do next he fell backward through it, spiraling into a new world.

His new friends peered at the wall as one. Linda waved. Epros looked thoughtful. Stan grumbled.

Everything was as it should be... In a twisted cartoony sort of way.

~~~~~~~~

The new keyblade was glowing and throwing off silver sparks. Riku glared at it, his side was throbbing, his muscles burned and his head was swimming. It felt like he was trying to operate through sludge and a pissy keyblade was the last thing he really needed. Gritting his teeth he stumbled through still dark city, searching desperately for some way to escape this hell hole. When he finally felt the magic of a hotspot flow around him he almost fell to his knees.

His shadow slid up off the dusty ground and gripped its master's tattered cape.

Riku focused the last vestiges of his power, searching out another world, looking for something strong and close. He locked onto a sugary sweet green world that tasted like blood. Focusing, he began to slide down the lines of power, only to have his concentration broken and the spell shattered by a powerful shock from the silvered keyblade.

His eyes snapped open and he stared at it, sizzling in his hands, silver light arcing off of it. It was icy cold, burning his skin through his glove. Lancing pain cut through him, followed by a foreign anger.

The keyblade sparked again, glowing a blinding silver and feeling like hate, disgust, fury.

Next to him the shadow hissed viciously at the weapon. It thought the blade should be tossed away.

"Fine." Riku muttered, "What the hell do you want me to do?" his original keyblade was still vanished, but he could feel it in his mind, drained and dead, ultimately worthless. He couldn't afford to throw away this new one, no matter how obnoxious it might be.

A bright shaft of golden light shot from the key, lighting up the street to his right.

Riku rolled his eyes, "I bet half the city is awake now, as if the damn monster wasn't enough..." He took a deep breath, wincing at the pain in his chest and walked the way of the light.

~~~~~~~~

Kairi sat shoeless in the sand, Sora's wooden sword, now hers, lying next to her. Tidus was on her other side, talking about surfing.

"Huge wave, just huge! And I was on my little board and so sure I was gonna just be toast, but somehow I got it and was able to ride it allll the way back to the beach. Wakka's looked soooo stunned; he never thought I could do it." The blond grinned and stretched, joints popping. "It was so cool... What's with you? You're all quiet."

"Huh? Oh, I'm sorry, I'm just kinda tired." She shrugged self-consciously. "Where is Wakka anyway? And Selphie?"

"Ah," Tidus waved his hand dismissively, "They're collecting fruit or something, Selphie thinks she can cook again."

"Again?"

"Yeah, she randomly goes through these weird phases where she tries to do, y'know, girl stuff. I think it happens when she spends too much time watching her mother. Last time she tried cooking she set the stove on fire and we messed up the WHOLE kitchen throwing water on it. When her parents got home and saw it, geez, we were all grounded for months."

Kairi smiled, "Oh, well, I hope it goes better this time."

"It should, she's not allowed to use the oven. Or anything else with fire." "Why aren't you helping her?"

"Huh?"

Kairi cocked her head, "I said, 'why aren't you helping her?' you know, to gather fruit and stuff."

Tidus shrugged, it was his turn to be self conscious, "I didn't feel like it, besides, I promised you I'd teach you to fight, I never promised Selph I'd be a fruit picker."

"Oh." Kairi looked down for a moment before grinning picking up her sword, "Then let the lessons continue."

Tidus drug himself to his feet, pole in hand. "All right!"

~~~~~~~~

He appeared in a thick green forest, "Wow. I didn't know that could happen." Sora stood up, brushing dirt off his pants. The world looked normal enough, not too bright, not too creepy. There was a dusty trail away to his left that looked fairly well traveled. He followed it, occasionally stepping over flowers that had taken the risk of growing in the path. After a while he began humming quietly to himself. The sun was warm on his skin and he felt more hopeful than he had in weeks. He would find Goofy and Donald, he would find King Mickey and Riku, they would all find their way home. Where Kairi would be, waiting for them, and they could race again, and climb trees again, and he could see his parents, who would be absolutely furious, but that was okay. He had a working key blade, he had potions, he had magic, and, apparently, he had some bizarre power that let him travel between worlds without a gummi ship.

All in all it was shaping up to be a decent day.

~~~~~~~~

The red light of dawn was seeping through the city by the time he reached his destination. If it weren't for the pale green outline he never would have seen it. A keyhole. This world's keyhole.

If he were feeling better he would have punched the wall. All the same, his blue eyes, one stained a dark crimson, narrowed with rage. "I walked here... All the way here... For a keyhole.... THAT I CAN'T CLOSE!!" He panted, blood dripping from his mouth.

Something had been damaged in his chest and now whenever he spoke blood came with his words. He didn't have enough magic for a healing spell, didn't have any potions left, didn't have any anything. "Damn."

The keyblade didn't respond, merely glowing gently to itself.

Riku let his head fall forward onto his chest. He was so tired; maybe if he just sat down, slept a little, everything would be better when he woke. Maybe...

The keyblade hummed softly before, quite suddenly, shooting out a beam of golden light. Golden light that hit the keyhole... And locked it.

Riku's eyes widened. He couldn't lock the doors, he knew that, he could only open them. He possessed the dark keyblade, forged for a powerful but cruel heart.

The silver key seemed smug. It seemed to be saying, we are more than that now. We are no longer late night marauders made to kill and maim, built to serve. We prove that we can protect as well, we can save and help, we can be good.

