AN/ oh yeah, I forgot to mention. Sora's dark mode looks kind of like his KH3D outfit. all black and red like that. probably just without the x on his chest lol

Chapter 23: A Little Too Late

Namine gasped in shock as Riku came flying out of a dark corridor and hit the ground hard. He didn't pause and groan, as he usually did after something like this happened. Instead, he jumped immediately to his feet, and glared at the closing corridor.

"That jerk!" he shouted. "He just threw me out!"

"Who did?" Namine asked quietly.

"Sora!" Riku replied, sounding rather upset. Namine could understand why. "He literally beat me up and kicked me out."

"Really?" Namine asked, slightly shocked.

"Really! He can't complain about losing to me now…" Riku trailed off, muttering a few inaudible insults. Namine frowned, slowly rising to her feet to try and calm him down. "He started using dark powers!" he shouted suddenly, throwing his arms into the air, Namine took a step back. "I mean, come on! That's just not fair!" He continued ranting, but Namine stopped listening. Something else had drawn her attention.

"You're hurt…" she said quietly.

"Huh?" Riku asked, stopping mid-sentence to turn and look at her. He glanced at the wound on his shoulder that she was referring to, and shrugged. "It's just a scratch," he said, pushing the matter aside.

Namine raised her eyebrows, continuing to stare at the wound. A wound that was definitely more than "just a scratch." She scanned over the rest of him, finding more of these "scratches." In reality, however, they were bleeding gashes.

"Are you sure you're okay?" she asked him.

"Yeah, I'm fine," he assured her.

"You're bleeding…"

"I am?" He actually sounded rather shocked. He took another look at the wound and grimaced. "I suppose I am," he mused. Namine stared at him, unsure if he was just saying that to be strong for her or if he honestly hadn't noticed. After a second, she figured it was the latter, and laughed.

"We should get you bandaged up," she said.

"No! I'm fine! Really," Riku said rather quickly. "Besides, I should be heading back-"

Namine shook her head and forced him down into the chair. "Not yet you aren't," she told him firmly. "If you go back now you'll just get beaten again." She turned away, trying to locate the bandages.

"I doubt it…" Riku muttered, but cooperated anyways as Namine started bandaging his wounds.

"You took a rather hard beating, didn't you?" Namine said.

"Yeah-" Riku grunted. "Sora's- I don't know. He's got strength that's not his own. And there's something different about his Keyblade, too…"

"What about it?"

Riku sighed, trying to figure out how to explain it. "You remember the cracks in it, right?"

Namine nodded.

"Well, they've gotten worse. And it's not just the cracks now… like- thorns have started growing around it. It's really weird. It's almost as if the thorns are holding the blade together, because the cracks are so bad…" He shrugged, and then winced.

"Sorry," Namine whispered, pulling her hands away from a particular wound. She waited a second before trying again, this time going about bandaging the wound more gently. "Maybe you should try again," she suggested. "I'm sure you'll be able to talk some sense into him."

"Yeah, right," Riku laughed bitterly. "He just gets mad at everything I say, and then I start yelling, and then we start fighting-" he sighed. "Sora's so stubborn."

Namine laughed. "So are you."

Riku chuckled at this. "You know, to be completely honest, I went easy on him."

"Of course you did," she laughed, moving to bandage a different wound.

"Hey! Don't give me that," Riku said, sounding slightly annoyed. But he was grinning the entire time. "Do you think Sora could honestly beat me up this bad if I hadn't have let him?"

Namine just smiled and said nothing. Riku shook his head.

"Well, I did go easy on him. I barely used Dark Mode at all. Only a bit at the beginning of the battle, and even then I wasn't attacking very hard. Then he knocked me out of Dark Mode, and it sorta went downhill from there…" Riku scratched his head. "I wasn't trying very hard though. I didn't really want to hurt him. And Kairi was there, too."

"She was!" Namine asked.

"Yeah, I was talking to her before Sora showed up."

"Do you think she's handling everything okay?"

