AN/ hey- heyhey. You know what you should do? You should go find Bloodlust Orchestra by Two Steps from Hell, and then play it when a certain someone (i don't THINK i need to specifiy who) shows up. It makes things a tad more epic

Chapter 69: Where's Your Honor?

"Cloud!" Sora gasped in shock, as he caught sight of his opponent for the final round. Sure enough, Cloud stood there, blade bared, prepared for the battle. He seemed surprised to see Sora, but not too terribly so.

"What are you doing here?" Sora stammered.

"Looking for you," Cloud replied simply, and shrugged. "Now don't think about going easy on me."

Sora frowned, confused, and then grinned slightly as he understood. He summoned his blade and charged forward.

They were pretty evenly matched. Though, for all Sora knew, Cloud could've been going easy on him. They both used a lot of hack and slash method, but would throw in a magic attack every now and then. The magic was starting to get predictable, though, and was often blocked.

That is, except one time, when Sora somehow managed to miss and hit Cloud's feet instead, causing him to trip. This would have been a good time for Sora to go over and knock his blade out of his hand, declaring his victory, but he didn't.

Instead, Sora burst out laughing.

Cloud looked up at him, very confused, and slowly got back to his feet.

"I-I'm sorry-" Sora gasped, trying to compose himself. "I just- I couldn't- I-"

He didn't finish that thought. Cloud knocked him to the ground at this, and placed one foot on Sora's blade, pinning it to the ground. He slowly pointed his blade at Sora's chest, and laughed.

"You'll have to be quicker next time."

Sora made a face, though he was still trying to recover from his laughter.

"I suppose- I- I suppose I deserve that," he said.

Cloud smiled, and then reached out a hand to help Sora up. Sora took it, and allowed himself to be pulled to his feet. He banished his blade and dusted himself off. Cloud sheathed his sword. The crowd started cheering.

"Huh," Phil said from the sidelines. "Usually, they love a bit more battle..."

Cloud shrugged, as he headed out of the arena. "But sometimes, an act of friendship is appreciated even more," he said, and then stopped, turning to Sora, a faint smile on his face. "Zack told me that," he whispered. "And that's how I try to fight, every time I come here."

"That why you have so many fans?" Sora asked.

Cloud just shrugged again, and started walking. Sora hurried to keep up.

As they headed out to the Coliseum Gates, something occurred to Sora. He debated about whether or not he would actually say it, for saying it would be a very Joseph-like act. But… he couldn't resist-

"I bet most of them are girls," he muttered, though it was loud enough for Cloud to hear. He grinned.

Cloud rolled his eyes.

"Probably not," he said. "Zack was the one with all the fangirls, not me."

"You two used to come and fight here a lot?" Sora asked, and then paused. "If you- you don't mind me asking, of course."

Cloud nodded. "Yeah… before he-" Cloud swallowed, and made a face. "It's a nice place to come and practice your fighting," he said instead. "Zack would always stay here for weeks at a time, just because someone had kicked him off the top of the chart."

Sora laughed slightly. From what he had heard of Zack, this wasn't much of a surprise.

But there was something else… stirring inside of him…

"It's your fault, isn't it?" he asked abruptly. "You're the reason he died."

Cloud stopped, shocked, and turned to face Sora. Quite a few emotions were running across his face: shock, anger, guilt. But guilt was the most prominent one.

And for some odd reason, upon noticing that, Sora grinned.

"And that's why you run," he continued. "That's why you're always running. Because you can't face it! You can never face it! And that's why you never stay in Hollow Bastion. Not because there's something else that needs to be done, not because there's another battle to be fought, but because you can't stand it!"

Cloud turned away. Sora's voice got even more excited, more pressing as he continued to talk, as if he was enjoying this.

As if he was enjoying watching Cloud suffer.

