A/N: It's finally working! YES… dang it's been forever…
Thank you Princess Kaira of Mirana, it's a little present for you!
Thank you Nameless Dragon. I love Vincent, he's my favorite character.
Thank you Matt-san (you know who you are) but you can keep the Coke, in fact I'll give you a case of it, and a little something special…
Hey is it S/K, cuz if it is I win! Hm or Axel and that other chick… I don't know dear, but it's okay you can have my coke!
Thank you readers and reviewers a like!
The mysterious FF character is… Well you have to read and her name will come out. She's from DoC...
On with the story…
Chapter Twenty-One: Message Causes Emotion
"Go with, Sora!" Gekigami said pushing off some Heartless in his area of vision. He looked back at Amaterasu and at Riku.
Gekigami didn't feel that Sora was ready to fight either one of those two, and most likely Leana would rip him to ribbons once they finished toying with him. Amaterasu threw a Heartless off of her back and looked back at Riku he was in back of her taking care of some more Heartless.
They both felt that their help was needed more to Sora, but they didn't want to leave the others alone as well. Reeve told them to go and help Sora, and they had no choice but to follow directions from a higher-upper such as Reeve.
"I'll go with you…" Nanaki said following the two teens. "I've got a score to settle with them too."
Riku looked back at Amaterasu with a rather apologetic look on his face, but Amaterasu shook her head. What they needed to focus on right now was helping Sora and Kairi as they ran down the same path Sora had used to go look for Kairi.
Sora was on the ground, with Ultima at his side, and Riku growled looking at the woman who was responsible for it all. Sora got up, and charged forward, taking a swing at Leana, and knocked her down. Her arm, from what Amaterasu could make out, was still a bit out of order, in terms of fighting and handling.
Sora jumped back avoiding Leana's weapon from slicing his head clean off of his neck. Riku jumped forward, and landed in front of Leana, and the woman jumped back. Nanaki and Amaterasu arrived shortly after, and she didn't look that pleased with it all.
"I thought it'd be just you…" Leana said pointing her weapon to Amaterasu.
"No… Sorry, I don't swing that way…" Amaterasu said pulling out One Winged Angel and going straight for the attack. "I should've killed you last time…"
"Bleeding heart…" Leana spat out, ignoring Sora and Riku. She rushed forward and with such strength sparks flew from both weapons as they were blocked with enough force to shake the ground a bit.
"Go…" Amaterasu jumped back and blocked another attack. "Go get Kairi…" she said straining under the strength of the attack.
Sora ran forward and Gabriel approached him. He knew well enough not to kill the boy, but that didn't mean he could have some fun with him. Gabriel was stronger than Leana, but it wasn't noticeable since he acted like he did.
Riku stayed behind with Amaterasu, but he noticed that Nanaki had got her back covered. He decided that maybe it was best that he'd go with Sora. Gabriel pulled out two weapons, they looked like Keyblades, but again they had no Keychain.
Sora growled in frustration, he wanted to save Kairi, but it was almost impossible with another battle. Leana was pretty strong, and he knew that this guy wouldn't be a walk in the park. Luckily he had Riku along side him, and he prayed that he'd at least have a good chance of making it out in one piece. He was doubting himself rather than doubting his friend.
"I'll make you a deal, I'll fight the guy with the weird eye, and you can go save your girlfriend, deal?" Gabriel said looking at Sora, smiling. "I promise, no funny business…"
Sora looked back at Riku, and Riku nudged him.
"Deal…" Sora said to Gabriel. He looked back at Riku, "Be careful, okay?"
"Yeah, now go save your princess…" Riku said running forward with Keyblade in hand.
The trap
Sora avoiding getting hit by the oncoming attacks from Gabriel and Riku, and he finally managed to reach the area where Kairi was being held. He noticed that there was a Keyhole on a rock, and he pointed Ultima to the direction of the Keyhole, and a faint white light shot out going inside the Keyhole.
At that point he noticed that the rock disappeared and he looked down. Kairi shouted something to him, but he couldn't hear her that well.
"It's a trap!" she yelled out loudly.
Sora looked around him, but he didn't see anything wrong with the area. At that point there were two giant doors that moved slowly, as if they were unlocked by something. Inside it was dark, with water running out from it. It looked like that underground waterway the old castle use to have.
Amaterasu, Nanaki and Leana
Leana was pinned to the ground, by Amaterasu's Keyblade, her shoulder felt as if it was on fire, and Nanaki growled menacingly at the fallen woman. He had a big dislike towards her, and he had every right too.
