Chapter 3 here. Sorry it hasn't had much of Sora and Riku yet, I promise they are the main characters and will take over. I dunno, if I don't get any reviews, I'll probably discontinue the story.

Disclaimer: None of it's mine

Previous Chapter:

"We have to do something! Please Riku!"

"Fine."

Sora's eyes lit up, "Thanks, Riku." And he turned and ran for the palace. Riku paused for a moment. He had a bad feeling about this…

Chapter 3

Reno slunk around the corner, frowning. The Parliament's guards were suddenly everywhere. He disappeared back around the building to face the six young people following him. He shook his head, "I have one more idea. But we have to move fast."

The old service shaft hadn't been used since before the Princess was born. They were blocked off, dilapidated, and collapsing. Completely the last place anyone would take the ruler of their nation; well, anyone loyal anyway. And yet, that was indeed Reno's last option. They raced through the shadows, using their combined knowledge of the grounds to stay hidden. Reno raced around the corner, and stopped dead. Duo ran smack into him and fell over. Reno turned, grabbed him, and pushed the others back, "Run!"

The bullets burst out behind them, for Reno had run straight into one of the units searching for them. He stuck his rod back into its loop on his belt, and pulled out a firearm, sniffing at it in dislike. He whirled, shooting two quick shots and racing after the others, not bothering to see if he'd hit his marks. Duo was now leading, knowing of an alternative route to the shaft. The bullets burst around them, but Heero and Reno covered the rear, periodically firing behind them. Reno hissed as fire burned across his side. Heero glanced at him, and they turned and ran as quickly as they could after the others, Reno tossing his own smoke bomb behind them as they disappeared around a corner.

As they ran, Reno clutched his burning side, swearing at the red seeping through his suit. He cringed, Tseng's gonna skin me alive for ruining another suit… His musing was interrupted as he slammed straight into Wu Fei, who had stopped.

"What the-?"

Nobody noticed him, and Wu Fei didn't even snap at him, they were all focusing on the sky, which had turned an unnatural shade of purplish-black. Reno found his jaw dropping, "What the ff-" He was cut off mid-swear by an elbow in his gut courtesy of Relena. He gingerly held a hand over his stomach, particularly the wound in his side.

The group noticed the shadows were… growing, and they were moving in an almost unnatural way. The shadows seemed to be creeping towards them, surrounding them. Warily, they once again pulled their weapons. Suddenly, the shadows began to rise from the ground. Black creatures were forming all around them, glowing yellow eyes fixed on the people they surrounded. An unnatural chill went up Reno's spine. What the hell were these things? They moved forward.

Heero was the first to fire. Six quick consecutive shots into the closest shadow-being, and it did nothing. Reno gripped his electro-mag rod tighter. If bullets had no effect, what kind of chance did they stand? They unconsciously pulled closer together as the shadows advanced, black claws extended.

"Strike Raid!" a voice roared from somewhere above them, and something flashed silver in the midst of the shadows. Several puffs of black smoke exploded and several of the shadow beings disappeared. Heero's eyes followed the silver flash to the roof of the building behind them. A figure reached out and the silver flash returned to its hand, revealing that it was some kind of sword-like weapon. The figure leapt off of the building, weapon raised at the black shadows. The only distinguishable feature this figure had was impossibly spiky brown hair. He, for they were sure that the figure was male, was a whirlwind of motion, lashing out at the shadows, diving amongst them, puffs of black smoke following him wherever he moved. The shadows were ignoring the seven people they had surrounded and were focusing solely on this figure. The fighter leapt suddenly into their midst, and turned bright blue eyes to them, revealing him to be a young man, "Is everyone alright?" He suddenly froze, his mouth hanging open in an 'O' as he spotted Relena.

"You're-"

"Sora!" another voice interrupted the boy's; the boy whirled in time to see a shadow leaping at him, claws aimed for his heart. He moved to raise his odd weapon, but it wasn't moving fast enough.

Just before it reached him it exploded in a burst of black smoke. A red and black weapon flew through it, and nearly hit the boy in the face before it suddenly reversed directions like a boomerang back in the direction it had come from. It was caught in the hands of a figure dressed in black.

"Sora! What are you doing!"

"Riku! That was my move!"

"Shut up and get to work!"

The brown haired boy groaned, but dove back into the fray.

Those in the group drew their blades, seeing as though any kind of firearm seemed to be useless against these creatures. Even these weapons seemed useless, but they caused more damage. Heero destroyed one; Duo figured it was just because he was super-human anyway. Duo was vaguely aware of gunshots still echoing around the grounds. Other soldiers seemed to be desperately clinging to the idea that their firearms would save them.

The other two figures, the brown haired boy and the black coated figure danced through the shadows, seemingly easily getting rid of them.

Two soldiers ran into view, firing rapidly.

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Riku panted, there seemed to be no end to them. His mind raced as he fought. What were they doing here? Why? How could they possibly be here? It didn't make sense. He vaguely noted two soldiers run into his vicinity, firing their firearms wildly. He also only vaguely noted it when one of them accidentally mistook him as one of the shadows, then winced as the bullet slammed into his abdomen, just below his rib cage. He faltered slightly, staggering a step, and then leapt right back in. Why is it always me? He heard the soldiers scream, and winced as he knew what was happening to them. A moment later, he glanced and realized that they had disappeared. There was nothing he could do for them now.

