"Did you ever wonder exactly what a nobody was?" What am I?

"Darkness lives within every heart." What's a heart?

"They may not have hearts but they know what it feels like because they are true emotion themselves…" Do I have one?

"Darkness is the heart's true essence…" Why was I born?

"Sora still held the darkness inside him from Hallow Bastion…" Who made me…?

"I am not afraid of the darkness!" That voice…

"I thought you liked playing games, Sora." I was the one who was played…

"Take care of her…" You're gone now…

"I'm what's left…or maybe I'm all there ever was…" …it hurts…

"I was trying to fool myself…" fooling myself…

"I had given into the darkness…" you despise me..

"You don't belong to the dark realm anymore." I've lost you forever now…

"If the world is light and darkness, we'll be the darkness." but …I can't reach you here…

"That was all he had left to connect him to you." Please, Hikari! Don't leave me behind!

"Sora, I'll break that bastard's hold on you no matter what it takes!" Help me!

"Now you understand…he was never yours."

Now I understand…you were never mine. I'm not the one.

"Who are you…"

Who am I?

Wonk ouY nahT noitceffA eroM deeN I

Aros

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-

Aros opened his eyes slowly from sleep. He sat up in bed and gazed out the window at the electric lights. The dark sky loomed above in a never-ending abyss and he gazed at it with his amber eyes glowing in the dark. He slid from the bed and slowly walked towards his window and leaned out of it looking down at the blackened streets below. There was something he was supposed to do, but for the life of him he couldn't…oh right, the beach.

Aros was born in this city along with all others of his kind. He didn't know when, he didn't know why all he knew was that this was haven. It was dark, dim and silent. He loved it. He could go where he pleased and do as he wished. No one was there to tell him what to do. That was until he heard his voice. Every time he heard that soft voice calling out into the darkness, Aros could do nothing but follow it. His body was compelled to submit and obey to the calls of this particular voice and nothing would ever stop him from going to him.

He walked along the abandoned streets of his home in the blinding rain. His obsidian hair drooped in the downpour irritating his face as he navigated his path to the trolley that led to the outskirts. He climbed aboard and waited for the contraption to lift. It lurched and rose into the air taking it's only passenger with it. He was the only one who rode this trolley out of the city. Where he was going was a threatening place far too close to the light of destruction. Most like him who actually went to this fearful place, were tired of living on the destruction of hearts and ready to be laid to waste by the light. There were no such thoughts in Aros's head.

Aros touched his chest feeling it flutter suddenly. His mouth curved into a timid smile as warmth took over his body. It was almost as if the void within him had been filled. It always happened this way when he went to see him. The trolley touched down on an empty platform surrounded by a dark field. He closed his eyes and listen to the soft crashing of waves in the distance. The voice on the wind echoed in his chest and tugged at his very being. He followed it through the field to the dark shores of the lonely beach. He felt the border between light and dark mingling and mixing forming the world in which he could not enter. He never thought he'd want to anyway.

Following the shoreline he came upon the reason for his descent from the heartless city. His amber eyes landed on a head of platinum hair splayed around a pale form resting on the white sand. The moon cast beams of radiance onto the sleeping source of his existence. Aros approached him and knelt down beside the yellow clad body that had begun to age within the months of his slumber. He touched the silken locks that shined like quick silver and brushed the warm cheek of the boy. Aros leaned closer and brushed his lips against the parted ones beneath him. He heard a soft groan and movement causing him to back off from the boy with actual fear in his eyes.

Deep oceanic jewels were revealed to him as the boy opened his eyes to the night sky above him. He blinked and looked around him trying to find the strength to rise but could not. Aros swallowed and inched within his line of vision so that the cerulean gems met his own amber spheres. The boy titled his head with his eyes half lidded from weariness. A heavy hand reached up to Aros and touched his cheek gently making the darker of them blush slightly. The way those eyes looked at him sparked fire within him and made him want to bow down to this ethereal being that lay before him. Pale peach lips moved slowly

"Sora, you're alright…" he whispered.

Aros's chest suddenly felt empty realizing he was not the one the blonde saw before him. He only saw his other self. Still Aros offered a warm smile and nodded touching the hand that rested adoringly on his cheek. He could be Sora for him for now. He saw the blonde shiver.

"Why are you so cold, Sora?"

Aros shook his head. "It's just chilly tonight. Please, just rest Riku. The darkness has drained you so much, you need to rest."