"It's been fun…" Amaterasu said, twisting the Keyblade as it was in her shoulder, and at that point flames shot out from the Keyblade. She unlocked the Fire spell, and used it to a full extent.
Leana, in a last resort jabbed her weapon into Amaterasu's chest, mere inches away from her heart.
Amaterasu's eyes widened, and something in her own heart clicked. She felt the warm crimson substance run down her frame, and at that point Leana's weapon disappeared from view. Nanaki pulled it off as quickly as he could, and watched as Leana's body disappeared into the wind, she was burned to a crisp by Amaterasu.
Nanaki placed a high level Cure spell, and tore off some clothing from her sleeve, pressing it against the wound, to keep it from bleeding out. 'No, come one… Don't give up, Amaterasu, please…' he thought watching her eyes change color for a moment. 'Don't give in to it…'
Leana's down fall had been that shoulder of hers. Nanaki had a clear shot of it with a Fire spell, while Amaterasu was attacking her with regular assault abilities.
"Na…na…ki…" she whispered out. "It's…c-cold…"
Her eyes turned red for a moment, and then they went back to a dark brown color. 'Come on Ammi, you can do it, don't give into it!'
Gabriel and Riku
Riku jumped back and used Dark aura, catching the man off guard. He was knocked back and growled. Gabriel brought his weapons down, and Riku blocked it just in the nick of time, but it was too quick, and he felt his leg was going to snap at the hostility of it all.
Gabriel brought down both of his weapons to the side and panted, Riku was getting faster and faster with each attack.
"Your girlfriend's in trouble…" Gabriel said pointing to the scene that was unfolding.
"You're lying…" he said going in for the attack but Gabriel kicked him off.
"You don't care if she's dying?!" Gabriel said locking his weapon with Riku's Keyblade.
"I don't believe you…" Riku said pushing Gabriel inch by inch.
Squall and the others
Vincent brought his gun Cerberus back into its place, and changed into Chaos, placing a hand over his heart for a moment. A ball of black material formed around him, and as he stepped out into plain sight, his appearance changed to something more demonic. He pulled his gun Death Penalty from thin air, and smirked at the Heartless around him.
Squall blocked an attack from an oncoming Heartless, and watched Rinoa cast a healing spell an everyone else. He pushed the Heartless back and pulled the trigger on his Gunblade creating a devastating after effect to the Heartless.
Yuffie threw her shuriken at surrounding Heartless, and Yomigami and Gekigami, stood by each other slashing at Heartless that jumped into the area. At one point Yuffie was thrown back and Yomigami caught her before hitting the ground roughly.
Cloud brought his First Sword back and broke it down to two now. He held both piece of his removable sword, and slashed at Heartless that jumped into view. Aerith stood in back of him catching Heartless with a Magnet spell, so that the job could be down faster.
The girl with the amber eyes stayed close to Chaos, slashing at surrounding Heartless with grace a diligence. She jumped back, and blocked her opponent's oncoming attack with her orange glowing sabers. Her eyes flashed amber for a moment, and with that she appeared behind a couple of Heartless and took them down with a slash of one weapon.
Vincent shot down three Heartless, with the use of one pull from his gun and he looked back at the girl with the amber eyes, she seemed to be doing well. 'Lucrecia, you'd be happy at her performance, and you too, Shalua…' he thought to himself, taking out a couple of Heartless around the girl.
"Don't get cocky, Shelke…"
"I'd advise the same for you, Vincent Valentine," she said stabbing Heartless in back of Vincent.
Gabriel and Riku
Gabriel jumped back as Riku attacked from mid air. Gabriel threw him into the air and attacked him ruthlessly down to the ground. 'If you won't believe me, I might as well kill you off too,' the man thought to himself as he pinned Riku to the ground.
He knew Leana had failed, but that was the price of what would happen when someone would fail, you'd pay the price. Riku turned his head slightly, feeling his head throb in pain. He looked at the red creature Nanaki, and noticed someone on the ground. 'It's a joke, right? Please don't be this cruel to me…'
"I tried telling you, but you don't listen do you…?" Gabriel said crouching next to Riku.
Blood was trickling down Riku's arm, and all he could do was watch the scene. He couldn't feel anything, he felt numb. 'Amaterasu… Get up, please… come on…'
"Ammi!" Riku yelled out desperately.
Gabriel felt some remorse, watching his ex-comrade most likely bleed to death. 'Her fake heart hasn't kicked in yet, and she might die if it doesn't decide to help out. It's been nice knowing you Amaterasu, it really has.'
