Author notes: This was a huge update! Longest chapter I have ever written.
Extreme Blitsball
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'Darkness?…. Looks like I'm back.' Riku looked around. "Hello! Anyone there?" The only answered he received was silence. 'Looks like the guy from before isn't here.'
'…. How long am I going to float here?' Riku once again tried to find anything at in the darkness. 'What's that?' He turned toward a part of the darkness that caught his eye. A simmering pool of blackness seemed to be swirling around a platform. He drifted closer to get a better look.
"Glad to see you here Riku?" Riku stopped in surprise and looked around to find the person who spoke. "You won't find me… it is not yet time to meet each other."
"What do you mean by this isn't the time and where am I at?"
"You will see soon enough. I'm glad that you were able to find me early than expected. (laughs) I guess you heart really yearns for the darkness my other self."
The Darkness and Platform began to fade away into whiteness. "Wait!" Riku screamed "What do you mean my heart yearns for darkness! Why did you call me your other self!"
Riku received no answer as he was swept away into the white light.
Breaking Dawn
"Wait!" Riku woke up screaming with his hand raised outwards as if to grasp something. He lowered his hand and fell back into the bed.
'Who was that? What's going on?' Riku's frowned as he sat back up and looked at the clock. The clock was showing 3:30 a.m 'Great I woke up two half hours early than I needed to. I didn't need to wake up till six since the mission starts at seven.'
Riku laid back down and turned away from the clock to go back to sleep. He laid there tossing and turning and finally gave up as he threw the covers off and stood up. 'Its impossible for me to go back to sleep after what happened.'
He dressed and began to walk towards the kitchen. 'Maybe a good breakfast will help.'
Time 4:00 A.M- On top of Breaking Dawn
Riku sat on top of his ship staring up at the stars. Beside him was an empty cup and a plate with the remains of his breakfast. He sighed as he looked away from the stars 'It is no use. I can't get what that voice said out of my head….. Do I really crave the darkness? Is my heart really so set on it?'
Riku shook his head with anger 'No! I wont listen to what he said. No one knows me better than myself. But… the voice did say I was his other self. What did he mean by that?'
He curled up into a ball with his knees up against his chest and his head laying on them. 'This wasn't suppose to happen. I shouldn't be having to worry about the darkness!.…..I was supposed to be free.'
Out across the ocean, the sun began to rise on the horizon. The rays hit the water and bounced off causing the water to sparkle and different colors of light to show. The sun rose higher and caused more and more of the ocean to sparkle until it was a giant glowing sea of bright colors.
Sadly, the person curled up in agony was beyond enjoying this rare sight. His heart, soul, and mind were already falling into darkness.
Time: 6:40 A.M With Gippal, Lulu and Kimahri at airship
"Where could he be?" Gippal looked towards the cliff with worry "What could be taking Riku so long. You don't think something happened to him?"
"Maybe he was lying to us about how he could defeat the heartless." said Lulu "He could have ran off in fear when he realized what would happen to him when we realize this."
Gippal turned toward Lulu " No way, I saw how he summoned his blade and how it worked. There was no way he was lying to us."
Lulu simply shook her head with a disappointed look on her face "So he shows you a little magic and now you are going to believe everything he says?"
"You know, you shouldn't be so harsh on everyone." Gippal turned toward Kimahri "Right big guy."
Kimahri simply stared at Gippal then turned his head away without saying a word.
"Hey, don't tell me you agree with her!" Gippal turned away with a sigh "Great, I'm might be spending my last moments with a silent fur ball and a cold hearted woman."
Suddenly Riku skidded to a stop in front of them. "Sorry guys time got away from."
Lulu stared at Riku with a cold look "What took you so long?"
Riku plastered a faked smile on his face "My alarm clock doesn't seem to be working right. I almost slept through the mission."
Lulu didn't look convinced but was unable to continue her questioning when Gippal slung his arm around Riku Shoulders. "That's great! I thought that the heartless had gotten you or something. Lulu here thought you ran away but I knew you wouldn't."
After hearing that last part, Riku turned to Lulu with a eyebrow quirked up in a silent question. Lulu simply crossed arms and leaned back against the airship. "I don't care what the others may say about you. I know nothing about you and why you do this. I'll trust you when I see for myself whether you told the truth or not."
Riku simply shrugged at what she said " Sounds fair to me."
Kimahri ended further discussion when he began to walk into the airship and said "Mission."
