Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon, nor do I own Kingdom Hearts. I'm just a rather creative person with an overactive imagination.

Elemental Hearts - Inside/Outside

Chapter 9: Split Up

"Kouichi? Kouichi!"

"Wha?"

Kouichi burst awake with a light gasp, jolting back into reality only to be greeted by Riku's and Mickey's worried faces. The younger boy blinked at them a moment, still sleepily regaining his senses, and finally registered the frightened look that the others shared. "What'sa matter? Is somethin' wrong?"

Riku and the King let out a joint sigh, and the silver-haired boy put a hand over his heart in a relieved, breathless manner. "Don't do that."

"Do what?" Kouichi asked, genuinely confused. He turned his head slightly and blinked, regaining most of his senses. "What was I doing?"

Mickey fell back off his feet and settled onto the ground with a relieved expression on his face. "You were thrashing in your sleep," he explained in a soft tone. "Shouting, too, like you thought someone was following you. And when we tried to wake you up…"

"You stopped." Riku muttered in a soft tone, flexing his hands as though remembering the feeling under his hands. "Everything just stopped. We couldn't even tell if you were breathing, you were lying so still…"

Kouichi's eyes dropped down at the perturbed, scared looks that his companions wore. "I'm sorry to worry you.."

"There's nothing to be sorry about." Riku waved his hand dismissively and let a smile wander onto his face. "We just wanted to make sure you weren't being hurt."

Kouichi nodded in understanding, partially to hide the blush that was slipping over his cheeks. He always felt distinctly flattered when someone expressed concern for him…with his relatively small number of friends, it came as a great delight to know that people cared for him…but for some reason, lately, the words coming out of Riku's mouth just made his head spin. "Thank you both…for worrying. But I am fine, really."

Riku let a tired grin slide onto his lips. "Just don't do it again, okay?"

Kouichi smiled. "Got it."

Mickey giggled a bit and bounced to his feet, making his way over to the mouth of the cave they were resting in. He took a deep breath of cold, crisp air. "Take a look around, boys. It's a beautiful day!"

Riku pulled himself to his feet and slid over to the mouse-king with an energy-conserving shuffle. He leaned against the stone face of the cave and smirked lightly. "Huh. You're right. As pretty as a place like this gets, anyway."

Kouichi wandered over as well and smiled. The view from this high cliff really was spectacular, as the long path way curled up the mountain and then back down the other side stretched in either direction, its ash-gray dust cutting a thin, pale line through the obsidian black of the rocks. The day was hazy, glowing with silver not-light that reflected strangely off the water particles in the air, giving one the feeling of walking on clouds here so far up.

"It's nice." He whispered, even though it wasn't really nice, just pretty. He pulled the Staff closer to himself, bracing his weight against it, an uneasy feeling coming over his heart.

Riku noticed this, looking down at the younger boy in concern. "Is something wrong?"

Kouichi didn't answer for a moment, pulling the staff in a bit closer. "I don't think we should stay here for long. The air tastes strange today. Something just seems…wrong."

Riku lifted an impressed eyebrow, whistling lightly. He never ceased to be impressed by the rate at which the younger boy's 'talents' had developed. True, he could normally sense the Heartless before his friend did, and he could manipulate the darkness in a way that the other could not. But Kouichi had developed a sort of…'feeling'… for the heart of the Darkness, as though he could sense the subtle changes in the fabric that made up the world around them.

Occasionally, he would wonder what would cause something like this to develop. He knew that his powers stemmed from the time he'd been immersed in Maleficent's and Ansem's darkness, a depth of shadow that left a stain on his own Heart. But Kouichi, as far as they knew, didn't have an excuse like that. Perhaps his abilities had come from the Staff, which seemed to radiate the essence of Darkness, or maybe…

"Riku?"

He shook himself out of his daze and glanced down at Mickey. "Hm?"