At that point Gabriel noticed that both of the boy's eyes were amber now. 'He's got his eyes… Funny, she always did fall for guys like that… what the hell am I saying she's only fallen for Xehanort, and now this one no doubt…' he thought pinning Riku down with a strong Gravity spell.
"You can say hi to each other in the afterlife, if you believe in one…" Gabriel said getting ready to strike his weapons down on the boy's body.
Sora and Kairi
"What's in there?" Kairi asked looking at Sora as he took a bold step forward.
Sora shook his head, and watched Kairi go in with him. The place was dark, and Kairi felt around the walls for a light of some sort. She ran her fingers up and down one wall, and felt something that seemed like a switch.
"It's a waterway…" Sora said watching the light finally hit the objects of the darkness. He walked forward, and looked around, the place was falling apart. It was unrecognizable from Sora's first adventure in the waterway. "It looks sort of familiar…" he said looking back as Kairi followed behind.
"Hey, what's that?" Kairi asked pointing to a metallic box, it had dents in it.
The box was placed on this little step, almost like if it once held some importance. It was behind a crumbling gate, and Sora remembered once that he had seen something, but his memory was fuzzy of that day. He walked up to the gate and looked into the darkness of it all, the box was there, untouched for decades.
"I wonder what's in it…" Sora said looking back at Kairi for a moment.
At that point Ultimia weapon appeared over head, and hovered above Sora. He grabbed it, and felt a tug as the Keyblade pulled him forward. The gate opened slowly, and the box started to shake. At that moment a Heartless sensed the Keyblade in its area, and appeared over the box, hissing at the boy.
"Give me a break…" Sora said getting ready to attack. He was getting tried of it all now.
Kairi stood by his side and pulled out her Keyblade, getting ready to back him up. That Heartless would do anything possible to keep the box back in its ownership.
Gabriel and Riku
Riku got control of his body back in the nick of time, but Gabriel had already inflicted damage on his shoulder and his right leg. He could feel the blood run down his arm and his leg, it felt warm. Gabriel sighed for a moment and looked at Riku's worn out body.
"I feel bad for you kid…" Gabriel said charging forward. "Losing someone you care about…"
"Shut up!" Riku said blocking an attack from the weapon. "I haven't lost her yet!"
Riku kicked one of Gabriel's weapon clean off from his grip, and Gabriel smirked. It had been a while since he fought with someone with this much spirit, and heart. It was like fighting Xehanort all over again, but somehow he knew it would be just a bit different.
Riku watched as the others came into view, and noticed that Yomigami was the first to run down to Nanaki, he picked up Amaterasu's body. 'No, please don't… I'm begging you, please…' he thought. Gabriel brought Riku down to the ground, and Riku felt his body collide with the ground at full force. He felt blood run down the side of his head. 'I never got to tell you… I'm not letting it end this way…'
Nanaki and the others
Yomigami picked up his sister's lifeless body, and held it close to him, praying hard to have her heart beat again. Gekigami looked away, and noticed that Leana's weapon was on the floor by his feet. He picked it up, and chucked it with all his might. Reeve knelt down by Yomigami, and hung his head for a moment, and noticed something.
"Yomi…gami…" Amaterasu's changed color, going to red.
"You're going to have to let it take over…" Yomigami said glad to hear his sister's voice. "Just trust me on this… Please…" he said looking at his sister again. "It was a bad idea to make you go… I'm sorry."
Amaterasu closed her eyes for a while her body went numb, she felt cold. The only thing the others could do was just watch, and hope, watch and pray.
Vincent looked away feeling sorry for Yomigami. He had faced so many hardships, he would possibly have to face another one. Gekigami looked back, noticing someone with silver hair down on the ground. He looked up at the figure that was going to deliver the final blow.
'Riku…' Amaterasu thought. 'You're gonna be okay, I promise you that much. All right? Because I'm all right now, and you have to be okay, that's how it works…' The heart inside her clicked again, and darkness began to spread in her veins.
'Those with darkness bleed black blood…' Her hand touched the ground, and everything stopped for a moment. A barrier formed around Riku, and Gabriel jumped back. She opened her eyes, and the wound closed up slowly now. The darkness from the artificial heart had just saved her life for now.
Riku appeared beside to Amaterasu, who was breathing slowly, he was knocked out. Aerith sighed heavily noticing Amaterasu sit up slowly, her eyes were a deep shade of crimson, tinged with amber. She coughed up some blood, and noticed it was a deep red color. 'Ugh, I'm gonna be hurting in the morning…' she thought closing her eyes for a moment.
Gabriel was gone from sight, possibly he had left to go get Sora and Kairi.