Gippal slapped his forehead "Oh yeah, nearly forgot about that." He turned around and picked up a large gun looking thing. "Can't forgot about my gun." he said to Riku with a smirk.
Airship- Headed for city
Riku stood in the hallway looking out the window. 'So this is what the airships our like on this world.' He listened to the creaking of the metal and the loud roar of the engines. He sighed 'Not very quite… this nothing like the gummy ships.'
As Riku thought about this, the door down the hall opened to reveal Gippal leaving the cockpit. He saw Riku standing in front of the window with a spaced out look on his face. An evil smiled appeared on his face and he began to creep up behind Riku.
Riku was oblivious to the terror that was sneaking up behind him. Slowly hands rose above Riku head and began to close the distance between them. Suddenly, Riku found himself in a headlock. He struggled to get out while Gippal laughed
"Let me go, Gippal!"
"ha-ha, No way, this is your fault for thinking to much before a mission."
Riku struggled for a few more seconds then gave up. He hung limply in Gippal's headlock. "Gippal, how am I not suppose to think? I do have a brain unlock some people."
Gippal tightened his hold and Riku began to wiggle in pain "Alright, alright, I'm sorry, I didn't mean it!"
Finally, Gippal let go of Riku "There, you look a lot more lively now then you did before Riku."
Confused, Riku looked at Gippal. " What do you mean I look more lively?"
Gippal smiled at Riku "Well this morning you seemed a little down. Did something happen yesterday?"
'How can I tell him the truth' Riku stared at Gippal for a moment 'He wouldn't understand how I feel.'
He turned away from him "It's nothing, I'm just a little worried whether we'll be able to accomplish this mission."
Gippal looked relieved "whew, Thought that something bad happened or you were losing your confidence in yourself." He patted Riku on the back "Don't worry dude, We'll finish this mission easily and then we can go back celebrate our success."
'Gippal… Your to trusting.' Riku merely put on his best fake smile "Yea, your right Gippal. This mission will be easy."
They stood in silence as they watched the clouds float by. Riku turned towards Gippal "Hey Gippal, Do you anything about Lulu?"
Gippal looked at Riku with surprise "Nope, sorry. I never really met her till we all volunteered for this mission." Suddenly, Gippal had a sly look on his face. "Why are you asking? Got a thing for cold older women?"
Riku blushed and sputtered "N-n-no tha-that's not why I asked you about her."
Gippal merely smiled "Right, whatever you say lover boy."
Riku blushed even more "I'm telling you that's not it. The reason I asked you was because I saw her crying the other day over someone's grave."
Gippal faced turned serious "Oh, I'm sorry but I don't know anything about her. So, I can't really tell you who it was. It was probably someone important to her, that's all I can tell you really."
Riku sighed and looked out the window. "Dang, I thought you would at least something about it."
Gippal leaned against he wall "Sorry about that, I know its kind of weird to fight by people who you know nothing about. It's just that at the moment it is unavoidable. They are the only people who were brave enough to risk their lives to close the keyhole."
Riku rested his forehead against the cold window. "Yea, I know Gippal. I just hope that they won't run away and leave us to die. It's hard to trust someone when you know nothing about them."
Gippal leaned his head back and closed his eyes. "Your right Riku but all we can do is hope that they stick with us. Hopefully, we will live to see this world free from darkness once more."
Riku and Gippal merely stood in silence as they thought about what was to come.
Airship- Edge of city
Riku, Gippal, Lulu, and Kimahri were gathered in the cargo area,
Gippal was outlining what they had to do to complete the mission "Okay guys, when these cargo doors open we should be right above the stadium. Were going to jump down into the stadium. The airship will then give us some cover fire from above to help contain the heartless and give us a chance to seal the keyhole. Any questions."
Riku raised his hand "uh, yea. How are we supposed to jump out of the airplane and survive? We don't got anything to stop our fall with."
Gippal smirked "Glad you pointed that out Riku. You see, were going to jump into a ball."
Lulu looked at Gippal with a look of disbelief "A ball? Gippal are you joking around at such an important moment?"
Gippal laughed " Now this ball is different. It's the giant ball of water that the players play blitz ball in."
"There has to be a better way Gippal. How do you know if it's even there anymore?" said Riku.
Gippal had a pleased look on his face " Oh, its there. I had my people fly by here yesterday and they saw that it was up and running. The only thing different about it is that the water has turned darker than usual."
"Darker?" questioned Lulu "Just what do you mean by darker?"
