Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts, Fullmetal Alchemist, nor Final Fantasy

It took Mom an hour, after coming back from Riku's house, to go to bed. As soon as she fell asleep, Riku appeared. He taught me how to use the portals and that I shouldn't use them too often right now since I didn't know a lot and I didn't have a lot of power. He opened another portal and lead me into it. The next thing I knew, we were standing in the middle of the forest.

Before I had time to check out my surroundings, I felt something cut into my back. If you've never been slashed by a sword, let me tell you about it. It hurts like hell! I turned around to see Riku with his sword, now covered with blood...my blood.

"Get up," he said, raising his sword again.

I rolled out of the way just in time to see his blade crash into the ground. As I got up on my feet, pain spread throughout my body, causing me to fall down again. Riku came at me with his blade just as I summoned mine to block the fatal blow. It hurt to move my arms around. That slash to the back made me disabled in a way.

"I am surprised that you have blocked not just one but two of my attacks, Sora. For one so young and inexperienced, you sure know how to fight. It's in your blood. Now, get up and fight!"

Pushing him off, I jumped up, ignoring the pain, and got in a battle stance. So far, I had shown him how weak I was. Now, I needed to show him how determined I was. I never truly had taken fighting lessons, but somehow I knew what to do.

As Riku ran towards me, I, too, ran at him. We blocked each other then backed up. I was getting tired, but I wasn't about to let it show. Adrenaline was pumping in my veins and I quickly ran at him.

It all happened in slow motion to me as we ran at each other. Just as Riku thrust his blade at me, I pivoted on my right foot, putting me beside him, then behind him. Seeing an opening, I slashed my keyblade upon his back. Riku fell to his knees and looked at me. He gave a mischievous grin at me and slowly stood back up.

"I see you are finally starting to understand. You have to remember, though, that there are stronger opponents out there and you might not get as lucky."

We continued to fight the rest of the night. As the sun was rising, we decided to call it quits since my mom would be up.

"Sora, you make the portal," he said, stepping to a clearing.

Disarming myself, I walked up to the clearing. I was sore from getting tossed around like a sack of potatoes and wanted to go home. I gathered energy from within my body and made a portal. It works the same way as summoning my keyblade.

We stepped in the portal and quickly arrived in my bedroom. As soon as we arrived, I fell out of the portal onto my face. It was begininng to hurt everytime I moved. My back still felt like crap especially when I walked.

Riku sighed and walked over to me. He helped me up and made me sit on the bed.

"Turn around," he said retrieving something from his pocket.

I did as I was told and then blushed when I felt his hand touch my back. He removed my shirt and started fingering the cut on my back. When I flinched, he just chuckled.

"Guess I took it a little too harsh on you. I'm amazed you haven't even fainted from the loss of blood, yet."

"Vampires can faint?" I asked. I thought they couldn't sleep and therefore, couldn't faint.

"How do you think we regain our energy and heal faster? We may not sleep, but if our bodies get too weak or get badly injured, it shuts down just like a human's body would."

Riku continued to talk as he stuck a needle in my back and started stitching up my wound. I listened to him and begin to learn more about being a vampire.

"Every time you get struck by a weapon, pain from the wounds slowly decrease dramatically. So you have gotten your first serious wound. The next time you get hurt, it won't feel as bad, unless the damage is far worse than this. Master Xemnas said that no matter how much you get hurt, the pain will never completely go away. Some of us think otherwise, but who knows. We haven't been in as many battles as him nor have we been a vampire as long.The only problem with hardly feeling any pain, is that you don't feel blood coming out. If you forget about it, you could die."

I knew there was a catch to it. It seems nothing good comes without a bad side. It's like living creatures. No matter how good they are, they always have darkness somewhere in their hearts.

"We will take the next two nights and prepare then. This mission will take days, so in order to carry this out and not have anyone suspicious, Master Xemnas will use his magic and cause illusions of us. They will eat, sleep, go to school, and anything else that we do."

"Awesome. So, what exactly is our mission going to be?"

"We are to eliminate someone. She is becoming a threat to the vampires and our clans. I guess this is going to be your test of strength and will. Sora, don't disappoint the Master. If you do, it could end bad. Remember to stay with me at all times. If we separate, we become less powerful. Like they always say...two heads are better than one."

I nodded in agreement as he finished stitching me up. As I was about to get up, Riku pulled me back down. His tongue touched my back as I began to blush again.

"Riku..."

When he was finished, he looked at me and shrugged.

"You had blood all over your back. It was killing me not to have a taste."

Just as I was about to reply, I heard movement in the other room.

"Mom's up. I guess you should go in case she walks in," I said, pulling a shirt on to hide my back.

Riku nodded and made a black portal appear. He disappeared right along with it just as my mom walked in.

Mom gave me a slight smile when she noticed I was up and said, "How did you sleep?"

"Alright. What about you?"

She nodded and said, "Good," then walked out.

Mom made breakfast and when she finished I grabbed a plate of food. I really wasn't hungry, but I didn't want to have her believe that her food sucks or I'm sick. When I put the food in my mouth, it didn't taste as good as it used to, but I guess I could taste it and stomach it so it didn't really matter.

After breakfast, I went back upstairs and laid back on my bed. I was still sore even though bruises and small cuts were disappearing. I knew two things after thinking things over. One was that my mom is never going to treat me the same again. She is going to shun me and possibly want to keep me locked up. Two was that these next few days weren't going to be as easy as the last time. Riku wasn't going to go easy and I wasn't going to let him. If I can't beat him at his level, it meant that I wasn't suited for the mission and that meant death for me.