Chapter 31: Bloodlust

The group was planning their next move. Following their battle at Olympus Coliseum, more worlds had opened their paths up, including some new ones that Sora did not recognize.

"So Halloween Town is the only one you know well enough?" Riku asked.

"Yeah, I mean I have been to that one over there…" Sora said, pointing towards two other worlds that were in the other direction of where they were headed, "But it's been a little while longer than since I was last at Halloween Town. Since around the time our journey began".*

"So, Halloween Town it is then." Sora said. As he walked towards the controls however, he felt a wave of dizziness overcome him. He fell to his knees as he clutched his head, feeling his body go numb. A slow but heavy pounding noise began in his head as his fangs elongated to about double their length, forcing him to keep his mouth open. Riku saw Sora in pain and got up to go over to check on him, but Sora put his hand out behind him to stop him.

"S-Stay back… Ungh…" Sora curled up and clutched his head with both his hands. The sound of Riku moving behind him, worried, was becoming drowned out by the loud pounding noise of their heartbeats.

He wished to end it. He only wanted it to stop. He found himself slowly lifting himself up from the floor, using the pilot chair as support. Cloud could immediately tell Sora had a bad aura around him, so he readied himself.

"Riku, get back!" Cloud shouted, but before Riku could react, Sora spun around and lunged at his throat, baring his fangs.

"Sora isn't here anymore." A dark aura surrounded him as his clothed changed to black long-sleeved shirt and trousers, with several black buckles and short belts wrapped tightly around them as Aros took control. Riku also noticed his eyes were glowing a gold colour, but still had the red of bloodlust in them. "Now you're mine." Just as he was about to bite down on Riku's neck, Cloud grabbed him by the arms and yanked him off of Riku. He tried to control him, but Aros was too strong and elbowed Cloud in the nose, drawing blood and causing them both to fall to the floor. Seeing the blood, he sickeningly wiped the blood off of Cloud's upper lip and then licked it off his fingers while smiling at Cloud. Cloud regained his composure and pushed Aros away as he grabbed his sword, but Riku stopped him.

"No! The real Sora must still be in there, we can't kill him." Cloud let go of his sword. Aros smiled at them devilishly.

"Felling a little tied up with your options, pretty-boy? Looks like I am in control." Aros gathered up a ball of dark energy in his hand. "Now you'll do as I say, or else…" He held the sphere of darkness up to his own head. "Sora dies." He paused for a few seconds. "Turn this ship around. Now." Riku sat in the pilot seat and took hold of the steering wheel, but hesitated. Could he really give in this easy? He was going to just let this creature of darkness win that fast?

Getting impatient, Aros said "Hurry up, pretty-boy, we haven't got all day. Don't you want to see your friend again?" That struck a chord with Riku, as he launched out of the chair and grabbed Aros' hand, pushing it out of the way as he fired it at himself, but missed and it hit the controls, frying them. As Aros fell to the ground under Riku's grasp, the ship gave off a siren, indicating that it was going down. The ship rocketed to one side, pushing Riku off of Aros and throwing Cloud to the wall, knocking him senseless.

Riku looked around to locate Aros, but he was gone. He decided he needed to find some sort of emergency teleport or pod so he and the others could escape. He grabbed Cloud as the ship began to tilt to the other side, wanting to reach the entry room before it tilted too far. Luckily however the ship managed to level itself out a little bit, allowing Riku (with Cloud in tow) to get to the back of the ship.

Much to their chagrin, there was no emergency way out. Just the regular teleporters, and to use them they required the ship to be still. He decided to tend to Cloud and find a sturdy place to hide in some vain hope that wherever they crashed (if they didn't explode first) wouldn't kill them.

Before he could begin looking though, he was attacked from behind by Aros, who pushed him to the ground. Riku quickly tried to summon his keyblade, but Aros grabbed his arm and kneed him hard between the shoulder and elbow, breaking it. Riku screamed out in pain as Aros dropped his arm and grabbed him by the head.

"I just wanted to let you know, before we all die, I'm gonna enjoy devouring your heart Riku." Aros said as he slowly moved his hands all over Riku, causing him to panic. "And your body."

"You… you're sick! Are you getting some sort of pleasure out of this? You're going to die too!"

"Well I'm very aware of that fact, but why shouldn't I have a little fun beforehand?" He began taking Riku's coat off, but Riku struggled. Aros responded by casting a spell on him that rendered him unable to move.

"Just stop fighting it Riku. You're mine now."

"Think again, creature." Someone said as from out of nowhere, a long whip wrapped itself around Aros neck and tightened, the end (which was wrapped around Aros neck) fused into a leash of some sort. Aros was pulled backwards hard by the holder of the other end, Frank.

