Chapter 17: Squirming Evil

Clayton fired.

The moment before the bullet hit him, Riku flashed into dark mode.

Riku gasped, clutching his chest and stumbling back in pain. After a moment he slowly pulled his hand away from the wound, and glancing at it he gasped in surprise. He staggered back again, his breath growing short.

Clayton slowly lowered his gun as Riku sunk to his knees, clutching the wound again.

Satisfied that Riku was no longer a threat, Clayton ran.

"Riku!" Sora shouted, running over. But something made him pause.

Riku was laughing.

"Namine would have killed me if she saw me do that," he said, rising to his feet.

Sora wasn't sure if to feel relieved or angry. "You scared me!" he shouted.

Riku just grinned, removing his hand from the "wound". There was no blood. "Are you kidding?" he laughed. "I was totally faking. I knew what I was doing. See, look?" He carefully picked the bullet out of his dark suit and then tossed it to the ground. "Not even a scratch. Well, a small scratch, but I'll live."

Sora shook his head in amazement. "Won't you have a hole in your dark suit now, though?"

"Nah, it'll repair itself," Riku laughed.

"It will?" Sora asked.

Riku nodded, and then shrugged. "I've learned to stop questioning the oddities of this suit."

Sora grinned. "Yeah, like the fact it has a skirt,"

"It does not have a-" Riku began, but paused as he looked down. His dark suit did indeed have something similar to a skirt. He didn't say anything for a moment. "Okay, fine, it does have a skirt," he said finally. "However, I don't think people care when I'm blasting them in the face with a dark aura."

"Good point…" Sora said slowly.

Riku flickered out of dark mode. "Well, we did answer our question about Clayton. Only someone being controlled by the darkness would shoot someone who was unarmed. That, or, he's just a complete idiot and a jerk. Either way, I think we need to get rid of him."

"Where'd he run off to?" Sora asked.

"Not a clue," Riku replied. "But he can't be that hard to find."

xxx

"Hey, I think we found him," Sora said, pointing through the bushes that they happened to be hiding behind. He quietly summoned his blade, and turned to Riku. "You ready for this?"

"Why don't you fight him alone?" Riku suggested.

Sora laughed. "Are you too scared or something?" he teased.

Riku frowned. "No, I just think you should fight him alone."

"Why?"

"Two reasons," Riku replied. "One: he probably thinks I'm dead. Two: How do you expect to get stronger if you can't fight a few things alone? Besides, he doesn't look like he'd be too hard to beat."

Sora sighed. "I guess…" he muttered.

"Hey, if anything goes wrong, I can jump in no problem and help you out," Riku said.

Sora grinned. "Nothing's going to go wrong," he replied, hopping to his feet and stepping out of the bushes.

Riku watched with little interest. Sora probably wouldn't need help, and if he did, he'd let Riku know. Riku sighed, and then started to reach into his pocket to pull out the picture. But then he decided against it. He didn't want it to get dirty.

Sora gasped in pain and Riku turned, gazing through a gap in the bushes. Sora had only been knocked back, but Riku still frowned.

Maybe I'm pushing him too hard… he thought after a moment. Though, I'm not making him fight alone against a giant Heartless or anything. It's just a guy with a gun. But still… Sora needs to fight at his own pace. I can't try to speed things up.

I need to stop trying to speed things up.

He sighed. He was only trying to speed things up so they could go home sooner. But… he was really the only one that was anxious to go home. Sora was worried, but Sora also had a lot of other things to worry about at the moment.

And, even so, there was still the Rebellion to worry about. He couldn't go home until he had finished helping them, too. And that could take a while.

I wonder when I'll see Namine again. There's so many things I want to tell her- well- not really. I just want to talk to her. I don't care what it's about. She's probably drawn a ton of new pictures. I bet that's the first thing she'll show me when I get home. And then we'll talk about that for a while.

A smile slowly spread across his face.

I would love that.

He shook his head.

But I need to worry about this first. This is more important right now. Helping Sora is more important.

Something made him pause. He could feel something. Something dark. He glanced up.

Clayton had summoned a Heartless.

Now might be a good time to ask Riku for some help… Sora thought, eyeing the Heartless uneasily. It was a rather large Lurk Lizard. Clayton had also decided he would ride on its back. Sora opened his mouth, about to call for Riku, when-

"Too weak to fight him alone, are we?" a voice suddenly asked. "Or are we just too scared?"

Sora frowned. He knew that voice. It was the voice of that thing he had seen in Neverland.

"Leave me alone," he muttered.

"You sure? I could always help you," the voice replied.

"Whatever you are, I don't need your help, alright?" Sora spat, readying his blade. He had a feeling that whatever it was, he didn't want its help anyways. There was something about this thing that made him uneasy. He didn't like it.

"You're just scared!" the voice taunted. It sounded like it was laughing.

It probably was.

"Shut up!" Sora hissed.

"Need some help?" Riku asked, jumping into the battle.

Sora let out a small sigh of relief. "Not really," he laughed, trying to sound confident. He wasn't sure that it was working that well, though. "But if you want to help…" He turned to Riku and shrugged.

Riku laughed and shook his head, before rushing in and attacking the Heartless.

Sora dodged one of Clayton's bullets, and then jumped and swung at Clayton. His blade missed its original target, but he did land a nice blow to the Lizard's head, which he quickly turned into a combo.

"Nice one!" Riku called. He kept attacking the Heartless.

Sora figured it was best if he continued to go after Clayton.

With their combined efforts, it didn't take long to get rid of Clayton. They had managed to knock him off the Lurk Lizard, and it was only a matter of time before he would be defeated. And it wasn't that hard, actually. Riku had worn down the Lurk Lizard enough that it just collapsed. And it collapsed right on top of Clayton.

They both disappeared.

"Is he dead?" Riku asked, sounding a bit confused.

Sora wasn't paying attention. He could hear laughing.

The voice… it was laughing…

"I guess you're not the only pathetic thing around here!" it laughed.

Sora turned, angry, even though there was nothing there. Riku noticed and glanced over at him, curious.

"Are you okay?" Riku asked after a moment.

"Yeah," Sora nodded. "I just thought I-" he paused, remembering what the voice had told him back in Neverland. If he was the only one that could see the thing, then he was probably the only one who could hear it, too. "Nothing," he sighed finally, shaking his head.

The voice was laughing again.

"Let's just go home," Sora said, quickly, pulling the star shard out of his pocket.