Chapter 12:

An Explanation

"Are you suuuuuuuure you don't believe there are bloodsuckers?" Riku teased.

"Shut your face!" Zan snapped, slightly annoyed.

"Aw, am I gettin' on someone's nerves?" Riku continued to pester her.

"Yes, as a matter of fact you are!" she yelled.

"Well ain't that too bad," Riku smirked, then added under his breathe, "Gummi Ship wrecker..."

"I heard that!" Zan growled.

Suddenly, there was a sudden noise. Zan whimpered.

"Looks like the bloodsuckers are comin!" Riku laughed. He faded away into the foliage before Zan realized it and soon she was standing there alone.

"Shut up Riku...Riku...Oh no! Ahhhhh!" she started to run into an opening, where Jiro and Akina were waiting.

"Are you ok Zan? Where's Riku?" Akina questioned.

"Th--they got him..." Zan said out of breath.

"Who got him?" Jiro asked.

"Bloodsuckers," she replied.

They stared at her blankly, then they heard footsteps circling the area.

"Eep!" Zan yelped, hiding behind Jiro and Akina.

Their faces twisted in fear, "Oh my gosh...What do we do, what do we do?" Akina whimpered.

Jiro looked to the left and noticed that Riku was standing there with a smirk on his face. Jiro realized what he was doing and then an idea popped into his head.

"I shoulda believed Riku..." Zan muttered.

"Heh, you should have..." Jiro smirked evily.

"Jiro...why are you smirking like that?" Akina asked, shaking.

Jiro turned his head quickly to the left trying to give Akina a hint. She looked over there and then she smirked evily as well.

"Jiro, Akina..." Zan shook. "Y'all are startin' to scare me too..."

Their smirks grew wider, "You better run," Jiro laughed.

"Wh-wh-what?" Zan was stunned by this random turn of events. "Why are you telling me to run, aren't you gonna come with?"

"No, unless you want us to kill you..." Akina snickered.

Zan stared wide-eyed, "What? Why would you kill me?"

"Gosh you're slow..." Jiro rolled his eyes.

"We're bloodsuckers!" Akina yelled.

"Oh crap," Zan sprinted back into the deeper part of the woods, this was followed by mocking laughs that rang out from Akina and Jiro. Her heart beat faster in fear as she heard a twig snap behind her.

"Crap, crap, crap!" she yelled.

Suddenly, she felt something grab her. She screamed in terror. She couldn't see who held her, as they held her tightly...She could feel its breath on her neck., "Don't hurt me..." she whispered in fear.

"Too late for that..." a cold male voice whispered.

She started to shake violently as he held her tighter.

She let out a blood curdling scream...this was followed by laughter.

"What the----" the grip on Zan loosened and she spun around, there stood Riku laughing hysterically.

Zan put her hands on her hips and gave him a dirty look, she was mad, "Why'd you do that?" she asked.

"Because it was entertaining," Riku said, trying hold back his laughter.

"YOU JERK! YOU THINK ITS FUNNY TO SCARE ME LIKE THAT!"

"Why yes I do..." he grinned.

Zan screamed in pure anger as she punched him straight in the face. Akina and Jiro walked up as she did this and they burst into a bout of laughter.

Riku stumbled back, holding his nose, which was bleeding profusely, "There's your blood...drink it," Zan smirked.

"Now that was uncalled for!" Riku snapped moodily.

"Uh that's ok...I'm blood intolerant." Jiro said.

Zan smiled, "Does it hurt?"

Riku grabbed her wrist and flipped her over onto her back, "And I bet that did too."

"It's on!" Zan snapped, quickly getting back up and tackling him to the ground.

"Fight fight fight!" Akina and Jiro yelled.

"And this is Jiro, reporting live as we witness another episode of sibling rivalry." he joked, pretending to be holding a microphone.

Riku and Zan were rolling on thre ground, covered in dirt.

"This is gettin' pretty vicious, those of you watching with children around may wanna cover their eyes..." Jiro continued with jibes.

Akina shook her head at Jiro, "We'd better stop them before it gets out of hand..."

"Just had ta ruin my fun, huh?" Jiro sighed.

"Yep," Akina smiled.

Jiro sighed as him and Akina approached the two and tried to peel them off of one another.

They were each delivered a sharp kick, "Stay outta this!" Riku snapped.

Jiro and Akina back away, "Ok, that didn't work..." Akina sighed.

"And the fight rages on!" Jiro said happily as he started pretending to have a microphone in his hand again.

After the two combatants had suffered a quantity of injuries...they FINALLY stopped.

"You're not bad..." Riku said out of breath.

"Thanks, I know." she grinned.

"Well, now that that's over, let's see about the ship," Akina said.

They both nodded as they headed back towards the Gummi Ship.

Riku inspected it, he gave it a light kick and it fell to pieces, "Yeah...That's just a little screwed up..."

Zan tried to hold in a laugh, but couldn't.

"You should be ashamed of yourself," Riku glared at her.

"I am..."

"Suuuuuuure."

"Could I perhaps be of some assistance?" A cold voice asked.

"Who's there?" asked Akina.

"Someone..." A black beam came out of the trees and knocked Akina into Zan.

Riku cursed under his breath, "It's Aidan..."