"Amaterasu…" the others said. She looked back at them, and tilted her head.
"I'm not dying that easily… Remember, I'm an experiment… Like that battery, it's keeps going and going…"
"Yeah well even batteries run out! You can't toy with your life like that…" Yuffie said still worried about her.
"I'm a kid, let me pretend…" Amaterasu said still feeling the pain in her chest. "Besides whatever the hell Hojo did to make my body last this much, I'm glad…"
Vincent threw her a glare, and Amaterasu laughed nervously. He wasn't in Chaos' form, but he was still pretty scary to her when he looked at her like that. Rinoa sighed in relief, and knelt down to Amaterasu placing an Elixir in her hands.
"Your friend needs it…" she said looking down at Riku.
"Riku…" Amaterasu said breathlessly. "I got you back in time…"
Squall left Vincent, Cait Sith and Shelke Rui, to guard Amaterasu and Riku while it they went after Gabriel, and to go get Sora and Kairi. With that Amaterasu opened the Elixir bottle, and smelled it for a moment, it smelled sweet. 'Funny, I didn't think I'd need this fake heart…' she thought to herself lightly touching Riku's cheek. He felt warm, and she wiped some blood that was around his eye.
She picked up half of his torso, and titled the bottle, forcing his lips open a bit. 'Ew…' she thought cringing at the thought. Amaterasu poured the contents into his mouth. 'Come on buddy, live… or at least cough or something please… Please…'
Riku coughed a bit, and Amaterasu placed the bottle in a straight upright position. She sighed in relief, and held him for a moment, thanking God silently. She kissed the side of his head for a moment. She looked back at Cait Sith and to Shelke, nodding her head slightly, he was alive.
"We should probably get him back to a safe place," Vincent said looking back at Amaterasu. "You know it's not safe here."
Sora and Kairi
Sora blocked the oncoming attack from the Heartless, and Kairi placed a Gravity spell on the enemy. He threw Ultima at the Heartless, and it fell down, stunned. Kairi moved up running forward, and performed Sonic Blade. With months of perfecting the attack, she executed it with a sort of perfection. The Heartless fell and Kairi and Sora gave each other a high five.
"Hey look it's the box!" Gabriel said appearing in back of the two. "Thanks for finding it for me, you have no idea how long it took to get it…" he had the box in his hands now.
"Don't let him get away!" Reeve shouted from the entrance of the waterway.
Sora jumped forward, and Kairi placed a Magnet spell on the box. Gabriel blocked the attack, but the box was ripped away from his grasp. He growled, and pushed Sora down to the ground, trying to grab the box. Cloud lunged forward, and stopped Gabriel from moving forward. Aerith and Rinoa used Gravity to keep Gabriel from moving around, and before long Gabriel was staring down at the tip of the Ultima Keyblade.
"Who asked you to get the box?" Squall said joining Sora, he placed his Gunblade close to the man's neck.
"A witch…" he managed to mutter.
"Who?" Squall asked again.
"You want her name?"
"Yes, what is her name?"
"Her name…" Gabriel started to laugh. "You know her…"
At that point Sora's Keyblade emitted some white string like chains around Gabriel's wrists and ankles.
Vincent and the others
Vincent felt the material of his red cloak slip off of the others, and watched as they appeared from underneath the red material. Shelke sighed softly and looked back at Riku, his wounds had stopped bleeding, but they were still fresh.
Amaterasu sat next to Riku pushing strands of hair away from his face. He groaned in pain, since his head was throbbing. She looked away for a moment, and sighed heavily. Her eyes stayed the same, crimson with a tinge of amber, the color a terrible dark lord once held.
They were back in Radiant Garden, a safe area for now anyway. For right now the others were confronting Gabriel, and taking the box he was told to get.
"Are you all right?" Shelke asked Amaterasu, she seemed to be lost in thought. Cait Sith was in Shelke's arms.
Amaterasu nodded and noticed that Vincent was perched up on a rooftop, overlooking the city. Shelke sighed and leaned against the wall of a building, looking up at the clouds, they were starting to break apart.
"I'm just thinking…" she said looking up at the clouds.
"Your eyes…" Shelke couldn't help but notice. "They remind me of his eyes."
"Xehanort…" Amaterasu said giving Shelke her trademark smile. "Anyway, how are you and Vincent?"
"It's the same thing. Protect, help, feed… Talk… Sleep… He's like a child sometimes."
"Ammi…" Riku murmured out.
"That's my kid…" Amaterasu said noticing the small smile on Shelke's lips. "He's a good kid."