"F-Frank!" Riku shouted.

"There is no time for greetings. Come on, we need to get out, now." He picked up Cloud and helped Riku up. He led them to a portal he had created nearby and after yanking on Aros' leash, they passed through to his home.

A few seconds later the Gummi exploded.

Later…

"For the fifth time, Riku, stop moving. I can't examine the damage if you keep moving." Frank uttered as he passed a scanning device over Riku's broken arm.

"What is there to examine? My arm is broken!" Riku shouted at Frank as another wave of pain shot through his arm.

"Because I need to locate the exact point where it's broken before I can try to mend it. Now sit still or I will magically bond you to the chair."

"I'd rather you just stop moving my arm so violently. If you were a little calmer with it, I wouldn't be thrashing about so much."

"Sure you would." Riku finally settled enough for Frank to get a clear reading of the damage.

"Well, he shattered your bone, Riku. It's gonna take a LONG time for it to heal, two months at least even with the best surgery, which I luckily have."

"Hang on a second. What about a Potion? They healed up my stomach when I was shot."

"That was different. Stomach lining cells are much thinner than solid bone. And besides, your stomach hasn't fully healed yet. If you thought you were fine to fight, then you were wrong. All the potion did was help the cells naturally heal by neutralizing your stomach acid. If you had fought more prominently against Hades, you would have ruptured your stomach again and died."

Riku went wide-eyed at that. His fighting arm was useless. He could no longer protect his friends. He started to weep as he realised he would have to go home and leave Sora to the fighting all alone. **

Frank walked to the corner of the room. "You still wanna protect Sora, don't you?" He looked back to see Riku silently crying. He tossed a key to him, landing on his chest. He picked it up with his good hand.

"Meet me outside in two hours." Frank uttered. He tossed Riku a sling for his arm as he walked away.

Riku was irate. "A sling? How is that gonna help me! I need treatment for this and I need it now! That bastard!"

Elsewhere in the building…

Cloud sat in the living room with his sword, thinking silently.

'In one fell swoop, the darkness in Sora's heart has crippled us. Riku will be out, and Sora has been completely taken over by the darkness. I am confident in my abilities, but alone I will surely fail.' He looked at himself in a mirror from across the room. In his mind, the reflection changed to that of Sephiroth. 'Sephiroth… You will never defeat me… When we next battle, I will be victorious. Then… I will finally…' His thoughts were interrupted by someone entering the room. Rather, two people. Two familiar faces.

Cloud looked up. "Victor… Kaine… What are you doing here?"

"Frank called us, said you might need some help. So we will be joining you on your journey to vanquish the evil that lies before you." Victor replied.

"There is a bit of a problem with that, however, as Riku-" Kaine put up a hand to silence him.

"We are aware that currently you are the only one in a state to fight. But you needn't worry. Alucard is with us, and he plans to bring Sora back in control of things." Kaine explained.

"You think he can defeat the darkness roaming in Sora's body?"

"Defeat it? No. That is something only Sora can do. Restrain it? Possibly. We can only hope." Victor replied.

"Do not worry, my son." Alucard uttered as he appeared behind them. "I will certainly show this darkness the light that our Keyblade Master friend possesses."

Aros sat in a dark room, silver chains binding him to the walls. If he tried to get them off, his clothes would rip, exposing him to the silver, so he was contempt to sit there for now. But he sensed a presence coming towards him and he smiled. Standing before him was not Alucard however. It was Sophie.

"So you are possessed." She uttered. "It isn't hard to guess that you helped Hades get leverage on Sora, but yet you did not take full control like you have now. Why?"

Aros just smiled an evil smile at her. "So you won't talk, huh?" His expression remained. She turned to leave.

"Deception." Aros uttered. Sophie turned back around. "You may ask away Sophie. Ask as many questions as you like. But I will not answer a single one. But I will tell you this. I am opposite to Sora in every way possible. Especially the innocent part." Aros licked his lips and smiled at her. Disgusted by Aros, she turned to leave. As she opened the door, Aros spoke again. "On your way out, could you tighten these chains a little? They're not tight enough." Realizing what he was insinuating, she left in a hurry to get away from him. ***

"I'll take that as a no."

Chapter End

A/N: Sorry for the chapter being so short.

*When Kingdom Hearts 1 began, not this story.

**In my story, magical items and magic like Cure and Potions can only cure magical ailments (and certain physical ailments), as in Kingdom Hearts 1 and 2, Sora/Goofy/Donald were never physically injured too seriously.

***!ADULTS ONLY! Aros has a bondage fetish. Like it has been said, he is the complete opposite of Sora. Thus, he is in no way as 'innocent' as Sora is, and unlike Sora, is open about his feelings… When he wishes to.