Chapter Four: Finding a Way to Worlds
Sora stood up and nodded, "Yeah, but first, I'd rather get off this island."
Riku suddenly asked a question Sora didn't really want to answer, "Who was that guy that was standing behind you when he pulled you into the darkness?"
"Scalvatrx." Sora answered, not meeting Riku's eye. He felt his friend's curiosity was something he didn't want to handle at the moment.
"Why was he after you, I mean besides the fact that you're the wielder of the Keyblade?" Riku asked, still prying into Sora.
"Because of the darkness, the darkness in me. There is darkness in every heart. You know that Riku." Sora responded, looking Riku in the eye for the first time. Sora felt a barrier come up within him, against the looming evil that surrounded him on every side. He knew that he wanted off the island, off that very second.
"But what did he want?" Riku asked.
"He wanted, I guess, to tell me that I was to stop the darkness before my own time came, my time of darkness I mean." Sora sighed.
"Don't worry Sora, you've never been on the bad side before and you're not about to be either." Kairi reassured him with confident words. Sora nodded, perking up a bit, but then he looked around him.
"How are we supposed to get off this island anyway?" Sora asked Riku and Kairi both, turning to look at them questioningly.
"Leave it to me, of course." Riku said, his Keyblade appearing in his hand once more. Then, as if on cue, a portal of darkness appeared and Riku pointed at it. "We can get out that way. I'm not sure where it will take us, but no where bad I hope." Riku noticed Sora's doubtful look at once and responded, "Don't worry Sora, it might even take us some place you've been before."
Sora nodded with reluctance still, but with one look at Kairi, he stepped into the darkness. Riku followed and then Kairi came in last, her Keyblade still in her hand. Riku had his Keyblade, but Sora's was no where to be seen. When Sora vanished into the darkness, he found himself in a place full of waves of soft blue colors with things floating around inside of it. Ahead of him, there was a door, but darkness covered the entrance so he could not see what was beyond it.
"Riku, where are we?" he asked, voicing his thoughts and continued to look around, his deep blue eyes looking for any signs of something evil or bad about.
"How should I know?" Riku questioned him.
Sora spun around, his face full of surprise and sudden anger, "You don't know where you're taking us! How do you know its not where the Heartless are all at? Or where Scalvatrx is?"
"Scalvatrx doesn't seem like a threat, so I don't know what you have against him, and I doubt we will go where the Heartless are destroying everything because I willed the darkness to take us to Twilight Town, if you must know." Riku sighed, slinging his Dark Keyblade over his head, carrying it that way.
"But you don't even know what Scalvatrx looks like! He looks exactly like someone from the Organization!" Sora argued, his eyes becoming clouded with worry.
"Relax, you killed the Organization, remember?" Riku said in a matter-of-fact tone.
"Yeah, lucky I didn't kill you too! You were with the Organization XIII, or did you forget? And Axel is alive and once again, my enemy even though he had become my ally! Who's to say the Organization didn't come back just like he did?" Sora snapped.
"Good grief Sora, you take things way to seriously. And no, how could I forget that I joined the Organization? I was no fool when I did it, and Axel came back by the darkness, if you weren't listening." Riku said, breezing past Sora and vanishing into the darkness ahead.
Kairi glanced at Sora and called, "Come on Sora!"
"But-…."
"Don't worry! I trust Riku, don't you?" Kairi questioned, before she too vanished into the darkness.
Sora ran after them and stepped into the darkness for a second time and came out in the back alley of Twilight Town. He looked around him but he didn't see Riku or Kairi anywhere. Sora did see the Usual Spot though. Stepping up to it, he puled back the torn and dull shaded cloth that everyone had hung over the door.
He didn't see Olette, Hayner, or Pence anywhere, nor did he see Riku or Kiari anywhere. Had they come out in different parts of the town? Then a dark thought entered his mind that he wished had never come. Or did Riku trick me?
Riku looked around him, wondering noticing that he was at the Station with Kairi. This was where he had wanted to go. He looked behind him just as the portal closed. He noticed that Sora was missing. "Kairi, did Sora come with you?" Riku asked her, his voice etched with sudden worry.
"I saw him running after me. He should have. If he's not here, Riku, where do you think he went?" Kairi asked, her own voice becoming flooded with worry for Sora.