Amaterasu grasped Riku's hand and smiled, feeling Riku squeeze her hand back. 'He's still asleep though, that's good…' she said smiling slightly. 'I'm glad Gabriel didn't really kill you…that and because I saved you…Be more careful, I guess I should say that to myself as well.'
"You're not… dead…" Riku said opening his eyes slightly.
"No… Too bad for you…" she said watching him for a moment. "How are you feeling?"
"Like I got hit by a gummi ship pushing 72 in a 35 speed limit." Riku said watching the girl for a moment, he smiled at her. "I was afraid, when I couldn't feel your heartbeat."
For the first time Riku saw her blush as red as a beet, and she buried her head on her knees.
"Stupid jerk…" she said her voice was muffled a bit. "I could feel your heart beat fine…"
She said looking at him from the corner of her eyes. "They're both amber now…" she said softly. "See I was right you do look better like that."
R i k u
I smiled for a moment, it did hurt, but I smiled anyway. I don't want her to worry so much, but I least I got her to blush. I'm doing something right, so I can't complain too a lot, though my body's aching a great deal.
Her eyes, like look different today, I think I'm losing but, she looks good like that. I'll admit, she looks cute, but I won't get to tell her, if we keep up this damn cat and mouse thing. 'Okay so maybe I'm lying…' I said smiling at the thought. 'Yeah I am…ah, but I can't do it!'
I sighed, and she looked at me for a moment, with this simple smile. 'We're getting there… It's a pretty good start…' I thought closing my eyes for a moment. 'Ouch.' My head is still hurting, and my side hurts, that idiot hit me on the side, knocking me down. I hope he didn't break a rib or something.
"I'm bleeding?" I asked feeling something warm run down my head.
Amaterasu pulled out something and placed it on my head.
"Jesus Christ! Ah!"
That thing hurt so bad, it's making my head feel worse.
"I'm sorry!" she said bowing her head slightly. "But it'll stop the bleeding, so stop whining."
"I'd like to see you with this…"
"…" she looked away from me, and sighed. "Just try and rest up okay?"
"Yeah…" I said looking up at the sky again, the clouds were breaking apart little by little now. "I like your eyes…" I said, thinking out loud.
"Thanks…" she said in a rather embarrassed tone.
A m a t e r a s u
'Take a dare don't tell the truth keep this between me and you whispers become loud when word of this gets out,' I thought to myself thinking back to that song.
I held Riku's hand as he closed his eyes, and he smiled. The only I could do was sigh again, that's pretty much just it. I was still trying to recover from earlier, and I'm not doing a good job. A part of me doesn't care, but I'm their family, I'm flesh and blood.
'I don't care, but you do…' I haven't heard that voice in a while.
I felt tears form around my eyes, and I covered my eyes with one arm, clearing my throat for a moment. My face grew hot with embarrassment, but also I didn't care now, if they saw me cry. I laid myself on the ground, feeling the tears stream down my face. I miss them so much, my heart's breaking apart with each thought.
"It's okay to cry…" I heard Riku say softly. He squeezed my hand again.
'You know you want to kiss him…' this was why I hated that voice. 'Just do it, it won't kill you. Besides you said so yourself, Xehanort is in a better place… And so is the rest of your family…'
"Ah, put a pipe in it you broken record…" I said to my little voice. "I remember why I don't like you…"
At least I feel better now, but now I have that in my head. It's not annoying, but just bizarre now, but I don't mind I suppose, it's funny. Though you know what I want more than anything in the world?
"Sea-salt ice-cream, once this whole thing is over… I'm gonna buy it by the barrel!" I whispered to myself.
"You're talking to yourself again…" Riku said turning his head slightly.
"Sorry…" I murmured. "Hey, tell me when you'll get into another closet."
"Why? Don't tell me you want-"
"No…Because I'll remember to lock you in it…" I said putting my arm down.
"This is coming from the same person who thought a fake-out would be a good idea…" Riku said laughing softly. I heard Cait Sith say something.
Cait Sith was poking fun at me now, which was embarrassing but it got my attention away from more of the melancholy things going around in my head. My chest still felt like it was on fire or something, and I could feel this cold energy just run up and down. This darkness, I never would've guessed it would save my life.
'It's not a bad thing…' it was something Riku wrote in that little black notebook of his. 'You can use it to protect, but even I still doubt what I've done, it's pretty hard… Sometimes I'll admit, I'm afraid that when I sleep I won't see my reflection in the mirror anymore.'
"They have him…" Cait Sith said pointing to a couple of moving figures in the distance.
A/N: You know what to do ONE review please.