CHAPTER 9

Kairi starred at the gigantic white colossus in horror. Saix, from three floors down, gave a sly smile. "Fools," he weakly said. "Our TEST SUBJECT is far too much for you. Meet the TWILIGHT THORN." With that Saix once again passed out, this time with that smug look on his face.

Riku looked shocked beyond belief. He'd faced a Darkside before, which was arguably the same size, but he had not faced an army of Nobodies and two Organization members beforehand. This thing was about 4 stories tall. Riku's shock had not left his face, but it didn't look like this new development had hit him as hard as it had Kairi. She looked horrirfied. So much fighting, it was a wonder she was still awake, but now she looked like she didn't have the will to fight even a small opponent. "It can't be," she weakly spoke. "Why... Why?"

Riku was still injured from shot he took to the back. There was no way he could take on a Twilight Thorn, even IF he had Sora and Kairi's help. This didn't stop Sora though. Sora jumped out the window, straight towards the giant, roaring like a wild animal. He dashed all across the colossus, slashing everywhere he could, but it was pointless. Compared to the Twilight Thorn, Sora was a measly little spider. Sora was simply knocked off the giant, and back into the room.

He landed right next to Kairi. Riku looked at the two of them. Sora was blinded by his rage again. Kairi was too horrirfied to move. Riku was too tired and exhausted to come up with a strategy to beat this new opponent. 'Dammit,' Riku thought to himself. 'Is this the end?! We've come so far, fought for so long, only to be stopped here?!' Riku saw no more hope for them.

"Don't... stop... fighting," said Kairi shakily. She still looked terrified, but now she was standing. "We can't give up here." Kairi grabbed ahold of the Keyblade again, ready for one last battle. "We've come too far to stop now! I'm not gonna give up! They'll have to kill me first!"

Riku's eyes widened. He couldn't see any hope of winning. So how could Kairi? "You're right," he said. Riku readied his weapon for a last stand. "Even if I die here today, I'll go down fighting! Not cowering in a corner!"

The three friends charged towards the monster, screaming at the top of their lungs, but in Sora's case, he was roaring. The gigantic enemy simply swatted them back. They were hit so hard that they hit the wall. It didn't stop them. They charged again, determined to win, to survive, to escape from this nightmare they were trapped in. To no avail could they even get close. The Nobody was too big and powerful for them to fight.

Kairi now had blood dripping from her head, as well as multiple bruises all over her body. Riku could barely stand. He felt as though his ankle might be sprained, maybe even broken. Sora himself was covered in painful bruises, along with blood spilling from a re-opened wound that had not fully healed. Riku couldn't move even if he wanted too. Kairi had lost so much blood that she started to get woozy. As for Sora, he was on his last legs. It was official now. They had lost.

Suddenly laughter broke out. Xigbar had regained consciousness and was sitting in the corner, enjoying the show. "Man," he began, "I can't believe I went through all the trouble of setting up that big Heartless in the Land Of Dragons. It was supposed to be a trap for the imposter and you, Sora." He shrugged like everything he said was simply trivial to him. "Oh well. I guess it's just gonna roam free collecting hearts, once it emerges. Wish I could see it when it's fully grown."

Riku glared at him, wishing his ankle didn't hurt so bad, so that he could go over there and choke him to death. Then it hit him, Xigbar had let a huge Heartless loose. If he made it out of this, he would need to get there and stop it. Problem was, they couldn't go anywhere. Normally he would just use a dark corridor to escape from a tight situation, but he had no idea if he'd even be able to pull one off in his condition.

The Twilight Thorn raised its large hand, ready to smash the three of them into nothingness. This was it. No one was coming to save them now. Riku lowered his head in defeat. He'd given it his all, but in the end, it wasn't enough. Kairi held on to Sora, hugging him tightly, while Sora simply sat with her. Kairi's eyes began to tear up. Riku looked at the two of them. Now was his last chance to tell them who he was. "Listen you two," Riku said. "You should know that I'm really-"

CRASH! The entire castle was now shaking. Riku looked towards the window to see something he never thought he would see. A Darkside was actually fighting the Twilight Thorn. It was holding it by the neck, hitting it over and over and over again. Repeatedly beat the Hell out of it. Riku's shock was so great, his jaw actually dropped. He couldn't understand why a Heartless would go out of it's way to protect humans. Then suddenly, it hit him. He turned his attention towards Sora, then it clicked. Sora was completely wrapped in darkness. The Heartless were mistaking him as one of their own. As a result, anything that threatened the life of another one of them, was met with extreme measures. Heartless DID rely on instinct, but they also had a sense of loyalty as well. Then Riku remembered what form he was in. The dark powers he had were still fresh. Any Heartless would probably assume he was the REAL Ansem.