"Somewhere around here I would guess, but not here, and that is what I don't understand." Riku responded.
"So you mean he's somewhere in this town?" Kairi questioned.
"He sound be." Riku looked at Kairi and then looked around the Station. "Let's split up and look for him, but I suggest you keep your Keyblade hidden unless you have to use it for any reason. If you need me, call, I'll come somehow."
"That's reassuring…" Kairi complained, putting her hands on her hips.
"Do you have a better idea?" Riku asked, a teasing yet annoyed glint in his eyes.
"No."
"Then let's get going, Sora isn't going to wait forever you know. He must be wondering what happened to us by now." Riku responded, laughing slightly.
Riku waved to Kairi and then set off down the steps and down to the market place, right next to the station. As Riku departed from Kairi, he began to search for his friends, his eyes scanning the light crowds. He didn't know this place real well, but he did know that Sora had come here and knew it like the back of his hand. That might make it easier, or all the more difficult for Riku to find him.
Sora looked around the Usual Spot some more and then headed off to the Sandlot to see if Riku and Kairi had ended up there. Leaving the caged in hang out, he walked down the alleyway and came upon the entrance to the Sandlot. Just as he was about to enter it, he had heard a loud scream come from the Sandlot. "RIKU!" the person screamed.
Sora immediately recognized the voice as Kairi's and dashed down tot he Sandlot to see Kairi staring into the eyes of Axel. Axel glared at her and growled, "Where is Sora?"
Kairi just held up her Keyblade in defense, and called out to Riku again. Sora willed his Keyblade to appeared and then held it above his head, "Light!" He became his Valor Form again and quickly rushed to Kairi's defense. "Leave her be Axel!"
"Sora!" Kairi said, her voice showing a little twinge of joy at seeing her friend.
Riku heard Kairi's cries and immediately rushed out of the market area and towards her voice. His silver hair flew in his face as he raced through the streets, but he didn't care at the moment. His Dark Keyblade appeared in his right hand, a dark aura around it. His eyes narrowed as he entered the Sandlot, seeing Axel standing there in front of Sora and Kairi. Sora must have heard Kairi, he mused in his mind.
He leapt towards Axel and Sora and landed beside Kairi, his Dark Keyblade held up in a fighting stance. "Looking for a fight, Axel?" he asked with a slightly sly tone.
"No, I am here once again, to ask Sora something, not to harm you, otherwise I would have my disks out and you'd all be dead, right?" Axel glowered.
"Shut up you idiotic mongrel!" Sora growled next to Riku.
"Sora, it is you who should be shutting up." Axel warned.
"You leave Sora alone!" Kairi said sourly.
Axel appeared to ignore her and the fact that Riku was even present, instead his eyes turned to Sora. "Will you join us, Sora?" Axel's eyes flashed in the sunlight.
Sora bared his teeth together and retorted angrily, "I wouldn't join you if my life depended on it!"
"But your life does depend on it Sora, that is what you don't seem to understand." Axel said, his voice taunting and his eyes staring at Sora with rage and a sneering look.
Sora eyes hardened into a hateful glare before he swung his Keyblade towards Axel. Riku and Kairi followed his attack a second later, but Axel had somehow managed to jump away and dodge every move they threw at him. His disks appeared in his hands and he flung them at Sora and Riku, seeming to think Kairi wasn't much of a threat, and the fact that he only had two disks.
Riku leapt away from Axel's disk just in the nick of time. He then threw all of his strength into one blow to the disk and flung it straight back at Axel. It came at Axel so fast, it was barely visible, but to everyone's shock, Axel caught it.
Sora leapt nimbly away from the disk, but the disk followed him in a boomerang fashion. He couldn't go anywhere in the air and it struck him in the back. He gasped at the pain that raced through his whole body as the razor blades cut into him. He dropped his Keyblade as he crashed into the hard-packed earth. The Keyblade rolled a few feet off before clattering to a stop. Sora didn't notice that the fighting had stopped, all he saw was the darkness that was threatening to over take him.
"Sora!" Kairi's faint voice filled his ears, but he could not reply.
He heard Axel's laughter, but could do nothing to stop it, and he heard Riku's cry of rage. Then it all faded as he gave into the darkness, hardly realizing that slowly his heart's light was being distinguished by the growing darkness.