Riku's eyes drooped low until they closed completely and his hand slid from Aros's face. "I'm so sorry, Sora…"

Aros shushed him and placed his hand on his chest. "The heart that beats here belongs to us. You've kept it safe. I should be thanking you, Riku. Now, rest and let the past remain just that."

Riku's relaxed against the sand falling back into his peaceful coma. Aros laid his head on the softly rising and falling chest. He nuzzled it gently listening to the rhythmic beat of Riku's chest. Every time he heard the soft thump Aros knew that he was alive and was his own person. He had to be an individual because how else would he be able to experience this one moment of complete and total contentment. But it never lasted.

Aros felt the pull within Riku's chest drawing him in. He knew what it was and he tried his hardest to resist. It ticked him off every time he thought of how that son of a bitch shared the body of his beloved Riku. Still, it was a very strong force to contend with because HE had always been the stronger between them and Aros could barely resist it. Sometimes it was so strong that it took every inch of Aros to resist that hard tug at his instincts. He was what made Riku a threat the Aros. He was what made his visits to the unconscious boy lying at darkness's edge so rare. The man with the cruel eyes that had more than once tried to obtain a hold over his mind was the greatest threat to Aros's existence. Aros still always had cunning on his side to get him out of trouble. However, the longer he remained a part of Riku's body the harder it was becoming harder to resist the call of the inner darkness. The mind games and nightmares were enough to make Aros shudder, fearless as he was.Even now, as Aros lifted his head from Riku's chest with amber eyes aglow, HE called for him to take Riku's heart so that he could take over the body left behind. Aros's eyes shifted to in front of him where the man of every shadow's nightmare stood with a smirk on his face.

"You're beautiful. I can feel the darkness within every pore of your small body. Why do you hesitate to take this one's heart, heartless?"

"He is my creator…his heart is not mine to take."

"A heartless with inhibitions, how interesting."

Aros growled at this dark man. "Stop calling me that! I have a name."

"Then who are you?" He asked.

"Who am I…" He couldn't understand why he hesitated on this question. He knew who and what he was. "I'm Aros…"

"Who are you, really?"

"Who am I?"

-

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-

Aros's mind slowly pushed him towards waking. He was in such pain and his body felt an unwelcome cold running through his veins. Glancing at his hands, he realized that the darkness could not protect him anymore; he was far too weak to call upon it. He pushed up from the ground and sat back on his heels examining his surroundings. It was a small cavern hidden in the darkness from what he could tell. The wind whistled through a hole in the ceiling and chalk drawings were displayed on the walls. It took a moment of thinking to realize where in his memory this place rested. He was in the Secret Place of Sora's childhood. If this was all then why did he feel this dread in the recesses of his mind?

He tried getting to his feet only to fall back on them with a small grunt. He was even too weak to walk. He chose to sit there tiredly staring at the images on the wall with weary eyes. He knew this room so well from Sora's memories. Every inch of it was covered in their memories, their dreams, and their hopes. His eyes fell on the small drawings of what was suppose to be Sora and Kairi. He moved closer to it and looked it with curious eyes. The stars that were meant to be paopu fruit were crossed and never meeting. He found a dry humor in this when he realized that Sora and Kairi were star-crossed long before he ever came into the picture. Hell, they were star-crossed long before they even knew what it meant to like girls and boys. Footsteps caught his attention and he knew the presence by the pain that entered his body. "Kairi…"

"I see you're awake, heartless," she said sweetly. A small basket was in her arms. "I've come to a decision about you, would you like to hear it?"

"Personally, I'd rather slide down a razorblade into a pool of acid than even hear your voice. Still I doubt I have a choice in this." He murmured laying back against the cave wall.

She sat down in front of him with an ever present smile. She began to dig through the basket searching. "I'm hurt. Just to think after all the work I went through to bring you here and keep you alive. Still, you have no choice in this. Ah, here it is." She pulled out a roll of bandages, a cloth and a bottle of anticeptic. "I can't have your beauty marred, can I? in this world, your body should be just like a human. I'm just going to aid the healing process."

Aros rolled his eyes but flinched when she came toward him. She giggled insanely. "I won't bite, trust me."

"So sayeth the bitch who gave me these injuries," he spat. She shook her head and began to clean the nasty marks she had left on his flawless face. Aros squinted his eyes when she looked his way. That light within her was far too painful for him to stand much longer. It was threatening to engulf him soon if she didn't pull away.

