Disclaimer - I do not own Kingdom Hearts. This is made by a fan for fans. No money is being made.
Author's Note - It's short. Sorry. I wrote it up last minute, so I could get it to you, yes YOU, my lovely readers. Short, but on time.
Axel choked on air. "Murder? Why the hell is he wanted for murder?"
"'Cause he killed somebody," Donald said.
Axel threw a glare in the duck's direction, "I guessed that, jackass. Who'd he murder?"
"I doesn't matter," Roxas cut in. He turned to Donald, "Riku is dead. I killed him."
Namine turned her head away from the group and stared at the moonlite ground at her feet, clearly ashamed of what Roxas had done; however, almost no one was paying attention to the small girl.
Red Cloak was.
"Now, listen here," Axel was saying, "if my friend says he's dead, then he's dead. He's dead. D-E-A-D. Got it memorized?"
Namine looked up and tilted her head. She must've missed something.
"He's not dead! The ship's computer said Sora and Riku were right here! You're friend is wrong!" Donald said, apparantly feeling it was necessary to yell the last word in each sentence.
Axel and Roxas shared a look. If a gummie detected it, then it might actually be true.
"Impossible," Roxas muttered.
"Improbable is more likely," Red Cloak said. He was sitting cross-legged in the dirt next to Namine. She jumped, and justly so. He hadn't been there a second ago.
Donald gave the man a strange look, and Roxas gave a disgusted sigh, but Axel ignored the man completely.
The red head had other matters in mind. "Well, good. Sora owes me twenty munny."
Roxas fell over, anime style. Donald took the opportunity to break free and make a break for the cave. Roxas caught him by the back of his shirt and put the chakram back in its place at the duck's neck. Donald snapped his fingers, thwarted once again.
"Twenty munny?!" Roxas repeated, "What'd you do, play poker with the bastard?"
Axel was about to respond when an explosion shook the ground.
Sora knew enough about Riku to know his tone of voice. "Look out," didn't mean "look out," it meant, "Roll, dammit, ROLL!" So Sora did roll.
Unfortunantly, it was already too late.
Goofy and Riku watched in horror as a half-human half-spider monster tackled Sora. It was grossly beautiful, with the upper body of a striking woman with long black hair, and the lower body of a magnificent black widow spider. The red hour-glass typical of the black widow glowed the color of blood, and the slick blackness of the spider body held the same errie light as the walls of the cavern itself. All of this could be seen in an instant, and in that instant Grimna had already torn a hole in Sora's shoulder with the tip of just one wickedly sharp leg. Another leg pinned his other arm, and two others his legs. Sora found himself pinned vertically to one of the many stones jutting up from the floor before he could react.
Riku didn't have time to be awestruck. Sora was in danger. He jumped in immediately, regardless of the danger to himself. Grimna flicked a leg out and caught him in the center, and he went flying across the room like a rag doll. His head hit up against a wall and an explosion of light errupted behind his eyes. Then his world went black.
Goofy saw the attack on Riku and knew the spider wouldn't waste time seeing if her attack worked. He stuck his shield up in time to deflect a blow, but was sent back a full ten feet before his feet stuck hard into the ground and he stopped skidding. He brought his shield down long enough to see Riku's still form slide down the wall and knew he wouldn't be getting any help from the silver haired boy in this fight.
And then Sora screamed. Grimna, for all the appearance of a human upper half, had teeth as sharp as a vampires. And they were sinking into Sora's shoulder.
"Hold on, Sora!" Goofy called. Bad move. Grimna had thought him defeated, if not dead, and the sound of his voice brought her head up immediately, her full attention back on killing Goofy. Goofy was just thankful she was no longer biting Sora.
Now, Goofy had never been one for relying on magic, but the loss of his shield at that moment was enough to make him miss it. Badly. He jumped and dived over and through the two legs that were attacking him, just to be caught in the head by a third. He flew back, just like Riku, and hit a wall. But, unlike Riku, Goofy wasn't knocked unconcious. And now he was out of range from Grimna's attacks. Far out of range.
He looked back to the distant battle and saw Grimna turn her attention back to Sora, smiling at him and licking his blood off her lips. He could see his shield under her belly. Goofy could run fast when he needed to. And this time, he was determined to not make his presence known.
Grimna knocked the annoying creature back. She watched him hit the wall and heard the thud when his head connected. Satisfied, she turned back to her meal. The human boy had become extremely pale, whether from loss of blood or fear of her, she couldn't tell. She smiled evilly. Probably a bit of both.
"There," she cooed. "Now we can be alone." He looked up at her weakly, his breathing coming in short gasps. She smiled and licked his blood off her lips, drawing it out to insite terror in the boy. His demeanor didn't change at all, and she found herself taken aback by the look in his eyes. A hidden power lay behind those eyes, something far greater than she could comprehend. That wasn't the look of a victim.
Snarling, she brought her teeth down upon him again, this time aiming for his neck. She could torture the other one all she wanted. Instinct told her to kill this one, and to do it soon. She always followed her instincts.
And suddenly, instinct was telling her to stop all else and protect her underside. Too late she moved to the side. A shield had badly bruised her tender underbelly. She staggered to the left, but corrected herself quickly.
Freed for the moment, Sora fell to the ground. He weakly propped himself up on his hands and knees. Goofy took a defensive possition in front of him.
"You're gonna have to get through me first!" he said, shield at the ready.
"Goofy..." Sora blinked away the tears forming in his eyes and looked around for Riku. He was slumped against a far wall, not moving. A surge of anger brought Sora to his feet, a rock in hand. Just as quickly, the loss of blood brought him back to his knees.
"Don't worry, Sora," Goofy said softly, "I'll take care of this one." He hadn't turned around, hadn't seen Sora's failed attempt at heroics, or the look on his face when the keyless Keyblade Master realized he was truly useless, that he was completely unable to help in any way...but Goofy knew what was happening as surely as he'd been watching it. He suddenly and happily ha-yucked, causing Sora to look up at him. Goofy let Sora see his profile. "You can't have all the fun, ya know!"
Grimna sneered. "Tender moment." She had refrained from attacking for one simple reason. Cowardice. To have thought such a small creature could hurt her...impossible! Or, at least, that's what she had thought. But the internal bleeding in her stomach told her otherwise. It would stop, surely it would stop, with time, but the injury brought her a disadvantage to this battle. She would be slower now. But that didn't matter. She couldn't lose. He would die.
They would all die.
"Ha-yuck!" Goofy's shield went soaring high into the air. Suspecting a trick, Grimna didn't follow its path, instead keeping her eyes on Goofy as she slowly circled him and Sora. Still, without his shield he proved too tempting a target, and she lunged.
Then Goofy's shield hit the cavern's ceiling.
Then the cave started to collapse.
Author's Note - I hope the action scenes were up to par. Yes, it's another cliffie. Don't look at me that way, it's under the 'suspense' catagory, for Pete's sake! Yes, uh, so...there. ((runs away from angry reviewers)) Anyway, next chapter will have more on Riku's murder charge, so do review or I'LL NEVER TELL. MUWAHAHA!