Hope you enjoy instalment number nine of my fanfic, I've finally given Dav's Double Bladed Sword a name... Great Blade.

Disclaimer: I do not under any circumstances own Kingdom Hearts, Final Fantasy characters or Disney Characters or worlds. I own Dav, A.M.M owns Terri, Smurf-Chan owns Aaron and MASmaster owns Orachron.

Chapter 9: The Heart of the Matter

"Well, are you prepared...times up!" Dav shouted as he charged forward toward Cloud and then, holding his sword, he spun around and swiped vertically upwards and knocked Cloud high in the air, he followed up by teleporting upwards and punched him back to the ground. As Cloud lay, apparently knocked out, Dav turned around and looked at Aaron who was holding her daggers and stood in a battle position though scared of what could happen.

He flew towards her using his wings that still existed on his back and raised his sword that was nearly bigger than her itself. He was about to strike when something hit him in his face which sent him hurtling to the side and connected with the spectators seats because the second that Orachron appearedthe shield disappeared. Cloud was standing next to Aaron, sword on his shoulder, slightly panting because of his quick movements.

"He is not the same Dav I met before... I'll get him back..." Cloud said to Aaron as Dav rose to his feet and began to walk towards his targets. He then started to run toward Cloud who switched to a defensive position to meet the oncoming threat. Aaron looked at the approaching Dav and shouted at him:

"What are you doing, this isn't you, what about your friend Terri who is now being held prisoner by the darkness, huh?"

This caused Dav to stop and look at her and then Cloud who was looking beaten and then at Orachron who was now stirring, beginning to get to his feet. Dav closed his eyes and images of all his friends flashed through his head... Tidus...Wakka...Selphie...Sora...Kairi...Riku. His hair reverted to its old dark blonde state and the Heartless sign on his chest disappeared, his eyes now the blue they once used to be.

"I...I'm sorry Cloud, Aaron...I didn't...I couldn't control myself.. Terri... we have to find Terri!". As he said this Orachron opened a dark hole in the air and disappeared through it.

"Quick, through there!" shouted Dav as he and Aaron ran towards the portal that was slowly disappearing. They both made it through and Cloud looked at the hole and then shouted "Its time I repaid you for earlier Dav, hold on!". After he said that he ran towards the portal and dived through it as it began to vanish.

A8A

Dav, Aaron and Cloud landed on a cold, hard floor after they had fallen out of the dark portal which Orachron created, however there was no sign of him. They got up and looked around the huge dark stone room that appeared to be a chapel of sorts with the symbol of the Heartless hanging on the far wall across the room.

"Hallow Bastion... I'm here again..." said Cloud quietly as he looked at the huge Heartless symbol hanging on the wall.

"What do you mean, you've been here before?" asked Dav with obvious interest in his voice.

"I used to live here with my friends until the Heartless appeared and began to take the world over. The main castle of Hallow Bastion belonged to our ruler Ansem. He disappeared when the Heartless came, a lot of people believed that he died defending people against the Heartless, but I'm not so sure. I found this piece of paper which has become known a piece of 'Ansem's Report'. It mentions the small shadow creature he kept in the castle to study, but the creature disappeared into the depths of the castle and before long multiplied by the hundreds and look this world over... It was his fault" explained Cloud in a quiet almost whisper of a voice.

"Wow... I wonder if I ever lived here... never mind, we have to find Terri and rescue her..." but Dav was interrupted by a familiar voice.

"Hey Dav, you survived the Heartless attack too?" asked Riku who was stood in a doorway that was at the opposite end of the room from the giant Heartless symbol.

"Cloud, Aaron, get out of here, I'll handle him... find Terri!" shouted Dav as he hoisted his Great Blade into his shoulder and stood in his battle position. Cloud and Aaron exited through the only other door in the room which lead off onto a small landing connecting to another room.

"Dav, what are you doing... you wanna fight me, why?"

