Chapter 19: Shattered

Riku glanced around. He was on a… pirate ship. "Of all things…" he muttered. A few Heartless appeared around him. He glanced at them for a second, before looking up. Not surprisingly, he found Sora standing there.

"Riku," Sora muttered. "Why am I not surprised?"

"Still causing trouble, are you?" Riku asked.

"No," Sora replied, rather quickly.

"Still tense about me kicking your butt yesterday, I see," Riku laughed. He paused, noticing that more heartless had appeared. "What's with the Heartless?" he asked, curious as to why they hadn't attacked him yet. Usually, the Heartless weren't this… calm. "Hang on, are they listening to you?" He stared at Sora in disbelief, and slightly in disgust. "Idiot! They're going to-"

"Just stay out of this," Sora muttered.

"But the darkness is going to destroy you!" Riku shouted

"Since when do you care?"

"Sora!"

"Look, why don't you just- just go back to wherever it is you're staying," Sora said, shooting a glare Riku's way.

Riku winced. That was a slightly hurtful demand. "Fine," he muttered. "If that's what you want…" He slowly opened up a dark corridor.

Sora watched out of the corner of his eye, and slowly raised his hand and attempted to open a dark corridor himself. A bit of darkness formed at his fingertips for a second.

"What are you doing?" Riku asked, breaking his concentration.

Sora lowered his hand. "I thought you were leaving," he snapped coldly over his shoulder.

Riku frowned, and then got an idea. "Give me a second," he said, mostly to himself, before disappearing.

How does he do that? Sora thought, trying again to open a corridor. Again what could have been the start of one appeared at his fingertips, but it fizzled out of existence before getting anywhere. Sora grunted in frustration.

Maybe I'm not trying hard enough, he thought, and then tried again, this time focusing harder on tapping into the darkness inside him. The darkness shot through him like fire, and the dark corridor got farther in opening. But then a wave of pain shot through him. Sora gasped, and the dark corridor disappeared.

"Hey, Sora!" Riku said, in a much lighter tone as he stepped out of a dark corridor. He paused, noticing that Sora was in pain. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine!" Sora snapped, trying to recover. "Why'd you come back?"

"Are you sure that you're okay?"

"Why'd you come back?" Sora repeated angrily. The pain had mostly died down by now, but it had definitely made him more annoyed.

"Well I thought I could start this conversation again, you know, on a lighter note," Riku explained. "We really shouldn't be fighting, Sora, and-" he sighed. I can't believe I'm going to say this, he thought to himself, and then continued: "I'm sorry I teased you about me beating you yesterday."

"Save you're apologies!" Sora said, waving a hand to keep the restless heartless in check. He gasped as another wave of pain shot through him, and doubled over, clutching his side.

"Sora, are-"

"I've already told you, I'm fine," Sora gasped, before Riku could even get the question out. He stood there, breath short, doing his best to recover, and recover quickly. Riku watched, slightly worried. Something wasn't right.

Sora glared at Riku, mind spinning, heart aching. He was confused, and angry, and the pain wasn't helping one bit. Eventually, it all became too much for him, and he blurted: "I don't get it, Riku! How is it that you can use the darkness without it hurting you, and when I try-" he winced, another wave of pain hitting him.

For some reason, Riku laughed in response to that question. And then, slightly angry, but mostly amused, he explained: "Sora, I'm pure data—that's what a replica is. I'm data. My mind, my body, my heart, the darkness in my heart—it's all data. I don't think I could change it if I tried, okay? I didn't get a choice in the matter. Nothing about me is even real. You, Sora, however, are. You're real and so is the darkness inside of you. And, from the looks of things, it's eating you from the inside out."

Sora stared at Riku, still gasping for air. He wasn't sure if Riku was kidding or not.

"I'm dead serious, Sora," Riku said, as if he could tell. "Do you think I'd lie about something like that?"

Sora grunted. "No," he admitted after a moment.

"Exactly,"

"But what makes me different? Why is it that I can't use the darkness?"

Riku shrugged. "Sora, I don't think you were ever meant to use the darkness. Your heart… it's full of so much light, the darkness just- destroys that."

Anger flared up inside Sora. "So now you know me better than I do?"

"What?" Riku asked. Then he realized what he had said and gasped. "Wait! No! I didn't mean that!"

"I think I would know my own heart, Riku."

"Sora! I swear, I didn't mean-" Riku said frantically.

"Save your excuses," Sora scoffed. "I'm sick of you pretending like you know everything!"

"I'm not-" Riku shouted, and then growled. "STOP IT SORA!" he shouted. "You are ridiculous!"

"Oh, so now I'm ridiculous, huh?" Sora asked, annoyed.

"Drop it Sora! You know that's not what I meant."

"Of course not," Sora muttered, slightly sarcastic.

"Now you're being unreasonable!" Riku shouted.

Sora shook his head, fists clenched in anger. "I'm done," he muttered, before trying to open up a dark corridor, and succeeding this time. The darkness in his heart was currently dominant, so it did little against him.

"Sora!" Riku called, trying to calm himself down. Sora wasn't listening, he had gotten the corridor open, he should use it. And with only a moment's hesitation, he was gone.

"Sora…" Riku groaned, unsure if he was angry or worried or just plain annoyed.