Mizu grunted as the Keyblade penetrated, splattering her blood all over Ansem's face and down her front. There was only one problem...
It wasn't Ansem's holding the Keyblade anymore.
"R-Ri... ku..." Mizu gasped as her knees gave out, sending her tumbling into his arms. Riku let out an inarticulate cry of horror and wrenched the Keyblade out of her as she fell, sending it flying across the room. He ignored the blood gushing from her wound and held her protectively, head cradled against his chest as she groaned in pain. He didn't even notice sinking to his knees, or the tears pouring down his face.
"Mizu!" Kairi screamed, darting forward to help. Riku looked up at her sharply, and she stopped in her tracks.
"You've got to run," he insisted. "The Heartless are coming!"
"But," Kairi protested, looking at Mizu laying in Riku's arms and fighting for every breath that she took.
"Go," Mizu grunted through her gasps of pain, and blood spurted from her mouth and rolled down her chin. Riku wrenched his eyes from Kairi and laid a gentle hand on Mizu's cheek, his face completely open and showing such a vulnerable yet concerned expression that Kairi didn't have the heart to leave. Mizu repeated her order more emphatically, somehow managing to sit up just enough to look Kairi straight in the eyes as she said it, then collapsing back into Riku's arms. Kairi hesitated a moment more, then nodded, and she took Donald and Goofy with her as she ran. She stopped long enough to gasp out what had happened to Cloud and Serenity, who had arrived scant seconds after Mizu had collapsed into Riku's arms. Both looked at each other, eyes wide in surprise and a little fear, and they sprinted in the opposite direction that Kairi was running in.
A loud groan, which was probably as close to a shout as Mizu could get at the moment, greated them as they cleared the last three steps in one stride. Cloud sank instantly to his knees next to Mizu and put a hand over the gushing wound to help stem the bloodflow.
"Cloud," Riku said, and there was so much pleading and heartbreak in his voice that Cloud looked up at him without even thinking, absently taking note of the tears clearing paths through the blood on his face. "I'm sorry. I couldn't stop..."
"N-" Mizu somehow managed through her harsh breathing and groans, "not yer... fault... love." Her voice brought Cloud back to reality and he cast several hasty cure spells on her, hoping they would do most of the work for him. Sure enough, the bloodflow began to lessen, but he couldn't tell if it was because of the spells or because she was running out of blood to lose.
"Dammit, Serenity," he snapped at the girl hovering off to the side, "help me!"
Serenity started as though Cloud had startled her out of a slight trance, and he might have, but she immediatelly went to her knees next to Riku, putting her arm under Mizu's head with his, then gently nudging him out of the way.
"Go," she insisted. "I can take it from here." When Riku didn't move, she turned an almost angry glare on him. "Go! Look out for your other friends. They need you right now more than Mizu does."
Cloud gave her an odd look, but didn't contradict her.
"We'll take care of her," he insisted to Riku. "Go. Whatever happens here happens. There's nothing more you can do here. Take care of your other friends right now." Cloud cast another spell, then looked around.
"Where's Sora?" he asked Riku, noticing that the boy was missing and hadn't been with Kairi when she had left.
"He..." Riku started to say, then shook his head. "I'm not really sure."
"K-keyblade," Mizu grunted. "He u-used it on... on himself to free Kairi's heart."
"He used his Keyblade on himself?" Cloud asked, so startled he forgot to cast his cure spell again.
"N-no," Mizu corrected. "R-Riku's..."
Cloud and Serenity both stared at Riku incredulously, eyes wide in shock. Mizu's fruitless struggle to sit up brought them both back to reality, however. Cloud cast a few more cure spells, then lifted his had to check the progress of the wound, and grimmaced.
"I won't lie to you, munchkin," he said, "but it's messy."
"I'll jes' bet," Mizu groaned through clenched teeth. "Riku, gwan an' leave, love. I'm in good hands. Promise."
Riku hesitated a moment, then nodded almost like Kairi had, and sprinted in a direction no one had suspected--through the keyhole.
"Kairi, hurry!" Goofy insisted, noticing that she had stopped.
"I can't leave them behind!" Kairi argued.
"We can't stay here!" Donald protested.