Gippal rubbed the back his head " Well, you see the water seems to be black instead of blue and there is also reports of something shining in the water."
'something shining in the darkness?' thought Riku as those around him continued to argue. 'That sounds like what the other keyhole was like. Could it be that the keyhole is inside this giant ball of water that Gippal is talking about.'
"I'll do it. I'll jump into it" said Riku as he came to his decision.
The others looked at him in surprise at his sudden declaration.
"Are you sure Riku" asked Lulu "If he is wrong about it being safe, we could all die."
"I'll have to go anyways" said Riku "If what Gippal says is true, then the keyhole is inside that giant orb of water. We'll have to enter it either way, best to enter it directly from the air than fight through the heartless if we land outside of it."
Lulu sighed "I guess we really don't have a choice do we." She glared at Gippal and Riku "If I die, I'm taking you both to hell with me."
Before Gippal and Riku could respond to her threat, the pilot came on over the speakers. He started to shout things in gibberish to Riku and Gippal answered him in the same language. They were talking back and forth for a minute as the rest of the group listened silently.
'I wonder what their saying?' Riku turned to Lulu " Do you know what they are saying?"
Lulu merely shook her head and continued to wait.
Riku turned to kimahri "What about you? Do you understand what they are saying?"
"…." Kimahri stared at Riku silently until he barely shook his head "no."
'uh, okay that was weird. Does he ever say more than one word?" Riku mentally shrugged and turned back to Gippal.
Gippal seemed to finish his talk with the polite and turned towards the group "It looks like we have arrived guys. Get ready to jump!"
The doors of the cargo bay began to open up. As the doors widened, the group saw that below them was the stadium with a dark orb in the middle.
The pilot once again spoke over the intercom to Gippal.
"This is as close as they can get" yelled Gippal over the wind. "We are going to have to jump from here."
Lulu looked at Gippal like he was crazy "Are you serious? We would be falling for at least fifty to one hundred feet before we hit the water!"
Gippal merely shrugged at her "Nothing I can do about it. The pilot can't get any closer than this. Oh and take these." Gippal reached into his pockets and brought out some devices. "These are the air canisters blitz ball players use when they play. It will let us breath in the water. Don't lose them."
He held out his hand and the group took them from him. He reached back into his pocket and grab his. "Alright guys, good luck and don't lose them." Smiling like a fool, Gippal jumped out of the airship screaming.
Kimahri silently jumped out of the plane after Gippal. Lulu looked at Riku with a wry smile "I can't believe I'm doing this. Were all going to die following that fool."
Riku smiled at Lulu "I know" and jumped out of the airship laughing. Right behind him he could hear Lulu screaming and laughing behind him. Farther down below he could see Gippal doing funny figures inn the air to show off. Above him was a blue blur. Kimahri was falling in a relaxed posed with an expressionless face.
'Does he ever show emotion…. Does he even any?' Thought Riku. He twisted around to where he was falling backwards. He looked up to see Lulu and his brain went haywire when he saw her.
Her dress was blowing around wildly as she fell threw the sky. Behind her, her black hair had become undone from its bindings and flutter behind her. Her red-brown eyes were alight with excitement as she careened downwards towards the earth. Her usually stoic face was bright with as her she laughed as she fell. To Riku she looked like a dark angel falling from the sky.
'Beautiful' thought Riku. His dazed state ended when he impacted on the surface of the water back first. Riku wiggled in agony and screamed silently underwater. Riku was unable to focus around him as he struggled to stay awake and not pass out from the pain.
He began to regain his senses as the pain faded to a dull throb along his back. He began to hear dull sounds of fighting around him as his hearing came back. He slowly opened his eyes and saw blurry shapes dancing in his vision. The blurred shapes quickly came into focus and he was able to see his holding off the heartless from making it to him.
A rush of Adrenaline shot through Riku's body and washed away the pain. 'I have to seal the keyhole or everyone's going to die.'
Riku twisted his body till he was facing in the direction of the keyhole. There it was, dark ooze flowing out of the shining keyhole. It was situated what seemed like the middle of the sphere. Riku began swimming towards the keyhole as fast as he could. He ignored the sound of the muffled fighting around him and any heartless that gave chase.
Riku floated to a stop in front of the keyhole and raised is blade. Light began to form around the end of his blade and he pointed it at the keyhole. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw heartless trying to reach him before he could seal the keyhole. Blue streaks tore into the heartless before they could reach him and he turned his head to see Lulu casting blizzara on the heartless.
Wiping away his surprise at her saving him, he turned back to the keyhole. He felt the key blade release the energy into the keyhole and heard a muffled click. Relieved, Riku turned towards group and gave a thumbs up sign. His celebration ended when he noticed his groups troubled faces. He looked around and noticed that all the heartless were standing as still as status. They all seemed to be watching the keyhole.
Suddenly, Riku remember what happened at the cave when Sora sealed the keyhole. Panicking, he began to swim away from the keyhole and toward his group. 'I can't warn them! It's to late.'
Behind Riku, the darkness left the keyhole and began sucking in the surrounding area. Heartless flew by Riku as he desperately swam against the current to not be pulled in.
Soon the sphere was a whirling energy of spinning water and heartless.
Riku felt himself being spun around and smashing into heartless. The water stilled instantly as the dark orb began to pulse. Riku shook his head to clear his foggy brain. He quickly looked around to see if his allies were okay. He saw both Gippal outside of the orb. He was leaning against the wall and had a green tint as tried to settle his stomach. Kimahri was also outside of the orb. He was on his feet but was using the wall as support. He looked….Well he looked like Kimahri usual stoic self.
'Even after all that he doesn't show any facial expressions?' Thought Riku with wonder. He felt a tap on his shoulder and he turned around to see Lulu floating behind him. 'Well she looks okay' thought Riku. 'Although she does look a little white'
Lulu pointed at her mouth and made signs. 'Is she trying to tell me something' Riku stared at Lulu and could only shake his head at her. She frantically pointed at her mouth and opened it.
'Oh, she doesn't have her breathing device.' thought Riku. 'So that's what it was… She doesn't have her breathing device!' Riku began to panic as he looked around to find it. Realizing it was pointless he turned back to her and tried to tell her to leave the water. She shook her head no and pointed at the edge of the water. Riku looked to where she pointed and saw that the edge of the sphere was glowing.
He reached out and felt his hand hit a barrier. He panicked as he realized that Lulu was stuck in the water with no way to breath. He felt Lulu tug on his shoulder and he turned back to her. She began pointing to his mouth and then pointed at hers.
Realizing that she was asking to share his device, Riku began to take it out.
"Let her die Riku. You don't need a weakly like her slowing you down."
Riku paused as he heard the voice in his head. 'What do you mean let her die. I can't do that!'
"Yes you can. What makes you think she will give it back when you need it? Why should you trust her. So far she has done nothing to deserve being saved has she not?"
Riku struggled with himself as he tried to decide whether to save Lulu or not. In front of him, he could see Lulu becoming sluggish in her movements from lack of oxygen.
"Just let her die Riku. Why should you care. She has been nothing but a bitch to you! Let her cold ass rot here!"
Memories of Lulu flashed through Riku's mind. He saw how she had treated him coldly when they first met and how she said she didn't trust him.
'Why should I save her' thought Riku with a evil grin 'She deserves this.'
He began to turn away but stopped when more of his memories of her flashed through his mind. He saw her crying before the grave, smiling at him as he jumped, and the way she looked falling from the sky. 'I… I can't kill her!' screamed Riku in his head. He whirled around and took out his device and shoved it into her mouth.
" I'm disappointed in you Riku. It seems you are still weak"
Riku ignored the voice and watched as Lulu recovered. He could hear muffled coughs as oxygen once again filled her lungs. He turned away from her with shame in his heart. 'I almost let her die.'
While Riku was tending to Lulu, the orb had been growing. It grew into a slim humanoid figure with fins growing out of its arms and legs. It had webbed hands and feet with gills around its neck. It had a human head with razor sharp teeth protruding from its mouth. In its hands it held a dark orb in the shape of a blitz ball.
Riku summoned his key blade and got into his battle stance. Behind him, he heard Lulu come up beside him. She was once more ready to battle. Riku heard muffled thuds to left of him and he looked over to see Gippal and Kimahri smashing against the barrier.
'Looks like it's just me and Lulu left to fight against this thing.' He began to feel pressure from not breathing. 'We have to make this quick or I'll die from not breathing!' He shot forward through the water. He aimed his key blade for the heartless neck trying for a quick kill. The heartless effortlessly dodged the attack as he used its webbed body like a fish. It rocketed backwards and threw its dark ball at Riku.
Riku held his blade up across his body to deflect the blow. The ball smashed into his blade and pushed Riku backwards. The ball kept going till it smashed Riku into the barrier. Riku screamed in pain as his injured back was crushed against the barrier. He felt all his air being squeezed out of him as the ball used his body to bounce back to its master. Unable to take the pain any longer and lack of oxygen. Riku brain shutdown and he passed out.
Lulu swam over and forced the breathing device into Riku's mouth as he floated limply
in the water. 'He can't take much more of this' thought Lulu as she scanned Riku's body. 'it looks like that last attack injured his back.' Lulu turned back towards the heartless. 'Guess I will have to fight it by myself.'
She pointed at the heartless and cast Blizzaga. A huge column of ice flew towards the swimming heartless. The ice was moving slower and slower as it approached the heartless do to the water resistance. By the time it reached the target, it was able to easily dodge by simply swimming to the side. 'Damn it! Looks like blizzaga won't work here. The water is slowing it down.'
She quickly switched spells and cast Waterga on the heartless. A huge force of water shot out at the heartless. It simply swam forward unaffected as it used its fins to navigate the path of the water to avoid damage.
'This is bad, waterga doesn't work on it either. What do I do? I can't use fire underwater, ice is to slow, water doesn't affect it, and if I use lighting, I'll be hitting us as well as the heartless.' Lulu thoghts began to become clouded as she desperately thought of a good plan.'Now My mind is starting to go foggy from lack of oxygen.' Lulu was interrupted when the heartless flung the dark ball towards her. She realized she couldn't dodge and tried to cast blizzard to deflect the ball. Her body moved sluggishly from being deprived of oxygen for to long. 'Dammit, I'm not going to make it!'
Suddenly, Riku's blade collided with the orb and caused it to curve away from Lulu. She looked back at Riku to see him once again conscious. Riku swam over to Lulu and pulled out the device and handed to her. She quickly put it into her mouth and took big gulps of air.
Next to Lulu, Riku was racking his brains for a way to defeat the monster before him. 'The heartless is to fast, I can't get a good blow on it.' He looked at Lulu 'Lulu magic is ineffective against the heartless as well. None her spells will work and the only spell that could possible damage it is thunder because its surrounded by water. The problem is that it will spread out through the water and cause damage to us as well. If only we had some way to draw the lighting to the heartless… That's it!'
Riku began to swim at the heartless. The heartless took aim at him and threw the dark ball at Riku. It collided with him and carried him across the Sphere to smack against the barrier. The ball rebounded off the wall and rocketed towards the heartless.
Lulu began to frantically swim towards the spot where the ball had crushed Riku into the barrier once again. She stopped when she realized there was no body floating in the water. Confused she looked back towards the heartless to see Riku clinging on the ball headed for it. As the ball was caught by the heartless, Riku used the moment of the ball and jumped forward to stab his Key blade through the heartless's neck.
The heartless withered in agony and backhanded Riku away from itself. Lulu caught Riku's body as it floated limply through the water. Riku weakly pointed at Lulu then at the monster. Lulu tried to understand what he was saying. She looked at the heartless and then back at Riku with a confused expression. Riku used the last of his strength to mouth a single word.
'Thundaga?' thought Lulu 'He wants me to use Thundaga. I can't! If I use it, we will both be hit with it.' She looked back at the monster as it tried to remove the blade from its throat. 'That's it!' thought Lulu with excitement 'That's what he wants me to do.'
She gently released Riku and pointed at the heartless. She gathered all the power she head left. "THUNDAGA!" screamed Lulu. A giant lighting bolt split the sky and collided with the barrier. It tore through it and entered the water. Instead of dispersing throughout the water, it all shot towards the blade in the throat of the heartless. The key blade was stuck by the lighting and sent it coursing through the heartless's body.
It withered in pain as key blade infused lighting ripped its body to shreds from the inside out. With a silent scream it blew apart in a bright flash. Lulu turned back to Riku with feeling of relief. It was quickly replaced with dread when she saw that Riku was floating unmoving in the water. 'Riku!' Quickly she pulled out the breathing device and forced it into his mouth. Then she grabbed his body and began to desperately drag his body through the water.
She busted through the edge of the sphere and landed in the stands. Gippal and Kimahri arrived seconds later. Lulu turned to them and screamed "Get the airship here now!"
Authors Notes: Next chapter someone is joining him. Can you guess who it is?
Poll: I may be putting a poll up after this chapter. I'm not sure what world to go to next. So I may have you guys decide.
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