A.N. Well hello everyone. I apologize for not posting sooner, but my entire computer went ptooie, and I wasn't able to get anything done. That, and now that the fighting's over, I'm not sure what to do. I think Loz and Yazoo are going to have an interesting role in infuriating Cloud by making fun of him. Teehee! YAY! PS I love Yazoo. He's probably my favorite of the three. Although Kadaj is more sadistic and crazy…well, anyway, that's not important. Just…read and review. Or I'll cry. Grr.
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Roxas' eyes flickered open to see a semi-familiar surrounding. It took him a second or two to recognize the inside of Cid's airship, and a couple more to notice how two people were watching at him.
"Hey," Sora said, relieved at seeing that Roxas was awake. "You all right?"
Roxas snorted. "No, but I'll be fine. How's everyone else?" He looked around the room. "Where's Riku?"
Tifa glanced at Sora. "I don't know. Cloud's not back, either." Sora nodded in confirmation. Roxas rubbed his bandaged head, looking around. Leon was lying in a bed next to him, back to the group. If Roxas hadn't known how Leon had been hurt, he would have thought that the brunette was sulking. But he did know, and he knew that Leon wasn't a werewolf. He healed at the normal pace, not helped along by werewolf blood, or whatever it was that helped them heal so fast.
"How's he doing?" Roxas asked, nodding at Leon. Tifa glanced briefly in that direction, shaking her head. "He'll be fine. Yuffie was with him all night, and refused to leave. We could only get her out when you came, because we said that she'd bother you." Roxas winced, knowing how well that conversation must have gone. "Well, thanks," he said, and Sora laughed. "We didn't do it for you. We did it for Leon. He's probably the one who's irritated the most, whether or not he's conscious."
Roxas grinned, glad that normality had been somewhat restored. He clambered out of the bed, saying, "Well, I'm sure that we must be irritating as well to a sociopath like Leon, so maybe we should leave, too. Just let the guy rest for a while."
A snort from the bed made him smirk, and they all trooped out of the door, leaving the pouting Leon alone.
Roxas, expecting to see Cid and Yuffie, was amazed when he walked into the room.
"Um…Sora? Tifa?" he said slowly. "Who are these guys, and why are they tied up like that?"
Tifa looked at the two silverhaired men, the huge, muscular Loz, and the thin, sinewy Yazoo, tied back to back and, for good measure, to the wall by an iron loop. Neither was awake, and both looked a bit worse for the wear.
"We caught these two last night," Sora grinned, pride obvious in his voice. "They kept attacking us, so we brought them back here."
Roxas sighed, shaking his head. "So there's these two…are there any more?"
Tifa nodded. "I think there's one more, at least. Probably two, but at the least one. It attacked us as well, but Cloud chased after it. No idea if he caught the bastard or not, but I hope he did."
A clatter outside drew their attention, and they all looked through the door. Cloud hurried into the room, carrying a limp figure in his arms, the pale body blood-drenched and unmoving. His stomach was a gory mass of torn flesh, and the sight of it was enough to make almost anyone feel sick; no skin was visible under the blood that still leaked from it steadily.
At the sight of the two, Roxas leaped to his feet.
"Riku!" he said, starting to run towards them, but Sora held him back as Tifa followed Cloud into the next room. The silverhair didn't move, head thrown back and gaping wounds evident on his body.
"I…It's all r-right," Sora said, but his voice was shaky and frightened. He was no longer the Keyblade Master that had defeated the Organization XIII. He was a just a teenager that was worrying about his best friend that, for all he knew, was already dead. Still, he held Roxas as the blonde sobbed into his shoulder, patting his back. "Tifa and Cloud will see to him…it'll be okay in the end. Don't worry…" he knew words were useless, of course, but it wasn't the blonde that he was trying to convince.
"No…" Roxas cried, voice muffled. "If I had been there to help him, then this never would have happened. He wouldn't have gotten hurt like that!"
"It's not your fault," Sora reassured, glad that he could finally reassure without lying through his teeth. He had no idea if it really was going to be okay, but he was sure that none of this was really Roxas' fault. If anyone's, it was his. "You didn't do anything."
"Exactly!" Roxas said, pulling back and looking his Other in the face. "If I had been there, then I could have done something to help him, instead of just being the useless piece of shit—"
"Roxas!" Sora snapped, grabbing his Nobody's arms and looking into his blue eyes, identical to his own. "Listen to me! Riku's hurt, and what you're saying isn't going to help him! If anything, it'll just make it worse! None of this was your fault. It was his own choice to do what he did, and that was to protect all of us! He did it for us, so you saying that it was your fault will make his efforts seem useless…all right?" Sora had no idea what he had said, but Roxas had nodded and scrubbed at his eyes with the back of his hand, so he didn't really care, as long as the Nobody just calmed down.
They both sat back, staring at nothing in particular as they waited for Cloud and Tifa to come back and tell them how he was, for better or for worse. Sora just stared into space, and Roxas squeezed his eyes shut, trying to control himself.