"A Heartless is after us!" Goofy pointed out, litterally. Donald took up his staff.
"I'll take care of him!"
The Shadow approached cautiously, and Donald attacked. The thing easily dodged the blow, and Donald tried again.
"Confounded Heartless! Get lost, will ya?"
Kairi noticed the Shadow Heartless make a gesture, a slight tilting of it's head, that reminded her forcefully of Sora.
"Sora?" she asked, stepping towards it cautiously. "Is that you?"
"Uh-oh," Goofy said, indicating that they were rapidly being surrounded by Heartless. Kairi scooped up the peculiar Shadow in her arms and held it protectively, backing away from the hostile Heartless and running into Donald and Goofy.
"This time," she swore to the Heartless in her arms, "I'll protect you."
Goofy shouted out a warning as one of the hostile Heartless leapt to attack. It never completed the attack, as there was a flash of light, eliminating the Heartless and reverting Sora to his normal self. When it was obvious the Shadows would not return, Sora turned and held Kairi tightly in his arms.
"Kairi," he said, his voice slightly choked up from his myriad of emotions, "thank you."
"Sora," Kairi breathed, too elated at the moment to respond with anything more.
"Sora!" Donald and Goofy exclaimed, and Sora looked up to see that the Shadows had returned. The Beast leapt in just in the nick of time and cleared a path for them out of the Entrance Hall.
"Go!" he ordered. "Now!"
"Come with us!" Sora insisted, but the Beast shook his head.
"I told you before," he growled, "I'm not leaving without Belle. Now go! The Heartless are coming!"
Sora nodded, grabbed Kairi by the hand, and started running for the gummi ship, Donald and Goofy right on his heels.
"Thank goodness you're back!" Aerith exclaimed when she saw Sora, Donald, and Goofy walking up, a girl she didn't recognize in tow. "You must be Kairi."
"Y-yes," Kairi confirmed, slightly startled. "Yes, I'm Kairi. Who are you?"
"My name is Aerith," Aerith replied, then returned the majority of her attention to Sora and the other two, which was a big relief to Kairi.
"Are Mizu and Cloud on their way?" Aerith asked, and it was all Kairi could do to hold back a sob.
"There's," Sora said hesitantly, not looking Aerith in the eye. "There's something we need to tell you."
"I see," Aerith said. "It can wait until we're back with Leon and Yuffie. Follow me."
Kairi didn't pay any attention to the trip through Traverse Town, and when they arrived at the house all she did was go over to the window and stare absently out of it. Sora looked at her with no little concern, then looked at Leon, who was looking at him without glaring, which somewhat surprised Sora.
"Tell me what happened," Leon insisted evenly. Sora clenched his jaw and his fists, hung his head, then recited to Leon everything that had happened.
"So the darkness is flowing out of the Keyhole," Leon said when Sora was done.
"Wait a minute!" Sora yelped, startled into staring Leon straight in the eye. "What about Mizu?"
"I'll worry about that later," Leon insisted. "Right now the Keyhole is our primary concern."
"But--"
"If Cloud can't take care of her, then there's nothing we can do," Aerith informed Sora, and Kairi as well, who had begun almost paying attention when Sora told Leon about what had happened.
"That Keyhole is a problem that we can deal with, though," Leon pointed out. "The darkness from it is increasing by the minute."
"No wonder there are more and more Heartless everywhere," Aerith said, helping to stear the conversation back to where it could do some good. "The only way to stop them is--"
"Seal the Keyhole," Sora inturrupted, taking the not-so-subtle hints, "right?"
"Maybe," Leon admitted. "But no one knows what will happen once it's sealed."
"Well, we can't just stay here," Sora half-shouted, half-growled. "We have to do something. I've got a friend back there. And besides, whether you'll admit it or not, Mizu needs our help!"
"That's right," Leon agreed, startling Sora almost right out of his shorts. "You have one more friend to worry about. Riku's Keyblade must have been born of the captive princesses' hearts--just like that Keyhole you saw." He glanced significantly at Kairi, who was still staring out the window. "Of course, without Kairi's heart, it remained incomplete. Once that Keyblade was destroyed, the princesses' hearts should have been freed. Don't worry, Sora. If anyone can save your friend, you can."