"There," she leaned over and kissed the gauzed cheek whispering to him. "It feels better, right…Aros?"

He turned to her in shock not at the fact she knew his name, but at how familiar the tone she used had sounded. It struck the cord of dread and vibrated against his instinctual fear. She smiled and sat back on her hands.

"So, that really is your name. He was telling the truth, I'll have to share you to thank him." She laughed again when Aros's eyes narrowed suspiciously at her words. "Anyway, I have and idea. I want to keep you. I know that Sora will never move from where he is and even if he did, I don't think Riku would be inclined to let me be with him. Even I know when someone is stronger than me. Instead, I'm going to use you Aros. You're powerless in this world with out a true body and you're helpless against me as I've already proven. I can't have Sora, but I can learn to love you instead. If I can fall in love with you, then everything will be alright and I can have my happy ending."

Aros remained silent for a long while before flat out laughing at the insanity of the redhead in front of him. "You're serious? I swear it's people like you that make me wonder why Sora didn't let Ansem just destroy it all. Listen, you pompous bitch, the only love I have is for my creator. He is the one light that binds me to this world. There is nothing that can change me or him to fit your childish games. I swear you're so desperate."

Kairi let him laugh and stared at the dirt. "Oh Aros, so blinded by that same radiance that you don't even see that we are the same."

"Oh by all means, enlighten me! How am I the same as you?"

"We're both in love with someone who does not love us. I love Sora with every fiber of my being but I can't have him because I'm not Riku. You love that bastard more than you love the life he gave you but…you can't have him because yours is not the name he cries out when he needs love. Yours is not the name that he whispers in his sleep. Yours is not the name he says when he's worried. And yours is certainly not the name that he murmurs when he says 'I love you.' Don't you see, you're a no one to him but a filthy heartless."

Aros averted his eyes uninterestedly to the other drawings on the cave walls. It would be an ice age in hell before he let her know that those words effected her. Still, he felt she knew because she went on as if his paying attention meant nothing.

"He wanted to stop you as much I did. He even stayed away just to keep Sora from transforming into you, Aros. Riku only thought of Sora. You were so desperate to be with him that you even took over sora's body to satisfy his desires. But who's name did he cry out in your ear when he came? Who's name did he whisper words of love to? Hah, I don't think it was yours. Oh, Aros, why can't you see? Riku despises you because you are everything he fought so hard to over come. He hates you."

Aros felt his eyes burn suddenly. They felt heavy and the cave was becoming blurry before him. Blinking once to clear his vision he felt a warm tickle running along his cheek to his chin before leaving him. He looked down as the remaining traces of it soaked into the sand. He watched it with darkened eyes as it disappeared. A tear wasted. It was true, Riku never once acknowledged him or asked of him. He was like some sickness that was infecting Sora and Riku had fought so hard to purge him. Why did it take for her of all people to show him that he had no place in Riku's heart.

Kairi leaned forward and carefully licked the second tear from Aros's cheek. The lack of response from him brought a smirk to her face. Aros didn't even flinched when her lips rested his own. She pulled away touching his face in a soothing gesture. Aros barely felt it. He barely heard the deep overlaying voice laced with Kairi's own otherwise, he would've know just who had captured him.

"I've finally caught you, my heartless."

-

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-

Riku had luckily realized that Kairi's boat was missing before his search had begun and he entrusted Sora to Roxas until he returned. As he rowed he couldn't help but think how much this situation weighed on his sanity. The anti-form was not just a build up of darkness within Sora, but an actual personality inside the brunette. To make matters worse, Sora couldn't live with out him so now Riku had to return that side to him. Plus there was the case with Roxas being inside Sora as well. He would have to deal with all three of them in one body. Then his Sora was lying there without a heart, nothing more than a shell! What the hell was going on?

