CHAPTER IV
UNION AND REUNION

Riku didn't say anything as he ran after the man in blue robes. The man had told him not to speak, just concentrate on running.

It was very hard for Riku not to speak at this particular moment in time. In the last ten minutes of his life, he had waken up in what looked like a dungeon to stare directly into the face of a small, glowing, yellow fairy. After the fairy broke him out of his shackles, a man in blue robes with a huge blue hat and a beard that almost touched the ground was waiting outside the door for him.

Not exactly a set of events that makes it easy for one to remain silent.

Up ahead, the blue clad wizard kept flicking his wand toward the ever growing heartless. The yellow fairy stayed around Riku, occasionally sprinkling him with some dust...was it his imagination, or was Riku running faster than he ever ran before? He summoned his keyblade and slashed a few heartless that had managed to get close to him.

"No! Put it away, son!" said the blue wizard.
"Why? You know what? No. Thanks for rescuing me and everything, but I don't need charity." Riku stopped dead in his tracks and the blue wizard and yellow fairy continued on for a few meters before stopping and turning around.

"Please, boy, continue running. We are not in a safe place." The ground shook with a thundaga spell cast by the wizard. "That should buy us a moment. My name is Merlin, and this is my good friend Tinkerbell. We rescued you from the castle and we need to get to my house, or I fear we shall be in grave danger."

Tinkerbell flew around Riku like a planet orbiting the sun. Riku swatted at her like she was a bug, but when Merlin turned his head into a cabbage, Riku decided to stop being so mean and listen.

"Friends. Understand, boy? Friends!"
"Friends of who? Not me. I don't even know you."
"You know what, boy? You're right." He turned Riku's head back to normal. "Back to the shackles with you...and my fairy partner and I will be on our way!"

Riku bit his lip. "I'm...sorry. I just have a hard time trusting people. Please. Let's just get out of here."

And they set off running once again. Unfortunately, a ground shattering roar shook them to their knees. The rope bridge not a hundred feet from them didn't snap and break - it charred and crumbled. Like it had been burnt in a flash - like a microwave. The three of them looked back at the castle - it was not a pretty sight. Heartless were pouring from all the windows and doorways, making everything in sight look like black sludge had gotten all over it.

"Man, these are some fun odds. How did you manage to get yourselves into so much trouble?" said a voice none of them readily recognized. From across the chasm jumped a man with spiky blond hair and a sword that made Riku's keyblade look like a butter knife. He brushed his hair from his eyes, which didn't do much good, and unsheathed his sword.
"Lemme guess - 'who are you?' Well save your breath - my name is Cloud."

Merlin knew of Cloud from Yuffie and Cid's tales back at his house. He ran up to him and embraced him in a full hug. "Oh, Cloud, thank you for coming. Cloud is very strong Riku, he can protect us against anything!"

"Almost anything." Cloud turned away as an image of a man with silver hair blinked into his mind. He shook it off and turned back to the three friends. "But this is no time for reunions. Do you see that?" As he pointed to the top of the castle. A large figure wearing a suit similar to Master Max's was standing on the topmost trellis. He wore another mask, but instead of smiling like Max's, it was flat. The mouth went from one side to another without emotion. His body was larger than Max's, definitely fat...but the way he jumped from the top of the castle and commanded the heartless to march showed that he had great strength.

"Run," said Merlin.
"But the bridge is out. How are we going to get over the chasm?"

Cloud ran to Merlin, put him on his back and jumped across the chasm to the other side. But before he could return to Riku and bring him across, the ground slid from beneath Riku and he fell to his knees.

"What is going on! Why the hell are there so many earthquakes happening right now? As if we don't have enough to deal with!"
But his question was answered when he saw a rock rising up in front of him from the chasm. Beneath the top most spiky rock, there were more and more rocks, piles of rocks, some that looked like eyes, some that looked like arms, some that looked like legs. In a flash, they scrambled themselves to reveal the Earth Ripper - a massive heartless.

Cloud quickly jumped at it from his side of the chasm - with a slash the heartless groaned and swung his massive club hand, knocking Cloud into Merlin with a thud. The heartless seemed stronger than Riku had ever seen before...but he realized it was just because it had been a year since he'd last seen combat. He smiled and summoned his keyblade.

"And what are you gonna do with that? Sew him a sweater? You can't jump like I can. You're stuck over there!" cried out Cloud.

As if on cue, Tinkerbell started rapidly spinning around Riku like a tornado. Suddenly, Riku's feet left the ground. He screamed out, but silenced himself.

"Riku, my boy! Tinkerbell can keep you aloft while you dispatch the heartless! Just go for the eyes!" Merlin said as he cast firaga magic to keep the smaller heartless at bay around himself and Cloud.

After a few awkward flips and falls, Riku and Tink flew up toward the Earth Rippers eyes.
"Left! Left!" Riku yelled as he almost got squashed by the Ripper's fingers. It wasn't until now that he realized how large it actually was. It went all the way down to the bottom of the chasm, where there stood a massive army of heartless. Riku had a plan.
"DOWN!" He yelled, and Tinkerbell complied, flying straight down and stopping right around the monster's knee. Riku slashed away at it for a few seconds without the monster fighting back - but the screams of pain and groans coming from the rock monster were sign that the plan was working.

"I said the eyes! Blast it! Go for the eyes, boy!"
"I got a plan, old man...would you let me-" but he didn't get to finish the sentence. Out of the hole he chipped away in the Earth Ripper's knee an eruption of lava spewed, burning Tinkerbell's wing and sending her off course, sending Riku into a free fall to the chasm below.

Without words, Cloud hopped over the firaga spell Merlin was working so hard to maintain and shot down into the chasm after Riku. He streamlined his body with his sword out in front, moving faster than a dolphin through water. Grabbing the scruff of Riku's shirt, he plowed his sword into the Ripper's ankle, hanging from it...no more than fifty feet above the ground.
He swung Riku up to his level, both hanging from the sword.

"Nice view, isn't it?" Cloud smirked. Riku plunged his keyblade deep into the other ankle of the beast...and the two of them held hands in between the legs and screamed "CHILLING SHATTER!"
They separated hands and started to run around each ankle, holding the blades and carving deep trenches up and down the legs of the Ripper. As Riku had expected, the lava started to spew in all directions, completely obliterating the heartless below.
They met up near the monster's crotch and looked below at the lava wreaking its havoc and decided to end it. Cloud dug his sword into the beast's belly and hung from it, holding Riku with the other hand. Riku cast the most powerful blizzard spell he knew down into the legs of the beast, cooling the lava into rock and then freezing it. Unable to support the weight of the monster, the legs shattered, sending it down as Cloud ran up it, still holding Riku with one hand. The now dead Earth Ripper fell on any remaining heartless as Riku and Cloud landed on the other side of the chasm with Merlin and the wounded Tinkerbell.

Merlin had managed to defeat the heartless on this side of the chasm, and all that was left of a threat was the heartless and the Unsmiling Man back near the castle, growing nearer but still quite far away.

Riku was trying to catch his breath. "Th...thanks Cloud. That...that was awesome."

"Yeah. I know. Let's get back to Merlin's house. It won't take very long on Fenrir," and he hopped onto a badass looking motorcycle with gleaming silver and black metal all over it. With Cloud at the helm, Tinkerbell under Merlin's hat in the center and Riku riding on the back, they revved up and made their way back through the battlegrounds and toward the town.