CHAPTER 5 - TO FIGHT THE DARK
A/N: Dude, I just found out this morning (8-19-2006) that Haley Joel Osment (a.k.a. Sora if you didn't know) does weed. He hit a mailbox and broke a rib, and now they're charging him with drunk driving and marijuana possession. I am totally not kidding you, it was in the paper and everything!
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"You're alive?" Riku demanded, incredulous. He distinctly remembered Ansem using his body and his Keyblade to unlock Maleficent's heart, and Sora and his friends completelly destroying the witch! So how in the world could she possibly be here?
"You haven't been paying attention," Maleficent taunted in her usual patronizing tone. "I am but a figment of your memory."
Riku paused a moment, then grinned, discovering that he was, in fact, quite pleased with this scenario.
"Of all the people I could run into," he drawled, "it had to be you."
"Who else?" Maleficent asked with a haughty wave of her hand. "Your heart is steeped in darkness. You can only see people who exist in that same darkness - people like me."
"No," Riku gasped, completelly stunned by her words. Although, they did certainly explain why he had only seen Mizu so far, but she wasn't a memory. It was disgusting, but the witch was making perfect sense.
"Be grateful you have someone to keep you company," Maleficent teased with a grin that was bordering on a leer. "Your heart is empty. Where it not for the darkness in your heart . . . you would be completely alone."
"That's sounding pretty good right about now," Riku snarled.
"Come, now," Maleficent laughed. "You once clung to me to sate your hunger for darkness. You want me here. Who else but I can give you the darkness you long for?"
Again, Riku had to pause and consider her words. For all that she was merely a memory now, Maleficent was making far, far too much sense, and hitting too close to the mark for Riku's comfort. He took a moment to search his heart, his feelings, and finally admit the truth about both not only to Maleficent, but to himself as well.
"There was a time I did want you around," he admitted, fists clenched and eyes fixed on the ground. "I surrendered my heart to the dark. But never again." He clenched his fists tighter, and stared Maleficent straight in the eyes, facing his past - as well as his fears. "You and your darkness have nothing to offer. All I did was lose myself. . . Empty myself! I'm finished with all that. If I'm stuck seeing people like you, people of the dark . . ."
He pulled out his Soul Eater sword, took a fighting stance, and announced his decision.
"I'll take you out one by one."
"Then don't forget to take yourself out last," Maleficent said, not even phased by the threat. "Because you, like me, are one of the dark."
"That's fine with me," Riku spat. "I turned to the darkness because my heart was weak. I hate that weakness. It's like I'm my own enemy. And seeing people like you embrace the darkness just makes it worse! Enough talk, Maleficent."
"So you hate the darkness enough to fight it," Maleficent mused, then burst out laughing with her maniacal, high-pitched cackle. "Oh, the agony you must feel! Let me end your pain, Riku - end it forever with the wondrous power of darkness!"
Riku leapt back from the green-tinged flames that suddenly erupted from her body, engulfing her. He'd seen this transformation before, so he knew what to expect. He leapt back again, narrowly avoiding the snapping maw, slicing at her muzzle with his sword. He caught her, and she snapped her neck back, shaking her head as though trying to rid it of a troublesome fly. He started to dart in to attack her vulnerable belly, but she spat fire at him and he had to jump back again.
He barely noticed as the fire surrounded him, but Maleficent was stupid enough to throw her weight around, and just enough of the ceiling fell in that Riku could climb up on top of it and avoid the fires while continuing his attack.
Leafing through the deck of cards he needed to fight, he noticed a new one that he hadn't had before. It was green, and emblazoned with what looked like King Mickey's seal. Shrugging, he decided to try it.
The fires went out and Maleficent was stunned by the bright flash of light brought on by the card, and Riku used this opportunity to get in close to her and spend his card-moves recklessly. He had just barely begun to break through the armor-like scales, though, when Maleficent regained her senses and lashed out at him with one of her fore-claws. Riku tried jumping back, but was caught on the chest and sent tumbling onto his backa few feet away. He spent a brief moment trying to get his breath back, and rolled away from the claw that was descending on him to pin him to the floor.
Back on his feet, but still winded, Riku spent his last few cards trying to keep the claws at bay, but. . .
"What am I supposed to do without any cards?" he growled, searching his pockets while trying to stay out of the lines of attack and fire. He looked up just in time to roll to the side to avoid another swipe with a claw, and twisted his ankle in the process. Then, miraculously, he found another card.
Without pausing, he used the card, a green one with what looked like a potion bottle stamped on it. Immediatelly, he noticed that his ankle didn't hurt anymore and his breathing was steady again. His chest also seemed to be bleeding less, but that might have been natural.
He also found all of his cards back, including the one with King Mickey's seal.
He used a card to parry the next few attacks, then used the King card. Maleficent was stunned again, and Riku pulled the same trick he had last time, whaling away at the exact same spot and thankful that Maleficent didn't have any cards that could heal her. Slowly, but inexorably, Maleficent's armor was chipped away.
He broke through to her soft flesh before she recovered from the flash of light, and plunged his sword into her heart.
Maleficent screamed, rearing back on her haunches, her fore-claws clutching at the wound that still had Riku's sword sticking out of it. Her claws scrabbled over her own scales as she tried to remove the blade, but she couldn't get a grasp on it. Eventually, after Riku and the entire room was liberally sprayed and splattered with her black blood, she keeled over and died, her body fading away into the darkness she had loved so much.
Riku took a moment to catch his breath, bent over and bracing himself upright with his hands on his knees. He barely even noticed how badly he was shaking, but he could definitelly feel Maleficent's blood all over him. It made him feel dirty, like he'd just been rolling around in a landfill.
When his breathing was back to normal and his legs had stopped shaking, Riku stood erect and walked over to his Soul Eater, which was stuck point-first in the ground. Laying around it were the gems he had found after defeating the Heartless, as well as another card. This one was black, and depicted Maleficent in her dragon form. Figuring it could come in handy like all the rest of the cards, Riku stuck it at the end of his fighting deck.
Wiping the blood from his face, Riku headed towards the door, only looking back once to say, "Good riddance."
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A/N: I love writing fight scenes. I don't know why, I just do. They're kinda fun. And Sora still does weed. XD If you think I'm gonna let this just fly by you've got another thing coming! The only question is, does it still qualify as a crack fic if people are doing weed in it? For that matter, is it still a crack fic if you were writing it while way-past-drunk-but-not-quite-dead-yet-because-you-really-shouldn't-have-had-that-eighth-can-of-rootbeer?