AN/ okay, this might be confusing. but everything in italics is what's going on inside Sora's heart

Chapter 27: Trying to Escape

He stood before the Keyhole. The Keyhole that would be completed oh so soon. He was in Dark Mode, the look on his face determined. He watched her, half with pity, half with amusement. She was on her knees, desperately pleading with him. This was her last chance. If only she could get through to him.

"You don't have to do this!" Kairi cried, staring at him in disbelief. She was shocked, angry, confused. She couldn't tell if the tears that rolled down her cheeks were from sadness or from anger. She didn't know what was wrong with him. But something was definitely wrong with Sora, even more so now than before.

"You don't understand," Sora said. Kairi shuddered at his voice. That was another thing that had changed. His voice was colder, and blended almost perfectly with another voice, that stood strongly behind his. "I have to do this."

No you don't! Kairi thought bitterly, terribly upset. "Please! If you can still here me-" she shouted, hoping to get through to the light inside of him. "You know you don't have to do this! Turn back!" She was sobbing now, voice barely escaping her tears. "Sora…" She broke down into sobs and lay crying on the ground, so scared. Sora was gone. The Sora she knew was gone. The boy standing in front of her wasn't Sora, just some pawn of the darkness.

He turned to look at her, a bit of pity in his eyes. But he didn't run and comfort her, as he would have only a few days ago. He just watched her, doing nothing, like he didn't even care.

But some part of him did. The light in his heart broke down crying, too, ashamed of what the rest of him was doing. Ashamed that he had made Kairi this scared.

"What are you doing!" Sora shouted, glaring up at Ansem with tear streaked cheeks."I thought you said we could fix things!"

Ansem laughed, and Sora shuddered, surprised he hadn't seen it earlier. Ansem wasn't here to fix things, he was here to make them worse.

He slowly pulled out his Keyblade, aiming it at Kairi.

"NO!" Sora shouted, realizing what was going on. There was no way he was going to let this happen. Ansem just continued to laugh.

He focused his energy, concentrating on the task. The tip of his blade sparked with energy, and Kairi slowly fell silent.

"You won't make me do this!" Sora cried defiantly, doing his best to regain control of his body. He managed to make himself lower his blade for a second, but that's all he got. Ansem shot out a wave of darkness, which pinned him down. He struggled against the darkness for a second, before he lapsed again into the waves of sleep.

"You're too much trouble," Ansem muttered.

Again, he raised his blade, aiming it at Kairi. Energy sparked at the tip of the blade. There was a sudden blinding flash of light. Kairi gasped, as her heart was torn from her body. The Keyhole flashed. Sora glanced over at it, smiling. Finally.

xxx

Riku sighed, glancing up at the castle of Hollow Bastion. He had informed Leon of his predicament, and Leon had suggested a Gummi Ship. Cid had then offered to give him a lift. However, after just that one trip, Riku decided he didn't like Gummi Ships very much, and was glad that he could still use dark corridors to gain access to other worlds.

So this is what the outside of it looks like… he thought, though he honestly wasn't surprised about it. He still had that nagging feeling that he had been here before, he just couldn't recall when, exactly. Whatever, he thought. I just need to figure out where I need to be going.

Almost instantly, a fuzzy image came to mind. He frowned, wondering what the heck his brain was trying to tell him. He opened up a dark corridor, and started to step through, before being knocked back. He gasped.

I can't believe I forgot… he thought, and then sighed, closing the corridor. It would probably take him forever to navigate himself through Hollow Bastion to where he needed to be. He had already lost twenty minutes in the Gummi Ship. And judging by the sudden amount of Heartless showing up, he probably didn't have much time left.

"This stinks," he muttered, ignoring the Heartless and running off.

xxx

He was relatively close to where he needed to be. He could feel it. However, there was someone in his way.

"Who are you?" Riku asked sharply. Though, it was a sort of pointless question. He already knew that this was Maleficent. How? Well, that he didn't know. There was something just nagging at the back of his mind.

"You must be Riku," Maleficent said, trying to sound pleasant. Riku nearly laughed at that. "I'm afraid you're too late, though. Any moment now, the final Keyhole will be unsealed, and this world will be plunged into darkness."

"Look," Riku said. "I don't mean to be rude, but I don't have time for this. Just tell me where Sora is."

Maleficent laughed. "I don't think you'll need to be worrying about that."

Riku scowled. "Seriously, you really don't want to be in my way at the moment. Just tell me where Sora is. I don't care one bit about what you want to do, but if you're going to be in my way, I might just have to kill you."

"You think you can defeat me?" Maleficent asked. "Me, the Mistress of all Evil?"

Riku groaned, and pulled his blade. He did not have time for this.

xxx

He sat in the eternal darkness, so cold. What had he just done? Why couldn't he have stopped it?

"Kairi's in even more danger," he moaned. "And again, it's all my fault."

He shuddered, just thinking about the fragmented memories. He had only picked up bits and pieces of what had just happened. All he knew was what he had done, and he was slightly thankful he didn't have to witness the entire scene.

However, there was one thing he couldn't forget.

Kairi's scream, as her heart had been torn from her body.

It was echoing in his mind, over and over again.

"I can't believe…" he whispered. "I- what have I done? I- I-"

"Foolish boy," Ansem laughed. "Stop regretting it. It will all work out."

Anger shot through him. "Work out?" Sora asked, almost laughing. "You think this is all going to work out?"

"Soon, the eternal darkness will be ours!"

"I don't want any part of this," Sora muttered.

"What do you expect to do?" Ansem asked. "There is nothing you can do to stop it!"

"Nothing?" he asked, slowly rising to his feet. "You think after what you made me do to Kairi, I'm just gonna give up?" He laughed, bitterly. "I don't want anything to do with the darkness, and I don't want anything to do with you. I realize now, that the darkness doesn't make me any stronger, it only makes me weaker. I was weak, to let you in. And letting you stay just makes me weaker." He pulled out his Keyblade. It was absent of the cracks and the thorns, shining brightly with light. Light that his heart hadn't seen for a while now.

"Impossible!" Ansem gasped, staring at the Keyblade.

"Get out of my heart!" Sora shouted, charging.