Chapter Six: The Dark Side of Sora

Riku looked taken aback at the darkness in Sora's voice. But he held up his Keyblade anyway, even against his own will. Sora's appeared in his hand. That was when Riku saw the darkness in his friend's eyes. They were misted over, speckled with blackness, turning his ocean blue eyes into an angry storm-like color. His Dark Keyblade really had done something to his friend!

"Sora," Kairi gasped, her eyes becoming troubled. What was wrong with her friend? She had sensed the darkness within his heart, it was unusually strong within him. "Why do you act like this?"

Sora's eyes seemed to grow brighter at the sound of Kairi's voice, but they misted over once more. Kairi blinked as she felt a wave of warm run through her, and then a chill. Was she sensing the battle between dark and light? That was her best guess and she wondered if Sora himself, was not really Sora for a moment there, but the darkness speaking. That was when his eyes caught hers. They were cold and emotionless.

"Kairi, you stay out of this, or I will be forced to attack you too." Sora's voice was dark and Kairi knew instantly that it wasn't Sora speaking.

"Riku! You're Keyblade! You've done something to the darkness in Sora's heart! That isn't Sora!" Kairi yelled at Riku just as the teen was about to strike out at Sora for the words he had told Kairi. Riku stopped and looked at Kairi with a confused look on his face.

"What do you mean it isn't him?"

"That isn't Sora, the real Sora, your friend speaking! That's the darkness in his heart, you know Sora would never wish to harm you!" Kairi explained.

Seifer looked at them as if they were crazy and muttered, "If there was ever a crazy person, it would be you guys…" That remark was something he paid for. Kairi watched as Sora struck him with lightning speed in the head, knocking the boy out cold.

Sora turned to face Riku, and swung out at him, force behind the blow, but Riku paired, not listening to Kairi. Riku moved his blade through the air, but no matter how much he tried, he couldn't hit Sora, but it came when Sora knocked his Keyblade from his hand. His eyes flashed a black, emotionless color before he raised the blade to Riku's throat, prepared to snap his neck with one blow.

"Stop it Sora!" Kairi yelled at him. The Keyblade dropped to the ground and Sora's eyes became dilated. The others stood by, feeling helpless because they knew nothing of what the small group of friends was feeling.

Sora felt a certain strength flood through his whole body. He couldn't see anything but black and couldn't feel any pain that might have been there. He was in darkness, but the strength provided light. The light was powerful, he slowly regained his vision, but it was blurry. His movements were unsteady and not sure. His eyes were clouded, but no longer dark. As he swayed where he stood, he wondered what had happened, if anything had happened. Then he heard disoriented voices.

"I don't care if it's not Sora! He just knocked that kid out!" Sora knew that was Riku by his rough voice. But what did Riku mean he had knocked 'that kid' out?

"Riku! If you even attempt to hit him, so help me I'll-" That was Kairi's voice. She sounded so mad that she could kill Riku right on spot.

"Wha-what happened?" Sora muttered weakly, his vision slowly returning. He felt weak again, as if he had been beaten or something. Blinking he looked around him and then down at the ground. His eyes caught sight of Seifer and he drew back as he saw blood trickle down the guy's head.

"Sora!" Kairi said cheerfully, running up him and giving him a hug. "You're back!"

"Of course I am. What happened to Seifer and what do you mean 'I'm back'?" Sora asked, his voice still out of focus, but not by much.

"Well you see…" Kairi went through explaining everything, how he was going to fight Riku, how Riku was going to attack him for talking to her like that and all that other stuff.

"You mean I-But I don't remember any of that stuff…" Sora muttered, his eyes downcast.

"What do you remember?" Riku asked him, his blue eyes flashing.

"Darkness. That's all I saw, all I felt. No pain, no anger, just darkness…emptiness…" Sora told Riku, his eyes becoming deeply troubled. "Riku, what's wrong with me?"

Riku glared at him, "Why are you asking me? Like I would answer when you threatened to break my neck!"

Sora blinked, looking up at Riku and shook his head, "I-I would never do that!"

Sora felt torn between truth and what he thought. He hadn't known anything but the darkness around him. He hadn't the anger that had been in him as they had said. He only felt a growing emptiness. He turned away from his friends, unable to face them. What had he done? What was he doing know? Sora wondered if he could even trust himself in battle or any other place.

"Sora, I know what is wrong with you," Riku's voice floated into Sora's ears, making him whirl around with a questioning look planted on his face. "You now have a dark side to you. I know perfectly well that you would never try to hurt a friend. But you must know that having a dark side and being your regular self can earn you a lot more danger to your list."

"And what's that?" Sora asked Riku.

"Well number one, no one knows when you're in your dark form unless you look at your eyes. So if you were in your dark form, and were visiting some town and we weren't around, there would be a lot of dead people and Heartless about. Number two, the darkness in you is a lot stronger because I think it has been growing a long time, years maybe, but now it has chosen to revel it's self."

"Speaking of Heartless, I haven't seen one yet." Sora muttered. "I wonder where they all are…"

"That's what I was thinking." Riku responded, glancing at the others, he said, "Have you guys seen any?"

Olette, Pence, and Hayner shook their heads, "Not in years."

"Then that mean either someone is planning something, or they've been around, but haven't seen any because they're hiding themselves from us." Riku explained to them.

"Yeah, but if they're planning something, what do you think it is?" Sora asked Riku, his Keyblade vanishing from the ground and appearing in his hand.

"I really don't know, but it's about time we leave this world and go find someone who can help us." Riku looked at Sora. Sora was looking at the others and then turned back to Riku and nodded.

"Well, I guess we'd best go find Donald and Goofy, they've helped me before." Sora suggested. Riku and Kairi nodded. All three of them turned to their old friends and waved a farewell, it was time that they got moving.

"Bye guys!" Pence, Olette, and Hanger waved as Riku made a portal of darkness appear.

Sora waved back and said, "We'll visit again!" He then turned to Riku and said bluntly, "I'm not going through that."

Riku turned to look at him, "Why not?"

"Because darkness can't breach Disney Castle, you should know that. We'll take the train." Sora grumbled.

"But we don't even have any munny." Riku pointed out.

"We can lend you some," Olette offered, shoving a bag of munny into Sora's hands. Sora opened his mouth to protest, but Olette shook her head, "Keep it, we don't have any use for it."

"Well, if you're sure…" Sora looked up at Olette, who nodded. His reluctant look turned to a smile, and with that, he thanked them and raced off towards the Station. Seifer was still out cold, and he lay forgotten.