Mercy before the Water Man

The Gummi ship flew toward Twilight Town. "Will you please tell me why we're going on this insane detour when we promised King Mickey that we'd have it back to them in half an hour? We've already been flying for two hours."

"We have to go there" said Kairi. Her lips were pulled slightly back from her teeth in a desperate grimace. She looked like a girl who has just been punched in the stomach.

Riku finally gave up. He was worried about her. She was acting stranger and stranger. There was something else. It was a faint feeling, but it was there just the same. It was the same feeling that had knocked him to his knees at Disney Castle. It got stronger as they approached Twilight Town. He wondered what it meant. He wondered suddenly if Maleficent's experiment had managed to make it to one of the worlds like this. If so, then this was very bad. He thought about saying this to Kairi, but she was now rocking back and fourth in her seat. A bad sign. He could now see Twilight Town.

"Kairi, we're here" Riku said.

"Oh? What? Good, we're here!" she responded after some prodding. Once again, Riku wondered what was eating Kairi. She seemed to be desperately worried about something.

"Okay, we'll have to use the Gummi Port" said Riku. "It's this thing over here." He let the ship idle over the world. They stepped into the green light. There was an instant of being everywhere and yet nowhere as their molecules were reconfigured, and then they were standing inside the Usual Spot.

"Hey!" said Kairi. "I know where we are---" that was right before Ollette hit her in the head with a pillow. "Ow!" Kairi screamed, and accidentally summoned Welcoming Garden.

"Kairi?" Hayner gasped. "What are you doing here? And who's that with you?"

"What are you doing?" Kairi asked.

"We thought you were Sora" Hayner answered.

"Why would you attack Sora?" Kairi asked.

Riku said nothing. He was feeling decidedly uneasy now. He could feel darkness gathered here. Kairi's Keyblade had reacted to it and was vibrating, but its wielder was too busy interrogating Hayner, Pence, and Ollette to notice. Riku repressed the urge to sigh and slap his hand over his face. Sora would've noticed immediately.

"Its' kind of hard to explain" said Hayner. "See, we met this girl named Tina, and she got the crap beaten out of her by Sora. He really hurt her."

Riku felt the hair on the back of his neck stand up. "Tina" he asked suddenly. "What does this Tina look like?"

"She's got red hair, and stuff" said Ollette. "It's lighter than yours Kai, and yellow around the edges" she said. "And her lips are really red, and---" Riku summoned Way To Dawn and leaped over the couch and out the door.

"Riku!" Kari called. "Where are you going?"

It's here he thought. The beast is here, it's here and Sora hasn't gotten to it yet. Worse, it's convinced people to feel sorry for it. Riku ran into the Struggle arena. It was deserted, yet he could sense that the trail of darkness ended here. "Come out!" Riku called. He raised Way To Dawn. "Don't think you can get away!"

Suddenly, something came out of the Dark Realm, a large black sword. Riku gripped it in his hand. "Nice attack strategy" he said. "But it was weak. You're pretty injured, aren't you?"

Tine appeared before Riku. She was indeed injured, Riku saw. Just that trick had cost her an incredible amount of energy. "One…of Sora's friends?" she said. "Riku, I presume?"

"That's my name, don't wear it out" he responded. "I told Sora this, and I guess I can tell you. I have to do something for the worlds. I think that taking a monster like you out would be a good push in that direction."

Tine was afraid. This was what she had feared. Sora or his friends would show up and she'd have no time at all to recover. Suddenly a blast of blue energy came from Riku's hand and hit Tine. She cried out as she was thrown backwards, skinning her hands and knees on the pavement. Riku came toward her with Way To Dawn raised.

"Stop!" yelled a voice near the alley. Riku turned to see the Twilight Town three standing there. "What are you doing?" Hayner yelled.

"You idiot!" Riku called. "The thing you think is Tina is just a monster. It---uh!" Tine took advantage of his distraction to kick him in the side. Weakened by Sora's attacks, Tine was still a force to be reckoned with. Riku felt ribs splinter, and he wondered what Tine was like at full strength. His respect for Sora increased.

"Riku, watch out!" Kairi yelled. She ran into the fray. Tine was about to strike Riku with her sword, when Kairi struck her in the back with Welcoming Garden. Tine fell to her knees.

"This…this…isn't…anything…Key Wielders…" she snarled through a haze of pain. Riku kicked her legs out from under her. "Be quiet monster" he said. He raised his sword to kill the creature that his former mentor had created. That was when he made the mistake of looking into her eyes. What he saw there was not a terrible monster as Seifer had seen. He saw a girl, frightened and in pain. She knew she was going to die. Yet she was glaring at them, facing death bravely and with a glare in her eyes. Riku lowered Way To Dawn.

"Riku, what is it?" Kairi said.

"I can't kill her" he said. "I just can't do it."

Kairi pushed past him. "Remember Radiant Garden!" she said. "Remember what she did to Sora! We can't let that happen again. It could happen to Twilight Town."

Hayner, Pence, and Ollette stood frozen, too horrified to move, but too horrified to look away. They knew that there was going to be a killing. It seemed that Tina was more than they had imagined. They were all surprised. Well, all except Pence.

"I can't" Riku said. "You do it Kai."

"Fine then!" Kairi snapped. She walked over to Tine's prone body. It's like the Heartless she told herself. This is no different. It's just a giant Heartless. But as she looked in Tine's green eyes, she saw the same. She couldn't do it she found. She dismissed the Keyblade.

Why are they letting me live? Tine's pain blanketed mind thought. Are they going to play with me? I don't know anymore. I hurt too much. Then her mind decided that it wasn't going to stick around to find out. Tine blacked out.

Tine closed her eyes. Her breathing slowed to a standstill.

"Oh no!" Kairi said. "Riku, she's not breathing!"

"She's not!" Riku yelled, "Okay, then---oww!" he hissed as his broken ribs twinged.

"Wait! She's not breathing? That's bad right?" said a voice near the shed where the Struggle tools were kept. All of them turned to see a Dark Corridor appear. A black robed man with a shock of brown hair appeared. He was carrying a post it note. "But it says, find Roman Numeral Thirteen, or Tine, and bring her back unharmed and safe." He began to nervously strum the giant sitar that he was carrying slung under one arm. "Oh no, this is beginning to sound like the Roxas mission."

"What?" Riku wheezed. This was the final insanity. Here they were, a girl dying, him unable to move, the other panicked, and a member of a group that was supposed to be dead coming to visit. Riku lay on the ground and began to laugh.