"Your a pawn of darkness Riku, I'm not blind, you wouldn't be here otherwise"

"You don't know what your talking about, I found Kairi but she's not her self, she doesn't move... her heart has gone... I'm going to find way to restore her back and we can go back to our old lives. Sora has already found new friends and doesn't care about us, Dav help me restore Kairi's heart so we can return to our old lives..."

"No, I know what your up to, your stronger than you used to be, I can feel it but your strength isn't natural...its darkness..."

"Correct young one, the power of darkness is unstoppable when embraced. However you, I foresee, are a balance of both the light and the darkness...but you could become so much stronger by abandoning the light and becoming one with the darkness" calmly stated Maleficent, who had entered through the same door as Riku did earlier.

"Right... open my heart to the darkness and become just a puppet like Riku... I don't think so, you can thank your friend Orachron for showing me a sample of darkness and I don't fancy turning on everyone that means something to me... like Cloud and Sora"

"Very well young pest, I think you should be eliminated to prevent further interruptions with my plans... Riku, my young warrior of the dark, prove yourself to me and destroy your former friend" Riku gave her a nod as she exited through the same door Cloud and Aaron had escaped through.

Riku, listen I don't want to fight you, I just wanna rescue Terri and leave... but I will not stand by while you run around under the influence of darkness...lets go!" Dav and Riku both took battle positions and Dav was the first to charge.

He jumped into the air, raised his Great Blade above his head and slammed onto the ground causing the floor to crack and send a huge shockwave hurtling towards Riku. Riku jumped high in the air to avoid it and then jumped down towards Dav with his sword held above his head. As he landed and swung for Dav, Dav rolled to the side and kicked him in the side and then rammed his shoulder into Riku which caused him to fly across the room. Riku stood back up and grinned.

"You are a lot stronger than you used to be Dav, but now watch the power of true darkness" Riku was suddenly enveloped in a shadowy aura and then it vanished, showing that Riku no longer wore his usual yellow top and baggy blue pants, he was now dressed in dark blue and black clothes with a heartless symbol on his chest and was wielding his Soul Eater sword as before.

A8A

Meanwhile Cloud and Aaron were walking through the landing that connected the chapel where Dav was and the next room.

"Shouldn't we go back, what if he's in trouble?" asked Aaron to Cloud who looked back at her and just shook his head.

"He is strong, he'll be ok, we have to think about ourselves, look"

As Cloud said that and pointed towards the next room, two shields with mouths and eyes appeared out of thin air followed by two armoured Heartless holding them. The shields snarled as the two big Heartless looked at Cloud and Aaron and began to advance.

"Not again..." signed Cloud as he readied his Buster Sword and Aaron armed herself with her twin daggers.

"Aim for behind them, their shields block all attacks from the front and the shields can also use fire and ice magic so be careful" warned Cloud as Aaron rolled out of the way of a vertical shield swipe and struck the Heartless' back with her daggers. Although hurt it retaliated by swinging its shield 360 degrees round connecting with Aaron who was knocked off the landing and began to fall to a lower floor. Cloud blocked a shield swipe and ran to the edge and realised that Aaron had fired a grapple hook from a hidden grapple harness launcher.

She pulled herself up as Cloud yelled and charged forward with sword outstretched, causing him to pass past one of the Defender Heartless and then he struck it in the back with a three hit sword combination that caused it to disappear and a small heart to ascend to the ceiling and disappear. Aaron had pulled herself back up and pulled out a four sided Shuriken and thrown it at the remaining Defender, it flew straight for it glowing, blue as it did. It struck the Defender in the back several times and it finally disappeared after defeating the Defender. Cloud looked at her with a slight look of confusion.

"Heh, I learned that off the great ninja Yuffie!" she said in a slightly more upbeat tone than usual.