He tied the boat to the dock and jumped off taking a look around. The island was empty and eerily silent. No gulls were calling, no wind passed through the trees, and he didn't hear the laughter of Selphie, Tidus, and Wakka. They were supposed to be here too, weren't they? He walked along the shoreline glancing around warily at his surroundings. He didn't know what to expect from Kairi and he felt better if he kept on his toes. Riku looked out at the waves as they crashed against the shore. This serene yet disturbing quiet and the soft crashing of waves reminded him of that place. The place where he spent most of his time after Castle Oblivion came to his mind. He even remembered where he lay unconscious for so long. Unlike Destiny Islands, it was there that Riku felt the soft embrace of a darkness that wouldn't harm him. It was there that he had begun to have his first visions of a different Sora. Yes, now he remembered. A Sora with hair of pure obsidian, and eyes of crystal amber set into such beautiful moon kissed skin. He was the one that stared down at him during his brief period of consciousness. Had that been Aros? He was the one that had cared for Riku when he lay there on the beach trapped somewhere between the warring darkness and light? The way those burning eyes gazed at him made Riku feel exposed whenever he was able to catch a glimpse of them. In fact, that Sora, he believed, was the one who gifted him with new clothes when he came back to visit the sea. Aros had been there all along. Yeah, he got it.

He continued until he neared the shady spot beneath the bridge where he saw a body lying in the shadows. Soft waves splashed against the body that lay there unmoving. Riku ran towards it and skidded onto his knees to identify it. His eyes widened slightly when his eyes fell onto the face of the other Sora. His lashes rested upon his pale cheek in a peaceful slumber not flinching at the cold water that hit his black clad legs. Riku recognized him immediately as the Sora who had taken such care of him from a distance. Soft breathes passed through parted light rose petal lips letting Riku know that the boy was indeed a live. A fresh gauze was tapped to Aros's cheek leaving him to wonder who had taken care of him. Riku shook him gently and those entrancing amber eyes blinked open tiredly. They turned to Riku in confusion.

"Aros?" Riku whispered.

Aros looked upon Riku with a blank expression. There was one point in time when he would've smirked and pinned his beloved to the sand but that feeling had disappeared. Now, as Riku aided him in sitting up, he felt nothing but pain and rage. She had told him the truth, that Riku didn't love him. Deep down he had always known but he had given the platinum haired teen the benefit of the doubt. That proved in vain. Even now, Riku had only come for him to save Sora's life. He could feel it in his gut that he couldn't love Riku anymore. There was too much at stake to believe any of that now.

"Listen, Aros, I'm here to help you but I need to know where Kairi is."

"That's not my name…" He whispered softly.

"What?" Riku asked distractedly as he looked around for signs of the red head.

"I said that's not my name. It never was, Riku. I always thought you would know what to call me; that you would say it thinking of me and not him."

Riku stared into Aros's eyes finding them darkened and vengeful. He backed away a bit when the boy moved to get up. "Aros, what's wrong with you?"

Aros growled and turned yellow glowing eyes in Riku's direction. The darkness pooled at his feet and seeped into his body. "STOP CALLING ME THAT!"

Riku jumped away when the darkness tried to snag his legs from beneath him and drew Way to Dawn. "Stop this I came to help you!"

"He can't hear you, Riku."

Riku looked behind Aros who had been completely transformed by the darkness into the anti-form. Kairi laid a hand on Aros's shoulder and kissed the blackened skin. The darkness had completely engulfed him and his eyes were bright with the dead yellow light of the heartless. Kairi smiled and giggled nuzzling aros's shoulder. She turned her crazed blue eyes to Riku.

"Look at him Riku, he's so beautifully pathetic. Everything he is revolves around you. But now, he's mine. You can have Sora, Riku. Well what's left of him. I have the best part of him now." She lay her chin on Aros's shoulder smirking at Riku. " Tell me what YOU want, my heartless."

Aros grinned psychotically and raised a clawed hand in front of him. A sleek black keyblade formed in his hand, its handle shapped into a heartless symbol with a jagged line straight down the center. It's point was sharp and glinted in the light showing it was ready to kill. "I want to play with Riku."

Riku narrowed his eyes and glared at Kairi who stroked Aros's hair. "Kairi, let him go!"

"I have no hold on him, Riku. He came to me and now he wants to get rid of all that restrains him. Isn't that right," she kissed Aros's neck. "Sora?"

"Sora?" Riku murmured staring at Aros.

Aros leaned his head to the side moaning softly when the redhead nipped him with her teeth. Kairi placed her hand between his shoulder blades and lightly pushed him forward. "Have fun with him, Sora."

