Chapter 29: Fighting the Darkness

Sora hit the ground hard, his Keyblade flying out of his reach. He stumbled to grab it again, before the shadows snatched it. He groaned. The rest of him was currently fighting Riku. And it seemed that every time Riku's blade hit him he grew weaker, as Ansem grew stronger.

"This stinks… you would think that Riku would be hurting both of us…" he muttered, thankfully managing to grab a hold of his Keyblade before the shadows got to it.

"Stop resisting!" Ansem shouted, commanding a few more shadows to attack him. He knocked them back, running forward to attack Ansem. Ansem dodged, again. Sora had barely hit him at all.

"This is my heart!" Sora said, rolling out of the way of an attack from Ansem's Guardian, which was rather annoying. "You're the one who needs to stop fighting!" He rushed forward, managing to pull a nice combo before being knocked back.

The shadows got a hold of his leg, and restrained him. He gasped and writhed in pain as the affects of Riku's Dark Aura hit him. Ansem just laughed. The shadows attempted to rip the Keyblade from his hand, but he held on tightly. If he lost the Keyblade, he would lose all hope.

Riku's attack finally finished, and the shadows released him. He fell to his knees, panting. "How the heck isn't he getting hurt?" he wondered, glaring at Ansem. Ansem continued to laugh. "This isn't fair…"

He rushed forward again, attempting another combo.

xxx

Riku hit with every Dark attack he had, unaware of how little it was doing him. All he saw was that Sora was getting hurt, and he assumed it was Ansem that was taking the damage. He didn't know that Ansem had pulled back on his control, letting Sora be slightly in charge for this battle. But only just enough for him to take the damage instead.

Riku quickly blocked Sora's blade and counterattacked as Sora reeled back in the shock of being blocked. He pulled a nice combo or so, and then quickly pulled away as Sora lashed out with darkness. He moved in for another attack.

Sora avoided that one, however, and Riku charged up Helm Split. It seemed as if Sora didn't even attempt to avoid the attack. He charged up Dark Firaga, which Sora also didn't avoid. He frowned, a bit skeptical, and rushed forward with his blade. He was blocked, but quickly jumped back before Sora hit him with a counterattack.

Sora did, however, manage to hit him immediately after that, and hit the wound in his side. Riku gasped, stumbling backwards. He bit his lip, holding back the cry of pain. It came out as something more of a moan.

Darn you, Ansem, he thought, charging up a Dark Aura. He hit Sora every time, causing a lot of damage. He swallowed, wondering how much Sora was actually hurting underneath. That was exactly what he didn't need. To end up accidently killing Sora instead of Ansem.

He stopped with the Dark attacks for a while, and just attacked madly with his blade. Sora actually did seem to avoid most of these, though he did dodge roll right into an attack once. Riku almost laughed at this, but didn't.

Something wasn't right.

xxx

Every time that Riku used a Dark attack, the shadows would restrain him, so he would take the full pain of the blow. It got rather annoying. Sora wasn't about to give up though. He continued fighting, though each time Riku's blade hit he would stumble.

"This is rather ridiculous," Sora mumbled, as he fell to the ground. He held onto his Keyblade with a firm grip, as the shadows were gaining up on him. They did this every time he fell. Sora quickly got to his feet again, and quickly attacked Ansem. He managed to pull about three combos, and then pulled back before he was hit. He dodged the shadows that were constantly trying to grab hold of him, and attacked Ansem again. However, his Guardian blocked it, and he stumbled back.

"Submit to the darkness!" Ansem shouted, sending a wave of shadow to overtake Sora. It hit him rather hard, but he fought against it. He wouldn't give in. He wouldn't.

xxx

"Behold the power of darkness!" Sora shouted, and Riku shuddered. The phrase didn't sound right, coming from Sora's mouth.

However, he wasn't given much time to think about it, as Sora charged up Dark Aura. He watched in shock for a second. "That's just not right!" he muttered, and then quickly dodged. The dodging didn't do much good though, and he gasped in pain each time as Sora struck. He stumbled back, as he hurt even worse now.

I wonder how much Sora's hurting… he thought. Because that attack hurts! He contemplated whether or not he should stop using that attack. He quickly dodged another of Sora's attacks, and then rushed forward with his blade.

"Do you give up yet?" he taunted. He was ignored, and was just attacked again. He blocked the attack, and retaliated. He pulled away after that though, and just stuck to mainly avoiding. He didn't want to attack much anymore. He had this gut feeling that his attacks weren't doing much good.

I am so… so sorry Sora… he thought, unleashing a massive combo.

Sora's screams of pain were loud. Ansem's voice had almost completely died down. Riku grimaced.

Was this even working?

I'm just overreacting, he told himself. He charged up Dark Aura again.

xxx

Sora screamed, loud. The shadows didn't even need to restrain him. He was already on the ground, curled up into a ball. The pain was unbearable. It was ridiculous. Ansem was barely even attacking him, his pain only came from Riku's attacks.

"I hate you…" he whispered. "I hate you Ansem…"

One of the shadows grabbed onto his Keyblade, and tried to pull it away from him. He held onto it, trying to pull it out of the shadow's grasp. More shadows reared up, taking his weakness as an advantage. They pulled at his fingers, trying to make him let go.

"Stop it!" he shouted, but they wouldn't listen to him. "This is my heart, dangit, leave me alone!" he cried, trying to shake the shadows off of him. Every time he knocked them back, they'd return with reinforcements. They attacked his hand restlessly, eagerly trying to wrench the Keyblade from his grasp.

He pulled one off of him, and tossed it aside. However, he was distracted in doing so, and the rest of the shadows nearly got his Keyblade away from him. He tightened his grip, but it was no use. They finally managed their task, and the Keyblade was torn from his grasp.

"NO!" he shouted, quickly trying to grab it again. But a horde of shadows attacked him then, holding him down. The shadows with his Keyblade moved farther away, and eventually the Keyblade just disappeared. "No…" he mumbled, as the darkness slowly overcame him and he drifted back into the waves of sleep.