Plinkplinkplink!

Whapwhapwhap!

Xigbar the Freeshooter vanished for an instant, appearing upside down on the other side of the Hall of Empty Melodies and cursing the annoying kid trying to kill him. Another volley of his own bullets had buried themselves in his flesh, and Xigbar definitely felt them dissipating more slowly, the wounds healing with more effort.

"Arms, reload!"

He had tried teleporting the bullets themselves – creating tiny kill zones for Sora and company.

They had danced and leaped out of harm's way.

He had fired bullets as big as Sora himself, but in retrospect, that had been a bad idea; the keyblade master just shot them right back. "Too slow," he thought. "I'm gettin' senile with age."

He cracked a smile. Nobodies, he knew, didn't age.

Several times, he had collapsed pieces of the floor and rained bullets down on the slippery little buggers as they desperately scrambled for safety. That had in itself had been a hell of a lot of fun, but still Sora fought.

And so did Xigbar.

Whack!

One of Xigbar's ribs cracked before he teleported again. The kid was fast – he had lost count of how many times he had been caught with the Keybade.

He was quickly running out of ideas.

"Damn it." Through his pain, Xigbar silently chastised himself for allowing someone with a giant key to get this far. "I mean, I'm the one with the guns here!"

Weapons aside, Xigbar was on the ropes.

It was his fault, he knew, for clearing out the Heartless.

His fault for not letting them beat Sora down a little more.

His fault for being such a sportsman about all this.

He teleported up to the balcony, his old sniping post.

At least he wasn't Luxord. Everything was a sport to him. Cards – what the hell kind of a weapon were cards?

Plink!

A hit. That was refreshing.

Plink! Plink! Plink!

Whap! Whap! Whap!

For nothing's sake, where the hell did the kid learn to teleport?

The first two bullets grazed Xigbar's guns.

"Clever little sneak," he growled.

And the third bullet shattered his knee.

"Aagh!" Xigbar tried to stand, and staggered.

He tried to heal. Couldn't.

Tried to teleport. His outline blurred, but stayed where it was.

He was out.

Xigbar swayed, then fell twenty feet to the floor.

He landed on his feet, gritting his teeth in pain.

There! Sora was right in front of him. A clear shot!

Xigbar pulled the trigger.

Click.

No more bullets.

No more strength.

Xigbar collapsed.

Sora took a step forward, keyblade raised. "Why did you call me Roxas?"

Darkness was already starting to claim Xigbar. He chuckled. "Moron. He's not getting it from me."

"Wouldn't you like to know."