"...Yuffie"

A8A

Riku proved to be too fast for Dav's Great Blade as he swung at Riku but he dodged it and struck him with a quick sword blow. Dav jumped backwards and then stood upright, taking his Great Blade he held up high, blade downwards and then slammed the blade into the ground. This caused a flash of blinding light that caused Riku to flinch and as his vision returned Dav was stood with his twin swords again but something had changed, his swords had fused with his Sabres to create dual Gunblades that he held in a simple battle stance.

Riku simply looked at him and sniggered

"A simple change of weapons is not going to help you" and then he rushed Dav again. Dav this time however stood his ground, knocked Riku's sword out of the way and then slashed him four times with the Gunblades, first with both swords swiped at his stomach horizontally left to right, spun around and then again but with slower more powerful strikes. Riku stumbled backwards and then held his sword level with his head, his elbow bent in his battle position. He grinned and then held his sword up in the air with both hands and then floated in the air and began to fly around the room charging at Dav with great speed three times before he actually hit him. Dav fell backwards on to his back and was breathing hard.

As Riku went for another charge Dav rolled out of the way and returned to his feet. He then dashed to the far side of the room and held both Gunblades in the air, blades down. Like before he stuck them both into the ground but this time he pulled the triggers on the Sabres and a huge explosion rocked the room, sending Riku flying against the wall. The explosion had come from the floor, the Gunblades had triggered a huge explosion under the ground that had sent powerful shockwaves through the air.

Dav exchanged his twin Gunblades for his Great Blade with another blinding flash and then ran for the door Cloud had gone through, Riku out cold.

A8A

Cloud and Aaron were now stood in the next room which was bigger than the last, a huge Heartless symbol on the far wall, much bigger than the last, some kind of multi-coloured portal under it and a circular platform with a few consoles around the outside of it. There were two sets of stairs leading up to it, the stairs were linked to a medium sized area and at the other side of the area was the door they came through. They were now stood in the medium sized area looking at six capsule type containers, three on the left wall and three on the right. In each one slept either a young woman or girl.

"So these are the Princess' of Heart, huh?" said Cloud as he continued to look around at the massive room.

"Yes, you look upon the six Princess' of Heart, however we are still missing one, the girl that your friend travelled with was not a Princess of Heart as we had first thought" said Maleficent as she walked into the room.

"You will not, however, leave here alive, I shall see to that". She raised her staff in the air with her left hand and it began to glow. But before she could cast any sort of magic, she began to gasp for breath and lowered her staff which had stopped glowing. Dav stood behind her with his Great Blade inserted into her back, the tip of the double blades showed through her stomach.

"Just another pawn of the darkness" Dav sneered as he withdrew the blade from Maleficent's body, she gasped again as it slid out then spoke quietly.

"You...shall not get...away with this you meddlesome wretches...I'm not finished yet..." and with that she disappeared in a small flash of darkness.

"Your okay, I was worried!" said Aaron happily as she pulled Dav into a tight hug.

"Heh... we've only just met, shouldn't we go out for dinner first?" joked Dav as she let him go and all three of them, even Cloud laughed.

"Well, we should find your friend and leave quickly, Maleficent will be back" warned Cloud as he hoisted his Buster Sword onto his shoulder and began to walk towards the platform. All three of them reached the top to find a sleeping Terri lying in the centre of the platform, chained by both legs to the floor. Dav and Cloud both took their swords and broke the chains, freeing a sleeping Terri who began to stir.

"..ugh...Dav?...where are we?"

"Hallow Bastion... home of the father of the Heartless, come on we have to go now, before Riku or that witch comes back"

Dav and Aaron helped Terri up and then Cloud looked at one of the consoles on the left of where Terri was and smashed it with his sword. A rift appeared in front of the group and Dav looked confused.

"Whoa! How'd you know that would happen?"

"...Just guessed"

They all entered the dark portal that was already beginning to vanish from the room. The portal closed up just as Aaron, the last of the group, entered it.

Well there we are Terri has been rescued, tune in next time to find out what the gang do next... DON'T FORGET TO REVIEW FOLKS!