And Cloud didn't have it in him to stop him, because he believed that what Sora was saying to be true, because he knew that was the reason why he ran-

"You can't stand seeing Aerith look at you with those sad eyes," Sora continued, laughing now. "Because it forces you to remember why she feels this way. Forces you to remember that it's your fault, that you're the reason she feels that way. Because if you hadn't-"

Sora stopped suddenly, and what had been amusement fell quickly into horror.

"Cloud-" he gasped. "I didn't mean- I swear, I didn't even know what I was saying!"

Cloud, despite everything in him that didn't want to, turned back to Sora, and was surprised to find tears beginning to form in Sora's eyes.

"I am so sorry," Sora whispered, his voice catching slightly. "I swear I didn't mean any of that! It just- It-"

Cloud reached out and placed a hand on Sora's shoulder.

"It's alright," he said. "I'm okay."

Sora shook his head and shrugged Cloud's hand off. "It's not alright! I hardly even know you, and now I'm throwing crud at you like-"

His eyes widened with horror.

"No…" he whispered. "No…"

He turned, and in anguish shouted to the sky:

"WHAT DID YOU DO! WHAT DID YOU DO TO ME! I KNOW YOU CAN HEAR ME, NO MATTER WHERE IN THE WORLDS WHERE YOU ARE! SO ANSWER ME!"

For a moment, silence.

And then-

Laughter.

Cruel, and absolutely sickly amused laughter.

"You really should have fought me," Sora's Shadow laughed, flickering into sight off to the side. "You really should have."

Sora's eyes narrowed in confusion. His Shadow just laughed.

"You honestly thought I was stalling? That I was just bored?" He burst out laughing. "Please! I was meddling with your darkness the entire time!" He stopped rather abruptly, eyes resting on Cloud. "He hasn't explained the process to you yet, has he?"

Cloud swallowed, as Sora slowly turned to look at him, too.

"I was going to warn you," he whispered. "Because you and your Shadow are currently in a state where you are constantly drawing essence from one another… one of you will become more like the other, within time…"

"Or, relatively soon," the Shadow said, with a grin. "I sped up the process a bit. Gave you a bit more of me than you probably wanted."

Sora clutched his chest.

His Shadow's grin only widened.

"You will become what you fear most," he explained, absolutely thrilled. "Someone like me. Someone who is hated by all, and loves to be hated as you so clearly said!" He chuckled a very dark chuckle.

And with a very quick flick of his wrist, the darkness inside Sora reared up. His Shadow grinned, and then with merely another flick of his wrist, Sora went flying, crashing into the wall on the other side of the area.

"I fixed that little problem, by the way," his Shadow called, and then flashed over to Sora, as if walking was beneath him. He bent down and pulled Sora up by the collar of his shirt and lifted him off the ground. "Not as much of a drain on my energy as it used to be."

Sora kicked and struggled, but his Shadow refused to let go of him, and a dark aura was beginning to surround them both.

"Sora!" Cloud shouted, and rushed forward, his blade prepared to strike-

Not even turning around, the Shadow knocked Cloud back.

"Still too weak, aren't you Cloud?" he laughed, and then dropped Sora and turned to where Cloud lay on the ground.

"Shut up!" Cloud screamed, staggering to his feet again. He started to strike again-

The Shadow blocked this time, not even bothering to pull out his blade. He simply stopped Cloud's sword with his bare hand.

"Careful there," he warned, with a sneer. "Trying to stop me from doing this could end up badly for you, as you should know very well." Again, he pushed Cloud back. This time, though, Cloud skidded across the ground quite a few feet, and didn't get back up.

"Now, I'd absolutely love to kill Sora, right here, right now, and force you to watch, just so you can have the guilt of another death on your conscience," the Shadow laughed, slowly walking over to Cloud, enjoying every moment of this. "But…" he sighed. "I still need him. So I guess I just have to do something else to keep you out of the way…"

And then he raised his hand high over his head and summoned his blade. He paused a second, and grinned his sick grin, and then brought his blade down hard, straight through Cloud's stomach, pinning him there.

Cloud screamed.