"Don't think so hard." Riku raised a curious eyebrow. The mouse-king was staring straight out at the fog, his eyes focused and measured like a telescope on its target. "It won't do you any good on a day like today. You're going to need to think as quickly as you can. Depth doesn't matter today."

Another quirked eyebrow, but something in the King's serious tone made the boy realize that he wasn't joking. Riku turned his eyes back out to their barely-lit surroundings and sighed. "Yes, sir."

Mickey smiled just a bit. Riku almost never called him 'sir'.

( - ) ( - ) ( - )

Xantha was edgy.

Okay, more than edgy. He was certifiably nervous, anxious, edgy and pissed off.

And all of this waiting wasn't helping anything.

"C'mon, c'mon." He muttered under his breath, gripping his hands tightly under the folds of his robes. He winced a bit at the pain - another layer of flesh had broken off under the gloves, now it was slowly disintegrating. "Let's just do it already, we can take them."

Myotismon, standing just behind the teen, clicked his purple tongue lightly. "Patience, my young friend. It takes patience to win any game."

"This isn't a game!" Xantha snarled, "This is a bloody matter of life and death!"

"I understand that." Myotismon whispered again, his voice as evened and measured as ever, his eyes focused intently at the prize moving along below them. "But we have to use this opportunity to our utmost advantage. It wouldn't do for you to take up a new residence and get evicted as soon as you are settled, now would it?"

Xantha scowled even deeper, but had to mutter out a short, "No."

"I'm glad you realize that." Myotismon smirked and lifted his hand, two finger pressed against each other tightly, even through the starched white gloves. "Because the show is about to begin…"

The echoing sound of his fingers snapping echoed around the mountain like a gunshot.

( - ) ( - ) ( - )

Snap!

Riku shot his head up. "What the hell was that?"

"I don't know." Mickey tensed as well, and Kouichi pulled his staff in more tightly towards his chest defensively.

The younger of the two boys listened for a moment, then turned his eyes back down the path they had come from. "Guys," he whispered, his voice dry and light in the moist, heavy air, "Something's coming."

Riku tensed, summoning the Soul Stealer into his hands as his shoulders stiffened tensely. "Something like what?"

They fell quiet, waiting, watching, their eyes focused on the fog as best they could. For a long while, nothing happened. Then a chattering noise reached their ears, a familiar cacophony of high-pitched shrieks, squeals, scratches and chirps that could only mean one thing…

"Heartless!" Mickey jumped back, his golden Keyblade bursting to life in his hand.

"A lot of them, too." Kouichi muttered, gripping the Staff. He pulled back, drawing the weapon across his chest, and slide his feet back a bit to set up a kind of defense behind Riku. "What do we do?"

The silver-haired boy tensed again. "That should be obvious…"

"We run."

"What?" Riku snapped his head toward Mickey with surprise. "Why?"

The mouse-king hopped back a few steps, his arms out in a stance that blocked both of the teens from going forward. "There's no way we can fight that many in a place like this. It's too thin - too dangerous. One slip, and we'll fall, plain and simple. It's better to run until we get a more secure position."

Kouichi nodded, understanding the logic, and his eyes trailed to the other boy almost hesitantly. Riku could, the same way that Kouji could, be very stubborn when it came to his pack-like, territorial, protective instincts. "Riku-kun?"

The silver-haired boy took a deep, calming breath, then sighed. "He's right. We have to run."

With a chattering shriek, three small Knight-type Heartless leapt from the fog in a furious attack. The Soul Stealer and Keyblade slashed in synchronized motion, dispersing the two creatures without much more than a breath.

"Let's move!" Riku insisted, giving Kouichi a light shove from behind to get him moving. "Come on, you first! Let's go!"

Kouichi, reluctantly, started back up the path, pausing every now and then to make sure that the others were only just behind him. He hated being 'out of danger', he didn't want that to happen again. He wanted to help Riku-kun and Mickey-san, but just healing them every now and then wasn't enough…

In his distracted thoughts, his mind suddenly focused on a slightly gleam from deep within the black rocks. He meant to pause only a moment, reaching into the crevice with his fingers, but when the item was in his posession he couldn't help but stop and stare.

Riku didn't notice this until he ran right into him, nearly knocking the smaller boy down. "What is it? What's wrong?"

"This…" Kouichi turned to him slowly, holding up a small, rectangular picture frame, the hinged lid hanging open. Looking out from the inside was the picture of two small, identical boys, cuddled together on a beanbag, holding hands. "This…I…I gave this…to my brother…years ago…This belongs to Kouji. My brother!"

Riku's mind took a while to put together what the broken, fragmented words were trying to say. "You mean that thing is…"

"Boys, watch out!"

Riku snapped his head up. An 'Air Pirate'-type Heartless was barreling through the sky towards them, it arms outstretched, it wings vibrantly spread. It had shot over the King and the crowd of Heartless behind him and was now coming straight for the boys.

For the first time, Kouichi thought faster than Riku and shoved the older boy to the ground. Riku regained his thoughts seconds later, just in time to hear a pained cry as the Pirate snatched his teammate by the arms and the defensively-pulled weapon, hoisting him up, up towards the mountain's peak.

"Kouichi!" Riku gasped. His head craned upwards, searching for his friend, but the boy and the Heartless had already disappeared up into the foggy, barely-lit sky. "No…"

"Riku, heads up!" Mickey's warning came again, and again, it was too late.

A Neo-Shadow Heartless leapt forward and slashed at Riku's face, leaving several deep cuts along the boy's cheek. The force of this attack knocked the boy back just far enough to roll off the edge of the mountain path.

Luckily, Riku's instincts kicked in at the last minute, and he snatched the edge of the crevice before he could free-fall. His other hand slashed upwards with the Soul Stealer, blowing the Neo-Shadow away before it could even think about loosening his grip.

Mickey, slashing away a few more Heartless in the process, dashed to his teammate. "Hang on Riku, I've got'cha."

He reached down and grabbed Riku's hand. The boy looked up to offer his thanks, but his eyes widened at the shadowed figure hovering behind the King. "Mickey, look out!"

Mickey spun around, but it was too late. Xantha gave him a hard shove, and the two of them fell. Their screams as they fell were muffled by the Nobody's laughter.

( - ) ( - ) ( - )

Kouichi was alone. And he hated it.

The Heartless had dropped him so close to the top of the mountain that he was having trouble breathing in the thinness of the air. He was exposed up here, without any idea where Riku and Mickey were, no idea how to catch up to them, no nothing. He hated it, hated it, hated it. His mind now focused on one thing: How to find his friends.

"Riku-kun! Mickey-san!"

Kouichi called through cupped hands as he walked, squinting painfully through the even thicker fog. He stumbled a bit, his foot catching on an outcrop of rock and only barely yanked himself straight when his toes were inches from the edge of the pathway, his arms flailing, the end of the Staff dug into the ground to keep from tumbling off the edge. He took a deep breath, using his weapon as leverage to pull himself up again, and pressed his back against the rock.

The fog was so think that he couldn't even see a shadow. The shrieks and screams of the Heartless echoed in his ears, but none of them were close. He started to move, keeping his hands pressed against the hard rock, feeling his way along the edge.

He was scared. He couldn't explain it, but he was scared, terrified, and the feelings were amplified as he realized that he was alone and exposed, so high up and all alone now…

"R-Riku-kun?" He gulped, his voice dry, his throat drier. "M-Mickey-san?"

His fingers felt nothing but air, falling through a gap in the rocks. And at that moment, a large hand clamped down over his mouth, and he couldn't even scream.

TBC…

"…life and death!" - You have no idea how tempted I was to make a Go pun here…

Heh heh…yes, it's supposed to be a cliffhanger, and yes, you don't know what's going on…Just wait, okay? Just wait! You'll see soon, I promise!! Don't kill me! Or the Muses! I need them to come into work to finish this!