Chapter 6

Riku hated to see Kairi so distraught. He was trying his damned hardest to not let their spirits die and their hopes get crushed, but he didn't think he'd have a hard time doing that with Sora. Sora always thought that the glass was half full, never half empty. But right now he was shutting out the only solution they had, even though it wasn't an impossible idea at all. And if Sora was being an ass, then Kairi would go along with it, because she always went along with whatever Sora thought.

Riku rubbed his temples. He was never good at changing Sora's mind because of how stubborn he was. Probably because 99 of the time he was right in everything they argued about, but Riku knew that right now that 1 had finally shown up.

"Sora, get up," Riku ordered.

Sora looked up at him from the floor with a frown. "Huh?"

"Get up and look me in the eyes. Tell me that we're doomed."

"We're not doomed, Riku…"

"Get up!"

Sora sighed at Riku's tone and got up from the floor, standing in front of Riku. Kairi watched on quietly, not liking the tension Riku had in his eyes. It was very rare she saw Riku so angry at Sora, though he didn't dare show it properly.

"So if we can't get to Radiant Garden, what are we going to do?" Riku asked seriously, looking right into Sora's eyes, watching them to make sure they didn't glance away in the slightest, watching them to make sure they were looking at him and not through him.

"Riku… Radiant Garden is at least four worlds away…"

"So?"

"So we wouldn't be able to make it."

"Why not? We have food, we have drink. Gummis aren't that hard to fly, and you know I've flown one before."

Riku's glare sharpened as Sora's eyes travelled downward, not knowing what to say.

What Kairi was seeing was extraordinary. It was like her two friends had completely switched personality. Riku being the one making the right decision to keep them all safe, when usually that would be Sora. And Sora being the one thinking negatively, imagining the worst that could happen, which would be what Riku would usually do.

Riku sighed and softened his eyes to his friend, suddenly aware of how harsh he was being. Sora was only concerned for them all, he knew that. He'd never known before how Sora would act in such a strange situation they were all in at the moment, and judging by the way he was acting now, this would be it.

"Sora, you have to trust me to look after the both of you," he said, then looked at Kairi aswell, "if we don't do this we'll be wondering forever what it would have been like if we did. It might even save us."

Sora was silent for a moment, chewing the inside of his cheek in thought. "So you think people are going to be there?"

"Judging by this poster, I think so."

"Okay well I guess that's one thing off our shoulders. We can stay with them until this all blows over, right?"

Riku frowned. "Whoa now, we don't even know if we can trust these people. We'll need to check it out first."

"What do you mean by that?! What would make them different to any of us?"

Riku sighed and rested his hands on his hips. "I'm just trying to be careful."

"We've found people Riku! Don't you get it? We're almost safe!"

Kairi giggled from the floor and both Riku and Sora shot their glance at her outburst. She looked up with a smile.

"You guys had me worried there; I thought you'd both switched personalities," she said with a relieved smile.

Sora and Riku looked back at each other confused, tracing over their previous heated conversation, then started to realise what she meant. Sora backed away from Riku suddenly, pointing a finger at him in shock.

"Stop stealing my confidence!"

Riku laughed in dismay, sad that his trick had worn off and he hadn't even realised until Kairi pointed it out. "Damn," he said to himself.

They both knew what they were like, but couldn't help the way they were. It sort of flowed naturally. Riku was constantly trying to be careful and safe, whereas Sora was just bottled up with confidence and optimism. Both knew one worked with the other, and Riku would always try to catch Sora out by pretending to be the more confident one so that he'd suddenly become more aware and cautious. It was like a law; one had to be confident and the other had to be safe.

However in the situation they had at the moment, Riku was entirely confident that going to Radiant Garden was the right thing to do. He just made the mistake of showering the confidence over Sora, causing Sora to be thinking too cautiously about it. Riku now made a note of trying not to act too over-confident around his best friend.

Sora on the other hand had not caught onto the whole thing, and was completely clueless to the apparent personality law between the two. He just thought Riku naturally had a stick up his arse.

"Honestly, you two are hopeless," Kairi fondly sighed.

Sora was more than confused at the situation, but decided to wave it off. "Okay so we're in agreement?"

"I think we are." Riku nodded to Kairi with a smile, arms folded to his chest.

"To Radiant Garden?"

"To Radiant Garden," both Riku and Kairi chirped.