Before Riku could blink he was kneed painfully in the stomach and sent reeling by a punch to his jaw. Kairi placed her hands behind her back watching with a playful expression on her face. Aros grabbed Riku by the collar and throwing him into the air. He roundhouse kicked the blonde in his ribs hearing one crack. Riku held his side crying out pain but was silenced by a shoe to the face. Rolling the sand he wound up on his back facing the sun and his keyblade was once again out of his reach. He couldn't even lift his hand to call it back to him. He never knew the anti form to be so strong though it obvious from the way it had torn into the Lunar Diviner. Aros walked up to him in steady crunches of sand. Riku looked up into his face seeing the dead yellow eyes narrow and his crooked sadistic grin turning into a hesitant frown. He held his blade above his head ready to bring it down on the blonde. Riku saw the hesitation flashing with sparks of amber and yellow. Riku used that opportunity to force strength into his body and roll away from Aros towards his keyblade. He reached for it but a pink clad shoe came down on his hand nearly crushing it. Kairi kicked Way to Dawn into the waves preventing him from retrieving it. She glared at Aros.

"What's the hold up! You said you were ready to do this, now do it!" She shouted. "Unless you want him to hurt you, Aros. You know you don't want that."

Riku's eyes looked at Kairi in confusion. That had not been her voice. Aros's eyes flashed amber once again in a show of silent fear and all hesitation disappeared. His grip tightened and he pinned Riku to the sand by the neck. Aros's grin spread as he moved in for the kill. Riku's eyes shut tight as the blade came down on his chest.

"Riku!"

Aros froze his eyes going amber and the darkness drifting away from his body. He returned to his normal appearance and looked down at the aqua colored blade stabbed into his diaphragm. Riku opened his eyes wide and sat there staring at the shocked and confused expression on the shadow's face. He recognized the hooked end as the Brotherhood. It slid out and Aros fell forward into Riku's arms. His head landed on Riku's shoulder and lay there. Kairi screamed behind him and he heard grunting and struggling. He found Selphie and Wakka tying her up with Selphie's jump rope. Tidus stood in front of him with Aros's blood running off the smooth blade. He was trying to calm down from actually wounding someone so badly. Riku understood the feeling all too well. He cradled Aros's body against him. Amber eyes gazed up at him in guilt and sadness. He coughed up crimson blood that ran down his chin from the wound. This wasn't right, he was suppose to save Aros's not get him killed! How could he do this to the one person who was there when no one else was? Who loved him when no one else did?

Aros looked up at Riku trembling from the pain with in his body. Riku's eyes were on him finally. They were looking at him, into him. He was cradling him alone not his other. He reached up with weakened fingers to touch Riku's face to brush away his bangs. Just like he use to do before. Riku's eyes felt tears rolling down his cheeks when Aros brushed his forhead. That was it! That touch that always kept him sane even in the recesses of his warped mind.

"Ri…ku...my hikari…"

Say it when you know who you're saying it too and what you're saying it for…

"Sora, I'm so sorry."

-

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-

Sora's eyes opened wide and his body jerked in a high arch. Roxas held him close cradling his body.

"Hang on Sora! Riku will pull through, just hang on. He won't let anything happen to Aros. Just hang on!" He kissed his cheek and held him desperately.

Sora clawed at wood with his nails not feeling the splinters digging into his fingertips. Roxas held his hands to him and held onto him so that he would not thrash so much. His own clear blue eyes widened in fright when he saw his arms becoming transparent. Shaking his head, Roxas buried his face into Sora's chest finally realizing that when Sora died he would be lost as well. He would be lie if he said he wasn't scared to fade away. He just wished…

"Axel…I wish you were here. I wish you and Naminé were here," he whispered. "Please, someone help us…"

Sora's hand rose and touched the blonde's hair. "Rox..as…don't cry…"

Roxas lifted his tear filled eyes to look at Sora's closing eyes. "Everything's…alright..."

"SORA!" He shook the brunette trying to rouse him but to no avail. His hand passed through the breathless body beneath him. "No, no, no. NO!"

Roxas, everything's alright…

Konoko: this turned out longer than I expected. I'm going to span the ending over two chapters instead of making a big bulky final chapter. Don't kill me for doing this but hey. Oh and lo and behold Riku doesn't save the day. Ya'll are probably pissed about that too. Hope it doesn't seem rushed but college is kicking my ass and I've only been in it for two weeks so please don't murder me for just that. Anyway, review review review. My hundredth reviewer gets a Aros and Sora picture as a prize, even though I have to draw it first. They'll receive it when the sequel posts. So you better get it going.