He, like Sora, had realized that in the group of people that they'd stumbled across, was the Princess of Sanq. Of course, Sora had taken it upon himself to dive right in, and Riku had followed, knowing it was their best choice to protect that certain group of people. The group had wisely abandoned their firearms, and drawn blades, and seemed to be doing fairly well, considering they had never faced this enemy before.

A shrill scream distracted him, and he turned, recognizing the light of the Princess on the ground, one of her guardians seemed to be kneeling beside her. He swiftly moved towards them, coming to a stop next to them. He set his weapon on the ground beside him.

Heero glared up at the nondescript figure as he knelt beside Relena. He couldn't see the figure's face; the hood hid the stranger from view. He spared one glance at the odd weapon the figure had set down. It looked like some kind of… bat wing with an angel's wing sticking out the top. Altogether ridiculous, in Heero's opinion.

"I can help her," the voice came from behind the hood, a calm, confident, young man's voice, "Trust me."

Heero didn't trust him, but the wound was unusual, and Relena was in pain. If there was one thing he couldn't stand, it was to see her in pain.

He nodded.

Riku sighed in relief as the young man nodded. He winced, hand moving to his side, but he didn't touch it, not needing blood slicking his hands. He reached into his pocket, and swore mentally. Only one left. He could heal her, or he could heal himself. He glanced at her; he could see (he snorted inwardly at the term) the darkness pulsing from the wound the creature's claws had dealt her. Making his decision, he pulled the small bottle of green liquid from his pocket. He yanked the cork out, and moved lifted the girl's head, placing the bottle to her lips.

"Drink this," he murmured softly. She obliged and the green liquid poured down her throat. Almost instantly, the wound across her chest began to seal itself together. The blood flow stopped, and soon, only the faintest trace of the wound was left.

Heero blinked, but controlled the surprise he was feeling, "What was that."

The figure looked up at him, and Heero was surprised to note that he couldn't see the man's eyes because they were hidden behind some kind of blindfold.

"An elixir," the blindfolded man answered. He moved to stand up, and hissed in pain, sinking back down to the ground.

Relena, by this time, had recovered enough to be fully conscious again, and gasped, "You've been shot!" she cried in horror.

The wounded young man grunted in response, finally allowing his hand to move to the entry wound. When his hand pulled away, he couldn't see it, but he could feel the warm stickiness of blood.

Heero growled irritably, "Is there an exit wound?"

The man shook his head, "Think so." He hated how weak his voice sounded. He turned away from the pair behind him.

Throwing out his senses, he realized that most of the Shadows had disappeared. Sora was taking care of a rapidly diminishing group of them. He grabbed his blade and stood, fighting back the nausea that rose with him. Composing himself, he located some Shadows lurking in the alley and leapt back into action.

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Sora's body pumped with adrenaline, he was tired, but the battle thrilled him. He was concerned about the appearance of the Shadows. But he was more of an 'act then think' type of person. So he pushed the worries from his mind and focused on the battle. He noticed a Shadow preparing to pounce and grinned to himself, summoning his power to him. "Ragnarok!"

Duo panted. Whatever the heck these things were, they were tough. The only ones having any success at all were the two with the funky weapons. He paused there was only a small group left, and the one with the spikes for hair was decimating them. He noticed one leaping at the young man, and opened his mouth to warn him. The young man had already noticed, and even grinned. The sky seemed to turn a violet color, and the young man seemed to be glowing. The kid leapt forward, "Ragnarok!" Duo blinked, Raga whatnow? What is this kid-?

His thoughts stopped there as the kid suddenly burst into action, propelled by some unseen force. A beam of light seemed to explode from his weapon, then that exploded into a dozen other beams, all pounding into the shadow. It shrieked and disappeared in a cloud of black. Duo blinked. Was that even possible?

Sora grinned as his feet hit the ground again. He turned to see Riku walking towards him. He could hear Riku chuckle, "Show off."

"Oh yeah, as if that Strike Raid at my face wasn't showing off."

Riku chuckled weakly. Sora peered at him in concern, "Hey, you ok?"

Riku waved him off, "Yeah, let's make sure there aren't any of them left wandering around." Sora nodded and bounded off. Riku sighed, and then glanced back at the group of people they'd helped out. They were gathering together, obviously checking each other over for injuries. He winced, knowing that Sora would be more than thorough in his sweep, dismissed his weapon, and moved to check the people.

As he walked up to them, they all turned to face him. Riku shifted uncomfortably on his feet, then raised a hand, "I assume you're all relatively unharmed if you're all standing. My name's Riku."

The one with violet eyes and brown hair pulled back into a long braid stepped forward first, "Duo. Duo Maxwell. Thanks for the help. You sure know how to deal with those things."

Riku nodded, "Let's just say we've… come across them before." Behind his blindfold, his eyes blinked. His head was pounding. He knew he was losing too much blood, and wished Sora would move faster so he could get this wound taken care of because he wasn't sure how long he was going to stay conscious.

"Hey," the one with the red hair said, "you ok?"

Riku opened his mouth to answer but no words came out as darkness claimed him.

A/N: