A Heart's Battle

?

… Riku slowly regained consciousness . He was surrounded by a heavy silence. He cracked his eyes open and saw nothing but darkness around him. 'Where am I?' Was Riku's initial thought as he scanned the area for signs of life. 'What's going on here?'

Suddenly he felt himself falling straight down through the darkness. He frantically reached at his hands to try and stop his descent but found nothing to slow his fall down but more darkness. 'What's happening!'

His descent was caught off as his back slammed into a solid ground and Riku let loose a silence scream of pain as all the air left his lungs from the impact. He laid on the object he crashed into and tried to regain his breath while he waited for the pain to fade. 'What did I hit?' He gingerly lifted himself off the ground and looked down to see that he was standing on a black object. 'What is this?' He stared it as he tried to figure out what it was but stopped when he noticed his surroundings.

All around him were dozens maybe even hundreds of similar objects floating around. Some ,he noticed, had dark blue liquid flowing down from them and fell into the darkness below. 'What is that? Is it water or something else?' He noticed two of the object crash into each other beside him and he cringed as he waited for the sound of the collision to reach him.

… Silence was all that he heard. He looked at the area where they collided in confusion. 'Where did the sound go. In fact, why isn't there any sound at all?' There was no sound when he collided with the object, no sound from the object colliding, and no sound from the strange liquid as it flowed around him.

"I see you have finally realize something's wrong here." Riku looked around to see where the voice was coming from. "Where are you!" yelled Riku, or would have if the sound had actually come out of his mouth. Riku grasped his throat in surprise. "What's going on here" Riku tried to question the voice but failed as his new muteness kept him from speaking. "I see you also found out you can't talk either. But I already know what your trying to ask. I'll answer your questions once you get your ass over here."

"Where" Riku tried to ask. Silence was all that answered him. He looked around helplessly until he saw a glowing light in the distance. 'Is that where he is?' thought Riku. "Yep, you found me!" Riku stiffened in surprise. 'How did you know what I was thinking?' He received no answer to his question. Riku sighed before he began to jump from object to object towards the distance light. 'What in the world is happening' He heard snickering in his head. "Something you are not going to like." Riku blinked at the intrusion in his mind. 'What do you mean?' Silence once again was the voice's reply.

[-]

Swamp- Devastated Swampland

Sora looked at the devastated swampland before him. "What happened here?" he said in disbelief. Before him was multiple scorched craters that were quickly being filled up with water. "Did the heartless do this?" He looked at the others and only received similar looks of confusion and worry.

"Oh dear, do you think Lulu is okay?" asked Bianca. The question snapped the group out of their thoughts and they began to search around for signs of Lulu. Orville, Bianca, and Bernard circled over head as they tried to catch a glimpse of her. Penny and Kairi searched around the craters to see if she was inside one of them. Sora, Donald, and Goofy were given the job of shifting through the trees along the edge of the clearing to see if she was buried underneath them.

"One, two, three push!" yelled Sora as him, Donald, and Goofy strained to push off of a others. With a groaning sound and snaping branches it fell over to reveal a blackened corpse. Sora and the others jumped back in surprise.

"Gawrsh, you don't think that's Lulu."

"I don't know, but I sure hope not. Riku wouldn't be very happy if he comes back to find Lulu dead." Sora said as he tried to get a close look at the corpse while not actually touching it.

"Maybe it's Medusa!" said Donald as he tried to raise the others spirits.

Goofy caught on what he was doing and hastily agreed. "Donald is right Sora! There is plenty of other places we haven't checked yet. I'm sure that Lulu is just fine and Riku won't have anything to worry about when he returns."

That's about where things usually go wrong in people's life. Right when they think things are going to be okay and bam! The world takes a sledge hammer to their face and laughs. This time was no different.

Boom! Crash! Roar!

Sora and the others got a front row seat as a the crocodile heartless from before came busting through the trees and into the burnt wetland. Now Sora not only had to worry about Lulu, but had to fight one of the biggest heartless he had ever seen.

[-]

Ruined Platform

Riku felt both relieved and annoyed as he landed on the last platform insight. Relieved because he was finally done jumping around and annoyed because he hadn't gotten any other answers or replies form the voice. "Well I'm here, where are you and it's about time you start explaining what's going on!"

Movement to his right revealed another boy sitting on a overturned pillar. "Yo!" said the boy as he smiled at him and waved. "Finally made it here. Took you forever though, I think my but fell asleep while I was waiting."

Riku was at a loss and a little confused as the boy continued to ramble on about how slow he was and him having to stretch to wake himself up again. He would have probably been insulted if his brain wasn't trying to piece together what he was seeing. Before him was the mysterious voice that had hunted his dreams, took over his body, and had refused to ever answer any question he asked fully. The voice that belonged to a boy who looked exactly like him.

"What in the hell are you staring out!"

Caught off guard, Riku answered what he was thinking at the moment. "Me." The change in the boy's stance instantly alerted him that he just did something stupid.

"You better watch what you say." The boy's eyes flashed dangerously. "Or we can start fighting right now."

"You can't blame me for being surprised when I finally see you and you look like me."

"I don't look exactly like you!" He pointed at pointed at his face. "See I got different colored eyes and hair." He kept emphasizing the traits in over exaggerated motions.

Riku felt his eye twitch. Sure now that he pointed it out his eyes were a darker blue and his hair was closer to an ash color. "Still everything else is exactly the same! You can't even notice the other difference unless you're up close!"

The boy sighed as he gave Riku a hopeless look. "Should have known you would be to thick headed to realize the importance of this."

"What do you mean by that?"

"Anyways!" said the boy as he ignored Riku's question. "I'm tired of sitting here on my ass and staring at all this empty space! Lets start fighting now so I can get on with my life!"

Riku had enough of the boy's random attitude changes and unwillingness to answer his questions. "No! You owe me an explanation for all this shit you put me through." Riku glared at the boy daring him to say no.

"hmm… Okay."

Riku nearly face planted at how easy he had given in. "What the hell! All the other times I asked you for some explanations you were dead set on not telling me anything. Now you simply say 'Okay'."

"Geez, I thought you would be happy about me actually explaining things but apparently not." The boy sat down with a amused smile on his face. "You might want to sit down for this. It might take awhile."

[-]

Swamp- Near Devastated Land

Things were not going great for Sora and the others. He jumped aside as a giant tail flattened the area he was previously at. A giant Heartless just had to come in the middle of their search and make it even harder to find Lulu. He had Kairi take Penny to a safe distance as they went to face the creature. Penny hadn't gone quietly as she kept saying she couldn't leave without Lulu as she was dragged away.

He flinched as the heartless crushed another pile of trees in its mad rampage as it tried to flatten Goofy as he ran around it. He hopped Lulu wasn't underneath those or anywhere around the area. He didn't want to have to come back to Penny and the others with the burden of Lulu's death.

"Sora!" Donald yelled as he sent a fireball towards the Heartless. " Focus on the Heartless!"

"Sorry!" He summoned his blade and ran towards the Heartless. His sudden movement drew the Heartless attention and made him its next target. It stomped the ground as it tried to flatten Sora underneath its feet. Sora jumped, slid, and stumbled around as he tried to not be flattened and struck when the its foot got stuck in the mud.

Clank!

Sora stumbled back as his blade recoiled off the scales covering its foot. He stared at the spot he stuck to see he hadn't even scratch him. A roar brought his attention to the heartless as it snapped at him in retaliated. He fell backwards and felt the wind pass by his face and a loud snapping noise in front of him as he barely dodged its sharp fangs. He quickly tried to stand up and run away to only find his body was stuck in the muddy waters. Not missing a beat the Heartless struck again to capitalize on Sora blunder. A thunderbolt striking its face caused it to miss its target as it fell sideways from the surprise attack.

"Sora, are you okay!" said Goofy as he tried to pull Sora out of the mud trap.

"I'm fine, just got a little stuck." said Sora sheepishly,

"Pay better attention Sora!" yelled Donald as he sent another barrage of lighting at the Heartless. "This is no ordinary Heartless."

"I know" said an annoyed Sora. "I just got stuck in the mud that's all."

"Gwarsh, if only there was some way to not get stuck in the mud."

"Goofy, now isn't the time to be thinking about the mud help me with the Heartless. You to Sora!"

"Sorry Donald" said Goofy as he finished pulling Sora from the mud. "Just trying to help Sora."

'Not affected by the mud' Sora thought about the idea. 'Maybe there is a way' "Hey Donald, Goofy I think I know a way to even this fight out." He looked up to see that he was talking to himself. The others had moved on and were already fighting the heartless. "Guys!"

He grumbled at them missing out on his great idea before he focused on his key blade. Light surrounded him and seconds latter a flash obscured him. When the light died down, he stood in blue clothes while hovering inches of the ground. "Wisdom Form" He grinned as he noticed the difference in his mobility as he moved around.

"Sora! Where are you!"

"Oh, sorry I'm coming!" He dashed towards the fight. 'Now I won't get stuck'.

[-]

Ruined Platform

Riku felt his eye twitch as he continued to listen to the boy's story. 'I'm regretting ever asking for an explanation. Maybe it would have been better just to not know anything about him.'

"Then you had that gay moment with that other kid over a message and a bottle. That was the final straw for me. I mean come on, you get a message and then hold hands with him and skip through a portal of light. Makes me think your gay or something. Now that I think about it, you were getting pretty chummy with that dude on Spira."The boy gave him a suspicious look. "You're not actually gay… are you?"

"No! I'm not gay!"

"Seesh, calm down." said the boy as he put up his hands to show he meant no harm. "I don't have anything against you if you were gay. It would just clear up a lot of my questions about you. You know, letting that older dude possess your body, always thinking about Sora, and your chumminess with other guys. Heck you only have one girl you even talk to really. Are you sure you're not gay?"

"No! For the last time I'm not gay!" Riku yelled angrily. "How does this even add into the story of your creation. All I got was your thoughts on my life for the past year or two."

"Well, duh, that means I've been inside you since the beginning of two years ago. Really those are my first memories I can think of. Unless I repressed the earlier ones to not be scared for life by one of your actions…maybe."

Riku gritted his teeth to stop from exploding in anger. "You told me nothing really. I don't even know your name."

The boy sighed before he stood up. "Sorry but no can do on the name dude. We don't got any more time to be talking."

"You're just making excuses to not tell me!"

"No, I really mean we don't have any more time"

The platform began shacking as bits and pieces began to fall from the edge of the platform. Riku and the boy scrambled closer to the middle as the shaking died down.

"Told you so." Said the boy jovially.

"What the hell is happening."

The boy sighed and gave an annoyed look. "Didn't I already tell you that this place is falling apart. This platform is the only place still intact. Once this place crumbles, poof! We both stop existing."

"I see… What do you mean we both stop existing?"

"Calm down, we got two ways of fixing this." He said with a grin while holding up both of his hands with one finger raised on each. "And their quite simple and easy to do."

A dark feeling of unease and fear began to stir as he looked at the grinning boy before him. "And those would be?"

The boy's grin grew eerily larger and his eyes flashed with dark glee. "First option is… you die and become nothing more then a memory."

Riku looked at him like he was crazy. "What the hell. That's not even an option to me."

"But I don't like option two!"

"It can't be as bad as option one!"

"Option two is for me to die and for you to go back to happily live your life with your friends." He frowned as he told him the option. "Although, I really don't like that option. So I say go with one!"

"Those can't be the only options!"

"Yep, those are the only ones. Sucks doesn't it. Anyways times a ticking." said the boy as the platform began to shack again. "I say one."

"I say two!"

He frowned at Riku but instead of being angry he began to laugh. "Okay then, we'll go with option three!"

"What option three? You said there was only two options!" Riku felt a migraine coming on as he tried to make sense of this… idiot he was talking to. "What's option three and please don't tell me its us both dieing."

The boy laughed "No, option three is the first person to kill the other lives!"

"…What!"

"Here I come!"

"Wait!"

Clang!

Riku barely summoned his key blade in time to block the boy sword. They pushed away from each other and landed far apart. Riku took a closer look at the boys weapon. What in the hell is that! The boy was holding a sword made of darkness.

"Oh, you looking at my weapon. It's actually not that impressive compared to your keyblad." The boy lunged at Riku.

Their swords clashed repeatedly as Riku tried to hold off the boy's frenzied assault. A low kick caught him by surprise and he crashed into the ground. He quickly rolled to the side as the boy plunged his sword into the ground. "Damn, almost got you there. You better than I thought." Before he could respond he was under attack again.

"Hold on!" said Riku as he blocked the boys attacks. "Do we really have to kill each other."

"Yes! We do! I will never go back to being simply part of you ever again. Either you die here or I do!" Screamed the boy as he tried to cut Riku leg off.

Riku cried out as he was unable to fully dodge the blow and staggered back limping on his left leg. He felt blood begin to drip down it.

"If you want it that way that badly. Then I won't lose!"

He dashed forward and collided his blade with the boy's. "There we go!" Cackled the boy "No more talking. It won't do any good. Now its time for us grasp our lives by our own hands. I wonder who will win!"

"Your crazy"

"Maybe!" laughed the boy as staggered back with a cut across his cheek. "Who cares about my mentality right now anyways!"

"I do." Riku said as he traded blows with the boy. He felt cuts appearing all over his body and noticed that the boy was also bleeding heavily as well.

"Damn, you fight better then I thought! But times almost out! Look around you."

Riku looked around and noticed that the platform was almost gone.

"Better hurry up, or we will both die here today!"

"Shut up already!" Yelled Riku as they charged at each other. Blades clashed in a mad dance of sparks and blood. Riku stumbled from a harsh blow.

"Got you now!" The boy said gleefully as he appeared beside Riku and swung his blade.

Crap… I can't block it with my sword. Riku watched as the blade approached his exposed neck. Time seem to slow down before his he felt his body react on instinct.

"Dark Shield"

"Huh?" The boy's blade bounced off of Riku's shield and caused him to lose balance.

"There!" Riku brought his blade down to slash down through the boys left shoulder and down across his chest. The boy stumbled back as blood sprayed from his wound. He fell to his knees as his left arm hung lifelessly by his side.

"Ouch… That hurt a little there" The boy gave a week chuckle as blood continued to flow freely.

Riku cautiously approached him. "It's over… you lost."

"Huh? What are you talking about?" The boy struggled to his feet as blood came out even greater quantities due to the stress he was putting on his body. "This fight isn't over yet. No, this fight is over when one of us is no longer alive."

Riku sighed as he readied his weapon. "Very well."

"You don't understand… how much of a hell it is in this place."

Riku key blade wavered as he heard the anger in the boy's voice. "What do you mean?"

"It doesn't matter what I mean. I no longer want to have to watch the world through your pathetic experiences and or so called life." The boy charged toward Riku. "I no longer want to be part of a weakling like you!"

Riku parried his blow easily. "You can no longer fight anymore."

The boy smirked "I'll show you how wrong you are."

He faked going for Riku neck and tried to sweep Riku's leg out from underneath him. Riku jumped up to avoid his attack. "I already said that you don't have the stren-." He was cut off when the boy used his good arm to push himself into a handstand and kick out with both of his legs. They connected with his stomach and sent him flying backwards.

Riku flipped his body over to try and land on his feet. To only notice that their was only gaping darkness below him. The boy had kicked him off of the platform.

"You should really pay attention to your surroundings!" The boy cackled as he watched him fall.

Thud!

"… Oh come on! That's no fair!"

Riku laid stunned on a piece of debris that was still amazingly afloat. He hastily stood up and looked around for a way back to the platform.

"Guess I can't get rid of you that easily." The boy sighed as he swayed from blood loss. "Seems like I'm going to die from bleeding to death before this battle is over."

The ground underneath Riku began to crack as his weight bore down on the already weakened ground.

The boy noticed and began to chuckle. "or you could plummet to your death first. Either way seems like a anti-climatic ending to me."

'I got no choice but to try and jump from debris to debris to make it to the platform' Riku backed up as far as he could to get a running jump. He ran forward, jumped, and landed on another piece, stumbling a little, but balancing himself and sped up.

The boy smirk as he watch Riku make his way towards him. "That's more like it Riku. Lets finish this with a bang!" He summoned dark power around him into floating orbs. Riku eyes opened in shock as he jumped towards the platform. Bet you didn't know I could do this! This will end it all!" Riku gathered his remaining energy and formed a shield in front of him as flew towards the boy.

"DARK AURA" / "DARK SHIELD"

The platform shook from the explosion and a cloud of smoke covered the area. Seconds later a body fell from the platform with a sword stuck in its chest.

AN: Sorry about the late update but its here. Next chapter is the final one. Although, I haven't really thought about how it will end. Still kinda iffy on who will win the battle and Lulu's chance of surviving.