Slight smile on his face Riku trudged back to the hot spot and through it to a new world, green and warm.

~~~~~~~~

Sora threw himself backwards onto the warm spring grass. He had found a meadow, full of lush green and delicately colored flowers. He had picked a few and twined them together into a bracelet. He stretched, yawning loudly and basking in the sun. It felt good here. It felt clean here. He hadn't seen a heartless yet and the one person he met on the trail had looked at him like he was crazy when he asked about monsters.

There wasn't a beach in site but somehow the place still reminded him of home, all warm sun and lazy days. The keyblades lay on his left side, playfully zapping each other. His pack, still heavy with potions lay on his other side. Sora knew he should take inventory, be a responsible hero, but he just couldn't work up the will. He let his eyes slip closed, flower bracelet lying on his chest, and fell asleep slight smile on his lips.

~~~~~~~~

Lancelot Lavender Lawrence was exhausted. His arms ached, his back ached, his life ached. His clothes itched on his skin and his axe dug uncomfortably into his shoulder as he walked hurriedly down the path towards his family's cottage.

His mother was going to be furious.

He had been due home an hour ago, but work had run long, and when you were the youngest woodcutter in the county and your middle name was 'Lavender' the other guys didn't tend to feel the same comradery that they did for Jim and Danny. So when he was slow finishing up the guys didn't exactly wait around. Worse, the blade of the axe had another chip in it and the handle was beginning to crack. He knew what would happen if he told his mother though, he would get another rant about how it was good enough for his father and should be good enough for him as well. She didn't seem to understand that his father's faithful axe was now 20 years old and ready to be put out to pasture. Actually, his mother didn't seem to understand a lot of things lately. It had been that way ever since his older sister had "disappeared" taking food to their grandmother. Everyone but their mother knew that the girl had met Bastian B. Zev, the town slacker, on the road and married him a month later, but their mother acted as if Red had died and refused to think differently.

On top of it all, he was fairly certain he was being followed. Every now and then he caught a flicker of black in the brush, just off the path. For now it was keeping its distance, but when night fell all bets were off, everyone knew that.

Lance shifted his axe nervously and picked up the pace. God, he just wanted to be home.

~~~~~~~~

Anti Sora was, in all honesty, a special creature, the problem was that he knew it. He was Riku's sole creation, the only one of his breed. He was also quite bright, which was unusual among the heartless. Intelligent, powerful, skilled, and a real prick, he tended to share his pain with everyone around him.

Right now he was annoyed. He had been sleeping comfortably, only to be awoken by a sudden, almost vicious, jolt of power into his keyblade and he did not like it. Arrogant sneer in place he slid from his resting place and into the real world, prepared to seriously hurt whatever had dared disturb him.

He had taken to sleeping in Riku's black keyblade about the same time Riku began traversing the worlds through magic. In the keyblade he could rest as much as he wanted while being carried around the galaxy. It took no effort on his part and eliminated the risk of being left behind; it was good deal all around. Except that now he had been rudely awoken and he did not like it.

They were in a forest, outside an old wooden shack that Anti Sora, personally, thought was worthy of a quick and painless burning and little else. Worse, from the way Riku had laid out their things it looked like they would be staying there, and he did not like it.

His 'master' was sitting propped against a rock polishing a keyblade. A silver keyblade. Anti Sora scowled, wondering where this new thing had come from and if it was the reason for his disturbance. His own, black, keyblade lay on the ground next to Riku, already cleaned. It was glowing slightly, something it hadn't done for a long, long time.

Still scowling he stalked off to explore the woods, he wasn't tired anymore.

~~~~~~~~

The cool evening air woke Sora from his afternoon nap. The sun was setting, painting the sky a beautiful orange color. He rolled over onto his stomach and stretched, his back popping satisfyingly. He felt a surge of horror when he reached for his keyblades and found that the new one was missing. He sat up in the long grass, crestfallen, sure that the other blade had gone back to its real master, a world away.

It was half an hour later when he picked up the remaining key, intending to cast a fire spell on a small pile of stick he had collected, and noticed the new key chain. It was small, bright gold, and in the shape of an odd little key itself. Eyes narrowing, Sora carefully slid it off. Instantly it changed from a cute little knick-knack to a full sized and very familiar keyblade. It glowed brightly, sending waves of cheerful light out into the deepening dusk. For a few moments the meadow was brightly illuminated, the flowers and grass sparkling. It looked like magic. Sora almost expected firecrackers to go off or for the stars to fall.

In less than a minute everything was normal again, but a minute was long enough, and the dark shapes hovering at the edge of the meadow skulked away, afraid.

Sora lit the dried grass and in a moment there was a small but cheerful fire blazing. He didn't even notice the silent exodus as the monsters around him fled.

~~~~~~~~

Anti Sora was not nearly as happy as his artistic base. He could feel the heartless around him now; the world was positively rotten with them, though for some odd reason it only showed after sunset. He couldn't tell their breed, and didn't particularly want to know.

There were other things too, wandering cautiously in the early darkness. Making the long grass rustle. He wasn't as uncomfortable with these creatures. They ignored him. Anti Sora wasn't even sure if they could see him.

He had followed the woodcutter for a little while, curious, but had grown bored after only a few minutes. He couldn't understand what the creatures saw in the boy, he didn't strike Anti Sora as being particularly appetizing and he certainly had no magic to feed off of.

He had also happened upon his master's little obsession. He had been meandering back to the shack, taking the long way, when he stumbled upon his cheerful flesh-toned twin, sprawled in the grass and sleeping like the dead. He had snapped his fingers a couple times over the boy's head, but the world saver hadn't even twitched. With an eye roll Anti Sora had continued on his way, reaching camp just as night truly fell.

God, he hated this place.