As the battle went on, the Darkside grabbed ahold of the Twilight Thorn, dragging it down towards the ground. Kairi grabbed the Keyblade, and with it cast CURAGA, to the best of her limited abilities, on to all three of them. It didn't completely heal them, but Riku was able to stand, she was no longer covered in bruises or blood, and neither was Sora.

The three of them walked over to the shattered window just in time to see the end of the battle on the ground. The Darkside had destroyed the Twilight Thorn by, literally, ripping it in half.

Kairi then started to search the area like a madman. Riku simply asked, "What're you doing?"

"Making sure that we're not gonna be attacked right before we finally take, ANOTHER, chance to relax," replied Kairi as she continued to search. Riku couldn't blame her though. After all the Hell they'd been through, he'd hate to sit down and then immediately have to start another battle. "Well, it looks like we're safe... For now."

Riku walked over to Xigbar, ready to get some answers. "Okay, start talking," he commanded. Xigbar gave him a simple smirk. He felt no obligation or reason to tell them anything. He may have been too hurt to move, but that didn't mean he would openly start giving information to an enemy. "Where's the exit to this place?"

Xigbar started to laugh. "Well," he began loudly, "if you're really that desperate to get out of here, you could always jump." Riku looked less than amused. Scratch that, he had a looked that radiated murderous intent. "Why do you think we use Dark Corridors to go everywhere? There is no physical way out of this castle. Unless you wanna take my earlier advice, and jump out the window."

Riku pondered over what he had learned while he had been infiltrating the castle. Then it hit him. He remembered there was a garage where some of the organization members had been working on transportaion. "Oh well Xiggy," Riku said mockingly. "I guess we'll just had to use the vehicles you guys have laying around in that garage of your's." Xigbar's smug smile immediately turned to a dead serious glare.

Sora, Riku, and Kairi left the "WAR ROOM" as they had decided to call it. Riku could feel his strength staring to return. Pretty soon he'd be able to create dark corridors again. Once he could, he had two destinations in mind. Sora's gummi ship, so Sora and Kairi would be safe. And the Land Of Dragons, where Xigbar had unleashed a big Heartless. Hopefully he'd be able to find and eliminate it before it got free.

As they walked along, something came across Kairi's mind. "OH NO," she gasped, causing Riku and Sora to jump, ready for another fight.

"What," asked Riku, clearly not seeing anything worth stressing over.

"What happened to Pluto?!" Riku looked like he wanted to strangle KAIRI now, for making him freak out like that. But before that would happen, Pluto came out from around the corner down the hall. "Oh, there you are." He hadn't gotten very far from the prison cells.

Riku just kept giving Kairi the DEATH GLARE. She couldn't go around freaking him out like that. "Listen Kairi, I'm going to open a corridor that's going to lead to Sora's ship," Riku explained. "When I do, I want you to go with him. I have to go somewhere else." Kairi looked sad to hear that. After all they'd been through, it felt like a shame to just split up, but she knew why they had to. "And don't worry about what's happened to Sora. I've noticed that the power he's using isn't going to last much longer. He'll be back to normal in no time." With that, Riku finally felt enough strength return to him for him to open up two corridors. "Well, this is where we say goodbye. The corridor on the left will take you to Sora's ship."

Kairi looked towards Sora. She felt relieved to know that she could be with him now. However, one last trial had made its way to the three. A dark figure sped past Riku and Sora. When it did, it grabbed Kairi. It was no other than the SUPERIOR IN BETWEEN, Xemnas.

A/N : AAAHHHHHH! XEMNAS! So yeah. Sorry I haven't updated til now, but my computer crashed, and I lost ALL the data for this chapter, so I had to RE-write it. But I hope you enjoyed. Stay tuned... We're getting close to the finale.