"Don't you seem so happy ta see him...?" Zan muttered as she pushed Akina off of her and stood.

"Zan, get behind us," Riku ordered.

"Wha--why?" she asked.

"Cuz I said so!" Riku snapped.

"Fine..." she sighed.

A man stepped in front of them, wearing a black trenchcoat identical to Riku's, "It's been awhile hasn't it?" he smirked.

"Wish it coulda been a while longer..." Riku muttered darkly.

"Riku, what's going on...who is this?" Zan asked.

"Just an old 'friend.' " Riku stated sarcastically.

The man laughed, "That must be your little sister...Good job on fetching her. I can take her from here Riku."

"You gotta get past me first," Riku drew his sword as did Akina and Jiro.

"You're kidding me right? I could take all of you down with one attack. Why don't you just obey your orders Riku?" he grinned.

"No," Riku said firmly.

The man shook his head, "You were willing to bring her to us before...weren't you?"

"Well maybe I've changed my mind."

"What the heck? Bring me to them?" Zan felt slightly irritated to find this out. "You dirty little---"

"Please Zan, I'm sorry..." Riku said. "But now there's no way I'm gonna let them have you."

"Believe him Zan..." Akina whispered.

"Well, are we going to fight, or are we just gonna stand here?" the man asked, as a beam appeared in his hand.

"Bring it on," Jiro said.

"You got it," as soon as the words left the man's mouth, Jiro was sent crashing into a tree.

"Idiot..." Akina muttered.

"Aidan...leave now!" Riku yelled.

"Try and make me, I won't leave til I have her." he shot another beam which hit Akina, sending her flying into a tree. Riku growled angrily as he charged at Aidan with his sword.

Aidan sidestepped and Riku who didn't expect that ended up crashing into the tree behind him. He recovered quickly and stabbed Aidan, who launched a beam and sent Riku flying into another tree. Jiro and Akina pulled themselves up with their heads spinning and rejoined the battle. Akina slashed out at Aidan and dodged a beam. A lethal mace and chain appeared in his hands.

"Now this is gonna get good..." he said. He swung his mace and hit Jiro's foot. Blood seeped out of Jiro's shoe but he merely winced. Riku ran up to Aidan, jumped up over the mace as Aidan swung it and stabbed Aidan in the stomach. Aidan retaliated quickly and hit Riku in the side.

Riku staggered back and held his hand to his side as blood gushed from the wound. His hand did little to staunch the flow. Aiden laughed maniacally, "Pathetic fool, you shouldn't waste your time defending her, it would have been better for you in the long run."

"No it wouldn't have, she would have suffered then," Riku growled.

"What makes you think that would have happened? We don't want to kill her of that's what you think...we just to well---"

"Use her as your own weapon against Sora!" Riku cut in angrily.

Aiden hesitated before speaking, "Maybe, but you wouldn't be in so much pain right now if you'd have just cooperated."

"I'd rather be in pain than it be Zan!"

"Fine then suit yoursel----" Aidan stopped his sentence.

Jiro had stabbed Aidan through the back and pressing the sword in deeper and deeper, which made Aidan gasp in much pain.

"You traitors..." Aidan whispered.

Jiro pulled the sword out and Aidan fell to the ground, dead.

Riku's vision swam, he felt dizzy and ended up slumping down on the ground. Zan ran over to him, "Riku, are you ok? Riku?"

"Yeah, I'll be fine." he said weakly.

"No you won't..." Akina said, getting down on her knees. She whispered something in a weird language that Zan couldn't make out. There was a yellow glow, and Riku's wound was healed. There were also other glows and hers, and Jiro's wounds were healed as well.

Riku slowly sat up, "Thanks Akina..."

Akina smiled, "Anytime, I'm surprised it worked."

"What worked, the healing powers?" Zan asked.

Akina nodded, "Yes, I have a hard time using that spell. Jiro says I can do it when I don't think too hard."

Jiro smiled, "It's true..."

"Whatever," Akina rolled her eyes.

Zan giggled as she looked at Riku, "Um, I think you have some explaining to do..."

He sighed, "I guess I do owe you an explanation..."

She nodded.

Riku sighed as he began speaking, "Well you see, there's a group called 'The Organization' appparently, they don't want you to fufill your destiny. They want you to kill Sora and then they'd kill you off..."

"Why were you once willing to take me to them?" Zan asked.

"Because, I didn't know you were my sister...I didn't know it was sister of oblivion, until I met Jiro and Akina...they explained it to me so, I was then willing to protect you..."

Zan suddenly hugged him.

Riku's eyes widened in shock. Akina and Jiro looked at each other and smiled. Suddenly, the ground started to shake.

"Wh---what's going on?" Zan asked, pulling away from Riku.

"I don't know..." Riku replied worriedly.

"EARTHQUAKE!" Jiro yelled.

Suddenly, a black portal appeared underneath the four, and it pulled them down rapidly. Zan panicked, but Riku held her close, "Stay calm," he whispered.

They all soon were completely drug down by the black abyss...Everything went black.

xxx

hey all I'm done with this chapter finally. I've been in the hospital for three days I'm a big sister now, but the baby is having breathing problems...if you can please pray. She's still in intensive care :(

Zan: -prays-

in the meantime r&r!