'Come on, Riku…' he thought. 'Pull through this, I know you can…please, Riku, be okay…'
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Tifa looked at Cloud, sadness echoing in both voice and expression. She looked down at the silverhair lying on the bed, white sheets now stained with his blood. The black-clad woman sighed, shaking her head.
"Oh, man…" she said. "How are we going to tell him?"
Cloud looked at her blankly. "What do you mean? It's not that bad…" Tifa hit him, and he rubbed his arm ruefully. "What?" he protested. "It's not."
Tifa shook her head again, this time in exasperation. "You just don't get it sometimes, Cloud…" she said sadly, standing up and walking out. The blonde smiled faintly. There was no way that she wanted to tell Roxas, but there was even less chance of letting him tell the werewolf. She could be blunt, but she was blunt and nice about it. He was just cruelly to the point and uncaring. He'd probably just tell the kid right off and leave without another word.
Still, he looked at Riku, shaking his head sadly. "Geez, kid," he muttered, standing and walking after Tifa. "You really know how to get yourself screwed over, don't you…"
Not getting an answer, not that he actually expected one anyways, he followed the woman into the room where Sora and Roxas were waiting for them.
As soon as he heard the door open, Roxas leaped to his feet, saying quickly, desperately, "How is he? Is Riku all right? I—" His voice was cut off as Tifa looked at him.
"I don't really know," she said quietly. "I'm sorry, Roxas, we did the best we could, but he's really hurt. I don't know…" she stopped, clenching her hands tightly into fists, and Cloud lay a comforting hand on her shoulder. She steadied herself, and finished her speech. "I don't know…if he'll be able to pull through this. He could still die."
Roxas collapsed into a chair, burying his head into his hands, shoulders wracked with silent sobs. Sora watched him, not really knowing what to do. Tifa, on the other hand, sat next to him, rubbing his back, feeling his thin body shake.
"It's all right," she said quietly. "We'll find whoever did this, and—"
Roxas leaped up, running out of the airship quickly, tears streaming from his eyes. They watched him go, and now none of them knew what to say. That is, until a silky voice broke in on their thoughts.
"He could live," Yazoo said, looking at them with the one good eye that he had. The other had a slash going straight through it, blood streaming from it stubbornly, and was shut firmly. He laughed, voice harsh. "He could live," he continued, "but I doubt it."
"Shut up," Cloud snapped, taking a menacing step towards the silverhair. "No one wants to hear you."
Yazoo snickered, wincing in pain, but didn't say anything else. Cloud waited a moment, just to wait for Yazoo to say something so he could have an excuse to hurt him, before stalking through the door, following Roxas outside. Sora, Tifa, and Yazoo watched him go, all three wondering where he was going.
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Roxas sat on the edge of the beach, staring out over the water. 'No more fur for another month…' he thought to himself, staring at his pale hands. 'I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing…'
It was that kind of mindless banter inside his own head that kept him from thinking about everything else, but it only lasted so long. Too soon, thoughts of the silverhair, broken and almost dead, and tears sprang up in his eyes. Brushing them away angrily, he kicked the sand, sending a fine spray into the waves.
"You know," a voice said behind him, making him turn. "I had to go through nearly the same thing as you twice, but with two major differences. Both times, I learned that they were already dead and with no chance of recovery, and my reaction was different." Cloud approached the Nobody, staring at him with no emotion in his blue eyes. "I actually started destroying things."
"That happens after I learn that he's dead," Roxas snapped.
Immediately, Cloud's eyes narrowed, the blue becoming steely and furious. "So that's it, then?" he asked, voice dangerous. "There's no hope, is there. You're just going to sit back and wait until someone tells you that he's dead."
Roxas flinched back. "Well…no. But what else—"
"Hope."
That stopped Roxas' words immediately. After a few seconds of silence, during which the two blondes simply stared at each other, until Roxas finally said slowly, "What?"
"Hope," Cloud repeated, turning away. "It's the least you can do. The people that I loved died, and I lost hope, and everything just went downhill. Don't let that happen to you. Don't make the same mistake that I have time and time again." He walked away, and Roxas had the feeling that Cloud was going through the same thing that he had so long ago all over again.
"No hope, huh…?" he murmured, looking out again, to the azure horizon that beckoned to the curious.
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A.N. 'Allo. I really am sorry about the, you know, giant gap. And the short chapter, too. It's a very short, overly emo chapter. And I still don't know if Riku's going to die yet. Help?
PS. My friends are all calling me Potstickers now, all because we went to a sushi restaurant and I started a fight over the potstickers. I can't remember if I won or lost that fight…oh, well. I still love you all.
Thanks to the three who reviewed my last chapter, I LOVE YOU! Sera, phaz, and princessOFdarkness are officially part of the Coolest Reviewers Club. Bwahahahaa, may the rest of you feel unloved. Review. Then I'll love you.
Chris/Potstickers. That's me!