Rhiannon: So... erm... here is the next chapter

Chapter 15—Friendship Battle

Riku wanted to hit something that was the general consensus of his brain cells at this point in time. It had been decided democratically that he and Leon would enter the cup. Unfortunately said games wouldn't start until tomorrow. Kairi had taken it upon herself to go with Demyx and try and find Sora in the Underworld… provided that Hercules guide them. It wasn't a bad plan that wasn't what the problem.

The problem was that Sora hung in the balance.

"Don't think so hard about it." Leon murmured as he sat down next to him. "You'll lose your focus."

"Sora is my focus." Riku hissed, his breath was tightening, not a good sign. Getting angry would not solve anything.

"You can't loose Riku. Remember that." Leon stood up.

"Yeah… no pressure." He growled sarcastically.

"You and I both know Hades is going to cheat." He walked towards the door and paused. "We all have to do our damnest. What are we going to do if we loose Sora?"

"We are not going to loose Sora!" Riku was up and glaring before he realized it.

Leon's smile was brief and barely there. "Good." And then he was gone.

"Abstract… mother—" He cut himself and mentally reprimanded himself for language and laughed softly because that was usually Sora's job.

He didn't know what made him so antsy about all this. Maybe it was the fact that he and Sora had never really talked about what had happened on the rooftop when Sora had kissed him. He shifted his body to lean forward and put his head in his hands. He had so much he wanted to say to Sora and he'd been putting it off. Thinking he could wait until tomorrow or the next day… or the next. And now he wasn't sure if he'd get a chance to tell him at all.

"Vexen is dead." Xigbar murmured as he looked down at Zexion. "If I didn't know any better I'd say we were dropping off like flies."

"If I didn't know any better I'd say we were and that the Superior was laughing at us."

"Don't say shit like that… makes me nervous that it's true." The older of the two murmured and then paused and looked over at the wall.

"So… what shall we do now?"

"You will continue with your work in Castle Oblivion. Marluxia needs to be carefully watched."

"This I know." Zexion crossed his arm and then sighed. "But things might get a bit complicated."

"I know where your loyalties lay Zexion. I trust you as much as I can."

"Trust… it's such a funny little thing… isn't it?"

Roxas was bored. More then bored. Once Sora and the others had left him with the border patrol, things had calmed back down into mediocrity. Not that patrolling didn't have it's moments of excitement but… It would have been much more fun to be out there with them exploring the worlds and killing heartless and nobodies. Wow… that made him sound violent.

"Hey." Tifa jumped over the couch and sat next to him, her long black hair falling every which way.

"Hey." He laid his head back against the couch. "I'm bored."

"Boredom happens." She replied sagely and then pulled her legs up to fold under her. "It makes you wish that you were out there with them. Traversing the stars doesn't it?"

"Yeah." He replied. "But more then that I wish…" I wish I knew where Axel was.

"Well… maybe you'll get your wish one day. I mean honestly… how long do you really think Leon can stand Demyx?" Her smile brightened her dark eyes and Roxas couldn't help but agree with that. Not many people could stand the sitar player for long periods of time.

"I think Leon has a higher pain tolerance then people give him credit for." Roxas deadpanned and she nearly fell over laughing when she thought about it.

"You might be right. But you should trust Leon, if he thinks you're meant to be here right now… then you are."

"I think he just doesn't want to babysit five brats instead of four."

"Well… he has no choice on the first three." Tifa pointed out with a smile.

"My shift is coming up next… do you remember who's on it with me?"

"Um… I think just Hayner and Cloud."

"Yay… testosterone day!" He clapped his hands together and headed for the door, with Tifa's laughter following him all the way.

The games aren't anything like Riku expects them to be as he walks out into the parched arena and saw the crowd filling the stands. He could see Hercules and Kairi and Demyx standing there watching with anxious eyes, ready to slip off as soon as Hades became distracted by the fighting. The sun was too bright, and glinted off the silver hair that fell down his back. He lifted his hand and called the Way to Dawn to his hand. At the far end of the ring a handful of heartless appeared and simmering white to clear bands wrapped around the pillars effectively locking them in.

"So… Hades can control heartless… Interesting." He murmured before he ran forward blade at the ready in front of him.

"And so begins round one!" Hades called from his vaunted spot on the stands.

Riku paid him no heed as he swung his blade ripping through the low level heartless with ease. It was the harder ones he was worried about after all. He flipped backwards to avoid a sweeping claw and stood watching them warily. There were more then before. He turned in a slow circle not letting his guard down and watched as they multiplied until there were twenty before him.

"Fuck you Hades." He muttered under his breath, because that had to constitute as cheating.

