Door of twilight

Chapter 17

I've changed

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It was a well-known fact on Destiny Island that Riku could never sleep more then six hours at a time. And for some strange reason, he could go days with out sleep, and still be perfectly fine. While this came in handy at times were he wanted to stay up, such as new years parties, it left him with a large amount of time he had to spend alone. And after spending six moths with DiZ, or Ansem the Wise, Riku was beginning to think that he didn't even need to sleep. He hadn't slept once when he was working with DiZ, even after having to fight Heatless, Nobody's, and Organization members.

So Riku found it strange that he had fallen asleep on the couch. He could hear the TV in the background, having never been turned off. Taking a deep breath of air, he could tell that it was still morning, because everyone was still in his or her room. He could also tell that Sora, Kairi, and the others had gotten back last night, probably after he went to sleep. For a brief instant, Riku felt dread at opening his eyes, fearing that Kairi had decided to make another "alteration" to his hair. However that feeling quickly left what he realized that he didn't smell Kairi's scent anywhere near him.

The ability to scent people by their scent was something that he had picked up from Zexion. While he had been able to tell when Heartless, or dark users were near, this was different. From what he could tell, when his old sword, the Soul Eater, hit Zexion with him in his Dark Form, the two powers hit each other so hard that some of Zexion's power was sent to Riku, and vice versa. It was something new to Riku, since he had never really been around anyone long enough to notes their scent. He had started to notes this back on Destiny Island, but had never really tried to use it to find out were people were, that is until he had gotten sick of Yuffie sneaking up on his in the Gummi ship.

Even tough he couldn't smell Kairi near him he could smell someone. What Riku had done was memorize the smell of the people most likely to sneak up on him. So he could tell were Sora, Kairi, Yuffie, Joseph, and Aerith were by their smell. (Aerith didn't try and sneak up on him, but somehow always managed to. He memorized what she smelled like so every one on the ship wouldn't be trying to kill him if she snuck up on him, and he blasted her with a magic spell before he knew it was her.) So he had no idea who was near him. The last thing he remembered was watching movies with Yuna….

Riku's eyes shot open and he looked to his left to see who was there. He really didn't have to look far, because Yuna was right next to him. Well, technically she was leaning on him, arms wrapped around his chest, head on his shoulder. Riku could feel his face starting to get warmer when he realized the position they were in. "Well at lest no ones seen us like this. Maybe I can get out of here before anyone wakes up." These hopes were dashed when he smelt Aerith and Kairi coming down the hall at the same time.

"Rice crispy treats! Wait… did I just think that? Damn it Sora's starting to wear off on me." Riku was in trouble now. He couldn't just sit there, but he couldn't get up either. So what dose he decide to do? Why, act like he's asleep of course. After all, they couldn't say anything about it right then if he wasn't awake, right?

After getting into the role of being asleep, Riku could smell both girls walk into the room. He couldn't tell exactly what was happening, but he was able to hear what they were saying.

"I don't believe it, our plan actually worked." Riku heard Aerith say, obviously to Kairi. Plan? What plan?

"Of course it did, I've known Riku for almost as long as I can remember. If anyone could possibly get Riku to think of a girl as something other then a friend, it's me." So Kairi was trying to get him to like Yuna? Riku's first reaction was to force himself to not like her, just because someone had tried to force him into this. But did he actually like her?

Before Riku could think about this more, Yuna start to move a little, obviously waking up. He heard a small gasp, Yuna must have realized how she had fallen asleep. This was confirmed when he felt her arms let go of him, and her head be lifted from his shoulder.

"So, did you sleep well?" Kairi asked, the question directed at Yuna. Riku could practically feel her face flush at the question. Yuna's only response was, "I, uh, it's not, um, nothing, I mean, uh, nothing happened."

"Relax, we weren't thinking "that." All we want to know is what did happen." Aerith said, trying to get Yuna to calm down. Riku really didn't want to be stuck in the room for the whole conversation, not knowing how long it would be. But at the same time if he were to "wake up" he would start getting bombarded with questions from Kairi. And don't let her innocent personality fool you, Kairi can be ruthless when it comes to getting information about her friends.

"Um, we had a sparing match, and then watched a few movies. Nothing much." Yuna replied to Aerith's question. It was true, Riku had showed Yuna a few more firebending moves, and then they watched a few movies. Riku knew that he would have to time his "awakening" really well to avoid any… awkward questions.

"So what movies did you watch?" Kairi's voice rang out again. Maybe Riku would wait until Sora, or Leon, or Joseph got out here…

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Quistis landed on the ground with a thud. Her fight wasn't going well. Whoever these three men were, they were vary good fighters. So far she had been slashed a crossed the back by the one with the dual sword. She had been hit in the gut by the one with the metal glove/bracelet, which she found out could deliver a powerful electric shock. She had also been shot in the right shoulder. While none of these injuries were life threatening right now, a magic spell, or a potion could cure them. But if she lost enough blood…

"Don't bother getting up little girl, you can't win." The one with the sword said. He seemed to be the leader of there little group. Quistis knew that she wouldn't be able to go much longer. She didn't have any mana left, and she could barley move anymore. If no one else showed up to help her soon, then it would be all over.

Right then there was a bright flash of dark purple light. Everyone turned to look at were it was coming from. Quistis's eyes widened when she saw that it was coming from Cloud. He was starting to stand up, still hunched over. When he got all the way up, she could see that the mark on his neck had, as odd as it sounds, spread all over his body. Meaning that all over his body, there were black tattoo like markings.

Cloud grabbed his sword from the ground, and seemed to be trying to kill the tree white haired men, just by looking at them. He then looked over at Quistis. When he saw her wounds, he looked at the leader of the group, and said one single word. "Die." As soon as that came out of his mouth, he dashed forwards at lightning fast speed. It was so fast that the leader wasn't able to get out of the way of Cloud's attack. As such, the leader was sent flying into a wall on the other side of the room.

Cloud then went after the gunslinger of the group. The gunslinger wasn't ready for the speed Cloud came in at. The only thing he was able to do was force some of his mana into a makeshift shield. As soon as the Buster Sword hit the mana shield, Cloud lashed out with a powerful punch, using his metal left hand. He hit the gunslinger so hard that he could feel his jaw breaking.

Cloud then turned his attention to the fist fighter. When Cloud was about to hit the fist fighter, he seemed to turn a transparent blue and disappear. The fist fighter reappeared behind Cloud, but then Cloud pulled a disappearing act of his own. Now Cloud was behind the fist fighter. Cloud then lashed out and grabbed the fist fighter's left arm. With a burst of superhuman strength, Cloud jerked the fist fighter's arm back, clearly breaking it. Cloud then swung the fist fighter around, by his broken arm, and threw him into the same wall as the rest of the people in his group.

The leader started to move a little, before speaking. "Come brothers, let us leave this place." With that said a dark portal opened, and the three quickly disappeared through it. Cloud then turned to Quistis, and for a brief minute she was scared he was going to attack her. Those fears were dashed when he lifted her head, vary carefully, and started to pour a potion into her mouth.

Slowly the marks on his body started to disappear. After a minute, all the marks had returned to the Seal on his neck. Cloud seemed to be having trouble staying upright. Before he passed out he was able to ask one question. "What happened here?"

End chapter

And here you go. Riku starting to realize that he likes Yuna. And Cloud wants to know what just happened.

Merry Christmas everyone! And have a happy holidays!