Fight

Riku and Kairi walked into the Castle. It had been two hours since Sora had dropped them off at Radiant Garden and they were already bored.

"Riku, King Mickey should be here by now in his Gummi ship" said Kairi. She was sitting on the walls of the Palace Garden.

"I know, I know" said Riku. "Kairi, can't you just enjoy the air of the place, the sunless purple sky…you are from this world after all."

"But I don't like it" said Kairi. "Besides, I was really little when I left, so I don't even remember it. It's like being in a new place. Destiny Islands are my home now."

Riku frowned at her severely, but he couldn't keep it on his face. "Fine, fine. Point taken. Now, what do you say we go to the Marketplace and see what they have to buy there? We could get our parents stuff." Riku's voice clouded over. "I wonder if my father would even notice."

Kairi looked at her shoes. Riku's father was a scientist and researcher on the heart named Walker. He was a very busy man and did not really take time to look after his son at all. He left him in the care of his wife, and when she died, he stopped caring about his son at all. He was rarely home and Kairi and Sora had almost never seen the silver haired scientist. "I'm sure he'll like a gift!" said Kairi cheerfully.

And then we can by Roxas a gift too said Namine from the back of Kairi's mind.

"And we can buy Sora a gift too" said Kairi as she jumped down from the wall.

As they went out of the gates, a voice called to them. "Hi! You must be Riku and Kairi, Sora's friends." They turned to see Nexumair walk out of the Training Field.

"Oh, Captain" Riku said. "I remember we met you after the Heartless attack, but we didn't get to know each other very well."

"Hi" said Kairi and walked past them.

"What's wrong?" asked Nexumair. "Are you alright, Kairi?"

"Oh, I'm fine" said Kairi. "I just want to get to the Marketplace quickly, before King Mickey arrives."

"Yeah, she has a point" said Riku. "See you later man."

"Much later" Kairi said as they passed out of hearing range.

"What was wrong with you?" Riku asked, a little angrily.

"I don't know" said Kairi. "I just…I just couldn't make myself talk to him for a long period of time. It was too fake."

"Too fake?" Riku asked.

Kairi nodded. "Yeah, it was like he didn't even care that much that we were there…he was pretending to care, and he was pretending to like us because we were Sora's friends."

"What do you mean? He didn't like us?"

Kairi shook her head. "No…he didn't like us, or hate us. He didn't feel…anything."

"You act like he's a Nobody or something" Riku laughed as they proceeded past Merlin's house.

"Riku" Kairi said and stopped. "When we first met that kid, I knew from the beginning that there was something wrong with him. This just adds on to it. He's not right. There's something about him…remember what Sora said when he told us about Xavier's Flyers? He killed everyone there. He didn't even have any emotions about it."

"Let's stop talking about this" said Riku. "I don't want to think that there's a Nobody among the people here. That would be impossible anyway."

"We're here" said Kairi. The Marketplace was still being restored to its original look before the sudden Heartless attack. People were still fixing broken windows and other things that needed fixing.

"Let's look around" said Riku. "I'll go and---"

"No, no, no! You're not supposed to do it that way!" said a crabby voice near the flower shop. Riku looked over and Kairi saw him tense. Standing by the flower shop was Aerith, Merlin, Yuffie, Leon, and…Tine. They were arguing with an old man who was waving a cane about in anger.

"Mr. Doyle, if you could understand that this girl doesn't know how to fix glass from nothing…and even if she did, the patterns on your shop windows are very complex. Lovely, but complex…"

Mr. Doyle shook his head and pointed a bony, hairy finger at Tine. Tine was wearing a white t-shirt with the words Restoration Committee on it and her red hair was soaked in sweat. She had many band aids on her fingers and she had a small cut under one eye from which tiny dark wisps leaked. "This girl's making it bad on purpose! She claims to be a 'master of the darkness power' so why can't she create something from it. Her battle with Lord Sora damaged my shop and I want it fixed!"

"But she already fixed the walls and roof!" said Yuffie in anger. "What more do you want? The windows are too hard to---"

"I'm not going to have a little girl who plays at being a ninja tell me what to do? How old are you? I'm seventy nine and I've lived in Radiant Garden all my life. I was here before the Heartless and I'm here now. I won't stand for some…overgrown Heartless to break my shop and then refuse to fix it!"

"Mr. Doyle" said Leon. The brunette gunblade master spoke in a low, growling voice. "If you do not stop this abusive talk, I am going to lock you up for causing a public disturbance." Indeed, people were stopping their shopping and looking over there. Even some shopkeepers had put CLOSED signs on their windows and hurried out to see what was going on.

"Herman Doyle, see here" said Merlin. "I'll fix your shop." The wizard rolled up his long sleeves. But Doyle stepped in front of Merlin. "I want Tine to fix it" he said. "There's a lesson to be learned in all of this, Heartless" he said.