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The air was deadly cold in Twilight Town. The silence made it all the more chilling. Roxas had grown used to it over the past couple days.

The wind lightly howled through the small gate of his small but safe sanctuary. Roxas and his now deceased friends used to call it 'the usual spot'. It was perfect for the four of them. Pence would perch himself on the pile of boxes, Ollete would sit on the worn out couch with Roxas, and Hayner would sit on the small broken generator where everyone could see him when he talked.

Roxas still sat where he usually sat, on the left hand side of the couch. He had his knees huddled close to him, not knowing what to think, not knowing what to do. He'd searched the town more than twice, and there was no sight of anyone at all. Twilight Town was now completely empty. The more empty he realised it was, the more empty his mind began to feel.

He only had one thing now to keep him sane, and that was the regular visits he got from the mysterious man shrouded in black. But since the man always refused to reveal his personality, it wasn't much use for his sanity at all.

"Roxas."

Roxas peered over his knees, seeing said mysterious man in front of him. Roxas had given up on asking how he got there; he always seemed to appear out of nowhere without giving Roxas an explanation. "Hey," Roxas mumbled into his knees.

"How you holding up kid?"

"I'm running out of food. Oh, and I think I'm finally realising that my entire life has just been blown out like a flame in a blizzard," he replied more than sarcastically.

The man was silent for a few seconds, not knowing how he could reply. He'd kept coming back to check on Roxas because… well… he hadn't ever had to leave someone completely alone like this after saving them from the creatures, and he didn't want to just vanish and leave him to go insane from depression or anything like that. So he promised to check on him every now and again, to get him food and keep him safe. Deep down Roxas did more than appreciate it; he just had a hard time expressing it at the moment.

"I'll get you some food soon."

Roxas didn't reply, just closed his eyes and huddled himself closer as the wind picked up.

"You know you should move somewhere safer, this place is a dump."

Roxas frowned. "Thanks but I'm staying put."

"Why?"

"Because this is where we all came when we were trying to get away from Seifer and his gang, this is our territory, no one can step foot in here without our permission."

"But they're practically dead now."

Roxas growled and stood up, growing impatient with how rude the man was. He'd always make remarks that pissed Roxas off, as if he didn't know words could hurt anyone's feelings. "Don't fucking say that!"

"Kid, it's true. They're gone; they've been turned into monsters. They're not coming back so why not just leave this dump and find somewhere safer?"

Roxas couldn't say anything, just stared daggers at him. "Do you even have a heart?"

This caused the man to become deadly silent and still, and his composure slowly stood neat, his back straightening. Roxas frowned at the reaction, still staring at the cloaked face angrily. The silence the hung around them caused the man to move toward the gate. "I'll get you your food now."

He left through the gate and shut it behind him, calmly walking out of eye's sight. Roxas questioned to himself the sudden natural exit instead of the whole black wire, dark portal, teleporting method the man usually used. Roxas huffed in annoyance, he didn't care. The man had really pissed him off now, and he just wanted to sleep. Anything to get away from this harsh reality he was now stuck and living in.

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Kairi, Sora and Riku were hiding around a corner as they peered round, seeing two of the dark creatures walk past the entrance to the gummi station's grounds. They were sniffing around, trying to find something, or someone. Kairi was terrified that they would spot them. One of them was already way too dangerous, let alone two of them.

Sora had his eyes fixed else-where, looking straight into the open grounds of the gummi station and could just about see one gummi ship left parked. He inwardly thanked the huge amount of luck they all had, then focused back on the creatures that were slowly moving away.

"You see the gummi?" Riku whispered to Sora.

Sora simply nodded.

"I still think we should have gone to your house Riku and found some different clothes. You've still got blood all over your hospital clothes," Kairi said with a cringe.

"Kairi look," he pointed toward the creatures who were now almost safe enough away, "we can't take any risks; we need to get out of this place as soon as possible."

"And we will do," Sora added. "Don't worry Kairi, maybe if we're lucky there will be gummi suits on board and we can play space man."

Kairi quietly giggled and nudged him in the leg. "Sora this is no time for games."

"Seriously though, Riku, I don't know if it's safe you flying that thing," Sora pointed out.

"I can do it, I'll get us out of here."

Kairi sighed again at the changing personality trait, but didn't say anything. After all, Riku would need all the confidence he could get once they were on the gummi.