He dive rolled out of the circle under some flying heartless to avoid being an easy target and sliced his way through as many as he could before one caught him in the side sending him flying back against the barrier. With a grunt he pulled himself into a standing position and pushed silver hair out of his face. Narrowing his eyes, he pushed off the wall and ran at them before they could completely surround him. Aiming a well placed kick at a rather large heartless, he used it's off balance moment to allow him to turn and slice at the ones going for his unprotected back.

When the dust had settled from the battle he realized that maybe the fight wasn't nearly as hard as he thought. The crowd roared around him and he noticed out of the corner of his eye that Demyx and the others were gone. Good, that meant that the plan was completely in action. He shaded his hand and looked up at the billboard. Leon was next. Good. He walked off the field and slapped hands with the gunblade wielder as he passed him and found himself a cool drink. He didn't know what was worse. The enemies or the heat.

"I don't think I like this." Demyx murmured as Hercules once again open the Door of Death and led them through the maze with the occasional heartless fight.

The dark, musty, cave like place didn't really inspire warm, fuzzy feelings so when they entered the wide open room with only a thing pathway bridge, Demyx decided that he should have had a fear of heights in his past life. Kairi on the other hand seemed fine. She carefully walked the path almost as if it were no trouble at all. Demyx decided that it would be in his best interest to stay close to her.

They finally got to the top of the long pathway and entered the room and found nothing, a big resounding nothing. They searched high and low but all they found was a note lying on the table in the center.

I knew something like this would happen. So here is a hint just for you. A bird in a cage.

"What the fuck? Bird in a cage?" Demyx asked as he stared over the note.

"Shut up dipstick. It means that Sora isn't here. Riku is going to be so pissed." Kairi muttered under her breath.

Riku Shiren was too busy fidgeting nervously to worry about what Demyx and Kairi might have found. He had finished his fourth fight and was now in the semifinals… and going up against Leon. The gunblade wielder walked over to him and nodded to him before sitting down beside him.

"You really care about him don't you?" He asked quietly.

Riku nodded. "You have no idea."

"I've got a weakness on my right side and I tend to swing so high that I'm open." He stood up and walked away.

Riku blinked once and then blinked again. That was probably as close as Leon was going to come to throwing a match. He had a feeling this battle was going to be interesting. He followed the gunblade wielder out on to the field and they assumed battle positions on either side of the court and watched as the barrier went up. And then Leon attacked.

Not much runs through your mind when a large half gun/half sword hybrid comes flying at you. He barely managed to dodge it but he had hope and well, faith that Leon wasn't going to actually shoot at him. He shifted and dodged the blade and waited for the opening. It wasn't much though. Leon had a tendency to swing his right arm a little too high to try and put the downward force more on his left, probably stronger wrist. Riku went for it.

With the side of his blade he hit Leon in his right wrist letting his own arm smack the broadside of his blade. He could already feel the sting but followed it with a kick to get him off balance and knocked him down… hard. He pointed his sword at his neck.

"Do you give?"

"Not yet." He gave him a thin almost smile that Riku nearly missed.

The gunblade wielder shoved the blade out of the way and came up with a punch that Riku barely managed to dodge, the skin of Leon's knuckles grazing the side of his shoulder. He whirled and kicked him in the small of the back and sent the older man stumbling. He almost wanted to laugh. This was like training, Leon wasn't really fighting, it was almost as if the older man was having fun.

Leon stood up and twirled his gunblade in his hand before going back to his standard two handed hold. He gave a barely perceptible nod. He came running forward, blade low and Riku dodged and clashed their blades together on a spin before he'd left his back open to long. They stood blade to blade, too close for Hades to read their lips.

"He has Sora here. I talked to Kairi when they got back from the Underworld."

"So where the hell is he?" Sparks came off the blades from the tension they were using.

"I think he's up there… in the balcony." Leon smiled. "You fight the title and I'll see about everything else."

"You sure about that?"

"I need you as my front runner. Wait for the signal… Understand?"

"Gotcha." Riku spun away and leveled his blade at him.

Leon waved his blade at him and Riku took the initiative, running forward blade flying from over head. He brought it down towards the older boy's shoulder only to have it blocked by the large blade. He pulled back allowing Leon to push forward, falling on the ground and using his feet to push Leon over him. Leon sprawled and Riku rolled to his feet kicking the blade away and pushing his blade close to Leon's neck.

"Do you give?"

Leon's eyes practically twinkled in mirth. "This isn't over Riku."

He nodded and removed his blade. Leon stood and bowed to him before they exited the area to screams and Hades ever-present commentary.

If only the God of Death knew what was coming to him.

Rhiannon: Um... read and review...