"I have to go" said Riku. "Sora didn't tell me that this was what he thought about for her. I thought he just said it was some kind of community service!" he was seething with rage and anger at his friend. Now Sora was going to get an ass kicking when they met up after all this was done.

"Wait Riku!" Kairi said. But Riku didn't listen. His hair hiding his face, he walked up the group.

"Start treating her better" Riku said. "Or you'll have me to deal with."

The old man looked at Riku like he was something that had crawled out of a sewer. "What? A human sticking up for a Heartless?" then he looked closer at Riku. "Oh, I see. You're the one who was tainted by the darkness."

Riku snarled in rage, but didn't say anything else. Tine walked forward. "I'll fix it" she said. She walked to the broken window. "Where's the damage?" she asked Mr. Doyle.

"Right in front of your stupid face!" he said angrily. "Now she's mocking me! She's---uhhhh!" Tine hurled a piece of glass. The shard stuck solidly into Mr. Doyle's throat.

"That is IT" Tine said, her eyes flashing yellow. The crowd that had gathered backed up in fear and began to scatter.

"Tine!" Riku called and began to run toward her. Tine lashed out with her hands and Riku was thrown eight feet backwards. Tine's face was twisted in rage.

"Do you know" she said. "What I've been through? Your friend Sora told them to make me do what he called community service! All I've had is people abusing me, and yelling at me, and calling me Heartless!" Tine's voice began to grow hoarse from yelling, but she still kept at it. "Fine! You want a Heartless? I'll show you Heartless!" she hurled a ball of energy into a row of shops. They exploded one by one. The energy ball rolled around the square like a snowball down a hill, gathering strength and power. "I'll kill you all" Tine said. "And then, I'll take your hearts!"

"No you won't!" Yuffie yelled. She never really had liked Tine, merely tolerated her presence and now was a good time to show how much she hated her. Yuffie flung her shuriken at Tine's head. The girl whirled and caught it.

In the essential matters, the fight between Tine and the Guild Leaders was over before it really had a chance to begin. Yuffie was immediately knocked unconscious by Tine throwing the shuriken back at her.

"Take this!" Leon said. He charged at Tine, swinging his gunblade. Tine dodged and swung her black sword. Leon moved and it went over his head. He shot a fireball and Tine caught it in her hand, still flaming.

"Now I have y---" Leon said, and then Tine rammed the fireball into the gunblade master's face, exploding his head in a ball of fire.

"Ulitima!" cried Merlin.

"That's some powerful magic, old man!" Tine said as she was engulfed in a collection of multicolored explosions. "Too bad none of them hit me!" she said from the roof of the flower shop.

"Then what did I---oh no!" Merlin said as he saw Aerith lying in a bloody heap. "You switched places…with her at the…last…minute…and moved to the top…of the flower shop…" said Merlin, as he collapsed in exhaustion from magic overuse.

"Hear me!" cried Tine. "As of now, Radiant Garden is now mine!" Tine said. "Sure, more of you will fight me---and more of you will die! I will be victorious over all of you pathetic beings!"

Riku watched this whole display. "Shouldn't we do something?" Kairi asked.

Riku looked up and saw a white and blue Gummi ship bearing the King's Seal streak through the sky, leaving a jet trail behind it. "Yes, we should do something" he said. "Very quickly."

Meanwhile, Mr. Herman Doyle was not dead. Not dead at all. During the chaos he had crawled away and ran out of the Marketplace. Once inside the Bailey tunnel he waited. Soon Dark Corridors appeared, three of them. Out stepped Demyx, Luxord, and Nexumair.

"Did it work?" asked Luxord.

"Yes it did" said Zexion as he transformed back into himself. The real Herman Doyle had died earlier that morning, a victim of Demyx's water control. Zexion had swapped places with him. The four had chosen their victim carefully. There was a list in the Castle's record room of who was going to receive aid from Tine. Nexumair had gone through it, and picked out Doyle. The man was old and weaponless, and lived alone, his wife was dead and his kids had been lost in the original Heartless attack years ago. It had been easy for Demyx to drown him as he slept. Then, Zexion took control and became an antagonizing son of a bitch to Tine. He reasoned that they could tip her over the edge.

"Can we take her now?" Demyx asked eagerly.

"No, not now" said Nexumair. "The King's Gummi ship just landed and I don't want him getting mixed up into all of this. So far we'll wait and watch."

"You do realize" Zexion said to Luxord, that if the Superior catches us doing this, you involving me to help, he'll be furious. Well, as furious as our kind can get anyway. I'm on a different team."

"Does it matter?" asked Luxord. "As long as we get the little brat who is the key to our salvation, I don't think that Xemnas has anything to worry about."

Zexion smiled. This was a record. Two smiles for two days. First with Axel yesterday, and now this. Maybe this was a sign of things to come once their hearts were where they belonged.