Riku shook his head. "I don't think so… especially not after watching me and Sora fight like-" he stopped suddenly, as Namine moved to bandage a wound on his side. He glanced over her, swearing his heart skipped a beat. His face grew hot and he quickly turned away. After an uncomfortable minute, which felt like much longer, he asked: "Are you done yet?"

"No, sorry," Namine muttered, fumbling with the bandage. "Like I said before, you got beat up pretty badly."

"I told you I went easy on him!"

"That doesn't change the fact that that you're bleeding!" She said, and then pulled away, sighing. "There, done." She took a step back, glancing over him again. "I think I got everything… does anything else hurt?"

"My back…" Riku said slowly, and then quickly added: "Like, it aches. I was thrown into a wall three times."

Namine winced.

"It's not bleeding, is it?" Riku asked nervously.

Namine checked and shook her head no. Riku let out a small sigh of relief, which went unnoticed. "Good, if that's it, I should get going again," he said, standing up.

"Are you sure you'll be okay?" Namine asked.

He flexed his shoulder, where one of the worst wounds was. A small wave pain shot through his arm, and he did his best not to wince. He didn't need her worrying any more about him. "I'll be fine!" he told her. She frowned, not believing him for one second. He grinned, opening up a dark corridor.

"Riku, please be careful," she sighed, knowing she wasn't going to be able to talk him out of it.

"Don't worry, I will be," he laughed, stepping through. "Promise."

There was a pause, a flash, and then Riku gasped, stumbling back.

"What the-?" he muttered, glaring at the dark corridor in confusion.

"What happened?" Namine asked.

"I… don't know…" Riku muttered, sticking his hand into the corridor. He pulled it back quickly, as if he had been shocked. "It shocked me," he frowned, and then closed the corridor and opened a new one. "Hang on-" he muttered, stepping through. He was only gone a minute, before he came back. "Okay…" he said slowly. "That worked…"

"What's the matter?" Namine asked, as Riku opened another dark corridor and cautiously stuck his hand into it. Again, he pulled his hand back quickly, as if he had been shocked. There was a sharp intake of air as he shook his hand.

"I… can't go to Hollow Bastion. It keeps shocking me every time I try." He closed the dark corridor in frustration.

"Let me try…" Namine said, opening up a dark corridor herself. Well, she tried to, it didn't work until the second try. Noting Riku's previous caution, she carefully stuck her hand in, as he had done. About halfway through, her hand hit something and she gasped, pulling her hand back. "That stung!" she whispered under her breath, rubbing her fingers. She closed the dark corridor and sighed. "I guess not," she muttered, turning to Riku. "What do you think happened?"

"I don't know," he said, still extremely confused. "I suppose Sora might have-" he paused, just because the idea sounded a bit ridiculous.

"Might have what?"

"Done something," Riku finished. "You know, considering he knew I was going to try and come back as soon as possible. But- I- I can't imagine what he did, let alone how he did it."

Namine bit her lip, thinking about it. "There's got to be another way," she said after a moment. "There's always another way."

Riku stared at her, wondering where that bit of knowledge had come from. She caught his drift and shrugged, but determination remained in her eyes.

"Hmph," Riku said. "I guess you're right…" He sighed. "But what am I supposed to do?"

"I don't know…" Namine muttered, suddenly at a loss of what to say. She was getting rather annoyed that she kept saying these things, but having no idea what she meant by them. However, Riku took no notice, he was deep in his own thoughts.

"Do you think that maybe there's a back way in?" he asked after a moment. "You know, like a way in from another world?"

"There could be…" Namine answered. The idea definitely didn't seem that far fetched. She, of course, had no idea. "It might be worth looking into."

Riku groaned. "I'm never going to find him. And I had him," he muttered angrily. "I just didn't do anything, and I let him beat me. If I had just-" he stopped, Namine placing a hand on his shoulder (the good one).

"It's not your fault," she assured him. "This probably would have happened no matter what."

Riku took a breath, calming himself down.

"Besides," Namine continued. "Maybe this is best. Now you have some time to heal."

"Yeah, you're right," he muttered, but opened up a dark corridor anyways. "I'm going to start searching," he said. Namine didn't have time to reply, for as soon as he had said that he was gone.