CHAPTER 7--Never Give In

A/N: I want to thank everyone - all two of you! - for the reviews I've gotten so far. It's great to know someone is reading my stuff and likes it at least enough to comment on it! And if there's anyone out there reading my fics and not commenting on them, I really, really want to know what you think, even if this is the biggest sack of bung you've ever read. Or whatever you want to call it. . . Your opinions mean a lot to me, good, bad, or down-right horrendous! And if you have any suggestions or requests or anything, please let me know, I wanna hear about those, too! Okay? Okay!

P.S: In case you didn't notice, I settled on a break format I like.

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"Awright, so lemme get this straight," Mizu said, arms crossed and doing her level best not to glare daggers at Axel. "Sora was somehow lured here so that Marluxia could use Namine to erase his memories of Kairi, and replace those memories with memories of her - as in Namine - so that Marluxia can use Sora like a puppet to overthrow the Organization. Is that about right?"

"Lacking the finer details, but yeah," Axel admitted, leaning back and actually looking relieved that she got it. But, to his amazement, she suddenly burst out laughing. "What could possibly be so funny right now?"

"If Marluxia thinks," Mizu somehow managed to say through her laughs, "that mucking around with Sora's memory will help him out. . . he doesn't know Sora very well! Namine will have a hard enough time. . . getting past that kid's thick skull!"

"You scare me sometimes," Axel said, giving her a sideways glance that did nothing except send her into even more gales of laughter. "This isn't something to be laughing about!" he snapped angrily. "Do you have any idea what would happen if Marluxia manages to pull this off?"

"Honestly," Mizu said, her laughs dying down finally, "no, I don't. You do of course realize that even if Marluxia does manage to succeed with this mad-dash plan of his, it's still - what? Eleven to four? Not even Sora could beat those odds."

"You underestimate the power of the Keyblade," Axel pointed out.

"Doubt it," Mizu snorted. "The reason I'm all bandaged up is because of a Keyblade."

"Sora did that to you?" Axel asked, taken completelly aback. "I thought you two were friends!"

"No, no, Ansem did this to me with Riku's Keyblade." Mizu leaned back against the wall and sighed, looking up at Axel. "Looks like it's my turn to do some explaining. . ."

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Riku rolled out of the way of the latest blast, and used his last attack card to stab at Ansem's unprotected side, but Ansem jumped out of the way. Riku dug his hands into his pockets, hoping to find that Potion card again, but he had already used one and apparently, they didn't come back like the attack cards did.

"Oh, great," he growled under his breath, jumping back from another spell. Desperatelly, he dug into his pockets again, and came up with the attack cards, completelly reloaded!

"My turn!" he announced, launching into a triple-combo that drove Ansem back several paces. He repeated the combo several times before Ansem found a way to counter it - or strong enough cards to counter it, but either way, the result was the same.

Riku staggered from the latest parry of Ansem's, and tried to jump back out of the way of the next attack, but he didn't quite make it. Ansem clipped him on the chin, and Riku felt blood begin to trickle down from his mouth. But Ansem apparently had to reload his own cards, and Riku took advantage of this by stabbing out with the Soul Eater, catching the man in the stomach.

Ansem doubled over, then backed away several paces, blood trickling from more places than Riku could remember hitting.

"That all you've got?" Riku snapped, though he was panting and bleeding as well.

"It seems you are intent on resisting the darkness," Ansem said, straightening up and wiping blood from his mouth. "Very well. See with your own eyes."

Ansem held out something, and Riku glanced at them briefly before locking his eyes back on Ansem again. Then his gaze snapped back to Ansem's hand, and his eyes widened.

"What are those?" he asked, bewildered.

"They are cards crafted from your memory," Ansem replied. "Advance through the worlds they beget, and you will come to understand. . . Chasing the light will not distance you from the dark. You cannot run."

"Who's running?" Riku asked with a cocky grin. "Give me the cards. I'll enter those worlds. And in the end, if I haven't given up. . . I win."

Ansem scowled, but threw the cards to Riku nonetheless. Riku caught them before they could either hit him in the face or scatter, and looked at the first one. It showed a town in the middle of a desert, one that looked familiar. Agrabah.

"I have one more gift for you," Ansem said, and Riku looked up at him, confusion and no little apprehension on his face. Before he could react further, though, a column of green light erupted around him, and he felt something deep within himself changing slightly. . .

"What did you do?" Riku demanded angrilly as soon as the eery light abated.

"I tempered the darkness that remains in your heart," Ansem said matter-of-factly.

"What," Riku snarled, "you still think that I'd rely on darkness?"

"Whether or not you use it is your choice," Ansem pointed out, slowly fading from view. "I'll be waiting Riku . . . for you to come to your senses and yield to the darkness!"

Riku snorted and used one of Mizu's favorite phrases.

"Bite my ass, Ansem."

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A/N: I'll bet you never thought you'd hear Riku say that!